What is composition and internal plot. Composition and plot of a work of art

Integrity artwork achieved by various means. Among these means, composition and plot play an important role.

Composition(from lat. componere - to compose, connect) - the construction of a work, the ratio of all its elements, creating a holistic picture of life and contributing to the expression ideological content. The composition distinguishes between external elements - division into parts, chapters, and internal - grouping and arrangement of images. When creating a work, the writer carefully thinks over the composition, place and relationship of images and other elements, trying to give the material the greatest ideological and artistic expression. The composition is simple and complex. So, A. Chekhov's story "Ionych" has a simple composition. It consists of five small chapters (external elements) and a simple internal system of images. In the center of the image is Dmitry Startsev, who is opposed by a group of images of the local residents of the Turkins. The composition of L. Tolstoy's epic novel "War and Peace" looks completely different. It consists of four parts, each part is divided into many chapters, significant place occupy the author's philosophical reflections. These are the external elements of the composition. The grouping and arrangement of images-characters, of which there are more than 550, is very difficult. The outstanding skill of the writer was manifested in the fact that, with all the complexity of the material, it is arranged in the most expedient way and is subject to the disclosure of the main idea: the people are the decisive force of history.

AT scientific literature terms are sometimes used architectonics, structure as synonyms for the word composition.

Plot(from French sujet - subject) - a system of events in a work of art, revealing the characters of the characters and contributing to the most complete expression of the ideological content. The system of events is a unity that develops in time, and driving force The plot is conflict. Conflicts are different: social, love, psychological, domestic, military and others. The hero, as a rule, comes into conflict with the social environment, with other people, with himself. There are usually several conflicts in a work. In L. Chekhov's story "Ionych" the hero's conflict with the environment is combined with love. A striking example psychological conflict- Shakespeare's Hamlet. The most common type of conflict is social. Literary critics often use the term collision to designate a social conflict, and intrigue as a love conflict.

The plot consists of a number of elements: exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement, epilogue.

Exposure - initial information about the actors that motivate their behavior in the context of the conflict that has arisen. In the story "Ionych" this is the arrival of Startsev, a description of the "most educated" Turkin family in the city.

Tie - an event that initiates the development of an action, a conflict. In the story "Ionych" Startsev's acquaintance with the Turkin family.

After the tie, the development of the action begins, highest point which is the culmination In the story of L. Chekhov - Startsev's declaration of love, Katya's refusal.

denouement- an event that removes the conflict. In the story "Ionych" - the rupture of relations between Startsev and the Turkins.

Epilogue - information about the events that followed after the denouement. Sometimes. the author himself calls the final part of the story an epilogue. In the story of L. Chekhov there is information about the fate of the heroes, which can be attributed to the epilogue.

In a large work of art, as a rule, there are many storylines and each of them. develops, intertwines with others. Individual elements of the plot may be common. Determining the classic scheme can be difficult.

The movement of the plot in a work of art occurs simultaneously in time and space. To denote the relationship of temporal and spatial relations, M. Bakhtin proposed the term chronotope. artistic time is not a direct reflection of real time, but arises by mounting certain ideas about real time. Real time moves irreversibly and only in one direction - from the past to the future, while artistic time can slow down, stop and move in the opposite direction. Return to the image of the past is called retrospection. Artistic time is a complex interweaving of the times of the narrator and heroes, and often a complex layering of the times of different historical eras (The Master and Margarita by M. Bulgakov). It can be closed, closed in itself, and open, included in the flow of historical time. An example of the first "Ionych" by L. Chekhov, the second - "Quiet Don" by M. Sholokhov.

Along with the term plot there is a term plot which are usually used as synonyms. Meanwhile, some theorists consider them inadequate, insisting on their independent significance. The plot, in their opinion, is a system of events in a causal-temporal sequence, and the plot is a system of events in the author's presentation. Thus, the plot of I. Goncharov's novel "Oblomov" begins with a description of the life of an adult hero living in St. Petersburg with his servant Zakhar in a house on Gorokhovaya Street. The plot involves a presentation of the events of Oblomov's life. starting from childhood (chapter "Oblomov's Dream").

We define a plot as a system, a chain of events. In many cases, the writer, in addition to the story of events, introduces descriptions of nature, everyday pictures, lyrical digressions, reflections, geographical or historical references. They are called extra-plot elements.

It should be noted that there are different principles of plot organization. Sometimes events develop sequentially, in chronological order, sometimes with retrospective digressions, there is an overlap of times. Quite often there is a method of framing the plot plot in the plot. A striking example is Sholokhov's The Fate of a Man. In it, the author tells about his meeting with the driver at the crossing of the overflowing river. While waiting for the ferry, Sokolov spoke about his difficult life, about being in German captivity, and the loss of his family. At the end, the author said goodbye to this man and thought about his fate. The main, main story of Andrei Sokolov is framed by the author's story. This technique is called framing.

Very unique plot and composition. lyrical works. The author depicts in them not events, but thoughts and experiences. The unity and integrity of the lyrical work is ensured by the main lyrical motif, the carrier of which is the lyrical hero. The composition of the poem is subject to the disclosure of thought-feeling. “The lyrical development of the theme,” writes the well-known literary theorist B. Tomashevsky, “reminiscent of the dialectic of theoretical reasoning, with the difference that in the reasoning we have a logically justified introduction of new motives, ... and in the lyrics, the introduction of motives is justified by the emotional development of the theme.” Typical, but in his opinion, is the three-part construction of lyrical poems, when a theme is given in the first part, in the second it develops through lateral motives, and the third is an emotional conclusion. As an example, A. Pushkin's poem "To Chaadaev" can be cited.

Part 1 Love, Hope, Quiet Glory

The deceit did not last long.

Part 2 We wait with languor of hope

Minutes of liberty saint ...

