Idea short definition. Theme and idea of the work of art

There is an inextricable logical connection.

What is the theme of the work?

If you raise the question of the theme of the work, then intuitively every person understands what it is. He just explains it from his point of view.

The theme of a work is what underlies a particular text. It is with this basis that the most difficulties arise, because it is impossible to define it unambiguously. Some people believe that the theme of the work - what is described there - is the so-called vital material. For example, topic love relationship, war or death.

The topic can also be called problems of human nature. That is, the problem of personality formation, moral principles or the conflict of good and bad actions.

Another topic can be the verbal basis. Of course, it’s rare to come across works about words, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. There are texts in which wordplay comes to the fore. Suffice it to recall the work of V. Khlebnikov “Perverten”. His verse has one peculiarity - the words in a line are read the same in both directions. But if you ask the reader what the verse was actually about, he is unlikely to answer anything intelligible. Since the main highlight of this work is the lines that can be read both from left to right and from right to left.

The theme of the work is a multifaceted component, and scientists put forward one or another hypothesis regarding it. If we talk about something universal, then the theme of a literary work is the “foundation” of the text. That is, as Boris Tomashevsky once said: “The theme is a generalization of the main, significant elements.”

If the text has a theme, then there must be an idea. An idea is a writer’s plan that pursues a specific goal, that is, what the writer wants to present to the reader.

Figuratively speaking, the theme of the work is what made the creator create the work. So to speak, the technical component. In turn, the idea is the “soul” of the work; it answers the question of why this or that creation was created.

When the author is completely immersed in the topic of his text, truly feels it and is imbued with the problems of the characters, then an idea is born - spiritual content, without which the page of the book is just a set of dashes and circles.

Learning to find

As an example, you can give a short story and try to find its main theme and idea:

The autumn downpour did not bode well, especially late at night. All the residents of the small town knew about this, so the lights in the houses had long gone out. In all but one. It was an old mansion on a hill outside the city that was used as an orphanage. During this terrible downpour, the teacher found a baby on the threshold of the building, so there was a terrible turmoil in the house: feeding, bathing, changing clothes and, of course, telling a fairy tale - after all, this is the main tradition of the old orphanage. And if any of the residents of the city knew how grateful the child would be who was found on the doorstep, they would have responded to the soft knock on the door that sounded in every house on that terrible rainy evening.

In this small passage, two themes can be distinguished: abandoned children and an orphanage. Essentially, these are the basic facts that forced the author to create the text. Then you can see that introductory elements appear: a foundling, tradition and a terrible thunderstorm, which forced all the city residents to lock themselves in their houses and turn out the lights. Why does the author talk about them specifically? These introductory descriptions will be the main idea of the passage. They can be summarized by saying that the author is talking about the problem of mercy or selflessness. In one word, he tries to convey to every reader that, regardless of weather conditions, you need to remain human.

How is a theme different from an idea?

The theme has two differences. Firstly, it determines the meaning (main content) of the text. Secondly, the theme can be revealed both in large works and in small short stories. The idea, in turn, shows the main goal and task of the writer. If you look at the presented passage, you can say that the idea is the main message from the author to the reader.

Determining the theme of a work is not always easy, but such a skill will be useful not only in literature lessons, but also in Everyday life. It is with its help that you can learn to understand people and enjoy pleasant communication.

Along with the terms “theme” and “problem,” the concept of an artistic idea represents one of the facets of the content of a work of art. The concept of idea was put forward in antiquity. Plato interpreted ideas as entities that are beyond reality and constitute the ideal world, the true, in Plato’s understanding, reality. For Hegel, the idea is objective truth, the coincidence of subject and object, the highest point of development. I. Kant introduced the concept of “aesthetic idea”, associated with the concept of beauty, which, according to Kant, is subjective.

In literary criticism, the term “idea” was customary to designate the author’s thoughts and feelings figuratively expressed in works of art - this is an emotionally charged content center work of art. The author here is presented as a bearer of a certain ideological and artistic position, an exponent of a certain point of view, and not a passive “imitator” of nature. In this regard, along with the word “idea”, the concepts “concept of a work” and “author’s concept” were used.

An artistic idea is not an abstract concept, unlike scientific and philosophical categories. It cannot be expressed in a specific verbal formula, as it happens, for example, in scientific texts. A figurative idea is always deeper than its schematic representation (a kind of verbal paraphrase).

However, it happens that ideas are expressed by the author directly, in fixed verbal formulas. This sometimes happens in lyrical poetic texts that strive for laconic expression. For example, M.Yu. Lermontov in the poem “Duma” puts the main idea in the first lines: “I look sadly at our generation! / Its future is either empty or dark, / Meanwhile, under the burden of knowledge and doubt, / It will grow old in inaction.”

In addition, some of the author’s ideas can be “delegated” to characters similar in worldview to the author. For example, Starodum in “Nedorosl” by D.I. Fonvizina becomes a “mouthpiece” of the author’s ideas, as “befits” a reasoner in classic comedies. In a realistic novel of the 19th century, a hero close to the author can express thoughts in tune with the author - such is Alyosha Karamazov in “The Brothers Karamazov” by F.M. Dostoevsky.

Some writers themselves formulate the idea of their works in the prefaces to them (for example, M.Yu. Lermontov in the preface to the second edition of “A Hero of Our Time”).

It is thanks to its figurative expression that an artistic idea becomes deeper than even the author’s abstract explanations of his idea. As already mentioned, a specific feature of an artistic idea is that it is not reducible to an abstract position; imagery is expressed only in the artistic whole of the work. This leads to another feature of the artistic idea. A truly artistic idea is not initially given. It can change significantly from the conception stage to the completion of the work.

