What is characteristic of the story. Features of the story as a form of artwork

20.06.2020

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Khmelnytsky National University

Khmelnitsky, Ukraine

GENRE FEATURES OF THE STORY 1910 - 1930

The genre of the story and the peculiarities of its poetics have attracted attention for several centuries. V. Vinogradov, V. Grechnev, L. Ershov, A. Esin, I. Utekhin, V. Shklovsky, B. Eichenbaum and others contributed much to the study of these issues. features of creating a typical character, questions of the writer's skill, problems of plot and compositional organization of works of the "small genre".

The story as a separate genre, according to F. Biletsky, was formed in the Renaissance, although some elements of the story can be found in ancient literature (II-IV centuries) [see: 2, p. eight]. In the era of romanticism at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the story appears in Germany, and in the 19th century, the genre “flourishes brightly in North America”. V. Buznik believes that the beginning of Russian short stories should be attributed “to the second half of the 17th - beginning of the 18th century, when“ The Story of the Russian Nobleman Frol Skobeev ”,“ The Story of a Rich and Glorious Guest about Karp Sutulov and the Wise Evo Wife ... ”.

The main role in the formation of the genre of the story in the period of "the early Renaissance was played by a household anecdote," news ", in Germany - a folk tale, in American literature - an oral folk story". In Ukraine, according to F. Biletskiy, one should look for “the root of information in folklore”. It is thanks to folklore sources that writers got the opportunity to refer to the ways of depicting people, pictures of nature, and to images, themes, subjects for their works. The story, having arisen on the basis of the genres of oral folk art, has become a convenient form for creating artistic reality and has become widespread.

Most likely, "the formation of the Russian story went, on the one hand, through the assimilation of genre forms of Western earlier and more developed novelistic literature, on the other, through overcoming its moral indifference, its individualistic spirit, alien to Russian public consciousness." The thesis that in Russia "the flourishing of the story genre was associated with periods of deep spiritual shifts in public consciousness, with periods of ideological throwing and painful search for answers to the most acute social questions" is quite acceptable. It is known that “in 1825 - 1842, the transition of Russian literature to the aesthetic type was completed, and it entered a state of artistic maturity. This period was characterized by a change in the genre-generic structure of literature. The predominantly lyrical genres are being replaced by the epic. The central place is occupied by the story (short story) and the story ”.

The story proved its own validity and withstood a kind of competition among other literary genres: "In the historical struggle of genres, the story would not have withstood competition with such strong forms as the novel and the drama, if it did not have special qualities that ensured its stability in the storms of time." Maximum concentration on the event, "the concentration of all means of expression - this is what makes you immediately feel the atmosphere of the story."

The period of active development of the genre of the story falls on the period of the dominance of critical realism in literature, the establishment of the natural school. Then the interest in depicting everyday, everyday events and phenomena grows and intensifies. "The story acts as a fragment of the story, as a" piece of life ", where ultimately it is not the" funny event "itself that is interesting, but the person, his moral character, the variety of his ethical manifestations and connections."

It should be noted that in the first half of the nineteenth century the term “story” was used to denote the genre of the story (taking “its origin from Old Russian stories”), which was applied to both the medium and small epic form. According to S. Antonov, “before, short things in Russian literature were called stories”.

The beginning of the classic story was laid in the 19th century with the famous "Tales of Belkin" by A. Pushkin, "Petersburg Tales" and "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka" by N. Gogol, "Narodnye Stories" by M. Vovchok. A particularly important role in strengthening this genre was played by I. Turgenev, P. Mirny, G. Uspensky, L. Tolstoy, I. Nechui-Levitsky, and others.

Although during the period of the establishment and development of realism, the story underwent a significant evolution, absorbing the features of the poetics of other epic genres, and he also influenced them. An even more significant complication of the artistic structure of the story takes place in the late 19th - early 20th centuries. The flowering of the story during this period is associated with a change in public mood and aesthetic tastes, as well as the social and spiritual atmosphere in Russia (the collapse of populism, the collapse of faith in populist ideals).

In Russia and in other countries, the turn of the XIX - XX centuries is marked by the growing attention to the genre of the story. At this time, the story, like other small genres, is undergoing a period of intensive development. The genre of the story at this time was associated with the search for new possibilities of literature, further renewal and enrichment of the techniques and means of artistic comprehension of reality. T. Zamorie believes that one of the characteristic features of the development of the modern story was the tendency “to strengthen the epic principle in it”, which led to “the disclosure of important aspects of reality, a serious philosophical understanding of life”. The most valuable experience during this period crystallized in the work of L. Andreev, A. Bier, I. Bunin, V. Garshin, G. Hauptmann, O. Henry, M. Gorky, A. Kuprin, and others. A special place in the development of the small epic form assigned to Guy de Maupassant and A. Chekhov.

