I THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL BACKGROUND OF LITERARY ANALYSIS

1. Artwork and its properties

A work of art is the main object of literary study, a kind of smallest “unit” of literature. Larger formations in literary process- directions, trends, artistic systems - are built from individual works, represent a union of parts. A literary work, on the other hand, has integrity and internal completeness, it is a self-sufficient unit of literary development, capable of independent living. A literary work as a whole has a complete ideological and aesthetic meaning, in contrast to its components - themes, ideas, plot, speech, etc., which receive meaning and in general can exist only in the system of the whole.

Literary work as a phenomenon of art

A literary and artistic work is a work of art in the narrow sense of the word *, that is, one of the forms of social consciousness. Like all art in general, a work of art is an expression of a certain emotional and mental content, some ideological and emotional complex in a figurative, aesthetically significant form. Using the terminology of M.M. Bakhtin, we can say that a work of art is a “word about the world” spoken by a writer, a poet, an act of reaction of an artistically gifted person to the surrounding reality.

___________________

* O different values For the word "art", see: Pospelov G.N. Aesthetic and artistic. M, 1965. S. 159–166.

According to the theory of reflection, human thinking is a reflection of reality, the objective world. This, of course, fully applies to artistic thinking. A literary work, like all art, is a special case of subjective reflection of objective reality. However, reflection, especially at the highest stage of its development, which is human thinking, should by no means be understood as a mechanical, mirror reflection, as a one-to-one copying of reality. The complex, indirect nature of reflection, to the greatest extent, perhaps, affects artistic thinking where the subjective moment is so important, the unique personality of the creator, his original vision of the world and the way of thinking about it. A work of art, therefore, is an active, personal reflection; one in which not only the reproduction of life reality takes place, but also its creative transformation. In addition, the writer never reproduces reality for the sake of reproduction itself: the very choice of the subject of reflection, the very impulse to creative reproduction of reality is born from the writer's personal, biased, indifferent view of the world.

Thus, a work of art is an indissoluble unity of the objective and the subjective, the reproduction of reality and the author's understanding of it, life as such, which is included in the work of art and is known in it, and copyright to life. These two aspects of art were pointed out by N.G. Chernyshevsky. In his treatise “The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality”, he wrote: “The essential meaning of art is the reproduction of everything that is interesting for a person in life; very often, especially in works of poetry, also comes to the fore the explanation of life, the verdict on its phenomena "*. True, Chernyshevsky, polemically sharpening the thesis about the primacy of life over art in the struggle against idealistic aesthetics, mistakenly considered the main and obligatory only the first task - "reproduction of reality", and the other two - secondary and optional. It is more correct, of course, to speak not about the hierarchy of these tasks, but about their equality, or rather, about the indissoluble connection between the objective and the subjective in a work: after all, a true artist simply cannot depict reality without comprehending and evaluating it in any way. However, it should be emphasized that the very presence of a subjective moment in a work of art was clearly recognized by Chernyshevsky, and this was a step forward in comparison with, say, the aesthetics of Hegel, who was very inclined to approach a work of art in a purely objectivist manner, belittling or completely ignoring the activity of the creator.

___________________

* Chernyshevsky N.G. Full coll. cit.: V 15 t. M., 1949. T. II. C. 87.

It is necessary to realize the unity of the objective image and subjective expression in a work of art also in a methodical way, for the sake of practical tasks. analytical work with the work. Traditionally, in our study and especially teaching of literature, more attention is paid to the objective side, which undoubtedly impoverishes the idea of ​​a work of art. In addition, a kind of substitution of the subject of research can also occur here: instead of studying a work of art with its inherent aesthetic laws, we begin to study the reality reflected in the work, which, of course, is also interesting and important, but has no direct connection with the study of literature as an art form. The methodological approach, aimed at studying the mainly objective side of a work of art, voluntarily or involuntarily reduces the importance of art as an independent form of people's spiritual activity, and ultimately leads to ideas about the illustrative nature of art and literature. At the same time, a work of art is largely deprived of its lively emotional content, passion, pathos, which, of course, are primarily associated with the author's subjectivity.

In the history of literary criticism, this methodological trend has found its most obvious embodiment in the theory and practice of the so-called cultural-historical school, especially in European literary criticism. Its representatives looked in literary works, first of all, for signs and features of reflected reality; “they saw cultural and historical monuments in works of literature”, but “artistic specificity, all the complexity of literary masterpieces did not interest researchers”*. Individual representatives of the Russian cultural-historical school saw the danger of such an approach to literature. Thus, V. Sipovsky wrote bluntly: “One cannot look at literature only as a reflection of reality”**.

