The gasoline is yours, the ideas are ours
When analyzing literary work traditionally use the concept of “idea,” which most often means the answer to a question supposedly posed by the author.
The idea of a literary work - This main idea, summarizing the semantic, figurative, emotional content of a literary work.
Artistic idea works - this is content-semantic integrity work of art as a product of emotional experience and mastery of life by the author. This idea cannot be recreated by means of other arts and logical formulations; it is expressed throughout artistic structure work, the unity and interaction of all its formal components. Conventionally (and in a narrower sense), an idea stands out as the main thought, ideological conclusion and “life lesson” that naturally follows from a holistic comprehension of the work.
An idea in literature is a thought contained in a work. There are a great many ideas expressed in literature. There are logical ideas And abstract ideas . Logical ideas are concepts that are easily conveyed without figurative means; we are able to perceive them with our intellect. Logical ideas are characteristic of nonfiction literature. Fictional novels and stories are characterized by philosophical and social generalizations, ideas, analyzes of causes and consequences, that is, abstract elements.
But there is also special kind very subtle, barely perceptible ideas of a literary work. Artistic idea is a thought embodied in figurative form. It lives only in figurative transformation and cannot be expressed in the form of sentences or concepts. The peculiarity of this thought depends on the disclosure of the topic, the author’s worldview, conveyed by the speech and actions of the characters, and on the depiction of pictures of life. It lies in the combination of logical thoughts, images, and all significant compositional elements. An artistic idea cannot be reduced to a rational idea that can be specified or illustrated. The idea of this type is integral to the image, to the composition.
Forming an artistic idea is difficult creative process. In literature it is influenced personal experience, the writer’s worldview, understanding of life. An idea can be nurtured for years and decades, and the author, trying to realize it, suffers, rewrites the manuscript, and looks for suitable means of implementation. All themes, characters, all events selected by the author are necessary for a more complete expression of the main idea, its nuances and shades. However, it is necessary to understand that an artistic idea is not equal ideological plan, that plan that often appears not only in the writer’s head, but also on paper. Exploring non-fictional reality, reading diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, archives, literary scholars restore the history of the idea, the history of creation, but often do not discover the artistic idea. Sometimes it happens that the author goes against himself, yielding to the original plan for the sake of artistic truth, an internal idea.
One thought is not enough to write a book. If you know in advance everything that you would like to talk about, then you should not contact artistic creativity. Better - to criticism, journalism, journalism.
The idea of a literary work cannot be contained in one phrase and one image. But writers, especially novelists, sometimes struggle to formulate the idea of their work. Dostoevsky about “The Idiot” he wrote: “The main idea of the novel is to portray positively wonderful person" For such a declarative ideology Dostoevsky scolded, for example, Nabokov. Indeed, the phrase of the great novelist does not clarify why, why he did it, what is the artistic and vital basis of his image. But here you can hardly take sides Nabokov, a down-to-earth second-line writer, never, unlike Dostoevsky who does not set himself creative super-tasks.
Along with the attempts of authors to determine the so-called main idea of their work, opposite, although no less confusing, examples are known. Tolstoy to the question “what is “War and Peace”? answered as follows: ““War and Peace” is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed.” Reluctance to translate the idea of your work into the language of concepts Tolstoy demonstrated once again, speaking about the novel “Anna Karenina”: “If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express in a novel, then I would have to write the very one that I wrote first” (from a letter to N.Strakhov).
Belinsky very accurately pointed out that “art does not allow abstract philosophical, much less rational ideas: it allows only poetic ideas; and the poetic idea is<…>It’s not a dogma, it’s not a rule, it’s a living passion, pathos.”
V.V. Odintsov expressed his understanding of the category “artistic idea” more strictly: “Idea literary composition is always specific and is not directly derived not only from those lying outside it individual statements writer (facts of his biography, public life etc.), but also from the text - from replicas goodies, journalistic inserts, comments by the author himself, etc.”
2000 ideas for novels and stories
Literary critic G.A. Gukovsky also spoke about the need to distinguish between rational, that is, rational, and literary ideas: “By idea I mean not only a rationally formulated judgment, statement, not even just the intellectual content of a work of literature, but the entire sum of its content, constituting its intellectual function, its goal and task.” And he further explained: “To understand the idea of a literary work means to understand the idea of each of its components in their synthesis, in their systemic interconnection.<…>. At the same time, it is important to take into account structural features works - not only the words-bricks from which the walls of the building are made, but the structure of the combination of these bricks as parts of this structure, their meaning.”
