Dudova L.V., Mikhalskaya N., Trykov V.P.: Modernism in foreign literature. Poetry of German Expressionism

EXPRESSIONISM

Expressionism was a broad ideological trend that took place in various spheres of culture: in literature, painting, theater, music, and sculpture. It was a product of the violent social upheavals experienced by Germany in the first quarter of the 20th century. As a direction, expressionism arose before the First World War and left the literary arena in the mid-1920s. 10-20s our century is called the "expressionist decade".

Expressionism became a kind of creative response of the German petty-bourgeois intelligentsia to the most acute problems raised by the World War, the October Revolution in Russia and the November Revolution in Germany. Before the eyes of the expressionists, the old world collapsed and a new one was born. Writers increasingly began to realize the failure of the capitalist system and the impossibility of social progress within the framework of this system. The art of the expressionists was anti-bourgeois, rebellious in nature. However, denouncing the capitalist way of life, the expressionists countered it with an abstract, vague socio-political program and the idea of ​​the spiritual rebirth of mankind.

Far from a true proletarian ideology, the expressionists looked at reality pessimistically. The collapse of the bourgeois world order was perceived by them as the last point in world history, as the end of the world. The crisis of bourgeois consciousness, the feeling of an impending catastrophe that brings death to mankind, is reflected in many works of the expressionists, especially on the eve of the world war. This is clearly felt in the lyrics of F. Werfel, G. Trakl and G. Game. “The End of the World” is the title of a poem by J. Van Goddis. These sentiments also permeated the sharply satirical drama of the Austrian writer K. Kraus "The Last Days of Mankind", created after the war.

The idealistic teachings of Husserl and Bergson, which had a tangible impact on the philosophical and aesthetic views of expressionist writers, became the general philosophical basis of expressionism.

"Not concreteness, but an abstract idea of ​​it, not reality, but spirit - this is the main thesis of the aesthetics of expressionism" 1 . Expressionists considered art primarily as a self-disclosure of the "creative spirit" of the artist, who is indifferent to individual facts, details, and signs of concrete reality. The author acted as an interpreter of events, he sought, first of all, to express his own attitude to the depicted in a passionate, excited form. Hence the deep lyricism and subjectivity characteristic of all genres of expressionist literature.

The aesthetics of expressionism was built on the consistent rejection of all previous literary traditions, especially naturalism and impressionism, its immediate predecessors. Arguing with the supporters of naturalism, E. Toller wrote: "Expressionism wanted more than photography ... Reality had to be permeated with the light of an idea." In contrast to the Impressionists, who directly recorded their subjective observations and impressions of reality, the Expressionists sought to draw the image of time, era, and humanity. Therefore, they rejected plausibility, everything empirical, striving for the cosmic, universal. Their typification method was abstract: the work revealed the general patterns of life phenomena, everything private, individual was omitted. The genre of drama, for example, sometimes turned into a kind of philosophical treatise. In contrast to the naturalistic drama, a person in the dramaturgy of the Expressionists was free from the determining influence of the environment. The drama lacked the real diversity of life's contradictions and all that is associated with a unique individuality. The heroes of dramas often did not have a name, but had only class or professional characteristics.

But resolutely rejecting in their declarations all traditional artistic forms and motifs, the Expressionists actually continued some of the traditions of the preceding literature (Sturm und Drang, Buchner, Whitman, Strindberg).

Expressionist literature is characterized by intense dynamism, sharp dissonances, pathos and grotesque.

The common aesthetic platform of expressionism united writers who were very different in their political convictions and artistic tastes: from J. Becher and F. Wolf, who later connected their fate with the revolutionary proletariat, to G. Jost, who later became the court poet of the Third Reich.

Within expressionism, two directions can be outlined, opposite in their ideological and aesthetic positions. Writers who demonstratively emphasized their apoliticality and indifference to topical social problems were grouped around the journal Der Sturm. Left expressionists ("activists"), associated with the magazine "Action" (Aktiop), declared and consistently defended the slogan of the social mission of the artist. The theater was regarded by them as a tribune, a pulpit, and poetry as a political appeal. Social aspiration and emphasized publicism are a characteristic feature of the "activists", the most significant artists of expressionism: I. Becher, F. Wolf, L. Rubiner, G. Kaiser, V. Hasenklever, E. Toller, L. Frank, F. Werfel, F .Unruh. The demarcation between these two groups of expressionists was at first imperceptible, it became more clearly marked during the world war and the revolution. The paths of many left-wing expressionists later diverged. Becher and Wolf became the founders of the literature of socialist realism in Germany. G. Kaiser, Gazenklever, Werfel departed from the revolutionary aspirations characteristic of the early stage of their work.

The war was perceived by expressionists as a worldwide catastrophe, as a disaster that revealed the moral decline of mankind.

Defending human values, the expressionists opposed militarism and chauvinism, Leonhard Frank, for example, in the collection of short stories "The Good Man" (Der Mensch ist gut, 1917), whose title became the slogan-slogan of many expressionist works, passionately condemned the war and called for action. Equally resolutely branded the imperialist massacre in the drama "Rod" (Ein Geschlecht, 1918-1922) F. Unruh. At the same time, he tried to give his humanistic idea of ​​the future of mankind. But the ideas of Unruh, like those of other expressionists, were utopian and abstract. The rebellion was individualistic in nature, and the writer felt like a loner.

In the works of most expressionists, war is presented as a universal horror, it is recreated in abstract allegorical paintings. Vague grandiose images testify to the fact that the expressionists did not understand the true class causes of the outbreak of war. But gradually, among the most radical expressionists, the anti-war theme is associated with the theme of revolution and the struggle of the masses against capitalist slavery for their liberation. It is no coincidence that these poets enthusiastically welcomed the October Revolution. Becher writes the poem "Greetings of the German poet to the Russian Socialist Federative Republic." Rubiner's "Message" echoes Becher's poem.

The expressionists greeted the November Revolution in Germany with enthusiasm, although they did not understand the need for revolutionary violence in the fight against counter-revolution. In the works of the Expressionists, the poet, the intellectual plays a greater role than the insurgent revolutionary people.

In 1923-1926. there is a gradual disintegration of expressionism as a direction. He is leaving the literary arena, which he dominated for a decade and a half.

At all stages of the development of expressionism, social drama was considered by its theorists as the leading genre, which corresponded to the socio-political and literary-philosophical ideas of the new direction.

One of the pioneers of expressionist drama was Walter Hasenclever (1890-1940), who published in 1914 the drama "Son" (Der Sohn). The playwright chooses the expressionist theme of the struggle between father and son. This conflict was interpreted by R. Sorge in the drama "The Beggar", by A. Bronnen in the play "Paricide", etc. Gazenklever gives the conflict a generalized character, expressing the typical ideas of left expressionism.

The hero of the drama is portrayed as a representative of progressive humanity, opposing the old reactionary world, which is personified by the tyrant father.

An idealistic understanding of reality did not give Hasenclever the opportunity to reveal the main social conflicts of the era. The author's ideas are embodied in abstract images-symbols illustrating pre-formulated theses. The drama "Son", written on the eve of the World War, conveyed the disturbing thoughts characteristic of the progressive intelligentsia of those years.

The anti-war theme sounds in the drama Antigone (Antigona, 1917), written based on the Sophocles tragedy. Gazenklever saturates the ancient Greek plot with acutely topical issues. The cruel ruler Creon resembles Wilhelm II, and Thebes resembles imperialist Germany. Antigone, with her preaching of humanism, sharply opposes the tyrant Creon. The people are depicted in the play as an inert, passive force, unable to crush the reactionary regime.

After the defeat of the November Revolution, tragically perceived by Hasenclever, social themes disappear from his work.

One of the most significant figures of expressionism was Georg Kaiser (Georg Kaiser, 1878-1945), in whose work the main features of the expressionist drama were most clearly reflected. His plays are distinguished by naked tendentiousness, sharp dramatic conflict, and strict symmetry of construction. First of all, these are dramas of thought, reflecting Kaiser's intense thoughts about the "new man" and the bourgeois-proprietary world, which the playwright sharply condemns. In the emphatically abstract images of his plays, one can feel a pronounced anti-bourgeoisness. The heroes of Kaiser's dramas, like the heroes of other expressionist dramas, are devoid of individual signs, they are abstract, but convey the author's cherished thoughts with passionate force.

G. Kaiser was a very productive writer and created about 70 plays. After the First World War, he became perhaps the most popular playwright in Germany, whose works were staged on the German stage and abroad.

Great fame was brought to G. Kaiser by the drama Citizens from Calais (Die Bürger von Calais, 1914), the plot of which is taken from the history of the Hundred Years War between France and England. However, historical events and historical heroes do not interest the author. The expressionist playwright focuses primarily on the clash of ideas and the depiction of an abstract person reflecting the author's point of view.

The dramatic action develops not through the actions of the characters or the disclosure of their spiritual world, but through extended monologue speeches, tense ecstatic dialogues. Oratorical intonations and pathos predominate in the speech of the characters. G. Kaiser makes extensive use of antitheses (for example, "Come out - to the light - out of the night. The light gushed - the darkness dissipated"). A characteristic feature of the language of the play is laconism and dynamism, due to the almost complete absence of subordinate clauses.

More fully and consistently, the problems of G. Kaiser's work were reflected in his dramatic trilogy "Coral" (Die Koralle, 1917), "Gas I" (Gas I, 1918) and "Gas II" (Gas II, 1920), which became a classic work of the German expressionism. Written during a period of acute social upheaval caused by the imperialist war and the defeat of the November Revolution in Germany, The Gas Trilogy is full of social problems. First of all, its anti-bourgeois pathos should be noted.

G. Kaiser denounces the capitalist system in the trilogy, crippling a person and turning him into an automaton. This is a very characteristic motif of expressionist literature, which saw in technology a terrible force that brings death to man.

"Coral" is a kind of exposition of the whole trilogy. The protagonist of the drama is the Billionaire, the owner of the mines, who ruthlessly exploits the workers. Once he tasted bitter need and wants his children to know nothing about the world of the poor. However, the son and daughter accidentally get acquainted with the hard need of the workers and rebel against social injustice. The son joins the miners who went on strike after a collapse in the mine. But the furious rebellion of the son - this "new man" - is of an abstract nature. The hero of the play, like the author himself, is far from a class, socio-historical understanding of social relations. His ideas about the social reorganization of the world are abstract and utopian: “The task is grandiose. There is no room for doubt. It is about the fate of mankind. We will unite in hot work…” he declares.

In the second part of the trilogy, the protagonist is the son of a Billionaire, who inherited his father's giant gas-producing enterprises. He wants to become a social reformer and save humanity from the enslaving power of technology, which has ceased to obey man. The Billionaire's son calls on workers and employees to become free farmers. But the utopian call for a return to the bosom of nature did not inspire anyone. In the finale, the lonely hero expresses the hope that this “new man” will still appear. The daughter's remark at the end of the play reinforces this belief: “He will be born! And I will be his mother.

In the last part of the trilogy, the action takes place in the same factory. In the center of the play is again the "new man", looking for a way out of the impasse of social contradictions. This is the great-grandson of the Billionaire, who became a worker. He calls for universal brotherhood, the solidarity of working people and proposes to stop the production of poisonous gas. Together with him, everyone is chanting with pathos: “No need for gas!” But there is a war, and the Chief Engineer convinces the workers to resume gas production. Then the tragically lonely hero, seeing the impotence of his sermons, produces an explosion, as a result of which everyone perishes.

Kaiser's trilogy is built on the clash of the "man of the idea", the "new man", with the "mechanical man", the "man-function". The conflict is direct and acute. Heroes are the embodiment of ideas and lack individuality. The author does not endow them with a name, but designates: Billionaire, Son, Worker, Man in Gray, Man in Blue, Captain, etc. The language of positive characters is distinguished by oratorical intonations, pathetic rhetoric. The speech of the "human-function" is characterized by "telegraphic", "mechanical style".

Creativity Ernst Toller (Ernst Toller, 1893-1939) belongs to the period of the highest rise of expressionism (1914-1923). War and revolution shaped him as a writer and determined the nature of his dramaturgy. Hatred of the imperialist war and Prussian militarism led Toller to the ranks of the Independent Social Democratic Party and made him an active participant in the revolutionary battles. In 1918-1919. Toller was one of the leaders of the government of the Bavarian Soviet Republic. He consistently defended the idea of ​​political art and regarded his dramas as an instrument of political struggle. Hence the saturation of his dramas with topical problems, their socio-philosophical orientation, and openly expressed tendentiousness.

Toller's dramatic debut The Metamorphosis (Die Wandlung, 1919) was a passionate condemnation of the war, an appeal to the young people of Germany to oppose the imperialist carnage. Separate scenes of Toller's play were printed as anti-militarist leaflets. The name of the play conveys its main content - this is the internal transformation that happened to the main character, who moved from jingoistic moods to anti-militarist views.

