Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Golovko Historical Poetics of the Russian Classical Novel. The story as a literary genre The history of the formation and definition of the genre of the story
Genre is a type of literary work. There are epic, lyrical, dramatic genres. Lyroepic genres are also distinguished. Genres are also divided by volume into large (including Roma and epic novels), medium (“medium-sized” literary works - stories and poems), small (story, short story, essay). They have genres and thematic division: adventure novel, psychological novel, sentimental, philosophical, etc. The main division is associated with the kinds of literature. We present to your attention the genres of literature in the table.
The thematic division of genres is rather arbitrary. There is no strict classification of genres by topic. For example, if they talk about the genre-thematic variety of lyrics, they usually single out love, philosophical, landscape lyrics. But, as you understand, this set does not exhaust the variety of lyrics.
If you set out to study the theory of literature, it is worth mastering the groups of genres:
- epic, that is, genres of prose (epic novel, novel, story, story, short story, parable, fairy tale);
- lyric, that is, poetic genres (lyric poem, elegy, message, ode, epigram, epitaph),
- dramatic - types of plays (comedy, tragedy, drama, tragicomedy),
- lyroepic (ballad, poem).
Literary genres in tables
Epic genres
Epic novel
Epic novel- a novel depicting folk life in critical historical epochs. "War and Peace" by Tolstoy, "Quiet Don" by Sholokhov.
novel
novel- a multi-problem work depicting a person in the process of his formation and development. The action in the novel is full of external or internal conflicts. By subject there are: historical, satirical, fantastic, philosophical, etc. By structure: a novel in verse, an epistolary novel, etc.
The story
The story- an epic work of medium or large form, built in the form of a narration of events in their natural sequence. In contrast to the novel in P., the material is presented chronically, there is no sharp plot, there is no blue analysis of the characters' feelings. P. does not set tasks of a global historical nature.
Story
Story- small epic form, a small work with a limited number of characters. In R. most often one problem is posed or one event is described. Novella differs from R. in an unexpected ending.
Parable
Parable- moral teaching in allegorical form. A parable differs from a fable in that it draws its artistic material from human life. Example: Gospel parables, the parable of the righteous land, told by Luke in the play At the Bottom.
Lyric genres
Lyric poem
Lyric poem- a small form of lyrics, written either on behalf of the author, or on behalf of a fictional lyric hero. Description of the inner world of the lyre hero, his feelings, emotions.
Elegy
Elegy- a poem imbued with moods of sadness and sadness. As a rule, the content of elegies consists of philosophical reflections, sad reflections, sorrow.
Message
Message- a poetic letter addressed to a person. According to the content of the message there are friendly, lyrical, satirical, etc. Message mb. addressed to one person or a group of persons.
Epigram
Epigram- a poem that makes fun of a specific person. Characteristic features are wit and brevity.
Oh yeah
Oh yeah- a poem, distinguished by the solemnity of style and the sublimity of the content. Glorification in verse.
Sonnet
Sonnet- a solid poetic form, usually consisting of 14 verses (lines): 2 quatrains-quatrain (for 2 rhymes) and 2 three-verses-tercets
Dramatic genres
Comedy
Comedy- a kind of drama in which characters, situations and actions are presented in funny forms or imbued with comic. There are satirical comedies ("Minor", "Inspector General"), high ("Woe from Wit") and lyrical ("The Cherry Orchard").
Tragedy
Tragedy- a work based on an irreconcilable life conflict leading to the suffering and death of the heroes. Play by William Shakespeare "Hamlet".
Drama
Drama- a play with an acute conflict, which, unlike the tragic one, is not so sublime, more mundane, common and somehow resolvable. The drama is built on modern, not ancient material and asserts a new hero who rebelled against circumstances.
Lyroepic genres
(intermediate between epic and lyrics)
Poem
Poem- the average lyric-epic form, a work with a plot-narrative organization, in which not one, but a whole series of experiences is embodied. Traits: the presence of a detailed plot and, at the same time, close attention to the inner world of the lyrical hero - or an abundance of lyrical digressions. The poem "Dead Souls" by N.V. Gogol
Ballad
Ballad- an average lyric-epic form, a work with an unusual, intense plot. This is a story in verse. A story presented in a poetic form, of a historical, mythical or heroic nature. The ballad's plot is usually borrowed from folklore. Ballads "Svetlana", "Lyudmila" V.A. Zhukovsky
There are various genres of prose: story, short story, story, novel. How does one genre differ from another? What is a story and how does it differ from a story or a novel?
