What's the difference between novel-literature-prose? !

Wen Xue literature

One of the basic styles of art, also known as language art, takes language as the medium and means, shapes artistic images, reflects real life, expresses people's spiritual world and exerts its various social functions through aesthetic methods.

The evolution of literary ideas

The word "literature" has a long history in China ancient books, but its meaning is different from the concept of language art in modern aesthetics. In the pre-Qin era, "literature" has the double meanings of "article" and "erudition", that is, literature, philosophy and history mentioned in modern times are all included in "literature". In the Han Dynasty, people began to distinguish between "literature" and "learning", "article" and "literature", and called literary works "literature" and academic works "learning" or "literature"-this is quite different from the meaning of the modern word "literature". In the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, on the one hand, many people still used the saying of Han Dynasty to refer to modern literature as "articles" and modern scholarship as "literature"; On the other hand, many people have begun to use "literature" and "article" in the same sense, that is, both are used to represent modern literature, while academic works are called "Confucian classics", "historiography" and "metaphysics" and so on. However, in the Tang and Song Dynasties, due to the emphasis on "Ming Dow as the Sect" or "Tao as the Sect", there was a tendency to emphasize Taoism over literature, so the difference between "literature" and "learning" was not paid much attention to, and "literature" and "erudition" were merged into one again, and the word "literature" became the general name of all academic circles. Until the Qing Dynasty, the word "literature" was usually used in this sense. For example, Zhang, a beginner in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, said in the article "Literature": "A writer is called literature because he has words written on bamboo and silk, and his style is called literature." Literature, as an aesthetic term specifically referring to language art, was defined and widely used in China in the early 20th century, especially after the May 4th New Literature Movement. Since then, the concept of "literature" has strictly ruled out the meaning of non-art and has become the name of an artistic style.

In the west, the word "lit (t) eratura" [lit (t) eratura in Latin] also has broad and narrow meanings. Literature in a broad sense refers to all the ideological works of people with social significance recorded in language; Literature in a narrow sense refers to the art of language. The word "literature", which refers to language art, was widely used only in modern times, especially after18th century, replacing the previous terms such as "poetry" and "the art of poetry".

People's understanding of the nature and characteristics of literature, literature, as an objective social spiritual phenomenon, has experienced its own development process according to certain objective laws after it was produced at the inevitable request of society (see the Origin of Literature) (see the Development of Literature). Moreover, literature of different times, different societies, different classes (in class society) and different nationalities usually shows different characteristics. For example, Han Fu, a literary form, came into being in China and flourished in the Han Dynasty, and then declined with the development of society. Epic, a literary form, emerged and flourished in ancient Greece, and then disappeared with the development of society. It has its historical and social inevitability and its own national characteristics. There is a certain historical inheritance relationship between the literature of feudal era, capitalist era and the literature of socialist era, and there are differences in the nature of the times and classes, and their internal basis can also be found.

With the emergence and development of literature, people gradually understand and grasp the essence and characteristics of literature. In the childhood of human society, people's understanding of literary phenomena (or literary factors in the chaotic consciousness phenomenon at that time) is naturally naive and careless, and literature (and other artistic phenomena) is often regarded as a gift from God. Later, with the progress of society, the development of literature itself and the improvement of human understanding, people gradually realized that literature is the product of human activities and a social spiritual phenomenon. In the pre-Qin period of China, although people still confused literature with scholarship; But we have a certain understanding of the nature of poetry, the main form of literature at that time. There is a saying in Shangshu Yushushundian that poetry expresses ambition (see "Expressing ambition and predestination"). Later, Confucius discussed the social function of poetry "Xing, Guan, Qun and Yuan". Xunzi noticed the aesthetic power of poetry and music. The Book of Rites in the Han Dynasty emphasizes the lyricism of poetic music and discusses the relationship between poetic music and the times and reality (see preface to poetry). Cao Pi, Lu Ji, Liu Xie and Zhong Rong in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties further grasped the essence and characteristics of literature in their literary theoretical works. They emphasize the position and function of literature; This paper discusses the aesthetic essence of poetry, which refers to things and shapes, and writes about things with poor feelings. Distinguish the characteristics of different literary genres; It points out the special significance of "thinking" and "feeling" to literary creation; Note that the writer's personality, temperament and knowledge have an important influence on literary creation and work style; At the same time, a series of new concepts such as "literary spirit", "verve", "wind power", "style" and "interest" are put forward to illustrate many special characters of literature (see Dian Lun Wen, Wen Fu, Wen Xin Diao Long and Shi Pin). Since then, from the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties for more than a thousand years, on the basis of the understanding of the nature and characteristics of literature obtained in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, we have grasped many characters of literature in a more subtle way. Jiao Ran, Liu Yuxi and Jin Gang, who came to Tang Dynasty from Japan, put forward the concept of "realm" in poetry, and preliminarily discussed the characteristics of artistic realm produced by the combination of subjective feelings and meanings of poetry with objective scenery and images (see artistic conception). Bai Juyi emphasized that literature should be written for the times and things, while Han Yu advocated Ming Dow. In the Song Dynasty, Yan Yu thought that poetry had "unique material" and "unique interest", and he quoted "wonderful understanding" and "interest" (see the theory of interest in Cang Lang Shi Hua). In Ming Dynasty, Li Zhi advocated that literature should show "childlike innocence". The public security school advocates that poetry should "express the soul alone" (see the theory of soul); In Qing Dynasty, Ye Xie thought that poetry was the product of the combination of subjective "talent, courage, knowledge and strength" and objective "reason, material and emotion", and so on. They all put forward their own understanding of the particularity of lyric literature. Many literati and scholars began to have a deeper understanding of the characteristics of narrative literature such as operas and novels in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. For example, Li Yu discussed the special laws of a series of operas in Casual Love, and Jin and Mao Zonggang expounded the creative laws of characters in novel reviews such as Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. At the end of last century and the beginning of this century, many domestic scholars began to absorb some western aesthetic thoughts and combine them with China's classical aesthetics to observe and explain literary phenomena. For example, Liang Qichao emphasized the close relationship between novels and reformist political movements, and expounded the artistic appeal of "sucking", "soaking", "stabbing" and "lifting" in novels; Wang Guowei accepted Kant's aesthetic thoughts, especially Schopenhauer's, and advocated that the essence of literature is to "free" the pain of life. He also summarized China's expositions on "artistic conception" or "realm" of poetry in past dynasties and made a comprehensive definition of this concept. After the May 4th Movement, the understanding of literature entered a new stage.

