Examples of sentimentalism in Russian literature. Two strands of sentimentalism

In the process of its development, literature, both Russian and world, went through many stages. Peculiarities literary creativity, which were repeated over a certain period of time and were characteristic of a large number works, cause the so-called artistic method or literary direction. The history of the development of Russian literary creativity directly echoes Western European art. The currents that dominated the world classics, sooner or later, were reflected in Russian. This article will consider the main features and signs of such a period as sentimentalism in Russian literature.

In contact with

New literary trend

Sentimentalism in literature belongs to the most prominent trends, it originated in European art in the 18th century, under the influence of the Enlightenment. England is considered to be the birthplace of sentimentalism. The definition of this direction came from French word sentimentas, which in translation into Russian means "".

This name was chosen due to the fact that the adherents of the style paid the main attention to the inner world of a person, his feelings and emotions. Tired of the hero-citizen, characteristic of classicism, reading Europe enthusiastically accepted the new vulnerable and sensual person depicted by sentimentalists.

This trend came to Russia at the end of the 18th century through literary translations of Western European writers such as Werther, J.J. Russo, Richardson. This trend originated in Western European art in the 18th century. In literary works, this trend manifested itself especially clearly. It spread in Russia thanks to literary translations of novels by European writers.

The main features of sentimentalism

The emergence of a new school, which preached the rejection of a rational view of the world, was a response to civic patterns of reason of the era of classicism. Among the main features, the following features of sentimentalism can be distinguished:

Nature is used as a background, shading and complementing the inner experiences and states of a person.
The foundations of psychologism are laid, the authors put in the first place the inner feelings of a single person, his reflections and torments.
One of the leading themes of sentimental works is the theme of death. Often there is a motive for suicide due to the inability to resolve the hero's internal conflict.
The environment that surrounds the hero is secondary. It does not have much influence on the development of the conflict.
Propaganda the original spiritual beauty of the common man, the wealth of his inner world.
A rational and practical approach to life gives way to sensory perception.

Important! Rectilinear classicism gives rise to a trend that is completely opposite to itself in spirit, in which the internal states of the individual come to the fore, regardless of the baseness of her class origin.

The uniqueness of the Russian version

In Russia, this method has retained its basic principles, but two groups have been distinguished in it. One was a reactionary view of serfdom. The stories of the authors included in it portrayed the serfs very happy and satisfied with their fate. Representatives of this direction - P.I. Shalikov and N.I. Ilyin.

The second group had a more progressive view of the peasants. It was she who became the main driving force in the development of literature. The main representatives of sentimentalism in Russia are N. Karamzin, M. Muravyov and N. Kutuzov.

The sentimental direction in Russian works glorified the patriarchal way of life, sharply criticized and emphasized the high level of spirituality among the lower class. He tried to teach the reader something through the impact on spirituality and inner feelings. The Russian version of this direction performed an educational function.

Representatives of a new literary direction

Arriving in Russia at the end of the 18th century, the new trend found many adherents. Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin can be called his most striking follower. It is he who is considered the discoverer of the era of the literature of the senses.

In his novel Letters of a Russian Traveler, he used a favorite genre of sentimentalists - travel notes. This genre made it possible to show everything that the author saw during his journey through his own perception.

In addition to Karamzin, rather bright representatives of this trend in Russia are N.I. Dmitriev, M.N. Muravyov, A.N. Radishchev, V.I. Lukin. At one time, V.A. Zhukovsky belonged to this group with some of his early stories.

Important! N.M. Karamzin is considered the most prominent representative and founder of sentimental ideas in Russia. His work caused many imitations (“Poor Masha” by A.E. Izmailov, G.P. Kamenev “Beautiful Tatyana”, etc.).

Examples and themes of works

The new literary trend predetermined a new attitude towards nature: it becomes not just a scene of action against which events develop, but acquires a very important function – shade the feelings, emotions and inner experiences of the characters.

The main theme of the works was to depict the beautiful and harmonious existence of the individual in the natural world and the unnaturalness of the spoiled behavior of the aristocratic stratum.

Examples of sentimentalist works in Russia:

"Letters of a Russian traveler" N.M. Karamzin;
"" N.M. Karamzin;
"Natalia, boyar daughter" N.M. Karamzin;
"Maryina Grove" by V. A. Zhukovsky;
"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" A.N. Radishchev;
"Journey through the Crimea and Bessarabia" P. Sumarokov;
"Henrietta" by I. Svechinsky.

"Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" A.N. Radishchev

Genres

Emotional and sensual perception of the world forced the use of new literary genres and lofty figurative vocabulary corresponding to the ideological load. The emphasis on the fact that natural principles should prevail in a person, and on the fact that the best habitat is natural, predetermined the main genres of sentimentalism in literature. elegy, diary, psychological drama, letters, psychological story, travel, pastoral, psychological novel, memoirs became the basis of the works of "sensual" authors.

Important! A prerequisite Absolute happiness sentimentalists considered virtue and high spirituality, which should be naturally present in a person.

Heroes

If for the predecessor this direction, classicism, was characterized by the image of a hero-citizen, a man whose actions are subject to reason, then the new style revolutionized in this regard. It is not citizenship and reason that come to the fore, but the internal state of a person, his psychological background. Feelings and naturalness, elevated to a cult, contributed to absolute disclosure of hidden feelings and thoughts of a person. Each image of the hero became unique and unrepeatable. The image of such a person becomes the main goal of this movement.

In any work of a sentimentalist writer, one can find a subtle sensitive nature that faces the cruelty of the surrounding world.

The following features of the image of the main character in sentimentalism stand out:

A clear distinction between positive and bad guys. The first group demonstrates direct sincere feelings, and the second is selfish liars who have lost their natural beginning. But, despite this, the authors of this school retain the belief that a person is able to return to true naturalness and become a positive character.
The depiction of opposing heroes (a serf and a landowner), whose confrontation clearly demonstrates the superiority of the lower class.
The author does not avoid depicting certain people with a specific fate. Often the prototypes of the hero in the book are real people.