Unlike other expressionists, Toller was convinced that only a proletarian revolution could protect humanity and save it from social disasters. The writer pinned his hopes on the proletariat, which, in his opinion, should become the creator of the future. However, Toller understands the class struggle in a subjectivist-idealistic way and sees in society not antagonistic classes, but the mass and the individual, between whom the politician is in a tragic contradiction. Ethics and politics are in Toller's irreconcilable contradiction. This was especially vividly reflected in the play "Man - Mass" (Masse - Mensch, 1921)

The drama dedicated to the "proletarians" portrays the revolutionary Sophia Irene L. (Woman); she is selflessly devoted to the revolution and sincerely wishes to give her life to the liberation of the people. But she rejects violence as a means of struggle, because, in her opinion, it denigrates the bright cause of the revolution. The woman is in jail and faces the death penalty. The people, led by the Nameless, want to free her, but she refuses, since one of the jailers must be killed to free her. And they shoot her.

Through the mouth of the Woman, Toller angrily condemns the counter-revolution, the world of violence. However, the concrete depiction of the class conflict is replaced by the clash of the ideas of the Woman and the beliefs of the Nameless One, personifying the harsh and unyielding will of the insurgent people.

“Man is a Mass” is a typical expressionist drama-sermon, the characters of which are sketchy, poster-like; they are the mouthpieces of the author's idea. But such is Toller's conscious artistic attitude.

In the best works of the Left Expressionists there was a lot of genuine pain and anger, a violent revolt against imperialism and petty-bourgeois satiety. The expressionists tried to capture and convey the main conflict of the era and be the heralds of their time.

Some of the artistic achievements of expressionism were used by the art of socialist realism. According to F. Wolf, the German theater of the XX century. goes from "expressionist-pacifist drama to epic-political theater". It was also important that the expressionists in the face of the "new man" asserted the image of a positive hero who sought to actively influence the world. Expressionism activated susceptibility to moral and social problems. And yet in expressionist works there remains a gap between art and concrete social life.

The creative achievements of the Left Expressionists influenced the development of German and other literatures after the Second World War. Pronounced contrast, the nakedness of ideological problems, the art of montage, the strengthening of the role of pantomime - all these expressive means are creatively used in their artistic practice by M. Walser, P. Weiss, R. Kiephardt, M. Frisch, F. Dürrenmatt and other modern writers.

Notes.

1 Pavlova N. S. Expressionism. - In the book: History of German Literature, vol. 4, p. 537.

Notebook

Edschmid's article was written in 1917. We start talking about German expressionism from 1910.

Many died, quickly left as a generation. But then the era of expressionist cinema began (Murnau, for example)

Poetry has already taken place. The theory says that it was

Article à the term comes from painting (perhaps E. Munch (Norwegian artist) said so before his work “The Scream”

What is the disadvantage of impressionism? à mosaic, fragmentary.

What subjects does the expressionist choose in the world around him?

Baudelaire chooses the artificial, the secondary. Expressionists, on the contrary, discard everything secondary, decorative. They are primitive, straightforward. A lot of time is devoted to the body, especially its unhealthy state and spirit.

Expressionists consider it a utopian task to approach objective reality directly. The true view is the view from the contrary. First, a blow to the eyes, disincarnation, and only then a re-creation.

Edshmid stands for abstract, psychological, spiritual art. Destruction of whimsical stylistic apparatuses of naturalism and symbolism. They are not authentic.

Expressionists and Prose and Poetry:

(G.Mann, P.Adler, Döblin, L.Frank, Ehrenstein, Walser, Kafka, Sternheim, Buber) - prose

Disincarnation, deformation

“In order for the world to survive, it must be deformed.” à the main slogan of the expressionists.

Through deformations to an abstract idea.

Human corporeality is a tool for the disembodiment of reality.

Why depict a perishing corporality? A man with a suffering body - humanity as it is (generalized suffering) Whose philosophy is this? Schopenhaur + Nietzsche. Decaying flesh touches closer to this absolute matter.

There is no suffering soul without a decaying body.

The Twilight of Humanity is an anthology of German expressionism. Came out in 1919.

2 express magazines - "Sturm", "Action" + "Pan", "White Sheets".

Collection "Sturm" à "Twilight of Humanity"

"Action" à "Comrades of mankind" à political theories are projected on the social. reality.

"The Twilight of Humanity" à poets, spiritualists, aesthetes.

Nietzsche has a book called The Twilight of the Idols à the title is a parody of The Twilight of the Gods à the Wagner music cycle.

There are idol chimeras that must be destroyed.

There is a sense of community. People represent a certain unity. Singers of urbanism - Baudelaire and Verharne. The key word is mass.

The lyrical hero is part of the mass. There is a certain universal human experience. Lir.experience only repeats it. Like everyone else, like many.

Expressionism is the first literature of a generation.

The scene of poetry - the city - at night, slums: hospitals, mortuary, factories, night cafes, quarters, canals.

Why cafes, cabarets, variety shows? Part of Berlin culture. Entertainment establishment, Actor, dancer - the bearer of the aesthetic principle - a connection with the Dionysian principle. Nietzsche has many heroes dancing. Carriers of the areal, but genuine art. Low art, like the sick in life, are guides.

What are the heroes? à patients, biblical characters (religious imagery), commoners, old people, corpses, there is Ophelia, there is Don Juan, people in a state of madness, artists.

L. Rubiner "Dancer Nijinsky» à the state of blindness. On the one hand, he gives himself to them, he transforms them. Does he need them?

How are the images presented? Lots of details. They are active, full-fledged heroes. Things become characters. Akin to Van Gogh's Shoes. The lyrical subject is an important link in poetic analysis.

"Birth" (191..) à how the person and the multitude are related. There are different pronouns: “we”, (all), “you” (comrade, Berlin), “I”.

Tempelhof field à fair (prior to this, the central streets are described).

The global context is shrinking.

Sister à it's about a love date. Why? Christian context.

Other Christian motifs "flaming palm leaves over Berlin."

The origin of universal human experience and concrete love experience (from particular to abstraction)

à is reminiscent of Mayakovsky's poems (the same relationships of person and set).

G. Benn "English Cafe"

à what are the levels of perception of reality?

Why an English cafe? à there is some claim to

The action takes place all in the same Berlin

Who is Rachel? à temptation (and the biblical hero too)

Charme d, Orsi à perfume

At least two women stand out - Rachel and some blonde.

It's a specific nightclub, not cheap à prostitutes of specific nationalities

A woman is perceived through details

Very important hand à is bare (was not taken)

Perfume is also important à strong smell, sensory physical perception

There is a change of seasons

Why are palm trees so represented? à continuation of Christian motifs

Why Adriatic? à pagan origin

Asfadel à flowers of the dead/death

Roses à flowers of love

Rainbow à symbol of happiness + gate for lovers

Everything happens in the mind of the lyrical hero. Through low to high.

Brecht "The Ballad of Death by Love"

1921 à what is the cultural context?

Love is death as a stable concept. The action takes place in the attic à then the rafters collapsed on them.

Mentions about children, as if not from this poem

Lots of references to moisture, humidity.

Lovers and the Green Sea à Tristan and Isolde à Wagnerian libretto

The only way to reach the high is through the low.

This couple is disgusting, but no different from Tristan and Isolde (before, everything unpleasant was subtracted)

Kafka "Process"

We are dealing with a text prepared not by Kafka.

What is the theme and meaning of the title?

There are references to other processes (Block) + other defendants

1) trial

2) the inner history of a person

3) some action behavior pattern

4) metaphysical relationship with divine law

à Religious tradition must be taken broadly enough, but, on the other hand, extremely concrete.

Time and place in the novel

Most likely the action takes place in Prague (Cathedral, bridge + German addresses and names) à in Prague they study German in schools

Landscape of a specific city (hills, mountains, quarry)

Only in the final chapter does the landscape appear

It is K. who looks at/sees the landscape, turns towards it. He leads the guards.

à reference to moonlight (romantic common place first mentioned by Novalis)

Jewish stratum

The action mainly takes place in the slums

What does the city look like in general? à narrow streets, closets, stuffy rooms

A terrible place where the court takes place (in the same room they live and wash, and have sex)

Constructor room

Social characteristic à single. He lives in a boarding house, holds a high position as procurist, understands culture, knows Italian. Every week he visits his mistress, he has an uncle, he is 30 years old.

à we have enough information that could be key in another novel (but since it's all out of the process, we don't pay as much attention to it)

His place of work is a bank (several times there are utility rooms à alogism.

K. moving around the city (up and down à both along the streets and along the stairs of houses).

à connection with Raskolnikov, the same trips up / down + he is also stuffy everywhere, lives in a cramped little closet)

We see not front rooms, but closets, cramped little rooms.

Why was this city chosen?

à an environment in which it is impossible to live, the city is a labyrinth not intended for normal life + a symbol of spiritual descent and ascent.

The novel is being written during the 1st World War à from birthday to death cycles: a year without one day à says that in a day his d.r. à that is, the year.. of the moment/beginning of the process.

There is a repetition of details à the same guards, dressing up on the 1st and last day + the scene of the arrest will be repeated when he tells Fraulein Bürstner (simulates the arrest) + letters to his uncle about the arrest.

Why, when a person is put in jail, is his suit taken away?

à man is not free now (similarly, people in night clothes are approximately equal)

Why does the process take so long?

Is it possible to say that this is a second birth. New birth? Death?

The novel has 10 chapters. How do they differ from each other? At what stage do we encounter a parable?

Josef K. is busy with his process, but does he come to something? Is there any promotion?

His own understanding is expanding. At first he does not understand what he is being judged for, then he wants to fight, then he wants to speed up the process.

Chapter 9 is knocked out in content, like 10 (a fragment of a landscape in the moonlight. Firstly, the cathedral, and not the court office; secondly, there is a parable. He comes to show the Italian a landmark. as a result, where necessary (accidentally, there is no rational grain).

Who is the priest in the cathedral? Prison chaplain.

He also talks about the process, for the first time he trusts the person he is talking to.

K. says that he is innocent (before that, he was only looking for people who could justify him)

Some parallel with Chatsky

(K. seeks to explain to the court that this process does not correspond to his lofty ideas; he is busy with everything except the goal - justifying himself).

The priest calls him by name - Josef K. à in prayer, the surname is insignificant.

What is the conversation about and on what occasion is the parable told?

There is some progress in chapter 9 à clearly declares innocence.

In Christianity, a person cannot be innocent à original sin, etc.

A correct perception of a phenomenon and a misinterpretation of the same phenomenon are never completely mutually exclusive.

à you can know or feel, but you cannot verbalize

Explanation of writer's failure

What is the meaning of the parable?

à what is the Law? The gate is for one person only. M.b. heavenly gates (gates of paradise), m.b. pillars of the Covenant, i.e. Old Testament (Law vs Grace - Gospel) Each person is born, each has his own gate, each is guilty in his own way.

What is the identity of the gatekeeper?

à it is not clear whether he is good or evil, smart or stupid

Usually the priest and the parable answer all our questions, but here everything is even more mysterious.

à after long ordeals, we are asked to accept everything as it is (some kind of absolute relativism is asserted)

So why is the end like this? Executed in a quarry. Why don't they hang? Murder on the stone - sacrifice (what God demanded of Abraham - to execute Isaac)

"Shame" at the end of the text à internal sense of shame

à a certain personal relationship can be traced

The manner of narration is not actually direct speech (transmission of the words of the character)

There is a narrator, there are the expressed thoughts of the hero, there is direct speech (in the first eight chapters there is almost no actual direct speech). Then the narrator becomes smaller, and then completely disappears + bows.

Joseph K. is guilty, therefore he is punished à Kafka thinks so

The dissertation is devoted to the phenomenon of Russian expressionism, the study of its origins, features of poetics, place and role in the history of Russian literature in the first third of the 20th century.

Expressionism (from the Latin "expresBy" - expression) is an artistic direction in which the idea of ​​​​direct emotional impact is affirmed, the emphasized subjectivity of the creative act, the rejection of plausibility in favor of deformation and the grotesque, the condensation of motives of pain, scream prevails. Compared with other creative directions of the early 20th century, the essence of expressionism and the boundaries of the concept are much more difficult to determine, despite the clear semantics of the term. On the one hand, expression, expressiveness are inherent in the very nature of artistic creativity, and only the extreme, ecstatic degree of their manifestation can testify to the expressionistic mode of expression. On the other hand, the program of expressionism developed spontaneously, absorbed a wide range of typologically related, but not belonging to it, phenomena, attracted many writers and artists who did not always share its worldview foundations. This art, as seen in retrospect, is highly "complex" (P. Toper), "non-homogeneous" (N. Pestova).

The foregoing fully applies to Russian expressionism - one of the most important manifestations of the creative potential accumulated in Russian culture at the turn of eras. The essence of expressionism - a rebellion against the dehumanization of society and at the same time the assertion of the ontological value of the human spirit - was close to the traditions of Russian literature and art, their messianic role in society, the emotional and figurative expressiveness characteristic of the works of N.V. Gogol, F.M. "and L.N. Tolstoy, N.N. Ge, M.A. Vrubel, M.P. Mussorgsky, A.N. Skryabin,

V.F.Komissarzhevskaya. This is most clearly felt in such works as The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, The Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, What is Truth? Russian expressionism.

