The main goal of ancient Russian literature. Main features of Old Russian literature

The literary art of the Middle Ages is a special world, largely “hidden” for modern man. He has a special system of artistic values, his own laws of literary creativity, and unusual forms of works. This world can only be discovered by someone initiated into its secrets, who has learned its specific features.

Old Russian literature is the literature of the Russian Middle Ages, which went through a long, seven-century path in its development, from the 11th to the 17th centuries. For the first three centuries it was common to the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Russian peoples. Only by the 14th century did differences emerge between the three East Slavic peoples, their language and literature. During the period of the formation of literature, its “apprenticeship,” the center of political and cultural life was Kyiv, “the mother of Russian cities,” therefore the literature of the 11th–12th centuries is usually called the literature of Kievan Rus. In the tragic XIII-XIV centuries for Russian history, when Kyiv fell under the blows of the Mongol-Tatar hordes and the state lost its independence, the literary process lost its former unity, its course was determined by the activities of regional literary “schools” (Chernigov, Galician-Volyn, Ryazan, Vladimir -Suzdal, etc.). Since the 15th century in Rus' there has been a tendency to unite creative forces, and literary development The 16th–17th centuries are marked by the rise of a new spiritual center – Moscow.

Old Russian literature, like folklore, did not know the concepts of “copyright” and “canonical text”. Works existed in handwritten form, and the scribe could act as a co-author, create the work anew, subjecting the text to selection, stylistic editing, including new material borrowed from other sources (for example, chronicles, local legends, monuments of translated literature). This is how new editions of works arose, differing from each other in ideological, political and artistic attitudes. Before publishing the text of a work created

In the Middle Ages, it was necessary to do a huge amount of grunt work to study and compare various lists and editions in order to identify those that are closest to the original appearance of the monument. These goals are served by the special science of textual criticism; its tasks also include attribution of the work, that is, establishing its authorship, and resolving questions: where and when was it created, why was its text subject to editing?

The literature of Ancient Rus', like the art of the Middle Ages in general, was based on a system of religious ideas about the world; it was based on a religious-symbolic method of cognition and reflection of reality. The world in the consciousness of ancient Russian man seemed to be bifurcated: on the one hand, it is the real, earthly life of man, society, nature, which can be known with the help of everyday experience, with the help of feelings, that is, “bodily eyes”; on the other hand, it is a religious-mythological, “high” world, which, unlike the “low” one, is revealed to chosen people pleasing to God in moments of spiritual revelation and religious ecstasy.

It was clear to the ancient Russian scribe why certain events occurred; he was never tormented by questions that Russian classics would think about solving. XIX century: "who is guilty?" and “what to do?” to change people and the world for the better. For the medieval writer, everything that happens on earth is a manifestation of God’s will. If “a great star appeared, the rays of which are as bloody,” then this served as a formidable warning to the Russians about future trials, Polovtsian raids and princely strife: “Behold, those who do not show it in advance. For this reason, there were many tussocks and the invasion of the FILTHY on the Russian land, this is a star, like a bloody one, showing the shedding of blood.” For medieval man, nature had not yet acquired its independent aesthetic value; unusual a natural phenomenon, whether it was an eclipse of the sun or a flood, acted as a certain symbol, a sign of the connection between the “high” and “down” worlds, and was interpreted as an evil or good omen.

Historicism of medieval literature of a special kind. Often in the work two planes are intertwined in the most bizarre way: real-historical and religious-fantastic, and the ancient man believed in the existence of demons as well as in the fact that Princess Olga traveled to Constantinople, and Prince Vladimir baptized Russia. Demons, as depicted by the ancient Russian writer as “rabbles, creeps, with tails,” were endowed with the ability to perform human actions:

scatter flour at the mill, lift logs to the high bank of the Dnieper for the construction of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery.

A mixture of fact and fiction is characteristic of the ancient part of The Tale of Bygone Years, the origins of which are in folklore. Talking about Princess Olga’s journey to Constantinople and her adoption of Christianity, the chronicler follows the popular legend according to which Olga, the “wise maiden,” “outwitted” (outwitted) the Byzantine emperor. Struck by her “blindness,” he decided to “marry” Olga for himself, that is, to take her as his wife, but after the baptism of the Gentile (a marriage condition put forward by Olga) he was forced to abandon his intention: Godfather could not become the husband of his goddaughter. Recent studies of this chronicle fragment, comparing it with data from translated chronicles, indicate that Princess Olga at that time was at a very advanced age, the Byzantine emperor was much younger than her and had a wife. The chronicler used the folk-poetic version of this historical event in order to show the superiority of the Russian mind over the foreign one, to elevate the image of a wise ruler who understood that without a single religion the formation of a single state is impossible.

Glorifying the fortitude and wisdom of the Russian people, the medieval writer was an exponent of the idea of religious tolerance and humane attitude towards people of other faiths. In the 11th century, Theodosius of Pechersk, in a letter to Izyaslav Yaroslavich, denouncing the “wrong Latin faith,” nevertheless calls on the prince: “Merciful with alms, not only your own v”ry, nb and mu-zhey. whether in winter, or E"bdoyu Odrzhi-ml, whether a child of a Jew, or a Sorochinin, or a Volgdrin, or a heretic, or an ldtnnin, or from the weather, have mercy on everyone and from f*cking from abroad, as you can, and bribes from “Eogd don’t drown.”