Part 3 Comrade, believe! She will rise

Star of captivating happiness...

The lyrical development of the theme is of two types: deductive - from the general to the particular, and inductive - from the particular to the general. The first is in the above poem by A. Pushkin, the second in the poem by K. Simonov "Do you remember, Alyosha, the roads of the Smolensk region ...".

In some lyrical works there is a plot: " Railway» I. Nekrasov, ballads, songs. They are called story lyrics.

Fine details serve to reproduce the concrete-sensual details of the world of characters, created by the creative imagination of the artist and directly embodying the ideological content of the work. The term "pictorial details" is not recognized by all theorists (the terms "thematic" or "subject" details are also used), but everyone agrees that the artist recreates the details of the appearance and speech of the characters, their inner world, the environment in order to express their thoughts. However, accepting this position, one should not interpret it too straightforwardly and think that every detail (eye color, gestures, clothing, description of the area, etc.) is directly related to the author's goal setting and has a very definite unambiguous meaning. If this were so, the work would lose its artistic specificity and would become tendentiously illustrative.

Visual details contribute to the fact that the world of characters appears before the reader's inner gaze in all its fullness of life, in sounds, colors, volumes, smells, in spatial and temporal extent. Not being able to convey all the details of the picture being drawn, the writer reproduces only some of them, trying to give an impetus to the reader's imagination and force him to complete the missing features with the help of own fantasy. Without “seeing”, without imagining “living” characters, the reader will not be able to empathize with them, and his aesthetic perception works will be defective.

Visual details allow the artist to plastically, visibly recreate the life of the characters, to reveal their characters through individual details. At the same time, they convey the author's evaluative attitude to the reality depicted, create an emotional atmosphere of the narrative. So, rereading the mass scenes in the story "Taras Bulba", one can be convinced that the seemingly scattered replicas and statements of the Cossacks help us "hear" the many-voiced crowd of Cossacks, and various portrait and everyday details - visually imagine it. At the same time, the heroic warehouse is gradually clearing up. folk characters, formed in the conditions of wild freemen and poeticized by Gogol. At the same time, many details are comical, cause a smile, create a humorous tone of the narration (especially in the scenes of peaceful life). Fine details perform here, as in most works, pictorial, characterizing and expressive functions.

In drama, pictorial details are conveyed not by verbal means, but by other means (there is no description of the appearance of the characters, their actions, or the situation, because there are actors on the stage and there are scenery). The speech characteristics of the characters acquire special significance.

In the lyrics, pictorial details are subordinated to the task of recreating the experience in its development, movement, and inconsistency. Here they serve as signs of the event that caused the experience, but they mainly play the role of a psychological characteristic of the lyrical hero. At the same time, their expressive role is also preserved; the experience is conveyed as sublimely romantic, heroic, tragic, or in reduced, for example, ironic tones.

The plot also belongs to the realm of pictorial detail, but stands out for its dynamic character. In epic dramatic works these are the actions of the characters and the events depicted. The actions of the characters that make up the plot are varied - this is different kind actions, statements, experiences and thoughts of the characters. The plot most directly and effectively reveals the character of the character, the protagonist. However, it is important to understand that the actions of the characters also reveal the author's understanding of the typical character and the author's assessment. By forcing the hero to act in one way or another, the artist evokes in the reader a certain evaluative attitude not only towards the hero, but towards the whole type of people that he represents. So, forcing his fictional hero to kill a friend in a duel in the name of secular prejudices, Pushkin evokes a feeling of condemnation in the reader and makes him think about Onegin's inconsistency, about the inconsistency of his character. This is the expressive role of the plot.

The plot moves due to the emergence, development, resolution of various conflicts between the characters of the work. Conflicts can be of a private nature (Onegin's quarrel with Lensky), or they can be a moment, part of socio-historical conflicts that arose in historical reality itself (war, revolution, social movement). The writer's portrayal of plot conflicts most draws attention to the problematic of the work. But it would be wrong to identify these concepts on the basis of this (there is a tendency towards such an identification in Abramovich's textbook, section 2, ch. 2). The problem is the leading side of the ideological content, and the plot conflict is an element of form. It is equally wrong to equate plot with content (as is common in colloquial language). Therefore, the terminology of Timofeev, who proposed to call the plot, together with all the other details of the life depicted, was not recognized as “immediate content” (“Fundamentals of the Theory of Literature”, Part 2, Ch. 1, 2, 3).

The question of the plot in the lyrics is solved in different ways. However, there is no doubt that this term can be applied to lyrics only with great reservations, denoting by it the outline of those events that “shine” through the hero’s lyrical experience and motivate him. Sometimes this term refers to the very movement of lyrical experience.

The composition of pictorial, including plot details, is their location in the text. Using antitheses, repetitions, parallelisms, changing the pace and chronological sequence of events in the narrative, establishing chronicle and causal connections between events, the artist achieves such a relationship that expands and deepens their meaning. In all textbooks, the compositional techniques of narration, the introduction of the narrator, the framing, introductory episodes, the main points in the development of the action, and various motivations are quite fully defined. plot episodes. The discrepancy between the order of plot events and the order of narration about them in the work makes us talk about such an expressive means as the plot. It should be borne in mind that another terminology is also common, when the actual compositional device of permuting events is called the plot (Abramovich, Kozhinov, etc.).

In order to master the material in this section, we recommend that you independently analyze the visual details, the plot and their composition in any epic or dramatic work. It is necessary to pay attention to how the development of the action serves the development of artistic thought - the introduction of new themes, the deepening of problematic motives, the gradual disclosure of the characters' characters and copyright to them. Each new plot scene or description is prepared, motivated by the entire previous image, but does not repeat it, but develops, supplements and deepens it. These components of the form are most directly related to the artistic content and depend on it. Therefore, they are unique as well as the content of each work.

