What is a plot in literature, a brief definition. Fabula in literary theory

FABULA AND PLOT - what's the difference?

The plot is events arranged in their natural, chronological order, the way they could happen in reality.

The plot and plot may coincide, but often this does not happen.
A classic example is Lermontov's “Hero of Our Time.”

If the events described are arranged chronologically, it will look like this:
4 - I. Taman (“Taman”)
5 - II. Pyatigorsk - Kislovodsk (“Princess Mary”)
6 - III. Stanitsa (“Fatalist”)
1 - IV. Fortress (Bela)
2 - V. Vladikavkaz (“Maksim Maksimych”)
3 - VI. The Road from Persia (“Preface to Pechorin’s Journal”)

But in the novel the sequence of events is different:

IV - 1. “Bela” (fortress)
V - 2. “Maksim Maksimych” (Vladikavkaz)
VI - 3. “Preface to Pechorin’s Journal” (road from Persia)
I - 4. “Taman” (Taman)
II - 5. “Princess Mary” (Pyatigorsk - Kislovodsk)
III - 6. “Fatalist” (stanitsa)

The author deliberately violated the chronological sequence (for example, the death of the hero is reported almost at the beginning of the novel), some events are deliberately hushed up or reported in passing (for example, nothing is said about what Pechorin did after leaving Taman and before arriving in Pyatigorsk). In some episodes the pace of the story slows down, in others it deliberately speeds up. The author uses these techniques for one purpose - a detailed development of the image of the main character.
The author draws the reader's attention to the development of the characters' characters, their actions, experiences, that is, to the interaction of characters and circumstances. What occurs is not a chronological, but a semantic concatenation of images.

TYPES OF STORIES

In general, if you look at the very root, there are not so many plots (=life situations).
Thus, Georges Polti reduced all life collisions to just 36 situations. (more details here http://www.kinocafe.ru/theory/?tid=51701)

However, their plot design gives countless combinations, due to which world literature still existed.

The classification of plots is based on the principle of relationships between events.

If events are correlated only in time, that is, first event A occurs, and then event B, then they speak of CHRONICAL STORIES.

If events also have a cause-and-effect relationship with each other (event A was the cause of event B), then this is a CONCENTRIC PLOT.

It sounds confusing, but there is an excellent – clarifying – example (taken from E.M. Forster's Aspects of the Novel).
The phrase “The king died and then the queen died” is an example of a newsreel plot.
And the phrase “The king died, and then the queen died - from grief” is a concentric plot.

CHRONICLE STORIES

Events are connected chronological order presentation, i.e., in essence, the plot coincides with the plot.
There is no clearly defined plot; the development of action is dominated by temporary motivations.
There is no central conflict, so the actions are not consistent. One conflict may give way to another.
Examples of such works are Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, L. Tolstoy’s trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth”, M. Saltykov-Shchedrin “The History of a City”, D. Defoe “Robinson Crusoe”

CONCENTRIC STORIES

One comes to the fore life situation, the work is built on one event line.
Events are interconnected by cause-and-effect relationships and follow the logic of the development of the main conflict. Chronological connections may be broken.
The beginning and ending are easily distinguished.

Sometimes a third type of plot is distinguished - MULTILINEAR, in which several plot lines unfold. They can run parallel, intersecting with each other from time to time. The inclusion of a new line in a work is determined by cause-and-effect relationships.
Examples of such works are L. Tolstoy “Anna Karenina”, “War and Peace”, M. Sholokhov “ Quiet Don", J. Galsworthy "The Forsyte Saga"

So, the plot is the result of artistic intervention, creating a harmonious universe from events that nature left in a state of chaos (R. Moulton).

If the plot is not equal to the plot, they speak of reverse plot composition.

WHAT IS COMPOSITION?

Composition, also known as structure, also known as architectonics, is the arrangement of parts of a work in a certain order, which is intended by the author, and which, in his opinion, most effectively affects the reader.

