home
Psychology of stress
Personification characteristics. The meaning of the word personification in the literary encyclopedia

Personification characteristics. The meaning of the word personification in the literary encyclopedia

19.02.2019

If we simply consider the word PERSONALIZATION itself, then, of course, the root PERSON stands out, which by itself prompts us to decipher this concept.

This word has an ancient Latin analogue "personification", which means: persona - face, facio - I do. And again, here we meet the word "face". And this is something that is inherent in living beings.

Personification - giving, transferring the properties that a living object possesses to inanimate objects and phenomena. For example, inanimate objects and phenomena endowed with these properties acquire the ability to laugh, be sad, think, worry, etc.

For example, clouds can come in, the sky can frown, and the rain can cry.

Knowledge of the world through personification

If we turn to antiquity, it is clear that personification was an integral part of the knowledge of the world and natural phenomena, when all phenomena were given the images of gods and endowed them with human abilities.

So, the ancient Greek god Uranus was the personification of the sky, and his wife Gaia, the personification of the earth. And as a result of their marriage, living beings appeared - animals and birds, as well as mountains, rivers, trees.
The methods of personification in Slavic paganism are clearly visible.

Personification in literature

In literature, personification is used as artistic technique, to enhance expression.

The author of The Tale of Igor's Campaign uses a very precise method of impersonation.

“And groaned, brothers, Kyiv from grief, and Chernigov from adversity. Longing has spread over the Russian land, abundant sadness flows among the Russian land.
“The night is long. evening dawn dropped the light. So the darkness covered the field. Finally, the nightingale's tickle fell asleep; the morning talk of the jackdaws has awakened.

All nature is endowed with feelings, so the singing of the nightingale does not just stop, but falls asleep, and the dawn drops its light.

It doesn't have to be literary critic, in order to know what a personification is, it is rather a matter of general erudition. Sooner or later, this concept will have to be faced, even if helping a child with homework in literature. And showing ignorance in front of your own children is not the best way out of the situation.

Fight for survival

Since ancient times, people have paid special attention to nature:

From conditions environment the survival of entire tribes depended.
Even the most "insignificant" natural disaster could doom dozens of people to death.
The fertility of the soil made it possible to feed the families of those who were engaged in agrarian business and gathering.
The blessing of nature in the form of rich prey provided the hunters with a well-fed life.

Nature, and sometimes the most ordinary case, decided whether a person should live or die. It is already closer to modern times that people have learned to change environmental conditions for themselves, causing irreparable harm to nature. And once our ancestors were as vulnerable and dependent on it as wild animals.

It should not be surprising that the first religious cults praised the forces of nature, deified them, endowed them with reason and human traits:

By force.
Will.
Decisiveness.
Forgiveness.
Mercy.
Cruelty.
Malice.

And although thousands of years have passed, such trends have still been able to persist in some ways.

What is personification in literature?

Impersonation is literary device, which was used in folk art and myths, from time immemorial:

It is ubiquitous in classical literature.
It is revealed by giving one object the image of something else.
It consists in endowing an object of inanimate nature with human properties.
Complex images are used, not primitive qualities.

To create a full-fledged personification, the writer must:

Choose two objects with which he will work - animate and inanimate nature.
To form a clear and comprehensive image of a person who will be transferred in the future.
Transfer as accurately as possible human qualities inanimate object.

In this case, the most important thing is the first point - to choose the right two components. Make it so that the reader is both interested and surprised. But in fact, we almost every day use impersonation in Everyday life, in our speech - completely without thinking about the meaning of what was said.

Each of us understands that the blizzard cannot “circle over the city, howl and look into the windows”, but issuing such a phrase, no one will think about literary devices, personification, or something like that.

Confusion among literati, examples

In the literature, there are many techniques that are similar in meaning. Here for example:

We take a natural element.
We “endow” it with the ability of a living person.
We get at the output something in the spirit - "the wind is noisy."

But this is not a personification, but an inspiration. The whole difference lies in the fact that in this case we do not create any image, but only transfer one specific property to an inanimate object, animating it. However, writers themselves are often confused in these concepts.