In view of this, the student needs to get acquainted with those theories that ignore the close connection between the plot-pictorial sphere of form and content. This is primarily the so-called comparative theory, which was based on a comparative historical study of the literatures of the world, but misinterpreted the results of such a study. Comparatives focused on the influence of literatures on each other. But they did not take into account that the influence is due to the similarity or difference public relations in the respective countries, but proceeded from the immanent, i.e., internal, allegedly completely autonomous laws of the development of literature. Therefore, the comparativists wrote about "sustainable motives", about the "images bequeathed" of literature, and also about " wandering plots”, without distinguishing between the plot and its scheme. The characteristic of this theory is also in the textbook, ed. G.N. Pospelov and G.L. Abramovich.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-EDUCATION (m. 2)

1. A literary work as an integral unity.

2. The theme of the work of art and its features.

3. The idea of ​​a work of art and its features.

4. Composition of a work of art. External and internal elements.

5. Plot literary work. The concept of conflict. Plot elements. Extra-plot elements. Plot and plot.

6. What is the role of the plot in revealing the ideological content of the work?

7. What is plot composition? What is the difference between narrative and description? What are off-plot episodes and lyrical digressions?

8. What is the function of landscape, domestic environment, portrait and speech characteristics character in the work?

9. Features of the plot of lyrical works.

10. Spatio-temporal organization of the work. The concept of the chronotope.

LITERATURE

Korman B.O. The study of the text of a work of art. - M., 1972.

Abramovich G.L. Introduction to Literary Studies. Ed.6. - M., 1975.

Introduction to Literary Studies / Ed. L.V. Chernets/. M., 2000. - S. 11 -20,

209-219, 228-239, 245-251.

Galich O. ta in. Theory of Literature. K., 2001. -S. 83-115.

Getmanets M.F. Suchasiny dictionary of lgeraturoznavchih terms. - Kharkiv, 2003.

MODULE THREE

LANGUAGE OF ART LITERATURE

Plot (from French sujet) - a chain of events depicted in a literary work, that is, the life of characters in its spatio-temporal changes, in changing positions and circumstances.

The events recreated by the writers form (along with the characters) the basis objective world work and thus an integral "link" of its form. The plot is the organizing principle of most dramatic and epic (narrative) works. It can also be significant in the lyrical genre of literature.

Story elements: The main ones include exposition, plot, development of action, ups and downs, climax, decoupling. Optional: prologue, epilogue, background, ending.

We will call a plot the system of events and actions contained in a work, its event chain, and moreover, in the sequence in which it is given to us in the work. The last remark is important, since quite often the events are not told in chronological order, and the reader can learn about what happened earlier. If we take only the main, key episodes of the plot, which are absolutely necessary for understanding it, and arrange them in chronological order, then we get plot - plot outline or, as is sometimes said, "straightened plot" . plots in various works can be very similar to each other, the plot is always uniquely individual.

There are two types of stories. In the first type, the development of the action takes place tensely and as rapidly as possible, the events of the plot contain the main meaning and interest for the reader, the plot elements are clearly expressed, and the denouement carries a huge content load. This type of plot is found, for example, in Pushkin's Tales of Belkin, Turgenev's On the Eve, Dostoevsky's The Gambler, etc. Let's call this type of plot dynamic.

In another type of plot - let's call it, in contrast to the first, adynamic - the development of the action is slow and does not tend to a resolution, the events of the plot do not contain much interest, the elements of the plot are not clearly expressed or are completely absent (the conflict is embodied and moves not with the help of plot, but with the help of other compositional means), the denouement is either completely absent, or it is purely formal, in the overall composition of the work there are many extra-plot elements (see below about them), which often shift the center of gravity of the reader's attention to themselves.

We see this type of plot, for example, in " Dead souls"Gogol," Peasants "and other works of Chekhov, etc. There is a fairly simple way to check what kind of plot you are dealing with: works with an adynamic plot can be re-read from any place, for works with a dynamic plot, reading and rereading only from beginning to end is typical. Dynamic plots are usually built on local conflicts, adynamic - on substantial. This regularity does not have the nature of a rigid 100% dependence, but nevertheless, in most cases, this relationship between the type of conflict and the type of plot takes place.

Concentric plot - one event (one event situation) comes to the fore. Characteristic for small epic forms, dramatic genres, literature of antiquity and classicism. (“Telegram” by K. Paustovsky, “Notes of a Hunter” by I. Turgenev) Chronicle - events do not have causal relationships among themselves and are correlated with each other only in time (“Don Quixote” by Cervantes, “Odyssey” by Homer, Don- Juan" Byron).

Plot and composition. The concept of composition is broader and more universal than the concept of plot. The plot fits into overall composition works, occupying in it this or that, more or less important place depending on the author's intentions. There is also an internal composition of the plot, to which we now turn.

Depending on the relationship of the plot and plot in specific work talking about different types and methods of plot composition. The simplest case is when the events of the plot are linearly arranged in direct chronological sequence without any changes. This composition is also called straight or plot sequence. More complicated is the technique in which we learn about an event that happened before the rest at the very end of the work - this technique is called default. This technique is very effective, because it allows you to keep the reader in ignorance and tension until the very end, and at the end to amaze him with the unexpectedness of the plot twist.

Due to these properties, the default technique is almost always used in works detective genre, although, of course, not only in them. Another method of breaking the chronology or plot sequence is the so-called retrospection, when, in the course of plot development, the author makes digressions into the past, as a rule, at the time preceding the plot and the beginning this work. Finally, the plot sequence can be broken in such a way that events of different times are given mixed up; the narrative constantly returns from the moment of the ongoing action to different previous time layers, then again turns to the present in order to immediately return to the past.

