The technique of sharp opposition in a work of art. Artistic techniques in literature: types and examples

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Writing, as mentioned in this article, is an interesting creative process with its own characteristics, tricks and subtleties. And one of the most effective ways selecting text from total mass, giving it uniqueness, unusualness and the ability to arouse genuine interest and the desire to read it in full are literary writing techniques. They have been used at all times. First, directly by poets, thinkers, writers, authors of novels, stories and other works of art. Nowadays, they are actively used by marketers, journalists, copywriters, and indeed all those people who from time to time need to write bright and memorable text. But with the help of literary techniques, you can not only decorate the text, but also give the reader the opportunity to more accurately feel what exactly the author wanted to convey, to look at things from a perspective.

It doesn’t matter whether you write texts professionally, are taking your first steps in writing, or creating a good text just appears on your list of responsibilities from time to time, in any case, it is necessary and important to know what literary techniques a writer has. The ability to use them is a very useful skill that can be useful to everyone, not only in writing texts, but also in ordinary speech.

We invite you to familiarize yourself with the most common and effective literary techniques. Each of them will be provided with a vivid example for a more precise understanding.

Literary devices

Aphorism

• “To flatter is to tell a person exactly what he thinks about himself” (Dale Carnegie)
• “Immortality costs us our lives” (Ramon de Campoamor)
• “Optimism is the religion of revolutions” (Jean Banville)

Irony

Irony is a mockery in which the true meaning is opposed to the real meaning. This creates the impression that the subject of the conversation is not what it seems at first glance.

• A phrase said to a slacker: “Yes, I see you are working tirelessly today.”
• A phrase said about rainy weather: “The weather is whispering”
• A phrase said to a man in a business suit: “Hey, are you going for a run?”

Epithet

An epithet is a word that defines an object or action and at the same time emphasizes its peculiarity. Using an epithet, you can give an expression or phrase a new shade, make it more colorful and bright.

• Proud warrior, be steadfast
• Suit fantastic colors
• beauty girl unprecedented

Metaphor

A metaphor is an expression or word based on the comparison of one object with another based on their common feature, but used in a figurative sense.

• Nerves of steel
• The rain is drumming
• My eyes popped out of my head

Comparison

A comparison is a figurative expression that connects different objects or phenomena with each other using some common features.

• Evgeny went blind for a minute from the bright light of the sun as if mole
• My friend's voice reminded creak rusty door loops
• The mare was frisky How flaming fire bonfire

Allusion

An allusion is a special figure of speech that contains an indication or hint of another fact: political, mythological, historical, literary, etc.

• You are truly a great schemer (reference to the novel by I. Ilf and E. Petrov “The Twelve Chairs”)
• They made the same impression on these people as the Spaniards made on the Indians of South America (a reference to the historical fact of the conquest of South America by the conquistadors)
• Our trip could be called “The Incredible Travels of Russians in Europe” (a reference to the film by E. Ryazanov “The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia”)

Repeat

Repetition is a word or phrase repeated several times in one sentence, giving additional semantic and emotional expressiveness.

• Poor, poor little boy!
• Scary, how scared she was!
• Go, my friend, go ahead boldly! Go boldly, don’t be timid!

Personification

Personification is an expression or word used in a figurative sense, through which the properties of animate ones are attributed to inanimate objects.

• Blizzard howls
• Finance sing romances
• Freezing painted windows with patterns

Parallel designs

Parallel constructions are voluminous sentences that allow the reader to create an associative connection between two or three objects.

• “The waves splash in the blue sea, the stars sparkle in the blue sea” (A.S. Pushkin)
• “A diamond is polished by a diamond, a line is dictated by a line” (S.A. Podelkov)
• “What is he looking for in a distant country? What did he throw in his native land? (M.Yu. Lermontov)

Pun

A pun is a special literary device in which, in one context, different meanings the same word (phrases, phrases), similar in sound.

• The parrot says to the parrot: “Parrot, I’ll scare you.”
• It was raining and my father and I
• “Gold is valued by its weight, but by pranks - by the rake” (D.D. Minaev)

Contamination

Contamination is the creation of one new word by combining two others.