One of the genres of prose is called a story. In terms of its volume, the story occupies an intermediate position between the story and the novel. The plot of the story usually reproduces the natural stretches of life and is devoid of intrigue. It focuses on the protagonist and the nature of his personality. There is usually only one storyline in a story, which depicts only a few episodes from the life of the protagonist.
How the story differs from the story
The story differs from the story in its large volume. So, if the volume of a story is measured in ten pages, then the volume of a story can be one or several hundred pages of printed text. In addition, the story is a narration about one or two episodes in the life of the protagonist, while the story can tell about a larger segment of his life. Unlike the story, there are more characters and events in the story.
What is the difference between a fairy tale and a story
Before explaining how a fairy tale differs from a story, let's talk about what they have in common. First of all, they relate to prose. In addition, both the tale and the story tell about a certain period in the life of the protagonist. But the story is based on the description of events that happened or could happen in ordinary life, and the plot of the fairy tale is based on fiction. Thus, the construction of the storyline of the story is based on the principle of likelihood, which is completely excluded when creating a fairy tale. Most of the tales (except for the second ones) belong to the folklore genre, that is, such tales do not have a specific author.
What does the story teach
Like any work of literature, the story is fraught with certain lessons that readers must understand.
Let's, for example, figure out what the story "The Old Man and the Sea" teaches. It seems to be such a small literary work, but how much it gives us! We read this story by Hemingway and learn perseverance and dedication, the struggle to survive and the confidence that the future will be better than the present. In addition, the story teaches meekness and humility, hope and humility.
But the story of B. Polevoy "The Story of a Real Man" teaches the ability to overcome any difficulties in life and strive to live a full life, help people and at the same time be a modest person.
What is the meaning of the ending of the story
Any story has its own meaning, which is most often expressed in its finale. Let's analyze what is the meaning of the ending of Hemingway's story "The Old Man and the Sea." Old man Santiago does not shy away from people, he does not leave life, does not withdraw into himself. In fact, the prospect of further activities remains open, which can be considered as the author's faith in the creative and constructive power of man. The finale of this story also touches on the topic of misunderstanding between people, their inability to listen to each other. After all, a group of tourists is only interested in the huge skeleton of a fish, and they do not hear the story of the old man's tragedy.
In this article, we'll talk about how a novel differs from a story. First, let's define these genres, and then compare them.
and the story
A rather large art novel is called a novel. This genre belongs to the epic. There can be several main characters, and their life is directly connected with historical events. In addition, the novel tells about the whole life of the characters, or about some significant part of it.
A story is a literary work in prose, which usually tells about some important episode in the life of the hero. There are usually few acting characters, with only one of them being the main one. Also, the volume of the story is limited and should not exceed about 100 pages.
Comparison
And yet, how does a novel differ from a story? Let's start with the novel form. So, this genre presupposes the depiction of large-scale events, the versatility of the plot, a very long time frame that includes the entire chronology of the narrative. The novel has one main storyline and several subplots that are closely intertwined into a compositional whole.
The ideological component is manifested in the behavior of the heroes, the disclosure of their motives. The novel takes place against a historical or everyday descriptive background, touching upon a wide range of psychological, ethical and ideological problems.
The novel has several subspecies: psychological, social, everyday, adventure, detective, etc.
Now let's take a closer look at the story. In works of this genre, the development of events is limited to a specific place and time. The personality of the protagonist and fate is revealed in 1-2 episodes, which are turning points for his life.
There is only one plot in the story, but it may have several unexpected turns that give it diversity and depth. All actions are associated with the main character. In such works there are no pronounced links to history or socio-cultural events.
The problematic of prose is much narrower than in the novel. Usually it is associated with morality, ethics, personal development, the manifestation of personal qualities in extreme and unusual conditions.
The story is subdivided into subgenres: detective, fantastic, historical, adventure, etc. A psychological story is rarely found in literature, but satirical and fabulous ones are very popular.
What is the difference between a novel and a story: conclusions
Let's summarize:
- The novel reflects social and historical events, and in the story they serve only as a background for the narrative.
- The life of the characters in the novel is presented in a socio-psychological or historical context. And in the story, the image of the protagonist can be revealed only in certain circumstances.
- In the novel, there is one main plot and several minor ones, which form a complex structure. The story in this regard is much simpler and not complicated by additional plot lines.
