Modernism in Russian Literature silver Age» national culture XX century Late XIX - early XX centuries. - relatively short
but incredibly saturated with public,
political and cultural events
Russian history. This time is also called
"silver" age", comparing with the "golden age"
- the era of the highest flowering of Russian literature
and art - XIX century. On comparatively
small geographical area Moscow and
Petersburg of that time, the density of various
artistic talent was so high
that she has no corresponding examples, not only in
Russian, but also in world history. Some poets -
great, large and simply significant - dozens.

Features of modernism in literature:

denial of classical art
heritage;
professed disagreement with theory and
the practice of realism;
orientation to the individual,
not social;
increased attention to the spiritual, not
social sphere of human life;
focus on form over content.

Representatives of modernism in literature in Russia:

Borii with Leonidovich Pasternai (January 29, 1890, Moscow - May 30, 1960,
Peredelkino, Moscow region) -
Russian writer, poet, translator; one of
major poets of the 20th century.
In 1955, Pasternak wrote a novel
"Doctor Zhivago". Three years later, the writer
was awarded the Nobel Prize for
literature, after which he was
harassed and persecuted by
BLOCK
Alexander
Alexandrovich
Soviet
government.
, Russian poet.

Bunin Ivan Alekseevich (18701953), Russian writer and poet,
laureate Nobel Prize on
literature (1933).
AKHMATOVA (real name Gorenko)
Anna Andreevna (11 (23) June 1889
- March 5, 1966) Russian poetess,
translator and literary critic,
one of the most important figures
Russian literature of the XX century.
Nobel Prize nominee
on literature.

ESENIN Sergey Alexandrovich
(1895-1925), Russian poet,
representative of the new peasant
poetry and lyrics, and in more
late period of creativity -
imaginism.
MAYAKOVSKY Vladimir
Vladimirovich (7 (19) July 1893-
April 14, 1930), Russian poet,
one of the brightest representatives
avant-garde art of the 1910s-1920s. One of the biggest
poets of the 20th century.
In addition to poetry, he clearly showed himself
as a playwright, screenwriter,
film director, film actor,
artist, magazine editor.

Gumilyov treated them the same way,
Khlebnikov, Klyuev, Severyanin, Bely,
Sologub, Balmont, Bryusov, Voloshin,
Ivanovs (Vyacheslav and Georgy), Kuzmin,
Tsvetaeva, Khodasevich, Gippius,
Mandelstam is only the most
notable, but not all.

The birth of modernism.

The first modernist periodical in
Russia became the magazine "World of Art",
organized by young artists A.N. Benois,
K.A.Somov, L.S. Bakst, E.E. Lansere,
S.P. Diaghilev in 1899, writers (Zinaida
Gippius and Dmitry Merezhkovsky) were
invited to lead the literary department of the journal,
whose main purpose was to promote the new
painting. On the pages of the magazine "World of Art"
published their first works Blok, Gippius,
Rozanov, Merezhkovsky, Bryusov, Bely, Sologub. AT
Korney Chukovsky acted as a critic in it.

The split of modernism.

Russian literature after the revolution of 1917
divided tragic fate countries and
further developed in three directions:
Russian literature abroad - I. Bunin,
V. Nabokov, I. Shmelev; literature, not
recognized officially and at one time in the USSR
not published - M. Bulgakov, A. Akhmatova,
A. Platonov and others; Russian Soviet
literature (mainly
socialist realism) - M. Gorky,
V. Mayakovsky, M. Sholokhov.

Representatives of modernism in foreign literature:

Anne de Noailles (November 15, 1876-30
April 1933) - French
poetess, mistress of the literary
salon.
Paul Eluaire (December 14, 1895-
November 18, 1952) - French
poet who published more than a hundred
poetry collections.

Guillaume m Apollinei r (August 26, 1880
- November 9, 1918) - French
poet, one of the most
influential figures
European avant-garde of the early XX
century.
Jacques Prevert (February 4, 1900-11
April 1977) - French poet
and film writer.

Modernism in the visual arts.

Modernism is a set of artistic trends in
art second half of XIX- mid-twentieth century.
The most significant modernist trends were
impressionism, expressionism, neo- and post-impressionism,
Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism. As well as later currents -
abstract art, Dadaism, Surrealism. In a narrow sense
modernism is seen as an early stage of avant-garde,
the beginning of the revision of classical traditions. Date of birth
modernism is often called 1863 - the year of discovery in Paris
"Salon of the Outcasts", where the works of artists were accepted.
In a broad sense, modernism is "another art", the main
the purpose of which is to create original works,
based on inner freedom and a special vision of the world
the author and carrying new expressive means
pictorial language, often accompanied by outrageous
and a certain challenge to established canons.

trends of modernism.

