Romanticism in the literature of the 19th century. Russian romanticism in the literature of the first half of the 19th century

An important place in world art is occupied by the era of romanticism. This direction existed for a rather short amount of time in the history of literature, painting and music, but left a big mark in the formation of trends, the creation of images and plots. Let's take a closer look at this phenomenon.

Romanticism is an artistic direction in culture, characterized by the image of strong passions, an ideal world and the struggle of the individual with society.

The very word "romanticism" at first had the meaning of "mystical", "unusual", but later acquired a slightly different meaning: "other", "new", "progressive".

History of occurrence

The period of romanticism falls on the end of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century. The crisis of classicism and the excessive publicism of the Enlightenment led to a transition from the cult of reason to the cult of feeling. The link between classicism and romanticism was sentimentalism, in which feeling became rational and natural. He became a kind of source of a new direction. Romantics went further and completely immersed themselves in irrational reflections.

The origins of romanticism began to emerge in Germany, in which by that time the literary movement "Sturm und Drang" was popular. Its adherents expressed rather radical ideas, which served to create a romantic rebellious mood among them. The development of romanticism continued already in France, Russia, England, the USA and other countries. Caspar David Friedrich is considered the founder of romanticism in painting. The ancestor in Russian literature is Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky.

The main currents of romanticism were folklore (based on folk art), Byronic (melancholy and loneliness), grotesque fantasy (image of an unreal world), utopian (search for an ideal) and Voltaire (description of historical events).

Main features and principles

The main characteristic of romanticism is the predominance of feeling over reason. From reality, the author takes the reader to an ideal world or languishes for it himself. Hence one more sign - a dual world, created according to the principle of "romantic antithesis".

Romanticism can rightfully be considered an experimental direction in which fantastic images are skillfully woven into works. Escapism, that is, escape from reality, is achieved by the motives of the past or immersion in mysticism. The author chooses fantasy, the past, exotic or folklore as a means of escaping from reality.

The display of human emotions through nature is another feature of romanticism. If we talk about the originality in the image of a person, then often he appears to the reader as a lonely, atypical one. The motif of an “extra person” appears, a rebel who is disillusioned with civilization and fights against the elements.

Philosophy

The spirit of romanticism was imbued with the category of the sublime, that is, the contemplation of beauty. Adherents of the new era tried to rethink religion, explaining it as a sense of infinity, and put the idea of ​​the inexplicability of mystical phenomena above the ideas of atheism.

The essence of romanticism was the struggle of man against society, the predominance of sensuality over rationality.

How did romanticism manifest itself?

In art, romanticism manifested itself in all areas except architecture.

In music

Composers of romanticism looked at music in a new way. The melodies sounded the motive of loneliness, great attention was paid to conflict and duality, with the help of a personal tone, the authors added autobiography to the works for self-expression, new techniques were used: for example, expanding the timbre palette of sound.

As in literature, interest in folklore arose here, and fantastic images were added to operas. The main genres in musical romanticism were the previously unpopular song and miniature, opera and overture, which were transferred from classicism, as well as poetic genres: fantasy, ballad and others. The most famous representatives of this trend: Tchaikovsky, Schubert and Liszt. Examples of works: Berlioz "Fantastic Story", Mozart "Magic Flute" and others.

In painting

The aesthetics of romanticism has its own unique character. The most popular genre in Romantic paintings is landscape. For example, one of the most famous representatives of Russian romanticism, Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky, has this stormy sea element (“The Sea with a Ship”). One of the first Romantic artists, Caspar David Friedrich, introduced a third-person landscape into painting, showing a man from behind against the backdrop of a mysterious nature and creating the feeling that we are looking through the eyes of this character (examples of works: “Two Contemplating the Moon”, “Rocky coast of Ryugin Island). The superiority of nature over man and his loneliness is especially felt in the painting "The Monk on the Seashore".

Fine art in the era of romanticism became experimental. William Turner preferred to create canvases with sweeping strokes, with almost imperceptible details ("Snowstorm. Steamboat at the entrance to the harbor"). In turn, the harbinger of realism, Theodore Géricault, also painted paintings that bear little resemblance to images of real life. For example, in the painting “The Raft of the Medusa”, people dying of hunger look like athletically built heroes. If we talk about still lifes, then all the objects in the paintings are staged and cleaned (Charles Thomas Bale “Still Life with Grapes”).

In literature

If during the Enlightenment, with rare exceptions, there were no lyric and lyrical epic genres, then in romanticism they play a major role. The works are distinguished by figurativeness, originality of the plot. Either this is an embellished reality, or these are completely fantastic situations. The hero of romanticism has exceptional qualities that influence his fate. Books written two centuries ago are still in demand not only among schoolchildren and students, but also among all interested readers. Examples of works and representatives of the direction are presented below.

Abroad

Poets of the early 19th century include Heinrich Heine (The Book of Songs), William Wordsworth (Lyric Ballads), Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and George Noel Gordon Byron, author of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. The historical novels of Walter Scott (for example, "", "Quentin Dorward"), the novels of Jane Austen (""), the poems and stories of Edgar Allan Poe ("", ""), the stories of Washington Irving ("The Legend of Sleepy Hollow ”) and the tales of one of the first representatives of romanticism Ernest Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (“The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”, “”).

Also known are the works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Tales of an Old Sailor) and Alfred de Musset (Confessions of a Son of the Century). It is noteworthy with what ease the reader gets from the real world to the fictional one and vice versa, as a result of which they both merge into one. This is partly achieved by the simple language of many works and the laid-back narration of such unusual things.

