Antithesis is a means of expression that is often used in the Russian language and in Russian literature because of its powerful expressive capabilities. So, antithesis definition is such a technique in artistic language when one phenomenon is contrasted with another. Those who want to read about the antithesis of Wikipedia will certainly find there different examples from poems.
I would like to define the concept of “antithesis” and its meaning. She has great value in language, because it is a technique that allows compare two opposites, for example, “black” and “white”, “good” and “evil”. The concept of this technique is defined as a means of expressiveness, which allows you to very vividly describe an object or phenomenon in poetry.
What is antithesis in literature
Antithesis is an artistic figurative and expressive means that allows you to compare one object with another based on oppositions. Usually, as an artistic medium, it is very popular among many modern writers and poets. But in the classics you can also find huge amount examples. Within the antithesis can be opposed in meaning or in their properties:
- Two characters. This most often happens in cases where positive character opposed to negative;
- Two phenomena or objects;
- Different qualities of the same object (looking at the object from several aspects);
- The qualities of one object are contrasted with the qualities of another object.
Lexical meaning of trope
The technique is very popular in literature because it allows you to most clearly express the essence of a particular subject through opposition. Typically, such oppositions always look lively and imaginative, so poetry and prose that use antithesis are quite interesting to read. She is one of the most popular And known means artistic expression literary text, be it poetry or prose.
The technique was actively used by the classics of Russian literature, and modern poets and prose writers use it no less actively. Most often, the antithesis underlies contrast between two characters in a work of art, When goodie is opposed to negative. At the same time, their qualities are deliberately demonstrated in an exaggerated, sometimes grotesque form.
Skillful use of this artistic technique allows you to create a lively, imaginative description of characters, objects or phenomena found in a particular work of art (novel, story, story, poem or fairy tale). It is often used in folklore works(fairy tales, epics, songs and other genres of oral folk art). During runtime literary analysis text, you must definitely pay attention to the presence or absence of this technique in the work.
Where can you find examples of antithesis?
Antithesis examples from literature can be found almost everywhere, in the most different genres fiction, ranging from folk art (fairy tales, epics, tales, legends, etc. oral folklore) and ending with the works of modern poets and writers of the twenty-first century. Due to its characteristics of artistic expression, the technique is most often found in the following genres of fiction:
- Poems;
- Stories:
- Fairy tales and legends (folk and author's);
- Novels and stories. In which there are lengthy descriptions of objects, phenomena or characters.
Antithesis as an artistic device
As a means of artistic expression, it is built on the opposition of one phenomenon to another. A writer who uses antithesis in his work chooses the most characteristic features two characters (objects, phenomena) and tries to reveal them as fully as possible by contrasting each other. The word itself, translated from ancient Greek, also means nothing more than “opposition.”
Active and appropriate use makes the literary text more expressive, lively, interesting, helps to most fully reveal the characters of the characters, the essence of specific phenomena or objects. This is what determines the popularity of the antithesis in the Russian language and in Russian literature. However, in others European languages this is a remedy artistic imagery is also used very actively, especially in classical literature.
In order to find examples of antithesis during the analysis of a literary text, you must first examine those fragments of the text where two characters (phenomena, objects) are not considered in isolation, but are opposed to each other with different points vision. And then finding a reception will be quite easy. Sometimes the whole meaning of a work is built on this artistic device. It should also be borne in mind that the antithesis can be explicit, but maybe hidden, veiled.
Finding a hidden antithesis in an artistic literary text is quite simple if you read and analyze the text thoughtfully and carefully. In order to teach how to correctly use a technique in your own literary text, you need to familiarize yourself with the most striking examples from Russian classical literature. However, it is not recommended to abuse it so that it does not lose its expressiveness.
Antithesis is one of the main means of artistic expression, widely used in the Russian language and in Russian literature. The technique can easily be found in many works of Russian classics. They actively use it and modern writers. Antithesis enjoys well-deserved popularity because it helps to most clearly express the essence of individual heroes, objects or phenomena by contrasting one hero (object, phenomenon) with another. Russian literature without this artistic device is practically unthinkable.
