Basic concepts of literary theory: image, character, literary type, lyrical hero. Image in art and literature

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An artistic image can be called any phenomenon that has been creatively recreated by the author in an object of art. If we mean a literary image, then this phenomenon is reflected in a work of art. A feature of imagery is that it not only reflects reality, but also generalizes it, at the same time revealing it in something singular and definite.

Artistic image not only comprehends reality, but also creates a different world, fictional and transformed. artistic fiction in this case, it is necessary to strengthen the generalized meaning of the image. One cannot speak of an image in literature, only as an image of a person.

Vivid examples here are the image of Andrei Bolkonsky, Raskolnikov, Tatyana Larina and Eugene Onegin. In this case, the artistic image is a single picture human life, the center of which is the personality of a person, and the main elements are all the events and circumstances of his existence. When a hero enters into relationships with other heroes, a variety of images arise.

The nature of the artistic image, regardless of its purpose and scope, is multifaceted and unique. An image can be called a whole inner world, full of many processes and facets, which fell into the focus of knowledge. It is the basis of any kind of creativity, the basis of any knowledge and imagination.

The nature of the image is really vast - it can be rational and sensual, it can be based on a person's personal experiences, on his imagination, and maybe ... factographic. And the main purpose of the image is a reflection of life. Whatever it appears to a person, and whatever it is, a person always perceives its content through a system of images.

It is the main component of any creative process because the author simultaneously answers many questions of being and creates new ones, higher and more important for him. Therefore, they speak of an image as a reflection of life, because it includes the characteristic and the typical, the general and the individual, the objective and the subjective.

The artistic image is the soil from which any kind of art grows, including literature. At the same time, it remains a complex and sometimes incomprehensible phenomenon, because the artistic image in literary work can be unfinished, presented to the reader only as a sketch - and at the same time fulfill its purpose and remain integral, as a reflection of a certain phenomenon.

The connection of the artistic image with development literary process

Literature as a cultural phenomenon has existed for a very long time. And it is quite obvious that its main components have not yet changed. This also applies to the artistic image.

But life itself is changing, literature is constantly being transformed and transformed, as well as its cross-cutting images. After all, the artistic image carries a reflection of reality, and the system of images for the literary process is constantly changing.

The most important category of literature, which determines its essence and specificity, is the artistic image. What is the meaning of this concept? It means a phenomenon that the author creatively recreates in his creation. The image in a work of art is presented as the result of meaningful conclusions by the writer about some process or phenomenon. The peculiarity of this concept is that it not only helps to comprehend reality, but also to create your own fictional world.

Let's try to trace what an artistic image is, its types and means of expression. After all, any writer tries to depict certain phenomena in such a way as to show his vision of life, its trends and patterns.

What is an artistic image

Domestic literary criticism borrowed the word "image" from the Kievan-church lexicon. It has a meaning - a face, a cheek, and its figurative meaning is a picture. But it is important for us to analyze what an artistic image is. By it they mean a specific, and sometimes a generalized picture of people's lives, which carries aesthetic value and is created with the help of fiction. An element or part of a literary work that has independent life- that's what an artistic image is.

Such an image is called artistic not because it is identical to real objects and phenomena. The author simply transforms reality with the help of his imagination. The task of the artistic image in literature is not just to copy reality, but to convey the most important and essential.

So, Dostoevsky put into the mouth of one of his heroes the words that it is rarely possible to recognize a person from a photograph, because the face does not always speak of the most important character traits. From photographs, Napoleon, for example, seems stupid to some. The task of the writer is to show in the face and character the most important, specific. Creating a literary image, the author in words reflects human characters, objects, phenomena in an individual form. By image, literary scholars mean the following:

1. Characters artwork, heroes, actors and their characters.
2. Depiction of reality in a concrete form, with the help of verbal images and tropes.

Each image created by the writer carries a special emotionality, originality, associativity and capacity.

Changing forms of artistic representation

In the course of how humanity changes, so there are changes in the image of reality. There is a difference between what the artistic image was 200 years ago and what it is now. In the era of realism, sentimentalism, romanticism, modernism, the authors displayed the world in different ways. Reality and fiction, reality and ideal, general and individual, rational and emotional - all this changed in the course of the development of art. In the era of classicism, writers highlighted the struggle between feelings and duty. Often heroes chose duty and sacrificed personal happiness in the name of the public interest. In the era of romanticism, rebel heroes appeared who rejected society or it them.

Realism introduced rational knowledge of the world into literature, taught to identify cause-and-effect relationships between phenomena and objects. Modernism called on writers to cognize the world and man by irrational means: inspiration, intuition, insight. For realists, at the head of everything is a person and his relationship with the outside world. Romantics are interested in inner world their heroes.

Readers and listeners can also be called in some way co-creators literary images because their perception is important. Ideally, the reader does not just passively stand aside, but passes the image through his own feelings, thoughts and emotions. Readers different eras completely different sides of the artistic image depicted by the writer are revealed.

Four types of literary images

The artistic image in literature is classified on various grounds. All these classifications only complement each other. If we divide the images into types according to the number of words or characters that create them, then the following images stand out:

• Small images in the form of details. An example of an image-detail is the famous Plyushkin pile, a structure in the form of a heap. She characterizes her character very clearly.
• Interiors and landscapes. Sometimes they are part of the image of a person. So, Gogol constantly changes interiors and landscapes, making them a means of creating characters. landscape lyrics it is very easy for the reader to imagine.
• Character images. So, in the works of Lermontov, a person with his feelings and thoughts is at the center of events. Characters are also called literary heroes.
• complex literary systems. As an example, we can name the image of Moscow in the lyrics of Tsvetaeva, Russia in the work of Blok, St. Petersburg in Dostoevsky. Even more complex system is the image of the world.

