Fiction and its types. Short Story, Novel, Novels and its types. Literary Form, Background to English Literature

Fiction

 

Definition of Fiction:

 

Etymologically, the word fiction has been derived from Latin word “fictus,” which means “to form” , “to shape” Fiction in literature refers to a type of literary work that is made up or false, created from imagination, and not meant to depict truth or true events.

This led the way to the 15 century., ficcioun, “that which is invented or imagined in the mind,” from Old French ficcion a“dissimulation, ruse; invention, fabrication.”

In the 1590s it began to mean a “prose works (not dramatic) of the imagination” that often included plays and poems.

 

The main elements of Fiction:

 

These elements are all essential in creating the fictional story.

·        Character

·        Plot

·        Point of View

·        Setting

·        Theme

·        Style

 

Character:

Character is the most important element of fiction in any story. Every other element revolves around the character. The point of view by which the story or events are seen is a direct reflection of the character. In order to make the story compelling, it need to have realistic characters.

 

Characters should also have a character arc within the story, meaning they should change and grow throughout the book. Flat characters that are the same at the beginning as they are at the end of the story, will leave the readers feeling empty and unsatisfied.

 

Plot:

Plot refers to the serious of events that occur in your story. This is usually what creates the initial hook for the readers. The plot is essential to any work of fiction.  It can usually be broken up into 5 basic sections of the story.

 

Exposition or introduction– establishes the character and setting. This can also be thought of as the status quo of the world as the reader is entering it.

Rising Action– This is where the conflict of the plot is revealed and the stakes are raised for the character.

Climax- This is the make-or-break moment in the story, where the tension is at it’s highest point along with the stakes for the character. This is also known as the turning point.

Falling Action – Where the story is starting to wind down and active resolution is taking place.

Resolution- During the resolution, every loose end has been tied up and the reader feels fulfilled that their questions have been answered.

 

Point of View:

Point of view will determine whose eyes the readers experience the story through. It will determine how much they will know about each character and the events that have occurred.

 

Setting:

The setting is the physical location where the story occurs. It can be real or made up. The setting is important because it can become as important or apparent as a character. It is the world in which the characters live will greatly affect how they act what they do.

Theme:

The theme is really important and every author should know their theme. Themes are what the story is really about and not explicitly stated in the story.

Style:

It is made up of your tone, syntax, and word choice. The style can be powerful and a drawing factor for the readers.

 

The Different Formats of Fiction:

 

Fiction can come in many different formats, these include:

 

·        short stories

·        novels

·        fables

·        legends

·        myths

·        fairy tales

Short stories:

A short story is a fully developed story which is shorter than a novel and longer than a fable. It typically takes just a single sitting for reading.

 

Short-form storytelling can be traced back to ancient times in legends, mythology, folklore, and fables found in communities all over the world. Some of these stories existed in written form, but many were passed down to generations through oral traditions. Early examples of short stories ranged from the Middle Eastern folk tales of One Thousand and One Nights (collected by multiple authors between the 8th and 14th centuries, later known in English as Arabian Nights) to the English collection of Canterbury Tales are stories narrated by travelling pilgrims (written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century).

 

Boccaccio had written a collection of short stories under the title “Decameron”. Under Italian influence prose romances were written in English. In the 18th Century, Addison and Steele evolved a tale with a purpose. They teach a moral to the readers. Scott’s “Wandering Willie’s Tale” is the first English short story. It was written in 1824. The step was followed by Nathaniel Hawthorne and Edgar Allan Poe in America. They formulated the modern theory of short story writing. They give importance to the final impression in the story.

A Short story contains a plot, character, theme and setting. All these take the short route towards the pre-conceived effect. Sometimes, one of the four elements may dominate over the other. R.L.Stevenson”s“ The Bottle Imp” is a story of plot, Dr. Jekyll and Mr.Hycle is a story of character. “The Merry men” is a story of setting. Without a theme, the story lacks meaning or purpose.

Short Story Structure:

• Create a narrative lead: show the main character in action, dialogue, or

 reaction.

• Introduce the main character’s character.
• Introduce the setting: the time place, and relationships of the main character’s life.
• Introduce and develop the problem the main character is facing.
• Develop the plot and problem toward a climax: e.g. a decision, action, conversation, or confrontation that shows the problem at its height.
• Develop a change in the main character: e.g. an acknowledgement of understanding of something, a decision, a course of action, a regret.
• Develop a resolution: how does the main character come to terms – or not – with his or her problem?

Novels:

A Novel is a long narrative work of fiction with some realism. It is often in prose form and is published as a single book. The term ‘novella’ has been derived from an Italian word which was used for a short story to differentiate it from a novel. The word ‘novel’ has been in vogue in English ever since the beginning of eighteenth century, for something which happens be someplace in middle. In Ian Watt’s The Rise of the Novel, written in 1957, that the novel came into existence for the first time in some part of early eighteenth century.

