1. Theme as an objective basis for the content of the work. 2. Types of topics. 3. Question and problem.
4. Types of ideas in a literary text. 5. Paphos and its types.
1. In the last lesson, we studied the categories of content and form of a literary work. Theme and idea are the most important components of the content.
The term topic is often used with different meanings. Word theme of Greek origin, in the language of Plato it means position, basis. In the science of literature, the topic is most often called the subject of the image. The theme holds together all parts of the literary text, gives unity to the meanings of its individual elements. The theme is everything that has become the subject of image, evaluation, knowledge. It contains the general meaning of the content. O. Fedotov in the textbook on literary criticism gives the following definition of the topic category: “Theme is a phenomenon or object selected, meaningful and reproduced by certain artistic means. The theme shines through in all images, episodes and scenes, ensuring the unity of action. This objective the basis of the work, its depicted part. The choice of a topic, work on it are connected with the experience, interests, mood of the author. But there is no evaluation, problematicity in the topic. The theme of the little man is traditional for Russian classics and is characteristic of many works.
2. In a work, one theme can dominate, subjugate the entire content, the entire composition of the text, such a theme is called the main or leading one. Such a theme is the main meaningful moment in the work. In a plot work, this is the basis of the fate of the hero, in a dramatic one, the essence of the conflict, in a lyrical work, it is formed by dominant motifs.
Often the main theme is suggested by the title of the work. The title may give a general idea of life phenomena. "War and Peace" are words denoting the two main states of mankind, and Tolstoy's work with this title is a novel that embodies life in these main states of life. But the title can communicate the specific phenomenon depicted. So, Dostoevsky's story "The Gambler" is a work that reflects a man's destructive passion for the game. The understanding of the topic stated in the title of the work can significantly expand as the literary text unfolds. The title itself can acquire a symbolic meaning. The poem "Dead Souls" has become a terrible reproach to modernity, lifelessness, lack of spiritual light. The image introduced by the title can become the key to the author's interpretation of the events depicted.
M. Aldanov's tetralogy "The Thinker" contains a prologue, which depicts the time of the construction of Notre Dame Cathedral, that moment when in 1210-1215. the famous chimera of the devil is created. A chimera in medieval art is an image of a fantastic monster. From the top of the cathedral, a horned, hook-nosed beast, with his tongue hanging out, looks with soulless eyes at the center of the eternal city and contemplates the Inquisition, fires, the great French revolution. The motive of the devil, skeptically contemplating the course of world history, turns out to be one of the means of expressing the author's historiosophy. This motive is leading, at the topic level it is the leitmotif of Aldanov's four books on world history.
Often the title indicates the most acute social or ethical problems of reality. The author, comprehending them in the work, can put the question in the title of the book: this happened with the novel “What is to be done?” N.G. Chernyshevsky. Sometimes a philosophical opposition is outlined in the title: for example, in Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment". Sometimes there is an assessment or a sentence, as in the scandalous book by Sullivan (Boris Vian) "I will come to spit on your graves." But the title does not always exhaust the theme of the work, it can be provocative, even polemical to the entire content of the text. So, I. Bunin deliberately titled his works in such a way that the title did not reveal anything: neither the plot nor the theme.
In addition to the main topic, there may be topics of certain chapters, parts, paragraphs, and, finally, just sentences. B. V. Tomashevsky noted the following on this occasion: “In artistic expression, individual sentences, combined with each other in their meaning, result in a certain construction united by a common thought or theme.” That is, the entire literary text can be divided into its constituent parts, and in each one a specific topic can be distinguished. So, in the story “The Queen of Spades”, the theme of the cards turns out to be an organizing force, it is suggested by the title, the epigraph, but other themes are expressed in the chapters of the story, which sometimes come down to the level of motives. In a work, several themes can be of equal magnitude; they are declared by the author as strongly and significantly as if each of them were the main theme. This is a case of the existence of contrapuntal themes (from lat. punctum contra punctum- point against point), this term has a musical basis and means the simultaneous combination of two or more melodically independent voices. In literature, this is a conjugation of several topics.
Another criterion for distinguishing topics is their connection with time. Transient topics, the topics of one day, the so-called topical, do not live long. They are characteristic of satirical works (the theme of slave labor in the fairy tale by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin "Konyaga"), texts of journalistic content, fashionable superficial novels, that is, fiction. Topical topics live as long as they are allowed by the topic of the day, the interest of the modern reader. The capacity of their content may be either very small or completely uninteresting to subsequent generations. The theme of collectivization in the countryside, presented in the works of V. Belov, B. Mozhaev, now does not affect the reader, who lives not so much with the desire to understand the problems of the history of the Soviet state, but in the problems of life in the new capitalist country. The widest limits of relevance and significance are reached by universal (ontological) Topics. Human interests in love, death, happiness, truth, the meaning of life are unchanged throughout history. These are themes relating to all times, all nations and cultures.
"Analysis of the subject involves consideration of the time of the action, the place of the action, the breadth or narrowness of the material depicted." About the methodology for analyzing topics in his manual, writes A.B. Esin.
