Difference between novel and short story. The value of artistic detail in the story

Report grade 7.

Story - narrative epic genre with an emphasis on small volume and on the unity of the artistic event.

The genre has two historically established varieties: short story (in a narrower sense) and short story. “The difference between a short story and a short story does not seem to me fundamental,” wrote the researcher of the European short story E. Melitinsky. B. Tomashevsky believed that a story is a Russian term for a short story. This opinion is shared by most (though not all) other literary scholars. A small epic form in European literatures, at least until the 19th century, is usually called a short story. What is a novella? theoretical definition short story "does not exist, most likely because ... the short story appears in reality in the form of quite diverse options, due to cultural and historical differences ... It is quite obvious that brevity itself is an essential feature of the short story. Brevity separates the short story from large epic genres, in particular from the novel and story, but unites it with a fairy tale, bylichka, fable, anecdote ”(E. Meletinsky).

The genetic origins of the novel are in a fairy tale, a fable, an anecdote. What distinguishes it from an anecdote is the possibility not of a comic, but of a tragic or sentimental plot. From the fable - the absence of allegories and edification. From a fairy tale - the absence of a magical element. If magic still takes place (mainly in an oriental short story), then it is perceived as something amazing.

The classic novella originated in the Renaissance. It was then that such her specific features, as a sharp, dramatic conflict, unusual incidents and turns of events, and in the life of a hero - unexpected twists of fate. Goethe wrote: “The novella is nothing but an unheard-of incident.” These are Boccaccio’s short stories from the Decameron collection. Here, for example, is the plot of the fourth short story of the second day: “Landolfo Ruffolo, impoverished, becomes a corsair; sea, escapes on a box full of jewels, finds shelter with a woman from Corfu and returns home a rich man." Each literary era left its mark on the genre of the short story. real events and their refraction in the mind of the hero (" Sandman» Hoffmann).

Up to the establishment of realism in the literature, the short story avoided psychologism and philosophy, inner world the hero was transmitted through his actions and deeds. She was alien to any kind of descriptiveness, the author did not interfere in the narrative, did not express his assessments. With the development of realism, the short story, as it was in its classical models, almost disappears. The realism of the 19th century is inconceivable without descriptiveness, psychologism. The short story is being supplanted by other types of short narrative, among which the first place, especially in Russia, is taken by a story that for a long time existed as a kind of short story (by A. Marlinsky, Odoevsky, Pushkin, Gogol, etc.). In the prospectus of the Educational Book of Literature for the Russian Youth, Gogol gave a definition of the story, which includes the story as a particular variety (“a skillfully and vividly told picture case”). And this refers to an ordinary "case" that can happen to every person.

Since the late 1940s, in Russian literature, the story has been recognized as special genre both in relation to the short story, and in comparison with the "physiological essay". The essay is dominated by direct description, research, it is always publicistic. The story, as a rule, is dedicated to a specific fate, speaks of a separate event in a person’s life, and is grouped around a specific episode. This is its difference from the story, as a more detailed form, which usually describes several episodes, a segment of the hero's life. In Chekhov's story "I want to sleep" it is said about a girl who has been driven to a crime by sleepless nights: she strangles the one who prevents her from falling asleep baby. About what happened to this girl before, the reader learns only from her dream, about what will happen to her after the crime is committed, it is generally unknown. All the characters, except for the girl Varka, are outlined very briefly. All the described events prepare the central one - the murder of a baby. The story is short. But the point is not the number of pages (there are short stories and relatively long stories) and not even in the number of plot events, but in the author's attitude to the utmost brevity. So, Chekhov's story "Ionych" in content is close not even to the story, but to the novel (almost the entire life of the hero is traced). But all the episodes are presented as briefly as possible, the author's goal is the same - to show the spiritual degradation of Dr. Startsev. In the words of Jack London, "a story is ... a unity of mood, situation, action."

The extreme brevity of the narrative requires special attention to detail. Sometimes one or two masterfully found details replace a lengthy characterization of a hero. So, in Turgenev’s story “Khor and Kapinich”, Khory’s boots, which seemed to be made of marble skin, or a bunch of strawberries presented by Kalinich to his friend, reveal the essence of both peasants - Khory’s thriftiness and Kapinich’s poetry.

