Plot
Composition
Composition- the construction of a work of art, determined by its content and character. Composition is the most important element of form, giving the work unity and integrity. Word " composition" comes from the Latin compositio - composing, linking. Composition represents proportionality components, construction, architecture of the work.
In a journalistic work (due to the peculiarities of the journalistic reflection of reality - intermittent and mosaic), various events separated in time and space can be connected; semantic blocks that reveal the essence of a particular phenomenon; heterogeneous facts and observations; opinions and assessments of people, etc. However, what is meant is not a simple “fastening” of them, but such a connection of various content components that would contribute to the creation whole work . Integrity is characterized by new qualities and properties that are not inherent in individual parts (elements), but arise as a result of their interaction in a certain system of connections. Integrity is achieved by the unity of artistic form and content.
The dialectic of interaction between content and form follows from the different quality levels of content elements. Some of them express the essence of a phenomenon (theoretical fact, idea, concept), others record specific manifestations of this essence (empirical fact, opinion, situation). Plot - reflection of the dynamics of reality in the form of what unfolds in the work actions
, in the form of internally connected (cause-temporal connection) actions of characters, events that form a certain unity, constituting some complete whole. Word " plot " comes from the French sujet - subject, i.e. "system of events in work of art , revealing characters characters
The unity of action in the works is determined by the fact that the author does not mechanically reproduce the entire inexhaustible multitude of phenomena and connections of reality, but makes a certain selection of some aspects of life, some specific connections that seem typical to him, selects this or that topic and resolves some then the problem.
In journalism, a plot is understood as “the movement of events, thoughts, experiences, in which human characters, destinies, contradictions, and social conflicts are revealed. It is the plot that gives the publicist the opportunity to reveal in development and comprehensively depict characters and circumstances, to identify the connection between them. Unlike a literary plot, a journalistic plot is “more “collected”, not developed, it, as a rule, lacks exposition, the beginning and development of the action are maximally intertwined with each other, and the climax and denouement are perhaps the most developed part... The plot is not a mechanical cast of an event or phenomenon, not a mirror image of the design of an object. It is developed as a result of the creative process, built in accordance with the social purpose
who is being pursued by a publicist. And the goals and objectives when constructing the plot of the material can be very different. In some cases, a journalist needs to reflect the dynamics of the development of a particular event, in others - to show the formation of the character of the hero of the work, in others - to reflect a life collision or conflict, in fourths - to highlight a problem. In all these cases, the journalist chooses those techniques and means of plot construction that are most beneficial for the idea of the work and are able to highlight the object or subject of description. An event or system of events depicted by the author occurs in time, in cause-effect relationships and is characterized by relative completeness. Hence the plot elements:
exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement. The organic beginning in many (especially large) journalistic works is plot , which implements the author’s formulation of problems in the plot, exposes the initial contradictions, depicts the first clash of contending forces and serves as the primary source of further action and struggle. Getting Started often precedes exposition , i.e., a description of the circumstances under which the action will unfold, the alignment of the active forces that have not yet entered into a real struggle. The main part of the work is called. development of action Climax – point of highest tension. An important point to understand the work is , in which one or another resolution of contradictions is given, the final relationship of the contending forces, the author’s assessment of the results of the struggle, and thereby one or another solution to the problem posed by the author.
However, it must be borne in mind that not every plot work has tie , denouement, climax, exposition, etc. The order of plot elements may change depending on the author's intention. In essays and reports, the beginning is used landscape sketch, if it creates the appropriate mood, is organically connected by content. Often there is a ring composition, when a journalist, to enhance the emotional impact, repeats at the end of the material the facts and judgments given in the first paragraph. A very common technique is when the climax or even the denouement is brought into the lead, and only then other elements are introduced. This makes it possible to immediately acquaint the reader with the essence of the conflict or problem, its peak.
The most common and dynamic - event plot. It is used in information genres. It is based on a one-time event, limited in time and space. The plot expressing character history, (note, not a life story or biography) is used when working on essays and sketches. Finally, problematic plot the journalist makes a choice when researching reality; it is typical for analytical genres. The search for a plot twist occurs in the process of developing a topic, it is determined by life materials and the tasks that the journalist has to solve.
More than once attempts have been made to classify the endless variety of literary subjects. If this was possible at least partially (at the level of repeating plot patterns), then only within the boundaries of folklore (the works of Academician A. N. Veselovsky, the book of V. Ya. Propp “The Morphology of Fairy Tales,” etc.). Beyond this point, within the limits of individual creativity, such classifications did not prove anything other than the arbitrary imagination of their authors. This is the only thing that convinces us, for example, of the classification of plots undertaken at one time by Georges Polti. Even the so-called eternal stories(the plots of Ahasfer, Faust, Don Juan, Demon, etc.) do not convince of anything other than the fact that their commonality is based only on the unity of the hero. And here, nevertheless, the spread of purely plot options is too great: behind the same hero there is a chain of different incidents, sometimes in contact with the traditional plot scheme, sometimes falling away from it. Moreover, the very dominant character of the hero in such plots turns out to be too unstable.
