Composition is the arrangement of parts literary work in a certain order, a set of forms and methods of artistic expression by the author, depending on his intention. Translated from Latin it 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, insert stories and lyrical digressions:
- Narration- the main element of the composition, the author’s story, revealing the content work of art. Occupies most of 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, deepen the characters characters. Through the dialogue between the 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 thoughts advanced people 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 times. 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 due to the large number of 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 towards 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 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. The landscape is 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 is a description of not only the appearance of the 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 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 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 is the arrangement of parts of a work in a certain sequence, it is an integral system of forms artistic image. 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 is the 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.
Composition (from the Latin compositio - composition, connection) - the construction of a work of art. The composition can be organized plot-wise or non-plot-wise. A lyrical work can also be plot-based, which is characterized by an epic event plot) and non-plot (Lermontov’s poem “Gratitude”).
The composition of a literary work includes:
Arrangement of character images and grouping of other images;
Composition of the plot;
Composition of extra-plot elements;
Composition of details (details of the situation, behavior);
Speech composition (stylistic devices).
The composition of a work depends on its content, type, genre, etc.
GENRE (French genre - genus, type) is a type of literary work, namely:
1) a type of work that actually exists in the history of national literature or a number of literatures and is designated by one or another traditional term (epic, novel, story, short story in an epic; comedy, tragedy, etc. in the field of drama; ode, elegy, ballad, etc. - in lyrics);
2) an “ideal” type or a logically constructed model of a specific literary work, which can be considered as its invariant (this meaning of the term is present in any definition of a particular work of literature). Therefore, the characteristics of the structure of liquids at this time historical moment, i.e. in the aspect of synchrony, must be combined with illumination of it in a diachronic perspective. This is precisely, for example, M. M. Bakhtin’s approach to the problem of the genre structure of Dostoevsky’s novels. The most important turning point in the history of literature is the change between canonical genres, the structures of which go back to certain “eternal” images, and non-canonical ones, i.e. not under construction.
STYLE (from Latin stilus, stylus - pointed stick for writing) is a system of linguistic elements united by a specific functional purpose, methods of their selection, use, mutual combination and correlation, a functional variety of lit. language.
The compositional speech structure of language (that is, the totality of linguistic elements in their interaction and mutual correlation) is determined by social tasks verbal communication(speech communication) in one of the main areas of human activity
S. - the basic, fundamental concept of functional stylistics and literary language
Modern functional-style system. rus. lit. language is multidimensional. Its constituent functional-style unities (styles, book speech, public speech, colloquial speech, the language of artistic literature) are not the same in their importance in speech communication and in their coverage of linguistic material. Along with C., the functional-style sphere is distinguished. This concept is correlated with the concept "C." and similar to it. Together
Artistic speech- speech that realizes the aesthetic functions of language. Literary speech is divided into prosaic and poetic. Artistic speech: - is formed verbally folk art; - allows you to transfer characteristics from object to object by similarity (metaphor) and contiguity (metonymy); - forms and develops the polysemy of a word; - gives speech a complex phonological organization
Today we are talking on the topic: “Traditional elements of composition.” But first, we should remember what “composition” is. We first encounter this term in school. But everything flows, everything changes, gradually even the strongest knowledge is erased. Therefore, we read, rummage through the old, and fill in the missing gaps.
Composition in literature
What is composition? First of all, we turn to you for help explanatory dictionary and we learn that literally translated from Latin this term means “composition, composition.” Needless to say, without “composition”, that is, without “composition”, no work of art is possible (examples follow) and no text as a whole. It follows that composition in literature is a certain order of arrangement of parts of a work of art. In addition, these are certain forms and methods of artistic representation that have a direct connection with the content of the text.
Basic elements of composition
When we open a book, the first thing we hope for and look forward to is a beautiful, entertaining narrative that will surprise or keep us in suspense, and then not let go for a long time, forcing us to mentally return to what we read again and again. In this sense, a writer is a true artist who primarily shows and does not tell. He avoids direct text like: “Now I’ll tell you.” On the contrary, his presence is invisible, unobtrusive. But what do you need to know and be able to do for such mastery?
