Social realism writers of the 20th century Rus lit. Realism in literature
First half. 20th century - an abundance of experiments in literature, new forms, new techniques, new religions are invented. Modernism of the 20th century is entering a new stage, which is called. "vanguardism". But Realism becomes the most striking direction. Along with tard. Classic Forms of realism, in the 20th century. fantastic absurdity, the poetics of sleep, and deformation are widely used in this direction. The realism of the 20th century is distinguished by the fact that it uses previously incompatible techniques. The concept of man is emerging in the literature. The scope of the concept has expanded throughout the century. There are discoveries in the field of psychology - Freud, existentialism, the teachings of Marxists. Paraliterature, that is, mass literature, appears. It is not art, it is popular commercial literature that brings instant income. mass art is a convenient means of manipulating consciousness. Mass culture should be under control.
The main themes are the theme of war, socio-political catastrophes, the tragedy of the individual (the tragedy of the individual who seeks justice and loses spiritual harmony), the problem of faith and unbelief, the relationship between personal and collective, morality and politics, spiritual and ethical problems.
Features of realism of the 20th century - refused the priority of the principle of imitation. Realism began to use the methods of mediated knowledge of the world. In the 19th century, a descriptive form was used, in the 20th century - analytical studies (the effect of detachment, irony, subtext, grotesque, fantastic and conditional modeling. Realism of the 20th century began to actively use many modernist techniques - stream of consciousness, suggestiveness, absurdity. Realism becomes more philosophical, Philosophy enters literature as a technique deeply penetrating into the structure of the work, which means that the genre of the parable develops (Camus, Kafka).
The heroes of realism also change. The person is portrayed as more complex, unpredictable. The literature of realism poses more complex tasks - to penetrate into the sphere of the irrational, into the sphere of the subconscious, exploring the sphere of instincts.
Of the genres, the novel remains, but its genre palette is changing. It becomes more diverse, uses others genre varieties. There is an interpenetration of genres. In the 20th century, the structure of the novel loses its normativity. There is a turn from the society to the individual, from the pitiful to the individual, the interest in the subject dominates. A subjective epic appears (Proust) - the individual consciousness is in the center and it is the object of research.
Along with new trends, the trend of classical realism continues to exist. Realism is a living and developing method, the discovery of the masters of the past and is constantly enriched with new techniques and images.
Realism is a trend in literature and art that aims to faithfully reproduce reality in its typical features. The reign of realism followed the era of Romanticism and preceded Symbolism.
1. In the center of the work of realists is objective reality. In its refraction through the worldview of thin-ka. 2. The author subjects vital material to a fil-th processing. 3. the ideal is reality itself. Beautiful is life itself. 4. Realists move towards synthesis through analysis
5. The principle of the typical: typical hero, specific time, typical circumstances
6. Identification of causal relationships. 7. The principle of historicism. Realists address the problems of the present. The present is the convergence of the past and the future. 8. The principle of democracy and humanism. 9. The principle of objectivity of narratives. 10. Socio-political, philosophical issues prevail
11. psychologism
12. .. The development of poetry somewhat subsides 13. The novel is the leading genre.
13. An aggravated socially critical pathos is one of the main features of Russian realism - for example, The Inspector General, Dead Souls by N.V. Gogol
14. The main feature of realism as a creative method is increased attention to the social side of reality.
15. The images of a realistic work reflect the general laws of being, and not living people. Any image is woven from typical features, manifested in typical circumstances. This is the paradox of art. The image cannot be correlated with a living person, it is richer than a concrete person - hence the objectivity of realism.
16. “An artist should not be a judge of his characters and what they say, but only an impartial witness
Realist writers
Late A. S. Pushkin - the founder of realism in Russian literature ( historical drama"Boris Godunov", the stories "The Captain's Daughter", "Dubrovsky", "Tales of Belkin", the novel in verse "Eugene Onegin" back in the 1820s - 1830s)
