We need to highlight both plot features. IV
Subsection Terminology
Plot Fable
Plot outline: completed, unfinished
Plot technique: return, complicated, framing, linear
Exposition Commencement Development of action Climax Resolution Ending
Exposure: direct, delayed, diffuse, reverse
Prologue Epilogue
Inception: motivated, sudden
Peripeteia
Climax: eventual, psychological
Resolution: motivated, unmotivated, zero
Additional Information; separated by spaces from the main one.
Plot and plot
As already mentioned, dramatic and epic works depict events in the lives of characters, their actions taking place in space and time. This side artistic creativity(the course of events, usually consisting of the actions of the heroes, i.e. the spatio-temporal dynamics of what is depicted) is denoted by the term "south".
Plot (from French sujet) – a chain of events depicted in a literary work, i.e. the life of the characters in its spatio-temporal changes, in changing positions and circumstances.
Ø Plots are often taken from mythology, historical legend, from the literature of past eras, are processed, changed, supplemented.
Ø The plot, as a rule, comes to the fore in the test and determines its construction (composition). But sometimes the depiction of events gives way to impressions, thoughts, experiences of the characters, descriptions of the external world and nature.
Like the character system, the plot carries a number of meaningful functions.
1. Identifies and characterizes a person’s connections with his environment, i.e., his place in reality and destiny, creates a picture of the world.
2. Recreates life's contradictions (it is difficult to imagine a plot without conflict).
Plots are organized in different ways. There are plots with a predominance of purely temporary connections (chronicle) and plots with a predominance of cause-and-effect relationships (concentric).
Wed. The king died and the queen died- chronicle story.
The king died and the queen died of grief- concentric plot.
One way or another, plots are made up of the actions of the characters.
Action- the manifestation of a person’s emotions, thoughts and intentions in his actions, movements, spoken words, gestures, and facial expressions.
Known in literature different types actions. In the process of external action, the relationships between the characters, their fate, and public understanding change in one direction or another. Internal action presupposes the behavior of characters in which they show feelings in behavior, words, gestures, but do nothing to change their lives.
In traditional plots, where the action moves from beginning to end, twists and turns play a significant role - all kinds of turns from happiness to misfortune, from failure to success.
Ø Peripeteias were of great importance in the heroic tales of antiquity and in fairy tales, in comedies and tragedies of antiquity and the Renaissance, in early short stories and novels (love-knightly and adventure-punctual), later - in adventure and detective literature.
Plots with twists and turns embody the idea of the power of chance over people.
There are two types of sequence of events in a work: logical, also causal-temporal, (event A - event B - event C - event D) and constructed by the author (for example, event D - event A - event B - event C). For example, in L.N. Tolstoy’s story “The Death of Ivan Vasilyevich,” the reader first sees the hero’s corpse, and then gets acquainted with the story of his life. This is how two concepts arise in literary criticism: plot and plot.
According to B.V. Tomashevsky, plot– an artistically constructed distribution of events in the work, and plot– a set of events in their internal connection.
However, in literature, the concepts of plot and fable are often identified or not differentiated. Strictly speaking, such a distinction is necessary only in a number of cases: for the author when working on a work, for a reader for a competent retelling, for a specialist when analyzing a work, especially if the series of events is complex.
As an example, consider the story by M. Yu. Lermontov “A Hero of Our Time.”
This arrangement serves special artistic purposes: in particular, Pechorin is first shown through the eyes of Maxim Maksimych, and only then we see him from the inside, according to entries from the diary.
Remember the plot of I. A. Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing” and restore its plot.
Exposition - time, place of action, composition and relationships of characters. If the exposure is placed at the beginning of the work, it is called direct, if in the middle - delayed.
Omen- hints that foreshadow further development plot.
The plot is an event that provokes the development of a conflict.
Conflict is the opposition of heroes to something or someone. This is the basis of the work: no conflict - nothing to talk about. Types of conflicts:
- person (humanized character) versus person (humanized character);
- man against nature (circumstances);
- man against society;
- man versus technology;
- man versus supernatural;
- man against himself.
