The plot as a form of a work of art. Writing a book: What is a plot?

26.04.2019

§ 11. Plot and its functions

In the word "plot" (from fr. sujet) denotes a chain of events recreated in a literary work, that is, the life of the characters in its spatio-temporal changes, in successive positions and circumstances. The events depicted by writers form (along with the characters) the basis of the objective world of the work. The plot is the organizing principle of the dramatic, epic and lyric-epic genres. It can also be significant in the lyrical genre of literature (although, as a rule, here it is sparingly detailed and extremely compact): “I remember a wonderful moment...” by Pushkin, “Reflections at the Main Entrance” by Nekrasov, the poem by V. Khodasevich “On November 2 "

The understanding of plot as a set of events recreated in a work dates back to Russian literary criticism of the 19th century. (work by A.N. Veselovsky “Poetics of Plots”). But in the 1920s, V.B. Shklovsky and other representatives of the formal school dramatically changed the usual terminology. B.V. Tomashevsky wrote: “The set of events in their mutual internal connection<…>let's call it a plot ( lat. legend, myth, fable. - V.H.) <…>The artistically constructed distribution of events in a work is called a plot.” However, in modern literary criticism The prevailing meaning of the term “plot”, dating back to the 19th century.

The events that make up the plot are related in different ways to the facts of reality that precede the appearance of the work. For many centuries, writers took plots mainly from mythology, historical legend, from the literature of past eras and at the same time somehow processed, modified, supplemented. Most of Shakespeare's plays are based on familiar plots medieval literature. Traditional plots (not in last resort ancient) were widely used by classicist playwrights. Goethe spoke about the great role of plot borrowings: “I advise<…>take on already processed topics. How many times, for example, have Iphigenia been depicted - and yet all Iphigenia are different, because everyone sees and depicts things<…>in our own way."

In the 19th–20th centuries. The events depicted by writers began to be based on facts of reality close to the writer, purely modern. Dostoevsky's close interest in newspaper chronicles is significant. IN literary creativity from now on, the writer’s biographical experience and his direct observations of the environment are widely used. At the same time, not only individual characters have their prototypes, but also the plots of the works themselves (“Resurrection” by L.N. Tolstoy, “The Case of the Cornet Elagin” by I.A. Bunin). The autobiographical element clearly makes itself felt in the plot structure (S.T. Aksakov, L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Shmelev). Simultaneously with the energy of observation and introspection, individual plot fiction is activated. Plots that are the fruit of the author’s imagination are becoming widespread (“Gulliver’s Travels” by J. Swift, “The Nose” by N.V. Gogol, “Kholstomer” by L.N. Tolstoy, in our century - the works of F. Kafka).

The events that make up the plot are related to each other in different ways. In some cases, one comes to the fore life situation, the work is built on one event line. These are the majority of small epics, and most importantly - dramatic genres, which are characterized by unity of action. Subjects single action(it is right to call them concentric, or centripetal) was preferred both in antiquity and in the aesthetics of classicism. Thus, Aristotle believed that tragedy and epic should depict “a single and, moreover, integral action, and the parts of events should be so composed that when any part changes or is taken away, the whole changes and comes into motion.”

At the same time, plots are widespread in literature in which events are dispersed and event complexes, independent of each other and having their own “beginnings” and “ends,” unfold on “equal rights.” These are, in Aristotle's terminology, episodic plots. Here the events do not have cause-and-effect relationships with each other and are correlated with each other only in time, as is the case, for example, in Homer’s “Odyssey,” Cervantes’ “Don Quixote,” and Byron’s “Don Juan.” It is right to call such stories chronicle. They are also fundamentally different from single action plots. multi-line plots in which several lines of events unfold simultaneously, parallel to one another, connected with the fate of different persons and touching only occasionally and externally. This is plot organization“Anna Karenina” by L.N. Tolstoy and “Three Sisters” by A.P. Chekhov. Chronicle and multilinear stories depict events panoramas, while plots of a single action recreate individual events nodes. Panoramic scenes can be defined as centrifugal, or cumulative(from lat. cumulatio - increase, accumulation).

