What is a word picture? The immateriality of images in literature

Words are known to mean general properties objects and phenomena. Art always deals with images. It is interested in the manifestation of the general in the non-individual, that is, in the world of the uniquely individual.

Literary theorists are acutely faced with the question of the opportunities that language gives to a writer’s creativity. The famous Russian philologist of the end of the last century, A. A. Potebnya, devoted his works to solving this issue. In the books “Thought and Language” and “From Notes on the Theory of Literature,” he argued that the artistic principle (in his terminology, poetic) lies in the language itself, in its constant movement and development. Poetry, according to Potebnya, arises where a new, unknown phenomenon is explained with the help of an old, already known, one that has a name. For example, a child saying that in the evenings the trees fall asleep, creates poetic image. Potebnya contrasts verbal art (poetry) with business-like “extra-artistic” speech (prose), which is devoid of imagery. And as the main property of poetry, he considers the polysemy of the word, first of all, its allegorical nature. Potebnya emphasizes that the words and phrases used in figurative meaning, are not just a decoration of artistic speech, but the very essence of poetry.

Potebnya's teaching shed light on an important property of verbal art. The ambiguity of a word in a work of art is one of the main sources of imagery. At the same time, the figurativeness of the writer’s speech is achieved not only by transferring meanings. Many in highest degree works of art consist exclusively of words used in their literal meaning. An example of this is the famous Pushkin-

the Russian poem “I loved you: love is still, perhaps...”, where allegory is practically absent.

Linguistic constructions, considered in isolation from the context, in the vast majority of cases lack imagery. Yes, a proposal The notes were already at the ready, taken by itself, does not carry a figurative beginning: some “generally” notes (either state documents, or papers from musical signs) were lying somewhere (on a desk, or in front of a printing press/ or on a piano stand, or in a store), prepared by someone unknown and for what purpose. But the same sentence in a certain speech context acts as a designation of a single fact.

This is exactly the case in works of art. The simplest statements in their form reproduce here uniquely individual events, actions, and experiences. For example, in the first chapter of Chekhov’s story “Ionych”, against the backdrop of everything that has been said about the Turkin family, the judgment about the notes lying ready is figurative: the reader learns that the notes were lying on the piano, at which Kotik, a young music lover, will sit, and guesses that these are her parents They put them “ready” in order to more casually and at the same time more effectively demonstrate their daughter’s talent to the guests.

The above example convinces us that verbal imagery is achieved not only by the use of some special means of language (in particular, allegories), but also by a skillful selection of visual details that can be indicated by simply simple speech means. Any form of speech, when the speaker or writer is focused on reproducing single facts, can become figurative.

Speech turns out to be figurative due to the fact that it recreates the appearance of the speaker himself. Thus, the philosophical term “transcendental”, in itself devoid of imagery, in the mouth of Satin (“At the Lower Depths” by Gorky) becomes an element of his characterization, a means of recreating the individuality of a tramp who finds bitter joy in “smart” words.

The figurative possibilities of speech determine the features of literature as special type art.

How does artistic speech differ from non-fiction? Scientists of the 1920s, associated with the tradition of the formal school, tried to answer this question. V. Shklovsky in his early works and his like-minded

niks studied mainly the intonation-syntactic, and even more - the phonetic-rhythmic structure of literary texts and talked mainly about their “melody” and “instrumentation”. They viewed a literary work as a special kind of sound construction. The appeal to the “external form” of artistic speech undoubtedly played a positive role. The best works of literary scholars of the formal school contain important generalizations about the significance of the sound of words in poetry (for example, B. Eikhenbaum’s book “The Melody of Russian Lyric Verse”).

However, supporters of the formal school, relying mainly on the experience and aesthetic views of futurist poets, put forward the incorrect idea about the “inherent value” of sounds in a poetic work. Bringing poetry closer to music, they argued that the sound of speech has emotional expressiveness, independent of its logical meaning.

Somewhat later, already in the 20s, works appeared, also written in the traditions of the formal school, but posing the problems of artistic speech in a deeper and more promising way. B. Tomashevsky, Yu. Tynyanov, V. Zhirmunsky rejected the concept of the futuristic “self-produced word” and the doctrine of poetry as a purely sound phenomenon. They began to view artistic speech as maximally expressive and strictly organized. In ordinary, everyday speech, says the work of B. Tomashevsky, “we are careless about the choice and construction of phrases, content with any form of expression, just to be understood. The expression itself is temporary, accidental; the focus is on the message.” In literature, according to Tomashevsky, “expression to some extent becomes valuable in itself”: “Speech, in which there is an attitude toward expression, is called artistic, in contrast to everyday practical speech, where this attitude is not present” (93.9-10).”

These judgments need critical examination. An objection arises, in particular, to the straightforward contrast between artistic and ordinary speech: everyday speech is not always devoid of expressiveness and a conscious attitude towards it. It is well known that in

"See also about this: Theses of the Prague Linguistic Circle (section " Poetic language") //Prague Linguistic Circle: Sat. Art. M. 1967. pp. 28-32.

In everyday communication, people often strive to ensure that their statements are vivid, imaginative, and impressive.

However, there is a significant rational grain in the concept of artistic speech put forward by the formal school. In a literary text, means of expression play a much larger role than in everyday speech. The writer with his work not only informs about what was created by the power of his imagination, not only “infects” with his moods, but also has an aesthetic impact on readers. Therefore, the most important feature of artistic speech is its maximum organization. Every shade, every nuance in a real literary work is expressive and significant. If an “ordinary” statement can be reformulated without damaging its content (the same thing, as is known, can be said in different ways), then for a work of art, breaking the speech tissue often turns out to be disastrous. Thus, Gogol’s phrase “Wonderful is the Dnieper in calm weather” would lose its artistic significance not only as a result of replacing a word with a synonym, but also as a result of rearranging words.

In verbal art, careful selection of the most significant, most expressive speech patterns is important. Everything random and arbitrary, everything neutral, which ordinary speech abounds in, is reduced to a minimum in a literary work, ideally to zero.

