The plot is an essential component of any work. Be it a movie, a book, a play or even a painting. Moreover, without him, these works simply could not exist. So what is a plot?
There are many definitions. The most accurate one sounds like this: the plot is a compositionally built order of events taking place in a work. It is he who determines the sequence of the presentation of the story for the viewer / reader. In literature, the concept of plot is closely related to the concept of plot, but they should not be confused. The plot is a tool that the author needs rather than the viewer. events. In books, and often in films, the plot presents us with actions far from chronological order. But, despite this, the narrative is perceived as whole and harmonious.
Exposure. Action Preface. As a rule, the exposition is a descriptive fragment that introduces us to the work.
Tie. The beginning of the action, where the conflicts of the work are outlined, the characters' characters are revealed. This required element, after all, what is a plot without a plot?
Development. The main effective ups and downs of the plot.
Climax. The highest intensity of action, the peak of the plot. Usually, after the climax, cardinal changes in the lives of the characters follow.
Interchange. As a rule, the characters find something for themselves, and their future life is clearly represented.
The final. Otherwise, it can be called an afterword. Here the author puts everything in its place and sums up the work. Interestingly, in Lately there is a clear tendency to leave the ending open for the viewer / reader to think out further fate characters.
Sometimes plot elements can be interchanged. So, there are films and books with both direct and delayed exposure. With the first, everything is clear - first the viewer gets acquainted with the characters and the scene, after which a conflict ensues. In the second case, we learn about the conditions after the start. There are works without exposition at all, where the reader has to get acquainted with the characters in the course of the action itself.
Currently, there are adherents of some avant-garde trends who create works without a plot at all. Such "experiments" are difficult for the audience to perceive and are frivolous parodies of art. But there are also schemes for constructing a composition that completely turn our idea of what a plot is. They will be discussed below.
To complete the answer to the question of what is the plot, it must be said - this is what keeps the viewer's attention throughout the work. Coming up with a plot, the author of the book first of all thinks about how to interest the reader. And to interest not for a couple of pages, but in such a way that he could not tear himself away from the work. Therefore, in our time, more and more new plot construction schemes appear - stories are told backwards, endings completely turn the whole story around, and so on. Perhaps in the future there will no longer be any standard schemes. And the answer to the question "What is a plot?" will be much more complicated and confusing than it is now. In the meantime, this is just a scheme and a method of building a story.
When you read or hear reviews about films you have watched or books you have read, you come across such comments on the plot as: unusual, trivial, dynamic, exciting, and many other various epithets. But what is a plot as a concept? What matters?
Definition of the concept in various sources
The word itself is borrowed from French(subjet), which literally translates as "subject". In many sources (including various dictionaries), the meaning of the word varies. What is a plot? The definition of the average is a system of events and relationships between the characters and their development in time and space. Briefly, the plot is indicated by a set of events and actions that reveal the main content of the work. However, for example, the "Dictionary of Aesthetics" of 1989 calls the dynamic aspect of works of art, the development of action, the development of the relationship of heroes, their characters, actions, the plot. Narrative core artwork is considered a plot in the "Dictionary literary terms", a system of disposition and mutual orientation of persons in this work, as well as the provisions and events developing in it. In big encyclopedic dictionary" and "Modern Encyclopedia" (2000), the plot is considered a way to unfold the plot, as well as a sequence of events depicted.
Plot and plot: identity or addition
What is plot and plot? Are they the same or different concepts complementary or mutually exclusive? The "Modern Illustrated Encyclopedia" indicates that these terms are used differently in the designation of the event series of works. In general, both concepts are closely related. Modern Russian literary criticism refers to the plot as the course of events, and the plot as the main artistic conflict. Although, in addition to this version, there are many others that deserve the right to exist. It is believed that plot theory in its classic version formed in Ancient Greece. According to her, the main components of the addition of the plot are the event and the action. Aristotle considered myth to be the basis of any dramatic or epic work, and the myth itself was formed from events woven into actions. There was a confusion with translations, in particular with Latin, and the myth became a plot. What is the plot in Ushakov's "Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language"? This is a set of events, actions that reveal the main content of the work, but the plot is the content of the events themselves and their sequence. But the Russians nineteenth centuries have reversed the meanings of these terms. As a result, there is still no consensus on this matter.