Old Russian literature is distinguished by high spirituality. The life of the human soul is the center of gravity of medieval literature, education and improvement of the moral nature of man is its main task. The external, the objective, recedes into the background here. As in an icon, where the “face” and “eyes” are shown in close-up, that which reflects the inner essence of the saint, the “light” of his soul, in literature, especially hagiography, the image of a person is subordinated to the glorification of the proper, ideal, eternally beautiful moral qualities: mercy and modesty, spiritual generosity and non-covetousness.

In the Middle Ages, there was a different system of artistic values than in our time; the aesthetics of similarity, rather than the aesthetics of uniqueness, prevailed. According to the definition of D.S. Likhacheva, Old Russian

the writer proceeded in his work from the concept of “literary etiquette,” which was composed of ideas about “how this or that course of events should have taken place,” “how one should behave actor", "What words should a writer use to describe what is happening. Before us, therefore, is the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and the etiquette of words.”

Old Russian literature valued the general, repetitive, and easily recognizable, avoiding the particular, random, and unusual for the reader. That is why in the monuments of the 11th–17th centuries there are so many “commonplaces” in the depiction of military or monastic feats, in the obituary characteristics of Russian princes and in words of praise to saints. Comparison of heroes national history with biblical characters, quoting books of the Holy Scriptures, imitation of the authoritative Fathers of the Church, borrowing entire fragments from the works of previous eras - all this in the Middle Ages testified to a high book culture, the skill of the writer, and was not a sign of his creative impotence.

The literature of Ancient Rus' is characterized by a special system of genres. To a greater extent than in the literature of modern times, it is connected with extraliterary circumstances, with the practical needs of ancient Russian society. Each literary genre served a specific area of life. So, for example, the emergence of chronicles was due to the need of the state to have its own written history, where they would be recorded major events(the birth and death of rulers, wars and peace treaties, the founding of cities and the building of churches).

In the 11th–17th centuries, several genre systems existed and actively interacted: folklore, translated literature, business writing, liturgical and secular, artistic and journalistic literature. Of course, the genres of liturgical literature (“Prologue”, “Book of Hours”, “Apostle”, etc.) were more closely connected with the sphere of their existence and were more static.

The basis for the identification of genres in the literature of Ancient Rus' was the object of the image. The military exploits of the Russians were depicted in military stories, travel to other countries, first only for pilgrimage, and then for trade and diplomatic purposes - in walks. Each genre had its own canon. For example, for a hagiographic work, where the object of the image was the life of a saint, a three-part composition is required: a rhetorical introduction, a biographical part and praise to one of the “armies of Christ.” Type

the narrator in the life is a conventionally sinful person, “thin and foolish,” which was necessary for the exaltation of the hero - a righteous man and a miracle worker, therefore, for this genre, the main thing was the idealizing way of depiction, when the hero’s behavior was freed from everything temporary, sinful and he was presented only in ceremonial moments of his life as a “positively wonderful person.” The style of monuments of hagiographic literature, in contrast to chronicles, is florid and verbally decorated, especially in the introductory and final parts, which are often called the “rhetorical mantle” of a life.

The fate of ancient Russian genres developed differently: some of them disappeared from literary use, others adapted to changed conditions, and others continue to actively function, filled with new content. Essay literature XIX- XX centuries, literary travels of the 18th century go back to the traditions of ancient Russian movements - one of the most stable genre formations of the Middle Ages. Researchers see the origins of the Russian novel in everyday stories XVII century. The poetics of odes in the literature of Russian classicism, of course, developed under the influence of the works of oratory of Ancient Russia.

Thus, ancient Russian literature is not a dead, bygone phenomenon; it did not sink into oblivion, leaving no posterity. This phenomenon is alive and prolific. She bequeathed to Russian literature of modern times a high spiritual spirit and a “teaching” character, the ideas of patriotism and a humane attitude towards people, regardless of their religion. Many genres of literature of Ancient Rus', having undergone evolution, found a second life in XVIII literature– XX centuries.

Old Russian literature, like any medieval literature, has a number of features that distinguish it from the literature of modern times. A characteristic feature of literature of the medieval type is a broad interpretation of the concept of “literature” as a written word with the obligatory inclusion of functional genres that usually perform religious, ritual or business functions. It is worth paying attention to the fact that in the Middle Ages the basis of the genre system was precisely functional genres that had special extra-literary functions. On the contrary, genres with weakened functionality are on the periphery of this system. During the transition period from the Middle Ages to the culture of modern times, a reverse process occurs: genres with weakened functionality move to the center of the system, and functional genres are pushed to the periphery.

Thus, DRL is a complex conglomerate of artistic and business monuments (1). This feature was due to close connection with history, the Christian religion and writing in general.

