Features of the plot composition of writers' stories. Composition and plot of a work of art

The concept of composition is broader and more universal than the concept of plot. The plot fits into the overall composition of the works, occupying one or another, more or less important place in it, depending on the intentions of the author.

Depending on the relationship between plot and plot in a particular work, they talk about different types and techniques plot composition. The simplest case is when events are linearly arranged in direct chronological sequence without any changes. This composition is also called straight or plot sequence.

The composition of the plot also includes a certain order of telling the reader about what happened. In works with a large volume of text, the sequence of plot episodes usually reveals the author's thoughts gradually and steadily. In novels and stories, poems and dramas, each subsequent episode reveals to the reader something new for him - and so on until the ending, which is usually, as it were, a supporting moment in the composition of the plot.

It should be noted that the time span in works can be quite wide, and the pace of the narrative can be uneven. There are differences between a concise author's presentation that speeds up the run plot time and “dramatized” episodes, compositional the time of which goes hand in hand with the plot time.

In some cases, writers depict parallel theaters of action (that is, they draw two storylines running parallel to each other). Thus, the juxtaposition of the chapters of “War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy, dedicated to the death of old Bolkonsky and cheerful name days in the Rostov house, externally motivated by the simultaneity of these events, carries a certain content load. This technique tunes readers into the mood of Tolstoy’s thoughts and the inseparability of life and death.

Writers do not always tell events in direct sequence. Sometimes they seem to intrigue readers, keeping them in the dark about the true essence of events for some time. This compositional technique is called by default. This technique is very effective because it allows you to keep the reader in the dark and in tension until the very end, and at the end surprise you with the unexpectedness of the plot twist. Thanks to these properties, the technique of silence is almost always used in picaresque works and works of the detective genre, although, of course, not only in them. Realist writers also sometimes keep the reader in the dark about what happened. So, for example, the story of A.S. is built on default. Pushkin "Blizzard". Only at the very end of the story does the reader learn that Marya Gavrilovna was married to a stranger, who, as it turns out, was Burmin. In the novel “War and Peace,” the author for a long time makes the reader, along with the Bolkonsky family, think that Prince Andrei died during the Battle of Austerlitz, and only when the hero appears in Bald Mountains does it become clear that this is not so.

An important means of plot composition are chronological rearrangements events. Often these rearrangements are dictated by the desire of the authors to switch the attention of readers from the external side of what happened (what will happen to the characters next?) to its internal, deep background. So, in the novel by M.Yu. Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time" the composition of the plot serves to gradually penetrate into the secrets of the protagonist's inner world. First, readers learn about Pechorin from the story of Maxim Maksimych (“Bela”), then from the narrator, who gives a detailed portrait of the hero (“Maksim Maksimych”), and only after that Lermontov introduces the diary of Pechorin himself (the stories “Taman”, “Princess Mary” , "Fatalist"). Thanks to the sequence of chapters chosen by the author, the reader’s attention is transferred from the adventures undertaken by Pechorin to the mystery of his character, which is “solved” from story to story, right up to “The Fatalist”.

Another technique for violating chronologies or plot sequence is the so-called retrospection, when, as the plot develops, the author makes digressions into the past, as a rule, in the time preceding the plot and beginning of this work. This kind of “retrospective” (turning back to what happened before) plot composition presupposes the presence in the works of detailed backstories of the characters, given in independent plot episodes. In order to more fully discover the successive connections of eras and generations, in order to reveal the complex and difficult ways of forming human characters, writers often resort to a kind of “montage” of the past (sometimes very distant) and the present of the characters: the action is periodically transferred from one time to another. So, in “Fathers and Sons” I.S. Turgenev, as the plot progresses, readers are faced with two significant retrospections - the background stories of the lives of Pavel Petrovich and Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov. Starting the novel with their youth was not Turgenev’s intention, and it would have cluttered the composition of the novel, and giving an idea of the past of these heroes seemed nevertheless necessary to the author - that’s why he used the technique of retrospection.

The plot sequence can be disrupted in such a way that events at different times are given intermixed; the narrative constantly returns from the moment of the action to various previous time layers, then again turns to the present in order to immediately return to the past. This plot composition is often motivated by the memories of the characters. It is called free composition and is used to one degree or another by different writers quite often. However, it happens that free composition becomes the main and determining principle of plot construction; in this case, it is customary to talk about the free composition itself (“Shot” by A.S. Pushkin).

Internal, emotional-semantic, that is, compositional, connections between plot episodes sometimes turn out to be functionally even more important than the actual plot, causal-temporal connections. The composition of such works can be called active, or, to use the term of filmmakers, “ assembly room" An active, montage composition allows writers to embody deep, not directly observable connections between life phenomena, events, and facts (an example is M.A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita”). The role and purpose of this kind of composition can be described in the words of A.A. Blok from the preface to the poem “Retribution”: “I am used to comparing facts from all areas of life accessible to my vision at a given time, and I am sure that all of them together always create a single musical pressure” (Complete collected works in the 8th vol. T.3 – M., 1960, p.297).

In addition to the plot, in the composition of the work there are also so-called extra plot elements, which are often no less, or even more important, than the plot itself. If the plot of the work is dynamic side his compositions, then extra-plot elements - static.

