Topic 15. Plot and motive: between the “theme” and the text. “Complex of motives” and types of plot schemes
I. Dictionaries
Subject
1) Sierotwinski S.Subject. The subject of processing, the main idea developed in a literary work or scientific discussion. The main theme of the work. The main meaningful moment in the work, which forms the basis for the construction of the depicted world (for example, the interpretation of the most general foundations of the ideological meaning of the work, in the plot work - the fate of the hero, in the dramatic work - the essence of the conflict, in the lyrical - dominant motives, etc.). Minor theme works. Theme of the part of the work, subordinate main topic. The theme of the least meaningful integrity into which a work has been divided is called a motif” (S. 278). 2) Wilpert G. von. Subject(Greek - supposed), the main leading thought of the work; in a particular development of the subject under discussion. Common in spec. literature concept in German terminology material history(Stoffgeschichte), which distinguishes only the material (Stoff) and motive, in contrast to the English. and French, not included yet. It is proposed for motives of such a degree of abstraction that they do not conceal the grain of action: tolerance, humanity, honor, guilt, freedom, identity, mercy, etc.” (S. 942-943). 3) Dictionary of literary terms. A) Zundelovich Ya. Subject. Stlb. 927-929. “ Subject- the main idea, the main sound of the work. Representing that indecomposable emotional and intellectual core, which the poet, as it were, tries to decompose with each of his works, the concept of a theme is by no means covered by the so-called. content. The theme in the broadest sense of the word is that holistic image of the world that determines the artist's poetic worldview.<...>But depending on the material through which this image is refracted, we have this or that reflection of it, i.e. this or that idea (a specific theme) that determines this particular work. b) Eichengolts M. Subject. Stlb. 929-937. “ Subject- a set of literary phenomena that make up the subject-semantic moment of a poetic work. The following terms, related to the concept of subject matter, are subject to definition - theme, motive, plot, plot of a literary work. 4) Abramovich G. Subject // Dictionary of literary terms. pp. 405-406. “ Subject<...>
what is the basis, the main idea of a literary work, the main problem posed in it by the writer. 5) Maslovsky V.I. Subject // LES. P. 437. Subject<...>, the circle of events that form the life basis of the epic. or dramatic. prod. and at the same time serving for the production of philosophy., social, ethical. and other ideological. problems." motive
1) Sierotwinski S. Slownik terminow literackich. S. 161. Motive. The theme of one of the smallest meaningful wholes that stands out in the analysis of the work. “ The motive is dynamic. The motive that accompanies a change in the situation (which is part of the action), the opposite of a static motive. “ The motive is free. A motive that is not included in the system of a causal plot, the opposite of a connected motive. 2) Wilpert G. von. Sachwörterbuch der Literatur. “ motive(lat .
motivus- encouraging),<...>3. content-structural unity as a typical, meaningful situation that covers general thematic representations (as opposed to a specific and formalized through specific features material
II. Textbooks, teaching aids
1) Tomashevsky B.V. Theory of Literature. Poetics. (Theme). “The theme (what is being said) is the unity of the meanings of the individual elements of the works. You can talk about the theme of the whole work, and about the themes of individual parts. Every work written in a language that has meaning has a theme.<...>In order for the verbal construction to represent single work, it should have a unifying theme that unfolds throughout the work. “... the theme of a work of art is usually emotionally colored, that is, it evokes a feeling of indignation or sympathy, and is developed in terms of evaluation” (pp. 176-178). “The concept of a theme is the concept summarizing, which unites the verbal material of the work.<...>the separation from the work of parts that unite each part with a particularly thematic unity is called decomposition of the work.<...>By decomposing the work in this way into thematic parts, we finally reach the parts non-degradable, down to the smallest fragmentation of thematic material.<...>The theme of the indecomposable part of the work is called motive <...>From this point of view, the plot is the totality of motives in their logical causal relationship, the plot is the totality of the same motives in the same sequence and connection in which they are given in the work.<...>With a simple retelling of the plot of the work, we immediately discover that it is possible lower <...>Non-excludable motives are called related; motives that can be eliminated without violating the integrity of the causal-temporal course of events are free”. “Motives that change the situation are dynamic motives, motives that do not change the situation - static motives” (S. 182-184). 2) Introduction to literary criticism / Ed. G.N. Pospelov. Ch. IX. General properties of the form of epic and dramatic works.<Пункт>Chronicle and concentric plots (Author - V.E. Khalizev). “The events that make up the plot can be related to each other in different ways. In some cases, they are with each other only in a temporary connection (B happened after A). In other cases, there are causal relationships between events, in addition to temporal ones (B happened as a result of A). So, in the phrase The king is dead and the queen is dead connections of the first type are recreated. In the phrase The king died and the queen died of grief we have a connection of the second type. Accordingly, there are two types of plots. Plots with a predominance of purely temporal connections between events are chronicle. Plots with a predominance of causal relationships between events are called plots of a single action, or concentric” (pp. 171-172). 3) Grekhnev V.A. Verbal image and literary work. “Theme is usually called the circle of phenomena of reality, embodied by the writer. This simplest, but also commonplace definition, as it were, pushes us to the idea that the theme is entirely located beyond the line of artistic creation, being in reality itself. If this is true, it is only partly true. The most significant thing is that this is a circle of phenomena that have already been touched artistic thought. They became her choice. And this is the most important thing, even if this choice is still, perhaps, not associated with the thought of specific work” (pp. 103-104). “The focus of the choice of topic is determined not only by the artist’s individual preferences and his life experience, but also by the general atmosphere of the literary era, the aesthetic preferences of literary movements and schools.<...>Finally, the choice of theme is determined by the horizons of the genre, if not in all kinds of literature, then in any case in lyrics” (p. 107-109).