Plot elements
The totality and sequence of actions and events is a complex whole concept. But what is the plot in detail? This is a combination of elements, each of which has its own function. At the heart of any plot is a conflict that develops gradually. The work begins with an exposition, which carries the first information about the characters, events, time of the story and motivates the reader to continue acquaintance with further history. This is followed by a plot (this is the forerunner of the conflict), there is a collision of some kind. It can be a meeting, a conversation, a message, something suggestive further development events. The next stage is the very development of the action - this is the most significant moment of the work, where already familiar characters are revealed in the ups and downs of history. At this stage, it is already impossible to abandon the work, since it is already interesting how it will all end. The climax is the moment higher voltage when the goals and characters of the characters are most pronounced. It contains the very essence of the work, for the sake of which the reader or viewer gets acquainted with it. In the denouement, the tension begins to subside, and the conflict is resolved, completing the events associated with it. The epilogue usually shows the state of affairs after some time has passed since the main events. Also in the work there may be a prologue that opens the work, it is a kind of introduction to the course of the narrative and reveals the root causes of the events that will take place further. Each of the elements of the plot may or may not be present, depending on the author's idea.
Plot types
There is such a concept as vagrant plots". They are distinguished in rather large group, When we are talking about the typology of subjects. What is a vagrant plot? It's recurring in folk art different peoples complexes plot motifs that form the basis of the work. IN " Terminological dictionary-thesaurus on Literary Studies" states that such wandering plots are repeated in different eras and countries due to the closeness of social experience, similarity social conditions, historical ties and others. There are four main genetic groups into which traditional plots are divided: historical, mythological, literary, folklore. However, this is only one of the classifications proposed by writers. Perhaps one of the most logical and convenient. Thus, the answer to the question was most fully received: "What is a plot in literature?"
Regarding theater and cinema
The concept of plot is generally accepted for all directions. What is the plot of a movie? The same as the plot of a literary work, theatrical production, games, paintings - it is the basis of the form of a work. This is a series of events that take place on the screen, the ups and downs in the lives of the characters, this is something without which no film can exist.
Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Vladimir Dal
plot
m. french the subject, the plot of the essay, its content.
Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov
plot
plot, m. (French sujet).
A set of actions, events, in which the main Content of a work of art is revealed (lit.). Plot " Queen of Spades"Pushkin. Choose something as the plot of the novel.
Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova.
plot
A, m. In a literary or stage work - the sequence and connection of the description of events; in the work visual arts- the subject of the image. Fascinating with.
adj. plot, th, th. Story line novel.
New explanatory and derivational dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.
plot
A series of successively developing events that make up the content of a literary work, movie, etc.
The subject of the image (in the visual arts).
The theme of the piece of music.
Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998
plot
PLOT (French sujet, lit. - subject) in an epic, drama, poem, script, film - a way to unfold the plot, the sequence and motivation for presenting the events depicted. Sometimes the concepts of plot and plot are defined in reverse; sometimes they are identified. In traditional usage - the course of events in a literary work, the spatio-temporal dynamics of the depicted.
Plot
(from French sujet ≈ subject),
in literature ≈ the development of action, the course of events in narrative and dramatic works, and sometimes in lyric. To literature, the word "S." first used in the 17th century. classicists P. Corneille and N. Boileau, meaning, following Aristotle, incidents in life legendary heroes antiquity (for example, Antigone and Creon or Medea and Jason), borrowed by playwrights of later times. But Aristotle in "Poetics" used the ancient Greek word "myth" (mýthos) in the sense of "tradition", which in Russian literary criticism is usually translated incorrectly by the Latin word "fabula" to refer to such incidents. latin word"Fabula" (from the same root with the verb fabulari - to tell, narrate) was used by Roman writers as a designation for all kinds of stories, including myths and fables, and became widespread much earlier than the French term "S.". In German classical aesthetics (Schelling, Hegel), the events depicted in the works were called "action" (Handlung). The difference in terms denoting one phenomenon made them unstable and ambiguous.
