What is the idea of ​​a story in literature. Artwork idea

Gasoline is yours, our ideas

When analyzing a literary work, the concept of “idea” is traditionally used, which most often means the answer to a question allegedly posed by the author.

The idea of ​​a literary work - this is the main idea that summarizes the semantic, figurative, emotional content of a literary work.

Artistic idea of ​​the work is the content-semantic integrity artwork as a product of emotional experience and development of life by the author. This idea cannot be recreated by means of other arts and logical formulations; it is expressed by the entire artistic structure of the work, by the unity and interaction of all its formal components. Conditionally (and in a narrower sense) the idea stands out as the main idea, ideological conclusion and “life lesson”, naturally arising from a holistic comprehension of the work.

An idea in literature is a thought contained in a work. There are a lot of ideas expressed in the literature. Exist logical ideas and abstract ideas . Logical ideas are concepts that are easily transmitted without figurative means, we are able to perceive them with the intellect. Logical ideas are inherent in documentary literature. But artistic novels and stories are characterized by philosophical and social generalizations, ideas, analyzes of causes and effects, that is, abstract elements.

But there is also special kind very subtle, barely perceptible ideas of a literary work. artistic idea is a thought embodied in a figurative form. It lives only in figurative implementation and cannot be expressed in the form of a sentence or concepts. The peculiarity of this thought depends on the disclosure of the topic, the worldview of the author, transmitted by the speech and actions of the characters, on the depiction of pictures of life. It is in the clutch of logical thoughts, images, all significant compositional elements. An artistic idea cannot be reduced to a rational idea that can be concretized or illustrated. The idea of ​​this type is inseparable from the image, from the composition.

The formation of an artistic idea is a complex creative process. In literature, it is influenced by personal experience, the writer's worldview, and understanding of life. An idea can be nurtured for years and decades, and the author, trying to realize it, suffers, rewrites the manuscript, looking for suitable means of implementation. All themes, characters, all events selected by the author are necessary for a more complete expression of the main idea, its nuances, shades. However, it must be understood that artistic idea is not equal to the ideological concept, the plan that often appears not only in the head of the writer, but also on paper. Exploring non-artistic reality, reading diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, archives, literary critics restore the history of the idea, the history of creation, but often do not discover the artistic idea. Sometimes it happens that the author goes against himself, yielding to the original idea for the sake of artistic truth, an inner idea.

One thought is not enough to write a book. If you know in advance everything that you would like to talk about, then you should not contact artistic creativity. Better - to criticism, journalism, journalism.

The idea of ​​a literary work cannot be contained in one phrase and one image. But writers, especially novelists, sometimes try to formulate the idea of ​​their work. Dostoevsky about The Idiot he wrote: “The main idea of ​​the novel is to portray positively beautiful person". For such a declarative ideology Dostoevsky scolded, for example, Nabokov. Indeed, the phrase of the great novelist does not clarify why, why he did it, what is the artistic and vital basis of his image. But here it is hardly possible to stand on the side Nabokov, the mundane writer of the second row, never, unlike Dostoevsky that does not set itself creative supertasks.

Along with the attempts of the authors to determine the so-called main idea of ​​their work, opposite, although no less confusing, examples are known. Tolstoy to the question “what is “War and Peace”? answered as follows: “War and Peace is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed.” Unwillingness to translate the idea of ​​your work into the language of concepts Tolstoy demonstrated once again, speaking of the novel "Anna Karenina": "If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express in a novel, then I would have to write the very one that I wrote first" (from a letter to N.Strakhov).

Belinsky very accurately pointed out that “art does not allow abstract philosophical, and even more rational ideas: it allows only poetic ideas; and the poetic idea is<…>not a dogma, not a rule, this is a living passion, pathos.

V.V. Odintsov expressed his understanding of the category “artistic idea” more strictly: “The idea of ​​a literary work is always specific and is not derived directly not only from the individual statements of the writer lying outside him (the facts of his biography, public life etc.), but also from the text - from replicas goodies, journalistic inserts, remarks of the author himself, etc.”

2000 ideas for novels and short stories

Literary critic G.A. Gukovsky also spoke about the need to distinguish between rational, that is, rational, and literary ideas: “By an idea, I mean not only a rationally formulated judgment, statement, not even just the intellectual content of a work of literature, but the entire sum of its content, which constitutes its intellectual function, its goal and task. And further he explained: “To understand the idea of ​​a literary work means to understand the idea of ​​each of its components in their synthesis, in their systemic interconnection.<…>. At the same time, it is important to take into account the structural features of the work - not only the words-bricks that make up the walls of the building, but the structure of the combination of these bricks as parts of this structure, their meaning.

The idea of ​​a literary work is the attitude to the depicted, the fundamental pathos of the work, a category that expresses the author's tendency (inclination, intention, preconceived idea) in the artistic coverage of this topic. In other words, idea is the subjective basis of a literary work. It is noteworthy that in Western literary criticism, based on other methodological principles, instead of the category “artistic idea”, the concept of “intention”, some kind of premeditation, the author’s tendency to express the meaning of the work, is used.

The grander the artistic idea, the longer the work lives. The creators of pop literature, who write outside of great ideas, will soon be forgotten.

V.V. Kozhinov called the artistic idea the semantic type of the work, which grows out of the interaction of images. An artistic idea, unlike a logical idea, is not formulated by the author's statement, but is depicted in all the details of the artistic whole.

In epic works, the idea may be partly formulated in the text itself, as was the case in the narrative. Tolstoy: "There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth." More often, especially in lyrics, the idea permeates the structure of the work and therefore requires a lot of analytical work. The work of art as a whole is much richer than the rational idea that critics usually single out, and in many lyrical works it is simply impossible to single out an idea, because it practically dissolves in pathos. Therefore, one should not reduce the idea of ​​a work to a conclusion or a lesson, and in general it is imperative to look for it.

TOPIC- The subject, the main content of reasoning, presentation, creativity. (S. Ozhegov. Dictionary of the Russian language, 1990.)
TOPIC(Greek Thema) - 1) The subject of presentation, images, research, discussion; 2) the formulation of the problem, which predetermines the selection of life material and the nature of the artistic narrative; 3) the subject of a linguistic statement (...). (Dictionary foreign words, 1984.)

Already these two definitions can confuse the reader: in the first, the word "theme" is equated in meaning with the term "content", while the content of a work of art is immeasurably wider than the theme, the theme is one of the aspects of the content; the second makes no distinction between the concepts of topic and problem, and although topic and problem are philosophically related, they are not the same thing, and you will soon understand the difference.

