Composition and plot of a work of art. Folk tale index

Idea artwork.

Idea(from the Greek idea - prototype, ideal) - the main idea of ​​​​the work, expressed through its entire figurative system. It is the mode of expression that distinguishes the idea of ​​a work of art from a scientific idea.

The main thesis of statements about art by V.G. Plekhanov - “art cannot live without an idea” - and he repeats this idea repeatedly, analyzing this or that work of art. “The merit of a work of art,” writes Plekhanov, “is determined in the last analysis by the weight of that feeling, the depth of the idea that it expresses.”

For educational literatureХУ111 c. was characterized by high ideological content, due to the desire to reorganize society on the principles of reason. At the same time, the so-called salon, aristocratic literature "in the rococo style", devoid of high citizenship, also developed.

And in the future, in literature and art, there have always existed and exist two parallel ideological currents, sometimes touching and mixing, but more often separating and developing independently, gravitating towards opposite poles.

In this regard, the problem of correlation in the work of "ideological" and "artistic" is extremely important. But even outstanding artists words are far from always able to translate the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bdesign into a perfect art form. Most often, writers who are completely “absorbed” by carrying out this or that idea stray into ordinary journalism and rhetoric, leaving artistic expressiveness on the second and third planes. This applies equally to all genres of art. According to V.G. Belinsky, the idea of ​​a work "is not an abstract thought, not a dead form, but a living creation."

1. 1. Theme of the artwork .

Subject(from Greek thema) - what is put in the basis, the main problem and the main circle life events depicted by the writer. The theme of the work is inextricably linked with its idea. The selection of material, the formulation of problems (the choice of topic) is dictated by the ideas that the author would like to express in the work.

It was about this connection between the theme and the idea of ​​the work that M. Gorky wrote: “The theme is an idea that originated in the author’s experience, is suggested to him by life, but nestles in the receptacle of his impressions still unformed, and requiring embodiment in images, arouses in him the urge to work its design."

Along with the term "theme" is often used and close to it in meaning the term " themes". Its application indicates that the work includes not only the main, but also whole line subsidiary themes and subject lines; or the themes of many works are closely related to one or a set of several related themes, forming an extensive theme of one class.

The plot of a work of art.

Plot(from French sujet - subject) - the course of the narrative about the events unfolding and happening in a work of art. As a rule, any such episode is subordinated to the main or auxiliary storyline.

However, there is no single definition of this term in literary criticism. There are three main approaches:

1) a plot is a way of developing a theme or presenting a plot;

2) plot is a way of developing a theme or presenting a plot;

3) the plot and the plot do not have a fundamental difference.

The plot is based on the conflict (clash of interests and characters) between the characters. That is why where there is no narration (lyrics), there is no plot.

The term "plot" was introduced in the 11th century. classicists P. Corneille and N. Boileau, but they were followers of Aristotle. Aristotle called what is called a "plot" a "narrative." Hence the "storyline".

The plot consists of the following main elements:

exposition

Action development

climax

denouement

exposition(lat. expositio - explanation, presentation) - an element of the plot containing a description of the life of the characters before they begin to act in the work. direct exposure located at the beginning of the story delayed exposure fits anywhere, but it must be said that contemporary writers rarely use this plot element.

tie- the initial, starting episode of the plot. She usually appears at the beginning of the story, but this is not the rule. So, about Chichikov's desire to buy dead Souls we learn only at the end of Gogol's poem.

Development of action proceeds at will actors storytelling and author's intention. The development of the action precedes the climax.

climax(from lat. culmen - peak) - moment highest voltage actions in the work, its fracture. After the climax comes the denouement.

denouement- the final part of the plot, the end of the action, where the conflict is resolved and it turns out, the motivation for the actions of the main and some secondary characters and their psychological portraits are specified.

The denouement sometimes precedes the plot, especially in detective stories, where in order to interest the reader and capture his attention, the narrative begins with a murder.

Others auxiliary elements plot are prologue, background, digression, insert novel And epilogue.

However, in modern literary process we often do not meet with detailed expositions, or with prologues and epilogues, or with other elements of the plot, and even sometimes the plot itself is blurred, barely drawn, or even completely absent.

4. The plot of a work of art.

Plot (from lat. fabula - fable, story) - a sequence of events. This term was introduced by ancient Roman writers, apparently referring to the same property of narration that Aristotle spoke of.

