Russian historical novel of the 19th century in the context of cultural consciousness.
XIX CENTURY
Russian novel of the 19th century.
The genre of the novel in Russia experienced its greatest flourishing in the 19th century, when its most equal types reached maturity: social, political, historical, philosophical, psychological, love, family, adventure, and fantasy. Mastering the achievements of other genres, the realistic novel of the 19th century. widely covers various spheres of life, critically reveals social problems, delves deeply into inner world characters. Developing successfully psychological novel(“Crime and Punishment” by F. Dostoevsky, “Anna Karenina” by L. Tolstoy) and at the same time colossal epics are created (“War and Peace” by L. Tolstoy).
Characteristic features of the Russian realistic novel of the 19th century:
Interest in modernity, the desire to recreate it for objectivity, reliability, accuracy;
Detailing of everyday life, surroundings, social environment;
Displaying life using typical characters and typical circumstances;
Social analysis;
“self-development” of heroes, whose actions are not random, but determined by character traits and circumstances;
Historicism, the principles of which were applied by romantics in the past, and by realists even to the present day.
Great contribution to the development of the novel genre in Russian XIX literature V. made by O. Pushkin (“Eugene Onegin”), M. Lermontov (“Hero of Our Time”), I. Turgenev and M. Saltykov-Shchedrin created wonderful examples of social (and I. Goncharov - everyday) novels, closely related to current social issues problems. L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky and other Russian realist writers became real masters of psychological analysis; they reflected in their works the intense spiritual search of their contemporaries. Russian realism of the mid-19th century, without losing its social urgency, turned to philosophical questions and put forward the eternal problems of human existence.
The very titles of some novels can tell the reader how different the same “Russian reality” will be for them. “Fathers and Sons”, “Crime and Punishment”, “War and Peace” are titles charged with conflict, and these conflicts are of an equal kind. In one case, there is a clash of generations, behind which there arises a historical difference in aspirations and beliefs. In another, the struggle is tragically transferred into the human soul. In the third, the formidable elements of life collide and involve individual person, but entire nations.
The Russian novel plays a special role in the process of formation and development of this genre in world literature of the second half of the 19th century century, primarily the novels of L. Tolstoy (“War and Peace,” “Anna Karenina,” “Resurrection”) and F. Dostoevsky (“Crime and Punishment,” “The Idiot,” “The Brothers Karamazov,” etc.). In the works of these outstanding writers one of the decisive qualities of the novel reaches its peak - its ability, through in-depth psychologism, to embody universal meaning in the private destinies and personal experiences of the heroes.
While remaining faithful to the traditions of the early Russian novel by A. Pushkin and M. Lermontov, the Russian novel of the 60s was enriched with new features in the work of each outstanding artist: features of an epic - in L. Tolstoy; with a huge philosophical and psychological scope - in F. Dostoevsky, whose heroes live in direct correlation with the whole world, with the past and future of humanity.
Man and the world in the depiction of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky are in living and constant interaction. It is important for hero-seekers to understand the secret of the human personality, the basis of the universe. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky strive to identify the general laws governing the private and public lives of people, turn to moral problems which are revealed through the relationships of the characters. Inner monologues convey the characters’ experiences of their actions and the actions of other people, thus revealing the hidden intentions and secrets of the characters’ souls.
Contemporaries and followers of L. Tolstoy were surprised and delighted unusual shape the novel "War and Peace": a wide epic scope, an in-depth analysis of individual destinies, characters and relationships of people. When creating the Iliad of modern times, Tolstoy did not copy the experience of the ancient Greeks, in whose epic the life of an individual was dissolved in the flow of external events. Readers were amazed by the brightness of the characters in Tolstoy's novel and the richness of the principles of their depiction. The strength of Tolstoy's epic narrative lies in the fact that he expanded its scope, included the theme of the masses into the historical flow and showed their decisive role.
In his novels, F. Dostoevsky (like V. Shakespeare in tragedies) refers to the image of such fact of life, who in his turning point reveals the highest emotional tension of the hero - the explosion is prepared both by the character of the person and by coincidence social conditions. The writer’s works for the first time tell about an invisible person, rejected by society, as an individual who takes possession of eternal, epoch-making phenomena.
We can say that it belongs to L. Tolstoy and F. Dostoevsky special place in the history of Russian realism. It was thanks to them that the Russian realistic novel acquired global significance. their psychological mastery and insight into the “dialectics of the soul” opened the way for the artistic quests of 20th-century writers. The novel by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky had a huge influence on the further development of the genre in world literature. Outstanding novelists of the 20th century - T. Mann, A. France, G. Rolland, K. Hamsun, J. Galsworthy, W. Faulkner, E. Hemingway and others - turned out to be direct followers of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.
middle School of General education
with in-depth study of individual subjects No. 36
Egorova Sofya Igorevna
The rise of the Russian realistic novel
Scientific adviser:
Boyko O. B.,literature teacher.
Kirov
2006
- Plan.
- Russian realistic novel of the second half of the nineteenth century. Romanticism and realism.
Representatives of Russian realism.
- F. M. Dostoevsky.
I.A. Goncharov.
I.S. Turgenev.
L.N. Tolstoy.
- General characteristics of the features of the Russian realistic novel of the late nineteenth century.
1. Russian realistic novel of the second half of the nineteenth century. Romanticism and realism.
It's called a novel literary genre, epic work large shape, in which the narrative is focused on the fate of an individual in her relation to the world around her, on the formation and development of her character and self-awareness. The novel is an epic of modern times; Unlike folk epic, where the individual and the people's soul are inseparable, in the novel the life of the individual and social life appear as relatively independent; but "private" inner life the individual is revealed in it “epicly,” that is, with the identification of its universally significant and social meaning. A typical novel situation is a clash in the hero of the moral and human (personal) with natural and social necessity. Since the novel develops in modern times, where the nature of the relationship between man and society is constantly changing, its form is essentially “open”: the main situation is each time filled with specific historical content and is embodied in various genre modifications. Historically, the picaresque novel is considered the first form. In the 18th century two main varieties are developing: the social novel (G. Fielding, T. Smollett) and the psychological novel (S. Richardson, J. J. Rousseau, L. Stern, I. V. Goethe). Romantics create historical novel(W. Scott). In the 1830s. The classical era of the socio-psychological novel of critical realism of the 19th century begins.