The following definition of the topic, accepted in literary criticism, is preferable:

TOPIC- this is a vital phenomenon that has become the subject of artistic consideration in the work. The range of such life phenomena is THEME literary work. All phenomena of the world and human life make up the scope of the artist's interests: love, friendship, hatred, betrayal, beauty, ugliness, justice, lawlessness, home, family, happiness, deprivation, despair, loneliness, struggle with the world and oneself, solitude, talent and mediocrity, the joys of life, money , relations in society, death and birth, secrets and mysteries of the world, etc. etc. - these are the words that call life phenomena that become themes in art.

The task of the artist is to creatively study the life phenomenon from the sides interesting to the author, that is artistically reveal the topic. Naturally, this can only be done asking a question(or several questions) to the phenomenon under consideration. This very question, which the artist asks, using the figurative means available to him, is problem literary work.

So,
PROBLEM is a question that does not have a unique solution or involves a set of equivalent solutions. The ambiguity of possible solutions of the problem differs from tasks. The collection of such questions is called PROBLEMS.

The more complex the phenomenon of interest to the author (that is, the more topic), the more questions (problems) it will cause, and the more difficult these issues will be to solve, that is, the deeper and more serious it will be issues literary work.

The theme and the problem are historically dependent phenomena. different eras dictate different themes and problems to artists. For example, the author of the ancient Russian poem of the XII century "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" was worried about the topic of princely strife, and he asked himself questions: how to make the Russian princes stop caring only about personal gain and quarrel with each other, how to unite the disparate forces of the weakening Kyiv state? The 18th century invited Trediakovsky, Lomonosov and Derzhavin to think about scientific and cultural transformations in the state, about what should be ideal ruler, put in the literature the problems of civic duty and equality of all citizens, without exception, before the law. Romantic writers were interested in the secrets of life and death, penetrated into the dark nooks and crannies human soul, solved the problems of a person's dependence on fate and unsolved demonic forces, the interaction of a talented and extraordinary person with a soulless and mundane society of inhabitants.

19th century with its focus on literature critical realism drew artists to new themes and made them think about new problems:

• Through the efforts of Pushkin and Gogol, the “small” man entered literature, and the question arose about his place in society and his relationship with “big” people;
• the women's theme became the most important, and with it the so-called public "women's question"; A. Ostrovsky and L. Tolstoy paid much attention to this topic;
• the theme of home and family acquired a new meaning, and L. Tolstoy studied the nature of the connection between upbringing and a person’s ability to be happy;
• unsuccessful peasant reform and further social upheavals aroused a keen interest in the peasantry, and the theme of peasant life and fate, discovered by Nekrasov, became the leading one in literature, and with it the question: what will be the fate of the Russian peasantry and all of great Russia?
• tragic events in history and public sentiments brought to life the theme of nihilism and opened up new facets in the theme of individualism, which received further development Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Tolstoy in an attempt to resolve the questions: how to warn the younger generation against the tragic mistakes of radicalism and aggressive hatred? How to reconcile the generations of "fathers" and "children" in a troubled and bloody world? How is the relationship between good and evil to be understood today, and what is meant by both? How, in an effort to be different from others, do not lose yourself?
• Chernyshevsky addresses the topic of the public good and asks: "What should be done?" so that a person in Russian society could honestly earn a comfortable life and thereby increase social wealth? How to "equip" Russia for a prosperous life? Etc.

Note! The problem is question, and it should be formulated mainly in interrogative form, especially if the formulation of problems is the task of your essay or other work in the literature.

Sometimes in art, it is the question posed by the author that becomes a real breakthrough - a new one, previously unknown to society, but now burning, vital. Many works are created in order to pose a problem.

So,
IDEA(Greek Idea, concept, representation) - in literature: the main idea of ​​a work of art, the method proposed by the author for solving the problems posed by him. The totality of ideas, the system of author's thoughts about the world and man, embodied in artistic images is called IDEA CONTENT artistic work.

Thus, the scheme of semantic relationships between the topic, problem and idea can be represented as follows:

When you are engaged in the interpretation of a literary work, you are looking for hidden (in scientific terms, implicit) meanings, analyze explicitly and gradually the thoughts expressed by the author, you just study ideological content works. While working on task 8 of your previous work (analysis of a fragment of M. Gorky's story "Chelkash"), you dealt precisely with questions of its ideological content.

When performing tasks on the topic "Content of a literary work: Author's position"Pay attention to the contact statement.

You have set a goal: to learn to understand a critical (educational, scientific) text and correctly, accurately state its content; learn to use analytical language when presenting such a text.

You must learn to solve the following tasks:

• highlight the main idea of ​​the entire text, determine its topic;
• highlight the essence of individual statements of the author and their logical connection;
• convey the author's thoughts not as "one's own", but through indirect speech("The author believes that...");
• expand your vocabulary concepts and terms.

Source text: With all his creativity, Pushkin, of course, is a rebel. He certainly understands the correctness of Pugachev, Stenka Razin, Dubrovsky. He, of course, would be, if he could, on December 14 at Senate Square along with your friends and associates. (G.Volkov)

Variant of the completed task: According to the firm conviction of the critic, Pushkin is a rebel in his work. The scientist believes that Pushkin, realizing the correctness of Pugachev, Stenka Razin, Dubrovsky, would definitely be, if he could, on December 14 on Senate Square, along with like-minded people.

Artistic idea

Artistic idea

The main idea of ​​a work of art. The idea expresses the attitude of the author to the problem posed in his essay, to the thoughts expressed by the characters. The idea of ​​a work is a generalization of the entire content of the work.
Only in normative-didactic essays does the idea of ​​a work take on the character of a clearly expressed, unambiguous judgment (such, for example, fable). As a rule, an artistic idea cannot be reduced to some separate statement reflecting the author's thought. So, the idea of ​​“War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy cannot be reduced to thoughts about the insignificant role of the so-called. great people in history and about fatalism as the idea most acceptable in explaining historical events. When perceiving the plot narrative and the historical and philosophical chapters of "War and Peace" as a single whole, the idea of ​​the work is revealed as a statement about the superiority of natural, spontaneous life over the false and vain existence of those who thoughtlessly follow the social fashion, strive for fame and success. The idea of ​​the novel by F. M. Dostoevsky"Crime and Punishment" is broader and more multifaceted than the idea expressed by Sonya Marmeladova about the inadmissibility for a person to decide whether another has the right to live. For F. M. Dostoevsky, no less important are the thoughts about murder as a sin committed by a person against himself, and as a sin that alienates the killer from people close and dear to him. Equally essential for understanding the idea of ​​the novel is the idea of ​​the limitations of human rationality, of an insurmountable flaw in the mind, capable of constructing any logically consistent theory. The author shows that only life and religious intuition, faith can be a refutation of the God-fighting and inhuman theory.
Often the idea of ​​a work is not reflected at all in the statements of the narrator or characters and can be determined very approximately. This feature is inherent primarily in many so-called. post-realistic works (for example, stories, novels and plays by A.P. Chekhov) and the writings of modernist writers depicting an absurd world (for example, novels, stories and short stories by F. Kafka).
The denial of the existence of the idea of ​​a work is characteristic of literature postmodernism; the idea of ​​a work is not recognized by the theorists of postmodernism either. According to postmodern ideas, a literary text is independent of the will and intention of the author, and the meaning of the work is born when it is read by the reader, who freely places the work in one or another semantic context. Instead of the idea of ​​a work, postmodernism offers a play of meanings, in which a certain final semantic instance is impossible: any idea contained in a work is presented with irony, with detachment. However, in fact, it is hardly justified to speak of the absence of an idea in postmodernist writings. The impossibility of a serious judgment, the total irony and the playful nature of existence - this is the idea that unites postmodern literature.

