>> Signs and symbols of art
Signs and symbols of art
Since primitive times, various types of images (sculptural, pictorial, graphic) have been sign and symbolic codes that were used by ancient people to perform rituals, preserve and transmit information. Any significant sound, gesture, thing, event can be either a sign or a symbol.
Art speaks to people in the language of symbols. A symbol in art is an artistic image that embodies an idea. A symbol, like a riddle, is multi-valued, its meanings can be revealed indefinitely, unlike a sign, which is understood by everyone in the same way. The depth of understanding of the symbol depends on the person's ability to interpret, on his erudition and intuition.
Musical art speaks to us in the language of sounds and is filled with secrets. With amazing variety and depth, with the help of a system of signs and symbols, music expresses the richest world of human feelings. Even a single sound, taking into account all its aspects - pitch, duration, timbre, loudness - is a sign-intonation. It may indicate timidity or confidence, constraint or freedom, tenderness or rudeness. We can also talk about plastic signs that reproduce gesture, movement.
There is always a desire to create in the human nature - the need to explore, invent, build, solve complex, intricate problems. One of these problems was the scientific idea of creating a perpetual motion machine (perpetuum mobile). His invention would have had a huge impact on the development of the world economy. And only music as a temporary art is subject to the embodiment of the image of "perpetual motion". The instrumental pieces “Perretuum mobile” (“Perpetual motion”) by various composers: N. Paganini, F. Mendelssohn, N. Rimsky-Korsakov and others became its symbol.
A musical sign that becomes a symbol can be called the motive of fate - the grain-intonation from which the entire Symphony No. 5 of L. Beethoven grows. And there are many such examples in the art of music. National anthems are musical symbols that personify the unity of the people, their culture, pride in their country.
The revolutionary unrest of the early twentieth century in Russia evoked responses from many writers. The events of 1917 and the Civil War prompted the creation of works by both contemporaries and writers of later periods, up to the present day. Among the poets who were inspired by this period of Russian history was A.A. Block. The poem "The Twelve" reflected the author's ambiguous perception of the coup, the meaning of which is still being guessed at. The rich symbolism of the work has a large number of interpretations.
Symbols: role and their meaning
What does a symbol mean for a poet? It's the same as a term for a scientist, that is, with the help of it, you can express an idea more capaciously, without unnecessary words. And Blok actively used this opportunity in his work.
- Colors. The first thing that meets the reader's poem is the antithesis of colors - black and white. In world culture, these shades have dozens of meanings, but it is for this poem that white is renewal, the desire for the future, black is the darkness of the old world, the suffering of the soul caused by sin. In addition, the text contains red, expressing resistance, the desire for change.
- The wind is a sign of storm and revolution. He is trying to swirl the snow in order to bring everything old, experienced.
- 12 is a number endowed with a special meaning. The number of Red Army soldiers in the poem is comparable to the many apostles at the Last Supper. There are many hypotheses about what author's position is hidden behind the gospel symbols. Perhaps, for Blok, the events of 1917 are comparable in importance in the history of mankind to Holy Week.
images
- It is important to emphasize the role and image of the author in The Twelve. Blok was aware that he was present at an epoch-making event, he intuitively felt the upcoming changes in the country, therefore in this work “The Writer is Vitya”, and the poem itself is more associated with the chronicle. Here the poet plays the role of Pimen or Nestor, whose goal is to capture what is happening.
- Let us turn to the image of the twelve Red Guards. Not all are named by name, but it is not by chance that the heroes named in the poem coincide with the apostles. Such a mention allows you to assign to the characters the greatest number of associations evoked by the reader. Ivan, Andrei, Peter - these names are both sacred and social at the same time.
- For example, Petruha repents of the murder out of jealousy, but this hero would not be so significant for the poem if his name did not allude to Peter, who renounced Christ. The crime in both cases is not a reason to go astray, but it stimulates with even greater zeal to move on. Both for Peter Bloksky and for the gospel there was no time to regret what they had done: they had to move forward to implement the common idea.
- The most discussed image in the poem is Christ (an essay on his role in the work is available). It is interesting to see how it appears in the poem. At the beginning of the poem there is a wind, in the 12th chapter a red flag appears at this element, the same attribute is in the hands of Christ. It can be assumed that the Savior is present in the poem from the first lines, but in the form of a spirit, a breath, and finds its embodiment only at the end of the work. What does this image mean for the poem? It is unfair to consider that this is a sign of the author's approval of the events of 1917. Blok was aware of the inevitability of revolution, the impossibility of returning to the old order. The world has changed, the old world is in the past, the country is on the threshold of a new era. The previous one began with Christ and the apostles. And they have not disappeared anywhere: the scenery has changed, but the main characters have remained.