Since it began literary art, writers and poets have come up with many options to attract the reader's attention in their works. This is how a universal technique of contrasting phenomena and objects arose. Antithesis in artistic speech is always a game of contrasts.
To find out exact value scientific term antithesis, you should consult an encyclopedia or dictionary. Antithesis (derived from the Greek “opposition”) is a stylistic figure based on contrastive opposition in speech practice or fiction.
Contains sharply opposed objects, phenomena and images that have a semantic connection or are united by one design.
How to explain in simple language what an antithesis is and for what purpose it is used in the Russian language? This is a technique in literature based on the juxtaposition of different contrasting characters, concepts or events. This technique is found as a basis for constructing entire large novels or parts of literary texts of any genre.
The following can be contrasted in a work as an antithesis:
- Two images or heroes, called antagonists in literature.
- Two various phenomena, condition or object.
- Variations in the quality of one phenomenon or object (when the author reveals the subject from different sides).
- The author contrasts the properties of one object with the properties of another object.
Usually the main vocabulary from which a contrasting effect is created are antonymic words. Proof of this are folk proverbs: “It’s easy to make friends, it’s hard to be separated”, “Learning is light, and ignorance is darkness”, “The slower you go, the further you will go.”
Examples of antithesis
Areas of application of antithesis
The author of a work of art of any genre needs expressiveness of speech, for which antithesis is used. In the Russian language, the use of opposing concepts has long become a tradition in the titles of novels, stories, plays and poetic texts: “War and Peace”; “The Prince and the Pauper” by M. Twain, “Wolves and Sheep” by N. S. Ostrovsky.
In addition to stories, novels and sayings, the technique of opposition is successfully used in works intended for agitation in politics and social sphere and oratory. Everyone is familiar with mottos, chants and slogans: “He who was nobody will become everything!”
Opposition is often present in ordinary colloquial speech, such examples of antithesis: dishonor - dignity, life - death, good - evil. To influence listeners and present a subject or phenomenon more fully and in the right key, a person can compare these phenomena with another object or phenomenon, or can use the contrasting characteristics of objects for contrast.
Useful video: what is antithesis, antithesis
Types of antithesis
In Russian they can occur various options contrasting phenomena:
- In terms of composition, it can be simple (includes one pair of words) and complex (has two or more pairs of antonyms, several concepts): “A rich man fell in love with a poor woman, a scientist fell in love with a stupid woman, a ruddy woman fell in love with a pale woman, a good man fell in love with a harmful woman, a golden man fell in love with a copper half-shelf.” (M. Tsvetaeva). Such an expanded expression unexpectedly reveals the concept.
- An even greater effect from the use of contrasting concepts is achieved when used together with other types of figures of speech, for example with parallelism or anaphora: “I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am God!” (Derzhavin).
- This option of opposition is distinguished when it is preserved external structure antitheses, but the words are in no way connected in meaning: “There is an elderberry in the garden, and in Kyiv there is an uncle.” Such expressions create the effect of surprise.
- There is a contrast between several forms of a word, often in the same case. This form is used in short, bright statements, aphorisms and mottos: “Man is a wolf to man,” “To Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” “Peace to the world.”
Take note! Born on the basis of antithesis special welcome- an oxymoron, which some experts consider as a type of this figure of speech, only with an emphasis on humor and irony. Examples of oxymorons in Alexander Blok’s “The Heat of Cold Numbers” or in Nekrasov’s “And the Poor Luxury of the Attire...”
Application in fiction
Research shows that in literary text opposition of images is used more often than other figures of contrast. Moreover, in foreign literature was used as often as in poetry and prose of Russians and Soviet writers. Its presence allows us to enhance the reader’s emotional sensations, more fully reveal the author’s position and emphasize main idea works. Good examples of the use of antithesis and the definition of the term are contained in Wikipedia.
Examples in prose
Russian realist writers Pushkin A.S., Lermontov M.Yu., Tolstoy L.N., Turgenev I.S. actively used a technique based on the contrast of concepts in their works. Good example Chekhov has it in his story “Darling”: “Olenka grew plump and was all beaming with pleasure, but Kukin was losing weight and turning yellow and complaining about terrible losses...”
Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” already in its title contains a hidden confrontation between two eras. The system of characters and the plot of the novel are also based on opposition (conflict between two generations: older and younger).
In foreign literature, O. Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is an excellent example of the technique of contrast in a work of the Romantic era. The contrast between the hero’s beautiful face and his low spiritual qualities is an analogy of the opposition of good to evil.
Chekhov A.P. "Darling"
Examples in verses
Anyone famous poet You can find examples of the use of antithesis in the poem. Poets different directions This technique was widely used. Writers silver age(, Marina Tsvetaeva, Sergei Yesenin, Konstantin Balmont) antithesis was a favorite method:
"You, sea strange dreams, and sounds, and lights!
You, friend and eternal enemy! An evil spirit and a good genius!
(Konstantin Balmont)
During the period of classicism, poets also loved this method of creating expressiveness. An example in the poem by G.R. Derzhavina:
“Where was the table of food,
There is a coffin there."
The great Pushkin often included contrasts of images and characters in poetic and prose texts. Fyodor Tyutchev has vivid examples detailed confrontation between heaven and earth:
“The kite rose from the clearing,
he soared high into the sky;
And so he went beyond the horizon.
Mother Nature gave him
Two powerful, two living wings -
And here I am in sweat and dust,
I, the king of the earth, am rooted to the earth!”
Useful video: Preparing for the Unified State Exam - the antithesis
Conclusion
Numerous examples from literature, poetry and other types of text indicate that antithesis has penetrated into all areas of our speech. Without it, the work becomes flat, uninteresting, and unattractive. This rhetorical figure, combining two opposing concepts side by side, gives the Russian language the power of persuasion and liveliness.
The concept of "antithesis" comes from an ancient Greek term consisting of two parts: "thesa", which means "position", and "anti" - "against". Adding them up, we get “opposite”, that is, “opposite”. Antithesis, the definition and examples of which we will present to you in this article, is a opposition of elements of composition, characters, images, words. This is an artistic device in literature that allows writers and poets who use it to characterize characters more fully, to reveal author's attitude to different aspects of what is depicted, as well as to the characters themselves.
Condition necessary for antithesis
An essential condition necessary in order to be able to talk about such a technique as antithesis (examples of which we will give below) is subordination general concept opposites or some general point of view on them.
Such subordination does not have to be logically exact. For example, such proverbs as “Small is the spool, but dear”, “Rarely, but accurately”, are constructed antithetically, although the concepts that are opposed in them cannot be called logically subordinate, such as, for example, “beginning” and “end”, "light" and "darkness".
But in this context they are considered as opposite because the words “small” and “rarely” are taken with a specification of meaning in relation to the words “expensive” and “aptly”, taken in their literal meaning, which are compared with them. Entering into antithesis, tropes can hide even more of its logical precision and clarity.
Verbal antithesis
Examples of the use of this technique are numerous. Verbal antithesis occurs when certain phrases or words with opposite emotional connotations or meanings are combined in one sentence or in a poetic phrase.
Let's take, for example, an excerpt from a poem by A.S. Pushkin:
"The city is lush, the city is poor
The spirit of bondage, the slender appearance...".
In the first line here, the antithesis (“poor” - “lush”) of the epithets selected for the word “city” expresses Alexander Sergeevich’s idea of Petersburg, which is concretized in the second line by the antithesis of the corresponding epithets. Here the external appearance of the city (in the text - “slender appearance”) and the spiritual content of its life (“spirit of bondage”) are contrasted. In another poem by the same author, verbal antitheses are used to emphasize the discrepancy between the spirit of the “poor knight” and his external appearance. It is said about this hero that he was “pale” and “twilight” in appearance, but in spirit he was “direct” and “brave.” Such a contrast is a verbal antithesis. Examples of it are found quite often in the literature.
Antithesis expressing complex emotional states
Antithesis serves to express not only the aspects of a phenomenon and an object, as well as the author’s emotionally charged attitude towards them, but also various complex emotional states. An example can be found in A.A. Blok's poem "In the Restaurant". Lyrical hero works, he met his beloved in the restaurant “boldly” and “embarrassed,” bowing with “an arrogant gaze.”