The idea of the work includes the author’s assessment of selected facts and phenomena of life. But this assessment is also expressed in figurative form - through the artistic representation of the typical in the individual. The thought expressed in the work is not only figurative, but also emotionally charged. V.G. Belinsky wrote that the poet contemplates the idea “not with reason, not with reason, not with feeling and not with any one ability of his soul, but with all the fullness and integrity of his moral being - and therefore the idea appears, in his work, not abstract thought, not a dead form, but a living creature, in which the living beauty of the form testifies to the presence of the divine idea in it and in which ... there is no boundary between the idea and the form, but both are a whole and single organic creation.”

A literary work is thoroughly imbued with the author’s personal attitude. This component within the ideological core in modern literary criticism is called differently: emotional-value orientation, mode of artistry, type of author's emotionality.

A literary text is full of meanings; they can be in different relationships to each other. Ideological meaning the work represents the unity of several ideas (according to L. Tolstoy’s figurative definition - “an endless labyrinth of connections”), united by a main idea that permeates the entire structure of the work. For example, the multifaceted ideological meaning of “The Captain’s Daughter” by A.S. Pushkin is a combination of the ideas of nationality, mercy, and historical justice.

When analyzing a work of art, it is always important not only what the author wanted to say in it, but also what he accomplished - “had an impact.” The writer’s plan may be realized to a greater or lesser extent, but it is the author’s point of view in assessing the characters, events, and problems raised that should be the ultimate truth in the analysis

Definition of the concept

Illustrative examples

Let us recall one of the masterpieces of Russian and world literature of the 19th century - L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “War and Peace”. What the author said about him: he loved “folk thought” in the book. What are the main ideas of the work? This is, first of all, a statement that the people are the main asset of the country, the driving force of history, the creator of material and spiritual values. In the light of this understanding, the author develops the narrative of the epic. Tolstoy persistently leads the main characters of “War and Peace” through a series of tests, to “simplification”, to familiarization with the people’s worldview, worldview, and worldview. Thus, Natasha Rostova is much closer and dearer to the writer and to us than Helen Kuragina or Julie Karagina. Natasha is far from being as beautiful as the first, and not as rich as the second. But it is in this “countess”, who hardly speaks Russian, that there is something primordial, national, natural that makes her similar to common people. And Tolstoy sincerely admires her during the dance (episode “Visiting Uncle”), and describes her in such a way that we too fall under the amazing charm of the image. The author's idea of the work is remarkably revealed using examples from Pierre Bezukhov. Both aristocrats, who at the beginning of the novel live with their own personal problems, each go through their own paths of spiritual and moral quest. And they also begin to live in the interests of their country and the common people.

Cause-and-effect relationships

The idea of a work of art is expressed by all its elements, the interaction and unity of all components. It can be considered a conclusion, a kind of “life lesson” that the reader makes and learns by becoming familiar with the literary text, getting acquainted with its content, and becoming imbued with the thoughts and feelings of the author. Here it is important to understand that parts of the writer’s soul exist not only in positive, but also negative heroes. In this regard, F. M. Dostoevsky said very well: in each of us the “ideal of Sodom” fights with the “ideal of Madonna,” “God with the devil,” and the battlefield of this battle is the human heart. Svidrigailov from Crime and Punishment is a very revealing personality. A libertine, a cynic, a scoundrel, in fact a murderer; sometimes pity, compassion and even some decency are not alien to him. And before committing suicide, the hero does several good deeds: he settles Katerina Ivanovna’s children, lets Dunya go... And Raskolnikov himself, the main character of the work, obsessed with the idea of becoming a superman, is also torn by conflicting thoughts and feelings. Dostoevsky, a very difficult person in everyday life, reveals different sides of his “I” in his heroes. From biographical sources about the writer, we know that at different periods of his life he played a lot. Impressions of the destructive impact of this destructive passion are reflected in the novel “The Gambler.”

Theme and idea

There's one more thing left to figure out important question- about how the theme and idea of the work relate. In a nutshell, this is explained as follows: the theme is what is described in the book, the idea is the author’s assessment and attitude towards it. Let's say Pushkin's story “The Station Agent”. Life is revealed in it" little man“- powerless, oppressed by everyone, but having a heart, soul, dignity and awareness of himself as part of a society that looks down on him. This is the topic. And the idea is to reveal the moral superiority of a small person with a rich inner world in front of those who stand above him on the social ladder, but are poor in soul.

Idea(Greek idea– prototype, ideal, idea) – the main idea of a work, expressed through its entire figurative system. It is the method of expression that fundamentally distinguishes the idea of a work of art from scientific idea. The idea of a work of art is inseparable from its figurative system, so it is not so easy to find an adequate abstract expression for it, to formulate it in isolation from the artistic content of the work. L. Tolstoy, emphasizing the inseparability of the idea from the form and content of the novel “Anna Karenina,” wrote: “If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express in a novel, then I would have to write a novel, the same one that I wrote first."

And one more difference between the idea of a work of art and the idea of a scientific one. The latter requires clear justification and strict, often laboratory, proof and confirmation. Writers, unlike scientists, do not, as a rule, strive for strict evidence, although such a tendency can be found among naturalists, in particular E. Zola. It is enough for an artist of words to pose one or another question of concern to society. This production itself may contain the main ideological content of the work. As A. Chekhov noted, in works such as “Anna Karenina” or “Eugene Onegin” not a single issue is “resolved,” but nevertheless they are permeated with deep, socially significant ideas that concern everyone.

Close to the concept of “idea of a work” is the concept of “ideology.” The last term is more related to the position of the author, with his attitude towards the depicted. This attitude may be different, just as the ideas expressed by the author may be different. The position of the author, his ideology are determined primarily by the era in which he lives, inherent in this time public views, expressed by one or another social group. Enlightenment literature of the 18th century was characterized by a high ideological level, determined by the desire to reorganize society on the principles of reason, the struggle of educators against the vices of the aristocracy and faith in the virtue of the “third estate.” At the same time, aristocratic literature, devoid of high citizenship (Rococo literature), also developed. The latter cannot be called “ideologicalless,” it’s just that the ideas expressed by this trend were the ideas of a class opposite to the Enlightenment, a class that was losing historical perspective and optimism. Because of this, the ideas expressed by “precious” (exquisite, refined) aristocratic literature were deprived of much social resonance.