In modern Soviet literary-critical and school practice the terms "S." and “plot” are perceived either as synonyms, or S. is called the whole course of events, and the plot is the main artistic conflict that develops in them (in both cases, the terms are doubled). In literary criticism, two other interpretations collide. In the 1920s representatives of OPOYAZ proposed an important distinction between the two sides of the narrative: the development of the events themselves in the life of the characters, the order and method of reporting them by the author-narrator; giving great importance According to how the work is “made”, they began to call S. the second side, and the first - the plot. This tradition continues to be preserved (see "Theory of Literature ..." in three volumes, vol. 2, M., 1964). Another tradition comes from the Russian democratic critics of the mid-19th century, as well as from A. N. Veselovsky and M. Gorky; all of them S. called the development of the action (V. G. Belinsky: “Only those to whom ... the content is important, and not the plot” ≈ complete collection soch., vol. 6, 1955, p. 219; Gorky M.: “... Plot ... connections, contradictions, sympathies and antipathies, and in general the relationship of people ...” ≈ Sobranie soch., vol. 27, 1953, p. 215). Such terminology is not only more traditional and familiar, but also more etymologically accurate (S., in the sense of the word, ≈ “object”, that is, what is being narrated, the plot, from the same point of view, the narration about S. itself). However, it is important for supporters of this theory to assimilate the theoretical innovation of the “formal school” and, naming S. the main, subject side of the narrative or stage action, use the term "plot" to refer to the second, actually compositional side (see Composition).
S. works - one of the most important means of embodying the content - the generalizing "thought" of the writer, his ideological and emotional understanding of the real characteristics of life, expressed through a verbal image fictional characters in their individual actions and relationships. S. in all its unique originality is the main side of the form (and thus style) of the work in its correspondence to the content, and not the content itself, as is often understood in school practice. The entire structure of secularism, its conflicts, and the correlation of narrative and dialogic episodes that develops them must be studied functionally, in its connections with content, in its ideological and aesthetic significance. At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish S. in its uniqueness from abstract plot, more precisely, conflict “schemes” (A loves B, but B loves C, etc.), which can be historically repeated, borrowed and each time find a new concrete artistic embodiment. .
On early stages historical development his epics were built according to the temporary, chronicle principle of combining episodes ( fairy tales, chivalric and picaresque novels). Later in European epic there are concentric S., based on a single conflict. In the concentric secularism of epic and dramaturgy, conflict runs through the entire work and is distinguished by the definiteness of its beginning, climax, and denouement.
Only on the basis of S.'s analysis is it possible to functionally analyze the plot of a work in all its complex relationships. own sides(see plot).
In the visual arts, a certain event, a situation depicted in a work and often indicated in its title. Unlike the theme, S. is a specific, detailed, figurative-narrative disclosure of the idea of the work. S.'s particular complexity is characteristic of works of domestic and historical genres.
Lit.: Aristotle. On the art of poetry, M., 1937; Lessing G. E., Laocoön, or On the Limits of Painting and Poetry, M., 1957; Hegel, Aesthetics, vol. 1, M., 1968: Belinsky V. G., Poln. coll. soch., vol. 5, M., 1954, p. 219; Veselovsky A.N., Poetics of plots, in his book: Historical poetics, L., 1940; Shklovsky V. B., On the theory of prose, M.≈ L., 1925; Medvedev P. N., Formal method in literary criticism, L., 1928: Freidenberg O. M., Poetics of plot and genre, L., 1936; Kozhinov V.V., Plot, plot, composition, in the book: Theory of Literature ..., vol. 2, M., 1964; Questions of cinematography, c. 5 ≈ Plot in cinema, M., 1965; Pospelov G. N., Problems literary style, M., 1970; Lotman Yu. M., Structure artistic text, M., 1970; Timofeev L. I., Fundamentals of the theory of literature, M., 1971; Wellek R., Warren A., Theory of literature, 3 ed., N. Y., 1963.
