Define short story as a genre. Short story, short story, tale as epic genres

The story is a short epic genre. Let’s define its features and, using the example of A.P. Chekhov’s story “Chameleon,” consider them.

Features of the story

• Small volume
• Limited number of actors
• One storyline is often the fate of the main character.
• The story tells about several, but more often than not one, important episode from a person’s life.

• Secondary and episodic characters in one way or another reveal the character of the main character, the problem associated with this main character.
• In terms of the number of pages, the story may be voluminous, but the main thing is that all the action is subordinated to one problem, connected with one hero, one storyline.
• Details play a big role in the story. Sometimes one detail is enough to understand the character of a hero.
• The story is told from one person. This could 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 authors in a certain era, so, of course, they reflect the characteristics 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 happened in an earlier era.

Example.

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

Story by A.P. Chekhov's "Chameleon"

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

• The main character is the police warden Ochumelov. All the other characters help to understand the character of the main character, including the artisan Khryukin.
• The plot is built around one episode - the dog biting the finger of the goldsmith Khryukin.
• The main problem is ridicule of veneration of rank, sycophancy, servility, evaluation of a person by 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 the changes in Ochumelov’s behavior in relation to this dog - from the desire to restore order so that there are no stray dogs, to his affection for 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 either takes off or puts back on his shoulders (at this time his attitude to the current situation changes).
• The narration is told on behalf of the author. In a small work, 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 holds.
• The title of the story, “Chameleon,” very accurately reflects the behavior of the main character, who changes his “color,” that is, his attitude to what is happening, in connection with who owns the dog. Chameleonism as a social phenomenon is ridiculed by the author in the story.
• The story was written in 1884, during the heyday of critical realism in Russian literature of the 19th century. Therefore, the work has all the features of this method: ridiculing the vices of society, a critical reflection of reality.

Thus, using the example of Chekhov’s story “Chameleon” by A.P., we examined the features of this genre of literature.

The story is designation of the small prose epic genre. So called “lyrical stories” are close to “poems in prose” (“First Love”, 1930, I.A. Bunina), but can be larger in volume and express broader issues. The words “story”, “tale”, “narration” initially did not have a genre meaning and were basically synonymous. The word “story” retains the meaning of “narration” or generally “the history of some event” even later. With the growth in the volume of Russian stories in the 1830s, prerequisites for the genre isolation of stories arose. In the 1840s, V.G. Belinsky already separated the story and essay as small genres from the novel and story. But the difference between a story and a story was based not so much on the volume of the text, but on the degree of literary processing of the plot: the story was considered closer to reality that had not been creatively transformed. Since the 1830s, and especially since the second half of the 19th century, “stories from Russian history” have been spreading - fictionalized accounts of historical episodes or biographies of famous people. These are the historical stories for children by A.O. Ishimova, which earned the approval of A.S. Pushkin, and subsequently similar essays, also called stories, by A.N. Maykov, A.S. Suvorin, N.S. Leskov, historians S.M. Solovyova, N.I. Kostomarova. But there were also stories that were only a stylization of an unartistic narrative, as a rule, with a narrator who verbally recounts an incident that actually took place or was presented by the author as such.

Belinsky saw in “Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. Lermontov three stories, obviously written by Pechorin, and two stories, i.e. the story of Bela, allegedly told orally by Maxim Maksimych and only then written down by an officer-traveler, and the psychological sketch “Maksim Maksimych” with a relatively undeveloped plot. A typical story of the second half of the 19th century is “The Stupid Artist” (1883) by Leskov, which has the subtitle “A Story at the Grave.” The sign of volume was finally approved as a genre only by A.P. Chekhov, for whom the small and medium genres are outwardly clearly distinguished, although not by the volume of the plot: his story often covers, like stories, actually the story of an entire life (“Man in a Case,” 1898, “Ionych”, 1898, “Darling”, 1899, “Bishop”, 1902). The boundary between a story and a story is sometimes quite vague even among writers of the Silver Age (L.N. Andreev). In Soviet literature there were works of small volume with a focus on a very broad content: stories or a short story by A.G. Malyshkin “The Fall of Dayra” (1923) - the same attempt to revive the heroic epic as the story by A.S. Serafimovich “The Iron Stream” ( 1924). The story “The Fate of a Man” (1956) by M.A. Sholokhov was called an “epic story” by literary critic L.G. Yakimenko. In the 20th century, the classic of short stories is Bunin; I.E. Babel, K.G. Paustovsky, V.M. Shukshin, Yu.P. Kazakov, satirists and humorists Teffi, A.T. Averchenko, M.M. Zoshchenko showed themselves mainly in the genre of stories.

