Lit comparison. What is comparison in literature, its types and examples of use. Components of comparisons

Negative figurative parallelism is sometimes called negative comparison, meaning, of course, not a simple, but an expanded comparison. It is not right. Negative parallelism denies the identity of two phenomena of life - nature and man, even if they are similar.

In a detailed comparison, their similarity is established in the absence of identity. A. N. Veselovsky was apparently right when he spoke about such a sequence of development of types of verbal-object representation “man: tree; not a tree, but a person; man is like a tree."

“Comparison...” he writes, “is already a prosaic act of consciousness that has dismembered nature...”. The researcher here understands by the “prosaic” nature of the activity of consciousness a greater degree of its intellectuality, and by “nature” - life in the unity of its phenomena. The differences between negative parallelism and comparison are especially noticeable when it is possible to compare them closely. Here is an example from a folk song:

It’s not the wind that bends the branch,
It’s not the oak tree that makes noise,
My heart is groaning
Like an autumn leaf trembling.

Despite all the negativity of the connection between the images of “wind” and “oak tree”, on the one hand, and “heart”, on the other, the former are still the initial member of parallelism, while the image of the “autumn leaf” is, as it were, attracted additionally.

And with a high degree of expansion of the union comparison, when it is put in first place, the basic general properties of the comparison do not change. Here is an example from Gogol’s “Taras Bulba”: “Like a hawk swimming in the sky, having made many circles with its strong wings, suddenly stops spread out in one place and shoots from there with an arrow at a male quail shouting near the road - so Taras’s son, Ostap, suddenly flew at the cornet and immediately threw a rope around his neck.”

Let us imagine a different connection of images in this phrase: then not “a hawk swimming in the sky” ... - then “Tarasov’s son, Ostap” ... etc. - and the significant difference between negative parallelism and expanded comparison will become quite obvious.

In a detailed comparison, as in direct figurative parallelism, it is necessary to distinguish between its two members, two compared images: one of them is the main one in its meaning, created by the development of a narrative or lyrical meditation; the other is auxiliary, used for comparison with the main one.

In the example from Gogol's story, the image of Ostap is the main member of the comparison, the image of the hawk is an auxiliary one. But the relationship between the two terms of a strongly developed comparison may be different both in their cognitive meaning and in their place in the development of creative thought. Sometimes an auxiliary member of a comparison can acquire an independent meaning and contain a broader artistic generalization.

Then it can syntactically become the content of a separate sentence, no longer subordinated to another with the help of the conjunctions “as”, “as if”, “as if”, but only in the sense of being connected with it by the coordinating conjunction-adverb “so”.

Grammatically, this is a “composed simile.” Here is an example from Fet's lyrics: Only you, poet, have a winged sound of words that grabs on the fly and suddenly fastens And the dark delirium of the soul and the unclear smell of herbs So, leaving the meager valley for the boundless, An eagle flies beyond the clouds of Jupiter, Carrying an instant sheaf of lightning in its faithful paws .

Introduction to literary criticism: Textbook. for philol.. special. un-tov / G.N. Pospelov, P.A. Nikolaev, I.F. Volkov and others; Ed. G.N. Pospelov. - 3rd ed., rev. and additional - M.: Higher. school, 1988. - 528 p.

First, carefully read examples from poems by different poets.

Under blue skies

Magnificent carpets,

The snow lies shining in the sun.

(A. Pushkin.)

It's sad at night. From the lights

The needles stretch out like rays.

From gardens and alleys

Smells like wet leaves.

(M. Voloshin.)

Let the bird cherry trees dry like laundry in the wind,

Let the lilacs fall like rain -

I'll take you away from here anyway

To the palace where pipes are played.

(V. Vysotsky.)

I erected a different monument for myself!

Turn your back to the shameful century.

Face your lost love.

And the chest is like a bicycle wheel.

(I. Brodsky.)

Find similes in each of the four passages. Let us give you a little hint: what is lying snow compared to? lantern lights? cherry blossom? chest of a monument (which, of course, does not exist) to the poet Brodsky? Was it easy for you to complete this task? Try to explain why the comparisons were not immediately visible, why there were difficulties in finding them? Is this related to the form of their expression?

