Memoirs(fr. memoires), memories- notes from contemporaries telling about events in which the author of the memoirs took part or which are known to him from eyewitnesses. Important Feature memoirs is to focus on the “documentary” nature of the text, which claims to be authentic to the reconstructed past.

The following memoir genres are usually classified as such genres in literary criticism: : memoirs (in the narrow sense of the word), notes, notebooks, autobiographies, obituaries, diaries.

Apparently, without referring to this priceless heritage it is difficult to understand and current state literature. Therefore, our task is to analyze historical change diary as a genre of memoir literature, elucidating the stages of evolution of the genre using the example of diaries of Russian and foreign authors.

The diary genre is one of the oldest genres in literature, the first information about which dates back to the origins of writing.

Diary as a literary genre

“To learn to write, you have to write. Therefore, write letters to friends, keep a diary, write memories, they can and should be written as early as possible - not bad even in early years- about my childhood, for example"(D.S. Likhachev)

A diary is an important and, in a sense, famous attribute school life. But besides the usual diary (as a form of recording student progress), there is a diary as a literary genre, as the oldest form of verbal creativity.

Probably some of you also keep your personal diaries, recording events from your life. Today I would like to introduce you to information from the history of the diary tradition, about the construction of the diary, about its intellectual and artistic capabilities. In short, to help you master the basics of this most popular form of writing.

There are many definitions of a diary. One of them, owned by M.O. Chudakova, precise and clear, seems especially acceptable for school practice: “Diary- a form of narration conducted in the first person in the form of daily entries"(Short Literary Encyclopedia).

As a rule, diaries begin to be kept in adolescence. Daily entries may contain summaries, reflections, notes about books read, newspaper news, or the weather. Often their management is dictated by the desire of the author diary entries trace your own spiritual development; The diary also serves as a means of self-education and self-organization.

History of the diary

1. The development of diary entries began from the 10th century. These are texts of various types of diary genre: “walking”, travel, travel sketches, autobiographical notes, which are still difficult to separate from journalism and chronicle narration, for example, the essay by Andrei Kurbsky “The History of the Grand Duke of Moscow...”.
2. From 13th to 19th centuries. In Russia, the publication of notebooks and diaries, travel notes begins ( Gildenstedt I.“Diary of a trip through the Sloboda-Ukrainian province of Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences Gildenstedt in August and September 1774”; “Notes of Prince Boris Ivanovich Kurakin about his stay in England, departure to Russia to join the army, travel with Tsar Peter Alekseevich to Carlsbad and his appointment to the congress in Utrecht. 1710–1711–1712"; Vyazemsky P."From an old notebook").
3. Since the 20th century Thanks to the use of fragmentary forms of writing by writers, the diary form of narration is becoming widespread in the modern literary process. So, an example of such a diary is Pechorin’s diary in M.Yu. Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time.” In the novel, the diary is not only a way author's characteristics and the form of self-expression of the hero, but also the subject of the image human soul. In the novel, the diary genre itself is analyzed. It seems to split into two and loses its value-semantic indisputability: the diary introduces us to the complex world of Pechorin, makes us believe in the genuineness of his spiritual movements. The question of the essence of the diary as a genre grows here into a serious social and moral problem. On the one hand, a diary allows for unhindered analysis of the environment and self-analysis, and serves to preserve the memory of what happened and what has changed one’s mind. But on the other hand, the diary leads to spiritual fragmentation - the hero secretly executes those around him with the word of the diary hidden from them.

So, a diary is, first of all, a method of psychological depiction of a hero. By introducing a diary into the text of his novel, Lermontov allows you to see how complex states of mind the hero's ideas are decomposed into elements and thereby explained and become clear to the reader. And finally, in a work that uses a diary as a form artistic storytelling, the position of the author is quite sharply isolated from the position of the character, so there can be no question of the individualities of the author and the hero being combined.

Entire works are written in the form of a diary. Thus, “Notes of a Madman” by N.V. Gogol is such a work when the personal memories and impressions of the author, who knew the life and psychology of St. Petersburg officials, are reflected in the form of a diary.

* Blogs consist of “posts” (a post is a message in a diary), each of which contains the date and time of publication, as well as links to pages with photographs, comments and the name of the author. But unlike a household diary, which is a system of entries associated with a specific date, blog entries from different users appear in the news feed and are replaced by others over time; the time intervals that actually exist between them cannot be reflected online.

The main difference between a LJ diary and an everyday diary is the blog author’s focus on finding like-minded people, people who share his position in life, in order to communicate with them. The author creates a communicatively competent text to which the potential recipient would want to react in one way or another.

* Twitter is an analogue of a diary.

