Artistic convention. Conventionality and life-likeness 4.2 life-likeness and conventionality in an artistic image

Artistic convention- a way of reproducing life in a work of art, which clearly reveals a partial discrepancy between what is depicted in the work of art and what is depicted. Artistic convention is opposed to such concepts as “plausibility”, “life-likeness”, and partly “factuality” (Dostoevsky’s expressions - “daggerotyping”, “photographic fidelity”, “mechanical accuracy”, etc.). The feeling of artistic convention arises when a writer diverges from the aesthetic norms of his time, when choosing an unusual angle for viewing an artistic object as a result of a contradiction between the reader’s empirical ideas about the depicted object and the artistic techniques used by the writer. Almost any technique can become conventional if it goes beyond what is familiar to the reader. In cases where artistic conventions correspond to traditions, they are not noticed.

The actualization of the problem of the conditional-plausible is characteristic of transitional periods when several artistic systems compete. The use of various forms of artistic convention gives the described events a supernatural character, opens up a sociocultural perspective, reveals the essence of the phenomenon, shows it from an unusual side, and serves as a paradoxical revelation of meaning. Any work of art has artistic convention, so we can only talk about a certain degree of convention, characteristic of a particular era and felt by contemporaries. A form of artistic convention in which artistic reality clearly diverges from empirical reality is called fantasy.

To denote artistic conventions, Dostoevsky uses the expression “poetic (or “artistic”) truth”, “a share of exaggeration” in art, “fantasy”, “realism reaching the fantastic”, without giving them an unambiguous definition. “Fantastic” can be called a real fact, not noticed due to its exclusivity by contemporaries, and a property of the characters’ perception of the world, and a form of artistic convention, characteristic of a realistic work (see). Dostoevsky believes that one should distinguish between “natural truth” (the truth of reality) and that reproduced using forms of artistic convention; true art needs not only “mechanical precision” and “photographic fidelity,” but also “the eyes of the soul,” “the spiritual eye” (19; 153-154); being fantastic in an “external way” does not prevent the artist from remaining true to reality (i.e., the use of artistic conventions should help the writer cut off the unimportant and highlight the main thing).

Dostoevsky's work is characterized by the desire to change the norms of artistic convention accepted in his time, the blurring of the boundaries between conventional and life-like forms. Dostoevsky’s earlier (before 1865) works were characterized by an open deviation from the norms of artistic convention (“The Double,” “Crocodile”); for later creativity (in particular for novels) - balancing on the edge of the “norm” (explanation of fantastic events by the hero’s dream; fantastic stories of characters).

Among the conventional forms used by Dostoevsky are: parables, literary reminiscences and quotes, traditional images and plots, grotesque, symbols and allegories, forms of conveying the consciousness of the characters (“transcript of feelings” in “A Meek”). The use of artistic conventions in Dostoevsky's works is combined with an appeal to the most life-like details that create the illusion of authenticity (topographical realities of St. Petersburg, documents, newspaper materials, live non-normative colloquial speech). Dostoevsky's appeal to artistic conventions often provoked criticism from his contemporaries, incl. Belinsky. In modern literary criticism, the question of the conventionality of fiction in Dostoevsky’s work was most often raised in connection with the peculiarities of the writer’s realism. Disputes were related to whether “science fiction” is a “method” (D. Sorkin) or an artistic device (V. Zakharov).

Kondakov B.V.

Fiction- a type of art that uses words and structures of natural language as the only material. The specificity of fiction is revealed in comparison, on the one hand, with types of art that use other material instead of verbal and linguistic (music, visual arts) or along with it (theater, cinema, song, visual poetry), on the other hand, with other types verbal text: philosophical, journalistic, scientific, etc. In addition, fiction, like other types of art, combines authored (including anonymous) works, in contrast to works of folklore that are fundamentally authorless.

The material carrier of the imagery of literary works is the word that has received written embodiment ( lat. littera - letter). A word (including an artistic one) always means something and has an objective character. Literature, in other words, belongs to the group fine arts, in a broad sense, substantive, where individual phenomena are recreated (persons, events, things, moods caused by something and impulses of people directed towards something). In this respect, it is similar to painting and sculpture (in their dominant, “figurative” variety) and differs from the non-figurative, non-objective arts. The latter are usually called expressive, they capture the general nature of the experience outside of its direct connections with any objects, facts, or events. These are music, dance (if it does not turn into pantomime - into the depiction of action through body movements), ornament, so-called abstract painting, architecture.