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Under the editorship of prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

See what an "artistic idea" is in other dictionaries:

The content of the semantic integrity of works of art as a product of emotional experience and mastery of life by the author. Adequately cannot be recreated by means of other arts and logical formulations; expressed throughout... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The content of the semantic integrity of a work of art as a product of emotional experience and mastery of life by the author. Adequately cannot be recreated by means of other arts and logical formulations; expressed throughout... encyclopedic Dictionary

IDEA artistic- (from the Greek idea idea) embodied in production. a claim is an aesthetically generalized author's thought that reflects a certain concept of the world and a person (Artistic Concept). I. is the value-ideological aspect of the artist. prod. and… … Aesthetics: Dictionary

ARTISTIC IDEA- ARTISTIC IDEA, a generalizing, emotional, figurative thought underlying a work of art. The subject of artistic thought is always such individual phenomena of life in which it is most clearly and actively manifested ... ...

artistic idea- (from the Greek idea idea, concept, prototype, representation) the main idea underlying the work of art. Them. realized through the entire system of images, revealed in the entire artistic structure works and thus gives ... ... Dictionary of literary terms

art form- THE FORM ARTISTIC concept denoting the constructive unity of a work of art, its unique integrity. Includes the concepts of architectural, musical and other forms. There are also spatial and temporal ... ... Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science

Children's art school city ​​of Obninsk (MU "Children's Art School") Founded 1964 Director Nadezhda Petrovna Sizova Address 249020, Kaluga region, Obninsk, Guryanov street, house 15 Phone Work + 7 48439 6 44 6 ... Wikipedia

Coordinates: 37°58′32″ s. sh. 23°44′57″ E  / 37.975556° N sh. 23 ... Wikipedia

ARTISTIC CONCEPT- (from lat. conceptus thought, idea) figurative interpretation of life, its problems in production. claim wa, specific ideologically aesthetic orientation as a separate product, and the work of the artist as a whole. Differ K. x. both direct and... Aesthetics: Dictionary

ARTISTRY- ARTISTRY, a complex combination of qualities that determines the belonging of the fruits of creative work to the field of art. For H., a sign of completeness and adequate embodiment of a creative idea, that “artistry”, which is ... ... Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary

Books

• The Knight in the Panther's Skin, Shota Rustaveli. Moscow, 1941. State publishing house " Fiction". Publisher's binding with a gilded profile of the author. Good preservation. With many individual illustrations ...

1. Theme as an objective basis for the content of the work. 2. Types of topics. 3. Question and problem.

4. Types of ideas in literary text. 5. Paphos and its types.

1. In the last lesson, we studied the categories of content and form of a literary work. Theme and idea are the most important components of the content.

The term topic is often used with different meanings. Word theme of Greek origin, in the language of Plato it means position, basis. In the science of literature, the topic is most often called the subject of the image. The theme holds all the pieces together artistic text, gives unity to the values ​​of its individual elements. The theme is everything that has become the subject of image, evaluation, knowledge. It contains common sense content. O. Fedotov in the textbook on literary criticism gives the following definition of the topic category: “The topic is a phenomenon or object selected, meaningful and reproduced by certain artistic means. The theme shines through in all images, episodes and scenes, ensuring the unity of action. it objective the basis of the work, its depicted part. The choice of a topic, work on it are connected with the experience, interests, mood of the author. But there is no evaluation, problematicity in the topic. The theme of the little man is traditional for Russian classics and is characteristic of many works.

2. In a work, one theme can dominate, subjugate the entire content, the entire composition of the text, such a theme is called the main or leading one. Such a theme is the main meaningful moment in the work. In a plot work, this is the basis of the fate of the hero, in a dramatic one, the essence of the conflict, in a lyrical work, it is formed by dominant motifs.

Often the main theme is suggested by the title of the piece. The title may include general idea about life events. "War and Peace" are words denoting the two main states of humanity, and Tolstoy's work with this title is a novel that embodies life in these main states of life. But the title can communicate the specific phenomenon depicted. So, Dostoevsky's story "The Gambler" is a work that reflects a person's destructive passion for the game. The understanding of the topic stated in the title of the work can significantly expand as the literary text unfolds. The title itself can acquire symbolic meaning. The poem "Dead Souls" has become a terrible reproach to modernity, lifelessness, lack of spiritual light. The image introduced by the title can become the key to the author's interpretation of the events depicted.

M. Aldanov's tetralogy "The Thinker" contains a prologue, which depicts the time of the construction of Notre Dame Cathedral, that moment when in 1210-1215. the famous chimera of the devil is created. A chimera in medieval art is an image of a fantastic monster. From the top of the cathedral, a horned, hook-nosed beast, with his tongue hanging out, with soulless eyes, looks at the center of the eternal city and contemplates the Inquisition, fires, the great French Revolution. The motive of the devil, skeptically contemplating the course of world history, turns out to be one of the means of expressing the author's historiosophy. This motive is leading, at the topic level it is the leitmotif of Aldanov's four books on world history.

Often the title indicates the most acute social or ethical problems of reality. The author, comprehending them in the work, can put the question in the title of the book: this happened with the novel “What is to be done?” N.G. Chernyshevsky. Sometimes a philosophical opposition is outlined in the title: for example, in Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". Sometimes there is an assessment or a sentence, as in the scandalous book by Sullivan (Boris Vian) "I will come to spit on your graves." But the title does not always exhaust the theme of the work, it can be provocative, even polemical to the entire content of the text. So, I. Bunin deliberately titled his works in such a way that the title did not reveal anything: neither the plot nor the theme.

In addition to the main topic, there may be topics of certain chapters, parts, paragraphs, and, finally, just sentences. B. V. Tomashevsky noted the following on this occasion: “In artistic expression separate sentences, combined with each other in their meaning, result in a certain construction united by a common thought or theme. That is, the entire literary text can be divided into its constituent parts, and in each one a specific topic can be distinguished. So, in the story Queen of Spades“The theme of the cards turns out to be an organizing force, it is suggested by the title, the epigraph, but other themes are expressed in the chapters of the story, which are sometimes reduced to the level of motives. In a work, several themes can be of equal magnitude; they are declared by the author as strongly and significantly as if each of them were the main theme. This is a case of the existence of contrapuntal themes (from lat. punctum contra punctum- dot against dot), this term It has musical basis and means the simultaneous combination of two or more melodically independent voices. In literature, this is a conjugation of several topics.

