The world of things is an essential facet of human reality, both primary and artistically realized. This is the sphere of activity and habitation of people. The thing is directly related to their behavior, consciousness and constitutes a necessary component of culture: “a thing outgrows its “thingness” and begins to live, act, “matter” in the spiritual space. Things are made by someone, belong to someone, cause a certain attitude towards themselves, become a source of impressions, experiences, thoughts. They are put by someone exactly in this place and are true to their purpose, or, on the contrary, for some reason they are in a purely random place and, having no owner, lose their meaning, turn into rubbish.

In all these facets, things that are either values ​​or “anti-values” are capable of appearing in art (in particular, in literary works), constituting their integral link. “Literature,” notes A.P. Chudakov - depicts the world in its physical and concrete-objective forms. The degree of attachment to the material is different - in prose and poetry, in literature different eras, writers of various literary trends.

But the artist of the word can never shake off the material dust from his feet and, with his liberated foot, enter the realm of immateriality; The internally substantial, in order to be perceived, must be recreated externally and objectively. Images of things have acquired a particularly responsible role in works that are closely attentive to everyday life, which almost predominate in literature since the era of romanticism.

One of the leitmotifs of the literature of the 19th-20th centuries is a thing akin to a person, as if fused with his life, home, everyday life. So, in the novel of Novalis, convinced that nothing in the environment is alien to a real poet, it is said that housewares and the use of it promises the human soul pure joy, that they are able to "raise the soul above everyday life", elevate the needs of man. In a similar way - carefully painted by N.V. Gogol objects in the house of Afanasy Ivanovich and Pulcheria Ivanovna (“Old World Landowners”): bundles of dried pears and apples on a palisade, a clay floor kept neatly, chests, boxes in rooms, a singing door.

“All this has an inexplicable charm for me,” the narrator admits. Something close to this and L.N. Tolstoy: both the office of the old Prince Volkonsky (it was “filled with things that were apparently constantly used”, which are described below), and the interiors of the Rostovs’ house (let us recall the excitement of Nikolai, who returned from the army to Moscow, when he saw well familiar card-tables in the hall, a lamp in a case, a doorknob), and Levin's room, where on everything - both on a notebook with his handwriting and on his father's sofa - "traces of his life."

Similar motives are heard by I.S. Turgenev, N.S. Leskov, sometimes - at A.P. Chekhov (especially in late plays); in the XX century - in the prose of B.K. Zaitsev and I.S. Shmelev, in verses and the novel "Doctor Zhivago" by B.L. Pasternak, especially persistently - in the "White Guard" by M.A. Bulgakov (understandable to the reader a tiled stove, dotted with notes, a “bronze lamp under a lampshade”, without which a turbine house is unimaginable). The things denoted in this series of works, as it were, exude the poetry of family and love, comfort, spiritual settledness, and at the same time - high spirituality.

Many of these things, lived by a person and signifying his good connection with the world, are worldly decorations designed to please the eye and heart (most often - multi-colored, colorful, patterned). This kind of things is rooted in the centuries-old culture of mankind and, accordingly, in verbal art. So, the narrators of epics were closely attentive to what is now commonly called jewelry. Here are rings, and red clasps, and pearl earrings, and buttons that are more beautiful than the robe itself, and fabrics with patterns, and magnificent banquet bowls, and the gilding of the prince's gard, and a fur coat, which during the day “as if on fire” and with which at night "as if sparks are pouring." In historically early poetic genres, a thing appears as “a necessary belonging of a person, as an important conquest of him, as something that determines his social value by its presence”; "depicted with special care and love", she "is always offered in a state of ultimate perfection, the highest completeness." This layer of verbal imagery testifies to the nature of the life of our distant ancestors, who surrounded themselves with objects "more or less artistically processed."

Everyday decorations, festively and fabulously bright, appear as a kind of counterbalance to the vulgar everyday life in the stories of E.T.A. Hoffmann. Such is the entourage of the house of the archivist Lindgorst (“The Golden Pot”): a crystal mirror and bells, a ring with a precious stone and the golden pot itself with a magnificent lily embroidered on it, which is designed to miraculously make the young heroes of the story happy. Such are in the fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”), the plot of which is well known thanks to the ballet by P.I. Tchaikovsky, fabulously plentiful Christmas gifts for children (among them - the Nutcracker).

Such objects, charmingly poetic, make up an important facet of the works of N.V. Gogol, N.S. Leskova, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, I.A. Goncharova ("Cliff"), A.N. Ostrovsky ("The Snow Maiden"). They are also present in A. Blok:

Each skate on a patterned carving

Red flames are thrown towards you

(Introduction to "Poems about the Beautiful Lady")

And far, far away waving invitingly

Your patterned, your colored sleeve.

We also recall the “painted knitting needles” and “patterned kerchief up to the eyebrows” from the famous poem “Russia”.

The poetic side of everyday life with its utensils and subject entourage, which has folk roots, is vividly embodied in the story of I.S. if you don’t do it, then you have to rejoice with your soul. ” The description of a pavilion near the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, which is called a “song”, is imbued with such joy: “the glasses are all multi-colored, platbands and valances of the most intricate work, made of birch, under light varnish, stars and knobs, skates and cockerels, cunning curlicues, suns and ripples” — everything is “carved, thin”. Such household items are mentioned in the story of V.I. Belov "The Village of Berdyaika" and in his book "Lad", in the stories of V.P. Astafiev "Arc" and "Asterisks and Christmas trees".

But in the literature of the XIX-XX centuries. a different illumination of the material world predominates, more depressingly prosaic than exaltingly poetic. In Pushkin (1830s), even more so in Gogol and in "post-Gogol" literature, life with its material entourage is often presented as dull, monotonous, weighing on a person, repulsive, insulting the aesthetic sense. Let us recall Raskolnikov's room, one corner of which was "terribly sharp", the other "too ugly stupid", or the clock in "Notes from the Underground", which "wheezes as if they are being strangled", after which there is a "thin, nasty ringing". At the same time, a person is depicted as alienated from the world of things, on which the seal of desolation and death is thus placed.

These motifs, often associated with the idea of ​​writers about the responsibility of a person for his immediate environment, including the subject, sounded in Gogol's "Dead Souls" (images of Manilov and, in particular, Plyushkin), and in a number of Chekhov's works. So, the hero of the story “The Bride”, dreaming of beautiful fountains of a bright future, lives in a room where “it is smoky, spitting; on the table near the cold samovar lay broken plate with a dark piece of paper, and there were a lot of dead flies on the table and on the floor.

In numerous cases, the material world is associated with a person's deep dissatisfaction with himself, with the surrounding reality. Vivid evidence of this is the work of I.F. Annensky, which foreshadowed a lot in the art of the 20th century. In his poems, “from every shelf and whatnot, from under the closet and from under the sofa,” the night of life looks; in the open windows there is a sense of "hopelessness"; the walls of the room are seen as “dreary white.” The objects are here, notes L.Ya. Ginzburg, are “signs of longing for immobility”, a physiologically specific, but very voluminous “longing for everyday life”: a person in Annensky is “linked to things” painfully and painfully.

In a different, one might say, aestheticized variation, the theme of melancholy, stimulated by things, persistently sounds in the work of V.V. Nabokov. For example: "It was a vulgarly furnished, dimly lit room with a shadow stuck in the corner and a dusty vase on an inaccessible shelf." This is how the room where the Chernyshevsky couple lives ("The Gift") is drawn. But (in the same novel) a room in the apartment of the parents of Zina, the hero’s beloved: “small, oblong, with walls painted in a whirlwind,” it seemed to Godunov-Cherdyntsev “unbearable” - “its furnishings, coloring, view of the asphalt courtyard”; and the "sand pit for children" reminded the narrator of that "greasy sand" that "we touch only when we bury our acquaintances."

The squeamish alienation from the world of things reaches its maximum in the works of J.-P. Sartre. The hero of the novel "Nausea" (1938) is disgusted by things because "the very existence of the world is ugly"; he cannot bear their presence as such, which is motivated simply: "nausea is myself." While in the tram, the hero experiences an irresistible disgust for the seat cushion, and for the wooden back, and for the strip between them; in his feeling all these things are “bizarre, stubborn, huge”: “I am among them. They surrounded me, lonely, wordless, defenseless, they are under me, they are above me. They don’t demand anything, they don’t impose themselves, they just exist.” And this is precisely what the hero finds unbearable: “I jump off the tram on the move. I couldn't take any more. Couldn't bear the haunting closeness of things."

