"Captain's daughter" is a novel or a story? Analysis of the issue

The genre of A. Pushkin's work "The Captain's Daughter" is difficult to define unequivocally: some researchers believe that this is a story, others, on the contrary, define it as a novel. The author himself believed that the "Captain's Daughter" is a description of a historical epoch in a fictional narrative. However, the definition of a particular genre does not provide such a definition.

So, let's try to answer the question, "The Captain's Daughter" is a novel or a story.

Synthesis of genres

As you know, AS Pushkin worked in different genres. However, in this work the level of his skill is beyond our understanding. We can not unequivocally answer the question of whether the "Captain's Daughter" is a novel or a story.

The opinions of the researchers of the writer's work contradict one another. It is difficult enough to understand what the "Captain's Daughter" is - a novel or a story. Having determined the genre of the work, we will face the question of its character. After all, a novel and a story can be romantic, historical or family.

So, let's try to consider how the signs of different genres manifest themselves in this book.

"The Captain's Daughter" is a story?

Most researchers who define a work as a story rely primarily on the fact that it is very small in volume, and its events span a short time period. Those who share this point of view also point to the mediocrity of the personality of Peter Grinev and his entourage: such characters can not be heroes of the novel.

Indeed, this work is much shorter than the usual novels written by classics. However, we are again faced with the question of what his character is, and a small amount of narrative still can not exclude the fact that this is a novel. Consider all possible definitions of the genre.

The historical nature of the work

Undoubtedly, "The Captain's Daughter" is a novel or a story of a historical orientation. Pushkin tells us about the reign of Catherine the Great, namely, about the events of the riot led by Emelian Pugachev. To write "Captain's Daughter" the author did a great job: he got acquainted with historical documents, talked with survivors of that time. Very painstakingly wrote Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin story "The Captain's Daughter". The brief content of the work rarely conveys how accurate the author is in describing the life of the petty nobility, as Emelyan Pugachev's expressive speech, full of proverbs, allegories characteristic of the Cossacks.

However, having determined that this work has a historical orientation, we can not answer unequivocally the question of whether the "Captain's Daughter" is still a novel or a novel.

A work of educational character

Of course, the "Captain's Daughter" has signs of a work of an educational nature.

At the beginning of the narrative, the young nobleman Grinev appears before us as a bachelor, a noble son, a kindly parent. At the end of the book in front of them - a real man who lived through a lot and changed a lot in a short period of time. He learned to overcome dangers and with dignity to get out of difficult situations. Most of the work of Peter Grinev is on the road, which is very characteristic for the work of an educational nature.

So, "The Captain's Daughter" is a novel or a story of an educational orientation?

"The Captain's Daughter" - a work of love

It should be noted that the love line, of course, is present in the plot of the book. The main character falls in love with Masha Mironov, he has a rival - Shvabrin. However, the theme of love is not the main thing, the relationship between Peter Grinev and Mary, rather, serve as a background on which the author shows how the personality of the protagonist is changing.

The psychological component of the work

Pushkin attached great importance to the inner world of the main character, his experiences, feelings, emotions. It is the internal dialogues of Peter Grinev that help us understand the reasons for his or her actions, assess the changes in his personality.

The memorial form of the presentation perfectly contributes to helping the reader assess how much the worldview of the protagonist towards the end of the work.

So, here we can conclude that this book describes certain historical events, shows the formation of the personality of the main character, while the narrative is very psychological and tells us a touching love story.

However, we did not answer the main question: "The Captain's Daughter" is a novel or a story? "

I must say that, as in the case of clarifying the nature of this narrative, and in determining its genre, it is impossible to draw an unambiguous conclusion. On the one hand, the "Captain's Daughter" is more of a focus on the rather short period of life of the protagonist, which characterizes the work as a story. However, the fate of the heroes of this book are connected with historical events, which is characteristic of the novel. In addition, it is known that Pushkin wrote "The Captain's Daughter" under the influence of the events of the present time and tried to see the problems that combined the recent past and present, which also allows us to define the work as a novel.