G. N. Pospelov (S. in literature).
Wikipedia
Plot
Plot- in literature, dramaturgy, theater, cinema, comics and games - a series of events (sequence of scenes, acts) taking place in a work of art (on the theater stage) and lined up for the reader according to certain rules of demonstration. The plot is the basis of the form of the work.
According to Ozhegov's dictionary, plot- this is the sequence and connection of the description of events in a literary or stage work; in a work of fine art - the subject of the image.
Examples of the use of the word plot in literature.
For famous group fairy tales, Aarne even makes a deviation from his principles and suddenly, quite unexpectedly and somewhat inconsistently, instead of dividing into stories goes to the division based on motives.
Last paragraph So, having a theme and a concept, collecting and processing the material, making a plan and considering plot, protecting yourself from clichés, overcoming the resistance of the first paragraph and thus finding the right tone of the story, etc.
Such a definite image would weigh down the adventurous plot, would limit adventurous opportunities.
Tasks dictated by his eternal human nature, - self-preservation, the thirst for victory and triumph, the thirst for possession, sensual love - determine the adventurous plot.
The tasks dictated by his eternal human nature - self-preservation, the thirst for victory and triumph, the thirst for possession, sensual love - determine the adventurous plot.
But it is enough to make Dostoevsky's hero an adequate bearer of adventurous plot.
The formal similarity of Dostoevsky's hero with the adventurous hero, established by us, explains only the artistic possibility of introducing an adventurous plot into the fabric of the novel.
plot, so to speak, a bodily and bodily-soul person.
But it is enough to make Dostoevsky's heroes possible carriers of adventurous plot.
Answering this question, Leonid Grossman points out three main functions of adventurous plot.
True, this eternal man adventurous plot, so to speak, a bodily and bodily-soul person.
Much sadder was the fate of Melanie Treat, a frail old maid whose favorite pastime was smearing watercolors on stories from the life of the Zenkali people.
Maybe your religion plot the legend you wrote helped support the Acceleration in a way - I don't know, and the gods don't either.
And the lively beauty of music in Ra-mo usually triumphs over the cold allegorism or courtly splendor of traditional mythological stories.
One gets the impression that the microplot associated with it, built on alogism, is itself an alogism, an incongruity within the framework of a large plot and only distracts the reader's attention, creates a short, but still excessive slowdown.
) taking place in a work of art (on the stage of a theater) and built for the reader (spectator, player) according to certain rules of demonstration. The plot is the basis of the form of the work.
In the limit general view the plot is a kind of basic scheme of the work, including the sequence of actions taking place in the work and the totality of the relations of the characters existing in it. Typically, the plot includes the following elements: exposition, plot, development of the action, climax, denouement and postposition, and also, in some works, a prologue and epilogue. The main prerequisite for the development of the plot is time, moreover, both in historical terms ( historical period action of the work), so in the physical (the passage of time in the course of the work).
Plot and plot
The concept of plot is closely related to the concept of the plot of a work. In modern Russian literary criticism(as well as in the practice of teaching literature at school) the term “plot” usually refers to the very course of events in a work, and the plot is understood as the main artistic conflict, which develops in the course of these events. Historically, there have been and continue to exist other, different from the above, views on the relationship between plot and plot. For example:
- Dictionary Ushakova defines the plot as "a set of actions, events in which the main content of a work of art is revealed," and the plot as "the content of the events depicted in a literary work, in their sequential connection." Thus, the plot, in contrast to the plot, is attributed to the obligatory presentation of the events of the work in their temporal sequence.
- The previous interpretation was supported in the 1920s by representatives of OPOYAZ, who proposed to distinguish between two sides of the narrative: they called the development of events in the world of the work itself "plot", and the way these events are depicted by the author - "plot".