III. Special studies
motive , subject And plot 1) Veselovsky A.N. Poetics of plots // Veselovsky A.N. Historical poetics. “The word “plot” requires the nearest definition<...>we must agree in advance what to mean by plot, to distinguish a motive from a plot as a complex of motives. "Under motive I mean a formula that, at the beginning of the public, answered the questions that nature posed to man everywhere, or fixed especially vivid, seemed especially important or repeated impressions of reality. A sign of a motive is its figurative one-term schematism; such are the elements of lower mythology and fairy tales that cannot be further decomposed: someone steals the sun<...>marriages with animals, transformations, an evil old woman is harassing a beautiful woman, or someone kidnaps her and she has to be mined by force and dexterity, etc. ”(p. 301). 2) Propp V.Ya. Morphology of a fairy tale. “Morozko acts differently than Baba Yaga. But a function, as such, is a constant value. An important question for the study of a fairy tale What do fairy tale characters, and the question Who does and How does - these are questions of only adventitious study. The functions of the actors are those components that can replace Veselovsky's "motives"...” (p. 29). 3) Freidenberg O.M. The Poetics of Plot and Genre. M., 1997. “The plot is a system of metaphors developed into a verbal action; the whole point is that these metaphors are a system of allegories of the main image” (p. 223). “After all, the point of view put forward by me no longer requires any consideration or comparison of motives; she says in advance, based on the nature of the plot, that under all motives this story there always lies a single image - hence they are all tautological in the potential form of their existence; and that in decoration one motif will always be different from another, no matter how much they are brought together...” (224-225). 4) Cavelty J.G. The Study of Literary Formulas. pp. 34-64. “A literary formula is a structure of narrative or dramatic conventions used in a very large number of works. This term is used in two senses, combining which we get an adequate definition of the literary formula. First, it is the traditional way of describing certain specific subjects or people. In this sense, some Homeric epithets can be considered as formulas: “Achilles the swift-footed”, “Zeus the Thunderer”, as well as a number of comparisons and metaphors characteristic of him (for example, “the talking head falls to the ground”), which are perceived as traditional formulas of wandering singers, easily fit into dactylic hexameter. In an expansive approach, any culturally determined stereotype often found in literature is red-haired, short-tempered Irishmen, eccentric detectives with remarkable analytical skills, chaste blondes, passionate brunettes - can be considered a formula. It is only important to note that in this case we are talking about traditional constructs conditioned by a specific culture of a certain time, which, outside this specific context, may have a different meaning.<...>. Secondly, the term “formula” is often referred to as plot types. It is this interpretation of it that we will find in manuals for beginner writers. where you can find clear instructions on how to play twenty-one win-win scenarios: a boy meets a girl, they do not understand each other, a boy gets a girl. Such general schemes are not necessarily tied to a particular culture and certain period time<...>In fact, they can be seen as an example of what some researchers call archetypes, or patterns (patterns), common in different cultures.<...>Making a western requires more than just some idea of how to build a compelling adventure story. but also the ability to use certain images and symbols characteristic of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as cowboys, pioneers, robbers, frontier forts and saloons, along with relevant cultural themes and mythology: the opposition of nature and civilization, the moral code of the American West or law - lawlessness and arbitrariness, etc. All this allows you to justify or comprehend the action. So formulas are ways. through which specific cultural themes and stereotypes are embodied in more universal narrative archetypes” (pp. 34-35). 5) Zholkovsky A.K., Shcheglov Yu.K. Works on the poetics of expressiveness. (Appendix. Basic concepts of the “Theme - PV - Text” model). “1.2. Subject. Formally speaking, the topic is the source element of the output. Substantially, this is some value setting, with the help of PV (“techniques of expressiveness” - N. T.) "dissolved" in the text - a semantic invariant of the totality of its levels, fragments and other components. Examples of topics are: the theme of the ancient Babylonian "Dialogue between master and slave about the meaning of life": (1) the vanity of all earthly desires; theme of "War and Peace": (2) undoubted in human life, simple, real, and not artificial, far-fetched, values, the meaning of which becomes clear in crisis situations ...<...>All these themes are statements of one kind or another about (= situations from) life. Let's call them themes of the first kind. But the themes can also be value orientations not about “life”, but about the very tools of artistic creativity - a kind of statements about the language of literature, about genres, plot constructions, styles, etc. Let's call them themes of the second kind.<...>Usually the topic artistic text consists of one or another combination of themes of the I and II kind. In particular, this is true with regard to works that not only reflect "life", but also echo other ways of reflecting it. "Eugene Onegin" is an encyclopedia of Russian life, styles of Russian speech and styles of artistic thinking at the same time. So, a theme is a thought about life and/or the language of art that permeates the entire text, the formulation of which serves the starting point of the description-inference. In this formulation, all the semantic invariants of the text should be explicitly fixed, i.e., everything that the researcher considers to be meaningful values that are present in the text and, moreover, not deduced with the help of SP from other values that are already included in the topic” (p. 292) . 6) Tamarchenko N.D. Motives of crime and punishment in Russian literature (Introduction to the problem). The term "motive" in research literature correlate with two different aspects of a literary work. On the one hand, with such plot element(event or situation) repeats in its composition and/or known from tradition. On the other hand, with the chosen one in this case verbal designation this kind of events and provisions, which is included as element no longer in the plot, but in composition of the text. The need to distinguish between these aspects in the study of the plot was first shown, as far as is known, by V.Ya. Propp. It was their discrepancy that forced the scientist to introduce the concept of "function". In his opinion, the actions of the characters of a fairy tale, which are the same in terms of their role for the course of action, can have a variety of verbal designations.<...>Thus, under the outer layer of a particular plot, an inner layer is found. Functions in their necessary and always the same, according to V.Ya. Propp, sequences form nothing more than a single plot scheme. The verbal designations of its constituent “nodes” (such as sending, crossing, difficult tasks and so on.); The narrator (narrator) chooses one or another variant from the general arsenal of traditional formulas. “Basic situation directly expressed in the type of plot scheme. How do the complexes of the most important motifs that vary in this scheme, characteristic of various genres, correlate with it: for example, for a fairy tale (lack and dispatch - crossing and the main test - return and elimination of shortage) or for an epic (disappearance - search - finding)? This problem in our science was posed and solved in a very clear form by O.M. Freidenberg. In her opinion, “the plot is a system of metaphors deployed into action.<...>When an image is developed or expressed in words, it is thereby already subject to a certain interpretation; Expression is an investment in a form, a transmission, a transcription, therefore, a well-known allegory. What is the interpretation of what "basic image" is the plot recognized here? A little lower it is said that this is an “image cycle of life-death-life”: it is clear that we are talking about the content of the cyclic plot scheme. But this scheme can have various variations, and the differences in the motives that implement it do not negate the fact that "all these motives are tautological in the potential form of their existence." The difference is “the result of a difference in metaphorical terminology”, so that “the composition of the plot depends entirely on the language of metaphors”. Comparing the stated, apparently complementary ideas of V.Ya. Propp and O.M. Freudenberg, one can see a "three-layer" or "three-level" structure: (1) the "main image" (i.e., the situation that generates the plot in its content); (2) interpretation of this image in one or another variant of the complex of scheme-forming motifs and, finally, (3) interpretation of this variant of the plot scheme in multiple verbal designations characteristic of one or another “system of metaphors”. Such an approach to the problem of motive, plot and its basis (situation) can be compared with the characteristic of the German tradition, the distinction between the concepts of “Motiv”, “Stoff” (plot) and “Thema” according to an increasing degree of abstraction” (p. 41-44). Complex of motives and plot scheme 1) Veselovsky A.N. Poetics of plots // Historical poetics. “The simplest kind of motive can be expressed by the formula a + b: the evil old woman does not love the beauty - and sets her a life-threatening task. Each part of the formula is capable of changing, especially subject to increment b; there can be two, three (favorite folk number) or more tasks; there will be a meeting along the way of the hero, but there may be several of them. So the motive grew in plot. <..>” (p. 301). “But the schematism of the plot is already half conscious, for example, the choice and order of tasks and meetings is not necessarily determined by the theme given by the content of the motive, and presupposes already known freedom; the plot of a fairy tale, in a certain sense, is already an act of creativity.<...