___________________

* Nikolaev P.A., Kurilov A.S., Grishunin A.L. History of Russian literary criticism. M., 1980. S. 128.

** Sipovsky V.V.The history of literature as a science. St. Petersburg; M. . S. 17.

Of course, a conversation about literature may well turn into a conversation about life itself - there is nothing unnatural or fundamentally untenable in this, because literature and life are not separated by a wall. However, at the same time, the methodological setting is important, which does not allow one to forget about the aesthetic specificity of literature, to reduce literature and its meaning to the meaning of illustration.

If the content of a work of art is a unity of reflected life and the author's attitude to it, that is, it expresses a certain "word about the world", then the form of the work is figurative, aesthetic. Unlike other types public consciousness, art and literature, as you know, reflect life in the form of images, that is, they use such specific, single objects, phenomena, events that, in their specific singularity, carry a generalization. In contrast to the concept, the image has a greater “visibility”, it is characterized not by logical, but by concrete-sensual and emotional persuasiveness. Imagery is the basis of artistry, both in the sense of belonging to art and in the sense of high skill: due to their figurative nature, works of art have aesthetic dignity, aesthetic value.

So, we can give such a working definition of a work of art: it is a certain emotional and mental content, a “word about the world”, expressed in an aesthetic, figurative form; a work of art has integrity, completeness and independence.

Features of the work fiction taken into account in editorial analysis.

A work of fiction, an artistic object, can be viewed from two points of view - from the point of view of its meaning (as an aesthetic object) and from the point of view of its form (as an external work).

The meaning of an artistic object, enclosed in a certain form, is aimed at reflecting the artist's understanding of the surrounding reality. And the editor, when evaluating the essay, should proceed from the analysis of the “plan of meaning” and the “plan of the fact” of the work (M.M. Bakhtin). Let's try to figure out what is behind the concepts of "plan of meaning" and "plan of fact" of the work.

The plan of the meaning of an artistic object captures the value, emotional aspects of artistic creativity, conveys the author's assessment of those characters, phenomena and processes that he describes.

It is clear that one of the main aspects of editorial analysis of a work is the analysis of its meaning. It's about about such evaluation criteria as relevance and topicality, originality and novelty, completeness of implementation, and, in addition, the mastery of the implementation of the author's intention. The latter focuses the editor's attention on the plane of the fact of the work.

Subject literary work, as already mentioned, are the connections and relations of a person with the outside world, evaluated, meaningful, felt by the artist and fixed by him in a certain artistic form. It can be said that in an artistic object the ethical, moral attitude to the world is expressed in an aesthetic form. This form is the external work, constituting for the editor the outline of the fact of art. For his attitude to reality, the writer is looking for a certain form, which is determined by his skill.

An artistic object is a point of interaction between the meaning and the fact of art. The art object demonstrates the world, conveying it in an aesthetic form and revealing the ethical side of the world.

For editorial analysis, such an approach to the consideration of a work of art is productive, in which literary work explored in its connection with the reader. It is the influence of the work on the personality that should be the starting point in the evaluation of the artistic object.

Really, artistic process implies a dialogic relationship between the writer and the reader, and the impact of the work on the reader can be considered as the final product of artistic activity. Therefore, the editor needs to understand exactly what aspects and aspects of a literary work should be considered in order for the analysis to be effective, to correspond to the essential characteristics of the work of art.

When discussing the meaning of a work, one must bear in mind that we are not talking about the everyday understanding of the meaning in the common meaning of the content of the work. It is about the meaning of the artistic object in a more general view. The meaning of the work is manifested in the process of perception of art. Let's dwell on this in more detail.

An artistic object includes three stages: the stage of creating a work, the stage of its alienation from the master and independent existence, the stage of perception of the work.

The adequacy of the editorial analysis is ensured by understanding the specifics of each stage.

So, the main thing is that for the sake of which a work of literature is created - the meaning that the artist puts into the content of the work, for the realization of which he is looking for a certain form.

As the starting point of the unifying beginning of the work of the artistic process in the editorial analysis, one must consider the idea of ​​the work. It is the idea that merges together all the stages of an artistic object. This is evidenced by the attention of the artist, musician, writer to the selection of appropriate means of expression when creating works that are aimed at expressing the intention of the master.

