Psychological parallelism in literature examples. Parallelism in Literature: Development and Forms

21.09.2019

The meaning of the word PARALLELISM. in the Literary Encyclopedia

PARALLELISM.

I. The term of traditional stylistics, denoting the combination of two or more composed sentences (or parts of them) by strictly matching their structure - grammatical and semantic. Example: "Your mind is as deep as the sea, || Your spirit is as high as mountains” (V. Bryusov, Experiments, M., 1918). P. widespread

444 in oral and ancient written lit-pax, in many systems of versification acting as a principle for constructing a stanza; especially known for the so-called parallelismus membrorum of Hebrew versification, in which P. is combined with a synonymous variation of images, for example. “Place me as a seal on your heart || and like a ring on your hand” (“Song of Songs”). P. occupies a large place in the alliterative and even rhymed Germanic verse of the Middle Ages. It is of no less importance in the Finnish epic Kalevala, where it is combined with the obligatory gradation. Wed “He finds six grains || seven seeds he raises." In written lit-pax, P. acquires a very complex character, connecting with anaphora, antithesis, chiasmus, and other figures, for example. “I am a king, I am a slave, I am a worm, I am a god” (Derzhavin). The doctrine of parallelism is greatly developed in ancient rhetoric. See "Rhetoric", "Stylistics", "Figures". R. S. II. In Russian folklore, the term "P." is used in a narrower, specific sense, denoting a feature of poetic composition, which consists in comparing one action (main) with others (secondary) observed in external person the world. The simplest type of P. is binomial: “A falcon flew across the sky,

Walked well done around the world. More complex types probably formed from it: polynomial (several consecutive parallels); negative (a parallel taken from the outside world is given in negative order): “Not a white birch tree bows to the ground -

The red maiden bows to the father”; formal (the logical connection between the members of P. is lost): “I will lower the ring into the river,

And a glove under the ice

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Let all the people judge." On the connection of P. with the choral action, see "Amebay Composition". From folklore P. widely penetrates into art song (individual Kunstlied). Bibliography: Veselovsky A., Psychological parallelism and its forms in the reflections of the poetic style, Sobr. sochin., vol. I, St. Petersburg, 1911. V. Ch.

Literary encyclopedia. 2012

The role of artistic means

Parallelism in literature, like many other techniques, must be present. Their role is really very great. Who likes to read scientific literature, he knows that this particular genre is poor in expressive means. This is a solid dry text that does not cause any emotions at all. The main task of literature is to captivate the reader so that the work is read in one breath and makes you want to know the continuation.

Without expressive means, we would not experience any feelings when reading a work: no pity, no sympathy, no joy. Parallelism in literature is also important. What is its main role?

Parallelism

This concept can be heard in rhetoric, it means repetition or comparison. Reception is used to emphasize the similarity of objects or their differences. Also, parallelism in the literature is used to emphasize significance. Let's take an example - the famous poem by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "Ruslan and Lyudmila". There are the following lines: “Will I see your bright gaze? Will I hear a gentle conversation? In a similar way, the author emphasizes what is extremely important for Ruslan. But this is just one of the examples. options use of the reception.

Folklore

What is parallelism in literature? We propose to analyze this on the example of ancient literature and folklore. If we consider versification, then this technique acts as an assistant in the construction of stanzas and rhymes. In biblical or, as it is also called, Hebrew versification, this technique and synonymy are used in parallel, which makes it possible to vary similar images.

The ancient German verse is also not without parallelism, only it necessarily appears together with alliteration. Let's not disregard the Finnish folklore, where it manifests itself with gradation.

Russian folklore

Parallelism here takes several forms:

binomial;
polynomial;
negative;
formal.

The first of these items is simplest form. Consider the parallelism in literature, examples from folklore: "A falcon flew across the sky, a fine fellow walked around the world." It was from this form that more complex or polynomial forms were formed. This type represents several parallels at once. An interesting form often used in the work of authors is negative parallelism. For example: "It was not the birch that bowed, but the red-haired girl bowed at her feet." As for the latter type, it is often found in ditties. There is absolutely no logical connection between the compared objects.

