In middle classes secondary school It’s still too early to teach the actual analysis of a work. Students must go through a difficult path of mastering basic literary concepts and acquire knowledge for further analysis of texts in high school. Let's turn to the heading "Theory of Literature" according to the program for grade 5:
- The concept of oral folk art, its types, genres. Myth, folk tale, features of their construction and language.
- The concept of a literary fairy tale.
- The concept of science fiction and adventure literature.
As you can see, the content of this section provides only elements of analysis of the work. The same is true for programs for 6th and 7th grades. The questions and tasks offered by textbooks for middle grades are also mostly aimed at clarifying the content of the text. To prepare students for analysis work of art in high school, you need to take into account the program headings “Theory of Literature” on Ukrainian and foreign literature and plan this material in a logical sequence, taking into account the works that are being studied. Based on the calendar-thematic plan, the teacher will draw up an appropriate system of questions aimed at checking students’ understanding of both the content and form of the work. Thus, during their studies in grades 5, 6 and 7, they will gradually learn the elements of considering a work of art, and only then will the teacher be able to take on its school analysis, taking into account the following three aspects:
- The specifics of students’ perception of the material (emotional aspect);
- Measure of scientific character (cognitive aspect);
- Educational significance of literature (pedagogical aspect). Unlike academic, school analysis of a work of art also has educational and developmental significance. It teaches you to understand and feel beauty, awakens the spirit of creativity, and reveals the personality of the author. It is a fusion of science and art. That is why the teacher must combine deep knowledge of literary criticism with methodological training.
School analysis of a work of art is based on a literary concept, but does not copy it. Among the unresolved problems of the methodology, one of the main ones remains - the problem school analysis a work of art. It has been studied for more than one century. Over the past decade, with the introduction of the new school discipline “Foreign Literature,” it has become sharper and is still relevant today. Not only practicing teachers, methodologists, but also literary scholars are actively working on it. They created a solid theoretical basis for solving the methodological problem of school analysis of a work of art. Cultural analysis. The cultural line of the State Standard for Basic and Complete Secondary Education has the following content: “Fiction in the context of national and world culture, its relationship with religion, philosophy, aesthetics, literary criticism, different types of arts. Reflection of the character of the people in national literature and culture. Traditions and innovation in literature and culture. Dialogue of cultures, its influence on the literary process. The connection between literary movements and movements with the aesthetic search of artists of other types of arts.” Based on the requirements of the State Standard, we point out that cultural analysis involves the study of fiction in the context of national and world cultures. Linguistic analysis. Linguistics (from Latin - language) is a philological science that studies language, its functions, structure and historical development. Based on this definition, M. Shansky formulated the goal and revealed the meaning linguistic analysis. The purpose of linguistic analysis is to identify and explain the linguistic facts used in a literary text in their meaning and use, and only to the extent that they are related to the understanding of the literary work as such. Thus, the subject of linguistic analysis is the linguistic material of the text. Stylistic analysis. The literary dictionary-reference book defines style (Latin - stylus for writing) as a set of features that characterize works of a certain time, direction and individual style of the writer. Based on this statement, we conclude that stylistic analysis is the identification of techniques for the individual author’s use of linguistic means, the study of the peculiarities of the writer’s creativity, in which his works differ from the works of other artists. Philological analysis. Dictionaries The term “philology” (from - love of words) is interpreted in several ways. Based on scientific explanations, we will determine that philological analysis involves the interpretation of the text of a work of art using methods of studying the language, handwriting, and manner of the writer. Contextual analysis.
Contextual analysis of a work of art requires (according to O. Chirkov) the presence of a certain context in which the work is studied and analyzed. The following contexts are distinguished: 1) a certain historical and literary era (with the determination of the place of the work in it); 2) the work of an individual writer (with a determination of the place of the work in it); 3) certain historical eras (the completeness of the depiction of the era in a literary work is examined). Contextual analysis always involves the most careful, greatest attention to the text as a form of expression of the author’s subjective interpretation of the objective world. Intertextual analysis. Inter, or intertextuality is interpreted (as defined by O.
Chirkov) as the property of one work of art to be associated with another work or several works. At the intersection of such associations, judgments arise about the artistic originality of the work that is being analyzed, about the stylistic manner of the author, his philosophical vision, which is embodied in the literary work. O. Chirkov summarizes and explains three (according to T. Korableva) main types of intertextual relations, namely: quotations - direct, frank, textual connections with famous works, reminiscences - mediated connections that are perceived through the context, and allusions - hints of associations and parallels with another literary text. Identifying such quotations, reminiscences and allusions in the canonical text that is being analyzed is the task of intertextual analysis of a work of art.
In other words, intertextual analysis involves a comparison of the primary source and the work of art that is being analyzed in order to identify the originality of the writer’s artistic world in a certain work in comparison with those samples that previously existed in literature and are in some way close and similar to it. Comparative (comparative) analysis. The phenomena of the art of words are studied by comparing them with other such phenomena, mainly in different national writings. Psychological analysis. The theoretical basis of this analysis is the teachings of V.
Wundt (1832 - 1920) about the creative process, in which the main role is given to the mental state of the artist; Z. Freud (1856 - 1939) about the unconscious, which he was the first to try to explore and explain; O. Potebnya (1835-1891), who believed that artistic creativity is a reflection of the writer’s inner world.
He introduced the concepts of “internal form” of word and image into literary criticism, affirmed the idea of the unity of form and image and its meaning, put forward a theory of sequential development: word - myth - image (poetic), presented his understanding of their differences, etc. Work (according to M . Moklice) is the result of some process in the artist’s inner world, it is a mechanism that is invisibly present in the identification of a part.
The work we are studying is visible part iceberg, and the bulk of it remains in the depths of the author’s psyche. A thorough reading of the work reveals the need to reveal the springs of the creative process, to understand the author’s intention, the serious personal basis of his work. Mythological analysis. Almost all literary scholars in one way or another turn to mythology, since fiction is densely saturated with myths, mythical plots, mythologems (the presence in a literary work of a mythological well-known plot or motif that structures it) and mythological worlds.
As for folklore, it is based on a mythological basis, since it has a mythological constant. Therefore, the main task of mythological analysis is to explore the direct mutual influence of literature and myths. Structuralist analysis(Latin - building a whole from parts).
The structural and semantic unity of the artistic whole and the conceptual system, which reflects the complex internal organization of a literary work and its contextual connections, are explored. Hermeneutical analysis(from the Greek “interpreter”) - the theory of text interpretation, the doctrine of understanding the meaning.
The method of hermeneutic analysis (according to M. Nefedov) covers the restoration and preparation of the text, solving the problem of its truth, time of writing, authorship, participation of other authors, revisions, as well as the compilation of comments (linguistic, literary, historical). Detailed notes can indicate the sources of the plot, characters, and literary borrowings. Interpretation (Latin interpretation) - interpretation of a literary work, a unique understanding and disclosure of its content and form.
Interpretation is the redesign of the artistic content of a work through its presentation in the language of other types of art or the language of science. Thus, an artistic literary work can be interpreted in the artistic languages of painting, graphics, theater, cinema, music, etc., as well as in the conceptual and logical language of science - in literary criticism and literary criticism. Interpretation is a form of assimilation, rethinking and enriching the tradition of artistic experience of human civilization, it is a manifestation of the deep and inexhaustible content of classical works, their eternal existence. All proposed types of analysis and many others that exist in literary criticism are studied perfectly by the teacher in order to be able to highlight favorable elements in them and effectively use them when applying school analysis of a work of art or its components. For example, when analyzing artistic images as a component of a work, you can attract such elements from different types of literary analysis.
This is presented schematically (see diagram on p. 204). This scheme does not exhaust the possibilities of involving elements of literary analysis; it only serves as an example to explain the methodology for their application. Specific features and purpose of studying a work at school.
Teaching students to analyze a work of art means identifying its components, exploring them, and building reasoned conclusions; synthesize individual parts in order to see the work as a whole: feel its aesthetic value, understand the content, give an independent, critical, informed assessment.
1. Determine the theme and idea / main idea / of this work; the issues raised in it; the pathos with which the work is written;
2. Show the relationship between plot and composition;
3. Consider the subjective organization of the work /the artistic image of a person, techniques for creating a character, types of image-characters, a system of image-characters/;
5. Determine the features of the functioning of visual arts in this work of literature. expressive means language;
6. Determine the features of the genre of the work and the style of the writer.
Note: using this scheme, you can write an essay-review of a book you have read, while also presenting in your work:
1. Emotional-evaluative attitude towards what you read.
2. A detailed justification for an independent assessment of the characters of the characters in the work, their actions and experiences.
3. Detailed justification of the conclusions.
2. Analysis of a prose literary work
When starting to analyze a work of art, first of all, it is necessary to pay attention to the specific historical context of the work during the period of creation of this work of art. It is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of historical and historical-literary situation, in the latter case meaning
Literary trends of the era;
The place of this work among the works of other authors written during this period;
Creative history of the work;
Evaluation of the work in criticism;
The originality of the perception of this work by the writer’s contemporaries;
Evaluation of the work in the context of modern reading;
Next, we should turn to the question of the ideological and artistic unity of the work, its content and form (at the same time, the plan of content is considered - what the author wanted to say and the plan of expression - how he managed to do it).
