Depending on the nature of the connections between events, there are two types of plots. Plots with a predominance of purely temporal connections between events are chronicles. They are used in epic works of large form (Don Quixote). They can show the adventures of heroes (“Odyssey”), depict the development of a person’s personality (“Childhood Years of Bagrov the Grandson” by S. Aksakov). A chronicle story consists of episodes. Plots with a predominance of cause-and-effect relationships between events are called plots of a single action, or concentric. Concentric plots are often built on such a classicist principle as unity of action. Let us recall that in Griboyedov’s “Woe from Wit” the unity of action will be the events associated with Chatsky’s arrival at Famusov’s house. With the help of a concentric plot, one conflict situation is carefully examined. In drama, this type of plot structure dominated until the 19th century, and in epic works of small form it is still used today. A single knot of events is most often untied in novellas and short stories by Pushkin, Chekhov, Poe, and Maupassant. Chronical and concentric principles interact in the plots of multilinear novels, where several event nodes appear simultaneously (“War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, “The Brothers Karamazov” by F. Dostoevsky). Naturally, chronicle stories often include concentric micro-plots.
There are plots that differ in the intensity of the action. Event-filled plots are called dynamic. These events contain an important meaning, and the denouement, as a rule, carries a huge meaningful load. This type of plot is typical for Pushkin’s “Tales of Belkin” and Dostoevsky’s “The Gambler.” And vice versa, plots weakened by descriptions and inserted structures are adynamic. The development of action in them does not strive for a denouement, and the events themselves do not contain any particular interest. Adynamic plots in " Dead souls"Gogol, "My Life" by Chekhov.
3. Composition of the plot.
The plot is the dynamic side of the artistic form; it involves movement and development. The engine of the plot is most often a conflict, an artistically significant contradiction. The term comes from Lat. conflictus - collision. A conflict is an acute clash of characters and circumstances, views and life principles, which forms the basis of action; confrontation, contradiction, clash between heroes, groups of heroes, hero and society or internal struggle hero with himself. The nature of the collision can be different: it is a contradiction of duty and inclination, assessments and forces. Conflict is one of those categories that permeate the structure of the entire work of art.
If we consider A. S. Griboedov’s play “Woe is Wit,” it is easy to see that the development of the action here clearly depends on the conflict that lurks in Famusov’s house and lies in the fact that Sophia is in love with Molchalin and hides it from daddy. Chatsky, in love with Sophia, having arrived in Moscow, notices her dislike for himself and, trying to understand the reason, keeps an eye on everyone present in the house. Sophia is unhappy with this and, defending herself, makes a remark at the ball about his madness. Guests who do not sympathize with him gladly pick up this version, because they see in Chatsky a person with views and principles different from theirs, and then it is very clearly revealed that it is not just family conflict(Sophia’s secret love for Molchalin, Molchalin’s real indifference to Sophia, Famusov’s ignorance of what is happening in the house), but also the conflict between Chatsky and society. The outcome of the action (denouement) is determined not so much by Chatsky’s relationship with society, but by the relationship of Sophia, Molchalin and Liza, having learned about which Famusov controls their fate, and Chatsky leaves their home.
In the vast majority of cases, the writer does not invent conflicts. He draws them from primary reality and transfers them from life itself into the realm of themes, issues, and pathos.