The significance of the events that have taken place in Russia since the beginning of the 20th century, the scale of the personalities who made the era, the grandeur of Russian culture in all its manifestations, have no analogues in the world and are still not fully understood and appreciated. It was at this time that the accelerated development of the socio-political and economic spheres of Russian reality, complicated by wars and revolutions, was accompanied by the emergence of domestic literature and art on the world stage and the recognition of their universal value. ^ A distinctive feature of the Russian situation was the coexistence within the same culture for a relatively short period of time of different artistic systems - realism, modernism, avant-garde, which created unique opportunities for their interaction and mutual enrichment. Classical realism was modified; symbolism, without having exhausted the possibilities of its founders, was nourished by the powerful energy of the younger generation. At the same time, original programs were proposed by acmeists, ego-futurists, cubo-futurists and other participants in the process of transforming the language of art. In the 1910s to the opposition "realism-symbolism" were added such peculiar phenomena as buddlyanism (cubo-futurism), the intuitive school of ego-futurism, the analytical art of P. Filonov, the musical abstractionism of V. Kandinsky, the absurdity of A. Kruchenykh, the neo-primitivism and rayonism of M. Larionov, all-being

I. Zdanevich, music of higher chromaticism by A. Lurie, Suprematism ^ by K. Malevich, color painting by O. Rozanova and others. In the late 1910s and early

1920s new literary groups arose - imaginists, nichevoks, zaumniks, non-objectives, the musical avant-garde of A. Avraamov, the cinematographers of Dziga Vertov, the artists of the Makovets group, KNIFE (New painters), etc.

It is important to emphasize that expressionism was not institutionalized as an independent artistic movement and manifested itself through the worldview of the creator, through a certain style and poetics that arose within different movements, making their boundaries permeable, conditional. So, within the framework of realism, the expressionism of Leonid Andreev was born, the works of Andrei Bely were isolated in the symbolist direction, poetry collections of Mikhail Zenkevich and Vladimir Narbut stood out among the books of acmeists, and among the futurists, the “cried-lip * Zarathustra” Vladimir Mayakovsky approached expressionism. The thematic and style-forming features characteristic of expressionism were embodied in the activities of a number of groups (expressionists I. Sokolova, Moscow Parnassus, fuists, emotionalists) and in the work of individual authors at different stages of their evolution, sometimes in single works.

The depth and complexity of the processes that took place simultaneously and in different directions in Russian literature of the 1900s-1920s, expressed itself in an intensive search for ways and means of updating the artistic language for an ever closer connection with modernity. The need to be modern was more keenly experienced than ever by realist writers, and symbolists, and those who wanted to throw them off the "steamer of modernity." Russian literature showed not only interest in the daily life of a person and society (political, religious, family life), but also sought to interfere in it, to participate in the construction of life, for which different, sometimes mutually exclusive ways were proposed.

In Russian culture of the first third of the 20th century, expressionism developed as part of a pan-European process of destroying the foundations of positivism and naturalism. According to the observations of a number of scientists, "one of the most important features of the literature of the turn was the elimination of a powerful - on a worldwide scale - positivist influence."1

The awareness of one's time as special, unique, was combined, according to Sergei Makovsky, with the embodiment of "the results of Russian culture, saturated at the beginning of the twentieth century with the anxiety of contradictory daring and insatiable dreaminess." It was in culture that the salvation of the world, shaken by technical innovations and social explosions, was seen.

The most important source of expressionist tendencies in Russia were the traditions of Russian literature and art with their spiritual quest, anthropocentrism, and emotional-figurative expression.

For the first time, the word "expressionists" in Russian appeared in A.P. Chekhov's story "The Jumping Girl" (1892), the heroine of which used it instead of the word "impressionists": ".preoriginally, in the taste of the French expressionists." Chekhov's "darling", like the author himself, was not at all wrong in terms, but only intuitively predicted the future situation in art. Indeed, expressionism replaced impressionism, and many contemporaries of this process considered not Germany, but France to be the birthplace of expressionism, since it was from there, according to various sources, that the concept of “expressionism” came. Impressionism, as such, did not develop in Germany, and the concepts of "impressionism", "expression" had no support there either in the language of art or in live communication.

However, in Russia the concept of "expression" was encountered much earlier. For example, Alexander Amfiteatrov, discussing the properties of the poetry of Igor Severyanin (Russian Word. - 1914. - May 15), recalled the parodic note “Morning Tomb Sensation”, published in 1859 in the newspaper “Northern Bee”: “The physiognomy of the antecedent generation. The expression of her passive-expectative tendencies is apathy.

The circle of expressionists, which included writers and artists, was described in Ch. de Kay's short story “La Boheme. The Tragedy of Modern Life (New York, 1878). In 1901, the Belgian artist Julien-Auguste Hervé named his pictorial triptych "Expressionism". It is characteristic that Vladimir Mayakovsky, speaking in the essays “The Seven Day Review of French Painting” (1922) about European art, emphasized: “... art schools, trends arose, lived and died at the behest of artistic Paris. Paris ordered: “Expand Expressionism! Introduce pointillism! Henri Matisse and Guillaume Apollinaire wrote about expressionism.

Having emerged as a new aesthetic phenomenon in German fine arts (groups "Bridge", 1905; "Blue Rider", 1912), expressionism acquired its name only in 1911, not without the influence of the name of the French section that appeared in the catalog of the 22nd Berlin Secession - "expressionists ". At the same time, the concept of "expressionism", proposed by the publisher of the magazine "Sturm" Hervard Walden, spread to literature, cinema and related areas of creativity.

Chronologically, expressionism in Russian literature appeared earlier and ended later than the "expressionist decade" of 1910

1920 in Germany (as defined by G. Benn). The publication of L. Andreev's story "The Wall" (1901) and the last speeches of members of the emotionalist groups and "Moscow Parnassus" (1925) can be considered the boundaries of the "expressionist twenty-five years" in Russia.

The very fact that even the main "isms" that are truly milestones in the development of world culture do not constitute a causal chain, but act almost simultaneously, suggests that they are all manifestations of the same cultural integrity, a single and common systems of meanings are connected by a common fundamental principle.

The swiftness of the change of symbolism, impressionism, futurism, expressionism, Dadaism and other movements testifies to an innovative impulse. The researcher of German expressionism N.V. Pestova rightly notes “the impossibility of withdrawing expressionism from the general consistent discourse”. At the same time, one cannot ignore the chronological and spatial “disintegration” of expressionism: “Its time frames look absolutely arbitrary, in terms of attitude it cannot be considered a completed stage, and in its formal parameters it appears to the modern reader in one or another avant-garde guise” (13).

One of the reasons that expressionism was inherent in the entire literary and artistic sphere of the era, became part of its metalanguage, was not only the simultaneity and fusion of many phenomena that in previous periods developed and were determined over decades. It is impossible not to notice that the tasks solved by expressionism in Germany were already partially embodied in the neo-romantic tendencies of Russian realism and symbolism, because, according to D.V. Sarabyanov, symbolism most “easily” passes into expressionism. The same thing happened with ® the closest predecessor of expressionism - impressionism, widely known thanks to French painting. Impressionism, as the art of direct impression, has almost no place left in Russian literature and music; in the visual arts, he managed to manifest himself in the painting of K. Korovin, N. Tarkhov, in part, with V. Serov and members of the Union of Russian Artists. Their works formed the basis of a small exposition that reconstructed this phenomenon at the beginning of the 21st century (see the catalog "Ways of Russian Impressionism". - M., 2003).

On the contrary, the exhibitions "Berlin-Moscow" (1996) and "Russian Munich" (2004), which presented not only visual, but also abundant literary and documentary material, testified to a wide range of interaction and mutual influence. In contrast to the impressionism that remained in the "subconscious" of Russian culture, impressionism, the main expressionist intentions were realized, including the period of hidden existence, affirmation and fading, within the first third of the 20th century, when there was a renewal of religious, philosophical and artistic consciousness and at the same time, "the flowering of sciences and arts" was replaced by "social entropy, the dispersion of the creative energy of culture."4

The relevance of the work is determined by the importance and lack of study of the problem posed: to determine the genesis of expressionism in Russian literature of the 1900-1920s, the forms of its manifestation and the path of evolution in the context of the artistic movements of the designated period.

A comprehensive study of expressionism is necessary for a more objective understanding of the literary process of the 1st third of the 20th century. In recent years, it is this period of Russian literature that has attracted increased attention from researchers.

No less relevant in the perspective of the past century is the study of Russian expressionism in the context of European literary development. Russian expressionism is diversely and mutually connected with European expressionism, which was formed mainly on German and Austrian soil.

The roots of the new attitude lay in the pan-European tendencies to replace positivist views with irrational, intuitionist theories of Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Nikolai Lossky. It is no coincidence that where a social and artistic situation close in tension was developing, phenomena related to expressionism and parallels arose and received independent development in a number of European cultures.

The unity of German expressionism with foreign began to be created just before the start of the war - firmly and tangibly, wrote Friedrich Hübner. - This close and friendly unity spread almost as secretly and imperceptibly as some religious sect grew in past centuries. One of the fundamental documents of the all-European movement was the book by V. Kandinsky "On the Spiritual in Art", published in Germany in December 1911 and then read in the form of an abstract at home.

Undoubtedly, the study of the characteristic properties of Russian expressionism acquires relevance. One of them can be considered a kind of “spiritual wandering”, the historiosophical expectation of a future revival, the search for the country of Utopia, a new person, which often expressed itself in the impossibility of stopping and being realized in any one project. At the same time, expressionism is just as one-sided as impressionism, although Russian literature and art associated with expressionism, due to a certain cultural tradition, some spiritual background, were richer, brighter, more radical, more deeply connected with the very historical existence of national culture, and therefore represented a more perfect historical model. This should be emphasized, since in a number of works to this day the opinion about the supposedly "less perfect" nature of Russian culture at the beginning of the 20th century, corresponding to the peripheral position of Russian society in relation to the more civilizationally developed West, prevails.

Russia, according to F. Huebner, instilled in expressionism "the missing power - the mysticism of free faith" by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Moreover, Thomas Mann testified in 1922: "Indeed, what we call expressionism is only a late form of sentimental idealism heavily saturated with the Russian apocalyptic way of thinking."

The inclusiveness of expressionism as a cultural phenomenon also has support in the Russian artistic consciousness. It is no coincidence that the art critic N.N. Punin noted: “The problem of expressionism can be made the problem of all Russian literature from Gogol to the present day, now it is also becoming a problem of painting. Almost all Russian painting has been crushed by literature, eaten up by it. All corners are filled with expressionism, artists are stuffed with it like dolls; even constructivism becomes expressive.”6 It should be noted that cooperation with German colleagues that began in the 1910s was interrupted by the World War of 1914-1918. and resumed in a completely different socio-cultural environment, after the socialist revolution, when Russia already had its own expressionist groups. But as D.V. Sarabyanov emphasizes, “despite the length in time and the multi-stage nature of expressionism, it has no less common directional and stylistic manifestations than, for example, in fauvism, cubism or futurism. Despite the stylistic complexity and interpenetration of stylistic trends, one can to say that the avant-garde originates mainly in fauvism, expressionism and neo-primitivism - directions close to each other.

The commonality of the artistic language felt by contemporaries facilitated the interaction of new Russian art at the first stage, before the war of 1914, with German expressionism, primarily through the artists of the Munich association "The Blue Rider" - V. Kandinsky, A. Yavlensky, with whom the Burliuk brothers, N. .Kulbin, M.Larionov. It is important to note the publication of Kandinsky's texts in the programmatic collection of Moscow Cubo-Futurists Slap in the Face of Public Taste (1912). The aesthetic credo of Russian artists close to expressionism, in turn, was expressed by D. Burliuk in the article "Wild" of Russia, published in the almanac "The Blue Rider" (Munich, 1912).

The aim of the work is a comprehensive study of Russian expressionism and its role in the literary process of the first third of the 20th century, the definition of its boundaries, the establishment of facts of cooperation and typological links with the national and European context.

The object of the study is the works of Leonid Andreev, Andrei Bely, Mikhail Zenkevich, Vladimir Narbut, Velimir Khlebnikov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, the Serapion Brothers circle, Boris Pilnyak, Andrei Platonov and a number of other writers.

The main attention is focused on the little-known theoretical activity and literary practice of the Expressionist group of Ippolit Sokolov, formed in the summer of 1919, as well as the association of fuists, the Moscow Parnassus group and Petrograd emotionalists Mikhail Kuzmin. In addition, phenomena typologically close to expressionism in the visual arts, theater, cinema and music, as well as their projection in criticism, are considered as a context.

In addition to rare and small-circulation publications, significant archival material from the collections of the State Archive of Literature and Art, the Russian State Library, the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House), the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the State Literary Museum, the State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky .

The research methodology combines a comparative-historical approach to the phenomena under consideration with a complex multi-level typological study. The methodology is based on the works of domestic scientists in the field of comparative literature Yu.B. Borev, V.M. Zhirmunsky, Vyach.Vs. , V.A. Keldysh, V.V. Kozhinov, L.A. Kolobaeva, I.V. Koretskaya, N.V. Kornienko, A.N. Nikolyukin, S.G. Semenova, L.A. Spiridonova, L .I. Timofeeva; authors of special works on expressionism and avant-garde - R.V. Duganov, V.F. Markov, A.T. Nikitaev, T.L. Nikolskaya, N.S. Pavlova, N.V. P.M. Topera, N.I. Khardzhiev and others.