Conceptual level of a work of art
(theme, issues, conflict and pathos)
Theme is what is discussed in the work, the main problem posed and considered by the author in the work, which unites the content into a single whole; These are those typical phenomena and events of real life that are reflected in the work. Is the topic in tune with the main issues of its time? Is the title related to the topic? Each phenomenon of life is a separate topic; a set of themes - the theme of the work.
A problem is that side of life that particularly interests the writer. One and the same problem can serve as the basis for posing different problems (the topic of serfdom - the problem of the internal unfreedom of the serf, the problem of mutual corruption, deformation of both serfs and serf-owners, the problem of social injustice...). Issues - a list of problems raised in the work. (They may be additional and subordinate to the main problem.)
Pathos is the writer’s emotional and evaluative attitude towards what is being told, characterized by great strength of feelings (maybe affirming, denying, justifying, elevating...).
Level of organization of the work as an artistic whole
Composition - the construction of a literary work; combines parts of a work into one whole.
Basic means of composition:
Plot is what happens in a story; system of main events and conflicts.
Conflict is a clash of characters and circumstances, views and principles of life, which forms the basis of action. Conflict can occur between an individual and society, between characters. In the hero's mind it can be obvious and hidden. Plot elements reflect the stages of conflict development;
Prologue is a kind of introduction to a work, which narrates the events of the past, it emotionally prepares the reader for perception (rare);
Exposition - introduction to action, depiction of the conditions and circumstances preceding the immediate start of actions (can be expanded or not, integral and “broken”; can be located not only at the beginning, but also in the middle, end of the work); introduces the characters of the work, the setting, time and circumstances of the action;
The plot is the beginning of the plot; the event from which the conflict begins, subsequent events develop.
The development of action is a system of events that follow from the plot; as the action progresses, as a rule, the conflict intensifies, and the contradictions appear more and more clearly and sharply;
The climax is the moment of the highest tension of the action, the pinnacle of the conflict, the climax represents the main problem of the work and the characters of the characters very clearly, after which the action weakens.
Resolution is a solution to the depicted conflict or an indication of possible ways to resolve it. The final moment in the development of the action of a work of art. As a rule, it either resolves the conflict or demonstrates its fundamental unsolvability.
Epilogue is the final part of the work, which indicates the direction of further development of events and the destinies of the heroes (sometimes an assessment of what is depicted is given); This short story about what happened to the characters in the work after the end of the main plot action.
The plot can be presented:
In direct chronological sequence of events;
With retreats into the past - retrospectives - and “excursions” into
In a deliberately changed sequence (see artistic time in the work).
Non-plot elements are considered:
Inserted episodes;
Their main function is to expand the scope of what is depicted, to enable the author to express his thoughts and feelings about various life phenomena that are not directly related to the plot.
The work may lack certain plot elements; sometimes it is difficult to separate these elements; Sometimes there are several plots in one work - otherwise, plot lines. There are different interpretations of the concepts “plot” and “plot”:
1) plot - main conflict works; plot - a series of events in which it is expressed;
2) plot - artistic order of events; fabula - the natural order of events
Compositional principles and elements:
The leading compositional principle (multidimensional composition, linear, circular, “string with beads”; in the chronology of events or not...).
Additional composition tools:
Lyrical digressions are forms of revealing and conveying the writer’s feelings and thoughts about what is depicted (they express the author’s attitude towards the characters, towards the life depicted, and can represent reflections on some issue or an explanation of his goal, position);
Introductory (inserted) episodes (not directly related to the plot of the work);
Artistic foreshadowing is the depiction of scenes that seem to predict, anticipate the further development of events;
Artistic framing - scenes that begin and end an event or work, complementing it, giving additional meaning;
Compositional techniques - internal monologues, diary, etc.
Level of the internal form of the work
Subjective organization of narration (its consideration includes the following): Narration can be personal: on behalf of the lyrical hero (confession), on behalf of the hero-narrator, and impersonal (on behalf of the narrator).
1) Artistic image of a person - typical phenomena of life reflected in this image are considered; individual traits inherent in the character; The uniqueness of the created image of a person is revealed:
External features - face, figure, costume;
The character of a character is revealed in actions, in relation to other people, manifested in a portrait, in descriptions of the hero’s feelings, in his speech. Depiction of the conditions in which the character lives and acts;
An image of nature that helps to better understand the character’s thoughts and feelings;
Depiction of the social environment, the society in which the character lives and operates;
Presence or absence of a prototype.
2) basic techniques for creating a character image:
Characteristics of the hero through his actions and deeds (in the plot system);
Portrait, portrait description of a hero (often expresses the author’s attitude towards the character);
Psychological analysis - detailed, detailed reconstruction of feelings, thoughts, motives -inner world character; Here the image of the “dialectics of the soul” is of particular importance, i.e. movements of the hero's inner life;
Characterization of the hero by other characters;
Artistic detail - a description of objects and phenomena of the reality surrounding the character (details that reflect a broad generalization can act as symbolic details);
3) Types of character images:
lyrical - in the event that the writer depicts only the feelings and thoughts of the hero, without mentioning the events of his life, the actions of the hero (found mainly in poetry);
dramatic - in the event that the impression arises that the characters act “by themselves”, “without the help of the author”, i.e. the author uses the technique of self-disclosure, self-characterization to characterize characters (found mainly in dramatic works);
epic - the author-narrator or storyteller consistently describes the heroes, their actions, characters, appearance, the environment in which they live, relationships with others (found in epic novels, stories, stories, short stories, essays).
4) System of images-characters;
Individual images can be combined into groups (grouping of images) - their interaction helps to more fully present and reveal each character, and through them - the theme and ideological meaning of the work.
All these groups are united into the society depicted in the work (multidimensional or single-dimensional from a social, ethnic, etc. point of view).
Artistic space and artistic time (chronotope): space and time depicted by the author.
Artistic space can be conditional and concrete; compressed and voluminous;
Artistic time can be correlated with the historical or not, intermittent and continuous, in the chronology of events (epic time) or the chronology of the internal mental processes of characters (lyrical time), long or instantaneous, finite or endless, closed (i.e. only within the plot , outside of historical time) and open (against the background of a certain historical era).
Method of creating artistic images: narration (depiction of events occurring in a work), description (sequential listing of individual signs, features, properties and phenomena), forms of oral speech (dialogue, monologue).
Place and meaning of artistic detail (artistic detail that enhances the idea of the whole).
Level of external form. Speech and rhythmic and melodic organization literary text
The speech of the characters - expressive or not, acting as a means of typification; individual characteristics of speech; reveals character and helps to understand the attitude of the author.
The narrator's speech - assessment of events and their participants
The originality of the word use of the national language (the activity of including synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, archaisms, neologisms, dialectisms, barbarisms, professionalisms).
Techniques of imagery (tropes - the use of words in a figurative meaning) - the simplest (epithet and comparison) and complex (metaphor, personification, allegory, litotes, periphrasis).
Poem Analysis Plan
1. Elements of a commentary on the poem:
Time (place) of writing, history of creation;
The place of this poem in the poet’s work or in a series of poems on a similar topic (with a similar motive, plot, structure, etc.);
Explanation of unclear passages, complex metaphors and other transcripts.
2. Feelings expressed by the lyrical hero of the poem; the feelings that a poem evokes in the reader.
4. Interdependence between the content of the poem and its artistic form:
Composition solutions;
Features of self-expression of the lyrical hero and the nature of the narrative;
The sound of the poem, the use of sound recording, assonance, alliteration;
Rhythm, stanza, graphics, their semantic role;
Motivated and accurate use of expressive means.
4. Associations evoked by this poem (literary, life, musical, picturesque - any).
5. The typicality and originality of this poem in the poet’s work, the deep moral or philosophical meaning of the work, revealed as a result of the analysis; the degree of “eternity” of the problems raised or their interpretation. Riddles and secrets of the poem.
6. Additional (free) thoughts.
Analysis of a poetic work
When starting to analyze a poetic work, it is necessary to determine the immediate content of the lyrical work - experience, feeling;
Determine the “ownership” of feelings and thoughts expressed in a lyrical work: lyrical hero (the image in which these feelings are expressed);
Determine the subject of the description and its connection with the poetic idea (direct - indirect);
Determine the organization (composition) of a lyrical work;
Determine the originality of the author’s use of visual aids (active - stingy); determine the lexical pattern (colloquial - book and literary vocabulary...);
Determine rhythm (homogeneous - heterogeneous; rhythmic movement);
Determine the sound pattern;
Determine intonation (the speaker’s attitude to the subject of speech and the interlocutor.
Poetic vocabulary
It is necessary to find out the activity of using certain groups of words in common vocabulary - synonyms, antonyms, archaisms, neologisms;
Find out the degree of closeness of poetic language to colloquial language;
Determine the originality and activity of using tropes
EPITHET - artistic definition;
COMPARISON - a comparison of two objects or phenomena in order to explain one of them with the help of the other;
ALLEGORY (allegory) - depiction of an abstract concept or phenomenon through specific objects and images;
IRONY - hidden mockery;
HYPERBOLE - artistic exaggeration used to enhance impression;
LITOTE - artistic understatement;
PERSONIFICATION - the image of inanimate objects, in which they are endowed with the properties of living beings - the gift of speech, the ability to think and feel;
METAPHOR - a hidden comparison built on the similarity or contrast of phenomena, in which the words “as”, “as if”, “as if” are absent, but are implied.
