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Formation critical realism happens in European countries and in Russia almost at the same time - in the 20s - 40s years XIX century. It is becoming a leading trend in the literature of the world.
True, this simultaneously means that the literary process of this period is irreducible only in a realistic system. Both in European literatures, and - especially - in US literature, the work of romantic writers continues in full measure: de Vigny, Hugo, Irving, Poe, etc. Thus, the development literary process goes largely through the interaction of coexisting aesthetic systems, and characterization as national literatures, and the creativity of individual writers requires mandatory consideration of this circumstance.
Speaking of the fact that from the 30s - 40s leading place realist writers occupy a place in literature, it is impossible not to note that realism itself turns out to be not a frozen system, but a phenomenon in constant development. Already within the 19th century, the need arises to talk about “different realisms”, that Merimee, Balzac and Flaubert equally answered the main historical questions that the era suggested to them, and at the same time their works are distinguished by different content and originality forms.
In the 1830s - 1840s, the most remarkable features of realism as a literary movement that gives a multifaceted picture of reality, striving for an analytical study of reality, appear in the works of European writers (primarily Balzac).
The literature of the 1830s and 1840s was largely fueled by statements about the attractiveness of the century itself. Love to 19th century shared, for example, by Stendhal and Balzac, who never ceased to be amazed by its dynamism, diversity and inexhaustible energy. Hence the heroes of the first stage of realism - active, with an inventive mind, not afraid of facing unfavorable circumstances. These heroes were largely associated with the heroic era of Napoleon, although they perceived his two-facedness, developed a strategy for their personal and social behavior. Scott and his historicism inspire Stendhal's heroes to find their place in life and history through mistakes and delusions. Shakespeare makes Balzac say about the novel “Père Goriot” in the words of the great Englishman “Everything is true” and see echoes of the harsh fate of King Lear in the fate of the modern bourgeois.
Realists second half of the 19th century centuries will reproach their predecessors for “residual romanticism.” It is difficult to disagree with such a reproach. Really, romantic tradition is very noticeably represented in the creative systems of Balzac, Stendhal, and Merimee. It is no coincidence that Sainte-Beuve called Stendhal “the last hussar of romanticism.” Traits of romanticism are revealed
– in the cult of exoticism (Merimee’s short stories such as “Matteo Falcone”, “Carmen”, “Tamango”, etc.);
– in the predilection of writers for depicting bright individuals and passions that are exceptional in their strength (Stendhal’s novel “Red and Black” or the short story “Vanina Vanini”);
– a passion for adventurous plots and the use of fantasy elements (Balzac’s novel “Shagreen Skin” or Merimee’s short story “Venus of Il”);
– in an effort to clearly divide heroes into negative and positive – carriers of the author’s ideals (Dickens’s novels).
Thus, between the realism of the first period and romanticism there is a complex “family” connection, manifested, in particular, in the inheritance of techniques and even individual themes and motifs characteristic of romantic art (the theme of lost illusions, the motif of disappointment, etc.).
In domestic historical and literary science " revolutionary events 1848 and the important changes that followed in the socio-political and cultural life bourgeois society" is generally considered to divide "the realism of foreign countries of the 19th century into two stages - realism of the first and second half of the 19th century" ("History foreign literature XIX century / Edited by Elizarova M.E. – M., 1964). In 1848, popular protests turned into a series of revolutions that swept across Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Austria, etc.). These revolutions, as well as the unrest in Belgium and England, followed the “French model”, as democratic protests against class-privileged and inappropriate rule of the time, as well as under the slogans of social and democratic reforms. Overall, 1848 marked one huge upheaval in Europe. True, as a result of it, moderate liberals or conservatives came to power everywhere, and in some places even a more brutal authoritarian government was established.
This caused general disappointment in the results of the revolutions, and, as a consequence, pessimistic sentiments. Many representatives of the intelligentsia became disillusioned with mass movements, active actions of the people on a class basis and transferred their main efforts to the private world of the individual and personal relationships. Thus, the general interest was directed towards the individual, important in itself, and only secondarily - towards his relationships with other individuals and the world around him.
The second half of the 19th century is traditionally considered the “triumph of realism.” By this time realism in full voice declares itself in the literature not only of France and England, but also of a number of other countries - Germany (late Heine, Raabe, Storm, Fontane), Russia (“natural school”, Turgenev, Goncharov, Ostrovsky, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky), etc. P.