The degree of knowledge. The first critical articles comparing Russian and German expressionism date back to the early 1910s. and belong to V. Hoffman (Alien) and A. Eliasberg. After the end of the First World War, Roman Jakobson reported on German Expressionism. In April 1920, he wrote in the article "New Art in the West (Letter from Reval)": "The malice of the German artistic day is expressionism."

Jakobson cited some provisions of T. Deubler's book "In the struggle for modern art" (Berlin, 1919), who believed that the word "expressionism" was first used by Matisse in 1908. In addition, it was reported that Paul Cassirer threw in an oral controversy about Pechstein's painting: "What is this, still impressionism?" To which the answer was: “No, but expressionism.”8 Agreeing with the opposition of expressionism to impressionism, Jacobson saw expressionism as a more general and extensive phenomenon, in relation to which the theory of French cubism and Italian futurism was only “private implementations of expressionism.”

In the manifestos of Russian expressionists, in the works of authors close to this direction, the relevance of the romantic art of Novalis, Hoffmann, the philosophical works of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche was noted. As one of the components of the "new sense of life", along with Schopenhauer's pessimism and tragic optimism, Nietzsche considered the tradition of Russian classics F. Hübner in the article "Expressionism in Germany".9

Slavic influences" on the formation of German expressionism in the person of Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky was found by Y. Tynyanov.10 "The exceptional influence of Dostoevsky on young Germany" was noted by V. Zhirmunsky in the preface to the work of Oscar Walzel "Impressionism and expressionism in modern Germany"11 and N. Radlov, under whose editorship a collection of articles "Expressionism" was published (Pg., 1923).

The attitude towards expressionism in criticism was contradictory. People's Commissar of Education A. Lunacharsky tried to connect him more closely with the revolutionary ideology, which was not always fruitful. An active popularizer of German expressionism, he became acquainted with this art during the First World War in Switzerland. He owns about 40 publications on expressionism (articles, notes, speeches, translations of 17 poems). His works analyze the works of G. Kaiser, K. Sternheim, F. von Unruh, K. Edschmid, W. Hasenclever, P. Kornfeld, F. Werfel, L. Rubiner, M. Gumpert, A. von Harzfeld, G. Kazak , A. Lichtenstein, K. Heinicke, G. Jost, A. Ulitz, L. Frank, R. Schickele, E. Toller, I. R. Becher, Klabund, G. Hesse (listed in the order of acquaintance - according to E. Pankova). He also drew on the work of German painters and sculptors, impressions from plays, films, and travels in Germany. For the first time the term "expressionism" was used by Lunacharsky in the article "In the name of the proletariat" (1920); the article "A Few Words on German Expressionism" (1921) characterizes it as a cultural phenomenon, highlighting three features: "roughness of effects", "tendency towards mysticism", "revolutionary anti-bourgeoisness".

Expressionism in the interpretation of Lunacharsky is opposed to French impressionism and the "scientific accuracy" of realism, it affirms the intrinsic value of the author's inner world: "His ideas, his feelings, impulses of his will, his dreams, musical works, paintings, pages of fiction from an expressionist should be a confession , an absolutely accurate copy of his spiritual experiences. These emotional experiences cannot find a real alphabet in the things and phenomena of the external world. They pour out either simply as almost formless colors, sounds, words, or even abstruse, or use natural phenomena, ordinary expressions in an extremely deformed , crippled, burned by an internal flame" (preface to E. Toller's book "Prison Songs", 1925).

At the turn of the 1920s, forced to cooperate with the futurists who headed the departments of the People's Commissariat of Education, Lunacharsky sought to reconcile the claims of the "left" with the tastes of the leaders of the state and the tasks of public education, for which he was criticized by Lenin ("Lunacharsky flog for futurism"). In this context, it was important for Lunacharsky to bring German expressionism closer to Russian futurism (“futuristic groups in our terminology, expressionist groups in German”) in order to emphasize the revolutionary nature of their experiments. Welcoming the opening of the First General German Art Exhibition in Moscow (1924), Lunacharsky noted as an advantage of the Expressionists their "deep inner unrest, discontent, aspiration, harmonizing much better with revolutionary reality than the indifferent aesthetic poise of the still Gallican Formalist artists and ours too still" unsophisticated naturalists."

He agreed with the ideas of G. Gross, considering them "almost to the details" coinciding with his own "artistic preaching in the USSR." However, in the late 20's. new socio-political aspects of attitudes towards art came to the fore, and Lunacharsky moved from recognizing the revolutionary significance of expressionism to exposing its bourgeois subjectivism and anarchism. He saw innovation not so much in formal originality as in ideological pathos (he approved G. Kaiser for being anti-bourgeois, condemned F. Werfel for mysticism, G. Jost for social despondency).

Lunacharsky attributed a significant part of the expressionists to "fellow travelers" occupying an intermediate position between proletarian and "alien" bourgeois culture, he approved of their departure from expressionism, emphasizing, for example, (in the preface to the anthology

Modern Revolutionary Poetry of the West", 1930) that Becher, having "survived in his youth a fascination with expressionism", "erasing out of himself intellectual fluctuations, became a realist poet with a genuine proletarian ideology". Despite the obvious evolution of views on expressionism in the direction of its condemnation, Lunacharsky supported relations with E. Toller, V. Gazenklever, G. Gross and others, participated in joint projects (the script for the film "Salamander", 1928) and continued to see expressionism as an phenomenon "extremely broad", paradoxical, "useful from an agitational point of view" .

Abram Efros included the "fieryness of expressionistic incoherence" in the concept of "left classics". However, with the weakening of the revolutionary situation in Germany, expressionism began to be predominantly regarded as "a rebellion of the bourgeoisie against

N. Bukharin saw in expressionism "the process of turning the bourgeois intelligentsia into "human dust", into loners, knocked down

11 pantalik by the course of tremendous events. In criticism, they tried to apply the term "expressionism" to the analysis of the work of L. Andreev, V. Mayakovsky, to theatrical productions, fine arts. . The final volume of the Literary Encyclopedia with A. Lunacharsky's article on expressionism was not printed.

However, in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (T. 63. - M., 1935) the article "Expressionism" was published. It spoke not only about expressionism in Germany and France, but the section "Expressionism in Soviet art" was singled out.

The modern stage of the study of expressionism began in the 1960s, after a twenty-year break due to ideological reasons. In the collection "Expressionism: Dramaturgy. Painting. Graphic arts. Music. Cinematography” G. Nedoshivin raised the question of “expressionist tendencies” in the work of a number of major masters who were on the periphery of expressionism. He believed that the definition of “Russian Futurism” was confusing, because “Larionov, Goncharova and Burliuk, not to mention Mayakovsky, have much more in common with the expressionists than with Severini, Kappa, Marinetti.”15 Expressionism was rehabilitated in the works of A. M. Ushakov "Mayakovsky and Gross" (1971) and L.K. Shvetsova "Creative principles and views close to expressionism" (1975). The main studies of expressionism were carried out abroad. In connection with the restoration of the rights of literary and artistic groups and the creation of a renewed history of literature of the 20th century, studies of certain aspects of expressionism in Russian literature and art appeared.

Until the last decade, Vladimir Markov's article remained the seminal work on Russian expressionism.16 rethinking, “recoding” of concepts is possible and fruitful, as individual works show, precisely on the path of analyzing the poetics of futurism, its various stylistic components: symbolist (Kling O. Futurism and the “old symbolist hop”: The influence of symbolism on the poetics of early Russian futurism // Issues literature. - 1996. - No. 5); Dadaist (Khardzhiev N. Polemical name<Алексей Крученых>// Pamir. - 1987. - No. 12; Nikitaev A. Introduction to the "Dog box": Dadaists on Russian soil // Art of the avant-garde - the language of world communication. - Ufa, 1993); surrealistic (Chagin A. Russian surrealism: Myth or reality? // Surrealism and avant-garde. -M., 1999; Chagin A.I. From the "Fantastic tavern" - to the cafe "Port

Piano” // Literary Abroad: Problems of National Identity. - Issue 1. - M., 2000); expressionist (Nikolskaya T.L. On the issue of Russian expressionism // Tynyanovsky collection: Fourth Tynyanov readings. - Riga, 1990; Koretskaya I.V. From the history of Russian expressionism // Izvestiya RAS. A series of literature and language. -1998.-T 57.-No. 3).

One of the evidence of the need for such recoding was given by A. Flaker. In his opinion, the identity of the name of the “two futurisms” led to a comparative historical optics, which does not always correspond to the interpretation of the literary texts themselves. German expressionism "The Twilight of Humanity" (M., 1990), in textbooks19 and reference literature. So, for the first time, along with foreign material (A.M. Zverev), the “Literary Encyclopedia of Terms and Concepts” (M., 2001), edited by A.N. Nikolyukin, also included a brief essay on Russian expressionism (V.N. Terekhin). The encyclopedic dictionary "Expressionism" (compiled by P.M. Toper) also includes a significant corpus of articles devoted to expressionist realities in Russian culture (in production).

V.S. Turchin in the book “Along the labyrinths of the avant-garde” (Moscow, 1993) and A. Yakimovich in a series of works on “realisms of the 20th century” use Russian realities in the analysis of expressionism in the visual arts. A significant contribution to the comprehensive study of the problem of expressionism is the collection of reports of a scientific conference at the Institute of Art Studies "Russian avant-garde of the 1910-1920s and the problem of expressionism" (compiled by G.F. Kovalenko), which includes articles by D.V. Sarabyanov, N. L.Adaskina, I.M.Sakhno and others (See also:

Nikitaev A.T. Early work of Boris Lapin // Studia Literaria Polono-Slavica. - Warszawa, 1993. - No. 1; Unknown poems by Boris Lapin / Studia Literaria Polono-Slavica. - Warszawa, 1998. - No. 1;) Anthology "Russian Expressionism. Theory. Practice. Criticism" accumulated these materials in order to make them available for further study and use in research and teaching.

The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that expressionism is considered in a number of artistic movements of Russian literature of the 1st third of the 20th century, as a general cultural phenomenon. In the course of the study, for the first time, the originality of Russian expressionism, its genesis in Russian literature of the 1900-1920s, the forms of its manifestation and the path of evolution are established. The new material is analyzed comprehensively, at different levels of existence and in broad contexts. The literary process is considered in close connection with phenomena close to expressionism in the visual arts, as well as in theater, cinema, and music. Thus, the Gogol tradition in the construction of the expressionist image is explored in the prose of Andrei Bely and in the cinematic experiments of directors Kozintsev and Trauberg, in the essays of Eisenstein.

Observations are made on the general patterns of the emergence and existence of expressionism in Russian literature, at the same time, the features of expressionist poetics, the correlation of program statements and creative practice, the main pathos of expressionism as art and attitude, the pathos of denying dead dogmas and, at the same time, earnest affirmation in the center of being of the only reality - the human personality in all the intrinsic value of its experiences. A wide range of programmatic, style-forming and thematic features of other artistic movements are found, some of which were perceived as opposing (naturalism, symbolism), others that did not have time to acquire integral forms existed within futurism at the level of trends (expressionism, dadaism, surrealism). Conclusions about the national features of Russian expressionism are substantiated: folklore, archaic features, many generative models of creative renewal.

In the work of Mayakovsky, examples of the structure-forming elements of Russian expressionism stand out. In the context of expressionist poetics, the work of such individuals as L. Andreev, A. Bely, M. Zenkevich, V. Narbut, V. Khlebnikov, B. Grigoriev, O. Rozanova, P. Filonov and others is considered.

The study is carried out not against the background of the literary process, but in its structure, in the broad context of artistic movements, in combination with the analysis of the main manifestos and books.

Traditional comparative studies for a long time proceeded from the fact that the cultures of Central and Eastern Europe lag behind the more intensively renewing creative sphere in Western countries and are forced to borrow the experience of new trends. The dissertation shows that the origin and characteristics of expressionism in Russian literature and art provide an example of advanced development and diverse interaction with the pan-European movement.

The main provisions of the dissertation submitted for defense.

Russian expressionism is an important component of Russian culture; it arose on its own basis, relying on the traditions of Russian literature and art that were relevant for the first third of the 20th century, on the achievements of realism, modernism, and avant-garde in the transformation of the language of art.

Russian expressionism interacted in many ways and mutually with European expressionism, which was formed mainly on German and Austrian soil.

Russian expressionism is an independent art direction, not organized organizationally, but united by the corresponding philosophical, aesthetic and creative principles, as well as the chronological framework of 1901-1925. Expressionism, to varying degrees, is inherent in the work of L. Andreev, A. Bely, M. Zenkevich, V. Mayakovsky and other Russian writers of the first third of the 20th century.

Expressionist groups I. Sokolov, "Moscow Parnassus", fuists, emotionalists M. Kuzmin make up the circle of Russian literary expressionism of the 1920s.

Theoretical conclusions consist in revising some stereotypes of the study of Russian literature of the first third of the 20th century, in particular with regard to the mutual influence and interpenetration of all creative potentials - realistic, modernist, avant-garde - that existed in Russian literature and art of the first third of the 20th century, and in affirming the need to consider Russian Expressionism as an independent artistic movement.

The practical significance of the work. The main provisions of the dissertation can be taken into account when creating the history of Russian literature of the 20th century, in the course of studying the evolution of artistic movements and their links with the pan-European literary development. The results of the research work are of scientific, methodological and applied significance, since they can be used in the preparation of anthologies of expressionist works, writing the corresponding chapters of textbooks and sections of lecture courses on the history of Russian literature of the 20th century for philological faculties.

