The meaning of the word MOTIVE in the Dictionary of Literary Terms
MOTIVE
- (from French motif - melody, melody) -
1) In oral works folk art: the smallest element of the plot, the simplest significant component of the narrative (for example, the motive of the road, the motive of searching for the missing bride, the motive of recognition, etc.). Various plots are formed from numerous M.. In folklore, the comparison of similar plots is used to reconstruct the original form of the plot and trace its migration in fairy tales, epics and myths of the peoples of the world.
2) A secondary, additional theme of the work (a kind of micro-theme), the task of which is to supplement or emphasize the main one (for example, M. loneliness, wandering, exile in the lyrics of M.Yu. Lermontov, M. cold in the stories of I.A. Bunin "Cold Autumn" and " Easy breath", M. death in "The Tale of dead princess..." A.S. Pushkin, M. of the full moon in "The Master and Margarita" by M.A. Bulgakov)
Dictionary of literary terms. 2012
See also interpretations, synonyms, meanings of the word and what is MOTIVE in Russian in dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:
- MOTIVE in the Newest Philosophical Dictionary:
(lat. movere - to induce, set in motion) - one of the concepts that describe the scope of the subject's motivation for activity - along with ... - MOTIVE in the Dictionary of Economic Terms:
CRIMES - the immediate internal motive for a criminal act (for example, self-interest, jealousy, revenge). The motive is an element of the subjective side of the crime. AT … - MOTIVE in the Literary Encyclopedia:
[from the Latin moveo - "I move"] - a term transferred to literary criticism from music, where it denotes a group of several notes, rhythmically ... - MOTIVE in the Big Encyclopedic Dictionary:
(French motif from lat. moveo - I move), in poetics: 1) the simplest dynamic semantic unit of narration in myth and fairy tale (for example, motive ... - MOTIVE MUSIC.
(from lat. movere - to move, motive, occasion), in music - a group of two, three or more notes with rhythmic content. … - MOTIVE IN ART in encyclopedic dictionary Brockhaus and Euphron:
something essential in content or in artistic idea works of painting, sculpture or architecture, which determines the nature of the impression they produce. M. ... - MOTIVE in the Modern Encyclopedic Dictionary:
- MOTIVE
in poetics: 1) the simplest dynamic semantic unit of narration in myth and fairy tale (for example, the motif of "taking away the bride") in the narrative text (where ... - MOTIVE in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
I a, m. 1. Melody, melody. Cheerful m. Motive (colloquial) - reduced. from m. 2. The simplest component of the plot, the theme ... - MOTIVE in the Encyclopedic Dictionary:
1, -a, m. 1. The motive, the reason for some. action. Cast motifs. Important m. 2. An argument in favor of something. Bring... - MOTIVE in the Big Russian Encyclopedic Dictionary:
MOTIV (French motif, from Latin moveo - I move), in poetics: the simplest dynamic. semantic unit of narration in myth and fairy tale (for example, ... - MOTIVE in the Full accentuated paradigm according to Zaliznyak:
moti"in, moti"you, moti"wa, moti"vov, moti"wu, moti"you, moti"in, moti"you, moti"wom, moti"you, moti"ve, ... - MOTIVE in the Popular Explanatory-Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Russian Language:
I-a, m. 1) Reason, incentive reason for some. action, reason. Motive for action. [Saburov] repeated all the motives for which he decided... - MOTIVE in the Dictionary for solving and compiling scanwords:
Reason for… - MOTIVE in the Thesaurus of Russian business vocabulary:
1. Syn: motivation, reason, reason, reason, stimulus, impetus, impulse 2. ‘consideration given in evidence’ Syn: argument, argument, motivation, reason ... - MOTIVE in the New Dictionary of Foreign Words:
(fr. motif) 1) motive, reason for some smth. action; argument in the benefit of something.; 2) in fiction- simplest... - MOTIVE in the Dictionary of Foreign Expressions:
[fr. motif] 1. motive, reason for smth. action; an argument in favor of smth.; 2. in fiction - the simplest unit ... - MOTIVE in the Russian Thesaurus:
1. Syn: motivation, reason, reason, reason, stimulus, impetus, impulse 2. ‘consideration given in evidence’ Syn: argument, argument, motivation, reason (… - MOTIVE in the Dictionary of synonyms of Abramov:
see motivation, ... - MOTIVE in the dictionary of Synonyms of the Russian language:
Syn: motivation, cause, reason, reason, stimulus, impetus, impulse consideration given in evidence Syn: argument, argument, motivation, reason ... - MOTIVE in the New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language Efremova:
1. m. Motive reason, reason for some smth. action. 2. m. 1) a) The simplest rhythmic unit of a melody, usually consisting of two or three ...
