Prose has neither the rhythm of poetry nor the plot of the novel, and there is no dramatic personality conflict. In a word, prose does seem a bit too ordinary from form to content. However, people like reading poems, novels and plays ... just like appreciating prose! What is the charm of prose? What road should we take to seek seclusion and victory?
answer
Qiu shui Qing yun
1 1 vermicelli
Core member 7
Fourth Floor
First, the general law of prose appreciation
1. Empathy, getting better.
Literature reflects the characteristics of life with images, which can be strongly felt when we appreciate all excellent literary works. Once we really get into appreciation instead of "skimming flowers" or blindly looking for any concepts, what we get in our works should be a vivid representation of the artistic image created by the writer, and with this representation, we will naturally appreciate the significance of the writer immersed in the image. At this time, we suddenly feel that we are in another completely self-sufficient world-the artistic conception of literature and art.
Most successful literary works have artistic conception, which is determined by the image characteristics of literature. Prose also has the artistic conception of prose. Although it is not as vivid as poetry, it is more prominent than novels and plays. As a good prose connoisseur, you should be good at appreciating the artistic conception of prose beauty. How to appreciate? I think it is necessary to distinguish the similarities and differences between prose and poetry, so that it is possible to explore their artistic beauty in different ways.
Prose and poetry, like sisters, are closely related in one way or another, but there are great differences in the creation of artistic conception, that is, the realm of poetry is still empty and the realm of literature is realistic. The poetic realm emphasizes bold imagination and exaggeration, but it also allows fiction and generalization, and pursues the ethereal spirit of avoiding reality and emptiness, which often gives people the aesthetic feeling of "the moon in the water, flowers in the mirror"; On the other hand, the literary context is generally the opposite, emphasizing strict truth, not allowing exaggeration and fiction, and pursuing the real realm of avoiding emptiness, which often gives people a sense of beauty as if they heard its voice and were there.
The realm of poetry is still empty, and the realm of literature is realistic. This is the overall grasp, specifically, it is not always the case. It is precisely because the realm of poetry is still empty, so poetry appreciation needs imagination in particular. Imagination can turn what the poet virtually condenses into a real and rich picture of life, so as to appreciate the beauty of its artistic conception. It is precisely because the context is realistic that the appreciation of prose needs to be felt, and the real and concrete things in prose can be accurately and completely reproduced in front of us, so as to appreciate the beauty of its artistic conception. A person's prose appreciation level depends at least in part on his sensitivity to the artistic conception of prose.
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Qiu shui Qing yun
1 1 vermicelli
Core member 7
Sixth floor
Prose not only reflects life with images, but also pays attention to the detailed description of objective scenery, which makes the sensibility of prose images more prominent. What is sensibility? Refers to the reader's ability to comprehend the artistic image of prose; In other words, readers can easily reproduce all kinds of life pictures described by the author in their own minds, and get some satisfactory resonance aesthetic feeling. However, there are not many people who can really put themselves in the other's shoes. A person's sensibility to prose images is cultivated in long-term practice, or it is a kind of agility gained through repeated experience. The experience mentioned here should be a very rich concept, including life experience, artistic experience and knowledge accumulation. The combination of all aspects constitutes what we call sensitivity to artistic image.
Writing prose requires rich life experience, but is it also necessary to appreciate prose? Many young readers may not agree with this, and the view that prose can only be appreciated with a little book knowledge and artistic experience must be corrected. For example, a reader who has never experienced any white horror will always feel a sense of separation when he appreciates Ye Shengtao's In the Rain on May 31st. A reader who has experienced vagrancy will appreciate Hesse's Farmhouse, which is always more profound than the human body that has lived a normal life. Can a person who has never been on an airplane imagine the magnificent scenery depicted by Liu in Sunrise?
The artistic conception of all excellent prose is always profound and meaningful, and it is often difficult to find it at once. In addition to the corresponding life experience in the works, we have to rely on our own knowledge level and artistic accomplishment to keenly and seriously feel the image characteristics and details of the object. It's like visiting a garden in the south of the Yangtze River. The deeper you go, the more wonderful the scenery is, and it can give people a better and better feeling.
In this process of getting better and better, I think the role of empathy can not be ignored. Jiang Kui said: "There are no traces of 300 beautiful criticisms and grievances. We should understand each other with our hearts." (Poems by Taoist Baishi), that is, Mei said that "the author has his heart, and the viewer must take his meaning" ("Poems on June 1"). Although they all appreciate poetry, they are also connected with prose appreciation in this respect. This "heart-to-heart" and empathetic aesthetic should be said to be the most basic way for us to explore the beauty of prose.