At the same time, literature often uses speech forms that are difficult, if not impossible, to imagine outside of art. It is unlikely, for example, that in everyday speech one can imagine anything similar to the following poetic lines by A. Blok: “A terrible fairy tale is stirring and the starry boundary is breathing.” Writers sometimes reach such a degree of concentration of the expressive principles of speech that the work itself “demonstrates” its belonging to art through its very verbal fabric. This happens when there is an intensification of allegorical expressions, with an abundance of unusual, expressive syntactic constructions, and most importantly when the writer turns to poetic speech.

However, formal differences between artistic speech and its other types are not necessary. It often happens that literary texts strictly adhere to the vocabulary, semantics and syntax of everyday speech -

oral-conversational (dialogue in realistic novels) or written (prose in the form of notes and diaries). But even in those cases where artistic speech is outwardly identical to “ordinary” statements, it has maximum orderliness and aesthetic perfection.

“IMMATERIALITY” OF WORDAL AND ARTISTIC IMAGES

Fiction belongs to those types of art that are usually called visual in contrast to expressive. At the same time, literature is fundamentally different from other arts, which are characterized by figurativeness. Painters and sculptors, actors and directors create images that are visual. Lines and colors in painting, bronze, wooden, marble figures sculptural works, artists' movements in theater performances and movies directly affect our visual sensations.

Not so in fiction. Words are only associated with what they mean. When reading or listening to a literary work, we do not see what is depicted, but with the power of our imagination we seem to recreate the objects and facts about which we're talking about. Verbal images lack clarity; they are conventional and immaterial, as Lessing expressed it in Laocoon. “All other arts,” wrote Chernyshevsky, “like living reality, act directly on the feelings, poetry acts on fantasy...” (99, 63). And he noted that since the images of fantasy (i.e., imagination) are paler and weaker than directly sensory perceptions, poetry is noticeably inferior to other arts in terms of the strength and clarity of the subjective impression (99, 64). In our century, one of the prominent foreign art theorists, R. Ingarden, spoke about the incompleteness and some sketchiness of verbal images.

The lack of clarity of artistic and literary images, however, is compensated by their special, specific capabilities. Unlike a painter and sculptor, a writer recreates not only those aspects of reality that can be perceived visually, but also everything that is revealed to hearing, touch, and smell. The thoughts of B. Pasternak are significant in this regard

bring into the poems “the breath of roses, the breath of mint, meadows, sedge, haymaking, thunderclaps.”

The main thing is that the author of a literary work directly focuses on the “extrasensory” perceptions of the reader: on his intellectual imagination. When, for example, we read Lermontov’s famous poems “It’s boring and sad, and there is no one to give a hand in a moment of spiritual adversity...”, we do not feel the need to see anything with our inner vision, but directly comprehend the poet’s sorrowful thoughts.

Verbal and artistic images, therefore, capture not so much the objects themselves in their sensually perceived properties, but reactions to the reality of human consciousness, holistic subjective perceptions.

Abundant “registration” of visually perceived parts of objects and an abundance of “auxiliary” details are contraindicated in literature. At the same time, summary, thesis-schematic designations in the absence of details, strokes, and particulars are undesirable for the writer. Abstract “logization” (whether it is compact, concise or cumbersome, verbose) is not capable of producing a truly artistic effect. A verbal text meets the requirements of art if the writer finds a few bright details and details that recreate the object in the integrity of its appearance. Only in these cases is the reader able to “complete” in his imagination what is indicated by words. When perceiving a literary work, an important role is played by associations of ideas - all kinds of comparisons of objects and phenomena.

There is a lot of individuality and arbitrariness in the reader’s associations evoked by verbal and artistic images. And this is one of the essential features of literature as an art. The reader’s ideas about the appearance of the characters, their movements, gestures, and the setting of the action are subjective to a much greater extent than those who examine paintings and statues or are in the auditorium of a theater or cinema. Each of us has our own Faust, Tatyana Larina, Andrei Bolkonsky, etc. Being in the power of the “magic” of verbal art, immersed in the world of whimsically changing ideas evoked by the text, the reader becomes a kind of accomplice in the creation of artistic images.

Communication of a person with “immaterial” images of

production is carried out in any everyday situation and “fits” into his everyday life much more easily than the perception of painting and sculpture, theater and cinema. The reader himself chooses the pace of perception of the work. As he gets acquainted with a novel, drama or poem, he sometimes returns to an already familiar text. He chooses moments when he should close the book and think about what he read or, on the contrary, concentrate on something else. A verbal image is a kind of springboard for the reader’s co-creation, an impetus for the activity of his imagination.

Literary art, however, invariably maintains connections with the sphere of the visible. A literary work is a unique synthesis of images that capture the “invisible” and the “visible”. And the artist of words is often concerned that readers and listeners form vivid visual ideas.

The so-called verbal plasticity was especially important in ancient literature. It is no coincidence that ancient thinkers often characterized poetry as “painting with words.” Plastic arts retained their importance in the literature of subsequent eras. One of the writers early XVIII V. said that the strength of poetic talent is determined by the number of paintings that the poet provides to the artist. “For every phrase I look for a visual image,” noted Goethe. And Gorky called literature “the art of plastic representation through words.”

At the same time, the sphere of verbal plasticity from era to era noticeably narrowed. Over time, literature increasingly refused to act as depiction through words. Significant in this regard are Lessing's judgments that poetry prefers non-picturesque beauties to picturesque ones. “The outer, outer shell of objects... may be... only one of the most insignificant means of awakening... interest... in images" (64, 96), we read in Laocoon. And further: “A poetic painting should not necessarily serve as material for an artist’s painting.” (64, 183). These judgments are quite consistent with the facts of subsequent, including modern, literary creativity. A thorough analysis of life phenomena and deep psychologism in the depiction of a person usually lead writers away from traditional verbal plasticity into the sphere of what is not visible.