Some confessions, reflections on creative process the writers themselves also show that the artistic process is connected with the idea.

But the concept of design not only characterizes the main meaning of the work. The idea is the main component of the impact of a work of art at the time of its perception. L.N. Tolstoy wrote that when creating a work of fiction, the main thing is to imagine the most diverse people and put everyone in the need to solve a vital, unresolved issue by people and force them to act in order to consider, to find out how the issue will be resolved. These words reflect the most important characteristic The content of art is its ethical basis, which is the main component of the idea, since the idea is born in the “feeling soul of the artist” by the feeling of a “crack in the world” (Heine) and the need to tell another person about their experiences. Moreover, the writer not only expresses his feelings. He selects such means that should evoke in the reader the same assessment of the character, the act that the writer himself makes.

Thus, the subject of art is not only a person, his connections and relations with the world. The composition of the subject area of ​​the work also includes the personality of the author of the book, who evaluates the surrounding reality. Therefore, when analyzing a work, the editor first of all identifies and evaluates the artist's intention - the plan of the meaning of the work.

The main qualities that determine the specifics of art are the properties of the artistic image, since it is the artistic image that distinguishes art into an independent field of activity. In art, an artistic image is a means of understanding the surrounding reality, a means of mastering the world, as well as a means of recreating reality in a work of art - in an artistic object.

Consequently, when analyzing the plan of the fact of a work, the editor considers, first of all, the artistic image. Let's dwell on this in more detail.

A literary work appears before the editor as the result of artistic creativity, enshrined in a literary text.

Accounting in the work of the editor of the specifics of the perception of a literary and artistic work and its influence on the personality

An artistic image as an expression of a certain figurative thought, ideas should be distinguished from scientific concept, fixing the result of an abstract thought and conveying logical unambiguous judgments, conclusions. The artistic image is characterized by sensual concreteness, organic inclusion of the author's personality, integrity, associativity and ambiguity. As a result of the interaction of these properties, a “presence effect” is created, when the illusion of live, direct perception causes the reader to feel empathy, a sense of his own participation in events. This is the power of the impact of art on the human personality, his thought and fantasy.

The editor needs to deeply understand all the properties of the artistic image, since they largely determine his approach to the analysis and evaluation of the work.

The sensual concreteness of the image gives the depicted phenomenon visibility through the reconstruction of visible signs. When the external or internal sides of a phenomenon are described using words that evoke visual representations, the reader, as it were, “sees” the painted picture in detail. M. Gorky said that what is depicted should cause a desire to "touch it with your hand." Sensual concreteness is also achieved in the case when there is no visual equivalent of the phenomenon, but “intonational visibility” is used, which creates in the reader a feeling of extension in space, movement in time - slowed down or, conversely, accelerated, shows the dynamics of thought, human experience.

The organic inclusion of the author's personality is manifested in the fact that the artistic image carries information both about the subject and the object of knowledge. The reader feels or understands the attitude of the author to this character, an event, as if he himself is present in the described place, he himself “sees” what is happening. The significance of this property of the artistic image is so great that it is in it that many researchers see the so-called "phenomenon of artistry" - a distinctive quality of art. This is what makes emotional and evaluative moments an integral part of the processes of creating and perceiving an artistic image. It involves empathy, is addressed not only to the mind, but also to feelings. Moreover, aesthetic emotion can be caused by created in a way representation (landscape, face, act), and the verbal image itself as an aesthetic value (rhythm, alliteration, rhyme, etc.).

The ambiguity and associativity of the artistic image lies in its ability to excite the reader's imagination, to mobilize many previously received impressions, ideas stored in the personal, individual consciousness of a person, giving ample opportunities for subjective concretization of what is perceived. A direct idea of ​​an object or phenomenon is enriched by the worldview, life experience of the author and reader. The artistic image is complemented by associations and memories, awakens the imagination, makes you “live through” the past event again and again, focusing on internal relation to him. It is known that in a figurative context the same words have their own meaning for each reader. This largely depends on the worldview of a person, childhood memories, upbringing, education, and life experience.

All these properties of the artistic image are not manifested separately, but together and simultaneously, which allows us to speak of its integrity, syntheticity.

The properties that make up the essence, the nature of the artistic image, to a large extent determine the specificity of the evaluation criteria, methods, methods of editorial analysis, in other words, the main features of the editor's work on the text.

