THE READING OF THE NOVEL
T H E R E A D I N G OF THE N O V E L
To say , a novel is narrative prose. Like other literary branches, a novel has two basic characteristics. They are - a story and a storyteller. Generally a novel makes a realistic treatment of life and manners. The characters are like ourselves. Thus, in a novel we see ourselves.
It is admitted by many that the novel came into existence by Daniel Defoe's great works 'Robinson Crusoe in 1719 and Moll Flander. These two works produced attractive stories of a man by string realistic episodes.There is another genius who is Samuel Richardson. His 'Pamela' is a brilliant creation of an epistolary novel . It is based on emotional plotting. Perhaps it was written in 1740. They are the accounts of the experiences of the common man.
T H E D I F F E R E N C E B E T W E E N E P I C A N D N O V E L
The old ones say epic is a long poem which tells us a traditional story. It deals with goddesses and extraordinary men and women.It has a heroic personality. But, here, we must remember that with the changing conception of life, literary terminology has to change its expansion with the consideration of its basics.
Perhaps, one will be startled if it is said that we live in the age of novels and the age of epic is gone. This may be true because the epic age was related to simple, ideal and sacrificial life. But, now, we live in the age of complexity, hurry and sophistication. We hardly find sincere people , that is replaced by sceptical and cynical motivation.
The flow of the river of literature is not lost for it carries people to their destinations. So literary terms and concepts have been changed with expansion. With this changing motivation, epical work finds new styles and techniques of writings.
The novel may be called a modern epic. Things fall apart, a new milieu finds a new space and a fresh point of view. Novel works tend to work on the scene of life as well as matters of society. So exaggeration and imaginative works are seen out of place in the novel. It freezes the true picture of human life. It falls light on a particular society or class.It focuses on the reality of human nature. Being a living art, characterization as well as presentation is an impression of excellence of novel writing. A novel is not didactic, nor is it argumentative. Precisely, it helps us to form awareness of realities and possibilities of life.
We have witnessed a small number of novels which meet all possibilities of epical works. A few examples are 'Tristram Shandy' by Sterne , 'Crime and punishment' by Dostoyevsky, 'War and Peace' by Tolstoy, and 'Ulysses' by Jemes Joyce. After close study, we will be able to understand that novels have the possibility to meet the heights of epics.
THE NOVEL AND THE DRAMA:
Novels are more preferable than dramas to us. The reason behind this is so very simple. Novels are for reading while dramas are for watching. It is true that both of them are enjoyed by us. Novel is meant for narrative or rather say a sort of fiction. Like drama novels are the literary mirror that shows us our life. Both have some same features of time, place, plot, character,etc.
Though having some same features, both have some distinguished features. In drama, stage equipment is very necessary, and the dramatist is bound up with limited scope but the novel is free from such limited scopes and a novelist enjoys a total freedom. He can supply all materials into his works. He has the ability to produce his craftsmanship. He can produce a large number of disposals for the development of character. He can be more analytical in capturing dialogues, conversation, description and commentary. A dramatist, on the contrary, has to face an enlargement of difficulties. He has to strengthen and struggle with his dialogue weaponry.
THE CLASSIFICATION OF NOVELS
Before going to the labeling work, it is better to understand the difference between The Novel and The Romance. Both novel and romance concern the work of prose. Both have the materials of telling stories. The novel precisely deals with realism, whether it is sociological, political, historical or religious and science fiction. Romance demands a special division. It is related to differentiation of telling adventure. It may seem like folk-lore, a manual work. Romance was very popular in the middle English period. It was as popular as poetry. So, also in prose, it is found in verse form. Like other novels, it has a story which is either of love or war bravery or adventurous materials. It also aims for happiness or suffering. Usually it tends to have a happy ending for which it is called romance. The characters in novels are basically seen completed because of reagents. The characters in romances are seen as sovereigns. They are heroic, aggressive, hellish or gigantic. They remain the same and unchanged in nature and attitude. The complete novels have a philosophical speculation of criticism of life whereas romances are remote from this speculation. Author pours less of this liquid. He inclines much in the plain organic.
For example, Moby Dick written by Melville which owns the label of romance. Ulysses written by James Joyce which heightens the class of complete novels.
Though both have the nature of a novel, yet 'Moby' Dick' is adventurous human activities, exceptional.
Though no fixed classification is possible, novels are classified into various types. As;
Sociological novels,
Historical novels,
Political novels,
Religious novels,
Utopian novels,
Crime novels,
Science fiction,
Detective fiction,
Psychological novels,
Epistolary novels,
Characters based novels,
Romantic novels,
Sentimental novels,
Bourgeois novels,
Proletarian novels,
Novels of color,
Novels of soil,
Commonwealth novels,
Autobiographical novels,
Novels of consciousness,
Gothic novels,
Anti-hero novels,
Dramatic novels,
African novels,
ASPECTS OF THE NOVELS:
Analytical work is better and more applicable than entertaining and cheering up. We know that a novel must have a story. The story is about a person or effect issue. Acceleration of storytelling with the narrative mode has a process. Every process has a set of elements or aspects which orders readers attentiveness. Attentiveness makes us alive. It is the oxygen of life, and oxygen is produced by absorbing carbon. And, carbon renders changes into new forms or shapes. A shining diamond is also produced by carbon. But it happens through the process. A hard uneven stone is sharpened into razor edges by using another stone. For it, analytical work is very necessary. A novel is framed with:
theme,
plot,
character,
narrative technique,
time of action
place of action
style
structure, and
point of view or the criticism of life.