The heyday of the Russian novel occurred at the end of the nineteenth century, the time of the victory of realism as a literary trend both in Europe and in Russia. Unlike romanticism, realism wins first not as a literary movement common to many writers, but in the work of individual authors, and only then develops into a single artistic whole.
However, realism arose much earlier, in the era of the heyday of romanticism, and was prepared by the fable work of Krylov, the comedy “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov. In the thirties of the nineteenth century, romanticism and realism coexisted peacefully. Realism came to the fore in the forties and fifties. The transition to it took place in the works of Pushkin and was associated with historicism, then realism strengthened in the works of Lermontov and Gogol.
Realism can be considered a direction opposed to romanticism; often there is irony of the author in relation to the characters, circumstances, and storylines characteristic of romanticism, and their decisive rethinking. Often, equality is established between the heroes - the romantic and the non-romantic - in the face of reality, as in Goncharov’s “Ordinary History”, whose work will be discussed below, where both romanticism and excessive practicality are condemned equally.
Unlike the romantics, for whom the spiritual impulses of the individual remained precisely impulses that did not lend themselves to strict description and did not acquire a strict and precisely defined character, realism strives to give psychological movements, their shades and contradictions a clear form.
Realism carried this feature throughout its entire development, and reached its greatest flourishing precisely in the second half of the nineteenth century, denoting the primacy of prose and, in particular, the genres of the story, short story and novel.
The principles of realism received their concrete embodiment – general and individual – in the works of the great Russian writers, who will be discussed below.
2. Representatives of Russian realism.
2.1. Fedor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky.
Dostoevsky Fyodor Mikhailovich (1821-81), Russian writer, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1877). In the stories “Poor People” (1846), “White Nights” (1848), “Netochka Nezvanova” (1849, unfinished) and others, he described the suffering of a “little” person as a social tragedy. In the story “The Double” (1846) he gave a psychological analysis of a split consciousness. A member of M. V. Petrashevsky's circle, Dostoevsky was arrested in 1849 and sentenced to death, commuted to hard labor (1850-54) with subsequent service as a private. In 1859 he returned to St. Petersburg. “Notes from the House of the Dead” (1861-62) - about the tragic destinies and dignity of a person in hard labor. Together with his brother M. M. Dostoevsky, he published the “soil” magazines “Time” (1861-63) and “Epoch” (1864-65). In the novels “Crime and Punishment” (1866), “The Idiot” (1868), “Demons” (1871-1872), “Teenager” (1875), “The Brothers Karamazov” (1879-80), etc. - a philosophical understanding of the social And spiritual crisis Russia, a dialogic clash of original personalities, a passionate search for social and human harmony, deep psychologism and tragedy. Journalistic “Diary of a Writer” (1873-81). Dostoevsky's work had a powerful influence on Russian and world literature.
Dostoevsky's work caused a lot of heated discussions. Some reviewers, calling him “the new Gogol,” admired this talent, others ridiculed the author’s morbid suspiciousness, and still others, although they were a minority, did not hide their outright disgust. The reaction of the Belinsky circle to Dostoevsky’s first work became one of the most famous and lastingly resonant episodes in the history of Russian literature: almost all participants, including Dostoevsky, later returned to it both in memoirs and in works of fiction, describing it both directly and indirectly. parody form. Although his debut in literature was triumphant, it was followed by cooling and, finally, sharp criticism of Belinsky and his circle.
The literature of the nineteenth century is social literature, in Dostoevsky it is even acutely social; in his novels, at first glance harsh and truly “cruel,” there is a bright, highly moral element. The authors of that time for the most part sought to resolve moral issues, and Dostoevsky was clearly passionate about a detailed study of all the ins and outs of human actions. He is in no hurry to pass by the most unpleasant aspects of society; on the contrary, he strives to establish a cause-and-effect relationship, to get to the true, deep motives of human actions.
“Life Everywhere” - the title of Yaroshenko’s painting reflects one of the principles of Dostoevsky’s work. He emphasizes that even a fallen, completely degraded person remains a person and sometimes does not deserve the attitude with which he is greeted by the prosperous and comfortable layer. For every criminal there is an excuse - the influence of the environment and society, extreme poverty, the desire to somehow protect relatives.
Dostoevsky's prose amazed and amazes with its theatricality of action, scandalous and at the same time tragic development of events, complicated psychological picture. However, contemporaries noted that behind the visible attempt to show the underside of the life of society, there is a high, even sometimes global goal. Vyacheslav Ivanov in the article “Dostoevsky and the Tragedy Novel” says:“Horror and painful compassion are powerfully lifted from the bottom of our souls by Dostoevsky’s cruel (for tragic to the last edge) muse, but it always leads us to purification, thereby imprinting the authenticity of our artistic action, no matter how we accept the “purification.” And so creatively strong, so transformatively cathartic (purifying) relief and strengthening, which Dostoevsky bestows on the soul that went with him through the torments of hell and the ordeal of purgatory to the threshold of Beatrice’s monastery, that we have all long since come to terms with our stern counselor and no longer complain about the difficult path..."
The words about heaven and hell are not just a vivid metaphor of the author. Religious motifs are often found in Dostoevsky's works. In 1867-68. The novel “The Idiot” was written, the task of which Dostoevsky saw in “the image of a positively beautiful person.” The ideal hero Prince Myshkin, “Prince Christ,” the “good shepherd,” personifying forgiveness and mercy, with his theory of “practical Christianity,” cannot withstand the clash with hatred, malice, sin and plunges into madness.