Handwritten nature of the existence of DRL works (2) fundamentally distinguishes it from the literature of modern times. A work, as a rule, appeared not in one, but in several lists. The scribe sometimes simply copied the manuscript, creating a new list, but often changed its ideological orientation in accordance with the requirements of the time, shortened or expanded the text, and changed the style of the monument. In this case we are talking about a new editorial staff works. The author's list of text is called autograph. In the process of processing a work, its editorial staff. Since the work in the DRL existed for several centuries and in different regions, there could be several editions. The list, which turns out to be the basis for processing, is called protographer. It may not always be the author's version. Researchers of movement and text development in DRL – textualists and paleographers– consider the types of handwriting of scribes, features of spelling, grammar, identify individual language differences and, on the basis of this, draw up a hypothetical scheme for the development and distribution of editions of the monument. Textual criticism and paleography- These are auxiliary disciplines that help in the study of handwritten texts. Textual criticism studies the text itself, while paleography examines the material on which and with the help of which a handwritten monument was created.

Anonymity (3) Most of the works of DRL - another of its distinctive features associated with the Christian concept of human personality, according to which pride was considered one of the greatest sins, and humility - the height of virtue. Because of this, the individual characteristics of the writer’s personality in medieval literature did not receive such a vivid manifestation as in the literature of modern times. However, anonymity should not be confused with impersonality. It has long been proven that individual authorship existed in DRL, but the forms of its expression were different than in the literature we are accustomed to. The attitude towards copyright in DRL was completely different. Anonymity allowed authors to use parts of “other people’s” texts to compose their own. Exceptions were made only for authoritative works - texts of the Holy Scriptures and Tradition, writings of the church fathers, state documents. References were necessarily made to the names of their creators. However, authoritative church texts were recognizable due to their wide popularity.

Medieval historicism (4). DRL began as literature devoid of fiction. The scribe strictly followed the facts, connecting his work with a specific historical event or person. Even when we are talking about supernatural phenomena, about persons and events that, from our point of view, did not exist or were impossible in reality, all the same, both the compiler of the work and the reader in Ancient Rus' perceived everything written as something that actually happened. And this attitude towards the written text remained very long time. Perhaps only in the 17th century this tradition was destroyed.

The principle of historicism is associated with providentialism (5), that is, the idea of predestination. Thus, any hero of hagiographic literature, even in childhood, shows a tendency towards a holy life. If he begins his life sinfully, then his belief, a change in the quality of his spiritual state is inevitable, predetermined from above. The suffering of the Russian people “for our sins” is also predetermined in the stories about the Tatar-Mongol invasion.

The peculiarities of the worldview of medieval man determined the authoritarian thinking of the ancient Russian scribe and authoritarianism (6) like hell artistic method DRL. A reference to historical, literary or political authority is very important for an Old Russian person (this has already been mentioned above). Often new works were signed with the names of church fathers and hierarchs of past years just to give them greater weight. The reader who first becomes acquainted with the monuments of the DRL draws attention to the abundance of direct quotes and indirect references to the texts of the New and Old Testaments, numerous references to the works of authoritative church writers. In these quotes, the author seemed to consolidate his moral, didactic, political and aesthetic assessment of a fact, event, person, and asserted its universal significance and universal acceptance.

Closely related to authoritarian thinking principle of retrospective historical analogy (7) , which is the most important means of the author’s assessment of a particular historical event. Here is what V.V. writes about this. Kuskov: “A retrospective historical analogy allows us to more deeply reveal the significance of a particular historical event, assess the behavior of its participants, glorify them or condemn them, establish a unique typological commonality between the events of Ancient Rus' and the events of world history and thereby indicate their certain pattern.” Using the material from the monuments of the Kulikovo cycle, the researcher shows how an unbroken chain of victories won by the Russian princes Yaroslav the Wise, Alexander Nevsky, and Dmitry Donskoy is established. “Traditional reception,” continues V.V. Kuskov, - a retrospective historical analogy with biblical characters in “The Tale of the Battle of Mama” emphasizes the significance of the victory won on the Kulikovo field. It is equated to the victory of Gideon over Midian, Moses over Amalek and Pharaoh, David over Goliath. The troops of the Moscow prince are similar to the army of Alexander the Great, the courage of the Russian soldiers is similar to Gideon’s allies. AND heavenly powers They help Dmitry just as they once helped Tsar Constantine in his fight against the wicked. The regiments of Dmitry Volynets are like the youths of David, “those who had hearts, like the lvovs, like the luthiers, came to the flock of sheep.” In his prayers, Dmitry asks God to help him in the same way as Hezekiah - to tame the heart of the ferocious beast Mamai.”

Authority also dominated in the field of artistic form. DRL can be called exemplary literature, literature of sustainable etiquette. Traditional (8) covers not only the content of works, but also their form: principles of depicting a person, plot, composition, language. The traditionalism of medieval literature cannot be perceived as the result of the “childish spontaneity”, inability or “ineptitude” of the scribe. This is a phenomenon of the era, an urgent need of the time, a fact of man’s moral consciousness, without which he could not explain the world and navigate in it.

The authoritarianism of the DRL reflects the estate-corporate principle of the existence of ancient Russian people. A clear awareness of the impossibility of breaking the estate-corporate principle leaves its mark on literature. If you are a prince, then you are obliged to be one and behave in accordance with the idea of worthy princely behavior. “Just as a cauldron cannot be freed from blackness and burning, so a slave cannot be freed from servitude” (“Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik). Human behavior in medieval society is determined by rank. Likhachev called this feature of life etiquette. But it is more accurate to use the terms decorum and orderliness. Even the clothing of a medieval person is a sign of rank. Decency is order. Disorder, disorder - disorder. A person must take his place in the general ranks. Order and rowness become indicators of the structure of the world. In the 17th-century work “The Officer of the Falconer’s Way,” created not without the participation of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, the credo of human behavior and order is clearly formulated. The Old Russian “rank” as a literary concept corresponds to some extent to the modern concept of “rhythm”, for it is the measured adherence to order and decorum that creates the vital basis for the ceremoniality of Russian literature.

