The form of a literary work is born from its content. Art form

In art, everything becomes content, every element of form. Poets never tire of looking for new possibilities for expressing meaning - unusual, bright, memorable. What is the first thing that “catches your eye” when we open a book of poems? – Of course, the type and arrangement of the lines: couplets or quatrains, long or short lines, a “ladder” (like V. Mayakovsky) or something completely unusual...

Back in the 17th century, Simeon of Polotsk - one of the founders of Russian poetry and drama - wrote poems in the shape of a cross; in “Alice in Wonderland” you may have noticed the poems “About the Tail” in the form of a mouse tail... The visual form of the verse is not a trick, but another opportunity to convey and clarify the meaning the poet needs.

Read a poem by the 19th century poet A. Apukhtin.

The path of life is paved by barren steppes,

And wilderness, and darkness... not a hut, not a bush...

The heart sleeps; chained

And the mind and the lips,

And the distance is before us

And suddenly the road will not seem so difficult,

You will want to sing and think again,

There are so many stars burning in the sky,

Blood flows so violently...

Dreams, anxiety.

Oh, where are those dreams? Where are the joys, sorrows,

Shining brightly for us for so many years?

From their lights in the foggy distance

A faint light is barely visible...

And they disappeared...

Why do you think the poet needed such an unusual, immediately noticeable form of arrangement of lines? What would you call this figure? Does it remind you of anything? Does the form of a poem affect its meaning?

It can be assumed that A.N. Apukhtin arranged the lines of his poem in a cone so that this shape would remind the reader of a funnel into which a lot is poured but little comes out, or an hourglass through the narrow hole of which not sand, but Time itself pours out...

In the text, these meanings are expressed very weakly: with the words empty (distance), gone (dreams), they are not there. Agree that these words are very general, that is, “none,” the reader may not perceive all their importance for understanding the meaning of the poem. The poet, obviously, feels this himself - and helps the reader by creating a visual image of a funnel or hourglass. Our explanations are not the final and not the only possible interpretation of this poem. You can offer yours by arguing with us or clarifying our observations. But in any case: note how important it is to be able to “read” the form to understand the meaning.

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Discussion “Can The Picture of Dorian Gray be considered a “moral” or an “immoral” book?”... ¦ “Train yourself not to think about those whom you respect to desecrate” (Epik-tet); ¦ “There is probably more need for knowledge, for a quiet life and...

There are enough literary genres a large number of. Each of them is distinguished by a set of formal and substantive properties unique to it. Also Aristotle, who lived in the 4th century BC. presented their first systematization. According to her, literary genres were specific system, fixed once and for all. The author’s task was only to find a correspondence between his work and the properties of his chosen genre. And over the next two millennia, any changes in the classification created by Aristotle were perceived as deviations from the standards. It was only at the end of the 18th century that literary evolution and the associated decomposition of the established genre system, as well as the influence of completely new cultural and social circumstances, negated the influence of normative poetics and allowed literary thought to develop, move forward and expand. The prevailing conditions were the reason why some genres simply sank into oblivion, others found themselves in the center of the literary process, and some began to appear. We can see the results of this process (certainly not final) today - many literary genres, differing in type (epic, lyrical, dramatic), in content (comedy, tragedy, drama) and other criteria. In this article we will talk about what genres there are in form.

Literary genres by form

In form, literary genres are as follows: essay, epic, epic, sketch, novel, story (short story), play, story, essay, opus, ode and visions. Below is a detailed description of each of them.

Essay

An essay is a prose composition characterized by a small volume and free composition. It is recognized to reflect the author’s personal impressions or thoughts on any matter, but is not required to provide an exhaustive answer to the question posed or fully disclose the topic. The style of the essay is characterized by associativity, aphorism, imagery and maximum proximity to the reader. Some researchers classify essays as fiction. In the 18th-19th centuries, the essay as a genre dominated French and English journalism. And in the 20th century, the essay was recognized and actively used by the world's largest philosophers, prose writers and poets.

Epic

The epic is a heroic narrative about the events of the past, reflecting the life of the people and representing the epic reality of heroic heroes. Usually, an epic tells about a person, about the events in which he took part, about how he behaved and what he felt, and also talks about his attitude towards the world around him and the phenomena in it. The ancestors of the epic are considered to be ancient Greek folk poems and songs.

Epic

Epic refers to large works of an epic nature and similar ones. An epic is generally expressed in two forms: it can either be a narrative of significant historical events in prose or verse, or a long history of something in which descriptions of various events are included. The epic owes its emergence as a literary genre to epic songs composed in honor of the exploits of various heroes. It is worth noting that a special type of epic also stands out - the so-called “moral-descriptive epic”, distinguished by its prosaic orientation and description of the comic state of any national society.

Sketch

A sketch is a short play whose main characters are two (sometimes three) characters. Sketch is most common on the stage in the form of sketch shows, which are several comedy miniatures (“sketches”) lasting up to 10 minutes each. Sketch shows are most popular on television, especially in the US and UK. However, a small number of such humorous television programs are also aired in Russia (“Our Russia”, “Give Youth!” and others).

Novel

A novel is a special literary genre, characterized by a detailed narrative about the life and development of the main characters (or one character) in the most unusual and crisis periods of their lives. The variety of novels is so great that there are many independent branches of this genre. Novels can be psychological, moral, chivalric, Chinese classic, French, Spanish, American, English, German, Russian and others.

Story

A short story (also known as a short story) is the main genre in short narrative prose and is smaller in length than a novel or story. The roots of the novel go back to folklore genres (oral retellings, tales and parables). A story is characterized by having a small number of characters and one plot line. Often the stories of one author form a cycle of stories. The authors themselves are often called short story writers, and the collection of stories - short stories.

