Ancient literature: definition, genres, history. Features of Old Russian literature. Questions and tasks

Question No. 1

Main features of Old Russian literature.

Old Russian literature - 10th – 12th century

Peculiarities:

1. Handwritten character. There were not individual handwritten works, but collections with specific purposes.

2. Anonymity. This was a consequence of society’s attitude towards the writer’s work. It is rare that the names of individual authors are known. In the work, the name is indicated at the end, title and in the margins with evaluative epithets "thin" and "undignified". Medieval authors did not have the concept of “authorship.” The main task: to convey the truth.

Types of anonymity:

3. Religious character. Everything is explained by God's purpose, will and providence.

4. Historicism. The author has the right to write only historically reliable facts. Fiction is excluded. The author is convinced of the accuracy of what is stated. Heroes are historical figures: princes, rulers standing at the top of the hierarchical ladder of feudal society. Even stories about miracles are not so much the imagination of the author as accurate records of the stories of eyewitnesses or the participants themselves.

5. Patriotism. The works are filled with deep content, the heroic pathos of serving the Russian land, state, and homeland.

6. The main theme of ancient Russian literature- world history and the meaning of human life.

7. Ancient literature glorifies the moral beauty of the Russian person, capable of sacrificing what is most precious for the sake of the common good - life. It expresses a deep belief in the power, the ultimate triumph of good and the ability of man to elevate his spirit and defeat evil.

8. A feature of the artistic creativity of the ancient Russian writer is the so-called “literary etiquette”.

9. This is a special literary and aesthetic regulation, the desire to subordinate the very image of the world to certain principles and rules, to establish once and for all what and how should be depicted Old Russian literature appears with the emergence of the state , writing and is based on bookish Christian culture and developed forms of oral poetic creativity . At this time, literature and folklore were closely connected. Literature often perceived plots, artistic images visual arts

folk art.

10. The traditions of Old Russian literature are found in the works of Russian writers of the 18th–20th centuries. patriotic pathos of glorifying Rus', as equal among all states of the world. The author contrasts the Byzantine theory of the universal empire and the church with the idea of equality of all Christian peoples. Proves the superiority of grace over the law. The law was extended only to the Jews, but grace was extended to all nations. In summary, the new covenant is a Christian creed that has worldwide significance and in which every people has the full right to freely choose this grace. Thus, Hilarion rejects the monopoly rights of Byzantium to the exclusive possession of grace. According to Likhachev, the author creates his own patriotic concept of history, where he glorifies Rus' and the enlightener Vladimir. Hilarion exalts Vladimir's feat in the adoption and spread of Christianity. He lists the prince's services to his homeland, emphasizes that the Christian faith was adopted by Russians as a result of free choice. The work put forward demand for the canonization of Vladimir as a saint, also the author glorifies the activities of Yaroslav, who successfully continued his father’s work in spreading Christianity. The work is very logical. The first part is a kind of introduction to the second – the central one. The first part is a comparison of Law and Grace, the second is praise to Vladimir, the third is a prayerful appeal to God. In the first part it is observed sign of antithesis- a typical technique of oratorical eloquence. Hilarion widely uses book metaphors, rhetorical questions, exclamations, repetitions and verbal rhymes. The word is a model for scribes of the 12th-15th centuries.

Question #10

The Walk of Abbot Daniel

Already in the 11th century, Russian people began traveling to the Christian East, to “holy places.” These travel-pilgrimages (a traveler who visited Palestine brought with him a palm branch; pilgrims were also called kaliki - from the Greek name for shoes - kaliga, worn by the traveler) contributed to the expansion and strengthening of international relations of Kievan Rus, and contributed to the development of national identity.

So, V beginning of XII V. "The Walk of Abbot Daniel" arises. Daniel committed pilgrimage to Palestine in 1106-1108 Daniel undertook a long journey, “compelled by his thoughts and impatience,” desiring to see “the holy city Jerusalem and the promised land,” and “for the sake of love, for the sake of these holy places, I wrote down everything I saw with my eyes.” His work is written “for the sake of the faithful people”, so that when they hear about “these holy places,” rushed to these places with thought and soul and thus they themselves accepted “from God an equal reward” with those who “reached these holy places.” Thus, Daniel attached to his “Walk” not only cognitive, but also moral, educational significance: his readers and listeners must mentally make the same journey and receive the same benefits for the soul as the traveler himself.

Daniel's "walk" is of great interest detailed description“holy places” and the personality of the author himself, although it begins with etiquette self-deprecation.

Talking about a difficult journey, Daniel notes how difficult it is to “experience and see all the holy places” without a good “leader” and without knowing the language. At first, Daniel was forced to give from his “meager earnings” to people who knew those places, so that they would show them to him. However, he was soon lucky: he found St. Savva, where he stayed, his old husband, “the book of Velmi,” who introduced the Russian abbot to all the sights of Jerusalem and its environs. This land.”

Daniel shows great curiosity: he is interested nature, city layout and character of buildings of Jerusalem, irrigation system near Jericho. Some interesting information Daniel reports about the Jordan River, which has gentle banks on one side and steep banks on the other, and in every way resembles the Russian river Snov. Daniel also strives to convey to his readers the feelings that every Christian experiences when approaching Jerusalem: these are feelings of “great joy” and “shedding of tears.” The abbot describes in detail the path to the city gates past the pillar of David, the architecture and size of the temples. A large place in the “Walk” is occupied by legends that Daniel either heard during his journey or read in written sources. He easily combines canonical scripture and apocrypha in his mind. Although Daniel’s attention is absorbed in religious issues, this does not prevent him from recognizing himself as an authorized representative Russian land in Palestine. He proudly reports that he, the Russian abbot, was received with honor by King Baldwin (Jerusalem was captured by the crusaders during Daniel's stay there). He prayed at the Holy Sepulcher for the entire Russian land

. And when the lamp set by Daniel on behalf of the entire Russian land was lit, but the “flask” (Roman) one was not lit, he sees in this a manifestation of God’s special mercy and favor to the Russian land.

Question #12

"The Tale of Igor's Campaign"

“The Word” is the pinnacle of literature created during the period of feudal fragmentation.

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is dedicated to the unsuccessful campaign against the Polovtsians in 1185 of Novgorod-Seversky Prince Igor Svyatoslavich with a few allies, a campaign that ended in a terrible defeat. Author calls on the Russian princes to unite to repel the steppe and to jointly defend the Russian land.

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” with brilliant power and insight reflected the main disaster of its time - the lack of state unity of Rus' and, as a consequence, the weakness of its defense against the onslaught of steppe nomadic peoples, who in quick raids ravaged old Russian cities, devastated villages, drove the population into slavery, penetrated into the very depths of the country, everywhere bringing death and destruction with them.

The all-Russian power of the Kyiv prince had not yet completely disappeared, but its importance was falling uncontrollably . The princes were no longer afraid of the Kyiv prince and sought to capture Kyiv, to increase their possessions and use the fading authority of Kyiv to their advantage.

In the Lay there is no systematic account of Igor’s campaign. Igor’s campaign against the Polovtsians and the defeat of his army is for the author a reason for deep thought about the fate of the Russian land, for a passionate call to unite and defend Rus'. This idea - the unity of Russians against common enemies - is main idea works. An ardent patriot, the author of “The Lay” sees the reason for Igor’s unsuccessful campaign not in the weakness of the Russian soldiers, but in the princes who are not united, act separately and ruin their native land, forgetting all-Russian interests.

The author begins his story with a memory of how alarming the beginning of Igor's campaign was, what ominous signs - an eclipse of the sun, the howling of wolves through the ravines, the barking of foxes - it was accompanied. Nature itself seemed to want to stop Igor, not to let him go further.

