Motif is a term that entered the literature from musicology. It was first recorded in the “musical dictionary” of S. de Brossard in 1703. Analogies with music, where this term is key when analyzing the composition of a work, help to understand the properties of a motif in a literary work: its isolation from the whole and its repetition in a variety of situations.
In literary criticism, the concept of motive was used to characterize the components of a plot by Goethe and Schiller. They identified five types of motives: accelerating action, slowing down action, distancing action from the goal, facing the past, anticipating the future.
The concept of motive as the simplest narrative unit was first theoretically substantiated in the Poetics of Plots Veselovsky. He was interested in the repetition of motifs in different genres among different peoples. Veselovsky considered motives to be the simplest formulas that could arise in different tribes independently of each other. (struggle for the inheritance of brothers, fight for the bride, etc.) he comes to the conclusion that creativity is primarily manifested in a combination of motives that gives one or another plot (in a fairy tale there is not one task, but five, etc.)
Subsequently, combinations of motives were transformed into various compositions and became the basis of such genres as the novel, story, poem. The motive itself, according to Veselovsky, remained stable and indecomposable; combinations of motives make up the plot. The plot could be borrowed, passed from people to people, or become wandering. In a plot, each motive can be main, secondary, episodic... many motives can be developed into entire plots, and vice versa.
Veselovsky's position on the motive as an indecomposable unit of narrative was revised in the 20s. Propp : motives are decomposed, the last decomposable unit does not represent a logical whole. Propp calls the primary elements functions of the actors - actions of the characters, defined in terms of their significance for the course of the action.. seven types of characters, 31 functions (based on Afanasyev’s collection)
It is particularly difficult to identify motifs in the literature of recent centuries: their diversity and complex functional load.
In the literature of different eras there are many mythological motives. Constantly updating within the historical and literary context, they retain their essence (the motive of the hero’s conscious death because of a woman, apparently it can be considered as a transformation of the fight for the bride highlighted by Veselovsky (Lensky in Pushkin, Romashov in Kuprin).
A generally accepted indicator of a motive is its repeatability .
The leading motive in one or many works of a writer can be defined as leitmotif . It can be considered at the level of theme and figurative structure of the work. In Chekhov's Cherry Orchard, the motif of the garden as a symbol of Home, beauty and sustainability of life... we can talk about the role of both the leitmotif and the organization of the second, secret meaning of the work - subtext, undercurrent (phrase: “life is lost” - the leitmotif of Uncle Vanya. Chekhov)
Tomashevsky: Episodes are broken down into even smaller parts that describe individual actions, events, and things. Themes such small parts of a work that cannot be further divided are called motives .
IN lyrical in a work, a motif is a recurring set of feelings and ideas expressed in artistic speech. Motifs in lyric poetry are more independent, because they are not subordinated to the development of action, as in epic and drama. Sometimes the poet’s work as a whole can be considered as an interaction, a correlation of motives. (In Lermontov: motives of freedom, will, memory, exile, etc.) The same motive can receive different symbolic meanings in lyrical works of different eras, emphasizing the closeness and originality of poets (Pushkin’s road in Besy and Gogol’s in M.D., the homeland of Lermontov and Nekrasov, Yesenin’s and Blok’s Rus', etc.)
At his lectures, Stepanov said only the following:
According to Tomashevsky, motives are divided
Free and bound motifs:
Those that can be skipped (details, details play an important role in the plot: they do not make the work sketchy.)
Those that cannot be omitted when retelling, because the cause-and-effect relationship is broken... form the basis of the plot.
Dynamic and static motives:
1. Changing the situation. The transition from happiness to unhappiness and vice versa.
Peripeteia (Aristotle: “the transformation of an action into its opposite) is one of the essential elements of complicating the plot, denoting any unexpected turn in the development of the plot.
2. Not changing the situation (descriptions of the interior, nature, portrait, actions and deeds that do not lead to important changes)
Free motives can be static, but not every static motive is free.
I don’t know which book this is from Tomashevsky, because in “Theory of Literature. Poetics." He's writing:
Motivation. The system of motifs that make up the theme of a given work should represent some artistic unity. If all parts of a work are poorly fitted to one another, the work “falls apart.” Therefore, the introduction of each individual motive or each set of motives must be justified(motivated). The appearance of one or another motive should seem necessary to the reader in a given place. The system of techniques that justify the introduction of individual motives and their complexes is called motivation. Motivation methods are varied, and their nature is not uniform. Therefore, it is necessary to classify motivations.
TO oppositional motivation.
Its principle lies in economy and expediency of motives. Individual motifs can characterize objects introduced into the reader's field of view (accessories) or the actions of characters ("episodes"). Not a single accessory should remain unused in the plot, not a single episode should remain without influence on the plot situation. It was about compositional motivation that Chekhov spoke when he argued that if at the beginning of the story it is said that a nail is driven into the wall, then at the end of the story the hero should hang himself on this nail. (“Dowry” by Ostrovsky using the example of weapons. “There is a carpet above the sofa on which weapons are hung.”
First it is introduced as a detail of the setting. In the sixth scene, attention is drawn to this detail in the remarks. At the end of the action, Karandyshev, running away, grabs a pistol from the table. In the 4th act, he shoots Larisa with this pistol. The introduction of the weapon motif here is compositionally motivated. This weapon is necessary for the outcome. It serves as preparation for the last moment of the drama.) The second case of compositional motivation is the introduction of motives as characterization techniques . The motives must be in harmony with the dynamics of the plot. (Thus, in the same “Dowry” the motif of “Burgundy”, made by a counterfeit wine merchant at a cheap price, characterizes the wretchedness of Karandyshev’s everyday environment and prepares for Larisa’s departure).
These characteristic details can be in harmony with the action:
1) by psychological analogy (romantic landscape: Moonlight night for a love scene, storm and thunder for a scene of death or crime),
2) by contrast (motive of “indifferent” nature, etc.).
