Composition is the arrangement of parts of a literary work in a certain order, a set of forms and ways artistic expression by the author according to his intention. Translated from Latin means "composition", "construction". The composition builds all parts of the work into a single finished whole.
It helps the reader to better understand the content of the works, maintains interest in the book and helps to draw the necessary conclusions in the final. Sometimes the composition of the book intrigues the reader and he is looking for a continuation of the book or other works of this writer.
Composite elements
Among such elements are narration, description, dialogue, monologue, insert stories and lyrical digressions:
- Narration- the main element of the composition, the story of the author, revealing the content of the work of art. Occupies most the volume of the entire work. It conveys the dynamics of events, it can be retold or illustrated with drawings.
Description. This is a static element. During the description, events do not occur, it serves as a picture, a background for the events of the work. The description is a portrait, an interior, a landscape. The landscape is not necessarily an image of nature, it can be a landscape of a city, lunar landscape, a description of fantastic cities, planets, galaxies or a description of fictional worlds.- Dialogue- a conversation between two people. It helps to reveal the plot, to deepen the characters of the characters. Through the dialogue of two heroes, the reader learns about the events of the past of the heroes of the works, about their plans, begins to better understand the characters of the heroes.
- Monologue- the speech of one character. In the comedy by A. S. Griboyedov, through the monologues of Chatsky, the author conveys the thoughts of the progressive people of his generation and the experiences of the hero himself, who learned about the betrayal of his beloved.
- Image system. All images of the work that interact in connection with the author's intention. These are images of people fairy tale characters, mythical, toponymic and subject. There are absurd images invented by the author, for example, "The Nose" from Gogol's story of the same name. The authors simply invented many images, and their names became common.
- Insert stories, a story within a story. Many authors use this technique to set up intrigue in a work or at a denouement. There may be several inserted stories in the work, the events in which take place at different times. Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita" uses the novel-in-novel technique.
Author's or lyrical digressions. Gogol has many lyrical digressions in his Dead Souls. Because of them, the genre of the work has changed. This great prose work is called the Dead Souls poem. And "Eugene Onegin" is called a novel in verse because of a large number author's digressions, thanks to which an impressive picture of Russian life at the beginning of the 19th century appears before readers.- Author's characteristic . In it, the author talks about the character of the hero and does not hide his positive or negative attitude towards him. Gogol in his works often gives ironic characteristics to his heroes - so accurate and capacious that his heroes often become household characters.
- The plot of the story is a chain of events that take place in a work. The plot is the content of the literary text.
- plot- all events, circumstances and actions that are described in the text. The main difference from the plot is the chronological sequence.
- Scenery- description of nature, real and imaginary world, cities, planets, galaxies, existing and fictional. The landscape is an artistic technique, thanks to which the character of the characters is revealed more deeply and an assessment of events is given. One can recall how the sea landscape changes in Pushkin's "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish" when the old man again and again comes to the Golden Fish with another request.
- Portrait- this is a description of not only the appearance of the hero, but also his inner world. Thanks to the talent of the author, the portrait is so accurate that all readers have the same image of the hero of the book they read: what Natasha Rostova looks like, Prince Andrei, Sherlock Holmes. Sometimes the author draws the reader's attention to some characteristic feature of the hero, for example, Poirot's mustache in the books of Agatha Christie.
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Compositional techniques
Story composition
In the development of the plot there are stages of development. Conflict is always at the center of the plot, but the reader does not immediately learn about it.
The plot composition depends on the genre of the work. For example, a fable necessarily ends with a moral. The dramatic works of classicism had their own laws of composition, for example, they had to have five acts.
The composition of works is distinguished by its unshakable features. folklore. Songs, fairy tales, epics were created according to their own laws of construction.
The composition of the fairy tale begins with a saying: "Like on the sea-ocean, but on the island of Buyan ...". The saying was often composed in poetic form and sometimes was far from the content of the fairy tale. The storyteller attracted the attention of the listeners with a saying and waited for them to listen without being distracted. Then he said: “This is a saying, not a fairy tale. The story will come."
Then came the beginning. The most famous of them begins with the words: "Once upon a time there were" or "In a certain kingdom, in a thirtieth state ...". Then the storyteller moved on to the tale itself, to its heroes, to miraculous events.
Techniques of a fairy-tale composition, a three-fold repetition of events: the hero fights three times with the Serpent Gorynych, three times the princess sits at the window of the tower, and Ivanushka flies to her on horseback and rips off the ring, three times the Tsar tests daughters-in-law in the fairy tale "The Frog Princess".
The ending of the fairy tale is also traditional, they say about the heroes of the fairy tale: "They live - they live and make good things." Sometimes the ending hints at a treat: "You have a fairy tale, and I knit bagels."
literary composition- is the arrangement of parts of the work in a certain sequence, it is complete system forms artistic image. The means and techniques of composition deepen the meaning of the depicted, reveal the characteristics of the characters. Each work of art has its own unique composition, but there are its traditional laws that are observed in some genres.
In the days of classicism, there was a system of rules that prescribed certain rules for writing texts to authors, and they could not be violated. This is the rule of three unities: time, place, plot. This is a five-act structure of dramatic works. These are speaking surnames and a clear division into negative and goodies. Features of the composition of works of classicism are a thing of the past.
Compositional techniques in literature depend on the genre of a work of art and on the talent of the author, who has the types, elements, techniques of composition, knows its features and knows how to use these artistic methods.
Today we are talking on the topic: "Traditional elements of composition." But first you need to remember what a "composition" is. For the first time we meet this term in school. But everything flows, everything changes, gradually even the strongest knowledge is erased. Therefore, we read, we stir up the old, and we fill in the missing gaps.
