The world of the work. Likhachev D

artistic poem Akhmatova plot

The inner world of a work of verbal art (literary or folklore) has a certain artistic integrity. The individual elements of reflected reality are connected with each other in this inner world in a certain system, artistic unity.

When studying the reflection of the world of reality in the world of a work of art, literary scholars limit themselves for the most part to paying attention to whether individual phenomena of reality are correctly or incorrectly depicted in the work. Literary scholars enlist the help of historians to determine the accuracy of the depiction of historical events, psychologists and even psychiatrists to determine the accuracy of the depiction of the mental life of the characters. When studying ancient Russian literature, in addition to historians, we often turn to the help of geographers, zoologists, astronomers, etc. And all this, of course, is quite correct, but, alas, not enough. Usually the inner world of a work of art is studied as a whole, limited to the search for “prototypes”: prototypes of a particular character, character, landscape, even “prototypes”, events and prototypes of the types themselves. Everything is “retail”, everything is in parts! The world of a work of art appears scattered, and its relationship to reality is fragmented and lacks integrity.

At the same time, the mistake of literary critics, who note various “faithfulness” or “incorrectness” in the artist’s depiction of reality, lies in the fact that, dividing the integral reality and the integral world of a work of art, they make both incommensurable: they measure the apartment area in light years.

True, it has become standard to point out the difference between a real fact and an artistic fact. Such statements are found when studying “War and Peace” or Russian epics and historical songs. The difference between the world of reality and the world of a work of art is already realized with sufficient acuteness. But the point is not to “be aware” of something, but also to define this “something” as an object of study.

In fact, it is necessary not only to state the very fact of differences, but also to study what these differences consist of, what causes them and how they organize the inner world of the work. We should not simply establish differences between reality and the world of a work of art and see only in these differences the specificity of a work of art. The specificity of a work of art by individual authors or literary movements can sometimes consist in just the opposite, that is, in the fact that there will be too few of these differences in individual parts of the inner world, and too much imitation and accurate reproduction of reality

In historical source studies, the study of a historical source was once limited to the question: true or false? After A. Shakhmatov’s works on the history of chronicle writing, such a study of the source was considered insufficient. A. Shakhmatov studied the historical source as an integral monument from the point of view of how this monument transforms reality: the purposefulness of the source, the worldview and political views of the author. Thanks to this, it became possible to use even a distorted, transformed image of reality as historical evidence. This transformation itself has become important evidence in the history of ideology and social thought. The historical concepts of the chronicler, no matter how they distort reality (and there are no concepts in the chronicle that do not distort reality), are always interesting for the historian, testifying to the historical ideas of the chronicler, his ideas and views on the world. The concept of the chronicler itself became historical evidence. A. Shakhmatov made all the sources more or less important and interesting for the modern historian, and we have no right to reject any source. It is only important to understand about what time the source being studied can give its testimony: whether about the time when it was compiled, or about the time about which it writes.

The situation is similar in literary criticism. Each work of art (if it is only artistic!) reflects the world of reality from its own creative perspective. And these angles are subject to comprehensive study in connection with the specifics of the work of art and, above all, in their artistic whole. When studying the reflection of reality in a work of art, we should not limit ourselves to the question: “true or false” - and admire only fidelity, accuracy, correctness. The inner world of a work of art also has its own interconnected patterns, its own dimensions and its own meaning, like a system.

Of course, and this is very important, the inner world of a work of art does not exist on its own and not for itself. It is not autonomous. It depends on reality, “reflects” the world of reality, but the transformation of this world that a work of art allows is holistic and purposeful. The transformation of reality is connected with the idea of ​​the work, with the tasks that the artist sets for himself. The world of a work of art is the result of both a correct reflection and an active transformation of reality. In his work, the writer creates a certain space in which the action takes place. This space can be large, cover a number of countries, or even go beyond the terrestrial planet (in fantasy and romantic novels), but it can also narrow down to the tight confines of a single room. The space created by the author in his work may have peculiar “geographical” properties, be real (as in a chronicle or historical novel) or imaginary, as in a fairy tale. The writer in his work also creates the time in which the action of the work takes place. The work may cover centuries or just hours. Time in a work can move quickly or slowly, intermittently or continuously, be intensely filled with events or flow lazily and remain “empty,” rarely “populated” with events.

Quite a lot of works are devoted to the issue of artistic time in literature, although their authors often replace the study of the artistic time of a work with the study of the author’s views on the problem of time and compile simple collections of statements by writers about time, without noticing or not attaching importance to the fact that these statements may be in conflict with the artistic time that the writer himself creates in his work.

Works may also have their own psychological world, not the psychology of individual characters, but general laws of psychology that subordinate all characters, creating a “psychological environment” in which the plot unfolds. These laws may be different from the laws of psychology that exist in reality, and it is useless to look for exact correspondences in psychology textbooks or psychiatry textbooks. Thus, fairy tale heroes have their own psychology: people and animals, as well as fantastic creatures. They are characterized by a special type of reaction to external events, special argumentation and special responses to the arguments of antagonists. One psychology is characteristic of the heroes of Goncharov, another - of the characters of Proust, another - of Kafka, a very special one - of the characters of the chronicle or the lives of saints. The psychology of Karamzin's historical characters or Lermontov's romantic heroes is also special. All these psychological worlds must be studied as a whole.

The same should be said about the social structure of the world of artistic works, and this social structure of the artistic world of the work should be distinguished from the author’s views on social issues and not confuse the study of this world with scattered comparisons of it with the world of reality. The world of social relations in a work of art also requires study in its integrity and independence.

The world of a work of art reproduces reality in a kind of “abbreviated”, conditional version. An artist, building his world, cannot, of course, reproduce reality with the same degree of complexity inherent in reality. In the world of a literary work there is not much that exists in the real world. This is a limited world in its own way. Literature takes only some phenomena of reality and then conventionally shortens or expands them, makes them more colorful or more faded, organizes them stylistically, but at the same time, as already said, creates its own system, an internally closed system and having its own laws.

Literature “replays” reality. This “replaying” occurs in connection with those “style-forming” trends that characterize the work of this or that author, this or that literary movement or “style of the era.” These style-forming tendencies make the world of a work of art in some respects more diverse and richer than the world of reality, despite all its conventional abbreviation.

playing with these images, corresponding to the special ability of our psyche:

creativity of art.

b) Plot - a theme in which different situations and motives are scurrying about.

C) Plots are complex schemes in the imagery of which well-known acts are summarized

human life and psyche in alternating forms of everyday life

in reality, the evaluation of the action is already connected with the generalization,

positive or negative.

9) The history of poetic style, deposited in a complex of typical

images-symbols, motifs, phrases, parallels and comparisons, repetition

or whose commonality is explained either a) by the unity of psychological

processes that found expression in them, or b) historical influences.

8. Likhachev D.S. "The inner world of a work of art"

1) The inner world of a work of verbal art (literary or

folklore) has a certain artistic integrity. Separate

elements of reflected reality are connected to each other in this

inner world in a certain system, artistic unity.

2) The mistake of literary scholars who note various “loyalties” or

“infidelity” in the artist’s depiction of reality lies in the fact that

that, dividing the integral reality and the integral world of art

works, they make both incommensurable: they measure in light years

apartment area.

3) The approximate “real” time of events is not equal to artistic time.

4) The moral side of the world of a work of art is also very important and

has, like everything else in this world, a direct “constructive”

meaning. The moral world of works of art is constantly changing with

development of literature.

5) The world of a work of art reproduces reality in a certain way

"shortened", conditional version.

6) The space of a fairy tale is unusually large, it is limitless, infinite, but

at the same time closely related to action. Thanks to the features

artistic space and artistic time in a fairy tale

exceptionally favorable conditions for the development of action. Action in

it is easier to accomplish in a fairy tale than in any other genre of folklore.

7) Plot storytelling requires that the world of the work of fiction be

“easy” - easy, first of all, for the development of the plot itself.

8) Studying the artistic style of the work, author, movement, era,

one should pay attention first of all to what the world is like into

a work of art immerses us, what its time, space,

social and material environment, what are the laws of psychology and movement in it

ideas, what are the general principles on the basis of which all these individual

elements are connected into a single artistic whole.

9. Shklovsky V. “Art as a technique”

1) Imaginative thinking is not, in any case, what unites all types

art, or even just all types of verbal art, images are not

something the change of which is the essence of the movement of poetry.

Thus, a thing can be: a) created as prosaic and perceived,

as poetic, b) created as poetic and perceived as

prosaic.

