Re: Novel, Novella (was Re: Re: I'm new!)

Dan Sulani wabbe:

> On 22 Oct, John Cowan wrote:
>
> >On Sat, 21 Oct 2000, daniel andreasson wrote:
> >
> >> In Swedish, a short story is called 'novell' and a novel is
> >> called "roman". Confusing, isn't it? :)
> >
> >Hmm, a little German influence here, I suppose?  But the word
"novella"
> >is current in English, though not as well known as "short story" or
> >"novel".
>
>        In Israeli Hebrew,  a novel is also called "roman".
IIRC when Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra published a book called
"Novelas inmortales" it was a book on short histories, and took the
word from Italian, where the word Novella had that meaning, like in
Boccaccio works.  But as Cervantes, with his "Quixote" created that
type of work: a long history with complex plot, the word "novela" was
adapted to them in Spanish as well as in English.

> But, in addition, the word also means "to have a passionate
> (although _not_  necessarily adulterous) affair with someone.
> As in, "Have you heard? X is having a "roman" with Y!"
"Un romance" in Spanish.

>     "Novella", over here, is currently associated with the
> endless Spanish-language soap operas, called "tele-novellas",
>  which we're now getting on our TVs. ( My son thinks it's a great
> way to learn Spanish, although I sometimes wonder what kind of
> a vocabulary he's picking up! ;-)  )
Well, the first _telenovelas_ were actually adaptation of written
_novelas_ for television.  But they then begun to make original work
and a series of elements that would identify them as an own genre of
television.  In spanish there is no difference between _telenovela_
and _soap opera_.  Both "The Beuty and the Bold" and "Cristal" are
_telenovelas_, just the first is "gringa" and the second one is
"venezolana".

About vocabulary in _telenovelas_, I don't thing you should care.  Of
course they would pick regional dialects (Mexican, Venezolan,
Argentinan, etc.) but the language is usually quite politically
correct (even insults in Mexican/Venezolan telenovelas; Colombian ones
are a little more colourfull).

-- Carlos Th