General properties of fiction

Fiction has a number of features that distinguish it from all other forms of art and creative activity.

First of all, it is the use of language, or verbal language means. No other art in the world relies entirely on language, is not created using only its expressive means.

The second feature of fiction is that the main subject of its depiction has always been and remains a person, his personality in all its manifestations.

The third feature of fiction should be recognized is that it is entirely built on the figurative form of reflecting reality, that is, it seeks to convey the general typical patterns of the development of society with the help of living, concrete, individual and unique forms.

Artwork as a whole

A literary work of art as a whole reproduces either a holistic picture of life or a holistic picture of experiences, but at the same time it is a separate finished work. The holistic character of the work is given by the unity of the problem posed in it, the unity of the problem revealed in it. ideas. Main the idea of ​​a work or its ideological meaning- this is the idea that the author wants to convey to the reader, that for which the entire work was created. At the same time, in the history of literature there were cases when the author's intention did not coincide with the final idea of ​​the work (N.V. Gogol " Dead Souls"), or created whole group works united by a common idea (I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons", N.G. Chernyshevsky "What to do").

The main idea of ​​the work is inextricably linked with its theme, that is, the vital material that the author took for the image in this work. Understanding the theme can only be achieved by carefully analyzing the literary work as a whole.

Topic, idea are categorized content works. Category forms works include such elements as composition, consisting of a system of images and plot, genre, style and language of the work. Both of these categories are closely related, which made it possible for the famous literary researcher G.N. Pospelov to put forward the thesis about the substantive form and formal content of a literary work of art.

All elements of the work form are associated with the definition conflict, that is, the main contradiction that is depicted in the work. At the same time, this can be a clearly expressed conflict between the heroes of a work of art or between an individual hero and an entire social group, between two social groups(A.S. Griboedov "Woe from Wit"). Or it may be that it is not possible to find a really expressed conflict in a work of art, because it exists between the facts of reality depicted by the author of the work, and his ideas about how events should develop (N.V. Gogol "The Government Inspector") . This is also related to such a particular problem as the presence or absence of goodie in the work. foreign literature syntax poetry

The conflict becomes the basis of plot construction in the work, because through plot, that is, the system of events in the work, the attitude of the author to the depicted conflict is manifested. As a rule, the plots of the works have a deep socio-historical meaning, reveal the causes, nature and development of the depicted conflict.

Composition of a work of art is the plot and the system of images of the work. It is during the development of the plot that characters and circumstances appear in development, and the system of images is revealed in the plot movement.

Image system in the work includes all actors, which can be divided into:

• - main and secondary (Onegin - mother of Tatyana Larina),
• - positive and negative (Chatsky - Molchalin),
• - typical (that is, their behavior and actions reflect modern social trends- Pechorin).

National originality of plots and the theory of "wandering" plots. There are so-called "wandering" stories, that is, plots whose conflicts are repeated in different countries and in different eras(the story of Cinderella, the story of the stingy pawnbroker). At the same time, repetitive plots take on the color of the country where they are currently being embodied in connection with the peculiarities national development("The Misanthrope" by Molière and "Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboyedov).

Plot elements: prologue, exposition, plot, development of action, climax, denouement, epilogue. Not all of them must be present in a work of art. The plot is impossible only without the plot, the development of the action, the climax. All other elements of the plot and their appearance in a work of art depend on the author's intention and the specifics of the depicted object.

As a rule, they do not have a plot, that is, a system of events, landscape lyrical works. Sometimes researchers talk about the presence in them of an internal plot, the inner world of the movement of thoughts and feelings.

Prologue- an introduction to the main plot of the work.

exposition- the image of the conditions for the formation of actors before the conflict and the character traits that developed under these conditions. The purpose of the exposition is to motivate the subsequent behavior of the characters. The exposition is not always placed at the beginning of the work, may be absent altogether, may be located in different places work or even at its end, but always performs the same role - to acquaint with the environment in which the action will take place.

tie- the image of emerging contradictions, the definition of the conflict of characters or the problem posed by the author. Without this element, a work of art cannot exist.

Development of action- detection and reproduction artistic means connections and contradictions between people, the events that take place during the development of the action reveal the characters of the characters and give an idea of possible ways conflict resolution. Sometimes the development of an action includes whole paths of life's quests, characters in their development. It is also a mandatory element for any work of art.

climax represents a moment highest voltage in the development of action. She is obligatory element plot and usually entails an immediate denouement.

denouement resolves the depicted conflict or leads to an understanding of the possibilities of its solution, if the author does not have this solution yet. Quite often in the literature there are works with an "open" ending, that is, without a denouement. This is especially common when the author wants the reader to think about the conflict depicted and try to imagine what will happen in the finale.