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Qiu shui Qing yun
1 1 vermicelli
Core member 7
Seventh Floor
2. Seek the spirit by sound, and get the feeling by sound.
Qin Mu, a writer, once told a story that a famous actress in a certain country was reading aloud in the language of another country with a cookbook in her hand. She used the tone of her own tragedy, painful and desolate, bitter and intense, which actually made some people in the audience cry. A cookbook can't have any emotional content, let alone a foreign language, but it can make people cry. This story vividly shows that the sound of the language itself has an independent expressive function, and also tells us that when appreciating prose, we can't ignore the factors of sound sense.
Prose can be described as a romantic art. As we know, human emotions are intangible and abstract things, which must be expressed by language symbols. However, Chinese symbols themselves contain three aspects: tangible, audio and meaning, so there are various complicated relations in expression. We Chinese, as far as single words are concerned, although it is impossible to change them, because each word has form, sound and meaning, different combinations can of course show different feelings and produce different effects in form and sound. Therefore, when using language, writers should not only choose "meaning", but also choose "form" and "sound". "Shape" refers to the stroke structure in the text, and refers to the irregular and neat grammatical composition of the sentences in the text, and the latter is taken here. "Sound" refers to the pronunciation of words, and the emphasis here is on the musical sense of sentences. It is worth noting that choosing "shape" means choosing "sound", which is based on the change of "shape" and causes the change of "sound", and finally achieves better communication. "Form" itself cannot have independent meaning, and it can only convey feelings through "sound".
Prose writers rely on the complexity of sentences and the wonderful adjustment of voice level, which can make people feel that they have changed their voice perception when reading, and at the same time feel a sense of life. Anger can't exist out of thin air, and the sound rhythm of language is the symbol of the existence of literary spirit.
According to the author's feelings, as soon as the words were born, the voice and literary spirit came into being. For example, people talk only when they are interesting. If they want to speak, they should use language (words), with cadence and haste. The tone in the article is literary. This process is:
Emotion-speech-gas-sound
Liu Xizai said: "The author's emotion is innate, and so is the reader's emotion." ("Wen Jian") This shows that readers only want to confront the author when appreciating works, so the process of appreciating prose is:
Sound-qi-word-emotion
In other words, prose appreciation should pay special attention to grasping the breakthrough of sound sense. Starting from the sense of sound, seeking spirit with sound and getting feelings with sound.
Seeking God with sound and pleading with sound means reading according to the length of the article and the suppression of sound, understanding the author's literary spirit through reading, and understanding the author's emotions through the taste of literary spirit. Xia Zun and Ye Shengtao's words in the article also clearly pointed out: "Wen Qi is something you can't see or smell, and the only way to appreciate it seems to be to recite it with your mouth." Appreciating prose should not be like reading scientific papers, but should spend most of the time reading, so as to learn the mystery of words.
Prose reading naturally does not need to be as particular as poetry, as long as it conforms to the natural rhythm of prose, which has a lot to do with the free and easy writing of prose; But it is not blindly unorganized, long or short, row or flat, or inheritance or transfer. These have certain subtleties, which can often be sought through sound.
The reading of prose also needs long-term familiarity, and it is impossible to read the voice and feelings of the article only once or twice. Only after familiarity can we have a deep understanding of the content of the article, compete with each other and have appropriate priorities. My air is accommodating to the author, and all the water I swallow and spit is his, not mine. The syllables of the language rush in my throat and kiss together. They are superb and harmonious, and overflow from the sound and emotion together, which naturally makes the gold powerful.
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Qiu shui Qing yun
1 1 vermicelli
Core member 7
The eighth floor
Second, the two key points of prose appreciation
1. Seize the clue and follow the waves to find the source.
Prose is actually a style that is not easy to grasp. Those excellent prose writers at all times and all over the world seem to be magical riders, galloping freely and unrestrained. Their works are as vague as those popular on the water, with both natural beauty and elegant beauty. Liu Xizai called this "flying" and thought that "literature is like a clouded leopard, intangible and changeable"; It is also said that "the magic of literature lies in its ability to fly." Zhuangzi's words Peng Yue flew away in anger. Now look at his words. He came and went for no reason, and almost got a chance to fly "(Wen Jian). Prose, the "flying" art of "coming for no reason, leaving for no reason", must not be sloppy for the appreciator.
When appreciating prose, we can ignore ideological tendency and structural skills. The key is to read the article "where to fly" and how to fly. The story of this article is usually called a clue. If we grasp the clue of the author's writing, then we can follow the trend, trace the source, and follow the picture will be much easier. At this time, no matter how "hidden and endless changes" his articles are, readers can also control them, so as to follow the dead branches and make the program clear.
