NOVEL

A novel is a long, fictional narrative which describes intimate human experiences. The novel
in the modern era usually makes use of a literary prose style, and the development of the
prose novel was encouraged by innovations in printing. No primary genre of literature has
been so often defined and redefined as the novel, and still, no consensus has been reached.
Several scholars have suggested that the only valid definition of the novel is the history of
the genre itself.
After sparse beginnings in 17th century England, novels grew exponentially in production by
the 18th century and in the 19th century became the primary form of popular entertainment.
The origins of the modern novel, however—the novel as it appears in the early years of the
twenty-first century, encompassing both serious fiction and best sellers are more easily
traced. The modern novel in the eighteenth century and its rise in the nineteenth coincided
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with the rise of the middle class. In consequence, as lan Watt observes in The Rise of the
Novel, one of the paramount features of the novel has been its focus on a detailed re-
creation of the bourgeois interior: the clothes, the furnishings, the belongings of the middle
class. The novel is also distinguished, Wait points out, by its emphasis on individual
characterisation, an emphasis that can be related to the socia and political movements of the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These movement. recognised the dignity of the
individual and the equality of all people. Despite all its transmutations and variations, the
novel today performs the same function it has servec since the eighteenth century: It offers
reports on (to borrow a title from Anthony Trollope
"the way we live now."
Daniel Defoe (1660-1731) is regarded by many critics as the first significant Englis novelist.
Defoe seems to represent nearly all the conditions that prepared the way for th appearance
and popular acceptance of the English novel

. SHORT STORY

A short story is a brief work of fiction, usually written in prose and running 1,600 to 20,000
words in length. The literary roots of the short story can be found in oral storytelling
traditions, such as anecdotes, fables, fairy tales, and parables.A short story typically takes
the form of a brief fictional work, usually written in prose. The earliest precursors to the
short story can be found in the oral storytelling tradition, as well as episodes from ancient
Mediterranean epics, such as 'The Epic of Gilgamesh' and Homer's Iliad.'
Anecdotes, fables, fairy tales, and parables are all examples of the oral storytelling tradition
that helped to shape the short story, such as 'The Painting of the Dog and His Reflection'
from 'Aesop's Fables'. In fact, 'Aesop's Fables, first collected in the 4th century B.C., may
have been the first anthology of short stories in Western literature.
Over time, genres and writers all around the world have influenced the development of the
short story. For example, Norse legends, Irish ballads, and Gothic ghost stories have all
played a major role in directing both its structure and subject matter. Let's take a look at
some of the major characteristics of the short story.
Although authors and critics have debated the length of the short story throughout literary
history, most agree on a minimum of 1,600 and a maximum of 20,000 words. In his own
contribution to the debate, Edgar Allen Poe suggested that a short story should take 30
minutes to two hours to read.
Subjects or themes may range from something as mundane as a daily errand or as thrilling as
a ghost tale. A single, easily contained plot is one of the hallmarks of the short story and
helps shape its other characteristics.Short stories usually take place in a single setting and
begin 'in medias res', which means 'into the middle of things'

NOVELnovella is a text of written, fictional, narrative prose normally longer than a short
story but shorter than a novel, somewhere between 7,500 and 40,000 words. The English
word "novella" derives from the Italian novella, feminine ofnovello, which means "new" The
novella is a common literary genre in several European languages.The novella as a literary
genre began developing in the early Renaissance by the Italian and French literature,
principally Giovanni Boccaccio, author of The Decameron1353). The Decameron featured 100
tales (novellas) told by 10 people (seven women and three men) fleeing the Black Death, by
escaping from Florence to the Fiesole hills in 1348This structure was then imitated by
subsequent authors.Not until the late 18th and early 19th centuries did writers fashion the
novella into a literary genre structured by precepts and rules, generally in a realistic mode. At
that time, the Germans were the most active writers of the novelle (German: "Novelle";
plural:"Novellen").For the German writer, a novella is a fictional narrative of indeterminate
length—a few pages to hundreds-restricted to a single, suspenseful event, situation, or
conflict leading to an unexpected turning point, provoking a logical but surprising
end.Novellen tend to contain a concrete symbol, which is the narrative's focal point.A novella
generally features fewer conflicts than a novel, yet more complicated ones than a short story.
The conflicts also have more time to develop than in short stories Novellas may or may not be
divided intó chapters (good examples are Animal Farm by George Orwell and War of the
Worlds by H.G. Wells that both have chapters) and ar often intended to be read at a single
sitting, as is the short story, although in a novell. wide space is often used to divide the
sections, and therefore, the novella maintains single effect.
sections, and therefore, the novella maintains single effect.