“But the selection of details is not the whole difficulty,” wrote the master of the story, Nagibin. - The story, by its genre nature, should be assimilated immediately and in its entirety, as if “in one gulp”; also all the "private" figurative material of the story. This makes special demands on the details in the story. They should be arranged in such a way that they instantly, “with the speed of reading”, form an image, give the reader a lively, pictorial representation ... ". So, in Bunin's story "Antonov apples" practically nothing happens, but skillfully selected details give the reader a "live, pictorial idea" of the passing past.

The small volume of the story also determines its stylistic unity. The story is usually told from one person. It can be the author, and the narrator, and the hero. But in the story, much more often than in the "major" genres, the pen is, as it were, transferred to the hero, who himself tells his story. Often we have before us - a tale: a story of some fictional person with his own, pronounced speech manner (the stories of Leskov, in the 20th century - Remizov, Zoshchenko, Bazhov, etc.).

The story, like the short story, bears the features of that literary era in which it was created. So, the stories of Maupassant absorbed the experience psychological prose, and therefore, if they can be called short stories (in literary criticism, it is sometimes customary to call them that), then short stories that are fundamentally different from the classical short story. Chekhov's stories are characterized by a subtext that is practically unknown to literature. mid-nineteenth century. At the beginning of the 20th century, modernist trends also captured the story (stories by Sologub, Bely, Remizov, partly by L. Andreev, etc.)

IN European literature In the 20th century, the story was enriched by the artistic discoveries of all prose (“stream of consciousness”, strengthening of elements of psychoanalysis, temporary “interruptions”, etc.). Such are the stories of Kafka, Camus, F. Mauriac, A. Moravia and others.

In the 1920s-1930s, heroic-romantic (V. Ivanov, Babel, Pilnyak, Sholokhov, etc.) and satirical stories(Bulgakov, Zoshchenko, Ilf and Petrov and others). The short story remains a productive genre to this day. All its varieties are successfully developing: everyday story, psychological, philosophical, satirical, fantastic ( Science fiction and fantasy), close to the short story and almost plotless.

Questions about the report:

1) What is a story?

2) What is a novella?

3) How did the genre of the story develop in literature?

4) How did the novel genre develop in world literature?

5) How is a story different from a novel?

Foreign critics do not find any difference between such literary concepts like short story and novella. In the West, these terms are called synonyms. However, in Russia, the short story and the short story are considered independent genres that have special features. Before defining the difference between a novella and a short story, each of these literary phenomena should be considered in detail.

What is a story?

The story, as a genre of literature, originates from ancient times, where its progenitors were works of folklore: fairy tales, parables, stories passed from mouth to mouth. Then, changing over time and on a par with others prose genres passing certain historical stages, the story began to take shape as short work about an event in a person's life.

Today the story is narrative literary genre characterized by brevity, richness artistic image, deep psychologism, short duration of the described event.

The plot of the story focuses on one important and interesting episode from the life of the protagonist. The author, as a rule, shows his personal attitude and main idea through a detailed and expressive description appearance and character actors and the hero himself, their thoughts and mental anguish. The story is usually told in the first person. The narrator can be either the author himself or one of the characters in the story.

What is a novella?

The short story, as a literary genre, arose in the Renaissance after the writing of the book "The Decameron" Giovanni Boccaccio. Then the main features of the novel were considered: the presence of an acute conflict in the plot, unexpected turns that violated the peaceful life of the protagonist.

Over time, the genre of the short story has changed, acquiring new features. So the novels of the Romantic era, written by Edgar Allan Poe, Novalis and Hoffmann, had a fantastic, mystical, fabulous content. Later, under the influence of Guy de Maupassant and Prosper Mérimée, the short story began to be considered an exclusively realistic genre.

In Russia, the short story, as a literary genre, was able to form thanks to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. The first Russian novels are considered to be his work "". Although the title contains the word "tales", literary critics and critics are still convinced that "The Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin" refers specifically to short stories.

Later, the short story genre absorbed much of the physiological essay. So the short story became a short story. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol wrote wonderful short stories, such as " Nose”, “” and others, which in their content were far from the novel in the classical sense.

Only in the 20th century did they breathe into the genre of the short story new life. Iconic works of this time, the novels of Sigismund Krzhizhanovsky and Alexander Grin are considered.

Nowadays, the short story is a prose literary genre, which is characterized by: small volume, neutral style of depiction, action, surprise ending. The author's attention is focused not on the emotional experiences of the characters, but on the events taking place in the work. His goal is to show the situation objectively, without expressing his personal attitude, to achieve the maximum intensity of passions and lead to an unpredictable end. The novel has only one storyline, any deviations from the main action are unacceptable. The number of actors is also limited. The appearance of new characters, or the mention of them is allowed only on the condition that the scenes with their participation will enhance the overall dynamics of the plot.

