Fundamentals of composition: elements and techniques. Chapter VI

Composition is the arrangement of parts of a literary work in a certain order, a set of forms and methods of artistic expression by the author, depending on his intention. Translated from Latin, it means "drawing up", "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:

1. Narration- the main element of the composition, the story of the author, revealing the content of the work of art. It occupies most of the volume of the entire work. It conveys the dynamics of events, it can be retold or illustrated with drawings.
2. 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. A landscape is not necessarily an image of nature, it can be a landscape of a city, a lunar landscape, a description of fantastic cities, planets, galaxies, or a description of fictional worlds.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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 the large number of author's digressions, thanks to which an impressive picture of Russian life in the early 19th century appears before readers.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. plot- all events, circumstances and actions that are described in the text. The main difference from the plot is the chronological sequence.
11. 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.
12. 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 folklore works is distinguished by its unshakable features. 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 a work in a certain sequence, it is an integral system of forms of artistic representation. 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 talking names and a clear division into negative and positive characters. 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.

The composition of a literary work. The main aspects of the composition.

The composition of the figurative system.

The system of images-characters of a work of art.

Plot composition and composition of non-plot elements

1. Composition of a literary work. The main aspects of the composition.

Composition(from lat. compositio - compilation, connection) - the connection of parts or components into a whole; the structure of the literary and artistic form. Composition- this is the composition and a certain arrangement of parts, elements of the work in some meaningful sequence.

Composition is a combination of parts, but not these parts themselves; depending on what level (layer) of the art form in question, there are aspects of composition. This is the arrangement of characters, and the event (plot) connections of the work, and the installation of details (psychological, portrait, landscape, etc.), and the repetition of symbolic details (forming motives and leitmotifs), and the change in the flow of speech of its forms such as narration , description, dialogue, reasoning, as well as the change of subjects of speech, and the division of the text into parts (including the frame and main text), and the dynamics of speech style, and much more.

The aspects of composition are manifold. At the same time, the approach to the work as an aesthetic object makes it possible to identify at least two layers and, accordingly, two compositions in the composition of its artistic form, combining components of different nature - textual And subject (figurative). Sometimes in the first case one speaks of the outer layer of the composition (or "outer composition"), in the second - of the inner.

Perhaps, the difference between subject and textual composition is not so clearly manifested in anything, as in applying the concepts of “beginning” and “end” to them, otherwise “frame” (frame, frame components). Framework components are title, subtitle, Sometimes - epigraph, dedication, preface, Always - First line, first and last paragraphs.

In modern literary criticism, apparently, the term " strong position of the text” (it applies, in particular, to titles, the first line, the first paragraph, the ending).

Researchers show increased attention to the frame components of the text, in particular, to its absolute beginning, which creates a certain horizon of expectation, structurally distinguished. For example: A.S. Pushkin. Captain's daughter. Next is the epigraph: Take care of honor from a young age". Or: N.V. Gogol. Auditor. Comedy in five acts. Epigraph: " There is nothing to blame on the mirror if the face is crooked. folk proverb". Followed by " Characters» (traditional drama component side text), « Characters and costumes. Notes for gentlemen actors(for understanding the author's concept, the role of this metatext is very important).

Compared to epic and dramatic works, lyrics are more modest in the design of the “entrance” to the text: often there is no title at all, and the name gives the text its name. First line, which simultaneously introduces the rhythm of the poem (therefore, it cannot be shortened in the table of contents).

Parts of the text have their frame components, which also form relative units. Epic works can be divided into volumes, books, parts, chapters, subchapters, etc. Their names will form their own expressive text (component of the frame of the work).

In drama, it is usually divided into acts (actions), scenes (pictures), phenomena (in modern plays, breakdown into phenomena is rare). The entire text is clearly divided into character (main) and author's (side), which includes, in addition to the heading component, various kinds of stage indications: a description of the place, time of action, etc. at the beginning of acts and scenes, the designation of speakers, remarks, etc.

