Give the definition of the word story features of the story. What is a story

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 find out what are the features of the story genre, examples of the most famous works, as well as popular mistakes made by authors.

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

A brief history of the story genre

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

A little later, in the 2nd half of the 19th century, the essay was widely developed in democratic literature our country. At this time, the opinion was formed that it is the documentary that distinguishes this genre. The story, as it was believed then, 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 is the unity of time. In a story, the time of action 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, in Chekhov's "Jumping" 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 more than 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, in the space of a work of this genre one the main character... Occasionally there may be two of them, and very rarely - several. Concerning minor characters, there can be quite a lot of them, but they are purely functional. Storytelling is a genre of literature in which the task minor heroes limited to background creation. 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, it is impossible to imagine a story without a certain defining, central sign that "pulls together" all the others. It does not matter at all whether this center will be some kind of static descriptive image, culminating event, the very development of the action, or meaningful gesture 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.

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 graduation 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 advanced 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. genre fantastic story gives maximum scope to the imagination, so avoiding this mistake is not at all easy.

The role of motives in the story

It should 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 construction techniques artistic text... Their violation can be effective. A story can be created almost from descriptions alone. But it’s 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. One more important feature the genre of interest to us is a meaningful ending. For example, a novel may last forever, but a story is structured differently.

Very often its ending is paradoxical and unexpected. It is with this that he associated the appearance of catharsis in the reader. Contemporary researchers(Patrice Pavi in ​​particular) see catharsis as an emotional ripple that appears as one reads. 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 addressed him both in the early and in mature period creativity. Chekhov's story is the main and favorite genre. Many stories have become classic and on a par with major 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.

The advantages of storytelling over other genres

The genre we are interested in allows us to single out especially vividly one or another typical case, one or another aspect of our life. It makes it possible to portray 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.

Writer's Cheat Sheet:

STORY - construction rules.

Story- a small form of epic prose, correlated with the story as a more detailed form of narration. Or according to "Literary encyclopedic dictionary"V.M. Kozhevnikov and P.A. Nikolaev:" Small epic genre form fiction- small in volume of the depicted phenomena of life, and hence in the volume of the text, a prose work ”.

Story goes back to folklore genres(fairy tale, parable); how did the genre stand out in written literature; often indistinguishable from the novella, and since the 18th century. - and an essay. Sometimes the novella and the essay are viewed as polar varieties. story.

In the 1840s, when the unconditional predominance of prose over poetry in Russian literature was quite evident, V.G. Belinsky already distinguished story and an essay as small genres of prose from the novel and story as larger. In the second half of the 19th century, when essay works received the broadest development in Russian democratic literature, the opinion was formed that this genre is always documentary, stories they are created on the basis of creative imagination. In another opinion, story differs from the essay in the conflict of the plot, while the essay is a mostly descriptive work. Story contains a small number of characters, and also, most often, has one storyline. story patterns:

Unity of time. Time of action in story limited. Not necessarily - in one day, like the classicists. Nevertheless, stories, the plot of which covers the entire life of the character, are not very common. Even less often appear stories in which the action lasts for centuries.

Temporary unity is conditioned and closely related to another - the unity of action. Even story covers a significant period, it is still devoted to the development of one action, more precisely, one conflict (for the proximity story drama seems to be pointed out by all researchers of poetics).

The unity of action is associated with eventual unity. As Boris Tomashevsky wrote, "a short story usually has a simple plot, with one fabular thread (the simplicity of plotting the plot does not in the least concern the complexity and confusion of individual situations), with a short chain of alternating situations, or, rather, with one central change of situations." In other words, story either it is limited to the description of a single event, or one or two events become the main, culminating, meaning-forming in it. Hence - the unity of the place. Action story takes place in one place or in a strictly limited number of places. In two or three more, maybe, in five - it’s already unlikely (they can only be mentioned by the author).

The unity of the character. In space story usually there is one main character. Sometimes there are two of them. And very rarely - several. That is, there can be quite a lot of minor characters, in principle, but they are purely functional. The Minor Characters' Challenge in story- create a background, help or hinder the main character. No more.

One way or another, all the listed unities are reduced to one - the unity of the center.

The story cannot exist without some central, defining sign that would "pull together" all the others. Ultimately, it does not matter at all whether this center will be the culminating event or a static descriptive image, or a significant gesture of the character, or the development of the action itself. In any story it should be main image, due to which the whole compositional structure, which sets the theme and determines the meaning of the story.

The practical conclusion from reasoning about "unities" suggests itself: the basic principle compositional construction story"lies in the economy and expediency of motives" (Tomashevsky called the smallest unit of the text structure - be it an event, character or action - which can no longer be decomposed into components). And, therefore, the most terrible sin author - oversaturation of the text, excessive detailing, piling up unnecessary details.