Motive is a term that has entered the literature from musicology. It was first recorded in the "musical dictionary" by S. de Brossard in 1703. Analogies with music, where this term key in the analysis of the composition of a work, they help to understand the properties of a motive in a literary work: its isolation from the whole and its repetition in a variety of situations.
In literary criticism, the concept of motive was used to characterize constituent parts story by Goethe and Schiller. They singled out motives of five types: accelerating action, slowing down action, moving action away from the goal, facing the past, anticipating the future.
The concept of motive as the simplest narrative unit was first theoretically substantiated in the Poetics of Plots. Veselovsky. He was interested in the repetition of motifs in different genres at different peoples. Veselovsky considered motives to be the simplest formulas that could originate among different tribes independently of each other. plot (in a fairy tale there is not one task, but five, etc.)
Subsequently, combinations of motifs were transformed into various compositions and became the basis of such genres as the novel, story, and poem. The motive itself, according to Veselovsky, remained stable and indecomposable; combinations of motives make up the plot. The plot could be borrowed, passed from people to people, become vagrant. In the plot, each motive can be the main, secondary, episodic .. many motives can be developed into whole plots, and vice versa.
Veselovsky's position on the motive as an indecomposable unit of narration was revised in the 1920s. Propp : motifs are decomposed, the last decomposable unit is not a logical whole. Propp calls primary elements functions of actors - the actions of the characters, determined in terms of their significance for the course of action.. seven types of characters, 31 functions (based on Afanasiev's collection)
Of particular difficulty is the selection of motives in the literature recent centuries: their diversity and complex functional load.
In the literature of different eras, there are many mythological motives. Constantly updated within historical and literary context, they retain their essence (the motive of the hero’s conscious death because of a woman, apparently, it can be considered as a transformation of the battle for the bride highlighted by Veselovsky (Lensky in Pushkin, Romashov in Kuprin).
A generally accepted measure of motive is its repeatability .
The leading motive in one or many works of the writer can be defined as keynote . It can be considered at the level of the theme and figurative structure of the work. Chekhov in the Cherry Orchard has the motif of the garden as a symbol of the Home, the beauty and sustainability of life .. we can talk about the role of both the leitmotif and the organization of the second, secret meaning works - subtext, undercurrent (phrase: “life is gone” - the leitmotif of Uncle Vanya. Chekhov)
Tomashevsky: episodes break up into even smaller parts that describe individual actions, events and things. Themes such small parts of a work that can no longer be divided are called motives .
AT lyrical motive is a recurring set of feelings and ideas expressed in artistic speech. The motives in the lyrics are more independent, because they are not subject to the development of the action, as in the epic and drama. Sometimes the work of the poet as a whole can be considered as an interaction, a correlation of motives. (At Lermontov: the motives of freedom, will, memory, exile, etc.) One and the same motive can receive different symbolic meanings in lyrical works different epochs, emphasizing the closeness and originality of poets (the road of Pushkin in Besy and Gogol in M.D., the birthplace of Lermontov and Nekrasov, Rus' of Yesenin and Blok, etc.)
At lectures, Stepanov said only the following:
According to Tomashevsky, motives are divided
Free and related motifs:
The ones to miss (details, details they play important role in the plot: do not make the work schematic.)
Those that cannot be omitted when retelling, because the causal relationship is violated .. form the basis of the plot.
Dynamic and static motives:
1. Change the situation. The transition from happiness to unhappiness and vice versa.
Peripetia (Aristotle: “the transformation of an action into its opposite) is one of the essential elements of the complication of the plot, denoting any unexpected turn in the development of the plot.
2. Not changing the situation (descriptions of the interior, nature, portrait, actions and deeds that do not lead to important changes)
Free motives are static, but not every static motive is free.