Regardless of the form in which the diary will be kept, you need to learn how to thoughtfully make entries in it.

Basic rules for keeping a diary

1. “Not a day without a line” (Yu. Olesha).

2. Date each entry.

3. Be sincere and honest in your notes.

4. Don't read someone else's diary without permission!

In addition to household chores, you can conduct reader's diary, indicating in it:

• author and title of the book;
• imprint: place of publication, publisher, year;
• the time of creation of the work, as well as the time discussed in the book;
• It is advisable to indicate the theme of the work;
• V general outline state the content;
• formulate an idea for a book;
• write down your overall impression of the book.

MM. Prishvin kept a diary all his life. He was convinced that if he collected all the records in one volume, he would get the book for which he was born. According to estimates from Prishvin’s publishers, the manuscripts of his diaries are three times larger than the actual volume works of art author. As Prishvin himself wrote, “the form of small diary entries has become more my form than any other” (1940). And shortly before his death, in 1951, looking back at his life, he admitted: “It was probably due to my literary naivety (I am not a writer) that I spent the main forces of my writing on writing my diaries.”

Literary works in diary form(“Demicoton Book” in “Soboryans” by N.S. Leskov, “Pechorin’s Journal” in “Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. Lermontov, “Chapaev” by D.A. Furmanov, “Diary” extra person» I.S. Turgenev, “The Diary of Kostya Ryabtsev” by N. Ognev, “The Village Diary” by E.Ya. Dorosha). (Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe)

Why do you need a personal diary? What is its use?

Almost each of us has secrets that we cannot tell even to our closest people. Either we are afraid that we will not be understood and judged, or something else... But sometimes these very secrets cause very strong emotional experiences, which, not finding a way out, can eventually affect a person’s behavior. If you throw out your experiences on paper, this will serve as a kind of psychological relief. And then - the paper will endure everything and certainly will not condemn you for your revelations.

In addition, when we describe a problem that we have been struggling with for several days, expressing our thoughts sometimes helps us find the right solution. After all, when we write, we, willy-nilly, have to organize the emotional chaos that is happening inside us, and putting things in order very often helps us find exactly what we are looking for - no matter whether it is a thing or a way out of a difficult situation.

You can also write down ideas that you have in your personal diary. Who knows, maybe after a certain period of time this entry, when you re-read it at your leisure, will give you a new impetus for development.

The diary can also reflect in detail the process of working on yourself if, for example, you decide to develop certain traits in yourself, learn new skills, or get rid of an old habit. Such a detailed description will allow you to see your weaknesses and strengths, as well as how far you have come towards your goal.

Some people write in a journal every day at the end of the day, describing what happened, how they felt, and reflecting on what happened, what worked or didn't work, and why.

Anyway, keeping a personal diary allows you to be more attentive to yourself, to your inner world, to perceive feelings and emotions more consciously and, over time, to understand the reasons for their occurrence.

A personal diary is an excellent interlocutor who will not interrupt you and will always listen to you to the end. Although, of course, whether to conduct it or not is everyone’s personal choice.

The diary is one of the most democratic literary genres. Keeping a diary is accessible to every literate person, and the benefits it brings are enormous: daily entries, even small ones, in a few lines, teach attention to oneself and others, develop self-analysis skills, cultivate sincerity, observation, develop a taste for the word, accurate judgment, strict a polished phrase.

Let's draw conclusions: the diary genre, acquiring various features in the course of evolution, on modern stage is characterized as follows: “A diary is a genre of memoir literature, which is characterized by the form of first-person narration, kept in the form of everyday, usually dated, synchronous records from the point of view of the system of reflecting reality. The diary is distinguished by extreme sincerity and trust. All diary entries are usually written for oneself.

D/s: For a week, starting today, every day write down some events from your life, everything that you would like to note in your diary. We'll see what you got in a week.

Robinson Crusoe's Diary

From then on, I began to keep my diary, writing down everything I did during the day. At first I had no time for notes: I was too overwhelmed with work; Moreover, I was then depressed by such gloomy thoughts that I was afraid that they would be reflected in my diary.
But now, when I finally managed to cope with my melancholy, when, having ceased to lull myself with fruitless dreams and hopes, I set about arranging my home, put my household in order, made myself a table and a chair, and generally made myself as comfortable and cozy as possible, I started writing my diary...

Our ship, caught in the open sea by a terrible storm, was wrecked. The entire crew, except me, drowned; I, unfortunate Robinson Crusoe, was thrown half-dead onto the shore of this damned island, which I called the Island of Despair.
Before late at night I was oppressed by the darkest feelings: after all, I was left without food, without shelter; I had neither clothes nor weapons; I had nowhere to hide if my enemies attacked me. There was nowhere to wait for salvation. I saw only death ahead: either I would be torn to pieces beasts of prey, either the savages will kill me, or I will die of starvation.
When night came, I climbed a tree because I was afraid of animals. I slept soundly all night, even though it was raining.

