What direction does modern literature belong to? Nikolaev A

(Symbol - from the Greek. Symbolon - a conventional sign)

1. The central place is given to the symbol *
2. The striving for the highest ideal prevails
3. The poetic image is intended to express the essence of a phenomenon.
4. Characteristic reflection of the world in two plans: real and mystical
5. Elegance and musicality of the verse

The founder was D. S. Merezhkovsky, who in 1892 delivered a lecture “On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature” (article published in 1893). The Symbolists are divided into senior ones ((V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius, F. Sologub debuted in the 1890s) and younger (A. Blok, A. Bely, Vyach. Ivanov and others debuted in the 1900s)

Acmeism

(From the Greek "acme" - a point, the highest point). The literary current of acmeism arose in the early 1910s and was genetically associated with symbolism. (N. Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam, M. Zenkevich and V. Narbut.) M. Kuzmin's article "On Fine Clarity", published in 1910, had an influence on the formation. In the program article of 1913 "The Legacy of Acmeism and Symbolism" N. Gumilyov called symbolism " worthy father", but emphasized at the same time that the new generation had developed a "courageously firm and clear outlook on life"

1. Orientation towards classical poetry of the 19th century
2. Acceptance of the earthly world in its diversity, visible concreteness
3. Objectivity and clarity of images, sharpness of details
4. In rhythm, acmeists used dolnik (Dolnik is a violation of the traditional
regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. The lines coincide in the number of stresses, but the stressed and unstressed syllables are freely located in the line.), which brought the poem closer to the living colloquial speech

Futurism

Futurism - from lat. futurum, the future. Genetically, literary futurism is closely connected with the avant-garde groups of artists of the 1910s - primarily with the groups "Jack of Diamonds", " donkey tail”, “Union of Youth”. In 1909, in Italy, the poet F. Marinetti published the article "Manifesto of Futurism." In 1912, the manifesto “Slapping the Face of Public Taste” was created by Russian futurists: V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov: “Pushkin is more incomprehensible than hieroglyphs.” Futurism began to disintegrate already in 1915-1916.

1. Rebelliousness, anarchic worldview
2. Rejection of cultural traditions
3. Experiments in the field of rhythm and rhyme, figured arrangement of stanzas and lines
4. Active word creation

Imagism

From lat. imago - image A literary trend in Russian poetry of the 20th century, whose representatives stated that the purpose of creativity was to create an image. The main expressive means of the Imagists is a metaphor, often metaphorical chains that compare various elements of two images - direct and figurative. Imagism arose in 1918, when the "Order of Imagists" was founded in Moscow. The creators of the "Order" were Anatoly Mariengof, Vadim Shershenevich and Sergei Yesenin, who was previously a member of the group of new peasant poets

Literary directions and currents: classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, realism, modernism (symbolism, acmeism, futurism)

Classicism(from lat. classicus - exemplary) - an artistic direction in European art at the turn of the XVII-XVIII - early XIX century, was formed in France at the end of the XVII century. Classicism asserted the primacy of state interests over personal interests, the predominance of civil, patriotic motives, the cult of moral duty. The aesthetics of classicism is characterized by the severity of artistic forms: compositional unity, normative style and plots. Representatives of Russian classicism: Kantemir, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Knyaznin, Ozerov and others.

One of the most important features of classicism is the perception of ancient art as a model, an aesthetic standard (hence the name of the direction). The goal is to create works of art in the image and likeness of antique ones. In addition, the ideas of the Enlightenment and the cult of reason (the belief in the omnipotence of reason and that the world can be reorganized on a reasonable basis) had a huge impact on the formation of classicism.

Classicists (representatives of classicism) perceived artistic creativity as strict adherence to reasonable rules, eternal laws, created on the basis of studying the best examples of ancient literature. Based on these reasonable laws, they divided works into "correct" and "incorrect". For example, even best plays Shakespeare. This was due to the fact that Shakespeare's characters combined positive and negative traits. And the creative method of classicism was formed on the basis of rationalistic thinking. There was a strict system of characters and genres: all characters and genres were distinguished by "purity" and unambiguity. So, in one hero it was strictly forbidden not only to combine vices and virtues (that is, positive and negative traits), but even several vices. The hero had to embody any one character trait: either a miser, or a braggart, or a hypocrite, or a hypocrite, or good, or evil, etc.

The main conflict of classic works is the struggle of the hero between reason and feeling. At the same time, the positive hero must always make a choice in favor of the mind (for example, choosing between love and the need to completely surrender to the service of the state, he must choose the latter), and the negative one - in favor of feelings.

The same can be said about the genre system. All genres were divided into high (ode, epic poem, tragedy) and low (comedy, fable, epigram, satire). At the same time, touching episodes were not supposed to be introduced into comedy, and funny episodes into tragedy. In the high genres, “exemplary” heroes were depicted - monarchs, “commanders who could serve as an example to follow. In the low genres, characters were depicted covered by some kind of “passion”, that is, a strong feeling.

Special rules existed for dramatic works. They had to observe three "unities" - places, times and actions. Unity of place: classicist dramaturgy did not allow a change of scene, that is, during the entire play, the characters had to be in the same place. Unity of time: the artistic time of a work should not have exceeded several hours, or at least one day. Unity of action implies that there is only one storyline. All these requirements are connected with the fact that the classicists wanted to create a kind of illusion of life on the stage. Sumarokov: "Try to measure my hours in the game for hours, so that I, forgetting, could believe you."

So, the characteristic features of literary classicism:

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

- purity of the language (in high genres - high vocabulary, in low genres - vernacular);

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

- observance of the rule of "three unities";

- positive values ​​and the state ideal should be affirmed in the work.