Various verbal antitheses are often oxymorons. In other words, it is a combination of words that have opposite meanings.
Figurative antithesis
A figurative antithesis is a contrast that exists between two different images. These could be characters from the work. Examples of antithesis from fiction are numerous: these are Lensky and Onegin, Molchalin and Chatsky, Stepan Kalashnikov and Kiribeevich, Pavel Petrovich and Bazarov, Napoleon and Kutuzov, etc. Also, figurative antithesis can refer to the image of a village and a city (for example, in a poem by A.S. Pushkin's "Village"), in addition, to the disharmony of the hero's soul and universal harmony (Lermontov, "I go out alone on the road"), the image of free nature and the monastery-"dungeon" (Lermontov, "Mtsyri"), etc. Figurative antithesis. , examples of which we have just given, was a favorite technique of such a master of style as Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky.
Compositional antithesis
There is also such a variety of this technique as compositional antithesis. This is one of the principles by which literary works. Compositional antithesis is a contrast between various episodes and storylines, scenes in drama and epic, stanzas and fragments in lyric poems. Let's take as an example the novel by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "Eugene Onegin".
In it, in the third and fourth chapters, the failed relationship of Onegin and Tatyana is contrasted. happy love"Lensky and Olga. In Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons" the antithesis of two conflicts (love and ideological) allows us to understand the true meaning of the views and beliefs of the nihilist Yevgeny Bazarov, as well as the main reason why they collapsed. Others can be given examples.
Antithesis from literature, presented in lyric poems
Widely used this technique also in various lyric poems. For Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, these are, for example, “Elegy”, “Poet and the Crowd”, “Poet”, “Village” (an example of antithesis in Alexander Sergeevich’s poems - the opposition of slavery of the people and a peaceful landscape), “To Chaadaev”. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov - “Poet”, “Sail”, “Dream”, “Dispute”, “Gratitude”, “Why”, “January 1”, “Leaf”, “To the Portrait”. Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov - “Reflections at the Main Entrance”, “ Railway" and others.
Antithesis
Based on the material studied, we found out that in order to enliven speech, give it emotionality, expressiveness, and imagery, they use techniques of stylistic syntax, the so-called figures: antithesis, inversion, repetition, etc.
The object of study of this work is antithesis, and its characteristic “habitat” is aphorisms and catchphrases.
Often in speech sharply opposite concepts are compared: honor, insolence, work - rest, etc. This has a special effect on the imagination of listeners, causing them to have vivid ideas about the named objects and events. To characterize an object or phenomenon in a special way, one can find not only similarities and associations with another object or phenomenon, but also features of sharp contrast and differences in order to contrast one with the other. This technique, based on the comparison of opposite or sharply contrasting characters, circumstances, images, compositional elements, concepts, phenomena and signs, creating the effect of sharp contrast, is called antithesis. Antithesis can not only contrast concepts, but also emphasize the paradoxical nature of comparison (as in an oxymoron), the greatness of an object, and its universality, when contrasting properties are attributed to an object. Thus, the antithesis can make the meaning heavier and enhance the impression.
This stylistic figure in in a certain sense contrasts with most other figures precisely because it strictly observes all the rules of reason, the harmonious construction of pairs of oppositions without any violation of basic logical norms. Antithesis is carried out in order to place concepts in relations of contrast, and not only those concepts that are in principle contradictory (antonyms), but also concepts that are usually not related to each other by any relationship, but become conflicting when they are placed side by side.
In antithesis, two phenomena are compared, for which antonyms are most often used - words with opposite meanings: Every sweetness has its bitterness, every evil has its good (Ralph Waldo Emerson). The use of antithesis and comparison of opposing concepts allows you to express the main idea more vividly and emotionally, and more accurately express your attitude to the phenomena being described. IN everyday life, many things become clearer only when one is contrasted with the other: having experienced grief, people value moments of joy more. No wonder they say “Everything is learned by comparison.”