Several types of conflicts can be identified that are at the heart of dramatic and epic works. Frequently encountered conflicts are moral and philosophical: the confrontation between characters, man and fate (“Odyssey”), life and death (“The Death of Ivan Ilyich”), pride and humility (“Crime and Punishment”), genius and villainy (“Mozart and Salieri "). Social conflicts consist in the opposition of a character’s aspirations, passions, and ideas to the way of life around him (“ Stingy Knight", "Storm"). The third group of conflicts are internal, or psychological, those that are associated with contradictions in the character of one character and do not become the property of the outside world; this is the mental torment of the heroes of “The Lady with the Dog”, this is the duality of Eugene Onegin. When all these conflicts are combined into one whole, they speak of their contamination. This is achieved to a greater extent in novels (“Heroes of Our Time”) and epics (“War and Peace”). The conflict can be local or insoluble (tragic), obvious or hidden, external (direct clashes of positions and characters) or internal (in the soul of the hero). B. Esin also identifies a group of three types of conflicts, but calls them differently: conflict between individual characters and groups of characters; the confrontation between the hero and the way of life, the individual and the environment; the conflict is internal, psychological, when it comes to the contradiction in the hero himself. V. Kozhinov wrote almost the same about this: “TO . (from Latin collisio - collision) - confrontation, contradiction between characters, or between characters and circumstances, or within character, underlying the action of lit. works 5 . K. does not always speak clearly and openly; For some genres, especially idyllic ones, K. is not typical: they only have what Hegel called “situation”<...>In an epic, drama, novel, short story, K. usually forms the core of the theme, and the resolution of K. appears as the defining moment of the artist. ideas...” “Artist. K. is a clash and contradiction between integral human individuals.” "TO. is a kind of source of energy lit. production, because it determines its action.” “During the course of action, it can worsen or, conversely, weaken; in the end the conflict is resolved one way or another.”
The development of K. sets the plot action in motion.
The plot indicates the stages of action, the stages of the existence of the conflict.
An ideal, that is, complete, model of the plot of a literary work may include the following fragments, episodes, links: prologue, exposition, plot, development of action, peripeteia, climax, denouement, epilogue. There are three mandatory elements in this list: the plot, the development of the action and the climax. Optional - the rest, that is, not all of the existing elements must take place in the work. The components of the plot may appear in different sequences.
Prologue(gr. prolog - preface) is an introduction to the main plot actions. It may give the root cause of events: the dispute about the happiness of men in “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” It clarifies the author's intentions and depicts the events preceding the main action. These events can affect the organization of the artistic space - the place of action.
Exposition is an explanation, a depiction of the characters’ lives in the period before the conflict was identified. For example, the life of young Onegin. It may contain biographical facts and motivate subsequent actions. An exposition can set the conventions of time and space and depict events preceding the plot.
The beginning– this is conflict detection.
Development of action is a group of events necessary for the conflict to occur. It presents twists that escalate the conflict.
Unexpected circumstances that complicate a conflict are called twists and turns.
Climax - (from Latin culmen - top ) - the moment of the highest tension of action, the utmost aggravation of contradictions; the pinnacle of conflict; TO. reveals the main problem of the work and the characters of the characters most fully; after it the effect weakens. Often precedes the denouement. In works with many plot lines, there may be not one, but several TO.
Denouement- this is the resolution of the conflict in the work; it completes the course of events in action-packed works, for example, short stories. But often the ending of works does not contain a resolution to the conflict. Moreover, in the endings of many works, sharp contradictions between the characters remain. This happens both in “Woe from Wit” and in “Eugene Onegin”: Pushkin leaves Eugene at “an evil moment for him.” There are no resolutions in “Boris Godunov” and “The Lady with the Dog.” The endings of these works are open. In Pushkin's tragedy and Chekhov's story, despite all the incompleteness of the plot, the last scenes contain emotional endings and climaxes.
Epilogue(gr. epilogos - afterword) is the final episode, usually following the denouement. In this part of the work, the fate of the heroes is briefly reported. The epilogue depicts the final consequences arising from the events shown. This is a conclusion in which the author can formally complete the story, determine the fate of the heroes, and summarize his philosophical, historical concept (“War and Peace”). The epilogue appears when resolution alone is not enough. Or in the case when, after the completion of the main plot events, it is necessary to express a different point of view (“The Queen of Spades”), to evoke in the reader a feeling about the final outcome of the depicted life of the characters.
The events related to the resolution of one conflict of one group of characters make up the storyline. Accordingly, if there are different storylines, there may be several climaxes. In “Crime and Punishment” this is the murder of a pawnbroker, but this is also Raskolnikov’s conversation with Sonya Marmeladova.
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We present a free translation of the article by Ffion Lindsay.
Plot construction - difficult task even for experienced screenwriters. The options seem endless. What if all stories are based on only 7 universal plots? If the right plot, once found, can captivate your viewers over and over again?
- A story about following a goal, despite all the difficulties encountered along the way.
- Discussion of life lessons, what overcoming obstacles teaches.