3. In most works, especially of the epic kind, even general ontological themes are concretized and sharpened in the form of topical problems. To solve a problem, it is often necessary to go beyond old knowledge, past experience, to reevaluate values. For three hundred years, the theme of the “little man” has existed in Russian literature, but the problem of his life is solved in different ways in the works of Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky. The hero of the story "Poor People" Makar Devushkin reads "The Overcoat" by Gogol and "The Stationmaster" by Pushkin and notices the peculiarity of his position. Devushkin looks at human dignity differently. He is poor, but proud, he can declare himself, his right, he can challenge the “big people”, the powerful of this world, because he respects the person in himself and others. And he is much closer to the character of Pushkin, also a man of great heart, depicted lovingly, than the character of Gogol, a suffering, petty man, presented very low. G. Adamovich once remarked that “Gogol essentially mocks his unfortunate Akaky Akakievich, and it is no accident that [Dostoevsky in Poor Folk] contrasted Pushkin with him, who in The Stationmaster treated the same helpless old man much more humanely” .
Often the concepts of topic and problem are identified, they are used as synonyms. It will be more accurate if the problem is seen as concretization, updating, sharpening of the topic. The theme may be eternal, but the problem may change. The theme of love in Anna Karenina and the Kreutzer Sonata has a tragic content precisely because at the time of Tolstoy the problem of divorce in society was not solved at all, there were no such laws in the state. But the same theme is unusually tragic in Bunin's book "Dark Alleys", written during the 2nd World War. It is revealed against the background of the problems of people whose love and happiness are impossible in an era of revolutions, wars, and emigration. The problems of love and marriage of people born before the cataclysms of Russia are solved by Bunin in an exceptionally original way.
In Chekhov's story "Thick and Thin" the theme is the life of Russian bureaucracy. The problem will be voluntary servility, the question of why a person goes to self-humiliation. The theme of space and possible interplanetary contact, the problem of the consequences of this contact is clearly indicated in the novels of the Strugatsky brothers.
In the works of Russian classical literature, the problem most often has the character of a socially significant issue. And more than that. If Herzen posed the question “Who is to blame?”, and Chernyshevsky asked “What to do?”, then these artists themselves offered answers, solutions. In the books of the 19th century, an assessment was given, an analysis of reality and ways to achieve a social ideal. Therefore, Chernyshevsky's novel "What is to be done?" Lenin called the textbook of life. However, Chekhov said that the solution of problems is not necessarily in literature, because life, continuing indefinitely, itself does not give final answers. What is more important is the correct formulation of problems.
Thus, a problem is one or another feature of the life of an individual, an entire environment, or even a people, leading to some generalizing thoughts.
The writer does not speak with the reader in a rational language, he does not formulate ideas and problems, but presents us with a picture of life and thereby prompts thoughts that researchers call ideas or problems.
4. When analyzing a work, along with the concepts of "thematics" and "problematics", the concept of an idea is also used, which most often means the answer to a question allegedly posed by the author.
Ideas in literature can be different. An idea in literature is a thought contained in a work. There are logical ideas, or concepts, which we are able to perceive with the intellect and which are easily conveyed without figurative means. For novels and short stories are characterized by philosophical and social generalizations, ideas, analyzes of causes and effects, then a network of abstract elements.
But there is a special kind of very subtle, barely perceptible ideas in a literary work. An artistic idea is a thought embodied in a figurative form. It lives only in figurative implementation, it cannot be presented in the form of a sentence or concepts. The peculiarity of this thought depends on the disclosure of the topic, the worldview of the author, transmitted by the speech and actions of the characters, on the depiction of pictures of life. It is in the clutch of logical thoughts, images, all significant compositional elements. An artistic idea cannot be reduced to a rational idea that can be concretized or illustrated. The idea of this type is inseparable from the image, from the composition.
The formation of an artistic idea is a complex creative process. It is influenced by personal experience, the worldview of the writer, understanding of life. An idea can be nurtured for years, the author, trying to realize it, suffers, rewrites, looking for adequate means of implementation. All themes, characters, all events are necessary for a more complete expression of the main idea, its nuances, shades. However, it is necessary to understand that an artistic idea is not equal to an ideological concept, the plan that often appears not only in the head of the writer, but also on paper. Exploring non-artistic reality, reading diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, archives, scientists restore the history of the idea, the history of creation, but do not discover the artistic idea. Sometimes it happens that the author goes against himself, yielding to the original idea for the sake of artistic truth, an inner idea.
One thought is not enough to write a book. If everything that I would like to talk about is known in advance, then you should not turn to artistic creativity. Better - to criticism, journalism, journalism.
The idea of a literary work cannot be contained in one phrase and one image. But writers, especially novelists, sometimes try to formulate the idea of their work. Dostoevsky said about The Idiot: "The main idea of the novel is to depict a positively beautiful person." But Nabokov did not take him for the same declarative ideology. Indeed, the phrase of the novelist does not clarify why, why he did it, what is the artistic and vital basis of his image.