Rising Action- a series of events that originates from a conflict. The action builds up and reaches its peak at the climax.
Crisis - the conflict reaches its peak. The opposing sides meet face to face. The crisis occurs either immediately before the climax or simultaneously with it.
The climax is the result of a crisis. This is often the most interesting and significant moment in the work. The hero either breaks down or grits his teeth and prepares to go to the end.
Descending action- a series of events or actions of heroes leading to a denouement.
Denouement - the conflict is resolved: the hero either achieves his goal, is left with nothing, or dies.
Why is it important to know the basics of plotting?
Because over the centuries of the existence of literature, humanity has developed a certain scheme for the impact of a story on the psyche. If the story does not fit into it, it seems sluggish and illogical.
IN complex works with many storylines, all of the above elements may appear repeatedly; moreover, key scenes novels are subject to the same laws of plot construction: let us remember the description of the Battle of Borodino in War and Peace.
Plausibility
Transitions from initiation to conflict to resolution must be believable. For example, you cannot send a lazy hero on a journey just because you want to. Any character must have a good reason to act one way or another.
If Ivanushka the Fool mounts a horse, let him be driven by a strong emotion: love, fear, thirst for revenge, etc.
Logic and common sense necessary in every scene: if the hero of the novel is an idiot, he, of course, can go into a forest infested with poisonous dragons. But if he man of sense, he will not meddle there without a serious reason.
God ex machina
The denouement is the result of the characters' actions and nothing else. In ancient plays, all problems could be resolved by a deity lowered onto the stage on strings. Since then, the absurd ending, when all conflicts are eliminated with a wave of the wand of a sorcerer, angel or boss, is called “god ex machina.” What suited the ancients only irritates the moderns.
The reader feels deceived if the characters are simply lucky: for example, a lady finds a suitcase with money just when she needs to pay interest on a loan. The reader respects only those heroes who deserve it - that is, they did something worthy.
It is customary to distinguish between a concentric plot and a chronicle plot. This classification is based on the difference in connections between events. If in a chronicle story the main attention is paid to time and its passage, then in a concentric story the emphasis is on mental factors. That is why the authors of sagas and chronicles usually deal with the first plot, while the second is preferred by science fiction writers, novelists and others, for whom the chronology of events is not of fundamental importance.
In a concentric plot, everything is simple and clear: the author explores only one conflict, and the elements of the composition are easy to identify and name, since they come one after another. Here, all episodes will have a cause-and-effect relationship, and the entire text will be permeated with clear logic: no chaos, no compositional violations. Even if the work involves several storylines, all events will be interconnected according to the principle of links in one chain. With a chronological plot, everything is somewhat different: here the cause-and-effect relationships may be broken or completely absent. In addition, some elements of the composition may simply not exist.
In the word "plot" (from fr. sujet) 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 (along with the characters) the basis objective world works. The plot is the organizing principle of the dramatic, epic and lyric-epic genres. It can also be significant in the lyrical genre of literature (although, as a rule, here it is sparingly detailed and extremely compact): “I remember wonderful moment..." Pushkin, "Reflections at the Main Entrance" by Nekrasov, poem by V. Khodasevich "November 2nd".
The understanding of plot as a set of events recreated in a work dates back to Russian literary criticism of the 19th century. (work by A.N. Veselovsky “Poetics of Plots”). But in the 1920s V.B. Shklovsky and other representatives formal school dramatically changed the usual terminology. B.V. Tomashevsky wrote: “The set of events in their mutual internal connection<...>let's call it a plot ( lat. legend, myth, fable. - V.H.) <...>The artistically constructed distribution of events in a work is called the plot" 1 . Nevertheless, in modern literary criticism the prevailing meaning of the term “plot”, dating back to the 19th century.
