Theory of literature Khalizev Valentin Evgenievich

§ 6. Co- and oppositions

§ 6. Co- and oppositions

In the construction of works, comparisons of subject-speech units play an almost decisive role. L.N. Tolstoy said that “the essence of art” lies “in<…>an endless labyrinth of couplings."

At the origins of compositional analogies, similarities and contrasts (antitheses) - figurative parallelism, characteristic primarily of song poetry different countries and eras. This construction method was carefully studied by A.N. Veselovsky. The scientist explored numerous comparisons between phenomena inner life man and nature in historically early poetry, especially folk poetry. According to his thought, the original and “simplest” form of “analogies” and “comparisons” in poetic creativity is binomial parallelism, which compares nature and human life. Example from Russian folk song: “The silk grass spreads and curls/Across the meadow/Kisses and favors/Mikhail his little wife.” Binary parallelism can also have other functions, for example, bringing different natural phenomena. These are the words of the folk song “Height, height under heaven, / Depth, depth of the ocean-sea,” known from Sadko’s aria (opera by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov).

Veselovsky associates two-term parallelism in its original form with the animism of historically early thinking, which connected natural phenomena with human reality. He also claims that it was from binary parallelism of this kind that symbols, metaphors, and allegorical imagery of fables about animals grew. Poetry's commitment to parallelism was, according to Veselovsky, predetermined by the manner of performing song texts in two voices: the second performer picked up and complemented the first.

Along with the parallelism of syntactic structures, comparisons (both in contrast and in similarity) of larger text units: events and, most importantly, characters are rooted in literary works. Fairy tale, as shown by V.Ya. Propp always correlates the images of the hero and his opponent (“pest”). As a rule, it is impossible to do without sharp and evaluatively clear character antitheses, without “polarization” of what is being recreated, without contrasting favorable and unfavorable circumstances and events for the heroes.

Incompatibilities and opposites prevail in the character organization and plot construction works and other genres. Let us remember the epic about Ilya Muromets and the filthy Idol, the fairy tale about Cinderella, the antipode of which is the Stepmother; or - from later artistic experience - Molière's opposition to Tartuffe of Cleanthe. The sane Chatsky in “Woe from Wit” is “opposite,” according to A. S. Griboedov, with twenty-five fools; to the dragon famous play E.L. Schwartz is the antithesis of Lancelot.

The principle of opposition, however, does not reign supreme in literature. Over time, from era to era, along with antitheses (character and event), more dialectical, flexible comparisons of facts and phenomena as both different and similar became stronger. So, in Pushkin's novel in the poems, the three main characters - Onegin, Tatyana, Lensky - are opposed to each other and at the same time similar to one another in their sublime aspirations, “incompatibility” with the surrounding reality, and dissatisfaction with it. And the events in the lives of the heroes (first of all, the two explanations of Onegin and Tatyana) with their inescapable drama are more similar to each other than contrasting.

Much is based on comparisons of similarities in “War and Peace”, and in “The Brothers Karamazov”, and in “The Master and Margarita”. This type of artistic construction made itself felt most clearly in the plays of A.P. Chekhov, where the oppositions (of heroes and events) moved to the periphery, giving way to the disclosure of various manifestations of the same essentially the same, deepest life drama of the depicted environment, where there are neither completely right nor completely guilty. The writer recreates the world of people helpless in front of life, in which, according to Olga from “Three Sisters,” “everything is not done our way.” “Every play says: it’s not the fault individuals, and the entire existing structure of life as a whole,” wrote A.P. Skaftymov about Chekhov's plays. “And people’s only fault is that they are weak.” And the fates of the characters, and the events that make up Chekhov’s dramatic plots, and stage episodes, and individual statements are linked in such a way that they appear as an endlessly stretching chain of confirmations that the discord between people and life and the destruction of their hopes are inevitable, that thoughts of happiness and the fullness of being are vain. The “components” of the artistic whole here do not so much contrast as complement each other. There is something similar in the so-called “theater of the absurd” (almost in most of the plays of E. Ionesco and S. Beckett), where events and characters are similar to each other in their incongruity, “puppet-likeness,” and absurdity.

The components of what is depicted in the work, as can be seen, are always correlated with each other. Artistic creation- this is the focus of mutual “roll calls”, sometimes very numerous, rich and varied. And, of course, meaningful in content, activating the reader, directing his reactions.

Antithesis as a means of expression in literary works

In general, antithesis means an acute opposition of images or judgments, opposite in essence, but interconnected by a common internal mechanism or meaning. IN literary works antithesis is a coordination of contrasting or completely opposite characteristics of images or concepts, which enhances the impression of what is read, makes the text brighter, more memorable, more alive.

