What is Novel?

Karya Ilmiah

In the modern era novel is makes use of a literary prose style, and the development of the prose novel at this time was encouraged by innovations in printing.

Definition Of Novel:

According to Abrams (1999) states, “The term "novel" is now applied to a great variety of writings that have in common only the attribute of being extended works of fiction written in prose” (p. 190). It means a long narrative, normally in prose, which describes fictional characters and events, usually in the form of a sequential story. Meanwhile, one of literary work in the form of a long story. Novel is often interpreted as a work of prose fiction contain lenghth usually more than 50.000 words, with the sequence of events, characters and plot. The “novel” comes from the Italian “novella” and French “nouvelles” which means something new and small. According to Abrams in Nurgiyantoro, Burhan, (1995) as quted by Nurman (2015) “secara harfiah novella berarti sebuah barang baru yang kecil, dan kemudian di artikan sebagai cerita pendek dalam bentuk prosa” (p. 9). It means, literally ‘novella’ means a small new thing, and then interpreted as a story in prose. Novel is often said as short story, but the both have the differences. A short story focuses on intensity and novel focuses on complexity emersion, it means an ability to tell the problem of the story extensively.
Based on the explanation above the writer concludes that novel is a prose fiction which focuses on complexity and the characters and events usually imaginary.

References:

Abrams, M.H. (1999). A Glossary of Literary Terms. International: Heinle & Heinle of Thompson Learning, Inc.

Nurma, Esa. (2015). Novel Maharaja Diraja Adityawarman Karya Ridjaluddin Shar Dan Tambo Alam Minangkabau Karya Ibrahim Dt. Sanggoeno Diradjo. Padang: Published.