At the moment, scientists from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (V.I. Tyupa, I.V. Silantiev, E.K. Romodanovskaya and others) are working on compiling a Dictionary of plots and motifs of Russian literature, based on the understanding of motive as the primary element of the plot, the ascending teaching A.N. Veselovsky.

Great achievements in the development of the theory of motive in modern literary criticism belong to I.V.Silantiev. Some of the scientist’s works are devoted to an analytical description of the motive, as well as a historiographical consideration of this category in Russian literary criticism. Comparing the motive with the theme, plot, hero work of art, the scientist comes to the following understanding: “A motif is a narrative phenomenon, in its structure correlating the beginning of a plot action with its actants and a certain spatio-temporal scheme.” Defining a motif as “intertextual in its functioning, invariant in its belonging to the artistic language of the narrative tradition and variant in its plot implementations,” the philologist writes that this term acquires a specific meaning within a certain plot context.”

V.E. Khalizev, clarifying the idea of ​​the semiotic significance of a motif, speaks of its ability “to represent a separate word or phrase, repeated or varied, or to appear as something denoted by different lexical units.” The ability to appear half-realized in a work of art, to go into subtext, is defined by a philologist as the most important feature of a motive.

Analyzing the relationship between hero and motive in works of art of modern times, I.V. Silantyev notes that these thematic-semantic connections are no longer always manifested.

In modern literary criticism, there is a tendency to consider motive not only in the context of elucidating literary trends (where it is understood as a category of comparative historical literary criticism), but also in the context of the writer’s entire work. The priority in posing the question belongs to A.N. Veselovsky. In his understanding, the writer thinks in terms of motives, because creative activity fantasy is not an arbitrary game of “living pictures of life”, real or fictitious. This leads to a more specific and practical scientific problem of studying the individual vocabulary of motives of an individual writer.

The authors of the article “Motives of Lermontov’s Poetry” (L.M. Shchemeleva, V.I. Korovin, etc.), considering the poet’s work as a whole as an interaction, a correlation of motives, argue that this term is losing its previous content, which related to the formal structure of the work , and “from the field of strict poetics moves into the field of studying the worldview and psychology of the writer.”

The Encyclopedic Literary Dictionary (1987) states that motif is "more direct than other components artistic form, correlates with the world of the author’s thoughts and feelings.”

On this moment in literary criticism there is also the idea of ​​a motive as the property not of the text and its creator, but of the unrestricted thought of the interpreter of the work. The properties of the motive, according to B.M. Gasparov, “grow anew every time, in the process of analysis itself.” These properties, according to the scientist, depend on which contexts of the writer’s work are addressed when researching. B.M. Gasparov understands a motif as a cross-level unit, which, repeated in a literary text, varies and intertwines with other motifs, creating its (the text’s) unique poetics. Based on this interpretation of the term, the literary scholar introduces the concept of motive analysis into scientific use. This analysis represents a variation of the poststructuralist approach to literary text. The essence of motive analysis, according to the scientist, lies in the fundamental rejection of the concept of “fixed blocks of structure that objectively have given function in the construction of the text." Metaphorically presenting the structure of the text “like a tangled ball of thread,” B.M. Gasparov suggests taking not traditional terms (words, sentences), but motives as the unit of analysis. His follower, V.P. Rudnev, considering motive analysis “an effective approach to a literary text,” notes the natural variability” in the interpretation of a particular motive, “because the structure<...>artistic discourse is inexhaustible and endless."

For our research, the thematic approach to the study of motive that developed in the 20s of the last century is of interest. Representatives of this direction (V.B. Shklovsky, B.V. Tomashevsky, A.P. Skaftymov, G.V. Krasnov, etc.) interpret the motif not as the main unit of plot, but in close connection with the theme of the work. In the traditional approach to motive as a narrative element, the predicative nature of the keyword has conceptual significance. Thematic direction In the practice of identifying a motive, it allows its designation through a noun that does not imply a set of actions.

Criticizing the thematic approach, I.V. Silantyev notes that the lyrical motif is different from the narrative one. If the latter, according to the scientist, is based on “the moment of action that gives the motive a predicative character,” then the lyrical motive is based “on the internal event of subjective experience.” Thus, if in a narrative motif the determining principle is the plot, and the theme is subordinated to the motive, then in the lyrical motive the importance of the thematic principle prevails, and the motive is subordinate to the theme. Based on this position, I.V. Silantyev writes that “every motive in the lyrics is exclusively thematic.” This interpretation of the motive is conceptual for our study.

Some scientists see identity in the similarity of the concepts of motive and theme. For example, B.V. Tomashevsky writes that “the themes of small parts of a work are called motives that cannot be split up.” Failure of some scholars to distinguish between motive and theme in the practice of literary research I.V. Silantyev explains them as an attempt “at the level of theoretical construction to overcome the objective duality of the very phenomenon of literary themes.”

Modern literary scholars distinguish between the concepts of motive and theme. Thus, V.E. Khalizev says that the motive is “actively involved in the theme, but is not identical to it.” The scientist identifies a distinctive property of the motive: its verbal consolidation and repetition in the text.

It should be noted that in literary studies concepts related to motive are also used - “motiveme”, “allomotiv” and “leitmotif”. In the thematic-semantic aspect, B.V. Tomashevsky considered the relationship between motive and leitmotif: “If<...>the motive is repeated more or less often, and especially if it is cross-cutting, i.e. woven into the plot, it is called a leitmotif."

In literary criticism, there is another (functional) tradition of understanding the motive as a figurative turn that is repeated throughout the entire work” as a moment of “constant characterization of a character, experience or situation.” E.A. Balburov explains the emergence of the categorical pair “motiveme-allomotiv” by the peculiarity of the interaction of motives in the text. The scientist notes their “ability to unfold into a plot, form a tangle of motives or break up into smaller motives,” or even parts (allomotives and motivemes).