In the same "Dowry", when Larisa dies, the singing of a gypsy choir can be heard from the restaurant doors. One must also take into account the possibility false motivation . Accessories and incidents may be introduced to distract the reader's attention from the true situation. This very often appears in detective stories, where a number of details are given that lead the reader down the wrong path. The author makes us assume the outcome is not what it actually is. The deception is unraveled at the end, and the reader is convinced that all these details were introduced only to prepare surprises at the denouement.
Realistic motivation
From each work we demand an elementary “illusion”, i.e. no matter how conventional and artificial the work may be, its perception must be accompanied by a sense of the reality of what is happening. For a naive reader this feeling is extremely strong, and such a reader can believe in the authenticity of what is being presented, can be convinced of the real existence of the heroes. Thus, Pushkin, having just published “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion,” publishes “The Captain’s Daughter” in the form of Grinev’s memoirs with the following afterword: “Peter Andreevich Grinev’s manuscript was delivered to us from one of his grandchildren, who learned that we were busy with work related to to the time described by his grandfather.
We decided, with the permission of our relatives, to publish it separately." An illusion of the reality of Grinev and his memoirs is created, especially supported by moments of Pushkin’s personal biography known to the public (his historical studies on the history of Pugachev), and the illusion is also supported by the fact that the views and beliefs expressed by Grinev , in many respects diverge from the views expressed by Pushkin on his own. Realistic illusion in a more experienced reader is expressed as a requirement for “vitality.”
Firmly knowing the fictional nature of the work, the reader still demands some correspondence with reality and in this correspondence sees the value of the work. Even readers well versed in the laws artistic construction, cannot psychologically free themselves from this illusion. In this regard, each motive must be introduced as a motive likely in this situation.
We do not notice, getting used to the technique of an adventure novel, the absurdity that the hero’s salvation always occurs five minutes before his inevitable death, the audience of the ancient comedy did not notice the absurdity that in the last act all the characters suddenly turned out to be close relatives. However, how tenacious this motive is in drama is shown by Ostrovsky’s play “Guilty Without Guilt,” where at the end of the play the heroine recognizes her lost son in the hero). This motive of recognizing kinship was extremely convenient for the denouement (kinship reconciled interests, radically changing the situation) and therefore became firmly entrenched in tradition.
So, realistic motivation has its source either in naive trust or in the demand for illusion. This doesn't stop you from developing. fantastic literature. If folk tales usually arise in a popular environment that allows for the real existence of witches and goblins, they continue to exist as some kind of conscious illusion, where a mythological system or a fantastic worldview (the assumption of realistically unjustifiable “possibilities”) is present as some kind of illusory hypothesis.
It is curious that fantastic narratives in a developed literary environment, under the influence of the requirements of realistic motivation, usually give double interpretation plot: it can be understood both as a real event and as a fantastic one. From the point of view of the realistic motivation for constructing the work, it is easy to understand the introduction to the work of art extraliterary material, i.e. topics that have real meaning beyond the realm of fiction.
So, in historical novels historical figures are brought onto the stage, one or another interpretation is introduced historical events. See in the novel “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy a whole military-strategic report on the Battle of Borodino and the fire of Moscow, which caused controversy in the specialized literature. Modern works depict everyday life familiar to the reader, raising questions of moral, social, political, etc. order, in a word, themes are introduced that live their own lives outside of fiction.
Artistic motivation
The introduction of motives is the result of a compromise between realistic illusion and the requirements of artistic construction. Not everything borrowed from reality is suitable for a work of art.
On the basis of artistic motivation, disputes usually arise between old and new literary schools. The old, traditional direction usually denies the new literary forms presence of artistry. This is, for example, reflected in poetic vocabulary, where the very use of individual words must be in harmony with solid literary traditions (the source of “prosaisms” - words prohibited in poetry). As a special case of artistic motivation, there is a technique defamiliarization. Introducing non-literary material into a work so that it does not fall out of work of art, must be justified by novelty and individuality in the coverage of the material.
We must talk about the old and familiar as new and unusual. The ordinary is spoken of as strange. These methods of defamiliarization of ordinary things are usually themselves motivated by the refraction of these themes in the psychology of the hero, who is unfamiliar with them. L. Tolstoy’s technique of defamiliarization is known when, describing the military council in Fili in “War and Peace,” he introduces as a character a peasant girl who observes this council and in her own, childish way, without understanding the essence of what is happening, interprets all actions and speeches of council members.
V.V. Prozorov “Essays on Life” in literature".
The plot is the entire living and multi-colored fabric of the text that we perceive.
Fabula (optional feature) – patterns and designs on this fabric in relief.
Motifs are threads that make up the fabric of the text, specially colored and skillfully woven, paired with each other.
The plot and plot are more attested to by poetic textual reality. The motive as a unit of plot-plot given, capable of being correctly isolated from it, remains entirely within the limits of the verbal literary text and at the same time, to a large extent, it retains a visibly and sonorously designated memory of the theme of the text, of its intertextual relationships and connections, of extra-textual reality, of the world outside the text and behind the text.
At the same time, the plot-fable scheme primarily characterizes the world of the text from the position of extra-textual existence. The motive represents, first of all, the textual reality itself, in which it is organically written.
Motif is an invariable component of a verbal and artistic plot, but the component is by no means the simplest, not elementary, from the point of view of the plot itself; This is not the theme of an indivisible part of the work (B.V. Tomashevsky) or “an indivisible component of intrigue” in the drama.
Motifs in the plot can be productive and derivative, collapsed and widespread, dynamic and static, relatively free and absolutely conditioned. In their complex totality, in their interweaving, they form a verbal and artistic plot.
These are “microplots” (E.M. Meletinsky), “scurrying around” in a whole, independently existing plot.
The motive, even in its artificial analytical isolation from the artistic organism, stubbornly and polysemantically reveals the entire text, keeping its secret, hinting at its poetic pathos and helping to carry out the necessary typological comparisons and other methodological operations in literary criticism. Motif is one of the most reliable means of endless philological examination and discernment of plot.
Motive is a certain (in narratively extended plots) developing constancy, relative repetition of movements and gestures, often objectively (objectively) expressed: in the characters and actions of the heroes, in lyrical experiences, in dramatic actions and situations, in symbolically designated, multi-scale artistic details and etc.
