We explain what a novel is and the types of novel that exist. Also, how is its structure and examples. Short story and novel.
What is a novel?
A novel consists of a more or less extensive literary narrative, usually of a fictional nature, in which a series of prolonged events is told in the weather, in order to entertain and provide aesthetic pleasure to its readers. It is, along with the chronicle and the story, one of the subgenres into which the genre of narrative is divided, whose distinctive feature is the fictional construction of astoryteller.
Novels are characterized by having a plot complex, abundant in digressions or twists and turns, generally starring several characters and even narrated from different points of view.
However, there are no delimitations as to what may or may not be a novel, especially in the literature contemporary, who saw in the creative freedom of the novel the opportunity to explore the frontiers of narration, through discontinuous, fragmentary, absurd texts, etc.
This freedom is essential for the novel, which makes use of any narrative device that allows it to tell its story. The result is a work of an open type, in which a possible world is reproduced that the story told partially explores, unlike the story that tends to build a universe closed in on itself, to which nothing can be added.
The novel has as its antecedent the epic genre of Greco-Roman antiquity, as explained by Aristotle in hisPoetics. However, the genre acquired its modern meaning from the medieval, and will emerge as a modern genre from the publication ofDon Quixote of La Manchaof Cervantes in 1605.
Novel types
The novel is considered a protean genre, that is, multiple in its forms and, therefore, in its possible classifications. However, taking into account the nature of its content, it is often spoken of:
- Adventure novel. Where a journey or a vital journey of a character is counted from beginning to end, who when he returns is no longer the same as he left.
- Novel of Science fiction. Those in which the possibilities of impact of the technology and the scientific knowledge in the life of the Humans.
- Police novel.Their stories have to do with the clarification of a crime committed and their protagonists tend to be police officers, detectives or law enforcement officers.
- Romance novel. It tells stories centered on the adventures or amorous or erotic misadventures of its characters.
- Novel of chivalry. He centers his story on the life of a knight errant and his adventures in the Europe medieval.
- Horror novel. It presents terrifying stories, with the presence of monsters and mysterious supernatural entities, which cause fear or tension to the reader.
- Fantastic novel. It offers a possible world built entirely from the imagination, with its own rules, creatures and history, different from the real world.
- Realistic novel. The opposite of fantasy, it offers stories set in the real world, without magical or supernatural attributes.
- Psychological novel. Those that delve into the reflections, feelings and the inner world of the characters, rather than the events that occurred.
- Philosophical novel. It raises reflections of an existential or transcendental order set in a story that encourages or encourages them.
- Epistolary novel. The one that tells her story from the supposed reproduction of letters, diary entries, emails and other forms of correspondence between the characters.
Structure of a novel
The novel can have endless possible structures, since it is the realm of narrative freedom. However, the usual thing is that the body of a novel is divided into chapters or entries, sometimes numbered or even titled, which segment the story so that the reader can go through it in an orderly manner. This does not mean that a novel cannot occur in a single act, or that it can be counted in thousands of tiny entries. Possibilities are limited to creativity from the author.
Novel example
Some recognized examples of novels are:
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.
- Madame bovary by Gustave Flaubert.
- The process by Franz Kafka.
- One hundred years of loneliness by Gabriel García Márquez when we have the information.
- Hopscotchby Julio Cortázar.
- For whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway.
- Don Quijote of La Mancha scored by Miguel de Cervantes when we have the information.
Short story and novel
The short story and the novel are narrative subgenres, the differences of which do not lie solely in the length (the novel is usually much longer, while the story should be able to be read at once). Julio Cortázar, an Argentine writer, explained the difference with a metaphor boxing: the novel wins by points and the story wins byknockout.
This means that the latter aspires to a forcefulness and a closed story with few elements, while the novel is scattered, abundant and aspires to an extensive and interesting journey of the fictional world that it poses.