Interpretation of literary

§6. Composition of the Text

The literary text is a complex whole, the elements constituting the text arc arranged according to a definite system and in a special succession. This kind of a complex organization of a literary production, its construction is called composition. Composition of the text is stipulated by its contents, it reflects the complexity of 1ife phenomena, depicted in the text, and the comprehension of life connections, as well as cause and effect relations, characteristic of the given writer.
Composition of a literary work depends on its plot. A plot is a plan of a literary composition reflecting its immediate content. It is a scheme of connected events comprising the main stages in the development of conflicts and revealing principal traits of people through their actions.
The plot as any relatively completed moment of a life process has a beginning, development and end. The point of departure for a plot organization is an exposition — an outline of the environment, circumstances and conditions of the described events. A certain kind of exposition introduces into the narrative additional information about the personages outside the immediate connection with the depicted events: some information about the things that preceded the depicted events, that took place between these events and, finally, that followed these events. In this respect the exposition can give substantial material for understanding the ideological essence, conceptual information of the text.
The author may give no exposition at the beginning, but hold it up until the initial conflict takes place as an explanation for the latter (retarded exposition); he can place it at the end (reverse exposition) etc
— all that depends on how he understands life in its development and how he wants to depict it.
The next important component that forms the framework of the plot is the initial collision. The initial collision represents an event that starts action and causes subsequent development of events.
The exposition doesn't engender action, it only creates a background for it, but the initial collision engenders action, thanks to it events begin concrete unfolding.
The initial collision ensures transition to the next stage—de- velopment of action. The author shows the course of events and their development which ensures from the main "jerk", from the initial collision. The development of events leads, finally, to the moment of great tension, to the decisive clash of interests, to the topmost point —to the culmination.
Culmination — the topmost point is a moment of decisive im- portance for the personages' destinies. The events following the culmination take the already settled course of development, while before the culmination the action could assume the most unexpected course of development. As a rule culmination represents a text span saturated with various stylistic devices, emotional and image language means. Very often it contains the most intensifying stylistic device—climax. That is quite justified, as culmination, representing the summit part of text composition, supplies the most important facts for deriving conceptual information. Here we come across all kinds of foregrounding and first of all convergence of stylistic devices.
For instance, it is very distinctly seen in E. Hemingway's novel "Farewell to Arms". The novel is widely known as an antiwar literary production, although love theme also gets a considerable development in it, especially in the last two parts. That's why we can point out two culmination peaks in it: retreat at Caporetto in the second part and Henry's fears during Catherine's labour in childbirth in the fifth part. Now we shall consider the second peak. 30
Against the background of the outwardly neutral narration about the developing events we suddenly come across an extract standing out in sharp contrast to the rest of the book by the style of its relation: "Poor, poor dear Cat. And this was the price you paid [or sleeping together. This was the end of the trap. This was what people got for loving each other. Thank God for gas, anyway. What must it have been like before there were anesthetics? Once it started, they were in the millrace. Catherine had a good time of pregnancy, ft wasn't bad. She was hardly ever sick. She was not awfully uncomfortable until towards the last. So now they got her in the end. You never got away with anything. Get away hell! It would have been the same if we had been married fifty times. And what if she should die? She won't die. People don't die in childbirth nowadays. That was what all husbands thought. Yes, but what if she should die? She won't die. She's just having a bad time. The initial labour is usually protracted. She's only having a bad time. Afterward
we'd say what a bad time and Catherine would say it wasn't really so bad. But what if she should die? She can't I tell you. Don't be a fool. It's just a bad time. It's just nature giving her hell. It's only the first labour which is almost always protracted. Yes, but what if she should die? She can't die. Why would she die?
What reason is there for her to die? There's just a child that has to be born, the by-product of good nights in Milan. It makes trouble and is born and then you look after it and get fond of it maybe. But what if she should die? She won't die. But what if she should die? She won't. She's all right. But what if she should die? Shi: can't die. But what if she should die? Hey, what about that? What if she should die?"
The cited extract reproducing the thoughts and feelings of the
personage is given in the form of represented speech imbued with language expressive means and stylistic devices. It conveys great emotional tension of the young man — love, alarm and deep concern for the beloved person, his foreboding of disaster. The language means realizing these feelings are repetitions, rhetorical questions, special constructions, interrogative sentences, gradation. The main device of foregrounding used here is a repetition-, the repetition of words, constructions, phrases, sentences. The phrase "but what if she should die?" repeated in this comparatively small extract ten times does not only convey the young man's despair, but also creates the impression of an obsessive thought, in this way predetermining the further development of the plot, predicting its deplorable outcome.
As a rule the culmination is followed by a denouement, i.e. the situation that is taking shape as a result of the development of the entire preceding action.
All basic elements of plot construction — exposition, initial collision, development of action (story), culmination, denouement, can be given in the most various forms. Sometimes separate links of the plot chain can be omitted. Many short stories begin immediately from the initial collision and contain no exposition. The reader himself conjectures it. The majority of E.Hemingway's stories can servo as examples.
A work of narrative prose that has al! traditional elements including the
end has a closed plot structure. This type of writing was most, broadly cultivated by such American short story writers as W.Irving, E. Poe, N. Hawthorn, Bret Hart, H.James, O. Henry and others.
A literary work in which the action is represented without an obvious culmination, which does not contain all the above mentioned elements
understood in their conventional sense is said to have an open plot structure.
Plot structure (whether it is open or closed) entirely depends on the content of the text. The text (a short story, for example) which gives the sequence of events, the dynamic development of action usually has a closed structure, forming an ascending line from the exposition on to the climax and down to the denouement. "Wild Flowers" by E.Caldwell may serve as an illustration. The text which describes the drama of a character's inner world (the so called "psychological or character" story) has an open plot structure. In such texts the traditional components of the plot are not easily discernible and the action is less dynamic. Little if anything happens in such stories. The plot, as such, is practically event- less, but it is only a surface layer and behind it we find the drama of a character's inner world. Many of E.Hemingway's stories are of this type ("Cat in the Rain", "In Another Country")-
So the plot structure of the text is not a formal factor. It is undoubtedly meaningful, being closely connected with the character of information in the text.