In the west, from ancient Greece, through the long Middle Ages, to the Renaissance in 14 to 16 century, and then to the formation of many quite complete and accurate aesthetic systems of the bourgeoisie in 18 and 19 century, the nature and characteristics of literature have also been understood from the shallow to the deep. But it also shows its own national characteristics, which is quite different from China's aesthetics.

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Different literary genres and types

In the whole art field, literature is a style with its own characteristics. As far as literature itself is concerned, it has various genres and types.

In ancient China, there were so-called "prose", "pen" or "poem" and "pen", which were divided into two categories: verse and prose.

China's modern aesthetics usually divides literature into four genres: poetry, prose, novel and drama literature.

In western aesthetics, some people also divide literature into two basic types: poetry and prose.

Others divide literary phenomena into three categories: narrative, lyrical and dramatic according to their internal essence, that is, the objects and contents reflected by literature and the methods used to shape images.

Although there are general differences between different schools and categories of literature, there is no absolute boundary. Moreover, no matter what genre or kind of literary works, they all have identity and unity. They are all based on the real life reflected in the works, the writer's understanding and evaluation of the works, and the thoughts and feelings melted in them, which are expressed in the form of content organization structure, existence mode and language expression. The content and form of excellent literary works are always dialectically and perfectly unified and become an organic whole (see literary works).

(Du Shuying)

Xiao Shuo's novels

One of the literary genres. Expressing narrative content in the form of prose and describing the relationship, fate, personality, behavior, thoughts, emotions, psychological state and activity environment of the characters through certain story plots are the basic characteristics of the novel.

This novel originated from ancient myths and legends. Lu Xun said: "As for people who study the history of literature now, most of them admit that novels originated from myths. Because primitive people, living in the wild, are well-informed and will not change often-such as wind, rain, earthquakes, etc. -They have unpredictable resistance, which is surprising. They thought that everything must have a master, so they named it God. Imagine God's life and behavior. For example, China said that Pangu created the world, which was a "myth". Judging from the evolution of myth, the story is gradually approaching human nature, and the appearance is likely to be a' demigod'. For example, those heroes who made great achievements in ancient times were above ordinary people because they were endowed by heaven. For example, Judie swallowed eggs to do business, Yao came out in ten days, and Yao made a move, which was different from ordinary people. These oral traditions are called "legends" by modern people. From this evolution, business is classified as history; The anecdote turned into a novel. " (Historical Changes of China's Novels, Complete Works of Lu Xun, Vol.8, People's Literature Publishing House, 1957 edition) The historical biographical prose of the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties accumulated rich experience in telling stories and writing characters, and also had a far-reaching impact on the development of China's ancient novels. China's ancient novels originated from the novels of "seeking strange things" and "seeking people" in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, but these novels are short in length and simple in plot, and most of them are fragments. It was not until tang legends's novels that a more tortuous, complex and complete storyline was gradually formed. Storytelling novels appeared in the Song and Yuan Dynasties, and storytelling books created by literati appeared in the Ming Dynasty. After such development, China's ancient novels reached their peak in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Modern vernacular novels after the May 4th Movement absorbed the advantages of China's ancient novels, and extensively borrowed the creative experience of foreign novels, especially those of Western Europe and Russia in the19th century, which made the novel art develop to a new stage. Novels have become the most important and prosperous type in China literature.