Modern literary scholars believe that the only possible dictionary of motives and plots is the dictionary of motives. Yu.V. Shatin in the article “Motive and Context” points out that two components of the motiveme should be taken into account - formal (distinguishing one motiveme from another) and substantive, related to the context. The scientist writes that it is necessary to explore the meaning of any motive taking into account the consideration of the context in which it exists. According to Yu.V. Shatin, it is important to study not only the archetypal motivemes that gave rise to the allomotive, but also its immediate contexts.

Thus, motive in literary criticism is considered from fundamentally opposite points of view. Thus, some scientists associate the emergence of motifs only in folklore (A.N. Veselovsky, V.Ya. Propp, E.M. Meletinsky). The ideas of the mythological direction are subject to critical rethinking in the works of D.S. Likhachev and A.V. Mikhailov. In addition to the semantic one (O.M. Freidenberg, B.N. Putilov...), in modern literary criticism there is a thematic approach (B.V. Tomashevsky, V.V. Zhirmunsky, V.B. Shklovsky, G.V. Krasnov and etc.) and understanding of motive as the basis for plotting (by scientists of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences). Also, at present, the school of B.M. Gasparov, who understands the motive as an extra-structural principle - the property of the interpretation of the interpreter, is of great interest to researchers literary text.

But no matter what semantic tones are given to the term “motive” in literary criticism, its relevance remains obvious.

According to E.A. Balburov, the researcher, looking for a motive, “translates from a linear-discrete language to an iconic one,” i.e. does the opposite of the author's work. This work, according to Yu.M. Lotman, has a meaning-generating effect, and the study of the motive helps to identify the semantic riches of the work.

If you read all national poetry as a single book, then you can identify stable motifs in it that go beyond the individual author’s consciousness and belong to the poetic consciousness of the entire people, characterizing their holistic perception of nature. In fact, from the set of poetic works, another set is isolated, organized not around authors, but around motives. The lines are not closed by the narrow context in which the poet concluded them, but echo each other at a distance of decades, even centuries. Just as different motifs are combined in a poem by one author, so one motif unites the works of different authors around itself and has its own poetic reality, which can also be aesthetically perceived.

As a working definition of the motive on which the research of the topic will be based thesis, I.V. Silantyev’s definition was chosen: “The motive in the lyrics most fully characterizes the author’s concept. These are semantically “strong” units of the verbal structure of a poem. The motif contains the ideological content of the lyrical work and serves as an expression of the author’s position.”

Motif is a term that entered the literature from musicology. It was first recorded in the “musical dictionary” of S. de Brossard in 1703. Analogies with music, where this term is key when analyzing the composition of a work, help to understand the properties of a motif in a literary work: its isolation from the whole and its repetition in a variety of situations.

In literary criticism, the concept of motive was used to characterize the components of a plot by Goethe and Schiller. They identified five types of motives: accelerating action, slowing down action, distancing action from the goal, facing the past, anticipating the future.

The concept of motive as the simplest narrative unit was first theoretically substantiated in the Poetics of Plots Veselovsky. He was interested in the repetition of motifs in different genres different nations. Veselovsky considered motives to be the simplest formulas that could arise in different tribes independently of each other. (struggle for the inheritance of brothers, fight for the bride, etc.) he comes to the conclusion that creativity is primarily manifested in a combination of motives that gives one or another plot (in a fairy tale there is not one task, but five, etc.)

Subsequently, combinations of motives were transformed into various compositions and became the basis of such genres as the novel, story, poem. The motive itself, according to Veselovsky, remained stable and indecomposable; combinations of motives make up the plot. The plot could be borrowed, passed from people to people, or become wandering. In a plot, each motive can be main, secondary, episodic... many motives can be developed into entire plots, and vice versa.

Veselovsky's position on the motive as an indecomposable unit of narrative was revised in the 20s. Propp : motives are decomposed, the last decomposable unit does not represent a logical whole. Propp calls the primary elements functions of the actors - actions of the characters, defined in terms of their significance for the course of the action.. seven types of characters, 31 functions (based on Afanasyev’s collection)

It is particularly difficult to identify motifs in the literature of recent centuries: their diversity and complex functional load.

In the literature of different eras there are many mythological motives. Constantly updating within the historical and literary context, they retain their essence (the motive of the hero’s conscious death because of a woman, apparently it can be considered as a transformation of the fight for the bride highlighted by Veselovsky (Lensky in Pushkin, Romashov in Kuprin).

A generally accepted indicator of a motive is its repeatability .

The leading motive in one or many works of a writer can be defined as leitmotif . It can be considered at the level of theme and figurative structure of the work. In Chekhov's Cherry Orchard, the motif of the garden as a symbol of Home, beauty and sustainability of life... we can talk about the role of both the leitmotif and the organization of the second, secret meaning of the work - subtext, undercurrent (phrase: “life is lost” - the leitmotif of Uncle Vanya. Chekhov)

Tomashevsky: Episodes are broken down into even smaller parts that describe individual actions, events, and things. Themes such small parts of a work that cannot be further divided are called motives .

IN lyrical in a work, a motif is a recurring set of feelings and ideas expressed in artistic speech. Motifs in lyric poetry are more independent, because they are not subordinated to the development of action, as in epic and drama. Sometimes the poet’s work as a whole can be considered as an interaction, a correlation of motives. (In Lermontov: motives of freedom, will, memory, exile, etc.) One and the same motive can receive different symbolic meanings in lyrical works of different eras, emphasizing the closeness and originality of the poets (Pushkin’s road in Besy and Gogol’s in M.D., the homeland of Lermontov and Nekrasov, Yesenin’s and Blok’s Rus', etc.)

At his lectures, Stepanov said only the following:

According to Tomashevsky, motives are divided

Free and bound motifs:

Those that can be skipped (details, details play an important role in the plot: they do not make the work sketchy.)

Those that cannot be omitted when retelling, because the cause-and-effect relationship is broken... form the basis of the plot.

Dynamic and static motifs:

1. Changing the situation. The transition from happiness to unhappiness and vice versa.

Peripeteia (Aristotle: “the transformation of an action into its opposite) is one of the essential elements of complicating the plot, denoting any unexpected turn in the development of the plot.