Someone cites the fable "The Swan, Cancer and Pike" as an example of personification, arguing that the author creates images of people incapable of cooperation. And others confidently declare that this is only anthropomorphism. Like, the animal was described like a person, changing its "morphism".

Even more rarely, the concept is confused with an allegory, but it also happens. The question can indeed be looked under different angles much more important to be able to explain and prove to others the right to exist of their position.

Personification in everyday life

IN real life we often create images for ourselves and live based on them:

We do not perceive objectively the picture of the world, reducing everything to a set of images and clichés.
We endow the people around us with qualities that they don’t really have.
We do not notice small changes and revise the images only in case of severe shocks.

It is foolish to blame a person for this, because such is his nature. We can only think in categories, on the basis of previous experience. Consciousness vitally needs to structure everything, “hang labels” and create some kind of its own little world.

Someone comes out very close to combine real world and your vision environment. Others create a too unrealistic picture of the world, which at some point collapses and makes a person suffer.

But in many ways, all people are similar:

Perceive strengths personality.
personify specific person with his most outstanding abilities.
They transfer the qualities of one person to another.

Most often, this is mistaken for idealization or, conversely, for the demonization of a person. But this, too, can be “fitted” under the concept of personification. Still, it is the imagery and associativity of thinking that distinguishes a person from representatives of the wild.

Thanks to this, our ancestors achieved independence from environmental conditions, despite parallel attempts to appease it.

Popular literary device

Personification is one of the artistic techniques that writers actively use:

He came to us from time immemorial, when writing did not yet exist.
Originally used in myths and folk tales.
Actively used by writers around the world the globe regardless of culture and religion.
It consists in transferring to something inanimate the image of a person or any other object of wildlife.
Used to create more complete picture peace and atmosphere.

The most primitive examples border on animalism and animation, sometimes even experienced pen workers confuse them.

Pasternak was able and actively used this technique, in his “ It is snowing It is found in almost every line. In prose, such comparisons are much rarer. But if you ask for an example, “The Nose” may immediately come to mind, one of the best works Gogol.

Even without really knowing what personification is, we use it in everyday speech. After all, the technique itself was absorbed into our consciousness along with fairy tales, poems and stories that were read to us in childhood.

Video: what does Aurora represent?

In this video, historian Vasily Denisov will tell you what the military cruiser Aurora represents at the present time:

Even in ancient times, people endowed the surrounding objects and phenomena human characteristics. For example, the earth was called mother, and the rain was compared with tears. Over time, the desire to humanize inanimate objects disappeared, but in literature and in conversation we still meet these figures of speech. This figurative means of language is called personification. So what is personification?

Personification: Definition and Functions Personification is a literary device in which inanimate objects are endowed with properties that are inherent in living beings. Sometimes this figure of speech is called personification.

Personification is used by many prose writers and poets. For example, in Yesenin you can find the following lines: "Winter sings, haunts, shaggy forest cradles." It is clear that winter, as a season, cannot make sounds, and the forest makes noise only because of the wind. Impersonation allows you to create vivid image the reader, to convey the mood of the hero, to emphasize some kind of action.

What is personification in literature is understandable, but this figure of speech is also used in colloquial speech. The well-known phrases “milk has run away”, “the heart is acting up”, are also the personification. The use of this literary device in conversation makes speech figurative and interesting. However, we do not even think about using this technique.

You can also give examples of what personification is. For example... we often say that it's raining(although the rain obviously has no legs) or the clouds frown (it is clear that the clouds cannot experience any emotions).

In general, we can say that personification is such a literary turn, in other words, the tropes of a language, in which the inanimate is endowed with the signs and qualities of the living. Personification is often confused with metaphor. It should be understood that a metaphor is just figurative meaning words, figurative comparison. For example - " Golden autumn". Therefore, it is very easy to distinguish personification from other literary turns.

And woe, woe, grief! And the bast of grief was girded, The legs were entangled with bast.

There is a gray-haired sorceress, Shaggy waves her sleeve; And snow, and scum, and hoarfrost pours, And turns the water into ice. Her gaze was numb from the cold breath of Nature.