Russian classicism is characterized by state pathos (the state (and not a person) was declared the highest value) in conjunction with faith in the theory of enlightened absolutism. According to the theory of enlightened absolutism, the state should be headed by a wise, enlightened monarch, who requires everyone to serve for the benefit of society. Russian classicists, inspired by the reforms of Peter the Great, believed in the possibility of further improvement of society, which seemed to them a rationally arranged organism. Sumarokov: "Peasants plow, merchants trade, warriors defend the fatherland, judges judge, scientists cultivate science." The classicists treated human nature in the same rationalistic way. They believed that human nature is selfish, subject to passions, that is, feelings that oppose reason, but at the same time lend themselves to education.

Sentimentalism (from English sentimental - sensitive, from French sentiment

Feeling) - a literary movement of the second half of the 18th century, which replaced classicism. Sentimentalists proclaimed the primacy of feeling, not reason. A person was judged by his ability to deep feelings. Hence - the interest in the inner world of the hero, the image of the shades of his feelings (the beginning of psychologism).

Unlike the classicists, sentimentalists consider not the state, but the individual, to be the highest value. They opposed the unjust orders of the feudal world with the eternal and reasonable laws of nature. In this regard, nature for sentimentalists is the measure of all values, including man himself. It is no coincidence that they asserted the superiority of the "natural", "natural" man, that is, living in harmony with nature.

Sensitivity also underlies the creative method of sentimentalism. If the classicists created generalized characters (a hypocrite, a braggart, a miser, a fool), then sentimentalists are interested in specific people with an individual destiny. Heroes in their works are clearly divided into positive and negative. The positive ones are endowed with natural sensitivity (sympathetic, kind, compassionate, capable of self-sacrifice). Negative - prudent, selfish, arrogant, cruel. The carriers of sensitivity, as a rule, are peasants, artisans, raznochintsy, rural clergy. Cruel - representatives of power, nobles, higher spiritual ranks (since despotic rule kills sensitivity in people). Manifestations of sensitivity in the works of sentimentalists often acquire a too external, even exaggerated character (exclamations, tears, fainting, suicides).

One of the main discoveries of sentimentalism is the individualization of the hero and the image of the rich spiritual world of a commoner (the image of Lisa in Karamzin's story " Poor Lisa"). The main character of the works was an ordinary person. In this regard, the plot of the work often represented individual situations of everyday life, while peasant life was often depicted in pastoral colors. The new content required a new form. The leading genres were the family novel, diary, confession, novel in letters, travel notes, elegy, message.

In Russia, sentimentalism originated in the 1760s (the best representatives are Radishchev and Karamzin). As a rule, in the works of Russian sentimentalism, the conflict develops between a serf and a serf landowner, and the moral superiority of the former is persistently emphasized.

Romanticism - an artistic movement in European and American culture of the late XVIII - first half of XIX century. Romanticism arose in the 1790s, first in Germany and then spread throughout Western Europe. The prerequisites for the emergence were the crisis of rationalism of the Enlightenment, the artistic search for pre-romantic trends (sentimentalism), the French Revolution, and German classical philosophy.

The emergence of this literary trend, as well as any other, is inextricably linked with the socio-historical events of that time. Let's start with the prerequisites for the formation of romanticism in Western European literatures. The French Revolution of 1789-1899 and the reassessment of the educational ideology associated with it had a decisive influence on the formation of romanticism in Western Europe. As you know, the 18th century in France passed under the sign of the Enlightenment. For almost a century, French enlighteners led by Voltaire (Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu) argued that the world could be reorganized on a reasonable basis and proclaimed the idea of ​​natural (natural) equality of all people. It was these educational ideas that inspired the French revolutionaries, whose slogan was the words: “Liberty, equality and fraternity. The result of the revolution was the establishment of a bourgeois republic. As a result, the winner was the bourgeois minority, which seized power (it used to belong to the aristocracy, the highest nobility), while the rest were left "with nothing". Thus, the long-awaited "kingdom of reason" turned out to be an illusion, as well as the promised freedom, equality and fraternity. There was a general disappointment in the results and results of the revolution, a deep dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality, which became a prerequisite for the emergence of romanticism. Because the basis of romanticism is the principle of dissatisfaction with the existing order of things. This was followed by the emergence of the theory of romanticism in Germany.

As you know, Western European culture, in particular French, provided a huge impact into Russian. This trend continued into the 19th century, so the French Revolution also shook Russia. But, in addition, there are actually Russian prerequisites for the emergence of Russian romanticism. First of all, this Patriotic War 1812, clearly showing the greatness and strength of the common people. It was to the people that Russia owed the victory over Napoleon, the people were true hero war. Meanwhile, both before the war and after it, the bulk of the people, the peasants, still remained serfs, in fact, slaves. What was previously perceived by the progressive people of that time as injustice, now began to seem like a flagrant injustice, contrary to all logic and morality. But after the end of the war, Alexander I not only did not abolish serfdom, but also began to pursue a much tougher policy. As a result, a pronounced feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction arose in Russian society. Thus, the ground for the emergence of romanticism arose.

The term "romanticism" in relation to the literary movement is accidental and inaccurate. In this regard, from the very beginning of its inception, it was interpreted in different ways: some believed that it comes from the word "roman", others - from knightly poetry created in countries that speak Romance languages. For the first time, the word "romanticism" as the name of a literary movement began to be used in Germany, where the first sufficiently detailed theory of romanticism was created.

