At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the collapse of feudalism was obvious. French bourgeois revolution, which promised that the world would be ruled by Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood, led to the victory of the bourgeois system, but very soon it became clear that this system could not ensure universal happiness.
Not having the strength to do one
Happy, they neglected him
And they began to seek happiness for everyone
(J. Leopardi)
It turned out that the French revolution turned people "deprived of bread into people who were also deprived of morality."
The 19th century was rich in revolutions and coups. Besides french revolution, in 1848-1849. there are revolutions in Europe, at the turn of 1850-1860. a revolutionary situation arises in Russia, the United States is shaking Civil War 1861-1865
In the advanced states of Europe and the United States continues industrial revolution (railways, steamships, telegraph appear). However, many technical inventions designed to improve life only highlight the imperfection of the world.
Capitalism has eliminated social injustice (anyone can become rich, and therefore noble), but gave rise to many other injustices... A generation comes to power that does not know what morality is. Money becomes their golden dream, and money and morality turn out to be incompatible. This led to the fact that the heroes of almost all works are people deeply immoral (Georges Duroy, Gobsek, Zaches, Claude Frollo).
The contradictions of life are naturally transferred to literature. Central to the artistic trends of the era is the question not only of how a person can survive in this world, but also of how how to actively participate in the historical process, how to influence it, that is, to be a person "a hammer or a hard place" (Goethe).
The literary process of the first half of the 19th century is very peculiar in comparison with previous eras. The speed of development of literature is increasing... New artistic directions arise and are formed into integral systems very quickly (it takes not centuries, but decades). Moreover, the emergence of a new method does not at all mean a complete denial of the old one. Therefore, the coexistence of polar opposite directions in art becomes a characteristic feature of the era:
1) romanticism (the desire to leave for another, ideal world);
2) realism (an attempt to analyze and then change this world).
Romanticism
Romanticism is an artistic movement that originated in Germany, which cultivates a person, her subjective experiences, her rich inner world.
In the 18th century, this term had a different meaning: everything that was fantastic, unusual, strange, found more often in books than in reality was called romantic. At the turn of the 18-19 centuries. this word was used to denote a new artistic direction, opposite to classicism.
The social basis of romanticism becomes disappointment in their era, in a new society, with which great hopes were pinned, since this society was predicted by the great minds of Europe. The romantics believed that it fell to them to live under an inglorious star, when Europe suffers from revolutions, when all the best human impulses are vulgarized. Such disappointment was inevitably accompanied by a mood of hopelessness, despair, “world sorrow is the“ disease of the century ”Alfred de Musset wrote in his novel“ Confession of the Son of the Century ”:“ Hopelessness walked on the earth, and the sons of the century, full of strength, no longer needed by anyone, put down their idle hands and drank this poisoned drink from a meager bowl. The disease of our century comes from two reasons, the people bear two wounds in their hearts. Everything that was has already passed. All that will be has not yet come. " Pushkin said that the misfortune of everything romantic was the premature passion of the soul: “No: early feelings in him cooled down” (Eugene Onegin).
A person turns out to be dropped out of social relations and, as a result, an illusion of the individual's freedom from life circumstances arises, a myth is created that one person can transform the world (the personality of Napoleon).
Dissatisfaction with modern reality leads to the emergence of a double world (the real world and the ideal world, the dream world). Romantics pay great attention to childhood. Childhood was interpreted as an ideal world, a world of harmony, whose depth and charm attracts adults. "Adulthood" is a time that has lost the spontaneity and purity of childhood.
Romanticism rejected one of the basic principles of educational literature - "imitation of nature." Romantics believed that the author should be absolutely free, he should create only according to his own laws. Oscar Wilde wrote: "Do not ascribe unhealthy tendencies to the artist, he is allowed to portray everything."
The era of romanticism is characterized by the renewal of art forms and the entire system of literary genres, a stage reform is taking place (the fusion of lyrics and drama). New, transitional genres (lyric-epic and lyric-epic-dramatic) were created, a romantic poem (symbolic, moral, folklore) was created anew, romantic drama turned to the traditions of Shakespeare and Calderon, “dramatic poems” (Byron, Shelley) appeared. Lyrics reach an extraordinary flowering (words are associative, polysemantic, metaphorical). Theorists of romanticism preached the openness of literary genres and genres, the synthesis of art, religion and philosophy, emphasized the musical and pictorial principles in poetry. The most popular of the lyrical genres is ballad, prose is dominated by poetic forms - fairy tale, lyrical story.