Next, let us turn to M. Weller’s “Technology of Story,” where he highlights the following types compositions:
1. Direct flow composition
2. Banding.
3. Spot
4. Wicker composition.
5. Action-packed composition.
6. Detective composition.
7. Two-tailed composition.
8. Inversion composition.
9. Hinged composition.
10. Counterpoint.
11. Revolver composition.
You can read more here http://lib.rus.ec/b/133136/read#t4

In this article we will focus only on the type of composition that you will have to use in your competition work.
So,

7. Two-tailed composition.

Perhaps the most effective technique in constructing prose. In literature the first half of the 19th century century was encountered in this form: some event described turns out to be a dream, and then the work ends in a completely different way than the reader expected (Pushkin’s “The Undertaker”).
The most famous example is Ambrose Bierce's story "An Incident at Owl Creek Bridge":
the scout is hanged, the rope breaks, he falls into the water, escapes from shooting and persecution, after ordeals reaches his home - but all this only seemed to him in the last moments of his life, “his body swayed under the railing of the bridge.”

This construction is akin to the inquisitorial “torture by hope”: the condemned person is given the opportunity to escape, but at the last moment he falls into the arms of the jailers, waiting for him at the very exit to freedom. The reader tunes in successful outcome, empathizes with the hero, and the strongest contrast between happy ending, which the narrative has already reached, and tragic, as it turns out to be in reality, gives rise to a huge emotional impact.

Here, at a key moment, the narrative bifurcates, and the reader is offered two options for continuation and ending: first, prosperous and happy, then they cross it out, declaring an unfulfilled dream, and they give the second, real one.

Typically used to create a tragic tone, " bad endings”, although in principle it is possible on the contrary - to establish a bright ending, completing events that are dark in color with a life-affirming episode from another time layer.
(c) M. Weller. Story technology.

In the 19th century, plot meant the theme of a work. Fable - a set of events in their intercom. Temporal, chronological sequence of events. Relationships are cause-and-effect, that is, one event gives rise to another. The set of events in their logical space-time connection is called a plot.

A little differently: Fable is the factual side of the story, those events, incidents, actions, states in their causal and chronological sequence, which are assembled and formalized by the author in the plot based on the patterns seen by the author in the development of the depicted phenomena.

The plot is a set of the same motives in the sequence and connection that are given in the work. The plot almost never coincides with the plot.

The plot is the events that “seemed” to have happened in reality, the plot is how the reader learned about it.

The functions that the rearrangement of the plot performs are very different.

Example: “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” - death at the beginning to relieve the tense anticipation of the denouement. Your example: “Hero of our time.” In “Hero...” the violation of the plot serves to gradually penetrate the reader into peace of mind hero. 1) the hero through the eyes of another hero - Maxim Maksimych (Bela) 2) a meeting between the author and the narrator (Maksim Maksimych) 3) the hero’s diary, the hero’s introspection (Pechorin’s Journal)

“Easy Breathing” Bunin. It begins with a description of the cemetery where Olya Meshcherskaya rests, and ends with the cemetery. The function may be the same as in “The Death of Ivan Ilyich,” but I’m not sure, think for yourself.

Fabular development can be generally characterized as a transition from one situation to another, each situation characterized by a contradiction of elements - collision and the struggle between the characters. Fighting is called intrigue. The development of intrigue leads to the elimination of contradictions. Usually at the end of the plot we have a situation in which all contradictions are reconciled and interests are agreed upon. If a situation containing contradictions causes the movement of the plot, since one of the two struggling principles must prevail, and their long-term existence is impossible, then the reconciled situation does not cause further movement, does not arouse expectations in the reader, and therefore this situation is the end and is called denouement. The set of events that violate the immobility of the initial situation and begin to move is called tie. Variation of actions that determine the main contradiction - twists and turns. Before decoupling, the voltage usually reaches highest point. This culminating point of tension is usually called German word spannung. He is as if an antithesis in the simplest dialectical construction of the plot.

But it is not enough to invent only an entertaining chain of events, limiting them to a beginning and an end. It is necessary to distribute these events, to make a literary combination from the fabular material. The artistically constructed distribution of events in a work is called a plot. The plot is the organizing principle.

The plot has a unique range of content functions. Firstly, it captures the picture of the world (a person’s connections with his environment, his place in reality). Secondly, the plot recreates life’s contradictions (conflict). B-3, helps to recreate the volitional principle in a person.