Clues are indispensable to prose. Because the more unrestrained the genre, the more clues are needed to maintain its artistic life and connect the pearls of life together. Prose is not only the art of flying, but also the clues of prose should be colorful and flexible. To sum up, there are three kinds-vertical, horizontal and vertical. Understanding these basic types of prose clues is very beneficial to prose appreciation.
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Qiu shui Qing yun
1 1 vermicelli
Core member 7
Ninth floor
The so-called vertical style is to deeply organize materials according to the process of the development of things themselves. The most common form is the second line of time, which is also often used in some narrative prose. Its characteristics are that the narrative begins and ends, the context is clearer, and it is easier for readers to grasp. There are lines with spatial transfer, which is another form of vertical clues. Prose describing landscapes mostly fall into this category. Because the object described in this kind of prose is a relatively static objective thing, it is required to structure the article in the order of observation. However, the bones of such articles are still inseparable from the factor of time. Vertical, and one is based on the plot. Although it is common in novels and plays, it is not uncommon in prose, especially in narrative prose.
The so-called horizontal style is to connect various unrelated "pictures" and "fragments" based on the internal ideological line or an external object, classify things according to their nature, and organize materials side by side. The specific application of horizontal style is different. Such as taking emotion as the line, reason as the line, and things as the line. , is the most commonly used form in horizontal style, and it can also best express the stylistic characteristics of prose. Taking emotion as the line is more common in lyric prose. Jing Shangjing's "Spring Comes" runs through the whole story with the psychology of expecting spring, which condenses astronomy, geography, customs and scenery on this emotional tone. Taking meaningful emotion as the line is the result of in-depth work, which is not only widely used in lyric prose, but also often encountered in some sentimental narrative prose. Zhu Ziqing's "To My Dead Wife" is a sincere and mellow emotional clue to love and praise his wife, which sticks together some fragments of daily chores, miscellaneous but not excessive, and sees the whole in scattered. Taking facts as the line is a horizontal style that pays more attention to internal logic, which is more common in perceptual discussion prose. Its writing clue is often a viewpoint extracted by the author from his own feelings and thinking about things, and other materials are also developed accordingly. Such as Qin Mu's fairy tales of elephants and ants. In some lyric sketches, express your own feelings, express your feelings in the scenery, and like to use something as a clue. There are two other situations. One is that "things" focus on appearing as clues, such as Qin Mu's "Land"; The other is not only a clue, but also a sustenance point of the author's thoughts and feelings, which often has some symbolic significance, such as The Nightingale written by Spanish writer masters.
Comparatively speaking, although there are various differences in longitudinal clues, they always conform to the natural order or process of things' occurrence and development, and also conform to the general law that people gradually realize. There are some philosophical abstractions in the horizontal clues, and there are some jumps in the writing, because the clues are connected by some irrelevant materials. In this way, the distance between the creator and the viewer is opened in form, which makes it difficult for the viewer to understand. But the big hand is especially good at dealing with the contradiction between the appreciator and the appreciator, and is good at breaking away (breaking off) and connecting (continuing). Good judgment and good continuity can dialectically unify judgment and dark continuity.
The so-called vertical and horizontal intersection is just a comprehensive application of the above two methods. This situation is quite common in some travel notes. If the travel notes only use a vertical line, the article is likely to be scribbled like a running account, so a horizontal clue is often added to the clues of the travel notes. Of course, this way of clues is sometimes encountered in general narrative prose. For example, Cao Jinghua's Memories of Millet not only unfolds memories in chronological order, but also connects them with the horizontal clue "Millet".
The world itself is a huge and complex machine composed of countless objects, and there are various connections among internal factors. I think these connections can definitely find out various life clues. Similarly, a person who can't figure out the clues of life must have a superficial and one-sided understanding of society. But the types of clues are rich and colorful, and the latitude and longitude of life are complicated. So is the art of clues reflected in prose? Of course, the above is only a rough overview, but no matter how it changes, it can't go beyond the three types of vertical, horizontal and vertical intersection, and it is difficult to count how to deduce it.
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Qiu shui Qing yun
1 1 vermicelli
Core member 7
10 building
2. Look at the overall situation and explore the theme.
Theme, also known as center, is the author's attitude and viewpoint towards various phenomena in human society in his prose, and it is the soul of an essay. Appreciating prose explores the "soul"-the theme of prose, which is equivalent to grasping the essence of prose works. It is also an important and decisive step in prose appreciation.