Literature on childbirth

E?pos(Ancient Greek ?πος - “word”, “narration”) - a narrative about events supposed in the past (as if they had happened and are remembered by the narrator). Epic works describe objective reality external to the author. The description of the characters is focused on their behavior and actions, and not on the inner world, as in the lyrics. Biography novels, very popular in the 19th century, are considered epic works. Examples include Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, Stendhal's Red and Black, Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga and many others. The genre got its name from folk poems and songs composed in ancient times, also called epics.

Epic genres: fable, epic, ballad, myth, short story, story, short story, novel, epic novel, fairy tale, epic, artistic essay.

Lyrics- a type of literature that is based on an appeal to the internal sphere - to states of human consciousness, emotions, impressions, experiences. Even if there is a narrative element in the works, a lyrical work is always subjective and focused on the hero. The characteristics of a lyrical work are “conciseness”, “monologue”, “unity of the lyrical plot” and “instantaneity” (“precision”, “modernity”). Most lyrical works relate to poetry.

Lyrical genres: ode, message, stanzas, elegy, epigram, madrigal, eclogue, epitaph.

Drama- a type of literature that primarily reproduces the world external to the author - actions, relationships between people, conflicts, but unlike the epic, it has not a narrative, but a dialogical form. In dramatic works, the text on behalf of the author is episodic in nature, mostly limited to stage directions and explanations of the plot. Most dramatic works are written for subsequent production in the theater.

Dramatic genres: drama, comedy, tragedy, tragicomedy, vaudeville, farce, melodrama.

Types of text by structure

Prose

Prose is considered to be a literary text in which a separate rhythm, independent of speech, does not invade the linguistic fabric and does not affect the content. However, a number of borderline phenomena are known: many prose writers deliberately give their works some signs of poetry (one can mention the highly rhythmic prose of Andrei Bely or the rhymed fragments in Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “The Gift”). The exact boundaries between prose and poetry have been an ongoing debate among literary scholars from different countries over the last century.

Prose is widely used in fiction - in the creation of novels, short stories, etc. Some examples of such works have been known for many centuries, but they have developed into an independent form of literary works relatively recently.

Novel- the most popular type of modern prose (however, a novel in verse is also known in literature) - is a fairly long narrative, covering a significant period in the life of one or more characters and describing this period in great detail. As a widespread genre, novels appeared relatively late, although already in late antiquity the ancient novel developed, in many ways close in structure and tasks to the modern one. Among the early classic examples of the European novel are Gargantua and Pantagruel (1533-1546) by François Rabelais and Don Quixote (1600) by Cervantes. In Asian literature, earlier works are close to the novel in the modern sense - for example, the Chinese classic novel “The Three Kingdoms” or the Japanese “Genji Monogatari” (“The Tale of Prince Genji”).

In Europe, early novels were not considered serious literature; their creation seemed not at all difficult. Later, however, it became clear that prose can provide aesthetic pleasure without the use of poetic techniques. In addition, the absence of rigid boundaries of poetry allows authors to focus more deeply on the content of the work, to work more fully with the details of the plot, in fact, more fully than can be expected even from narratives in poetic form. This freedom also allows authors to experiment with different styles within the same work.

Poetry

In general, a poem is a literary work that has a special rhythmic structure that does not follow from the natural rhythm of the language. The nature of this rhythm can be different depending on the properties of the language itself: for example, for languages in which the difference in vowel sounds by longitude is of great importance (such as the ancient Greek language), the emergence of a poetic rhythm based on the ordering of syllables based on longitude is natural. brevity, and for languages in which vowels differ not in length, but in the force of exhalation (the vast majority of modern European languages are structured this way), it is natural to use a poetic rhythm that organizes syllables according to stressed/unstressed. This is how different systems of versification arise.