>the less one or another of the alternating tasks and meetings is prepared by the previous one, the weaker their intercom, so that, for example, each of them could stand in any queue, with the greater confidence we can assert that if in various folk environments we meet a formula with an equally random sequence<...>we have the right to speak of borrowing...” (p. 301-302). “ Plots are complex schemes, in the figurativeness of which generalized well-known acts of human life and the psyche in alternating forms of everyday reality. The evaluation of the action, positive or negative, is already connected with the generalization.<...>” (p. 302). “The similarity of outlines between a fairy tale and a myth is explained not by their genetic connection, and the fairy tale would be a drained myth, but by the unity of materials and techniques and schemes, only timed differently” (p. 302). “The same points of view can be applied to the consideration of poetic stories And motives; they present the same features commonality And repeatability from myth to epic, fairy tale, local saga and novel; and here it is allowed to speak of a dictionary of typical schemes and provisions...” “Under plot I mean a theme in which different positions-motives scurry about...” (p. 305)/ “I do not mean by this that the poetic act is expressed only in repetition or a new combination of typical plots. There are anecdotal plots, prompted by some accidental incident...” (pp. 305-306). 2) Zelinsky F.F. Origins of comedy // Zelinsky F. From the life of ideas. “As you can see, there is no common, central dramatic motif that would dominate the entire play (meaning the comedy of Aristophanes “Acharnians” - N. T.), as is customary in our comedy; in short, we can say that in Aristophanes we have stringing drama, as opposed to centralizing drama modern comedy. I must say that in ascribing centralizing drama to modern comedy, I do not think of denying it to the ancients: we find it in developed form at Plautus and Terence...” (p. 365-366). 3) Shklovsky V. Relationship of plot composition techniques with general style techniques // Shklovsky V. On the theory of prose. pp. 26-62. “... it is completely incomprehensible why a random sequence of motives should be preserved when borrowing.” “Coincidences are explained only by the existence of special laws of plot composition. Even the assumption of borrowing does not explain the existence of identical fairy tales at a distance of thousands of years and tens of thousands of miles” (p. 29). “Constructions of the type a+ (a=a) + (a (a + a)) + ... etc., that is, according to the formula of an arithmetic progression without reduction of similar terms. There are fairy tales built on a kind of plot tautology like a+ (a+a) (a+ (a+a) + a2), etc.” (Further example: "chain" fairy tale "Kurka-Ryabushka" - N. T.) (p. 44). “The action of a literary work takes place in a certain field; chess pieces will correspond to types-masks, the role of the modern theater. The plots correspond to gambits, that is, the classic draws of this game, which players use in variants. The tasks and vicissitudes correspond to the role of the opponent's moves” (p. 62). 4) Propp V.Ya. Morphology of a fairy tale. “A function is understood as an act of an actor, defined in terms of its significance for the course of action.” “... in what grouping and in what sequence do these functions occur?<...>Veselovsky says: “Choice and routine tasks and meetings (examples of motives) presupposes the already known freedom» <...>“. “The sequence of functions is always the same”(p. 30-31) . “ Morphologically, any development from sabotage (A) or lack (a) through intermediate functions to marriage (C*) or other functions used as a denouement can be called a fairy tale” (p. 101). “... one can easily imagine a magical, enchanting, fantastic fairy tale constructed in a completely different way (cf. some Andersen's fairy tales, Brentano, Goethe's tale of the snake and the lily, etc.). On the other hand, fairy tales that are not fairy tales can be constructed according to the above scheme” (p. 108). “...the same composition can underlie different plots. Whether the serpent abducts the princess or the devil the peasant's or the priest's daughter is irrelevant from the point of view of the composition. But these cases can be considered as different plots” (p. 125). 5) Freidenberg O.M. The Poetics of Plot and Genre. “The composition of the plot depends entirely on the language of metaphors...” (p. 224-225). “What in solar compositions is removal and return, then in vegetative compositions it is death and Sunday; there are feats, here are passions, there is a struggle, here is death. “Thus, in any archaic plot, we will certainly find a figure of bifurcation-antithesis, or, as it might be called, a figure of symmetrically-reverse repetition” (pp. 228-229). 6) Bakhtin M.M. Forms of time and chronotope in the novel // Bakhtin M. Questions of literature and aesthetics. “The plots of all these novels<...>reveal an enormous similarity and, in essence, are composed of the same elements (motives); in individual novels, the number of these elements changes, their specific gravity in the whole plot, their combinations. It is easy to draw up a summary typical scheme of the plot...” (p. 237). “Such motifs as meeting-parting (separation), loss-acquisition, search-finding, recognition-non-recognition, etc., are included, as constituent elements, in the plots not only of novels of different eras and different types, but also of literary works of other genres. (epic, dramatic, even lyrical). These motifs are chronotopic in nature (however, in different genres in different ways)” (p. 247). “But the main complex of motives - meeting - separation - search - finding- is only another, so to speak, reflected plot expression of the same human identity” (p. 256). “ fairy tale man- with all the huge variety of fairy-tale folklore - it is always based on motives transformation And identities(however, in turn, the specific content of these motifs is varied)” (pp. 262-263).<О романе “Золотой осел”>“Thus, the adventurous series with its randomness here is completely subordinate to the series that encompasses and comprehends it: guilt - punishment - redemption - bliss. This series is controlled by a completely different, non-adventurous logic” (p. 269). 7) Todorov Tsv. Poetics / Per. A.K. Zholkovsky // Structuralism: “for” and “against”. “Causality is closely related to the temporal sequence of events; they are even very easy to confuse with each other. This is how Forster illustrates the difference between them, believing that in every novel both are present, and causality form its plot, and temporary - the actual narrative: "The king died and the queen died after him" - this is the narrative; “The king died and after him the queen died of grief” - this is the plot. “Temporal, chronological organization, devoid of any causality, prevails in historical chronicle, annals, a private diary and a ship's journal<...>In the literature, an example of causality in pure form the portrait genre and other descriptive genres, where a time delay is obligatory (a typical example is Kafka's short story "The Little Woman"), can serve. Sometimes. on the contrary, a literature built on a temporal organization is not subject - at least at first glance - to causal dependencies. Such works may take the direct form of a chronicle or saga, such as the Budenbrooks” (pp. 79-80). 8) Lotman Yu.M. The origin of the plot in typological coverage // Lotman Yu.M. Fav. Articles: B 3 vols. T. I. S. 224-242. “For a typologically initial situation, two fundamentally opposite types of texts can be assumed. In the center of the cultural array is a myth-generating text device. The main feature of the texts it generates is their subordination to cyclic temporal movement” (p. 224). “This central text-generating device performs the most important function - it builds a picture of the world<...> <Порождаемые тексты>“reduced the world of excesses and anomalies that surrounded a person to a norm and order.” “They interpreted not about single and regular phenomena, but about events that are timeless, infinitely reproducible and, in this sense, motionless.” “As a counterparty mechanism, it (this device is N. T.) needed a text-generating device, organized in accordance with linear temporal movement and fixing not regularities, but anomalies. These were oral stories about "incidents", "news", various happy and unfortunate excesses. If the principle was fixed there, then here the case” (p. 225).
QUESTIONS
1. Which of the above definitions of the concept of “theme” emphasizes in it a) objectivity, which is aimed at the author’s creative intent and assessments; b) subjectivity, i.e., it is the assessments themselves and the intention; c) a combination of both? Note that in the latter case, it is necessary to distinguish between an eclectic, ill-conceived mixture of different approaches and a deliberate solution, a conscious avoidance of one-sidedness. In what judgments have you considered the “objectivity” of the theme is emphasized (its presence in the tradition, and even outside of art) and where, on the contrary, does the term characterize the work itself or the specifics of creative consciousness? 2. Try to correlate the above definitions of “motive” with three theoretically possible solutions to the problem: motive - an element of the theme (understood as a characteristic of the subject of the image or statement by the reader); motive - an element of the text, i.e. the author's verbal designation of an individual event or situation; finally, the motive is an element of an event series or a series of situations, that is, it is part of the plot (or plot). 3. Are there any judgments in the selected materials that delimit the verbal designation of the motive (verbal formula) from the role of the act or event itself designated in this way in the plot; separate the motive as an act or position from that image of a person or the world, the reflection or even interpretation of which is a series of motives? 4. Find and compare the judgments of different authors that the plot is, in essence, a complex of motives. Select among them those who consider the sequence of motives a) their random combination; b) the result of individual-author's, conscious combination; c) a manifestation of the necessity inherent in tradition, the expression of a traditionally established meaning and, thereby, a certain plot “language”. 5. Which of the above statements single out and distinguish between types of plot schemes? What exactly are their types and on what grounds are they distinguished? Compare solutions to the problem by different authors.
