History in a work of art is a document and plot. The plot of a literary work of art

1.1. Title work of art: Ontology, functions, typology The title opens and closes the work in the literal and figuratively. The title, as a threshold, stands between the outside world and the space of the literary text and is the first to take on the main

PLOT ** To complete the horror, Caesar, pressed to the foot of the statue by the enraged blades of his friends, sees among the blades and faces of Marcus Junius Brutus, his ward and, perhaps, his son; then he stops resisting, exclaiming: “And you, my son!” The pathetic cry is picked up

1. Criticism in literary policy: Status and functions The seventies as a historical and literary period extend beyond the calendar decade, starting at the end of the 1960s and ending with the beginning of Gorbachev’s “perestroika” (1986–1987). Although Khrushchev's thaw was very

2. Norms and functions of perestroika criticism Until the end of 1986 official speeches and program publications about literary criticism were maintained in the traditional administrative-command style. So, in June 1986, at the Eighth All-Russian Congress of Writers, Vitaly

Petr Alekseevich Nikolaev

After substantive detailing, it is most logical to continue talking about the form, keeping in mind its essential element- plot. According to popular ideas in science, the plot is formed by characters and the author’s thought organized by their interactions. Classic formula In this regard, M. Gorky’s position on the plot is considered: “... connections, contradictions, sympathies, antipathies and in general the relationships of people - the history of growth and organization of one or another character, type.” In the normative theory of literature this position is developed in every possible way. It says that the plot is the development of actions in epic work, where artistic types are certainly present and where such elements of action as intrigue and conflict exist. The plot here acts as the central element of the composition with its beginning, culmination, and denouement. This entire composition is motivated by the logic of the characters with their background (prologue of the work) and conclusion (epilogue). Only in this way, by establishing genuine internal connections between plot and character, can one determine the aesthetic quality of the text and the degree of its artistic truthfulness. To do this, you should carefully look at the logic of the author’s thought. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. But let's look at school example. In Chernyshevsky's novel "What to do?" There is one of the plot climaxes: Lopukhov commits an imaginary suicide. He motivates this by the fact that he does not want to interfere with the happiness of his wife Vera Pavlovna and friend Kirsanov. This explanation follows from the utopian idea of ​​“reasonable egoism” put forward by the writer and philosopher: you cannot build your happiness on the misfortune of others. But why this method of resolution" love triangle"is chosen by the hero of the novel? Fear public opinion, which can condemn the breakdown of the family? It’s strange: after all, the book is dedicated to “new people” who, according to their logic, should internal state, do not take this opinion into account. But the writer and thinker in in this case it was more important to show the omnipotence of his theory, to present it as a panacea for all difficulties. And the result was not a novelistic, but an illustrative resolution of the conflict - in the spirit of a romantic utopia. And therefore, “What to do?” - is far from a realistic work.

But let’s return to the question of the connection between subject and plot details, that is, the details of the action. Plot theorists have provided numerous examples of such connections. Thus, the character from Gogol’s story “The Overcoat”, the tailor Petrovich, has a snuffbox, on the lid of which a general is painted, but there is no face - it is pierced with a finger and sealed with a piece of paper (as if the personification of the bureaucracy). Anna Akhmatova speaks of a “significant person” in the same “Overcoat”: this is the chief of gendarmes Benckendorff, after a conversation with whom Pushkin’s friend, poet A. Delvig, editor, died Literary newspaper" (the conversation concerned Delvig's poem about the revolution of 1830). In Gogol's story, as is known, after a conversation with the general Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin dies. Akhmatova read in the lifetime edition: " significant person stood in the sleigh" (Benckendorff rode standing up). Among other things, these examples indicate that plots, as a rule, are taken from life. Art critic N. Dmitrieva criticizes L. Vygotsky, a famous psychologist, citing the words of Grillparzer, who speaks of a miracle art, turning grapes into wine. Vygotsky talks about turning the water of life into the wine of art, but water cannot be turned into wine, but grapes can. This is the identification of the real, the knowledge of life. E. Dobin and other plot theorists give numerous examples of transformation namely real events into artistic subjects. The plot of the same “Overcoat” is based on the story of an official heard by the writer, who was given a Lepage gun by his colleagues. While sailing on the boat, he did not notice how it got caught in the reeds and sank. The official died from the disorder. Everyone who listened to this story laughed, but Gogol sat, sadly thoughtful - probably, in his mind a story arose about an official who died due to the loss not of a luxury item, but of an attire necessary in winter St. Petersburg - an overcoat.