The events that make up the plot are related in different ways to the facts of reality that precede the appearance of the work. For many centuries, writers took plots mainly from mythology, historical legend, and literature of past eras, and at the same time they somehow processed, modified, and supplemented them. Most of Shakespeare's plays are based on plots familiar to medieval literature. Traditional plots (not least ancient ones) were widely used by classicist playwrights. ABOUT big role plot borrowings Goethe said: “I advise<...>take on already processed topics. How many times, for example, have Iphigenia been depicted - and yet all Iphigenia are different, because everyone sees and depicts things<...>in our own way" 2.
In the 19th–20th centuries. The events depicted by writers began to be based on facts of reality close to the writer, purely modern. Dostoevsky's close interest in newspaper chronicles is significant. IN literary creativity from now on, the writer’s biographical experience and his direct observations of the environment are widely used. At the same time, they have their own prototypes not only individual characters, but also the plots of the works themselves (“Resurrection” by L.N. Tolstoy, “The Case of the Cornet Elagin” by I.A. Bunin). The autobiographical element clearly makes itself felt in the plot structure (S.T. Aksakov, L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Shmelev). Simultaneously with the energy of observation and introspection, individual plot fiction is activated. Plots that are the fruit of the author’s imagination are becoming widespread (“Gulliver’s Travels” by J. Swift, “The Nose” by N.V. Gogol, “Kholstomer” by L.N. Tolstoy, in our century - the works of F. Kafka).
The events that make up the plot are related to each other in different ways. In some cases, one comes to the fore life situation, the work is built on one event line. These are the majority of small epics, and most importantly - dramatic genres, which are characterized by unity of action. Subjects single action(it is right to call them concentric, or centripetal) was preferred both in antiquity and in the aesthetics of classicism. Thus, Aristotle believed that tragedy and epic should depict “a single and, moreover, integral action, and the parts of events should be so composed that when any part changes or is taken away, the whole changes and comes into motion” 3 .
At the same time, plots where events are dispersed and “ equal rights“event complexes, independent of one another, are unfolding, having their own “beginnings” and “ends.” These are, in Aristotle's terminology, episodic plots. Here the events do not have cause-and-effect relationships with each other and are correlated with each other only in time, as is the case, for example, in Homer’s “Odyssey,” Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” and Byron’s “Don Juan.” This kind of it is right to name the plots chronicle. They are also fundamentally different from single action plots. multi-line plots in which several lines of events unfold simultaneously, parallel to one another, connected with the fate of different persons and touching only occasionally and externally. This is the plot organization of “Anna Karenina” by L.N. Tolstoy and “Three Sisters” by A.P. Chekhov. Chronicle and multilinear stories depict events panoramas, while plots of a single action recreate individual events nodes. Panoramic scenes can be defined as centrifugal, or cumulative(from lat. cumulatio – increase, accumulation).
Included literary work the plot performs essential functions. Firstly, series of events (especially those constituting a single action) have a constructive meaning: they hold together, as if cementing what is depicted. Secondly, the plot is essential for the reproduction of characters, for the discovery of their characters. Literary heroes are inconceivable outside of their immersion in one or another series of events. Events create a kind of “field of action” for the characters, allowing them to reveal themselves to the reader in a variety of ways and fully in their emotional and mental responses to what is happening, and most importantly, in their behavior and actions. The plot form is especially favorable for a vivid, detailed recreation of the strong-willed, effective principle in a person. Many works with a rich series of events are dedicated to heroic personalities (remember Homer’s “Iliad” or Gogol’s “Taras Bulba”). Action-packed works, as a rule, are those in the center of which there is a hero prone to adventure (many Renaissance short stories in the spirit of “The Decameron” by G. Boccaccio, picaresque novels, comedy by P. Beaumarchais, where Figaro acts brilliantly).
