Instructions

Determine the ideological content and art form. Ideological content includes topics, socio-historical characters, selected; the problems that the author raises, the author's assessment and the author's attitude to what he is about. Artistic form is figurative object details, with the help of which characters, portraits, household furnishings, plot are created. This includes works - exposition, setting, plot development, climax, denouement, epilogue.

Follow the example below. Write a short history of the creation of the work (if you know it). Determine the theme of the work (what the work is about). Think about the ideological direction of the text.

Determine the genre originality of the work. Remember the content of the work and identify the main (main) and secondary characters. For example, in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" main characters: Andrey Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova, Pierre Bezukhov. Supporting characters: Helen Kuragina, Marya Bolkonskaya, Anatol Kuragin, Platon Karataev and others. Briefly retell the plot of the work.

Remember that there can be one line or several lines in a plot. For example, in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky's "Crime and Punishment" has one storyline, and in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy's "War and Peace" is somewhat intertwined.

Highlight the main artistic techniques and means by which artistic images are created, the meaning of the work is revealed.

Begin to analyze a poetic text by carefully reading the poem. Whether the text is perceived as a whole or can separate parts be distinguished in it. How are these parts related? Determine which poetic images are created by the author, how and in what sequence these images are replaced, if there are several.

Think about how the title of the poem is related to poetic images. Indicate the genre of the work. Understand the theme and idea of \u200b\u200bthe lyric text.

Reread the text and determine the structure (composition) of the poem. To do this, determine the size of the poem. Are any words or lines standing out or out of the rhythm? If so, why, why does the author need it.

In most cases, starting from the 8th grade, in literature lessons when studying a large and significant work, students are asked to write an analysis for a story, novel, play, or even a poem. In order to write an analysis correctly and get something useful out of it, you need to know how to correctly draw up an analysis plan. In this article we will talk about, and analyze according to this plan the poem "The Sea", written by Zhukovsky.

The history of the creation of the work

The history of the creation of a work is an important part in the analysis, so we will start the analysis plan with this. At this point, we will have to indicate when the work was written, that is, started and finished (the year and, if known, the dates). Next, you need to find out exactly how the author worked on this work, in what place, at what period of his life. This is a very important part of the analysis.

Direction of the work, its kind and genre

This point is more like an analysis of the work. The plan for analyzing a work of art must necessarily consist of determining the direction, type and genre of the work.

In total, there are 3 directions in the literature: classicism, It is necessary to read the work and determine which of them it relates to (there may even be two directions).

The analysis plan also consists of determining the type of work. In total, there are 3 types of works: epic, lyric and drama. An epic is a story about a hero or a narration of events that do not concern the author. Lyrics is a transmission through high feelings. Drama is all works built in a dialogical form.

It is not necessary to determine, because it is indicated at the beginning of the work itself. There are a lot of them, but the most popular are the novel, epic, etc.

Themes and problems of a literary work

The plan for compiling an analysis of the work is not complete without such important features in the work as its subject matter and problems. The theme of a work is what the work is talking about. Here you should describe the main themes of the work. The problematic is based on the definition main problem.

Paphos and idea

An idea is a definition of the main idea of \u200b\u200ba work, that is, for what it was, in fact, written. In addition to what the author wanted to say with his work, it should be noted how he relates to his heroes. Paphos is the main emotional mood of the author himself, which should be traced throughout the entire work. It is necessary to write with what emotions the author describes certain events, heroes, their actions.

Main heroes

The plan for the analysis of the work also provides for a description of its main characters. It is necessary to say at least a little about the minor characters, but at the same time describe in detail the main ones. The character, behavior, author's attitude, the importance of each hero - these are what must be said.

In the poem, you need to describe the lyrical hero.

The plot and composition of a work of art

With the plot, everything is very simple: you just need to briefly, in just a few sentences, describe the main main and key events that occurred in the work.

Composition is how the piece itself is constructed. It includes the outset (the beginning of actions), the development of actions (when the main events begin to build up), the culmination (the most interesting part in any story or novel, the highest tension of actions occurs), the denouement (the end of the actions).

Artistic originality

It is necessary to describe the properties of the work, its unique features, features, that is, what will distinguish it from another. Some characteristics of the author himself are possible when writing.

The meaning of the work

The plan for the analysis of any work should end with a description of its meaning, as well as the attitude of the reader himself towards it. Here you need to say how it influenced society, what conveyed to people, did you like it as a reader, what you yourself learned from it. The meaning of the work is like a little conclusion at the end of the plan.

Features of the analysis of the poem

For lyric poems, in addition to all of the above, it is necessary to write their poetic size, determine the number of stanzas, as well as the features of the rhyme.

Analysis of Zhukovsky's poem "The Sea"

In order to consolidate the material and remember how the analysis of the work is done, we will write an analysis of Zhukovsky's poem according to the plan given above.

1. This poem was written by Zhukovsky in 1822. The poem "The Sea" was first published in a collection entitled "Northern Flowers for 1829".
2. The poem is written in the spirit of early romanticism. It is worth noting that many works were sustained in this spirit. The author himself believed that this direction is the most attractive and exciting. The work belongs to the lyrics. The poem given to us belongs to the elegy genre.
3. In this poem by Vasily Zhukovsky, not only the sea is described, but a very real landscape of the soul, bright and intriguing, is created. But the importance of the poem lies not only in the fact that the writer created a real psychological landscape and expressed the feelings and sensations of a person when describing the sea. The real feature of the poem is that the sea becomes for a person, for the reader a living soul and a real hero of the work.
4. The work consists of 3 parts. The first part is introductory, the largest in volume and informative. It can be called "The Silent Sea", because Zhukovsky himself calls the sea so in this part of the poem. This is followed by the second part, which is characterized by violent emotions and is called "The Tempest". The third part hardly begins as the poem ends - this is "Peace".
5. The artistic originality of the poem is manifested in a large number of epithets (light sky, dark clouds, hostile haze, etc.)
6. This poem did not go unnoticed in Russian poetry. Following this, the author and other poets began to paint a picture of the sea in their poems.

Analysis of the poem "Sea" according to the plan of this analysis will help you easily and quickly disassemble the work of art.

The category of genre in the analysis of a work of art is somewhat less important than the category of genus, but in some cases knowledge of the genre nature of the work can help in the analysis, indicate which aspects should be paid attention to.

In literary criticism, genres are called groups of works within literary genres, united by common formal, content or functional features.

It should be said right away that not all works have a clear genre nature. Thus, in a genre sense, Pushkin's poem "Night haze lies on the hills of Georgia ...", Lermontov's "The Prophet", plays by Chekhov and Gorky, "Vasily Terkin" by Tvardovsky and many other works are indefinable in the genre sense.

But even in those cases when a genre can be defined quite unambiguously, such a definition does not always help the analysis, since genre structures are often identified by a secondary feature that does not create a special originality of content and form. This applies mainly to lyric genres, such as elegy, ode, message, epigram, sonnet, etc.

In epic genres, it is primarily the opposition of genres in terms of their volume that matters. The existing literary tradition distinguishes here genres of large (novel, epic), medium (story) and small (story) volume, but it is real in the typology to distinguish only two positions, since the story is not an independent genre, gravitating in practice or to the story ("Belkin "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 - the 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 the peculiar principles of poetics, specific artistic techniques. First of all, this is reflected in the properties of literary depiction.

The story is highly characterized by the "economy mode", it cannot have long descriptions, therefore, it is characterized not by details-details, but by details-symbols, especially in describing a landscape, portrait, interior. Such a detail acquires increased expressiveness and, as a rule, refers to the creative imagination of the reader, suggests co-creation, speculation.

According to this principle, Chekhov, the master of artistic detail, built his descriptions; Let us recall, for example, his textbook depiction 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 will succeed moonlight nightif you write that a glass from a broken bottle flashed like a bright star on the mill dam and a black shadow of a dog or a wolf rolled like a ball ”(Letter to Al.P. Chekhov dated May 10, 1886). Here the details of the landscape are conjectured by the reader based on the impression of one or two dominant symbolic details.

The same happens in the field of psychologism: for the writer it is important not so much to reflect the mental process in its entirety, but to recreate the leading emotional tone, the atmosphere of the hero's inner life at the moment. The masters of this psychological story were Maupassant, Chekhov, Gorky, Bunin, Hemingway, and others.

In the composition of the story, like any small form, the ending is very important, which is either in the nature of a plot denouement, or emotional ending... Also noteworthy are those endings that do not resolve the conflict, but only demonstrate its insolubility; so-called "open" finals, as in "The Lady with the Dog" by Chekhov.

One of the genre varieties of the story is the short story. The novella is an action-packed narration, the action in it develops quickly, dynamically, strives for a denouement, which contains the whole meaning of what was told: first of all, with its help, the author gives an understanding of the life situation, makes a "judgment" on the characters depicted.

In short stories, the plot is compressed, the action is concentrated. The rapidly developing plot is characterized by a very economical system of characters: there are usually just as many of them as needed for the action to develop continuously. Episodic characters are introduced (if introduced at all) only to give impetus to the plot action and then immediately disappear.

In the novel, as a rule, there are no subplots, author's deviations; from the past of the heroes only what is absolutely necessary for understanding the conflict and the plot is reported. Descriptive elements that do not advance the action are minimized and appear almost exclusively at the beginning: later, towards the end, they will interfere, inhibiting the development of the action and distracting attention.

When all these tendencies are brought to their logical conclusion, the story acquires a pronounced structure of an anecdote with all its main features: very small volume, unexpected, paradoxical "shock" ending, minimal psychological motivation for actions, lack of descriptive moments, etc. The anecdote story was widely used by Leskov, early Chekhov, Maupassant, O'Henry, D. London, Zoshchenko and many other novelists.

A novel, as a rule, is based on external conflicts, in which contradictions collide (set-up), develop and, having reached the highest point in development and struggle (culmination), are more or less rapidly resolved. The most important thing is that the colliding contradictions must and can be resolved in the course of the development of the action.

For this, contradictions must be sufficiently definite and manifested, the heroes must have some psychological activity in order to strive at all costs to resolve the conflict, and the conflict itself must at least in principle yield to immediate resolution.

Let us consider from this angle the story of V. Shukshin "The Hunt to Live". A young city guy comes into the hut to the forester Nikitich. 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 wakes up to find that "Kolya the professor" has left, taking Nikitich's gun and his tobacco pouch with him. Nikitich rushes in pursuit, overtakes the guy and takes his gun from him. But the guy generally likes Nikitich, he is sorry to let him go alone, in winter, unaccustomed to the taiga and without a gun.

The old man leaves a gun for the guy so that when he reaches the village he will hand it over to Nikitich's godfather. But when they had already gone each 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 novel is very sharp and clear. The incompatibility, the opposition of Nikitich's moral principles - principles based on kindness and trust in people - and the moral norms of "Kolya the professor", who "wants to live" for himself, "better and more reliable" - also for himself, - the incompatibility of these moral attitudes intensifies in the course of the action and is embodied in a tragic, but inevitable, according to the logic of characters, denouement.

Let's note the special significance of the denouement: it not only formally completes the plot action, but exhausts the conflict. The author's assessment of the depicted characters, the author's understanding of the conflict are concentrated precisely in the denouement.

The major genres of the epic - the novel and the epic - differ in their content, primarily in terms of problems. The substantive dominant in the epic is the national one, and in the novel - the novelistic problematic (adventurous or ideological and moral).

It is therefore extremely important for a novel to determine which of the two types it belongs to. The poetics of the novel and the epic are also constructed depending on the genre dominant content. The epic gravitates towards plot, the image of the hero in it is built as the quintessence of the typical qualities inherent in a people, ethnos, class, etc.