Poetic syntax
(syntactic devices or figures of poetic speech)
Rhetorical questions, appeals, exclamations - they increase the reader’s attention without requiring him to answer;
Repetitions – repeated repetition of the same words or expressions;
Antitheses - oppositions;
Poetic phonetics
The use of onomatopoeia, sound recording - sound repetitions that create a unique sound “pattern” of speech.)
Alliteration - repetition of consonant sounds;
Assonance – repetition of vowel sounds;
Anaphora - unity of command;
Composition of a lyrical work
Necessary:
Determine the leading experience, feeling, mood reflected in a poetic work;
Find out the harmony of the compositional structure, its subordination to the expression of a certain thought;
Determine the lyrical situation presented in the poem (the hero’s conflict with himself; the hero’s internal lack of freedom, etc.)
Determine the life situation that could presumably cause this experience;
Identify the main parts of a poetic work: show their connection (define the emotional “drawing”).
Analysis of a dramatic work
Diagram of analysis of a dramatic work
1. General characteristics: history of creation, life basis, plan, literary criticism.
2. Plot, composition:
The main conflict, stages of its development;
Character of the denouement /comic, tragic, dramatic/
3. Analysis of individual actions, scenes, phenomena.
4. Collecting material about the characters:
The hero's appearance
Behavior,
Speech characteristics
Manner /how?/
Style, vocabulary
Self-characteristics, mutual characteristics of heroes, author's remarks;
The role of scenery and interior in the development of the image.
5. CONCLUSIONS: Theme, idea, meaning of the title, system of images. Genre of the work, artistic originality.
Dramatic work
The generic specificity, the “borderline” position of drama (between literature and theater) obliges its analysis to be carried out in the course of the development of dramatic action (this is the fundamental difference between the analysis of a dramatic work and an epic or lyrical one). Therefore, the proposed scheme is of a conditional nature; it only takes into account the conglomerate of the main generic categories of drama, the peculiarity of which can manifest itself differently in each individual case precisely in the development of the action (according to the principle of an unwinding spring).
1. General characteristics of dramatic action (character, plan and vector of movement, tempo, rhythm, etc.). “Through” action and “underwater” currents.
2. Type of conflict. The essence of drama and the content of the conflict, the nature of the contradictions (two-dimensionality, external conflict, internal conflict, their interaction), the “vertical” and “horizontal” plane of the drama.
3. The system of characters, their place and role in the development of dramatic action and conflict resolution. Main and secondary characters. Extra-plot and extra-scene characters.
4. The system of motives and motivational development of the plot and microplots of the drama. Text and subtext.
5. Compositional and structural level. The main stages in the development of dramatic action (exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement). Installation principle.
6. Features of poetics (the semantic key of the title, the role of the theater poster, stage chronotype, symbolism, stage psychologism, the problem of the ending). Signs of theatricality: costume, mask, play and post-situational analysis, role-playing situations, etc.
7. Genre originality (drama, tragedy or comedy?). The origins of the genre, its reminiscences and innovative solutions by the author.
9. Contexts of drama (historical-cultural, creative, actual dramatic).
10. The problem of interpretation and stage history.
The category of genre in the analysis of a work of art is somewhat less important than the category of gender, but in some cases, knowledge of the genre nature of the work can help in the analysis and indicate which aspects should be paid attention to.
In literary studies, genres are groups of works within literary genres, united by common formal, content or functional characteristics.
It should be said right away that not all works have a clear genre nature. So, indeterminate in genre sense Pushkin’s poem “The darkness of the night lies on the hills of Georgia...”, Lermontov’s “Prophet”, plays by Chekhov and Gorky, Tvardovsky’s “Vasily Terkin” and many other works.
But even in cases where a genre can be defined quite unambiguously, such a definition does not always help the analysis, since genre structures are often recognized by a secondary feature that does not create any special originality of content and form. This applies mainly lyrical genres, such as elegy, ode, message, epigram, sonnet, etc.
In epic genres, what is important is, first of all, the opposition of genres in terms of their volume. The established literary tradition distinguishes here the genres of large (novel, epic), medium (story) and small (short story), however, in typology it is realistic to distinguish only two positions, since the story is not an independent genre, gravitating in practice to either the short story (“Belkin’s Tales” "Pushkin), or to the novel (his "The Captain's Daughter").
But the distinction between large and small volume seems essential, and above all for the analysis of a small genre - a story. Yu.N. Tynyanov rightly wrote: “The calculation for a large form is not the same as for a small one.” The small volume of the story dictates peculiar principles of poetics, specific artistic techniques. First of all, this is reflected in the properties of literary figurativeness.
For the story in highest degree“Economy mode” is characteristic; it cannot contain long descriptions, therefore it is characterized not by details, but by details-symbols, especially in the description of a landscape, portrait, interior. Such a detail acquires increased expressiveness and, as a rule, appeals to the reader’s creative imagination, suggesting co-creation and conjecture.
Chekhov, in particular, a master of artistic detail, built his descriptions on this principle; Let us remember, for example, his textbook image of a moonlit night: “In descriptions of nature, one must grasp at small details, grouping them in such a way that after reading, when you close your eyes, a picture is given.
For example, you can do it moonlit night, if you write that on the mill dam a piece of glass from a broken bottle flashed like a bright star and the black shadow of a dog or wolf rolled like a ball” (Letter to Al.P. Chekhov dated May 10, 1886). Here the details of the landscape are guessed by the reader based on the impression of one or two dominant symbolic details.
The same thing happens in the field of psychologism: for the writer it is important here not so much to reflect the mental process in its entirety, but to recreate the leading emotional tone, atmosphere inner life hero at the moment. The masters of such psychological stories were Maupassant, Chekhov, Gorky, Bunin, Hemingway and others.
In the composition of a story, as in any small form, the ending is very important, which is either in the nature of a plot denouement or an emotional finale. Also noteworthy are those endings that do not resolve the conflict, but only demonstrate its intractability; so-called “open” endings, as in Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Dog.”
One of genre varieties the story is a short story. A short story is an action-packed narrative, the action in it develops quickly, dynamically, and strives for a denouement that contains the whole meaning of what is being told: first of all, with its help, the author gives meaning life situation, pronounces a “sentence” on the characters depicted.
In short stories, the plot is compressed and the action is concentrated. A rapidly developing plot is characterized by a very economical system of characters: there are usually just enough of them to allow the action to continuously develop. Episodic characters are introduced (if they are introduced at all) only to give impetus to the plot action and then immediately disappear.
In a short story, as a rule, there are no side plot lines or author’s digressions; only what is absolutely necessary for understanding the conflict and the plot is revealed from the characters’ pasts. Descriptive elements that do not advance the action are kept to a minimum and appear almost exclusively at the beginning: then, towards the end, they will interfere, slowing down the development of the action and distracting attention.
When all these trends are brought to their logical conclusion, the short story acquires a pronounced structure of an anecdote with all its main features: a very small volume, an unexpected, paradoxical “shock” ending, minimal psychological motivations for actions, the absence of descriptive moments, etc. The anecdote story was widely used by Leskov, the early Chekhov, Maupassant, O'Henry, D. London, Zoshchenko and many other short story writers.
A novella, as a rule, is based on external conflicts in which contradictions collide (inception), develop and, having reached the highest point in development and struggle (culmination), are more or less quickly resolved. In this case, the most important thing is that the confronting contradictions must and can be resolved as the action develops.
For this, the contradictions must be sufficiently defined and manifested, the characters must have some psychological activity in order to strive to resolve the conflict at all costs, and the conflict itself must at least in principle be amenable to immediate resolution.
Let us consider from this angle the story by V. Shukshin “The Hunt to Live.” A young city guy comes into the forester Nikitich's hut. It turns out that the guy escaped from prison.
Suddenly, the district authorities come to Nikitich to hunt, Nikitich tells the guy to pretend to be asleep, puts the guests to bed and falls asleep himself, and when he wakes up, he discovers that “Kolya the Professor” has left, taking with him Nikitich’s gun and his tobacco pouch. Nikitich rushes after him, overtakes the guy and takes his gun from him. But in general, Nikitich likes the guy, he feels sorry to let him go alone, in winter, unaccustomed to the taiga and without a gun.
The old man leaves the guy a gun so that when he reaches the village, he will give it to Nikitich’s godfather. But when they each went in their own direction, the guy shoots Nikitich in the back of the head, because “it will be better this way, father. More reliable."
The clash of characters in the conflict of this short story is very sharp and clear. Incompatibility, opposite moral principles Nikitich - principles based on kindness and trust in people - and the moral standards of “Koli the Professor”, who “wants to live” for himself, “better and more reliable” - also for himself - the incompatibility of these moral principles intensifies as the action progresses and embodied in a tragic, but inevitable, according to the logic of the characters, denouement.
Let us note the special significance of the denouement: it does not just formally complete the plot action, but exhausts the conflict. The author's assessment of the characters depicted, the author's understanding of the conflict are concentrated precisely in the denouement.
The major genres of epic - the novel and the epic - differ in their content, primarily in their problematics. The dominant content in the epic is national, and in the novel - the novel's problematic (adventurous or ideological-moral).
For a novel, therefore, it is extremely important to determine which of the two types it belongs to. Depending on the dominant content of the genre, the poetics of the novel and the epic are constructed. The epic tends to be plot-driven; the image of the hero in it is constructed as the quintessence of typical qualities inherent in a people, ethnic group, class, etc.