This composition of the plot is often motivated by the memories of the characters. It is called free composition and is used to some extent by different writers quite often: for example, we can find elements of free composition in Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. However, it happens that free composition becomes the main and defining principle of plot construction, in this case, as a rule, we are talking about free composition proper.

Extra-plot elements. In addition to the plot, there are also so-called extra-plot elements in the composition of the work, which are often no less or even more important than the plot itself. If the plot of a work is the dynamic side of its composition, then the extra-plot elements are static; extra-plot elements are those that do not move the action forward, during which nothing happens, and the characters remain in their previous positions.

There are three main types of extra-plot elements: description, author's digressions and inserted episodes (otherwise they are also called inserted short stories or inserted plots). Description - this is literary image the external world (landscape, portrait, world of things, etc.) or a stable way of life, that is, those events and actions that occur regularly, day after day, and, therefore, also have nothing to do with the movement of the plot. Descriptions are the most common type of non-plot elements; they are present in almost every epic work.

Copyright digressions - these are more or less detailed author's statements of philosophical, lyrical, autobiographical, etc. character; at the same time, these statements do not characterize individual characters or the relationship between them. Author's digressions are an optional element in the composition of a work, but when they nevertheless appear there (“Eugene Onegin” by Pushkin, “ Dead Souls Gogol, Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, etc.), they play, as a rule, the most important role and are subject to mandatory analysis. Finally, insert episodes - these are relatively finished fragments of the action in which other characters act, the action is transferred to a different time and place, etc. Sometimes inserted episodes begin to play an even greater role in the work than the main plot: for example, in Gogol's Dead Souls.

In some cases, a psychological image can also be attributed to extra-plot elements, if the state of mind or thoughts of the hero are not a consequence or cause of plot events, they are switched off from the plot chain. However, as a rule, internal monologues and other forms psychological image one way or another they are included in the plot, since they determine the further actions of the hero and, consequently, the further course of the plot.

In general, elements outside the plot often have a weak or purely formal connection with the plot and represent a separate compositional line.

Composition anchor points. The composition of any literary work is built in such a way that from beginning to end, the reader's tension does not weaken, but intensifies. In a work of small volume, the composition most often represents a linear development in ascending order, striving for the finale, the ending, in which the point of highest tension is located. In larger works, the composition alternates between ups and downs in tension during general development ascending. We will call the points of greatest reader tension the reference points of the composition.

The simplest case: the reference points of the composition coincide with the elements of the plot, primarily with the climax and denouement. We meet with this when the dynamic plot is not just the basis of the composition of the work, but in fact exhausts its originality. The composition in this case contains practically no extra-plot elements, uses minimal compositional techniques. Perfect example such a construction is an anecdote story, such as Chekhov's story "The Death of an Official" discussed above.

In the event that the plot traces various turns in the external fate of the hero with a relative or absolute static nature of his character, it is useful to look for reference points in the so-called twists and turns - sharp turns in the fate of the hero. It is this construction reference points was typical for ancient tragedy, devoid of psychologism, and later used and is used in adventure literature.

Almost always, one of the reference points falls on the end of the work (but not necessarily on the denouement, which may not coincide with the end!). In small, mostly lyrical works, this, as already mentioned, is often the only reference point, and all the previous ones only lead to it, increase tension, providing its “explosion” in the end.

In large works of art, the ending, as a rule, also contains one of the reference points. It is no coincidence that many writers said that they worked especially carefully on the last phrase, and Chekhov pointed out to novice writers that it should sound “musical”.

Sometimes - although not so often - one of the reference points of the composition is, on the contrary, at the very beginning of the work, as, for example, in Tolstoy's novel "Resurrection".

Reference points of a composition can sometimes be located at the beginning and end (more often) of parts, chapters, acts, etc. Composition types. In the very general view There are two types of composition - let's call them conditionally simple and complex. In the first case, the function of composition is reduced only to the unification of the parts of the work into a single whole, and this unification is always carried out in the simplest and most natural way. In the field of plot construction, this will be a direct chronological sequence of events, in the field of narration - a single narrative type throughout the entire work, in the field of subject details - a simple list of them without highlighting particularly important, supporting, symbolic details etc.

At complex composition in the very construction of the work, in the order of combination of its parts and elements, a special artistic sense. So, for example, the successive change of narrators and the violation of the chronological sequence in Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time" focus on the moral and philosophical essence of Pechorin's character and allow you to "get close" to it, gradually unraveling the character.

simple and complex types compositions are sometimes difficult to identify in a particular work of art, since the differences between them turn out to be to a certain extent purely quantitative: we can talk about greater or lesser complexity of the composition of a particular work. There are, of course, pure types: for example, the composition of, say, Krylov's fables or Gogol's story "The Carriage" is simple in all respects, while Dostoyevsky's Brothers Karamazov or Chekhov's "Lady with a Dog" is complex in all respects. All this makes the question of the type of composition rather complicated, but at the same time very important, since simple and complex types of composition can become stylistic dominants of a work and, thus, determine its artistic originality.

There are three levels of literary work:

Subject figurativeness - vital material

Composition - the organization of this material

Artistic language - the speech system of a literary work, at all four levels artistic language Keywords: phonics, vocabulary, semantics, syntax.

Each of these layers has its own complex hierarchy.

The seeming complexity of a literary work is created by the hard work of the writer on all three levels of the artistic whole.

Let's get acquainted with several definitions of this concept and its various classifications, when the composition of the text is revealed according to various features and indicators.

A literary text is a communicative, structural and semantic unity, which is manifested in its composition. That is, it is the unity of communication - structure - and meaning.

The composition of a literary text is "mutual correlation and location units of depicted and artistic and speech means. The units depicted here mean: theme, problem, idea, characters, all aspects of the depicted external and internal world. Artistic and speech means are the entire figurative system of the language at the level of its 4 layers.