Play

A play is the name of dramatic works that are intended for stage performance, as well as radio and television plays. Usually the structure of the play includes monologues and dialogues characters and various author's notes indicating the places where events take place, and sometimes describing the interiors of the premises, appearance characters, their characters, manners, etc. In most cases, the play is preceded by a list of characters and their characteristics. The play consists of several acts, including smaller parts - pictures, episodes, actions.

Tale

A story is a literary genre of a prosaic nature. It does not have any specific volume, but is located between a novel and a short story (short story), which it was considered to be until the 19th century. The plot of the story is most often chronological - it reflects the natural course of life, has no intrigue, and is focused on the main character and the peculiarities of his nature. Moreover, there is only one storyline. In foreign literature, the term “story” itself is synonymous with the term “short novel”.

Feature article

An essay is considered to be a short artistic description the totality of any phenomena of reality, comprehended by the author. The basis of the essay is almost always the author’s direct study of the object of his observation. Therefore, the main feature is “writing from life.” It is important to say that if in others literary genres While fiction may play a leading role, it is practically absent from the essay. There are several types of essays: portrait (about the personality of the hero and his inner world), problem (about a specific problem), travel (about travel and wanderings) and historical (about historical events).

Opus

An opus in its broad sense is any musical piece (instrumental, folk), characterized by internal completeness, motivation of the whole, individualization of form and content, in which the personality of the author is clearly visible. In the literary sense, an opus is any literary work or treatise any author.

Oh yeah

Oh yeah - lyrical genre, expressed in the form of a solemn poem dedicated to a specific hero or event, or a separate work of the same focus. Initially (in Ancient Greece) ode was the name given to any poetic lyric (even choral singing) that accompanied music. But since the Renaissance, odes began to be called pompous lyrical works, in which the reference points are examples of antiquity.

Visions

Visions belong to the genre of medieval (Hebrew, Gnostic, Muslim, Old Russian, etc.) literature. At the center of the narrative is usually a “clairvoyant,” and the content is imbued with otherworldly, afterlife visual images that appear to the clairvoyant. The plot is narrated by a visionary - a person to whom it was revealed in hallucinations or dreams. Some authors refer to visions as journalism and narrative didactics, because in the Middle Ages, human interaction with the world of the unknown was precisely the way to convey some didactic content.

These are the main types of literary genres, differing in form. Their diversity tells us that literary creativity has always been deeply appreciated by people, but the process of formation of these genres has always been long and complex. Each of the genres as such bears the imprint of a certain era and individual consciousness, each expressed in its ideas about the world and its manifestations, people and the characteristics of their personality. It is precisely due to the fact that there are so many genres and they are all different, any creative person had and has the opportunity to express himself precisely in the form that more accurately reflects his mental organization.

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The universal categories of dialectics - content and form - are specifically manifested in art and occupy one of the central places in aesthetic theory. Hegel said that content is nothing more than the transition of form into content, and form is the transition of content into form. In relation to the historical development of art, this position means that the content is gradually formalized and “settled” in the genre-compositional, spatio-temporal structures of the artistic language and, in such a “hardened” form, influences the actual content of the new art. In relation to a work of art, this means that the belonging of one or another of its levels to content or form is relative: each of them will be a form in relation to the higher one and content in relation to the lower one. All components and levels of a work of art seem to mutually “highlight” each other. Finally, in art there are special fusions of content and form, these include, for example, plot, conflict, subject-spatial organization, melody.

On the one hand, in art there is no ready-made content and ready-made form in their separation, but there is their mutual formation in the process of historical development, in the act of creativity and perception, as well as their inseparable existence in the work as a result creative process. On the other hand, if there were no definite difference between content and form, they could not be distinguished and considered in relation to each other. Without their relative independence, mutual influence and interaction could not arise.

Aestheticspecificitycontent

Content in art is an ideological-emotional, sensory-imaginative sphere of meaning and meaning, adequately embodied in artistic form and possessing social and aesthetic value. In order for art to fulfill its irreplaceable function of socio-spiritual influence on the inner world of the individual, its content must have the appropriate features.

Art reflects and reproduces, with a greater or lesser degree of mediation and convention, various spheres of natural and social reality, but not in their very existence, regardless of the human worldview, with its value guidelines. In other words, art is characterized by an organic fusion of objectivity and internal states, a holistic reflection of the objective qualities of things in unity with human spiritual, moral, social and aesthetic values and assessments.

Artistic cognition, thus, occurs in the aspect of socio-aesthetic evaluation, determined, in turn, by the aesthetic ideal. However, the value side of the content is impossible outside of specific artistic and figurative knowledge aimed at historical reality, nature, the inner world of people and the artist himself, who objectifies the innermost spiritual searches of his personality in the products of art.

Goals true art- promote spiritual, creative, social and moral development of the individual, awaken good feelings. This is the root of the deep relationship between the subject of art and the sanctions that determine the aesthetic qualities of its content. In the subject of art, this is the unity of its content, the unity of the objective and subjective, the unity of knowledge and value orientation towards the aesthetic ideal. The functions of art include an irreplaceable impact on the organically integral, undivided inner world of a person. Because of this, the content of art always has a certain aesthetic tone: sublimely heroic, tragic, romantic, comic, dramatic, idyllic... Moreover, each of them has many shades.

Let us note some general patterns in the manifestation of the aesthetic coloring of the content of art. Firstly, it is not always presented in its pure form. Tragedy and satire, humor and romance, idyll and parody, lyricism and irony can transform into each other. Secondly, a special aesthetic type of content can be embodied not only in the corresponding types and genres of art: thus, the sphere of the tragic is not only tragedy, but also a symphony, novel, monumental sculpture; the sphere of the epic - not only epic, but also film epic, opera, poem; the dramatic is manifested not only in drama, but also in lyric poetry, romance, and short story. Thirdly, the general aesthetic tone of the content of great and talented artists is unique and individually colored.