As an element of the plot, any repeating unit of it, i.e. motive is not isolated, it is connected both in content and in its function (role in the development of the plot) with all others. Therefore, in practice, as part of various plots, whole complexes of interrelated motives exist and are perceived by the reader.
Questions arise: are only individual motifs repeated in the history of artistic literature (in folklore, literature) or their stable combinations, complexes? Is such a complex simply a random combination of motives (their arbitrary "set" or "conglomerate"), or does such an association have its own internal logic, and the elements included in it form a meaningful order?
The understanding of the nature of the plot and its artistic significance depends on the solution of these issues: it can be understood either as a non-objective, in fact, the author's (and the people - the author) game, combinatorics; or as an essential and significant author's statement about the world "in the language" of motives and their complexes.
Complex of motives and plot
The correlation of these concepts in Russian science was first considered by A. N. Veselovsky. According to his wording, "it is necessary to agree in advance what is meant by the plot, to distinguish the motive from the plot as a complex of motives." Further, it is said that the plot is understood as “a topic in which different positions-motives scurry about”.
How is this complex formed? The binding forces, according to the scientist, are embedded in the structure of the motive itself: from two of its constituent parts - a) the ratio of actors and b) their actions (“The simplest kind of motive can be expressed by the formula a + b: the evil old woman does not love the beauty - and sets her life-threatening task") - each "is able to change, especially subject to increment b; there can be two, three (favorite folk number) or more tasks; there will be a meeting along the way of the hero, but there may be several of them. So the motive grew into a plot ... ".
The plot, therefore, is a chain of motives that develop, develop the initial situation. Of course, it is a motive in itself.
Is the sequence of motives that make up such a chain random or not random? To recognize it as necessary (necessarily repetitive) for A. N. Veselovsky would mean to destroy the fundamental difference between plot and motive. However, he could not fail to see the recurrence of not only individual motifs, but also entire complexes of them. As a result, the position of the scientist is ambivalent.
On the one hand, he speaks of the conscious and the voluntary, that is, dictated by the individual author’s choice of “the order of tasks and meetings”: “the schematism of the plot is already half conscious, for example, the choice and order of tasks and meetings is not determined by the necessary theme given by the content of the motive, and presupposes already known freedom; the plot of a fairy tale, in a certain sense, is already an act of creativity.<...>
The less one or another of the alternating tasks and meetings was prepared by the previous one, the weaker their internal connection, so that, for example, each of them could stand in any queue, with the more confidence we can assert that if in various national environments we meet the formula with an equally random sequence ... we have the right to talk about borrowing ... ".
We will leave aside the question of borrowing plots and how much Veselovsky's position is dependent on this theory: there was another reason for it. The researcher sees the reason for starting the action in a particular (initial) situation of the fairy tale, believing that the logic of causes and effects should continue to operate, which, however, does not exist. He does not catch the internal semantic connection between the “theme given by the content” of the initial motive and the themes of subsequent motives.
In order to see the conditionality of “tasks and meetings” not with each other, but with a common single plot situation (the two worlds of a fairy tale and the contradictory interconnection of worlds), it was necessary to have an idea of \u200b\u200bartistic space-time, which was absent in science at that time. And yet it is noteworthy that Veselovsky calls the "schematism of the plot" conscious (i.e., free, not obligatory) only "half".
On the other hand, according to the scientist, the plots are “complex schemes” with a single content (in their figurativeness, “known acts of human life and the psyche were generalized in alternating forms of everyday reality”) and these schemes, or, in other words, “typical plots”, nevertheless “are repeated from myth to epic, fairy tale, local saga and novel”, so that one can even speak of “a dictionary of typical schemes and provisions” ( last idea implemented many decades later, for example, in the dictionary of E. Frenzel).
The first of these contradictory statements of this theory of plot was disputed in the book Morphology of a Fairy Tale by V. Ya. The connection of such a regular sequence with the general art picture the world in this genre verbal creativity was considered in next book the same author - Historical roots fairy tale" (1946).
Earlier, the same problem was solved in O. M. Freidenberg's book "The Poetics of Plot and Genre" (1936) and in M. M. Bakhtin's work "Forms of Time and Chronotope in the Novel" (1937-1938). In both studies, the plot in ancient and medieval literature is considered as the deployment and concretization of certain complexes of motives (schemes). In part, this refers to the same material (Greek novel); these schemes themselves, according to researchers, are the result of comprehension and expression “in the language of metaphors” of the main situation (the main contradiction) of the depicted world.
Thus, the development of the science of plot has led to the question of stable plot schemes and their content: the "language" or, more precisely, the "languages" of plot schemes.
Types of plot schemes
The plot schemes are extremely diverse. In essence, every genre, and even every historically productive variety of it, has its own particular plot scheme.
As an example and example, let us characterize the system of “common places” in the plots of a Greek adventure novel in the above-mentioned work by M. M. Bakhtin: “A young man and a girl of marriageable age. Their origin is unknown, mysterious (not always; Tatia, for example, does not have this moment). They are endowed with exceptional beauty. They are also exceptionally chaste. They unexpectedly meet each other; usually at a festive occasion. They flare up to each other with a sudden and instant passion, irresistible, like fate, like an incurable disease.
However, the marriage between them cannot take place immediately. He encounters obstacles that retard, delay him. The lovers are separated, they seek each other, they find; lose each other again, find each other again. The usual obstacles and adventures of lovers: the kidnapping of the bride on the eve of the wedding, the disagreement of the parents (if any), destining for the beloved of others the bride and groom (false couples), the flight of lovers, their journey, sea storm, shipwreck, miraculous rescue, attack by pirates, captivity and prison, attempt on the innocence of the hero and heroine, bringing the heroine as a cleansing sacrifice, wars, battles, sale into slavery, imaginary deaths, disguise, recognition-misrecognition, imaginary betrayals, temptations of chastity and fidelity, false accusations of crimes, lawsuits, trials chastity and fidelity of lovers.
Heroes find their relatives (if they were not known). Big role play meetings with unexpected friends or unexpected enemies, divination, predictions, prophetic dreams, premonitions, sleeping potion. The novel ends with a happy union of lovers in marriage.
This, as the scientist puts it, "scheme of the main plot points" (note that Bakhtin singled out the main scheme-forming motives in a different font) leaves aside the peculiarities of individual samples of this variety of adventure novel. With respect to them, it is invariant, i.e. characterizes precisely the "Greek adventurous novel of the test" as a whole. At the same time, it varies the more general scheme that underlies many varieties of adventure novel in which the plot is based on a combination of war and love motifs.
A variant related to the considered one can, for example, be considered the plot scheme of an adventure-historical novel: many of the motifs listed by M. M. Bakhtin can be easily found at the heart of the plot, for example, in The Captain's Daughter.