In the West, the story corresponds to a short story. It is considered a type of story, distinguished by a sharp, often paradoxical plot, compositional precision, and lack of descriptiveness. The genre developed in Italy during the Renaissance. One hundred short stories include “The Decameron” (1350-53) by G. Boccaccio. Novellas were written by Margarita of Navarre, M. Cervantes and others. Recognized masters of the genre in the 19th century - E. T. A. Hoffmann, P. Merimee, E. A. Poe, later G. de Maupassant, O. Henry, L. Pirandello , Bret Harte, J. London, S. Zweig. In English, the term “story” is synonymous with the concept “short story”.

A story is a large literary form of written information in literary and artistic design. When recording oral retellings, the story became isolated as an independent genre in written literature.

The story as an epic genre

The distinctive features of the story are a small number of characters, little content, and one storyline. The story does not have intertwining events and cannot contain a variety of artistic colors.

Thus, a story is a narrative work, which is characterized by a small volume, a small number of characters and the short duration of the events depicted. This type of epic genre goes back to the folklore genres of oral retelling, to allegories and parables.

In the 18th century, the difference between essays and stories was not yet defined, but over time, a story began to be distinguished from an essay by the conflict of the plot. There is a difference between the story of "large forms" and the story of "small forms", but often this distinction is arbitrary.

There are stories in which the characteristic features of a novel can be traced, and there are also small works with one plot line, which are still called a novel and not a story, despite the fact that all the signs point to this type of genre.

Novella as an epic genre

Many people believe that a short story is a certain type of story. But still, the definition of a short story sounds like a type of short prose work. The short story differs from the short story in its plot, which is often sharp and centripetal, in the rigor of its composition and volume.

A novella most often reveals a pressing problem or issue through one event. As an example of a literary genre, the short story arose during the Renaissance - the most famous example is Boccaccio's Decameron. Over time, the novella began to depict paradoxical and unusual incidents.

The heyday of the short story as a genre is considered to be the period of romanticism. Famous writers P. Merimee, E.T.A. Hoffman and Gogol wrote short stories, the central line of which was to destroy the impression of familiar everyday life.

Novels that depicted fateful events and the play of fate with man appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Writers such as O. Henry, S. Zweig, A. Chekhov, I. Bunin paid considerable attention to the short story genre in their work.

The story as an epic genre

A prose genre such as a story is an intermediate place between a story and a novel. Initially, the story was a source of narration about some real, historical events ("The Tale of Bygone Years", "The Tale of the Battle of Kalka"), but later it became a separate genre for reproducing the natural course of life.

The peculiarity of the story is that at the center of its plot there is always the main character and his life - the revelation of his personality and the path of his destiny. The story is characterized by a sequence of events in which harsh reality is revealed.

And such a topic is extremely relevant for such an epic genre. Famous stories are “The Station Agent” by A. Pushkin, “Poor Liza” by N. Karamzin, “The Life of Arsenyev” by I. Bunin, “The Steppe” by A. Chekhov.

The importance of artistic detail in storytelling

For a full disclosure of the writer’s intention and for a complete understanding of the meaning of a literary work, artistic detail is very important. This could be a detail of an interior, a landscape or a portrait; the key point here is that the writer emphasizes this detail, thereby drawing the attention of readers to it.

This serves as a way to highlight some psychological trait of the main character or mood that is characteristic of the work. It is noteworthy that the important role of artistic detail is that it alone can replace many narrative details. In this way, the author of the work emphasizes his attitude towards the situation or person.

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This genre is written for both children and adults. They also differ from each other by belonging to one or another literary movement. More information about what a short story is and what characteristic features this genre has is described in today’s article.

Structure

What story can you read in half an hour? Almost anyone. The story is a short one. Its structure is very simple. A story consists of a beginning, climax and denouement. Representatives of romanticism, a movement that developed in the 19th century, preferred an unexpected ending. But many critics call their works differently - short stories, which, however, in many languages ​​is consonant with the word “story”.

Novella and short story

What common features do these genres have? There are few differences between them, but some literary scholars believe that the story is more psychological, unlike the short story. In terms of genre features, it is closer to an essay. In the novella, the plot plays the main role.