Compositional elements are the palette in which the artist, a master of words, mixes his colors to later create a bright, colorful plot. These include: monologue, dialogue, description, narration, system of images, author's digression, plug-in genres, plot, plot. Below - about each of them in more detail.
Monologue speech
Depending on how many people or characters in a work of art participate in speech - one, two or more - monologue, dialogue and polylogue are distinguished. The latter is a type of dialogue, so we will not dwell on it. Let's consider only the first two.
A monologue is an element of composition that consists in the author's use of one character's speech, which does not expect or receive an answer. As a rule, it is addressed to listeners in dramatic work or to yourself.
Depending on the function in the text, the following types of monologue are distinguished: technical - the hero’s description of events that have occurred or are currently occurring; lyrical - the hero conveys his strong emotional experiences; monologue-acceptance - the internal reflections of a character who is faced with a difficult choice.
The following types are distinguished by form: the author's word - the author's address to the readers, most often through one or another character; stream of consciousness - the free flow of the hero’s thoughts as they are, without obvious logic and not adhering to the rules of literary construction of speech; dialectics of reasoning - the hero’s presentation of all the pros and cons; dialogue alone - a character’s mental address to another character; apart - in dramaturgy, a few words aside that characterize the current state of the hero; stanzas are also in dramaturgy the lyrical reflections of a character.
Dialogue speech
Dialogue is another element of composition, a conversation between two or more characters. Typically, dialogical speech is the ideal means of conveying the clash of two opposing points of view. It also helps create an image, reveal personality and character.
Here I would like to talk about the so-called dialogue of questions, which involves a conversation consisting exclusively of questions, and the response of one of the characters is both a question and an answer to the previous remark at the same time. (examples follow below) Khanmagomedov Aidyn Asadullaevich “Mountain Woman” is a clear confirmation of this.
Description
What is a person? This is a special character, individuality, and unique appearance, and the environment in which he was born, brought up and exists at this moment in his life, and his home, and the things with which he surrounds himself, and people, distant and close, and the nature surrounding him... The list can be continued indefinitely. Therefore, when creating an image in a literary work, a writer must look at his hero from all possible angles and describe without missing a single detail, even more - create new “shades” that cannot even be imagined. The following types are distinguished in the literature artistic descriptions: portrait, interior, landscape.
Portrait
It is one of the most important compositional elements in literature. He describes not only the external appearance of the hero, but also his inner world - the so-called psychological portrait. The place of a portrait in a work of art also varies. A book can begin with him or, conversely, end with him (A.P. Chekhov, “Ionych”). maybe immediately after the character commits some act (Lermontov, “Hero of Our Time”). In addition, the author can draw a character in one fell swoop, monolithically (Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment, Prince Andrei in War and Peace), and another time scatter the features throughout the text (War and Peace, Natasha Rostova). Basically, the writer himself takes up the brush, but sometimes he gives this right to one of the characters, for example, Maxim Maksimych in the novel “A Hero of Our Time,” so that he can describe Pechorin as accurately as possible. The portrait can be painted ironically, satirically (Napoleon in War and Peace) and “ceremoniously”. Sometimes only the face, a certain detail, or the entire body - figure, manners, gestures, clothing (Oblomov) - comes under the author’s “magnifying glass”.
Interior description
The interior is an element of the composition of the novel, allowing the author to create a description of the hero’s home. It is no less valuable than a portrait, since the description of the type of room, furnishings, atmosphere in the house - all this plays an invaluable role in conveying the characteristics of the character, in understanding the full depth of the created image. The interior reveals both a close connection with which is the part through which the whole is known, and the individual through which the plural is seen. So, for example, Dostoevsky in the novel “The Idiot” “hung” Holbein’s painting “Dead Christ” in Rogozhin’s gloomy house in order to once again draw attention to the irreconcilable struggle of true faith with passions, with unbelief in Rogozhin’s soul.