The idea of a literary work is an attitude towards what is depicted, the fundamental pathos of the work, a category that expresses the author’s tendency (inclination, intention, preconceived thought) in artistic lighting this topic. In other words, idea is the subjective basis of a literary work. It is noteworthy that in Western literary criticism, based on other methodological principles, instead of the category “artistic idea”, the concept of “intention”, a certain premeditation, the tendency of the author to express the meaning of the work is used.
The greater the artistic idea, the longer the work lives. The creators of pop literature who write outside of great ideas face very rapid oblivion.
V.V. Kozhinov called it an artistic idea semantic type works that grow from the interaction of images. An artistic idea, unlike a logical idea, is not formulated by an author’s statement, but is depicted in all the details of the artistic whole.
In epic works, the idea may be partly formulated in the text itself, as was the case in the narrative Tolstoy: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.” More often, especially in lyric poetry, the idea permeates the structure of the work and therefore requires a lot of analytical work. A work of art as a whole is much richer than the rational idea that critics usually isolate, and in many lyrical works isolating an idea is simply impossible, because it practically dissolves in pathos. Consequently, the idea of a work should not be reduced to a conclusion or a lesson, and in general one should certainly look for it.
Subject(gr. thema literally means something underlying) - this is an object of knowledge. Subjects- these are those phenomena of life that are reflected in the work.
In ancient times, it was believed that the integrity of a literary work was determined by the unity of the main character. But Aristotle also drew attention to the fallacy of such a view, pointing out that the stories about Hercules remain different stories, although dedicated to one person, and the Iliad, which tells about many heroes, does not cease to be an integral work.
What gives a work its holistic character is not the hero, but the unity of the problem posed in it, the unity of the idea being revealed.
The subject of depiction in works of literature can be a variety of phenomena. human life, natural life, flora and fauna, as well as material culture (buildings, furnishings, views of cities, etc.).
But the main subject of knowledge in fiction is the characteristic features of human life. These are the social characters of people both in their external manifestations, relationships, activities, and in their internal, mental life.
Yesin: Topic –“the object of artistic reflection, those life characters and situations that seem to pass from reality into a work of art and form the objective side of its content.”
Tomashevsky:“Unity of meanings of individual elements of a work. It brings together the components of an artistic design.”
The plot may be the same, but the theme is different. In popular literature, the plot weighs heavily on the theme. Life very often becomes the object of depiction.
The topic is often determined by the author’s literary preferences and his belonging to a certain group.
The concept of internal theme is themes that are cross-cutting for the writer; this is the thematic unity that unites all his works.
The theme is the organizing beginning of the work.
Problem - this highlighting of some aspect, the emphasis on it, which is resolved as the work unfolds, is the writer’s ideological understanding of the social characters that he depicted in the work. The writer highlights and enhances those properties, aspects, relationships of the characters depicted that he considers the most significant.
The problem is still to a greater extent than the subject depends on the worldview of the author. Therefore, the life of the same social environment can be perceived differently by writers who have different ideological worldviews.
Moliere in the comedy “Tartuffe,” having portrayed the main character as a scoundrel and a hypocrite who deceives straightforward and honest people, depicted all his thoughts and actions as manifestations of this main negative character trait. The name Tartuffe became a common noun for hypocrites.
Idea- this is what the author wants to say, why this work was written.
It is thanks to the expression of ideas in images that literary works have such a strong effect on the thoughts, feelings, will of readers and listeners, on their entire inner world.
The attitude to life expressed in a work, or its ideological and emotional assessment, always depends on the writer’s understanding of the characters he portrays and follows from his worldview.
The idea of a literary work is the unity of all aspects of its content; this is a figurative, emotional, generalizing thought of the writer.
The reader is usually sinceregives in to the illusion that everything depicted in the productionknowledge is life itself; he is addicted to actionthe fate of the heroes, experiences their joys, sympathizes with themsuffering or internally condemns it. At the same timethe reader often does not immediately realize what essentialfeatures are embodied in the heroes and in the entire course of the artof the events being described and what significance the details havetheir actions and experiences.
But these detailsare created by the writer in order to, through them, elevate the characters of some heroes in the minds of the reader and reduce the characters of others.
Just by re-reading the works andby thinking about them, the reader can come to the realizationwhat general properties of life are embodied in certainother heroes and how they are comprehended and evaluated by the writertel. Literary criticism often helps him in this.
Lecture 5. Idea, theme, composition, plot and plot of a work of art.