Of course, the motive can be recreated in all its autonomous completeness only in the process of research, literary criticism, staging and interpretation, directorial (performances and films “based on ...”), and more or less sophisticated reader analysis.
The more laconic (in accordance with genre characteristics) and aphoristic the text, the more exhaustive the chain of motives found in it may be.
It is also obvious that any description of the inflorescence of motifs that seems to be the most exhaustive does not, of course, provide knowledge about the plot whole, capable of expressing an infinite multiplicity of counter-feelings. The sum or chain of motives is not a plot, but for recognizing the plot, the analysis of motives is one of the most effective philological procedures.
Complex of motives and types of plot schemes.
Compiled by N. D. Tamarchenko
Motive
1) Sierotwiński S.Słownik terminów literackich.
“ S. 161.Motive.
“ The theme is one of the smallest meaningful wholes that stands out when analyzing a work.”The motive is dynamic.
“ The motive that accompanies a change in a situation (part of an action) is the opposite of a static motive.”The motive is free.
2) A motive that is not included in the system of cause-and-effect plot is the opposite of a connected motive.”Wilpert G. von.
“
Motive Sachwörterbuch der Literatur. .
(latmotivus -<...>motivating),3. content-structural unity as a typical, meaningful situation that embraces general thematic ideas (as opposed to something defined and framed through specific features
3) and “blind” M. (i.e., deviating, irrelevant to the course of action)...” (S. 591).ö Mlk U.“The name that the interpreter gives to the motif he identifies influences his work, no matter whether he wants to compile an inventory of the motifs of a particular corpus of texts or plans an analytical study of the motifs of a particular text, a comparative or historical study of them.
4) Sometimes the formula motifs common in a certain era hide the fact that they bring together completely different phenomena: “ange-femme“ (female angel) designates, for example, in French romance both a lover stylized as an angel and a female angel; Only if both phenomena are recognized as two different motives do they obtain the prerequisite for further understanding. How significant consequences a proper name can have in identifying a motif is shown by the example of the question whether it is better to speak of “a woman and a parrot” or “a woman and a bird” in relation to Flaubert’s “Simple Heart”; here only a broader designation opens the interpreter’s eyes to certain meanings and their variants, but not a narrower one” (S. 1328).Barnet S., Berman M., Burto W.“ MotiveDictionary of Literary, Dramatic and Cinematic Terms. Boston, 1971. - a repeated word, phrase, situation, object or idea. Most often, the term “motive” is used to designate a situation that is repeated in various literary works, for example, the motive of a poor man getting rich quickly. However, a motive (meaning “leitmotif” from the German “leading motive”) can arise within separate work
: it can be any repetition that contributes to the integrity of the work by recalling the previous mention of a given element and everything associated with it” (p. 71).
“ Motive5) Dictionary of World Literary Terms / By J. Shipley.
. A word or mental pattern that is repeated in the same situations or to evoke a certain mood within a single work, or across different works of the same genre” (p. 204).
“ Motive6) The Longman Dictionary of Poetic Terms / By J. Myers, M. Simms.
(from Latin “to move”; can also be written as “topos”) - a theme, image, or character that develops through various nuances and repetitions” (p. 198).
“ 7) Dictionary of Literary Terms / By H. Shaw.. German term literally meaning "leading motive". It denotes a theme or motif associated in a musical drama with a specific situation, character or idea. The term is often used to designate a central impression, a central image, or a recurring theme in a work of fiction, such as the “practicalism” of Franklin’s Autobiography or the “revolutionary spirit” of Thomas Pine” (pp. 218-219).
8) Blagoy D.Motive // Dictionary literary terms. T. 1. Stlb. 466 - 467.
“ M.(from moveo - I move, I set in motion), in the broad sense of the word, is the main psychological or figurative grain that underlies every work of art.” “... the main motive coincides with the theme. So, for example, the theme of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is the motif of historical fate, which does not interfere with the parallel development in the novel of a number of other, often only distantly related to the theme, side motifs (for example, the motif of the truth of collective consciousness - Pierre and Karataev. ..)".“The entire set of motifs that make up a given work of art forms what is called plot
9) his".Zakharkin A.
“ Motive // Dictionary of literary terms.P.226-227.
10) M. (from the French motif - melody, tune) - an out-of-use term denoting the minimum significant component of the narrative, the simplest component of the plot of a work of art.”
“ Motive // Dictionary of literary terms.Chudakov A.P.Motive. KLE. T. 4. Stlb. 995.. (French motif, from Latin motivus - movable) - the simplest meaningful (semantic) unit of art. text in mythAndfairy tale;
11) basis, based on the development of one of the members of M. (a+b turns into a+b1+b2+b3) or several combinations. motives growMotive // LES. P. 230:
“ Motive // Dictionary of literary terms.. (German Motive, French motif, from Latin moveo - I move), stable formal-contain. component lit. text; M. can be distinguished within one or several. prod. writer (for example, a certain cycle), and in the complex of his entire work, as well as k.-l. lit. direction or an entire era.”
“A more strict meaning of the term “M.” receives when it contains elements of symbolization (road by N.V. Gogol, garden by Chekhov, desert by M.Yu. Lermontov<...>). The motive, therefore, unlike the theme, has a direct verbal (and objective) fixation in the text of the work itself; in poetry, its criterion in most cases is the presence of a key, supporting word that carries a special semantic load (smoke in Tyutchev, exile in Lermontov). In the lyrics<...>M.'s circle is most clearly expressed and defined, so the study of M. in poetry can be especially fruitful.
For storytelling. and dramatic works that are more action-packed are characterized by plot melodrama; many of them have historical universality and repeatability: recognition and insight, testing and retribution (punishment).”
The term “motive” (from the Latin “moving”) moved into the science of literature from musicology. It was first recorded in " Musical dictionary"S. De Brossard (1703). Analogies with music, where this term is key when analyzing the composition of a work, help to understand the typical properties of a motif in a literary text: its isolation from the whole and its repetition in a variety of variations.