Approbation of the research results. The basis of the dissertation is 30 years of work on the history of Russian literature and art in the first third of the 20th century, articles, publications, books, speeches at international scientific conferences, participation in foreign symposia, lecturing, research work in the archives and libraries of Latvia, the USA, Ukraine, Finland , Germany.

In the course of ten years of research work on the topic of the dissertation, an anthology “Russian Expressionism: Theory. Practice. Criticism (Compiled, introductory article by V.N. Terekhina; commentary by V.N. Terekhina and A.T. Nikitaev. - M., 2005). The provisions developed in the dissertation were partially included in the "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Expressionism", prepared at the IMLI RAS (the article "Russian Expressionism" and eight personal articles were discussed and approved at a meeting of the Department of Recent European and American Literature of the IMLI RAS in May 2001).

The main results of the study were presented in published books, articles, as well as in reports at international scientific conferences: "V. Khlebnikov and world culture" (Astrakhan, September 2000); “Russian Avant-Garde of the 1910-1920s and the Problem of Expressionism” (State Institute of Art Studies, November 2002); "Mayakovsky at the beginning of the XXI century" (IMLI RAS, May 2003); 13th International Congress of Slavists. (Ljubljana, July 2003); "Russian Paris" (St. Petersburg, Russian Museum, November 2004); "Science and Russian literature of the 1st third of the 20th century" (RSUH, June 2005); "Yesenin at the turn of the epochs: results and prospects" (IMLI RAS, October 2005), etc.

Work structure. The dissertation consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion and a bibliography.

Considering the aesthetic positions of expressionism, one should pay attention to the fact that expressionism took shape, first of all, in the process of repulsion. It is negation that forms the basis of the expressionist worldview. The emergence of the movement of expressionism in German literature was due to the fact that the new generation of German poets and writers, who decisively declared themselves in the first decade of the 20th century, did not like the situation of relative stability in German culture. In their opinion, naturalists were never able to carry out the promised revolutionary transformations in the field of culture, and by the beginning of the century they were no longer able to say anything new in literature. The expressionists sought to overcome this immobility, the unproductiveness of thought and action, which they perceived as a spiritual stagnation and a general crisis of the intelligentsia. According to the theorists of expressionism, naturalistic art, neo-romanticism, impressionism, "art nouveau" (as the style "modern" was called in the German-speaking countries) are distinguished by non-functionality, superficiality, which obscure the true essence of things. From the denial of previous literary traditions, from a conscious deviation from the direction that not only German, but also all European literature of the 19th century adhered to, and from opposing his work to all existing artistic movements, primarily naturalism and impressionism, and in poetry to symbolism and neo-romanticism, and expressionism began.

The formation of expressionism as a trend began with two associations of artists: in 1905, the Bridge group arose in Dresden (Die Brticke, it included Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rotluff, later Emil Nolde, Otto Müller, Max Pechstein) , and in 1911 the Blue Rider group (Der blaue Reiter, among the participants: Franz Marc, August Macke, Wassily Kandinsky, Lionel Feininger, Paul Klee) was created in Munich. Literary expressionism began with the work of several great poets: Else Lasker-Schüler (1976-1945), Ernst Stadler (1883-1914), Georg Heim (1887-1912), Gottfried Benn (1886-1956), Johannes Robert Becher (1891 - 1958 ), Georg Trakl (1887-1914). The unification of poets and writers who proclaimed themselves expressionists took place around two literary magazines - Sturm (Der Sturm, 1910-1932) and Action (Die Aktion, 1911 - 1933), which were in polemic with each other on the relationship of art and politics, but often the same authors appeared on the pages of both publications.

Many theorists of expressionism saw its originality not so much in the novelty of the principles proclaimed by it, but in a qualitatively new approach to all phenomena of reality, primarily social. M. Huebner, one of the most prominent propagandists of expressionism, presents his historical mission as follows: “Impressionism is the doctrine of style, while expressionism is the norm of our experiences, actions and, therefore, the basis of the whole worldview ... Expressionism has a deeper meaning. It represents an entire era. Naturalism is its only equal opponent. ... Expressionism is a sense of life communicated to man now, when the world has been turned into horrific ruins, to create a new era, a new culture, a new well-being.

It should be noted that the expressionist artists themselves, in their attempts to theoretically comprehend the characteristic features and specifics of their method, often depicted the process of forming the foundations of expressionism only as a process of repulsion from old principles (primarily naturalistic and impressionistic), and not in the form of a dialectical struggle of opposites. , but as an antinomic process, during which the old and the new were presented as antipodes. Also, many researchers prefer to reveal the essence of expressionism and highlight its main characteristic features through comparison, and more often opposing it to other artistic movements, considering this path to be the most successful. “Only the sum of negative features, the sum of dissimilarities, makes it possible to single out expressionism from the world literary and artistic process as something integral and unified,” V. Toporov believes. However, this approach, it seems to us, is not devoid of one-sidedness: paying special attention to the differences between expressionism and other traditional and modernist methods, it simultaneously leaves in the shadow the moment of continuity.

Even though the expressionists resolutely rejected everything pre-existing in world art, it is necessary to recognize the existence of parallels between the expressionists and some of their predecessors and contemporaries. In particular, the members of the "Bridge" and "Blue Rider" associations themselves found the origins of their work in the artistic traditions of other European countries, in the work of the Belgian James Ensor, the Norwegian Edvard Munch, the Frenchman Vincent van Gogh. They also recognized the great influence on their work of French artists of the late 19th century (Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, etc.), cubists Pablo Picasso and Robert Delaunay. Critics have repeatedly emphasized the connection between expressionism and romanticism, with the aesthetics of the literary movement "Sturm and Drang" (Sturm und Drang, 1770s). Parallels are traced between the expressionistic and naturalistic depiction of a person. It is also said that there is something in common between the first collections of expressionist lyrics and the poetry of impressionism. Also, the predecessors of the expressionists are seen in August Strindberg, Georg Buchner, Walt Whitman, Frank Wedekind.

It is impossible not to mention the great influence that Slavic cultures and literatures had on expressionism. Of course, first of all, this concerned Russian literature, in particular, the work of F. M. Dostoevsky and L. Andreev, who are also often called the predecessors of the expressionists. In addition, many researchers explain some features of the poetics of expressionism by the significant influence of the Slavic cultural area on it, which, for example, he writes about in the preface to the collection of expressionist prose “Premonition and Breakthrough. Expressionist prose ”(“ Ahnung und Aufbruch. Expressionistische Prosa ”, 1957) by the German writer and publicist K. Otten, who points out two most important circumstances for the emergence of German expressionism. The first circumstance is “Slavic-German origin, which explains the special depth of the fatal attitude to the world found in Kafka, Musil and Trakl” To And the second is the transfer of the “center of gravity” of German literature to the east, to the Czech-Austrian environment, from which such prominent authors as Max Brod, Sigmund Freud, Karl Kraus, Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Werfel, Paul Adler and Stefan Zweig. The Croatian expressionist-playwright J. Kulundzhic wrote about the same thing back in 1921: “Russia and Germany, turned to the original forms of Eastern mysticism, created a new culture, a new art.”

For our study, it will also be important to determine what forces of attraction and repulsion acted between expressionism and romanticism, as well as expressionism and naturalism, since it is the connection with the traditions and aesthetics of these two artistic movements that turns out to be one of the most pressing issues in the study of Slovak expressionism.

For expressionists, as well as for romantics, “characteristic is attention to the intuitive foundations of creativity, to myth, as a holistic expression of the subconscious depths of a person and the source of images of art, the rejection of plastic completeness and harmonious ordering of the internal and external in the art of the Renaissance and classicism, emphasizing dynamism, incompleteness , “openness” of artistic expression” . Expressionists have much in common with romantics in their views on the nature of art: they are related by the recognition of the ideal essence of art, as well as the consideration of the facts of art as a design of a universal spiritual sensation that owns the soul of the artist. The belief in the advantages of intuition over intellect, the need for an irrational comprehension of reality, the tendency to symbolize, the craving for conventional forms, fantasy, and the grotesque, which was manifested in the works of romantics, are also found in the work of expressionists.

However, there are many differences between expressionism and romanticism. Expressionists, unlike the romantics, do not create a new world of ideals, dreams, but destroy the world of old illusions, do not create beautiful forms, but destroy them, deform the shell of things so that their essence can express itself. At the same time, if romanticism is characterized by a deep admiration for the beauty of the world, the desire to recreate it in its works, using a rather traditional form, then expressionism protests against reality, changing and breaking the usual proportions, shapes and outlines. The desire for lifelikeness, harmony and beauty characteristic of the Romantics in the Expressionists replaces the desire to shock the public, to make the reader, viewer or listener shudder, to awaken in him a feeling of indignation and horror towards the modern world. According to G. Nedoshivin, expressionism is characterized by "an organic aversion to any harmony, balance, spiritual and mental clarity, calmness and severity of forms." When creating an image, expressionists are not guided by the principle of objective similarity-dissimilarity between the object and the image, but are based on their own feelings, on their attitude to this object. As the English theorist J. Gooddon notes, “the artist himself determines the form, image, punctuation, syntax. Any rules and elements of writing can be deformed in the name of the goal.

With an extraordinary interest in the human personality, both on the part of romantics and expressionists, they, however, approach the image of a person in different ways: unlike the romantics, the attention of expressionists is riveted not to an individual person, not to its unique features, but to a typical one, generic, essential in it. The heroes of expressionism do not rise above the crowd, but drown, dissolve in it, sacrificing themselves to the common cause. It is expressionism that introduces a new hero into art - a man of the masses, the crowd. However, even such a hero feels helpless in the face of formidable reality in an alienated, hostile world. This is still the same “little man”, depressed by the cruel conditions of existence, feeling his loneliness, powerlessness, but still trying to comprehend the law weighing on him.

And yet, despite such significant differences between these two artistic movements, in connection with expressionism they often talk about the revival of romanticism on the basis of the culture of the 20th century, calling expressionism itself "to a certain extent the heir of romanticism", "a form of neo-romantic reaction", etc. .

Expressionism also has a lot in common with the aesthetics of naturalism, although this artistic direction has been seriously criticized by expressionists more than once. In their opinion, naturalism only glides over the surface of phenomena, not striving for the noumenal and remaining at the level of the phenomenal. In this sense, expressionism goes further, setting itself more general and absolute questions, which is dictated by its desire to restore the connection of private human existence with the life of all mankind and nature. The person himself is no longer considered in complete dependence on the world, environment, circumstances, as it was in naturalism, but the emphasis is on the internal motivations of his actions, on the variability of his internal state, which expressionists begin to call "a breakthrough through the facts." Declaring creatively fruitless attempts to reproduce “living life” in art, expressionism opposes to the principle of a plausible depiction of reality “the emphasized grotesqueness of images, the cult of deformation in its most diverse manifestations.”

A fundamentally new view also demonstrates expressionism on the role of the artist: this is no longer the “genius” of romanticism, who, according to the laws of beauty, creates the beautiful world of the ideal, opposed to the world of base reality; and this is not a naturalist photographer, dispassionately copying facts, whose credo is to show, but not to draw conclusions; he is a prophet, through whose mouths life itself speaks, and sometimes shouts, revealing its secrets to him.

Thus, with the declared decisive deviation of the new direction from all previous artistic traditions, the repulsion of expressionism from the past was not absolute: its connection with the aesthetics of romanticism and naturalism, as well as with modernist movements (symbolism, impressionism, Dadaism, surrealism and others) is undeniable. This circumstance is pointed out, for example, by A. Sörgel, noting that “expressionism was connected by thousands of threads with the German soil, with the naturalistic school, with the entire cultural and historical development of the era” .

We find an interesting approach to the study of expressionism in the works of some researchers who focus on identifying the typological nature of expressionism and at the same time find its features in the practice of the distant past. Ahistorical consideration of the phenomenon of expressionism is inherent, for example, in the concepts of W. Worringer, K. Edschmid, M. Krell, M. Hübner, W. Kandinsky. They state its typological relationship with primitive art, gothic and romanticism. Such an approach singles out the analyzed phenomenon from a specific historical framework, gives it the character of a timeless, eternally existing structure. So, K. Edshmid in his speeches notes: “Expressionism has always existed. There is no country in which it would not exist, there is no religion that would not create it in feverish excitement. There is no tribe that does not sing in expressionistic forms of an obscure deity. Created in great epochs of powerful passions, nourished by the deep layers of life, expressionism was a universal style - it existed among the Assyrians, Persians, ancient Greeks, Egyptians, in Gothic, primitive art, among old German artists.

Among primitive peoples, expressionism became an expression of fear and reverence for a deity embodied in boundless nature. It became the most natural element in the works of masters, whose soul was overflowing with creative power. It is in the dramatic ecstasy of Grunewald's paintings, in the lyrics of Christian hymns, in the dynamics of Shakespeare's plays, in the static nature of Strindberg's plays, in that implacability that is inherent in even the most affectionate Chinese fairy tales. Today it has embraced a whole generation."

