What is composition literature definition. What is composition in literature: techniques, types and elements
Composition (lat. sotropere - to fold, to build) - construction, arrangement and relationship of parts, episodes, characters, means artistic expression in a literary work. The composition holds together all the elements of the work, subordinating them to the author’s idea. Components of the composition: characters, ongoing events, artistic details, monologues and dialogues, portraits, landscapes, interiors, lyrical digressions, insert episodes, artistic preliminaries and framing. V. Khalizev identifies such elements of the composition as repetitions and variations that become motifs, silences and recognitions. Exist Various types compositions. Thus, the composition of lyrical works can be linear (the poem “Winter. What should we do in the village? I meet...” by A.S. Pushkin), amoebaic (regular, symmetrical alternation of two voices or themes - Russian folk songs); it can also often be based on the technique of antithesis (the poem “Demon” by A.S. Pushkin); ring (coincidence of beginning and ending - S.A. Yesenin’s poem “Darling, let’s sit next to each other...”); hidden circular (the same theme is given at the beginning and at the end of the work - the theme of a snowstorm, both a natural phenomenon and the whirlwind of life in the poem “Snow memory is crushed and pricked...” by S.A. Yesenin). Prose works are characterized by a wide variety of compositional techniques. There is a linear composition (the sequential unfolding of events and the gradual discovery of the psychological motivations for the actions of the heroes - the novel “An Ordinary Story” by I.A. Goncharov), a circular composition (the action ends where it began - the story “The Captain's Daughter” by A.S. Pushkin) , reverse composition (the work opens with the last event, which gradually begins to be explained to the reader - the novel “What is to be done?” by N.G. Chernyshevsky), mirror composition (the images and episodes are symmetrical - the novel in verse “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin), associative composition (the author uses the technique of default, the technique of retrospection, the technique of “story within a story” (the story “Bela” in “A Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. Lermontov, the story “Asya” by I.S. Turgenev), dotted composition (characterized by intermittency in the description of the events and psychological motivations, the narrative suddenly ends, intriguing the reader, the next chapter begins with a different episode - the novel “Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky).
Composition is the arrangement of parts literary work in a certain order, a set of forms and methods artistic expression by the author depending on his intention. Translated from Latin language means “composition”, “construction”. Composition builds all parts of the work into a single, complete whole.
It helps the reader to better understand the content of the works, maintains interest in the book and helps to draw the necessary conclusions in the end. Sometimes the composition of a book intrigues the reader and he looks for a sequel to the book or other works by this writer.
Composition elements
Among such elements are narration, description, dialogue, monologue, inserted stories and lyrical digressions:
- Narration - main element compositions, the author's story, revealing the content of the work of art. Occupies most the volume of the entire work. Conveys the dynamics of events; it can be retold or illustrated with drawings.
Description. This is a static element. During the description, events do not occur; it serves as a picture, a background for the events of the work. The description is a portrait, an interior, a landscape. A landscape is not necessarily an image of nature; it can be a city landscape, a lunar landscape, a description of fantasy cities, planets, galaxies, or a description of fictional worlds.- Dialogue- conversation between two people. It helps to reveal the plot and deepen the characters of the characters. Through the dialogue between two heroes, the reader learns about the events of the past of the heroes of the works, about their plans, and begins to better understand the characters’ characters.
- Monologue- speech of one character. In the comedy by A. S. Griboyedov, through Chatsky’s monologues, the author conveys the thoughts of the leading people of his generation and the experiences of the hero himself, who learned about his beloved’s betrayal.
- Image system. All images of a work that interact in connection with the author’s intention. These are images of people, fairy-tale characters, mythical, toponymic and subject. There are awkward images invented by the author, for example, “The Nose” from Gogol’s story of the same name. The authors simply invented many images, and their names became commonly used.
- Insert stories, a story within a story. Many authors use this technique to create intrigue in a work or at the denouement. A work may contain several inserted stories, the events in which take place in different time. Bulgakov in “The Master and Margarita” used the device of a novel within a novel.
Author's or lyrical digressions. Gogol has many lyrical digressions in his work “Dead Souls”. Because of them, the genre of the work has changed. It's big prose work called the poem “Dead Souls”. And “Eugene Onegin” is called a novel in verse because large quantity author's digressions, thanks to which readers are presented with an impressive picture Russian life early 19th century.- Author's description . In it, the author talks about the character of the hero and does not hide his positive or negative attitude to him. Gogol in his works often gives ironic characteristics to his heroes - so precise and succinct that his heroes often become household names.
- Plot of the story- this is a chain of events occurring in a work. The plot is the content of a literary text.
- Fable- all events, circumstances and actions that are described in the text. The main difference from the plot is the chronological sequence.
- Scenery- description of nature, real and imaginary world, city, planet, galaxies, existing and fictional. Landscape is an artistic device, thanks to which the character of the characters is revealed more deeply and an assessment of events is given. You can remember how it changes seascape in Pushkin’s “The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish,” when the old man comes to the Golden Fish again and again with another request.
- Portrait- this description is not only appearance hero, but also his inner world. Thanks to the author’s talent, the portrait is so accurate that all readers have the same idea of the appearance of the hero of the book they read: what Natasha Rostova, Prince Andrei, Sherlock Holmes looks like. Sometimes the author draws the reader's attention to some characteristic feature of the hero, for example, Poirot's mustache in Agatha Christie's books.
Don't miss: in the literature, examples of use.
Compositional techniques
Subject composition
The development of the plot has its own stages of development. There is always a conflict at the center of the plot, but the reader does not immediately learn about it.
Subject composition depends on the genre of the work. For example, a fable necessarily ends with a moral. Dramatic works of classicism had their own laws of composition, for example, they had to have five acts.
The composition of the works is distinguished by its unshakable features folklore. Songs, fairy tales, and epics were created according to their own laws of construction.
The composition of the fairy tale begins with the saying: “Like on the sea-ocean, and on the island of Buyan...”. The saying was often composed in poetic form and was sometimes far from the content of the fairy tale. The storyteller attracted the attention of the listeners with a saying and waited for them to listen to him without being distracted. Then he said: “This is a saying, not a fairy tale. There will be a fairy tale ahead."
Then came the beginning. The most famous of them begins with the words: “Once upon a time” or “In a certain kingdom, in the thirtieth state...”. Then the storyteller moved on to the fairy tale itself, to its characters, to wonderful events.
Techniques of a fairy-tale composition, a threefold repetition of events: the hero fights three times with the Serpent Gorynych, three times the princess sits at the window of the tower, and Ivanushka on a horse flies to her and tears off the ring, three times the Tsar tests his daughter-in-law in the fairy tale “The Frog Princess”.
The ending of the fairy tale is also traditional; about the heroes of the fairy tale they say: “They live, live well and make good things.” Sometimes the ending hints at a treat: “A fairy tale for you, but a bagel for me.”
Literary composition- this is the arrangement of parts of a work in a certain sequence, this complete system forms of artistic representation. The means and techniques of composition deepen the meaning of what is depicted and reveal the characteristics of the characters. Each work of art has its own unique composition, but there are its traditional laws that are observed in some genres.
During the times of classicism, there was a system of rules that prescribed certain rules for writing texts to authors, and they could not be violated. This rule of three unities: time, place, plot. This is a five-act structure of dramatic works. This speaking names and a clear division into negative and goodies. The compositional features of classicism are a thing of the past.
Compositional techniques in literature depend on the genre of the work of art and on the talent of the author, who has available types, elements, techniques of composition, knows its features and knows how to use these artistic methods.
1. The concept of the composition of a literary work.
2. Compositional techniques.
3. Elements of composition and their role in revealing the ideological and artistic content of the work.
Bibliography
1) Borev Yu.B. Aesthetics. Literary theory: encyclopedic Dictionary terms. – M., 2003.
2) Introduction to literary criticism: textbook / ed. L.M. Krupchanov. – M., 2003.
3) Esin A.B. Principles and techniques of analyzing a literary work. – 4th ed. – M., 2002.
4) Literary encyclopedic dictionary / ed. V.M. Kozhevnikova, P.A. Nikolaev. – M., 1987.
5) Literary encyclopedia terms and concepts / ed. A.N. Nikolyukina. – M., 2003.
6) Dictionary literary terms/ ed.-comp. L.I. Timofeev, S.V. Turaev. – M., 1973.
7) Timofeev L.I.. Fundamentals of literary theory. – M., 1976.
A work of art is a complex whole, a series of images, a chain of their actions, events that happen to them. The writer must organize all these individual elements of the story into a coherent and organized whole that is fascinating to the reader. This one the organization of a work, proportionality and consistency, the relationship of all its parts and elements in literary criticism is usually called composition.
A.I. Revyakin gives the following definition of composition: “ Composition (from lat. compositio – addition, composition, compono – to put together, compose) – construction of a work of art, a certain system of means of revealing, organizing images, their connections and relationships characterizing the life process shown in the work ».
Thus, the composition includes the arrangement of characters in the work, and the order of reporting the course of events, and a change in narrative techniques, and the correlation of the details of the depicted, and portrait and landscape sketches, and a message about the place and time of the events taking place, and the division of the work into parts and so on. In other words, composition is nothing more than the structure of a work of art.
Whatever work we take, it has a certain composition - it is organized on the basis of the complexities of the real life situation that is reflected in it, and the understanding of life connections, causes and consequences, which is inherent in this writer and determines his compositional principles. The composition of a work is determined primarily by the real laws of the reality depicted in the work, the ideological and aesthetic tasks set by the author, as well as artistic method, genre features, the writer’s worldview, his creative style.
Many literary scholars, speaking about the composition of a work, distinguish its two main forms: event (plot) and non-event (non-plot). The event form of the composition is typical in to a greater extent for epic and dramatic works, non-event - for lyrical ones.