2) The poetic image is one of the means of poetic language. Prosaic

the image is a means of distraction.

3) The purpose of art is to give the sensation of a thing as a vision, and not as

recognition; The technique of art is the technique of “defamiliarizing” things and the technique

difficult form, increasing the difficulty and length of perception, since

the perceptual process in art is self-sufficient and must be extended;

art is a way of experiencing the making of a thing, and what is done in art is not

important.

4) Poetic speech - speech-construction. Prose is ordinary speech: economical,

easy, correct (dea prorsa, - goddess of correct, easy childbirth,

“direct” position of the child).

10. Tynyanov Yu. “On literary evolution”

1) The position of literary history continues to remain among cultural

disciplines by the position of the colonial power.

2) The connection between the history of literature and living modern literature is a beneficial and

necessary for science - turns out to be not always necessary and beneficial for

developing literature, whose representatives are ready to accept history

literature for the establishment of certain traditional norms and laws and

the “historicity” of a literary phenomenon is confused with “historicism” in relation to

to him.

3) Historical research falls into at least two main types

at the observation post: research into the genesis of literary phenomena and

study of the evolution of the literary series, literary variability.

4) The main concept of literary evolution turns out to be a change of systems, and the question of

“traditions” is transferred to another plane.

5) The existence of a fact as literary depends on its differential

quality (i.e., from correlation with either literary or

extraliterary series), in other words - on its function.

6) Without the correlation of literary phenomena, there is no consideration of them.

7) The function of verse in a certain literary system was performed by formal

element of meter. But prose differentiates, evolves, at the same time

verse also evolves. Differentiation of one related type entails

itself or, better to say, is connected with the differentiation of another related

type.

8) The correlation of literature with the social series leads them to great verse

form.

9) The system of literary series is, first of all, a system of functions of literary

series, in continuous correlation with other series.

10) Everyday life is related to literature primarily by its speech side. The same

correlation of literary series with everyday life. This correlation of literary

series with everyday life occurs along the speech line, in literature in relation to

everyday life there is a speech function.

Generally: studying the evolution of literature is possible only with respect to

literature as a series, a system correlated with other series, systems,

conditioned by them. Consideration should proceed from the design function to

literary functions, from literary to speech. It must find out

evolutionary interaction of functions and forms. Evolutionary study must

go from the literary series to the nearest related series, and not to further ones,

albeit the main one. The dominant importance of the main social factors is not

only it is not rejected, but must be clarified in full, precisely in

the question of the evolution of literature, while the direct establishment

the “influence” of the main social factors is replaced by the study of evolution

literature, the study of modification of literary works, their deformation.

11. Lotman Yu.M. "Semiotics of culture and the concept of text"

I. Formulation of cultural semiotics - a discipline that examines interaction

differently structured semiotic systems, internal unevenness

semiotic space, the need for cultural and semiotic

polyglotism - has significantly shifted traditional semiotic

representation.

II. The social and communicative function of the text can be reduced to the following

processes.

1. Communication between the addresser and the addressee.

2. Communication between the audience and the cultural tradition.

3. The reader’s communication with himself.

4. Communication between the reader and the text.

5. Communication between text and cultural context

A special case will be the issue of communication between text and metatext.

III. The text appears before us not as the implementation of a message on any one

language, but as a complex device that stores diverse codes, capable

transform received messages and generate new ones, like information

a generator with intellectual personality traits. Due to this

The idea of ​​the relationship between the consumer and the text is changing. Instead of a formula

“the consumer decrypts the text”, a more accurate one is possible - “the consumer communicates

with text."

12. Bakhtin M.M. "The problem of text in linguistics, philology and other

humanities"

1) Two points that define a text as a statement: its design (intention) and

implementation of this plan.

The problem of the second subject, reproducing (for one purpose or another, including

including research) text (alien) and creating a framing text

(commenting, evaluating, objecting, etc.).

2) From the point of view of extra-linguistic purposes of the utterance, everything linguistic is

only a means.

3) To express oneself means to make oneself an object for another and for

itself (“the reality of consciousness”). This is the first stage of objectification.

4) With deliberate (conscious) multi-style between styles there is always

there are dialogic relationships. You can't understand this relationship

purely linguistically (or even mechanically).

5) Text is the primary given (reality) and the starting point of any

humanitarian discipline.

6) The word (in general, any sign) is interindividual. Everything said, expressed

is outside the “soul” of the speaker, does not belong only to him. The word is impossible

give to one speaker.

7) Linguistics deals with text, but not with work. Same as her

speaks about the work, is smuggled in and from purely

linguistic analysis does not follow.

8) Every large and creative verbal whole is very complex and

multifaceted system of relationships.

Short description

Epic and tragedy, as well as comedy, dithyrambic poetry and most

auletics and cyfaristics - they are all imitation. And they differ

from each other by three features: those that are reproduced by various means

or different objects, or in different, not the same, way.

Works should be distinguished not by form, but by content.

Introduction

This work is an attempt to analyze the artistic world of the work, which is a projection of the relationship between the writer’s inner world and reality. This problem is of keen interest to literary scholars, since the change in styles and literary traditions has opened up new opportunities for expressing one’s own worldview. The artistic world combines both the physical parameters of the real world and the spiritual sphere of a person’s inner world.

To understand these relationships, it is necessary to first clarify the terms that we will use in the following.

Reality is an objective world, incomprehensible and unknowable, which a person, due to the specifics of his consciousness, perceives as everyday life. It is reality that is the fantastic world that a person tries to understand and explain. But all criteria for assessing this world are relative and cannot reflect the true absolute of its existence. What a person considers to be knowledge about reality is simply a description of habitual ideas about the world.

The inner world of man is a world of ignorance. Over many millennia, people have learned to describe their emotions and sensations from contact with the world of reality. Since the hallmark human qualities are imagination and the ability to reflect, it seems completely impossible to create an absolutely clear picture of the world. Our knowledge of the world is the degree of our ignorance. Man has invented various ways of expressing his vision of the world - language, sign systems, from cuneiform to computer languages. Art is one of the particular manifestations of this expression. And literature and verbal works serve as a kind of “protocol” of the relationship between the individual and the real world.

Consequently, it can be assumed that from the merger of two worlds, only one more world can emerge, with criteria unique to it. To prove this, we will consider in this work some aspects that are inherent in the artistic world, namely space and time, moral and psychological categories of the novel.

Using the example of Kurt Vonnegut's novel "The Sirens of Titan", the paper examines the problem of the author's self-awareness and its embodiment in a literary work. The writer's originality was noted by many critics, who highlighted such features as the use of irony, ridicule and techniques of black humor in the writer's work. On the other hand, the apparent simplicity and unpretentiousness of the style caused criticism from those researchers who, perhaps, were disgusted by Vonnegut’s cynical interpretation of many ideas. However, the general tendency among critics is either complete and unconditional recognition of Vonnegut as an original author, or absolute rejection of him as a writer in general. Since the topic of the work is quite narrow and focused, the work mainly used sources that directly study the style and form of Vonnegut’s work, and the novel “The Sirens of Titan,” in particular.

The thesis consists of three parts. The first is theoretical, where, based on the works of D.S. Likhachev and M.M. Bakhtin, the analysis of the artistic world of a work as a method is described, the categories that need to be considered are determined, and the dependence of the inner world of the work and the self-awareness of the author is formulated.

The second chapter is a direct analysis of the work and, in turn, consists of three parts. The first defines the “physical” framework of the work - that is, it explores space and time. The second describes the relationship between the author and his creation. The third reveals the psychological characteristics of the writer, which affected the work itself.

The work used critical literature from various sources. Unfortunately, the specifics of the novel are quite narrow and there is a negligible number of works on the topic of this work available in our libraries. Therefore, along with paper sources, electronic versions of the works of various critics were used, as well as interviews and reviews that are available on the Internet.

Part I. Analysis of the artistic world of a work as a method of studying the author’s self-awareness

A work of art is an integral, complete system that has the characteristics of time and space that are unique to it. The inner world of a work of art is a combination of the “reflection” of reality and the artist’s perception of the world. When analyzing a work of art, it is important to set the task correctly: not just to assess how accurately reality is depicted, but to study the artistic world of the work as a whole, as a kind of complete and independent system. One cannot limit oneself only to the search for real prototypes of a particular hero, event, or location. The calling of writers is not to depict real events with the maximum degree of truthfulness - for this there is history as a science. Their goal is to create a world in which both reality and the writer’s worldview would be combined and, first of all, his self-awareness would be expressed. D.S. Likhachev, in his article devoted to the inner world of a work of art, wrote: “When studying the reflection of reality in a work of art, we should not limit ourselves to the questions: “true or false” - and admire only fidelity, accuracy, correctness”1.

