Evolution of the epigrammatic genre in French literature: a review of historical traditions

This article regards main trends of epigrammatic style evolution in French literature of different periods. In this connection a diachronic review of the genre specific features and manifestations is carried out with accentuating close genetic links of the epigram with other small literary forms such as: epitaphs, fabliaux, elegies, madrigals, feuilletons, pamphlets, etc. Speaking about the significance of ancient Greco-Roman literary traditions in French epigrammatic style formation, the author pays tribute to the indisputable ethnic originality and uniqueness of ancient small genres: epitaphs and epigrams, the most characteristic features of which were formed in parallel, in rather close interaction and interdependence over many centuries. This is the very factor that stipulates great possibilities for varying the functional features and characteristics of the epigrammatic style in later historical periods: the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Classicism, Symbolism. The results of vast theoretical and practical material analysis fulfilled in the frame of research give full grounds to assume that the epigrammatic style traditions, laid down by the ancient authors of the Greco-Roman school, have found their worthy continuation in French literature of all historical epochs and have doubtless prospects of further independent development nowadays.