Types of heroes of realism in Russian literature. Realism in literature

Each literary movement is characterized by its own characteristics, thanks to which it is remembered and distinguished in separate view. So it happened in the nineteenth century, when there were some changes in the writing world. People began to comprehend reality in a new way, to look at it absolutely, from the other side. The peculiarities of the literature of the 19th century lie, first of all, in the fact that now the writers began to put forward ideas that formed the basis of the direction of realism.

What is realism

Realism appeared in Russian literature at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when a radical upheaval took place in this world. The writers realized that the former directions, the same romanticism, did not satisfy the expectations of the population, since there was no common sense in its judgments. Now they tried to portray on the pages of their novels and lyrical works the reality that reigned around, without any exaggeration. Their ideas were now of the most realistic character, which existed not only in Russian literature, but also in foreign literature for more than one decade.

The main features of realism

Realism was characterized by the following features:

• depicting the world as it is, truthfully and naturally;
• in the center of the novels is a typical representative of society, with problems and interests typical of him;
• the emergence of a new way of knowing the surrounding reality - through realistic characters and situations.

Russian literature of the 19th century was of great interest to scientists, because with the help of the analysis of works they managed to learn the very process in literature that existed at that time, and also to give it a scientific justification.

The advent of the era of Realism

Realism was first created as a special form for expressing the processes of reality. This happened back in those days when such a direction as the Renaissance reigned in both literature and painting. During the Enlightenment, it was significantly comprehended, and fully formed at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. Literary scholars name two Russian writers who have long been recognized as the founders of realism. These are Pushkin and Gogol. Thanks to them this direction was understood, received theoretical background and significant distribution in the country. With their help, Russian literature of the 19th century developed greatly.

In literature, there was no longer the lofty feelings that the direction of romanticism possessed. Now people were worried about everyday problems, their ways of resolving, as well as the feelings of the main characters, who overwhelmed them in this or that situation. Features of the literature of the 19th century are the interest of all representatives of the direction of realism individual traits character of each individual person for consideration in one or another life situation. As a rule, this is expressed in the collision of a person with society, when a person cannot accept and does not accept the rules and foundations by which other people live. Sometimes in the center of the work there is a person with some internal conflict which he tries to deal with on his own. Such conflicts are called personality conflicts, when a person realizes that from now on he cannot live as he lived before, that he needs to do something to get joy and happiness.

Among the most important representatives of the direction of realism in Russian literature it is worth noting Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky. world classic gave us such realist writers as Flaubert, Dickens and even Balzac.

» » Realism and features of 19th century literature

Realism is a trend in literature and art, truthfully and realistically reflecting the typical features of reality, in which there are no various distortions and exaggerations. This direction followed romanticism, and was the forerunner of symbolism.

This trend originated in the 30s of the 19th century and reached its peak by the middle of it. His followers strongly denied the use of literary works any sophisticated tricks, mystical trends and idealization of characters. The main feature of this trend in literature is the artistic depiction of real life with the help of ordinary and well-known readers of images that are part of them for them. Everyday life(relatives, neighbors or acquaintances).

(Alexey Yakovlevich Voloskov "At the tea table")

The works of realist writers are distinguished by a life-affirming beginning, even if their plot is characterized by a tragic conflict. One of the main features this genre is an attempt by the authors to consider the surrounding reality in its development, to discover and describe new psychological, social and social relations.

Replaced romanticism, realism has characteristics art, striving to find truth and justice, wishing to change the world in better side. The main characters in the works of realist authors make their discoveries and conclusions after much thought and deep introspection.

(Zhuravlev Firs Sergeevich "Before the wedding")

Critical realism is developing almost simultaneously in Russia and Europe (approximately 30-40s of the 19th century) and soon emerges as the leading trend in literature and art throughout the world.

In France literary realism, first of all, is associated with the names of Balzac and Stendhal, in Russia with Pushkin and Gogol, in Germany with the names of Heine and Buchner. All of them are experiencing in their literary creativity the inevitable influence of romanticism, but gradually move away from it, abandon the idealization of reality and move on to depicting a wider social background, where the life of the main characters takes place.