However, V.G. Florovsky, in the article “Religious Themes of Dostoevsky,” writes not so much about the themes as about the features of this writer’s prose as a whole: “There is an internal unity in Dostoevsky’s work. The same topics worried and occupied him all his life. Dostoevsky considered and called himself a realist - “a realist in the highest sense.” It is inaccurate to call him a psychologist. And it is wrong to explain his creativity from his spiritual experience, from his experiences. He was excitedly interested in everything that was happening around him. He suffered rather from curiosity than from inattention to life. This was not simple curiosity, but metaphysical curiosity. It was given to him to see the mystery of the fundamental principle of empirical events. He saw what he talked about - he described what he saw. This is the basis of his realism. His work is not an interpretation, but a depiction of human destiny."
Despite his somewhat mystical view of the world, attention to unpleasant facts and an exaggerated sense of social injustice, Dostoevsky really was a realist. Not a single writer, even the most sensitive one, is able to describe the emotional unrest of people different from himself, who have experienced something that he has not experienced, if he has never even tried to understand the essence of the events taking place around him. Based on the real material of reality, Dostoevsky put forward and illuminated problems of global significance, problems of the struggle between good and evil in social life, in the inner nature of people, themes of the life calling of the human person, suffering and protest, selfishness and self-sacrifice, crime and punishment, issues of social , spiritual connections between people and their separation, a fair structure of the social world and many others.
As for the general theme, N. A. Berdyaev notes: “In Dostoevsky there is nothing except man, there is no nature, there is no world of things, there is no thing in man himself that connects him with the natural world, with the world of things, with everyday life, with the objective the structure of life. Only the human spirit exists and only it is interesting, it is explored. N. Strakhov, who knew Dostoevsky closely, says about him: “His whole attention was focused on people, and he grasped only their nature and character. He was interested in people, exclusively people, with their mental make-up, their way of life, their feelings and thoughts.” During Dostoevsky’s trip abroad, “Dostoevsky was not particularly interested in nature, historical monuments, or works of art.” True, Dostoevsky has a city, there are city slums, dirty taverns and smelly furnished rooms. But the city is only the atmosphere of man, only a moment of man’s tragic fate, the city is permeated by man, but does not have an independent existence, it is only the background of man.”
Some critics note that St. Petersburg in Dostoevsky’s works is not exactly the city of St. Petersburg, but a kind of ghostly city, a stronghold of lost souls. The gloomy image of the city only emphasizes the joyless existence of the heroes. In Dostoevsky's novels there are practically no lyrical digressions or pastoral sketches; all the writer's attention is drawn to the person, or rather to his soul, the internal dialogue of the characters.
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky is one of the most notable literary figures of the nineteenth century. His passion for an in-depth analysis of the human heart and mind, attempts to find a way out of the spiritual crisis of the Russian people, coupled with realistic images, constant soul-searching of the main characters, and a strong philosophical idea give exactly that unique prose of Dostoevsky. It contains many features typical of the literature of the heyday of the Russian novel. However, some of them are exaggerated, others are almost reduced to nothing. Everyday little things are important only when they are directly related to what is happening, the environment of the characters lives only as a background, the features characteristic of a particular area are minimized to a short outline of typical scenery. “A typical person in typical conditions,” the main principle of realism, takes on a completely new and unique form in Dostoevsky.
2.2. I.A. Goncharov.
Goncharov Ivan Aleksandrovich (1812-91), Russian writer, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1860). In the novel “Oblomov” (1859), the fate of the main character is revealed not only as a social phenomenon (“Oblomovism”), but also as a philosophical understanding of the Russian national character, a special moral path, opposing the bustle of all-consuming “progress”. In the novel " An ordinary story"(1847) the conflict between “realism” and “romanticism” appears as a significant conflict in Russian life. In the novel “The Precipice” (1869), the search for a moral ideal (especially female images), criticism of nihilism. The cycle of travel essays “Frigate “Pallada” (1855-57) is a kind of “writer’s diary”; literary critical articles (“A Million Torments”, 1872).
D.V. Grigorovich says about him: “In all Russian literature there is no happier person than Goncharov. Pushkin and Gogol were showered with abuse; in the sixties it became fashionable to vilify Turgenev, and how else! WITH light hand Belinsky Goncharov has heard nothing but praise all his life.”
In Goncharov’s works there is no sharp criticism, no bright desire to shed light on the vices of society, no desire to shake social foundations. These days, many consider him a rather mediocre writer. However, at that time, against the backdrop of the disturbing thirst of the authors to describe in the most colorful way all the most unsightly aspects of life, to plunge the reader into the pool of horrific actions and no less horrific conditions, his works, which were not at all particularly bright and optimistic, seemed like a kind of “outlet.” Most critics, frightened by the sharp and tragic literary impulses of nineteenth-century writers, liked Goncharov’s work.
V.G. Belinsky, who saw the story “An Ordinary Story” even before its publication, was truly delighted with Goncharov’s prose. “He is a poet, an artist - and nothing more. He has neither love nor enmity for the persons he creates, they do not amuse him, do not make him angry, he does not give any moral lessons neither to them nor to the reader, he seems to think: whoever is in trouble is also responsible, and my business is on my side. Of all the modern writers, he is the only one, he alone is approaching the ideal of pure art, while all the others have moved away from it to an immeasurable distance - and thereby keep up. His talent is not paramount, but strong and wonderful.”