In an adventure novel, the plot also clearly predominates, but the image of the hero is constructed differently: he is emphatically free from class, corporate and other connections with the environment that gave birth to him. In an ideological and moral novel, the stylistic dominants will almost always be psychologism and heteroglossia.
Over the past century and a half, a new genre of large volume has emerged in the epic - the epic novel, which combines the properties of these two genres. This genre tradition includes such works as “War and Peace” by Tolstoy, “Quiet Don” by Sholokhov, “Walking through the Torment” by A. Tolstoy, “The Living and the Dead” by Simonov, “Doctor Zhivago” by Pasternak and some others.
The epic novel is characterized by a combination of national and ideological-moral issues, but not a simple summation of them, but such an integration in which the ideological and moral search of the individual is correlated primarily with folk truth.
The problem of the epic novel becomes, in Pushkin’s words, “human fate and people’s fate” in their unity and interdependence; Critical events for the entire ethnic group give the hero’s philosophical search special sharpness and urgency; the hero faces the need to determine his position not just in the world, but in national history.
In the field of poetics, the epic novel is characterized by a combination of psychologism with plot, a compositional combination of general, average and close-ups, the presence of many storylines and their interweaving, author's digressions.
Esin A.B. Principles and techniques of analyzing a literary work. - M., 1998
Analysis of a work of art
Plan
1. Artistry as the artistic quality of a work of literature.
2. Prerequisites for successful analysis of a work.
3. The main components of the content and form of a literary work.
4. Principles, types, ways and techniques of analyzing a work of literature.
5. Schemes and samples of analysis of epic and lyrical works.
Literary terms: content and form, theme and idea of a work of art, plot and plot, story, story, tropes and their types.
The measure of the perfection of a work of art is the level of its artistry. In a work of art we distinguish content and form. The boundaries between substantive and formal compositions, as we know, are too arbitrary and unclear. However, such a division is necessary for effective comprehension of the work. The main thing in it is the content component. The importance of the content is predetermined by the importance of those life phenomena that are studied in it, the meaning for a person of the ideas that are revealed in it. But the important meaning will be properly perceived by the reader only when it is revealed, embodied in a perfect and appropriate form. So, artistry is the artistic quality of a work, which lies in the harmonious combination of important content and the perfect form corresponding to it. Only that work in which there is complete correspondence between all its components, there is harmony organized by ideological content, can be called highly artistic.
Artistry as the core of a literary work directly determines the path of its study, i.e. analysis. Analysis of a text is its comprehension, consideration of its constituent elements, identification of themes, ideas, motives, methods of their figurative embodiment, as well as the study of means of creating images. In other words, this is the revelation of the artistry of the text.
The prerequisites for successful analysis of a work are: good knowledge of the theoretical foundations of analysis; possession of the skills to isolate and explore all components of content and form; understanding the patterns of their interaction; a sense of the aesthetic nature of the word; the presence of philological abilities in the person who analyzes; good knowledge of the text. Only under these conditions will painstaking analytical work with a work be rewarded with the joy of discovery, the aesthetic pleasure that an encounter with beauty can bring.
A literary work is the basic unit of fiction. Without reading and knowledge of works there is no knowledge of literature. In the perception and interpretation of literary works, there are two mistakes that are characteristic of a significant part of the readership. The first is that the heroes created by the writer are perceived as people who really lived and had exactly such destinies. Then literature is viewed as “history in images,” as an emotionally charged way of cognition. Literature objectively possesses such capabilities, but they do not exhaust its purpose, for in a work of art the mysterious magic of the word and the creative power of fantasy, which a talented writer possesses, are realized. In a realistic work, almost everything is really the same as in real life, because the heroes, their experiences, thoughts, actions, and the circumstances and atmosphere in which those heroes act are basedon impressions of reality. But at the same time, all this, created by the imagination and work of the writer, “lives” behind special aesthetic laws. Each work, no matter what its volume and genre (poem or poem, short story or novel, vaudeville or drama), is an artistic whole world where its own laws and patterns operate - social, psychological, temporal-spatial. They differ significantly from the laws of real life, because the writer does not reproduce it photographically, but selects material and aesthetically masters it, focusing on the artistic goal. True, the degree of verisimilitude in different works is not the same, but this does not directly affect the level of their artistry. Let's say that fantasy departs far from reality, but this does not yet take it beyond the boundaries of art. What is reflected in a literary work cannot be identified with real life. When we talk about the truthfulness of a work, it is understood that it is a specific form of embodiment of the truth about the world, man and himself that the writer discovered. The second drawback in the perception of the work by readers is the substitution of the thoughts and experiences of the author and characters with their own. This error, like the first one, has objective reasons. What is depicted in the work “comes to life” only thanks to the imagination of the reader, the combination of his experience with the experience of the author, recorded in the text. Therefore, in the imagination of different readers, different images and pictures appear in the same work. Absolutization of this error leads to deformation of what the writer depicts.
It is possible to overcome certain shortcomings only if the reader (primarily the teacher and student) ceases to have a naive and realistic attitude towards literature and perceives it as the art of words. Analysis is one of the ways to adequately, that is, closest to the author’s intention, reading a work.
To successfully carry out literary analysis, you need to have a fine command of the appropriate tools, know the methods and means of its implementation. First of all, we must define the components of the work, a system of concepts and terms to designate those components. According to a long-standing tradition, a work is distinguished between content and form. They merge so closely that it is almost impossible to separate them, although it is necessary to distinguish. The identification of the components of content and form in the process of analysis is carried out only imaginary.
Literary science has developed a harmonious and ramified system of concepts and terms, thanks to which it is possible to outline in some detail the components of content and form. Experience convinces: the more fully the researcher, in our case the teacher, knows this system, the more deeply he understands the relationship and interaction between its components, the more successfully he will carry out the analysis, and therefore, the more accurately he will understand the work as a phenomenon of the human spirit.
Contents of the work - this is the vital material aesthetically mastered by the writer, and the problems raised on the basis of this material. Taken together, this constitutes the topic of the essay, as well as the ideas that the author asserts. So, theme and idea are two concepts that signify the main components of the content.
Subject , V in turn, includes:
u vital material covering:events, actions of characters or their thoughts, experiences, moods, aspirations, in the process of unfolding of which the essence of a person is revealed; spheres of application of human strength and energy (family, intimate or social life, everyday life, production, etc.); time imprinted in the work: on the one hand, modern, past or future, on the other - short or long; circle of events and characters (narrow or wide);
u problems raised in the work based on the reflected life material: universal, social, philosophical, moral, religious, etc.
The idea of the work can be characterized:
u behind the stages of embodiment: the author’s ideological plan, the aesthetic assessment of what is depicted or the author’s attitude towards what is depicted, the conclusion of the reader or researcher;
u By parameters of the problem: universal, social, philosophical, moral, religious, etc.;
u according to the form of embodiment:artistically embodied (through paintings, images, conflicts, subject details), stated directly (by lyrical or journalistic means).
The form of the work itself general view can be defined as artistic means and techniques for embodying the content, that is, the themes and ideas of the work, as well as the method of its internal and external organization.
The form of a literary work has its own components.
AND. Compositional form including:
O plot, subplot elements (epigraph, author's digressions - lyrical, philosophical, etc., inserted episodes, framing, repetitions), grouping of characters (with participation in the conflict, by age, views, etc.), presence (or absence) of a narrator and its role in the structure of the work.
II. The plot form is considered in the following aspects:
O plot elements: prologue, exposition, plot, development of action (conflict - external or internal), climax, retardation, denouement, epilogue;
O relationship between plot and plot, their types : in relation to what is depicted in the work and reality - primary and secondary plots; according to the chronology of the reproduction of events - a chronologically linear plot and a retrospective plot (linear-retrospective, associative-retrospective, concentric-retrospective); behind the rhythm of events - slow, dynamic, adventure, detective stories; for connection with reality - realistic, allegorical, fantastic; according to the ways of expressing the essence of the hero - event-based, psychological.
III. Figurative form (images of characters and circumstances). Taking into account the various principles of classification, the following types of images can be distinguished: realistic, mythological, fantastic, fairy-tale, romantic, grotesque-satirical, allegorical, symbolic, image-type, image-character, image-picture, image-interior.
IV. Vikladian form, which is considered from the point of view of structure and functional role:
O historical and literary aspect:narration, author's story, inner speech (internal monologue, transmission of the hero's thoughts by the author, mental dialogue, parallel dialogue - complete and incomplete, stream of consciousness);
O for ways of organizing speech: sad poetic, prose, rhythmic prose, monologue, etc.
V. Generic-genre form.
Fundamentals of the division of literature into types and genres: the relationship between object and subject; the relationship between the material and spiritual spheres of life.
O types of lyrics: according to the material of development - intimate, landscape, civil, philosophical, religious-spiritual, didactic, etc.; historically established genre units of lyrics - song, hymn, dithyramb, message, idyll, epigram, lyrical portrait, etc.;
O epic genres: story, short story, short story, essay, folklore epic genres(fairy tale, tradition, legend, thought, etc.);
O drama genres: actual drama, tragedy, comedy, vaudeville, sideshow, etc.
VI. The actual verbal form:
O trails ( epithet, comparison, metaphor, metonymy, hyperbole, lithota, oxymoron, periphrase, etc.);
O syntactic figures(elipsis, silence, inversion, anaphora, epiphora, gradation, parallelism, antithesis, etc.);
Osound organization of speech (repetition of sounds - alliteration, asonance, onomatopoeia).