- Showcasing how you, your team or company have become stronger through overcoming adversity.
From dirt to Kings
The hero, modest, perhaps humiliated, suddenly gets what he wants; money, power, love, but soon he is forced to part with what he acquired in order to find it again, but through overcoming difficulties, in the struggle for his happiness.
Usually the hero “bites off more than he can eat” and fails to cope with his success, because... I'm not ready for it yet. He must grow as a person and achieve what he wants himself.
This plot is good in the following cases:
- A story about the importance of learning from your mistakes and gaining happiness through overcoming difficulties.
- Discuss the ability to take risks and accept failure.
- Demonstrating how the hero earned his success.
Travel and return
Main character finds himself in an unfamiliar place, meets new characters and overcomes difficulties trying to return home. The friends acquired on this journey and the wisdom accumulated through overcoming obstacles allow him to find his way home.
This plot is common in children's literature; quite often you can see a story about how the hero finds himself in a fairy-tale land and travels through it, participating in various adventures.
This plot is good in the following cases:
- A story about the benefits of being open to new experiences.
- A story about what the hero learned on his journey, how he changed.
- Demonstrating the power of friendship.
Adventure (Quest)
The hero goes in search of a specific prize, being exposed to various temptations and trials along the way. To achieve his goal, he will have to overcome all his shortcomings, perhaps he will have to face his fears and past.
The hero is most often accompanied by a group of friends who complement him with their skills, support him along the way and help him achieve his goal.
This plot is good in the following cases:
- A story about the importance of sticking to your beliefs.
- If you need to show how, by trying to succeed, the hero grows emotionally.
- Demonstrating the power of teamwork.
Comedy
A comedy is a light-hearted story, in the center of which there is often some confusion, misunderstanding, which leads to conflict, but in the end everything is safely resolved and returns to its place.
This plot is good in the following cases:
- A story about the beginning of the difficulties of a partnership - romantic, friendly or business.
- Discussion of what experience your hero gained in the current difficult situation.
- Demonstrating how both sides are beginning to accept and support each other.
Tragedy
The main character is a negative or unpleasant person, often a villain, and we are told the story of his downfall.
Sometimes the villain begins to repent, usually towards the end of the story, but often it is too late for him. And he, in any case, dies or is defeated. The downfall of the negative character allows the positive participants in the story to flourish.
This plot is good in the following cases:
- Using a strong, principled character to highlight issues in society.
- Comparison of your own principles with the principles of a negative character.
- Demonstration of how not to act, we can learn from the mistakes of the negative hero.
Rebirth
Main character - negative character, who, as the story progresses, realizes his mistakes and atones for them.
Usually, a character appears in the plot who helps negative hero make the transition to the rebirth (rebirth) of your personality. Often, such a motivating factor is the hero's love interest in one of the characters or the appearance of a child and the hero's attachment to him. Their task is to show the hero his perverted worldview and open his eyes to the true essence of things.
This plot is good in the following cases:
- A story about a learning experience.
- When you need to show the importance of having support from loved ones.
- Demonstrating that every person can change for the better.
All of these types of plots have counterparts in which the happy ending is reversed and the story ends darkly. The exception to this is a tragedy, the ending of which, by default, is not meant to be happy.
Of course, these types of stories are not the ultimate truth. If you have an idea that doesn't fit these types of plots, or combines several of them, great! But hopefully this quick guide has helped you choose the type of story that will best convey your intent and message.
Translation – video design studio “Tut Infographics”
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The events that make up the plot are related to each other in different ways. In some cases they are with each other only in a temporary connection (B happened after A). In other cases, there are cause-and-effect relationships between events, in addition to temporary ones (B occurred as a result A). Yes, in the phrase The king died and the queen died connections of the first type are recreated. In the phrase The king died and the queen died of grief We have before us a connection of the second type.
Accordingly, there are two types of plots. Plots with a predominance of purely temporal connections between events are chronicles. Plots with a predominance of cause-and-effect relationships between events are called plots of a single action, or concentric 1.
