Genre story: features, development history, examples. Is the story a genre of literature? Signs of a story as a genre

Genre story is one of the most popular in the literature. Many writers turned to him and addressed him. After reading this article, you will find out what are the features of the genre story, 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 narrative work with a small number of characters. In this case, short-term events are depicted.

Brief history of the genre story

VG Belinsky (his portrait is presented above) in 1840 distinguished the sketch and story as small prosaic genres from the novel and novel as larger ones. Already at this time in Russian literature the predominance of prose over verses was quite evident.

A little later, in the second half of the 19th century, the essay received the widest development in the democratic literature of our country. At that time, there was an opinion that it was documentary that distinguishes this genre. The story, as it was believed then, is created using creative imagination. According to another opinion, the genre in which we are interested in the essay differs from the controversy of the plot. After all, the essay is characterized by the fact that this 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 patterns inherent in it. The first of these is the unity of time. In the story, the time of action is always limited. However, not necessarily just one day, as in the works of the classicists. Although this rule is not always respected, there are rarely stories in which the plot covers the life of the main character. Even rare are works in this genre, whose action lasts for centuries. Usually the author depicts an episode from the life of his hero. Among the stories in which the entire fate of the character reveals, you can note the "Death of Ivan Ilyich" (author - Leo Tolstoy) and "Dushechku" Chekhov. It also happens that not all life is represented, but its long period. For example, Chekhov's "Poprygunye" depicts a number of significant events in the fate of the characters, the surrounding environment, and the difficult development of the relationship between them. However, this is given extremely compactly, concisely. It is the conciseness of content, greater than in the story, is a common feature of the story and, perhaps, the only one.

Unity of action and place

There are other features of the genre of the story that must be noted. The unity of time is closely connected and conditioned by another unity - actions. A story is a genre of literature, which should be limited to the description of a single event. Sometimes the main, semantic, culminating in it become one or two events. Hence the unity of place. Usually the action takes place in one place. There may be more than one, but several, but their number is strictly limited. For example, the seats can be 2-3, but 5 are already rare (they can only be mentioned).

Unity of the character

Another feature of the story is the unity of the character. As a rule, in the space of the product of this genre, one main character acts. Occasionally there may be two, and very rarely several. As for minor characters, they can be quite a lot, but they are highly functional. A story is a genre of literature, in which the task of secondary characters is limited to the creation of a background. They can interfere or help the protagonist, but no more. In the story "Chelkash" Gorky, for example, only two characters. And in Chekhov's "I want to sleep," and all alone, which is impossible either in the story or in the novel.

Unity of the center

The signs of the story as a genre, listed above, somehow come down to the unity of the center. Indeed, the story can not be imagined without some defining, central sign, "pulling" all the others. It does not matter at all whether this center will be a static descriptive image, a culmination event, the very development of an action, or a significant gesture of a character. The main image should be in any story. It is due to him that the whole composition keeps. He sets the theme of the work, determines the meaning of the told story.

The basic principle of building a story

The conclusion from thinking about "unity" is easy to make. Itself suggests the idea that the main principle of constructing a narrative composition is the expediency and saving of motives. Tomashevsky called the motif the smallest element of the structure of the text. It can be an action, a character or an event. This structure can no longer be decomposed into components. Hence, the author's greatest sin is excessive detailing, glut of text, a heap of details that can be omitted by developing this genre of work. The story should not dwell on the details.

It is necessary to describe only the most significant, 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 maximally express themselves in each text. Young filmmakers often do the same when they put diploma films and performances. In particular, this applies to films, because the author's imagination in this case is not limited to the text of the play.

Authors possessing developed imaginations like to fill the literary genre with descriptive motifs. For example, they depict how the pack of wolves-cannibals is chasing the protagonist of the 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. Genre 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 is necessary to emphasize that in the genre of interest, all motives should reveal the topic, work for meaning. For example, the rifle described at the beginning of the work must certainly shoot in the finale. Motives that go to the side should not be included in the story. Or you need to look for images that outline the situation, but do not detail it too much.

Features of the composition

It should be noted that it is not necessary to follow traditional methods of constructing an artistic text. Their violation can be spectacular. The story can be created almost on one description. But you can not do without action. The hero simply must 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, sketch, poem in prose. Another important feature of the genre we are interested in is a significant ending. For example, a novel can last forever, but the story is built differently.

Very often the ending is paradoxical and unexpected. It was with this that Leo Vygotsky associated the appearance of catharsis in the reader. Modern researchers (in particular, Patrice Pavi) regard catharsis as an emotional ripple that appears as you read. Nevertheless, the significance of the ending is unchanged. The ending can dramatically change the meaning of the story, encourage it to rethink what was said in it. This must be remembered.

Place of the story in the world literature

The story is an epic genre that occupies an important place in the world literature. Gorky and Tolstoy addressed him both in the early and in the mature period of creativity. The story of Chekhov is the main and favorite genre. Many of the stories became classic and along with large epic works (novels and novels) entered the treasury of literature. Such are, for example, Tolstoy's stories "Three Deaths" and "The Death of Ivan Ilyich", Turgenev's "Notes of a Hunter", Chekhov's works "The Dushechka" and "The Man in a Case", Gorky's stories "Old Woman Izergil", "Chelkash"

Advantages of the story in front of other genres

The genre that interests us makes it possible to single out one or another typical case, one or another side of our life, especially convex. He makes it possible to depict them so that the reader's attention is completely focused on them. For example, Chekhov, describing Vanka Zhukov with a letter "to the village of the grandfather," full of childish despair, elaborates on the content of this letter. It will not reach its destination and because of this it becomes especially strong in terms of denunciations. In the story "The Birth of Man" by M. Gorky, the episode with the birth of a child that occurs on the road helps the author in revealing the main idea - the affirmation of the value of life.