Composition in literature
What is composition? First of all, we turn to explanatory dictionary and learn that literally translated from Latin this term means "to compose". Needless to say, without "composition", that is, without "composition", no work of art is possible (examples follow) and no text as a whole. From this it follows that the composition in literature is a certain order in which the parts of a work of art are arranged. In addition, these are certain forms and methods of artistic representation that are directly related to the content of the text.
The main elements of the composition
When we open a book, the first thing we hope for and look forward to is a beautiful entertaining story that will either surprise us or keep us in suspense, and then not let go for a long time, forcing us to mentally return to what we read again and again. In this sense, the writer is real artist which primarily shows rather than tells. He avoids direct text like: "And now I will tell." On the contrary, his presence is invisible, unobtrusive. But what do you need to know and be able to do for such skill?
Compositional elements - this is the palette in which the artist - the master of the word, mixes his colors in order to get a bright, colorful plot in the future. These include: monologue, dialogue, description, narration, system of images, author's digression, inserted genres, plot, plot. Further - about each of them in more detail.
monologue speech
Depending on how many people or characters in work of art participate in speech - one, two or more - distinguish monologue, dialogue and polylogue. The latter is a kind of dialogue, so we will not dwell on it. Let's consider only the first two.
A monologue is an element of the composition, which consists in the use by the author of the speech of one character, which does not imply an answer or does not receive one. As a rule, it is addressed to listeners in dramatic work or to yourself.
Depending on the function in the text, there are such types of monologue as: technical - a description by the hero of events that have occurred or are currently taking place; lyrical - the hero conveys his strong emotional experiences; monologue-acceptance - inner reflections character facing a difficult choice.
The following types are distinguished by form: the author's word - the author's appeal to readers, most often through one or another character; stream of consciousness - the free flow of the hero's thoughts as they are, without obvious logic and not adhering to the rules of literary construction of speech; dialectics of reasoning - the hero's presentation of all the pros and cons; dialogue in solitude - a mental appeal of a character to another character; apart - in dramaturgy, a few words aside, which characterize the present state of the hero; stanzas are also in dramaturgy the lyrical reflections of a character.
Dialogic speech
Dialogue is another element of composition, a conversation between two or more characters. Usually, dialogic speech is the ideal means of conveying the collision of two opposing points of view. It also helps to create an image, revealing personality, character.
Here I want to talk about the so-called dialogue of questions, which involves a conversation consisting exclusively of questions, and the response of one of the characters is both a question and an answer to the previous remark at the same time. (examples follow) Khanmagomedov Aidyn Asadullaevich "Goryanka" is a vivid confirmation of this.
Description
What is a person? This is a special character, and individuality, and a unique appearance, and the environment in which he was born, brought up and exists in this moment life, and his home, and the things he surrounds himself with, and people, far and near, and the nature surrounding him ... The list can be continued indefinitely. Therefore, creating an image in literary work, the writer must look at his hero from all possible sides and describe, without missing a single detail, even more - create new "shades" that are impossible to even imagine. In the literature there are the following types artistic descriptions: portrait, interior, landscape.
Portrait
It is one of the most important compositional elements in literature. He describes not only the appearance of the hero, but also his inner world- so-called psychological picture. The place of a portrait in a work of art is also different. A book can begin with it or, conversely, end with it (A.P. Chekhov, "Ionych"). maybe immediately after the character performs some act (Lermontov, "A Hero of Our Time"). In addition, the author can draw a character in one fell swoop, monolithically (Raskolnikov in "Crime and Punishment", Prince Andrei in "War and Peace"), and another time and disperse the features in the text ("War and Peace", Natasha Rostova). Basically, the writer himself takes up the brush, but sometimes he grants this right to one of the characters, for example, Maxim Maksimych in the novel A Hero of Our Time, so that he describes Pechorin as accurately as possible. The portrait can be written ironically satirically (Napoleon in "War and Peace") and "ceremonially". Under the "magnifying glass" of the author, sometimes only the face, a certain detail or the whole become - a figure, manners, gestures, clothes (Oblomov) falls.
Description of the interior
The interior is an element of the composition of the novel, allowing the author to create a description of the hero's home. It is no less valuable than a portrait, since a description of the type of premises, furnishings, atmosphere prevailing in the house - all this plays an invaluable role in conveying the characteristics of the character, in understanding the entire depth of the created image. The interior also reveals a close connection with which is the part through which the whole is known, and the individual through which the plural is seen. So, for example, Dostoevsky in the novel "The Idiot" in the gloomy house of Rogozhin "hung" Holbein's painting "Dead Christ", in order to once again draw attention to the irreconcilable struggle true faith with passions, with unbelief in Rogozhin's soul.
Landscape - description of nature
As Fyodor Tyutchev wrote, nature is not what we imagine, it is not soulless. On the contrary, a lot is hidden in it: the soul, and freedom, and love, and language. The same can be said about the landscape in a literary work. The author, using such an element of composition as a landscape, depicts not only nature, terrain, city, architecture, but thereby reveals the state of the character, and contrasts the naturalness of nature with conditional human beliefs, acts as a kind of symbol.
Remember the description of the oak during Prince Andrei's trip to the Rostovs' house in the novel "War and Peace". What he (oak) was at the very beginning of the journey - an old, gloomy, "contemptuous freak" among birch trees smiling at the world and spring. But at the second meeting, he suddenly blossomed, renewed, despite the hundred-year-old hard bark. He still submitted to spring and life. The oak in this episode is not only a landscape, a description of nature reviving after a long winter, but also a symbol of the changes that have taken place in the soul of the prince, a new stage in his life, which managed to “break” the desire to be an outcast of life until the end of his days, which was already almost rooted in him. .
Narration
Unlike the description, which is static, nothing happens in it, nothing changes, and in general it answers the question “what?”, the narrative includes action, conveys the “sequence of events” and the key question for it is “what happened ? Speaking figuratively, the narrative as an element of the composition of a work of art can be represented as a slide show - a quick change of pictures illustrating a plot.
