Examples of compositional techniques in literature. Composition of a literary work
This term (French montage - assembly) arose and became established in cinema at the dawn of its existence. According to L.V. Kuleshov, a famous film director, a film frame is just a letter for editing, which is “the main means of cinematic influence”; in the film, it is not the images themselves that are significant, but their “combination”, “the replacement of one piece with another”, the system of their alternation. Later, in the article “Montage-1938” by S.M. Eisenstein wrote: “Any two pieces, placed side by side, inevitably combine into a new idea, emerging from this comparison as a new quality.”
Montage here is understood as a set of techniques of cinematic composition, which is thought of as more significant than the objects caught in the film frame. Having migrated to literary criticism, the term “montage” has somewhat changed its meaning. It denotes a method of constructing a literary work in which the discontinuity (discreteness) of the image predominates, its “brokenness” into fragments. The editing is associated with the aesthetics of avant-gardeism. And its function is understood as a break in the continuity of communication, a statement of random connections between facts, playing out dissonances, intellectualization of a work, refusal of catharsis, “fragmentation” of the world and destruction of natural connections between objects. Montage in this sense is marked by the essays of V. B. Shklovsky, the works of J. Dos Passos, “Counterpoint” by O. Huxley, “Ulysses” by J. Joyce, the French “new novel” (in particular, the works of M. Butor).
The word “montage” has now acquired an even broader meaning. He began to record those co- and contrasts (similarities and contrasts, analogies and antitheses) that are not dictated by the logic of what is depicted, but directly capture the author’s train of thought and associations. A composition where this aspect of the work is active is usually called “montage”. Internal, emotional-semantic, associative connections between characters, events, episodes, details turn out to be more important than their external, objective, spatio-temporal and cause-and-effect “linkages” (at the level of the world of the work).
This principle of construction is clear in Russian classics of the 19th century. A number of lyrical and lyroepic works by N.A. are montaged. Nekrasova. A striking example of a montage composition is the story of L.N. Tolstoy's "Three Deaths". It consists of three episodes (the death of the lady, the coachman and the tree), which have no cause-and-effect relationship with each other; the characters have no contact with each other; spatiotemporal coupling of events is weak. But everything depicted is firmly and reliably connected (mounted) by the energy of the author’s thought: about man and nature, about the naturalness of people from the people and the unnaturalness, falsehood of those who have class privileges and wealth.
Turning to the literature of the 20th century, as a classically striking example of a montage composition, we will cite T. Mann’s novel “The Magic Mountain”, full of semantic parallels and analogies that are largely independent of the subject of the image and the logic of its deployment. Here, according to the author, ideas, motives and “symbolic formulas” that “echo each other” according to the laws of music are significant. For those who took this novel with keen interest, T. Mann recommended reading it a second time. The writer motivated his advice by the fact that “the book is not made in a very ordinary way: it has the character of a composition,” similar to a musical one. Having mastered the subject-thematic layer of the novel in the first reading, the reader, when returning to the text again, will understand its meaning more deeply and, “therefore, will get more pleasure,” since he will gain the opportunity to comprehend the author’s associations and connections “not only retrospectively, but also looking ahead,” already knowing how the novel continued and ended. “After all, music,” notes T. Mann, “can only be enjoyed when you know it in advance.”
The montage principle is one way or another present in plot works, where there are inserted stories (remember “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” as part of Gogol’s “Dead Souls”), lyrical digressions, so abundant in “Eugene Onegin”, chronological rearrangements on which the construction of Lermontov’s "Hero of our time."
In the literature of the 20th century. Sudden and unmotivated transitions from one moment of the characters’ lives to other, earlier, sometimes very distant ones, as well as “running ahead” into the future, are widespread. Such time shifts are very frequent, for example, in the novels and stories of W. Faulkner.
The mounting principle is clearly expressed in works with multilinear plots, “folded” from several independent units. This is exactly the case, for example, in the novel “Anna Karenina”, where, according to L.N. Tolstoy, “architectonics” is based on “internal connections” between the nodes of events and characters, and not on their acquaintance and communication.