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Find out which images are symbols - Find and study the literature on the subject; - Identify images that have become symbols; - Find out why these images are symbols; - Determine what these images mean. Purpose: Tasks:
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From the history of the concept of "symbol". Symbol: - this is a word in which the properties of a thing are contained in a folded and hidden form (Democritus); - this is a kind of new beginning, formed from its constituent parts, but not equal to them. The meaning of this beginning can only be intuitively guessed (Empedocles); - this is something that always includes some mysterious meaning (Pythagoras).
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(from the Greek. Symbolon - a sign, a sign) words that receive in a literary text, in addition to their basic (dictionary, subject) meanings, also new (figurative) ones. In the mist of the morning I am illuminated by your love caress with unsteady steps - and I see dreams. I went to the mysterious But, believe me, I consider it a fairy tale and wonderful shores. Unprecedented sign of spring. (S.Soloviev) (A.A.Blok) Symbol in literary works. Symbol
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“Lament of Yaroslavna” Artist: V.A. Petrov The image of Yaroslavna as a symbol of female devotion
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Ancient Yaroslavna, the quiet murmur of the strings. Your face is ancient, your face is bright, as before, young. Or the unknown, wise singer, the one who sang the Word, Secretly spied all the dreams of the ages to come? Or are the faces of Russian women all merged in you? You are Natasha, you are Lisa, Tatyana is you! On the wall you cry in the morning ... How bright longing! And, spinning, the song of the singer carries away the tears - into the ages! Valery Bryusov "To the Singer of the Word".
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“We all love as we understand the world. The love story of each person is an exact replica of the history of his attitude to the world in general. The image of the beloved and the image of the beloved are the most clear and immutable symbols of their worldview. He who loves not only demands, but also gives, not only craves pleasure, but is also ready for the highest feats of self-denial. Ignited by love, he dares to do what exceeds his strength. (Fyodor Sologub) Romeo and Juliet as a symbol of love.
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“... this is one of the eternal images: the name of Hamlet has become a characteristic of a person full of internal contradictions and doubts” (encyclopedic dictionary) Vrubel “Hamlet and Ophelia” ... “Hamlets are definitely useless to the masses; they don’t give her anything, they can’t lead her anywhere, because they don’t go anywhere themselves.” (Turgenev) Hamlet as a symbol of indecision.
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“... in the feudal-knightly era, everything was built on the basis of “fist law”. And now Don Quixote wants, relying on the strength of his hand, to restore justice, to protect widows and orphans, to punish offenders. (K.Marx) Don Quixote as a symbol of noble chivalry.
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“There is not a trace of selfishness in the hero, he does not take care of himself, he is all self-sacrifice - appreciate this word! - He believes, believes strongly and without looking back. Humble in heart, he is great in spirit; he does not doubt himself, his vocation, even his physical strength; his will is an inflexible will…” (IS Turgenev) Don Quixote as a symbol of noble chivalry.
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Undergrowth as a symbol of ignorance Questions of education, service to the Fatherland, moral principles of a person, probably belong to the category of "eternal". And each generation will solve them in its own way, but will never abandon them, will not dismiss them as insignificant ones that have lost their urgent need. But at any time there will be their Mitrofans who do not think about the legacy that they must leave to their country.
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A.N. Benois "Night conversation of Pyotr Grinev with Pugachev" Pugachev as a symbol of rebellion He was not the cause of the uprising. Rebellion has long been smoldering among the people, and Pugachev was only a tool that pushed people to revolt. “Pugachev fled, but his flight seemed like an invasion. Never had his successes been more terrible, never had the rebellion raged with such force ... "
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“Khlestakov appears in the gum not by himself, but quite by accident, in passing, and, moreover, not by himself, but precisely by the “auditor”. The mayor's fear made him an auditor, he is the consciousness of his frightened imagination, a ghost, a shadow of conscience. (V. G. Belinsky) “... the main impetus for the development of comedy is the fear of officials. The feeling of fear unites the city into a single organism. The same feeling of fear makes all the inhabitants of the city almost brothers. It turns out that it is not a kinship of souls, not a common interest, but only fear that can unite these people.” The auditor as a symbol of fear.
