A narrative in literature and history. Based on the material diary prose by the A. Herzen of the 1840s

The paper describes the main categories of narratological analysis, such as point of view, fact, event, narrative, plot, and motif. A relationship is revealed between the phenomena of event and motif. The plot and the story are shown to be contrasted aspects of interpreting the narrative as the initial communicative reality of a literary work. The difference between a historical narrative and a literary one is that the outline of events of a historical narrative is formed as a result of comprehending the recorded facts, whereas an event in a literary narrative immersed in the world of fiction is formed on the basis of a motif as the basic unit of the narrative language of literature. Sound and detailed theoretical principles are applied in analyzing the diary prose by A. Herzen. Herzen’s diaries have the character of a documentary-historical and autobiographical narrative: Herzen does not «invent» or fabricate one or another event of his life; he reflects on it, trying to find its sense, its connection with the past and the present, with the truth of life.

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