Extra-plot These are elements that do not move the action forward, during which nothing happens, and the heroes remain in their previous positions. Distinguish three main varieties extra-plot elements: description, author's digressions and inserted episodes (otherwise they are also called inserted short stories or inserted plots).

Description- this is an image of the external world (landscape, portrait, world of things) or sustainable way of life, that is, those events and actions that occur regularly, day after day and, therefore, are also not related to the movement of the plot. Descriptions are the most common type of extra-plot elements; they are present in almost every epic work.

Author's digressions- these are more or less detailed author’s statements of philosophical, lyrical, autobiographical, etc. character; Moreover, these statements do not characterize individual characters or the relationships between them. Author's digressions are an optional element in the composition of a work, but when they do appear there (“Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin, “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, “The Master and Margarita” by M.A. Bulgakov and others. ), they usually play a very important role and serve to directly express the writer’s position.

Inserted episodes- these are relatively complete fragments of action in which other characters appear, the action is transferred to another time and place, etc. Sometimes inserted episodes begin to play an even greater role in the work than the main plot, as, for example, in “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol.

In some cases, psychological depictions can also be considered extra-plot elements if the hero’s state of mind or reflections are not the consequence or cause of plot events and are excluded from the plot chain (for example, most of Pechorin’s internal monologues in “A Hero of Our Time”). However, as a rule, internal monologues and other forms of psychological depiction are somehow included in the plot, since they determine the further actions of the hero and, consequently, the further course of the plot.

When analyzing the overall composition of a work, you should first of all determine the relationship between the plot and extra-plot elements, determining which of them is more important, and based on this, continue the analysis in the appropriate direction. Thus, when analyzing “Dead Souls” N.V. Gogol, extra-plot elements should be given primary attention.

At the same time, it should be taken into account that there are also cases when both the plot and extra-plot elements are equally important in a work - for example, in “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin. In this case, the interaction of plot and extra-plot text fragments takes on special significance: as a rule, extra-plot elements are placed between plot events not in an arbitrary, but in a strictly logical order. So, the retreat of A.S. Pushkin’s “We all look at Napoleons...” could appear only after readers had sufficiently learned Onegin’s character from his actions and only in connection with his friendship with Lensky; The digression about Moscow is not only formally timed to coincide with Tatiana’s arrival in the old capital, but also correlates in a complex way with the events of the plot: the image of “native Moscow” with its historical roots is contrasted with Onegin’s lack of rootedness in Russian life, etc. In general, extra-plot elements often have a weak or purely formal connection with the plot and represent a separate compositional line.

Summarizing all that has been said, it is necessary to point out that in the most general form two types of composition can be distinguished - they can be conventionally called simple And complex. In the first case, the function of composition is reduced only to combining the parts of the work into a single whole, and this combination is always carried out in the simplest and most natural way. In the area of plotting, this will be a direct chronological sequence of events, in the area of narration - a single narrative type throughout the entire text, in the area of substantive details - a simple list of them without highlighting particularly important, supporting, symbolic details, etc.

With a complex composition, a special artistic meaning is embodied in the very construction of the work, in the order of combination of its parts and elements. For example, a consistent change of narrators and a violation of the chronological sequence in “A Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. Lermontov focus attention on the moral and philosophical essence of Pechorin’s character and allow one to “get closer” to it, gradually unraveling the character. In Chekhov’s story “Ionych”, immediately after the description of the Turkins’ “salon”, where Vera Iosifovna is reading her novel, and Kotik is hitting the piano keys with all his might, it is no coincidence that there is a mention of the knocking of knives and the smell of fried onions - this compositional comparison of details contains special meaning, the author's irony is expressed. An example of a complex composition of speech elements can be identified in “A History of One Kind” by M.E. Saltykova-Shchedrin: “It seemed that the cup of disasters had been drunk to the bottom. But no: there’s still a whole tub at the ready.” Here the first and second sentences collide compositionally, creating a contrast between the solemn, high style (and corresponding intonation) of the metaphorical phrase “the cup of disasters has been drunk to the bottom” and colloquial vocabulary and intonation (“but no”, “tub”). As a result, the comic effect necessary for the author arises.

Simple and complex types of composition are sometimes difficult to identify in a particular work of art, since the differences between them turn out to be, to a certain extent, purely quantitative: we can talk about greater or lesser complexity of the composition of a particular work. There are, of course, pure types: for example, the composition of fables by I.A. Krylova is simple in all respects, and “Ladies with a Dog” by A.P. Chekhov or “The Master and Margarita” by M.A. Bulgakov is complex in all respects. But here, for example, is this story by A.P. Chekhov's "House with a Mezzanine" is quite simple in terms of plot and narrative composition and complex in the field of composition of speech and details. All this makes the question of the type of composition quite complex, but at the same time very important, since simple and complex types of composition can become stylistic dominants of the work and, thus, determine its artistic originality.

Composition (Latin Compositio - composition, combination, creation, construction) is the plan of a work, the relationship of its parts, the relationship of images, paintings, episodes. A work of fiction should have as many characters, episodes, scenes as necessary to reveal the content. A. Chekhov advised young writers to write in such a way that the reader, without the author’s explanation, could understand what was happening from the conversations, actions, and actions of the characters.