Serfs and landowners

Image of the author

The author plays big role in sentimental works. He openly demonstrates his attitude towards the characters and their actions. The main task facing the writer is to enable feel the emotions of the characters to evoke sympathy for them and their deeds. This task is realized by calling compassion.

Vocabulary features

The language of the sentimental trend is characterized by the presence of widespread lyrical digressions in which the author gives his assessment of what is described on the pages of the work. Rhetorical questions, appeals and exclamations help him to place the right accents and draw the reader's attention to important points. Most often, such works are dominated by expressive vocabulary using colloquial expressions. Acquaintance with literature becomes possible for all layers. It takes her to the next level.

Sentimentalism as a literary movement

Sentimentalism

Conclusion

The new literary trend has completely outlived itself by late XIX century. But, having existed for a relatively short time, sentimentalism became a kind of impetus that helped all art, and literature in particular, take a huge step forward. Classicism, which fettered creativity with its laws, is a thing of the past. The new trend became a kind of preparation of world literature for romanticism, for the work of A.S. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov.

Sentimentalism is one of the main, along with classicism and rococo, artistic movements in European literature of the 18th century. Like Rococo, sentimentalism arises as a reaction to the classicist tendencies in literature that prevailed in the previous century. Sentimentalism received its name after the publication unfinished novel"A sentimental journey through France and Italy" (1768) English writer L. Stern, who, as modern researchers believe, fixed the new meaning of the word "sentimental" in the English language. If earlier (the first use of this word by the Great Oxford Dictionary dates back to 1749) it meant either “reasonable”, “sensible”, or “highly moral”, “edifying”, then by the 1760s it intensified the connotation associated not so much with belonging to areas of the mind, how much - to the area of feeling. Now “sentimental” also means “capable of sympathy”, and Stern finally assigns to it the meaning of “sensitive”, “capable of experiencing lofty and subtle emotions” and introduces it into the circle of the most fashionable words of his time. Subsequently, the fashion for “sentimental” passed, and in the 19th century the word “sentimental” in English acquires a negative connotation, meaning “inclined to indulge excessive sensitivity”, “easily amenable to the influx of emotions”.

Modern dictionaries and reference books already breed the concepts of "feeling" (sentiment) and "sensitivity", "sentimentality" (sentimentality), opposing them to each other. However, the word "sentimentalism" in English, as well as in other Western European languages, where it came under the influence of the success of Stern's novels, did not acquire the character of a strictly literary term that would cover a whole and internally unified artistic direction. English-speaking researchers still use mainly such concepts as “sentimental novel”, “sentimental drama” or “sentimental poetry”, while French and German critics single out rather “sentimentality” (French sentimentalite, German sentimentalitat) as a special category, to one degree or another inherent in the works of art of the most different eras and directions. Only in Russia, starting from the end of the 19th century, attempts were made to comprehend sentimentalism as an integral historical and literary phenomenon. All domestic researchers recognize the “cult of feeling” (or “heart”) as the main feature of sentimentalism, which in this system of views becomes the “measurement of good and evil”. Most often, the appearance of this cult in Western literature The 18th century is explained, on the one hand, by a reaction to enlightenment rationalism (at the same time, feeling is directly opposed to reason), and on the other hand, by a reaction to the previously dominant aristocratic type of culture. The fact that sentimentalism as an independent phenomenon first appeared in England already in the late 1720s and early 1730s is usually associated with the social changes that took place in this country in the 17th century, when, as a result of the revolution of 1688-89, the third estate became independent and influential force. One of the main categories that determines the attention of sentimentalists to the life of the human heart, all researchers call the concept of "natural", in general, very important for the philosophy and literature of the Enlightenment. This concept unites the outer world of nature with the inner world of the human soul, which, from the point of view of sentimentalists, are consonant and essentially involved in each other. From this it follows, firstly, Special attention authors of this trend towards nature - its appearance and the processes taking place in it; Secondly, intense interest in emotional sphere and experiences of the individual. At the same time, sentimentalist authors are interested in a person not so much as a bearer of a reasonable volitional principle, but as a focus of the best natural qualities that have been instilled in his heart from birth. The hero of sentimental literature acts as a feeling person, and therefore psychological analysis The authors of this direction are most often based on the subjective outpourings of the hero.

Sentimentalism "descends" from the heights of majestic upheavals, unfolding in an aristocratic environment, to the everyday life of ordinary people, unremarkable, except for the strength of their experiences. The sublime beginning, so beloved by the theoreticians of classicism, is replaced in sentimentalism by the category of touching. Thanks to this, the researchers note, sentimentalism, as a rule, cultivates sympathy for one’s neighbor, philanthropy, becomes a “school of philanthropy”, as opposed to “cold-rational” classicism and, in general, “the dominance of reason” at the initial stages of the development of the European Enlightenment. However, too direct opposition of reason and feeling, "philosopher" and " sensitive person”, which is found in the works of a number of domestic and foreign researchers, unnecessarily simplifies the idea of sentimentalism. Often, "reason" is associated exclusively with enlightenment classicism, and the whole realm of "feelings" falls to the lot of sentimentalism. But such an approach, which is based on another very common opinion - that at the basis of its sentimentality is entirely derived from the sensationalist philosophy of George Locke (1632-1704), - obscures the much more subtle relationship between "reason" and "feeling" in the 18th century, and moreover, does not explain the essence of the divergence between sentimentalism and such an independent artistic direction this century, like Rococo. The most debatable problem in the study of sentimentalism remains its relation, on the one hand, to other aesthetic trends of the 18th century, and, on the other hand, to the Enlightenment as a whole.