Parts of the text in lyrics (and in poetic speech in general) are a verse, a stanza. The thesis about the “unity and tightness of the verse series”, put forward by Yu.N. Tynyanov in the book "Problems of Poetic Language" (1924) allows us to consider the verse (usually written in a separate line) by analogy with larger units, parts of the text. One can even say that the function of frame components in verse is performed by the anacrusis and the clause, often enriched with rhyme and noticeable as the border of the verse in the case of a transfer.

In all kinds of literature, individual works can form cycles. The sequence of texts within a cycle (a book of poems) usually gives rise to interpretations in which the arguments are the arrangement of characters, a similar structure of plots, and characteristic associations of images (in the free composition of lyrical poems), and other - spatial and temporal - connections of the objective worlds of the work.

So there is text components And components of the objective world works. Successful analysis of the overall composition of a work requires tracing their interaction, often very tense. The composition of the text is always "superimposed" in the perception of the reader on the deep, objective structure of the work, interacts with it; it is thanks to this interaction that certain devices are read as signs of the presence of the author in the text.

Considering the subject composition, it should be noted that its first function is to “hold” the elements of the whole, to make it from separate parts; without a deliberate and meaningful composition, it is impossible to create a full-fledged work of art. The second function of the composition is to express some artistic meaning by the very arrangement and correlation of the images of the work.

Before proceeding to the analysis of the subject composition, you should familiarize yourself with the most important compositional techniques. The main ones among them are: repetition, amplification, contrast and montage(Esin A.B. Principles and methods of analysis of a literary work - M., 1999, p. 128 - 131).

Repeat- one of the simplest and at the same time the most effective composition techniques. It allows you to easily and naturally "round" the work, to give it a compositional harmony. The so-called ring composition looks especially impressive when a “roll call” is established between the beginning and end of the work.

A frequently repeated detail or image becomes the leitmotif (leading motive) of the work. For example, the motif of the cherry orchard as a symbol of the Home, the beauty and sustainability of life, its bright beginning runs through the entire play by A.P. Chekhov. In the play by A.N. Ostrovsky, the image of a thunderstorm becomes the leitmotif. In poems, a kind of repetition is a refrain (repetition of individual lines).

A technique close to repetition is gain. This technique is used in cases where a simple repetition is not enough to create an artistic effect, when it is necessary to enhance the impression by selecting homogeneous images or details. So, according to the principle of amplification, a description of the interior decoration of Sobakevich’s house in “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol: every new detail reinforces the previous one: “everything was solid, clumsy to the highest degree and had some strange resemblance to the owner of the house; in the corner of the living room stood a pot-bellied walnut office on absurd four legs, a perfect bear. The table, the armchairs, the chairs—everything was of the most heaviest and most restless quality—in a word, every object, every chair seemed to say: “Me, too, Sobakevich!” or “and I am very similar to Sobakevich!”.

According to the same principle of amplification, the selection of artistic images in the story of A.P. Chekhov's "The Man in the Case", used to describe the main character - Belikov: "He was remarkable in that he always, even in very good weather, went out in galoshes and with an umbrella and certainly in a warm coat with wadding. And his umbrella was in a gray suede case, and when he took out his penknife to sharpen his pencil, his knife was also in a case; and his face, it seemed, was also in a case, since he always hid it in his upturned collar.

The opposite of repetition and amplification is opposition- a compositional technique based on antithesis. For example, in a poem by M.Yu. Lermontov's "The Death of a Poet": "And you will not wash away all your black blood / Poet's righteous blood."

In the broad sense of the word, opposition is any opposition of images, for example, Onegin and Lensky, Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, images of storm and peace in the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Sail", etc.

Contamination, combining the techniques of repetition and opposition, gives a special compositional effect: the so-called "mirror composition". As a rule, with a mirror composition, the initial and final images are repeated exactly the opposite. A classic example of a mirror composition is the novel by A.S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”, It seems to repeat the situation already depicted earlier, only with a change of position: at first Tatyana is in love with Onegin, writes him a letter and listens to his cold rebuke At the end of the work, on the contrary: Onegin in love writes a letter and listens to Tatyana’s answer.

