Literary and artistic movements, movements and schools

Renaissance literature

The countdown of new times begins with the Renaissance (renaissanse French revival) - this is the common name for the socio-political and cultural movement that originated in the 14th century. in Italy, and then spread to other European countries and reached its peak by the 15th-16th centuries. The art of the Renaissance opposed itself to the church's dogmatic worldview, declaring man the highest value, the crown of creation. Man is free and called to realize in earthly life the talents and abilities given to him by God and nature. Nature, love, beauty, and art were proclaimed as the most important values. During this era, interest in the ancient heritage is being revived, and true masterpieces of painting, sculpture, architecture, and literature are being created. The works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Velazquez constitute the golden fund of European art. The literature of the Renaissance most fully expressed the humanistic ideals of the era. Her best achievements are presented in the lyrics of Petrarch (Italy), the book of short stories “The Decameron” by Boccaccio (Italy), the novel “The Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha” by Cervantes (Spain), the novel “Gargantua and Pantagruel” by Francois Rabelais (France), the dramaturgy of Shakespeare (England) ) and Lope de Vega (Spain).
The subsequent development of literature from the 17th to early 19th centuries is associated with the literary and artistic movements of classicism, sentimentalism, and romanticism.

Literature of classicism

Classicism(classicus nam. exemplary) - artistic direction in European art of the 17th-18th centuries. The birthplace of classicism is France during the era of absolute monarchy, the artistic ideology of which was expressed by this movement.
The main features of the art of classicism:
- imitation of ancient models as the ideal of true art;
- proclamation of the cult of reason and rejection of the unbridled play of passions:
in the conflict of duty and feelings, duty always wins;
- strict adherence to literary canons (rules): division of genres into high (tragedy, ode) and low (comedy, fable), adherence to the rule of three unities (time, place and action), rational clarity and harmony of style, proportionality of composition;
- didactic, edifying nature of works that preached the ideas of citizenship, patriotism, and service to the monarchy.
The leading representatives of classicism in France were the tragedians Corneille and Racine, the fabulist La Fontaine, the comedian Molière, and the philosopher and writer Voltaire. In England, a prominent representative of classicism is Jonathan Swift, author of the satirical novel Gulliver's Travels.
In Russia, classicism originated in the 18th century, in an era of important cultural transformations. The reforms of Peter I radically influenced literature. It acquires a secular character, becomes author's, i.e. truly individual creativity. Many genres are borrowed from Europe (poem, tragedy, comedy, fable, and later novel). This is the time of formation of the system of Russian versification, theater and journalism. Such serious achievements became possible thanks to the energy and talents of Russian enlighteners, representatives of Russian classicism: M. Lomonosov, G. Derzhavin, D. Fonvizin, A. Sumarokov, I. Krylov and others.

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism(French sentiment - feeling) - a European literary movement of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, which proclaimed feeling, and not reason (like the classicists), as the most important property of human nature. Hence the increased interest in the inner mental life of a simple “natural” person. The surge of sensitivity was a reaction and protest against the rationalism and severity of classicism, which outlawed emotionality. However, reliance on reason as the solution to all social and moral problems did not materialize, which predetermined the crisis of classicism. Sentimentalism poeticized love, friendship, family relationships, this is a truly democratic art, since the significance of a person was no longer determined by his social status, but the ability to empathize, appreciate the beauty of nature, and be as close as possible to the natural principles of life. In the works of sentimentalists, the world of an idyll was often recreated - harmonious and happy life loving hearts in the lap of nature. The heroes of sentimental novels often shed tears and talk a lot and in detail about their experiences. To a modern reader, all this may seem naive and implausible, but the unconditional merit of the art of sentimentalism is the artistic discovery of important laws of a person’s inner life, the protection of his right to a private, intimate life. Sentimentalists argued that man was created not only to serve the state and society - he has an undeniable right to personal happiness.
The birthplace of sentimentalism is England, the novels of writers Laurence Sterne “A Sentimental Journey” and Samuel Richardson “Clarissa Garlow”, “The History of Sir Charles Grandison” will mark the emergence of a new literary movement in Europe and will become a subject of admiration for readers, especially for female readers, and for writers - role model. No less famous works French writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau: the novel “The New Heloise”, the artistic autobiography “Confession”. In Russia, the most famous sentimentalist writers were N. Karamzin, the author of “Poor Liza,” and A. Radishchev, who wrote “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow.”