At the same time, since the 50s it begins new stage in the development of realism, which involves new approach to the image of both the hero and the society around him. The social, political and moral atmosphere of the second half of the 19th century “turned” writers towards the analysis of a person who can hardly be called a hero, but in whose fate and character the main signs of the era are refracted, expressed not in a major deed, a significant act or passion, compressed and intensely conveying global shifts of time, not in large-scale (both social and psychological) confrontation and conflict, not in typicality taken to the limit, often bordering on exclusivity, but in everyday life, everyday life. Writers who began working at this time, as well as those who entered literature earlier, but worked during this period, for example, Dickens or Thackeray, of course, were already guided by a different concept of personality, which was not perceived or reproduced by them as a product of a direct relationship social and psychological-biological principles and strictly understood determinants. Thackeray's novel "The Newcombs" emphasizes the specificity of "human studies" in the realism of this period - the need to understand and analytically reproduce multidirectional subtle emotional movements and indirect, not always manifest social connections: “It’s hard to even imagine how many various reasons determines our every action or passion, how often, when analyzing my motives, I mistook one thing for another...” This phrase by Thackeray conveys, perhaps, main feature realism of the era: everything focuses on the depiction of man and character, and not circumstances. Although the latter, as they should in realistic literature, “do not disappear,” their interaction with character acquires a different quality, associated with the fact that circumstances cease to be independent, they become more and more characterologized; their sociological function is now more implicit than it was with Balzac or Stendhal.
Due to the changed concept of personality and the “man-centrism” of the entire artistic system (and “man is the center” was not necessarily positive hero, defeating social circumstances or perishing - morally or physically - in the fight against them) one may get the impression that the writers of the second half of the century abandoned the basic principle of realistic literature: dialectical understanding and depiction of the relationships between character and circumstances and adherence to the principle of socio-psychological determinism. Moreover, some of the most prominent realists of this time - Flaubert, J. Eliot, Trollott - when talking about the world surrounding the hero, the term “environment” appears, often perceived more statically than the concept of “circumstances”.
An analysis of the works of Flaubert and J. Eliot convinces us that artists need this “stacking” of the environment primarily so that the description of the situation surrounding the hero is more plastic. The environment often narratively exists in the inner world of the hero and through him, acquiring a different character of generalization: not poster-sociologized, but psychologized. This creates an atmosphere of greater objectivity in what is being reproduced. In any case, from the point of view of the reader, who trusts such an objectified narrative about the era more, since he perceives the hero of the work as a person close to him, just like himself.
Writers of this period do not at all forget about one more aesthetic setting of critical realism - the objectivity of what is reproduced. As you know, Balzac was so concerned about this objectivity that he was looking for ways to bring closer literary knowledge(understanding) and scientific. This idea appealed to many realists of the second half of the century. For example, Eliot and Flaubert thought a lot about the use of scientific, and therefore, as it seemed to them, objective methods of analysis in literature. Flaubert thought especially a lot about this, who understood objectivity as synonymous with impartiality and impartiality. However, this was the spirit of the entire realism of the era. Moreover, the work of realists in the second half of the 19th century occurred during the period of takeoff in the development of natural sciences and the heyday of experimentation.
This was an important period in the history of science. Biology developed rapidly (in 1859, Charles Darwin’s book “The Origin of Species” was published), physiology, and the formation of psychology as a science took place. The philosophy of positivism by O. Comte became widespread, and later played an important role in the development of naturalistic aesthetics and artistic practice. It was during these years that attempts were made to create a system of psychological understanding of man.
However, even at this stage of the development of literature, the character of the hero is not conceived by the writer outside social analysis, although the latter acquires a slightly different aesthetic essence, different from that which was characteristic of Balzac and Stendhal. Of course, in Flaubert's novels. Eliot, Fontana and some others are struck by “a new level of depiction of the inner world of man, a qualitatively new skill psychological analysis, which consists in the deepest disclosure of the complexity and unforeseenness of human reactions to reality, motives and reasons human activity" (Story world literature. T.7. – M., 1990).
It is obvious that the writers of this era sharply changed the direction of creativity and led literature (and the novel in particular) towards in-depth psychologism, and in the formula “social-psychological determinism” the social and psychological seemed to change places. It is in this direction that the main achievements of literature are concentrated: writers began not only to draw complex inner world literary hero, but to reproduce a well-functioning, thoughtful psychological “character model”, in it and in its functioning, artistically combining the psychological-analytical and social-analytical. Writers updated and revived the principle of psychological detail, introduced dialogue with deep psychological overtones, and found narrative techniques for conveying “transitional,” contradictory spiritual movements that were previously inaccessible to literature.
This does not mean that realistic literature abandoned social analysis: social basis reproduced reality and reconstructed character did not disappear, although it did not dominate the character and circumstances. It was thanks to the writers of the second half of the 19th century that literature began to find indirect ways of social analysis, in this sense continuing a series of discoveries made by writers of previous periods.
Flaubert, Eliot, the Goncourt brothers and others “taught” literature to reach out to the social and what is characteristic of the era, characterizes its social, political, historical and moral principles, through the ordinary and everyday existence of an ordinary person. Social typification among writers of the second half of the century is the typification of “mass appearance, repetition” (History of World Literature. Vol. 7. - M., 1990). It is not as bright and obvious as among representatives of classical critical realism of the 1830s and 1840s and most often manifests itself through the “parabola of psychologism,” when immersion in the inner world of a character allows one to ultimately immerse oneself in the era in which historical time as the writer sees it. Emotions, feelings, and moods are not transtemporal, but of a specific historical nature, although it is primarily ordinary everyday existence that is subject to analytical reproduction, and not the world of titanic passions. At the same time, writers often even absolutized the dullness and wretchedness of life, the triviality of the material, the unheroic nature of time and character. That is why, on the one hand, it was an anti-romantic period, on the other, a period of craving for the romantic. This paradox, for example, is characteristic of Flaubert, the Goncourts, and Baudelaire.