The social and aesthetic specificity of the content is formed in a variety of specific creative acts and works. It is inseparable from the work of imagination and the activity of the artist according to the laws of the material and language of art, from the visual and expressive embodiment of the plan. This inextricable connection between the content of art and the laws of imagery, with the laws of internal order and formal embodiment consists of its artistic specificity.

A manifestation of the specificity of artistic imagery is the dialectical unity of certainty, ambiguity and integrity of content.

I. Kant's thought on polysemy artistic image and ideas were absolutized by the romantics, for example Schelling, and subsequently by theorists and practitioners of symbolism. The interpretation of the image as an expression of the infinite in the finite was associated with the recognition of its fundamental inexpressibility and opposition to knowledge.

However, in reality, the polysemy of artistic content is not limitless - it is permissible only within certain limits, only at certain levels of artistic content. In general, the artist strives for an adequate embodiment of his ideological and figurative plan and for an adequate understanding of it by those who perceive it. Moreover, he does not want to be misunderstood. On this occasion F.M. Dostoevsky wrote: “... Artistry... is the ability to so clearly express one’s thought in the faces and images of a novel that the reader, having read the novel, understands the writer’s thought in exactly the same way as the writer himself understood it when creating his work.”2

The context of the whole not only gives rise to the polysemy of individual images, but also removes and “moderates” it. It is through the whole that various content components mutually “explain” to each other a definite and unified meaning. Limitlessly contradictory interpretations arise only in isolation from the whole. In addition to the dialectical interaction of certainty and polysemy, the artistic specificity of the content is expressed in the fact that in a work of art, according to Academician D. Likhachev, a special, unique world of sociality, morality, psychology and everyday life arises, recreated through creative imagination artist.

Another feature of artistic content is the interaction of current socio-aesthetic, moral and spiritual issues with powerful layers of tradition. The proportions of modern and traditional content are different in different cultural and artistic regions, styles and genres of art.

The socio-historical appears in the universal, and the universal in the concrete-temporal.

The general properties of artistic content, which we discussed above, are manifested in a unique way in its various types.

We can talk about the plot nature of artistic and verbal narration as that specific sphere in which the content finds itself. The plot is specific and maximum full action and counteraction, a consistent depiction of movements not only physical, but also internal, spiritual, thoughts and feelings. The plot is the eventful backbone of the work, something that can be mentally excluded from the plot and retold.

Sometimes we can talk about the lack of plot, for example, of lyrics, but by no means about its lack of plot. The plot is present in other types and genres of art, but does not play such a universal role in them.

It is customary to distinguish between direct and indirect artistic content. In the visual arts, visually perceived objectivity and spatiality are directly expressed, and indirectly - the sphere of ideas, emotional and aesthetic values and assessments. Whereas in the art of words, mental and emotional content is expressed more directly, and pictorial content is expressed more indirectly. In dance and ballet, visual-plastic and emotional-affective content is directly embodied, but indirectly - philosophical-semantic, moral-aesthetic plans.

Let's consider the basic concepts of aesthetic analysis, which can be attributed to the content of all types of art. To such universal concepts belongs to the theme (from the Greek theme - subject) - the meaningful unity underlying a work of art, isolated from the impressions of reality and melted by the aesthetic consciousness and creativity of the artist. The subject of the image can be various phenomena of the surrounding world, nature, material culture, social life, specific historical events, universal spiritual problems and values.

The theme of the work organically merges the image of certain aspects of reality and their specific comprehension and evaluation, characteristic of a given artistic consciousness. However, the cognitively objective, directly pictorial side is dominant in the artistic theme compared to such essential component artistic content, as an artistic idea.

The concept of artistic theme covers four groups of meanings. The concept of an objective theme is related to the characteristics of the real origins of the content. This also includes eternal, universal themes: man and nature, freedom and necessity, love and jealousy.

A cultural-typological theme means a meaningful objectivity that has become an artistic tradition of world or national art.

A cultural-historical theme is similar socio-psychological collisions, characters and experiences, choreographic and musical images repeatedly reproduced by art, embodied in works outstanding artists, in a certain style and direction of art, which have become part of a genre or drawn from the arsenal of mythology.

The subjective theme is the structure of feelings, characters and problems characteristic of a given artist (crime and punishment in Dostoevsky, the collision of fate and the impulse to happiness in Tchaikovsky).

All these topics are united by the concept of “concrete artistic theme” - a relatively stable objectivity of the content of a work of art. The concrete artistic theme is one of the main categories with the help of which the unique world of a work of art is explored, fused with plastic, musical-melodic, graphic, monumental, decorative and formal embodiment and imbued with a certain type content-aesthetic attitude to reality (tragic, comic, melodramatic). It transforms aspects of the object and cultural-artistic theme into a new quality inherent this work and this artist.

In aesthetics, there are concepts to designate the subjective-evaluative, emotional-ideological side of the content. These include the concept of “pathos”, which developed in classical aesthetics, and the concept of “tendency”, which took shape in the works of modern aesthetics.

The category of pathos (from the Greek pathos - deep, passionate feeling) in classical aesthetics is the all-conquering spiritual passion of the artist, which displaces all other impulses and desires, is expressed plastically and has enormous infectious power.

If in pathos, through the innermost subjectivity, through the most intimate aesthetic perception of the world, one shines through Big world aspirations of the artist, then the concept of “tendency” emphasizes the moment of conscious, consistent social orientation, the consistent inclusion of the subject’s worldview into the mainstream of social ideas and aspirations. An open artistic tendency manifests itself in certain genres and styles of art: satire, civil poetry, social novel. However, a journalistically sharpened tendency must certainly develop in art in line with lyrical experience, as a figuratively and emotionally expressed idea.