Image system
As each person has his own network of lines on the fingertips, forming a unique pattern, so each work has its own unique system images. This may include the image of the author, if any, the image of the narrator, the main characters, antipode heroes, secondary characters and so on. Their relationship is built depending on the ideas and goals of the author.
Author's digression
Or a lyrical digression is the so-called extra-plot element of the composition, with the help of which the author's personality, as it were, bursts into the plot, thereby interrupting the direct course of the plot narrative. What is it for? First of all, to establish a special emotional contact between the author and the reader. Here the writer no longer acts as a storyteller, but opens his soul, raises deeply personal questions, discusses moral, aesthetic, philosophical themes shares memories of own life. Thus, the reader manages to take a breath before the flow of the following events, to stop and delve deeper into the idea of the work, to think about the questions posed to him.
Plug-in genres
This is another important compositional element, which is not only a necessary part of the plot, but also serves as a more voluminous, deeper disclosure of the hero’s personality, helps to understand the reason for his particular life choice, his inner world, and so on. Any genre of literature can be inserted. For example, stories are the so-called story in a story (the novel "A Hero of Our Time"), poems, novels, poems, songs, fables, letters, parables, diaries, sayings, proverbs and many others. They can be like own composition, and someone else's.
Plot and plot
These two concepts are often either confused with each other, or they mistakenly believe that they are one and the same. But they must be distinguished. The plot is, one might say, the skeleton, the basis of the book, in which all parts are interconnected and follow one after another in the order that is necessary for the full realization of the author's intention, the disclosure of the idea. In other words, the events in the plot can take place in different time periods. The plot is that basis, but in a more concise form, and plus - the sequence of events in their strictly chronological order. For example, birth, maturity, old age, death - this is the plot, then the plot is maturity, memories from childhood, adolescence, youth, lyrical digressions, old age and death.
Story composition
The plot, just like the literary work itself, has its own stages of development. At the center of any plot there is always a conflict around which the main events develop.
The book begins with an exposition or prologue, that is, with an “explanation”, a description of the situation, the starting point from which it all began. This is followed by a plot, one might say, foresight of future events. At this stage, the reader begins to realize that a future conflict is just around the corner. As a rule, it is in this part that the main characters meet, who are destined to go through the coming trials together, side by side.
We continue to list the elements plot composition. The next stage is the development of the action. Usually this is the most significant piece of text. Here the reader already becomes an invisible participant in the events, he is familiar with everyone, he feels the essence of what is happening, but is still intrigued. Gradually, the centrifugal force sucks him in, slowly, unexpectedly for himself, he finds himself in the very center of the whirlpool. The climax comes - the very peak, when a real storm of feelings and a sea of \u200b\u200bemotions falls upon both the main characters and the reader himself. And then, when it is already clear that the worst is behind and you can breathe, the denouement softly knocks on the door. She chews everything, explains every detail, puts all things on the shelves - each in its place, and the tension slowly subsides. The epilogue concludes and briefly outlines later life main and secondary characters. However, not all plots have the same structure. The traditional elements of fairy tale composition are completely different.
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it. Which? The elements of the composition of the fairy tale are radically different from their "brothers", although when reading, easy and relaxed, you do not notice this. This is the talent of a writer or even an entire people. As Alexander Sergeevich instructed, it is simply necessary to read fairy tales, especially folk tales, because they contain all the properties of the Russian language.
So, what are they - traditional elements fabulous composition? The first words are a saying that sets you in a fabulous mood and promises a lot of miracles. For example: “This fairy tale will be told from the morning until the afternoon, after eating soft bread ...” When the listeners relax, sit down more comfortably and are ready to listen further, the time has come for the beginning - the beginning. The main characters, the place and time of the action are introduced, and another line is drawn that divides the world into two parts - real and magical.
Next comes the tale itself, in which repetitions are often found to enhance the impression and gradually approach the denouement. In addition, poems, songs, onomatopoeia to animals, dialogues - all these are also integral elements of the composition of a fairy tale. The fairy tale also has its own ending, which seems to sum up all the miracles, but at the same time hints at infinity magical world: "They live, live and make good."
Prologue is called introductory part works. It either anticipates the storyline or the main motives of the work, or represents the events that preceded those described on the pages.The exposition is somewhat akin to the prologue, however, if the prologue does not have a special influence on the development of the plot of the work, then it directly introduces the reader into the atmosphere. It gives a description of the time and place of action, the central characters and their relationships. The exposure can be either at the beginning (direct exposure) or in the middle of the work (delayed exposure).
With a logically clear construction, the exposition is followed by a plot - an event that starts the action and provokes the development of the conflict. Sometimes the plot precedes the exposition (for example, Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina"). In detective novels, which are distinguished by the so-called analytical construction of the plot, the cause of events (i.e., the plot) is usually revealed to the reader after the effect generated by it.
The plot is traditionally followed by the development of the action, consisting of a series of episodes in which the characters seek to resolve the conflict, but it only escalates.
Gradually, the development of the action approaches its highest point, which is called the climax. The climax is a clash of characters or a turning point in their lives. After the climax, the action moves irresistibly towards the denouement.
Resolution is the end of an action, or at least of a conflict. As a rule, the denouement comes at the end of the work, but sometimes it also appears at the beginning (for example, I.A. Bunina “Easy breathing”).
Often the work ends with an epilogue. This is the final part, which usually tells about the events that followed the conclusion of the main plot, and about further destinies characters. Such are the epilogues in the novels of I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy.
Lyrical digressions
Also, extra-plot elements may be present in the composition, for example, lyrical digressions. In them he himself appears before the reader, expressing his own opinions on various issues, which is not always directly related to the action. Special interest represent lyrical digressions in "Eugene Onegin" by A.S. Pushkin and in Dead souls» N.V. Gogol.All of the above allow you to give the work of artistic integrity, logic and fascination.
