What is realism in literature briefly. Realism as an artistic movement

in literature and art - a truthful, objective reflection of reality using specific means inherent in a particular type of artistic creativity. In Russia - an artistic method characteristic of the creativity of: writers - A. S. Pushkin, Ya. V. Gogol, Ya. A. Nekrasov, L. Ya. Tolstoy, A. Ya. Ostrovsky, F. M. Dostoevsky, A. P Chekhov, A. M. Gorky, etc.; composers - M. P. Mussorgsky, A. P. Borodin, P. I. Tchaikovsky and partly Ya. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, artists - A. G. Venetsianov, P. A. Fedotov, I. E. Repin, V. A. Serov and the Wanderers, sculptor A. S. Golubkina; in the theater - M. S. Shchepkina, M. Ya. Ermolova, K. S. Stanislavsky.

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REALISM

late lat. realis - material, real), an artistic method, the creative principle of which is the depiction of life through typification and the creation of images that correspond to the essence of life itself. Literature for realism is a means of understanding man and the world, therefore it strives for a wide coverage of life, coverage of all its sides without restrictions; the focus is on the interaction of a person and the social environment, the influence of social conditions on the formation of personality.

The category “realism” in a broad sense defines the relationship of literature to reality in general, regardless of which movement or direction in literature the given author belongs to. Any work reflects reality to one degree or another, but in some periods of the development of literature there was an emphasis on artistic convention; for example, classicism demanded the “unity of place” of drama (the action should take place in one place), which made the work far from life truth. But the requirement of life-likeness does not mean a rejection of the means of artistic convention. The art of a writer lies in the ability to concentrate reality, drawing heroes who, perhaps, did not actually exist, but in which real people like them were embodied.

Realism in the narrow sense emerged as a movement in the 19th century. It is necessary to distinguish realism as a method from realism as a direction: we can talk about the realism of Homer, W. Shakespeare, etc. as a manner of reflecting reality in their works.

The question of the emergence of realism is solved by researchers in different ways: its roots are seen in ancient literature, in the Renaissance and Enlightenment eras. According to the most common view, realism arose in the 1830s. Its immediate predecessor is considered to be romanticism, the main feature of which is the depiction of exceptional characters in exceptional circumstances with special attention to the complex and contradictory personality with strong passions, misunderstood by the society around her - the so-called romantic hero. This was a step forward compared to the conventions of depicting people in classicism and sentimentalism - movements that preceded romanticism. Realism did not deny, but developed the achievements of romanticism. Between romanticism and realism in the first half of the 19th century. it is difficult to draw a clear line: the works use both romantic and realistic depiction techniques: “ Shagreen leather» O. de Balzac, novels by Stendhal, V. Hugo and Charles Dickens, “A Hero of Our Time” by M. Yu. Lermontov. But unlike romanticism, the main artistic orientation of realism is typification, the depiction of “typical characters in typical circumstances” (F. Engels). This attitude assumes that the hero concentrates in himself the properties of the era and the social group to which he belongs. For example, the title character of I. A. Goncharov’s novel “Oblomov” is a prominent representative of the dying nobility, characteristic features which are called laziness, inability to take decisive action, fear of everything new.

Soon realism breaks with the romantic tradition, which is embodied in the works of G. Flaubert and W. Thackeray. In Russian literature, this stage is associated with the names of A. S. Pushkin, I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky, etc. This stage is usually called critical realism - after M . Gorky (we should not forget that Gorky, for political reasons, wanted to emphasize the accusatory orientation of the literature of the past in contrast to the affirming trends socialist literature). Main feature critical realism call the depiction of the negative phenomena of Russian life, seeing the beginning of this tradition in “ Dead souls" and "The Inspector General" by N.V. Gogol, in the works of the natural school. The authors solve their problem in different ways. There is no positive hero in Gogol’s works: the author shows a “team city” (“The Inspector General”), a “team country” (“Dead Souls”), combining all the vices of Russian life. Thus, in “Dead Souls” each hero embodies some negative trait: Manilov – daydreaming and the impossibility of making dreams come true; Sobakevich - ponderousness and slowness, etc. However, the negative pathos in most works is not without an affirmative beginning. Thus, Emma, ​​the heroine of G. Flaubert’s novel “Madame Bovary,” with her subtle mental organization, rich inner world and ability to feel vividly and vividly, is opposed to Mister Bovary, a man who thinks in patterns. Another important feature of critical realism is attention to the social environment that shaped the character of the character. For example, in the poem by N. A. Nekrasov “Who Lives Well in Rus'” the behavior of the peasants, their positive and negative traits(patience, kindness, generosity, on the one hand, and servility, cruelty, stupidity, on the other) are explained by the conditions of their life and especially by the social upheavals of the period of the serfdom reform of 1861. Fidelity to reality was already put forward by V.G. Belinsky in developing the theory of the natural school. N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov, A. F. Pisemsky and others also highlighted the criterion of the social usefulness of a work, its influence on minds and the possible consequences of reading it (it is worth recalling the phenomenal success of Chernyshevsky’s rather weak novel “What is to be done?” , who answered many questions from his contemporaries).

