Literary movements and trends. Literary schools

The works of each era have unique similarities in their figurative and thematic structure, repetition of plot moves, unity of artistic thinking and similarity of ideological views. From here the main literary trends were formed.

Classicism

The name comes from the word “exemplary” translated from Latin. As an artistic style and literary movement, it appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century and died out by the beginning of the nineteenth. Literary directions did not have a channel wider than this. Characteristics:

1. Appeal to antiquity - in images and forms - as an aesthetic standard.

2. Strict canons, harmony, logic: the inviolability of the structure, like the universe.

3. Rationalism without individual signs and traits, in the field of vision only the eternal and unshakable.

4. Hierarchy: high and low genres (tragedy and comedy).

5. Unity of place, time and actions, no side distracting lines.

Prominent representatives were Corneille, Lafontaine, Racine.

Romanticism

Literary trends usually grow from one another, or new ones are brought in by a wave of protest. The second is characteristic of the emergence of romanticism at the end of the eighteenth century - one of the largest movements in the history of literature. Romanticism arose in Europe and America almost simultaneously. Characteristic features: protest against the vulgarity of bourgeois life, for the poetry of everyday life and against prosaicism, disappointment in the fruits of civilization. Cosmic pessimism and world sorrow. Confrontation between the individual and society, individualism. Separation of the real and ideal worlds, opposition. The romantic hero is highly spiritual, inspired and illuminated by the desire for the ideal. A new phenomenon appears in literature: local color, fairy tales, legends, beliefs flourish, and the elements of nature are glorified. The action often takes place in the most exotic places. Representatives: Byron, Keats, Schiller, Dumas the Father, Hugo, Lermontov, and partly Gogol.

Sentimentalism

Translated - "sensual". Literary movements consist of more or less noticeable movements. Sentimentalism is a movement in line with pre-romanticism. Existed in Europe and America in the second half of the eighteenth century, and ended by the middle of the nineteenth. It was not reason, but feeling that extolled sentimentalism, not recognizing any rationalism, even the Enlightenment kind. Characterized by natural feeling and democracy. Interest in the inner world appears for the first time ordinary people. Unlike romanticism, sentimentalism rejected the irrational; there is no inconsistency, impulsiveness, impetuosity in it that are inaccessible to rationalistic interpretation. It was strong in Russia and somewhat different from the West: the rational was still expressed quite clearly, moralizing and educational tendencies were present, the Russian language was improved and enriched through the use of vernaculars. Favorite genres: epistle, epistolary novel, diaries - everything that helps confession. Representatives: Rousseau, young Goethe, Karamzin.

Naturalism

Literary movements that existed in Europe and North America for last third nineteenth century, include naturalism in their mainstream. Characteristics: objectivity, accurate depiction of details and realities of human character. Artistic and scientific knowledge were not separated in the methods of approach. Literary text as a human document: the implementation of an act of cognition. Reality is a good teacher and without moralizing, there can be no bad plots or themes for a writer. Hence, in the works of naturalists there are quite a lot of purely literary shortcomings, such as lack of plot and indifference to public interests. Representatives: Zola, Maupassant, Daudet, Dreiser, Norris, London, from the Russians - Boborykin, in individual works- Kuprin, Bunin, Veresaev.

Realism

Eternal. Born at the end of the nineteenth century, he is still alive today. In priorities: the truth of life as the truth of literature. Images correspond to the essence of phenomena, literature as a means of understanding both oneself and the world around us. Character typification through attention to detail. Life-affirming principle, reality in the development of new phenomena, relationships, psychological types. Representatives: Balzac, Stendhal, Twain, Dickens. Almost everyone is Russian: Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Shukshin and so on.

Literary movements and trends not discussed in the article, but with great representatives: symbolism - Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Rilke, Bryusov, Blok, Vyach. Ivanov; Acmeism - Gumilyov, Gorodetsky, Mandelstam, Akhmatova, G. Ivanov; futurism - Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Burliuk, Severyanin, Shershenevich, Pasternak, Aseev; imagism - Yesenin, Klyuev.

2) Sentimentalism
Sentimentalism is a literary movement that recognized feeling as the main criterion of human personality. Sentimentalism arose in Europe and Russia approximately simultaneously, in the second half of the 18th century, as a counterweight to the rigid classical theory that was dominant at that time.
Sentimentalism was closely associated with the ideas of the Enlightenment. He gave priority to the manifestations of human spiritual qualities, psychological analysis, and sought to awaken in the hearts of readers an understanding of human nature and love for it, along with a humane attitude towards all the weak, suffering and persecuted. The feelings and experiences of a person are worthy of attention regardless of his class affiliation - the idea of ​​​​universal equality of people.
The main genres of sentimentalism:
story
elegy
novel
letters
trips
memoirs
England can be considered the birthplace of sentimentalism. Poets J. Thomson, T. Gray, E. Jung tried to awaken in readers a love for the surrounding nature, depicting simple and peaceful rural landscapes in their works, sympathy for the needs of poor people. A prominent representative of English sentimentalism was S. Richardson. He put psychological analysis in the first place and attracted the attention of readers to the fate of his heroes. The writer Lawrence Stern preached humanism as the highest human value.
In French literature sentimentalism is represented by the novels of Abbé Prevost, P. C. de Chamblen de Marivaux, J.-J. Rousseau, A. B. de Saint-Pierre.
In German literature - the works of F. G. Klopstock, F. M. Klinger, I. V. Goethe, I. F. Schiller, S. Laroche.
Sentimentalism came to Russian literature with translations of the works of Western European sentimentalists. The first sentimental works of Russian literature can be called “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A.N. Radishchev, “Letters of a Russian Traveler” and “Poor Liza” by N.I. Karamzin.

3)Romanticism
Romanticism originated in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. as a counterbalance to the previously dominant classicism with its pragmatism and adherence to established laws. Romanticism, in contrast to classicism, promoted deviations from the rules. The prerequisites for romanticism lie in the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794, which overthrew the power of the bourgeoisie, and with it, bourgeois laws and ideals.
Romanticism, like sentimentalism, paid great attention to a person’s personality, his feelings and experiences. The main conflict of romanticism was the confrontation between the individual and society. Against the background of scientific and technological progress, increasing complexity of social and political structure there was spiritual devastation of the individual. Romantics sought to attract the attention of readers to this circumstance, to provoke a protest in society against lack of spirituality and selfishness.
The Romantics became disillusioned with the world around them, and this disappointment is clearly visible in their works. Some of them, such as F. R. Chateaubriand and V. A. Zhukovsky, believed that a person cannot resist mysterious forces, must submit to them and not try to change his destiny. Other romantics, such as J. Byron, P. B. Shelley, S. Petofi, A. Mickiewicz, and the early A. S. Pushkin, believed that it was necessary to fight the so-called “world evil” and contrasted it with the strength of the human spirit.
The inner world of the romantic hero was full of experiences and passions; throughout the entire work, the author forced him to struggle with the world around him, duty and conscience. Romantics depicted feelings in their extreme manifestations: high and passionate love, cruel betrayal, despicable envy, base ambition. But the romantics were interested not only in the inner world of man, but also in the mysteries of existence, the essence of all living things, perhaps that is why there is so much mystical and mysterious in their works.
In German literature, romanticism was most clearly expressed in the works of Novalis, W. Tieck, F. Hölderlin, G. Kleist, E. T. A. Hoffmann. English romanticism is represented by the works of W. Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, R. Southey, W. Scott, J. Keats, J. G. Byron, P. B. Shelley. In France, romanticism appeared only in the early 1820s. The main representatives were F. R. Chateaubriand, J. Stael, E. P. Senancourt, P. Mérimée, V. Hugo, J. Sand, A. Vigny, A. Dumas (father).
The development of Russian romanticism was greatly influenced by the Great French revolution And Patriotic War 1812 Romanticism in Russia is usually divided into two periods - before and after the Decembrist uprising in 1825. Representatives of the first period (V.A. Zhukovsky, K.N. Batyushkov, A.S. Pushkin during the period of southern exile) believed in victory spiritual freedom over everyday life, but after the defeat of the Decembrists, executions and exiles, the romantic hero turns into an outcast and misunderstood by society, and the conflict between the individual and society becomes insoluble. Prominent representatives of the second period were M. Yu. Lermontov, E. A. Baratynsky, D. V. Venevitinov, A. S. Khomyakov, F. I. Tyutchev.
Main genres of romanticism:
Elegy
Idyll
Ballad
Novella
Novel
Fantastic story
Aesthetic and theoretical canons of romanticism
The idea of ​​two worlds is a struggle between objective reality and subjective worldview. In realism this concept is absent. The idea of ​​dual worlds has two modifications:
escape into the world of fantasy;
travel, road concept.
Hero Concept:
the romantic hero is always an exceptional person;
the hero is always in conflict with the surrounding reality;
the hero's dissatisfaction, which manifests itself in the lyrical tone;
aesthetic determination towards an unattainable ideal.
Psychological parallelism is the identity of the hero’s internal state with the surrounding nature.
Speech style of a romantic work:
extreme expression;
the principle of contrast at the composition level;
abundance of symbols.
Aesthetic categories of romanticism:
rejection of bourgeois reality, its ideology and pragmatism; the romantics denied a value system that was based on stability, hierarchy, a strict value system (home, comfort, Christian morality);
cultivating individuality and artistic worldview; The reality rejected by romanticism was subordinated to subjective worlds based on the creative imagination of the artist.