Aristotle spoke about these two types of plots. He noted that there are, firstly, “episodic plots”, which consist of events disconnected from each other, and, secondly, plots based on action
1 The terminology proposed here is not generally accepted. Types of stories about we're talking about, are also called “centrifugal” and “centripetal” (see: Kozhinov V.V. Plot, plot, composition).
unified and whole (the term “plot” here refers to what we call plot).
Each of these two types of organization of a work has special artistic capabilities. The chronicity of the plot is, first of all, a means of recreating reality in the diversity and richness of its manifestations. Chronic plotting allows the writer to master life in space and time with maximum freedom 1 . Therefore, it is widely used in epic works of large form. The chronicle principle prevails in such stories, novels and poems as “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by Rabelais, “Don Quixote” by Cervantes, “Don Juan” by Byron, “Vasily Terkin” by Tvardovsky.
Chronicle stories perform different artistic functions. Firstly, they can reveal the decisive, proactive actions of the heroes and all sorts of their adventures. Such stories are called adventurous. They are most characteristic of the pre-realistic stages of the development of literature (from Homer’s “Odyssey” to Lesage’s “History of Gilles Blas”). Such works, as a rule, contain many conflicts; in the lives of the characters, one or the other contradictions alternately arise, intensify, and are somehow resolved.
Secondly, newsreels can depict the development of a person’s personality. Such scenes seem to be viewed outwardly not related events and facts that have a certain worldview meaning for the main character. At the origins of this form - “ The Divine Comedy"Dante, a kind of chronicle of the hero's journey to the afterlife and his intense thoughts about the world order. The literature of the last two centuries (especially the novel of education) is characterized primarily by chronicle spiritual development heroes, their emerging self-awareness. Examples of this are Goethe’s “The Years of Wilhelm Meister’s Study”; in Russian literature - “The Childhood Years of Bagrov the Grandson” by S. Aksakov, autobiographical trilogies L. Tolstoy and M. Gorky, “How the Steel Was Tempered” by N. Ostrovsky.
"In chronicle stories, events are usually presented in their chronological sequence. But it also happens differently. Thus, in “Who Lives Well in Russia” there are many “references” from the reader to the past of the heroes (stories about the destinies of Matryona Timofeevna and Savely).
Thirdly, in literature XIX-XX centuries chronicle plotting serves to master socio-political antagonisms and the everyday way of life of certain strata of society (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by Radishchev, “The History of a City” by Saltykov-Shchedrin, “The Artamonov Case” by Gorky).
From the chronicle of adventures and adventures to the chronicle depiction of the processes of the inner life of the heroes and the social and everyday life - this is one of the trends in the evolution of plot composition.
Over the past one and a half to two centuries, chronicle plotting has been enriched and conquered new genres. Still predominant in epic works of large form, it began to be introduced into small epic form (many stories from Turgenev’s “Notes of a Hunter”, short Chekhov stories like “In the Native Corner”) and in dramatic gender literature: in their plays, Chekhov, and subsequently Gorky and Brecht, neglected the traditional “unity of action” in drama.
The concentricity of the plot, that is, the identification of cause-and-effect relationships between the events depicted, opens up new perspectives for the artist’s words. Unity of action makes it possible to carefully examine any one conflict situation. In addition, concentric plots stimulate the compositional completeness of the work much more than chronicles. This is probably why theorists preferred single action plots. Thus, Aristotle had a negative attitude towards “episodic plots” and contrasted them with plots (“fabulas”), where events are interconnected, as a more perfect form. He believed that in tragedy and epic there should be an image of “one and moreover integral action, and the parts of events should be so composed that when any part is changed or taken away, the whole changes and comes into motion.” (20, 66). Aristotle called an integral action that which has its own beginning and its end. We were talking, therefore, about a concentric plot structure. And subsequently this type of plot was considered by theorists as the best, if not the only possible one. Thus, the classicist Boileau considered the poet’s concentration on one node of events to be the most important advantage of the work:
You can’t overload the plot with events: When Achilles’ anger was glorified by Homer, this anger filled the great poem. Sometimes excess only impoverishes the topic (34, 87).
The drama had a concentric plot structure until the 19th century. reigned almost unchallenged. Unity dramatic action Aristotle, the theorists of classicism, Lessing, Diderot, Hegel, Pushkin, and Belinsky considered it necessary. “Unity of action must be observed,” argued Pushkin.