Unlike the works of K. Edschmid, in the studies of W. Worringer, J. Kaim, W. Zokel, the timelessness of expressionism does not appear as something originally present in the soul of the artist. They attempt to trace the development of artistic consciousness and emphasize the regularity of the appearance of expressionism in certain periods of time, which is explained as a return to lost values. “Considered purely abstractly, the influx of romantic-mystical ideas is nothing more than a reaction to the previous period of the most concrete worldview,” writes Y. Kaim. Another German researcher, W. Zokel, describes the emergence of expressionism at the beginning of the 20th century as follows: “At the end of the first decade of the 20th century, a comprehensive revolution took place in Western art and literature, which was in direct connection with the scientific upheavals of that era. ... But however shocking and devastating this birth of a new era was, it was not something completely new - it was the culmination of the development that took place throughout the 19th century, and whose roots go back to even more ancient eras.

Despite the variety of different theories and concepts about expressionism, in general, we are forced to agree with N. Pestova, who believes that until now “expressionism has been understood and comprehended one-sidedly as a“ cry ”, as a pathos of destruction or utopia, and not as a complex artistic the embodiment of human global alienation". As the researcher notes in her monograph “The Lyrics of German Expressionism: Profiles of Alienity”, “literary expressionism appears as a broader concept than style, since its poetics clearly goes beyond a simple set of poetic devices and is formed under the strongest influence of more global intellectual projects of the beginning. century"

The development of expressionism in literature

Table of contents

Introduction

1. Prerequisites for the emergence of expressionism. Connection with literary tradition

2. The main features of expressionism. Their manifestation in lyrics

3. Expressionism in post-war German literature

Conclusion

Introduction

Expressionism as a literary trend originated and reached its highest point at the beginning of the 20th century, being "an artistic expression of the confused consciousness of the German intelligentsia during the First World War and revolutionary upheavals"1. The atmosphere of general aggression, preparation for war, fierce competition in the world market, rapid industrialization, unemployment, poverty - all this turned for a person into anger, confusion, a vague longing for the classical ideals of goodness and beauty that had gone forever, heightened sensitivity, sharp rejection, disgust for everyone. horrors, cruelties, passions unworthy of man, which boiled on the arena of world history. The historical crisis gave rise to a crisis worldview, which found its fullest expression in this. A German literary critic, a contemporary of the Expressionists, writes about the young generation of poets of this trend: “Young people are not afraid of unconditional condemnation of Germany, the German spirit and German culture, they are not even afraid of reproach for the lack of a patriotic feeling, exposing states hostile to Germany as a model worthy of expression. only fundamental changes that would free us from tradition. It wants to call into action reverence for the soul, faith in the absolute, and above all, the redemptive power of love for a fellow man. That is, the protest, the rejection of reality by the expressionists were not just an impotent gesture of despair. Expressionism courageously fights for "the value of ideas that once had significance for the world, but seemed only an idle funny thought. It feels called to judge and fights for moral goals, It despises the moral negligence of a high decadent culture that aroused admiration until recently." According to German critics, this era can be regarded as the starting point of modern literature, its development in various directions. Among the avant-garde movements of the beginning of the century, it was expressionism that was distinguished by "the earnest seriousness of its intentions. It has the least of that buffoonery, formal trickery, outrageousness, which are characteristic, for example, of Dadaism."

1. The birth of expressionism. Expressionism and tradition

In the period 1910-1925. in Germany, a new generation of poets and writers resolutely declared itself, striving to carry out the promised and unfulfilled, in their opinion to naturalists, revolutionary transformations in the field of culture. Not all of them were explicit expressionists, although it was under this name that they became known from the time of World War I. After 1945, this trend was, as it were, rediscovered and had a strong impact on contemporary art. The political and cultural situation at the turn of the century was similar to that criticized by the naturalists. Where did the new movement come from?

It is believed that the reason for the emergence of expressionism was precisely the fact that nothing had changed in Germany for a long time, and naturalists could no longer say anything new in literature. "The expressionists perceived relative stability as a meaningless existence. They criticized not specific conditions or phenomena, but immobility, unproductive thought and action in general." Many portrayed their suffering and yearning for a more perfect world. And alienation from one's era became a "crisis of existence", led to self-reflection. The conflict of "fathers and sons", isolation, loneliness, the problem of finding one's "I", the conflict between enthusiasm and passivity became the most preferred themes of expressionists. Spiritual stagnation expressionists perceived as a crisis of the intelligentsia - artists, poets. In their opinion, spirit and art should change reality.

The Expressionists set themselves ambitious goals. The term "expressionism", first used by Kurt Hiller in 1911 in relation to literature and served at first to distinguish the avant-garde, was narrow enough to designate such a direction. It was not just about a new style, but about a new art: "Impressionism is the doctrine of style, expressionism as a way of experiencing, the norm of behavior covers the entire worldview"5.

The aesthetics of expressionism was built on the one hand on the negation of all previous literary traditions. "Expressionism consciously deviates from the direction that not only German poetry, but all the art of the cultured peoples of Europe and America of the 19th century held."6

Arguing with supporters of naturalism, E. Toller wrote: "Expressionism wanted more than photography ... Reality must be permeated with the light of the idea." In contrast to the Impressionists, who directly recorded their subjective observations and impressions of reality, the Expressionists tried to draw the image of the era, humanity. Therefore, they rejected the plausibility, everything imperial, striving for the cosmic universal. Their method of typification was abstract: the general patterns of life phenomena were revealed in the works, everything private, individual was omitted. The genre of drama sometimes turned into a philosophical treatise.

In contrast to the naturalistic drama, a person in the dramaturgy of expressionism was free from the deterministic influence of the environment. But resolutely rejecting traditional artistic forms and motifs in their declarations, the Expressionists actually continued some of the traditions of the preceding literature. In this regard, the names of Buchner, Whitman, Strindberg are mentioned. Pavlova says that the first collections of expressionist lyrics are still largely connected with the poetry of impressionism, for example, the early books of Georg Trakl, one of the greatest poets of early expressionism. Critics have repeatedly pointed out the connection between the subjectivity of expressionism and the aesthetics of Sturm und Drang, with romanticism, the passionate inspiration of Geldering, Graabe, and the verbal manner of Klopstock. The transition from Impressionism to Expressionism is considered a return to idealism, as it was in 1800. "The era of 'storm and onslaught' also arose. Then, as now, a metaphysical need that had been suppressed for a long time erupted"7.

In the book "Impressionism and Expressionism" O. Walzel makes an attempt to measure all development and change (in the literature of 1910-1920) using the example of Goethe. "The ancestor of realism," Goethe stands at the same time on the basis of the idealistic philosophy of his time. And those sayings in which he pointed the way to art may seem to be an anticipation of the mottos of the expressionists, especially if they are taken out of the context of the time. In terms of its spiritual content, the time began in the 20th century. O. Walzel considers it much closer to Goethe than the middle and the end of the 19th century. Again it was evaluated and received the right to exist absolute. True, not knowledge was already the subject of mankind's anguish. If the tragedy of Faust is rooted in the realization of the impossibility of knowing the truth, then the "new Faustian tragic suffering" has become the inability to truly make humanity happy. "The real problem of Faust now reads: how can a person achieve such a spiritual structure that would ensure the claims of a real champion of culture."

The Faustian souls of the present (the expressionists of the 20s) were looking for a new form of social morality, freeing them from the burdensome evils of modernity, from the horror in which the world has fallen. Poets again turned from contemplatives into confessors. They invaded the realm of the metaphysical, they wanted to bring to the world a new world outlook born in severe suffering.

The expressionists themselves did not talk about their connection with Goethe, although they found themselves in primitive religiosity among the Egyptians, Assyrians, Persians, in the Gothic style of Shakespeare, among the old German artists. In German classicism there is also an exaggeration of feeling. This is M. Grunewald with his Gothic form aspiration, and the original German master A. Dürer. A. Dürer created a type of so-called "angry portrait", giving the faces spiritual and emotional tension, fixing them at the moment of tension. He sought to bring them to the limits of expressiveness, to pathos.

In the literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, expressionists recognized only K. Sternheim and G. Mann as their predecessors. Literary criticism also considers G. Mann a harbinger of expressionism. "In The Teacher Gnus" (1905), he anticipated the plot scheme of many expressionist works that appeared over the next two decades. Just as an inconspicuous cashier in G. Kaiser's play "From Morning to Midnight" (1916) changed his appearance in order to become different and start a new life with a huge amount of stolen money, so his teacher immediately turned from a tyrant-teacher into an unlucky lover of a pop singer. G. Mann wrote a satire novel. It subjected to satirical analysis not only the morals of the Prussian gymnasium, but also the instability of the individual, capable of rushing from one extreme to another. Expressionists, on the other hand, perceived the mobility, "rocking" of a person as positive, promising symptoms of the coming era. G. Mann nowhere, with the exception of the play "Madame Legros" (1913), does not show the positive meaning of the actions of a person who has broken with the generally accepted, gone over the banks, following his irrepressible impulse. But in all novels, starting with "Kiselnye Shore" (1900), from the trilogy "Goddesses" up to "Henry IV" and beyond, there are main or secondary characters, characterized by instability, readiness to move from one state to the opposite.

Despite the fact that Germany is rightfully considered the birthplace of expressionism, this trend has its origins and its predecessors not only in the traditions of German literature and art, but also in European ones. A group of French artists of the late 19th century "(Matisse, Derain, etc.), the cubists Picasso, Delaunay with their deformed objects, with a predominance of geometric shapes, collage influenced German expressionist artists (W. Kandinsky, K. Schmitt-Rottschuf, O Dix, E. Nolde, etc.) New forms and means of expression, which later turned out to be very widespread in the art of the 20th century, appeared in futurism, which in German literary criticism is considered the program of the avant-garde, including expressionism. Futurists predetermined almost all artistic methods of the poetic avant-garde: montage, neologisms, word play, free association, linguistic experiment, syntactic constructions, exclusion of the author's "I" from the poem to achieve an objective vision of reality.Even before the expressionists, they questioned all the achievements of literature and art.

2. The main features of expressionism. Their manifestation in lyrics

One of the features is that it did not represent a single trend either in terms of repeatedly proclaimed goals or in content. First of all, there was no consensus on the role of the artist in society. Beginning with expressionism, the attitude of poetry, art in general, to history, to the life of society, becomes problematic. Within the framework of this direction, one can meet the ideas of internationalism and nationalism, cosmopolitanism and patriotism, etc. How different were both political and aesthetic views is shown by the contrast between G. Benn and B. Brecht, who began their career as expressionists. Their views on the role of the poet, his tasks at that time were expressed not only by expressionists, but also by famous artists who sympathized with the new trend in art or criticized it. Viennese novelist, short story writer St. Zweig in his essay "New Paphos" (1909) wrote that the task of the poet is to awaken the mental and spiritual forces of man. The poet must be "holy fire", the spiritual leader of the time. He believed that pathos in poetry is a sign of vital energy, in other words, he spoke about the role, the tasks that the expressionists performed. Many expressionists took the position expressed in G. Mann's Essay (1910). The political task of the writer-poet is not to achieve power, but to oppose the existing power with the strength of the spirit, to show the people truth and justice. On the other hand, expressionists were often reproached for their remoteness from real politics, from real politics, even for the lifelessness of their works. The Marxist Georg Lukacs, for example, criticized the "abstract anti-bourgeoisness" of the Expressionists (1934). I.R. Becher, himself an expressionist, wrote already in the 30s about Kaiser, Frank, Ehrenstein: “They are intoxicated with longing and despair, they create under pressure, squeezing the last flowering out of their blood. Their creations, perhaps, are flowers, but flowers on a withered branch"9. Expressionists of opposing political persuasions united around the magazines "Aktion" and "Der Sturm", leftist expressionists ("Aktion") tried to penetrate the outer layer, discover the meaning of today, trying to convey the terrible truth, they demanded the abandonment of passivity: "Let it flood you, indifferent friends of the world, a sea of ​​blood of the victims of the war" [Gazenklever "To the Enemies"].

Sturm, on the other hand, renounced any connection between art and modernity. The magazine's publisher was a man of radical political convictions. However, he strongly defended the independence of the "new art" from political problems.

Protest, as a natural reaction of a person to the madness and cruelty of the world, takes on a global scale among the expressionists. The whole worldview boils down to protest, because in everything that surrounds the expressionists did not see a single positive moment: the world was for them the focus of evil, where there is no place for beauty and harmony. Everything beautiful seems false, removed from reality. Therefore, expressionists reject all classical canons, do not accept beautiful-sounding rhymes, refined comparisons. They break all semantic connections, distort individual impressions, turning them into something disgusting, repulsive. The title of A. Lichtenstein's poem "Dawn" prepares for the perception of a picture that conveys a definite mood. The first stanza partially confirms this expectation. However, what follows is a series of unrelated paintings that become increasingly meaningless:

Ein dicker Junge mit einem Teicn.
Der Wind hat sich einem Baum gefangen.
Der Himeel sieht verbummelt aus und bleich,
Als ware ihm die Schminke ausgengagen.
Auf kange Krucken schief herabgebuckt
Und schwatzend kriechen auf dem Feld zwei Lahme.
Ein blonder Dichter wird vielleicht verruckt.
Ein Pferdchen stolpelrt uber eine Dame.
An einem Fanster klebt ein fetter Mann.
Ein Jungling will ein weiches Weib besuchen.
Ein grauger Clown zieht sich die Stiefel an.
Ein Kinderwagenschreit und Hunde Fluchen.