In the story of the beginning of the 20th century, a new type of narration with a weakly expressed plot is taking shape, the center of gravity in it is transferred from the construction of a plot intrigue to the disclosure of the inner world of a person; there is a tendency towards a dense, condensed narrative due to the use of more concentrated, mediated techniques of artistic expressiveness; the genre structure of the story is influenced to a certain extent by the poetics of fairy tales and parables. "The Russian classical story was distinguished by a special sensitivity to life, an extraordinary variety of human types, characters, scenes, embodied in a perfect artistic form." The authors of the stories are realists (I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, A. Tolstoy, I. Shmelev, M. Artsybashev, etc.), modernists (D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub, A. Bely, etc.) , and writers, whose work was marked by duality - the interaction of realism and modernism (L. Andreev, B. Zaitsev, A. Remizov, S. Sergeev-Tsensky, etc.), as well as satirical writers (M. Zoshchenko, P. Romanov, etc.).

In general, the Russian story of the beginning of the 20th century is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon both in terms of its content and formal characteristics. An attempt to identify certain stable, dominant features of its content and artistic form makes it necessary to establish the main types of the small epic genre in Russian literature of this period. In this case, we are not talking about static, closed-isolated components of the genre, but about the story as a mobile historical and functional system.

When referring to specific literary material, among the variety of stories in Russian literature of the beginning of the 20th century, it seems to us that several genre varieties can be distinguished. This is, firstly, a story that includes a lyrical reconstruction of reality (lyric story), the genre of which is characterized by: a special composition, determined by the lyrical consciousness of the hero, the composition of the work, the associative construction of the narrative, the predominance of a meditative form of speech, specially designed for listening and empathy. Secondly, a story tending to an objective depiction of reality (an epic story), the genre of which is characterized by: an objective, dispassionate manner of narration, the absence of an open author's assessment of what is depicted, brevity of presentation and restraint of intonation. Thirdly, a short story of an incriminating nature (a satirical story), the main artistic methods of constructing which are exaggeration, caricature, grotesque, a tendency to depict important social problems, focus on the unexpectedness of the situation in which the character finds himself, deeply hidden subtext, wit ...

The formation of Soviet prose began with exploration in the field of small genres: feuilleton, satirical essay and story. The literary process of the 1920s is distinguished by a particular intensity of searches and experiments. This is a time of intense formation of Soviet literature, “a difficult, but dynamic and creatively fruitful period in the development of literature.<…>You can even talk about an intense, accelerated rhythm in the field of art and culture, temporarily not experiencing severe pressure from the authorities ”. The new era has stimulated the search for fresh narrative strategies. The drastically changed socio-historical conditions of life contributed to the emergence of a large number of satirical and humorous publications, on the pages of which M. Bulgakov, O. Vishnya, A. Zorich, M. Zoshchenko, I. Ilf and Evg. Petrov, V. Kataev, M. Koltsov, P. Romanov, Viach. Shishkov and others. According to L. Ershov, “in a short period of time there has been a significant ideological and aesthetic renewal of such popular forms as the story and feuilleton”.

At the present stage, the genre “story” has been investigated in the works of A. Andreev “Genre evolution of the Soviet story of the 1920s” (1991), E. Barbashova “Traditions of landscape description of everyday life and the style of storytelling of the early XX century (,)” (2010), A. Gavenko “Story as a Phenomenon of Contemporary Artistic Culture” (2010), І. Denisyuk "Development of Ukrainian little prose of the 19th century - the ear of the 20th century" (1999), T. Captain "Russian announcement of the ear of the 20th century (genre typology)" (2004), I. Rodionova "Portrait in line of the text of a modern English story" (2003), G. Turchina and I. Uspenskaya “Soviet story of the 20-30s” (1987), G. Uglovskaya “Rasputin: Dynamics of a genre” (2006), N. Utekhina “Genres of epic prose” (1982), etc. Thanks to many from these works the practice of removing a clear boundary between the story and the novella, the use of these terms in the same context and as synonymous concepts has developed.

In Russian literature of the second half of the 20th century, the story traditionally crowds out the novella, although in certain cases we can talk about the manifestation of a novelistic tendency in it (V. Shukshin, S. Voronin, etc.). The conflict sometimes extends to the hero's entire life or its long period with the strengthening of the “hagiographic” basis (“The Fate of a Man” by M. Sholokhov, “Matryonin's Dvor” by A. Solzhenitsyn, etc.). Such scaling of the material testifies to the constant influence on the story from other epic genres (story, novel), as well as drama and lyrics. But the canonical genre strategies still make it possible to consider the story as a stable, aesthetically key, mobile genre, genre number one.