Realism in Russian literature of the 19th century

The main founder of Russian realism in the 19th century is Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. In his works " captain's daughter”, “Eugene Onegin”, “Tales of Belkin”, “Boris Godunov”, “ Bronze Horseman» he subtly captures and skillfully conveys the very essence of all important events in the life of Russian society, represented by his talented pen in all its diversity, colorfulness and inconsistency. Following Pushkin, many writers of that time came to the genre of realism, deepening the analysis of the emotional experiences of their heroes and depicting their complex inner world (“Hero of Our Time” by Lermontov, “Inspector General” and “ Dead Souls» Gogol).

(Pavel Fedotov "The Picky Bride")

The tense socio-political situation in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I aroused a keen interest in life and fate common people progressive public figures that time. This is noted in later works Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol, as well as in the poetic lines of Alexei Koltsov and the works of the authors of the so-called "natural school": I.S. Turgenev (a cycle of stories "Notes of a Hunter", stories "Fathers and Sons", "Rudin", "Asya"), F.M. Dostoevsky ("Poor People", "Crime and Punishment"), A.I. Herzen (“The Thieving Magpie”, “Who is to blame?”), I.A. Goncharova ("Ordinary History", "Oblomov"), A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit", L.N. Tolstoy ("War and Peace", "Anna Karenina"), A.P. Chekhov (stories and plays " The Cherry Orchard”,“ Three sisters ”,“ Uncle Vanya ”).

Literary realism of the second half of the 19th century was called critical, the main task of his works was to highlight existing problems, to raise issues of interaction between a person and the society in which he lives.

Realism in Russian Literature of the 20th Century

(Nikolai Petrovich Bogdanov-Belsky "Evening")

The turning point in the fate of Russian realism was the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when this trend was in crisis and a new phenomenon in culture, symbolism, loudly declared itself. Then a new updated aesthetics of Russian realism arose, in which the main environment that forms the personality of a person was now considered History itself and its global processes. The realism of the early 20th century revealed the complexity of the formation of a person's personality, it was formed under the influence of not only social factors, the story itself acted as the creator of typical circumstances, under the aggressive influence of which the protagonist fell.

(Boris Kustodiev "Portrait of D.F. Bogoslovsky")

There are four main currents in the realism of the early twentieth century:

• Critical: continues the tradition of classical realism of the mid-19th century. The works focus on the social nature of phenomena (creativity of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy);
• Socialist: displaying the historical and revolutionary development of real life, conducting an analysis of conflicts in the conditions of the class struggle, revealing the essence of the characters of the main characters and their actions committed for the benefit of others. (M. Gorky "Mother", "The Life of Klim Samgin", most of the works of Soviet authors).
• Mythological: display and rethinking of real life events through the prism of plots famous myths and legends (L.N. Andreev "Judas Iscariot");
• Naturalism: an extremely truthful, often unsightly, detailed depiction of reality (A.I. Kuprin "The Pit", V.V. Veresaev "Notes of a Doctor").

Realism in foreign literature of the 19th-20th centuries

Initial stage of formation critical realism in Europe in the middle of the 19th century, they are associated with the works of Balzac, Stendhal, Beranger, Flaubert, Maupassant. Merimee in France, Dickens, Thackeray, Brontë, Gaskell in England, the poetry of Heine and other revolutionary poets in Germany. In these countries, in the 30s of the 19th century, tension was growing between two irreconcilable class enemies: the bourgeoisie and the labor movement; various fields bourgeois culture, there are a number of discoveries in natural science and biology. In countries where a pre-revolutionary situation has developed (France, Germany, Hungary), the doctrine of scientific socialism of Marx and Engels arises and develops.

(Julien Dupre "Return from the fields")

As a result of a complex creative and theoretical debate with the followers of romanticism, critical realists took for themselves the best progressive ideas and traditions: interesting historical themes, democracy, trends folklore, progressive critical pathos and humanistic ideals.