The unity of this momentary impression is given only by the feeling of complete alienation of the author. Jacob van Goddis's poem "The End of the World" ("Weltende", 1887-1942) also presents distorted, torn impressions. Here individual reformations are an omen of the general catastrophe of the end of the world. But in the inner world, in the soul, the desire for beauty and goodness remains. And the less perfection in the surrounding world, the stronger the despair. "My God! I am suffocating in this banal time, with my enthusiasm, which is not being used," G. Game wrote in his diaries. Therefore, expressionists, literally torn apart by these contradictions, express their protest with such force of emotional intensity. After all, their protest is not only denial, but also the pain of a desperate soul, a cry for help. "Extreme indignation captures a person completely. Unable to analyze and understand anything, he simply splashes out his confused feelings, his pain. dynamism - sharp colors, images deformed from internal tension, the swiftness of the tempo, in the metaphor the image ceases to be felt in it, only a cry, emotional repetitions, distorted proportions are conceived. , the expressionists hoped to conquer and subdue reality. "The united will of the newest poets is to overcome reality thanks to the penetrating fortitude"10.

Since the world appeared before the expressionists as devoid of harmony, incomprehensible and meaningless, they refuse to depict it in this form. Behind all the meaninglessness of the world, they tried to see the true meaning of things, all-encompassing laws. That is, the next sign of expressionism is the desire for generalization. Reality is drawn in huge pictures, behind which natural and concrete features disappear. The expressionists tried to show not reality itself, but only an abstract idea of ​​what constitutes its essence. "Not reality, but spirit" - this is the main thesis of the aesthetics of expressionism. Naturally, everyone's ideas about the essence of the world were subjective.

The self-disclosure of the author most often occurs in his characters. This is how the so-called "Ich - Drama" appears in dramaturgy; in prose works, the passionate internal monologue of the actors is difficult to separate from the author's reflections. Subjectivism is manifested both in the image of the overall picture and individual characters. The artist of that time lost direct contact with life, and when trying to overcome this, the author and the work merge into one. The restless, searching, doubting hero is also the author himself.

A typical expressionist hero is a person at the moment of the highest tension (which makes expressionism related to the short story). Sadness becomes depression, despair turns into hysteria. The underlying mood is extreme pain. The hero of expressionism lives according to the laws of his reality, not finding himself in the real world. He does not transform reality, but affirms himself, and therefore often does not take into account the laws, but violates them in the name of justice or for self-affirmation. This is a small person, suppressed by cruel social conditions of existence, suffering and dying in a world hostile to him. Heroes feel their helplessness in front of a formidable and cruel force so much that they cannot understand, comprehend it.

Hence their passivity, the humiliating consciousness of their own impotence, abandonment, loneliness, but on the other hand, the desire to help. This internal conflict leads to the fact that "everything goes into internal contradictions and does not affect reality in any way." Other researchers believe that expressionist heroes, on the contrary, violate all norms and laws, asserting themselves. Here one can draw a parallel between L. Frank's "A Good Man", N. Mann's "Madame Legros" (active resistance) and "In front of a closed door" by Borchert, Kafka's dramas.

The intense attempt of the author, together with his hero, to philosophically comprehend reality allows us to speak about the intellectuality of expressionist works. In expressionism, for the first time in German literature, the theme of "alienated man" sounded with extreme pain and strength. A man painfully trying to comprehend the "law" weighing on him. Through the work of Kafka, this theme in expressionism is associated with many names in the further development of literature. How this theme sounded in German lyrics is given by A. Wolfenstein's poem "Citizens" ("Stadter"):

Nah wie Locher eines Siebes stehm
enster beieinander, drangend fassen
auser sich so dicht an, dab die Straben
Grau geschwollen wie Gewurtige stehm.
Ineinander dicht hineingehackt
Sitzen in den Trams die zwei Fassaden
Leute, wo die Blicke eng ausladen
Und Begierde ineinander ragt.
Unsre Wande sind so dunn wie Haut,
Dab ein jeder teilnimmt, wenn ich weine,
Fluster dringt hinuber wie Gegrole:
Und wie stumm in abgeschlobner Hohle
Unberuhrt und ungeschaut
Steht doch jeder fern und fuhlt: alleine.

On the formal side, this poem is rather conservative. But extraordinary images and comparisons change the usual metaphor. Objects are presented as living beings, and people, perceived only in the mass, are reified. Loneliness is perceived by a person as isolation from the world, and dissolution in the mass - as defenselessness and abandonment.

With the era of expressionism, new literary devices came, and the already known ones were filled with new qualitative content. Pavlova notes that "the undoubted success of expressionism was satire, grotesque, poster - a form of the most concentrated generalization." The reception of a combination into a single whole from moments standing apart from each other that created a sense of correlation and simultaneity of various processes in the world, the combination of various plans from a sudden influx, snatching out a separate detail to a general view of the world, the alternation of small and great are also generated by the desire for generalization, the search for inner links between seemingly unrelated events. The combination of hyperbole and grotesque, expressing with condensed brightness each of the two sides of the contradiction, was used for the purpose of expressive contrast, raising the light and sharpening the evil.

The principle of abstractness was expressed in the rejection of the image of the real world, in the presence of abstract images: multicolor is replaced by a clash of black and white tones. The most frequently used stylistic means of expressionists include the so-called emotional repetitions, associative enumerations of metaphor. Expressionists often neglect the laws of grammar, come up with neologisms ("Warwaropa" by Ehrenstein).

A necessary element of the play was a free and direct appeal to the public ("The theater-tribune!"). The technique of "Vorbeireden" ("speaking past"), often used in expressionist drama, on the one hand, emphasizes the loneliness of the hero and his passionate obsession with his own thoughts, on the other hand, helps to push the viewer to a whole network of generalizations and conclusions.

Poetry turned out to be the most expressive means for expressionism, its new ideas. A relatively common feature of expressionist lyrics is that the emotive layers of the language, the affective fields of the meaning of the word, come to the fore. The main theme shifts towards the inner life of a person, and at the same time not to his consciousness, but to a semi-conscious, overwhelming human whirlwind of feelings. The real, external world serves as a material, a means for depicting the inner world. An excessive depiction of the inner world, an irresistible desire to convey spiritual movements and impulses that are essentially inexpressible in words by the artistic means of poetry - all this was first manifested in the lyrics. The impact of the poem is achieved in an irrational way - due to the monumentality of paintings, rhetoric, speech gestures, various signs of agitation (address, greeting, and so on). And although the style of the poem violates the usual laws, the final rhyme, size, stanza, are traditional. Becher's poem "An die Zwanzigjahrigen" is an example of the fact that many expressionists, despite the modernization of the poetic language, have retained some traditional ideas about versification.

Zwanzigjahrige! ... Die Falte eueres Mantels halt
Die Strabe auf in Abendrot vergangen.
Kasernen und das Warenhaus. Und streif zuend den Krieg.
Wird aus Asylen bald den Windstob fangen,
Der Reizenden um Feuer biegt!
Der Dichter grubt euch Zwanzigjahrige mit Bombenfausten,
Der Panzerbrust, drin Lava gleich die neue Marseillaise wiegt.

Expressionism did not remain the leading trend in literature for long. The impotence of the expressionist artist manifested itself during World War I, which many perceived as a political catastrophe or even as the collapse of all humanistic ideals. Some found their way out in radical pacifism, others in ardent support and participation in the revolution. Expressionist ideas and methods were supported and developed further by other artists, but were no longer always perceived as new and relevant. Already in 1921, the passionate expressionist Ivan Goll stated harshly: "Expressionism is dying."

3. Expressionism in post-war German literature

Expressionism experienced a peculiar period of revival after the end of World War II, acquiring an anti-fascist, anti-war coloring. The influence of expressionism is experienced in the first post-war years by the Swiss playwrights M. Frisch, Fr. Dürrenmatt. Some expressionist techniques are repeated in the work of P. Weiss. In German prose, such trends can be seen in the work of W. Borchert and W. Koeppen.

W. Borchert (Wolfgang Borchert, 1921-1914) in his creative path went from a passion for the harmonious, proportionate lyrics of Hölderlin and Rilke to his own style, the main provisions of which were outlined in his essay "This is our manifesto" ("Das ist unser Manifest") . These provisions are so in line with the spirit of expressionism that they could be called the aesthetic creed of the expressionists: "We are the sons of dissonance. We do not need poets with good grammar: there is no patience for good grammar. We need poets to write hot and hoarsely, sobbing." The same theme Borchert varies in the story "In May, in May the cuckoo cried": "Who among us who knows the rhyme to the death rattle of a shot lung, the rhyme to the cry of the executed? After all, for the grandiose howl of this world and for the infernal machine, its silence us even approximate vocables."

Borchert's most famous drama "On the street in front of the door" ("Drauben vor der Tur") is dedicated to the tragedy of a lonely man who returned from the war and found no shelter. This topic, painful and relevant, has absorbed the fate of millions of Germans. The hero of the play, the wounded soldier Beckman, returning home from the war and not finding the house, tried - albeit unsuccessfully - to call to account those of his former commanders who had betrayed him and were now trying to evade responsibility. But none of these self-satisfied practical people, busy with the organization of a new life, do not care about Beckman. Finding no way out, he commits suicide.

In order to express the dissonance, the "discontinuity" of time, Borchert primarily uses the grotesque in his play, exaggerating, combining elements that contradict each other, refuting the usual ideas about the image. The protagonist himself is a grotesque figure - in a torn overcoat, holes in boots and ridiculous gas mask glasses. In those around him, he causes a feeling of bewilderment and irritation. Beckman himself is perceived as a "ghost", and his complaints - as stupid and inappropriate jokes. He personifies the past war, which no one wants to remember. Everyone is busy creating their own illusion of well-being. Beckman also plays the role of a jester: "Long live the circus! A huge circus!". He is closer to the truth than the "reasonable", deceptively peaceful life of the post-war period.

But the play does not show real action and conflict. It depicts not the truth of the surrounding world, but the truth of subjective consciousness. Only Beckman is the protagonist of the play. His monologue speech prevails: he does not find an equal interlocutor for himself. An important place is occupied by the second "I" of Beckman - the Other. He tries to present the world in a rainbow light, to convince to live like others. But Beckman cannot become like them, for they are "murderers". Alienation from "others" is so great that it deprives both sides of the possibility of mutual understanding. The verbal expression of the hero's contacts with his antagonists, in essence, does not have the character of genuine dialogues. Their separate monologues intersect already "outside the play - in the head of the viewer" (expressionist device "Vorbeireden"). Throughout the play, Borchert consciously addresses the viewer. The work ends with a direct appeal to the audience, a monologue with open questions.

The action takes place as if half asleep, half awake, in an uneven chimerical light, in which the line between the illusory and the real is sometimes indistinguishable: the personified Elbe River acts in the play, God appears in the form of a helpless and tearful old man, "in whom no one believes anymore; Death appears Beckman, who looked at the world without his glasses, sees the image of a one-legged giant, it symbolizes Beckman's double guilt: the hero feels responsible for the death of soldiers in the war and sees himself as a destroyer of family ties, seeking to oust the other, not yet forgotten.

This vision allows us to understand the title of the play in two ways. Left at the door by himself, Beckman can slam the door on another: "Every day we are killed, and every day we commit murder." The relentless pursuit of the hero's consciousness of personal responsibility and heightened sense of guilt are also reminiscent of the traditions of expressionism.

The image of non-commissioned officer Beckmann, "one of those", reflected the personal biography and spiritual drama of Borchert, as well as the entire generation of the post-war years. The features of generality and general significance inherent in Beckman are also characteristic of many other heroes of Borchert's prose. Beckman is "one of the gray multitude". He speaks about himself in the plural, on behalf of his generation, he accuses another generation - "fathers" of betraying their sons, raising them for war and sending them to war. Beckman personifies a generation of people so traumatized by the war, so feeling their helplessness in front of a formidable and cruel force that their consciousness is unable to comprehend it. Hence their passivity, their inactivity. Hence their tormenting internal conflict, which is always tormenting, the craving for human solidarity, the desire to help fellow men and at the same time a feeling of loneliness and abandonment, a humiliating consciousness of their powerlessness.

The dryness and accuracy of the language is ambiguous, and in fact, betrays the extreme indignation of the author. Paphos does not at all serve to express delight with something high, on the contrary, it "sings" of all the lowest, unworthy, gloomy.

In general, this play reveals how much the consciousness of the younger generation of that time was concentrated on their inner self. The historical context is practically excluded from the play, the historical picture of time is not shown. The fact that Beckman's father was a National Socialist and anti-Semite is mentioned only in connection with the experience of loneliness and isolation from the world by the protagonist. The general protest against the generation of "fathers" does not lead to any historical reflections and conclusions, but flows into the tradition of a detailed depiction of the conflict between the new aspirations of the young generation and the readiness to adapt the old (as in expressionism). The consciousness of one's own guilt, formed by the war, is gradually transformed into the consciousness of a victim, a feeling of incomprehensibility and rejection.