Therefore, along with cases of defining the so-called main idea, other examples are known. Tolstoy to the question "What is "War and Peace"? answered as follows: “War and Peace is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed.” Tolstoy once again demonstrated his unwillingness to translate the idea of his work into the language of concepts, speaking of the novel Anna Karenina: “If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express in a novel, then I should have written the very one that I wrote first” (letter to N. Strakhov).
Belinsky very accurately pointed out that “art does not allow abstract philosophical, and even more rational ideas: it allows only poetic ideas; and the poetic idea is<…>not a dogma, not a rule, it is a living passion, pathos" (lat. pathos- feeling, passion, inspiration).
V.V. Odintsov expressed his understanding of the artistic idea category more strictly: “The idea of a literary work is always specific and is not derived directly not only from the individual statements of the writer lying outside of it (the facts of his biography, social life, etc.), but also from the text - from replicas goodies, journalistic inserts, remarks of the author himself, etc.”
Literary critic G.A. Gukovsky also spoke about the need to distinguish between rational, that is, rational, and literary ideas: “By an idea, I mean not only a rationally formulated judgment, statement, not even just the intellectual content of a work of literature, but the entire sum of its content, which constitutes its intellectual function, its purpose and purpose." And he further explained: “To understand the idea of a literary work means to understand the idea of each of its components in their synthesis, in their systemic interconnection.<…>At the same time, it is important to take into account the structural features of the work - not only the words-bricks that make up the walls of the building, but the structure of the combination of these bricks as parts of this structure, their meaning.
O.I. Fedotov, comparing the artistic idea with the theme, the objective basis of the work, said the following: “An idea is an attitude towards the depicted, the fundamental pathos of the work, a category that expresses the author’s tendency ( inclination, intention preconceived idea) in the artistic coverage of this topic. Therefore, the idea is the subjective basis of the work. It is noteworthy that in Western literary criticism, based on other methodological principles, instead of the category of artistic idea, the concept of intention, some kind of premeditation, the author's tendency to express the meaning of the work is used. This is discussed in detail in the work of A. Companion "The Demon of Theory". In addition, in some modern domestic studies, scientists use the category of "creative concept". In particular, it sounds in the textbook edited by L. Chernets.
The grander the artistic idea, the longer the work lives.
V.V. Kozhinov called the artistic idea the semantic type of the work, which grows out of the interaction of images. Summarizing the statements of writers and philosophers, we can say that thin. The idea, in contrast to the logical idea, is not formulated by the author's statement, but is depicted in all the details of the artistic whole. The evaluative or value aspect of a work, its ideological and emotional orientation is called a trend. In the literature of socialist realism, the trend was interpreted as partisanship.
In epic works ideas can be partly formulated in the text itself, as it is in Tolstoy's narrative: "There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth." More often, especially in lyrics, the idea permeates the structure of the work and therefore requires a lot of analytical work. The work of art as a whole is richer than the rational idea that critics usually isolate. In many lyrical works, the selection of an idea is untenable, because it practically dissolves in pathos. Therefore, one should not reduce the idea to a conclusion, a lesson and look for it without fail.
5. Not everything in the content of a literary work is determined by themes and ideas. The author expresses the ideological and emotional attitude to the subject with the help of images. And, although the author's emotionality is individual, some elements naturally repeat themselves. Different works show similar emotions, close types of illumination of life. The types of this emotional orientation include tragedy, heroism, romance, drama, sentimentality, as well as the comic with its varieties (humor, irony, grotesque, sarcasm, satire).
The theoretical status of these concepts causes much controversy. Some modern scientists, continuing the traditions of V.G. Belinsky, they call them "types of pathos" (G. Pospelov). Others call them "artistic modes" (V. Tyup) and add that these are the embodiments of the author's concept of personality. Still others (V. Khalizev) call them “ideological emotions”.
At the heart of the events, actions depicted in many works, there is a conflict, confrontation, the struggle of someone with someone, something with something.
At the same time, contradictions can be not only of different strength, but also of different content and nature. A kind of answer that the reader often wants to find can be considered the emotional attitude of the author to the characters of the characters portrayed and to the type of their behavior, to conflicts. Indeed, a writer can sometimes reveal his likes and dislikes for a particular type of personality, while not always unambiguously assessing him. So, F.M. Dostoevsky, condemning what Raskolnikov invented, at the same time sympathizes with him. I.S. Turgenev examines Bazarov through the lips of Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, but at the same time appreciates him, emphasizing his mind, knowledge, will: “Bazarov is smart and knowledgeable,” says Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov with conviction.
It is on the essence and content of the contradictions exposed in a work of art that its emotional tonality depends. And the word pathos is now perceived much broader than a poetic idea, it is the emotional and value orientation of the work and characters.
So, different types of pathos.
tragic tone is present where there is a violent conflict that cannot be tolerated and cannot be safely resolved. This may be a contradiction between man and inhuman forces (rock, God, elements). It can be a confrontation between groups of people (a war of nations), and finally, an internal conflict, that is, a clash of opposite principles in the mind of one hero. This is the realization of an irreparable loss: human life, freedom, happiness, love.