In Russia

Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (elegy "", ballad "") is considered the founder of Russian romanticism. From the school curriculum, everyone is familiar with the poem by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov "", where special attention is paid to the motive of loneliness. It was not for nothing that the poet was called the Russian Byron. The philosophical lyrics of Fyodor Ivanovich Tyutchev, the early poems and poems of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, the poetry of Konstantin Nikolayevich Batyushkov and Nikolai Mikhailovich Yazykov - all this had a great influence on the development of domestic romanticism.

The early work of Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol is also presented in this direction (for example, mystical stories from the cycle ""). Interestingly, romanticism in Russia developed in parallel with classicism, and sometimes these two trends did not contradict each other too sharply.

The leading trend in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century was romanticism. Romanticism arose in the 1790s, first in Germany and then spread throughout Western Europe.

The main features of romanticism:

· Interest in folklore and national history.

· Depicting extraordinary characters in exceptional circumstances. Interest in the unconscious, intuitive.

· Appeal to eternal ideals (love, beauty), discord with modern reality.

English and German romanticism had the greatest influence on Russian literature. But, in addition, there are actually Russian prerequisites for the emergence of Russian romanticism. First of all, this is the Patriotic War of 1812, which clearly showed the greatness and strength of the common people. 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 originality of Russian romanticism:

1. Historical optimism - the hope of overcoming the contradictions between the ideal and reality.

2. Russian romantics did not accept the cult of a proud and selfish personality.

The founder of Russian romanticism is V.A. Zhukovsky. Romanticism includes the work of poets Denis Davydov, Nikolai Yazykov, Kondraty Ryleev, Yevgeny Baratynsky.

Ø Exercise. Read the poems carefully, find the features of romanticism in them.

Excommunicated from a friendly branch,

Say, solitary leaf,

Where are you flying?.. "I don't know myself;

The storm broke the dear oak;

Since then, through the valleys, over the mountains

Worn by chance

I strive where rock tells me,

Where in the world everything aspires

Where the bay leaf rushes,

And a light pink leaf."

V. Zhukovsky

Do not laugh at the young generation!
You will never understand
How can you live with one desire,
Only a thirst for will and goodness ...

You don't understand how it burns
Courage swearing breast of a fighter,
How holy the lad dies,
Faithful to the motto to the end!

So don't call them home
And do not interfere with their aspirations, -
After all, each of the fighters is a hero!
Be proud of the young generation!

Topic 1.2 A.S. Pushkin (1799-1837). Life and creative path. The main themes and motives of A.S. Pushkin

Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was born on May 26 (June 6), 1799 in Moscow, in the German Quarter. Brought up by French tutors, from home schooling he took out only an excellent knowledge of French and a love of reading.

In 1811, Pushkin entered the newly opened Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. After graduating from the Lyceum in June 1817, with the rank of collegiate secretary, Pushkin was appointed to serve in the Collegium of Foreign Affairs, where he did not work even a day, completely devoting himself to creativity. The poems “Liberty”, “To Chaadaev”, “Village”, “On Arakcheev” belong to this period.

Even before graduating from the Lyceum, in 1817, he began to write the poem "Ruslan and Lyudmila", which he finished in March 1820.

In May he was exiled to the south of Russia for "flooding Russia with outrageous verses". In July 1823, Pushkin was transferred under the command of Count Vorontsov, and he moved to Odessa. In Mikhailovsky, where he was exiled in 1824, Pushkin formed himself as a realist artist: he continued to write "Eugene Onegin", began "Boris Godunov", wrote poems "Davydov", "On Vorontsov", "On Alexander I", etc. .

In 1828, Pushkin left without permission for the Caucasus. The impressions of this trip are conveyed in his essays “Journey to Arzrum”, poems “Caucasus”, “Collapse”, “On the Hills of Georgia”.

In 1830, a cholera epidemic forced him to stay in Boldino for several months. This period of the poet's work is known as "Boldino Autumn". In Boldin, such works were written as “The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin”, “Little Tragedies”, “The House in Kolomna”, “The Tale of the Priest and His Worker Balda”, the poems “Elegy”, “Demons”, “Forgiveness” and many others, completed "Eugene Onegin".

In the summer of 1831, Pushkin again entered the civil service in the Foreign Collegium with the right of access to the state archive. He began to write "The History of Pugachev", a historical study "The History of Peter I".

The last years of Pushkin's life passed in a difficult situation, increasingly aggravated relations with the tsar and enmity towards the poet of influential circles of the court and bureaucratic aristocracy. But, although in such conditions creative work could not be intensive, it was in recent years that The Queen of Spades, Egyptian Nights, The Captain's Daughter, the poem The Bronze Horseman, and fairy tales were written.

At the end of 1835, Pushkin received permission to publish his own journal, which he called Sovremennik.

In the winter of 1837 between A.S. Pushkin and Georges Dantes had a conflict that led to a duel on January 27, 1837. In this duel, the poet was mortally wounded and died two days later. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin was buried near the walls of the Svyatogorsky Monastery, near the Mikhailovskoye estate.