• Pizzaboy - pizza delivery man (Pizza (pizza) + Boy (boy))
• Pivoner – beer lover (Beer + Pioneer)
• Batmobile – Batman's car (Batman + Car)

Streamlines

Streamlined expressions are phrases that do not express anything specific and hide the author’s personal attitude, veil the meaning or make it difficult to understand.

• We will change the world for the better
• Acceptable losses
• It's neither good nor bad

Gradations

Gradations are a way of constructing sentences in such a way that homogeneous words in them increase or decrease their semantic meaning and emotional coloring.

• “Higher, faster, stronger” (Yu. Caesar)
• Drop, drop, rain, downpour, it’s pouring like a bucket
• “He was worried, worried, going crazy” (F.M. Dostoevsky)

Antithesis

Antithesis is a figure of speech that uses rhetorical opposition between images, states, or concepts that are interconnected by a common semantic meaning.

• “Now an academician, now a hero, now a navigator, now a carpenter” (A.S. Pushkin)
• “He who was nobody will become everything” (I.A. Akhmetyev)
• “Where there was a table of food, there is a coffin” (G.R. Derzhavin)

Oxymoron

An oxymoron is a stylistic figure that is considered a stylistic error - it combines incompatible (opposite in meaning) words.

• Living Dead
• Hot ice
• The beginning of the end

So, what do we see in the end? The number of literary devices is amazing. In addition to those we have listed, we can also name parcellation, inversion, ellipsis, epiphora, hyperbole, litotes, periphrasis, synecdoche, metonymy and others. And it is this diversity that allows anyone to apply these techniques everywhere. As already mentioned, the “sphere” of application of literary techniques is not only writing, but also oral speech. Supplemented with epithets, aphorisms, antitheses, gradations and other techniques, it will become much brighter and more expressive, which is very useful in mastering and development. However, we must not forget that the abuse of literary techniques can make your text or speech pompous and not as beautiful as you would like. Therefore, you should be restrained and careful when using these techniques so that the presentation of information is concise and smooth.

For a more complete assimilation of the material, we recommend that you, firstly, familiarize yourself with our lesson on, and secondly, pay attention to the manner of writing or speech of outstanding personalities. There are a huge number of examples: from ancient Greek philosophers and poets to the great writers and rhetoricians of our time.

We will be very grateful if you take the initiative and write in the comments about what other literary techniques of writers you know, but which we have not mentioned.

We would also like to know if reading this material was useful for you?

Antithesis is a means of expression that is often used in the Russian language and in Russian literature because of its powerful expressive capabilities. So, antithesis definition is a technique in artistic language when one phenomenon is contrasted with another. Those who want to read about the antithesis on Wikipedia will certainly find various examples from poems there.

I would like to define the concept of “antithesis” and its meaning. It is of great importance in language because it is a technique that allows compare two opposites, for example, “black” and “white”, “good” and “evil”. The concept of this technique is defined as a means of expressiveness, which allows you to very vividly describe an object or phenomenon in poetry.

What is antithesis in literature

Antithesis is an artistic figurative and expressive means that allows you to compare one object with another based on oppositions. Usually she's like artistic medium, is very popular among many modern writers and poets. But you can also find a huge number of examples in the classics. Within the antithesis can be opposed in meaning or in their properties:

• Two characters. This most often happens in cases where a positive character is contrasted with a negative one;
• Two phenomena or objects;
• Different qualities of the same object (looking at the object from several aspects);
• The qualities of one object are contrasted with the qualities of another object.

Lexical meaning of trope

The technique is very popular in literature because it allows you to most clearly express the essence of a particular subject through opposition. Typically, such oppositions always look lively and imaginative, so poetry and prose that use antithesis are quite interesting to read. She is one of the most popular and known means artistic expression literary text, be it poetry or prose.

The technique was actively used by the classics of Russian literature, and modern poets and prose writers use it no less actively. Most often, the antithesis underlies contrast between two characters in a work of art, When goodie is opposed to negative. At the same time, their qualities are deliberately demonstrated in an exaggerated, sometimes grotesque form.

Skillful use of this artistic technique allows you to create a living, imaginative description of characters, objects or phenomena found in one or another work of art(novel, story, story, poem or fairy tale). It is often used in folklore works (fairy tales, epics, songs and other genres of oral folk art). During runtime literary analysis text, you must definitely pay attention to the presence or absence of this technique in the work.

Where can you find examples of antithesis?