Another criterion for distinguishing topics is their connection with time. Transient topics, the topics of one day, the so-called topical, do not live long. They are characteristic of satirical works (the theme of slave labor in the fairy tale by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin "Konyaga"), texts of journalistic content, fashionable superficial novels, that is, fiction. Hot Topics live as long as they are allowed by the topic of the day, by the interest of the modern reader. The capacity of their content may be either very small or completely uninteresting to subsequent generations. The theme of collectivization in the villages, presented in the works of V. Belov, B. Mozhaev, now does not affect the reader, who lives not so much with the desire to understand the problems of the history of the Soviet state, but in the problems of life in the new capitalist country. The widest limits of relevance and significance are reached by universal (ontological) Topics. Human interests in love, death, happiness, truth, the meaning of life are unchanged throughout history. These are themes relating to all times, all nations and cultures.

"Analysis of subject matter involves consideration of the time of the action, the place of the action, the breadth or narrowness of the material depicted." About the methodology for analyzing topics in his manual, writes A.B. Esin.

3. In most works, especially epic kind, even general ontological themes are concretized, sharpened in the form of topical problems. To solve a problem, it is often necessary to go beyond old knowledge, past experience, to reevaluate values. For three hundred years, the theme of the “little man” has existed in Russian literature, but the problem of his life is solved in different ways in the works of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky. The hero of the story "Poor People" Makar Devushkin reads "The Overcoat" by Gogol and "The Stationmaster" by Pushkin and notices the peculiarity of his position. The girl is looking at human dignity otherwise. He is poor, but proud, he can declare himself, his right, he can challenge " big people», strong of the world this, because he respects the person in himself and others. And he is much closer to the character of Pushkin, also a man of great heart, depicted lovingly, than the character of Gogol, a suffering, petty man, presented very low. G. Adamovich once remarked that “Gogol essentially mocks his unfortunate Akaky Akakievich, and it is no accident that [Dostoevsky in Poor Folk] contrasted Pushkin with him, who in The Stationmaster treated the same helpless old man much more humanely” .

Often the concepts of topic and problem are identified, they are used as synonyms. It will be more accurate if the problem is seen as concretization, updating, sharpening of the topic. The theme may be eternal, but the problem may change. The theme of love in Anna Karenina and the Kreutzer Sonata has a tragic content precisely because at the time of Tolstoy the problem of divorce in society was not solved at all, there were no such laws in the state. But the same theme is unusually tragic in Bunin's book " Dark alleys”, written during the 2nd World War. It is revealed against the background of the problems of people whose love and happiness are impossible in an era of revolutions, wars, and emigration. The problems of love and marriage of people born before the cataclysms of Russia are solved by Bunin in an exceptionally original way.

In Chekhov's story "Thick and Thin" the theme is the life of Russian bureaucracy. The problem will be voluntary servility, the question of why a person goes to self-humiliation. The theme of space and possible interplanetary contact, the problem of the consequences of this contact is clearly indicated in the novels of the Strugatsky brothers.

In the works of the Russian classical literature The problem most often has the character of a socially significant issue. And more than that. If Herzen posed the question “Who is to blame?”, and Chernyshevsky asked “What to do?”, then these artists themselves offered answers, solutions. In the books of the 19th century, an assessment was given, an analysis of reality and ways to achieve a social ideal. Therefore, Chernyshevsky's novel "What is to be done?" Lenin called the textbook of life. However, Chekhov said that the solution of problems is not necessarily in literature, because life, continuing indefinitely, itself does not give final answers. What is more important is the correct formulation of problems.

Thus, a problem is one or another feature of the life of an individual, an entire environment, or even a people, leading to some generalizing thoughts.

The writer does not speak with the reader in a rational language, he does not formulate ideas and problems, but presents us with a picture of life and thereby prompts thoughts that researchers call ideas or problems.

4. When analyzing a work, along with the concepts of “thematic” and “problematics”, the concept of an idea is also used, which most often means the answer to a question allegedly posed by the author.

Ideas in literature can be different. An idea in literature is a thought contained in a work. There are logical ideas, or concepts, which we are able to perceive with the intellect and which are easily conveyed without figurative means. For novels and short stories are characterized by philosophical and social generalizations, ideas, analyzes of causes and effects, then a network of abstract elements.

But there is a special kind of very subtle, barely perceptible ideas in a literary work. An artistic idea is a thought embodied in a figurative form. It lives only in figurative implementation, it cannot be presented in the form of a sentence or concepts. The peculiarity of this thought depends on the disclosure of the topic, the worldview of the author, transmitted by the speech and actions of the characters, on the depiction of pictures of life. It is in the clutch of logical thoughts, images, all significant compositional elements. An artistic idea cannot be reduced to a rational idea that can be concretized or illustrated. The idea of ​​this type is inseparable from the image, from the composition.

The formation of an artistic idea is a complex creative process. It is influenced by personal experience, the worldview of the writer, understanding of life. An idea can be nurtured for years, the author, trying to realize it, suffers, rewrites, looking for adequate means of implementation. All themes, characters, all events are necessary for a more complete expression of the main idea, its nuances, shades. However, it is necessary to understand that an artistic idea is not equal to an ideological concept, the plan that often appears not only in the head of the writer, but also on paper. Exploring non-artistic reality, reading diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, archives, scientists restore the history of the idea, the history of creation, but do not discover the artistic idea. Sometimes it happens that the author goes against himself, yielding to the original idea for the sake of artistic truth, an inner idea.

One thought is not enough to write a book. If everything that I would like to talk about is known in advance, then you should not turn to artistic creativity. Better - to criticism, journalism, journalism.

The idea of ​​a literary work cannot be contained in one phrase and one image. But writers, especially novelists, sometimes try to formulate the idea of ​​their work. Dostoevsky said about The Idiot: "The main idea of ​​the novel is to depict a positively beautiful person." But Nabokov did not take him for the same declarative ideology. Indeed, the phrase of the novelist does not clarify why, why he did it, what is the artistic and vital basis of his image.

Therefore, along with the cases of defining the so-called main idea, other examples are known. Tolstoy to the question "What is "War and Peace"? answered as follows: “War and Peace is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed.” Tolstoy once again demonstrated his unwillingness to translate the idea of ​​his work into the language of concepts, speaking of the novel Anna Karenina: “If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express in a novel, then I should have written the very one that I wrote first” (letter to N. Strakhov).