The defeat of Igor and its terrible consequences for the entire Russian land seem to force the author to remember that just recently Kyiv prince Svyatoslav, with the united forces of the Russian princes, defeated these same Polovtsians. He is transported mentally to Kyiv, to the tower of Svyatoslav, who has an ominous and incomprehensible dream

. The boyars explain to Svyatoslav that this dream is “in hand”: Igor Novgorod-Seversky suffered a terrible defeat.

Svyatoslav's speech gradually turns into an appeal by the author himself to all the most prominent Russian princes of that time.

The author sees them as powerful and glorious.

But then he remembers Igor’s young wife, Yaroslavna. He quotes the words of her mournful cry for her husband and for his fallen soldiers. Yaroslavna cries on the city wall in Putivl. She turns to the wind, to the Dnieper, to the sun, yearns and begs them for the return of her husband. As if in response to Yaroslavna’s plea, the sea began to gush at midnight, and tornadoes swirled on the sea: Igor is escaping from captivity.

The description of Igor's flight is one of the most poetic passages in the Lay. The Lay ends joyfully with Igor’s return to the Russian land.

and singing his glory upon entering Kyiv. Despite the fact that “The Lay” is dedicated to the defeat of Igor, it is full of confidence in the power of the Russians, full of faith in the glorious future of the Russian land. The call for unity is permeated in the “Word” with the most passionate, strongest and most tender love for the homeland.“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is a written work

oh.

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” became the main phenomenon not only of ancient literature, but also of modern literature - the 19th and 20th centuries.“The Word” is a direct response to the events of Igor’s campaign . It was a call for an end to princely civil strife, for unification to fight against an external enemy.

This call is the main content of the Word. Using the example of Igor's defeat, the author shows the sad consequences of political fragmentation in Rus' and the lack of cohesion between the princes. The word not only tells about the events of Igor’s campaign, and also represents the passionate and excited speech of a true patriot . His speech is sometimes angry, sometimes sad and mournful, but. always full of faith in the homeland.

The author is proud of his homeland and believes in its bright future The author is a supporter of princely power , which would be capable of curbing the arbitrariness of petty princes.
. He sees the center of united Rus' in Kyiv

The author embodies his call for unity in the image of the Motherland, the Russian land. In fact, the main character of the word is not Igor or any other prince. The main character is the Russian people, the Russian land. Thus, the theme of the Russian land is central to the work. Using the example of Igor’s campaign, the author shows what such disunity among the princes can lead to.
. After all, Igor is defeated only because he is alone. Igor – brave but short-sighted , goes on a hike despite bad omens - a solar eclipse.

Although Igor loves his homeland, his main goal is to gain fame. Talking about , it is important to note that they are imbued with tenderness and affection, the folk principle is clearly expressed in them, they embody sadness and care for the Motherland. Their crying is deeply national in nature.

The central lyrical element of the plot is Yaroslavna’s cry. Yaroslavna – a collective image of all Russian wives and mothers, as well as the image of the Russian land, which also mourns.

No. 14 Russian pre-revival. Emotionally - expressive style. "Zadonshchina"

Russian pre-renaissance - mid-14th - early 15th centuries!

This is a period of expressive-emotional style and patriotic upsurge in literature, a period of revival of chronicle writing, historical narration, panegyric hagiography, appeal to the times of independence of Rus' in all areas of culture: literature, architecture, painting, folklore, political thought etc.

The Russian Pre-Renaissance of the XIV-XV centuries was the era of the greatest spiritual figures, scribes and painters. The names of Rev. served as the personification of the national spiritual culture of that time. Sergius of Radonezh, Stefan of Perm and Kirill Belozersky, Epiphanius the Wise, Theophanes the Greek, Andrei Rublev and Dionysius. During the Pre-Renaissance period. coinciding with the gathering of Russian lands Around Moscow, there was an appeal to the spiritual traditions of ancient Kievan Rus, and attempts were made to revive them in new conditions. We are, of course, talking about the traditions of Russian asceticism. In the era under review, these traditions were strengthened, but they acquired a slightly different character. The activities of ascetics during the formation of the Moscow state in the second half of the 14th century became socially, and to some extent, politically active. This was reflected in ancient Russian literature of that period. A particularly striking example is the works of Epiphanius the Wise - “The Lives” of Sergius of Radonezh and Stephen of Perm.

There comes a period in Russian history when a person somehow begins valued as a person, there is a discovery of its historical significance and internal merits. In the literature, increasing attention is paid to the emotional sphere, and interest in human psychology is emerging. This leads to expressive style. Dynamic descriptions.

An emotionally expressive style is developing in literature, and in ideological life “silence” and “solitary prayer” are becoming increasingly important.

Attention to inner life man, demonstrating the fluidity of what is happening, the variability of all things, was associated with the awakening of historical consciousness. Time was no longer represented only in the forms of changing events. The character of the eras changed, and first of all, the attitude towards the foreign yoke. The time has come to idealize the era of Russian independence. Thought turns to the idea of independence, art - to the works of pre-Mongol Rus', architecture - to the buildings of the era of independence, and literature - to the works of the 11th–13th centuries: to the “Tale of Bygone Years”, to the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion, to “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, to the “Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land”, to the “Life of Alexander Nevsky”, to the “Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu”, etc. Thus, for the Russian Pre-Renaissance, Rus' during the period of independence, Pre-Mongol Rus' became its “antique”.

There is growing interest in internal states the human soul, psychological experiences, the dynamics of feelings and emotions. Thus, Epiphanius the Wise in his works conveys feelings of delight and surprise that fill the soul. Literature and art in general embody the ideal of beauty, spiritual harmony, the ideal of a person who devotes himself to serving the idea of the common good

According to DS Likhachev, “The focus of attention of writers of the late XIV - early XV centuries. turned out to be individual psychological states of a person, his feelings, emotional responses to events in the outside world. But these feelings, individual states of the human soul are not yet united into characters. Individual manifestations of psychology are depicted without any individualization and do not add up to psychology. The connecting, unifying principle - the character of a person - has not yet been discovered. Man's individuality is still limited by the straightforward classification of it into one of two categories - good or evil, positive or negative."

It is important to note that the emergence of man as a measure of all values in Rus' is only partial. This is how man, the titan, the man at the center of the Universe, does not appear. So, despite the existence of a pre-renaissance period, the Renaissance itself never comes!!!

Pushkin’s words “The Great Renaissance had no influence on it (Russia).”

"Zadonshchina"

Degree book"

Created in 1563 on the initiative of the Metropolitan Macarius by the royal confessor Andrei - Athanasius - “The Grave Book of the Royal Genealogy.” The Work makes an attempt to present the history of the Russian Moscow State in the form of genealogical continuity from Rurik to Ivan the Terrible.
History of the state presented in the form of hagiobiographies of rulers. Period the reign of each prince is a certain facet in history.
So the book is divided into 17 degrees and facets. Introduction – a lengthy life of Princess Olga. In each facet after the author's biography, the most important events are outlined. At the center of the story are the personalities of the autocratic princes. They endowed with the qualities of ideal wise rulers, brave warriors and exemplary Christians. The compilers of the Degree Book try to emphasize the greatness of the deeds and the beauty of the virtues of the princes, the psychologist introduces the characteristics of the heroes, trying to show their inner world and pious stories.
The idea of a autocratic form of government in Rus' is being pursued, power is surrounded by an aura of holiness, the need for resigned submission to it is proven.

Thus, in the Degree Book, historical material acquired topical relevance political significance , everything is subordinated to the task of the ideological struggle to strengthen the autocratic power of the sovereign in Rus'. The degree book, like chronicles, serves as an official historical document, relying on which Moscow diplomacy conducted negotiations in the international arena, proving the original rights of Moscow sovereigns to own Russian territories.

