Theme and idea of ​​a work of art. The idea of ​​a literary work

In ancient times it was believed that integrity literary work determined by the unity of the main character. But Aristotle also drew attention to the fallacy of such a view, pointing out that the stories about Hercules remain different stories, although they are dedicated to one person, and the Iliad, which tells about many heroes, does not cease to be a complete work. It is not difficult to verify the validity of Aristotle’s judgment based on the material of modern literature. For example, Lermontov showed Pechorin in both “The Princess of Lithuania” and “A Hero of Our Time”. Nevertheless, these works did not merge into one, but remained different.

What gives a work its holistic character is not the hero, but the unity of the problem posed in it, the unity of the idea being revealed. Therefore, when we say that a work contains what is necessary or, on the contrary, that it contains what is superfluous, we mean precisely this unity.

The term “theme” is still used in two meanings. Some understand by theme the life material taken for the image. Others - the main social problem posed in the work. From the first point of view, the theme of, for example, Gogol’s “Taras Bulba” is the liberation struggle of the Ukrainian people against the Polish gentry. On the second side, there is the problem of national partnership as the highest law of life, determining the place and purpose of man. The second definition seems more correct (although by no means excluding the first in some cases). Firstly, it does not allow for confusion of concepts, since, understanding the topic as life material, they usually reduce its study to the analysis of the depicted objects. Secondly - and this is the main thing - the concept of theme as the main problem of a work naturally comes from its organic connection with the idea, which was rightly pointed out by M. Gorky. “A theme,” he wrote, “is an idea that originated in the author’s experience, is suggested to him by life, but nests in the receptacle of his impressions, not yet formalized, and, demanding embodiment in images, arouses in him the urge to work on its design.”

In some works, the problematic nature of the themes is emphasized by the writers themselves: “The Minor”, ​​“The Woe of Otuma”, “Hero of Our Time”, “Who is to Blame?”, “What to Do?”, “Crime and Punishment”, “How the Steel Was Tempered” and etc. Although the titles of most works do not directly reflect the problems posed in them (“Eugene Onegin”, “Anna Karenina”, “The Brothers Karamazov”, “ Quiet Don", etc.), in all authentic significant works rise important questions life, there is an intense search for possible and necessary solutions to them. Thus, Gogol invariably strove in each of his creations to “say what has not yet been said to the world.” L. Tolstoy in the novel “War and Peace” loved “folk thought”, and in “Anna Karenina” - “family thought”.

Understanding the topic can only be achieved by careful analysis of the literary work as a whole. Without understanding the entire diversity of the depicted picture of life, we will not penetrate into the complexity of the problematics, or themes of the work (that is, into the entire chain of questions posed, ultimately going back to the main problem), which alone allows us to truly understand the theme in all its concrete and unique significance.

The concept of the main idea of ​​a literary work. Writers not only pose certain problems. They look for ways to solve them, correlate what is depicted with what they affirm social ideals. Therefore, the theme of a work is always connected with its main idea. N. Ostrovsky in the novel “How the Steel Was Tempered” not only posed the problem of the formation of a new person, but also solved it.

The ideological meaning of a literary work. One of the common mistakes in understanding the idea of ​​a work is to reduce it in all cases only to direct positive statements of the author. This leads to a one-sided interpretation of the work and thereby to a distortion of its meaning. For example, in L. Tolstoy’s novel “Resurrection” his main force do not constitute recipes for the salvation of humanity affirmed by the writer, but, on the contrary, crushing criticism public relations, based on the exploitation of man by man, that is, the critical ideas of Tolstoy. If we rely only on the positive (from Tolstoy’s point of view) statements of the writer in “Resurrection,” then we can reduce the main idea of ​​this novel to preaching moral self-improvement as a principle of individual human behavior and non-resistance to evil through violence as a principle of relationships between people. But if we turn to Tolstoy’s critical ideas, we will see that the ideological meaning of “Resurrection” includes the writer’s disclosure of the economic, political, religious and moral deception perpetrated by exploiters against the working people.

Understanding the main idea of ​​the novel can and should follow from an analysis of its entire ideological content. Only under this condition can we correctly judge the novel, its strength and weakness, the nature and social roots of the contradictions in it.