Understanding the tragic goes back to the writings of Aristotle. The theoretical development of the concept refers to the aesthetics of romanticism and Hegel. The central character is a tragic hero, a person who finds himself in a situation of discord with life. This is a strong personality, not bent by circumstances, and therefore doomed to suffering and death.
Among such conflicts are the contradictions between personal impulses and superpersonal restrictions - caste, class, moral. Such contradictions gave rise to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, who loved each other, but belonged to different clans of the Italian society of their time; Katerina Kabanova, who fell in love with Boris and understood the sinfulness of her love for him; Anna Karenina, tormented by the consciousness of the abyss between her, society and her son.
A tragic situation can also develop in the presence of a contradiction between the desire for happiness, freedom and the hero's awareness of his weakness and impotence in achieving them, which entails motives of skepticism and doom. For example, such motives are heard in the speech of Mtsyri, pouring out his soul to an old monk and trying to explain to him how he dreamed of living in his village, but was forced to spend his whole life, except for three days, in a monastery. The fate of Elena Stakhova from the novel by I.S. Turgenev "On the Eve", who lost her husband immediately after the wedding and went with his coffin to a foreign country.
The height of tragic pathos is that it instills faith in a person who has courage, remaining true to himself even before death. Since antiquity, the tragic hero has had to experience a moment of guilt. According to Hegel, this guilt lies in the fact that a person violates the established order. Therefore, the concept of tragic guilt is characteristic of works of tragic pathos. It is in the tragedy "Oedipus Rex", and in the tragedy "Boris Godunov". The mood in the works of such a warehouse is sorrow, compassion. Since the second half of the 19th century, the tragic has been understood more and more widely. It includes everything that causes fear, horror in human life. After the spread of the philosophical doctrines of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the existentialists attach universal significance to the tragic. In accordance with such views, the main property of human existence is catastrophicity. Life is meaningless because of the death of individual beings. In this aspect, the tragic is reduced to a sense of hopelessness, and those qualities that were characteristic of a strong personality (assertion of courage, resilience) are leveled and not taken into account.
In a literary work, both tragic and dramatic beginnings can be combined with heroic. heroics arises and is felt there and then, when people undertake or take active actions for the sake of the good of others, in the name of protecting the interests of a tribe, clan, state, or simply a group of people in need of help. People are ready to take risks, to meet death with dignity in the name of realizing lofty ideals. Most often, such situations occur during periods of national liberation wars or movements. Moments of heroics were reflected in the Tale of Igor's Campaign in Prince Igor's decision to join the fight against the Polovtsy. At the same time, heroic-tragic situations can also take place in peacetime, at times of natural disasters arising due to the “fault” of nature (floods, earthquakes) or the person himself. Accordingly, they appear in the literature. Greater poeticization is achieved by events in the folk epos, legends, epics. The hero in them is an exceptional figure, his deeds are a socially significant feat. Hercules, Prometheus, Vasily Buslaev. Sacrificial heroism in the novel "War and Peace", the poem "Vasily Terkin". In the 1930s and 1940s, heroism was required under duress. From the works of Gorky, the idea was planted: in everyone's life there should be a feat. In the 20th century, the literature of the struggle contains the heroism of resistance to lawlessness, the heroism of upholding the right to freedom (V. Shalamov's stories, V. Maksimov's novel "Admiral Kolchak's Star").
L.N. Gumilyov believed that the truly heroic could only be at the origins of the life of the people. Any process of nation formation begins with the heroic deeds of small groups of people. He called these people passionaries. But crisis situations that require heroic-sacrificial deeds from people always arise. Therefore, the heroic in literature will always be significant, high and inescapable. An important condition for the heroic, Hegel believed, is free will. A forced feat (the case of a gladiator), in his opinion, cannot be heroic.
Heroic can be combined with romance. romance called the enthusiastic state of the individual, caused by the desire for something high, beautiful, morally significant. The sources of romance are the ability to feel the beauty of nature, to feel like a part of the world, the need to respond to someone else's pain and someone else's joy. The behavior of Natasha Rostova often gives reason to perceive it as romantic, because of all the heroes of the novel "War and Peace" she alone has a lively nature, a positive emotional charge, and dissimilarity to secular young ladies, which was immediately noticed by the rational Andrei Bolkonsky.
For the most part, romance manifests itself in the sphere of personal life, revealing itself in moments of expectation or the onset of happiness. Since happiness in the minds of people is primarily associated with love, then the romantic worldview most likely makes itself felt at the moment of approaching love or hope for it. We meet the image of romantically inclined heroes in the works of I.S. Turgenev, for example, in his story "Asya", where the characters (Asya and Mr. N.), close to each other in spirit and culture, experience joy, emotional upsurge, which is expressed in their enthusiastic perception of nature, art and themselves, in joy communication with each other. And yet, most often, the pathos of romance is associated with an emotional experience that does not turn into action, an act. Achieving a lofty ideal is impossible in principle. So, in Vysotsky's poems, it seems to young men that they were born late to participate in wars:
... And in basements and semi-basements
The kids wanted under the tanks,
They didn't even get a bullet...