Included literary work the plot performs essential functions. Firstly, series of events (especially those constituting a single action) have a constructive meaning: they hold together, as if cementing what is depicted. Secondly, the plot is essential for the reproduction of characters, for the discovery of their characters. Literary heroes are inconceivable outside of their immersion in one or another series of events. Events create a kind of “field of action” for the characters, allowing them to reveal themselves to the reader in a variety of ways and fully in their emotional and mental responses to what is happening, and most importantly, in their behavior and actions. The plot form is especially favorable for a vivid, detailed recreation of the strong-willed, effective principle in a person. Many works with a rich series of events are dedicated to heroic personalities (remember Homer’s “Iliad” or Gogol’s “Taras Bulba”). Action-packed works, as a rule, are those in the center of which there is a hero prone to adventure (many Renaissance short stories in the spirit of G. Boccaccio’s “The Decameron”, picaresque novels, comedies by P. Beaumarchais, where Figaro acts brilliantly).

And finally, thirdly, the plots reveal and directly recreate life’s contradictions. Without some kind of conflict and the lives of the characters (long-term or short-term), it is difficult to imagine a sufficiently expressed plot. Characters involved in the course of events, as a rule, are excited, tense, feel dissatisfied with something, desire to gain something, achieve something or preserve something important, suffer defeats or win victories. In other words, the plot is not serene, one way or another involved in what is called dramatic. Even in works of idyllic “sounding”, the balance in the lives of the heroes is disturbed (Long’s novel “Daphnis and Chloe”).

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To the utmost general view The plot is a kind of basic scheme of the work, which includes the sequence of actions occurring in the work and the totality of the character relationships existing in it. Typically, a plot includes the following elements: exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement and postposition, and, in some works, prologue and epilogue. The main prerequisite for the development of the plot is time, and how historical period actions and the passage of time during the work.

The concept of plot is closely related to the concept of the plot of the work. In modern Russian literary criticism (as well as in the practice of school teaching of literature), the term “plot” usually refers to the very course of events in a work, and the plot is understood as the main artistic conflict, which develops in the course of these events. Historically, there were other views on the relationship between plot and plot, different from the one indicated. In the 1920s, representatives of OPOYAZ proposed to distinguish between two sides of the narrative: they called the very development of events in the world of the work “plot”, and the way these events are depicted by the author - “plot”.

Another interpretation comes from Russian critics of the mid-19th century and was also supported by A. N. Veselovsky and M. Gorky: they called the plot the very development of the action of the work, adding to this the relationships of the characters, and by the plot they understood the compositional side of the work, that is, how exactly the author reports the content of the plot. It is easy to see that the meanings of the terms “plot” and “plot” in this interpretation, compared to the previous one, change places.

There is also a point of view that the concept of “plot” independent meaning does not have, and to analyze the work it is quite enough to operate with the concepts of “plot”, “plot diagram”, “plot composition”.

Typology of plots

Repeated attempts have been made to classify the plots of literary works, divide them according to various criteria, and highlight the most typical ones. The analysis made it possible, in particular, to identify a large group of so-called “wandering plots” - plots that are repeated many times in different designs among different nations and in different regions, for the most part- V folk art(fairy tales, myths, legends).

There are several attempts to reduce the diversity of plots to a small, but at the same time comprehensive set plot schemes. In the famous short story “The Four Cycles,” Borges claims that all plots come down to just four options:

On the assault and defense of the fortified city (Troy)
About the Long Return (Odysseus)
About the search (Jason)
About the suicide of a god (Odin, Atis)

Notes

Links

The meaning of the word “plot” in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Brief summaries of literary works by various authors
Lunacharsky A.V., Thirty-six plots, “Theater and Art” magazine, 1912, No. 34.
Nikolaev A.I. The plot of a literary work // Fundamentals of literary criticism: tutorial for students of philological specialties. – Ivanovo: LISTOS, 2011.