Epilogue - this is usually the information about the characters and their fate that the author wants to tell the reader after the denouement. It is also an optional element of a work of fiction, which the author uses when he believes that the denouement did not sufficiently clarify the depiction of the final consequences.

In addition to the above elements of the plot, there are a number of special additional elements of the composition that can be used by the author to convey his thoughts to readers.

The special elements of the composition are lyrical digressions. They are found only in epic works and represent digressions, that is, an image of feelings, thoughts, experiences, reflections, biography facts of the author or his characters, not directly related to storyline works.

The additional elements are intro episodes, Narratives not directly related to the plot, but used to expand and deepen the content of the work.

Artistic framing and artistic anticipation are also considered additional elements compositions used to enhance the impact, clarify the meaning of the work, anticipate it with close-in-conceived episodes of future events.

Quite significant compositional role can play in a work of art landscape. In a number of works, it not only plays the role of a direct background against which the action takes place, but also creates a certain psychological atmosphere, serves to internally reveal the character of the character or ideological concept works.

significant role in compositional construction works plays and interior(that is, a description of the environment in which the action takes place), since it is sometimes the key to understanding and revealing the characters' characters.

As for the first point, which says that a work of art is a product of human activity, then from this view

a) it was concluded that this activity as a conscious production of some external object can be comprehended and demonstrated that others can learn and imitate it. What one does, it seems, could be done by another, and if everyone were familiar with the rules of artistic activity, then everyone, if desired, could do this work and create works of art. This is how those theory-containing rules and their prescriptions designed for practical application arose, of which we spoke above.

Following such rules and guidelines, one can only create something formally correct and mechanical. For only the mechanical is of such an external character that in order to assimilate it with our imagination and put it into practice, only meaningless volitional activity and dexterity are needed, and nothing concrete is required, nothing that could not be taught. general rules. This is revealed most clearly in those cases where such prescriptions are not limited to purely external and mechanical phenomena, but extend to a meaningful spiritual artistic activity. In this area, the rules give only vague general instructions, such as, for example, that the topic should be interesting, that in a work of art everyone should speak the language appropriate to his estate, age, gender, position. In order to fulfill their purpose, these prescriptions must be so specific that they can be carried out in the form in which they are formulated, without resorting to independent spiritual activity. But such rules are abstract in their content and out of place in their claim to fill the consciousness of the artist, for artistic creativity is not a formal activity according to given rules. As a spiritual activity, it must draw from its own wealth and bring to the spiritual eye a richer content and more versatile individual creations than can be provided for by the rules. AT best case these rules, insofar as they contain something definite and practically useful, can find application in completely external aspects of artistic creation.

b) As a result, this point of view was completely abandoned, but at the same time they fell into the opposite extreme. Having ceased to consider a work of art as a product of activity common to all people, they began to see in it the creation of a uniquely gifted mind, which should only allow its special talent to act as a specific force of nature and refuse both to follow universally valid laws, and to renounce the interference of conscious reflection in its instinctive creativity. . Moreover, it was even believed that he should beware of such interference, so as not to spoil and distort his creations.

Proceeding from this, they began to recognize works of art as a product of talent and genius and emphasize those aspects that talent and genius possess by nature. In part, this was absolutely correct. For talent is a specific, and genius, a universal faculty, which man cannot acquire only through self-conscious activity; we will have to talk about this in more detail later on.

Here we must only pay attention to the false view contained in this view, that in artistic creation any consciousness of one's own activity is not only superfluous, but even harmful. With this understanding, talent and genius turn out to be a certain state, and, moreover, a state of inspiration. It was asserted that such a state is caused in a genius by some object, but in part he can bring himself into this state at will, and they did not even forget to point to a bottle of champagne, which can do a good job in this case.

In Germany, this opinion arose and prevailed in the so-called period of geniuses, which began with the first poetic works of Goethe; the influence exerted by Goethe was strengthened by the works of Schiller. These poets discarded in their first works all the then fabricated rules, deliberately breaking them, and began to create as if there had been no poetry before them. Other poets who followed them surpassed them even further in this respect.