Landscape - description of nature
As Fyodor Tyutchev wrote, nature is not what we imagine, it is not soulless. On the contrary, there is a lot hidden in it: soul, freedom, love, and language. The same can be said about the landscape in a literary work. The author, with the help of such an element of composition as landscape, depicts not only nature, terrain, city, architecture, but thereby reveals the state of the character, and contrasts the naturalness of nature with conventional human beliefs, acting as a kind of symbol.
Remember the description of the oak tree during Prince Andrei’s trip to the Rostovs’ house in the novel War and Peace. What it (the oak) was like at the very beginning of its journey - an old, gloomy, “disdainful freak” among the birches smiling at the world and spring. But at the second meeting, it unexpectedly blossomed and was renewed, despite the hundred-year-old hard bark. He still submitted to spring and life. The oak in this episode is not only a landscape, a description of nature coming to life after a long winter, but also a symbol of the changes that have taken place in the prince’s soul, a new stage in his life, which managed to “break” the desire that was almost ingrained in him to be an outcast from life until the end of his days .
Narration
Unlike a description, which is static, nothing happens in it, nothing changes, and in general it answers the question “what?”, a narration includes action, conveys the “sequence of events that occur” and the key question for it is “what happened ?. Speaking figuratively, narration as an element of the composition of a work of art can be presented in the form of a slide show - a quick change of pictures illustrating a plot.
Image system
Just as each person has his own network of lines on his fingertips, forming a unique pattern, so each work has its own unique system of images. This may include the image of the author, if there is one, the image of the narrator, the main characters, antipodean heroes, minor characters and so on. Their relationships are built depending on the ideas and goals of the author.
Author's digression
Or a lyrical digression is a so-called extra-plot element of the composition, with the help of which the author’s personality seems to burst into the plot, thereby interrupting the direct course of the plot narrative. What is this for? First of all, to establish a special emotional contact between the author and the reader. Here the writer no longer acts as a storyteller, but opens his soul, raises deeply personal questions, discusses moral, aesthetic, philosophical topics, shares memories from his own life. Thus, the reader manages to take a breath before the flow of subsequent events, stop and delve more deeply into the idea of the work, and think about the questions posed to him.
Plug-in genres
This is another important compositional element, which is not only a necessary part of the plot, but also serves a more voluminous, deeper revelation of the hero’s personality, helps to understand the reason for his particular life choice, his inner world, and so on. Any genre of literature can be inserted. For example, stories are the so-called story within a story (the novel “Hero of Our Time”), poems, stories, verses, songs, fables, letters, parables, diaries, sayings, proverbs and many others. They can be like own composition, and someone else's.
Plot and plot
These two concepts are often either confused with each other or mistakenly believed to be the same thing. But they should be distinguished. The plot is, one might say, the skeleton, the basis of the book, in which all the parts are interconnected and follow one after another in the order that is necessary for the full implementation of the author's plan, the disclosure of the idea. In other words, events in the plot can take place in different time periods. The plot is the basis, but in a more condensed form, and plus is the sequence of events in their strictly chronological order. For example, birth, maturity, old age, death - this is the plot, then the plot is maturity, memories from childhood, adolescence, youth, lyrical digressions, old age and death.
Subject composition
The plot, just like the literary work itself, has its own stages of development. At the center of any plot there is always a conflict around which the main events develop.
The book begins with an exposition or prologue, that is, with an “explanation”, a description of the situation, the starting point from which it all began. What follows is the plot, one might say, a foreshadowing of future events. At this stage, the reader begins to realize that a future conflict is just around the corner. As a rule, it is in this part that the main characters meet, who are destined to go through the upcoming trials together, side by side.