Belinsky very accurately pointed out that “art does not allow abstract philosophical, and even more so rational ideas: it allows only poetic ideas; and the poetic idea is<…>not a dogma, not a rule, it is a living passion, pathos" (lat. pathos- feeling, passion, inspiration).

V.V. Odintsov expressed his understanding of the artistic idea category more strictly: “The idea of ​​a literary work is always specific and is not derived directly not only from the individual statements of the writer lying outside of it (the facts of his biography, social life, etc.), but also from the text - from replicas goodies, journalistic inserts, remarks of the author himself, etc.”

Literary critic G.A. Gukovsky also spoke about the need to distinguish between rational, that is, rational, and literary ideas: “Under the idea, I mean not only a rationally formulated judgment, statement, not even just the intellectual content of a work of literature, but the entire sum of its content, which constitutes its intellectual function, its purpose and purpose." And he further explained: “To understand the idea of ​​a literary work means to understand the idea of ​​each of its components in their synthesis, in their systemic interconnection.<…>At the same time, it is important to take into account the structural features of the work - not only the words-bricks that make up the walls of the building, but the structure of the combination of these bricks as parts of this structure, their meaning.

O.I. Fedotov, comparing the artistic idea with the theme, the objective basis of the work, said the following: “An idea is an attitude towards the depicted, the fundamental pathos of the work, a category that expresses the author’s tendency ( inclination, intention preconceived idea) in the artistic coverage of this topic. Therefore, the idea is the subjective basis of the work. It is noteworthy that in Western literary criticism, based on other methodological principles, instead of the category of artistic idea, the concept of intention, some kind of premeditation, the author's tendency to express the meaning of the work is used. This is discussed in detail in the work of A. Companion "The Demon of Theory". In addition, in some modern domestic studies, scientists use the category of "creative concept". In particular, it sounds in the textbook edited by L. Chernets.

The grander the artistic idea, the longer the work lives.

V.V. Kozhinov called the artistic idea the semantic type of the work, which grows out of the interaction of images. Summarizing the statements of writers and philosophers, we can say that thin. The idea, in contrast to the logical idea, is not formulated by the author's statement, but is depicted in all the details of the artistic whole. The evaluative or value aspect of a work, its ideological and emotional orientation is called a trend. In the literature of socialist realism, the trend was interpreted as partisanship.

In epic works, ideas can be partly formulated in the text itself, as it is in Tolstoy's narrative: "There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth." More often, especially in lyrics, the idea permeates the structure of the work and therefore requires a lot of analytical work. The work of art as a whole is richer than the rational idea that critics usually isolate. In many lyrical works, the selection of an idea is untenable, because it practically dissolves in pathos. Therefore, one should not reduce the idea to a conclusion, a lesson and look for it without fail.

5. Not everything in the content of a literary work is determined by themes and ideas. The author expresses the ideological and emotional attitude to the subject with the help of images. And, although the author's emotionality is individual, some elements naturally repeat themselves. AT various works similar emotions, close types of illumination of life are manifested. The types of this emotional orientation include tragedy, heroism, romance, drama, sentimentality, as well as the comic with its varieties (humor, irony, grotesque, sarcasm, satire).

The theoretical status of these concepts causes much controversy. Some modern scientists, continuing the traditions of V.G. Belinsky, they call them "types of pathos" (G. Pospelov). Others call them "artistic modes" (V. Tyupa) and add that these are the embodiments of the author's concept of personality. Still others (V. Khalizev) call them “ideological emotions”.

At the heart of the events, actions depicted in many works, there is a conflict, confrontation, the struggle of someone with someone, something with something.

At the same time, contradictions can be not only different strength but also of different content and character. A kind of answer that the reader often wants to find can be considered the emotional attitude of the author to the characters of the characters portrayed and to the type of their behavior, to conflicts. Indeed, a writer can sometimes reveal his likes and dislikes for a particular type of personality, while not always unambiguously assessing him. So, F.M. Dostoevsky, condemning what Raskolnikov invented, at the same time sympathizes with him. I.S. Turgenev examines Bazarov through the lips of Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, but at the same time appreciates him, emphasizing his mind, knowledge, will: “Bazarov is smart and knowledgeable,” says Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov with conviction.

It is on the essence and content of the contradictions exposed in a work of art that its emotional tonality depends. And the word pathos is now perceived much broader than a poetic idea, it is the emotional and value orientation of the work and characters.

So, different types of pathos.

tragic tone is present where there is a violent conflict that cannot be tolerated and cannot be safely resolved. This may be a contradiction between man and inhuman forces (rock, God, elements). It can be a confrontation between groups of people (a war of nations), finally, internal conflict, that is, the clash of opposite principles in the minds of one hero. This is the realization of an irreparable loss: human life, freedom, happiness, love.

Understanding the tragic goes back to the writings of Aristotle. The theoretical development of the concept refers to the aesthetics of romanticism and Hegel. The central character is a tragic hero, a person who finds himself in a situation of discord with life. This is a strong personality, not bent by circumstances, and therefore doomed to suffering and death.

Among such conflicts are the contradictions between personal impulses and superpersonal restrictions - caste, class, moral. Such contradictions gave rise to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, who loved each other, but belonged to different clans of the Italian society of their time; Katerina Kabanova, who fell in love with Boris and understood the sinfulness of her love for him; Anna Karenina, tormented by the consciousness of the abyss between her, society and her son.

A tragic situation can also develop in the presence of a contradiction between the desire for happiness and freedom and the hero's awareness of his weakness and impotence in achieving them, which entails motives of skepticism and doom. For example, such motives are heard in the speech of Mtsyri, pouring out his soul to an old monk and trying to explain to him how he dreamed of living in his village, but was forced to spend his whole life, except for three days, in a monastery. The fate of Elena Stakhova from the novel by I.S. Turgenev "On the Eve", who lost her husband immediately after the wedding and went with his coffin to a foreign country.

The height of tragic pathos is that it instills faith in a person who has courage, remaining true to himself even before death. Since antiquity, the tragic hero has had to experience a moment of guilt. According to Hegel, this guilt lies in the fact that a person violates the established order. Therefore, the concept of tragic guilt is characteristic of works of tragic pathos. It is in the tragedy "Oedipus Rex", and in the tragedy "Boris Godunov". The mood in the works of such a warehouse is sorrow, compassion. Since the second half of the 19th century, the tragic has been understood more and more widely. It includes everything that causes fear, horror in human life. After the spread of the philosophical doctrines of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the existentialists attach universal significance to the tragic. In accordance with such views, the main property of human existence is catastrophicity. Life is meaningless because of the death of individual beings. In this aspect, the tragic is reduced to a sense of hopelessness, and those qualities that were characteristic of strong personality(affirmation of courage, resilience) are leveled and not taken into account.