There is one more important point, associated with the absolutization of the imperfection of human nature and slavish subordination to circumstances: often writers perceived the negative phenomena of the era as a given, as something insurmountable, and even tragically fatal. That is why in the works of realists of the second half of the 19th century the positive principle is so difficult to express: the problem of the future interests them little, they are “here and now”, in their time, comprehending it in an extremely impartial manner, as an era, if worthy of analysis, then critical.
As noted earlier, critical realism is a literary movement on a global scale. Another notable feature of realism is that it has a long history. At the end of the 19th and 20th centuries, the work of such writers as R. Rolland, D. Golusorsi, B. Shaw, E. M. Remarque, T. Dreiser and others gained worldwide fame. Realism continues to exist to this day, remaining the most important form of world democratic culture.
19th century realists widely
pushed the boundaries of art.
They began to depict the most ordinary, prosaic phenomena.
Reality has entered
into their works with all their
social contrasts,
tragic dissonances.
Nikolay Gulyaev
TO mid-19th century century, realism was finally established in world culture. Let's remember what it is.
Realism — artistic direction in literature and art, which is characterized by the desire for objectivity and immediate authenticity of what is depicted, the study of the relationship between characters and circumstances, the reproduction of details of everyday life, and truthfulness in the transfer of details.
The term " realism"was first proposed French writer and literary critic Chanfleury in the 50s XIX century. In 1857 he published a collection of articles entitled “Realism”. An interesting fact is that almost simultaneously this concept began to be used in Russia. And the first person to do this was the famous literary critic Pavel Annenkov. At the same time, the concept realism" and in Western Europe, both in Russia and Ukraine began to be widely used only in the 60s of the 19th century. Gradually the word " realism" entered the people's vocabulary different countries applied to various types art.
Realism is opposed to previous romanticism, in overcoming which it developed. The peculiarity of this direction is its formulation and reflection in artistic creativity acute social problems, a conscious desire to give one’s own, often critical, assessment of the negative phenomena of life around us. Therefore, the focus of realists is not just facts, events, people and things, but general patterns reality.
Let us consider what were the prerequisites for the formation of realism in world culture. The rapid development of industry in the 19th century required precise scientific knowledge. Realist writers, carefully studying life and trying to reflect its objective laws, were interested in sciences that could help them understand the processes occurring in society and in man himself.
Among the many scientific achievements that had a serious impact on the development of social thought and culture in the second half of the 19th century, special mention should be made of the theory of the English naturalist Charles Darwin on the origin of species, natural scientific explanation of mental phenomena by the founder of physiology Ilya Sechenov, opening Dmitry Mendeleev periodic law of chemical elements, which influenced the subsequent development of chemistry and physics, geographical discoveries associated with travel Petra Semyonova And Nikolai Severtsov along the Tien Shan and Central Asia, as well as research Nikolai Przhevalsky Ussuri region and his first trips to Central Asia.
Scientific discoveries of the second half of the 19th century. changed many established views on surrounding nature, proved its relationship with humans. All this contributed to the birth of a new way of thinking.
The rapid progress taking place in science captivated writers, arming them with new ideas about the world around them. the main problem, raised in the literature of the second half of the 19th century, is the relationship between the individual and society. To what extent does society influence a person's destiny? What needs to be done to change a person and the world? These questions are considered by many writers of this period.
Realistic works are characterized by such a specific artistic medium, How concreteness of images, conflict, plot. At the same time artistic image in such works cannot be correlated with a living person; he is richer than a specific person. “An artist should not be a judge of his characters and what they say, but only an impartial witness... My only job is to be talented, that is, to be able to distinguish important evidence from unimportant ones, to be able to illuminate figures and speak their language,” wrote Anton Pavlovich Chekhov.
The purpose of realism was to truthfully show and explore life. The main thing here, as theorists of realism argue, is typing . Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy precisely said about this: “The artist’s task... is to extract the typical from reality... to collect ideas, facts, contradictions into a dynamic image. A person, say, during his working day says one phrase that is characteristic of his essence, he will say another in a week, and a third in a year. You force him to speak in a concentrated environment. It’s a fiction, but one in which life is more real than life itself.” Hence objectivity this artistic movement.