Epic works small forms (especially short stories) also gravitate towards plots with a single unit of events. The concentric principle is also present in epics, novels, great stories: in “Tristan and Isolde”, “Julia, or the New Heloise” by Rousseau, “Eugene Onegin” by Pushkin, “Red and Black” by Stendhal, “Crime and Punishment” by Dostoevsky, in most works by Turgenev, “Destruction” by Fadeev, stories by V. Rasputin.
Chronic and concentric principles of plot composition often coexist: writers retreat from the main line of action and depict events related to it only indirectly. Thus, in L. Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection” there is a single knot of conflictual relationships between the main characters - Katyusha Maslova and Dmitry Nekhlyudov. At the same time, the novel pays tribute to the chronicle principle, thanks to which the reader sees the trials, the high society milieu, high-ranking St. Petersburg, the world of exiled revolutionaries, and the life of peasants.
The relationships between the concentric and chronicle principles are especially complex in multilinear plots, where several event “nodes” can be traced simultaneously. Such are “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy, “The Forsyte Saga” by Galsworthy, “Three Sisters” by Chekhov, “At the Lower Depths” by Gorky.
Three types of plot:
- Concentric– all events unfold around one conflict, everything is subject to cause-and-effect relationships. (F.M. Dostoevsky “Crime and Punishment”)
- Chronicle- a plot with a predominant temporal relationship between events. (L.N. Tolstoy “Childhood. Adolescence. Youth”)
- Multiline– has several event lines that intersect with each other from time to time. (M.A. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita”)
Plot Components:
1) Exposition- an element of the plot that depicts the life of a character before the outbreak and development of a conflict, or outlines cultural, historical or socio-psychological facts, and also provides information about the place and time of the upcoming action. Most often it is given at the beginning of the work and is conveyed either in the words of the author (epic works) or in deliberately informative dialogues of the characters (drama). There is a so-called “delayed exposure” (detective) Not to be confused with backstory– depiction of the hero’s childhood, etc.
2) The beginning- events that upset the balance of the initial situation, revealing contradictions in it, which give rise to conflict and set the plot action in motion. It can be prepared and motivated in the exposition of the work, but it can also be sudden, giving the plot action incompleteness and poignancy.
3) Conflict– the principle of contradiction, collision. Common throughout the entire work. Collision- a specific encounter that becomes the content of a specific scene, episode, act. A conflict can be built from many collisions. Can evolve throughout the story.
4) Peripeteia- a sharp plot twist caused by unexpected circumstances. A sudden change in the hero’s fate, a rapid transition from one situation to another (from happiness to mortal danger, from uncertainty to insight). Gives the plot poignancy and entertainment, typical for works with pronounced intrigue.
5) Intrigue– special plot construction when characters overcome various kinds obstacles and conflict situations. It is a sequence of twists and turns, unexpected events, unusual situations and circumstances that disrupt the measured flow of action and give the plot dynamism, poignancy and entertainment. The development of intrigue is always accompanied by a clash of interests, confusing relationships between characters, the play of chance and all sorts of misunderstandings. Quid pro quo. An integral property of many genres and genre varieties (short story, sitcom, melodrama, detective story, adventure novel).
6) Climax- the moment of the highest tension of the plot action, after which it steadily moves towards the denouement. It can be a decisive clash, a turning point in fate, or an event that most fully reveals the characters of the characters and the conflict situation. Characteristic of works with concentric plot.
7) Denouement– conflict resolution, outcome of events in the work. Given at the end, when external events play an important role, it can be transferred to the middle or beginning of the story. It can be tragic or prosperous, unexpected or motivated by the entire course of the narrative, plausible or deliberately conventional or artificial, and can be presented with an open ending.
14. Motive: origin and meaning of the term. Typology of motives.
Motive– minimal meaningful component literary work, received verbal and figurative embodiment in the text, repeated either in various works, or within the writer’s work, or in the context of a genre tradition or literary direction, or on the scale of the national literary tradition.
Fable– a set of coherent and dynamic motives.
There are motives:
1) Available– can be easily removed from the context without damaging it.