In a literary work, both tragic and dramatic beginnings can be combined with heroic. heroics arises and is felt there and then, when people undertake or take active actions for the sake of the good of others, in the name of protecting the interests of a tribe, clan, state, or simply a group of people in need of help. People are ready to take risks, to meet death with dignity in the name of realizing lofty ideals. Most often, such situations occur during periods of national liberation wars or movements. Moments of heroics were reflected in the Tale of Igor's Campaign in Prince Igor's decision to join the fight against the Polovtsy. At the same time, heroic-tragic situations can also take place in peacetime, at times of natural disasters arising due to the “fault” of nature (floods, earthquakes) or the person himself. Accordingly, they appear in the literature. Greater poeticization is achieved by events in the folk epos, legends, epics. The hero in them is an exceptional figure, his deeds are a socially significant feat. Hercules, Prometheus, Vasily Buslaev. Sacrificial heroism in the novel "War and Peace", the poem "Vasily Terkin". In the 1930s and 1940s, heroism was required under duress. From the works of Gorky, the idea was planted: in everyone's life there should be a feat. In the 20th century, the literature of the struggle contains the heroism of resistance to lawlessness, the heroism of upholding the right to freedom (V. Shalamov's stories, V. Maksimov's novel "Admiral Kolchak's Star").

L.N. Gumilyov believed that the truly heroic could only be at the origins of the life of the people. Any process of nation formation begins with the heroic deeds of small groups of people. He called these people passionaries. But crisis situations that require heroic-sacrificial deeds from people always arise. Therefore, the heroic in literature will always be significant, high and inescapable. An important condition for the heroic, Hegel believed, is free will. A forced feat (the case of a gladiator), in his opinion, cannot be heroic.

Heroic can be combined with romance. romance called the enthusiastic state of the individual, caused by the desire for something high, beautiful, morally significant. The sources of romance are the ability to feel the beauty of nature, to feel like a part of the world, the need to respond to someone else's pain and someone else's joy. The behavior of Natasha Rostova often gives reason to perceive it as romantic, because of all the heroes of the novel "War and Peace" she alone has a lively nature, a positive emotional charge, and dissimilarity to secular young ladies, which was immediately noticed by the rational Andrei Bolkonsky.

Romance for the most part and manifests itself in the sphere of personal life, revealing itself in moments of expectation or the onset of happiness. Since happiness in the minds of people is primarily associated with love, then the romantic worldview most likely makes itself felt at the moment of approaching love or hope for it. We meet the image of romantically inclined heroes in the works of I.S. Turgenev, for example, in his story "Asya", where the characters (Asya and Mr. N.), close to each other in spirit and culture, experience joy, emotional upsurge, which is expressed in their enthusiastic perception of nature, art and themselves, in joy communication with each other. And yet, most often, the pathos of romance is associated with an emotional experience that does not turn into action, an act. Achieving a lofty ideal is impossible in principle. So, in Vysotsky's poems, it seems to young men that they were born late to participate in wars:

... And in basements and semi-basements

The kids wanted under the tanks,

They didn't even get a bullet...

The world of romance is a dream, fantasy, romantic ideas are often associated with the past, exotic: Lermontov's Borodino, Kuprin's Shulamith, Lermontov's Mtsyri, Gumilyov's Giraffe.

The pathos of romance can act together with other types of pathos: irony in Blok, heroism in Mayakovsky, satire in Nekrasov.

The combination of heroism and romance is possible in those cases when the hero performs or wants to perform a feat, and this is perceived by him as something sublime. Such an interweaving of heroism and romance is observed in "War and Peace" in the behavior of Petya Rostov, who was obsessed with the desire to personally take part in the fight against the French, which led to his death.

The prevailing tonality in the content of the overwhelming number of works of art, undoubtedly, dramatic. Trouble, disorder, dissatisfaction of a person in the spiritual sphere, in personal relationships, in public position- these are the real signs of drama in life and literature. The failed love of Tatyana Larina, Princess Mary, Katerina Kabanova and other heroines famous works testifies to the dramatic moments of their lives.

Moral and intellectual dissatisfaction and unfulfillment of the personal potential of Chatsky, Onegin, Bazarov, Bolkonsky and others; social humiliation of Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin from the story of N.V. Gogol's "The Overcoat", as well as the Marmeladov family from the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment", many heroines from the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who should live well in Russia”, almost all the characters in M. Gorky's play “At the Bottom” - all this serves as a source and indicator of dramatic contradictions.

Emphasizing romantic, dramatic, tragic and, of course, heroic moments in the lives of heroes and their moods in most cases becomes form of expression of sympathy for the characters, the way they are supported and protected by their author. Undoubtedly, W. Shakespeare is going through with Romeo and Juliet about the circumstances that prevent their love, A.S. Pushkin pities Tatyana, who is not understood by Onegin, F.M. Dostoevsky mourns the fate of such girls as Dunya and Sonya, A.P. Chekhov sympathizes with the suffering of Gurov and Anna Sergeevna, who fell in love with each other very deeply and seriously, but they have no hope of uniting their destinies.

However, it happens that the image of romantic moods becomes way of debunking the hero, sometimes even condemning him. So, for example, the vague verses of Lensky evoke a slight irony of A. S. Pushkin. The depiction of Raskolnikov's dramatic experiences by F. M. Dostoevsky is in many ways a form of condemnation of the hero, who conceived a monstrous version of correcting his life and became entangled in his thoughts and feelings.

Sentimentality is a kind of pathos with a predominance of subjectivity and sensitivity. All R. In the 18th century it was dominant in the works of Richardson, Stern, Karamzin. He is in "The Overcoat" and "Old World Landowners", in the early Dostoevsky, in "Mu-mu", Nekrasov's poetry.

More often in a discrediting role are humor and satire. Humor and satire in this case mean another variant of emotional orientation. Both in life and in art, humor and satire are generated by such characters and situations that are called comic. The essence of the comic is to detect and reveal the discrepancy between the real capabilities of people (and, accordingly, the characters) and their claims, or the discrepancy between their essence and appearance. The pathos of satire is devastating, satire reveals socially significant vices, exposes a deviation from the norm, ridicules. The pathos of humor is affirmative, because the subject of a humorous sensation sees not only the shortcomings of others, but also his own. Awareness of one's own shortcomings gives hope of healing (Zoshchenko, Dovlatov). Humor is an expression of optimism (“Vasily Terkin”, “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik” by Hasek).

A mockingly evaluative attitude to comic characters and situations is called irony. Unlike the previous ones, it carries skepticism. She does not agree with the assessment of life, situation or character. In Voltaire's story "Candide, or Optimism", the hero refutes his own attitude with his fate: "Everything that is done, everything is for the better." But the reverse opinion “everything is for the worse” is not accepted. The pathos of Voltaire is in mocking skepticism towards extreme principles. Irony can be light, non-malicious, but it can become unkind, judgmental. Deep irony, which causes not a smile and laughter in the usual sense of the word, but a bitter experience, is called sarcasm. The reproduction of comic characters and situations, accompanied by an ironic assessment, leads to the appearance of humorous or satirical works of art: Moreover, not only works can be humorous and satirical verbal art(parodies, anecdotes, fables, stories, stories, plays), but also drawings, sculptural images, mimic representations.