Traditionality becomes a type of medieval creativity, the most important factor in the intellectual development of reality. It rests on the deep conviction that there is only one correct worldview in the world - Christian ideology. Traditionalism of ideological and artistic thinking, reflecting medieval ideas about the new as heretical, did not allow a different approach to assessing the phenomenon, regarding any other point of view as coming from the devil.

An ancient Russian writer creates within a certain tradition. He sees the true value of medieval art in its exact adherence to the model. The highest example and the highest truth is, of course, the authority of Holy Scripture.

D.S. Likhachev introduced the concept literary etiquette (9) , by which we will understand the system of canonical literary techniques - compositional, systems of images, language, stylistic clichés, etc., necessary to create works of certain genres, images of certain characters.

An essential feature of DRL is its direct and more stable connection with ideology (10) . A.N. Robinson explains this by saying that in the Middle Ages “artistic literary creativity developed not independently (as a special form of ideology), but as if “within” or as part of various practically purposeful genres of writing (for example, in chronicle writing, and in solemn sermons, and in hagiography, etc.) ... Similar the combined and practically purposeful functions of literature delayed the separation of artistic creativity itself from writing and determined a more direct (than in modern literature) dependence of aesthetics on ideology as a whole.” It follows from this that didacticism DRL. The author always set practical and didactic goals for his work, for medieval literature is utilitarian, it is created for the benefit of the soul. Even history is always an edifying lesson.

The process of creating a literary work in Ancient Rus' was closely connected with the process of cognition, which in turn was determined by the peculiarities of the worldview of medieval man. The worldview of the ancient Russian scribe is characterized by binary, the opposition of the real to the unreal, the temporary to the eternal. These features of the vision of the world affected the theory of knowledge: the scribe comprehends the surrounding reality and everyday things with “bodily eyes.” The secrets of the ideal world are revealed to man through spiritual insight, divine revelation, therefore knowledge of the heavenly is possible only with “spiritual eyes.”

From the point of view of a medieval person, divine powers could manifest themselves in life either directly or indirectly, with the help of various hints. Perceiving reality as a symbol of the ideal world, a person perceived any phenomenon, any object real world as a sign expressing the sacred essence of this phenomenon or object. Based on this vision of the world, the symbolism (11) - one of the most characteristic features of medieval literature. The emergence of symbolism in the DRL should not be associated solely with the dominance of Christian ideology. It is inherent in the art of pre-Christian eras. So, A.N. Veselovsky distinguished between pagan symbolism and Christian symbolism. In his opinion, in paganism “the symbol came out of life,” while in Christianity “life begins to be determined by the mental material introduced into it.”

Medieval literature and art are built on symbols. Dionysius the Areopagite states: “Manifest things are images of invisible things.” Each thing is a symbol of the invisible. In the medieval consciousness, the world doubles. The real, earthly world is a symbol and prototype of the ideal, heavenly world. Only one who has achieved perfection through internal contemplation can penetrate into the heavenly world; then the inner gaze opens and prophets are born. Let us note that literature does not forget anything. Based on the principle of doubling the world, images of poet-prophets appear in romantic aesthetics.

Events also double up. They have analogues in the past, primarily in biblical and evangelical history, which is thought of as reality. In a historical event it is important to find hidden meaning. God is an intelligent and wise mentor who is trying to educate humanity with his batog. Please note that symbolism, like the historicism of the DRL, turns out to be associated with the idea of predestination, providentialism. Objects are symbolic. The sword is a symbol of power and justice, the shield is protection, defense. The church is a symbol of heaven, the earthly sky, the ark of salvation (just as God saved Noah in the ark, so the temple saves man). Gold symbolizes eternity and Christ. The cross is salvation, the torment of the cross. Let us note that the symbolism of the DRL gave rise to the predominance of the parable genre, which was the fundamental basis of genre systems.

Of course, all these features of DRL could not remain unchanged for seven centuries; they gradually transformed as literature developed.

Medieval picture of the world.

