The Elements of the novel Are called the set of aspects that characterize the novel. The novel is the most popular narrative subgenre today and has been the subject of many novelties, typologies, extensions and variations.
Perhaps for this reason, the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy, RAE, modestly defines it as a narrative literary work of some extent (Royal Spanish Academy, 2017).
The term"novel"comes from the Italian word novella meaning"news or history"; Which in turn comes from the diminutive in Latin novelluscuyo meaning is"new."
The novel is a purely compositional form of organization of the verbal masses. Through it, the architectural form of artistic completion of a historical or social event is constituted in the aesthetic object, constituting a variant of the ethical culmination (Bakhtin, 1975, p.25).
In this vein, the novel can be said to be an extensive narrative written in prose in which a group of characters develop a fictional story in a given time and space.
Main elements of the novel
The following aspects are essential aspects of this type of narration. Without some of them, it loses its denomination"novel"or it lacks solidity in the literary structure.
1- Plot or action
It is the series of events or actions ordered coherently that form the argument of the novel. The traditional structure of the plot is: Start, knot and denouement.
- Start: The characters are presented and the situation begins that the fictional story is going to develop.
- Knot or Climax: It is the most important part of the novel. Here prose reaches its highest point as the story unfolds until the culminating moment. There must be at least one story unfolding but can be complemented with smaller or secondary ones.
In this part of the story you can determine exactly the main and secondary characters, according to the degree of immersion of them.
- Outcome: The final section of the story as the conflicts of the characters culminate.
In addition to this linear order of facts, there are 2 anachronistic orders:
Half of the story (In media res) : It starts in a moment and from it tells what happened before and after (Educarchile.com, 2017).
By the end (Retrospection): The story is told from the outset and goes back to tell the previous events.
2- Characters
They are the people or characters who intervene in the fictional story and are responsible for developing the story.
The characterization consists in giving life to the characters through their own personality, a physical appearance, characteristic dialogues and as much detail as possible to create empathy With the reader, convey emotions and give credibility to the plot.
The characters can be classified in:
Main: Through them the main action is developed (Educarchile.com, 2017). Normally they are enriched with numerous descriptions that detail them physically and psychologically. They are also called protagonists.
Secondaries: They have less relevance because they do not play a crucial role in history. They accompany the protagonists, dialogue with them to develop the story and are described with fewer features (Department of Spanish Language and Literature, 2017).
3- Scenic frame: time and space
It alludes to the time and space in which the plot unfolds and the characters participate.
Weather
It is the time space in which history takes place. There are two categories:
Story time: What actually lasts the facts (Weknow, 2017), ie the duration of the beginning, knot and outcome of the plot.
Story Time: Is the time it takes to tell what happened.
Space
It is the place (physical, in many cases) in which the story takes place (Educarchile.com, 2017) and where the characters are located (Department of Spanish Language and Literature, 2017).
Depending on the way the prose is written, it can be described by the narrator or by the characters.
Spaces do not necessarily have to be open or closed; Can also be:
- Psychological: Spiritual atmosphere that envelops the characters and the action (Educarchile.com, 2017). For example: an emotion or a mental state.
- Social: It is the cultural, historical, economic, and social environment where the events take place (Educarchile.com, 2017).
These two elements must be completely synchronized to maintain the coherence of the novel, reinforce its credibility and introduce the reader to the"world"that the narrator is posing as surreal and mystical.
4- Narrator
It is he who tells the story and does not have to be the same writer. The narrator can be real (the writer) or fictional as some character in the story.
There are four classes divided into two categories:
Inner Narrator
It is the one who participates in the story that is narrated, either living as a protagonist or as a secondary character (Department of Spanish Language and Literature, 2017). It is counted in the first person singular. There are two kinds:
Narrator protagonist: The main character tells the story from his point of view.
Storyteller: Character that is in history but not the main one.
External narrator
This one does not directly participate in the history and the account in third form of the singular. Two types come out of this:
Omniscient narrator: He knows everything (even the thoughts of the characters) and interprets what happens.
Narrator: He is a spectator who sees what happens physically but does not issue personal comments. For example, the narrator can describe the behavior of the characters but not their feelings.
One of the transformations that the novel had in the middle of the last century was the intervention of different personages in the action, what can be denominated Collective narration (Weknow, 2017).
That is, the same fact is told from different perspectives of the characters, so the reader has a more complete and diverse picture of the story (Weknow, 2017).
References
- Bajtín, M. (1975). Theory and Aesthetics of the Novel. Spain: Taurus Alfaguara.
- Educarchile.com. (2017, 74). Literature and literary genres. Retrieved from Educarchile: educarchile.cl.
- Royal Spanish Academy. (2017, 74). novel. Retrieved from Dictionary of the Spanish Language: dle.rae.es.
- Watt, I. (1957). The Rise of the Novel. Studies in Defoe, Richardson and Fielding. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
- Weknow. (2017, 74). The novel as a literary genre. Retrieved from Weknow: resources.