An essential quality of a composition is accessibility. A work of art should not contain unnecessary pictures, scenes, or episodes. L. Tolstoy compared a work of art to a living organism. “In a real work of art - poetry, drama, painting, song, symphony - you cannot take one verse, one bar out of its place and put it on another without violating the meaning of this work, just as it is impossible not to violate the life of an organic being if you take it out one organ from its place and insert into another." According to K. Fedin, composition is the "logic of the development of the theme." When reading a work of art, we must feel where, at what time, the hero lives, where the center of events is, which of them the most important and which ones are less important.

A prerequisite for composition is perfection. L. Tolstoy wrote that the main thing in art is not to say anything superfluous. A writer must depict the world by spending as much as possible less words. No wonder A. Chekhov called brevity the sister of talent. In the mastery of composition work of art turns out to be a talented writer.

There are two types of composition - event-plot and non-story, non-story or descriptive. The event type of composition is characteristic of most epic and dramatic works. The composition of epic and dramatic works has hourly space and cause-and-effect forms. The event type of composition can have three forms: chronological, retrospective and free (montage).

V. Lesik notes that the essence of the chronological form of an event composition “lies in the fact that events... come one after another in chronological order- the way they happened in life. There may be temporary distances between individual actions or pictures, but there is no violation of the natural sequence in time: what happened earlier in life is presented earlier in the work, and not after subsequent events. Consequently, there is no arbitrary movement of events, no violation of the direct movement of time."

The peculiarity of a retrospective composition is that the writer does not adhere to a chronological sequence. The author can talk about the motives, reasons for events, actions after they have been carried out. The sequence in the presentation of events may be interrupted by the memories of the characters.

The essence of the free (montage) form of event composition is associated with violations of cause-and-effect and spatial relationships between events. The connection between episodes is often associative-emotional rather than logical-semantic in nature. The montage composition is typical of 20th century literature. This type of composition was used in Yu. Japanese's novel "Riders". Here the storylines are connected at the associative level.

A variation of the event type of composition is event-narrative. Its essence lies in the fact that the same event is told by the author, narrator, storyteller, and characters. The event-narrative form of the composition is characteristic of lyrical-epic works.

The descriptive type of composition is typical for lyrical works. “The basis for the construction of a lyrical work,” notes V. Lesik, “is not the system or development of events..., but the organization of lyrical components - emotions and impressions, the sequence of presentation of thoughts, the order of transition from one impression to another, from one sensory image to another "." Lyrical works describe the impressions, feelings, experiences of the lyrical hero.

Yu. Kuznetsov in the "Literary Encyclopedia" distinguishes plot-closed and open composition. A closed plot is typical for folklore, works of ancient and classic literature (three repetitions, happy endings in fairy tales, alternating choir performances and episodes in ancient Greek tragedy). “The composition is open in plot,” notes Yu. Kuznetsov, “devoid of a clear outline, proportions, flexible, taking into account the genre-style opposition that arises in specific historical conditions literary process. In particular, in sentimentalism (Sternivska composition) and in romanticism, when open works became the negation of closed ones, classicistic...”

What does the composition depend on, what factors determine its features? The originality of the composition is primarily due to the design of the work of art. Panas Mirny, having familiarized himself with the life story of the robber Gnidka, set himself the goal of explaining what caused the protest against the landowners. First, he wrote a story called “Chipka,” in which he showed the conditions for the formation of the hero’s character. Subsequently, the writer expanded the concept of the work, demanding a complex composition, and this is how the novel “Do oxen roar when the manger is full?” appeared.

The features of the composition are determined by the literary direction. Classicists demanded three unities from dramatic works (unity of place, time and action). Events in a dramatic work were supposed to take place over the course of a day, grouped around one hero. The Romantics portrayed exceptional characters in exceptional circumstances. Nature was often shown during natural disasters (storms, floods, thunderstorms); they often occurred in India, Africa, the Caucasus, and the East.

The composition of a work is determined by its genus, type and genre; lyrical works are based on the development of thoughts and feelings. Lyrical works are small in size, their composition is arbitrary, most often associative. In a lyrical work, the following stages of development of feeling can be distinguished:

a) the initial moment (observation, impressions, thoughts or state that became the impetus for the development of feelings);

b) development of feelings;

c) climax (the highest tension in the development of feelings);

In the poem by V. Simonenko “Swans of Motherhood”:

a) the starting point is to sing a lullaby to your son;

b) development of feelings - the mother dreams about the fate of her son, how he will grow up, go on a journey, meet friends, his wife;

c) climax - the mother’s opinion about the possible death of her son in a foreign land;

d) summary - You don’t choose your homeland; what makes a person is love for their native land.

Russian literary critic V. Zhirmunsky identifies seven types of composition of lyrical works: anaphoristic, amoebaic, epiphoristic, refrain, ring, spiral, junction (epanastrophe, epanadiplosis), pointe.

Anaphoristic composition is typical for works that use anaphora.

You have renounced your native language. You

Your land will stop giving birth,

Green branch in a pocket on a willow tree,

It fades from your touch.

You have renounced your native language. Zaros

Your path disappeared into a nameless potion...

You don't have tears at funerals,

You don't have a song at your wedding.