Russian literature of the second half of the 19th century continues the realistic traditions of Pushkin, Gogol and other writers. At the same time, society feels the strong influence of criticism on the literary process. This is especially true for work " Aesthetic relations of art to reality » famous Russian writer, critic Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky. His thesis that “the beautiful is life” will become the ideological basis of many works of art second half of the 19th century. Material from the site
A new stage in the development of realism in Russian artistic culture is associated with penetration into the depths of human consciousness and feelings, into complex processes public life. Works of art created during this period are characterized by historicism— display of phenomena in their historical specificity. Writers set themselves the task of revealing the causes of social evil in society, showing life-like pictures in their works, and creating historically specific characters in which the most important patterns of the era will be captured. Therefore, they depict the individual person, first of all, as a social being. As a result, reality, as modern Russian literary critic Nikolai Gulyaev notes, “appeared in their work as an “objective flow,” as a self-moving reality.”
Thus, in the literature of the second half of the 19th century, the main problems became the problems of the individual, the pressure on her environment, depth exploration human psyche. We invite you to find out and understand for yourself what happened in Russian literature in the second half of the 19th century by reading the works of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov.
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On this page there is material on the following topics:
- realism in literature 2 half of the 19th century
- heyday of realism in the second half of the 19th century
- the flourishing of realism in literature of the second half of the 19th century. literary criticism and journal polemics
- Authors of reality 20th century
- the flourishing of realism in the art of the second half of the nineteenth century.
The emergence of realism
In the 30s of the XIX century. Realism is gaining significant popularity in literature and art. The development of realism is primarily associated with the names of Stendhal and Balzac in France, Pushkin and Gogol in Russia, Heine and Buchner in Germany. Realism develops initially in the depths of romanticism and bears the stamp of the latter; not only Pushkin and Heine, but also Balzac experienced a strong fascination in their youth romantic literature. However, unlike romantic art, realism refuses the idealization of reality and the associated predominance of the fantastic element, as well as an increased interest in the subjective side of man. In realism, the prevailing tendency is to depict a broad social background against which the lives of the heroes take place ("Human Comedy" by Balzac, "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin, " Dead Souls"Gogol, etc.). Depth of understanding social life Realist artists sometimes surpass the philosophers and sociologists of their time.
Stages of development of realism of the 19th century
The formation of critical realism occurs in European countries and in Russia almost at the same time - in the 20s - 40s of the 19th century. It is becoming a leading trend in the literature of the world.
True, this simultaneously means that the literary process of this period is irreducible only in a realistic system. Both in European literatures, and - especially - in US literature, the activity of romantic writers continues in full measure. Thus, the development of the literary process largely occurs through the interaction of coexisting aesthetic systems, and the characteristics of both national literatures and the work of individual writers presuppose that this circumstance must be taken into account.
Speaking about the fact that since the 30s and 40s, realist writers have occupied a leading place in literature, it is impossible not to note that realism itself turns out to be not a frozen system, but a phenomenon in constant development. Already within the 19th century, the need arises to talk about “different realisms”, that Merimee, Balzac and Flaubert equally answered the main historical questions that the era suggested to them, and at the same time their works are distinguished by different content and originality forms.
In the 1830s - 1840s, the most remarkable features of realism as a literary movement that gives a multifaceted picture of reality, striving for an analytical study of reality, appear in the works of European writers (primarily Balzac).
The literature of the 1830s and 1840s was largely fueled by statements about the attractiveness of the century itself. The love for the 19th century was shared, for example, by Stendhal and Balzac, who never ceased to be amazed at its dynamism, diversity and inexhaustible energy. Hence the heroes of the first stage of realism - active, with an inventive mind, not afraid of facing unfavorable circumstances. These heroes were largely associated with the heroic era of Napoleon, although they perceived his two-facedness and developed a strategy for their personal and public behavior. Scott and his historicism inspire Stendhal's heroes to find their place in life and history through mistakes and delusions. Shakespeare makes Balzac say about the novel “Père Goriot” in the words of the great Englishman “Everything is true” and see echoes of the harsh fate of King Lear in the fate of the modern bourgeois.
Realists of the second half of the 19th century will reproach their predecessors for “residual romanticism.” It is difficult to disagree with such a reproach. Indeed, the romantic tradition is very noticeably represented in the creative systems of Balzac, Stendhal, and Merimee. It is no coincidence that Sainte-Beuve called Stendhal “the last hussar of romanticism.” Traits of romanticism are revealed
– in the cult of exoticism (Merimee’s short stories such as “Matteo Falcone”, “Carmen”, “Tamango”, etc.);
– in the predilection of writers for depicting bright individuals and passions that are exceptional in their strength (Stendhal’s novel “Red and Black” or the short story “Vanina Vanini”);
– a passion for adventurous plots and the use of fantasy elements (Balzac’s novel “Shagreen Skin” or Merimee’s short story “Venus of Il”);
– in an effort to clearly divide heroes into negative and positive – carriers of the author’s ideals (Dickens’s novels).
Thus, between the realism of the first period and romanticism there is a complex “family” connection, manifested, in particular, in the inheritance of techniques and even individual themes and motifs characteristic of romantic art (the theme of lost illusions, the motif of disappointment, etc.).