The concept of composition is broader and more universal than the concept of plot. The plot fits into the overall composition of the works, occupying one or another, more or less important place in it, depending on the intentions of the author.
Depending on the ratio of the plot and plot in a particular work, one speaks of different types and tricks plot compositions. The simplest case is when the events are linearly arranged in a direct chronological sequence without any changes. This composition is also called straight or plot sequence.
The composition of the plot also includes a certain order of telling the reader about what happened. In works with a large amount of text, the sequence of plot episodes usually reveals the author's thought gradually and steadily. In novels and short stories, poems and dramas, each subsequent episode opens something new for the reader - and so on until the finale, which is usually, as it were, a pivotal moment in the composition of the plot.
It should be noted that the temporal coverage in works can be quite wide, the pace of narration can be uneven. There is a difference between a concise author's presentation that speeds up the run plot time and "dramatized" episodes, compositional the time of which goes "toe in step" with the plot time.
In some cases, writers depict parallel theaters of action (that is, they draw two storylines running parallel to each other). So, the neighborhood of the chapters of "War and Peace" by L.N. Tolstoy, dedicated to the dying of the old Bolkonsky and the cheerful name day in the Rostovs' house, outwardly motivated by the simultaneity of these events, carries a certain content load. This technique sets readers in the mood of Tolstoy's reflections and the inseparability of life and death.
Writers do not always tell about events in a direct sequence. Sometimes they seem to intrigue readers, keeping them in the dark about the true essence of events for some time. This compositional technique is called by default. This technique is very effective, because it allows you to keep the reader in the dark and tension until the very end, and at the end to amaze with the unexpectedness of the plot twist. Thanks to these properties, the technique of default is almost always used in adventurous-picaresque works and works of the detective genre, although, of course, not only in them. Realist writers also sometimes keep the reader in the dark about what happened. So, for example, the story of A.S. Pushkin "Snowstorm". Only at the very end of the story does the reader learn that Marya Gavrilovna was married to a stranger, who, as it turns out, was Burmin. In the novel “War and Peace”, the author for a long time makes the reader, together with the Bolkonsky family, think that Prince Andrei died during the battle of Austerlitz, and only at the moment the hero appears in the Bald Mountains it turns out that this is not so.
An important means of plot composition are chronological permutations events. Often these permutations are dictated by the desire of the authors to switch the attention of readers from outside what happened (what will happen to the characters next?) to its inner, deep background. So, in the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time", the composition of the plot serves to gradually penetrate into the secrets of the inner world of the protagonist. First, readers learn about Pechorin from the story of Maxim Maksimych ("Bela"), then from the narrator, who gives a detailed portrait of the hero ("Maxim Maksimych"), and only after that Lermontov introduces Pechorin's diary (the stories "Taman", "Princess Mary" , "Fatalist"). Thanks to the sequence of chapters chosen by the author, the reader's attention is transferred from the adventures undertaken by Pechorin to the riddle of his character, "unraveled" from story to story, up to the Fatalist.
Another technique for violating chronologies or plot sequence is the so-called retrospection, when, in the course of the development of the plot, the author makes digressions into the past, as a rule, at the time preceding the plot and the beginning this work. This kind of “retrospective” (facing back to what happened earlier) composition of the plot suggests the presence in the works of detailed backstories of the characters given in independent plot episodes. In order to more fully discover the successive links of eras and generations, in order to reveal the complex and difficult ways of forming human characters, writers often resort to a kind of “montage” of the past (sometimes very distant) and the present of characters: the action is periodically transferred from one time to another. So, in "Fathers and Sons" I.S. Turgenev, in the course of the plot, readers are faced with two significant flashbacks - the backstories of the life of Pavel Petrovich and Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov. It was not Turgenev’s intention to start the novel from their youth, and it would clutter up the composition of the novel, but to give an idea of the past of these characters seemed necessary to the author, which is why he used the technique of retrospection.
The plot sequence can be broken in such a way that events of different times are given mixed up; the narrative constantly returns from the moment of the ongoing action to different previous time layers, then again turns to the present in order to immediately return to the past. This composition of the plot is often motivated by the memories of the characters. It is called free composition and is used to some extent by different writers quite often. However, it happens that free composition becomes the main and defining principle of plot construction; in this case, it is customary to talk about the actual free composition (“Shot” by A.S. Pushkin).
Internal, emotional-semantic, that is, compositional, connections between plot episodes sometimes they turn out to be functionally even more important than the actual plot, causal connections. The composition of such works can be called active, or, using the term of cinematographers, “ assembly". An active, montage composition allows writers to embody deep, not directly observable connections between life phenomena, events, facts (an example is the novel by M.A. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"). The role and purpose of this kind of composition can be characterized by the words of A.A. Blok from the preface to the poem “Retribution”: “I am used to comparing facts from all areas of life accessible to my vision at a given time, and I am sure that all of them together always create a single musical pressure” (Complete collection of works in the 8th vols. T.3 - M., 1960, p.297).
In addition to the plot, in the composition of the work there are also so-called off-plot elements, which are often no less, if not more important than the plot itself. If the plot of the work is dynamic side his compositions, then the extra-plot elements are static.
Extraplot such elements are called that do not move the action forward, during which nothing happens, and the characters remain in their previous positions. Distinguish three main varieties extra-plot elements: description, author's digressions and inserted episodes (otherwise they are also called inserted short stories or inserted plots).
Description- this is an image of the outside world (landscape, portrait, world of things) or a sustainable way of life, that is, those events and actions that occur regularly, day after day, and, therefore, also have nothing to do with the movement of the plot. Descriptions are the most common type of non-plot elements; they are present in almost every epic work.