So, the absence of direct visual perception in verbal images

of certain reliability (visuality), being somewhat limited, at the same time reveals wide horizons of knowledge of the world before literature. Operating with “immaterial” images, writers freely master those aspects of life that are not embodied in the visible appearance of objects.

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The specificity of the figurative (objective) principle in literature is largely predetermined by the fact that the word is a conventional (conventional) sign, that it does not resemble the object it denotes (B-L. Pasternak: “How enormous is the difference between a name and a thing!”). Verbal paintings (images), in contrast to painting, sculpture, stage, and screen, are immaterial. That is, in literature there is figurativeness (subjectivity), but there is no (96) direct visibility of images. Addressing visible reality, writers are able to give only its indirect, mediated reproduction. Literature masters the intelligible integrity of objects and phenomena, but not their sensually perceived appearance. Writers appeal to our imagination, and not directly to visual perception.

The immateriality of verbal fabric predetermines the visual richness and diversity of literary works. Here, according to Lessing, images “can be located next to each other in extreme quantity and variety, without covering each other and without harming each other, which cannot be the case with real things or even with their material reproductions.” Literature has infinitely wide visual (informative, cognitive) possibilities, because through words one can designate everything that is in a person’s horizons. The universality of literature has been spoken about more than once. Thus, Hegel called literature “ universal art capable of developing and expressing any content in any form.” According to him, literature extends to everything that “in one way or another interests and occupies the spirit.”

Being insubstantial and lacking clarity, verbal and artistic images at the same time depict a fictional reality and appeal to the reader’s vision. This side of literary works is called verbal plasticity. Paintings through words are organized more according to the laws of recollection of what is seen, rather than as a direct, instantaneous transformation of visual perception. In this regard, literature is a kind of mirror of the “second life” of visible reality, namely its presence in human consciousness. Verbal works capture subjective reactions to the objective world to a greater extent than the objects themselves as directly visible.

For many centuries, the plastic principle of verbal art has been given almost decisive importance. Since antiquity, poetry has often been called “sounding painting” (and painting – “silent poetry”). Classicists of the 17th-18th centuries understood poetry as a kind of “pre-painting” and as a sphere of description of the visible world. One of the early art theorists XVIII century Keylus argued that the strength of poetic talent is determined by the number of paintings that the poet delivers to the artist, the painter. Similar thoughts were expressed in the 20th century. Thus, M. Gorky wrote: “Literature (97) is the art of plastic representation through words.” Such judgments indicate the enormous importance of pictures of visible reality in fiction.

However, in literary works, the “non-plastic” principles of imagery are also inherently important: the sphere of psychology and thoughts of characters, lyrical heroes, narrators, embodied in dialogues and monologues. Over the course of historical time, it was precisely this side of the “objectivity” of verbal art that increasingly came to the fore, crowding out traditional plastic arts. As the threshold of the 19th – 20th centuries, Lessing’s judgments challenging the aesthetics of classicism are significant: “A poetic painting should not necessarily serve as material for the artist’s painting.” And even stronger: “The outer, outer shell” of objects “may be for him (the poet. - V.H.) perhaps only one of the most insignificant means of awakening in us interest in his images.” Writers of our century sometimes spoke in this spirit (and even more harshly!). M. Tsvetaeva believed that poetry is “the enemy of the visible,” and I. Ehrenburg argued that in the era of cinema, “literature is left with the invisible world, that is, the psychological.”

Nevertheless, “painting with words” is far from exhausted. This is evidenced by the works of I.A. Bunina, V.V. Nabokova, M.M. Prishvina, V.P. Astafieva, V.G. Rasputin. Pictures of visible reality in literature late XIX V. and the 20th century have changed in many ways. Traditional detailed descriptions of nature, interiors, and the appearance of heroes (to which I.A. Goncharov and E. Zola paid considerable tribute, for example) were replaced by extremely compact characteristics of the visible, the smallest details, spatially as if close to the reader, dispersed in the literary text and , most importantly, psychologized, presented as someone’s visual impression, which, in particular, is characteristic of A.P. Chekhov.

Literature as the art of words. Speech as a subject of image

Fiction is a multifaceted phenomenon. There are two main sides in its composition. The first is fictitious objectivity, images of “non-verbal” reality, as discussed above. The second is speech constructions themselves, verbal structures. The dual aspect of literary works has given scientists reason to say that literary literature combines (98) two different arts: the art of fiction (manifested mainly in fictional prose, which is relatively easily translated into other languages) and the art of words as such (which determines the appearance of poetry, which loses almost the most important thing in translations). In our opinion, fiction and the actual verbal principle would be more accurately characterized not as two different arts, but as two inseparable facets of one phenomenon: artistic literature.

The actual verbal aspect of literature, in turn, is two-dimensional. Speech here appears, firstly, as a means of representation (a material carrier of imagery), as a way of evaluative illumination of non-verbal reality; and secondly, as subject of the image- statements belonging to someone and characterizing someone. Literature, in other words, is capable of recreating the speech activity of people, and this particularly sharply distinguishes it from all other types of art. Only in literature, a person appears as a speaker, to which M.M. attached fundamental importance. Bakhtin: “The main feature of literature is that language here is not only a means of communication and expression-image, but also an object of image.” The scientist argued that “literature is not just the use of language, but its artistic knowledge” and that “the main problem of its study” is “the problem of the relationship between depicting and depicted speech.”

As you can see, the imagery of a literary work is two-dimensional and its text constitutes the unity of two “unbreakable lines.” This is, firstly, a chain of verbal designations of “non-verbal” reality and, secondly, a series of statements belonging to someone (narrator, lyrical hero, characters), thanks to which literature directly masters the thinking processes of people and their emotions, widely captures their spiritual ( including intellectual) communication, is not given to other, “non-verbal” arts. In literary works, characters often reflect on philosophical, social, moral, religious, historical topics. Sometimes the intellectual side human life here comes to the fore (the famous ancient Indian “Bhagavad Gita”, “The Brothers Karamazov” by Dostoevsky, “ Magic Mountain" T. Manna).