Plot and plot. Plot – (subject), the sequence of events underlying the story. Fabula - (fables), the sequence of events that the author arranged them. In a plot, the plot shows the actions in their entirety to the causal interactions of events. The theory of plot was developed and studied by scientists: V.Ya. Props, A.N. Veselovsky, Tomashevsky. The most important aspects of plot theory are: 1. plot is a systemic unity of events and descriptions. 2. The social plot of a work of art is a composite one, it identifies macro and micro plots (storylines of individual characters, set plots, development of relationships between characters: love, friendship.). Highlight: external and internal (the internal struggle of the heroes). 3. lies at the heart of the plot conflict. Conflict permeates the entire structure of the plot and the opposing force. Main conflicts: natural(heroes join the fight) – “Mtsyri”, social(one part challenges another part), internal(I don’t agree with myself), providential(ch. opposes the laws of fate or deity). The conflict determines the main stages of plot development: the origin of the conflict - the plot. Further development. Then the climax, the highest aggravation. And conflict resolution.

The word “plot” denotes a chain of events recreated in a literary work, i.e. the life of the characters in its spatio-temporal changes, in changing positions and circumstances. The events depicted by writers form the basis of the objective world of the work. The plot is the organizing principle of the dramatic, epic and lyric-epic genres. The events that make up the plot are related in different ways to the facts of reality that precede the appearance of the work. Components of a plot: motive (connected motives, free motives, repeating or leitmotifs), exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement. In epic and lyrical these components can be arranged in any sequence, and in dramatic they follow strictly in order. With all the variety of plots, their varieties can be classified into 2 main types: chronicle, i.e. events follow one after another ; and concentric, i.e. events are connected not by a chronotopic connection, but by a cause-and-effect associative one, i.e. every previous event is the cause of the subsequent one. Plot is a set of events in their mutual internal connection. The plots in different works can be very similar to each other, but the plot is always uniquely individual. The plot is always richer than the plot, because the plot represents only factual information, and the plot implements subtextual information. The plot focuses only on the external events of the hero’s life. The plot, in addition to external events, includes the psychological state of the hero, his thoughts, subconscious impulses, i.e. any minute changes in the hero himself and the surrounding environment. Components of the plot can be considered thin events or motive. Conflict is a contradiction of interests. There are external conflicts, which are based on the contradiction of interests between an individual and another person or society (love conflict, family-household, social-public, philosophical). Another variety is internal conflicts, i.e. contradiction of interests within the framework of one human consciousness. (a contradiction of interests between the soul and the mind, between the innate acquired qualities of a person, between the conscious and the unconscious in a person. A private conflict is a contradiction that arises and develops in a separate episode of production.

Plot comes from the word “subject”. Originates in France. Often the plot is an allusion. The word "plot" means "a story borrowed from the past, subject to the playwright's treatment." Fabula is a legend, myth, fable, an older concept.

Discrepancy between plot and plot. Example: “Boris Godunov” by Pushkin, Karamzin and historians.

Pospelov: “The plot is subsequence events and actions, contained in the work event chain. Fabula is a plot diagram, a straightened plot.”

Veselovsky: “The plot is an artistically constructed distribution of events.” “Fabula is a set of events in their mutual internal connection.”

Tomashevsky: “The plot is the action of the work in its entirety, the real chain of depicted movements. A simple unit of plot is any movement. Fable is a scheme of action, a system of main events that can be retold. The simplest unit of plot is a motive or event, and the main elements are the plot, the development of action, the climax, and the denouement.”

Three-volume book on literary theory: “Plot is a system of settings with the help of which an action should be carried out. Canvas, skeleton. The plot is the very process of action, the pattern, the fabric that dresses the bones of the skeleton.”

Plot is a system of events in their artistic logic. The plot is in the logic of life. The plot is the dynamic side of the work. Elements in dynamics.

Types of plots:

Beletsky – autobiographical plot (Tolstoy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth”). Mid 19th century. Extrapersonal subjects are selected from a sphere that lies outside the author’s personal experience. Other people's plots are a conscious orientation towards another work. Postmodernism.