Later times

Modern and classical literature also use the technique of parallelism, in addition, it is borrowed from folklore. The origin of this trend was in ancient times.

European fiction is also not devoid of parallelism, only here it borders on antithesis and anaphora. Our great and mighty Russian language also contains many other techniques used by authors to this day in order to interest their reader, to make the work really interesting and exciting.

Language plays an extremely important role in human life, and the presence in a large number words allows you to use both in ordinary speech and in literary texts a variety of constructions that enrich speech and make it more refined. Parallelisms are also referred to as such constructions.

In contact with

Basic concepts

The very concept of parallels as a repetition of identical elements is found in many sciences: computer science, geometry, biology. What is parallelism in text and how is it used in Russian?

The word parallelism is translated from Greek as "location nearby", which gives an idea of the meaning of the construction - this is a figure of speech, which is the placement of similar (in meaning, grammar) elements in a passage.

The design helps to create an integral image in literature and enriches the text: the student passed the tests; the student who passed the tests; student who passed the test. Often such constructions are called lexical parallelism.

Important! Parallel constructions have differences in meaning and style, for example, often several subordinate clauses form a separate simple sentence in a complex one, but parallel simple turns are designated as ordinary members of a sentence.

This is due to the fact that the verb is presented in sentences differently: in a personal form (subordinate clause), as a secondary predicate ( participial turnover), as an action-state (participial turnover), as an abstract action (verbal noun).

Due to stylistic differences, parallel designs used in different.

Types of structures

According to their structure and form, several such forms are distinguished at once, each of which has its own characteristics:

Syntactic parallelism is the most common. The main difference is applying the same structure in sentences, regardless of the genre: at the beginning there is a generalizing circumstance, and in the next part - objects of comparison. This allows you to make the circumstance stronger, more vivid, and most often this circumstance plays a crucial role in understanding the entire plot.
Rhythmic - this technique is used to emphasize any important place in a poem. It is so called because it is created by repeating the same rhymes, which gives the work a certain rhythm, although sometimes this is also achieved by arranging the same pauses.
Strophic - the same syntactic constructions are placed in adjacent couplets of the work. Although often they are lexical.
Negative - it does not differ in construction from the usual direct line, but is characterized by the fact that negative parallel first.

Parallelism is a structural fragment that changes the whole concept of the work. It can be found in folk art, stationery texts and works of art.

In literature

Literature is a place of concentration of many artistic techniques, thanks to which bright works are created. Among them, lexical parallelism stands out, which is used to amplify or emphasize on any section. Some works even require his presence, for example, address poems and poems, since he is an expressive means of language.

Unlike rhetoric, where this technique means the repetition of thought, in literature construction is used to emphasize the similarity or difference of objects. Often it is used to emphasize the importance of a passage, and in literature it is used to emphasize the significance of something. In Pushkin's poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila" the author writes:

Will I hear a gentle conversation?

This is a vivid example of parallelism as an accent, which shows how important it is for the hero to hear and see his beloved.

Folklore

Parallels as an artistic device began to be used for the first time in texts ancient period. It is especially common to find such parallel constructions in folklore, because in those days, people often identified their actions with events occurring in nature, and sought to reflect this in their works. They have been used in:

versification - the technique is an assistant for building and observing rhymes. It is in poetry that such a construction can often be found;
Bible and other examples of Hebrew literature - to vary similar images and quality;
ancient Germanic poems - in such works, the technique is used simultaneously with alliteration;
Finnish folk art - designs alternate with gradation.

Attention! A picture of nature in figurative parallelism is always the first, and after it - a reflection of relations and actions between people.

Russian folklore is especially abundant in parallel constructions, in which the technique has several forms:

binomial (simplest form) - consists of two parallels “A falcon flew across the sky, a fine fellow walked around the world”;
polynomial - these are several parallels that are located sequentially in the text;
reverse parallelism - these are sequential sentences, which differ in that the word order in the second is completely reverse to the first;
negative - human actions are opposed to some event from the outside world "It was not the birch that bowed, but the red-haired girl bowed at her feet";
formal - in this parallel, the connection between the outside world and the actions of people "I will lower the ring into the river, and the glove under the ice" is lost.