Antithesis, as a stylistic figure, gives the sharpest contrast to the things being opposed, evoking clear images in the mind. Contrast sharpens thought, helps organize the text or part of it, due to which parallel figures, especially antitheses, are used as text-forming means. The purpose of using antithesis is almost always achieved in oratory, during public speaking, and in works of art. But an incomparably deep effect from the use of antithesis is obtained in short and succinct statements, for example, a riddle, an aphorism, a proverb, a news article in a newspaper, since keyword in definition it is harsh. Sharpness and contrast certainly attract attention, we see a discrepancy. Result: bright emotional coloring, expressiveness and, often, humor. When a stupid person pretends to be smart, but stupidity just creeps out of him. When an evil person pretends to be good, but we see that he is a wolf in sheep's clothing.
“Antithesis (Greek antithesis - opposition). A stylistic figure that serves to enhance the expressiveness of speech by sharply contrasting concepts, thoughts, and images. Where there was a table of food, there is a coffin (Derzhavin). The antithesis is often built on antonyms: The rich feast on weekdays, but the poor grieve on holidays (proverb).”
“Antithesis, a semantic figure of speech, consisting of a comparison of logically opposite concepts or images, subordinate to one idea or a single point of view. *The spool is small, but expensive (proverb). “Cunning and Love” (F. Schiller).
They got along. Wave and stone
Poetry and prose, ice and fire
Not so different from each other.
(A. Pushkin)"
Earlier in the work it was already indicated that the most common basis of antithesis is antonyms, for example: good - evil, well-fed - hungry. Can also be opposed various facts and phenomena according to all characteristics, both main and secondary. So two words world and chains, in the given A.I. Galperin's example is not antonyms. They are involved in the antithesis of The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. The antonymous pair here are the verbs to lose and to win, but the words world and chains are also opposed, or rather their signs: world -- all, everything and chains -- slavery.
“The main figure of contrast is antithesis. Antithesis is a statement containing a clear opposition. Most often this opposition is expressed in the use of antonyms, i.e. words that have the opposite meaning."
As a rule, to create an antithesis it is necessary that the opposed concepts are in principle correlated, if we consider correlation as an operation in which both similarities and differences can be revealed. However, antithesis, as a stylistic device, is revealed not only in opposition, but also in the addition of additional shades of meaning to words that do not express opposing concepts. The alien ships hung in the sky in the same way that bricks do not hang in the sky (D. Adams. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy 1). Antithesis is characterized by an unexpected comparison of distant objects, a play on the direct and figurative meaning of words, and a paradoxical statement. In this case, the antithesis takes on the features of an oxymoron “Oxymoron, -s.” In lexical stylistics: a semantic figure of speech, a combination of words that contradict each other in meaning, as a result of which a new concept is born. *The heat of cold numbers (A. Blok). Foreign land, my homeland! (M. Tsvetaeva) The obedient enthusiasm of the crowd (P. Chaadaev). Vertical horizons (V. Soloviev)” [Laguta 1999: 35]. An oxymoron, in turn, is considered by many to be a type of antithesis in which the emphasis is on the humor of the statement.
The advantage of the antithesis as a figure is that both parts mutually illuminate each other. There are several general options for using antithesis: when comparing images or concepts that contrast with each other, when expressing the contrasting essence of a single whole, when shading of the image is necessary, as well as when expressing an alternative.
The opposition of concepts and phenomena may appear in large sections of text, but it will be more of a contrasting opposition than stylistic device antithesis, just as phraseological units, the formation of which is based on antonyms, will not be antithesis. For example: top and bottom, up and down, inside and out. A necessary feature of antithesis, which distinguishes it from any logical opposition, is emotional coloring, the desire for the uniqueness of the opposition. But this is possible only in one case - in case of violations of the rules of analogy. The sign by which we correlate objects should not actually be obvious. The reader or listener is invited to, to one degree or another, figure out the meaning themselves (hot, but not scorching; Chinese, but high-quality). Therefore, when counting on a “sharp” semantic effect, it is not recommended to take contrasting (for example, antonymic) concepts. This does not mean that an antithesis built on antonymy will become erroneous, but the emotional coloring will be almost invisible.