Prerequisites for the emergence of sentimentalism

The prerequisites for the emergence of sentimentalism were already contained in the newest way of thinking., which distinguished the philosophers and writers of the 18th century and determined the whole structure and spirit of the Enlightenment. In this way of thinking, sensibility and rationality do not appear and do not exist without each other: in contrast to the speculative rationalist systems of the 17th century, rationalism of the 18th century is limited by the framework of human experience, i.e. the perception of the sentient soul. A person with his inherent desire for happiness in this earthly life becomes the main measure of the viability of any views. Rationalists of the 18th century not only criticize certain, in their opinion, phenomena of reality, but also put forward an image of ideal reality, conducive to human happiness, and this image ultimately turns out to be prompted not by reason, but by feeling. The ability for critical judgment and a sensitive heart are two sides of a single intellectual tool that helped the writers of the 18th century develop A New Look on a person who abandoned the feeling of original sin and tried to justify his existence, based on his innate desire for happiness. Various aesthetic trends of the 18th century, including sentimentalism, tried to paint the image of the new reality in their own way. As long as they remained within the framework of the enlightenment ideology, they were equally close to critical views Locke, who denied the existence of so-called "innate ideas" from the standpoint of sensationalism. From this point of view, sentimentalism differs from Rococo or Classicism not so much in the “cult of feeling” (because in this specific understanding, feeling played no less important role and in others aesthetic trends) or the tendency to depict predominantly representatives of the third estate (all the literature of the Enlightenment was in one way or another interested in human nature "in general", leaving out questions of class differences), how much special performances about the possibilities and ways of achieving human happiness. Like Rococo art, sentimentalism professes a sense of disillusionment with " great Stories”, refers to the sphere of private, intimate life of an individual, gives it a “natural” dimension. But if rocaille literature interprets “naturalness” primarily as an opportunity to go beyond the traditionally established moral norms and, thus, illuminates mainly the “scandalous”, behind-the-scenes side of life, condescending to the excusable weaknesses of human nature, then sentimentalism seeks to reconcile the natural and the moral. began by trying to present virtue not as imported, but innate property human heart. Therefore, the sentimentalists were closer not to Locke with his resolute denial of any “innate ideas”, but to his follower A.A.K. moral sense, which alone can point the way to happiness. It is not the awareness of duty that prompts a person to act morally, but the command of the heart. Happiness, therefore, does not consist in the craving for sensual pleasures, but in the craving for virtue. Thus, the “naturalness” of human nature is interpreted by Shaftesbury, and after him by sentimentalists, not as its “scandalousness”, but as a need and opportunity for virtuous behavior, and the heart becomes a special supra-individual sense organ that connects a particular person with a common harmonious and morally justified structure of the universe.

Poetics of sentimentalism

The first elements of the poetics of sentimentalism penetrate the English literature of the late 1720s. when the genre of descriptive and didactic poems devoted to labor and leisure against the backdrop of rural nature (georgics) becomes especially relevant. In J. Thomson's poem "The Seasons" (1726-30) one can already find a completely "sentimentalistic" idyll, built on a sense of moral satisfaction arising from the contemplation of rural landscapes. Subsequently, such motifs were developed by E. Jung (1683-1765) and especially T. Gray, who discovered the elegy as a genre most suitable for sublime meditations against the backdrop of nature (the most famous work is “Elegy written in a rural cemetery”, 1751). A significant influence on the development of sentimentalism was exerted by the work of S. Richardson, whose novels (Pamela, 1740; Clarissa, 1747-48; The History of Sir Charles Grandisson, 1754) not only for the first time introduced heroes who in everything corresponded to the spirit of sentimentalism, but and popularized a special genre form epistolary novel, so loved later by many sentimentalists. Among the latter, some researchers also include Richardson's main opponent, Henry Fielding, whose "comic epics" ("The Story of the Adventure of Joseph Endrus", 1742, and "The Story of Tom Jones, a Foundling", 1749) are largely built on the basis of sentimentalist ideas about human nature. In the second half of the 18th century, the tendencies of sentimentalism in English literature were growing stronger, but now they are increasingly in conflict with the actual enlightenment pathos of life-building, the improvement of the world and the education of man. The world no longer seems to be the focus of moral harmony to the heroes of the novels by O. Goldsmith "The Weckfield Priest" (1766) and G. Mackenzie "The Man of Feelings" (1773). Stern's novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-67) and A Sentimental Journey are examples of caustic polemics against Locke's sensationalism and many conventional views of the English Enlightenment. The Scots R. Burns (1759-96) and J. MacPherson (1736-96) are among the poets who developed sentimentalist tendencies on folklore and pseudo-historical material. By the end of the century English sentimentalism, more and more inclined towards “sensitivity”, breaks with the enlightenment harmony between feeling and reason and gives rise to the genre of the so-called Gothic novel (H. Walpole, A. Radcliffe, etc.), which some researchers correlate with an independent artistic movement - pre-romanticism. In France, the poetics of sentimentalism enters into a dispute with Rococo already in the work of D. Diderot, who was influenced by Richardson ("The Nun", 1760) and, in part, Stern ("Jacquefatalist", 1773). The principles of sentimentalism were most consonant with the views and tastes of J.J. Rousseau, who created an exemplary sentimentalist epistolary novel “Julia, or New Eloise» (1761). However, already in his "Confession" (published 1782-89), Rousseau departs from an important principle of sentimentalist poetics - the normativity of the depicted personality, proclaiming the inherent value of his one and only "I", taken in individual originality. In the future, sentimentalism in France is closely linked with the specific concept of "Rousseauism". Penetrating into Germany, sentimentalism first influenced the work of H.F. Gellert (1715-69) and F.G. sentimentalism, called the "Storm and Onslaught" movement, to which the young I.V. Goethe and F. Schiller belonged. Goethe's novel "Suffering young Werther"(1774), although it is considered the pinnacle of sentimentalism in Germany, in fact contains a hidden polemic with the ideals of the sturmerism and is not reduced to chanting the "sensitive nature" of the protagonist. The “last sentimentalist” of Germany, Jean Paul (1763-1825), was especially influenced by Stern’s work.

Sentimentalism in Russia

In Russia, all the most significant samples of Western European sentimental literature were translated as early as the 18th century, influencing F. Emin, N. Lvov, and partly A. Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”, 1790). Russian sentimentalism reached its peak in the works of N. Karamzin(“Letters from a Russian Traveler”, 1790; “ Poor Lisa", 1792; "Natalya, the boyar daughter", 1792, etc.). Subsequently, A. Izmailov, V. Zhukovsky and others turned to the poetics of sentimentalism.

The word sentimentalism comes from English sentimental, which means sensitive; French sentiment - feeling.

