Literary trends in chronological order. Nikolaev A
The main stylistic trends in the literature of modern and recent times
This section of the manual does not pretend to be detailed and thorough. Many directions from the historical and literary point of view are not yet known to students, others are little known. Any detailed discussion about literary trends in this situation is generally impossible. Therefore, it seems rational to give only the most general information, primarily characterizing the stylistic dominants of one direction or another.
Baroque
The Baroque style became widespread in European (to a lesser extent - Russian) culture in the 16th-17th centuries. It is based on two main processes.: On the one side, crisis of revivalist ideals, idea crisis titanism(when a person was thought of as a huge figure, a demigod), on the other hand, a sharp opposition of man as a creator to the impersonal natural world. Baroque is a very complex and controversial trend. Even the term itself does not have an unambiguous interpretation. The Italian root has the meaning of excess, depravity, error. It is not very clear whether this was a negative characteristic of the Baroque “from outside” this style (first of all, we mean the assessments Baroque writers of the Classical era) or is it not without self-irony the reflection of the Baroque authors themselves.
The Baroque style is characterized by a combination of the incongruous: on the one hand, an interest in exquisite forms, paradoxes, sophisticated metaphors and allegories, oxymorons, verbal play, and on the other hand, deep tragedy and a sense of doom.
For example, in Gryphius' baroque tragedy, Eternity itself could appear on stage and comment on the suffering of heroes with bitter irony.
On the other hand, it is with the Baroque era that the flowering of the still life genre is associated, where luxury, the beauty of forms, and the richness of colors are aestheticized. However, the Baroque still life is also contradictory: bouquets brilliant in color and technique, vases of fruit, and next to it is the classic Baroque still life Vanity of Vanities with the obligatory hourglass (an allegory of the passing time of life) and a skull - an allegory of inevitable death.
Baroque poetry is characterized by the sophistication of forms, the fusion of visual and graphic series, when the verse was not only written, but also “drawn”. Suffice it to recall the poem "Hourglass" by I. Gelwig, which we talked about in the chapter "Poetry". But there were also much more complex forms.
In the Baroque era, refined genres become widespread: rondos, madrigals, sonnets, odes, strict in form, etc.
The works of the most prominent representatives of the Baroque (Spanish playwright P. Calderon, German poet and playwright A. Griphius, German mystic poet A. Silesius, etc.) entered the golden fund of world literature. The paradoxical lines of Silesius are often perceived as well-known aphorisms: “I am great, like God. God is insignificant like me."
Many finds of baroque poets, thoroughly forgotten in the 18th-19th centuries, were perceived in the verbal experiments of the writers of the 20th century.
Classicism
Classicism is a trend in literature and art that historically replaced the Baroque. The era of classicism lasted more than one hundred and fifty years - from the middle of the 17th to the beginning of the 19th century.
Classicism is based on the idea of reasonableness, orderliness of the world . Man is understood as a rational being, and human society as a rationally arranged mechanism.
In the same way, a work of art should be built on the basis of strict canons, structurally repeating the reasonableness and orderliness of the universe.
Classicism recognized Antiquity as the highest manifestation of spirituality and culture, therefore ancient art was considered a role model and indisputable authority.
Classicism is characterized pyramidal consciousness, that is, in every phenomenon, the artists of classicism sought to see a reasonable center, which was recognized as the top of the pyramid and personified the entire building. For example, in understanding the state, the classicists proceeded from the idea of a reasonable monarchy - useful and necessary for all citizens.
Man in the era of classicism is treated primarily as a function, as a link in the intelligent pyramid of the universe. The inner world of a person in classicism is updated less, more important than external deeds. For example, the ideal monarch is the one who strengthens the state, takes care of its welfare and enlightenment. Everything else fades into the background. That is why the Russian classicists idealized the figure of Peter I, not attaching importance to the fact that he was a very complex and far from attractive person.
In the literature of classicism, a person was thought of as the bearer of some important idea that determined his essence. That is why in the comedies of classicism "speaking names" were often used, which immediately determine the logic of character. Let us recall, for example, Mrs. Prostakova, Skotinin or Pravdin in Fonvizin's comedy. These traditions are also well felt in Griboedov's Woe from Wit (Molchalin, Skalozub, Tugoukhovsky, etc.).
From the Baroque era, classicism inherited an interest in emblematicity, when a thing became a sign of an idea, and the idea was embodied in a thing. For example, the portrait of a writer was supposed to depict “things” that confirm his literary merits: the books he wrote, and sometimes the characters he created. Thus, the monument to I. A. Krylov, created by P. Klodt, depicts the famous fabulist surrounded by the heroes of his fables. The entire pedestal is decorated with scenes from the works of Krylov, thereby clearly confirming that on how founded the glory of the author. Although the monument was created after the era of classicism, it is precisely the classical traditions that are clearly visible here.
The rationality, visibility and emblematic nature of the culture of classicism also gave rise to a peculiar solution to conflicts. In the eternal conflict of reason and feeling, feeling and duty, so beloved by the authors of classicism, feeling eventually turned out to be defeated.
Classicism sets (primarily due to the authority of its main theorist N. Boileau) strict genre hierarchy , which are divisible by high (Oh yeah, tragedy, epic) and low ( comedy, satire, fable). Each genre has certain characteristics, it is written only in its own style. Mixing styles and genres is strictly not allowed.
Everyone from school knows the famous rule of three unities formulated for classical drama: unity places(all action in one place), time(action from sunrise to nightfall) actions(there is one central conflict in the play, in which all the characters are involved).
In terms of genre, classicism preferred tragedy and ode. True, after the brilliant comedies of Moliere, comedy genres also became very popular.
Classicism gave the world a galaxy of talented poets and playwrights. Corneille, Racine, Molière, La Fontaine, Voltaire, Swift - these are just some of the names from this brilliant galaxy.
In Russia, classicism developed somewhat later, already in the 18th century. Russian literature also owes a great deal to classicism. Suffice it to recall the names of D. I. Fonvizin, A. P. Sumarokov, M. V. Lomonosov, G. R. Derzhavin.
Sentimentalism
Sentimentalism arose in European culture in the middle of the 18th century, its first signs began to appear among English and a little later among French writers in the late 1720s, by the 1740s the direction had already taken shape. Although the term “sentimentalism” itself appeared much later and was associated with the popularity of Lorenz Sterne’s novel “Sentimental Journey” (1768), whose hero travels through France and Italy, finds himself in many sometimes funny, sometimes touching situations and understands that there are “noble joys and noble anxieties outside of one's personality."
Sentimentalism existed for quite a long time in parallel with classicism, although in fact it was built on completely different grounds. For sentimentalist writers, the world of feelings and experiences is recognized as the main value. At first, this world is perceived rather narrowly, writers sympathize with the love suffering of heroines (such, for example, are the novels of S. Richardson, if we remember, Pushkin's favorite author Tatyana Larina).
An important merit of sentimentalism was an interest in the inner life of an ordinary person. Classicism was little interested in the “average” person, but sentimentalism, on the contrary, emphasized the depth of feelings of a very ordinary, from a social point of view, heroine.
So, the maid Pamela by S. Richardson demonstrates not only the purity of feelings, but also moral virtues: honor and pride, which in the end leads to a happy ending; and the famous Clarissa, the heroine of the novel with a long and rather funny title from a modern point of view, although she belongs to a wealthy family, is still not a noblewoman. At the same time, her evil genius and treacherous seducer Robert Loveless is a socialite, an aristocrat. In Russia at the end of the XVIII - at the beginning of the 19th century, the surname Loveless (hinting "love less" - deprived of love) was pronounced in the French manner "Lovelace", since then the word "Lovelace" has become a household name, denoting red tape and a female saint.
If Richardson's novels were devoid of philosophical depth, didactic and slightly naive, then a little later in sentimentalism the opposition “natural man - civilization” began to take shape, where, in contrast to the baroque, civilization was understood as evil. Finally, this revolution was formalized in the work of the famous French writer and philosopher J. J. Rousseau.
His novel Julia, or New Eloise, which conquered Europe in the 18th century, is much more complex and less straightforward. The struggle of feelings, social conventions, sin and virtue are intertwined here in one ball. The title itself ("New Eloise") contains a reference to the semi-legendary insane passion of the medieval thinker Pierre Abelard and his student Eloise (XI-XII centuries), although the plot of Rousseau's novel is original and does not reproduce the legend of Abelard.
Even more important was the philosophy of "natural man", formulated by Rousseau and still retains a living meaning. Rousseau considered civilization an enemy of man, killing all the best in him. From here interest in nature, in natural feelings and natural behavior. These ideas of Rousseau received special development in the culture of romanticism and - later - in numerous works of art of the 20th century (for example, in "Oles" by A. I. Kuprin).
In Russia, sentimentalism manifested itself later and did not bring serious world discoveries. Basically, Western European subjects were “Russified”. At the same time, he had a great influence on the further development of Russian literature itself.
