What is a novel?

Novel: Novel is a literary genre that focuses on portraying characters and reflects social life through a complete story and a specific environmental description. A novel has three elements: characters, plots and environment (natural environment and social environment). The main means by which novels reflect social life is to portray characters. The characters in the novel are called typical characters; This character was created by the author according to real life. He is different from the real person, "eclectic, integrated." It is more concentrated and representative to reflect life through such typical figures. The means of shaping characters in novels can be general introduction, specific description, description of characters' appearance and psychological activities. It can be either the action dialogue of the characters or the discussion of the author. You can use the pen from the front or from the side. The novel mainly shows the character and performance center through stories. The story comes from life, but after sorting, refining and arranging, it is more concentrated, complete and representative than the real things that happen in current life. The description of the environment and the characterization of the novel have an extremely important relationship with the central idea. In the description of environment, social environment is the key point, which reveals all kinds of complex social relations, such as identity, status, historical background of growth and so on. The natural environment includes place, time, season, climate, scenery and so on. The description of the natural environment plays a great role in expressing the emotions of characters and rendering the atmosphere. Simply put, the novel is centered on shaping characters, and reflects social life through the narrative of stories and the description of the environment.

Features: "Fiction" is the essence of the novel. "Capturing the emotional experience of characters' lives" is the artistic content that the novel tries to explore. The more fresh, subtle, unique, accurate and profound the feeling experience is, the more novel it is. "Fiction" and "capturing the emotional experience of the characters' lives" are the things that can best reflect the essence of the novel. When portraying characters in novels, a real person can be used as a model, and some other people's stories can be integrated. For example, Lu Xun said, "The model of a character is never dedicated to a person. Often, his mouth is in Zhejiang, his face is in Beijing, and his clothes are in Shanxi. It is a patchwork role. "In any excellent novel, there are always unforgettable typical characters. People can see and understand many people's faces through these typical art mirrors. Stories come from life, and are the refinement of real life, which is more concentrated and representative than real life. Events and contradictions in real life have a beginning and an end, ups and downs, and there is a certain development process, so the plot of the novel also has paragraphs and processes. This process is generally divided into four parts: beginning, development, climax and ending. Sometimes there are prologue and epilogue. In a work, the arrangement of the plot depends on the author's artistic conception and does not necessarily follow the natural order of events in real life. Sometimes a part can be omitted, and sometimes it can be reversed or staggered. These are some characteristics of traditional novels.

China's ancient novels sprouted in the pre-Qin period and developed in the Han, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. At that time, it was called note novels, which mainly included novels of people with lofty ideals and novels of strange people. The Tang Dynasty was the mature period of novels, when novels were called legends, and vernacular novels were popular in Song and Jin Dynasties. Novels reached their peak in the late Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, and long vernacular novels appeared.

Modern novels are very different from previous novels. It can be divided into martial arts novels, romance novels, science fiction novels, fantasy novel's novels, historical novels, online games novels, time-travel novels, revision novels and so on. The reason why there are so many classifications is inseparable from the development of modern Internet.

Today, a new generation of novels has appeared on the Internet. These post-80s generation are awesome, such as Han Han and Jing M. Guo. Their novels are mainly about students and their life after graduation from college. Most melodies are based on sadness. These novels swept the whole younger generation and are still popular today. There are different opinions in the literary world, mainly divided into two factions. Some people think that the post-80s generation is too young and publishing too many books is not good for their development, so they resist the birth of these writers. The other part thinks that opponents are jealous of publishing books to make money after 1980, and their hearts are unbalanced. But there is no way to prove it.