I do not want to go into more detail here about the confused views that prevailed then regarding the concept of genius and inspiration and the idea that prevails in our time that inspiration alone can achieve everything. It is only important for us to establish that, although the talent and genius of the artist have an element of natural endowment in themselves, the latter needs for its development a culture of thought, reflection on the method of its implementation, as well as exercise and the acquisition of skills. For one of the main aspects of artistic creation is external work, since in a work of art there is a purely technical side, reaching even to handicraft; it is greatest in architecture and sculpture, least in painting and music, and least of all in poetry. No inspiration will help to achieve this skill, but only reflection, diligence and exercise. And the artist needs such skill in order to master the external material and overcome its stubbornness.

The higher the artist stands, the more thoroughly he must depict in his works the depths of the soul and spirit, which are unknown to him directly, and he can comprehend them only by directing his mental gaze to the inner and outer world. And here, only through study does the artist become aware of this content and acquire material for his ideas.

True, some arts more than others need awareness and knowledge of this content. Music, for example, deals only with indefinite internal spiritual movements, as if with the sound of emotions that have not passed into thought, and it needs little or no presence. spiritual material. Therefore, musical talent for the most part manifests itself in early youth, when the head is still empty and the soul has experienced little, sometimes it can even reach a significant height before the artist has acquired any spiritual and life experience. For the same reason, we often find considerable virtuosity in musical composition and performance next to a great poverty of spiritual content and character.

The situation is different in poetry. In it, a meaningful, thoughtful depiction of a person, his deepest interests and driving forces is important. Therefore, the mind and feeling of a genius must themselves be enriched and deepened by spiritual experiences, experience and reflection before he is able to create a mature, rich in content and complete work. The first works of Goethe and Schiller are appallingly immature and even, one might say, crude and barbaric. The fact that most of these early poetic experiences are dominated by thoroughly prosaic, somewhat cold and banal elements, most of all refutes the usual opinion that inspiration is associated with youthful ardor and age. Only in adulthood did these two geniuses, who, one might say, be the first to give our people truly poetic works, only in adulthood did these our national poets give us deep and perfect in form works, generated by true inspiration. And in the same way, only the elder Homer was inspired and created his eternally immortal poems.

c) The third view, connected with the notion of a work of art as a product of human activity, concerns the relation of a work of art to the external phenomena of nature. Here ordinary consciousness easily came to the idea that the work of human art is lower than the product of nature. For a work of art has no feeling in itself and is not a living being; considered as an external object, it is dead. And the living is usually placed by us above the dead.

That a work of art does not possess movement and life in itself - one cannot but agree with this. The living products of nature are both internally and externally purposefully arranged organisms, while works of art achieve the appearance of life only on their surface, but inside they are ordinary stone, wood, canvas or, as in poetry, an idea manifested in speech and letters. .

But it is not this side of external existence that makes a work a product of art. It is a work of art only to the extent that it is generated human spirit and belongs to him, received his baptism and depicts only what is consonant with the spirit. Human interests, the spiritual value possessed by a certain event, an individual character, an act in its ups and downs and outcome, are depicted and highlighted in a work of art more purely and transparently than is possible in ordinary non-artistic reality. Thanks to this, a work of art stands above any product of nature that has not undergone this processing by the spirit. Thus, for example, thanks to the feeling and understanding in which the landscape is created in painting, this product of the spirit occupies a higher position than a purely natural landscape. For everything spiritual is better than any product of nature, not to mention the fact that no creation of nature depicts divine ideals, as art does.

To everything that the spirit draws from its depths and puts into works of art, it gives a long duration even from the side of external existence. Individual living products of nature are transient, their appearance is changeable, while a work of art is stably preserved, although not (the duration of its existence, but the distinctness of the spiritual life imprinted in someone, constitutes its true advantage over natural reality.

This higher position of the work of art is disputed on the basis of a different conception of ordinary consciousness. They say: nature and its products are the creation of God, created by his goodness and wisdom; the product of art is only a work of man, made by human hands according to human understanding. This opposition of the products of nature as the result of the divine creation of human activity as something finite is based on a misunderstanding that God does not act in and through man, but limits the circle of his activity only to the realm of nature.