M. Yu. Lermontov ("A Hero of Our Time")
N. V. Gogol ("Dead Souls", "Inspector")
I. A. Goncharov ("Oblomov")
A. S. Griboyedov ("Woe from Wit")
A. I. Herzen (“Who is to blame?”)
N. G. Chernyshevsky (“What to do?”)
F. M. Dostoevsky ("Poor People", "White Nights", "Humiliated and Insulted", "Crime and Punishment", "Demons")
L. N. Tolstoy ("War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Resurrection").
I. S. Turgenev ("Rudin", "Noble Nest", "Asya", "Spring Waters", "Fathers and Sons", "Nov", "On the Eve", "Mu-mu")
A. P. Chekhov ("The Cherry Orchard", "Three Sisters", "Student", "Chameleon", "Seagull", "Man in a Case"
Since the middle of the 19th century, the formation of Russian realistic literature has been taking place, which is created against the backdrop of a tense socio-political situation that developed in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. A crisis in the serf system is brewing, contradictions between the authorities and common people. There is a need to create a realistic literature that sharply reacts to the socio-political situation in the country.
Writers turn to the socio-political problems of Russian reality. The genre of the realistic novel is developing. Their works are created by I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, I.A. Goncharov. It is worth noting the poetic works of Nekrasov, who was the first to introduce social issues into poetry. His poem “Who is living well in Rus'?” is known, as well as many poems, where the hard and hopeless life of the people is comprehended. End of the 19th century - The Realist tradition began to fade. It was replaced by the so-called decadent literature. . Realism becomes, to a certain extent, a method of artistic cognition of reality. In the 40s, a "natural school" arose - Gogol's work, he was a great innovator, discovering that even an insignificant event, such as the acquisition of an overcoat by a petty official, can become a significant event for understanding the most important issues of human existence.
"Natural School" has become initial stage development of realism in Russian literature.
Topics: Life, customs, characters, events from the life of the lower classes became the object of study of "naturalists". The leading genre was the "physiological essay", which was based on the exact "photography" of the life of various classes.
In literature " natural school"The class position of the hero, his professional affiliation and the social function that he performs, decisively prevailed over the individual character.
Adjoining the "natural school" were: Nekrasov, Grigorovich, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Goncharov, Panaev, Druzhinin and others.
The task of truthfully showing and investigating life in realism involves many methods of depicting reality, which is why the works of Russian writers are so diverse both in form and content.
Realism as a method of depicting reality in the second half of the 19th century. was named critical realism, because his main task was to criticize reality, the question of the relationship between man and society.
To what extent does society influence the fate of the hero? Who is to blame for the fact that a person is unhappy? What can be done to change people and the world? - these are the main questions of literature in general, Russian literature of the second half of XIX V. - in particular.
Psychologism - a characterization of the hero by analyzing his inner world, considering the psychological processes through which the self-consciousness of the individual is carried out and his attitude to the world is expressed - has become the leading method of Russian literature since the formation of a realistic style in it.
One of the remarkable features of Turgenev's works of the 1950s was the appearance in them of a hero embodying the idea of the unity of ideology and psychology.
The realism of the 2nd half of the 19th century reached its heights precisely in Russian literature, especially in the work of L.N. Tolstoy and F.M. Dostoevsky, who became the central figures of the world literary process at the end of the 19th century. They enriched world literature with new principles for constructing a socio-psychological novel, philosophical and moral issues, new ways of revealing the human psyche in its deepest layers.
Turgenev is credited with the creation of literary types of ideologues - heroes, the approach to the personality and characterization of the inner world of which is in direct connection with the author's assessment of their worldview and the socio-historical meaning of their philosophical concepts. At the same time, the fusion of the psychological, historical-typological and ideological aspects is so complete in Turgenev's heroes that their names have become a common noun for a certain stage in the development of social thought, a certain social type representing the class in its historical state, and the psychological makeup of the personality (Rudin, Bazarov, Kirsanov , Mr. N. from the story "Asya" - "Russian man on rendez-vous").
The heroes of Dostoevsky are in the grip of an idea. Like slaves, they follow her, expressing her self-development. Having “accepted” a certain system into their soul, they obey the laws of its logic, go through all the necessary stages of its growth with it, bear the yoke of its reincarnations. So, Raskolnikov, whose concept grew out of the rejection of social injustice and a passionate desire for good, passing along with the idea that has taken possession of his whole being, all its logical stages, accepts murder and justifies the tyranny of a strong personality over the mute mass. In solitary monologues-reflections, Raskolnikov “strengthens” in his idea, falls under its power, gets lost in its sinister vicious circle, and then, having made an “experiment” and having suffered an internal defeat, he begins feverishly looking for a dialogue, the possibility of a joint assessment of the results of the experiment.