Subjects, motives
Basic concepts	Plot Motif (literature) Motif (art) Scale-thematic structures of Fabliau Index of folk tale plots Fairytale plot Fairy tale type Genre model Plot frame Thematic block Stylistic cliché Elementary plot Wandering plot Eternal images Classification of subjects Artistic image
Genres	Literary genres Musical genres Film genres Rhetorical genres

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Synonyms
Aloy

Chen Zaidao

Plot- 1. S. in literature, a reflection of the dynamics of reality in the form of the action unfolding in the work, in the form of internally connected (causal and temporal connection) actions of characters, events that form a certain unity, constituting some ... Literary encyclopedia

plot- a, m. sujet m. 1. An event or a series of interconnected and sequentially developing events that make up the content of a literary work. BAS 1. || trans. Relationships. He is a beginner and immediately understands the camera's plot: hidden power P … Historical Dictionary Gallicisms of the Russian language

Plot- PLOT is the narrative core of a work of art, a system of effective (factual) mutual direction and arrangement of persons (objects) appearing in a given work, the positions put forward in it, the events developing in it.… … Dictionary of literary terms

PLOT- (French, from Latin subjectum subject). The content, the interweaving of external circumstances that form the basis of the known. literary or arts. works; in music: fugue theme. In theatrical language, an actor or actress. Dictionary foreign words, included in... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

plot- Cm … Synonym dictionary

PLOT- (from French sujet subject, subject) sequence of events in literary text. The paradox associated with the fate of the concept of S. in the twentieth century is that as soon as philology learned to study it, literature began to destroy it. In studying C... Encyclopedia of Cultural Studies

PLOT- PLOT, plot, husband. (French sujet). 1. A set of actions and events in which the main content of a work of art is revealed (lit.). The plot of Pushkin's Queen of Spades. Choose something as the plot of a novel. 2. transfer Content, topic of what... ... Dictionary Ushakova

PLOT- from life. Razg. Joking. iron. About what l. everyday life episode, ordinary life history. Mokienko 2003, 116. Plot for a short story. Razg. Joking. iron. 1. Something worth talking about. 2. Which l. strange, interesting story. /i> From... ... Large dictionary of Russian sayings

Exposition - time, place of action, composition and relationships of characters. If the exposure is placed at the beginning of the work, it is called direct, if in the middle - delayed.

Omen- hints that foreshadow further development of the plot.

The plot is an event that provokes the development of a conflict.

Conflict is the opposition of heroes to something or someone. This is the basis of the work: no conflict - nothing to talk about. Types of conflicts:

person (humanized character) versus person (humanized character);
man against nature (circumstances);
man against society;
man versus technology;
man versus supernatural;
man against himself.

Rising Action- a series of events that originates from a conflict. The action builds up and reaches its peak at the climax.

Crisis - the conflict reaches its peak. The opposing sides meet face to face. The crisis occurs either immediately before the climax or simultaneously with it.

The climax is the result of a crisis. This is often the most interesting and significant moment in the work. The hero either breaks down or grits his teeth and prepares to go to the end.

Descending action- a series of events or actions of heroes leading to a denouement.

Denouement - the conflict is resolved: the hero either achieves his goal, is left with nothing, or dies.

Why is it important to know the basics of plotting?

Because over the centuries of the existence of literature, humanity has developed a certain scheme for the impact of a story on the psyche. If the story does not fit into it, it seems sluggish and illogical.

In complex works with many storylines all of the above elements may appear repeatedly; moreover, key scenes novels are subject to the same laws of plot construction: let us remember the description of the Battle of Borodino in War and Peace.

Plausibility

Transitions from initiation to conflict to resolution must be believable. For example, you cannot send a lazy hero on a journey just because you want to. Any character must have a good reason to act one way or another.