The mature stage of the development of realism is associated with the work of writers of the second half of the 19th century, primarily F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy. IN European literature At this time, the period of modernism began and the principles of realism were used mainly in naturalism. Russian realism enriched world literature principles of the socio-psychological novel. The discovery of F. M. Dostoevsky is recognized as polyphony - the ability to combine different points of view in a work, without making any of them dominant. The combination of the voices of the characters and the author, their interweaving, contradictions and agreements brings the architectonics of the work closer to reality, where there is no single opinion and one, the last truth. The fundamental tendency of L. N. Tolstoy’s work is the depiction of development human personality, “dialectics of the soul” (N.G. Chernyshevsky) combined with the epic breadth of the depiction of life. Thus, the change in the personality of one of the main characters of “War and Peace” Pierre Bezukhov occurs against the backdrop of changes in the life of the entire country, and one of the turning points in his worldview is battle of Borodino, a turning point in the history of the Patriotic War of 1812.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. realism is in crisis. It is also noticeable in the dramaturgy of A.P. Chekhov, the main tendency of which is to show not the key moments in people’s lives, but the change in their lives in the most ordinary moments, no different from others - the so-called “undercurrent” (in European drama, these tendencies appeared in the plays of A. Strindberg, G. Ibsen, M. Maeterlinck). The predominant trend in the literature of the early 20th century. symbolism becomes (V. Ya. Bryusov, A. Bely, A. A. Blok). After the revolution of 1917, integrating into the general concept of building a new state, numerous associations of writers arose whose task was to mechanically transfer the categories of Marxism into literature. This led to the recognition of a new important stage in the development of realism in the 20th century. (primarily in Soviet literature) socialist realism, which was intended to depict the development of man and society, meaningful in the spirit of socialist ideology. The ideals of socialism assumed steady progress, determining the value of a person by the benefit he brings to society, and a focus on the equality of all people. The term “socialist realism” was fixed at the 1st All-Union Congress Soviet writers in 1934. The novels “Mother” by M. Gorky and “How the Steel Was Tempered” by N. A. Ostrovsky were called examples of socialist realism; its features were identified in the works of M. A. Sholokhov, A. N. Tolstoy, in the satire of V. V. Mayakovsky, I. Ilf and E. Petrov, J. Hasek. The main motive of the works of socialist realism was considered to be the development of the personality of a human fighter, his self-improvement and overcoming difficulties. In the 1930s–40s. socialist realism finally acquired dogmatic features: a tendency appeared to embellish reality, the conflict of “good with best” was recognized as the main one, psychologically unreliable, “artificial” characters began to appear. The development of realism (regardless of socialist ideology) was given by the Great Patriotic War (A. T. Tvardovsky, K. M. Simonov, V. S. Grossman, B. L. Vasiliev). Since the 1960s literature in the USSR began to move away from socialist realism, although many writers adhered to the principles of classical realism.

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Realism has the following distinctive features:

• 1. The artist depicts life in images that correspond to the essence of the phenomena of life itself.
• 2. Literature in realism is a means for a person to understand himself and the world around him.
• 3. Cognition of reality occurs with the help of images created through typification of facts of reality (“typical characters in a typical setting”). Typification of characters in realism is carried out through the truthfulness of details in the “specifics” of the characters’ conditions of existence.
• 4. Realistic art is life-affirming art, even with a tragic resolution to the conflict. The philosophical basis for this is Gnosticism, the belief in knowability and an adequate reflection of the surrounding world, unlike, for example, romanticism.
• 5. Realistic art is characterized by the desire to consider reality in development, the ability to detect and capture the emergence and development of new forms of life and social relations, new psychological and social types.