A writer’s ideological strength is not limited to the thoughts that he puts into his creation. The selection of the material on which the work is based and a certain range of characters are also important. The choice of heroes, as a rule, is determined by the corresponding ideological attitudes of the author. For example, the Russian “natural school” of the 1840s, which professed the ideals of social equality, sympathetically depicts the life of the inhabitants of city “corners” - petty officials, poor townspeople, janitors, cooks, etc. In Soviet literature, “real life” comes to the fore. a person" concerned primarily with the interests of the proletariat, sacrificing his personal in the name of the national good.

The problem of the relationship between “ideological” and “artistry” in a work seems extremely important. Not always, even outstanding writers manage to translate the idea of a work into a perfect artistic form. Often, literary artists, in their desire to express the ideas that excite them as accurately as possible, stray into journalism, begin to “reason” rather than “depict,” which, ultimately, only worsens the work. An example of such a situation is R. Rolland’s novel “The Enchanted Soul,” in which the highly artistic initial chapters contrast with the last, which are something like journalistic articles.

In such cases, full-blooded artistic images turn into diagrams, into simple mouthpieces of the author’s ideas. Even such greatest artists of words as L. Tolstoy resorted to “direct” expression of the ideas that worried them, although in his works such a method of expression was given relatively little space.

Usually a work of art expresses main idea and a number of minor ones related to side storylines. So, in famous tragedy“Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, along with the main idea of the work, which states that man is a toy in the hands of the gods, in a magnificent artistic embodiment, ideas are conveyed about the attractiveness and at the same time frailty of human power (the conflict between Oedipus and Creon), about wise “blindness” (the dialogue of the blind Tiresias with the physically sighted but spiritually blind Oedipus) and a number of others. It is characteristic that ancient authors sought to express even the deepest thoughts only in artistic form. As for the myth, its artistry completely “absorbed” the idea. It is in this regard that many theorists say that what ancient work, the more artistic it is. And this is not because the ancient creators of “myths” were more talented, but because they simply had no other way to express their ideas due to the underdevelopment of abstract thinking.

Speaking about the idea of the work, about its ideological content, it should also be borne in mind that it is not only created by the author, but can also be contributed by the reader.

A. France said that in each line of Homer we bring our own meaning, different from the one that Homer himself put into it. To this, critics of the hermeneutic direction add that the perception of the same work of art can be different in different eras. Readers of every new historical period usually “absorb” the dominant ideas of their time into the work. And indeed it is. Didn't they try Soviet time fill the novel “Eugene Onegin”, based on the dominant “proletarian” ideology at that time, with something that Pushkin never even thought of? In this regard, the interpretation of myths is especially revealing. In them, if desired, you can find any modern idea from political to psychoanalytic. It is no coincidence that S. Freud saw in the myth of Oedipus confirmation of his idea about the initial conflict between the son and the father.

The possibility of a broad interpretation of the ideological content of works of art is precisely caused by the specificity of the expression of this content. The figurative, artistic embodiment of an idea is not as accurate as the scientific one. This opens up the possibility of a very free interpretation of the idea of the work, as well as the possibility of “reading into” those ideas that the author had not even thought about.

Speaking about ways of expressing the idea of a work, one cannot fail to mention the doctrine of pathos. V. Belinsky’s words are well known that “a poetic idea is not a syllogism, not a dogma, not a rule, it is a living passion, it is pathos.” And therefore the idea of a work “is not an abstract thought, not a dead form, but a living creation.” The words of V. Belinsky confirm what was said above - the idea in a work of art is expressed by specific means, it is “living”, and not abstract, not a “syllogism”. This is deeply true. It is only necessary to clarify how an idea differs from pathos, because in Belinsky’s formulation such a difference is not visible. Pathos is primarily passion, and it is associated with a form of artistic expression. In this regard, they talk about “pathetic” and dispassionate (among naturalists) works. The idea, inextricably linked with pathos, still relates more to what is called the content of the work, in particular, they talk about “ideological content.” True, this division is relative. Idea and pathos merge into one.

Subject(from Greek theme)- what is the basis, the main problem and the main range of life events depicted by the writer. The theme of the work is inextricably linked with its idea. The selection of vital material, the formulation of problems, that is, the choice of topic, are dictated by the ideas that the author would like to express in the work. V. Dahl in " Explanatory dictionary“defined the theme as “a position, a task that is being discussed or explained.” This definition emphasizes that the theme of a work is, first of all, a statement of a problem, a “task,” and not just one or another event. The latter can be the subject of an image and be also defined as the plot of the work. Understanding the “theme” mainly as a “problem” suggests its closeness to the concept of “idea of the work.” This connection was noted by Gorky, who wrote that “a theme is an idea that originated in the author’s experience, is suggested to him.” life, but nests in the receptacle of his impressions still unformed, and, demanding embodiment in images, arouses in him a urge to work on its design." The problematic orientation of the theme is often expressed in the very title of the work, as is the case in the novels “What is to be done?” or “Who is to blame?” At the same time, we can almost talk about a pattern, which is that almost all literary masterpieces have emphatically neutral titles, most often repeating the name of the hero: “Faust”, “Odyssey”, “Hamlet”, "The Brothers Karamazov", "Don Quixote", etc.

Emphasizing close connection ideas and themes of a work, often talk about “ideological and thematic integrity” or about its ideological and thematic features. Such a combination of two different, but closely related concepts seems completely justified.

Along with the term “theme”, something close in meaning to it is often used - "theme" which implies the presence in the work not only of the main theme, but also of various secondary thematic lines. The larger the work, the wider its coverage of vital material and the more complex its ideological basis, the more such thematic lines there will be. The main theme in I. Goncharov’s novel “The Cliff” is a story about the drama of finding one’s way in modern society(the line of Faith) and the “cliff” with which such attempts end. The second theme of the novel is noble amateurism and its destructive impact on creativity (Raisky’s line).