Sentimentalism (from fr. sentiment- feeling) arose during the Enlightenment in England in the middle of the 18th century. during the period of the disintegration of feudal absolutism, estate-serf relations, the growth of bourgeois relations, and, therefore, the beginning of the liberation of the individual from the shackles of the feudal-serf state.

Representatives of sentimentalism

England. L. Stern (the novel "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy"), O. Goldsmith (the novel "The Weckfield Priest"), S. Richardson (the novel "Pamela", or Virtue Rewarded", the novel "Clarissa Harlow", "The Story of Sir Charles Grandison").

France. J.-J. Rousseau (novel in letters "Julia, or New Eloise", "Confession"), P. O. Beaumarchais (comedies "The Barber of Seville", "The Marriage of Figaro").

Germany. I. V. Goethe (sentimental novel "The Suffering of Young Werther"), A. La Fontaine (family novels).

Sentimentalism expressed the worldview, psychology, tastes of the broad strata conservative nobility and the bourgeoisie (the so-called third estate), thirsting for freedom, a natural manifestation of feelings that demanded reckoning with human dignity.

Features of sentimentalism

The cult of feeling, natural feeling, not spoiled by civilization (Rousseau asserted the decisive superiority of simple, natural, "natural" life over civilization); denial of abstractness, abstractness, conventionality, dryness of classicism. Compared with classicism, sentimentalism was a more progressive direction, because it contained elements of realism associated with the depiction of human emotions, experiences, and the expansion of the inner world of a person. Philosophical basis sentimentalism becomes sensationalism (from lat. sensus- feeling, sensation), one of the founders of which was the English philosopher J. Locke, who recognizes sensation, sensory perception as the only source of knowledge.

If classicism affirmed the idea of an ideal state, ruled by an enlightened monarch, and demanded that the interests of the individual be subordinated to the state, then sentimentalism put forward not a person in general, but a concrete, private person in all the originality of his individual personality. At the same time, the value of a person was determined not by his high origin, not by his property status, not by class affiliation, but by personal merits. Sentimentalism first raised the question of the rights of the individual.

The heroes were ordinary people - nobles, artisans, peasants, who lived mainly by feelings, passions, hearts. Sentimentalism opened up the rich spiritual world of the common man. In some works of sentimentalism sounded protest against social injustice, against the humiliation of the "little man".

Sentimentalism gave literature a democratic character in many ways.

Since sentimentalism proclaimed the writer's right to express his author's individuality in art, genres appeared in sentimentalism that contributed to the expression of the author's "I", which means that the form of narration in the first person was used: diary, confession, autobiographical memoirs, travel (travel notes, notes, impressions ). In sentimentalism, poetry and dramaturgy are replaced by prose, which had a greater opportunity for transmission. complex world emotional experiences of a person, in connection with which new genres arose: family, everyday and psychological novel in the form of correspondence, "petty-bourgeois drama", "sensitive" story, "bourgeois tragedy", "tearful comedy"; the genres of intimate, chamber lyrics (idyll, elegy, romance, madrigal, song, message), as well as the fable, flourished.

It was allowed to mix high and low, tragic and comic, mixing genres; the law of "three unities" was subverted (for example, the range of phenomena of reality was significantly expanded).

Depicted ordinary, everyday family life; the main theme was love; the plot was based on situations everyday life individuals; the composition of works of sentimentalism was arbitrary.

The cult of nature was proclaimed. The landscape acted as a favorite backdrop for events; the peaceful, idyllic life of a person was shown in the bosom of rural nature, while nature was depicted in close connection with the experiences of the hero or the author himself, was in tune with personal experience. The village, as the center of natural life and moral purity, was sharply opposed to the city as a symbol of evil, artificial life, and vanity.

The language of the works of sentimentalism was simple, lyrical, sometimes sensitively elevated, emphatically emotional; such poetic means as exclamations, appeals, petting-diminutive suffixes, comparisons, epithets, interjections were used; blank verse was used. In the works of sentimentalism there is a further convergence literary language with live, conversational speech.

Features of Russian sentimentalism

In Russia, sentimentalism is established in last decade 18th century and fades away after 1812, during the period of development revolutionary movement future Decembrists.

Russian sentimentalism idealized the patriarchal way of life, the life of a serf village and criticized bourgeois mores.

A feature of Russian sentimentalism is a didactic, educational orientation towards the upbringing of a worthy citizen. Sentimentalism in Russia is represented by two currents:

1. Sentimental-romantic - Η. M. Karamzin ("Letters from a Russian Traveler", the story "Poor Lisa), M. N. Muravyov (sentimental poems), I. I. Dmitriev (fables, lyric songs, poetic tales"Fashionable wife", "Whimsical"), F. A. Emin (the novel "Letters of Ernest and Doravra"), V. I. Lukin (comedy "Mot, corrected by love").
2. Sentimental-realistic - A. II. Radishchev ("Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow").

Features of sentimentalism as a new direction are noticeable in European literatures of the 30-50s of the 18th century. Sentimentalist tendencies are observed in the literature of England (the poetry of J. Thomson, E. Jung, T. Gray), France (the novels of G. Marivaux and A. Prevost, the “tearful comedy” of P. Lachosset), Germany (“serious comedy” X. B Gellert, partly "Messiad" by F. Klopstock). But as a separate literary trend, sentimentalism took shape in the 1760s. The most prominent sentimentalist writers were S Richardson ("Pamela", "Clarissa"), O. Goldsmith ("The Weckfield Priest"), L. Stern ("The Life and Opinions of Tristramy Shandy", "Sentimental Journey") in England; J. W. Goethe (“Suffering young Werther”), F. Schiller (“Robbers”), Jean Paul (“Siebenkes”) in Germany; J.-J. Rousseau ("Julia, or New Eloise", "Confession"), D. Diderot ("Jacques the Fatalist", "The Nun"), B. de Saint-Pierre ("Paul and Virginia") in France; M. Karamzin (“Poor Liza”, “Letters from a Russian Traveler”), A. Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”) in Russia. The direction of sentimentalism also affected other European literatures: Hungarian (I. Karman), Polish (K. Brodzinsky, Yu. Nemtsevich), Serbian (D. Obradovic).