Very important for understanding the essence of romanticism is the concept of romantic duality.. As already mentioned, rejection, denial of reality is the main prerequisite for the emergence of romanticism. All romantics reject the world, hence their romantic escape from existing life and the search for an ideal outside of it. This gave rise to the emergence of a romantic dual world. The world for romantics was divided into two parts: here and there. “There” and “here” are antithesis (contrast), these categories are correlated as ideal and reality. The despised "here" is a modern reality, where evil and injustice triumph. “There” is a kind of poetic reality that the romantics opposed to reality. Many romantics believed that goodness, beauty and truth, ousted from public life, were still preserved in the souls of people. Hence their attention to the inner world of man, in-depth psychologism. The souls of people are their "there". For example, Zhukovsky searched for "there" in other world; Pushkin and Lermontov, Fenimore Cooper - in the free life of uncivilized peoples (Pushkin's poems " Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Gypsies”, Cooper’s novels about the life of the Indians).

Rejection, denial of reality determined the specifics of the romantic hero. This is a fundamentally new hero, like him did not know the old literature. He is in hostile relations with the surrounding society, opposed to it. This is an unusual, restless person, most often lonely and with a tragic fate. romantic hero- the embodiment of a romantic rebellion against reality.

Realism(from the Latin realis - material, real) - a method (creative setting) or a literary direction that embodies the principles of a life-truthful attitude to reality, striving for artistic knowledge of man and the world. Often the term "realism" is used in two senses: 1) realism as a method; 2) realism as a trend that emerged in the 19th century. Both classicism, and romanticism, and symbolism strive for the knowledge of life and express their reaction to it in their own way, but only in realism does fidelity to reality become the defining criterion of artistry. This distinguishes realism, for example, from romanticism, which is characterized by the rejection of reality and the desire to “recreate” it, and not display it as it is. It is no coincidence that, referring to the realist Balzac, the romantic George Sand defined the difference between him and herself in this way: “You take a person as he appears to your eyes; I feel a calling to portray him the way I would like to see. Thus, we can say that the realists represent the real, and the romantics - the desired.

The beginning of the formation of realism is usually associated with the Renaissance. The realism of this time is characterized by the scale of images (Don Quixote, Hamlet) and the poeticization of the human personality, the perception of man as the king of nature, the crown of creation. Next stage - enlightenment realism. In the literature of the Enlightenment, a democratic realistic hero appears, a man "from the bottom" (for example, Figaro in Beaumarchais's plays "The Barber of Seville" and "The Marriage of Figaro"). New types of romanticism appeared in the 19th century: "fantastic" (Gogol, Dostoevsky), "grotesque" (Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin) and "critical" realism associated with the activities of the "natural school".

The main requirements of realism: observance of the principles of nationality, historicism, high artistry, psychologism, the image of life in its development. Realist writers showed the direct dependence of the social, moral, religious ideas of the heroes on social conditions, and paid much attention to the social aspect. Central problem realism - the ratio of plausibility and artistic truth. Plausibility, a plausible depiction of life is very important for realists, but artistic truth is determined not by plausibility, but by fidelity in comprehending and conveying the essence of life and the significance of the ideas expressed by the artist. One of the most important features of realism is the typification of characters (the fusion of the typical and the individual, the uniquely personal). The credibility of a realistic character directly depends on the degree of individualization achieved by the writer.

Realist writers create new types of heroes: the type of "little man" (Vyrin, Bashmachki n, Marmeladov, Devushkin), the type of "extra person" (Chatsky, Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov), the type of "new" hero (nihilist Bazarov in Turgenev, "new people" Chernyshevsky).

Modernism(from the French modern - the latest, modern) - a philosophical and aesthetic movement in literature and art that arose on turn of XIX-XX centuries.

This term has various interpretations:

1) designates a number of non-realistic trends in art and literature at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries: symbolism, futurism, acmeism, expressionism, cubism, imaginism, surrealism, abstractionism, impressionism;

2) is used as a symbol for the aesthetic searches of artists of non-realistic trends;

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

Symbolism, acmeism and futurism became the most striking and significant trends in Russian modernism.

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

At the heart of the worldview of symbolist artists lies the idea of ​​the unknowability of the world and its laws. They considered the spiritual experience of a person and the creative intuition of the artist to be the only "tool" for understanding the world.

Symbolism was the first to put forward the idea of ​​creating art free from the task of depicting reality. Symbolists argued that the purpose of art is not to depict the real world, which they considered secondary, but to convey a "higher reality". They intended to achieve this with the help of a symbol. A symbol is an expression of the poet's supersensible intuition, to whom, in moments of insight, the true essence of things is revealed. The Symbolists developed a new poetic language that does not directly name the subject, but hints at its content through allegory, musicality, colors, free verse.

Symbolism is the first and most significant of the modernist movements that arose in Russia. The first manifesto of Russian symbolism was the article by D. S. Merezhkovsky “On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature”, published in 1893. It identified three main elements of the "new art": mystical content, symbolization and "expansion of artistic impressionability."

Symbolists are usually divided into two groups, or currents:

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

and others), who debuted in the 1890s;

2) "younger" symbolists who began their creative activity in the 1900s and significantly updated the appearance of the current (A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Ivanov and others).

It should be noted that the "senior" and "junior" symbolists were separated not so much by age as by the difference in attitudes and the direction of creativity.

The Symbolists believed that art is, first of all, “comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways” (Bryusov). After all, only phenomena that are subject to the law of linear causality can be rationally comprehended, and such causality operates only in the lower forms of life (empirical reality, everyday life). The Symbolists were interested in the higher spheres of life (the area of ​​"absolute ideas" in Plato's terms or "world soul", according to V. Solovyov), not subject to rational knowledge. It is art that has the ability to penetrate into these spheres, and the images-symbols with their infinite ambiguity are able to reflect the entire complexity of the world universe. The Symbolists believed that the ability to comprehend the true, higher reality is given only to the elect, who, in moments of inspired insights, are able to comprehend the “higher” truth, absolute truth.