The theme of a work can be either socially significant - this was precisely the theme of "The Precipice" for the 1860s - or insignificant, in connection with which sometimes people talk about the "petty topic" of this or that author. However, it should be borne in mind that some genres, by their very nature, presuppose “petty topics,” i.e., the absence of social significant topics. This is, in particular, intimate lyrics, to which the concept of “petty subject matter” is inapplicable as an evaluative one. For large works, a successful choice of theme is one of the main conditions for success. This is clearly seen in the example of A. Rybakov’s novel “Children of the Arbat,” the unprecedented readership success of which was ensured primarily by the topic of exposing Stalinism, which was acute for the second half of the 1980s.

1. Theme as the objective basis of the content of the work. 2. Types of topics. 3. Question and problem.

4. Types of ideas in a literary text. 5. Pathos and its types.

1. In the last lesson we studied the categories of content and form of a literary work. Topic and idea are the most important components of content.

The term theme is often used in different meanings. Word theme of Greek origin, in Plato's language it means position, foundation. In the science of literature, the theme most often refers to the subject of the image. The theme holds everything together literary text, gives unity to the meanings of its individual elements. Theme is everything that has become the subject of depiction, evaluation, and knowledge. It contains general meaning content. O. Fedotov, in a textbook on literary criticism, gives the following definition of the category theme: “A theme is a phenomenon or subject selected, comprehended and reproduced by certain artistic means. The theme runs through all images, episodes and scenes, ensuring unity of action.” This objective the basis of the work, its depicted part. The choice of topic and work on it are related to the experience, interests, and mood of the author. But the topic is not evaluative or problematic. The theme of the little man is traditional for Russian classics and is typical for many works.

2. In a work, one theme can dominate, subjugate the entire content, the entire composition of the text; such a theme is called the main or leading one. This theme is the main content point in the work. In a fable work it is the basis of the hero’s fate, in a dramatic work it is the essence of the conflict, in a lyrical work it is formed by dominant motives.

Often the main theme is suggested by the title of the work. The title may indicate general idea about life phenomena. “War and Peace” are words denoting the two main states of humanity, and Tolstoy’s work with that name is a novel that embodies life in these main states. But the title may indicate the specific phenomenon being depicted. Thus, Dostoevsky’s story “The Gambler” is a work that reflects man’s destructive passion for the game. Understanding of the theme stated in the title of the work can expand significantly as the literary text unfolds. The title itself may acquire symbolic meaning. Poem " Dead Souls"became a terrible reproach of modernity, lifelessness, lack of spiritual light. The image introduced by the title can become the key to the author's interpretation of the events depicted.

M. Aldanov’s tetralogy “The Thinker” contains a prologue that depicts the time of construction of the Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris, that moment when in 1210-1215. the famous chimera of the devil is created. A chimera in medieval art is an image of a fantastic monster. From the top of the cathedral, a horned, hook-nosed beast, with its tongue hanging out, soulless eyes, looks at the center eternal city and contemplates the Inquisition, fires, the great French revolution. The motif of the devil, skeptically contemplating the course of world history, turns out to be one of the means of expressing the author's historiosophy. This motive is leading; at the theme level, it is the leitmotif of Aldanov’s four books about world history.

Often the title indicates the most pressing social or ethical problems of reality. The author, interpreting them in the work, can include the question in the title of the book: this happened with the novel “What is to be done?” N.G. Chernyshevsky. Sometimes the title indicates a philosophical opposition: for example, Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.” Sometimes there is an assessment or verdict, as in Sullivan's (Boris Vian) scandalous book I Will Come to Spit on Your Graves. But the title does not always exhaust the theme of the work; it can be provocative, even polemical to the entire content of the text. Thus, I. Bunin deliberately titled his works so that the title did not reveal anything: neither the plot, nor the theme.

In addition to the main topic, there may be topics for certain chapters, parts, paragraphs and, finally, just sentences. B.V. Tomashevsky noted the following about this: “In artistic expression individual offers, combining with each other according to their meaning, result in a certain construction, united by a commonality of thought or theme.” That is, the entire literary text can be divided into its constituent parts, and a specific topic can be highlighted in each. So, in the story “ Queen of Spades“The theme of the cards turns out to be an organizing force, it is suggested by the title, the epigraph, but in the chapters of the story other themes are expressed, which are sometimes reduced to the level of motives. In a work, several themes can be of equal importance; they are stated by the author as strongly and significantly as if each of them were main theme. This is the case of the existence of contrapuntal themes (from Lat. punctum contra punctum- dot versus dot), this term has a musical basis and means the simultaneous combination of two or more melodically independent voices. In literature, this is a combination of several topics.

Another criterion for distinguishing themes is their connection with time. Transient topics, topics of one day, the so-called topical ones, do not live long. They are characteristic satirical works(the theme of slave labor in the fairy tale “The Horse” by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin), texts of journalistic content, fashionable superficial novels, that is, fiction. Topical topics live as long as they are given by the topic of the day, interest modern reader. The capacity of their content may be either very small or completely uninteresting to subsequent generations. The theme of collectivization into villages, presented in the works of V. Belov and B. Mozhaev, now does not affect the reader, who lives not so much with a desire to understand the problems of the history of the Soviet state, but rather with the problems of life in a new capitalist country. Universal human values reach the widest limits of relevance and significance. (ontological) Topics. Human interests in love, death, happiness, truth, and the meaning of life have remained constant throughout history. These are themes that relate to all times, all nations and cultures.

“Thematic analysis involves consideration of the timing, location, and breadth or narrowness of the material depicted.” A.B. writes about the methodology for analyzing topics in his manual. Yesin.