Also An important part of the period of the second monumentalism is the work of Ivan the Terrible and the Tale of Peter and Fevronia.

No. 18 The work of Ivan the Terrible

Ivan groznyj was one of the most educated people of his time, had phenomenal memory and erudition.

He founded the Moscow Printing Yard, By his order, a unique literary monument was created - the Facial Chronicle.
And the works of Ivan the Terrible - the most famous monument Russian literature of the 16th century. Messages from Tsar Ivan the Terrible - one of the most unusual monuments of ancient Russian literature. The central themes of his messages- international the importance of the Russian state(the concept of Moscow - “the third Rome”) and the monarch's divine right to unlimited power. The themes of the state, ruler, and power occupy one of the central places in Shakespeare, but are expressed in completely different genres and artistic means. The power of influence of Ivan the Terrible's messages lies in the system of argumentation, including biblical quotes and extracts from sacred authors; facts from world and Russian history to draw analogies; examples from personal impressions. In polemical and private messages, Grozny uses facts from personal life. This allows the author, without cluttering the message with rhetoric, to significantly enliven the style. A fact conveyed briefly and accurately is immediately remembered, receives an emotional overtones, and imparts the urgency necessary for polemics. The messages of Ivan the Terrible suggest a variety of intonations - ironic, accusatory, satirical, instructive. It's just special case extensive influence on the messages of living spoken language of the 16th century, which is very new in ancient Russian literature.

The works of Ivan the Terrible - REALLY GREAT LITERATURE.

Main literary monuments, created by Ivan the Terrible, this is the Message of the Terrible to the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery and Correspondence with Andrei Kurbsky.

Message from Ivan the Terrible in the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery to the abbot of the monastery Kozma. Around 1573.

Written regarding violation of the monastic decree exiled there by the Terrible boyars Sheremetev, Khabarov, Sobakin.

Message permeated with caustic irony escalating into sarcasm, in relation to the disgraced boyars, who “introduced their own lustful regulations” into the monastery. Grozny accuses the boyars of destroying the monastic rule and this leading to social inequality. Terrible attacks the monks, who were unable to curb the temper of the boyars. Ivan the Terrible's words are imbued with irony arising from self-deprecation: “woe is me” O. And further, the more Grozny talks about his respect for the Kirillov Monastery, the more caustic his reproaches sound. He shames the brethren for allowing the boyars to violate the rules, and thus it is not known, the tsar writes, who took tonsure from whom, whether the boyars were the monks or the monks were the boyars.”

Grozny ends the letter with an angry, irritable appeal, forbidding the monks to bother him with such problems. According to Likhachev, the Message is a free improvisation, passionate, written in the heat of the moment, turning into an accusatory speech. Ivan the Terrible is confident that he is right and is annoyed that the monks are bothering him.

In general, Grozny’s messages are evidence of the beginning of the destruction of the strict system literary style and the emergence of the individual. True, at that time only the king was allowed to declare his individuality. Realizing his high position, the king could boldly break all the established rules and play the roles of either a wise philosopher, or a humble servant of God, or a cruel ruler.

An example of a new type of life is precisely the “Life of Ulyaniya Osorgina” (Life of Juliania Lazarevskaya, The Tale of Ulyaniya Lazarevskaya)

“The Tale of Ulyaniya Lazarevskaya” is the first biography of a noblewoman in ancient Russian literature.(at that time, a noblewoman was not the highest stratum of society, rather the middle class).

Main features of the product:

1. Life writes relative of the saint(in this case son)

2. The medieval principle of historicism is violated. The work must convey the most important historical events, the heroes are major figures, and not a simple married woman with children.

3. The story is a clear indication that liter becomes closer to the reader.

Written by the son of Ulyana Druzhina at the beginning of the 17th century. The second level of anonymity, little is known about the author. The son is well acquainted with the facts of the heroine’s biography, her personal qualities, and her moral character is dear to him. The positive character of a Russian woman is revealed in the everyday setting of a rich noble estate.

The qualities of an exemplary housewife come to the fore. After marriage, Ulyany’s shoulders fall on the responsibility of running a complex household. A woman pulls a house, pleases father-in-law, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, monitors the work of slaves, herself resolves social conflicts in the family and between servants and gentlemen. So, one of the sudden riots of the courtyards leads to the death of her eldest son, but Ulyaniya resignedly endures all the hardships that befall her.

The story truthfully and accurately depicts the position of a married woman in big family, her powerlessness and responsibilities. Running the household consumes Ulyanya, she doesn’t have time to go to church, but nevertheless she is a “saint.” Thus, the story affirms the holiness of the feat of highly moral worldly life and service to people. Ulyaniya helps the hungry, cares for the sick during the “pestilence”,

doing “immeasurable alms.”

The story of Ulyaniya Lazarevskaya creates the image of an energetic, intelligent Russian woman, an exemplary housewife and wife, enduring all trials with patience and humility. Which falls to her lot. So Druzhina depicts in the story not only the real character traits of her mother, but also paints the general ideal appearance of a Russian woman as it seemed to a Russian nobleman of the early 17th century. In biography The squad does not completely depart from the hagiographic tradition. So Ulyaniya comes from “God-loving” parents, she grew up in “piety” and “from a young age loved God.” In the character of Ulyany the inherent traits of a true Christian can be traced- modesty, meekness, humility, tolerance and generosity (“doing immeasurable alms.” As befits Christian ascetics, although Ulyaniya does not go to the monastery, she in old age indulges in asceticism.
The story also uses traditional hagiography Motives of religious fiction: Demons want to kill the Hive, but she is saved by the intervention of St. Nicholas. In some cases, “demonic machinations” have very specific manifestations - conflicts in the family and rebellion of “slaves”.

As befits a saint, Juliana has a presentiment of her death and dies piously; later her body works miracles.
Thus, The Tale of Juliania Lazarevskaya is a work in which elements of an everyday story are intertwined with elements of the hagiographic genre, however, the everyday description still prevails. The story is devoid of the traditional introduction, lamentation and praise. The style is quite simple.
The story of Juliania Lazarevskaya is evidence of growing interest in society and literature in the private life of a person, his behavior in everyday life. As a result, as a result of the penetration of such realistic elements into hagiography, the hagiography is destroyed and turns into the genre of a secular biographical story.

No. 21 “The Tale of the Tver Otroche Monastery”

17th century.

Historical story gradually turns into a love and adventure story, which can be easily traced in the Tale of the Tver Otroch Monastery. DS Likhachev in selected works I studied this interesting work in detail, so we will rely on his opinion.

“The Tale of the Tver Otroch Monastery,” undoubtedly composed in the 17th century, tells about a rather ordinary everyday drama: the bride of one marries another. The conflict intensifies because both heroes of the story - both the former groom and the future husband - are connected by friendship and feudal relations: the first is a servant, the “youth” of the second.