The term “motive” was introduced into literary use by I.V. Goethe and I.F. Schiller, using it to characterize the components of the plot. In the article “On Epic and Dramatic Poetry” (1797), five types of motives are identified: “rushing forward, which accelerates the action”; “retreating, those that move the action away from its goal”; “slowers that delay the progress of action”; "turned to the past"; “addressed to the future, anticipating what will happen in subsequent eras.”
In Russian literary criticism, the motif has been studied since the beginning of the 20th century. This term was first used by A.N. Veselovsky, applying it during a comparative analysis of folklore texts. According to the scientist, the motives are distinguished by historical stability and repetition in fiction. The philologist, considering the motif as the basis of a folklore plot, defined it as an indecomposable unit of narration.
A.N. Veselovsky also noted the ability of writers, with the help of a “brilliant poetic instinct,” to use plots and motifs that had already been processed poetically. Speaking about the semantic significance of the motive, the literary critic raises the issue of the deep mental connection of the creative act with a stable set of its (motive) meanings: “They are somewhere in the deep dark region of our consciousness<...>like an incomprehensible revelation, like newness and at the same time antiquity, which we are not aware of, because we are often unable to determine the essence of that mental act that unexpectedly renewed old memories in us.”
A significant contribution to the development of the semantic theory of motive was made by O.M. Freudenberg. In her opinion, the concept of motive is not abstract, but is inextricably linked with the concept of character: “In essence, speaking about the character, we thereby had to talk about the motives that received stabilization in him; the entire morphology of the character is the morphology of plot motifs (...) The significance expressed in the name of the character and, therefore, in his metaphorical essence, unfolds into the action that constitutes the motive: the hero does only what he himself semantically means.”
Ancient medieval literature also reveals stable connections between the hero and his motivic repertoire, and these connections are already made within the framework of a certain genre-thematic tradition. D.S. Likhachev, describing the motive complex of the hero of medieval literature in the light of the concept of literary etiquette, speaks of the regularity of the predetermined structure of literary themes set by tradition.
Lines of conceptual searches of A.N. Veselovsky and O.M. Freudenberg come together in the development of the idea of the aesthetics of the motif. This idea takes the concept of motive beyond its narrowly subject-specific interpretation and connects the problematics of motive with general questions the genesis of the aesthetic principle in literature, including explaining the very phenomenon of motif stability in the narrative tradition. Both researchers interpret the idea of the aesthetics of a motif through the related concept of imagery. Thus, in the definitions of motive by A.N. Veselovsky, one can see that the word “figurative” itself has a key, terminological meaning: a motive is “a formula that figuratively answered at first the public questions that nature posed to man everywhere”; “a feature of a motive is its figurative, single-term schematism,” etc.
We see the same thing with O.M. Freudenberg: “The dissemination and concretization of the plot scheme is reflected in the motif’s emphasis on imagery, which conveys this scheme in a number of isolated similarities identified with the phenomena of life”; “A motif is a figurative interpretation of a plot scheme.”
Thus, the motif as a figurative narrative formula, enshrined in tradition, has the property of aesthetic significance, which ultimately determines its stability in the literary tradition.
The works of A.N. Veselovsky are fundamental in the study of the functioning of motive in Russian literary criticism, but many of them were later criticized. Thus, the position of the literary critic about the motive as a single-member unit of the plot was revised by V.Ya. Propp. The scientist, arguing that the motives identified by A.N. Veselovsky can be split, demonstrates this split on some of them. According to V.Ya. Propp, the primary elements of the plot are the “functions” (actions) of the characters, “historically repeated in fiction.” Based on the analysis of one hundred fairy tales from the collection of A.N. Afanasyev, V.Ya. Propp created a classification of these functions. Having provided a detailed analysis of fairy tales with different plots, the scientist comes to the conclusion that “the sequence of functions is always the same” and that “all fairy tales similar in structure."
Changing the semantic criterion to a logical one in the criticism of V.Ya. Proppa led to the destruction of the motif as a whole. Taken only as a logical construction, the motive fell apart into trivial components of the logical-grammatical structure of the utterance - into a set of subjects, objects and predicates, expressed in certain plot variations. Opposite A.N. Veselovsky’s point of view on the essence of the motive is observed in B.I. Yarho. First, the researcher denies the motive the status of a narrative unit. “Motive,” writes B.I. Yarkho, “... there is a certain division of the plot, the boundaries of which are determined arbitrarily by the researcher.” . Secondly, the scientist denies the motive a semantic status: “The real scope of the motive cannot be established.” As a result, the author rejected the existence of a real literary motif, and he interpreted the motif itself as a conceptual construct that helps a literary critic establish the degree of similarity of different plots: “It is clear that the motif is not a real part of the plot, but a working term that serves to compare plots with each other.”
A.I. Beletsky, in his monograph “In the Word Artist’s Workshop” (1964), also comes to the problem of the relationship between the invariant meaning of the motif and the multiplicity of its specific plot variants. At the same time, the scientist does not deny the motive its own literary status and does not reject the very concept of motive, but makes an attempt to resolve the problem of motive variability in a constructive manner.
He distinguishes two levels of realization of a motive in a plot narrative - “schematic motive” and “real motive”. “Real motive” is an element of the plot-event composition of the plot of a particular work. The “schematic motif” no longer correlates with the plot itself in its specific plot form, but with the invariant “plot scheme.” This scheme is compiled according to A.I. Beletsky, “relationships-actions”. It is important to emphasize that the scientist, starting from the observations of A.L. Bem, connected two polar principles in the structure of the motive into a single system, that is, he put its plot variants in correspondence with the semantic invariant of the motive. Thus, a fundamental step forward was made, which served as the basis for the development of a dichotomous theory of motive.
Note that the dichotomous concept of the motif received its final form in the second half of the 20th century. At the same time, it was the idea of the generalized meaning of the motive, and primarily the concept of function, interpreted as an invariant form of the motive, in combination with the dichotomous ideas of structural linguistics, that allowed literary scholars to come to a strict distinction between the invariant motive and its plot variants.
Simultaneously with dichotomous ideas, the thematic concept of motive developed in Russian science in the 1920s. In the works of B.V. Tomashevsky and V.B. Shklovsky's thematic ideas about the motive were developed to the level of strict definitions.