Abstract expressionism is a special style of painting when the artist
spends the minimum amount of time on his creativity, scatters
on a canvas of paint, chaotically touches the painting with brushes, randomly
applies smears.
Dada - works of art collage style, layout on
canvas of several fragments of the same subject. Pictures usually
imbued with the idea of ​​denial, a cynical approach to the topic. Style arose
immediately after the end of the First World War and became a reflection of the feeling
hopelessness that prevails in society.
Cubism - randomly placed geometric figures. Style by myself
highly artistic, genuine masterpieces in the style of cubism created
Pablo Picasso. A slightly different approach to the work of the artist Paul
Cezanne - his canvases are also included in the treasury of world art.
Post-impressionism - the rejection of visible reality and the replacement of real
images with decorative stylization. Style with great potential
but only Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin realized it in full.

Representatives of modernism in art:

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich -
great Russian artist.
Painting styles: Avant-gardism,
Cubism, Suprematism, etc. (11
February 1878 - May 15, 1935).
Kazimir Malevich is
iconic figure not only in
Russian art, but also in
world history of painting. AT
in particular, he was
founder of a new species
art - Suprematism,
marking his arrival
a picture that is known in
all over the world, like - Black
Square. Painting Black
Square was painted in 1915
year and caused a real
a sensation among connoisseurs and
critics. Existed

"Black square"
"Englishman in Moscow"

"Argentine Polka"
self-portrait

"Linen on the fence"
"Boulevard"

Fu "lla Ludovit Slovak painter
"Boy in a Hat"
M. Pasteka: Artist and
sitters.

M. A. Bazovsky: Farmers.
E. Shimerova: Still life with a newspaper.

Modernism in architecture.

Wide open spaces for modernist architecture
opened as a result of the Second World War.
Many European cities were destroyed. planned
world of new formation. There was a fundamental
the ability to design entire neighborhoods without much
bindings to the "old" architectural ensemble cities.
The largest building areas in the style of modernism
occurred in the cities with the greatest destruction -
Berlin and Le Havre. On these giant construction sites
large international teams worked
famous modernist architects - Hans Scharun,
Walter Gropius, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Oscar Niemeyer,
Pierre Luigi Nervi, Marcel Breuer, Auguste Perret, Bernard
Serfuss and many others.

Basic principles of architectural modernism:

use of the most modern
building materials and structures,
rational approach to solving
interior spaces (functional
an approach),
lack of embellishment trends,
fundamental rejection of historical
reminiscences in the appearance of buildings,
their international character.

House of Vicens (1883-1888) Barcelona.

House of Vicens (18831888) Barcelona.
Architect Antonio Gaudi
(1852-1926). House of Vicens
develops the theme of Arabic
Tales of a Thousand and One Nights.
Rounded towers, graceful
metal ornaments in
the form of palm leaves,
rhythmically alternating belts
arches, blind windows with forged
gratings… Creativity A.
Gaudi threw
kind of bridge from

House Batllo (1904-1906) Barcelona.

House Batllo (19041906) Barcelona.
Blue-green facade of the House
Batllo resembles something foamed
sea ​​wave then bursts
volcanic lava, then the skin
outlandish animals.

Sagrada Familia (1883-1926) Barcelona.

The main creation of Gaudí - the cathedral
Sagrada Familia (St.
family), which he did not have time
complete in life. by design
he was supposed to be
architectural embodiment
plots of the New Testament. Facade
The cathedral consists of three portals,
symbolizing Faith, Hope
and love. Medium Represents
a deep grotto of Bethlehem; he

House of Tassel (1892-1893) Luxembourg.

House of Tassel (18921893) Luxembourg.
Architect Victor Horta. (1861-1947). "Perfect architect
art modernism" is called the Belgian architect
Victor Horta. Tassel's house is considered to be the first example of "
pure modernism”, which brought worldwide fame and glory
budding architect.

Skyscrapers in Chicago, USA.

Architect Louis
Sullivan. (18561924).
The first skyscraper by Chicago architect Louis
Sullivan in the city of St. Louis produced
a real revolution in architecture. Steel
frames with vertical structures,
stuffed with high-speed elevators and other
technique, clearly challenged the classics.

Museum of Modern Art in New York (1943-1959).

Architect
Frank Lloyd
Wright.
Museum contemporary art in New York is one of
the first modern art museums in the world. Now this
museum, located in Manhattan, enjoys
deserved fame and is very popular with visitors.

Residential buildings in the style of modernism. France.

Architect Le
Corbusier (18871965)

House of the Singer company (1902-1904) St. Petersburg.