And finally, thirdly, the plots reveal and directly recreate life’s contradictions. Without some kind of conflict and the lives of the characters (long-term or short-term), it is difficult to imagine a sufficiently expressed plot. Characters involved in the course of events, as a rule, are excited, tense, feel dissatisfied with something, desire to gain something, achieve something or preserve something important, suffer defeats or win victories. In other words, the plot is not serene, one way or another involved in what is called dramatic. Even in works of idyllic “sounding”, the balance in the lives of the heroes is disturbed (Long’s novel “Daphnis and Chloe”).
extra plot elements- plug-in (cm). episodes, stories and lyrical (author's) digressions (see. lyrical digression) in epic or dramatic work, not included in the plot action, the main function of which is to expand the scope of what is depicted, to give the author the opportunity to express his thoughts and feelings about various phenomena of life that are not directly related to the plot. Example V. e. - author's digressions in "Eugene Onegin" by A.S. Pushkin or " Dead souls"N.V. Gogol. V.E. in a fairy tale - a saying, in an epic - a refrain.
13. Plot and composition. Elements of composition. Types of compositional connections.
Plot- a series of events (sequence of scenes, acts) occurring in a work of art (on the theater stage) and arranged for the reader (spectator, player) according to certain rules of demonstration. The plot is the basis of the form of the work. According to Ozhegov's dictionary, plot- this is the sequence and connection of the description of events in a literary or stage work; in the work visual arts- subject of the image.
Composition is the relationship of parts of a work in specific system and consistency. At the same time, the composition is harmonious, whole system, including various ways and the form of literary and artistic depiction and determined by the content of the work.
Elements of composition
It's called a prologue introductory part works. She represents summary events that preceded those described on the pages of the book.
The exposition is somewhat akin to the prologue, however, if the prologue does not have a special impact on the development of the plot of the work, then the exposition directly introduces the reader into the atmosphere of the story. It describes the time and place of action, central characters and their relationships. The exposure can be either at the beginning (direct exposure) or in the middle of the piece (delayed exposure).
With a logically clear composition, the exposition is followed by a plot - an event that begins the action and provokes the development of the conflict. The plot is traditionally followed by the development of action, consisting of a series of episodes in which the characters strive to resolve the conflict, but it only escalates. Gradually the development of the action approaches its highest point which is called the climax. A climax is a decisive confrontation between characters or a turning point in their fate. This is followed by a denouement. Resolution is the end of an action, or at least a conflict. As a rule, the denouement occurs at the end of the work, but sometimes it appears at the beginning.
Often the work ends with an epilogue. This is the final part, which usually narrates the events. These are the epilogues in the novels of I.S. Turgeneva, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy.
1. External (architectonics). Its main components include the division of the text into paragraphs and chapters, prologue and epilogue, various appendices and comments, dedications and epigraphs, author's digressions and inserted fragments. In a word, everything that stands out graphically and can be easily seen by opening the book.
2. Internal composition(narration) provides an emphasis on the content of the work: organization of speech situations, plot construction, system of images and individual images, strong text positions (leitmotif, repeating situations, finale, etc.), main composition techniques. Let's look at the latter in more detail.
14. Conflict as the basis of the plot. Types of conflict.
Conflict– a specifically artistic form of reflecting contradictions in people’s lives, reproduction in art acute collision opposing human actions, views, feelings, aspirations, passions.
Specific content conflict is the struggle between the beautiful, sublime and the ugly, base.
Conflict in literature is the basis artistic form work, the development of its plot. Conflict and its resolution depends on the concept of the work.
Most often, only the main ones are singled out: love, philosophical, psychological, social, symbolic, military and religious.
15. Theme, idea, problem in a work of art.
Theme - (from ancient Greek - “what is given is the basis”) is a concept that indicates which side of life the author pays attention to in his work, that is, the subject of the image. The problem is not a nomination of any phenomenon of life, but a formulation of the contradiction associated with this phenomenon of life. Idea - (from the Greek word - that which is visible) - the main idea literary work, the author's tendency to reveal the theme, the answer to the questions posed in the text - in other words, what the work was written for.
16. Lyrics as a type of literature. Subject and content of the lyrics.
Lyrics- this is one of the main types of literature, reflecting life through the depiction of individual states, thoughts, feelings, impressions and experiences of a person caused by certain circumstances.