If you look for a formula for this more general scheme of an adventurous plot, then it is indicated by O. M. Freidenberg: "separation - search - connection." But in this form, the scheme of an adventurous love novel turns out to be suitable for other genres, for example, for such different versions of the poem as "Ruslan and Lyudmila" and "Mtsyri".
Comparisons lead to the idea of the existence of universal types of plot schemes. First of all, the cyclical invariance of the plot schemes of many genres has long been established - folklore and literary, epic (ancient epic and new poem), dramatic (final return to the initial situation in comedy and tragedy) and even lyrical (ring composition, for example "I remember a wonderful moment" ).
In all these options, we have a three-part structure: the middle link is associated with the character’s stay in a foreign world for him and / or the passage through death (in one form or another - from literal to just allegorical), the first and third are either sent to a foreign peace and return, or a change in the state preceding the crisis, followed by a rebirth.
Is this the only invariant of folklore and literary plots? (Veselovsky considered "typical", apparently, only cyclic plots.) At first glance, cyclicity, i.e. "Circular" deployment is opposed to "linear". However, is the plot a simple linear sequence of events (sometimes called "chronicle")? It is unlikely, for example, that the chronicle has a single plot.
Turning to the archaic plot (in the field of fairy folklore), we see that the antipodal schemes that really exist in it are cyclic (in a fairy tale) and cumulative (in a cumulative or chain fairy tale like "Turnip" or "Teremka").
Cumulation (from Latin cumulare - to accumulate, pile up, strengthen) is the "stringing" of homogeneous events and / or characters up to a catastrophe (in the archaic, it is usually comical). Does such a plot principle exist in literature? V. Shklovsky wrote about “stringing” and plot construction according to “the formula of arithmetic progression without bringing in similar terms”.
This type of plot scheme is organically inherent in the genre of the short story ("The Necklace" by Maupassant, "The Death of an Official" by Chekhov and "The Pharaoh and the Choral" by O. Henry). For the story, one of the most obvious cases is "False Coupon"; less clearly the same principle is present in "Hadji Murad" (in both works - in combination with a cyclic frame).
The cumulative plot is characteristic of the picaresque novel and the novel "Don Quixote" and is a significant part of plot structure"Dead Souls". But even in drama, cyclic framing can include the stringing of homogeneous events, as happens, for example, in The Government Inspector.
Finally, the principle of cumulation is also of great importance in poetry: from such samples of “pure” lyrics as Fetov’s “This morning, this joy ...” to satirical and humorous poetry (“He sits under a canopy ...” or “Sometimes cheerful May ... "by A.K. Tolstoy), reminiscent of folklore comic dialogues.
The fact of the existence of two universal plot schemes was, apparently, first indicated by the greatest classical philologist of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. F. F. Zelinsky, who, having in mind the ancient comedy, contrasts the dramatism “centralizing” and “stringing”. It can be assumed that these types of plot schemes are associated with two archaic types of heroes (“a cultured” hero and a trickster – a “demonic-comic understudy”, according to the definition of E. M. Meletinsky).
Another assumption is also possible. If in the “high” cosmogonic myth the world is created by dismembering the body of the first creature (the giant Ymir in Scandinavian mythology or the goddess Tiamat in Babylonian mythology) into parts, then in the plot of the cumulative tale, the combination of many bodies into one in various ways (swallowing; characters grab each other or stand on top of each other) or their accumulation in one place (house, sleigh, etc.) always turns out to be temporary, unstable and causes a catastrophe of decay.
Hence the hypothesis about the travesty of the myth of creation in the original cumulative structure, the echoes of which are felt in chain tales.
The semantic opposition and, at the same time, the complementarity of the two schemes speaks of the possibility and productivity of their combination in the literature. This issue will be considered later in connection with the characteristics of the great epic form.
Theory of Literature / Ed. N.D. Tamarchenko - M., 2004
Drama- there is a kind of literature intended for staging on stage (screen).
Another classic formulation reads: "Drama is the depiction of conflict in the form of a dialogue between characters and the author's remarks." (To Wolkenstein).
Dramatic work plot. It reproduces the events taking place in time and space, and reflects the processes associated with the interaction between the personality and the phenomena surrounding it.
Dramatic works are limited, first of all, in their scope, by the conditions of stage (screen art).
The structural elements of the drama are the EPISODE and the Transition from episode to episode.
Episode- a relatively independent part of the dramatic action taking place in the closed boundaries of space and time.
The depicted time within an episode is not compressed or stretched, it is fixed by action and dialogue with maximum certainty.
An episode is an internally completed segment of an action. Therefore, as a rule, it also has its own complete semantic architectonics and is grouped around the Event.
Architectonics (from other Greek.ἀ ρχιτεκτονική - construction art) - the construction of a work of art. The term “composition” is more often used in the same sense, and in application not only to the work as a whole, but also to its individual elements: the composition of the image, plot, stanza, etc.
The concept of architectonics combines the ratio of parts of a work, the location and interconnection of its components (terms), which together form a certain artistic unity. The concept of architectonics includes external structure works, and the construction of the plot: division of the work into parts, type of storytelling (from the author or on behalf of a special narrator), the role of the dialogue, one or another sequence of events (temporary or in violation of the chronological principle), the introduction of various descriptions, author's reasoning into the narrative fabric and lyrical digressions, the grouping of characters, etc. The methods of architectonics constitute one of the essential elements of style (in the broad sense of the word) and, together with it, are socially conditioned. Therefore, they change in connection with the socio-economic life of a given society, with the appearance on the historical scene of new classes and groups. If we take, for example, Turgenev's novels, we will find in them a sequence in the presentation of events, smoothness in the course of the narrative, an orientation towards the harmonious harmony of the whole, and an important compositional role of the landscape. These traits are easily explained both by the life of the estate and the psyche of its inhabitants. Dostoevsky's novels are built according to completely different laws: the action begins from the middle, the narration flows quickly, in jumps, and the external disproportion of the parts is also noticed. These properties of architectonics are determined in exactly the same way by the features of the depicted environment - the metropolitan philistinism. Within the same literary style, the methods of architectonics vary depending on the artistic genre (novel, short story, short story, poem, dramatic work, lyric poem). Each genre is characterized by a number of specific features that require a unique composition.
The unit of the plot is an event.
In the spatio-temporal arts, the plot performs an organizing function, uniting all the details of the plot.
plot(from the Latin fibula - narration, history) - a chain of main events in a work of art, its event core.
The plot carries out the selection and ordering of episodes according to a more or less rigid scheme; it requires, for example, the observance of the chronological and logical order of events: exposition, plot, tension, climax and denouement. The plot can be reduced to a few phrases that succinctly describe the events.
Changing the means of expression (cinema, theater, pantomime, ballet, opera, etc.) one should be able to preserve the meaning of the plot. Different works of art can be built on the same plot. So on the plot of "Don Juan" they built their completely different versions of Molière, Pushkin, Lesya Ukrainka, Tsvetaeva. The plot of "Romeo and Juliet", borrowed by Shakespeare from the Italian short story, served as the basis for dozens of works (among them are Bernstein's "The Westsea Story" and Roshchin's "Valentin and Valentina"). The plot of "Cinderella" gave rise to a whole genre of melodrama. Here are "Merry Fellows" by Alexandrov and "Pygmalion" by Bernard Shaw.