So, having examined in detail the genres of the story and the short story, one can single out their common and distinctive features.

Common features of the novel and short story

• First of all, the novella and short story belong to the epic narrative genres.
• Works of both genres should be small and be presented as briefly as possible. Although sometimes the volume of the story can reach several tens of pages.
• The plots of the novel and the story are limited to certain time frames.
• The plots of the novel and the story have a clear structure, the main elements of which are the climax and denouement.
• The plots of the works of the novel and the story cover one specific event in the life of the protagonist.

The main difference between a novel and a short story

1. In the story, the events are described with more artistic expressiveness than in the novel.
2. The author of the story freely shows his personal attitude to what is happening in the work, the main characters, their thoughts and actions. For a novelist, this is unacceptable. Main feature short stories - this is the absence of any author's assessment.
3. In the story, the author seeks to show the internal development of the protagonist, the motives of his actions. For the short story, the main thing is the dynamics of the plot and the sharpness of the conflict. The novel depicts the event without analyzing the psychology of the characters.
4. The severity of the conflict in the short story is more pronounced than in the story.
5. Very often the story carries a hidden subtext. No other interpretations of the main plot are allowed in the short story.
6. A story can have multiple storylines. The novel contains only one story line.

Although in Russian literary criticism the short story is distinguished as an independent literary genre, Russian writers it is seldom addressed, preferring the story. Many Russian critics are unanimous with their Western colleagues that the short story and the short story are so close, and their differences are not so significant as to be considered a short story. independent genre. They equate the short story with the story, or consider the short story one of the varieties of the story.

Prose- oral or written speech without division into commensurable segments - poetry; in contrast to poetry, its rhythm is based on the approximate correlation of syntactic constructions (periods, sentences, columns). The term is sometimes used as a contrast fiction scientific or journalistic literature in general, that is, not related to art.

Literary genres in prose

Despite the fact that the concept of genre determines the content of the work, and not its form, most genres gravitate towards either poetic writing (poems, plays) or prose (novels, short stories). Such a division, however, cannot be taken literally, since there are many examples when works of various genres were written in an unusual form for them. Examples of this are the novels and short stories of Russian poets, written in poetic form: "Count Nulin", "House in Kolomna", "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin, "Treasurer", "Sashka" by Lermontov. In addition, there are genres that are equally often written both in prose and in verse (fairy tale).

Literary genres traditionally classified as prose include:

Novel- a large narrative work with a complex and developed plot. The novel assumes a detailed narrative about the life and development of the personality of the protagonist (heroes) in a crisis, non-standard period of life.

epic- an epic work of monumental form, distinguished by nationwide problems. Epic is a generic term for large epic and similar works:

1) An extensive narrative in verse or prose about outstanding national historical events.
2) A complex, long history of something, including a number of major events.

The appearance of the epic was preceded by the circulation of past songs of a semi-lyrical, semi-narrative nature, caused by the military exploits of the clan, tribe and dedicated to the heroes around whom they grouped. These songs formed into large poetic units - epics - imprinted with the integrity of personal design and construction, but only nominally timed to one or another author.

Tale- genus epic work, close to the novel, depicts some episode from life; differs from the novel in less completeness and breadth of pictures of everyday life, mores. This genre does not have a stable volume and occupies an intermediate position between the novel, on the one hand, and the short story or short story, on the other hand, tends to newsreel reproducing the natural course of life. In foreign literary criticism, the specifically Russian concept of “story” is correlated with a “short novel” (English short novel or novella).

First in Russia thirds of XIX century, the term "story" corresponded to what is now called "story". The concept of a story or a short story was not known at that time, and the term “story” denoted everything that did not reach the novel in volume. A story was also called a short story about one incident, sometimes anecdotal (“Carriage” by Gogol, “Shot” by Pushkin).

The plot of a classic story (as it developed in the second half of the 19th century) is usually centered around the protagonist, whose personality and fate are revealed within a few events. Side storylines in the story (unlike the novel) are usually absent, the narrative chronotope is concentrated on a narrow period of time and space.