Since the main unit of literary and artistic reflection of life is character, the composition of a work of art can be comprehended and studied precisely in connection with the characters depicted in it.
How a writer builds this or that character, how he relates it to others, in what sequence he arranges the events in the work, what causes and consequences he brings to the fore in the life he depicts, how, in connection with this, he organizes the work externally - all this in general represents the composition of the work, is determined creative principles writer.
The main requirements for the composition of a highly artistic work are vital and artistic motivation and strict subordination of all elements of the work to the theme and idea.
In modern literary criticism, there is a tradition of highlighting such compositional techniques as repeat, reinforce And installation . About compositional technique repeat they speak mainly when the first and final lines of poetry echo, giving the work compositional harmony, creating a ring composition. A classic example of the use of a ring composition is the poems by A. Blok “Night, street, lantern, pharmacy...”, S. Yesenin “Shagane, you are mine, Shagane...” and others.
Reception gain used in cases where to create artistic effect Mere repetition is not enough. For example, the description is based on the principle of amplification interior decoration Sobakevich’s house in “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol. Here, every new detail strengthens the previous one: “everything was solid, awkward in of the highest degree and bore some strange resemblance to the owner of the house; in the corner of the living room stood a pot-bellied walnut bureau with four absurd legs, a perfect bear. The table, armchairs, chairs - everything was of the heaviest and most restless quality - in a word, every object, every chair seemed to say: “And I, too, Sobakevich!” or “and I also look very much like Sobakevich!”
Reception installation characterized by the fact that two images located side by side in the work give rise to a certain new meaning. For example, in A. Chekhov’s story “Ionych” the description “ art salon"is accompanied by a mention of the smell of fried onions and the clanking of knives. These details create the atmosphere of vulgarity that the author tried to convey to the reader. In some works (M. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”, Ch. Aitmatov “The Scaffold”, etc.) montage becomes compositional principle organization of the entire work.
Along with the concept compositional technique in literary criticism we are talking about elements of composition . Following V.V. Kozhinov and other scientists, we identify the following elements of composition: anticipation, silence, chronological rearrangements, artistic framing, antithesis, landscape, portrait, interior, dialogue, monologue, lyrical digressions, introductory episodes.
Preliminary- notification in advance about something is an artistic technique when a writer precedes the depiction of future events with episodes. An example of foreshadowing is an episode from the novel by A.S. Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”, when Tatyana has a dream that Onegin kills Lensky (chapter 5, stanza 21):
The argument is louder, louder; suddenly Evgeniy
He grabs a long knife and instantly
Lensky is defeated; scary shadows
Condensed; unbearable scream
There was a sound... The hut shook...
And Tanya woke up in horror...
An example of foreshadowing in Mordovian literature can be found in N. Erkay’s poem “Moro Ratordo” (the scene of the discovery by the main character of human bones in the hollow of a century-old oak tree, presented at the beginning of the work).
Artistic framing– creation of paintings and scenes that are close in essence to the phenomena and characters depicted. “Hadji Murat” L.N. Tolstoy begins with a landscape sketch. The author tells how he, having collected large bouquet from different colors, decided to decorate it with blooming crimson burrs, popularly called “Tatar”. However, when he picked it with great difficulty, it turned out that the burdock, due to its coarseness and clumsiness, did not suit the delicate flowers of the bouquet. Next, the author shows a freshly plowed field in which not a single plant was visible, except for one bush: “The “Tatar” bush consisted of three shoots. One was torn off, and the rest of the branch stuck out like a severed hand. The other two had a flower on each. These flowers were once red, but now they were black. One stem was broken, and half of it, with a dirty flower at the end, hung down; the other, although smeared with black earth mud, still stuck out upward. It was clear that the entire bush had been run over by a wheel and only then stood up and therefore stood sideways, but still stood. It was as if they had torn out a piece of his body, turned out his insides, torn off his arm, and gouged out his eye. But he still stands and does not surrender to the man who destroyed all his brothers around him. “What energy! - I thought. “Man has conquered everything, destroyed millions of herbs, but this one still doesn’t give up.” And I remembered one long ago Caucasian history, part of which I saw, part of which I heard from eyewitnesses, and part of which I imagined. This story, the way it developed in my memory and imagination, is what it is...”
An example of artistic framing from Mordovian literature may serve as an excerpt from the prologue of the novel in verse by A.D. Kutorkin "Apple tree high road»:
| Kavo enov pryanzo kaisi Umarina poksh kint kreise. Paksyan kunshkas, teke stuvtovs, Te sulei maksytsya chuvtos, Tarkaks pizhe meadows nar mus. Laishiz Varmat, Moryz Narmunt. Tsyarakhmant baked some of the eisenze. Yalateke son viysenze Kirds telelen lamo yakshamot, Eis orshnevemat, lyakshamot, Nachko shkasto trowel livez. But tsidyards feel - ez sive, Staka davol marto spores, Lamo Viy rashtas shadow koryas. Umarinas kass ush pokshsto, Zyardo sonze weike boxto Ker vatkakshnost petkel petne, Taradtkak sintrest chirketne, Pravtst shovel kodaz lokshotne, But eziz mue makshotne Te chuvtont. Sleepy, safe. Bogatyren shumbra body Nulan pack istya neavkshny, Koda selms yala kayavkshny Te umarinant komelse Se tarkas, kosto petkelse Kener panx umok lutavkshnos. Pars tundos chuvtonten savkshnos. Erva tarads kodaz-kodavst, Mazy umart novolst modas... | The Apple Tree by the high road nods its head in both directions. In the middle of the field, as if forgotten, This shade-giving tree has chosen a green meadow as its place. The winds mourned her, birds sang above her. She was hit by hail. At the same time, with her strength she resisted the winter cold, glaciation, frost, and in rainy times - cold sweat. But the tree survived - it did not break, Arguing with a strong hurricane, it became even stronger. The apple tree had already grown, When on one side the bark was torn off with a pestle, And the branches were broken in arcs, The leaves were torn off with a wicker whip, But the tree did not wither, It is healthy, intact. Sometimes such a heroic strong body peeks through the rags, When it catches your eye On the trunk of the apple tree The place where the pestle has long torn off the skin. Spring has arrived for this tree. On each branch, intertwined with each other, Beautiful apples bent to the ground... |
Default- an artistic device when the writer deliberately does not talk about something in a work. An example of silence is a stanza from a poem by S.A. Yesenin "Song of the Dog":
She ran through the snowdrifts,
Keeping up with running after him...
And I trembled for so long, long time
The water is unfrozen.
Chronological rearrangements- such an element of composition when a writer in his work talks about events, breaking the chronological sequence. A classic example of this type of composition is the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time".
Quite often, writers in their works include heroes’ memories of days gone by. This technique also serves as an example of chronological rearrangements. In A. Doronin’s novel “Bayagan Suleyt” (“Shadows of Bells”), which tells about the life of Patriarch Nikon, there are several such episodes:
“... Vladykanten lettyas, mayste have fun, go away dy code sleep pongs tezen, vasolo enkson usiyatnes. Te ulnes 1625 yen tundostont, zardo sonze, velny popont, ve chiste kirga ormado kulost kavto cerkanzo. Te rizksten Olda nise ez tsidardo, tus nun. Dy songak arses-teis pryanzo naravtomo. Kochkise Solovkan monastery, kona set etnesteyak Rusen keles pek sodaviksel. Ansyak code tey patchcodems? Syrgas Nizhny Novgorod. Kems, tosto mui Arkhangelskoent marto syulmavoz lomanti dy Rav leigant sirgi martost od ki langov.” (“Vladyka remembered how it all began and how he got here, to these remote places. This happened in the spring of 1625, when he, a village priest, died of a throat disease in one day from two of his sons. From such grief his wife Olda couldn't stand it, she became a nun. He, too, after thinking about it, decided to become a monk. He chose the Solovetsky Monastery, which was already very famous in Russia in those days. But how to get there? I went to Nizhny Novgorod. I hoped that there he would find people who were connected with Arkhangelsk, and along the Volga River along with them would follow a new path.”).
Antithesis– a contradiction, a sharply expressed opposition of concepts or phenomena. N.A. Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” contains the following lines:
You are also poor, you are also abundant,
You are both powerful and you are powerless,
Mother Rus'.
An excerpt from D. Nadkin’s poem “Chachoma Ele” entitled “Iznyamo or kuloma” (“Victory or Death”) is also built on the antithesis:
Scenery– a description of nature in a literary work that performs various functions. Landscape sketches have been included in fiction for a long time: we meet them in the works of ancient and medieval literature. Already in Homer's poems there are small landscape paintings, performing the function of the background of the action, for example, mentions of the coming night, the rising of the sun: “Then dusk descended to the earth,” “The young Eos with purple fingers stood up.” In the work of the Roman poet Lucretius “On the Nature of Things,” nature is also personified and acts both as a character and as a background to the action:
The winds, goddess, run before you; with your approach
The clouds are leaving the heavens, the earth is a lush master
Laying out a floral carpet, smiling sea waves,
And the azure sky shines with spilled light....
In the 18th century, in the literature of sentimentalism, landscapes began to perform a psychological function and were perceived as a means of artistic exploration of a person’s inner life (Goethe’s “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, Karamzin’s “Poor Liza”).
For romantics, nature is usually restless, corresponds to the violent passions of the heroes and acts as a symbol (Lermontov’s “Sail”, etc.).