It is not difficult to discuss the theme of prose, but it is not easy to tell its theme accurately in a few words, which is the common experience of ordinary people. Some people appreciate prose and often like to judge the theme of the work by a little intuition, which will surprise the author himself and often lead to bias.
There are also various ways and methods to explore the theme of prose, including:
First of all, explore the theme from the writing background of the work.
The expression of the theme can not be separated from certain writing background and the constraints of the author's world outlook. It is an important way for us to explore the theme of prose to try to find out what kind of mood, background and social environment the author wrote. For example, Mao Dun's Landscape Talk is regarded by most people as "praising the great and lofty revolutionary spirit of the soldiers and civilians in the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia revolutionary base under the leadership of China at that time", but how is this theme reflected? Because from beginning to end, the whole text is praising the special "scenery" belonging to the "second nature", and even the words "Yan 'an", "revolutionary base" and "* * *" can't be found, how can we praise China at that time? It seems natural to turn to the writing background of this article.
Second, explore the theme from the "literary eye" of the work.
The literary eye refers to those words that are particularly refined in warning strategy, and it is the "eye" carefully placed by the author, that is, the connection point of prose theme. This finishing touch is a direct way for us to explore the theme of prose. Liu Xizai said in "Introduction to Literature": "Yu Shuo's eyes are gathered by divine light, so there are perfect eyes and several sentences, all of which need to be reflected." The so-called "divine light" is the theme of prose; The so-called "reflection" refers to the leading role of the theme in prose. For example, in Liu Zongyuan's Snake Catcher, "tyranny is fiercer than tiger", and in Du Mu's A Fu, "later generations mourn for it but don't learn, which also makes later generations mourn for it"; "Beethoven's music is the music that wakes you up, but when you want to be alone for a while, you are afraid to listen to his music" in Bernard Shaw's "Beethoven Centennial Festival" ... are all places where "divine light" flashes, through which we can glimpse the mystery of the literary mind.
Third, mine the theme from the key paragraphs of the work.
Of course, the theme of prose should be expressed through every paragraph of the work, but it is by no means evenly distributed in every paragraph; Of course, each paragraph should also serve the theme, but the specific tasks undertaken are not exactly the same. Or describe a specific part, or describe the process of an event, or connect the preceding with the following in structure to show the transition. It can be said that most paragraphs of a short passage are not directly related to the theme, and some even have nothing to do with the theme for structural reasons. The theme of an article is often expressed through one or two key paragraphs in the work. It seems to be the "power point" to support an essay, and it is a place that we must not ignore when discussing the theme.
Fourthly, explore the theme from the internal relationship of the works.
Most of the prose, on the surface, is really "scattered", but it is marked internally. It is also an effective method to follow the rules, grasp the context of writing and analyze the theme in the internal relationship of the works.
Fifth, explore the theme from the overall tendency of the work.
One of the most common problems in discussing the theme of prose is that it does not focus on the overall situation of the work and does not consider the general trend of all themes, but summarizes the theme from a certain section and part in isolation, which must be overcome. Compared with other literary styles, the theme of prose is not expressed through a complete plot, nor through one or two typical characters, but often through some fact fragments, vivid scenes and the author's feelings. Therefore, it is more important to discuss the theme from the overall tendency.
answer
Qiu shui Qing yun
1 1 vermicelli
Core member 7
1 1 building
Three, two difficulties in prose appreciation
1. Analyze the structure and pay close attention to it.
Structure is the organizing rule of prose, including all articles. People often compare the theme to the soul of the article and the material to the flesh and blood of the article, so the structure is the skeleton of the article. The content of prose must be fixed and displayed through structure, which is the formal embodiment of the ideological content of the work. Appreciating prose and analyzing its structure are like dissecting the human body of prose, which is of great significance for us to understand the internal composition and connection of prose, go deep into the skeleton of prose and pay attention to the mystery of prose. However, the analysis of prose structure has always been a difficult point, which requires the appreciator to have a good artistic accomplishment of prose.
5 Prose appreciation methods
Generally speaking, the analysis of prose structure can start from the following three aspects:
The first is to analyze which parts the structure consists of, that is, to segment the prose.
As far as the external structure of prose is concerned, it includes sentences, natural paragraphs and parts. The first two are for the need of written expression, and play the role of pause and intermission. They all belong to the formal units of nature and have obvious external signs, which are easy to master. Part of it is the paragraphs that the author focuses on a certain aspect of the content in order to highlight the theme. A short essay always consists of several meaningful paragraphs, and a meaningful paragraph is also a part, usually including several natural paragraphs, and sometimes it may be consistent with natural paragraphs. The so-called segmentation here is to analyze that a short article is composed of several meaningful paragraphs, so as to understand the characteristics of its structure in opening and closing, intermission, cadence and so on.
