Stefan Zweig’s legends: a new stage in the development of the European legend

The article studies the genre of legend-parable that appeared in European literature in the end of the 19th century as exemplified by Stefan Zweig’s collection of legends. On the basis of comparison of the legend-parable and literary legend of the 19th century the author reveals the core markers of the new genre. They include the support of the religious pretext, the choice of relations between a person and God as the main topic, the absence of the conflict representation, the emphasis on the concept of the miracle, objective author’s viewpoint, explication of the author’s intention.