4) Realism
Realism is a literary movement that objectively reflects the surrounding reality using the artistic means available to it. The main technique of realism is the typification of facts of reality, images and characters. Realist writers place their heroes in certain conditions and show how these conditions influenced the personality.
While romantic writers were concerned about the discrepancy between the world around them and their inner worldview, the realist writer was interested in how the world around him influenced the individual. The actions of the heroes of realistic works are determined by life circumstances, in other words, if a person lived in a different time, in a different place, in a different socio-cultural environment, then he himself would be different.
The foundations of realism were laid by Aristotle in the 4th century. BC e. Instead of the concept of “realism”, he used the concept of “imitation”, which is close in meaning to him. Realism was then revived during the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. In the 40s 19th century in Europe, Russia and America, realism replaced romanticism.
Depending on the meaningful motives recreated in the work, there are:
critical (social) realism;
realism of characters;
psychological realism;
grotesque realism.
Critical realism focused on the real circumstances that influence a person. Examples of critical realism are the works of Stendhal, O. Balzac, C. Dickens, W. Thackeray, A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov.
Characteristic realism, on the contrary, showed a strong personality who can fight against circumstances. Psychological realism paid more attention to the inner world and the psychology of heroes. The main representatives of these varieties of realism are F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy.

In grotesque realism, deviations from reality are allowed; in some works, deviations border on fantasy, and the more grotesque, the more stronger author criticizes reality. Grotesque realism was developed in the works of Aristophanes, F. Rabelais, J. Swift, E. Hoffmann, in the satirical stories of N.V. Gogol, the works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, M.A. Bulgakov.

5) Modernism
Modernism is a set of artistic movements that promoted freedom of expression. Modernism originated in Western Europe in the second half of the 19th century. as a new form of creativity, opposed to traditional art. Modernism manifested itself in all types of art - painting, architecture, literature.
Home distinctive feature modernism is its ability to change the world around it. The author does not seek to realistically or allegorically depict reality, as was the case in realism, or the inner world of the hero, as was the case in sentimentalism and romanticism, but depicts his own inner world and his own attitude to the surrounding reality, expresses personal impressions and even fantasies.
Features of modernism:
denial of the classical artistic heritage;
a declared discrepancy with the theory and practice of realism;
focus on the individual, not the social person;
increased attention to the spiritual rather than the social sphere of human life;
focus on form at the expense of content.
The largest movements of modernism were impressionism, symbolism and art nouveau. Impressionism sought to capture a moment as the author saw or felt it. In this author’s perception, the past, present and future can be intertwined; what is important is the impression that an object or phenomenon has on the author, and not this object itself.
Symbolists tried to find a secret meaning in everything that happened, endowing familiar images and words with mystical meaning. The Art Nouveau style promoted the rejection of regular geometric shapes and straight lines in favor of smooth and curved lines. Art Nouveau manifested itself especially clearly in architecture and applied arts.
In the 80s 19th century a new trend of modernism - decadence - was born. In the art of decadence, a person is placed in unbearable circumstances, he is broken, doomed, and has lost his taste for life.
The main features of decadence:
cynicism (nihilistic attitude towards universal human values);
eroticism;
tonatos (according to Z. Freud - the desire for death, decline, decomposition of personality).
In literature, modernism is represented by the following movements:
Acmeism;
symbolism;
futurism;
imagism.
The most prominent representatives of modernism in literature are the French poets C. Baudelaire, P. Verlaine, Russian poets N. Gumilyov, A. A. Blok, V. V. Mayakovsky, A. Akhmatova, I. Severyanin, English writer O. Wilde, American writer E. Poe, Scandinavian playwright G. Ibsen.

6) Naturalism
Naturalism is the name of a movement in European literature and art that emerged in the 70s. XIX century and especially widely developed in the 80-90s, when naturalism became the most influential movement. The theoretical basis for the new trend was given by Emile Zola in his book “The Experimental Novel.”
End of the 19th century (especially the 80s) marks the flourishing and strengthening of industrial capital, developing into financial capital. This corresponds, on the one hand, high level technology and increased exploitation, on the other - the growth of self-awareness and class struggle of the proletariat. The bourgeoisie is turning into a reactionary class, fighting a new revolutionary force - the proletariat. The petty bourgeoisie fluctuates between these main classes, and these fluctuations are reflected in the positions of the petty bourgeois writers who adhere to naturalism.
The main requirements made by naturalists for literature: scientific, objective, apolitical in the name of “universal truth.” Literature should be at the level modern science, must be imbued with scientific character. It is clear that naturalists base their works only on science that does not deny the existing social system. Naturalists make the basis of their theory mechanistic natural-scientific materialism of the type of E. Haeckel, G. Spencer and C. Lombroso, adapting the doctrine of heredity to the interests of the ruling class (heredity is declared the cause of social stratification, giving advantages to some over others), the philosophy of positivism of Auguste Comte and petty-bourgeois utopians (Saint-Simon).
By objectively and scientifically demonstrating the shortcomings of modern reality, French naturalists hope to influence the minds of people and thereby bring about a series of reforms in order to save the existing system from the impending revolution.
The theorist and leader of French naturalism, E. Zola included G. Flaubert, the Goncourt brothers, A. Daudet and a number of other lesser-known writers in the natural school. Zola considered the French realists: O. Balzac and Stendhal to be the immediate predecessors of naturalism. But in fact, none of these writers, not excluding Zola himself, was a naturalist in the sense in which Zola the theorist understood this direction. Naturalism, as the style of the leading class, was temporarily embraced by writers very heterogeneous both in artistic method and in belonging to various class groupings. It is characteristic that the unifying point was not the artistic method, but rather the reformist tendencies of naturalism.
Followers of naturalism are characterized by only partial recognition of the set of demands put forward by the theorists of naturalism. Following one of the principles of this style, they start from others, differing sharply from each other, representing both different social trends and different artistic methods. A number of followers of naturalism accepted its reformist essence, without hesitation discarding even such a typical requirement for naturalism as the requirement of objectivity and accuracy. This is what the German “early naturalists” did (M. Kretzer, B. Bille, W. Belsche and others).
Under the sign of decay and rapprochement with impressionism, naturalism began to develop further. Arose in Germany somewhat later than in France, German naturalism was a predominantly petty-bourgeois style. Here, the decomposition of the patriarchal petty bourgeoisie and the intensification of capitalization processes are creating more and more new cadres of the intelligentsia, which do not always find application for themselves. Disillusionment with the power of science is becoming more and more widespread among them. Hopes for resolving social contradictions within the framework of the capitalist system are gradually being crushed.
German naturalism, as well as naturalism in Scandinavian literature, represents entirely a transitional stage from naturalism to impressionism. Thus, the famous German historian Lamprecht, in his “History of the German People,” proposed calling this style “physiological impressionism.” This term is subsequently used by a number of historians of German literature. Indeed, all that remains of the naturalistic style known in France is a reverence for physiology. Many German nature writers do not even try to hide their bias. At its center there is usually some problem, social or physiological, around which the facts that illustrate it are grouped (alcoholism in Hauptmann’s “Before Sunrise”, heredity in Ibsen’s “Ghosts”).
The founders of German naturalism were A. Goltz and F. Schlyaf. Their basic principles are set out in Goltz’s brochure “Art,” where Goltz states that “art tends to become nature again, and it becomes it in accordance with the existing conditions of reproduction and practical application.” The complexity of the plot is also denied. The place of the eventful novel of the French (Zola) is taken by a short story or short story, extremely poor in plot. The main place here is given to the painstaking transmission of moods, visual and auditory sensations. The novel is also being replaced by drama and poetry, which French naturalists viewed extremely negatively as a “kind of entertaining art.” Particular attention is paid to the drama (G. Ibsen, G. Hauptmann, A. Goltz, F. Shlyaf, G. Suderman), in which intensively developed action is also denied, only the catastrophe and the recording of the experiences of the heroes are given ("Nora", "Ghosts", "Before Sunrise", "Master Elze" and others). Subsequently, naturalistic drama is reborn into impressionistic, symbolic drama.
In Russia, naturalism did not receive any development. The early works of F. I. Panferov and M. A. Sholokhov were called naturalistic.