House of the Singer company (1902
-1904) St. Petersburg.
Architect Pavel Yulievich Syuzor. In Russia, one of the most
notable and typical monuments of Art Nouveau is the House of the Company
"Singer" (now the "House of the Book") on Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg. On the one hand, the building is not connected with the surrounding
ensemble, which is considered an urban planning error, on the other
hand, this is an example of a successful layout in difficult conditions

The building of the Kazan railway station. Moscow. (1902-1904)

Kazansky building
station. Moscow. (19021904)
Architect A.V.
Shchusev

At the beginning of the 20th century, traditional forms of art, such as realism and romanticism, could no longer convey all the realities of the new life. As the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset aptly put it, the new art was established on the "absolute negation of the old." To designate this period of culture, as well as the totality of new trends in art that have existed since late XIX Art. and, at least until the 50-60s of the XX century, most researchers use the concept of "modernism".

Modernism - this is a common name for the literary trends and trends of the twentieth century, which are characterized by attempts to display new phenomena in the life of society with the help of new artistic means.

Modernists, unlike realists, defended the special mission of the artist, able to foresee the path of development new culture. Realistic means of expression are, in their opinion, outdated and not convincing enough to convey the state of mind of a person who is alone with problems in this hostile world. At the same time, the American scientist John Miller emphasized that “modernism can be considered a rebellion against “realism”, but not against “reality”. Modernists proclaimed the value and self-sufficiency of an individual, looking for special artistic means to display the whole complex of contradictions of the 20th century. They were not characterized by an appeal to the existing reality, at the same time they also rejected a romantic escape from the realities of life, they were not interested in the objective world, they were carried away by the “creation of a new reality”, and the more implausible it was, the more definitely it arose in the imagination of modernists. .

In the works of modernism, reality found its embodiment with the help of new artistic techniques, for example, such as “ mindflow”, which directly conveys the process of the character’s inner speech during his collision with reality, or “montage”, which, like in cinema, is based on the combination of various themes, images and fragments and is a way of knowing the world.

Among the first representatives of modernism in world literature were the Irish James Joyce, French Marcel Proust and an Austrian Franz Kafka. They own a number of important creative discoveries, on the basis of which entire literary trends and trends later began to appear. material from the site

In the poetry of the first half of the twentieth century, the same changes took place as in prose. Poetic experiments of the Spaniard Federico Garcia Lorca, French Fields of Eluard, Anglo-American Thomas Eliot, Austrians George Trakl and Rainer Maria Rilke, Czech Vitezslava Nezvala, Poles Yuliana Tuvima and Galczynski's constants, as well as many others contributed to the changes art form lyrics. Influenced by synthesis various kinds art poetry became more and more elegant. Figurative (visual) poetry also appeared as the embodiment of the long-standing dream of many poets, musicians and artists about the synthesis of the arts. French lyricist Guillaume Apollinaire even came up with a special term for such texts — “ calligram" (from the Greek. callis- handsome and gramma- writing). The poet proclaimed: "Calligram" is a comprehensive artistry, the advantage of which is that it creates a visual lyric that has hitherto been almost unknown. This art is fraught with great potential, its peak can be the synthesis of music, painting, literature. Such a design of the text, in his opinion, is necessary “so that the reader perceives the entire poem at a glance, just as a conductor covers the notes of the score with one glance.”

In an effort to penetrate the reader's subconscious, modernist poets gravitated more and more towards subjectivism, the image-symbol, encryption, actively used the free (without a certain size and rhyme) form of the poem — vers libre.

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The article will consider such an ambiguous cultural phenomenon as modernism. The main attention is paid to the various styles of modernism, in particular, its manifestation in Russian culture and especially literature, as well as those characteristic features that unite all these numerous styles.

What is modernism?

Let's figure it out. Before giving an answer to the question of what brings together different currents of modernism, it is worth defining this phenomenon. Modernism is a very general designation used for the culture of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, there are different points of view on the chronological framework of this phenomenon, some researchers believe that modernism is a phenomenon exclusively of the 20th century. This term comes from the Italian word modernismo, which translates as "modern current", or, if you look deeper - from the Latin modernus - "modern".

Characteristic features of modernism

The period of modernism not only in art (although in this area it manifested itself, perhaps, most clearly), but also in philosophy and science, is determined by a sharp break with previous concepts and experience, is characterized by a desire to refute outdated principles and establish relevant ones, the emergence of new expressive artistic forms that differed in generality and schematicity. Sometimes the search for forms of expression of a subjective view of reality was an end in itself to the detriment of the ideological value and aesthetics of the work. All these features of modernism caused its negative perception in bourgeois society. These currents called into question his values. Bourgeois moods were reflected primarily in realism, and modernism and realism are directly opposite currents. The denial of the traditions of culture, from antiquity to realism, is usually referred to as avant-garde (from the French "vanguard"), but this concept dates back to the 20th century. However, the relationship between the concepts of modernism and avant-garde is still unclear, they are perceived either as interchangeable, or as completely opposite.

