The content and form of a literary work: description, theory

In theoretical poetics there is such a conceptual pair as form and content. These concepts are taken from philosophy. Philosophers define content as an entity; literary scholars understand by this word the plot itself.

The category of the content of a literary work is invariably associated with the category of form. And the form is understood as a finished work; as a separate world described by successful expressions.

Before you start writing any kind of fiction, you should understand the theoretical nuances of these concepts.

The content and form of a literary work

In literature, content is an internal image, the very meaning of the whole story. The meaning is expressed through style, through a harmonious combination of words, that is, through form. Ever since the Aristotelian "Poetics", the form and content were conceived by the authors as an inseparable dialectical conceptual unity.

Aristotle himself expressed these categories in slightly different words. He defined two concepts - “how” and “what”. These categories correspond to the logical concepts of subject and predicate. The form of the novel cannot exist without filling, and the author’s thoughts cannot be passed on to the reader unless the author determines for them some material basis.

The word "form" comes from the Greek language and means - the appearance of something, the image. The category of form is invariably associated with a combination of purely physical aspects of a material nature. And the content is associated with the concept of the essence or content of a certain image.

In ancient Rome, the concept of "content" was contrasted with material objects of being. The distinction between these concepts is arbitrary and reflects only the human need to know. These are purely philosophical terms. And they came to the modern world as epistemological categories.

The subjectivity of the content of the work

It is worth noting that form is always something objective. The external form of fiction is the vocabulary used by the author. It is copyright that applies to her. That is, no one else has the right to write the same words in the same order as this famous author. But the content can be copied to one degree or another.

Here are some examples of the contents of a text.

• The content of scientific work - concepts and hypotheses. Object - words used for reasoning and conveying facts.
• Piece of art. An idea and composition is content, author’s speech, dialogs of heroes and descriptions of the world around the heroes are an expression of form.
• A literary work of pedagogical content - ideas on how best to convey knowledge and interest students. An example is the Pedagogical poem of Makarenko.

So, the content of a literary work is a plot. Although the composition of the work has its own objective structure, and is built according to certain laws, but the reader can interpret it in their own way. After all, two different people interpret one story in two ways. Since everyone comes from their own experience.

Scientific articles, diplomas and dissertations also have a structure and an idea. But there is little subjectivity, since every thought is proved by facts and logical constructions.

Brief contents of a literary work

Such brief descriptions save time for students of philological universities. The student, without reading the entire volume of the text, learns the main storylines, key conflicts of the work and some character traits of the protagonist.

The ideological content of a literary and artistic work can be understood on the basis of a brief description of the plot. The summary helps to form a personal opinion for the student or pupil of the school regarding the characters and their relationships.

The content of a literary and artistic work is described in the plot. The plot is an extremely brief summary, where the storyline is shown in strict chronological order.

The plot as the basis of the work

So, the work consists of form, the idea of ​​the author and composition. The composition is built according to a specific template. A literary work always begins with a prologue, and ends with an epilogue. Everyone knows the basis of the composition from the 8th grade of the school:

• Prologue.
• The plot.
• Climax.
• Denouement.
• Epilogue.

The plot of the work is often similar in many stories. In detective stories, the investigator finds a killer or a robber; the romance of lovers in a melodramatic scenario ends either with a wedding, or with a separation and regret. But each author fills the plot with his own colors, tries to make the hero more interesting, gives the reader some unforgettable emotions.

Through the plot, through the transformation of the hero, the writer conveys the thought that he had conceived at the beginning of his narrative, as the main one.

Johann Goethe described the task of the writer as follows:

Take possession of the whole world and find expression for it.

This is what it means to combine form and content. History is not written just like that, any story raises a social or philosophical perspective. And to solve the problem, you need to be able to use figurative expressions of the language and know how to make your character close to the reader.

Aesthetics of Hegel. Ideal and figurative expression

During the heyday of German classical philosophy, Hegel tried to explain the terms of literary creation within the framework of his worldview. In his work Aesthetics, the philosopher paid special attention to the concepts of the content and form of a literary work.

Hegel noted that the images of the creator of a work cannot be limited. Each artistic image must express the idea inherent in it. The character of the hero will certainly affect his appearance and speech, and the interior of the room should reflect the past of the owners and their attitude to the material side of life.

On this occasion, Hegel himself in his "Aesthetics" put forward the main position:

The combination of ideas and image into their free reconciled whole.

M. Bakhtin's view on form and content

Mikhail Bakhtin is one of the most famous Russian-speaking philosophers and literary theorists. His views largely determined the course of development of Russian literature. What is his opinion about the content and form of a literary work? M. Bakhtin did not consider form as simply a technique or style of a writer.