Unlike many other literary movements, the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism do not find complete expression in theory. Sentimentalists did not create any literary manifestos, did not put forward their own ideologists and theorists, such as, in particular, N. Boileau for classicism, F. Schlegel for romanticism, E. Zola for naturalism. It cannot be said that sentimentalism has developed its own creative method. It would be more correct to consider sentimentalism as a certain frame of mind with characteristic features: feeling as the main human value and dimension, melancholic daydreaming, pessimism, sensuality.

Sentimentalism is born within the enlightenment ideology. It becomes a negative reaction to Enlightenment rationalism. Sentimentalism opposed the cult of feeling to the cult of the mind, which dominated both classicism and the Enlightenment. For changing famous saying Rationalist philosopher René Descartes: “Cogito, ergosum” (“I think, therefore I am”) comes the words of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “I feel, therefore I am.” Sentimentalist artists resolutely reject the one-sided rationalism of Descartes, which was embodied in normativity and strict regulation in classicism. Sentimentalism is based on the agnostic philosophy of the English Thinker David Hume. Agnosticism was polemically directed against the rationalism of the Enlightenment. He questioned faith in the limitless possibilities of the mind. According to D. Hume, all a person's ideas about the world can be false, and people's moral assessments are based not on the advice of the mind, but on emotions or "active feelings". “Reason,” says the English philosopher, “never has before it anything other than perceptions.

.. “According to this, shortcomings and virtues are subjective categories. “When you recognize some act or character as false,” says D. Hume, “you mean by this only what, due to the special organization of your nature, you experience when contemplating it ...” Philosophical soil for sentimentalism was prepared by two other English philosophers - Francis Bacon and John Locke. They gave the primary role in the knowledge of the world to the feeling. “Reason can err, feeling never” - this expression of J. Rousseau can be considered a general philosophical and aesthetic creed of sentimentalism.

The sentimental cult of feeling predetermines a wider interest than in classicism in the inner world of a person, in his psychology. The external world, notes the well-known Russian researcher P. Berkov, for sentimentalists “is valuable only insofar as it enables the writer to find the richness of his inner experiences ... For a sentimentalist, self-disclosure is important, exposure of complex mental life what's going on in it." The sentimentalist writer chooses from a number of life phenomena and events exactly those that can move the reader, make him worry. The authors of sentimentalist works appeal to those who are able to empathize with the heroes, they describe the suffering of a lonely person, unhappy love, and often the death of heroes. The sentimentalist writer always seeks to evoke sympathy for the fate of the characters. So the Russian sentimentalist A. Klushchin urges the reader to sympathize with the hero, who, due to the inability to connect his fate with his beloved girl, commits suicide: “Sensitive, immaculate heart! Shed tears of regret for the unfortunate love of a suicide; pray for him - beware of love! - Beware of this tyrant of our feelings! His arrows are terrible, the wounds are incurable, the torment is incomparable.

The hero of the sentimentalists is democratized. This is no longer the king or commander of the classicists, who acts in exceptional, extraordinary conditions, against the backdrop of historical events. The hero of sentimentalism is a completely ordinary person, as a rule, a representative of the lower strata of the population, a sensitive, modest person, with deep feelings. Events in the works of sentimentalists take place against the backdrop of everyday, quite prosaic life. Often it closes in the middle of family life. Such a private, private life ordinary person confronts extraordinary, implausible events in the life of the aristocratic hero of classicism. By the way, a simple person among sentimentalists sometimes suffers from the arbitrariness of the nobles, but he is also able to “positively influence” them. So, the maid Pamela from the novel of the same name by S. Richardson is pursued and tries to seduce her master - the squire. However, Pamela is a model of integrity - she rejects all courtship. This led to a change in the attitude of the nobleman to the maid. Convinced of her virtue, he begins to respect Pamela and truly falls in love with her, and at the end of the novel, he marries her.

Sensitive heroes of sentimentalism are often eccentrics, people extremely impractical, unadapted to life. This feature is especially inherent in the heroes of the English sentimentalists. They do not know how and do not want to live "like everyone else", to live "in the mind." The characters in Goldsmith's and Stern's novels have their own hobbies, which are perceived as eccentric: Pastor Primrose from O. Goldsmith's novel writes treatises on the monogamy of the clergy. Toby Shandy from Stern's novel builds toy fortresses that he himself besieges. The heroes of the works of sentimentalism have their own "horse". Stern, who invented this word, wrote: “A horse is a cheerful, changeable creature, a firefly, a butterfly, a picture, a trifle, something that a person clings to in order to get away from the normal course of life, to leave life's anxieties and worries for an hour. ".

In general, the search for originality in each person determines the brightness and diversity of characters in the literature of sentimentalism. The authors of sentimentalist works do not sharply contrast "positive" and "negative" heroes. Thus, Rousseau characterizes the idea of his "Confession" as a desire to show "one person in all the truth of his nature." The hero of the "sentimental journey" Yorick performs deeds both noble and low, and sometimes finds himself in such difficult situations when it is impossible to unambiguously evaluate its actions.

Sentimentalism changes the genre system of contemporary literature. He rejects the classicist hierarchy of genres: sentimentalists no longer have "high" and "low" genres, they are all equal. The genres that dominated the literature of classicism (ode, tragedy, heroic poem), give way to new genres. Changes occur in all kinds of literature. The epic is dominated by the genres of travel notes (“Sentimental Journey” by Stern, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A. Radishchev), epistolary novel (“The Sufferings of Young Werther” by Goethe, everyday story("Poor Liza" Karamzin). IN epic works elements of confession (“Confession” by Rousseau) and memories (“The Nun” by Diderot) play an important role in sentimentalism, which makes it possible for a deeper disclosure of the inner world of the characters, their feelings and experiences. Lyric genres - elegies, idylls, messages - are aimed at psychological analysis, revealing the subjective world of the lyrical hero. The outstanding lyric poets of sentimentalism were English poets (J. Thomson, E. Jung, T. Gray, O. Goldsmith). Dark motives in their works led to the emergence of the name "cemetery poetry". Poetic work sentimentalism becomes "Elegy written in a rural cemetery" by T. Gray. Sentimentalists also write in the genre of drama. Among them are the so-called "philistine drama", "serious comedy", "tearful comedy". In the dramaturgy of sentimentalism, the "three unities" of the classicists are canceled, elements of tragedy and comedy are synthesized. Voltaire was forced to recognize the validity of the genre shift. He emphasized that it was caused and justified by life itself, since “in one room they laugh from what serves as a subject of excitement in another, and the same face sometimes goes from laughter to tears for a quarter of an hour from one and the same occasion. ".