3. In most works, especially epic kind, even general ontological themes are concretized and sharpened in the form of topical problems. To solve a problem, you often need to go beyond old knowledge, previous experience, and reassess values. The theme of the “little man” has existed in Russian literature for the third hundred years, but the problem of his life is solved differently in the works of Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoevsky. The hero of the story “Poor People,” Makar Devushkin, reads “The Overcoat” by Gogol and “The Station Agent” by Pushkin and notices the peculiarity of his situation. Devushkin looks at human dignity differently. He is poor, but proud, he can declare himself, his rights, he can challenge the “big people”, strong of the world this, because he respects the person in himself and others. And he is much closer to the character of Pushkin, also a person big heart, depicted lovingly, rather than Gogol’s character, suffering, small man, represented very low. G. Adamovich once noted that “Gogol is essentially mocking his unfortunate Akaki Akakievich, and it is no coincidence that [Dostoevsky in “Poor People”] contrasted him with Pushkin, who in “The Station Agent” treated the same helpless old man much more humanely.” .

Often the concepts topic and problem are identified and used as synonyms. It will be more accurate if the problem is seen as concretization, updating, sharpening of the topic. The topic may be eternal, but the problem may change. The theme of love in “Anna Karenina” and “The Kreutzer Sonata” has a tragic content precisely because in Tolstoy’s time the problem of divorce in society was completely unresolved; there were no such laws in the state. But the same theme is unusually tragic in Bunin’s book “ Dark alleys", written during the 2nd World War. It unfolds against the backdrop of the problems of people whose love and happiness are impossible in the era of revolutions, wars, and emigrations. The problems of love and marriage of people born before the cataclysms of Russia are solved by Bunin in an extremely unique way.

In Chekhov's story "Fat and Thin" the theme is the life of Russian bureaucrats. The problem will be voluntary servility, the question of why a person goes to self-humiliation. The theme of space and possible interplanetary contact, the problem of the consequences of this contact are clearly outlined in the novels of the Strugatsky brothers.

In the works of Russian classical literature the problem most often has the nature of a socially significant issue. And more than that. If Herzen posed the question “Who is to blame?”, and Chernyshevsky asked “What to do?”, then these artists themselves offered answers and solutions. Books of the 19th century gave an assessment, analysis of reality and ways to achieve social ideal. Therefore, Chernyshevsky’s novel “What is to be done?” Lenin called it a textbook of life. However, Chekhov said that solving problems is not necessary in literature, because life, continuing endlessly, does not itself provide final answers. What is more important is the correct formulation of problems.

Thus, a problem is one or another feature of the life of an individual person, an entire environment, or even a people, leading to some generalizing thoughts.

The writer does not speak to the reader in rational language, he does not formulate ideas and problems, but presents us with a picture of life and thereby prompts thoughts that researchers call ideas or problems.

4. When analyzing a work, along with the concepts of “theme” and “problematics”, the concept of idea is also used, by which most often we mean the answer to the question allegedly posed by the author.

Ideas in literature can be different. An idea in literature is a thought contained in a work. There are logical ideas, or concepts that we are able to perceive with the intellect and which are easily conveyed without figurative means. Novels and stories are characterized by philosophical and social generalizations, ideas, analyzes of causes and consequences, and a network of abstract elements.

But there is a special type of very subtle, barely perceptible ideas in a literary work. An artistic idea is a thought embodied in figurative form. It lives only in figurative transformation and cannot be expressed in the form of sentences or concepts. The peculiarity of this thought depends on the disclosure of the topic, the author’s worldview, conveyed by the speech and actions of the characters, and on the depiction of pictures of life. It lies in the combination of logical thoughts, images, and all significant compositional elements. An artistic idea cannot be reduced to a rational idea that can be specified or illustrated. The idea of this type is integral to the image, to the composition.

Forming an artistic idea is difficult creative process. It is influenced by personal experience, the writer’s worldview, and understanding of life. An idea can be nurtured for years; the author, trying to realize it, suffers, rewrites, and searches for adequate means of implementation. All themes, characters, all events are necessary for a more complete expression of the main idea, its nuances, shades. However, it is necessary to understand that an artistic idea is not equal to an ideological plan, that plan that often appears not only in the writer’s head, but also on paper. Exploring non-fictional reality, reading diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, archives, scientists restore the history of the idea, the history of creation, but do not discover the artistic idea. Sometimes it happens that the author goes against himself, yielding to the original plan for the sake of artistic truth, an internal idea.

One thought is not enough to write a book. If you know in advance everything you would like to talk about, then you should not turn to artistic creativity. Better - to criticism, journalism, journalism.

The idea of a literary work cannot be contained in one phrase and one image. But writers, especially novelists, sometimes struggle to formulate the idea of their work. Dostoevsky said about “The Idiot”: “The main idea of the novel is to portray a positively beautiful person.” But Nabokov did not accept him for this same declarative ideology. Indeed, the novelist’s phrase does not clarify why, why he did it, what is the artistic and vital basis of his image.

Therefore, along with cases of defining the so-called main idea, other examples are known. Tolstoy’s answer to the question “What is “War and Peace”? answered as follows: ““War and Peace” is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed.” Tolstoy demonstrated his reluctance to translate the idea of his work into the language of concepts once again, speaking about the novel “Anna Karenina”: “If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express in a novel, then I would have to write the very one that I wrote first” (letter to N. Strakhov).

Belinsky very accurately pointed out that “art does not allow abstract philosophical, much less rational ideas: it allows only poetic ideas; and the poetic idea is<…>not a dogma, not a rule, it is a living passion, pathos" (lat. pathos- feeling, passion, inspiration).

V.V. Odintsov expressed his understanding of the category of artistic idea more strictly: “The idea of a literary work is always specific and is not directly derived not only from the individual statements of the writer lying outside it (the facts of his biography, public life etc.), but also from the text - from replicas goodies, journalistic inserts, comments by the author himself, etc.”

Literary critic G.A. Gukovsky also spoke about the need to distinguish between rational, that is, rational, and literary ideas: “By idea I mean not only a rationally formulated judgment, statement, not even just the intellectual content of a work of literature, but the entire sum of its content, constituting its intellectual function, its goal and task.” And he further explained: “To understand the idea of a literary work means to understand the idea of each of its components in their synthesis, in their systemic interrelation<…>At the same time, it is important to take into account structural features works - not only the words-bricks from which the walls of the building are made, but the structure of the combination of these bricks as parts of this structure, their meaning.”