In other genres and styles, only a hidden, subtextual tendency, hidden in the very depths of the narrative, is possible.

The most important category characterizing the content of art is the artistic idea (from the Greek - type, image, kind, method) - the holistic figurative and aesthetic meaning of the finished work. The artistic idea today is not identified with the entire content of the work, as it was in classical aesthetics, but corresponds to its dominant emotional, figurative and artistic aesthetic meaning. It plays a synthesizing role in relation to the entire system of the work, its parts and details, embodied in conflict, characters, plot, composition, rhythm. It is necessary to distinguish the embodied artistic idea, firstly, from the idea-plan, which the artist develops and concretizes in the process of creativity, and secondly, from ideas mentally extracted from the sphere of an already created work of art and expressed in conceptual form (in criticism, in art history, in epistolary and theoretical heritage).

The primary role for comprehending an artistic idea is the direct aesthetic perception of the work. It is prepared by the entire previous socio-aesthetic practice of a person, the level of his knowledge and value orientation and ends with an assessment, sometimes including the formulation of an artistic idea. At initial perception it is grasped general focus artistic idea, when repeated and repeated - the general impression is concretized, reinforced by new, previously unperceived themes, motives, internal “links”. In the idea of a work, the feelings and thoughts evoked by the content seem to leave the sphere of direct sensory imagery. But precisely “as if”: they should not break out of it completely, at least at the stage of perception of a work of art. If in scientific knowledge an idea is expressed as a certain type of concept or as a theory, then in the structure of an artistic idea an exceptional role is played by the emotional attitude to the world, pain, joy, rejection and acceptance. Can we mention to varying degrees social and aesthetic dignity and significance of artistic ideas, which are determined by the truthfulness and depth of comprehension of life, originality and aesthetic perfection of figurative embodiment.

XartisticformAndherComponents

The material and physical basis of artistic creativity, with the help of which the concept is objectified and the communicative-sign objectivity of a work of art is created, is usually called the material of art. This is the material “flesh” of art that is necessary for the artist in the creative process: words, granite, sanguine, wood or paint.

The material is designed to captivate, promise, beckon, excite the imagination and creative impulse for its re-creation, but at the same time set certain boundaries related primarily to its capabilities. This power of material and conventions imposed by art was assessed by artists dialectically: both as a painful inertia that limits the freedom of spirit and imagination, and as a beneficial condition for creativity, as a source of joy for a master who has triumphed over the inflexibility of the material.

The choice of material is determined individual characteristics the artist and a specific plan, as well as the level of general specific formal and technical capabilities and stylistic aspirations of art at one or another stage of its development.

The material used by the artist is ultimately focused on the leading content and stylistic trends of the time.

In the process of working with the material, the artist has the opportunity to clarify the concept and deepen it, discovering in it new potentialities, facets, nuances, that is, to embody unique artistic content, which as such exists only in the corresponding materialized structure. When creating a new work, he relies on the most general meaning, which is “accumulated” in the material under the influence of the history of culture and art. But the artist strives to concretize this meaning, directing our perception in a certain direction.

The system of material visual representations is closely related to the material. expressive means, characteristic a certain type art, its artistic language. We can talk about the specific artistic language of painting: color, texture, linear design, way of organizing depth on a two-dimensional plane. Or about the language of graphics: a line, a stroke, a spot in relation to the white surface of the sheet. Or about the language of poetry: intonation and melodic means, meter (meter), rhyme, stanza, phonic sounds.

The language of art has a specific symbolism. A sign is a sensory object that designates another object and replaces it for the purpose of communication. By analogy with it, in a work of art, the material-pictorial side represents not only itself: it refers to other objects and phenomena that exist in addition to the materialized plane. In addition, like any sign, an artistic sign presupposes understanding and communication between the artist and the perceiver.

The features of a semiotic, or sign, system are that it identifies an elementary sign unit that has a more or less constant meaning for a certain cultural group, and also the interconnection of these units is carried out, based on certain rules (syntax). Canonical art is indeed characterized by a relatively stable connection between sign and meaning, as well as by the presence of a more or less clearly defined syntax, according to which one element requires another, one relationship entails another. So, exploring the genre fairy tale, V.Ya. Propp makes a justified conclusion that it strictly adheres to the normativity of the genre, a certain alphabet and syntax: 7 fairy-tale roles and 31 of their functions. However, attempts to apply the principles of Propp's analysis to the European novel failed (it has completely different principles of artistic construction).

At the same time, in all types of art, the material and visual side, the symbolic sphere, designate one or another subject-spiritual content.

Thus, if the signs of strict semiotic systematicity in art are by no means universal, but local in nature, then the signs of iconicity in in a broad sense These words are undoubtedly present in any artistic language.

Now, after such a lengthy preface, we can finally move on to the definition of the concept of artistic form itself.

Art form- a way of expression and material-objective existence of content according to the laws of a given type and genre of art, as well as lower levels of meaning in relation to higher ones. This general definition forms need to be specified in relation to a separate work of art. In a holistic work, form is a totality brought to unity artistic means and techniques for the purpose of expressing unique content. In contrast, the language of art is potential expressive and visual means, as well as typological, normative aspects of form, mentally abstracted from many specific artistic embodiments.

Like content, artistic form has its own hierarchy and order. Some of its levels gravitate towards spiritual-figurative content, others - towards the material-physical objectivity of the work. Therefore, a distinction is made between internal and external form. Internal form is a way of expressing and transforming the orderliness of content into the orderliness of form, or the structural-compositional, genre-constructive aspect of art. External form is concrete sensory means, organized in a certain way to embody the internal form and, through it, content. If the external form is connected with the highest levels of content more indirectly, then with the material of art it is directly and directly related.