A remarkable feature of the story is that it is not based on the usual conflict between good and evil in medieval stories. In “The Tale of the Tver Otroch Monastery” there are no evil characters, no evil principle at all . In it missing even social conflict : action takes place as if in an ideal country where exist good relations between the prince and his subordinates . The peasants, boyars and their wives strictly follow the prince’s instructions, rejoice at his marriage, and happily meet his young wife, a simple peasant woman. They come out to meet her with children and offerings, and are amazed at her beauty. All the people in this story are young and beautiful. Several times the beauty of the heroine of the story is persistently spoken of - Ksenia. She is pious and meek, humble and cheerful , has “a great mind and walked in all the commandments of the Lord.”(his expensive clothes are mentioned several times in the story). He always “stood before the prince,” was “loved by him dearly,” and was faithful to him in everything. The young Grand Duke Yaroslav Yaroslavich received no less praise. They all behave as they should and are distinguished by piety and intelligence. Ksenia’s parents also behave ideally. None of the characters made a single mistake. Little of, everyone acts as planned. The youth and the prince see visions and carry out the will revealed to them in these visions and signs. Moreover, Ksenia herself foresees what is about to happen to her. She is illuminated not only with bright beauty, but also with a bright vision of the future. And yet, the conflict is obvious - an acute, tragic conflict, forcing all the characters in the story to suffer, and one of them, the youth Gregory, to go into the forests and found a monastery there. This happens because for the first time in Russian literature, the conflict has been transferred from the sphere of the world struggle between evil and good into the very essence of human nature. Two people love the same heroine, and neither of them is guilty of their feeling. Is Ksenia to blame for choosing one over the other? Of course, she is not guilty of anything, but to justify her, the author has to resort to a typically medieval technique:. She obediently does what is destined for her and what she cannot help but do. By this, the author seems to free her from the burden of responsibility for the decisions she makes; in essence, she does not decide anything and does not change Gregory; she only follows what was revealed to her from above. Of course, this intervention from above weakens the earthly, purely human nature of the conflict, but this intervention is told in the story with the utmost tact. The intervention of fate is not ecclesiastical in nature. Nowhere is it said about Xenia’s visions, her prophetic dreams, the voice she heard, or anything like that. Ksenia has the gift of clairvoyance, but this clairvoyance is not ecclesiastical, but rather folkloric in nature. She knows what must happen, but why she knows is not told to the reader. She knows as a wise man knows the future. Ksenia is a “wise maiden”, a character well known in Russian folklore and reflected in ancient Russian literature: let us remember the maiden Fevronia in “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” of the 16th century.

But, in contrast to the fairy-tale development of the plot, in “The Tale of the Tver Youth Monastery” everything is transferred to a more “human plane”. The story is still far from being immersed in everyday life, but it is already developing in the sphere of ordinary human relationships. The plot itself: the foundation of the Tver Otroche Monastery.
When it turns out that Ksenia has been given to another, Prince Yaroslav Yaroslavovich, Grigory dresses in a peasant dress and goes into the forest, where “build yourself a hut and a chapel.” The main reason that Gregory decides to found a monastery is not a pious desire to devote himself to God, but unrequited love.

The founding of the monastery and the prince’s help in its construction finally confirm the main idea of the story, that everything that happens happens for the betterment of the world. “The monastery still stands today through the grace of God and the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Great Saint Peter, Metropolitan of Moscow and All Russia, the Wonderworker.”“The Tale of the Tver Youth Monastery” has the features of an epic plot. It is similar to the translated chivalric novel by its love theme; as in "Bova",

we meet here a classic love triangle and the twists and turns within this triangle that are beyond the reader’s foresight. Fate is inescapable, but it promised the prince a happy love, and Gregory - an unhappy one. The youth has nothing more to look forward to in this world; he must build a monastery only in order to please the Lord and become “blessed.” Thus, on the ladder of Christian moral values carnal, earthly love turns out to be one step higher - a conclusion apparently not intended by the author.

The Tale of "Grief - Misfortune"

One of the outstanding works of literature of the second half of the 17th century.

Central theme : subject tragic fate younger generation, trying to break with the old forms of family and everyday life, domostroevsky morality.

The plot of the story is based on tragic story the life of the Young Man, who rejected parental instructions and wished to live of his own free will, “as he pleases.” Appearance in general - a collective image of a representative of the younger generation of his time - an innovative phenomenon. Per liter

The historical personality is replaced by a fictional hero, embodying the typical traits of an entire generation. Well done, he grew up in a patriarchal family living according to the principles of Domostroy. He was surrounded by the love and care of his parents. But because of this, he has not learned to understand people and understand life, so he wants to break out from under his parents’ wing and live according to his own will. He is too gullible, and this gullibility and belief in the sanctity of the bonds of friendship destroys him, but he does not want to give up and wants to prove that he is right by going to a foreign country. The reason for the further misadventures of the Young Man is his character. He is ruined by boasting about his happiness and wealth. This is the moral - “but the word of praise has always rotted.” From this moment on, the image of Grief appears in the work, which personifies the unfortunate fate of a person. The young man, who rejected parental authority, is forced to bow his head before Grief. “Good people” sympathize with him and advise him to return to his parents. But now it’s just

Gore Literature Ancient Rus'

The significance of Old Russian literature as the basis for the development of new Russian literature is very great. Thus, images, ideas, even the style of writings were inherited by A. S. Pushkin, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy.

Old Russian literature did not arise out of nowhere. Its appearance was prepared by the development of language, oral folk art, cultural ties with Byzantium and Bulgaria and due to the adoption of Christianity as a single religion. First literary works, appeared in Rus', translated. Those books that were necessary for worship were translated.

The first original works, that is, written by the Eastern Slavs themselves, date back to the end of the 11th and beginning of the 12th centuries. V. The formation of Russian national literature was taking place, its traditions and features were taking shape, determining its specific features, a certain dissimilarity with the literature of our days.

The purpose of this work is to show the features of Old Russian literature and its main genres.

II. Features of Old Russian literature.

2. 1. Historicism of content.

Events and characters in literature, as a rule, are the fruit of the author's imagination. Authors of works of fiction, even if they describe the true events of real people, conjecture a lot. But in Ancient Rus' everything was completely different. The ancient Russian scribe only talked about what, in his opinion, really happened. Only in the 17th century. Everyday stories with fictional characters and plots appeared in Rus'.

Both the ancient Russian scribe and his readers firmly believed that the events described actually happened. Thus, chronicles were a kind of legal document for the people of Ancient Rus'. After the death of Moscow Prince Vasily Dmitrievich in 1425, his younger brother Yuri Dmitrievich and son Vasily Vasilyevich began to argue about their rights to the throne. Both princes turned to the Tatar Khan to arbitrate their dispute. At the same time, Yuri Dmitrievich, defending his rights to reign in Moscow, referred to ancient chronicles, which reported that power had previously passed from the prince-father not to his son, but to his brother.

2. 2. Handwritten nature of existence.

Another feature of Old Russian literature is the handwritten nature of its existence. Even the appearance of the printing press in Rus' changed the situation little until the middle of the 18th century. Existence literary monuments in manuscripts led to special veneration of the book. What even separate treatises and instructions were written about. But on the other hand, handwritten existence led to the instability of ancient Russian works of literature. Those works that have come down to us are the result of the work of many, many people: the author, editor, copyist, and the work itself could last for several centuries. Therefore, in scientific terminology, there are such concepts as “manuscript” (handwritten text) and “list” (rewritten work). The manuscript may contain lists of various works and may be written either by the author himself or by copyists. Another fundamental concept in textual criticism is the term “edition,” i.e., the purposeful processing of a monument caused by social political events, changes in the function of the text, or differences in the language of the author and editor.

Closely related to the existence of a work in manuscripts is such a specific feature of Old Russian literature as the problem of authorship.

The author's principle in Old Russian literature is muted, implicit. Old Russian scribes were not thrifty with other people's texts. When rewriting, the texts were processed: some phrases or episodes were excluded from them or inserted into them, and stylistic “decorations” were added. Sometimes the author's ideas and assessments were even replaced by the opposite ones. The lists of one work differed significantly from each other.

Old Russian scribes did not at all strive to reveal their involvement in literary composition. Many monuments have remained anonymous; the authorship of others has been established by researchers based on indirect evidence. So it is impossible to attribute to someone else the writings of Epiphanius the Wise, with his sophisticated “weaving of words.” The style of Ivan the Terrible’s messages is inimitable, boldly mixing eloquence and rude abuse, learned examples and the style of simple conversation.