Based on these features, it is possible to emphasize the main genre qualities of the story. A story is a small, narrative work of fiction about one or more events in the life of a person or group of people. Thus, the story isolates a particular case from life, a separate situation. The event as such becomes central to the plot of the work. The novella is “a small work with a clear storyline, eventful, compositionally articulated” and is characterized by the dynamism of the plot, the sharpness of intrigue, the rapid development of the action, and an unexpected and sudden ending.

It is important to emphasize that “the Russian story (in comparison with the European short story) is a completely independent and original genre”, therefore, summarizing the above, it should be noted that a story in the traditional sense is a story about a separate, private event or a series of events, small in volume ... In the center of a work, there can be one plot event, most often one plot line. In a traditional story, a small circle of characters is involved. Life is not presented in full, and the character is revealed through the circumstances of the character's life, which turn out to be fatal, turning for the hero.

It should be emphasized that in Russian literature the recognition of the story as an independent genre took place in the second half of the 1840s. The content of the concept of “story” during the first half of the 19th century changed several times, and genre education, which is close in modern terms to the story, was defined in different ways. It was only in the second half of the 1840s that the definition of “story” was finally entrenched in it. Therefore, the history of the term in this section is traced along two lines: firstly, the theoretical and methodological interpretation of the concept of "story" is clarified, and secondly, the general and excellent in the interpretation of the concepts of "story" and "short story" is revealed.

It turns out that the closeness of the story and the novella is undoubtedly connected with the historical mutual influence of real concepts. With all this, however, it is unfair to equate the story and the novella. If only because the short story as a canonical genre was formed long before the emergence and development of the short story genre.

Literature

1. I am reading a story. From conversations with young writers / Sergey Antonov. - M.: Young Guard, 1973 .-- 256 p.

2. Biletskiy іdannya. Novel. Naris / F.M.Biletskiy. - K.: Dnipro, 1966 .-- 91 p.

3. Grechnev in the system of genres at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries (to the question of the reasons for the change of genres) / // Rus. lit. -1987. - No. 1. - P.131-144.

4. Ershov satirical prose / L. Ershov. - M.-L. : Fiction, 1966 .-- 300 p.

5. Zamoriy Russian story /. - K.: Nauk. Dumka, 1968 .-- 254 p.

6. In the mirror of the story. Observations, analyzes, portraits / I. Kramov. - M.: Soviet writer, 1979 .-- 296 p.

7. Kramov of the story / I. Kramov. // Friendship of Peoples. - 1977. - No. 8. - S. 249-266.

8. Musiy literature 1801-1855. : tutorial / ; ONU them. , philol. fac., Department of World Literature. - Odessa: Odessa nat. University, 2010 .-- 146 p.

9. Ninov's story. From observations of Russian prose (1956-1966) / A. Ninov. - L.: Artist. Literature, 1969 .-- 288 p.

10. Rogover literature of the twentieth century: textbook /. - SPb. : Saga, M.: Forum, 2004 .-- 496 p.

11. Russian Soviet story. Essays on the history of the genre: ed. ... - L.: Nauka, 1970 .-- 736 p.

12. Uglovskaya V. Rasputin: Dynamics of the genre: abstract dis. for a job. scientist. step. Cand. philol. Sciences: spec. 10.01.01 "Russian Literature" /. - Buryat. state un-t. - Ulan-Ude, 2006 .-- 24 p.

13. Shubin Russian story. The question of poetics of the genre: author. dis. for a job. scientist. step. Cand. philol. sciences /. - L., 1966 .-- 20 p.

Literary art has a large number of means of conveying the author's intentions. In this case, the genre of the work plays a certain role in expressing the author's intention, since the choice of the genre of the work determines its structure, the features of the use of linguistic means, the process of creating images of heroes, the expression of the author's attitude to the events and heroes presented, etc. All the variety of epic genres in literature can be classified on the basis of volume and the following forms can be distinguished: large (novel), medium (story, short story) and small (story). In this work, only a small form of the epic genre is considered - the story.

The concept of "story" can be defined as follows: A story is a small prose (occasionally poetic) genre, correlated with the story, as a more detailed form of epic narration. [Encyclopedia].

N. A. Gulyaev (N. A. Gulyaev. Theory of Literature. - M., Higher School, 1985.) gives the following interpretation of the concept of "story":-small epic form. It differs in less volume, focuses on the image of any one event, often in the life of one person, revealing one of its features. One-sidedness, one-problem problem - the characteristic features of the story as a genre. Usually the narrator examines the situation in which the hero manifests himself most vividly. The story is usually based on some separate incident from life, a story that is characterized by "isolation" (has a beginning and an end). It quite fully presents the features of the revealed event or human character. The story demands from the writer the greatest skill, the ability to put a lot in a small space. The peculiarity of the small epic form, therefore, lies in the exceptional conciseness of presentation, compressedness, and artistic richness.