The most famous work of Russian sentimentalism was N. M. Karamzin's "Poor Lisa" (1792), which was a huge success and caused countless imitations.
“Poor Liza”, in fact, reproduces on Russian soil the plot and aesthetic findings of English sentimentalism from the time of S. Richardson, however, for Russian literature, the idea that “peasant women can feel” became a discovery that largely determined its further development.
Romanticism
Romanticism, as the dominant literary trend in European and Russian literature, did not exist for very long - about thirty years, but its influence on world culture was colossal.
Historically, romanticism is associated with the unfulfilled hopes of the French Revolution (1789-1793), but this connection is not linear, romanticism was prepared by the entire course of the aesthetic development of Europe, which was gradually formed by a new concept of man.
The first associations of romantics appeared in Germany at the end of the 18th century; a few years later, romanticism develops in England and France, then in the USA and Russia.
Being a "world style", romanticism is a very complex and contradictory phenomenon, uniting many schools, multidirectional artistic quests. Therefore, it is very difficult to reduce the aesthetics of romanticism to some single and clear foundations.
At the same time, the aesthetics of romanticism is undoubtedly a unity when compared with classicism or later critical realism. This unity is due to several main factors.
Firstly, romanticism recognized the value of the human personality as such, its self-sufficiency. The world of feelings and thoughts of an individual was recognized as the highest value. This immediately changed the coordinate system, in the opposition "personality - society" the emphasis shifted towards the personality. Hence the cult of freedom, characteristic of the romantics.
Secondly, Romanticism further emphasized the confrontation between civilization and nature giving preference to natural elements. It is no coincidence that in the eraRomanticism gave birth to tourism, a cult of picnics in nature, etc. At the level of literary themes, there is an interest in exotic landscapes, scenes from rural life, and “savage” cultures. Civilization often seems like a "prison" for a free individual. This plot can be traced, for example, in Mtsyri by M. Yu. Lermontov.
Thirdly, the most important feature of the aesthetics of romanticism was dual world: the recognition that the social world we are accustomed to is not the only and true one, the true human world must be sought somewhere else. This is where the idea comes from beautiful "there"- fundamental for the aesthetics of romanticism. This “there” can manifest itself in many different ways: in Divine grace, as in W. Blake; in the idealization of the past (hence the interest in legends, the appearance of numerous literary fairy tales, the cult of folklore); in interest in unusual personalities, high passions (hence the cult of the noble robber, interest in stories about "fatal love", etc.).
Duality should not be interpreted naively . The Romantics were not at all “out of this world” people, as, unfortunately, it sometimes seems to young philologists. They took active participation in social life, and the greatest poet I. Goethe, closely associated with romanticism, was not only a major naturalist, but also a prime minister. This is not about a style of behavior, but about a philosophical attitude, about an attempt to look beyond reality.
Fourthly, a significant role in the aesthetics of romanticism was played by demonism, based on a doubt about the sinlessness of God, on the aestheticization rebellion. Demonism was not an obligatory basis for a romantic worldview, but it was a characteristic background of romanticism. The philosophical and aesthetic justification for demonism was the mystical tragedy (the author called it "mystery") by J. Byron "Cain" (1821), where the biblical story about Cain is rethought, and Divine truths are disputed. Interest in the “demonic principle” in a person is characteristic of a variety of artists of the era of romanticism: J. Byron, P. B. Shelley, E. Poe, M. Yu. Lermontov and others.
Romanticism brought with it a new genre palette. Classical tragedies and odes were replaced by elegies, romantic dramas, and poems. A real breakthrough occurred in prose genres: many short stories appear, the novel looks completely new. The plot scheme becomes more complicated: paradoxical plot moves, fatal secrets, unexpected outcomes are popular. Victor Hugo became an outstanding master of the romantic novel. His novel Notre Dame Cathedral (1831) is a world famous masterpiece of romantic prose. Hugo's later novels ("The Man Who Laughs", "Les Misérables", etc.) are characterized by a synthesis of romantic and realistic tendencies, although the writer remained faithful to the romantic foundations all his life.
Having opened the world of a concrete personality, romanticism, however, did not seek to detail individual psychology. Interest in "superpassions" led to the typification of experiences. If love is for centuries, if hatred, then to the end. Most often, a romantic hero was the bearer of one passion, one idea. This brought the romantic hero closer to the hero of classicism, although all the accents were placed differently. Genuine psychologism, "dialectics of the soul" became the discoveries of another aesthetic system - realism.
Realism
Realism is a very complex and voluminous concept. As a dominant historical and literary trend, it was formed in the 30s of the 19th century, but as a way of mastering reality, realism was originally inherent in artistic creativity. Many features of realism have already appeared in folklore; they were characteristic of ancient art, the art of the Renaissance, classicism, sentimentalism, etc. This "cross-cutting" character of realism repeatedly noted by experts, and repeatedly there was a temptation to see the history of the development of art as a fluctuation between mystical (romantic) and realistic ways of knowing reality. In the most complete form, this was reflected in the theory of the famous philologist D. I. Chizhevsky (Ukrainian by origin, he most lived in Germany and the USA), representing the development of world literature as a "pendulummovement” between the realistic and mystical poles. In aesthetic theory, this is called "Chizhevsky's pendulum". Each way of reflecting reality is characterized by Chizhevsky for several reasons:
|
realistic |
romantic (mystical) |
|
Depiction of a typical hero in typical circumstances |
Depiction of an exceptional hero in exceptional circumstances |
|
Recreation of reality, its believable image |
Active re-creation of reality under the sign of the author's ideal |
|
The image of a person in diverse social, domestic and psychological connections with the outside world |
Self-worth of the individual, emphasized its independence from society, conditions and environment |
|
Creation of the character of the hero as multifaceted, ambiguous, internally contradictory |
Outline of the hero with one or two bright, characteristic, convex features, fragmentarily |
|
Searching for ways to resolve the hero's conflict with the world in real, concrete historical reality |
Search for ways to resolve the hero's conflict with the world in other, beyond, cosmic spheres |
|
Specific historical chronotope (certain space, definite time) |
Conditional, extremely generalized chronotope (indefinite space, indefinite time) |
|
Motivation of the hero's behavior by the features of reality |
Depiction of the hero's behavior as not motivated by reality (self-determination of personality) |
|
Conflict resolution and a happy outcome are thought to be achievable |
The insolubility of the conflict, the impossibility or conditional nature of a successful outcome |
Chizhevsky's scheme, created many decades ago, is still quite popular today, at the same time it noticeably straightens the literary process. Thus, classicism and realism turn out to be typologically similar, while romanticism actually reproduces the baroque culture. In fact, these are completely different models, and the realism of the 19th century bears little resemblance to the realism of the Renaissance, and even more so to classicism. At the same time, it is useful to remember Chizhevsky's scheme, since some of the accents are placed precisely.
If we talk about classical realism of the 19th century, then here we should highlight several main points.
In realism, there was a rapprochement between the portrayer and the depicted. As a rule, the reality "here and now" became the subject of the image. It is no coincidence that the history of Russian realism is connected with the formation of the so-called "natural school", which saw its task in giving the most objective picture of modern reality. True, this ultimate specificity soon ceased to satisfy the writers, and the most significant authors (I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky and others) went far beyond the aesthetics of the “natural school”.
At the same time, one should not think that realism has renounced the formulation and solution of the "eternal questions of being." On the contrary, the great realist writers raised precisely these questions in the first place. However, the most important problems of human existence were projected onto concrete reality, onto the lives of ordinary people. So, F. M. Dostoevsky solves the eternal problem of the relationship between man and God, not in the symbolic images of Cain and Lucifer, as, for example, Byron, but on the example of the fate of the impoverished student Raskolnikov, who killed the old money-lender and thereby "crossed the line."
Realism does not renounce symbolic and allegorical images, but their meaning changes, they set off not eternal problems, but socially concrete ones. For example, the fairy tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are allegorical through and through, but they recognize the social reality of the 19th century.
Realism, like no previously existing direction, interested in the inner world of an individual, seeks to see its paradoxes, movement and development. In this regard, in the prose of realism, the role of internal monologues increases, the hero constantly argues with himself, doubts himself, evaluates himself. Psychologism in the works of realist masters(F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, etc.) reaches its highest expression.
Realism changes over time, reflecting new realities and historical trends. So, in the Soviet era there appears socialist realism declared the "official" method of Soviet literature. This is a highly ideological form of realism, which aimed to show the inevitable collapse of the bourgeois system. In reality, however, almost all Soviet art was called "socialist realism", and the criteria turned out to be completely blurred. Today, this term has only a historical meaning; in relation to modern literature, it is not relevant.