After all, autumn is looking at the yard Through the spindle. Winter follows her In a warm fur coat, The path is powdered with snow, It crunches under the sleigh.

Hyperbole: Midnight whirlwind - the hero flies! Darkness from his forehead, whistling dust! Lightning from the eyes run ahead, Oaks lie in a ridge behind. He steps on the mountains - the mountains crack; Lies on the waters - the abyss boils; He touches the hail - the hail falls, He throws the towers with his hand over the clouds.

Grade 10 Topic: Personification. Use in fiction, scientific style and journalism.

Target : give an idea of the new thin. reception in conjunction with others visual means language;develop thin. speech and figurative thinking;to cultivate love for nature on the material of texts.
a) An epithet is an artistic definition.curly birch
b) Comparison is art. technique when one object is compared with another.
Eyes like flowers in a field (N.A. Nekrasov)
c) Personification is the transfer of human properties to inanimate objects and natural phenomena. eg:The bowler hat gets angry and mumbles
d) Speech styles: scientific, colloquial, journalistic, artistic.
2) Design of the board: number, topic of the lesson, quatrain by I. Bunin:
The plain of waters on the horizon fades,
And in it the moon is reflected by a column,
Bending the transparent face, brightens
And sadly she looks into the water.
H) Handout: excerpts from poems containing personifications.
The path is dark, forest,
Where bluebells bloom
Under the light and transparent shadow
The bushes lead me . I. Bunin. "In the forest".

With deliberate uniformity

Like an ointment, deep blue
Lies like bunnies on the ground
And dirty our sleeves. B. Pasternak. "Pines". Golden clouds are walking
Above the resting earth
The fields are spacious, mute
Shine, doused with dew. I.S. Turgenev. "Spring evening".

^ LESSON PLAN
1. CHECK HOMEWORK
^ 2. PREPARATION FOR THE PERCEPTION OF THE NEW LEARNING MATERIAL
A) Teacher: What artistic techniques does the author use in the texts of the story “Meshcherskaya Side”?
What is an epithet? Comparison?
B) Teacher: In what style of speech are these artistic techniques used? - table "Speech styles".
^ 3. STUDYING NEW MATERIAL
1. Teacher: Today we are studying another artistic technique - personification. It is used to create artistic images writers.

Even the poets of antiquity noticed that various natural phenomena, their character, features have a lot in common with human behavior, phenomena and attributes of people's life. Suffice it to recall the many superstitions regarding, for example, weather conditions. After all, it was not in vain that rain was compared with the tears of the sky, and thunder and lightning with his anger. Over time, science, nevertheless, managed to convince mankind that during a downpour the sky does not feel sad and does not cry, and thunder is just a sound that is emitted by atmospheric gases heated by a lightning strike. But the desire to endow inanimate objects, objects or abstract concepts with the qualities of living beings has not disappeared anywhere. This unique property The human psyche created all the prerequisites for the emergence of personification, a figurative means of language used in fiction and conversation. speech.

Definition and examples of personifications

In a broad sense, personification is the transfer of characteristics, properties, skills inherent in animate, living beings to inanimate objects or abstract concepts.

An example of personification can be such phrases familiar to our hearing as:it's raining (actually the rain can't walk) the sky is crying (n he can't cry the way a living person does)the wind is howling (the noise of the wind only looks like the howl of an animal, in reality the wind cannot howl),the clouds are frowning .

Willow is crying ( willow is a tree, and therefore cannot cry, this is just a description of its spreading flexible branches, which resemble tirelessly flowing tears).

guitar playing (the guitar itself cannot play, it just makes sounds when someone plays it).

Nature fell asleep ( the phenomenon when it is quiet and calm on the street is called the sleepy state of nature, although she cannot sleep, in fact, the wind simply does not blow, and it seems as if everything around is bewitched by sleep). Thunder rolled across the sky ( he doesn't have a cart to ride on it, in fact, the sound of thunder was made, which spread in space). The dense forest became thoughtful (in the forest it is calm and silent, which supposedly characterizes his thoughtfulness and gloom).Goats spruce sits in a sheaf ( he eats hay with his head down and not tearing it off, and not in literally sat down in a sheaf and sits in it).W ima came (In fact, she doesn’t know how to walk, it’s just that another season has come. In addition, the verb “come” is also a personification).