In order for a work of art to remain holistic, it is necessary to study its inner world in private, individual manifestations.

Undoubtedly, reality is “reflected” in literature, but the transformation to which it undergoes in a verbal work is intended to express the ideas and tasks that concern the writer. “The world of a work of art is the result of both the correct reflection and the active transformation of reality”2. In order to correctly interpret the author’s self-awareness, it is necessary to consider both of these aspects as an integral system, as an independent world, endowed with all the features that we find in the real world.

In his article, D.S. Likhachev highlights those characteristics that must be taken into account when analyzing the artistic world of a work. Firstly, each work has its own living space. Its boundaries depend on the writer’s imagination and on the structural needs of the work itself. It is the inner world of the work that dictates the size of the space involved. In addition to physical boundaries, the space of a work of art has “geographical” parameters: it can be real or imaginary.

D.S. Likhachev considers time to be the second important characteristic, which, like space, has its own boundaries. The plot can last as long as desired, depending again on the need for the work. Time also has physical characteristics: “it can go fast or slow, intermittently or continuously, be intensely filled with events or flow lazily and remain “empty”, rarely “populated” with events”3. Time is an interesting and complex aspect when analyzing the inner world, and it is not the author’s views on time that are important, but the features and patterns of temporary space.

Time, like space, is only indirectly connected with the real time of the writer, who artistically “transforms” real time. According to Likhachev, “it is precisely this that gives the opportunity for creativity, creates the “maneuverability” necessary for the artist, allows him to create his own world, different from the world of another work, another writer, another literary movement, style, etc.”4.

The connection between time and space is one of the debated problems of literary criticism. Spatio-temporal relations were studied by M. Bakhtin, who introduced the term “chronotope” (space-time)5 into literary studies. This mathematical term, based on Einstein’s theory of relativity, has a “metaphorical” meaning for literary criticism - “the continuity of space and time (time as the fourth dimension of space)”6. Bakhtin described the process of merging time and space as follows: “Time here thickens, becomes denser, becomes artistically mature; space intensifies, is drawn into the movement of time, plot, history. Signs of time are revealed in space, and space is comprehended and measured by time”7. This merger characterizes the chronotope.

(Source: Likhachev D.S. The inner world of a work of art).

1. The inner world of a work of art and the real world: the nature of interaction.

2. Space and time in the inner world of a work of art.

3. Social and material environment in the inner world of a work of art.

4. Psychological and moral-ethical environment in the inner world of a work of art.

The inner world of a work of verbal art (literary or folklore) has a certain artistic integrity. Separate elements of reflected reality are connected with each other in this inner world in a certain system, artistic unity<…>.

Each work of art (if it is only artistic!) reflects the world of reality from its own creative perspective. And these angles are subject to comprehensive study in connection with the specifics of the work of art and, above all, in their artistic whole. When studying the reflection of reality in a work of art, we should not limit ourselves to the question: “true or false” - and admire only fidelity, accuracy, correctness. The inner world of a work of art also has its own interconnected patterns, its own dimensions and its own meaning, like a system.

Of course, and this is very important, the inner world of a work of art does not exist on its own and not for itself. It is not autonomous. It depends on reality, “reflects” the world of reality, but the transformation of this world that a work of art allows is holistic and purposeful. The transformation of reality is connected with the idea of ​​the work, with the tasks that the artist sets for himself. The world of a work of art is the result of both a correct reflection and an active transformation of reality. In his work, the writer creates a certain space in which the action takes place. This space can be large, covering a number of countries in a travel novel, or even extending beyond the terrestrial planet (in fantasy and romantic novels), but it can also narrow down to the tight confines of a single room. The space created by the author in his work may have peculiar “geographical” properties, be real (as in a chronicle or historical novel) or imaginary, as in a fairy tale. The writer in his work also creates the time in which the action of the work takes place. The work may cover centuries or just hours. Time in a work can move quickly or slowly, intermittently or continuously, be intensely filled with events or flow lazily and remain “empty”, rarely “populated” with events<…>.

Works may also have their own psychological world, not the psychology of individual characters, but general laws of psychology that subordinate all characters, creating a “psychological environment” in which the plot unfolds. These laws may be different from the laws of psychology that exist in reality, and it is useless to look for exact correspondences in psychology textbooks or psychiatry textbooks. Thus, fairy tale heroes have their own psychology: people and animals, as well as fantastic creatures. They are characterized by a special type of reaction to external events, special argumentation and special responses to the arguments of antagonists. One psychology is characteristic of the heroes of Goncharov, another – of the characters of Proust, another – of Kafka, and a very special one – of the characters of the chronicle or the lives of saints. The psychology of Karamzin’s historical characters or Lermontov’s romantic heroes is also special. All these psychological worlds must be studied as a whole.

The same should be said about the social structure of the world of artistic works, and this social structure of the artistic world of the work should be distinguished from the author’s views on social issues and not confuse the study of this world with scattered comparisons of it with the world of reality. The world of social relations in a work of art also requires study in its integrity and independence.

You can also study the world of history in some literary works: in the chronicle, in the tragedy of classicism, in historical novels of realistic directions, etc. And in this area you will discover not only accurate or inaccurate reproductions of the events of real history, but also your own laws according to which historical events, its own system of causality or “causelessness” of events - in a word, its own... inner world of history. The task of studying this world of the history of a work is as different from studying a writer’s views on history as the study of artistic time is different from studying an artist’s views on time. You can study Tolstoy's historical views as they are expressed in the famous historical digressions of his novel War and Peace, but you can also study how events unfold in War and Peace. These are two different tasks, although interrelated. However, I think that the last task is more important, and the first serves only as an aid (by no means a primary one) for the second. If Leo Tolstoy had been a historian and not a novelist, perhaps these two tasks would have changed places in terms of their significance. By the way, there is a curious pattern that emerges when studying the difference between writers’ views on history and its artistic depiction. As a historian (in his discussions on historical topics), the writer very often emphasizes the regularity of the historical process, but in his artistic practice he involuntarily highlights the role of chance in the fate of the historical and simple characters in his work. Let me remind you of the role of the hare sheepskin coat in the fate of Grinev and Pugachev in Pushkin’s “The Captain’s Daughter”. Pushkin the historian hardly agreed with Pushkin the artist on this.

The moral side of the world of a work of art is also very important and, like everything else in this world, has a direct “constructive” meaning. So, for example, the world of medieval works knows absolute good, but evil in it is relative. Therefore, a saint cannot not only become a villain, but even commit a bad act. If he had done this, then he would not have been a saint from a medieval point of view, then he would only have been pretending, being a hypocrite, biding his time, etc., etc. But any villain in the world of medieval works can change dramatically and become a saint. Hence a kind of asymmetry and “unidirectionality” of the moral world of artistic works of the Middle Ages. This determines the originality of the action, the construction of plots (in particular, the lives of saints), the interested expectation of the reader of medieval works, etc. (the psychology of reader interest - the reader’s “expectation” of a continuation).

The moral world of works of art is constantly changing with the development of literature. Attempts to justify evil, to find objective reasons for it, to consider evil as a social or religious protest are characteristic of the works of the romantic movement (Byron, Njegos, Lermontov, etc.). In classicism, evil and good seem to stand above the world and acquire a unique historical coloring. In realism, moral problems permeate everyday life and appear in thousands of aspects, among which social aspects, etc., steadily increase as realism develops.

The building materials for constructing the inner world of a work of art are taken from the reality surrounding the artist, but he creates his own world in accordance with his ideas about what this world was, is or should be.

The world of a work of art reflects reality both indirectly and directly: indirectly - through the artist’s vision, through his artistic representations, and directly, directly in those cases when the artist unconsciously, without attaching artistic significance to this, transfers phenomena of reality or ideas and concepts into the world he creates. of his era.

I will give an example from the field of artistic time created in a literary work. This time of a work of art, as I have already said, can flow very quickly, “in jerks”, “nervously” (in Dostoevsky’s novels) or flow slowly and evenly (in Goncharov or Turgenev), be associated with “eternity” (in ancient Russian chronicles), capture a larger or smaller range of phenomena. In all these cases, we are dealing with artistic time - time that indirectly reproduces real time, artistically transforming it. If a modern writer, like us, divides the day into 24 hours, and a chronicler, in accordance with church services, into 9, then there is no artistic “task” or meaning in this. This is a direct reflection of the contemporary time calculation of the writer, which was transferred without changes from reality. What is important for us, of course, is the first, artistically transformed time.