The essence of the reception mounting, lies in the fact that the images located side by side in the work give rise to a new, third meaning, which appears precisely from their proximity. So, for example, in the story of A.P. Chekhov's "Ionych", the description of the "art salon" of Vera Iosifovna Turkina is adjacent to the mention that the clink of knives was heard from the kitchen and the smell of fried onions was heard. Together, these two details create that atmosphere of vulgarity, which A.P. tried to reproduce in the story. Chekhov.

All compositional techniques can perform two functions in the composition of a work, which are somewhat different from each other: they can organize either a separate small fragment of text (at the micro level) or the entire text (at the macro level), becoming in the latter case the principle of composition.

For example, the most common device for the microstructure of a poetic text is the sound repetition at the end of poetic lines - rhyme.

In the above examples from the works of N.V. Gogol and A.P. Chekhov's technique of amplification organizes separate fragments of texts, and in A.S. Pushkin's "Prophet" becomes the general principle of organizing the entire artistic whole.

In the same way, montage can become the compositional principle of organizing the entire work (this can be observed in the tragedy of A.S. Pushkin "Boris Godunov", in the novel "The Master and Margarita" by M.A. Bulgakov).

Thus, it is necessary to distinguish between repetition, opposition, amplification and montage as proper compositional techniques and as a principle of composition.

Composition

Composition

COMPOSITION (from the Latin "componere" - to fold, build) - a term used in art history. In music, K. is called the creation of a musical work, hence: the composer is the author of musical works. In literary criticism, the concept of k. passed from painting and architecture, where it denotes the connection of individual parts of a work into an artistic whole. K. is a branch of literary criticism that studies the construction of a literary work as a whole. Sometimes the term K. is replaced by the term "architectonics". Each theory of poetry is characterized by a corresponding doctrine of K., even if this term is not used.
The dialectical-materialist theory of cosmology does not yet exist in its developed form. However, the main provisions of the Marxist science of literature and individual excursions of Marxist literary critics in the field of composition study allow us to outline the correct solution to the problem. K. G. V. Plekhanov wrote: “The shape of an object is identical with its appearance only in a certain and, moreover, superficial sense . A deeper analysis leads us to an understanding of form as the law of an object, or, better, its structure” (“Letters without an Address”).
In its worldview, the social class expresses its understanding of the connections and processes in nature and society. This understanding of connections and processes, becoming the content of a poetic work, determines the principles of arrangement and deployment of material - the law of construction; First of all, one should proceed from the K. of characters and motives and through it proceed to the composition of verbal material. Each style that expresses the psycho-ideology of a particular class has its own type of K. In different genres of the same style, this type sometimes varies greatly, while at the same time retaining its basic features.
For more details on the problems of K., see the articles Style, Poetics, Plot, Versification, Theme, Image.

Literary encyclopedia. - In 11 tons; M .: publishing house of the Communist Academy, Soviet Encyclopedia, Fiction. Edited by V. M. Friche, A. V. Lunacharsky. 1929-1939 .