Composition is the construction of a work, which determines its integrity, completeness and unity.

The composition is "system connections" all of its elements. This system also has an independent content, which should be revealed in the process of philological analysis of the text.

Composition, or structure, or architectonics is the construction of a work of art.

Composition is an element of the form of a work of art.

Composition contributes to the creation of a work as an artistic integrity.

The composition unites all the components and subordinates them to the idea, the idea of ​​the work. Moreover, this connection is so close that it is impossible to remove or rearrange any component from the composition.

Types of compositional organization of the work:

Plot view - that is, plot (epos, lyrics, drama)

Non-plot type - plotless (in lyrics, in epic and drama, created creative method modernism and postmodernism)

The plot view of the compositional organization of a work can be of two types:

Eventive (in epic and drama)

Descriptive (in lyrics)

Let's consider the first type of plot composition - event. It has three forms:

Chronological form - events develop in a straight line of time movement, the natural time sequence is not violated, there may be time intervals between events

Retrospective form - deviation from the natural chronological sequence, violation of the linear order of the passage of events in life, interruption by the memories of the heroes or the author, familiarizing the reader with the background of events and the life of the characters (Bunin, "Light Breath")

Free or montage form - a significant violation of the spatio-temporal and causal relationships between events; the connection between individual episodes is associative-emotional, not logical-semantic (“A Hero of Our Time”, Kafka’s “Trial” and other works of modernism and postmodernism)

Consider the second type of composition - descriptive:

It is present in lyrical works, they basically lack a clearly limited and coherently deployed action, the experiences of a lyrical hero or character come to the fore, and the whole composition is subject to the goals of his image, this is a description of thoughts, impressions, feelings, pictures inspired by the experiences of a lyrical hero .

Composition is external and internal

External composition(architectonics): chapters, parts, sections, paragraphs, books, volumes, their arrangement may be different depending on the methods of creating the plot chosen by the author.

External composition- this is the division of a text characterized by continuity into discrete units. Composition, therefore, is the manifestation of a significant discontinuity in continuity.

External composition: the boundaries of each compositional unit highlighted in the text are clearly defined, defined by the author (chapters, chapters, sections, parts, epilogues, phenomena in the drama, etc.), this organizes and directs the reader's perception. The architectonics of the text serves as a way of "portioning" the meaning; with the help of ... compositional units, the author indicates to the reader the unification, or, conversely, the dismemberment of the elements of the text (and hence its content).

External composition: no less significant is the absence of division of the text or its expanded fragments: this emphasizes the integrity of the spatial continuum, the fundamental non-discreteness of the organization of the narrative, the non-differentiation, the fluidity of the picture of the world of the narrator or character (for example, in the literature of the “stream of consciousness”).

Internal composition : this is the composition (construction, arrangement) of images - characters, events, action settings, landscapes, interiors, etc.

Internal(meaningful) composition is determined by the system of images-characters, the peculiarities of the conflict and the originality of the plot.

Not to be confused: the plot has elements plot, the composition has tricks(internal composition) and parts(external composition) compositions.

The composition includes, in its construction, both all the elements of the plot - plot elements, and extra-plot elements.

Techniques of internal composition:

Prologue (often referred to as the plot)

Epilogue (often referred to as the plot)

Monologue

Character portraits

Interiors

landscapes

Extra-plot elements in the composition

Classification of compositional techniques for the selection of individual elements:

Each compositional unit is characterized by extension techniques that provide emphasis the most important meanings of the text and engage the reader's attention. It:

geography: various graphic highlights,

repetitions: repetitions of language units of different levels,

amplification: strong positions of the text or its compositional part - promotional positions associated with establishing a hierarchy of meanings, focusing attention on the most important, enhancing emotionality and aesthetic effect, establishing meaningful connections between adjacent and distant elements that belong to the same and different levels, ensuring the coherence of the text and its memorability. The strong positions of the text traditionally include titles, epigraphs, beginningandthe end works (parts, chapters, chapters). With their help, the author emphasizes the most significant elements of the structure for understanding the work and at the same time determines the main “semantic milestones” of one or another compositional part (the text as a whole).

Widespread in Russian literature of the late XX century. montage and collage techniques, on the one hand, led to an increase in the fragmentation of the text, on the other hand, it opened up the possibility of new combinations of “semantic planes”.

Composition in terms of its connectedness

In the features of the architectonics of the text, such its most important feature is manifested as connectivity. The segments (parts) of the text selected as a result of segmentation correlate with each other, “link” on the basis of common elements. There are two types of connectivity: cohesion and coherence (terms proposed by W. Dressler)

cohesion (from Latin - “to be connected”), or local connectivity, is a connection of a linear type, expressed formally, mainly by linguistic means. It is based on pronominal substitution, lexical repetitions, the presence of conjunctions, correlation of grammatical forms, etc.

coherence(from lat. - “linkage”), or global connectivity, is a connection of a non-linear type that combines elements of different levels of the text (for example, the title, epigraph, “text in the text” and the main text, etc.). The most important means of creating coherence are repetitions (primarily words with common semantic components) and parallelism.

In a literary text, semantic chains arise - rows of words with common semes, the interaction of which gives rise to new semantic connections and relationships, as well as "mean increments".

Any literary text is permeated with semantic roll calls, or repetitions. Words related on this basis can take different positions: they can be located at the beginning and at the end of the text (ring semantic composition), symmetrically, form a gradation series, etc.

Consideration of the semantic composition is a necessary stage of philological analysis. It is especially important for the analysis of "plotless" texts, texts with weakened cause-and-effect relationships of components, texts saturated with complex images. The identification of semantic chains in them and the establishment of their connections is the key to the interpretation of the work.