The prose of romanticism developed in many genre directions. Romanticism used both the classic novella, and the chivalrous novel ("The Count of Monte Cristo" by Dumas the father), and elements of the rogue novel, and the oriental rococo tale. In 30-40 years. develops a romantic social romance (J. Sand, E. Xue, V. Hugo), appears fantastic story... The historical novel that existed in the previous period was radically revised and became one of the central genres.
Realism
Realism (from Lat. Realis - material, real) is an artistic method that assumes a truthful and objective depiction of reality in artistic images.
In the mainstream of realism, the work of most writers of the 19th century developed, and although the realist writers of the first half of the 19th century did not rank themselves as one direction, this did not mean that such a direction did not exist. In 10-20 years. it was already ripening in the depths of romanticism, in the 30-40s. declared itself in different European countries as a noticeable phenomenon. By the 40s. realism is already an independent and significant trend in European literature.
Realists sought to penetrate the essence of social processes, they wanted not only to discover new worldbut also explore its laws and connections. For realists, a person was interesting both as a unique person, and as a typical phenomenon, and as a historical person - not in the sense that he played any important role in history, but in the fact that he belonged to history without realizing it.
By the end of the 19th century, Russian literature is gaining worldwide fame and recognition. According to the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, they see it as a prophecy "about a new man and his birth from the womb of the Russian soul." The secret of the success of the Russian classics lies in the fact that it overcomes the limited horizons of Western European humanism, in which, starting from the Renaissance, man recognized himself as the crown of nature and the purpose of creation, having appropriated divine functions. At an early stage, humanistic consciousness played its progressive role. It contributed to the emancipation of the creative forces of the human person and gave birth to the "titans of the Renaissance". But gradually revivalist humanism began to reveal a significant flaw. The deification of the free human personality led to the triumph of individualism. Not only creative, but also destructive instincts of human nature were liberated. "People committed the most savage crimes and did not repent of them in any way and they did so because the last criterion for human behavior was considered at that time the person who felt herself in isolation", - noted the famous Russian scientist A. F. Losev in his work "Aesthetics of the Renaissance".
Russian classical literature affirmed in the European consciousness the idea of \u200b\u200ba new man and a new humanity. A. N. Ostrovsky, at the dawn of the 60s, noted the most significant feature of Russian artistic consciousness: "... In foreign literatures (as it seems to us), works that legitimize the originality of the type, that is, the personality, are always in the foreground, and the punishing personality is in the background and often in the shadows, while in Russia it is the opposite. Distinctive feature the Russian people, aversion from everything sharply defined, from everything special, personal, selfishly rejected from the common mankind, puts a special character on art too; let us call it an accusatory character. The more elegant the work, the more popular it is, the more of this accusatory element in it. "
Personal life, isolated from the life of the people, from the point of view of the Russian writer, is extremely limited and meager. “To be a soldier, just a soldier,” decides Pierre Bezukhov, feeling in his soul the “latent warmth of patriotism,” which unites the Russian people in a moment of tragic ordeal and merges drops of human individuality into a living, acting collective, into a spiritualized whole that enlarges and strengthens everyone, who is attached to it.
And vice versa. Any desire to isolate oneself from the life of the people, any attempts at individualistic self-restraint are perceived by the Russian writer as dramatic, threatening the human personality with internal decay. Dostoevsky shows what a catastrophe a fanatical concentration on an idea that is far from popular moral ideals and hostile to them turns out to be a catastrophe for a person. We see how Raskolnikov's soul is becoming scarce, more and more withdrawn into itself, into the narrow limits of its ideological "arithmetic", how life-giving connections with people around are lost one after another, how the main core of human community - family feelings - is destroyed in the hero's consciousness. For Raskolnikov his own soul, similar to a tomb, becomes a "prison" and a "coffin". It is not for nothing that a parallel arises in the novel with the death and resurrection of the gospel Lazarus from Bethany. Only Sonechka Marmeladova's selfless love breaks a hole in the shell of Raskolnikov's loneliness, resurrects his dying "I" to a new life, to a new birth.