Rejects sentimentalism and classical canons of composition. The work is now built not according to the rules of strict logic and proportionality, but rather freely. In the works of sentimentalists, lyrical digressions spread. They often lack the classic five story elements. The role of the landscape, which acts as a means of expressing the feelings and moods of the characters, is also enhanced in sentimentalism. The landscapes of the sentimentalists are mostly rural, they depict rural cemeteries, ruins, picturesque corners that should evoke melancholy moods.

The most eccentric work of sentimentalism in form is Stern's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. It is the name of the protagonist that means "unreasonable." The whole structure of Stern's work seems just as "reckless".

It contains many lyrical digressions, all kinds of witty remarks, novels begun but not completed. The author constantly deviates from the topic, talking about some event, he promises to return to it further, but does not. Broken in the novel is a chronologically sequential presentation of events. Some sections of the work are not printed in the order of their numbering. Sometimes L. Stern leaves blank pages altogether, while the preface and dedication to the novel are located not in the traditional place, but inside the first volume. At the basis of Life and Opinions, Stern put not logical, but emotional principle construction. For Stern, it is not the external rational logic and sequence of events that is important, but the images of the inner world of a person, the gradual change of moods and spiritual movements.

Torez UVK - Lyceum "Spektr"

The work of the Small Academy of Sciences

Performed:

9th grade student

Kilimenko Irina

Supervisor:

Elnikova Irina Anatolievna

Torez 2010

Sentimentalism as a literary movement

SENTIMENTALISM. Sentimentalism is understood as that direction of literature that developed in late 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, which was distinguished by the cult of the human heart, feelings, simplicity, naturalness, special attention to the inner world, a living love for nature. In contrast to classicism, which worshiped reason, and only reason, and which, as a result, in its aesthetics built everything on strictly logical principles, on a carefully considered system (Boileau's theory of poetry), sentimentalism gives the artist freedom of feeling, imagination and expression and does not require his irreproachable correctness in the architectonics of literary creations. Sentimentalism is a protest against the dry rationality that characterized the Enlightenment; he appreciates in a person not what culture has given him, but what he has brought with him in the depths of his nature. And if classicism (or, as we, in Russia, it is more often called - false classicism) was interested exclusively in representatives of the highest social circles, royal leaders, the sphere of the court and all kinds of aristocracy, then sentimentalism is much more democratic and, recognizing the fundamental equivalence of all people, falls into the valleys of everyday life - in that environment of the philistines, the bourgeoisie, the middle class, which at that time had just come to the fore in a purely economic sense, began - especially in England - to play an outstanding role on the historical stage. For a sentimentalist, everyone is interesting, because in everyone intimate life glimmers, shines and warms; and you don’t need special events, stormy and striking effectiveness, in order to be able to get into literature: no, it turns out to be hospitable to the most ordinary inhabitants, to the most ineffectual biography, it depicts the slow passage of ordinary days, the peaceful backwaters of nepotism, quiet trickle of everyday worries. sentimental literature not in a hurry; her favorite form is the "long, moralizing, and orderly" novel (in the style of Richardson's famous works: "Pamela", "Clarissa Harlow", "Sir Charles Grandison"); heroes and heroines keep diaries, write endless letters to each other, indulge in heartfelt outpourings. It is in connection with this that the sentimentalists earned their merit in the field of psychological analysis: they transferred the center of gravity from the external to the internal; in fact, this is exactly what main point the very term "sentimental": the whole direction got its name from the work of Daniel Stern "Sentimental Journey", i.e. such a description of the journey, which focuses on impressions traveler, not so much on what he meets, but on what he experiences. Sentimentalism directs its quiet rays not at the objects of reality, but at the subject that perceives them. He puts the feeling person at the forefront and not only is not ashamed of sensitivity, but, on the contrary, exalts it as the highest value and dignity of the spirit. Of course, this had its downside, since the cherished sensitivity crossed the proper limits, became cloying and sugary, broke away from the courageous will and mind; but it does not necessarily enter into the very essence, the very principle of sentimentalism, that the feeling be so exaggerated and take on an illegitimate self-sufficient character. True, in practice, many of the confessors of this school suffered from a similar enlargement of the heart. Be that as it may, sentimentalism knew how to be touching, touched the tender strings of the soul, evoked tears, and brought undoubted softness, tenderness, kindness to the environment of readers and, mainly, readers. It is indisputable that sentimentalism is philanthropism, it is a school of philanthropy; it is indisputable that, for example, in Russian literature, the line of succession to Dostoevsky's "Poor People" goes from Karamzin's "Poor Lisa", who is the most remarkable representative of sentimentalism in our country (especially as the author of stories and "Letters of a Russian Traveler"). Naturally, sentimentalist writers, sensitively listening, so to speak, to the beating of the human heart, should, among other feelings that make up the content of his inner life, especially perceive the range of mournful moods - sadness, sadness, disappointment, longing. That is why the color of many sentimental works is melancholy. Sensitive souls fed on its sweet streams. Gray's elegy "Rural Cemetery" translated from English by Zhukovsky can serve as a typical example in this sense; and it must be said that in the cemetery, in the dull atmosphere of death, crosses and monuments, the sentimentalist writer generally liked to lead his reader - after English poet Jung, author of Nights. It is also clear that the primordial source of suffering, unhappy love, also gave sentimentalism the kind opportunity to draw abundantly from its water-tears. Goethe's famous novel The Sorrows of Young Werther is filled with this moisture of the heart. typical feature moralism also serves sentimentalism. It's about sentimental novels Pushkin says: "and at the end of the last part, a vice was always punished, a wreath was worthy of goodness." In their vague dreaminess, the writers of this trend were inclined to see in the world some kind of moral order. They taught, they planted "good feelings." In general, the idylization and idealization of things, even if they are covered by a mourning haze of sadness, is an essential sign of sentimentalism. And he extends these idyllic and idealizations to nature most of all. The influence of Jean Jacques Rousseau with his denial of culture and the exaltation of nature affected here. If Boileau demanded that the city and the court serve as the main scene of action in literary works, then sentimentalists often moved their heroes, and with them their readers, to the village, to the primitive bosom of nature, within the framework of patriarchal artlessness. In sentimental novels, nature takes a direct part in the dramas of the heart, in the vicissitudes of love; many enthusiastic colors are squandered on descriptions of nature, and with tears in their eyes they kiss the earth, admire moonlight, touched by birds and flowers. In general, it is necessary in sentimentalism to carefully distinguish its distortions from its healthy core, which consists in worshiping naturalness and simplicity and in recognizing the highest rights of the human heart. For acquaintance with sentimentalism, the book by Alexander N. Veselovsky "V.A. Zhukovsky. Poetry of feeling and heartfelt imagination" is important.