In realistic literature, landscapes also occupy significant place and perform various functions, are perceived both as the background of the action, and as the subject of the image, and as a character, and as a means of artistic development of the inner world of the heroes. As an example, let us give an excerpt from N. Erkai’s story “Alyoshka”: “Lees and not appearing, sleep kopachaz lovson kondyamo tumso. Maryavi lismastrasto miracle chudikerksent sholnemazo. Sleep, good for the tseks, praise the greasy kizen valskent. Kaldastont kayseti skalten stakasto leksemast dy porksen poremast. Leent chireva lugant langa dew ashti after all bygex. Loman still jamb aras... Koshtos tusto, vanks dy ekshe. Lexyat eisenze, kodayak and peshkedyat.
Lomantne, narmuntne, mik tikshetneyak, vese nature, udyt sery shozhdyne menelent alo. Mik teshtneyak palst avol pek valdo tolso, syngak chatmonit, ezt mesha udytsyatnene" (The river is not visible, it is shrouded in thick fog. You can hear the murmur of a stream flowing from a spring. It, like a nightingale, glorifies the beauty of the summer morning. From the fence you can hear the sighs of cows chewing chewing gum. In the meadow along the river there is morning dew. People are still nowhere to be seen... The air is thick, clean and cool. If you breathe it, you won’t get enough of it.
People, birds, grass, all nature sleeps under a light sky. Even the stars do not burn brightly and do not disturb those sleeping.”
Portrait– description of the appearance and appearance of the characters. Pre-realistic literature is characterized by idealizing descriptions of the appearance of heroes, outwardly bright and spectacular, with an abundance of figurative and expressive means of language. This is how Nizami Ganjavi describes the appearance of his beloved in one of the ghazals:
Only this maiden from Khotan can compare with the moon,
One hundred Yusufs from Hanan were captivated by her charms.
The eyebrows are arched, the gaze of the eyes is like the sun,
The color of her ruddy cheeks is brighter than Aden rubies.
Proudly decorating with a scarlet rose blooming garden,
She eclipsed the cypress with her regal tall figure....
Similar portraits take place in romantic literature. In realistic literature, a portrait has become widespread, performing a psychological function, helping to reveal spiritual world characters (M. Lermontov “Hero of Our Time”, L. Tolstoy “War and Peace”, A. Chekhov “Lady with a Dog”...).
Quite often, it is through a portrait that one can reveal the author’s attitude towards his hero. Let's give an example from S. Platonov's story “Kit-yant” (“Roads-Roads”): “Vera orshazel kizen shozhda platinese, kona stazel serenze koryas dy sedeyak mazylgavts vide kileen kondiamo elganya rungonzo. Vasen varshtamsto sonze chamazo neyavi avol ush oats baked mazyytnede. Istyat chamast vese od teiterkatnen, kinen a umok topodst kemgavksovo et dykie se tundostont vasentseks tsvetyazevs kuraksh alo lily of the valley tsetsinex. But buti sede kuvat vanat Veran chamas, son Alamon-alamon liakstomi, teevi lovtanyaks dy valdomgady, prok zoryava chilisema enksos, zyardo vir ekshste or paksya chiren tombalde appeared chint syrezhditsya kirkseze, dy sedeyak pek maneigady, nalksezevi weight e valdosonzo, zardo misoldomadont panjovit peenze. But sekhte remember sonze gray selmenze, konat langozot vanomsto vasnya nejavit stalen kondyamoks, maile alamon-alamon yala senshkadyt, tustomgadyt dy mik chopolgadyt, teevit potmaxtomox. Vanovtonzo koryas ovse a charkodevi ezhozo dy meleze - paro aunt arsi or beryan. But varshtavksozo zardoyak a stuvtovi" (“Vera was dressed in a light summer dress, tailored to her height and emphasizing her slender figure. At first glance, her face cannot be considered very beautiful. These are the faces of most young girls who have recently turned eighteen and bloomed for the first time, like lilies of the valley in the forest. But if you peer into Vera’s face, it gradually changes, turns pale and brightens, like the morning dawn, when the first Sun rays, and becomes even more beautiful when you smile. Most memorable are her gray eyes, which at first glance seem steely, then gradually darken and become bottomless. From her gaze it is impossible to understand her mood and thoughts - whether she wishes you well or not. But you can’t forget her look”).
After reading this passage, the reader feels that the author’s sympathies are on the side of the heroine.
Interior- an image of a closed space, a person’s habitat, which he organizes in his own image, in other words, is a description of the environment in which the heroes live and act.
The description of the interior or the material world has been included in Russian literature since the time of A. Pushkin (“Eugene Onegin” - description of the hero’s office). The interior usually serves additional means characteristics of the characters in the work. However, in some works it becomes dominant artistic medium, for example, in “The Tale of How Ivan Ivanovich Quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich” N.V. Gogol: " Wonderful person Ivan Ivanovich! He loves melons very much. This is his favorite food. As soon as he has dined and goes out under the canopy in his shirt, he now orders Gapka to bring two melons. And he will cut it himself, collect the seeds in a special piece of paper and start eating. Then he orders Gapka to bring an inkwell and, with his own hand, makes an inscription over a piece of paper with seeds: “This melon was eaten on such and such a date.” If there was any guest, then “so-and-so took part.”
The late judge of Mirgorod always admired Ivan Ivanovich’s house. Yes, the house is very nice. I like that there are canopies and canopies attached to it on all sides, so that if you look at it from a distance, you can only see the roofs, planted one on top of the other, which is very similar to a plate filled with pancakes, or even better, like sponges growing on tree. However, the roofs are all covered with an outline; a willow, an oak and two apple trees leaned on them with their spreading branches. Small windows with carved, whitewashed shutters flicker between the trees and even run out onto the street.” From the above passage it is clear that with the help of the interior, the material world, in Gogolian style, the Mirgorod landowners are sarcastically ridiculed.
Let us give an example from Mordovian literature, a description of the room in which V. Kolomasov’s character Lavginov lives after divorcing his wife: “And ush tone varshtavlitka, kadamo sonze ney kudos. Arsyan, natoi ton skalon kardos sede vanks. Koshtos sonze kudosont istya kols, mik oymet a targavi. Kiyaksos – raujo fashion. Kov ilya varshta – mazyn kis povodevst shanzhavon kodavkst. And the ears are bad! To mourn - mezeyak and maryat, prok meksh vele owl kudonten. Stenasont, obliquely ney sonze atsaz tarkineze, lazkstne peshkset kendyaldo, potolokont ezga pixit cockroach” (You should see what his house is like now. I think your cow yard is cleaner. The air in the house has become so bad that it’s impossible to breathe. The floor is black earth. Everywhere you look, there are cobwebs hanging for beauty. And there are flies! They are buzzing - you can’t hear anything, as if a swarm of bees had flown into the house. In the wall, near which his bed is now, the cracks are full of bedbugs, cockroaches are crawling on the ceiling). This kind of interior helps the reader better understand the lazy character of the depicted hero.
Sometimes the interior also performs a psychological function. This is how L. Tolstoy describes the interior of the prison office where Nekhlyudov came after meeting Katyusha Maslova in court: “The office consisted of two rooms. In the first room, with a large protruding, shabby stove and two dirty windows, there stood in one corner a black measuring stick for measuring the height of prisoners, in the other corner hung - always a part of all places of torture, as if in mockery of his teaching - big image Christ. In this first room there were several guards. In another room, twenty men and women were sitting along the walls in separate groups or pairs and talking quietly. stood by the window desk" Such descriptions help reveal the mental state of the characters.
Lyrical digressions– the author’s emotional reflections on the events depicted. There are many lyrical digressions in “Don Juan” by D.G. Byron; “Eugene Onegin” A.S. Pushkin, “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol; in “The Apple Tree by the High Road” by A.D. Kutorkina:
Some kind of lyrical digressions are also found in dramatic works In particular, in B. Brecht's plays there are a lot of songs (zongs) that interrupt the depicted action.
Dialogues and monologues- these are meaningful statements, as if emphasizing, demonstrating their “authorship”. Dialogue is invariably associated with mutual, two-way communication, in which the speaker takes into account the immediate reaction of the listener, while activity and passivity pass from one participant in communication to another. Dialogue is characterized by the alternation of short statements by two or more people. Monologue is the uninterrupted speech of one person. There are monologues "secluded", in the case where the speaker has no direct contact with anyone, and "converted"", designed to actively influence listeners.
Introductory episodes Literary scholars sometimes call them insert stories. These are the tale of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius’s novel “Metamorphoses” (“The Golden Ass”), the story of Captain Kopeikin in “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol.
In conclusion, it should be noted that any work of art has its own composition, a special structure. Depending on the goals and objectives that he has set for himself, the writer chooses certain elements of the composition. At the same time, all the elements of the composition listed above cannot be present even in large volumes. epic works. Components such as foreshadowing, artistic framing, and introductory episodes are rarely found in fiction.
CONTROL QUESTIONS:
1. Which of the above definitions of composition is closer to you and why?
2. What terminology denoting the construction of a work can be used in the process of analyzing a work?
3. What are the main elements of the composition of a literary work?
4. Which elements of the composition are less common than others in Mordovian literature?
General concept of composition. Composition and architectonics
The concept of “composition” is familiar to any philologist. This term is constantly used, often included in the title or subheadings scientific articles and monographs. At the same time, it should be noted that it has overly wide tolerances of meaning, and this sometimes interferes with understanding. “Composition” turns out to be a term without boundaries, when almost any analysis, with the exception of the analysis of ethical categories, can be called compositional.