7) Natural school
By the natural school, literary criticism understands the direction that arose in Russian literature in the 40s. 19th century This was an era of increasingly aggravated contradictions between the serfdom and the growth of capitalist elements. The followers of the natural school tried to reflect the contradictions and moods of that time in their works. The term “natural school” itself appeared in criticism thanks to F. Bulgarin.
The natural school in the expanded use of the term, as it was used in the 40s, does not denote a single direction, but is a largely conditional concept. The natural school included writers as diverse in their class basis and artistic appearance as I. S. Turgenev and F. M. Dostoevsky, D. V. Grigorovich and I. A. Goncharov, N. A. Nekrasov and I. I. Panaev.
Most common features, on the basis of which the writer was considered to belong to the natural school, were the following: socially significant themes, covering a wider circle than even the circle of social observations (often in the “low” strata of society), a critical attitude towards social reality, realism of artistic expression, fighting against embellishment of reality, aesthetics, romantic rhetoric.
V. G. Belinsky highlighted the realism of the natural school, asserting the most important feature of the “truth” and not the “false” of the image. The natural school does not appeal to ideal, fictitious heroes, but to the “crowd,” to the “mass,” to ordinary people and, most often, to people of “low rank.” Common in the 40s. all sorts of “physiological” essays satisfied this need to reflect a different, non-noble life, even if only in a reflection of the external, everyday, superficial.
N. G. Chernyshevsky especially sharply emphasizes as the most essential and main feature of the “literature of the Gogol period” its critical, “negative” attitude to reality - “literature of the Gogol period” is here another name for the same natural school: specifically to N. V. Gogol - to the author of “Dead Souls”, “The Inspector General”, “The Overcoat” - V. G. Belinsky and a number of other critics erected a natural school as the founder. Indeed, many writers who belong to the natural school experienced the powerful influence of various aspects of N.V. Gogol’s work. In addition to Gogol, the writers of the natural school were influenced by such representatives of Western European petty-bourgeois and bourgeois literature as Charles Dickens, O. Balzac, George Sand.
One of the trends of the natural school, represented by the liberal, capitalizing nobility and the social strata adjacent to it, was distinguished by the superficial and cautious nature of its criticism of reality: this was either harmless irony in relation to certain aspects of noble reality or a noble-limited protest against serfdom. The range of social observations of this group was limited to the manor’s estate. Representatives of this trend of the natural school: I. S. Turgenev, D. V. Grigorovich, I. I. Panaev.
Another current of the natural school relied primarily on the urban philistinism of the 40s, which was disadvantaged, on the one hand, by the still tenacious serfdom, and on the other, by growing industrial capitalism. A certain role here belonged to F. M. Dostoevsky, the author of a number of psychological novels and stories ("Poor People", "The Double" and others).
The third movement in the natural school, represented by the so-called “raznochintsy”, ideologists of revolutionary peasant democracy, gives in its work the clearest expression of the tendencies that were associated by contemporaries (V.G. Belinsky) with the name of the natural school and opposed the noble aesthetics. These tendencies manifested themselves most fully and sharply in N. A. Nekrasov. A. I. Herzen (“Who is to blame?”), M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (“A Confused Case”) should also be included in this group.

8) Constructivism
Constructivism – artistic direction, which originated in Western Europe after the First World War. The origins of constructivism lie in the thesis of the German architect G. Semper, who argued that the aesthetic value of any work of art is determined by the correspondence of its three elements: the work, the material from which it is made, and the technical processing of this material.
This thesis, which was subsequently adopted by functionalists and functionalist constructivists (L. Wright in America, J. J. P. Oud in Holland, W. Gropius in Germany), brings to the fore the material-technical and material-utilitarian side of art and, in essence, the ideological side of it is emasculated.
In the West, constructivist tendencies during the First World War and post-war period expressed themselves in a variety of directions, more or less “orthodox” interpretation of the main thesis of constructivism. Thus, in France and Holland, constructivism was expressed in “purism”, in “machine aesthetics”, in “neoplasticism” (iso-art), and in the aestheticizing formalism of Corbusier (in architecture). In Germany - in the naked cult of the thing (pseudo-constructivism), the one-sided rationalism of the Gropius school (architecture), abstract formalism (in non-objective cinema).
In Russia, a group of constructivists appeared in 1922. It included A. N. Chicherin, K. L. Zelinsky, I. L. Selvinsky. Constructivism was initially a narrowly formal movement, highlighting the understanding of a literary work as a construction. Subsequently, the constructivists freed themselves from this narrow aesthetic and formal bias and put forward much broader justifications for their creative platform.
A. N. Chicherin moved away from constructivism, a number of authors grouped around I. L. Selvinsky and K. L. Zelinsky (V. Inber, B. Agapov, A. Gabrilovich, N. Panov), and in 1924 a literary center was organized Constructivists (LCC). In its declaration, the LCC primarily proceeds from the statement of the need for art to participate as closely as possible in the “organizational onslaught of the working class,” in the construction of socialist culture. This is where constructivism aims to saturate art (in particular, poetry) with modern themes.
The main theme, which has always attracted the attention of constructivists, can be described as follows: “Intelligentsia in revolution and construction.” Dwelling with special attention on the image of the intellectual in the civil war (I. L. Selvinsky, “Commander 2”) and in construction (I. L. Selvinsky “Pushtorg”), constructivists first of all put forward in a painfully exaggerated form its specific weight and significance under construction. This is especially clear in Pushtorg, where the exceptional specialist Poluyarov is contrasted with the mediocre communist Krol, who prevents him from working and drives him to suicide. Here the pathos of the work technique as such obscures the main social conflicts modern reality.
This exaggeration of the role of the intelligentsia finds its theoretical development in the article of the main theorist of constructivism Cornelius Zelinsky “Constructivism and Socialism”, where he considers constructivism as a holistic worldview of the era transition to socialism, as a condensed expression in the literature of the period being experienced. At the same time, Zelinsky again replaces the main social contradictions of this period with the struggle between man and nature, with the pathos of naked technology, interpreted outside of social conditions, outside of the class struggle. These erroneous positions of Zelinsky, which caused a sharp rebuff from Marxist criticism, were far from accidental and with great clarity revealed the social nature of constructivism, which is easy to outline in the creative practice of the entire group.
The social source feeding constructivism is, undoubtedly, that layer of the urban petty bourgeoisie, which can be designated as a technically qualified intelligentsia. It is no coincidence that in the work of Selvinsky (who is the most prominent poet of constructivism) of the first period, the image of a strong individuality, a powerful builder and conqueror of life, individualistic in its very essence, characteristic of the Russian bourgeois pre-war style, is undoubtedly revealed.
In 1930, the LCC disintegrated, and in its place the “Literary Brigade M. 1” was formed, declaring itself a transitional organization to RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers), aiming at the gradual transition of fellow travelers to the rails of communist ideology, to the style of proletarian literature and condemning the previous mistakes of constructivism, although preserving its creative method.
However, the contradictory and zigzag nature of constructivism’s progress towards the working class makes itself felt here too. This is evidenced by Selvinsky’s poem “Declaration of the Poet’s Rights.” This is confirmed by the fact that the M. 1 brigade, having existed for less than a year, also disbanded in December 1930, admitting that it had not resolved the tasks set for itself.