The following periods are distinguished in Pushkin's work:

1).1813 - May 1817 - lyceum period. The time of poetic self-determination, the time of choosing the path. "To a Poet Friend", "Memories in Tsarskoye Selo"

2) June 1817 – May 1820 - Petersburg period. A decisive stage in the formation of Pushkin's original poetic style. "Liberty", "Village", "To Chaadaev", "Ruslan and Lyudmila"

3) May 1820 - August 1824 - period of southern exile. Romantic lyrics. “The daylight has gone out”, “The flying ridge is thinning clouds”, “To Ovid”, “The Song of the Prophetic Oleg”, “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Brothers - Robbers”, “The Fountain of Bakhchisaray”, “Gypsies”

4) August 1824 - September 1826 - the period of exile in Mikhailovskoye. Time for a change in aesthetic orientations. "To the Sea", "Prophet", "I Remember a Wonderful Moment", "The Burnt Letter", "Count Nulin", "Boris Godunov", 3-6 chapters of "Eugene Onegin"

5) September 1826 - September 1830 - works of the second half of the 1920s. "Arion", "In the depths of the Siberian ores", "Stans", "Poet", "To the poet", "Do I wander along the noisy streets", "Poltava", "Arap of Peter the Great"

6) September - November 1830 - Boldin autumn. The most fruitful period of creativity. "Tales of the late Ivan Petrovich Belkin". “House in Kolomna”, “little tragedies” (“The Miserly Knight”, “Mozart and Salieri”, “Stone Guest”, “Feast during the Plague”, “The Tale of the Priest and his worker Balda”, “Elegy”, “ Demons”, finished “Eugene Onegin”

7) 1831 - 1836 - creativity of the 30s. "The Captain's Daughter", "The Bronze Horseman", "The Queen of Spades", "The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish", "The Tale of the Dead Princess and the Seven Bogatyrs", "I Visited Again", "The Desert Fathers and Immaculate Wives", "I erected a monument to himself not made by hands"

The Problem of Romanticism belongs to the most complex in the science of literature. Difficulties in solving this problem are predetermined to some extent by insufficient clarity of terminology. Romanticism is also called the artistic method, and the literary direction, and a special type of consciousness and behavior. However, despite the debatability of a number of provisions of a theoretical and historical-literary nature, most scholars agree that romanticism was a necessary link in the artistic development of mankind, that without it the achievement of realism would have been impossible.

Russian romanticism at its inception, it was associated, of course, with the pan-European literary movement. At the same time, it was internally conditioned by the objective process of the development of Russian culture; the tendencies that were laid down in Russian literature of the previous period found development in it. Russian romanticism was generated by the impending socio-historical turning point in the development of Russia, it reflected the transition, instability of the existing socio-political structure. The gap between the ideal and reality caused a negative attitude of progressive people in Russia (and above all the Decembrists) to the cruel, unjust and immoral life of the ruling classes. Until recently, the most daring hopes for the possibility of creating social relations based on the principles of reason and justice were associated with the ideas of the Enlightenment.

It soon became clear that these hopes were not justified. Deep disappointment in educational ideals, a resolute rejection of bourgeois reality, and at the same time a misunderstanding of the essence of the antagonistic contradictions that exist in life, led to feelings of hopelessness, pessimism, disbelief in reason.

Romantics claimed that the highest value is the human person, in whose soul there is a beautiful and mysterious world; only here you can find inexhaustible sources of true beauty and high feelings. Behind all this, one can see (albeit not always clearly) a new concept of a person who cannot and should no longer submit himself to the power of estate-feudal morality. In his art work Romantics in most cases sought not to reflect reality (which seemed to them low, anti-aesthetic), not to clarify the objective logic of the development of life (they were not at all sure that such a logic existed). At the heart of their artistic system was not an object, but a subject: the personal, subjective beginning acquires decisive importance among the romantics.

Romanticism is based on the assertion of an inevitable conflict, the complete incompatibility of everything truly spiritual, human with the existing way of life (whether it be a feudal or bourgeois way of life). If life is based only on material calculation, then, naturally, everything lofty, moral, humane is alien to it. Therefore, the ideal is somewhere beyond this life, beyond feudal or bourgeois relations. Reality, as it were, fell apart into two worlds: the vulgar, ordinary here and the wonderful, romantic there. Hence the appeal to unusual, exceptional, conditional, sometimes even fantastic images and paintings, the desire for everything exotic - everything that opposes everyday, everyday reality, everyday prose.

The romantic concept of human character is built on the same principle. The hero is opposed to the environment, rises above it. Russian romanticism was not homogeneous. It is usually noted that there are two main currents in it. The terms psychological and civic romanticism adopted in modern science highlight the ideological and artistic specificity of each trend. In one case, romantics, feeling the growing instability of social life, which did not satisfy their ideal ideas, went into the world of dreams, into the world of feelings, experience, psychology. Recognition of the inherent value of the human personality, a keen interest in the inner life of a person, the desire to reveal the richness of his spiritual experiences - these were the strengths of psychological romanticism, the most prominent representative of which was V.

A. Zhukovsky. He and his supporters put forward the idea of ​​the inner freedom of the individual, its independence from the social environment, from the world in general, where a person cannot be happy. Having not achieved freedom in the socio-political plane, the Romantics insisted all the more stubbornly on the affirmation of the spiritual freedom of man.

With this current genetically related appearance in the 30s of the XIX century. a special stage in the history of Russian romanticism, which is most often called philosophical.