Mastering human consciousness, fiction, according to V.A. Grekhnev, “enlarges the element of thought”: the writer “is irresistibly attracted by thought, but a thought that is not chilled and not detached (99) from experience and evaluation, but thoroughly permeated by them. Not its results revealed in objectively calm and harmonious structures of logic, but her personal color, her lively energy“First of all, it is attractive for the artist of words where thought becomes the subject of the image.”

B. Literature and Synthetic Arts

Fiction belongs to the so-called simple, or one-piece arts based on one a material carrier of imagery (here it is the written word). At the same time, it is closely connected with the arts. synthetic(multicomponent), combining several different carriers of imagery (these are architectural ensembles that “absorb” sculpture and painting; theater and cinema in their leading varieties); vocal music and so on.

Historically, early syntheses were “a combination of rhythmic, orchestic (dance - V.Kh.) movements with song-music and elements of words.” But this was not art itself, but syncretic creativity(syncretism is unity, indivisibility, characterizing the original, undeveloped state of something). Syncretic creativity, on the basis of which, as shown by A.N. Veselovsky, later verbal art (epic, lyric, drama) was formed, had the form of a ritual choir and had a mythological, cult and magical function. In ritual syncretism there was no separation between the actors and the perceivers. Everyone was both co-creators and participants-performers of the action being performed. Round dancing “pre-art” for archaic tribes and early states was ritually obligatory (forced). According to Plato, “everyone must sing and dance, the entire state as a whole, and, moreover, always in a variety of ways, incessantly and enthusiastically.”

As it becomes stronger artistic creativity as such, single-component arts acquired an increasingly important role. The undivided dominance of synthetic works did not satisfy humanity, since it did not create the prerequisites for the free and wide manifestation of the individual creative impulse of the artist: each individual type of art within the synthetic works remained constrained in its capabilities. It is not surprising, therefore, that (100) centuries-old history culture is associated with a steady differentiation forms artistic activity.

At the same time, in the 19th century. and at the beginning of the 20th century, another, opposite trend repeatedly made itself felt: the German romantics (Novalis, Wackenroder), and later R. Wagner, Vyach. Ivanov, A.N. Scriabin made attempts to return art to its original syntheses. Thus, Wagner in his book “Opera and Drama” regarded the departure from early historical syntheses as the fall of art and advocated a return to them. He spoke of the huge difference between “individual types of art,” egoistically separated, limited in their appeal only to the imagination, and “true art,” addressed “to the sensory organism in its entirety” and combining various types of art. This is, in Wagner’s eyes, opera as the highest form of theatrical and dramatic creativity and art in general.

But such attempts at a radical restructuring of artistic creativity were not successful: single-component arts remained the undeniable value of artistic culture and its dominant feature. At the beginning of our century, it was said, not without reason, that “synthetic quests<...>take beyond borders not only individual arts, but also art in general,” that the idea of ​​widespread synthesis is harmful and represents amateurish absurdity. The concept of a secondary synthesis of the arts was associated with the utopian desire to return humanity to the subordination of life to rite and ritual.

The “emancipation” of verbal art occurred as a consequence of its turn to writing (oral artistic literature is synthetic in nature, it is inseparable from performance, i.e. acting, and, as a rule, is associated with singing, i.e. music). Having acquired the guise of literature, verbal art turned into a one-part art. At the same time, the appearance of the printing press in Western Europe (15th century), and then in other regions, determined the preponderance of literature over oral literature. But, having received independence and independence, verbal art by no means isolated itself from other forms of artistic activity. According to F. Schlegel, “the works of great poets often breathe the spirit of related arts.”

Literature has two forms of existence: it exists both as (101) one-component art (in the form of readable works), and as an invaluable important component synthetic arts. This applies to the greatest extent to dramatic works, which are inherently intended for the theater. But other types of literature are also involved in syntheses of the arts: lyrics come into contact with music (song, romance), going beyond the boundaries of book existence. Lyrical works are readily interpreted by actors-readers and directors (when creating stage compositions). Narrative prose also finds its way onto stage and screen. And the books themselves often appear as synthetic works of art: the writing of letters (especially in old handwritten texts), ornaments, and illustrations are also significant in their composition. By participating in artistic syntheses, literature provides other types of art (primarily theater and cinema) with rich food , proving to be the most generous of them and acting as a conductor of the arts.

The place of artistic literature among the arts. Literature and Mass Communications

IN different eras preference was given various types art. In antiquity, sculpture was most influential; as part of the aesthetics of the Renaissance and the 17th century. the experience of painting dominated, which theorists usually preferred to poetry; in line with this tradition is the treatise of the early French educator J.-B. Dubos, who believed that “the power of Painting over people is stronger than the power of Poetry.”

Subsequently (in the 18th century, and even more so in the 19th century), literature moved to the forefront of art, and accordingly there was a shift in theory. In his Laocoon, Lessing, in contrast to the traditional point of view, emphasized the advantages of poetry over painting and sculpture. According to Kant, “of all the arts, the first place is retained by poetry" With even greater energy, V.G. elevated verbal art above all others. Belinsky, who claims that poetry is the “highest kind of art”, that it “contains all the elements of other arts” and therefore “represents the entire integrity of art.” (102)

In the era of romanticism, music shared the role of leader in the world of art with poetry. Later, the understanding of music as the highest form of artistic activity and culture as such (not without the influence of Beggars) became incredibly widespread, especially in the aesthetics of the Symbolists. It is music, according to A.N. Scriabin and his like-minded people, is called upon to concentrate all other arts around itself, and ultimately to transform the world. The words of A.A. are significant. Blok (1909): “Music is the most perfect of the arts because it most expresses and reflects the Architect’s plan<...>Music creates the world. She is the spiritual body of the world<...>Poetry is exhaustible<...>since its atoms are imperfect, they are less mobile. Having reached its limit, poetry will probably drown in music.”

Such judgments (both “literary-centric” and “music-centric”), reflecting shifts in artistic culture XIX - early XX centuries, at the same time one-sided and vulnerable. In contrast to the hierarchical elevation of one type of art above all others, theorists of our century emphasize equality artistic activity. It is no coincidence that the phrase “family of muses” is widely used.