Goncharov, as an author, adhered to the position of an outside observer. N.A. Dobrolyubov also agrees with this: “He does not give you and, apparently, does not want to give any conclusions. The life he depicts serves for him not as a means to abstract philosophy, but as a direct goal in itself. He doesn’t care about the reader or the conclusions you draw from the novel: that’s your business. He does not have that fervor of feeling that gives other talents the greatest strength and charm... This skill is the strongest side of Goncharov’s talent. And for this he is especially distinguished among modern Russian writers.”
So, the main feature of this writer’s works is his stubborn reluctance to “read morality.” He paints life in its most banal, artless manifestation. At the same time, he does not impose his point of view on the reader, preventing him from being biased in his judgments. His work is extremely realistic - the apparent ordinariness of the plot, the “vitality” of the images, the versatility of views on the meaning of the work (although, according to contemporaries, later Goncharov, fearing that in his novels the reader would miss the most important details or would not perceive them as they should I would have acquired the sad habit of explaining the meaning of my own works).
Theoretically, one could consider Goncharov the best representative of Russian realism, and the realism in his prose could be considered pure realism. However, only a connoisseur and connoisseur of Russian literature will point him out among the outstanding writers of that time. The names of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy are known to everyone, and for the first time each of us hears them long before becoming acquainted with the software school literature. Even without reading a single one of their works, we get used to considering them as brightly burning stars in the literary horizon.
Goncharov, however, was a success among his contemporaries, especially at the dawn of his creative activity. His anti-romantic pathos was side by side with a blow to sober practicality in “Ordinary History.” It was once considered the “smartest” novel of the time, but its relevance became dulled as romanticism and sentimentalism ceased to occupy the minds and hearts of readers.
It seems that Goncharov’s entire writing career comes down to one single work. Goncharov developed the idea for a new novel back in 1847. Two years later, the chapter “Oblomov’s Dream” was published. But the reader had to wait another ten years for the appearance of the full text of “Oblomov” (1859), which immediately won huge success: “Oblomov and Oblomovism... spread all over Russia and became words forever rooted in our speech” (A.V. Druzhinin ). The novel provoked heated debate, indicating the depth of the plan. Dobrolyubov’s article “What is Oblomovism” (1859) was a merciless trial of the main character, a “completely inert” and “apathetic” gentleman, a symbol of the inertia of feudal Russia.
Aesthetic criticism, on the contrary, saw in the hero an “independent and pure”, “tender and loving nature”, far from fashionable trends and remaining faithful to the main values of existence. By the end of the last century, the controversy about the novel continued, and the latter interpretation gradually prevailed: the lazy dreamer Oblomov, in contrast to the dry rationalist Stolz, began to be perceived as the embodiment of the “artistic ideal” of the novelist himself, the subtle psychological picture testified to the spiritual depth of the hero, the reader was revealed to have soft humor and hidden Goncharov's lyricism. At the beginning of the 20th century, I. F. Annensky rightly called “Oblomov” the “most perfect creation” of the writer.
The novel "Breakage" that followed "Oblomov" became the last widely famous work writer - and at the same time he sounded notes that were quite uncharacteristic for him.
Ironically, Goncharov’s literary peculiarity, a certain detachment and contemplation, became the motto of his last years. Having a hard time experiencing his creative silence, he ended his life alone, consciously avoiding life and at the same time burdened by his isolation.
In Goncharov we see a certain duality. Deprived of tragic anguish (of which Dostoevsky has a lot), prose alien to social criticism seems to many at first glance almost mediocrity. An author who does not ask questions, who does not strive to convey the truth to the reader, and who is not at all engaged in searching for it, who, in the end, has despised or lost sight of the writer’s commandment formulated by Pushkin: “With a verb, burn the hearts of people” - what is the meaning of his literary existence?
The answer is simple. A subtle observer, and not an ardent revolutionary, Goncharov knew how to unobtrusively but accurately convey the psychological portrait of the character. It is easy to notice that many novelists long years are faithful to the once created female image. Goncharov did not have the habit of portraying the same person in each of his heroines. It was as if he was painting a portrait from life, without understating or exaggerating. Goncharov embodied highest degree realism, and this is his greatest merit.
2.3. I.S. Turgenev.
Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich (1818-83), Russian writer, corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1860). In the cycle of stories “Notes of a Hunter” (1847-52) he showed the high spiritual qualities and talent of the Russian peasant, the poetry of nature. In the socio-psychological novels “Rudin” (1856), “ Noble Nest"(1859), "On the Eve" (1860), "Fathers and Sons" (1862), the stories "Asya" (1858), "Spring Waters" (1872) created images of the passing noble culture and new heroes of the era - commoners and democrats, images of selfless Russian women. In the novels “Smoke” (1867) and “Nov” (1877) he depicted the life of Russians abroad and the populist movement in Russia. In his later years, he created the lyrical and philosophical “Poems in Prose” (1882).
A. Herzen characterized Turgenev’s work somewhat critically: “His gift lacked imagination, that is, a natural narrative ability that could compare with the originality he achieved in the art of description.”
It is difficult to judge the lack of imagination, but Turgenev liked to base the stories he created on memories of moments he himself experienced. There is a lot of autobiography in Turgenev's works. One of the strongest impressions of early youth - falling in love with Princess E. L. Shakhovskaya, who was experiencing an affair with Turgenev's father at that time - was reflected in the story "First Love". The disaster of the steamship “Nicholas I”, on which Turgenev sailed, will be described by him in the essay “Fire at Sea”.
Further, Herzen continues: “Probably aware of this significant shortcoming or following the instinct of artistic self-preservation, which does not allow the artist to hesitate where he is most likely to fall down, he avoids describing the actions, or, more precisely, does not convey the actions in a detailed presentation. Therefore, his stories and stories consist almost entirely of dialogues against the backdrop of various scenery - beautiful, long conversations, interrupted by charming short biographies and exquisite rural landscapes. However, when he turns away from his path and goes in search of beauty beyond the boundaries of ancient Russian parks and gardens, he gets bogged down in disgusting sweetness.”
