Fabula is not a plot

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

How to call the case of narration from the side of fact, chronology, its expression in the patterns of actions and in the development of displayed events, their non-randomness?

Fabula is, first of all, a literary tradition of building works. Initially, the term itself denoted a genre, translated as "fairy tale", "fable", then grew into the basis of a literary text.

Fabula in the Russian tradition

Traditionality of the plot, its development began with folklore, myths. In Russian literature, this term most often meant a plot. The plot - composition, structure - was studied by Russian literary critics-formalists and for many years both of these concepts were identified. They did not take into account the dynamics of the figurative reflection of life. However, the writer first of all creates the basis - the actual events in the work, carefully selecting various phenomena (fiction or reality - not so important), which the plot will only process as the main narrative theme. The plot is just a solution to a problem thatrepresents the plot. It is not raw material, it is an indestructible foundation created by tradition. Therefore, it is not entirely fair to divide works into plot and plot based on the number of turns in plot construction.

The plot in historical development

History has created its own plot in each of its periods, this is an indisputable fact. Mythological, utopian, romantic, fabulous, realistic and any other plots differ. Their topics are varied and inexhaustible. But then there are already specific features of the storylines. However, the plot is not something that can arbitrarily change and grow in forms, classification and accounting are present here all the time, since it means a universal value, a non-national treasure of art. Many plots live simultaneously in all lands, slightly changing due to folklore, but keeping the main backbone intact. For example, the tale of Cinderella has more than three hundred and fifty national variants.

Main types of plots

Mythological plots embodying the relationship of day and night, that is, darkness and light, winter, spring, summer and autumn, that is, heat and cold, the clash of the indomitable forces of nature and the sophistication of the human mind. Fabulous plots consist in endowing flora and fauna with human qualities, from which certain collisions arise, and these archetypes will forever remain alive: "arrogant red muzzle" - a cunning fox, a stupid monkey, a stupid donkey, etc. fabulousplots, on the contrary, expand human nature to merge with the cosmos and the animal world, which also gives rise to features and patterns of collisions involving ghouls, mermaids, and werewolves.

Household plot

The plot based on local customs (an example of the most eloquent - "Dead Souls" by Gogol), called everyday, has an ancient origin. The purchase of dead souls and the consequences of this action are much closer to our times, although they are also immeasurably far from understanding the veracity of such collisions. However, it is difficult to come up with a wittier plot, especially if one considers that human trafficking was at that time a completely natural phenomenon, absolutely prosaic and of no interest to anyone from the point of view of literature. The birthplace of the plot novel turned out to be by no means Russia. Dickens, Wood, Collins, Elliot grew up and established themselves on a purely English line of everyday plot - the right to inherit. And Conan Doyle drew a detective subspecies of her own, immortalizing his Sherlock Holmes.