Short Story History

Содержание:

Introduction

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 has repeatedly changed, and the genre education, which is close in modern concepts to the story, was designated differently and only in the second half of the 1840s, the definition of “story” was finally assigned to it.  Therefore, the history of the term should be traced along two lines: elucidating the specific content of the concept of “story” at different stages of its use and identifying the names and main signs of genre education, which is related to the story by modern standards.

 Thus, it is necessary to distinguish two lines that should be considered separately: first, give a brief description of the concept of “story” from the moment it was introduced into literary practice until the early 1840s, and then trace the change in the names of the “pretale”.

1.1 The story as an epic genre

 Distinctive features of the story are a small number of characters, a small content, one storyline.  The story does not have interweaving in events and the variegation of artistic colors cannot be found in it.

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

 In the XVIII century, the difference between essays and stories was not yet determined, but over time, the story began to be distinguished from the 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 difference is arbitrary.

 There are stories in which the characteristic features of the novel are traced, and there are also small-volume works with one storyline, which are still called a novel, not a story, despite the fact that all the signs indicate this type of genre.

1.2 Novel as an epic genre

Many people think that a short story is a certain type of story.  Nevertheless, the definition of the novel sounds like a kind of small prose work.  The novella differs from the story in the plot, which is often sharp and centripetal, with a strict composition and volume.

 The short story most often reveals an acute problem or question through a single event.  As an example of the literary genre, the short story arose in the Renaissance - the most famous example is Bocaccio's “Decameron”.  Over time, the short story began to portray paradoxical and unusual incidents.

1.3 The story as an epic genre

Such a prose genre, like a story, is an intermediate place between the story and the novel.  Initially, the story was a source of narration about any 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.

 A feature of the story is that in the center of its plot is always the main character and his life - the disclosure of his personality and the path of his fate.  The story is characterized by a sequence of events in which harsh reality is revealed.

 A similar topic is extremely relevant for such an epic genre.  Famous novels are The Stationmaster A. Pushkin, The Poor Lisa by N. Karamzin, The Life of Arseniev by I. Bunin, The Steppe by A. Chekhov.

2. A brief history of the story genre

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

 A little later, in the 2nd half of the 19th century, the essay received the widest development in the democratic literature of our country.  At this time, there was an opinion that it is a documentary that distinguishes this genre.  The story, as was then thought, is created using creative imagination.  According to another opinion, the genre that interests us differs from the essay in the conflict of the plot.  After all, the essay is characterized in that it is basically a descriptive work.

3. The basic principle of storytelling

 It is not difficult to draw a conclusion from thinking about “unity”.  The idea suggests itself that the main principle in constructing the composition of the story is the expediency and economy of motives.  Tomashevsky called motive the smallest element. It can be an action, character or event.  This structure can no longer be decomposed.  This means that the author’s biggest sin is excessive detailing, oversaturation of the text, piling up of details that can be omitted when developing this genre of the work.  The story should not dwell on the details.

 Only the most significant needs to be described 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 to the maximum 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.

4. Conclusion

The genre of the story is one of the most popular in the literature.  Many writers have addressed and are addressing 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 the authors.  The story is one of the small literary forms.  It is a small in volume narrative work with a small number of heroes.  In this case, short-term events are depicted.

Links

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https://studexpo.ru/858402/literatura/istoriya_razvitiya_zhanra_rasskaza