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

The image-symbol is fundamentally polysemantic and contains the prospect of an unlimited deployment of meanings. This trait of his was repeatedly emphasized by the symbolists themselves: “A symbol is only a true symbol when it is inexhaustible in its meaning” (Vyach. Ivanov); “A symbol is a window to infinity” (F. Sologub).

Acmeism(from the Greek act - the highest degree of something, flowering power, peak) - a modernist literary trend in Russian poetry of the 1910s. Representatives: S. Gorodetsky, early A. Akhmatova, L. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam. The term "acmeism" belongs to Gumilyov. The aesthetic program was formulated in Gumilyov's articles "The Legacy of Symbolism and Acmeism", Gorodetsky's "Some Trends in Contemporary Russian Poetry" and Mandelstam's "Morning of Acmeism".

Acmeism stood out from symbolism, criticizing its mystical aspirations for the “unknowable”: “Among the Acmeists, the rose again became good in itself, with its petals, smell and color, and not with its conceivable similarities with mystical love or anything else” (Gorodetsky) . Acmeists proclaimed the liberation of poetry from symbolist impulses to the ideal, from the ambiguity and fluidity of images, complicated metaphor; talked about the need to return to the material world, the subject, the exact meaning of the word. Symbolism is based on the rejection of reality, and the acmeists believed that one should not abandon this world, one should look for some values ​​​​in it and capture them in their works, and do this with the help of accurate and understandable images, and not vague symbols.

Actually, the acmeist current was small, did not last long - about two years (1913-1914) - and was associated with the "Workshop of Poets". The "Workshop of Poets" was created in 1911 and at first united a fairly large number of people (not all of them later became involved in acmeism). This organization was much more cohesive than the disparate symbolist groups. At the meetings of the "Workshop" poems were analyzed, problems of poetic mastery were solved, and methods for analyzing works were substantiated. The idea of ​​a new direction in poetry was first expressed by Kuzmin, although he himself did not enter the "Workshop". In his article “On Beautiful Clarity”, Kuzmin anticipated many declarations of acmeism. In January 1913, the first manifestos of acmeism appeared. From this moment, the existence of a new direction begins.

Acmeism proclaimed “beautiful clarity” as the task of literature, or clarism (from Latin clarus - clear). Acmeists called their current Adamism, linking the idea of ​​a clear and direct view of the world with the biblical Adam. Acmeism preached a clear, “simple” poetic language, where words would directly name objects, declare their love for objectivity. So, Gumilyov urged to look not for “unsteady words”, but for words “with a more stable content”. This principle was most consistently realized in Akhmatova's lyrics.

Futurism- one of the main avant-garde trends (avant-garde is an extreme manifestation of modernism) in European art of the early 20th century, which was most developed in Italy and Russia.

In 1909, in Italy, the poet F. Marinetti published the Futurist Manifesto. The main provisions of this manifesto: the rejection of traditional aesthetic values ​​and the experience of all previous literature, bold experiments in the field of literature and art. As the main elements of futuristic poetry, Marinetti calls "courage, audacity, rebellion." In 1912, the Russian futurists V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov created their manifesto "Slap in the face of public taste". They also sought to break with traditional culture, welcomed literary experiments, sought to find new means of speech expression (proclaiming a new free rhythm, loosening syntax, eliminating punctuation marks). At the same time, Russian futurists rejected fascism and anarchism, which Marinetti declared in his manifestos, and turned mainly to aesthetic problems. They proclaimed a revolution of form, its independence from content (“what is important is not what, but how”) and the absolute freedom of poetic speech.

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

1) "Hilea", which united cubo-futurists (V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, A. Krucheny

2) "Association of Egofuturists" (I. Severyanin, I. Ignatiev and others);

3) "Mezzanine of poetry" (V. Shershenevich, R. Ivnev);

4) "Centrifuge" (S. Bobrov, N. Aseev, B. Pasternak).

The most significant and influential group was the "Gilea": in fact, it was she who determined the face of Russian futurism. Its participants released many collections: "The Garden of Judges" (1910), "Slap in the Face of Public Taste" (1912), "Dead Moon * (1913)," Took "(1915).

The Futurists wrote in the name of the man of the crowd. At the heart of this movement was the feeling of "the inevitability of the collapse of the old" (Mayakovsky), the awareness of the birth of a "new humanity". Artistic creativity, according to the futurists, should not be an imitation, but a continuation of nature, which creates through the creative will of man " new world, today, iron ... "(Malevich). This is the reason for the desire to destroy the "old" form, the desire for contrasts, the attraction to colloquial speech. Based on a living colloquial language, the futurists were engaged in "word-creation" (created neologisms). Their works were distinguished by complex semantic and compositional shifts - a contrast between the comic and the tragic, fantasy and lyrics.

Futurism began to disintegrate already in 1915-1916.

Literature in the 19th century in Russia is associated with the rapid flowering of culture. Spiritual uplift and important are reflected in immortal works writers and poets. This article is dedicated to the representatives of the Golden Age of Russian literature and the main trends of this period.

Historical events

Literature in the 19th century in Russia gave birth to such great names as Baratynsky, Batyushkov, Zhukovsky, Lermontov, Fet, Yazykov, Tyutchev. And above all Pushkin. This period was marked by a number of historical events. The development of Russian prose and poetry was influenced by the Patriotic War of 1812, and the death of the great Napoleon, and the passing of Byron. English poet, like the French commander, for a long time owned the minds of a revolutionary thinking people in Russia. and the Russian-Turkish war, as well as the echoes of the French revolution, heard in all corners of Europe - all these events turned into a powerful catalyst for advanced creative thought.