The culture of modernism

Modernism, in essence, was the expression of all the internal inconsistencies and contradictions that exist in bourgeois society. This happened both under the influence of the development of science and technology, and under the influence of world socio-political catastrophes. Conflicts and discord in society, of course, had an impact on the change in the psychology of people at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the emergence of technical innovations and communication tools.

Cultural and social stratification led to the emergence of two subcultures - elite and mass, the division into which is still present in society. In the same period, the concept of kitsch, closely associated with mass culture, arose.

Without touching so far on art and literature, one can say about modernism in philosophy, where it comes into contact mainly with the so-called philosophy of life, as well as existentialism.

The so-called decline of Europe is reflected in the culture of modernism, but the essence of this trend is not only in the depiction of the cultural and spiritual crisis but also in the constant search for ways out of it. And if we talk about what brings together different currents of modernism, then this is, first of all, that they all provide numerous and varied options for exiting.

Modernism in art

To designate modernism in art, the term "modern" is usually used. It begins to change qualitatively: if earlier the authors depicted mostly copied reality, then from the end of the nineteenth century on the canvases they convey their own view of this reality, their emotions and feelings towards it, thereby trying to depict the real reality hiding behind the outer shell.

From the end of the 19th century, there great amount various styles, for the general designation of which the term "modernism" is used. Such a sharp emergence of new stylistic trends may be due to the fact that life during this period begins to change extremely quickly, everything is constantly changing, and along with the development of science, social relationships, politics, various styles in art and architecture arise, disappear and change. The ideas of "art for art's sake", "art for itself" arise, and at the same time art becomes a means for dissecting the surrounding reality and overcoming its contradictions.

Among the most significant and notable are impressionism, post-impressionism, cubism, fauvism, futurism, dadaism, surrealism and abstract art. All these genres are characterized by a break with the image objective reality, an extremely subjective view, elitism and the rejection of artistic heritage previous eras - classicism and realism. The latter does not always mean only a complete break with the former. artistic experience, but also the desire to express aesthetic ideals in a better way.

New styles arose in different time periods and in different countries, often with artists working in modernist styles. What brings together different currents of modernism, if they were so different from each other? In fact, they often had nothing in common except following anti-realist tendencies and striving to express their vision of the world.

The year of the emergence of the so-called Salon des Misérables - 1863 - is often cited as the lower bar for the time of the appearance of modernism. The works of artists who were not approved by the jury members of the Paris Salon were exhibited there - and he was the main focus European art that time. The appearance of this salon is associated with the names famous impressionists, therefore, this style is conditionally considered the first manifestation of modernism in painting. Modernism began to disappear closer to the middle of the twentieth century, when postmodernism began to appear.

Modernism in literature

As a trend in literature, modernism takes shape on the eve of the First World War and reaches its peak in the 20s of the 20th century. Just like in art, modernism is an international movement represented by various schools - expressionism, Dadaism, surrealism, etc.

Three writers, D. Joyce, F. Kafka and M. Proust, are considered the founders of the modernist trend in literature, who developed new methods of working with the word. The philosopher F. Nietzsche, the concepts of Z. Freud and C. Jung had a strong influence on the literature of modernism.

The literature of modernism consists of numerous diverse groupings, united by the desire not to describe the surrounding reality, but to express themselves, which ultimately helped to direct the focus of public attention to the individuality of each person and had a significant impact on changing the psychology of society.

Russian modernism

An interesting phenomenon is modernism in Russia. Here it was presented primarily in the literature and has a number of features. In particular, like all modernist currents, had an interest in ancient mythological images, but in the Russian version of modernism this was reflected especially brightly, a clear reference point to mythology and folklore appeared in it. Russian modernism was inherent in that part of the intelligentsia that was most Europeanized. In the same way as Western modernism, modernism in Russia was to a certain extent permeated with decadent moods, which in particular concerns one of the largest currents - symbolism. And modernism throughout the world was represented by adherents of the coming spiritual revolution.

Modernism in Russian literature

Perhaps Russian modernism is best represented in the literature of the 20th century. Among the main currents, it is worth recalling acmeism, futurism and symbolism. All these currents carry characteristics modernism - the search for new ways of depicting reality and the rejection of traditional art.

Symbolism

As a trend in literature, symbolism appeared at the end of the 19th century in France. Poetry becomes individual, it consolidates instant impressions, strives to become as sensual and expressive as possible.