It is obvious that Faust folk legend, Faust by Christopher Marlowe and Faust by Goethe and Pushkin are far from the same, just like Don Juan by Moliere, Mozart’s opera, Pushkin’s “The Stone Guest,” and A. K. Tolstoy’s poem. The suppression of the above-mentioned plots in some general mythical and legendary situations (the situation of Faust’s pact with the devil, the situation of retribution that befell Don Juan) does not dampen the individual originality of the plot design. That’s why we can talk about the typology of plots in the world of individual creativity only by keeping in mind the most general trends, largely depending on the genre.
In the vast variety of subjects, two aspirations have long made themselves felt (however, rarely presented in a pure, unalloyed form): to the epically calm and smooth flow of the event and to the escalation of events, to diversity and rapid change of situations. The differences between them are not unconditional: declines and increases in tension are characteristic of any plot. And yet, in world literature there are many plots marked by an accelerated pace of events, a variety of positions, frequent transfers of action in space, and an abundance of surprises.
An adventure novel, a novel of travel, adventure literature, and detective prose gravitate toward precisely such an eventful depiction. Such a plot keeps the reader’s attention in unremitting tension, sometimes seeing its main goal in maintaining it. In the latter case, interest in the characters clearly weakens and decreases in value in the name of interest in the plot. And the more all-consuming this interest becomes, the more obviously such prose shifts from the realm of great art to the realm of fiction.
Action fiction itself is heterogeneous: most often without rising to the true heights of creativity, it, however, has its peaks in the adventure or detective genre or in the field of fantasy. However, it is fantastic prose that is least homogeneous in terms of artistic value: it has its own masterpieces. Such, for example, are the romantic fantasies of Hoffmann. His whimsical plot, marked by all the violence and inexhaustibility of fantasy, does not in the least distract from the characters of his romantic madmen. Both of them, both the characters and the plot, carry within themselves Hoffmann’s special vision of the world: they contain the daring of soaring above the vulgar prose of measured philistine reality, they contain a mockery of the apparent strength of burgher society with its deification of utility, rank and wealth. And finally (and most importantly), Hoffmann’s plot insists that it is in the human spirit that the source of beauty, diversity and poetry, although it is also the receptacle of satanic temptation, ugliness and evil. Hamlet’s words “There are many things in the world, friend Horatio, that our wise men never dreamed of” could be an epigraph to the fantasies of Hoffmann, who always felt painfully acutely the flow of the secret strings of existence. The struggle between God and the devil takes place in the souls of Hoffmann’s heroes and in his plots, and this is so serious (especially in the novel “The Elixir of Satan”) that it fully explains F. M. Dostoevsky’s interest in Hoffmann. Hoffmann's prose convinces us that even a fantastic plot can contain depth and philosophical content.
Tension dynamic plot is not always steady and does not always develop upward. Here, a combination of braking (retardation) and increasing dynamics is much more often used. Braking, accumulating reader anticipation, only aggravates the affect of tense plot twists. In such a plot, chance takes on special significance: chance meetings of characters, random changes in fate, the hero’s unexpected discovery of his true origin, the accidental acquisition of wealth or, conversely, an accidental disaster. All life here (especially, of course, in the adventure novel and in the novel of “high roads”) sometimes appears as a play of chance. It would be in vain to look for any profound artistic “philosophy” of the accidental in this. Its abundance in such stories is largely explained by the fact that chance makes it easier for the author to worry about motivations: chance doesn’t need them.
If the accidental in such plots acquires ideological significance, then only in the historically early forms of the picaresque novel. Here, a favorable event is perceived as a kind of reward for the strong-willed determination of a private person, an adventurer and a predator, who justifies his predatory inclinations by the depravity of the human world order. The unreasoning onslaught of such a personality, who perceives everything around only as an object of application of a predatory instinct, in such stories seems to sanctify its base goals with the favor of chance.
Epicly calm types of plots, of course, do not avoid tension and dynamism. They just have a different tempo and rhythm of the event, which does not distract attention to itself, allowing the artistic fabric of the characters to be spaciously developed. Here the artist’s attention is often transferred from the external world to the internal world. In this context, the event becomes an application point internal forces hero, highlighting the outline of his soul. So sometimes the smallest events turn out to be more eloquent than the large ones and are presented in all their multidimensionality. Psychologized dialogue, various confessional-monological forms of revealing the soul, naturally weaken the dynamics of the action.
Epicly balanced, slow types of plots are most noticeable against the backdrop of turbulent eras, inclining literary creativity towards a dramatized and dynamic depiction of reality. Just by their appearance against this background, they sometimes pursue a special goal: to remind of the deeply harmonious, calm flow of the world, in relation to which the strife and chaos of modernity, all this vanity of vanities are depicted only as a tragic falling away from the eternal foundations of life and nature or from traditional foundations national existence. Such are, for example, “Family Chronicle” and “Childhood of Bagrov the Grandson” by S. T. Aksakov, “Oblomov” and “Cliff” by I. A. Goncharov, “Childhood, Adolescence and Youth” by L. N. Tolstoy, “Steppe "A.P. Chekhov. To the highest degree, these artists are characterized by the precious gift of contemplation, loving dissolution in the subject of the image, a sense of the significance of the small in human existence and its connection with the eternal mystery of life. In the plot frame of such works, a small event is enveloped in such a richness of perception and such a freshness of it, which are accessible, perhaps, only to the spiritual vision of childhood.
