General characteristics of Russian literature of the 19th century. World significance and national identity of Russian literature of the 19th century
Russian literatureXIXcentury
The 19th century is the heyday of Russian literature, which develops at a feverish pace; directions, trends, schools and fashions change with dizzying speed; Every decade has its own poetics, its own ideology, its own artistic style. The sentimentalism of the tenths gives way to the romanticism of the twenties and thirties; the forties see the birth of Russian idealistic “philosophy” and Slavophile teaching; the fifties - the appearance of the first novels by Turgenev, Goncharov, Tolstoy; the nihilism of the sixties gives way to the populism of the seventies, the eighties are filled with the glory of Tolstoy, artist and preacher; begins in the nineties new bloom poetry: the era of Russian symbolism.
By the beginning of the 19th century, Russian literature, having experienced the beneficial effects of classicism and sentimentalism, was enriched with new themes, genres, artistic images and creative techniques. She entered her new century on the wave of the pre-romantic movement, aimed at creating a national literature, original in its forms and content, and meeting the needs artistic development our people and society. This was the time when, along with literary ideas, a wide penetration into Russia of all kinds of philosophical, political, historical concepts that had formed in Europe at the turn of the 19th century began.
In Russia romanticism as an ideological and artistic direction in the literature of the early 19th century, it was generated by the deep dissatisfaction of the advanced part of Russians with Russian reality. The formation of romanticism
Connected with the poetry of V.A. Zhukovsky. His ballads are imbued with ideas of friendship and love for the Fatherland.
Realism It was established in the 30s and 40s along with romanticism, but by the mid-19th century it became the dominant trend in culture. According to his ideological orientation, he becomes critical realism. At the same time, the work of the great realists is permeated with the ideas of humanism and social justice.
For some time now it has become a habit to talk about nationalities, demand nationality, complain about the lack of nationality in works of literature - but no one thought to define what he meant by this word. “Nationalism in writers is a virtue that may well be appreciated by some compatriots - for others it does not exist or may even seem like a vice” - this is how A.S. thought about nationality. Pushkin
Living literature must be the fruit of the people, nourished but not suppressed by sociability. Literature is and is literary life, but its development is constrained by the one-sidedness of the imitative direction, which kills the people, without which it cannot be complete. literary life.
In the mid-1930s, critical realism established itself in Russian classical literature, opening up enormous opportunities for writers to express Russian life and Russian national character.
The special effective force of Russian critical realism lies in the fact that, pushing aside progressive romanticism as the predominant trend, it mastered, preserved and continued its best traditions:
Dissatisfaction with the present, dreams of the future. Russian critical realism is distinguished by its strong national identity and in the form of its expression. The truth of life, which served as the basis for the works of Russian progressive writers, often did not fit into traditional genre-specific forms. Therefore, Russian literature is characterized by frequent violations of genre-specific forms.
V. G. Belinsky most decisively condemned the errors of conservative and reactionary criticism, who saw in Pushkin’s poetry a transition to realism, considered “Boris Godunov” and “Eugene Onegin” to be the peaks, and abandoned the primitive identification of nationality with common people. Belinsky underestimated Pushkin’s prose and his fairy tales; in general, he correctly outlined the scale of the writer’s work as the focus of literary achievements and innovative endeavors that determined the further development of Russian literature in the 19th century.
In Pushkin’s poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila” there is a palpable desire for nationality, which manifests itself early in Pushkin’s poetry, and in the poems “The Bakhchisarai Fountain” and “Prisoner of the Caucasus” Pushkin moves to the position of romanticism.
Pushkin's work completes the development of Russian literature at the beginning of the 19th century. At the same time, Pushkin stands at the origins of Russian literature, he is the founder of Russian realism, the creator of Russian literary language.
Tolstoy's brilliant work had a huge influence on world literature.
In the novels “Crime and Punishment” and “The Idiot,” Dostoevsky realistically depicted the clash of bright, original Russian characters.
The work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin is directed against the autocratic-serf system.