It is this that gives the opportunity for creativity, creates the “maneuverability” necessary for the artist, allows him to create his own world, different from the world of another work, another writer, another literary movement, style, etc.

The world of a work of art reproduces reality in a kind of “abbreviated”, conventional version. An artist, building his world, cannot, of course, reproduce reality with the same degree of complexity inherent in reality. In the world of a literary work there is not much that exists in the real world. This is a limited world in its own way. Literature takes only some phenomena of reality and then conventionally shortens or expands them, makes them more colorful or more faded, organizes them stylistically, but at the same time, as already said, creates its own system, an internally closed system and having its own laws.

Literature “replays” reality. This “replaying” occurs in connection with those “style-forming” trends that characterize the work of this or that author, this or that literary movement or “style of the era.” These style-forming tendencies make the world of a work of art in some respects more diverse and richer than the world of reality, despite all its conventional abbreviation.

Let's look at some examples. First of all, I would like to dwell on a Russian fairy tale.

One of the main features of the inner world of a Russian fairy tale is its low resistance to the material environment. And this is connected with the peculiarities of her artistic space, and the peculiarities of her artistic time, and then - the fabulous specificity of the construction of the plot, the system of images, etc.

But first of all, I will explain what I mean by “environmental resistance” in the inner world of a work of art. Actions in a work can be fast or inhibited, slow. They can cover more or less space. Action, encountering unexpected obstacles or not encountering obstacles, can be either uneven or even and calm (calmly fast or calmly slow). In general, depending on the resistance of the environment, actions can be very diverse in nature.

Some works will be characterized by the ease of fulfilling the desires of the characters with low potential barriers, while others will be characterized by difficulty and high potential barriers. We can therefore talk about different degrees of predictability in individual works, which is extremely important for studying the technique of “interesting reading.” Phenomena such as turbulence, crisis of resistance, fluidity, kinematic viscosity, diffusion, entropy, etc., can constitute essential features of the dynamic structure of the internal world of a verbal work.

In Russian fairy tales, environmental resistance is almost absent. The heroes move with extraordinary speed, and their path is neither difficult nor easy: “he was traveling along a wide road and ran into the golden feather of the firebird.” The obstacles that the heroes encounter along the way are only plot-related, but not natural, not natural. The physical environment of the fairy tale itself seems to know no resistance. That’s why formulas like “no sooner said than done” are so common in fairy tales. The fairy tale does not have psychological inertia. The hero knows no hesitation: he decided and did it, thought and went. All the heroes’ decisions are also quick and made without much thought. The hero sets off on a journey and achieves his goal, as if meeting no resistance: without fatigue, road inconvenience, illness, random incidents not determined by the plot, etc. The road in front of the hero is usually “straight” and “wide”; if she can sometimes be “bewitched,” it is not because of her natural state, but because someone has bewitched her. The field in a fairy tale is wide. The sea does not hinder the shipmen in itself - only when the hero’s enemy intervenes does a storm arise.

In the fairy tale, it is not the inertia of the environment that makes itself felt, but offensive forces and, at the same time, mainly “spiritual” ones: there is a struggle of intelligence, a struggle of intentions, and the magical powers of witchcraft. Intentions do not meet resistance from the environment, but collide with other intentions, often unmotivated. Therefore, obstacles in a fairy tale cannot be foreseen - they are sudden. This is a kind of ball game: the ball is thrown, it is returned, but the flight of the ball in space does not encounter air resistance and does not know the force of gravity. Everything that happens in the fairy tale is unexpected: “they were driving, driving and suddenly”, “they were walking, walking and seeing a river” (A. N. Afanasyev, Russian Folk Tales). The action of the fairy tale seems to go towards the wishes of the hero: as soon as the hero thought about how he could get rid of his enemy, Baba Yaga meets him and gives advice (Afanasyev, “No. 212”). If the heroine needs to run, she takes a magic carpet, sits on it and flies on it like a bird (Afanasyev, No. 267). Money in a fairy tale is obtained not by labor, but by chance: someone tells the hero to dig it out from under a damp oak tree (Afanasyev, No. 259). Everything the hero does, he does on time. The heroes of the fairy tale seem to be waiting for each other. The hero needs to go to the king - he runs straight to him, and the king seems to be already waiting for him, he is in place, there is no need to ask him to receive him, or to wait (Afanasyev, No. 212). In a fight, fight, or duel, the heroes also do not offer long-term resistance to each other, and the outcome of the fight is decided not so much by physical strength as by intelligence, cunning or magic.

The dynamic lightness of the tale finds its counterpart in the ease with which the heroes understand each other, in the fact that animals can speak and trees can understand the hero’s words. The hero himself not only moves easily, but also easily turns into animals, plants, and objects. The hero's failures are usually the result of his mistake, forgetfulness, disobedience, or the fact that someone deceived or bewitched him. It is extremely rare that failure is the result of the hero’s physical weakness, his illness, fatigue, or the severity of the task facing him. Everything in a fairy tale happens easily and immediately - “like in a fairy tale.”

The dynamic lightness of a fairy tale leads to an extreme expansion of its artistic space. The hero travels to distant lands to the thirtieth state to accomplish a feat. He finds the heroine “at the end of the world.” The well-done Sagittarius procures a bride for the Tsar, Vasilisa the Princess, “at the very edge of the world” (Afanasyev, No. 169). Each feat is performed in a new place. Thanks to this, the action of the fairy tale is the hero’s journey through the vast world of the fairy tale. Here is “The Tale of Ivan Tsarevich, the Firebird and the Gray Wolf” (Afanasyev, No. 168). Initially, the action of this tale takes place “in a certain ... kingdom, in a certain state.” Here Ivan Tsarevich accomplishes his first feat - he gets the feather of the firebird. For the second feat, he goes, “without knowing where he is going.” From the place of his second feat, Ivan Tsarevich travels again “far away to the thirtieth state” to accomplish his third feat. Then he moves to accomplish his fourth feat to new distant lands.

The space of a fairy tale is unusually large, it is limitless, infinite, but at the same time closely connected with the action. It is not independent, but also has no relation to real space. It's different in the chronicle. The space in the chronicle is also very large. The action in the chronicle is easily transferred from one point to another. A chronicler can report on one line of the chronicle what happened in Novgorod, on another - about what happened in Kyiv, and on the third - about events in Constantinople. But in the chronicle, geographical space is real. We even guess (although not always) in which city the chronicler writes, and we know exactly where events take place in real geographical space with real cities and villages. The space of a fairy tale does not correspond to the space in which the storyteller lives. It is completely special, different from the space of sleep.

And from this point of view, the fairy-tale formula that accompanies the hero’s actions is very important: “is it close, is it far, is it low, is it high.” This formula also has a continuation, which is already related to the artistic time of the fairy tale: “soon the fairy tale is told, but not soon the deed is done.” The time of the fairy tale also does not correspond to real time. It is unknown whether the events of the fairy tale took place long ago or recently. Time in a fairy tale is special - and at the same time “soon”. An event can take place thirty years and three years, but it can also take place in one day. There isn't much difference. The heroes don’t get bored, don’t languish, don’t grow old, don’t get sick. Real time has no power over them. Only event time has power. There is only a sequence of events, and this sequence of events is the artistic time of a fairy tale. But the story can neither go back nor skip over the sequence of events. The action is unidirectional, but artistic time is closely connected with it.

Thanks to the peculiarities of artistic space and artistic time, a fairy tale has exceptionally favorable conditions for the development of action. Action in a fairy tale occurs more easily than in any other genre of folklore.

This lightness, as is easy to see, is in direct connection with the magic of a fairy tale. Actions in a fairy tale not only do not meet resistance from the environment, they are also facilitated by various forms of magic and magical objects: a flying carpet, a self-assembled tablecloth, a magic ball, a magic mirror, a falcon's feather, a wonderful shirt, etc. In the fairy tale “Go there” “I don’t know where, bring this - I don’t know what” (Afanasyev, No. 212) the magic ball rolls in front of the hero of the fairy tale - the archer: “where the river meets, there the ball will be thrown over a bridge; where the Sagittarius wants to rest, there the ball will spread out like a downy bed.” These magical helpers also include the so-called “helping animals” (gray wolf, little humpbacked horse, etc.), the magic word that the hero knows, living and dead water, etc.