The realism of the early twentieth century, having survived the struggle of the best representatives of the "classics" of critical realism (Flaubert, Maupassant, France, Shaw, Rolland) with the trends of new unrealistic trends in literature and art (decadence, impressionism, naturalism, aestheticism, etc.) acquires new character traits. He refers to social phenomena real life, describes the social motivation of the human character, reveals the psychology of the individual, the fate of art. The modeling of artistic reality is based on philosophical ideas, the author's attitude is given, first of all, to the intellectually active perception of the work when reading it, and then to the emotional one. A classic example of intellectual realistic novel are the writings German writer Thomas Mann " magic mountain” and “Confession of the Adventurer Felix Krul”, dramaturgy by Bertolt Brecht.

(Robert Kohler "Strike")

In the works of the author-realists of the twentieth century, the dramatic line intensifies and deepens, there is more tragedy (creativity American writer Scott Fitzgerald "The Great Gatsby", "Tender is the Night"), there is a special interest in inner world person. Attempts to depict the conscious and unconscious life moments of a person lead to the emergence of a new literary device, close to modernism called the "stream of consciousness" (works by Anna Zegers, W. Koeppen, Y. O'Neill). Naturalistic elements appear in the work of American realist writers such as Theodore Dreiser and John Steinbeck.

The realism of the twentieth century has a bright life-affirming color, faith in man and his strength, this is noticeable in the works of American realist writers William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, Jack London, Mark Twain. The works of Romain Rolland, John Galsworthy, Bernard Shaw, Erich Maria Remarque enjoyed great popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Realism continues to exist as a trend in contemporary literature and is one of the most important forms of democratic culture.

Before the emergence of realism as a literary movement, the approach to depicting a person in most writers was one-sided. The classicists depicted a person mainly from the side of his duties to the state and had very little interest in him in his life, in his family, privacy. Sentimentalists, on the contrary, switched to depicting a person’s personal life, his intimate feelings. The Romantics were also mainly interested in mental life man, the world of his feelings and passions.

But they endowed their heroes with feelings and passions of exceptional strength, put them in unusual conditions.

Realist writers portray a person in many ways. They are drawing typical characters and show at the same time in what social conditions this or that hero of the work was formed.

This ability to give typical characters in typical circumstances is main feature realism.

Typical we call such images in which the most vividly, fully and truthfully embodied essential features, characteristic in a certain historical period for one or another social group or phenomenon (for example, the Prostakovs-Skotinins in the comedy Fonvizin- typical representatives Russian middle-local nobility second half of XVIII century).

In typical images, the realist writer reflects not only those features that are most common in certain time, but also those that are just beginning to appear and develop fully in the future.

The conflicts underlying the works of the classicists, sentimentalists, and romantics were also one-sided.

Classicist writers (especially in tragedies) depicted the clash in the hero's soul of the consciousness of the need to fulfill a duty to the state with personal feelings and inclinations. Among sentimentalists, the main conflict grew on the basis of the social inequality of heroes belonging to different classes. In romanticism, the basis of conflict is the gap between dream and reality. In realist writers, conflicts are as diverse as in life itself.

In the formation of Russian realism in early XIX century, Krylov and Griboyedov played an important role.

Krylov became the creator of the Russian realistic fable. In Krylov's fables, the life of feudal Russia in its essential features is deeply truthfully depicted. Idea content his fables, democratic in their orientation, the perfection of their construction, wonderful verse and a lively colloquial language developed on a folk basis - all this was a major contribution to Russian realistic literature and had an impact on the development of the work of such writers as Griboyedov, Pushkin, Gogol and other.

Griboedov, with his work Woe from Wit, gave an example of Russian realistic comedy.

But the true ancestor of Russian realistic literature, who gave perfect examples of realistic creativity in a wide variety of literary genres, was great folk poet Pushkin.