One of the writers of the 30s is N.V. Gogol. In the work “Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka” the bureaucratic world is disgusting to him and he, like A.S. Pushkin, plunged into fairy world romance. Maturing as an artist, Gogol abandoned the romantic genre and moved on to realism.
The activities of M.Yu. Lermontov also date back to this time. The pathos of his poetry lies in moral issues about the fate and rights of the human person. The origins of Lermontov's creativity are connected with the culture of European and Russian romanticism. IN early years he wrote three dramas marked with the stamp of romanticism.
The novel “Heroes of Our Time” is one of the main works of psychological realism literature of the 19th century.
Stage 1 of V.G. Belinsky’s critical activity dates back to the same time. He had a huge influence on the development of literature, social thought, and reading tastes in Russia. He was a fighter for realism and demanded simplicity and truth from literature. The highest authorities for him were Pushkin and Gogol, to whose works he devoted a number of articles.
Having studied V.G. Belinsky’s letter to N.V. Gogol, we see that it is directed not only against Gogol’s anti-social, political and moral sermons, but in many ways against his literary judgments and assessments.
In conditions post-reform life Russian social thought, which found its primary expression in literature and criticism, increasingly turned from the present to the past and future in order to identify the laws and trends of historical development.
Russian realism of the 1860-1870s acquired noticeable differences from Western European realism. In the works of many realist writers of that time, motifs appeared that foreshadowed and prepared the shift to revolutionary romance and socialist realism that would occur at the beginning of the 20th century. The flowering of Russian realism manifested itself with the greatest brightness and scope in the novel and story in the second half of the 19th century. It was the novels and stories of the largest Russian artists of that time that acquired the greatest public resonance in Russia and abroad. The novels and many stories of Turgenev, L.N. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky almost immediately after their publication received a response in Germany, France, and the USA. Foreign writers and critics felt in the Russian novel of those years the connection between specific phenomena of Russian reality and the processes of development of all mankind.
The rise of the Russian novel, the desire to penetrate the depths human soul and at the same time to comprehend the social nature of society and those laws in accordance with which its development occurs, became the main distinctive quality of Russian realism of the 1860-1870s.
The heroes of Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Chekhov, Nekrasov thought about the meaning of life, about conscience, about justice. In the structure of the new realistic novel and story, their hypotheses were confirmed or rejected, their concepts and ideas about the world when faced with reality too often dissipated like smoke. Their novels should be regarded as a real feat of the artist. I.S. Turgenev did a lot for the development of Russian realism with his novels. The most famous novel was “Fathers and Sons.” It depicts a picture of Russian life at a new stage of the liberation movement. Turgenev's last novel, Nov, was received by Russian critics. In those years, populism was the most significant phenomenon in public life.
Heyday critical realism appeared in Russian poetry of the 1860-1870s. One of the peaks of Russian critical realism of the 60-80s is the work of Saltykov-Shchedrin. The brilliant satirist, using allegories and personifications, skillfully posed and pursued the most pressing questions modern life. Accusatory pathos is inherent in the work of this writer. The stranglers of democracy had a sworn enemy in him.
A significant role in the literature of the 80s was played by such works as “Little things in life”, “Poshekhonskaya satire”. With great skill, he reproduced in them the terrible consequences of serf life and no less terrible pictures of the moral decline of post-reform Russia. “The Tale of How a Man Fed 2 Generals” or “The Wild Landowner” are dedicated to the most important problems of Russian life; they were published with great censorship difficulties.
The greatest realist writers not only reflected life in their works, but also looked for ways to transform it.
The literature of post-reform Russia, which worthily continued the traditions of critical realism, was the most philosophical and social in Europe.
Bibliography.