Instead of the high genres cultivated in classicism (ode), other genre forms arise. In the field of lyrical poetry among romantics, the elegy becomes the leading genre, conveying moods of sadness, grief, disappointment, melancholy. Pushkin, having made Lensky ("Eugene Onegin") a romantic poet, in a subtle parody listed the main motifs of elegiac lyrics:

• He sang separation and sadness,
• And something, and a foggy distance,
• And romantic roses;
• He sang those distant countries

Representatives of another trend in Russian romanticism called for a direct fight against modern society, glorifying the civic prowess of the fighters.

Creating poems of high social and patriotic sound, they (and these were primarily Decembrist poets) also used certain traditions of classicism, especially those genre and stylistic forms that gave their poems the character of upbeat oratorical speech. They saw literature primarily as a means of propaganda and struggle. Whatever forms the controversy took between the two main currents of Russian romanticism, there were still common features of romantic art that united them: the opposition of a lofty ideal hero to the world of evil and lack of spirituality, a protest against the foundations of autocratic-feudal reality that fettered a person.

Of particular note is the persistent desire of the Romantics to create an original national culture. In direct connection with this is their interest in national history, oral folk poetry, the use of many folklore genres, etc.

d. Russian romantics also united the idea of ​​the need for a direct connection between the life of the author and his poetry. In life itself, the poet must behave poetically, in accordance with the high ideals that are proclaimed in his poems. K. N. Batyushkov expressed this requirement in the following way: “Live as you write, and write as you live” (“Something about a Poet and Poetry”, 1815). Thus, a direct connection between literary creativity and the life of the poet, his very personality was affirmed, which gave the poems a special power of emotional and aesthetic impact.

In the future, Pushkin managed to combine the best traditions and artistic achievements of both psychological and civic romanticism at a higher level. That is why Pushkin's work is the pinnacle of Russian romanticism of the 20s of the 19th century. Pushkin, and then Lermontov and Gogol, could not pass by the achievements of romanticism, its experience and discoveries.

Romanticism in European Literature

European romanticism of the 19th century is remarkable in that, in its own way, most of its works have a fantastic basis. These are numerous fairy-tale legends, short stories and stories.

The main countries in which romanticism as a literary movement manifested itself most expressively are France, England and Germany.

This artistic phenomenon has several stages:

1. 1801-1815. The beginning of the formation of romantic aesthetics.

2. 1815-1830. The formation and flourishing of the current, the definition of the main postulates of this direction.

3. 1830-1848. Romanticism takes on more social forms.

Each of the above countries has made its own, special contribution to the development of the aforementioned cultural phenomenon. In France, romantic literary works had a more political tinge, and writers were hostile to the new bourgeoisie. This society, according to French leaders, ruined the integrity of the individual, her beauty and freedom of spirit.

In English legends, romanticism has existed for a long time, but until the end of the 18th century it did not stand out as a separate literary movement. English works, unlike French ones, are filled with Gothic, religion, national folklore, the culture of peasant and working societies (including spiritual ones). In addition, English prose and lyrics are filled with travel to distant lands and exploration of foreign lands.

In Germany, romanticism as a literary trend was formed under the influence of idealistic philosophy. The basis was the individuality and freedom of man, oppressed by feudalism, as well as the perception of the universe as a single living system. Almost every German work is permeated with reflections on the existence of man and the life of his spirit.

The most famous works of European literature in the style of romanticism are:

1. the treatise “The Genius of Christianity”, the stories “Atala” and “Rene” by Chateaubriand;

2. novels "Delphine", "Corinne, or Italy" by Germaine de Stael;

3. the novel "Adolf" by Benjamin Constant;

4. the novel "Confession of the son of the century" by Musset;

5. the novel Saint-Mar by Vigny;

6. manifesto "Preface" to the work "Cromwell"

7. the novel "Notre Dame Cathedral" by Hugo;

8. drama "Henry III and his court", a series of novels about musketeers, "The Count of Monte Cristo" and "Queen Margo" by Dumas;

9. novels "Indiana", "Wandering Apprentice", "Horas", "Consuelo" by George Sand;

10. manifesto "Racine and Shakespeare" by Stendhal;

11. the poems "The Old Sailor" and "Christabel" by Coleridge;

12. Oriental Poems and Manfred by Byron;

13. collected works of Balzac;

14. novel "Ivanhoe" by Walter Scott;

15. collections of short stories, fairy tales and novels by Hoffmann.

Romanticism in Russian literature

Russian romanticism of the 19th century was a direct result of rebellious moods and anticipation of turning points in the history of the country. The socio-historical prerequisites for the emergence of romanticism in Russia are the aggravation of the crisis of the feudal system, the nationwide upsurge of 1812, and the formation of noble revolutionary spirit.

Romantic ideas, moods, artistic forms were clearly identified in Russian literature at the end of the 1800s. Initially, however, they crossed with the heterogeneous pre-romantic traditions of sentimentalism (Zhukovsky), Anacreontic "light poetry" (K.N. Batyushkov, P.A. Vyazemsky, young Pushkin, N.M. Yazykov), enlightenment rationalism (the Decembrist poets - - K. F. Ryleev, V. K. Kuchelbeker, A. I. Odoevsky and others). The pinnacle of Russian romanticism in the first period (before 1825) was Pushkin's work (a number of romantic poems and a cycle of "southern poems").

After 1823, in connection with the defeat of the Decembrists, the romantic beginning intensified, gaining independent expression (the later work of the Decembrist writers, the philosophical lyrics of E.A. Baratynsky and the poets - “Lyubomudrov” - D.V. Venevitinova, S.P. Shevyrev, A. S. Khomyakova).