Composition

(from Latin compposito - compilation, binding), construction of a work of art, organization, structure of the form of a work. The concept of "composition" is close in meaning to the concept of "structure of a work of art", but the structure of a work means all its elements in their relationship, including those related to content (plot roles of characters, correlation of characters among themselves, author's position, system of motives , image of the movement of time, etc.). One can speak of the ideological or motive structure of the work, but not of the ideological or motive composition. In lyrical works, composition includes the sequence lines And stanza, the principle of rhyme (rhyme composition, stanza), sound repetitions and repetitions of expressions, lines or stanzas, contrasts ( antitheses) between different verses or stanzas. In dramaturgy, the composition of a work consists of a sequence scenes And acts contained in them replicas And monologues actors and author's explanations ( remarks). In narrative genres, composition is the depiction of events ( plot) and extra-plot elements: descriptions of the situation of the action (landscape - descriptions of nature, interior - description of the decoration of the room); descriptions of the appearance of the characters (portrait), their inner world ( internal monologues, indirect speech, generalized reproduction of thoughts, etc.), deviations from the plot narrative, in which the thoughts and feelings of the author are expressed about what is happening (the so-called author's digressions).
The plot, characteristic of dramatic and narrative genres, also has its own composition. Elements of plot composition: exposition (image of the situation in which the conflict arises, presentation of characters); the plot (the origin of the conflict, the starting point of the plot), the development of the action, the culmination (the moment of the highest aggravation of the conflict, the plot peak) and the denouement (the exhaustion of the conflict, the "end" of the plot). Some works also have an epilogue (a story about the subsequent fates of the characters). Individual elements of the composition of the plot may be repeated. So, in the novel by A.S. Pushkin"The Captain's Daughter" has three culminating episodes (the capture of the Belogorsk fortress, Grinev at Pugachev's headquarters in Berdskaya Sloboda, Masha Mironova's meeting with Catherine II), and in the comedy N.V. Gogol"Inspector" three denouement (false denouement - Khlestakov's engagement with the daughter of Gorodnichiy, the second denouement - the arrival of the postmaster with the news of who Khlestakov really is, the third denouement - the arrival of the gendarme with the news of the arrival of the true auditor).
The composition of the work also includes the structure of the narrative: the change of narrators, the change in narrative points of view.
There are certain recurring types of composition: ring composition (repetition of the initial fragment at the end of the text); concentric composition (plot spiral, repetition of similar events in the course of the development of the action), mirror symmetry (repetition, in which for the first time one character performs a certain action in relation to another, and then he performs the same action in relation to the first character). An example of mirror symmetry is the novel in verse by A. S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin": first, Tatyana Larina sends a letter to Onegin with a declaration of love, and he rejects her; then Onegin, having fallen in love with Tatyana, writes to her, but she rejects him.

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Under the editorship of prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