This false notion must be rejected if we wish to reach the true concept of art. Moreover, we must oppose it with the opposite view, according to which God is glorified more by what the spirit creates than by the products and creations of nature. For the divine principle is not only present in man, but also acts in him in a different form, more corresponding to the essence of God, than in nature. God is spirit, and the medium through which the divine passes only in man bears the form of a conscious, actively generating spirit. In nature, this environment is the unconscious, sensual and external, far inferior in value to consciousness. In artistic creativity, God is just as active as in natural phenomena, but in works of art, the divine, being generated by the spirit, has acquired for its existence a form of manifestation corresponding to its nature, which its existence in the unconscious sensibility of nature is not.

d) In order to draw a deeper conclusion from the foregoing discussion, it is necessary to ask the following question. If a work of art, as a product of the spirit, is a creation of man, then what need motivates people to create works of art? On the one hand, artistic creativity can be seen as simple game chance, as something dictated by caprice, so that the occupation of it appears as something without special significance, because there are others and even the best remedies to achieve the goals that art sets for itself, and a person carries in himself more important and lofty interests than art. But, on the other hand, art has its source in higher desires and needs, and at times it satisfies the highest and absolute needs, being associated with the most common problems worldview and with the religious interests of entire epochs and peoples. To the question of what this not an accidental, but an absolute need for art consists in, we cannot yet fully answer, since the question is more specific than the answer that we could give here. We must therefore content ourselves with the following remarks.

The universal and absolute need from which (from its formal side) art springs lies in the fact that man is a thinking consciousness, that is, that he creates from himself and for himself what he is and what is in general. Things that are products of nature exist only immediately and once, but man, as spirit, doubles himself: existing as an object of nature, he also exists for himself, he contemplates himself, imagines himself, thinks, and only through this active for-itself being he is spirit.

Man achieves this consciousness of himself in two ways: firstly, theoretically, insofar as he must become aware of himself in his inner life, be aware of everything that moves and agitates in the human chest. And in general, he must contemplate himself, imagine himself, fix for himself that which thought reveals as essence, and both in what he generated from himself, and in what he perceives from outside, to know only himself. Secondly, a person achieves such self-consciousness through practical activity. He has an inherent drive to generate himself in that which is immediately given to him and exists for him as something external, and to know himself also in this given from without. He achieves this goal by changing external objects, imprinting in them his inner life and again finding their own definitions in them. Man does this in order, as a free subject, to deprive the external world of its unyielding alienness and in objective form to enjoy only the external reality of himself.

Already the first impulse of the child contains a practical change in external objects. The boy throws stones into the river and admires the circles diverging in the water, contemplating his own creation in this. This need runs through the most diverse manifestations up to that form of self-production in external things, which we see in works of art. And not only with external things a person acts in this way, but also with himself, with his natural form, which he does not leave as he finds, but deliberately changes it. This is the reason for all ornaments and fashions, no matter how barbaric, tasteless, ugly or even harmful they may be, such as the legs of Chinese women or the custom of piercing ears and lips. For only educated people a change in figure, a way of holding oneself, and other external manifestations has as its source a high spiritual culture.

The universal need for art stems from the rational desire of a person to spiritually comprehend the inner and outer world, presenting it as an object in which he recognizes his own "I". He satisfies this need for spiritual freedom, on the one hand, by the fact that he internally realizes for himself that which exists, and, on the other hand, by the fact that he outwardly embodies this being-for-itself and, doubling himself, makes visible and knowable for himself and for others is what exists within him. This is the free rationality of man, from which flows both art and all action and knowledge. Below we will see what is the specific need for art, in contrast to the need for political and moral action, religious beliefs and scientific knowledge.

Question 1. A work of art as an object of linguistics

Among the linguistic disciplines that study the foundations and features of speech in its various forms and functions, stylistics should occupy a special place. Many scientists talk about this (Ries, Bally, Sechehaye, Schober, Maretic, etc.); they tried to define its relationship with other areas of the science of speech. But in the vast field of linguistics, which breaks up into a number of separate disciplines, there is no established classification of them. The position of linguistics remains uncertain, especially because different researchers, establishing the concepts of this science, put as a basis different principles(for example, the theory of the emotional function of the word and the verbal series, the principle of "the word as such", the theory of "internal form", etc.).

First of all, before the theory literary styles the task is to make a fundamental distinction between linguistic point vision - the main genre modifications of the speech of literary and artistic works.

