What is antithesis in Russian? The meaning of the word antithesis in the dictionary of literary terms. What is antithesis in literature briefly.
Antithesis it means– opposition. Stylistic or verbal antithesis is the placement next to words of opposite meanings, antonyms.
Example of antithesis
“I decay with my body in dust, I command thunder with my mind, I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am a god!” (G.R. Derzhavin. God, 1784).
Verbal antithesis often forms the title of a literary work, becoming an oxymoron: “The brilliance and poverty of courtesans” (1838-47) by O. Balzac. The figurative antithesis is contrast of elements art world works, primarily characters. In many myths, everything that is bright, good, and useful in the world and everything that is dark, evil, and hostile to living beings is personified in the images of the first creators of the Universe, the twin brothers. Such are Ahuramazda (literally “the wise Lord”) and the evil spirit Ahriman in the ancient Iranian “Avesta”. Hamlet's father and his brother and murderer Claudius appear as absolute antipodes in William Shakespeare's Hamlet (1601). Compositional, in fact, meaningful antithesis: the opposition of the idyllic and socially critical parts in “The Village” (1819) by A.S. Pushkin, the pathetic introduction and the story about the fate of the unfortunate petty official in his own “ Bronze Horseman"(1833).
The word antithesis comes from Greek anti - against and thesis, which translated means - position.
Antithesis is a sharp rhetorical opposition of images, states or concepts interconnected by internal meaning or general structure. in literature? Numerous examples where opposing or sharply contrasting concepts and images are juxtaposed to enhance the impression explain this. Moreover, the stronger the contrast, the brighter the antithesis.
A.S. Pushkin used such comparisons as “poetry - prose”, “wave - stone”, “ice - fire”. N.A. Nekrasov and S.A. Yesenin they turn into oxymorons: “poor luxury”, “sad joy”.
The role of antithesis is manifested in exact subordination, for example: “I caught up with snowstorms while I was writing about the summer”; “There was an honest conversation, but everything was muddied.”
But this does not have to be done, for example: “Okay, they sang, but they didn’t get it out,” “The praise sounds beautiful, but it’s bitter.” Here are some concepts started singing And didn't pull it out, sounds And bitter are not in a logical subordination of opposites like water and flame or light and darkness, but the concepts are taken with a certain specification, although there is no precision and logical clarity, as is often found in proverbs.
How to make the antithesis expressive?
Enhancing expressiveness is achieved in the following ways:
The contrast can be semantic: “Having twisted everything, we got to the point.” Both words and constructions are contrasted.
Antithetical concepts (containing opposition) can collectively express something common, for example, antithesis in literature, as seen in Derzhavin’s hero, where he calls himself both a king and a slave, portrays a contrasting
The antithetical image often plays a supporting role in the contrasted one, which is the main one. The expressed object is characterized by only one member of the antithesis, where the second has a purely auxiliary function: “Ideal forms do not require content.”
Comparison can express the choice of alternative solutions: ““To share or not?” - thought the calculator.”
You can use phonetic similarity, for example, “teach - get bored.”
The antithesis may contain not two, but more contrasting images, i.e. be polynomial.
Antithesis: examples from literature
Contrasts in works are used in titles, character characteristics, images and themes. What is antithesis in literature? The general definition does not fully reveal its meaning. It becomes clearer and more multifaceted when analyzing famous works.
Roman L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
The title of the work is rich in meaning, despite the fact that a simple antithesis is used. Peace is presented as the antithesis of war. In drafts, the author tries to vary this word, trying to find the best solution.
In the work, Tolstoy creates two poles: good and evil or peace and enmity. The author sharply contrasts the characters with each other, where some are the bearers of life, while others are the bearers of discord. Throughout the novel, comparisons “wrong - right”, “spontaneous - reasonable”, “natural - ostentatious” constantly appear. All this is manifested through images, for example, Natasha and Helen, Napoleon and Kutuzov. The antithesis “false - true” is manifested in the absurd situation of a duel in which Pierre Bezukhov found himself.
Roman F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"
Dostoevsky's methods are completely different, since he has slightly different views on man. His heroes combine good and evil, compassion and selfishness. The internal trial of conscience over Raskolnikov is the greatest punishment for the crime. Dostoevsky's heroes have a dispute not between personalities, but between their ideas, leading to a moral tragedy. Before the crime, Raskolnikov was and after the author gives him a description of the killer.
Roman I.S. Turgenev "Fathers and Sons"
Shift in public consciousness in the mid-19th century was reflected in the novel “Fathers and Sons”, in which main character opposed to everyone around him. The main thing here is the conflict of generations, the cause of which is attachment. Conflicts with friends are caused by differences of beliefs and uncompromisingness. Defending their ideals and defeating the enemy becomes the goal in itself of the heroes.
Some of them look funny because of their limitations. Trying to overcome it, they try to implement new ideas in order to assert themselves. Turgenev uses the technique of antithesis as At the same time, living images, their relationships are better revealed, and the plot develops.
Thus, it becomes clear what antithesis is in literature. The works of the classics clearly demonstrate this
Conclusion
To compare contrasting or opposing concepts, in order to enhance the impression, antithesis is used. Examples from literature indicate that it can be the main principle of construction of both individual parts and the whole work.
§ 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 technique 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 of 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. Thus, in Pushkin’s novel in verse, 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, “not fitting” into 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 is not individual people who are to blame, but 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 of people with life and the destruction of their hopes are inevitable, that thoughts of happiness and the fullness of existence 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. An artistic creation 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.
This text is an introductory fragment.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?
- With the help of semantic contrast: “having twisted everything, we got to the point.”
- 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.
- 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 names the main subject, and the second performs a service function: “Ideal forms do not require content.”
- Present the comparison as several possible ways out of the situation: “to be or not to be - that is the question.”
- 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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