Composition

COMPOSITION . The composition of a work in the broadest sense of the word should be understood as a set of techniques used by the author to “arrange” his work, techniques that create a general pattern of this latter, the order of its individual parts, transitions between them, etc. The essence of compositional techniques is thus reduced to the creation of some complex unity, a complex whole, and their significance is determined by the role they play against the background of this whole in the subordination of its parts. Being, therefore, one of the most important moments in the embodiment of a poetic idea, the composition of a given work is determined by this idea, but it differs from other of these moments in its direct connection with the general spiritual mood of the poet. Indeed, if, for example, the poet’s metaphors (see this word) reveal the integral image in which the world is before him, if the rhythm (see this word) reveals the “natural melodiousness” of the poet’s soul, then it is precisely the nature of the location of the metaphors that determines their significance in recreating the image of the whole, and the compositional features of the rhythmic units are their very sound (see "Enjambement" and "Strophe"). Vivid proof of the noted fact of the direct determinability of well-known compositional techniques by the general spiritual mood of the poet can, for example, be Gogol's frequent lyrical digressions, which undoubtedly reflect his preaching and teaching aspirations or Victor Hugo's compositional moves, as noted by Emile Fage. Thus, one of Hugo's favorite moves is the gradual development of mood, or, speaking in musical terms, a kind of gradual transition from pianissimo to piano, etc. As Fage rightly emphasizes, such a move in itself speaks for the fact that Hugo's genius - the genius is “florid”, and such a conclusion is really justified by the general idea of ​​​​Hugo (the purely oratorical in the sense of emotionality of this move is clearly manifested when Hugo omits some term of the gradation and abruptly passes from one step to another). Also interesting from the side under consideration is another technique of Hugo's composition noted by Faguet - to develop his thought in a way that is widespread in everyday life, namely, to pile up repetitions instead of proofs. Such repetition, which leads to an abundance of "common places" and is itself one of the forms of the latter, undoubtedly indicates, as Fage notes, that Hugo's "ideas" are limited, and at the same time again confirms "ornateness" (the bias of influencing the will of the reader) his genius. Already from the above examples, which show the determinability of compositional techniques in general by the general spiritual mood of the poet, it simultaneously follows that certain special tasks require certain techniques. Of the main types of composition, along with the named oratory, one can name narrative, descriptive, explanatory composition (see, for example, "A guide to the English language" edited by H. C. O. Neill, London, 1915) Of course, separate techniques in each of these types are determined both by the poet's holistic "I" and by the specificity of a separate idea (see, "Strophe" - about the construction of Pushkin's "I remember a wonderful moment"), but some general sticky characteristic for each of the compositional species. So, the narrative can develop in one direction and the events follow in natural chronological order, or, conversely, the temporal sequence may not be observed in the story, and the events develop in different directions, arranged according to the degree of growth of the action. There is also (in Gogol), for example, a compositional device of narration, consisting in a branch from the general narrative flow of individual streams that do not merge with each other, but flow into the general stream at certain intervals. From the characteristic methods of compositions of a descriptive type, one can, for example, indicate the composition of the description according to the principle of a general impression or the opposite, when one proceeds from a clear fixation of individual particulars. Gogol, for example, often uses a combination of these techniques in his portraits. Having illuminated some image with hyperbolic light (see Hyperbole) in order to sharply outline it as a whole, Gogol then writes out individual particulars, sometimes completely insignificant, but acquiring special significance against the background of hyperbole that has deepened the usual perspective. As for the fourth of these types of composition - explanatory, then first of all it is necessary to stipulate the conventionality of this term in its application to poetic works. Having a very definite meaning as a technique for the embodiment of thought in general (this may include, for example, the technique of classification, illustration, etc.), an explanatory composition in a work of art can manifest itself in the parallelism of the arrangement of individual moments (see, for example, the parallel arrangement of Ivan's characteristics Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich in Gogol's story) or, conversely, in their contrasting opposition (for example, delaying the action by describing the characters), etc. If we approach works of art from the point of view of their traditional belonging to epic, lyrical and dramatic, then and here one can detect the specific features of each group, as well as within their smaller divisions (composition of a novel, poem, etc.). Something has been done in Russian literature in this regard only very recently. See, for example, the collections "Poetics", books - Zhirmunsky - "Composition of Lyric Poems", Shklovsky "Tristan Shandy", "Rozanov", etc., Eikhenbaum "Young Tolstoy", etc. It should, however, be said, that the approach of these authors to art only as a set of techniques makes them move away from the most essential thing in working on a literary text - from establishing the determinability of certain techniques by a creative theme. This approach turns these works into a collection of dead materials and raw observations, very valuable, but waiting to be animated (see Reception).

Ya. Zundelovich. Literary encyclopedia: Dictionary of literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L. D. Frenkel, 1925

Conventionally, two types of composition can be distinguished: simple and complex. In the first case, the role of the composition is reduced to combining the content elements of the work into a single whole without highlighting especially important, key scenes, subject details, artistic images. In the plot area, this is a direct chronological sequence of events, one and the use of a traditional compositional scheme: exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement. However, this type practically does not occur, but is only a compositional “formula”, which the authors fill with rich content, moving on to a complex composition. Ring belongs to a complex type. The purpose of this type of composition is to embody a special artistic meaning, using an unusual order and combination of elements, parts of the work, supporting details, symbols, images, means of expression. In this case, the concept of composition approaches the concept of structure, it becomes the stylistic dominant of the work and determines its artistic originality. The ring composition is based on the principle of framing, repetition at the end of the work of any elements of its beginning. Depending on the type of repetition at the end of a line, stanza, the work as a whole determines the sound, lexical, syntactic, semantic ring. The sound ring is characterized by the repetition of individual sounds at the end of a poetic line or stanza and is a kind of sound writing techniques. “Do not sing, beauty, with me ...” (A.S. Pushkin) A lexical ring is at the end of a poetic line or stanza. “I will give a shawl from Khorasan / And I will give a Shiraz carpet.” (S.A. Yesenin) The syntactic ring is a repetition of a phrase or a whole at the end of a poetic stanza. “Shagane you are mine, Shagane! / Because I'm from the north, or something, / I'm ready to tell you the field, / About wavy rye in the moonlight. / Shagane you are mine, Shagane. (S.A. Yesenin) The semantic ring is found most often in works and prose, helping to highlight the key artistic image, scene, “closing” the author and reinforcing the impression of the closedness of the life circle. For example, in the story of I.A. Bunin's "The Gentleman from San Francisco" in the finale, the famous "Atlantis" is again described? a steamship that returns to America the body of a hero who died of a heart attack, who once went on a cruise on it. The ring composition not only gives the story completeness and harmony in proportion to the parts, but also seems to expand the boundaries of the picture created in the work in accordance with the author's intention. Do not confuse the ring with the mirror, which is also based on the reception of repetition. But the main thing in it is not the principle of framing, but the principle of "reflection", i.e. the beginning and end of the work in opposition. For example, elements of a mirror composition are found in M. Gorky's play "At the Bottom" (Luke's parable about the righteous woman and the scene of the Actor's suicide).