I don’t know what book Tomashevsky is from, because in Theory of Literature. Poetics." He's writing:
Motivation. The system of motives that make up the theme this work, should represent some artistic unity. If all the parts of a work fit poorly to each other, the work "falls apart". Therefore, the introduction of each individual motive or each complex of motives must be justified(motivated). The appearance of this or that motive must seem necessary to the reader in this place. The system of techniques that justify the introduction of individual motives and their complexes is called motivation. Methods of motivation are diverse, and their nature is not the same. Therefore, it is necessary to classify motivations.
To oppositional motivation.
Its principle lies in the economy and expediency of motives. Separate motifs can characterize objects introduced into the reader's field of vision (accessories), or the actions of characters ("episodes"). Not a single accessory should remain unused in the plot, not a single episode should remain without influence on the plot situation. It was precisely about compositional motivation that Chekhov spoke when he argued that if at the beginning of the story it is said that a nail is driven into the wall, then at the end of the story the hero must hang himself on this nail. ("Dowry" by Ostrovsky on the example of a weapon. "There is a carpet over the sofa on which weapons are hung."
This is first introduced as a detail of the setting. In the sixth phenomenon, attention is drawn to this detail in the replicas. At the end of the action, Karandyshev, running away, grabs a pistol from the table. From this pistol in the 4th act, he shoots Larisa. The introduction of the weapon motif here is compositionally motivated. This weapon is necessary for decoupling. It serves as a preparation last moment drama.) The second case of compositional motivation is the introduction of motives as methods of characterization . The motives must be in harmony with the dynamics of the plot. (Thus, in the same "Dowry" the motive of "Burgundy", made by a counterfeit wine merchant at a cheap price, characterizes the wretchedness of Karandyshev's everyday environment and prepares for Larisa's departure).
These characteristic details can harmonize with the action:
1) by psychological analogy ( romantic landscape: Moonlight night for love scene, storm and thunderstorm for a scene of death or villainy),
2) by contrast (the motive of "indifferent" nature, etc.).
In the same "Dowry", when Larisa dies, the singing of a gypsy choir is heard from the doors of the restaurant. Consideration should also be given to the possibility false motivation . Accessories and episodes may be introduced to divert the reader's attention from the true situation. This very often appears in detective (detective) short stories, where a number of details are given that lead the reader down the wrong path. The author makes us assume the denouement is not in what it really is. The deception is unraveled at the end, and the reader is convinced that all these details were introduced only for preparation. surprises in the denouement.
Realistic motivation
From each work we demand an elementary "illusion", i.e. no matter how arbitrary and artificial the work, its perception must be accompanied by a sense of the reality of what is happening. For a naive reader, this feeling is extremely strong, and such a reader can believe in the authenticity of what is being stated, can be convinced of the real existence of the characters. So, Pushkin, having just printed "History Pugachev rebellion", publishes " captain's daughter" in the form of Grinev's memoirs with the following afterword: "The manuscript of Pyotr Andreevich Grinev was delivered to us from one of his grandsons, who learned that we were busy with work dating back to the time described by his grandfather.
We decided, with the permission of the relatives, to publish it separately. "The illusion of the reality of Grinev and his memoirs is created, especially supported by moments of Pushkin's personal biography known to the public (his historical pursuits on the history of Pugachev), and the illusion is also supported by the fact that the views and beliefs expressed by Grinev largely diverge from the views expressed by Pushkin himself. The realistic illusion in the more experienced reader is expressed as the demand for "vitality".
While firmly knowing the fictitiousness of the work, the reader still demands some correspondence to reality and sees the value of the work in this correspondence. Even readers well-versed in the laws artistic construction, cannot psychologically free themselves from this illusion. In this regard, each motive should be entered as a motive likely in this situation.
We do not notice, getting used to the technique of an adventure novel, the absurdity of the fact that the salvation of the hero always keeps up five minutes before his inevitable death, the audience ancient comedy they did not notice the absurdity of the fact that in the last act all the characters suddenly turned out to be close relatives. However, how tenacious this motive is in the drama is shown by Ostrovsky's play Guilty Without Guilt, where at the end of the play the heroine recognizes her lost son in the hero). This motive of recognizing kinship was extremely convenient for denouement (kinship reconciled interests, radically changing the situation) and therefore became firmly established in the tradition.