The insidiousness of the term lies in its very nature. Translated from Latin, the word “composition” means “composition, connection of parts.” Simply put, composition is way of construction, way of making works. This is an axiom understandable to any philologist. But, as is the case with topic, the stumbling block turns out to be the following question: the construction of what should interest us if we are talking about the analysis of composition? The easiest answer would be “the construction of the entire work,” but this answer will not clarify anything. After all, almost everything is constructed in a literary text: plot, character, speech, genre, etc. Each of these terms presupposes its own logic of analysis and its own principles of “construction.” For example, constructing a plot involves analyzing types of plot construction, describing elements (plot, development of action, etc.), analyzing plot-plot inconsistencies, etc. We talked about this in detail in the previous chapter. A completely different perspective on the analysis of the “construction” of speech: here it is appropriate to talk about vocabulary, syntax, grammar, types of text connections, the boundaries of one’s own and someone else’s word, etc. The construction of the verse is another perspective. Then we need to talk about rhythm, about rhymes, about the laws of constructing a verse series, etc.
As a matter of fact, we always do this when we talk about the plot, about the image, about the laws of verse, etc. But then the question naturally arises about own meaning of the term composition, which does not coincide with the meanings of other terms. If there is none, the analysis of the composition loses its meaning, completely dissolving into the analysis of other categories, but if this independent meaning exists, then what is it?
To make sure there is a problem, just compare the “Composition” sections in the manuals different authors. We can easily see that the emphasis will be noticeably shifted: in some cases the emphasis is placed on plot elements, in others on the forms of organization of the narrative, in others on spatio-temporal and genre characteristics... And so on almost ad infinitum. The reason for this lies precisely in the amorphous nature of the term. Professionals understand this very well, but this does not prevent everyone from seeing what they want to see.
It is hardly worth dramatizing the situation, but it would be better if compositional analysis assumed some kind of understandable and more or less unified methodology. It seems that the most promising thing would be to see in compositional analysis precisely the interest in ratio of parts, to their relationships. In other words, composition analysis involves seeing the text as a system and aims to understand the logic of the relationships of its elements. Then the conversation about composition will truly become meaningful and will not coincide with other aspects of analysis.
This rather abstract thesis can be illustrated with a simple example. Let's say we want to build a house. We will be interested in what kind of windows it has, what kind of walls, what kind of ceilings, what colors it is painted in, etc. This will be an analysis individual parties . But it is no less important that all this together harmonized with each other. Even if we really like large windows, we cannot make them higher than the roof and wider than the wall. We cannot make windows larger than the windows, we cannot install a closet wider than the room, etc. That is, each part influences the other in one way or another. Of course, any comparison is sinful, but something similar happens in a literary text. Each part of it does not exist on its own; it is “demanded” by other parts and, in turn, “demands” something from them. Compositional analysis is, in essence, an explanation of these “requirements” of text elements. The famous judgment of A.P. Chekhov about a gun, which should fire if it is already hanging on the wall, illustrates this very well. Another thing is that in reality not everything is so simple, and not all of Chekhov’s guns fired.
Thus, composition can be defined as a way of constructing a literary text, as a system of relationships between its elements.
Compositional analysis is a fairly broad concept that concerns various aspects of a literary text. The situation is further complicated by the fact that in different traditions there are serious terminological discrepancies, and the terms not only sound differently, but also do not mean exactly the same thing. Especially it concerns narrative structure analysis. There are serious differences between Eastern European and Western European traditions. All this puts the young philologist in a difficult position. Our task also turns out to be very difficult: to talk about a very voluminous and ambiguous term in a relatively short chapter.
It seems that it is logical to begin understanding composition by defining the general scope of this concept, and then move on to more specific forms. So, compositional analysis allows for the following models.
1. Analysis of the sequence of parts. It assumes interest in the elements of the plot, the dynamics of the action, the sequence and relationship between plot and non-plot elements (for example, portraits, lyrical digressions, author's assessments, etc.). When analyzing a verse, we will definitely take into account the division into stanzas (if there is one), we will try to feel the logic of the stanzas, their interrelation. This type of analysis is primarily focused on explaining how unfolds work from the first page (or line) to the last. If we imagine a thread with beads, where each bead of a certain shape and color means a homogeneous element, then we can easily understand the logic of such an analysis. We want to understand how the overall pattern of beads is laid out sequentially, where and why repetitions occur, how and why new elements appear. This model of compositional analysis in modern science, especially in those oriented towards the Western tradition, is usually called syntagmatic.Syntagmatics is a branch of linguistics, the science of the ways speech unfolds, that is, how and according to what laws speech develops word by word and phrase by phrase. We see something similar in this analysis of composition, with the only difference that the elements most often are not words and syntagmas, but similar pieces of narrative. Let's say, if we take the famous poem by M. Yu. Lermontov “Sail” (“The lonely sail is white”), then without much difficulty we will see that the poem is divided into three stanzas (quatrains), and each quatrain is clearly divided into two parts: the first two the lines are a landscape sketch, the second lines are the author’s commentary:
The lonely sail is white
In the blue sea fog.
What is he looking for in a distant land?
What did he throw in his native land?
The waves are playing, the wind is whistling,
And the mast bends and creaks.
Alas!.. He is not looking for happiness
And he’s not running out of happiness.
Below him is a stream of lighter azure,
Above him is a golden ray of sunshine,
And he, rebellious, asks for a storm;
As if there is peace in the storms.
To a first approximation, the compositional scheme will look like this: A+B + A1+B1 + A2+B2, where A is a landscape sketch, and B is the author’s replica. However, it is easy to see that elements A and elements B are constructed according to different logic. Elements A are built according to the logic of the ring (calm - storm - calm), and elements B are built according to the logic of development (question - exclamation - answer). Having thought about this logic, a philologist can see in Lermontov’s masterpiece something that would be missed outside compositional analysis. For example, it will become clear that the “desire for a storm” is nothing more than an illusion; a storm will also not give peace and harmony (after all, there was already a “storm” in the poem, but this did not change the tonality of part B). A classic situation for Lermontov’s artistic world arises: the changing background does not change the feeling of loneliness and melancholy of the lyrical hero. Let us recall the poem “In the Wild North” that we have already cited, and we can easily feel the uniformity of the compositional structure. Moreover, on another level, the same structure is found in the famous “Hero of Our Time.” Pechorin’s loneliness is emphasized by the fact that the “backgrounds” are constantly changing: the semi-wild life of the highlanders (“Bela”), the gentleness and warmth of the common man (“Maksim Maksimych”), the life of people of the bottom - smugglers (“Taman”), life and morals high society(“Princess Mary”), an exceptional person (“Fatalist”). However, Pechorin cannot blend into any background, he feels bad and lonely everywhere, moreover, he willingly or unwillingly destroys the harmony of the background.
All this becomes noticeable precisely during compositional analysis. Thus, sequential item analysis can be a good interpretative tool.
2. Analysis general principles construction of the work as a whole. It is often called analysis architectonics. The term itself architectonics is not recognized by all experts, many, if not most, believe that we're talking about just oh different faces meaning of the term composition. At the same time, some very authoritative scientists (say, M. M. Bakhtin) not only recognized the correctness of such a term, but also insisted that composition And architectonics have different meanings. In any case, regardless of the terminology, we must understand that there is another model for analyzing composition, noticeably different from the one presented. This model assumes a view of the work as a whole. It is focused on the general principles of constructing a literary text, taking into account, among other things, the system of contexts. If we remember our metaphor of beads, then this model should give an answer to how these beads look in general and whether they are in harmony with the dress and hairstyle. Actually, this “double” look is well known to any woman: she is interested in how finely the parts of the jewelry are woven, but she is no less interested in how it all looks together and whether it is worth wearing with some kind of suit. In life, as we know, these views do not always coincide.
We see something similar in literary works. Let's give a simple example. Let's imagine that some writer decided to write a story about a family quarrel. But he decided to structure it in such a way that the first part is the husband’s monologue, where the whole story looks in one light, and the second part is the wife’s monologue, in which all the events look different. In modern literature such techniques are used very often. But now let’s think about it: is this work monologue or is it dialogical? From the point of view of syntagmatic analysis of the composition, it is monologue, there is not a single dialogue in it. But from the point of view of architectonics, it is dialogical, we see polemics, a clash of views.
This holistic view of composition (analysis architectonics) turns out to be very useful, it allows you to escape from a specific fragment of text and understand its role in the overall structure. M. M. Bakhtin, for example, believed that such a concept as a genre is architectonic by definition. Indeed, if I write a tragedy, I All I’ll construct it differently than if I were writing a comedy. If I write an elegy (a poem imbued with a feeling of sadness), All it will not be the same as in a fable: the construction of images, rhythm, and vocabulary. Therefore, the analysis of composition and architectonics are related concepts, but do not coincide. The point, we repeat, is not in the terms themselves (there are many discrepancies here), but in the fact that it is necessary to distinguish principles of construction of the work as a whole and the construction of its parts.
So, there are two models of compositional analysis. An experienced philologist, of course, is able to “switch” these models depending on his goals.
Now let's move on to a more specific presentation. Compositional analysis from the point of view of modern scientific tradition assumes the following levels:
Analysis of the form of narrative organization.
Analysis of speech composition (structure of speech).
Analysis of techniques for creating an image or character.
Analysis of plot structure features (including non-plot elements). This has already been discussed in detail in the previous chapter.
Analysis of artistic space and time.
Analysis of the change in “points of view”. This is one of the most popular methods of compositional analysis today, little familiar to the beginning philologist. Therefore, it is worth paying special attention to it.
The analysis of the composition of a lyrical work is characterized by its own specifics and nuances, therefore the analysis of a lyrical composition can also be allocated to a special level.
Of course, this scheme is very arbitrary, and much does not fall into it. In particular, we can talk about genre composition, rhythmic composition (not only in poetry, but also in prose), etc. In addition, in real analysis these levels intersect and mix. For example, point of view analysis concerns both narrative organization and speech patterns, space and time are inextricably linked to imagery techniques, etc. However, in order to understand these intersections, you first need to know What intersects, so in methodological aspect a more correct sequential presentation. So, in order.