M.A. could say something similar about the construction of his novel “The Master and Margarita.” Bulgakov. Here the storylines (the story of Margarita, the Master and his novel, the line of Yeshua and Pontius Pilate; the chain of tricks of Woland’s retinue) are “linked” to each other more associatively, at a level of deep meaning rather than externally, as a system of causes and effects.
The montage beginning of the composition is embodied in separate text units (links), which are called montage phrases. In a number of cases, a seemingly random juxtaposition of apparently unrelated episodes, statements, and details that is not motivated by the logic of what is depicted turns out to be compositionally and meaningfully significant. For example, in the opening scene of “The Cherry Orchard” by A.P. Chekhov immediately after Gaev’s remark “The train was two hours late. What's it like? What are the procedures? Charlotte’s words are heard: “My dog even eats nuts,” thanks to which the first phrase is given a slightly ironic flavor: a uniquely Chekhovian tone is outlined in covering the lives of all sorts of “klutzes.”
“Montage phrases” can be composed of units that are distant from each other in the text. For example, the words of Samson Vyrin from “The Station Warden” by A. S. Pushkin (“Perhaps I’ll bring my lost sheep home”) prompts the reader to remember the description at the beginning of the story of the pictures hanging on the wall of the stationmaster’s room about the wanderings of the prodigal son. This montage unit, broken down in the text, clarifies a lot about both the appearance of the characters and the essence of the story being told.
The montage composition opens up broad perspectives for the artist’s words. It allows you to figuratively capture the directly unobservable, essential relationships of phenomena, to deeply comprehend the world in its diversity and richness, inconsistency and unity. The montage structure, in other words, corresponds to a vision of the world that is distinguished by its diversity and epic breadth. The world is perceived “montage-wise”, for example, in the poem by B.L. Pasternak’s “Night”, where there was a place for the Milky Way, which is turned with a “terrible tilt” towards other universes, and stokers “in basements and boiler rooms”, and a waking artist - a hostage of eternity “in captivity of time”, and much more...
The words of A.A. seem to be an apt characteristic of montage perception and reproduction of reality. Blok from the preface to his poem “Retribution”: “I am used to comparing facts from all areas of life accessible to my vision at a given time, and I am sure that all of them together always make up a single musical pressure.”
The technique of frame (or “story within a story”).
Reception of the ring.
Acceptance of insertion.
Preliminary reception.
Retreat technique.
Retrospection technique.
Frame acceptance(or “story within a story”) is very common in plotting. The main storyline is enclosed, as it were, in a “Frame” of a memory, an argument, entertainment with anecdotes, a lesson, etc. The hero with this compositional technique tells a story that happened to him in the past or, on the contrary, fantasizes, predicting the future. Chronologically, this plot is inconsistent. The time of the story itself does not correspond to the time that the narrator is talking about.
The technique is very common: L.N. Tolstoy “After the Ball”, A.N. Nekrasov “Railway”, A.P. Chekhov Trilogy “About Love”, Boccaccio “Decameron”, etc.
Reception of the ring. It resembles the frame technique, but differs significantly from it. With this technique, the last episode compositionally repeats the first. The heroes find themselves in the same circumstances, in the same environment, they are overcome by similar problems. They seem to be walking in a circle. But we must not lose sight of the fact that the semantic load of the last episode, due to the development of the plot, is already different than that of the first. External signs are repeated, but internally a lot changes. The ring technique is used in dream plots (Calderon’s “Life is a Dream”) and escape plots (Lermontov’s “Mtsyri”). Vampilov used this technique (plays “Farewell in June”, “Eldest Son”, “House with Windows on a Field”).
Receiving insertion elementary. As the plot develops, fairy tales, myths, stories, fables, etc., which at first glance are not related to the main conflict, are “inserted.” The most famous insertion technique is found in Gogol’s “Dead Souls”: this is “The Tale of Captain Kopeikin”. Chingiz Aitmatov widely uses inserts in his novels. The insertion can be removed from the text; this will have little effect on the plot (chain of events), but will fundamentally impoverish the plot as a whole.