Literature of the 20th century was marked by an unprecedentedly wide use of images of the material world, not only as attributes of the everyday environment, people's habitat, but also (above all!) as objects that are organically fused with the inner life of a person and at the same time have a symbolic meaning: both psychological and "existential", ontological . This deepening of the artistic function of a thing takes place both when it participates in the depths of human consciousness and being, is positively significant and poetic, as, say, in Pasternak's poems with their dithyrambic tones, and in those cases when, as in Annensky and Nabokov, is associated with melancholy, hopelessness and cold alienation from the reality of the lyrical hero, narrator) character.

So, material concreteness is an integral and very essential facet of verbal and artistic imagery. A thing and a literary work (both as part of interiors and outside them) has a wide range of meaningful functions. At the same time, things “enter” literary texts in different ways. Most often they are episodic, present in very few episodes of the text, often given in passing, as if in between times. But sometimes images of things come to the fore and become the central link in the verbal fabric. Let's remember the "Summer of the Lord" by I.S. Shmeleva - a story rich in details of a rich and vibrant merchant life, or Gogol's "The Night Before Christmas" with abundant descriptions and enumerations of everyday realities and with a plot "twisted" around things, what are the bags of Solokha, into which her fans "fell", and little cherevichki queens, which Oksana wished to have.

Things can be “given” by writers either in the form of some kind of “objective” given, dispassionately depicted (remember Oblomov’s room in the first chapters of I.A. Goncharov’s novel; descriptions of shops in E. Zola’s novel “Lady’s Happiness”), or as someone’s impressions from what is seen, which is not so much painted as drawn by single strokes, subjectively colored. The first style is perceived as more traditional, the second - as akin contemporary art. As noted by A.P. Chudakov, F.M. Dostoevsky “there is no calmly consistent image of the material content of an apartment, a room. Objects, as it were, tremble in the cells of a tightly stretched authorial or heroic intention - and this reveals and exposes it. Something similar - in L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov and many writers of the 20th century.

