Stages of development of realism of the 19th century. Realism in literature

Realism as a method arose in Russian literature of the first third of XIX century. The main principle of realism is the principle of life's truth, the reproduction of characters and circumstances explained socio-historically (typical characters in typical circumstances).

Realist writers deeply, truthfully depicted various aspects of contemporary reality, recreated life in the forms of life itself.

The basis of the realistic method early XIX centuries are positive ideals: humanism, sympathy for the humiliated and offended, the search for goodie in life, optimism and patriotism.

By the end of the 19th century, realism reached its peak in the works of such writers as F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov.

The 20th century set new tasks for realist writers, forced them to look for new ways of mastering life material. In the conditions of the rise of revolutionary sentiments, literature was increasingly imbued with forebodings and expectations of impending changes, "unheard of revolts."

The sense of impending social shifts caused such intensity artistic life, which Russian art did not yet know. Here is what L. N. Tolstoy wrote about the turn of the century: “The new century brings the end of one worldview, one faith, one way of communicating people and the beginning of another worldview, another way of communication. M. Gorky called the 20th century a century of spiritual renewal.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, they continued their search for the secrets of existence, the secrets of human existence and the consciousness of the classics of Russian realism L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, L.N. Andreev, I.A. Bunin and others.

However, the principle of the old "realism was increasingly criticized from different literary communities, demanding a more active intrusion of the writer into life and influence on it.

This revision was started by L. N. Tolstoy himself, in last years of his life, calling for the strengthening of the didactic, instructive, preaching principle in literature.

If A.P. Chekhov believed that the “court” (i.e., the artist) is only obliged to raise questions, draw the attention of the thinking reader to important problems, and the “jury” (public structures) are obliged to answer, then for realist writers of the early twentieth centuries, it seemed no longer enough.

So, M. Gorky bluntly stated that “for some reason, the luxurious mirror of Russian literature did not reflect the outbursts of popular anger ...”, and accused literature of the fact that “she was not looking for heroes, she loved to talk about people who were strong only in patience, meek soft, dreaming of heaven in heaven, silently suffering on earth.

It was M. Gorky, a realist writer of the younger generation, who was the founder of a new literary trend, later called "socialist realism".

The literary and social activities of M. Gorky played a significant role in uniting the new generation of realist writers. In the 1890s, on the initiative of M. Gorky, the literary circle "Environment" appeared, and then the publishing house "Knowledge". Around this publishing house, young, talented writers A.I. Kuprii, I.A. Bunin, L.N. Andreev, A. Serafimovich, D. Bedny and others.

The dispute with traditional realism was conducted at different poles of literature. There were writers who followed the traditional direction, seeking to update it. But there were those who simply rejected realism as an outdated trend.

In these difficult conditions, in the confrontation of polar methods and trends, the work of writers, traditionally called realists, continued to develop.

The originality of Russian realistic literature of the beginning of the 20th century lies not only in the significance of the content, acute social topics, but also in artistic searches, the perfection of technology, and stylistic diversity.

Realism (lat. realis- material, real) - a direction in art, whose figures strive to understand and depict the interaction of a person with his environment, and the concept of the latter includes both spiritual and material components.

The art of realism is based on the creation of characters, understood as the result of the influence of socio-historical events, individually comprehended by the artist, as a result of which a living, unique and at the same time carrying generic features of the artistic image. "The cardinal problem of realism is the ratio credibility and artistic truth. The outward resemblance of an image to its prototypes is not, in fact, the only form of expression of truth for realism. More importantly, such similarity is not enough for true realism. Although plausibility is an important and most characteristic form of realism for the realization of artistic truth, the latter is ultimately determined not by plausibility, but by fidelity in comprehension and transmission. entities life, the significance of the ideas expressed by the artist ". From what has been said, it does not follow that realist writers do not use fiction at all - without fiction, artistic creativity is generally impossible. Fiction is necessary already when selecting facts, grouping them, highlighting some heroes and briefly characterizing others etc.

The chronological boundaries of the realistic trend in the works of various researchers are defined differently.

Some see the beginnings of realism as early as antiquity, others attribute its emergence to the Renaissance, others date back to the 18th century, and others believe that realism as a trend in art arose no earlier than the first third of the 19th century.

For the first time in domestic criticism, the term "realism" was used by P. Annenkov in 1849, although without a detailed theoretical justification, and came into general use already in the 1860s. The French writers L. Duranty and Chanfleury were the first to make an attempt to comprehend the experience of Balzac and (in the field of painting) G. Courbet, giving their art a "realistic" definition. "Realism" is the title of a magazine published by Duranty in 1856-1857 and a collection of articles by Chanfleury (1857). However, their theory was largely contradictory and did not exhaust all the complexity of the new artistic direction. What are the basic principles of the realistic trend in art?

Until the first third of the 19th century, literature created artistically one-sided images. In antiquity it is perfect world gods and heroes and the limitations of earthly existence opposed to it, the division of characters into "positive" and "negative" (echoes of such a gradation still make themselves felt in primitive aesthetic thinking). With some changes, this principle continues to exist in the Middle Ages, and in the period of classicism and romanticism. Only Shakespeare was far ahead of his time, creating "diverse and multifaceted characters" (A. Pushkin). It was in overcoming the one-sidedness of the image of a person and his social relations that the most important shift in aesthetics was European art. Writers are beginning to realize that the thoughts and actions of characters often cannot be dictated by the author's will alone, since they depend on specific historical circumstances.

The organic religiosity of society under the influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment, which proclaimed the human mind to be the supreme judge of all things, was supplanted during the 19th century by such a social model in which the place of God was gradually occupied by supposedly omnipotent productive forces and class struggle. The process of forming such a worldview was long and complex, and its supporters, declaratively rejecting the aesthetic achievements of previous generations, relied heavily on them in their artistic practice.

The share of England and France at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries had especially many social upheavals, and the rapid change of political systems and psychological states allowed the artists of these countries to realize more clearly than others that each era leaves its own unique imprint on the feelings, thoughts and actions of people.

For writers and artists of the Renaissance and classicism, biblical or ancient characters were only mouthpieces for the ideas of modernity. No one was surprised that the apostles and prophets in the paintings of the 17th century were dressed in the fashion of this century. Only at the beginning of the 19th century did painters and writers begin to follow the correspondence of all everyday details of the depicted time, coming to the understanding that both the psychology of the heroes of ancient times and their actions cannot be fully adequate in the present. It was precisely in capturing the "spirit of the times" that the first achievement of art at the beginning of the 19th century consisted.

The ancestor of literature, in which the course of the historical development of society was comprehended, was the English writer W. Scott. His merit is not so much in the exact depiction of the details of the life of past times, but in the fact that, according to V. Belinsky, he gave "the historical direction Art XIX centuries" and depicted it as an indivisible common individual and universal. The heroes of W. Scott, involved in the epicenter of turbulent historical events, are endowed with memorable characters and at the same time are representatives of their estate, with its social and national characteristics, although in general he perceives the world from a romantic position. The outstanding English novelist also managed to find in his work that edge that reproduces the linguistic flavor of the past years, but does not literally copy archaic speech.

Another discovery of the realists was the discovery of social contradictions caused not only by the passions or ideas of "heroes", but also by the antagonistic aspirations of estates and classes. The Christian ideal dictated sympathy for the downtrodden and destitute. Realistic art is also based on this principle, but the main thing in realism is the study and analysis of social relations and the very structure of society. In other words, the main conflict in a realistic work is the struggle between "humanity" and "inhumanity", which is due to a number of social patterns.

The psychological content of human characters is also explained social reasons. When depicting a plebeian who does not want to accept the fate destined for him from birth ("Red and Black", 1831), Stendhal renounces romantic subjectivism and analyzes the psychology of the hero who seeks a place in the sun, mainly in the social aspect. Balzac in the cycle of novels and short stories "The Human Comedy" (1829-1848) sets a grandiose goal to recreate the multi-figured panorama of modern society in its various modifications. Approaching his task as a scientist describing a complex and dynamic phenomenon, the writer traces the fate of individuals over a number of years, discovering significant adjustments that the "zeitgeist" makes to the original qualities of the characters. At the same time, Balzac focuses on those socio-psychological problems that remain almost unchanged, despite the change in political and economic formations (the power of money, the moral decline of an outstanding personality who pursued success at any cost, the disintegration of family ties that were not sealed by love and mutual respect, and etc.). At the same time, Stendhal and Balzac reveal truly high feelings only among inconspicuous honest workers.