1. The idea of a work of art.
Idea (from the Greek idea - prototype, ideal) - the main idea of the work, expressed through its entire figurative system. It is the method of expression that distinguishes the idea of a work of art from a scientific idea.
The main thesis of statements about the art of V.G. Plekhanov – “art cannot live without an idea” - and he repeats this thought repeatedly, analyzing this or that work of art. “The dignity of a work of art,” writes Plekhanov, “is ultimately determined by the specific gravity of the feeling, the depth of the idea that it expresses.”
For educational literature of the 16th century. was characterized by a high ideological level, due to the desire to reorganize society on the principles of reason. At the same time, the so-called salon, aristocratic literature“in the Rococo style”, devoid of high citizenship.
And in the future, two parallel ideological currents have always existed and exist in literature and art, sometimes touching and mixing, but more often separating and developing independently, gravitating towards opposite poles.
In this regard, the problem of the relationship between “ideological” and “artistry” in a work seems extremely important. But even outstanding artists words are not always able to translate the idea of a plan into perfection art form. Most often, writers who are completely “absorbed” in the implementation of this or that idea, stray into ordinary journalism and rhetoric, leaving artistic expressiveness in the second and third plans. This applies equally to all genres of art. According to V.G. Belinsky, the idea of a work “is not an abstract thought, not a dead form, but a living creation.”
- 1. Theme of the artwork .
Subject (from the Greek theme) – what is the basis, the main problem and the main circle life events depicted by the writer. The theme of the work is inextricably linked with its idea. The selection of material, formulation of problems (choice of topic) is dictated by the ideas that the author would like to express in the work.
It was about this connection between the theme and the idea of a work that M. Gorky wrote: “A theme is an idea that originated in the author’s experience, is suggested to him by life, but nests in the container of his impressions still unformed, and requiring embodiment in images, arouses in him a urge to work its design."
Along with the term “topic”, the term “subject”, which is close in meaning to it, is often used. subject matter" Its use indicates that the work includes not only the main, but also a whole series auxiliary themes and thematic lines; or the themes of many works are in close connection with one, or a set of several related themes, forming a broad theme of one class.
3. The plot of the work of art.
Plot (from the French sujet - subject) - the course of the narrative about the events unfolding and happening in a work of art. As a rule, any such episode is subordinated to the main or subplot.
However, in literary criticism there is no uniform definition of this term. There are three main approaches:
1) plot is a way of developing a theme or presenting a plot;
2) plot is a way of developing a theme or presenting a plot;
3) plot and plot have no fundamental difference.
The plot is based on a conflict (a clash of interests and characters) between the characters. That is why where there is no narrative (lyrics), there is no plot.
The term “plot” was introduced in the 11th century. classicists P. Corneille and N. Boileau, but they were followers of Aristotle. Aristotle called what is called “plot” “legend”. Hence the “course of the story.”
The plot consists of the following main elements:
Exposition
The beginning
Action development
Climax
Denouement
Exposition (Latin expositio - explanation, presentation) - a plot element containing a description of the lives of the characters before they begin to act in the work. Direct exposure located at the beginning of the story, delayed exposure fits anywhere, but I must say that modern writers rarely use this plot element.
The beginning - the initial, starting episode of the plot. She usually appears at the beginning of the story, but this is not the rule. So, about Chichikov’s desire to buy dead souls we find out only at the end of Gogol's poem.
Development of action flows “at will” characters narration and author's intention. The development of action precedes the climax.
Climax (from Latin culmen - top) - moment highest voltage actions in the work, its turning point. After the climax comes the denouement.
Denouement - the final part of the plot, the end of the action, where the conflict is resolved and the motivation for the actions of the main and some is revealed minor characters and their psychological portraits are clarified.
The denouement sometimes precedes the plot, especially in detective works, where in order to interest the reader and capture his attention, the story begins with a murder.
Other supporting plot elements are prologue, backstory, author's digression, insert novella And epilogue.
However, in modern literary process we often do not encounter any extended expositions, nor prologues and epilogues, nor other elements of the plot, and sometimes even the plot itself is blurred, barely outlined, or even completely absent.
4. The plot of a work of art .
Fabula (from Latin fabula - fable, story) - a sequence of events. This term was introduced by ancient Roman writers, apparently referring to the same property of storytelling that Aristotle spoke about.
Subsequently, the use of the terms “plot” and “fable” led to confusion, which is almost impossible to resolve without introducing other, clarifying and explanatory terms.
IN modern literary criticism The interpretation of correlation and plot, proposed by representatives of the Russian “formal school” and discussed in detail in the works of G. Pospelov, is more often used. They understand the plot as “the events themselves,” chronologically recorded, while the plot is “a story about events.”