B.V. Tomashevsky in a monographic textbook on poetics develops two interpretations of the motive - the original interpretation and the interpretation of the motive according to A.N. Veselovsky. At the same time, the author does not enter into a contradiction, since he correlates these interpretations with various methodological foundations of theoretical and historical poetics.
The researcher defines the motive exclusively through the category of theme: “The concept of theme is a summative concept that unites the verbal material of the work. The whole work can have a theme, and at the same time, each part of the work has its own theme. (...) Through this decomposition of the work into thematic parts, we finally reach the non-decomposable parts, the smallest divisions of the thematic material. “Evening has come,” “Raskolnikov killed the old woman,” “The hero died,” “A letter was received,” etc. The theme of the indecomposable part of the work is called a motive. In essence, every sentence has its own motive.”
Thus, the concept of motive is derivative for B.V. Tomashevsky from the concept of narrative theme and has a predominantly working function. The scientist points out the “auxiliary” nature of this concept. It is necessary for the researcher to correctly determine the relationship between the plot and the plot, because it connects these concepts: “the plot is a set of motives in their logical cause-time relationship, the plot is a set of the same motives in the sequence and connection in which they are given in the work.” .
Further, it should be noted that there are significant differences in V.B.’s understanding of motive as a theme. Shklovsky and B.V. Tomashevsky. United by the common idea of the thematic nature of the motive, the concepts of these authors are at the same time directly opposite in terms of the relationship of the motive with the beginnings of the plot and plot. For V.B. Shklovsky's motive is the thematic result of the plot or its integral part, and in this regard, the motive becomes already above the plot - as a semantic “atom” of the plot of the work. That is, for V.B. Shklovsky’s motive is important not in itself, not as the initial “brick” for constructing plots, but is important as a unit of typological analysis of the plots of the literary era as a whole.
So, the considered ideas about motive can be combined into four conceptual series: semantic, morphological, dichotomous (at the stage of its inception) and thematic. The main difference between these approaches is how it is interpreted the most important criterion the indecomposability of the motive and how the relationship between the moments of integrity and elementaryness in the very status of the motive is understood.
For A.N. Veselovsky and O.M. Freudenberg - the main representatives of the semantic approach - the constitutive beginning of the motive is semantic integrity, which sets the limit to the elementarity of the motive. At the same time, the semantics of the motive is figurative in nature. The image itself underlying the motif is essentially aesthetic, which explains the phenomenon of spontaneous generation of motifs from “life itself” - but seen and experienced from an aesthetic perspective.
The morphological approach, most deeply developed by V.Ya. Proppom, sent to reverse side: not from semantic integrity to the elementaryity of the motive, but bypassing the integrity - to the establishment of a formal measure of the elementaryity of the motive.
As a result of such “deconstruction of the whole” V.Ya. Propp reduces the motive to a set of elementary logical-grammatical components, but at the same time faces the problem of variability of the motive components in specific plots. The researcher solves the problem of motive variability by finding its semantic invariant, which he gives the name of the function of the actor.
This fundamental step returns V.Ya. Propp in line with the semantic interpretation of motive, but at a significantly different level - at the level of development of dichotomous ideas about motive as a unit of dual status - linguistic and speech at the same time.
For representatives of the thematic approach, the criterion for the integrity of a motive is its ability to express a holistic theme, understood as a semantic result, or a summary of the semantic development of the plot. In the interpretation of B.V. Tomashevsky's motive acts as an exponent of the micro-theme as the theme of the plot statement; in the interpretations of B.V. Shklovsky - the exponent of the macro-theme as the theme of the episode or plot as a whole.
Due to well-known historical and cultural reasons, in the 1930s, domestic theoretical and historical traditions were interrupted for a long time. The theory of motive was no exception in this series. Even in the 1960s, the category of motive in literary criticism was either not accepted in its essence or was interpreted rather formally.
An example is the definition of motive in the Brief Literary Encyclopedia: it is “the simplest meaningful (semantic) unit of a literary text in myth and fairy tale.” At the same time, the author of the encyclopedic article is forced to refer only to the works of scientists of the beginning and first quarter of the 20th century - A.N. Veselovsky, A.L. Bem and some others.
We are talking about a new period of study of the motive and its modern interpretation will go to section 1.2.
A motif in a literary work is most often understood as a part, an element of the plot. Any plot is an interweaving of motifs, closely related to each other, growing into one another. The same motive can underlie a wide variety of plots and thus have very different meanings.
The strength and significance of a motive changes depending on what other motives it is adjacent to. The motive is sometimes very deeply hidden, but the deeper it lies, the more content it can carry within itself. It shades or complements the main, main theme of the work. The motif of enrichment unites such otherwise diverse works as “Père Goriot” by O. de Balzac, “The Queen of Spades” and “ Stingy Knight"A.S. Pushkin and " Dead Souls"N.V. Gogol. The motive of imposture unites “Boris Godunov”, “The Peasant Young Lady” and “The Stone Guest” by A. S. Pushkin with Gogol’s “The Inspector General”... And yet the motive is not indifferent to the environment of its existence: for example, those beloved by the romantics (although not created by them ) motifs of escape from captivity, death in a foreign land, loneliness in a crowd, appearing in a realistic work, retain the sheen and flavor of romanticism for a long time, giving additional depth to their new home, creating, as it were, niches in which one can hear the echo of the previous sound of these motifs. It is not without reason that for most people the word “motive” means a tune, a melody - it retains something of this meaning as a literary term. In poetry, almost any word can become a motif; in lyric poetry, a word-motive is always shrouded in a cloud of former meanings and uses; a halo of former meanings “shines” around it.