Romantic prose is developing (A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, the early works of N.V. Gogol, A.I. Herzen). The peak of the second period was the work of M.Yu. Lermontov. Another top phenomenon of Russian poetry and at the same time the completion of the romantic tradition in Russian literature is the philosophical lyrics of F. I. Tyutchev.

There are two trends in the literature of that time:

Psychological - which was based on the description and analysis of feelings and experiences.

Civil - based on the propaganda of the fight against modern society.

The general and main idea of ​​all novelists was that the poet or writer should behave according to the ideals that he described in his works.

The most striking examples of romanticism in Russian literature of the 19th century are:

1. stories "Ondine", "Prisoner of Chillon", ballads "Forest King", "Fisherman", "Lenora" by Zhukovsky;

2. works "Eugene Onegin", "The Queen of Spades" by Pushkin;

3. "The Night Before Christmas" by Gogol;

4. "Hero of our time" Lermontov.

romantic european russian american

Romanticism (fr. romantisme) is a phenomenon of European culture in the 18th-19th centuries, which is a reaction to the Enlightenment and the scientific and technological progress stimulated by it; ideological and artistic direction in European and American culture of the late 18th century - the first half of the 19th century. It is characterized by the assertion of the intrinsic value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the image of strong (often rebellious) passions and characters, spiritualized and healing nature. It spread to various spheres of human activity. In the 18th century, everything that was strange, fantastic, picturesque, and existing in books, and not in reality, was called romantic. At the beginning of the 19th century, romanticism became the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism and the Enlightenment.

Romanticism in literature

Romanticism first arose in Germany, among the writers and philosophers of the Jena school (W. G. Wackenroder, Ludwig Tieck, Novalis, the brothers F. and A. Schlegel). The philosophy of romanticism was systematized in the works of F. Schlegel and F. Schelling. In the further development of German romanticism, interest in fairy-tale and mythological motifs was distinguished, which was especially clearly expressed in the work of the brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, Hoffmann. Heine, starting his work within the framework of romanticism, later subjected him to a critical revision.

Theodore Géricault Plot "Medusas" (1817), Louvre

England is largely due to German influence. In England, its first representatives are the poets of the Lake School, Wordsworth and Coleridge. They established the theoretical foundations of their direction, having familiarized themselves with the philosophy of Schelling and the views of the first German romantics during a trip to Germany. English romanticism is characterized by an interest in social problems: they oppose modern bourgeois society with old, pre-bourgeois relations, the glorification of nature, simple, natural feelings.

A prominent representative of English romanticism is Byron, who, in the words of Pushkin, "clothed in dull romanticism and hopeless egoism." His work is imbued with the pathos of struggle and protest against the modern world, the glorification of freedom and individualism.

Also, English romanticism includes the work of Shelley, John Keats, William Blake.

Romanticism also spread in other European countries, for example, in France (Chateaubriand, J. Stael, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny, Prosper Merimee, George Sand), Italy (N. W. Foscolo, A. Manzoni, Leopardi) , Poland (Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Slowacki, Zygmunt Krasiński, Cyprian Norwid) and in the USA (Washington Irving, Fenimore Cooper, W. K. Bryant, Edgar Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Longfellow, Herman Melville).

Stendhal also considered himself a French romantic, but he meant by romanticism something different than most of his contemporaries. In the epigraph of the novel "Red and Black", he took the words "True, bitter truth", emphasizing his vocation for a realistic study of human characters and actions. The writer was addicted to romantic outstanding natures, for which he recognized the right to "go hunting for happiness." He sincerely believed that it depends only on the way of society whether a person can realize his eternal craving for well-being, given by nature itself.

Romanticism in Russian literature

It is usually believed that in Russia romanticism appears in the poetry of V. A. Zhukovsky (although some Russian poetic works of the 1790-1800s are often attributed to the pre-romantic movement that developed from sentimentalism). In Russian romanticism, freedom from classical conventions appears, a ballad, a romantic drama, is created. A new idea of ​​the essence and meaning of poetry is affirmed, which is recognized as an independent sphere of life, an expression of the highest, ideal aspirations of man; the old view, according to which poetry was an empty pastime, something completely serviceable, is no longer possible.

The early poetry of A. S. Pushkin also developed within the framework of romanticism. The poetry of M. Yu. Lermontov, the “Russian Byron”, can be considered the pinnacle of Russian romanticism. The philosophical lyrics of F. I. Tyutchev are both the completion and the overcoming of romanticism in Russia.

The emergence of romanticism in Russia

In the 19th century, Russia was in a certain cultural isolation. Romanticism arose seven years later than in Europe. You can talk about his some imitation. In Russian culture, there was no opposition of man to the world and God. Zhukovsky appears, who remakes the German ballads in a Russian way: "Svetlana" and "Lyudmila". Byron's variant of romanticism was lived and felt in his work first in Russian culture by Pushkin, then by Lermontov.

Russian romanticism, starting with Zhukovsky, flourished in the works of many other writers: K. Batyushkov, A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, E. Baratynsky, F. Tyutchev, V. Odoevsky, V. Garshin, A. Kuprin, A. Blok, A. Green, K. Paustovsky and many others.

ADDITIONALLY.