In the adventure novel, the plot also clearly predominates, but the image of the hero is already constructed in a different way: he is emphatically free from class, corporate and other ties with the environment that gave birth to him. In an ideological and moral novel, the dominant style will almost always be psychologism and discord.

Over the past century and a half, a new genre of large volume has developed 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 Flows the Don" by Sholokhov, "Walking through the Torments" by A. Tolstoy, "The Living and the Dead" by Simonov, "Doctor Zhivago" by Pasternak and some others.

An epic novel is characterized by a combination of national and ideological and moral problems, but not a simple summation of them, but an integration in which the ideological and moral search for a personality is correlated primarily with the people's truth.

The problem of the epic novel becomes, as Pushkin put it, "the fate of man and the fate of the people" in their unity and interdependence; critical events for the entire ethnos give the hero's philosophical search a special urgency and urgency, the hero is faced with 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 psychology with plot, a compositional combination of general, medium and close-up shots, the presence of many plot lines and their interweaving, author's digressions.

Esin A.B. Analysis principles and techniques literary work... - M., 1998.

The belonging of a work to one genus or another leaves an imprint on the course of the analysis itself, dictates certain techniques, although it does not affect the general methodological principles. Differences between literary genders have little impact on the analysis artistic content, but almost always in one way or another affect the analysis of the form.

Among the literary genera, the epic possesses the greatest visual potential and the richest and most developed structure of form. Therefore, in the previous chapters (especially in the section "The structure of a work of art and its analysis"), the presentation was carried out in relation to the epic genus. Now let's see what changes will have to be made to the analysis taking into account the specifics of drama, lyrics and lyric-epics.

Drama

The drama is in many ways similar to the epic, so the basic methods of analysis for it remain the same. But it should be borne in mind that in the drama, unlike the epic, there is no narrative speech, which deprives the drama of many of the artistic possibilities inherent in the epic. This is partially compensated by the fact that the drama is mainly intended for staging on stage, and, entering into a synthesis with the art of the actor and director, acquires additional pictorial and expressive possibilities. In the literary text of the drama itself, the emphasis shifts to the actions of the characters and their speech; accordingly, the drama gravitates towards such stylistic dominants as plot and discord. In comparison with the epic, the drama is also distinguished by an increased degree of artistic convention associated with theatrical action. The conventionality of the drama consists in such features as the illusion of the "fourth wall", remarks "to the side", monologues of the heroes alone with themselves, as well as in the increased theatricality of speech and gesture-mimic behavior.

The construction of the depicted world is also specific in the drama. We get all information about him from the conversations of the characters and from the author's remarks. Accordingly, the drama demands from the reader more work of imagination, the ability to imagine the appearance of the heroes, the objective world, the landscape, and so on, based on scant hints. Over time, playwrights make their remarks in more and more detail; there is also a tendency to introduce a subjective element into them (for example, in a remark to the third act of the play “At the Bottom”, Gorky introduces an emotionally evaluative word: “In a window near the ground - erysipelas.Bubnov "), an indication of the general emotional tone of the scene appears (the sad sound of a broken string in Chekhov's" The Cherry Orchard "), sometimes the introductory remarks expand to a narrative monologue (B. Shaw's play). The character's image is drawn with more avaricious than in the epic, but also with more vivid, powerful means. The characterization of the hero through the plot, through the actions comes to the fore, and the actions and words of the heroes are always psychologically saturated and thus characterological. Another leading technique for creating an image of a character is his speech characteristics, manner of speech. Auxiliary methods are a portrait, self-characterization of the hero and his characterization in the speech of other characters. To express the author's assessment, mainly characteristics are used through the plot and individual manner of speech.

Psychologism is also peculiar in the drama. It is devoid of such common forms in the epic as the author's psychological narration, internal monologue, dialectic of the soul and the stream of consciousness. The inner monologue is brought out, takes shape in the outer speech, and therefore the character's psychological world itself turns out to be more simplified and rationalized in the drama than in the epic. In general, the drama tends mainly to bright and catchy ways of expressing strong and embossed emotional movements. The greatest difficulty in drama is the artistic development of complex emotional states, the transfer of the depth of the inner world, vague and fuzzy ideas and moods, the sphere of the subconscious, etc. Playwrights learned to cope with this difficulty only by the end of the 19th century; psychological plays by Hauptmann, Maeterlinck, Ibsen, Chekhov, Gorky and others are indicative here.

The main thing in the drama is the action, the development of the initial position, and the action develops due to the conflict, therefore it is advisable to start the analysis of a dramatic work with the definition of the conflict, tracing its movement in the future. The development of the conflict is subject to the dramatic composition. The conflict is embodied either in the plot or in the system of compositional oppositions. Depending on the form of embodiment of the conflict, dramatic works can be divided into action plays(Fonvizin, Griboyedov, Ostrovsky), mood plays(Maeterlink, Hauptmann, Chekhov) and discussion plays(Ibsen, Gorky, Shaw). The specific analysis moves depending on the type of the piece.

Thus, in Ostrovsky's drama The Thunderstorm, the conflict is embodied in the system of action and events, that is, in the plot. The play's conflict is twofold: on the one hand, these are the contradictions between the rulers (Dikaya, Kabanikha) and the subordinates (Katerina, Varvara, Boris, Kuligin, etc.) - this is an external conflict. On the other hand, the action moves thanks to the inner, psychological conflict of Katerina: she passionately wants to live, love, be free, clearly realizing at the same time that all this is a sin leading to the death of the soul. The dramatic action develops through a chain of actions, ups and downs that somehow change the initial situation: Tikhon leaves, Katerina decides to contact Boris, publicly repents and, finally, rushes into the Volga. The dramatic tension and attention of the viewer are supported by interest in the development of the plot: what will happen next, how the heroine will act. The plot elements are clearly visible: the plot (in the dialogue of Katerina and Kabanikha in the first act, an external conflict is revealed, in the dialogue of Katerina and Barbara - an internal one), a series of climaxes (at the end of the second, third and fourth acts and, finally, in the last monologue of Katerina in the fifth act ) and the denouement (Katerina's suicide).

The plot mainly implements the content of the work. Sociocultural issues are revealed through action, and actions are dictated by the prevailing morals, attitudes, and ethical principles. The plot also expresses the tragic pathos of the play, Katerina's suicide emphasizes the impossibility of a successful resolution of the conflict.

The plays of mood are constructed somewhat differently. In them, as a rule, the basis of the dramatic action is the hero's conflict with a hostile way of life, which turns into a psychological conflict, which is expressed in the inner disorder of the heroes, in a feeling of mental discomfort. As a rule, this feeling is characteristic not for one, but for many characters, each of whom develops his own conflict with life, so it is difficult to single out the main characters in mood plays. The movement of the stage action is concentrated not in the plot twists and turns, but in the change in emotional tonality, the event chain only enhances one or another mood. Plays of this kind usually have psychologism as one of the dominant styles. The conflict develops not in plot, but in compositional oppositions. The anchor points of the composition are not elements of the plot, but the culmination of psychological states, which, as a rule, occur at the end of each action. Instead of a tie - the discovery of a certain initial mood, a conflicting psychological state. Instead of a denouement, an emotional chord in the finale, as a rule, does not resolve contradictions.

So, in Chekhov's play "Three Sisters" there is practically no through event series, but all scenes and episodes are connected with each other by a common mood - rather heavy and hopeless. And if in the first act the mood of bright hope still flashes (Irina's monologue "When I woke up today ..."), then in the further development of the stage action it is drowned out by anxiety, longing, and suffering. The stage action is based on the deepening of the characters' feelings, on the fact that each of them gradually abandons the dream of happiness. The external fates of the three sisters, their brother Andrei, Vershinin, Tuzenbach, Chebutykin, do not add up, the regiment leaves the city, vulgarity triumphs in the Prozorovs' house in the person of Natasha's "rough animal", and three sisters will not be in the coveted Moscow ... All events unrelated to each other with a friend, they aim to enhance the general impression of unfavorable, unsettled life.

Naturally, in mood plays, psychologism plays an important role in style, but psychologism is peculiar, subtextual. Chekhov himself wrote about this: “I wrote to Meyerhold and urged him not to be harsh in portraying a nervous person. After all, the vast majority of people are nervous, the majority suffer, the minority feel acute pain, but where - on the streets and in houses - do you see rushing, galloping, clutching their heads? Suffering should be expressed the way they are expressed in life, that is, not with your feet or hands, but with your tone, look; not by gestures, but by grace. Subtle emotional movements inherent in intelligent people, and outwardly, must be expressed subtly. You say: scene conditions. No conditions allow a lie ”(Letter from OL Knipper, January 2, 1900). In his plays and, in particular, in Three Sisters, stage psychology is based on this very principle. The depressed mood, melancholy, and suffering of the heroes are only partially expressed in their remarks and monologues, where the character “brings out” his feelings. An equally important method of psychologism is the discrepancy between the external and the internal - mental discomfort is expressed in meaningless phrases (“Lukomorye has a green oak” by Masha, “Balzac got married in Berdichev” by Chebutykin, etc.), in groundless laughter and tears, in silence, etc. . p. An important role is played by the author's remarks, emphasizing the emotional tone of the phrase: “left alone, yearning”, “nervously”, “cryingly”, “through tears,” etc.

The third type is the discussion play. The conflict here is profound, based on the difference in world outlook, problems, as a rule, philosophical or ideological and moral. “In new plays,” B. Shaw wrote, “a dramatic conflict is not built around a person’s vulgar inclinations, his greed or generosity, resentment and ambition, misunderstandings and accidents, and everything else that does not in itself give rise to moral problems, but around the collision of various ideals ". Dramatic action is expressed in the clash of points of view, in the compositional opposition of individual statements, therefore, the primary attention in the analysis should be given to divergence. A number of heroes are often drawn into the conflict, each with its own position in life, therefore, in this type of play, it is difficult to single out the main and secondary characters, just as it is difficult to single out positive and negative heroes. Let us refer again to the Show: "The conflict" ... "is not between the right and the wrong: the villain here can be as conscientious as the hero, if not more. In fact, the problem that makes the play interesting "..." is figuring out who is the hero and who is the villain. Or, in other words, there are no villains or heroes here. " The event chain mainly serves as a pretext for the characters' statements, provoking them.

In particular, M. Gorky's play At the Bottom is based on these principles. The conflict here is a clash of different points of view on human nature, on falsehood and truth; in general, this is a conflict between the sublime, but unreal, with the base real; philosophical problems. In the very first act, this conflict is tied up, although from the point of view of the plot it is nothing more than an exposure. Despite the fact that no important events in the first act does not happen, the dramatic development has already begun, the rough truth and the sublime lie have already entered into conflict. On the very first page this key word “truth” sounds (Kvashnya's remark “Ah! You can't stand the truth!”). Here Satin contrasts the disgusting "human words" with sonorous but meaningless "organon", "sycamber", "macrobiotics", etc. Here Nastya reads "Fatal love", the Actor recalls Shakespeare, the Baron - coffee in bed, and all this in in stark contrast to the day-to-day life of a shelter. In the first act, one of the positions in relation to life and to the truth has already been sufficiently manifested - what can, following the author of the play, be called "the truth of the fact." This position, cynical and inhuman in essence, is represented in the play by Tambourines, calmly stating something absolutely indisputable and just as cold ("Noise is not a hindrance to death"), skeptically laughing at Ash's romantic phrases ("And the strings are rotten!"), expounding his position in reasoning about his life. In the very first act, the antipode of Bubnov, Luka, appears, opposing the soulless, wolfish life of a flophouse with his philosophy of love and compassion for one's neighbor, whatever it may be (“in my opinion, not a single flea is bad: everyone is black, everyone is jumping ... "), comforting and encouraging people of the bottom. In the future, this conflict develops, drawing into the dramatic action more and more new points of view, arguments, reasoning, parables, etc., sometimes - at the key points of the composition - pouring out into a direct dispute. The conflict culminates in the fourth act, which is an already open, practically unrelated to the plot discussion about Luke and his philosophy, turning into a dispute about law, truth, understanding of man. Let's pay attention to the fact that the last action takes place after the completion of the plot and the denouement of the external conflict (the murder of Kostylev), which is auxiliary in the play. The ending of the play is also not a plot denouement. It is connected with a discussion about truth and a person, and the Actor's suicide serves as another replica in the dialogue of ideas. At the same time, the finale is open, it is not intended to resolve the philosophical dispute on the stage, but as if invites the reader and viewer to do it himself, affirming only the idea of \u200b\u200bthe intolerance of life without an ideal.