Comparing this magical relief of the heroes’ actions with the lack of environmental resistance in the fairy tale, we can notice that these two essential properties of the fairy tale are not of the same nature. One phenomenon is obviously of earlier origin, the other is of more recent origin. I suppose that magic in a fairy tale is not primary, but secondary. It was not the absence of environmental resistance that was “added” to magic, but the very absence of environmental resistance required its “justification” and explanation in magic. Magic invaded the fairy tale more than any other folklore genre in order to give a “real” explanation - why the hero is transported with such speed from place to place, why certain events take place in the fairy tale that are incomprehensible to consciousness, which has already begun to look for an explanation and does not contented with noting what was happening.

Paradoxical as it may seem, magic in a fairy tale is an element of the “materialistic explanation” of the miraculous ease with which individual events of transformation, escapes, exploits, finds, etc. are accomplished in a fairy tale. In fact, witchcraft, enchantment, sorcery, spell , conspiracies, etc. are not miracles themselves, but only “explanations” of the wonderful lightness of the inner world of a fairy tale. The absence of environmental resistance, the constant overcoming of the laws of nature in a fairy tale is also a kind of miracle that required its own explanation... This explanation was all the “technical weapons” of the fairy tale: magical objects, helpful animals, magical properties of trees, witchcraft, etc.

The primacy of the absence of environmental resistance and the secondary nature of magic in a fairy tale can be supported by the following consideration. The environment in a fairy tale has no resistance in its entirety. The magic in it explains only a certain, and at the same time insignificant, part of the wonderful lightness of the fairy tale.

If magic were primary, then the absence of environmental resistance would be encountered in a fairy tale only along the path of this magic. Meanwhile, in a fairy tale, events very often develop with extraordinary ease, “just like that,” without being explained by magic. For example, in the fairy tale “The Frog Princess” (Afanasyev, No. 267), the king orders his three sons to shoot an arrow, and “as soon as the woman brings the arrow, so does the bride.” All three arrows of sons are brought by women: the first two are “the princess’s daughter and the general’s daughter,” and only the third arrow is brought by the princess, turned into a frog by witchcraft. But neither the king has witchcraft when he offers his sons to find brides for themselves in this very way, nor do the first two brides. Witchcraft does not “cover” or explain all the wonders of a fairy tale. All these invisible hats and flying carpets are “small” to the fairy tale. That's why they are clearly later.

So, plot narration requires that the world of a work of fiction be “easy” - easy, first of all, for the development of the plot itself. Where the plot dominates, the inner world of the work is always “uncomplicated” to one degree or another. The resistance of the medium falls, time speeds up, space expands. The action metronome swings fast and wide.

Let's take another example, this time from a completely different area from folklore. Dostoevsky's action, as is known, develops with extraordinary speed, proceeds energetically and lively. And in accordance with this, in the artistic world of Dostoevsky, as in a fairy tale, the coefficient of resistance turns out to be very low. But since the plots of Dostoevsky’s works pave their way in the sphere of psychological and ideological life, it is precisely this part of the inner world of Dostoevsky’s works that is characterized by the least “resistance.”

If in the world of a fairy tale the freedom of the material world dominates, then in Dostoevsky the freedom of spiritual life dominates<…>.

Dostoevsky’s world “works” on small connections; its individual parts are little connected with each other. Cause-and-effect, pragmatic connections are weak. This world is constantly viewed from different points of view, always in motion and always, as it were, fragmented, with frequent violations of everyday patterns.

In the world of Dostoevsky's works, all kinds of deviations from the norm reign, deformation reigns, people are distinguished by strangeness, eccentricities, they are characterized by absurd actions, absurd gestures, disharmony, inconsistency. The action develops through scandals and sharp clashes between opposing entities.

Events happen unexpectedly, suddenly, unexpectedly. Unexpected and illogical actions are committed by Stavrogin, Versilov, Myshkin, Mitya and Ivan Karamazov, Nastasya Filippovna, Aglaya, Rogozhin, Katerina Ivanovna, etc. The unexpectedness of their actions is reinforced by the deliberate obscurity of the situation, the unexplained nature of events, the cause-and-effect basis of events that remains in the deep shadow.

It is not known why, for example, Alyosha comes to his father at the beginning of The Brothers Karamazov. And it is characteristic that Dostoevsky himself emphasizes that he does not find an explanation for this from the preface “From the Author” to the novel “The Brothers Karamazov”; the “author” directly says: “it would be strange to demand clarity from people in a time like ours.”

Events in works are refracted through impressions about them. These impressions are obviously incomplete and subjective. The author emphasizes that he is not responsible for them. He often directly refuses to explain what is happening. Thanks to this, the action is maximally emancipated. Wed. in chapter 9, part 4 of “The Idiot”: we “ourselves, in many cases find it difficult to explain what happened,” or “if you asked us for clarification... about the extent to which the appointed wedding satisfies the actual desires of the prince... we, We admit, we would be at a great difficulty to answer.” Wed. also constant reservations like: “we know only one thing...”, “we strongly suspect...”, etc. Dostoevsky, as it were, frees himself from the need to follow the cause-and-effect series, at least in its elementary form.

Freedom of narration in Dostoevsky no longer requires the absence of resistance from the material environment, as in a fairy tale, but freedom from the cause-and-effect series from the “resistance” of psychology, from elementary everyday logic. Dostoevsky follows this path to the extent that artistic verisimilitude allows him to do so.

Dostoevsky is concerned and interested in the paradoxes of the psyche and the unexpected in human behavior. Fedka Katorzhny in “The Possessed” says about Peter Verkhovensky: “If it is said about a person: a scoundrel, then he knows nothing about him other than a scoundrel. Ali is said to be a fool, so the man has no title other than a fool. And maybe on Tuesdays and Wednesdays I’m only a fool, and on Thursday I’m smarter than him.”

If by psychology we mean a science that studies the patterns of human mental life, then Dostoevsky is the most non-psychological writer of all existing ones. He does not need psychology, but any opportunity to free himself from it. That is why he leaves psychology for psychiatry and turns to mental illness. But Dostoevsky also needs psychiatry only in order to discover in it certain alogisms, oddities, inconsistencies, to discover what does not obey existing ideas about the mental life of a person. It so happened that much in his denial of the existing laws of mental life turned out to be prophetic, anticipating the scientific conclusions of modern psychology and psychiatry, but this happened because Dostoevsky still sought plausibility and, within the limits of plausibility, was able to go beyond the scientific concepts of his time without violating everything some basic truth of mental life. He expanded the idea of ​​human mental life to colossal limits, but still remained within the limits of plausibility. And this “free” plausibility in his “foresights” turned out to be true.

Dostoevsky's ironic attitude towards the ordinary psychology of his time is directly expressed by Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov in the chapter “Psychology at Full Speed”, which depicts a prosecutor who is carried away by psychology. Dostoevsky openly states that psychology is a “double-edged sword.”

Dostoevsky's favorite heroes are eccentrics, strange people, unbalanced people who commit unexpected actions. The laws of psychology do not seem to exist for them.

Dostoevsky directly connects his interest in eccentrics and oddities with the desire to understand what is happening in the world. In the note “From the Author” in The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky writes: “...Everyone strives to unite particulars and find at least some common sense in the general confusion. An eccentric is in most cases particular and isolated. Is not it?"

Dostoevsky denies ordinary logic in the name of some higher one: the eccentric is not “always” particular and isolated, but on the contrary, it happens that he, perhaps, sometimes carries within himself the core of the whole, and the rest of the people of his era are everything, by some influx wind, for some reason they were separated from him for a while...” (ibid.).

Let us return, however, to the fragmentation of the world of Dostoevsky’s works. This fragmentation affects not only spiritual life, but also the part of the material world closest to it. Let us pay attention first of all to the faces of Dostoevsky’s heroes. These persons consist of parts that have relative independence. Stepan Trofimovich tries on smiles. Rogozhin puts on a smile. Pyotr Stepanovich makes and “remakes” his physiognomy. It is no coincidence that the faces of Dostoevsky’s heroes so often resemble masks (in Stavrogin, in Svidrigailov). Individual parts of the face are so independent that they can play a major and independent role in a person’s appearance.

In “The Christmas Tree and the Wedding” it is not the sideburns that are put to the face, but “the gentleman is put to the sideburns.” Sometimes this characteristic of faces is transferred to the whole person. In "Uncle's Dream" Prince K. is composed, as it were, of elements independent from each other. This is a “dead man on springs”, a “semi-composition”, with artificial legs, eyes, teeth, hair, sideburns, whitened and pomaded.