For Tolstoy, the system of ideas that the hero develops and develops in the process of life is a form of his communication with the environment and is derived from his character, from the psychological and moral characteristics of his personality.
It can be argued that all three great Russian realists of the middle of the century - Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky - depict the mental and ideological life of a person as a social phenomenon and ultimately presupposes an obligatory contact between people, without which the development of consciousness is impossible.
Although it is generally recognized that the art of the 20th century is the art of modernism, but a significant role in literary life of the last century has a realistic direction, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ on the one hand represents a realistic type of creativity. On the other hand, it comes into contact with that new direction, ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ received a very conditional concept of ʼʼsocialist realismʼʼ, - more precisely, the literature of revolutionary and socialist ideology.
The realism of the 20th century is directly related to the realism of the previous century. And how did this artistic method develop in the middle of the 19th century, having received the rightful name of ʼʼclassical realismʼʼ and having experienced various kinds of modifications in the literary work of the latter? thirds of XIX century, was influenced by such unrealistic trends as naturalism, aestheticism, impressionism.
The realism of the 20th century takes shape in its definite history and has a destiny. If we cover the 20th century collectively, then realistic creativity manifested itself in diversity, multi-composition in the first half of the 20th century. At this time, it is obvious that realism is changing under the influence of modernism and mass literature. He connects with these artistic phenomena as with revolutionary socialist literature. In the second half, there is a dissolution of realism, which has lost its clear aesthetic principles and poetics of creativity in modernism and postmodernism.
The realism of the 20th century continues the traditions of classical realism on different levels- from aesthetic principles to the techniques of poetics, the traditions of which were inherent in the realism of the 20th century. The realism of the last century acquires new properties that distinguish it from this type of creativity of the previous time.
The realism of the 20th century is characterized by an appeal to social phenomena reality and social motivation human nature, personality psychology, the fate of art. As obvious is the appeal to the social topical problems of the era, which are not separated from the problems of society and politics.
realistic art XX century, like the classical realism of Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, is distinguished by a high degree of generalization, typification of phenomena. Realistic art tries to show the characteristic and regular in their causality and determinism. For this reason, realism is characterized by a different creative embodiment of the principle of depicting a typical character in typical circumstances, in the realism of the 20th century, which is keenly interested in a separate human personality. Character as a living person - and in this character the universal and typical has an individual refraction, or is combined with the individual properties of the personality. Along with these features of classical realism, new features are also obvious.
First of all, these are the features that manifested themselves in the realistic already in late XIX century. Literary creativity in this era acquires the character of a philosophical and intellectual, when philosophical ideas lay in the simulation base artistic reality. At the same time, the manifestation of this philosophical principle is inseparable from the various properties of the intellectual. From the author's attitude to the intellectually active perception of the work in the process of reading, then the emotional perception. An intellectual novel, an intellectual drama, takes shape in its specific properties. classic pattern intellectual realistic novel gives Thomas Mann (ʼʼMagic Mountainʼʼ, ʼʼConfession of the adventurer Felix Krulʼʼ). This is also palpable in the dramaturgy of Bertolt Brecht.
The second feature of realism in the 20th century is the strengthening and deepening of the dramatic, more tragic beginning. This is obviously in the work of F.S. Fitzgerald (ʼʼTender is the nightʼʼ, ʼʼThe Great Gatsbyʼʼ).
As you know, the art of the 20th century lives by its special interest not just in a person, but in his inner world. The study of this world is connected with the desire of the writers to ascertain, depict moments of the unconscious and subconscious. To this end, many writers use the stream of consciousness technique. This can be traced in the short story by Anna Zegers ʼʼWalk of the Dead Girlsʼʼ, the work of W. Koeppen ʼʼDeath in Romeʼʼ, dramatic works Y.O'Neill ʼʼLove under the Elmsʼʼ (influence of the Oedipus complex).
Another feature of the realism of the 20th century is the active use of conditional art forms. Especially in the realistic prose of the second half of the 20th century, artistic conventionality is extremely widespread and diverse (for example, J. Brezan ʼʼKrabat, or the Transfiguration of the Worldʼʼ).