Thus, the understanding of personality in Russian classical literature is the second half of XIX century went beyond the limited bourgeois ideas about the value of the individual. Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment refuted the arithmetically one-line alternative proclaimed in the middle of the 19th century by the German philosopher Max Stirner: "To win or to submit - these are the two conceivable outcomes of the struggle. The winner becomes the master, and the loser turns into a subject; the former realizes the idea of \u200b\u200bmajesty and" law of sovereignty ", and the second respectfully and loyally fulfills" the duties of citizenship. "Passing through the temptation of individualistic willfulness, Dostoevsky's heroes come to the discovery that" the unauthorized, completely conscious and uncompelled self-sacrifice of all of oneself in favor of all is ... , its highest power, the highest self-control, the highest freedom of its own will "(Dostoevsky F.M." Winter Notes on Summer Impressions "). which people the venerable personality is almost completely dissolved. Poeticization of patriarchal forms of community is found in Goncharov's "Oblomov" and "Break", in Tolstoy's in "Cossacks" and "War and Peace", in Dostoevsky's finale of "Crime and Punishment". But this poeticization did not exclude a critical attitude to patriarchy on the part of all Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century. They were inspired by the ideal of the "third way", which removes the contradictions between the elementary patriarchal community and egoistic isolation, where a highly developed personality remained on his own. Goncharov's artistic thought in Oblomov equally acutely senses the limitations of Oblomov's and Stoltsev's existence and strives for harmony that overcomes the extremes of two opposite lifestyles. Poetising the "world" of the Cossack community with its natural rhythms in the story "Cossacks", Tolstoy recognizes for Olenin, and then, in the epilogue of "War and Peace", and for Pierre Bezukhov, the high truth of moral searches, reflections on the meaning of life, on the human soul, characteristic of a developed intellect. The depiction of human destiny in dialectical unity with the destiny of the people has never turned into a belittling of the personal principle in Russian literature, a cult of the small in man. On the contrary. It is at the highest stage of their spiritual development that the heroes of War and Peace come to the truth of life in peace. Russian literature was very distrustful of a person of "caste", "class", one or another social shell. The persistent desire to recreate a complete picture of the hero's connections with the world, of course, forced the writers to show the life of a person in a small circle of his contacts, in the warm bonds of family kinship, friendly brotherhood, and class environment. The Russian writer was very sensitive to spiritual orphanhood, and to the so-called "false community" - to the official, formal association of people, to the crowd seized by destructive instincts - he was irreconcilable. Tolstoy's "latent warmth of patriotism", which rallied a group of soldiers and commanders on the Raevsky battery, also retains that sense of "nepotism" that the Rostovs sacredly kept in their peaceful life. But the countdown began with a small one. Poetising "family thought", the Russian writer went further: "kinship", "sonship", "fatherhood" in his ideas expanded, from the original cells of human community grew collective worlds, embracing the people, nation, humanity.
The peasant family in Nekrasov's poem "Frost, Red Nose" is a particle of the all-Russian world: the thought of Daria turns into the thought of a stately Slav, the deceased Proclus is like the Russian hero Mikul Selyaninovich. And the event that happened in a peasant family - the death of a breadwinner - as in a drop of water reflects not even centuries-old, but millennial troubles of Russian mothers, wives and brides. Life, centuries-old history, appears through peasant life. The elements of life are interpenetrated, "everything is like an ocean, everything flows and touches," says Dostoevsky through the mouth of Elder Zosima, "if you touch it in one place, it is given away at the other end of the world." The French critic Melchior de Vogue, for example, wrote about Tolstoy: “... we want the novelist to make a selection so that he would single out a person or fact from the chaos of beings and things and study his chosen subject in isolation from others. And the Russian, seized by a sense of interdependence phenomena, does not dare to break the innumerable threads connecting a person, an act, a thought - with the general course of the universe; he never forgets that everything is conditioned by everything. "
The breadth of the Russian hero's connections with the world went beyond the narrowly understood time and space. The world was perceived not as a self-sufficient life of the present day cut off from the past, but as a passing moment, burdened with the past and directed into the future. Hence - Turgenev's idea of \u200b\u200bthe power of the past over the present in the "Noble Nest", "Fathers and Children", as well as the often repeated motive of the silent participation of the dead in the affairs of the living. Hence, the appeal to cultural and historical experience in illuminating the character of a literary hero. Oblomov's type, for example, is rooted in the mists of time. This nobleman, whose Oblomov laziness was generated by the services of three hundred Zakhars, by some of his character traits is associated with the epic hero Ilya Muromets, with the wise fabulous simpleton Emelya, and at the same time he has something of Hamlet and the sadly funny Don Quixote. Dostoevsky's heroes also retain tense ties with world spiritual experience: the shadows of Napoleon and the Messiah hover over the image of Raskolnikov, the face of Christ is guessed behind the figure of Prince Myshkin.