O.I. Fedotov, comparing the artistic idea with the theme, the objective basis of the work, said the following: “An idea is an attitude towards what is depicted, the fundamental pathos of a work, a category that expresses the author’s tendency ( inclination, intention, preconceived thought) in the artistic treatment of this topic.” Therefore, the idea is the subjective basis of the work. It is noteworthy that in Western literary criticism, based on other methodological principles, instead of the category of artistic idea, the concept of intention, a certain premeditation, the tendency of the author to express the meaning of the work is used. This is discussed in detail in the work of A. Kompanion “The Demon of Theory”. In addition, in some modern domestic studies, scientists use the category “creative concept”. In particular, it appears in the textbook edited by L. Chernets.

The more majestic the artistic idea, the longer the work lives.

V.V. Kozhinov called an artistic idea a semantic type of work that grows out of the interaction of images. Summarizing the statements of writers and philosophers, we can say that thin. An idea, in contrast to a logical idea, is not formulated by an author’s statement, but is depicted in all the details of the artistic whole. The evaluative or value aspect of a work, its ideological and emotional orientation is called a tendency. In the literature of socialist realism, the tendency was interpreted as partisanship.

IN epic works ideas can be partly formulated in the text itself, as in Tolstoy’s narrative: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.” More often, especially in lyric poetry, the idea permeates the structure of the work and therefore requires a lot of analytical work. A work of art as a whole is richer than the rational idea that critics usually isolate. In many lyrical works, isolating an idea is untenable, because it practically dissolves in pathos. Consequently, the idea should not be reduced to a conclusion, a lesson, and one should certainly look for it.

5. Not everything in the content of a literary work is determined by themes and ideas. The author expresses ideologically emotional attitude to the subject using images. And, although the author's emotionality is individual, some elements are naturally repeated. IN different works similar emotions and similar types of illumination of life appear. The types of this emotional orientation include tragedy, heroism, romance, drama, sentimentality, as well as the comic with its varieties (humor, irony, grotesque, sarcasm, satire).

The theoretical status of these concepts is subject to much debate. Some modern scientists, continuing the traditions of V.G. Belinsky, call them “types of pathos” (G. Pospelov). Others call them “modes of artistry” (V. Tyupa) and add that these are embodiments of the author’s concept of personality. Still others (V.Khalizev) call them “worldview emotions.”

At the heart of the events and actions depicted in many works is conflict, confrontation, the struggle of someone with someone, something with something.

Moreover, contradictions can be not only of different strengths, but also of different content and nature. A kind of answer that the reader often wants to find can be considered the author’s emotional attitude to the characters of the characters portrayed and to the type of their behavior, to conflicts. Indeed, a writer can sometimes reveal his likes and dislikes for a particular type of personality, while not always clearly assessing it. So, F.M. Dostoevsky, condemning what Raskolnikov came up with, at the same time sympathizes with him. I.S. Turgenev examines Bazarov through the lips of Pavel Petrovich Kirsanov, but at the same time appreciates him, emphasizing his intelligence, knowledge, and will: “Bazarov is smart and knowledgeable,” Nikolai Petrovich Kirsanov says with conviction.

It is on the essence and content of the contradictions exposed in a work of art that its emotional tone depends. And the word pathos is now perceived much more broadly than a poetic idea; it is the emotional and value orientation of the work and characters.

So, different types pathos.

Tragic tone is present where there is a violent conflict that cannot be tolerated and cannot be safely resolved. This may be a contradiction between man and non-human forces (fate, God, the elements). This could be a confrontation between groups of people (a war of nations), and finally, an internal conflict, that is, a clash of opposing principles in the mind of one hero. This is the awareness of an irreparable loss: human life, freedom, happiness, love.

The understanding of the tragic goes back to the works of Aristotle. The theoretical development of the concept relates to the aesthetics of romanticism and Hegel. The central character is a tragic hero, a person who finds himself in a situation of discord with life. This is a strong personality, not bent by circumstances, and therefore doomed to suffering and death.

Such conflicts include contradictions between personal impulses and supra-personal restrictions - caste, class, moral. Such contradictions gave rise to the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, who loved each other, but belonged to different clans of Italian society of their time; Katerina Kabanova, who fell in love with Boris and understood the sinfulness of her love for him; Anna Karenina, tormented by the awareness of the gap between her, society and her son.

A tragic situation can also arise if there is a contradiction between the desire for happiness, freedom and the hero’s awareness of his weakness and powerlessness in achieving them, which entails motives of skepticism and doom. For example, such motives are heard in the speech of Mtsyri, pouring out his soul to the old monk and trying to explain to him how he dreamed of living in his aul, but was forced to spend his entire life, except for three days, in a monastery. The tragic fate of Elena Stakhova from the novel by I.S. Turgenev “On the Eve”, who lost her husband immediately after the wedding and went with his coffin to a foreign country.

The height of tragic pathos is that it instills faith in a person who has courage, remaining true to himself even before death. Since antiquity tragic hero you have to experience a moment of guilt. According to Hegel, this guilt lies in the fact that a person violates the established order. Therefore, works of tragic pathos are characterized by the concept of tragic guilt. It is in both the tragedy “Oedipus the King” and the tragedy “Boris Godunov”. The mood in works of this type is sorrow, compassion. Since the second half of the 19th century, the tragic has been understood more and more widely. It includes everything that causes fear and horror in human life. After the spread of the philosophical doctrines of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, the existentialists gave universal meaning to the tragic. In accordance with such views, the main property of human existence is catastrophicity. Life is meaningless due to the death of individual beings. In this aspect, the tragic comes down to a feeling of hopelessness, and those qualities that were characteristic of strong personality(affirmation of courage, perseverance) are leveled out and not taken into account.