According to the symbolists, external and internal reality cannot be known in a rational way, therefore, the artist-creator, through the use of symbolism, is able to cognize secret meanings peace. Symbolism in Russia arose quite suddenly, and as its starting point, they usually note “On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature” - an article by the poet D. Merezhkovsky. He, Z. Gippius, V. Bryusov and others were one of the representatives of the senior symbolists, in whose work the themes of the uniqueness of the path of the creator, the imperfection of the world, were mainly raised. Next generation symbolists - young symbolists - uses the themes of transforming the world with the help of beauty, combining life and art, among the representatives were Blok, Andrei Bely, V. Ivanov, this generation of poets can be called utopians. Thanks to the representatives of symbolism, the word in poetry received many additional semantic shades, the language became more figurative and flexible.

Acmeism

This phenomenon arose as a counterbalance to symbolism, based on ideas about the clarity and clarity of the view of reality and its corresponding image. The word, in their opinion, should not be ambiguous, it should be worn original meaning, the style should be concise, restrained and expressive, the structure of the work should be strict and refined. The beginning of the existence of acmeism is associated with the emergence of the "Workshop of poets", whose leaders were the poets Gumilyov and Gorodetsky. In this current there is a roll call with literary traditions Golden Age of Russian Poetry. Other representatives of modernism include A. Akhmatova, O. Mandelstam, M. Kuzmin.

Futurism

Representatives of this most avant-garde of the trends sought to create art that would radically change the surrounding reality. They were distinguished not only by the use of experimental forms of creativity, bold poetic structure and language, but often by the fact that they committed outrageous acts and led an unusual lifestyle. Futurism was divided into several subgroups: egofuturism, cubofuturism, "Centrifuge" and included such famous poets like V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, D. Burliuk and many others. The time of the appearance of this modernist (and even more, avant-garde) trend is considered to be 1910, when the first collection of futuristic poetry "The Judges' Garden" was published.

Modernism in Russian painting

Modernism significantly manifested itself not only in Russian literature, but also in painting. Among the representatives of modernism in this art form, it is worth remembering first of all M. Vrubel, I. Bilibin, A. Benois, V. Vasnetsov - the list is endless, especially if you remember other artists who in one way or another turned to modernity in different time periods . Their work at the same time showed similarities with those searches that were taking place in Europe around the same time, but also differed markedly from them. They are characterized by a certain conditional decorativeness, clear and sculptural faces and figures of characters in the foreground, ornamentality and scale planes of colors. All these character traits attached paintings great expressiveness and tragedy. The main themes addressed by the artists were the themes of death, sorrow, sleep, legend, erotica. In addition, a certain value of the symbolism of colors and lines appeared in painting.

Common in Modernist Directions

So, in the finale, we can say that the different currents of modernism are brought together by the fact that they all oppose themselves to realism and the values ​​that realism reflected. Modernist works, regardless of the direction in art, were a kind of experiment, really new, unexpected and an unusual phenomenon in the culture of the late nineteenth century, constantly in search. Modernism and its stylistic trends strove to become a style, unlike other styles that arose naturally and organically in world culture, in essence, regardless of the desire of the creators. Perhaps the reason for such a short existence of this movement was that it put too much emphasis on individualism.

Modernism in literature originates on the eve of the First World War and reaches its peak in the twenties simultaneously in all countries Western Europe and in America. Modernism is an international phenomenon, consisting of different schools (Imagism, Dadaism, Expressionism, Constructivism, Surrealism, etc.). This is a revolution in literature, the participants of which announced a break not only with the tradition of realistic plausibility, but also with the Western cultural and literary tradition in general. Any previous trend in literature defined itself through its relation to the classical tradition: it was possible to directly proclaim antiquity as a model artistic creativity, like the classicists, or prefer the Middle Ages to antiquity, like romantics, but all cultural eras to modernism, therefore today they are called more and more often "classical" because they developed in line with the classical heritage of European thought. Modernism is the first cultural and literary era, which ended this legacy and gave new answers to "eternal" questions. As the English poet S. Spender wrote in 1930: “It seems to me that modernists are consciously striving to create a completely new literature. This is a consequence of their feeling that our age is in many ways unprecedented and stands outside any conventions of past art and literature."

The generation of the first modernists keenly felt the exhaustion of the forms of realistic narrative, their aesthetic fatigue. For modernists, the concept of "realism" meant the absence of an effort to independently comprehend the world, the mechanistic nature of creativity, superficiality, the boredom of vague descriptions - an interest in a button on a character's coat, and not in his state of mind. Modernists above all put the value of an individual artistic vision of the world; created by them artistic worlds uniquely dissimilar to each other, each bears the stamp of a bright creative individuality.

