The publication of 1997 is a corrected version of the text published in 1936; it goes back to the book ‘Semantic of Plot and Genre’ (Procrida) made by F. by the end of 1927. Because of some external circumstances, the book could not be published at once; and when the system of research degrees was restored, in 1934, it became the Doctor thesis. The first publication of 1936 was soon withdrawn from circulation.
The book contains three main thematic parts. The subject of the first one, as the author points out, is the semantic system in that historical period when it was not yet literature. The second part, based on the material of Classic literature, argues that its genres were purely conditional rethought combinations of certain plots and schemes, mobile combinations of former systems of meaning, taken from new positions. The third part is devoted to the formal side of plots and genres in terms of their semantics. As the author points out, before the era of industrial capitalism, plots and genres were traditional in nature and structurally remained an old folklore heritage, they were inactive, and their closeness to cult typical for the Classic period was replaced with traditionalism. According to the author, a coup was necessary for the ‘class writer’ to shake off the tradition and to stop taking literary plots from literature, but turned to other sources of plots (newspaper, everyday events, fiction). Up to the nineteenth century, all genres had a folklore character, and, as F. specifically stipulates, folklore should be understood as the pre-class production of ideas, functioning in the system of class worldview.