Subsequently, the use of the terms "plot" and "plot" led to confusion, which is almost impossible to resolve without introducing other clarifying and explaining terms.

IN modern literary criticism the interpretation of correlation and plot, proposed by representatives of the Russian “formal school” and considered in detail in the works of G. Pospelov, is more often used. They understand the plot as “the events themselves”, chronologically recorded, while the plot is “the story of the events”.

Academician A.N. Veselovsky at work Historical poetics(1906) proposed the concept of " motive ”, giving it the meaning of the simplest narrative unit, similar to the concept of “element” in the periodic table. Combinations of the simplest motifs form, according to Veselovsky, the plot of a work of art.

5. Composition(from Latin compositio - compilation, binding) - the construction, arrangement of all elements of the form of a work of art, due to its content, nature and purpose, and largely determining its perception by the viewer, reader, listener.

Composition is internal and external.

To the sphere internal composition include all static elements of the work: portrait, landscape, interior, as well as extra-plot elements - exposure (prologue, introduction, prehistory), epilogue, inserted episodes, short stories; digressions (lyrical, philosophical, journalistic); motivations for narrative and description; forms of speech of characters (monologue, dialogue, correspondence, diary, notes; forms of narration (spatio-temporal, psychological, ideological, phraseological.

TO external composition refer division epic work on books, parts and chapters; lyrical - into parts and stanzas; lyric-epic - for songs; dramatic - on acts and pictures.

Much is known today about composition, as well as about other elements of the plot of a work of art, but not every author succeeds in compiling an ideal composition. The point, obviously, is not so much in "knowing" how to do it, but in the presence of talent, taste and sense of proportion of the artist.

In the limit general view the plot is a kind of basic scheme of the work, which includes the sequence of actions taking place in the work and the totality of the relations of the characters existing in it. The story usually includes the following items: exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement and postposition, and also, in some works, prologue and epilogue. The main prerequisite for the development of the plot is time, moreover, as historical period action, and the passage of time in the course of the work.

The concept of plot is closely related to the concept of the plot of a work. In modern Russian literary criticism(as well as in the practice of teaching literature at school) the term “plot” usually refers to the very course of events in a work, and the plot is understood as the main artistic conflict, which develops in the course of these events. Historically, there have been other, different from the above, views on the relationship between plot and plot. In the 1920s, representatives of OPOYAZ proposed to distinguish between two sides of the narrative: they called the development of events in the world of the work itself “plot”, and the way these events are depicted by the author - “plot”.

Another interpretation comes from Russian critics mid-nineteenth century and was also supported by A. N. Veselovsky and M. Gorky: they called the plot the very development of the action of the work, adding to this the relationship of the characters, and under the plot they understood the compositional side of the work, that is, how exactly the author communicates the content of the plot. It is easy to see that the meanings of the terms "plot" and "plot" in this interpretation, in comparison with the previous one, change places.

There is also a point of view that the concept of “plot” has no independent meaning, and for the analysis of a work it is quite enough to operate with the concepts of “plot”, “plot scheme”, “plot composition”.

Plot typology

Repeated attempts have been made to classify the plots of literary works, to divide them according to various signs, select the most typical. The analysis made it possible, in particular, to single out large group the so-called "wandering plots" - plots that are repeated many times in various designs in different peoples and in different regions, for the most part- V folk art(fairy tales, myths, legends).

There are several attempts to reduce all the variety of plots to a small, but at the same time exhaustive set. plot schemes. IN famous short story"Four cycles" Borges argues that all plots come down to just four options:

• On the assault and defense of the fortified city (Troy)
• About the long return (Odysseus)
• About Search (Jason)
• On the Suicide of God (Odin, Atys)

see also

Notes

Links

• The meaning of the word "plot" in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
• Brief contents of literary works of various authors
• Lunacharsky A.V., Thirty-six plots, Theater and Art magazine, 1912, N 34.
• Nikolaev A.I. The plot of a literary work // Fundamentals of Literary Studies: tutorial for students of philological specialties. - Ivanovo: LISTOS, 2011.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

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• Chen Zaidao

See what "Plot" is in other dictionaries:

Plot- 1. S. in literature, a reflection of the dynamics of reality in the form of an action unfolding in a work, in the form of internally connected (causally temporal) actions of characters, events that form a certain unity, constituting some ... Literary Encyclopedia

plot- a, m. sujet m. 1. An event or a series of interconnected and sequentially developing events that make up the content literary work. BAS 1. || trans. Relationships. He is a beginner immediately understands the plot of the camera: hidden power P … Historical dictionary gallicisms of the Russian language

Plot- PLOT - the narrative core of a work of art, a system of effective (actual) mutual orientation and disposition of speakers in this work persons (objects), the provisions put forward in it, the events developing in it. ... ... Dictionary of literary terms

PLOT- (fr., from lat. subjectum subject). The content, interweaving of external circumstances that form the basis of known. literary or arts. works; in music: the theme of the fugue. In theatrical language, an actor or actress. Dictionary of foreign words included in ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

plot- Cm … Synonym dictionary

PLOT- (from French sujet subject, subject) a sequence of events in artistic text. The paradox associated with the fate of the concept of secularism in the 20th century lies in the fact that as soon as philology learned to study it, literature began to destroy it. In studying S... Encyclopedia of cultural studies

PLOT- Plot, plot, husband. (French sujet). 1. A set of actions, events in which the main content of a work of art is revealed (lit.). Plot Queen of Spades Pushkin. Choose something as the plot of the novel. 2. trans. Content, topic of what ... ... Dictionary Ushakov

PLOT- from life. Razg. Shuttle. iron. About what l. everyday life episode, ordinary everyday history. Mokienko 2003, 116. Plot for short story. Razg. Shuttle. iron. 1. Something worth talking about. 2. What l. strange, curious story. /i> From… … Big Dictionary Russian sayings

There are two things that make this book fascinating: the character and its destiny. If you managed to create a bright, charming and original - in fact, half the battle is done. The reader's interest in your book is guaranteed. For the first hundred pages. But to justify it is the task of the plot.

What is a plot?

In Russian-language literature, there are two concepts - the plot and the plot. They mean roughly the same thing, but there are differences.

In short and simple, then:

• the plot is the facts of your history, naked and impartial, arranged in chronological order;
• the plot is that (with the eyes of which hero they showed them, what assessment they gave, maybe even changed chronological order, i.e., first they told about what happened, and then they showed the reason for what happened).

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For example, in Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" the plot is as follows:

A poor student committed the murder of an old usurer. After a long time he suffered and repented. He confessed, went to hard labor and found peace and happiness.

And the plot is more complicated:

A poor student, reflecting on the latest philosophical concepts of his time, perceives the old usurer as an impersonal evil that stands in his way, the path of an enlightened and potentially great person, and everything in his life depends on whether he has enough determination and courage to admit that he above her and has the right to destroy her in order to achieve all that he can; whether he can be a real person, and not a trembling creature.

To prove to himself that he is a man and not a creature, the student kills the old woman - with an ax, clumsily and with horror; the scene of the murder shocks him so much that he falls into a state of shock and gradually slides into mental disorder… and so on.

I think this is enough for you to understand the difference between plot and plot.

The plot (unlike the plot) is internal and external.

The inner story is what happens in the head and in the heart. The path of development of his character. After all, you already know that a hero is a hero because his character, his personality change in the course of the work. These changes are the inner story.

The external plot is what happens around the main character and with his direct participation. These are all the actions that take place in your story. Actions that affect, the people you talk about. Actions that generate facts.

Most often, these two types of plot peacefully coexist and support each other. But, of course, there are also stories where one of the plots prevails.

In the cited novel by Dostoevsky, the advantage, as you understand, is on the side of the internal plot.

But in stories about Conan the Barbarian, the external plot prevails.

In many ways, the ratio of internal and external plots stories depends on the literary niche for which you are going to write.

If your goal is mainstream, then the stories should be brought into balance. If - or, in other words, entertaining - literature, then it is better to work properly on the external plot. If you intend to get into elite literature, then you can safely deal only inner world your hero!

However, remember: best books any of the aforementioned trends are always built on an organic fusion of both types of plot. Rich spiritual world the main character, his active inner life is stimulated by sharp conflicts in the outer world.

And vice versa.

Inspiration to you and good luck!

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Offers several definitions of the concept of "plot". According to Ozhegov, the plot in literature is the order and connection of events. Ushakov's dictionary proposes to consider them a set of actions, the sequence and motivation for the deployment of what is happening in the work.