The relationship between the words antithetically opposed in a proverb is more complex, and their semantic connection cannot be subsumed under the strict concept of lexical antonymy (cf. mother-stepmother, wolf-brother, milk-water, water-fire, water-wine, night- day, God-damn, etc.).
Antithesis is widely used in prose and drama. She actively participates in the creation of the architectonics of any work. Titles cannot do without antithesis (“Cunning and Love” by Schiller, “Fathers and Sons” by Turgenev, “War and Peace” by Tolstoy, “Wolves and Sheep” by Ostrovsky, “The Prince and the Pauper” by Twain, “Thick and Thin” by Chekhov...) Antithetical division is used in speech to unite opposites, to emphasize some quality in a characteristic: “They are shamefully indifferent to good and evil” (M. Lermontov).
The comparison of antonyms in statements and aphorisms gives special significance to each of the objects named by them, which enhances the expressiveness of speech. Antonyms in such cases take on logical stress, highlighting the semantic centers of the phrase. Antonyms add poignancy and aphorism catchphrases: “So few roads have been traveled, so many mistakes have been made. (Yesenin)." Many aphorisms are constructed using antithesis: “There is nothing more stupid than the desire to always be smarter than others” (La Rochefoucauld). A phrase built on an antithesis sounds quite strong, is easy to remember, and makes you think.
Classification of antithesis
Often the antithesis is emphasized by the fact that the nature of its location in the corresponding parts of the sentence is the same (parallelism).
In terms of structure, the antithesis can be simple (monomial) or complex (polynomial). A complex antithesis involves several antonymous pairs or three or more opposing concepts. “There are antitheses different types. Sometimes their poles are opposed to each other, according to the scheme “not A, but B”, sometimes, on the contrary, they are juxtaposed according to the scheme “both A and B” [Khazagerov http].
There is also a complex or expanded antithesis. An expanded statement is created by including chains of definitions. The use of a detailed antithesis allows us to more clearly actualize the unexpected in an already familiar phenomenon.
Also worth noting special kind antitheses - within a synonymous pair: subside, but not be silent, etc. Such figures make a strong impression and provoke imaginative development plot. An antithesis can even consist of identical words, i.e. be within the same lexeme. Thus, some actions can be contrasted with other actions, the feelings of one with the feelings of another, etc. The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided (Charles Dillon "Casey" Stengel). - The basis of a good manager's existence is keeping people who hate me away from people who haven't decided yet.
There is also a contrast between two grammatical, voice or case forms of one word. Most often, case forms of words are contrasted. This antithesis is typical for short forms eloquence of an aphoristic nature: “Man is brother to man,” “Man is a wolf to man,” “War is war.” The motto “Peace to the World” is constructed by analogy; where the word "peace" is used in different meanings.
Thanks to the parallel construction of the antithesis, we can highlight the rhythm-forming function of the antithesis, as well as comparative, multiplying and unifying. These functions are often implemented together, but, as a rule, the antithesis highlights one function over the others.
As you know, the word is the basic unit of any language, as well as the most important component of its artistic means. The correct use of vocabulary largely determines the expressiveness of speech.
In context, a word is a special world, a mirror of the author’s perception and attitude to reality. It has its own metaphorical precision, its own special truths, called artistic revelations; the functions of vocabulary depend on the context.
Individual perception of the world around us is reflected in such a text with the help of metaphorical statements. After all, art is, first of all, the self-expression of an individual. The literary fabric is woven from metaphors that create an exciting and emotionally affecting image of a particular work of art. Additional meanings appear in words, special stylistic coloring, creating a unique world that we discover for ourselves while reading the text.
Not only in literary, but also in oral, we use, without thinking, various techniques of artistic expression to give it emotionality, persuasiveness, and imagery. Let's figure out what artistic techniques exist in Russian.
The use of metaphors especially contributes to the creation of expressiveness, so let's start with them.
Metaphor
It is impossible to imagine artistic techniques in literature without mentioning the most important of them - the way of creating a linguistic picture of the world based on meanings already existing in the language itself.