Antithesis in the works of Pushkin, Yesenin, Nekrasov

For example, in the works of A. S. Pushkin one can notice oppositions like “prose - poetry”, “stone - wave”, “flame - ice”. The antithesis in the works of S. A. Yesenin and N. A. Nekrasov already appears in the form of oxymorons “sad joy”, “poor luxury” and similar constructions.

The antithesis in the text is expressed most clearly when there is a precise logical subordination of the components of the structure. For example: “there were snowstorms while I was writing about the summer,” “there was an honest conversation, but everything was muddied.”

However, literature is also replete with examples of a different kind, where the antithesis is vivid even in the absence of logic: “the praise sounds beautiful, but it’s bitter,” “they sang well, but they didn’t get it.” In these cases, the opposed concepts do not form logical pairs of opposites such as “fire - water” or “light - darkness”, therefore there is no logical clarity characteristic of most proverbs and sayings. How does antithesis work? It's all about the context: it is this that makes the opposition not only appropriate, but also vivid.

How to make the antithesis bright and understandable, accurate and interesting?

1. With the help of semantic contrast: “having twisted everything, we got to the point.”
2. Express something common using a set of antithetical concepts. For example, Derzhavin’s hero, a man of contrasting nature, calls himself either a king or a slave.
3. An antithetical subject can play the role of a secondary one, contrasted with the main subject or image. The first component of the antithesis in this case is called main subject, and the second performs a service function: “Ideal forms do not require content.”
4. Present the comparison as several possible exits from the situation: “to be or not to be - that is the question.”
5. Sound writing works great, for example, “it teaches you - it gets boring.”

Antithesis- this is not necessarily a opposition of two images; it can contain three or more components. Such an antithesis is called polynomial.

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The section is very easy to use. Just enter the desired word in the field provided, and we will give you a list of its meanings. I would like to note that our site provides data from various sources - encyclopedic, explanatory, word-formation dictionaries. Here you can also see examples of the use of the word you entered.

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Meaning of the word antithesis

antithesis in the crossword dictionary

Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language, Dal Vladimir

antithesis

and. or antithesis m. Greek. rhetorician. opposite, opposite, for example: there was a colonel - he became a dead man. great person for small things.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. D.N. Ushakov

antithesis

(te), antitheses, g. (Greek antithesis) (book).

Opposite, opposite.

Comparison of two opposing thoughts or images for greater strength and vividness of expression (lit.).

Same as antithesis (philosophy).

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I.Ozhegov, N.Yu.Shvedova.

antithesis

[te], -y, w.

A stylistic figure based on a sharp opposition, opposition of images and concepts (special). Poetic a. "ice and fire" in "Eugene Onegin".

trans. Opposition, opposite (book). A. dynamics and rest, activity and inaction. A. landscape and mood.

New explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.

Encyclopedic Dictionary, 1998

antithesis

ANTITHESIS (from the Greek antithesis - opposition) is a stylistic figure, a comparison or opposition of contrasting concepts, positions, images ("I am a king, - I am a slave, - I am a worm, - I am a god!", G. Derzhavin).

Antithesis

(from Greek antithesis ≈ opposition), in fiction stylistic figure, juxtaposition of sharply contrasting or opposing concepts and images to enhance the impression. For example: “I am a king, ≈ I am a slave, ≈ I am a worm, ≈ I am god” (G. R. Derzhavin) or in the titles ≈ “War and Peace” by L. N. Tolstoy, “Crime and Punishment” by F. M. Dostoevsky , “Cunning and Love” by F. Schiller.

Wikipedia

Antithesis

Antithesis, antithesis- rhetorical opposition, a stylistic figure of contrast in artistic or oratory speech, consisting in a sharp opposition of concepts, positions, images, states, interconnected by a common design or internal meaning.

Examples of the use of the word antithesis in literature.

Just like Chervinsky, the quantity and quality of objects have been changed, greatly muted antitheses and as a result of the lack of anaphoric and weakened tone of the sonnet.

To do this, he used a wealth of metaphors, comparisons, antithesis and other embellishments of classical rhetoric, and borrowed the tool of alliteration from his native poetry in order to give his prose a bright sound coloring.

And, no matter how hard Sidney tried to free his style from the influence of Lily, euphuisms in the form of alliterations, antithesis and other arabesques play a significant role in his novel: this was, in the conditions of those years, a requirement of the genre.

The phrase is built most of all with the help of antithesis, metaphors, alliterations, homonyms.

Apparently, it is no coincidence that early philosophy tended to explain everything that exists through antithesis correlates with the antithetical and agonistic structure of early society.

But the aphorism speaks not only about antithesis, but also about the reunification of these opposites.