Lyrics

Lyrics as a literary genus opposes the epic and drama, therefore, when analyzing it, generic specifics should be taken into account to the highest degree. If the epic and drama reproduce human being, the objective side of life, then the lyrics are human consciousness and subconsciousness, a subjective moment. Epic and drama depict, lyric expresses. You can even say that the lyrics belong to a completely different group of arts than the epic and drama - not to the pictorial, but to the expressive. Therefore, many methods of analyzing epic and dramatic works are inapplicable to a lyric work, especially as regards its form, and literary criticism has developed its own methods and approaches for the analysis of lyrics.

The foregoing concerns primarily the depicted world, which in the lyrics is constructed in a completely different way than in the epic and drama. The stylistic dominant towards which the lyrics gravitate is psychologism, but a kind of psychologism. In the epic and partly in the drama, we are dealing with the depiction of the hero's inner world, as it were, from the outside, in the lyrics, psychologism is expressive, the subject of the statement and the object of the psychological image coincide. As a result, the lyrics master the inner world of a person in a special perspective: it takes mainly the sphere of experience, feelings, emotions and reveals it, as a rule, in static, but more deeply and lively than it is done in the epic. Subject to lyrics and the sphere of thinking; many lyric works are built on the development of not feelings, but reflections (however, it is always colored by this or that feeling). Such lyrics ("Do I wander along noisy streets ..." by Pushkin, "Duma" by Lermontov, "Wave and Duma" by Tyutchev, etc.) is called meditative.But in any case, the depicted world of a lyrical work is primarily the psychological world. This circumstance should be especially taken into account when analyzing individual pictorial (it would be more correct to call them "pseudo-pictorial") details that may be found in the lyrics. Let us first of all note that a lyric work can do without them at all - for example, in Pushkin's poem "I loved you ..." without exception, all psychological details, subject detailing is completely absent. If the object-figurative details do appear, then they perform the same function of a psychological image: either indirectly creating the emotional mood of the work, or becoming the impression of the lyric hero, the object of his reflection, etc. Such are, in particular, the details of the landscape. For example, in A. Fet's poem "Evening" there seems to be no proper psychological detail, but only a description of the landscape. But the function of the landscape here is to create a mood of peace, tranquility, silence by choosing the details. The landscape in Lermontov's poem "When the yellowing cornfield is worried ..." is an object of comprehension, given in the perception of a lyrical hero, changing pictures of nature make up the content of lyrical reflection, ending with an emotionally-figurative conclusion-generalization: "Then my soul is humbled by anxiety ...". Note by the way that in Lermontov's landscape there is no accuracy required of a landscape in an epic: lily of the valley, plum and yellowing cornfield cannot coexist in nature, since they belong to different seasons, from which it is clear that the landscape in the lyrics, in fact, is not a landscape as such, but only the impression of a lyrical hero.

The same can be said about the details of the portrait and the world of things found in lyric works - they perform an exclusively psychological function in the lyrics. Thus, “a red tulip, a tulip in your buttonhole” in A. Akhmatova's poem “Confusion” becomes a vivid impression of the lyric heroine, indirectly indicating the intensity of the lyrical experience; in her poem "The Song of the Last Meeting" the subject detail ("I put the Glove on my left hand on my right hand") serves as a form of indirect expression of the emotional state.

The greatest difficulty for analysis is presented by those lyrical works in which we encounter some semblance of a plot and a system of characters. Here there is a temptation to transfer to the lyrics the principles and methods of analyzing the corresponding phenomena in the epic and drama, which is fundamentally wrong, because both the “pseudo-plot” and “pseudo-characters” in the lyrics have a completely different nature and a different function - primarily, again, psychological. So, in Lermontov's poem "The Beggar", it would seem, there is an image of a character who has a certain social position, appearance, age, that is, signs of existential certainty, which is characteristic of epic and drama. However, in reality, the existence of this “hero” is not self-sufficient, illusory: the image turns out to be only a part of an expanded comparison and, therefore, serves to convey the emotional intensity of the work more convincingly and expressively. There is no beggar as a fact of being here, there is only a rejected feeling conveyed by means of allegory.

In Pushkin's poem "Arion" there is something like a plot, some kind of dynamics of actions and events is outlined. But it would be senseless and even absurd to look for the plot, culmination and denouement in this “plot”, to look for the conflict expressed in it, etc. The event chain is the comprehension of the events of the recent political past by the lyric hero of Pushkin, given in allegorical form; in the foreground are not actions and events, but the fact that this "plot" has a certain emotional coloring. Consequently, the plot in the lyrics does not exist as such, but acts only as a means of psychological expressiveness.

So, in a lyric work, we do not analyze either the plot, or the characters, or the subject details outside their psychological function, that is, we do not pay attention to what is fundamentally important in the epic. But in the lyrics, the analysis of the lyrical hero is of fundamental importance. Lyrical hero -it is an image of a person in lyrics, a carrier of experience in a lyric work. Like any image, the lyrical hero carries not only unique personality traits, but also a certain generalization, therefore, his identification with the real author is unacceptable. Often the lyrical hero is very close to the author in terms of personality, the nature of his experiences, but nevertheless the difference between them is fundamental and remains in all cases, since in each specific work the author actualizes in the lyric hero some part of his personality, typing and summarizing lyrical experiences. Thanks to this, the reader easily identifies himself with the lyrical hero. We can say that the lyric hero is not only the author, but also everyone who reads this work and who else experiences the same experiences and emotions as the lyric hero. In a number of cases, the lyrical hero only to a very weak extent correlates with the real author, revealing a high degree of conventionality of this image. So, in Tvardovsky's poem "I was killed near Rzhev ..." the lyrical narration is carried out on behalf of the fallen soldier. In rare cases, the lyrical hero appears even as an antipode of the author ("The Moral Man" by Nekrasov). Unlike the character of an epic or dramatic work, the lyrical hero, as a rule, does not have an existential certainty: he does not have a name, age, portrait features, sometimes it is not even clear whether he belongs to the male or female sex. The lyrical hero almost always exists outside of ordinary time and space: his experiences take place "everywhere" and "always."

The lyrics gravitate towards a small volume and, as a result, towards a tense and complex composition. In the lyrics, more often than in the epic and drama, compositional techniques of repetition, opposition, amplification, editing are used. The interaction of images acquires exceptional importance in the composition of a lyric work, often creating a duality and versatility of artistic meaning. So, in Yesenin's poem “I the last poet villages ... ”the tension of the composition is created, firstly, by the contrast of color images:

On the trail bluefields
The iron guest will come out soon.
Oatmeal, spilled at dawn,
Will collect it blackhandful.

Secondly, the method of amplification attracts attention: images associated with death are constantly repeated. Thirdly, compositionally significant is the opposition of the lyrical hero to the “iron guest”. Finally, the cross-cutting principle of personification of nature ties together individual landscape images. All this together creates a rather complex figurative and semantic structure in the work.

The main reference point of the composition of a lyric work is in its finale, which is especially felt in works of small volume. For example, in Tyutchev's miniature "Russia cannot be understood with the mind ..." the entire text serves as a preparation for the last word, which contains the idea of \u200b\u200bthe work. But even in more voluminous creations, this principle is often adhered to - let us name as examples Pushkin's "Monument", "When the yellowing cornfield is agitated ..." by Lermontov, "On the railroad" by Blok - poems where the composition is a direct ascending development from the beginning to the last, shock stanza.

The stylistic dominants of the lyrics in the field of artistic speech are monologism, rhetoric and poetic form. A lyrical work in the overwhelming majority of cases is constructed as a monologue of a lyrical hero, so we do not need to highlight the narrator's speech in it (it is absent) or to give a speech description of the characters (they are also absent). However, some lyric works are built in the form of a dialogue “ actors"(" A Conversation of a Bookseller with a Poet "," A Scene from "Faust" by Pushkin, "Journalist, Reader and Writer" by Lermontov). In this case, the “characters” entering the dialogue embody different facets of lyrical consciousness, therefore they do not have their own speech manner; the principle of monologism is maintained here as well. As a rule, the speech of a lyric hero is characterized by literary correctness, therefore, there is no need to analyze it from the point of view of a special speech manner.

Lyric speech, as a rule, is speech with increased expressiveness of individual words and speech structures. In the lyrics, there is a greater proportion of tropes and syntactic figures in comparison with the epic and drama, but this pattern is seen only in the general array of all lyric works. Some of the same lyric poems, especially the XIX-XX centuries. may differ in the absence of rhetoric, nominative. There are poets whose stylistics consistently shuns rhetoric and tends to be nominative - Pushkin, Bunin, Tvardovsky - but this is rather an exception to the rule. Exceptions such as the expression of the individual originality of the lyric style are subject to mandatory analysis. In most cases, an analysis of both individual techniques of speech expressiveness and the general principle of organizing the speech system is required. So, for Blok general principle there will be symbolization, for Yesenin - personifying metaphorism, for Mayakovsky - reification, etc. In any case, the lyric word is very capacious, it contains a "condensed" emotional meaning. For example, in Annensky's poem "Among the Worlds" the word "Star" has a meaning that clearly surpasses the lexicon: it is not for nothing that it is written with a capital letter. The star has a name and creates a polysemantic poetic image, behind which one can see the fate of the poet, and the woman, and the mystical secret, and the emotional ideal, and, possibly, a number of other meanings acquired by the word in the process of the free, albeit text-guided course of associations.

Due to the "condensation" of the poetic semantics, the lyrics tend to rhythmic organization, poetic embodiment, since the word in verse is more loaded with emotional meaning than in prose. "Poetry, in comparison with prose, has an increased capacity of all its constituent elements" ... "The very movement of words in verse, their interaction and comparison in conditions of rhythm and rhyme, a clear identification of the sound side of speech, given by the poetic form, the relationship of rhythmic and syntactic structure and etc. - all this conceals inexhaustible semantic possibilities, which prose, in essence, is deprived of "..." Many beautiful poems, if transposed in prose, will turn out to be almost meaningless, for their meaning is created mainly by the very interaction of the poetic form with words. "

The case when the lyrics use not a poetic, but a prose form (the genre of the so-called prose poems in the works of A. Bertrand, Turgenev, O. Wilde) is subject to mandatory study and analysis, since it indicates an individual artistic identity... "Poem in Prose", without being rhythmically organized, retains such general features of the lyrics as "a small volume, increased emotionality, usually a plotless composition, a general attitude towards the expression of a subjective impression or experience."