Of all kinds, the negative form cannot act as a standalone, on which the whole product can be built. It is usually used to reveal the denouement or in individual episodes.

Moreover, this technique can be found more often in folk poetry, and in works of art only when the author uses it to imitate folk art.

In modern and classical literature, this technique passed precisely from folklore. Parallelism in the literature of Europe borders on rhetorical oppositions and repetitions of similar sounds in order to achieve rhythm and create a certain sound effect.

Examples from fiction

The forms of parallelism in works can be expressed both in words and phrases, and in whole sentences. Especially often it is used by poets, because thanks to this technique, you can not only enhance the emotional tone of the poem or passage, but also to make the work more rhythmic.

Examples of parallelism can be found in A.S. Pushkin:

“Will I see your bright eyes?

Will I hear a gentle conversation? in the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila";

"The stars are shining in the blue sky,

In the blue sea the waves are whipping;

A cloud is moving across the sky

A barrel floats on the sea" in the fairy tale "About Tsar Saltan".

V. Bryusov:

"Your mind is as deep as the sea,

Your spirit is as high as the mountains" in the work "Experiments".

G. Derzhavin: “I am a king - I am a slave - I am a worm - I am God!” in the ode "God".

Attention! In fiction, parallelism is the product of the author's personal fantasy to enhance the expressiveness of emotions.

Without lexical and semantic constructions, works of art would be more like clerical speech and dry scientific articles. Parallelism is one of the forms that makes text more vivid, focuses attention, draws parallels and conveys to the reader the thoughts and feelings of the author. This technique can be successfully applied both in literature and for greater expressiveness of the oral language.

How to prepare for the exam in the Russian language

Syntax parallelism

Not just in all textbooks on the Russian language and literature, you can find the phrase: "The Russian language is beautiful and rich." Of course, there is evidence for this, and quite weighty. Firstly, in the Russian language there are a huge number of expressive means that decorate speech, make it so melodic. Russian writers and poets generously add various tropes to their works. They need to be able to see and distinguish. Then the work will sparkle with new colors. Often, with the help of expressive means, authors focus readers on specific things, evoke certain emotions, or help to understand how to relate to characters. One such technique is parallelism. It is divided into several types and is used for different purposes. This article will analyze what parallelism is, using examples of literary works.

What is parallelism?

According to the Big encyclopedic dictionary, parallelism - a similar arrangement of speech elements in adjacent parts of the text. Translated from the Greek language, this word means "locating nearby."

It is easy to conclude that this technique was known to the Greeks and was widely used in rhetoric, was the subject of her research. In general, parallelism is feature ancient literature. In Russian, examples of parallelism are very common in folklore. Moreover, in many ancient works this was the basic principle of constructing stanzas.

Types of parallelism

There are several forms of parallelism that are most commonly found in the literature.

Thematic parallelism. In this case, there is a comparison of phenomena that are close in content.

syntactic parallelism. In this case, the sentences following in order are built according to the same syntactic principle. For example, in several sentences following each other, the same order of arrangement of the main members is observed.

Sound parallelism. This technique is characteristic of poetic speech and is often found in poetic works. The poem takes on its own melody and sound.

But to understand what each of these types means, it is better to understand examples of parallelism.

Syntax parallelism

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the Russians literary works rich various means making speech more expressive. Therefore, it is worth analyzing examples of syntactic parallelism from the literature. This technique is found in the poems of M. Yu. Lermontov.

One of these poems is "When the yellowing field is agitated."

Then the anxiety of my soul humbles itself,
Then the wrinkles on the forehead diverge, -
And I can comprehend happiness on earth,
And in the sky I see God...

The first two lines follow the same order of the main members of the sentence. The predicate comes first, followed by the subject. And again: predicate, subject. Moreover, very often parallelism occurs together with anaphora or epiphora. And this poem is just that. The same elements are repeated at the beginning of sentences. And anaphora is the repetition of the same elements at the beginning of each sentence / line.

Thematic parallelism. Examples from fiction

This type of expression is perhaps the most common. Both in prose and in poetry one can see various comparisons of phenomena. A particularly common example of parallelism is the comparison of the states of nature and man. For clarity, you can refer to the poem by N. A. Nekrasov "Uncompressed strip". The poem is a dialogue of ears of corn and wind. And it is through this dialogue that the fate of the plowman becomes known.