Preliminary reception widespread in psychological and mystical-religious works. One of the episodes (often a dream, fortune telling, premonition, chance meeting, vision) turns out to be prophetic andanticipate future events. This is the episode of the train accident observed when Anna Karenina arrived in Moscow; Tatiana's dream in Eugene Onegin, Raskolnikov's dream in Crime and Punishment. Such preliminary episodes, scenes, sometimes just images (the unyielding burr in L. Tolstoy's Hadji - Murat) find their exact compositional place in the development of the main storyline.
Retreat technique(lyrical, journalistic, scientific, philosophical) is well known from “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin and “Don Juan” by J. Byron, “The Young Guard” by A. Fadeev and “Pushkin House” by A. Bitov. All kinds of digressions allow the author to express himself more fully, comment on the plot from different points of view, simply “chat” with the reader. Digressions most often enrich the plot, giving it an encyclopedic character.
Retrospection technique–technique of chronometric return, plot twistto the past. As the action progresses, the hero can retrospectively remember something. Retrospection is typical for detective stories. This technique has been known since the times of folklore: it is often found in Russian epics and fairy tales. In modern literature, Yuri Bondarev has resorted to it more than once (“Shore”, “Choice”, “Game”).
If you take several geometric shapes and try to put them together into a composition, you will have to admit that only two operations can be done with the shapes - either group them, or superimpose them on each other. If some large monotonous plane needs to be turned into a composition, then, most likely, this plane will have to be divided into a rhythmic series in any way - color, relief, slits. If you need to visually bring an object closer or further away, you can use the red zooming effect or the blue zooming effect. In short, there are formal and at the same time real methods of composition and corresponding means that the artist uses in the process of creating a work.
4.1 Grouping
This technique is the most common and, in fact, the very first action when composing a composition. Concentration of elements in one place and consistent rarefaction in another, highlighting the compositional center, balance or dynamic instability, static immobility or the desire to move - everything is within the power of the group. Any picture, first of all, contains elements that are in one way or another mutually located relative to each other, but now we are talking about a formal composition, so let's start with geometric figures. Grouping also involves spaces, that is, the distances between elements, into the composition. You can group spots, lines, dots, shadow and illuminated parts of the image, warm and cold colors, sizes of figures, texture and texture - in a word, everything that is visually different from one another.
4.2 Overlay and cut-in
In terms of compositional action, this is a grouping that has crossed the boundaries of the figures. The placement of elements or their fragments one under the other, the partial overlap of silhouettes are a model of the compositional scheme of the picture when conveying close, distant and medium stuffy perspectives. This technique looks especially impressive when simultaneously using changes in color, contrast and scale with the removal of plans.
4.3 Division
There are two practical methods of working in sculpture. According to the first method, clay is applied in parts to the frame and gradually built up to the desired shape. According to the second method, approximately the total mass of the figure is taken and then all excess clay is removed, the form is, as it were, freed from unnecessary masses. Something similar happens at the birth of a composition.
Grouping and superposition are similar to the sculptor's first method, and division is reminiscent of the second method, that is, the division technique extracts a detailed compositional structure from a large monotonous surface.
Division is a secondary technique; in general, it is the reverse side of grouping and deals with an already existing compositional basis, giving the work rhythmic expressiveness. A typical example of constructing a composition using division is Filonov’s paintings. In them, each figurative element of the composition is divided into a number of color spots, which gives the work a special originality, and from the point of view of composition, the picture is perceived first of all as a collection of these cells of color, and only then as an image of figures and objects. The technique of division is widely used in architecture from ancient orders and Gothic temples to constructivism of the twentieth century.
Regardless of specific artistic tasks, genres, manners, images, moral premises, the artist uses only a few formal techniques when creating a composition. An infinitely wide range of concrete results is provided by those means, those tools of composition that, while remaining formal, are already carriers of aesthetic categories and correspond to our sensory perception of the world. This is rhythm, and contrast, and color, and a sense of proportion, and other manifestations of our awareness of order in nature.