Copyright digressions- these are more or less detailed author's statements of philosophical, lyrical, autobiographical, etc. character; at the same time, these statements do not characterize individual characters or the relationship between them. Author's digressions are an optional element in the composition of a work, but when they nevertheless appear there (“Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin, “ Dead Souls» N.V. Gogol, “The Master and Margarita” by M.A. Bulgakov and others), they play, as a rule, the most important role, they serve as a direct expression of the writer's position.
Insert episodes- these are relatively finished fragments of the action in which other characters appear, the action is transferred to another time and place, etc. Sometimes insert episodes begin to play an even greater role in the work than the main plot, as, for example, in Dead Souls by N.V. Gogol.
In some cases, a psychological image can also be attributed to extra-plot elements, if the state of mind or thoughts of the hero are not a consequence or cause of plot events, they are turned off from the plot chain (for example, most of Pechorin's internal monologues in "A Hero of Our Time"). However, as a rule, internal monologues and other forms of psychological depiction are somehow included in the plot, since they determine the further actions of the hero and, consequently, the further course of the plot.
When analyzing the overall composition of a work, one should first of all determine the relationship between the plot and extra-plot elements, determining which of them is more important, and proceeding from this, continue the analysis in the appropriate direction. So, when analyzing "Dead Souls" N.V. Gogol, extra-plot elements should be given priority.
At the same time, it should be borne in mind that there are also cases when both the plot and extra-plot elements are equally important in a work - for example, in A.S. Pushkin. In this case special meaning acquires the interaction of plot and extra-plot fragments of the text: as a rule, extra-plot elements are placed between plot events not in an arbitrary, but in a strictly logical order. So, the retreat of A.S. Pushkin "We all look at Napoleons ..." could appear only after readers had sufficiently recognized Onegin's character from his actions and only in connection with his friendship with Lensky; the digression about Moscow is not only formally timed to coincide with the arrival of Tatiana in the old capital, but also correlates in a complex way with the events of the plot: the image of “native Moscow” with its historical roots opposed to Onegin's lack of rootedness in Russian life, etc. In general, extra-plot elements often have a weak or purely formal connection with the plot and represent a separate compositional line.
Summing up all that has been said, it is necessary to indicate that in the most general form, two types of composition can be distinguished - conditionally they can be called simple And difficult. In the first case, the function of composition is reduced only to the unification of the parts of the work into a single whole, and this unification is always carried out in the simplest and most naturally. In the area of plot formation, this will be a direct chronological sequence of events, in the area of narration - a single narrative type throughout the entire text, in the area of subject details - a simple list of them without highlighting particularly important, supporting, symbolic details, etc.
With a complex composition, a special artistic meaning is embodied in the very construction of the work, in the order of combination of its parts and elements. So, for example, the successive change of narrators and the violation of the chronological sequence in the "Hero of Our Time" by M.Yu. Lermontov focus on the moral and philosophical essence of Pechorin's character and allow you to "get close" to it, gradually unraveling the character. In Chekhov's story "Ionych", immediately after the description of the "salon" of the Turkins, where Vera Iosifovna reads her novel, and Kotik beats the piano keys with all his might, it is not by chance that there is a mention of the knock of knives and the smell of fried onions - this compositional comparison of details contains special meaning, the author's irony is expressed. An example of a complex composition of speech elements can be identified in M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin: “It seemed that the cup of disasters was drunk to the bottom. But no: there is still a whole tub at the ready. Here the first and second sentences clash compositionally, creating a contrast between the solemn, high style (and corresponding intonation) of the metaphorical phrase “the cup of disasters is drunk to the bottom” and colloquial vocabulary and intonation (“but no”, “tubs”). As a result, the comic effect necessary for the author arises.
simple and complex types compositions are sometimes difficult to identify in a particular work of art, since the differences between them turn out to be purely quantitative to a certain extent: one can speak of a greater or lesser complexity of the composition of a particular work. There are, of course, pure types: for example, the composition of fables by I.A. Krylova is simple in all respects, and “Ladies with a Dog” by A.P. Chekhov or “The Master and Margarita” by M.A. Bulgakov is complex in all respects. But, for example, such a story by A.P. Chekhov as "House with a mezzanine" is quite simple in terms of plot and narrative composition and complex in terms of composition of speech and details. All this makes the question of the type of composition rather complicated, but at the same time very important, since simple and complex types of composition can become stylistic dominants of a work and, thus, determine its artistic originality.
A literary work is a holistic picture of life, recreates any experience. The integrity of a literary work is due to the specific content disclosed in it.
E. in the appropriate system of means and methods of expression. The image, genre, rhythm, vocabulary, plot, composition are meaningful, illuminated by the ideals of the artist.
In a work of art, content and form are inseparable. The unity of content and form is dynamic, mobile, because art is a living process of reflecting objective reality. time creates new art forms. As wrote
V. Mayakovsky, “... the novelty of the material and technique is obligatory for every poetic work”94. The new rhythms of time demanded new forms from the poet.
Each literary work is a unique, special artistic world with its own content, inherent only to it, and with a form expressing this content. Violation of the integrity of the work leads to a decrease or destruction of its artistry. The criterion of artistry is the harmonious unity of the content and form of the work. A literary work is the aesthetic unity of all aspects of its form, which serves to embody the artistic content.
1sh1 The structure of a literary work
Artistic embodiment complete picture life in all its complexity and inconsistency, which is manifested in events, relationships, circumstances, thoughts and feelings of characters, is carried out by very different means.
The creative techniques of each artist are unique, but there are common means arising from the characteristics of literature. This, using the Gorky term, is the primary element of literature - the language with which verbal images are created. This is an image of life in its processes, movement, which highlights the plot, in which human characters and social conflicts are revealed. This is a composition, i.e., the construction of a literary work, because in order to embody the ideological and artistic conception, the writer has to turn to various techniques. And the last one is genre features, with which the embodiment of the artist's creative intent is always associated.