In the course of the development of art, realism acquires concrete historical forms and creative methods(for example, educational realism, critical realism, socialist realism). These methods, interconnected by continuity, have their own characteristic features. The manifestations of realistic tendencies are different in different types and genres of art.

In aesthetics, there is no definitively established definition of both the chronological boundaries of realism and the scope and content of this concept. In the variety of points of view being developed, two main concepts can be outlined:

• · According to one of them, realism is one of the main features of artistic knowledge, the main trend of progressive development artistic culture humanity, which reveals the deep essence of art as a way of spiritual and practical development of reality. The measure of penetration into life, artistic knowledge of its important aspects and qualities, and, first of all, social reality, determines the measure of realism of a particular artistic phenomenon. In each new historical period, realism takes on a new look, sometimes revealing itself in a more or less clearly expressed tendency, sometimes crystallizing into a complete method that determines the characteristics of the artistic culture of its time.
• · Representatives of a different point of view on realism limit its history to certain chronologically, seeing in it a historically and typologically specific form of artistic consciousness. In this case, the beginning of realism dates back to either the Renaissance or the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment. The most complete disclosure of the features of realism is seen in critical realism XIX century, its next stage is in the 20th century. socialist realism, which interprets life phenomena from the perspective of the Marxist-Leninist worldview. A characteristic feature of realism in this case is considered to be the method of generalization, typification of life material, formulated by F. Engels in relation to the realistic novel: " … typical characters in typical circumstances..."
• · Realism in this understanding explores the personality of a person in indissoluble unity with his contemporary social environment and public relations. This interpretation of the concept of realism was developed mainly on the material of the history of literature, while the first one was developed mainly on the material of the plastic arts.

Whatever point of view one adheres to, and no matter how one connects them with each other, there is no doubt that realistic art has an extraordinary variety of ways of cognition, generalization, and artistic interpretation of reality, manifested in the nature of stylistic forms and techniques. Realism of Masaccio and Piero della Francesca, A. Durer and Rembrandt, J.L. David and O. Daumier, I.E. Repina, V.I. Surikov and V.A. Serov, etc. differ significantly from each other and testify to the broadest creative possibilities for objective exploration of the historically changing world through the means of art.

Moreover, any realistic method is characterized by a consistent focus on understanding and revealing the contradictions of reality, which, within given, historically determined limits, turns out to be accessible to truthful disclosure. Realism is characterized by the conviction that beings and features of the objective real world are knowable through the means of art. realism art knowledge

Forms and techniques of reflecting reality in realistic art are different in different types and genres. Deep penetration into the essence life phenomena, which is inherent in realistic tendencies and constitutes a defining feature of any realistic method, is expressed differently in a novel, a lyric poem, in historical picture, landscape, etc. Not every outwardly reliable image of reality is realistic. Empirical validity artistic image takes on meaning only in unity with a truthful reflection of the existing aspects of the real world. This is the difference between realism and naturalism, which creates only visible, external, and not genuine essential truthfulness of images. At the same time, in order to identify certain facets of the deep content of life, sometimes sharp hyperbolization, sharpening, grotesque exaggeration of the “forms of life itself” are required, and sometimes a conditionally metaphorical form of artistic thinking.

The most important feature of realism is psychologism, immersion through social analysis in inner world person. An example here is the “career” of Julien Sorel from Stendhal’s novel “The Red and the Black,” who experienced a tragic conflict of ambition and honor; psychological drama by Anna Karenina from the novel of the same name by L.N. Tolstoy, who was torn between the feelings and morality of class society. Human character is revealed by representatives of critical realism in organic connection with the environment, with social circumstances and life collisions. Main genre realistic literature XIX century Accordingly, it becomes a socio-psychological novel. It most fully meets the task of objective artistic reproduction of reality.