(D. Pavlychko)

V. Zhirmunsky considers anaphora an indispensable component of amoebaic composition, but in many works it is absent. Characterizing this type of composition, I. Kachurovsky notes that its essence is not in anaphora, “but in the identity of the syntactic structure, replica or counter-replica of two interlocutors, or in a certain pattern of roll call of two choirs." " I. Kachurovsky finds an illustration of the amoebaic composition in the work of the German romantic Ludwig Uland:

Have you seen the tall castle,

A castle over the sea shire?

The clouds float quietly

Pink and gold above it.

Into the mirror-like, peaceful waters

He would like to bow down

And rise into the evening clouds

Into their radiant ruby.

I saw a tall castle

Castle over the sea world.

Hail the deep fog

And a month stood over him.

(Translation by Michael Orestes)

The amoebaine composition is most common in the tenzons and pastorals of the troubadours.

Epiphoristic composition is characteristic of poems with epiphoristic endings.

Breaks, kinks and fractures...

They broke our spine in circles.

Understand, my brother, finally:

Before heart attacks

We had them - don’t touch them!

Heart attacks of souls... heart attacks of souls!

There were ulcers, like infections,

There were images to the point of disgust -

This is disgusting, my brother.

So leave it, go and don’t touch it.

We all have crazy minds:

Heart attacks of souls... heart attacks of souls!

In this bed, in this bed

In this scream to the ceiling,

Oh, don't touch us, my brother,

Don't touch paralytics!

We all have crazy minds:

Heart attacks of souls... heart attacks of souls!

(Yu. Shkrobinets)

A refrain composition consists of the repetition of a group of words or lines.

How quickly everything in life goes by.

And happiness will only flicker with its wing -

And he's no longer here...

How quickly everything in life goes by,

Is this our fault? -

It's all the metronome's fault.

How quickly everything in life goes by...

And happiness will only flicker with its wing.

(Lyudmila Rzhegak)

I. Kachurovsky considers the term “ring” to be unfortunate. “Where better,” he notes, “is a cyclic composition. The scientific name of this remedy is anadiplosis composition. Moreover, in cases where anadiplosis is limited to any one stanza, this refers not to composition, but to stylistics.” Anadiplosis as a compositional means can be complete or partial, when part of a stanza is repeated, when the same words are in a changed order, when some of them are replaced by synonyms. The following options are also possible: not the first stanza is repeated, but the second, or the poet gives the first stanza as the final one.

Evening sun, thank you for the day!

Evening sun, thank you for being tired.

The forests are silent, enlightened

Eden and cornflower in golden rye.

For your dawn, and for my zenith,

and for my burnt zeniths.

Because tomorrow wants greens,

For what oddzvenity managed to do yesterday.

Heaven in the sky, for children's laughter.

For what I can and for what I must,

Evening sun, thank you all,

who did not defile the soul in any way.

For the fact that tomorrow awaits its inspiration.

That somewhere in the world blood has not yet been shed.

Evening sun, thank you for the day,

For this need, words are like prayers.

(P. Kostenko)

The spiral composition creates either a “chain” stanza (terzina), or stropho-genres (rondo, rondel, triolet), i.e. acquires stanza-creative and genre characteristics.

I. Kachurovsky considers the name of the seventh type of composition indecent. A more acceptable name, in his opinion, is epanastrophe, epanadiplosis. A work where the repetition of rhyme when two adjacent stanzas collide has a compositional character is E. Pluzhnik’s poem “Kanev”. Each twelve-Shova stanza of the poem consists of three quatrains with rhymes that move from quatrain to quatrain, the last verse of each of these twelve verses rhymes with the first poem as follows:

And the time and fatness will begin in their homes

Electricity: and the newspaper rustled

Where once the prophet and poet

The great spirit behind the darkness has dried up

And will be reborn in millions of masses,

And not only from the portrait,

The competition of immortals is a symbol and sign,

Apostle of truth, peasant Taras.

And since my dozen phrases

In the boring collection of an anchorite,

As the times to come show off,

On the shores lies indifferent Lethe...

And the days will become like the lines of a sonnet,

Perfect...

The essence of the pointe composition is that the poet leaves the interesting and essential part of the work for last. It could be unexpected turn thoughts or conclusion from the entire previous text. The means of pointe composition is used in the sonnet, the last poem of which should be the quintessence of the work.

Exploring lyrical and lyrical-epic works, I. Kachurovsky found three more types of composition: simplocial, gradational and main.

I. Kachurovsky calls a composition in the form of a simplocal simplocial.

Tomorrow on earth

Other people walking

Other people love -

Kind, affectionate and evil.

(V. Simonenko)

Gradational composition with such types as descending climax, growing climax, broken climax is quite common in poetry.

The gradation composition was used by V. Misik in the poem “Modernity”.

Yes, perhaps, even during Boyan’s time

It's spring time

And the rains fell on the youth,

And the clouds moved in from Tarashche,

And the hawks flew over the horizon,

And the cymbals echoed loudly,

And in Prolis the cymbals are blue

We peered into the heavenly strange clarity.

Everything is as it was then. Where is it, modernity?

It is in the main thing: in you.

The main composition is typical for wreaths of sonnets and folk poetry. Epic works tell the story of people's lives over a period of time. In novels and stories, events and characters are revealed in detail and comprehensively.

