Categories of artistic form. Plot

Plot (from French sujet - subject)

1) in literature - the development of action, the course of events in narrative and dramatic works, and sometimes in lyrical ones. To literature the word "S." first used in the 17th century. classicists P. Corneille and N. Boileau, meaning, following Aristotle, incidents in the lives of legendary heroes of antiquity (for example, Antigone and Creon or Medea and Jason), borrowed by playwrights of later times. But Aristotle in his Poetics used to refer to such incidents ancient Greek word“myth” (мýthos) in the sense of “tradition”, which in Russian literary criticism is usually translated incorrectly by the Latin word “fable”. The Latin word “fabula” (from the same root as the verb fabulari - to tell, narrate) was used by Roman writers to designate all kinds of stories, including myths and fables, and became widespread much earlier than the French term “S.” In German classical aesthetics (Schelling, Hegel), the events depicted in works were called “action” (Handlung). The difference in terms denoting one phenomenon has made them unstable and ambiguous.

In modern Soviet literary-critical and school practice, the terms “S.” and “fabula” are understood either as synonyms, or S. is called the entire course of events, and fabula is the main artistic conflict that develops in them (in both cases the terms are doubled). In literary criticism, two other interpretations collide. In the 1920s representatives of OPOYAZ proposed an important distinction between two sides of the narrative: the development of the events themselves in the lives of the characters, the order and method of reporting about them by the author-storyteller; giving great importance Based on how the work was “made”, they began to call S. the second side, and the first - the plot. This tradition continues to be preserved (see “The Theory of Literature...” in three volumes, vol. 2, M., 1964). Another tradition comes from Russian democratic critics of the mid-19th century, as well as from A. N. Veselovsky (See Veselovsky) and M. Gorky; all of them S. called the development of action (Belinsky V.G.: “Gogol’s poem can be fully enjoyed only by those who... the content is important, and not the “plot”” - Complete collection soch., vol. 6, 1955, p. 219; Gorky M.: “... The plot... connections, contradictions, likes and dislikes and in general the relationships of people...” - Collection of works, vol. 27, 1953, p. 215). Such terminology is not only more traditional and familiar, but also more etymologically accurate (S., in the meaning of the word, is the “subject”, that is, what is being narrated, the plot; from the same point of view, the story itself about S.). However, it is important for supporters of this theory to assimilate the theoretical innovation of the “formal school” and, calling the main, objective side of the narrative or stage action, use the term “plot” to designate the second, actually compositional side (see Composition).

S. works are one of the most important means of embodying the content - the generalizing “thought” of the writer, his ideological and emotional understanding of the real characteristics of life, expressed through a verbal image fictional characters in their individual actions and relationships. S. in all its unique originality is the main aspect of the form (and thereby the style (See Style)) of the work in its correspondence with the content, and not the content itself, as is often understood in school practice. The entire structure of the story, its conflicts and the relationship between narrative and dialogic episodes that develop them must be studied functionally, in its connections with the content, in its ideological and aesthetic significance. At the same time, it is necessary to distinguish S. in its uniqueness from abstract plot, or more precisely, conflict “schemes” (A loves B, but B loves C, etc.), which can be historically repeated, borrowed and each time find a new concrete artistic embodiment .

On early stages historical development His epic stories were built on the temporary, chronicle principle of combining episodes (fairy tales, knightly and picaresque novels). Later, in European epic, concentric conflicts appeared, based on a single conflict. In the concentric style of epic and drama, the conflict runs through the entire work and is distinguished by the definiteness of its plot (See Plot) and climax (See Climax). and interchanges (See Interchange).

Only on the basis of the analysis of S. can one functionally analyze the plot of a work in all the complex relationships of its own aspects (see Plot).

2) B fine arts- a specific event or situation depicted in a work and often indicated in its title. Unlike theme (See theme) , S. is a specific, detailed, figurative and narrative disclosure of the idea of ​​a work. S.'s particular complexity is typical for works of everyday and historical genres.