The analysis of the poetic features of lyric speech is largely an analysis of its tempo and rhythmic organization, which is extremely important for a lyric work, since tempo rhythm has the ability to objectify certain moods and emotional states in itself and with the need to evoke them in the reader. So, in the poem by A.K. Tolstoy's "If you love, so without reason ..." the trochee with four feet creates a vigorous and cheerful rhythm, which is also facilitated by adjacent rhyming, syntactic parallelism and anaphora through-out; the rhythm corresponds to the vigorous, cheerful, mischievous mood of the poem. In Nekrasov's poem "Reflections at the front entrance", the combination of three- and four-foot anapesta creates a slow, heavy, dull rhythm, in which the corresponding pathos of the work is embodied.

In Russian versification, only the iambic tetrameter does not require special analysis - this is the most natural and common size. Its specific content lies only in the fact that the verse in its tempo and rhythm approaches prose, without turning, however, into it. All the rest of the poetic dimensions, not to mention the dolnik, declamatory-tonic and free verse, have their own specific emotional content. In general, the meaningfulness of poetic sizes and systems of versification can be designated as follows: short lines (2-4 feet) in two-syllable sizes (especially in chorea) give the verse energy, a vigorous, clearly expressed rhythm, express, as a rule, a bright feeling, a joyful mood ("Svetlana" by Zhukovsky, "Winter is not without reason angry ..." Tyutchev, "Green noise" by Nekrasov). The iambic lines extended up to five or six feet or more convey, as a rule, the process of reflection, the intonation is epic, calm and measured ("Monument" by Pushkin, "I do not like your irony ..." Nekrasov, "O friend, do not torment me with a cruel sentence ... "Feta). The presence of spondees and the absence of pyrrhichia make the verse heavier, and vice versa - a large number of pyrrhichia contributes to the emergence of a free intonation, close to colloquial, gives the verse lightness and euphoniousness. The use of three-syllable sizes is associated with a clear rhythm, usually heavy (especially with an increase in the number of feet up to 4-5), often expressing despondency, deep and difficult feelings, often pessimism, etc. moods (“Both boring and sad” by Lermontov, “ Wave and Duma "Tyutchev," Every year - the forces are decreasing ... "Nekrasov). Dolnik, as a rule, gives a nervous, ragged, whimsical, capricious rhythm, expressing an uneven and anxious mood ("A girl sang in a church choir ..." by Blok, "Confusion" by Akhmatova, "Nobody took anything away ..." Tsvetaeva). The use of the declamatory-tonic system creates a rhythm that is clear and at the same time free, the intonation is energetic, "offensive", the mood is sharply outlined and, as a rule, heightened (Mayakovsky, Aseev, Kirsanov). However, it should be remembered that the indicated correspondences of rhythm to the poetic meaning exist only as tendencies and may not appear in individual works, here much depends on the individually-specific rhythmic originality of the poem.

The specificity of the lyrical kind also influences the meaningful analysis. When dealing with a lyric poem, it is important, first of all, to comprehend its pathos, to catch and define the leading emotional mood. In many cases, the correct definition of pathos makes it unnecessary to analyze other elements of artistic content, especially an idea that often dissolves into pathos and does not have an independent existence: for example, in Lermontov's poem "Farewell, unwashed Russia", it is enough to define the pathos of an invective, in Pushkin's poem "Daytime shone ... "- the pathos of romance, in Blok's poem" I am Hamlet; blood grows cold ... ”- the pathos of tragedy. Formulating an idea in these cases becomes unnecessary, and practically impossible (the emotional side noticeably prevails over the rational one), and the definition of other aspects of the content (topics and problems in the first place) is optional and auxiliary.

Lyroepics

Lyro-epic works are, as the name implies, a synthesis of epic and lyrical principles. From the epic, the lyro-epic takes the presence of a narrative, the plot (albeit weakened), the system of characters (less developed than in the epic), the reproduction of the objective world. From the lyrics - the expression of subjective experience, the presence of a lyric hero (combined with the narrator in one person), gravitation towards a relatively small volume and poetic speech, often psychologism. In the analysis of lyric-epic works, special attention should be paid not to distinguishing between epic and lyrical principles (this is the first, preliminary stage of analysis), but to their synthesis within the framework of one artistic world... For this, the analysis of the image of the lyrical hero-narrator is of fundamental importance. So, in Yesenin's poem "Anna Snegina", lyric and epic fragments are separated quite clearly: when reading, we easily distinguish plot and descriptive parts, on the one hand, and lyrical monologues saturated with psychologism ("The war ate my whole soul ...", "The moon laughed, like a clown ... "," Poor is our meek homeland ... "and others). Narrative speech easily and imperceptibly turns into expressive-lyrical speech, the narrator and the lyrical hero are inseparable facets of the same image. Therefore - and this is very important - the narration about things, about people, events is also imbued with lyricism, we feel the intonation of the lyric hero in any text fragment of the poem. So, the epic transmission of the dialogue between the hero and the heroine ends with the lines: “The distance thickened, fogged ... I don’t know why I touched her Gloves and shawl,” here the epic beginning instantly and imperceptibly turns into a lyrical one. When describing something as if purely external, a lyrical intonation and a subjectively expressive epithet suddenly appear: “We have arrived. House with a mezzanine I sat down a little on the facade. Excitingly smells of jasmine Pletnev's palisade. " And the intonation of subjective feeling slips into the epic narration: “Towards evening they left. Where? I do not know where ", or:" Harsh, terrible years! But can you describe everything? "

This penetration of lyrical subjectivity into an epic narrative is the most difficult to analyze, but at the same time the most interesting case of the synthesis of epic and lyrical principles. It is necessary to learn to see the lyrical intonation and the hidden lyrical hero in the text that is objectively epic at first glance. For example, in D. Kedrin's poem "The Architects" there are no lyrical monologues as such, but the image of the lyric hero can nevertheless be "reconstructed" - it manifests itself primarily in the lyrical emotion and solemnity of artistic speech, in a loving and sincere description of the church and its builders, in an emotionally rich final chord, redundant from the point of view of the plot, but necessary to create a lyrical experience. We can say that the lyricism of the poem is manifested in the way a famous historical plot is told. There are also places in the text with a special poetic tension, in these fragments the emotional intensity and the presence of the lyrical hero - the subject of the narrative - are especially clearly felt. For example:

And over all this shame
That church was -
Like a bride!
And with his matting,
With a turquoise ring in your mouth
Obscene wench
Stood at the Execution Ground
And wondering
Like a fairy tale
I looked at that beauty ...

And then the sovereign
He commanded to blind these architects,
So that in his land
Church
There was one such
So that in the Suzdal lands
And in the lands of Ryazan
And others
They didn't build a better temple
Than the Church of the Intercession!

Let's pay attention to the external ways of expressing lyrical intonation and subjective emotion - breaking the line into rhythmic segments, punctuation marks, etc. Note also that the poem is written in a rather rare size - a five-foot anapest, - which gives the intonation solemnity and depth. As a result, we have a lyrical story about an epic event.

Literary genres

The category of genre in the analysis of a work of fiction is somewhat less important than the category of genus, but in some cases, knowledge of the genre nature of the work can help in the analysis, indicate which aspects should be paid attention to. In literary studies, genres are called groups of works within literary genres, united by common formal, content or functional features. It should be said right away that not all works have a clear genre nature. Thus, in a genre sense, Pushkin's poem "Night haze lies on the hills of Georgia ...", Lermontov's "The Prophet", plays by Chekhov and Gorky, "Vasily Terkin" by Tvardovsky and many other works are indefinable in the genre sense. But even in those cases when a genre can be defined quite unambiguously, such a definition does not always help the analysis, since genre structures are often identified by a secondary feature that does not create a special originality of content and form. This applies mainly to lyric genres, such as elegy, ode, message, epigram, sonnet, etc. But nevertheless, sometimes the category of the genre has a meaning, indicating a substantial or formal dominant, some features of the problematic, pathos, poetics.

In epic genres, it is primarily the opposition of genres in terms of their volume that matters. The established literary tradition here distinguishes the genres of great (novel, epic)middle (story)and small (story)volume, but it is real in the typology to distinguish only two positions, since the story is not an independent genre, gravitating in practice either to the story ("Belkin's Tale" by 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 - the 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 the peculiar principles of poetics, specific artistic techniques. First of all, this is reflected in the properties of literary depiction. The story is highly characterized by the "economy mode", it cannot have long descriptions, therefore, it is characterized not by details-details, but by details-symbols, especially in describing a landscape, portrait, interior. Such a detail acquires increased expressiveness and, as a rule, refers to the creative imagination of the reader, suggests co-creation, speculation. According to this principle, Chekhov, the master of artistic detail, built his descriptions; Let us recall, for example, his textbook depiction 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 get a moonlit night if you write that a glass from a broken bottle flashed like a bright star on the mill dam and a black shadow of a dog or a wolf rolled like a ball ”(Letter to Al. P. Chekhov dated May 10, 1886). Here the details of the landscape are conjectured by the reader based on the impression of one or two dominant symbolic details. The same happens in the field of psychologism: for the writer it is important not so much to reflect the mental process in its entirety, but to recreate the leading emotional tone, the atmosphere of the hero's inner life at the moment. The masters of this psychological story were Maupassant, Chekhov, Gorky, Bunin, Hemingway, and others.

In the composition of the story, as in any small form, the ending is very important, which is either in the nature of a plot denouement or an emotional ending. Also noteworthy are those endings that do not resolve the conflict, but only demonstrate its insolubility; so-called "open" finals, as in "The Lady with the Dog" by Chekhov.

One of the genre varieties of the story is short story.The novella is an action-packed narration, the action in it develops quickly, dynamically, strives for a denouement, which contains the whole meaning of what was told: first of all, with its help, the author gives an understanding of the life situation, makes a "judgment" on the characters depicted. In short stories, the plot is compressed, the action is concentrated. The rapidly developing plot is characterized by a very economical system of characters: there are usually just as many of them as needed so that the action can develop continuously. Episodic characters are introduced (if introduced at all) only to give impetus to the plot action and then immediately disappear. In the novel, as a rule, there are no subplots, author's deviations; from the past of the heroes only what is absolutely necessary for understanding the conflict and the plot is reported. Descriptive elements that do not advance the action are minimized and appear almost exclusively at the beginning: later, towards the end, they will interfere, inhibiting the development of the action and distracting attention.

When all these tendencies 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. used Leskov, early Chekhov, Maupassant, O'Henry, D. London, Zoshchenko and many other novelists.

A novel, as a rule, is based on external conflicts, in which contradictions collide (set-up), develop and, having reached the highest point in development and struggle (culmination), are more or less rapidly resolved. The most important thing is that the colliding contradictions must and can be resolved in the course of the development of the action. For this, contradictions must be sufficiently definite and manifested, the heroes must have some psychological activity in order to strive at all costs to resolve the conflict, and the conflict itself must at least in principle yield to immediate resolution.

Let us consider from this point of view the story of V. Shukshin "The Hunt to Live". A young city guy comes into the hut to the forester Nikitich. 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 wakes up to find that "Kolya the professor" has left, taking Nikitich's gun and his tobacco pouch with him. Nikitich rushes after him, overtakes the guy and takes his gun away from him. But the guy generally likes Nikitich, he is sorry to let him go alone, in winter, unaccustomed to the taiga and without a gun. The old man leaves a gun for the guy so that when he reaches the village he will hand it over to Nikitich's godfather. But when they had already gone each 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 novel is very sharp and clear. The incompatibility, the opposition of Nikitich's moral principles - principles based on kindness and trust in people - and the moral norms of "Kolya the professor", who "wants to live" for himself, is "better and more reliable" - also for himself, - the incompatibility of these moral attitudes intensifies in the course of the action and is embodied in a tragic, but inevitable, according to the logic of characters, denouement. Let's note the special significance of the denouement: it not only formally completes the plot action, but exhausts the conflict. The author's assessment of the depicted characters, the author's understanding of the conflict are concentrated precisely in the denouement.