Such works may contain several storylines. IN small works(stories, novellas) a few plot lines, characters little, situations and circumstances are depicted succinctly.

Dramatic works are written in the form of dialogue, they are based on action, they are small in size, because most of them are intended to be staged. In dramatic works there are stage directions that perform a service function - they give an idea of the location of the action, the characters, advice to the artists, but are not included in the artistic fabric of the work.

The composition of a work of art also depends on the characteristics of the artist’s talent. Panas Mirny used complex plots, digressions historical nature. In the works of I. Nechuy-Levitsky, events develop in chronological order, the writer draws detailed portraits of heroes and nature. Let's remember "Kaidashev's family". In the works of I.S. Turgenev events develop slowly, Dostoevsky uses unexpected plot moves, accumulates tragic episodes.

The composition of the works is influenced by folklore traditions. The fables of Aesop, Phaedrus, Lafontaine, Krylov, Glebov “The Wolf and the Lamb” are based on the same folklore story, and after the plot - morality. In Aesop's fable it sounds like this: “The fable proves that even a just defense has no power for those who undertake to do injustice.” Phaedrus ends the fable with the words: “This tale was written about people who seek to destroy the innocent by deception.” The fable “The Wolf and the Lamb” by L. Glebov begins, on the contrary, with a moral:

It has been going on in the world for a long time,

The lower he bends before the highest,

And more than a smaller party and even beats

1. Plot and composition

ANTITHESIS - opposition of characters, events, actions, words. Can be used at the level of details, particulars (“Black evening, White snow" - A. Blok), but can serve as a method for creating the entire work as a whole. This is the contrast between the two parts of A. Pushkin’s poem “The Village” (1819), where the first depicts pictures of beautiful nature, peaceful and happy, and the second, by contrast, depicts episodes from the life of a powerless and brutally oppressed Russian peasant.

ARCHITECTONICS - the relationship and proportionality of the main parts and elements that make up a literary work.

DIALOGUE - a conversation, conversation, argument between two or more characters in a work.

PREPARATION - an element of the plot, meaning the moment of conflict, the beginning of the events depicted in the work.

INTERIOR is a compositional tool that recreates the environment in the room where the action takes place.

INTRIGUE is the movement of the soul and the actions of a character aimed at searching for the meaning of life, truth, etc. - a kind of “spring” that drives the action in a dramatic or epic work and makes it entertaining.

COLLISION - collision opposing views, aspirations, interests of the characters in a work of fiction.

COMPOSITION – the construction of a work of art, a certain system in the arrangement of its parts. Vary compositional means(portraits of characters, interior, landscape, dialogue, monologue, including internal) and compositional techniques(montage, symbol, stream of consciousness, self-disclosure of the character, mutual disclosure, depiction of the character’s character in dynamics or statics). The composition is determined by the characteristics of the writer’s talent, the genre, content and purpose of the work.

COMPONENT – component work: when analyzing it, for example, we can talk about components of content and components of form, sometimes interpenetrating.

CONFLICT is a clash of opinions, positions, characters in a work, driving its action, like intrigue and conflict.

CLIMAX is an element of the plot: the moment of highest tension in the development of the action of the work.

LEITMOTHIO – the main idea works, repeatedly repeated and emphasized.

MONOLOGUE - a lengthy speech by a character in literary work, addressed, in contrast to the internal monologue, to others. Example inner monologue The first stanza of A. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin” can serve as an example: “My uncle has the most honest rules...”, etc.

MONTAGE - compositional technique: compiling a work or its section into one whole from individual parts, excerpts, quotes. An example is the book of Eug. Popov "The beauty of life."

MOTIVE is one of the components of a literary text, part of the theme of the work, which more often than others acquires symbolic meaning. Road motif, house motif, etc.

OPPOSITION - a variant of the antithesis: opposition, opposition of views, behavior of characters at the level of characters (Onegin - Lensky, Oblomov - Stolz) and at the level of concepts ("wreath - crown" in M. Lermontov's poem "The Death of the Poet"; "it seemed - it turned out" in A. Chekhov's story “The Lady with the Dog”).

LANDSCAPE is a compositional tool: the depiction of pictures of nature in a work.

PORTRAIT – 1. Compositional means: depiction of a character’s appearance – face, clothing, figure, demeanor, etc.; 2. Literary portrait- one of the prose genres.

STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS is a compositional technique used mainly in literature modernist trends. Its area of application is the analysis of complex crisis states of the human spirit. F. Kafka, J. Joyce, M. Proust and others are recognized as masters of the “stream of consciousness”. In some episodes, this technique can also be used in realistic works - Artem Vesely, V. Aksenov and others.

PROLOGUE is an extra-plot element that describes the events or persons involved before the start of the action in the work (“The Snow Maiden” by A. N. Ostrovsky, “Faust” by I. V. Goethe, etc.).

DENOUNCING is a plot element that fixes the moment of resolution of the conflict in the work, the outcome of the development of events in it.

RETARDATION is a compositional technique that delays, stops or reverses the development of action in a work. It is carried out by including in the text various kinds of digressions of a lyrical and journalistic nature (“The Tale of Captain Kopeikin” in “Dead Souls” by N. Gogol, autobiographical digressions in A. Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”, etc.).