Lyrics like literary genre is opposed to epic and drama, therefore, when analyzing it, the generic specificity should be taken into account to the highest degree. If epic and drama reproduce human existence, the objective side of life, then the lyrics - human consciousness and the subconscious, the subjective moment. Epic and drama depict, lyrics express. One might even say that lyric poetry belongs to a completely different group of arts than epic and drama - not figurative, but expressive.
The main thing in the lyrics is emotionally charged descriptions and reflections. Reproduction of relationships between people and their actions does not play a big role here; most often it is absent altogether. Lyrical statements are not accompanied by images of any events. Where, when, under what circumstances the poet spoke, to whom he addressed - all this either becomes clear from his words themselves, or turns out to be completely unimportant.
The subject of the lyrics is the poet’s inner (subjective) world, his personal feelings caused by some object or phenomenon.
The content of a lyrical work cannot be the development of objective action in its interrelations, expanding to the fullness of the world. The content here is the individual subject and thereby the isolation of the situation and objects, as well as the way in which, in general, with such content, the soul with its subjective judgment, its joys, amazement, pain and feeling is brought to consciousness.
17. Lyrical image. Lyrical subject.
Lyrical hero- this is the image of that hero in lyrical work, whose experiences, thoughts and feelings are reflected in it. It is by no means identical to the image of the author, although it reflects his personal experiences associated with certain events in his life, with his attitude to nature, social activities, people. The uniqueness of the poet's worldview, his interests, and character traits find appropriate expression in the form and style of his works. The lyrical hero reflects certain character traits people of their time, their class, exerting a huge influence on the formation spiritual world reader.
The lyrical subject is any manifestation of the author’s “I” in a poem, the degree of presence of the author in it, in fact, the view of the world the poet himself, his value system reflected in language and images. In Fet’s lyrics, for example, the personality (“I”) exists “as a prism of the author’s consciousness, in which the themes of love and nature are refracted, but does not exist as independent topic".
Sometimes the poet chooses the model of the so-called “role distance”, then they talk about specific role lyrics - a first-person narrative, perceived by the reader as not identical to the author. In R. l. the poet manages to “suddenly feel someone else’s as his own” (A.A. Fet). The role-playing character of the lyrical character is revealed in this kind of poetic works thanks to extra-textual factors (for example, knowledge of the poet’s biography or the understanding that what is depicted cannot take place in reality. The lyrical “I” is a conventional character to whom the author entrusts the narrative, usually characteristic of a given era or genre: a shepherd in pastoral poetry, a dead man in an epitaph, a wanderer or a prisoner in romantic lyrics; often the narrative is told from the perspective of a woman.
18. Aesthetic function expressive means artistic speech in the lyrics.
The means of artistic expression are varied and numerous. These are tropes: comparisons, personification, allegory, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, etc.
Trope(from ancient Greek τρόπος - turnover) - in a work of art, words and expressions used in figurative meaning in order to enhance the figurativeness of the language, artistic expressiveness speech.
Main types of trails:
· Metaphor(from ancient Greek μεταφορά - “transfer”, “figurative meaning”) - a trope, a word or expression used in a figurative meaning, which is based on an unnamed comparison of an object with some other on the basis of their common feature. (“Nature here destined us to open a window to Europe”). Any part of speech in a figurative meaning.
· Metonymy(ancient Greek μετονυμία - “renaming”, from μετά - “above” and ὄνομα/ὄνυμα - “name”) - a type of trope, a phrase in which one word is replaced by another, denoting an object (phenomenon) located in one or other (spatial, temporal, etc.) connection with the subject, which is denoted by the replaced word. The replacement word is used in a figurative sense. Metonymy should be distinguished from metaphor, with which it is often confused, while metonymy is based on the replacement of the word “by contiguity” (part instead of the whole or vice versa, representative instead of class or vice versa, container instead of content or vice versa, etc.), and metaphor - “by similarity.” A special case of metonymy is synecdoche. (“All flags will visit us”, where flags replace countries.)