It is absolutely impossible to give preference to any of the means of composition, to accept their disparity, therefore in this work the sequence of their consideration is purely accidental. True, one of the means can be put first in order. Composition, as a rule, begins with the choice of a specific format - this will be the first means of composition.
4.4 Format
the vast majority of the paintings are rectangular. This leads to three possible formats: vertical, horizontal, square. Forms of compositions such as center will most likely require a square field, linear-ribbon, actively elongated format, frontal-planar, depending on the specific task, can fit into any format. Panoramic landscape or portrait. - . a multi-figure painting or an ornamental painting - each of the compositions requires its own format, and not only the aspect ratio, but also the absolute size of the format is significant. Graphic artists have empirically derived the following law: the smaller the composition, the relatively larger the fields of work should be. Bookplates, trademarks, emblems, and any similar graphemes look good on sheets in which the margins are significantly larger than the image itself. For a composition the size of a Whatman paper, the margins should be very small (3-5 cm).
The format, if it is specified in advance, directly becomes one of the means of composition, because the aspect ratio and the absolute size of the sheet immediately determine the possible forms of the composition, the degree of detail, and give, as it were, the germ of a compositional idea. In addition to rectangular, the format can be oval, round, polygonal, or anything at all; compositional tasks also change depending on this.
4.5 Scale and proportion
We touched on the issue of scale in the previous paragraph. As a means of composition, scale works, so to speak, strategically. It is enough to compare a graphic work and a monumental decorative work to understand how scale affects the shape of the composition.
The formal aspect of graphic work is the filigree of all its elements, as it is viewed up close. A monumental composition certainly has greater generality, some rigidity of form, and simplified details. As the scale increases, the requirements for balance and integrity of the composition increase.
If we consider the scale within the composition, then the relationship between the elements is regulated by proportion. The well-known golden ratio, that is, such a proportional relationship between elements when the whole relates to the larger part as the larger part relates to the smaller, is perceived as harmonious not only in sensation, but also logically. Generally speaking, scale proportionality as a means of composition changes virtually constantly, in any ordering of figures or objects. Not every ratio of sizes is consistent with each other, therefore internal scale and proportion are a very subtle means of composition, based on intuition. Scale and proportion are the main means of conveying perspective - reducing elements into the depth of the picture creates a sense of space.
4.6 Rhythm and meter
Rhythm by definition is a uniform alternation of elements. Since we are talking about composition, it is especially necessary to note the uniformity of alternation. Uniformity is the simplest, march-like form of rhythm. In a composition, the uniform alternation of elements is determined by the word “meter” (hence metronome). The most primitive, indifferent and cold meter is when the sizes of the elements and the sizes of spaces are the same. The expressiveness and, accordingly, the complexity of the rhythm increase if the intervals between elements are constantly changing.
In this case, the following options are possible:
the alternation of elements naturally accelerates or slows down;
the distances between the elements are not of a naturally regular nature, but are stretched or
narrow down without an explicit metric.
The second option has more possibilities, although it is more difficult to construct - this makes the composition internally tense, with more mystery.
Rhythm as a means of composition is often used in combination with proportion: then the elements not only alternate, but also themselves change in size in accordance with some pattern (ornament) or freely.
4.7 Contrast and nuance
Generally speaking, contrast is a close relative of rhythm. The juxtaposition of elements that are sharply different from each other (in area, color, light and shade, shape, etc.) is similar to rhythmic alternation, only syncopated, knocked out of direct counting. Contrast gives the composition expressive power; with the help of contrast, it is easy to highlight the main elements; contrast expands the dynamic range of the composition. However, in too sharp contrasts there is a danger of violating the integrity of the composition: therefore, an alternative means is nuance - a calmed, leveled contrast. Nuance, while creating integrity, at some point may leave nothing of contrast, turning the composition into sluggish monotony. Everything needs a sense of proportion. Let us remember that in Ancient Greece this was considered an indicator of a person’s mental development.