PLOT - a system, the order of development of events in a work. His essential elements: prologue, exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement; V in some cases an epilogue is possible. The plot reveals cause-and-effect relationships in the relationship between characters, facts and events in the work. To evaluate various types of plots, concepts such as plot intensity and “wandering” plots can be used.

THEME – the subject of the image in the work, its material, indicating the place and time of action. main topic, as a rule, is specified by topic, i.e., a set of private, individual topics.

FABULA - the sequence of unfolding of the events of a work in time and space.

FORM – a specific system artistic means, revealing the content of a literary work. Categories of form - plot, composition, language, genre, etc. Form as a way of existence of the content of a literary work.

CHRONOTOP is the spatiotemporal organization of material in a work of art.

Bald man with white beard – I. Nikitin

Old Russian giant – M. Lermontov

With the young dogaressa – A. Pushkin

Falls on the sofa – N. Nekrasov

Used most often in postmodern works:

There's a stream underneath him,

But not azure,

There is an aroma above it -

Well, I have no strength.

He, having given everything to literature,

He tasted its full fruits.

Drive away, man, five altyn,

And don’t irritate unnecessarily.

Freedom sower desert

Reaps a meager harvest.

I. Irtenev

EXPOSITION - an element of the plot: setting, circumstances, positions of the characters in which they find themselves before the start of the action in the work.

EPIGRAPH – a proverb, a quotation, someone’s statement placed by the author before a work or its part, parts, designed to indicate his intention: “...So who are you finally? I am part of that force that always wants evil and always does good.” Goethe. “Faust” is an epigraph to M. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita.”

EPILOGUE is a plot element that describes the events that occurred after the end of the action in the work (sometimes after many years - I. Turgenev. “Fathers and Sons”).

From the book The Art of Color by Itten Johannes

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King Attila. Subject composition plays Before presenting the final plot to the reader, I want to make an explanation. I have long wanted to expand the theme “East - West”, that is, to show how the eastern became western. By and large, this consisted

Composition is the arrangement of parts of a 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- the main element of the composition, 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, events in which take place at different times. Bulgakov in “The Master and Margarita” used the device of a novel within a novel.
Author's or lyrical digressions. A lot of lyrical digressions Gogol's 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 due to the large number of author’s digressions, thanks to which readers are presented with an impressive picture of Russian life at the beginning of the 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.

The plot 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 at times was 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.