For example, Yesenin has the following lines:"Winter sings, calls out, the shaggy forest cradles." It is clear that winter, as a season, cannot make sounds, and the forest makes noise only because of the wind. Personification allows you to create a vivid image for the reader, convey the mood of the hero, emphasize some kind of action.

Personification in colloquial speech

In live colloquial speech, personifications are so common that many simply stopped noticing them. For example, have you ever thought about the phrase:“Finance sing romances “, is that also an impersonation? This figurative and expressive means of language in colloquial speech is used in order to give it more figurativeness, to make it brighter and more interesting, and therefore extremely popular. But, even despite the widespread use of personification in everyday speech, this trope is in greatest “demand” in fiction. Poets and prose writers around the world constantly use personification in their works. Familiar phrases "the milk has run away", "the heart is beating", are also personified. Using this literary device in a conversation makes speech figurative and interesting.

Personification in fiction

Take any volume of poems by any Russian or foreign poet. Open it on any page and read any poem. You will surely be able to find at least one personification. If this is a work about nature, then impersonations using natural phenomena cannot be avoided.(frost draws patterns, leaves whisper, waves die, etc. .). If this love lyrics, then personifications are often used using abstract concepts (love sings, joy rings, longing eats ). In social or political lyrics, personifications are not uncommon using such concepts as: Motherland, peace, brotherhood, courage, courage (homeland is mother, the world breathed a sigh of relief).

Personification is often confused with metaphor. But a metaphor is just a figurative meaning of a word, a figurative comparison. For example, "And you laugh with a wondrous laugh, SNAKE IN A BOWL OF GOLD." There is no natural inspiration here. Therefore, it is not difficult to distinguish personification from metaphors.

Examples of personifications :

And woe, woe, grief!

And with a bastgrief girded ,

Bastlegs are entangled . (folk song)

The personification of winter:

GOING gray-haired sorceress,

Shaggy WAVING SLEEVE;

And snow, and scum, and hoar frost,

And turns water into ice.

From her cold BREATH

NATURE'S LOOKING STUNNED...

(G. Derzhavin)

After all, autumn is in the yard

LOOKING through the thread.

Winter follows her

IN A WARM FUR COAT IS GOING,

The path is covered with snow

It crunches under the sleigh... (M. Koltsov)

Description of the flood The Bronze Horseman» Pushkin:

“... The Neva all night / rushed to the sea against the storm, / not having overcome their violent foolishness ... / and it became impossible for her to argue ... / The weather became even more fierce, / The Neva swelled and roared ... / and suddenly , like a wild beast, / rushed at the city ... / Siege! Attack! evil waves, / like thieves, climb through the windows, ”etc.

"A golden cloud spent the night..." (M. Lermontov)

"Through the azure twilight of the night

The snowy Alps LOOK

Their dead eyes

RAZYAT with icy horror " (F. Tyutchev)

"The warm wind blows softly,

The steppe breathes fresh life "(A. Fet)

" White birch

under my window

covered with snow,

Exactly silver.

On fluffy branches

snow border

Brushes blossomed

White fringe.

And there is a birch

In sleepy silence

And the snowflakes are burning

In golden fire

And the dawn, lazily

WALKING AROUND,

Sprinkles the branches

New Silver. (S. Yesenin "Birch"):

Among the personifications of true poetry, there are no simple, philistine, primitive personifications that we are used to using in everyday life.

Each personification is an image. This is the point of using personification. The poet uses it not as a “thing in itself”, in his poetry the personification rises above the “worldly level” and goes to the level of figurativeness. With the help of personifications, Yesenin creates a special picture. Nature in the poem is alive - but not just alive, but endowed with character and emotions. Nature is the main character of his poem.