The moral superiority of the poor over the "high society" is also proved in the novels of C. Dickens. The writer was not at all inclined to portray the "high society" as a bunch of scoundrels and moral freaks. “But all the evil is,” Dickens wrote, “that this pampered world lives as if in a jewel case ... and therefore does not hear the noise of larger worlds, does not see how they revolve around the sun. This is a dying world, and the creation it is painful, because there is nothing to breathe in it. In the work of the English novelist, psychological authenticity, along with somewhat sentimental conflict resolution, is combined with gentle humor, sometimes developing into sharp social satire. Dickens outlined the main pain points of contemporary capitalism (the impoverishment of the working people, their ignorance, lawlessness and the spiritual crisis of the upper classes). No wonder L. Tolstoy was sure: "Sift the world's prose, Dickens will remain."

The main spiritualizing force of realism are the ideas of individual freedom and universal social equality. Everything that hinders the free development of the individual, realist writers denounced, seeing the root of evil in the unfair arrangement of social and economic institutions.

At the same time, most writers believed in the inevitability of scientific and social progress, which would gradually destroy the oppression of man by man and reveal its initially positive inclinations. This mood is typical for European and Russian literature, especially for the latter. So, Belinsky sincerely envied the "grandchildren and great-grandchildren" who would live in 1940. Dickens wrote in 1850: “We strive to bring out of the seething world around us under the roofs of countless houses the announcement of a multitude of social miracles - both beneficial and harmful, but those that do not detract from our conviction and perseverance, indulgence towards each other, loyalty to the progress of mankind. and gratitude for the honor that has fallen to us to live in the summer dawn of time. N. Chernyshevsky in "What is to be done?" (1863) painted pictures of a wonderful future, when everyone will have the opportunity to become a harmonious personality. Even Chekhov's heroes, who belong to an era in which social optimism has already noticeably diminished, believe that they will see "the sky in diamonds."

And yet, first of all, a new direction in art focuses on criticizing the existing order. The realism of the 19th century in Russian literary criticism of the 1930s - early 1980s was commonly called critical realism(definition proposed M. Gorky). However, this term does not cover all aspects of the phenomenon being defined, since, as already noted, the realism of the 19th century was by no means devoid of affirmative pathos. In addition, the definition of realism as predominantly critical "is not entirely accurate in the sense that, emphasizing the concrete historical significance of the work, its connection with the social tasks of the moment, it leaves in the shadow the philosophical content and universal significance of the masterpieces of realistic art" .

A person in realistic art, in contrast to romantic art, is not seen as an autonomously existing individuality, interesting precisely because of its originality. In realism, especially at the first stage of its development, it is important to demonstrate the influence of the social environment on the personality; at the same time, realist writers strive to depict the way of thinking and feelings of the characters that change over time (Oblomov and Ordinary History by I. Goncharov). Thus, along with historicism, at the origins of which was W. Scott (transfer of the color of place and time and the realization of the fact that the ancestors saw the world differently than the author himself), the rejection of static, the image of the inner world of the characters, depending on the conditions of their life and made the most important discoveries of realistic art.

No less significant for its time was the general movement towards the nationality of art. For the first time, the problem of nationality was touched upon by the Romantics, who understood national identity as national identity, which was expressed in the transfer of customs, features of life and habits of the people. But Gogol already noticed that a truly folk poet remains so even when he looks at a "completely different world" through the eyes of his people (for example, England is depicted from the position of a Russian artisan from the provinces - "Lefty" N. Leskov, 1883).

In Russian literature, the problem of nationality has played a particularly important role. This problem was substantiated in most detail in the works of Belinsky. The critic saw an example of a truly folk work in Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", where "folk" paintings as such take up little space, but the moral atmosphere in the society of the first third of the 19th century is recreated.

By the middle of this century, nationality in the aesthetic program of most Russian writers becomes the central point in determining the social and artistic significance of a work. I. Turgenev, D. Grigorovich, A. Potekhin strive not only to reproduce and study various aspects of folk (i.e., peasant) life, but also directly address the people themselves. In the 60s, the same D. Grigorovich, V. Dal, V. Odoevsky, N. Shcherbina and many others published books for popular reading, published magazines and brochures designed for a person who was just starting to read. As a rule, these attempts were not very successful, because the cultural level of the lower strata of society and its educated minority was too different, which is why writers looked at the peasant as a "little brother" who should be taught to reason. Only A. Pisemsky ("The Carpenter's Artel", "Pitershchik", "Leshy" 1852-1855) and N. Uspensky (novels and short stories of 1858-1860) managed to show the true peasant life in its original simplicity and rudeness, but most writers preferred to sing the folk "soul of life".

In the post-reform era, the people and "nationality" in Russian literature turn into a kind of fetish. L. Tolstoy sees in Platon Karataev the center of all the best human qualities. Dostoevsky calls to learn worldly wisdom and spiritual sensitivity from the "kufelny peasant". Folk life is idealized in the works of N. Zlatovratsky and other writers of the 1870s–1880s.

Gradually, nationality, understood as an appeal to the problems of people's life from the point of view of the people themselves, becomes a dead canon, which nevertheless remained unshakable for many decades. Only I. Bunin and A. Chekhov allowed themselves to doubt the object of worship of more than one generation of Russian writers.

To mid-nineteenth century, another feature of realistic literature was determined - tendentiousness, that is, the expression of the moral and ideological position of the author. Previously, artists in one way or another revealed their attitude towards their heroes, but basically they didactically preached the harmfulness of universal human vices, independent of the place and time of their manifestation. Realist writers make their social and moral-ideological predilections integral part artistic idea, gradually leading the reader to an understanding of his position.

Tendentiousness gives rise in Russian literature to a delimitation into two antagonistic camps: for the first, the so-called revolutionary-democratic, the most important thing was criticism of the state system, the second defiantly declared political indifference, proving the primacy of "artistry" over "the topic of the day" ("pure art"). The prevailing public mood - the decay of the feudal system and its morality was obvious - and the active offensive actions of the revolutionary democrats formed in the public the idea of ​​​​those writers who did not agree with the need for an immediate breakdown of all "foundations" as anti-patriots and obscurants. In the 1860s and 1870s, the "civic position" of a writer was valued more than his talent: this can be seen in the example of A. Pisemsky, P. Melnikov-Pechersky, N. Leskov, whose work was negatively regarded or hushed up by revolutionary democratic criticism.

This approach to art was formulated by Belinsky. “And I need poetry and artistry no more than enough for the story to be true ... - he said in a letter to V. Botkin in 1847. - The main thing is that it raises questions, makes a moral impression on society. If it reaches this goal and without poetry and creativity at all - it is for me Nonetheless interesting..." Two decades later, this criterion became fundamental in revolutionary democratic criticism (N. Chernyshevsky, N. Dobrolyubov, M. Antonovich, D. Pisarev). a fierce uncompromising attitude, a desire to "destroy" dissenters.6-7 more decades will pass, and in the era of the dominance of socialist realism, this trend is realized in the literal sense.

However, all this is still far ahead. In the meantime, new thinking is being developed in realism, a search is underway for new themes, images and style. The focus of realistic literature alternately "little man", "superfluous" and "new" people, folk types. "Little Man" with his sorrows and joys, first appearing in the work of A. Pushkin (" Stationmaster") and N. Gogol ("The Overcoat"), for a long time became an object of sympathy in Russian literature. The social humiliation of the "little man" atoned for all the narrowness of his interests. at the end of the story, a ghost appears, robbing any passer-by without regard to rank and condition) was noted only by F. Dostoevsky ("The Double") and A. Chekhov ("The Triumph of the Winner", "Two in One"), but in general it remained uncovered in the literature Only in the 20th century will M. Bulgakov devote a whole story to this problem ("Heart of a Dog").

Following the "small" in Russian literature came the "extra person", the "smart uselessness" of Russian life, not yet ready to accept new social and philosophical ideas ("Rudin" by I. Turgenev, "Who is to blame?" A. Herzen, "Hero of our time" M. Lermontov and others). "Superfluous people" have mentally outgrown their environment and time, but due to their upbringing and property status, they are not capable of everyday work and can only denounce self-satisfied vulgarity.