Here Herzen is unjustifiably harsh. Turgenev was a true master of language and literary analysis. The beauty and intrinsic value of the word, the combination of simplicity and grace of expression are reflected in the famous “Prose Poems”. The landscape, criticized so harshly, plays a significant role in Turgenev. Landscape as a means of expressing the author’s position conveys the moods of the characters, their heartfelt storms and calms. In Turgenev, landscape plays a huge role not only in Fathers and Sons, but in all of his works. It not only reflects the experiences of the heroes, but also fulfills its most important function - it transfers the situation to the eternal plane, emphasizing the author’s thoughts about the eternity and infinity of nature, his position in relation to the eternal problems of humanity.
In addition, romantically beautiful but empty scenery and dialogues too refined for realistic prose are characteristic of his early works. In 1843, a poem based on modern material, “Parasha,” appeared, which was highly appreciated by V. G. Belinsky. Acquaintance with the critic, which turned into friendship (in 1846 Turgenev became the godfather of his son), rapprochement with his environment changed his literary orientation: from romanticism he turned to an ironic, morally descriptive poem and prose, close to the principles of the “natural school” and not alien to influence M. Yu. Lermontov.
The later prose is much more realistic. Heartfeltly mourning the contemporary and future desolation of the “nests of the nobility,” Turgenev turned to a world far from the moribund aristocracy. Many stories and tales are devoted to peasant life.
Principled diversity human types, first isolated from a previously unnoticed or idealized the masses, testified to the infinite value of every unique and free human personality. The serfdom appeared as an ominous and dead force, alien to natural harmony (detailed specificity of heterogeneous landscapes), hostile to man, but unable to destroy the soul, love, creative gift. Turgenev's work had a special influence on the abolition of serfdom.
Y. Lotman dedicated an article to Turgenev’s prose, in which he highlighted in detail all the features of his work: “For Turgenev, it is heroism that affirms the inevitability of the ending that makes him meaningless. A hero whose life has no meaning does not die in Turgenev’s works. The constant invasion of nature with its law of death and birth, the displacement of the old by the young, the weak by the strong and with its indifference to human goals and ideals, to everything that organizes human life, makes this latter meaningless and, therefore, tragic. But this is not a high tragedy of meaning, but a hopeless tragedy of nonsense.”
A detailed study is devoted to the structure of the works of the Russian writer: “Turgenev has his own mythology. The plots of his works are played out - and this has already been noted several times - in three planes: firstly, this is the modern everyday plane, secondly, the archetypal and, thirdly, the cosmic. Turgenev was read on several levels: some readers focused attention on the topical depiction of ideological conflicts and considered it possible to “not notice” the endings or attribute them to the “inconsistency” of the author... In the relation of characters to archetypes, one could discern a literary polemic (for example, with romanticism ). The structure was stratified, and its different levels had different historical and literary fates.”
In a sense, one could find what one wanted in Turgenev’s works; one just had to look. For some, this prose has significance as a documentary description of the life and everyday life of certain segments of the population, as a work in the spirit of realism, others are captivated by the originality and typicality of the images, and others enjoy that “descriptive” ability that Herzen mercilessly criticized.
By the way, many critics note that Turgenev was most successful in realistic works in the spirit of “Bezhin Meadows”. Having probably decided to change his field of activity, the writer became interested in mysticism and the so-called Gothic story, but these works did not surpass either “The Noble Nest” or the “peasant” stories. “His mysticism is entirely shrouded in perfume, in the shaky haze of rain, it appears through the plastic painting of ancient portraits, which can come to life at any moment, flashes between marble columns and other props. His ghosts don’t send a chill through your body, or rather, it does, but it’s kind of strange…” Herzen notes sarcastically.
In the context of realism, Turgenev as a writer evolves from “sweetness” to tragedy, awareness of the meaninglessness and burdensomeness of life. The theme of the weakness of man, who turns out to be the toy of unknown forces and doomed to non-existence, to a greater or lesser extent colors all of Turgenev’s late prose.
2.4. L.N. Tolstoy.
The name of Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is often associated with such, at first glance, a vague concept as “dialectics of the soul.” Starting with the autobiographical trilogy “Childhood” (1852), “Adolescence” (1852-1854), “Youth” (1855-1857), the study of the inner world and the moral foundations of the individual became the main theme of Tolstoy’s works. A painful search for the meaning of life, a moral ideal, hidden general laws of existence, spiritual and social criticism run through all of his work.
N. N. Strakhov writes about him: “Tolstoy, of course, is known to everyone as great master in the analysis of mental phenomena. But what is the nature of this analysis? What is its source, its first moving cause, on which its direction and purpose necessarily depend? To this we could answer that our author’s analysis is simply his artistic need, simply the predominant feature of his talent. This answer is really suitable for some places in the book, namely for those where, as in “Family Happiness” and “Childhood”, artistic power goes along with analysis, has full command of it, uses it as a tool that gives completeness to images and colors. But in other places, analysis obviously plays a different role and serves in itself as a satisfaction of some need that speaks in the artist’s soul in addition to his desire to create images.”
etc.................
Despite the spread of travel literature, the successes of stories and prose miniatures, the most beloved and readable form narrative prose in early XIX century, according to contemporaries, a novel remained. In 1802, Karamzin wrote about this (“On the book trade and the love of reading in Russia”), in 1808 the same fact was stated by Zhukovsky (“Letter from the district to the publisher”).
By the end XVIII century The Russian reader had at his disposal an extensive collection of translated novels - gallantly adventurous, moralizing, philosophical and satirical, sentimental, pre-romantic.
Limited experience inevitably affected the quality of translations Russian prose, and first of all its consequence is the lack of development of Russian literary language. But since the 1790s. the expanding flow of translations assimilates the achievements original literature, the arsenal of means for conveying a range of ideas, impressions, and feelings of the characters is steadily growing and improving.