Realism- 19th - 20th centuries (from Latin realis- valid)

Realism can define heterogeneous phenomena united by the concept of the truth of life: the spontaneous realism of ancient literatures, the realism of the Renaissance, enlightenment realism, « natural school" how First stage development of critical realism in the 19th century, realism of the 19th-20th centuries, "socialist realism"

The main features of realism:
• Depiction of life in images corresponding to the essence of life phenomena, through the typification of the facts of reality;
• True reflection of the world, wide coverage of reality;
• historicism;
• Attitude to literature as a means of man's knowledge of himself and the world around him;
• Reflection of the relationship between man and the environment;
• Typification of characters and circumstances.

Realist writers in Russia. Representatives of realism in Russia: A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, A. N. Ostrovsky, I. A. Goncharov, N. A. Nekrasov, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, L N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov, I. A. Bunin and others.

critical realism artistic herzen

Guy de Maupassant (1850-1993): he passionately, painfully hated the bourgeois world and everything connected with it. He painfully searched for antitheses to this world - and found it in the democratic strata of society, in the French people.

Works: short stories - "Dumbnut", "Old Sauvage", "Crazy", "Prisoners", "Chair Weaver", "Papa Simone".

Romain Rolland (1866-1944): the meaning of being and creativity initially consisted in faith in the beautiful, kind, bright, which never left the world - it is simply necessary to be able to see, feel and convey to people.

Works: the novel "Jean Christoff", the story "Pierre and Luce".

Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880): His work indirectly reflected the contradictions french revolution mid nineteenth century. The desire for truth and hatred for the bourgeoisie were combined in him with social pessimism and distrust in the people.

Works: novels - "Madam Bovary", "Salambo", "Education of the Senses", "Bouvard and Pécuchet" (not finished), novels - "The Legend of Julian the Hospitable", "A Simple Soul", "Herodias", also created several plays and extravaganza.

Stendhal (1783-1842): The work of this writer opens the period of classical realism. It is Stendhal who takes the lead in substantiating the main principles and program for the formation of realism, theoretically stated in the first half of the 19th century, when romanticism still dominated, and soon brilliantly embodied in the artistic masterpieces of the outstanding novelist of that time.

Works: novels - "Parma Convent", "Armans", "Lucien Leven", stories - "Vittoria Accoramboni", "Duchess di Palliano", "Cenci", "Abbess of Castro".

Charles Dickens (1812-1870): Dickens's works are full of deep drama, social contradictions are sometimes tragic in him, which they did not have in their interpretation writers XVIII in. Dickens also deals with the life and struggle of the working class in his work.

Works: "Nicholas Nickleby", "The Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewitt", " Hard times”, “Christmas stories”, “Dombey and son”, “Antiquities shop”.

William Thackeray (1811-1863): Arguing with the Romantics, he demands strict truthfulness from the artist. "Let the truth not always be pleasant, but there is nothing better than the truth." The author is not inclined to depict a person as either a notorious scoundrel or an ideal being. unlike Dickens, he avoided happy endings. Thackeray's satire is riddled with skepticism: the writer does not believe in the possibility of changing life. He enriched the English realistic novel by introducing the author's commentary.

Works: The Book of Snobs, Vanity Fair, Pendennis, The Career of Barry Lyndon, The Ring and the Rose.

Pushkin A.S. (1799-1837): founder of Russian realism. Pushkin is dominated by the idea of ​​the Law, of the patterns that determine the state of civilization, social ways, the place and significance of a person, his independence and connection with the whole, the possibility of author's sentences.

Works: "Boris Godunov", " Captain's daughter”, “Dubrovsky”, “Eugene Onegin”, “Tales of Belkin”.

Gogol N.V. (1809-1852): a world far from any ideas about the law, vulgar everyday life, in which all concepts of honor and morality, conscience are mutilated - in a word, Russian reality, worthy of grotesque ridicule: "to blame everything on the mirror, if the face is crooked" .

Works: "Dead Souls", "Notes of a Madman", "Overcoat".