As a result of reflections on the possibilities of the nation, a gallery of images of "new people" appears, most vividly presented in "Fathers and Sons" by I. Turgenev and "What is to be done?" N. Chernyshevsky. Characters of this type are presented as resolute overthrowers of outdated morality and the state system and are an example of honest work and devotion to the "common cause". These are, as their contemporaries called them, "nihilists", whose authority younger generation was very high.

In contrast to the works about "nihilists" there is also an "anti-nihilist" literature. In works of both types, standard characters and situations are easily found. In the first category, the hero thinks independently and provides himself with intellectual work, his bold speeches and deeds make young people want to imitate authority, he is close to the masses and knows how to change their lives for the better, etc. In anti-nihilistic literature, "nihilists "usually depicted as depraved and unscrupulous phrase-mongers who pursue their narrowly selfish goals and crave power and worship; Traditionally, the connection between "nihilists" and "Polish rebels" was noted, etc.

There were not so many works about the "new people", while among their opponents were such writers as F. Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, N. Leskov, A. Pisemsky, I. Goncharov, although it should be recognized that, for with the exception of "Demons" and "Cliff", their books are not among the best creations of these artists - and the reason for this is their pointed tendentiousness.

Deprived of the opportunity to openly discuss the pressing problems of our time in representative state institutions, Russian society concentrates its mental life in literature and journalism. The writer's word becomes very weighty and often serves as an impetus for the adoption of vital important decisions. The hero of Dostoevsky's novel "The Teenager" admits that he went to the village in order to make life easier for the peasants under the influence of D. Grigorovich's "Anton Goremyka". The sewing workshops described in "What is to be done?" gave rise to many similar establishments in real life.

At the same time, it is noteworthy that Russian literature practically did not create the image of an active and energetic person, busy specific case, but not thinking about a radical reorganization political system. Attempts in this direction (Kostanjoglo and Murazov in " dead souls ah", Stolz in "Oblomov") were regarded by modern critics as groundless. And if the "dark kingdom" of A. Ostrovsky aroused keen interest among the public and critics, then subsequently the playwright's desire to draw portraits of entrepreneurs of a new formation did not find such a response in society.

The solution in literature and art of the "damned questions" of its time required a detailed justification of a whole range of tasks that could only be solved in prose (due to its ability to touch on political, philosophical, moral and aesthetic problems at the same time). In prose, priority is given to the novel, this "epic of modern times" (V. Belinsky), a genre that made it possible to create broad and multifaceted pictures of the life of various social strata. The realistic novel turned out to be incompatible with the plot situations that had already turned into clichés, which were so readily exploited by the romantics - the secret of the hero's birth, fatal passions, extraordinary situations and exotic scenes in which the will and courage of the hero are tested, etc.

Now writers are looking for plots in the everyday existence of ordinary people, which becomes the object of close study in all details (interior, clothing, professional activities, etc.). Since the authors strive to give the most objective picture of reality, the emotional narrator either goes into the shadows or uses the mask of one of the characters.

Poetry, which has receded into the background, is largely oriented towards prose: poets master some features of prose narration (citizenship, plot, description of everyday details), as was the case, for example, in the poetry of I. Turgenev, N. Nekrasov, N. Ogarev.

Realist portraiture also gravitates towards detailed description, as was also observed among the romantics, but now it carries a different psychological burden. “By examining facial features, the writer seeks out the “main idea” of the physiognomy and conveys it in all its fullness and universality of the inner life of a person. A realistic portrait, as a rule, is analytical, there is no artificiality in it; everything in it is natural and conditioned by character.” At the same time, the so-called "material characteristic" of the character (costume, home decoration) plays an important role, which also contributes to an in-depth disclosure of the psychology of the characters. Such are the portraits of Sobakevich, Manilov, Plyushkin in Dead Souls. In the future, the enumeration of details is replaced by some detail that gives scope to the reader's imagination, calling him to "co-authorship" when familiarizing himself with the work.

The depiction of everyday life leads to the rejection of complex metaphorical constructions and refined style. More and more rights in literary speech are won by vernacular, dialectal and professional speeches, which, as a rule, were used by classicists and romantics only to create comic effect. In this regard, "Dead Souls", "Notes of a Hunter" and a number of other works by Russian writers of the 1840s-1850s are indicative.

The development of realism in Russia proceeded at a very rapid pace. In just less than two decades, Russian realism, starting with the "physiological essays" of the 1840s, gave the world such writers as Gogol, Turgenev, Pisemsky, L. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky ... Already in the middle of the 19th century, Russian literature became the focus of domestic social thoughts, going beyond the art of the word in a number of other arts. Literature "is imbued with moral and religious pathos, publicism and philosophy, complicated by meaningful subtext; masters the "Aesopian language", the spirit of opposition, protest; the burden of literature's responsibility to society, and its liberating, analytical, generalizing mission in the context of all culture, become fundamentally different. Literature becomes self-forming factor of culture, and above all, this circumstance (that is, cultural synthesis, functional universality, etc.) ultimately determined the universal significance of Russian classics (and not its direct relation to the revolutionary liberation movement, as Herzen tried to show, and after Lenin - almost all Soviet criticism and the science of literature).

Closely following the development of Russian literature, P. Merimee once said to Turgenev: "Your poetry seeks, first of all, truth, and then beauty appears by itself." Indeed, the main direction of Russian classics is represented by characters walking along the path moral quest, tormented by the consciousness that they did not fully use the opportunities provided to them by nature. Such are Pushkin's Onegin, Lermontov's Pechorin, Pierre Bezukhov and L. Tolstoy's Levin, Turgenev's Rudin, Dostoevsky's heroes. "The hero, who acquires moral self-determination on the paths given to man "from the ages", and thereby enriches his empirical nature, was exalted by Russian classic writers to the ideal of a person involved in Christian ontologism" . Isn't that why the idea social utopia at the beginning of the 20th century and found such an effective response in Russian society that the Christian (specifically Russian) search for the “promised city”, transformed in the public consciousness into a communist “bright future”, which is already visible beyond the horizon, had such long and deep roots in Russia ?

Abroad, the inclination towards the ideal was expressed much weaker, despite the fact that the critical element in literature sounded no less weighty. Here the general trend of Protestantism, which considers prosperity in the business sphere as the fulfillment of the will of God, has affected. The heroes of European writers suffer from injustice and vulgarity, but first of all they think about own happiness, while Turgenev's Rudin, Nekrasov's Grisha Dobrosklonov, Chernyshevsky's Rakhmetov are concerned not with personal success, but with general prosperity.

Moral problems in Russian literature are inseparable from political problems and, directly or indirectly, are associated with Christian dogmas. Russian writers often take on a role similar to the role of the Old Testament prophets - teachers of life (Gogol, Chernyshevsky, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy). “Russian artists,” wrote N. Berdyaev, “will have a thirst to move from the creation of works of art to the creation of a perfect life. The theme of religious-metaphysical and religious-social torments all significant Russian writers.”

The strengthening of the role of fiction in public life entails the development of criticism. And here the palm also belongs to Pushkin, who moved from taste and normative assessments to the discovery of the general patterns of the contemporary literary process. Pushkin was the first to realize the need for a new way of depicting reality, "true romanticism", as he defined it. Belinsky was the first Russian critic who tried to create an integral historical and theoretical concept and periodization of Russian literature.

During the second half of the 19th century, it was the activities of critics (N. Chernyshevsky, N. Dobrolyubov, D. Pisarev, K. Aksakov, A. Druzhinin, A. Grigoriev and others) that contributed to the development of the theory of realism and the formation of Russian literary criticism (P. Annenkov, A. Pypin, A. Veselovsky, A. Potebnya, D. Ovsyaniko-Kulikovsky and others).

As you know, in art its main direction is laid by the achievements outstanding artists whose discoveries are used by "ordinary talents" (V. Belinsky). Let us characterize the main milestones in the formation and development of Russian realistic art, the conquests of which made it possible to call the second half of the century "the century of Russian literature."