If in the middle of the 19th century realism dominated almost completely, then by the end of the 19th century the situation had changed. For the last century, realism has experienced fierce competition from other aesthetic systems, which, naturally, in one way or another changes the nature of realism itself. For example, the novel by M. A. Bulgakov “The Master and Margarita” is a realistic work, but at the same time, a symbolic meaning is felt in it, which noticeably changes the settings of “classical realism”.
Modernist trends of the late XIX - XX centuries
The twentieth century, like no other, passed under the sign of the competition of many trends in art. These directions are completely different, they compete with each other, replace each other, take into account each other's achievements. The only thing that unites them is the opposition to classical realistic art, attempts to find their own ways of reflecting reality. These directions are united by the conditional term "modernism". The term "modernism" itself (from "modern" - modern) arose in the romantic aesthetics of A. Schlegel, but then it did not take root. But it came into use a hundred years later, at the end of the 19th century, and began to designate at first strange, unusual aesthetic systems. Today, “modernism” is a term with an extremely broad meaning, actually standing in two oppositions: on the one hand, it is “everything that is not realism”, on the other (in recent years) it is something that is not “postmodernism”. Thus, the concept of modernism reveals itself negatively - by the method of "contradiction". Naturally, with this approach, there is no question of any structural clarity.
There are a lot of modernist trends, we will focus only on the most significant:
Impressionism (from the French "impression" - impression) - a trend in art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which originated in France and then spread throughout the world. Representatives of impressionism sought to capturethe real world in its mobility and variability, convey their fleeting impressions. The Impressionists themselves called themselves “new realists”, the term appeared later, after 1874, when the now famous work of C. Monet “Sunrise. Impression". At first, the term "impressionism" had a negative connotation, expressing bewilderment and even neglect of critics, but the artists themselves "in defiance of critics" accepted it, and over time, the negative connotations disappeared.
In painting, impressionism had a huge impact on the entire subsequent development of art.
In literature, the role of impressionism was more modest, as it did not develop as an independent movement. However, the aesthetics of impressionism influenced the work of many authors, including those in Russia. Many poems by K. Balmont, I. Annensky and others are marked by trust in “transiency”. In addition, impressionism has affected the coloring of many writers, for example, its features are noticeable in the palette of B. Zaitsev.
However, as a holistic trend, impressionism did not appear in literature, becoming a characteristic background of symbolism and neorealism.
Symbolism - one of the most powerful areas of modernism, rather diffuse in its attitudes and searches. Symbolism began to take shape in France in the 70s of the XIX century and quickly spread throughout Europe.
By the 90s, symbolism had become a pan-European trend, with the exception of Italy, where, for reasons that are not entirely clear, it did not take root.
In Russia, symbolism began to manifest itself in the late 80s, and as a conscious trend, it took shape by the mid-90s.
By the time of formation and by the peculiarities of the worldview in Russian symbolism, it is customary to distinguish two main stages. The poets who debuted in the 1890s are called “senior symbolists” (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub, and others).
In the 1900s, a number of new names appeared that markedly changed the face of symbolism: A. Blok, A. Bely, Vyach. Ivanov and others. The accepted designation of the “second wave” of symbolism is “young symbolism”. It is important to bear in mind that the “senior” and “junior” symbolists were separated not so much by age (for example, Vyach. Ivanov tends to be “older” by age), but by the difference in worldviews and the direction of creativity.
The work of the older symbolists more fits into the canon of neo-romanticism. Characteristic motives are loneliness, the chosenness of the poet, the imperfection of the world. In the verses of K. Balmont, the influence of impressionist technique is noticeable, early Bryusov has many technical experiments, verbal exoticism.
The Young Symbolists created a more holistic and original concept, which was based on the fusion of life and art, on the idea of improving the world according to aesthetic laws. The mystery of being cannot be expressed by an ordinary word, it is only guessed in the system of symbols intuitively found by the poet. The concept of mystery, the non-manifestation of meanings became the basis of symbolist aesthetics. Poetry, according to Vyach. Ivanov, there is a "secret writing of the inexpressible". The socio-aesthetic illusion of young symbolism was that through the "prophetic word" it is possible to change the world. Therefore, they saw themselves not only as poets, but also as demiurges, that is, the creators of the world. The unfulfilled utopia led in the early 1910s to a total crisis of symbolism, to its collapse as an integral system, although the “echoes” of symbolist aesthetics are heard for a long time.
Regardless of the realization of social utopia, symbolism has greatly enriched Russian and world poetry. The names of A. Blok, I. Annensky, Vyach. Ivanov, A. Bely and other prominent symbolist poets - the pride of Russian literature.
Acmeism(from the Greek "akme" - "highest degree, peak, flowering, flowering time") - a literary movement that arose in the early tenth years of the 20th century in Russia. Historically, acmeism was a reaction to the crisis of symbolism. Unlike the "secret" word of the Symbolists, the Acmeists proclaimed the value of the material, the plastic objectivity of images, the accuracy and sophistication of the word.
The formation of acmeism is closely connected with the activities of the organization "Workshop of Poets", the central figures of which were N. Gumilyov and S. Gorodetsky. O. Mandelstam, the early A. Akhmatova, V. Narbut and others also joined acmeism. Later, however, Akhmatova questioned the aesthetic unity of acmeism and even the legitimacy of the term itself. But one can hardly agree with her on this: the aesthetic unity of the acmeist poets, at least in the early years, is beyond doubt. And the point is not only in the program articles of N. Gumilyov and O. Mandelstam, where the aesthetic credo of the new trend is formulated, but above all in the practice itself. Acmeism in a strange way combined a romantic craving for the exotic, for wandering with the sophistication of the word, which made it related to the baroque culture.
Favorite images of acmeism - exotic beauty (for example, at any period of his work, Gumilyov has poems about exotic animals: giraffe, jaguar, rhinoceros, kangaroo, etc.), images of culture(with Gumilyov, Akhmatova, Mandelstam), the love theme is solved very plastically. Often a substantive detail becomes a psychological sign(for example, a glove at Gumilyov or Akhmatova).
At first the world appears to the acmeists as refined, but "toy", emphatically unreal. For example, the famous early poem by O. Mandelstam sounds like this:
Burning with gold leaf
Christmas trees in the woods;
Toy wolves in the bushes
They look with terrible eyes.
Oh, my sadness,
Oh my quiet freedom
And the inanimate sky
Always laughing crystal!
Later, the paths of the Acmeists diverged, little was left of the former unity, although the loyalty to the ideals of high culture, the cult of poetic mastery, was preserved by most poets to the end. Many major word artists came out of acmeism. Russian literature has the right to be proud of the names of Gumilyov, Mandelstam and Akhmatova.
Futurism(from Latin "futurus" "- future). If symbolism, as mentioned above, did not take root in Italy, then futurism, on the contrary, is of Italian origin. The "father" of futurism is considered to be the Italian poet and art theorist F. Marinetti, who proposed a shocking and harsh theory of the new art. In fact, Marinetti was talking about the mechanization of art, about depriving him of spirituality. Art should become akin to a "play on a mechanical piano", all verbal delights are superfluous, spirituality is an obsolete myth.
Marinetti's ideas exposed the crisis of classical art and were picked up by "rebellious" aesthetic groups in different countries.
In Russia, the first futurists were the artists brothers Burliuks. David Burliuk founded the colony of futurists "Gilea" in his estate. He managed to rally around himself different, unlike any other poets and artists: Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Kruchenykh, Elena Guro and others.
The first manifestos of the Russian futurists were frankly shocking in nature (even the name of the manifesto “Slapping the Public Taste” speaks for itself), however, even with this, the Russian futurists did not accept Marinetti’s mechanism from the very beginning, setting themselves other tasks. Marinetti's arrival in Russia caused disappointment among Russian poets and further emphasized the differences.
The Futurists set out to create a new poetics, a new system of aesthetic values. The virtuoso play with the word, the aestheticization of everyday objects, the speech of the street - all this excited, shocked, caused a resonance. The catchy, visible nature of the image annoyed some, delighted others:
Every word,
even a joke
which he vomits with a burning mouth,
thrown out like a naked prostitute
from a burning brothel.
(V. Mayakovsky, "A Cloud in Pants")
Today it can be recognized that much of the work of the Futurists has not stood the test of time, is only of historical interest, but in general, the influence of the experiments of the Futurists on the entire subsequent development of art (and not only verbal, but also pictorial, musical) turned out to be colossal.
Futurism had several currents within itself, either converging or conflicting: cubo-futurism, ego-futurism (Igor Severyanin), the Centrifuga group (N. Aseev, B. Pasternak).
Very different from each other, these groups converged in a new understanding of the essence of poetry, in a craving for verbal experiments. Russian futurism gave the world several poets of enormous scale: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Boris Pasternak, Velimir Khlebnikov.