It happens that in a manuscript one or another text was signed with the name of an authoritative scribe, which may or may not correspond to reality. Thus, among the works attributed to the famous preacher Saint Cyril of Turov, many, apparently, do not belong to him: the name of Cyril of Turov gave these works additional authority.

The anonymity of literary monuments is also due to the fact that the ancient Russian “writer” did not consciously try to be original, but tried to show himself as traditional as possible, that is, to comply with all the rules and regulations of the established canon.

2. 4. Literary etiquette.

The famous literary critic, researcher of ancient Russian literature, Academician D. S. Likhachev, proposed a special term to designate the canon in the monuments of medieval Russian literature - “literary etiquette”.

Literary etiquette consists of:

From the idea of how this or that course of events should have taken place;

From ideas about how the actor should have behaved in accordance with his position;

From ideas about what words the writer should have described what was happening.

We have before us the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and the etiquette of words. The hero is supposed to behave this way, and the author is supposed to describe the hero only in appropriate terms.

III. The main genres of ancient Russian literature.

The literature of modern times is subject to the laws of “genre poetics.” It was this category that began to dictate the ways of creating a new text. But in ancient Russian literature the genre did not play such an important role.

A sufficient amount of research has been devoted to the genre uniqueness of Old Russian literature, but there is still no clear classification of genres. However, some genres immediately stood out in ancient Russian literature.

3. 1. Hagiographic genre.

Life is a description of the life of a saint.

Russian hagiographic literature includes hundreds of works, the first of which were written already in the 11th century. The Life, which came to Rus' from Byzantium along with the adoption of Christianity, became the main genre of ancient Russian literature, that literary form, in which the spiritual ideals of Ancient Rus' were clothed.

The compositional and verbal forms of life have been refined over the centuries. The high theme - a story about life that embodies ideal service to the world and God - determines the author’s image and the style of the narrative. The author of the life tells the story excitedly; he does not hide his admiration for the holy ascetic and his admiration for his righteous life. The author's emotionality and excitement color the entire narrative in lyrical tones and contribute to the creation of a solemn mood. This atmosphere is also created by the style of narration - high solemn, full of quotations from the Holy Scriptures.

When writing a life, the hagiographer (the author of the life) was obliged to follow a number of rules and canons. The composition of a correct life should be three-fold: introduction, story about the life and deeds of the saint from birth to death, praise. In the introduction, the author asks forgiveness from readers for their inability to write, for the rudeness of the narrative, etc. The introduction was followed by the life itself. It cannot be called a “biography” of a saint in the full sense of the word. The author of the life selects from his life only those facts that do not contradict the ideals of holiness. The story about the life of a saint is freed from everything everyday, concrete, and accidental. In a life compiled according to all the rules, there are few dates, exact geographical names, or names of historical figures. The action of the life takes place, as it were, outside of historical time and specific space; it unfolds against the backdrop of eternity. Abstraction is one of the features of the hagiographic style.

At the end of the life there should be praise to the saint. This is one of the most important parts of life, which required great literary art and a good knowledge of rhetoric.

The oldest Russian hagiographic monuments are two lives of princes Boris and Gleb and the Life of Theodosius of Pechora.

3. 2. Eloquence.

Eloquence is an area of creativity characteristic of ancient period development of our literature. Monuments of church and secular eloquence are divided into two types: teaching and solemn.

Solemn eloquence required depth of intent and great literary excellence. The speaker needed the ability to construct a speech effectively in order to capture the listener, set him in a high mood corresponding to the topic, and shock him with pathos. There was a special term for a solemn speech - “word”. (There was no terminological unity in ancient Russian literature. A military story could also be called “the Word.”) Speeches were not only pronounced, but written and distributed in numerous copies.

Solemn eloquence did not pursue narrow practical goals; it required the formulation of problems of broad social, philosophical and theological scope. The main reasons for creating “words” are theological issues, issues of war and peace, defense of the borders of the Russian land, internal and foreign policy, the struggle for cultural and political independence.

The most ancient monument of solemn eloquence is the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion, written between 1037 and 1050.

Teaching eloquence is teachings and conversations. They are usually small in volume, often devoid of rhetorical embellishments, and written in the Old Russian language, which was generally accessible to people of that time. Church leaders and princes could deliver teachings.

Teachings and conversations have purely practical purposes and contain the information a person needs. “Instruction to the Brethren” by Luke Zhidyata, Bishop of Novgorod from 1036 to 1059, contains a list of rules of behavior that a Christian should adhere to: do not take revenge, do not utter “shameful” words. Go to church and behave quietly in it, honor your elders, judge truthfully, honor your prince, do not curse, keep all the commandments of the Gospel.

Theodosius of Pechora is the founder of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. He owns eight teachings to the brethren, in which Theodosius reminds the monks of the rules of monastic behavior: not to be late for church, make three prostrations, maintain decorum and order when singing prayers and psalms, and bow to each other when meeting. In his teachings, Theodosius of Pechora demands complete renunciation from the world, abstinence, constant prayer and vigil. The abbot sternly denounces idleness, money-grubbing, and intemperance in food.

3. 3. Chronicle.

Chronicles were weather records (by “summers” - by “years”). The annual entry began with the words: “Into the summer.” After this there was a story about events and incidents that, from the point of view of the chronicler, were worthy of the attention of posterity. These could be military campaigns, raids by steppe nomads, natural disasters: droughts, crop failures, etc., as well as simply unusual incidents.

It is thanks to the work of chroniclers that modern historians have an amazing opportunity to look into the distant past.

Most often, the ancient Russian chronicler was a learned monk who sometimes spent many years compiling the chronicle. In those days, it was customary to start telling stories about history from ancient times and only then move on to the events of recent years. The chronicler had to first of all find, put in order, and often rewrite the work of his predecessors. If the compiler of the chronicle had at his disposal not one, but several chronicle texts at once, then he had to “reduce” them, that is, combine them, choosing from each what he considered necessary to include in his own work. When materials relating to the past were collected, the chronicler moved on to presenting the events of his time. The result of this great job the chronicle was forming. After some time, other chroniclers continued this collection.

Apparently, the first major monument of ancient Russian chronicle writing was the chronicle code compiled in the 70s of the 11th century. The compiler of this code is believed to have been the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nikon the Great (? - 1088).

Nikon's work formed the basis of another chronicle, which was compiled in the same monastery two decades later. IN scientific literature it received the code name “Initial Vault”. Its nameless compiler replenished Nikon's collection not only with news from recent years, but also with chronicle information from other Russian cities.

“The Tale of Bygone Years”

Based on the chronicles of the 11th century tradition. The greatest chronicle monument of the era of Kievan Rus - “The Tale of Bygone Years” was born.

It was compiled in Kyiv in the 10s. 12th century According to some historians, its probable compiler was the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor, also known for his other works. When creating “The Tale of Bygone Years,” its compiler used numerous materials with which he supplemented the Primary Code. These materials included Byzantine chronicles, texts of treaties between Rus' and Byzantium, monuments of translated and ancient Russian literature, and oral traditions.

The compiler of “The Tale of Bygone Years” set as his goal not just to tell about the past of Rus', but also to determine the place of the Eastern Slavs among the European and Asian peoples.

The chronicler talks in detail about the settlement Slavic peoples in ancient times, about the settlement of territories by the Eastern Slavs that would later become part of Old Russian state, about the morals and customs of different tribes. The Tale of Bygone Years emphasizes not only the antiquity of the Slavic peoples, but also the unity of their culture, language and writing, created in the 9th century. brothers Cyril and Methodius.

The chronicler considers the adoption of Christianity to be the most important event in the history of Rus'. The story of the first Russian Christians, the baptism of Rus', the spread of the new faith, the construction of churches, the emergence of monasticism, and the success of Christian enlightenment occupies a central place in the Tale.