While in Western countries revolutionary movements were carried out and the spirit of freedom and equality began to emerge, Russia strengthened its monarchical power, and suppressed the uprisings. This could not go unnoticed by artists, writers and poets. The literature of the early 19th century in Russia is a reflection of the thoughts and experiences of the advanced strata of society.

Classicism

By this aesthetic direction is meant art style, which originated in the culture of Europe in the second half of the XVIII century. Its main features are rationalism and observance of strict canons. Classicism of the 19th century in Russia was also distinguished by its appeal to ancient forms and the principle of three unities. Literature, however, in this artistic style already at the beginning of the century began to lose ground. Classicism was gradually supplanted by such trends as sentimentalism, romanticism.

Masters artistic word began to create their works in new genres. Works in the style of historical novel, romantic story, ballad, ode, poem, landscape, philosophical and love lyrics gained popularity.

Realism

Literature in the 19th century in Russia is associated primarily with the name of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. Closer to the thirties, realistic prose took a strong position in his work. It should be said that Pushkin is the ancestor of this literary trend in Russia.

Journalism and satire

Some Features European culture The 18th century was inherited by the literature of the 19th century in Russia. Briefly, we can outline the main features of the poetry and prose of this period - the satirical nature and publicism. The tendency to depict human vices and shortcomings of society is observed in the work of writers who created their works in the forties. In literary criticism, it was later defined that united the authors of satirical and journalistic prose. "Natural School" - this was the name of this artistic style, which, however, is also called the "Gogol School". Other representatives of this literary trend are Nekrasov, Dal, Herzen, Turgenev.

Criticism

Ideology natural school justified the critic Belinsky. The principles of the representatives of this literary movement became the denunciation and eradication of vices. characteristic feature in their work has become social issues. The main genres are essay, socio-psychological novel and social story.

Literature in the 19th century in Russia developed under the influence of the activities of various associations. It was in the first quarter of this century that there was a significant rise in the journalistic field. Belinsky had a huge influence on. This man possessed an extraordinary ability to feel the poetic gift. It was he who first recognized the talent of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky.

Pushkin and Gogol

The literature of the 19th and 20th centuries in Russia would have been completely different and, of course, not so bright without these two authors. They had a huge impact on the development of prose. And many of the elements they introduced into literature have become classical norms. Pushkin and Gogol not only developed such a direction as realism, but also created completely new artistic types. One of them is the image little man”, which later received its development not only in the work of Russian authors, but also in foreign literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Lermontov

This poet also had a considerable influence on the development of Russian literature. After all, it is to him that the creation of such a concept as the “hero of time” belongs. With his light hand it entered not only literary criticism, but also into public life. Lermontov also took part in the development of the psychological novel genre.

The entire period of the nineteenth century is famous for the names of talented great personalities who worked in the field of literature (both prose and poetry). Russian authors at the end of the eighteenth century adopted some of the merits of Western colleagues. But due to a sharp jump in the development of culture and art, it eventually became an order of magnitude higher than the Western European one that existed at that time. The works of Pushkin, Turgenev, Dostoevsky and Gogol have become the property of world culture. The works of Russian writers became a model on which German, English and American authors later relied.

Plan.

2. artistic method.

Literary trends and currents. literary schools.

4. Principles artistic image in literature.

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

The literary process is the process of changing literature over time.

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

More consistent development concept world literature was built by Academician N.F. Konrad, who also defended the progressive movement of literature. This movement was not based on a change literary methods, and the idea of ​​discovering man as highest value (humanistic idea). In his work “West and East”, Conrad came to the conclusion that the concepts of “Middle Ages” and “Renaissance” are universal for all literatures. The period of antiquity is replaced by the Middle Ages, then the Renaissance, followed by the New Age. In each subsequent period, literature focuses more and more on the image of a person as such, more and more aware of the intrinsic value of the human person.

The concept of academician D.S. Likhachev is similar, according to which the literature of the Russian Middle Ages developed towards strengthening the personal principle. The great styles of the era (Romanesque style, Gothic style) were to be gradually replaced by the author's individual styles (Pushkin's style).

The most objective concept of Academician S.S. Averintsev, it gives a wide coverage of literary life, including modernity. At the heart of this concept is the idea of ​​reflexivity and traditional culture. The scientist identifies three major periods in the history of literature:

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

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

3. Last period which is still going on. Reflection is preserved, tradition is broken. Writers reflect, but create new forms. The beginning was laid by the genre of the novel.

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

artistic method

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

The concept of "method" (from the Greek "path of research") denotes "the general principle of the artist's creative attitude to cognizable reality, that is, its re-creation." These are a kind of ways of knowing life, which have changed in different historical and literary epochs. According to some scholars, the method lies at the basis of currents and directions, represents the way of aesthetic exploration of reality, which is inherent in the works of a certain direction. Method is an aesthetic and deeply meaningful category.

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

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

Literary trends and currents. Literary schools

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

Gradually, along with “direction”, the term “flow” comes into circulation, often used synonymously with “direction”. So, D.S. Merezhkovsky in an extensive article “On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature” (1893) writes that “between writers with different, sometimes opposite temperaments, special mental currents, a special air, are established, as between opposite poles, brimming with creativity." Often "direction" is recognized as a generic concept in relation to "flow".

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

The belonging of artists to one direction or trend does not exclude deep differences their creative identities. In turn, in the individual work of writers, features of various literary trends and trends can manifest themselves.

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

Directions and currents should be distinguished from literary schools (and literary groupings). Literary school - a small association of writers on the basis of common artistic principles formulated theoretically - in articles, manifestos, scientific and journalistic statements, designed as "charters" and "rules". Often such an association of writers has a leader, the "head of the school" ("the Shchedrin school", the poets of the "Nekrasov school").