The 20th century (especially in its second half) was marked by serious shifts in the relationships between types of art. Arose, strengthened and gained influence art forms, based on new media of mass communication: written and in printed words began to compete successfully oral speech, sounding on the radio and, most importantly, the visual imagery of cinema and television.

In this regard, concepts emerged that, in relation to the first half of the century, can rightfully be called “film-centric”, and in the second half – “telecentric”. Film practitioners and theorists have repeatedly argued that in the past the word had an exaggerated meaning; and now people learn differently thanks to movies see world; that humanity is moving from a conceptual-verbal to a visual, spectacular culture. Known for his harsh, largely paradoxical judgments, television theorist M. McLuhan (Canada) argued in his books of the 60s that in the 20th century. a second communication revolution took place (the first was the invention of the printing press): thanks to television, which has unprecedented informational power, a “world of universal immediacy” arises, and our planet turns into a kind of huge village. Most importantly, television is acquiring unprecedented ideological authority: the television screen powerfully imposes on the masses of viewers one (103) or another view of reality. If earlier the position of people was determined by tradition and their individual properties, and therefore was stable, now, in the era of television, the author argues, personal self-awareness is eliminated: it becomes impossible to take a certain position for more than a moment; humanity parts with the culture of individual consciousness and enters (returns) to the stage of “collective unconsciousness”, characteristic of the tribal system. At the same time, McLuhan believes, the book has no future: the habit of reading is becoming obsolete, writing is doomed, because it is too intellectual for the era of television.

In McLuhan's judgments there is much that is one-sided, superficial and clearly erroneous (life shows that the word, including the written word, is by no means relegated to the background, much less eliminated as telecommunications spread and become richer). But the problems posed by the Canadian scientist are very serious: the relationships between visual and verbal-written communication are complex and sometimes conflicting.

In contrast to the extremes of traditional literary centrism and modern telecentrism, it is right to say that literary literature in our time is the first among equal arts.

The peculiar leadership of literature in the family of arts, clearly felt in the 19th–20th centuries, is associated not so much with its own aesthetic properties, but with its cognitive and communicative capabilities. After all, the word is a universal form of human consciousness and communication. And literary works are capable of actively influencing readers even in cases where they do not have brightness and scale as aesthetic values.

The activity of extra-aesthetic principles in literary creativity has sometimes caused concern among theorists. Thus, Hegel believed that poetry is threatened by an explosion with the sphere of the sensually perceived and dissolution in the purely spiritual elements. In the art of words, he saw the decomposition of artistic creativity, its transition to philosophical understanding, religious representation, and the prose of scientific thinking. But further development The literature did not confirm these concerns. In their best examples Literary creativity organically combines loyalty to the principles of artistry not only with broad knowledge and deep understanding of life, but also with the direct presence of the author’s generalizations. Thinkers of the 20th century argue that poetry is related to other arts as metaphysics is to science, that it, being the focus of interpersonal understanding, is close to philosophy. At the same time, literature is characterized as “the materialization of self-consciousness” and “the memory of the spirit about itself.” The performance of non-artistic functions by literature turns out to be especially significant in moments and periods when social conditions and political system are unfavorable for society. “A people deprived of public freedom,” wrote A.I. Herzen, “literature is the only platform from the height of which he makes the cry of his indignation and his conscience heard.”

Without in any way claiming to stand above other types of art, much less to replace them, fiction thus occupies a special place in the culture of society and humanity as a kind of unity of art itself and intellectual activity, akin to the works of philosophers, scientists, humanists, publicists. (105)

Verbal drawing (oral and written) is a description of images or pictures that arose in the reader’s mind while reading a literary work. A verbal picture is called differently verbal illustration.

This technique is aimed primarily at to develop the ability to concretize verbal images(imagination). In addition, the child’s speech and his logical thinking. When drawing verbally, the reader must, relying on the verbal images created by the writer, detail your own vision in a visual picture, which he reproduces and describes orally or in writing.

At the same time there appear two dangers: you can get lost on direct paraphrase the author's text, and with too active involuntary imagination “forget” about the author’s painting and begin to describe your own.

This reception requires a number of operations: read, imagine, specify, select the exact words and expressions to describe, logically construct your statement. In addition, the technique involves describing the complex relationships of the characters in a static picture.

This technique directs children's attention to the text: they re-read its individual fragments, since only semantic and visual stylistic details will help them clarify verbal images, clarify them, and present what the author describes in detail. The student gradually “enters” the world of production and begins see it through the eyes of the author or one of the characters(depending on whose point of view the picture is being reconstructed), i.e. joins the action, which means he will be able to complement the author’s picture with his own details. Then the result of the work, which is based on the analysis of the text, will not be a retelling or a description divorced from the author’s intent, but a creative picture that is adequate to the author’s intent, but more detailed and necessarily emotionally evaluative.

Reception training leaks in several stages .

1. Looking at graphic illustrations. First, the teacher organizes observation of how the illustrator conveys the author’s intention, which helps the artist create a mood and express his attitude towards the characters. In the process of this work, children become familiar with the concept of “composition of a picture”, with the meaning of colors, coloring, and line. This work can be carried out both in fine arts lessons and in extracurricular reading lessons.

2. Select from several illustration options the work that is most suitable for the episode in question with the motivation for its decision.

3. Collective illustration using ready-made figures consists in the arrangement of characters (the composition of the picture), the choice of their poses, facial expressions.

4. Self-illustration favorite episode and oral description what I drew myself. This technique can be complicated by asking children to describe illustrations made by their classmates.

5. Analysis of illustrations made with a clear deviation from the text of the work. Children are offered illustrations in which the arrangement of characters or other images of the work is disturbed, some author’s details are missing or they have been replaced by others, the coloring is disturbed, the poses and facial expressions of the characters are distorted, etc. After viewing, the children compare their perception of the text with the perception of illustration.