Existentialism (from Latin "exsistentia" - existence). Existentialism cannot be called a literary trend in the full sense of the word, it is rather a philosophical trend, a concept of man, which manifested itself in many works of literature. The origins of this trend can be found in the 19th century in the mystical philosophy of S. Kierkegaard, but existentialism received its real development already in the 20th century. Of the most significant existentialist philosophers, one can name G. Marcel, K. Jaspers, M. Heidegger, J.-P. Sartre and others. Existentialism is a very diffuse system, with many variations and varieties. However, the common features that allow us to talk about some unity are the following:
1. Recognition of the personal meaning of being . In other words, the world and man in their primary essence are personal principles. The error of the traditional view, according to existentialists, lies in the fact that human life is considered as if "from the outside", objectively, and the uniqueness of human life lies precisely in the fact that it There is and that she my. That is why G. Marcel proposed to consider the relationship of man and the world not according to the scheme "He is the World", but according to the scheme "I - You". My relationship to another person is just a special case of this all-encompassing scheme.
M. Heidegger said the same thing a little differently. In his opinion, it is necessary to change the basic question about a person. We're trying to answer, What there is a person", but it is necessary to ask " Who there is a person." This radically changes the entire coordinate system, since in the familiar world we will not see the grounds for a unique “self” for each person.
2. Recognition of the so-called "border situation" when this "self" becomes directly accessible. In ordinary life, this “I” is not directly accessible, but in the face of death, against the background of non-existence, it manifests itself. The concept of the boundary situation had a huge impact on the literature of the 20th century - both among writers directly associated with the theory of existentialism (A. Camus, J.-P. Sartre), and authors who are generally far from this theory, for example, on the idea of a boundary situation almost all the plots of Vasil Bykov's military stories are built.
3. Recognition of a person as a project . In other words, the original "I" given to us forces us to make the only possible choice every time. And if a person's choice turns out to be unworthy, the person begins to crumble, no matter what external reasons he may justify.
Existentialism, we repeat, did not take shape as a literary trend, but it had a huge impact on modern world culture. In this sense, it can be considered an aesthetic and philosophical trend of the 20th century.
Surrealism(French "surrealisme", lit. - "super-realism") - a powerful trend in painting and literature of the 20th century, however, which left the greatest mark in painting, primarily due to the authority of the famous artist Salvador Dali. Dali's infamous phrase about his disagreements with other leaders of the “surrealist is me” trend, with all its outrageousness, clearly sets the accents. Without the figure of Salvador Dali, surrealism probably would not have had such an impact on the culture of the 20th century.
At the same time, the founder of this trend is not Dali at all, and not even an artist, but just the writer Andre Breton. Surrealism took shape in the 1920s as a left-wing movement, but markedly different from futurism. Surrealism reflected the social, philosophical, psychological and aesthetic paradoxes of European consciousness. Europe is tired of social tensions, of traditional forms of art, of hypocrisy in ethics. This "protest" wave gave rise to surrealism.
The authors of the first declarations and works of surrealism (Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, etc.) set the goal of "liberating" creativity from all conventions. Great importance was attached to unconscious impulses, random images, which, however, were then subjected to careful artistic processing.
Freudianism, which actualized the erotic instincts of man, had a serious influence on the aesthetics of surrealism.
In the late 20s and 30s, surrealism played a very prominent role in European culture, but the literary component of this trend gradually weakened. Major writers and poets departed from surrealism, in particular, Eluard and Aragon. André Breton's attempts to revive the movement after the war were unsuccessful, while Surrealism gave rise to a much more powerful tradition in painting.
Postmodernism - a powerful literary trend of our time, very motley, contradictory and fundamentally open to any innovations. The philosophy of postmodernism was formed mainly in the school of French aesthetic thought (J. Derrida, R. Barthes, J. Kristeva, and others), but today it has spread far beyond France.
At the same time, many philosophical origins and first works refer to the American tradition, and the term “postmodernism” itself was first used in relation to literature by the American literary critic of Arab origin, Ihab Hasan (1971).
The most important feature of postmodernism is the fundamental rejection of any centricity and any value hierarchy. All texts are fundamentally equal in rights and able to come into contact with each other. There is no art high and low, modern and outdated. From the point of view of culture, they all exist in a certain “now”, and since the value chain is fundamentally destroyed, no text has any advantages over another.
Almost any text of any era comes into play in the works of postmodernists. The boundary of one's own and another's word is also destroyed, so texts of famous authors may be interspersed in a new work. This principle has been called centonality principle» (centon - a game genre when a poem is made up of different lines of other authors).
Postmodernism is radically different from all other aesthetic systems. In various schemes (for example, in the well-known schemes of Ihab Hasan, V. Brainin-Passek, etc.), dozens of distinctive signs of postmodernism are noted. This is a setting for the game, conformism, recognition of the equality of cultures, a setting for secondary (i.e., postmodernism does not aim to say something new about the world), orientation for commercial success, recognition of the infinity of the aesthetic (i.e., everything can be art) etc.
The attitude towards postmodernism both among writers and literary critics is ambiguous: from complete acceptance to categorical denial.
In the last decade, more and more often they talk about the crisis of postmodernism, remind about the responsibility and spirituality of culture.
For example, P. Bourdieu considers postmodernism a variant of “radical chic”, spectacular and comfortable at the same time, and calls not to destroy science (and, in the context, art, too) “in the fireworks of nihilism” .
Sharp attacks against postmodern nihilism are also undertaken by many American theorists. In particular, the book Against Deconstruction by J. M. Ellis, which contains a critical analysis of postmodernist attitudes, caused a resonance. Now, however, this scheme is much more complicated. It is customary to talk about pre-symbolism, early symbolism, mystical symbolism, post-symbolism, etc. However, this does not cancel the naturally formed division into older and younger.
If someone thinks that they are very difficult to remember, then, of course, they are mistaken. Everything is quite simple.
We open the bibliography. We see that here everything is laid out in time. Specific time periods are given. And now I focus your attention on this - almost every literary movement has a clear time reference.
We look at the screenshot. Fonvizin's "Undergrowth", Derzhavin's "Monument", Griboedov's "Woe from Wit" - all this is classicism. Then realism comes to replace classicism, sentimentalism exists for some time, but it is not represented in this list of works. Therefore, almost all the works that are listed below are realism. If “novel” is written next to the work, then this is only realism. Nothing more.
Romanticism is also on this list, we must not forget about it. It is poorly represented, these are such works as the ballad of V.A. Zhukovsky "Svetlana", a poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri". It would seem that romanticism died at the beginning of the 19th century, but we can still meet it in the 20th. There the story of M.A. Gorky "Old Woman Izergil". That's all, no more romanticism.
Everything else that is given in the list that I did not name is realism.
And what then is the direction of the Tale of Igor's Campaign? In this case, it is not highlighted.
And now let's briefly go over what features these directions have. It's simple:
Classicism- these are 3 unities: the unity of place, time, action. Let's remember Griboedov's comedy "Woe from Wit". The whole action lasts 24 hours, and it takes place in Famusov's house. With the "Undergrowth" Fonvizin, everything is similar. Another detail for classicism: the heroes can be clearly divided into positive and negative. The rest of the features are not required. This is quite enough for you to understand that we have a classic work in front of us.
Romanticism- an exceptional hero in exceptional circumstances. Let us recall what happened in the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri". Against the backdrop of majestic nature, its divine beauty and grandeur, events unfold. "Mtsyra escapes." Nature and the hero merge with each other, there is a complete immersion of the inner world and the outer. Mtsyri is an exceptional person. Strong, brave, courageous.
Let us recall in the story "Old Woman Izergil" the hero Danko, who tore out his heart and lit the way for people. Said hero also fits the criterion of exceptional personality, so this is a romantic story. And in general, all the heroes who are described by Gorky are desperate rebels.
Realism begins with Pushkin, which develops very rapidly throughout the second half of the 19th century. The whole life with its advantages and disadvantages, with its inconsistency and complexity - becomes the object of writers. Specific historical events and personalities are taken that live together with fictional characters, who very often have a real prototype or even several.
In short, realism What I see is what I write. Our life is complex, complex and heroes, they rush about, think, change, develop, make mistakes.
By the beginning of the 20th century, it became clear that it was time to look for new forms, new styles, and other approaches. Therefore, new authors burst into literature rapidly, there is a flourishing of modernity, which includes a lot of branches: symbolism, acmeism, imagism, futurism.
And in order to determine to which particular literary movement a particular work can be attributed, you also need to know the time of its writing. Because, for example, it is wrong to say that Akhmatova is only acmeism. Only early works can be attributed to this direction. The work of some did not fit into a specific classification at all, such, for example, were Tsvetaeva and Pasternak.
As for symbolism, here it will be somewhat simpler: Blok, Mandelstam. Futurism - Mayakovsky. Acmeism, as we have said, Akhmatova. There was also Imagism, but it is poorly represented, Yesenin is attributed to it. That's how it is.