- The novel takes place over a long period of time, and the story takes place in a very limited one.
- The novel problematics includes a large number of issues, and the story touches on only a few of them.
- The heroes of the novel express ideological and social ideas, and in the story the inner world of the character and his personal qualities are important.
Novels and Novels: Examples
We list the works that are:
- Belkin's Tale (Pushkin);
- "Spring Waters" (Turgenev);
- Poor Liza (Karamzin).
Among the novels are the following:
- "Noble Nest" (Turgenev);
- The Idiot (Dostoevsky);
- Anna Karenina (L. Tolstoy).
So, we found out how the novel differs from the story. In short, the difference boils down to the scale of the literary work.
The story
The middle (between the story and the novel) epic genre, which presents a series of episodes from the life of the hero (s). In terms of volume, P. is more of a story and more broadly depicts reality, drawing a chain of episodes that make up a certain period of the life of the main character, there are more events and characters in it, however, unlike a novel, as a rule, there is one storyline.
Dictionary of literary terms. 2012
See also the interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what the TEST is in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- The story in the Literary Encyclopedia:
a broad, vague genre term that defies a single definition. In its historical development, both the very term "story" and the one embraced by it ... - The story in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
a prosaic genre of unstable volume (predominantly intermediate between a novel and a story), tending to a chronicle plot that reproduces the natural course of life. Devoid of intrigue ... - The story in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, TSB:
(English tale, French nouvelle, histoire, German Geschichte, Erzahiung), one of the epic genre forms of fiction; its understanding has changed historically. Initially, ... - The story in the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Euphron:
- a genus of epic poetry, close to the novel, but different from it in some, not always perceptible features. P. is less significant and ... - The story in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
- The story in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
a prosaic genre of unstable volume (predominantly intermediate between a novel and a story), tending to a chronicle plot that reproduces the natural course of life. A plot devoid of intrigue ... - The story in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
POBECT, -and, pl. -and, -y, w. 1. A literary narrative work with a plot less complex than a novel. L. Pushkin "Snowstorm". ... - The story
"THE TALK ABOUT THE TVER'S GOVERNMENT OF THE MONASTERY", the story of the 2nd half. 17th century, where for the first time in Old Russian. lit-re the conflict is transferred directly to the sphere ... - The story in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"THE TALK ABOUT THE RIPPING BY THE BATY", a military tale (no later than the middle of the 14th century) about the heroic. episode from the times of Mong.-Tat. invasions; enters ... - The story in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"THE TALK ABOUT PETER AND FEVRONIA" ("The Tale from the Lives of the New Saints, the Wonderworker of Murom ..."), Old Russian. story (initial plot, probably 2nd half of 15 ... - The story in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"THE TALK OF MORNING-EVIL" (17th century), Rus. lyroepich. a story in verse about a good fellow, prone to "meek drunkenness", obsessively pursued by the Grief-Evil Part ... - The story in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
ANCIENT STORY, genre form Old Russian. lit-ry, uniting narrate. manuf. of a different nature (actually a story, a life, a chronicle story, a legend, ... - The story in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
"THE TALK OF TIME YEARS", general Russian. annalistic collection, compiled in Kiev in the 2nd decade of the 12th century. Nestor. Edited by Sylvester et al. Text ... - The story in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
POVEST, prose a genre of unstable volume (predominantly an average between a novel and a story), gravitating towards a chronicle plot that reproduces natures. the course of life. Deprived ... - The story in the Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron:
? a kind of epic poetry, close to the novel, but different from it in some, not always perceptible features. P. is less significant and ... - The story in the Complete Accentuated Paradigm by Zaliznyak:
according to "message, according to" message, according to "message, story" th, according to "message, story" m, according to "message, according to" message, according to "message, story" about "message" - The story in the Popular Explanatory and Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Language:
-and, pl. n "ovesti, story" to her, f. 1) A literary fiction narrative work that occupies an intermediate place between a story and a novel. Pushkin's stories. Read ... - The story in the Thesaurus of Russian Business Vocabulary:
Syn: see ... - The story in the Thesaurus of the Russian language:
Syn: see ... - The story in Abramov's Dictionary of Synonyms:
cm. … - The story in the dictionary of Russian Synonyms:
Syn: see ... - The story in the New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language by Efremova:
f. 1) A story about the sequential course of events. 2) A literary fiction narrative work that occupies an intermediate place between the story and ...