So, we are armed with knowledge of some of the techniques that are used in fiction. We now have an idea of how to write. We have an idea, a plan, we have come up with characters, we know what they will do and what they will fight, but... But how can we “build” our work? In what order will we tell our story? After all, it depends on this whether we can intrigue the reader, capture his interest, and convey to him with maximum accuracy and force what we wanted to say. It is very important to be able to build. In order to understand this issue, let's introduce concepts such as plot, plot and composition of a literary work. Exist different interpretations concepts of "plot" and "plot". We will accept those based on the following ideas. Let's assume that we have an idea for the work. That is, we know in general terms what we will talk about. This means that we know the plot. The plot is the events occurring in a literary work, but arranged in their natural, chronological order, the way they would or could happen in reality. That is, this is our story, story or novel, stated “simply”, “directly”, in one or several phrases. For example, we could formulate the simplified plot of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet” as follows: “The brother of the Danish king secretly kills his brother, takes possession of the crown and marries the royal widow. The ghost of his father appears to the son of the murdered man, Prince Hamlet, and talks about the crime committed. Hamlet tries to take revenge to the murderer king, but dies in a duel." Simple and clear. But in Hamlet the actions unfold in a completely different sequence! For example, the first scene of the tragedy is the appearance of the ghost of Hamlet's father in front of the castle guards and Hamlet's friend, Horatio. And the murder of the king occurs long before the action Shakespeare presents to us begins, and even then “behind the scenes”, it is not in the play. We can observe it only in the interpretation of actors visiting the royal castle, whom Hamlet asked (in the third act of the tragedy) to play a play according to the script suggested to them. If we strictly follow the author’s sequence of presentation in the retelling, we will tell the plot. Plot is an artistically appropriate system of described events, which the author presents in such a sequence and using such literary forms and techniques that most fully meet his creative task. It is clear that telling a story is sometimes difficult - as difficult as the author “built” the work. After all, the direction of the event plan in the plot may coincide with the plot (and then the plot is “equal” to the plot), but most often it differs from it (as in “Hamlet”). Therefore, the plot is also called a “straightened” plot, and in the case when it is not “equal” to the plot, they speak of a reverse plot composition. Here we come to the concept of “composition”. From the work of T.T. Davydova, V.A. Pronin "Theory of Literature": "Composition - construction, arrangement of all elements of the artistic form. Composition can be external and internal. To the sphere external compositions include division epic work into books, parts and chapters, lyrical - into parts and stanzas, lyric-epic - into songs, dramatic - into acts and pictures. Region internal compositions includes all static elements of the work: -- different types of descriptions- portrait, landscape, description of the interior and everyday life of the characters, summarizing characteristics; -- extra plot elements - exposition(prologue, introduction, “backstory” of the hero’s life), epilogue(the “subsequent” story of the hero’s life), inserted episodes, short stories; -- all sorts of digressions(lyrical, philosophical, journalistic); -- motivations for narration and description; forms of speech of heroes: monologue, dialogue, letter (correspondence), diary, notes; -- forms of storytelling, called points of view (the position from which the story is told or from which the event of the story is perceived by the hero of the story. The concept of point of view in literature is similar to the concept of perspective in painting and cinema)". But this is only what the composition includes. How is it " works"? From M. Weller’s work “Story Technology”: "Composition (construction, structure, architectonics) of a story is the arrangement of selected material in such an order that achieves the effect of a greater impact on the reader than would be possible with a simple statement of facts . Changes in the sequence and proximity of episodes cause different associative, emotional semantic perception material in general. A successful composition allows you to achieve maximum semantic and emotional load with a minimum of volume. 1. Direct-flow composition. The most ancient, simple and traditional way of transmitting material: some simple story with a minimum number of significant characters is told in a sequence of events connected by a single cause-and-effect chain. Such a composition is characterized by leisurely and detailed presentation: so-and-so did such-and-such, and then such-and-such happened. This allows you to delve deeply into the psychology of the hero, gives the reader the opportunity to identify himself with the hero, get into his skin, sympathize and empathize. The external simplicity, as if the artlessness and artlessness of such a structure evoke additional confidence in the reader; a single thread of the narrative allows one not to scatter attention and concentrate entirely on what is being depicted. This is how, for example, Yu. Kazakov’s story “Blue and Green” is constructed - a nostalgic story of first youthful love: eternal theme, banal material, simple urban language, but living with the hero day after day, the reader is happy, sad, and yearning. 2. Banding. Usually it differs from the previous type of composition in only one thing: the author’s framing at the beginning and at the end. This is like a story within a story, where the author introduces the reader to a hero who later acts as the narrator. In this way, a double author's view of the story is created: since the narrator is first characterized, then in the story itself an allowance for the narrator can be made - the images of the author and the narrator are deliberately dissimilar. The author, as a rule, is wiser and more informed than the narrator; he acts as a judge and commentator on his own story. The benefits of this technique are that a) the narrator can speak in any language - not only in crude vernacular, which is excusable, but also in literary cliches, which is sometimes beneficial to the author, since it is simple and intelligible: the author has a free hand, possible accusations of primitive language, bad taste, cynicism, anti-humanism, etc. he places his innocent narrator on the shoulders, and in the frame he himself can dissociate himself from him and even condemn him; b) additional authenticity is achieved: the framing is deliberately simple, ordinary, in the first person - the reader is, as it were, prepared for further history; c) a “double view” can play a provocative role: the reader does not agree with the opinion of both the narrator and the author, he is, as it were, drawn into the discussion, pushed to his own thoughts and assessments, if he does not receive finished form single assessment. As examples - such famous stories, like “The Happiness of Maupassant”, “Under the Deck Tent” of London, “The Fate of a Man” by Sholokhov; This is a common technique. Banding is also used with more complex species compositions, but less often. 3. Point (novelistic) composition. It differs in that a certain number of small details and circumstances are fan-tied to one event of insignificant scale. The trinity of time, place and action is observed. Characteristic of everyday prose. The author, as it were, points a magnifying glass at one point and closely examines it and the immediate surrounding space. In a “spot” short story there is no development of characters or changes in the situation: this is a picture from life. This is most clearly expressed in the short stories of Shukshin and Zoshchenko. Here is Shukshin's story "Cut". It talks about the village, about the Zhuravlev family, about Gleb Kapustin: background, characters, circumstances. Then - the essence; table conversation when Gleb “proves” to the candidate of science his “lack of education.” Details, vocabulary, emotional tension turn the genre sketch into a fundamental clash of triumphant and envious rudeness with naive intelligence. We can say that a short story is one small stroke from life, which, under the gaze of the author, takes on the scale and depth of a work of art. These are the famous short stories Hemingway. Through a gesture, a glance, a remark, a single and seemingly insignificant incident turns into a demonstration of the entire inner world of the hero, the entire atmosphere surrounding him. The difference between a direct-flow and a point composition is that in the latter “nothing happens.” 