6. Collective oral drawing illustrations- genre scenes. At this stage, children choose color scheme illustrations.

7. Independent graphic drawing landscape and its oral description or the artist's description of the landscape.

8. Verbal oral drawing of a landscape in detail text.

9. Collective oral detailed description hero in a specific episode(how you see the hero: what is happening or happened, the hero’s mood, his feelings, posture, hair, facial expression (eyes, lips), clothes, if this is important, etc.) The teacher helps the children create a description with questions.

10. Collective and independent verbal oral drawing of the hero first in one specific situation, and later - in different ones.

11. Independent verbal oral illustration and comparison of the created oral illustration with graphic.

Naturally, one can master the technique of verbal drawing only after one has mastered the basic skills of analyzing illustrations for a work. However, as a propaedeutics, already at the very first stages of studying literary works, it is advisable to ask children questions such as: “ What kind of hero do you imagine? ?», « How do you see the situation of the action?”, “What do you see when you read this text? " And so on.

Examples of organizing oral verbal drawing in the classroom:

Fragment of a lesson in 1st grade on a fairy tale « Porridge from an ax »

Stage of re-reading the text and its analysis

- Let's read the fairy tale to the end and observe how the soldier acted. Let's draw up a plan for his actions.

Children reread the fairy tale in parts, numbering the events with a pencil. Then the results of the work are discussed, those previously written on the board are opened. soldier's actions: noticed an axe; offered to cook porridge from an axe; asked to bring the boiler; I washed the ax, put it in the cauldron, poured water and put it on the fire; stirred and tasted; complained that there was no salt; salted it, tasted it, complained that it would be nice to add some grains; added cereals, stirred, tasted, praised and complained that it would be nice to add oil; added oil; I started eating porridge. We combine small actions into larger ones: planned to deceive the old woman; prepares the ax for cooking and begins to cook it; stirring and tasting, one after another he asks for salt, cereals and oil; eats porridge.

Now let's watch how the old woman behaved in every moment we have.

— Has her mood and behavior changed? What are the reasons for these changes?

We invite children to imagine what illustrations can be made for this fairy tale? and describe the soldier and the old woman at each moment of the action (oral word drawing).

We help with questions:

— What background does the action take place against?? (Hut, furnishings in the hut, stove, utensils, etc.)

— Where does the soldier stand, how does he stand, where does he look?(on the old woman, in the cauldron, to the side, etc. .), what is he doing at this moment? What's his mood? What is he thinking about? What is his facial expression?

We propose to describe the old woman from the fairy tale “Porridge from an Axe” at different moments of the action. We help with similar guiding questions.

Then discussing the illustration in the reader(Fig. 13 V.O. Anikin. “Porridge from an ax”).

— Is it possible to determine which moment of the fairy tale was depicted by the artist V.O. Anikin? What helps (or, conversely, hinders) this?

The technique of comparing a literary work with illustrations for it

The essence of the technique is in comparison verbal image with his interpretations by the artist in the form of an illustration to the text of a literary work. With such complex analytical activity junior schoolchildren get an idea of ​​another person’s point of view on the situation described by the writer and its participants. Thus, in the child’s mind, the child’s own vision of the episode collides with the artist’s vision. This collision is the impetus for creation problematic situation in class and encourages children to analyze the text to clarify their own impressions and ideas.

Looking at illustrations is one of the leading techniques at the stage of learning to read. This is where we need to prepare children to communicate with illustration as a work of art. Looking at pictures in books from itself interesting activity turns into critical activity: children begin to relate the illustration to the author’s description and narrative. At the stage of studying literary works, this reception is important and as an independent, And as a preparatory to more complex types of work.

Purpose of illustrations:

— arouse the viewer’s interest in the situation and/or characters;

- evoke an emotional response in the viewer;

- draw attention to important details of this situation;

- convey the point of view of what is happening either from the author, or the narrator, or one of the characters participating in the episode.

Illustration requirements:

1. Illustration must answer aesthetic principle , i.e. be a complete work of fine art. Not all illustrations in literature anthologies for elementary schools meet this principle, therefore, until children learn to distinguish good works from bad ones, they should not focus their attention on these “masterpieces,” even if they are included in the anthology. The teacher can choose a reproduction himself or bring a book that contains what is needed for the lesson. pictorial series, or use modern information technology and work with works of fine art using a computer and a multimedia projector.

2. The illustration should provide implementation of the principle of goal-oriented analysis , i.e. really give the reader the opportunity to think about the feelings and experiences of the characters, about the conflict between the characters, about the hero’s point of view on the situation.

3. The illustration must be completed to an episode or situation , which cause bright reader emotions, i.e. When selecting illustrations, the teacher must take into account the emotional reactions of the reader.

4. All students should have the opportunity look at the illustration carefully , during the analysis process, the picture should always be in front of the student.

Illustration analysis algorithm:

1. The teacher offers the children look at the illustration , putting specific question :

— How did the illustration make you feel? Why?

— What episode was the illustration made for? Justify your opinion.

— Who is depicted in the illustration? Why did you decide so?

— Does the illustration correspond to the content of the episode, the mood that it evokes? Why do you think so?

— What did the artist manage to convey, and what did he not succeed in conveying? Why do you think so?

2. Students look at the illustration and prepare to answer the teacher’s questions.

3. The teacher listens to the answers , all the time drawing the children’s attention to individual details of the illustration with the help of leading questions.

4. Poll turns into conversation , during which:

A) general impression emerges, and then it is clarified what feelings the content of the episode evokes in readers and what feelings the content of the illustration gives rise to in viewers; what is the emotional atmosphere of the episode and illustration;

b) it turns out how the emotional atmosphere is created in the text and how it is transmitted in the picture, which helps the artist express feelings and experiences;

c) compared composition of the painting with the arrangement of characters and the background of the action in the work, postures and facial expressions are analyzed characters or details of the landscape and their role in creating an emotional atmosphere (It is important that children see how accurate the artist is in conveying the mood of the episode and the characters, what details help him in this and what role the pictorial techniques he has chosen play .)