Symbolism- the term speaks for itself. The authors, through a large number of various symbols, encrypted the meaning of the work. The number of meanings that poets laid down can be searched and searched for indefinitely. That is why these poems are so complicated.
Futurism- vocabulary. Art of the future. Rejection of the past. Unrestrained search for new rhythms, rhymes, words. Do we remember Mayakovsky's ladder? Such works were intended for recitation (read in public). Futurists are just crazy people. They did everything to make the audience remember them. All means for this were good.
Acmeism- if nothing is clear in symbolism, then the acmeists undertook to completely oppose themselves to them. Their creativity is understandable, concrete. It does not hover somewhere in the clouds. It is here, here. They depicted the earthly world, its earthly beauty. They also sought to transform the world through the word. It's enough.
Imagism- based on the image. Sometimes not alone. Such poems, as a rule, are completely devoid of meaning. Seryozha Yesenin wrote such poems for a short time. No one else from the list of references belongs to this trend.
This is all. If something is still not understood, or if you find errors in my words, then write in the comments. Let's figure it out together.
In modern literary criticism, the terms "direction" and "flow" can be interpreted in different ways. Sometimes they are used as synonyms (classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, realism and modernism are called both trends and trends), and sometimes a trend is identified with a literary school or grouping, and a direction is identified with an artistic method or style (in this case, the direction incorporates two or more streams).
Usually, literary direction called a group of writers similar in type of artistic thinking. One can speak about the existence of a literary trend if writers are aware of the theoretical foundations of their artistic activity, propagandize them in manifestos, program speeches, and articles. So, the first program article of the Russian futurists was the manifesto "Slap in the Face of Public Taste", in which the main aesthetic principles of the new direction were declared.
Under certain circumstances, groups of writers who are especially close to each other in their aesthetic views can be formed within the framework of one literary movement. Such groups formed within a certain direction are usually called literary trend. For example, within the framework of such a literary trend as symbolism, two currents can be distinguished: "senior" symbolists and "junior" symbolists (according to another classification - three: decadents, "senior" symbolists, "junior" symbolists).
CLASSICISM(from lat. classicus- exemplary) - an artistic trend in European art at the turn of the 17th-18th - early 19th centuries, formed in France at the end of the 17th century. Classicism asserted the primacy of state interests over personal interests, the predominance of civil, patriotic motives, the cult of moral duty. The aesthetics of classicism is characterized by the severity of artistic forms: compositional unity, normative style and plots. Representatives of Russian classicism: Kantemir, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Knyaznin, Ozerov and others.
One of the most important features of classicism is the perception of ancient art as a model, an aesthetic standard (hence the name of the direction). The goal is to create works of art in the image and likeness of antique. In addition, the ideas of the Enlightenment and the cult of reason (the belief in the omnipotence of the mind and that the world can be reorganized on a reasonable basis) had a huge influence on the formation of classicism.
Classicists (representatives of classicism) perceived artistic creativity as strict adherence to reasonable rules, eternal laws, created on the basis of studying the best examples of ancient literature. Based on these reasonable laws, they divided works into "correct" and "incorrect". For example, even Shakespeare's best plays were classified as "wrong". This was due to the fact that Shakespeare's characters combined positive and negative traits. And the creative method of classicism was formed on the basis of rationalistic thinking. There was a strict system of characters and genres: all characters and genres were distinguished by "purity" and unambiguity. So, in one hero it was strictly forbidden not only to combine vices and virtues (that is, positive and negative traits), but even several vices. The hero had to embody any one character trait: either a miser, or a braggart, or a hypocrite, or a hypocrite, or good, or evil, etc.
The main conflict of classic works is the struggle of the hero between reason and feeling. At the same time, the positive hero must always make a choice in favor of the mind (for example, choosing between love and the need to completely surrender to the service of the state, he must choose the latter), and the negative one - in favor of feelings.
The same can be said about the genre system. All genres were divided into high (ode, epic poem, tragedy) and low (comedy, fable, epigram, satire). At the same time, touching episodes were not supposed to be introduced into comedy, and funny episodes into tragedy. In the high genres, “exemplary” heroes were depicted - monarchs, “commanders who could serve as an example to follow. In the low genres, characters were depicted covered by some kind of “passion”, that is, a strong feeling.
Special rules existed for dramatic works. They had to observe three "unities" - places, times and actions. Unity of place: classicist dramaturgy did not allow a change of scene, that is, during the entire play, the characters had to be in the same place. Unity of time: the artistic time of a work should not exceed several hours, in extreme cases - one day. Unity of action implies the presence of only one storyline. All these requirements are connected with the fact that the classicists wanted to create a kind of illusion of life on the stage. Sumarokov: “Try to measure my hours in the game for hours, so that, forgetting, I can believe you *.
So, the characteristic features of literary classicism:
The purity of the genre (in the high genres, funny or everyday situations and heroes could not be depicted, and in the low genres, tragic and sublime ones);
The purity of the language (in high genres - high vocabulary, in low - vernacular);
Heroes are strictly divided into positive and negative, while positive heroes, choosing between feeling and reason, prefer the latter;
Compliance with the rule of "three unities";
The work should affirm positive values and the state ideal.
Russian classicism is characterized by state pathos (the state (and not a person) was declared the highest value) in conjunction with faith in the theory of enlightened absolutism. According to the theory of enlightened absolutism, the state should be headed by a wise, enlightened monarch, who requires everyone to serve for the benefit of society. Russian classicists, inspired by the reforms of Peter the Great, believed in the possibility of further improvement of society, which seemed to them a rationally arranged organism. Sumarokov: " Peasants plow, merchants trade, warriors defend the fatherland, judges judge, scientists cultivate sciences. The classicists treated human nature in the same rationalistic way. They believed that human nature is selfish, subject to passions, that is, feelings that oppose reason, but at the same time lend themselves to education.
SENTIMENTALISM(from English sentimental- sensitive, from French sentiment- feeling) - a literary movement of the second half of the 18th century, which replaced classicism. Sentimentalists proclaimed the primacy of feeling, not reason. A person was judged by his ability to deep feelings. Hence - the interest in the inner world of the hero, the image of the shades of his feelings (the beginning of psychologism).
Unlike the classicists, sentimentalists consider not the state, but the individual, to be the highest value. They opposed the unjust orders of the feudal world with the eternal and reasonable laws of nature. In this regard, nature for sentimentalists is the measure of all values, including man himself. It is no coincidence that they asserted the superiority of the "natural", "natural" man, that is, living in harmony with nature.
Sensitivity is also at the basis of the creative method of sentimentalism. If the classicists created generalized characters (a hypocrite, a braggart, a miser, a fool), then sentimentalists are interested in specific people with an individual destiny. Heroes in their works are clearly divided into positive and negative. The positive ones are endowed with natural sensitivity (sympathetic, kind, compassionate, capable of self-sacrifice). Negative - prudent, selfish, arrogant, cruel. The carriers of sensitivity, as a rule, are peasants, artisans, raznochintsy, rural clergy. Cruel - representatives of power, nobles, higher spiritual ranks (since despotic rule kills sensitivity in people). Manifestations of sensitivity in the works of sentimentalists often acquire a too external, even exaggerated character (exclamations, tears, fainting, suicides).
One of the main discoveries of sentimentalism is the individualization of the hero and the image of the rich spiritual world of a commoner (the image of Liza in Karamzin's story "Poor Liza"). The main character of the works was an ordinary person. In this regard, the plot of the work often represented individual situations of everyday life, while peasant life was often depicted in pastoral colors. The new content required a new form. The leading genres were the family novel, diary, confession, novel in letters, travel notes, elegy, message.
In Russia, sentimentalism originated in the 1760s (the best representatives are Radishchev and Karamzin). As a rule, in the works of Russian sentimentalism, the conflict develops between a serf and a serf landowner, and the moral superiority of the former is persistently emphasized.
ROMANTISM - artistic direction in European and American culture of the late 18th - first half of the 19th century. Romanticism arose in the 1790s, first in Germany and then spread throughout Western Europe. The prerequisites for the emergence were the crisis of rationalism of the Enlightenment, the artistic search for pre-romantic trends (sentimentalism), the French Revolution, and German classical philosophy.
The emergence of this literary trend, as well as any other, is inextricably linked with the socio-historical events of that time. Let's start with the prerequisites for the formation of romanticism in Western European literatures. The French Revolution of 1789-1899 and the reassessment of the educational ideology associated with it had a decisive influence on the formation of romanticism in Western Europe. As you know, the XV111 century in France passed under the sign of the Enlightenment. For almost a whole century, French enlighteners led by Voltaire (Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu) argued that the world can be reorganized on a reasonable basis and proclaimed the idea of natural (natural) equality of all people. It was these educational ideas that inspired the French revolutionaries, whose slogan was the words: "Liberty, equality and fraternity."