Sometimes the author himself characterizes the same work in different genre categories. So, Turgenev first called "Rudin" a story, and then a novel. The titles of the stories are often associated with the image of the protagonist (" Poor Lisa"N. M. Karamzin, "Rene" R. Chateaubriand, "Netochka Nezvanov" by F. M. Dostoevsky) or with a key element of the plot ("The Hound of the Baskervilles" by A. Conan-Doyle, "The Steppe" by A. P. Chekhov, " County” E. I. Zamyatina and others).

Novella(Italian novella - "news") - literary fellow narrative genre, comparable in volume to the story (which sometimes gives a reason for their identification), but differing from it in genesis, history and structure. It is customary to call the author of stories a novelist, and the totality of stories - short stories.

Novella - more short form fiction than a short story or a novel. It goes back to the folklore genres of oral retelling in the form of legends or instructive allegory and parable. Compared to more detailed narrative forms, there are few characters in the stories and one plot line (rarely several) with the characteristic presence of some one problem.

The relationship between the terms "story" and "short story" has not received an unambiguous interpretation in Russian, and earlier in Soviet literary criticism. Most languages ​​do not know the difference between these concepts. B. V. Tomashevsky calls the story a specifically Russian synonym for the international term "novella". Another representative of the school of formalism, B. M. Eikhenbaum, suggested dividing these concepts on the grounds that the short story has a plot, while the story is more psychological and reflective, closer to a plotless essay. The action-packed nature of the novel was also pointed out by Goethe, who considered it to be the subject of "an unheard-of event." With this interpretation, the short story and the essay are two opposite hypostases of the story.
On the example of the work of O. Henry, Eichenbaum singled out the following features of the novel in its purest, “uncomplicated” form: brevity, sharp plot, neutral style of presentation, lack of psychologism, unexpected denouement. The story, in Eikhenbaum's understanding, does not differ from the short story in volume, but differs in structure: characters or events are given detailed psychological characteristics, the figurative-verbal texture comes to the fore.

Eikhenbaum's distinction between the novella and the short story received some, though not universal, support in Soviet literary criticism. The authors of stories are still called novelists, and "a set of small epic genres" - short stories. The distinction of terms, unknown to foreign literary criticism, in addition, loses its meaning in relation to the experimental prose of the 20th century (for example, to short prose Gertrude Stein or Samuel Beckett).
The typical structure of a classic short story: plot, climax, denouement. The exhibition is optional. More romance early XIX centuries have appreciated in the short story an unexpected "falcon" turn (the so-called pointe), which corresponds in Aristotle's poetics to the moment of recognition, or ups and downs. In this regard, Viktor Shklovsky noted that the description of a happy mutual love does not create a novel, love with obstacles is necessary for a novel: “A loves B, B does not love A; when B loves A, then A no longer loves B.

Story- small epic genre form fiction - small in terms of the volume of the depicted phenomena of life, and hence in terms of the volume of its text.

The stories of one author are characterized by cyclization. In the traditional writer-reader relationship model, a story is typically published in periodical; accumulated for certain period the works are then published as a separate book as a collection of short stories.

Short story/novella and short story/novel

Until the middle of the 19th century, the concepts of a story and a story in Russia did not really differ. Any small narrative form was called a story, any large form- a novel. Later, the idea prevailed that the story differs from the story in that in it the plot focuses not on one central event, but on a whole series of events covering a significant part of the hero’s life, and often several heroes. The story is more calm and unhurried than a short story or short story.

It is generally accepted that wealth is not characteristic of a separate short story as a whole. artistic paints, an abundance of intrigue and interweaving in events - unlike a story or a novel, which can describe many conflicts and wide circle variety of issues and activities. At the same time, H. L. Borges pointed out that after the short story revolution turn of XIX and XX centuries. the story is able to convey everything the same as the novel, while not requiring the reader to spend too much time and attention.

For Edgar Allan Poe, the novella is fictional story, which can be read in one sitting; for H. G. Wells, less than an hour. Nevertheless, the distinction between the story and other "small forms" from the novel in terms of volume is largely arbitrary. So, for example, “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” is usually defined as a story (a day in the life of one hero), although this text is closer in length to a novel. On the other hand, small-scale works by René Chateaubriand or Paolo Coelho with love weaves and intrigues are considered novels.

Some of Chekhov's short stories are a kind of mini-novels. For example, in the textbook story "Ionych", the author "managed without loss to thicken the grandiose volume of all human life, in all its tragicomic fullness on 18 pages of text." In terms of compressing the material, Leo Tolstoy advanced almost further than all the classics: in the short story “Alyosha the Pot”, a whole human life is told on just a few pages.