Russian ancient and medieval culture Since the adoption of Christianity, it has been characterized by the concepts of holiness, conciliarity, sophia, and spirituality. Special aesthetic value in the traditional picture of the world of Medieval Rus' acquired the categories of personality and transformation, light, luminosity.
Many religious, Orthodox values entered the ancient Russian picture of the world quite organically and naturally and became entrenched in it for a long time. First of all, it should be noted that the assimilation and understanding of Christian dogma and cult, and all worship, proceeded to a greater extent in the language of artistic imagery as the most close consciousness ancient Russian man. God, spirit, holiness were perceived not as theological concepts, but rather as aesthetic and praxeological categories, more as living (mythological, according to A. F. Losev) rather than as symbolic.
Beauty was perceived in Rus' as an expression of the true and essential. Negative, unseemly phenomena were considered as deviations from the truth. As something transitory, not related to essence and therefore actually having no existence. Art acted as the bearer and exponent of the eternal and imperishable - absolute spiritual values. This is one of its most characteristic features and, moreover, one of the main principles of ancient Russian artistic thinking in general - Sofian art, which consists in the deep feeling and awareness by the ancient Russians of the unity of art, beauty and wisdom and in the amazing ability of Russian medieval artists and scribes to express artistic by means of the basic spiritual values of one’s picture of the world, the essential problems of existence in their universal significance.
Art and wisdom were seen by the people of Ancient Rus' as inextricably linked; and the terms themselves were perceived almost as synonyms. Art was not conceived by the wise, and this applied equally to the art of words, icon painting or architecture. Starting his work, opening the first page, the Russian scribe asked God for the gift of wisdom, the gift of insight, the gift of speech, and this plea was by no means just a traditional tribute to the rhetorical fashion of his time. It contained true faith in Divinity creative inspiration, in the high purpose of art. .
The best expressive means of sophia in the ancient Russian artistic and religious picture of the world was the icon. The icon, this “window” into the world of spiritual, transcendental religions, was also one of the most important paths to God. At the same time, in Rus', not only the direction of this path from the bottom up (from man to the “mountain world”) was highly valued, but also back - from God to man. God was understood by medieval Russian consciousness as the focus of all positive properties and characteristics of the “earthly” understanding of good, virtue, moral and aesthetic perfection, brought to the limit of idealization, that is, acting as an ideal extremely removed from human earthly existence. Among its main characteristics, holiness, “honesty,” purity, and luminosity most often appear—the main values on which religion is based.
Another component traditional painting world - holiness - in the broadest Old Russian Orthodox understanding is sinlessness, and in the strict sense “God alone is holy.” In relation to a person, holiness means a state that is as far removed from sin as possible; It also means a state of special isolation of a person from the general mass. This singularity (or separation) is manifested in extraordinary good deeds of the individual, in speeches marked by wisdom and insight, and in amazing spiritual qualities. After the adoption of Christianity in ancient Russian spirituality, heroes of a very special kind appeared next to the holy heroes - passion-bearers. The first Russian passion-bearers are Boris and Gleb. However, brothers, warrior princes do not perform valiant feats of arms. Moreover, in a moment of danger, they deliberately leave the sword in its sheath and voluntarily accept death. The images of the passion-bearing saints were, in the words of G.P. Fedotov, a genuine religious discovery of the newly baptized Russian people. Why?
Old Russian people saw, first of all, in the behavior of Boris and Gleb, a readiness for the unconditional implementation of Christian ideals: humility, meekness, love for one’s neighbor, even to the point of self-sacrifice, revealed not in words, but in deeds.

Features of Old Russian literature.

Russian literature XI-XVII centuries. developed under unique conditions. It was entirely handwritten. Printing, which appeared in Moscow in the middle of the 16th century, very little changed the nature and methods of distributing literary works.

The handwritten nature of literature led to its variability. When rewriting, scribes made their own amendments, changes, abbreviations, or, conversely, developed and expanded the text. As a result, the monuments of ancient Russian literature for the most part did not have a stable text. New editions and new types of works appeared in response to new demands of life and arose under the influence of changes in literary tastes.

The reason for the free handling of monuments was also the anonymity of ancient Russian monuments. The concept of literary property and author's monopoly was absent in Ancient Rus'. Literary monuments were not signed, since the author considered himself only a performer God's will. The literary monuments were not dated, but the time of writing of this or that work is established with an accuracy of five to ten years using the chronicle, where all the events of Russian history are accurately recorded, and this or that work, as a rule, appeared “hot on the heels of the events” of history itself .

Old Russian literature is traditional. The author of a literary work “dresses” a given topic in a “literary outfit” corresponding to it. As a result, the works of Ancient Rus' are not fenced off from each other by strict boundaries, their text is not fixed by precise ideas about literary property. This creates some illusion of inhibition literary process. Old Russian literature developed strictly according to traditional genres: hagiographical, apocryphal, circulation genre, teachings of the church fathers, historical stories, didactic literature. All these genres are translated. Along with translated genres, the first Russian original genre appeared in the 11th century - chronicle writing.

Old Russian literature is characterized by “medieval historicism”, therefore artistic generalization in Ancient Rus' is built on the basis of a single specific historical fact. The work is always attached to a specific historical person, while any historical event receives a purely church interpretation, that is, the outcome of the event depends on the will of God, who either has mercy or punishes. The “medieval historicism” of Russian literature of the 11th-17th centuries is in connection with another important feature of it, which has been preserved and developed in Russian literature up to the present day - its citizenship and patriotism.

Called to consider reality, follow this reality and evaluate it, the ancient Russian writer already in the 11th century perceived his work as work of service to his native country. Old Russian literature has always been particularly serious, trying to answer the basic questions of life, calling for its transformation, and possessing diverse and always high ideals.

Peculiarities.

1. Ancient literature is filled with deep patriotic content, the heroic pathos of serving the Russian land, state, and homeland.

2. The main theme of ancient Russian literature is world history and the meaning of human life.

3. Ancient literature glorifies the moral beauty of the Russian person, capable of sacrificing the most precious thing 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.