Finally, there are types of plots in literature in which the temporal duration of an event is either “compressed” or reversed. In both cases, this is accompanied by a slowdown in the pace of events: the event is, as it were, recorded through "slow motion" Images. Seemingly homogeneous and whole, in such an image it reveals many “atomic” details, which themselves sometimes grow to the size of an event. L. N. Tolstoy has an unfinished sketch called “Stories of Yesterday,” which the writer intended to reproduce not only in the full scope of what happened, but also in the abundance of its contacts with the fleeting “breaths” of the soul. He was forced to leave this plan unfinished: one day of life, caught under the “microscope” of such an image, turned out to be inexhaustible. Tolstoy’s unfinished experience is an early harbinger of the literature that in the 20th century will be aimed at the “stream of consciousness” and in which events, falling into the psychological environment of memory and slowing down their real pace in this environment, bring to life a demonstratively slow flow of the plot (for example, “In Joyce's Search for Lost Time).
Bearing in mind, again, only the tendencies of plot construction, it would be possible to distinguish between centrifugal and centripetal forms of plot. Centrifugal plot unfolds like a tape, unfolds steadily and often in one temporal direction, from event to event. His energy is extensive and aimed at increasing the diversity of positions. In travel literature, in the novel of wanderings, in morally descriptive prose, in the adventure genre, this type of plot appears to us in its most distinct incarnations. But even beyond these limits, for example, in novels based on a detailed biography of the hero, we encounter a similar plot structure. Its chain includes many links, and not one of them grows so large that it can dominate the world. big picture. The wandering hero in such stories easily moves in space, his fate lies precisely in this tireless mobility, in moving from one living environment to another: Melmoth is a wanderer in Maturin’s novel, Dickens’ David Copperfield, Byron’s Childe Harold, Medard in Satan’s Elixir "Hoffman, Ivan Flyagin in Leskov's The Enchanted Wanderer, etc.
One life situation here easily and naturally flows into another. Meetings at life path the wandering hero makes it possible to develop a wide panorama of morals. Transfers of action from one environment to another present no difficulties for the author's imagination. Such a centrifugal plot, in essence, has no internal limit: the patterns of its events can be multiplied as much as desired. And only the exhaustion of fate in the hero’s life movement, his “stop” (and this “stop” most often means either marriage, or acquisition of wealth, or death) put the final touch on such a picture of the plot.
Centripetal plot highlights supporting positions and turning points in the flow of events, trying to emphasize them in detail, presenting them in close-up. These, as a rule, are nerve nodes, energy centers of the plot, which are by no means identical to what is called the climax. There is only one climax, but there may be several such macro-situations. While drawing the dramatic energy of the plot to themselves, they simultaneously radiate it with redoubled force. In the poetics of drama, such situations are called catastrophes (in Freytag's terminology). The action that takes place between them (at least in the epic) is much less detailed, its pace is accelerated, and much of it is omitted from the author's description. Such a plot perceives human destiny as a series of crises or few, but “stellar” moments of existence, in which its essential principles are revealed. Such are the “first meeting, last meeting” of the hero and heroine in “Eugene Onegin”, in Turgenev’s novels “Rudin” and “On the Eve”, etc.
Sometimes such situations in the plot acquire stability beyond the boundaries of a specific writing style, the ability to vary. This means that literature has found in them a certain general meaning that affects the life sense of the era or the nature of the national character. This is a situation that can be defined as “a Russian man on rendez-vous,” using the title of Chernyshevsky’s article (this is A. S. Pushkin, I. S. Turgenev, I. A. Goncharov), or another, persistently repeated in the literature of the second half of the 19th century century (in the works of N. A. Nekrasov, A. Grigoriev, Y. Polonsky, F. M. Dostoevsky), most eloquently indicated by Nekrasov’s lines:
When from the darkness of delusion
I raised a fallen soul...
A centripetal plot tends to more often stop the flight of time, peer into the stable principles of existence, pushing the boundaries of the fleeting and discovering in it the whole world. For him, life and fate are not an unstoppable movement forward, but a series of states that contain, as it were, the possibility of a breakthrough into eternity.
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 add dynamism, poignancy and entertainment to the plot. 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) development of action- 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 heroes and 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- the minimum meaningfully significant component of a literary work, which has 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 movement, or on the scale of a 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.
The number of plots in world literature is limited. Almost every person who decides to one day take up writing is faced with this fact. And this quantity is not only limited, but also counted! There are several typologies that provide a fairly convincing answer to the question: “How many stories are there?”
For the first time, the Byzantine writer (and part-time Patriarch of Constantinople) Photius became interested in this problem, who compiled the “Myriobiblion” - a collection of brief descriptions works of ancient Greek and Byzantine authors, including ecclesiastical, secular, and historical literature.