FM Golovenchenko gives such a definition of the concept of "story": a story is a short narrative work depicting some bright event, social or psychological conflict and the characters associated with it. This form of the epic genre is most commonly used in literature, since it allows the most active intervention in life. The story presents a specific period in someone's life, which began long before the story is told, and continues after the story is over. This period of life must be necessarily bright, characteristic of those conditions, that environment, those people whom the author intends to introduce to the reader.

The story can relate to a wide variety of issues of spiritual and social life, but due to genre characteristics it is deprived of the opportunity to provide a versatile and broad picture of life that can be given big form of an epic genre (novel, poem, story). This form of the epic genre is characterized by such characteristic features as the brevity and intensity of the narrative, the absence of side deviations, the utmost conciseness, the swiftness of the plot development, the completion with a spectacular ending. Usually, there are few characters in the story, and each of them is outlined only in the most essential features for resolving the ideological and artistic concept. In addition, those details and details that are required in the larger forms of the epic genre are not allowed. Characters here are not given in development: each person appears already formed and is revealed from one side; in the same way, events are taken that unfold over a short period of time.

Stories can be divided, according to F.M.Golovenchenko, depending on the leading motive into everyday, adventurous, social or psychological. However, it is not always possible to find stories of only one of the named types. Most often, the elements of psychologism, adventurism and everyday life are intertwined. Then the nature of the story is determined by the dominant motive.

However, in literary criticism, the story is contrasted with other epic forms. The so-called story problem arises. On the one hand, the possibility of correlating the story, in contrast to both the short story and the story, with both of these "simple" genres, which are considered sources and prototypes of the named middle forms. On the other hand, the story should be correlated - through the story - with the novel.

There are several criteria for distinguishing between genres. [Tamarchenko's theory of literature]

1) "Small form" as a criterion. On the one hand, the difference in the volume of texts is a convincing criterion for distinguishing between the genres of the story and the story. In accordance with the above criterion, it is easier to identify a story than a story: for this, an approximate idea of the border to which the volume of the text can be considered minimal is sufficient. For example, in the Western scientific tradition, where much more attention is paid to the volume of the text, it is customary in the definition of a story (it is no coincidence that this form is called “short story”, “Kurzgeschichte”) to include indications of the number of words: a “short realistic story” should contain less than 10,000 words ... (Shaw H. Dictionary of Literary Terms. - N. Y., 1972. - P. 343) The volume of the text is an important but insufficient criterion. You should also take into account the division of the text into chapters or the absence of such division. This point is more obviously related to content: the number of events and episodes. But in relation to episodes and events, the quantitative approach must become more differentiated and must be combined with qualitative criteria. When it comes to not only the elements of the text, but also the work. Two aspects stand out here: the "subject" plan of the image (thO depicted: the event, space and time in which it occurs) and the "subjective" plan (who depicts the event and with what forms of speech). Friedman N. points out that the story can be short, because its action is small, or because its action, being large, is reduced in volume by means of selection, scale or point of view. (Quoted from: Smirnov I.P.

As I.P. Smirnov showed, the minimum of events in the novel is not one, but two, since artistry, no matter what genre form it takes, is based on parallelism (on equivalence). (Smirnov IP On the meaning of brevity. - p. 6) A similar principle also exists in the story and in the novel. However, outside of the "small form", in addition to the main "parallel" events, there are others that duplicate or vary this parallelism.

To the subject planepisode , that is, that part of the text where the same place and time of action and a set of actors are preserved, in addition to the event, the spatio-temporal conditions of its fulfillment are included. It should be emphasized that without analyzing these conditions, the event composition of the action may not be clear. According to ND Tamarchenko, the minimum in the subject matter of the content, which is inherent in the "small form", is made up of two principles: two space-time spheres, on the boundaries of which the event takes place, i.e. moving the character across the border of the semantic field. (Lotman Yu. M. The structure of the literary text. - M., 1970. - S. 282) Outside the "small form" - in the story and the novel - the greatest possible number of scenes. But their relationship to each other is formed aroundmain opposition and diversevaries his.

