The plot in the literature is what? The development and elements of the plot in the literature

Modern theory of literature offers several definitions of the concept of "plot". According to Ozhegov, the plot in the literature is the order and connection of events. Ushakov's dictionary suggests that they consider a set of actions, sequence and motivation for the deployment of what is happening in the work.

Interrelation with the plot

In modern Russian criticism the plot has a very different definition. The plot in the literature is understood as the course of events, against which background the confrontation is revealed. Fabula is the main artistic conflict.

However, in the past there were and continue to exist other points of view on this issue. Russian critics of the middle of the XIX century, supported by Veselovsky and Gorky, considered the composition of the plot, that is, how the author reports the content of his work. And the plot in the literature is, in their opinion, the very development of the action and relationship of the characters.

This interpretation is directly opposite to that in the dictionary Ushakov, in which the plot is the content of events in their consistent connection.

Finally, there is a third point of view. Those who adhere to it, believe that the concept of "plot" has no independent meaning, and in the analysis it is quite sufficient to use the terms "plot", "composition" and "plot schema."

Types and variants of workflows

Modern analysts distinguish two main types of plot: chronicle and concentric. They differ from each other in the nature of the connections between events. The main factor, if I may say so, is time. The chronic type reproduces its natural course. Concentric - no longer focuses on the physical, but on the mental.

Concentric plot in the literature - it's detectives, thrillers, social and psychological novels, dramas. Chronic is more often found in memoirs, sagas, adventure works.

Concentric plot and its features

In the case of this type of course of events, a clear cause-and-effect relationship of the episodes can be traced. The development of the plot in this type of literature goes consistently and logically. It is easy to distinguish the outset and denouement. The previous actions are the causes of the subsequent, all events seem to be pulled together into one node. The writer examines one conflict.

And the product can be both linear and multi-linear - the cause-and-effect relationship remains as clear, moreover, any new storylines appear as a result of events that have already occurred. All parts of the detective, thriller or story are built on a clearly expressed conflict.

The Chronicle

It can be countered with a concentric one, although in reality it is not the opposite, but an entirely different principle of construction. These kinds of plots in the literature can interpenetrate one another, but most often the determining one is either one or the other.

The change of events in the work, built according to the chronicle principle, is tied to the time. There may be no pronounced outset, there is no strict logical causal relationship (or at least this link is not obvious).

Speech in such a work can go about a lot of episodes, the common in which is only that they happen in chronological order. The chronicle in the literature is a multi-conflict and multi-component painting, where contradictions arise and go out, others replace others.

Tie, culmination, denouement

In works whose plot is based on conflict, it is inherently a scheme, a formula. In it, you can identify the constituent parts. Elements of the plot in the literature include exposure, string, conflict, increasing action, crisis, culmination, descending action and denouement.

Of course, all these elements are not present in every work. More often you can find several of them, for example, a string, conflict, development of action, crisis, culmination and denouement. On the other hand, it matters how to analyze the work.

The exposition in this plan is the most static part. Its task is to present some characters and the environment of action.

The plot describes one or more events that give a boost to the underlying action. The development of the plot in literature goes through a conflict, a growing action, a crisis to a climax. It is also the peak of the work, which plays a significant role in revealing the characters of the characters and in unfolding the conflict. The denouement adds the final touches to the narrated story and to the characters of the characters.

In the literature there was a certain scheme for constructing the plot, psychologically justified from the point of view of influence on the reader. Each described element has its place and meaning.

If the story does not fit into the scheme, it seems sluggish, incomprehensible, illogical. In order for the work to be interesting, so that readers sympathize with the characters and understand what is happening to them, everything in it must have its place and develop according to these psychological laws.

Plots of ancient Russian literature

Ancient Russian literature, according to DS Likhachev, is "the literature of one topic and one story." World history and the meaning of human life are the main, deep motives and themes of writers of those times.

Plots of ancient Russian literature are revealed to us in the lives, messages, walks (descriptions of travels), annals. The names of the authors of most of them are unknown. According to the time interval to the Old Russian group belong works written in the XI-XVII centuries.

Variety of modern literature

Attempts to classify and describe the subjects used were made more than once. In his book Four Cycles, Jorge Luis Borges suggested that in the world literature there are only four of their types:

• About the search;
• About the suicide of God;
• About a long return;
• The assault and defense of the fortified city.

Christopher Bukker singled out seven: "from mud to prince" (or vice versa), adventure, "there and back" (here comes the "Hobbit" of Tolkien), comedy, tragedy, resurrection and victory over the monster. Georges Polti brought all the experience of world literature to 36 subject collisions, and Kipling singled out 69 of their variants.

Even the specialists of another profile did not leave this question indifferent. According to Carl Gustav Jung, a well-known Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, the main subjects of literature are archetypal, and there are only six of them - a shadow, an animus, an animus, a mother, an old man and a child.

Folklore Tale Pointer

Most of all, perhaps, "highlighted" the writers of the possibilities of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther system - it recognizes the existence of approximately 2500 variants.

Speech, however, is about folklore. This system is a catalog, an index of fairy-tale subjects known to science at the time of this monumental work.

For the course of events, there is only one definition. The plot in the literature of such a plan is as follows: "A persecuted stepdaughter is taken to the forest and thrown there. Baba-yaga, or Morozko, or Leshy, or 12 months, or Winter experience it and reward it. My stepmother's daughter also wants to receive a gift, but she does not pass the test and is killed. "

In fact, Aarne himself established no more than a thousand variants of the development of events in the tale, but he allowed the possibility of the appearance of new ones and left them in their original classification. It was the first to enter the scientific community and the most recognized index. Subsequently, scientists from many countries have made their additions to it.

In 2004, a revision of the handbook appeared, in which descriptions of fairytale types were updated and made more precise. This version of the index contained 250 new types.