4. Wicker composition. There is action in it, there is also a sequence of events, but the channel of the narrative is blurred into a network of streams, the author’s thought every now and then returns to the past time and runs into the future, moves in space from one hero to another. This achieves spatio-temporal scale, revealing the interconnection of various phenomena and their mutual influence. This is not easy to do in the limited space of a story; this technique is more typical of novelists such as Thomas Wolfe. However, the late short stories by Vladimir Lidin are an example of the successful use of compositional “braiding”, where behind the simple actions of ordinary people there is their entire past, the whole range of interests and sympathies, memory and imagination, the influence of acquaintances and traces past events. If each type of composition is imagined in the form of an illustration graphic, then a long thread of “braiding” will create a lot of lace until it reaches the final goal. 5. Action-packed composition. Its essence is that the most significant event is placed at the very end of the story, and the life or death of the hero depends on whether it happens or not. As an option, there is a confrontation between two heroes, which is resolved at the very end. In short, the climax is the denouement. In general, this is a commercial, speculative move - the author plays on natural human curiosity: “How will it all end?” Chase's thrillers are based on this scheme, and the most famous of Haley's novels, "Airport", is based on this technique: will the attacker blow up the plane or not? Interest in this makes the reader greedily swallow the novel, stuffed with a lot of side details. In short stories, this technique is clearly manifested in Stephen King. 6. Detective composition. Not at all adequate to the previous one. Here the central event - a major crime, an extraordinary incident, a murder - is taken out of the equation, and all further narration is, as it were, a return path to what has already happened before. The author of a detective story always faces two tasks: firstly, to come up with a crime, and secondly, to figure out how to solve it - in that order, not in reverse! All steps and events are initially predetermined by the crime, as if threads stretch from each segment of the path to a single organizing point. The construction of a detective story is, as it were, mirrored: its action lies in the fact that the heroes model and recreate the already former action. For commercial reasons, the authors of detective stories distribute them to the volume of novels, but initially, created by Edgar Poe and canonized by Conan Doyle, the detective story was a story. 7. Two-tailed composition. Perhaps the most effective technique in constructing prose. In literature the first half of the 19th century century was encountered in this form: some event described turns out to be a dream, and then the work ends in a completely different way than the reader expected (Pushkin’s “The Undertaker”). The most famous example is Ambrose Bierce's story "The Incident on the Bridge over Owl Creek": a scout is hanged, the rope breaks, he falls into the water, escapes from shooting and persecution, after difficult trials he reaches his home - but all this only seemed to him in his last moments life, "the body swayed under the railing of the bridge." This construction is akin to the inquisitorial “torture by hope”: the condemned person is given the opportunity to escape, but at the last moment he falls into the arms of the jailers, waiting for him at the very exit to freedom. The reader tunes in to a successful outcome, empathizes with the hero, and there is a strong contrast between happy ending, which the narrative has already reached, and the tragic way it turns out to be in reality, gives rise to a huge emotional impact. Here, at a key moment, the narrative bifurcates, and the reader is offered two options for continuation and ending: first, prosperous and happy, then they cross it out, declaring it an unfulfilled dream, and give the second, real one. 8. Inversion composition. Its effect, like the previous one, is based on contrast. Some event is removed from the natural chronological chain and placed next to its opposite in tone; As a rule, an episode from the future of the heroes is transferred to the present, and the juxtaposition of youth full of hope and joy - and tired old age, which has not achieved much, gives rise to a nagging feeling of the transience of life, the futility of hopes, the frailty of existence. In Priestley's play "Time and the Conway Family" in the first act the young people make plans, in the second - ten years later - they vegetate, in the third, which is a direct continuation of tomorrow's first, they continue to hope and fight (and the viewer already knows that their hopes are not destined come true). Usually, two-tailed and inversion compositions are used to create a tragic tone, “bad endings,” although, in principle, it is possible, on the contrary, to establish a bright ending, completing events that are dark in color with a life-affirming episode from another time layer. 9. Hinged composition. A classic example is O. Henry's short story. An interesting hybrid using elements of a detective story, a false move and inversion. At the key point in the development of action, the most important thing is an important event is withdrawn by the author and reported at the very end. A completely unexpected ending gives the whole story a different meaning than the reader saw before: the actions of the heroes acquire a different motivation, their goal and result turn out to be different. Until the last lines, the author seems to fool the reader, who is convinced that he did not know the main thing in the story. Such a composition could be called reverse: the ending of the story is the opposite of what the reader expects. The point is that any story by O. Henry could well exist without a “crown” ending. At the end, as if on a hinge, the story turns on its other side, actually turning into a second story: it could have been like this, but in reality it’s like this. The detective turns out to be a crook, the tame lion turns out to be wild, etc. 10. Counterpoint. Similar to the musical term - parallel development two or more lines. A classic example is “The 42nd Parallel” by Dos Passos. People who do not know each other live their own lives, coming into contact only occasionally. In general, such a structure is more typical of long prose, a novel. In short stories there are two variants of counterpoint: a) two or three unrelated plot lines are combined according to the spatio-temporal principle - both, and the third happens here and now: as a result of such montage, a completely new associative, emotional, semantic one arises coloring (for example, in the famous scene of the explanation of Rodolphe and Emma in Flaubert's Madame Bovary, the alternation of the seducer's phrases with excerpts from an agricultural report creates a feeling of vulgarity - and at the same time Emma's desire to escape from this vulgarity); b) a line from the past, a story from a previous life interspersed with a front shot, explaining the hero’s behavior in currently, revealing his inner world - the past seems to live in the present (as, say, in Sergei Voronin’s story “A Romance Without Love”). 11. Revolver composition. Here the event is shown from different points of view through the eyes of several characters, just as a part, brought to the desired shape, is alternately processed by several cutters fed by a rotating holder. This allows us to consider what is happening dialectically and show the characters both from the outside and from the inside, with their own eyes. In one case, a) each of the heroes repeats his own version of the same event (“In the Thicket” by Akutagawa); in the other b) the narrators change as the actions develop, as in a relay race ("Señorita Cora" by Cortázar)."

"THE ABC OF LITERARY CREATIVITY, or FROM A TEST OF THE PEN TO THE MASTER OF THE WORD" Igor Getmansky