The result of the revolution was the establishment of a bourgeois republic. As a result, the winner was the bourgeois minority, which seized power (it used to belong to the aristocracy, the highest nobility), while the rest were left "with nothing". Thus, the long-awaited "kingdom of reason" turned out to be an illusion, as well as the promised freedom, equality and fraternity. There was a general disappointment in the results and results of the revolution, a deep dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality, which became a prerequisite for the emergence of romanticism. Because the basis of romanticism is the principle of dissatisfaction with the existing order of things. This was followed by the emergence of the theory of romanticism in Germany.
As you know, Western European culture, in particular French, had a huge impact on Russian. This trend continued into the 19th century, so the French Revolution also shook Russia. But, in addition, there are actually Russian prerequisites for the emergence of Russian romanticism. First of all, this is the Patriotic War of 1812, which clearly showed the greatness and strength of the common people. It was to the people that Russia owed its victory over Napoleon; the people were the true heroes of the war. Meanwhile, both before the war and after it, the bulk of the people, the peasants, still remained serfs, in fact, slaves. What was previously perceived by the progressive people of that time as injustice, now began to seem like a flagrant injustice, contrary to all logic and morality. But after the end of the war, Alexander I not only did not abolish serfdom, but also began to pursue a much tougher policy. As a result, a pronounced feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction arose in Russian society. Thus, the ground for the emergence of romanticism arose.
The term "romanticism" in relation to the literary movement is accidental and inaccurate. In this regard, from the very beginning of its inception, it was interpreted in different ways: some believed that it comes from the word "roman", others - from knightly poetry created in countries that speak Romance languages. For the first time, the word "romanticism" as the name of a literary movement began to be used in Germany, where the first sufficiently detailed theory of romanticism was created.
Very important for understanding the essence of romanticism is the concept of romantic duality. As already mentioned, rejection, denial of reality is the main prerequisite for the emergence of romanticism. All romantics reject the outside world, hence their romantic escape from existing life and the search for an ideal outside of it. This gave rise to the emergence of a romantic dual world. The world for romantics was divided into two parts: here and there. “There” and “here” are antithesis (contrast), these categories are correlated as ideal and reality. The despised "here" is a modern reality, where evil and injustice triumph. “There” is a kind of poetic reality that the romantics opposed to reality. Many romantics believed that goodness, beauty and truth, ousted from public life, were still preserved in the souls of people. Hence their attention to the inner world of man, in-depth psychologism. The souls of people are their "there". For example, Zhukovsky was looking for "there" in the other world; Pushkin and Lermontov, Fenimore Cooper - in the free life of uncivilized peoples (Pushkin's poems "Prisoner of the Caucasus", "Gypsies", Cooper's novels about the life of Indians).
Rejection, denial of reality determined the specifics of the romantic hero. This is a fundamentally new hero, like him did not know the old literature. He is in hostile relations with the surrounding society, opposed to it. This is an unusual, restless person, most often lonely and with a tragic fate. The romantic hero is the embodiment of a romantic rebellion against reality.
REALISM(from the Latin realis - material, real) - a method (creative setting) or a literary movement that embodies the principles of a life-truthful attitude to reality, striving for artistic knowledge of man and the world. Often the term "realism" is used in two senses: 1) realism as a method; 2) realism as a trend that emerged in the 19th century. Both classicism, and romanticism, and symbolism strive for the knowledge of life and express their reaction to it in their own way, but only in realism does fidelity to reality become the defining criterion of artistry. This distinguishes realism, for example, from romanticism, which is characterized by the rejection of reality and the desire to “recreate” it, and not display it as it is. It is no coincidence that, referring to the realist Balzac, the romantic George Sand defined the difference between him and herself in this way: “You take a person as he appears to your eyes; I feel a calling to portray him the way I would like to see. Thus, we can say that the realists represent the real, and the romantics - the desired.
The beginning of the formation of realism is usually associated with the Renaissance. The realism of this time is characterized by the scale of images (Don Quixote, Hamlet) and the poeticization of the human personality, the perception of man as the king of nature, the crown of creation. The next stage is enlightenment realism. In the literature of the Enlightenment, a democratic realistic hero appears, a man "from the bottom" (for example, Figaro in Beaumarchais's plays "The Barber of Seville" and "The Marriage of Figaro"). New types of romanticism appeared in the 19th century: "fantastic" (Gogol, Dostoevsky), "grotesque" (Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin) and "critical" realism associated with the activities of the "natural school".
The main requirements of realism: observance of the principles of nationality, historicism, high artistry, psychologism, the image of life in its development. Realist writers showed the direct dependence of the social, moral, religious ideas of the heroes on social conditions, and paid much attention to the social aspect. The central problem of realism is the relationship between plausibility and artistic truth. Plausibility, a plausible depiction of life is very important for realists, but artistic truth is determined not by plausibility, but by fidelity in comprehending and conveying the essence of life and the significance of the ideas expressed by the artist. One of the most important features of realism is the typification of characters (the fusion of the typical and the individual, the uniquely personal). The credibility of a realistic character directly depends on the degree of individualization achieved by the writer.
Realist writers create new types of heroes: the type of "little man" (Vyrin, Bashmachki n, Marmeladov, Devushkin), the type of "extra person" (Chatsky, Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov), the type of "new" hero (nihilist Bazarov in Turgenev, "new people" Chernyshevsky).
MODERNISM(from French contemporary- the latest, modern) - a philosophical and aesthetic movement in literature and art that arose at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.
This term has various interpretations:
1) designates a number of non-realistic trends in art and literature at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries: symbolism, futurism, acmeism, expressionism, cubism, imagism, surrealism, abstractionism, impressionism;
2) is used as a symbol for the aesthetic searches of artists of non-realistic trends;
3) denotes a complex set of aesthetic and ideological phenomena, including not only modernist trends proper, but also the work of artists who do not completely fit into the framework of any direction (D. Joyce, M. Proust, F. Kafka and others).
Symbolism, acmeism and futurism became the most striking and significant trends in Russian modernism.
SYMBOLISM - a non-realistic trend in art and literature of the 1870s-1920s, focused mainly on artistic expression with the help of a symbol of intuitively comprehended entities and ideas. Symbolism made itself known in France in the 1860s-1870s in the poetic works of A. Rimbaud, P. Verlaine, S. Mallarme. Then, through poetry, symbolism connected itself not only with prose and dramaturgy, but also with other forms of art. The French writer C. Baudelaire is considered the ancestor, founder, "father" of symbolism.
At the heart of the worldview of symbolist artists lies the idea of the unknowability of the world and its laws. They considered the spiritual experience of a person and the creative intuition of the artist to be the only "tool" for understanding the world.
Symbolism was the first to put forward the idea of creating art free from the task of depicting reality. Symbolists argued that the purpose of art is not to depict the real world, which they considered secondary, but to convey a "higher reality". They intended to achieve this with the help of a symbol. A symbol is an expression of the poet's supersensible intuition, to whom, in moments of insight, the true essence of things is revealed. The Symbolists developed a new poetic language that does not directly name the subject, but hints at its content through allegory, musicality, color scheme, free verse.
Symbolism is the first and most significant of the modernist movements that arose in Russia. The first manifesto of Russian symbolism was the article by D. S. Merezhkovsky “On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature”, published in 1893. It identified three main elements of the "new art": mystical content, symbolization and "expansion of artistic impressionability."
Symbolists are usually divided into two groups, or currents:
1) "senior" symbolists (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub
and others), who debuted in the 1890s;
2) "younger" symbolists who began their creative activity in the 1900s and significantly updated the appearance of the current (A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Ivanov and others).
It should be noted that the "senior" and "junior" symbolists were separated not so much by age as by the difference in attitudes and the direction of creativity.
Symbolists believed that art is first of all " comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways"(Bryusov). After all, only phenomena that are subject to the law of linear causality can be rationally comprehended, and such causality operates only in the lower forms of life (empirical reality, everyday life). The Symbolists were interested in the higher spheres of life (the area of "absolute ideas" in Plato's terms or "world soul", according to V. Solovyov), not subject to rational knowledge. It is art that has the ability to penetrate into these spheres, and the images-symbols with their infinite ambiguity are able to reflect the entire complexity of the world universe. The Symbolists believed that the ability to comprehend the true, higher reality is given only to the elect, who, in moments of inspired insights, are able to comprehend the “higher” truth, absolute truth.
The image-symbol was considered by the symbolists as more effective than an artistic image, a tool that helps to “break through” through the cover of everyday life (lower life) to a higher reality. The symbol differs from the realistic image in that it conveys not the objective essence of the phenomenon, but the poet's own, individual idea of the world. In addition, the symbol, as the Russian symbolists understood it, is not an allegory, but, first of all, an image that requires the reader to respond creatively. The symbol, as it were, connects the author and the reader - this is the revolution produced by symbolism in art.