In addition, the subjective plan of each episode is created by a certain complex of compositional forms of speech, which always has two poles: the speech of the depicting subject (narrator or narrator) and the speech of the characters. In this case, the number of episodes is determined by whether the author seeksvary the ratio main points of view:depicting and depicting (external and internal), i.e. whether the idea of binarity is realized. Thus, J. Van der Eng tried to extend the idea of binarity to all aspects of the structure of the "small form". He says that it is characterized by an end-to-end combination of two so-called "series of variations" of motives of "action, characteristics and environment": "integral" and "dispersed". (Van der Eng J. The art of the short story. The formation of series of variations as a fundamental principle of narrative construction // Russian short story: Problems of history and theory. - pp. 197 - 200)

Based on the foregoing, the specifics of the small form can be defined as follows: the volume of the text is sufficient to implement the principle of binarity in the main aspects of the artistic whole - in the organization of space-time and plot a and in the subjective structure materialized in compositional forms of speech. At the same time, the volume is minimal in the sense that this principle is implemented everywhere in a single version.

Another concept of “small form” should also be pointed out. In accordance with quantitative criteria, this concept leaves aside the question ofstructural differences between story and novella ... The existing definitions of the concept of "story" either do not clearly distinguish it from the novella, or this delimitation is based on the explicit or hidden rapprochement of the story with the story. Wilpert G. (von Sachwörtebuch der Literatur) gives the following definition of the concept of “story”: “... a special genre, a short epic prosaic intermediate form between a novel, an essay and an anecdote, characterized by a purposeful, linear, concise and conscious composition aimed at an inevitable solution (calculated to the end), with the purpose of concussion or bringing the collapse of life, or opening the way out. " A similar definition is given by Shaw H. (Dictionary of Literatury Terms. P. 343): “The story focuses on one character in one particular situation at a particular moment. ... A dramatic conflict - the confrontation of opposing forces - is at the center of any story. " Another definition, in which the story is similar to the novella, can be found in V. Kozhinov (Story // Dictionary of literary terms. - M., 1974. - S. 309 - 310): a pronounced plot, intense action (short story) and, on the contrary, an epically calm story with a naturally developing plot (story) "). From the same position Sierowinski S. (Slownik terminow litreackich. - Wroclaw, 1966. - S. 177) considers the concept of "story": "an epic work of small size, which differs from the novel by the greater prevalence and arbitrary composition." However, such a rapprochement of the story with the story and the novella naturally leads to the withdrawal of the story beyond the "small form" - in contrast to the novella, it reveals an "expansion" of the volume of the text due to the "off-story elements": "In this case, the story allows for greater authorial freedom of narration, expansion of descriptive, ethnographic, psychological, subjective-evaluative elements ... "(Ninov A. Story // KLE. Vol. 6. - Col. 190 - 193) Thus, in order to understand the genre specificity of the story, it is necessary to oppose it to the novella, while remaining in the framework of the "small form". Currently, this problem has no solution, although this question has long been raised in the article by K. Loks: “While the Italian novella of the Renaissance ... a solid literary genre ... the same cannot be said about the" story. " ... All these considerations force us to begin the definition of the term "story" not with its theoretically and abstractly established type, but rather with a general manner, which we will designate asa special tone of the story, giving it the features of a "story". ... The tone of the narration presupposes ... strict factuality, economy (sometimes deliberately calculated) of pictorial means, immediate preparation of the main essence of the narrated. The story, on the contrary, uses the means of a slowed-down tonality - it is all filled with detailed motivation, side accessories, and its essence can be distributed over all points of the narrative itself with almost uniform tension. ... Concentration of attention, a center advanced in terms of tension and the connectedness of motives by this center are distinctive features story. Its relatively small volume, which they tried to legitimize as one of the features, is entirely explained by these basic properties. " (Loks K. Story // Literary encyclopedia. Dictionary of literary terms: In 2 volumes - T. 1. - Collected papers. 693 - 695) However, in this work there is also a focus on identifying common features of the prosaic "small form"; the center of narrative tension is in no way delimited from the novelistic center of tension.

In addition to the volume of the work, artistic tasks play an important role in determining the form of the work. The novella creates a new vision of the everyday situation, but lessons are never drawn from it (as from an anecdote). Accentuated rethinking of the story's plot in a final event, separated from the main story, gives the entire narrated story a teaching meaning. This feature arises from the use of elements of a parable in the story - a rethinking in the final of the results of the central event - tests, their assessment. As a rule, the final meaning of the story is an open situation of the reader's choice between an “anecdotal” interpretation of everything told and a “parable” perception of it as an example of a temporary departure from the universal law and subsequent internal merging with it. This duality and incompleteness characterizes the general semantic structure of the story as a genre.

Literature today has a huge number of both lyrical and prose genres. They all have their own characteristics and distinctive features. But this article is devoted to only one prose genre - the story. And we will try to answer the question of what a story is.

Definition

The story is a genre of short prose, characterized by a small volume and unity of artistic events. The story usually has one storyline with a conflict situation and few actors. So, the answer to the question of what a story is is quite simple: this work in prose is less in volume than a story and a novel.

Story and novella

The question often arises: how does a story differ from a short story? Both have the same characteristics. There is another name for the short story - a short story. But how correct is it?