Very often, it is in the plot that the psychological evolution of a character is most fully represented. “War and Peace” by Tolstoy, as we know, is an epic story about the collective, “swarm”, and individualistic, “Napoleonic” consciousness. This is precisely the essence of Tolstoy’s artistic characterology in relation to the images of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov. Prince Andrey in early youth dreamed of his Toulon (the place where Bonaparte began his career). And here Prince Andrei lies wounded on the Field of Austerlitz. He sees and hears Napoleon walking across the field between the corpses and, stopping near one, says: “What Beautiful death". This seems false, picturesque to Bolkonsky, and here our hero’s gradual disillusionment with Napoleonism begins. Further development his inner world, complete liberation from illusions and selfish hopes. And his evolution ends with the words that the truth of Timokhin and the soldier is dear to him.

Careful consideration of the connection between substantive details and plot helps to discover the true meaning of an artistic creation, its universality, and multi-layered content. In Turgen studies, for example, there is a point of view according to which the writer’s famous cycle “Notes of a Hunter” is artistic essays, poeticizing peasant types and critically assessing social life peasant families sympathizing with children. However, it is worth looking at one of the most popular stories this series "Bezhin Meadow", how will the incompleteness of such a view of art world writer. The sharp metamorphosis in the impressions of the master, returning from a hunt at dusk, about the change in state of nature that appears to his gaze seems mysterious: clear, calm, suddenly becomes foggy and frightening. There is no obvious, everyday motivation here. In the same way, similar drastic changes are presented in the reaction of children sitting by the fire to what is happening in the night: what is easily cognizable, calmly perceived, abruptly turns into the unclear, even into some kind of devilry. Of course, the story presents all the above motives from Notes of a Hunter. But there is no doubt that we must remember German philosophy, which Turgenev studied while at German universities. He returned to Russia, being under the rule of materialistic, Feuerbachian, and idealistic, Kantian ideas with their “thing in itself.” And this mixture of the knowable and the unknowable in the writer’s philosophical thinking is illustrated in his fictional plots.

The connection of the plot with its real source is an obvious thing. Plot theorists are more interested in the actual artistic “prototypes” of plots. All world literature mainly relies on such continuity between artistic subjects. It is known that Dostoevsky drew attention to Kramskoy’s painting “The Contemplator”: winter forest, a little man stands in bast shoes, “contemplating” something; he will leave everything and go to Jerusalem, having first burned down his native village. This is exactly what Yakov Smerdyakov is like in Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov”; he will also do something similar, but somehow in a lackey way. Lackeyism is, as it were, predetermined by major historical circumstances. In the same novel by Dostoevsky, the Inquisitor speaks about people: they will be timid and cling to us like “chicks to a hen” (Smerdyakov clings to Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov like a lackey). Chekhov said about the plot: “I need my memory to sift through the plot and so that in it, like in a filter, only what is important or typical remains.” What is so important in the plot? The process of influence of the plot, characterized by Chekhov, allows us to say that its basis is the conflict and the end-to-end action in it. It, this end-to-end action, is artistic reflection philosophical law, according to which the struggle of contradictions not only underlies the process of development of all phenomena, but also necessarily permeates every process from its beginning to its end. M. Gorky said: “Drama must be strictly and thoroughly effective.” The through action is the main operating spring of the work. It is directed towards the general central idea, to the “super task” of the work (Stanislavsky). If not end-to-end action, all the pieces of the play exist separately from each other, without any hope of coming to life (Stanislavsky). Hegel said: “Since an encountering action violates some opposing side, then by this discord it evokes against itself an opposing force, which it attacks, and as a result of this, a reaction is directly connected with the action. Only with this action and reaction did the ideal for the first time become completely definite and mobile "in a work of art. Stanislavsky believed that the counteraction should also be end-to-end. Without all this, works are boring and gray. Hegel, however, was wrong in defining the tasks of art where there is conflict. He wrote that the task of art is that it “brings before our eyes the bifurcation and the struggle associated with it only temporarily, so that through the resolution of conflicts, harmony emerges from this bifurcation as a result.” This is incorrect because, say, the struggle between the new and the old in the field of history and psychology is uncompromising. In our cultural history there have been cases of following this Hegelian concept, often naive and false. In the movie "Star" based on the story by E. Kazakevich, suddenly the dead scouts led by Lieutenant Travkin, to the amazement of the audience, "come to life." Instead of an optimistic tragedy, the result was a sentimental drama. In this regard, I would like to recall the words of two famous figures culture of the mid-20th century. Famous German writer I. Becher said: “What gives a work the necessary tension? Conflict. What arouses interest? Conflict. What moves us forward - in life, in literature, in all areas of knowledge? Conflict. The deeper, the more significant the conflict, the deeper, the more significant its resolution, the deeper, the more significant the poet. When does the sky of poetry shine brightest? After a thunderstorm. After a conflict." The outstanding film director A. Dovzhenko said: “Guided by false motives, we removed suffering from our creative palette, forgetting that it is the same greatest certainty of existence as happiness and joy. We replaced it with something like overcoming difficulties... We so we want a beautiful, bright life, that we sometimes think of what we passionately desire and expect as being realized, forgetting that suffering will always be with us as long as a person lives on earth, as long as he loves, rejoices, and creates.Only the social causes of suffering will disappear "The strength of suffering will be determined not so much by the pressure of any external circumstances, but by the depth of the shock."