In Russian historical and literary science, “the revolutionary events of 1848 and the important changes that followed them in the socio-political and cultural life of bourgeois society” are considered to be what divides “the realism of foreign countries of the 19th century into two stages - realism of the first and second half of the 19th century "("History of foreign literature of the 19th century century / Edited by Elizarova M.E. – M., 1964). In 1848, popular protests turned into a series of revolutions that swept across Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Austria, etc.). These revolutions, as well as the unrest in Belgium and England, followed the “French model”, as democratic protests against class-privileged and inappropriate rule of the time, as well as under the slogans of social and democratic reforms. Overall, 1848 marked one huge upheaval in Europe. True, as a result of it, moderate liberals or conservatives came to power everywhere, and in some places even a more brutal authoritarian government was established.
This caused general disappointment in the results of the revolutions, and, as a consequence, pessimistic sentiments. Many representatives of the intelligentsia became disillusioned with mass movements, active actions of the people on a class basis and transferred their main efforts to the private world of the individual and personal relationships. Thus, the general interest was directed towards the individual, important in itself, and only secondarily - towards his relationships with other individuals and the world around him.
The second half of the 19th century is traditionally considered the “triumph of realism.” By this time, realism was loudly asserting itself in the literature not only of France and England, but also of a number of other countries - Germany (late Heine, Raabe, Storm, Fontane), Russia (“natural school”, Turgenev, Goncharov, Ostrovsky, Tolstoy , Dostoevsky), etc.
At the same time, since the 50s, a new stage in the development of realism begins, which involves a new approach to the depiction of both the hero and the society around him. The social, political and moral atmosphere of the second half of the 19th century “turned” writers towards the analysis of a person who can hardly be called a hero, but in whose fate and character the main signs of the era are refracted, expressed not in a major deed, a significant act or passion, compressed and intensely conveying global shifts of time, not in large-scale (both social and psychological) confrontation and conflict, not in typicality taken to the limit, often bordering on exclusivity, but in everyday life, everyday life. Writers who began working at this time, as well as those who entered literature earlier but worked during this period, for example, Dickens or Thackeray, certainly were guided by a different concept of personality. Thackeray’s novel “The Newcombs” emphasizes the specificity of “human studies” in the realism of this period - the need to understand and analytically reproduce multidirectional subtle mental movements and indirect, not always manifested social connections: “It is difficult to even imagine how many different reasons determine each of our actions or passions, how often, when analyzing my motives, I mistook one thing for another...” This phrase by Thackeray conveys perhaps the main feature of the realism of the era: everything is focused on the depiction of a person and character, and not circumstances. Although the latter, as they should in realistic literature, “do not disappear,” their interaction with character acquires a different quality, associated with the fact that circumstances cease to be independent, they become more and more characterologized; their sociological function is now more implicit than it was with Balzac or Stendhal.
Due to the changed concept of personality and the “human-centrism” of the entire artistic system (and “man - the center” was not necessarily a positive hero, defeating social circumstances or dying - morally or physically - in the fight against them), one may get the impression that the writers of the second half centuries abandoned the basic principle of realistic literature: dialectical understanding and depiction of the relationships between character and circumstances and adherence to the principle of socio-psychological determinism. Moreover, some of the most prominent realists of this time - Flaubert, J. Eliot, Trollott - when talking about the world surrounding the hero, the term “environment” appears, often perceived more statically than the concept of “circumstances”.
An analysis of the works of Flaubert and J. Eliot convinces us that artists need this “stacking” of the environment primarily so that the description of the situation surrounding the hero is more plastic. The environment often narratively exists in the inner world of the hero and through him, acquiring a different character of generalization: not poster-sociologized, but psychologized. This creates an atmosphere of greater objectivity in what is being reproduced. In any case, from the point of view of the reader, who trusts such an objectified narrative about the era more, since he perceives the hero of the work as a person close to him, just like himself.
Writers of this period do not at all forget about one more aesthetic setting of critical realism - the objectivity of what is reproduced. As is known, Balzac was so concerned about this objectivity that he looked for ways to bring literary knowledge (understanding) closer together with scientific knowledge. This idea appealed to many realists of the second half of the century. For example, Eliot and Flaubert thought a lot about the use of scientific, and therefore, as it seemed to them, objective methods of analysis in literature. Flaubert thought especially a lot about this, who understood objectivity as synonymous with impartiality and impartiality. However, this was the spirit of the entire realism of the era. Moreover, the work of realists in the second half of the 19th century occurred during the period of takeoff in the development of natural sciences and the heyday of experimentation.
This was an important period in the history of science. Biology developed rapidly (in 1859, Charles Darwin’s book “The Origin of Species” was published), physiology, and the formation of psychology as a science took place. The philosophy of positivism by O. Comte became widespread, and later played an important role in the development of naturalistic aesthetics and artistic practice. It was during these years that attempts were made to create a system of psychological understanding of man.