Literature of revolutionary and socialist ideology. Henri Barbusse and his novel ʼʼFireʼʼ
The realist trend in the literature of the 20th century is closely connected with another trend - socialist realism, or, more precisely, the literature of revolutionary and socialist ideology. In the literature of this trend, the first criterion is ideological and ideological (ideas of communism, socialism). In the background in the literature of this level is aesthetic and artistic. This principle is truthful image life under the influence of a certain ideological and ideological attitude of the author. The literature of the revolutionary and socialist ideology is in its origins connected with the literature of the revolutionary socialist and proletarian turn XIX-XX centuries, but the pressure of class views, ideologisation in socialist realism is more palpable.
Literature of this kind often appears in conjunction with realism (the depiction of a truthful, typical human character in typical circumstances). This direction received direction until the 70s of the XX century in the countries of the socialist camp (Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Germany), but also in the work of writers of the capitalist countries (panoramic-epic version of the work of Dimitar Dimov ʼʼTobaccoʼʼ). In the work of socialist realism, the polarization of two worlds is noticeable - the bourgeois and the socialist. The same is noticeable in the system of images. Indicative in this regard is the work of the writer Erwin Stritmatter (GDR), who, under the influence of the socialist realist creativity of Sholokhov (ʼʼVirgin Soil Upturnedʼʼ), created the work ʼʼOle Binkopʼʼ. In this novel, like in Sholokhov, modern to the author the village, in the depiction of which the author sought to reveal, not without drama and tragedy, the assertion of new, revolutionary socialist foundations of existence, just as Sholokhov, recognizing the importance of the ideological principle above all, sought to depict life in its revolutionary development.
In the first half of the 20th century, socialist realism became widespread in many countries of the "capitalist world" - in France, Great Britain, and the USA. The works of this literature include ʼʼ10 days that shook the worldʼʼ J. Reed, A. Gide ʼʼreturn to the USSRʼʼ and others.
Just as in Soviet Russia Maxim Gorky was considered the founder of socialist realism, Henri Barbusse (years of life: 1873-1935) is recognized in the West. This writer, very controversial, entered literature as a poet who felt the influence of symbolist lyrics (ʼʼMournersʼʼ). The writer whom Barbusse admired was Émile Zola, to whom Barbusse dedicated the book ʼʼZolaʼʼ (1933 ᴦ.) at the end of his life, which is considered by researchers as a model of Marxist literary criticism. At the turn of the century, the writer was significantly influenced by the Dreyfus Affair. Under its influence, Barbusse affirms in her work universal humanism, in which goodness, prudence, cordial responsiveness, a sense of justice, the ability to come to the aid of another person who is dying in this world operate. This position is captured in the 1914 short story collection ʼʼWeʼʼ.
In the literature of revolutionary and socialist ideology, Henri Barbusse is known as the author of the novels ʼʼFireʼʼ, ʼʼClarityʼʼ, the 1928 collection of short stories ʼʼTrue Talesʼʼ, and the essay book ʼʼJesusʼʼ (1927 ᴦ.). IN latest work the image of Christ is interpreted by the writer as the image of the world's first revolutionary, in that ideological and ideological certainty, in which the word ʼʼrevolutionaryʼʼ was used in the 20-30s of the last century.
An example of a work of socialist realism in its unity with realism can be called Barbusse's novel ʼʼFireʼʼ. ʼʼFireʼʼ is the first work about World War I, in which a new quality of conversation about this human tragedy was opened. The novel, which appeared in 1916, largely determined the direction of development of literature about World War I. The horrors of the war are described in the novel with a colossal amount of detail, his work pierced the picture of the war varnished by censorship. War is not an attack similar to a parade, it is super-monstrous fatigue, waist-deep water, mud. It was written under the direct influence of the impressions that the writer made while personally staying at the front on the eve of the war, as well as in the first months after it began. 40-year-old Henri Barbusse volunteered to go to the front, he knew the fate of a soldier as a private. He believed that he was saved from death by a wound (1915 ᴦ.), after which Barbusse spent many months in the hospital, where he generally comprehended the war in its various manifestations, the specifics of events and facts.