The art form is relatively independent and has its own internal, immanent laws of development. Nevertheless, social factors have an undeniable influence on the art form. The language of Gothic, Baroque, classicism, and impressionism was influenced by the socio-historical climate of the era, prevailing sentiments and ideals. In this case, socio-historical needs can be supported by mastered materials and means of their processing, achievements of science and technology (Michelangelo’s method of processing marble, the separate system of strokes by the Impressionists, metal structures by the Constructivists).

Even the most stable one, not prone to special dynamics perceptual factor influences the language of art not in itself, but in a social context.

If it is wrong to deny the socio-cultural factors influencing language and the form of art, then it is equally wrong not to see their internal, systemic independence. Everything that art draws from nature, social life, technology, and everyday human experience to replenish and enrich its formal means is processed into a specific artistic system. These specific means expressions are formed in the sphere of art, and not outside of it. Such are, for example, the rhythmic organization of poetic speech, melody in music, direct and reverse perspective in painting.

The means of artistic representation and expression tend to be systematic and internally conditioned and, because of this, are capable of self-development and self-improvement. Each form of art has laws of internal organization of specific means of expression. Therefore, the same means of expression performs different functions in different types of art: line in painting and graphics, words in lyrics and novels, intonation in music and poetry, color in painting and cinema, gesture in pantomime, dance, dramatic action. At the same time, the principles of formation of some types and genres of art influence others. Finally, outstanding creative individuality new forms of expression are created.

The artistic language is thus formed under the influence of a number of socio-historical and cultural-communicative factors, but they are mediated by the logic of its internal, systemic development. The dominant forms in art are determined general level and the nature of aesthetic culture.

When considering artistic form, we, as when analyzing content, highlight the most common components. Let us dwell on the characteristics of those principles of form-building, without which it is impossible to create works of art of any kind of art. These include genre, composition, artistic space and time, and rhythm. This is the so-called internal form, which reflects the general aesthetic aspect of art, while in the external form the means of expression are specific to its individual types.

Genre - historically established types of works, relatively stable, repeating artistic structures. Genre associations of works of art occur primarily on the basis of subject-thematic similarity and compositional features, in connection with various functions, and according to characteristic aesthetic features. Thematic, compositional, emotional and aesthetic features most often create a systemic relationship with each other. Thus, monumental sculpture and small sculpture differ in thematic, aesthetic, emotional, compositional characteristics, as well as in material.

The genre development of art is characterized by two trends: the tendency towards differentiation, towards the isolation of genres from each other, on the one hand, and towards interaction, interpenetration, up to synthesis, on the other. The genre also develops in the constant interaction of the norm and deviations from it, relative stability and variability. Sometimes it takes on the most unexpected forms, mixing with other genres and falling apart. A new work, outwardly written in line with the norm of the genre, can actually destroy it. An example is the poem by A.S. Pushkin’s “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, parodying the classic heroic poem, which falls out of the genre norms of the work, but also retains some of the characteristics of the poem.

Deviation from the rules is possible only on their basis, in accordance with the universal dialectical law of the negation of the negation. The impression of novelty arises only when the norms of other works of art are remembered.

Secondly, the unique, specific content of art interacts with that which stores the “memory” of the genre. Gives life to genres real content, with which they are filled during the period of their origin and historical and cultural formation. Gradually, the genre content loses its specificity, is generalized, and acquires the meaning of a “formula” and an approximate outline.

Composition (from the Latin compositio - arrangement, composition, addition) is a method of constructing a work of art, the principle of connecting similar and dissimilar components and parts, consistent with each other and with the whole. In the composition there is a transition between artistic content and its internal relations in relation to form, and the orderliness of form - in the orderliness of content. To distinguish between the laws of construction of these spheres of art, two terms are sometimes used: architectonics - the relationship of the components of the content; composition - principles of form construction.

There is another type of differentiation: general shape The structures and interrelation of large parts of a work are called architectonics, and the interrelation of smaller components is called composition. It should be taken into account that in the theory of architecture and organization of the subject environment, another pair of correlated concepts is used: design - the unity of the material components of the form, achieved by identifying their functions, and composition - artistic completion and emphasis on constructive and functional aspirations, taking into account the characteristics of visual perception and artistic expressiveness, decorativeness and integrity of form.

The composition is determined by the methods of shaping and the peculiarities of perception characteristic of a certain type and genre of art, the laws of constructing an artistic model / canon / in canonized types of culture, as well as the individual identity of the artist and the unique content of a work of art in less canonized types of culture.

Universal means of shaping and expressing ideological and artistic content are artistic space and time - reflection, rethinking and specific embodiment of the spatio-temporal aspects of reality and ideas about them in figurative, symbolic and conventional techniques of art.

In spatial arts, space is a form that has become the so-called immediate content.

In temporary arts, spatial images are a form that has become mediated content, recreated using non-spatial material, for example, words. Their role in reflecting the socio-ethical, socio-aesthetic ideas of the artist is enormous. Artistic content Gogol's works, for example, cannot be imagined outside the spatial image of existence, enclosed by a palisade, and his aesthetic ideal is outside the boundless space, outside the wide, free steppe and the road running into an unknown distance. Moreover, the image of this road is dual: it is both a real, loose, potholed road along which a tarantass or chaise shakes, and a road that the writer sees from a “beautiful distance.” The world of Dostoevsky's heroes - St. Petersburg corners, courtyard wells, attics, stairs, everyday life. At the same time, there are crowded, “cathedral” scenes of scandals and repentances. This is both the isolation of painfully nurtured thoughts and publicly visible action in an open space.