However, even at this stage of the development of literature, the character of the hero is not conceived by the writer outside of social analysis, although the latter acquires a slightly different aesthetic essence, different from that which was characteristic of Balzac and Stendhal. Of course, in Flaubert's novels. Eliot, Fontana and some others, what is striking is “a new level of depiction of the inner world of man, a qualitatively new mastery of psychological analysis, which consists in the deepest disclosure of the complexity and unforeseenness of human reactions to reality, the motives and causes of human activity” (History of World Literature. Vol. 7. – M., 1990).
It is obvious that the writers of this era sharply changed the direction of creativity and led literature (and the novel in particular) towards in-depth psychologism, and in the formula “social-psychological determinism” the social and psychological seemed to change places. It is in this direction that the main achievements of literature are concentrated: writers began not just to draw the complex inner world of a literary hero, but to reproduce a well-functioning, thoughtful psychological “character model”, in it and in its functioning, artistically combining the psychological-analytical and social-analytical. Writers updated and revived the principle of psychological detail, introduced dialogue with deep psychological overtones, and found narrative techniques for conveying “transitional,” contradictory spiritual movements that were previously inaccessible to literature.
This does not mean at all that realistic literature abandoned social analysis: the social basis of reproduced reality and reconstructed character did not disappear, although it did not dominate character and circumstances. It was thanks to the writers of the second half of the 19th century that literature began to find indirect ways of social analysis, in this sense continuing a series of discoveries made by writers of previous periods.
Flaubert, Eliot, the Goncourt brothers and others “taught” literature to reach out to the social and what is characteristic of the era, characterizes its social, political, historical and moral principles, through the ordinary and everyday existence of an ordinary person. Social typification among writers of the second half of the century is the typification of “mass appearance, repetition” (History of World Literature. Vol. 7. - M., 1990). It is not as bright and obvious as among representatives of classical critical realism of the 1830s - 1840s and most often manifests itself through the “parabola of psychologism”, when immersion in the inner world of a character allows you to ultimately immerse yourself in the era, in historical time, as seen by writer. Emotions, feelings, and moods are not transtemporal, but of a specific historical nature, although it is primarily ordinary everyday existence that is subject to analytical reproduction, and not the world of titanic passions. At the same time, writers often even absolutized the dullness and wretchedness of life, the triviality of the material, the unheroic nature of time and character. That is why, on the one hand, it was an anti-romantic period, on the other, a period of craving for the romantic. This paradox, for example, is characteristic of Flaubert, the Goncourts, and Baudelaire.
There is another important point related to the absolutization of the imperfection of human nature and slavish subordination to circumstances: writers often perceived the negative phenomena of the era as a given, as something insurmountable, or even tragically fatal. That is why in the works of realists of the second half of the 19th century the positive principle is so difficult to express: the problem of the future interests them little, they are “here and now”, in their time, comprehending it in an extremely impartial manner, as an era, if worthy of analysis, then critical.
As noted earlier, critical realism is a literary movement on a global scale. Another notable feature of realism is that it has a long history. At the end of the 19th and 20th centuries, the work of such writers as R. Rolland, D. Golusorsi, B. Shaw, E. M. Remarque, T. Dreiser and others gained worldwide fame. Realism continues to exist to this day, remaining the most important form of world democratic culture.
In creativity Griboyedova, and especially Pushkin, the method of critical realism is emerging. But it turned out to be stable only in Pushkin, who went forward and higher. Griboedov, however, did not maintain the heights achieved in “Woe from Wit.” In the history of Russian literature, he is an example of the author of one classic work. And the poets of the so-called “Pushkin galaxy” (Delvig, Yazykov, Boratynsky) turned out to be unable to pick up this discovery of his. Russian literature still remained romantic.
Only ten years later, when “Masquerade”, “The Inspector General”, “Arabesques” and “Mirgorod” were created, and Pushkin was at the zenith of his fame (“ Queen of Spades», « Captain's daughter"), in this chordal coincidence of three different geniuses of realism, the principles of the realistic method were strengthened in its sharply individual forms that revealed his inner potential. The main types and genres of creativity were covered, the emergence of realistic prose was especially significant, which was recorded as a sign of the times Belinsky in the article “On the Russian story and Gogol’s stories” (1835).
Realism looks different among its three founders.
In the artistic concept of the world, Pushkin the realist is dominated by the idea of the Law, of the laws that determine the state of civilization, social structures, the place and significance of man, his self-sufficiency and connection with the whole, the possibility of authorial judgments. Pushkin looks for laws in educational theories, in moral universal human values, in the historical role of the Russian nobility, in the Russian popular revolt. Finally, in Christianity and the “Gospel”. Hence the universal acceptability and harmony of Pushkin despite all the tragedy of his personal fate.
U Lermontov- on the contrary: sharp enmity with the divine world order, with the laws of society, lies and hypocrisy, all possible defense of individual rights.
U Gogol- a world far from any ideas about the law, vulgar everyday life, in which all concepts of honor and morality, conscience are mutilated - in a word, Russian reality, worthy of grotesque ridicule: “blame the evening mirror if your face is crooked.”