Some meaningful paragraphs in prose are marked with subheadings, blank lines or "one, two, three" numbers, which is easier to handle. There are also some short articles that are implied by related words, sentences and transitional paragraphs. And it is not difficult to distinguish when reading. For those text structures that have neither symptoms nor hints, we need to make a careful and concrete analysis. But in any case, the paragraphs in the sense are always relatively independent, or at the same time, or in the same place, or of the same nature, as long as those natural paragraphs that are closely related in content are divided together.
The second is to analyze the relationship between paragraphs to see how complete, rigorous and natural it is.
The so-called wholeness means that the prose structure has a head and a tail, a middle part, and some parts are organically connected with the whole. The so-called rigor means that all parts of the prose are arranged so properly and compactly that there can be no additions or deletions, and any movement or deletion will make the overall framework out of touch; The so-called nature means that the prose structure should be as natural as life, without the trace of axe chisel. "When you do what you do, you should stop here" (Su Shi's words).
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Qiu shui Qing yun
1 1 vermicelli
Core member 7
/kloc-building 0/2
The third is to analyze the local characteristics of the structure and study the beginning, end and transition in depth.
Analyzing the structure of prose, from a big perspective, is nothing more than two ways: from the whole to the part, or from the part to the whole. What kind of structure can't be recognized by us through two rounds from outside to inside and from inside to outside? The relationship between segments is also good, which is the focus from the whole to the part. Here, the analysis of the local characteristics of the structure focuses on the whole from the local. It's like looking at a building, not only to see its overall shape, but also to go in and have a look at all the aisles, rooms and spiral ladders to know what its characteristics are.
Analyzing the local characteristics of the structure further requires starting from the local and mastering the methods and skills of arranging all parts of the work as a whole. For example, where does the author use direct narration, flashback and interpolation narration in narrative methods? How does the author arrange the rhythm of the waves? Did you use foreshadowing and suspense? What are the characteristics especially in the key parts of the beginning, the end and the transition? Wait a minute. In order to understand them, it is necessary to carefully investigate and study every tiny part of prose.
2. Identify practices and observe them thoroughly.
Although people are debating whether there are techniques in prose creation, it is also confusing, but objectively speaking, all excellent prose works should be a harmonious unity of "with techniques" and "without techniques" It is said to be "technical" because it is impossible for any accomplished prose writer to vent his feelings at will, and it is impossible to drive away from language, control materials, imagine, process and combine. It is called "no skills" because some excellent prose writers skillfully use various skills to seamlessly integrate skills with content, so that you can't seem to say what skills you have.
This creative realm of "taking the impossible as the law" (Xu Zengyu) of prose is indeed a very arduous task for prose connoisseurs. Appreciating prose, without distinguishing its method, can only get its fur, and can only stay at the text level for some superficial appreciation. If technology is a layman to you, the structure is more subtle and mysterious to you, so at most you know that you are doing well and can't speak.
There is a saying to describe juggling: "You can watch the doorway, but you can't watch the excitement." It is very appropriate to use it to illustrate the level of prose appreciation. From the appreciation of words to the appreciation of content forms, that is, from "watching the excitement" to "watching the doorway", it is a "watershed" to measure the ability of a prose connoisseur. However, if you want to know the "doorway" and distinguish the subtleties, you must have a certain understanding of the techniques of prose. Gorky said: "You must know the creative skills. Knowing the skills of a job means knowing the job itself ","Skills are a basic force for cultural growth and a leading force in the whole process of culture "(Gorky's series on poets). What he called "cultural growth" naturally includes prose appreciation.
answer
Qiu shui Qing yun
1 1 vermicelli
Core member 7
/kloc-building 0/3
The techniques of prose can't be counted for a while. They are summed up by literary theorists of past dynasties according to their long-term prose creation practice. Some are named after idioms and allusions, such as "killing two birds with one stone" and "taking a salary at the bottom of the pot"; There are also some famous sayings in life, such as "colored thread pierces beads", "winding path leads to seclusion" and "step-changing deformation". Others use military, music, painting and other terms to describe the situation, such as "playing hard to get", "lingering sound around the beam", "holding the moon in the cloud" and "breaking the peak in the cloud", which are interesting enough in name and contain their own rich contents. Therefore, it is an essential step to recognize practice and observe deeply.