Sentimentalism in English Literature

Thomas Grey.

England was the birthplace of sentimentalism. At the end of the 20s of the XVIII century. James Thomson, with his poems "Winter" (1726), "Summer" (1727), etc., later combined into one and published (1730) under the title "The Seasons", contributed to the development of a love of nature in the English reading public, painting simple, unpretentious rural landscapes, following step by step the various moments of the life and work of the farmer and, apparently, striving to place the peaceful, idyllic country setting above the bustling and spoiled city.

In the 40s of the same century, Thomas Gray, the author of the elegy "Rural Cemetery" (one of the most famous works of cemetery poetry), the ode "To Spring", etc., like Thomson, tried to interest readers village life and nature, to awaken in them sympathy for simple, inconspicuous people with their needs, sorrows and beliefs, at the same time giving their work a thoughtful and melancholy character.

Richardson's famous novels - Pamela (1740), Clarissa Garlo (1748), Sir Charles Grandison (1754) - are also a vivid and typical product of English sentimentalism. Richardson was completely insensitive to the beauties of nature and did not like to describe it, but he put forward psychological analysis in the first place and forced the English, and then the entire European public, to be keenly interested in the fate of the heroes and especially the heroines of his novels.

Lawrence Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy (1759-1766) and Sentimental Journey (1768); by the name of this work and the direction itself was called "sentimental") connected Richardson's sensitivity with a love of nature and a kind of humor. "Sentimental Journey" Stern himself called "the peaceful journey of the heart in search of nature and all the spiritual desires that can inspire us more love to our neighbors and to the whole world than we usually feel."

Sentimentalism in French literature

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre.

Having crossed over to the Continent, English sentimentalism found in France already somewhat prepared ground. Quite independently of the English representatives of this trend, Abbé Prevost ("Manon Lescaut", "Cleveland") and Marivaux ("The Life of Marianne") taught the French public to admire everything touching, sensitive, somewhat melancholy.

Under the same influence, Rousseau's "Julia" or "New Eloise" (1761) was created, who always spoke of Richardson with respect and sympathy. Julia reminds a lot of Clarissa Garlo, Clara - her friend, miss Howe. The moralizing nature of both works also brings them together; but in Rousseau's novel nature plays a prominent role, the shores of Lake Geneva are described with remarkable art - Vevey, Clarans, Julia's grove. Rousseau's example was not left without imitation; his successor, Bernardin de Saint-Pied, in his famous work"Paul and Virginie" (1787) moves the scene to South Africa, foreshadowing the best essays Chateaubriand, makes his heroes a lovely couple of lovers, living far from urban culture, in close contact with nature, sincere, sensitive and pure in soul.

Sentimentalism in Russian literature

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin.