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A revolution took place in Bashmachkin's life. He walked through the streets and as if for the first time began to recognize them, as if he began to rediscover the world around him, to feel himself in it. It's like he was born again. He lived: Akaky Akakiyevich was invited to tea with the assistant clerk, he could afford to look at a rich showcase with a very "good woman and a man ...". Overcoat as a symbol of earthly well-being
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Left-handed as a symbol of the Russian people “One oblique left-hander, a birthmark on the cheek, and hair on the temples torn out during the teaching”, “... in shawls, one leg in a boot, the other is dangling, and the little one is old, the hooks do not fasten, parasteryans, and the collar is torn ... "
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The image of Lefty under the pen of Leskov turns into a generalized symbol of the Russian people. According to the author, the moral value of a person lies in his organic connection with the living national element - with his native land and its nature, with its people and traditions that go back to the distant past ... The left-hander as a symbol of the Russian people
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The Blue Bird is a fairy tale about happiness. The bird always flies away, you can't catch it. What else flies like a bird? Happiness flies. Blue Bird as a symbol of happiness “The most important truth contained in the work is to love life. After all, at every step there are small joys that, intertwined, form happiness. For many centuries, people have been looking for a recipe for happiness. But he is so simple! You need to find joy in the simplest ... "
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“In A. Green, the romantic and the realistic are closely converging and intertwined. One is a continuation of the other and vice versa. One does not exist without the other. "The miraculous is not an accidental, but a completely natural phenomenon in real human life." "Scarlet Sails" became a symbol of a dream and faith in its fulfillment. "Scarlet Sails" as a symbol of hope
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The Little Prince as a Symbol of the Purity of a Child's Soul The Little Prince is not only an image of a specific hero, but also a symbol of a child in general, his world is a distant world of childhood for many adults... The world of childhood is fragile and pure, children are direct beings who live, relying on your feelings, listening to the voice of the heart.
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Universal National Philosophical - Yaroslavna - Undergrowth - Scarlet Sails - Romeo and Juliet - Pugachev - Little Prince - Hamlet - Government Inspector - Blue Bird - Don Quixote - Overcoat - Lefty Conclusion: Symbols
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From direct two-term figurative parallelism, even in ancient folklore, such a significant type of verbal-objective allegorism as a symbol originated. Recently, various kinds of inscriptions have been called symbols, serving as a conventional designation of certain abstract concepts.
But in its basic meaning, a symbol (Greek sumbolon - a sign, a sign) is an independent artistic image that has an emotional and allegorical meaning based on the similarity of life phenomena. The appearance of symbolic images was prepared by a long song tradition. Folk songs passed from one singer to another and remained in the memory of many generations.
And in those cases when these songs were built on the basis of direct two-term parallelism, the semantic connection of the images included in it gradually became more and more fixed in the minds of the singers themselves and their listeners.
Therefore, as soon as the first term of parallelism appeared in the song - the image of nature, it immediately evoked in the memory of the listeners the second term known to them in advance - the image of a person who no longer needed to be reproduced with the help of words. In other words, the image of the life of nature began to mark the life of a person, it thus received an allegorical, symbolic meaning. People have learned to understand human life through its hidden analogy with the life of nature. So, in the wedding song, a parallel was drawn between falcons and matchmakers - "boyars".
The similarity of the actions of both, strengthened by the frequent repetition of the song, which became habitual, led to the fact that during further performance it was enough to sing about the falcons nibbling the duck, as the listeners understood that it was the matchmakers who chose the girl and decided her marriage. Falcons have become a symbol of matchmakers, a duck - brides. Here is a similar, which has become symbolic, song:
Falcons, falcons, where did they fly? We flew from sea to sea. What did you see? We saw a duck on the sea. So why didn't you take it? And they plucked the wings, Shed hot blood.
So, in folk art, a symbol is the first member of figurative parallelism, which marks its second member. Single-term parallelism arose from two-term direct parallelism. Citing a Ukrainian song in which the “dawn” (star) asks the “month” not to set before it, Veselovsky writes: “Let’s discard the second part of the song ... and the habit of well-known comparisons will prompt instead of the month and the star - the bride and groom.”
It should be noted, however, that the point here is not in "habit", but in the very basis of parallelism - in the awareness of the objective features of the similarity between the images of nature and people, which is only strengthened by the repetition of the song. Initially, for the emergence of a symbol as a one-term parallelism, it was necessary to first apply a two-term parallelism, strongly likening the life of nature to the life of people.
But when the singers and their listeners adopted symbolism as a special kind of verbal-objective imagery, when the artistic consciousness of society was enriched with this new principle of depicting life, symbolic images began to arise independently, no longer relying on two-term parallelism.
In fiction, in the individual work of different countries and eras, symbolism has received an even wider application. The image of nature acquires a symbolic meaning in the process of thoughtful individual perception by readers and listeners on the basis of living associations, similar to human life.
At the same time, the image of nature initially retains a direct, independent meaning for readers, and then, with its emotional content, evokes in them direct emotional parallels with some similar content in people's lives. Symbolism, that is, the presence of image-symbols, should not be confused with "Symbolism" - a literary movement that arose only at the end of the 19th century. Lyrical creativity is especially rich in symbolism.
It is often characterized by more or less abstractness of its problems, so its symbolic images can evoke various associations with human actions, states, and experiences in the reader. In other words, lyrical symbolism often has the ambiguity of its emotional comprehension. For example, A. Koltsov's poem "Forest" ("What, dense forest, || Thinking ...") is undoubtedly symbolic. True, it is dedicated to the memory of A. S. Pushkin and is often interpreted as an allegorical depiction of the last tragic years of the life, and then the death of the great poet.