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

Unlike the current, which is far from always formalized by manifestos, declarations and other documents that reflect its main principles, the school is almost necessarily characterized by such performances. It is important not only the presence of common artistic principles shared by the writers, but also their theoretical awareness of their belonging to the school.

Many associations of writers, called schools, are named after the place of their existence, although the similarity of the artistic principles of the writers of such associations may not be so obvious. For example, the "lake school", named after the place where it developed (the north-west of England, the Lake District), consisted of romantic poets, who did not agree with each other in everything.

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

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

The literary process is a complex and diverse phenomenon, therefore one should be extremely careful when using such categories as “flow” and “direction”. In addition to them, scientists use other terms when studying the literary process, such as style.

Style is traditionally included in the Literary Theories section. The very term "style" as applied to literature has whole line meanings: the style of the work; writer's style, or individual style(say, the style of poetry by N.A. Nekrasov); the style of the literary direction, current, method (for example, the style of symbolism); style as a set of stable elements art form determined by the general features of the worldview, content, national traditions inherent in literature and art in a certain historical era(style of Russian realism of the second half of the 19th century).

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

Style-forming factors in literature are ideological content, form components that specifically express the content; this also includes the vision of the world, which is connected with the worldview of the writer, with his understanding of the essence of phenomena and man. Stylistic unity also includes the structure of the work (composition), analysis of conflicts, their development in the plot, the system of images and ways of revealing characters, the pathos of the work. Style, as a unifying and artistically organizing principle of the whole work, even absorbs the way landscape sketches. All this is style in the broadest sense of the word. In the originality of the method and style, the features of the literary direction and trend are expressed.

According to the features of the style expression, they judge literary hero(attributes of its external appearance and form of behavior are taken into account), about the belonging of the building to a particular era in the development of architecture (Empire style, Gothic style, Art Nouveau style, etc.), about the specifics of the image of reality in the literature of a particular historical formation (in Old Russian literature - the style of monumental medieval historicism, the epic style of the 11th-13th centuries, the expressive-emotional style of the 14th-15th centuries, the baroque style of the second half of the 17th century, etc.). Today no one will be surprised by the expressions “game style”, “life style”, “leadership style”, “work style”, “building style”, “furniture style”, etc., and every time, along with a generalizing cultural meaning, a specific evaluative meaning is embedded in these stable formulas (for example, “I prefer this style of clothing” - unlike others, etc.).

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

1. Literary direction - often identified with the artistic method. Designates a set of fundamental spiritual and aesthetic principles of many writers, as well as a number of groups and schools, their programmatic and aesthetic principles, and the means used. In the struggle and change of direction, the laws of the literary process are most clearly expressed. It is customary to single out the following literary directions:

   a) Classicism
   b) sentimentalism,
   c) naturalism,
   d) romanticism,
   e) Symbolism,
   e) realism.

2. Literary movement - often identified with a literary group and school. Denotes a collection creative people, which are characterized by ideological and artistic affinity and programmatic and aesthetic unity. Otherwise, a literary trend is a variety (as it were, a subclass) of a literary trend. For example, in relation to Russian romanticism, one speaks of a "philosophical", "psychological" and "civil" trend. In Russian realism, some distinguish between "psychological" and "sociological" trends.

Classicism

Artistic style and direction in European literature and art of the XVII-beginning. XIX centuries. The name is derived from the Latin "classicus" - exemplary.

Features of classicism:

1. Appeal to images and forms antique literature and art as an ideal aesthetic standard, advancing on this basis the principle of “imitation of nature”, which implies strict adherence to unshakable rules drawn from ancient aesthetics (for example, in the person of Aristotle, Horace).
2. Aesthetics is based on the principles of rationalism (from the Latin "ratio" - reason), which affirms the view of piece of art as an artificial creation - consciously created, reasonably organized, logically built.
3. The images in classicism are devoid of individual features, as they are primarily intended to capture stable, generic, timeless features that act as the embodiment of any social or spiritual forces.
4. Social and educational function of art. Education of a harmonious personality.
5. A strict hierarchy of genres has been established, which are divided into “high” ones (tragedy, epic, ode; their scope is public life, historical events, mythology, their heroes - monarchs, generals, mythological characters, religious ascetics) and "low" (comedy, satire, fable, which depicted a private everyday life middle class people). Each genre has strict boundaries and clear formal features; no mixing of the sublime and the base, the tragic and the comic, the heroic and the mundane was allowed. The leading genre is tragedy.
6. Classical dramaturgy approved the so-called principle of "unity of place, time and action", which meant: the action of the play should take place in one place, the duration of the action should be limited by the duration of the performance (possibly more, but the maximum time that the play should have narrated was one day), the unity of action meant that the play should reflect one central intrigue, not interrupted by side actions.

Classicism originated and developed in France with the establishment of absolutism (classicism, with its concepts of "exemplary", a strict hierarchy of genres, etc., is generally often associated with absolutism and the flourishing of statehood - P. Corneille, J. Racine, J. La Fontaine, J. B. Moliere, etc. Having entered a period of decline at the end of the 17th century, classicism was revived in the Enlightenment - Voltaire, M. Chenier and others. After the French Revolution, with the collapse of rationalist ideas, classicism falls into decay, the dominant style of European art becomes romanticism.