At the origins of Russian realism are I. Krylov and A. Griboyedov. The great fabulist was the first in Russian literature to recreate the "Russian spirit" in his works. The lively colloquial speech of Krylov's fable characters, his thorough knowledge of folk life, the use of folk common sense as a moral standard made Krylov the first truly "folk" writer. Griboyedov expanded the scope of Krylov's interests, focusing on the "drama of ideas" by which educated society lived in the first quarter of the century. His Chatsky in the fight against the "Old Believers" defends national interests from the same positions of "common sense" and popular morality. Krylov and Griboyedov still use the dilapidated principles of classicism (the didactic genre of the fable in Krylov, the "three unities" in "Woe from Wit"), but their creative power and within these obsolete framework declares itself in full voice.

In the work of Pushkin, the main problems, the pathos, and the methodology of realism have already been outlined. Pushkin was the first to give the image of the "superfluous person" in "Eugene Onegin", he also outlined the character of the "little man" ("The Stationmaster"), he saw in the people that moral potential that determines the national character (" Captain's daughter"," Dubrovsky "). Under the poet's pen, for the first time, such a hero as Hermann ("Queen of Spades"), a fanatic obsessed with one idea and not stopping for its implementation in front of any obstacles, first appeared; Pushkin also touched on the theme of emptiness and insignificance of the upper strata society.

All these problems and images were picked up and developed by Pushkin's contemporaries and subsequent generations of writers. "Superfluous people" and their possibilities are analyzed both in "A Hero of Our Time", and in "Dead Souls", and in "Who is to Blame?" Herzen, and in "Rudin" by Turgenev, and in "Oblomov" by Goncharov, depending on time and circumstances, acquiring new features and colors. "Little Man" is described by Gogol ("Overcoat"), Dostoevsky (Poor people"). Landowners-tyrants and "non-smokers" were portrayed by Gogol ("Dead Souls"), Turgenev ("Notes of a Hunter"), Saltykov-Shchedrin ("Lord Golovlevs "), Melnikov-Pechersky ("Old Years"), Leskov ("Dumb Artist") and many others. Of course, such types were supplied by Russian reality itself, but it was Pushkin who identified them and developed the basic techniques for depicting them. And folk types in them relations between themselves and the masters arose in objective coverage precisely in the work of Pushkin, subsequently becoming the object of close study of Turgenev, Nekrasov, Pisemsky, L. Tolstoy, and populist writers.

Passing the period of romantic image unusual characters in exceptional circumstances, Pushkin opened poetry to the reader Everyday life, in which the place of the hero was taken by an "ordinary", "small" person.

Pushkin rarely describes the inner world of characters, their psychology is more often revealed through actions or commented on by the author. The depicted characters are perceived as the result of exposure environment, but most often they are given not in development, but as some kind of already formed reality. The process of formation and transformation of the psychology of characters will be mastered in literature in the second half of the century.

Pushkin's role is also great in the development of norms and the expansion of the boundaries of literary speech. The colloquial element of the language, which clearly manifested itself in the work of Krylov and Griboyedov, still has not yet fully established its rights, it was not for nothing that Pushkin called for learning the language from Moscow prosvirens.

Simplicity and precision, "transparency" of Pushkin's style at first seemed to be a loss of the high aesthetic criteria of previous times. But later "the structure of Pushkin's prose, its style-forming principles were adopted by the writers who followed him - with all the individual originality of each of them" .

It is necessary to note one more feature of Pushkin's genius - his universalism. Poetry and prose, dramaturgy, journalism and historical studies - there was no genre in which he would not say a weighty word. The subsequent generations of artists, no matter how great their talent, still basically gravitate towards any one kind.

The development of Russian realism was, of course, not a straightforward and unambiguous process, in the course of which romanticism was consistently and inevitably supplanted by realistic art. On the example of the work of M. Lermontov, this can be seen especially clearly.

In his early works, Lermontov creates romantic images, coming to the conclusion in "A Hero of Our Time" that "the history of the human soul, at least the smallest soul almost more curious and more useful than the history of a whole people ... ". The object of close attention in the novel is not only the hero - Pechorin. With no less care, the author peers into the experiences of "ordinary" people (Maxim Maksimych, Grushnitsky). The method of studying the psychology of Pechorin - confession - is associated with a romantic worldview, however, the general author's attitude towards an objective depiction of characters determines the constant comparison of Pechorin with other characters, which makes it possible to convincingly motivate those actions of the hero that the romantic would have remained only declared. different situations and in clashes with different people, Pechorin opens up from new sides each time, revealing strength and effeminacy, determination and apathy, disinterestedness and selfishness ... Pechorin, like romantic hero, experienced everything, lost faith in everything, but the author is not inclined to either blame or justify his hero - the position for a romantic artist is unacceptable.

In A Hero of Our Time, the dynamism of the plot, which would be quite appropriate in the adventure genre, is combined with a deep psychological analysis. This is how the romantic attitude of Lermontov, who embarked on the path of realism, manifested itself here. And having created "The Hero of Our Time", the poet did not completely part with the poetics of romanticism. The heroes of "Mtsyri" and "Demon", in essence, solve the same problems as Pechorin (achieving independence, freedom), only in the poems the experiment is set, as they say, in pure form. Almost everything is available to the demon, Mtsyri sacrifices everything for the sake of freedom, but the realist artist sums up the sad result of the desire for an absolute ideal in these works.

Lermontov completed "... begun by G. R. Derzhavin and continued by Pushkin, the process of eliminating genre boundaries in poetry. Most of his poetic texts are "poems" in general, often synthesizing features of different genres."

And Gogol began as a romantic ("Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka"), however, even after "Dead Souls", his most mature realistic creation, romantic situations and characters do not cease to attract the writer ("Rome", the second edition of "Portrait").

At the same time, Gogol refuses the romantic style. Like Pushkin, he prefers to convey the inner world of the characters not through their monologues or "confessions". Gogol's characters certify themselves through deeds or by means of "proper" characteristics. Gogol's narrator plays the role of a commentator, which makes it possible to reveal shades of feelings or details of events. But the writer is not limited only to the visible side of what is happening. For him, what is hidden behind the outer shell is much more important - the "soul". True, Gogol, like Pushkin, basically portrays already established characters.

Gogol laid the foundation for the revival of the religious and instructive trend in Russian literature. Already in the romantic "Evenings" dark forces, devilry, retreat before kindness and religious firmness of spirit. Taras Bulba is animated by the idea of ​​a direct defense of Orthodoxy. And "Dead Souls", inhabited by characters who neglected their spiritual development, were supposed to show the way to the revival of fallen man, according to the author's intention. The appointment of a writer in Russia for Gogol at the end of his creative way becomes inseparable from the spiritual service to God and people who cannot be limited only by material interests. A sincere desire to educate oneself in the spirit of highly moral Christianity dictated Gogol's "Reflections on Divine Liturgy" and "Selected places from correspondence with friends." However, it is precisely last book even by Gogol's admirers was perceived as a creative failure, since social progress, as it seemed to many then, was incompatible with religious "prejudices".

The writers of the "natural school" also did not perceive this side of Gogol's creativity, having mastered only its critical pathos, which in Gogol serves to affirm spiritual ideal. The "natural school" limited itself, so to speak, to the "material sphere" of the writer's interests.

And subsequently, the realistic trend in literature makes the fidelity of the depiction of reality reproduced "in the forms of life itself" the main criterion of artistry. For its time, this was a huge achievement, since it made it possible to achieve in the art of the word such a degree of lifelikeness that literary characters start to feel real existing people and become an integral part of national and even world culture (Onegin, Pechorin, Khlestakov, Manilov, Oblomov, Tartarin, Madame Bovary, Mr. Dombey, Raskolnikov, etc.).

As already noted, a high degree of lifelikeness in literature by no means excludes fiction and fantasy. For example, in Gogol's famous story "The Overcoat", from which, according to Dostoevsky, all Russian literature of the 19th century came out, there is a fantastic story of a ghost that terrifies passers-by. Realism does not renounce the grotesque, symbol, allegory, etc., although all these figurative means do not determine the main tone of the work. In those cases where the work is based on fantastic assumptions ("History of a City" by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin), they have no place for the irrational principle, without which romanticism cannot do.

The fact orientation was strong point realism, but, as you know, "our shortcomings are a continuation of our virtues." In the 1870s and 1890s, a trend emerged within European realism called "naturalism". Under the influence of the success of the natural sciences and positivism (philosophical doctrine of O. Comte), writers want to achieve complete objectivity of the reproduced reality. “I don’t want, like Balzac, to decide what the structure of human life should be, to be a politician, philosopher, moralist ... The picture I draw is a simple analysis of a piece of reality, such as it is,” said one of the ideologists of “naturalism” E. Zola.

