Chronicle Novel

The chronicle novel is a generic variety of the novel in which events are set out in their chronological sequence, mostly on the model of a chronicle or family history, without a sharp plot intrigue, with an emphasis on the flow of time, the change of generations, and the gradual unfolding of the fate of a family, city, or community. The chronicle novel seeks to embrace a long span of time, to show an era through a sequence of everyday and significant events, and to give the narration the authenticity of historical testimony. The composition of such a novel is subordinated not to intrigue but to the movement of time itself. A world model is Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks (a chronicle of a family's decline). In Ukrainian literature the features of the chronicle novel are taken on by epic works that trace the fate of a family or village over generations against the backdrop of historical changes, in particular Ulas Samchuk's Volhynia — a broad chronicle of the life of the Ukrainian peasantry — as well as the family sagas of modern prose built on the consecutive chronicling of family and national history.