History of Russian literature of the 11th-20th centuries
Textbook on Russian literature
(Yu.M. Lotman)
3. Great Russian writers of the 19th century
(K.V. Mochulsky)
4. Russian literature XIX century
(M.G.Zeldovich)
5. History of Russian literature first
half of the 19th century
(A.I. Revyakin)
6. History of Russian literature of the 19th century
(S.M. Petrova)
7. From the history of the Russian novel of the 19th century
(E.G. Babaev)
Test
N.V.Gogol (1809-1852)
a) the story “The Overcoat”
b) the story “Viy”
c) the poem “Hanz Kuchulgarten”
2. F.M. Dostoevsky (1821-1881)
a) the novel “Demons”
b) the novel “Notes from the Dead House”
c) the novel “The Player”
d) novel “Teenager”
3. V.A. Zhukovsky (1783-1852)
a) ballad “Lyudmila”
b) ballad “Svetlana”
4. A.S. Pushkin (1799-1837)
a) poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”
b) drama “Boris Godunov”
c) poem “House in Kolomna”
d) the poem “Gavriliad”
e) the story “Kirdzhali”
e) fairy tale “The Groom”
5. M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (1826-1889)
a) fairy tale “The Ram of the Unremembered”
b) fairy tale “Horse”
c) fairy tale “Emelya the Worker and the Empty Drum”
d) fairy tale “The Selfless Hare”
e) novel “Gentlemen Golovlevs”
6. M.Yu.Lermantov (1814-1841)
a) the poem “Mtsyri”
b) drama “Masquerade”
7. L.N. Tolstoy (1828-1910)
a) the novel “Anna Karenina”
b) the story “Polikushka”
c) novel “Resurrection”
Plan
1. Establishment of humanism, citizenship and nationality in the literature of the first half of the 19th century
2. Development of realistic traditions in literature
post-reform Russia.
Test
by cultural studies
Subject: Russian literatureXIXcentury
Student: Golubova Elena Alexandrovna
Teacher: Slesarev Yuri Vasilievich
Faculty: accounting and statistical
Speciality: accounting, analysis and audit
The 19th century is called the “Golden Age” of Russian poetry and the century of Russian literature on a global scale. We should not forget that the literary leap that took place in the 19th century was prepared by the entire course of the literary process of the 17th and 18th centuries. The 19th century is the time of formation of the Russian literary language, which took shape largely thanks to A.S. Pushkin.
A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol outlined the main artistic types that would be developed by writers throughout the 19th century. This artistic type « extra person", the example of which is Eugene Onegin in the novel by A.S. Pushkin, and the so-called type “ little man", which is shown by N.V. Gogol in his story “The Overcoat”, as well as A.S. Pushkin in the story “The Station Agent”.
Literature inherited its journalistic and satirical character from the 18th century. In the prose poem by N.V. Gogol's "Dead Souls" writer in acute satirical manner shows a scammer who is buying dead Souls, Various types landowners who are the embodiment of various human vices(the influence of classicism is evident). The comedy “The Inspector General” is based on the same plan. The works of A. S. Pushkin are also full of satirical images. Literature continues to satirically depict Russian reality. The tendency to depict vices and shortcomings Russian society – characteristic all Russian classical literature. It can be traced in the works of almost all writers of the 19th century. At the same time, many writers implement the satirical tendency in a grotesque form. Examples of grotesque satire are the works of N.V. Gogol “The Nose”, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin “Gentlemen Golovlevs”, “The History of a City”.
Since the mid-19th century, the formation of Russian realistic literature has been taking place, which was created against the backdrop of the tense socio-political situation that developed in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. A crisis of the serfdom system is brewing, there are strong contradictions between the authorities and common people. There is an urgent need to create realistic literature that is acutely responsive to the socio-political situation in the country. Literary critic V.G. Belinsky means new realistic direction in literature. His position is developed by N.A. Dobrolyubov, N.G. Chernyshevsky. A dispute arises between Westerners and Slavophiles about the ways historical development Russia.
http://plumbinex.com.au/map10 Writers address the socio-political problems of Russian reality. The genre is developing realistic novel. His works are created by I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, I.A. Goncharov. The socio-political, philosophical issues. Literature is distinguished by a special psychologism.
The development of poetry subsides somewhat. It is worth noting poetic works Nekrasov, who was the first to introduce social issues into poetry. His poem “Who can live well in Rus'? ", as well as many poems that reflect on the difficult and hopeless life of the people.
http://gite-gers.co.uk/mapskd1 The literary process of the late 19th century revealed the names of N.S. Leskov, A.N. Ostrovsky A.P. Chekhov. The latter proved himself to be a master of small things literary genre- a storyteller, as well as an excellent playwright. Competitor A.P. Chekhov was Maxim Gorky.
