Lecture
1. The writer's work on a piece. However beautiful, attractive, or timely
a writer's creative ideas may be, they will never become the property of the reader's attention unless the author
gives that idea proper shape, unless he sets to work – the work that gives the piece wings to fly.
One cannot be taught to be a «writer,» but one can learn to write verse, to write works according to
the rules and forms of genre.
Despite the contradictory nature and wide range of emotions in the process of writing a work,
the writer derives from such work unusual, extraordinary experiences, as a result of which
words, sentences, paragraphs, pages come into being. External and internal motivation are distinguished. To
external motivation belong factors connected with material reward for creative labor,
anticipated popularity, fame (public recognition), and career (public
self-affirmation). Internal motivations are considerably more complex, because they carry a psychological
subtext, arising now spontaneously, now purposefully, but always presupposing genuine creative
interest and emotional experience. The systematic nature of literary work is important, since
under such a condition a stable creative motivation arises; by working constantly, a writer will always be
closer to inspired moments of creation. It happens that a writer need only find a successful
title or set down the first phrase on paper – and the work will get going, turning into an exciting game or
a festive act. Happy accidents also occur in creative work, when even under unfavorable
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conditions a wonderful work appears. The process of creating an artistic text is the unveiling
of intense, sometimes rather prolonged, work of the writer's imagination, fantasy, and thought.
2. Criteria of artistic merit. Artistic refinement. Every era gives rise to its own great
writers, and later periods are not always artistically superior to preceding ones. Placing in a single row
such geniuses as Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Pushkin, Shevchenko — one cannot detect any chronologically
increasing superiority. And yet, if one casts a glance at the history of literature as a whole (or
at a national literature in particular), one can notice a constant renewal of themes and problems,
an improvement of generic forms and style, and of the devices of image-creation, explained by
the accumulation of literary experience, which becomes the basis for new artistic quests. It should
be kept in mind that every literary generation strives in its work to surpass its
predecessors: without repeating their achievements, the authors of a new generation, in their artistic quests,
build on previous achievements, though sometimes they also try to distance themselves from them,
declaring their own avant-gardism. In literary evolution everything is interconnected. Artistic
consciousness changes, is modified, and is transformed over historical time, and this is
the guarantee of the universal perfecting of literary creativity. Art and literature are inclined toward
forward movement. The improvements inherent in them, and the increasing complexity of figurative thought,
correlate with the process of enrichment of humanity's artistic consciousness. Artistic values have an
enduring character. Forms of figurative thought engendered by specific historical
circumstances cannot be repeated. Magnificent artistic images retain their value even after many
centuries. Masterpieces and images that at all times
express eternal human values will forever remain part of humanity's spiritual heritage.
3. Types of literary connections. Literature is not a mechanical combination of names and works, but a living
organism in which everything is interconnected. The most widespread type of literary connection, especially
between neighboring literatures, is influence and mutual influence, which constitute particular varieties
of literary reception. For example, various literary and cultural factors were significant for the emergence
of ancient Ukrainian literature — the traditions of antiquity, and elements of Bulgarian,
Serbian, and other Slavic literatures. T. Shevchenko's early poetry was influenced by folk
song lyrics, which became, above all, the artistic foundation of his subsequent work, and which had a powerful
influence on Ukrainian literature of the second half of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Ukrainian folk
tradition of creativity, through its themes, images, and artistic coloring, gave rise to certain works
by the Russian poet K. Ryleev and the prose of N. Gogol. One of the types of inter-literary connection is
borrowing – the transfer of elements of one artistic system into another (plot schemes,
characters, images, composition, artistic devices, and so on). These can occur at various
levels.
One can speak of allusion, reminiscence, quotation, and so forth.
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4. Paradoxes of literary existence. Literature, in its development, orienting itself toward present and
future generations, relies on the artistic heritage of the past — everything created in preceding
ages, artistic values of national and universal human significance. From this artistic
heritage a tradition is formed. At the same time, the artistic word seeks to open up new facets of
human existence, searching for other forms of its reflection, and perfects itself as an art. In
the course of this progress, there is a constant renewal of the artistic form and content of literature, which
secures for it the role of an aesthetic guide in society.
Tradition and innovation. In literature, tradition can be regarded as a memory living within
artistic works — in their themes, ideals, imagery, artistic means. This memory is not
absolute, but selective. Literature always preserves what is needed, what is relevant. With each new
era it turns to the past, rethinking previously created artistic forms and
adapting them to its own time. Tradition is therefore an actualized past and, at the same time, a mobilization of
past experience in the interests of the present. Tradition in literature is collective experience, a form of preserving,
transmitting, and inheriting artistic information. Traditions can be progressive or
conservative, can reflect either universal human interests or those of a narrow corporate minority,
can perfect the artistic reproduction of reality or mislead it. In a productive, fruitful
literary process, tradition is realized through creative reinterpretation. By relying on
tradition, a writer gains the ability to create qualitatively new artistic values. However, not everything
new in literature constitutes innovation.
Innovation in literature consists of substantial changes, expressed in the emergence of new artistic
means of depiction, the deepening and development of an artistic conception, and the creation of more effective forms
of aesthetic impact. In a broad sense, this is a renewal of literature manifested in
the formation of new means of depiction, the emergence of new stylistic and generic varieties, images,
and conceptions for making sense of life. Innovation can also concern individual aspects of literary
life – changes in genre formation, in imagery, in the formal devices of literature, and so on. The connection
between tradition and innovation is a necessary precondition for the development of the art of the word.
Self-check questions
1. What do you understand by the concept of the writer's work on a piece?
2. Can one learn to write literary works?
3. Name the criteria of artistic merit.
4. What types of literary connections do you know?
5. What are the paradoxes of the literary process?
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