One of the most important creative guidelines that Barbusse set for himself when creating the novel "Fire" is connected with the writer's desire to show with all obviousness and ruthlessness what war is. Barbusse does not build his work according to tradition, highlighting certain storylines, but writes about the life of ordinary soldiers, from time to time snatching and giving close-ups of some characters from the soldier mass. Either this is La Mousse, the farmhand, or Paradis, the carter. This principle of organizing the novel without highlighting the organizing plot beginning is noted in the subtitle of the novel ʼʼDiary of a Platoonʼʼ. In the form of a diary entry of a certain narrator, to whom the author is close, this story is built as a series of diary fragments. This form of non-traditional novel compositional solution fits into the number of various artistic searches, landmarks of the literature of the 20th century. At the same time, these diary entries they are authentic pictures, since what is imprinted on the pages of this diary of the first platoon is perceived artistically and reliably. Henri Barbusse purposefully in his novel depicts the simple life of soldiers with bad weather, hunger, death, disease and rare glimpses of relaxation. This appeal to everyday life is connected with Barbusse's conviction, as his narrator says in one of the entries: ʼʼwar - ϶ᴛᴏ not fluttering banners, not the invocative voice of a horn at dawn, this is not heroism, not the courage of deeds, but diseases that torment a person, hunger, lice and deathʼʼ.
Barbusse here turns to naturalistic poetics, giving repulsive images, describing the corpses of soldiers who are floating in the stream of water among their dead comrades, unable to get out of the trench during weeks of rain. Naturalistic poetics is also palpable in the writer’s appeal to a special kind of naturalistic comparisons: Barbusse writes about one soldier getting out of a dugout as a bear moving backwards, about another scratching his hair and suffering from lice, like a monkey. Thanks to the second part of the comparison, a person is likened to an animal, but Barbusse's naturalistic poetics is not an end in itself. Thanks to these techniques, the writer can show what war is, cause disgust, hostility. The humanistic beginning of Barbusse's prose is manifested in the fact that even in these people doomed to death and misfortune he shows the ability to show humanity.
Barbusse's second line of creative conception is connected with the desire to show the growth of the consciousness of the simple soldier masses. In order to trace the state of consciousness of the mass of soldiers, the writer turns to the method of non-personalized dialogue, and in the structure of the work, dialogue occupies such a significant place as the depiction of events in the life of the characters in reality, and as descriptions. The peculiarity of this technique is, in fact, that when fixing a replica actor The words of the author accompanying these remarks do not indicate exactly to whom personally, individually, the statement belongs (the narrator says ʼʼsomeone saidʼʼ, ʼʼsomeone’s voice was heardʼʼ, ʼʼshouted out one of the soldiersʼʼ, etc.).
Barbusse traces how a new consciousness of ordinary soldiers is gradually being formed, who were brought to a state of despair by war with hunger, disease, and death. Barbusse's soldiers realize that the Boches, as they call the enemy Germans, are just as simple soldiers, just as unfortunate as they are, the French. Some who have realized this declare it openly, in their exalted utterances they declare that war is opposed to life. Some say that people are born in order to be husbands, fathers, children in this life, but not for the sake of death. Gradually, a frequently repeated thought emerges, expressed by various characters from the soldier mass: after this war there should be no wars.
The soldiers of Barbusse realized that this war was not being fought in their human interests not in the interests of the country and the people. The soldiers, in their understanding of this ongoing bloodshed, single out two reasons: the war is being waged solely in the interests of the chosen "bastard caste" who are helped by the war to fill sacks of gold. War is in the careerist interests of other representatives of this "bastard caste" with gilded epaulettes, for whom war gives them the opportunity to climb new stage up the career ladder.
The democratic mass of Henri Barbusse, growing in its awareness of life, gradually not only feels, but also realizes the unity of all people from simple classes, doomed to war, in their aspiration they oppose anti-life and anti-human war. Moreover, Barbusse's soldiers are ripening in their international moods, as they realize that this war is not to blame for the militarism of a particular country and Germany as having unleashed the war, but for world militarism, in this regard simple people must, like world militarism, unite, because in this universal international unity they will be able to resist war. Then one feels the desire that after this war there would be no more wars in the world.