Elements of the novel

Plot is the first element of a novel. Plot is the history of a character, and it is an important means to express his character, behavior, thoughts, feelings and various psychological states. Any story always happens in a certain natural and social environment, so it is also necessary to express the environment in which the characters live. The plot of the novel is narrative, but it is generally developed by describing the conflict between the characters' ideological character and emotional desire, as well as the changes in the relationship and fate of the characters caused by it. Novels that reflect rich life contents and describe many characters are often intertwined with multiple clues, with a main central plot and several minor secondary plots.

Characterization is another element of this novel. In the development of the story, the novel should reproduce the distinctive personality by directly describing the appearance, behavior and psychological state of the characters. There are also novels that only write one character, but usually they always describe more than one character, and besides the main character and the protagonist of the novel, they also describe many minor characters.

A detailed description of the characters' living environment, especially the social environment, is also an indispensable element of the novel. The environmental description of the novel includes the historical background, the atmosphere of the times, the relationship between characters, humanistic customs and natural scenery.

A novel must have the above elements, but not all literary works with the above elements are novels. Prose or prose-based forms distinguish novels from poems; The description content is not limited by the stage time and space, which makes it different from drama literature; The fiction of art distinguishes it from documentary prose and biographical literature. However, as an independent literary genre, novels are developed by absorbing nutrition from myths, epics, dramas, documentary essays and biographical literature.

In the development of modern literature, some modernist schools believe that novels do not need plots, characters and typical images, or detailed descriptions of the environment. They emphasize "self-expression" and advocate describing people's emotions and subconscious psychology in isolation.

Novel classification

Novels are divided into novels, short stories and novellas by length. Novel refers to a long work that describes complex events and many characters and reflects a broader social and historical picture.

Novels can also be distinguished from different angles. For example, in terms of subject matter, there were knight novels in medieval Europe, wandering novels in Spain in the16th century, sentimental novels in Britain in the18th century, philosophical novels in France, and so on. China's ancient novels are also divided from the subject matter. For example, there were rouge, case-solving, ghosts and other categories in the Song Dynasty; During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, there was the legend of heroes; In the Qing Dynasty, there were novels of gifted scholars and beautiful women and condemnation novels. There are social problem novels, psychological novels, historical novels, satirical novels, fairy tales, thrillers, detective novels, anti-special novels and mystery novels in modern times.

In its historical development, novels not only reflect the content of life that changes with the changes of social life, but also enrich and change the forms and techniques of expression. In person, most novels adopt the story style of the third person, especially novels, and the author only objectively narrates the stories written. But there are also first-person novels, in which the author tells stories to readers as "I", or uses letters, diaries, autobiographies and so on. In addition, some people use the second person narrative method. In terms of language, China has classical Chinese novels and vernacular novels.

Modern novels since the May 4th Movement have integrated the forms and techniques of expression of ancient and modern Chinese and foreign novels, forming a new look of China's modern novels. Modern novels inherit the characteristics of ancient novels, such as the combination of thick lines and meticulous brushwork in character description, and the combination of separation and combination, alternating density and similarity between dispersion and reality (Mao Dun's National Forms of Literature, Mao Dun's Commentary Collection (I), People's Literature Publishing House, 1978 edition), and also absorb foreign countries, especially Western Europe and Russia. With the rise of film and television, there are also movie novels and TV novels. The means of expression of modern novels are almost infinite, and novels have the ability to describe all the phenomena that can be expressed in words in life. In addition to describing the portraits, language and behavior of characters, people's feelings, fantasies and even dreams can also be described, which makes it possible to vividly describe the historical picture existing in the vast space and time and the spiritual world in the hearts of characters in a certain space, and makes readers feel immersive. At the same time, the novel can also use the author's narration, discussion and lyricism to make its artistic expression gain philosophical and poetic brilliance, thus enhancing the ideological capacity and artistic charm of the work. Therefore, modern novels are the most expressive genre in literature.

(Wang Shuyang)

Three-question prose

One of the literary genres. Its concept is different from ancient times to modern times. Ancient prose refers to prose that is different from verse and parallel prose, including classics and history books. China's literary prose is developed from applied writing and academic works (the earliest are classics, history and philosophers), and has never been divorced from applied writing and academic works.