It fell to them to live in a period when the values ​​of traditional humanistic culture collapsed - "freedom" meant very different things in Western democracies and in totalitarian states; the carnage of World War I, in which weapons of mass destruction were used for the first time, showed the true cost human life for modern world; the humanistic ban on pain, on physical and spiritual violence was replaced by the practice of mass executions and concentration camps. Modernism is the art of a dehumanized era (the term of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset); the attitude to humanistic values ​​in modernism is ambiguous, but the world of modernists appears in a hard, cold light. Using the metaphor of J. Conrad, one can say that the hero of the modernist work seemed to stop for the night in an uncomfortable hotel at the end of the world, with very suspicious owners, in a shabby room, lit by the pitiless light of a lamp without a lampshade.

Modernists conceive of human existence as a brief, fragile moment; the subject may or may not be aware of the tragedy, the frailty of our absurd world, and the artist's job is to show the horror, grandeur and beauty that are contained in spite of everything in the moments of earthly existence. Social issues, which played such an important role in the realism of the 19th century, is given indirectly in modernism, as an inseparable part of a holistic portrait of a person. The main sphere of interest of modernists is the image of the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious in a person, the mechanisms of his perceptions, and the whimsical work of memory. The modernist hero is taken, as a rule, in the whole integrity of his experiences, his subjective being, although the very scale of his life can be small, insignificant. In modernism, the main line of development of the literature of the New Age continues to the constant decline in the social status of the hero; the modernist hero is a "everymenus," any and every person. Modernists have learned to describe such mental states of a person that literature had not noticed before, and they did it with such persuasiveness that it seemed to bourgeois critics an insult to morality and a profanation of the art of the word. Not only the content - the large role of intimate and sexual issues, the relativity of moral assessments, the emphasized apoliticality - but first of all, the unusual forms of modernist narrative caused a particularly sharp rejection. Today, when most masterpieces modernist literature entered school and university curricula, it is difficult for us to feel the rebellious, anti-bourgeois character of early modernism, the sharpness of the accusations and challenges thrown against it.

Three major writers of modernism- Irishman James Joyce (1882-1943), Frenchman Marcel Proust (1871-1922), Franz Kafka (1883-1924). Each of them in his own direction reformed the art of the word of the twentieth century, each is considered the great pioneer of modernism. Let's take Ulysses as an example.

The concept of modernism. Currents of modernism, their characteristics

Disappointment in the reality of life and the artistic realistic way of reproducing it led to an interest in the latest philosophical theories and the emergence of new artistic trends, which were called decadent, avant-garde and modernist. The French word "decadence" means decline, "avant-garde" - advanced protection, and "modern" - modern, most. These terms began to denote qualitatively new phenomena in the literary process, which stood at the forefront, avant-garde positions and were associated with the decline and crisis of public opinion and culture, with the joking of positive ideals, turning in these searches to God and faith, to the mystical and irrational.

Modernism- the general name of the directions of art and literature of the late XIX - early. XX century., Reflected the crisis of bourgeois culture and characterized the break with the traditions of realism and the aesthetics of the past. Modernism arose in France at the end of the 19th century. (Baudelaire, Verlaine, Rimbaud) and spread to Europe, Russia, Ukraine. Modernists believed that one should not look for any kind of logic, rational thought in a work of art. Therefore, the art of modernism was predominantly irrational in nature.

Protesting against outdated ideas and forms, the modernists were looking for new ways and means of artistic reflection of reality, found new artistic forms, and strove for a radical renewal of literature. In this regard, modernism has become a real artistic revolution and could be proud of such epochal discoveries in literature as an internal monologue and images of the human psyche in the form of a “stream of consciousness”, the discovery of distant associations, the theory of polyphony, the universalization of a specific artistic technique and its transformation into a general aesthetic principle, enrichment of artistic creativity through the discovery of the hidden content of life phenomena, the discovery of the unreal and the unknown.

Modernism is a social rebellion, and not just a revolution in the field of artistic form, because it caused speeches against the cruelties of social reality and the absurdity of the world, against the oppression of man, defending his right to be a free person. Modernism protested against crude materialism, against spiritual degeneration and poverty, stupid self-satisfied satiety. However, protesting against realism, modernism did not exclude all its achievements, but also used them, developed and enriched them in its search for new ways in art.