Russian realism of the middle of the 19th century, without losing its social acuteness, comes to philosophical questions, raises the eternal problems of human existence. Saltykov-Shchedrin, for example, defined the pathos of Dostoevsky's work: “By the depth of his conception, by the breadth of the tasks of the moral world, developed by him, this writer ... not only recognizes the legitimacy of those interests that excite modern society, but even goes further, enters into the area of \u200b\u200bpredictions and presentiments, which constitute the goal not of immediate, but of the most distant searches of mankind.Let us point out at least the attempt to depict the type of person who has achieved complete moral and spiritual balance, which is the basis of the novel "The Idiot" - and, of course, this will be enough to agree that this is such a task, before which all sorts of questions about women's labor, about the distribution of values, about freedom of thought, etc., pale in front of it. This is, so to speak, the ultimate goal, in view of which even the most radical solutions of all other issues of interest to society seem only intermediate stations. "
The search by Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century for "world harmony" led to an irreconcilable collision with the imperfection of the surrounding reality, and this imperfection was realized not only in social relations between people, but also in the disharmony of human nature itself, which clothe each individually unique phenomenon, each personality with an inexorable death. Dostoevsky argued that "man on earth is only a developing being, therefore, not finished, but transitional."
The heroes of Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy were acutely worried about these questions. Pierre Bezukhov says that life can have meaning only if this meaning is not denied, is not extinguished by death: "If I see, I clearly see this staircase that leads from plant to man ... why should I assume that this the staircase ... is interrupted by me, and does not lead further and further to higher beings. I feel that I not only cannot disappear, as nothing disappears in the world, but that I will always be and always have been. "
“Hate!” Exclaims Yevgeny Bazarov. “Yes, for example, you said today, passing by the hut of our head Philip, - she is so nice, white, - now, you said, Russia will then reach perfection when the last man has the same premises, and each of us should contribute to this ... And I also hated this last man, Philip or Sidor, for whom I have to get out of my skin and who will not even thank me ... and why would I thank him? , he will live in a white hut, and a burdock will grow out of me; well, and then? "
The question of the meaning of human existence is posed here with the utmost acuteness: we are talking about the tragic essence of the human idea of \u200b\u200bprogress, about the price at which it pays off. Who will justify the countless sacrifices that faith in the good of future generations demands? And will future generations be able to bloom and bliss, consigning to oblivion the price at which their material well-being was achieved? Bazarov's doubts contain problems over which Dostoevsky's heroes from Raskolnikov to Ivan Karamazov will fight. And the ideal of "world harmony" to which Dostoevsky is heading includes not only the idea of \u200b\u200bsocialist brotherhood, but also the hope for the rebirth of human nature itself, right up to hopes for future eternal life and universal resurrection.
The Russian hero often neglects personal goods and comforts, is ashamed of his well-being if it suddenly comes to him, and prefers self-restraint and inner restraint. So his personality responds to an acute awareness of the imperfection of social relations between people, the imperfection of human nature, the fundamental foundations of being. He denies the possibility of happiness bought at the price of oblivion of past generations, oblivion of fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, he considers such self-satisfied happiness unworthy of a sensitive, conscientious person.
Russian classical literature felt anxiety for the fate of mankind at that stage of its history, when, in violation of great religious truths, a fanatical belief in science, in its absolute impeccability, arose, when it seemed to radical thinkers of the revolutionary enlightenment that it was possible to eliminate the social imperfection. By all means our classical literature strove to contain this unbridled, unbridled impulse. Let us recall Platon Karataev with Tolstoy, Sonechka Marmeladova, Alyosha Karamazov and Elder Zosima with Dostoevsky. Let us recall the wary attitude of Russian writers to an active person. Was it not a presentiment of the danger of a self-deified human mind that forced Goncharov to stigmatize Stolz and put the "lazy" Oblomov on a pedestal?
Turgenev in his Bazarov, Dostoevsky in his Raskolnikov, Tolstoy in Napoleon, is it not for this reason that they focused their attention on the tragedy of a bold innovator, a reckless radical who is capable of chopping down the living tree of national culture, breaking the link of times? And even Saltykov-Shchedrin, in the finale of The History of a City, warned through the autocrat Gloom-Burcheev: “Someone will come who will be more terrible than me!” And in the 90s Chekhov never tired of warning the Russian intelligentsia: "Nobody knows the real truth."