A thousand years later, interest in this problem flared up with renewed vigor, and now they tried to make the list of subjects as short as possible!
Jorge Luis Borges stated that there are only four plots and, accordingly, four heroes, which he described in his short story “The Four Cycles”.
1. The oldest story is the story of a besieged city, which is stormed and defended by heroes. The defenders know that the city is doomed and resistance is futile. (This is a story about Troy, and the main character, Achilles, knows that he will die without seeing victory. The hero is a rebel, the very fact of whose existence is a challenge to the surrounding reality.
2. The second story is about return. The story of Odysseus, who wandered the seas for ten years in an attempt to return home. The hero of these stories is a man rejected by society, endlessly wandering in an attempt to find himself - Don Quixote, Beowulf.
3. The third story is about search. This story is somewhat similar to the second, but in this case the hero is not an outcast and does not oppose himself to society. Most famous example such a hero is Jason, sailing for the Golden Fleece.
4. The fourth story is about the suicide of God. Atis maims and kills himself, Odin sacrifices himself to Odin, himself, hanging on a tree for nine days, nailed by a spear, Roman legionnaires crucify Christ. The hero of the “death of the gods” - losing or gaining faith, in search of faith - Zarathustra, Bulgakov’s Master, Bolkonsky.
* * *
Christopher Booker, in his book “The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories,” described, as one might guess, seven basic plots on which, in his opinion, all books in history are written. world.
1. “From rags to riches” - the name speaks for itself, the most striking example, familiar to everyone from childhood, is Cinderella. Heroes are ordinary people who discover something unusual in themselves and, through their own efforts or by coincidence, find themselves “at the top.”
2. “Adventure” - a difficult journey in search of an elusive goal. According to Booker, both Odysseus and Jason fall into this category, and also King Solomon's Mines and Around the World in Eighty Days fall into this category.
3. "There and back." The plot is based on the hero’s attempt, torn out from his usual world, to return home. In Booker’s interpretation, these are “Robinson Crusoe”, and “Alice Through the Looking Glass”, and many others.
4. “Comedy” - A certain type of plot that develops according to its own rules. All Jane Austen novels fall into this category.
5. “Tragedy” - the culmination is the death of the main character due to some character flaws, usually love passion or lust for power. These are, first of all, Macbeth, King Lear and Faust.
6. “Resurrection” - the hero is under the power of a curse or dark forces, and a miracle brings him out of this state. A striking example This plot is about Sleeping Beauty, awakened by the kiss of the prince.
7. “Victory over the Monster” - from the title it is clear what the plot is - the hero fights the monster, defeats him and receives a “prize” - treasures or love. Examples: Dracula, David and Goliath
* * *
But the most sensational was the list of plots compiled by playwright Georges Polti, which included thirty-six points (by the way, the number thirty-six was first proposed by Aristotle and much later supported by Victor Hugo). Polti's thirty-six plots and themes cover mainly drama and tragedy. There was controversy around this list, it was repeatedly criticized, but almost no one tried to protest the number 36 itself.
1. PRAYER. Elements of the situation: 1) the pursuer, 2) the persecuted and begging for protection, help, shelter, forgiveness, etc., 3) the force on which it depends to provide protection, etc., while the force does not immediately decide to protect , hesitant, unsure of herself, which is why you have to beg her (thereby increasing the emotional impact of the situation), the more she hesitates and does not dare to provide help. Examples: 1) a person fleeing begs someone who can save him from his enemies, 2) begs for shelter in order to die in it, 3) a shipwrecked person asks for shelter, 4) asks those in power for dear, close people, 5) asks for one relative for another relative, etc.
2. RESCUE. Elements of the situation: 1) unfortunate, 2) threatening, persecuting, 3) savior. This situation differs from the previous one in that there the persecuted person resorted to hesitant force, which had to be begged, but here the savior appears unexpectedly and saves the unfortunate man without hesitation. Examples: 1) the denouement of the famous fairy tale about Bluebeard. 2) saving a sentenced person death penalty or generally in mortal danger, etc.
3. REVENGE FOLLOWING CRIME. Elements of the situation: 1) avenger, 2) guilty, 3) crime. Examples: 1) blood feud, 2) revenge on a rival or rival or lover or mistress out of jealousy.
4. REVENGE OF A CLOSE PERSON FOR ANOTHER CLOSE PERSON OR CLOSE PEOPLE. Elements of the situation: 1) living memory of the insult, harm inflicted on another loved one, the sacrifices he made for the sake of his loved ones, 2) an avenging relative, 3) the relative guilty of these insults, harm, etc. Examples: 1) revenge on a father for his mother or mother on his father, 2) revenge on brothers for his son, 3) on a father for his husband, 4) on a husband for his son, etc. Classic example: Hamlet’s revenge on his stepfather and mother for his murdered father .