Let's look at the general features of realism:

• 1. An artistic depiction of life in images that corresponds to the essence of the phenomena of life itself.
• 2. Reality is a means for a person to understand himself and the world around him.
• 3. Typification of images, which is achieved through the truthfulness of details in specific conditions.
• 4. Even with tragic conflict life-affirming art.
• 5. Realism is characterized by the desire to consider reality in development, the ability to detect the development of new social, psychological and public relations.

The leading principles of realism in art of the 19th century V.:

• · objective reflection of the essential aspects of life in combination with the height and truth of the author’s ideal;
• · reproduction of typical characters, conflicts, situations with the completeness of their artistic individualization (i.e., concretization of both national, historical, social signs, and physical, intellectual and spiritual characteristics);
• · preference in methods of depicting “forms of life itself,” but along with the use, especially in the 20th century, of conventional forms (myth, symbol, parable, grotesque);
• · predominant interest in the problem of “personality and society” (especially in the inescapable confrontation between social patterns and moral ideal, personal and mass, mythologized consciousness) [4, p.20].

Before the emergence of realism as a literary movement, most writers had a one-sided approach to depicting a person. The classicists portrayed a person mainly in terms of his duties to the state and showed very little interest in him in his life, in his family, privacy. Sentimentalists, on the contrary, moved on to depicting a person’s personal life and his innermost feelings. Romantics were also mainly interested in spiritual life man, the world of his feelings and passions.

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

Realist writers portray a person in many ways. They draw typical characters and at the same time show 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.

We call typical images those in which the most vividly, fully and truthfully embodied the most important features characteristic of a particular historical period for a particular social group or phenomenon (for example, the Prostakovs-Skotinins in Fonvizin’s comedy are typical representatives of the Russian middle-class nobility of the second half XVIII century).

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

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

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

In the formation of Russian realism in early XIX century big role played by Krylov and Griboyedov.

Krylov became the creator of the Russian realistic fable. Krylov's fables deeply truthfully depict the life of feudal Russia in its essential features. Ideological content his fables, democratic in their orientation, the perfection of their construction, wonderful verse and a living spoken language developed on a folk basis - all this was a major contribution to Russian realistic literature and influenced the development of the work of such writers as Griboyedov, Pushkin, Gogol and other.

Griboyedov, with his work “Woe from Wit,” gave an example of Russian realistic comedy.

But the true founder 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 life truth: the spontaneous realism of ancient literature, the realism of the Renaissance, educational realism, “ natural school" How First stage development of critical realism in the 19th century, realism XIX-XX centuries, “socialist realism”

Main features of realism:
• Depiction of life in images that correspond to the essence of life phenomena, through typing the facts of reality;
• A true reflection of the world, a wide coverage of reality;
• Historicism;
• The attitude towards literature as a means of a person’s knowledge of himself and the world around him;
• Reflection of the connection between man and 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.

Effective preparation for the Unified State Exam (all subjects) -

Realism (literature)

Realism in literature - a truthful depiction of reality.

In every work belles lettres we distinguish two necessary elements: objective - the reproduction of phenomena given in addition to the artist, and subjective - something put into the work by the artist on his own. By focusing on a comparative assessment of these two elements, the theory in different eras gives higher value first one, then the other of them (in connection with the course of development of art, and with other circumstances).

Hence there are two opposing directions in theory; one - realism- sets art the task of faithfully reproducing reality; other - idealism- sees the purpose of art in “replenishing reality”, in creating new forms. Moreover, the starting point is not so much the available facts as ideal ideas.

This terminology, borrowed from philosophy, sometimes introduces work of art non-aesthetic moments: Realism is completely wrongly accused of lacking moral idealism. In common usage, the term “Realism” means the exact copying of details, mainly external ones. The inconsistency of this point of view, the natural conclusion from which is the preference for the protocol over the novel and photography over the painting, is completely obvious; a sufficient refutation of it is our aesthetic sense, which does not hesitate for a minute between a wax figure, reproducing the finest shades of living colors, and a deathly white marble statue. It would be pointless and aimless to create another world, completely identical with the existing one.