V.E. Khalizev Theory of Literature. 1999

Material culture (from Latin materia and cultura - cultivation, processing) as a set of objects created by man, enters the world of the work. However, there is no single term for denoting objects of material culture depicted in literature. So, A. G. Zeitlin calls them “things”, “details of the everyday environment, what painters include in the concept of “interior””. But material culture is firmly inscribed not only in the interior, but also in the landscape (with the exception of the so-called wild landscape), and in the portrait (since the costume, jewelry, etc. are its component
). A.I. Beletsky proposes the term "still life", by which he means "the depiction of things - tools and results of production - an artificial environment created by man ...". This term from the field of painting in literary criticism did not take root. And for A.P. Chudakov's "thing in literature" is a very broad concept: he does not distinguish between a "natural or man-made" object, which removes an extremely important position already at the terminological level: material culture / nature. Here, things mean only man-made objects, elements of material culture (although the latter is not reduced to things, including also diverse processes).
The material world in a literary work correlates with the objects of material culture in reality. In this sense, according to the creations of "bygone days" it is possible to reconstruct the material life. So, R.S. Lipets in the book "Epos and Ancient Rus'" convincingly proves what S.K. Shambinago's assumption about the genetic connection between the life of epics and the everyday life of Russian princes. The reality of white-stone chambers, gilded roofs, unchanged white-oak tables, at which heroes sit, drinking copper drinks from their brothers and accepting the rich gifts of the prince for faithful service, has also been proved by archaeological excavations. “Despite the abundance of poetic images, metaphors, generalized epic situations, despite the violation of chronology and the displacement of a number of events, epics are all an excellent and unique historical source ...”
The image of objects of material culture in literature is evolving. And it reflects changes in the relationship between man and thing in real life. At the dawn of civilization, a thing is a crown human creation, a testament to wisdom and skill. Aesthetics heroic epic assumed descriptions of things "ultimate perfection, the highest completeness ...".
The bipod is maple, The bipods are damask, The bipods are silver, And the bipods are red gold.
(Epic "Volga and Mikula")
Narrators are always attentive to the "white-stone chambers", their decoration, bright objects, fabrics with a "sly pattern", jewelry, magnificent banquet bowls.
The very process of creating a thing is often captured, as in Homer's Iliad, where Hephaestus forges battle armor for Achilles:
And in the beginning he worked as a shield and huge and strong, decorating the whole gracefully; around him he brought out a rim White, brilliant, triple; and attached a silver belt. A shield of five was made up of sheets and on a vast circle God made many wondrous things according to creative plans ...
(Song XVIII. Translated by N. Gnedich)
The attitude to the objects of material culture as an achievement of the human mind is especially clearly demonstrated by the Age of Enlightenment. The pathos of D. Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" is a hymn to labor and civilization. Robinson embarks on a risky journey on rafts to a ship that has run aground in order to transport the things he needs to the shore of a desert island. More than eleven times he transports numerous "fruits of civilization" on rafts. in the most detailed way Defoe describes these things. The most "precious find" of the hero is a carpenter's box with working tools, for which, according to him own confession, he would give a whole ship of gold. There are also hunting rifles, pistols, sabers, nails, screwdrivers, axes, sharpeners, two iron crowbars, a bag of shot, a barrel of gunpowder, a bundle of sheet iron, ropes, provisions, clothes. Everything with which Robinson must "conquer" the wild.
In the literature of the XIX-XX centuries. there are different trends in the image of things. The master man, homo faber, is still revered, objects made by skillful hands are valued. Examples of such an image of things are given, for example, by the work of N.S. Leskov. Numerous items described in his works are the “steel flea” of Tula masters (“Lefty”), the icon of the Old Believer icon painters (“The Sealed Angel”), gifts from the dwarf from the novel “Cathedrals”, Rogozhin’s handicrafts from “The Seedy Family”, etc. "trace of skill" of Lesk's heroes.
However, the writers sensitively caught another line in the relationship between a person and a thing: the material value of the latter can overshadow a person, he is evaluated by society by how expensive things he possesses. And a person is often likened to a thing. This is the death cry of the heroine of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky “Dowry”: “Thing ... yes, thing! They are right, I am a thing, not a person.” And in the artistic world, A.P. Chekhov’s things: the piano played by Kotik (“Ionych”), pots of sour cream, jugs of milk surrounding the hero of the story “Teacher of Literature”, often embolize the vulgarity and monotony of provincial life.
In the XX century. more than one poetic spear has been broken in the fight against materialism - the slavish dependence of people on the things around them:
The owner dies, but his things remain,
They do not care, things, to someone else's, human misfortune.
At the hour of your death, even the cups on the shelves do not beat,
And do not melt, like ice floes, rows of sparkling glasses.
Maybe for things it’s not worth trying too hard ...
(V. Shefner. "Things")
The intimate connection between a person and a thing, which was especially characteristic of the Middle Ages, is weakening, lost, where things often have proper names(remember the Durandal sword, owned by the protagonist of The Song of Roland). There are many things, but they are standard, almost! do not notice. At the same time, their "inventory lists" can be! ominously self-sufficient - so, mainly through long enumerations of numerous purchases replacing each other, the life of the heroes of the story of the French writer J. Perec "Things" is shown.
With the development of technology, the range of things depicted in literature is expanding. They began to write about giant factories, about the infernal punishing machine (“In the penal colony” by F. Kafka), about the time machine, about computer systems, about robots in human form (modern fantasy novels). But at the same time, anxiety about the reverse side of scientific and technological progress is becoming stronger. In Russian Soviet prose and poetry of the XX century. “machine fighting motifs” sound primarily among peasant poets - among S. Yesenin, N. Klyuev, S. Klychkov, P. Oreshin, S. Drozhzhin; the authors of the so-called village prose"- V. Astafyeva, V. Belova, V. Rasputin. And this is not surprising: after all, the peasant way of life suffered most from the continuous industrialization of the country. Entire villages are dying out, destroyed (“Farewell to Matera” by V. Rasputin), eradicated from human memory folk performances about beauty, "lada" (the book of the same name by V. Belov), etc. contemporary literature sounds more and more warning of an ecological catastrophe (“The Last Pastoral” by A. Adamovich). All this reflects the real processes taking place in the relationship of a person with things created by his hands, but often beyond his control.
At the same time, the thing in a literary work acts as an element of the conditional, artistic world. And unlike reality, the boundaries between things and a person, living and non-living, here can be shaky. Yes, Russians folk tales give numerous examples of the "humanization" of things. Literary characters can be a "stove" ("Geese-swans"), a doll; (“Baba Yaga”), etc. This tradition is continued by both Russian and foreign literature: “The Tin Soldier” by G.Kh. Andersen, The Blue Bird by M. Maeterlinck, Mystery Buff by V. Mayakovsky, Until the Third Cocks by V.M. Shukshina and others. The world of a work of art can be saturated with things that do not exist in reality. Science fiction literature is replete with descriptions of unprecedented spaceships, orbital stations, hyperboloids, computers, robots, etc. ("Hyperboloid of engineer Garin" by A. Tolstoy, "Solaris", "Stalker" by St. Lem, "Moscow-2004" Voinovich).
It is conditionally possible to single out the most important functions of things in literature, such as culturological, characterological, plot-compositional.
The thing can be a sign of the depicted era and environment. The culturological function of things is especially evident in travel novels, where various worlds are presented in a synchronous cut: national, estate, geographical, etc. Let us recall how Vakula from Gogol's "The Night Before Christmas" evil spirits and his own resourcefulness, in a matter of minutes, he gets from a remote Little Russian village to St. Petersburg. He is amazed by the architecture, the clothes of his contemporaries, remote from their native Dikanka by distance: “... houses grew and seemed to rise from the ground at every step; bridges trembled; carriages flew<...>pedestrians huddled and crowded under the houses, humiliated with bowls<...>. The blacksmith looked around in amazement in all directions. It seemed to him that all the houses fixed their countless fiery eyes on him and looked. He saw so many gentlemen in fur coats covered with cloth that he did not know who to take off his hat.
Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, languishing in Tatar captivity (Leskov's story "The Enchanted Wanderer"), did a great service, a chest with the accessories necessary for fireworks, which brought indescribable horror to the Tatars, who were not familiar with these attributes of European urban life.
The culturological function of things in the historical novel is very important - a genre that takes shape in the era of romanticism and strives to visualize in its descriptions historical time and local flavor (fr. couleur locale). According to the researcher, in the "Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris» V. Hugo «things live a life deeper than living characters, and the central interest of the novel focused on things.
The sign function of things is also performed in everyday writings. Gogol colorfully depicts the life of the Cossacks in "Evenings on a farm near Dikanka". Ostrovsky's "Columbus of Zamoskvorechye" became famous not only because of the accuracy of depicting the characters of the "country" hitherto unknown to the reader, but also because of the visible embodiment of this "bear's corner" in all its details, accessories.
A thing can serve as a sign of wealth or poverty. According to a tradition originating in the Russian epic epic, where heroes competed with each other in wealth, striking with an abundance of jewelry, precious metals and stones become this indisputable symbol. Let's remember:
Brocade fabrics throughout; Yakhonts play like a fever; Around the golden incense burners Raise fragrant steam ...
(A. S. Pushkin. "Ruslan and Lyudmila")
Or a fabulous palace from " scarlet flower» ST. Aksakov: "the decoration is royal everywhere, unheard of and unseen: gold, silver, oriental crystal, ivory and mammoth."
Equally important is the characterological function of things. Gogol's works show the "intimate connection of things" with their owners. No wonder Chichikov liked to examine the dwelling of the next victim of his speculation. “He thought to find in it the properties of the owner himself, as by the shell one can judge what kind of oyster or snail was sitting in it” (“Dead Souls” - vol. 2, ch. 3, early ed.).
Things can line up in a sequential row. In "Dead Souls", for example, every chair shouted: "And I, too, Sobakevich!". But one detail can characterize the character. For example, a jar with the inscription "Kruzhovnik", prepared by the caring hands of Fenechka ("Fathers and Sons" by Turgenev). Often the interiors are depicted according to a contrasting principle - let us recall the description of the rooms of two debtors of the usurer Gobsek: the countess and the “cleanliness fairy” seamstress Fanny (“Gobsek” by O. Balzac). Against the backdrop of this literary tradition the absence of things can also become significant (the so-called minus device): it emphasizes the complexity of the character's character. So, Raisky, trying to learn more about Vera, which is mysterious to him (I.A. Goncharov’s Cliff), asks Marfinka to show him his sister’s room. He “already mentally drew this room for himself: he crossed the threshold, looked around the room and - was deceived in expectation: there was nothing there!”
Things often become signs, symbols of human experiences:
I look, like a madman, at a black shawl, And sadness torments my cold soul.
(A. S. Pushkin. "Black Shawl")
"Copper knobs" on grandfather's chair completely reassured little hero from Aksakov's story “Childhood of Bagrov's grandson”: “How strange it is! These armchairs and brass knobs first of all rushed into my eyes, attracted my attention and seemed to disperse and cheer me up a little. And in V. Astafiev's story "The Duga", the dut accidentally found by the hero from the wedding train fills him with memories of the long-forgotten times of his youth.
One of the common functions of things in a literary work is plot-compositional. Let us recall the sinister role of the scarf in the tragedy "Othello" by W. Shakespeare, the necklace from the eponymous story by Leskovsky, "the queen's little boots" from Gogol's "The Night Before Christmas" and others. A special place is occupied by things in detective literature(which is emphasized by Chekhov in his parodic stylization of the "Swedish Match"). Without details, this genre is unthinkable.
The material world of the work has its own composition. On the one hand, details often line up in a row, forming together an interior, a landscape, a portrait, etc. Recall detailed description the heroes of Leskov (“Soboryane”), the urban landscape in “Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky, numerous luxury items in O. Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.
On the other hand, one thing, highlighted in a work of close-up, carries an increased semantic, ideological load, developing into a symbol. Is it possible to call “a flower withered, without ears” (A.S. Pushkin) or “geranium flowers in the window” (Teffi. “On the island of my memories ...”) just an interior detail? What is "tulle-lu satin" ("Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboedov) or Onegin's hat "bolivar"? What does the “respected closet” from Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard mean? Things-symbols are placed in the title of a work of art (“Shagreen Skin” by O. Balzac, “Garnet Bracelet” by A.I. Kuprin, “Pearls” by N.S. Gumilyov, “Twelve Chairs” by I. Ilf and B. Petrov). Simolization of things is especially characteristic of lyrics due to its tendency to the semantic richness of the word. Each of the items mentioned in G. Shengeli's poem evokes a number of associations:
In the tables, "acquired on the occasion" At sales and auctions, I like to inspect their boxes ... What was in them? Paper, testaments, Poems, flowers, love confessions. All souvenirs are a sign of hopes and faiths, Recipes, opium, rings, money, pearls, A funeral aureole from the son's head. At the last minute, a revolver?
(“In the tables, “acquired on the occasion” ..*)
In the context of a work of art, the symbolism may change. So, the fence in Chekhov's story “The Lady with the Dog” became a symbol of a painful, joyless life: “Just in front of the house was a fence, gray, long, with nails. "You will run away from such a fence," thought Gurov, glancing first at the windows, then at the fence. However, in other contexts, the fence symbolizes the desire for beauty, harmony, faith in people. In the context of the play “Last Summer in Chulimsk” by A.V. Vampilov, this is how the episode with the heroine’s restoration of the front garden, destroyed every night by her negligent fellow villagers, is “read” in this way.
The brevity of the author's text in the drama, the "metonymy" and "metaphorism" of the lyrics somewhat limit the depiction of things in these kinds of literature. The widest possibilities for recreating the material world open up in the epic.
Genre differences in works also affect the image of things, the actualization of one or another of their functions. Signs of this or that way of life, culture, things appear mainly in historical novels and plays, in everyday writings, in particular in "physiological" essays, in science fiction. The plot function of things is actively "exploited" by detective genres. The degree of detail of the material world depends on the author's style. An example of the dominance of things in work of art- E. Zola's novel "Lady's Happiness". The optimistic philosophy of the novel is opposed critical pictures reality, drawn by the writer in previous novels Rougon-Macquart series. In an effort, as Zola wrote in a sketch for the novel, "to show the joy of action and the enjoyment of being," the author sings a hymn to the world of things as a source of earthly joys. The kingdom of material life is equated in its rights with the kingdom of spiritual life, therefore Zola composes “poems of women's clothes”, comparing them either with a chapel, or with a temple, or with the altar of a “huge temple” (ch. XIV). The opposite style trend is the absence, rarity of descriptions of things. So, it was very sparingly indicated in the novel by G. Hesse "The Glass Bead Game", which emphasizes the detachment from the household, material concerns of the Master of the Game and, in general, the inhabitants of Castalia. The absence of things can be no less significant than their abundance.
The description of things in a literary work can be one of its stylistic dominants. This is typical for a number of literary genres: artistic and historical, science fiction, moral descriptive (physiological essay, utopian novel), artistic and ethnographic (travel), etc. It is important for the writer to show the unusual environment surrounding the characters, its dissimilarity to the one to which the implicit reader is accustomed. This goal is also achieved through the detailing of the material world, and not only the selection of objects of material culture is important, but also the way they are described.
Emphasizing the originality of a particular way of life, life, writers widely use various lexical layers of the language, the so-called passive vocabulary, as well as words that have a limited scope of use: archaisms, historicisms, dialectisms, barbarisms, professionalism, neologisms, vernacular, etc. The use of such vocabulary, being an expressive technique, at the same time often creates difficulties for the reader. Sometimes the authors themselves, foreseeing this, supply the text with notes, special dictionaries, as Gogol did in Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka. Among the words explained by the beekeeper Rudy Panko in the “Foreword”, the lion’s share belongs to the designation of things: “bandura is an instrument, a type of guitar”, “batog is a whip”, “kaganets is a type of lamp”, “cradle is a pipe”, “towel is a towel ”, “Smushki - mutton fur”, “Khustka - a handkerchief”, etc. It would seem that Gogol could immediately write Russian words, but then “Evenings ...” would largely lose the local color cultivated by the aesthetics of romanticism.
Intermediaries usually help the reader to understand a text saturated with passive vocabulary: commentators, editors, translators. The question of acceptable, from an aesthetic point of view, the extent to which passive vocabulary is used has been and remains debatable in literary criticism and literary criticism. Here is the beginning of S. Yesenin's poem "In the House", which immediately immerses the reader in the life of the Ryazan village:
It smells of loose drachens; At the threshold in the bowl of kvass, Above the chiseled stoves Cockroaches climb into the groove.
In total, in this poem, consisting of five stanzas, according to N.M. Shanskogo, 54 independent words, of which at least a fifth needs explanation. “The words requiring interpretation, of course, include the words dracheny - “baked flat cakes in milk and eggs from millet porridge and potatoes”, dezhka - “tub”, stove - “a recess similar to a Russian stove in its side wall, where they put or put something or so that it is dry or warm "(there are usually several such recesses), the groove is "a narrow long gap between loosely fitted bricks ...<...>The bulk of ... verbal "strangers" are dialectisms, "birthmarks" of the Ryazan dialect native to the poet. It is absolutely clear, and there can be no other opinions: S. Yesenin has a feeling artistic measure changed." However, there are still “other opinions” and the issue remains controversial.
In general, the choice of one or another synonym, a linguistic doublet, is an expressive stylistic device, and when describing the situation as a whole, stylistic unity is important here, “fixing” the consistency with each other of the details that make up the ensemble. So, in a romantic elegy in the description of the dwelling (native penates) of the lyrical hero, the very choice of words (archaisms, soporific forms, etc.) muffles everyday concreteness, emphasizes the conventionality, generalization of the image. As G.O. Vinokur, “this includes, for example, a canopy, an attic, a hut, a shelter, a hut, a cell (in the meaning of“ a small poor room ”), shelter, a corner, a garden, a house, a hut, a shack, a light, a gate, an office, a monastery, a fireplace and similar words, symbolizing inspiration and the poet's comfortable separation from society and people. A completely different stylistic coloring of the word is in the description of interiors, which abound in physiological essays. Their poetics and stylistics are emphatically naturalistic and extremely concrete. Such, for example, is the description of a room in N.A. Nekrasov: “One of the boards of the ceiling, black and strewn with flies, jumped out at one end from under the middle transverse beam and stuck out obliquely, which, it seemed, the inhabitants of the basement were very happy, because they hung their towels and shirts on it; for the same purpose, a rope was passed through the whole room, fastened at one end to a hook located above the door, and with the other to the upper hinge of the closet: this is what I call an oblong recess with shelves, without doors, in the back wall of the room; however, the hostess told me, there used to be doors, but one of the tenants tore them off and, placing them on two logs in his corner, thus made an artificial bed. Boards, a hook, a cross beam, the upper hinge of a cabinet, a rope, shirts, towels, etc. - also an ensemble of details, vocabulary that betrays an experienced person who knows a lot about boards and beams. But this is a completely different ensemble.
It is necessary to distinguish between the literary and linguistic aspects of word usage, since the vocabulary denoting things can be updated; in particular, this applies to the names of clothing items, luxury items, interior - what makes up fashion in material culture. So, stylistically motivated archaisms should not be confused with words that have become lexical archaisms for new generations of readers (for example, Raisky's "home coat" from Goncharov's "Cliff" (ch. I) means a dressing gown, and Olga Ivanovna's "water proof" from "Prygunya" Chekhov - waterproof raincoat). There are also lexico-semantic archaisms, i.e. words that have changed their meaning since the writing of the work (for example, “screen” in Dostoevsky’s “Idiot” means “screen” - ch. 15)2.
The world of things and its designation in utopias, science fiction - genres where a habitat is constructed that has no direct analogues in reality deserves special consideration. Neologisms correspond to unusual things here: they often give a name to a work, creating an appropriate perception setting for the reader: A. Tolstoy's "Hyperboloid of engineer Garin", "Solaris" and "Stalker" by St. Lema.
Compared to nature, man-made environment, human environment, changes rapidly. Therefore, in works where the action takes place in the past, future, fantastic times and corresponding spaces, the image of things is a special creative problem.