In addition, it must be taken into account that in a number of literary works only critical ideas are directly expressed. Such works include, for example, “The Inspector General” by Gogol and many satirical works Saltykov-Shchedrin. In such works, the exposure of various social phenomena is also given, of course, in terms of certain positive ideals, but directly; however, we are dealing here precisely with critical ideas, by which only we can judge the height and correctness of ideological meaning works.

7. Form and content work of art.

Content and form are concepts long established by philosophical thinking, with the help of which not only in works of art, but also in all phenomena of life, two aspects of their existence are distinguished: in the most general sense, this is their activity and their structure.
The content of a literary work is always a mixture of what is depicted and expressed by the writer.

The content of a literary work is life, as it is understood by the writer and correlated with his idea of ​​the ideal of beauty.
The figurative form of revealing the content is the life of the characters, as it is generally presented in the works, the professor notes. G. N. Pospelov. The content of the work relates to the sphere of spiritual life and activity of people, while the form of the work is material phenomenon: directly - this is the verbal structure of the work - artistic speech, which is pronounced out loud or “to oneself.” The content and form of a literary work represents a unity of opposites. The spirituality of the ideological content of a work and the materiality of its form is the unity of opposite spheres of reality.
Content, in order to exist, must have form; form has meaning and significance when it serves as a manifestation of content.
Hegel wrote very convincingly about the unity of content and form in art: “A work of art that lacks the proper form is precisely why it is not an authentic, that is, a true work of art, and for the artist, as such, serves as a bad excuse, if, speaking, that his works are good (or even excellent) in their content, but lack proper form. Only those works of art in which the content and form are identical and represent true works art."

Ideological - artistic unity of content and form of a work is formed on the basis of the primacy of content. No matter how great the writer’s talent, the significance of his works is, first of all, determined by their content. The purpose of their figurative form and all genre, compositional and linguistic elements is to completely vividly and artistically accurately convey the content. Any violation of this principle, this unity of artistic creativity, has a negative impact on a literary work and reduces its value. The dependence of form on content does not make it, however, something secondary. The content is revealed only in it; therefore, the completeness and clarity of its disclosure depends on the degree of correspondence of the form to the content.

When talking about content and form, we need to remember their relativity and correlation. The content of a work cannot be reduced only to an idea. It is the unity of objective and subjective, embodied in a work of art. Therefore, when analyzing a work of art, one cannot consider its idea outside the figurative form. The idea, which in a work of art acts as a process of cognition, comprehension of reality by the artist, should not be reduced to conclusions, to a program of action, which constitutes only part of the subjective content of the work.

Artistic idea

Artistic idea

The main idea contained in a work of art. The idea expresses the author’s attitude to the problem posed in his work, to the thoughts expressed by the characters. The idea of ​​a work is a generalization of the entire content of the work.
Only in normative-didactic works the idea of ​​a work takes on the character of a clearly expressed unambiguous judgment (such, for example, fable). Usually, artistic idea cannot be reduced to any single statement reflecting the author’s thought. Thus, the idea of ​​“War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy cannot be reduced to thoughts about the insignificant role of the so-called. great people in history and about fatalism as the idea most acceptable in explaining historical events. When perceiving the plot narrative and historical and philosophical chapters of “War and Peace” as a single whole, the idea of ​​the work is revealed as a statement about the superiority of natural, elemental life over the false and vain existence of those who thoughtlessly follow public fashion and strive for fame and success. The idea of ​​the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky“Crime and Punishment” is broader and more multifaceted than the idea expressed by Sonya Marmeladova about the inadmissibility of a person deciding whether another has the right to live. For F. M. Dostoevsky, no less important are thoughts about murder as a sin committed by a person against himself, and as a sin that alienates the murderer from those close and dear to him. Equally important for understanding the idea of ​​the novel is the idea of ​​​​the limitations of human rationality, of the insurmountable flaw of the mind, capable of constructing any logically consistent theory. The author shows that only life and religious intuition and faith can refute the atheistic and inhumane theory.
Often the idea of ​​a work is not reflected at all in the statements of the narrator or characters and can be defined very roughly. This feature is inherent primarily in many so-called. post-realistic works (for example, stories, novellas and plays by A.P. Chekhov) and the works of modernist writers depicting an absurd world (for example, novels, novellas and stories by F. Kafka).
Denial of the existence of the idea of ​​a work is characteristic of literature postmodernism; The idea of ​​the work is not recognized by postmodern theorists either. According to postmodern ideas, artistic text independent of the will and intention of the author, and the meaning of the work is born when it is read by the reader, who freely places the work in one or another semantic context. Instead of the idea of ​​a work, postmodernism offers a play of meanings, in which a certain final semantic authority is impossible: any idea contained in a work is presented with irony, with detachment. However, in fact, it is hardly justified to talk about the absence of ideas in postmodernist writings. The impossibility of serious judgment, total irony and the playful nature of existence - this is the idea that unites postmodern literature.

Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. - M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 .

See what an “artistic idea” is in other dictionaries:

The semantic integrity of works of art as a product of emotional experience and mastery of life by the author. It cannot be adequately recreated by means of other arts and logical formulations; expressed throughout... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

The semantic integrity of a work of art as a product of emotional experience and mastery of life by the author. It cannot be adequately recreated by means of other arts and logical formulations; expressed throughout... encyclopedic Dictionary

IDEA artistic- (from the Greek idea representation) embodied in production. claim is an aesthetically generalized author's thought, reflecting a certain concept of the world and man (Artistic Concept). I. constitutes the value-ideological aspect of art. prod. And… … Aesthetics: Vocabulary

ARTISTIC IDEA- ARTISTIC IDEA, generalizing, emotional, imaginative thought underlying a work of art. Subject artistic thought There are always such individual phenomena of life in which it is most clearly and actively manifested... ...

artistic idea- (from the Greek idea idea, concept, prototype, representation) the main idea underlying a work of art. Their. is realized through the entire system of images, is revealed throughout artistic structure works and thus gives... Dictionary of literary terms

art form- FORM ARTISTIC concept, denoting the constructive unity of a work of art, its unique integrity. Includes the concepts of architectural, musical and other forms. Spatial and temporal are also distinguished... Encyclopedia of Epistemology and Philosophy of Science

Children's art school city ​​of Obninsk (MU "Children's Art School") Founded 1964 Director Nadezhda Petrovna Sizova Address 249020, Kaluga region, Obninsk, Guryanova street, building 15 Telephone Work+7 48439 6 44 6 ... Wikipedia

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ARTISTRY- ARTISTICITY, a complex combination of qualities that determines whether the fruits of creative labor belong to the field of art. For H., the sign of completeness and adequate embodiment of the creative concept, that “artistry” that is... ... Literary encyclopedic dictionary

Books

• The Knight in Tiger Skin, Shota Rustaveli. Moscow, 1941. State Publishing House " Fiction". Publisher's binding with a gilded profile of the author. Good preservation. With many individual illustrations...

When analyzing a work, along with the concepts of “theme” and “problematics”, the concept of idea is also used, by which most often we mean the answer to the question allegedly posed by the author.

Ideas in literature can be different. An idea in literature is a thought contained in a work. There are logical ideas, or concepts. A logically formulated general thought about a class of objects or phenomena; idea of ​​something The concept of time, which we are able to perceive with the intellect and which are easily conveyed without figurative means. Novels and stories are characterized by philosophical and social generalizations, ideas, analyzes of causes and consequences, and a network of abstract elements.

But there is special kind very subtle, barely perceptible ideas of a literary work. An artistic idea is a thought embodied in figurative form. It lives only in figurative transformation and cannot be expressed in the form of sentences or concepts. The peculiarity of this thought depends on the disclosure of the topic, the author’s worldview, conveyed by the speech and actions of the characters, and on the depiction of pictures of life. It lies in the combination of logical thoughts, images, and all significant compositional elements. An artistic idea cannot be reduced to a rational idea that can be specified or illustrated. The idea of ​​this type is integral to the image, to the composition.