The precursors of novel

Medieval European Romances Arthurian tales culminating in Malory’s- Morte D Arthur Prose romances, John Lyly- Euphues, The Anatomy of wit (1578), Robert Greene- Pandosto (1588), Thomas Lodge- Rosalynde (1590), Philip Sidney- Arcadia (1590), Thomas Nashe’s- The Unfortunate Traveller (1594), Deloney’s- Jack of Newbury (1626), John Bunyan’s- Pilgrim’s Progress (1678).

Types of Novel:

There are many types of novels. For example, historical, picaresque, sentimental, gothic, psychological, epistolary, pastoral, apprenticeship, roman a clef, antinovel, detective, mystery, thriller, dramatic, science fiction, cult or coteries, western, best seller, fantasy and prophecy, proletarian.

Major types of novel: Epistolary, Picaresque, Detective, Novel of manners, Sentimental, Gothic, Historical, Social Realism, Psychological- Stream of consciousness and Science Fiction.

Epistolary Novel:

Epistolary fiction is a popular genre where the narrative is told via a series of documents. Epistolary novel is carved out of series of letters. The word epistolary comes from Latin where ‘epistola’ means a letter. Letters are the most common basis for epistolary novels but diary entries are also popular. Examples: Samuel Richardson’s Pamela and Clarissa, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and Bridget Jones’ Diary.

Epistolary novels ‘refuse the kind of closure informing other narratives’. An epistolary novel always leaves unanswered questions. Letters can be compared with comics in many ways; like in comics the epistolary novels also require their readers to take part in some actions. The writers of the letters, however, do not define these actions in as much a detail as is witnessed by a reader of narrative fiction. The genre of epistolary novels is considered to be the female genre as these novels are supposed to be for women and also written in the female style of writing. Most epistolary novels are stories of love, highlighting distance, concealment, and confidentiality

Picaresque Novel:

‘Picaresque’ as a term means relating to an episodic style of fiction dealing with the adventures of a rough and dishonest but appealing hero. Its origin is from French, and Spanish picaresco, or picáro meaning ‘rogue’ in the sixteenth century. ‘Picaro’ means ‘rouge’ in Spanish. Such a story deals with the escapades of a careless young man who lives by his wits and is hardly a subject to change of character through the succession of adventures which he undergoes. Spanish, writer Cervantes’s Don Quixote (1605) is its most celebrated example. Gil Blas (1715) by Le Sage, a Frenchman, is also a very famous picaresque narrative. This kind of novel is realistic in style, episodic in structure, and often satiric and ironical in tone. This is an episodic recounting of the adventure of a single hero or an antihero on the road. In England, the followers of this tradition were many and all presented stories through their own point of view adding some new element in it. Examples: Rudyard Kipling's Kim (1901), Henry Fielding’s The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749).

Realistic Novel:

A fictional attempt to give the effect of realism. This sort of novel is sometimes called a novel of manner. A realistic novel can be characterized by its complex characters with mixed motives that are rooted in social class and operate according to highly developed social structure. The characters in realistic novel interact with other characters and undergo plausible and everyday experiences.

Fielding is a pioneer of realism in English literature. In fact, the English novel was born with the characteristics of realism. He began novel writing late in reaction to Richardson’s Pamela and sentimental novels of morality. It did not mean that he was immoral. His novels too instruct but with comic and humour. His sentiments are put in a right place without exaggeration. His canvas is big with wide range of characterisation. His prose is realistic and at ease. Even tense or pathetic situations are imbued with irony and humour like Ben Jonson. His whole range of character describes reality. His novels are pictures of his age and people. He speaks his truth pungently but through the vein of comic. He has greater philosophy and spirit of the age. He speculates into the nature of man very deeply in an intellectual and moral way. Examples: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Looking for Alaska by John Green.

Sentimental Novel:

The Sentimental novel or the novel of sensibility is an 18th-century literary genre which celebrates the emotional and intellectual concepts of sentiment, sentimentalism, and sensibility. Samuel Richardson is called the father of sentimental novel. His Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1704) has been written in an epistolary manner which is regarded as the first English novel. Examples: Samuel Richardson's Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740), Oliver Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield (1766), Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy (1759–67), Sentimental Journey (1768), Henry Brooke's The Fool of Quality (1765–70), Henry Mackenzie's The Man of Feeling (1771). Continental example is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel Julie.

Detective Novels:

The detective genre of fiction revolves around a crime committed by an unknown person or group of people, which is ultimately solved by the efforts of a detective. These novels are full of clues which keep cropping up throughout the book and readers are challenged to find out the criminal with help of the clues given. Revelation of the actual criminal is made just before the novel is about to finish, so that there is excitement throughout. Introduction of the crime committed is generally done in the beginning of the novel. It generally appears to be a perfectly committed crime with whatsoever no traces anywhere.