Principles, types, ways and techniques of analysis . Content and form are in an inextricable, organic unity. We highlight them and their components only conditionally - for the convenience of analyzing such a complex object as a work of art.
Of course, not all deadlines for determining the components of the content and form of a literary work are listed. However, these also make it possible to more clearly see and understand, on the one hand, the interaction between the components of content and form within them, and on the other - complex logic relationships between the components of content and components of form. Let's say, the vital material is not only the “soil” from which the problems and ideas of the work “grow”, but also the “magma” that “pours out” into various types artistic form: plot (events), figurative (biographies, characters), genre (depending on the volume of material, the relationship between the subject and the object and the principles of mastering the material), vikladova (depending on the method of organizing speech in the work), verbal itself (predetermined by the literary direction , aesthetic preferences of the author, features of his talent).
To reveal the ideological and artistic value of a work, you need to adhere to certain principles, types and ways of analysis.
Principles analysis - these are the most general rules arising from an understanding of the nature and essence of fiction; rules that guide us when carrying out analytical operations with a work. The most important principle is analysis interaction between content and form. It is a universal means of understanding the essence of a work and its individual parts. When implementing this principle, one should be guided mandatory rules: 1) starting the analysis from the components of the content, we move on to characterizing the means of its implementation, that is, the components of the form; 2) when we begin the analysis by considering the components of the form, it is imperative to reveal their content; 3) subordinate the analysis to the disclosure of the author’s intention, that is, “go” to an adequate reading of the work.
Systemapproachto a work involves considering it as a system of components, i.e. organic unity of all parts in it. A complete, truly scientific analysis must be systematic. This understanding of the principle of systematicity has an objective motivation: on the one hand, the work itself is a system, and on the other, the means of studying it must constitute a certain system.
In literary studies, it becomes particularly relevant the principle of historicism, which involves: research into the socio-historical conditions of writing the work; study of the historical and literary context in which the work appeared before reader; determining the place of the work in the artistic heritage of the writer; assessment of the work from the point of view of modernity (understanding of the problems, the artistic value of the work by new generations of researchers and readers). A certain point in the implementation of the principle of historicism is the study of the history of writing, publication and research of a work.
Types of analysis - these are approaches to a work from the point of view of understanding the functions of fiction. Some scientists distinguish, in addition to types, methods of analysis. However, science has not developed generally accepted criteria for distinguishing the concepts of “type” and “method”. IN historically methods of analysis were associated with certain literary schools.
Sociological analysis is common in Ukrainian literary criticism. Under the influence of the ideology of the populists, and subsequently the socialists, social issues in literature were mainly brought to the fore. But while there is social inequality in the world, elements sociological analysis will be present in literary studies - with an emphasis on the moral aspects of social issues. Bringing the sociological approach to the point of absurdity - in the form of vulgar sociologism - has caused great harm to our literature.
The psychological approach to literature has a fairly wide range. This includes an analysis of the means of psychologism in the work and literature in general; research into the psychology of perception and the impact of a work of art on the reader; studying the psychology of creativity.
Aesthetic analysis involves considering works from the point of view of aesthetic categories: beautiful - ugly, tragic - comic, high - low, as well as moral categories that are included in the range of value orientations designated by aesthetics: heroism, loyalty, betrayal etc.
Formal analysis of literature has undergone, like all other types (methods) of analysis, historical evolution. A look at form as a specific feature of literature and an interpretation of the content of form are the achievements of the “formal method” that have not lost their relevance today.
The biographical approach to the analysis of a work involves considering the writer’s biography as an important source of creativity. Undoubtedly, the author both accumulates the ideas of time and creates his own art world, then studying the circumstances of his life can help to deeply explore the process of the origin and maturation of creative ideas, the writer’s attention to certain topics and ideas. Personal aspects play an important role in the poet’s work.
The comparative approach to the analysis of literary works includes their comparative historical and comparative typological analysis.
Analysis paths - this is the selection of certain components of the work for detailed consideration. When principles and types (methods) guide the researcher’s work as if “from within” their literary experience, then the paths encourage specific research actions. In the process of development of literary criticism, a whole set of ways of analysis was formed. The most common is simultaneous and problem analysis. It is advisable to resort to figurative analysis when the bright characters of the characters are in the foreground in the work.
Ideological and thematic analysis is also called problem analysis. When choosing this path of analysis, one should consider the features of life material, its connection with problems and ideas, analyze the features of the composition and plot, the system of images, characterize the most important artistic details and verbal means.
Holistic analysis is also called comprehensive analysis, or more precisely, analysis of the interaction of content and form, which is most consistent with the nature of a literary work.
Analysis of a work “by the author” gives the greatest effect when considering works where author's position embodied primarily at the level of its plot, unfolds through the very structure of the work. Such works include, say, the novel in verse “Marusya Churay” by L. Kostenko.
In research and educational practice, certain methods of analysis are used, which make it possible to reveal some narrower aspects of the work. Thus, “slow reading” - through a detailed motion-style examination of the details of the selected episode - opens up the meaningful capacity of the literary text. Thanks to the historical and literary commentary, facts, titles, names, and literary reminiscences are explained, without knowledge of which it is impossible to deeply understand the text. Consideration of the system of subject details helps to clearly see the movement of an artistic idea in a lyrical work. In poetry (and partly in prose), rhythm in combination with lexical material carries an important load.
The principles, types (methods), ways and techniques of analysis presented here illustrate that such a complex phenomenon as fiction does not lend itself to simplified approaches, but requires thoroughly and extensively developed literary means in order to reveal the mystery and beauty of the literary word.
Scheme of analysis of epic and dramatic works
3. Genre (story, short story, short story, essay, comedy, fairy-tale drama, drama proper, etc.).
4. Life basis (those real facts, which became the impetus and material for the work).
5. Theme, idea, problems of the work.
6. The composition of the work, plot features, their role in revealing problems.
7. The role of plot elements (author’s digressions, descriptions, epigraphs, dedications, title of the work, etc.).
8. The system of images, their role in revealing the problems of the work.
9. The originality of the work (at the level of vocabulary, tropes, syntactic figures, phonics, rhythm).
10. Summary (the artistic value of the work, its place in the author’s work and in literature in general, etc.).
Scheme of analysis of a lyrical work
2. History of writing and publication of the work (if necessary).
3. Genre of the work (landscape, civil, intimate (family), religious lyrics, etc.).
4. The leading motive of the work.
5. Composition of the work (in a lyrical work there is no plot, but attention is focused on a certain feeling; the following compositional stages of feeling are distinguished: a) the initial moment in the development of feeling; b) development of feelings; c) climax (possible); d) summary, or author's conclusion).
6. Key images of the work (most often the defining image in the lyrics is the image of the lyrical hero - this is a conventional character, whose thoughts and feelings are revealed in a lyrical work).
7. Linguistic means that contribute to the emotional intensity of the work (we are talking about vocabulary, tropes, figures, phonics).
8. Versification of the work (rhymes, method of rhyming, poetic meter, type of stanza), its role in revealing the leading motive.
9. Summary.
Sample analysis of an epic work: “Under the Fence” by I. Franko
The story “Under the Fence” belongs to the examples of Ukrainian short psychological prose of the early 20th century. I. Franko considered it one of the most characteristic among autobiographical works, since it gives “a largely truthful image from childhood.” However, in the “Preface” to the collection “Small Miron” and other stories,” he warned not to perceive these works as parts of his biography, but as “expressive artistic competitions that sought a certain grouping and coverage of autobiographical material.” In “Reason for the Biography” the writer clarified that the story “Pencil”, “Father is a Humorist”, “Red Scripture” and others have “despite the autobiographical basis, it still has predominantly psychological and literary significance”. Researchers of I. Franko’s prose noted the artistic perfection of autobiographical stories, including “Under the Fence.” I. Denisyuk, for example, exploring the development of Ukrainian short prose XIX - early. XX century, summarized: “... None of the writers sketched such a poetic flair on the early “young days, days of spring” as Ivan Franko” . “In the story “Under the Fence”,- writes P. Khropko, - “I am amazed by the depth of the writer’s artistic solution to such an important problem as the harmonious relationship between man and nature, a problem that resonates with particular urgency today” . Such assessments by literary scholars prompt an attempt at a more in-depth study of the poetics of this work.
The story “Under the Fence” written in 1905. It was included in the collection “In the lap of nature” and other stories.” It is known that this was the time of I. Franko’s creative zenith, a time of intense philosophical understanding of the new turbulent era. On the verge of two centuries, I. Franko, more deeply and subtly than anyone at that time, understood the essence of the process of updating the content of art and its forms. He became a theoretician and practitioner of a new direction in Ukrainian literature, whose representatives saw the main task in psychological analysis social phenomena. The essence of this direction is clearly formulated in the literary critical works of the writer. The goal was to show how the facts public life are reflected in the soul and consciousness of the unit and, conversely, in the soul of that unit new events are born and grow social category. These writers took spiritual conflicts and catastrophes as the theme of their works, “They, so to speak, immediately sit in the souls of their heroes and with it, like a magic lamp, they enlighten everyone around them.”. This method of depicting reality required the enrichment of the expressive means of art, especially literature, and an increase in the aesthetic impact on the reader: “New fiction is an unusually delicate filigree work, its competition is to get as close as possible to the music. For this reason, she takes extraordinary care of the form, the melody of the word, and the rhythm of the conversation.” [4, t. 41, 526].