For the Russian ear, the familiar appearance of a poem is associated with the syllabic-tonic rhythm and the presence of rhyme in the poem, but neither one nor the other is actually a necessary feature of poetry that distinguishes it from prose. In general, the role of rhythm in a poem is not only to give the text a peculiar musicality, but also to the impact that this rhythm has on the meaning: thanks to the rhythm, some words and expressions (for example, those that appear at the end of a poetic line, rhymed) are highlighted in the poetic speech , accented.

Poetic speech, earlier than prosaic speech, was recognized as a special phenomenon characteristic of a literary text and distinguishing it from ordinary everyday speech. The first known literary works - for the most part, ancient epics (for example, the Sumerian "Tale of Gilgamesh", dating back to about 2200-3000 BC) - are poetic texts. At the same time, the poetic form is not necessarily associated with artistry: the formal features of poetry help it perform a mnemonic function, and therefore, at different times in different cultures, scientific, legal, genealogical, and pedagogical works in verse were common.

Artistic methods and directions

Baroque is a movement characterized by a combination of realistic descriptions with their allegorical depiction. Symbols, metaphors, theatrical techniques, rich rhetorical figures, antitheses, parallelisms, gradations, and oxymorons were widely used. Baroque literature is characterized by a desire for diversity, a summation of knowledge about the world, inclusiveness, encyclopedicism, which sometimes turns into chaos and collecting curiosities, a desire to study existence in its contrasts (spirit and flesh, darkness and light, time and eternity).
Classicism is a movement whose main subject of creativity was the conflict between public duty and personal passions. “Low” genres—fable (J. Lafontaine), satire (Boileau), comedy (Molière)—also achieved high development.
Sentimentalism is a movement that emphasizes the reader's perception, that is, the sensuality that arises when reading them, and is characterized by a tendency toward idealization and moralizing.
Romanticism is a multifaceted movement characterized by an interest in the sublime, folklore, mysticism, travel, the elements, and the theme of good and evil.
Realism is a direction in literature that most truthfully and impartially describes the real world, focused on describing destinies, circumstances and events that are close to real.
Naturalism is a late stage in the development of realism in the literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Writers strove for the most dispassionate and objective reproduction of reality using literary “protocol” methods, to transform novels into a document about the state of society in a certain place and time. The publication of many works was accompanied by scandals, since naturalists did not hesitate to openly record the life of dirty slums, hot spots and brothels - those places that were not customary to be depicted in earlier literature. Man and his actions were understood as determined by physiological nature, heredity and environment - social conditions, everyday and material environment.
Symbolism is the direction in which the symbol becomes the main element. Symbolism is characterized by an experimental nature, a desire for innovation, cosmopolitanism and a wide range of influences. Symbolists used understatement, hints, mystery, enigma. The main mood captured by the symbolists was pessimism, reaching the point of despair. Everything “natural” appeared only as an “appearance” that had no independent artistic significance.
Avant-garde is a polysemantic term that characterizes a way of expression that is anti-traditional in form.
Modernism is a set of trends in literature of the first half of the 20th century. Associated with concepts such as stream of consciousness, lost generation.
Socialist realism is a trend in the literature of the Soviet Union and the countries of the Social Commonwealth, which was of a propaganda nature and supported by the authorities with the aim of ideologically educating the people and building communism. It ceased to exist after the fall of the Communist regime and the abolition of censorship.
Postmodernism is a direction in literature based on playing with meanings, irony, non-standard construction of texts, mixing genres and styles, and involving the reader in the creative process.

Artistic image

Speaking about the sign process in the composition of human life ( semiotics), experts identify three aspects of sign systems: 1) syntactics(relationship of signs to each other); 2) semantics(the relationship of a sign to what it denotes: the signifier to the signified); 3) pragmatics(the relationship of signs to those who operate with them and perceive them).

Signs are classified in a certain way. They are combined into three large groups:

indexical sign (sign- index) indicates an object, but does not characterize it; it is based on the metonymic principle of contiguity (smoke as evidence of a fire, a skull as a warning of danger to life);
sign- symbol is conditional, here the signifier has neither similarity nor connection with the signified, such as words of natural language (except onomatopoeic) or components of mathematical formulas;
Iconic signs reproduce certain qualities of the signified or its holistic appearance and, as a rule, are visual. In the series of iconic signs they differ, firstly, diagrams- schematic recreations of an objectivity that is not entirely specific (graphic designation of the development of industry or the evolution of fertility) and, secondly, images that adequately recreate the sensory properties of the designated single object (photographs, reports, as well as capturing the fruits of observation and fiction in works of art).