Waking up in the morning, I saw that our ship had been refloated by the tide and driven much closer to the shore. This gave me hope that when the wind died down, I would be able to get to the ship and stock up on food and other necessary things. I cheered up a little, although the sadness for my fallen comrades did not leave me. I kept thinking that if we had stayed on the ship, we would certainly have been saved. Now, from its wreckage, we could build a longboat, on which we would get out of this disastrous place.
As soon as the tide began to go out, I went to the ship. First I walked along the exposed seabed, and then I started swimming. The rain did not stop all that day, but the wind died down completely.

Today I noticed that I have very few crackers left. Strict frugality must be observed. I counted all the bags and decided to eat no more than one cracker a day. It's sad, but nothing can be done.

Today is the sad anniversary of my arrival on the island. I counted the notches on the post, and it turned out that I had been living here for exactly three hundred and sixty-five days!
Will I ever be lucky enough to escape from this prison to freedom?
I recently discovered that I have very little ink left. It will be necessary to spend them more economically: until now I kept my notes daily and entered all sorts of little things there, but now I will write down only the outstanding events of my life.

This is a diary periodically updated text consisting of fragments with a specified date for each entry. Usually this or that work in the form of diary entries belongs to one of the well-known genres (novel, story, reportage), and the “diary” only gives it additional specificity. The diary form of recording is characterized by a number of features that can be implemented to a greater or lesser extent in each diary:

1. frequency, regularity of recording;
2. connection of records with current, and not with long-past events and moods;
3. the spontaneous nature of the recordings (too little time has passed between the events and the recording, the consequences have not yet manifested themselves, and the author is not able to assess the degree of significance of what happened);
4. literary lack of processing of records;
5. the addresslessness or uncertainty of the addressee of many diaries;
6. intimate and therefore sincere, private and honest nature of the recordings.

Outside fiction a diary usually gravitates towards either an official document (a “documentary” diary) or a private entry (a so-called “everyday” diary). In both cases, the diary satisfies the human need for observation and is determined by the need to record current changes, which is associated with the emergence of various scientific diaries, protocols, medical histories, ship logs, school diaries, court duty diaries - Camerfour ceremonial journals. In ancient literature, since the time of Plato, so-called hypomnemes have been known - various kinds of protocols of a private and official nature. At the courts of eastern and late Hellenistic monarchs, for example, at the headquarters of Alexander the Great, reports on current events were kept - ephemerides (possibly for propaganda purposes; their reliability is in modern times is questionable). Documentary diaries are of significant interest to the historian. In “everyday” diaries, the writer is also an observer, but he monitors more himself, changes in the circumstances of his private life, his inner world. “Everyday” diaries became widespread in the era of sentimentalism, when interest in private life, and especially in the area of ​​feelings, was very high. "Everyday" diaries can be of significant value if the writer was famous or participated in political life countries (“Diary of a Member State Duma Vladimir Mitrofanovich Purishkevich", 1916), communicated with interesting people(E. A. Stackenschneider “Diary and Notes”. 1854-86). Diaries become not only historical, but also aesthetic value, if the writer has literary talent (“The Diary of Maria Bashkirtseva”, 1887; “The Diary of Anne Frank”, 1942-44).

Texts recorded “day by day” are closely related in various respects to a wide range of diverse forms of documentary. Like a memoir diaries tell about events that actually took place in the past external and internal life. As in an autobiography, in a diary the writer talks mainly about himself and his immediate environment and is also prone to introspection. Like a confession, a diary often speaks of a secret hidden from prying eyes, but a confession, unlike a diary, memoirs and autobiographies, is devoid of a chronologically sequential narrative unfolding. And in memoirs, and in autobiographies, and in confessions, unlike diaries, the text is carefully structured, and only the essential is selected from all the information. In this respect, the diary is closer to letters, especially to regular correspondence, where current information is also reported, material is not selected and news is recorded “hot on the heels.” The closeness of correspondence and diaries is clearly visible in the “Diary for Stella” (1710-13) by J. Swift and in the “Diary for Eliza” (1767) by L. Sterne. The first was written twice a day (although mail was sent much less frequently), the letters included questions that were meaningless in ordinary correspondence (“What do you think, should I wear a camisole today?”). They are reminiscent of diaries written in the form of letters “The Sorrows of Young Werther” (1774) by J.V. Goethe: Werther has little interest in his correspondent Wilhelm, whose answers have almost no effect on the nature of Werther’s letters. Diaries and travel literature have something in common: constantly moving, unable to comprehend what is happening, the traveler, like the diary author, grasps events on the fly and writes down, without separating the important from the random. The traveler usually designates the place where the food was eaten, the record was made; if the date of entry is indicated on the journey, then it is already difficult to distinguish it from a diary.