Essay- prose writing small volume and free composition, expressing individual impressions and thoughts on a specific occasion or issue and obviously does not claim to be a defining or exhaustive interpretation of the subject.

In terms of volume and function, it borders, on the one hand, on scientific article and a literary essay (with which an essay is often confused), on the other hand, with a philosophical treatise. The essayistic style is characterized by figurativeness, mobility of associations, aphoristic, often antithetical thinking, an attitude towards intimate frankness and colloquial intonation. Some theorists consider it as the fourth, along with the epic, lyrics and drama, kind of fiction.

For Russian literature, the essay genre was not typical. Examples of the essayistic style are found in A. N. Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”), A. I. Herzen (“From the Other Shore”), F. M. Dostoevsky (“A Writer's Diary”). At the beginning of the 20th century, V. I. Ivanov, D. S. Merezhkovsky, Andrey Bely, Lev Shestov, V. V. Rozanov turned to the essay genre, later - Ilya Erenburg, Yuri Olesha, Viktor Shklovsky, Konstantin Paustovsky, Joseph Brodsky. Literary-critical evaluations contemporary critics, as a rule, are embodied in a variety of the essay genre.

Biography- an essay that tells the story of the life and work of a person. a description of a person's life made by other people or by himself (autobiography). A biography is a source of primary sociological information that makes it possible to identify psychological type personality in its historical, national and social conditionality.

Biography recreates the history of a person in connection with social reality, culture and life of his era. Biography can be scientific, artistic, popular, etc.

A short story is a small narrative prose, a special literary genre close to a story, essay, essay. This work is distinguished by a clearly defined plot with a climax and finale. Another difference between the novel and other genres is the limited number of characters. If in a novel or story there are usually up to two dozen characters, then in a short story there are only two or three. The art of the short story is precisely to convey to the reader the content of a fairly broad topic, presented in a concise manner.

Novella as a literary genre

Usually short stories are combined by the author into small cycles, as was customary with one of the most famous novelists, American writer O. Henry O'Henry's novels were divided into separate categories. "Noble Rogue" was made up of short novellas about two swindlers named Andy Tucker and Jeff Peters, and in the cycle " Business people"included several short stories on the theme of the adventures of criminal characters -" Leader of the Redskins "," Bolivar can not carry two ", and others.

Russian novels

Russian writers, unlike French ones, did not put the short story at the forefront of their work, but used a short story from case to case. The work of A. S. Pushkin "Tales of Belkin", written in 1830, is an example of this. However, a brief theme does not mean that the narrative is less significant than a voluminous novel or short story. Even such a fundamental writer as Dostoevsky, at the dawn of his work, wrote short stories ("The Mistress", "Double").

Russian novelists

Russian short stories in the classical sense of this genre came from the pen of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, who in some cases wrote in full - "Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka", and in others more concisely - "The Overcoat". In both cases, the plot was fully revealed, which means that artistic value works is undeniable.

Russian playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote short stories in a manner peculiar only to him, which can be defined as "Chekhovian". The bottom line is that the writer was able to short story lay down the whole life of the character, sometimes quite long and eventful. Separate short stories by Chekhov, with a limited volume, look like mini-novels. In the story "Ionych" the writer managed to reflect human life in full, all its tragicomic content, on 15 pages. Similar examples of "compressed" creativity are also found in Leo Tolstoy, and one of them is short story"Alyosha Gorshok".

Novel and plot

Since the short story is one that suggests the sharpness of the plot, it can be used when writing unusual works. If the story describes a slow development of events with a predictable end, then the short story necessarily contains elements of tension, mystery and a spectacular final surprise. At the beginning and in the middle of the narrative, a neutral style dominates, a complete lack of psychologism, and then the ending follows, unexpected and often illogical. In a story or a short story, on the contrary, the author tries to reveal precisely the psychological nuances of the story, much attention is paid to the character of the character, his deep essence.

Writer and scholar Edgar Allan Poe

The novel is also a literary genre that is ideal for "dark" plots, detective and graveyard horrors. The American Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) is deservedly recognized as an outstanding novelist. The genres in which the writer worked are unique and extremely unusual: literary hoax, horror literature. Edgar Poe was not only a writer. He also wrote a book-research "The First Book of the Conchiologist". This is the work of a mature scientist dedicated to the study of mollusk shells. Based on the study, a complete illustrated guide to conchiology was created.