9)Postmodernism
Postmodernism translated from German language literally means "that which follows modernism". This literary movement appeared in the second half of the 20th century. It reflects the complexity of the surrounding reality, its dependence on the culture of previous centuries and the information saturation of our time.
Postmodernists were not happy that literature was divided into elite and mass literature. Postmodernism opposed all modernity in literature and denied mass culture. The first works of postmodernists appeared in the form of detective, thriller, and fantasy, behind which serious content was hidden.
Postmodernists believed that high art had ended. To move forward, you need to learn how to properly use the lower genres of pop culture: thriller, western, fantasy, science fiction, erotica. Postmodernism finds in these genres the source of a new mythology. Works become aimed at both the elite reader and the undemanding public.
Signs of postmodernism:
using previous texts as potential for your own works (a large number of quotes, you cannot understand the work if you do not know the literature of previous eras);
rethinking elements of the culture of the past;
multi-level text organization;
special organization of text (game element).
Postmodernism questioned the existence of meaning as such. On the other hand, the meaning of postmodernist works is determined by its inherent pathos - criticism of mass culture. Postmodernism tries to erase the boundary between art and life. Everything that exists and has ever existed is text. Postmodernists said that everything had already been written before them, that nothing new could be invented and they could only play with words, take ready-made (already once thought up or written by someone) ideas, phrases, texts and assemble works from them. This makes no sense, because the author himself is not in the work.
Literary works are like a collage, composed of disparate images and united into a whole by the uniformity of technique. This technique is called pastiche. This Italian word translates as medley opera, and in literature it refers to the juxtaposition of several styles in one work. At the first stages of postmodernism, pastiche is a specific form of parody or self-parody, but then it is a way of adapting to reality, a way of showing the illusory nature of mass culture.
Associated with postmodernism is the concept of intertextuality. This term was introduced by Y. Kristeva in 1967. She believed that history and society can be considered as a text, then culture is a single intertext that serves as an avant-text (all texts that precede this one) for any newly appearing text, while individuality is lost here text that dissolves in quotes. Modernism is characterized by quotational thinking.
Intertextuality– the presence of two or more texts in the text.
Paratext– the relationship of the text to the title, epigraph, afterword, preface.
Metatextuality– these can be comments or a link to the pretext.
Hypertextuality– ridicule or parody of one text by another.
Archtextuality– genre connection of texts.
Man in postmodernism is depicted in a state of complete destruction (in in this case destruction can be understood as a violation of consciousness). There is no character development in the work; the image of the hero appears in a blurred form. This technique is called defocalization. It has two goals:
avoid excessive heroic pathos;
to take the hero into the shadow: the hero does not come to the fore, he is not needed at all in the work.
Prominent representatives of postmodernism in literature are J. Fowles, J. Barth, A. Robbe-Grillet, F. Sollers, H. Cortazar, M. Pavich, J. Joyce and others.

Plan.

2. Artistic method.

Literary directions and movements. Literary schools.

4. Principles artistic image in literature.

The concept of the literary process. Concepts of periodization of the literary process.

The literary process is the process of change in literature over time.

In Soviet literary criticism, the leading concept of literary development was the idea of ​​a change in creative methods. The method was described as a way for the artist to reflect extraliterary reality. The history of literature has been described as the consistent formation realistic method. The main emphasis was on overcoming romanticism, on education highest form realism - socialist realism.

A more consistent concept of the development of world literature was built by academician N.F. Conrad, who also defended the forward movement of literature. This movement was not based on a change literary methods, and the idea of ​​discovering man as the highest value ( humanistic idea). In his work “West and East,” Conrad came to the conclusion that the concepts of “Middle Ages” and “Renaissance” are universal for all literatures. The period of antiquity gives way to the Middle Ages, then the Renaissance, followed by modern times. In each subsequent period, literature focuses more and more on the depiction of man as such, and becomes more and more aware of the intrinsic value of the human personality.

The concept of Academician D.S. Likhachev is similar, according to whom the literature of the Russian Middle Ages developed in the direction of strengthening the personal principle. Great styles of the era (Romanesque style, Gothic style) should have been gradually replaced by the author's individual styles (Pushkin's style).

The most objective concept of Academician S.S. Averintsev, it gives a wide scope of literary life, including modernity. This concept is based on the idea of ​​reflexivity and traditionalism of culture. The scientist identifies three large periods in the history of literature:

1. Culture can be unreflective and traditional (the culture of antiquity, in Greece - up to the 5th century BC). Non-reflexivity means that literary phenomena are not comprehended, no literary theory, the authors do not reflect (do not analyze their creativity).

2. culture can be reflexive, but traditional (from the 5th century BC - to new era). During this period, rhetoric, grammar, and poetics (reflection on language, style, creativity) emerge. Literature was traditional, there was a stable system of genres.

3. The last period, which still lasts. Reflection is preserved, traditionality is broken. Writers reflect, but create new forms. The beginning was made by the genre of the novel.

Changes in the history of literature can be progressive, evolutionary, regressive, involutionary in nature.

Artistic method

The artistic method is a way of mastering and displaying the world, a set of basic creative principles for the figurative reflection of life. The method can be spoken of as the structure of the writer’s artistic thinking, which determines his approach to reality and its reconstruction in the light of a certain aesthetic ideal. The method is embodied in the content of the literary work. Through method we comprehend those creative principles, thanks to which the writer reproduces reality: selection, evaluation, typification (generalization), artistic embodiment of characters, life phenomena in historical refraction. The method is manifested in the structure of thoughts and feelings of the heroes of a literary work, in the motivations for their behavior and actions, in the relationship of characters and events, in the correspondence of the life path and destinies of the characters to the socio-historical circumstances of the era.

The concept of “method” (from the gr. “path of research”) denotes “the general principle of the artist’s creative attitude to knowable reality, that is, its re-creation.” These are a kind of ways of understanding life that changed in different historical and literary eras. According to some scientists, the method underlies trends and directions, and represents that method of aesthetic exploration of reality that is inherent in the works of a certain direction. Method is an aesthetic and deeply meaningful category.

The problem of the method of depicting reality was first recognized in antiquity and was fully embodied in Aristotle’s work “Poetics” under the name “theory of imitation.” Imitation, according to Aristotle, is the basis of poetry and its goal is to recreate the world similar to the real one, or, more precisely, how it could be. The authority of this theory remained until the end of the 18th century, when the romantics proposed a different approach (also having its roots in antiquity, more precisely in Hellenism) - the re-creation of reality in accordance with the will of the author, and not with the laws of the “universe”. These two concepts, according to Soviet literary criticism mid-20th century, form the basis of two “types of creativity” - “realistic” and “romantic”, within which the “methods” of classicism, romanticism, different types realism, modernism.

Regarding the problem of the relationship between method and direction, it is necessary to take into account that method as a general principle of figurative reflection of life differs from direction as a historically specific phenomenon. Consequently, if this or that direction is historically unique, then the same method, as a broad category of the literary process, can be repeated in the works of writers of different times and peoples, and therefore of different directions and trends.

Literary directions and movements. Literary schools

Ks.A. Polevoy was the first in Russian criticism to apply the word “direction” to certain stages in the development of literature. In the article “On trends and parties in literature,” he called a direction “that internal striving of literature, often invisible to contemporaries, which gives character to all or at least very many of its works at a given time... Its basis, in the general sense, is there is an idea of ​​the modern era.” For " real criticism" - N.G. Chernyshevsky, N.A. Dobrolyubov - the direction correlated with the ideological position of the writer or group of writers. In general, the direction was understood as a variety of literary communities. But the main feature that unites them is that the unity of the most general principles embodiment of artistic content, commonality of the deep foundations of artistic worldview. There is no set list of literary trends, since the development of literature is connected with the specifics of the historical, cultural, social life of society, national and regional features this or that literature. However, traditionally there are such trends as classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, realism, symbolism, each of which is characterized by its own set of formal and content features.