· Epithet(from ancient Greek ἐπίθετον - “attached”) - a definition of a word that affects its expressiveness. It is expressed mainly by an adjective, but also by an adverb (“to love dearly”), a noun (“fun noise”), and a numeral (“second life”).
An epithet is a word or an entire expression, which, due to its structure and special function in the text, acquires some new meaning or semantic connotation, helps the word (expression) gain color and richness. It is used both in poetry (more often) and in prose (“timid breathing”; “magnificent omen”).
· Synecdoche(ancient Greek συνεκδοχή) - trope, a type of metonymy based on the transfer of meaning from one phenomenon to another based on the quantitative relationship between them. (“Everything is sleeping - man, beast, and bird”; “We are all looking at Napoleons”; “In the roof for my family”; “Well, sit down, luminary”; “Most of all, save a penny.”)
· Hyperbola(from ancient Greek ὑπερβολή “transition; excess, excess; exaggeration”) - stylistic figure obvious and deliberate exaggeration, in order to enhance expressiveness and emphasize the idea being said. (“I’ve said this a thousand times”; “We have enough food for six months.”)
· Litotes - figurative expression, diminishing the size, strength, and significance of what is being described. Litotes is called an inverse hyperbola. (“Your Pomeranian, lovely Pomeranian, is no bigger than a thimble”).
· Comparison- a trope in which one object or phenomenon is compared to another according to some characteristic common to them. The purpose of comparison is to identify new properties in the object of comparison that are important for the subject of the statement. (“A man is stupid as a pig, but cunning as the devil”; “My home is my fortress”; “He walks like a gogol”; “An attempt is not torture.”)
· In stylistics and poetics, paraphrase (paraphrase, periphrase; from ancient Greek περίφρασις - “descriptive expression”, “allegory”: περί - “around”, “about” and φράσις - “statement”) is a trope that descriptively expresses one concept with the help of several.
Periphrasis is an indirect mention of an object by description rather than naming. (“Night luminary” = “moon”; “I love you, Peter’s creation!” = “I love you, St. Petersburg!”).
· Allegory (allegory)- conventional representation of abstract ideas (concepts) through concrete artistic image or dialogue.
· Personification(personification, prosopopoeia) - trope, the assignment of properties of animate objects to inanimate ones. Very often, personification is used when depicting nature, which is endowed with certain human traits.
· Irony(from ancient Greek εἰρωνεία - “pretence”) - a trope in which true meaning hidden or contrary to (contrasted with) the explicit meaning. Irony creates the feeling that the subject of discussion is not what it seems. (“Where can we fools drink tea?”)
· Sarcasm(Greek σαρκασμός, from σαρκάζω, literally “tear [meat]”) - one of the types of satirical exposure, caustic ridicule, highest degree irony, based not only on enhanced contrast implied and expressed, but also on the immediate deliberate exposure of the implied.
Offers several definitions of the concept “plot”. According to Ozhegov, plot in literature is the order and connection of events. Ushakov's dictionary suggests that they be considered a set of actions, the sequence and motivation for the unfolding of what is happening in a work.
Relationship with plot
In modern Russian criticism, plot has a completely different definition. The plot in literature is understood as the course of events against the background of which the confrontation is revealed. The plot is the main artistic conflict.
However, other points of view on this issue have existed in the past and continue to exist. Russian critics mid-19th centuries, supported by Veselovsky and Gorky, considered the compositional aspect of the plot, that is, how exactly the author communicates the content of his work. And the plot in literature is, in their opinion, the actions and relationships of the 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” independent meaning does not, and when analyzing it is quite enough to use the terms “plot”, “composition” and “plot diagram”.
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. Main factor, so to speak, is time. The chronic type reproduces its natural course. Concentric - focuses no longer on the physical, but on the mental.
Concentric plots in literature are detective stories, thrillers, social and psychological novels, dramas. Chronicle is more common in memoirs, sagas, and adventure works.