2. Not changing the situation (descriptions of the interior, nature, portrait, actions and deeds that do not lead to important changes)

Free motives can be static, but not every static motive is free.

I don’t know which book this is from Tomashevsky, because in “Theory of Literature. Poetics." He's writing:

Motivation. The system of motives that make up the theme of this work, should represent some artistic unity. If all parts of a work are poorly fitted to one another, the work “falls apart.” Therefore, the introduction of each individual motive or each set of motives must be justified(motivated). The appearance of one or another motive should seem necessary to the reader in a given place. The system of techniques that justify the introduction of individual motives and their complexes is called motivation. Motivation methods are varied, and their nature is not uniform. Therefore, it is necessary to classify motivations.

TO oppositional motivation.

Its principle lies in economy and expediency of motives. Individual motifs can characterize objects introduced into the reader’s field of vision (accessories) or the actions of characters (“episodes”). Not a single accessory should remain unused in the plot, not a single episode should remain without influence on the plot situation. It was about compositional motivation that Chekhov spoke when he argued that if at the beginning of the story it is said that a nail is driven into the wall, then at the end of the story the hero should hang himself on this nail. (“Dowry” by Ostrovsky using the example of weapons. “There is a carpet above the sofa on which weapons are hung.”

First it is introduced as a detail of the setting. In the sixth scene, attention is drawn to this detail in the remarks. At the end of the action, Karandyshev, running away, grabs a pistol from the table. In the 4th act, he shoots Larisa with this pistol. The introduction of the weapon motif here is compositionally motivated. This weapon is necessary for the outcome. It serves as preparation last moment drama.) The second case of compositional motivation is the introduction of motives as characterization techniques . The motives must be in harmony with the dynamics of the plot. (Thus, in the same “Dowry” the motif of “Burgundy”, made by a counterfeit wine merchant at a cheap price, characterizes the wretchedness of Karandyshev’s everyday environment and prepares for Larisa’s departure).

These characteristic details can be in harmony with the action:

1) by psychological analogy ( romantic landscape: Moonlight night for a love scene, storm and thunder for a scene of death or crime),

2) by contrast (motive of “indifferent” nature, etc.).

In the same "Dowry", when Larisa dies, the singing of a gypsy choir can be heard from the restaurant doors. One must also take into account the possibility false motivation . Accessories and incidents may be introduced to distract the reader's attention from the true situation. This very often appears in detective stories, where a number of details are given that lead the reader down the wrong path. The author makes us assume the outcome is not what it actually is. The deception is unraveled at the end, and the reader is convinced that all these details were introduced only to prepare surprises at the denouement.

Realistic motivation

From each work we demand an elementary “illusion”, i.e. no matter how conventional and artificial the work may be, its perception must be accompanied by a sense of the reality of what is happening. For a naive reader this feeling is extremely strong, and such a reader can believe in the authenticity of what is being presented, can be convinced of the real existence of the heroes. Thus, Pushkin, having just published “The History of the Pugachev Rebellion,” publishes “ Captain's daughter" in the form of Grinev's memoirs with the following afterword: "Peter Andreevich Grinev's manuscript was delivered to us from one of his grandchildren, who learned that we were busy with work dating back to the time described by his grandfather.

We decided, with the permission of our relatives, to publish it separately." An illusion of the reality of Grinev and his memoirs is created, especially supported by moments of Pushkin’s personal biography known to the public (his historical studies on the history of Pugachev), and the illusion is also supported by the fact that the views and beliefs expressed by Grinev , in many respects diverge from the views expressed by Pushkin on his own. Realistic illusion in a more experienced reader is expressed as a requirement for “vitality.”

Firmly knowing the fictional nature of the work, the reader still demands some correspondence with reality and in this correspondence sees the value of the work. Even readers well versed in the laws artistic construction, cannot psychologically free themselves from this illusion. In this regard, each motive must be introduced as a motive likely in this situation.

We do not notice, getting used to the technique of an adventure novel, the absurdity that the hero’s salvation always occurs five minutes before his inevitable death, the audience of the ancient comedy did not notice the absurdity that in the last act all the characters suddenly turned out to be close relatives. However, how tenacious this motive is in drama is shown by Ostrovsky’s play “Guilty Without Guilt,” where at the end of the play the heroine recognizes her lost son in the hero). This motive of recognizing kinship was extremely convenient for the denouement (kinship reconciled interests, radically changing the situation) and therefore became firmly entrenched in tradition.

So, realistic motivation has its source either in naive trust or in the demand for illusion. This doesn't stop you from developing. fantastic literature. If folk tales and usually arise in a popular environment that allows for the real existence of witches and brownies, they continue to exist as some kind of conscious illusion, where a mythological system or a fantastic worldview (the assumption of really unjustifiable “possibilities”) is present as some kind of illusory hypothesis.

It is curious that fantastic narratives in a developed literary environment, under the influence of the requirements of realistic motivation, usually give double interpretation plot: can it be understood and how real event, and how fantastic. From the point of view of the realistic motivation for constructing the work, the introduction to the work of art is easy to understand extraliterary material, i.e. topics that have real meaning beyond the realm of fiction.

So, in historical novels Historical figures are brought onto the stage, one or another interpretation of historical events is introduced. See in the novel “War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy a whole military-strategic report on the Battle of Borodino and the fire of Moscow, which caused controversy in the specialized literature. IN modern works everyday life familiar to the reader is presented, questions of moral, social, political, etc. are raised. order, in a word, themes are introduced that live their own lives outside of fiction.

Artistic motivation

The introduction of motives is the result of a compromise between realistic illusion and the requirements of artistic construction. Not everything borrowed from reality is suitable for a work of art.

On the basis of artistic motivation, disputes usually arise between old and new literary schools. The old, traditional movement usually denies the presence of artistry in new literary forms. This is, for example, reflected in poetic vocabulary, where the very use of individual words must be in harmony with solid literary traditions (the source of “prosaisms” - words prohibited in poetry). As a special case of artistic motivation, there is a technique defamiliarization. The introduction of non-literary material into a work, so that it does not fall out of the work of art, must be justified by novelty and individuality in the coverage of the material.