A work of art is not a "rectilinear" construction, in which symbols would join one another like dominoes laid out in a row of rectangles or such a mosaic picture, where the components are directly revealed and clearly separated. Symbols, touching, unite into large concentres, which, in turn, should be considered again as new symbols, which in their entirety are subject to new aesthetic transformations. Fractional stylistic associations merge into large stylistic groups, which are included in the composition of the "object" already as independent, whole, as newly created symbols. And their meaning in the general concept is by no means equal to the simple sum of the meanings of those verbal series from which they are composed. Thus, in a work of art, one should distinguish between simple symbols, correlated with each other, and complex symbols, which combine, like a cycle of morphemes, a group of fractional symbols. These complex symbols are also related to complex word groups, but represent new stage semantic ascent. Therefore, in the theory of literary styles, one of the most central is the question of the types of symbols, the methods of constructing them, and the principles of their transformation.

Question 2. The structure of a work of art and its analysis

A work of art is a complex whole. It is necessary to know its internal structure, that is, to single out its individual components and realize the connections between them.

AT modern literary criticism There are two main trends in establishing the structure of the work.

The first comes from the selection in the product of a number of layers, or levels. For example, M.M. Bakhtin ("Aesthetics verbal creativity”) sees two levels in the work - “plot” and “plot”, the depicted world and the world of the image itself, the reality of the author and the reality of the hero.

The second approach to the structure of a work of art takes such categories as content and form as the primary division.

A work of art is not a natural phenomenon, but a cultural one, which means that it is based on a spiritual principle, which, in order to exist and be perceived, must certainly acquire some material embodiment, a way of existing in a system of material signs. Hence the naturalness of defining the boundaries of form and content in a work: the spiritual principle is the content, and its material embodiment is the form.

Form is the system of means and methods in which this reaction finds expression, embodiment. Simplifying somewhat, we can say that content- this is what, what the writer said with his work, and the form– how he did it.

The form of a work of art has two main functions.

The first is carried out within the artistic whole, so it can be called internal: it is a function of expressing content.

The second function is found in the impact of the work on the reader, so it can be called external (in relation to the work). It consists in the fact that the form has an aesthetic impact on the reader, because the form acts as a bearer of the aesthetic qualities of a work of art.

From what has been said, it is clear that the question of conventionality, which is so important for a work of art, is solved differently in relation to content and form.

Thus, Shchedrin’s city of Foolov is a creation of the author’s pure fantasy, it is conditional, since it never existed in reality, but autocratic Russia, which became the subject of the “History of a City” and embodied in the image of the city of Foolov, is not a convention or fiction.

The movement of the analysis of a work - from content to form or vice versa - does not have fundamental values. It all depends on the specific situation and specific tasks.

A clear conclusion suggests itself that in a work of art Both form and content are equally important..

However, the relationship between form and content in a work of art has its own specifics.

First of all, it is necessary to firmly understand that the relationship between content and form is not a spatial relationship, but a structural one.

According to Yu.N. Tynyanov, between art form and artistic content relations are established that are not like the relationship of “wine and glass” (glass as form, wine as content).

In a work of art, the content is not indifferent to the specific form in which it is embodied, and vice versa. Any change in form is inevitable and immediately leads to a change in content.

There is an important methodological rule: for an accurate and complete assimilation of the content of a work, the closest possible attention to its form is absolutely necessary.

The theme of the work and its analysis.

By theme, we mean object of artistic reflection, those life characters and situations that, as it were, pass from reality into a work of art and form objective side its content. The theme in this sense acts as a link between primary reality and artistic reality; it seems to belong to both worlds at once: the real and the artistic. At the same time, one should, of course, take into account the fact that the actual characters and relationships of characters are not copied by the writer "one to one", but already at this stage are creatively refracted: the writer chooses from reality the most, from his point of view, characteristic, strengthens this characteristic and simultaneously embodies it in a single artistic image. This is how it is created literary character – fictional character of the writer with its own character. It is to this individual integrity that attention should be directed, first of all, in the analysis of the subject matter.

It should be noted that in the practice of school teaching literature, an unreasonably much attention is paid to the consideration of topics and the analysis of "images", as if the main thing in a work of art is the reality that is reflected in it, while in fact the center of gravity of meaningful analysis should lie completely on a different plane: not what the author reflected, but how he comprehended what was reflected.

Exaggerated attention to the subject leads to a conversation about the reality reflected in a work of art, and then literature turns into an illustration for a history textbook. Thus, the aesthetic specificity of a work of art, the originality of the author's view of reality is ignored. And the conversation about literature inevitably turns out to be boring, ascertaining, of little problem.