Classicism in Russia:

Russian classicism originated in the second quarter of the 18th century in the work of the founders of new Russian literature - A. D. Kantemir, V. K. Trediakovsky and M. V. Lomonosov. In the era of classicism, Russian literature mastered the genre and style forms that had developed in the West, joined the pan-European literary development, while retaining its national identity. Characteristics Russian classicism:

a) satirical orientation - important place occupy such genres as satire, fable, comedy, directly addressed to specific phenomena of Russian life;
b) The predominance of national-historical themes over ancient ones (the tragedies of A. P. Sumarokov, Ya. B. Kniazhnin, and others);
in) High level the development of the ode genre (by M. V. Lomonosov and G. R. Derzhavin);
G) General patriotic pathos of Russian classicism.

AT late XVIII- early XIX century, Russian classicism is influenced by sentimentalist and pre-romantic ideas, which is reflected in the poetry of G. R. Derzhavin, the tragedies of V. A. Ozerov and civil lyrics Decembrist poets.

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism (from English sentimental - “sensitive”) - a trend in European literature and art XVIII century. It was prepared by the crisis of enlightenment rationalism, was the final stage of the Enlightenment. Chronologically, it basically preceded romanticism, passing on a number of its features to it.

The main signs of sentimentalism:

1. Sentimentalism remained true to the ideal of the normative personality.
2. In contrast to classicism with its enlightening pathos, the dominant of “human nature” was declared by feeling, and not by reason.
3. He considered the condition for the formation of an ideal personality not "a reasonable reorganization of the world", but the release and improvement of "natural feelings".
4. The hero of the literature of sentimentalism is more individualized: by origin (or convictions), he is a democrat, rich spiritual world commoner - one of the conquests of sentimentalism.
5. However, unlike romanticism (pre-romanticism), “irrational” is alien to sentimentalism: he perceived the inconsistency of moods, the impulsiveness of spiritual impulses as accessible to rationalistic interpretation.

Sentimentalism took its most complete expression in England, where the ideology of the third estate was formed the earliest - the works of J. Thomson, O. Goldsmith, J. Crabb, S. Richardson, JI. Stern.

Sentimentalism in Russia:

In Russia, representatives of sentimentalism were: M. N. Muravyov, N. M. Karamzin (naib, famous work - “Poor Liza”), I. I. Dmitriev, V. V. Kapnist, N. A. Lvov, young V A. Zhukovsky.

Characteristic features of Russian sentimentalism:

a) Rationalist tendencies are quite clearly expressed;
b) The didactic (moralizing) attitude is strong;
c) Enlightenment trends;
d) Improving the literary language, Russian sentimentalists turned to colloquial norms, introduced vernacular.

Favorite genres of sentimentalists are elegy, message, epistolary novel(novel in letters), travel notes, diaries and other types of prose, in which confessional motifs predominate.

Romanticism

One of the largest trends in European and American literature of the late 18th-first half of the 19th century, which gained worldwide significance and distribution. In the 18th century, everything fantastic, unusual, strange, found only in books, and not in reality, was called romantic. At the turn of the XVIII and XIX centuries. "romanticism" begins to be called a new literary movement.

The main signs of romanticism:

1. Anti-Enlightenment orientation (i.e., against the ideology of the Enlightenment), which manifested itself in sentimentalism and pre-romanticism, and in romanticism reached its highest point. Socio-ideological prerequisites - disappointment in the results of the French Revolution and the fruits of civilization in general, a protest against the vulgarity, routine and prosaic nature of bourgeois life. The reality of history turned out to be beyond the control of "reason", irrational, full of secrets and contingencies, and the modern world order - hostile to nature man and his personal freedom.
2. The general pessimistic orientation is the ideas of "cosmic pessimism", "world sorrow" (heroes of the works of F. Chateaubriand, A. Musset, J. Byron, A. Vigny, etc.). The theme of the “terrible world” “lying in evil” was particularly clearly reflected in the “drama of rock” or “tragedy of rock” (G. Kleist, J. Byron, E. T. A. Hoffman, E. Poe).
3. Belief in the omnipotence of the human spirit, in its ability to renew itself. Romantics discovered the extraordinary complexity, the inner depth of human individuality. Man for them is a microcosm, a small universe. Hence - the absolutization of the personal principle, the philosophy of individualism. In the center of a romantic work there is always a strong, exceptional personality who opposes society, its laws or moral standards.
4. "Two worlds", that is, the division of the world into real and ideal, which are opposed to each other. Spiritual insight, inspiration, which are subject to a romantic hero, is nothing but penetration into this perfect world(for example, the works of Hoffmann, especially brightly in: "The Golden Pot", "The Nutcracker", "Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober"). Romantics contrasted the classic "imitation of nature" with the creative activity of the artist with his right to transform the real world: the artist creates his own, special world, more beautiful and true.
5. "Local color" A person who opposes society feels spiritual closeness to nature, its elements. That is why romantics so often have exotic countries and their nature (the East) as the scene of action. The exotic wild nature was quite in line with the spirit of a romantic personality striving beyond the ordinary. Romantics are the first to pay close attention to creative legacy people, and its national-cultural and historical features. National and cultural diversity, according to the philosophy of the Romantics, was part of one big single whole - the "universe". This was clearly realized in the development of the historical novel genre (such authors as W. Scott, F. Cooper, V. Hugo).

Romantics, absolutizing creative freedom artist, denied rationalistic regulation in art, which, however, did not prevent them from proclaiming their own, romantic canons.

Genres evolved: fantasy story, historical novel, a lyrical-epic poem, the lyric reaches an extraordinary flowering.

Classical countries of romanticism - Germany, England, France.

Beginning in the 1840s, romanticism in the main European countries cedes a leading position critical realism and fades into the background.

Romanticism in Russia:

The birth of romanticism in Russia is associated with the socio-ideological atmosphere of Russian life - a nationwide upsurge after the war of 1812. All this led not only to the formation, but also to the special character of the romanticism of the Decembrist poets (for example, K. F. Ryleev, V. K. Kuchelbeker, A. I. Odoevsky), whose work was animated by the idea of ​​civil service, imbued with the pathos of freedom and struggle.