Gradually, along with “direction”, the term “flow” comes into circulation, often used synonymously with “direction”. Thus, D.S. Merezhkovsky, in an extensive article “On the causes of the decline and new trends in modern Russian literature” (1893), writes that “between writers with different, sometimes opposite, temperaments, special mental currents, a special air are established, like between opposite poles, full of creative trends." Often “direction” is recognized as a generic concept in relation to “flow”.

The term “literary movement” usually refers to a group of writers connected by a common ideological position and artistic principles within the same direction or artistic movement. Thus, modernism is the general name for various groups in the art and literature of the 20th century, which distinguishes a departure from classical traditions, the search for new aesthetic principles, new approach to the depiction of existence - includes such movements as impressionism, expressionism, surrealism, existentialism, acmeism, futurism, imagism, etc.

The belonging of artists to one direction or movement does not exclude deep differences in their creative personalities. In turn, in the individual creativity of writers, the features of various literary movements and movements may appear.

Flow is a smaller unit of the literary process, often within a direction, characterized by existence in a certain historical period and, as a rule, localization in certain literature. Often the commonality of artistic principles in a flow forms “ artistic system" Thus, within the framework of French classicism, two movements are distinguished. One is based on the tradition of rationalistic philosophy of R. Descartes (“Cartesian rationalism”), which includes the works of P. Corneille, J. Racine, N. Boileau. Another movement, based primarily on the sensualist philosophy of P. Gassendi, expressed itself in the ideological principles of such writers as J. Lafontaine, J. B. Molière. In addition, both flows differ in the system used artistic means. In romanticism, two main movements are often distinguished - “progressive” and “conservative”, but there are other classifications.

Directions and currents should be distinguished from literary schools (and literary groups). A literary school is a small association of writers based on common artistic principles, formulated theoretically - in articles, manifestos, scientific and journalistic statements, formalized as “statutes” and “rules”. Often such an association of writers has a leader, the “head of the school” (“Shchedrin school”, poets of the “Nekrasov school”).

As a rule, writers who have created a number of literary phenomena with a high degree of commonality are recognized as belonging to the same school - even to the point of common themes, style, and language.

Unlike the movement, which is not always formalized by manifestos, declarations and other documents that reflect its basic principles, the school is almost always characterized by such speeches. What is important in it is not only the presence of common artistic principles shared by the writers, but also their theoretical awareness of their belonging to the school.

Many associations of writers, called schools, are named after the place of their existence, although the similarity of the artistic principles of the writers of such associations may not be so obvious. For example, the “Lake School,” named after the place where it arose (northwest England, the Lake District), consisted of romantic poets who did not agree with each other on everything.

The concept of “literary school” is primarily historical, not typological. In addition to the criteria of the unity of time and place of existence of the school, the presence of manifestos, declarations and similar artistic practices, literary circles are often literary groups united by a “leader” who has followers who successively develop or copy him artistic principles. A group of English religious poets of the early 17th century formed the Spenser school.

It should be noted that the literary process is not limited to the coexistence and struggle of literary groups, schools, movements and movements. To consider it in this way means to schematize literary life era, impoverish the history of literature. Directions, trends, schools are, in the words of V.M. Zhirmunsky, “not shelves or boxes”, “on which we “arrange” poets.” “If a poet, for example, is a representative of the era of romanticism, this does not mean that there cannot be realistic tendencies in his work.”

The literary process is a complex and diverse phenomenon, therefore one should operate with such categories as “flow” and “direction” with extreme caution. In addition to them, scientists use other terms when studying the literary process, for example style.

Style is traditionally included in the section “Theories of Literature.” The term “style” itself, when applied to literature, has a number of meanings: the style of the work; the writer’s creative style, or individual style (say, the style of poetry by N.A. Nekrasov); the style of a literary movement, movement, method (for example, the style of symbolism); style as a set of stable elements of an artistic form, determined by the general features of worldview, content, national traditions inherent in literature and art in a certain historical era (the style of Russian realism of the second half of the 19th century century).

In a narrow sense, style is understood as a manner of writing, features of the poetic structure of a language (vocabulary, phraseology, figurative and expressive means, syntactic structures, etc.). In a broad sense, style is a concept used in many sciences: literary criticism, art criticism, linguistics, cultural studies, aesthetics. They talk about work style, behavior style, thinking style, leadership style, etc.

Style-forming factors in literature are ideological content, components of form that specifically express the content; This also includes the vision of the world, which is associated with the writer’s worldview, with his understanding of the essence of phenomena and man. Stylistic unity includes the structure of the work (composition), analysis of conflicts, their development in the plot, a system of images and ways of revealing characters, and the pathos of the work. Style, as the unifying and artistic-organizing principle of the entire work, even includes the method of landscape sketches. All this is style in the broad sense of the word. The uniqueness of the method and style expresses the peculiarities of the literary direction and movement.

The characteristics of stylistic expression are used to judge literary hero(the attributes of its external appearance and form of behavior are taken into account), about the building’s belonging to a particular era in the development of architecture (Empire style, Gothic style, Art Nouveau style, etc.), about the specifics of depicting reality in the literature of a specific historical formation (in Old Russian literature - the style of monumental medieval historicism, the epic style of the 11th-13th centuries, the expressive-emotional style of the 14th-15th centuries, the Baroque style of the second half of the 17th century, etc.). No one today will be surprised by the expressions “style of play”, “style of life”, “style of leadership”, “style of work”, “style of construction”, “style of furniture”, etc., and every time, along with a general cultural meaning, These stable formulas have a specific evaluative meaning (for example, “I prefer this style of clothing” - in contrast to others, etc.).

Style in literature is a functionally applied set of means of expression arising from knowledge of the general laws of reality, realized by the relationship of all elements of the poetics of a work in order to create a unique artistic impression.

LITERARY DIRECTION (METHOD)- a set of basic features of creativity that were formed and repeated during a certain historical period in the development of art.

At the same time, the features of this direction can be traced in authors who worked in the eras preceding the formation of the movement itself (traits of romanticism in Shakespeare, features of realism in Fonvizin’s “Minor”), as well as in subsequent eras (features of romanticism in Gorky).

There are four main literary trends:CLASSICISM, ROMANTICISM, REALISM, MODERNISM.

LITERARY CURRENT- finer division compared to the direction; currents or represent ramifications of one direction (German romanticism, French romanticism, Byronism in England, Karamzinism in Russia), or arise during the transition from one direction to another (sentimentalism).

MAIN LITERARY DIRECTIONS (METHODS) AND TRENDS

1. CLASSICISM

The main literary movement in Russia XVIII century.

Main features

1. Imitation of examples of ancient culture.
2. Strict construction rules works of art.Chapter II. Literary trends (methods) and currents 9
3. Strict hierarchy of genres: high (ode, epic poem, tragedy); medium (satire, love letter); low (fable, comedy).
4. Rigid boundaries between genders and genres.
5. Creation ideal scheme social life and ideal images of members of society (enlightened monarch, statesman, military man, woman).

Main genres in poetry

Ode, satire, historical poem.

Main rules of construction dramatic works

1. The rule of “three unities”: place, time, action.
2. Division into positive and negative characters.
3. The presence of a hero-reasoner (a character expressing the author’s position).
4. Traditional roles: reasoner (hero-reasoner), first lover (hero-lover), second lover, ingénue, soubrette, deceived father, etc.
5. Traditional denouement: the triumph of virtue and the punishment of vice.
6. Five actions.
7. Speaking names.
8. Long moralizing monologues.

Main representatives

Europe - writer and thinker Voltaire; playwrights Corneille, Racine, Moliere; fabulist La Fontaine; poet Guys (France).

Russia - poets Lomonosov, Derzhavin, playwright Fonvizin (comedies "The Brigadier", 1769 and "The Minor", 1782).

Traditions of classicism in the literature of the 19th century

Krylov . Genre traditions of classicism in fables.

Griboyedov . Features of classicism in the comedy "Woe from Wit".

