Institute of Scientific Information for Social Sciences
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
LITERATUROVEDCHESKII
ZHURNAL
The Journal of Literary History and Theory
Peer-reviewed Academic Journal

RUSSIAN FORMALISTS ABOUT THE STORY AND THE PLOT: THE IMAGINARY UNITY OF VISION

Efimenko A.E.

Aleksandr E. Efimenko, PhD in Philology, Lecturer of the Faculty of the Russian Language of the Institute of Foreign Languages of Lanzhou University, South Tianshui Road, 222, 730000, Lanzhou, China. ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1922-7833 ; E-mail: yalishanda1966@vk.com

Abstract

The article aims to debunk the myth of the unity of views of Russian formalists: Y.N. Tynyanov, V.B. Shklovsky, B.V. Tomashevsky, B.M. Eikhenbaum on the story and plot. It shows the importance of introducing the terms story and plot into literary criticism by formalists and briefly describes the concepts of story and plot proposed by them. There is the difference in the understanding of the units of the story and the plot, on the one hand, by V.B. Shklovsky and B.V. Tomashevsky, on the other by B.M. Eikhenbaum. The usual usage of the terms under study in most modern literary works is characterized as paradoxical and ultimately obscuring the essence of the matter. The article points out the main mistake of most formalists and their modern followers. The solution of the problem of narrative levels and their units proposed by the narratology of G. Genette and then V.I. Tyupa allows literary theory to adequately reflect the structure of the narrative. This solution was to a certain extent anticipated by Eikhenbaum in his works, which have not lost their significance up to now.

Keywords

story; plot; Russian formalists; story units; plot units; narrative levels.

Recieved

05.11.2023

Accepted

04.12.2023

For citation

Efimenko, A.E. “Russian Formalists about the Story and the Plot: the Imaginary Unity of Vision”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 1(63), 2024, pp. 152–168. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2024.63.08

DOI: 10.31249/litzhur/2024.63.08

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