China's prose has a long history.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions unearthed in Yin Ruins is the oldest writing in China, and it is also the bud of writing and literature. A large number of historical essays and hundred schools of thought's masterpieces appeared in the Zhou Dynasty, many or some of which have strong literary color. Prose in Qin and Han dynasties is further developed on the basis of prose in pre-Qin period. Especially after the Eastern Han Dynasty, in addition to the monographs on Zi and history, personal essays in various styles such as books, notes, tablets, inscriptions, arguments and preface began to appear. At first, they were only the expression tools of sub-history works, so they gained a certain independent status. Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is a period of development and change of ancient Chinese literature. The prosperity of poetry, fu and parallel prose, on the one hand, caused the decline of prose, on the other hand, prepared conditions for the improvement of rhetorical skills and literary talent of prose. The ancient prose movement in Tang and Song Dynasties opposed parallel prose and advocated "ancient prose", which was actually a comprehensive reform movement of style, style and literary language. Under its impetus, from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, literary prose gradually appeared, resulting in many excellent literary works such as landscapes, fables, biographies and essays. Yao Nai's Collection of Ancient Prose in Qing Dynasty is a masterpiece of stylistic classification of ancient Chinese prose. It classifies the articles into 13 categories: argumentative essays, preface and postscript, recitation, calligraphy, preface, imperial edict, biography, epitaph, miscellaneous notes, inscription and postscript, ode, ode and funeral, which fully reflects the style of ancient Chinese literature.

Modern prose refers to a literary style that is juxtaposed with poetry, novel and drama literature, including narrative prose, lyric prose and argumentative prose. In recent years, because reportage in narrative prose and essays in discussion prose have developed into unique literary styles, people tend to divide them from the category of prose. In this way, the narrow concept of prose is formed, that is, it refers to "prose sketches" that focus on lyricism or pay equal attention to lyricism and narrative.

An important feature of modern prose, which is different from novels and drama literature, is that it requires the description of real people or proper processing on the basis of real people. The characters and events in prose must be real in life, at least with considerable basis; However, it allows more artistic treatment than reportage, emphasizing that the main aspects of character events are in line with objective truth, unlike reportage, which requires that characters' words and deeds, as well as time, place and events must be accurate. The "I" in prose is often the author himself, which is very different from the "I" in novels. Because prose can truly and quickly reflect real events and problems in real life and directly express the author's understanding and feelings, excellent prose works have the function of "light cavalry" compared with novels, plays and other styles.

Prose is different from novels and plays in that it reflects real life, pays attention to the author's life feelings, does not require the characters' plots to be complete, and is flexible in material selection and conception and lyrical. For example, in Lu Xun's prose, people, events, scenes, objects or some internally related life fragments are often grasped to express some kind of understanding and feelings, instead of pursuing plump characters and complete plots like novels and dramas. The author writes about this person or this event not for expression, but for the impression, feeling and influence of this person and this event on himself, thus infecting or enlightening readers. This feature of prose is very similar to poetry, but it is not as highly concise as poetry, and its expression is relatively free and casual.

In addition, because prose can combine the functions of narration, lyricism and discussion, and it is free and flexible, and can be focused, its forms of expression are more diverse than novels and drama literature, such as miscellaneous feelings, short comments, essays, essays, communications, travel notes, letters, diaries, memoirs and so on. Can be included in the category of prose. At the same time, prose can "look at the present and the past in an instant, and cover the whole world in an instant", which is convenient to reflect reality in many ways. As long as the content is healthy, full of life interest, can give people inspiration and beautiful enjoyment, it can become an excellent prose chapter. So Lu Xun said: "The genre of prose is actually very casual and flawed." ("What to Do") Here, "whatever you want" refers to the flexible and eclectic style of prose, which can be described, described, discussed and lyrical. According to the needs of content and theme, we can describe the image, describe the psychology, render the environment and set off the atmosphere through typical life fragments and details, just like novels. You can also create a certain artistic conception by using artistic techniques such as metaphor, symbol and personification like poetry. However, the flexibility and diversity of prose genres and expressions should not be understood as writing without thinking. On the contrary, only its short space requires the essence of art, its naturalness and simplicity, and more attention should be paid to poetry and literary talent. Prose is dialectical and unified, both expensive and taboo. Whether it's a sketch with clever conception or a sketch with natural structure that doesn't need much cutting effort, we should strive to create a certain artistic conception through the expression of "scattered form and scattered spirit", express profound thoughts and beautiful feelings through vivid pictures, and also integrate the story inside with the outside world, interweave poetry and realm, and arouse readers' rich associations. At the same time, in order to create a fresh and beautiful artistic conception, in terms of language, prose should be concise, short, concise, beautiful, simple and natural, full of rich flavor of life in the times, and have distinctive style characteristics of writers.

(Wang Zhenmin, Yan Binjie)