Thus, the concept of “sign” did not abolish traditional ideas about image and figurativeness, but placed these ideas in a new, very broad semantic context. The concept of a sign, vital in the science of language, is also significant for literary studies: firstly, in the field of studying the verbal fabric of works, and secondly, when referring to the forms of behavior of characters.

Fiction

Fiction in the early stages of the development of art, as a rule, was not realized: the archaic consciousness did not distinguish between historical and artistic truth. But already in folk tales, which never present themselves as a mirror of reality, conscious fiction is quite clearly expressed. We find judgments about artistic fiction in Aristotle’s “Poetics” (chapter 9 - the historian talks about what happened, the poet talks about the possible, about what could happen), as well as in the works of philosophers of the Hellenistic era.

For a number of centuries, fiction has appeared in literary works as a common property, as inherited by writers from their predecessors. Most often, these were traditional characters and plots, which were somehow transformed each time (this was the case, in particular, in the drama of the Renaissance and classicism, which widely used ancient and medieval plots).

Much more than was the case before, fiction manifested itself as the individual property of the author in the era of romanticism, when imagination and fantasy were recognized as the most important facet of human existence.

In the post-romantic era, fiction somewhat narrowed its scope. Flights of imagination of writers of the 19th century. often preferred direct observation of life: characters and plots were close to their prototypes. According to N.S. Leskova, a real writer is a “note-taker,” and not an inventor: “Where a writer ceases to be a note-taker and becomes an inventor, all connection between him and society disappears.” Let us also recall Dostoevsky’s well-known judgment that a close eye is capable of detecting in the most ordinary fact “a depth that is not found in Shakespeare.” Russian classical literature was more a literature of conjecture than of fiction as such. At the beginning of the 20th century. fiction was sometimes regarded as something outdated and rejected in the name of recreating a real fact that was documented. This extreme has been disputed. The literature of our century—as before—relies widely on both fiction and non-fictional events and persons. At the same time, the rejection of fiction in the name of following the truth of the fact, in some cases justified and fruitful, can hardly become the main line of artistic creativity: without relying on fictional images, art and, in particular, literature are unrepresentable.

The concept of artistic fiction clarifies the boundaries (sometimes very vague) between works that claim to be art and documentary information. If documentary texts (verbal and visual) exclude the possibility of fiction from the outset, then works with the intention of perceiving them as fiction readily allow it (even in cases where the authors limit themselves to recreating actual facts, events, and persons). Messages in literary texts are, as it were, on the other side of truth and lies. At the same time, the phenomenon of artistry can also arise when perceiving a text created with a documentary mindset: “... for this it is enough to say that we are not interested in the truth of this story, that we read it “as if it were the fruit<…>writing."

In this case, there are two trends in artistic imagery, which are designated by the terms convention(the author’s emphasis on non-identity, or even opposition, between what is depicted and the forms of reality) and lifelikeness(leveling such differences, creating the illusion of the identity of art and life).

Literature as the art of words

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 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 is losing its translations are perhaps the most important thing).

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 cognition” and that “the main problem of its study” is “the problem of the relationship between depicting and depicted speech.”

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, etc.

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 artistic creativity as such became stronger, single-component arts became increasingly important. 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 the centuries-old history of culture is associated with a steady differentiation forms of 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 enormous 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.

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<…>They take us beyond the boundaries of not only individual arts, but also art in general.”

Literature has two forms of existence: it exists both as a single-component art (in the form of readable works), and as an invaluable component of 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.

Literature and Mass Communications

In different eras, preference was given to different types of 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 enlightener 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.”

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 - less mobile. Having reached its limit, poetry will probably drown in music.”

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

In this regard, concepts emerged that, in relation to the first half of the century, can be rightfully called “film-centric”, and in the second half – “telecentric”. 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. The main thing is that television is gaining unprecedented ideological authority: the television screen powerfully imposes one or another view of reality on the masses of viewers.

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.

In its 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 the 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.