Single-line (concentric) plots are centripetal. Chronicle stories. Multilinear plots (centrifugal) - several plotlines with independent development.

Plot elements: exposition is the initial part of the work, performing an informative function. The conflict has not yet been planned, preparations for it. The plot is the moment when a conflict arises or is discovered. The development of the action is a series of episodes in which the heroes strive to resolve the conflict, but it becomes increasingly tense. Climax - moment highest voltage when the conflict is maximally developed and it becomes clear that contradictions cannot exist in their previous form and require immediate resolution. Resolution - when the conflict is resolved: 1) the conflict is resolved; 2) the conflict is fundamentally unresolvable. Extra-plot elements - prologue, epilogue, digressions.

Event - fact of life. The 20th century is the subject of depiction of human consciousness; the flow of words itself can become a plot.

The lyrical plot is different stages in the development of lyrical experience.

2.Assonance – consonance of vowel sounds (mostly percussive), especially in imprecise rhyme (“sadness - I’ll light up”).

Alliteration – repetition of homogeneous consonants, giving literary text, usually poetry, has special sound and intonation expressiveness. “The hiss of foamy glasses and the blue flame of punch,” - PUSHKIN

Onomatopoeia – conditional reproduction of sounds of nature (cries of birds and animals), reflective exclamations of people, sounds produced by objects, etc. Creating words whose sound shells to some extent resemble the following sounds: meow - meow, ha-ha-ha, tick - tock.

Plot and plot

Terms used in various ways to denote the sequence of events in literary works. To date, the plot is understood as events recreated in a work, which are connected by a temporal sequence and a logical, cause-and-effect relationship. The plot is an “artistically constructed distribution of events” (B.V. Tomashevsky), a set of plot motives, data in the sequence and with the degree of completeness that is necessary for implementation author's intention. In other words, the plot is the eventual backbone of the work, a kind of summary in which one event naturally follows from another and cannot be skipped without violating the general logic. The plot is a form of embodiment of the plot; he organizes the plot material, sometimes whimsically varying and modifying it: the story of events may be accompanied by a violation of the chronological sequence, speeding up or slowing down the pace of the narrative, omissions or, conversely, artistic concretization and detailed development of individual moments that are most important from the author’s point of view. So, for example, the plot of “A Hero of Our Time” is constructed, where the death of the hero is reported closer to the beginning of the novel, in the Preface to “Pechorin’s Journal”, various episodes of his life are presented in violation of chronology, and many life circumstances either nothing is said or it is reported in passing (in particular, practically nothing is said about what Pechorin did after leaving Taman and before arriving in Pyatigorsk: only by a few hints, restoring everyday logic, one can understand that he participated in the hostilities against the highlanders, during which I had the opportunity to get to know Grushnitsky well).
For the initial stage of literary development, the distinction between plot and plot is not very characteristic; the plot appears as a means of realizing the plot, since the emphasis was mainly on the external action and entertaining nature of the story, and the characters were interesting, in essence, only by their actions and trials, by what happened to them. (However, already in the Odyssey the chronology is broken and the main adventures of the hero are told retrospectively.) In the literature of modern times and especially in the era realism the meaning of the plot, which provides rich material for the intricate intrigue, drops sharply: interest is transferred to the inner life of the characters and the author’s decision on certain philosophical, moral, psychological and social problems. In the literary consciousness, the opinion is affirmed that a work of art is better the more it is devoted to internal and less to external life, that “the plot must be new, but the plot may be absent” (A.P. Chekhov). External events play a secondary role and are reduced to a minimum, allowing the author to focus on introspection, in-depth understanding of characters and accurate reconstruction of realities surrounding reality. In this regard, many writers built the plots of their works on deliberately simple plots, neglecting twists and turns and focusing on “free” motives that are not directly related to the course of events, descriptions, expressive details of appearance, landscape or interior, dialogues and monologues (including internal ones), reasoning on religious, moral, philosophical or literary topics.
Among the variety of plots, it is customary to distinguish three main types: concentric, unfolding around one conflict and subordinate to cause-and-effect relationships (“The Inspector General” by N.V. Gogol, “Masquerade” M. Yu. Lermontov, “Crime and Punishment” F.M. Dostoevsky, “Despair” V.V. Nabokov), chronicle - with a predominance of temporal correlation between events (the trilogy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, “Youth” by L.N. Tolstoy, “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin, “In Search of Lost Time” M. Proust) and multilinear, in which several event lines unfold in parallel, intersecting with each other from time to time (“War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” by L.N. Tolstoy, “Three Sisters” by A.P. Chekhov, “Quiet Don” M. A. Sholokhov, “The Master and Margarita” M. A. Bulgakov).