Common features of modernism:

o special attention to the inner world of the individual;

o invited self-values ​​of man and art;

o preference for creative intuition;

o understanding of literature as the highest knowledge, is able to penetrate into the innermost niches of the depth of the existence of the individual and spiritualize the world;

o search for new means in art (metal-language, symbolism, myth-making, etc.);

o the desire to discover new ideas that transform the world according to the laws of beauty and art. Such extreme, radical modernist movements as Dadaism or Futurism received

title avant-garde(from French avant - forward, garde - watchman, forward detachment) - direction to artistic culture XX century, which consisted in the rejection of existing norms and traditions, the transformation of new artistic means into an end in itself; displaying crisis, painful phenomena in life and culture in a perverted form. Rebelliousness is inherent in avant-garde.

Avant-garde trends and currents (Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism, " new novel"," drama of the absurd "," stream of consciousness " etc.) enriched and diversified literary process, leaving world literature many masterpieces of artistic creativity. They also significantly influenced writers who did not abandon the artistic principles of realism: a complex interweaving of realism, symbolism, neo-romanticism and the “stream of consciousness” arose. Realists also used the ideas of Z. Freud in their works, conducted formalistic searches in the field of artistic form, widely used the “stream of consciousness”, internal monologue, combined different time layers in one work.

Modernism as artistic direction was an internally heterogeneous conglomeration of artistic phenomena, which were based on common philosophical, philosophical and artistic principles. At the end of the XIX century. arose impressionism, symbolism and aestheticism. At the beginning of the XX century. expressionism, futurism, cubism were added to them, and during and after the First World War - Dadaism, surrealism, the “stream of consciousness” school, and literature, which included anti-novel, theater of the absurd.

Impressionism(from the French. "Impression") originated in the second half of the XIX century., And flourished in the XX century. It arose as a reaction to salon art and naturalism, first in painting (C. Monet, E. Manet, A. Renoir, E. Degas), from where it spread to other arts (A. Rodin in sculpture, M. Ravel, C. Debussy, I. Stravinsky in music) and literature. Here the Goncourt brothers and Paul Verlaine became the founders of impressionism. Expressed manifestations of impressionism were in the work of Guy de Maupassant and Marcel Proust, Knut Hamsun, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Yu. Tuwim belonged to the impressionists.

Protesting against overdependence on real life, against copying reality, the impressionists described their impressions of what they saw - visual and sensual, which were changeable, like the world itself, as well as shades of impressions and colors, their representations and associations were often fantastic and always sub "objective. The work of an impressionist is not an objective picture of the world, but a system of complex subjective impressions about it, brightly colored creative personality artist. Impressionists are especially vulnerable to the sensual beauty of the world; they perfectly reproduced nature, its beauty, the diversity and variability of life, the unity of nature with the human soul.

The most among the decadent trends of the late XIX - early XX century. became symbolism. The symbol was used as a means of expressing the incomprehensible essence of life phenomena and secret or even mystical personal ideas, creative insights, irrational insights of the artist. Symbols were considered the most perfect embodiment of ideas. Symbolic images reproduced the mysterious and irrational essence of the human soul and its life, the majestic progress of an inevitable fate, depicted afterlife, the metaphysical world of "other being", hinted at the mystical essence of the phenomena of life.

For the Symbolists, poetry, like music, was the highest form of cognition of secrets - the search and discovery of "otherness". The symbol gave rise to numerous associations, captivated by its ambiguity, deep hidden meaning which is difficult or even impossible to understand. Symbolists attached great importance internal sound, melody and rhythm of words, euphony and melodiousness of the language, emotional excitement that gripped the reader thanks to the rhythm and melody of the verse, the play of various associations. French poets Paul Verlaine, Mallarme, Arthur Rimbaud began symbolism. Having "conquered" France, symbolism quickly spread throughout Europe. In its various countries, symbolism was represented by Gabriel d'Anunzio (Italy), Rilke and Hugo von Hofmannsthal (Austria), Stefan George (Germany), Oscar Wilde (England), Emil Verhaern and Maurice Maeterlinck (Belgium), Gen-God Ibsen (Norway), Stanislav Przybyshevsky (Poland).

Aestheticism originated in the last decade of the 19th century. in England. He gave rise to the cult of refined beauty. The creators of aestheticism believed that realism was doomed to complete collapse, that social problems do not at all concern real art, and put forward the slogans "art for art's sake", "beauty for the sake of beauty itself". The most prominent representative of English aestheticism was Oscar Wilde.

Expressionism(from fr. "Expressiveness, expression") was also founded in the 19th century. This avant-garde trend received its full sound and weight in the first quarter of the 20th century. and became a significant contribution to the development of world literature. The Expressionists were closely connected with reality - it was she who shaped them and deeply moved them. They condemned the ugly phenomena of life, the cruelty of the world, protested against war and bloodshed, were full of philanthropy, affirmed positive ideals.