Romanticism (from the French Romantisme) is an ideological and artistic trend that arises at the end of the 18th century in European and American culture and continues until the 40s of the 19th century. Reflecting disappointment in the results of the French Revolution, in the ideology of the Enlightenment and bourgeois progress, romanticism opposed utilitarianism and the leveling of the individual with the aspiration for unlimited freedom and the “infinite”, the thirst for perfection and renewal, the pathos of the individual and civil independence.

The painful disintegration of the ideal and social reality is the basis of the romantic worldview and art. The affirmation of the inherent value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the image of strong passions, spiritualized and healing nature, is adjacent to the motifs of "world sorrow", "world evil", the "night" side of the soul. Interest in the national past (often its idealization), the traditions of folklore and culture of one's own and other peoples, the desire to publish a universal picture of the world (primarily history and literature) found expression in the ideology and practice of Romanticism.

Romanticism is observed in literature, fine arts, architecture, behavior, clothing and psychology of people.

REASONS FOR THE ORIGIN OF ROMANTICISM.

The immediate cause that caused the emergence of romanticism was the Great French bourgeois revolution. How did this become possible?

Before the revolution, the world was ordered, there was a clear hierarchy in it, each person took his place. The revolution overturned the "pyramid" of society, a new one has not yet been created, so the individual has a feeling of loneliness. Life is a flow, life is a game in which some are lucky and some are not. In literature, images of players appear - people who play with fate. One can recall such works by European writers as Hoffmann's "The Gambler", Stendhal's "Red and Black" (and red and black are the colors of roulette!), and in Russian literature these are Pushkin's "Queen of Spades", Gogol's "Gamblers", "Masquerade" Lermontov.

THE MAIN CONFLICT OF ROMANTISM

The main one is the conflict of man with the world. The psychology of the rebellious personality arises, which Lord Byron most deeply reflected in Childe Harold's Journey. The popularity of this work was so great that a whole phenomenon arose - "Byronism", and whole generations of young people tried to imitate him (such, for example, Pechorin in Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time").

Romantic heroes are united by a sense of their own exclusivity. "I" - is realized as the highest value, hence the egocentrism of the romantic hero. But focusing on oneself, a person comes into conflict with reality.

REALITY - the world is strange, fantastic, unusual, as in Hoffmann's fairy tale "The Nutcracker", or ugly, as in his fairy tale "Little Tsakhes". Strange events take place in these tales, objects come to life and enter into lengthy conversations, the main theme of which is a deep gap between ideals and reality. And this gap becomes the main THEME of the lyrics of romanticism.

THE ERA OF ROMANTISM

Before the writers of the early 19th century, whose work took shape after the French Revolution, life set different tasks than before their predecessors. They were to discover and artistically form a new continent for the first time.

The thinking and feeling man of the new century had a long and instructive experience of previous generations behind him, he was endowed with a deep and complex inner world, before his eyes hovered the images of the heroes of the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars, the national liberation movements, the images of the poetry of Goethe and Byron. In Russia, the Patriotic War of 1812 played the role of an important historical milestone in the spiritual and moral development of society, profoundly changing the cultural and historical image of Russian society. In terms of its significance for national culture, it can be compared with the period of the 18th century revolution in the West.

And in this era of revolutionary storms, military upheavals and national liberation movements, the question arises whether, on the basis of a new historical reality, a new literature can arise that is not inferior in its artistic perfection to the greatest phenomena of the literature of the ancient world and the Renaissance? And can its further development be based on “modern man”, a man from the people? But a man of the people who participated in the French Revolution or on whose shoulders the burden of the struggle with Napoleon fell could not be described in literature by means of novelists and poets of the previous century - he demanded other methods for his poetic embodiment.

PUSHKIN - ROMANTIC PROGRAVER

Only Pushkin, the first in Russian literature of the 19th century, was able to find adequate means in both poetry and prose to embody the versatile spiritual world, the historical appearance and behavior of that new, deeply thinking and feeling hero of Russian life, who occupied a central place in it after 1812 and in features after the Decembrist uprising.

In the lyceum poems, Pushkin still could not, and did not dare to make the hero of his lyrics a real person of the new generation with all the internal psychological complexity inherent in him. Pushkin's poem represented, as it were, the resultant of two forces: the poet's personal experience and the conditional, "ready-made", traditional poetic formula-scheme, according to the internal laws of which this experience was shaped and developed.

However, gradually the poet is freed from the power of the canons and in his poems we are no longer presented with a young “philosopher”-Epicurean, an inhabitant of a conditional “town”, but a man of the new century, with his rich and intense intellectual and emotional inner life.

A similar process takes place in Pushkin's work in any genre, where conventional images of characters, already consecrated by tradition, give way to the figures of living people with their complex, diverse actions and psychological motives. At first, this is a somewhat more abstract Prisoner or Aleko. But soon they are replaced by the very real Onegin, Lensky, the young Dubrovsky, German, Charsky. And, finally, the most complete expression of the new type of personality will be Pushkin's lyrical "I", the poet himself, whose spiritual world is the deepest, richest and most complex expression of the burning moral and intellectual issues of the time.

One of the conditions for the historical revolution that Pushkin made in the development of Russian poetry, dramaturgy and narrative prose was the fundamental break he made with the educational-rationalistic, ahistorical idea of ​​the "nature" of man, the laws of human thinking and feeling.