ARTISTIC CONVENTION in a broad sense

the original property of art, manifested in a certain difference, discrepancy between the artistic picture of the world, individual images and objective reality. This concept indicates a kind of distance (aesthetic, artistic) between reality and a work of art, awareness of which is an essential condition for adequate perception of the work. The term “convention” is rooted in the theory of art, since artistic creativity is carried out primarily in “forms of life.” Linguistic, symbolic expressive means of art, as a rule, represent one or another degree of transformation of these forms. Usually, three types of convention are distinguished: convention expressing the specific specificity of art, determined by the properties of its linguistic material: paint - in painting, stone - in sculpture, word - in literature, sound - in music, etc., which predetermines the possibility of each type of art in display various aspects of reality and the artist’s self-expression - a two-dimensional and flat image on canvas and screen, static in fine art, the absence of a “fourth wall” in the theater. At the same time, painting has a rich color spectrum, cinematography has a high degree of image dynamism, literature, thanks to the special capacity of verbal language, completely compensates for the lack of sensory clarity. This condition is called “primary” or “unconditional”. Another type of convention is the canonization of a set of artistic characteristics, stable techniques and goes beyond the framework of partial reception and free artistic choice. Such a convention can represent the artistic style of an entire era (Gothic, Baroque, Empire), express the aesthetic ideal of a specific historical time; it is strongly influenced by ethnonational characteristics, cultural ideas, ritual traditions of the people, and mythology. The ancient Greeks endowed their gods with fantastic powers and other symbols of deity. The conventions of the Middle Ages were affected by the religious-ascetic attitude towards reality: the art of this era personified the otherworldly, mysterious world. The art of classicism was prescribed to depict reality in the unity of place, time and action. The third type of convention is a proper artistic device, depending on the creative will of the author. The manifestations of such a convention are infinitely diverse, distinguished by their pronounced metaphorical nature, expressiveness, associativity, deliberately open re-creation of “forms of life” - deviations from the traditional language of art (in ballet - a transition to a normal step, in opera - to colloquial speech). In art, it is not necessary that formative components remain invisible to the reader or viewer. A skillfully implemented open artistic device of convention does not disrupt the process of perception of the work, but, on the contrary, often activates it.

There are two types of artistic conventions. Primary artistic convention is associated with the very material that a given type of art uses. For example, the possibilities of words are limited; it does not make it possible to see color or smell, it can only describe these sensations:

Music rang in the garden

With such unspeakable grief,

Fresh and sharp smell of the sea

Oysters on ice on a platter.

(A. A. Akhmatova, “In the Evening”)

This artistic convention is characteristic of all types of art; the work cannot be created without it. In literature, the peculiarity of artistic convention depends on the literary type: the external expression of actions in drama, description of feelings and experiences in lyrics, description of the action in epic. The primary artistic convention is associated with typification: when depicting even a real person, the author strives to present his actions and words as typical, and for this purpose changes some of the properties of his hero. Thus, the memoirs of G.V. Ivanova“Petersburg Winters” evoked many critical responses from the heroes themselves; for example, A.A. Akhmatova she was indignant that the author had invented dialogues between her and N.S. that never happened. Gumilev. But G.V. Ivanov wanted not just to reproduce real events, but to recreate them in artistic reality, to create the image of Akhmatova, the image of Gumilyov. The task of literature is to create a typified image of reality in its acute contradictions and features.
Secondary artistic convention is not characteristic of all works. It presupposes a conscious violation of verisimilitude: Major Kovalev’s nose, cut off and living on its own, in “The Nose” by N.V. Gogol, the mayor with a stuffed head in “The History of a City” by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin. A secondary artistic convention is created through the use of religious and mythological images (Mephistopheles in “Faust” by I.V. Goethe, Woland in “The Master and Margarita” by M.A. Bulgakov), hyperboles(the incredible strength of the heroes of the folk epic, the scale of the curse in N.V. Gogol’s “Terrible Vengeance”), allegories (Grief, Dashing in Russian fairy tales, Stupidity in “Praise of Stupidity” Erasmus of Rotterdam). A secondary artistic convention can also be created by a violation of the primary one: an appeal to the viewer in the final scene of “The Government Inspector” by N.V. Gogol, an appeal to the discerning reader in the novel by N.G. Chernyshevsky“What to do?”, variability of the narrative (several options for the development of events are considered) in “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman” by L. Stern, in the story by H.L. Borges"The Garden of Forking Paths", violation of cause and effect connections in the stories of D.I. Kharms, plays by E. Ionesco. Secondary artistic convention is used to draw attention to the real, to make the reader think about the phenomena of reality.