Concentric plot and its features
In the case of this type of course of events, a clear cause-and-effect relationship between the episodes can be traced. Development of the plot in the literature of this like it's coming consistent and logical. It is easy to highlight the beginning and end here. 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 either linear or multilinear - the cause-and-effect relationship is preserved just as clearly, moreover, any new storylines appear as a result of events that have already happened. All parts of a detective story, thriller or story are built on a clearly expressed conflict.
Chronicle story
It can be contrasted with concentric, although in fact there is not an opposite here, 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 on a chronicle principle is tied to time. There may be no clear connection, no strict logical cause-and-effect relationship (or at least this connection is not obvious).
In such a work we can talk about many episodes, the only thing they have in common is that they happen in chronological order. A chronicle plot in literature is a multi-conflict and multi-component canvas, where contradictions arise and fade, and one is replaced by another.
Commencement, climax, denouement
In works whose plot is based on conflict, it is essentially a scheme, a formula. It can be divided into its constituent parts. The elements of plot in literature include exposition, setup, conflict, rising action, crisis, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Of course, not all of the above elements are present in every work. More often you can find several of them, for example, plot, conflict, development of action, crisis, climax and denouement. On the other hand, it matters how exactly the work is analyzed.
The exhibition in this regard is the most static part. Its task is to introduce some of the characters and the setting of the action.
The plot describes one or more events that give rise to the main action. The development of the plot in literature goes through conflict, rising action, crisis to climax. She is also the peak of the work, playing a significant role in revealing the characters’ characters and in the unfolding of the conflict. The denouement adds the final touches to the story being told and to the characters.
In literature, a certain plot structure has developed, which is psychologically justified from the point of view of its influence on the reader. Each element described has its place and meaning.
If a story does not fit into the scheme, it seems sluggish, incomprehensible, and illogical. 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 in accordance with these psychological laws.
Plots of ancient Russian literature
Ancient Russian literature, according to D. S. Likhachev, is “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.
Subjects 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 in world literature there are only four types:
- about search;
- about the suicide of God;
- about the long return;
- about the assault and defense of a fortified city.
Christopher Booker identified seven: rags to riches (or vice versa), adventure, there and back again (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 identified 69 of their options.
Even specialists of other profiles were not left indifferent by this question. According to Jung, the famous Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, the main subjects of literature are archetypal, and there are only six of them - the shadow, anima, animus, mother, old man and child.
Index to folk tales
Perhaps most of all, the Aarne-Thompson-Uther system “highlighted” the possibilities for writers - it recognizes the existence of approximately 2500 options.
We are, however, talking about folklore here. This system is a directory, an index fairy tales, known to science at the time of compilation of this monumental work.
There is only one definition for the course of events here. The plot in literature of this kind looks like this: “The persecuted stepdaughter is taken into the forest and abandoned there. Baba Yaga, or Morozko, or Leshy, or 12 months, or Winter test her and reward her. The stepmother’s own daughter also wants to receive a gift, but does not pass the test and dies.”
In fact, Aarne himself established no more than a thousand options for the development of events in the fairy tale, but he allowed for the possibility of new ones and left a place for them in his original classification. This was the first index 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 directory appeared, in which descriptions fairy tale types have been updated and made more accurate. This version of the index contained 250 new types.
Plot and composition are the main components of a literary work. In this article, using certain examples, we will look at what it is and why they are given paramount importance in literary theory.
A plot is a system of events and relationships between characters, developing in time and space. M. Gorky defined the plot as “connections, contradictions, sympathies, antipathies and, in general, relationships between people - stories of growth and organization of one or another character, type.”
The plot consists of the actions of the characters and a system of images. In the development of the plot, the character traits of the characters and their evolution are revealed. Sometimes the plot is identified with the content of the work. However, the content is broader than the plot and is not limited to simply retelling what is happening. The plot reveals the writer’s individuality and skill, and reflects his worldview and position.