Subsection Terminology

Plot Fable

Plot outline: completed, unfinished

Plot technique: return, complicated, framing, linear

Exposition Commencement Development of action Climax Resolution Ending

Exposure: direct, delayed, diffuse, reverse

Prologue Epilogue

Inception: motivated, sudden

Peripeteia

Climax: eventual, psychological

Resolution: motivated, unmotivated, zero

Additional Information; separated by spaces from the main one.

Plot and plot

As already mentioned, dramatic and epic works depict events in the lives of characters, their actions taking place in space and time. This side artistic creativity(the course of events, usually consisting of the actions of the heroes, i.e. the spatio-temporal dynamics of what is depicted) is denoted by the term "south".

Plot (from French sujet) – a chain of events depicted in a literary work, i.e. the life of the characters in its spatio-temporal changes, in changing positions and circumstances.

Ø Plots are often taken from mythology, historical legend, from the literature of past eras, and are processed, changed, and supplemented.

Ø The plot, as a rule, comes to the fore in the test and determines its construction (composition). But sometimes the depiction of events gives way to impressions, thoughts, experiences of the characters, descriptions of the external world and nature.

Like the character system, the plot carries a number of meaningful functions.

1. Identifies and characterizes a person’s connections with his environment, i.e., his place in reality and destiny, creates a picture of the world.

2. Recreates life's contradictions (it is difficult to imagine a plot without conflict).

Plots are organized in different ways. There are plots with a predominance of purely temporary connections (chronicle) and plots with a predominance of cause-and-effect relationships (concentric).

Wed. The king died and the queen died- chronicle story.

The king died and the queen died of grief- concentric plot.

One way or another, plots are made up of the actions of the characters.

Action- the manifestation of a person’s emotions, thoughts and intentions in his actions, movements, spoken words, gestures, and facial expressions.

Known in literature different types actions. In the process of external action, the relationships between the characters, their fate, and public understanding change in one direction or another. Internal action presupposes the behavior of characters in which they show feelings in behavior, words, gestures, but do nothing to change their lives.

In traditional plots, where the action moves from beginning to end, twists and turns play a significant role - all kinds of turns from happiness to misfortune, from failure to success.

Ø Peripeties were of great importance in the heroic tales of antiquity and in fairy tales, in comedies and tragedies of antiquity and the Renaissance, in early short stories and novels (love-knightly and adventure-punctual), and later in adventure and detective literature.

Plots with twists and turns embody the idea of ​​the power of chance over people.

There are two types of sequence of events in a work: logical, also causal-temporal, (event A - event B - event C - event D) and constructed by the author (for example, event D - event A - event B - event C). For example, in L.N. Tolstoy’s story “The Death of Ivan Vasilyevich,” the reader first sees the hero’s corpse, and then gets acquainted with the story of his life. This is how two concepts arise in literary criticism: plot and plot.

According to B.V. Tomashevsky, plot– an artistically constructed distribution of events in the work, and plot– a set of events in their internal connection.

However, in literature, the concepts of plot and fable are often identified or not differentiated. Strictly speaking, such a distinction is necessary only in a number of cases: for the author when working on a work, for a reader for a competent retelling, for a specialist when analyzing a work, especially if the series of events is complex.

As an example, consider the story by M. Yu. Lermontov “A Hero of Our Time.”

This arrangement serves special artistic purposes: in particular, Pechorin is first shown through the eyes of Maxim Maksimych, and only then we see him from the inside, according to entries from the diary.

Remember the plot of I. A. Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing” and restore its plot.