However, in this case, realism turned out to be the lot of geniuses, literature remained romantic ( Zagoskin, Lazhechnikov, Kozlov, Veltman, V. Odoevsky, Venediktov, Marlinskny, N. Polevoy, Zhadovskaya, Pavlova, Krasov, Kukolnik, I. Panaev, Pogorelsky, Podolinsky, Polezhaev and others.).
There was controversy in the theater about Mochalova to Karatygina, that is, between the romantics and the classicists.
And only ten years later, that is, around 1845, in the works of young writers " natural school» ( Nekrasov, Turgenev, Goncharov, Herzen, Dostoevsky and many others) realism finally wins and becomes mass creativity. “Natural school” is the true reality of Russian literature. If one of the followers is now trying to renounce her, belittle the significance organizational forms and its consolidation, influence Belinsky, then he is deeply mistaken. We are assured that there was no “school”, but a “band” through which various stylistic trends passed. But what is a "streak"? We will again come to the concept of “school”, which was not at all distinguished by the uniformity of talents; it had precisely different stylistic movements (compare, for example, Turgenev and Dostoevsky), two powerful internal flows: realistic and actually naturalistic (V. Dal, Bupsov , Grebenka, Grigorovich, I. Panaev, Kulchitsky, etc.).
With the death of Belinsky, the “school” did not die, although it lost its theorist and inspirer. It has grown into a powerful literary direction, its main figures - realist writers - in the second half of the 19th century became the glory of Russian literature. Those who did not formally belong to the “school” and did not experience the preliminary stage of romantic development joined this powerful trend. Saltykov, Pisemsky, Ostrovsky, S. Aksakov, L. Tolstoy.
Throughout the second half of the 19th century, the realistic direction reigned supreme in Russian literature. Its dominance also extends partly to the beginning of the 20th century, if we keep in mind Chekhov and L. Tolstoy. Realism in general can be qualified as critical, socially accusatory. Honest, truthful Russian literature could not be anything else in the country of serfdom and autocracy.
Some theorists, disillusioned with socialist realism, consider it a sign of good form to refuse the definition of “critical” in relation to the old classical realism XIX century. But the criticism of realism of the last century is further evidence that it had nothing in common with the obsequious “what do you want?” on which the Bolshevik was built socialist realism, which destroyed Soviet literature.
It's a different matter if we raise the question of the internal typological varieties of Russian critical realism. From his ancestors - Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol- realism came in different types, just as it was also diverse among realist writers of the second half of the 19th century.
It lends itself most easily to thematic classification: works from noble, merchant, bureaucratic, peasant life - from Turgenev to Zlatovratsky. The genre classification is more or less clear: family and everyday, chronicle genre - from S.T. Aksakov to Garin-Mikhailovsky; estate romance with the same elements of family and everyday life, love relationship, only at a more mature age stage of the heroes’ development, in a more generalized typification, with a weak ideological element. In “Ordinary History,” the clashes between the two Aduevs are age-related, not ideological. There was also the genre of socio-social novel, which are “Oblomov” and “Fathers and Sons”. But the perspectives on which problems are viewed are different. In “Oblomov,” the good inclinations in Ilyusha, when he is still a playful child, and their burial as a result of lordship and idleness are examined stage by stage. At Turgenev's famous novel- “ideological” clash of “fathers” and “sons”, “principles” and “nihilism”, the superiority of commoners over nobles, new trends of the times.
The most difficult task is to establish the typology and specific modifications of realism on a methodological basis. All writers of the second half of the 19th century are realists. But what types does realism itself differentiate into?
One can single out writers whose realism accurately reflects the forms of life itself. Such are Turgenev and Goncharov and everyone who came from the “natural school”. Nekrasov also has many of these life forms. But in his best poems - “Frost - Red Nose”, “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - he is very inventive, resorting to folklore, fantasy, parables, parabolas and allegories. Plot motivations connecting the episodes in last poem, - purely fabulous, the characteristics of the heroes - seven men-truth-seekers - are built on stable folklore repetitions. In Nekrasov’s poem “Contemporaries” there is a torn composition, the modeling of images is purely grotesque.
Herzen has a completely unique critical realism: there are no forms of life here, but “heartfelt humanistic thought.” Belinsky noted the Voltairean style of his talent: “the talent went into the mind.” This mind turns out to be a generator of images, a biography of personalities, the totality of which, according to the principle of contrast and fusion, reveals the “beauty of the universe.” These properties have already appeared in “Who is to Blame?” But Herzen’s graphic humanistic thought was expressed in full force in Past and Thoughts. Herzen puts the most abstract concepts into living images: for example, idealism forever, but unsuccessfully, trampled materialism “with its disembodied feet.” Tyufyaev and Nicholas I, Granovsky and Belinsky, Dubelt and Benckendorf appear as human types and types of thought, state-state and creative. These qualities of talent make Herzen similar to Dostoevsky, the author of “ideological” novels. But Herzen’s portraits are strictly painted according to social characteristics, go back to the “forms of life”, while in Dostoevsky, ideologism is more abstract, more infernal and hidden in the depths of the personality.