At a glance, we look for understanding the 'form' and 'content' of a novel.perhaps, the 'form' is tended to 'how' and 'content' is intended with 'what'. One is the literary treasure , the other is the literary faculty.
1) theme:
A novel has a theme; that is, 'the' plus 'me'. The 'me' is hidden but definite preservation. We know that the burning power is hidden in a stone, a seed, as exactly as a dot, like a very small ball of a pen, germinates and grows into a bigger and taller tree, the same is the theme of a novel. Theme is an issue on which the story is built. It is neither a plot nor a story, but a story with plot, and characters is webbed around it. We happen to see in a large group of novels that have a host of themes. Why? The answer is easy. If we come close to a waterfall, it seems that our ears will fracture with the sound which is produced by oneness of the small drops.
Plot:
The novel has a plot which is the framework of the story. A plot deals with events, and events that happen in a cause-and-effect connection or in an incidental way creates emotions. Where emotions become effective, artistic effects become effective. The plot in a novel runs simple or intricate or complex. Because of this, a plot is seen to have a subplot. The sub-plot is meant not a separate plot. They are interwoven with the main theme. Suppose, in a character novel, the main character is overwhelmed with grief after a friend's death, but in the sub-plot his family is being suffered a lot , and his little daughter would die and his wife gets married to another person. These are themes of human activities and emotions.
The plot produces artistic effects which are produced by narrative, and therefore narrative is the production of logically ordered materials of separate events. As readers and scholars, we hold and sustain our attention as well as interest to the message that is conveyed by the author or by a group of authors. Therefore a plot needs to be put together with oneness, with no gaps, and without which, it will crack attention and interest.
Our great master Aristotle says in his 'poetics' that a plot is the combination of the incidents, events, situations and actions of a story. Though he says this about the dramatic form, especially about tragedy, it is equally applicable to the novel also, as a genre.
CHARACTER:
The inclusion of characters is as important as plot in the novel. Plot of the novel works on the characterization. The characters are the human beings in the novel. Human beings have the giving and taking activities. Human beings have to face and suffer a lot of adversities as social beings. Some of them create a deep impact on them in different times and situations. Time and situation do not stand still. Times and situations demand different events which include happiness and misery. To understand character, it is a simple way to understand behavioral traits of human beings. To put it simply, human traits are the reasons for desire, efforts, success and failure. In literary work, character is personified , and so a non - human entity could have wonderful human behavior and traits, as exactly as speaks as an individual.
Usually, in the work of a novel we find two types of characters, round characters and flat characters. Flat characters are simple and uncomplicated,and remain unchanged from first to last in the novel story. Contrasted, round characters tend to change and seldom surprise us. They have different traits. Therefore, they have different identities. Their words, deeds and attitudes are different.
Hence, characterization is a fundamental task of the novelist. He has to link the plot with characters. Readers are much inclined to the characters and convinced by them. They themselves find their characters in the novel portrayed. The author has to do a hard laborious task to search their inner elements of minds which live in the abstract darkness and reveal them into broad daylight. Author comments about them either directly or indirectly. Directly, the author talks to the readers about them. Indirectly, the author shows them what they really like. A character may directly tell us he is dead, or a character could indirectly tell us that the dead is dead. Therefore,in novels, it is rightly said that characters are human kinds, but human beings, but for a real person, but as a literary contrast.
Characterization and character have different meanings. Robert McGee, in his his outstanding classic entitled STORY, describes this difference as follows:
" Characterization is the sum of all observable qualities of a human being, everything knowable through careful scrutiny…. Character is revealed in the choice a human being makes under pressure."
It is a huge task of the author to invent the axis power of pressure that takes out a true character, a core. On the other hand, characterization is a matter of outside matters such as physical appearance and visible personality when character is the substantial matters of the heart.
Thus, the contradictory elements between character and characterization are the fundamental revealing of a fine storytelling.
The character plays the role of a person. He is the representative of a person. A person belongs to a class or group. The character that represents this particular person is called a type. A type means the representative of society, or as specific position in a society his color, culture and conflict.
A novel provides us a huge scope of study of characters. We analyse one character with many. We idealize him, and therefore individualize him through the network of characters. A plot is constituted with characters and action. A plot is well connected with individuals' individuality, iron mind and also layer.
STYLE:
It said that style represents a man. Like other literary artists, novelists have their own style of works. Novelist works on a specific language. He passes his message by command over it. The same language has different ways of expression which separate them. Therefore style is the primary aspect of a novelist's ability. By using it he creates his own brand. He makes it an effective use, and then provides his thoughts and feelings. The use of it is his distinctive caliber. It creates his geniusness and personality. It includes his choice of words, expression, diction as well as his narrative delivery.
Style may differ between the heads. These could be high style, low style and plain style.
High style means that the work does not contain any ordinary speeches or the use of down to earth expressions. Here a novelist presents himself as an elite group. He has to strengthen himself on the formality of expression of his style. He cares about that his genre is all about sociological, economic, political and cultural issues. He also has the bars of formal use of phrases and sentences with high sounding philosophic language.
Middle style refers to the use of language between formal and informal .
Plain style refers to the use of language completely down to earth language. It means a loose pattern of writing which includes conversational based in elevated form that comes with and, but,or and with a number of independent clauses.
It has been seen that in Indian Writings in English, a narrator faces a difficulty while drawing pictures about rural areas. Here he inclines to draw his characters as factual.
...... ......... be continued......
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