The formal poetic device here is assonance, connecting the thesis and antithesis repetition of the same word, varying words.

Nothing corresponds better to the rhetorical system of thought than the elegiac distich with its hexametric thesis and iambic antithesis.

We talked at one time about the peculiarities of the structure of the carnival image: it strives to embrace and combine both poles of formation or both members antitheses: birth - death, youth - old age, up - down, face - back, praise - scolding, affirmation - negation, tragic - comic, etc.

Preliminary remarks on the definition of concepts Order: regularity, regularity Anti-order: randomness, chaos, entropy Antitheses: order - chaos certainty - uncertainty Events in the macrocosm where a person lives are subject to certain laws.

I am also forced to refrain from discussing the above-mentioned fact that the intermediate layer or mesoblast, which from the moment of its emergence is in the full sense of the word internal, produces structures that forever remain, of course, internal and have no communication with the outside world, unlike the structures , developed from the other two words: antithesis, which is of great importance.

Looking closely from this point of view at the fragmentary records of the Nikon Chronicle, we see in them antithesis pro-Varangian concept.

There is no traditional sonnet movement, no thesis, antitheses, synthesis.

One can name many phenomena that go against evolution: the Inquisition, indulgences, scholasticism, asceticism, dogmatism, sectarianism, religious wars, Jesuinism, monasteries - how antithesis life, etc.

One can name many phenomena that go against evolution: the Inquisition, indulgences, scholasticism, asceticism, dogmatism, sectarianism, religious wars, Jesuitism, monasteries - how antithesis life, etc.

Antithesis (Greek antithesis - opposition) - a comparison of opposite objects, concepts, phenomena, as well as compositional components (characters, images, landscapes, artistic details etc.).

In their work, to enhance the imagery and expressiveness of speech, writers use special means called stylistic figures. Figure represents an unusual construction of a sentence or figure of speech, a special syntactic design of a phrase. One of the figurative and expressive means of speech is antithesis.

Refers to syntactic figures gain. An example of an antithesis: “I swear by the first day of creation, I swear by its last day”(M.Yu. Lermontov); “They came together: wave and stone, poetry and prose, ice and fire, not so different from each other.”(A.S. Pushkin).

An entire work can be built on the use of antithesis. N. Zabolotsky has philosophical poem "Swan at the Zoo", in which the poet contrasts the small oasis of the zoo, where the beautiful White Swan, and a noisy metropolis with the grinding of trams, the screeching of car tires and the roar of the bridge.

A type of antithesis is an oxymoron (Greek oxymoron - acute stupidity) - a deliberate combination of words with opposite meanings in order to introduce a new concept (“ dead Souls" - N.V. Gogol, “sad joy” - S.A. Yesenin, “poor luxury” - N.A. Nekrasov).

Examples of antithesis in fiction

Let the month shine - the night is dark.
May life bring happiness to people, -
There is spring in my love soul
Will not replace stormy bad weather.
(A. Blok)

They came together: a wave and a stone,
Poetry and prose, ice and fire
Not so different from each other.
(A.S. Pushkin)

You are a prose writer - I am a poet,
You are rich - I am very poor,
You are blushing like poppies,
I’m like death, skinny and pale.
(A.S. Pushkin)

Our strength is truth
yours - laurels ringing.
Yours is incense smoke,
Ours is factory smoke.
Your power is a chervonets,
Ours is a red banner,
We will take,
let's borrow
and we will win.
(V. Mayakovsky)

All this would be funny
If only it weren't so sad.
(M. Lermontov)

Since it began literary art, writers and poets have come up with many options to attract the reader's attention in their works. This is how a universal technique of contrasting phenomena and objects arose. Antithesis in artistic speech is always a game of contrasts.

To find out exact value scientific term antithesis, you should consult an encyclopedia or dictionary. Antithesis (derived from the Greek “opposition”) is a stylistic figure based on contrastive opposition in speech practice or fiction.

Contains sharply opposed objects, phenomena and images that have a semantic connection or are united by one design.

How to explain in simple language, what is antithesis and for what purpose is it used in the Russian language? This is a technique in literature based on the juxtaposition of different contrasting characters, concepts or events. This technique is found as a basis for constructing entire large novels or parts of literary texts of any genre.

The following can be contrasted in a work as an antithesis:

• Two images or heroes, called antagonists in literature.
• Two different phenomena, states or objects.
• Variations in the quality of one phenomenon or object (when the author reveals the subject from different sides).
• The author contrasts the properties of one object with the properties of another object.

Usually the main vocabulary from which a contrasting effect is created are antonymic words. Proof of this are folk proverbs: “It’s easy to make friends, it’s hard to be separated”, “Learning is light, and ignorance is darkness”, “The slower you go, the further you will go.”