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Composition (from Latin compositio - compilation, binding, addition) is the combination of different parts into a single whole. In our life, this term occurs quite often, therefore, in various fields of activity, the meaning changes slightly.

Instruction

Reasoning. Reasoning is usually based on the same algorithm. First, the author puts forward a thesis. Then he proves it, expresses an opinion for, against, or both, and at the end draws a conclusion. Reasoning requires the obligatory logical development of thought, it always goes from the thesis to and from the argument to the conclusion. Otherwise the reasoning is simply not . This type speeches often used in artistic and journalistic styles speeches.

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The parable has attracted the attention of people since ancient times. Little stories that held wisdom were passed down from generation to generation. Preserving the intelligibility of the presentation, the parables invited a person to think about the true meaning of life.

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The parable in its main features is very similar to. The terms "" and "fable" were used based not so much on genre differences, but on the stylistic significance of these words. A parable is a higher “level” than a fable, often having a too mundane and mundane meaning.

Parables, like fables, had an allegorical character. They emphasized the moral and religious direction. At the same time, generalized and schematic features were attached to the nature and characters of people. Parables are literary works that simply did not fit the name "fable". In addition, the fables had a complete plot, which the parable was often deprived of.

In Russian, the term "parable" is most commonly used for biblical stories. In the X century. BC e., according to the biblical, the king of the Kingdom of Israel, Solomon, gave life to the parables that are included in the Old Testament. In essence, they are sayings that have a moral and religious character. Later, parables appeared in the form of stories with a deep meaning, a moral saying for a clearer understanding of the essence. Such works include parables included in the Gospel, as well as other numerous works of this genre, written over several centuries.

The parable is an interesting instructive story. She has one feature that attracts the reader's attention and characterizes her very accurately. The truth in it never "lies on the surface." It opens in the right perspective, because. Everyone is different and at different stages of development. The meaning of the parable is understood not only by the mind, but also by the feelings, by the whole being.

At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. the parable more than once adorned the works of writers of that time. Its stylistic features made it possible not only to diversify the descriptiveness of fiction, the depiction of the characters of the heroes of the works and the plot dynamics, but also to draw the reader's attention to the moral and ethical content of the works. L. Tolstoy referred to the parable more than once. With its help, Kafka, Marcel, Sartre, Camus expressed their philosophical and moral convictions. The parable genre still arouses undoubted interest among both readers and modern writers.

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In a phrase, one word is the main one, and the second is dependent. The connection in the phrase is always subordinate. Words are connected in meaning and syntactically. Any independent part of speech can be both the main and the dependent word.

Independent parts of speech in Russian are nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals, verbs, gerunds and adverbs. The remaining parts of speech - prepositions, conjunctions, particles - are auxiliary.

From the main word, you can ask a question to the dependent: “how to fly? - high"; "What mountain? - high"; "circle where? - in the sky".