Telling about events in chronological order and recording any change, regardless of its significance, a diary is similar to a chronicle, but the time of recording is indicated more precisely (days, not years), and the range of events covered is limited. The diary reveals a certain kinship with periodicals, which also follow events, but are intended for public reading and lack intimacy. Often creative people They call their notebooks a diary. Thus, Jules Renard’s “Diary” is characterized by artistic images, and only dates allow unrelated entries to be read as diary entries. The features of the diary (confessional nature, recording of “little things”, introspection, exact date) can be traced in the works of many poets (M.Yu. Lermontov, N.A. Nekrasov, A. Akhmatova, A.A. Blok). “The Diary of a Writer” by F.M. Dostoevsky becomes a periodical; a subscription is announced for it. At the same time, Dostoevsky does not write about everything that worries him, but only about what, in his opinion, is of public interest. Sometimes the timing of a diary entry to a certain date, the frequency of entries, turns out to be a constructive moment in the narrative. In “Notes of a Madman” by N.V. Gogol, constructed entirely in the form of a diary, the counting and order of days gradually eludes the writer. But usually the date is not that important. The meaning of “Pechorin’s Journal” in Lermontov’s “Hero of Our Time” (1840) will change little if all the dates are removed.

Inga Mayakovskaya

Reading time: 4 minutes

A A

Why keep a diary? Keeping a diary helps you understand yourself, your desires and feelings. When a huge amount of thoughts accumulate and are in disarray, it is better to “throw them out” on paper. In the process of keeping a diary, remembering and describing this or that situation, you begin to analyze your actions, think about whether you acted correctly under the given circumstances, and draw conclusions.

If these thoughts are related to work, then most women write them down briefly - in abstracts and record them in a diary.

Why do you need a personal diary?

For a woman who finds it difficult to keep all her experiences to herself, you just need to keep a personal diary , where you can describe absolutely everything: your thoughts about your colleagues, how you feel about your recently persistent boyfriend, what doesn’t suit you about your husband, thoughts about children and much more.

Yes, of course, you can tell all this to a close friend, but it’s not a fact that the information she receives will remain only between you. A personal diary will endure everything and won't tell anyone anything , unless, of course, it is inaccessible to others. Therefore, it is better to keep it electronically. , and, of course, set passwords.

Usually a personal diary is started girls are still in puberty when the first relationship with the opposite sex arises. There they describe experiences about first love, as well as relationships with parents and peers. Personal diary you can trust your deepest thoughts and desires , because he will never make public the secrets of its author.

What is a diary for anyway? What does it give? At the moment of an emotional outburst, you transfer your emotions into a diary (paper or electronic). Then, over time, after reading the lines from the diary, you remember those emotions and feelings, and you see the situation from a completely different perspective .

The diary takes us back to the past, makes us think about the present and avoids mistakes in the future. .

For example, a pregnant woman keeps a diary and writes down her experiences, sensations and feelings, and then, when her daughter is pregnant, she will share her notes with her.

To see changes in your thoughts day by day, the diary needs a chronology . Therefore, it is better to put the day, month, year and time with each entry.

What are the benefits of keeping a personal diary?

• The benefits of keeping a diary are obvious. Describing events, remembering details, you develop your memory. By writing down daily events and then analyzing them, you develop the habit of remembering details of episodes that you previously did not pay any attention to;
• The ability to structure your thoughts appears. And also choose the right words for certain emotions and feelings that arise when reproducing the described situation;
• You can write down your wishes in a diary., goals, and also identify ways to achieve them;
• Reading the events described in the diary will help you understand yourself, in their internal conflicts. It's a kind of psychotherapy;
• By writing down your victories from any area of ​​life (business, personal) in your diary, you you can later draw energy, rereading the lines. You will remember what you are capable of and the thought will flash through your head: “Yes, I - wow! I can’t even do that.”
• In the future, it will revive emotions and memories of long-forgotten events. Imagine how in 10 - 20 years you will open your diary, and how pleasant it will be to plunge into the past and remember the pleasant moments of life.

Briefly to answer the question: why keep a diary? - you can answer like this: to become better, wiser and make fewer mistakes in the future.