Relationship with the plot

In modern Russian criticism, the plot has a completely different definition. The plot in the literature is understood as the course of events, against which the confrontation is revealed. The plot is the main artistic conflict.

However, other points of view on this issue have existed and continue to exist in the past. Russian critics of the middle of the 19th century, supported by Veselovsky and Gorky, considered the compositional side of the plot, that is, how the author communicates the content of his work. And the plot in literature is, in their opinion, the actions and relationships of characters.

This interpretation is directly opposite to that in Ushakov's dictionary, in which the plot is the content of events in their sequential connection.

Finally, there is a third point of view. Those who adhere to it believe that the concept of "plot" has no independent meaning, and in the analysis it is quite enough to use the terms "plot", "composition" and "plot scheme".

Types and variants of product schemes

Modern analysts distinguish two main types of plot: chronicle and concentric. They differ from each other in the nature of the connections between events. The main factor, so to speak, is time. Chronic type reproduces its natural course. Concentric - focuses no longer on the physical, but on the mental.

The concentric plot in literature is detectives, thrillers, social and psychological novels, drama. Chronicle is more common in memoirs, sagas, adventure works.

Concentric plot and its features

In the case of this type of course of events, a clear causal relationship of episodes can be traced. The development of the plot in the literature of this type is consistent and logical. Here it is easy to distinguish the tie and the denouement. Previous actions are the causes of subsequent ones, all events seem to be pulled together into one node. The writer explores one conflict.

Moreover, the work can be both linear and multilinear - the causal relationship is preserved just as clearly, moreover, any new storylines appear as a result of past events. All parts of a detective, thriller or story are built on a clearly expressed conflict.

chronicle plot

It can be contrasted with concentric, although in fact there is not an opposite, but a completely different principle of construction. These types of plots in literature can interpenetrate each other, but most often either one or the other is decisive.

The change of events in a work built according to the chronicle principle is tied to time. There may be no pronounced plot, no strict logical causal relationship (or at least this relationship is not obvious).

In such a work, we can talk about many episodes, which have in common only that they happen in chronological order. The chronicle plot in literature is a multi-conflict and multi-component canvas, where contradictions arise and go out, one is replaced by another.

Ending, climax, denouement

In works whose plot is based on conflict, it is essentially a scheme, a formula. It can be divided into constituent parts. Plot elements in literature include exposition, opening, conflict, rising action, crisis, climax, falling action, and denouement.

Of course, not all of these elements are present in every work. More often you can meet several of them, for example, the plot, the conflict, the development of the action, the crisis, the climax and the denouement. On the other hand, it matters how exactly the work is analyzed.

The exposition in this regard is the most static part. Her task is to introduce some of the characters and the setting of the action.

The opening describes one or more events that trigger the main action. The development of the plot in literature goes through conflict, growing action, crisis to climax. She is the peak of the work, playing essential role in revealing the characters of the characters and in the development of the conflict. The denouement adds the final touches to the story told and to the characters of the characters.

In the literature, a certain plot construction scheme has developed, psychologically justified from the point of view of influencing the reader. Each described element has its place and meaning.

If the story does not fit into the scheme, it seems sluggish, incomprehensible, illogical. In order for a work to be interesting, for readers to empathize with the characters and delve into what is happening to them, everything in it must have its place and develop according to these psychological laws.

Plots of Old Russian Literature

Ancient Russian literature, according to D.S. Likhachev, is “the literature of one theme and one plot.” World history and meaning human life- these are the main, deep motives and themes of the writers of those times.

Plots ancient Russian literature are revealed to us in lives, epistles, walks (descriptions of travel), chronicles. The names of the authors of most of them are unknown. According to the time interval, the Old Russian group includes works written in the 11th-17th centuries.

The diversity of modern literature

Attempts to classify and describe the plots used have been made more than once. In his book The Four Cycles, Jorge Luis Borges suggested that there are only four types of cycles in world literature:

• about the search;
• about the suicide of a god;
• about a long return;
• about the assault and defense of the fortified city.

Christopher Bookker identified seven: rags to riches (or vice versa), adventure, round trip (this is where Tolkien's The Hobbit comes to mind), comedy, tragedy, resurrection, and defeating the monster. Georges Polti reduced the entire experience of world literature to 36 plot collisions, and Kipling singled out 69 of their variants.