Major genres of epic - noveland epic -differ in their content, primarily in terms of problems. The substantive dominant in the epic is the national one, and in the novel - the novelistic problematic (adventurous or ideological and moral). It is therefore extremely important for a novel to determine which of the two types it belongs to. The poetics of the novel and the epic are also constructed depending on the genre dominant content. The epic gravitates towards plot, the image of the hero in it is built as the quintessence of the typical qualities inherent in the people, ethnic group, class, etc. and other connections with the environment that gave rise to it. In an ideological and moral novel, the dominant style will almost always be psychologism and discord.

Over the past century and a half, a new genre of large volume has developed 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 Flows the Don" by Sholokhov, "Walking through the Torments" by A. Tolstoy, "The Living and the Dead" by Simonov, "Doctor Zhivago" by Pasternak and some others. An epic novel is characterized by a combination of national and ideological and moral problems, but not a simple summation of them, but an integration in which the ideological and moral search for a personality is correlated primarily with the people's truth. The problem of the epic novel becomes, as Pushkin put it, "the fate of man and the fate of the people" in their unity and interdependence; critical events for the entire ethnos give the hero's philosophical search a special urgency and urgency, the hero is faced with 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 psychology with plot, a compositional combination of general, medium and close-up shots, the presence of many plot lines and their interweaving, author's digressions.

The fable genre is one of the few canonized genres that have preserved their real historical existence in the 19th-20th centuries. Several features of the fable genre may suggest promising directions for analysis. This is, firstly, a great degree of conventionality and even a direct fantasy of the figurative system. The plot is conditional in the fable, therefore, although it can be analyzed by elements, such an analysis does not give anything interesting. The figurative system of the fable is based on the principle of allegory, its characters denote some abstract idea - power, justice, ignorance, etc. Therefore, the conflict in the fable should be sought not so much in the clash of real characters as in the opposition of ideas: for example, in “ The Wolf and the Lamb ”by Krylov, the conflict is not between the Wolf and the Lamb, but between the ideas of strength and justice; the plot is driven not so much by the desire of the Wolf to dine as by his desire to give this case "a legitimate look and feel."

In the composition of the fable, two parts are usually clearly distinguished - the plot (often unfolding in the form of a dialogue of characters) and the so-called morality - the author's assessment and comprehension of the depicted, which can be placed both at the beginning and at the end of the work, but never in the middle. There are also fables without morality. The Russian poetic fable is written with different feet (free) iambic, which makes it possible to bring the intonation pattern of the fable closer to colloquial speech. According to the norms of the poetics of classicism, the fable belongs to the "low" genres (note that among the classicists the word "low" as applied to the genre did not mean blasphemy, but only established the place of the genre in the aesthetic hierarchy and set the most important features of the classicist canon), therefore variance and, in particular, vernacular, which further brings the speech form of the fable to spoken language... In fables we usually come across sociocultural issues, sometimes - with philosophical ("Philosopher", "Two Doves" by Krylov) and very rarely - with national ("Wolf in the kennel" by Krylov). The specificity of the ideological world in the fable is such that its elements are expressed, as a rule, directly and do not cause difficulties in interpretation. However, it would be wrong to always look for an open expression of the idea in the moral of the fable - if this is true, for example, in relation to the fable "The Monkey and the Glasses", then in "The Wolf and the Lamb" morality is not formulated in the idea, but the theme ("The strong is always guilty ").

The lyric-epic genre of the ballad is also a canonized genre, but from the aesthetic system, not of classicism, but of romanticism. It assumes the presence of a plot (usually a simple, one-line) and, as a rule, its emotional comprehension by a lyrical hero. The form of speech organization is poetic, the size is arbitrary. An essential formal feature of a ballad is the presence of dialogue. In the ballad, there is often a mystery, a mystery with which the emergence of conventionally fantastic imagery is associated (Zhukovsky); the motive of fate and fate is not uncommon ("The Song of Oleg the Prophetic" by Pushkin, "The Ballad of the Smoky Carriage" by A. Kochetkov). The pathos in the ballad is sublime (tragic, romantic, rarely heroic).

In drama, over the past hundred to one hundred and fifty years, there has been a blurring of genre boundaries, and many plays are becoming indefinable in terms of genres (Ibsen, Chekhov, Gorky, Shaw, etc.). However, along with genre-amorphous constructions, more or less pure genres appear. tragediesand comedy.Both genres are defined by their leading pathos. For the tragedy, therefore, the nature of the conflict acquires paramount importance; in the analysis it is required to show its undecidability, despite the active attempts of the heroes to do this. It should be noted that the conflict in tragedy is usually multifaceted, and if on the surface a tragic collision appears as a confrontation between characters, then on a deeper level it is almost always a psychological conflict, a tragic duality of the hero. So, in the tragedy of Pushkin "Boris Godunov" the main stage action is based on external conflicts: Boris - the Pretender, Boris - Shuisky, etc. Deeper aspects of the conflict are manifested in folk scenes and especially in the scene of Boris and the holy fool - this is the conflict between the tsar and the people. And finally, the deepest conflict is the contradictions in Boris's soul, his struggle with his own conscience. It is this last collision that makes the position and fate of Boris truly tragic. The means of revealing this deep conflict in the tragedy is a kind of psychologism, which must be paid attention to; in a selective analysis it is necessary to focus on scenes with high psychological content and emotional intensity - for example, in Boris Godunov, such reference points of the composition will be Shuisky's story about the death of Dimitri , a scene with the holy fool, Boris's inner monologues.

In comedy, the pathos of satire or humor, less often of irony, becomes a meaningful dominant; problems can be very diverse, but most often sociocultural. In the field of style, such properties as divergence, plot, and increased convention become important and subject to analysis. Basically, the analysis of the form should be aimed at clarifying why this or that character, episode, scene, remark is comic, ridiculous; on the forms and methods of achieving a comic effect. So, in Gogol's comedy "The Inspector General" it is necessary to dwell in detail on those scenes where the inner, deep comic is manifested, consisting in the contradiction between what is and what is. Already the first action, which is essentially an expanded exposition, provides a huge material for analysis, since in a frank conversation of officials the real state of affairs in the city is revealed, which does not coincide with what should be: the judge takes bribes with greyhound puppies in the naive conviction that this is not a sin , the government funds allocated for the church were stolen, and the authorities were presented with a report that the church “began to be built, but burned down”, “there is a tavern in the city, uncleanness,” etc. The comic is further intensified as the action develops, and special attention should be paid to those scenes and episodes where all kinds of absurdities, inconsistencies, illogism are manifested. Aesthetic analysis in considering comedy should prevail over problem-semantic analysis, in complete opposition to traditional teaching practice.

In some cases, it is difficult to analyze the author's genre subheadings, which do not quite coincide with modern ideas about a particular genre. In this case, for a correct understanding of the author's intention, it is necessary to find out how this genre was perceived by the author and his contemporaries. For example, in teaching practice, the genre of Griboyedov's play "Woe from Wit" is often perplexing. What kind of comedy is this if the main conflict is dramatic, there is no special attitude towards laughter, when reading or watching, the impression arises that is not comic, but the pathos of the protagonist and is generally close to tragedy? To understand the genre, here it is necessary to turn to the aesthetics of enlightenment, in the mainstream of which Griboyedov worked and which did not know the genre of drama, but only tragedy or comedy. Comedy (or, in other words, "high comedy", as opposed to farce) did not imply a mandatory setting for laughter. Dramatic works in general belonged to this genre, which gave a picture of the mores of society and revealed its vices; an incriminating and instructive emotional orientation was obligatory, but not necessarily comic; comedy was not supposed to laugh at the top of the lungs, but it was supposed to ponder. Therefore, in the comedy of Griboyedov, one should not place a special emphasis on the pathos of satire, the corresponding techniques of poetics, in it, rather, one should look for invective as the leading emotional tone. Neither the dramatic nature of the conflict nor the character of the protagonist contradicts this - serious - pathos.

Another example is the author's genre designation “ Dead souls"- a poem. We are accustomed to understanding a poem as a poetic lyric-epic work, therefore, the clue of the Gogol genre is often sought in the author's digressions, which give the work subjectivity and lyricism. But that is not the point at all, it is just that Gogol perceived the genre of the poem itself differently than we do. The poem for him was "a small kind of epic", that is, it was not the features of the form that were taken as a genre feature, but the nature of the problematic. A poem, in contrast to a novel, is a work with a national perspective, in which it is not about the private, but about the general, about the fate of not individuals, but the people, homeland, state. The features of the poetics of Gogol's work also correlate with this understanding of the genre: the abundance of extra-plot elements, the inability to single out the main character, the epic slowness of the narrative, etc.

Another example is Ostrovsky's drama "The Thunderstorm", which is, of course, a tragedy in terms of the nature of the conflict, its resolution and the leading emotional pathos. But the fact is that in the era of Ostrovsky, the dramatic genre of tragedy was determined not by the nature of the conflict and pathos, but by the problem-thematic feature. Only a work depicting outstanding historical figures, often dedicated to the historical past, national-historical in its scope and sublime in terms of the object of the image, could be called a tragedy. Works from the life of merchants, bourgeois, and common people could be called only a drama, given the tragic nature of the conflict.

These are the main features of the analysis of a work in connection with its kind and genre.

? TEST QUESTIONS:

1. What are characteristics dramas like literary kind? What is the difference between action plays, mood plays, and discussion plays?

2. What is the specificity of lyrics as a literary genus? What requirements does this specificity impose on the analysis of a work?

3. What should and should not be analyzed in the world of a lyric work? What is a lyric hero? What is the meaning of tempo rhythm in lyrics?

4. What is a lyric-epic work and what are the basic principles of its analysis?

5. In what cases and in relation to which genres is it necessary to analyze the genre features of a work? What do you know literary genresessential for the content or form of the work?

Exercises

1. Compare the given works with each other and define in each of them the specific function of the remarks:

N.V. Gogol.Marriage,

A.N. Ostrovsky.Snow Maiden,

A.P. Chekhov.Uncle Ivan,

M. Gorky.Old man.

2. Correct any mistakes in determining the type of song (not necessarily all definitions are wrong):

A.S. Pushkin.Boris Godunov - a play of mood,

N.V. Gogol.The players are a play of action

ON. Ostrovsky.Dowry is a play-discussion,

ON. Ostrovsky.Mad money is a play of mood

L.N. Tolstoy.The power of darkness is a play-debate

A.P. Chekhov.Ivanov is a play of mood

A.P. Chekhov.The Seagull is a play of action

M. Gorky.The old man is a play of action

M.A. Bulgakov.Days of the Turbins - a play-discussion,

A.V. Vampilov.Duck Hunt is a play of moods.

3. Briefly describe the image of the lyrical hero in the following works:

M.Yu. Lermontov.Prophet,

ON. Nekrasov.I do not like your irony ...

A.A. Block.Oh spring without end and without edge ...,

A.T. Tvardovsky.In the case of a major utopia ...

4. Determine the poetic meter and the tempo rhythm created by it in the following works;

A.S. Pushkin.It's time, my friend, it's time! The heart asks for peace ...

I.S. Turgenev.Misty morning, gray morning ...,

ON. Nekrasov.Reflections at the front door

A.A. Block.Stranger

I.A. Bunin.Loneliness,

S.A. Yesenin.I am the last poet of the village ...,

V.V. Mayakovsky.Conversation with the financial inspector about poetry,

M.A. Svetlov.Grenada.

Final task

In the works below, note the generic and genre features that are essential for analysis, and analyze them. At the same time, note those cases when the genre and genre of the work has practically no effect on the analysis.

