The present volume is concerned with the question of what distinguishes a prose text from the Age of Realism from one from the Modern Age. Starting from the present state of research in textual semantics and narratology, criteria are tested for characterising these two epochs, and new criteria are developed which allow this epochal change to be described more comprehensively within Russian prose writing. It is the intention to formalise the procedures deployed here to a large extent and, if possible, to quantify them using computers.