The Tale. The word "story" comes from the verb "to tell". The old meaning of the term - "news of some event" indicates that this genre includes oral stories, events seen or heard by the narrator. An important source of such "tales" are the chronicles (The Tale of Bygone Years, etc.). In ancient Russian literature, any story about any event was called a "story" (the Story of Batu's invasion of Ryazan, the Story of the Battle of Kalka, the Story of Peter and Fevronia, etc. ").
Modern literary criticism defines "story" as an epic prose genre that occupies an intermediate place between the novel, on the one hand, and the story and short story, on the other. However, volume by itself cannot yet indicate a genre. Turgenev's novels A Noble Nest and On the Eve are smaller than some stories, for example, Kuprin's Duel. The captain's daughter of Pushkin is not large in volume, but everything that happens to the main characters is closely connected with the largest historical event of the 18th century. - The Pugachev revolt. Obviously, this is why Pushkin himself called the Captain's Daughter not a story, but a novel. (The author's definition of the genre is very important).
It is not so much a matter of volume as of the content of the work: coverage of events, time frame, plot, composition, system of images, etc. So, it is argued that the story usually depicts one event in the life of the hero, the novel - the whole life, and the story - a series of events. But this rule is not absolute, the boundaries between the novel and the story, as well as between the story and the story, are shaky. Sometimes the same work is called either a story or a novel. So, Turgenev first called Rudin a story, and then a novel.
Due to its versatility, the genre of the story is difficult to define unambiguously. V. Belinsky wrote about the specifics of the story: “There are events, there are cases that ... would not be enough for a drama, would not be for a novel, but which are deep, which in one instant concentrate as much life as not to get rid of it in centuries: the story catches them and encloses them in its narrow framework.Its form can accommodate whatever you want - and a light outline of morals, and a sharp sarcastic mockery of a person and society, and a deep mystery of the soul, and a cruel play of passions. light and deep together, it flies from object to object, splits life into trifles and tears out the leaves from the great book of this life. "
Formation history.
I. STORY IN ANCIENT RUSSIAN LITERATURE. - The original meaning of the word "P." in our ancient writing is very close to its etymology: P. - what is narrated is a complete narration. Therefore, its application is very free and widespread. Thus, P. often called hagiographic, novelistic, hagiographic or chronicle works (for example, "The Story of the Life and Partly Miracles, the Confession of Blessed Michael ..." .)
The central line in the development of narrative genres is given by secular stories, which, under the conditions of their time, carried in themselves the tendency of the development of fiction as such. Church (prevailing) genres alone could not serve all the needs, all aspects of the social practice of the class: the tasks of organizing secular power, versatile class education, finally, the requests of curiosity and the craving for entertaining reading required a more versatile literature. Responding to all these needs, directed at real life, at its "secular" sides, this literature itself was in general more realistic and far from the asceticism of church writings, although this realism was often very relative; historical, geographical, etc. themes were so permeated with fabulous legendary elements that the works that developed them were sometimes very fantastic in nature ("Alexandria", "Devgenievo Deyanie", etc.)
Along with military P., political and religious-political P. occupied a significant place in our medieval literature, using usually pseudo-historical or legendary plots for the propaganda of a particular political idea, sometimes borrowed from translated literature, and sometimes from oral poetry. ... Such are the legends about the Babylonian kingdom and the White Klobuk, reflecting the struggle for the predominance of Moscow and Novgorod, the works of Ivan Peresvetov of the 16th century, embodying the antiboyar political program of the serving nobility, P. about Peter and Fevronia, etc.