- Another interpretation comes from Russian critics mid-nineteenth century and was also supported by A. N. Veselovsky and M. Gorky: they called the plot the very development of the action of the work, adding to this the relationship of the characters, and under the plot they understood the compositional side of the work, that is, how exactly the author communicates the content of the plot. It is easy to see that the meanings of the terms "plot" and "plot" in this interpretation, in comparison with the previous one, change places.
Finally, there is also a point of view that the concept of "plot" independent value does not, and to analyze a work it is quite sufficient to operate with the concepts of “plot”, “plot scheme” (that is, the plot in the sense of the first two of the above options), “plot composition” (how the events from the plot scheme are presented by the author).
Plot typology
Many attempts have been made to classify literary works, divide them according to various criteria, highlight the most typical ones. The analysis made it possible, in particular, to single out a large group of so-called "wandering plots" - plots that are repeated many times in different design among different peoples and in different regions, for the most part- in folk art (fairy tales, myths, legends).
According to A. E. Nyamtsu, four main genetic groups can be distinguished from the whole variety of traditional plots: mythological, folklore, historical and literary.
There are several attempts to reduce all the variety of plots to a small, but at the same time exhaustive set. plot schemes. In the well-known short story The Four Cycles, Borges claims that all plots come down to just four options:
- On the assault and defense of the fortified city (Troy)
- About the long return (Odysseus)
- About Search (Jason)
- On the Suicide of God (Odin, Attis)
The French researcher Georges Polti published in 1895 the book “Thirty six dramatic situations”, in which he reduced the entire experience of world drama to the development of 36 standard plot collisions.
There are two things that make this book fascinating: the character and its destiny. If you managed to create a bright, charming and original - in fact, half the battle is done. The reader's interest in your book is guaranteed. For the first hundred pages. But to justify it is the task of the plot.
What is a plot?
In Russian-language literature, there are two concepts - the plot and the plot. They mean roughly the same thing, but there are differences.
In short and simple, then:
- the plot is the facts of your history, naked and impartial, arranged in chronological order;
- the plot is that (with the eyes of which hero they showed them, what assessment they gave, maybe even changed chronological order, i.e., first they told about what happened, and then they showed the reason for what happened).
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For example, in Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" the plot is as follows:
A poor student committed the murder of an old usurer. After a long time he suffered and repented. He confessed, went to hard labor and found peace and happiness.
And the plot is more complicated:
A poor student, reflecting on the latest philosophical concepts of his time, perceives the old usurer as an impersonal evil that stands in his way, the path of an enlightened and potentially great person, and everything in his life depends on whether he has enough determination and courage to admit that he above her and has the right to destroy her in order to achieve all that he can; whether he can be a real person, and not a trembling creature.
To prove to himself that he is a man and not a creature, the student kills the old woman - with an ax, clumsily and with horror; the scene of the murder shocks him so much that he falls into a state of shock and gradually slides into mental disorder… and so on.
I think this is enough for you to understand the difference between plot and plot.
The plot (unlike the plot) is internal and external.
The inner story is what happens in the head and in the heart. The path of development of his character. After all, you already know that a hero is a hero because his character, his personality change in the course of the work. These changes are the inner story.
The external plot is what happens around the main character and with his direct participation. These are all the actions that take place in your story. Actions that affect, the people you talk about. Actions that generate facts.
Most often, these two types of plot peacefully coexist and support each other. But, of course, there are also stories where one of the plots prevails.
In the cited novel by Dostoevsky, the advantage, as you understand, is on the side of the internal plot.
But in stories about Conan the Barbarian, the external plot prevails.
In many ways, the ratio of internal and external plots stories depends on the literary niche for which you are going to write.
If your goal is mainstream, then the stories should be brought into balance. If - or, in other words, entertaining - literature, then it is better to work properly on the external plot. If you intend to get into elite literature, then you can safely deal only inner world your hero!
However, remember: best books any of the aforementioned trends are always built on an organic fusion of both types of plot. Rich spiritual world main character, his active inner life also stimulate sharp conflicts in the external world.
And vice versa.
Inspiration to you and good luck!
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