The end of the 19th century was marked by the emergence of pre-revolutionary sentiments. The realistic tradition began to fade away. It was replaced by so-called decadent literature, distinctive features which included mysticism, religiosity, as well as a premonition of changes in the socio-political life of the country. Subsequently, decadence developed into symbolism. This opens a new page in the history of Russian literature.
The completed acquaintance with the course on the history of Russian literature of the 18th century allows us to summarize some results regarding the development of Russian literature, its originality and patterns.
Firstly, Russian literature constantly expanded its exploration of those layers of life from which it drew themes and plots of its works and penetrated deeper and deeper into inner world man, into the secrets of his soul.
Secondly, the history of Russian literature is the history of changing genres and styles. From the almost unconditional dominance of poetry at the beginning and in the first third of the 19th century, Russian literature steadily moved towards prose. The triumph of narrative forms is marked last third 19th century. This does not mean that poetry ceases to exist. It only gives way to prose in the literary arena, but at any favorable opportunity it is ready to take revenge in the competition for power over the minds and feelings of readers.
Thirdly, Russian literature, having overcome genre thinking in the course of its movement, moved to thinking in styles, as is clearly evident in the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Gogol, and then to the dominance of individual authorial styles, when each writer thought in the spirit of an individual stylistic systems. This is clearly seen in the examples of Turgenev, Goncharov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Leskov... At the same time, genres do not disappear anywhere, but style is not severely dependent on the genre, but is freed from strict genre normativity. Therefore, hybrid genre forms welded together from various genres have become especially widespread in Russian literature. For example, “Eugene Onegin” is a novel in verse, “Dead Souls” is a poem, “Notes of a Hunter” is a story and essay. Dostoevsky is a philosophical and ideological novel, Tolstoy is an epic novel.
The heyday of Russian classics in the 19th century. many foreign researchers call it a “golden age”, a kind of Renaissance, the last and “greatest of all even in comparison with the Italian, German and French Renaissance” (J. McKail). Another English critic M. Murray also noted: “The powerful inspiration that emanated so strangely and majestically from the old poets of the English Renaissance reappears in modern Russian novels.”
Currently, the fact of the universal significance of Russian literature is not only generally recognized, but is the object of close study by both domestic and foreign researchers. And many critics in various countries, analyzing certain phenomena of modern literary reality, invariably turn to the works of Russian classics as unattainable standards in the artistic sphere.
In Europe, already in the 70s of the last century, attention was paid to the originality and depth of Russian literature, which reflected the spiritual and moral experience of its people and raised the art of the novel, short story, and drama to new heights, “the Russian novel enchants with its “breath of life,” sincerity and compassion, ? asserted the prominent French literary critic of the last century E.M. de Vogüe. ? Young people find in him intellectual food, which they passionately crave and which our refined literature cannot offer them. I am convinced that the influence of the great Russian writers will be beneficial for our depleted art.”
Speaking about the role of Russian classics in the development of critical realism in US literature, French researcher R. Michaud emphasizes that modern novel in the USA could not become what he is without Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov. The American critic I. Wile also wrote about close attention to the works of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Mayakovsky, Yesenin, Bulgakov: “No other country has literature that would enjoy a higher reputation among American intellectuals than Russian and Soviet literature.”
At one time, Dostoevsky answered the question “Who do you put higher: Balzac or yourself?” answered: “Each of us is dear only to the extent that he brought something of his own, something original to literature.” These words touch on the essence of the creative relationships on the basis of which the global literary process. Each of national literatures introduces into this process something that is absent in other literatures of the world or exists there in an insufficiently developed form. Reflecting on the process of literary relationships, Leo Tolstoy once remarked: “I think that every people uses different techniques to express a common ideal in art and that thanks to this we experience a special pleasure, again finding our ideal expressed in a new and unexpected way. French art“This very impression of discovery made upon me at one time when I first read Alfred de Vigny, Stendhal, Victor Hugo and especially Rousseau.”