Man began to create from the moment of his appearance. Paintings, sculptures and other artifacts whose age is impressive are still found by scientists today. We have collected 10 ancient works of art found at different times and in different parts of the world. And there is no doubt that women were the source of inspiration for the ancient masters.

1. Prehistoric rock art - 700 - 300 thousand years BC

The oldest examples of prehistoric rock art, found to date, are one of the forms of pictograms, called "cups" by archaeologists, on which longitudinal grooves are sometimes carved. Cups are depressions carved into walls and rock tops. At the same time, they are often ordered in rows and columns. Such rock artifacts have been found on all continents. Some indigenous peoples in Central Australia still use them today. The oldest example of such art can be found in the Bhimbetka cave in central India.

2. Sculptures - 230,000 - 800,000 BC

The oldest human sculpture is the Venus of Hole Fels, which is 40,000 years old. However, there is much more ancient statue, around the authenticity of which there are heated debates. This statue, discovered on the Golan Heights in Israel, was named Venus from Berehat Ram. If this is in fact a real sculpture, then it is older than the Neanderthals and probably made by the predecessor of Homo sapiens, namely Homo erectus. The figurine was found between two layers of volcanic stone and soil, radiological analysis of which showed staggering figures - from 233,000 to 800,000 years. The debate around the discovery of this figurine intensified after a figurine called "Tan-Tan" was found in nearby Morocco, which was between 300,000 and 500,000 years old.

3. Drawings on the shell of ostrich eggs - 60,000 BC

Ostrich eggs were an important tool in many early cultures, and decorating their shells became an important form expression for people. In 2010, researchers from Diepkloof in South Africa discovered a large cache containing 270 fragments of ostrich eggs, which were decorated with decorative and symbolic drawings. The two different main motifs in these designs were hatched stripes and parallel or converging lines.

4. The oldest rock paintings in Europe - 42,300 - 43,500 BC

Until recently, it was thought that Neanderthals were not able to create works of art. That changed in 2012 when researchers working in the Nerja Caves in Malaga, Spain discovered drawings that predate the famous drawings in the Chauvet Cave in southeastern France by more than 10,000 years. Six drawings on the walls of the cave were made with charcoal, and radiocarbon analysis showed that they were created between 42,300 and 43,500 years before our era.

5. Oldest handprints - 37,900 BC

Some of the oldest drawings ever made have been found on the walls of the Sulawesi caves in Indonesia. They are almost 35.5 years old and almost as old as the paintings in El Castillo Cave (40,800 years old) and the cave paintings in Chauvet Cave (37,000 years old). But the most original image in Sulawesi is 12 handprints made with ocher, which are at least 39,900 years old.