Most Russian literary scholars are of the opinion that short stories and short stories are different names for the same genre. So, once in Russia, the short story began to be called a story. This opinion is shared by the researchers of small European genres B. Tomashevsky and E. Meletinsky. Therefore, in the future in the article, the concepts of short story and story will be used as equivalent.

The emergence of the story

Answering the question, what is a story, it is necessary to turn to the history of the origin of this genre. The story finds its origins in a fable, fairy tale and anecdote. Although it differs significantly from them. The genre separates from the anecdote the possibility of not only a comic plot, but also a sentimental one with a tragic one. In a fable, in contrast to a story, allegorical images and edifying elements are always present. A fairy tale is impossible without an element of magic, which is not typical for a novel.

Development of the genre

The novella originated in Europe during the Renaissance. And even then, its main features were determined: a dramatic conflict, unusual incidents, an event that changed the hero's life. Such are the works of Boccaccio and Hoffmann. Stories about animals were still unusual for this period, the main characters were people.

Each cultural era was reflected in literature and, therefore, in the genre of the novel. Therefore, in the romantic period, the story acquired mystical features. At the same time, the narration does not have a philosophical orientation, psychologism and appeal to the inner world of the hero. The author remained aloof from what was happening, not giving assessments and not expressing his opinion.

After realism strengthened its position and invaded all literary genres, the short story, as it was originally, ceased to exist. The basic principles of realism - descriptiveness and psychologism - were completely alien to the novel. That is why the genre is beginning to transform. So, in the 19th century, it becomes a story. From that moment on, the question of what a story is becomes correct, since it was during this period that the literary term itself appears.

Essays and notes on the new genre appear in Russia. So, N.V. Gogol in one of his works on literature calls a story a kind of story, which describes an ordinary incident in life that can happen to every person.

It was only in 1940 that the story was singled out as a special literary genre, different from a short story, which has several plot lines, and a physiological essay, which is always publicistic and aimed at description.

Genre features

As a rule, the story tells about some moment or event in a person's life. But the main thing in determining the genre is not the volume of the work and not the number of plot lines, but the author's focus on brevity.

For example, the story "Ionych" (AP Chekhov) in its content (description of the hero's entire life) is close to the novel. However, the brevity with which the author presents the events allows us to call the work a story. In addition, Chekhov's goal is the same - the image of the spiritual degradation of man. In this regard, the phrase "short story" is redundant, since the genre specificity of the story requires it to be extremely short.

A characteristic feature of the story is attention to detail. Due to the brevity of the narrative, any subject to which the author paid special attention becomes key to understanding the meaning of the work. Sometimes even the hero of a story can be of less importance than a seemingly insignificant detail. So, in the story "Khor and Kalinich" by I. S. Turgenev, the gifts that friends presented to each other reveal the characters' characters: the economic Kalinich gives good-quality boots, and the poetic Khor - a bunch of strawberries.

Due to the small volume, the story is always stylistically uniform. Therefore, its main feature is the narration from one person (either the author, or the hero, or the narrator).

Conclusion

Thus, the genre of the story absorbs the features of all past cultural eras. Today it continues to evolve and acquire more and more new features. The varieties of the story are also developing: psychological, everyday, fantastic, satirical.

genre story is one of the most popular in literature. Many writers have and are referring to him. Let's try to tell in more detail about the features of the story genre, consider examples of the most famous works, as well as popular mistakes that authors make.

Story Is one of the smaller literary forms. It is a short narrative work with a small number of characters. In this case, short-term events are displayed.

A brief history of the story genre

VG Belinsky (his portrait is presented above) back in the 1840s distinguished the sketch and story as small prose genres from the story and novel as larger ones. Already at this time in Russian literature, the predominance of prose over poetry was fully indicated.

A little later, in the second half of the 19th century, the essay was widely developed in the democratic literature of our country. At this time, the opinion was formed that it is the documentary that distinguishes this genre. The story, as it was then believed, is created using creative imagination. According to another opinion, the genre of interest to us differs from the essay by the conflict of the plot. After all, the essay is characterized by the fact that it is mainly a descriptive work.

Unity of time

In order to more fully characterize the genre of the story, it is necessary to highlight the patterns inherent in it. The first of these is the unity of time. In a story, the action time is always limited. However, not necessarily just one day, as in the works of the classicists. Although this rule is not always followed, it is rare to find stories in which the plot covers the entire life of the protagonist. Even less often, works in this genre are created, the action of which lasts for centuries. Usually the author depicts some episode from the life of his hero. Among the stories in which the whole fate of the character is revealed, one can note "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (by Leo Tolstoy) and "Darling". It also happens that not all life is represented, but its long period. For example, Chekhov's "Jumping" depicts a number of significant events in the fate of the heroes, their environment, the difficult development of relationships between them. However, this is given extremely tightly, compressed. It is the conciseness of the content, greater than in the story, that is a common feature of the story and, perhaps, the only one.