“Holy Russian literature, holy above all in its humanity” (T. Mann), struck the world with sympathy for a humiliated and insulted person. Oscar Wilde, arguing that one of the sources of his own moral renewal was “compassion in Russian novels,” declared in one conversation: “Russian writers? the people are absolutely amazing. What makes their books so great? this is the pity put into their works... Pity? this is the side that reveals the work, that which makes it seem endless.”
The emerging ethical pathos of Russian literature was a consequence of the ineradicable aspiration of its creators towards the ideal of spiritual and moral perfection, i.e. to fulfill the gospel: “Be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.”
Getting acquainted with Russian literature, readers abroad were amazed by something else: every character, no matter what his social status, has a soul. In other words, Russian classics in the person of Gogol and Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Leskov once again reminded us that man? not only a physical and intellectual being, he also has a soul, which is often not in order, which can be sick, tormented, suffering and which needs love, pity, compassion. Noteworthy in this regard is the article English writer Virginia Woolf“Russian Point of View”, in which she argues that for Chekhov, the essence of his stories can be defined by the words: “The soul is sick; the soul was healed; the soul has not been healed... Reading Chekhov, we find ourselves repeating the word “soul” over and over again... Really, exactly the soul? one of the main characters Russian literature... Subtle and gentle, subject to a lot of quirks and ailments in Chekhov, it is of much greater depth and scope in Dostoevsky; prone to the most severe diseases and violent fevers, it remains the main subject of attention.”
The role of Russian classical literature in modern world predetermined by the depth of artistic and philosophical understanding of personality problems. The desire of Russian classics to solve the fundamental questions of existence gives their works a special philosophical tension. Heroes of Russian literature, resolving personal issues in their lives, invariably encounter moral, philosophical and religious problems, which occupy a significant place in the poetry and prose of Lermontov and even in the inherently lyrical plays of Chekhov. The largest representatives of the European philosophical thought? from Heidegger to Sartre? claim that the origins of the doctrines they develop are Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, who, in their opinion, touched upon such problems human existence, as the absurdity of existence, human alienation, etc.
Solving the problem of personality, Russian classics showed how the natural human desire to reveal one’s individuality is often transformed into unlimited self-will, predatory egoism, leading not to the flourishing of the individual, but to its spiritual degradation and physical death. Investigating the futility of such forms of self-affirmation, they came to the conclusion that such methods of personal self-realization? fiction, illusion.
Some critics in the West see the artistic and philosophical depth of Russian classics in its struggle with the concept of man as “an uncomplicated, unambiguous being, capable of solving the problems that confront him in a rational way.” English literary critic R. Piece writes about this in a book about Dostoevsky published in Cambridge. This idea is also found in other works of Western researchers who claim that Russian literature breaks with the traditions of the Enlightenment, which perceived man precisely rationalistically. However, the situation is somewhat different. Russian classic XIX century, being the heir and continuer of the classical tradition of past eras, including the Enlightenment, significantly expanded and deepened the enlightenment understanding of humanism. What exactly is expansion and deepening? Sometimes a wide variety of answers are given to this question.
Russian classics resisted and continues to resist decadence and modernism, lack of spirituality and despair generated by a sense of the absurdity of existence, the aestheticization of evil, its identification with good, and disbelief in the possibility of victory over evil.
At a time when European consciousness began to show tolerance to the ideas of permissiveness and chosenness, to calls to free oneself from moral bonds, love and compassion, these, as Nietzsche put it, dogmas that supposedly “guide slaves,”? Russian literature, using all possible artistic means, revealed the inhumanity of such theories. She proved the futility and illusory nature of inhumane forms of self-affirmation, the vital necessity of spiritual and moral self-improvement, in which Russian classics saw the purpose and meaning of earthly existence, the key to overcoming the chaos and entropy that reign in modern reality.
The beginning of the 19th century was a unique time for Russian literature. In literary salons and on the pages of magazines there was a struggle between supporters of various literary trends: classicism and sentimentalism, educational trends and emerging romanticism.