Forming an artistic idea is difficult creative process. He is influenced personal experience, the writer’s worldview, understanding of life. An idea can be nurtured for years; the author, trying to realize it, suffers, rewrites, and searches for adequate means of implementation. All themes, characters, all events are necessary for a more complete expression of the main idea, its nuances, shades. However, it is necessary to understand that an artistic idea is not equal ideological plan, that plan that often appears not only in the writer’s head, but also on paper. Exploring non-fictional reality, reading diaries, notebooks, manuscripts, archives, scientists restore the history of the idea, the history of creation, but do not discover the artistic idea. Sometimes it happens that the author goes against himself, yielding to the original plan for the sake of artistic truth, an internal idea.

One thought is not enough to write a book. If you know in advance everything you would like to talk about, then you should not contact artistic creativity. Better - to criticism, journalism, journalism.

The idea of ​​a literary work cannot be contained in one phrase and one image. But writers, especially novelists, sometimes struggle to formulate the idea of ​​their work. Dostoevsky said about “The Idiot”: “The main idea of ​​the novel is to portray positively wonderful person» Dostoevsky F.M. Collection of works: In 30 volumes. T. 28. Book 2. P.251.. But Nabokov did not accept him for this same declarative ideology. Indeed, the novelist’s phrase does not clarify why, why he did it, what is the artistic and vital basis of his image.

Therefore, along with cases of defining the so-called main idea, other examples are known. Tolstoy’s answer to the question “What is “War and Peace”? answered as follows: ““War and Peace” is what the author wanted and could express in the form in which it was expressed.” Tolstoy demonstrated his reluctance to translate the idea of ​​his work into the language of concepts once again, speaking about the novel “Anna Karenina”: “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 very one that I wrote first” (letter to N. Strakhov).

Belinsky very accurately pointed out that “art does not allow abstract philosophical, much less rational ideas: it allows only poetic ideas; A poetic idea- This<…>not a dogma, not a rule, it is a living passion, pathos” (lat. pathos - feeling, passion, inspiration).

V.V. Odintsov expressed his understanding of the category of artistic idea more strictly: “Idea literary composition is always specific and is not directly derived not only from those lying outside it individual statements writer (facts of his biography, public life etc.), but also from the text - from replicas goodies, journalistic inserts, comments from the author himself, etc.” Odintsov V.V. Stylistics of the text. M., 1980. S. 161-162..

Literary critic G.A. Gukovsky also spoke about the need to distinguish between rational, that is, rational, and literary ideas: “By idea I mean not only a rationally formulated judgment, statement, not even just the intellectual content of a work of literature, but the entire sum of its content, which constitutes it intelligent function, its goal and task” Gukovsky G.A. Studying a literary work at school. M.; L., 1966. P.100-101.. And further explained: “To understand the idea of ​​a literary work means to understand the idea of ​​each of its components in their synthesis, in their systemic interconnection<…>At the same time, it is important to take into account the structural features of the work - not only the words-bricks from which the walls of the building are made, but the structure of the combination of these bricks as parts of this structure, their meaning" Gukovsky G.A. P.101, 103..

O.I. Fedotov, comparing the artistic idea with the theme, the objective basis of the work, said the following: “An idea is an attitude towards what is depicted, the fundamental pathos of a work, a category that expresses the author’s tendency (inclination, intention, preconceived thought) in the artistic coverage of a given topic.” Consequently, the idea is the subjective basis of the work. It is noteworthy that in Western literary criticism, based on other methodological principles, instead of the category of artistic idea, the concept of intention, a certain premeditation, the tendency of the author to express the meaning of the work is used. This is discussed in detail in the work of A. Companion “The Demon of Theory” Companion A. The Demon of Theory. M., 2001. pp. 56-112. In addition, in some modern domestic studies, scientists use the category “creative concept”. In particular, it sounds in textbook edited by L. Chernets Chernets L.V. A literary work as an artistic unity // Introduction to literary criticism / Ed. L.V. Chernets. M., 1999. P. 174..

The more majestic the artistic idea, the longer the work lives.

V.V. Kozhinov called an artistic idea a semantic type of work that grows out of the interaction of images. Summarizing the statements of writers and philosophers, we can say that thin. An idea, in contrast to a logical idea, is not formulated by an author’s statement, but is depicted in all the details of the artistic whole. The evaluative or value aspect of a work, its ideological and emotional orientation is called a tendency. In literature socialist realism the tendency was interpreted as partisanship.