But the vision of the world by the expressionists was peculiar: the world seemed to them a chaotic system, which was led by incomprehensible forces, incomprehensible, unknowable, mysterious, and there was no escape from them. The only real one was inner world man and artist, their feelings and thoughts. It was he who should have been the focus of the writer. And it should be reproduced clearly, vividly, using grandiose conditional images, with broken proportions, overly intense, with the most clear intonations, that is, depicted using expressive images using paradoxical grotesque and in a fantastic perspective. Or not the most outstanding expressionist, Johannes Becher, considered the poetic image of "tension, open mouth in ecstasy" characteristic of expressionism. So, in the works of expressionists there is a lot of satire, grotesque, a lot of horrors, excessive cruelty, generalizations and subjective assessments of reality. Expressionism appeared first in painting (E. Munch, W. Van Gogh, P. Gauguin. P. Cezanne and others) and in music (Richard Strauss), to soon move into literature. G. Trakl and F. Kafka in Austria belong to the most expressionists; I. Becher and A. Frans in Germany; L. Andreev in Russia.

Imagism(from the French. "Image") - a trend that led to the emergence of Russian imagism. It appeared in England on the eve of the First World War and lasted until the mid-1920s. In Russia, for the first time, the Imagists declared themselves in 1919. The image of the Imagists and the Imagists proclaimed the end in itself of creativity. "A poem is not an organism, but a wave of images, one image can be extracted from it, ten more can be inserted," theorist of Russian imagism V. Shershenevich claimed. So, the representatives of this movement considered the poem to be a "catalogue of the image", an exquisite interweaving of metaphors, metonyms, epithets, comparisons and other tropes - a kind of capricious accumulation of colors, shades, images, rhythms and melodies. The content of the Imagists was relegated to the background: it "eats the way." Of course, Imagism could not, even if it wanted to, completely neglect the content. The work of S. Yesenin is the best confirmation of this idea. Representatives of Imagism in England and the USA are T.S. Eliot, R. Aldington, E. Pound, E. Lowell and others.

The concept of avant-garde. Avant-garde trends in world literature

Futurism(from Lat. "Future") arose in 1909, in Italy, its ancestor was F. Marinetti. From there it spread throughout Europe, receiving the name of cubism in France (M. Jacob, B. Cendrars), its futurism and cubo-futurism in Russia (I. Severyanin, take fur, V. Khlebnikov, V. Makhnovsky and others), avant-garde in Poland (Yu. Przybos and others). Ukrainian futurism, founded by M. Semenko, later called "pan-futurism".

Futurists proclaimed that they created the art of the future, which was in tune with the rhythms new era"skyscraper-machine-automobile" culture, and urged to discard tradition old culture, which they called disparagingly "the spittoon". Futurists sang hymns to technical progress, the city, cars, motors, propellers, "mechanical" beauty, noted the need to create a new man, worthy of his time technology, a man of a new mentality. They rejected the traditions of realistic literature, its language, its poetic technique. Introducing their own language, new words and phrases, the futurists even reached the point of absurdity: time invented words without any meaning.

The French cubists and Russian cubo-futurists were closely associated with the painters-mi-cubists, who tried to shock, amaze the townsfolk with the sharpness of colors and unusual content: they decomposed the image depicted into the simplest geometric elements - cubes (hence the name), squares, rectangles, lines, cylinders, circles, etc. Having proclaimed the cult of form, the Cubists relegated content to the background, elevated it to form. Writers puzzled the layman not only "in a language that no one had yet heard," but also by moving away from euphony towards cacophony, dissonances, and the accumulation of consonants that were difficult to pronounce.

Surrealism from fr. "sur" - over, that is, over-realism), which arose in France in the 1920s. Its founder and chief theorist was French writer Andre Breton, who called for "destroying the contradictions that exist to this day between dream and reality." He stated that the only area where a person can fully express himself is subconscious acts: sleep, delirium, etc., and demanded "automatic writing" from surrealist writers, that is, at the level of the subconscious.

School "stream of consciousness"- this is a means of depicting the human psyche directly, "from the inside", as a complex and current process, deepening into the inner world. Such works were characterized by the use of memories, internal monologues, associations, digressions and other artistic techniques. Representatives: D. Joyce, M. Proust, V. Wulff and others.

AT "drama of the absurd" reality was portrayed through the prism of pessimism. A dead end, a constant premonition of collapse, isolation from real world- characteristic features of the work. The behavior, the speech of the characters is illogical, the plot is destroyed. Creators - S. Beckett, E. Ionesco.

Questions for self-control

1. How literature is on the verge XIX-XX centuries is closely connected with all the vicissitudes of its time?

2. Name the most noticeable factors of literary development in the first half of the 20th century.

3. Give a general description of modernist literature.

4. What currents and trends are avant-garde? Give them a general description.