Unity of action and place

There are other features of the story genre that should be noted. The unity of time is closely related and conditioned by another unity - action. Story Is a genre of literature that should be limited to the description of a single event. Sometimes one or two events become the main, meaningful, culminating events in it. From here comes the unity of the place. Usually the action takes place in one place. There may be not one, but several, but their number is strictly limited. For example, there may be 2-3 places, but 5 are already rare (they can only be mentioned).

Character unity

Another one feature of the story- the unity of the character. As a rule, one main character acts in the space of a work of this genre. Occasionally there may be two of them, and very rarely - several. As for the secondary characters, there can be quite a lot of them, but they are purely functional. The story is a genre of literature in which the role of the secondary characters is limited to creating a background. They can interfere or help the main character, but no more. In the story "Chelkash" by Gorky, for example, there are only two characters. And in Chekhov's "I Want to Sleep" and completely alone, which is impossible neither in the story, nor in the novel.

Unity of the center

Signs of a story as genres listed above, one way or another, are reduced to the unity of the center. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine a story without a certain defining, central sign that “pulls together” all the others. It doesn't matter at all whether this center is some kind of static descriptive image, a culminating event, the very development of the action, or a significant gesture of the character. The main image should be in any story. It is through him that the whole composition is kept. He sets the theme of the work, determines the meaning of the story told.

The basic principle of storytelling

It is not difficult to draw a conclusion from thinking about "unities". The thought itself suggests that the main principle of building the composition of the story is expediency and economy of motives. Tomashevsky called the smallest element of the text structure a motive. It can be an action, character, or event. It is no longer possible to decompose this structure into its components. This means that the author's greatest sin is excessive detailing, oversaturation of the text, piling up details that can be omitted when developing this genre of the work. The story should not dwell on details.

It is necessary to describe only the most significant in order to avoid a common mistake. It is very characteristic, oddly enough, for people who are very conscientious about their works. They have a desire to express themselves as much as possible in each text. Young directors often do the same when they stage diploma films and performances. This is especially true for films, since the author's imagination in this case is not limited to the text of the play.

Authors with developed imaginations like to fill the literary genre with descriptive motives. For example, they depict how a pack of man-eating wolves is chasing the main character of the work. However, if dawn begins, they definitely stop at the description of long shadows, clouded stars, reddened clouds. The author seemed to admire nature and only then decided to continue the pursuit. The fantasy story genre gives maximum scope to the imagination, so avoiding this mistake is not at all easy.

The role of motives in the story

It must be emphasized that in the genre of interest to us, all motives should reveal the topic, work for meaning. For example, the gun described at the beginning of the work must certainly shoot at the end. Motives that are misleading should not be included in the story. Or you need to look for images that outline the situation, but do not overly detail it.

Features of the composition

It should be noted that it is not necessary to adhere to the traditional methods of constructing a literary text. Their violation can be effective. Story can be created almost from descriptions alone. But it is still impossible to do without action. The hero is simply obliged to at least raise his hand, take a step (in other words, make a significant gesture). Otherwise, you will not get a story, but a miniature, a sketch, a poem in prose. Another important feature of the genre we are interested in is the meaningful ending. For example, a novel may last forever, but a story is structured differently.

Very often its ending is paradoxical and unexpected. It was with this that Lev Vygotsky associated the appearance of catharsis in the reader. Modern scholars (Patrice Pavi in particular) view catharsis as an emotional pulsation that appears as you read. Nevertheless, the significance of the ending remains unchanged. The ending can radically change the meaning of the story, push to rethink what is stated in it. This must be remembered.
The place of the story in world literature

The story is an epic genre that occupies an important place in world literature... Gorky and turned to him both in the early and in the mature period of creativity. Chekhov's story is the main and favorite genre. Many stories became classics and, along with major epic works (stories and novels), entered the treasury of literature. Such are, for example, "Three Deaths" and "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter", Chekhov's works "Darling" and "A Man in a Case", Gorky's stories "Old Woman Izergil", "Chelkash" and others.

The advantages of storytelling over other genres

The genre of interest to us allows us to single out especially vividly one or another typical case, one or another side of our life. It makes it possible to depict them so that the reader's attention is completely focused on them. For example, Chekhov, describing Vanka Zhukov with a letter "to the village of grandfather" full of childish despair, dwells in detail on the content of this letter. It will not reach its destination and because of this it becomes especially strong from the point of view of accusation. In the story "The Birth of a Man" by M. Gorky, the episode with the birth of a child, which takes place on the road, helps the author in revealing the main idea - the assertion of the value of life.