For more details, see, for example: Kozhinov V.V. Plot, plot, composition // Theory of Literature. Main problems in historical coverage. Types and genres of literature. M., 1964.
See, for example: Revyakin A.I. Decree. cit., pp. 152–153.
Analysis of the form of narrative organization
This part of compositional analysis involves an interest in how storytelling. To understand a literary text, it is important to consider who is telling the story and how. First of all, the narrative can be formally organized as a monologue (speech of one), dialogue (speech of two) or polylogue (speech of many). For example, a lyric poem, as a rule, is monologue, while a drama or a modern novel tends to be dialogue and polylogue. Difficulties begin where clear boundaries are lost. For example, the outstanding Russian linguist V.V. Vinogradov noted that in the genre of skaz (remember, for example, “The Mistress of the Copper Mountain” by Bazhov) the speech of any hero is deformed, actually merging with the style of speech of the narrator. In other words, everyone starts talking the same way. Therefore, all dialogues organically flow into a single author’s monologue. This is a clear example genre narrative deformations. But other problems are also possible, for example, the very pressing problem your own and others' words when other people's voices are woven into the narrator's monologue. In its simplest form, this leads to the so-called non-author's speech. For example, in “The Snowstorm” by A. S. Pushkin we read: “But everyone had to retreat when the wounded hussar Colonel Burmin appeared in her castle, with George in his buttonhole and Withinteresting pallor(italics by A. S. Pushkin - A. N.), as the young ladies there said.” Words "with an interesting pallor" It is no accident that Pushkin puts it in italics. Neither lexically nor grammatically they are possible for Pushkin. This is the speech of provincial young ladies, evoking the gentle irony of the author. But this expression is inserted into the context of the narrator’s speech. This example of “violation” of a monologue is quite simple; modern literature knows much more complex situations. However, the principle will be the same: someone else’s word, which does not coincide with the author’s, turns out to be inside the author’s speech. It is sometimes not so easy to understand these subtleties, but it is necessary to do this, because otherwise we will attribute to the narrator judgments with which he does not associate himself in any way, and sometimes he is hiddenly polemicizing.
If we add to this the fact that modern literature is completely open to other texts, sometimes one author openly constructs a new text from fragments of already created ones, then it becomes clear that the problem of monologue or dialogicity of the text is by no means as obvious as it might seem in the literature. first glance.
No less, and perhaps even more, difficulties arise when we try to determine the figure of the narrator. If at first we talked about How many narrators organize the text, now you need to answer the question: a Who these narrators? The situation is further complicated by the fact that Russian and Western science have established different models analysis and different terms. The essence of the discrepancy is that in the Russian tradition the most pressing question is: Who is the narrator and how close or distant he is to the real author. For example, is the story told from I and who is behind it I. The basis is the relationship between the narrator and the real author. In this case, there are usually four main options with numerous intermediate forms.
The first option is a neutral narrator(it is also called the narrator proper, and this form is often not very accurately called third person narration. The term is not very good, because there is no third party here, but it has taken root, and there is no point in abandoning it). We are talking about those works where the narrator is not identified in any way: he does not have a name, he does not take part in the events described. There are a huge number of examples of such organization of storytelling: from the poems of Homer to the novels of L.N. Tolstoy and many modern novels and short stories.
The second option is the author-narrator. The narration is conducted in the first person (this narration is called I-form), the narrator is either not named at all, but his closeness to the real author is implied, or he bears the same name as the real author. The author-narrator does not take part in the events described, he only talks about them and comments. Such an organization was used, for example, by M. Yu. Lermontov in the story “Maksim Maksimych” and in a number of other fragments of “A Hero of Our Time”.
The third option is a hero-narrator. A very often used form when a direct participant talks about events. The hero, as a rule, has a name and is clearly distanced from the author. This is how the “Pechorin” chapters of “A Hero of Our Time” (“Taman”, “Princess Mary”, “Fatalist”) are constructed; in “Bel” the right of narration passes from the author-narrator to the hero (remember that the whole story is told by Maxim Maksimovich). Lermontov needs a change of narrators to create a three-dimensional portrait of the main character: after all, everyone sees Pechorin in their own way, the assessments do not coincide. We encounter the hero-narrator in “ The captain's daughter"A.S. Pushkin (almost everything was told by Grinev). In short, the hero-narrator is very popular in modern literature.
The fourth option is the author-character. This option is very popular in literature and very insidious for the reader. In Russian literature, it manifested itself with all clarity already in the “Life of Archpriest Avvakum”, and literature of the 19th century and especially the twentieth century uses this option very often. The author-character bears the same name as the real author, as a rule, is close to him biographically and at the same time is the hero of the events described. The reader has a natural desire to “believe” the text, to equate the author-character with the real author. But the insidiousness of this form is that no equal sign can be used. There is always a difference, sometimes colossal, between the author-character and the real author. The similarity of names and the proximity of biographies in themselves do not mean anything: all events may well be fictitious, and the judgments of the author-character do not have to coincide with the opinions of the real author. When creating an author-character, the writer to some extent plays with both the reader and himself, this must be remembered.
The situation is even more complicated in lyric poetry, where the distance between the lyrical narrator (most often I) and the real author is difficult to feel at all. However, this distance is maintained to some extent even in the most intimate poems. Emphasizing this distance, Yu. N. Tynyanov in the 1920s, in an article about Blok, proposed the term lyrical hero, which has become commonly used today. Although the specific meaning of this term is interpreted differently by different specialists (for example, the positions of L. Ya. Ginzburg, L. I. Timofeev, I. B. Rodnyanskaya, D. E. Maksimov, B. O. Korman and other specialists have serious discrepancies), everyone recognizes the fundamental discrepancy between the hero and the author. A detailed analysis of the arguments of different authors within the framework of our short manual is hardly appropriate; we only note that the problem point is the following: what determines the character of the lyrical hero? Is this the generalized face of the author that appears in his poetry? Or only unique, special author’s features? Or a lyrical hero is possible only in a specific poem, and lyrical heroat all just doesn't exist? These questions can be answered differently. We are closer to the position of D. E. Maksimov and in many ways the concept of L. I. Timofeev, which is close to it, that the lyrical hero is the generalized self of the author, one way or another felt in all creativity. But this position is also vulnerable, and opponents have compelling counterarguments. Now, we repeat, a serious conversation on the problem of the lyrical hero seems premature; it is more important to understand that the equal sign between I It is impossible to put in a poem and the real author. The famous satirist Sasha Cherny wrote a humorous poem “To the Critic” back in 1909:
When a poet, describing a lady,
He will begin: “I was walking down the street. The corset dug into the sides,”
Here, of course, do not understand “I” directly,
What, they say, is a poet hiding under the lady...
This should also be remembered in cases where there are no generic differences. The poet is not equal to any of his written selves.
So, in Russian philology, the starting point when analyzing the figure of the narrator is his relationship with the author. There are many subtleties here, but the principle of the approach is clear. The modern Western tradition is a different matter. There, the typology is based not on the relationship between the author and the narrator, but on the relationship between the narrator and the “pure” narrative. This principle at first glance seems vague and needs clarification. In fact, there is nothing complicated here. Let's clarify the situation with a simple example. Let's compare two phrases. First: “The sun is shining brightly, a green tree is growing on the lawn.” Second: “The weather is wonderful, the sun is shining brightly, but not blindingly, the green tree on the lawn is pleasing to the eye.” In the first case, we have just information in front of us, the narrator is practically not shown, in the second we can easily feel his presence. If we take as a basis “pure” narration with the formal non-interference of the narrator (as in the first case), then it is easy to build a typology based on how much the presence of the narrator increases. This principle, originally proposed by the English literary critic Percy Lubbock in the 1920s, is now dominant in Western European literary criticism. A complex and sometimes contradictory classification has been developed, the supporting concepts of which are actanta(or actant - pure narration. Although the term “actant” itself presupposes an agent, it is not identified), actor(the object of the narrative, deprived of the right to interfere with it), auditor(“the character or narrator who intervenes” in the narrative, the one whose consciousness organizes the narrative.). These terms themselves were introduced after the classical works of P. Lubbock, but they imply the same ideas. All of them, together with a number of other concepts and terms, define the so-called narrative typology modern Western literary criticism (from the English narrative - narration). In the works of leading Western philologists devoted to the problems of narrative (P. Lubbock, N. Friedman, E. Leibfried, F. Stanzel, R. Barth, etc.), an extensive toolkit has been created with the help of which one can see various shades of meaning in the fabric of the narrative, hear different “voices”. The term voice as a significant compositional component also became widespread after the works of P. Lubbock.
In a word, Western European literary criticism operates in slightly different terms, while the emphasis of analysis also shifts. It is difficult to say which tradition is more adequate to the literary text, and the question can hardly be posed in such a plane. Any technique has strengths and weaknesses. In some cases it is more convenient to use the developments of narrative theory, in others it is less correct, since it practically ignores the problem of the author’s consciousness and the author’s idea. Serious scientists in Russia and the West are well aware of each other’s work and actively use the achievements of the “parallel” methodology. Now it is important to understand the principles of the approach.
See: Tynyanov Yu. N. The problem of poetic language. M., 1965. pp. 248–258.
The history and theory of the issue are presented in sufficient detail in the articles of I. P. Ilyin devoted to the problems of narration. See: Modern foreign literary criticism: Encyclopedic reference book. M., 1996. pp. 61–81. Read original works by A.-J. Greimas, who introduced these terms, will be too difficult for a beginning philologist.
