When analyzing a work of art, such a term as "problematics" is often used. In a novel or story, the writer expresses his point of view. It is, of course, subjective, and therefore causes controversy among critics and readers. Problems are the central part of artistic content, a unique author's view of reality.
Theme
Problematics is the subjective side of the content. The topic is subjective. You can make a long list of books on a particular topic. For example, to name more than a dozen works dedicated to the conflict between generations. But you will not find a novel identical in ideology to Turgenev's Fathers and Sons.
Problematics is the writer's moral attitude to a particular subject. The number of topics that inspire prose writers to literary creativity is not so great. There are few major writers whose books deal with similar issues.
Author and Reader
"Problem" means "task" in Greek. This word is often found in various spheres of human activity. In literary creativity, the problematic is the task that the author sets. This is the question he asks in his work, and not to himself, but to the readers.
Anton Chekhov argued that two completely different phenomena should not be confused: the solution of a question and the formulation of a question. The writer must put the question correctly, and this is his main task. It is easy to identify the problems in such works as "Anna Karenina", "Eugene Onegin". They do not address copyright issues. But they are set correctly.
When reading "Anna Karenina" questions arise. Did the main character do the right thing by leaving her husband? Did Vronsky ruin his beloved, or did he, first of all, become a victim of his own passion? Both critics and readers answer these questions in different ways. But the problems of the novel primarily affect the features of the Russian noble society of the 19th century. The tragedy of Tolstoy's heroine is that in her environment, a decent form comes first, and only then feelings.
Types of problems
Literary scholars identify several types of this important aspect of artistic content. The study of the problems of the work began in the 19th century. But the first classifications appeared only in the 20th century. One of them belongs to the literary critic Bakhtin. He distinguished the problems by the author's approach to the image of a person.
Pospelov identified the following species:
- national-historical;
- mythological;
- descriptive;
- novel.
There are many more classifications of problems, and it makes no sense to give each of them. Thus, the modern researcher Yesin, in addition to mythological, identified such types as national, novel, sociocultural, philosophical. At the same time, some of them were divided into subtypes.
In order to understand what problems are, it is better to give examples from the literature. What is the problematic of the story "Taras Bulba"? It's easy to guess. After all, the author uses a national-historical type. But there are also novel aspects of the problem in Gogol's work.
In "Crime and Punishment" the author raised important philosophical and moral questions. He paid considerable attention to the role of faith in human life. Although Soviet critics did not see such an aspect of the problem in Dostoevsky's novel. Let's give a small analysis of the work.
Crime and Punishment
The problems of the novel are philosophical, moralistic, sociocultural. Where is the line between good and evil? Do they exist? These questions were put by the author to the readers. However, in the actions of the protagonist, no matter how cruel his act, it is difficult to identify these boundaries.
Another important issue in Crime and Punishment is the question of priorities. For Raskolnikov, at the beginning of the work, money comes first. He believes that only they will bring him closer to the goal, which, in turn, will be a boon for all that gray mass, about which hethinks with disdain. As you know, the ideas of the student are untenable.
There is a socio-cultural aspect in the artistic content of the novel. Dostoevsky portrayed Petersburg. But not that chic city, built as if for show. Events take place in poor areas, where it is very difficult for a person to maintain morality and faith in God.