The wealth of historical and political ideas reflected in “The Tale of Bygone Years” suggests that its compiler was not just an editor, but also a talented historian, a deep thinker, and a brilliant publicist. Many chroniclers of subsequent centuries turned to the experience of the creator of the Tale, sought to imitate him and almost necessarily placed the text of the monument at the beginning of each new chronicle.

In ancient Russian literature, which knew no fiction, historical in large or small ways, the world itself was presented as something eternal, universal, where events and people’s actions are determined by the very system of the universe, where the forces of good and evil are forever fighting, a world whose history is well known ( after all, for each event mentioned in the chronicle, an exact date was indicated - the time that had passed from the “creation of the world”!) and even the future was destined: prophecies about the end of the world, the “second coming” of Christ and Last Judgment waiting for all the people of the earth. Obviously, this could not but affect literature: the desire to subordinate the very image of the world, to determine the canons by which this or that event should be described led to the very schematicism of ancient Russian literature that we talked about in the introduction. This sketchiness is called subordination to the so-called literary etiquette - D. S. Likhachev discusses its structure in the literature of Ancient Rus': 1) how this or that course of events should have taken place; 2) how the character should have behaved in accordance with his position; 3) How should a writer describe what is happening?

“What we have before us, therefore, is the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and the etiquette of words,” he says. To explain these principles, consider the following example: in the life of a saint, according to the etiquette of behavior, it should have been told about the childhood of the future saint, about his pious parents, about how he was drawn to church from infancy, shunned games with peers, and so on: in any In a life, this plot component is not only certainly present, but is also expressed in each life in the same words, that is, verbal etiquette is observed. Here, for example, are the opening phrases of several lives belonging to different authors and written in different time: Theodosius of Pechersk “with his soul drawn to the love of God, and going to the Church of God all day long, listening to divine books with great attention, and also not approaching children playing, as is the custom of the poor, and abhorring their games.. And therefore, give in to the teaching of divine books...

And soon all grammar was forgotten"; Niphon of Novgorod "was given by his parents to study divine books. And soon I became completely unaccustomed to book teaching, and was not at all similar to my peers in children’s games, but more closely attached to the church of God and read the divine scriptures to my heart’s content.” divine scripture...

not too shy away from some kind of game or disgrace of a “spectacle,” but even more so from reading the divine scriptures.” The same situation is observed in the chronicles: descriptions of battles, posthumous characteristics of kings or church hierarchs are written using practically the same limited vocabulary. On the problem of authorship Among the scribes of Ancient Rus', the attitude was also somewhat different from the modern one: for the most part, the name of the author was indicated only to verify the events, in order to certify the reader of the authenticity of what was being described, and the authorship itself had no value in the modern concept. Based on this, the situation is as follows: on the one hand, most of the ancient Russian works are anonymous: we do not know the name of the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, or of many other works, such as “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev”, “The Tale of the Destruction” Russian Land" or "Kazan History". On the other hand, we encounter an abundance of so-called falsely inscribed monuments - its authorship is attributed to some famous person in order to make it more significant.

In addition, the insertion into one’s works not only of individual phrases, but also of entire fragments was not considered plagiarism, but testified to the scribe’s erudition, high book culture and literary training. So, familiarization with the historical conditions and some principles of work of the authors of the XI-XVII centuries.

gives us the opportunity to appreciate the special style and methods of presentation of the ancient Russian scribes, who built their narrative according to accepted and justified canons: they introduced a fragment from exemplary works into the narration, demonstrating their erudition and describing events according to a certain stencil, following literary etiquette. Poverty of details, everyday details, stereotypical characteristics, “insincerity” of the characters’ speeches - all these are not literary shortcomings at all, but precisely features of the style, which implied that literature is intended to tell only about the eternal, without going into passing everyday trifles and mundane details. On the other side, modern reader especially appreciates the deviations from the canon that were periodically allowed by the authors: it was these deviations that made the narrative lively and interesting. These digressions were at one time given a terminological definition - “realistic elements”.

Of course, this in no way correlates with the term “realism” - there are still seven centuries before it, and these are precisely anomalies, violations of the basic laws and trends of medieval literature under the influence of living observation of reality and the natural desire to reflect it. Of course, despite the presence of a strict framework of etiquette, which significantly limited the freedom of creativity, ancient Russian literature did not stand still: it developed, changed styles, etiquette itself, its principles and means of its implementation changed. D.

S. Likhachev in his book “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'” (M., 1970) showed that each era had its own dominant style - it was the style of monumental historicism of the 11th-13th centuries. , then the expressive-emotional style of the XIV-XV centuries, then there was a return to the previous style of monumental historicism, but on new basis- and the so-called “style of second monumentalism” arose, characteristic of the 16th century. Also D.

S. Likhachev considers several main directions leading to the development of ancient Russian literature into the literature of modern times: the increase in the personal element in literature and the individualization of style, the expansion of the social circle of people who can become heroes of works. The role of etiquette is gradually decreasing, and instead of schematic images of the conventional standards of a prince or saint, attempts appear to describe a complex individual character, its inconsistency and variability. Here it is necessary to make one reservation: V.P. Adrianova-Peretz showed that an understanding of the complexity of human character and the subtlest psychological nuances was inherent in medieval literature already at its earliest stages. early stages its development, but the norm for depiction in chronicles, stories, and lives was still the depiction of etiquette, conventional characters depending on the social status of their owners.

The choice of plots or plot situations became wider, fiction appeared in literature; genres that do not have a primary need gradually enter literature. Works of folk satire begin to be recorded and translated chivalric novels; moralizing, but essentially entertaining short stories - facets; in the 17th century syllabic poetry and dramaturgy emerge. In a word, by the 17th century. In literature, features of the literature of modern times are more and more revealed.

The literature of Ancient Rus' arose in the 11th century. and developed over seven centuries until the Petrine era. Old Russian literature is a single whole with all the diversity of genres, themes, and images. This literature is the focus of Russian spirituality and patriotism. On the pages of these works there are conversations about the most important philosophical and moral problems that heroes of all centuries think, talk about, and reflect on. The works form a love for the Fatherland and one’s people, show the beauty of the Russian land, so these works touch the innermost strings of our hearts.

Old Russian literature did not arise out of nowhere. Its appearance was prepared by the development of language, oral folk art, cultural ties with Byzantium and Bulgaria and due to the adoption of Christianity as a single religion. The first literary works to appear in Rus' were translated. Those books that were necessary for worship were translated.

The purpose of this work is to show the features of Old Russian literature and its main genres.

Features of Old Russian literature

1. Historicism of content.

2. Handwritten nature of existence.

Another feature of Old Russian literature is the handwritten nature of its existence. Even the appearance of the printing press in Rus' changed the situation little until the middle of the 18th century. The existence of literary monuments in manuscripts led to a special veneration of the book. What even separate treatises and instructions were written about. But on the other hand, handwritten existence led to the instability of ancient Russian works of literature. Those works that have come down to us are the result of the work of many, many people: the author, editor, copyist, and the work itself could last for several centuries. Therefore, in scientific terminology, there are such concepts as “manuscript” (handwritten text) and “list” (rewritten work). The manuscript may contain lists of various works and may be written either by the author himself or by copyists. Another fundamental concept in textual criticism is the term “edition,” i.e., the purposeful reworking of a monument caused by socio-political events, changes in the function of the text, or differences in the language of the author and editor.

Closely related to the existence of a work in manuscripts is such a specific feature of Old Russian literature as the problem of authorship.

4. Literary etiquette.

Well-known literary critic, researcher of ancient Russian literature, Academician D.S. Likhachev proposed a special term to designate the canon in the monuments of medieval Russian literature - “literary etiquette”.

Literary etiquette consists of:

From the idea of how this or that course of events should have taken place;

From ideas about how the actor should have behaved in accordance with his position;

From ideas about what words the writer should have described what was happening.

