Murasaki Shikibu (978~1021 AD) 紫 式部, “The Tale of Genji 源氏物語 , 1008 AD was the first novel in the World History; and, the topic of an earlier blog post.
Miguel Cervantes, “Don Quixote”, 1605 which was the first novel in a “Western” language (Spanish).
and, the topic of an earlier blog post.
Daniel Defoe (1661-1731), “Robinson Crusoe”, 1719 which was the earliest novel in the English language. and, the topic of an earlier blog post.
Here I present: Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975), “Epic and Novel” in “Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M. M. Bakhtin”, year 1975, pages 3-40.
Mikhail Bakhtin wrote about the novel by comparison with the epic. The epic is the earlier literary device; and, the novel is the newly discovered literary form. The epic came from oral tradition of Prehistory that predates writing.
Ethnolinguistic identity refers to a subjective feeling of belonging or affiliation with a social group that is defined in terms of a common ethnic ancestry and a common language variety.
Shown BELOW in schematic diagram as: anthropology-history-biography-novel-epic as a single ethnolinguistic identity idea.
What is machinery in epic poem?
In most of the famous epics, “machinery” consists in supernatural beings like gods and angels who play a vital role on the poems thus showing that the human world is not independent and that supernatural powers have an important bearing in this world.
Here I presented: Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975), “Epic and Novel”, 1975 an essay on the genre of the novel.
The novel can be dated in history: Murasaki Shikibu (1008 AD), Miguel Cervantes (1605 AD), and Daniel Defoe (1719 AD); however, the novel as a literary genre is incomplete.
The epic genre in comparison with the novel genre is complete. The epic is characterized by three constitutive features: (1.) a national epic past serves as the subject of the epic, (2.) a national tradition serves as the source of the epic, (3.) an absolute epic distance separates the epic world from contemporary reality, that is, from the time of the singer (author and his audience) lives.
We encounter the epic as a genre that has not only long since completed its development, but one that is antiquated.
The forces that define the novel genre are at work before our very eyes: the birth and development of the novel as a genre takes place in the full light of the historical day.
Summary.
Literature, as an art form, has seven (7) genres:
1. Epic.
2. Fiction.
3. Nonfiction.
4. Drama.
5. Poetry.
6. Folktales.
7. Cinema.
Six (6) of these genres originated in Oral Prehistory; but, Cinema is a recent addition.
The novel is a Fiction genre, that came existence in the Age of Printing; and, novel is not antiquated as the other types of literature are today.