Another type of realism appears extremely clearly in Russian literature - satirical, grotesque, such as we find in Gogol and Shchedrin. But not only them. There is satire and grotesque in individual images of Ostrovsky (Murzavetsky, Gradoboev, Khlynov), Sukhovo-Kobylin (Varravin, Tarelkin), Leskov (Levsha, Onopry Peregud) and others. Grotesque is not simple hyperbole or fantasy. This is the combination in images, types, plots into a single whole of what is in natural life does not happen, but what is possible in the artistic imagination as a technique in order to identify a certain social pattern. In Gogol, most often - the quirks of an inert mind, the unreasonableness of the current situation, the inertia of habit, the routine of generally accepted opinion, the illogical, taking the form of logical: Khlestakov's lies about his life in St. Petersburg, his characterizations of the mayor and officials of the provincial outback in a letter to Tryapichkin. The very possibility of Chichikov’s commercial tricks with dead souls is based on the fact that in feudal reality it was easy to buy and sell living souls. Shchedrin draws his grotesque techniques from the world of the bureaucratic apparatus, the quirks of which he has studied well. U ordinary people It is impossible that instead of brains in our heads there would be either minced meat or an automatic organ. But in the heads of Foolov's pompadours, everything is possible. In Swiftian style, he “defamiliarizes” a phenomenon, depicts the impossible as possible (the debate between the Pig and the Truth, the boy “in pants” and the boy “without pants”). Shchedrin masterfully reproduces the casuistry of bureaucratic chicanery, the awkward logic of reasoning of self-confident despots, all these governors, heads of departments, chief clerks, and quarterly officers. Their empty philosophy is firmly established: “Let the law stand in the closet”, “The average person is always to blame for something”, “The bribe has finally died and a jackpot has appeared in its place”, “Enlightenment is useful only when it has an unenlightened character”, “ I’m sure I won’t tolerate it!”, “Slap him.” The verbiage of government officials and the mellifluous idle talk of Judushka Golovlev are reproduced in a psychologically insightful way.
Approximately in the 60-70s, another type of critical realism was formed, which can conditionally be called philosophical-religious, ethical-psychological. We are talking primarily about Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy. Of course, both one and the other have many amazingeveryday paintings, thoroughly developed in the forms of life. In “The Brothers Karamazov” and “Anna Karenina” we will find “family thought.” And yet, with Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, a certain “teaching” is in the foreground, whether it be “soilism” or “simplification.” From this prism, realism intensifies in its piercing power.
But one should not think that philosophical, psychological realism is found only in these two giants of Russian literature. On another artistic level, without the development of philosophical and ethical doctrines to the scale of a holistic religious teaching, it is also found in specific forms in Garshin’s work, in his works such as “Four Days”, “Red Flower”, clearly written on a specific thesis. The properties of this type of realism also appear in populist writers: in “The Power of the Earth” by G.I. Uspensky, in “Foundations” by Zlatovratsky. Leskov’s “difficult” talent is of the same nature; of course, with a certain preconceived idea, he portrayed his “righteous people”, “enchanted wanderers”, who loved to choose talented people from among the people, gifted by the grace of God, tragically doomed to death in their elemental existence.
Realism is usually called a movement in art and literature, whose representatives strived for a realistic and truthful reproduction of reality. In other words, the world was portrayed as typical and simple, with all its advantages and disadvantages.
General features of realism
Realism in literature differs in a number of ways common features. Firstly, life was depicted in images that corresponded to reality. Secondly, reality for representatives of this movement has become a means of understanding themselves and the world around them. Thirdly, the images on the pages literary works were distinguished by the truthfulness of details, specificity and typification. It is interesting that the art of the realists, with their life-affirming principles, sought to consider reality in development. Realists discovered new social and psychological relationships.
The emergence of realism
Realism in literature as a form artistic creation arose during the Renaissance, developed during the Enlightenment and emerged as an independent movement only in the 30s of the 19th century. The first realists in Russia include the great Russian poet A.S. Pushkin (he is sometimes even called the founder of this movement) and no less outstanding writer N.V. Gogol with his novel “Dead Souls”. Concerning literary criticism, then within its limits the term “realism” appeared thanks to D. Pisarev. It was he who introduced the term into journalism and criticism. Realism in 19th century literature became distinctive feature of that time, having its own characteristics and characteristics.
Features of literary realism
Representatives of realism in literature are numerous. The most famous and outstanding writers include such writers as Stendhal, Charles Dickens, O. Balzac, L.N. Tolstoy, G. Flaubert, M. Twain, F.M. Dostoevsky, T. Mann, M. Twain, W. Faulkner and many others. They all worked on the development creative method realism and embodied in their works its most striking features in inextricable connection with their unique authorial characteristics.
