Evolution of Major Literary Genres: Epic, Romance, Novel

• Epic, drama, poetry -> fiction, drama, poetry

Precursors of the novel: EPICS - (Homer's 'Iliad' and 'The Odyssey'

(7th BC), Virgil's 'Aeneid' (1st BC) -> medieval times (Dante Alighieri's 'The Divine Comedy' (13th cen) -> early modern English epics (John

Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (17th cen)

Characteristics: A hero and its tasks, self-contained world, written in verse, a broad scope

ROMANCE - prime time: late Middle Ages

Characteristics: usually written in prose and verse, focus on the plot and a unified point of view, more condensed, more plot and goal-oriented, the depth of the protagonist, no longer focused on national or cosmic problems

NOVEL - Spain (17th cen) and England (18th cen), they modify the epic

tradition = Cervantes' 'Don Quixote' (17th cen), Defoe's 'Robinson Crusoe' (17th cen) and Samuel Richardson's 'Pamela' (17th cen)

Characteristics: realism, individualism, plot grounded in historical and

geographical reality as opposed to a 'cosmic epic', realistic hero as

opposed to 'allegorical hero'

• The novel mirrors disregard for the collective spirit of the Middle Ages that relied on symbolism and allegory

• The spread of the printing press, the development of new economic

models -> authors start to pursue writing as an independent profession; the everlasting popularity of the genre

- Picaresque novel = about a rogue (picaro), conflicts with norms, a satire on social injustice, Henry Fielding's 'Tom Jones'

- Bildungsroman = novel of education, Doris Lessing's 'Children of Violence'

- Epistolary novel = written in form of letters ('Pamela')

- Historical novel = a realistic, historical context; it reworks real-life incidents; Truman Capote's 'In Cold Blood'

- Satirical novel = highlights weaknesses of society, uses exaggeration; Mark Twain's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'

- Utopian novel = alternative worlds, a means of criticizing particular socio-political conditions; Margaret Atwood's 'The Handmaid’s Tale'

- Gothic novels, detective novels

- origins: antiquity and Middle Ages (Biblical stories, myths, fairy tales, and

their oral dimension)

- indirect precursors: medieval and early modern narrative cycles 'Thousand and One Nights', Boccaccio's 'Decameron', Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales'; characterized by 'frame narrative'

- emerged at the end of 18th cen., gained popularity thanks to magazines;

the case of novels in parts (The Pickwick Papers, 1836-1837)

Features: Impression of unity, Selective plot, One main figure or location; usually, one point of view, Action often approaching the climax; preceding context and plot through flashbacks, Similarity to another prosaic form: novella or novelette