If Ivanushka the Fool mounts a horse, let him be driven by a strong emotion: love, fear, thirst for revenge, etc.

Logic and common sense are necessary in every scene: if the hero of the novel is an idiot, he, of course, can go into a forest infested with poisonous dragons. But if he man of sense, he will not meddle there without a serious reason.

God ex machina

The denouement is the result of the characters' actions and nothing else. In ancient plays, all problems could be resolved by a deity lowered onto the stage on strings. Since then, the absurd ending, when all conflicts are eliminated with a wave of the wand of a sorcerer, angel or boss, is called “god ex machina.” What suited the ancients only irritates the moderns.

The reader feels deceived if the characters are simply lucky: for example, a lady finds a suitcase with money just when she needs to pay interest on a loan. The reader respects only those heroes who deserve it - that is, they did something worthy.

The idea of a work of art.

Idea(from the Greek idea - prototype, ideal) - the main idea of the work, expressed through its entire figurative system. It is the method of expression that distinguishes the idea of a work of art from a scientific idea.

The main thesis of statements about the art of V.G. Plekhanov – “art cannot live without an idea” - and he repeats this thought several times, analyzing this or that work of art. “The dignity of a work of art,” writes Plekhanov, “is ultimately determined by the specific gravity of the feeling, the depth of the idea that it expresses.”

For educational literature of the 16th century. was characterized by a high ideological level, due to the desire to reorganize society on the principles of reason. At the same time, the so-called salon, aristocratic literature “in the Rococo style”, devoid of high citizenship, also developed.

And in the future, two parallel ideological currents have always existed and exist in literature and art, sometimes touching and mixing, but more often separating and developing independently, gravitating towards opposite poles.

In this regard, the problem of the relationship between “ideological” and “artistry” in a work seems extremely important. But even outstanding artists words are not always able to translate the idea of a plan into perfection art form. Most often, writers who are completely “absorbed” in the implementation of this or that idea, stray into ordinary journalism and rhetoric, leaving artistic expressiveness in the second and third plans. This applies equally to all genres of art. According to V.G. Belinsky, the idea of a work “is not an abstract thought, not a dead form, but a living creation.”

1. 1. Theme of the work of art .

Subject(from the Greek theme) – what is the basis, the main problem and the main circle life events depicted by the writer. The theme of the work is inextricably linked with its idea. The selection of material, formulation of problems (choice of topic) is dictated by the ideas that the author would like to express in the work.

It was about this connection between the theme and the idea of a work that M. Gorky wrote: “A theme is an idea that originated in the author’s experience, is suggested to him by life, but nests in the container of his impressions still unformed, and requiring embodiment in images, arouses in him a urge to work its design."

Along with the term “topic”, the term “subject”, which is close in meaning to it, is often used. subject matter" Its use indicates that the work includes not only the main one, but also a number of auxiliary themes and thematic lines; or the themes of many works are in close connection with one, or a set of several related themes, forming a broad theme of one class.

The plot of a work of art.

Plot(from the French sujet - subject) - the course of the narrative about the events unfolding and happening in a work of art. As a rule, any such episode is subordinated to the main or subplot.

However, in literary criticism there is no uniform definition of this term. There are three main approaches:

1) plot is a way of developing a theme or presenting a plot;

2) plot is a way of developing a theme or presenting a plot;

3) plot and plot have no fundamental difference.

The plot is based on a conflict (a clash of interests and characters) between the characters. That is why where there is no narrative (lyrics), there is no plot.

The term “plot” was introduced in the 11th century. classicists P. Corneille and N. Boileau, but they were followers of Aristotle. Aristotle called what is called “plot” “legend”. Hence the “course of the narrative.”

The plot consists of the following main elements:

Exposition

Action development

Climax

Denouement

Exposition(Latin expositio - explanation, presentation) - a plot element containing a description of the lives of the characters before they begin to act in the work. Direct exposure located at the beginning of the story, delayed exposure fits anywhere, but I must say that modern writers rarely use this plot element.