4.8 Color
Three standard qualities of color - tone (the color itself), saturation and lightness - are closely related to an unusual, but very important characteristic for composition - brightness. It is brightness that visually highlights an object and plays the role of contrast. When the composition is built primarily with color, integrity is achieved by bringing the spots closer together in lightness, then the difference in tones and saturation can remain significant. If the harmony of the composition is based on monochrome or similar tones, then it is also advisable to reduce the difference in lightness. this situation is very similar to such means of composition as contrast or nuance. Often the property of color is used to create the illusion of bringing an object closer or further away: saturated warm tones seem to bring you closer, and cold, low-saturated tones move away. Thus, only with the help of color can space be conveyed. Color as a means of composition is present in literally every image, regardless of its compositional objectives and forms. The omnipresence of color gives it the right to be considered a universal and necessary (that is, color cannot be bypassed) means of composition.
4.9 Composition axes
We are talking not only about the axes of symmetry in ribbon compositions, which are just a special case of compositional axes, but more about those directions of development of the composition that lead the viewer’s gaze, creating the impression of movement or rest. These axes can be vertical, horizontal, diagonal and so-called perspective (leading into the depth of the picture). Vertical orientation gives solemnity, aspiration to the spirit, horizontality, as it were, demonstrates unhurried movement to the viewer, diagonality is the most dynamic;
it emphasizes development. Perspective axes occupy a special place. On the one hand, they correspond to the natural property of the eye apparatus, which perceives objects converging on a point with a distance from the viewer to infinity, and on the other hand, they draw the eye into the depth of the picture, making the viewer a participant in the event. In interaction with other means of composition, axes often appear in combination with each other, forming cruciform, multi-pass, complex connections.
4.10 Symmetry
There is a French proverb: if you don’t know how to lie, tell the truth. Artists, by analogy with this proverb, have a rule: if you don’t know how to build a composition, do symmetry. As a means of composition, symmetry has no equal in terms of efficiency and simplicity, because it is initially balanced and holistic, in addition, it does not require any special creative efforts: it is enough to mirror one another - and the composition is ready. Whether this means is appropriate in a particular work is another matter, but formally it is a win-win.
4.11 Texture and texture
Texture is the nature of the surface: smoothness, roughness, relief. Textural indicators carry certain features of a compositional device, although not as clearly and not as categorically as, say, rhythm and color. The artist completes the composition with surface texture.
The texture is widely used by sculptors, architects, and designers. In painting, it plays, if not a supporting, then not the most important role, but sometimes it acts as an equal means of artistic composition, as, for example, in the paintings of Van Gogh. Texture is rarely used in graphics, where a close relative of texture plays a much larger role - the so-called texture, that is, the visible surface pattern (texture of wood, fabric, marble, etc.). Texture has truly limitless variety, and in many cases it is texture that creates the aesthetic feature of a piece.
4.12 Stylization
This means of composition is mainly associated with the decorative arts, where the rhythmic organization of the whole is very important. Stylization is the generalization and simplification of the depicted figures in design and color, bringing the figures into a form convenient for ornament. The second hypostasis of stylized forms is a means of design and monumental art. Finally, stylization is used in easel fine arts to enhance decorativeness.
Stylization is especially widely used when creating floral patterns. Natural forms, drawn from life, are too overloaded with unimportant details, random plasticity, and an abundance of color nuances. Sketches from nature are the source material for stylization. By stylizing, the artist reveals the decorative pattern of forms, discards accidents, simplifies details, and finds the rhythmic basis of the image. The stylized form easily fits into any type of symmetrical transformation and has the stability of a monad in the most complex interweaving of elements.
Before we begin to analyze the deeper layers of the composition, we need to become familiar with the basic compositional techniques. There are few of them; There are only four main ones: repetition, reinforcement, contrast and montage.
Repetition is one of the simplest and at the same time most effective composition techniques. It allows you to easily and naturally “round out” the work and give it compositional harmony.
The so-called ring composition looks especially impressive when a compositional echo is established between the beginning and end of the work; such a composition often carries a special artistic meaning.
A classic example of using a ring composition to express content is Blok’s miniature “Night, street, lantern, pharmacy...”:
Night, street, lantern, pharmacy,
Pointless and dim light.
Live for at least another quarter of a century,
Everything will be like this. There is no outcome.