Dostoevsky plays with alogisms in his own style. In “The Possessed,” Dostoevsky characterizes General Ivan Ivanovich Drozdov as “who ate an awful lot and was terribly afraid of atheism” (Chapter VI, Part I). In “Uncle's Dream” Maria Alexandrovna sits by the fireplace “in the most excellent mood and in a light green dress” (Chapter III).

Dostoevsky’s usual words are “suddenly”, “even”, “however”, “somewhat”, “some”, “quite”, “as if”, “as if”, “some”, “like”, “not quite” “, etc. The love of surprises, uncertainties and inexplicability leads Dostoevsky to a kind of “weaving of words”: “Lost in the resolution of these questions, I decide to bypass them without any permission” (“The Brothers Karamazov” - “From the author”).

So, the inner world of Dostoevsky’s works is a world of little resistance in the spiritual and mental realm, just as the world of a fairy tale is of little resistance in the material environment. This world of freedom and weak ties is, from Dostoevsky’s point of view, the real, authentic world. But along with this world of isolation, there is also an environment in which everything can be foreseen and everything fits into the gray everyday patterns.

In fact, the greatest psychological resistance to freedom of plot is created by characters and types. The type and character determine in advance the line of behavior of their carriers. They seem to suggest the plot and do not allow it to deviate to the side. Dostoevsky also has these types and characters, but only minor characters are embodied in them. If we take The Brothers Karamazov, then the types there are extremely few. Among them may be listed Pan Vrublevsky and his comrade. They repeat each other, like the heroes of the folk story “Thomas and Erema.” This repetition emphasizes the external constraint and conditioning of their behavior. Dostoevsky's doubles are always presented as external conditioning. In search of freedom, the hero strives to free himself from his double. Only in short episodes do the characters not seek freedom and are, as it were, dolls, puppets: “One ragamuffin was arguing with another ragamuffin, and some dead drunk was lying across the street” (“Crime and Punishment”). As for the Karamazov brothers, they do not repeat each other at all; they are characterized by internal freedom of behavior. Hence the constant surprise of their actions and thoughts. In the person of Ivan Karamazov, we even have self-aware freedom of behavior: “I, Your Excellency, am like that peasant girl... you know how it is: “If I want, I’ll jump, if I want, I won’t jump,” says Ivan Karamazov in court. It is not delirium tremens that causes this external unexpectedness of actions, but the unexpected actions themselves add up to delirium tremens. Delirium tremens is a consequence, not a cause, of unexpected behavior. This is freedom at a dead end. Freedom, which has reached a dead end, is the alter ego, the “monkey” of Ivan Karamazov – Smerdyakov, and his other double and “interlocutor” – the devil. Doubles put a limit on human freedom in the metaphysical realm. They are generated by man, created by his ideas, mostly criminal, and arise in the imagination of man. Repetition creates a pattern and fetters a person. This is why Dostoevsky values ​​freedom so much.

So, the isolation of all parts of the world and the freedom associated with this isolation characterize the inner world of Dostoevsky’s works. But this freedom is not unlimited. She encounters obstacles within herself and creates an everyday environment with its types and characters, a world of necessity.

Using various examples - from folklore and literature - I tried to show certain aspects that the study of the inner world of a verbal work can reveal to a researcher. Of course, while demonstrating the aspects that the study of the inner world reveals, I did not pretend in my article to give an example of the study itself. The research must be more detailed and extensive than can be shown in a short journal article. I took up only one issue - resistance to plot development.

The study of the world of a work of art has a number of important aspects for literary studies. A researcher of the inner world of a work of verbal art considers the form and content of the work in inextricable unity. The artistic world of a work combines the ideological side of the work with the nature of its plot, plot, and intrigue. It has a direct bearing on the style of the language of the work. But the most important thing: the artistic world of a verbal work has an internal unity, determined by the general style of the work or author, the style of a literary movement or the “style of the era.”

When studying the artistic style of a work, an author, a movement, an era, one should pay attention, first of all, to what is the world into which a work of art immerses us, what is its time, space, social and material environment, what are the laws of psychology and the movement of ideas in it, what are the general principles on the basis of which all these individual elements are connected into a single artistic whole.

I am confident in the fruitfulness of this kind of approach to the study of literature. I myself intend to write a book about the inner world of the monuments of literature and fine arts of Ancient Rus'. This inner world stands before us in amazing richness, a variety of successive pictures and is able to explain the majesty and impressiveness of what the literature of Ancient Rus' reveals to us.

Related information.

I take this opportunity to sincerely thank the friend of my youth, Galina Aleksandrovna Shabelskaya. Without her generous help this book would not have been possible.

I. L. Almi

The internal structure of a literary work

1

The concept of “internal structure of a work” does not have the status of a generally recognized term. As far as I know, it is used only by G.S. Pomerants, thus denoting – to some extent metaphorically – that ideal model of Dostoevsky’s novel, which was never fully embodied by the writer, but existed in his mind as a source of real creations 1
Pomerants G. S. Openness to the abyss. Meetings with Dostoevsky. M., 1990. pp. 106–136.

The content of the proposed concept that we propose is more terminological, and therefore requires a special definition. It is natural to begin with a distinction from related concepts. Among them, today the most accepted (even included in school practice) is the expression “the world of the work.” Introduced by D. S. Likhachev 2
Likhachev D.S. The inner world of a work of art // Questions of literature. 1968. No. 8. pp. 74–87.

It has expanded exponentially over the past decades. Nowadays people talk more often about the world of the writer’s creativity in general. 3
Chudakov A. Chekhov's World. M., 1966. S. 3–4, 11–12.

About literature as artistic worlds, taken in their combination or historical change 4
Bocharov S. G. About artistic worlds. M., 1985. S. 3–4.

Without in any way rejecting this firmly established literary concept (its considerable advantage is its semantic capacity), we nevertheless insist on the justification of that “key word” (expression by A.

Mikhailova) 5
Mikhailov A.V. On some problems of modern literary theory // Izvestia of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Series of literature and language. 1994. T. 53. No. 1. P. 21.

Which is included in the title of this study.

The term “internal structure of a work” is needed if only because it marks a certain (in practice widely accepted) aspect of analysis, resulting in a certain type of literary interpretation.

If the expression “world of the work” (“artistically mastered and transformed reality” 6
Khalizev V. E. Theory of Literature. M., 1999. P. 158.

) emphasizes the illusion of perception that the creator is counting on, the illusion of the immanent existence of the presented picture of life, then the word “structure” emphasizes the hand-made nature of the work. The world presupposes the possibility of entering its boundaries, dissolving in it; structure – the need for analysis. The world answers the question “what?” (and the answer in this case seems to precede the question); structure - to consciously ask “how?”. The writer’s sense of the world characterizes, as a rule, the first, “naive” stage of perception; the idea of ​​the system is created as a result of targeted research.

Accordingly, when speaking about the world of a work, we strive - in accordance with the will of the artist - to hide the face of the creator who created it behind the picture of life. The term “structure of the work” retains a clear memory of this person, of the author’s plan and, therefore, contains the seed of the question about the nature and means of its implementation. In view of all that has been said, the proposed term is absolutely incompatible with the concept of the death of the author (R. Barth) and the arbitrary multiplicity of interpretations of the text resulting from it. The reader’s perception is directed (and therefore limited) primarily by the “construction” of the work - this is the visible embodiment of the author’s creative thought.

The word “building” is used here quite deliberately. Not only because of its linguistic relatedness to the concept of “system”. The figurative tangibility of a metaphor preserves the sense of the actual existence of what is depicted. It is no coincidence that even Leo Tolstoy spoke about the “construction” of a novel. 7
See his comments about the novel “Anna Karenina”: “The connection between the building is made not on the plot and not on the relationships (acquaintance) of persons, but on an internal connection” (Tolstoy L.N. Pol. collected works: In 90 vol. M ., 1928 – 1964. T. 62. P. 377).

– perhaps the most powerful of the creators of artistic objectivity. Tolstoy's “construction,” however, is extremely far from “construction.”

The thesis of the constructiveness of art in the history of our science is connected, as is known, with the activities of ONOYAZ. This is not the place to talk about the essence of Opoyazov’s theories. Moreover, they were repeatedly interpreted by their followers and opponents.

I will only note a moment that stands on the semantic periphery of the phenomenon. It’s as if it’s not even very significant, but still indicative.