Main genres of ancient Russian literature

The literature of modern times is subject to the laws of the “poetics of the genre.” It was this category that began to dictate the ways of creating a new text. But in ancient Russian literature the genre did not play such an important role.

1. Hagiographic genre.

Life - a description of the life of a saint.

Russian hagiographic literature includes hundreds of works, the first of which were written already in the 11th century. The Life, which came to Rus' from Byzantium along with the adoption of Christianity, became the main genre of Old Russian literature, the literary form in which the spiritual ideals of Ancient Rus' were clothed.

The compositional and verbal forms of life have been refined over the centuries. The high theme - a story about life that embodies ideal service to the world and God - determines the image of the author and the style of the narrative. The author of the life tells the story excitedly; he does not hide his admiration for the holy ascetic and his admiration for his righteous life. The author's emotionality and excitement color the entire narrative in lyrical tones and contribute to the creation of a solemn mood. This atmosphere is also created by the style of narration - high solemn, full of quotations from the Holy Scriptures.

At the end of the life there should be praise to the saint. This is one of the most important parts of life, which required great literary art and a good knowledge of rhetoric.

The oldest Russian hagiographic monuments are two lives of princes Boris and Gleb and the Life of Theodosius of Pechora.

2. Eloquence.

Eloquence is an area of creativity characteristic of the most ancient period of the development of our literature. Monuments of church and secular eloquence are divided into two types: teaching and solemn.

Solemn eloquence required depth of concept and great literary skill. The speaker needed the ability to construct a speech effectively in order to capture the listener, set him in a high mood corresponding to the topic, and shock him with pathos. There was a special term for a solemn speech - “word”. (There was no terminological unity in ancient Russian literature. A military story could also be called “the Word.”) Speeches were not only pronounced, but written and distributed in numerous copies.

Solemn eloquence did not pursue narrow practical goals; it required the formulation of problems of broad social, philosophical and theological scope. The main reasons for creating “words” are theological issues, issues of war and peace, defense of the borders of the Russian land, domestic and foreign policy, the struggle for cultural and political independence.

The most ancient monument of solemn eloquence is the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion, written between 1037 and 1050.

3. Chronicle.

Chronicles were weather records (by “years” - by “years”). The annual entry began with the words: “Into the summer.” After this there was a story about events and incidents that, from the point of view of the chronicler, were worthy of the attention of posterity. These could be military campaigns, raids by steppe nomads, natural disasters: droughts, crop failures, etc., as well as simply unusual incidents.

It is thanks to the work of chroniclers that modern historians have an amazing opportunity to look into the distant past.

Most often, the ancient Russian chronicler was a learned monk who sometimes spent many years compiling the chronicle. In those days, it was customary to start telling stories about history from ancient times and only then move on to the events of recent years. The chronicler had to first of all find, put in order, and often rewrite the work of his predecessors. If the compiler of the chronicle had at his disposal not one, but several chronicle texts at once, then he had to “reduce” them, that is, combine them, choosing from each what he considered necessary to include in his own work. When materials relating to the past were collected, the chronicler moved on to presenting the events of his time. The result of this great work was the chronicle collection. After some time, other chroniclers continued this collection.

Nikon's work formed the basis of another chronicle, which was compiled in the same monastery two decades later. In the scientific literature it received the code name "Initial arch". Its nameless compiler replenished Nikon's collection not only with news from recent years, but also with chronicle information from other Russian cities.

"The Tale of Bygone Years"

Based on the chronicles of the 11th century tradition. The greatest chronicle monument of the era of Kievan Rus was born - “The Tale of Bygone Years”.

It was compiled in Kyiv in the 10s. 12th century According to some historians, its probable compiler was the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor, also known for his other works. When creating The Tale of Bygone Years, its compiler used numerous materials with which he supplemented the Primary Code. These materials included Byzantine chronicles, texts of treaties between Rus' and Byzantium, monuments of translated and ancient Russian literature, and oral traditions.

The compiler of “The Tale of Bygone Years” set as his goal not just to tell about the past of Rus', but also to determine the place of the Eastern Slavs among the European and Asian peoples.

The chronicler talks in detail about the settlement of Slavic peoples in ancient times, about the settlement of territories by the Eastern Slavs that would later become part of the Old Russian state, about the morals and customs of different tribes. The Tale of Bygone Years emphasizes not only the antiquity of the Slavic peoples, but also the unity of their culture, language and writing, created in the 9th century. brothers Cyril and Methodius.

The wealth of historical and political ideas reflected in The Tale of Bygone Years suggests that its compiler was not just an editor, but also a talented historian, a deep thinker, and a brilliant publicist. Many chroniclers of subsequent centuries turned to the experience of the creator of the Tale, sought to imitate him and almost necessarily placed the text of the monument at the beginning of each new chronicle.

Russian literature before the 18th century is traditionally called “ancient”. Old Russian literature represents 2/3 of all literature. During this time, many monuments were created (about 40 thousand), most of which have not reached us. In the initial period (10th-11th centuries), the books of the 11th century were based on the books of the 10th century: treaties between the Russians and the Greeks and with other peoples. There were books written on wood and ceramics. No earlier texts have been found.

Framework- Beginning of the 10th-11th century - before the reforms of Peter (late 17).

Specific features of Old Russian literature:

1. medieval character

-religiosity– The main theme is religion. Literature is authoritarian, trace. idea of the world: the world is binary, nature is also binary.

-the earthly world is secondary>>> the purpose of literature is to bring man closer to the heavenly world

Double sense organs (smart eyes - bodily eyes, smart ears - bodily ushima, etc.) >>> the task of literature is a spiritual view.

-etiquette- a set of ideas about how events should have developed, how the characters should have behaved, and what words should be used to describe events. (Likhachev). >>> Features of medieval artistic consciousness. (description of princes, saints - description by types of images).

Consciousness is different than a person of modern times. New is heresy. The main thing is authority - the Bible, the gospel.

It was important set of ideas about the world– did not notice the passage of time, did not proceed from ideas of progress, time in the past (paradise) is better. The future must return to the past. The passage of time and the change in man were not noticed; the images also did not change. And in the 19th century we see the dynamics of images.

Official status of a person– status in the secular hierarchy (prince) or church (saints, metropolitans).

Anonymity– we don’t know the names, or we know them if the hero had extra-literary authority.

(Metropolitan Hilarion) Syncretism. This is a combination of various qualities inherent in different cultural formats. For example, for a medieval person, the world around us is a world of symbols (7,12 - symbols of Christ, 4 - earth, 3 - divine). The symbol depends on the context: actual meaning, allegorical, tropological, anagogical. Previously books were addressed to anyone, now they are not. Then descriptions of people’s appearance were conventional, there were no landscapes, descriptions everyday scenes

, paintings. (Rublev’s icon is a symbol) Handwriting - books were created in a single copy, rewritten >>> variability

texts>>> a large role for textual criticism.

2. national specifics

connection between ancient Russian literature and literature of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Military-patriotic issues

The fate of the little man

The idea of forgiveness (Monomakh – Tolstoy)

Great role of satire, criticism

Criticism is a mediator between literature and life

Russian literature – literature of large spaces (panoramic view)

The historical path of Russian literature (there was no Renaissance, European literature was noticed selectively). Literature - the legacy of Byzantine literature

3. literariness

Performed many different functions >>> not literature itself

There is no description of the appearance of people, landscapes >>> interaction with painting

Also, the main features of culture and literature include: International language of culture. IN Slavic countries

Connection with extraliterary functions . There was a connection with church rituals. If in Europe there were: theology, philosophy, art. lit. In Russian traditions there is a lack of differentiation of these forms. Even in the 19th century, Russian philosophy and theology were not completely separated from culture and literature.