Analysis of speech composition
Analysis of speech composition presupposes an interest in the principles of speech structure. Partially it intersects with the analysis of “one’s own” and “alien” words, partially with the analysis of style, partially with the analysis of artistic devices (lexical, syntactic, grammatical, phonetic, etc.). We will talk about all this in more detail in the chapter. "Artistic speech". Now I would like to draw attention to the fact that the analysis of speech composition is not limited to description techniques. As elsewhere when analyzing a composition, the researcher must pay attention to the problem of the relationship of elements, to their interdependence. For example, it is not enough for us to see that different pages of the novel “The Master and Margarita” are written in different style manners: there is different vocabulary, different syntax, different speech rates. It is important for us to understand why this is so, to grasp the logic of stylistic transitions. After all, Bulgakov often describes the same hero in different stylistic keys. A classic example is Woland and his retinue. Why style drawings change, how they are related to each other - this, in fact, is the task of the researcher.
Analysis of character creation techniques
Although in a literary text, of course, every image is somehow constructed, compositional analysis, as an independent one in reality, is applied, as a rule, to character images (i.e., to images of people) or to images of animals and even objects that metaphorize the human being (for example, “Kholstomer” by L. N. Tolstoy, “ White Fang"J. London or the poem by M. Yu. Lermontov "The Cliff"). Other images (verbal, details, or, on the contrary, macrosystems such as the “image of the motherland”), as a rule, are not analyzed using any more or less intelligible composition algorithms. This does not mean that the elements of compositional analysis are not used, it only means that there are no at least somewhat universal methods. All this is quite understandable in view of the vagueness of the very category of “image”: try to find a universal method for analyzing the “construction” of, for example, the linguistic images of V. Khlebnikov and the landscapes of A. S. Pushkin. We will only be able to see a few general properties, which have already been discussed in the chapter "Artistic image", but the analysis methodology will be different each time.
Another thing is the character of a person. Here, in all its infinite variety, we can see repeating techniques that can be isolated as some generally accepted supports. It makes sense to dwell on this in a little more detail. Almost any writer, when creating a person’s character, uses a “classical” set of techniques. Naturally, he does not always use everything, but in general the list will be relatively stable.
Firstly, this is the behavior of the hero. In literature, a person is almost always depicted in actions, in actions, in relationships with other people. By “building” a series of actions, the writer creates a character. Behavior is a complex category that takes into account not only physical actions, but also the nature of speech, what and how the hero speaks. In this case we are talking about speech behavior, which is often fundamentally important. Speech behavior can explain a system of actions, or it can contradict them. An example of the latter can be, for example, the image of Bazarov (“Fathers and Sons”). In Bazarov’s speech behavior, as you remember, there was no place for love, which did not prevent the hero from experiencing love-passion for Anna Odintsova. On the other hand, the speech behavior of, for example, Platon Karataev (“War and Peace”) is absolutely organic to his actions and life position. Platon Karataev is convinced that a person should accept any circumstances with kindness and humility. The position is wise in its own way, but threatens with impersonality, absolute merging with the people, with nature, with history, with dissolution in them. Such is Plato’s life, such (with some nuances) is his death, such is his speech: aphoristic, full of sayings, smooth, soft. Karataev’s speech is devoid of individual features; it is “dissolved” in folk wisdom.
Therefore, the analysis of speech behavior is no less important than the analysis and interpretation of actions.
Secondly, this is a portrait, landscape and interior, if they are used to characterize the hero. Actually, a portrait is always somehow connected with the revelation of character, but the interior and especially the landscape in some cases can be self-sufficient and not be considered as a method of creating the character of the hero. We encounter the classic series “landscape + portrait + interior + behavior” (including speech behavior), for example, in “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, where all the famous images of landowners are “made” according to this scheme. There are talking landscapes, talking portraits, talking interiors (remember, for example, the Plyushkin pile) and very expressive speech behavior. Another peculiarity of the dialogue is that Chichikov each time accepts the interlocutor’s manner of speaking and begins to speak to him in his language. On the one hand, this creates a comic effect, on the other, which is much more important, it characterizes Chichikov himself as an insightful person, a well-feeling interlocutor, but at the same time sharp-witted and calculating.
If we try to outline in general terms the logic of development of landscape, portrait and interior, we will notice that a detailed description is replaced by a laconic detail. Modern writers, as a rule, do not create detailed portraits, landscapes and interiors, preferring “talking” details. The artistic impact of detail was already well felt by writers of the 18th and 19th centuries, but there details often alternated with detailed descriptions. Modern literature generally avoids details, isolating only some fragments. This technique is often called "close-up preference." The writer does not give a detailed portrait, focusing only on some expressive feature (remember the famous twitching upper lip with a mustache of Andrei Bolkonsky’s wife or Karenin’s protruding ears).
Third, a classic technique for creating character in modern literature is internal monologue, that is, an image of the hero’s thoughts. Historically, this technique is very late; literature until the 18th century depicted the hero in action, in speech behavior, but not in thinking. A relative exception can be considered lyricism and partly dramaturgy, where the hero often uttered “thoughts out loud” - a monologue addressed to the viewer or without a clear addressee at all. Let us remember the famous “To be or not to be” by Hamlet. However, this is a relative exception because it is more about self-talk than about the thinking process itself. Depict real the process of thinking through language is very difficult, since the human language is not very suitable for this. It is much easier to convey in language what What man does than that What he thinks and feels. However, modern literature is actively looking for ways to convey the feelings and thoughts of the hero. There are a lot of hits and a lot of misses here. In particular, attempts have been and are being made to abandon punctuation, grammatical norms, etc., in order to create the illusion of “real thinking.” This is still an illusion, although such techniques can be very expressive.
In addition, when analyzing the “construction” of character, one should remember rating system, that is, about how other characters and the narrator himself evaluate the hero. Almost any hero exists in the mirror of evaluations, and it is important to understand who and why evaluates him this way. A person beginning a serious study of literature should remember that narrator's assessment cannot always be considered the attitude of the author to the hero, even if the narrator seems to be somewhat similar to the author. The narrator is also “inside” the work; in a sense, he is one of the heroes. Therefore, the so-called “author’s assessments” should be taken into account, but they do not always express the attitude of the writer himself. Let's say a writer can play the role of a simpleton and create a narrator for this role. The narrator can evaluate the characters straightforwardly and shallowly, and general impression will be completely different. In modern literary criticism there is a term implicit author- that is, the one psychological picture author, which develops after reading his work and, therefore, created by the writer for this work. So, for one and the same writer, implicit authors can be very different. For example, many of Antoshi Chekhonte’s funny stories (for example, the “Calendar” full of careless humor) from the point of view of the author’s psychological portrait are completely different from “Ward No. 6”. All this was written by Chekhov, but these are very different faces. AND implicit author"Ward No. 6" would have taken a completely different look at the heroes of "The Horse's Name." A young philologist should remember this. The problem of the unity of the author’s consciousness is the most complex problem of philology and the psychology of creativity; it cannot be simplified by judgments like: “Tolstoy treats his hero in such and such a way, because on page, say, 41, he evaluates him in such and such a way.” It is quite possible that the same Tolstoy in another place or at another time, or even on other pages of the same work, will write completely differently. If, for example, we trust each assessment given to Eugene Onegin, we will find ourselves in a complete labyrinth.
Analysis of plot construction features
In the chapter “Plot” we dwelt in some detail on different methods of plot analysis. There's no point in repeating myself. However, it is worth emphasizing that plot composition– this is not just the isolation of elements, schemes or analysis of plot-plot inconsistencies. It is important to understand the connection and non-coincidence of storylines. And this is a task of a completely different level of complexity. It is important to feel behind the endless variety of events and destinies their logic. In a literary text, logic is always present in one way or another, even when outwardly everything seems to be a chain of accidents. Let us recall, for example, the novel “Fathers and Sons” by I. S. Turgenev. It is absolutely no coincidence that the logic of Evgeny Bazarov’s fate surprisingly resembles the logic of the fate of his main opponent, Pavel Kirsanov: a brilliant start - fatal love - collapse. In Turgenev’s world, where love is the most difficult and at the same time the most decisive test of personality, such similarity of destinies may indicate, albeit indirectly, that the author’s position is noticeably different from both Bazarov’s and the point of view of his main opponent. Therefore, when analyzing the composition of the plot, you should always pay attention to the mutual reflections and intersections of plot lines.
Analysis of artistic space and time
No work of art exists in a space-time vacuum. Time and space are always present in it in one way or another. It is important to understand that artistic time and space are not abstractions or even physical categories, although modern physics answers the question of what time and space are very ambiguously. Art, on the other hand, deals with a very specific space-time coordinate system. G. Lessing was the first to point out the importance of time and space for art, which we already discussed in the second chapter, and theorists of the last two centuries, especially the twentieth century, proved that artistic time and space is not only a significant, but often a defining component of a literary work.
In literature, time and space are the most important properties image. Different images require different space-time coordinates. For example, in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” we are faced with an unusually compressed space. Small rooms, narrow streets. Raskolnikov lives in a room that looks like a coffin. Of course, this is not accidental. The writer is interested in people who find themselves at a dead end in life, and this is emphasized by all means. When Raskolnikov finds faith and love in the epilogue, space opens up.
Each work of modern literature has its own space-time grid, its own coordinate system. At the same time, there are some general patterns of development of artistic space and time. For example, until the 18th century, aesthetic consciousness did not allow the author’s “interference” in the temporal structure of the work. In other words, the author could not begin the story with the death of the hero and then return to his birth. The time of the work was “as if real.” In addition, the author could not disrupt the flow of the story about one hero with an “inserted” story about another. In practice, this led to the so-called “chronological incompatibilities” characteristic of ancient literature. For example, one story ends with the hero returning safely, while another begins with loved ones grieving for his absence. We encounter this, for example, in Homer's Odyssey. In the 18th century, a revolution occurred, and the author received the right to “model” the narrative without observing the logic of life-likeness: a mass of inserted stories and digressions appeared, and chronological “realism” was disrupted. A modern author can build the composition of a work, shuffling episodes at his own discretion.