We continue to list the elements plot composition. The next stage is the development of action. This is usually the most significant piece of text. Here the reader already becomes an invisible participant in the events, he knows everyone, he feels what is happening, but is still intrigued. Gradually, the centrifugal force sucks him in, and slowly, unexpectedly for himself, he finds himself in the very center of the whirlpool. The climax comes - the very peak, when a real storm of feelings and a sea of emotions falls on both the main characters and the reader himself. And then, when it is already clear that the worst is over and you can breathe, the denouement quietly knocks on the door. She chews everything over, explains every detail, puts all things on shelves - each in its place, and the tension slowly subsides. The epilogue brings the final line and briefly outlines later life main and secondary characters. However, not all plots have the same structure. The traditional elements of a fairy tale composition are completely different.
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it. Which? The elements of the fairy tale’s composition are radically different from their “brothers,” although when reading, easy and relaxed, you don’t notice this. This is the talent of a writer or even an entire people. As Alexander Sergeevich instructed, it is simply necessary to read fairy tales, especially common folk ones, because they contain all the properties of the Russian language.
So, what are they - traditional elements fairytale composition? The first words are a saying that puts you in a fairy-tale mood and promises a lot of miracles. For example: “This fairy tale will be told from the morning until lunch, after eating soft bread...” When the listeners relax, sit more comfortably and are ready to listen further, the time has come for the beginning - the beginning. The main characters, place and time of action are introduced, and another line is drawn that divides the world into two parts - real and magical.
Next comes the fairy tale itself, in which there are often repetitions to enhance the impression and gradually approach the denouement. In addition, poems, songs, onomatopoeia of animals, dialogues - all these are also integral elements of the composition of a fairy tale. The fairy tale also has its own ending, which seems to sum up all the miracles, but at the same time hints at infinity magical world: “They live, get along and make good things.”
Plot (from French sujet) - the chain of events depicted in a literary work, that is, the life of the characters in its spatio-temporal changes, in successive situations and circumstances.
The events recreated by writers form (along with the characters) the basis objective world work and thereby an integral “link” of its form. The plot is the organizing principle of most dramatic and epic (narrative) works. It can also be significant in the lyrical genre of literature.
Plot elements: The main ones include exposition, plot, development of action, vicissitudes, climax, denouement. Optional: prologue, epilogue, background, ending.
We will call the plot the system of events and actions contained in the work, its chain of events, and precisely in the sequence in which it is given to us in the work. The last remark is important, since quite often events are told not in chronological sequence, and the reader can find out what happened earlier later. If we take only the main, key episodes of the plot, which are absolutely necessary for its understanding, and arrange them in chronological order, then we will get plot - plot outline or, as they sometimes say, “straightened plot” . Fables in various works can be very similar to each other, but the plot is always uniquely individual.
There are two types of plots. In the first type, the development of the action occurs intensely and as quickly as possible, the events of the plot contain the main meaning and interest for the reader, the plot elements are clearly expressed, and the denouement carries a huge meaningful load. This type of plot is found, for example, in “Tales of Belkin” by Pushkin, “On the Eve” by Turgenev, “The Player” by Dostoevsky, etc. Let’s call this type of plot dynamic.
In another type of plot - let's call it, in contrast to the first, adynamic - the development of the action is slow and does not strive for a denouement, the events of the plot do not contain any particular interest, the elements of the plot are expressed unclearly or are completely absent (the conflict is embodied and moves not with the help of plot, but with the help of other compositional means), the denouement is either completely absent, or it is purely formal, in the overall composition of the work there are many extra-plot elements (see about them below), which often shift the center of gravity of the reader’s attention to themselves.
We see this type of plot, for example, in “ Dead souls"Gogol, "Muzhik" and other works of Chekhov, etc. There is a fairly simple way to check what kind of plot you are dealing with: works with an adynamic plot can be re-read from any place, for works with a dynamic plot it is typical to read and re-read only from beginning to end. Dynamic plots, as a rule, are built on local conflicts, while adynamic plots are based on substantial ones. This pattern does not have the character of a strict 100% dependence, but still in most cases this relationship between the type of conflict and the type of plot takes place.