IN epic works ideas can be partly formulated in the text itself, as in Tolstoy’s narrative: “There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth.” More often, especially in lyric poetry, the idea permeates the structure of the work and therefore requires a lot of analytical work. A work of art as a whole is richer than the rational idea that critics usually isolate. In many lyrical works isolating an idea is untenable because it practically dissolves in pathos. Consequently, the idea should not be reduced to a conclusion, a lesson, and one should certainly look for it.

Idea(Greek idea– prototype, ideal, idea) – the main idea of ​​a work, expressed through its entire figurative system. It is the method of expression that fundamentally distinguishes the idea of ​​a work of art from a scientific idea. The idea of ​​a work of art is inseparable from its figurative system, so it is not so easy to find an adequate abstract expression for it, to formulate it in isolation from artistic content works. L. Tolstoy, emphasizing the inseparability of the idea from the form and content of the novel “Anna Karenina,” wrote: “If I wanted to say in words everything that I had in mind to express in a novel, then I would have to write a novel, the same one that I wrote first."

And one more difference between the idea of ​​a work of art and the idea of ​​a scientific one. The latter requires clear justification and strict, often laboratory, proof and confirmation. Writers, unlike scientists, do not, as a rule, strive for strict evidence, although such a tendency can be found among naturalists, in particular E. Zola. It is enough for an artist of words to pose one or another question of concern to society. This production itself may contain the main ideological content of the work. As A. Chekhov noted, in works such as “Anna Karenina” or “Eugene Onegin” not a single issue is “resolved,” but nevertheless they are permeated with deep, socially significant ideas that concern everyone.

The concept of “ideology” is also close to the concept of “idea of ​​a work.” The last term is more related to the position of the author, with his attitude towards the depicted. This attitude may be different, just as the ideas expressed by the author may be different. The position of the author, his ideology are determined primarily by the era in which he lives, inherent in this time public views, expressed by one or another social group. For educational literature XVIII The century was characterized by high ideology, determined by the desire to reorganize society on the principles of reason, the struggle of enlighteners against the vices of the aristocracy and faith in the virtue of the “third estate.” At the same time, aristocratic literature, devoid of high citizenship (Rococo literature), also developed. The latter cannot be called “ideologicalless”; it’s just that the ideas expressed by this trend were the ideas of a class opposite to the Enlightenment, a class that was losing historical perspective and optimism. Because of this, the ideas expressed by “precious” (exquisite, refined) aristocratic literature were deprived of much social resonance.

A writer’s ideological strength is not limited to the thoughts that he puts into his creation. The selection of the material on which the work is based and a certain range of characters are also important. The choice of heroes, as a rule, is determined by the corresponding ideological attitudes of the author. For example, Russian " natural school" of the 1840s, which professed the ideals of social equality, depicts with sympathy the life of the inhabitants of city "corners" - petty officials, poor townspeople, janitors, cooks, etc. Soviet literature comes to the fore" real man", concerned primarily with the interests of the proletariat, sacrificing the personal in the name of the national good.

The problem of the relationship between “ideological” and “artistry” in a work seems extremely important. Not always, even outstanding writers manage to translate the idea of ​​a work into a perfect artistic form. Often, literary artists, in their desire to express the ideas that excite them as accurately as possible, stray into journalism, begin to “reason” rather than “depict,” which, ultimately, only worsens the work. An example of such a situation is R. Rolland’s novel “The Enchanted Soul,” in which the highly artistic initial chapters contrast with the last, which are something like journalistic articles.

In such cases, full-blooded artistic images turn into diagrams, into simple mouthpieces of the author’s ideas. Even such people resorted to “direct” expression of the ideas that worried them. greatest artists words, like L. Tolstoy, although in his works such a method of expression is given relatively little space.