5. PERSECUTED. Elements of the situation: 1) a crime committed or a fatal mistake and the expected punishment, retribution, 2) hiding from punishment, retribution for a crime or mistake. Examples: 1) persecuted by the authorities for politics (for example, “The Robbers” by Schiller, the history of the revolutionary struggle in the underground), 2) persecuted for robbery (detective stories), 3) persecuted for a mistake in love (“Don Juan” by Moliere, alimony stories and etc.), 4) a hero pursued by a force superior to him (“Chained Prometheus” by Aeschylus, etc.).
6. SUDDEN DISASTER. Elements of the situation: 1) the victorious enemy, appearing in person; or a messenger bringing terrible news of defeat, collapse, etc., 2) a defeated ruler, a powerful banker, an industrial king, etc., defeated by a winner or struck down by the news. Examples: 1) the fall of Napoleon, 2) “Money” by Zola, 3 ) “The End of Tartarin” by Anfons Daudet, etc.
7. VICTIM (i.e. someone, a victim of some other person or people, or a victim of some circumstances, some misfortune). Elements of the situation: 1) one who can influence the fate of another person in the sense of his oppression or some kind of misfortune. 2) weak, being a victim of another person or misfortune. Examples: 1) ruined or exploited by someone who was supposed to care and protect, 2) a previously loved one or loved one who finds themselves forgotten, 3) unfortunate ones who have lost all hope, etc.
8. OUTRAGE, REVOLT, REBELLION. Elements of the situation: 1) tyrant, 2) conspirator. Examples: 1) a conspiracy of one (“The Fiesco Conspiracy” by Schiller), 2) a conspiracy of several, 3) the indignation of one (“Egmond” by Goethe), 4) the indignation of many (“William Tell” by Schiller, “Germinal” by Zola)
9. A BOLD ATTEMPT. Elements of the situation: 1) the daring person, 2) the object, i.e., what the daring person decides to do, 3) the opponent, the opposing person. Examples: 1) theft of an object (“Prometheus - the Thief of Fire” by Aeschylus). 2) enterprises associated with dangers and adventures (novels by Jules Verne, and adventure stories in general), 3) a dangerous enterprise in connection with the desire to achieve the woman he loves, etc.
10. KIDNAPPING. Elements of the situation: 1) the kidnapper, 2) the kidnapped, 3) protecting the kidnapped and being an obstacle to the kidnapping or opposing the kidnapping. Examples: 1) abduction of a woman without her consent, 2) abduction of a woman with her consent, 3) abduction of a friend, comrade from captivity, prison, etc. 4) abduction of a child.
11. RIDDLE (i.e., on the one hand, asking a riddle, and on the other, asking, striving to solve the riddle). Elements of the situation: 1) asking a riddle, hiding something, 2) trying to solve a riddle, find out something, 3) the subject of a riddle or ignorance (mysterious) Examples: 1) under pain of death, you need to find some person or object, 2 ) to find the lost, the lost, 3) on pain of death to solve the riddle (Oedipus and the Sphinx), 4) to force a person with all sorts of tricks to reveal what he wants to hide (name, gender, state of mind etc.)
12. ACHIEVEMENT OF SOMETHING. Elements of the situation: 1) someone striving to achieve something, seeking something, 2) someone on whom the achievement of something depends for consent or help, refusing or helping, mediating, 3) there may be a third party - a party opposing the achievement. Examples: 1) try to get from the owner a thing or some other benefit in life, consent to marriage, position, money, etc. by cunning or force, 2) try to get something or achieve something with the help of eloquence (directly addressed to the owner of the thing or to the judge, arbitrators on whom the award of the thing depends)
13. HATRED TO YOUR LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) the hater, 2) the hated, 3) the cause of hatred. Examples: 1) hatred between loved ones (for example, brothers) out of envy, 2) hatred between loved ones (for example, a son hating his father) for reasons of material gain, 3) hatred of a mother-in-law for a future daughter-in-law, 4) mother-in-law for a son-in-law, 5) stepmothers to stepdaughter, etc.
14. Rivalry between relatives. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the close ones is preferred, 2) the other is neglected or abandoned, 3) an object of rivalry (in this case, apparently, a twist is possible: at first the preferred one is then neglected and vice versa) Examples: 1) rivalry between brothers (“Pierre and Jean” by Maupassant), 2) rivalry between sisters, 3) father and son - because of a woman, 4) mother and daughter, 5) rivalry between friends (“The Two Gentlemen of Verona” by Shakespeare)
15. ADULTURE (i.e. adultery, adultery), LEADING TO MURDER. Elements of the situation: 1) one of the spouses who violates marital fidelity, 2) the other spouse is deceived, 3) violation of marital fidelity (i.e., someone else is a lover or mistress). Examples: 1) kill or allow your lover to kill your husband (“Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk” by Leskov, “Thérèse Raquin” by Zola, “The Power of Darkness” by Tolstoy) 2) kill a lover who entrusted his secret (“Samson and Delilah”), etc. .
16. MADNESS. Elements of the situation: 1) a person who has fallen into madness (mad), 2) a victim of a person who has fallen into madness, 3) a real or imaginary reason for madness. Examples: 1) in a fit of madness, kill your lover (“The Prostitute Elisa” by Goncourt), a child, 2) in a fit of madness, burn, destroy your or someone else’s work, a work of art, 3) while drunk, reveal a secret or commit a crime.