Plot
The order of events occurring in a play makes it plot. Essentially, the plot is the story that the
play narrates. The entertainment value of a play depends largely on the sequence of events
in the story. The connection between the events and the characters in them form an integral
part of the plot. What the characters do, how they interact, the course of their lives as
narrated by the story, and what happens to them in the end, constitutes the plot. A struggle
between two individuals, the relation between them, a struggle with self, a dilemma, or any
form of conflict of one character with himself or another character in the play, goes into
forming the story's plot. The story unfolds through a series of incidents that share a cause-
and-effect relationship. Generally, a story begins with exposing the past or background of
the main and other characters, and the point of conflict, then proceeds to giving the central
theme or climax. Then come the consequences of the climax and the play ends with a
conclusion.
Character
The characters that form a part of the story are interwoven with the plot of the drama and
fiction. Each character in a play has a personality of its own and a set of principles and
beliefs. Actors in the play have the responsibility of bringing the characters to life.
The main character in the play, who the audience identifies with, is the protagonist. He/ she
represents the theme of the play. The character that the protagonist conflicts with, is the
antagonist or villain. While some characters play an active role throughout the story, some
are only meant to take the story forward and some others appear only in certain parts of the
story and may or may not have a significant role in it. Sometimes, these characters are of
help in making the audiences focus on the play's theme or main characters.
The way in which the characters are portrayed and developed is known as characterisation.
The protagonist is the central person in a story, and is often referred to as the story's main
character. He or she (or they) is faced with a conflict that must be resolved. The protagonist
may not always be admirable (e.g. an anti-hero); nevertheless, s/he must command
involvement on the part of the reader, or better yet, empathy.
5. Protagonist/Hero
(2018, 2019, 2022)
Protagonist -A protagonist (from Ancient Greek (protagonists), meaning 'player of the first
part, chief actor') is the main character in any story, such as a literary work or drama. The
protagonist is at the centre of the story, typically makes the key decisions, and experiences
the consequences of those decisions. The protagonist usually affects the main characters'
circumstances as well, as they are often the primary actor propelling the story forward. If a
story contains a subplot, or is a narrative made up of several stories, then there may be a
character who is interpreted as the protagonist of each subplot or individual story.