In the first years of the 19th century, the dominant position in Russian literature was occupied by sentimentalism, inextricably linked with the names of Karamzin and his followers. And in 1803 a book entitled “Discourses on the Old and New Syllable” was published. Russian language”, the author of which A. S. Shishkov very strongly criticized the “new style” of the sentimentalists. The followers of the Karamzin reform of the literary language give the classicist Shishkov a sharp rebuke. A long-term controversy begins, in which all the literary forces of that time were involved to one degree or another.
Why is there controversy on special literary question acquired such social significance? First of all, because behind the discussions about the syllable there were more global problems: how to portray a person of modern times, who should be positive and who - negative hero, what is freedom and what is patriotism. After all, these are not just words - this is an understanding of life, and therefore its reflection in literature.
Classicists with their very clear principles and rules brought such the most important qualities hero, as honor, dignity, patriotism, without blurring space and time, thereby bringing the hero closer to reality. They showed it in “truthful language”, conveying sublime civic content. These features will remain in the literature of the 19th century, despite the fact that classicism itself will leave the stage of literary life. When you read “Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov, see for yourself.
Close to the classicists educators, for which political and philosophical themes were undoubtedly leading, most often turned to the ode genre. But under their pen, the ode from the classic genre turned into a lyrical one. Because the most important task poet-educator - to show his civil position, to express the feelings that take possession of him. In the 19th century, the poetry of the Romantic Decembrists would be inextricably linked with educational ideas.
There seemed to be a certain affinity between the Enlightenmentists and the Sentimentalists. However, this was not the case. Enlightenmentists also reproach the sentimentalists for “feigned sensitivity,” “false compassion,” “loving sighs,” “passionate exclamations,” as did the classicists.
Sentimentalists, despite excessive (from a modern point of view) melancholy and sensitivity, they show sincere interest in a person’s personality, his character. They begin to be interested in an ordinary, simple person, his inner world. Appears new hero — a real man, interesting to others. And with him the everyday comes to the pages of works of art, everyday life. It is Karamzin who first makes an attempt to reveal this topic. His novel "A Knight of Our Time" opens a gallery of such heroes.
Romantic lyrics- These are mainly lyrics of moods. Romantics deny vulgar everyday life; they are interested in the mental and emotional nature of the individual, its aspiration towards the mysterious infinity of a vague ideal. The innovation of the romantics in the artistic cognition of reality consisted in polemics with the fundamental ideas of Enlightenment aesthetics, the assertion that art is an imitation of nature. The Romantics defended the thesis of the transformative role of art. The romantic poet thinks of himself as a creator creating his own new world, because the old way of life does not suit him. Reality, full of insoluble contradictions, was subjected to severe criticism by the romantics. The world of emotional unrest is seen by poets as enigmatic and mysterious, expressing a dream about the ideal of beauty, about moral and ethical harmony.
In Russia, romanticism takes on a pronounced national identity. Remember the romantic poems and poems of A. S. Pushkin and M. Yu. Lermontov, early works N.V. Gogol.
Romanticism in Russia is not only new literary movement. Romantic writers not only create works, they are “creators” own biography which will eventually become theirs" moral story"In the future, the idea of the inextricable connection between art and self-education, the artist’s lifestyle and his work will become stronger and established in Russian culture. Gogol will reflect on this on the pages of his romantic story “Portrait.”
You see how intricately intertwined styles and views, artistic means, philosophical ideas and life...
As a result of the interaction of all these areas in Russia, a realism as a new stage in the knowledge of man and his life in literature. A. S. Pushkin is rightfully considered the founder of this trend. We can say that the beginning of the 19th century was the era of the birth and formation of two leading literary methods: romanticism and realism.
The literature of this period had another feature. This is the unconditional predominance of poetry over prose.
Once Pushkin, while still a young poet, admired the poems of one young man and showed them to his friend and teacher K.N. Batyushkov. He read and returned the manuscript to Pushkin, indifferently remarking: “Who doesn’t write smooth poetry now!”
This story speaks volumes. The ability to write poetry was then a necessary part of noble culture. And against this background, Pushkin’s appearance was not accidental, it was prepared by the general high level culture, including poetic.