Romanticism

Romanticism(romantisme in French in this case - everything unusual, mysterious, fantastic) is one of the most influential artistic movements in world art, which was formed at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. Romanticism arises due to the growth of the individual principle in the sentimental world of culture, when a person became increasingly aware of his uniqueness and sovereignty from the world around him. The Romantics proclaimed the absolute intrinsic value of the individual; they discovered a complex, contradictory world human soul. Romanticism is characterized by an interest in strong vivid feelings, grandiose passions, in everything unusual: in the historical past, exoticism, the national color of the culture of peoples not spoiled by civilization. Favorite genres are short stories and poems, which are characterized by fantastic, exaggerated plot situations, complexity of composition, and unexpected endings. All attention is focused on the experiences of the protagonist; the unusual setting is important as a background that allows his restless soul to reveal itself. The development of the genres of the historical novel, fantasy story, and ballad is also the merit of the romantics.
The romantic hero strives for an absolute ideal, which he searches for in nature, the heroic past, and love. Everyday life, the real world, seems to him boring, prosaic, imperfect, i.e. completely inconsistent with his romantic ideas. This creates a conflict between dreams and reality, high ideals and the vulgarity of the surrounding life. The hero of romantic works is lonely, not understood by others, and therefore either goes on a journey in the literal sense of the word, or lives in the world of imagination, fantasy, and his own ideal ideas. Any invasion of his personal space causes deep despondency or a feeling of protest.
Romanticism originates in Germany, in the work of early Goethe (the novel in letters “Suffering young Werther"), Schiller (dramas "The Robbers", "Cunning and Love"), Hoffmann (the story "Little Tsakhes", the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and mouse king"), the Brothers Grimm (fairy tales "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", " The Bremen Town Musicians"). The largest representatives of English romanticism - Byron (the poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage") and Shelley (the drama "Prometheus Unbound") - are poets passionate about ideas political struggle, protecting the oppressed and disadvantaged, defending individual freedom. Byron remained true to his poetic ideals until the end of his life; his death found him in the midst of the Greek War of Independence. Following the Byronian ideal of a disappointed personality with a tragic worldview was called “Byronism” and became younger generation of that time into a peculiar fashion, which was followed, for example, by Eugene Onegin, the hero of A. Pushkin’s novel.
The rise of romanticism in Russia occurred in the first third of the 19th century and is associated with the names of V. Zhukovsky, A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, K. Ryleev, V. Kuchelbecker, A. Odoevsky, E. Baratynsky, N. Gogol, F. Tyutchev. Russian romanticism reached its peak in the works of A.S. Pushkin when he was in southern exile. Freedom, including from despotic political regimes, is one of the main themes of the romantic Pushkin; his “southern” poems are dedicated to this: “Prisoner of the Caucasus”, “Bakhchisarai Fountain”, “Gypsies”.
Another brilliant achievement of Russian romanticism is the early work of M. Lermontov. Lyrical hero his poetry is a rebel, a rebel who enters into battle with fate. A striking example- poem "Mtsyri".
The cycle of short stories “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka,” which made N. Gogol a famous writer, is distinguished by its interest in folklore and mysterious, mystical subjects. In the 1840s, romanticism gradually faded into the background and gave way to realism.
But the traditions of romanticism are reminiscent of themselves in the future, including in the literature of the 20th century, in the literary movement of neo-romanticism (new romanticism). His calling card will be A. Green’s story “Scarlet Sails”.