Usually a work of art expresses main idea and a number of minor ones related to side storylines. So, in famous tragedy“Oedipus the King” by Sophocles, along with the main idea of ​​the work, which states that man is a toy in the hands of the gods, in a magnificent artistic embodiment, ideas are conveyed about the attractiveness and at the same time frailty of human power (the conflict between Oedipus and Creon), about wise “blindness” (the dialogue of the blind Tiresias with the physically sighted but spiritually blind Oedipus) and a number of others. It is characteristic that ancient authors sought to express even the deepest thoughts only in artistic form. As for the myth, its artistry completely “absorbed” the idea. It is in this regard that many theorists say that what ancient work, the more artistic it is. And this is not because the ancient creators of “myths” were more talented, but because they simply had no other way to express their ideas due to the underdevelopment of abstract thinking.

Speaking about the idea of ​​the work, about its ideological content, it should also be borne in mind that it is not only created by the author, but can also be contributed by the reader.

A. France said that in each line of Homer we bring our own meaning, different from the one that Homer himself put into it. To this, critics of the hermeneutic direction add that the perception of the same work of art can be different in different eras. Readers of each new historical period usually “absorb” the dominant ideas of their time into the work. And indeed it is. Didn't they try Soviet time fill the novel “Eugene Onegin”, based on the “proletarian” ideology dominant at that time, with something that Pushkin never even thought of? In this regard, the interpretation of myths is especially revealing. In them, if desired, you can find any modern idea from political to psychoanalytic. It is no coincidence that S. Freud saw in the myth of Oedipus confirmation of his idea about the initial conflict between the son and the father.

The possibility of a broad interpretation of the ideological content of works of art is precisely caused by the specificity of the expression of this content. The figurative, artistic embodiment of an idea is not as accurate as the scientific one. This opens up the possibility of a very free interpretation of the idea of ​​the work, as well as the possibility of “reading into” those ideas that the author had not even thought about.

Speaking about ways of expressing the idea of ​​a work, one cannot fail to mention the doctrine of pathos. V. Belinsky’s words are well known that “a poetic idea is not a syllogism, not a dogma, not a rule, it is a living passion, it is pathos.” And therefore the idea of ​​a work “is not an abstract thought, not a dead form, but a living creation.” The words of V. Belinsky confirm what was said above - the idea in a work of art is expressed by specific means, it is “living”, and not abstract, not a “syllogism”. This is deeply true. It is only necessary to clarify how an idea differs from pathos, because in Belinsky’s formulation such a difference is not visible. Pathos is primarily passion, and it is associated with a form of artistic expression. In this regard, they talk about “pathetic” and dispassionate (among naturalists) works. The idea, inextricably linked with pathos, still relates more to what is called the content of the work, in particular, they talk about “ideological content.” True, this division is relative. Idea and pathos merge into one.

Subject(from Greek theme)- what is the basis, the main problem and the main range of life events depicted by the writer. The theme of the work is inextricably linked with its idea. The selection of vital material, the formulation of problems, that is, the choice of topic, are dictated by the ideas that the author would like to express in the work. V. Dahl in " Explanatory dictionary“defined the theme as “a position, a task that is being discussed or explained.” This definition emphasizes that the theme of a work is, first of all, a statement of a problem, a “task,” and not just one or another event. The latter can be the subject of an image and be also defined as the plot of the work. Understanding the “theme” mainly as a “problem” suggests its closeness to the concept of “idea of ​​the work.” This connection was noted by Gorky, who wrote that “a theme is an idea that originated in the author’s experience, is suggested to him life, but nests in the receptacle of his impressions still unformed, and, demanding embodiment in images, arouses in him a urge to work on its design." The problematic orientation of the theme is often expressed in the very title of the work, as is the case in the novels “What is to be done?” or “Who is to blame?” At the same time, we can almost talk about a pattern, which is that almost all literary masterpieces have emphatically neutral titles, most often repeating the name of the hero: “Faust”, “Odyssey”, “Hamlet”, "The Brothers Karamazov", "Don Quixote", etc.

Emphasizing the close connection between the idea and theme of a work, they often talk about “ideological and thematic integrity” or about its ideological and thematic features. Such a combination of two different, but closely related concepts seems completely justified.

Along with the term “theme”, something close in meaning to it is often used - "theme" which implies the presence in the work not only main topic, but also various side thematic lines. The larger the work, the wider its coverage of vital material and the more complex its ideological basis, the more such thematic lines there are. The main theme in I. Goncharov’s novel “The Cliff” is a story about the drama of finding one’s way in modern society(the line of Faith) and the “cliff” with which such attempts end. The second theme of the novel is noble amateurism and its destructive impact on creativity (Raisky’s line).