In the story of A.P. Chekhov's "The Death of an Official" comically manifests itself in the absurd behavior of Ivan Dmitrievich Chervyakov, who, while in the theater, accidentally sneezed on the general's bald head and was so frightened that he began to pester him with his apologies and pursued him until he aroused the general's real anger, which and led the official to death. The absurdity in the inconsistency of the perfect act (sneezed) and the reaction caused by it (repeated attempts to explain to the general that he, Chervyakov, did not want to offend him). In this story, sadness is mixed with the funny, since such a fear of a high face is a sign of the dramatic position of a small official in the system of official relations. Fear can generate unnaturalness in human behavior. This situation was reproduced by N.V. Gogol in the comedy "The Government Inspector". Identification of serious contradictions in the behavior of the characters, which clearly gives rise to negative attitude to them, becomes a hallmark of satire. Classical examples of satire are given by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (“How a peasant fed two generals”).

Grotesque(French grotesque, literally - bizarre; comical; Italian grottesco - bizarre, Italian grotta - grotto, cave) - one of the varieties of the comic, combines terrible and funny, ugly and sublime in a fantastic form, and also brings together the distant, combines the incongruous , intertwines the unreal with the real, the present with the future, reveals the contradictions of reality. As a form of comic grotesque, it differs from humor and irony in that in it the funny and funny are inseparable from the terrible and sinister; as a rule, images of the grotesque carry a tragic meaning. In the grotesque, behind the outward implausibility, fantasticness lies a deep artistic generalization of the important phenomena of life. The term "grotesque" became widespread in the fifteenth century, when during excavations of underground rooms (grottoes) wall paintings with whimsical patterns, which used motifs from plant and animal life. Therefore, distorted images were originally called grotesque. How artistic image the grotesque is characterized by two-dimensionality, contrast. Grotesque is always a deviation from the norm, convention, exaggeration, deliberate caricature, so it is widely used for satirical purposes. Examples of the literary grotesque are N.V. Gogol's story "The Nose" or "Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober" by E.T.A. Hoffmann, fairy tales and stories by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

To define pathos means to establish the type of attitude towards the world and man in the world.

Literature

1. Introduction to literary criticism. Fundamentals of the theory of literature: a textbook for bachelors / V. P. Meshcheryakov, A. S. Kozlov [and others]; under total ed. V. P. Meshcheryakova. 3rd ed., revised. and additional Moscow, 2013, pp. 33–37, 47–51.

2. Esin A. B. Principles and methods of analysis of a literary work: Proc. allowance. M., 1998. S. 34–74.

additional literature

1. Gukovsky G. A. Studying a literary work at school: Methodological essays on methodology. Tula, 2000, pp. 23–36.

2. Odintsov VV Stylistics of the text. M., 1980. S. 161–162.

3. Rudneva E. G. Paphos of a work of art. M., 1977.

4. Tomashevsky B. V. Theory of Literature. Poetics. M., 1996. S. 176.

5. Fedotov OI Introduction to literary criticism: Proc. allowance. M., 1998. S. 30–33.

6. Esalnek A. Ya. Fundamentals of literary criticism. Analysis of literary text: Proc. allowance. M., 2004. S. 10–20.

Fedotov OI Introduction to literary criticism. M., 1998.

Sierotwiński S. Słownik terminów literackich. S. 161.

Tomashevsky B.V. Theories of literature. Poetics. M., 1996. S. 176.

Esalnek A.Ya. Fundamentals of literary criticism. Analysis of a work of art: Tutorial. M., 2004. S. 11.

Esin A.B. Principles and methods of analysis of a literary work: Textbook. M., 1998. S. 36-40.

Adamovich G. Report on Gogol // Berberova N. People and lodges. Russian Masons of the XX century. - Kharkov: "Kaleidoscope"; M .: "Progress-Tradition", 1997. S. 219.

A logically formulated general idea about a class of objects or phenomena; idea of ​​something. The concept of time.

Dostoevsky F.M. Collected works: In 30 tons. T. 28. Book 2. P.251.

Odintsov V.V. Text style. M., 1980. S. 161-162.

Gukovsky G.A. The study of literature in school. M.; L., 1966. S.100-101.

Gukovsky G.A. S.101, 103.

Companion A. Demon theory. M., 2001. S. 56-112.

Chernets L.V. Literary work as an artistic unity // Introduction to literary criticism / Ed. L.V. Chernets. M., 1999. S. 174.

Esalnek A. Ya. S. 13-22.

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Lecture 5. Idea, theme, composition, plot and plot of a work of art.

1. The idea of ​​a work of art.

Idea (from the Greek idea - prototype, ideal) - the main idea of ​​​​the work, expressed through its entire figurative system. It is the mode of expression that distinguishes the idea of ​​a work of art from a scientific idea.

The main thesis of statements about art by V.G. Plekhanov - “art cannot live without an idea” - and he repeats this idea repeatedly, analyzing this or that work of art. “The merit of a work of art,” writes Plekhanov, “is determined in the last analysis by the weight of that feeling, the depth of the idea that it expresses.”

For educational literature of the 1111th century. was characterized by high ideological content, due to the desire to reorganize society on the principles of reason. At the same time, the so-called salon, aristocratic literature "in the rococo style", devoid of high citizenship, also developed.

And in the future, there always existed in literature and art two parallel ideological currents, sometimes touching and mixing, but more often separating and developing independently, gravitating towards opposite poles.

In this regard, the problem of correlation in the work of "ideological" and "artistic" is extremely important. But even outstanding artists words are far from always able to translate the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bdesign into a perfect art form. Most often, writers who are completely “absorbed” by carrying out this or that idea stray into ordinary journalism and rhetoric, leaving artistic expressiveness on the second and third planes. This applies equally to all genres of art. According to V.G. Belinsky, the idea of ​​a work "is not an abstract thought, not a dead form, but a living creation."

1. 1. Artwork Theme .

Topic (from Greek thema) - what is put in the basis, the main problem and the main circle of life events depicted by the writer. The theme of the work is inextricably linked with its idea. The selection of material, the formulation of problems (the choice of topic) is dictated by the ideas that the author would like to express in the work.

It was about this connection between the theme and the idea of ​​the work that M. Gorky wrote: “The theme is an idea that originated in the author’s experience, is suggested to him by life, but nestles in the receptacle of his impressions still unformed, and requiring embodiment in images, arouses in him the urge to work its design."