The complex and contradictory soul of the “young man” of the early 19th century in “The Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Gypsies”, “Eugene Onegin” became for Pushkin an object of artistic and psychological observation and study in its special, specific and unique historical quality. Putting his hero every time in certain conditions, depicting him in various circumstances, in new relationships with people, exploring his psychology from different angles and using for this every time a new system of artistic "mirrors", Pushkin in his lyrics, southern poems and Onegin ” strives from various sides to approach the understanding of his soul, and through it - further to the understanding of the laws of contemporary socio-historical life reflected in this soul.

The historical understanding of man and human psychology began to emerge in Pushkin in the late 1810s and early 1820s. We find the first distinct expression of it in the historical elegies of this time (“The daylight went out ...” (1820), “To Ovid” (1821), etc.) and in the poem “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, the main character of which was conceived by Pushkin, by the poet's own admission, as a bearer of feelings and moods characteristic of the youth of the 19th century with its "indifference to life" and "premature old age of the soul" (from a letter to V.P. Gorchakov, October-November 1822)

32. The main themes and motifs of A.S. Pushkin’s philosophical lyrics of the 1830s (“Elegy”, “Demons”, “Autumn”, “When outside the city ...”, Kamennoostrovsky cycle, etc.). Genre-style searches.

Reflections on life, its meaning, its purpose, on death and immortality become the leading philosophical motifs of Pushkin's lyrics at the stage of completion of the "celebration of life". Among the poems of this period, the most notable is “Do I wander along the noisy streets ...” The motif of death, its inevitability, persistently sounds in it. The problem of death is solved by the poet not only as an inevitability, but also as a natural completion of earthly existence:

I say the years go by

And how many of us are not visible here,

We will all descend under the eternal vaults -

And someone's hour is near.

The poems amaze with the amazing generosity of Pushkin's heart, which is able to welcome life even when there is no more room left for it.

And let at the coffin entrance

Young will play life

And indifferent nature

Shine with eternal beauty -

The poet writes, completing the poem.

In "Road Complaints" A.S. Pushkin writes about the disorder of his personal life, about what he lacked from childhood. Moreover, the poet perceives his own fate in the all-Russian context: Russian off-road has both direct and figurative meaning in the poem, the historical wandering of the country in search of the right path of development is embedded in the meaning of this word.

Off road problem. But already different. Spiritual, properties appear in A.S. Pushkin's poem "Demons". It tells about the loss of a person in the whirlwinds of historical events. The motif of spiritual impassibility was suffered by the poet, who thinks a lot about the events of 1825, about his own miraculous deliverance from the fate that befell the participants in the popular uprising of 1825, about the actual miraculous deliverance from the fate that befell the participants in the uprising on Senate Square. In Pushkin's poems, the problem of being chosen, understanding the high mission entrusted by God to him as a poet, arises. It is this problem that becomes the leading one in the poem "Arion".

Continues the philosophical lyrics of the thirties, the so-called Kamennoostrovsky cycle, the core of which is the poems "The Hermit Fathers and Immaculate Wives ...", "Imitation of Italian", "Worldly Power", "From Pindemonti". This cycle brings together reflections on the problem of poetic knowledge of the world and man. From the pen of A.S. Pushkin comes a poem, an arrangement of the Lenten prayer by Yefim the Sirin. Reflections on religion, on its great strengthening moral power, become the leading motive of this poem.

Pushkin the philosopher experienced a real heyday in the Boldin autumn of 1833. Among the major works about the role of fate in human life, about the role of personality in history, the poetic masterpiece "Autumn" attracts. The motive of man's connection with the cycle of natural life and the motive of creativity are the leading ones in this poem. Russian nature, life merged with it, obeying its laws, seems to the author of the poem to be the greatest value, without it there is no inspiration, and therefore no creativity. “And every autumn I bloom again ...” - the poet writes about himself.

Peering into the artistic fabric of the poem "... Again I visited ...", the reader easily discovers a whole range of themes and motifs of Pushkin's lyrics, expressing ideas about man and nature, about time, about memory and fate. It is against their background that the main philosophical problem of this poem sounds - the problem of generational change. Nature awakens in man the memory of the past, although she herself has no memory. It is updated, repeating itself in each of its updates. Therefore, the noise of new pine trees of the “young tribe”, which descendants will someday hear, will be the same as now, and it will touch those strings in their souls that will make them remember the deceased ancestor, who also lived in this repeating world. This is what allows the author of the poem "... Again I visited ..." to exclaim: "Hello, young tribe, unfamiliar!"

The path of the great poet through the "cruel age" was long and thorny. He led to immortality. The motive of poetic immortality is the leading one in the poem “I erected a monument to myself not made by hands ...”, which became a kind of testament to A.S. Pushkin.

Thus, philosophical motives were inherent in Pushkin's lyrics throughout his entire work. They arose in connection with the poet's appeal to the problems of death and immortality, faith and unbelief, generational change, creativity, the meaning of being. All the philosophical lyrics of A.S. Pushkin can be subjected to periodization, which will correspond to the life stages of the great poet, at each of which she thought about some very specific problems. However, at any stage of his work, A.S. Pushkin spoke in his poems only about what is generally significant for mankind. This is probably why “the folk path will not grow” to this Russian poet.

ADDITIONALLY.

Analysis of the poem "When out of town, thoughtfully I wander"

“... When outside the city, thoughtful, I wander ...”. So Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin

begins a poem of the same name.

Reading this poem, it becomes clear his attitude to all feasts

and luxury of city and metropolitan life.