The main literary movement in Russia in the first third of the 19th century.

Main features

1. Creation of an ideal dream world, fundamentally incompatible with real life, opposed to it.
2. In the center of the image is the human personality, its inner world, its relationship to the surrounding reality.
3. Portrayal of an exceptional hero in exceptional circumstances.
4. Denial of all the rules of classicism.
5. The use of fiction, symbolism, the absence of everyday and historical motivations.

Main genres

Lyric poem, poem, tragedy, novel.

Main genres in Russian poetry

Elegy, message, song, ballad, poem.

Main representatives

Europe - Goethe, Heine, Schiller (Germany), Byron (England).

Russia - Zhukovsky.

Traditions of romanticism in the literature of the 19th-20th centuries

Griboyedov . Romantic traits in the characters of Sofia and Chatsky; a parody of Zhukovsky's ballads (Sofia's dream) in the comedy "Woe from Wit".

Pushkin . Romantic period creativity (1813--1824); the image of the romantic poet Lensky and discussions of romanticism in the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin"; unfinished novel "Dubrovsky".

Lermontov . Romantic period of creativity (1828-І836); elements of romanticism in poems of the mature period (1837-1841); romantic motifs in the poems “Song about... the merchant Kalashnikov”, “Mtsyri”, “Demon”, in the novel “Hero of Our Time”; the image of the romantic poet Lensky in the poem "The Death of a Poet".

The main literary direction of the 2nd half of the XIX-XX centuries.

Main features

1. Creation of typical (regular) characters.
2. These characters act in typical everyday and historical settings.
3. Life-like verisimilitude, fidelity to detail (in combination with conventional forms of artistic fantasy: symbol, grotesque, fantasy, myth).

In Russia, the emergence of realism began in the 1820s:

Krylov. Fables.

Griboyedov . Comedy "Woe from Wit" (1822 -1824).

Pushkin . Mikhailovsky (1824-1826) and late (1826-1836) periods of creativity: the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" (1823-1831), the tragedy "Boris Godunov" (1825), "Belkin's Tales" (1830), the poem "Copper" Horseman" (1833), the story "The Captain's Daughter" (1833-1836); late lyrics.

Lermontov . The period of mature creativity (1837-1841): the novel “A Hero of Our Time” (1839-1841), late lyrics.

Gogol . "Petersburg Tales" (1835-1842; "The Overcoat", 1842), the comedy "The Inspector General" (1835), the poem "Dead Souls" (1st volume: 1835-1842).

Tyutchev, Fet . Features of realism in lyrics.

In the years 1839-1847, Russian realism was formed into a special literary movement, called the “natural school” or “Gogolian direction.” The natural school became the first stage in the development of a new movement in realism - Russian critical realism.

Programmatic works of writers of critical realism

Prose

Goncharov . The novel "Oblomov" (1848-1858).

Turgenev . The story "Asya" (1858), the novel "Fathers and Sons" (1861).

Dostoevsky . Novel "Crime and Punishment" (1866).

Lev Tolstoy . Epic novel "War and Peace" (1863-1869).

Saltykov-Shchedrin . "The History of a City" (1869--1870), "Tales" (1869-1886).

Leskov . The story "The Enchanted Wanderer" (1879), the story "Lefty" (1881).

Dramaturgy

Ostrovsky . Drama “The Thunderstorm” (1859), comedy “Forest” (1870).

Poetry

Nekrasov . Lyrics, poems “Peasant Children” (1861), “Who Lives Well in Rus'” (1863-1877).

The development of critical realism ends at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries:

Chekhov . Stories "Death of an Official" (1883), "Chameleon" (1884), "Student" (1894), "House with a Mezzanine" (1896), "Ionych", "Man in a Case", "Gooseberry", "About Love" , "Darling" (all 1898), "Lady with a Dog" (1899), comedy " The Cherry Orchard" (1904).

Bitter . Essay "Former People" (1897), story "Ice Break" (1912), play "At the Bottom" (1902).

Bunin . The stories "Anton's Apples" (1900), "The Gentleman from San Francisco" (1915).

Kuprin . The story "Olesya" (1898), " Garnet bracelet" (1910).

After the October Revolution, the term “socialist realism” appeared. However, creativity best writers post-revolutionary period does not fit into the narrow framework of this trend and retains traditional features Russian realism:

Sholokhov . The novel "Quiet Don" (1925-1940), the story "The Fate of a Man" (1956).

Bulgakov . Tale " dog's heart"(1925), novels" White Guard"(1922-1924), "The Master and Margarita" (1929-1940), the play "Days of the Turbins" (1925-1926).

Zamyatin . Dystopian novel "We" (1929).

Platonov . The story "The Pit" (1930).

Tvardovsky . Poems, poem "Vasily Terkin" (1941-1945).

Parsnip . Late lyrics, novel "Doctor Zhivago" (1945--1955).

Solzhenitsyn . The story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich", story " Matrenin Dvor" (1959).

Shalamov . Cycle "Kolyma Stories" (1954--1973).

Astafiev . The story "The Shepherd and the Shepherdess" (1967-1989).

Trifonov . The story "The Old Man" (1978).

Shukshin. Stories.

Rasputin . The story "Farewell to Matera" (1976).

5. MODERNISM

Modernism - a literary movement that unites various movements in art of the late 19th-20th centuries, engaged in experiments with the form of works of art (symbolism, Acmeism, futurism, cubism, constructivism, avant-gardeism, abstract art, etc.).

IMAGINISM (imago - image) is a literary movement in Russian poetry between 1919 and 1925, whose representatives stated that the goal of creativity is to create an image. The main expressive means of imagists is metaphor, often metaphorical chains that compare various elements of two images - direct and figurative. The creator of the movement is Anatoly Borisovich Mariengof. Sergei Yesenin, who was a member of it, brought fame to the Imagist group.

POSTMODERNISM - various movements in the art of the 2nd half XX-beginning XXI centuries (conceptualism, pop art, social art, body art, graffiti, etc.), which put the denial of the integrity of life and art at all levels at the forefront. In Russian literature, the era of postmodernism opens with the almanac "Metropol", 1979; most famous authors almanac:V.P. Aksenov, B.A. Akhmadulina, A.G. Bitov, A.A. Voznesensky, V.S. Vysotsky, F.A. Iskander.

IN modern literary criticism The terms "direction" and "flow" can be interpreted differently. Sometimes they are used as synonyms (classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, realism and modernism are called both movements and directions), and sometimes a movement is identified with a literary school or group, and a direction with an artistic method or style (in this case, the direction includes two or more currents).

Usually, literary direction call a group of writers similar in type of artistic thinking. We can talk about the existence of a literary movement if writers realize theoretical basis his artistic activity, promote them in manifestos, program speeches, and articles. Thus, the first programmatic article of the Russian futurists was the manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste,” which stated the basic aesthetic principles of the new direction.

In certain circumstances, within the framework of one literary movement, groups of writers may be formed, especially close to each other in their aesthetic views. Such groups formed within any direction are usually called literary movement. For example, within the framework of such a literary movement as symbolism, two movements can be distinguished: “senior” symbolists and “younger” symbolists (according to another classification - three: decadents, “senior” symbolists, “younger” symbolists).

CLASSICISM(from lat. classicus- exemplary) - an artistic movement 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, and the cult of moral duty. The aesthetics of classicism is characterized by rigor artistic forms: compositional unity, normative style and plots. Representatives of Russian classicism: Kantemir, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Knyazhnin, 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 movement). The goal is to create works of art in the image and likeness of ancient ones. In addition, the formation of classicism was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the cult of reason (the belief in the omnipotence of reason and that the world can be reorganized on a rational basis).

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 “incorrect.” This was due to the fact that Shakespeare’s heroes 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. Thus, 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 one character trait: either a miser, or a braggart, or a hypocrite, or a hypocrite, or good, or evil, etc.

Main conflict classic works- this is the hero’s struggle between reason and feeling. At the same time, a positive hero must always make a choice in favor of reason (for example, when choosing between love and the need to completely devote himself to serving the state, he must choose the latter), and a negative one - in favor of feeling.