6. The oldest bone figurines - 30,000 BC

In 2007, archaeologists from the University of Tübingen were excavating on a plateau in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. They discovered a cache of small animals carved from bone. Bone figurines were made neither more nor less - 35,000 years ago. Five more figurines carved from mammoth tusk were discovered in the Vogelherd Cave in southwestern Germany. Among these finds were the remains of two lion figurines, two fragments of mammoth figurines, and two unidentified animals. Radiocarbon analysis and the rock layer in which they were found show that the bone sculptures were made during the Aurignacian culture, which is associated with the first appearance. modern man in Europe. Tests show that the figurines are 30,000 to 36,000 years old.

7. The oldest ceramic figurine - 24,000 - 27,000 BC

The Vestonice Venus is similar to other Venus figurines found around the world and is a 11.3 cm nude female figure with large breasts and wide hips. This is the first known ceramic sculpture made from fired clay, and is older than the period in which fired clay began to be widely used to make pottery and figurines by 14,000 years. The figurine was discovered during excavations on July 13, 1925 in Dolni Vestonice, South Moravia, Czechoslovakia.

8. The first landscape painting - 6000 - 8000 BC

Chatal-Hyuyuk painting is the oldest known landscape painting in the world. However, this claim is disputed by many scholars who claim that it is a depiction of abstract shapes as well as leopard skin. What it really is, no one knows. In 1963, archaeologist James Mellaart conducted excavations in Catal_Hyuyuk (modern Turkey) - in one of largest cities stone age that have been found. He discovered that one of the many frescoes used to decorate the dwelling depicts, in his opinion, a view of the city, with the Hasan Dag volcano erupting nearby. A study in 2013 partly confirmed his theory that this is actually a landscape. It was discovered that there was a volcanic eruption near the ancient city at that time.

9. Earliest Christian illustrated manuscript - 330-650 AD

In medieval times and earlier, books were an extremely scarce commodity, and were considered virtually treasures. Christian scribes adorned book covers precious stones and painted the pages with patterns with calligraphy. In 2010, in a remote monastery in Ethiopia, researchers discovered the gospel of Garima. This Christian manuscript was originally thought to have been written in the year 1100, but radiocarbon dating has shown the book to be much older, dating from 330-650 AD. This wonderful book may be related to the time of Abba Garima, the founder of the monastery where the book was discovered. Legend has it that he wrote the gospel in one day. To help him with this task, God stopped the movement of the Sun until the book was finished.

10. The oldest oil painting is from the 7th century AD.

In 2008, scientists discovered the world's oldest oil painting in a Bamyan cave monastery in Afghanistan. Since 2003, scientists from Japan, Europe and the US have been working to save as much as possible more pieces art at the Bamiyan Monastery, dilapidated by the Taliban. In the labyrinth of caves, walls were found covered with frescoes and paintings that depict the Buddha and other characters of mythology. Researchers believe that studying these images will provide invaluable information about cultural exchange along different parts light on the Silk Road.

It is worth noting that today, among peaceful pastorals, noble portraits and other works of art that evoke only positive emotions, there are strange and shocking canvases, such as.

Bazarova Yana

Ancient measures in works of art. History reference. Ancient measures in proverbs, sayings.

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Belarus

Ivolginsky district

MOU Suzhinskaya secondary school

Scientific and practical conference of primary school students

"First steps"

Ancient measures in fiction.

Suzhinskoy secondary school of Ivolginsky district

Home address: with. Nurselene, 14 a

Phone: 89503825382

Supervisor: Tugutova Tuyana Leonidovna

Phone: 89140526432

with. narrowing

2014

1. Introduction …………………………………………………………………...3 - 4

2. The main part. Ancient measures in works of art ... 4-9

2. 1. Ancient measures. Historical reference…………………………...4

2.2. Ancient measures of measuring length…………………………………4 -8

3. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………9

3.1. Questionnaire "Do you know the ancient measures?" for primary school students………………………………………………………………8

3.2. Conclusions and results obtained…………………………………...8-9

4. List of used sources and literature………………….... ..10

5. Applications.

1. Introduction

The Russian people a thousand years ago had not only their own system of measures, but also state control over the measures. To late XVIII century, this system has become the only national system of measures in the world.

When I was little and couldn't read, fairy tales, stories that I listened to from my mother and grandmother were always understandable. The time has come, I became a reader, and here a huge number of different questions appeared.

Problem of my research work:

Not all the words that I encountered in the texts were familiar. Most of- these are ancient measurements of length, weight, volume. As it turned out later, understanding these measures causes difficulties for many children. AT modern language we hardly ever use them. Only when reading works of art do we come across these concepts. But, nevertheless, we need to know the values ​​of the measures. After all, this is our history. I was interested in this topic, and I decided to seriously study the units of measurement for length, weight, volume, as well as monetary units based on works of various genres. After all, it’s not for nothing that the Russian says folk proverb: "Without measure, you can't weave bast shoes."

In my opinion, the relevance chosen topic is that until now it is possible to learn about ancient measures of measurement only from special literature or from old people. This is very inconvenient, because quite often these measuring units are found at Russian language olympiads, where it is required to reveal the meaning of a given word, at mathematics competitions, difficulties arise when solving problems with such measurements. In addition, there is no single textbook or manual where the ancient measures would be collected. So I decided to compile and print an illustrated dictionary of these words. This dictionary contains material that reveals the meaning of the most commonly used measures of measurement, as well as excerpts from works of fiction that I have read.

Target:

To study the meaning and use of ancient units of length in works of art.

Tasks:

1. To study and analyze ancient units of measurement in various sources;
2. To trace how these measurements or the words denoting them have been preserved in modern Russian;
3. Systematize the information received;
4. Compile a dictionary of ancient measures of length.

I was prompted to research work on the chosen topic by my acquaintance with proverbs, sayings, fairy tales, author's texts with which we work in the classroom, as well as outside of school hours.

The meaning of proverbs and sayings, texts in which these measures are found remained unclear. I believe that ignorance of them would be a manifestation of a disrespectful attitude to the history of their country.

In our research work, we turn to the following sources: an explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, a reference book on mathematics, encyclopedic Dictionary in mathematics, phraseological dictionary of the Russian language, works studied according to the program.

2. The main part. Ancient measures in works of art.

2. 1. Ancient measures. History reference.

Most of the old measures are forgotten, out of use, but many of them are in literary works, historical monuments. The Mers lived, sometimes they grew old and died, sometimes they were reborn to a new life. The history of measures is part of the history of mankind.

As a unit of volume in Rus', improvised household utensils were used. The main Russian measures of the volume of liquids -bucket, bottle, mug, cup, shkalik, barrel.

The Russian people used such measures of weight aspood, half a pood, spool, steelyard, cad.

In the course were monetary measures:altyn, hryvnia, penny, half a penny, half a penny.

2.2. Ancient measures of length.

Arshin - a measure of arshins came into use as a result of the development of trade with the eastern peoples (from the Persian arsh - cubit). It is equal to 71 cm 12 mm . He came to Rus' together with merchants from distant countries. Eastern merchants, measuring fabrics, dispensed with any meters: they stretched the fabric over own hand, up to the shoulder. This is what was called measure in arshins.

Although the measure was very convenient, it had a significant drawback: unfortunately, everyone's hands are different. The cunning merchants quickly realized that they needed to look for clerks with shorter hands: the same piece, but more arshins. But one day it came to an end. It was strictly forbidden by the authorities to sell “at your own yard”. It was allowed to use only state arshin.

State arshin - a ruler, the length of someone's hand - was made in Moscow, then copies were made from it and sent to all parts of Russia. So that the wooden arshin could not be shortened, its ends were bound with iron and marked with a seal.

Tens of years are no longer measured in arshins, but this word has not been forgotten. Until now, in proverbs and sayings, we meet this measure of length.

For example:

He sees three arshins into the ground! - about an attentive, perspicacious person, from whom nothing can be hidden.

Measures to your arshin. Each merchant to his arshin measures - about a person who judges everything one-sidedly, based on his own interests.

Arshin for a caftan, and two for patches.

Write about other people's sins arshin , and about their own - in lowercase letters.

Sitting, walking, as if arshin swallowed - about an unnaturally direct person.

per arshin beard, but mind on span -about an adult, but a stupid person.

You write in arshin letters - very large.

A.S. Pushkin "The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his glorious son and mighty hero Prince Gvidon Saltanovich and the beautiful Swan Princess" -

Meanwhile, how far away

Beats long and hard

The time of birth is coming;

God gave them a son arshin.

On the back with two humps

Yes, with yardstick ears.