DIARY meaning

T.F. Efremova New dictionary of the Russian language. Explanatory and word-formative

diary

Meaning:

daily And To

m.

a) Personal records kept from day to day; a notebook for such notes.

b) Records of observations, events, etc., kept from day to day during work, travel, etc.

2) A notebook for recording lessons assigned to the student at home and grading.

Modern Dictionary ed. "Big Soviet Encyclopedia»

DIARY

Meaning:

records of a personal, scientific, social nature, kept day after day. How literary form opens up specific possibilities for depicting the inner world of a character (“Notes of a Madman” by N.V. Gogol) or an author (“Not a Day Without a Line” by Yu. K. Olesha); distributed from con. 18th century (literature of pre-romanticism).

Small Academic Dictionary of the Russian Language

diary

Meaning:

A, m.

Records kept day by day. facts, events, observations, etc. during a trip, expedition or something. classes, activities.

Travel diary. Ship's diary.

A good teacher must keep a diary of his work, in which he records individual observations of his pupils. Makarenko, Methodology for organizing the educational process.

Personal records kept on a day-to-day basis.

Keep a diary.

This is my diary: facts, pictures, thoughts and impressions that I, tired and sometimes deeply shocked by everything I saw and felt during the day, wrote down in the evening --- in this tattered, expensive little book. Korolenko, In a hungry year.

A book, journal in which observations, events, etc. are recorded.

A notebook for recording lessons assigned to a student and for grading.

Alyosha was left in the care of his older brother, a plant engineer. But my brother didn’t even sign the diary and didn’t show up to school. Izyumsky, Vocation.

1

The diary, along with autobiography, memoirs and notes, is part of memoir literature. This article examines which features of a diary are genre-forming, necessary, which are auxiliary, which genres that historically preceded the diary are associated with it, and how this genre was transformed into modern literature. The work also analyzes the development of the diary genre over the past five centuries. The first diaries that have reached us date back to the 15th century, but these entries cannot be considered a diary in the modern sense of the word, since they are either court records reproducing the events of various diplomatic missions, or travel notes. Subsequently, the genre becomes more and more intimate and personal, but in modern literature it also undergoes significant changes. Today, the diary is one of the few living literary genres in which the interest of writers, researchers and readers does not fade.

diaries

memoir literature

Literary criticism

1. Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Moscow, Soviet Encyclopedia, volume 27;

2. Bulletin of history, literature, art, M.: Sobranie, 2009;

3. Literary encyclopedia: Dictionary literary terms: In 2 volumes / Ed. N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1925;

4. Literary encyclopedia of terms and concepts (editor-in-chief A.N. Nikolyukin), M., 2002;

5. Literary encyclopedic Dictionary, M., TSB, 1987;

6. New Literary Review, No. 61 (2003), No. 106 (2010);

7. A Critical Edition of John Beadle's A Journal, Or Diary of a Thankful Christian, Taylor & Francis, 1996;

8. British Diaries: An Annotated Bibliography of British Diaries Written Between 1442 and 1942, William Matthews, University of California Press, California, 1950;

9. Dutton E.P., Medieval Russia’s epics, chronicles and tales, New York, 1974;

10. Jurgensen M., Das Fiktional Ich (Untersuchungen zum Tagebuch) Franckle Verlag Bern und Munchen 1979;

11. Kendall P. M., The art of biography, W W Norton and Company INC, New York, 1965;

12. Latham R., Matthews W., The diary of Samuel Pepys (11 vols.), eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970-1983;

13. Mckay E. The Diary Network in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century England, URL: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/publications/eras/edition-2/mckay.php (access date: 04.11.2014)

14. Spengemann W. C., “The forms of autobiography, Episodes in the History of a Literature Genre”, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1980;

15. Wuthenow R. R., Europäische Tagebücher“, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, 1950;

Due to the large number of different interpretations of the term “diary” in the literary tradition of various countries, as well as the fact that this genre is becoming increasingly modern world increasingly popular, it is important to consider what a diary is, which features of a diary are genre-forming, necessary, that is, the most significant, which are auxiliary, secondary, which genres that historically preceded the diary are associated with it, and how it was transformed in the literature of the late 20th century. XXI century.

Purpose The study is to consistently identify the features of the diary among other literary genres, as well as analyze its development over the last five centuries of existence.

Research material: diary entries of authors from various countries (mainly England, Germany, Russia, France) and eras (XV-XXI centuries).

Research methods: cultural-historical, comparative-historical.

