The term

comes from the Russian verb

(to tell) and such words as

(short story) and

(fairy tale). It is also a word used of (traditional or “folk”) oral narratives, and has occasionally been used of works to suggest their origin in terms of such an oral context (as in the full title of Leskov's

, or “Tale of the squint-eyed, left-handed man from Tula and the steel flea”, 1881). The word has therefore essentially to do with “telling”.

The designation skaz was subsequently adopted by the Formalist school of Russian criticism (in the years just before and just after the Revolution) as a term denoting a type of narrative technique, which emphasizes oral speech, thus invigorating literary discourse (usually first-person) with elements from living

809 words

Citation: Cornwell, Neil. "Skaz Narrative". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 June 2005 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1561, accessed 22 November 2024.]