17. FATAL NEGLIGENCE. The elements of the situation are: 1) a careless person, 2) a victim of carelessness or a lost object, sometimes accompanied by 3) a good adviser warning against carelessness, or 4) an instigator, or both. Examples: 1) through carelessness, be the cause of your own misfortune, dishonor yourself (“Money” Zola), 2) through carelessness or gullibility, cause misfortune or the death of another person close to you (Biblical Eve)
18. INVOLVED (ignorant) CRIME OF LOVE (in particular incest). Elements of the situation: 1) lover (husband), mistress (wife), 3) recognition (in the case of incest) that they are in a close degree of relationship that does not allow love relationship according to the law and current morality. Examples: 1) find out that he married his mother (“Oedipus” by Aeschylus, Sophocles, Corneille, Voltaire), 2) find out that his mistress is his sister (“The Bride of Messina” by Schiller), 3) a very commonplace case: find out that his mistress - Married.
19. INVOLVED (OUT OF IGNORANCE) KILLING OF A CLOSE ONE. Elements of the situation: 1) killer, 2) unrecognized victim, 3) exposure, recognition. Examples: 1) unwittingly contribute to the murder of his daughter, out of hatred for her lover (“The King is Having Fun” by Hugo, the play on which the opera “Rigoletto” was made), 2) without knowing his father, kill him (“Freeloader” by Turgenev with the fact that murder replaced by an insult), etc.
20. SELF-SACRIFICE IN THE NAME OF AN IDEAL. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero sacrificing himself, 2) an ideal (word, duty, faith, conviction, etc.), 3) a sacrifice made. Examples: 1) sacrifice your well-being for the sake of duty (“Resurrection” by Tolstoy), 2) sacrifice your life in the name of faith, belief...
21. SELF-SACRIFICE FOR THE SAKE OF LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) the hero sacrificing himself, 2) the loved one for whom the hero sacrifices himself, 3) what the hero sacrifices. Examples: 1) sacrifice your ambition and success in life for the sake of loved one(“The Zemgano Brothers” by Goncourt), 2) sacrifice your love for the sake of the child, for the sake of life loved one, 3) to sacrifice one’s chastity for the sake of the life of a loved one (“Tosca” by Sordu), 4) to sacrifice one’s life for the sake of the life of a relative or loved one, etc.
22. SACRIFICE EVERYTHING FOR PASSION. Elements of the situation: 1) the lover, 2) the object of fatal passion, 3) what is being sacrificed. Examples: 1) passion that destroys the vow of religious chastity (“The Mistake of Abbe Mouret” by Zola), 2) passion that destroys power, authority (“Antony and Cleopatra” by Shakespeare), 3) passion quenched at the cost of life (“Egyptian Nights” by Pushkin) . But not only a passion for a woman, or a woman for a man, but also a passion for racing, card game, guilt, etc.
23. SACRIFICE A CLOSE PERSON DUE TO NECESSITY, INEVITABILITY. Elements of the situation: 1) a hero sacrificing a loved one, 2) a loved one who is being sacrificed. Examples: 1) the need to sacrifice a daughter for the sake of public interest (“Iphigenia” by Aeschylus and Sophocles, “Iphigenia in Tauris” by Euripides and Racine), 2) the need to sacrifice loved ones or one’s followers for the sake of one’s faith, belief (“93” by Hugo), etc. .d.
24. RIVALRY OF INEQUAL (as well as almost equal or equal). Elements of the situation: 1) one rival (in the case of unequal rivalry - lower, weaker), 2) another rival (higher, stronger), 3) the subject of rivalry. Examples: 1) the rivalry between the winner and her prisoner (“Mary Stuart” by Schiller), 2) the rivalry between the rich and the poor. 3) rivalry between a person who is loved and a person who does not have the right to love (“Esmeralda” by V. Hugo), etc.
25. ADULTERY (adultery, adultery). Elements of the situation: the same as in adultery leading to murder. Not considering adultery capable of creating a situation in itself, Polti considers it as a special case of theft, aggravated by betrayal, while pointing out three possible cases: 1) the lover is more pleasant than firm than the deceived spouse, 2) the lover is less attractive than the deceived spouse, 3) the deceived partner ( a) takes revenge. Examples: 1) “Madame Bovary” by Flaubert, “The Kreutzer Sonata” by L. Tolstoy.
26. CRIME OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) beloved. Examples: 1) a woman in love with her daughter’s husband (“Phaedra” by Sophocles and Racine, “Hippolytus” by Euripides and Seneca), 2) the incestuous passion of Doctor Pascal (in Zola’s novel of the same name), etc.
27. LEARNING ABOUT THE DISHONOR OF A LOVED OR RELATIVE (sometimes associated with the fact that the person who finds out is forced to pronounce a sentence, punish a loved one or loved one). Elements of the situation: 1) the person who recognizes, 2) the guilty loved one or loved one, 3) guilt. Examples: 1) learn about the dishonor of your mother, daughter, wife, 2) discover that your brother or son is a murderer, a traitor to the motherland and be forced to punish him, 3) be forced by virtue of an oath to kill a tyrant - to kill your father, etc. .