We must talk about the old and familiar as new and unusual. The ordinary is spoken of as strange. These methods of defamiliarization of ordinary things are usually themselves motivated by the refraction of these themes in the psychology of the hero, who is unfamiliar with them. There is a well-known technique of defamiliarization by L. Tolstoy, when, describing the military council in Fili in “War and Peace,” he introduces as actor a peasant girl observing this council and in her own, childish way, without understanding the essence of what was happening, interpreting all the actions and speeches of the council participants.

THE CONCEPT OF “MOTIVE” AND ITS INTERPRETATION IN THE THEORY OF LITERATURE AND MUSIC

S. G. SHALYGINA

The article is devoted to the consideration of the concept of motive and its interpretation in the theory of literature in comparison with the art of music. The main approaches to the study of this concept in the context of research by leading literary theorists are considered, and the path of understanding this concept in the practice of scientific theoretical thought is traced.

Key words: motive, theory of motive, structure of motive, level of realization of motive.

Music and literature are perhaps the most mutually enriching and complementary fields of art. Literature and music are song, opera, theater, cinema. A musical work can be roughly compared to a literary work. Each work has a specific design, idea and content, which become clear with gradual presentation. In a piece of music, the content is presented in a continuous stream of sounds. Work musical art attributes such concepts as syntax, period, sentence, caesura, drama, lyricism, epic. Just as in fiction, thoughts are expressed in sentences consisting of individual words, so in melody, sentences are divided into smaller structures - phrases and motives.

A motive in music is the smallest part of a melody that has a specific expressive meaning and that can be recognized when it appears. A motive usually has one accent (like one stress in a word), so the most typical length of a motive is one measure. Depending on the tempo and rhythm, indivisible two-beat motifs can be formed.

By analogy with the name of the poetic feet, the motives have names - iambic and trochee. Iambic is a motive that begins on a weak beat. A characteristic feature of iambic is the desire for the subsequent strong beat. Iambic motives have a strong ending and sound active and energetic.

A trochee is a motif that begins with a strong beat. A characteristic sign of chorea is the transition from a strong beat to a weak beat. Choreic motifs have a weak ending and sound more soft and lyrical.

This concept, one of the pillars in musicology, also has a responsible place in the science of literature. It is present in almost everyone

modern European languages, goes back to the Latin verb “moveo” (I move) and in modern science has a very wide range of meanings.

The leading meaning of this literary term is difficult to define. In the works of V. E. Khalizev one can find the following definition of the concept we are analyzing: “A motif is a component of works that has increased significance (semantic richness). He is actively involved in the theme and concept (idea) of the work, but is not identical to them.” According to the scientist, the motive is one way or another localized in the work, but at the same time it is present in the most various forms. It can denote a single word or phrase, repeated and varied, or appear as something denoted by means of various lexical units; act as a title or epigraph or remain only guessable, lost in the subtext. Focusing on the above, the researcher summarizes: “It is right to assert that the sphere of motives consists of parts of the work, marked by internal, invisible italics, which should be felt and recognized by a sensitive reader and literary analyst. The most important feature of a motive is its ability to be half-realized in the text, revealed in it incompletely, mysterious.”

Since the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries, the term “motive” has been widely used in the study of plots, especially historically early folklore ones. So

A. N. Veselovsky in his unfinished “Poetics of Plots” wrote about the motive as the simplest, indivisible unit of narration: “By motive I mean a formula that at first answered the questions of the public that nature posed to man everywhere, or that fixed especially bright, seemingly important or repeated impressions

reality." Veselovsky presents the main feature of motives as “figurative single-term schematism.” These are, the scientist gives examples of motives, the abduction of the sun or a beauty, water drying up in a source, the persecution of a beautiful woman by an evil old woman, etc. Such motives, according to the scientist, could arise independently in different tribal environments; their homogeneity or their similarity cannot be explained by borrowing; it is explained by the homogeneity of living conditions and the mental processes deposited in them. The motif in Veselovsky’s works grows into a plot, thereby being the fundamental basis of the narrative. Motives, according to Veselovsky, are historically stable and endlessly repeatable. In the form of an assumption, the scientist argued: “... is not poetic creativity limited by certain certain formulas, stable motives, which one generation accepted from the previous one, and this from the third?<...>? Doesn’t each new poetic era work on images bequeathed from time immemorial, necessarily revolving within their boundaries, allowing itself only new combinations of old ones and only filling them<.>new understanding of life<...>?» .

The concept of motive, developed by A. N. Veselovsky in “The Poetics of Plots,” was categorically criticized by V. Ya. Propp in “The Morphology of a Fairy Tale.” However, at the same time, the researcher replaced the criterion of the indecomposability of the motive, so he criticized the concept of motive in an interpretation that had never been in the works of A. N. Veselovsky.

If for A. N. Veselovsky the criterion for the indecomposability of a motif is its “figurative single-term schematism” (the motif is indivisible from the point of view of its “imagery” as a holistic and aesthetically significant semantics), then for V. Ya. Propp such a criterion is a logical relation.

The author himself reasoned: “The motives that he (A. N. Veselovsky) gives as examples are laid out. If a motive is something logically whole, then every phrase of a fairy tale gives a motive. This wouldn't be so bad if the motives really didn't decay. This would make it possible to compile an index of motives. But let’s take the motif “the snake kidnaps the king’s daughter” (not Veselovsky’s example). This motive is decomposed into 4 elements, each of which can be varied individually.<... >Thus, contrary to Veselovsky, we must assert that the motive is not single-membered, not indecomposable. The last decomposable unit, as such, does not represent a logical whole."

Thus, the change from a semantic criterion to a logical one in the criticism of V. Ya. Propp led to the destruction of the motive as a whole.

However, having subjected the concept of motive to criticism from the position of the logical criterion of indecomposability,

V. Ya. Propp in “Morphology of a Fairy Tale” completely abandoned this concept and introduced into circulation a fundamentally different, in his opinion, unit of narrative - the “function of the character”: “The very way of performing functions can change: it represents a variable quantity.<...>But the function, as such, is a constant quantity.<...>The functions of the characters represent those components that can replace Veselovsky’s “motives.”