The diary as a genre, along with autobiography, memoirs and notes, is part of memoir literature. Despite the fact that the appearance of the diary dates back to a relatively late period, it should be considered in the context of all memoir literature, since genres transformed over time, acquiring new features, while the previous formative features faded into the background. The diary reached its greatest development and distribution at the end of the 17th century, when a special interest in the personality of the author, his inner world, thoughts, and feelings was formed. Diary as a view literary genre appears a little later, at the beginning of the 18th century (“Diary for Stella” by J. Swift, “Sentimental Journey through France and Italy” by L. Stern). It should be noted, however, that the genres that precede the diary, genres without which the appearance of the diary would have been impossible, have existed for quite a long period by this time.

It is important to consider what a diary is, which features of a diary are genre-forming, necessary, that is, the most significant, which are auxiliary, secondary, which genres that historically preceded the diary are associated with it, and how it was transformed in the literature of the late 20th - 21st centuries.

There are many definitions of a diary, many of which are similar, but each of them notes one or another feature characteristic of the genre. We can deduce the following features inherent in a diary, the manifestation of which in one or another foreign genre will bring the latter closer to the diary. A diary is a text written for oneself, and not for prying eyes, describing what just happened, an event of both personal and global significance, indicating the dates of creation and with periodic additions. That is why diary entries are characterized, as Anna Zaliznyak notes, “fragmentation, nonlinearity, violation of cause-and-effect relationships, intertextuality, self-reflection, mixing of documentary and artistic, fact and style, fundamental incompleteness and lack of a single plan.”

Thus, different formative features give us the opportunity to compare the diary with several other genres. "Sincerity" in creation, a limited number of readers/listeners allows us to compare the diary with a confession. Dating and connection with a specific time of creation, a kind of “hyper-relevance” - with chronicles and related genres (travels, walks, travel diaries). The limited number of readers also makes it possible to compare diaries and letters; one can often observe how the thoughts expressed in the diary are also developed in letters to various addressees (for example, from L.N. Tolstoy or F. Kafka). The peculiarity of creating diaries gives them fragmentation, a property that is also characteristic of the genre of notes (which is why, for example, Lydia Ginzburg’s “Notebooks” are often called diaries). Anna Zaliznyak also speaks about the coincidence of the diary and notebook genres in the work of “diary writers”: “everything that a writer writes is part of him professional activity, any entry in the diary is a potential “pre-text”, material from which the “text” is then made. Therefore, a writer’s diary is actually not much different from “notebooks” (notebooks, in one of the meanings of this term, are a specifically “writer’s” genre). And precisely because a writer’s diary is always, to one degree or another, oriented toward the subsequent “artistic” text, it is not a “real” diary, but a text of a different type.” Finally, diaries are personal experience, which brings the genre closer to autobiography and partly its more ancient variety, hagiographic literature.

In Literature, confession goes a very long way; the genre is named after one of the seven sacraments (along with baptism, confirmation, eucharist, marriage, unction and ordination), after the appearance of the book of the same name by St. Augustine, is becoming quite common in literature. Confession is considered “a literary work or part of it, where the narration is told in the first person and the narrator lets the reader into the innermost depths of his inner world.”

Early diaries (late 16th - early 17th centuries) are considered by scientists to be closer to the genre of confession. Thus, historian William Haller notes that “the diary for the Puritans becomes a substitute for confession.” At the same time, confession, unlike a diary, is a priori a genre aimed at subsequent reading. In addition, the diary describes any events and actions that impressed the author, so these are not always actions hidden from society or condemned by it, while confession is a genre that involves repentance for what has been done.

Confession is also commonly correlated with autobiography. However, if autobiography is characterized by primarily describing external events, then confession, despite the changes that the genre undergoes over time, describes, first of all, experiences of the inner world.

Autobiography, along with a diary, is part of memoir literature. However, the “historicity” of what is described, common in diaries and autobiographies, is also their main difference. The diary genre presupposes the duration of the creative process, the creation of text day by day, the correlation between the event that occurred and the record made, and therefore freshness, “unclouded” perception. The creator of an autobiography, by the very fact of creating such a work, sums up his life, so the events described often occur many years before writing.

Another significant difference between a diary and an autobiography is the extent to which their texts are aimed at the reader, that is, they imply further reading. If in the case of autobiography the answer to this question is obvious, diaries in this regard cause controversy among researchers.

At the same time, researchers note that “an autobiography is a review of life in which the author perceives the autobiography as a kind of training in evaluating his own life. It is as retrospective as possible, while the diary is created as certain events occur.”

One of the most important distinctive features The diary is a feature of the organization of the test, the indispensable dating, the description of events that have not yet become the past. This way of structuring the narrative allows us to correlate the diary genre with chronicles. However, time becomes the system-forming factor in chronicles, while in diaries it is the life and experiences of the author. It is also significant that chronicles, like diaries, received an artistic analogue in the Renaissance, starting with Shakespeare's chronicle plays and up to the works of Dos Passos, in which many researchers capture the features of chronicles. However, chronicles do not receive such wide literary and artistic distribution, since in the early periods of their development they remain a genre “for the elite,” while the development of the diary genre is due to the gradual “democratization” of the genre, as a result of which an increasing number of people became the authors of diaries.