II. STORY IN THE LITERATURE OF THE TRANSITIONAL AND NEW PERIOD. - Only in the later period of our medieval literature appear in it everyday, adventurous, generally speaking about "ordinary" people and built on fictional secular poetry. Here is the birth of the genre of poetry in the modern sense of the term. This occurs only in the 17th century, in a period when, as a result of the aggravation of feudal contradictions, the advancement of the nobility and merchants, the weakening of the role of the church, the associated everyday restructuring, Russian fiction begins to grow, isolating itself from church, historical, journalistic literature and freeing itself from overwhelming authority of religious dogma. Relying on the samples of Western European bourgeois literature, the rising nobility, the progressive part of the merchant class, the advanced groups of the petty bourgeoisie create their own generally realistic works reflecting new social and everyday relations, develop methods of artistic description of everyday life ("The Tale of Frol Skobeev" , "The Story of Karp Sutulov", "The Story of Ruff Ershovich", etc.). Conservative groups, in particular the conservative part of the merchant class, who produce works that curiously combine elements of everyday realism with conservative religious and legendary motives and ideas, did not escape the influence of new literary trends. These are "The Tale of Savva Grudtsin" and the P.-poem "About the Mountain of Malice"
The complication of social life with the growth of bourgeois relations, the expansion and deepening of the artistic and cognitive possibilities of literature - all this determines the advancement of the novel (story) in the field of fictional prose as a form testifying to the artist's ability to isolate a separate moment from the general stream of everyday life , and the novel as a form that presupposes the ability to reflect the complex of various aspects of reality in their multifaceted connections. In the presence of such a differentiation of narrative forms, the concept of "story" acquires a new and narrower content, occupying that middle position between the novel and the short story, which is usually indicated by literary theorists. At the same time, of course, the very nature of P. in the new literature changes and is revealed in different proportions. The middle place of P. between the story and the novel is primarily determined by the scale of the volume and complexity of the reality covered by the work: the story speaks of any one life case, the novel gives a whole complex of intertwining plot lines
The place occupied by P. in the new Russian literature is different. In the 2nd half of the 18th century. and the first third of the XIX century. in the dominant style, that is, in the style of various groups of the nobility, mainly poetic and dramatic genres are put forward. Only for conservative-noble sentimentalism, with its appeal for simplicity and naturalness, P. is a characteristic genre (Karamzin). Later, in the 30s, when prose began to grow with extreme intensity, it came to the fore, along with the novel, and P. So, Belinsky in the 30s. asserted: "Now all our literature has turned into a novel and a story" ("On the Russian Story and Gogol's Stories"). The development of the story is undoubtedly associated with the appeal of literature to "prosaic", everyday reality (it is not for nothing that Belinsky opposes P. and the novel to the "heroic poem" and the ode of classicism), although this reality itself can be perceived by the authors in a romantic aspect (for example, Gogol's Petersburg stories , a number of stories by V. Odoevsky, Marlinsky, such works by N. Polevoy, such as "The Bliss of Madness", "Emma", etc.). Among the stories of the 30s. there were many with historical themes (romantic stories by Marlinsky, stories by Veltman, etc.). However, novels with a realistic aspiration turned to modern, often everyday life (Belkin's Tales by Pushkin, the bourgeois and petty-bourgeois everyday story of Pogodin, N. Pavlov, N. Polevoy, Stepanov and others ; among the romantics - V. Odoevsky and Marlinsky - they are analogous to the "secular story", dedicated to the psychology and everyday life of the "salon").
With the further development of Russian literature, in which the novel begins to play an increasing role, P. nevertheless retains a fairly prominent place. P. is used intensively as the most "unsophisticated", simple and at the same time broad form by authors-writers of everyday life. Typical examples of such household P. gave eg. Grigorovich ("Anton Goremyka" and others); classics-realists (Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, Chekhov, and others) give psychological P. par excellence, with more or less disclosure of the social conditioning and typicality of the phenomena depicted. So. arr. throughout the 19th century. P. is represented by almost all major prose writers (Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, L. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Korolenko, etc.), as well as by a number of minor ones. Approximately the same proportion retains the story in the work of our contemporary writers. An exceptional contribution to P.'s literature was made by M. Gorky with his autobiographical stories (Childhood, In People, My Universities), a structural feature of which is the great importance of the characters surrounding the main character. P. took a firm place in the work of a number of other contemporary writers, serving to design a variety of thematic complexes. Suffice it to mention such popular works of Soviet literature as "Chapaev" by Furmanov, "Tashkent - the city of bread" by Neverov, "Blast furnace" by Lyashko and many others. other. That special section, in which real life is reflected P. by virtue of its structural features, retains a place in Soviet literature. At the same time, the "one-liner" character of P., the well-known simplicity of its structure in the literature of socialist realism, does not at all prejudice the depth of social understanding of the reflected phenomena and the aesthetic value of the work. Examples of proletarian P., such as the above-mentioned works of M. Gorky, provide a clear confirmation of this position.
In Western European literature, which has long been highly developed and diverse in genres, we find an even greater predominance of the short story and the novel, but there a number of major authors (Merimee, Flaubert, Maupassant, Dickens, Hoffmann, etc.) produced works with characteristic features NS.