Plot(from French sujet - theme, subject) - dynamic aspect of the work of art: the deployment of the action in its entirety; development of characters, human experiences, relationships, actions, etc.; interaction of characters and circumstances; internal semantic cohesion of images.
The plot is the plot in the totality of motives reproduced in the logical or event system, which the author resorts to. "The cause of events is thus independent of the characters, precedes the action itself, or is assumed from outside." (Marmontel).
Thus, “the plot opposes the plot, which consists of the same events, but respects the order of their appearance in the work and the sequence of information that points to them ... In short. The plot is what actually happened; the plot is the reader's way of introducing it." (Tomashevsky). The plot is the chronological and logical frame of the plot.
The plot is the unfolding of the action in its entirety.
unit the plot is the detail. Its basis is conflict.
Formally, all the collisions of world dramaturgy can be reduced to 36 situations, as did Carl Gozzi and Georges Polti. However, their plot design gives an infinite number of combinations.
The events that make up the plot can be related to each other in different ways. In some cases, they are with each other only in time. no th connection (B happened after A). In other cases, in addition to temporal events, there are also causal relationships between events (B happened as a result of A).
Accordingly, there are two types of plots. Plots dominated by purely temporal connections between events are called chronicles. Plots with a predominance of causal relationships are called plots of a single action or concentric.
The plot of the drama inner life its characters, is characterized by a large measure of tension, since the events shown in a dramatic work should be concentrated in a meager stage (screen) time, and the volume of the text of the drama is strictly limited by the requirement: the performance (film) lasts, as a rule, no more than two or three hours. “At the same time, the course of events turns out to be very intense: its purpose in the drama is to create an extensive, rich system of reasons and reasons for the numerous statements of the characters. Therefore, it is important that in the course of stage time, the positions in the lives of the characters change as noticeably and often as possible. (V. Kholizev).
“Compacted” in the stingy stage time, the action of the drama usually turns out to be extremely active and purposeful. Drama fits more events into a smaller space than any other literary form, and this, in turn, gives events more liveliness and tension.
“Dramatic development consists of a series of imbalances; any change in equilibrium is an action. A play is a system of actions, a system of small and large imbalances. (J. Lawson).
The plot activity of the drama dictates its appeal to a certain kind of temporal and spatial motives. It is preferable here to master not the “biographical” time, calm and unhurried, but the time of adventurous, crisis, or festive, playful, flowing rapidly and rapidly. Moreover, the action of the drama often unfolds in places where a significant number of people, and even entire crowds, naturally gather. These are either streets and squares, or palaces and temples, or meeting rooms, or, finally, spacious home interiors.
It is not difficult to name a number of plot motifs that are characteristic of the drama. “These are purely accidental, but significant for the further course of events, the appearance of heroes in a given place in given time(for example, a conversation about someone arises, and this person immediately enters), intentions that suddenly arise and actions dictated by sudden impulses, quarrels and reconciliations replacing each other, etc. (V. Kholizev).
The theory of motives and its variations Nikolaev AI Fundamentals of Literary Studies: a textbook for students of philological specialties. - Ivanovo: LISTOS, 2011. - S. 83–86.
Term motive first appeared in the 18th century as a musical term, but quickly took root in the literary lexicon, and theorists of German romanticism (early 19th century) already actively used it. However, it acquired a truly scientific significance after the fundamental research of the outstanding Russian philologist A. N. Veselovsky (1838 - 1906). Possessing the broadest erudition and superbly mastering the latest for that time methodologies of analysis, Veselovsky created a coherent doctrine of the origin and interpenetration of various elements of artistic consciousness in any - even very dissimilar cultures. Veselovsky suggested, as necessary, abstracting from specific forms of verbal creativity, focusing on fundamental points of similarity (say, why all cultures have fairy tales or lyrical songs, etc.). Having applied this method to the study of world plots, Veselovsky suggested isolating motives- the simplest, further indivisible narrative units (for example, the representation of the sun and moon by a husband and wife, which became the basis for a huge number of world plots), and plots - themes "in which different positions-motives swirl."
In other words, the plot is a bizarre combination of motives, when the same structural elements are in different positions and different connections (hence the verb "scurry" - like shuttles in a weaving machine). The scientist proposed to reduce the infinite variety of plots to a relatively limited number of combinations of motives. “The simplest kind of motive,” wrote A. N. Veselovsky, “can be expressed a + b: the evil old woman does not love the beauty and sets her a life-threatening task. Each part of the formula is capable of changing, especially subject to increment b; there can be two, three (favorite folk number) or more tasks; there will be a meeting along the way of the hero, but there may be several of them. So the motif grew into a plot.
Theory of motives had a huge impact on all European literary criticism. Russian science perceived it directly - in connection with the authority of the Veselovsky name; Western European - more difficult, through subsequent literary schools based on the ideas of Veselovsky. First of all, it is the formal school already mentioned by us, which developed and in some ways even absolutized Veselovsky's theory. Besides, the ideas of the Russian folklorist V. Ya. Propp's famous studies are built on this: "The Morphology of a Fairy Tale", and "The Historical Roots of a Fairy Tale", which had a great influence on world science.
Today in the world there is a huge literature devoted to the theory of motive. There are many nuances and subtleties here. For example, the question of the "indecomposability" of the motive is debatable. V. Ya. Propp considered this thesis of A. N. Veselovsky inaccurate, because any motive can be “smashed” (for example, the example of Veselovsky with an evil old woman and a beauty is not indecomposable - an old woman can be a stepmother, or maybe an evil queen; a beauty can be a stepdaughter , or maybe a rival - etc.). Therefore, Propp preferred the term function as more accurate, at least for ancient plots: prohibition, violation, donation, etc. However, as later showed K. Levi-Strauss, and the function is also not absolutely indecomposable. Obviously, it must be borne in mind that the motive as such is not singled out in a “pure form”, it is always clothed with a specific content, and a “pure” motive is the same theoretical abstraction as, for example, “man and in general”. We will never describe "a person in general" (after all, he always has a certain gender, age, nationality, etc.), but this does not mean that a person does not exist.
In general, the absolutization of abstract schemes, than the theoreticians of formalism sometimes sinned, - insidious thing. At one time, the remarkable philologist V. M. Zhirmunsky wittily remarked that from the point of view of “pure schemes”, the plot of “Eugene Onegin” is similar to the plot of the fable about the crane and the heron: “A loves B, B does not love A: when did B fall in love with A, then A no longer loves B. At the same time, the researcher notes, "for the artistic impression of "Eugene Onegin" this affinity with the fable is very secondary." In this regard, one cannot neglect the "thematic content of the plot scheme."
At the same time, the skillful use of the methodology of analysis of motives allows philologist to see non-obvious echoes of the most diverse subjects. What, for example, unites Pushkin's "The Tale of the Golden Cockerel", the dramatic scene "The Stone Guest", the poem "The Bronze Horseman" and the poem "Monument"? It seems that there is nothing in common between these works, their plots are completely different. However, R.O. Jacobson, who asked this question, saw an unexpected commonality of the motive: the hero lives until the statue “comes to life”, but the revived statue entails the death of the hero. This motif haunts Pushkin constantly, from work to work. But what is behind this? By posing the questions in this way, Jacobson created one of the most brilliant studies of Pushkin's poetics. It is this ability to abstract from the specifics, to see the common in different things, to unexpectedly formulate the problem that is the strength of this technique.