In this novel, Barbusse is revealed as an artist using various artistic means to reveal the main idea of the author. In connection with the image of the people's growth of consciousness and consciousness, the writer does not turn to a new method of novel symbolism, which is manifested in the name last chapter containing climax the growth of the international consciousness of the soldiers. This chapter is usually called ʼʼDawnʼʼ. In it, Barbusse uses the technique of a symbol, which appears as a symbolic coloring of the landscape: according to the plot, it rained endlessly for many months, the sky was completely covered with heavy clouds hanging to the ground, pressing on a person, and it is in this chapter, where the climax is contained, that the sky begins clear, the clouds disperse, and between them the first ray of the sun timidly breaks, indicating that the sun exists.
In Barbusse's novel, the realistic is organically combined with the properties of the literature of revolutionary and socialist ideology, in particular, this is manifested in the depiction of the growth of popular consciousness. This ideological stretch with his inherent French humor was beaten by Romain Rolland in a review of ʼʼFireʼʼ, which appeared in March 1917 ᴦ. revealing different sides question, Rolland speaks of the justification for a truthful and merciless depiction of the war and that under the influence of military events, the everyday life of war, there is a change in the consciousness of the simple soldier mass. This change in consciousness, Rolland notes, is symbolically emphasized by the timidly breaking first ray of the sun in the landscape. At the same time, Rolland declares that this ray does not yet make the weather: the certainty with which Barbusse strives to show and depict the growth of consciousness of the soldiers is still very far away.
ʼʼFireʼʼ is a product of its time, the era of the spread of socialist and communist ideology, their implementation in life, when there was a holy faith in the possibility of their implementation in reality through revolutionary upheavals, to change life for the good of every person. In the spirit of the time, living with revolutionary socialist ideas, this novel was evaluated by contemporaries. A contemporary of Barbusse, communist writer Raymond Lefebvre called this work (ʼʼFireʼʼ) an ʼʼinternational epicʼʼ, stating that this is a novel that reveals the philosophy of the proletariat of war, and the language of ʼʼFireʼʼ is the language of proletarian war.
The novel ʼʼFireʼʼ was translated and published in Russia at the time of its release in the country of the author. It was far from the establishment of social realism, but the novel was perceived as a new word about life in its cruel truth and movement towards progress. This is exactly how the leader of the world proletariat V.I. Lenin. In his reviews, he repeated the words of M. Gorky from the preface to the publication of the novel in Russia: ʼʼeach page of his book is a blow of the iron hammer of truth on what is generally called warʼʼ.
The literature of revolutionary and socialist ideology continues to exist in the socialist and capitalist countries until the end of the 1980s. With this literature late period its existence (60-70s) is associated with creativity German writer from the German Democratic Republic by Hermann Kant (ʼʼAssembly Hallʼʼ - a novel in retro style (70s), and also returning the reader to the events of the Second World War ʼʼStopoverʼʼ).
Of the writers of the capitalist countries of the West, the poetic and romantic works of Louis Aragon are associated with literature of this kind (a number of novels in the cycle ʼʼ Real worldʼʼ - historical novelʼʼHoly Weekʼʼ, novel ʼʼCommunistsʼʼ). In English literature - J. Albridge (his works of socialist realism - ʼʼI don’t want him to dieʼʼ, ʼʼHeroes of desert horizonsʼʼ, dilogy ʼʼDiplomatʼʼ, ʼʼSon of a foreign land (ʼʼPrisoner of a foreign landʼʼ)).
Features of realism of the XX century - the concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Features of realism of the XX century" 2017, 2018.
...for me, imagination has always beenhigher than existence, and the strongest loveI experienced in a dream.
L.N. Andreev
Realism, as is known, appeared in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century and throughout the century existed within the framework of its critical current. However, symbolism, which made itself known in the 1890s - the first modernist trend in Russian literature - sharply opposed itself to realism. Following symbolism, other non-realist movements arose. This inevitably led to qualitative transformation of realism as a method of depicting reality.
The symbolists expressed the opinion that realism only glides over the surface of life and is not able to penetrate the essence of things. Their position was not infallible, but since then began in Russian art confrontation and mutual influence of modernism and realism.