G) the feasibility of deviations from the author’s text is analyzed, admitted by the artist: what the artist missed (did not draw) or brought into the picture, which the author of the literary work does not mention; Is it done in general accordance with the author's intention, his attitude towards characters and events, or does it contradict them?

Technique of comparison of episode and illustration aimed at activating students' attention to the text, contributes to the development of the reader's imagination and the formation of the following skills:

- see visual and expressive means language and understand their role in the text;

- analyze composition of the episode, images of characters;

- compare your point of view with the point of view of another reader(in this case, the artist) and the point of view of the author;

- understand the specifics of the languages ​​of different types of art and be able to communicate with works of art.

Activities: during the lesson you can analyze book covers; compare illustrations by different artists for the same episode; choose from numerous illustrations those made by one artist; motivate the choice of the most successful, from the child’s point of view, illustration; analyze works of fine art (not illustrations) and decide whether they can be used to design a book with the text of a given literary work.

Bibliography:

1. Kubasova O.V. Development of reconstructive imagination in reading lessons. - Primary School. -1991.-No.1.-P.30

2. Lvov M.R. Methods of speech development. - In the book: Lvov M.R., Goretsky V.G., Sosnovskaya O.V. Methods of teaching the Russian language in primary school. - M. - 2000. - P.401

3.Korepina L.F. - Working with illustrations in reading lessons. - Elementary School. - 1990. - No. 2. - P.27

4. Sidorenkova V.V. Some creative reading techniques. - In the book. Questions of reading methods in elementary school.- Comp. Goretsky V.G., Omorokova M.I. - M.1964.- P.101

5.Mosunova L.A. Teaching verbal drawing in literary reading lessons. - Literature at school. - 1994.- No. 2.- P.77

An effective means of stimulating development creative imagination, enriching with internal visions, is an oral description of pictures that arise or should arise in the imagination of the reader who perceives piece of art. Unfortunately, in the process of teaching expressive reading, this technique is rarely used.

Work should begin not with children creating their own word drawings, but with analysis book illustrations, paintings. Part of the teacher organizes a comparison of illustrations and text. In this case, O. Kubasova offers the following tasks:

· · match the drawing (picture) to the text;

· · find captions for each fragment in the text picture plan;

· · compare a drawing (picture) and a fragment of text;

· · compare illustrations by different artists for one literary work.

It is better to start learning verbal drawing by creating genre (story) pictures. At the same time, you need to remember that the verbal picture is static, the characters in it do not move, do not talk, they seem to be frozen, as if in a photograph.

At any stage of learning verbal drawing, the order of work will be the same.

1. An episode is highlighted for verbal drawing.

2. “The place where the event occurs is drawn.

3. The characters are depicted.

4. The necessary details are added.

5. The outline drawing is “colored”.

The complexity of the work is possible, firstly, due to the fact that “coloring” will be carried out along with “drawing”, and secondly, in the transition from collective work to individual work, when the student proposes one element of the illustration, the rest are adjusted if necessary.

Verbal drawing of landscape illustrations is usually done for poetic texts. When working on lyrical works This technique should be used with extreme caution, since when reading the lyrics, clear visual ideas should not arise, everything should not be expressed in detail, and poetic images cannot be specified.

Usually, after isolating the figurative picture created by the writer from the context, verbal drawing proceeds approximately along the following questions: “What should we draw in the foreground? Why? How does the author say both of these? What needs to be depicted nearby? What words help us see this? What haven’t we drawn yet?” Then the children pick up color scheme, paying special attention to the overall color of the picture, expressing the aesthetic experiences of the writer. Very important, according to O.V. Kubasov, is constant attention to the author’s language, especially to epithets. (7)

Using this technique, the teacher himself must be ready to vividly paint a picture that is sometimes only hinted at in the text.

Co verbal drawing Another type of work has some similarities - compiling a filmstrip.

A filmstrip is a series of verbal or graphic drawings, the content and order of which correspond to the sequence of events in the work, and each drawing is provided with titles (captions).

O.V. Kubasova suggests the following procedure for compiling a filmstrip. ()

2. Divide the text into parts (pictures, frames).

3. Highlight the “main” sentences in the first part (for captions).

4. Imagine in your mind a picture for the first part of the text.

5. Orally “draw” a picture for the first frame.

6. Graphically depict the frame (to be done at will, not in class).

7. Based on the sentences highlighted in the text, make captions for the frame (orally or in writing).

8. Check the correspondence of the picture and titles.

9. Do similar work with each part of the drawing.

If the text contains dialogues, then you can use the technique of voicing frames.

Suggestive questions.

Whatever technique the teacher resorts to in the lesson, he uses the method of conversation, remembering that it should be lively and relaxed. In such a conversation, not only the teacher asks, but also the students, and not only the students, but also the teacher answers. The teacher responds to children’s mistakes in reading with his questions, for example: “Is a pause needed here? Which? Which word in this phrase needs logical emphasis? What feeling does this phrase evoke? Why?".

Of course, the teacher resorts to conversation not only in cases where students make mistakes in reading. The teacher can move on to a conversation related to teaching expressive reading immediately after exemplary reading of the text. In this case, methodologist B.A. Buyalsky suggests thinking through and preparing a system of questions that are arranged approximately in this order.

Questions to help you understand the meaning readable text

Questions that encourage you to imagine the picture drawn by the author;

Questions that help determine the author’s attitude towards what he portrays, his feelings, moods;

Questions, the purpose of which is to find out the students’ attitude to the work;

Questions that encourage children to search for the best intonation options to reflect the feelings, thoughts, intentions of the author, as well as their personal experiences caused by the work.

Choral reading.

Choral reading has been part of school practice for a long time. K.D. Ushinsky also recommended it as a technique to help revive a tired and distracted class. Choral reading does not allow any student to remain passive.