In spite of internal contradictions, the group of French naturalist writers that developed around Zola (br. E. and J. Goncourt, Ch. Huysmans and others) professed a common view on the task of art: the image of the inevitability and invincibility of rough social reality and the cruel human instincts that attract everyone in a stormy and a chaotic "stream of life" into the abyss of passions and actions that are unpredictable in their consequences.

The human psychology of "naturalists" is rigidly determined by the environment. Hence the attention to the smallest details of life, fixed with the dispassionateness of the camera, and at the same time, the biological predestination of the fate of the characters is emphasized. In an effort to write "according to the dictation of life", naturalists tried to erase any manifestation of the subjective vision of the problems and objects of the image. At the same time, pictures of the most unattractive aspects of reality appear in their works. The writer, naturalists argued, like the doctor, has no right to ignore any phenomenon, no matter how disgusting it may be. With such an attitude, the biological principle involuntarily began to look more important than the social. The books of naturalists shocked adherents of traditional aesthetics, but nevertheless, later writers (S. Crane, F. Norris, G. Hauptman and others) used individual discoveries of naturalism - primarily the expansion of the field of view of art.

In Russia, naturalism has not received much development. We can only talk about some naturalistic tendencies in the work of A. Pisemsky and D. Mamin-Sibiryak. The only Russian writer who declaratively professed the principles of French naturalism was P. Boborykin.

The literature and journalism of the post-reform era gave rise in the thinking part of Russian society to the conviction that the revolutionary reorganization of society would immediately lead to the flowering of all the best aspects of the individual, since there would be no oppression and lies. Very few people did not share this confidence, and first of all F. Dostoevsky.

The author of "Poor People" was aware that the rejection of the norms of traditional morality and the precepts of Christianity would lead to anarchy and a bloody war of all against all. As a Christian, Dostoevsky knew that in every human soul may prevail

God or the devil, and that it depends on each one to whom he will give preference. But the path to God is not easy. To get closer to him, you need to be imbued with the suffering of others. Without understanding and empathy for others, no one will be able to become a full-fledged person. With all his work, Dostoevsky proved: “A person on the surface of the earth has no right to turn away and ignore what is happening on earth, and there are higher moral reasons for it."

Unlike his predecessors, Dostoevsky strove not to capture established, typical, forms of life and psychology, but to capture and designate emerging social conflicts and types. His works are always dominated by crisis situations and characters outlined in large, sharp strokes. In his novels, "dramas of ideas", intellectual and psychological fights of characters are brought to the fore, moreover, the individual is inseparable from the universal, behind a single fact are "world issues".

Finding the loss of moral guidelines in modern society, the impotence and fear of the individual in the grip of an unspiritual reality, Dostoevsky did not believe that a person should capitulate to "external circumstances". He, according to Dostoevsky, can and must overcome "chaos" - and then, as a result of the common efforts of everyone, "world harmony" will reign, based on overcoming unbelief, egoism and anarchic self-will. A person who has embarked on the thorny path of self-improvement will face material deprivation, moral suffering, and misunderstanding of others ("Idiot"). The most difficult thing is not to become a "superman", like Raskolnikov, and, seeing others only as "rags", to indulge any desire, but to learn to forgive and love without demanding a reward, like Prince Myshkin or Alyosha Karamazov.

Like no other leading artist of his time, Dostoevsky is close to the spirit of Christianity. In his work, the problem of the original sinfulness of man is analyzed in various aspects ("Demons", "Teenager", "Dream funny man", "The Brothers Karamazov"). According to the writer, the result of the original fall is a world evil that gives rise to one of the most acute social problems- the problem of theomachism. "Atheistic expressions of unprecedented power" are contained in the images of Stavrogin, Versilov, Ivan Karamazov, but their throwing does not prove the victory of evil and pride. This is the way to God through His initial denial, the proof of God's existence by way of contradiction. The ideal hero in Dostoevsky must inevitably take as a model the life and teachings of the One who is the only one for the writer. moral guide in a world of doubt and hesitation (Prince Myshkin, Alyosha Karamazov).

With the ingenious instinct of the artist, Dostoevsky felt that socialism, under the banner of which many honest and intelligent people rush, is the result of the decline of religion ("Demons"). The writer predicted that on the path of social progress humanity would face severe upheavals, and directly connected them with the loss of faith and its replacement by socialist doctrine. The depth of Dostoevsky's insight was confirmed in the 20th century by S. Bulgakov, who already had reason to assert: "... Socialism today acts not only as a neutral area of ​​​​social policy, but, usually, as a religion based on atheism and human-godliness, on self-deification of man and human labor and on the recognition elemental forces nature and social life in the USSR, all this was realized in practice. All means of propaganda and agitation, among which literature played one of the leading roles, introduced into the consciousness of the masses that the proletariat, always led by the leader and the party, always right in any undertakings, and creative labor - forces designed to transform the world and create a society of universal happiness (a kind of Kingdom of God on earth).The only thing Dostoevsky was wrong about was his assumption that the moral crisis and the subsequent spiritual and social cataclysms would erupt primarily in Europe .

Along with "eternal questions", Dostoevsky the realist is also characterized by attention to the most ordinary and at the same time hidden from the mass consciousness facts of modernity. Together with the author, these problems are given to the heroes of the writer's works, and comprehension of the truth is very difficult for them. The struggle of the individual with the social environment and with himself determines the special polyphonic form of Dostoevsky's novels.

The author-narrator takes part in the action on the rights of an equal, and even a minor character ("chronicler" in "Demons"). The hero of Dostoevsky not only has an inner secret world that the reader will have to know; he, according to M. Bakhtin’s definition, “most of all thinks about what others think and can think about him, he strives to get ahead of someone else’s consciousness, every other thought about him, every point of view on him. With all his own moments of his confessions, he tries to anticipate the possible definition and evaluation of him by others, to guess these possible other people's words about him, interrupting his speech with imaginary other people's remarks. In an effort to guess other people's opinions and arguing with them in advance, Dostoevsky's heroes, as it were, call to life their doubles, in whose speeches and actions the reader receives a justification or denial of the position of the characters (Raskolnikov - Luzhin and Svidrigailov in "Crime and Punishment", Stavrogin - Shatov and Kirillov in "Demons").

The dramatic intensity of the action in Dostoevsky's novels is also due to the fact that he brings events as close as possible to the "topics of the day", sometimes drawing plots from newspaper notes. Almost always in the center of Dostoevsky's work is a crime. However, behind the sharp, almost detective plot, there is not a desire to solve an ingenious logical task. Criminal events and motives are elevated by the writer to the level of capacious philosophical symbols ("Crime and Punishment", "Demons", "The Brothers Karamazov").

The scene of action of Dostoevsky's novels is Russia, and often only its capital, and at the same time the writer received worldwide recognition, because for many decades ahead he anticipated the general interest in global problems for the 20th century ("superman" and the rest of the masses, "man of the crowd" and state machine, faith and spiritual anarchy, etc.). The writer created a world inhabited by complex, contradictory characters, full of dramatic conflicts, for the solution of which there is no and cannot be simple recipes- one of the reasons why in Soviet times the work of Dostoevsky was either declared reactionary or hushed up.

Dostoevsky's work outlined the main direction of literature and culture of the 20th century. Dostoevsky inspired Z. Freud in many ways, A. Einstein, T. Mann, W. Faulkner, F. Fellini, A. Camus, Akutagawa and other outstanding thinkers and artists spoke about the enormous influence on them of the works of the Russian writer.

L. Tolstoy also made a huge contribution to the development of Russian literature. Already in his first published story "Childhood" (1852), Tolstoy acted as an innovative artist.

The detail and clarity of his description of everyday life are combined with a microanalysis of the complex and mobile psychology of the child.

Tolstoy uses his own method of depicting the human psyche, observing the "dialectics of the soul." The writer seeks to trace the formation of character and does not emphasize its "positive" and "negative" sides. He argued that it makes no sense to talk about some "defining trait" of the character. "... in my life I have never met an evil, proud, kind, or intelligent person. In humility I always find a suppressed desire for pride, in the smartest book I find stupidity, in the conversation of the stupidest person I find smart things, etc. etc., etc.".