Extraplot Elements

insert episodes,

lyrical digressions,

artistic advance,

artistic framing,

dedication,

Epigraph,

header

Insert episodes- these are parts of the narrative that are not directly related to the course of the plot, events that are only associatively connected and are remembered in connection with the current events of the work (“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” in “Dead Souls”)

Lyrical digressions- are lyrical, philosophical, journalistic, express the thoughts and feelings of the writer directly, in the direct author's word, reflect the author's position, the writer's attitude to the characters, some elements of the theme, problems, ideas of the work (in "Dead Souls" - about youth and old age , about Russia as a bird - a troika)

Artistic lead - depiction of scenes that are ahead of the further course of events (

Artistic framing - scenes that begin and end a work of art, most often this is the same scene, given in development, and creating ring composition(“The Fate of a Man” by M. Sholokhov)

Dedication - a short description or lyrical work that has a specific addressee to whom the work is addressed and dedicated

Epigraph - an aphorism or a quotation from another famous work or folklore, located before the entire text or before its individual parts (proverb in The Captain's Daughter)

header- the name of the work, which always contains the theme, problem or idea of ​​the work, a very brief formulation with deep expressiveness, figurativeness or symbolism.

The object of literary analysis in the study of composition I can be different aspects compositions:

1) architectonics, or the external composition of the text, - its division into certain parts (chapters, subchapters, paragraphs, stanzas, etc.), their sequence and interconnection;

2) a system of images of characters in a work of art;

3) change of points of view in the structure of the text; so, according to B.A. Uspensky, it is the problem of point of view that makes "the central problem of composition»; consideration in the structure of the text of different points of view in relation to the architectonics of the work allows us to identify the dynamics of the deployment of artistic content;

4) the system of details presented in the text (composition of details); their analysis makes it possible to reveal ways of deepening the depicted: as I.A. Goncharov, “details that appear fragmentarily and separately in the long term of the general plan”, in the context of the whole, “merge in a common system ... as if thin invisible threads or, perhaps, magnetic currents are operating”;

5) correlation with each other and with other components of the text of its extra-plot elements (inserted novels, stories, lyrical digressions, "scenes on the stage" in the drama).

Compositional analysis thus takes into account different aspects of the text.

The term "composition" in modern philology is very ambiguous, which makes it difficult to use.

To analyze the composition of a literary text, you need to be able to:

To single out repetitions in its structure that are significant for the interpretation of the work, serving as the basis of cohesion and coherence;

Detect semantic overlaps in parts of the text;

Highlight markers - separators of different compositional parts of the work;

Correlate the features of the division of the text with its content and determine the role of discrete (individual parts) compositional units in the whole;

Establish a connection between the narrative structure of the text as its “deep compositional structure” (B.A. Uspensky) and its external composition.

Determine all the methods of external and internal composition in F. Tyutchev's poem "Silentium" (namely: parts of the composition, plot type - non-plot, event - descriptive, vision of individual elements, type of their connection, - NB

Composition (from the Latin compositio - compilation, connection) - the construction of a work of art. The composition can be organized plot and non-plot. A lyrical work can also be plotted, which is characterized by an epic event plot) and non-plotted (Lermontov's poem "Gratitude").

The composition of a literary work includes:

Arrangement of images-characters and grouping of other images;

plot composition;

Composition of non-plot elements;

Composition of details (details of the situation, behavior);

Speech composition (stylistic devices).

The composition of a work depends on its content, genre, genre, etc.

GENRE (French genre - genus, type) is a type of verbal and artistic work, namely:

1) a variety of works that really exists in the history of national literature or a number of literatures and is designated by one or another traditional term (epopee, novel, story, short story in epic; comedy, tragedy, etc. in the field of drama; ode, elegy, ballad, etc. - in lyrics);

2) an "ideal" type or a logically constructed model of a particular literary work, which can be considered as its invariant (this meaning of the term is present in any definition of this or that literary work). Therefore, the characteristic of the structure of life in this historical moment, i.e. in the aspect of synchrony, should be combined with its illumination in a diachronic perspective. This is, for example, the approach of M.M. Bakhtin to the problem genre structure novels by Dostoevsky. The most important turning point in the history of literature is the change of canonical genres, whose structures go back to certain "eternal" images, and non-canonical, i.e. not under construction.

STYLE (from lat. stilus, stylus - a pointed stick for writing) - a system of language elements united by a certain functional purpose, methods of their selection, use, mutual combination and correlation, a functional variety of lit. language.

The compositional-speech structure of speech (i.e., the totality of language elements in their interaction and mutual correlation) is determined by the social tasks of speech communication (speech communication) in one of the main areas of human activity

S. - the main, fundamental concept of functional stylistics and literary language

Functional-style system of modern. Russian lit. language is multidimensional. The functional and stylistic units that make it up (styles, book speech, public speech, Speaking, the language of artistic literature) are not the same in their significance in speech communication and in their coverage of linguistic material. Along with C., a functional and stylistic sphere stands out. This concept is correlated with the concept of "S." and similar to it. Together

Artistic speech- speech, realizing the aesthetic functions of the language. Artistic speech is divided into prose and poetry. Artistic speech: - is formed in the oral folk art; - allows you to transfer signs from one object to another according to similarity (metaphor) and adjacency (metonymy); - forms and develops the polysemy of the word; - gives speech a complicated phonological organization

Composition (lat. Compositio - compilation, combination, creation, construction) is the plan of the work, the ratio of its parts, the relationship of images, paintings, episodes. A work of art should have as many characters, episodes, scenes as necessary to reveal the content. A. Chekhov advised young writers to write in such a way that the reader, without the author's explanations - from the conversations, actions, actions of the characters could understand what was happening.