The theme of a work can be either socially significant - this was precisely the theme of "The Precipice" for the 1860s - or insignificant, in connection with which sometimes people talk about the "petty topic" of this or that author. However, it should be borne in mind that some genres, by their very nature, presuppose “petty topics,” i.e., the absence of social significant topics. This is, in particular, intimate lyrics, to which the concept of “petty subject matter” is inapplicable as an evaluative one. For large works, a successful choice of theme is one of the main conditions for success. This is clearly seen in the example of A. Rybakov’s novel “Children of the Arbat,” whose unprecedented reader success was ensured primarily by the topic of exposing Stalinism, which was acute for the second half of the 1980s.

There is an inextricable logical connection.

What is the theme of the work?

If you raise the question of the theme of the work, then intuitively every person understands what it is. He just explains it from his point of view.

The theme of a work is what underlies a particular text. It is with this basis that the most difficulties arise, because it is impossible to define it unambiguously. Some people believe that the theme of the work - what is described there - is the so-called vital material. For example, topic love relationship, war or death.

The topic can also be called problems of human nature. That is, the problem of personality formation, moral principles or the conflict of good and bad actions.

Another topic could be verbal basis. Of course, it’s rare to come across works about words, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. There are texts in which the play on words goes to foreground. Suffice it to recall the work of V. Khlebnikov “Perverten”. His verse has one peculiarity - the words in a line are read the same in both directions. But if you ask the reader what the verse was actually about, he is unlikely to answer anything intelligible. Since the main highlight of this work is the lines that can be read both from left to right and from right to left.

The theme of the work is a multifaceted component, and scientists put forward one or another hypothesis regarding it. If we talk about something universal, then the theme of a literary work is the “foundation” of the text. That is, as Boris Tomashevsky once said: “The theme is a generalization of the main, significant elements.”

If the text has a theme, then there must be an idea. An idea is a writer’s plan that pursues a specific goal, that is, what the writer wants to present to the reader.

Figuratively speaking, the theme of the work is what made the creator create the work. So to speak, the technical component. In turn, the idea is the “soul” of the work; it answers the question of why this or that creation was created.

When the author is completely immersed in the topic of his text, truly feels it and is imbued with the problems of the characters, then an idea is born - spiritual content, without which the page of the book is just a set of dashes and circles.

Learning to find

As an example, you can give a short story and try to find its main theme and idea:

• The autumn downpour did not bode well, especially late at night. All the residents of the small town knew about this, so the lights in the houses had long gone out. In all but one. It was an old mansion on a hill outside the city, which was used as Orphanage. During this terrible downpour, the teacher found a baby on the threshold of the building, so there was a terrible turmoil in the house: feeding, bathing, changing clothes and, of course, telling a fairy tale - after all, this is the main tradition of the old orphanage. And if any of the residents of the city knew how grateful the child would be who was found on the doorstep, they would have responded to the soft knock on the door that sounded in every house on that terrible rainy evening.

In that small excerpt Two themes can be distinguished: abandoned children and an orphanage. Essentially, these are the basic facts that forced the author to create the text. Then you can see that introductory elements appear: a foundling, tradition and a terrible thunderstorm, which forced all the city residents to lock themselves in their houses and turn out the lights. Why does the author talk about them specifically? These introductory descriptions will be the main idea of ​​the passage. They can be summarized by saying that the author is talking about the problem of mercy or selflessness. In one word, he tries to convey to every reader that, regardless of weather conditions, you need to remain human.

How is a theme different from an idea?

The theme has two differences. Firstly, it determines the meaning (main content) of the text. Secondly, the theme can be revealed both in large works and in small short stories. The idea, in turn, shows the main goal and task of the writer. If you look at the presented passage, you can say that the idea is the main message from the author to the reader.

Determining the theme of a work is not always easy, but such a skill will be useful not only in literature lessons, but also in Everyday life. It is with its help that you can learn to understand people and enjoy pleasant communication.