Thus, realistic motivation has its source either in naive trust or in the demand for illusion. It does not interfere with the development fantasy literature. If folk tales and usually arise in a folk environment that allows the real existence of witches and brownies, then continue to exist as some kind of conscious illusion, where a mythological system or a fantastic worldview (the assumption of really unjustified "possibilities") is present as some kind of illusory hypothesis.
It is curious that fantastic narratives in a developed literary environment, under the influence of the requirements of realistic motivation, usually give double interpretation plot: can it be understood and how real event and how fantastic. From the point of view of the realistic motivation for the construction of a work, it is easy to understand and an introduction to a work of art non-literary material, i.e. those with real value outside the realm of fiction.
Yes, in historical novels are brought to the stage historical figures, some interpretation is introduced historical events. See L. Tolstoy's novel "War and Peace" for a whole military-strategic report on the Battle of Borodino and the fire in Moscow, which caused controversy in specialized literature. AT contemporary works the life familiar to the reader is displayed, questions of moral, social, political, etc. are raised. order, in a word, themes are introduced that live their lives outside of fiction.
Artistic motivation
The input of motifs is the result of a compromise between realistic illusion and the demands of artistic construction. Not everything borrowed from reality is suitable for a work of art.
On the basis of artistic motivation, disputes usually arise between the old and the new. literary schools. old, traditional direction usually denied in new literary forms presence of art. This is how it is, for example, reflected in poetic vocabulary, where the very use of individual words must be in harmony with solid literary traditions(the source of "prosaisms" - words forbidden in poetry). As a special case of artistic motivation, there is a technique elimination. The introduction of non-literary material into the work so that it does not fall out of artwork, must be justified by the novelty and individuality in the coverage of the material.
It is necessary to speak of the old and familiar as of the new and unusual. The ordinary is spoken of as strange. These methods of removing ordinary things are usually themselves motivated by the refraction of these themes in the psychology of the hero, who is unfamiliar with them. L. Tolstoy’s method of estrangement is known when, describing the military council in Fili in War and Peace, he introduces as actor a peasant girl observing this council and in her own way, childishly, without understanding the essence of what is happening, interpreting all the actions and speeches of the council members.
INTRODUCTION
"Motive", everyone has come across this term in their lives, many know its meaning through training in music schools, but also this term is widely used in literary criticism. The motive varies in its definition, but what significance does it have in literary works. For people related to the study and analysis of literary works, it is necessary to know the meaning of the motive.
MOTIVE
Motive (French motif, German motiv from Latin moveo - I move) is a term that has passed into literary criticism from musicology. It is "the smallest independent unit of the form of musical<…>Development is carried out through multiple repetitions of the motive, as well as its transformations, the introduction of contrasting motives.<…>The motive structure embodies the logical connection in the structure of the work” 1 . The term was first recorded in musical dictionary» S. de Brossard (1703). Analogies with music, where this term is the key one in the analysis compositions works, help to understand the properties of the motif in literary work: him articulation from the whole and repeatability in a variety of variations.
Motive has become a term for a series scientific disciplines(psychology, linguistics, etc.), in particular, literary criticism, where it has a fairly wide range of meanings: there are a number of theories of motive that do not always agree with each other 2 . Motive as a phenomenon fiction closely adjoins and intersects with repetitions and their similarities, but they are far from being identical.
In literary criticism, the concept of "motive" was used to characterize the constituent parts of the plot as far back as I.V. Goethe and F. Schiller. In the article "On Epic and Dramatic Poetry" (1797), five types of motifs are singled out: "rushing forward, which accelerate the action"; "retreating, those that move the action away from its goal"; "delaying, which delay the course of action"; "turned to the past"; "turned to the future, anticipating what will happen in subsequent epochs" 3 .
The initial, leading, main meaning of this literary term is difficult to define. The motive is high value component(semantic richness). A.A. Blok wrote: “Every poem is a veil stretched out on the points of several words. These words shine like stars. Because of them, the work exists” 4 . The same can be said about certain words and the objects they designate in novels, short stories, and dramas. They are the motives.