2) Dynamic– change the situation (cause-and-effect relationships, the plot is built on them)
3) Static– do not change the situation (the plot can be built on them)
4) Messengers- if they are removed, the cause-and-effect relationship in the work will be broken.
Motivation– a system of techniques that allows you to justify the introduction of individual motives and complexes.
1) Compositional
2) Realistic
3) Artistic
Leitmotif– leading, recurring motif.
15. Psychologism and its types. Psychological analysis. Internal monologue, “stream of consciousness”.
Psychologism– a system of techniques and means aimed at revealing inner world character.
Internal psychologism :
1) internal monologue – direct recording and reproduction of the hero’s thoughts, more or less imitating the real psychological patterns of inner speech.
2) mindflow– a method of storytelling that imitates the work of the human consciousness and subconscious; registration of heterogeneous appearances of the psyche;
3) analysis and introspection- a technique in which complex emotional experiences are decomposed into elements and thereby explained to the reader.
Indirect psychologism– conveying the hero’s inner world through external signs: behavior, speech, portrait, dream (subconscious images), facial expressions, clothing, landscape details.
Total:
Point of view - compositional device, organizing the narrative and determining the position of the subject in space in relation to the objects of the image, the subject of evaluation, and the addressee of the speech. Consistent review and fluid point of view.
Defamiliarization(introduced by Shklovsky) – artistic principle images of any action or object, as seen for the first time, as having fallen out of its usual context, or presented in a new perspective.
I have already raised this topic on another site - it did not arouse interest there. Perhaps the same picture will be here. But suddenly a constructive conversation will turn out...
To begin with, I will lay out a brief description.
The plot is concentric (centripetal)
a type of plot distinguished on the basis of the principle of action development, the connection of episodes, and the characteristics of the beginning and denouement. In S.k. The cause-and-effect relationship between the episodes is clearly visible, the beginning and the end are easily distinguished. If the plot is simultaneously multilinear, then between storylines the cause-and-effect relationship is also clearly visible, and it also motivates the inclusion of a new line in the work.
The plot is chronicle (centrifugal)
a plot without a clearly defined plot, with a predominance of temporary motivations in the development of action. But in S.kh. episodes may be included, sometimes quite extensive, in which events are connected by a cause-and-effect relationship, i.e. in S.kh. Various concentric plots are often included. Contrasted with concentric plot.
Principles of connection of events in chronicles And concentric The plots differ significantly; therefore, their capabilities in depicting reality, actions and behavior of people also differ. The criterion for distinguishing these types of plot is the nature of the connection between events.
IN chronicles In plots, the connection between events is temporary, that is, events replace each other in time, following one after another. The “formula” of plots of this type can be represented as follows:
a, then b, then c... then x (or: a + b + c +... + x),
where a, b, c, x are the events that make up the chronicle story.
Action in chronicles plots are not distinguished by integrity, strict logical motivation: after all, in chronicle plots no one central conflict unfolds. They represent a review of events and facts that may not be externally related to each other. The only thing that unites these events is that they all line up in one chain from the point of view of their passage over time. Chronicle the plots are multi-conflict: conflicts arise and die out, some conflicts replace others.
Often, in order to emphasize the chronicle principle of the arrangement of events in works, writers called them “stories”, “chronicles” or - in accordance with the old Russian literary tradition- “stories”.
IN concentric Plots are dominated by cause-and-effect relationships between events, that is, each event is the cause of the next one and the consequence of the previous one. These stories are different from chronicles unity of action: the writer explores any one conflict situation. All events in the plot seem to be pulled together into one knot, obeying the logic of the main conflict.
The “formula” of this type of plot can be represented as follows:
a, therefore b, therefore c... therefore x
(a -> b -> c ->… -> x),
where a, b, c, x are the events that make up concentric plot.
All parts of the work are based on clearly expressed conflicts. However, the chronological connections between them may be disrupted. IN concentric in the plot, one thing comes to the fore life situation, the work is built on one event line.
And now the questions:
What, in your opinion, is unacceptable in this or that plot?
Which one is better suited for what?
Why do works with a concentric plot predominate in science fiction/fantasy, but about chronic type both critics and authors forget?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type?
In general, I propose to discuss this topic.