At the same time, translations become a kind of school of mastery, preparing Russian prose for the perception of new narrative forms.
Ironically characterizing the reader's repertoire of the beginning of the century as “horrible, funny, sensitive, satirical, moral novels, etc., etc.,” Zhukovsky called on the Russian public to “change the concept of reading,” because “reading does not mean forgetting, it does not mean ridding yourself of a hard life.” time, but in silence and freedom to use the noblest part of your being - thought.”
10 According to Zhukovsky, not a novel of the traditional type, but modern magazine with its thematic and genre diversity was intended to educate and satisfy this need for serious reading.
To a certain extent, Zhukovsky was right. Travel literature, story, lyrical picture, anecdote, various descriptive fragments and other genres of magazine prose of the 1800-1810s. carried a number of elements important for updating the form of the novel. Without their assimilation, the transition from an adventurous, didactic, morally descriptive novel to a novel of a new type was impossible.
More on turn of the 19th century V. a novel appeared in which an attempt was made to connect together the themes and images of satirical journalism of the 18th century using the outline of the “adventures” of the hero, traditional for grassroots democratic fiction of the 18th century. It's about about the novel by A. E. Izmailov “Eugene, or the harmful consequences of bad education and community” (1799-1801).
The author tells the life story of Yevgeny Negodyaev, a young nobleman, the darling of rich and ignorant parents. Enlisted in the guard as an infant, the hero undergoes a full course of fashionable noble education, and continues it in communication with the unprincipled Voltairian Razratin.
From Moscow, Evgeniy comes to St. Petersburg, where, in the capital society of the Vetrovs, Milovzorovs, etc., he completes his moral “education”, squanders his father’s fortune at the age of five and dies himself.
In Izmailov’s novel there are neither subtle psychological characteristics nor sublime feelings and passions characteristic of art world sentimental story. All of his main characters are guided by base inclinations and impulses.
From the heroic-comic poem “Eugene” he inherited a penchant for comic burlesque, playing with exaggerated signs of social and moral indecency. Ignorant and vicious nobles, greedy officials, a French milliner from girls of easy virtue, a tutor-convict, a freethinker from squandered nobles replace each other on the pages of the novel.
The “meaningful” names of the characters connect Izmailov’s work with the tradition of satirical-didactic literature. Her motley material is connected in “Eugene” to certain moments everyday adventures of the hero.
Essentially, Izmailov has not one, but two main characters - the noble scoundrel Scoundrels and the freethinker from the seminary scholastics Razvratin. Accordingly, the novel presents two versions of the moral and everyday way of life (Moscow noble and provincial raznochinsky) and two systems of education. Both of them are equally subject to denial.
And yet, in the end, Razratin, whom life has confronted with many difficulties unfamiliar to the noble minion Negodyaev, turns out to be a hero of a different type. Intellectual inquiries and knowledge are not alien to him, although from the teachings of the French encyclopedists, for the sake of the author's didactics, he only takes out godlessness and immoral everyday philosophy.
If Evgenia is always subjugated by circumstances in everything, then Razvratin - an active nature - for the time being knows how to subordinate them to his power. Both of Izmailov's heroes become victims of their vices and die young. Despite the obvious moralizing tendency in Eugene, there are, however, neither virtuous characters nor attempts to find in the negative the ability for moral rebirth.
The search for ways to update the novel genre began in the early 1800s. V different directions. Close to the traditions of moralizing satire, like Izmailov’s novel, is N. F. Ostolopov’s story “Eugenia, or the current education” (1803), which tells about the disastrous consequences of fashionable French education.
The moral and everyday line is opposed by the quests of the young N. I. Gnedich: his novel “Don Corrado de Guerrera” (1803) in style and issues is focused on the youthful rebellious tragedies of Schiller and, more broadly, the German literature of “sturm and stress”.
Attempts to expand the framework of a sentimental story with the help of a conventional historical plot or elements of an adventurous narrative are reflected in the novels by N. N. Muravyov “Vsevolod and Veleslava” (1807) and P. Casotti “Boyar B...v and M...v, or consequences of ardent passions and violations of vows" (1807).
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983.
IZVESTIYA RAS. LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE SERIES, 2013, volume 72, no. 5, p. 3-15
CLASSIC RUSSIAN NOVEL OF THE 19TH CENTURY: ORIGINALITY OF HERO AND GENRE
© 2013 V. A. Nedzvetsky
What allowed the classic Russian novel to take a leading position, first in Western Europe, and then in the world, by the end of the 19th century? artistic prose? What problems and with what goals are its central characters striving to resolve? Answers to these questions are offered in this article.
What allows for the fact that, by the end of the 19th century, the classical Russian novel has taken the lead in the Western European and in the World literary prose? What are the goals and aspirations of the novels" central characters? Such are the major concerns addressed by the author of this article.
Key words: social novel, ontological novel, " modern man", "Russian wanderer", unlimited connections, personal, social, world harmony.
Key words: essential artistic schooling; social novel; ontological novel; "contemporary human being"; "the Russian wanderer"; boundless connections; individual, social, and universal harmony.
Let's start by indicating the most general signs of the Russian classic novel of the 19th century. In the eyes of the classic writers themselves, this is a novel that strives to “capture everything” (L. Tolstoy) not in the “external conditions of life”, but in “the man himself” (I. Goncharov) of his existence; a novel perfect as a phenomenon verbal art and quite original in its forms.
Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin” (according to V.G. Belinsky, “encyclopedia of Russian life” and “historical poem”) fully meets all these criteria. in every sense words, although there is not a single historical figure among its heroes"), Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time", with significant reservations (since, according to the author himself, this is primarily a "poem"), Gogol's " Dead Souls", then - Goncharov's "Ordinary History" ("This is where you learn to live," L. Tolstoy exclaimed after reading it), "Oblomov" ("the most capital thing" of "non-temporal" significance), "Precipice", as well as Turgenev's " Rudin", "The Noble Nest", "On the Eve", "Fathers and Sons", "Smoke", "Nove", the famous "Pentateuch" by F.M. Dostoevsky ("Crime and Punishment", "Idiot", "Demons", "Teenager", "The Brothers Karamazov") and "War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection" by L. N. Tolstoy.
So, the classic Russian novel is represented by only twenty works, which is less
the number of novels written by the Scotsman Walter Scott or the Frenchman Emile Zola, and two and a half times less than what was " The human comedy"Honoré Balzac.
Nevertheless, it was he who became the pinnacle of all Russian literary prose of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. First of all, Russian literature owes to him a huge fruitful influence on prose writers all over the world, but especially Western European ones, who were the first to discover the classic Russian novel, albeit with considerable delay. Here are two indicative facts in this regard.
In 1878, the first International Writers' Congress met in Paris, designed to discuss issues of how to protect literary property, i.e., in today's language, to protect writers from pirated translations of their works into the languages of other countries. Among the participants of the congress is I.S., well known to French prose writers. Turgenev (Victor Hugo was elected honorary president); he also heads the Russian delegation. And in this capacity he makes a brief speech about Russian literature, in which he names, of all its figures (note, the year is 1878, when all the novels of not only Turgenev himself, but also Goncharov, two main novels by L. Tolstoy and four main novels by Dostoevsky ) only D. Fonvizin, I. Krylov, A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov and N. Gogol.
And the reason for this Turgenev silence is simple: about the existence of other Russian writers, including great novelists, in Western Europe So far nothing is known.
But less than ten years will pass, at the end of which the French writer and diplomat Melky-or de Vogüe, who personally knew Dostoevsky, Turgenev and L. Tolstoy and read them with delight in Russian, will publish his book “Le roman russe” (1886) in Paris (“Russian Novel”), the Spanish writer and literary critic Emilia Pardo Ba-san will publish her three-volume study “Revolution and the Novel in Russia” (1887) in Madrid, and in Denmark “Russian Impressions” (1888) dedicated to the same Russian artists will appear Scandinavian aesthetics and literary critic Georg Brandes, and the attitude towards Russian writers on the part of their Western colleagues will change radically.
An intense and endless stream of transfers will begin for everything European languages“War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, “Notes from the House of the Dead”, “Crime and Punishment”, “Oblomov”... And soon the famous Russian bibliographer and literary critic S.A. Vengerov will testify: “...Russian literature, which until recently was given four or five pages in Western European manuals, suddenly began to excite surprise, close to enthusiasm. Tolstoy’s works are distributed in the international book trade in so many editions, every word of the great Russian writer is listened to with such endless attention that<...>you might even wonder where he is more famous and loved - at home or abroad. Dostoevsky made a strong impression."
Already in late XIX- in the first third of the twentieth century, the main Russian novelists became the rulers of the thoughts of both European readers and major prose writers. And among them are such outstanding names as the French Guy de Maupassant, Paul Bourget, Anatole France, Romain Rolland, Marcel Proust, Martin du Gard, Francois Mauriac, Henri Barbusse, Andre Gide, Albert Camus, the British Robert Stevenson, Oscar Wilde, John Galsworth, Joseph Conrad, Thomas Hardy, Herbert Wells, Aldous Huxley, the Germans Heinrich and Thomas Mann, Bernard Kellerman, Lion Feuchtwanger and the German-speaking Swiss Hermann Hesse, the Americans Henry James, William Faulkner, John Dos Paz-sos, William Dean Howells, Ernest Hemingway, Theodore Dreiser, John Ernst Steinbeck, Thomas Wolfe, Margaret Mitchell, Scandinavians August Strind-
Berg, Knut Hamsun, Martin Andersen-Nexe, Austrians Stefan Zweig and Franz Kafka. Later they would be joined by the Japanese Ftabatei Shimei, Tokutomi Roka, Takeo Arishima and Yukio Mishima, the Chinese Lu Xun, and the Indian Rabindranath Tagore.
The author of the wonderful novels “Buddenbrooks”, “The Magic Mountain” and “Doctor Faustus” Thomas Mann (the expression “holy Russian literature” belongs to him) admitted that in his youth the Russian novel was closer to him than classical German prose, including himself I.-V. Goethe. In the workroom of the Frenchman Charles Louis-Philippe hung portraits of L. Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and he advised his friend Jean Girod to read their works to educate the heart and soul.
In general, for most foreign prose writers of the twentieth century, venerable or beginners, Russian classic novel turns not only into a favorite reading, but also into that art school, without the deep assimilation of which, according to them, it was no longer possible to do anything significant in literature.
But what exactly is creative originality this novel, which so amazed and delighted Western European novelists? Was Leo Tolstoy quite right when in 1864 he asserted: “We Russians generally do not know how to write novels in the sense in which this type of writing is understood<...>in Europe" .