If you die, you'll start over again,
And everything will repeat itself as before:
Night, icy ripples of the channel,
Pharmacy, street, lamp.
Here the vicious circle of life, the return to what has already been passed, is, as it were, physically embodied in the composition of the poem, in the compositional identity of beginning and end.
A frequently repeated detail or image becomes the leitmotif of the entire work, such as, for example, the image of a thunderstorm in Ostrovsky’s work of the same name, the image of the resurrection of Lazarus in Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, the lines “Yes, there were people in our time, Not like the current tribe” in "Borodino" by Lermontov.
A type of repetition is a refrain in poetic works: for example, repeating the line “But where is last year’s snow?” in F. Villon's ballad “Ladies of Bygone Times”.
A technique close to repetition is reinforcement. This technique is used in cases where simple repetition is not enough to create an artistic effect, when it is necessary to enhance the impression by selecting homogeneous images or details.
Thus, according to the principle of strengthening, the description of the interior decoration of Sobakevich’s house in Gogol’s “Dead Souls” is constructed: every new detail strengthens the previous one: “everything was solid, clumsy to the highest degree and had some strange resemblance to the owner of the house; in the corner of the living room stood a pot-bellied walnut bureau on the most absurd four legs, a perfect bear. The table, armchairs, chairs - everything was of the heaviest and most restless quality - in a word, every object, every chair seemed to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!” or “and I also look very much like Sobakevich!”
The same principle of intensification applies to the selection of artistic images in Chekhov’s story “The Man in a Case”: “He was remarkable in that he always, even in very good weather, went out in galoshes and with an umbrella and certainly in a warm coat with cotton wool. And he had an umbrella in a case made of gray suede, and when he took out his penknife to sharpen a pencil, his knife was also in a case; and his face, it seemed, was also in a cover, since he kept hiding it in his raised collar. He wore dark glasses, a sweatshirt, stuffed his ears with cotton wool, and when he got on the cab, he ordered the top to be raised.”
The opposite technique to repetition and reinforcement is opposition. From the name itself it is clear that this compositional technique is based on the antithesis of contrasting images; for example, in Lermontov’s poem “The Death of a Poet”: “And you will not wash away the Poet’s righteous blood with all your black blood.” Here the underlined epithets form a compositionally significant opposition.
In a broader sense, opposition is any opposition of images: for example, Onegin and Lensky, Bazarov and Pavel Petrovich, images of storm and peace in Lermontov’s poem “Sail”, etc.
Contrast is a very strong and expressive artistic device that you should always pay attention to when analyzing a composition.
Contamination, the combination of repetition and contrast techniques, gives a special compositional effect: the so-called mirror composition. As a rule, with a mirror composition, the initial and final images are repeated exactly the opposite.
A classic example of a mirror composition is Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”. In it, the denouement seems to repeat the plot, only with a change in position: at the beginning, Tatyana is in love with Onegin, writes him a letter and listens to his cold rebuke, at the end - it’s the other way around: the lover Onegin writes a letter and listens to Tatyana’s rebuke.
The technique of mirror composition is one of the strong and winning techniques; its analysis requires sufficient attention.
The last compositional technique is montage, in which two images located side by side in the work give rise to some new, third meaning, which appears precisely from their proximity.
So, for example, in Chekhov’s story “Ionych” the description of Vera Iosifovna’s “art salon” is adjacent to the mention that the clanking of knives could be heard from the kitchen and the smell of fried onions could be heard. Together, these two details create the atmosphere of vulgarity that Chekhov tried to reproduce in the story.
All compositional techniques can perform two functions in the composition of a work, slightly different from each other: they can organize either a separate small fragment of text (at the micro level) or the entire text (at the macro level), becoming in the latter case the principle of composition.
Above we looked at how repetition organizes the composition of the entire work; Let's give an example when repetition organizes the structure of a small fragment:
Nor glory bought with blood,
Nor the peace full of proud trust,
Nor the dark old treasured legends
No joyful dreams stir within me.
Lermontov. Motherland
The most common method of organizing the microstructures of a poetic text is sound repetition at the end of poetic lines - rhyme.