He knew why he plowed and sowed,
Yes, he started the work beyond his strength.
Poor poor fellow - does not eat or drink,
The worm sucks his sick heart,
The hands that brought these furrows,
Dried up into a chip, hung like a loop ...

Audio parallelism

Examples of sound parallelism can be looked for not only in fiction. It has found very good use in modern world. Namely - in television and radio broadcasting.

By repeating parts of speech or separate parts words can create different effects that affect listeners. After all, a person very often associates acoustic representations with semantic ones. This is used by advertising. Perhaps everyone noticed how well advertising slogans are remembered. They are interesting, unusual, but most importantly - they sound good. And it is this sound that sinks into memory. Having heard an advertising slogan once, it is difficult to forget it. It is strongly associated with a particular product.

Negative concurrency

Separately, mention should be made of examples of negative parallelism. Everyone has definitely come across him on the school bench. This example of parallelism is common in Russian, especially in poetry. And this technique came from folk songs and was firmly entrenched in poems.

Not the cold winds rustle,
Not quicksands run, -
The grief rises again
Like an evil black cloud...

(Folk song of the twelfth century).

And there are many such examples in Russian folklore. It is not surprising that writers began to use this technique in their works.

These were the four most common types of parallelism found in fiction and beyond. Basically, as you can see from the examples, they are used to impress the reader/listener in some way. Arouse certain feelings or associations in him. This is especially important for poetry, where only images are most often used, but nothing is said directly. And parallelism allows you to make these images even brighter. It can also add melody to the timing, making it more memorable. And, as you can see from the examples, artistic techniques is not only a feature classical literature. On the contrary, they are alive and used until now. Only in a new key.

