"What meaning does the form of a work of art itself present? What is its type and genre? What can be inferred from this or that structure, plot, rhythm? Why does a playwright perceive the world differently from a lyric poet or an epic writer, and why does an elegy imply different content than an ode, sonnet or ballad? How does "how" determine "what"?" Two eternal problems of culture: content and form and the division of literature into types and kinds - are pushed into each other in the book and mutually explain themselves. The author of the book, a famous literary scholar, esthetician and philosopher, Doctor of Philology, with rare precision reveals the meanings given in a particular artistic text by the optics of its genres - tragedy, satire, detective - even before we, the readers, immerse ourselves in the objective world of this tragic, satirical or detective story. Having become a scientific event at its first publication, the study of G.D. Gachev, analyzing classical works of ancient, Western European and Russian literature, is by no means limited to the value of a monument of Russian philological and aesthetic thought and fully retains its relevance for modern times.
To cite this article
Gachev G. D. Substantive Content of Artistic Forms. – M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 2008. – 288 p.
"What meaning does the form of a work of art itself present? What is its type and genre? What can be inferred from this or that structure, plot, rhythm? Why does a playwright perceive the world differently from a lyric poet or an epic writer, and why does an elegy imply different content than an ode, sonnet or ballad? How does "how" determine "what"?" Two eternal problems of culture: content and form and the division of literature into types and kinds - are pushed into each other in the book and mutually explain themselves. The author of the book, a famous literary scholar, esthetician and philosopher, Doctor of Philology, with rare precision reveals the meanings given in a particular artistic text by the optics of its genres - tragedy, satire, detective - even before we, the readers, immerse ourselves in the objective world of this tragic, satirical or detective story. Having become a scientific event at its first publication, the study of G.D. Gachev, analyzing classical works of ancient, Western European and Russian literature, is by no means limited to the value of a monument of Russian philological and aesthetic thought and fully retains its relevance for modern times.
For citations
Gachev G. D. Substantive Content of Artistic Forms. – M.: Moscow University Publishing House, 2008. – 288 p.
Moscow University Press