Copy outside world in itself, even the most strident realistic theory has never seemed to be the goal of art. The possible faithful reproduction of reality was seen only as a guarantee of the artist’s creative originality. In theory, realism is opposed to idealism, but in practice it is opposed by routine, tradition, the academic canon, mandatory imitation of the classics - in other words, the death of independent creativity. Art begins with the actual reproduction of nature; but, once popular examples of artistic thinking are given, second-hand creativity appears, work according to a template.

This is a common phenomenon of the school, no matter under what banner it appears for the first time. Almost every school makes claims to a new word precisely in the field of truthful reproduction of life - and each in its own right, and each is denied and replaced by the next in the name of the same principle of truth. This is especially evident in the history of the development of French literature, which is all an uninterrupted series of achievements of true Realism. The desire for artistic truth underlay the same movements that, petrified in tradition and canon, later became a symbol of unreal art.

This is not only romanticism, which was attacked with such fervor in the name of truth by the doctrinaires of modern naturalism; so is classical drama. It is enough to recall that the notorious three unities were not adopted out of slavish imitation of Aristotle, but only because they determined the possibility of stage illusion. “The establishment of unities was the triumph of Realism. These rules, which became the cause of so many inconsistencies during the decline classical theater, were initially a necessary condition for stage verisimilitude. In Aristotelian rules, medieval rationalism found a means of removing from the scene the last vestiges of naive medieval fantasy.” (Lanson).

The deep inner realism of the classical tragedy of the French degenerated in the reasoning of theorists and in the works of imitators in dead schemes, the oppression of which was cast off by literature only at the beginning of the 19th century. From a broad point of view, every truly progressive movement in the field of art is a movement towards Realism. In this regard, those new trends that appear to be a reaction to Realism are no exception. In fact, they represent only a reaction to routine, obligatory artistic dogma - a reaction against realism by name, which has ceased to be a search and artistic recreation of the truth of life. When lyrical symbolism tries to convey to the reader the mood of the poet by new means, when neo-idealists, resurrecting old conventional techniques artistic image, they draw stylized images, that is, as if deliberately deviating from reality, they strive for the same thing that is the goal of any - even arch-naturalistic - art: the creative reproduction of life. There is no truly artistic work - from a symphony to an arabesque, from the Iliad to a Whisper, a Timid Breath - which, upon a deeper look at it, would not turn out to be a truthful image of the creator’s soul, “a corner of life through the prism of temperament.”

It is therefore hardly possible to talk about the history of Realism: it coincides with the history of art. One can only characterize individual moments historical life art, when they especially insisted on true portrayal life, seeing him mainly in emancipation from school conventions, in the ability to capture and courage to depict details that passed without a trace for the previous artist or frightened him by their inconsistency with dogmas. Such was romanticism, such modern form Realism - naturalism Literature about Realism is predominantly polemical about its modern form. Historical writings(David, Sauvageot, Lenoir) suffer from vagueness of the subject of research. In addition to the works indicated in the article Naturalism.

Russian writers who used realism

Of course, first of all, these are F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy. Outstanding examples of literature of this direction were also the works of the late Pushkin (rightfully considered the founder of realism in Russian literature) - the historical drama “Boris Godunov”, the story “ Captain's daughter”, “Dubrovsky”, “Belkin’s Tales”, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov’s novel “Hero of Our Time”, as well as Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol’s poem “Dead Souls”.

The Birth of Realism

There is a version that realism originated in ancient times, during the time of the Ancient Peoples. There are several types of realism:

• "Ancient Realism"
• "Renaissance Realism"
• "Realism of the 18th-19th centuries"

see also

Notes

Links

• A. A. Gornfeld// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

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and the development of realism

Goals : introduce students to the main features of classicism, sentimentalism and romanticism as actively struggling literary movements; show the formation of realism in Russian and world literature, as well as the origin and development of Russian and professional literary criticism.

Progress of lessons

I. Checking homework.

2–3 questions (of the students’ choice) from the homework are discussed.

II. Teacher's lecture (summary).

Students write down in notebooks the main features of classicism, sentimentalism and emerging romanticism as literary trends. Literary origins of Russian realism.

Last third of the 18th – beginning of the 19th centuries. - an important period in the development of Russian fiction. Among the writers are the highest nobility, headed by Catherine II, and representatives of the middle and petty nobility, and the bourgeoisie. The works of N. M. Karamzin and D. I. Fonvizin, G. R. Derzhavin and M. V. Lomonosov, V. A. Zhukovsky and K. F. Ryleev occupy “the minds and hearts of readers”*.