Motives are actively involved in the theme and concept (idea) of the work, but they are not exhaustive. Being himself, according to B.N. Putilov, “stable units”, they are “characterized by an increased, one might say, exceptional degree of semioticity. Each motive has a stable set of meanings” 5 . The motive is somehow localized in the work, but at the same time it is present in various forms. It can be a single word or phrase, repeated and varied, or appear as something denoted by various lexical units, or act as a title or epigraph, or remain only guessed, gone into subtext. Having resorted to allegory, let's say that the sphere of motives is made up of the links of the work, marked with an internal, invisible italics, which should be felt and recognized by a sensitive reader and literary analyst. The most important feature of the motif is its ability to be half-realized in the text, incompletely revealed in it and sometimes remain mysterious.
The concept of motive as the simplest narrative unit was first theoretically substantiated in A.N. Veselovsky. He was primarily interested in the repetition of motifs in narrative genres different peoples. The motive acted as the basis of "tradition", " poetic language", inherited from the past: "Under motive I mean the simplest narrative unit, figuratively responding to various requests of the primitive mind or everyday observation. With the similarity or unity of household and psychological conditions at the first stages of human development, such motives could be created independently and at the same time represent similar features” 6 . Veselovsky considered motives to be the simplest formulas that could originate among different tribes independently of each other. “A sign of a motive is its figurative one-term schematism ...” (p. 301).
For example, an eclipse (“the sun is kidnapping someone”), the struggle of brothers for an inheritance, a fight for a bride. The scientist tried to find out what motives could originate in the mind primitive people reflecting their living conditions. He studied the prehistoric life of different tribes, their life according to poetic monuments. Acquaintance with the rudimentary formulas led him to the idea that the motives themselves are not an act of creativity, they cannot be borrowed, while borrowed motives are difficult to distinguish from spontaneous ones.
Creativity, according to Veselovsky, manifested itself primarily in a "combination of motives" that gives one or another individual plot. To analyze the motive, the scientist used the formula: a + b. For example, “the evil old woman does not love the beauty - and sets her a life-threatening task. Each part of the formula is capable of changing, especially subject to increment b” (p. 301). Thus, the persecution of the old woman is expressed in the tasks that she assigns to the beauty. These tasks can be two, three or more. Therefore, the formula a + b can become more complicated: a + b + b 1 + b 2. Subsequently, combinations of motifs were transformed into numerous compositions and became the basis of such narrative genres as story, novel, poem.
The motive itself, according to Veselovsky, remained stable and indecomposable; various combinations of motives make up plot. Unlike the motive, the plot could be borrowed to pass from people to people, to become vagrant. In the plot, each motif plays a certain role: it can be primary, secondary, episodic. Often the development of the same motive in different plots is repeated. Many traditional motifs can be expanded into entire plots, while traditional plots, on the contrary, can be "folded" into one motif. Veselovsky noted the tendency of great poets to use plots and motifs that had already been subjected to poetic processing with the help of a “genius poetic instinct”. “They are somewhere in a deaf dark area of our consciousness, like a lot experienced and experienced, apparently forgotten and suddenly striking us, like an incomprehensible revelation, like novelty and at the same time old, in which we do not give ourselves an account, because often we are not able to to determine the essence of that mental act that unexpectedly renewed old memories in us” (p. 70).
Motives can act either as an aspect individual works and their cycles, as a link in their construction, or as the property of the entire work of the writer and even entire genres, directions, literary epics, world literature as such. In this supra-individual side, they constitute one of the most important objects of historical poetics.
For recent decades motives began to be actively correlated with individual creative experience, considered as the property of individual writers and works. This, in particular, is evidenced by the experience of studying the poetry of M.Yu. Lermontov 7 .
According to Veselovsky, creative activity The writer's fantasies are not an arbitrary game of "living pictures" of real or imaginary life. The writer thinks in terms of motives, and each motive has a stable set of meanings, partly genetically embedded in it, partly appearing in the process of a long historical life.
Lab #4
LABORATORY WORKSHOP
Humor
Caesura
Development of action, denouement, story, "story within a story", realism, stage direction, reminiscence, retardation, retrospection, rhythm, rhyme, rich rhyme, hyperdactylic rhyme, dactylic rhyme, feminine rhyme, circular rhyme, masculine rhyme, imprecise rhyme, cross rhyme , adjoining rhyme, exact rhyme, literary genre, novel, romanticism
With arkasm, satire, sextine, semiotics, seven lines, sentimentalism, symbolism, synecdoche, synonyms, system of author's evaluations, content of a literary work, sonnet, sponde, comparison, style, stylistic dominant, stylization, verse, poem, poetic foot, poetic size, extended line, truncated line, "Onegin stanza", verse stanza, plot, plot, plot elements
T ema, theme, textology, literary theory, tercina, literary type, typification, tragedy, tribrach, tropes
At strength, silence
F abula, fiction, feuilleton, art form
Character, trochee, chronotope, artistry
Exposition, elegy, epigram, epilogue, epitaph, epithet, occasional epithet, metaphorical epithet, epic, epic,
Note: highlighted terms are not included in the "Glossary" section of the plans practical exercises, however, their inclusion in individual dictionaries as the course is studied and knowledge is mandatory.