Pushkin had predecessors who prepared his poetry, and contemporary poets - friends and rivals. All of them represented the golden age of Russian poetry—the so-called 10-30s of the 19th century. Pushkin- starting point. Around him we distinguish three generations of Russian poets - the older, the middle (to which Alexander Sergeevich himself belonged) and the younger. This division is conditional, and of course simplifies the real picture.
Let's start with the older generation. Ivan Andreevich Krylov(1769-1844) belonged to the 18th century by birth and upbringing. However, he began to write the fables that made him famous only in the 19th century, and although his talent manifested itself only in this genre, Krylov became the herald of a new poetry, accessible to the reader by language, which opened the world to him folk wisdom. I. A. Krylov stood at the origins of Russian realism.
It should be noted the main problem poetry at all times, and at the beginning of the 19th century too, is a problem of language. The content of poetry is unchanged, but the form... Revolutions and reforms in poetry are always linguistic. Such a “revolution” occurred in the work of Pushkin’s poetic teachers - V. A. Zhukovsky and K. N. Batyushkov.
With works Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky(1783-1852) you have already met. You probably remember his “The Tale of Tsar Berendey...”, the ballad “Svetlana”, but perhaps you don’t know that many of the works of foreign poetry you read were translated by this lyricist. Zhukovsky is a great translator. He got used to the text he was translating so much that the result was original work. This happened with many of the ballads he translated. However, our own poetic creativity the poet was of great importance in Russian literature. He abandoned the ponderous, outdated, pompous language of poetry of the 18th century, immersed the reader in the world of emotional experiences, and created new image a poet with a keen sense of the beauty of nature, melancholic, prone to tender sadness and reflections on the transience of human life.
Zhukovsky is the founder of Russian romanticism, one of the creators of the so-called “light poetry”. “Easy” not in the sense of frivolous, but in contrast to the previous, solemn poetry, created as if for palace halls. Zhukovsky's favorite genres are elegy and song, addressed to a close circle of friends, created in silence and solitude. Their contents are deeply personal dreams and memories. Instead of pompous thunder, there is a melodious, musical sound of the verse, which expresses the poet’s feelings more powerfully than written words. No wonder Pushkin in his famous poem"I remember wonderful moment..." used the image created by Zhukovsky - "a genius of pure beauty."
Another poet of the older generation of the golden age of poetry - Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov(1787-1855). His favorite genre is a friendly message that celebrates the simple joys of life.
Pushkin highly valued the lyrics of the legendary Denis Vasilievich Davydov(1784-1839) - hero Patriotic War 1812, organizer of partisan detachments. The poems of this author glorify the romance of military life and hussar life. Not considering himself a true poet, Davydov disdained poetic conventions, and from this his poems only benefited in liveliness and spontaneity.
As for the middle generation, Pushkin valued it above others Evgeny Abramovich Baratynsky(Boratynsky) (1800-1844). He called his work “the poetry of thought.” This is a philosophical lyric. The hero of Baratynsky's poems is disappointed in life, sees in it a chain of meaningless suffering, and even love does not become salvation.
Lyceum friend of Pushkin Delvig gained popularity with songs “in the Russian spirit” (his romance “The Nightingale” to the music of A. Alyabyev is widely known). Languages became famous for the image he created of a student - a merry fellow and a freethinker, a kind of Russian vagante. Vyazemsky possessed a merciless irony that permeated his poems, which were mundane in theme and at the same time deep in thought.
At the same time, another tradition of Russian poetry continued to exist and develop - civil. It was connected with names Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (1795—1826), Alexander Alexandrovich Bestuzhev (1797—1837), Wilhelm Karlovich Kuchelbecker(life years - 1797-1846) and many other poets. They saw poetry as a means of fighting for political freedom, and in the poet - not the “pet of the muses”, the “son of laziness”, avoiding public life, but a stern citizen calling for a battle for the bright ideals of justice.
