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Abstract: The paper is devoted to applying contemporary narratological studies to the epic genres research. It discusses the main historically productive types of artistic utterances that form the sphere of literary epic. They are an epic, a novel, a story, an essay and a short story. These basic genre elements differ, primarily, in their narrative strategies. The article defines the concept of narrative strategy. The author introduces a fundamental category of “narrative worldview” that defines the nature of events in fictional world. Thus, a narrator may proceeds from the point that everything has already happened in the world and it will repeat like seasons change. However, the original event is the first one that is the precedent for subsequent similar events. There is a precedent world image, which is the basis of the heroic epic narrative strategy and the literary fictional epic. The narrative can be based on the initial assumption that life is not a cyclic repetition, but it is rather a supreme world order, that follows the justice of heaven. This is the imperative worldview, which the narrative strategy of the parable and the literary genre of the story are based on. Thus, life can be conceived as an adventurous stream of accidents, where the most incredible combinations are possible. Such is the occasional worldview, which the narrative strategy of an anecdote and a novel are based on. In order to give a more detailed description of genre strategies, this category is supplemented by concepts of the strategic “form of the character” (type of narrative character identity) and “form of authorship” (type of narrative word). Particular attention is paid to the genres of a story and an essay, little described in contemporary literary theory. Both are postnovel genre constructs. The genre strategy of artistic essays, formed in the natural school, is similar to the precedent strategy of a legend. The narrative strategy of a story, as an independent genre formed in the works of Chekhov, is based on the probabilistic worldview, formed by the complementarity of the parable imperative and the occasional anecdote.