If you change the form of the main word in a phrase, for example, the case, gender or number of nouns, then this may affect the dependent word.

Three types of syntactic connection in phrases

In total, there are three types of syntactic connection in phrases: agreement, control and adjacency.

When the dependent word changes along with the main word in gender, case and number, we are talking about agreement. The connection is called "coordination" because the parts of speech in it are completely consistent. This is typical for combinations of a noun with an adjective, ordinal number, participle and some: “big house”, “first day”, “laughing man”, “what century” and so on. At the same time, it is a noun.

If the dependent word does not agree with the main word according to the above criteria, then we are talking about either control or adjacency.

When the case of the dependent word is determined by the main word, this is control. At the same time, if you change the form of the main word, the dependent word will not change. This type of connection is often found in combinations of verbs and nouns, where the main word is a verb: “stop”, “leave the house”, “break a leg”.

When words are related only in meaning, and the main word does not affect the form of the dependent word in any way, we are talking about adjunction. So often adverbs, verbs with adverbs are combined, while dependent words are adverbs. For example: "speak quietly", "terribly stupid."

Syntactic links in sentences

As a rule, when it comes to syntactic connection, you are dealing with phrases. But sometimes you need to define a syntactic relationship in . Then you will have to choose between composing (also called "composition") or submission ("subordination").

In a coordinative connection, the sentences are independent of each other. If you put an end between these, then the general meaning of this will not change. Such sentences are usually separated either by the unions "and", "a", "but".

In a subordinating connection, it is impossible to break the sentence into two independent ones, since the meaning of the text will suffer in this case. The subordinate clause is preceded by the unions "that", "what", "when", "how", "where", "why", "what for", "how", "who", "which", "which" and others : "When she entered the hall, it had already begun." But sometimes there is no union: "He did not know whether they were telling him the truth or lying."

The main clause can be both at the beginning of a complex sentence and at its end.

In literary criticism, they say different things about composition, but there are three main definitions:

1) Composition is the arrangement and correlation of parts, elements and images of a work (components of an artistic form), the sequence of introducing units of the depicted and speech means of the text.

2) Composition is the construction of a work of art, the correlation of all parts of the work into a single whole, due to its content and genre.

3) Composition - the construction of a work of art, a certain system of means of disclosure, organization of images, their connections and relationships that characterize the life process shown in the work.

All these terrible literary concepts, in essence, have a rather simple decoding: composition is the arrangement of novel passages in a logical order, in which the text becomes whole and acquires an inner meaning.

As, following the instructions and rules, we assemble a constructor or a puzzle from small details, so we assemble from text passages, whether it be chapters, parts or sketches, and a whole novel.

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The composition of the work is external and internal.

External composition of the book

The external composition (aka architectonics) is the breakdown of the text into chapters and parts, the allocation of additional structural parts and epilogue, introduction and conclusion, epigraphs and lyrical digressions. Another external composition is the division of the text into volumes (separate books with a global idea, a branching plot and a large number of heroes and characters).

External composition is a way of dispensing information.

The novel text, written on 300 sheets, is unreadable without structural breakdown. At a minimum, he needs parts, as a maximum - chapters or semantic segments, separated by spaces or asterisks (***).

By the way, short chapters are more convenient for perception - up to ten sheets - after all, we, being readers, having overcome one chapter, no, no, let's count how many pages are in the next - and continue to read or sleep.

The internal composition of the book

The internal composition, unlike the external one, includes many more elements and techniques of text composition. All of them, however, come down to a common goal - to build the text in a logical order and reveal the author's intention, but they go to it in different ways - plot, figurative, speech, thematic, etc. Let's analyze them in more detail.