Academician A.N. Veselovsky at work " Historical poetics" (1906) proposed the concept of " motive ", giving it the meaning of the simplest narrative unit, similar to the concept of "element" in the periodic table. Combinations of the simplest motifs form, according to Veselovsky, the plot of a work of art.
5. Composition (from Latin compositio - composition, linking) - the construction, arrangement of all elements of the form of a work of art, determined by its content, nature and purpose and largely determining its perception by the viewer, reader, listener.
Composition can be internal or external.
To the sphere internal composition include all static elements of the work: portrait, landscape, interior, as well as extra-plot elements - exposition (prologue, introduction, background), epilogue, inserted episodes, short stories; digressions (lyrical, philosophical, journalistic); motivations for narration and description; forms of speech of the characters (monologue, dialogue, correspondence, diary, notes; forms of narration (spatial-temporal, psychological, ideological, phraseological.
TO external composition include division epic work into books, parts and chapters; lyrical - into parts and stanzas; lyric-epic - for songs; dramatic - on acts and pictures.
Much is known today about composition, as well as about other elements of the plot of a work of art, but not every author manages to create an ideal composition. The point, obviously, is not so much in “knowing” how to do it, but in having the talent, taste and sense of proportion of the artist.
6. Ideological and value point of view.
The value level of a work of art depends on the ideological worldview of either the author himself or the point of view of the characters. Often, an assessment in a work is carried out from one dominant point of view, subordinating all others.
If different points of view contradict each other, then the phenomenon of internal polyphony .
According to B.A. Uspensky, the phenomenon of polyphony has the following constituent elements: 1) the presence in the work of several independent points of view; 2) points of view must belong to the participants in the action; 3) points of view should be manifested primarily in terms of assessment, i.e. as ideologically valued points of view.
7. Linguistic (“phraseological”) point of view.
Linguistic means of expressing a point of view, used to characterize its bearer (characters, heroes of the work) can be the following: 1) the style of speech of the narrator and 2) the style of speech of the heroes (determined ideological position both the author and the characters). Various kinds of references in the text to one or another point of view are also possible.
8. Space-time point of view.
The images of heroes are revealed most fully if the spatial and temporal positions of both the narrator and the characters in the work of art coincide.
9. Psychological point of view is revealed when the narrator relies on one or another individual consciousness. (In Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot,” the story about Rogozhin’s assassination attempt on Myshkin is given twice – through the eyes of Myshkin himself and the narrator, which helps to imagine this event from two psychologically different points of view).
Related from a psychological point of view new type polyphony – polyphony of individual perceptions .
10. Pathos of a work of art.
Translated from Greek pathos – passion, inspiration, suffering. These three words perfectly convey the meaning of what is commonly called the soul of a work of art.
The term began to be used by ancient rhetoricians; later it moved from rhetoric to poetics. Aristotle believed that good speech should be “pathetic,” but not overly emotional, and called on speakers to be “even” and “not follow the lead of passion.”
In the era of romanticism, Aristotle was not listened to, because the goal of romanticism was precisely the cultivation of passion by depicting its violent manifestations.
In Russian literary criticism, the theory of pathos developed by V.G. Belinsky. “Art,” he wrote, “does not allow abstract philosophical, much less rational ideas: it allows only poetic ideas; and a poetic idea is not a syllogism, not a dogma, not a rule, it is a living passion, it is pathos.”
The concept of "pathos" in different eras unequal meaning was also invested, but at the same time modern researchers (G. Pospelov) distinguish several types of pathos.
Pathos heroic – “embodiment in the actions of an individual...”; pathos dramatic , arising under the influence external forces, threatening the desires and aspirations of the characters; pathos tragic consists in depicting insoluble contradictions between the demands of life and the impossibility of their implementation; pathos satirical, sentimental And romantic pathos.
For recent years the concept of pathos has almost fallen out of use, since modern literary hero is a “reflective personality”, and, like his author, shuns the open manifestation of feelings and masks them in best case scenario irony.
There is an inextricable logical connection.
What is the theme of the work?
If you raise the question of the theme of the work, then intuitively every person understands what it is. He just explains it from his point of view.
The theme of a work is what underlies a particular text. It is with this basis that the most difficulties arise, because it is impossible to define it unambiguously. Some people believe that the theme of the work - which is described there - is the so-called vital material. For example, topic love relationship, war or death.