Realism

Realism(from Latin real, real) - one of the most significant trends in the literature of the 19th-20th centuries, which is based on the realistic method of depicting reality. The task of this method is to depict life as it is, in forms and images that correspond to reality. Realism strives for knowledge and disclosure of the entire diversity of social, cultural, historical, moral and psychological processes and phenomena with their characteristics and contradictions. The author is recognized as having the right to cover any aspect of life without limiting themes, plots, or artistic means.
Realism of the 19th century creatively borrows and develops the achievements of earlier literary movements: classicism has an interest in socio-political and civil issues; in sentimentalism - poeticization of family, friendship, nature, the natural principles of life; Romanticism has in-depth psychologism, comprehension of the inner life of a person. Realism showed the close interaction of man with the environment, the impact of social conditions on the destinies of people; he is interested in everyday life in all its manifestations. The hero of a realistic work - a common person, a representative of his time and his environment. One of the most important principles of realism is the depiction of a typical hero in typical circumstances.
Russian realism is characterized by deep social and philosophical problems, intense psychologism, and an enduring interest in the laws of a person’s inner life, the world of family, home, and childhood. Favorite genres: novel, story. The heyday of realism was the second half of the 19th century, which was reflected in the works of Russian and European classics.

Modernism

Modernism(moderne French newest) is a literary movement that emerged in Europe and Russia at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of a revision of the philosophical foundations and creative principles of realistic literature of the 19th century. The emergence of modernism was a reaction to the crisis at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, when the principle of revaluation of values was proclaimed.
Modernists abandon realistic ways of explaining the surrounding reality and man in it, turning to the sphere of the ideal, mystical as the root cause of everything. Modernists are not interested in socio-political issues; the main thing for them is the soul, emotions, and intuitive insights of the individual. The calling of a human creator is to serve beauty, which, in their opinion, exists in its pure form only in art.
Modernism was internally heterogeneous and included various movements, poetic schools and groups. In Europe this is symbolism, impressionism, “stream of consciousness” literature, expressionism.
In Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, modernism clearly manifested itself in different areas art, which is associated with its unprecedented flowering, which later became known as the “Silver Age” of Russian culture. In literature, the poetic movements of symbolism and acmeism are associated with modernism.

Symbolism

Symbolism originates in France, in the poetry of Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, and then penetrates into other countries, including Russia.
Russian symbolists: I. Annensky, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius, K. Balmont, F. Sologub, V. Bryusov - poets of the older generation; A. Blok, A. Bely, S. Solovyov are the so-called “young symbolists”. Of course, the most significant figure of Russian symbolism was Alexander Blok, who, according to many, was the first poet of that era.
Symbolism is based on the idea of “two worlds”, formulated by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. In accordance with it, the real, visible world is considered only a distorted, secondary reflection of the world of spiritual entities.
A symbol (symbolon Greek, secret, conventional sign) is a special artistic image that embodies an abstract idea; it is inexhaustible in its content and allows one to intuitively comprehend the ideal world hidden from sensory perception.
Symbols have been used in culture since ancient times: star, river, sky, fire, candle, etc. - these and similar images have always evoked in people ideas about the lofty and beautiful. However, in the work of the Symbolists, the symbol acquired a special status, so their poems were distinguished by complex imagery, encrypted, and sometimes excessive. As a result, this leads to a crisis of symbolism, which by 1910 ceased to exist as a literary movement.
The Acmeists proclaim themselves the heirs of the Symbolists.

Acmeism

Acmeism(act from Greek, highest degree something, arrow) arises on the basis of the circle “Workshop of Poets”, which included N. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, A. Akhmatova, S. Gorodetsky, G. Ivanov, G. Adamovich and others. Without rejecting the spiritual fundamental principles of the world and the human nature, the Acmeists at the same time sought to rediscover the beauty and significance of real earthly life. The main ideas of Acmeism in the field of creativity: logic artistic design, harmony of composition, clarity and harmony of artistic style. An important place in the value system of Acmeism was occupied by culture - the memory of humanity. In their work, the best representatives of Acmeism: A. Akhmatova, O. Mandelstam, N. Gumilev - reached significant artistic heights and received wide recognition from the public. The further existence and development of Acmeism was forcibly interrupted by the events of the revolution and civil war.