The world of romance is a dream, a fantasy, romantic ideas are often associated with the past, exotic: Lermontov's Borodino, Kuprin's Shulamith, Lermontov's Mtsyri, Gumilyov's Giraffe.
The pathos of romance can act together with other types of pathos: irony in Blok, heroism in Mayakovsky, satire in Nekrasov.
The combination of heroism and romance is possible in those cases when the hero performs or wants to perform a feat, and this is perceived by him as something sublime. Such an interweaving of heroism and romance is observed in "War and Peace" in the behavior of Petya Rostov, who was obsessed with the desire to personally take part in the fight against the French, which led to his death.
The prevailing tonality in the content of the overwhelming number of works of art, undoubtedly, dramatic. Trouble, disorder, dissatisfaction of a person in the spiritual sphere, in personal relationships, in social status - these are the real signs of drama in life and literature. The failed love of Tatyana Larina, Princess Mary, Katerina Kabanova and other heroines of famous works testifies to the dramatic moments of their lives.
Moral and intellectual dissatisfaction and unfulfillment of the personal potential of Chatsky, Onegin, Bazarov, Bolkonsky and others; social humiliation of Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin from the story of N.V. Gogol's "The Overcoat", as well as the Marmeladov family from the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment", many heroines from the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “Who should live well in Rus'”, almost all the characters in M. Gorky's play “At the Bottom” - all this serves as a source and indicator of dramatic contradictions.
Emphasizing romantic, dramatic, tragic and, of course, heroic moments in the lives of heroes and their moods in most cases becomes form of expression of sympathy for the characters, the way they are supported and protected by their author. Undoubtedly, W. Shakespeare is going through with Romeo and Juliet about the circumstances that prevent their love, A.S. Pushkin pities Tatyana, who is not understood by Onegin, F.M. Dostoevsky mourns the fate of such girls as Dunya and Sonya, A.P. Chekhov sympathizes with the suffering of Gurov and Anna Sergeevna, who fell in love with each other very deeply and seriously, but they have no hope of uniting their destinies.
However, it happens that the image of romantic moods becomes way of debunking the hero, sometimes even condemning him. So, for example, the vague verses of Lensky evoke a slight irony of A. S. Pushkin. The depiction of Raskolnikov's dramatic experiences by F. M. Dostoevsky is in many ways a form of condemnation of the hero, who conceived a monstrous version of correcting his life and became entangled in his thoughts and feelings.
Sentimentality is a kind of pathos with a predominance of subjectivity and sensitivity. All R. In the 18th century it was dominant in the works of Richardson, Stern, Karamzin. He is in "The Overcoat" and "Old World Landowners", in the early Dostoevsky, in "Mu-mu", Nekrasov's poetry.
More often in a discrediting role are humor and satire. Humor and satire in this case mean another variant of emotional orientation. Both in life and in art, humor and satire are generated by such characters and situations that are called comic. The essence of the comic is to detect and reveal the discrepancy between the real capabilities of people (and, accordingly, the characters) and their claims, or the discrepancy between their essence and appearance. The pathos of satire is devastating, satire reveals socially significant vices, exposes a deviation from the norm, ridicules. The pathos of humor is affirmative, because the subject of a humorous sensation sees not only the shortcomings of others, but also his own. Awareness of one's own shortcomings gives hope of healing (Zoshchenko, Dovlatov). Humor is an expression of optimism (“Vasily Terkin”, “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik” by Hasek).
A mockingly evaluative attitude to comic characters and situations is called irony. Unlike the previous ones, it carries skepticism. She does not agree with the assessment of life, situation or character. In Voltaire's story "Candide, or Optimism", the hero refutes his own attitude with his fate: "Everything that is done, everything is for the better." But the reverse opinion “everything is for the worse” is not accepted. The pathos of Voltaire is in mocking skepticism towards extreme principles. Irony can be light, non-malicious, but it can become unkind, judgmental. Deep irony, which causes not a smile and laughter in the usual sense of the word, but a bitter experience, is called sarcasm. The reproduction of comic characters and situations, accompanied by an ironic assessment, leads to the appearance of humorous or satirical works of art: Moreover, not only works of verbal art (parodies, anecdotes, fables, novels, stories, plays) can be humorous and satirical, but also drawings, sculptural images , mimic representations.
In the story of A.P. Chekhov’s “The Death of an Official” comically manifests itself in the ridiculous behavior of Ivan Dmitrievich Chervyakov, who, while in the theater, accidentally sneezed on the general’s bald head and was so frightened that he began to pester him with his apologies and pursued him until he aroused the general’s real anger, which and led the official to death. The absurdity in the inconsistency of the perfect act (sneezed) and the reaction caused by it (repeated attempts to explain to the general that he, Chervyakov, did not want to offend him). In this story, sadness is mixed with the funny, since such a fear of a high face is a sign of the dramatic position of a small official in the system of official relations. Fear can generate unnaturalness in human behavior. This situation was reproduced by N.V. Gogol in the comedy "The Government Inspector". The identification of serious contradictions in the behavior of the characters, giving rise to a clearly negative attitude towards them, becomes a hallmark of satire. Classical examples of satire are given by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (“How a peasant fed two generals”).