Motif, according to A. N. Veselovsky’s definition, is the “nervous knot” of the narrative (including lyrical). Touching such a node causes an explosion of aesthetic emotions, necessary for the artist, sets in motion a chain of associations that help the correct perception of the work, enriching it. Having discovered, for example, that the motif of escape from captivity permeates all Russian literature (from “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” to “Mtsyri” by M. Yu. Lermontov, from “Caucasian Prisoner” by A. S. Pushkin to “Walking in Torment” by A. N. Tolstoy and “The Fate of Man” by M. A. Sholokhov), filling with different content, acquiring various details, appearing either in the center or on the outskirts of the narrative, we will be able to better understand and feel this motif if we meet it again and again in modern prose. . The motive of wish fulfillment, which entered the literature from a fairy tale, underlies almost all science fiction, but its significance is not limited to this. It can be found in works as distant from each other as “Little Tsakhes” by E. T. A. Hoffmann, “The Overcoat” by N. V. Gogol, “The Twelve Chairs” by I. A. Ilf and E. P. Petrov, “The Master and Margarita” by M. A. Bulgakov - the list is almost endless, right up to the novel by V. A. Kaverin, called “The Fulfillment of Desires.”
A motive, as a rule, exists with two signs at once, in two guises, and presupposes the existence of an antonym motive: the motive of impatience (for example, the novel by Yu. V. Trifonov “The House on the Embankment”) will certainly bring to life the motive of patience, and this does not mean at all that the motifs will coexist in one work. What is important for the development of literature is precisely that the motifs seem to echo each other not only within one plot (and not even so much), one work, but also across the boundaries of books and even literatures. Therefore, by the way, it is possible and fruitful to study not only the system of motifs belonging to one artist, but also the general network of motifs used in the literature of a certain time, a certain direction, in one or another national literature.
Understood as a plot element, motif borders on the concept of theme.
The understanding of motive as a plot unit in literary criticism is adjacent to and contradicts the understanding of it as a kind of cluster of feelings, ideas, ideas, even methods of expression. Understood in this way, the motive is already approaching the image and can develop in this direction and develop into an image. This process can occur in one, sometimes completely small work, as, for example, in Lermontov’s “Sail”. The motif of a lonely sail (borrowed by M. Yu. Lermontov from A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky and having a long tradition), combined with the motifs of storm, space, flight, gives rise to a complete and organic image of a rebellious lonely soul, an image so rich in the possibilities of artistic influence, that its development and enrichment allowed Lermontov not only to base all his lyrics on it, but also to transform it into the images of the Demon, Arbenin and Pechorin. Pushkin treated motifs differently: he knew how to combine the most prosaic, dispassionate, almost meaningless and empty motifs from long use to give them a fresh and universal meaning and create living and eternal images. In Pushkin, all motives remember their former existence. With them, a new work enters not just a tradition, but also a genre, beginning to live new life. This is how the ballad, elegy, epigram, ode, idyll, letter, song, fairy tale, fable, short story, epitaph, madrigal and many other half-forgotten and forgotten genres and genre formations, introduced through motifs, live in “Eugene Onegin”.
The motif is two-faced, it is both a representative of tradition and a sign of novelty. But the motive is equally dual within itself: it is not an indecomposable unit, it is, as a rule, formed by two opposing forces, it within itself presupposes a conflict that is transformed into action. The life of a motive is not endless (motives fizzle out); straightforward and primitive exploitation of a motive can devalue it. This happened, for example, with the motif of the struggle between old and new in the so-called “industrial” prose of the 50s. XX century After many novels and stories appeared that used this motif, for a long time any manifestation of it served as a sign of literary inferiority. It took time and extraordinary efforts of talented writers for this motif to regain its citizenship rights in our literature. Motives sometimes come back to life completely unexpectedly. For example, the romantic motif of loneliness in a crowd, the motif of a stranger, were successfully resurrected in the story “Scarecrow” by V.K. Zheleznikov, which became especially famous after its film adaptation by R.A. Bykov. Motif is a category that allows us to consider literature as a single book, as a whole - through the particular, as an organism - through a cell. The history of motifs - their origin, development, extinction and new flourishing - can be the subject of a fascinating literary study.
Every poem is a veil stretched out
on the edge of a few words. These words glow
like stars. Because of them the work exists.
The term “motive” is quite ambiguous, because it is used in many disciplines - psychology, linguistics, etc.
This article will discuss the MOTIF OF A LITERARY WORK
MOTIVE - (from Latin moveo - I move) is a repeating component literary work, with increased significance.
Motif is a key term when analyzing the composition of a work.
The properties of a motif are its isolation from the whole and its repeatability in a variety of variations.
For example, biblical motifs.
Bulgakov. Master and Margarita.
Bulgakov's novel is largely based on a reinterpretation of evangelical and biblical ideas and plots. The central motifs of the novel are the motifs of freedom and death, suffering and forgiveness, execution and mercy. Bulgakov's interpretation of these motifs is very far from the traditional biblical ones.
Thus, the hero of the novel, Yeshua, does not in any way declare his messianic destiny, while the biblical Jesus says, for example, in a conversation with the Pharisees, that he is not just the Messiah, but also the Son of God: “I and the Father are one.”
Jesus had disciples. Only Matthew Levi followed Yeshua. According to the Gospel, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, accompanied by his disciples. In the novel, Pilate asks Yeshua whether it is true that he rode into the city through the Susa Gate on a donkey, and he replies that he “doesn’t even have a donkey.” He came to Yershalaim exactly through the Susa Gate, but on foot, accompanied by only Levi Matvey, and no one shouted anything to him, since no one knew him in Yershalaim then” (c)
The quotation can be continued, but I think it is already clear: biblical motifs in the image of the hero have undergone a serious refraction. Bulgakovsky Yeshua- not a god-man, but simply a man, at times weak, even pitiful, extremely lonely, but great in his spirit and all-conquering kindness. He does not preach all Christian dogmas, but only ideas of good that are significant for Christianity, but do not constitute everything Christian teaching.
Another main motive is also rethought - the motive of the Antichrist. If in the biblical interpretation Satan is the personification of evil, then in Bulgakov he is part of that force “that always wants evil and always does good.”
Why did Bulgakov so radically overturn traditional ideas? Apparently, in order to emphasize the author’s understanding of eternal philosophical questions: what is the meaning of life? Why does man exist?
A completely different interpretation of the same biblical motifs we see in Dostoevsky.