4. A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is historicism. The heroes are mainly historical figures. Literature strictly follows fact.

5. A feature of the artistic creativity of the ancient Russian writer is the so-called “literary etiquette”. 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 should be depicted and how.

6. Old Russian literature appears with the emergence of the state and 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 means of folk art.

7. The originality of ancient Russian literature in the depiction of the hero depends on the style and genre of the work. In relation to styles and genres, it is reproduced in monuments ancient literature hero, ideals are formed and created.

8. In ancient Russian literature, a system of genres was defined, within which the development of original Russian literature began. The main thing in their definition was the “use” of the genre, the “practical purpose” for which this or that work was intended.

The originality of ancient Russian literature:

Works of ancient Russian literature existed and were distributed in manuscripts. Moreover, this or that work did not exist in the form of a separate, independent manuscript, but was part of various collections. Another feature of medieval literature is the absence of copyright. We know of only a few individual authors, book writers, who modestly put their name at the end of the manuscript. At the same time, the writer supplied his name with such epithets as “thin”. But in most cases, the writer wished to remain anonymous. As a rule, the author’s texts have not reached us, but later lists of them have been preserved. Often, scribes acted as editors and co-authors. At the same time, they changed the ideological orientation of the work being copied, the nature of its style, shortened or distributed the text in accordance with the tastes and demands of the time. As a result, new editions of monuments were created. Thus, a researcher of ancient Russian literature must study all available lists of a particular work, establish the time and place of their writing by comparing various editions, variants of lists, and also determine in which edition the list most closely matches the original author's text. Such sciences as textual criticism and paleography (studies the external signs of handwritten monuments - handwriting, lettering, the nature of writing material) can come to the rescue.

A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is historicism. Its heroes are predominantly historical figures; it allows almost no fiction and strictly follows the fact. Even numerous stories about “miracles” - phenomena that seemed supernatural to a medieval person, are not so much the invention of an ancient Russian writer, but rather accurate records of the stories of either eyewitnesses or the people themselves with whom the “miracle” happened. Old Russian literature, inextricably linked with the history of the development of the Russian state and the Russian people, is imbued with heroic and patriotic pathos. Another feature is anonymity.

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 deep faith in the power and ultimate triumph of good, in man's ability to elevate his spirit and defeat evil. The Old Russian writer was least of all inclined to an impartial presentation of facts, “listening to good and evil indifferently.” Any genre of ancient literature, be it historical story or a legend, life or church sermon, as a rule, includes significant elements of journalism. Touching primarily on state-political or moral issues, the writer believes in the power of words, in the power of conviction. He appeals not only to his contemporaries, but also to distant descendants with an appeal to ensure that the glorious deeds of their ancestors are preserved in the memory of generations and that descendants do not repeat the sad mistakes of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

The literature of Ancient Rus' expressed and defended the interests of the upper echelons of feudal society. However, it could not help but show an acute class struggle, which resulted either in the form of open spontaneous uprisings or in the forms of typically medieval religious heresies. The literature vividly reflected the struggle between progressive and reactionary groups within the ruling class, each of which sought support among the people. And since the progressive forces of feudal society reflected national interests, and these interests coincided with the interests of the people, we can talk about the nationality of ancient Russian literature.

In the 11th – first half of the 12th century, the main writing material was parchment, made from the skin of calves or lambs. Birch bark played the role of student notebooks.

To save writing material, the words in the line were not separated and only paragraphs of the manuscript were highlighted with red initial letters. Frequently used, well-known words were written abbreviated under a special superscript - title. The parchment was pre-lined. Handwriting with regular, almost square letters was called charter.

The written sheets were sewn into notebooks, which were bound into wooden boards.

Features of Old Russian works

1. The books were written in Old Russian. There were no punctuation marks, all words were written together.

2. Artistic images were influenced by the church. Mostly the exploits of saints were described.

3. Monks wrote books. The writers were very literate; they had to know the ancient Greek language and the Bible.

3. In ancient Russian literature there were a large number of genres: chronicles, historical stories, lives of saints, words. There were also translated works of a religious nature.
One of the most common genres is the chronicle.

In ancient times, on the territory modern Russia lived numerous tribes with different pagan beliefs and rituals associated with the worship of many gods. The Slavs were among the first to live in this territory. The Slavs carved idols from wood. The heads of these idols were covered with silver, and the beard and mustache were made of gold. They worshiped the god of thunderstorms - Perun. There was a sun god - Dazhdbog, Stribog - who controlled the air elements and winds. Idols were placed in a high place, and bloody sacrifices (birds, animals) were brought to appease the gods. By the 9th century tribal alliances Eastern Slavs formed principalities, which were headed by princes. Each prince had a squad (rich high nobility). Relations between the princes were complex, and internecine wars often broke out.