Avant-garde

Avant-garde(avantgarde French vanguard) is a generalized name for experimental artistic movements, schools of the 20th century, united by the goal of creating a completely new art that has no connections with the old. The most famous of them are futurism, abstract art, surrealism, dadaism, pop art, social art, etc.
The main feature of avant-gardeism is the denial of cultural and historical tradition, continuity, and the experimental search for one’s own paths in art. If modernists emphasized continuity with cultural tradition, then avant-gardeists were nihilistic towards it. The well-known slogan of Russian avant-garde artists is: “Let’s throw Pushkin off the ship of modernity!” In Russian poetry, avant-garde belonged to various groups futurists.

Futurism

Futurism(futurum lat. future) arose in Italy as a movement of new urban, technocratic art. In Russia, this movement declared itself in 1910 and consisted of several groups (ego-futurism, cubo-futurism, “Centrifuge”). V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, I. Severyanin, A. Kruchenykh, the Burliuk brothers and others considered themselves futurists. The futurists claimed to create a fundamentally new art of the future (they called themselves “Budetlyans”) and therefore boldly experimented with forms of verse and invented new ones words (“word innovations”), their “abstruse” language, were not afraid to be rude and anti-aesthetic. These were real anarchists and rebels, constantly shocking (irritating) the taste of the public, brought up on traditional artistic values. At its core, the Futurist program was destructive. Truly original and interesting poets were V. Mayakovsky and V. Khlebnikov, who enriched Russian poetry with their artistic discoveries, but this was rather not thanks to futurism, but in spite of it.

Conclusion on the issue:

Main literary trends

To summarize the brief overview of the main stages in the development of European and Russian literature, its main feature and main vector was the desire for diversity and enrichment of the possibilities of human creative self-expression. Verbal creativity in all centuries has helped man to learn the world and express your ideas about it. The range of means that were used for this is amazing: from a clay tablet to a handwritten book, from the invention of mass printing to modern audio, video, and computer technologies.
Today, thanks to the Internet, literature is changing and acquiring a completely new quality. Anyone with a computer and internet access can become a writer. A new type is emerging before our eyes - online literature, which has its own readers, its own celebrities.
This is used by millions of people all over the planet, posting their texts to the world and receiving instant response from readers. The most popular and in demand national servers Proza.ru and Stikhi.ru are non-profit socially oriented projects whose mission is “to provide authors with the opportunity to publish their works on the Internet and find readers.” As of June 25, 2009, 72,963 authors published 93,6776 works on the Proza.ru portal; On the portal Stikhi.ru, 218,618 authors published 7,036,319 works. The daily audience of these sites is approximately 30 thousand visits. Of course, at its core this is not literature, but rather graphomania - a painful attraction and addiction to intense and fruitless writing, to verbose and empty, useless writing, but if among hundreds of thousands of similar texts there are several truly interesting and powerful ones, it’s all the same just as prospectors would find an ingot of gold in a pile of slag.

The works of each era have unique similarities in their figurative and thematic structure, repetition of plot moves, unity of artistic thinking and similarity of ideological views. From here the main literary trends were formed.

Classicism

The name comes from the word “exemplary” translated from Latin. How art style and the literary movement appeared in Europe in the seventeenth century and dried up by the beginning of the nineteenth. Literary directions did not have a channel wider than this. Characteristics:

1. Appeal to antiquity - in images and forms - as an aesthetic standard.

2. Strict canons, harmony, logic: the inviolability of the structure, like the universe.

3. Rationalism without individual signs and traits, in the field of vision only the eternal and unshakable.

4. Hierarchy: high and low genres (tragedy and comedy).

5. Unity of place, time and actions, no side distracting lines.

Prominent representatives were Corneille, Lafontaine, Racine.