Hard labor changed Dostoevsky radically - a revolutionary and atheist turned into a deeply religious person. (“... Then fate helped me, penal servitude saved me... I became a completely new person... I understood myself there... I understood Christ..." (c)
Accordingly, after hard labor and exile, the religious theme becomes the central theme of Dostoevsky’s work.
That is why after “Crime and Punishment” the novel “The Idiot” had to appear, after the rebel Raskolnikov, who preached the “permission of blood,” - the ideal “Prince Christ” - Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin, preaching love for one’s neighbor with every step of his life.
Prince Myshkin is truth caught in a world of lies; their collision and tragic struggle are inevitable and predetermined. In the words of General Epanchina, “They don’t believe in God, they don’t believe in Christ!” the writer’s cherished idea is expressed: the moral crisis experienced by contemporary humanity is a religious crisis.
In the novel The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky connects the disintegration of Russia and the growth of the revolutionary movement with unbelief and atheism. The moral idea of the novel, the struggle of faith with unbelief (“the devil fights with God, and the battlefield is the hearts of people,” says Dmitry Karamazov) goes beyond the Karamazov family. Ivan's denial of God gives rise to the sinister figure of the Inquisitor. "The Legend of the Grand Inquisitor" - greatest creation Dostoevsky. Its meaning is that Christ loves everyone, including those who do not love him. He came to save sinners. The kiss of Christ is a call of the highest love, the last call of sinners to repentance.
Another example is Block. Twelve.
The work contains the image of Christ - but which one? The one who leads the twelve apostles of the new faith or the one whom the new apostles lead to execution?
There may be several interpretations, but “This was not the biblical Christ, not the real Christ. Let any of you turn to the Gospel and think, is it possible to imagine Jesus of Nazareth wearing a “white crown of roses”? No no. It's a shadow, a ghost. This is a parody. This is the split consciousness that misled our fathers.
Blok wrote that he walked along the dark streets of Petrograd and saw snowstorm whirlwinds swirling and he saw that figure there. It was not Christ, but it seemed to him that it was so good, so wonderful. But it wasn't good. It was a tragedy. Blok realized this, unfortunately, too late. This means that Christ was not there. Did not have. What is the answer? Blok, as a prophet, felt people’s faith that the world could be redrawn in a bloody way and that this would be for the good. In this regard, his Christ is a pseudo-Christ. The “white corolla” contains an unconscious insight - this is an image of a pseudo-Christ. And when he turned around, it turned out that it was the Antichrist" (c)
Despite the inexhaustibility of examples of the use of biblical motifs, I will allow myself to limit myself to only these examples.
I think the main thing is clear – I’m talking about motive as a compositional category.
MOTIVE is a certain starting point for creativity, a set of ideas and feelings of the author, an expression of his worldview.
A motif is a component of a work that has increased significance.
“...Any phenomenon, any semantic “spot” - an event, character trait, landscape element, any object, spoken word, paint, sound, etc. can act as a motif in a work; the only thing that determines a motive is its reproduction in the text, so in contrast to a traditional plot narrative, where it is more or less determined in advance what can be considered discrete components (“characters” or “events”) (c) B. Gasparov.
Thus, throughout Chekhov’s play “The Cherry Orchard” there is a motif of the cherry orchard as a symbol of Home, Beauty, and Sustainability of life. (“It’s already May, they’re blooming cherry trees, but it’s cold in the garden, matinee” - “Look, the late mother is walking through the garden... in a white dress!” - “Come everyone and watch how Ermolai Lopakhin will hit the cherry orchard with an ax and how the trees will fall to the ground!”).
In Bulgakov's play "Days of the Turbins" the same motifs are embodied in the image of cream curtains. (“But, despite all these events, in the dining room, in essence, it’s wonderful. It’s hot, cozy, the cream curtains are drawn” - “... cream curtains... behind them you rest your soul... you forget about all the horrors of the civil war”)
The motif is in close contact and intersects with repetitions and their similarities, but is not identical to them.
The motif is present in the work in the most different forms- a separate word or phrase, repeated and varied, or appear in the form of a title or epigraph, or remain only guessable, lost in the subtext.
There are main (=leading) and secondary motives.
LEADING MOTIVE, or
LEITMOTHIO - the prevailing mood, main topic, the main ideological and emotional tone of a literary work, a writer’s work, a literary movement; a specific image or turn of artistic speech, persistently repeated in a work as a constant characteristic of a character, experience or situation.
In the process of repetition or variation, the leitmotif evokes certain associations, acquiring special ideological, symbolic and psychological depths.
The leading motive organizes the second, secret meaning works, that is, subtext.
For example, the theme of the story by F.M. Dostoevsky's "Double" is the split personality of the poor official Golyadkin, who is trying to establish himself in a society that has rejected him with the help of his confident and arrogant "double". As the main theme unfolds, motifs of loneliness, restlessness, hopeless love, and the “discrepancy” of the hero with the life around him arise. The leitmotif of the entire story can be considered the motive of the hero’s fatal doom, despite his desperate resistance to circumstances. (With)
Any work, especially three-dimensional, is formed by the accretion of very large number individual motives. In this case, the main motive coincides with the theme.
Thus, the theme of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” is the motif of historical fate, which does not interfere with the parallel development in the novel of a number of other secondary motives, often only remotely related to the theme.
For example,
motive of truth of collective consciousness - Pierre and Karataev;
everyday motive - the ruin of the wealthy noble family of the Counts of Rostov;
numerous love motives: Nikolai Rostov and Sophie, he is also Princess Maria, Pierre Bezukhov and Ellen, Prince. Andrey and Natasha, etc.;
the mystical and so characteristic motif of Tolstoy's subsequent work of death - the dying epiphanies of the book. Andrei Bolkonsky, etc.
VARIETY OF MOTIVES
In the literature of different eras, many MYTHOLOGICAL MOTIVES are found and effectively function. Constantly being updated in different historical and literary contexts, they at the same time retain their semantic essence.
For example, the motive of the hero’s deliberate death because of a woman.
Werther's suicide in Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther,
the death of Vladimir Lensky in Pushkin’s novel “Eugene Onegin”,
death of Romashov in Kuprin's novel "The Duel".
Apparently, this motif can be considered as a transformation of the ancient mythological motif: “the fight for the bride.”
