skaz

Russian literature

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skaz, in Russian literature, a written narrative that imitates a spontaneous oral account in its use of dialect, slang, and the peculiar idiom of that persona. Among the well-known writers who have used this device are Nikolay Leskov, Aleksey Remizov, Mikhail Zoshchenko, and Yevgeny Zamyatin.

The word is of Russian origin and literally means “tale”; it is derived from skazat, “to say.”