In Pushkin, the fallen snow looks like magnificent carpets. In Voloshin, the rays from the lights are drawn to needles (however, it should be noted that the comparison itself is inverted here: it would be less unexpected to read that “the rays are drawn by needles”). Vysotsky compares flowering bird cherry trees to laundry drying and fluttering in the wind. In the last example, what is interesting is that Brodsky revives the linguistic comparison chest with a wheel, which has become so worn out that we no longer perceive it as a comparison. Adding cycling makes the comparison come alive again.

All comparisons in these passages are expressed in the instrumental case of the noun. The instrumental case creates difficulties: we cannot recognize the comparison “in person” immediately, because we do not see the clue words as, as if, as if, similar to others.

Exercise. The poet Bella Akhmadulina has a poem that is dedicated to... it’s very difficult to say what and to whom. Formally, at first glance, one day of life, one morning, one of the Arbat lanes - Khlebny Lane, Moscow...

Not only metaphor as a type of verbal figurativeness is based on the comparison of life phenomena according to their similarity, but also its other type - a simple comparison, which should be distinguished from common comparisons.

In metaphors, as partly in other types of tropes, there still lives, according to the strongest historical tradition of social consciousness, that direct emotional identification of various phenomena of reality, which arose in ancient times, at that early stage of the life of society, when people still had a primitive syncretic worldview.

At later stages of social life, along with it, in connection with the development of a more rational perception of the world, a more dissected comparison of phenomena began to arise, based on conscious comparison - on the rapprochement of one cognizable phenomenon with others in order to comprehend and evaluate its essential properties.

If we consider from this point of view the comparison of phenomena, which is verbally expressed in the form of the control of one noun by another, standing in the instrumental case (“he has a hooked nose”, “he looks like an animal”), then we must admit that this, of course, is no longer a metaphor, but a comparison, but, obviously, this is an early stage in the development of comparisons, based on a more direct comparison of life phenomena than real comparisons created verbally with the help of conjunctions “as”, “as if”, “as if”, “exactly”.

Here, for example, are three different figurative expressions of thought: “an avalanche of misfortunes fell on him” (this is a metaphor); “misfortunes fell on him like an avalanche” (this is an early form of comparison, the transition of metaphor into comparison) and “misfortunes fell on him like an avalanche” (this is already a well-established simple comparison). In the first example, the words “misfortune” and “avalanche” are identified; the word “avalanche” is, as it were, a definition of the word “misfortune.”

In the second, they are thought of in a direct emotional connection, but still separately (the word “avalanche” appears as a circumstance of the manner of action with the predicate “fell”). In the third example, the separation of ideas is stronger and more rational; “like an avalanche” is also a predicate circumstance, but as if formed from a subordinate clause: “fell down like an avalanche falls.” Probably, the comparison in the form of the instrumental case originated, in its content, from ancient beliefs about “werewolf”.

At the stage of primitive ideological syncretism, which existed in the public consciousness under the tribal system, people believed that a person could, under certain conditions, turn into an animal, bird or tree - “turn around” in them. In ancient Russian folk tales the following scenes are often found: the hero hits the ground and turns into a gray wolf.

In a Russian folk song it is sung: “I’ll throw myself up like a bitter little bird//I’ll fly, bitter one, into my mother’s little garden...” In these examples, it is obvious that the very grammatical form of figurative speech generates a certain fantastic content. Later, such content lost its significance in the public consciousness, but the form it generated was preserved as the most direct and, probably, earlier type of comparison.

It has become a means of verbal depiction and expressiveness. Examples of comparisons in the instrumental case, common in colloquial and literary speech, are “arched legs”, “head of hair”, “tail like a trumpet”, “sang like a nightingale”, “tears flow in a stream”, “a thought flashed like lightning”, “love burst into flames” ”, etc. Simple comparisons built with the help of conjunctions are no less common: “cowardly as a hare”, “meek as a dove”, “humble like a sheep”, “naked like a falcon”, red as a lobster”, “stupid as cork”, “trembles like an aspen leaf”, “stood up like a stump”, “rain is pouring like buckets”, etc.