28. OBSTACLE OF LOVE. Elements of the situation: 1) lover, 2) mistress, 3) obstacle. Examples: 1) a marriage upset by social or wealth inequality, 2) a marriage upset by enemies or random circumstances, 3) a marriage upset by enmity between parents on both sides, 4) a marriage upset by dissimilarities in the characters of lovers, etc.
29. LOVE FOR THE ENEMY. Elements of the situation: 1) the enemy who aroused love, 2) the loving enemy, 3) the reason why the beloved is the enemy. Examples: 1) the beloved is an opponent of the party to which the lover belongs, 2) the beloved is the killer of the father, husband or relative of the one who loves him (“Romeo and Juliet”), etc.
30. AMBITION AND LOVE OF POWER. Elements of the situation: 1) an ambitious person, 2) what he wants, 3) an opponent or rival, i.e. a person opposing. Examples: 1) ambition, greed, leading to crimes (“Macbeth” and “Richard 3” by Shakespeare, “The Rougons’ Career” and “Earth” by Zola), 2) ambition, leading to rebellion, 3) ambition, which is opposed by a loved one, friend, relative, own supporters, etc.
31. FIGHTING GOD (struggle against God). Elements of the situation: 1) man, 2) god, 3) the reason or subject of struggle. Examples: 1) fighting with God, arguing with him, 2) fighting with those faithful to God (Julian the Apostate), etc.
32. UNCONSCIOUS JEALOUSY, ENVY. Elements of the situation: 1) the jealous person, the envious person, 2) the object of his jealousy and envy, 3) the alleged rival, challenger, 4) the reason for the error or the culprit (traitor). Examples: 1) jealousy is caused by a traitor who is motivated by hatred (“Othello”) 2) the traitor acts out of profit or jealousy (“Cunning and Love” by Schiller), etc.
33. JUDICIAL MISTAKE. Elements of the situation: 1) the one who makes the mistake, 2) the victim of the mistake, 3) the subject of the mistake, 4) the true criminal Examples: 1) judgement mistake provoked by the enemy (“The Belly of Paris” by Zola), 2) a miscarriage of justice was provoked by a loved one, the brother of the victim (“The Robbers” by Schiller), etc.
34. REMENTS OF CONSCIENCE. Elements of the situation: 1) the culprit, 2) the victim of the culprit (or his mistake), 3) looking for the culprit, trying to expose him. Examples: 1) remorse of a murderer (“Crime and Punishment”), 2) remorse due to a mistake in love (“Madeleine” by Zola), etc.
35. LOST AND FOUND. Elements of the situation: 1) lost 2) found, 2) found. Examples: 1) “Children of Captain Grant”, etc.
36. LOSS OF LOVED ONES. Elements of the situation: 1) a deceased loved one, 2) a lost loved one, 3) the perpetrator of the death of a loved one. Examples: 1) powerless to do anything (save his loved ones) - a witness to their death, 2) being bound by a professional secret (medical or secret confession, etc.) he sees the misfortune of loved ones, 3) to anticipate the death of a loved one, 4) to find out about the death of an ally, 5) in despair from the death of a loved one, lose all interest in life, become depressed, etc.
* * *
To be honest, it seems to me that Polti compiled his list too generally, too sweepingly, and although I have studied this list more than once and been interested in it, I cannot say that it suits me completely and completely. I agree with the idea that the number of topics in world literature is limited, but of the previously existing typologies and lists, none seems completely adequate to me.
And therefore, I am ready to offer my typology, or rather my list, and in order not to repeat my older comrades, I will define the circle of the most frequently occurring plots, the most popular, to which, however, most works of literature, drama and cinematography come down. Moreover, I will not describe basic topics, not in general, but I will specify them more specifically.
So, according to Max Akimov, there are twelve main plots:
The FIRST plot, the most hackneyed one, is Cinderella. It is very stable, all variations fit into a clear plot outline of the “standard”. The plot is loved by authors of women's literature, and is often used by screenwriters of melodramas. There are a lot of examples.
SECOND plot - The Count of Monte Cristo is a secret hero who becomes clear towards the end of the play, receiving wealth or opportunities from somewhere. His mission is to take revenge, or bring justice! The plot is very popular among the authors of adventure novels and detective stories. It appeared long before Alexandre Dumas, but this novelist most successfully “smoked” this plot, and after him many people used and used the above-mentioned plot.
THIRD plot - Odyssey. This story can be called the first; it is extremely popular. Variations based on it may be different, but you just have to look closely and the ears stick out quite clearly. Science fiction writers, fantasy writers, authors of adventure literature, travel novels and some other genres are very fond of this ancient plot, and sometimes copy details of ancient Greek history, which can conditionally be considered the starting point, the reference.