The writer was sure that if people learn to understand the multi-layered thoughts and feelings of others, then most psychological and social conflicts will lose their sharpness. The task of the writer, according to Tolstoy, is to teach others to understand. And for this it is necessary that truth in all its manifestations become the hero of literature. This goal is already declared in the "Sevastopol Tales" (1855-1856), which combines the documentary accuracy of what is depicted and the depth of psychological analysis.

The tendentiousness of art promoted by Chernyshevsky and his supporters turned out to be unacceptable for Tolstoy just because the a priori idea that determines the selection of facts and the angle of view was put at the forefront in the work. The writer almost demonstratively adjoins the camp of "pure art", which rejects all "didactics". But the position "above the fight" turned out to be unacceptable for him. In 1864, he wrote the play "Infected Family" (it was not printed and staged in the theater), in which he expressed his sharp rejection of "nihilism". In the future, all of Tolstoy's work is devoted to the overthrow of hypocritical bourgeois morality and social inequality, although he did not adhere to any particular political doctrine.

Already at the beginning of his creative path, having lost faith in the possibility of changing social orders, especially by violent means, the writer is looking for at least personal happiness in the family circle ("Roman of the Russian Landowner", 1859), however, having constructed his ideal of a woman capable of selflessness in the name of her husband and children, comes to the conclusion that this ideal is also unrealizable.

Tolstoy longed to find a model of life in which there would be no place at all for any artificiality, any falsehood. For a while, he believed that one could be happy among simple, undemanding people close to nature. It is only necessary to completely share their way of life and be content with the few that form the basis of the "correct" being (free labor, love, duty, family ties - "Cossacks", 1863). And Tolstoy also strives in real life to be imbued with the interests of the people, but his direct contacts with the peasants and the work of the 1860s and 1870s reveal an ever-deepening gulf between the peasant and the master.

Tolstoy also tries to discover the meaning of modernity, which eludes him, by delving into the historical past, by returning to the origins of the national worldview. He came up with the idea of ​​a huge epic canvas, which would reflect and comprehend the most significant moments in the life of Russia. In War and Peace (1863-1869), Tolstoy's heroes painfully strive to comprehend the meaning of life and, together with the author, are imbued with the conviction that it is possible to comprehend the thoughts and feelings of people only at the cost of renouncing one's own egoistic desires and gaining the experience of suffering. Some, like Andrei Bolkonsky, learn this truth before they die; others - Pierre Bezukhov - find it, rejecting skepticism and defeating the power of the flesh with the power of reason, find themselves in high love; the third - Platon Karataev - this truth is given from birth, because they embody "simplicity" and "truth". According to the author, Karataev's life "as he himself looked at it, did not make sense as a separate life. It made sense only as a particle of the whole, which he constantly felt." This moral position is also illustrated by the example of Napoleon and Kutuzov. The gigantic will and passions of the French emperor succumb to the actions of the Russian commander, devoid of external effect, for the latter expresses the will of the entire nation, united in the face of formidable danger.

In creativity and in life, Tolstoy strove for harmony of thought and feeling, which could be achieved with a general understanding of individual particulars and the general picture of the universe. The path to such harmony is long and thorny, but it is impossible to shorten it. Tolstoy, like Dostoevsky, did not accept the revolutionary doctrine. Paying tribute to the disinterested faith of the "socialists", the writer nevertheless saw salvation not in the revolutionary demolition of the state system, but in the unswerving adherence to the gospel commandments, both simple and just as difficult to fulfill. He was sure that one should not "invent life and demand its implementation."

But the restless soul and mind of Tolstoy could not fully accept the Christian doctrine either. At the end of the 19th century, the writer opposes the official church, which is largely related to the state bureaucracy, and tries to correct Christianity, create his own doctrine, which, despite numerous followers ("Tolstoyism"), had no future prospects.

In his declining years, having become a "teacher of life" for millions in his homeland and far beyond its borders, Tolstoy still constantly had doubts about his own rightness. Only in one he was unshakable: the keeper higher truth is the people, with its simplicity and naturalness. The interest of the decadents in the dark and hidden twists of the human psyche for the writer meant a departure from art, which actively serves humanistic ideals. True, in the last years of his life, Tolstoy was inclined to think that art is a luxury that not everyone needs: first of all, society needs to comprehend the simplest moral truths, the strict observance of which would eliminate many "damned questions."

And one more name cannot be dispensed with when speaking about the evolution of Russian realism. This is A. Chekhov. He refuses to recognize the complete dependence of the individual on the environment. "The dramatic-conflict positions in Chekhov do not consist in opposing the volitional orientation different parties, but in objectively caused contradictions, before which the individual will is powerless ". In other words, the writer gropes for those painful points of human nature that will later be explained by innate complexes, genetic programming, etc. Chekhov also refuses to study the possibilities and desires of the "little man ", the object of his study is an "average" person in all respects. Like the characters of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, Chekhov's heroes are also woven from contradictions; their thought also strives for the knowledge of the Truth, but they do not succeed well, and almost none of them think about God .

Chekhov discovers a new type of personality born of Russian reality - the type of an honest but limited doctrinaire who firmly believes in the power of social "progress" and judges living life using socio-literary templates (Dr. Lvov in Ivanov, Lida in Dom with a mezzanine, etc.). Such people talk a lot and willingly about duty and the need for honest work, about virtue, although it is clear that behind all their tirades there is a lack of genuine feeling - their tireless activity is akin to mechanical.

Those characters, whom Chekhov sympathizes with, do not like loud words and meaningful gestures, even if they experience a genuine drama. Tragic in the understanding of the writer is not something exceptional. In modern times, it is everyday and ordinary. A person gets used to the fact that there is no other life and cannot be, and this, according to Chekhov, is the most terrible social ailment. At the same time, the tragic in Chekhov is inseparable from the funny, satire is merged with lyrics, vulgarity coexists with the sublime, as a result of which an "undercurrent" appears in Chekhov's works, the subtext becomes no less significant than the text.

Dealing with the "little things" of life, Chekhov gravitates towards an almost plotless narrative ("Ionych", "Steppe", " The Cherry Orchard"), to the imaginary incompleteness of the action. The center of gravity in his works is transferred to the story of the spiritual hardening of the character ("Gooseberry", "The Man in the Case") or, on the contrary, his awakening ("The Bride", "Duel").

Chekhov invites the reader to empathy, not saying everything that is known to the author, but indicating the direction of the "search" only in separate details, which in his work often grow into symbols (a dead bird in "The Seagull", a berry in "Gooseberry"). "Both symbols and subtext, combining opposite aesthetic properties (of a concrete image and an abstract generalization, a real text and an "inner" thought in the subtext), reflect the general trend of realism, which has intensified in Chekhov's work, towards the interpenetration of heterogeneous artistic elements."

By the end of the 19th century, Russian literature had accumulated a huge aesthetic and ethical experience, which won world recognition. And yet, for many writers, this experience already seemed dead. Some (V. Korolenko, M. Gorky) tend to merge realism with romance, others (K. Balmont, F. Sologub, V. Bryusov and others) believe that "copying" reality has become obsolete.

The loss of clear criteria in aesthetics is accompanied by a "crisis of consciousness" in the philosophical and social spheres. D. Merezhkovsky in the pamphlet "On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature" (1893) concludes that the crisis in Russian literature is due to an excessive enthusiasm for the ideals of revolutionary democracy, which requires art, above all, civic sharpness. The obvious failure of the precepts of the sixties gave rise to public pessimism and a tendency towards individualism. Merezhkovsky wrote: "The latest theory of knowledge has erected an indestructible dam that forever separated the solid earth, accessible to people, from the boundless and dark ocean that lies beyond our knowledge. And the waves of this ocean can no longer invade the inhabited earth, the realm of exact knowledge... Never before has the boundary line of science and faith been so sharp and inexorable... Wherever we go, no matter how we hide behind the dam of scientific critics, with our whole being we feel the proximity of the mystery, the proximity of the ocean. No barriers! We are free and alone! No enslaved mysticism of past ages can compare with this horror. Never before have people felt the need to believe so much and so understood the impossibility of believing with reason. L. Tolstoy also spoke about the crisis of art in a slightly different way: “Literature was a blank sheet, and now it is all written over. I need to turn it over or get another one."

Realism, which had reached its highest peak, seemed to many to have finally exhausted its possibilities. Symbolism, which originated in France, claimed a new word in art.