The plot is a depiction of events as they are given in the work. Moreover, the events in the work are not always arranged in cause-and-effect and temporal sequence. The work may begin with an event that occurred later than everything that is described further.
So, the novel What to do? , N. Chernyshevsky begins with the death of a hero, and then everything that preceded this is told. In the novel “A Hero of Our Time” by M. Lermontov, the temporal sequence of events is also disrupted, which was done by the writer in order to switch the reader’s attention from external events to inner life Pechorina.
The sequential transmission of the events depicted in the work in their cause-and-effect relationship is called the plot. Often the plot and plot coincide, and then we only talk about the plot. There are chronicle and concentric stories. In chronicle stories, events are related to each other in time, and in concentric stories, a cause-and-effect relationship prevails between them. The difference between these types of plots is well illustrated by the following example: in the phrase “The King died, and soon the Queen died,” a chronicle plot is recreated, but if we say: “The King died, and the Queen died of grief,” this will be the formula for a concentric plot. A certain type of plot may predominate in a work, or chronicle and concentric principles may coexist in one work.
Plots can be single-line or consist of several simultaneously emerging lines, either merging or developing in parallel. The plot as a complex whole consists of elements, each of which has its own function. The elements of a plot are exposition, beginning, development and climax, denouement and epilogue. It is not necessary for a work to have all the plot elements. IN modern literature, as a rule, there is no prologue or epilogue, the climax may be somewhat obscured and there may even be no denouement. The plot, the development of the action, and the denouement are determined by the conflict.
Conflict is a collision of contradictory phenomena, goals, aspirations of heroes or a contradiction in the hero himself, for example, between feeling and duty, desire and the impossibility of fulfilling it. Conflict can act as a contradiction between the hero and society, character and circumstances, by various parties character. “A Hero of Our Time” by M. Yu. Lermontov and Woe from Wit by A. S. Griboedov are built on the conflict between the hero and society. The contradiction between Raskolnikov’s character and the circumstances of reality forms the conflict in “Crime and Punishment” by F. M. Dostoevsky; in the same novel is presented internal conflict like a struggle in the soul of a hero. In every literary direction- their dominant conflicts. In classicism, this is a conflict between good and evil, enlightenment and ignorance (“Minor” by D. I. Fonvizin). In romanticism, the basis of the conflict is the contradiction between the hero and society ("Gypsies" by A. S. Pushkin, "Mtsyri" by M. Yu. Lermontov). The range of conflicts in works of realism is wider: social, psychological, socio-psychological, moral conflicts form plot basis works. The plot finds expression in the composition.
Composition is the construction of a work, the correlation of the components of an artistic form, combined into a single whole. The composition is determined by the content and genre of the work. The composition can be simple, linear, when individual episodes are strung together, follow one another and are associated with the main character. An example is the composition of the poem by N. A. Nekrasov Who Lives Well in Rus'. Events here develop in chronological order. Another type of composition includes many storylines that can run parallel or intersect. The chronological principle of construction can be combined with the rearrangement of events according to the author’s logic of character disclosure. In this case, a violation of chronology also appears in the form of retrospections - turning back ("Hero of Our Time" by M. Yu. Lermontov, "Fathers and Sons" by I. S. Turgenev). The composition can be ring-shaped, i.e. the beginning and the end seem to merge. They are repeated or close to each other.
An important component of the composition is artistic framing - the creation of paintings that are similar according to the principle of analogy, similarity with the main character or event of the work. In L. N. Tolstoy's story "Hadji Murat" there is an episode with a burdock that resisted for a long time strong hand, who tried to disrupt it, leads to the story of Hadji Murad, who fought for his life until his last breath. The interior and landscape can play a compositional role if they are not the object of the image, but serve to reveal ideological plan works. Details in “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol home environment allow us to judge the characters of Manilov, Sobakevich, Korobochka, Plyushkin. In the composition, therefore, the following main elements are distinguished: 1) general construction 2) character system 3) event system 4) extra-plot elements.