Antithesis examples from literature can be found almost everywhere, in a variety of genres of fiction, ranging from folk art (fairy tales, epics, tales, legends and other oral folklore) to the works of modern poets and writers of the twenty-first century. Due to its characteristics of artistic expression, the technique is most often found in the following genres of fiction:

• Poems;
• Stories:
• Fairy tales and legends (folk and author's);
• Novels and stories. In which there are lengthy descriptions of objects, phenomena or characters.

Antithesis as an artistic device

As a means of artistic expression, it is built on the opposition of one phenomenon to another. A writer who uses antithesis in his work chooses the most characteristic features two characters (objects, phenomena) and tries to reveal them as fully as possible by contrasting each other. The word itself, translated from ancient Greek, also means nothing more than “opposition.”

Active and appropriate use makes the literary text more expressive, lively, interesting, helps to most fully reveal the characters of the characters, the essence of specific phenomena or objects. This is what determines the popularity of antithesis in the Russian language and in Russian literature. However, in other European languages ​​this means of artistic imagery is also used very actively, especially in classical literature.

In order to find examples of antithesis during the analysis of a literary text, you must first examine those fragments of the text where two characters (phenomena, objects) are not considered in isolation, but are opposed to each other from different points of view. And then finding a reception will be quite easy. Sometimes the whole meaning of a work is built on this artistic device. It should also be borne in mind that the antithesis can be explicit, but maybe hidden, veiled.

Find the hidden antithesis in art literary text It’s quite simple if you read and analyze the text thoughtfully and carefully. In order to teach how to correctly use a technique in your own literary text, you need to familiarize yourself with the most striking examples from Russian classical literature. However, it is not recommended to abuse it so that it does not lose its expressiveness.

Antithesis is one of the main means of artistic expression, widely used in the Russian language and in Russian literature. The technique can easily be found in many works of Russian classics. They actively use it and modern writers. Antithesis enjoys well-deserved popularity because it helps to most clearly express the essence of individual heroes, objects or phenomena by contrasting one hero (object, phenomenon) with another. Russian literature without this artistic device is practically unthinkable.

Since the birth of 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 the exact meaning of the 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 the popular 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

The author of a work of art of any genre needs expressiveness of speech, for which antithesis is used. In the Russian language, the use of opposing 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 the social sphere and oratory. Everyone is familiar with mottos, chants and slogans: “He who was nobody will become everything!”

Contrast is often present in ordinary colloquial speech, such examples of antithesis: dishonor - dignity, life - death, good - evil. To influence listeners and present an object or phenomenon more fully and in the right way, 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! On the basis of the antithesis, a special technique was born - 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. Good examples of the use 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. Good example Chekhov has it in his 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 is 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 of different movements widely used this technique. Writers silver age(, Marina Tsvetaeva, Sergei Yesenin, Konstantin Balmont) antithesis was a favorite method:

“You, sea of ​​strange dreams, and sounds, and lights!

You, friend and eternal enemy! An 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 of the unfolding 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.

what is the name for the sharp contrast of different situations in a work of art and received the best answer

Answer from Bob Faratiev[guru]
Antithesis is one of the techniques of stylistics, which consists in comparing specific ideas and concepts related to each other by a common design or internal meaning. Eg. : “He who was nothing will become everything.” Sharply highlighting the contrasting features of the compared members, A., precisely because of his sharpness, is distinguished by his too persistent persuasiveness and brightness (for which the romantics loved this figure so much). Many stylists therefore had a negative attitude towards A., and on the other hand, poets with rhetorical pathos, such as for example, have a noticeable predilection for it. from Hugo or today from Mayakovsky. The symmetry and analytical nature of A. make it very appropriate in some strict forms, such as. in Alexandrian verse (see), with its clear division into two parts.

Reply from Hope[active]
Antithesis - (from the Greek antithesis - opposition), in fiction a stylistic figure, a comparison 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.

Reply from ASL[newbie]
antithesis, no doubt

Reply from Vladislav Vishnyakov[newbie]
Literary asshole)

Reply from 3 answers[guru]

Hello! Here is a selection of topics with answers to your question: what is the sharp contrast of different situations in a work of art called?

§ 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 examined numerous comparisons between the phenomena of the inner life of man and nature in historically early poetry, primarily 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. An example from a 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 simultaneously 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 the face 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.