The words of these poets did not diverge from their deeds: they were all participants in the uprising in Senate Square in 1825, convicted (and Ryleev executed) in the “case of December 14th”. “Bitter is the fate of poets of all tribes; Fate will execute Russia the hardest of all...” - this is how V. K. Kuchelbecker began his poem. It was the last one he wrote with his own hand: years in prison had deprived him of his sight.
Meanwhile, a new generation of poets was emerging. The first poems were written by the young Lermontov. A society arose in Moscow wise men- lovers of philosophy who interpreted German philosophy in the Russian manner. These were the future founders of Slavophilism Stepan Petrovich Shevyrev (1806—1861), Alexey Stepanovich Khomyakov(1804-1860) and others. The most gifted poet of this circle was the one who died early Dmitry Vladimirovich Venevitinov(1805—1827).
One more thing interesting phenomenon this period. Many of the poets we named turned in one way or another to folk poetic traditions, to folklore. But since they were nobles, their works “in the Russian spirit” were still perceived as stylization, as something secondary compared to the main line of their poetry. And in the 30s of the 19th century, a poet appeared who, both by origin and by the spirit of his work, was a representative of the people. This Alexey Vasilievich Koltsov(1809-1842). He spoke in the voice of a Russian peasant, and there was no artificiality, no game in this, it was his own voice, suddenly standing out from the nameless choir of Russian folk poetry.
Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century was so multifaceted.
The nineteenth century is the heyday of Russian literature. It was prepared by the rapid cultural growth of Russia after the reforms of Peter the Great. The brilliant reign of Catherine raised before the new, great-power Russia the question of creating national art. Among the galaxy of Catherine’s court heroes rises the majestic figure of the “singer Felitsa” - Derzhavin. Development artistic language And literary forms happening at an unusually fast pace. In 1815, at the Lyceum exam, Pushkin read poetry in the presence of Derzhavin. In "Eugene Onegin" he recalls this:
Old man Derzhavin noticed us
And going into the grave he blessed.
The evening dawn of the glorious Catherine's era meets the morning dawn of Pushkin's time. “The Sun of Russian Poetry,” Pushkin is still at its zenith when Tolstoy is born. Thus, over the course of one century, Russian literature is born, rises to the pinnacle of artistic development and conquers world fame. In one century, Russia, awakened from a long sleep by the “mighty genius of Peter,” strains the forces hidden in it and not only catches up with Europe, but on the verge of the 20th century becomes the ruler of its thoughts.
Dunaev M.M. Russian literature of the 19th century
The nineteenth century lives at a feverish pace; directions, currents, schools and fashions change with dizzying speed. The sentimentalism of the tenths gives way to the romanticism of the twenties and thirties; the forties see the birth of Russian idealistic “philosophy” and Slavophile teaching; fifties - the appearance of the first novels by Turgenev, Goncharov, Tolstoy; the nihilism of the sixties gives way to the populism of the seventies; the eighties were filled with the glory of Tolstoy, artist and preacher; in the nineties, a new flowering of poetry began: the era of Russian symbolism.
The preparatory period ends. The luminary of Pushkin rises, surrounded by a galaxy of satellites. Delvig, Venevitinov, Baratynsky , Yazykov , Odoevsky, Vyazemsky, Denis Davydov - all these stars shine with their pure and even light; they seem less bright to us only because they are overshadowed by the brilliance of Pushkin. The appearance of this genius cannot be explained by any continuity of literary forms. Pushkin is a miracle of Russian literature, a miracle of Russian history. At the height to which he elevates Russian verbal art, all lines of development are cut short. You cannot continue Pushkin, you can only be inspired by him in search of other paths. Pushkin does not create schools.
Gogol's magical verbal art brings to life a whole generation of storytellers, everyday life writers and novelists. All the great writers of the 1850s – 1880s came from Gogol’s “natural school”. “We all came out of Gogol’s “The Overcoat,” says Dostoevsky. From " Dead souls" follows the line of development of the novel, the victorious march of which fills the second half of the century. In 1846, Dostoevsky’s first story “Poor People” appeared; in 1847 - Turgenev’s first story “Khor and Kalinich”, Goncharov’s first novel “An Ordinary Story”, the first piece of art Aksakov “Notes on Fishing”, the first big story