The concept of artistry, like the definition of artistic, serves to indicate the specifics of art. The basis of the specifics of art is its aesthetic nature. Artistry is the highest cultural form of aesthetic attitude to the world, for "the aesthetic fully realizes itself only in art"95.
In a work of art, Hegel noted, “the spiritual value possessed by a certain event, individual character, act ... is purer and more transparent than is possible in ordinary non-artistic reality”96.
A fact of life, becoming an artistic element! prose, is transformed into a work, participates in the construction of the plot, which, according to V. Shklovsky, is a “research of reality”97, and according to E. Dobin’s formula, it is a “concept of reality”98.
With you? t (French suj?t - subject, content) is a system of events that makes up the content of the action of a literary work; in a broader sense, it is the story of a character shown in a particular system of events.
The understanding of the plot as the course of events arose in the 19th century.
V. What then scientists, in particular A. Veselovsky, considered as a plot, representatives modern literary criticism considered as a plot (lat. fabula - a legend, a fable); they call a plot an artistically processed plot. “The totality of events in mutual internal connection ... let's call the plot. The artistically constructed distribution of events in a work is called a plot,” noted B. Tomashevsky. He proposed such a distinction: the plot is “what really happened”, the plot is “how the reader found out about it”99.
A textbook example of the discrepancy between plot and plot is Lermontov's novel A Hero of Our Time. If you follow the plot sequence, then the stories in the novel should have been arranged in this order: “Taman”, “Princess Mary”, “Bela”, “Fatalist”, “Maxim Maksimych”. But M. Lermontov distributed the events in the novel in a different sequence, following the path of deepening the character of the hero of his time, since he set himself the task of "revealing the history of the human soul."
In the textbook “Introduction to Literary Studies” edited by G. Pospelov, the sequence of presentation of events in the text of a work (what V. Shklovsky called “plot”) is proposed to be called “plot composition”, and the term “plot” retains a meaning dating back to the 19th century. . L. Timofeev believes that in practice there is no need for the term “plot” and refuses it, and interprets the plot as one of the forms of composition100. As we can see, in literary criticism of the XX
V. The problem of the plot remained largely debatable.
The plot in prose is a system of events, a change of situations, external or internal changes in the state of heroes. Narration in prose work- this is a story about events, in poetry - a sequence of the author's emotional statement.
Let's compare the works of M. Lermontov of different genres: the poem "Do not cry, do not cry, my child ..." and the story "Bela" from the novel "Hero of Our Time".
The first of them is a story about events in the life of a girl who was loved out of boredom by a young man who came from a distant, alien side, seeking glory and war, who valued affection dearly, but he will not appreciate your tears! The plot as a system of events or actions of the characters is absent here. Events seem to be taken out of the scope of the poem. In the center is a reaction to an earlier event: the consolation of a saddened mountain woman, a feeling of compassion for her. This is how the dramatic situation is restored: the story of love and the separation of two people.
The plot of the story "Bela" is a story about the tragedy of an abandoned mountain woman, the story of her death. Events are dominant here. Through their dynamics, the character of Pechorin is revealed and evaluated. And the main conflict, the cause of which was Pechorin's internal duality, was expressed in his actions. He failed to appreciate Bela's love, only for a moment he believed that her feelings would fill the void in his soul. The motive of sympathy, compassion for Bela is also present here, but only in the intonation of the narrator - Maxim Maksimych.
The events that make up the plot are with each other or in a temporal connection when they follow one after the other, as in Homer's Odyssey, in " Ordinary history» I. Goncharov, or in a causal relationship, as in F. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment". As a result, there are two types of plots - chronicle plots and concentric plots, or, as they are also called, plots of a single action.
Aristotle spoke about these two types of plots. Each of them has special artistic abilities. Chronicle plots recreate reality in all its diverse manifestations and are more often used in epic works. They allow the writer to tell in more detail about the formation human personality (autobiographical trilogy M. Gorky "Childhood", "In People", "My Universities", the novel by N. Ostrovsky "How the Steel Was Tempered"), allow us to depict the broad layers of life ("Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" by A. Radishchev, "The Artamonov Case" M Gorky). Temporal connections play an important role in them. IN concentric plots the cause-and-effect relationships of events that occur in the lives of the characters are investigated, as in Boccaccio's "Decameron" and in the novels by I. Ilf and E. Petrov about Ostap Bender.
Concentric and chronical beginnings can correlate with each other. This creates multilinear plots (“Anna Karenina” and “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, “At the Bottom” by M. Gorky).
Undoubtedly, the plot reflects the reality in itself, figuratively reveals life's conflicts, and it expresses the writer's assessment of them.
The plot cannot be identified with the content of the work, since it may also contain extra-plot elements, which will be discussed below. The plot mainly consists of the actions of the characters. Moreover, they can be saturated with external dynamics, when many events take place in the lives of heroes, rapidly changing, leading to sharp shifts in their destinies (we meet this in fairy tales, in the tragedies of W. Shakespeare, in the works of A. Dumas, F. Dostoevsky, M. Sholokhov, A. Fadeev). But writers often turn to inner action when they show profound changes in the lives of their characters, not as a result of their decisive actions and rapid change of events, but as a result of their understanding of complex human relationships and reflections on a contradictory life. In the plots of such works, there are much fewer events, the characters are less active, more prone to self-contemplation (turning to internal action is typical for the plays of A. Chekhov, the stories of V, Likhonosov and Y. Kazakov, for the novel by M. Proust "In Search of Lost Time" and etc.).
The plot of a work of art carries a certain degree of generalization. Aristotle also noted that “the task of the poet is not to speak about what actually happened, but about what could happen, therefore, about the possible by probability or by necessity”101.