Grotesque(French grotesque, literally - bizarre; comical; Italian grottesco - bizarre, Italian grotta - grotto, cave) - one of the varieties of the comic, combines terrible and funny, ugly and sublime in a fantastic form, and also brings together the distant, combines the incongruous , intertwines the unreal with the real, the present with the future, reveals the contradictions of reality. As a form of comic grotesque, it differs from humor and irony in that in it the funny and funny are inseparable from the terrible and sinister; as a rule, images of the grotesque carry a tragic meaning. In the grotesque, behind external implausibility, fantasticness lies a deep artistic generalization of important phenomena of life. The term "grotesque" became widespread in the fifteenth century, when during the excavations of underground rooms (grottoes) wall paintings with bizarre patterns were discovered, in which motifs from plant and animal life were used. Therefore, distorted images were originally called grotesque. As an artistic image, the grotesque is distinguished by its two-dimensionality and contrast. Grotesque is always a deviation from the norm, convention, exaggeration, deliberate caricature, so it is widely used for satirical purposes. Examples of the literary grotesque are N.V. Gogol's story "The Nose" or "Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober" by E.T.A. Hoffmann, fairy tales and stories by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.
To define pathos means to establish the type of attitude towards the world and man in the world.
Literature
1. Introduction to literary criticism. Fundamentals of the theory of literature: a textbook for bachelors / V. P. Meshcheryakov, A. S. Kozlov [and others]; under total ed. V. P. Meshcheryakova. 3rd ed., revised. and additional Moscow, 2013, pp. 33–37, 47–51.
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additional literature
1. Gukovsky G. A. Studying a literary work at school: Methodological essays on methodology. Tula, 2000, pp. 23–36.
2. Odintsov VV Stylistics of the text. M., 1980. S. 161–162.
3. Rudneva E. G. Paphos of a work of art. M., 1977.
4. Tomashevsky B. V. Theory of Literature. Poetics. M., 1996. S. 176.
5. Fedotov OI Introduction to literary criticism: Proc. allowance. M., 1998. S. 30–33.
6. Esalnek A. Ya. Fundamentals of literary criticism. Analysis of literary text: Proc. allowance. M., 2004. S. 10–20.
Fedotov OI Introduction to literary criticism. M., 1998.
Sierotwiński S. Słownik terminów literackich. S. 161.
Tomashevsky B.V. Theories of literature. Poetics. M., 1996. S. 176.
Esalnek A.Ya. Fundamentals of literary criticism. Analysis of a work of art: Textbook. M., 2004. S. 11.
Esin A.B. Principles and methods of analysis of a literary work: Textbook. M., 1998. S. 36-40.
Adamovich G. Report on Gogol // Berberova N. People and lodges. Russian Masons of the XX century. - Kharkov: "Kaleidoscope"; M .: "Progress-Tradition", 1997. S. 219.
A logically formulated general idea about a class of objects or phenomena; idea of something. The concept of time.
Dostoevsky F.M. Collected works: In 30 tons. T. 28. Book 2. P.251.
Odintsov V.V. Text style. M., 1980. S. 161-162.
Gukovsky G.A. The study of literature in school. M.; L., 1966. S.100-101.
Gukovsky G.A. S.101, 103.
Companion A. Demon theory. M., 2001. S. 56-112.
Chernets L.V. A literary work as an artistic unity // Introduction to literary criticism / Ed. L.V. Chernets. M., 1999. S. 174.
Esalnek A. Ya. S. 13-22.
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Idea(gr. idea - concept, idea) - a thought about a life phenomenon, about a person, an object, etc., which expresses the attitude to these phenomena of life, people's ideas about them.
"I have an idea knowledge and desire (desire) [of a person],” teaches V. I. Lenin (“Philosophical Notebooks”, p. 188).
This or that idea is always determined by the social system in which people live, by the material conditions of society.
In a class society, people's ideas, ideas about life phenomena, their attitude to the phenomena of life, their aspirations express the point of view of this or that class, its material interests in this society.
The idea of a work of art is its main idea about the main range of phenomena that are depicted in this work; writer's idea thought expressed by him in artistic images, i.e. in pictures of life, in the behavior of the characters in the work, their actions and experiences.
Depicting people and life phenomena, the writer expresses his attitude to them and seeks to evoke the same attitude towards them v the reader. The ideas of the writer, in his attitude to life, reflect the interests of the class with which he sympathizes, on which side he takes in the struggle of the people.
So, telling about the life and struggle of Pavel Korchagin and his comrades, N. Ostrovsky, in the interests of the people fighting the exploiting classes, artistically convincingly and vitally truthfully showed that there are no such difficulties that a person cannot overcome if he is inspired by the great goal - the struggle for the happiness of mankind, the building of communism. This is the main, main idea, the main idea of the novel "How the Steel Was Tempered", an idea that inspired N. Ostrovsky himself to a creative feat.