In addition, there are stable, culturally accepted spatiotemporal models. The outstanding philologist M. M. Bakhtin, who fundamentally developed this problem, called these models chronotopes(chronos + topos, time and space). Chronotopes are initially imbued with meanings; any artist consciously or unconsciously takes this into account. As soon as we say about someone: “He is on the threshold of something...”, we immediately understand that we are talking about something big and important. But why exactly on the threshold? Bakhtin believed that chronotope of the threshold one of the most widespread in culture, and as soon as we “turn it on”, its semantic depth opens up.
Today the term chronotope is universal and simply denotes the existing space-time model. Often in this case, “etiquette” they refer to the authority of M. M. Bakhtin, although Bakhtin himself understood the chronotope more narrowly - namely how sustainable a model that appears from work to work.
In addition to chronotopes, we should also remember the more general models of space and time that underlie entire cultures. These models are historical, that is, one replaces the other, but the paradox of the human psyche is that an “outdated” model does not disappear anywhere, continuing to excite people and giving rise to literary texts. There are quite a few variations of such models in different cultures, but several are basic. Firstly, this is a model zero time and space. It is also called motionless, eternal - there are a lot of options here. In this model, time and space become meaningless. There is always the same thing, and there is no difference between “here” and “there,” that is, there is no spatial extension. Historically, this is the most archaic model, but it is still very relevant today. Ideas about hell and heaven are based on this model, it is often “turned on” when a person tries to imagine existence after death, etc. The famous chronotope of the “golden age”, which manifests itself in all cultures, is built on this model. If we remember the ending of the novel “The Master and Margarita,” we can easily feel this model. It was in such a world, according to the decision of Yeshua and Woland, that the heroes ultimately found themselves - in a world of eternal good and peace.
Another model - cyclic(circular). This is one of the most powerful space-time models, supported by the eternal change of natural cycles (summer-autumn-winter-spring-summer...). It is based on the idea that everything is returning to normal. Space and time are there, but they are conditional, especially time, since the hero will still return to where he left, and nothing will change. The easiest way to illustrate this model is Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus was absent for many years, the most incredible adventures befell him, but he returned home and found his Penelope still as beautiful and loving. M. M. Bakhtin called such a time adventurous, it exists as if around the heroes, without changing anything either in them or between them. Cyclic model is also very archaic, but its projections are clearly perceptible in modern culture. For example, it is very noticeable in the work of Sergei Yesenin, whose idea of the life cycle, especially in mature years, becomes dominant. Even the well-known dying lines “In this life, dying is not new, / But living, of course, is not new” refer to ancient tradition, to the famous biblical book of Ecclesiastes, which is entirely built on a cyclical model.
The culture of realism is mainly associated with linear a model when space seems endlessly open in all directions, and time is associated with a directed arrow - from the past to the future. This model dominates in the everyday consciousness of modern people and is clearly visible in a huge number of literary texts of recent centuries. Suffice it to recall, for example, the novels of L.N. Tolstoy. In this model, each event is recognized as unique, it can only happen once, and a person is understood as a constantly changing being. The linear model opened psychologism in the modern sense, since psychologism presupposes the ability to change, which could not be either in the cyclic (after all, the hero should be the same at the end as at the beginning), and especially not in the zero time-space model. In addition, the linear model is associated with the principle historicism, that is, man began to be understood as a product of his era. The abstract “man for all times” simply does not exist in this model.
It is important to understand that in the minds of modern man all these models do not exist in isolation; they can interact, giving rise to the most bizarre combinations. For example, a person can be emphatically modern, trust the linear model, accept the uniqueness of every moment of life as something unique, but at the same time be a believer and accept the timelessness and spacelessness of existence after death. In the same way, literary texts can reflect different systems coordinates For example, experts have long noticed that in Anna Akhmatova’s work there are, as it were, two parallel dimensions: one is historical, in which every moment and gesture is unique, the other is timeless, in which every movement freezes. The “layering” of these layers is one of the hallmarks of Akhmatova’s style.
Finally, modern aesthetic consciousness is increasingly mastering yet another model. There is no clear name for it, but it would not be wrong to say that this model allows for the existence parallel times and spaces. The point is that we exist differently depending on the coordinate system. But at the same time, these worlds are not completely isolated; they have points of intersection. The literature of the twentieth century actively uses this model. Suffice it to recall M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”. The master and his beloved die V different places and for various reasons: The master is in a madhouse, Margarita is at home from a heart attack, but at the same time they are they die in each other's arms in the Master's closet from Azazello's poison. Different coordinate systems are included here, but they are interconnected - after all, the death of the heroes occurred in any case. This is the projection of the model of parallel worlds. If you carefully read the previous chapter, you will easily understand that the so-called multivariate the plot—a largely twentieth-century invention of literature—is a direct consequence of the establishment of this new space-time grid.
See: Bakhtin M. M. Forms of time and chronotope in the novel // Bakhtin M. M. Questions of literature and aesthetics. M., 1975.
Analysis of the change in “points of view”
"Point of view"- one of the basic concepts modern teaching about composition. You should immediately warn against most typical mistake inexperienced philologists: understand the term “point of view” in its everyday meaning, they say, each author and character has their own point of view on life. This is often heard from students, but it has nothing to do with science. As a term of literary criticism, “point of view” first appeared in late nineteenth century in an essay by the famous American writer Henry James on the art of prose. This term was made strictly scientific by the already mentioned English literary critic Percy Lubbock.
“Point of view” is a complex and voluminous concept that reveals the ways of the author’s presence in the text. In fact, we are talking about a thorough analysis installation text and about attempts to see one’s own logic and the presence of the author in this montage. One of the largest modern experts on this issue, B. A. Uspensky, believes that the analysis of changes in points of view is effective in relation to those works where the plane of expression is not equal to the plane of content, that is, everything said or presented has second, third, etc. d. semantic layers. For example, in M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “The Cliff,” the speech, of course, is not about a cliff and a cloud. Where the plans of expression and content are inseparable or even identical, the analysis of points of view does not work. For example, in jewelry or abstract painting.
To a first approximation, we can say that “point of view” has at least two spectrums of meaning: firstly, it spatial localization, that is, the definition of the place from which the narration is being conducted. If we compare a writer with a cinematographer, then we can say that in in this case we will be interested in where the movie camera was: close, far, above or below, and so on. The same fragment of reality will look very different depending on the change in point of view. The second range of values is the so-called subjective localization, that is, we will be interested in whose consciousness the scene is seen. Summarizing numerous observations, Percy Lubbock identified two main types of narrative: panoramic(when the author directly shows yours consciousness) and stage(we are not talking about dramaturgy, it means that the author’s consciousness is “hidden” in the characters, the author does not openly manifest himself). According to Lubbock and his followers (N. Friedman, K. Brooks, etc.), the stage method is aesthetically preferable, since it does not impose anything, but only shows. This position, however, can be challenged, since the classic “panoramic” texts of L. N. Tolstoy, for example, have enormous aesthetic potential for impact.
Modern research focused on the method of analyzing changes in points of view convinces that it allows us to see even seemingly well-known texts in a new way. In addition, such an analysis is very useful in an educational sense, since it does not allow “liberties” in handling the text and forces the student to be attentive and careful.
Uspensky B. A. Poetics of composition. St. Petersburg, 2000. P. 10.
Lyrical composition analysis
The composition of a lyrical work has a number of distinctive features. Most of the perspectives we have identified there retain their meaning (with the exception of plot analysis, which is most often inapplicable to a lyrical work), but at the same time, a lyrical work also has its own specifics. Firstly, lyrics often have a strophic structure, that is, the text is divided into stanzas, which immediately affects the entire structure; secondly, it is important to understand the laws of rhythmic composition, which will be discussed in the chapter “Poetry”; thirdly, the lyrics have many features of figurative composition. Lyrical images are constructed and grouped differently than epic and dramatic ones. A detailed conversation about this is still premature, since understanding the structure of a poem comes only with practice. To begin with, it is better to carefully read the sample tests. Modern students have at their disposal a good collection “Analysis of One Poem” (L., 1985), entirely devoted to the problems of lyrical composition. We refer interested readers to this book.
Analysis of one poem: Interuniversity collection / ed. V. E. Kholshevnikova. L., 1985.
Bakhtin M. M. Forms of time and chronotope in the novel // Bakhtin M. M. Questions of literature and aesthetics. M., 1975.
Davydova T. T., Pronin V. A. Theory of literature. M., 2003. Chapter 6. “Artistic time and artistic space in a literary work.”
Kozhinov V.V. Composition // Brief literary encyclopedia. T. 3. M., 1966. pp. 694–696.
Kozhinov V.V. Plot, plot, composition // Theory of literature. The main problems in historical coverage. Types and genres of literature. M., 1964.
Markevich G. Basic problems of the science of literature. M., 1980. pp. 86–112.
Revyakin A.I. Problems of studying and teaching literature. M., 1972. pp. 137–153.
Rodnyanskaya I. B. Artistic time and artistic space // Literary encyclopedic dictionary. M., 1987. pp. 487–489.
Modern foreign literary criticism. Encyclopedic reference book. M., 1996. pp. 17–20, 61–81, 154–157.
Theoretical poetics: concepts and definitions: Reader for students of philological faculties / author-compiler N. D. Tamarchenko. M., 1999. (Topics 12, 13, 16–20, 29.)