The same can be observed, for example, in the use of the technique of amplification: in the above examples from Gogol and Chekhov, it organizes a separate fragment of the text, and, say, in Pushkin’s poem “The Prophet” it becomes the general principle of composition of the entire artistic whole (by the way, this is very clearly manifested in F. I. Chaliapin’s performance of P. Rimsky-Korsakov’s romance to Pushkin’s poems).
In the same way, montage can become a compositional principle for organizing the entire work - this can be observed, for example, in Pushkin’s “Boris Godunov”, Bulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita”, etc.
Thus, in the future we will distinguish between repetition, opposition, intensification and montage as a compositional technique itself and as a principle of composition.
These are the basic compositional techniques with the help of which the composition in any work is built. Let us now move on to consider the levels at which compositional effects are realized in a particular work.
As already mentioned, composition embraces the entire artistic form of a work and organizes it, thus acting at all levels. The first level we will consider is the level of the figurative system.
Esin A.B. Principles and techniques of analyzing a literary work. - M., 1998
The word “composition” is first encountered in school; later it becomes a term, then a concept, gradually expanding to become a key word in any understanding of a literary work. There are various methods and forms of artistic depiction of reality, and compositional technique is considered as one of the main formative units.
Compilation
“Composition” is translated from Latin exactly like this. Or "essay". It is this phenomenon that gives the reader a complete narrative and any text in general. How to interpret a compositional technique that helps to arrange all parts of the text in the correct order, which is determined purely by the content of this work? Of course, composition is not just a chain of scenes and episodes; there is much more sophisticated creative work involved in composing parts of the text.
So, one of the ways to combine all the elements into a composition is to compile a single whole narrative from descriptions, monologues, dialogues, a figurative system, inserted stories, author’s digressions, characteristics of the characters, the plot of the story and its plot, landscapes and portraits. This will be the first compositional technique.
Glimpses into the past and future
Retrospection takes the reader back in time, where the author immerses him in events that happened to the hero as long ago as desired, and thus the root cause of what is happening in the present becomes clear. The compositional technique of retrospection is used by authors very widely and often in both prose and poetry.
Intrigue is created very effectively when the author alternates chapters, giving them in turn to several characters, or events, or localities. Moreover, each chapter ends with an unfinished and intriguing scene. A huge incentive appears for the reader to scroll further quickly. Such compositional techniques are called breaks in the literature. In addition, the composition itself can be arranged thematically, mirrored, in a ring, or in the reverse order of events.
Four tricks
The composition of any real work is certainly multi-layered, each of them has a “double” and even a “triple bottom”, “undercurrents” and even whirlpools. How does the author achieve such ambiguity? Of course, using a variety of compositional techniques in literature. There are an incredible variety of them. There are four main ones: montage, contrast, reinforcement and repetition.
Repetition is simple and extremely effective; it adds unexpected context to ordinary words, gives harmony to the sound, and helps to outline the main thing. The most appropriate example here is Blok’s well-known poem “Night, Street, Lantern, Pharmacy...”, where the main compositional techniques - repetition and intensification - show the circularity of the circle of life and the constant return to the past. It’s the same in prose - some repeating detail or a certain image is brought out into the leitmotifs of the work, which is permeated by them and thereby gains integrity. For example, the resurrection of Lazarus by Dostoevsky (“Crime and Punishment”) or the image of a thunderstorm by Ostrovsky.
Strengthening and contrasting
Strengthening as a technique is close to repetition, but here there is more effect in the artistic rendering of a phenomenon or event, since details or images are selected that are similar to the first, which with each new appearance increase the emotional tension of the reader and quickly fill the depicted picture with ever new details and visible images. Gogol is especially good at this technique (description of the house of Sobakevich or Plyushkin). Chekhov uses this technique in the story “The Man in a Case.”