Russian symbolism, like all previous trends in art, dissociated itself from the old tradition. Yet the Russian Symbolists grew up on the ground prepared by such giants as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov, and could not ignore their experience and artistic discoveries. "... Symbolic prose actively involved the ideas, themes, images, techniques of the great Russian realists in its own artistic world, forming by this constant comparison one of the defining properties of symbolic art and thereby giving many topics a realistic literature XIX century, the second reflected life in the art of the 20th century ". And later, "critical" realism, which was declared abolished in Soviet times, continued to nourish the aesthetics of L. Leonov, M. Sholokhov, V. Grossman, V. Belov, V. Rasputin, F. Abramov and many other writers.

In creativity Griboyedov, and especially Pushkin, develops the method of critical realism. But it turned out to be stable only with Pushkin, who went forward and higher. Griboyedov, on the other hand, did not hold on to the height achieved in Woe from Wit. In the history of Russian literature, he is an example of the author of one classic work. And the poets of the so-called "Pushkin galaxy" (Delvig, Yazykov, Boratynsky) were not able to pick up this discovery of his. Russian literature was still romantic.

Only ten years later, when “Masquerade”, “Inspector”, “Arabesques” and “Mirgorod” were created, and Pushkin was at the zenith of fame (“The Queen of Spades”, “The Captain's Daughter”), in this chordal coincidence of three different geniuses of realism the principles of the realistic method were consolidated in its sharply individual forms, revealing its inner potencies. The main types and genres of creativity were covered, the appearance of realistic prose, which he recorded as a sign of the times Belinsky in the article "On the Russian story and the stories of Gogol" (1835).

Realism looks different for its three founders.

In the artistic conception of the world, Pushkin the realist is dominated by the idea of ​​the Law, the patterns that determine the state of civilization, social structures, the place and significance of a person, his self-reliance and connection with the whole, the possibility of authorial sentences. Pushkin is looking for laws in educational theories, in moral universal values, in historical role Russian nobility, in the Russian popular revolt. Finally, in Christianity and the Gospel. Hence - the universal acceptability, harmony of Pushkin with all the tragedy of personal fate.

At Lermontov- on the contrary: sharp enmity with the divine world order, with the laws of society, lies and hypocrisy, all kinds of upholding the rights of the individual.

At Gogol- a world far from any ideas about the law, vulgar everyday life, in which all concepts of honor and morality, conscience are mutilated, - in a word, Russian reality, worthy of grotesque ridicule: "to blame the mirror forever, if the face is crooked."

However, in this case, realism turned out to be the lot of geniuses, literature remained romantic ( Zagoskin, Lazhechnikov, Kozlov, Veltman, V. Odoevsky, Venediktov, Marlinsky, N. Polevoy, Zhadovskaya, Pavlova, Krasov, Kukolnik, I. Panaev, Pogorelsky, Podolinsky, Polezhaev and others.).

The theater was arguing about Mochalova in Karatygin, that is, between romantics and classicists.

And only ten years later, that is, around 1845, in the works of young writers of the “natural school” ( Nekrasov, Turgenev, Goncharov, Herzen, Dostoevsky and many others) realism finally wins, it becomes mass creativity. "Natural School" is the true reality of Russian literature. If one of the followers is now trying to renounce her, belittle the value organizational forms and its consolidation, the impact Belinsky, is profoundly mistaken. We are assured that there was no “school”, but there was a “band” through which various stylistic currents passed. But what is a "band"? We will again come to the concept of “school”, which was not at all distinguished by the monotony of talents, it just had different stylistic currents (compare, for example, Turgenev and Dostoevsky), two powerful internal streams: realistic and properly naturalistic (V. Dahl, Bupsov , Grebenka, Grigorovich, I. Panaev, Kulchitsky and others).

With the death of Belinsky, the "school" did not die, although it lost its theorist and inspirer. She grew into a powerful literary direction, its main figures - realist writers - in the second half of the 19th century became the glory of Russian literature. Those who did not formally belong to the "school" and did not survive the preliminary stage of romantic development joined this powerful trend. Saltykov, Pisemsky, Ostrovsky, S. Aksakov, L. Tolstoy.

Throughout the second half of the 19th century, the realistic trend reigned supreme in Russian literature. His dominance partly captures the beginning of the 20th century, if we keep in mind Chekhov and L. Tolstoy. Realism as a whole can be qualified as critical, socially accusatory. Honest, truthful Russian literature is different and could not exist in a country of serfdom and autocracy.

Some theorists, disillusioned with socialist realism, consider it a sign of good taste to abandon the definition of "critical" in relation to the old classical realism of the 19th century. But the criticism of the realism of the last century is further evidence that it had nothing in common with the obsequious “what do you want?” on which Bolshevik socialist realism, which ruined Soviet literature, was built.

Another thing is if we raise the question of the internal typological varieties of Russian critical realism. At his ancestors - Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol- realism appeared in its various types, just as it was also diverse among the realist writers of the second half of the 19th century.

It lends itself most easily to thematic classification: works from the nobility, merchant, bureaucratic, peasant life- from Turgenev to Zlatovratsky. More or less clear genre classification: family-household, chronicle genre - from S.T. Aksakov to Garin-Mikhailovsky; an estate novel with the same elements of family, domestic, love relationships, only at a more mature age stage of the development of the characters, in a more generalized typification, with a weak ideological element. In Ordinary History, the clashes between the two Aduevs are age related, not ideological. There was also the genre of the socio-social novel, such as Oblomov and Fathers and Sons. But the angles of consideration of problems in them are different. In Oblomov, good inclinations in Ilyusha, when he was still a frisky child, and their burial as a result of nobility, doing nothing, are considered in stages. In Turgenev's famous novel, there is an "ideological" clash of "fathers" and "children", "principles" and "nihilism", the superiority of the commoner over the nobles, new trends of the times.

The most difficult task is to establish the typology and specific modifications of realism on a methodological basis. All writers of the second half of the 19th century are realists. But into what kinds is realism itself differentiated?

One can distinguish writers whose realism accurately reflects the forms of life itself. Such are Turgenev and Goncharov and all those who came out of the "natural school". Nekrasov also has many of these life forms. But in his best poems - "Frost - Red Nose", "Who Lives Well in Russia" - he is very inventive, resorting to folklore, fantasy, parables, parabolas and allegory. The plot motivations that connect the episodes in the last poem are purely fabulous, the characteristics of the heroes - seven men-truth-seekers - are built on stable folklore repetitions. In the poem "Contemporaries" Nekrasov has a torn composition, the modeling of images is purely grotesque.

Herzen's critical realism is completely unique: there are no forms of life here, but "a heartfelt humanistic thought." Belinsky noted the Voltaire warehouse of his talent: "the talent has gone into the mind." This mind turns out to be a generator of images, a biography of personalities, the combination of which, according to the principle of contrast and fusion, reveals the “beauty of the universe”. These properties were already manifested in "Who is to blame?". But in full power Herzen's pictorial humanistic thought was expressed in "The Past and Thoughts". Herzen clothed the most abstract concepts in living images: for example, idealism forever, but unsuccessfully, trampled materialism "with its disembodied feet." Tyufyaev and Nicholas I, Granovsky and Belinsky, Dubelt and Benckendorff appear as human types and types of thought, state and creative. These qualities of talent make Herzen related to Dostoevsky, the author of "ideological" novels. But Herzen's portraits are strictly painted according to social characteristics, go back to "forms of life", while Dostoevsky's ideology is more abstract, more infernal and hidden in the depths of the personality.