In a literary work, both tragic and dramatic principles can be combined with heroic. Heroics arises and is felt there and then when people take or perform active actions for the benefit of others, in the name of protecting the interests of a tribe, clan, state, or simply a group of people in need of help. People are ready to take risks and face death with dignity in the name of realizing lofty ideals. Most often, such situations occur during periods of national liberation wars or movements. Moments of heroism are reflected in “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” in Prince Igor’s decision to enter into the fight against the Polovtsians. At the same time, heroic-tragic situations can also occur in peacetime, in moments of natural disasters that arise due to the “fault” of nature (floods, earthquakes) or man himself. Accordingly, they appear in the literature. Events in folk epics, legends, and epics achieve greater poeticization. The hero in them is an exceptional figure, his actions are a socially significant feat. Hercules, Prometheus, Vasily Buslaev. Sacrificial heroism in the novel “War and Peace”, the poem “Vasily Terkin”. In the 1930s and 1940s, heroism was required under duress. From Gorky’s works the idea was instilled: there should be a feat in everyone’s life. In the 20th century, the literature of struggle contains heroics of resistance to lawlessness, heroics of defending the right to freedom (stories by V. Shalamov, novel by V. Maksimov “The Star of Admiral Kolchak”).

L.N. Gumilyov believed that the truly heroic could only exist at the origins of the life of the people. Any process of nation formation begins with heroic deeds small groups of people. He called these people passionaries. But crisis situations that require heroic and sacrificial achievements from people always arise. Therefore, the heroic in literature will always be significant, lofty and inescapable. An important condition for heroism, Hegel believed, is free will. A forced feat (the case of a gladiator), in his opinion, cannot be heroic.

Heroics can also be combined with romance. Romance They call an enthusiastic state of personality caused by the desire for something high, beautiful, and morally significant. The sources of romance are the ability to feel the beauty of nature, to feel part of the world, the need to respond to someone else’s pain and someone else’s joy. Natasha Rostova’s behavior often gives reason to perceive it as romantic, because of all the heroes of the novel “War and Peace” she alone has a lively nature, a positive emotional charge, and dissimilarity society ladies, which the rational Andrei Bolkonsky immediately noticed.

Romance mostly manifests itself in the sphere personal life, finding yourself in moments of anticipation or the onset of happiness. Since happiness in people's minds is primarily associated with love, the romantic attitude most likely makes itself felt at the moment of the approach of love or hope for it. We find images of romantically minded heroes in the works of I.S. Turgenev, for example, in his story “Asya”, where the heroes (Asya and Mr. N.), close to each other in spirit and culture, experience joy, emotional uplift, which is expressed in their enthusiastic perception of nature, art and themselves, in joy communication with each other. And yet, most often, the pathos of romance is associated with an emotional experience that does not turn into action. Achieving a sublime ideal is impossible in principle. Thus, in Vysotsky’s poems, it seems to young men that they were born too late to participate in wars:

...And in basements and semi-basements

The kids wanted to see the tanks,

They didn’t even get a bullet...

The world of romance - dream, fantasy, romantic ideas are often correlated with the past, exoticism: “Borodino” by Lermontov, “Shulamith” by Kuprin, “Mtsyri” by Lermontov, “Giraffe” by Gumilyov.

The pathos of romance can appear together with other types of pathos: irony in Blok, heroism in Mayakovsky, satire in Nekrasov.

The combination of heroism and romance is possible in cases where the hero accomplishes or wants to accomplish a feat, and this is perceived by him as something sublime. Such an interweaving of heroism and romance is observed in “War and Peace” in the behavior of Petya Rostov, who was obsessed with the desire to personally take part in the fight against the French, which led to his death.

The predominant tonality in the content of the overwhelming number of works of art is undoubtedly dramatic. Trouble, disorder, dissatisfaction of a person in the mental sphere, in personal relationships, in social status- these are the real signs of drama in life and literature. The failed love of Tatyana Larina, Princess Mary, Katerina Kabanova and other heroines of famous works testifies to the dramatic moments of their lives.

Moral and intellectual dissatisfaction and unrealized personal potential of Chatsky, Onegin, Bazarov, Bolkonsky and others; social humiliation of Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin from the story by N.V. Gogol's "The Overcoat", as well as the Marmeladov family from the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, many heroines from the poem by N.A. Nekrasov’s “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, almost all the characters in M. Gorky’s play “At the Lower Depths” - all this serves as a source and indicator of dramatic contradictions.

Emphasizing romantic, dramatic, tragic and, of course, heroic moments in the lives of heroes and their moods in most cases becomes a form of expressing sympathy for the heroes, the way the author supports and protects them. There is no doubt that V. Shakespeare worries together with Romeo and Juliet about the circumstances that impede their love, A.S. Pushkin takes pity on Tatyana, who is not understood by Onegin, F.M. Dostoevsky mourns the fate of such girls as Dunya and Sonya, A.P. Chekhov sympathizes with the suffering of Gurov and Anna Sergeevna, who fell in love with each other very deeply and seriously, but they have no hope of uniting their destinies.

However, it happens that the depiction of romantic moods becomes a way of debunking the hero, sometimes even condemning him. For example, Lensky’s vague poems evoke the slight irony of A. S. Pushkin. F. M. Dostoevsky's depiction of Raskolnikov's dramatic experiences is in many ways a form of condemnation of the hero, who conceived a monstrous option for correcting his life and became confused in his thoughts and feelings.

Sentimentality is a type of pathos with a predominance of subjectivity and sensitivity. All R. In the 18th century, it was dominant in the works of Richardson, Stern, and Karamzin. He is in “The Overcoat” and “Old World Landowners”, in the early Dostoevsky, in “Mu-mu”, Nekrasov’s poetry.