But the active century of wars, revolutions and global social upheavals turned out to be not very sensitive to the warnings of Russian classical literature. Russia was destined to go through the stage of deification of finite human truths, through a faith that is noble in its intentions, but terribly bloody in execution, in a revolutionary-transforming mind capable of creating a paradise on a sinful earth.
The classics lessons were completely forgotten. The intense spiritual labor of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky was contemptuously branded as "foolishness in Christ" or as reactionary "Dostoevism." But it was Dostoevsky, in the finale of Crime and Punishment, in Raskolnikov's prophetic dream, who foresaw the impending crisis of revival humanism, the crisis of European civilization, which deified itself at the end of the 19th century, decided to take "all the capital" at once and did not want to "wait for favors from nature ".
V.S.Soloviev articles dedicated to the memory of Dostoevsky, formulated the truths to the discovery of which came together with the creator of "Crime and Punishment" Russian classical literature. She showed first of all that "individuals, even the best people, do not have the right to rape society in the name of their personal superiority." She also showed that "public truth is not invented by individual minds, but is rooted in popular feelings."
The deepest nationality of Russian classical literature was also in a special view of the life of the people, in its special relation to popular thought. Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century, speaking out against the self-deification of the masses. They distinguished the people as an integral unity of people, spiritualized high society simplicity, goodness and truth, from the human crowd, seized by the mood of group egoism. This confrontation between the people and the crowd was especially clearly shown by Tolstoy in his epic novel War and Peace.
The lessons of Russian classical literature have not yet been mastered and not even fully understood, we are just making our way to their comprehension, passing through the bitter experience of historical upheavals of the 20th century. And in this sense, Russian classics are still ahead, not behind us.
The flourishing of Russian classics in the 19th century. many foreign researchers call the "golden age", a kind of Renaissance, the last and "the greatest of all, even in comparison with the Italian, German and French Renaissance" (J. McCale). Another English critic, M. Murray, also remarked: "The powerful inspiration, which so strangely and majestically came from the old poets of the English Renaissance, reappears in modern Russian novels."
At present, the fact of the universal significance of Russian literature is not only generally recognized, but is an object of close study by both domestic and foreign researchers. And many critics in various countries, analyzing certain phenomena of modern literary reality, invariably turn to the works of Russian classics as unattainable standards in the artistic sphere.
We find a remarkable assessment of the high achievements of Russian classical literature in M. Gorky. “Our literature is our pride, the best that we have created as a nation,” he declared. The same thought about the remarkable flourishing of Russian literature and Russian art of the 19th century. Gorky develops in the following words: “The giant Pushkin is our greatest pride and the most complete expression of the spiritual forces of Russia, and next to him is the magical Glinka and the beautiful Bryullov, Gogol, merciless to himself and to people, Lermontov, sad Turgenev, angry Nekrasov, the great rebel Tolstoy ; Kramskoy, Repin, the inimitable Mussorgsky ... Dostoevsky and, finally, the great lyricist Tchaikovsky and the sorcerer of the language Ostrovsky, unlike each other, as it can only be here in Russia ... All this grandiose was created by Russia in less than a hundred years. Joyfully, to insane pride, I am excited not only by the abundance of talents born by Russia in the 19th century, but also by their striking diversity, a variety that historians of our art do not pay due attention to ”.
The deep ideological and progressive nature of Russian literature was determined by its invariable connection with the liberation struggle of the people. The progressive Russian literature has always been distinguished by democracy, which grew up on the basis of the struggle against the autocratic-serf regime.
Special mention should be made of the enormous leading role of revolutionary democratic criticism in Russian literature. Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, and Dobrolyubov unmistakably led Russian literature forward, pointed out to the writers their civic duty and social path, demanded from them direct and honest posing of social questions, called for the protection of the masses.
It should be noted with pride how firmly and consistently the revolutionary democrats defended and explained the originality and greatness of the historical path of Russia and its culture.
We see the same quick and deep response to the events of Russian life in the works of Lermontov, Nekrasov, Turgenev, and all the best writers of the 19th century. Especially indicative in this respect is the work of I.S.Turgenev, a writer who, in his political views, seemed to stand far from revolutionary democratic thought. But what a sensitive response to the public sentiments of Russia in the 40s and 70s we find in the author of The Hunter's Notes, the novels Rudin, On the Eve, Fathers and Sons, and New!