Another variety of realism appears extremely brightly in Russian literature - satirical, grotesque, such as we find in Gogol and Shchedrin. But not only them. Satire and grotesque exist in individual images of Ostrovsky (Murzavetsky, Gradoboev, Khlynov), Sukhovo-Kobylin (Varravin, Tarelkin), Leskov (Levsha, Onopry Peregud) and others. Grotesque is not simple hyperbole or fantasy. This is a combination in images, types, plots into a single whole of what does not happen in natural life, but what is possible in the artistic imagination as a technique in order to identify a certain social and social pattern. Gogol most often has the quirks of an inert mind, the folly of the prevailing situation, the inertia of habit, the routine of generally accepted opinion, the illogical, taking on the appearance of a logical one: Khlestakov’s lies about his life in St. Petersburg, his characteristics of the mayor and officials of the county outback in a letter to Tryapichkin. The very possibility of Chichikov's commercial tricks with dead souls is based on the fact that in serfdom reality one could easily buy and sell living souls. Shchedrin draws his grotesque devices from the world of the bureaucratic apparatus, whose quirks he has thoroughly studied. It is impossible for ordinary people to have either minced meat or an automatic organ in their heads instead of brains. But in the minds of Foolov's pompadours, everything is possible. In Swift's way, he "delimits" the phenomenon, he draws the impossible as possible (the debate between the Pig and the Truth, the boy "in pants" and the boy "without pants"). Shchedrin skillfully reproduces the casuistry of bureaucratic chicanery, the absurd logic of the reasoning of self-confident despots, all those governors, heads of departments, head clerks, quarters. Their empty philosophy is firmly established: “Let the law stand in the closet”, “The layman is always to blame for something”, “The bribe finally died and the jackpot was born in its place”, “Enlightenment is useful only when it has an unenlightened character”, “ Raz-d-dawn, I won’t stand it!”, “Slap him.” Psychologically, the verbiage of bureaucrats-planners, the mellifluous idle talk of Yudushka Golovlev are reproduced in a penetrating way.

Approximately in the 60-70s, another variety of critical realism was formed, which can be conditionally called philosophical-religious, ethical-psychological. We are talking primarily about Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy. Of course, both of them have many amazingeveryday paintings, thoroughly developed in the forms of life. In "The Brothers Karamazov" and "Anna Karenina" we will find a "family thought". And yet, Dostoevsky and Tolstoy have a certain “teaching” in the foreground, whether it will be “soiling” or “simplification”. From this prism, realism is enhanced in its piercing power.

But one should not think that philosophical, psychological realism is found only in these two giants of Russian literature. At a different artistic level, without the development of philosophical and ethical doctrines to the scale of a holistic religious doctrine, it is also found in specific forms in the work of Garshin, in such works as “Four Days”, “Red Flower”, clearly written on a specific thesis. The properties of this type of realism also appear among populist writers: in the “Power of the Earth” G.I. Uspensky, in Zlatovratsky's Foundations. The “difficult” talent of Leskov is also of the same nature, of course, with a certain preconceived idea of ​​portraying his “righteous”, “enchanted wanderers”, who loved to choose talented natures from the people, endowed by the grace of God, tragically doomed to death in their elemental existence.

Realism is usually called a direction in art and literature, whose representatives strove for a realistic and truthful reproduction of reality. In other words, the world was portrayed as typical and simple, with all its advantages and disadvantages.

General features of realism

Realism in literature is distinguished by a number of common features. First, life was portrayed in images that corresponded to reality. Secondly, the reality for the representatives of this trend has become a means of knowing themselves and the world around them. Thirdly, the images on the pages of literary works were distinguished by the truthfulness of details, specificity and typification. It is interesting that the art of the realists, with their life-affirming positions, strove to consider reality in development. Realists discovered new social and psychological relations.

The emergence of realism

Realism in literature as a form artistic creation originated in the Renaissance, developed during the Enlightenment and emerged as an independent direction only in the 30s of the 19th century. The first realists in Russia include the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin (he is sometimes even called the founder of this trend) and no less outstanding writer N.V. Gogol with his novel Dead Souls. Concerning literary criticism, then within its limits the term "realism" appeared thanks to D. Pisarev. It was he who introduced the term into journalism and criticism. Realism in 19th century literature hallmark of that time, having its own characteristics and characteristics.

Features of literary realism

Representatives of realism in literature are numerous. The most famous and outstanding writers include Stendhal, C. Dickens, O. Balzac, L.N. Tolstoy, G. Flaubert, M. Twain, F.M. Dostoevsky, T. Mann, M. Twain, W. Faulkner and many others. All of them worked on the development of the creative method of realism and embodied in their works its most striking features inextricably linked with their unique authorial features.

The emergence of realism was one of the ideological reflections of the greatest progressive upheaval experienced by mankind during the Renaissance. Realism arises in an era when a person realizes his own value and sovereignty, realizes that he carries within himself an active creative principle. The liberation of man from the fetters of medieval asceticism, the emancipation of his feelings, the thirst for earthly pleasures, the desire for an objective, scientific knowledge of life, the violent boiling of passions became the soil of the realism of Shakespeare and other writers of the Renaissance.

The causal connection between the concrete historical social environment and man, necessary in realistic art, is already found in Shakespeare's work. Nevertheless, the images created by him are perceived primarily as "universal" psychological types and lesser degree as certain socio-historical types. The social differentiation of the social environment in the literature of the Renaissance is only outlined.

Both the writers of the early Renaissance and Shakespeare see the main determinant in the inner world of a person in human passions. Shakespeare, the great psychiatrist, reveals in his works human nature primarily as a world of passions. Collisions in the struggle of passions and the interests and aspirations generated by them constitute both the ground on which Shakespeare's tragedies are played out and their arsenal. “The essence of man is passions,” Shakespeare could say, who saw in human passions the leading principle, the objective law of life that follows from the nature of things. The typical character appears in his works primarily as a character. The conditionality of a person's actions remains, but only its source moves from heaven to the person himself, to the world of his feelings and passions. In method artistic image a person develops what can be called psychological determinism. At the same time, Shakespeare was already aware of the influence of the real factors of the external world on the character and actions of a person. Shakespeare saw that human relations are based on real, earthly interests of people. Marx admired Shakespeare's understanding of the social role of money.

Shakespeare frees man from divine predestination. In the earthly, human, he finds both the objective source of the development of life and its ideal, embodied in the great idea of ​​humanism. At the same time, Shakespeare reproduces the inner life of a person in real forms of this very life, which was the greatest achievement of art. No matter how strong characters and no matter how stormy passions Shakespeare shows, he is true to life down to the details, does not go beyond the natural.

Shakespeare convincingly shows the mighty power of circumstances in tragic destinies many of his characters. But he could not yet penetrate the secrets of their objective necessity.

The Age of Enlightenment opens new stage in the development of realism. In the XV century. Before social thought and fiction, the problem of the social environment and its influence on a person became acute. In the influence of the social environment began to see no less important pattern of human existence than the nature of man himself. Molière back in the 15th century. makes a significant step forward in the artistic solution of this problem, essential for the development of realism. Classicism was little interested in the problem of the socio-historical environment and its influence on a person. But already Molière, in his Critique of the School for Wives, contrasts abstract passions classic tragedy depiction of morals. He directly connects the character and actions of some of his characters with the environment in which they live, trying to define a person not only as a psychological, but also as a social type. Pushkin, rightly placing Shakespeare's image of the inner world of man above Molière's, did not note this advantage of Molière over Shakespeare.

Shakespeare's tragic and comic collisions are based on real life relationships and interests of people, human passions, their collisions and struggle. Supersensible elements appear in his works only as an object of poetic fantasy, instead of being those formidable and seemingly real forces that they appear, for example, in " Divine Comedy» Dante. With his depiction of life, Shakespeare seemed to say: it is possible that God created man, but in further fate him became dependent on his own nature.

Humanistic attention to a person has expanded the scope of knowledge of the inner world of the individual. The inner world of Shakespeare's characters is a many-sided world. Pushkin pointed this out when he compared Shakespeare's tynes ​​with the types created by Molière. In the depiction of a person, early realism in the face of "which the greatest representatives - Shakespeare and Cervantes - immediately introduces the principle of universality, artistically recreating the intellectual, moral and psychological, often contradictory, but completely individualized image of a person. In "Hamlet" and "Don Quixote" the veil over the region is lifted with brilliant force human spirit. The tragedy of Don Quixote is, first of all, the tragedy of the human mind, which has already realized the need to fight evil in life, but is still powerless and naive in understanding its true sources and manifestations. It is noteworthy that the writers of the Renaissance no longer hope for divine revelation, they themselves are trying to solve the great problem of creating an ideal human society.

This advantage arose, of course, as a reflection of time. English Revolution in the middle of the 15th century. and the time of the Fronde in France revealed with sufficient clarity the significance of the social environment and social contradictions.

The nature of man, his earthly interests and thoughts are perceived by the leading writers of the Renaissance as the source and cause of his actions and aspirations. The inner world of man is given an objective, sovereign meaning, independent of heaven. This was a real revolution in literature. This was the birth of realism as an artistic method of depicting life.