Romanticism

Literary trends usually grow from one another, or new ones are brought in by a wave of protest. The second is characteristic of the emergence of romanticism at the end of the eighteenth century - one of the most large currents in the history of literature. Romanticism arose in Europe and America almost simultaneously. Characteristic features: protest against the vulgarity of bourgeois life, for the poetry of everyday life and against prosaicism, disappointment in the fruits of civilization. Cosmic pessimism and world sorrow. Confrontation between the individual and society, individualism. Separation of the real and ideal worlds, opposition. The romantic hero is highly spiritual, inspired and illuminated by the desire for the ideal. A new phenomenon appears in literature: local color, fairy tales, legends, beliefs flourish, and the elements of nature are glorified. The action often takes place in the most exotic places. Representatives: Byron, Keats, Schiller, Dumas the Father, Hugo, Lermontov, and partly Gogol.

Sentimentalism

Translated - "sensual". Literary movements consist of more or less noticeable movements. Sentimentalism is a movement in line with pre-romanticism. Existed in Europe and America in the second half of the eighteenth century, and ended by the middle of the nineteenth. It was not reason, but feeling that extolled sentimentalism, not recognizing any rationalism, even the Enlightenment kind. Characterized by natural feeling and democracy. Interest in the inner world appears for the first time ordinary people. Unlike romanticism, sentimentalism rejected the irrational; there is no inconsistency, impulsiveness, impetuosity in it that are inaccessible to rationalistic interpretation. It was strong in Russia and somewhat different from the West: the rational was still expressed quite clearly, moralizing and educational tendencies were present, the Russian language was improved and enriched through the use of vernaculars. Favorite genres: epistle, epistolary novel, diaries - everything that helps confession. Representatives: Rousseau, young Goethe, Karamzin.

Naturalism

Literary movements that existed in Europe and North America during the last third of the nineteenth century included naturalism. Characteristics: objectivity, accurate depiction of details and realities of human character. Artistic and scientific knowledge were not separated in the methods of approach. Literary text as a human document: the implementation of an act of cognition. Reality is a good teacher and without moralizing, there can be no bad plots or themes for a writer. Hence, in the works of naturalists there are quite a lot of purely literary shortcomings, such as lack of plot and indifference to public interests. Representatives: Zola, Maupassant, Daudet, Dreiser, Norris, London, from the Russians - Boborykin, in individual works- Kuprin, Bunin, Veresaev.

Realism

Eternal. Born at the end of the nineteenth century, he is still alive today. In priorities: the truth of life as the truth of literature. Images correspond to the essence of phenomena, literature as a means of understanding both oneself and the world around us. Character typification through attention to detail. Life-affirming beginning, reality in the development of new phenomena, relationships, psychological types. Representatives: Balzac, Stendhal, Twain, Dickens. Almost everyone is Russian: Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Tolstoy, Shukshin and so on.

Literary movements and movements not discussed in the article, but with great representatives: symbolism - Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Rilke, Bryusov, Blok, Vyach. Ivanov; Acmeism - Gumilyov, Gorodetsky, Mandelstam, Akhmatova, G. Ivanov; futurism - Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Burliuk, Severyanin, Shershenevich, Pasternak, Aseev; Imagism - Yesenin, Klyuev.

A literary movement is something that is often identified with a school or literary group. It means a group of creative individuals; they are characterized by programmatic and aesthetic unity, as well as ideological and artistic closeness.

In other words, this is a certain variety (as if a subgroup). In relation, for example, to Russian romanticism, one speaks of “psychological”, “philosophical” and “civil” movements. In Russian literary movements, scientists distinguish “sociological” and “psychological” directions.

Classicism

Literary movements of the 20th century

First of all, this is an orientation towards classical, archaic and everyday mythology; cyclic time model; mythological bricolages - works are constructed as collages of reminiscences and quotes from famous works.

