Human life is a continuous stream of events. Each of them has a beginning and an end, self-sufficient, but at the same time it is often a consequence of the previous ones or entails the following.
Get to know the concept
These events can be described in a succinct and short word: episodes. It applies both to the fate of a single individual, and to entire nations. In addition, as a special term, the word is widely used in literature, cinematography and other forms of art. Let's look at what an episode is. Greek in origin, this word is translated as “insert”, “inserted fragment”. For example, you gathered in a store, went out, but on the way you had a shower. To hide from him, you jumped under the roof of the nearest cafe, sat down at a table, ordered a juice and, while drinking it, met your eyes with a guy who looked like your former lover. Because of a quarrel, you broke up a long time ago, but life has ceased to be glued. And now you are dialing a number that has not been called for a hundred years. What is the episode in this case? A chain of several incidents, completely random, as a result of which two lovers make peace and will be happy. And the rain might not have come, you could have glanced at another cafe, or the neighbor on the table would suddenly not have looked so much like the one who is dear to you!
Conclusion - what is an episode? A small segment of reality that has a certain - important or secondary - meaning. The ancient Greeks, who gave the interpretation of the word, were largely fatalists and believed in the designation of everything that was happening to us. From this point of view, what is an episode? A phenomenon, tragic or happy, necessarily filled with a certain meaning, which a person can not always recognize immediately. Once it happened, therefore, it should have happened.
Episode in voluminous literary text
There is nothing accidental in a work of art either, each fragment is carefully verified by the author and thought out, each has its own task and role. What is an episode in the literature? This is part of the plot, an offshoot of the main action, necessary for a more complete disclosure of the nature of the characters, the conflict, the theme, the idea of the work.
For example, plug-in episodes are letters from Tatyana and Onegin to each other. Pushkin could just mention them, but he introduces readers to both texts. After all, both letters help us understand the depth of feelings of heroes, are an excellent means of self-disclosure, self-characterization. Or another such example. Raskolnikov from Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, considering a plan to kill the old woman-interest-bearer, enters the tavern where she meets a drunk Marmeladov. He tells Raskolnikov about his bitter hopeless life, about the unfortunate Sonya. And this episode becomes the very drop that overflows the patience and doubts of the hero regarding the crime he had conceived. Thus, the episode has relative independence and completeness, especially when it comes to a major work of art.
Episode in compositions of a small form
And what is an episode in a story, what is its role in small-volume works? By and large, the same as in novels and short stories.
Let us take Turgenev’s story “Date” and the episode of Akulina’s expectation of her lover, Victor, for research. She harmoniously fits into the bright landscape of an autumn day, sweet, naive, pure, as if surrounding nature. Against her background, Victor looks especially pompous and false, like a crude fake next to the natural, natural. Akulina is a simple peasant woman, her lover is a valet, adopting the habits of his master. Using the technique of contrast, Turgenev emphasizes the moral superiority and spiritual purity of people from the people.
Episode in the cinema
In feature films episodes are called small fragments that play a minor role in the semantic outline of the work. These are the so-called episodes of small form.
But there are large, equal in size to full-fledged series. In the once famous Star Wars, each new episode was called: episode two, three, etc.