Examples of antithesis

Areas of application of antithesis

Auto RU work of art Any genre requires expressiveness of speech, which is why antithesis is used. In the Russian language, the use of contrasting concepts has long become a tradition in the titles of novels, stories, plays and poetic texts: "War and Peace" ; “The Prince and the Pauper” by M. Twain, “Wolves and Sheep” by N. S. Ostrovsky.

In addition to stories, novels and sayings, the technique of opposition is successfully used in works intended for agitation in politics and social sphere and oratory. Everyone is familiar with mottos, chants and slogans: “He who was nobody will become everything!”

Opposition is often present in ordinary colloquial speech, such examples of antithesis: dishonor - dignity, life - death, good - evil. To influence listeners and present a subject or phenomenon more fully and in the right key, a person can compare these phenomena with another object or phenomenon, or can use the contrasting characteristics of objects for contrast.

Useful video: what is antithesis, antithesis

Types of antithesis

In Russian they can occur various options contrasting phenomena:

• In terms of composition, it can be simple (includes one pair of words) and complex (has two or more pairs of antonyms, several concepts): “A rich man fell in love with a poor woman, a scientist fell in love with a stupid woman, a ruddy woman fell in love with a pale woman, a good man fell in love with a harmful woman, a golden man fell in love with a copper half-shelf.” (M. Tsvetaeva). Such an expanded expression unexpectedly reveals the concept.
• An even greater effect from the use of contrasting concepts is achieved when used together with other types of figures of speech, for example with parallelism or anaphora: “I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am God!” (Derzhavin).
• A variant of opposition is distinguished when the external structure of the antithesis is preserved, but the words are in no way connected in meaning: “There is an elderberry in the garden, and a guy in Kyiv.” Such expressions create the effect of surprise.
• There is a contrast between several forms of a word, often in the same case. This form is used in short, bright statements, aphorisms and mottos: “Man is a wolf to man,” “To Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s,” “Peace to the world.”

Take note! Born on the basis of antithesis special welcome- an oxymoron, which some experts consider as a type of this figure of speech, only with an emphasis on humor and irony. Examples of oxymorons in Alexander Blok’s “The Heat of Cold Numbers” or in Nekrasov’s “And the Poor Luxury of the Attire...”

Application in fiction

Research shows that in literary text opposition of images is used more often than other figures of contrast. Moreover, in foreign literature was used as often as in poetry and prose of Russians and Soviet writers. Its presence allows us to enhance the reader’s emotional sensations, more fully reveal the author’s position and emphasize main idea works. Nice samples Applications of antithesis and the definition of the term are contained in Wikipedia.

Examples in prose

Russian realist writers Pushkin A.S., Lermontov M.Yu., Tolstoy L.N., Turgenev I.S. actively used a technique based on the contrast of concepts in their works. Chekhov has a good example in the story “Darling”: “Olenka grew plump and was all beaming with pleasure, but Kukin was losing weight and turning yellow and complaining about terrible losses...”

Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons” already in its title contains a hidden confrontation between two eras. The system of characters and the plot of the novel are also based on opposition (conflict between two generations: older and younger).

In foreign literature, O. Wilde’s novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” is an excellent example of the technique of contrast in a work of the Romantic era. The contrast between the hero's beautiful face and his low spiritual qualities- an analogy of the opposition of good to evil.

Chekhov A.P. "Darling"

Examples in verses

Anyone famous poet You can find examples of the use of antithesis in the poem. Poets different directions This technique was widely used. Writers silver age(, Marina Tsvetaeva, Sergei Yesenin, Konstantin Balmont) antithesis was a favorite method:

"You, sea strange dreams, and sounds, and lights!

You, friend and eternal enemy! Evil spirit and a good genius!

(Konstantin Balmont)

During the period of classicism, poets also loved this method of creating expressiveness. An example in the poem by G.R. Derzhavina:

“Where was the table of food,

There is a coffin there."

The great Pushkin often included contrasts of images and characters in poetic and prose texts. Fyodor Tyutchev has vivid examples detailed confrontation between heaven and earth:

“The kite rose from the clearing,

he soared high into the sky;

And so he went beyond the horizon.

Mother Nature gave him

Two powerful, two living wings -

And here I am in sweat and dust,

I, the king of the earth, am rooted to the earth!”

Useful video: Preparing for the Unified State Exam - the antithesis

Conclusion

Numerous examples from literature, poetry and other types of text indicate that antithesis has penetrated into all areas of our speech. Without it, the work becomes flat, uninteresting, and unattractive. This rhetorical figure, combining two opposing concepts side by side, gives the Russian language the power of persuasion and liveliness.