The story genre is one of the most popular in literature. Many writers have and are referring to him. After reading this article, you will learn what are the features of the story genre, examples of the most famous works, as well as popular mistakes that authors make.

The story is one of the small literary forms. It is a small narrative work with a small number of characters. In this case, short-term events are displayed.

A brief history of the story genre

Unity of time

In order to more fully characterize the genre of the story, it is necessary to highlight the patterns inherent in it. The first of these is the unity of time. In a story, the action time is always limited. However, not necessarily just one day, as in the works of the classicists. Although this rule is not always followed, it is rare to find stories in which the plot covers the entire life of the protagonist. Even less often, works in this genre are created, the action of which lasts for centuries. Usually the author depicts some episode from the life of his hero. Among the stories in which the whole fate of the character is revealed, one can note "The Death of Ivan Ilyich" (by Leo Tolstoy) and it also happens that not all life is represented, but its long period. For example, Chekhov's "Jumping" depicts a number of significant events in the fate of the heroes, their environment, the difficult development of relationships between them. However, this is given extremely tightly, compressed. It is the conciseness of the content, greater than in the story, that is a common feature of the story and, perhaps, the only one.

Unity of action and place

There are other features of the story genre that should be noted. The unity of time is closely related and conditioned by another unity - action. A story is a genre of literature that should be limited to the description of a single event. Sometimes one or two events become the main, meaningful, culminating events in it. From here comes the unity of the place. Usually the action takes place in one place. There may be not one, but several, but their number is strictly limited. For example, there may be 2-3 places, but 5 are already rare (they can only be mentioned).

Character unity

Another feature of the story is the unity of the character. As a rule, one main character acts in the space of a work of this genre. Occasionally there may be two of them, and very rarely - several. As for the minor characters, there can be quite a lot of them, but they are purely functional. The story is a genre of literature in which the role of the secondary characters is limited to creating a background. They can interfere or help the main character, but no more. In the story "Chelkash" by Gorky, for example, there are only two characters. And in Chekhov's "I Want to Sleep" he is completely alone, which is impossible neither in the story nor in the novel.

Unity of the center

As the genres listed above, one way or another, they are reduced to the unity of the center. Indeed, the story cannot be imagined without a certain defining, central sign that "pulls together" all the others. It doesn't matter at all whether this center is some kind of static descriptive image, a culminating event, the very development of the action, or a significant gesture of the character. The main image should be in any story. It is through him that the whole composition is kept. He sets the theme of the work, determines the meaning of the story told.

The basic principle of storytelling

It is not difficult to draw a conclusion from thinking about "unities". The thought itself suggests that the main principle of building the composition of the story is expediency and economy of motives. Tomashevsky called the smallest element a motive. It can be an action, a character or an event. It is no longer possible to decompose this structure into its components. This means that the author's greatest sin is excessive detailing, oversaturation of the text, piling up details that can be omitted when developing this genre of the work. The story should not dwell on details.

Authors with developed imaginations like to fill the story with descriptive motives. For example, they depict how a pack of man-eating wolves is chasing the main character of the work. However, if dawn begins, they definitely stop at the description of long shadows, clouded stars, reddened clouds. The author seemed to admire nature and only then decided to continue the pursuit. The fantasy story genre gives maximum scope to the imagination, so avoiding this mistake is not at all easy.

The role of motives in the story

Features of the composition

It should be noted that it is not necessary to adhere to the traditional methods of constructing a literary text. Their violation can be effective. A story can be created almost from descriptions alone. But it is still impossible to do without action. The hero is simply obliged to at least raise his hand, take a step (in other words, make a significant gesture). Otherwise, you will not get a story, but a miniature, a sketch, a poem in prose. Another important feature of the genre we are interested in is the meaningful ending. For example, a novel may last forever, but a story is structured differently.

Very often its ending is paradoxical and unexpected. It was with this that he associated the appearance of catharsis in the reader. Modern scholars (Patrice Pavi in particular) view catharsis as an emotional pulsation that appears as you read. Nevertheless, the significance of the ending remains unchanged. The ending can radically change the meaning of the story, push to rethink what is stated in it. This must be remembered.

The place of the story in world literature

Story - which occupies an important place in world literature. Gorky and Tolstoy turned to him both in the early and in the mature period of creativity. Chekhov's story is the main and favorite genre. Many stories have become classics and, along with large epic works (stories and novels), entered the treasury of literature. Such are, for example, Tolstoy's stories "Three Deaths" and "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter", Chekhov's works "Darling" and "A Man in a Case", Gorky's stories "Old Woman Izergil", "Chelkash" and others.