Finally, another genre that is often compared with a diary is letters. They are brought together primarily by a limited number of addressees. In addition, on the pages of diaries and letters, equal attention is paid to everyday and global problems. At the same time, the total layer of letters of this or that author is wider and more diverse material for research, since letters were the only way of correspondence communication until the mid-20th century, which means that all literate people wrote them in one format or another. From letters to different addressees of the same author, one can trace both stylistic shades and features of the relationship with a particular addressee.

However, diaries can also be seen as letters to oneself. If the diary belongs to the writer, the reader has the opportunity to trace the author’s “pure” style, which sometimes coincides with the style of the works, and sometimes differs.

One of the varieties of the diary genre is travel diaries, daily recording of incidents of a particular trip. Travel diaries are a fusion of diary genres, since in a travel diary there is also often a lot of personal, subjective, rather than objective perception of events, and the travel genre. A journey which, as noted above, is not artistic genre, turned out to be very productive for the development of fiction. In addition to the already mentioned travel diary, a travel novel also became widespread, which developed around XVIII century, combining the features of philosophical, adventurous and psychological novels. In such works, the journey is “ driving force"plot (for example, "Robinson Crusoe" by D. Defoe, 1719).

So, diaries took shape as a genre of memoir literature relatively late. However, this formation takes some time. Today we have access to more than 300 diaries, collected by researchers in the book “English Diaries”. 20 diaries from the 16th century have also survived. The reason for such a sharp increase in the number of diaries, firstly, is that more literate people have become (according to the site http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/literacy-rates from 20% of men and 5% of women in the 16th century to 30% men and 10% women in the 17th century). Secondly, growing individualism, interest in one’s own self, determined by the era. Thus, the English scientist Roy Porter connects the increase in the number of people keeping diaries with growing individualism in European communities. Other scholars, such as William Heller, also note the significance of the diaries for the Puritans. early XVII century, when the diary “becomes for them an ersatz confession”

If we turn to the history of the appearance of diaries, then in world literature diaries go back to Japan, where the first diaries date back to the 11th century. In India, similar works of an autobiographical nature date back to the 16th century, and in China to the 12th century. At the same time, there is no reason to believe that these works were known and, therefore, had any influence on Western world. Therefore, the source of autobiographical and diary entries for Europeans lies in ancient Greece and Rome. However, the modern diary researcher faces the following difficulty. The diary, until recently, was a handwritten, intimate genre, which means it could not be replicated, existing only in one copy. The diary is subject to destruction from any cataclysm, fire, flood, which means preserving the records is a task that can only be completed if the significance of this document for a historian, literary critic, etc. is realized.

Interest in diary entries appeared in many countries at different periods. This work was first carried out in England, where already in early XIX century William Matthews compiles a bibliography of diary entries created in England, Scotland and Ireland from the 15th to the end of the 17th century. We can also trace the history of various German-language diary entries dating back to the 16th century. The main layer of diary entries created in Russian dates back to a rather late period, starting from the second half of the 18th century. However, even here the researcher often expects disappointment. Many documents were destroyed, many are stored in archives, not always accessible to the general reader.

Thus, the history of the creation of diaries goes back 5 centuries, from the 16th century to the present. It is interesting to trace the structural and semantic changes in the form and content of the diary over this period. As mentioned earlier, speaking about diaries, we are based on rather meager material. Today we have at our disposal several (no more than ten) diaries of the 15th century, about 30 diaries of the 16th century, and, starting from the 17th century, the genre has become increasingly popular, English-language sources already number more than 300 texts, a similar trend can be seen in other countries. Speaking about the texts preceding XVII century, we should not forget that the modern word “diary” in this period is designated by various terms. Thus, along with the usual “Diary”, the German “Tagebuch”, and the French “Journal” and the Latin “Diurnal” are also less common in English sources. All four words denote a diary, each of them making reference to the fact of writing text on a daily basis. However, these designations can act as synonyms in the same text. These words are synonymous, however, perhaps they indicate characteristics certain records. Here it is also necessary to mention that the authors themselves assign their texts to belong to the Diary genre, and this definition can often be erroneous.

The diaries of the 15th - 16th centuries that have come down to us cannot be called diaries in the modern sense of the word, since they are based either on court records reproducing the events of various diplomatic missions, or travel notes from travels (Albrecht Dürer’s diary “Family Chronicles. Diary from a Travel” to the Netherlands 1520 - 1521").

