THE STUDY OF FICTION

The word fiction is derived from the Latin fictio, ficturn meaning "to form, to make, to
organize, to create". Thus, it can be analogy that simply, the noun fiction means "something
formed; something made; something created, something imagined." This is the etymological
meaning of fiction, but it is not satisfied enough. In the American College Dictionary, we can
find that the fiction is: something held, invented or imagined which is a branch of literature such
as novels, short stories or novelette.

What is the difference between fiction and non fiction?

Fiction is a work of the imagination or invention, which contrasts with non-fiction (which
is usually thought to be based on facts). Written works like novels, short stories, plays, and
poems are fictional.
The main difference between fiction and non-fiction lies in the objectives. The purpose
and objectives of non-fiction works as history, biographies, stories, and travel stories, is to re-
create everything that has actually happened. In other words we can say that: nonfiction begins
by saying: because these all are facts, then these are what should be happened. While the
fictional narrative begins by saying: if these all are facts, then these are going to be happened.
We can also say that fiction is reality, while nonfiction is actuality. Unlike the author of
nonfiction, fiction writer does not focus on what has actually happened, but instead focus entirely
on the reality. It is the duty of writers of fiction to make the imaginative figures in his work come
alive. He must be able to convince the readers that the motives and actions of the characters are
real. Authors should create the characters so real, so that the readers pay their attention and
believed in the things happened, if not then it is clear that the story or the fiction is fail.
The conclusion is that nonfiction is actuality while fiction is reality. Actuality is
everything which is really happened; while reality is everything can be happened.
Fiction can be divided into three kinds, they are:
a. Novel
b. Novelette, and
c. Short Story
A. Novel
The word ‗novel‘ derived from the Latin word ‗Novellus‘ which was also derived from
‗novies‘ means "new". It is said new as compared to other literary genres such as poetry and
drama, the novel comes later. According to Robert Liddell "the first Britain's novel was Famela
written in 1740.
In The American College Dictionary it can be found statement "the novel is a fictitious
prose narrative in a certain length, describing the characters, representative motion and scene of
real life in a plot or a somewhat chaotic state or creases.
Novel, now the most widely read of all the forms of literature is comparatively a new
arrival. Until the seventeenth century it was almost unknown. It may be defined as a fictitious
prose narrative of considerable length, which portrays characters and actions representative of
real life in a continuous plot. In a novel we find a close imitation of man and manners the texture
of society as it really exists. Like any other artist the novelist is a maker. He makes an imitation
of the life of man on earth, and makes certain conclusions about it, the conclusions which are
expressed in the characters he creates and the situations in which the characters are placed. A
novel has been called an extended metaphor of the novelist‘s view of life, and perhaps not
without justification. There are very few novels which do not contain their respective author‘s
reflection on life. There are also novelists who leave the thread of their story, and come forward
to pump some moral precepts into the heads of their readers.
The novel is the loosest of all the literary forms. Unlike the drama it is free from all
limitations. This freedom not only makes it possible for a novelist to give a complete and round
about representation of human life, but also makes it the easiest to write. Hudson hardly
exaggerates when he says that a man who has pens, ink and paper at command and a certain
amount of leisure and patience can write a novel. This is confirmed by the fact that thousands of
novels are pouring in into the market of every country every year.

Every novel has these elements:

1. Setting: When and where the story takes place.
2. Characters: People portrayed in the novel. It is the characters who move the action, or
plot, of the story forward. Most novels contain major characters and minor characters.
3. Plot: What happens in the story. Plot refers to the action; the basic storyline of the novel.
The plot is usually structured with acts and scenes. It is the organization of incidents in a
narrative. The plot of a novel may also be simple and compound. The simple plot consists
of one story only, the compound of two or more stories.
4. Dialogue: It plays an important role in a novel. Good dialogue greatly brightens a
narrative and is an evidence of a novelist‘s technical skill. Its greatest function is to reveal
 characters—to unfurl the passions, motives, and feelings which actuate them. It also
reveals the reaction of the speakers to the events they are participating in. In other that the
dialogue may be effective and may perform its function of unfurling the character and
action it is necessary that it should fulfil certain requirements. In the first place, it should
always form an organic elements in the story, and should contribute to the development
of the plot, and to the elucidation of the different traits of characters. In the second place,
the dialogue should be in keeping with the personality of the speakers and suitable to the
situation in which it occurs.
5. Theme: The lesson the writer of the story is trying to teach the reader. The "message".
6. Interpretation or Criticism of Life: Like other forms of literature the novel gives the
writer‘s criticism or interpretation of life. Like the drama the novel deals directly with
life – with men an women, their passions, desires, feelings, thoughts, joys and sorrows,
successes or failures. In expressing his interpretation or criticism of life, the novelist may
start out with the avowed intention of expounding a body of ethical doctrines, or may like
the dramatist leave the philosophy of life to be evolved out of the story and the
characters. The manner the novelist selects and arranges his materials, develops his story
and presents his characters itself shows us in a general way what he thinks about life.

Some Important Types of Novel

1. The Picaresque Novel
The picaresque novels are a very striking class in English fiction. This type of
novel originated in Spain in the fifteenth century and quickly spread to France and
England. Its name is derived from the Spanish word picaro which means a wandering
rogue. This class of novel is mainly centred on the hero who is a picaro or rogue. He is
the social outcast, the man who is rejected by, and rejects, the feudal society and its
morality ethics.
The hero of the picaresque novel is the travelling hero who posts from inn to inn,
from country to country, from town to town, mixes with all kinds of rogues, thieves and
robbers in course of his adventures, languishes in prison or on board the ship, and suffers
every sort of vicissitudes. This novel comes to consist of a series of thrilling adventures
and incidents happening to the hero.
In this novel more attention is given to the plot than to characterization. The
picaresque novelist does not attempt to dissect the thoughts, feelings, passions and
motives of his characters; he concerns merely to take his hero and other characters
through a succession of thrilling incidents, and scenes, and thereby build up a picture of
 society. In this novel, the story element is very predominant, and completely
overshadows the character—interest.
This picaresque novel is informative and critical in character. As Edwin Muir
says, ―in the picaresque novel, ancient and modern, there is generally an attempt to
provide information such as a social student, or a moralist or an intelligent newspaper
would give‖. Again, in this type of novel all those ideals which are valued much in the
feudal society is bombarded.

2. The Historical Novel

The historical novel is that species of novel which combines facts with fiction,
history with imagination. So it may be defined as a literary hybrid, fusing as it does
together two contradictory elements—the actual and the imaginary, the tangible and the
intangible. The historical novelist takes his materials from the historical documents, but
these materials are completely transformed in the crucible of his imagination.
Some characteristics of a historical novel are: it should be the vivid representation
of the life of a bygone age; it is not required to serve us with the dry facts of history,
which it is the business of the chronicler to relate; the historical novel is an attempt to
reconstruct the atmosphere, the habits of thought, the prevailing psychology of a
generation with which the novelist has had no immediate contact; the history serves
merely as a background against which the vast drama of the human life of a particular
age is enacted; the historical novelist is at liberty to select such historical incidents and
personages, and incorporate such imaginary materials and characters as will help him call
the past back to life, and infuse the dynamic force of history into his narrative; the
incidents of the historical novels should be neither too remote nor too immediate in time;
the characters of this novel should be drawn from all classes of society in order that the
novel may give a complete and representative picture of the age it deals with.