It should be borne in mind that a full-fledged work of art, truthfully and broadly reflecting life, is not limited to one main idea. Along with it, the writer expresses in images a number of other ideas, to some extent connected with the main idea of the work, conveys his attitude to various aspects of life depicted by him.
"AND": Ideal,
When analyzing a work of art, it is always important not only what the author wanted to say in it, but also what he did - “it affected”. The writer's intention can be realized to a greater or lesser extent, but it is the author's point of view in assessing the characters, events, problems raised that should be the ultimate truth in the analysis
Concept definition
illustrative examples
Let us recall one of the masterpieces of Russian and world literature of the 19th century - Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace. What the author said about him: he loved in the book "people's thought." What are the main ideas of the work? This is, first of all, the assertion that the people are the main asset of the country, the driving force of history, the creator of material and spiritual values. In the light of this understanding, the author develops the narrative of the epic. Tolstoy persistently leads the main characters of "War and Peace" through a series of trials, to "simplification", to familiarization with the people's worldview, worldview, worldview. So, Natasha Rostova is much closer and dearer to the writer and to us than Helen Kuragina or Julie Karagina. Natasha is far from being as beautiful as the first, and not as rich as the second. But it is precisely in this “countess”, who almost does not speak Russian, that there is something primordial, national, natural, which makes her related to the common people. And Tolstoy sincerely admires her during the dance (the episode "Visiting Uncle"), and describes it in such a way that we also fall under the amazing charm of the image. The author's idea of the work is wonderfully revealed on the examples of Pierre Bezukhov. Both aristocrats, at the beginning of the novel living with their personal problems, go through - each their own - the path of spiritual and moral quest. And they also begin to live in the interests of their country and ordinary people.
Causal relationships
The idea of a work of art is expressed by all its elements, interaction and unity of all components. It can be considered a conclusion, a kind of "life lesson" that the reader makes and learns, joining the literary text, getting acquainted with its content, imbued with the thoughts and feelings of the author. It is important to understand here that there are parts of the writer's soul not only in positive, but also in negative characters. In this regard, F. M. Dostoevsky said very well: in each of us, the “ideal of Sodom” is fighting with the “ideal of the Madonna”, “God with the devil”, and the battlefield of this is the human heart. Svidrigailov from "Crime and Punishment" is a very revealing personality. A libertine, a cynic, a scoundrel, in fact - a murderer, sometimes pity, compassion and even some decency are not alien to him. And before committing suicide, the hero does several good deeds: he places Katerina Ivanovna’s children in, lets Dunya go… Yes, and Raskolnikov himself, the main person of the work, obsessed with the idea of becoming a superman, is also torn apart by conflicting thoughts and feelings. Dostoevsky, a very difficult person in everyday life, reveals different sides of his “I” in the characters. From biographical sources about the writer, we know that at different periods of his life he played a lot. Impressions from the destructive impact of this pernicious passion are reflected in the novel "The Gambler".
Theme and idea
It remains to analyze one more important question - how the theme and idea of the work correlate. In a nutshell, this is explained as follows: the topic is what is described in the book, the idea is the assessment and attitude of the author to this. For example, Pushkin's story "The Stationmaster". It reveals the life of a "little man" - powerless, oppressed by everyone, but having a heart, soul, dignity and awareness of himself as part of a society that looks down on him. This is the topic. And the idea is to reveal the moral superiority of a small person with a rich inner world in front of those who are above him on the social ladder, but poor in soul.
Along with the terms "theme" and "problem", the concept of an artistic idea represents one of the facets of the content of a work of art. The concept of an idea was put forward in antiquity. Plato interpreted ideas as entities that are beyond reality and make up an ideal world, true, in Plato's understanding, reality. For Hegel, the idea is objective truth, the coincidence of subject and object, the highest point of development. I. Kant introduced the concept of "aesthetic idea", associated with the concept of beauty, which, according to Kant, is subjective.
In literary criticism, the term "idea" was used to designate the author's thoughts and feelings figuratively expressed in works of art - this is an emotionally colored content center of a work of art. The author is presented here as a bearer of a certain philosophical and artistic position, an exponent of a certain point of view, and not a passive "imitator" of nature. In this regard, along with the word "idea", the concepts "concept of the work", "author's concept" were used.
An artistic idea is not an abstract concept, unlike scientific and philosophical categories. It cannot be expressed in a specific verbal formula, as happens, for example, in scientific texts. A figurative idea is always deeper than its schematic representation (a kind of verbal paraphrase).
However, it happens that the ideas are expressed by the author directly, in fixed verbal formulas. This sometimes happens in lyrical poetic texts, striving for laconism of expression. For example, M.Yu. Lermontov in the poem “Duma” puts the main idea in the first lines: “I look sadly at our generation! / His future is either empty or dark, / Meanwhile, under the burden of knowledge and doubt, / It will grow old in inaction.
In addition, some of the author's ideas can be "entrusted" to characters who are close in worldview to the author. For example, Starodum in D.I. Fonvizina becomes the "mouthpiece" of the author's ideas, as it is "supposed" to be a reasoner in classic comedies. In a realistic novel of the 19th century, a hero close to the author can express thoughts consonant with the author - such is Alyosha Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov by F.M. Dostoevsky.