6. Narrator
(2021, 2022)
Narrator is one who tells a story. In a work of fiction, the narrator determines the story's
point of view. If the narrator is a full participant in the story's action, the narrative is said to
be in the first person. A story told by a narrator who is not a character in the story is a third-
person narrative.
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MBD ENGLISH LITERATURE GUIDE (ELECTIVE) (SECOND SEMESTER) (B.A. | PBI. UNI)
A work may have more than one narrator, as in an epistolary novel such as Samuel
Richardson's Clarissa, which consists of letters by a variety of characters. In Emily Brontë's
Wuthering Heights, one character tells part of the story and then introduces another who
continues it or provides another perspective on events.
Narrators are sometimes categorised by the way in which they present their story. An
intrusive narrator, a common device in many 18th- and 19th-century works, is one who
interrupts the story to provide a commentary to the reader on some aspect of the story or on
a more general topic. An unreliable narrator is one who does not understand the full import of
a situation or one who makes incorrect conclusions and assumptions about events
witnessed. This type is exemplified by the narrator of Ford Madox Ford's The Good Soldier. A
related device is the naive narrator, who does not have the sophistication to understand the
full import of the story's events, though the reader understands. Such narrators are often
children, as in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The protagonist of Laurence
Sterne's Tristram Shandy is the paradigm of the self-conscious narrator, who calls attention
to the text as fiction.
7. The Novel of Character
A character-based novel is known as the novel of character. All novels, whether character or
plot-based, should have an internal/ emotional plot and an external/ physical plot. In other
words, the protagonist should be on a quest to solve both an emotional and physical
problem. But depending on the type of novel you are writing, you'll find that either the
emotional problem drives the physical, or the physical problem is driving the emotional one.
In a character-based novel, the emotional problem is what drives the physical problem.
If they didn't have an internal/emotional problem, they might not have the physical problem
If they didn't have an internal/emotional problem, they might not have the physical problem
at all. For example, if Troy Billings of K. L. Going's Fat Kid Rules The World didn't feel so
terrible about himself, he wouldn't have been standing on that subway platform, waiting to
jump. He wouldn't have been sucked into Curt's band, and he never would have vomited on
stage. In the end, he may never have stood up to his father.
You'll also notice a difference in pacing between a character and plot-based novel. A
character-based novel may feel slower to the reader, because we are seeing an emotional
change. The changes could be subtle. We may see, for example, Troy feeling better about
himself and becoming more outgoing, only to have a set back and have him retreat back into
his shell. (Note that the set back is a plot-based set back, that triggers an emotional set
back. The heart of the novel though, is still how Troy feels about himself.)
THE HISTORICAL NOVEL

For the hack novelist, to whom speedy output is more important than art, thought, and
originality, history provides ready-made plots and characters. A novel on Alexander the Great
or Joan of Arc can be as flimsy and superficial as any schoolgirl romance. But historical
themes, to which may be added prehistoric or mythical ones, have inspired the greatest
novelists, as Tolstoy's War and Peace and Stendhal's Charterhouse of Parma reveal. In the
20th century, distinguished historical novels such as Arthur Koestler's The Gladiators
(1939), Robert Graves's I, Claudius (1934), Zoé Oldenbourg's Destiny of Fire
(1960), and Mary Renault's The King Must Die (1958) exemplify an important function of the
fictional imagination-to interpret remote events in human and particular terms, to transform
documentary fact, with the assistance of imaginative conjecture, into immediate sensuous
and emotional experience.
There is a kind of historical novel, little more than a charade, which frequently has a popular
appeal because of a common belief that the past is richer, bloodier, and more erotic than the
present. Such novels, which include such immensely popular works as those of Georgette
Heyer, or Baroness Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel stories in England in the early 20th century,
and Forever Amber (1944) by Kathleen Winsor in the United States, may use the trappings of
history but, because there is no real assimilation of the past into the imagination, the result
must be a mere costume ball. On the other hand, the American novelist John Barth showed in
The Sot-Weed Factor (1960) that mock historical

14. Science Fiction

(2019, 2021, 2022)
Science fiction is a genre of speculative fiction, typically dealing with imaginative concepts
such as futuristic science and technology, spaceflight, time travel, faster than light travel,
parallel universes, and extra-terrestrial life.
The literary genre of science fiction is diverse, and its exact definition remains a contested
question among both scholars and devotees. This lack of consensus is reflected in debates
about the genre's history, particularly over determining its exact origins. There are two broad
camps of thought, one that identifies the genre's roots in early fantastical works such as the
Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. A second approach argues that science fiction only became
possible sometime between the 17th and early 19th centuries, following the scientific
revolution and major discoveries in astronomy, physics, and mathematics.
Question of deeper origins aside, science fiction developed and boomed in the 20th century,
as the deep integration of science and inventions into daily life encouraged a greater interest
in literature that explores the relationship between technology, society, and the individual.
Scholar Robert Scholes calls the history of science fiction "the history of humanity's
changing attitudes toward space and time... the history of our growing understanding of the
universe and the position of our species in that universe." In recent decades, the genre has
diversified and become firmly established as a major influence on global culture and thought.
Wells and Verne had quite a few rivals in early science fiction. Short stories and novelettes
with themes of fantastic imagining appeared in journals throughout the late 19th century and
many of these employed scientific ideas as the springboard to the imagination. Erewhon is a
novel by Samuel Butler published in 1872 and dealing