Introduction to literary criticism: Textbook. for philol.. special. un-tov / G.N. Pospelov, P.A. Nikolaev, I.F. Volkov and others; Ed. G.N. Pospelov. - 3rd ed., rev. and additional - M.: Higher. school, 1988. - 528 p.

Literature (real) represents the true craft of creating texts, the creation of a new object through words. As with any complex craft, literature has its own special techniques. One of them is “comparison”. With its help, for greater expressiveness or ironic contrast, certain objects, their qualities, people, and their character traits are compared.

The kettle with its raised trunk puffed on the stove, like a young elephant rushing to a watering hole..

─ Ironic likening a small inanimate object to a large animal by juxtaposing the long spout of a teapot and an elephant's trunk.

Comparison: Definition

There are at least three definitions of comparison in the literature.

For a literary text, the first definition would be more correct. But the most talented authors of fiction successfully work with the second and third definitions, so great is the role of comparison in the text. Examples of comparisons in literature and folklore of the last two types:

He is stupid as an oak, but cunning as a fox.

Unlike Afanasy Petrovich, Igor Dmitrievich was built as thin as a mop handle, just as straight and elongated.

The pygmies of the Congo Delta are like children in stature; their skin is not black like that of blacks, but yellowish, like fallen leaves.

In the latter case, along with the use of “negative comparison” (“not”), direct assimilation (“as if”) is combined.

The Russian language is so rich that authors of literary works use a huge number of types of comparisons. Philologists can only roughly classify them. Modern philology identifies the following two main types of comparison and four more comparisons in fiction.

• Direct. In this case, comparative phrases (conjunctions) “as if”, “as”, “exactly”, “as if” are used. He bared his soul to him, like a nudist bares his body on the beach..
• Indirect. With this comparison, no prepositions are used. The hurricane swept away all the garbage from the streets with a giant wiper.

In the second sentence, the noun being compared (“hurricane”) is used in the nominative case, and the noun being compared (“janitor”) is used in the instrumental case. Other types:

Back in the 19th century, philologist and Slavist M. Petrovsky identified the “Homeric” or “epic” likeness from extensive comparisons in literature. In this case, the author of a literary text, not caring about brevity, expands the comparison, distracting himself from the main plot line, from the subject being compared as far as his imagination will allow him. Examples can easily be found in the Iliad or among postmodernists.

Ajax rushed at the enemies, like a hungry lion at the frightened sheep that had lost their shepherd, who were left without protection, defenseless, like unattended children, and could only timidly moan and back away in fear of the lion's thirst for blood and murder, which seizes the predator like madness, intensifying when he senses the horror of the doomed...

It is better for a novice author of literary texts not to resort to the epic type of comparisons. A young writer needs to wait until his literary skill and sense of artistic harmony develop. Otherwise, an inexperienced beginner himself will not notice how, winding around one another, like threads from different balls, such “free associations” will carry him away from the plot of his main narrative and create semantic confusion. So comparisons in a literary text can not only simplify the understanding of the subject being described (a tiger is a huge predatory cat), but also confuse the narrative.

Comparison in verse

The role of literary comparison in poetry is especially important. The poet uses the richness of language to create a unique and aesthetically valuable work of art, or rather to convey his thoughts to the reader.

It's often hard and bad for us

From the tricks of tricky fate,

But we are with the humility of camels

We carry the humps of our misfortunes.

With these lines, the poet explains to the reader his own idea that most of the troubles that happen in life are natural, like the humps of camels, that sometimes you simply cannot get rid of them, but you just need to “carry through” them for a while.

Without you, no work, no rest:

are you a woman or a bird?

After all, you are like a creature of air,

"balloon" - pampered girl!

In most poems, the authors use comparisons to create a bright, beautiful, and easily memorable image. Most of all such colorful comparisons are in the texts of N. Gumilyov and Mayakovsky. But I. Brodsky remains an unsurpassed master of using detailed comparisons in artistic literary versification.