On the pages of newspapers and magazines, in literary salons, there is an irreconcilable struggle between supporters of different literary movements.

Classicism(from lat. classicus - exemplary) – artistic direction in literature and art of the 18th–early 19th centuries, which is characterized by high civic themes and strict adherence to certain creative norms and rules.

The founders and followers of classicism considered the works of antiquity to be the highest example of artistic creativity (perfection, classics).

Classicism arose (during the era of absolutism) first in France in the 17th century, then spread to other European countries.

In the poem “Poetic Art” N. Boileau created a detailed aesthetic theory of classicism. He claimed that literary works are created without inspiration, but “in a rational way, after strict deliberation.” Everything in them should be precise, clear and harmonious.

Classical writers considered the purpose of literature to be the education of people in loyalty to the absolutist state, and the fulfillment of duties to the state and the monarch as the main task of a citizen.

According to the rules of the aesthetics of classicism, which strictly adhered to the so-called “hierarchy of genres,” tragedy, ode, and epic belonged to the “high genres” and were supposed to develop particularly significant social problems. “High genres” were opposed to “low” ones: comedy, satire, fable, “designed to reflect modern reality.”

Dramatic works in the literature of classicism were subject to the rules of “three unities” - time, place and action.

1. Features of Russian classicism

Russian classicism was not a simple imitation of Western classicism.

It criticized the shortcomings of society more strongly than in the West. The presence of a satirical stream gave the works of the classicists a truthful character.

From the very beginning, Russian classicism was strongly influenced by the connection with modernity, Russian reality, which was illuminated in the works from the point of view of advanced ideas.

Classical writers “created images of positive heroes who were unable to come to terms with social injustice, developed the patriotic idea of ​​serving the homeland, and promoted high moral principles of civic duty and humane treatment of people**.

Sentimentalism(from fr. sentiment – ​​feeling, sensitive) - an artistic movement in literature and art that arose in Western Europe in the 20s of the 18th century. In Russia, sentimentalism spread in the 70s of the 18th century, and in the first third of the 19th century it took a leading position.

While the heroes of classicism were generals, leaders, kings, nobles, sentimentalist writers showed sincere interest in the personality, character of a person (unnoble and poor), his inner world. The ability to feel was considered by sentimentalists as a decisive feature and high dignity of the human personality. The words of N. M. Karamzin from the story “Poor Liza” “even peasant women know how to love” pointed to the relatively democratic orientation of sentimentalism. Perceiving human life as transient, writers glorified Eternal values– love, friendship and nature.

Sentimentalists enriched Russian literature with such genres as travel, diary, essay, story, everyday novel, elegy, correspondence, and “tearful comedy.”

The events in the works took place in small towns or villages. Lots of descriptions of nature. But the landscape is not just a background, but Live nature, as if rediscovered by the author, felt by him, perceived by the heart. Progressive sentimentalist writers saw their calling as, if possible, to console people in suffering and sorrow, to turn them to virtue, harmony and beauty.

The most prominent representative of Russian sentimentalists is N. M. Karamzin.

From sentimentalism “threads spread” not only to romanticism, but also to psychological realism.

2. The originality of Russian sentimentalism

Russian sentimentalism is noble-conservative.

Noble writers in their works depicted a man from the people, his inner world, feelings. For sentimentalists, the cult of feeling became a means of escaping reality, from those acute contradictions that existed between the landowners and the serf peasantry, into the narrow world of personal interests and intimate experiences.

Russian sentimentalists developed the idea that all people, regardless of their social status, are capable of the most high feelings. This means, according to N.M. Karamzin, “in any state a person can find roses of pleasure.” If the joys of life are available to ordinary people, then “not through a change in the state and social system, but through moral education people lies the path to the happiness of the whole society.”

Karamzin idealizes the relationship between landowners and serfs. The peasants are satisfied with their lives and glorify their landowners.

Romanticism(from fr. romantique - something mysterious, strange, unreal) is an artistic movement in literature and art that replaced sentimentalism in late XVIII- the beginning of the 19th century and fiercely opposed classicism with its strict rules that constrained the freedom of creativity of writers.