20. Magic Realism

(2022
Magic realism, magical realism, or marvellous realism is a genre of narrative fiction and, mor
broadly, art that, while encompassing a range of subtly different concepts, expresses a
primarily realistic view of the real world while also adding or revealing magical elements. It is
sometime: called fabulist, in reference to the conventions of fables, myths, and allegory.
"Magical realism" perhaps the most common term, often refers to fiction and literature in
particular, with magic or the supernatural presented in an otherwise real-world or mundane
setting.
The term is broadly descriptive rather than critically rigorous. Matthew Stretcher defines
magic realism as "what happens when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by
something too strange to believe". Magical realism is often associated with Latin American
literature, particularly authors including genre founders Miguel Angel Asturias, Jorge Luis
Borges, Elena Garro, Juan Rulfo, Rómulo Gallegos, Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel
Allende. In English literature, its chief exponents include Salman Rushdie, Alice Hoffman, and
Nick Joaquin.Magic and realism may seem like a strange combination, but strange
combinations are just what make Magic Realist writers tick. They love to depict the mundane,
everyday world we know all too well—but then they inject it with some fantasy as if fantasy
were the most normal thing in the world.

Episode
In literature, an "episode" refers to a distinct section or incident within a larger narrative. It’s
a self-contained event or series of events that contributes to the development of the overall
story.
The term episode is derived from the Greek term epeisodion ; often used in Greek theater to
describe “one scene or action in a related series.
Episodes can be used to advance the plot, develop characters, or explore themes. In
serialized novels or stories, episodes often serve as individual installments that make up the
complete work. For example, Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers" was originally
published in episodic form, with each episode (or chapter) being released separately before
the entire novel was compiled into one volume. In broader terms, an episode can be seen as a
component of the larger story, similar to how scenes or chapters function in a novel. Each
episode typically has its own arc, including a beginning, middle, and end, which ties into the
narrative.
Conflict

In literature, "conflict" refers to the central clash between two forces that drives the
narrative and gives it momentum. It is the main source of tension and drama in a story and
can be categorized into different types. A conflict is a literary device that presents the
struggle between two sides due to a disagreement in values, desires, motivations, etc. about
something important. In a novel, a conflict can present new sides of a character and the plot,
establish the main action, create tension, and lead to the resolution. Here are the primary
forms of conflict:
1. Internal Conflict: This occurs within a character's mind. It's a psychological struggle that
affects the character's emotions or decisions, such as a moral dilemma or a personal
struggle with identity.
2. External Conflict: This involves a struggle between a character and an outside force. It
can be broken down into several subtypes:
o Character vs. Character: A direct opposition between two characters, such as a hero and
a villain.
o Character vs. Nature: A struggle between a character and the natural world, like surviving
a storm or a natural disaster.
o Character vs. Society: A conflict where a character stands against societal norms, laws,
or cultural expectations.
o Character vs. Supernatural: A struggle involving elements beyond the natural world, such
as ghosts, gods, or other supernatural forces.
o Character vs. Technology: A clash between a character and technological forces, such as
robots or artificial intelligence.
Each type of conflict serves to develop characters, advance the plot, and create thematic
depth. The resolution of these conflicts typically reveals important insights about the
characters and the broader themes of the work.