The literary movement of that time has 10 components:

1. Neomythologism.

2. Autism.

3. Illusion / reality.

4. Priority of style over subject.

5. Text within text.

6. Destruction of the plot.

7. Pragmatics, not semantics.

8. Syntax, not vocabulary.

9. Observer.

10. Violation of the principles of text coherence.

2) Sentimentalism
Sentimentalism is a literary movement that recognized feeling as the main criterion of human personality. Sentimentalism arose in Europe and Russia approximately simultaneously, in the second half of the 18th century, as a counterweight to the rigid classical theory that was dominant at that time.
Sentimentalism was closely associated with the ideas of the Enlightenment. He gave priority to the manifestations of human spiritual qualities, psychological analysis, and sought to awaken in the hearts of readers an understanding of human nature and love for it, along with a humane attitude towards all the weak, suffering and persecuted. The feelings and experiences of a person are worthy of attention regardless of his class affiliation - the idea of universal equality of people.
The main genres of sentimentalism:
story
elegy
novel
letters
trips
memoirs
England can be considered the birthplace of sentimentalism. Poets J. Thomson, T. Gray, E. Jung tried to awaken in readers a love for the surrounding nature, depicting simple and peaceful rural landscapes in their works, sympathy for the needs of poor people. A prominent representative of English sentimentalism was S. Richardson. He put psychological analysis in the first place and attracted the attention of readers to the fate of his heroes. The writer Lawrence Stern preached humanism as the highest human value.
In French literature, sentimentalism is represented by the novels of Abbé Prevost, P. C. de Chamblen de Marivaux, J.-J. Rousseau, A. B. de Saint-Pierre.
In German literature - the works of F. G. Klopstock, F. M. Klinger, I. V. Goethe, I. F. Schiller, S. Laroche.
Sentimentalism came to Russian literature with translations of the works of Western European sentimentalists. The first sentimental works of Russian literature can be called “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A.N. Radishchev, “Letters of a Russian Traveler” and “Poor Liza” by N.I. Karamzin.

3) Romanticism
Romanticism originated in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. as a counterbalance to the previously dominant classicism with its pragmatism and adherence to established laws. Romanticism, in contrast to classicism, promoted deviations from the rules. The prerequisites for romanticism lie in the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794, which overthrew the power of the bourgeoisie, and with it, bourgeois laws and ideals.
Romanticism, like sentimentalism, paid great attention to a person’s personality, his feelings and experiences. Main conflict Romanticism was about the confrontation between the individual and society. Against the backdrop of scientific and technological progress and an increasingly complex social and political system, there was a spiritual devastation of the individual. Romantics sought to attract the attention of readers to this circumstance, to provoke a protest in society against lack of spirituality and selfishness.
The Romantics became disillusioned with the world around them, and this disappointment is clearly visible in their works. Some of them, such as F. R. Chateaubriand and V. A. Zhukovsky, believed that a person cannot resist mysterious forces, must submit to them and not try to change his destiny. Other romantics, such as J. Byron, P. B. Shelley, S. Petofi, A. Mickiewicz, and the early A. S. Pushkin, believed that it was necessary to fight the so-called “world evil” and contrasted it with the strength of the human spirit.
The inner world of the romantic hero was full of experiences and passions; throughout the entire work, the author forced him to struggle with the world around him, duty and conscience. Romantics depicted feelings in their extreme manifestations: high and passionate love, cruel betrayal, despicable envy, base ambition. But the romantics were interested not only in the inner world of man, but also in the secrets of existence, the essence of all living things, perhaps that is why there is so much mystical and mysterious in their works.
In German literature, romanticism was most clearly expressed in the works of Novalis, W. Tieck, F. Hölderlin, G. Kleist, E. T. A. Hoffmann. English romanticism is represented by the works of W. Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, R. Southey, W. Scott, J. Keats, J. G. Byron, P. B. Shelley. In France, romanticism appeared only at the beginning of the 1820s. The main representatives were F. R. Chateaubriand, J. Stael, E. P. Senancourt, P. Mérimée, V. Hugo, J. Sand, A. Vigny, A. Dumas (father).
The development of Russian romanticism was greatly influenced by the Great French Revolution and the Patriotic War of 1812. Romanticism in Russia is usually divided into two periods - before and after the Decembrist uprising in 1825. Representatives of the first period (V.A. Zhukovsky, K.N. Batyushkov, A.S. Pushkin during the period of southern exile), believed in the victory of spiritual freedom over everyday life, but after the defeat of the Decembrists, executions and exiles, the romantic hero turns into an outcast and misunderstood by society, and the conflict between the individual and society becomes insoluble. Prominent representatives of the second period were M. Yu. Lermontov, E. A. Baratynsky, D. V. Venevitinov, A. S. Khomyakov, F. I. Tyutchev.
Main genres of romanticism:
Elegy
Idyll
Ballad
Novella
Novel
Fantastic story
Aesthetic and theoretical canons of romanticism
The idea of two worlds is a struggle between objective reality and subjective worldview. In realism this concept is absent. The idea of dual worlds has two modifications:
escape into the world of fantasy;
travel, road concept.
Hero concept:
the romantic hero is always an exceptional person;
the hero is always in conflict with the surrounding reality;
the hero's dissatisfaction, which manifests itself in the lyrical tone;
aesthetic determination towards an unattainable ideal.
Psychological parallelism is the identity of the hero’s internal state with the surrounding nature.
Speech style of a romantic work:
extreme expression;
the principle of contrast at the composition level;
abundance of symbols.
Aesthetic categories of romanticism:
rejection of bourgeois reality, its ideology and pragmatism; the romantics denied a value system that was based on stability, hierarchy, a strict value system (home, comfort, Christian morality);
cultivating individuality and artistic worldview; the reality rejected by romanticism was subordinated to subjective worlds based on the creative imagination of the artist.