3. The Novel of Social Reform

The novel of social reform is associated with the name of Charles Dickens. He
was the first English novelist who consciously used the novel-form to focus public
attention on the many social evils prevalent in his age. In this way, he tried to cure some
of these evils which caused great suffering to the poor. In this way, he rendered great
service to society, and contributed much to the well-being of the underdog of society.
Thus he made the novel an instrument of social reform. His famous work in this novel-
form is David Copperfield.
4. The Autobiographical Novel
This novel is based upon the personal experiences and attitudes or philosophy of
the novelist. The novelist does not create his materials in the literal sense of the word, he
simply digs them out of the accumulated experiences of his. Like the poet, he is an agoist,
and the charm of his novels is the charm of his many sided personality. The term
‗autobiographical novel‘ does not apply to any and every novel that reveals its author: it
applies only to the novel the story of which is told in the first person. Jane Austen‘s Pride
and Prejudice is not an autobiographical novel, though it is rooted deep in her personal
experiences and her observation of men and manners of the time.
The picaresque novels are generally autobiographical novels. In the
autobiographical novel the novelist identified himself with one of his characters,
generally, though not always, with the hero or heroine.
The autobiographical novel has its own advantages and limitations. Its advantage
lies in the fact that it lends and intimate and confidential tone to the narrative, which is
not possible when the novelist describes his story as an omniscient observer. The first
person narrative enables the novelist to bring in such facts and figures as will convince
even the dullest readers that the novel has a connection with the author‘s life.
The autobiographical method has a great technical advantage. It makes the
novelist achieve organic unity which is the hallmark of all novels. An autobiographical
novel consists only of those episodes and incidents which the hero-narrator has
participated in, or has heard of. And as the story revolves round him, he serves as the
connecting link among the different episodes introduced into the novel.
But the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. The greatest disadvantage of
the autobiographical method lies in the fact that the hero narrator can only observe the
other characters from outside. He cannot give us an insight into their thoughts, feelings,
passions and motives except in so far as these are apparent in their words and actions.

5. The Psychological Novel

The psychological novel is that type of novel in which the writer is concerned
with the psychology of his characters with their thoughts, passions and motives. In the
psychological novel the novelist lays bare the mental mechanism of his men and women;
he shows how a character feels in a particular situation, how he reacts to the
circumstances he is face to face with and what conflict or conflicts tear his mind. It is not
however, to be assumed that in a psychological novel there is no description or analysis
of external events or the externals of characters. It only means that in this type of novel
 the emphasis is put on the delineation of the inner world of men and women and readers
are constantly taken inside the mind of characters.

B. Novelette
The word ‗novelette‘ is derived from the word ‗novel‘ added by suffix -ette means
"small". Briefly "novelette is a small novel". In general, novelette has the same elements with
novel. A literary work we know as novel in English and American literature refers to roman in
Indonesian literature; while novelette in English and American literature commonly refers to
novel in Indonesian literature.
In terms of the amount of the words, novelette is between 10000-35000 words. So
novelette is intermediate between short stories and novels. Therefore, sometimes others consider
it a little novel. In the book of An Approach to Literature, there is a statement: "Novelette:
Literally, a little novel. In a rough and ready we may call a piece of fiction a novelette when it
runs from some 10.000 words to some 35.000".

C. Short Story
According to B. Mathews: "It's not a short story if there is nothing to be told .... "
Furthermore, Stewart Beach said that "considering its limits, a short story is the simplest form of
fiction. However, unlike the novel, the short story has fewer places to solve a complicated
situation.‖ Ellery Sedgwick says that" the short story is the presentation of a separate state or a
group of conditions that give single impression on the reader‘s soul. Short stories should not be
filled with unimportant things or "a short-story must not be cluttered up with irrelevance."
Finally, Ajip Rosidi limited and explained that "a short story is a story which is short in
length, and has completed idea ..... In its brevity and density, a short story is complete, rounded
and short. All parts of a short story should be tied to a whole life: short, dense, and complete. No
parts may be said "excessive" and can be discarded. "

The difference between Novel and Short Story

Previously, we have seen some similarities to the novel with a short story, that both of
them are fiction and have the same elements. Now, let‘s focus on principal differences between
the novels with short stories. The differences are:
1. The number of words. Short story just reaches 10,000 words only, while novel has more
than 35,000 words.
2. The number of pages. Maximally, a short story reaches 30 quarto pages, while novel
reaches at least 100 quarto pages.
3. Short story depends on the situation and has only one situation, while novel may be more
than that.
4. The short story presents a single entity and emotional effects, while novel presents more
than one effect and emotion.
5. Selection in the short story is tougher than that in the novel.
6. Pace in the short story is faster than that in the novel.
7. The elements of density and intensity in the short story are more preferred than that in the
novel.