The genre of "Tales of Bygone Years" is defined as a chronicle, moreover, the oldest. There are three editions relating to 1113, 1116 and 1118. The first author was Nestor, the second was Abbot Sylvester, who did the work on the order of Vladimir Monomakh. The creator of the third edition could not be established, but it is known that it was intended for Mstislav Vladimirovich.
The system of genres of Old Russian literature
Old Russian literature consists of two subsystems - genres of secular and church literature. The second is more closed and includes Holy Scripture, living and walking, solemn and teacher eloquence. The genres of secular literature are represented by military narratives and annals narrating about historical events by years. They have some similarities with Byzantine chronography. However, when the Tale of Bygone Years was created, the chronograph genre was not used by Russian scribes. It was mastered at later stages.
The Tale of Bygone Years: A Genre
Dmitry Likhachev wrote about the enfilade, or ensemble, nature of the construction of ancient Russian written monuments. This is a distinguishing feature of almost all works written in the era of Kievan Rus - a single text is thought to be potentially open for inclusion from other sources. So, when the task requires "indicate the genre of" Tale of Bygone Years "", you need to consider that the chronicle includes:
- treaties (for example, Russian-Byzantine in 1907);
- the lives of saints - Boris and Gleb, Theodosius of the Caves ;
- “Speech of the philosopher” and other texts.
Stories that have a pronounced folkloric origin (for example, the story of Oleg’s death, the story of how a young leather man defeated the Pecheneg hero), are also inherent in the annals of “The Tale of Bygone Years”. What is the genre of these works? They are similar to a fairy tale or legend. In addition, the chronicle is distinguished by the so-called tales of princely crimes - like the blindness of Cornflower. The first to indicate their genre identity was Dmitry Likhachev.
Note that such “ensemble”, variegation does not make the “Tale of Bygone Years” genre something vague, and the monument itself is not a simple collection of random texts.
Construction specifics
The main compositional units of "Tales of Bygone Years" are weather articles beginning with the words "In the summer ...". This differs from the old Russian chronicles from the Byzantine chronographs, which to describe the events of past days as a segment of history took not a year, but the period of the reign of the ruler. Weather articles fall into two categories. The first includes the so-called weather reports, which record a particular historical fact. So, the content of the article for 1020 is limited to one piece of news: Yaroslav had a son named Vladimir. Especially a lot of such messages are observed in the Kiev annals of the XII century.
In contrast to them, the chronicles not only report the event, but also suggest its description, sometimes in great detail. The author may consider it necessary to indicate who took part in the battle, where it took place, how it ended. At the same time, such an enumeration gave plot to the weather article.
Epic style
Dmitry Likhachev, who studied The Tale of Bygone Years, the genre and compositional originality of the monument, belongs to the distinction between monumental and epic styles. The latter is especially characteristic of those parts of the annals of "The Tale of Bygone Years", the genre of which is defined as a military novel. The epic style is characterized by a close relationship with folklore, the use of images gleaned from there. A vivid example of this is Princess Olga, represented in the annals by the avenger. In addition, they become more realistic (as much as such a characteristic can be applied to characters in Old Russian literature).
Monumental style
The style of monumental historicism is the main not only for the oldest annalistic monument, but also for all the literature of Kievan Rus. It manifests itself primarily in the image of the characters. The chronicler is not interested in their private life, as well as those who are outside feudal relations. A person is of interest to a medieval author as a representative of a certain social environment. This also affected the characterization of the characters, in which a fraction of idealization is noticeable. The canon becomes the most important concept for the "Tale ...". So, any prince is depicted in the most significant circumstances, not knowing the mental struggle. He is brave, smart and has a dedicated squad. On the contrary, any church leader from life should be pious, obediently follow the Law of God.
The chronicler does not know the psychology of his characters. The medieval author did not hesitate in referring the hero to “good” or “evil”, and complex, contradictory images, familiar to us from classical literature, could not have arisen.