This happens all the time. Oddly enough, this mistake is very typical for people who are extremely conscientious about what they have written. There is a desire to express to the maximum in each text. Young directors do the same when staging graduation performances or films (especially films where fantasy is not limited to the text of the play). What are these works about? About everything. About life and death, about the fate of man and humanity, about God and the devil, etc. The best of them contain a mass of finds, a mass most interesting images, which ... would be quite enough for ten performances or films.

Authors with a developed artistic imagination are very fond of introducing static descriptive motives into the text. A pack of man-eating wolves can chase the main character, but if dawn begins, reddened clouds, clouded stars, long shadows will certainly be described. As if the author said to the wolves and the hero: "Stop!" - admired nature and only after that allowed him to continue the chase.

All motives in story should work for meaning, reveal the topic. The gun described at the beginning is simply obliged to fire at the end of the story. It is better to simply blot out motives that lead to the side. Or look for images that would outline the situation without excessive detail. Remember, Treplev says about Trigorin (in Anton Chekhov's The Seagull): “His neck shines on the dam broken bottle, and the shadow of the mill wheel blackens - that's Moonlight night ready, and I have a fluttering light, and a quiet twinkling of the stars, and the distant sounds of a piano, fading in the quiet fragrant air ... It's painful. "

However, here we must take into account that the violation traditional ways constructing text can be effective artistic technique.Story can be based practically on descriptions alone. However, he cannot do without action. The hero must at least take a step, at least raise his hand (that is, make a significant gesture). Otherwise, we are not dealing with story, but with a sketch, miniature, with a poem in prose. Other characteristic feature story- a meaningful ending. The romance, in fact, can go on forever. Robert Musil was never able to finish his "Man Without Properties". You can search for lost time for a very, very long time. The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse can be supplemented with any number of texts. The novel is not limited in scope at all. This shows his relationship with the epic poem. The Trojan epic or "Mahabharata" aspires to infinity. In the early Greek novel, as Mikhail Bakhtin noted, the hero's adventures can continue for as long as desired, and the ending is always formal and predetermined in advance.

Story is built differently. Its ending is often unexpected and paradoxical. It was with this paradoxical ending that Lev Vygotsky linked the emergence of catharsis in the reader. Today's researchers (Patrice Pavi, for example) view catharsis as a kind of emotional pulsation that occurs as you read. However, the significance of the ending remains unchanged. She is able to completely change the meaning of the story, make you rethink what is stated in story.

By the way, it doesn't have to be a single final phrase. In "Kohinor" by Sergei Paliy, the ending is stretched over two paragraphs. Yet the last few words are the strongest. The author seems to be saying that practically nothing has changed in the life of his character. Except ... "now his angular figure no longer looked like a wax one." And this tiny circumstance turns out to be the most important. If this change did not happen to the hero, there would be no need to write story.

So, the unity of time, the unity of action and eventual unity, the unity of the place, the unity of the character, the unity of the center, the significant ending and catharsis are the components of the story. Of course, all this is approximate and shaky, the boundaries of these rules are very conditional and can be violated, because, first of all, talent is needed, and knowledge of the laws of construction story or another genre will never help to teach to write brilliantly, on the contrary - violation of these laws sometimes leads to stunning effects, becomes a new word in literature.

The story is epic genre small volume. Let us define its features and, using the example of the story by A.P. Chekhov, "Chameleon", we will consider them.

Features of the story

• Small volume
• Limited number of actors
• One story line, often - this is the fate of the protagonist.
• The story tells about several, but more often one, important episode in a person's life.

• Secondary and episodic characters in one way or another reveal the nature of the main character, the problem associated with this main character.
• In terms of the number of pages, the story can be voluminous, but the main thing is that the whole action is subordinated to one problem, connected with one hero, one storyline.
• Details play an important role in the story. Sometimes one detail is enough to understand the character of the hero.
• The story is told from one person. This can be the narrator, the hero, or the author himself.
• The stories have an apt, memorable title, which already contains part of the answer to the question raised. ...
• The stories were written by the authors in a certain era, therefore, of course, they reflect the peculiarities of the literature of a particular time. It is known that until the 19th century, stories were close to short stories; in the 19th century, subtext appeared in stories, which could not have been in an earlier era.

Example.

Illustrations by S.V. Gerasimov to the story of A.P. Chekhov.
"Chameleon". 1945

The story of A.P. Chekhov's "Chameleon"

• Small in volume. Chekhov is generally a master of short stories.