By depicting Russian life, our writers thus introduced an affirming principle into literature. But the writer's dream of a more perfect structure of society can be revealed not only directly, but also through the image of negative phenomena deviating from the norm. Hence - the critical portrayal of life by Russian writers, the abundance of negative types in Russian literature, passionate exposure of the most diverse shortcomings of Russian reality. It was a form of protest against the deformities of life, a kind of striving forward into the future.
Chekhov, L. Tolstoy, Gorky - these are three remarkable figures of Russian writers standing on the verge of two centuries - the 19th and 20th. The names of L. Tolstoy and Chekhov mark the end of Russian literature of the 19th century, the name of Gorky is the beginning of a new, socialist proletarian literature. Talking about the work of Gorky means talking about a new stage in Russian literature - the stage of socialist realism.
The role of Russian classical literature in the global literary process at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. not least due to the fact that it helped many talented artists overcome the extremes of naturalism.
8. The main trends in the development of Russian literature in the 1810-1830s.
Characteristics of Russian literature of the 19th century.
The starting point of a new historical era is rightly considered the French Revolution of 1789-1794. The new frame of mind gave rise to profound changes in the structure of Russian literature. The focus was on the inner world of a person and his complex relationship with outside world: people, country, history, their destiny. An increased interest in the emotional experiences of a person led to the appearance of the phenomenon of a lyrical hero, which radically changed the poetics of classicism, violated stable genres, mixed styles, and deformed the boundaries between poetry and prose, literature and reality.
Literature has new tasks.Literature was faced with the need to develop poetic forms "that would be traditional and national, on the one hand, and capable of expressing individual feelings on the other."
The main ideas of the spiritual quest of Russian literature of this period, as defined by Yu.M. Lotman, there were ideas of personality and nationality... The 19th century began with the recognition of the individual and the people as two different and opposite, irreconcilable principles; personal aspirations of a person and his natural basis contradict each other.
Features of the development of Russian literature in the 1810-1830s.
Advanced Russian literature of the 10-30s of the XIX century developed in fight against serfdom and autocracycontinuing the liberation traditions of the great Radishchev.
With the development of the revolutionary movement of the Decembrists, with the advent of Pushkin, Russian literature entered a new period in its history, which Belinsky rightly called the Pushkin period... Patriotic and liberation ideas characteristic of the preceding progressive Russian literature were raised to a new, high level. The best Russian writers "following Radishchev" (Griboyedov, Pushkin) glorified freedom, patriotic devotion to the homeland and people, angrily denounced the autocracy's despotism, boldly exposed the essence of the serf system and advocated its destruction.
The powerful rise in national consciousness caused by 1812 and the development of the liberation movement was an incentive for further democratization of literature.Along with images the best people from the nobility, in fiction began to appear more and more often images of people from the social bottom, who embodied the remarkable features of the Russian national character. The pinnacle of this process is the creation by Pushkin in the 30s the image of the leader of the peasant uprising Yemelyan Pugachev.
The process itself claims of realism in Russian literature of the 20-30s was very difficult and proceeded in a struggle that took on acute forms. The beginning of the Pushkin period was marked by the emergence and development of progressive romanticism in literature, which was inspired by the poets and writers of the Decembrist circle and led by Pushkin. The principles of realism inherent in Pushkin's work were developed by his great successors - Gogol and Lermontov, and then raised to an even higher level by revolutionary democrats and strengthened in the struggle against all kinds of reactionary trends by a whole galaxy of progressive Russian writers.
The main directions of Russian literature in the first half of XIHv.
For Russian literature of the first half of the XIX century. characterized by a rapid change in artistic directions. The dominant aesthetic principles managed to transform several times during the life of one generation. The final chord of development classicism a play appeared in Russian literature A. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" (1823), in which the traditions of the classic comedy of the 18th century. are combined, as in D.I.Fonvizin, with features of emerging realism. At the beginning of the century in Europe and in Russia formed romanticism - a trend in literature and art, which is characterized by a special interest in an extraordinary personality, a lonely Hero, opposing himself, the world of his soul to the world around him. Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky is considered the creator of Russian romanticism (1783–1852), a poet whose works full of melancholy, folk motives and mystical images (the ballads “Lyudmila” in 1808, “Svetlana” in 1812) became models of the style of new literature. The early works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin (1799-1837) and Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (1814-1841) cannot be called otherwise romantic either. Pushkinis one of those writers whose creative path was marked by an appeal to various artistic directions. As already mentioned, early Pushkin is a romantic, in his works one can even find some influence of sentimentalism. At the same time, he is considered the founder of Russian realism. In addition to Onegin, the historical drama Boris Godunov, the novellas of Alexander Pushkin are outstanding examples of realism. Captain's daughter"," Dubrovsky ".