Concentric plot - one event (one event situation) comes to the fore. Characteristic of small epic forms, dramatic genres, literature of antiquity and classicism. (“Telegram” by K. Paustovsky, “Notes of a Hunter” by I. Turgenev) Chronicle plot - events have no cause-and-effect relationships and are correlated with each other only in time (“Don Quixote” by Cervantes, “Odyssey” by Homer, Don- Juan" by Byron).
Plot and composition. The concept of composition is broader and more universal than the concept of plot. The plot fits into the overall composition of the work, occupying one or another, more or less important place in it, depending on the intentions of the author. There is also an internal composition of the plot, which we now turn to consider.
Depending on the relationship between plot and plot in a particular work, they talk about different types and techniques of plot composition. The most simple case is one where the events of the plot are linearly arranged in direct chronological sequence without any changes. This composition is also called direct or plot sequence. A more complex technique is in which we learn about an event that happened earlier than the others at the very end of the work - this technique is called default. This technique is very effective, since it allows you to keep the reader in the dark and in tension until the very end, and at the end, surprise him with the surprise of the plot twist.
Thanks to these properties, the technique of silence is almost always used in works of the detective genre, although, of course, not only in them. Another technique for violating chronology or plot sequence is the so-called retrospection, when, as the plot develops, the author makes digressions into the past, as a rule, to the time preceding the plot and beginning of this work. Finally, 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's called free composition and to one degree or another is used quite often by different writers: for example, we can find elements of free composition in Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. However, it happens that free composition becomes the main and determining principle of plot construction, in which case we, as a rule, actually talk about free composition.
Extra-plot elements. 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 a work is the dynamic side of its composition, then the extra-plot elements are the static side; non-plot elements are those that do not move the action forward, during which nothing happens, and the characters remain in their previous positions.
There are three main types of extra-plot elements: description, author's digressions and inserted episodes (otherwise they are also called inserted short stories or inserted plots). Description - this is a literary image outside world(landscape, portrait, world of things, etc.) or a stable 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 Pushkin, “ Dead Souls"Gogol, "The Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov, etc.), they usually play a very important role and are subject to mandatory analysis. Finally, insert episodes - these are relatively complete fragments of action in which other characters act, 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: for example, in Gogol’s “Dead Souls.”
In some cases, psychological depiction can also be considered extra-plot elements if state of mind or the hero’s thoughts are not a consequence or cause of plot events, and are excluded from the plot chain. 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.
In general, extra-plot elements often have a weak or purely formal connection with the plot and represent a separate compositional line.
Composition anchor points. The composition of any literary work is constructed in such a way that from beginning to end the reader's tension does not weaken, but intensifies. In a work of small volume, the composition most often represents a linear development in increasing order, directed towards the finale, the ending, in which the point is located highest voltage. In larger works, the composition alternates between rises and falls in tension with an overall upward development. We will call the points of greatest reader tension the reference points of the composition.
The simplest case: the reference points of the composition coincide with the elements of the plot, primarily with the climax and denouement. We encounter this when the dynamic plot is not just the basis of the composition of the work, but essentially exhausts its originality. The composition in this case contains practically no extra-plot elements and uses compositional techniques to a minimum. An excellent example of such a construction is an anecdote story, such as Chekhov’s story “The Death of an Official” discussed above.
In the event that the plot traces different turns of the external fate of the hero with the relative or absolute static character of his character, it is useful to look for reference points in the so-called twists and turns - sharp turns in the fate of the hero. It was precisely this construction of reference points that was typical, for example, for ancient tragedy, devoid of psychologism, and was later and is used in adventure literature.
Almost always, one of the supporting points falls on the ending of the work (but not necessarily on the denouement, which may not coincide with the ending!). In small ones, mostly lyrical works this, as has already been said, is often the only supporting point, and everything previous only leads to it, increases the tension, ensuring its “explosion” in the end.
In major works of art, the ending also, as a rule, contains one of the supporting points. It is no coincidence that many writers said that they work especially carefully on the last phrase, and Chekhov pointed out to aspiring writers that it should sound “musical.”
Sometimes - although not so often - one of the reference points of the composition is, on the contrary, at the very beginning of the work, as, for example, in Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection”.