Analysis texts

AND: A.S. Pushkin.Feast in Time of Plague,

M.Yu. Lermontov.Masquerade,

N.V. Gogol.Inspector,

A.N. Ostrovsky.Wolves and sheep

L.N. Tolstoy.Living Dead,

A.P. Chekhov.Ivanov,

M. Gorky.Vassa Zheleznova,

L. Andreev.Human life.

B: K.N. Batyushkov.My genius

V.A. Zhukovsky.Lark,

A.S. Pushkin.Elegy (Crazy years faded fun ...),

M.Yu. Lermontov.Sail,

F.I. Tyutchev.These poor villages ...

I.F. Annensky.A wish,

A.A. Block.About valor, about exploits, about glory ...,

V.V. Mayakovsky.Sergey Yesenin,

N.S. Gumilyov.Choice.

IN: V.A. Zhukovsky.Ivikovy cranes,

A.S. Pushkin.Groom,

ON. Nekrasov.Railway,

A.A. Block.Twelve,

S.A Yesenin.Black man.

Exploring the context

Context and its types

A literary work, on the one hand, is self-sufficient and closed in itself, and on the other, it comes into contact with extra-textual reality on the other - context.The context in the broad sense of the word is understood as the entire totality of phenomena associated with the text of a work of art, but at the same time external to it. Distinguish between literary context - the inclusion of the work in the writer's work, in the system of literary trends and trends; historical - the socio-political situation in the era of the creation of the work; biographical and everyday life - the facts of the biography of the writer, the realities of the everyday life of the era, this also includes the circumstances of the writer's work on the work (history of the text) and his extra-artistic statements.

The question of attracting contextual data to the analysis of a work of art is controversial. In a number of cases, it is generally impossible to understand a literary work out of context (for example, Pushkin's epigram “Two Alexandram Pavlovichs” requires obligatory knowledge of the historical context - the activities of Alexander I - and biographical - knowledge of the Lyceum Alexander Pavlovich Zernov); in other cases, the use of contextual data is optional, and sometimes, as will be seen from the following, it is undesirable. As a rule, the text itself contains direct or indirect indications of which context should be referred to for its correct understanding: for example, in Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, the realities of the Moscow chapters indicate the everyday context, the epigraph and the Gospel chapters define literary context, etc.

Historical context

The study of the historical context is a more familiar operation for us. It has even turned into a certain obligatory template, so that the schoolchild and the student try to start any conversation about a work from the time of its creation in a timely and inopportune manner. However, the study of the historical context is not always necessary.

It should be borne in mind that when perceiving a work of art, some, albeit the most approximate and general, historical context is almost always present - so it is difficult to imagine a reader who would not know what Pushkin did in Russia in the era of the Decembrists, under the autocratic-serf system, after the victory in the Patriotic War of 1812, etc., that is, he would not have at least a vague idea of \u200b\u200bthe Pushkin era. The perception of almost any work, thus, willy-nilly, takes place against a certain contextual background. The question, therefore, is whether it is necessary to expand and deepen this background knowledge of the context for an adequate understanding of the work. The solution to this question is prompted by the text itself, and above all by its content. In the case when we have before us a work with a pronounced eternal, timeless theme, the attraction of the historical context turns out to be useless and unnecessary, and sometimes harmful, since it distorts real connections artistic creation with a historical era. So, in particular, it would be directly wrong to explain (and this is sometimes done) the optimism of Pushkin's intimate lyrics by the fact that the poet lived in an era of social upsurge, and the pessimism of Lermontov's intimate lyrics - an era of crisis and reaction. In this case, the involvement of contextual data does nothing for the analysis and understanding of the work. On the contrary, when specific historical aspects are essential in the subject of a work, it may be necessary to refer to the historical context.

Such an appeal, as a rule, is also useful for a better understanding of the writer's world outlook, and thereby - the problems and axioms of his works. So, to understand the world outlook of the mature Chekhov, it is necessary to take into account the intensified in the second half of the 19th century. materialistic tendencies in philosophy and natural sciences, the teachings of Tolstoy and the controversy around him, the widespread use of Schopenhauer's subjective idealist philosophy in Russian society, the crisis of the ideology and practice of populism, and a number of other socio-historical factors. Their study will help in some cases to better understand Chekhov's positive program in the field of morality and the principles of his aesthetics. But, on the other hand, the use of this kind of data is not strictly necessary: \u200b\u200bafter all, Chekhov's outlook on the world was fully reflected in his artistic creations, and their thoughtful and attentive reading gives practically everything necessary for understanding Chekhov's axioms and problems.

In any case, there are a number of dangers associated with the use of contextual historical data that need to be aware and remembered.

First, the study of the literary work itself cannot be replaced by the study of its historical context. A work of art cannot be regarded as an illustration of historical processes, losing the idea of \u200b\u200bits aesthetic specificity. Therefore, in practice, the involvement of the historical context should be extremely moderate and limited to the framework of what is absolutely necessary for understanding the work. Ideally, reference to historical information should arise only when, without such reference, one or another fragment of the text cannot be understood. For example, when reading "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin, one should obviously imagine in general terms the system of serf economy, the difference between corvee and quitrent, the position of the peasantry, etc .; when analyzing Gogol's Dead Souls, you need to know about the procedure for filing revision tales, when reading Mayakovsky's Mystery-Buff, you need to be able to decipher political allusions, etc. In any case, you should remember that using data from the historical context does not replace analytical work on the text and is auxiliary reception.

Secondly, the historical context must be drawn in sufficient completeness, taking into account the complex and sometimes variegated structure of the historical process in each given period. So, when studying the era of the 30s of the XIX century. it is completely insufficient to indicate that this was the era of the Nikolaev reaction, crisis and stagnation in public life. It is necessary, in particular, to take into account the fact that it was also an era of the upward development of Russian culture, represented by the names of Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Belinsky, Stankevich, Chaadaev and many others. The epoch of the 60s, which we habitually consider the time of the flourishing of revolutionary-democratic culture, also carried other principles that manifested themselves in the activities and works of Katkov, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, A. Grigoriev and others. Examples of this kind could be multiplied ...

And of course, we must decisively abandon the stereotype according to which all the great writers who lived under the autocratic-serf system fought against autocracy and serfdom for the ideals of a brighter future.

Thirdly, in the general historical situation it is necessary to see mainly those aspects of it that have a direct impact on literature as a form of social consciousness. First of all, this is not a socio-economic basis and not a political superstructure, to which the idea of \u200b\u200ban era in teaching practice often boils down, but the state of culture and social thought. So, for understanding Dostoevsky's work, it is important, first of all, not that his era fell on the second stage of the Russian liberation movement, not the crisis of the serf system and the gradual transition to capitalist relations, not the form of monarchical rule, but the polemics of Westernizers and Slavophiles, aesthetic discussions, the struggle of Pushkin and Gogol's tendencies, the position of religion in Russia and in the West, the state of philosophical and theological thought, etc.

So, the attraction of the historical context to the study of a work of art is an auxiliary and not always necessary methodological method of analysis, but in no case is it a methodological principle.

Biographical context

The same, and even with more reason, can be said about the biographical context. Only in the rarest cases is it needed to understand the work (in lyric genres with a pronounced functional orientation - epigrams, less often in messages). In other cases, the attraction of a biographical context is not only useless, but often harmful, since it reduces the artistic image to a concrete fact and deprives it of its generalizing meaning. So, in order to analyze Pushkin's poem "I loved you ..." we absolutely do not need to know which particular woman this message is addressed to and in what relationship the real author was with her, since Pushkin's work is a generalized formlight and sublime feeling. The biographical context may not enrich, but impoverish the idea of \u200b\u200bthe work of the writer: for example, the nationality of the same Pushkin cannot be explained by one biographical fact - the songs and tales of Arina Rodionovna - she was born through direct observation of folk life, the assimilation of its customs, traditions, moral and aesthetic norms, through the contemplation of Russian nature, through the experience Patriotic War 1812, through initiation european culture etc. and was thus a very complex and profound phenomenon.

It is therefore optional and often undesirable to establish real life prototypes of literary characters, and even more so to reduce literary characters to their prototypes - this impoverishes the artistic image, deprives it of generalizing content, simplifies the idea of \u200b\u200bthe creative process and does not at all testify to the realism of the writer, as a long time was considered in our literary criticism. Although it should be noted that back in the 1920s, the outstanding Russian literary theorist A.P. Skaftmov warned of the danger of dissolving the aesthetic qualities of a work of art in a biographical context and clearly wrote: “Comparisons of its internal images with the so-called“ prototypes ”are even less necessary for aesthetic comprehension of a work, no matter how reliable the connection between the two is. The properties of the prototype can in no way serve as a support in the internal interpretation of certain features projected by the author in the corresponding character. "

The biographical context also includes what is called the "creative laboratory" of the artist, the study of work on the text: drafts, initial editions, etc. The attraction of this kind of data is also not necessary for analysis (by the way, they may simply not exist), and when methodologically inept use brings only harm. In most cases, the logic of the teachers of literature turns everything upside down here: the fact of the final edition is replaced by the fact of the draft, and in this capacity is intended to prove something. So, many teachers find the original title of Griboyedov's comedy Woe to the Mind more expressive. In the spirit of this title, the ideological meaning of the work is interpreted: the clever Chatsky was hunted down by Famus' Moscow. But the logic in using the facts of the creative history of the work should be completely opposite: the original title was discarded, which means that it did not fit Griboyedov, it seemed unsuccessful. Why? - yes, obviously, precisely because of its straightforwardness, sharpness, which does not reflect the real dialectic of the relationship between Chatsky and famus society... It is this dialectic that is well conveyed in the final name: woe is not for the mind, but for the bearer of the mind, who puts himself in a false and ridiculous position, the sword, in Pushkin's words, beads in front of the Repetilovs, etc. In general, the same Skaftmov spoke well about the relationship between the final text and the creative-biographical context: “As for the study of draft materials, plans, successive editorial changes, etc., this area of \u200b\u200bstudy cannot lead to an aesthetic interpretation of the final text without theoretical analysis. The facts of the draft are by no means the same as the facts of the final version. The author's intentions in one or another of his characters, for example, could change at different times of work, and the idea could not be presented in the same outline, and it would be incongruous to transfer the meaning of the draft fragments, even if full of clarity, to the final text "..." Only itself the work can speak for itself. The course of analysis and all its conclusions must grow immanently from the work itself. The author himself contains all ends and beginnings. Any deviation into the area of \u200b\u200bdraft manuscripts, or into the area of curriculum vitae would threaten with the danger of changing and distorting the qualitative and quantitative ratio of the ingredients of the work, and as a result, this would affect the clarification of the final intention "..." judgments from the drafts would be judgments about what the work wanted to be or could be, but not about what it is became and is now in the final form consecrated by the author ”.

The poet seems to echo the scientist-literary critic; Here is what Tvardovsky writes on the subject of interest to us: “One can and should not know any 'early' and similar works, no 'variants' - and write the most important and most essential on the basis of the well-known and universally significant works of the writer” (Letter to P. S. Vykhodtsev from April 21, 1959).

In solving complex and controversial issues of interpretation, literary practitioners and especially teachers of literature are often inclined to resort to the author's own judgment about his work, and this argument is undoubtedly given decisive importance ("The author himself spoke ..."). For example, in the interpretation of Turgenev's Bazarov, such an argument becomes a phrase from Turgenev's letter: "... if he is called a nihilist, then he must read: a revolutionary" (Letter to K.K.Sluchevsky dated April 14, 1862). However, we draw attention to the fact that this definition does not sound in the text, and of course, not because of fear of censorship, but in essence: not a single character trait speaks of Bazarov as a revolutionary, that is, according to Mayakovsky as about a person who "realizing or guessing the coming centuries, fights for them and leads humanity to them." And mere hatred of aristocrats, disbelief in God and denial of noble culture is clearly not enough for a revolutionary.