Conventionally, this poem can be divided into two parts: the first is about the capital's cemetery,

the other is about agriculture. In the transition from one to another, and changes accordingly

mood of the poet, but, highlighting the role of the first line in the poem, I think it would be

it is a mistake to take the first line of the first part as defining the whole mood of the verse, because

lines: “But how delightful it is for me In the autumn sometimes, in the evening silence, In the village to visit

a family cemetery…” Cardinally change the direction of the poet's thoughts.

In this poem, the conflict is expressed in the form of opposition to the urban

cemeteries, where: “Grates, columns, ornate tombs. Under which all the dead rot

capitals In a swamp, somehow cramped in a row ... ”and a rural, closer to the poet’s heart,

cemeteries: “Where the dead slumber in solemn rest, there are undecorated graves

space ... ”But, again, comparing these two parts of the poem, one cannot forget about

the last lines, which, it seems to me, reflect the whole attitude of the author to these two

completely different places:

1. “What evil finds despondency in me, Though spit and run ...”

2. “An oak tree stands wide over important coffins, hesitating and making noise…” Two parts

one poem compared as day and night, moon and sun. Author through

comparison of the true purpose of those who come to these cemeteries and those who lie underground

shows us how different the same concepts can be.

I'm talking about the fact that a widow or a widower will come to the city cemeteries only for the sake of

in order to create an impression of grief and sorrow, although it is not always correct. Those who

lies under “inscriptions and prose and in verse” during life they cared only “On the virtues,

about service and ranks”.

On the contrary, if we talk about the rural cemetery. People go there to

pour out your soul and talk to those who are no longer there.

It seems to me that it is not by chance that Alexander Sergeevich wrote such a poem for

year before his death. He was afraid, as I think, that he would be buried in the same city,

capital cemetery and he will have the same grave as those whose tombstones he contemplated.

“Thieves from the pillars unscrewed the urns

Slimy graves, which are also here,

Yawning, they are waiting for the tenants to their place in the morning.

Analysis of the poem by A.S. Pushkin "Elegy"

Crazy years faded fun

It's hard for me, like a vague hangover.

But, like wine - the sadness of bygone days

In my soul, the older, the stronger.

My path is sad. Promises me labor and sorrow

The coming turbulent sea.

But I don't want, oh friends, to die;

And I know I will enjoy

Amid sorrows, worries and anxieties:

Sometimes I'll get drunk again with harmony,

I will shed tears over fiction,

A. S. Pushkin wrote this elegy in 1830. It belongs to philosophical lyrics. Pushkin turned to this genre as an already middle-aged poet, wise in life and experience. This poem is deeply personal. Two stanzas make up a semantic contrast: the first one talks about the drama of the life path, the second one sounds like an apotheosis of creative self-realization, the high purpose of the poet. We can easily identify the lyrical hero with the author himself. In the first lines (“of crazy years, the fun that has faded / it’s hard for me, like a vague hangover.”) the poet says that he is no longer young. Looking back, he sees behind him the path traveled, which is far from perfect: the past fun, from which heaviness in the soul. However, at the same time, longing for the bygone days fills the soul, it is intensified by a sense of anxiety and uncertainty about the future, in which “work and sorrow” are seen. But it also means movement and a fulfilling creative life. "Work and Sorrow" is perceived by an ordinary person as hard rock, but for a poet it is ups and downs. Work is creativity, grief is impressions, events that are bright in significance and bring inspiration. And the poet, in spite of the years that have passed, believes and waits for the "coming turbulent sea."

After lines that are rather gloomy in meaning, which seem to beat out the rhythm of a funeral march, suddenly a light flight of a wounded bird:

But I don't want, oh friends, to die;

I want to live in order to think and suffer;

The poet will die when he stops thinking, even if blood runs through the body and the heart beats. The movement of thought is true life, development, which means striving for perfection. Thought is responsible for the mind, and suffering for feelings. “Suffering” is also the capacity for compassion.

A tired person is weary of the past and sees the future in a fog. But the poet, the creator confidently predicts that "there will be pleasures between sorrows, worries and anxieties." What will these earthly joys of the poet lead to? They give new creative fruits:

Sometimes I'll get drunk again with harmony,

I will shed tears over fiction ...

Harmony is probably the integrity of Pushkin's works, their impeccable form. Either this is the very moment of creation of works, the moment of all-consuming inspiration... The fiction and tears of the poet are the result of inspiration, this is the work itself.

And maybe my sunset is sad

Love will shine with a farewell smile.

When the muse of inspiration comes to him, perhaps (the poet doubts, but hopes) he will fall in love again and be loved. One of the main aspirations of the poet, the crown of his work is love, which, like the muse, is a life partner. And this love is the last. "Elegy" in the form of a monologue. It is addressed to "friends" - to those who understand and share the thoughts of the lyrical hero.

The poem is a lyrical meditation. It is written in the classical genre of elegy, and the tone and intonation correspond to this: elegy in Greek means “mournful song”. This genre has been widespread in Russian poetry since the 18th century: Sumarokov, Zhukovsky, later Lermontov, Nekrasov turned to it. But Nekrasov's elegy is civil, Pushkin's is philosophical. In classicism, this genre, one of the "high", obliged the use of grandiloquent words and old Slavonicisms.

Pushkin, in turn, did not neglect this tradition, and used Old Slavonic words, forms and turns in the work, and the abundance of such vocabulary does not in the least deprive the poem of lightness, grace and clarity.