The topic can also be called problems of human nature. That is, the problem of personality formation, moral principles or the conflict of good and bad deeds.
Another topic can be the verbal basis. Of course, it’s rare to come across works about words, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. There are texts in which wordplay comes to the fore. Suffice it to recall the work of V. Khlebnikov “Perverten”. His verse has one peculiarity - the words in the line are read the same in both directions. But if you ask the reader what the verse was actually about, he is unlikely to answer anything intelligible. Since the main highlight of this work is the lines that can be read both from left to right and from right to left.
The theme of the work is a multifaceted component, and scientists put forward one or another hypothesis regarding it. If we talk about something universal, then the theme of a literary work is the “foundation” of the text. That is, as Boris Tomashevsky once said: “The theme is a generalization of the main, significant elements.”
If the text has a theme, then there must be an idea. An idea is a writer’s plan that pursues a specific goal, that is, what the writer wants to present to the reader.
Figuratively speaking, the theme of the work is what made the creator create the work. So to speak, the technical component. In turn, the idea is the “soul” of the work; it answers the question of why this or that creation was created.
When the author is completely immersed in the topic of his text, truly feels it and is imbued with the problems of the characters, then an idea is born - spiritual content, without which the page of the book is just a set of dashes and circles.
Learning to find
For example, we can cite a little story and try to find its main theme and idea:
- The autumn downpour did not bode well, especially late at night. All the residents of the small town knew about this, so the lights in the houses had long gone out. In all but one. It was an old mansion on a hill outside the city, which was used as orphanage. During this terrible downpour, the teacher found a baby on the threshold of the building, so there was a terrible turmoil in the house: feeding, bathing, changing clothes and, of course, telling a fairy tale - after all, this is the main tradition of the old orphanage. And if any of the residents of the city knew how grateful the child would be who was found on the doorstep, they would have responded to the soft knock on the door that sounded in every house on that terrible rainy evening.
In this small excerpt Two themes can be distinguished: abandoned children and an orphanage. Essentially, these are the basic facts that forced the author to create the text. Then you can see that introductory elements appear: a foundling, tradition and a terrible thunderstorm, which forced all the residents of the city to lock themselves in their houses and turn out the lights. Why does the author talk about them specifically? These introductory descriptions will be the main idea of the passage. They can be summarized by saying that the author is talking about the problem of mercy or selflessness. In one word, he tries to convey to every reader that, regardless of weather conditions, you need to remain human.
How is a theme different from an idea?
The theme has two differences. Firstly, it determines the meaning (main content) of the text. Secondly, the theme can be revealed both in large works and in small short stories. The idea, in turn, shows the main goal and task of the writer. If you look at the presented passage, you can say that the idea is the main message from the author to the reader.
Determining the theme of a work is not always easy, but such a skill will be useful not only in literature lessons, but also in everyday life. It is with its help that you can learn to understand people and enjoy pleasant communication.
Idea(gr. idea - concept, idea) - a thought about a life phenomenon, about a person, an object, etc., which expresses the attitude towards these life phenomena, people’s idea of them.
"There is an idea cognition and aspiration (want) [of a person],” teaches V.I. Lenin (“Philosophical Notebooks,” p. 188).
This or that idea is always determined social order in which people live, the material conditions of society.
In a class society, ideas, people's ideas about life phenomena, their attitude towards life phenomena, their aspirations express the point of view of a particular class, its material interests in this society.
The idea of a work of art is its main thought about the main range of phenomena that are depicted in this work; writer's idea - the thought he expressed in artistic images, i.e. in pictures of life, in the behavior of the characters in the work, their actions and experiences.
Depicting people and life phenomena, the writer expresses his attitude towards them and strives to evoke the same attitude towards them in the reader. The writer’s ideas and his attitude to life’s phenomena reflect the interests of the class with which he sympathizes, whose side he takes in the people’s struggle.
Thus, telling about the life and struggle of Pavel Korchagin and his comrades, N. Ostrovsky, in the interests of the people fighting against the exploiting classes, artistically convincingly and vitally truthfully showed that there are no difficulties that a person cannot overcome if he is inspired by the great goal - the struggle for the happiness of humanity, the construction of communism. This is the main, main idea, the main idea of the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered”, an idea that inspired N. Ostrovsky himself to a creative feat.
It should be borne in mind that a full-fledged work of art, truthfully and broadly reflecting life, is not limited to one main idea. Along with it, the writer expresses in images a number of other ideas, to one degree or another related to the main idea of the work, and conveys his attitude to the various aspects of life depicted by him.
"AND": Ideal,