The opposite technique is no less good and effective. Contrast, otherwise - antithesis, the use of contrasting images. These compositional techniques appear with great force in poems. Let us remember Lermontov, where the black blood of arrogant descendants is shed next to the poet’s righteous blood, how the very depth of every reader’s heart trembles from such oppositions. And compositionally, opposition is present almost everywhere, you can’t do without it: storm and peace (Lermontov’s “Sail”), Onegin and Lensky. Without contrast, not a single work can take place, be it poetry or prose, the technique is expressive.
Contamination and installation
This is a combination of two techniques - opposition and repetition. The result is a particularly strong effect - a mirror composition. Contamination in translation means mixing, so it’s easier to remember the name of a compositional technique that combines polarly different quantities. With a mirror composition, the repetition turns out to be almost literally exact, but with the opposite meaning. Let us remember: the scene of Tatiana and Onegin with a rebuke to Tatiana at the beginning and the scene of Onegin and Tatiana with a rebuke to Onegin at the end of the novel. Mirror composition is a very advantageous and powerful remedy.
Editing is a more complex technique, sophisticatedly sought out, but striking on the spot. When reading, however, this feels like an insight, although the author probably thought for a very long time about what compositional technique to choose, put together puzzles, rearranging two different images side by side so that a third, new meaning was born from their juxtaposition. For example, Pavel Petrovich, an aristocrat, who has a silver ashtray in the shape of a bast shoe on his table. Silver. Lapot. We now know everything about the aristocrat Pavel Petrovich through an oxymoron composed by Turgenev, who masterfully used compositional means.
Techniques and their levels
All techniques used perform one of two functions that differ from each other. A compositional technique organizes either a separate fragment of text - the micro level, or the entire text as a principle of composition - the macro level. Repetition in a separate part of a poetic text often uses such tropes as anaphora (unity of command) and rhyme (sound repetition at the end of poems).
The technique of amplification in prose is most often appropriate at the micro level, in descriptions of an object or phenomenon, and in a poem it is an excellent way to create the overall unity of the composition. As an example, we can recall Pushkin’s poem “The Prophet” (and Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the music for it so well that it seems you can even feel the amplification technique). Montage also sometimes goes to the macro level and organizes the composition of the entire work, even a very voluminous one, such as, for example, in Pushkin ("Boris Godunov") or in Bulgakov ("The Master and Margarita").
Compositional techniques and effects
Montage and amplification, contrast and repetition - any of the basic compositional techniques, and not only the basic ones, can expand its meaning to the principle of composition. But the basis of each such principle is, first of all, the effect. Otherwise, why all the fuss with compositional techniques, if you can retell the information according to the principle of a telephone directory.
What compositional tricks will add impact to the piece? For example, if the action begins not from the beginning of events, but on the contrary - from the end, gradually building the passage of time in the following episodes and explaining the reasons for the events that took place. This is the so-called reverse composition, a very interesting technique (“What to do?” by Chernyshevsky). And if repetition of stanzas is used, as if framing the poem, or a description that runs at the beginning and end of the work, closing the composition with a ring, this technique will be called a ring composition or framing composition. It is used very often in both poetry and prose.
Artistic image
An excellent composition organizer. Gogol, for example, drew a red thread through the entire poem “Dead Souls” with the image of a road, which served as a clear outline of the entire narrative: the road to the city of NN, from there the road to Manilovka, the road to Korobochka, the road to the tavern with Nozdryov there, the road to Nozdryov, the road further - from house to house. And Gogol ends dearly too. This means that this is the structure-forming element.
The author can also make exposition an organizing element, as, for example, Pushkin in the novel “Eugene Onegin”, where the entire first chapter is exposition. A compositional technique is the symmetry of episodes, images, words, as well as phenomena, chapters, scenes - anything, and this principle of composition is also very popular to this day. Contamination and compositional discontinuity have already been mentioned; we can only add that most often the latter are used by authors of detective stories and adventure novels to enhance intrigue.
Subjects
This is also a completely compositional technique, when the author most clearly highlights the relationship between the main characters of the work or its central images. This method is preferred by lyric poets.
The sequence of the narrative, the logical reasoning that develops from thought to thought, leading to the final conclusion, as, for example, in many poems by Pushkin, Tyutchev, Mayakovsky, is called a sequential composition, where sequence is a device.