The general dissonance, tension, discord in the soul of the hero also emphasizes the language of the play. On the one hand, it is precise and dry:

"Und dann liegt er irgendwo auf der Strabe, der Mann, der nach Deutschland kam, und stirbt, Fruher lagen Zigarettenstummel, Apfelsinenschalen, Papier auf der Strabe, heute sind es Menschen, das sagt weiter nichts".

On the other hand, it is replete with means of rhetoric (repetitions, figurative expressions, alliteration):

"Und dann kommen sie. Dann ziehen sie an, die Gladiatoren, die alten Kameraden. Dann stehen sie auf aus den Massengraben, und der blutiges Gestohn stinkt bis an der weiben Mond.Und davon sind die Nachte so. So bitter wie Katzengescheib."

A kind of manifesto against the already past war and the future danger of which, according to many, existed in the 50s, is Koeppen's novel "Death in Rome" (Wolfgang Koppen "Der Tod in Rom"). Born at the beginning of the century, from his very youth he was influenced by the contradictory spirit of that time and, accordingly, expressionist traditions in art. At 16, Koeppen sent his poems to Kurt Wolff, the publisher of the Expressionists. The poems were imbued with the mood of romantic rebellion and an appeal to a bright, but alas, invisible ideal. In the early 1930s, Koeppen worked in Berlin in the repertory departments of theaters, and for some time collaborated with Erwin Piskater. It can be assumed that his work as a screenwriter later left its mark on the style of the novels created later. Not only the influence of the expressionists, but also the connection with cinema can explain the use of montage, changing the angle of view and distance to the depicted, synchronous transmission of actions.

In the pre-war novels "Unhappy Love" ("Eine ungluckliche Liebe, 1934), "The Wall Shakes" ("Die Mauer schwankt", 1935), the characteristic features of his work appear: emotional tension, excessive imagery, partiality for symbolism, vague despair and loneliness of the characters , whose hopes and dreams come into strong conflict with reality, and of course the humanistic meaning of the works.

Many critics are unanimous that in all Koeppen's novels he emphasizes the fragility and unreliability associated with human existence: Pigeons in the Grass (Tauben im Gras, 1951), Hothouse (Das Treibhaus, 1953). A passionate protest against cruelty, the pursuit of humanistic ideals are decisive for the entire work of the writer. "Every line I write is directed against war, against oppression, inhumanity, murder. My books are my manifestos," Koeppen says. In full measure, these words apply to the novel "Death in Rome".

The first thing that can be said about the novel is that it is a pronounced protest. The author protests and denies. The characterization of the main idea is impossible without the prefix "anti-": the orientation of the novel is anti-war and anti-clerical. The positive meaning of the actions of the heroes can be traced very weakly: they, too, are only against something. In this regard, we can immediately speak about the second feature of the novel, which brings it closer to expressionism: subjectivism, the author's self-disclosure in the characters.

The author passionately, in a single impulse of thought and feeling, protests against the inhumanity, senselessness of the war, against those who unleashed this war, who participated in it, against those who try to forget it as soon as possible, to relieve themselves of any responsibility for what happened, to get better and get better profitable positions in a post-war country. The author protests against Austerlitz, shown in grotesque form: a disgusting, feeble old man in a wheelchair, drinking boiled milk and selling weapons, he protests against Pfafrat, who contributed to fascist atrocities during the war years, and is now popularly elected the father of the city, according to strictly democratic principles ("... obenauf, altes vom Volk wieder gewahltes Stadtoberhaupt, Streng demokratisch wieder eingesetzt "). The author cannot accept the complacency and striving for a measured life for the sake of his own pleasure, not only of those "honest citizens" who are in a hurry to forget about their crimes, but of those allegedly good heroes who were victims in the war. With irony, sometimes even sarcasm, he describes the Kurenberg couple, comparing them with well-groomed animals, telling in detail how they "reverently ate food in the most expensive restaurants, enjoyed the beauty of ancient statues:" Sie genossen den Wein. Sie genossen das Essen. Sie aben andachtig. Sie tranken andachtig... Sie versonnen den schonen Leib der Venus von Cirene I das Haupt der Schlafenden Eumenide... Sie genossen ihre Gedanken, sie genossen die Erinnerung; danach genossen sie sich und fielen in tiefen Schlummer."

Evil sarcasm we feel in these words. The impression is strengthened by brief sentences of the same type, the repeated words "genossen", with the help of which "der Wein", "Das Essen", "Die Erinnerung" are put as if on one level and it is emphasized that for the Kurenbergs these are just consumer goods, a source of pleasure. The beauty of Venus or a wonderful dinner - there is no difference between them. The final phrase, which sounds like a dry, business-like remark, breaks in unexpectedly and breaks this whole blissful picture and makes you wonder: how does a dream that occupies a third of our life differ from a real active life. For Ilsa, probably nothing. During the day, feeling the beautiful body of Venus and enjoying her thoughts, she continues to enjoy in a dream, seeing herself in the form of the Greek goddess of revenge, Eumenides. In the morning, she may continue the series of "pleasures" by eating an exotic dish for breakfast or watching an ancient tragedy in the theater.

It should be noted that the means that the author uses to express protest: sarcasm, short, as if chopped sentences, as well as bright "screaming" metaphors, images that stick in memory can be called borrowings from expressionism. These expressions like "ein bose Handwerk", "stinkende blutige Labor der Geschichte" we could attribute to the anti-war stories of Leonhard Frank. Sharp colors, nervous dynamism, a chaotic world and, as it were, all saturated with the smells of war - we see all this in Keppen.

In Adolf's memory there always remained a vat of the blood of the dead, "with the warm, sickening blood of the dead," and Siegfried at Kurenberg's dinner, having learned that his father was responsible for the death of Ilse's father, did not feel the taste of food. He felt the ashes on his teeth, the gray ash of war.

The largest number of such metaphors is associated with the image of Yudean - a grotesque symbol of war, evil, cruelty.

Thus, in Koeppen's novel, another feature of expressionism is symbolism. The symbols are the heroes themselves: Judean, Eve, the Nordic Eriny "mit dem bleichen Gesicht Langenschadelgesicht, Harmgesicht".

As we can see, by introducing image-symbols into his novel, Koeppen, like the expressionists, violates grammatical norms and, as a result, gives them tension and dynamism.

In addition to the symbols-images that run through the entire novel and express the main idea of ​​the work, we can also find symbols that are not so all-encompassing, but still defining the style of the writer, as close to expressionistic. This is the hand of the porter in a white glove - the hand of the executioner and sharp iron bars, which, falling, Yudeyan grabbed, similar to spears and symbolizing power, wealth, cold alienation and a cool tunnel into which Yudeyan was drawn as if into the gates of the underworld, and red handkerchief in Kurenberg's hand, with which he wiped his forehead, like a peasant after hard work. The scene of the exchange of jackets between Adolf and the Jewish boy from the concentration camp and the meeting of Adolf with his father in a terrible gloomy dungeon of the most beautiful temple in Rome are symbolic. Numerous perishing from hunger, bloodthirsty cats, which in Rome are apparently invisible - a symbol of a degraded and unfortunate human race. These are the Romans in their decline.

As a feature of expressionism, one can single out the author's focus on the inner experiences of the characters. A detailed description of each shade of feeling, emotion, observation of any turn of thought and their transmission from the first person. This feature is inextricably linked with subjectivity, i.e. expressionists thus showed their attitude and their thoughts and feelings are inextricably linked with the thoughts and feelings of the characters. However, in this case, Koeppen differs from the expressionists in that he reveals the inner world of not one hero with whom he identifies himself, but several at once, and directly opposite ones. Therefore, we can talk about a greater degree of abstraction from a specific situation, about a greater objectivity and realism in the image of the world. In this case, such a technique does not serve as a demonstration of the author's confused consciousness, as was the case with the expressionists, but as a means of artistic expression.

As for the "confused consciousness", isolation in one's inner self, the inability to find a way out, despite desperate attempts to break through to the light, then all this fully applies to Siegfried and Adolf - purely expressionist heroes, with whom the author himself has a lot in common. In their minds - not only the horror before the war and a pronounced protest. Siegfried's music is rebellion. But a rebellion directed nowhere. His life, like music, is devoid of harmony. He contradicts himself, telling Adolf that he does not want to comprehend anything in life and does not believe in anything, but seeks only to enjoy, while his whole life is filled with quests.

Part of Siegfried's pessimism is explained by the similar state of the author himself. No matter how we talk about the objectivity of the author, the identification of oneself with the hero can be traced quite obviously.

The thought of the High Court, ruling the destinies of people and at the same time wandering senselessly in the labyrinths, like a "madman" playing blind man's blind and the exclamation "Two thousand years of Christian enlightenment, but it all ended with a Judean!" belong to no one other than the author. Here we hear doubt and disbelief in the existence of the Supreme Law, God. And then it becomes clear that the words "all this is meaningless, and my music is also meaningless; it could not be meaningless, if there was even a drop of faith in me" the author shares with his hero. But that's where their similarities end. Because further on the question "What should I believe in? In myself?" Koeppen answers positively because he is a writer whose works are readable, successful and thought provoking. (“As a person I am powerless, but as a writer I am not,” W. Koeppen once said).

Siegfried does not believe in himself, and such is most of his generation. Thus, if we compare Koeppen and the expressionists, we can say that Koeppen followed in their footsteps, but moved a little further. And from the difference in the distance traveled, he was able to objectively show their state of mind and way of thinking. And here it makes sense to talk not only about those writers and poets who represented the literary movement or composers who wrote expressionist music, but also about a whole generation of people who lived in the era of world wars. "The Man of the Age of Expressionism" was overcome by Koeppen in himself. He managed to go beyond the general denial, including the denial of the role of man in history and the meaning of his life. And that was his victory. But that was also his tragedy.

Because, having come to believe in himself, in a person as a performer of some social function, he did not come to believe in a person in himself, his highest destiny, to faith in God: "As a person, I am powerless ..."

So subjectivity and the expression of one's own protest, indignation by depicting the internal passionate monologues of the characters, their throwing, doubts as characteristic features of expressionism are only partially represented in Koppen's novel.

Keppen is also close to the expressionists in the perception of the world in contrasts. Siegfried, who does not find peace, forever tormented by insoluble questions, and the calm Kurenbergs, who have found a simple easy way in life, a disheveled, unhappy woman with ulcers selling cigarettes at the crossroads and handsome drivers with manicured nails, curled hair, earning money in a "fun way", a boy greasy from head to toe, lurking in the gateway and standing nearby as a monument to himself, a carabinieri in an elegant uniform - there are many such contrasts in the novel.

Little Gottlieb and ferocious Yudeyan, coexisting together - a reflection of the contradictory and contrasting world, but on a different, deeper level. The vision of the world as devoid of logic, consisting only of contradictions is manifested in the fact that there is not a single holistic character in the novel.

Even Yudeyan, the embodiment of evil and cruelty, the abstract image is not absolutely unambiguous. Yudeyan never hesitated for a moment in making decisions. But this is by no means evidence of the strength of his character. After all, the slogan "I know no fear", which guided him all his life, was just an attempt to hide from doubt, from that little Gottlieb; who is always only inside him and was afraid of the world. Protecting himself from doubts and fears and not trying to overcome them, Yudeyan invents a role for himself and strictly follows it, living according to the laws of his reality, since he did not find himself in the real world. Yudeyan always fulfilled only someone else's will, the impetus for any action was only an external force. He himself ordered only because he obeyed orders from above. Without dependence on anyone, without service to anything, Yudean does not exist, only little Gottlieb remains, miserable, helpless, unable to comprehend what surrounds him.

Paradoxical as it may seem, but Yudeyan and his son Adolf have the same essence. Siegfried thinks of Adolf: "du warst frei, eine einzige Nacht lang bist du frei gewesen, eine Nacht im Wald, und dann ertrugst du die Freiheit nicht, du warst wie ein Hund, der seinen Herrn verloren hat, du mubtest dir einen neuen Herrn suchen, da fand dich der Priester, du bildest dir ein, Gott habe dich gerufen". Adolf also needs someone to control his life. That is why the priest's cassock is the same screen as the general's uniform for Yudeyan, behind which it is convenient to hide his impotence and his confusion in front of the vast world.

Based on this, it can be assumed that Yudeyan contains the features of an expressionist hero. Such heroes have already met in expressionism. So for the protagonist G. Mann in "The Loyal" "The important thing is not to actually rebuild a lot in the world, but to feel that you are doing it." Such an exit is a reaction of a weak nature. "Weak, hasty, and therefore prone to violence" - this is already about another hero of G. Mann - the English King Jacob in "Henry IV".

The need to "feel like a role" can be realized in different ways, depending on what the person is more predisposed to. An example of this are the paths chosen by Judean and Adolf.

Thus, three heroes appear in the novel, having one internal problem, which for the first time with deep psychologism, penetration into the very essence is revealed in the works of the expressionists: rejection of the real world.

In the images of Yudeyan, Adolf, Siegfried, Koeppen, as it were, generalizes all aspects of this problem. In other words, we have before us a holistic picture of expressionist consciousness in all its manifestations.

This is the main difference between Koeppen and the expressionists. The writer is not limited to stating, but goes to the level of generalization. In other words, the author sees the problem more broadly. The problem itself does not change and the author does not offer any specific ways to solve it.