To the utmost general view The plot is a kind of basic scheme of the work, which includes the sequence of actions occurring in the work and the totality of the character relationships existing in it. Typically, a plot includes the following elements: exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement and postposition, and, in some works, prologue and epilogue. The main prerequisite for the development of the plot is time, and how historical period actions and the passage of time during the work.

The concept of plot is closely related to the concept of the plot of the work. In modern Russian literary criticism (as well as in practice school teaching literature), the term “plot” usually refers to the very course of events in a work, and the plot is understood as the main artistic conflict that develops in the course of these events. Historically, there were other views on the relationship between plot and plot, different from the one indicated. In the 1920s, representatives of OPOYAZ proposed to distinguish between two sides of the narrative: they called the very development of events in the world of the work “plot”, and the way these events are depicted by the author - “plot”.

Another interpretation comes from Russian critics mid-19th century and was also supported by A. N. Veselovsky and M. Gorky: they called the plot the very development of the action of the work, adding to this the relationships of the characters, and by the plot they understood the compositional side of the work, that is, how exactly the author communicates the content of the plot. It is easy to see that the meanings of the terms “plot” and “plot” in this interpretation, compared to the previous one, change places.

There is also a point of view that the concept of “plot” independent meaning does not have, and to analyze the work it is quite enough to operate with the concepts of “plot”, “plot diagram”, “plot composition”.

Typology of plots

Repeated attempts have been made to classify the plots of literary works, to divide them according to various signs, highlight the most typical ones. The analysis allowed, in particular, to highlight large group so-called “wandering plots” - plots that are repeated many times in different designs different nations and in different regions, for the most part- in folk art (fairy tales, myths, legends).

There are several attempts to reduce the diversity of plots to a small, but at the same time comprehensive set of plot schemes. In the famous short story “The Four Cycles,” Borges claims that all plots come down to just four options:

• On the assault and defense of the fortified city (Troy)
• About the Long Return (Odysseus)
• About the search (Jason)
• About the suicide of a god (Odin, Atis)

see also

Notes

Links

• The meaning of the word “plot” in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
• Brief summaries of literary works by various authors
• Lunacharsky A.V., Thirty-six plots, “Theater and Art” magazine, 1912, No. 34.
• Nikolaev A.I. The plot of a literary work // Fundamentals of literary criticism: tutorial for students of philological specialties. – Ivanovo: LISTOS, 2011.

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See what “Plot” is in other dictionaries:

Plot- 1. S. in literature, a reflection of the dynamics of reality in the form of the action unfolding in the work, in the form of internally connected (causal and temporal connection) actions of characters, events that form a certain unity, constituting some ... Literary encyclopedia

plot- a, m. sujet m. 1. An event or series of interconnected and sequential events developing events, constituting the content of a literary work. BAS 1. || trans. Relationships. He is a beginner and immediately understands the camera's plot: hidden power P … Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

Plot- PLOT is the narrative core of a work of art, a system of effective (factual) mutual direction and arrangement of speakers in this work persons (objects), provisions put forward in it, events developing in it... ... Dictionary literary terms

PLOT- (French, from Latin subjectum subject). The content, the interweaving of external circumstances that form the basis of the known. literary or arts. works; in music: fugue theme. On theatrical language actor or actress. Dictionary foreign words, included in... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

plot- Cm … Synonym dictionary

PLOT- (from French sujet subject, subject) sequence of events in literary text. The paradox associated with the fate of the concept of S. in the twentieth century is that as soon as philology learned to study it, literature began to destroy it. In studying C... Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies

PLOT- PLOT, plot, husband. (French sujet). 1. A set of actions and events in which the main content of a work of art is revealed (lit.). Plot Queen of Spades Pushkin. Choose something as the plot of a novel. 2. transfer Content, topic of what... ... Dictionary Ushakova

PLOT- from life. Razg. Joking. iron. About what l. everyday life episode, ordinary life history. Mokienko 2003, 116. Plot for a short story. Razg. Joking. iron. 1. Something worth talking about. 2. Which l. strange, interesting story. /i> From... ... Big dictionary Russian sayings

Plot (from French sujet - subject)

1) in literature - the development of action, the course of events in narrative and dramatic works, and sometimes in lyrical ones. To literature the word "S." first used in the 17th century. classicists P. Corneille and N. Boileau, meaning, following Aristotle, events in life legendary heroes antiquities (for example, Antigone and Creon or Medea and Jason), borrowed by playwrights of later times. But Aristotle in “Poetics” used the ancient Greek word “myth” (мýthos) in the sense of “tradition” to refer to such incidents, which in Russian literary criticism is usually translated incorrectly by the Latin word “fable”. Latin word“fabula” (from the same root as the verb fabulari - to tell, narrate) was used by Roman writers as a designation for all kinds of stories, including myths and fables, and became widespread much earlier than the French term “S.” In German classical aesthetics (Schelling, Hegel), the events depicted in works were called “action” (Handlung). The difference in terms denoting one phenomenon has made them unstable and ambiguous.