From this angle, I. Franko’s numerous stories touched on the life of the smallest cells of a complex social organism.
The story “Under the Fence” requires a special literary interpretation. Its interpretation may not be unambiguous. The very title of the work is allegorical and more complex than the allegorical images, say, in the stories “Teren in the Leg” or “How Yura Shikmanyuk eyebrows Cheremosh.” The appeal to the image of a child followed from the writer’s civic position and his concerns about the future of the people. “What will happen to him? What color will develop from that navel?”- asked the writer in the story “Small Miron”. And with bitterness he predicted an unenviable future talented child: “He will visit prison walls, and all sorts of holes of torment and violence of people against people, and will end up dying somewhere in poverty, loneliness and desolation in an attic, or from the prison walls he will carry out the germs of a fatal disease, which will then drive him away to the grave, or, having lost faith in the saint, high truth, will begin to pour vodka on the worm until he goes completely crazy. Poor little Myron! .
Myron from the story “Under the Fence” is interested in literally everything that surrounds him: the fact that scorched wood does not rot, and the fact that his father indirectly turns holes, and most of all - his father’s wisdom and hard work, which were able to create such a miracle as the fence . From it Mironov can clearly see the world around him, all four sides of it. The guy is haunted by two questions. The first is like those sticks “that from all directions of the world, kermovani by the wise tattoo will, so regularly and evenly coincide down to one bang” and secondly, will he ever be able to do this?
Small Myron is happy. The first paragraph of the story begins and ends with this framing. After a lifetime of labor on hay or slush, which was too much for a small boy, tormented by ten months of training, he was finally left alone. Myron goes into the forest. The feelings from the boy’s communication with nature are so subtle and individual that it is difficult for the writer to capture it and convey it to the reader with the word “forest.” I. Franko expresses this elusive feeling through a comparison of the forest with the church, which is a strong irritant for the reader. Next, the writer tells the story from such an angle to reflect those "vague feelings" which a child experiences in the forest-church in order to illuminate the healing effect of nature on her, that is “the enchantment with which the forest envelops his soul.” With the help of ordinary, almost “ugly” words, the author achieves the reproduction of mutual understanding and rapprochement between the child and nature: Miron “trembles along with an aspen leaf on a thin branch”, understands "shemrannya of a tiny stream", sympathizes with the shore, which “when there is wind, it creaks like a child crying”. Communicating with nature is the source of human kindness, compassion, and mercy. The boy's mental dialogue with mushrooms clearly illustrates these character traits. The writer, who loves scrupulous accuracy of description, here resorts to a string of endearing words: “Oh, my panic! You're a success, white above and below! Probably only this night I came back from the earth. And the spine is healthy! It's good. And you, old grandfather! Somehow they were going on a love date, so one rat lifted his hat up! Oh, bad girl! And here is the little dove, purple and round, like a snuff box! Don’t you have some slime inside?”. The landscapes in the story gradually lose their descriptive-textural function and take a turn, come to life, and become personified. This is visibly noticeable when I. Franko “raises” his hero to the curb. The paintings the boy saw more than once from here become more expressive and attractive. And the writer himself can get a better look at Miron himself here. Kindness, which was simply kindness in the forest, here turns into something new, top quality. True, in order to illuminate it from the inside, the writer needs complex associations characteristic of a child’s worldview and specifically for his age. When thunder struck somewhere far above the forest, Mironov heard: “Wounds! Wounds, Wounds! He listened and realized that the forest ached for his long-term pain, another moment - and the forest appeared in his imagination as a living creature, which hurt because the guys made a fire under the oak tree and burned a hole in his living body (“after all, that oak tree is dying, little by little!”), and the fact that they crippled birch trees in the spring, taking sap from them; chamois, goats and wild boars were shot, and the spruce forest died from the worm epidemic. This living pain, not his own, but that of the forest, made the boy feel terrible and painful. Through the sensation of pain, the image becomes more complex. Mironov, who was not afraid of the forest and nothing in the forest, because he knew every ravine, every clearing, every trench here, here, on his parents’ fence, it becomes scary, “as if I looked into Deep Debra early in the morning”. However, the hero does not yet understand the reasons for his fear. He carefully looks at famous landscapes and this makes the associations more complex, his thoughts work faster and faster. Looking for analogies with Myron’s feelings, I. Franko drew images from fairy tales, legends, and myths. This was the world in which the guy continues to live and which inspired his wild imagination. This beautiful world nature did not freeze in the writer’s imagination. He saw well the pictures he described, so he most simple words acquire newness under the pen, act on the reader with striking force and evoke in him those thoughts, feelings and states that the writer wanted to convey.
Listening to incomprehensible sounds, Myron sees in the sky some gigantic head on a thick neck, which with sadistic pleasure was glancing at the ground, especially at him, Myron, and smiling. The boy guessed that this was one of those giants that he had heard about when he was little, so his curiosity flared up and his imaginary pictures became more complex. Verbal gradations are introduced into the text, which create the impression of movement that gradually increases. Then he sees how the head moved, the nose became crooked, the lips began to spread wider and wider, and the wide tongue began to spit stronger and stronger. Myron enters into a dialogue with the giant, who even listens to the boy. Another moment - and the giant already reminds Mironov of the drunken rapnik who danced on the Borislavsky tract. The guy's associations are lightning fast. There, already in Drohobych, he sees the following picture: “On the highway there is a swamp up to the bone, liquid and black as pitch, and he wanders off to one end of the street, then to the other, waving his arms, twisting his head.” . These ideas, reflecting mainly the guy’s everyday ethnographic observations, quickly disappear. They do not yet motivate the ideological plan, but only “on the approaches” to it. This plan in its entirety and artistic power embodied in the image of a storm, which seems to “remained in primary integrity in the artist’s memory for more than forty years, until he “threw it onto paper”. The picture of the storm in the story is filled with I. Franko’s favorite allegories - thunder, showers, avalanches, floods, repeatedly used in poetry and prose to reveal strong public and intimate horrors. These allegories with a wide variety of semantic and emotional shades literally populate the work of I. Franko. He associatively projected landscape drawings with images of thunder, clouds, wind, and rain onto the social plane and transferred them into the mainstream of ideas of revolutionary transformations of the world.
The phenomenon of the storm evoked in Myron more and more complex associations, which are one of the main methods of psychologizing the hero in the story. What his parents told him about for a long time winter evenings in fairy tales and legends, sung in songs and thoughts, which he had already read about himself and what his rich childhood imagination was capable of - all this, refracted through the prism of Myron’s perception, becomes a strong irritant and evokes corresponding associations in the reader. To reproduce the process of thinking, thinking, and imagination of Myron, the writer takes a complex synthesis of different types of tropes - metaphors, personification, gradation, etc.
The hero’s perception of the growing force of the storm is reproduced in capacious and detailed comparisons: a violent wind burst out of the shelter, "like a fierce beast", there was a roar in the air, “as if large piles of crushed stones were poured there”, then the thunder became even louder, “It’s as if a hundred cartloads of all kinds of iron were poured onto glass teak from an immeasurable height”, lightning flashed, “as if invisible hands were tumbling there with red-hot iron staffs”, raindrops falling on Mironov’s face, “It was as if the arrows of an invisible giant were subjected to objective measurement on him”. Storm, thunder, lightning are all personified, gaining momentum and consolidating to fight Myron. Having taken a closer look at his strength and capabilities, confident in his victory, these forces try to fight the person. The escalation of the struggle is reproduced through metaphors. Myron feels “how the wind grabbed hold of the fence and began to tug at the hay...”, then he's already “leaned his mighty shoulders into the hay and fortifications to turn over the fence”. Oborig was also afraid of this power and “in horror he jumped a fathom from the ground”. Framed by contrasts of light, the paintings change quickly. Here “the clouds extinguished the sun, the purple eyes of the giant also went out, the eastern, still pure, smiling half of the sky disappeared, the whole sky was covered with a dark heavy cloud”. Bright and succinct epithets give way to expressive metaphors in the following picture, which is separated from the previous one by a red stream of lightning: “the sky is covered with thick curtains, and almost dense darkness has settled under the fence”. Against this dynamic backdrop, Myron is not an observer who, looking at natural horrors, trembles or hesitates. Masterfully using the technique of psychological parallelism, the writer recreated the storm in the hero’s soul. The boy tried to make sure that he was not afraid. More precisely, he wanted not to be afraid, to convince himself not to be afraid. But the often repeated epithet “terrible”, “terrible”, emotional vocabulary with a negative connotation, which reproduces its associations, truthfully depict how some incomprehensible feeling creeps into the soul of a child. The verb gradation emphasizes it and strengthens it as the storm in nature grows. Mironov "languished inside", “something big was pressing on his soul, coming up to his throat, choking him..., his head was working hard, his imagination was tormented..., but he couldn’t remember, he was writhing and expressing himself like a living person crushed by a stone, And the horror kept grabbing him by the breast" [4, vol. 22, 45]. Psychologization is deepening. The writer has already resorted to using some strokes of external expression of mental state: “the hair on the head was tingling, cold sweat covered the child’s forehead”. The boy's mental torment was interrupted by lightning - he understood why he was scared. Myron saw fields covered with ripened rye, spiked wheat, oats, clover, hayfields covered with herbs. Everything that was the fruit of human labor, human hope, could be instantly destroyed. The child was amazed that “everything right down to the ground under the furious blow of the wind”.