Personifications underlie other traditional types of verbal-subject allegory, primarily figurative parallelism. This type of figurativeness arose in oral syncretic creativity. In ancient times, people, being dependent on the forces of nature, not only likened its phenomena and processes to their conscious actions, but also vice versa - they thought about their actions and relationships by analogy with the processes that took place in inorganic nature or in the world of animals and plants. They were vaguely aware of the patterns of the life of nature and, through comparison with them, comprehended social and psychological patterns. human life . Hence, in their verbal creativity, parallels arose between relations in nature and in people's lives. So, in a Russian folk song it is sung: “Do not twine, do not twine, grass, with dodder. || Do not get used to, do not get used to, well done, with the singer. || It was good to get used to it, it was sickening to leave. This is a parallel of two images: the first reflects the relationship in nature, the second - the relationship between people. The image of nature in figurative parallelism always comes first (this is the first term of parallelism); the image of human actions and relationships - on the second (this is the second term of parallelism). There is a direct connection between the first and second terms of parallelism. This kind of figurativeness is called direct two-term parallelism. Relations that arise in nature, as it were, clarify the actions and relationships of people. Strongly woven grass with dodder - human love can be just as strong; grass with dodder is difficult to break - just as difficult can be the separation of lovers. The image of both acquires a generalizing meaning. In a special article on parallelism, A. N. Veselovsky defines this type of figurativeness as "juxtaposition on the basis of action, movement." “... Parallelism,” he wrote, “is based on the juxtaposition of subject and object according to the category of movement, action, as a sign of volitional activity” (36, 126). He called such parallelism "psychological", in contrast to the "rhythmic" parallelism, that is, from the intonational comparison of phrases, verses in the process of singing or reciting. However, such a definition narrows the meaning of the parallelism of images, since it is based, in essence, not only on the emotional, psychological connection between natural phenomena and the relationships of human life, but, above all, on their objective similarity, which acquires a generalizing cognitive meaning. In ritual and everyday folk songs, figurative parallelism is very common. Sometimes the whole song is based on it from beginning to end. Such, for example, is one of the Russian wedding songs depicting matchmaking: - Oh, you falcons, falcons, where did you fly in the evening? - Oh, we flew At the blue sea. - What did you see there? - Ah, we saw a gray duck, a gray duck in the backwater. - Oh, why didn’t you puff her, Siza plucked her feathers. - Oh, you, smart boyars, Where, boyars, did you go? - Oh, we went from city to city. We have already seen, we have seen Krasna the girl in the tower. Why didn't you take her? - Although we didn’t take it, we unraveled Rusa’s braid, Weaved out the Silk braid. Here, the relationship between a bird of prey - a falcon - and its victim - a duck - illuminates the relationship between the matchmakers - "boyars" and the girl they have chosen as a bride. The falcons “plucked out the feathers” of the duck, the matchmakers untwisted the girl’s braid - “they conspired to marry her.” Originating initially on the analogy of the life of nature and man, figurative parallelism then sometimes extends to objects made by man. For example: “Like a silver glass || She has a golden aureole, II Like Mikhail Ivanovich’s “He has a dear mind.” Having developed in oral folk art, this type of verbal and object depiction, as well as personification, was assimilated in historically later times and fiction. Here he stopped to be a traditional principle of figurative thinking, arising from a naive assimilation of a person to nature, but became a product of the personal creative imagination of the authors, a means of enhancing the emotional expressiveness of their artistic generalizations.Here is a poem by F. Sologub: May, Not seducing by Beauty, A gloomy St. amplification of emotional expressiveness.This is the "psychological" parallelism in "War and Peace" by L. Tolstoy. With a feeling of hopeless disappointment in life, Prince Andrei goes to the Rostov estate and on the way he sees a large oak tree with broken branches and bark. Oak looks like an old, gray-haired freak, as if despising "spring, love, happiness," and Prince Andrei mentally agrees with him. But at the Rostovs, Andrey met Natasha, was carried away by her, felt that an unexpected confusion of young thoughts and hopes arose in him, and on the way back, seeing the same oak, but already “transformed, spread out like a tent of juicy, dark greenery,” he experienced "an unreasonable spring feeling of joy and renewal." The parallelism between a sudden thunderstorm and Katerina's tragic expectation of retribution for her betrayal of her husband is the highly artistic culmination of A. Ostrovsky's Thunderstorm. Turgenev showed himself to be a fine master of figurative parallels between the characters and experiences of the characters and the nature around them in a number of stories, novels and novels (“Bezhin Meadow”, “Date”, “Calm”, “Faust”, “Rudin”, etc.). Much less widespread was the negative parallelism that arose on the basis of direct parallelism, which is found especially often in oral folk poetry. Slavic peoples. So, in a Russian song it is sung: It is not a falcon that flies through the skies, It is not a falcon that drops its gray wings, A good fellow gallops along the path, Bitter tears pour from clear eyes. Here, as in direct parallelism, a comparison is given of the phenomena of nature and human life - the falcon and the young man - according to the similarity of their action and state. The falcon flies, the fellow jumps; both are in trouble - the falcon drops feathers from its wings, the good fellow sheds tears. At the same time, both phenomena retain their independent significance and are not subordinate to one another. But the similarity between them and their actions is no longer their identity: their identity is negated with the help of the negative particle “not”. It seems that the falcon is flying and dropping feathers - no, this is a good fellow jumping and dropping tears. And the denial of the identity of phenomena is more important here than the assertion of their similarity. According to Veselovsky, “psychologically one can look at a negative formula as a way out of parallelism...” (36, 188). Therefore, negative parallelism cannot serve as an independent means of subject representation, the basis for constructing a whole work. It is usually used in the beginnings of works or their individual episodes. Negative figurative parallelism is so characteristic of oral folk poetry that it is used in fiction only when the poet imitates the style of folk art. So Pushkin begins the poem "Brothers-robbers": "Not a flock of ravens flocked || On piles of smoldering bones...”; Nekrasov - one of the episodes in the poem "Frost, Red Nose": "It is not the wind that rages over the forest, || Streams did not run from the mountains ... "; Yesenin - "Martha Posadnitsa": "Not the sister of the month from the dark swamp || She threw the kokoshnik into the sky in pearls ... ". So, along with personification, figurative parallelism, especially in its main - direct binomial - form, is a very common type of verbal-subject allegoricalness, which originated in ancient folk art, later used in fiction, primarily in lyrical literature.