Lit.: Aristotle. On the art of poetry, M., 1937; Lessing G. E., Laocoon, or On the Borders of Painting and Poetry, M., 1957; Hegel, Aesthetics, vol. 1, M., 1968: Belinsky V.G., Complete. collection soch., vol. 5, M., 1954, p. 219; Veselovsky A. N., Poetics of plots, in his book: Historical poetics, Leningrad, 1940; Shklovsky V.B., On the theory of prose, M.-L., 1925; Medvedev P. N., Formal method in literary criticism, L., 1928: Freidenberg O. M., Poetics of plot and genre, L., 1936; Kozhinov V.V., Plot, plot, composition, in the book: Theory of Literature..., vol. 2, M., 1964; Questions of film dramaturgy, in. 5 - Plot in cinema, M., 1965; Pospelov G. N., Problems literary style, M., 1970; Lotman Yu. M., The structure of a literary text, M., 1970; Timofeev L.I., Fundamentals of the Theory of Literature, M., 1971; Wellek R., Warren A., Theory of literature, 3 ed., N. Y., 1963.

G. N. Pospelov(S. in literature).

Big Soviet encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. 1969-1978 .

See what “Plot” is in other dictionaries:

- (from the French sujet subject) in literature, drama, theater, cinema and games, a series of events (sequence of scenes, acts) occurring in a work of art (on the theater stage) and built for the reader (viewer, player) ... Wikipedia

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

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

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

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

Cm … Synonym dictionary

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

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

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

Delving into the historical depths of the question of plot (from the French - content, the development of events in time and space (in epic and dramatic works, sometimes in lyrical works)) and plot, we find theoretical discussions on this matter for the first time in Aristotle’s Poetics. Aristotle does not use the terms “plot” or “plot” themselves, but in his reasoning he shows interest in what we now mean by plot, and expresses a number of valuable observations and comments on this matter. Not knowing the term “plot”, as well as the term “fable”, Aristotle uses a term close to the concept of “myth”. By it he understands the combination of facts in their relation to the verbal expression vividly presented before the eyes.

When translating Aristotle into Russian, the term “myth” is sometimes translated as “plot”. But this is inaccurate: the term “fabula” is Latin in origin, “Gautage”, which means to tell, narrate, and in exact translation means story, narration. The term "plot" in Russian literature and literary criticism begins to be used from approximately mid-19th century, that is, somewhat later than the term “plot”.

For example, “plot” as a term is found in Dostoevsky, who said that in the novel “Demons” he used the plot of the famous “Nechaevsky case”, and in A. N. Ostrovsky, who believed that “by plot we often mean completely ready-made content ... with all the details, but there is a plot short story about some incident, incident, a story devoid of any color.”

In G. P. Danilevsky’s novel “Mirovich,” written in 1875, one of the characters, wanting to tell another a funny story, says: “...And listen to this comedian’s plot!” Although the novel takes place in mid-18th century century and the author monitors the verbal authenticity of this time, he uses a word that has recently appeared in literary use.

The term “plot” in its literary sense was widely introduced into use by representatives of French classicism. In “The Poetic Art” of Boileau we read: “You must introduce us into the plot without delay. // You should maintain the unity of the place in it, // Than to tire our ears and disturb our minds with an endless, meaningless story.” IN critical articles Corneille, dedicated to the theater, the term “plot” is also found.

Assimilating French tradition, Russian critical literature uses the term plot in a similar sense. In the article “On the Russian story and the stories of N.V. Gogol” (1835), V. Belinsky writes: “Thought is the subject of his (the modern lyric poet’s) inspiration. Just as in an opera words are written for music and a plot is invented, so he creates, at the will of his imagination, a form for his thought. In this case, his field is limitless.”

Subsequently, such a major literary theorist, the second half of the 19th century century, like A. N. Veselovsky, who laid the foundation theoretical study plot in Russian literary criticism is limited only to this term.

Having broken down the plot into its component elements - motives, tracing and explaining their origin, Veselovsky gave his definition of the plot: “Plots are complex schemes, in the imagery of which the famous acts human life and psyche in alternating forms of everyday reality.

The evaluation of the action, positive and negative, is already connected with the generalization.” And then he concludes: “By plot I mean the scheme in which different positions- motives."

As we see, in Russian criticism and literary tradition enough for a long time Both terms are used: “plot” and “plot”, although without distinguishing their conceptual and categorical essence.

The most detailed development of these concepts and terms was made by representatives of the Russian “formal school”.

It was in the works of its participants that the categories of plot and fable were first clearly distinguished. In the works of the formalists, plot and plot were subjected to careful study and comparison.

B. Tomashevsky writes in “Theory of Literature”: “But it is not enough to invent an entertaining chain of events, limiting them to a beginning and an end. It is necessary to distribute these events, to construct them in some order, to present them, to make a literary combination out of the plot material. The artistically constructed distribution of events in a work is called a plot.”