• The main thing actor- police overseer Ochumelov. All other heroes help to understand the nature of the main thing, including the artisan Khryukin.
• The plot is built around one episode - a dog bite the finger of goldsmith Khryukin.
• The main problem is ridicule of honor, sycophancy, servility, assessment of a person according to the place in society that he occupies, the lawlessness of people in power. Everything in the story is subordinated to the disclosure of this problem - all changes in Ochumelov's behavior in relation to this dog - from the desire to put things in order so that there are no stray dogs, to the affection of the dog, which, as it turned out, belonged to the general's brother.
• Details play an important role in the story. In this case, it is Ochumelov's overcoat, which he takes off and then puts on his shoulders again (at this time his attitude to the current situation changes).
• The narration is conducted on behalf of the author. In a small volume, Chekhov was able to express his indignation, satirical, even sarcastic attitude towards the order in Russia, in which a person is valued not by his character, deeds and actions, but by the rank he occupies.
• The title of the story - "Chameleon" - very accurately reflects the behavior of the protagonist, changing "his color", that is, his attitude to what is happening, in connection with who owns the dog. Chameleoning like social phenomenon ridiculed by the author in the story.
• The story was written in 1884, during the heyday critical realism in the literature of Russia in the 19th century. Therefore, the work has all the features this method: ridiculing the vices of society, critical reflection of reality.

Thus, using the example of the story of A.P. Chekhov, "The Chameleon", we examined the features this genre literature.

STORY. The term "R." in its genre meaning is usually applied to any small narrative prose. a literary work with a realistic coloring, containing a detailed and complete narration about any particular ... ... Literary encyclopedia

Story- STORY. In Russian literature, the designation of a more or less definite narrative genre the subtitle "story" is approved relatively late. N. Gogol and Pushkin prefer the name "story", where we could say ... ... Dictionary of literary terms

See anecdote, book, fairy tale based on stories ... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and expressions similar in meaning. under. ed. N. Abramova, M .: Russian dictionaries, 1999. story anecdote, book, fairy tale; narration, description, history, epic, story, sketch; parable ... Synonym dictionary

- [ask], story, husband. 1. Action according to Ch. to tell to tell (rare). "Tea-drinking began, conversations, stories of the provincial news." Leskov. 2. Verbal description, a statement of some events. An eyewitness account. "My story will be sad." ... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

story- a, m. rasscasse f. Scorpion. Poppy. 1908. I got half a bucket of red fish from a fisherman friend, according to the local story, sea goggle-eyed ruffs, in addition I took a sea fat eel, and a heel of live lobster. C. Black Real bouillabaisse. // Ch. ... ... Historical Dictionary gallicisms of the Russian language

STORY, a small form of epic prose, correlated with the story as a more detailed form of storytelling. Goes back to folklore genres (fairy tale, parable); how did the genre stand out in written literature; often indistinguishable from a short story, and from the 18th century. and an essay. ... ... Modern encyclopedia

Small form epic prose, correlated with the story as a more detailed form of narration. Goes back to folklore genres (fairy tale, parable); how did the genre stand out in written literature; often indistinguishable from a short story, and from the 18th century. and essay. Sometimes… … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

STORY, ah, husband. 1. Small form of epic prose, narrative work of small size. Storybook. 2. Verbal presentation of what n. events. R. eyewitness. Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary

A small form of epic prose, correlated with the story as a more detailed form of narration. Goes back to folklore genres (fairy tale, parable); how did the genre stand out in written literature; is often indistinguishable from a novel. Big explanatory dictionary on… … Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies

Number of times. Zharg. pier Shuttle. About an implausible message. Smirnov 2002, 184. Stay on the stories. Novg. Iron. Don't get what you want. NOS 7, 29. Tell stories. Kar. Lie, tell stories. SRGK 5, 467 ... Big dictionary Russian sayings

STORY- STORY. 1. View monologue speech, verbal presentation of what l. events, a story about what the speaker saw, heard or experienced. Wed lecture, report, speech, presentation. 2. One of the verbal teaching methods (general didactic concept), ... ... New dictionary methodological terms and concepts (theory and practice of teaching languages)

Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy - the consummate master of the story

Story Is small in volume literary work, which tells about some event that happened to the hero. The overwhelming majority of stories are written in prose, but there are also stories in verse. A distinctive genre-forming feature of the story is that a work of this kind is focused, as a rule, on one hero, on one event, which is described in detail.

Basis of the story

The detail is key concept for the perception of the story. Details are the essential things that are present in the description of the hero's appearance, the environment in which the hero lives, in the description of his manner of moving and speaking. Details can tell a lot about who the hero is, how he lives, what kind of worldview he has. The detail allows you to reveal the essence of the hero of the story through its external manifestations. Therefore, when reading a story, you should pay special attention to small parts, the habits of the hero, his features that determine the exclusivity, uniqueness of the character.

A story can have a plot, i.e. narrate about specific events taking place in the life of the hero. But there are stories without a plot. A prime example such a work is a story I. A. Bunina"Gorgeous".

The heyday of the genre of the story falls on the late 19th and early 20th century. V domestic literature recognized and consummate craftsmen stories are, A.P. Chekhov, I. Bunin, M. Gorky, M. Sholokhov.

Novellas

The genre of the short story is close to the genre of the story. "Novella" is translated from Italian as "story". The novella is somewhat different from the story in that a rapidly developing and intense plot can be observed in a work of this kind, which is resolved by an unexpected ending. Great master novella was a French writer Henri Rene-Guy Albert de Maupassant.