Lermontov's early works are mostly love lyrics. However, over time, along with the theme of tragic, unhappy love, civil themes entered his poetry. The poem "To the death of a poet", dedicated to the death of Alexander Pushkin, brought him fame. It was followed by Rodina and Borodino. Like his great predecessor, M. Yu. Lermontov in his work combined romanticism and realism. The poetry of romantic loneliness and confrontation with the world is reflected in the poems "Mtsyri" and "The Demon". The pinnacle of Lermontov's realism is the novel A Hero of Our Time. The dramaturgy of M. Yu. Lermontov is represented by the play "Masquerade", written in 1835.
Further development of literature was associated with the strengthening positions of realism... Creativity was an important milestone in this process. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (1809-1852). He is considered the first writer of the so-called "natural school" in Russian literature, that is, the trend that is now commonly called "critical realism." These are colorful sketches of the life of Little Russian landowners in the stories "Mirgorod", and filled with fantastic and fabulous motives of Ukrainian folklore "Evenings on a farm near Dykanka", and mystical "Petersburg stories" in which grotesque, fantasy ("The Nose") are combined with a piercingly realistic depiction life crushed by life "little man" ("Overcoat").
Of particular importance, which acquired in the I half of the XIX century. literature, led to the emergence literary criticism as an independent genre. The highest achievements in this area are associated with the name Vissarion Grigorievich Belinsky (1811–1848), the significance of his work goes far beyond narrow literary issues. Largely thanks to V.G.Belinsky, literary criticism in Russia became a space for ideological struggle, a forum at which the most important issues of the life of society were discussed, a tribune from which progressive ideas went to the masses.
Literary movement 1800-1830s
The changes in public consciousness were significant: spiritual values \u200b\u200bwere rapidly moving from the sphere of autocracy to the sphere of a particular private person. They ceased to act as abstract requirements outside of man, as was the case in the philosophy and literature of the 18th century, but became the property of the individual, who felt the interests of the state as their own interests. The abstract concept of the state, personified in autocracy, was becoming a thing of the past. The coloring of social concepts with personal feeling and the fullness of the personal world with social emotions have become a sign of the times.
All this predetermined the victory of romantic moods in life and in literature. At the same time, the ideas of the Enlightenment that had not disappeared from Russian reality were romantically comprehended.
Romanticism in Russia has gone through several stages of development:
1810s - the emergence and formation of a psychological course; leading poets Zhukovsky and Batyushkov;
1820s - the emergence and formation of a civil, or social, movement in the poetry of F.N. Glinka, P.A. Katenina, K.F. Ryleeva, V.K. Kuchelbecker, A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky; the maturity of psychological romanticism, in which the main figures were A.S. Pushkin, E.A. Baratynsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, N.M. Languages;
1830s - the emergence of a philosophical trend in the poetry of Baratynsky, the wisdom poets, Tyutchev, in the prose of V.F. Odoevsky; the penetration of romanticism into prose and its wide distribution in the genre of the story; the flourishing of romanticism in Lermontov's work and signs of crisis: the dominance of epigone (imitative) poetry, Benediktov's lyrics, “Caucasian” (“eastern”) stories by A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky;
1840s - the decline of romanticism, its displacement from the foreground of literature; from an active subject of the literary process, romanticism is increasingly turning into its object, becoming the subject of artistic depiction and analysis.
The division of romanticism into various trends took place according to the following criteria:
to psychological flowrussian romanticism belongs to romantics who professed the ideas of self-education and self-improvement of the individual as the most correct way to transform reality and man;
to current civil,or social,romanticism includes romantics who believed that a person is brought up primarily in social, public life, and, therefore, he is intended for civic activities;
to philosophical trendof Russian romanticism, romantics are counted who believed that a person's place in the world is predetermined from above, his lot is destined in heaven and entirely depends on the general laws of the universe, and not at all on social and psychological reasons. Between these currents do not have impenetrable boundaries, and the differences are relative: poets of different currents not only polemicize, but also interact with each other.
Initially, romanticism wins in the poetry of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, which was due to:
Karamzin reform of the literary language;
The crossing of the poetic principles of "sentimental" literature with the principles of "light poetry";
Discussions on the problems of the literary language, which opened and cleared the way for romanticism.