For a moment the storm weakens its strength - and everything “slopes”. The worries in the child’s soul are growing. It was during the period of that short-term calm that the boy felt that all that grain saw a catastrophe, but the hope of surviving still did not leave him and he was timid. "bows", further, believing in the mercy of the storm, "prays" and at a critical moment "begs": “Spare us! Spare us!.
Sound gradations seem to overlap each other and reflect "giant music in nature". The giant's threats were so loud and confident that the voice of the church bells that sounded the alarm sounded like Mironov “a jingle like a golden fly”. This comparison seemed to the writer not expressive enough to reproduce this formidable force, so he resorted to another, behind which the voice of the bells was heard against the background of the voice of the storm "languages tsinkannya drymba against the mighty orchestra". Subsequently, the bells completely freeze in the roar of thunder. But Myron already hears other sounds, terrible ones. They are imaginary for now, but in a minute it may happen that the floodgates open and a fatal hail shower hits the ground. A picture floated in her imagination, causing Mironov’s head to buzz and fiery sparks to run in her eyes: “...the earth and all living things on it will fall to the ground, and all the beauty and joy on it will fall into the swamp, like wounded birds” [4, vol. 22, 46].
Myron’s association, reflected at the beginning of the work, when the forest seemed to the boy a living body in which everything hurt, was repeated. But here it is expressed more specifically and succinctly. The comparison of such concepts as fields destroyed by a storm and birds in a swamp carries a great, more than anything else in the story, semantic and emotional load. It reflects worries about the public, which in the adult Myron will develop into a struggle for this public, which will become the highest manifestation of his mercy. The plausibility of such a comparison in a child’s imagination is beyond doubt, because Miron is a peasant child who not only witnessed daily labor for a piece of bread, but also suffered the torment of the day in the sunny heat or slush. The writer brings the reader very close to revealing his ideological plan. Little Myron, who lived in harmony with nature and was inseparable from it, began to compete with its dark forces for the sake of preserving the fruits of other forces of nature that bring good to people. The writer activates all the possibilities of the word and Myron’s action brings it to an expressive symbol: “Don't you dare! I'm telling you, don't you dare! This is no place for you!”- little Miron shouts, shaking his fists in the air[4, vol. 22, 47]. The storm and the man gathered their last strength. The storm episode hits the reader with the weight of destructive means that are about to crumble. Words seem to become heavier and gain maximum ability to generate associations. This impression is reinforced by several rows of gradation: cloud “became rough, hung over the ground, became heavy” it seemed that “The burden will fall to the ground and fall apart, and all living things will crush him into dust.”, “the means of ruinous matter are pushing, crushing the giant and that he bends and groans under his weight”. This heavy premonition is intensified by a strong sound stimulus, which causes a negative emotional reaction - anxiety, fear. Above all that cargo the voice of the bells was heard again: “now it was clearly heard, but not as a strong, all-conquering force, but only as a plaintive lament for the dead” [4, vol. 33, 47]. Every landscape detail here is endowed with epithets, from which, as S. Shakhovskoy wrote, “the words become euphonically heavy, like blocks of earth, like whole massifs” [ 6, 57 ] . In the last episode the epithets "huge", "scary", "heavier" even repeated. Myron feels that everything that is heavy and unkind will now end and destroy the bread. He once again peers at the giant under the fence and is no longer afraid of his neck, patties or hefty belly, but "huge munch". The writer further details the psychological state of the hero by depicting his appearance: “... the face was burning, the eyes were burning, the blood was pounding in the temples like hammers, the sigh was accelerated, something was wheezing in the chest, as if he himself was moving some huge load or was struggling with someone invisible with extreme tension of all their strength". The skill of I. Franco the prose writer lies in the fact that he “there is no artificial accuracy of descriptions for all their accuracy - this is the complexity of simplicity, the transformation of the achievements of world artistic technology through the creative personality of the author, his temperament, living blood and nerves, this is the search for his own paths in verbal art” .
The process of the hero's weakening is conveyed by tactile images that contrast with his burning eyes and face. Myron is overcome by a feeling of coldness, which gradually increases and turns into a vivid metonymic image of a “cold hand” that squeezes the throat (arms and legs are already "got cold as ice"). Physical impotence and “immeasurable” tension of willpower are expressed in the work in short and laconic incomplete and elliptical sentences: “On your sides! On your sides! To Radicev and Panchuzhna! Don’t you dare here!”
Genre syncretism reaches such perfection that the reader cannot identify the boundaries that separate the real and the imaginary, reality and fiction. An allegorical picture of a little man’s struggle with a hail storm that ends although with mental breakdown, but still victory, ends with a meaningful image of laughter. Laughter first "unconscious", develops into mad laughter and merges with the noise of the ulcer from the cloud, rain and thunderclaps. These images are multi-valued, but they undoubtedly embody the historical optimism of the writer, the idea of eternal unity and the struggle with nature, the need for a reasonable human victory in this struggle.
Literature
1. Dey O.I. From observations of the imagery of public and intimate lyrics by I. Frank// Ivan Franko - master of words and literature researcher- K., 1981.
2. Denisyuk I. O. Development of Ukrainian short prose XI X - beginning XX century - K., 1981.
3. Denisyuk I. O. On the problem of innovation in Ivan Franko's short stories// Ukrainian literary criticism.- Vol. 46. - Lvov, 1986.
4. Franko I. Ya. Collected works: In 50 volumes.- K., 1976-1986.
5. Khropko P. The world of a child in the autobiographical stories of Ivan Franko// Literature. Children. Time.- K., 1981.
6. Shakhovskoy S. The mastery of Ivan Franko.- K., 1956.
Sample analysis of a lyrical work: “The cherry fish tank” by T. Shevchenko
The St. Petersburg spring of 1847 passed. It was cold in the basement of the office building of the so-called III Department. It’s also not comfortable on the upper floors of the house, where Taras Shevchenko was summoned for interrogation. Leaders II I The department knew well that among the arrested members of the “Ukrainian-Slavic society” (Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood), the main person was T. Shevchenko, although there was no direct evidence of his membership in the brotherhood. During interrogations, the poet did not betray any of the Cyril and Methodius followers and behaved with dignity. He was in a solitary cell in a casemate between April 17 and May 30, 1847. At this time, the poems that made up the cycle “In the Casemate” were written. It includes the poetry “Behind the bayrak bayrak”, “Mower”, “I am alone”, “Early in the morning recruits...”, “Don’t leave your mother! - they said...” and others. The cycle also included the famous landscape miniature “Cherry Fishing Tank”, written between May 19 and 30 - as a result of nostalgic visions of the distant May region.
5 autographs of the work have been preserved: three are among the autographs of this cycle (on a separate sheet of paper, in the “Small Book” and in “ More book") and two separate ones - one called "Spring Evening" (no date) and the second - called "May Evening", dated "1858, November 28". The work was first published in the magazine “Russian Conversation” (1859, No. 3) under the title “Evening” and at the same time in the Russian translation by L. May in the magazine “People’s Reading” (1859, No. 3). Let us immediately note that T. Shevchenko himself was very fond of reciting this work and gave autographs to his friends.
“Cherry Kolokhaty Fish Tank” belongs to the masterpieces of Ukrainian landscape lyricism. During its writing, the number of metaphorical images of the grotesque, fantastic and symbolic planes noticeably decreases in the works of T. Shevchenko. At the same time, during the period of arrest and exile, the number of autologous (tropless) poems and poetic fragments in individual works- a tendency that corresponded to the general evolution of T. Shevchenko towards an increasingly natural artistic image, its “proseization”.
The poem recreates an idyllic picture of a spring evening in a Ukrainian village. Simple, visible, plastic images in it arise from folk and moral and ethical ideas. The strength of the emotional impact of this work lies in the naturalness and relief of the drawing, in its bright, life-affirming mood. The poetry reflected the poet's dream of a happy, harmonious life.
The most perfect analysis of poetry “The cherry blossom pond” And submitted. Franco in the aesthetic treatise “From the secrets of poetic creativity.” He repeatedly noted that the work of T. Shevchenko marks a new milestone in the development artistic mastery of Ukrainian literature. In the aforementioned treatise, I. Franko revealed the “secrets” of the great poet’s skill and showed them as an example of artistry.
I. Franko classifies the poetry of “The Cherry Fishing Tank” as idyllic works, that is, those in which the authors “get” associations, calm, lull the reader’s imagination, or simply express such associations that “float” in the poet’s calm imagination without any tension imagination. In the named work I. Franko wrote in particular: “The whole verse is like a snapshot of the poet’s soul mood, evoked by the image of a quiet, spring Ukrainian evening.
Cherry blossom cage,
Khrushchevs are buzzing over the cherries,
The plowmen are walking with their plows,
The girls sing as they walk,
And the mothers are waiting for dinner" .
Franco the critic emphasized that T. Shevchenko did not use any decorations in this work and described the images in almost prosaic words. But these words convey the lightest associations of ideas, so that our imagination floats from one image to another easily, like a bird, with graceful curves without flapping its wings, floats lower and lower in the air. In that ease and naturalness of associating ideas lies the whole secret of the poetic nature of these poems.” .