1. The problem of motive in literary criticism.
2. Classification of motives.
3. folklore motifs in literature.
Tasks
1. Study the works of A.N. Veselovsky "Poetics of plots", M.M. Bakhtin "Forms of time and chronotope in the novel" (1937-1938), research literature on this topic. Find out the following questions:
- what do scientists invest in the content of the concept motive;
How are concepts related? motive and plot in the works of scientists;
- which of the proposed definitions of motive is correct (illustrate the answer with examples); explain if more than one option is selected:
motive is 1) the theme of the work or statement of the hero;
2) a repeated word or combination of words;
3) a recurring event or phenomenon.
2. Compose reference abstract, revealing the content of the concept motive, including in it a typology of motives identified by literary critics. Complete it with the classification presented in Western European literary criticism (see below). Give examples of various kinds of motifs in folklore and literature.
“Motive (lat. motivus - prompting),<…>3. content-structural unity as a typical, meaningful situation that covers general thematic representations (as opposed to a specific and formalized through specific features material
3. Determine the motives that unite the works of I.A. Bunin:
- “For all of you, Lord, I thank you! ..” (1901), “Loneliness” (1903);
- "Portrait" (1903), "The day will come - I will disappear ..." (1916), "Non-sunset Light" (1917).
Prepare a message on the topic: "Through motifs in Russian literature."
Dictionary: motive.
Text for classroom work: texts of the classics of literature (at the student's choice)
Literature
1. Bakhtin M.M. Forms of time and chronotope in the novel. Essays on historical poetics// Bakhtin M.M. Literary-critical articles. – M.: Hood. lit., 1986. - S. 121-290.
2. Veselovsky A.N. Poetics of plots // // Introduction to literary criticism: Reader: Proc. allowance / Ed. P.A. Nikolaev. - M., 1988. - S. 285-288 (// Osmakova L.N. Reader on the theory of literature. - M., 1982. - S. 361-369).
3. Propp V.Ya. Historical roots fairy tale. - L .: Publishing House of Leningrad State University, 1986.
4. Tomashevsky B.V. Theory of Literature. Poetics: Proc. allowance. - M., 1999. - S. 182-186-199, 230-240, 323-324.
5. Khalizev V.E. Theory of Literature. - M., 1999. - S. 266-269.
6. Tselkova L.N. Motive // Introduction to literary criticism. Literary work: Basic concepts and terms: Proc. allowance / Ed. L.V. Chernets. – M.: high school, 1999. - S. 202-209.
The motive in a literary work is most often understood as a part, an element of the plot. Any plot is an interweaving of motifs that are closely related to each other, growing into one another. One and the same motif can underlie a variety of plots and thus have a variety of meanings.
The strength and meaning of a motive change depending on what other motives it is adjacent to. The motive is sometimes very deeply hidden, but the deeper it lies, the more content it can carry in itself. It sets off or complements the main, main theme of the work. The motive of enrichment unites such in all other respects such different works as "Father Goriot" by O. de Balzac, " Queen of Spades" and " Miserly knight" A. S. Pushkin and " Dead Souls» N. V. Gogol. The motive of imposture unites “Boris Godunov”, “The Young Lady-Peasant Woman” and “The Stone Guest” by A. S. Pushkin with Gogol’s “Inspector General” ... And yet the motive is not indifferent to the environment of its existence: for example, beloved by romantics (although not created by them ) motives of escape from captivity, death in a foreign land, loneliness in the crowd, appearing in realistic work, retain for a long time the reflection and taste of romanticism, giving additional depth to their new home, creating, as it were, niches in which one can hear the echo of the former sound of these motifs. It is not for nothing that for most people the word "motive" means a melody, a melody - it retains something of this meaning as a literary term. In poetry, almost any word can become a motif; in the lyrics, the word-motive is always shrouded in a cloud of former meanings and uses, around it the halo of former meanings “shines”.