The fact is that this observation cannot in any way be attributed to the authors of those peripheral Russian novels of the first half of the 19th century, who owe either their very formation or some essential motives to foreign language forms of the novel genre. And among them is not only the Russian moral-descriptive-didactic novel by Vasily Narezhny ("Russian Gilblaz, or the Adventures of Prince Gavrila Simonovich Chistyakov", 1814) and Thaddeus Bulgarin ("Ivan Vyzhigin", 1829), openly focused on French novel Alain Rene Lesage "The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillana" (1715-1735). A genre version of the novels of the “Scottish sorcerer” (A. Pushkin) by Walter Scott will be the Russian historical novel by Mikhail Zagoskin (“Yuri Miloslavsky, or the Russians in 1612,” 1829; “Roslavlev, or the Russians in 1812,” 1831) and Ivan Lazhechnikov ( "Ice House", 1831; "Basurman", 1838). In the stories “The Ideal” (1837), “A Vain Gift” (1842) by Elena Gan and in “Polinka Saks” (1847) by Alexander Druzhinin, then in the story by Alexei Pisemsky “Is She Guilty?” (1855) will find its Russian modification in the novel by the Frenchwoman Aurora Dudevant (printed
went under the pseudonym Georges Sand). Family ideals the Englishman Samuel Richardson (in the novels "Pamela...", 1740; "Clarissa", 1747-1748), the German August La Fontaine (1758-1831), who wrote in family themes 150 novels, as well as central characters"The Dungeon of Edinburgh" (1818) by Walter Scott and "Indiana" (1832) by George Sand will respond to "The Kholmsky Family" (1832) by Dmitry Begichev, in " Family chronicle" (1856) and "The Childhood Years of Bagrov the Grandson" (1858) by Sergei Aksakov, as well as in "Family Happiness" (1859) by Leo Tolstoy. Finally, the Russian analogue of the Western European "novel of luck" ("roman de réussite") will be " A Thousand Souls" (1858) by Alexei Pisemsky.
The very fact that peripheral Russian novelists studied (and even directly borrowed) from their foreign-language predecessors does not at all diminish their merits to Russian literature. None of the major ones national literatures did not bypass in its development, without risking remaining provincial, literary achievements other peoples, starting from biblical and Greco-Roman antiquity. Moreover, in literary creativity, as in technology, do not reinvent the wheel (in our case - genre forms), if they have already been created, but adapt them in accordance with local life characteristics, social tasks and goals. This was the case with the Russian novel, the very genre of which appeared in our literature in the early
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NOVIKOVA E.V. - 2008
CHETVERIKOVA ELENA YUREVNA - 2011
1. “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy
Roman about tragic love married lady Anna Karenina and the brilliant officer Vronsky against the background of a happy family life noblemen Konstantin Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. A large-scale picture of the morals and life of the noble environment of St. Petersburg and Moscow in the second half of the 19th century, combining the philosophical reflections of the author’s alter ego Levin with advanced psychological sketches in Russian literature, as well as scenes from the life of peasants.
2. “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert
The main character of the novel is Emma Bovary, a doctor’s wife who lives beyond her means and starts extramarital affairs in the hope of getting rid of emptiness and routine. provincial life. Although the plot of the novel is quite simple and even banal, true value novel - in the details and forms of plot presentation. Flaubert as a writer was known for his desire to bring each work to perfection, always trying to find the right words.
3. “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy
An epic novel by Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, describing Russian society during the era of the wars against Napoleon in 1805-1812.
4. “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Mark Twain
Huckleberry Finn, who escaped from his cruel father, and the runaway black man Jim raft on the Mississippi River. After some time, they are joined by the rogues Duke and King, who eventually sell Jim into slavery. Huck and Tom Sawyer, who has joined him, organize the release of the prisoner. Nevertheless, Huck frees Jim from captivity in earnest, and Tom does it simply out of interest - he knows that Jim’s mistress has already given him freedom.
5. Stories by A.P. Chekhov
Over 25 years of creativity, Chekhov created about 900 different works (short humorous stories, serious stories, plays), many of which have become classics of world literature. Particular attention was paid to “Steppe”, “A Boring Story”, “Duel”, “Ward No. 6”, “Story unknown person", "Men" (1897), "Man in a Case" (1898), "In the Ravine", "Children", "Drama on the Hunt"; from the plays: “Ivanov”, “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters”, “The Cherry Orchard”.
6. "Middlemarch" George Eliot
Middlemarch is the name of the provincial town in and around which the novel takes place. Many characters inhabit its pages, and their destinies are intertwined by the will of the author: these are the bigot and pedant Casaubon and Dorothea Brooke, the talented doctor and scientist Lydgate and the bourgeois Rosamond Vincey, the bigot and hypocrite banker Bulstrode, Pastor Farebrother, the talented but poor Will Ladislav and many, a lot others. Unsuccessful marriages and happy marital unions, dubious enrichment and fuss over inheritance, political ambitions and ambitious intrigues. Middlemarch is a town where many human vices and virtues are manifested.
7. "Moby Dick" Herman Melville
Moby Dick by Herman Melville is considered the greatest American novel of the 19th century. At the center of this unique work, written contrary to the laws of the genre, is the pursuit of the White Whale. Captivating storyline, epic sea paintings, descriptions of bright human characters in harmonious combination with the most universal philosophical generalizations make this book a true masterpiece world literature.
8. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
“In the novel” Big hopes"" - one of latest works Dickens, the pearl of his work, tells the story of the life of young Philip Pirrip, nicknamed Pip in childhood. Pip's dreams of a career, love and prosperity in the “world of gentlemen” are shattered in an instant, as soon as he finds out terrible secret his unknown patron, pursued by the police. Money, stained with blood and marked with the seal of crime, as Pip is convinced, cannot bring happiness. And what is it, this happiness? And where will his dreams and great hopes lead the hero?
9. “Crime and Punishment” Fyodor Dostoevsky
The plot revolves around the main character, Rodion Raskolnikov, in whose head a theory of the crime is ripening. Raskolnikov himself is very poor; he cannot pay not only for his studies at the university, but also for his own accommodation. His mother and sister are also poor; he soon learns that his sister (Dunya Raskolnikova) is ready to marry a man she does not love for money to help her family. This was the last straw, and Raskolnikov commits the deliberate murder of the old pawnbroker and the forced murder of her sister, a witness. But Raskolnikov cannot use the stolen goods, he hides them. From this time on, the terrible life of a criminal begins.
The daughter of a wealthy landowner and a big dreamer, Emma tries to diversify her leisure time by organizing someone else's personal life. Confident that she will never get married, she acts as a matchmaker for her friends and acquaintances, but life gives her surprise after surprise.