A vignette (, also ) is a French loanword expressing a short and descriptive piece of writing that captures a brief period in time. Vignettes are more focused on vivid imagery and meaning rather than plot. Vignettes can be stand-alone, but they are more commonly part of a larger narrative, such as vignettes found in novels or collections of short stories.
Examples of vignettes include Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, Margaret Atwood’s The Female Body, Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, and Alice Walker’s The Flowers.
Vignettes have been particularly influential in the development of the contemporary notions of a scene as shown in postmodern theater, film and television, where less emphasis is placed on adhering to the conventions of traditional structure and story development.
Etymology
The word vignette means "little vine" in French, and was derived from Old French vigne, meaning “vineyard”. In English, the word was first documented in 1751, and was given the definition “decorative design". This definition refers to decorative artwork of vine-leaves and tendrils used to embellish title pages and the commencement of chapters. In 1853, the word was used to describe a popular 19th century photographic style, where portraits had blurred edges. The definition of a vignette referring to a “literary sketch” was first recorded in 1880. The idea of the "literary sketch" was derived from the sketch in visual arts - a rough or unfinished drawing or painting, showing the main elements of an artwork. This reflects the characteristics of a vignette; brief and spontaneous, with a sense of immediacy.
History
In the 19th century, vignettes were found in newspapers and acted as brief and vivid descriptions of the news article’s subject, from the perspective of the writer. According to Norman Sims (2007), these vignette sketches “provided writers with something we often miss today: the opportunity to write about ordinary life.” These 19th century vignettes frequently offered few facts which could be verified, and tended to blend journalism with fiction. These vignette sketches provided writers with a sense of imaginative freedom, and reflected the larger Victorian movement of integrating real life and art. By blending fact and fiction, journalists could use their writing to explore their uncertainties and speculations about the subject.
During the 19th century, vignettes were written by anonymous authors, and attributed to the newspaper or journal they featured in. They were reused for new audiences and were therefore being constantly revised and re-contextualised.
Later in the 19th century, vignettes in newspapers declined in use and popularity. This was due to journalism becoming more realistic and fact based. The decline of vignettes also reflected a broader shift in society towards scientific theories and realism. Journalism and literature separated into different, distinct branches of writing, until literary journalism emerged in the late 19th century.
Aside from journalism, vignettes in the form of the “literary sketch” became popularised in the Victorian era by authors such as William Makepeace Thackeray and Charles Dickens, and their works would often appear in newspapers and magazines. Works such as Sketches by Boz by Charles Dickens, and Thackeray’s Vanity Fair: Pen and Pencil Sketches of English Society, drew heavily from the original definition of a sketch in the visual arts by creating a sense of spontaneity, freedom and authenticity. These sketches sometimes included visual illustrations by George Cruikshank, and were viewed as rough drafts rather than complete works of literature - a necessary step towards creating a finished work, but not inferior to a finished work. The fragmentary and immediate style of these vignettes reflected the 19th century’s sense of economic and social instability, and the rapid pace of urban life.
Dickens’ sketches often described brief and immediate scenes of everyday life. The sketches represented a smaller part of a larger story and conveyed themes relevant to the Victorian Era such as social class, work and money. The use of common themes across different vignettes provides each story with an additional dimension of depth.