The beginning- the initial, starting episode of the plot. She usually appears at the beginning of the story, but this is not the rule. So, about Chichikov’s desire to buy dead Souls we find out only at the end of Gogol's poem.

Development of action flows according to will characters narration and author's intention. The development of action precedes the climax.

Climax(from Latin culmen - top) - the moment of the highest tension of action in the work, its turning point. After the climax comes the denouement.

Denouement- the final part of the plot, the end of the action, where the conflict is resolved and the motivation for the actions of the main and some is revealed minor characters and their psychological portraits are clarified.

The denouement sometimes precedes the plot, especially in detective works, where in order to interest the reader and capture his attention, the story begins with a murder.

Other supporting plot elements are prologue, backstory, author's digression, insert novella And epilogue.

However, in modern literary process we often do not encounter any extended expositions, nor prologues and epilogues, nor other elements of the plot, and sometimes even the plot itself is blurred, barely outlined, or even completely absent.

4. The plot of a work of art.

Fabula (from Latin fabula - fable, story) - a sequence of events. This term was introduced by ancient Roman writers, apparently referring to the same property of storytelling that Aristotle spoke about.

Subsequently, the use of the terms “plot” and “fable” led to confusion, which is almost impossible to resolve without introducing other, clarifying and explanatory terms.

In modern literary criticism, the interpretation of correlation and plot, proposed by representatives of the Russian “formal school” and discussed in detail in the works of G. Pospelov, is more often used. They understand the plot as “the events themselves,” chronologically recorded, while the plot is “the story about the events.”

Academician A.N. Veselovsky in his work “Historical Poetics” (1906) proposed the concept of “ motive ", giving it the meaning of the simplest narrative unit, similar to the concept of "element" in the periodic table. Combinations of the simplest motifs form, according to Veselovsky, the plot of a work of art.

5. Composition(from Latin compositio - composition, linking) - the construction, arrangement of all elements of the form of a work of art, determined by its content, nature and purpose and largely determining its perception by the viewer, reader, listener.

Composition can be internal or external.

To the sphere internal composition include all static elements of the work: portrait, landscape, interior, as well as extra-plot elements - exposition (prologue, introduction, background), epilogue, inserted episodes, short stories; digressions (lyrical, philosophical, journalistic); motivations for narration and description; forms of speech of the characters (monologue, dialogue, correspondence, diary, notes; forms of narration (spatial-temporal, psychological, ideological, phraseological.

TO external composition include the division of an epic work into books, parts and chapters; lyrical - into parts and stanzas; lyric-epic - for songs; dramatic - on acts and pictures.

Much is known today about composition, as well as about other elements of the plot of a work of art, but not every author manages to create an ideal composition. The point, obviously, is not so much in “knowing” how to do it, but in having the talent, taste and sense of proportion of the artist.

Event in a literary text. Plot and non-plot narration. Features of plot construction: plot components (plot, course of action, climax, denouement - if any), sequence of main components. The relationship between plot and plot. Plot motives. System of motives. Types of plots.

Difference between " plot" And " plot“is defined differently, some literary scholars do not see a fundamental difference between these concepts, while for others, “plot” is the sequence of events as they occur, and “plot” is the sequence in which the author arranges them.

Fable– the factual side of the story, those events, incidents, actions, states in their causal and chronological sequence. The term “plot” refers to what is preserved as the “base”, “core” of the narrative.

Plot- this is a reflection of the dynamics of reality in the form of the action unfolding in the work, in the form of internally related (causal-temporal) actions of characters, events that form a unity, constituting some complete whole. The plot is a form of theme development - an artistically constructed distribution of events.