Form for him means more a way to organize the plot. The literary critic said that the reader should not just read the words, but experience the aesthetically read text.

Analysis of the content of a literary work

Analysis is necessary for a more complete awareness of the issues that the author raises. Literature should be viewed from two sides. Evaluation is given for compliance with technical standards and rules of the plot, and the degree of disclosure of the topic.

The analysis should also have a certain structure.

The critical analysis plan for the work is as follows:

1. Define the theme and main idea of ​​the work. How fully the topic is revealed.
2. To analyze whether the integrity of form and content is respected.
3. Characterize the characters, the system of images in a literary work, analyze the methods of character disclosure, their credibility in various scenes.
4. Describe the attitude of the author to the topic.
5. Find out how expressive means are used to create images; comment on the style of the writer.

CT Coleridge, an English poet, critic, said that the work of a talented writer differs from mediocre works in absolute organicity and integrity.

Another critic B. Larin developed his own method of analysis - “The experience of form analysis.” The category of the content of a literary work is maximally disclosed and detailed.

Analysis of the unity of form and content

Separately, an analysis of the unity of content and form of a literary work is considered. The critic also takes into account and analyzes this aspect of the novel.

In order to write a qualitative analysis of a work, the level of knowledge and skills in the field of philology and philosophy of literature must be high. And also the author of the analysis must have excellent critical thinking.

The content of a literary work is a definition of the moral side of the novel. Not only stylistics matters to the critic, but also the morality to which the writer leads at the end of a story or novel.

The content of the literary work. Modern look

In modern literature, writers and literary scholars try not to use terms such as "content" and "form." Instead, they use more abstract concepts - "sign" and "symbolism of the sign." However, in their essence, these categories are exactly the same. The modern system of concepts is fully consistent with the concepts of "what" and "how" and Aristotle.

For novels and short stories, there is no pattern by which the plot is built. The content of a literary work is the entire inner world of the author, enclosed in some kind of lexical form, divided into episodes and chapters. But nevertheless it is impossible to write by intuition. A novice author needs to know the laws of a dramatic work.

Yuri Lotman. The integrity of the work

Yuri Mikhailovich Lotman is the most prominent Russian thinker, literary critic and culturologist of the 20th century. What did he think about the ideological content of the literary work?

Y. Lotman argued that the content is the architect’s plan, and the form is the already implemented building plan. And accordingly, a building cannot exist without a plan. The plan helps the writer to structure the plot and create a literary work according to all the canons of dramatic art.

The reader must give a moral assessment to the heroes of the work. He evaluates their actions, thoughts and experiences. Sympathy for the hero will arise only if the author was able to create a three-dimensional character, not a “cardboard” one, that is, faceless. The integrity of the work is a harmonious combination of all the plot lines together, so that the plot describes only one holistic event. The outcome of the entire conflict should come from the plot. And the character of the hero must comply with the principles of credibility and correspond to the described time and space.

How is the plot built?

A story is really interesting when it has a rather serious insoluble conflict between a hero and an antihero or a hero and a society. The writer needs to think through all the episodes that make up the plot.

The reader delves into the art world unknown to him in order to follow the development of the conflict and the fate of the character he liked. The content of a literary work is a plot, but detailed and detailed.

To build a plot, you need to start building a clear plan. To do this, write out a clear idea and theme for the future work. Then describe briefly all the milestones of the plot - the exposition, the development of the conflict, when the climax will occur and what will happen after it.

Be sure to work out the character of the protagonist: what does he look like at the beginning of the story? What are his motives? With whom and why is he fighting? How did he change at the end, and is he glad about himself and his loved ones to these changes in his personality?

When the transformation of the hero, the denouement of his personal dilemma and the denouement of the fundamental conflict of the whole story can be brought together in terms of plan, then the idea is finalized. Now you can sit down to write a form - a vessel for an idea.

conclusions

So, the unity of the content and form of a literary work is achieved in the process of detailed plot planning. With the correct construction of the plot. The author clearly knows which scenes he needs, which dialogs are appropriate, and which need to be crossed out.

The categories of form and content were analyzed by all famous philosophers and writers: Aristotle, Hegel, Mikhail Lotman. These concepts serve as the basis for building a harmonious literary work and scientific work equally.

Brief contents of literary works are necessary for understanding the plot. After reading only the basic characteristics of the hero and the plot of the work, the student or schoolchild can already write something about the work in his essay. And for a novice writer, acquaintance with the plot helps to find solutions for their subjects in already known works.