The originality of the historical and literary process in Rus' : There was no revival. Baroque.

A special idea of space. The space is huge, endless (for example, the word about Igor's campaign).

Criticality. Big role played satire of the 19.20 century. (“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” - critical)

Old Russian literature in our sense is moreliterature . The specific features of ancient Russian literature were:

Texts are handwritten, i.e. in one copy

In Ancient Rus', the language changed faster. The scribe could have corrected something

Dialects different regions also influenced and made their own amendments to the text

These features make ancient Russian literature similar to folklore.

The texts were in a complementary relationship. The texts were universal, for truth. There is no individualization of a person, no description of appearance, no description of the landscape. The miniatures complemented the verbal descriptions.

Attitude to texts and books – a book expressing a value system. 19th century – change of value system – 20 years (Fathers and Sons). 20th century - decades. The book connected generations. 20-30 thousand ancient Russian books have survived. Anti-market attitude (not an item of trade) – cannot be bought or sold. You can bequeath, donate.

Rewriting was honorary (princes, princesses, monks, bishops). The books were priceless. They couldn't be bought ideally. They were passed down from generation to generation. Many books are based on the calendar principle, since reading was timed to coincide with religious holidays. For example, the Gospel exists in aprokost form (according to the calendar).

Spread of bookishness in Rus' in the 10th and early 11th centuries. faced considerable difficulties. There were still very few literate people, and even less skilled scribes. The oldest extant manuscripts that reach us date back to the second half of the 11th century: this Ostromir Gospel, rewritten from the Bulgarian original " Izbornik", a small collection of words and teachings. The creation of the oldest literary monuments known to us can also be attributed to this time: “ Words about Law and Grace»Metropolitan Hilarion, chronicle vaults, etc. However, all of them were preserved only in later lists.

We can, however, imagine character of literature that time. Her the genre system met spiritual needs, typical of Christian states in the Middle Ages. Literature was devoted mainly to ideological issues.“Old Russian literature can be considered as literature of one theme and one plot. This plot is world history, and this theme is the meaning of human life.”, - so briefly formulated characteristic features of literature of the most ancient period of Russian history D.S. Likhachev.

The basis for Christian doctrine and worldviews were bible books(or Holy Scripture), as well as the writings of the most authoritative theologians. The Bible includes the books of the Old and New Testaments. The popularity of the Psalter, a collection of 150 psalms (prayers and hymns), was enormous. The entire Bible was translated into Rus' only in the 15th century, but individual biblical books became known in Slavic translations already in Kievan Rus.

Genres: sermons (for church use), life, walking, chronicle (PVL), sermons (“the word about the law and grace of Hilarion”, hagiography (The Tale of Boris and Gleb), walking (“across the three seas by Athanasius Nikitin”).

Genres that gave a spiritual view of the world (sermons, lives, teachings). The sermon is sacred in nature and unites two time layers. Teachings are a didactic genre. Vladimir Monomakh writes his teaching based on his biography. And genres that depict the world in a physical form (the walks of Hegumen Daniel (water touches everything), Military Tale (battle, battle)).

Simple and complex genres. The chronicle could include the life (of Boris and Gleb). PVL – military story, folklore genres (family legends, toponymic). Small genres (Princess Olga asks riddles). The circulation came down as part of the chronicle, and may include small genres (folklore writings, af Nikitin about monkeys, Daniel - a description of apocryphal legends that he heard in the holy land).

"A Word on Law and Grace" » , written by the Kyiv priest Hilarion (future metropolitan), was first pronounced by him in 1049 in honor of the completion of the construction of Kyiv defensive structures. Hilarion’s “Lay” is a kind of church-political treatise in which the Russian land and its princes are glorified.

In addition to the “Sermon on Law and Grace,” the works of Kliment Smolyatich and Kirill of Turov and the “Teaching” of Prince VM have reached us.

"Teaching" of Prince Vladimir Monomakh united four independent works: this is the “Teaching” itself, an autobiography and a “Letter to Oleg Svyatoslavovich”, a prayer.

“Teaching” by Vladimir Monomakh - for now the only example in ancient Russian literature of political and moral instruction created not by a spiritual leader, but by a statesman.“The Instruction,” like later “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” was not so much based on the traditions of certain literary genres, but rather met the political needs of its time. Monomakh included his autobiography in the Instructions.

The most ancient Russian chronicle. The emergence of writing made it possible to record oral historical traditions. This is how chronicle writing arose. It was the chronicle that was destined, until the 18th century, to become one of the leading literary genres, in the depths of which Russian plot storytelling developed.

The history of the oldest chronicles is to a certain extent hypothetical. We have only lists of chronicles from very late times (the Novgorod Chronicle of the 13th-14th centuries, the Laurentian Chronicle of 1377, the Ipatiev Chronicle of the early 15th century), reflecting not the most ancient chronicle codes, but their subsequent processing.

Initial chronicle . The oldest chronicle that has actually reached us is the “Tale of Bygone Children,” presumably created around 1113. Chronicle writing as a genre appears, apparently, only during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054.

The next stage in the development of Russian chronicles occurred in the 1060-70s, associated with the activities of the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nikon. "Initial vault". Around 1095, a new chronicle was created, which A.A. Shakhmatov called it “Initial arch”. The compiler of the “NS” continued Nikon’s collection, bringing the account of events from 1073 to 1095, and gave his narrative a more journalistic character.

Further development is characterized by a mixture of genres from the 13th century to the end of the 15th century. Regional versions of literature appear (Tver, Novgorod), a softening of accents, and the main genre is the story. Lives play a big role (the style changes, the role of the author increases (Life of Sergius of Radonezh, Stefany of Perm)

Tue floor 15-16 century.– epistolary type (letters from Ivan the Terrible). The Age of Journalism. Journalism of Maxim the Greek.

17th century- the medieval system of genres is destroyed, lives disappear, turn into stories (the lives of Archpriest Avvakum, about Martha and Mary), the military story becomes a historical story, the historical story absorbs folklore and features of utopia (in reality one thing, but the author creates a different reality).

P. S. Girls, I don’t know if it’s necessary to talk about translated literature, I’ll leave it just in case, it’s never too late to delete it!!

Translated literatureXI- XIIIcenturies.Chronicles. Among the first translations and the first books brought to Rus' from Bulgaria were Byzantine chronicles. Chronicles are works of historiography that present world history. The Chronicle of George Amartol played a particularly important role in the development of original Russian chronicles and Russian chronography. Its compiler is a Byzantine monk. Amartol in Greek is a sinner; it is a traditional self-deprecating epithet for a monk.

No later than the 11th century. The Chronicle of Joanna Malala also became known in Rus' - it was valuable for ancient Russian historiographers and scribes primarily because it significantly complemented the Chronicle of George Amartol.

Stories. "The Tale of Akira the Wise." This story originated in Assyro-Babylonia in the 7th century. BC. This story is interesting as an action-packed work.

Apocrypha.(gr. apocrypha– hidden). In medieval writing, apocrypha became widespread - legends about characters from biblical history, but the plots differed from those contained in the biblical canonical books. Finally, apocryphal motifs could be included in works of traditional genres, for example, in hagiographies, for example, the popular apocrypha - “The Virgin’s Walk through the Torment”. Apocrypha was found in ancient Russian writing throughout its history.

The most ancient Russian lives: “Legend” and “Reading” about princes Boris and Gleb, “The Life of St. Theodosius of Pechersk” by Nestor.

Two main groups of hagiographic plots: some lives were “entirely devoted to the theme of an ideal Christian hero who left “worldly” life in order to earn “eternal” life (after death) through exploits, while the heroes of the other group of lives strive to justify by their behavior not only general Christian, but also the feudal ideal.