What is a novel?

Novel: Novel is a literary genre that focuses on character portrayal and reflects social life through complete storylines and specific environmental descriptions. There are three elements in a novel: characters, storyline, and environment (natural environment and social environment). The main means by which novels reflect social life is to create characters. The characters in the novel are what we call typical characters; this character is created by the author based on real life. He is different from real people and real people. He "mixes all kinds of things and combines them into one". Through such typical characters, life is reflected in a more concentrated and focused way. More generally representative. The means of character creation in novels can be a general introduction or a specific description, the appearance of the character can be described, or the psychological activities of the character can be described; the character's action dialogue can be used, or the author's discussion can be appropriately inserted; it can be written directly, It can also be used as a side foil. The novel mainly shows the character and the center through the storyline. Stories come from life, but through sorting, refining and arranging, they become more concentrated, more complete and more representative than the real things happening in current life. The description of the environment and the creation of characters in the novel are extremely important to the central idea. In environmental description, social environment is the focus, which reveals various complex social relationships, such as the character's identity, status, historical background of growth, etc. The natural environment includes the location, time, season, climate, scenery, etc. of character activities. The description of the natural environment plays a great role in expressing the mood of the characters and exaggerating the atmosphere. Simply put, novels are centered on the creation of characters and reflect social life through the narration of storylines and descriptions of the environment.

Features: "Fictionality" is the essence of novels. "Capturing the sensory experience of characters' lives" is the artistic content that novels strive to explore. The more fresh, subtle, unique, accurate and profound the sensory experience is, the more novelistic it is. "Fictionality" and "capturing the sensory experience of the characters' lives" are among the above elements that best reflect the nature of the novel. To create characters in novels, you can use a real person as a model and combine some deeds of other people. As Lu Xun said: "The model of a character is never dedicated to one person. Often his mouth is in Zhejiang, his face is in Beijing, and his clothes are in Shanxi. It’s a pieced together character. “Any good novel always has an unforgettable typical character. People can see and understand the faces of many people through these artistically typical mirrors. The storyline comes from life. It is a refinement of real life. It is more concentrated and representative than real life. Events and conflicts in real life have a beginning and an end, ups and downs, and a certain development process. Therefore, the plot of the novel also unfolds in stages and processes. This process is generally divided into four parts: beginning, development, climax, and ending. Sometimes there is a prologue and an epilogue. In the work, the arrangement of the plot is determined by the author's artistic conception and does not necessarily follow the natural sequence of the occurrence and development of events in real life. Sometimes a certain part can be omitted, and sometimes it can be reversed or staggered. The above mentioned are some characteristics of traditional novels.

Novels in ancient my country sprouted in the pre-Qin Dynasty and developed in the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. At that time, they were called notebook novels, and there were mainly two types: novels about people and novels about monsters. The Tang Dynasty was the mature period of novels. The novels at that time were called legends, and story-telling novels were popular in the Song and Jin Dynasties. In the late Yuan and Ming and Qing dynasties, the development of novels reached its peak, and long vernacular novels appeared.

Modern novels are very different from those in the past. They are divided into martial arts novels, romance novels, science fiction novels, fantasy novels, historical novels, online game novels, time travel novels, cultivation novels, etc. The reason why there are so many classifications is inseparable from the development of the modern Internet.

Today, a new school of novels born in the 1980s has emerged on the Internet. These post-80s generation are feared and feared, and the more representative ones are Han Han and Guo Jingming. Their novels mainly talk about the life situations of students and college graduates. Most of them have melancholy themes. These novels were popular among the younger generation and are still popular today. The literary world has mixed reviews and criticisms, and is mainly divided into two schools.

Some people believe that those born in the 1980s are too young and publishing too many books is detrimental to their development, and they resist the birth of this group of writers. The other part thinks that the opponents are jealous of the post-80s generation who make money by publishing books, and feel unbalanced. But there is no way to verify it.