Comparisons are also used in spoken language. When writing any text, even a school essay, you cannot do without comparisons. So you need to firmly remember several rules of punctuation of the literary Russian language. Commas are placed before comparative phrases with words:

• as if
• as if,
• as if,
• like,
• exactly,

So when you write:

• He was taller than the teenager she remembered.
• The day flared up quickly and hotly, like a fire into which gasoline was suddenly poured.

─ in these situations, make no mistake, commas are necessary. Much more problems await you with the conjunction “how”. The fact is that, even if the particle “how” is part of a comparative phrase, a comma in front of it is not needed if:

It can be replaced with a dash. The steppe is like a sea of ​​grass.

This union is part of a stable phraseological unit. Faithful as a dog.

The particle is included in the predicate. For me the past is like a dream.

The conjunction, within the meaning of the sentence, is replaced by an adverb or noun. He looked like a wolf , possible substitutions: looked wolfish , looked like a wolf .

Where else are commas not needed?

According to the rules of punctuation, commas are not needed before “as” and when it is preceded by adverbs or particles in a sentence:

It's time to finish, it seems like midnight has struck.

“As” is not separated by commas if it is preceded by a negative particle.

He looked at the new gate not like a ram.

So, when you resort to comparisons to decorate or make your text more understandable, remember the insidiousness of the particle “how” and the rules of punctuation, and you will be fine!

Comparison- a figure of speech in which one object or phenomenon is compared to another according to some characteristic common to them. The purpose of comparison is to identify new properties in the object of comparison that are important for the subject of the statement.

In comparison, the following are distinguished: the object being compared (object of comparison), the object with which the comparison takes place (means of comparison), and their common feature (base of comparison, comparative feature, Latin tertium comparationis). One of the distinctive features of comparison is the mention of both compared objects, while the common feature is not always mentioned.

A comparison must be distinguished from a metaphor.

Comparisons are characteristic of folklore.

Types of comparisons:

comparisons in the form of a comparative phrase formed with the help of conjunctions as if, as if “exactly”: “ The man is as stupid as a pig, but as cunning as the devil."

non-union comparisons - in the form of a sentence with a compound nominal predicate: “My home is my fortress”

comparisons, formed with a noun in the instrumental case : “he walks like a gogol”

negative comparisons : “An attempt is not torture”

comparisons in question form

24. Theme, idea, problems of a literary work.

SUBJECT - this is a life phenomenon that has become the subject of artistic consideration in a work.

The range of such life phenomena is SUBJECT literary work. All phenomena of the world and human life constitute the artist’s sphere of interests: love, friendship, hatred, betrayal, beauty, ugliness, justice, lawlessness, home, family, happiness, deprivation, despair, loneliness, struggle with the world and oneself, solitude, talent and mediocrity, the joys of life, money, relationships in society, death and birth, secrets and mysteries of the world, etc. and so on. - these are the words that name life phenomena that become themes in art.

The artist’s task is to creatively study a life phenomenon from sides that are interesting to the author, that is, to artistically reveal the topic. Naturally, this can only be done by posing a question (or several questions) to the phenomenon under consideration. This question that the artist asks, using the figurative means available to him, is problem literary work.

PROBLEM is a question that does not have a clear solution or involves many equivalent solutions. The ambiguity of possible solutions distinguishes a problem from a task. The set of such questions is called PROBLEMATICS.

IDEA(Greek Idea, concept, representation) - in literature: the main idea of ​​a work of art, the method proposed by the author for solving the problems he poses. A set of ideas, a system of author’s thoughts about the world and man, embodied in artistic images is called IDEAL CONTENT a work of art.

25. Evolution and interaction of genres.

Genre[French - genre, Latin - genus, German - Gattung] - one of the most important concepts in literary criticism, denoting a literary type. A type of poetic structure that expresses one or another side of social psychoideology at a certain stage of its historical development and embraces a more or less significant number of literary works. Therefore, three structural features are required for a life story: the organic nature of all the components of a story, forming a poetic unity, the existence of this unity in certain