The motive, according to the definition of A. N. Veselovsky, is the “nerve node” of the narrative (including the lyrical one). Touching such a node causes an explosion of aesthetic emotions, necessary for the artist, sets in motion a chain of associations that help the correct perception of the work, enriching it. Having discovered, for example, that the motive of flight from captivity permeates all Russian literature (from The Tale of Igor's Campaign to Mtsyri by M. Yu. Lermontov, from " Caucasian prisoner A. S. Pushkin to A. N. Tolstoy’s “Walking Through the Torments” and M. A. Sholokhov’s “The Fate of a Man”), being filled with various content, acquiring various details, appearing either in the center or on the outskirts of the narrative, we will be able to go deeper understand and feel this motive if we meet it again and again in modern prose. The wish-fulfilment motif, which has entered the literature from a fairy tale, underlies almost all science fiction, but its meaning is not limited to this. It can be found in such distant works as "Little Tsakhes" by E. T. A. Hoffmann, "The Overcoat" by N. V. Gogol, "The Twelve Chairs" by I. A. Ilf and E. P. Petrov, “The Master and Margarita” by M. A. Bulgakov - the list is almost endless, up to the novel by V. A. Kaverin, which is also called “Fulfillment of Desires”.
The motive, as a rule, exists immediately with two signs, in two guises, implies the existence of an antonymous motive: the motive of impatience (for example, the novel by Yu. that motifs will coexist in one piece. What is important for the development of literature is precisely the fact that motifs seem to overlap with each other not only within one plot (and not even so much), one work, but also across the boundaries of books and even literatures. Therefore, by the way, it is possible and fruitful to study not only the system of motives belonging to one artist, but also the general network of motives used in the literature of a certain time, a certain direction, in one or another national literature.
Understood as an element of the plot, the motif borders on the notion of a theme.
The understanding of the motive as a plot unit in literary criticism coexists and opposes the understanding of it as a kind of clot of feelings, ideas, ideas, even ways of expression. Understood in this way, the motive is already approaching the image and can develop in this direction and develop into an image. This process can occur in one, sometimes completely small work, as, for example, in Lermontov's "Sail". The motif of a lonely sail (borrowed by M. Yu. Lermontov from A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky and having a long tradition), combined with the motifs of a storm, space, flight, gives rise to an integral and organic image of a rebellious lonely soul, an image so rich in the possibilities of artistic influence, that its development and enrichment allowed Lermontov not only to base all his lyrics on it, but also to transform it into the images of the Demon, Arbenin and Pechorin. Pushkin treated motifs differently: he knew how to combine the most prosaic, impassive, almost meaningless and empty of long-used motifs to give them a fresh and universal meaning and create living and eternal images. In Pushkin, all motives remember their former existence. With them, the new work includes not just a tradition, but also a genre, starting to live new life. This is how the ballad, elegy, epigram, ode, idyll, letter, song, fairy tale, fable, short story, epitaph, madrigal and many other half-forgotten and forgotten genres and genre formations live in Eugene Onegin.
The motive is two-faced, it is both a representative of tradition and a sign of novelty. But the motive is just as dual within itself: it is not an indecomposable unit, it is, as a rule, formed by two opposing forces, it presupposes conflict within itself, transforming itself into action. The life of a motive is not endless (motives fizzle out), straightforward and primitive exploitation of a motive can devalue it. This happened, for example, with the motif of the struggle between the old and the new in the so-called "industrial" prose of the 1950s. 20th century After many novels and short stories appeared that used this motif, long time any manifestation of it served as a sign of literary poor quality. It took time and extraordinary efforts of talented writers for this motif to regain the rights of citizenship in our literature. Sometimes motives come to life quite unexpectedly. For example, the romantic motif of loneliness in the crowd, the motif of a stranger was successfully resurrected in the story "Scarecrow" by V.K. Zheleznikov, which became especially famous after its adaptation by R.A. Bykov. Motive is a category that allows us to consider literature as a single book, as a whole - through the particular, as an organism - through the cell. The history of motives - their origin, development, extinction and new flowering - can be the subject of a fascinating literary study.