The types of metaphors can be distinguished as follows:
- Fossilized, worn out, dry or historical (boat bow, eye of a needle).
- Phraseologisms are stable figurative combinations of words that are emotional, metaphorical, reproducible in the memory of many native speakers, expressive (death grip, vicious circle, etc.).
- Single metaphor (eg homeless heart).
- Unfolded (heart - “porcelain bell in yellow China” - Nikolay Gumilyov).
- Traditionally poetic (morning of life, fire of love).
- Individually-authored (sidewalk hump).
In addition, a metaphor can simultaneously be an allegory, personification, hyperbole, periphrasis, meiosis, litotes and other tropes.
The word “metaphor” itself means “transfer” in translation from Greek. IN in this case we are dealing with the transfer of a name from one object to another. For it to become possible, they must certainly have some similarity, they must be adjacent in some way. A metaphor is a word or expression used in a figurative meaning due to the similarity of two phenomena or objects in some way.
As a result of this transfer, an image is created. Therefore, metaphor is one of the most striking means of expressiveness of artistic, poetic speech. However, the absence of this trope does not mean the lack of expressiveness of the work.
A metaphor can be either simple or extensive. In the twentieth century, the use of expanded ones in poetry is revived, and the nature of simple ones changes significantly.
Metonymy
Metonymy is a type of metaphor. Translated from Greek, this word means “renaming,” that is, it is the transfer of the name of one object to another. Metonymy is the replacement of a certain word with another based on the existing contiguity of two concepts, objects, etc. This is the imposition of a figurative word on the direct meaning. For example: “I ate two plates.” Mixing of meanings and their transfer are possible because objects are adjacent, and the contiguity can be in time, space, etc.
Synecdoche
Synecdoche is a type of metonymy. Translated from Greek, this word means “correlation.” This transfer of meaning occurs when the smaller is called instead of the larger, or vice versa; instead of a part - a whole, and vice versa. For example: “According to Moscow reports.”
Epithet
It is impossible to imagine the artistic techniques in literature, the list of which we are now compiling, without an epithet. This is a figure, trope, figurative definition, phrase or word denoting a person, phenomenon, object or action with a subjective
Translated from Greek, this term means “attached, application,” that is, in our case, one word is attached to some other.
Epithet from simple definition distinguished by its artistic expressiveness.
Constant epithets are used in folklore as a means of typification, and also as one of the most important means of artistic expression. In the strict sense of the term, only those whose function is words in a figurative meaning, in contrast to the so-called exact epithets, which are expressed in words in a literal meaning (red berries, beautiful flowers), belong to tropes. Figurative ones are created when words are used in a figurative sense. Such epithets are usually called metaphorical. Metonymic transfer of name may also underlie this trope.
An oxymoron is a type of epithet, the so-called contrasting epithets, forming combinations with defined nouns of words that are opposite in meaning (hateful love, joyful sadness).
Comparison
Simile is a trope in which one object is characterized through comparison with another. That is, this is a comparison of different objects by similarity, which can be both obvious and unexpected, distant. It is usually expressed using certain words: “exactly”, “as if”, “similar”, “as if”. Comparisons can also take the form of the instrumental case.
Personification
When describing artistic techniques in literature, it is necessary to mention personification. This is a type of metaphor that represents the assignment of properties of living beings to objects of inanimate nature. It is often created by referring to such natural phenomena as conscious living beings. Personification is also the transference of human properties to animals.
Hyperbole and litotes
Let us note such techniques of artistic expression in literature as hyperbole and litotes.
Hyperbole (translated as “exaggeration”) is one of the expressive means of speech, which is a figure with the meaning of exaggerating what is being discussed.
Litota (translated as “simplicity”) is the opposite of hyperbole - an excessive understatement of what is being discussed (a boy the size of a finger, a man the size of a fingernail).
Sarcasm, irony and humor
We continue to describe artistic techniques in literature. Our list will be complemented by sarcasm, irony and humor.
- Sarcasm means "tearing meat" in Greek. This is evil irony, caustic mockery, caustic remark. When using sarcasm, it creates comic effect, however, there is a clear ideological and emotional assessment.
