The story genre is one of the most popular in literature. Many writers have addressed and are addressing him. After reading this article, you will learn 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.
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 Russian literature the predominance of prose over poetry was quite evident.
A little later, in the 2nd half of the 19th century, the essay was widely developed in the democratic literature of our country. At this time, there was an opinion that it is 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 plot. After all, the essay is characterized in that it is basically a descriptive work.
Unity of time
In order to more fully characterize the genre of the story, it is necessary to highlight the laws inherent in it. The first of these is the unity of time. In a story, action time is always limited. However, it is not necessary only in one day, as in the works of classicists. Although this rule is not always respected, there are rarely tales in which the plot covers the entire life of the protagonist. Even fewer works are created in this genre, the effect 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" (author - Leo Tolstoy) and "Dushechka" by Chekhov. It also happens that not all life is represented, but its long period. For example, in the Chekhov's “Leader”, a series of significant events in the fate of the heroes, their environment, and the difficult development of the relationship between them are depicted. However, this is given extremely densely, concisely. It is the concreteness 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 need to be noted. The unity of time is closely related and due to another unity - action. A story is a genre of literature that should be limited to a description of a single event. Sometimes the main, semantic, climax in it become one or two events. Hence the unity of the place. Usually the action takes place in one place. There may be not 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 there is one main character. Occasionally there may be two, and very rarely, several. As for the secondary characters, there can be a lot of them, however they are purely functional. A story is a genre of literature in which the task of secondary characters is limited to creating a background. They can interfere or help the protagonist, but no more. In the story "Chelkash" by Gorky, for example, there are only two characters. And in Chekhov's “I want to sleep,” there’s only one, which is impossible in either the novel or the novel.
Unity of the center
The attributes of the story as a genre, listed above, in one way or another come down to the unity of the center. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine a story without a certain defining, central sign, "pulling together" all the others. It doesn’t matter at all whether this center will be some kind of static descriptive image, a climactic event, the development of an action itself or a significant character gesture. The main image should be in any story. It is due to him that the whole composition is held. 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 “unity”. The idea suggests itself that the main principle of constructing the composition of the story is the expediency and economy of motives. Tomashevsky called motive the smallest element of the structure of the text. It can be an action, character or event. This structure can no longer be decomposed. This means that the author’s greatest sin is excessive detailing, oversaturation of the text, and a heap 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.
Authors with developed imaginations like to fill the literary genre with narrative descriptive motives. For example, they depict how a pack of man-eating wolves chases after the main character of a work. However, if the dawn begins, they necessarily stop on the description of long shadows, clouded stars, reddened clouds. The author seemed to admire nature and only then decided to continue the pursuit. The genre of a fantastic story gives maximum freedom to the imagination, so avoiding this mistake is not at all easy.
The role of motives in the story
It must be emphasized that in the genre that interests us, all motives should reveal the topic, work for meaning. For example, the gun described at the beginning of the work must certainly shoot in the final. Motives that go aside should not be included in the story. Or you need to look for images that outline the situation, but not overly detailed.
Features of the composition
It should be noted that it is not necessary to adhere to the traditional methods of constructing a literary text. Their violation can be spectacular. A story can be created on almost all descriptions. But you can’t do without action. The hero is simply obliged to at least raise his hand, take a step (in other words, make a meaningful gesture). Otherwise, it will not be a story, but a miniature, a sketch, a poem in prose. Another important feature of the genre that interests us is the significant ending. For example, a novel can last forever, but the story is built differently.
Very often, his ending is paradoxical and unexpected. It was with this that Lev Vygotsky associated the appearance of catharsis among the reader. Modern researchers (in particular, Patrice Pavi) consider catharsis as an emotional pulsation that appears as you read. Nevertheless, the significance of the ending is unchanged. The ending can dramatically change the meaning of the story, push it to rethink what is stated in it. This must be remembered.
Place of the story in world literature
The story is an epic genre that occupies an important place in world literature. Gorky and Tolstoy turned to him both in the early and in the mature period of creativity. The story by Chekhov is the main and favorite genre. Many stories have become classic and along with major epic works (short stories and novels) entered the treasury of literature. Such, for example, are Tolstoy’s stories “Three Deaths” and “Ivan Ilyich’s Death”, 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 the story over other genres
The genre that interests us allows us to single out this or that typical case, this or that side of our life, especially convexly. It makes it possible to portray them so that the reader’s attention is fully 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 contents of this letter. It will not reach its intended purpose 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 that takes place on the road helps the author in revealing the main idea - the affirmation of the value of life.