The peculiarities are due to the close connection of literature with the history of the country's development and the specifics of social and political life. By the early 19th century, Russia lacked the most basic freedoms: speech, assembly and press. Therefore, important social and philosophical problems could not be discussed openly, in the press or in government agencies. A. Herzen said it very well in the 19th century: “For a people deprived of public freedom, literature is the only platform from which he makes to hear the cry of his indignation and his conscience” (Vol. 3, 1956, p. 443).
By virtue of the above literature in Russia is becoming the leading form of social consciousness, those. incorporates philosophy, politics, aesthetics and ethics. Many writers and critics were well aware of this syncretism of Russian literature: “We have in fine literature and in criticism of works of art reflected the entire sum of our ideas about society and personality ”(Pisarev, vol. 1, 1955, p. 192). So, the peculiarity of Russian literature of the 19th century is due to the impossibility in other forms to reflect the most burning problems of our time.
Therefore, the Russian public perceived literature as a phenomenon of public self-awareness, and writers as the spiritual leaders of the nation, defenders and saviors. “A poet in Russia is more than a poet,” Yevtushenko would say later. It was this role of literature that made Russian writers of the 19th century feel their responsibility to society. to raise important philosophical, social and psychological problems in works.
The central problems of the 19th century were questions about the ways of developing Russian society, improving the life of the people and the individual.
An important feature of Russian literature was its positive start... Even VG Belinsky put forward the demand: "Any criticism of reality and any negation must be carried out in the name of the ideal." And although the leading method of literature in the second half of the 19th century is critical realism, with its sharp exposure of social shortcomings, in literature there is no what is now called "chernukha". This feature of Russian literature was striking for the foreign reader.
Awareness of their high destiny and responsibility to society determined the high ideology of Russian literature of the 19th century. She was not just an "aesthetic toy" and a means of entertainment. Its important feature was also attention to the common people.
By class, Russian writers of the first half of the 19th century were nobles. In the second half of the century, literature was replenished with commoners, but the nobles continued to occupy the leading place in it. However, according to ideology, our literature was not landlord, and either defended universal human ideals (honor, dignity, justice, kindness, etc.), or stood up to protect the people. The attention to the people was due to a number of reasons.
a) the humanistic views of the enlightened nobility. The disastrous situation in which the serf people found themselves forced writers to reflect on ways to change the situation.
b) understanding that acute class and economic contradictions can result in a social explosion.
Next feature literature 19th century - her peculiar functioning in society... The existence of strict censorship, on the one hand, and the need to disseminate new progressive views, on the other, led to the fact that in the first third of the 19th century, literature existed not only in writing. Unpublished works were read in the salons of St. Petersburg and Moscow, discussed at meetings of literary circles and societies, and, thanks to this, advanced ideas penetrated the broad masses.
Salons- associations that are more designed for aesthetic communication and entertainment than for serious literary discussions.
IN literary societies a unified concept of creativity is already being developed. This is an association of like-minded people.
Questions to the section "Features of Russian literature"
- Why was literature in 19th century Russia not only an aesthetic, but also a social phenomenon?
- How did this determine the role of the writer and poet? And what is this role in our time?
- How do you understand "the positive beginning of 19th century literature"?
- How did advanced works exist under conditions of severe censorship? What role did circles and salons play in the literary process of the early 19th century? Literary societies?
- What is the difference literary salon from a literary society?
4. The problem of periodization of Russian literature of the 19th century.
Throughout almost the entire 20th century, our literary criticism was forced to rigidly link the history of literature with the history of the social movement in Russia. This periodization was based on the periods of the liberation movement in Russia. In the perestroika years, this approach was rejected as overly politicized and not reflecting the specifics of literature. It was recognized that the periodization of literature cannot be a reflection of the historical periodization. Literature, although related to history, has specific patterns. The periods of its development should be distinguished based on the laws of literature itself. Scientists agree that periodization should be based on aesthetic criteria.The search for these criteria was intense in the late 90s. They were reflected in the discussions in the Voprosy Literature magazine. A single criterion has not been worked out, it is recognized that there can be several such criteria: the predominance of certain genres in a particular literary period, a special solution to the hero's problem, the predominance of a certain method.
But even taking into account the aesthetic criteria, the periodization of literature is largely arbitrary. After all, the tendencies and techniques of the new period do not appear at one moment. They arise gradually in the depths of the previous period.
Currently, based on aesthetic differences in the literature of the 19th century, three periods are distinguished.