The essential quality of the composition is accessibility. A work of art should not contain unnecessary pictures, scenes, episodes. L. Tolstoy compared a work of art with a living organism. "In a real work of art - poetry, drama, painting, song, symphony - one cannot take one verse, one measure out of its place and put it on another without violating the meaning of this work, just as it is impossible not to violate the life of an organic being if one takes out one organ from its place and insert into another "." According to K. Fedin, the composition is "the logic of the development of the theme." Reading a work of art, we must feel where, at what time the hero lives, where is the center of events, which of them the main ones and which ones are less important.

A necessary condition for composition is perfection. L. Tolstoy wrote that the main thing in art is not to say anything superfluous. The writer must depict the world in as few words as possible. No wonder A. Chekhov called brevity the sister of talent. The talent of the writer turns out to be in the mastery of the composition of a work of art.

There are two types of composition - event-plot and nepodia, carrying or descriptive. The event type of composition is characteristic of most epic and dramatic works. The composition of epic and dramatic works has space and cause-and-effect forms. The event type of composition can have three forms: chronological, retrospective and free (montage).

V. Lesik notes that the essence of the chronological form of the event composition "consists in the fact that events ... go one after another in chronological order - as they happened in life. There may be temporary distances between individual actions or pictures, but there is no violation natural sequence in time: what happened earlier in life, and in the work is served earlier, and not after subsequent events. Therefore, there is no arbitrary movement of events, there is no violation of the direct movement of time. "

The peculiarity of the retrospective composition is that the writer does not adhere to the chronological sequence. The author can tell about the motives, causes of events, actions after their implementation. The sequence in the presentation of events may be interrupted by the memories of the characters.

The essence of the free (montage) form of event composition is associated with violations of causal and spatial relationships between events. The connection between the episodes is more often associative-emotional than logical-semantic. The montage composition is characteristic of the literature of the 20th century. This type of composition is used in the novel by Y. Japanese "Horsemen". Here the storylines are connected at the associative level.

A variation of the event type of composition is event-narrative. Its essence lies in the fact that the author, narrator, narrator, characters tell about the same event. The event-narrative form of composition is typical for lyric-epic works.,

The descriptive type of composition is typical for lyrical works. "The basis for the construction of a lyrical work," notes V. Lesik, "is not a system or development of events ... but the organization of lyrical components - emotions and impressions, the sequence of presentation of thoughts, the order of transition from one impression to another, from one sensual image to another "." The lyrical works describe the impressions, feelings, experiences of the lyrical hero.

Yu. Kuznetsov in the "Literary Encyclopedia" distinguishes plot-closed and open composition. The plot is closed, characteristic of folklore, works of ancient and classic literature (three repetitions, happy endings in fairy tales, alternation of choir performances and episodes in ancient Greek tragedy). “The composition is fabulously open,” Yu. Kuznetsov notes, “devoid of a clear outline, proportions, flexible, taking into account the genre and style opposition that arises in the specific historical conditions of the literary process. In particular, in sentimentalism (sternivska composition) and in romanticism, when open works became a negation of the closed, classic ... ".

What determines the composition, what factors determine its features? The originality of the composition is primarily due to the design of the work of art. Panas Mirny, having familiarized himself with the life story of the robber Gnidka, set himself the goal of explaining what caused the protest against the landowners. First, he wrote a story called "Chipka", in which he showed the conditions for the formation of the character of the hero. Subsequently, the writer expanded the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe work, required a complex composition, so the novel "Do oxen roar when the manger is full?"

Features of the composition are determined literary direction, Classicists demanded three unities from dramatic works (unity of place, time and action). Events in a dramatic work were supposed to take place during the day, grouped around one hero. Romantics portrayed exceptional characters in exceptional circumstances. Nature was more often shown at the time of the elements (storms, floods, thunderstorms), they often took place in India, Africa, the Caucasus, and the East.

The composition of the work is determined by the genus, type and genre, the basis of lyrical works is the development of thoughts and feelings. Lyrical works are small in size, their composition is arbitrary, most often associative. In a lyrical work, the following stages of development of feeling can be distinguished:

a) the starting point (observation, impressions, thoughts or state that became the impetus for the development of feeling);

b) development of feelings;

c) climax ( highest voltage in the development of feeling);

In the poem by V. Simonenko "Swans of motherhood":

a) starting point - to have a lullaby sung to the son;

b) development of feelings - the mother dreams about the fate of her son, how he will grow up, hit the road, meet friends, wife;

c) climax - mother's opinion about possible death son in a foreign land;

d) summary - One does not choose one's homeland, love for one's native land makes a person a person.

The Russian literary critic V. Zhirmunsky distinguishes seven types of composition of lyrical works: anaphoristic, amoebeina, epiphoristic, refrain, ring, spiral, joint (epanastrophe, epanadiplosis), pointe.

An anaphoristic composition is characteristic of works that use anaphora.

You have renounced your native language. You

Your land will cease to give birth,

A green branch in a pocket on a willow,

Withered by your touch.

You have renounced your native language. Zaros

Your way and disappeared in a nameless potion...

You don't have tears at the funeral,

You don't have a song at your wedding.

(D. Pavlychko)

V. Zhirmunsky considers anaphora an indispensable component of the amoeba composition, but it is absent in many works. Describing this type of composition, I. Kachurovsky notes that its essence is not in anaphora, "but in the identities of the syntactic structure, replicas or counterreplicas of two interlocutors or, in a certain pattern, the roll call of two choirs" ". I. Kachurovsky finds an illustration of amoebaine composition in the work german romance Ludwig Ulanda:

Have you seen the castle high

A castle over the Sea Shire?

Silently floating clouds

Pink and gold over it.

In the mirror waters, peaceful

He would like to bow

And climb into the evening clouds

In their radiant ruby.

I saw a castle high

Castle above the sea world.

Hail fog deep

And the moon stood over him.

(Translated by Mikhail Orest)

Amebane composition is common in the troubadours' tentsons and pastorals.