F.I. Tyutchev -
Russia cannot be understood with the mind,

Arshin - do not measure.

To the poor animals;
There's less left under them arshin land wide...

Verst - Russian travel measure. Initially - the distance from one turn of the plow to another during plowing. Length of a mile 1060 m
Kolomna verst - "big man" - a playful name very tall man. It originates from the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who reigned from 1645 to 1676

Boundary verst existed in Rus' until the 18th century. To determine the distance between settlements and for land surveying (from the word boundary - the border of land holdings in the form of a narrow strip). The length of such a mile 1000 fathoms, or 2.13 km.

This measure is often found in works of various genres.

Moscow verst far away, but close to the heart- this is how the Russian people characterized their attitude towards the capital.

Love is not measured by miles. A hundred miles to the young man is not a hook - Distance cannot be an obstacle to love.From word to deed - a whole verst.

miles closer - a nickel cheaper. A mile away fall behind - catch up with ten- even a small gap is very difficult to overcome.

You can see it from a mile away - well-respected person.

To lie - seven miles to heaven and all the forest.
For seven miles they were looking for a mosquito, and a mosquito on the nose.
From thought to thought five thousand verst.
Hunter for seven miles goes to sip jelly .

Reach for a mile , don't be simple.

Epic "Volga Svyatoslavovich" -

Volga then turned into a bay tour with golden horns and ran to the Indian kingdom: he made the first jump - for verst left, and disappeared from sight with the second.

Russian fairy tale "Fight on the viburnum bridge" -

The Miracle-Yudo six-headed snake leaves,
how it breathes on all sides -
on three miles burned everything with fire.

A.S. Pushkin " Winter road» -

No fire, no black hut
Wilderness and snow towards me.
Only miles striped
Caught alone.

N.A. Nekrasov "General Toptygin" -

And the horses are even more afraid

Didn't take a break!

Verst fifteen at full speed

The poor ones are gone!

P.P. Ershov "Humpbacked Horse" -

The hunchback flies like the wind
And almost on the first evening
Verst waved a hundred thousand
And he didn't rest anywhere.

Vershok - an old Russian measure of length, equal to the width of two fingers (index and middle).

Vershok equaled1/16 arshin, 1/4 quarter. In modern terms - 4.44cm . The name "Vershok" comes from the word "top".

We frequently encounter this measure in the literature.

For example:

Two inches from the pot, and already a pointer - a young man who has no life experience, but presumptuously teaches everyone.

She has Saturday through Friday for two an inch crawled out - about a sloppy woman who has an undershirt of a long skirt.

P.P. Ershov "Humpbacked Horse" -

At the end of three days,
I give you two horses -
Yes, such as they are today
It never happened at all
Yes, I also give birth to a skate, only three in height an inch
On the back with two humps, and with arshin ears

Fathom (from swear - to get to something, to achieve) refers to the XI century.

In everyday life, there were different fathoms - flywheel and oblique. So,

Flywheel - the distance between the arms outstretched in both directions at the ends of the outstretched middle fingers; 1 fly fathom - 1m 76 cm.

oblique - from the heel of the right foot to the tips of the fingers of the outstretched left hand, i.e. about 248 cm.

Sometimes they say about a person:“In the shoulders - oblique sazhen ".

Here are examples of using this measure in works:

You are from the truth (from the service) by a span, and she is from you by sazhen .

N.A. Nekrasov "Grandfather Mazai and hares" -

With every minute the water was getting closer
To the poor animals;
Already under them there was less than an arshin of earth in width,
less fathoms in length.

Epic "Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin" -

I saw Tugarin Zmeevich.

Is he, Tugarin, three sazhen .

An arrow between the eyes.

Span (or span) - an old measure of length, equal to about a quarter of an arshin, that is, a fourth of 71.1 cm. Simple calculations show that in a span there were about 18 centimeters.

The Old Russian "span" goes back to the common Slavic verb "five" - ​​to stretch. Therefore, there are such expressions:

Don't give up an inch Don't give even the smallest amount.

Seven spans in the forehead - about a very smart person.

Elbow - the distance in a straight line from the elbow to the end of the extended middle finger.

The elbow was widely used in trade as a particularly convenient measure. In the retail trade in canvas, cloth, linen, the cubit was the main measure. Suddenly they said:“I myself with a fingernail, and a beard with elbow ".

3. Conclusion.

1. Questionnaire “Do you know the ancient measures?

23 students took part in the survey lower grades. The purpose of this work was to determine the degree of awareness of the children on this issue, as well as to identify interest in the topic. The results of the work carried out are presented in the table, which shows that my peers do not know the old measuring units well, so I would like to help them. I think that if you convince the guys that the importance of this topic is huge, it is interesting to work on it, then the next survey will show a different result.

1. Conclusions and results.

In my work I:

• I found works where these measures are mentioned, gave excerpts from them;
• showed the main correlations between ancient and modern measures;
• I found illustrations that most accessible and understandable reveal this topic.

As a result, I came to the following conclusions:

• materials collected in given dictionary, will help the children in working on works of different genres for a better understanding of their content;
• I think that it would be right if in each class, starting from the first, such working dictionaries will be kept, where the measures encountered in the text will fit, as well as excerpts from the work itself.

I want my research attracted the attention of many inquisitive schoolchildren, became a necessary good assistant, students in preparing for competitions, for olympiads, in working on projects. And those who show an increased interest in mathematics, in literary reading, can find a lot of interesting and informative material here. This work has given me great pleasure.

List of used sources and literature:

1. A.I. Molotkov. Phraseological dictionary of the Russian language. M .: "Russian language", 1986. 543 pp.
2. V. I. Dal. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. Moscow: Astrel, 2001
3. E.A. Bystrova. Educational phraseological dictionary of the Russian language. M.: "AST-LTD", 1997. 304 pp.
4. I. Depman. Measures and the metric system. - M .: Education, 1953
5. Ozhegov S.I., Shvedova N.Yu. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. M. Azbukovnik, 1997
6. Brief encyclopedic reference book on mathematics. - M., 2003
7. Proverbs. Sayings. Riddles. - M. Sovremennik, 1986

I. Organizational moment.

II. Checking homework.

1. Reading and peer review compositions (stories): “when I saw Pugachev in the novel by A. S. Pushkin.”

2.Card work.

Card 1.

What event of the Russian history goes speech in this passage? What is the name of this work and who is its author? From whose perspective is the story being told?

“I will not describe our campaign and the end of the war. I will briefly say that the disaster reached its extreme. We passed through the villages devastated by the rebels, and involuntarily took away from the poor inhabitants what they managed to save. Rule was terminated everywhere: the landowners took refuge in the forests. gangs of robbers were outrageous everywhere; the heads of individual detachments autocratically punished and pardoned; the state of the entire vast region, where the fire raged, was terrible ... God forbid to see a Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless!

(We are talking about a peasant revolt of 1772–1774 led by Emelyan Pugachev, who proclaimed himself tsar Peter III. The excerpt is taken from the novel by A. S. Pushkin "The Captain's Daughter". The main character, Pyotr Andreevich Grinev, tells about the events of his life.)

Card 2.

Read Grinev's dream. When did he see the hero? What is interesting about this dream? Why did A. S. Pushkin include a dream in the narrative?

(This dream was dreamed by Petrusha Grinev during a steppe snowstorm, when an unexpected counselor undertook to show the way to housing. It predicts future terrible events of a people's revolt, because the man from the dream is a counselor, and in the future Emelyan Pugachev is the leader of the Cossack army, the self-proclaimed tsar. That is why it is important: it not only anticipates historical events, but also predicts the future nature of the relationship between a young officer and a people's leader.)

Card 3.

In connection with what and who tells the Kalmyk fairy tale? How do you understand its allegorical meaning? How does the attitude to the idea of ​​a fairy tale characterize the narrator and his listener?

(The tale of the eagle and the raven is told by Pugachev on the way to the Belogorsk fortress during a conversation about his affairs and a bleak future. The tale has an allegorical meaning: it is about two possible choices life path- quiet, measured, not rich in external events and different: bright, rich, but short. The heroes of the fairy tale also play a symbolic role: the eagle is a free bird, loving height, space, a royal bird; Raven is a wise bird, but prosaic, earthly, ugly.

Thanks to this story, Pugachev and Grinev express their attitude to life. For Pugachev, a short one is better, but bright way resembling the life of an eagle. Grinev is disgusted by robbery and villainy, it is not for nothing that he calls rebellion senseless and merciless; it was created for a peaceful family life among dear people.)