The plot of the work includes not only events from the life of the characters, but also the events of the spiritual life of the author. So, digressions in "Eugene Onegin" by A. Pushkin and in "Dead Souls" by N. Gogol are deviations from the plot, and not from the plot.
The fact that the plot acts as a system of events in works is due to the fact that most of the works explore important social conflicts. M. Gorky spoke about the role of the plot in this way: “A writer must understand that he not only writes with a pen, but draws with words and draws not as a master of painting, depicting a person motionless, but trying to depict people in continuous movement, in action, in endless collisions among themselves, in the struggle of classes, groups, units. Disclosure in the plot of the conflict (in its development and resolution) has great importance. And the most important function of the plot is to reveal life's contradictions, that is, conflicts.
Conflict (Latin conShsShe - clash) in literature is a clash between characters, or between characters and the environment, a hero and fate, as well as a contradiction within the consciousness of a character or subject of a lyrical utterance3.
For the first time the theory of conflict (collision) was developed by Hegel. Later, B. Shaw, L. Vygotsky, M. Bakhtin, M. Epshtein and others dealt with this issue.
The entire dynamics of the content of a literary work is based on artistic conflicts, which are a reflection of the conflicts of reality. , ^
In a literary work, in artistic structure the ideological and aesthetic embodiment is received by the social, philosophical, moral disputes that the heroes of these works lead, and it develops layered system artistic conflicts, which expresses the author's ideological and aesthetic concept. Plot conflicts and the ways of their implementation are very diverse and are determined by historical and social reasons. It is in collisions that the characters' characters reveal their true properties. Because of this, the analysis of the plot cannot be separated from the analysis of the character's character, which cannot be revealed without conflicts.
The plot of the story by A. Solzhenitsyn " Matrenin yard» make up episodes from eventful the life of an elderly peasant woman, Matryona Vasilievna Grigoryeva, in whom there were few joys: hard work, difficulties of collective farm life, war, personal grief and, most importantly, loneliness, spiritual loneliness, because those around (even close people) considered Matryona a "holy fool" because of her disregard for property: ... and did not chase the equipment; and not careful; and she didn’t even keep a pig, for some reason she didn’t like to feed it; and, stupid, helped strangers for free.
The characterization of the selfless Matrena is dominated by the words: “didn’t exist”, “didn’t have”, “didn’t chase”. She had a different system of values: she preferred to "give" everything to people. The story is built on the opposition of the disinterested Matryona to the "money-grubbers" (Thaddeus, stepdaughter Kira with her husband, etc.). The conflict makes it possible to comprehend two philosophies of life. From the author's point of view, the irrepressible thirst for property turns out to be a national disaster, a trampling moral ideals, loss of spiritual values. And there is one more opposition in the story: the meager life of a person and his being, which consists of inescapable suffering, courageous “suffering”, quiet resistance to everything that prevents a person from remaining a person. The original title of the story was "A Village Doesn't Stand Without a Righteous Man". Matryona, in her deepest essence, continues the type of righteous man who appeared in the works of N. Leskov (her closeness to the hero of the story “Odnodum” is especially acutely felt).
And character Pushkin's hero revealed in the story. The severity of the conflict, the purposefulness and swiftness of the hero's actions " Queen of Spades» Hermann are determined by his character and will. There is no continuous, progressive development of the action in the story, although the character central character and plot are closely related. The past is involved in the present, the present is seen and evaluated from the past. The nature of the movement of plot time obeys the will of the author, who freely handles it, breaks its consistent flow.
The discontinuity of the epic plot is born from the need to comprehend the circumstances and characters that motivate the development of the action. So, the description invades, open authorial assessments, the connections between the author and the characters change (he is omniscient and omniscient, then he is only an observer, “accompanying” his heroes, then he simply refuses to comment on any events, then he is extremely objective, talking about his characters). In Pushkin's story - the linkage of everything with everything, the diversity and unity of the complex life process.
The artist cannot help focusing on conflicts that are important for his time, for the people. So, Gogol in his comedy "The Inspector General" showed not only the conflict between officials and the alleged auditor Khlestakov, but also the conflict between officials and townspeople who were completely dependent on them - bribe-takers and embezzlers.
Conflict is the most important content category. The choice of conflicts and building them into a system determine the originality of the writer's position. Through the study of conflicts, one can come to an understanding of the motives behind the words and actions of the characters, reveal the originality of the author's intention, the moral position of the writer.
Using V. Belinsky's term “the pathos of sociality”, we can say that in many works conflicts are depicted as a product of specific historical situations. We meet with this in Pushkin's tragedy "Boris Godunov", in Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons", in Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'", which tells about the contradictions between different classes and groups. These are common conflicts. They can be refracted in private conflicts, as historical and social upheavals pass through the fate of everyone. individual person, for example, Pechorin, the Karamazov brothers, Rudin, Grigory Melekhov, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov.
Conflicts can be not only external, but also internal, psychological. Let us recall the spiritual struggle of Arbenin (M. Lermontov "Masquerade"), Oblomov (A. Goncharov "Oblomov"), dissatisfaction with Pushkin's Eugene Onegin.
Very often in the works, personal and public conflicts are closely interconnected (A. Griboedov "Woe from Wit"; M. Lermontov "Masquerade"; A. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm").
Connections of events in the plot (causal and chronicle) and the sequence of the story about these events or their stage presentation in dramatic works - different aspects compositions.
Chatsky's conflict with Famusov's Moscow reflected the struggle of two antagonistic social forces: advanced nobles and feudal lords. Griboyedov reflected internal contradictions in Russian society in the first quarter of the 19th century. The problematics of the comedy "Woe from Wit" is connected with the author's thoughts about the future of Russia, in particular, about the problems public service the need for education and upbringing of the citizen.