Artistic time performs meaningful functions primarily in temporary arts. In cinema, the image of time stretches and contracts. The impression of temporary movement is determined by many additional means: the frequency of frame changes, camera angles, the ratio of sound and image, plans. This can easily be seen in the films of A. Tarkovsky. The comparison of a person and his personal time with eternity, the existence of a person in the world and in time - such an abstract problem is reflected using purely concrete means. In the aesthetic, meaningful and semantic impression of instrumental music and choreographic performance, the role of tempo and various types rhythm-time relationships. Here, all the means that create the temporary image of the work, and through it the ideological and emotional meaning, are specified by the author or performer. And the perceiver must simultaneously perceive them, having only the freedom of additional figurative and semantic associations.

The situation with artistic time is somewhat different in spatially static arts: the perception of their images is not set by the artist with such rigidity. But just as a weightless word that has no spatial boundaries constantly reproduces object-spatial images, so the sculptor’s motionless material recreates movement that seems beyond his control with the help of poses, gestures, thanks to the depiction of transitions from one state to another, thanks to the development of movement from one form to another, through angles, volume accents.

Rhythm (from the Greek - regularity, tact) is the natural repetition of identical and similar components at equal and commensurate intervals in space or time. Artistic rhythm is unity - the interaction of norm and deviation, orderliness and disorder, motivated by the optimal possibilities of perception and shaping, and ultimately by the content-figurative structure of a work of art.

In art, two main types of rhythmic patterns can be distinguished: relatively stable (regulative, canonized) and variable (irregular, non-canonized). Regular rhythms are based on a clearly identified unit of commensurability of artistic periodicities (meter), which is typical for ornamental art, music, dance, architecture and poetry. In irregular, non-canonized rhythms, periodicity occurs outside of strict meter and is approximate and unstable: it appears and then disappears. There are, however, many transitional forms between these two types of rhythm: so-called free verse, rhythmic prose, pantomime. In addition, a regular, canonized rhythm can acquire a freer and more complex character (for example, in music and poetry of the 20th century).

To understand the meaningful function of rhythm, we must take into account that it manifests itself at all levels of a work of art. Any rhythmic series of the lowest level of form should not be directly correlated with the theme and idea of the work. The semantic function of rhythm in poetry, music, and architecture is revealed through its connection with the genre.

Rhythm, as it were, “spreads” the meaning of one component throughout the entire structure of repeating components, helps to reveal additional shades of content, creating a vast area of comparisons and interconnections, involving even the lower, formative levels of a work of art into the general content context

Rhythmic series in a work of art can overlap each other, enhancing a single figurative and aesthetic impression.

Imitation also takes place in art. life processes with the help of rhythm (the running of a horse, the sound of train wheels, the sound of the surf), the movement of time, the dynamics of breathing and emotional ups and downs. But the meaningful function of rhythm cannot be reduced to such imitations.

Thus, rhythm indirectly conveys the dynamics of the depicted object and the emotional structure of the creative subject; increases the expressive and meaningful capacity of the work due to numerous comparisons and analogies, due to “pulling” formal repetitions into the semantic sphere; emphasizes the change of themes and intonation-figurative motifs.

Classical aesthetics has long considered proportionality, proportions, the “golden ratio”, rhythm, and symmetry as the formal manifestation of beauty. Golden ratio- this is a system of proportional relationships in which the whole relates to its larger part as the larger one relates to the smaller one. The golden ratio rule is expressed by the formula: c/a = a/b, where c denotes the whole, a - most, b - smaller. These patterns are truly inherent to the artistic form. And most importantly, aesthetic pleasure in the beauty of a form is determined by a high degree of correspondence and adequacy to its embodied content. Such correspondence in aesthetic terms can be regarded as harmony.

InteractionformsAndcontent

Artistic content plays a leading, determining role in relation to artistic form. The leading role of content in relation to form is manifested in the fact that form is created by the artist to express his intention. In the process of creativity, the spiritual-substantive plan and feelings-impressions prevail, although the form “pushes” and even leads it in a number of cases. Gradually the content becomes fuller and more defined. But from time to time it seems to strive to break out of the “shackles” and boundaries of form, but this unforeseen impulse is restrained by the strong-willed, constructive and creative work of the master in the material. The creative process demonstrates the struggle, the contradiction between form and content with the leading role of content.

Finally, the conditioning of form by content is also expressed in the fact that in a finished work of art large “blocks” of form and sometimes its “atomic” level are conditioned by content and exist to express it. Some layers of form are determined by the content more directly, others - less, having relatively greater independence, being determined by technical considerations, formative purposes as such. Lower levels It is not always possible and necessary to correlate a work of art with the content; they enter into it indirectly.

The content shows a tendency towards constant updating, since it is more directly connected with the developing reality, with the dynamic spiritual quest of the individual. The form is more inert, tends to lag behind the content, slow down, and fetter its development. The form does not always realize all the possibilities of the content; its conditioning by the content is incomplete, relative, and not absolute. Because of this, in art, as in other processes and phenomena, there is a constant struggle between form and content.

At the same time, the art form is relatively independent and active. Forms in art interact with the past artistic experience of mankind and with modern searches, since at each stage of the development of art there is a relatively stable system of meaningful forms. There is a conscious or intuitive projection of the created form onto the context of forms that precede and act simultaneously, including the degree of their aesthetic “wear” is taken into account. The activity of the form is manifested in the process of historical development of art, and in the act of creativity, and at the level of the social functioning of a work of art, its performing interpretation and aesthetic perception.