Uspensky B. A. Poetics of composition. St. Petersburg, 2000.
Fedotov O.I. Fundamentals of the theory of literature. Part 1. M., 2003. pp. 253–255.
Khalizev V. E. Theory of Literature. M., 1999. (Chapter 4. “Literary work.”)
There are three levels of literary work:
Subject figurativeness is vital material
Composition – organization of this material
Artistic language is the speech structure of a literary work, at all four levels artistic language: phonics, vocabulary, semantics, syntax.
Each of these layers has its own complex hierarchy.
The apparent complexity of a literary work is created by the hard work of the writer at all three levels of the artistic whole.
Let's get acquainted with several definitions of this concept and its various classifications, when the composition of the text is revealed by different signs and indicators.
A literary text represents a communicative, structural and semantic unity, which is manifested in its composition. That is, this is the unity of communication – structure – and meaning.
The composition of a literary text is a “mutual correlation And location units of depicted and artistic and speech means.” The units of what is depicted here mean: theme, problem, idea, characters, all aspects of the external and internal world depicted. Artistic speech means are the entire figurative system of language at the level of its 4 layers.
Composition is the construction of a work that determines its integrity, completeness and unity.
Composition - represents "system connections" all its elements. This system also has independent content, which should be revealed in the process philological analysis text.
Composition, either structure or architectonics is the construction of a work of art.
Composition is an element of the form of a work of art.
Composition contributes to the creation of a work as an artistic integrity.
The composition unites all components and subordinates them to the idea, the intention of the work. Moreover, this connection is so close that it is impossible to remove or rearrange a single component from the composition.
Types of compositional organization of a work:
Plot type - that is, plot (epic, lyric, drama)
Non-plot type - plotless (in lyric poetry, epic and drama created creative method modernism and postmodernism)
The plot type of compositional organization of a work is of two types:
Event-based (in epic and drama)
Descriptive (lyrics)
Let's consider the first type of plot composition - event-based. It has three forms:
Chronological form - events develop along a straight line of time, the natural time sequence is not disrupted, there may be time intervals between events
Retrospective form - a deviation from the natural chronological sequence, a violation of the linear order of events in life, interruption with the memories of the heroes or the author, familiarizing the reader with the background of events and the lives of the characters (Bunin, “Easy Breathing”)
Free or montage form - a significant violation of spatio-temporal and cause-and-effect relationships between events; the connection between individual episodes is associative-emotional, and not logical-semantic (“Hero of Our Time”, “The Trial” by Kafka and other works of modernism and postmodernism)
Let's consider the second type of composition - descriptive:
It is present in lyrical works, they generally lack a clearly limited and coherently developed action, the experiences of the lyrical hero or character are brought to the fore, and the entire composition is subordinated to the goals of his depiction, this is a description of thoughts, impressions, feelings, pictures inspired by the experiences of the lyrical hero .
The composition can be external and internal
External composition(architectonics): chapters, parts, sections, paragraphs, books, volumes; their arrangement may vary depending on the methods of creating the plot chosen by the author.
External composition- this is the division of a text characterized by continuity into discrete units. Composition, therefore, is the manifestation of a significant discontinuity in continuity.
External composition: the boundaries of each compositional unit highlighted in the text are clearly defined, defined by the author (chapters, chapters, sections, parts, epilogues, phenomena in drama, etc.), this organizes and directs the reader’s perception. The architectonics of the text serves as a way of “portioning” meaning; with the help of... compositional units, the author indicates to the reader the unification, or, conversely, the dismemberment of elements of the text (and therefore its content).
External composition: no less significant is the lack of division of the text or its expanded fragments: this emphasizes the integrity of the spatial continuum, the fundamental non-discreteness of the organization of the narrative, the undifferentiation, and fluidity of the narrator’s or character’s picture of the world (for example, in “stream of consciousness” literature).
Internal composition : this is a composition (construction, arrangement) of images - characters, events, setting, landscapes, interiors, etc.
Internal(meaningful) composition is determined by the system of images-characters, the features of the conflict and the originality of the plot.
Don't be confused: the plot has elements plot, composition has techniques(internal composition) and parts(external composition) composition.
The composition includes in its construction both all the elements of the plot - plot elements and extra-plot elements.
Internal composition techniques:
Prologue (often referred to as the plot)
Epilogue (often referred to as the plot)
Monologue
Character portraits
Interiors
Landscapes
Extra-plot elements in the composition
Classification of compositional techniques by highlighting individual elements:
Each compositional unit is characterized by promotion techniques that provide emphasis the most important meanings of the text and activate the reader's attention. This:
geography: various graphic highlights,
repeats: repeats linguistic units different levels,
strengthening: strong positions of the text or its compositional part - positions of advancement associated with establishing a hierarchy of meanings, focusing attention on the most important, enhancing emotionality and aesthetic effect, establishing meaningful connections between elements adjacent and distant, belonging to the same and different levels, ensuring the coherence of the text and its memorability. The strong positions of the text traditionally include titles, epigraphs, beginningAndend works (parts, chapters, chapters). With their help, the author emphasizes the most significant structural elements for understanding the work and at the same time determines the main “semantic milestones” of a particular compositional part (the text as a whole).
Widespread in Russian literature of the late 20th century. the techniques of montage and collage, on the one hand, led to increased fragmentation of the text, on the other, it opened up the possibility of new combinations of “semantic plans.”
Composition in terms of its coherence
The architectural features of the text reveal its most important feature, such as coherence. The segments (parts) of the text selected as a result of division are correlated with each other, “linked” based on common elements. There are two types of connectivity: cohesion and coherence (terms proposed by W. Dressler)
Cohesion (from Latin - “to be connected”), or local connectivity, is linear type connectivity, expressed formally, mainly by linguistic means. It is based on pronominal substitution, lexical repetitions, the presence of conjunctions, correlation of grammatical forms, etc.
Coherence(from lat. - “cohesion”), or global coherence, is a coherence of a nonlinear type that combines elements of different levels of text (for example, title, epigraph, “text within text” and main text, etc.). The most important means of creating coherence are repetitions (primarily words with common semantic components) and parallelism.
In a literary text, semantic chains arise - rows of words with common semes, the interaction of which gives rise to new ones. semantic connections and relationships, as well as “increases of meaning.”
Any literary text is permeated with semantic echoes, or repetitions. Words connected on this basis can occupy different positions: located at the beginning and at the end of the text (ring semantic composition), symmetrically, form a gradational series, etc.
Consideration of semantic composition is a necessary stage of philological analysis. It is especially important for the analysis of “plotless” texts, texts with weakened cause-and-effect relationships of components, texts rich in complex images. Identifying semantic chains in them and establishing their connections is the key to interpreting a work.
Extra-plot elements
Inserted episodes
Lyrical digressions,
Artistic advance
Artistic framing,
Dedication
Epigraph,
Heading
Inserted episodes- these are parts of the narrative that are not directly related to the course of the plot, events that are only associatively connected and remembered in connection with the current events of the work (“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” in “Dead Souls”)
Lyrical digressions- can be lyrical, philosophical, journalistic, express the thoughts and feelings of the writer directly, in the direct author’s word, reflect the author’s position, the writer’s attitude towards the characters, some elements of the theme, problem, idea of the work (in “Dead Souls” - about youth and old age , about Rus' as a bird - troika)
Artistic advance - depiction of scenes that anticipate the further course of events (
Artistic framing – the scenes with which a work of art begins and ends are most often the same scene, given in development, and creating ring composition(“The Fate of Man” by M. Sholokhov)
Dedication – a short description or lyrical work that has a specific addressee to whom the work is addressed and dedicated
Epigraph – an aphorism or quotation from another famous work or folklore, located before the entire text or before its individual parts (proverb in “The Captain’s Daughter”)
Heading- the title of a work, which always contains the theme, problem or idea of the work, a very brief formulation that has deep expressiveness, imagery or symbolism.
The object of literary analysis in the study of composition different aspects of the composition may become:
1) architectonics, or external composition of the text - dividing it into certain parts (chapters, sub-chapters, paragraphs, stanzas, etc.), their sequence and interconnection;
2) a system of images of characters in a work of art;
3) change of points of view in the structure of the text; so, according to B.A. Uspensky, it is the problem of point of view that constitutes "the central problem of composition»; consideration of different points of view in the structure of the text in relation to the architectonics of the work allows us to identify the dynamics of the development of artistic content;
4) a system of details presented in the text (composition of details); their analysis makes it possible to reveal ways to deepen what is depicted: as subtly noted by I.A. Goncharov, “details that appear fragmentarily and separately in the long view of the general plan”, in the context of the whole “merge in the general structure... as if thin invisible threads or, perhaps, magnetic currents were acting”;
5) correlation with each other and with the other components of the text of its extra-plot elements (inserted short stories, short stories, lyrical digressions, “scenes on stage” in drama).
Composition analysis thus takes into account different aspects of the text.
The term “composition” in modern philology turns out to be very ambiguous, which makes it difficult to use.
To analyze the composition of a literary text, you must be able to:
Identify in its structure repetitions that are significant for the interpretation of the work, serving as the basis for cohesion and coherence;
Identify semantic overlaps in parts of the text;
Highlight markers - separators of different compositional parts of the work;
Correlate the features of the division of the text with its content and determine the role of discrete (individual parts) compositional units within the whole;
Establish a connection between the narrative structure of the text as its “deep compositional structure” (B.A. Uspensky) and its external composition.
Identify all the techniques of external and internal composition in F. Tyutchev’s poem “Silentium” (namely: parts of the composition, type of plot - non-plot, event - descriptive, vision of individual elements, type of their coherence, - NB