How sad against this background are the attempts of many poets to create a beautiful poem about nature, where the wind always “blows”, “the moon shines”, “the stars shine”, etc. All these personifications are beaten and worn out, they do not give rise to any imagery and, therefore, are boring. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be used. And the erased personification can be raised to the level of an image.

For example, in the poem "It's snowing" by Boris Pasternak:

It's snowing, it's snowing.

To the white stars in the blizzard

Stretching geranium flowers

For the window frame.

It's snowing and everything's IN CONFUSION

Everything takes flight,

black stairs steps,

Crossroad turn.

It's snowing, it's snowing

As if not flakes are falling,

And in the patched coat

The firmament GOES TO THE GROUND.

Like a weirdo

From the top staircase

SNEAK UP PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK

The sky is coming down from the attic.

Because life DOES NOT WAIT.

Do not look back - and Christmas time.

Only a short interval

Look, there is a new year.

The snow is falling, thick, thick.

In step with him, FEET those

At the same pace, WITH LAZY TOY

Or with the same speed

Maybe TIME IS PASSING?

Maybe year after year

Follow as it snows

Or like the words in a poem?

It's snowing, it's snowing

It's snowing and everything is in turmoil:

whitewashed pedestrian,

SURPRISED plants,

Crossroad turn.

Notice how many personifications there are. "The sky descends from the attic ”, steps and crossroads that take flight! Alone "surprised plants » what are worth! A refrain (constant repetition) "It is snowing » transfers a simple personification to the level of semantic repetition - and this is already a symbol. The personification "It's snowing" is a symbol of the passing time.

Therefore, in your poems, you should also try to USE THE PERSONALIZATION NOT JUST BY ITSELF, BUT TO PLAY A PARTICULAR ROLE.

Personifications are also used in fiction. For example, there is a wonderful example of personification in the novelAndrey Bitov " Pushkin House ". The prologue describes the wind circling over St. Petersburg, and the whole city is shown from the point of view of this wind. Wind - main character prologue. No less remarkable is the image of the title character in Nikolai Gogol's novel The Nose. The nose is not only personified and personified (i.e. endowed with features human personality), but also becomes a symbol of the duality of the protagonist.

A few more examples of personification in prose speech:

The first rays of the morning sun were STEALING through the meadow.

Snow COVERED the ground like a mother of a baby.

The moon WINKED through the clouds.

At exactly 6:30 am, my alarm went off.

The ocean DANCED in the moonlight.

I heard the island CALLING me.

Thunder grumbled like an old man.

Which part of the sentence makes inanimate objects animate? - Predicate.

as personification (a word that gives life to objects) often actsverb, which can be both before and after the noun that it describes, or rather, sets it into action, animates it and creates the impression that an inanimate object can exist just as fully as a person. But this is not just a verb, but a part of speech that takes on much more features, turning speech from ordinary to bright and mysterious, into unusual and at the same time able to tell a lot about what characterizes impersonation techniques.

4. FIXING
1. Finding personifications in the text:
2. Poetic minute - children, under the guidance of a teacher, work with handouts.
5. MIS-SCENING.
^ 6. CREATIVE FIVE MINUTES
1. Task. Personify the objects of the world around and write examples in a notebook.
Answers: The eraser argued with a pencil on paper.
The floor groaned and groaned as they walked on it.
^ 7. HOMEWORK
1. Everyone - learn the definition of personification.
2. Select and complete a task of your choice:
1st level - retell the theory. mat..
Level 2 - find personifications in texts and write them down.
3rd level - come up with and write down personifications; develop some of them fairy story.
^ 8. LESSON SUMMARY: What is personification?

The meaning of the word PERSONALIZATION in the Dictionary of Literary Terms

PERSONALIZATION

Type of trail: the image of inanimate objects, in which they are endowed with the properties of living beings (the gift of speech, the ability to think, feel, experience, act), are likened to a living being. For example: "What are you howling about, night wind? // What are you complaining about so madly?" (F.I. Tyutchev); "Through the wavy fog // The moon is making its way" (A.S. Pushkin). A kind of metaphor (see metaphor).

Dictionary of literary terms. 2012