The invasion of OPOYAZ into the existence of academic literary criticism was emphasized loudly. The intonations of shocking, almost cheerful challenge (especially characteristic of V. Shklovsky, for the early articles of B. Eikhenbaum) testified to the young talent of theorists playing with lawless concepts. Modern followers of the Opoyazovites are quite serious, and therefore are certainly (without a trace) mechanistic and flat. They demonstrate examples of “generative poetics” - a certain scale of “expressive techniques” that guarantees the user the utmost accuracy of analysis. For “a decomposition can only be correct into such components from which it could then be assembled according to some general rules” 8
Zholkovsky A.K. Shcheglov Yu.K. Works on the poetics of expressiveness. M., 1996. P. 51.

The impossibility and unnecessaryness of such “correctness” hardly requires proof: the idea of ​​the deep irrationality of the primary element of art - the symbol 9
Averintsev S.S. Symbol: Brief literary encyclopedia. M. (1971. T. 6. Stlb. 826–831.

– today among the axioms.

The principle of text analysis, which is very authoritative for our time - deconstruction - does not challenge it (or perhaps simply does not notice). Its temptation lies in the promise not of “correctness,” but of limitless possibilities of analysis, allowing for any shift in the artistic system. The freedom of deconstruction, however, is essentially an imaginary freedom. As a result, the method produces a result hostile to the very spirit of creativity—destruction. The result is logical: the price of deconstruction is the rejection of the idea that underlies any living aesthetic concept - the perception of the work as an indestructible integrity.

So, we tried to “defend” the proposed term apophatically - through a chain of restrictions accompanying it. Is it possible, however, to have a direct positive description of its volume? I think it's possible. Especially if you start it with a conversation about epic works: the building is revealed almost visibly in them. Although here (as usual in the field of art), the tangible comes from a certain generative plasma - a semantic substance that resists definition. In our case, it could be conditionally called the status of a hero. This is the writer’s idea of ​​the essence of the human personality and the main ways of its artistic embodiment - those internal boundaries that outline the space of Pushkin’s hero, Dostoevsky’s facial features or the appearance of Tolstoy’s man.

The central layer of the artistic system is the composition of the work, or, more precisely, the whole complex of techniques that gravitate towards this rather broad concept. This includes, first of all, what was once designated by the word architectonics - the most stable, as if initially given, elements of the structure of a work: the author’s division of artistic material, the system of characters, the composition of the prevailing motives.

Another area of ​​composition is the beginning, which S. M. Eisenstein closely examines in his theoretical studies and to denote which he proposes a metaphor term - “the course of the structure of a thing” 10
Eisenstein S. M. Caring nature // Eisenstein S. M. Izbr. works: V b t. M, 1964. T. III. P. 46.

The art critic obviously has in mind the general dynamics of the work, which forms, in particular, the composition of the plot. Moreover, the plot is taken here both in a narrow and in a broad sense - as the development of events and as a sequence of changes in significant moments of content. The latter, however, takes us into the realm of another category - into the problems of storytelling methods. Here the description of the structure of the work becomes very difficult without a specific analysis of the text. In general, the problem of the intersection of the named categories (the structure of the work and storytelling techniques) still requires special research; Let's deal with the more obvious aspects of the issue for now.

2

The internal structure of a work is significantly determined by its type and genre. To an even greater extent it depends on the speech form in which the work is presented.

Hence, first of all, the specific ways of literary analysis, which are, in principle, different if it takes place in the spheres of poetry or prose.

The quintessence of poetry is undoubtedly lyricism. A special type of literary work is an article devoted to one poem. In our science there already exist classics of this genre, as well as first-class masters: D. E. Maksimov, E. G. Etkind, M. L. Gasparov, V. A. Grekhnev, S. N. Broitman and others. It is planned (although , as far as I know, has not yet been recorded by anyone) and a unique scale of tasks arising in the process of such research. The first of them is the consideration of the poem as an immanently existing, closed whole 11
The specific features of such integrity are revealed by T. Silman (see: T. Silman. Notes on Lyrics. Leningrad, 1977); The historical evolution of lyrical forms in Russian literature is studied by L. Ginzburg (see: L. Ginzburg. About the lyrics. Publishing house II. Leningrad, 1974).

Above this first level of analysis grows a second one, which corresponds to a specific super-task: to find out from the material of the revealed features of a broader community - what is called the author's handwriting, a unique poetic face. In the process of solving this super-task, it is very important to record those paths - each great poet’s own - on which the inevitable crampedness of the real volume of a thing in lyricism is overcome, those means and techniques with the help of which the transition is made from the local specificity of images to the infinity of potentially present lyrical worlds. For the sake of visibility, let’s look at a few examples. We will try to present the most concise analysis of a number of lyrical works written by purely dissimilar artists - Tyutchev, Pushkin, Nekrasov.

Tyutchev’s poem “Like an ocean envelops the globe…” best responds to the task of analysis of this kind. In relation to it, there is no need at all to talk about the fact of the transition from locality to the aura of the universal. The work directly reproduces the “landscape of the universe”; The components are romantic images-symbols: “ocean”, “dreams”, “night”, “waves”, “magic boat”. The string is crowned by a moment that gives rise to a feeling close to catharsis:

The vault of heaven, burning with the glory of the stars,
Looks mysteriously from the depths, -
And we float, a burning abyss
Surrounded on all sides 12
Tyutchev F. Poems. M.; L., 1969. P. 136.

“The last four verses,” Nekrasov wrote, “are amazing: reading them, you feel an involuntary thrill.” 13
Nekrasov N. A. Poli. collection op. and letters: In 12 volumes. M., 1950. T. 9. P. 212.

When perceiving this poem, the reader’s imagination has to conjure up not a picture of the cosmos (it was recreated by the poet himself), but the real support of the lyrical plot. Apparently, this is sailing on a boat on the surface of the water, reflecting the starry sky. The poetic face of Tyutchev - “the most nocturnal soul in Russian poetry” 14
Block A. Collection cit.: In 8 vols. M.;L., 1962. T. 5. P. 25.

- appears in this poem with almost direct immediacy.

Otherwise, the path to lyrical immensity is made in the space of Pushkin’s poem “Only roses fade...”. This miniature has not yet been truly appreciated. Meanwhile, turning to it allows you to feel the semantic fullness of Pushkin’s “pure beauty”, the internal weight of Pushkin’s lightness. Like Tyutchev, Pushkin builds his work on traditional symbols. Or, more precisely, on images that concentrate traditional myths - “fading rose”, “Elysium”, “Lethe”, “waves of sleep”. But as the poem unfolds, the traditional is transformed, a landscape of immortality emerges - an image of eternity granted to every human soul thirsting for this eternity 15
For more details, see my article “On A. S. Pushkin’s poem “Only roses fade…”” (Almi I. L. About poetry and prose. St. Petersburg, 2002. pp. 103–111).

Nekrasov’s muse is, as you know, a resident of a completely different world, a purely prosaic one. The situation on which the poem “Funeral” is based could provide material for a typical essay on folk life. And yet, before us is genuine, high poetry in a new way. Overcoming “prose” is accomplished here by extremely unusual means. One of them is a vaguely flickering autobiographical beginning; it imparts unexpected warmth to the image of the lyrical character. This “stranger”, who brought “terrible misfortune” through suicide to a village forgotten by God, acquires strangely familiar features as the plot develops. Not just generic signs of the master of an extra person, a wanderer, homeless in his own country. Something more individual is also recognized: the deceased was a hunter, he had a relationship similar to friendship with the residents of a poor village - he loved “the kids” (“You caressed them, sewed a gift for them / You didn’t get bored answering the demand”), generously lent gunpowder to the peasants -hunters. Enriched with details that seem to emerge in the memory of the nameless narrator, the story of the “free death” of the “poor gunslinger” begins to be perceived as one of the projections of the fate of the lyrical hero. The picture of a people's funeral - this mystery of farewell and forgiveness - fits into the general frame of unspoken reflections on the abyss that separates the man of culture and the people of the earth. The work is illuminated by the sad and joyful utopia of overcoming this abyss. Its embodiment is a folklore funeral lament, transformed by the fact that it is dedicated to a person who has never before acted as its hero.

A conversation about the scale that arises in the process of analyzing a lyric work leads to a natural boundary of the topic. It leads naturally, in accordance with those dynamic potentialities that correspond to the nature of the lyrical genre. The most important among them is the potential to expand local lyrical space. This expansion is usually carried out in two ways. Or through the form of a lyrical cycle (from the mid-19th century - books of poetry). Or - in the creation of a new genre formation, intermediate between a poem and a poem. The first of these forms, quite traditional, has long been understood theoretically. The second - also having a fairly long period of existence (albeit incommensurable with the historical existence of the cycle) - has not yet been described, not even named. So I'll start with it.