The image-symbol is fundamentally polysemantic and contains the prospect of an unlimited deployment of meanings. This trait of his was repeatedly emphasized by the symbolists themselves: “A symbol is only a true symbol when it is inexhaustible in its meaning” (Vyach. Ivanov); “A symbol is a window to infinity” (F. Sologub).
ACMEISM(from Greek. act- the highest degree of something, flowering power, peak) - a modernist literary trend in Russian poetry of the 1910s. Representatives: S. Gorodetsky, early A. Akhmatova, JI. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam. The term "acmeism" belongs to Gumilyov. The aesthetic program was formulated in Gumilyov's articles "The Legacy of Symbolism and Acmeism", Gorodetsky's "Some Currents in Modern Russian Poetry" and Mandelstam's "Morning of Acmeism".
Acmeism stood out from symbolism, criticizing its mystical aspirations for the “unknowable”: “Among the Acmeists, the rose again became good in itself, with its petals, smell and color, and not with its conceivable similarities with mystical love or anything else” (Gorodetsky) . Acmeists proclaimed the liberation of poetry from symbolist impulses to the ideal, from the ambiguity and fluidity of images, complicated metaphor; talked about the need to return to the material world, the subject, the exact meaning of the word. Symbolism is based on the rejection of reality, and the acmeists believed that one should not abandon this world, one should look for some values in it and capture them in their works, and do this with the help of accurate and understandable images, and not vague symbols.
Actually, the acmeist current was small, did not last long - about two years (1913-1914) - and was associated with the "Workshop of Poets". The "Workshop of Poets" was created in 1911 and at first united a fairly large number of people (not all of them later became involved in acmeism). This organization was much more cohesive than the disparate symbolist groups. At the meetings of the "Workshop" poems were analyzed, problems of poetic mastery were solved, and methods for analyzing works were substantiated. The idea of a new direction in poetry was first expressed by Kuzmin, although he himself did not enter the "Workshop". In his article “On Beautiful Clarity”, Kuzmin anticipated many declarations of acmeism. In January 1913, the first manifestos of acmeism appeared. From this moment, the existence of a new direction begins.
Acmeism proclaimed “beautiful clarity” as the task of literature, or clarism (from lat. clarus- clear). Acmeists called their current Adamism, linking the idea of a clear and direct view of the world with the biblical Adam. Acmeism preached a clear, “simple” poetic language, where words would directly name objects, declare their love for objectivity. So, Gumilyov urged to look not for “unsteady words”, but for words “with a more stable content”. This principle was most consistently realized in Akhmatova's lyrics.
FUTURISM - one of the main avant-garde trends (avant-garde is an extreme manifestation of modernism) in European art of the early 20th century, which was most developed in Italy and Russia.
In 1909, in Italy, the poet F. Marinetti published the Futurist Manifesto. The main provisions of this manifesto: the rejection of traditional aesthetic values and the experience of all previous literature, bold experiments in the field of literature and art. As the main elements of futuristic poetry, Marinetti calls "courage, audacity, rebellion." In 1912, the Russian futurists V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov created their manifesto "Slap in the face of public taste". They also sought to break with traditional culture, welcomed literary experiments, sought to find new means of speech expressiveness (proclaiming a new free rhythm, loosening syntax, destroying punctuation marks). At the same time, Russian futurists rejected fascism and anarchism, which Marinetti declared in his manifestos, and turned mainly to aesthetic problems. They proclaimed a revolution of form, its independence from content (“what is important is not what, but how”) and the absolute freedom of poetic speech.
Futurism was a heterogeneous direction. Within its framework, four main groups or currents can be distinguished:
1) "Hilea", which united cubo-futurists (V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh and others);
2) "Association of Egofuturists" (I. Severyanin, I. Ignatiev and others);
3) "Mezzanine of poetry" (V. Shershenevich, R. Ivnev);
4) "Centrifuge" (S. Bobrov, N. Aseev, B. Pasternak).
The most significant and influential group was the "Gilea": in fact, it was she who determined the face of Russian futurism. Its participants released many collections: "The Garden of Judges" (1910), "Slap in the Face of Public Taste" (1912), "Dead Moon" (1913), "Took" (1915).
The Futurists wrote in the name of the man of the crowd. At the heart of this movement was the feeling of "the inevitability of the collapse of the old" (Mayakovsky), the awareness of the birth of a "new humanity". Artistic creativity, according to the Futurists, should not be an imitation, but a continuation of nature, which through the creative will of man creates "a new world, today's, iron ..." (Malevich). This is the reason for the desire to destroy the "old" form, the desire for contrasts, the attraction to colloquial speech. Based on a living colloquial language, the futurists were engaged in "word-creation" (created neologisms). Their works were distinguished by complex semantic and compositional shifts - a contrast between the comic and the tragic, fantasy and lyrics.
Futurism began to disintegrate already in 1915-1916.
socialist realism(social realism) - a worldview method of artistic creativity, used in the art of the Soviet Union, and then in other socialist countries, introduced into artistic creativity by means of state policy, including censorship, and corresponding to the solution of the problems of building socialism.
It was approved in 1932 by the party organs in literature and art.
In parallel, unofficial art existed.
Artistic depiction of reality "accurately, in accordance with the specific historical revolutionary development."
· the coordination of artistic creativity with the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, the active involvement of the working people in the construction of socialism, the assertion of the leading role of the Communist Party.
Lunacharsky was the first writer who laid its ideological foundation. Back in 1906, he introduced such a concept as "proletarian realism" into everyday life. By the twenties, in relation to this concept, he began to use the term “new social realism”, and in the early thirties he devoted to “dynamic and through and through active socialist realism”, “a good, meaningful term that can be revealed interestingly with the right analysis”, a cycle of programmatic and theoretical articles that were published in Izvestia.
The term "socialist realism" was first proposed by I. Gronsky, chairman of the Organizing Committee of the USSR Writers' Union, in Literaturnaya Gazeta on May 23, 1932. It arose in connection with the need to direct the RAPP and the avant-garde to the artistic development of Soviet culture. Decisive in this was the recognition of the role of classical traditions and understanding of the new qualities of realism. In 1932-1933 Gronsky and head. the sector of fiction of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks V. Kirpotin intensively promoted this term [ source not specified 530 days] .
At the 1st All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934, Maxim Gorky stated:
“Socialist realism affirms being as an act, as creativity, the purpose of which is the continuous development of the most valuable individual abilities of a person for the sake of his victory over the forces of nature, for the sake of his health and longevity, for the sake of great happiness to live on the earth, which he, in accordance with the continuous growth of his needs, wants to process everything, as a beautiful dwelling of mankind, united in one family.
The state needed to approve this method as the main one for better control over creative individuals and better propaganda of its policy. In the previous period, the twenties, there were Soviet writers who sometimes took aggressive positions in relation to many outstanding writers. For example, the RAPP, an organization of proletarian writers, was actively involved in criticizing non-proletarian writers. The RAPP consisted mainly of aspiring writers. During the period of the creation of modern industry (the years of industrialization), the Soviet government needed art that lifts the people to "labor feats." The fine arts of the 1920s also presented a rather motley picture. It has several groups. The most significant group was the Association of Artists of the Revolution. They depicted today: the life of the Red Army, workers, peasantry, leaders of the revolution and labor. They considered themselves the heirs of the Wanderers. They went to factories, plants, to the Red Army barracks in order to directly observe the life of their characters, to “draw” it. It was they who became the main backbone of the artists of "socialist realism". Less traditional masters had a much harder time, in particular, members of the OST (Society of Easel Painters), which united young people who graduated from the first Soviet art university [ source not specified 530 days] .
Gorky solemnly returned from exile and headed the specially created Union of Writers of the USSR, which included mainly Soviet writers and poets.
For the first time, an official definition of socialist realism was given in the Charter of the Writers' Union of the USSR, adopted at the First Congress of the Writers' Union:
Socialist realism, being the main method of Soviet fiction and literary criticism, requires from the artist a truthful, historically concrete depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. Moreover, the truthfulness and historical concreteness of the artistic depiction of reality must be combined with the task of ideological reworking and education in the spirit of socialism.
This definition became the starting point for all further interpretations up to the 80s.
« socialist realism is a deeply vital, scientific and most advanced artistic method, developed as a result of the successes of socialist construction and the education of Soviet people in the spirit of communism. The principles of socialist realism ... were a further development of Lenin's teaching on the partisanship of literature. (Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1947)
Lenin expressed the idea that art should stand on the side of the proletariat in the following way:
“Art belongs to the people. The deepest springs of art can be found among a wide class of working people... Art must be based on their feelings, thoughts and demands and must grow with them.
literary trendsAndcurrents
XVII-Х1Х CENTURY
Classicism - a direction in the literature of the 17th - early 19th centuries, guided by the aesthetic standards of ancient art. The main idea is the assertion of the priority of reason. Aesthetics is based on the principle of rationalism: a work of art must be reasonably constructed, logically verified, must capture the enduring, essential properties of things. The works of classicism are characterized by high civic themes, strict observance of certain creative norms and rules, reflection of life in ideal images gravitating towards a universal model. (G. Derzhavin, I. Krylov, M. Lomonosov, V. Trediakovsky,D. Fonvizin).