Some writers themselves formulate the idea of their works in their prefaces (for example, M.Yu. Lermontov in the preface to the second edition of A Hero of Our Time).
It is thanks to its figurative expression that an artistic idea becomes deeper than even the author's abstract explanations of his intention. As already mentioned, a specific feature of an artistic idea is its irreducibility to an abstract position; imagery is expressed only in the artistic whole of the work. From this follows another feature of the artistic idea. A truly artistic idea is not initially given. It can change significantly from the stage of conception to the moment of completion of the work.
The idea of the work includes an assessment by the author of selected facts and phenomena of life. But this assessment is also expressed in a figurative form - by artistic reflection of the typical in the individual. The thought expressed in the work is not only figurative, but also emotionally colored. V.G. Belinsky wrote that the poet contemplates the idea “not with reason, not with reason, not with feeling, and not with any one ability of his soul, but with all the fullness and integrity of his moral being, and therefore the idea is, in his work, not an abstract thought, not a dead form, but a living creature, in which the living beauty of the form testifies to the presence of a divine idea in it, and in which ... there is no boundary between the idea and the form, but both are a whole and unified organic creation.
Literary creation is thoroughly imbued with the personal attitude of the author. This component within the ideological core in modern literary criticism is called differently: emotional-value orientation, artistry mode, type of author's emotionality.
The literary text is full of meanings, they can be in different relationships to each other. The ideological meaning of the work is a unity of several ideas (according to the figurative definition of L. Tolstoy - “an endless labyrinth of links”), united by the main idea that permeates the entire structure of the work. For example, the multifaceted ideological meaning of "The Captain's Daughter" by A.S. Pushkin is a conjugation of the ideas of nationality, mercy, historical justice.
There is an inextricable logical connection.
What is the theme of the work?
If you raise the issue of the theme of the work, then intuitively each person understands what it is. He just explains from his point of view.
The theme of a work is what underlies a particular text. It is with this basis that the most difficulties arise, because it is impossible to determine it unambiguously. Someone believes that the theme of the work - which are described there, is the so-called life material. For example, the theme of love relationships, war or death.
Also, the topic can be called the problems of human nature. That is, the problem of the formation of personality, moral principles or the conflict of good and bad deeds.
Another topic can be a verbal basis. Of course, it is rare to find works about words, but this is not the point here. There are texts in which the play on words comes to the fore. Suffice it to recall the work of V. Khlebnikov "Changeling". His verse has one feature - the words in the line are read the same in both directions. But if you ask the reader what the verse actually was, he is unlikely to answer something intelligible. Since the main highlight of this work is the lines that can be read both from left to right and from right to left.
The theme of the work is a multifaceted component, and scientists put forward one or another hypothesis regarding it. If we talk about something universal, then the theme of a literary work is the “foundation” of the text. That is, as Boris Tomashevsky once said: "The theme is a generalization of the main, significant elements."
If the text has a theme, then there must be an idea. An idea is the writer's intention, which pursues a specific goal, that is, what the writer wants to present to the reader.
Figuratively speaking, the theme of the work is what made the creator create the work. So to speak, the technical component. In turn, the idea is the "soul" of the work, it answers the question of why this or that creation was created.
When the author is completely immersed in the topic of his text, truly feels it and is imbued with the problems of the characters, then an idea is born - spiritual content, without which the page of the book is just a set of dashes and circles.
Learning to find
For example, you can give a short story and try to find its main theme and idea:
- The autumn downpour did not bode well, especially late at night. All the inhabitants of a small town knew about this, so the lights in the houses had long gone out. In all but one. It was an old mansion on a hill outside the city, which was used as an orphanage. In this terrible downpour, the teacher found a baby on the threshold of the building, so there was a terrible turmoil in the house: to feed, bathe, change clothes and, of course, tell a fairy tale - after all, this is the main tradition of the old orphanage. And if any of the inhabitants of the city knew how grateful the child found on the doorstep would be, they would have answered the soft knock on the door that sounded in every house that terrible rainy evening.
In this short passage, two themes can be distinguished: abandoned children and the orphanage. In fact, these are the main facts that forced the author to create the text. Then you can see that the introductory elements appear: a foundling, a tradition and a terrible thunderstorm that forced all the inhabitants of the city to lock themselves in their houses and turn off the lights. Why is the author talking about them? These introductory descriptions will be the main idea of the passage. They can be summarized by saying that the author is talking about the problem of mercy or unselfishness. In a word, he tries to convey to every reader that, regardless of weather conditions, one must remain human.
How is a theme different from an idea?
The theme has two differences. First, it determines the meaning (main content) of the text. Secondly, the theme can be revealed both in large works and in small short stories. The idea, in turn, shows the main goal and task of the writer. If you look at the presented passage, you can say that the idea is the main message from the author to the reader.
Determining the theme of a work is not always easy, but such a skill is useful not only in literature lessons, but also in everyday life. It is with its help that it will be possible to learn to understand people and enjoy pleasant communication.