Characteristic features of romanticism in Russia:

a) The accelerated development of literature in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century led to the “running in” and the combination of various stages that were experienced in stages in other countries. In Russian romanticism, pre-romantic tendencies intertwined with the tendencies of classicism and the Enlightenment: doubts about the omnipotent role of reason, the cult of sensitivity, nature, elegiac melancholy combined with the classic orderliness of styles and genres, moderate didacticism (edification) and the fight against excessive metaphor for the sake of "harmonic accuracy" (expression A. S. Pushkin).

b) A more pronounced social orientation of Russian romanticism. For example, the poetry of the Decembrists, the works of M. Yu. Lermontov.

In Russian romanticism, such genres as elegy and idyll are especially developed. Very important for the self-determination of Russian romanticism was the development of the ballad (for example, in the work of V. A. Zhukovsky). The contours of Russian romanticism were most sharply defined with the emergence of the genre of the lyric-epic poem (the southern poems of A. S. Pushkin, the works of I. I. Kozlov, K. F. Ryleev, M. Yu. Lermontov, etc.). The historical novel is developing as a great epic form (M. N. Zagoskin, I. I. Lazhechnikov). A special way of creating a large epic form is cyclization, that is, the unification of apparently independent (and partially published separately) works (“The Double or My Evenings in Little Russia” by A. Pogorelsky, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” by N. V. Gogol, “A Hero of Our time" by M. Yu. Lermontov, "Russian Nights" by V. F. Odoevsky).

Naturalism

Naturalism (from the Latin natura - “nature”) is a literary trend that developed in the last third of the 19th century in Europe and the USA.

Characteristic features of naturalism:

1. The desire for an objective, accurate and dispassionate depiction of reality and human character, due to the physiological nature and environment, understood primarily as a direct domestic and material environment, but not excluding socio-historical factors. The main task of naturalists was to study society with the same completeness with which a naturalist studies nature, artistic knowledge was likened to scientific.
2. A work of art was considered as a “human document”, and the main aesthetic criterion was the completeness of the cognitive act carried out in it.
3. Naturalists refused to moralize, believing that reality depicted with scientific impartiality was in itself expressive enough. They believed that literature, like science, has no right in choosing material, that there are no unsuitable plots or unworthy topics for a writer. Hence, plotlessness and public indifference often arose in the works of naturalists.

Naturalism received particular development in France - for example, naturalism includes the work of such writers as G. Flaubert, the brothers E. and J. Goncourt, E. Zola (who developed the theory of naturalism).

In Russia, naturalism was not widespread, it played only a certain role in initial stage development of Russian realism. Naturalistic tendencies can be traced among the writers of the so-called "natural school" (see below) - V. I. Dal, I. I. Panaev and others.

Realism

Realism (from the late Latin realis - real, real) is a literary and artistic movement of the 19th-20th centuries. It originates in the Renaissance (the so-called "Renaissance realism") or in the Enlightenment ("enlightenment realism"). Features of realism are noted in ancient and medieval folklore, ancient literature.

The main features of realism:

1. The artist depicts life in images that correspond to the essence of the phenomena of life itself.
2. Literature in realism is a means of man's knowledge of himself and the world around him.
3. Cognition of reality comes with the help of images created by typing the facts of reality ("typical characters in a typical setting"). The typification of characters in realism is carried out through the "truthfulness of details" in the "concreteness" of the conditions of the characters' existence.
4. Realistic art is life-affirming art, even in the tragic resolution of the conflict. Philosophical foundation This is gnosticism, the belief in knowability and an adequate reflection of the surrounding world, in contrast, for example, to romanticism.
5. Realistic art is inherent in the desire to consider reality in development, the ability to detect and capture the emergence and development of new forms of life and social relations, new psychological and social types.

Realism as a literary trend was formed in the 30s of the XIX century. The immediate forerunner of realism in European literature was romanticism. Having made the unusual the subject of the image, creating an imaginary world of special circumstances and exceptional passions, he (romanticism) at the same time showed a personality richer in spiritual and emotional terms, more complex and contradictory than was available to classicism, sentimentalism and other trends of previous eras. Therefore, realism developed not as an antagonist of romanticism, but as its ally in the struggle against idealization. public relations, for the national-historical originality of artistic images (the color of the place and time). It is not always easy to draw clear boundaries between romanticism and realism in the first half of the 19th century; in the work of many writers, romantic and realistic features merged together - for example, the works of O. Balzac, Stendhal, V. Hugo, partly C. Dickens. In Russian literature, this was especially clearly reflected in the works of A. S. Pushkin and M. Yu. Lermontov (Pushkin’s southern poems and Lermontov’s Hero of Our Time).

In Russia, where the foundations of realism were still in the 1820s and 30s. laid down by the work of A. S. Pushkin (“Eugene Onegin”, “Boris Godunov”, “ Captain's daughter”, late lyrics), as well as some other writers (“Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov, fables by I. A. Krylov), this stage is associated with the names of I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky and others. The realism of the 19th century is usually called "critical", since the defining principle in it was precisely the social-critical. The aggravated socio-critical pathos is one of the main distinguishing features Russian realism - for example, "The Government Inspector", "Dead Souls" by N.V. Gogol, the activities of writers of the "natural school". The realism of the second half of the 19th century reached its peak precisely in Russian literature, especially in the works of L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky, who became late XIX century, the central figures of the world literary process. They enriched world literature new principles for constructing a socio-psychological novel, philosophical and moral issues, new ways of revealing the human psyche in its deepest layers.