This ideological and thematic basis, which determines the content of the work, is revealed by the writer in life pictures, in the actions and experiences of the characters, in their characters.

People are thus depicted in certain life circumstances, as participants in the events developing in the work that make up its plot.

Depending on the circumstances and characters depicted in the work, the speech of the characters in it and the author’s speech about them are constructed (see Author’s speech), i.e., the language of the work.

Consequently, the content determines and motivates the writer’s choice and depiction of life scenes, the characters of the characters, plot events, the composition of the work and its language, i.e. the form of the literary work. Thanks to it - life pictures, composition, plot, language - the content is manifested in all its completeness and versatility.

The form of the work is thus inextricably linked with its content and is determined by it; on the other hand, the content of a work can only appear in a certain form.

The more talented the writer, the more fluent he is in the literary form, the more perfectly he depicts life, the deeper and more accurately he reveals the ideological and thematic basis of his work, achieving unity of form and content.

S. of L.N. Tolstoy’s story “After the Ball” - scenes of the ball, execution and, most importantly, the author’s thoughts and emotions about them. F is a material (i.e. sound, verbal, figurative, etc.) manifestation of S. and its organizing principle. Turning to a work, we directly encounter the language of fiction, composition, etc. and through these components F, we comprehend the S. of the work. For example, through the change of bright colors into dark ones in the language, through the contrast of actions and scenes in the plot and composition of the above-mentioned story, we comprehend the author’s angry thought about the inhumane nature of society. Thus, S. and F. are interconnected: F. is always meaningful, and S. is always formed in a certain way, but in the unity of S. and F., the initiative always belongs to S: new F. are born as an expression of a new S.

Ticket 4. Conditionality and life-likeness. Conventionality and realism. Convention and fantasy in a work of art.
Artistic fiction in the early stages of the development of art, as a rule, was not recognized: archaic consciousness did not distinguish between historical and artistic truth. But already in folk tales, which never present themselves as a mirror of reality, conscious fiction is quite clearly expressed. For a number of centuries, fiction has appeared in literary works as a common property, as inherited by writers from their predecessors. Most often these were traditional characters and plots, which were somehow transformed each time. Much more than was the case before, fiction manifested itself as the individual property of the author in the era of romanticism, when imagination and fantasy were recognized as the most important facet of human existence.
In the post-romantic era, fiction somewhat narrowed its scope. Flights of imagination of writers of the 19th century. often preferred direct observation of life: characters and plots were close to their prototypes. Through fiction, the author summarizes the facts of reality, embodies his view of the world, and demonstrates his creative energy.
Forms of “primary” reality (which is again absent in “pure” documentary) are reproduced by the writer (and artist in general) selectively and in one way or another transformed, resulting in a phenomenon that D.S. Likhachev called the inner world of the work: “Every work of art reflects the world of reality in its creative perspectives<...>. The world of a work of art reproduces reality in a certain “abbreviated”, conditional version<...>.
At the same time, there are two tendencies in artistic imagery, which are designated by the terms conventionality (the author’s emphasis on non-identity, or even opposition, between what is depicted and the forms of reality) and life-likeness (leveling such differences, creating the illusion of the identity of art and life). The distinction between conventionality and life-likeness is already present in the statements of Goethe (article “On truth and verisimilitude in art”) and Pushkin (notes on drama and its improbability).
It is customary to call the artistic transformation of life forms, leading to some kind of ugly incongruity, to the combination of incompatible things, grotesque.
Realism and convention in literature.
Realism in literature. In fiction, realism develops gradually over many centuries. But the term “realism” itself arose only in the middle of the 19th century. Realism in literature and art is a truthful, objective reflection of reality using specific means inherent in a particular type of artistic creativity. In the course of the historical development of art, painting takes on the specific forms of certain creative methods.
Artistic convention is the non-identity of the artistic image with the object of reproduction. A distinction is made between primary and secondary convention depending on the degree of credibility of the images and the awareness of artistic fiction in different historical eras.
Primary convention is closely related to the nature of art itself, inseparable from convention, and therefore characterizes any work of art, because it is not identical to reality. Such a convention is perceived as something generally accepted and taken for granted.
Secondary convention, or convention itself, is a demonstrative and conscious violation of artistic verisimilitude in the style of the work.
Violation of proportions, combination and emphasis of any components of the artistic world, revealing the frankness of the author's fiction, give rise to special stylistic techniques that indicate the author's awareness of playing with convention, turning to it as a purposeful, aesthetically significant means. Types of conventional imagery - fantasy, grotesque (grotesque is usually called the artistic transformation of life forms, leading to some kind of ugly incongruity, to the combination of incompatible things); related phenomena - hyperbole, symbol, allegory - can be both fantastic (Grief-Misfortune in ancient Russian literature, Lermontov's Demon) and plausible (the symbol of the seagull, the cherry orchard in Chekhov).
Convention and fantasy in a work of fiction
Esin A.B. Principles and techniques of analyzing a literary work. - M., 1998
The artistic world is conditionally similar to primary reality. However, the measure and degree of convention varies in different works. Depending on the degree of convention, such properties of the depicted world as life-likeness and fantasy differ, which reflect different degrees of difference between the depicted world and the real world.
Life-likeness presupposes “the depiction of life in the forms of life itself,” according to Belinsky, that is, without violating the physical, psychological, cause-and-effect and other laws known to us.
Science fiction involves a violation of these patterns, emphasizing the implausibility of the depicted world. So, for example, Gogol’s story “Nevsky Prospekt” is life-like in its imagery, and his “Viy” is fantastic.
Most often we encounter individual fantastic images in a work - for example, the images of Gargantua and Pantagruel in Rabelais's novel of the same name, but fantasy can also be plot-based, as, for example, in Gogol's story "The Nose", in which the chain of events from beginning to end is completely impossible in the real world.