Along with the term "theme" is often used and close to it in meaning the term " themes". Its application indicates that the work includes not only the main, but also whole line subsidiary themes and subject lines; or the themes of many works are closely related to one or a set of several related themes, forming an extensive theme of one class.

3. The plot of a work of art.

Plot (from French sujet - subject) - the course of the narrative about the events unfolding and happening in a work of art. As a rule, any such episode is subordinated to the main or auxiliary storyline.

However, there is no single definition of this term in literary criticism. There are three main approaches:

1) a plot is a way of developing a theme or presenting a plot;

2) plot is a way of developing a theme or presenting a plot;

3) the plot and the plot do not have a fundamental difference.

The plot is based on the conflict (clash of interests and characters) between the characters. That is why where there is no narration (lyrics), there is no plot.

The term "plot" was introduced in the 11th century. classicists P. Corneille and N. Boileau, but they were followers of Aristotle. Aristotle called what is called a "plot" a "narrative." Hence the "storyline".

The plot consists of the following main elements:

exposition

tie

Action development

climax

denouement

exposition (lat. expositio - explanation, presentation) - an element of the plot containing a description of the life of the characters before they begin to act in the work. direct exposure located at the beginning of the story delayed exposure fits anywhere, but it must be said that modern writers rarely use this element of the plot.

tie - the initial, starting episode of the plot. She usually appears at the beginning of the story, but this is not the rule. So, about Chichikov's desire to buy dead Souls we learn only at the end of Gogol's poem.

Development of action proceeds at will actors storytelling and authorship. The development of the action precedes the climax.

climax (from lat. culmen - peak) - the moment of the highest tension of action in the work, its fracture. After the climax comes the denouement.

denouement - the final part of the plot, the end of the action, where the conflict is resolved and it turns out, the motivation for the actions of the main and some minor characters is revealed, and their psychological portraits are clarified.

The denouement sometimes precedes the plot, especially in detective works, where, in order to interest the reader and capture his attention, the narrative begins with a murder.

Other supporting plot elements are prologue, prehistory, digression, inserted short story and epilogue.

However, in modern literary process we often do not meet with detailed expositions, or with prologues and epilogues, or with other elements of the plot, and even sometimes the plot itself is blurred, barely drawn, or even completely absent.

4. The plot of a work of art .

Plot (from lat. fabula - fable, story) - a sequence of events. This term was introduced by ancient Roman writers, apparently referring to the same property of narration that Aristotle spoke of.

Subsequently, the use of the terms "plot" and "plot" led to confusion, which is almost impossible to resolve without introducing other clarifying and explaining terms.

In modern literary criticism, the interpretation of correlation and plot, proposed by representatives of the Russian "formal school" and considered in detail in the works of G. Pospelov, is more often used. They understand the plot as “the events themselves”, chronologically fixed, while the plot is “the story of the events”.

Academician A.N. Veselovsky in his work "Historical Poetics" (1906) proposed the concept of " motive ”, giving it the meaning of the simplest narrative unit, similar to the concept of “element” in the periodic table. Combinations of the simplest motifs form, according to Veselovsky, the plot of a work of art.

5. Composition (from Latin compositio - compilation, binding) - the construction, arrangement of all elements of the form of a work of art, due to its content, nature and purpose, and largely determining its perception by the viewer, reader, listener.

Composition is internal and external.

To the sphere internal composition include all static elements of the work: portrait, landscape, interior, as well as extra-plot elements - exposure (prologue, introduction, prehistory), epilogue, inserted episodes, short stories; digressions (lyrical, philosophical, journalistic); motivations for narrative and description; forms of speech of characters (monologue, dialogue, correspondence, diary, notes; forms of narration (spatio-temporal, psychological, ideological, phraseological.

To external composition refer division epic work on books, parts and chapters; lyrical - into parts and stanzas; lyric-epic - for songs; dramatic - on acts and pictures.

Much is known today about composition, as well as about other elements of the plot of a work of art, but not every author succeeds in compiling an ideal composition. The point, obviously, is not so much in "knowing" how to do it, but in the presence of talent, taste and sense of proportion of the artist.

6. Ideological and value point of view.

The value level of a work of art depends on the system of ideological perception of the world either by the author himself, or from the point of view of the characters. Often, the assessment in a work is carried out from one dominant point of view, subordinating all the others.

If different points of view contradict each other, then there is a phenomenon of internal polyphony .

According to B.A. Uspensky, the phenomenon of polyphony has the following constituent elements: 1) the presence in the work of several independent points of view; 2) points of view must belong to the participants of the action; 3) points of view should be manifested primarily in terms of evaluation, i.e. as points of view ideologically valuable.

7. Linguistic (“phraseological”) point of view.

Linguistic means of expressing a point of view used to characterize its carrier (characters, heroes of a work) can be as follows: 1) the style of the narrator's speech and 2) the style of the characters' speeches (determined by the worldview position of both the author and the characters). There are also various kinds of references in the text to a particular point of view.

8. Spatio-temporal point of view.

The images of the heroes are revealed most fully if the spatial and temporal positions of both the narrator and the characters of the work of art coincide.

9. Psychological point of view is revealed when the narrator relies on one or another individual consciousness. (In The Idiot by Dostoevsky, the story of Rogozhin's assassination attempt on Myshkin is given twice - through the eyes of Myshkin himself and the narrator, which helps to imagine this event from two psychologically different points of view).

A new type of polyphony is associated with the psychological point of view - polyphony of individual perceptions .

10. The pathos of a work of art.

Translated from Greek pathos - passion, inspiration, suffering. These three words perfectly convey the meaning of what is commonly called the soul of a work of art.

The term began to be used by ancient rhetoricians, later it moved from rhetoric to poetics. Aristotle believed that a good speech should be "pathetic", but not overly emotional, and urged speakers to be "smooth" and "not be led by passion."

In the era of romanticism, Aristotle was not listened to, because the goal of romanticism was precisely the cultivation of passion by depicting its violent manifestations.

In Russian literary criticism, the theory of pathos developed by V.G. Belinsky. “Art,” he wrote, “does not allow abstract philosophical, much less rational ideas: it allows only poetic ideas; and a poetic idea is not a syllogism, not a dogma, not a rule, it is a living passion, it is pathos.

In the concept of "pathos" in different eras, an unequal meaning was also invested, but at the same time modern researchers(G. Pospelov) there are several types of pathos.

Pathos heroic – “embodiment in the actions of an individual ...”; pathos dramatic , arising under the influence of external forces that threaten the desires and aspirations of the characters; pathos tragic consists in depicting insoluble contradictions between the demands of life and the impossibility of their implementation; pathos satirical, sentimental and romantic pathos.

Per last years the concept of pathos has almost fallen out of use, since the modern literary hero is a “reflective personality”, and, like his author, eschews the open manifestation of feelings and masks them at best with irony.