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

See what “plot and plot” are in other dictionaries:

The factual side of the narrative, those events, incidents, actions, states in their causal chronological sequence, which are assembled and formalized by the author in the plot (see) on the basis of the patterns perceived by the author in the development... ... Literary encyclopedia

1. S. in literature, a reflection of the dynamics of reality in the form of the action unfolding in the work, in the form of internally connected (causal and temporal connection) actions of characters, events that form a certain unity, constituting some ... Literary encyclopedia

Plot- PLOT is the narrative core of a work of art, a system of effective (factual) mutual direction and arrangement of speakers in this work persons (objects), provisions put forward in it, events developing in it... ...

- (from the French sujet subject) in literature, drama, theater, cinema and games, a series of events (sequence of scenes, acts) occurring in work of art(on the theater stage), and built for the reader (viewer, player) ... Wikipedia

plot- PLOT, intrigue, plot... Dictionary-thesaurus of synonyms of Russian speech

plot- a, m. 1) Development of action, course of events that make up the main content literary work, movie, etc. The plot of an unfinished story. Fascinating story. [Trigorin:] When I finish work... I should relax here, forget myself, but no, in... ... Popular dictionary of the Russian language

- (Latin, from fabulari to tell). Plan, outline of some literary work; case, event, incident that served as its content. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. FABULA lat. tabula... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Cm … Dictionary of synonyms

Fable- FABULA. A fable in the precise sense of the word is a “fable,” an invented incident told not on its own, but for the purpose of teaching, entertaining, or ridiculing something. Like any form, it first had its simplest, “embryonic”... ... Dictionary of literary terms

Books

Nothing in the safe. Lemons never lie. Fatal milestone. Parker and the Amateur, Richard Stark. A collection of novels by one of the most famous American writers R. Stark (pseudonym of Edwin Westake). He is officially recognized as America's Master Detective. A sharp plot, an extraordinary plot,...

The plot and plot is events depicted and the way they are reported in epic, dramatic, and partly lyrical works. In Aristotle's Poetics, the "imitation" of action is called, according to the sources of what is represented in tragedy, the word "myth." It was translated into Latin as fabula, in the modern Russian translation by M.L. Gasparov it is neutral - “legend”. This is not only the source, but also the artistic action itself, to which the ancient theorist attached more importance than characters: “Without action, tragedy is impossible, but without characters it is possible: the tragedies of so many newest poets- without characters... Therefore, the beginning and, as it were, the soul of the tragedy is precisely the legend, and only secondarily - the characters.” The Renaissance and early classicist followers of Aristotle and other ancient authorities used the word “fable”, without relating it to any pair. L. Castelvetro, overcoming imitation of authorities, in the treatise “Poetics” of Aristotle, set out on vernacular and interpreted" (1570) challenges the opinion, widespread since the times of Roman rhetoric, based on the examples of Homer and Virgil, that "the order of poetic narration must be different from the order of historical narration": if the second follows a natural order, then the first "starts from the middle or end, so that then, taking the opportunity, return in digressions to the events that happened at the beginning and in the middle” (Literary Manifestos of Western European Classicists, 1980). But Castelvetro quite dogmatically sets for tragedy and comedy the “proper length of the plot,” not exceeding 12 hours. It's obvious that we're talking about about artistic time, not time theatrical performance. Figures of French classicism and the Enlightenment (P. Corneille, D. Diderot, etc.) began to use the word “Plot”, which meant “stories” borrowed from the past that were to be processed by the playwright. Later, the meaning of the word expanded, but in Russian it remained narrower than the meaning of the literally corresponding word “object”. Comparative-historical literary criticism could not help but schematize the concept of plot, looking for something common in the literature of all countries and peoples (A.N. Veselovsky, who identified plot with theme, defined its complex scheme, consisting of motives). A.A. Potebnya gave it the meaning of psychological abstraction - the result of abstraction from the specific content of a work of repeated forms human relations and experiences.

