The possibility of a universal poetics of the “novel”? depends on close analysis of the origin and development of this narrative form in East and West. While the first Western novel might have been Don Quixote in the 16th century, The Tale of Genji, which meets many novelistic criteria, appeared in Japan in the 11th century. But while it is commonly assumed that the (Western) novel is grounded in epic poetry, the Far East lacks an epic tradition. However, China and Japan do have a strong tradition of what Frye calls epos, oral story-telling. The argument here is that the classic Chinese and Japanese novels originated from this oral tradition, which is perhaps the best way to explain a unique feature of these novels: the permeation of the narrative structure by verse, by lyric forms. The (Far Eastern, and perhaps also Western) novel is a large “narrative vessel” made by linking together smaller units. This—and/or the fact that the Japanese and Chinese novel traditionally has a lower status than the lyric poem—may be why the novel is called hsiao shuo, “small talk” in Chinese and Japanese.

novel, continuous, epic, story-teller, epos, discourse, lyric, narrative, oral tradition, “small talk”, episodic