Card 4.

Why does Grinev, calling Pugachev an impostor, a robber, a villain, still sympathize with his acquaintance, does not want his death, comes to say goodbye on the day of execution?

(Grinev cannot call Pugachev otherwise, since the rebel and officer of the imperial army are enemies, in addition, Grinev remembers the massacre of the commandant of the Belogorsk fortress, the death of Vasilisa Yegorovna and other tragic events. But the human relations of the two heroes stand outside their official relations; Pugachev does not only saves the life of his friend, but also arranges his happiness, while showing nobility and tolerance, respecting Grinev for loyalty to his word and kindness. young hero- not only gratitude for good deeds, but a sincere human feeling, although at first (as in a dream) Grinev is slightly jarred that his benefactor is a "man".)

Card 5.

Read the description. What artistic means does the author use? What role does this passage play in the work?

“The coachman jumped; but kept looking to the east. The horses ran together. The wind meanwhile grew stronger by the hour. The cloud turned to white cloud, which rose heavily, grew and gradually hugged the sky. A fine snow began to fall and suddenly fell in flakes. The wind howled; there was a blizzard. In an instant, the dark sky mingled with the snowy sea. Everything is gone. “Well, sir,” shouted the driver, “trouble: a snowstorm!” ...

I looked out of the wagon: everything was dark and whirlwind. The wind howled with such fierce expressiveness that it seemed animated; the snow covered me and Savelich; the horses walked at a pace - and soon they stopped. "Why aren't you eating?" I asked the driver impatiently. “Yes, why go? - he answered, getting down from the irradiation, - who knows where we stopped: there is no road, and darkness is all around.

(The main thing in this description is action, dynamics. The state of nature changes instantly: wind, snow, blizzard, snowstorm, haze. Pushkin uses very modest epithets; only two contrasting colors: dark sky - snowy sea (previously - a white cloud). There are only two metaphors: the wind howled (the beast howls), the snowy sea (an infinity of a moving mass of snow, similar to the sea element). Pushkin is a master of landscape. But his landscape is not static, frozen, but changing, moving, as in life. The description of the snowstorm in the novel has several meanings:

a) compositional- thanks to the snowstorm, the heroes (Pugachev and Grinev) not only meet, but also become imbued with sympathy for each other;

b) allegorical- snowstorm, rampant elements - symbolizes future events, rampant rebellion, representing, like a snowstorm, a threat to the life of the hero;

in) realistic- snowstorms are still found in the steppes now, so the description of the snowstorm gives the story the authenticity of what is actually happening.)

Card 6.

What is an epigraph? What are epigraphs for? Which epigraph does Pushkin choose for his novel The Captain's Daughter?

(An epigraph is a short text (quotation, saying, saying, etc.) prefaced by a work of art, placed before the text. The epigraph often expresses the main idea of ​​the author, the idea or mood of the work, contains the author's assessment of the events described. Pushkin's "Captain's Daughter" is preceded the epigraph “Take care of honor from a young age.” This proverb not only defines the code of conduct for a young man, but also characterizes the hero, explains his moral choice in difficult times of trial.)

3.Questions session.

- We have already noted how confidently Pushkin prefaced his novel with the epigraph "Take care of honor from a young age." Remember the epigraphs prefixed to other chapters. What are they? why?

(The epigraphs to other chapters of The Captain's Daughter are the lines folk songs, proverbs and excerpts from works writers of the XVIII century (Kniazhnin and Kheraskova). This choice of epigraphs is not accidental. It helps to convey the color of the era (XVIII century), creates a special lyrical mood, gives lyricism to the narrative, creating the illusion of the author's assessment of the hero's story. There is another meaning in such a selection of epigraphs: in the works of oral folk art the centuries-old experience of the people, their ideas about the ideal are concentrated, therefore the epigraphs contain the people's assessment of the heroes and events.)

- Why do you think the story about the Pugachev rebellion is called "The Captain's Daughter"? Who is the main character?

(Indeed, the main characters in the novel are Pyotr Grinev and Emelyan Pugachev. Against the backdrop of formidable events Pugachev rebellion the history of the relationship between Masha - Grinev - Shvabrin develops. Modest and shy Masha at the decisive moment shows extraordinary strength of character and courage. She does not want to get married without a parental blessing, she is ready to die, but not to become the wife of the unloved; finally, defending the honor and freedom of her fiancé, she decides to travel to the capital to the queen herself. Purity, selflessness give her image a heroic halo.

Perhaps, by naming his work "The Captain's Daughter", Pushkin wanted to emphasize that he was primarily interested in human relations. Even a historical person is presented from an unexpected and all the more remarkable side: the organizer of the fate of the enemy, who is humanly closer than the associates.)

III. Message about the topic and purpose of the lesson.

- What are they, the people of the "age of the past"? Is the epigraph of Chapter III of The Captain's Daughter true: "old people"? What does it mean?

We will try to answer these and many other questions in today's lesson.

IV. Exploring a new topic.

1. The word of the teacher.

So, "old people"! what does it mean? And why did Pushkin take this phrase from Fonvizin's "Undergrowth"? Is Prostakov and Skotinin remembered by the author of The Captain's Daughter? or maybe Starodum and Pravdin? Of course, expressive, "talking" surnames, quite definitely "representing" the characters in Fonvizin's comedy. "Pravdin" does not need comments: the meaning of the surname is exhaustively clear. But "Starodum" ... As if it were not from the age of the Prostakovs, - from a long, "old" time, however, not very long ago. Just something from the Peter the Great, from the Lomonosov era! All the same XVIII century! So is Pushkin's epigraph successful? What did he reveal to you?

2. What is your feeling of "Belogorsk", "ancient" life? Reading these pages (p. 123).

“No one met me. I went into the hallway and opened the front door. An old invalid, sitting on a table, was sewing a blue patch on the elbow of his green uniform. I told him to report me. “Come in, father,” answered the invalid, “our houses.”

Isn't it hard not to smile? But this smile is sympathetic, full of emotion. No respect for either the uniform, which may well be decorated with a patch of a different color (and so it will do!), Or for army subordination: what a “report” there is! "Our houses!" - and that's it! But is there a contrast? Of course, Ivan Ignatich with his “interrogation” to Grinev, designed in the style of an old campaigner ( with. 124:“I dare to ask”, “why did you deign to move from the guard to the garrison”, “indecent actions of the guard officer”). But Vasilisa Egorovna immediately interrupts him: “It’s full of lies to trifles ...” (p. 124, 1st paragraph). But where are the words that capture the "old times", her good-heartedness? “Vasilisa Egorovna received us easily and cordially and treated me as if she had known each other for a century” (p. 126, 3rd paragraph).

That's the way around! But who is "us"? Clearly, not only Grinev, but also Savelich. Whose voice, whose intonation do you hear? Undoubtedly, not only Grinev, but also the Author. After all, it was he who prompted Grinev to sit down for memories. And to be completely accurate, he wrote them for him! His tongue! But also yours! Did you feel the style of Pushkin's prose? Have you noticed Pushkin's attitude to parts of speech?

Needless to say, he prefers nouns and verbs and is very reserved in his use of adjectives.

Pushkin the prose writer is clear and precise in word and phrase, simple in syntax, preferring a simple sentence, without much complication. In which of the prose writers can we notice the same property of "Pushkin's" prose?

Yes, Chekhov! But this will happen much later. And not without the influence of Pushkin's prose.

But let's get back to Pushkin's novel. Are there changes in him, in his “world” itself, in his intonation?

Indeed, a calm, even narrative is replaced by rapidly bursting events, and with them intonations: anxiety, almost confusion, and even “horror” (we have already talked with you about Pugachev’s siege of the fortress, taking it, and executing its defenders). And what do you think, could Captain Mironov, Ivan Ignatich and Vasilisa Yegorovna escape death? Why did they suffer a different fate - "to disappear from a runaway convict," as Vasilisa Yegorovna will say, having paid for these words with her life? What surprised you the most about them? How did Pushkin write the scene of the massacre of the officers of the Belogorsk fortress? Why is this creepy page so short?

But who suddenly intervened in this scene? Yes, Savelich! It turns out that the circle of "old people" in Pushkin's novel is not limited to the inhabitants of the Belogorsk fortress: Savelich among them is also from the "old people"!