Thus, the plot here is understood as something predetermined, like some story, incident, event taken from the life or works of other authors.

So, for quite a long time in Russian literary criticism and criticism, the term “plot” has been used, which originates and is borrowed from French historians and literary theorists. Along with it, the term “fable” is also used, quite widely used since the middle of the 19th century. In the 20s of the 20th century, the meaning of these concepts was terminologically divided within the same work.

At all stages of the development of literature, the plot occupied a central place in the process of creating a work. But by the middle XIX century Having received brilliant development in the novels of Dickens, Balzac, Stendhal, Dostoevsky and many others, the plot seems to begin to weigh on some novelists... “What seems beautiful to me and what I would like to create,” writes the great French stylist in one of his letters in 1870 Gustave Flaubert (whose novels are beautifully plotted) is a book that would have almost no plot, or at least one in which the plot would be almost invisible. The most beautiful works are those that contain the least amount of matter... I think that the future of art lies in these perspectives...”

In Flaubert's desire to free himself from the plot, a desire for free plot form. Indeed, later in some novels of the 20th century the plot no longer has such a dominant meaning as in the novels of Dickens, Tolstoy, and Turgenev. Genre lyrical confession, memories with in-depth analysis received the right to exist.

But one of the most widespread genres today, the detective novel genre, has made a fast-paced and unusually sharp plot its basic law and only principle.

Thus, the modern plot arsenal of the writer is so huge, he has at his disposal so many plot devices and principles for constructing and arranging events that this gives him inexhaustible possibilities for creative solutions.

Not only did the plot principles become more complex, but the method of storytelling itself became incredibly complex in the 20th century. In the novels and stories of G. Hesse, X. Borges, G. Marquez, the basis of the narrative is complex associative memories and reflections, the displacement of different episodes far removed in time, and multiple interpretations of the same situations.

Events in an epic work can be combined different ways. In the “Family Chronicle” by S. Aksakov, in the stories of L. Tolstoy “Childhood”, “Adolescence”, Youth” or in “Don Quixote” by Cervantes, the plot events are connected with each other by a purely temporal connection, since they develop sequentially one after another throughout long period time.

The English novelist Forster presented this order in the development of events in a short figurative form: “The king died, and then the queen died.” Stories of this type began to be called chronicles, in contrast to concentric ones, where the main events are concentrated around one central moment, are interconnected by a close cause-and-effect relationship and develop in a short period of time. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief,” continued his thought about concentric stories the same Forster.

Of course, it is impossible to draw a sharp line between the two types of plots, and such a division is very conditional. Most a shining example Concentric novels could be called the novels of F. M. Dostoevsky.

For example, in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” the plot events rapidly unfold over the course of several days, are interconnected solely by a causal relationship and are concentrated around one central moment of the murder of the old man F. P. Karamazov. The most common type of plot is the most often used in modern literature— chronicle-concentric type, where events are in a causal-temporal relationship.

Today, having the opportunity to compare and study classic examples of plot perfection (novels by M. Bulgakov, M. Sholokhov, V. Nabokov), we can hardly imagine that in its development the plot went through numerous stages of formation and developed its own principles of organization and formation. Aristotle already noted that a plot must have “a beginning, which presupposes further action, a middle, which presupposes both the previous and the subsequent, and an ending, which requires previous action, but has no follow-up."

Writers have always had to deal with a variety of plot and compositional problems: how to introduce new characters into the unfolding action, how to take them away from the pages of the narrative, how to group and distribute them in time and space. Such a seemingly necessary plot point as the climax was first truly developed only by the English novelist Walter Scott, the creator of tense and exciting plots.

Introduction to literary criticism (N.L. Vershinina, E.V. Volkova, A.A. Ilyushin, etc.) / Ed. L.M. Krupchanov. - M, 2005

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

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

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

There is also a point of view that the concept of “plot” has no independent meaning, and to analyze a work it is quite enough to operate with the concepts of “plot”, “plot diagram”, “plot composition”.

Typology of plots

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

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

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

see also

Notes

Links

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

Wikimedia Foundation.