The motif of the hero’s alienation to the world around him is very popular.
This could be the motive of exile (Lermontov. Mtsyri) or the motive of the hero’s foreignness to the vulgarity and mediocrity of the world around him (Chekhov. A Boring Story).
By the way, the motif of the hero’s foreignness is the central one, linking all seven books about Harry Potter together.
The same motif can receive different symbolic meanings.
For example, the motive of the road.
Compare:
Gogol. Dead souls - the notorious bird-three
Pushkin. Demons
Yesenin. Rus
Bulgakov. Master and Margarita.
In all these works there is a road motif, but how differently it is presented.
Motives are identified that have very ancient origins, leading to primitive consciousness and, at the same time, developed in conditions of high civilization. different countries. These are the motives of the prodigal son, the proud king, the pact with the devil, etc. You can easily remember the examples yourself.
And here is an interesting point. If you analyze your creativity, go through your things, then determine which motive is most interesting for you. In other words, what question of existence do you intend to solve with your creativity?
A question to ponder, however.
MOTIVE AND THEME
B.V. Tomashevsky wrote: “The theme must be divided into parts, “decomposed” into the smallest narrative units, in order to then string these units onto a narrative core.” This is how the plot develops, i.e. “an artistically constructed distribution of events in the work. Episodes are broken down into even smaller parts that describe individual actions, events, or things. The themes of such small parts of a work that can no longer be divided are called motives.”
MOTIVE AND PLOT
The concept of motive as the simplest narrative unit was first theoretically substantiated by the Russian philologist A.N. Veselovsky in “The Poetics of Plots”, 1913.
Veselovsky understands a motif as the building block that makes up the plot, and considered motifs to be the simplest formulas that could arise among different tribes independently of each other.
According to Veselovsky, each poetic era works on “poetic images bequeathed from time immemorial,” creating their new combinations and filling them with a “new understanding of life.” As examples of such motives, the researcher cites the kidnapping of the bride, “representation of the sun through the eye,” the struggle of brothers for an inheritance, etc.
Creativity, according to Veselovsky, was manifested primarily in a “combination of motives” that gives one or another individual plot.
To analyze the motive, the scientist used the formula: a + b. For example, “the evil old woman does not like the beauty - and sets her a life-threatening task. Each part of the formula can be modified, especially subject to increment b.”
Thus, the pursuit of the old woman is expressed in the tasks that she asks the beauty. There may be two, three or more of these tasks. Therefore, the formula a + b can become more complicated: a + b + b1 + b2.
Subsequently, combinations of motifs were transformed into numerous compositions and became the basis of such narrative genres as stories, novels, and poems.
The motive itself, according to Veselovsky, remained stable and indecomposable; various combinations of motifs make up the plot.
Unlike the motive, the plot could be borrowed, move from people to people, and become “wandering.”
In the plot, each motive plays a certain role: it can be main, secondary, episodic.
Often the development of the same motif is repeated in different plots. Many traditional motifs can be developed into entire plots, and traditional plots, on the contrary, are “collapsed” into one motif.
Veselovsky noted the tendency of great poets, with the help of a “brilliant poetic instinct,” to use plots and motifs that had already once been subjected to poetic treatment. “They are somewhere in the deep dark region of our consciousness, like much that has been tested and experienced, apparently forgotten and suddenly striking us, like an incomprehensible revelation, like novelty and at the same time antiquity, which we do not give ourselves an account of, because we are often unable to determine the essence of that mental act that unexpectedly renewed old memories in us.” (With)
Veselovsky's position on the motive as an indecomposable and stable unit of narrative was revised in the 1920s.
“Veselovsky’s specific interpretation of the term “motive” can no longer be applied at present,” wrote V. Propp. - According to Veselovsky, a motive is an indecomposable unit of narration.<…>However, the motives that he cites as examples are unraveling.”
Propp demonstrates the decomposition of the “serpent kidnaps the king’s daughter” motif.
“This motive is decomposed into 4 elements, each of which can be varied individually. The snake can be replaced by Koshchei, whirlwind, devil, falcon, sorcerer. Abduction can be replaced by vampirism and various actions by which disappearance is achieved in the fairy tale. A daughter can be replaced by a sister, fiancee, wife, mother. The king can be replaced by a king's son, a peasant, or a priest.
Thus, contrary to Veselovsky, we must assert that the motive is not single-membered, not indecomposable. The last decomposable unit as such does not represent a logical whole (and according to Veselovsky, the motive is more primary in origin than the plot); we will subsequently have to solve the problem of isolating some primary elements differently than Veselovsky does” (c).
Propp considers these “primary elements” to be the functions of the actors. “A function is understood as an act of an actor, defined in terms of its significance for the course of action” (c)
Functions are repeated and can be counted; all functions are distributed among the characters so that seven “circles of action” and, accordingly, seven types of characters can be distinguished:
pest,
donor,
assistant,
the character you are looking for,
sender,
hero,
false hero
Based on the analysis of 100 fairy tales from the collection of A.N. Afanasyev “Russian folk tales” V. Propp identified 31 functions within which the action develops. These are, in particular:
absence (“One of the family members leaves home”),
ban (“The hero is approached with a ban”),
violation of the ban, etc.
A detailed analysis of one hundred fairy tales with different plots shows that “the sequence of functions is always the same” and that “all fairy tales are of the same type in their structure” (c) despite their apparent diversity.
Veselovsky's point of view was also disputed by other scientists. After all, motives arose not only in the primitive era, but also later. “It is important to find such a definition of this term,” wrote A. Bem, “that would make it possible to highlight it in any work, both ancient and modern.”
According to A. Bem, “a motif is the ultimate level of artistic abstraction from the specific content of a work, enshrined in the simplest verbal formula.”
As an example, the scientist cites a motif that unites three works: the poem “ Prisoner of the Caucasus"Pushkin, "Prisoner of the Caucasus" by Lermontov and the story "Atala" by Chateaubriand, is the love of a foreigner for a captive; incoming motive: the release of a captive by a foreigner, either successful or unsuccessful. And as a development of the original motive - the death of the heroine.
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