But such an interpretation impoverishes the content of the poem, gives its main image a straightforward, rational, allegorical meaning.
For readers who do not know this interpretation, who succumb to the emotional charm of Koltsov's poems with their folk poetic style, the image of the forest, first perceived in its direct meaning, can then evoke much broader and more diverse associations - either with individuals in various conditions of their life, or even with entire social movements, etc.
In this perception, Koltsov's poem retains its symbolic meaning. Lermontov's works, allegorical in their images (poems "Cliff", "Leaf", "In the wild north stands alone ...", the ballad Three palm trees, the poem "Demon", etc.) also should not be taken as direct allusions to the personal fate and experiences of the author. Their images must be understood as symbols in their self-contained emotionally generalizing allegorical meaning.
In epic and dramatic literature, symbolism is much less common, but it can become a feature of the imagery of an entire epic work. Such, for example, is Saltykov-Shchedrin's tale "Konyaga". In the center of it is a generalizing image of a peasant horse, exhausted and exhausted to a pulp by constant hard work.
The author describes the appearance of the animal, its condition; briefly depicts the peasant: how hard he plows the field. The reader perceives everything from the beginning in the literal sense - as the hopeless working life of the peasant "bed", which "does not live, but does not die."
But then, with the help of the author’s bitter thoughts that someone needs not the “well-being” of Konyaga, but “a life capable of enduring the yoke and work”, the reader begins to realize that all this applies to the owner, a poor peasant living in such , the same hopelessness of oppression. And the image of a horse crippled by work already symbolizes for him the enslavement of the working peasantry.
Initially, symbolic images were images of nature, evoking emotional analogies with human life. This tradition is preserved to this day. Along with it, images of individual people, their actions and experiences, signifying some more general processes of human life, often began to receive allegorical, symbolic meaning in literature.
So, when, in the last act of Chekhov's play The Cherry Orchard, Gaev and Ranevskaya, leaving the sold estate, forget about the old, sick lackey Firs, slavishly devoted to his masters, and he remains locked in the old house, doomed to be demolished, the reader and the audience first see in this the completion of the very real events shown in the play. But they can then realize this last scene much deeper and wider - as a symbolic expression of the doom of the estate world.
Introduction to literary criticism: Proc. for philology.. spec. high fur boots / G.N. Pospelov, P.A. Nikolaev, I.F. Volkov and others; Ed. G.N. Pospelov. - 3rd ed., Rev. and additional - M.: Higher. school, 1988. - 528s.
1. What allows A. Blok's poem "The Stranger" to be attributed to symbolic poetry?
Symbolists are characterized by the use of certain vocabulary in poetry: mysterious, foggy, ancient beliefs, dark veil, enchanted distance, deaf secrets, distant shore. The very image of the Stranger, mysteriously appearing every evening at the same hour, is also from the poetics of the Symbolists. A feature of symbolism is the dual world that is formed in the poem: the vulgar world of reality and the mysterious beautiful world of either drunken imagination or sleep.
2. What images-symbols are typical for the poetry of A. Blok?
Like all symbolists, A. Blok created his own world of symbolic images. This is the Beautiful Lady, the Eternal Wife, the Stranger, later the Snow Maiden.
3. How does the Motherland appear in the poetry of A. Blok?
The homeland of A. Blok is dual, like that of M. Yu. Lermontov. In the early poems ("Rus", "Rus is girded with rivers"), the image of the Motherland is fanned with a fairy-tale spirit, witchcraft motifs, some kind of mystery:
You are extraordinary even in a dream. I will not touch your clothes.
Later, A. Blok recreates the image of a sad, impoverished, pious Russia, frozen in its immutability:
Centuries go by, the war is noisy, A rebellion rises, villages burn, And you are still the same, my country, In tear-stained and ancient beauty.
In the cycle "On the Kulikovo Field", Rus', which defeated the Mongol invasion, is embodied in the image of a steppe mare rushing through history. The image of Russia is multifaceted, lyrical, philosophically rich. From the image of patriarchal Rus' A. Blok comes to the image of the new Russia of cities, railways, factories.
4. What symbolic images are cross-cutting in the poetry of A. Blok?
Cross-cutting in the poetry of A. Blok are the images of the wind, blizzards, snowstorms as symbols of the elements, later - of the revolution; image of the way, road; the image of the ocean - earthly and heavenly distance.
5. In what images is A. Blok's attitude to the old world expressed?
The attitude to the old world is ironic, and sometimes satirical. This is expressed in the images of a bourgeois at a crossroads, a long-haired writer, a long-haired priest, a lady in astrakhan fur. Generalized and symbolically, the old world is given in the form of a hungry dog.