4) Realism
Realism is a literary movement that objectively reflects the surrounding reality using the artistic means available to it. The main technique of realism is the typification of facts of reality, images and characters. Realist writers place their heroes in certain conditions and show how these conditions influenced the personality.
While romantic writers were concerned about the discrepancy between the world around them and their inner worldview, the realist writer was interested in how the world around him influenced the individual. The actions of the heroes of realistic works are determined by life circumstances, in other words, if a person lived in a different time, in a different place, in a different socio-cultural environment, then he himself would be different.
The foundations of realism were laid by Aristotle in the 4th century. BC e. Instead of the concept of “realism”, he used the concept of “imitation”, which is close in meaning to him. Realism was then revived during the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. In the 40s 19th century in Europe, Russia and America, realism replaced romanticism.
Depending on the meaningful motives recreated in the work, there are:
critical (social) realism;
realism of characters;
psychological realism;
grotesque realism.
Critical realism focused on the real circumstances that influence a person. Examples of critical realism are the works of Stendhal, O. Balzac, C. Dickens, W. Thackeray, A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. . P. Chekhov.
Characteristic realism, on the contrary, showed a strong personality who can fight against circumstances. Psychological realism paid more attention to the inner world and the psychology of heroes. The main representatives of these varieties of realism are F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy.

In grotesque realism, deviations from reality are allowed; in some works, deviations border on fantasy, and the greater the grotesque, the more strongly the author criticizes reality. Grotesque realism was developed in the works of Aristophanes, F. Rabelais, J. Swift, E. Hoffmann, in the satirical stories of N.V. Gogol, the works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, M.A. Bulgakov.