The reference points of a composition can sometimes be located at the beginning and end (usually) of parts, chapters, acts, etc. Types of composition. In the very general view We can distinguish two types of composition - let's call them conventionally 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 work, in the area of substantive details - a simple list of them without highlighting particularly important, supporting, symbolic details, etc.
With a complex composition, in the very construction of the work, in the order of combination of its parts and elements, a special artistic sense. For example, the consistent change of narrators and the violation of the chronological sequence in Lermontov’s “Hero of Our Time” focus attention on the moral and philosophical essence of Pechorin’s character and allow us to “get closer” to it, gradually unraveling the character.
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 the greater or lesser complexity of the composition of a particular work. There are, of course, pure types: for example, the composition of, say, Krylov’s fables or Gogol’s story “The Stroller” is simple in all respects, but Dostoevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov” or Chekhov’s “Lady with a Dog” is complex in all respects. 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 style dominants work and, thus, determine its artistic originality.
In addition to external connections, temporary and cause-and-effect, there are internal, emotional and semantic connections between the events depicted. They are
mainly constitute the sphere of plot composition. Thus, the juxtaposition of the chapters of “War and Peace” dedicated to the death of old Bezukhov and the merry name days in the Rostovs’ house, externally motivated by the simultaneity of these events, carries a certain content. This compositional technique sets the reader in the mood of Tolstoy's thoughts about the inseparability of life and death.
In many works, the composition of plot episodes becomes crucial. Such, for example, is the novel by T. Mann “The Magic Mountain”. Consistently, without any chronological rearrangements, capturing the course of Hans Castorp's life in a tuberculosis sanatorium, this novel at the same time contains a meaningful and complex system of comparisons between the depicted events, facts, and episodes. It is not for nothing that T. Mann advised people interested in his work to read “The Magic Mountain” twice: the first time - to understand the relationships of the characters, i.e. the plot; in the second - to delve into the internal logic of connections between chapters, that is, to understand the artistic meaning of the composition of the plot.
The composition of the plot is also 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 idea gradually and steadily. In novels and stories, poems and dramas that are truly artistic, 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. “The force of the (artistic) blow is at the end,” noted D. Furmanov (82, 4, 714). The role of the final effect in small one-act plays, short stories, fables, and ballads is even more important. The ideological meaning of such works is often revealed suddenly and only in the last lines of the text. This is how OTenry's short stories are structured: often their endings turn inside out what was said earlier.
Sometimes the writer seems to intrigue his readers: for some time he keeps them in the dark about the true essence of the events depicted. This compositional technique is called by default and the moment when I read Finally, together with the heroes, he learns about what happened earlier - recognition(the last term belongs to
lives by Aristotle). Let us recall the tragedy of Sophocles “Oedipus the King”, where neither the hero, nor the viewer and readers for a long time realize that Oedipus himself is to blame for the murder of Laius. In modern times, such compositional techniques are used mainly in the picaresque and adventure genres, where, as V. Shklovsky put it, “the technique of mystery” is of paramount importance.
But realist writers sometimes keep the reader in the dark about what happened. Pushkin’s story “The Blizzard” is based on default. Only at the very end does the reader learn that Maria Gavrilovna is married to a stranger, who, as it turns out, was Burmin.
Silences about events can add greater tension to the depiction of action. So, reading “War and Peace” for the first time, for a long time, together with the Bolkonsky family, we believe that Prince Andrei died after the Battle of Austerlitz, and only at the moment of his appearance in Bald Mountains do we learn that this is not so. Such omissions are very characteristic of Dostoevsky. In The Brothers Karamazov, for example, the reader believes for some time that Fyodor Pavlovich was killed by his son Dmitry, and only Smerdyakov’s story puts an end to this misconception.