The concept of the function of the actor introduced by the scientist not only did not replace, but significantly deepened the concept of motive, and precisely in the semantic interpretation of the latter. From the point of view of the semantics of the motive and the plot as a whole, the function is nothing more than one of the semantic components of the motive. Essentially, the function of the character is the generalized meaning of the motive, taken in abstraction from the multitude of its plot options. IN in this regard V. Ya. Propp theoretically consistently carried out the operation of generalizing motives.

I.V. Silantyev noted in this regard that “a function is a general seme, or a set of general semes that occupy a central and invariant position in the structure of the variable meaning of a motive. Therefore, a function as a key component of a motive, as its semantic invariant, cannot replace the motive, just as a part cannot replace the whole.”

That is why the opinions of modern scientists on the issue of the relationship between motive and function are not in favor of the categorical view of V. Ya. Propp.

B.I. Yarkho in “Methodology of Precise Literary Criticism,” written in the 1930s, defines motive as “an image in action (or in a state),” which, at first glance, gives some reason to see in the scientist’s thoughts following the interpretation of motive as a “figurative unit” according to A. N. Veselovsky. However, the remarks following this definition differentiate the views of B. I. Yarkho and A. N. Veselovsky.

First, the researcher denies the motive the status of a narrative unit. “Motive,” writes B.I. Yarkho, - ... there is a certain division of the plot, the boundaries of which are determined arbitrarily by the researcher.” Secondly, the scientist denies the motive semantic status.

The result of B.I. Yarkho’s statements is the denial of the real literary existence of the motif. The researcher talks about motive within the framework of the concept

tional construct that helps a literary critic establish the degree of similarity of different plots.

It should be noted that A. L. Bem comes to a similar conclusion, albeit from the semantic approach. Having discovered an invariant principle in the structure of the motive, the scientist reduces the semantic whole of the motive to this invariant, and relates the variant semantics of the motive to the specific content of the work and on this basis denies the motive the reality of literary existence: “motifs are fictions obtained as a result of abstraction from the specific content ".

Thus, B.I. Yarkho and A.L. Bem, each from his own position, do not accept the principle of the dual nature of the motive as a unit, which is clarified in other works artistic language, endowed with a generalized meaning, and as a unit of artistic speech, endowed with specific semantics.

A. I. Beletsky, in his monograph “In the Word Artist’s Workshop” (1923), also comes to the problem of the relationship between the invariant meaning of the motif and the multiplicity of its specific plot variants. At the same time, the scientist does not deny the motive its own literary status (as A. L. Bem and B. I. Yarkho do) and does not reject the very concept of motive (as V. Ya. Propp does), but makes an attempt to resolve the problem of motive variability in a constructive manner.

The scientist distinguishes two levels of realization of a motive in a plot narrative - “schematic motive” and “real motive”. “Real motive” is an element of the plot-event composition of the plot of a particular work. The “schematic motif” no longer correlates with the plot itself in its specific plot form, but with the invariant “plot scheme.” This scheme is made up, according to A.I. Beletsky, of “relationships-actions”.

Illustrating his idea, A. I. Beletsky obviously relies on the observations of A. L. Bem and gives the following pair of real and schematic motives: “Plot “ Caucasian prisoner“, for example, is divided into several motives, of which the main one will be: “A Circassian woman loves a Russian captive”; in schematic form: “a foreigner loves a captive.”

The above suggests that the ideas of A. L. Bem, despite his negative position regarding the literary status of the motive, objectively contributed to the development of precisely dichotomous ideas, because the scientist was the first to identify the motive invariant - that very “schematic motive”, the concept of which was introduced somewhat later formulated by A.I. Beletsky.

The need to differentiate the concept of motive in the structural and plot-classification plans was emphasized in his works by A. Dundes. Acting as a direct successor to Propp in the study of fairy tales, A. Dundes addresses the problem of motive and proposes to solve it on the basis of two fundamentally different approaches - emic and etic. He presents the first approach as uniquely contextual, structural. “Emic units” - “points of the system” - do not exist in isolation, but as parts of a “functioning component system”. They are not invented by the researcher, but exist in objective reality. Dundes proposes two emic levels: motifeme and allomotive. The concept of motifeme corresponds to the function of J. Propp, but it is terminologically connected with the lower level. An allomotiv is a specific textual implementation of a motifeme.

The concept of “motive,” according to Dundes, has no emic meaning; it is a purely classification category that allows the researcher to operate with classes and units of material and is convenient for comparative analysis.

Dundes' ideas are partly developed by L. Parpulova, but with the difference that both emic and etic approaches are equally important to her. Following Dundes, she leaves behind the terms “motifeme” and “allomotif” structural meanings, and at the ethical level proposes the following gradation: 1) the theme of the motive, corresponding to the motifeme; 2) the motive itself, expressed in predicative form; 3) a variant of the motive corresponding to the allomotiv, i.e., the presentation of a specific implementation of the motive in a given text; 4) episode, i.e. the actual fragment of the text in its real form.

B. N. Putilov, continuing the theory of motive, in his work “Motive as a Plot-Forming Element,” defines motive as “one of the components of an epic plot, an element of an epic plot system.” “The motive,” the scientist writes, “functions as part of the system, here it finds its specific place, here its specific content is fully revealed. Together with other motives, this motive creates a system. Any motive in a certain way correlates with the whole (plot) and at the same time with other motives, i.e. with parts of this whole.”

However, B. N. Putilov puts his reasoning in opposition to Dundes’s statements about the role of motive as a purely classification category. According to the first, a motive as an invariant scheme that generalizes the essence of a number of allomotives can only partially be considered as an “invention” of the researcher. The motive acts as an element that objectively existed and was “discovered” by the researcher, which

is proven both by the presence of its own stable semantics in the motives, and by the existence of undoubted connections between the motives and the facts of ethnographic reality. In this regard, Putilov writes about the possibility of asserting that it is the motives that are directly related to archaic ideas and institutions, while allomotivs appear in the form of their later transformations.