Another example is Gorky's interpretation of the image of Luke from the play At the Bottom. Gorky already in the Soviet era wrote: “... There are still a very large number of comforters who comfort only so that they do not get bored with their complaints, do not disturb the habitual peace of mind of a cold, accustomed soul. The most precious thing for them is precisely this peace, this stable balance of their feelings and thoughts. Then their own knapsack, their own kettle and pot for cooking food is very dear for them. "..." Comforters of this kind are the most intelligent, knowledgeable and eloquent. That is why they are the most harmful. Luke was supposed to be such a comforter in the play At the Bottom, but I, apparently, did not manage to make him that way. "

It was on this statement that the prevailing understanding of the play as a denunciation of the “comforting lie” and discrediting of the “harmful old man” was based. But again, the objective meaning of the play resists this interpretation: Gorky never discredits the image of Luke artisticby means - neither in the plot, nor in the statements of characters he likes. On the contrary - only angry cynics laugh at him sarcastically - Tambourines, Baron, partly Tick; does not accept either Luka or his philosophy Kostylev. Those who have preserved their "soul I live" - \u200b\u200bNastya, Anna, Actor, Tatarin - feel in him the truth they really need - the truth of participation and pity for man. Even Satine, who seems to be an ideological antagonist of Luke, declares: “Dubier ... keep silent about the old man! The old man is not a charlatan. What is the truth? Man - that's the truth! He understood this ... He is a clever girl! .. He ... acted on me like acid on an old and dirty coin ... ". And in the plot, Luka manifests himself only from the best side: humanly speaks with the dying Anna, tries to save the Actor and Ashes, listens to Nastya, etc. The conclusion inevitably follows from the entire structure of the play: Luka is the bearer of a humane attitude towards a person, and his lies sometimes more needed by peoplethan the humiliating truth.

Other examples of this kind of discrepancy between the objective meaning of the text and its author's interpretation can be cited. So what, the authors don't know what they are doing? How can such discrepancies be explained? For many reasons.

First, the objective discrepancy between design and execution, when the author, often without noticing it himself, does not say exactly what he was going to say. This is due to the general and still not quite clear for us law of artistic creation: the work is always richer in meaning than the original concept. Apparently, Dobrolyubov came closest to understanding this law: “No, we do not impose anything on the author, we say in advance that we do not know for what purpose, due to what preliminary considerations, he depicted the story that makes up the content of the story“ On the Eve ”. It is not so important for us that wanted totell the author how much is that affectedthem, albeit unintentionally, simply as a result of faithful reproduction of the facts of life "(" When will the present day come? ").

Secondly, between the creation of a work and the statement about it there can be a significant period of time, during which the author's experience, world outlook, sympathies and antipathies, creative and ethical principles, etc., change.This happened, in particular, with Gorky in the above case , and even earlier with Gogol, who at the end of his life gave a moralistic interpretation of The Inspector General, which clearly does not coincide with its original objective meaning. Sometimes a writer can be greatly influenced literary criticism on his work (as happened, for example, with Turgenev after the release of "Fathers and Sons"), which can also cause a desire to retroactively "correct" his creation.

But the main reason for the discrepancy between the artistic meaning and the author's interpretation is the discrepancy between the artistic worldview and the theoretical worldview of the writer, which often conflict and almost never coincide. The worldview is logically and conceptually ordered, while the worldview is based on the artist's immediate feeling, includes emotional, irrational, subconscious moments in which a person simply cannot be aware of. This spontaneous and largely uncontrolled by reason concept of the world and man is the basis of a work of art, while the basis of the author's extra-artistic statements is a rationally ordered worldview. This is where most of the “conscientious delusions” of writers about their creations stem from.

For a rather long time, theoretical literary criticism realized the danger of turning to the author's extra-artistic statements to clarify the meaning of the work. Remembering the above-cited principle “ real criticism"Dobrolyubov, let us turn again to Skaftymov's article:" The author's third-party testimony, which goes beyond the limits of the work, can only have a leading value and for its recognition requires verification by theoretical means of immanent analysis. " The writers themselves, too, often realize the impossibility, unnecessary or harmfulness of auto-interpretations. So, Blok refused to comment on the author's idea of \u200b\u200bhis poem "The Twelve". Tolstoy wrote: “If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express by the novel, then I would have to write the same novel that I wrote, first” (Letter to N.N. Strakhov, April 23 and 26, 1876 g.). Large modern writer U. Eco speaks out even more sharply: “The author should not interpret his work. Or he should not have written a novel, which by definition is a machine-generator of interpretations "..." The author should have died after finishing the book. In order not to get in the way of the text. "

In general, it must be said that often writers, in addition to their artistic heritage, leave behind works of philosophy, journalism, literary criticism, epistolary, etc. To what extent does their study help in the analysis of a work of art? The answer to this question is ambiguous. Ideally, a literary critic is obliged to give a full-fledged analysis of a literary text, without resorting to extra-textual data, which in any case are auxiliary. However, in a number of cases, turning to the author's extra-artistic statements can be useful, primarily in terms of studying poetics. In the literary-critical or epistolary heritage, aesthetic principles formulated by the writer himself may be found, the application of which to the analysis of a literary text can have a positive effect. Thus, the key to the complex unity of Tolstoy's novels is given to us by the following statement of Tolstoy: “In everything, in almost everything that I wrote, I was guided by the need for a collection of thoughts, linked together, for expressing myself, but each thought, expressed in words in particular, loses its meaning is terribly lowered when one of the bonds in which it is located is taken. The link itself is not composed by thought (I think), but by something else, and there is no way to express the basis of this linkage directly in words, but it can only be mediocre - describing images, actions, positions in words ”(Letter to NN Strakhov dated 23 and April 26, 1876). The letter to Suvorin, in which one of the basic principles of Chekhov's poetics is formulated: “When I write, I fully count on the reader, believing that he will add the subjective elements missing in the story himself” (Letter to A.S. Suvorin dated April 1, 1890). To understand the poetics of Mayakovsky, his theoretical and literary article "How to Make Poems" gives a lot. The use of such and similar materials of a general nature can bring nothing but usefulness for analysis.

The situation is more complicated when it comes to attempts to clarify the content of a work of art by attracting extra-artistic statements of the writer. Here we are always faced with the danger that was discussed above - as a rule, one can reconstruct the author's worldview from non-artistic statements, but not his artistic worldview. Their discrepancy takes place in all cases and can lead to a depleted, or even distorted understanding of the literary text. A contextual analysis in this direction can be useful if the worldview and outlook of the writer are basically the same, and the creative person is distinguished by a kind of solidity, integrity (Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekhov). When the consciousness of a writer is internally contradictory and his theoretical attitudes diverge from artistic practice (Gogol, Ostrovsky, Tolstoy, Gorky), the danger of replacing the world outlook with a worldview and distorting the content of the work sharply increases. In any case, it should be remembered that any use of extra-textual data can be useful only when it complements the immanent analysis, and does not replace it.

Literary context

As for the literary context, its involvement in analysis is almost never harmful. Comparison of the work under study with other works of the same author turns out to be especially useful, since in general the patterns inherent in the work of the writer as a whole, his gravitation towards certain problems, the originality of style, etc., are more clearly revealed.This path has the advantage that in the analysis of an individual work allows you to go from general to specific. Thus, the study of Pushkin's work in all its volume reveals a problem that is not immediately noticeable in individual works - the problem of "self-stability of a person", his inner freedom, based on a sense of belonging to the eternal beginnings of life, national tradition and world culture. Thus, comparing the poetics of Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment with Demons and The Brothers Karamazov makes it possible to reveal a problematic situation typical of Dostoevsky - “conscientious blood”. Sometimes the attraction of the literary context turns out to be even an indispensable condition for the correct comprehension of a separate work of art, which can be illustrated by the example of the perception of Chekhov's work by lifetime criticism. The early stories of the writer, appearing one by one in the newspapers, did not attract close attention, did not seem to be something significant. The attitude towards Chekhov changes with the appearance collectionshis stories: put together, they turned out to be a significant fact in Russian literature, their original problematic content and artistic originality were more clearly revealed. The same can be said about lyrical works: alone they somehow “don't look”, their natural perception is in a collection, a magazine selection, a collection of works, when individual artistic creations are mutually illuminated and complement each other.

Drawing on a broader literary context, that is, the work of the predecessors and contemporaries of a given author, is also generally desirable and useful, although not so necessary. The attraction of this kind of information serves the purposes of comparison, comparison, which makes it possible to speak more convincingly about the originality of the content and style of this author. At the same time, comparison of contrast art systems (Pushkin with Lermontov, Dostoevsky with Chekhov, Mayakovsky with Pasternak) or, conversely, similar but differing in important nuances (Fonvizin - Griboyedov, Lafontaine - Krylov, Annensky - Blok). In addition, it should be taken into account that the literary context is natural and closest for a work of art.

Context changes over time

The greatest difficulty is presented by the historical change in context in the process of perceiving a literary work in subsequent eras, since the idea of \u200b\u200brealities, customs, stable speech formulas that were quite common for readers of the past era, but completely unfamiliar to the reader of subsequent generations, is lost, as a result of which involuntary impoverishment occurs. or even distortion of the meaning of the work. The loss of context can, therefore, significantly affect the interpretation, therefore, when analyzing the works of cultures distant from us, a so-called real commentary, sometimes very detailed, is needed. For example, what areas of the life of the Pushkin era considered it necessary to acquaint the reader with Yu.M. Lotman, author of the commentary to “Eugene Onegin”: “Economy and property status“ ... ”Education and service of noblemen“… ”Interests and occupations of a noble woman“… ”Noble dwelling and its surroundings in the city and estate“… ”Day of a secular person. Entertainment "..." Ball "..." Duel "..." Means of transportation. Road". And that's not counting the detailed commentary on individual lines, names, speech formulas, etc.

The general conclusion that can be drawn from all that has been said is as follows. Contextual analysis is, at best, a private auxiliary technique that does not in any way replace the analysis of the immanent; the need for this or that context for the correct perception of the work is indicated by the organization of the text itself.

? TEST QUESTIONS:

1. What is context?

2. What kinds of contexts do you know?

3. Why is the use of contextual data not always necessary, and sometimes even harmful for literary analysis?

4. What points us to the need to use certain contextual data?

An exercise

With regard to the works below, establish the expediency of involving each type of context in their analysis, using the following rating scale: a) involvement is necessary, b) acceptable, c) inappropriate, d) harmful.

Analysis texts:

A.S. Pushkin.Mozart and Salieri,

M.Yu. Lermontov.Hero of our time,

N.V. Gogol.Taras Bulba, Dead Souls,

F.M. Dostoevsky.Teen, Demons,

A.P. Chekhov.Student,

M.A. Sholokhov.Quiet Don,

A.A. Akhmatova.Clasped her hands under a dark veil ... Requiem,

A.T. Tvardovsky.Terkin in the next world.

Final task

In the texts below, establish the appropriateness of using contextual data of one kind or another and conduct contextual analysis accordingly. Show how using context can help you understand the text more fully and deeper.

Analysis texts

A.S. Pushkin.Arion,

M.Yu. Lermontov.Goodbye, unwashed Russia ...

L.N. Tolstoy.Childhood,

F.M. Dostoevsky.Poor people

N.S. Leskov.Warrior,

A.P. Chekhov.Chameleon,

Memories of A.T. Tvardovsky. M., 1978.S. 234.

Turgenev I.S. Coll. cit .: In 12 volumes, Moscow, 1958.Vol. 12, p. 339.