- Irony in translation means “pretense”, “mockery”. It occurs when one thing is said in words, but something completely different, the opposite, is meant.
- Humor is one of the lexical means of expressiveness, translated meaning “mood”, “disposition”. Sometimes entire works can be written in a comic, allegorical vein, in which one can sense a mocking, good-natured attitude towards something. For example, the story “Chameleon” by A.P. Chekhov, as well as many fables by I.A. Krylov.
The types of artistic techniques in literature do not end there. We present to your attention the following.
Grotesque
The most important artistic techniques in literature include the grotesque. The word "grotesque" means "intricate", "bizarre". This artistic technique represents a violation of the proportions of phenomena, objects, events depicted in the work. It is widely used in the works of, for example, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (“The Golovlevs,” “The History of a City,” fairy tales). This is an artistic technique based on exaggeration. However, its degree is much greater than that of a hyperbole.
Sarcasm, irony, humor and grotesque are popular artistic techniques in literature. Examples of the first three are the stories of A.P. Chekhov and N.N. Gogol. The work of J. Swift is grotesque (for example, Gulliver's Travels).
What artistic technique does the author (Saltykov-Shchedrin) use to create the image of Judas in the novel “Lord Golovlevs”? Of course it's grotesque. Irony and sarcasm are present in the poems of V. Mayakovsky. The works of Zoshchenko, Shukshin, and Kozma Prutkov are filled with humor. These artistic techniques in literature, examples of which we have just given, as you can see, are very often used by Russian writers.
Pun
A pun is a figure of speech that represents an involuntary or deliberate ambiguity that arises when used in the context of two or more meanings of a word or when their sound is similar. Its varieties are paronomasia, false etymologization, zeugma and concretization.
In puns, the play on words is based on homonymy and polysemy. Anecdotes arise from them. These artistic techniques in literature can be found in the works of V. Mayakovsky, Omar Khayyam, Kozma Prutkov, A. P. Chekhov.
Figure of speech - what is it?
The word "figure" itself is translated from Latin as " appearance, outline, image." This word is polysemantic. What does this term mean in relation to artistic speech? Syntactic means of expressiveness related to figures: questions, appeals.
What is a "trope"?
“What is the name of an artistic technique that uses a word in a figurative sense?” - you ask. The term “trope” combines various techniques: epithet, metaphor, metonymy, comparison, synecdoche, litotes, hyperbole, personification and others. Translated, the word "trope" means "turnover". Literary speech differs from ordinary speech in that it uses special turns of phrase that embellish the speech and make it more expressive. IN different styles different ones are used means of expression. The most important thing in the concept of “expressiveness” for artistic speech is the ability of a text or a work of art to have an aesthetic, emotional impact on the reader, to create poetic pictures and vivid images.
We all live in a world of sounds. Some of them cause us positive emotions, others, on the contrary, excite, alarm, cause anxiety, calm or induce sleep. Different sounds evoke different images. Using their combination, you can emotionally influence a person. Reading works of art literature and Russian folk art, we are especially sensitive to their sound.
Basic techniques for creating sound expressiveness
- Alliteration is the repetition of similar or identical consonants.
- Assonance is the deliberate harmonious repetition of vowels.
Alliteration and assonance are often used simultaneously in works. These techniques are aimed at evoking various associations in the reader.
Technique of sound recording in fiction
Sound recording is an artistic technique that is the use of certain sounds in a specific order to create a certain image, that is, the selection of words that imitate sounds real world. This technique in fiction is used both in poetry and prose.
Types of sound recording:
- Assonance means “consonance” in French. Assonance is the repetition of the same or similar vowel sounds in a text to create a specific sound image. It promotes expressiveness of speech, it is used by poets in the rhythm and rhyme of poems.
- Alliteration - from This technique is the repetition of consonants in a literary text to create some sound image, in order to make poetic speech more expressive.
- Onomatopoeia - transmission in special words, reminiscent of the sounds of phenomena in the surrounding world, auditory impressions.
These artistic techniques in poetry are very common; without them, poetic speech would not be so melodic.