Classification of images according to generic and style specifics

All verbal and artistic creations are usually divided into three types. In this regard, the images can be:

• lyrical;
• epic;
• dramatic.

Every writer has their own style of portraying characters. This gives reason to classify images into:

• realistic;
• romantic;
• surreal.

All images are created according to a certain system and laws.

The division of literary images according to the nature of generalization

Uniqueness and originality are characterized by individual images. They are invented by the imagination of the author himself. Individual images are used by romantics and science fiction writers. In Hugo's Notre Dame Cathedral, readers can see an unusual Quasimodo. The Shuttlecock in Bulgakov's novel "The Master and Margarita" is an individual, the Demon in work of the same name Lermontov.

The generalization, opposite to the individual, is characteristic. It contains the characters and customs that people of a certain era have. Such are literary heroes Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, Ostrovsky's plays, Galsworthy's The Forsyte Sagas.

The highest level of characteristic characters are typical images. They were the most probable for a particular era. Exactly typical heroes found most often in realistic literature XIX century. This is the father of Goriot and Gobsek Balzac, Plato Karataev and Anna Karenina Tolstoy, Madame Bovary Flaubert. Sometimes the creation of an artistic image is intended to capture the socio-historical signs of an era, universal human character traits. In the list of such eternal images you can bring in Don Quixote, Don Juan, Hamlet, Oblomov, Tartuffe.

Out of frame individual characters come out motifs. They are constantly repeated in the subject matter of the works of some author. As an example, Yesenin's "village Russia" or Blok's "Beautiful Lady" can be cited.

Typical images found not only in the literature of individual writers, but also of nations, eras, are called topos. Such Russian writers as Gogol, Pushkin, Zoshchenko, Platonov used the topos image of the "little man" in their writings.

The universal image, which is unconsciously transmitted from generation to generation, is called archetype. It includes mythological characters.

Means of creating an artistic image

Each writer, to the best of his talent, reveals images with the means available to him. Most often, he does this through the behavior of the characters in certain situations, through his relationship with the outside world. Of all the means of artistic image, an important role is played by speech characteristic heroes. The author can use monologues, dialogues, internal statements of a person. To the events taking place in the book, the writer can give his author's description.

Sometimes readers observe an implicit, hidden meaning in the works, which is called subtext. Of great importance external characteristic heroes: height, clothes, figure, facial expressions, gestures, voice timbre. It's easier to call it a portrait. A great semantic and emotional load is carried in the works details, expressing details . To express the meaning of a phenomenon in objective form, the authors use symbols. The idea of ​​​​the habitat of a particular character gives a description of the interior of the room - interior.

In what order is literary

character image?

To create an artistic image of a person is one of the most important tasks of any author. Here's how to characterize this or that character:

1. Indicate the place of the character in the system of images of the work.
2. Describe it in terms of social type.
3. Describe the character's appearance, portrait.
4. Name the features of his worldview and worldview, mental interests, abilities and habits. Describe what he does life principles and influence on others.
5. Describe the sphere of feelings of the hero, the features of inner experiences.
6. Analyze author's attitude to the character.
7. Uncover the most important features the character of the hero. As the author opens them, other characters.
8. Analyze the actions of the hero.
9. Name the personality of the character's speech.
10. What is his relationship to nature?

Mega, macro and micro images

Sometimes the text of a literary creation is perceived as a mega-image. It has its own aesthetic value. Literary critics give him the highest generic and indivisible value.

To depict life in larger or smaller segments, pictures or parts, macro images are used. The composition of the macro image is made up of small homogeneous images.

The microimage is distinguished by the smallest text size. It can be in the form of a small segment of reality depicted by the artist. It can be one phrase word (Winter. Frost. Morning.) Or a sentence, a paragraph.

Image-symbols

A characteristic feature of such images is metaphor. They carry semantic depth. So, the hero Danko from Gorky's work "The Old Woman Izergil" is a symbol of absolute selflessness. He is opposed in the book by another hero - Larra, who is a symbol of selfishness. The writer creates a literary image-symbol for hidden comparison, in order to show its figurative meaning. Most often, symbolism is found in lyrical creations. It is worth remembering Lermontov's poems "The Cliff", "It Stands Lonely in the Wild North...", "Leaf", the poem "Demon", the ballad "Three Palm Trees".

Eternal images

There are images that never fade, they combine the unity of historical and social elements. Such characters of world literature are called eternal. Prometheus, Oedipus, Cassandra immediately come to mind. Any intelligent person add here Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Iskander, Robinson. There are immortal novels, short stories, lyrics in which new generations of readers discover unprecedented depths.

Artistic images in lyrics

An unusual look at ordinary things allows you to see the lyrics. The keen eye of the poet notices the most everyday things that bring happiness. The artistic image in the poem can be the most unexpected. For some it is the sky, the day, the light. Bunin and Yesenin have a birch. The images of the beloved or beloved are endowed with special tenderness. Very often there are images-motives, such as: a woman-mother, wife, bride, beloved.

Artistic generalization; phenomena, types, characters in painting, literature, music, on stage, etc. Abstract, allegorical, archaic, colorless, pale, great, true, impressive, fictional, convex, expressive, deep, grotesque ... Dictionary of epithets of the Russian language