In modern Soviet literary-critical and school practice, the terms “S.” and “fabula” are understood either as synonyms, or S. is called the entire course of events, and fabula is the main artistic conflict that develops in them (in both cases the terms are doubled). In literary criticism, two other interpretations collide. In the 1920s representatives of OPOYAZ proposed an important distinction between two sides of the narrative: the development of the events themselves in the lives of the characters, the order and method of reporting about them by the author-storyteller; giving great importance Based on how the work was “made”, they began to call S. the second side, and the first - the plot. This tradition continues to be preserved (see “The Theory of Literature...” in three volumes, vol. 2, M., 1964). Another tradition comes from Russian democratic critics of the mid-19th century, as well as from A. N. Veselovsky (See Veselovsky) and M. Gorky; all of them S. called the development of action (Belinsky V.G.: “Gogol’s poem can be fully enjoyed only by those who... the content is important, and not the “plot”” - Complete collection soch., vol. 6, 1955, p. 219; Gorky M.: “... The plot... connections, contradictions, likes and dislikes and in general the relationships of people...” - Collection of works, vol. 27, 1953, p. 215). Such terminology is not only more traditional and familiar, but also more etymologically accurate (S., in the meaning of the word, is the “subject”, that is, what is being narrated, the plot; from the same point of view, the story itself about S.). However, it is important for supporters of this theory to assimilate the theoretical innovation of the “formal school” and, calling S. the main, substantive side of the narrative or stage action, use the term “plot” to designate the second, actually compositional side (see Composition).

S. works are one of the most important means of embodying the content - the generalizing “thought” of the writer, his ideological and emotional understanding of the real characteristics of life, expressed through a verbal image fictional characters in their individual actions and relationships. S. in all its unique originality is the main aspect of the form (and thereby the style (See Style)) of the work in its correspondence with the content, and not the content itself, as is often understood in school practice. The entire structure of the story, its conflicts and the relationship between narrative and dialogic episodes that develop them must be studied functionally, in its connections with content, in its ideological and aesthetic meaning. At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish S. in its uniqueness from abstract plot, or more precisely, conflict “schemes” (A loves B, but B loves C, etc.), which can be historically repeated, borrowed and each time find a new concrete artistic embodiment .

On early stages historical development His epic stories were built on the temporary, chronicle principle of combining episodes ( fairy tales, knightly and picaresque novels). Later in European epic Concentric conflicts arise, based on a single conflict. In the concentric style of epic and drama, the conflict runs through the entire work and is distinguished by the definiteness of its plot (See Plot) and climax (See Climax). and interchanges (See Interchange).

Only on the basis of the analysis of S. can one functionally analyze the plot of a work in all the complex relationships of its own aspects (see Plot).

2) B fine arts- a certain event, situation depicted in a work and often indicated in its title. Unlike theme (See theme) , S. is a specific, detailed, figurative and narrative disclosure of the idea of ​​a work. S.'s particular complexity is typical for works of everyday and historical genres.

Lit.: Aristotle. On the art of poetry, M., 1937; Lessing G. E., Laocoon, or On the Borders of Painting and Poetry, M., 1957; Hegel, Aesthetics, vol. 1, M., 1968: Belinsky V.G., Complete. collection soch., vol. 5, M., 1954, p. 219; Veselovsky A. N., Poetics of plots, in his book: Historical poetics, L., 1940; Shklovsky V.B., On the theory of prose, M.-L., 1925; Medvedev P. N., Formal method in literary criticism, Leningrad, 1928: Freidenberg O. M., Poetics of plot and genre, Leningrad, 1936; Kozhinov V.V., Plot, plot, composition, in the book: Theory of Literature..., vol. 2, M., 1964; Questions of film dramaturgy, in. 5 - Plot in cinema, M., 1965; Pospelov G. N., Problems literary style, M., 1970; Lotman Yu. M., The structure of a literary text, M., 1970; Timofeev L.I., Fundamentals of the Theory of Literature, M., 1971; Wellek R., Warren A., Theory of literature, 3 ed., N. Y., 1963.

G. N. Pospelov(S. in literature).