Chronological rearrangements of events become an important means of plot composition. Usually they (like omissions and recognitions) intrigue the reader and thereby make the action more entertaining. But sometimes (especially in realistic literature) rearrangements are dictated by the desire of the authors to switch readers from the external side of what happened (what will happen to the characters next?) to its deeper background. Thus, in Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time,” the composition of the plot serves to gradually penetrate into the secrets of the protagonist’s inner world. First, we learn about Pechorin from the story of Maxim Maksimych (“Bela”), then from the narrator-author, 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.
For realistic literature of the 20th century. works with detailed backstories of the characters are typical,
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. This kind of “retrospective” (turning back to what happened before) composition of the plot is characteristic of the works of G. Green and W. Faulkner. It is also found in some dramatic works. Thus, the heroes of Ibsen’s dramas often tell each other about long-standing events. In a number modern dramas what the characters remember is depicted directly: in stage episodes that interrupt the main line of action (“Death of a Salesman” by A. Miller).
Internal, emotional and semantic connections between plot episodes sometimes turn out to be more important than the plot connections themselves, cause and time. The composition of such works can be called active, or, using the term of filmmakers, “montage”. An active, montage composition allows writers to embody deep, not directly observable connections between life phenomena, events, and facts. It is typical for the works of L. Tolstoy and Chekhov, Brecht and Bulgakov. The role and purpose of this kind of composition can be characterized by Blok’s words from the preface to the poem “Retribution”: “I am used to comparing facts from all areas of life accessible to my vision in given time, and I am sure that all of them together always create a single musical pressure" (32, 297).
The composition of the plot in the system of artistic means of epic and drama, therefore, has a very important place.
CHARACTERS' STATEMENTS
The most important aspect of the substantive depiction of epic and drama is the statements of the characters, that is, their dialogues and monologues. In epics and novels, stories and short stories, the speech of the heroes takes up a very significant, and sometimes even the largest part. In the dramatic genre of literature, it dominates unconditionally and absolutely.
Dialogues and monologues are expressively significant 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, and the main thing is that activity and passivity pass from one participant in communication to another. The most favorable for dialogue is the oral form of contact, its relaxed and non-hierarchical nature: the absence of social and spiritual distance between speakers. Dialogue speech is characterized by the alternation of short statements by two (sometimes more) persons. A monologue, on the contrary, does not require anyone's immediate response and proceeds regardless of the reactions of the perceiver. This is speaking that is not interrupted by “someone else’s” speech. Monologues can be “solitary and”, taking place outside of the speaker’s direct contact with anyone: they are pronounced (aloud or silently) alone or in an atmosphere of psychological isolation of the speaker from those present. But much more common are addressed monologues, designed to actively influence the consciousness of listeners. These are the speeches of speakers, lecturers, teachers before students 1.
In the early stages of the formation and development of verbal art (in myths, parables, fairy tales), the statements of characters usually represented practically significant remarks: the depicted people (or animals) briefly informed each other about their intentions, expressed their desires or demands. Casually spoken dialogue was present in comedies and farces.
However, in leading high genres Pre-realistic literature was dominated by oratorical, declamatory, rhetorical-poetic speech of characters, lengthy, solemn, outwardly effective, mostly monologue.
These are the words Hecuba addresses in the Iliad to his son Hector, who briefly left the battlefield and came to his home:
Why do you, O my son, come, leaving a fierce battle?
It is true that the hated Achaeans are cruelly oppressing them,
Ratuja close to the walls? And your heart turned to us:
Do you want to raise your hands to the Olympian from the Trojan castle?
But wait, my Hector, I will take out the cup of wine
To Zeus the father and other eternal deities.
Afterwards, when you wish to drink, you yourself will be strengthened;
For a husband exhausted by work, wine renews his strength;
But you, my son, are weary, struggling for your citizens.
And Hector answers in even more detail why he does not dare to pour wine to Zeus “with an unwashed hand.”
Such conventionally declamatory, rhetorical, pathetic speech is especially characteristic of tragedies: from Aeschylus and Sophocles to Schiller, Sumarkov, Ozerov. It was also characteristic of characters in a number of other genres of pre-realistic eras. As part of this speech, monological principles, as a rule, took precedence over dialogical ones: rhetoric and declamation were relegated to the background, and even negated the natural conversationality. Ordinary, unvarnished speech was used mainly in comedies and satires, as well as in works of a parody nature.