It is noteworthy that modernists and realists, outwardly striving for delimitation, internally had a common aspiration for a deep, essential knowledge of the world. It is not surprising, therefore, that the writers of the turn of the century, who considered themselves realists, understood how narrow the framework of consistent realism was, and began to master syncretic forms of narration that made it possible to combine realistic objectivity with romantic, impressionistic and symbolist principles.
If the realists of the nineteenth century paid close attention to social nature human, then the realists of the twentieth century correlated this social nature with psychological, subconscious processes expressed in the clash of reason and instinct, intellect and feeling. Simply put, the realism of the early twentieth century pointed to the complexity of human nature, which is by no means reducible only to his social being. It is no coincidence that Kuprin, Bunin, and Gorky have a plan of events, the environment is barely indicated, but a refined analysis of the character's spiritual life is given. The author's gaze is always directed beyond the limits of the characters' spatial and temporal existence. Hence - the appearance of folklore, biblical, cultural motifs and images, which made it possible to expand the boundaries of the narrative, to attract the reader to co-creation.
At the beginning of the 20th century, within the framework of realism, four currents:
1) critical realism continues the traditions of the 19th century and involves an emphasis on the social nature of phenomena (at the beginning of the 20th century, these were the works of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy),
2) socialist realism - the term of Ivan Gronsky, denoting the image of reality in its historical and revolutionary development, the analysis of conflicts in the context of the class struggle, and the actions of heroes - in the context of benefit for humanity ("Mother" by M. Gorky, and later - most of the works of Soviet writers),
3) mythological realism formed in ancient literature, however, in the 20th century under M.R. began to understand the image and understanding of reality through the prism of well-known mythological stories(V foreign literature a prime example serves as the novel by J. Joyce "Ulysses", and in Russian literature of the early 20th century - the story "Judas Iscariot" by L.N. Andreeva)
4) naturalism involves depicting reality with the utmost plausibility and detail, often unsightly ("Pit" by A.I. Kuprin, "Sanin" by M.P. Artsybashev, "Notes of a Doctor" by V.V. Veresaev)
The listed features of Russian realism caused numerous disputes about the creative method of writers who remained faithful to realistic traditions.
Bitter starts with neo-romantic prose and goes on to create social plays and novels, becomes the ancestor of socialist realism.
Creation Andreeva was always in a borderline state: the modernists considered him a "contemptible realist", and for the realists, in turn, he was a "suspicious symbolist". At the same time, it is generally accepted that his prose is realistic, and his dramaturgy gravitates towards modernism.
Zaitsev, showing interest in the microstates of the soul, created impressionistic prose.
Attempts by critics to define the artistic method Bunin led to the fact that the writer himself compared himself to a suitcase glued huge amount labels.
The complex worldview of realist writers, the multidirectional poetics of their works testified to the qualitative transformation of realism as artistic method. Thanks to a common goal - the search for the highest truth - at the beginning of the 20th century there was a convergence of literature and philosophy, which was outlined even in the work of Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy.
For a long time, literary criticism was dominated by the assertion that at the end 19th century Russian realism was going through a deep crisis, a period of decline, under the sign of which the realistic literature of the beginning of the new century developed until the emergence of a new one. creative method- socialist realism.
However, the state of the literature itself opposes this assertion. The crisis of bourgeois culture, which manifested itself sharply at the end of the century on a world scale, cannot be mechanically identified with the development of art and literature.
Russian culture of that time had its own negative sides but they were not comprehensive. Domestic literature, always associated in its peak phenomena with progressive social thought, did not change this even in the 1890-1900s, marked by the rise of social protest.
The growth of the labor movement, which showed the emergence of the revolutionary proletariat, the emergence of the Social Democratic Party, peasant unrest, the all-Russian scope of student actions, the increasing expression of protest by the progressive intelligentsia, one of which was a demonstration at the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1901 - all this spoke of a decisive a turning point in public sentiment in all strata of Russian society.
A new revolutionary situation arose. Passivity and pessimism of the 80s. have been overcome. All were seized with the expectation of decisive change.
Talk about the crisis of realism at the time of the heyday of Chekhov's talent, the emergence of a talented galaxy of young democratic writers (M. Gorky, V. Veresaev, I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, A. Serafimovich, etc.), at the time of Leo Tolstoy's speech with the novel " Resurrection is impossible. In the 1890-1900s. Literature experienced not a crisis, but a period of intense creative search.