Romanticism is a literary movement brought to life by important historical events and social changes. For Russian romantics, such events were the Patriotic War of 1812 and the Decembrist uprising. The views of romantic writers on historical events, on society, on their positions in society were sharply different - from rebellious to reactionary, therefore, in romanticism two main directions or movements should be distinguished - conservative and progressive.

Conservative romantics took subjects for their works from the past, indulged in dreams of the afterlife, and poeticized the life of peasants, their humility, patience and superstition. They “led” readers away from social struggle into the world of imagination. V. G. Belinsky wrote about conservative romanticism that “this is a desire, aspiration, impulse, feelings, a sigh, a groan, a complaint about imperfect hopes that had no name, sadness for lost happiness... this is a world... populated by shadows and ghosts, of course, charming and sweet, but nevertheless elusive; this is a dull, slowly flowing, never-ending present that mourns the past and does not see the future; finally, this is love that feeds on sadness..."

Progressive romantics sharply criticized contemporary reality. The heroes of romantic poems, lyric poems, ballads had a strong character, did not put up with social evil, called for the fight for freedom and happiness of people. (Decembrist poets, young Pushkin.)

The struggle for complete freedom of creativity united both progressive and conservative romantics. In romanticism, the basis of the conflict is the discrepancy between dreams and reality. Poets and writers sought to express their dreams. They created poetic images that corresponded to their ideas about the ideal.

The basic principle of constructing images in romantic works became the personality of the poet. The romantic poet, according to V. A. Zhukovsky, looked at reality “through the prism of the heart.” Thus, civic poetry was also deeply personal poetry for him.

Romantics were interested in everything bright, unusual and unique. Romantic heroes are exceptional individuals, filled with generosity and fierce passion. The setting in which they were depicted is also exceptional and mysterious.

Romantic poets discovered the wealth of oral literature for literature folk art, as well as literary monuments of the past that have not previously received a correct assessment.

The rich and complex spiritual world of the romantic hero required broader and more flexible artistic and speech means. "IN romantic style the emotional connotation of the word, its secondary meanings, begin to play the main role, and the objective, primary meaning recedes into the background.” Various figurative and expressive means of artistic language are also subject to the same stylistic principle. Romantics prefer emotional epithets, vivid comparisons, and unusual metaphors.

Realism(from lat. realis – real) is an artistic movement in literature and art of the 19th century, which is characterized by the desire for a truthful depiction of reality.

Only from the second half of the 18th century. we can talk about the formation of Russian realism. Literary studies defined the realism of this period as educational realism with its civic spirit, interest in people, a tendency towards democratization, and with tangible features of a satirical attitude towards reality.

D. I. Fonvizin, N. I. Novikov, A. N. Radishchev, I. A. Krylov and other writers played a major role in the formation of Russian realism. In the satirical magazines of N. I. Novikov, in the comedies of D. I. Fonvizin, in “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A. N. Radishchev, in the fables of I. A. Krylov, the focus is “not just facts, people and things, and those patterns that acted in life.”

The main feature of realism is the writer’s ability to give “typical characters in typical circumstances.” Typical characters (images) are those in which the most fully embodied the most important features characteristic of a particular social group or phenomenon in a certain historical period.

A new type of realism emerged in the 19th century - this critical realism, depicting in a new way the relationship between man and environment. Writers “rushed” towards life, discovering in its ordinary, habitual flow the laws of the existence of man and society. The subject of deep social analysis was the inner world of man.

Thus, realism (its various forms) has become a broad and powerful literary movement. The true “founder of Russian realistic literature, who gave perfect examples of realistic creativity,” was Pushkin, the great national poet. (The first third of the 19th century was especially characterized by the organic coexistence of different styles in the work of one writer. Pushkin was both a romantic and a realist, as were other outstanding Russian writers.) The great realists were L. Tolstoy and F. Dostoevsky, M. Saltykov-Shchedrin and A. Chekhov.

Homework.

Answer the questions :

How does romanticism differ from classicism and sentimentalism? What moods are typical of romantic heroes? Tell us about the formation and literary origins of Russian realism. What is unique about realism? Tell us about its different forms.