In the I X - X centuries. various principalities of the Eastern Slavs united and created a single state, which became known as the Russian Land or Rus'. The central city was Kyiv, the head of the state was the Grand Duke of Kiev. Founder of the dynasty Kyiv princes became Rurik. Slavic tribes They fought with each other and then decided to call one of the foreigners. The Slavs went to the Varangians who lived on the shores of the Baltic Sea. One of the leaders named Rurik was offered to come to the Slavic lands and rule. Rurik came to Novgorod, where he began to reign. He founded the Rurik dynasty, which ruled Rus' until the 16th century. The Slavic lands ruled by Rurik increasingly began to be called Russia, and the inhabitants were called Rusichs, and later Russians. In the language of the Varangians, the detachment of rowers, which sailed led by Rurik on a large boat to Novgorod, was called Russia. But the Russians themselves understood the word Rus differently: a bright land. Light brown meant fair. The princes who began to rule after Rurik (Igor, Princess Olga, Oleg, Vladimir Svyatoslav, Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh, etc.) sought to end civil strife within the country, defended the independence of the state, strengthened and expanded its borders.

A significant date in the history of Russia - 988. This is the year of the adoption of Christianity. Christianity came to Rus' from Byzantium. Writing spread with Christianity. In the second half of the 9th century, the Slavic alphabet was created by the brothers Cyril and Methodius. Two alphabets were created: the Cyrillic alphabet (named Kirill) and the Glagolitic alphabet (verb-word, speech); the Glagolitic alphabet did not become widespread. Brothers are revered Slavic peoples as educators they are recognized as saints. Writing contributed to the development of ancient Russian literature. The literature of Ancient Rus' has a number of features.

I. Feature – syncretism i.e. compound. This feature is associated with the underdevelopment of genre forms. In one Old Russian genre It is possible to identify features characteristic of other genres, i.e., in one genre elements of several genres are combined, for example, in “Walking” there are descriptions of geographical and historical places, and sermons, and teachings. A striking manifestation of syncretism can be traced in the chronicles; they contain a military story, a legend, samples of contracts, and reflections on religious topics.

II.Feature - monumentality. The scribes of Ancient Rus' showed the greatness of the world, they were interested in the fate of the Motherland. The scribe strives to depict the eternal; Eternal values defined by the Christian religion. Hence there is no image of appearance, everyday life, because... it's all mortal. The scribe strives to narrate the entire Russian land.

III. Feature - historicism. In ancient Russian monuments, historical figures were described. These are stories about battles, about princely crimes. The heroes were princes, generals, and saints. In ancient Russian literature there is no fictional characters, there are no works on fictional subjects. Fiction was equal to lies, and lies were unacceptable. The writer's right to fiction was realized only in the 17th century.

IV.Feature – patriotism. Old Russian literature is marked by high patriotism and citizenship. The authors always mourn the defeats suffered by the Russian land. Scribes always tried to put boyars and princes on the true path. The worst princes were condemned, the best were praised.

V. Feature – anonymity. Old Russian literature is mostly anonymous. Very rarely, some authors put their names at the end of manuscripts, calling themselves “unworthy”, “great sinners”; sometimes ancient Russian authors signed the names of popular Byzantine writers.

VI. Feature - Old Russian literature was entirely handwritten. And although printing appeared in the middle of the 16th century. Even before the 18th century, works were distributed by correspondence. When rewriting, scribes made their own amendments, changes, shortened or expanded the text. Therefore, the monuments of ancient Russian literature did not have a stable text. From the 11th to the 14th centuries, the main writing material was parchment, made from calf skin. Parchment from the title ancient city(in Greece) Pergamon, where in the 2nd century BC. began to make parchment. In Rus', parchment is called “veal” or “haratya”. This expensive material was available only to the propertied class. Craftsmen and traders used birch bark. The recordings were made on birch bark. Wooden tablets were fastened together in the form of student notebooks. Famous birch bark letters are monuments of writing from the 11th to 15th centuries. Birch bark letters - a source on the history of society and Everyday life medieval people, as well as on the history of East Slavic languages.

They wrote on birch bark or parchment with ink. Ink was made from decoctions of alder or oak bark and soot. Until the 19th century They used a quill pen, since parchment was expensive, so to save writing material, the words in a line were not separated, everything was written together. Paragraphs in the manuscript were written in red ink - hence the “red line”. Frequently used words were written abbreviated - under a special sign - “title” For example, lithargy (short for the verb, i.e. to speak) Buka (Virgin Mary)

The parchment was lined with a ruler. Every letter was written out. The texts were copied by scribes either across the entire page or in two columns. There are three types of handwriting: charter, semi-charter, cursive. The charter is in the handwriting of the 11th - 13th centuries. This is handwriting with regular, almost square letters. The letter is solemn, calm, the letters were written in wide, but not tall, letters. Working on the manuscript required painstaking work and great skill. When the scribe completed his hard work, he happily noted it at the end of the book. Thus, at the end of the Laurentian Chronicle it is written: “Rejoice, book writer, having reached the end of the books.” They wrote slowly. Thus, “Ostromirovo Gospel” took seven months to create.