The same can be said about 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 included in a comedy, and funny ones were not supposed to be included in a tragedy. IN high genres"exemplary" heroes were depicted - monarchs, "commanders who could serve as role models. In the low ones, characters were depicted who were seized by some kind of "passion", that is, a strong feeling.

Special rules existed for dramatic works. They had to observe three “unities” - place, time and action. Unity of place: classical dramaturgy did not allow a change of location, that is, throughout the entire play the characters had to be in the same place. Unity of time: artistic time the work should not exceed several hours, in as a last resort- one day. Unity of action implies the presence of only one storyline. All these requirements are related to the fact that the classicists wanted to create a unique illusion of life on stage. Sumarokov: “Try to measure the clock for me in the game for hours, so that I, having forgotten myself, can believe you*.

So, the characteristic features literary classicism:

Purity of the genre (in high genres funny or everyday situations and heroes could not be depicted, and in low genres tragic and sublime ones could not be depicted);

Purity of language (in high genres - high vocabulary, in low genres - colloquial);

Heroes are strictly divided into positive and negative, while positive heroes, choosing between feeling and reason, give preference to the latter;

Compliance with the rule of “three unities”;

The work must affirm positive values ​​and the state ideal.

Russian classicism is characterized by state pathos (the state (and not the person) was declared the highest value) combined 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, requiring everyone to serve for the good of society. Russian classicists, inspired by Peter's reforms, believed in the possibility of further improvement of society, which they saw as a rationally organized organism. Sumarokov: “ Peasants plow, merchants trade, warriors defend the fatherland, judges judge, scientists cultivate sciences.” The classicists treated human nature in the same rationalistic manner. They believed that human nature is selfish, subject to passions, that is, feelings that are opposed to reason, but at the same time amenable to education.

SENTIMENTALISM(from English sentimental- sensitive, from French sentiment- feeling) is 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 capacity for deep experiences. Hence the interest in the hero’s inner world, the depiction of the shades of his feelings (the beginning of psychologism).

Unlike classicists, sentimentalists consider the highest value not the state, but the person. They contrasted 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” person, that is, living in harmony with nature.

Sensitivity also underlies the creative method of sentimentalism. If classicists created generalized characters (prude, braggart, miser, fool), then sentimentalists are interested in specific people with individual fates. The heroes in their works are clearly divided into positive and negative. Positive people are endowed with natural sensitivity (responsive, kind, compassionate, capable of self-sacrifice). Negative - calculating, selfish, arrogant, cruel. The carriers of sensitivity, as a rule, are peasants, artisans, commoners, and rural clergy. Cruel - representatives of power, nobles, high clergy (since despotic rule kills sensitivity in people). Manifestations of sensitivity often acquire a too external, even exaggerated character in the works of sentimentalists (exclamations, tears, fainting, suicide).

One of the main discoveries of sentimentalism is the individualization of the hero and the image of the rich spiritual world of the 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 often depicted in pastoral colors. New content required new form. The leading genres were family novel, diary, confession, novel in letters, travel notes, elegy, epistle.

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 the serf peasant and the serf-owner landowner, and the moral superiority of the former is persistently emphasized.

ROMANTICISM - artistic movement in European and American culture the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th century. Romanticism arose in the 1790s, first in Germany, and then spread throughout Western Europe. The prerequisites for its emergence were the crisis of Enlightenment rationalism, the artistic search for pre-romantic movements (sentimentalism), the Great French Revolution, and German classical philosophy.

The emergence of this literary movement, like 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 literature. The Great French Revolution of 1789-1899 and the associated revaluation of Enlightenment ideology had a decisive influence on the formation of romanticism in Western Europe. As you know, the 15th century in France passed under the sign of the Enlightenment. For almost a century, French educators led by Voltaire (Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu) argued that the world could be reorganized on a reasonable basis and proclaimed the idea of ​​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 (previously it belonged to the aristocracy, the upper nobility), while the rest were left with nothing. Thus, the long-awaited “kingdom of reason” turned out to be an illusion, as were the promised freedom, equality and brotherhood. There was general disappointment in the results and results of the revolution, deep dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality, which became a prerequisite for the emergence of romanticism. Because at the heart 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 influence on Russian. This trend continued into the 19th century, which is why the Great French Revolution also shocked 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 the 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 had previously been perceived as injustice by progressive people of that time now began to seem like a blatant injustice, contrary to all logic and morality. But after the end of the war, Alexander I not only did not cancel serfdom, but also began to pursue a much tougher policy. As a result, a pronounced feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction arose in Russian society. This is how the soil for the emergence of romanticism arose.

The term “romanticism” when applied to a literary movement is arbitrary and imprecise. In this regard, from the very beginning of its occurrence, it was interpreted in different ways: some believed that it comes from the word “romance”, others - from chivalric poetry created in countries speaking Romance languages. For the first time, the word “romanticism” as a name for a literary movement began to be used in Germany, where the first sufficiently detailed theory of romanticism was created.

The concept of romantic dual worlds is very important for understanding the essence of romanticism. As already mentioned, rejection, denial of reality is the main prerequisite for the emergence of romanticism. All romantics reject the world around them, 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. For romantics, the world was divided into two parts: here and there. “There” and “here” are an antithesis (opposition), these categories are correlated as ideal and reality. The despised “here” is modern reality, where evil and injustice triumph. “There” is a kind of poetic reality, which the romantics contrasted with real reality. Many romantics believed that goodness, beauty and truth, crowded out of public life, were still preserved in the souls of people. Hence their attention to the inner world of a person, in-depth psychologism. The souls of people are their “there”. For example, Zhukovsky looked for “there” in other world; Pushkin and Lermontov, Fenimore Cooper - in the free life of uncivilized peoples (Pushkin's poem " Prisoner of the Caucasus", "Gypsies", Cooper's novels about Indian life).

Rejection and denial of reality determined the specifics of the romantic hero. This is a fundamentally new hero; previous literature has never seen anything like him. He is in a hostile relationship with the surrounding society and is opposed to it. This is an extraordinary person, restless, most often lonely and with a tragic fate. The romantic hero is the embodiment of romantic rebellion against reality.

REALISM(from the Latin realis - material, real) - a method (creative attitude) or literary direction that embodies the principles of a life-truthful attitude to reality, aimed at artistic knowledge of man and the world. The term “realism” is often used in two meanings: 1) realism as a method; 2) realism as a direction formed in the 19th century. Both classicism, romanticism, and symbolism strive for 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 a rejection of reality and the desire to “recreate” it, rather than display it as it is. It is no coincidence that, turning to the realist Balzac, the romantic George Sand defined the difference between him and herself: “You take a person as he appears to your eyes; I feel a calling within myself to portray him the way I would like to see him.” Thus, we can say that realists depict the real, and romantics depict 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 educational 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: adherence to the principles of nationality, historicism, high artistry, psychologism, depiction of life in its development. Realist writers showed the direct dependence of the social, moral, and religious ideas of heroes on social conditions, and paid great attention to the social and everyday aspect. The central problem of realism is the relationship between verisimilitude and artistic truth. Plausibility, a plausible representation 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 realism is the typification of characters (the fusion of the typical and individual, uniquely personal). The persuasiveness 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 “superfluous man” (Chatsky, Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov), the type of “new” hero (nihilist Bazarov in Turgenev, “new people” of Chernyshevsky).

MODERNISM(from French modern- newest, modern) - a philosophical and aesthetic movement in literature and art that arose at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

This term has different interpretations:

1) denotes a number of non-realistic movements 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 movements;

3) denotes a complex complex of aesthetic and ideological phenomena, including not only modernist movements themselves, but also the work of artists who do not completely fit into the framework of any movement (D. Joyce, M. Proust, F. Kafka and others).

The most striking and significant directions of Russian modernism were symbolism, acmeism and futurism.

SYMBOLISM - non-realistic movement in art and literature of the 1870s-1920s, focused mainly on artistic expression using a symbol of intuitively comprehended entities and ideas. Symbolism made itself known in France in the 1860-1870s in the poetic works of A. Rimbaud, P. Verlaine, S. Mallarmé. Then, through poetry, symbolism connected itself not only with prose and drama, but also with other forms of art. The ancestor, founder, “father” of symbolism is considered French writer C. Baudelaire.