At the same time, the so-called monophony prevailed in literature: characters spoke in the speech manner required by the literary (primarily genre) tradition 1 .
The character's statement still to a small extent became his speech characteristics. The diversity of speech manners and styles in pre-realistic eras was captured only in a few outstanding works - in “ Divine Comedy"Dante, Rabelais' stories, Shakespeare's plays, Cervantes' Don Quixote. According to the observations of one of the famous translators, the novel “Don Quixote” is multilingual and polyphonic: “... there is the language of the peasants, and the language of the then “intelligentsia”, and the language of the clergy, and the language of the nobility, and student jargon, and even “thieves’ music” (68, 114).
Realistic creativity of the 19th-20th centuries. inherent
1 Note that in modern literary criticism Dialogical speech is often understood broadly, as any implementation of contact, so that it is given universality. In this case, monologue speech is considered as having secondary importance and practically non-existent in its pure form. This kind of sharp and unconditional preference for dialogical speech occurs in the works of M. M. Bakhtin.
1 “The speech of the character,” writes D. S. Likhachev about ancient Russian literature, - this is the author’s speech for him. The author is a kind of puppeteer. The doll is deprived of its own life and its own voice. The author speaks for her in his own voice, his own language and his usual style. The author, as it were, restates what the character said or could have said... This achieves a peculiar effect of muteness of the characters, despite all their external verbosity" (in the collection: XVIII century in world literary development. M., 1969. With .313).
heteroglossia. Here, as never before, the socio-ideological and individual characteristics of the speech of characters who acquired their own “voices” began to be widely mastered. At the same time, the character’s inner world is revealed not only by the logical meaning of what is said, but also by the very manner, the very organization of speech.
He thinks: “I will be her savior. I will not tolerate the corrupter tempting a young heart with fire and sighs and praises; So that the despicable, poisonous worm sharpens the stem of the lily; So that the two-morning flower fades while still half-open.” All this meant, friends: I’m shooting with a friend.
These lines from “Eugene Onegin” perfectly characterize the structure of Lensky’s soul, who elevates his experiences to a romantic pedestal and is therefore prone to emphatically sublime, conventionally poetic speech, syntactically complicated and replete with metaphorical phrases. These features of the hero’s statement are especially striking thanks to the naturally free, worldly ingenuous, completely “unliterary” commentary of the narrator (“All this meant, friends: || I’m shooting with a friend”). And Lensky’s romantically effective monologue bears the stamp of irony.
Writers of the 19th-20th centuries. (and this is their greatest artistic achievement) with a hitherto unprecedented breadth they introduced relaxed colloquial speech, mainly dialogical, into their works. Lively conversation in its social diversity and wealth of individually expressive principles and aesthetic organization was reflected in “Eugene Onegin”, in the narrative works of Gogol, Nekrasov, Leskov, Melyshkov-Pechersky, in the dramaturgy of Griboedov, Pushkin, Ostrovsky, Turgenev, Chekhov, Gorky.
The speech of the characters often conveys their unique psychological states; statements, in the words of G. O. Vinokur, are built on “clumps of conversational expression” (39, 304). “The talkativeness of the heart” (an expression from the novel “Poor People”) is not characteristic only of Dostoevsky’s heroes. This mental ability of a person has been mastered by many realist writers.
“To think “figuratively” and write like this, it is necessary that
The writer’s heroes each spoke in their own language, characteristic of their position... - said N. S. Leskov. - A person lives by words, and you need to know at what moments of psychological life which of us will have what words... I carefully and for many years listened to the pronunciation and pronunciation of Russian people at different levels of their social status. They all talk to me in my own wayhim, and not in a literary way" (82, 3, 221). This tradition was inherited by many Soviet writers: “in their own way, not in a literary way,” the heroes of Sholokhov and Zoshchenko, Shukshin and Belov speak.