Much more often they play a discrediting role humor and satire. In this case, humor and satire mean another option for emotional orientation. Both in life and in art, humor and satire are generated by such characters and situations that are called comic. The essence of the comic is to discover and reveal the discrepancy between the real capabilities of people (and, accordingly, characters) and their claims, or the discrepancy between their essence and appearance. The pathos of satire is destructive, satire reveals socially significant vices, exposes deviations from the norm, and ridicules. The pathos of humor is affirming, because the subject of the humorous sensation sees not only the shortcomings of others, but also his own. Awareness of one's own shortcomings gives hope of healing (Zoshchenko, Dovlatov). Humor is an expression of optimism (“Vasily Terkin”, “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik” by Hasek).

A mocking and evaluative attitude towards comic characters and situations is called irony. Unlike the previous ones, it carries skepticism. She does not agree with the assessment of life, situation or character. In Voltaire’s story “Candide, or Optimism,” the hero with his fate refutes his own attitude: “Everything that is done is for the better.” But the opposite opinion “everything is for the worse” is not accepted. Voltaire's pathos lies in his mocking skepticism towards extreme principles. Irony can be light and non-malicious, but it can also become unkind and judgmental. Deep irony, which causes not a smile and laughter in the usual sense of the word, but a bitter experience, is called sarcasm. The reproduction of comic characters and situations, accompanied by an ironic assessment, leads to the appearance of humorous or satirical works of art: Moreover, not only works of verbal art (parodies, anecdotes, fables, stories, short stories, plays), but also drawings and sculptural images can be humorous and satirical , facial performances.

In the story by A.P. Chekhov's “The Death of an Official”, the comic is manifested in the absurd behavior of Ivan Dmitrievich Chervyakov, who, while in the theater, accidentally sneezed on the general’s bald head and was so frightened that he began to pester him with his apologies and pursued him until he aroused the general’s real anger that and led the official to death. The absurdity is in the discrepancy between the committed act (he sneezed) and the reaction it caused (repeated attempts to explain to the general that he, Chervyakov, did not want to offend him). In this story, the funny is mixed with the sad, since such fear of a high-ranking person is a sign of the dramatic position of a small official in the system official relations. Fear can give rise to unnaturalness in human behavior. This situation was reproduced by N.V. Gogol in the comedy "The Inspector General". The identification of serious contradictions in the behavior of heroes, giving rise to a clearly negative attitude towards them, becomes a hallmark of satire. Classic examples of satire are provided by the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (“How a man fed two generals”).

Grotesque(French grotesque, literally - whimsical; comical; Italian grottesco - whimsical, Italian grotta - grotto, cave) - one of the varieties of the comic, combines the terrible and the funny, the ugly and the sublime in a fantastic form, and also brings together the distant, combines the incongruous , interweaves the unreal with the real, the present with the future, reveals the contradictions of reality. As a form of the comic, the grotesque differs from humor and irony in that in it the funny and amusing are inseparable from the terrible and sinister; As a rule, images of the grotesque carry a tragic meaning. In the grotesque, behind the external improbability and fantasticness, lies a deep artistic generalization of important phenomena of life. The term “grotesque” became widespread in the fifteenth century, when, during excavations of underground rooms (grottoes), wall paintings with fancy patterns, which used motifs from plant and animal life. Therefore, distorted images were originally called grotesque. How artistic image The grotesque is distinguished by its two-dimensionality and contrast. Grotesque is always a deviation from the norm, a convention, an exaggeration, an intentional caricature, therefore it is widely used for satirical purposes. Examples literary grotesque may serve as N.V. Gogol's story "The Nose" or "Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober" by E.T.A. Hoffmann, fairy tales and stories by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin.

To define pathos means to establish a type of attitude towards the world and a person in the world.

Literature

1. Introduction to literary criticism. Fundamentals of the theory of literature: a textbook for bachelors / V. P. Meshcheryakov, A. S. Kozlov [etc.]; under general ed. V. P. Meshcheryakova. 3rd ed., revised. and additional M., 2013. pp. 33–37, 47–51.

2. Esin A. B. Principles and techniques for analyzing a literary work: Textbook. allowance. M., 1998. pp. 34–74.

additional literature

1. Gukovsky G. A. Studying a literary work at school: Methodological essays on methodology. Tula, 2000. pp. 23–36.

2. Odintsov V.V. Stylistics of the text. M., 1980. pp. 161–162.

3. Rudneva E. G. Pathos of a work of art. M., 1977.

4. Tomashevsky B.V. Theory of Literature. Poetics. M., 1996. P. 176.

5. Fedotov O.I. Introduction to literary criticism: Textbook. allowance. M., 1998. pp. 30–33.

6. Esalnek A. Ya. Fundamentals of literary criticism. Analysis of literary text: Textbook. allowance. M., 2004. pp. 10–20.

Fedotov O.I. Introduction to literary criticism. M., 1998.

Sierotwiński S. Słownik terminów literackich. S. 161.

Tomashevsky B.V. Theories of literature. Poetics. M., 1996. P. 176.

Esalnek A.Ya. Fundamentals of literary criticism. Analysis of a work of art: Textbook. M., 2004. P. 11.

Esin A.B. Principles and techniques of analyzing a literary work: Textbook. M., 1998. pp. 36-40.

Adamovich G. Report on Gogol // Berberova N. People and lodges. Russian Masons of the 20th century. – Kharkov: “Kaleidoscope”; M.: “Progress-Tradition”, 1997. P. 219.

A logically formulated general thought about a class of objects or phenomena; idea of something The concept of time.

Dostoevsky F.M. Collection of works: In 30 volumes. T. 28. Book 2. P.251.

Odintsov V.V. Stylistics of the text. M., 1980. S. 161-162.

Gukovsky G.A. Studying a literary work at school. M.; L., 1966. P.100-101.

Gukovsky G.A. P.101, 103.

Companion A. Demon theory. M., 2001. P. 56-112.

Chernets L.V. A literary work as an artistic unity // Introduction to literary criticism / Ed. L.V. Chernets. M., 1999. P. 174.

Esalnek A. Ya. S. 13-22.