Further I. Franko emphasized that “true poets never allow themselves... orgies of color”. He meant, first of all, “The cherry blossom pond.” Although T. Shevchenko, as I. Franko noted before, uses a fairly wide range of coloristic symbolism, coloristic images with which he characterizes Ukrainian nature - « cherry orchard green and dark nights» , "blue sea", "red viburnum", "green ravines", "the sky is blue". Shevchenko has a girlfriend « pink» , and the child “blushes like a flower in the morning under the dew”. Still, the poet, as we read in the treatise “From the Secrets of Poetic Creativity,” does not paint exclusively with “colors,” but “catches our various thoughts, evokes in the soul images of various impressions, but in such a way that they immediately merge into one organic and harmonious integrity”. In the first verse of the poetry “The Cherry Circle at Home” “the first line touches the mind of vision, the second - hearing, the third - vision and touch, the fourth - vision and hearing, and the fifth - again vision and touch; There are no special color accents at all, and yet the whole - a Ukrainian spring evening - appears before our imagination with all its colors, contours and hums, as if alive.”.
The poetry of “The Cherry Circle at Home” is full of a wide range of experiences. Here the “author” is hidden, that is, he is not specified as a specific person. Pictures of quiet picturesque nature, a gentle rural evening exist as if by themselves. The author's (lyrical narrator's) gaze moves from detail to detail until stroke by stroke a complete image is created in which everything lives and moves. The present tense of description is of a generalized nature, that is, this happens almost every summer evening, and this evening repeats itself every time.
The author’s evaluative position is clearly noticeable due to the idyllic mood, admiration for the simple, natural structure of working life with the alternation of work and rest, admiration for family happiness, the spiritual beauty of the Ukrainian people - all that the poet extols as the highest spiritual values. This emotional tone is the main content of poetry, as well as the idyllic drawings close to it “Water is flowing from under the sycamore tree...”, “Oh Dibrovo - a dark grove”, etc.
The dramatic context of feudal reality, the poet’s work and his personal fate is superimposed on these idyllic drawings, these memories-dreams and envelops them in sadness.
Literature
1. Franco I. Collection works: In 50 volumes.- K., 1931. - T. 31.
Literature
1. Introduction to literary criticism. Literary work: basic concepts and terms. -M., 1999.
2. Volynsky P.Fundamentals of literary theory. - K., 1967.
3. Galich A., Nazarets V., Vasiliev Is. Theory of literature. Textbook. - K., 2001.
4. Esin A.Principles and techniques of analyzing a literary work. Study guide. - M., 1998.
5. Kuzmenko V.Dictionary of literary terms. A textbook on literary criticism.- K., 1997.
6. Kutsaya A.P.Fundamentals of literary criticism. A textbook for students of pedagogical specialties of higher educational institutions. - Ternopil, 2002.
7. Lesin V.Literary terms. - K., 1985.
8. Literary dictionary-reference book ( edited by G. Grom "Yaka, Yu. Kovaleva). - K., 1997.
9. Khalizev V.Theory of literature. - M., 1999.
Questions for self-control
1. What is artistry literary work? Name the prerequisites for revealing the artistry of a work.
2. Specify aspects of possible analysis plot form a work of art.
3. Reveal the essence of the principle of analysis interaction content and form .
4. What does it suggest? aesthetic analysis literary work?
5. Name the main ones ways of analysis literary work.
When analyzing a work of art, one should distinguish between ideological content and artistic form.
A. Ideological content includes:
1) subject matter works - socio-historical characters chosen by the writer in their interaction;
2) issues- the most significant properties and aspects of the already reflected characters for the author, highlighted and strengthened by him in the artistic depiction;
3) pathos works - the ideological and emotional attitude of the writer to the depicted social characters (heroics, tragedy, drama, satire, humor, romance and sentimentality).
Pathos - highest form ideological and emotional assessment of the writer’s life, revealed in his work. Affirmation of the greatness of the feat of an individual hero or an entire team is an expression heroic pathos, and the actions of the hero or team are characterized by free initiative and are aimed at the implementation of high humanistic principles. The prerequisite for heroism in fiction is the heroism of reality, the fight against the elements of nature, for national freedom and independence, for the free labor of people, the fight for peace.
When the author affirms the deeds and experiences of people who are characterized by a deep and irremovable contradiction between the desire for a sublime ideal and the fundamental impossibility of achieving it, then we have before us tragic pathos. The forms of the tragic are very diverse and historically changeable. Dramatic Pathos is distinguished by the absence of the fundamental nature of a person’s opposition to extrapersonal hostile circumstances. A tragic character is always marked by exceptional moral height and significance. The differences in the characters of Katerina in “The Thunderstorm” and Larisa in Ostrovsky’s “Dowry” clearly demonstrate the difference in these types of pathos.
Gained great importance in the art of the 19th-20th centuries. romantic pathos, with the help of which the significance of the individual’s desire for an emotionally anticipated universal ideal is affirmed. Close to romantic sentimental pathos, although its range is limited to the family and everyday sphere of manifestation of the feelings of the heroes and the writer. All these types of pathos carry within them affirmative beginning and realize the sublime as the main and most general aesthetic category.
The general aesthetic category for the negation of negative tendencies is the category of the comic. Comic- this is a form of life that claims to be significant, but has historically outlived its positive content and therefore causes laughter. Comic contradictions as an objective source of laughter can be realized satirically or humorous. The angry denial of socially dangerous comic phenomena determines the civil nature of the pathos of satire. Mocking the comic contradictions in the moral and everyday sphere of human relations evokes a humorous attitude towards the depicted. Ridicule can be either a denial or an affirmation of the depicted contradiction. Laughter in literature, as in life, is extremely diverse in its manifestations: smile, mockery, sarcasm, irony, sardonic grin, Homeric laughter.
B. Art form includes:
1) Details of subject visualization: portrait, actions of characters, their experiences and speech (monologues and dialogues), everyday environment, landscape, plot (sequence and interaction of external and internal actions of characters in time and space);
2) Composition details: order, method and motivation, narratives and descriptions of the depicted life, author's reasoning, digressions, inserted episodes, framing ( image composition- the relationship and arrangement of object details within a separate image);
3) Stylistic details: figurative and expressive details of the author's speech, intonation-syntactic and rhythmic-strophic features of poetic speech in general.
Scheme of analysis of a literary work.
1. History of creation.
2. Topic.
3. Issues.
4. The ideological orientation of the work and its emotional pathos.
5. Genre originality.
6. Basic artistic images in their system and internal connections.
7. Central characters.
8. The plot and structural features of the conflict.
9. Landscape, portrait, dialogues and monologues of characters, interior, setting.
11. Composition of the plot and individual images, as well as the general architectonics of the work.
12. The place of the work in the writer’s work.
13. The place of the work in the history of Russian and world literature.
A general plan for answering the question about the meaning of the writer’s creativity.
A. The place of the writer in the development of Russian literature.
B. The place of the writer in the development of European (world) literature.
1. The main problems of the era and the writer’s attitude towards them.
2. Traditions and innovation of the writer in the field:
b) topics, problems;
V) creative method and style;
e) speech style.
B. Evaluation of the writer’s creativity by classics of literature and criticism.
An approximate plan for characterizing an artistic image-character.
Introduction. The place of the character in the system of images of the work.
Main part. Characteristics of the character as a certain social type.
1. Social and financial situation.
2. Appearance.
3. The originality of worldview and worldview, the range of mental interests, inclinations and habits:
a) the nature of activities and main life aspirations;
b) influence on others (main area, types and types of influence).
4. Area of feelings:
a) type of attitude towards others;
b) features of internal experiences.
6. What personality traits of the hero are revealed in the work:
c) through the characteristics of other actors;
d) using background or biography;
e) through a chain of actions;
f) in speech characteristics;
g) through “neighborhood” with other characters;
h) through the environment.
Conclusion. Which public problem led the author to create this image.
Plan for analyzing a lyric poem.
I. Date of writing.
II. Real biographical and factual commentary.
III. Genre originality.
IV. Ideological content:
1. Leading topic.
2. Main idea.
3. The emotional coloring of feelings expressed in a poem in their dynamics or statics.
4. External impression and internal reaction to it.
5. The predominance of public or personal intonations.
V. Structure of the poem:
1. Comparison and development of basic verbal images:
a) by similarity;
b) by contrast;
c) by contiguity;
d) by association;
d) by inference.
2. Basic visual arts allegories used by the author: metaphor, metonymy, comparison, allegory, symbol, hyperbole, litotes, irony (as a trope), sarcasm, periphrasis.
3. Speech features in terms of intonation and syntactic figures: epithet, repetition, antithesis, inversion, ellipse, parallelism, rhetorical question, address and exclamation.
4. Main rhythmic features:
a) tonic, syllabic, syllabic-tonic, dolnik, free verse;
b) iambic, trochaic, pyrrhic, spondean, dactyl, amphibrachic, anapest.
5. Rhyme (masculine, feminine, dactylic, accurate, inaccurate, rich; simple, compound) and methods of rhyming (paired, cross, ring), game of rhymes.
6. Stanza (couple, tercet, quintet, quatrain, sextine, seventh, octave, sonnet, Onegin stanza).
7. Euphony (euphony) and sound recording (alliteration, assonance), other types of sound instrumentation.
How to keep a short record of the books you read.
2. The exact title of the work. Dates of creation and appearance in print.
3. The time depicted in the work and the place where the main events take place. The social environment, the representatives of which are depicted by the author in the work (nobles, peasants, urban bourgeoisie, bourgeoisie, commoners, intelligentsia, workers).
4. Epoch. Characteristics of the time in which the work was written (from the side of the economic and socio-political interests and aspirations of contemporaries).
5. Brief content plan.