By the 17th century the trend changed somewhat. Diary entries acquire a more “intimate”, personal character, turning from a document of the era into an “imprint” of a person. In addition, the diary, like all literature, is gradually ceasing to be a genre of only the highest social circles. In addition to the fact that the literacy rate in Europe XVII century is growing significantly, gradually and paper is becoming more accessible to the “middle class”, which causes increased interest in the genre among more and more people. A typical example here would be the famous diary of Samuel Pipes.

One of the few monuments of diary creativity in Russian also dates back to the 17th century - these are the diaries of Marina Mnishek, as well as a monument to Armenian history, the diary of Zakariy Akulissky, describing trade travels to the East (Iran, Turkey) and European (Italy, France, Holland) countries, their customs, nature, natural disasters experienced by the author in these countries. This diary was kept from 1647 to 1687. However, the above examples do not affect the personality of the creator of the text, or even his attitude to the events taking place. Therefore, the book rather belongs to the genre of chronicles or travel notes.

The next few centuries saw the heyday of the diary genre. During this period, a whole variety of diaries appears. Texts are created both in order to be read by the reader immediately as they are created (“The Diaries” of the Goncourt brothers, “The Diary of a Writer” by Dostoevsky), and, on the contrary, in order to be destroyed (Kafka’s Diaries, The Diary of Søren Kierkegaard in the period from 1840 - 1850), personal diaries are kept by most writers (L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, Lewis Carol, Walter Scott, etc.), politicians (Theodore Roosevelt, Queen Victoria, Nicholas II), actors, musicians, artists (then There are representatives of art who are not directly related to the creation of texts (P.I. Tchaikovsky, Vaslav Nijinsky, Frida Kahlo. It is noteworthy that in the 20th century it seems impossible for a famous politician not to keep a diary, so fake diaries like this appear). as The Diary of Adolf Hitler This is the period when the above-mentioned gap between the surviving diaries in. different countries is significantly reduced (we are talking about European material), the amount of material for the researcher is quite large. During this period, the trend that began in the 17th century continues, when writing diaries gradually ceases to be the prerogative of high society.

However, the increased amount of material is displacing the diaries of ordinary people from the field of scientific interest of researchers. If the diaries of the 15th-17th centuries are material for study not only and not so much by a literary critic, but as one of the few sources of information for a historian, sociologist, linguist, then about a later period there is whole line other evidence, therefore, the attention of researchers (and therefore readers) is increasingly focused on the diaries of people who became famous in one field or another. At the same time, in the 20th century in the Second World War one can observe the reverse process, when Anne Frank, Etty Hilsam, Otto Wulf, Nina Lugovskaya become known to the general reader only thanks to their diaries describing their experiences during the war.

Diaries of the 18th - 20th centuries are distinguished from previous periods by one more feature. At the end of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century, the new genre; diary entries turned out to be so popular that they became an object for writers to imitate, and the first artistic diaries appeared. From this moment on, the creators of private diaries have another resource to follow, artistic diaries.

Since diaries, as mentioned earlier, are an intimate genre, talk about private diaries written in last years It's too early, not much has already been published. However, in recent decades, a new type of diary entries has appeared, web diaries, blogs. Anyone can create their own blog diary, add entries there, and determine who they allow to be their readers. A significant difference between this genre and the genre of diaries is that it is no longer an intimate genre, since a large number of blog readers is an indicator of its success. In recent years, a new profession, “blogger,” has even emerged. New diaries continue the trend of previous centuries towards maximum democratization of the genre; now anyone with Internet access can maintain their own blog. Thus, the diary is currently one of the few living literary genres; over time it undergoes certain changes, but the interest of researchers and readers in the genre does not fade.

conclusions

A diary is a text written for oneself, and not for prying eyes, describing what just happened, an event of both personal and global significance, indicating the dates of creation and with periodic additions. Various formative features allow us to consider the diary as an evolution of a number of other genres that are part of memoir literature.

Reviewers:

Kling O.A., Doctor of Philology, Professor, Head of the Department of Theory of Literature Faculty of Philology Moscow State University them. M.V. Lomonosov, Moscow;

Lipgart A.A., Doctor of Philology, Professor of the Department of English Linguistics, Faculty of Philology, Moscow State University. M.V. Lomonosov, Moscow.

Bibliographic link

Romashkina M.V. DIARY: EVOLUTION OF GENRE // Contemporary issues science and education. – 2014. – No. 6.;
URL: http://science-education.ru/ru/article/view?id=15447 (access date: 02/01/2020). We bring to your attention magazines published by the publishing house "Academy of Natural Sciences"