He, like A. N. Veselovsky, talks about motive primarily in the context of the plot, developing the idea of ​​the driving, dynamic role of motive. Of no small importance are Putilov’s statements regarding the method of implementing the motif in the work (in some way consonant with the thoughts of Khalizev), which present the concept we are considering as an element of three levels: lexical, syntactic and the level associated with the forms of “consciousness of the collective that creates and preserves the epic.” In other words, a motive can be a single word or a combination of words, it can manifest itself in a sentence, or it can be realized in the spiritual and moral sphere, which serves as a kind of cultural code of a nation. However, semantic richness is revealed only when considering the motive at all of the above levels.

To clarify the concept of plot and plot, B.V. Tomashevsky introduces several auxiliary concepts, among which he singles out theme and motive. Moreover, in the final definition he somewhat synthesizes the last two concepts. He writes: “The theme of an indecomposable part of a work is called a motive. In essence, every sentence has its own motive." Making a reservation, the scientist draws attention to the fact that the term “motive”, used in historical poetics - in the comparative study of wandering plots (for example, in the study of fairy tales), differs significantly from the one he himself introduced, although it is usually defined in the same way. These motives move entirely from one plot structure to another. In comparative poetics it does not matter whether they can be broken down into smaller motifs. “The only important thing,” the researcher emphasizes, “is that within the genre being studied, these “motifs” are always found in their entirety. Consequently, instead of the word “indecomposable” in comparative study, one can speak of something historically indecomposable, which preserves its unity in wandering from work to work. However, many motives of comparative poetics retain their significance precisely as motives in theoretical poetics.”

According to Tomashevsky, motives, combining with each other, form a thematic connection of the work.

Denia. From this point of view, the plot is a set of motives in their logical cause-time relationship, the plot is a set of the same motives in the same sequence and connection in which they are given in the work. For the plot, it does not matter in which part of the work the reader learns about the event. In the plot, it is the introduction of motives into the reader’s field of attention that plays a role. According to Tomashevsky’s statements, only related motives matter for the plot. In the plot, sometimes it is free motives that play a dominant role that determines the structure of the work. These “side” motifs are introduced for the purpose of artistic construction of the story and carry a wide variety of functions. The introduction of such motives is largely determined literary tradition, and each school is characterized by its own list of motives, while related motives are found in the same form in a wide variety of schools.

In the article by A.P. Skaftymov “Thematic composition of the novel “The Idiot” (first published in 1924; republished in 1972), a system of figurative and psychological analysis of the narrative work is deployed. This analysis is based on the author’s model of the composition of the work, which is built along the lines of character - episode - motive.

A.P. Skaftymov writes: “In the question of the analytical division of the whole [literary work] under study, we were guided by those natural nodes around which its constituent thematic complexes were united.<...>The characters in the novel seem to us to be the main, largest links of the whole. The internal division of holistic images took place according to the categories of the most isolated and highlighted episodes in the novel, then going back to smaller indivisible thematic units, which we denoted in the presentation by the term “thematic motif”.

The model of A.P. Skaftymov implicitly includes, along with the system of heroes, another “upper” level that interacts with the level of “characters” - the plot of the work. The hero as a whole for the researcher is revealed not in this or that episode, but in the plot as a semantic generalization of the system of episodes. We consider it necessary to give several examples of motives that A.P. Skaftmov identifies when analyzing the novel. In relation to Nastasya Filippovna, the motive of consciousness of guilt and insufficiency, the motive of thirst for the ideal and forgiveness, the motive of pride and the motive of self-justification are highlighted. In relation to Hippolytus - the motive of envious pride, the motive of attractive love. In relation to Rogozhin - the motive of selfishness in love. In relation to

to Aglaya - “the motif of childishness imparts to Aglaya freshness, spontaneity and a peculiar innocence even in angry outbursts.” In relation to Gana Ivolgin: “the motive of “inability to surrender to impulse.”

The motive of A.P. Skaftymov is thematic and at the same time holistic and indivisible as a fundamental moment of the psychological whole in the theme of the work - the actual “character” in the scientist’s terminology. Thus, the motives of pride and self-justification form in the image of Nastasya Filippovna “the theme of the combination of pride and a tendency to self-justification.” Elsewhere, “the construction of the image of Nastasya Fillipovna is entirely determined by the themes of pride and moral purity and sensitivity.”

However, the interpretation of the concept of motive that Skaftymov positions seems to us not completely understandable and logically vague.

In our opinion, the synthesis of such basic concepts in literary criticism as the theme of a work and the motive of a work requires a fairly strong argument. The scientist, presenting various types of motives that he discovered in the novel of one of the classics of world literature, nominates pride both as a theme of the work and as a motive, without outlining the circle of differences between these concepts. The rather frequent use of the word “motive” in Skaftymov’s works not only does not provide practical confirmation of its definition due to the load on the word “semantic,” but also raises the question of the relevance and persuasiveness of the concept introduced by the scientist.

One of the most important characteristics of the motif L. E. Khvorova calls its properties of mobility (remember Latin translation term). In her opinion, it is important as a “moving, transitional (from plot to plot throughout a single artistic whole literary space) formal semantic core (a certain macrostructure), which is a cluster of properties of various orders, including spiritual and axiological properties. A motive can carry object-subjective information, and may have the meaning of a sign or action."

For last decades motives began to be actively correlated with individual creative experience and were considered as the property of individual writers and works.

I would like to note that the term “motive” is also used in a different meaning. Thus, themes and problems of a writer’s work are often called motives (for example, the moral rebirth of man, the illogical existence of people).

In modern literary criticism there is also the idea of ​​motive as an extra-structural element.

chale - as the property not of the text and its creator, but of the unrestricted thought of the person perceiving the work.

However, no matter what semantic tones are attached to the word “motive” in literary criticism, the unconditional significance and genuine relevance of this term, which captures the really (objectively) existing facet of literary works, remains self-evident.