The action of the drama is a sequence of volitional actions of characters defending their interests in clashes with each other. Drama is a struggle of "multidirectional" human aspirations, generated by the "contradictions of interests" of the characters.
K. S. Stanislavsky noted the presence of two types of action: external and internal. “While the external action ... amuses, entertains and excites the nerves, the internal one infects, captures our soul and owns it. Of course, it is even better if both, i.e. internal and external actions, closely merged together, are present. From this, the work only wins in its completeness and stage presence. (K. S. Stanislavsky).
There is a natural connection between the type of action and the nature of the conflict underlying the work.
In works of art, as a rule, two types of conflicts. First conflict incidents: contradictions are local and transient, closed within a single set of circumstances and fundamentally resolvable by the will of individual people. The second - conflicts "substantial", those. stable and long-term contradictory positions, a certain state of life that arise and disappear not due to single actions and accomplishments, but according to the “will” of history, elements, nature, fate.
Composition ( from the Latin compposito - compilation, connection) - a significant ratio of parts of a work of art. The main elements of the composition are repeat, creating rhythmic patterns, and violation repeat (contrast).
The composition is always meaning, and in a verbal text - semantic.
The types of composition are diverse and cover all forms of organization of a work of art. Thus, Dante's "Divine Comedy" is divided into three parts, each of which is divided into a corresponding number of songs. "Paradise" and "Purgatory" have 33 songs each, and "Hell", as an expression of imperfection (reflected in the structure of "irregularity") has 34 songs. Each of the parts ends with the word "stars". The whole poem is divided into tertsina (three-line stanzas). Such a composition of the poem has a deep philosophical and artistic motivation and can serve as an example of the perfection of the composition.
Plot is active composition element. For most of the literary forms, the plot composition is built according to uniform schemes. Understanding types and forms fairy tales, Propp showed that, for all their plot diversity, they exist according to a single scheme of plot composition.
Composition is also defined the ratio of the plot - the compositional correlation of episodes, to the plot those. logical and structural sequence of events, which is narrated in the work.
Every minute every second of stage action is an uninterrupted duel. The director needs to remember that there is no stage life at all, without conflict ... Having built a chain of events, one must find in them that sequential chain of conflicts from which action arises. (G. Tovstonogov).
Exactly fact, revealing the conflict relations of several actors and encouraging them to act we call it a "dramatic event".“Often the plot itself and its facts are of no importance. They cannot create the leading line of the performance, which the viewer follows with bated breath. In such plays, not the facts themselves, but attitude to them, the characters become the main center, the essence, which the viewer follows with a beating heart. In such plays, facts are needed, because they provide a reason and a place for filling them with inner content. Such, for example, are Chekhov's plays. (K. S. Stanislavsky).
“All the meaning and all the drama of a person is inside, and not in the external manifestation. There was drama ... up to this moment, there will be drama after that ... and the shot is not a drama, but an accident. (A.P. Chekhov).
The event always expresses, embodies the conflict of all persons who are simultaneously brought out by the author for action.
For a dramatic writer, the main means for expressing his idea is to build a struggle that takes place before the eyes of the viewer and forces the viewer to take part in this struggle on one side or another, i.e. the spectator must turn his sympathies to one of the contending parties. This struggle can be very diverse. Conflicting groups of people can fight, one person can fight against all the others, everyone can fight with someone or something that is beyond the real reach of all the actors. But in the drama, obviously, there cannot be one character who did not take part in the struggle. Each emerging character, obviously, is necessary for the author only so that, participating in the conflict, he either attracts the viewer to his side, or, conversely, repels him.
Different authors choose different occasions around which the interests of their characters collide. Shakespeare's heroes are worried about unusual, sometimes scandalous incidents - "Claudius, having corrected all the norms of mourning for the deceased king, arranges a solemn reception in the palace."
What about Chekhov's characters? Did they think that their so natural coming into the room of the frustrated Uncle Vanya would be an occasion for an attempt on the life of one of them? Can it be called an event that the Serebryakovs entered Voinitsky's room at the wrong time?
The main conflict manifests itself from the very first conflict fact and is exhausted with the last - the denouement. Between the first conflicting fact and the last, the idea of the play develops not “in the form of a maxim”, but in the actions of “living images”. Between the first and last conflicting facts, all the richness of the play is revealed: atmosphere, characters, vocabulary, variety of proposed circumstances, the nature of the plot, stylistic features.
It is curious that even Aristotle, in fact, also saw only two main semantic and structural knots of the play: “There are two parts in every tragedy: the plot and the denouement; the first usually embraces events that are outside (the drama), and some of those that lie in itself, and the second - the rest. Obviously, the last conflicting fact of the play should be the final point of the "rest".
Idea of any work of art is not so much a speculative category as an emotional one. The viewer perceives the idea through shock (of course, ideally), through what Aristotle defined by the concept of "catharsis" - tragic cleansing.
The conflict grows and develops until the very end of the play. And naturally, the most important conflicting fact (facts), which most fully reflect the essence of the play, should also be at the end of the play. That is why the main event is always before the denouement event, or coincides with it.
In Hamlet, the main event is "the death of Hamlet, all members of the royal family and their entourage"; in "Boris Godunov" - "the people did not accept the new tsar"; Ostrovsky ends The Dowry with the "death of Larisa". And to complete the play, Chekhov needed a seemingly completely meaningless fact - "Uncle Vanya - cried." If we compare these conflicting facts, so different in scale and character, with the first conflicting facts of the plays, then in each case we get a single stylistically complete picture of the action.
Motive (French motif, German motiv from Latin moveo - I move) is a term that has passed into literary criticism from musicology. It was first recorded in musical dictionary"S. de Brossard (1703).
In literary criticism, the concept of "motive" was used to characterize constituent parts the plot is still I.V. Goethe and F. Schiller. The article "On Epic and Dramatic Poetry" singles out five types of motifs: "rushing forward, which accelerate the action"; "retreating, those that move the action away from its goal"; "delaying, which delay the course of action"; "turned to the past"; "turned to the future, anticipating what will happen in subsequent epochs."
The concept of motive as the simplest narrative unit was first theoretically substantiated in A.N. Veselovsky. In his work we find: “By motive, I mean a formula that, at first, answers the public to questions that nature everywhere posed to man, or fixes especially vivid, seemingly important or repetitive impressions of reality. A sign of motive is its figurative one-term schematism; lower mythology and fairy tales: someone steals the sun (eclipse), lightning-fire is blown from the sky by a bird, the salmon has a tail with an interception: it has been pinched, etc., clouds do not give rain, the water in the source has dried up: hostile forces buried them , keep moisture locked up and the enemy must be overcome, marriages with animals, transformations, an evil old woman harasses a beautiful woman, or someone kidnaps her, and she has to be mined by force or dexterity, etc.".
According to Veselovsky, the simplest kind of motive can be expressed as follows: a + b: the evil old woman does not love the beauty - and sets her a life-threatening task. Every part of the formula is subject to change. Especially subject to increment b; there can be two, three (favorite folk number) or more tasks; there will be a meeting along the way of the hero, but there may be several of them. So the motif grew into a plot.
In Veselovsky's understanding, the creative activity of the writer's fantasy is not an arbitrary game of "living pictures" of real or imaginary life. The writer thinks in terms of motives, and each motive has a stable set of meanings, partly genetically embedded in it, partly appearing in the process of a long historical life.