"Woe from Wit" by Griboyedov is a comedy in which the household plan and the social plan are intertwined. Both conflicts were realized in it - public (external) and personal (internal, psychological). They culminate in III action, in which Sophia becomes the culprit of gossip about the madness of Chatsky. A conversation with Repetilov (4th-7th events of act IV) opens Chatsky's eyes to what happened during his absence from Moscow.
Development features storylines Chatsky - Famusov (famus society), Chatsky - Sophia contribute to a deeper disclosure of Chatsky's character, which, as the plot develops, turns into a passionate exposer of the existing order. The denouement of personal intrigue comes in the 13th-14th phenomena of the IV act. In the play there is no formally expressed denouement of the social conflict, it remains outside the scope of the actual stage action. Chatsky is forced to flee the capital - Griboyedov, as it were, anticipates the political defeat of the Decembrists in 1825. Famus Society is not going to tolerate "freethinkers", "Jacobins".
The genre specificity of "Woe from Wit" is complex and multifaceted - the text of the social comedy contains elements of noble satire (Chatsky's monologue "Who are the judges?"), civil elegy (Chatsky's monologues are in direct proportion to the problems of Pushkin's "Village" with its denunciation of serfdom) , epigrams of the 18th century, fables, vaudeville. It also contains elements classical style: the traditional number of acts - there are five of them, the observance of the rule of "three unities" - time, place, action, the use of "speaking" surnames, traditional roles (Lisa - "subretka"). But this realistic comedy: the characters in it are revealed deeply and many-sidedly, individualized with the help of speech characteristics. The play was exceptionally topical. V.G. Belinsky saw in it "an energetic protest against the vile Russian reality"1. Ideological meaning comedies - in denouncing the immorality of the feudal lords (Famusov), the social roots of the silence-mindedness (Molchalin), the Arakcheevshchina (Skalozub).
Conflict plays a special role in a dramatic work, where it becomes the most important substantive category. Dramatic clashes are an important way to reveal the life programs of the characters and self-disclosure of their characters. The conflict determines the direction of the plot movement in the play. According to their content and emotional coloring, drama conflicts are divided into tragic, comic, and actually dramatic, which differ from tragic ones in that they can be resolved.
A.N. Ostrovsky in the drama "Thunderstorm" managed to discover a new nature of drama, contained in the real social contradictions of the time. In The Thunderstorm, the “dramatic conflict of the era” is inextricably linked with Katerina’s internal conflict, the nature of which, as N. Dobrolyubov argued in the article “Ray of Light in dark kingdom”, “concentrated, resolute and selfless in the sense that death is better for him than life under such principles ...”.
In the course of deployment, the conflict can transform. So, in the novel by I. Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”, the social conflict between the liberal nobles (the Kirsanov family) and the commoner Bazarov turns into a philosophical conflict - into disputes about life and death, love and hate, eternal and temporary.
In the stories of M. Gorky, written by him in the 10s of the 20th century, there are conflicts between people who have been disfigured in various ways by the autocratic serf system (“Chelkash”), who are freed to varying degrees from the heavy remnants of the past (“Konovalov”, “ Spouses Orlovs"), or between people who are representatives different classes And social groups("The mischievous"). going on internal conflict in the souls of the heroes themselves, who have new ideas and feelings (“Wretched Pavel”).
Aesthetics has always attached great importance to conflict. It also admits the unresolvability of the conflict in individual works(for example, in tragedies; for example, the conflict in Shakespeare's Hamlet is unresolvable).
As already noted, conflict lies at the heart of the plot. Being the basis and driving force action, it determines the main stages of plot development.
In accordance with the main stages of the development of the conflict in the plot, the main elements of the plot construction are distinguished, which are the main points in the development of the depicted life conflict. The origin of the conflict is the beginning, its highest aggravation is the climax. Conflict is a relatively complete moment of the life process, which has its beginning, development and end.
The plot includes the following elements: exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement and post-position. Some of the stories have a prologue and an epilogue. Each of these elements fulfills its purpose.
The starting point of the plot organization is the exposition (lat. exroyaSho - exposition, explanation) - the background of the events underlying the work of art. Usually, it gives a description of the main characters, their placement before the start of the action, before the plot. The exposition motivates the behavior of the characters in the conflict under consideration.
The place, the nature of the construction of the exposition are determined by the artistic tasks set for the writer. Thus, in M. Gorky's story "Mother", the exposition describes the life of a working settlement. It tells about the hard life of workers, about the growing sense of protest against unbearable living conditions. The factory "waited with indifferent confidence" in the mornings of the workers, and in the evenings threw out "as if spent slag." And "gloomy people", "as if frightened cockroaches", "breathing smoky, oily air", returned home. The exposition of the story leads to the idea that it was impossible to live like this anymore, that people should have appeared who would try to change this life. Thus, it leads to the plot - the meeting of Pavel Vlasov with representatives of the revolutionary intelligentsia.
The exposition can be direct, standing at the beginning of the work, as in a Gorky story, but it can be delayed, given in the middle or at the end of the work. In this case, she gives the work of art mystery, ambiguity (Katerina's story about free life in her parents' house in A.N. Ostrovsky's drama "Thunderstorm"; information about Chichikov's life before his arrival in provincial city, given in the last chapter of the first volume of "Dead Souls"
N. Gogol). The exposition should always be considered in its meaningful purpose, this will help to establish a connection between the circumstances and the characters of the characters.
An initiation is an event that is the beginning of an action. It either discovers already existing contradictions, or it creates (“sets up”) conflicts on its own. Such a moment, for example, is Luke's arrival at the rooming house (M. Gorky "At the bottom"). The plot in Gogol's comedy "The Government Inspector" is the receipt by the Governor of a letter informing him of the expected arrival of the auditor. Officials, terribly disturbed by this news, begin to prepare for the meeting of the auditor: the plot leads to the development of action.