Fabula in literary theory

The word “fable” in literary theory, as a rule, remained the Latin name for a fable. But F.M. Dostoevsky, A.P. Chekhov are already applying it to modern literature in the meaning of a developing chain of events. The words “the plot must be new, but the plot may be absent” (Chekhov A.P. Poly. collected works and letters: In 30 volumes. Letters, 1976. Volume 3) mean the requirement of originality of the plan and the recognition of the optionality of intrigue, a special organization of invented incidents. In the 1910-20s, literary formalists V.B. Shklovsky, Yu.N. Tynyanov, B.V. Tomashevsky terminologically consolidated this understanding of the plot and essentially rejected it artistic significance: for them she was the bearer of “material”, which is “removed” by the form, namely the plot. For formalists, it is not an abstraction, but, on the contrary, an artistic concretization, a full-fledged embodiment of the plot, allowing for the rearrangement of events in time. In 1928, M.M. Bakhtin (P.N. Medvedev) did not agree with the opposition of plot and plot, calling them “essentially a single constructive element of the work. As a plot, this element is determined in the direction towards the pole of the thematic unity of the completed reality, as a plot, in the direction towards the pole of the final reality of the work” (Medvedev P.N. Formal method in literary criticism, 1993). L.I. Timofeev considered the concept of plot unnecessary. In the theory of literature by G.N. Pospelov, the concepts of plot and fabula were included in accordance with the etymology of words, in the opposite relationship proposed by the formalists: the plot as something reflected was included in the “subject detail”, the plot means manipulation with it in an epic narrative or drama. Both interpretations of the relationship between plot and plot are presented in modern literary criticism; the second is sometimes defined as predominant (Khalizev V.E. Theory of Literature, 1999).

The plot as a sequence of events depicted is “objective”: time in it is linear, space is integral, not discrete (unless it is fantastic), events occur regardless of which of the characters sees them and in what language they could talk about them. or the narrator is free in the form of presentation of the plot, i.e. in the plot, regardless of its fantasticness or plausibility. In this case, the plot is the organization of the narrative and dramatic action, which can never coincide with the plot, being a form of its implementation, in most cases very variable. The plot ends with a denouement (the death of Pechorin in the middle of the text of the novel), the plot ends with a finale (the feat of the living Pechorin in “Fatalist”). The plot is divided into concentric ones, in which there is a cause-and-effect relationship of events, as in “Eugene Onegin” (the death of Uncle Eugene and his arrival in the village, meeting Lensky, and through him the Larins), and freer chronicle ones, where more or less Only the sequence of events in time is less consistent, although rearrangements are possible in them (biography of Chichikov in last chapter first volume of Dead Souls, 1842). The plot can be called complex artistically- the image of an event or chain of events. Usually to extra-plot elements figurative world include a prologue, various digressions (lyrical, as in “ Dead souls”, journalistic and philosophical, as in “War and Peace”, insert novellas like Gogol’s “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” in “Dead Souls”; they have their own plots), an epilogue or conclusion, and sometimes an exposition. There are works with several storylines, more or less interdependent, and even with several plots (ancient Russian “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia”, 15th century; “Hero of Our Time”, 1839-40, M.Yu. Lermontov, where, however, the plots of five stories create a single plot - the life story of Pechorin; “The Old Woman Izergil”, 1895, M. Gorky). Only epic and drama have a full plot. In the lyrics, the plot occurs, but plays a service role, often turning out to be an allegory (“Cliff”, 1841, Lermontov); in other cases, the event plan makes the work lyroepic (Lermontov’s ballad “Airship”, 1840).
The word plot comes from French sujet, which means object. The word fabula comes from the Latin fabula, which means story, narration.