The worldview of symbolist artists is based on the idea of ​​the unknowability of the world and its laws. They considered the spiritual experience of man 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 represent real world, which they considered secondary, but in the transmission of “higher reality”. They intended to achieve this with the help of a symbol. The symbol is an expression of the poet’s supersensible intuition, to whom in moments of insight the true essence of things is revealed. Symbolists developed a new poetic language that does not directly name the object, but hints at its content through allegory, musicality, color range, 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 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 movements:

1) “senior” symbolists (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub

and others), which 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 “younger” symbolists were separated not so much by age as by the difference in worldviews 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 lower forms of life (empirical reality, everyday life). The symbolists were interested in the higher spheres of life (the area “ absolute ideas” in terms of Plato or the “world soul”, according to V. Solovyov), not subject to rational knowledge. It is art that has the ability to penetrate into these spheres, and symbolic images with their endless polysemy are capable of reflecting the entire complexity of the world universe. The symbolists believed that the ability to comprehend the true, highest reality is given only to a select few who, in moments of inspired insight, are able to comprehend the “highest” truth, the absolute truth.

The image-symbol was considered by symbolists as more effective than artistic image, a tool that helps to “break through” the cover of everyday life ( lower life) to a higher reality. A symbol differs from a realistic image in that it conveys not the objective essence of a phenomenon, but the poet’s own, individual idea of ​​the world. In addition, a symbol, as Russian symbolists understood it, is not an allegory, but, first of all, an image that requires creative response from the reader. The symbol, as it were, connects the author and the reader - this is the revolution brought about by symbolism in art.

The image-symbol is fundamentally polysemantic and contains the prospect of limitless development of meanings. This feature 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); “The symbol is a window to infinity” (F. Sologub).

ACMEISM(from Greek act- the highest degree of something, blooming power, peak) - a modernist literary movement in Russian poetry of the 1910s. Representatives: S. Gorodetsky, early A. Akhmatova, JI. Gumilev, O. Mandelstam. The term “Acmeism” belongs to Gumilyov. The aesthetic program was formulated in the articles by Gumilyov “The Heritage of Symbolism and Acmeism”, Gorodetsky “Some Trends in Modern Russian Poetry” and Mandelstam “The Morning of Acmeism”.

Acmeism stood out from symbolism, criticizing its mystical aspirations towards the “unknowable”: “With the Acmeists, the rose again became good in itself, with its petals, smell and color, and not with its conceivable likenesses with mystical love or anything else” (Gorodetsky) . The Acmeists proclaimed the liberation of poetry from symbolist impulses towards the ideal, from polysemy and fluidity of images, complicated metaphors; talked about the need to return to the material world, the subject, exact value words. Symbolism is based on 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 precise and understandable images, and not vague symbols.

The Acmeist movement itself was small in number, 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 united than the scattered symbolist groups. At the “Workshop” meetings, 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 was not included in 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”, or clarism (from Lat. clarus- clear). The Acmeists called their movement Adamism, associating with the biblical Adam the idea of ​​a clear and direct view of the world. Acmeism preached a clear, “simple” poetic language, where words would directly name objects, declare their love for objectivity. Thus, Gumilyov called for looking not for “shaky words”, but for words “with a more stable content.” This principle was most consistently implemented in Akhmatova’s lyrics.

FUTURISM - one of the main avant-garde movements (avant-garde is an extreme manifestation of modernism) in European art of the early 20th century, which received greatest development in Italy and Russia.

In 1909, in Italy, the poet F. Marinetti published the “Manifesto of Futurism.” The main provisions of this manifesto: rejection of traditional aesthetic values and the experience of all previous literature, bold experiments in the field of literature and art. Marinetti names “courage, audacity, rebellion” as the main elements of futurist poetry. In 1912, Russian futurists V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh, and V. Khlebnikov created their manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste.” They also sought to break with traditional culture, welcomed literary experiments, and sought to find new means of speech expression (proclamation of a new free rhythm, loosening of syntax, destruction of 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 (“it is not what is important, but how”) and the absolute freedom of poetic speech.

Futurism was a heterogeneous movement. Within its framework, four main groups or movements can be distinguished:

1) “Gilea”, which united the Cubo-Futurists (V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh and others);

2) “Association of Ego-Futurists” (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 “Gilea”: in fact, it was it that determined the face of Russian futurism. Its members released many collections: “The Judges’ Tank” (1910), “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” (1912), “Dead Moon” (1913), “Took” (1915).

The futurists wrote in the name of the crowd man. At the heart of this movement was the feeling of “the inevitability of the collapse of old things” (Mayakovsky), the awareness of the birth of a “new humanity.” Artistic creativity, according to the futurists, should have become not an imitation, but a continuation of nature, which, through the creative will of man, creates “a new world, today’s, iron...” (Malevich). This determines the desire to destroy the “old” form, the desire for contrasts, the attraction to colloquial speech. Relying on living spoken language, futurists were engaged in “word creation” (creating neologisms). Their works were distinguished by complex semantic and compositional shifts - the contrast of the comic and tragic, fantasy and lyricism.

Futurism began to disintegrate already in 1915-1916.

Socialist realism(socialist realism) - ideological method 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 responsible for solving the problems of building socialism.

It was approved in 1932 by the party authorities in literature and art.

Parallel to it there was unofficial art.

· artistic depiction of reality “accurately, in accordance with specific historical revolutionary developments.”

· harmonization of artistic creativity with the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, active involvement of workers in the construction of socialism, affirmation of the leading role of the Communist Party.

Lunacharsky was the first writer to lay its ideological foundation. Back in 1906, he introduced the concept of “proletarian realism” into use. By the twenties, in relation to this concept, he began to use the term “new social realism“, and in the early thirties he dedicated a series of programmatic theoretical articles that were published in Izvestia to “dynamic and thoroughly active socialist realism”, “a good, meaningful term that can be interestingly revealed with the right analysis.”

The term “socialist realism” was first proposed by the Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the USSR SP I. Gronsky in “ Literary newspaper"May 23, 1932. It arose in connection with the need to direct RAPP and the avant-garde to artistic development Soviet culture. Decisive in this regard was the recognition of the role of classical traditions and the understanding of the new qualities of realism. In 1932-1933 Gronsky and head. sector fiction The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) V. Kirpotin vigorously 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 goal of which is the continuous development of man’s most valuable individual abilities for the sake of his victory over the forces of nature, for the sake of his health and longevity, for the sake of the great happiness of living on the earth, which he, in accordance with the continuous growth of his needs, wants treat the whole as a beautiful home for humanity 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 policies. In the previous period, the twenties existed Soviet writers who sometimes took aggressive positions towards many outstanding writers. For example, RAPP, an organization of proletarian writers, was actively engaged in criticism of non-proletarian writers. RAPP consisted mainly of aspiring writers. During the period of the creation of modern industry (the years of industrialization), Soviet power needed art that would raise the people to “deeds of labor.” The fine arts of the 1920s also presented a rather motley picture. Several groups emerged within it. The most significant group was the Association of Artists of the Revolution. They depicted today: the life of the Red Army soldiers, workers, peasants, leaders of the revolution and labor. They considered themselves the heirs of the “Itinerants”. They went to factories, mills, and Red Army barracks to directly observe the lives of their characters, to “sketch” it. It was they who became the main backbone of the artists of “socialist realism”. It was much harder for less traditional masters, 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 returned from exile in a solemn ceremony and headed the specially created Union of Writers of the USSR, which included mainly writers and poets of Soviet orientation.

First official definition socialist realism is given in the Charter of the USSR SP, adopted at the First Congress of the SP:

Socialist realism, being the main method of Soviet fiction and literary criticism, requires from the artist a truthful, historically specific depiction of reality in its revolutionary development. Moreover, the truthfulness and historical specificity of the artistic depiction of reality must be combined with the task of ideological remodeling and education in the spirit of socialism.

This definition became the starting point for all further interpretations until the 80s.

« Socialist realism is deeply vital, scientific and the most advanced artistic method, developed as a result of the successes of socialist construction and education 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 the broad class of working people... Art must be based on their feelings, thoughts and demands and must grow with them.”