From the second half of the 15th century, paper came into use and the charter gave way to semi-charter, a more fluent letter. The division of the text into words and the use of punctuation marks are associated with the semi-charter. The straight lines of the charter are replaced by oblique lines. The charter of Russian manuscripts is drawing, calligraphically clear writing. In the semi-charter, a large number of abbreviations of words were allowed, and emphasis was placed. A semi-statutory letter was faster and more convenient than a statutory letter. Since the 16th century, semi-statutory writing has been replaced by cursive writing. “Cursive writing” is a tendency to speed up writing. This is a special type of letter, differing in its graphics from the charter and semi-charter. This is a simplified version of these two types. Monuments of ancient writing testify to the high level of culture and skill of ancient Russian scribes, who were entrusted with the copying of texts. They tried to give handwritten books a highly artistic and luxurious appearance, decorating them with various types of ornaments and drawings. With the development of the statute, geometric ornament develops. It consists of a rectangle, an arch and other geometric shapes, inside of which patterns in the form of circles, triangles and others were applied on the sides of the title. The ornament could be one-color or multi-color. Ornaments depicting plants and animals were also used. They painted capital letters and used miniatures - that is, illustrations for the text. The written sheets were sewn into notebooks, which were intertwined into wooden boards. The boards were covered with leather, and sometimes covered with frames specially made of silver and gold. A remarkable example of jewelry art is the setting of the Mstislav Gospel (XII). In the middle of the 15th century, printing appeared. Church works were published, and artistic monuments were copied for a long time. The original manuscripts have not reached us; their later copies of the 15th century have been preserved. Thus, “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” written in the late 80s of the 12th century, was found in a copy of the 16th century. Textualists study monuments, establish the time and place of their writing, and determine which list is more consistent with the original author's text. And paleographers use handwriting, writing material, and miniatures to determine the time of creation of the manuscript. In Ancient Rus', the word book in the singular was not used, since the book consisted of several notebooks bound together. They treated books with care; they believed that mishandling a book could harm a person. On one book there is an inscription: “Whoever spoils books, whoever steals them, let him be damned.”

The centers of book writing, education and culture of Ancient Rus' were monasteries. In this regard, the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery played a major role. Theodosius of Pechersk introduced the duty of monks to write books. In his life, Theodosius of Pechersky describes the process of creating books. Day and night the monks wrote books in their cells. The monks led an ascetic lifestyle and were educated people. They not only copied books, but also translated the Bible, the Psalter (songs of religious content), church prayers from Greek, and explained the meaning of church holidays. Several books have survived from the 11th century. They are decorated with great taste. There are books trimmed with gold and pearls. Such books were very expensive. In Rus', book printing was considered a state matter.

The first printing house was founded by Ivan Fedorov in 1561 in Moscow. He creates a printing press, a typeface, and according to his scheme, a Printing Yard is being built not far from the Kremlin. 1564 is the year of birth of Russian book printing. Fedorov publishes the first Russian primer, which was used to teach both adults and children to read and write. Books and ancient manuscripts are stored in the libraries of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Yaroslavl, Kostroma. Few parchment manuscripts have survived, many in one copy, but most were burned during fires.

Ancient literature is filled with deep patriotic content, the heroic pathos of serving the Russian land, state, and homeland.
The main theme of ancient Russian literature is world history and the meaning of human life.
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.
A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is historicism. The heroes are mainly historical figures. Literature strictly follows fact.
A feature of the artistic creativity of the ancient Russian writer is the so-called “literary etiquette”. 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 should be depicted and how.
Old Russian literature appears with the emergence of the state and writing and is based on book Christian culture and developed forms of oral poetic creativity. At this time, literature and folklore were closely connected. Literature often perceived plots, artistic images, and visual means of folk art.
The originality of ancient Russian literature in the depiction of the hero depends on the style and genre of the work. In relation to styles and genres, the hero is reproduced in the monuments of ancient literature, ideals are formed and created.
In ancient Russian literature, a system of genres was defined, within which the development of original Russian literature began. The main thing in their definition was the “use” of the genre, the “practical purpose” for which this or that work was intended.
The traditions of Old Russian literature are found in the works of Russian writers of the 18th-20th centuries.

TEST QUESTIONS AND TASKS

How does Academician D.S. characterize Likhachev ancient Russian literature? Why does he call it “one grandiose whole, one colossal work”?
What does Likhachev compare ancient literature with and why?
What are the main advantages of ancient literature?
Why would the artistic discoveries of literature of subsequent centuries be impossible without the works of ancient literature? (Think about what qualities of ancient literature were adopted by Russian literature of modern times. Give examples from works of Russian classics known to you.)
What did Russian poets and prose writers value and adopt from ancient literature? What did A.S. write about her? Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, A.I. Herzen, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak?
What does ancient literature write about the benefits of books? Give examples of “praise of books” known in ancient Russian literature.
Why were ideas about the power of words high in ancient literature? What were they connected with, what did they rely on?
What is said about the word in the Gospel?
What do writers compare books to and why; why are books rivers, sources of wisdom, and what do the words mean: “if you diligently look for wisdom in the books, you will find great benefit for your soul”?
Name the monuments of ancient Russian literature known to you and the names of their scribes.
Tell us about the method of writing and the nature of ancient manuscripts.
Name historical background the emergence of ancient Russian literature and its specific features in contrast to the literature of modern times.
What is the role of folklore in the formation of ancient literature?
Using vocabulary and reference material, briefly retell the history of the study of ancient monuments, write down the names of the scientists involved in their research and the stages of study.
What is the image of the world and man in the minds of Russian scribes?
Tell us about the depiction of man in ancient Russian literature.
Name the themes of ancient literature, using vocabulary and reference material, characterize its genres.
List the main stages in the development of ancient literature.

Read also the articles in the section “National identity of ancient literature, its origin and development.”