The detective starts to collect hints and evidences and sometimes he or she seems to be going in the wrong direction it even feels like that she might not be able to solve the crime. Sometimes, in order to build up the suspense and to make the novel more interesting, the author plots to get the wrong person accused. In the end, however, the detective is able to cleverly join all pieces together and pin point the wrong doer. The crime is solved by the detective and the guilty is punished.

Examples: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’ A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes), Satyajit Roy’s Sonar Kella (Feluda), G. K. Chesterton’s The Blue Cross (Father Brown), Dr. Nihar Ranjan Gupta’s Kalo Bhramar (Kiriti).

Historical Novel:

The historical novel is that which uses setting or background from the true history of a period and attempts to convey the spirit, manners, social, economic and political conditions of that age aiming to give realistic and lively descriptions with truthful approach. The historical fact should be true to its existence and the past is made live to the doorstep of the readers. It informs the readers about the period in which it is written. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) was also an attempt in the picaresquian and historical representation of the hero. Examples: Thackeray's Vanity Fair, Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, George Eliot's Romola and Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho!

Gothic Novel:

English Gothic writers associated medieval Gothic architecture and creating an atmosphere where darkness dominated day and night. The pictures are full of terror having harsh laws of human nature enforced on certain characters by torture.

Gothic novel which recalls medieval set-up of Italy having elements of romance in it. It deals with cruelty and sins of the hero. It is also associated with the Gothic architectural revival of distant past.

Gothic novel includes terror, mystery, horror, thriller, supernatural, doom, death, decay, old haunted buildings with ghosts and so on. It also embodied mysteries fantasy and superstition. Nature ruled such primitive buildings very harshly. The image of anti-hero prevailed in a mysterious, dark atmosphere in the Gothic tales. The movement of classicism and realism prevailed into the eighteenth century. English literature and in such a time, the Gothic novel revived romanticism and the middle ages. Thus, it was a reaction against the literature of the eighteenth century.

Horace Walpole was a famous antiquary and originator of the Gothic Fiction. His first novel, The Castle of Otranto (1764) was the first Gothic fiction. It was his reaction against the realism, sentimentalism and didacticism of the 18th century literature. Examples: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, John William Polidori’s The Vampyre, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole.

Stream of Consciousness Novel or Psychological Novel:

Psychological novels are works of fiction that treat the internal life of the protagonist (or several or all characters) as much as (if not more than) the external forces that make up the plot. The phrase “Stream of Consciousness” was coined by William James in his Principles of Psychology (1890), to describe the flow of thought of the waking mind.

        The psychological novel is the product of modern outlook chiefly explored by the Georgians—Aldous Huxley, D. H. Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. They were all conscious innovators of the art of novel writing and added particular change of style into the art of narration. They were more interested in exploring human subconscious, a salient gift of the modernity, and noting image atom by atom as it falls to mind. They present the picture of the determination of characters as the subconscious receives images through our conscious. There the plot becomes dwarf to the subject of psychological research. Sometimes it records merely the images one by one as they fall to human consciousness with little or no coherence as in Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. Such a psychological research is called stream-of-consciousness technique: it is an unbroken flow of perceptions, thoughts, and feelings in the waking mind. (M. H. Abram) it describes long passages of introspection in which the narrator records in detail what passes through a character’s awareness. They were all inspired by the psychological theory of Sigmund Freud. They adopted the method for freedom of expression. Their candid expression, put innovatively, breaks all the conventional norms of novel writing.

        Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) was a very famous novelist who exploited the narrative technique Stream-of-Consciousness in each of her fiction. Her novels represent mind’s experience. Her characters speak about their inner experience.

Examples: Virginia Wolfe’s To the Lighthouse, Mrs. Dolloway, James Joyce’s Ulysses, D. H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, The Rainbow.

Science Fiction (Sci-Fi):

Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction dealing with imaginative concepts such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes and extraterrestrial life. Science fiction often explores the potential consequences of scientific and other innovations.

The Victorian age was growing in industrialization and scientific researches in its last phase. The trend of loss of faith and questioning gave birth to two tendencies: one to praise and hail the growth of science; and the other, to hold it in sarcasm.

There were novelists who explored the genre of science fiction among whom H G Wells (1866-1946) is called the most ‘scientifically trained’. He served the taste of those who expected science to do wonders in man’s life by his use of scientific descriptions and background. All his science fictions were aimed to please the popular taste. The Shape of Things to Come (1933) and The Time Machine (1895) are influenced by Jules Verne. They describe the future of man. However, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was the originator of science fiction. Two Men in the Moon, the War of the Worlds, the Wonderful Visit is also some of his famous science fictions.