SENTIMENTALISM IN RUSSIA. - In Russian literature, the bourgeois essence of European S. has lost its social meaning. The Russian nobility accepted the new style of European literature as a convenient form for artistic expression your new requests. The beginning of the disintegration of feudal relations pushed a certain part of the nobility towards personal interests, intimate experiences. The theorists of the new trend saw the purpose of art in the fact that it "should deal with one graceful, depict beauty, harmony and spread pleasant impressions in the sensitive area" (1793, "What does the author need?" Karamzin). "Poetry is a flower garden of sensitive hearts," said Karamzin. The poet is a "skillful liar", "finds a poetic side in the most ordinary things", "describes those objects that are close to him and by their own power attract his imagination", but this is an expansion of the range of phenomena subject to the poet's knowledge, in comparison with the poetics of classicism limited by the requirement: "It is better for a young pet of the Muses to depict in verse the first impressions of love, friendship, the gentle beauties of nature, rather than the destruction of the world, the general fire of Nature, etc. in this kind" (from the preface to the 2nd book "Aonid", 1796). In the genre of elegy, the themes of love, friendship, rural nature were developed with a deliberate taste for "sensitive" subjects. Melancholy - "the gentlest overflow from sorrow and longing to the pleasures of pleasure" - is considered the mood "sweeter than all artificial amusements and windy joys." Thoughts about the cemetery, reflections in the cemetery at night under the moon with memories of Jung, Ossian, Gray are typical of a melancholic who admires his tear and glorifies the creator of the universe. Idyllic reminiscences of the past, rosy dreams of the future, of the power of Providence are part of the spiritual baggage of the sentimentalist poet, who admitted that the mind, which the revolutionary bourgeoisie in France proclaimed as a mighty force for the renewal of the world, is insufficient and that it is necessary to educate the "heart" - "the culprit great deeds, noble deeds. The lyrics of Karamzin (see), Zhukovsky (see), I. Dmitriev (see), Kapnist, Neledinsky-Meletsky (see), Kaisarov, Karabanov, P. Lvov, A. Turchaninova, employees of the Moscow Journal, " Herald of Europe", "Ipokreny, or the joys of loving," "Reading for taste, reason and feelings", etc. filled with themes. The cult of nature, nature caused a special genre of travel. Karamzin's "Letters from the Russian traveler" with the recollection of the "sensitive, kind, amiable Stern" became a model, followed by numerous "sensitive travelers" - Nevzorov ("Journey to Kazan, Vyatka and Orenburg in 1800", M., 1803), Shalikov ("Journey to Little Russia", M., 1803), V. Izmailov ("Journey to Midday Russia", 1800-1802), M. Gladkov (“A fifteen-day journey of a fifteen-year-old, written to please parents and dedicated to a fifteen-year-old friend”, P., 1810), etc. The purpose of travel is "confession about oneself", "a conversation with oneself and with friends about the events of the world, about the fate of earthly peoples, about one's own feelings." Along with descriptions of sensitive emotions that travelers have every now and then, with the repetition of themes, sentimental lyrics (melancholy, dream, cemetery, etc.), the travel genre introduced into the reader's circulation information about various parts of the world, about cultural monuments, about prominent people (Karamzin in "Letters" about Herder, Wieland, Kant, etc.). Due to sensitive tirades about nature and dreams “under the flow of rivers”, a bleak picture of real life rarely appeared, but the sober policy of a great-power landowner was clearly manifested in the writings of V. Izmailov, who defended colonial activity in the Crimea, or P. Sumarokov in “Leisure of a Crimean Judge, or the second journey to Taurida" (1803), who proposed to evict the Tatars from the Crimea. "The history of the misfortunes of the human race" was included in the program of sentimental fiction, where two streams - "terrible" and "sensitive" - merged into one stream of touching emotions caused by the unfortunate fate of one of the heroes, heroines or "terrible" episodes. Gnedich's novel "Don Corrado de Guerrera, or the spirit of vengeance and barbarity of the Gishpans" (1803) and Karamzin's story "Poor Liza" (1792) are the most typical in this genre. The stories entitled "Poor Lilla" (1803), "Poor Masha" (1803), "Unfortunate Margarita" (1803), "Seduced Henrietta", "The Story of Poor Marya", "Unfortunate Lovers", etc., evoked "tender feelings" sympathy for the "poor", but the Peisan flavor in the depiction of peasant or philistine life, melodramatic effects obscured the truth of life and thereby revealed the "world of essentiality" in an extremely limited way with reality. Weak sprouts of likelihood are also noticeable in the so-called historical novel sentimental school. Attempts to draw the past on the basis of documents, family chronicles, legends were dressed in the form of a familiar idyll or fantasy: "Natalya the Boyar's Daughter" (1792), "Marfa Posadnitsa or the Conquest of Novgorod" (1803) by Karamzin, "Rurik" by A.M. -sky (1805), "Ksenia Princess Galitskaya" (1808), sometimes quite accurately following the small facts of a historical nature, gave a false idealization of the past. The same line of smoothing contradictions social life, idyllic attitude to reality in sentimental drama, saturated with "kotsebyatin": Ilyin, author of the drama "Lisa, or the triumph of gratitude" (1801), "Generosity or recruiting" (1803); Fedorov, author of the play "Liza, or a consequence of pride and seduction" (1804); Ivanov, author of the play "Rewarded Virtue, or a Woman of Which Few" (1805), etc. All elements of the sentimental style were subordinated to one artistic principle: "A syllable, a figure, a metaphor, images, expressions - all this touches and captivates when it is animated by feeling" (Karamzin, What does the author need?, 1793). The work on the language was supposed to contribute to the "cultivation of the heart." Elegant speech, alien to vernacular, provincialisms, Church Slavonicisms, built on the model French writers- "samples of subtlety and pleasantness in style" (Karamzin), formed the basis for the reform of the literary language in the school of Karamzin. The choice of words, grammatical forms, syntactic structures broke the ecclesiastical element of the literary language, turning it into a tool in the struggle of the noble intelligentsia against archaic forms. Thanks to this, and also due to some expansion of the subject matter, S. in Russia had a certain progressive significance. Political events, since early XIX V. which, under the influence of European life, caused a complex reaction in the social reality of Russia, contributed to the acceleration of the end of the sentimental trend. Russian style began to decompose, falling into the newly formed literary trends or completely ceasing to exist. "There was a time when everyone wanted the glory of the sentimental; another has come - and everyone tries to say and write by the way and inopportunely and write - smart or stupid, there is no need! An epigram against the sentimental," Aglaya stated the state of affairs on the casting front in 1808. Elements some sensitivity in further development Russian literature entered into trends so far removed in essence from S. that their presence in the work of the authors of The Stationmaster or The Overcoat or The Poor People must be regarded as phenomena of a completely different historical and aesthetic significance.

sentimentalism literary movement

Literature

2. Veselovsky A.N., V.A. Zhukovsky, St. Petersburg, 1904 (ed. 2, P., 1918), ch.I. The era of sensitivity;

3. Rezanov V.I., From research on the writings of V.A. Zhukovsky, no. I, ch. IX, St. Petersburg, 1906; issue II, ch. XXIII, P., 1916;

4. Ignatov I.N., Theater and audience, part 1, M., 1916, pp. 79-103;

5. Roboli T.A., Literature of travels, in Sat. "Russian prose", edited by B. Eikhenbaum and Yu. Tynyanov, L., 1926;

6. Skipina K.A., On a sensitive story, in Sat. "Russian prose", L., 1926; Sakkulin P.N., Russian literature, part 2, second period, ch. IX, M., 1929.

7. Yu. Podolsky. Literary Encyclopedia: Dictionary literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L.D. Frenkel, 1925

8. "History German literature" V. Scherer (Russian translation edited by A.N. Pypin, vol. II).

9. A. Galakhov, "History of Russian literature, ancient and new" (vol. I, part II, and vol. II, St. Petersburg, 1880).

10. M. Sukhomlinov, "A.N. Radishchev" (St. Petersburg, 1883).

11. "History of Russian literature" A.N. Pypin, (vol. IV, St. Petersburg, 1899).

12. Alexey Veselovsky, "Western influence in new Russian literature" (M., 1896).