Are there any other "old people"? Yes, and the Grinevs of the same clan-tribe: "old people"! why? Doesn't the comparison of the old man Grinev with the Belogorsk officers beg in our conversation? Of course, not only Andrey Petrovich Grinev would certainly repeat the feat of Captain Mironov, but Petrusha Grinev adequately represents his father, is faithful to his order: "Serve faithfully to whom you swear ..."

And again - the antithesis. Do you think Shvabrin is also one of the "old people"? oh no: "the newest" in meanness and dexterity!

And now let us return to Chapter III, to the epigraph, but in a different way.

Why is the proximity of the "soldier's song" and "old people" here?

What does the "soldier's song" evoke in your memory?

Suvorov pages of national history, which were made by "old people", the artistic meaning of Pushkin's novel overcomes the boundaries of the plot ("Pugachevshchina" and the fate of Petrusha Grinev) and incorporates the trials of Russia - the trials of loyalty - and the examples of its best fellow citizens, regardless of the class to which they belonged: "old people"!

And to whom do you rank Masha Mironova?

So, the 2nd part of our lesson will be devoted to the young heroine, whose name the novel is named after.

3.The image of Masha Mironova.

What is she, Masha Mironova?

If her portrait was transferred to a drawing, how would you paint her? (Review and discussion of drawings-portraits of Masha Mironova.)

Let's remember what impression Masha made on Grinev (read out, p. 126, 3rd paragraph).

"At first glance... not really liked." And you? Is Grinev's attitude towards Masha changing? Why?

And how did you meet Masha's shyness, shyness, even "to tears" of her?

Why do we need these details of the character of the heroine? Did you remember anyone? “Blushing, she apologized, / what, de, she went to visit them ...” The Pushkin princess! Do we need this parallel? Why are Pushkin's heroines so similar, and in absolutely different works?

But in Pushkin's novel, another heroine will appear next to Masha, on whom the happiness of Masha and Grinev will depend, a charming court lady, in whom we recognize ... the empress!

Before we turn again to the novel, to our beloved heroine, to reread the brilliant lines, let's look into creative laboratory writer.

In the journal "Children's Reading for the Heart and Mind" (part VII, M., 1786), the following "Anecdote" was published:

“Joseph II, the current Roman emperor, walking once in the evening according to his custom, saw a girl who was filled with tears, asked her what she was crying about, and found out that she was the daughter of a certain captain who was killed in the war, and that she was left without food with his mother, who, moreover, has long been ill.

"Why don't you ask the emperor for help?" - he asked.

The girl replied that they did not have a patron who would present to the sovereign about their poverty.

“I serve at court,” said the monarch, “and I can do it for you. Come only tomorrow to the palace and ask Lieutenant B.

At the appointed time, the girl arrived at the palace. As soon as she uttered the name B., they took her to a room where she saw the officer who had spoken to her yesterday, and recognized him as her sovereign. She came beside herself with surprise and fear. But the emperor, taking her by the hand, said to her very affectionately: “Here are three hundred chervonets for your mother and another five hundred for your tenderness towards her and for your power of attorney to me. In addition, I give you 500 thalers of an annual pension.”

What scenes of The Captain's Daughter does this anecdote recall (in the old days, a short, concise story about a wonderful, funny incident was called an anecdote)? Some literary critics believe that Pushkin used it when creating his story. In that case, how did he transform the anecdote into vivid and impressive scenes?

By the way, the censor P. A. Korsakov was so captivated by the plausibility of the last scenes of the story that he even turned to Pushkin with the question: “... did the maiden Mironova exist and was it really with the late empress?”

If we skip a bit of the text of The Captain's Daughter and turn to Marya Ivanovna's heroic trip to the court of Catherine II, we will see how closely these pages come into contact with the author's unforgettable youth, with that "place of upbringing" about which a friendly conversation was to take place in the evening of the same day when the draft of the novel was completed.

Arriving the day before in Tsarskoe Selo, “the next day, early in the morning, Marya Ivanovna woke up, dressed and quietly went into the garden. The morning was beautiful, the sun shone on the tops of the lindens, which had already turned yellow under fresh breath autumn. The wide lake shone motionless. Awakened swans importantly swam out from under the bushes that overshadowed the shore. Maria Ivanovna went near a beautiful meadow where a monument had just been erected in honor of the recent victories of Count Pyotr Alexandrovich Rumyantsev ... "What a wonderful air of youth, even almost childhood, Pushkin breathed, copying these lines white with his light pen in the autumn of 1836 . What a smell of Tsarskoe Selo autumn coolness must have wafted over him in stuffy St. Petersburg, sparingly measuring out the last breaths of air released to the suffocating poet. Precisely because Tsarskoye Selo memories flooded over him, he marked the autograph of the novel in white on October 19, probably without thinking at all that the descendants would guess his mood from this mark.

(The last year of Pushkin's life.

Correspondence. Memories. Diaries")

- Read excerpts from Pushkin's poems and try to determine what impressions of the poet's youth are reflected in the description of the Tsarskoye Selo garden in The Captain's Daughter.

Memories in Tsarskoye Selo

The veil of a gloomy night hung

On the vault of dormant skies;

In silent silence, the valley and groves rested,

In a gray fog, a distant forest;

You can barely hear the stream running into the canopy of the oak forest,

A little breeze breathes, asleep on the sheets,

And the quiet moon, like a majestic swan,

Floats in silvery clouds.

Floats - and pale rays

Objects illuminated all around.

Alleys of ancient lindens opened up before my eyes.

They looked through both the hill and the meadow;

Here, I see, young willow intertwined with poplar

And reflected in the crystal of unsteady waters;

The queen among the fields of lily is proud

In luxurious beauty blooms ...

In the shade of dense gloomy pines

A simple monument was erected.

Oh, how he is for you, Cahul shore, vilified!

And glorious to the motherland of the dredge! one (See note.)

You are immortal forever, O Russian giants.

In battles, they were brought up in the midst of swearing bad weather!

About you, associates, friends of Catherine,

Rumor will pass from generation to generation...

1814

Tsarskoye Selo

Memory, paint in front of me

Magical places where I live with my soul...

Lead, lead me under the linden canopy,

Always kind to my free laziness,

On the shore of the lake, on the quiet slope of the hills! ..

Yes, I will see again the carpets of dense meadows

And a decrepit bunch of trees, and a bright valley,

And the green shores of a familiar picture,

And in a quiet lake among the glittering swells

A proud village of calm swans.

1823

Memories in Tsarskoye Selo

Confused by memories

Filled with sweet longing.

Beautiful gardens, under your sacred dusk

I enter with a bowed head ...

In the heat of fleeting delights,

In a barren whirlwind of vanity,

Oh, I have squandered many treasures of my heart

For unreachable dreams.

And I wandered for a long time, and often, tired,

With repentance of grief, anticipating troubles,

I thought about you, blessed limit,

I imagined these gardens.

I imagine a happy day

When a lyceum arose among you,

And I hear our games again, I playful noise

And I see a family of friends again.

Again a gentle youth, now ardent, now lazy,

Vague dreams melt in my chest,

Wandering through meadows, through silent groves,

I forget as a poet.

And awake I see before me

Days of the past are proud traces.

Still performed great wife 2 (see note),

Her favorite gardens

Are inhabited by palaces, gates,

Pillars, towers, idols of the gods

And the glory of marble, and copper praises

Catherine's Eagles.

The ghosts of heroes sit down

At the pillars dedicated to them.

Look: here is a hero, a constraint of military formations,

Perun of the Kagul coast.

Behold, behold the mighty chief of the midnight flag,

Before whom the fire melted the seas and flew.

Here is his faithful brother, the hero of the Archipelago,

Here is Navarino Hannibal 3 (see note)...

Expressive reading episode of Masha's meeting with the Empress (pp. 208–209).

Consider the illustrations for the novel (S. Gerasimov "Grinev and Masha Mironova", 1951 (p. 142), P. Sokolov "The Captain's Daughter" (p. 210). Describe the portraits of the characters.

Why do you think Masha Mironova and the Empress ended up side by side on Pushkin's pages?

V. Summing up the lesson.

Name magic: Masha! What brings to mind this name? Of course, a different Masha - Troekurova!

Is the name coincidence coincidence? Let's try to compare our favorite heroines. Who is closer to you?

I hope Pushkin's "old people" will stay with you forever.

Homework: prepare a performance of Pushkin's favorite page of The Captain's Daughter and explain your choice; draw up a citation plan for an essay on the topic "Grinev in the Belogorsk fortress".

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