Sentimentalism - the literary movement of the second half of the 18th century, which approved feeling, and not reason, as the dominant of the human personality. The hero of sentimentalism is a “feeling person”, his emotional world is diverse and mobile, and the wealth of the inner world is recognized for every person, regardless of his class affiliation. (I. M. Karamzin."Letters from a Russian Traveler", "Poor Lisa" ) .
Romanticism - literary movement that emerged at the beginning of the 19th century. The fundamental principle for romanticism was the principle of romantic duality, which implies a sharp opposition of the hero, his ideal, to the world around him. The incompatibility of the ideal and reality was expressed in the departure of romantics from modern topics to the world of history, traditions and legends, dreams, dreams, fantasies, exotic countries. Romanticism has a particular interest in the individual. The romantic hero is characterized by proud loneliness, disappointment, a tragic attitude and at the same time rebelliousness and rebellious spirit. (A. S. Pushkin."KavKazakh prisoner, « Gypsies»; M. Yu. Lermontov.« Mtsyri»; M. Gorky.« Song about the Falcon”, “Old Woman Izergil”).
Realism - a literary trend that established itself in Russian literature at the beginning of the 19th century and passed through the entire 20th century. Realism affirms the priority of the cognitive possibilities of literature, its ability to explore reality. The most important subject of artistic research is the relationship between character and circumstances, the formation of characters under the influence of the environment. Human behavior, according to realist writers, depends on external circumstances, which, however, does not negate his ability to oppose them with his will. This determined the central conflict - the conflict of personality and circumstances. Realist writers depict reality in development, in dynamics, presenting stable, typical phenomena in their uniquely individual incarnation. (A. S. Pushkin."Eugene Onegin"; novels I. S. Turgeneva, L. N. Tolstogo, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. M. Gorky,stories I. A. Bunina,A. I. Kuprin; N. A. Nekrasovand etc.).
Critical Realism - the literary direction, which is a child of the previous one, existed from the beginning of the 19th century to its end. It bears the main signs of realism, but differs in a deeper, critical, sometimes sarcastic author's look ( N. V. Gogol"Dead Souls"; Saltykov-Shchedrin)
XXCENTURY
Modernism - a literary trend in the first half of the 20th century that opposed realism and united many movements and schools with a very diverse aesthetic orientation. Instead of a rigid connection between characters and circumstances, modernism affirms the self-worth and self-sufficiency of the human personality, its irreducibility to a tiresome series of causes and effects.
avant-garde - a trend in literature and art of the 20th century, uniting various trends, united in their aesthetic radicalism (surrealism, drama of the absurd, "new novel", in Russian literature -futurism). Genetically connected with modernism, but absolutizes and takes its desire for artistic renewal to the extreme.
Decadence (decadence) - a certain mentality, a crisis type of consciousness, expressed in a feeling of despair, impotence, mental fatigue with the obligatory elements of narcissism and aestheticization of self-destruction of the individual. Decadent-in-the-mood works aestheticize fading away, a break with traditional morality, and the will to die. The decadent attitude was reflected in the works of writers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. F. Sologuba, 3. Gippius, L. Andreeva, and etc.
Symbolism - pan-European, and in Russian literature - the first and most significant modernist trend. The roots of symbolism are connected with romanticism, with the idea of two worlds. The traditional idea of knowing the world in art was opposed by the Symbolists to the idea of constructing the world in the process of creativity. The meaning of creativity is the subconscious-intuitive contemplation of secret meanings, accessible only to the artist-creator. The main means of transmitting rationally unknowable secret meanings is the symbol (signs) ("senior symbolists": V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius, F. Sologub;"young symbolists": A. Block,A. Bely, V. Ivanov, dramas by L. Andreev).
Acmeism - a current of Russian modernism that arose as a reaction to the extremes of symbolism with its persistent tendency to perceive reality as a distorted likeness of higher entities. The main significance in the work of acmeists is the artistic development of the diverse and vibrant earthly world, the transfer of the inner world of man, the assertion of culture as the highest value. Acmeistic poetry is characterized by stylistic balance, pictorial clarity of images, precisely adjusted composition, and sharpness of details. (N. Gumilyov, S. Gorodetscue, A. Akhmatova, O. Mandelstam, M. Zenkevich, V. Narbut).
Futurism - an avant-garde movement that arose almost simultaneously in Italy and Russia. The main feature is the preaching of the overthrow of past traditions, the crushing of the old aesthetics, the desire to create a new art, the art of the future, capable of transforming the world. The main technical principle is the principle of "shift", manifested in the lexical renewal of the poetic language by introducing vulgarisms, technical terms, neologisms into it, in violation of the laws of lexical word compatibility, in bold experiments in the field of syntax and word formation (V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, I. Severyanin and etc.).
Expressionism - modernist trend that was formed in 1910 - 1920s in Germany. The expressionists sought not so much to depict the world as to express their idea of the troubles of the world and the suppression of the human personality. The style of expressionism is determined by the rationalism of constructions, the tendency to abstraction, the sharp emotionality of the statements of the author and characters, the abundant use of fantasy and the grotesque. In Russian literature, the influence of expressionism manifested itself in the work of L. Andreeva, E. Zamyatina, A. Platone and etc.
Postmodernism - a complex set of worldview attitudes and cultural reactions in the era of ideological and aesthetic pluralism (the end of the 20th century). Postmodern thinking is fundamentally anti-hierarchical, opposes the idea of worldview integrity, rejects the possibility of mastering reality with the help of a single method or language of description. Writers - postmodernists consider literature, first of all, a fact of language, and therefore do not hide, but emphasize the "literary" nature of their works, combine the style of different genres and different literary eras in one text (A. Bitov, Sasha Sokolov, D. A. Prigov, V. PeLevin, Wen. Erofeev and etc.).
Option 1
A. Classicism
B. Sentimentalism
B. Romanticism
D. Realism
1. Reflection of the idea of harmony, strict orderliness of the world, faith in the human mind.
2. The opposition of reality and dreams is contained.
3. Opposes the abstractness and rationality of the works of classicism. It reflects the desire to depict human psychology.
4. The protagonist is lonely and misunderstood by others, opposes society.
5. The actions and deeds of the heroes are determined in terms of feelings, the exaggerated sensitivity of the heroes.
6. The plot and composition obey the accepted rules (the rule of three unities: places of time, actions).
7. Depiction of typical heroes in typical circumstances.
8. Main genres - comedy, ode.
9. Idealization of the village way of life, the heroes are ordinary people.
10. The name of the direction in translation means "real, real."
11. Comes to replace classicism.
12. Civil (educational) orientation of the works.
13. M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri"
14. G.R. Derzhavin Ode "Felitsa"
15. N.V. Gogol "Dead Souls"
16. V.A. Zhukovsky "Svetlana"
17. M.V. Lomonosov
18. N.M. Karamzin
19. D.I. Fonvizin
20. L.N. Tolstoy
Test on the topic "Literary trends"
Option 2
When answering the test questions, indicate only the letter that corresponds to the literary direction.
A. Classicism
B. Sentimentalism
B. Romanticism
D. Realism
I. What literary direction does the characteristic correspond to?
1. The actions and deeds of the heroes are determined from the point of view of the mind.
2. Idealization of the natural world (special landscape).
3. An exceptional hero acts in exceptional circumstances.
4. Main genres - elegy, ballad.
5. The hero is individual and at the same time embodies typical features.
6. The name of the direction in translation means "Exemplary"
7. Representatives of the lower classes are endowed with a rich spiritual world.
8. Comes to replace romanticism and exists to this day.
9. Unusual and exotic image of events, landscape, people.
10. The division of comedy heroes into positive and negative.
11. The work shows a special interest in the surrounding reality, the ideal world is opposed to the real one.
12. A hero is judged by how he knows how to show feelings, and not by how much he brings to the state.
II. What literary movement do the works belong to?
13. V.A. Zhukovsky Elegy "Sea"
14. M.Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time"
15. M.V. Lomonosov "Ode on the day of the accession to the throne of Elizabeth Petrovna"
16. A.S. Pushkin "Eugene Onegin"
III. What literary direction does the writer's work belong to?
17. G.R. Derzhavin
18. A.P. Chekhov
19. M.V. Lomonosov
20. N.M. Karamzin
| Option 1 | Option 2 |
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Evaluation criteria
"5" - 18-20 points (90% correct answers)
"4" - 14-17 points (70% -89% correct answers)
"3" - 10-13 points (50% -69% correct answers)
"2" - 0-9 points (less than 49% of correct answers)