Gorky M. Coll. cit .: In 30 volumes, Moscow, 1953.Vol. 26, p. 425.

Dobrolyubov N.A. Coll. cit .: In 3 volumes, Moscow, 1952.Vol. 3.S. 29.

A.P. Skaftmov Decree. op. From 173-174.

Tolstoy L.N. Full collection cit .: In 90 volumes, Moscow, 1953.Vol. 62, p. 268.

Eco W. The name of the rose. M., 1989. S. 428–430.

Tolstoy L.N. Full collection cit .: In 90 volumes, vol. 62, p. 268.

A.P. Chekhov Full collection op. and letters: In 30 volumes. Letters. T. 4.P. 54.

Lotman Yu.M. Roman A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin". Commentary: Teacher's guide. L, 1980.S. 416.

SCHEMES FOR ANALYSIS OF LITERARY WORKS

1. Analysis of a work of art

1. Determine the theme and idea / main idea / of this work; problems raised in it; the pathos with which the work was written;

2. Show the relationship between plot and composition;

3. Consider the subjective organization of the work / artistic image of a person, methods of character creation, types of character images, the system of character images /;

5. To determine the features of the functioning of the figurative and expressive means of the language in this work of literature;

6. Determine the features of the genre of the work and the style of the writer.

Note : according to this scheme, you can write an essay-review about the book you have read, while also presenting in the work:

1. Emotional and evaluative attitude to the reading.

2. A detailed justification for an independent assessment of the characters of the heroes of the work, their actions and experiences.

3. Detailed rationale for the conclusions.

2. Analysis of a prosaic 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. At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish between the concepts of the historical and historical-literary situation, in the latter case it means

literary directions 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, one should turn to the question of the ideological and artistic unity of the work, its content and form (in this case, 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 artwork
(themes, issues, conflict and pathos)

Subject - this is what the work is about, the main problem posed and considered by the author in the work, which unites the content into a single whole; these are the 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 topics - the subject of the work.

Problem - this is the side of life that is of particular interest to the writer. One and the same problem can serve as a basis for posing different problems (the topic of serfdom is the problem of the internal lack of freedom of the serf, the problem of mutual corruption, mutilation of both serfs and serfs, the problem of social injustice ...). Problems - a list of issues raised in the work. (They can be complementary and obey the main problem.)

Idea - what the author wanted to say; the author's solution to the main problem, or an indication of the way in which it can be solved. (The conceptual meaning is the solution of all problems - the main and additional ones - or an indication of a possible solution.)

Pathos - the emotional-evaluative attitude of the writer to the story being told, characterized by a great power of feelings (maybe asserting, denying, justifying, uplifting ...).

The level of organization of the work as an artistic whole

Composition - construction of a literary work; unites parts of the work into one whole.

Basic composition tools:

Plot - what happens in the work; system of major events and conflicts.

Conflict - a clash of characters and circumstances, views and principles of life, underlying the action. Conflict can occur between an individual and society, between characters. In the mind of the hero can be overt and hidden. Plot elements reflect the stages of conflict development;

Prologue - a kind of introduction to the work, which tells about the events of the past, he emotionally tunes the reader to perception (it is rare);

Exposition - the introduction into action, the image of the conditions and circumstances that preceded the immediate beginning of the action (it can be expanded or not, integral and "torn"; can be located not only at the beginning, but also in the middle, the end of the work); introduces the characters of the work, the setting, time and circumstances of the action;

Tie - the beginning of the plot movement; the event from which the conflict begins, subsequent events develop.

Action development - a system of events that follow from the set; in the course of the development of the action, as a rule, the conflict intensifies, and the contradictions manifest themselves more and more clearly and sharply;

Climax - the moment of the highest tension of the action, the peak of the conflict, the culmination represents the main problem of the work and the characters of the heroes very clearly, after which the action weakens.

Interchange - 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 insolubility.

Epilogue - the final part of the work, which indicates the direction of the further development of events and the fate of the heroes (sometimes an assessment is given to the depicted one); this is a short story about what happened to the characters of the work after the end of the main plot action.

The plot can be stated:

In a direct chronological sequence of events;

With digressions into the past - retrospectives - and "excursions" into

future;

In a deliberately altered sequence (see artistic time in the work).

Non-plot elements are:

Plug-in 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 phenomena of life that are not directly related to the plot.

Some elements of the plot may be missing in the work; sometimes it is difficult to separate these elements; sometimes there are several plots in one work - in other words, storylines. There are various interpretations of the concepts "plot" and "plot":

1) plot - the main conflict of the work; plot - a series of events in which it is expressed;

2) plot - the artistic order of events; plot - natural order of events

Compositional principles and elements:

Leading compositional principle (the composition is multifaceted, linear, circular, "a string with beads"; in the chronology of events or not ...).

Additional composition tools:

Lyrical digressions - forms of disclosure and transmission of the writer's feelings and thoughts about what is depicted (express the author's attitude to the characters, to the depicted life, can be reflections on any occasion or an explanation of his goal, position);

Introductory (plug-in) episodes (not directly related to the plot of the work);

Artistic anticipations - depiction of scenes that, as it were, 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.

The level of the inner form of the work

Subject organization of the narrative (its consideration includes the following): The narration can be personal: on behalf of the lyric hero (confession), on behalf of the hero-narrator, and impersonal (on behalf of the narrator).

1) Artistic image of a person - the typical phenomena of life, which are reflected in this image, are considered; individual traits inherent in the character; the originality of the created image of a person is revealed:

External features - face, figure, costume;

The character of the character - it is revealed in actions, in relation to other people, manifests itself in a portrait, in descriptions of the hero's feelings, in his speech. The image of the conditions in which the character lives and acts;

An image of nature, which helps to better understand the thoughts and feelings of the character;

The image of the social environment, the society in which the character lives and acts;

The presence or absence of a prototype.

2) Basic techniques for creating a character image:

Characterization of the hero through his actions and deeds (in the plot system);

Portrait, portrait characteristic hero (often expresses the author's attitude to the character);

Psychological analysis - a detailed, in detail recreation of feelings, thoughts, motives - the character's inner world; here the image of the "dialectic of the soul" is of particular importance, ie. 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 symbol 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 there is an impression that the heroes act "on their own", "without the help of the author", ie the author uses the technique of self-disclosure, self-characterization to characterize the characters (they are found mainly in dramatic works);

epic - the author-narrator or narrator consistently describes the heroes, their actions, characters, appearance, the environment in which they live, relationships with others (found in epic novels, stories, short stories, short stories, essays).

4) The system of character images;

Individual images can be combined into groups (grouping of images) - their interaction helps to more fully represent 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 (multifaceted or unidirectional 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 historical or not, intermittent and continuous, in the chronology of events (epic time) or the chronology of the internal mental processes of characters (lyric 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 (image of events occurring in the work), description (sequential listing of individual signs, features, properties and phenomena), forms of oral speech (dialogue, monologue).

The place and meaning of the artistic detail (artistic detail that reinforces the idea of \u200b\u200bthe whole).

External form level. Speech and rhythmomelodic organization of a literary text

Characters speech - expressive or not, serving as a means of typing; individual characteristics speech; reveals the character and helps to understand the attitude of the author.

Narrator's speech - assessment of events and their participants

The peculiarity of word use of the common language (the activity of including synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, archaisms, neologisms, dialectisms, barbarisms, professionalisms).

Techniques of imagery (tropes - the use of words in a figurative sense) - the simplest (epithet and comparison) and complex (metaphor, personification, allegory, lithote, paraphrase).

Analysis of a poetic work

Poem Analysis Plan

1. Elements of a commentary to the poem:

Time (place) of writing, history of creation;

Genre originality;

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 obscure places, complex metaphors and other decryptions.

2. Feelings expressed by the lyrical hero of the poem; feelings that the poem evokes in the reader.

4. Interdependence of the content of the poem and its artistic form:

Composite solutions;

Features of self-expression of the lyric hero and the nature of the narrative;

The sound sequence of the poem, the use of sound recording, assonance, alliteration;

Rhythm, stanza, graphics, their semantic role;

Motivation and accuracy of the use of expressive means.

4. Associations caused by this poem (literary, life, musical, painting - 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 analysis; the degree of “eternity” of the problems raised or their interpretation. Riddles and secrets of the poem.

6. Additional (free) reflections.

Analysis of a poetic work
(diagram)

When starting to analyze a poetic work, it is necessary to determine the immediate content of the lyric work - experience, feeling;

Determine the "belonging" of feelings and thoughts expressed in a lyric work: lyric 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 the lyric work;

Determine the originality of the use of visual means by the author (active - mean); determine the lexical pattern (vernacular - book and literary vocabulary ...);

Determine the 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 the poetic language with the spoken language;

Determine the originality and activity of the use of trails

EPITHET - artistic definition;

COMPARISON - comparison of two objects or phenomena in order to explain one of them with the help of the other;

ALLEGORY (allegory) - the image of an abstract concept or phenomenon through specific objects and images;

IRONY - hidden mockery;

HYPERBOLA - artistic exaggeration used to enhance the impression;

LITOTES - artistic understatement;

PERSONALIZATION - 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 - hidden comparison, built on the similarity or contrast of phenomena, in which the word "as", "as if", "as if" are absent, but implied.

Poetic syntax
(syntactic devices or figures of poetic speech)

- rhetorical questions, addresses, exclamations - they strengthen 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, creating a kind of sound "picture" of speech.)

- Alliteration - repetition of consonants;

- Assonance - repetition of vowel sounds;

- Anaphora - one-man management;

Lyric composition

It is necessary:

Determine the leading experience, feeling, mood, reflected in the poetic work;

Find out the harmony of the compositional construction, 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 inner lack of freedom, etc.)

Determine the life situation that, presumably, could cause this experience;

Highlight the main parts of the poetic work: show their connection (define the emotional "drawing").

Analysis of a dramatic work

Dramatic work analysis scheme

1. General characteristics: history of creation, life basis, design, literary criticism.

2. Plot, composition:

The main conflict, stages of its development;

The nature of the denouement / comic, tragic, dramatic /

3. Analysis of individual actions, scenes, phenomena.

4. Collecting material about the characters:

The appearance of the hero,

Behavior,

Speech characteristic

Manner / how? /

Style, vocabulary

Self-characterization, mutual characteristics of heroes, author's remarks;

The role of decorations, interior in the development of the image.

5. FINDINGS : Theme, idea, meaning of the title, system of images. Genre of the work, artistic originality.

Dramatic work

Generic specificity, the "borderline" position of drama (Between literature and theater) obliges to analyze it in the course of the development of the dramatic action (this is the fundamental difference between the analysis of a dramatic work from an epic or lyrical one). Therefore, the proposed scheme is conventional in nature, it only takes into account the conglomerate of the main generic categories of drama, the peculiarity of which can manifest itself in different ways 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 ... Conflict type. The essence of the drama and the content of the conflict, the nature of the contradictions (duality, external conflict, internal conflict, their interaction), "vertical" and "horizontal" plan of the drama.

3. The system of actors , their place and role in the development of dramatic action and conflict resolution. Major and minor characters. Off-plot and off-stage characters.

4. System of motives and the 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 a dramatic action (exposure, setting, development of action, culmination, denouement). The principle of assembly.

6. Features of poetics (semantic title key, role theatrical poster, stage chronotype, symbolism, stage psychology, the problem of the finale). Signs of theatricality: costume, mask, play and post-situational analysis, role situations, etc.

7. Genre originality (drama, tragedy or comedy?). The origins of the genre, its reminiscences and innovative solutions by the author.

9. Drama contexts (historical and cultural, creative, actually dramatic).

10. The problem of interpretations and stage history.