FOURTH story - Anna Karenina. Tragic love triangle. It has roots in ancient Greek tragedies, but Lev Nikolaevich managed to write it out most clearly and in detail. In the twentieth century, especially at the beginning and middle of the century, this plot was one of the most popular (even ordinary copies copied from Tolstoy, when skilled authors change only names, historical settings and other surroundings, I saw several). But there are many talented variations on this theme.
FIFTH plot - Hamlet. A strong personality with an agile psyche. A broken hero, reflective and bright, fighting for justice, having tasted the betrayal of loved ones and other delights. In the end, he achieves nothing, capable only of tormenting himself, but achieving some kind of spiritual enlightenment and purification, to which he encourages the viewer. Interesting to a fault.
There is nothing to comment on here. The plot is stable, very popular, there is a lot of Dostoevsky in it (near and close to the Russian heart, and mine in particular). At the moment, this story is more popular than ever.
SIXTH plot - Romeo and Juliet. Story happy love. The total number of repetitions of this plot exceeds the number of repetitions of all other plots, but for some reason there are very few talented works, you can literally count them on your fingers. However, in current TV series, in fiction (especially women's literature), in drama and song writing, the plot is unusually popular.
The plot, again, is extremely stable, as it has been since ancient times and to this day, there are few special variations.
SEVENTH plot - Fathers and sons. Its origins are ancient Greek, the plot is complex, and there is a lot of room for variations in it. This also includes the story of Jason’s bride, who is forced to choose between her father and her groom, and to sacrifice one of them. In short, the whole variety of parental egoism colliding with the egoism of children is described by this ancient tangle of plots, similar friends on a friend. There is also altruism of parents, and even less often altruism of children, but usually this also ends in tragedy (as if someone has jinxed our entire human race. Ask King Lear, he will tell you).
EIGHTH Plot - Robinson. It partly echoes Hamlet, primarily in the theme of loneliness, and a little with Odysseus, but Robinson’s story can still be called a separate large plot of world literature. Today's writers and screenwriters often copy, word for word, the work of Daniel Defoe. But there are also many talented and original variations. The hero, most often, is absolutely alone on the island, but this is not required condition, it happens that several heroes find themselves in some kind of isolation from big world, trying to survive and remain individuals in order to ultimately be saved. My favorite variation is Saltykov-Shchedrin’s story “How one man fed two generals.”
NINTH plot - Trojan theme, war theme. The confrontation between two systems, enmity and hatred, the other side of which is nobility and self-denial. This plot, as a rule, is layered on other plots, or they are layered on top of it, but classic war novels are also not uncommon, descriptions of wars in detail, with varying degrees of artistry. An organic part of this category of plots is the plot of “Spartacus” - a story about a fighter, about a hero, whose personality is sometimes the opposite of the characteristics of reflective heroes, since the essence of Spartacus is a tough struggle as an image of salvation, as a way of life and a way of thinking, a struggle that is intense, obvious, challenging call.
TENTH plot - The catastrophe and its consequences. Classic antique story. At the present time he has been worn out so much that there is no desire to talk. There are a lot of mediocre copies, but occasionally there are interesting ones. The plot is very narrow in terms of semantic variations, but very broad in terms of descriptive possibilities, surroundings and details. But, to be honest, almost every subsequent novel repeats the previous one, even if you don’t go to a fortune teller!
ELEVENTH plot - Ostap Bender - a picaresque novel, an adventure novel. The origins and classic examples are in the literature of France of the New Time. Extremely popular these days, most often comedic. The tangle of plots is quite bright, and there are often successful variations, but all of them, one way or another, copy a couple of templates created back in the early twentieth century.
Similar to the same plot can be conditionally attributed to numerous novels, novellas and short stories that exploit the image of an ironic private detective (or investigator) who acts as “Ostap Bender in reverse.” Nowadays, a certain “roguish detective story” (sometimes a “roguish action film”), the main character of which solves crimes or scams (and sometimes secrets of the past), is popular and in demand.
This plot is often complemented by a literary device that can be called a “rebus story”; most television series (detective format) are based on it, as well as many book series, which are abundantly displayed on store shelves.
Plot TWELVE - Time machine, travel to the future. Its mirror image is a stylization of travel into the past, historical novels. However, this type of work, as a rule, uses “travel to the past” only as an entourage, and the plot is one of those that I listed above, while “travel to the future” is often a “pure plot”, that is, its essence is reduced precisely to the description of how it all works there in this unknown future.
Well, that's it sample list the most frequently used plots often touched upon by writers. Often, plots come across in a standard form, but the writer who is smarter, who has read a lot, before sitting down at his desk, tries to find a synthesis of plots for himself, that is, to combine several basic plots in one work, and also to modify the original idea as much as possible plot.
There is also such a thing as plotless prose, something like a sketch story, a sketch novel (these genres can be defined in different ways). The literary merits of such texts are different, sometimes quite good, they can sound philosophical motives, imitation of Ovid, etc.
But still, quite distinct modifications of the twelve plots that I have listed are often encountered.
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 long 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, and why chronic type both critics and authors forget?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of each type?
In general, I propose to discuss this topic.