The time of its emergence in Russian literature is the 10s of the 19th century, the period when the process of restructuring the system of lyrical genres was completed. By this chronological milestone, a canon of new lyrics is emerging. His identifying mark is the small volume of the work. This apparently external sign reflects the “core of the semantic structure of the lyrics” - the moment of personal comprehension of the truth, the accompanying “state of lyrical concentration”. 16
Silman T. Notes on lyrics. L., 1977. P. 6.

Against the background of the lyrical canon, works arise in which this defining property is violated - “Autumn” by Pushkin or “Autumn” by Baratynsky, “Valerik” by Lermontov, “A Knight for an Hour”, “Railway”, “About the Weather” by Nekrasov, “Mills” ", "City", "High Disease" by Pasternak, etc. The poets themselves felt the distinctiveness of this formation, hence the non-canonical subtitles, and sometimes the names - "Excerpt" (Pushkin), "Satires" (Nekrasov), "Epic Motifs" ( Parsnip). In search of a general name, I decide to propose a somewhat cumbersome, but quite accurate definition for poems of this type - large lyrical form.

When analyzing works of this kind, the problem of their internal structure is particularly relevant. The rejection of laconicism indicates a new relationship between the subjective and objective principles - the pictures of external and internal life. In this capacity, the large lyrical form demonstrates the growth of realistic tendencies in poetry. It is no coincidence that it is especially widely represented in Nekrasov’s works. Although it is precisely for him that the semantic appearance of a work of this type may differ from the indicated one. Thus, the expanded volume of “A Knight for an Hour” is filled not so much with pictures of external life, but with a reflection of the mental process. The state of lyrical concentration is not concentrated here at one culminating point, but covers a whole string of emotional peaks. The internal structure of the work reflects the continuous growth of emotional tension; the lyrical substance remains in its generic purity.

More often, however, the very fact of the existence of a large lyrical form reveals the potential for a rapprochement between lyricism and epic, moreover, between poetry and prose, with the undoubted expansion of the latter. The second of the forms of enlargement of lyricism that we have named, the cycle - in contrast to the large lyric form - preserves the fundamental qualities of the lyricism intact. The expansion, or more precisely, the increase in meaning, that arises in the context of the cycle does not violate the autonomy of the poems included in it. Nor does it extinguish their inherent separate meaning. Thus, in Baratynsky’s “Twilight” there is a complex overlap between the works of the beginning and the end of the book – “The Last Poet” and “Rhyme”. Moreover, “Rhyme,” which contains the idea of ​​the salutary effect of poetry, does not cancel the tragic conclusions of “The Last Poet.” In turn, “Achilles” - with its hope for the spiritual support of “living faith” - does not remove the hopelessness of the poem “What are you for, days! The vale world of phenomena..." 17
For more details, see my article “Evgeny Baratynsky. The nature of personal and creative evolution" (Nast, ed., p. 77)

The structure of the “suite” in the cycle (I.M. Toibin’s expression) is created in deep accordance with the nature of the lyrics as such. Its generic property is intermittency, “dottedness”. This unique quality of the lyrical kind has been studied very little so far. And yet it is more than significant. In particular, it is through him that the path in the field of large genres is visible. First of all, to Pushkin’s novel in verse.

3

The nature of the narrative, composition, and plot of “Eugene Onegin” have repeatedly become the object of scientific research in the last decade. Without setting myself the grandiose task of describing the internal product system as a whole, I will limit myself to a much more modest goal - the study of individual components of this system. Such research, as we know, has a direct bearing on understanding the character of the whole. Moreover, it presupposes as a precondition the existence of an intuitive idea of ​​the nature of the whole and ultimately corrects this idea (the so-called hermeneutic circle). In our case, this idea can be illustrated by an analysis of a seemingly “passing” episode of Pushkin’s novel – “Songs of Girls”. The research impulse in this case arises primarily from contact with the fact of repetition of a poetic device: a song focused on folklore exoticism is a common component of a Byronic poem 18
Zhirmunsky V. M. Byron and Pushkin. M. g 1978. P. 91–92.

It is natural to make an assumption prior to the analysis: the special structure of the novel in verse should have had a significant impact on the role of this component.

This feature is quite clearly revealed from a comparison of “Onegin” with the chronologically closest to it “Gypsies”. In a poem where the development of the plot is predetermined by the dynamics of “fatal passions,” Zemfira’s song, concentrating such passion, is perceived as a signal of an approaching catastrophe. It lies on the highway of action: exposing its spring, it provokes a tragic explosion. In “Onegin” - with its characteristic “dotted” connection of episodes (“Onegin” is an airy mass”) - the role of the song is fundamentally different. Here the episode of singing is, first of all, a piece of the background opposing the heroine’s mental life. At this moment in the action, this confrontation declares itself with emphasized acuteness. Tatiana, while waiting for Onegin, experiences moments of extreme excitement. Singing “according to the master’s orders” provides a vivid contrast to her condition. The song, therefore, is intended to outline and fill a pause in the plot; the heroine is completely indifferent to its meaning at this moment: she listens without hearing. The reader, however, should notice what Tatiana listens to “with carelessness.” It is known that Pushkin went through variants of the song text. The latter arranged it for some reason. You can try to reveal them (of course, with a large degree of approximation), placing “The Song of the Girls” in the context of the novel’s whole.

The point is that the episode, traditional in its folklore flavor, contains the most important life lesson addressed to the heroine. He demonstrates an example of primordially feminine behavior - coquetry, but not artificial, secular, but natural. The action of the novel - at its last stage - will absorb this seemingly casually thrown touch. He will respond in how Tatyana, the legislator of the room, builds her relationship with Onegin, who is in love with her. For all her sincerity (or, more precisely, high authenticity), the heroine plays a kind of game with him:

She doesn't notice him
No matter how he fights, even if he dies 19
Pushkin A. S. Poli. collection op. M., 1937. T. 6. P. 179.

The sheer lack of attention to Onegin, who is changing before our eyes, even evokes a semblance of the author’s reproach, typically addressed to the entire female sex.

Onegin begins to turn pale:
She either doesn’t see it or isn’t sorry;
Onegin dries<…>
<……………….>And Tatyana
And there is no case (their gender is)<…>20
Pushkin A.S. Ibid. P. 179.

Constantly emphasizing the human exclusivity of his heroine, Pushkin nevertheless does not stop before introducing this exclusivity into the context of everyday life. Thus, an outwardly insignificant fragment of a novel in verse, but highlighted by the author, turns out to be internally correlated with its plot line 21
The interpretation we propose is absent in the comments to the novel. V. Nabokov draws attention to the fact that Pushkin hesitated how to define Tatyana’s attitude to the song - as attention or inattention to her (Nabokov V. Commentary on the novel “Eugene Onegin” by A. S. Pushkin. Translation from English. St. Petersburg, 1998 431). Yu. M. Lotman, noting the general contrast of the “Girls’ Song” both in relation to the heroine’s feelings and in comparison with the nanny’s story, argues that it is focused on wedding lyrics with its inherent symbolism of the groom – “cherry” and the bride – “berry” (Lotman Yu. M. Roman A. S. Pushkin “Eugene Onegin”. Commentary. L., 1980. P. 232).

4

The study of the peculiarities of the internal structure of a novel in verse makes it natural to transfer attention to a prose novel. Although, according to Pushkin, they are separated by a “devilish difference.” However, this difference is felt to the greatest extent if we bear in mind European prose of the 18th – early 19th centuries. In the center of our attention is a much later form, devoid of the correctness of the classical canon - the novel by Dostoevsky. We will talk about certain aspects of its study.

In general practice, attention not to a separate episode, but to a specially highlighted aspect of the artistic whole, usually results in the study of some aspects of the composition. It can proceed as a description of the most obvious, static elements (architectonics) or as attention to that side of it, which we, following Eisenstein, call the course of the structure of a thing. Of course, in the process of specific analysis these paths cannot be strictly separated. Let us try, however, for the sake of an example, to present them in the greatest isolation. Architectonics - on the space of "Crime and Punishment", plot dynamics - on the material of the novel "Idiot".

Let's limit ourselves to the most obvious first. The basis of hermeneutic analysis is slow reading, which primarily records the sequence of arrangement of artistic material. In relation to Crime and Punishment, it gives an important result: one of the most difficult aspects of interpreting the novel becomes clearer - the correlation of the polar motives of the crime 22
For more details, see my article “On the plot and compositional structure of F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”” (Almi I. L. About poetry and prose. St. Petersburg, 2002. pp. 312–326).