Realism changed (the problems of literature and its artistic principles), but did not lose its strength and significance. His critical pathos, which reached its ultimate power in the Resurrection, has not dried up either. Tolstoy gave in his novel a comprehensive analysis of Russian life, its social institutions, its morality, its "virtue" and everywhere found social injustice, hypocrisy and lies.
G. A. Byaly rightly wrote: “The denunciatory power of Russian critical realism at the end of the 19th century, during the years of direct preparation for the first revolution, reached such an extent that not only major events in people’s lives, but also the smallest everyday facts began to act as symptoms of perfect trouble public order."
Life after the reform of 1861 had not yet had time to “fit in”, but it was already becoming clear that a strong enemy was beginning to confront capitalism in the person of the proletariat, and that social and economic contradictions in the development of the country were becoming more and more complicated. Russia stood on the threshold of new complex changes and upheavals.
New heroes, showing how the old worldview is collapsing, how established traditions are breaking down, the foundations of the family, the relationship between fathers and children - all this spoke of a radical change in the problem of "man and environment". The hero begins to confront her, and this phenomenon is no longer isolated. Those who did not notice these phenomena, who did not overcome the positivist determinism of their characters, lost the attention of readers.
Russian literature displayed both acute dissatisfaction with life, and the hope for its transformation, and strong-willed tension, ripening in the masses. Young M. Voloshin wrote to his mother on May 16 (29), 1901, that the future historian of the Russian revolution “will look for its causes, symptoms and trends both in Tolstoy, and in Gorky, and in Chekhov’s plays, like historians french revolution see them in Rousseau and Voltaire and Beaumarchais.
Foreground in realistic literature the beginning of the century, the awakening civic consciousness of people, the thirst for activity, social and moral renewal of society are put forward. V. I. Lenin wrote that in the 70s. “The crowd was still asleep. Only at the beginning of the 1990s did its awakening begin, and at the same time a new and more glorious period began in the history of all Russian democracy.
The turn of the century was a time of romantic expectations, usually preceded by major historical events. The very air seemed to be saturated with a call to action. Noteworthy is the judgment of A. S. Suvorin, who, not being a supporter of progressive views, nevertheless followed Gorky’s work in the 1990s with great interest: that something needs to be done! And this should be done in his writings – it was necessary.”
The tonality of the literature changed perceptibly. Gorky's words that the time for the heroic has come are widely known. He himself appears as a revolutionary romantic, as a singer of the heroic principle in life. The feeling of a new tone of life was also characteristic of other contemporaries. Much evidence can be cited to show that readers expected writers to call for vigor and struggle, and publishers, who caught these sentiments, wanted to contribute to the emergence of such calls.
Here is one such evidence. On February 8, 1904, a novice writer N. M. Kataev informs Gorky’s comrade from the Znanie publishing house K. P. Pyatnitsky that the publisher Orekhov refused to publish a volume of his plays and stories: the publisher aims to print books of “heroic content”, and in Kataev's works do not even have a "cheerful tone".
Russian literature reflected the beginning in the 90s. the process of straightening the previously oppressed personality, revealing it both in the awakening of the consciousness of the workers, and in the spontaneous protest against the old world order, and in the anarchist rejection of reality, like the Gorky tramps.
The process of straightening was complex and covered not only the "lower classes" of society. Literature has covered this phenomenon in many ways, showing what unexpected forms it sometimes takes. In this regard, Chekhov turned out to be insufficiently understood, striving to show with what difficulty - "drop by drop" - a person overcomes the slave in himself.
Usually the scene of Lopakhin returning from the auction with the news that The Cherry Orchard now belongs to him, was interpreted in the spirit of the newly-minted master's intoxication with his material strength. But Chekhov has something else behind this.
Lopakhin buys an estate where the gentlemen fought his disenfranchised relatives, where he himself spent a joyless childhood, where his relative Firs still servilely serves. Lopakhin is intoxicated, but not so much with his bargain, but with the consciousness that he, a descendant of serfs, a former barefoot boy, is becoming higher than those who previously claimed to completely depersonalize their "slaves". Lopakhin is intoxicated with the consciousness of his equalization with the bars, which separates his generation from the first buyers of forests and estates of the ruined nobility.
History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983