Literature

1. Beletsky A.I. In the workshop of the artist of the word // Beletsky A.I. Selected works on the theory of literature. M., 1964.

2. Bem A. Towards an understanding of historical and literary concepts // News of the Department of Russian Language and Literature. AN. 1918. T. 23. Book. 1. St. Petersburg, 1919.

3. Veselovsky A. N. Poetics of plots. Introduction and chap. I. // Veselovsky A. N. Historical poetics. L., 1940.

4. Popova I. M., Khvorova L. E. Problems of modern literature. Tambov, 2004.

5. Propp V. Ya. Morphology of a fairy tale. M., 1969.

6. Putilov B. N. Motif as a plot-forming element // Typological studies on folklore: collection. Art. in memory of V. Ya. Propp. M., 1975.

7. Silantyev I.V. The theory of motive in domestic literary criticism and folklore: an essay on historiography. M., 1999.

8. Skaftymov A.P. Thematic composition of the novel “The Idiot” // Skaftymov A.P. Articles on Russian literature. Saratov, 1958.

9. Tomashevsky B.V. Theory of Literature. Poetics. M., 1927.

10. Khalizev V. E. Theory of Literature. M., 2002.

11. Yarkho B.I. Methodology of accurate literary criticism (outline plan) // Context. M., 1983.

12. Dandes A. From etic to emic untis in the structural study of Folktales // Journal of American Folklore. 1962. Vol. 75.

THE CONCEPT “MOTIVE” AND ITS INTERPRETATION IN THE THEORY OF LITERATURE AND MUSIC

The article is devoted to the concept of motive and its interpretation in the theory of the literature in relation to musical art. The basic approaches to the study of this concept in the context of the research of the leading theorists of literature, traced the path of understanding of the concepts in the practice of scientific theoretical thought are considered.

Key words: motive, theory of motive, structure of motive, level of implementation of the motive.

This word, one of the main ones in musicology, also has a responsible place in the science of literature. It is rooted in almost all modern European languages, goes back to the Latin verb moveo (I move) and now has a very wide range of meanings.

The initial, leading, main meaning of this literary term is difficult to define. A motif is a component of works that has increased significance (semantic richness). He is actively involved in the theme and concept (idea) of the work, but is not identical to them. Being, according to B.N. Putilov, “stable semantic units”, motives “are characterized by an increased, one might say exceptional, degree of semioticity. Each motive has a stable set of meanings.”

The motif is one way or another localized in the work, but at the same time it is present in a variety of forms. It can be a separate word or phrase, repeated and varied, or appear as something denoted by various lexical units, or appear in the form of a title or epigraph, or remain only guessable, lost in the subtext. Having resorted to allegory, it is legitimate to assert that the sphere of motives consists of the links of the work, marked by internal, invisible italics, which should be felt and recognized by a sensitive reader and literary analyst. The most important feature of a motive is its ability to be half-realized in the text, revealed in it incompletely, and mysterious.

Motifs can act either as an aspect of individual works and their cycles, as a link in their construction, or as the property of the entire work of the writer and even entire genres, movements, literary eras, world literature as such. In this supra-individual aspect, they constitute one of the most important subjects of historical poetics.

Beginning with turn of XIX-XX centuries, the term “motive” is widely used in the study of plots, especially historically early folklore ones. So, A.N. Veselovsky, in his unfinished “Poetics of Plots,” spoke of the motif as the simplest, indivisible unit of narrative, as a repeating schematic formula that forms the basis of plots (originally myths and fairy tales). These are, the scientist gives examples of motives, the abduction of the sun or a beauty, water drying up in a source, etc.

The motives here are not so much related to individual works, how many are considered as the common property of verbal art. Motives, according to Veselovsky, are historically stable and endlessly repeatable. In a cautious, conjectural form, the scientist argued: “Isn’t poetic creativity limited by certain certain formulas, stable motifs that one generation accepted from the previous one, and this from the third?

Doesn’t each new poetic era work on images bequeathed from time immemorial, necessarily revolving within their boundaries, allowing itself only new combinations of old ones and only filling them with a new understanding of life? Based on the understanding of motive as the primary element of plot, dating back to Veselovsky, scientists from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences are now working on compiling a dictionary of plots and motifs in Russian literature.

Over the past decades, motifs have begun to be actively correlated with individual creative experience and are considered as the property of individual writers and works. This, in particular, is evidenced by the experience of studying the poetry of M.Yu. Lermontov.

Attention to the motives hidden in literary works, allows us to understand them more fully and deeply. Thus, some “peak” moments of the embodiment of the author’s concept in the famous story by I.A. Bunin about the suddenly cut short life of a charming girl are “ easy breath"(the phrase that became the title), lightness as such, as well as the repeatedly mentioned cold. These deeply interconnected motifs turn out to be perhaps the most important compositional “strings” of Bunin’s masterpiece and, at the same time, an expression of the writer’s philosophical idea of ​​the existence and place of man in it. The cold accompanies Olya Meshcherskaya not only in winter, but also in summer; it also reigns in the episodes framing the plot, depicting a cemetery in early spring. These motifs are combined in the last phrase of the story: “Now this light breath has again dissipated in the world, in this cloudy sky, in this cold spring wind.”

One of the motifs of Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace” is spiritual softness, often associated with feelings of gratitude and submission to fate, with tenderness and tears, most importantly, marking certain higher, illuminating moments in the lives of the heroes. Let's remember the episodes when old prince Volkonsky learns about the death of his daughter-in-law; wounded Prince Andrei in Mytishchi. After a conversation with Natasha, who feels irreparably guilty before Prince Andrei, Pierre experiences some special elation. And here it speaks of his, Pierre’s, “blossomed to a new life, softened and encouraged soul.” And after captivity, Bezukhov asks Natasha about last days Andrei Bolkonsky: “So he calmed down? Have you softened?

Perhaps the central motif of “The Master and Margarita” by M.A. Bulgakov - the light emanating from full moon, disturbing, exciting, painful. This light somehow “affects” a number of characters in the novel. It is associated primarily with the idea of ​​torment of conscience - with the appearance and fate of Pontius Pilate, who was afraid for his “career”.