Even experts of a different profile did not remain indifferent to this issue. According to Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, the main plots of literature are archetypal, and there are only six of them - a shadow, anima, animus, mother, old man and child.

Folk tale index

Most of all, perhaps, the Aarne-Thompson-Uther system “allocated” opportunities to writers - it recognizes the existence of approximately 2500 options.

However, this is about folklore. This system is a directory, an index fairy tales known to science at the time of this monumental work.

There is only one definition for the course of events. The plot in the literature of such a plan is as follows: “The persecuted stepdaughter is taken to the forest and thrown there. Baba Yaga, or Morozko, or Goblin, or 12 months, or Winter, test her and reward her. The stepmother's own daughter also wants to receive a gift, but she does not pass the test and dies.

In fact, Aarne himself established no more than a thousand options for the development of events in a fairy tale, however, he allowed the possibility of the emergence of new ones and left a place for them in his original classification. It was the first pointer that came into scientific use and was recognized by the majority. Subsequently, scientists from many countries made their additions to it.

In 2004, an edition of the handbook appeared, in which the descriptions of fabulous types were updated and made more accurate. This version of the pointer contained 250 new types.

Features of the work fiction taken into account in editorial analysis.

A work of fiction, an artistic object can be considered from two points of view - from the point of view of its meaning (as an aesthetic object) and from the point of view of its form (as an external work).

The meaning of the artistic object, enclosed in a certain form, is aimed at reflecting the understanding of the artist surrounding reality. And the editor, when evaluating the essay, should proceed from the analysis of the “plan of meaning” and the “plan of the fact” of the work (M.M. Bakhtin).

An artistic object is a point of interaction between the meaning and the fact of art. The art object demonstrates the world, conveying it in an aesthetic form and revealing ethical side peace.

For editorial analysis, such an approach to the consideration of a work of art is productive, in which literary work explored in its connection with the reader. It is the influence of the work on the personality that should be the starting point in the evaluation of the artistic object.

An artistic object includes three stages: the stage of creating a work, the stage of its alienation from the master and independent existence, the stage of perception of the work.

As the starting point of the unifying beginning of the work of the artistic process in the editorial analysis, one must consider the idea of ​​the work. It is the idea that merges together all the stages of an artistic object. This is evidenced by the attention of the artist, musician, writer to the selection of appropriate means of expression when creating works that are aimed at expressing the intent of the master.

In the book “How Our Word Will Respond”, the writer Y. Trifonov notes: “The highest idea of ​​​​a thing - that is, why all this damage to paper - is in you all the time, this is a given, your breath, which you do not notice, but without which you cannot live " .

The idea embodied in a work of art, namely the idea, is first of all perceived by the reader, controlling the stage of perception of artistic creativity.

And the whole artistic process is, as already mentioned, a dialogical process of communication between the artist and those who perceive the work.

The writer evaluates what surrounds him and talks about how he would like to see reality. Rather, it does not “speak”, but reflects the world in such a way that the reader understands it. In a work of art, the presence and obligation of life is realized, the interpretation by the artist is carried out life values. It is the idea that absorbs the writer's value orientations and determines the selection of vital material for the work.

But the concept of design not only characterizes the main meaning of the work. The idea is the main component of the impact of a work of art at the time of its perception.

Thus, the subject of art is not only a person and his connections and relations with the world. The composition of the subject area of ​​the work also includes the personality of the author of the book, who evaluates the surrounding reality.

After evaluating the intent, the editor determines how the material used by the author corresponds to the intent. Yes, big big idea requires a large form, for example, can be implemented in the genre of a novel. The idea that reveals intimate sides the fate of a person, in the genre of a story, a short story. Considering the genre of the work, the editor answers the most main question related to the evaluation of the quality of the work - the question of the completeness of the disclosure of the idea. Thus, having considered the plan of the meaning of the work, the editor analyzes the plan of the fact. Read more about the concept editor's ratings and genre originality fiction will be discussed below. After answering the question of what the author said, the editor evaluates how he said, i.e., analyzes the writer's skill. At the same time, the editor focuses on the basic laws, patterns, nature of art.

In art artistic image is a means of cognizing the surrounding reality, a means of mastering the world, as well as a means of recreating reality in a work of art - in an artistic object.