Veselovsky's position on the motive as an indecomposable and stable unit of narration was revised in the 1920s. “According to Veselovsky, the term “motive” can no longer be applied at the present time,” V. Propp wrote. “According to Veselovsky, a motive is an indecomposable unit of narration.<…>However, the motives that he cites as examples are decomposed. " Propp V.Ya. Morphology of a fairy tale. L., 1928. S. 21-22. Propp demonstrates the decomposition of the motive "the snake kidnaps the king's daughter." elements, of which each individually can vary. The serpent can be replaced by Koshchei, whirlwind, devil, falcon, sorcerer. Abduction can be replaced by vampirism and various deeds by which disappearance is achieved in a fairy tale. A daughter can be replaced by a sister, fiancee, wife, mother. The king can be replaced by a king's son, a peasant, a priest. Thus, contrary to Veselovsky, we must assert that the motive is not monomial, not indecomposable. The last decomposable unit as such is not a logical whole. Agreeing with Veselovsky that the part is more primary than the whole for description, we will subsequently have to solve the problem of identifying some primary elements differently than Veselovsky does. "Ibid., p. 22.
Veselovsky's point of view was also challenged by other scholars. After all, motives originated not only in the primitive era, but also later. "It is important to find such a definition of this term," A. Beem wrote, "that would make it possible to single it out in any work, both ancient and modern." According to A. Bem, "the motive is the ultimate stage of artistic abstraction from the specific content of the work, fixed in the simplest verbal formula." Beem A. To the understanding of historical and literary concepts//Izvestiya/ORYAS AN. 1918. T. 23. Book. 1. S. 231. As an example, the scientist cites a motive that unites three works: poems " Prisoner of the Caucasus"Pushkin," Lermontov's "Prisoner of the Caucasus" and the story "Atala" by Chateaubriand - this is the love of a foreign woman for a prisoner; an incoming motive: the release of a prisoner by a foreign land, either successful or unsuccessful. And as a development of the original motive - the death of the heroine.
Of particular difficulty is the selection of motives in the literature recent centuries. A variety of motives, a complex functional load requires special scrupulousness in their study.
The motive is often considered as a category of comparative historical literary criticism. Motives are identified that have very ancient origins, leading to primitive consciousness and at the same time developed in conditions of high civilization. different countries. Such are the motives of the prodigal son, the proud king, the pact with the devil, and so on.
Motifs can be not only narrative, but also descriptive, lyrical, not only intertextual (Veselovsky means just such), but also intratextual. We can talk about the symbolism of the motive - both in its repetition from text to text, and within one text. IN modern literary criticism the term "motive" is used in different methodological contexts and for different purposes, which largely explains the differences in the interpretation of the concept, its most important properties.
The generally accepted indicator of a motive is its repetition. "... Any phenomenon, any semantic "spot" - an event, a character trait, an element of the landscape, any object, a spoken word, paint, sound, etc., can act as a motive in a work, - B. Gasparov believes, what defines the motif is its reproduction in the text, so that unlike the traditional plot narrative, where it is more or less predetermined what can be considered discrete components ("characters" or "events"), there is no given "alphabet" - it is formed directly in the deployment of the structure and through the structure. Gasparov B.M. literary leitmotifs In: Essays on Russian literature of the XX century. M., 1994. S. 30-31
For example, in the novel by V. Nabokov "Feat" one can single out the motifs of the sea, flashing lights, a path leading into the forest. In the same novel, another motive - the alienness of the hero to the world around him - largely determines the development of the plot, contributes to the clarification of the main idea. And if in "Feat" the motive of alienation is limited to exile, then in other works of Nabokov it acquires a broader meaning and can be defined as the motive of the alienity of the hero of the vulgarity and mediocrity of the surrounding world.
The leading motive in one or many works of the writer can be defined as a leitmotif. Sometimes they talk about the leitmotif of some creative direction(German Leitmotiv; the term was introduced by musicologists, researchers of R. Wagner's work). Usually it becomes an emotionally expressive basis for the realization of the idea of the work. For example, throughout the play A.P. Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard" goes through the motif of the cherry orchard as a symbol of the Home, beauty and sustainability of life.
We can talk about the special role of both the leitmotif and the motive in the organization of the second, secret meaning of the work, in other words, the subtext, the undercurrent.
Special "relationships" connect the motif and leitmotif with the theme of the work. In the 1920s, a thematic approach to the study of motive was established. "Episodes break up into even smaller parts that describe individual actions, events or things. The themes of such small parts of a work that can no longer be divided are called motives," B. Tomashevsky wrote. Tomashevsky B. Poetics: A Short Course. M., 1996. S. 71. The motive can be regarded as the development, expansion and deepening of the main theme. For example, the theme of the story
F.M. Dostoevsky's "Double" is a split personality of the poor official Golyadkin, who is trying to establish himself in a society that has rejected him with the help of his confident and arrogant "double". As the main theme unfolds, motifs of loneliness, restlessness, hopeless love, the hero's "mismatch" with the surrounding life arise. The leitmotif of the whole story can be considered the motive of the fatal doom of the hero, despite his desperate resistance to circumstances.
In modern literary criticism there is a tendency to consider art system works from the point of view of leitmotif construction.
IN lyrical work motive is primarily a recurring complex of feelings and ideas. But individual motifs in lyrics are much more independent than in epic and drama, where they are subordinated to the development of the action.
The basic law of mythological and then folklore plot formation is that the significance expressed in the character's name and, consequently, in his metaphorical essence, unfolds into an action that constitutes a motive; the hero does only what he semantically means. The tree deity dies and resurrects on the tree, the water deity drowns and is saved from the water, the fire deity burns and rises from the fire, the animal deity fights the beast and emerges victorious. But why does it do this and not something else? Because the character is nature,
she is a totem, in the struggle, in the changing immutability of the same thing, presented as a life process (from our point of view!), all states and actions of a primitive character are contained. Thus, in a mythological plot (by which one should understand not the plot of a myth, but a plot created by myth-making thinking, i.e. the plot and the character, and things, and actions), the motives are not only associated with the character, but are his effective form 933 , the plot - this is a system of multi-stage-formed identities of a material, social (actors) and effective nature, not connected by a logical sequence. Personification thinking plays a crucial role here. Each image is embodied; these incarnations receive detailed motives for actions and states in ritual and myth. As long as we are talking about an animal and plant character and plot, Western science reveals its genesis quite easily, but anthropomorphic metaphorism is usually taken for realism. Meanwhile, the personified motive of "fight" is a warrior who can be a hero, a hero, a defender of the motherland, fighting with his brother, son, father, enemy - all the same, the motives about him will be formed from the same varieties of duel, exploits or battles. The personified motif of the “floating” or “walking” sun will be expressed in a wanderer, wayfarer, navigator, but also in a person descending underground or rising up (an acrobat), here the motives will give travel, wanderings in a foreign land, departures-arrivals. Similarly, the “cook” is the personified motive of food, the “doctor” is the personified motive of life, and so on. Both the character and the plot are equally metaphors, and therefore they are not only related to each other, but semantically completely identical, although two independent parallels in the design of two different sides of totemistic thinking, personification and actualization. But a mythological plot is a plot in which its entire composition, without exception, is semantically identical with external differences in the forms expressing this identity - that is, an anti-causal plot is based on.