Sometimes choral reading is confused with collective recitation. But these are not identical concepts. Unlike choral reading, which sounds in unison, collective recitation involves the performance different parts text by different performers and groups of performers. Choral reading has its advantages and disadvantages. According to B.A. Buyalsky, the disadvantages of choral reading are that “it smacks of “training from the voice” and not always justified monotone.” (8) To avoid this, B.S. is advised. Naydenov, T.F. Zavadskaya, “it is necessary to observe the correctness and expressiveness of choral reading.” (12) According to these methodologists, “there should be no inexpressive choral reading at school. Expressive choral reading will say something significant positive influence for expressiveness individual reading and speech culture among students.” (eleven)

M.A. Rybnikova highly valued this technique. “Make an individual student read a poem—before the polyphonic reading and after the multivocal reading. The second performance, influenced by the sound of the text in the classroom, will also become more expressive for the individual student.” (24)

It is worth noting one more of the shortcomings of choral reading, which T.F. highlights. Zavadskaya, - choral reading deprives the reader of individuality, subordinating it to the general choral sound, forcing him to imitate.

B.A. Buyalsky, on the contrary, sees in this some merit of choral reading. “Schoolchildren are known to admit that they feel how to read, but do not know how to read properly. Modest, shy students especially find it difficult to read “in front of everyone.” But in the choir they feel freer and read more confidently... the choir infects with a general uplift, a general mood, the tone that the teacher sets with his demonstration.” (18)

As you can see, the opinions of methodologists are quite contradictory, but still most of them are inclined to favor the benefits of this technique.

How should you organize work using choral reading in the lesson? B.A. Buyalsky proposes to organize it in the following order: (18)

1. Model reading of the passage by the teacher.

2. Reading by a student of average ability.

3. Marking (if necessary) the most difficult parts and texts with score signs.

4. Re-reading marked bars and links.

5. Repeated reading of the entire passage by one of these students, the reading of which (in the teacher’s opinion) will not require additional clarification or rework.

6. Repeated reading by the teacher, especially necessary if the student’s reading was unsuccessful.

7. A reminder from the teacher before the choral reading that one should not shout out so as not to disturb others.

During the lesson you can practice reading “small choirs”, consisting of 5-8 best students. In order to participate in collective reading brought the greatest benefit, it should be completely conscious for every student. Each choir member must understand what he is expressing and how he achieves it. Therefore, choral reading must be preceded by detailed analysis works.

Reading in faces.

This technique M.A. Rybnikova attached great importance. She rightly noted that it sharpens attention to the hero’s speech and its specificity.

Reading faces is practiced on final stage working on a text (most often fables), when students have figured out the characters characters, the lines of which they will pronounce, and imagine in what situations these words are pronounced.

Preparation for reading in the faces of B.A. Buyalsky, for example, suggests conducting it in the following sequence. (18)

1. A short conversation to help children fulfill or clarify the characteristics of the characters’ character and speech.

2. The teacher’s additions to the schoolchildren’s statements about the characters’ characters and a reminder that the performer of the role transforms into an image-character and during the performance he no longer addresses the listeners, but the partners.

3. Selective reading by students of some of the most difficult phrases (if necessary).

4. Teacher corrections to this reading (if necessary).

5. Self-preparation students to face reading (reading text with their eyes or in a low voice).

6. The teacher’s answers to questions that children may have during the preparation process.

7. Selection of performers, which can be organized either according to the principle of taking into account the inclinations of students (who is more suitable for which role), or according to the principle: each row or option is prepared to perform a specific role.

On initial stage In teaching expressive reading, the teacher, naturally, must give an example of intonation analysis, using the memo:

Correct reading in terms of grammar and spelling. diction.

Correct placement of accents.

Fidelity in observing the length of pauses.

Selecting the exact reading pace.

Compliance with the melody of reading, that is, the movement of tone along sounds of different pitches (raising and lowering the voice).

Emotional reading.

An expression of the reader's attitude towards what is being read.

At the same time, the teacher can make tasks easier by inviting one part of the class to make comments on pronunciation, another on semantic nuances, a third on reflecting feelings, and exchange these tasks to avoid monotony in the work of the class.

It is necessary to create conditions under which each student closely monitors the students' reading. The teacher himself should constantly, with a pencil in hand, monitor the students’ reading, correct, guide and encourage them; talk first about the advantages, even if they are insignificant, and therefore about the disadvantages; explain why he likes or doesn’t like the student’s reading. The teacher and students, when correcting others, must ensure that the comments are specific, reasonable and friendly.

Reading by roles, both one and forms dramatization (staging), attaches great importance to O.V. Kubasova. “There are forms of dramatization of varying complexity, which should be introduced gradually, becoming more and more complex, taking into account the age capabilities of the children and the goals of the lesson.” (10) let us name the main forms of dramatization in order of increasing complexity:

Analysis of illustrations from the point of view of the expressiveness of facial expressions and pantomime of the characters depicted on them;

Staging individual (one person participates) and group (several people participate) “living pictures”;

Preparation and delivery of a separate line from the hero of the work with a focus on using not only intonation, but also plastic expressiveness (facial expressions, gestures, movements);

Reading by roles;

Dramatization of an expanded form.

Among the existing techniques and methods of teaching expressive reading, you can also highlight artistic (expressive) reading of prose And artistic storytelling.

Artistic storytelling is the free transmission of a work in the performance of which art is an example folk artists- storytellers. If schoolchildren master this technique, then it will be easy for them to move on to artistic reading of prose, that is, to the literal transmission of a prose work.

An important place in school should be occupied by the teacher’s work on developing students’ speech techniques: proper breathing, clear pronunciation and a good sounding voice. The teacher, whose speech should be a model for his students, must himself have good technique speech, constantly improve it and carry out targeted, systematic work with students in this direction. In most cases, you need to use exercises that allow you to simultaneously train breathing, diction and voice.

Thus, after analyzing methodological literature, we have identified quite a lot of different methods, techniques and types of work to develop expressive reading. Using all of the above methods and techniques, the teacher should take into account the age characteristics of the children, their level of development of the necessary skills, as well as their capabilities and the requirements of the program.