An epiphoric composition is characteristic of poems with an epiphoric ending.

Breaks, kinks and fractures...

Our spines were broken in circles.

Understand, my brother, finally:

Before heart attacks

We had - so, do not touch!

Soul heart attacks... soul heart attacks!

There were ulcers, like infections,

There were images to disgust -

One bad thing, my brother.

So drop it, go and don't touch it.

We all have, mind you:

Soul heart attacks... soul heart attacks!

In this bed, in this bed

In this scream to the ceiling

Oh don't touch us my brother

Don't touch paralytics!

We all have, mind you:

Soul heart attacks... soul heart attacks!

(Yu. Shkrobinets)

The refrain composition consists in the repetition of a group of words or lines.

How quickly everything in life passes.

And happiness only flickers with a wing -

And he's not here anymore...

How quickly everything in life passes,

Is this our fault? -

It's all about the metronome.

How quickly things go by...

And happiness only flickers with a wing.

(Lyudmila Rzhegak)

The term "ring" I. Kachurovsky considers unsuccessful. “Where better,” he notes, “is a cyclic composition. The scientific name of this tool is anadiplosive composition. Moreover, in cases where anadiplosis is limited to any one stanza, this does not refer to composition, but to style.” Anadiplosis as a compositional means can be complete or partial, when a part of a stanza is repeated, when the same words are in a changed order, when part of them is replaced by synonyms. Such options are also possible: not the first stanza is repeated, but the second, or the poet gives the first stanza as the final one.

Evening sun, thank you for the day!

Evening sun, thank you for the fatigue.

The calm of the forests is enlightened

Eden and for the cornflower in the golden rye.

For your dawn, and for my zenith,

and for my burned zeniths.

Because tomorrow wants greenery,

For the fact that yesterday managed to oddzvenity.

Heaven in the sky, for children's laughter.

For what I can and for what I must

Evening sun, thank you all

who did not defile the soul.

For the fact that tomorrow is waiting for its inspiration.

That somewhere in the world blood has not yet been shed.

Evening sun, thank you for the day

For this need, words are like prayers.

(P. Kostenko)

The spiral composition creates either a "chain" stanza (tercina) or stropho-genres (rondo, rondel, triolet) i.e. acquires stropho-creative and genre features.

The name of the seventh type of composition I. Kachurovsky considers indecent. More acceptable, in his opinion, is the name of epanastrophe, epanadiplosis. A work where the repetition of a rhyme when two adjacent stanzas collide has a compositional character is E. Pluzhnik's poem "Kanev". Each dvenadtsativir-Shova stanza of the poem consists of three quatrains with rhymes, which pass from quatrain to quatrain, the last verse of each of these twelve verses rhyming with the first verse as follows:

And the houses will step in here and time

Electricity: and the newspaper rustled

Where once the prophet and poet

The great spirit behind the darkness has dried up

And be reborn in millions of masses,

And not only look from the portrait,

Competition immortal symbol and omen,

Apostle of truth, peasant Taras.

And since my ten phrases

In the dull collection of an anchorite,

As for the times to come for show,

On the shores lies the indifferent Leta...

And the days will become like the lines of a sonnet,

Perfect...

The essence of the pointe composition is that the poet leaves the interesting and essential part of the work for last. It could be unexpected turn thoughts or conclusion from the entire previous text. The means of pointe composition is used in the sonnet, the last poem of which should be the quintessence of the work.

Exploring lyrical and lyric-epic works, I. Kachurovsky found three more types of composition: symplocial, gradation and main.

A composition in the form of a symplok I. Kachurovsky calls symplokial.

Tomorrow on earth

Other people walking

Other loving people -

Kind, gentle and evil.

(V. Simonenko)

Gradation composition with such types as descending climax, growing climax, broken climax is quite common in poetry.

The gradation composition was used by V. Misik in the poem "Modernity".

Yes, perhaps, in the time of Boyan

Spring time has come

And the rains rained down on youth,

And the clouds were moving in from Tarashche,

And the hawks stole beyond the horizon,

And the cymbals resounded,

And blue cymbals in Prolis

Gazing into the heavenly strange clarity.

Everything is like then. And where is she, modernity?

She is in the main: in you.

The main composition is typical for wreaths of sonnets and folk poetry. Epic works tell about the life of people during a certain time. In novels, stories, events and characters are revealed in detail, comprehensively.

In such works there can be several storylines. AT small works(stories, short stories) there are few storylines, few characters, situations and circumstances are depicted succinctly.

Dramatic works are written in the form of a dialogue, they are based on action, they are small in size, because most of them are intended for staging. In dramatic works there are stage directions that perform an auxiliary function - they give an idea of ​​the scene, characters, advice to artists, but are not included in the artistic fabric of the work.

The composition of a work of art also depends on the characteristics of the artist's talent. Panas Mirny used complex plots, digressions of a historical nature. In the works of I. Nechuy-Levitsky, events develop in chronological order, the writer draws portraits of heroes and nature in detail. Let's remember "Kaidasheva family". In the works of I.S. Turgenev, events develop slowly, Dostoevsky uses unexpected plot moves, accumulates tragic episodes.

The composition of works is influenced by the traditions of folklore. At the heart of the fables of Aesop, Phaedrus, La Fontaine, Krylov, Glebov "The Wolf and the Lamb" is the same folklore plot, and after the plot - morality. In Aesop's fable, it sounds like this: "The tale proves that even a just defense is not valid for those who undertook to do a lie." Phaedrus concludes the fable with the words: "This tale is written about people who seek to destroy the innocent by deceit." The fable "The Wolf and the Lamb" by L. Glebov begins, on the contrary, in morality:

The world has been going on for a long time,

The lower it bends before the higher,

And more than a smaller party and even beats