What stories are there in Russian literature that have deep psychological content? These are works by Chekhov, Bunin, Andreev. It is enough to read any story by one of these authors to understand how this genre differs from the short story, of which, by the way, Prosper Merimee is recognized as an unsurpassed master. Each work of the French prose writer ends unexpectedly. In the stories of Chekhov and Bunin one can rarely find unexpected plot twists.

A striking example of a classic story is “The Tale of the Seven Hanged Men” by Leonid Andreev. The reader already knows from the title what fate awaits the heroes. In this work, the main thing is not the plot, but the psychological portraits of the characters.

Tale or story

Until the mid-19th century, Russian writers saw no boundaries between these genres. For example, Gogol called the work “The Overcoat” a story. Whereas, according to modern literary terminology, it is more of a short story: a small volume, only a few characters, an unexpected ending. The story tells about a number of events. Such a work covers a significant period of time. A story, unlike a short story or short story, is more leisurely and calm.

Almost any prose work by Edgar Allan Poe can be read in less than an hour. It will take the same amount of time to get acquainted with one of the stories of H.G. Wells. However, the distinction between a story and a story based on the criterion of volume is still conditional. Thus, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” is considered to be a story. But in terms of volume it is more consistent with the story.

Stories by Romantic Writers

Above we talked in detail about how a novella differs from a short story. Some literary scholars believe that these are different genres, however, in many languages ​​there is only one term denoting a work of short prose. The first short stories appeared in Germany in the era of romanticism, that is, in the 19th century. A striking example - But the typical stories in the modern sense are not “Little Tsakhes”, but the lesser known “The Sandman”, Mademoiselle de Scudéry.” Other representatives of this genre are Kleist, Tieck, Chamisso.

Russian short story

The famous representative of this genre is Alexander Pushkin. A collection of his works called “Belkin's Tales” is nothing more than a collection of classic short stories. In the 19th century, followers of the German writer Hoffmann appeared in Russia. These are Odoevsky, Pogorelsky, Polevoy. Hoffmann had a huge influence on the work of Nikolai Gogol. Examples of Russian romantic short stories are the works “Viy”, “Terrible Vengeance”, “The Nose”, “Portrait”. The American writer Washington Irving made a huge contribution to the development of this genre. "Sleepy Hollow" is called a fairy tale for adults. This work has become an example of a romantic novel.

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

Story- STORY. In Russian literature, the designation of a more or less specific narrative genre by the subtitle “story” was adopted 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, essay; parable... Synonym dictionary

- [ask], story, husband. 1. Action under Ch. tell tell (ed.). “Tea drinking, conversations, stories of provincial news began.” Leskov. 2. Verbal description, presentation of some events. An eyewitness account. “My story will be sad.”... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary

story- a, m. rasscasse f. Scorpionfish. Poppy. 1908. I got half a bucket of red fish from a fisherman I knew, the local story says, sea bug-eyed ruffs, in addition I took a fatty sea eel, and heels of live lobsters. S. Black Real bouillabaisse. // Ch.... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

STORY, a small form of epic prose, correlated with a story as a more developed form of narration. Goes back to folklore genres (fairy tales, parables); how the genre became isolated in written literature; often indistinguishable from a novella, and from the 18th century. and essay.... ... Modern encyclopedia

A small form of epic prose, correlated with a story as a more developed form of storytelling. Goes back to folklore genres (fairy tales, parables); how the genre became isolated in written literature; often indistinguishable from a novella, and from the 18th century. and an essay. Sometimes… … Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

STORY, huh, husband. 1. A small form of epic prose, a 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 a story as a more developed form of storytelling. Goes back to folklore genres (fairy tales, parables); how the genre became isolated in written literature; often indistinguishable from the novella. Large explanatory dictionary on... ... Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies

Number times. Jarg. they say Joking. About an implausible message. Smirnov 2002, 184. Stay on the stories. Novg. Iron. Not achieving what you want. NOSE 7, 29. Tell stories. Kar. Lie, tell tall tales. SRGK 5, 467 ... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

STORY- STORY. 1. Type of monologue speech, verbal presentation of which words. events, a narration of what the speaker has seen, heard or experienced. Wed. lecture, report, speech, performance. 2. One of the verbal teaching methods (general didactic concept),... ... New dictionary of methodological terms and concepts (theory and practice of language teaching)