Lermontov M.Yu. (1814-1841): sharp enmity with the divine world order, with the laws of society, lies and hypocrisy, all kinds of upholding the rights of the individual. The poet strives for a specific image of the social environment, life individual person: combining the features of early realism and mature romanticism into an organic unity.

Works: "Hero of Our Time", "Demon", "Fatalist".

Turgenev I.S. (1818-1883): Turgenev is interested in the moral world of people from the people. The main feature of the cycle of stories was truthfulness, which contained the idea of ​​the liberation of the peasantry, presented the peasants as spiritually active people capable of independent activity. Despite his reverent attitude towards the Russian people, Turgenev the realist did not idealize the peasantry, seeing, like Leskov and Gogol, their shortcomings.

Works: "Fathers and Sons", "Rudin", " Noble Nest"," The day before.

Dostoevsky F.M. (1821-1881): Regarding Dostoevsky's realism, they said that he had " fantastic realism". D. believes that in exceptional, unusual situations, the most typical appears. The writer noticed that all his stories were not invented, but taken from somewhere. main feature: creation philosophical basis with the detective - there is a murder everywhere.

Works: "Crime and Punishment", "Idiot", "Demons", "Teenager", "The Brothers Karamazov".

Realism in literature is a direction, the main feature of which is truthful image reality and its typical features without any distortion or exaggeration. This originated in the 19th century, and its adherents sharply opposed the sophisticated forms of poetry and the use of various mystical concepts in the works.

signs directions

Realism in the literature of the 19th century can be distinguished by clear signs. The main one is artistic image reality in images familiar to the layman, which he regularly encounters in real life. Reality in the works is considered as a means of human cognition of the surrounding world and oneself, and the image of each literary character is worked out in such a way that the reader can recognize himself, a relative, a colleague or an acquaintance in it.

In the novels and stories of realists, art remains life-affirming, even if the plot is characterized by tragic conflict. Another sign of this genre is the desire of writers to consider the surrounding reality in its development, and each writer tries to detect the emergence of new psychological, social and social relations.

Features of this literary movement

Realism in literature, which replaced romanticism, has the characteristics of art that seeks and finds truth, seeking to transform reality.

In the works of realist writers, discoveries were made after much thought and dreams, after an analysis of subjective attitudes. This feature, which can be identified by the author's perception of time, determined features realistic literature of the early twentieth century from the traditional Russian classics.

Realism inXIX century

Such representatives of realism in literature as Balzac and Stendhal, Thackeray and Dickens, Jord Sand and Victor Hugo, in their works most clearly reveal the themes of good and evil, and avoid abstract concepts and show real life his contemporaries. These writers make it clear to readers that evil lies in the way of life of bourgeois society, capitalist reality, people's dependence on various material values. For example, in Dickens' novel Dombey and Son, the owner of the company was callous and callous, not by nature. It’s just that such character traits appeared in him due to the presence big money and the ambition of the owner, for whom profit becomes the main life achievement.

Realism in literature is devoid of humor and sarcasm, and the images of the characters are no longer the ideal of the writer himself and do not embody his cherished dreams. From the works of the 19th century, the hero practically disappears, in the image of which the author's ideas are visible. This situation is especially clearly seen in the works of Gogol and Chekhov.

However, this literary trend is most clearly manifested in the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, who describe the world as they see it. This was also expressed in the image of characters with their own strengths and weaknesses, the description of mental anguish, a reminder to readers of the harsh reality that cannot be changed by one person.

As a rule, realism in literature also affected the fate of representatives of the Russian nobility, as can be judged from the works of I. A. Goncharov. So, the characters of the characters in his works remain contradictory. Oblomov is a sincere and gentle person, but because of his passivity, he is not capable of better. Another character in Russian literature possesses similar qualities - the weak-willed but gifted Boris Raysky. Goncharov managed to create the image of an "anti-hero" typical of 19th century, which was noticed by critics. As a result, the concept of "Oblomovism" appeared, referring to all passive characters, the main features of which were laziness and lack of will.