Lyric poetry is characterized by verbal motifs. A.A. Blok wrote: “Every poem is a veil, stretched on the edges of several words. These words shine like stars. Because of them the poem exists.” Thus, in Blok’s poem “Worlds Fly” (1912), the supporting (key) words are aimless and insane; the ringing that accompanies it, the intrusive and buzzing sound of a tired soul immersed in darkness; and (in contrast to all this) unattainable, vainly alluring happiness.

In Blok’s “Carmen” cycle, the word “treason” serves as a motive. This word captures the poetic and at the same time tragic element of the soul. The world of betrayal here is associated with the “storm of gypsy passions” and leaving the homeland, coupled with an inexplicable feeling of sadness, the “black and wild fate” of the poet, and instead with the charm of boundless freedom, free flight “without orbits”: “This is music secret betrayals?/Is this the heart captured by Carmen?”

Note that the term “motive” is also used in a different meaning than the one on which we rely. Thus, themes and problems of a writer’s work are often called motives (for example, the moral rebirth of man; the illogical existence of people). In modern literary criticism, there is also the idea of ​​a motive as an “extrastructural” beginning - as the property not of the text and its creator, but of the unrestricted thought of the interpreter of the work. The properties of the motive, says B.M. Gasparov, “grow anew every time, in the process of analysis itself” - depending on what contexts of the writer’s work the scientist turns to.

Thus understood, the motive is conceptualized as the “basic unit of analysis,” an analysis that “fundamentally abandons the concept of fixed blocks of structure that have an objectively specified function in the construction of the text.” A similar approach to literature, as noted by M.L. Gasparov, allowed A.K. Zholkovsky in his book “Wandering Dreams” to offer readers a number of “brilliant and paradoxical interpretations of Pushkin through Brodsky and Gogol through Sokolov.”

But no matter what semantic tones are attached to the word “motive” in literary criticism, the irrevocable significance and genuine relevance of this term, which captures the really (objectively) existing facet of literary works, remains self-evident.

V.E. Khalizev Theory of literature. 1999

The meaning of motive in literary works

VARIETY OF MOTIVES

motive narrative literature work

In the literature of different eras, many mythological motifs are found and effectively function. Constantly being updated in different historical and literary contexts, they at the same time retain their semantic essence. For example, the motive of the hero’s conscious death because of a woman runs through many works of the 19th-20th centuries. Werther's suicide in the novel "Suffering" young Werther"Goethe, the death of Vladimir Lensky in Pushkin's novel "Eugene Onegin", the death of Romashov in Kuprin's novel "The Duel". Apparently, this motif can be considered as a transformation of the motif identified by Veselovsky in the poetic work of deep antiquity: “the fight for the bride.”

Motifs can be not only plot, but also descriptive, lyrical, not only intertextual (Veselovsky has just such in mind), but also intratextual. We can talk about the iconicity of the motif - both in its repetition from text to text, and within one text. In modern literary criticism, the term “motive” is used in different methodological contexts and for different purposes, which largely explains the discrepancies in the interpretation of the concept and its most important properties.

A generally accepted indicator of a motive is its repetition. “...The role of a motive in a work can be,” believes B. Gasparov, “any phenomenon, any semantic “spot” - an event, a character trait, an element of the landscape, any object, a spoken word, paint, sound, etc.; the only thing that defines a motif is its reproduction in the text, so that unlike a traditional plot narrative, where it is more or less predetermined what can be considered discrete components ("characters" or "events"), there is no set "alphabet" “- it is formed directly in the deployment of the structure and through the structure” 10.

For example, in V. Nabokov’s novel “Feat” one can highlight motifs of the sea, flickering lights, and paths leading into the forest.

In the same novel, another motive - the hero’s alienation to the world around him - largely determines the development of the plot and helps clarify the main idea. And if in “Feat” the motive of foreignness is limited to exile (“his choice is not free<…>there is one thing he must do, he is an exile, doomed to live outside his home"), then in other works of Nabokov it takes on a broader meaning and can be defined as the motive of the hero’s foreignness to the vulgarity and mediocrity of the world around him (“The Gift”, “The Defense of Luzhin” , “The True Life of Sebastian Knight”, etc.).

One of the motifs of Tolstoy’s epic novel “War and Peace” is spiritual softness, often associated with feelings of gratitude and submission to fate, with tenderness and tears, most importantly, marking certain higher, illuminating moments in the lives of the heroes. Let us remember the episodes when the old Prince Bolkonsky learns about the death of his daughter-in-law; wounded Prince Andrei in Mytishchi. Pierre, after a conversation with Natasha, who feels irreparably guilty before Prince Andrei, experiences some kind of special elation: he speaks of his, Pierre’s, “blooming to a new life, softened and encouraged soul.” And after captivity, Bezukhov asks Natasha about the last days of Andrei Bolkonsky: “So has he calmed down? Have you softened?"

Perhaps the central motif of “The Master and Margarita” by M.A. Bulgakov - the light emanating from the full moon, disturbing, exciting, painful. This light somehow “affects” a number of characters in the novel. It is associated primarily with the idea of ​​torment of conscience - with the appearance and fate of Pontius Pilate, who was once afraid for his “career”.

In Blok’s cycle “Carmen” the word “treason” performs the function of motive. It captures the poetic and at the same time tragic element of the soul. The world of betrayal here is associated with the “storm of gypsy passions” and leaving the homeland, coupled with an inexplicable feeling of sadness, with the “black and wild fate” of the poet, and at the same time with the charm of boundless freedom, free flight “without orbits”: “This is - music of secret betrayals?/Is this the heart captured by Carmen?”

One of the most important motives of B.L. Pasternak is a face that the poet saw not only in people who remained true to themselves, but also in nature and the highest power of being 11. This motive became the poet's leading theme and an expression of his moral credo. Let's remember the last stanza of the poem “Being famous is ugly...”:

And should not a single slice

Don't give up on your face

But to be alive, alive and only,

Alive and only until the end.

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