• 2010.
• Aloy

See what “Plot” is in other dictionaries:

Plot Chen Zaidao Literary encyclopedia

plot- 1. S. in literature, a reflection of the dynamics of reality in the form of an action unfolding in a work, in the form of internally connected (causal and temporal connection) actions of characters, events that form a certain unity, constituting some ... - a, m. sujet m. 1. An event or a series of interconnected and sequentially developing events that make up the content of a literary work. BAS 1. || trans. Relationships. He is a newcomer and immediately understands the plot of the camera: the hidden power of P...

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

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

plot- Cm … Synonym dictionary

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

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

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

Subsection Terminology

Plot Fable

Plot outline: completed, unfinished

Plot technique: recurrent, complicated, framing, linear

Exposition Commencement Development of action Climax Resolution Ending

Exposure: direct, delayed, diffuse, reverse

Prologue Epilogue

Inception: motivated, sudden

Peripeteia

Climax: eventual, psychological

Resolution: motivated, unmotivated, zero

Additional Information; separated by spaces from the main one.

Plot and plot

As already mentioned, dramatic and epic works depict events in the lives of characters, their actions taking place in space and time. This side artistic creativity(the course of events, usually consisting of the actions of the heroes, i.e. the spatio-temporal dynamics of what is depicted) is denoted by the term "south".

Plot (from French sujet) – a chain of events depicted in a literary work, i.e. the life of the characters in its spatio-temporal changes, in changing positions and circumstances.

Ø Plots are often taken from mythology, historical legend, from the literature of past eras, are processed, changed, supplemented.

Ø The plot, as a rule, comes to the fore in the test and determines its construction (composition). But sometimes the depiction of events gives way to impressions, thoughts, experiences of the characters, descriptions outside world and nature.

Like the character system, the plot carries a number of meaningful functions.

1. Identifies and characterizes a person’s connections with his environment, i.e., his place in reality and destiny, creates a picture of the world.

2. Recreates life's contradictions (it is difficult to imagine a plot without conflict).

Plots are organized in different ways. There are plots with a predominance of purely temporary connections (chronicle) and plots with a predominance of cause-and-effect relationships (concentric).

Wed. The king died and the queen died- chronicle story.

The king died and the queen died of grief- concentric plot.

One way or another, plots are made up of the actions of the characters.

Action- the manifestation of a person’s emotions, thoughts and intentions in his actions, movements, spoken words, gestures, and facial expressions.

Known in literature different types actions. In the process of external action, the relationships between the characters, their fate, and public understanding change in one direction or another. Internal action presupposes the behavior of characters in which they show feelings in behavior, words, gestures, but do nothing to change their lives.

In traditional plots, where the action moves from beginning to end, twists and turns play a significant role - all kinds of turns from happiness to misfortune, from failure to success.

Ø Ups and downs were of great importance in heroic tales antiquity and fairy tales, in comedies and tragedies of antiquity and the Renaissance, in early short stories and novels (love-knightly and adventure-punctual), later - in adventure and detective literature.

Plots with twists and turns embody the idea of ​​the power of chance over people.

There are two types of sequence of events in a work: logical, also causal-temporal, (event A - event B - event C - event D) and constructed by the author (for example, event D - event A - event B - event C). For example, in L.N. Tolstoy’s story “The Death of Ivan Vasilyevich,” the reader first sees the hero’s corpse, and then gets acquainted with the story of his life. This is how two concepts arise in literary criticism: plot and plot.

According to B.V. Tomashevsky, plot– an artistically constructed distribution of events in the work, and plot– a set of events in their internal connection.

However, in literature, the concepts of plot and fable are often identified or not differentiated. Strictly speaking, such a distinction is necessary only in a number of cases: for the author when working on a work, for a reader for a competent retelling, for a specialist when analyzing a work, especially if the series of events is complex.

As an example, consider the story by M. Yu. Lermontov “A Hero of Our Time.”

This arrangement serves as a special artistic tasks: in particular, Pechorin is first shown through the eyes of Maxim Maksimych, and only then we see him from the inside, according to entries from the diary.

Remember the plot of I. A. Bunin’s story “Easy Breathing” and restore its plot.

The idea of ​​a work of art.

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

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

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

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

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

1. 1. Theme of the work of art .

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

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

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

The plot of a work of art.

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

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

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

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

3) plot and plot have no fundamental difference.

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

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

The plot consists of the following main elements:

Exposition

Action development

Climax

Denouement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4. The plot of a work of art.

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

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

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

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

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

Composition can be internal or external.

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

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

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