ARTISTIC CONVENTION - in a broad sense, the original property of art, manifested in a certain difference, discrepancy between the artistic picture of the world, individual images and objective reality. This concept indicates a kind of distance (aesthetic, artistic) between reality and a work of art, awareness of which is an essential condition for adequate perception of the work. The term “convention” has taken root in the theory of art since artistic creativity is carried out primarily in “forms of life.” Linguistic, symbolic expressive means of art, as a rule, represent one or another degree of transformation of these forms. Usually, three types of convention are distinguished: convention, which expresses the specific specificity of art, determined by the properties of its linguistic material: paint - in painting, stone - in sculpture, word - in literature, sound - in music, etc., which predetermines the possibility of each type of art in the display of various aspects of reality and the artist’s self-expression - two-dimensional and flat images on canvas and screen, static in fine art, the absence of a “fourth wall” in the theater. At the same time, painting has a rich color spectrum, cinema has a high degree of image dynamism, and literature, thanks to the special capacity of verbal language, completely compensates for the lack of sensory clarity. This condition is called “primary” or “unconditional”. Another type of convention is the canonization of a set of artistic characteristics, stable techniques and goes beyond the framework of partial reception and free artistic choice. Such a convention can represent the artistic style of an entire era (Gothic, Baroque, Empire), express the aesthetic ideal of a specific historical time; it is strongly influenced by ethnonational characteristics, cultural ideas, ritual traditions of the people, and mythology. The ancient Greeks endowed their gods with fantastic powers and other symbols of deity. The conventions of the Middle Ages were affected by the religious-ascetic attitude towards reality: the art of this era personified the otherworldly, mysterious world. The art of classicism was required to depict reality in the unity of place, time and action. The third type of convention is the artistic device itself, which depends on the creative will of the author. The manifestations of such a convention are infinitely varied, distinguished by their pronounced metaphorical nature, expressiveness, associativity, deliberately open re-creation of “forms of life” - deviations from the traditional language of art (in ballet - a transition to a regular step, in opera - to colloquial speech). In art, it is not necessary that formative components remain invisible to the reader or viewer. A skillfully implemented open artistic device of convention does not disrupt the process of perception of the work, but, on the contrary, often activates it.