Stories - it's almost easy

A small article will consider the definitionthe word "story". And, it seems, it seems that the form is small, although it is quite capacious, but the task itself seems not to be as trivial as it seems at first glance. Well, let's start.

Definition

Encyclopedia defines the story as a short oneThe narrative form, aimed at a small amount and unambiguous unification of the artistic event. It would seem that everything is simple. Several pages of text, one important event, preferably the main character, perhaps a couple of additional, not so important, brief, but capacious strokes of the literary brush. It seems that everything is taken into account. However, there is in this word something mysterious, deep, growing roots from distant times. So let's try to figure out the sources.

Origin of the form

Genetically, stories are tales, fables,anecdotes. What was the emergence of the cultivated phenomenon, grew out of the people's desire to decorate life, make it more understandable, interesting, to understand it, in the end. Indeed, in a fairy tale or epic, a simple man tried to express his natural craving for literature, which was born precisely with the advent of these ancient genres.

Novella

There is another important story to understanda term called a novel. The word, of course, comes from the European literary tradition. Russian literary scholars have been tormented with the separation of these two terms from each other, but they never agreed. Someone opposes them, someone identifies them. The meaning of this review is not in knowledge-based fabrications on this topic.

We are only interested in the fact that both these genresso similar that they allow you to add one more feature inherent in both. Time dependence of the content of the form. Each epoch added to the novel these or other nuances. For example, in the time of Romanticism, there was a touch of mysticism. With the advent of realism, psychology in the novel was added, as in the Russian story. In literature, the definition of a form by modern trends is accompanied by a gradual change in the whole genre.

Development of the story

At first he was inseparable from the story. The same Gogol gave the definition of the story as its particular variety. Recognized master of the story Chekhov stressed the establishment of the limiting shortness of the form. And, it's not even the number of pages. For example, his "Ionich" by volume is quite good for a good story. However, even here we find the ability to give one or two concise details about the character of the hero, his essence and even the sense of the character's existence.

Another form virtuoso - Nagibin - believed that notthe selection of details is so complex, how much is the speed of their submission, so that the reader can instantly develop an image. With the speed of reading. Stories - this is not just a small form of narrative, it is the skill of point feed at a giant speed of reading, so that the picture almost immediately appeared in the head.

Stylistic unity

A small volume of form gives another importantfeature. This is a stylistic unity. Usually the narrative comes from a particular person. It can be the author himself or the hero. Therefore, the unity of speech quite organically fits into the story. The author's definition of the stylistic orientation of his work is manifested in giving the hero certain features of expressing himself. For example, in the stories of Leskov, Zoshchenko, we come across characters speaking like no other. They are incredibly recognizable.

Time trends

As already mentioned, for the story is characteristicthe tide of time, the literary age. So, Chekhov is characterized by subtext, unknown in the middle of the XIX century. In the early twentieth century. Modernism, overwhelmed art, hooked and literature. Here you can recall the stories of Sologub, White. Further more. The artistic discovery of the "stream of consciousness" gave rise to such interesting and very often completely bizarre writers, like Kafka or Camus.

Do not forget about other areas. For example, the heroic Sholokhov. And of course, satire. Bulgakov, Zoshchenko and many others. Stories are a storehouse of interesting and useful, taking into account that original baggage, which was handed over to the genre as a legacy of fables, an anecdote, etc.

Future

The emergence of a huge amount of media content,as it is now fashionable to say, scary to say, gradually replaces literature in its original meaning for society. Now the child is watching the world, mostly through the camera lens. The reading was long and uninteresting. The play of imagination, spurred on by the printed page, goes to the background. Therefore, stories are an opportunity to avoid a paranoid glance into the future, where there is no place for mind games. Particularly pleasing in the context of the development of varieties of form. Fantasy, fantasy, everyday, psychological, satire and others. There is a hope that literature, as a cultural phenomenon, will not perish in a sea of ​​media content.

Conclusion

This attempt to present a shortprosaic form called "story". It was rather simple to define it, but to understand the real depth of the genre, its influence on literature, on the consciousness of a person, is much more difficult. Nevertheless, this form, having deep historical roots, continues to exist in numerous works of real enthusiasts, which is an earthly bow. Readers are also advised not to forget that imagination is much more important than a media semi-finished product.