Writer, poet, scientist Edgar Po wrote for his short life about a hundred short stories, each of which can be considered a masterpiece literary art, despite the unusual content. These are "Gold Bug", "Murder on the Rue Morgue", "Raven". Poetic works Edgar Allan Poe did not receive proper recognition during his lifetime. As the poet James Lowell figuratively noted, Poe skillfully hewn a pile of poetic stones, but they remained lying on the site, the foundation of them was not built.

Here are some short stories by Edgar Allan Poe, selected:

• Year 1832 - "Bon-bon", "Without breathing", "Merzengerstein", "On the walls of Jerusalem".
• Year 1833 - "Folio Club", "Buried Alive", "Manuscript in a Bottle", "Four Beasts in One".
• Year 1835 - "King Plague", "Shadow", "Morella", "Pages from the Life of a Celebrity", "Berenice".

A short story is a literary genre that combines almost all the possibilities of prose, which has great potential for expressing the writer's creative thoughts.

Illustration for the collection of Bunin I.A.
« Dark alleys»

A short story is a work of the prose (rarely poetic) genre, small in volume, less than a story.

The word "novella" is Italian (Italian-novella), meaning "news". The word is ambiguous, but we will consider it as literary term, we will determine what are the features of the short story, we will prove using the example of the work of Bunin I. "Dark Alleys" that this is a short story.

Features of the novel

• Limited number of actors (no more than two or three)
• A sharp, tense plot, the image of a separate event in a person's life, but of great importance to him.
• The novel reveals an acute problem around which the plot develops, and this is just one event.
• Often there are elements of symbolism

• Unpredictable, unexpected ending
• Not in the novel big descriptions, the author's estimates (for example, in the form digressions), the writing style is mostly neutral.
• Absence hidden meaning, subtext. In the short story there is no ambiguity in the interpretation of the topic, the problem.
• The absence of psychologism, the action itself is shown, the motives of the characters' actions are not revealed.

In Russian literature, short stories were written by Chekhov A.P., Bunin I.A. and other authors.

Example.

Bunin I. "Dark alleys"

• IN this work there are few heroes: two main ones, Nikolai Alekseevich and Nadezhda, and a secondary one - a coachman (whose role, by the way, should be emphasized how beautiful and smart Nadezhda is, how they respect her for getting richer, even lending money, but fair).
• Only one event in the life of the main characters is depicted - a meeting after 30 years of Nadezhda and Nikolai Alekseevich (a prosperous nobleman and a peasant woman who received a free peasant who became the owner of a hotel). Only one meeting of heroes, but their life seems to fly by before the reader: stormy, passionate love in the youth of a simple serf and a landowner who abandoned his beloved; the loneliness of both (Nikolai Alekseevich is unhappy in family life and one Nadezhda, who never married, who could not forget her Nikolenka).
• This episode plays a huge role in the lives of both heroes: here is regret for the irrevocably gone love, and life already too, and the shame of Nikolai Alekseevich, and the inability to forgive him with Nadezhda. Tragedy of two destinies. Two people who could be happy if one of them managed at one time to go through the opinion of the world and marry, if not a peasant woman, but a beloved woman.
• The title of the novel is symbolic. "Dark alleys" are like dark corners of a person's soul, into which no one can look. This is their secret, their life, their thoughts and experiences, sometimes incomprehensible to others. Although the meaning of the name of the novel can be explained in another way, everyone sees something different in it (this is the purpose of symbolism in literature).
• The novella is very short. In it, everything is reduced to the description of this episode - a random meeting of heroes. There are no reflections of the author, digressions here. Is it possible to feel the author's position only by the sad intonation of the work.
• An unexpected ending: the heroes part again, but forever.
• There is also no subtext, everything is very clear, it serves to reveal the main idea of ​​the work (everything passes, but not everything is forgotten in life) and main topic(the tragedy of love).
• The novel shows the action itself, the meeting of the characters. What are the motives of the actions of the heroes - the readers themselves guess about this in the course of the plot.

Thus, the work of Bunin I. “Dark alleys is a short story, although the boundaries between the short story and the story are very shaky. Some literary scholars (for example, Timoshevsky B.V.) even believe that a short story is a Russian term for a story. However, we still see that the short story has such features that allow us to speak of it as a separate genre literature.