Consequently, the relative discrepancy between content and form, their contradiction, is constant sign movement of art towards new aesthetic discoveries. This contradiction is clearly expressed during periods of formation of a new direction or style, when the search for new content is not yet provided by a new form or when the intuitive insight of new forms turns out to be premature and therefore artistically impracticable due to the lack of socio-aesthetic prerequisites for the content. In “transitional” works, united by an intense search for new content, but which have not found adequate artistic forms, signs of familiar, previously used formations are visible, not artistically rethought, not melted down to express new content. This is often due to the fact that the new content is only vaguely perceived by the artist. Examples of such works are “ American tragedy» T. Dreiser and early stories M. Bulgakov. Such transitional works usually appear during periods of acute crises in the development of art or intense polemics between the artist and himself, with the inertia of his usual thinking and style of writing. Sometimes, from this collision of old form and new content, the maximum artistic effect is extracted and a harmonious correspondence is created on a new level. In a finished work of art, unity prevails in the relationship between content and form - correspondence, interconnection and interdependence. It is impossible to separate form from content here without destroying its integrity. In it, content and form are connected into a complex system.

The aesthetic unity of content and forms presupposes their certain positive uniformity, progressive and artistically developed content and full-fledged form. It is advisable to distinguish the unity of content and form, meaning that one cannot exist without the other, from the correspondence of content and form as a certain artistic criterion and ideal. In a real work of art, only an approximation to this correspondence is found.

artwork meaning art

WITHlist of literature

1. Bakhtin M.M. The problem of content, material and form in verbal artistic creativity // Bakhtin M.M. Questions of literature and aesthetics. M.1975.

2. Gachev G.D. Content of the artistic form. M. 1968.

3. Hegel G.V.F. Aesthetics. T.1-4, M.1968-1974.

4. Girshman M.M. Literary work. Theory and practice of analysis. M. 1991.

5. Khalizev V.E. Theory of literature. M.1999.

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Distinction between the concepts of form and content of literature

The distinction between the concepts of form and content of literature was made only in the 18th - early 19th centuries, primarily in German classical aesthetics (with particular clarity in Hegel, who introduced the very category of content). It was a huge step forward in the interpretation of the nature of literature, but at the same time it was fraught with the danger of a gap between form and content. Literary studies of the 19th century were characterized by a focus (sometimes exclusively) on problems of content; in the 20th century, as a kind of reaction, on the contrary, formal approach to the literature, although isolated content analysis is also widespread. However, due to the specific unity of form and content inherent in literature, both of these sides cannot be understood through isolated study. If a researcher tries to analyze the content in its isolation, then it seems to elude him, and instead of the content, he characterizes the subject of literature, i.e. the reality mastered in it. For the subject of literature becomes its content only within the boundaries and flesh of the artistic form. By abstracting from form, one can only get a simple message about an event (phenomenon, experience) that does not have its own artistic meaning. When studying form in isolation, the researcher inevitably begins to analyze not the form as such, but the literary material, i.e. first of all, language, human speech, for abstraction from content turns literary form into a simple fact of speech; such distraction is a necessary condition for the work of a linguist, stylist, logician who uses a literary work for specific purposes.

The form of literature can really be studied only as a completely meaningful form, and the content - only as artistically formed content. A literary critic often has to focus his main attention either on content or on form, but his efforts will be fruitful only if he does not lose sight of the relationship, interaction, and unity of form and content. Moreover, it is even quite true general understanding the nature of such unity does not in itself guarantee the fruitfulness of the research; the researcher must constantly take into account a wide range of more specific issues. There is no doubt that form exists only as the form of given content. However, at the same time, the form “in general” also has a certain reality, incl. genera, genres, styles, types of composition and artistic speech. Of course, a genre or type of artistic speech does not exist as independent phenomena, but is embodied in the totality of individual individual works. In a genuine literary work, these and other “ready-made” aspects and components of the form are transformed, updated, and acquire a unique character (a work of art is unique in genre, style and other “formal” respects). And yet, a writer, as a rule, chooses for his work a genre, a type of speech, a stylistic trend that already exists in literature. Thus, in any work there are essential features and elements of form inherent in literature in general or the literature of a given region, people, era, movement. Moreover, taken in a “ready” form, formal moments themselves have a certain content. By choosing one genre or another (poem, tragedy, even a sonnet), the writer thereby appropriates not only a “ready-made” construction, but also a certain “ready-made meaning” (of course, the most general one). This applies to any moment of the form. It follows that the well-known philosophical position about the “transition of content into form” (and vice versa) has not only a logical, but also a historical, genetic meaning. What appears today as the universal form of literature was once content. Thus, many features of genres at birth did not act as a moment of form - they became a formal phenomenon in their own right, only “settled” in the process of repeated repetition. The short story, which appeared at the beginning of the Italian Renaissance, acted not as a manifestation of a specific genre, but precisely as a kind of “news” (Italian novella means “news”), a message about an event of keen interest. Of course, it had certain formal features, but its plot sharpness and dynamism, its laconicism, figurative simplicity and other properties did not yet act as genre and, more broadly, formal features; they have not yet been separated from the content. Only later - especially after the Decameron (1350-53) by G. Boccaccio - did the short story appear as a genre form as such.