1. Plot elements of the internal composition:

• prologue - introduction, most often - prehistory. (But some authors take an event from the middle of the story as a prologue, or else from the final - an original compositional move.) The prologue is an interesting, but optional element of both external composition and external;
• exposition - the initial event in which the characters are introduced, a conflict is outlined;
• tie - events in which a conflict is tied;
• development of actions - the course of events;
• culmination - the highest point of tension, the clash of opposing forces, the peak of the emotional intensity of the conflict;
• denouement - the result of the climax;
• epilogue - a summary of the story, conclusions on the plot and an assessment of events, outlines of the future life of the characters. Optional element.

2. Figurative elements:

• images of heroes and characters - promote the plot, are the main conflict, reveal the idea and the author's intention. The system of actors - each image separately and the connections between them - is an important element of the internal composition;
• images of the environment in which the action develops are descriptions of countries and cities, images of the road and accompanying landscapes, if the characters are on the way, interiors - if all events take place, for example, within the walls of a medieval castle. The images of the environment are the so-called descriptive "meat" (the world of history), atmospheric (feeling of history).

Figurative elements work mainly for the plot.

So, for example, the image of a hero is assembled from the details - an orphan, without family or tribe, but with magical power and purpose - to learn about his past, about his family, to find his place in the world. And this goal, in fact, becomes a plot - and compositional: from the search for a hero, from the development of the action - from a progressive and logical progress forward - a text is formed.

And the same goes for the images of the environment. They both create the space of history and at the same time limit it to certain limits - a medieval castle, city, country, world.

Concrete images complement and develop the story, make it understandable, visible and tangible, like correctly (and compositionally) arranged household items in your apartment.

3. Speech elements:

• dialogue (polylogue);
• monologue;
• lyrical digressions (the author's word, not related to the development of the plot or the images of the characters, abstract reflections on a specific topic).

Speech elements are the speed of perception of the text. Dialogues are dynamics, while monologues and lyrical digressions (including descriptions of the action in the first person) are static. Visually, a text without dialogue seems cumbersome, uncomfortable, unreadable, and this is reflected in the composition. Without dialogues, it is difficult to understand - the text seems to be drawn out.

A monologue text, like a bulky sideboard in a small room, relies on many details (and contains even more), which are sometimes difficult to understand. Ideally, in order not to weigh down the composition of the chapter, monologue (and any descriptive text) should take no more than two or three pages. And by no means ten or fifteen, just few people will read them - they will miss them, they will look diagonally.

Dialogues, on the other hand, are composed of emotions, easy to understand and dynamic. At the same time, they should not be empty - only for the sake of dynamics and "heroic" experiences, but informative, and revealing the image of the hero.

4. Inserts:

• retrospective - scenes from the past: a) long episodes that reveal the image of the characters, showing the history of the world or the origins of the situation, can take several chapters; b) short sketches (flashbacks) - from one paragraph, often extremely emotional and atmospheric episodes;
• short stories, parables, fairy tales, stories, poems - optional elements that interestingly diversify the text (a good example of a composite fairy tale is Rowling's Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows); chapters of another story in the composition “a novel within a novel” (“The Master and Margarita” by Mikhail Bulgakov);
• dreams (dreams-premonitions, dreams-predictions, dreams-riddles).

Inserts are extra-plot elements, and remove them from the text - the plot will not change. However, they can frighten, amuse, disturb the reader, suggest the development of the plot, if there is a complex series of events ahead. lines);

— arrangement and design of the text in accordance with the plot (idea)- this is, for example, the form of a diary, a student's term paper, a novel in a novel;

— the theme of the work- a hidden, cross-cutting compositional technique that answers the question - what is the story about, what is its essence, what main idea does the author want to convey to readers; in practical terms, it is decided through the choice of significant details in key scenes;

— motive- these are stable and repetitive elements that create cross-cutting images: for example, images of the road - the motive of travel, adventurous or homeless life of the hero.

Composition is a complex and multi-layered phenomenon, and it is difficult to understand all its levels. However, you need to understand in order to know how to build the text so that it is easily perceived by the reader. In this article, we talked about the basics, about what lies on the surface. And in the following articles we will dig a little deeper.

Stay tuned!

Daria Gushchina
writer, fantasy writer
(page VKontakte