The driving force behind the development of the plot, as a rule, is conflict(literally “clash”), a conflicting life situation placed by the writer at the center of the work. In a broad sense conflict should be called that system of contradictions that organizes a work of art into a certain unity, that struggle of images, characters, ideas, which unfolds especially widely and fully in epic and dramatic works

Conflict- a more or less acute contradiction or clash between characters and their characters, or between characters and circumstances, or within the character and consciousness of a character or lyrical subject; it is the central moment not only of epic and dramatic action, but also of lyrical experience.

There are different types of conflicts: between individual characters; between character and environment; psychological. The conflict can be external (the hero’s struggle with forces opposing him) and internal (the hero’s struggle with himself in the mind). There are plots based only on internal conflicts (“psychological”, “intellectual”), the basis of the action in them is not events, but the vicissitudes of feelings, thoughts, experiences. One work can contain a combination of different types of conflicts. Sharply expressed contradictions, the opposition of forces acting in a product, are called collision.

Composition (architectonics) is the construction of a literary work, the composition and sequence of arrangement of its individual parts and elements (prologue, exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement, epilogue).

Prologue- the introductory part of a literary work. The prologue reports the events that precede and motivate the main action, or explains the author's artistic intent.

Exposition- the part of the work that precedes the beginning of the plot and is directly related to it. The exposition follows the arrangement of characters and circumstances, showing the reasons that “trigger” the plot conflict.

The beginning in the plot - the event that served as the beginning of the conflict in a work of art; an episode that determines the entire subsequent development of the action (in “The Inspector General” by N.V. Gogol, for example, the plot is the mayor’s message about the arrival of the inspector). The plot is present at the beginning of the work, indicating the beginning of the development of artistic action. As a rule, it immediately introduces the main conflict of the work, subsequently determining the entire narrative and plot. Sometimes the plot comes before the exposition (for example, the plot of the novel “Anna Karenina” by L. Tolstoy: “Everything was mixed up in the Oblonskys’ house”). The writer’s choice of one type of plot or another is determined by the style and genre system in terms of which he designs his work.

Climax– the point of highest rise, tension in the development of the plot (conflict).

Denouement– conflict resolution; it completes the struggle of contradictions that make up the content of the work. The denouement marks the victory of one side over the other. The effectiveness of the denouement is determined by the significance of the entire preceding struggle and the climactic severity of the episode preceding the denouement.

Epilogue – final part a work that briefly reports on the fate of the characters after the events depicted in it, and sometimes discusses the moral and philosophical aspects of what is depicted (“Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky).

The composition of a literary work includes extra-plot elements– author's digressions, inserted episodes, various descriptions(portrait, landscape, world of things), etc., serving to create artistic images, the disclosure of which, in fact, is the entire work.

So, for example, episode as a relatively completed and independent part of the work, which depicts a completed event or an important moment in the fate of the character, can become an integral link in the problems of the work or an important part of its general idea.

Scenery in a work of art it is not just a picture of nature, a description of part of the real environment in which the action takes place. The role of landscape in a work is not limited to depicting the scene of action. It serves to create a certain mood; is a way of expressing the author’s position (for example, in the story “Date” by I.S. Turgenev). The landscape can emphasize or convey the mental state of the characters, while the internal state of a person is likened to or contrasted with the life of nature. The landscape can be rural, urban, industrial, marine, historical (pictures of the past), fantastic (the image of the future), etc. Landscape can also perform a social function (for example, the landscape in the 3rd chapter of I. S. Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons”, the city landscape in F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment”). In lyric poetry, landscape usually has an independent meaning and reflects the perception of nature by the lyrical hero or lyrical subject.

Even small artistic detail in a literary work often plays an important role and performs diverse functions: it can serve as an important addition to characterize the heroes, their psychological state; be an expression of the author's position; can serve to create big picture morals, have a symbolic meaning, etc. Artistic details in a work are classified into portrait, landscape, world of things, and psychological details.

Basic literature: 20, 22, 50, 54,68, 69, 80, 86, 90