At the same time, the historically “ready-made” form turns into content . Thus, if a writer has chosen the form of a short story, the content hidden in this form enters into his work. This clearly expresses the relative independence of the literary form, on which the so-called formalism in literary criticism relies, absolutizing it (see Formal school). Equally undoubted is the relative independence of the content, which carries moral, philosophical, socio-historical ideas. However, the essence of the work lies not in the content and not in the form, but in that specific reality, which is the artistic unity of form and content. The judgment of L.N. Tolstoy, expressed regarding the novel “Anna Karenina”, is applicable to any truly artistic work: “If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express in a novel, then I would have to write the same novel, which I wrote first” (Complete Works, 1953. Volume 62). In such an organism created by the artist, his genius completely penetrates into the mastered reality, and it permeates the creative “I” of the artist; “everything is in me and I am in everything” - if we use the formula of F.I. Tyutchev (“The gray shadows mixed ...”, 1836). The artist gets the opportunity to speak the language of life, and life - in the language of the artist, the voices of reality and art merge together. This does not at all mean that form and content as such are “destroyed” and lose their objectivity; both cannot be created “out of nothing”; both in content and in form, the sources and means of their formation are fixed and tangibly present. The novels of F. M. Dostoevsky are unthinkable without the deepest ideological quests of their heroes, and the dramas of A. N. Ostrovsky are unthinkable without a mass of everyday details. However, these moments the content acts as an absolutely necessary, but still a means, “material” for creating artistic reality itself. The same should be said about the form as such, for example, about the internal dialogicity of the speech of Dostoevsky’s heroes or about the subtle characteristic of the replicas of Ostrovsky’s heroes: they are also tangible means of expressing artistic integrity, and not self-valued “constructions”. The artistic “meaning” of a work is not a thought or a system of thoughts, although the reality of the work is entirely imbued with the artist’s thought. The specificity of artistic “meaning” lies, in particular, in overcoming the one-sidedness of thinking, its inevitable distraction from living life. In a genuine artistic creation, life seems to become aware of itself, obeying the creative will of the artist, which is then transmitted to the perceiver; To embody this creative will, it is necessary to create an organic unity of content and form.

reading view

We understand the concepts of “form” and “content” of a literary work. What it is? Does one follow from the other, and can they exist without each other?

In literary theory, the terms “form and content” have been used since the times of the ancient Greeks. At the same time, “form” and “content” as applied to literary texts has been repeatedly disputed. The formalists were convinced that the concept of “content” is unnecessary for literature, and “form” must be correlated with neutral artistic life material. Yu.M. Lotman proposed replacing traditional and, as he believed, one-sided “dualistic” terms with “monistic” terms “structure and idea.” In the same “structuralist” era, the words “sign and meaning” came into literary criticism, and later - “text and meaning”.

No matter what, form and content continue to live, although they are often put in ironic quotation marks and prefaced with the words “so-called.” R. Welleck and O. Warren wrote that the usual division of a work “into content and form” is regarded as “confusing the analysis and in need of elimination”; but later, turning to stylistic specifics, the authors noted the need for a literary critic to isolate the elements of a work and separate from each other “form and content, expression of thought and style.”

There are also other logical constructions in literary criticism. A.A. Potebnya characterized three aspects of works of art: external form, internal form, content (as applied to literature: word, image, idea). R. Ingarden identified four layers in the composition of a literary work: 1) the sound of speech; 2) the meaning of words; 3) the level of the depicted objects; 4) the level of types of objects, their auditory and visual appearance, perceived from a certain point of view. The multilevel approach also has its supporters in domestic science.

The German philosopher N. Hartmann argued that in structure works are inevitably multi-layered, but “in the way of being” they are “unshakably two-layered”: their foreground is material-sensory objectivity (imagery), the background is “spiritual content”.

Let us consider the composition and structure of a literary work, taking as a basis the traditional concepts of form and content.

Form and content are philosophical categories that find application in various fields of knowledge. In ancient philosophy, form was opposed to matter. The latter was thought of as chaotic, subject to processing, as a result of which ordered objects appear, which are forms. The meaning of the word “form” turned out to be close to the meaning of the words “essence”, “idea”.

“Every true form,” wrote Aug. Schlegel, is organic, that is, determined by the content of the work of art. In a word, form is nothing more than full value appearance is the physiognomy of each thing, expressive and not distorted by any random signs, truly testifying to its hidden essence.”

In other words, a truly artistic work excludes the possibility of re-design, which would be neutral to the content. Make an edit in Gogol’s words “The Dnieper is wonderful in calm weather”: “The Dnieper is wonderful in calm weather,” and the charm of Gogol’s landscape disappears. According to Blok, the poet’s spiritual structure is expressed in everything, right down to punctuation marks. And according to the formulation of a number of scientists at the beginning of the 20th century. In works of art, a meaningfully filled form plays a decisive role.

Russian literary criticism says that artistic form has no meaning without its correlation with content. The most important principle of artistic activity: the focus on the unity of content and form in the works created. The unity of form and content makes the work organically integral, as if it were a living being, born and not mechanically constructed.

So, in a work of art, formal-substantive and actually substantive principles are distinguishable. As part of the form that carries the content, there are three sides that are necessarily present in any literary work. This is, firstly, the subject-visual principle, those phenomena and facts that are indicated with the help of words and together make up the world of a work of art. Secondly, the verbal fabric of the work: artistic speech, often denoted by the terms “poetic language”, “stylistics”, “text”. And thirdly, this is the correlation and arrangement in the work of units of the objective and verbal “series”, i.e. composition.

The identification of three main sides in the work goes back to ancient rhetoric. It was noted that the speaker needs to: 1) find material (i.e., select a subject that will be presented and characterized by speech); 2) somehow arrange (construct) this material; 3) translate it into words that will make the proper impression on the audience.

A special place in the work belongs to the content layer. It can be rightfully described not as another (fourth) side of the work, but as its substance. Artistic content represents the unity of objective and subjective principles. This is the totality of what came to the author from the outside and was known by him, and what was expressed by him and comes from his views, intuition, traits.

The term “content” (artistic content) is almost synonymous with the words “concept” (or “author’s concept”), “idea”, “meaning”, “last semantic authority”. Artistic content is not embodied in in separate words, phrases, and in the totality of text. Yu.M. Lotman: “The idea is not contained in any, even well-chosen quotes, but is expressed throughout artistic structure. A researcher who does not understand this and looks for ideas in individual quotations is like a person who, having learned that a house has a plan, would begin to break down the walls in search of the place where this plan is walled up. The plan is not immured in the walls, but is implemented in the proportions of the building. The plan is the architect’s idea, the structure of the building is its implementation.”

August 18, 2016

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