5) Modernism
Modernism is a set of artistic movements that promoted freedom of expression. Modernism originated in Western Europe in the second half of the 19th century. as a new form of creativity, opposed to traditional art. Modernism manifested itself in all types of art - painting, architecture, literature.
The main distinguishing feature of modernism is its ability to change the world around us. The author does not seek to depict reality realistically or allegorically, as was the case in realism, or inner world the hero, as was the case in sentimentalism and romanticism, but depicts his own inner world and his own attitude to the surrounding reality, expresses personal impressions and even fantasies.
Features of modernism:
denial of the classical artistic heritage;
a declared discrepancy with the theory and practice of realism;
focus on the individual, not the social;
increased attention to the spiritual rather than the social sphere of human life;
focus on form at the expense of content.
The largest movements of modernism were impressionism, symbolism and art nouveau. Impressionism sought to capture a moment as the author saw or felt it. In this author’s perception, the past, present and future can be intertwined; what is important is the impression that an object or phenomenon has on the author, and not this object itself.
Symbolists tried to find a secret meaning in everything that happened, endowing familiar images and words with mystical meaning. The Art Nouveau style promoted the rejection of regular geometric shapes and straight lines in favor of smooth and curved lines. Art Nouveau manifested itself especially clearly in architecture and applied arts.
In the 80s 19th century a new trend of modernism was born - decadence. In the art of decadence, a person is placed in unbearable circumstances, he is broken, doomed, and has lost his taste for life.
The main features of decadence:
cynicism (nihilistic attitude towards universal human values);
eroticism;
tonatos (according to Z. Freud - the desire for death, decline, decomposition of personality).
In literature, modernism is represented by the following movements:
Acmeism;
symbolism;
futurism;
imagism.
The most prominent representatives of modernism in literature are French poets C. Baudelaire, P. Verlaine, Russian poets N. Gumilev, A. A. Blok, V. V. Mayakovsky, A. Akhmatova, I. Severyanin, English writer O. Wilde, American writer E. Poe, Scandinavian playwright G. Ibsen.

6) Naturalism
Naturalism is the name of a movement in European literature and art that emerged in the 70s. XIX century and especially widely developed in the 80-90s, when naturalism became the most influential movement. The theoretical basis for the new trend was given by Emile Zola in his book “The Experimental Novel.”
End of the 19th century (especially the 80s) marks the flourishing and strengthening of industrial capital, developing into financial capital. This corresponds, on the one hand, to a high level of technology and increased exploitation, and, on the other, to the growth of self-awareness and class struggle of the proletariat. The bourgeoisie is turning into a reactionary class, fighting a new revolutionary force - the proletariat. The petty bourgeoisie fluctuates between these main classes, and these fluctuations are reflected in the positions of the petty bourgeois writers who adhere to naturalism.
The main requirements made by naturalists for literature: scientific, objective, apolitical in the name of “universal truth.” Literature must be at the level of modern science, must be imbued with scientific character. It is clear that naturalists base their works only on science that does not deny the existing social system. Naturalists base their theory on mechanistic natural-scientific materialism of the type of E. Haeckel, G. Spencer and C. Lombroso, adapting the doctrine of heredity to the interests of the ruling class (heredity is declared the cause social stratification, giving advantages to some over others), the philosophy of positivism of Auguste Comte and petty-bourgeois utopians (Saint-Simon).
By objectively and scientifically demonstrating the shortcomings of modern reality, French naturalists hope to influence the minds of people and thereby bring about a series of reforms in order to save the existing system from the impending revolution.
The theorist and leader of French naturalism, E. Zola included G. Flaubert, the Goncourt brothers, A. Daudet and a number of other lesser-known writers in the natural school. Zola considered the French realists: O. Balzac and Stendhal to be the immediate predecessors of naturalism. But in fact, none of these writers, not excluding Zola himself, was a naturalist in the sense in which Zola the theorist understood this direction. Naturalism, as the style of the leading class, was temporarily embraced by writers very heterogeneous both in artistic method and in belonging to various class groupings. It is characteristic that the unifying point was not the artistic method, but rather the reformist tendencies of naturalism.
Followers of naturalism are characterized by only partial recognition of the set of demands put forward by the theorists of naturalism. Following one of the principles of this style, they start from others, differing sharply from each other, representing both different social trends and different artistic methods. A number of followers of naturalism accepted its reformist essence, without hesitation discarding even such a typical requirement for naturalism as the requirement of objectivity and accuracy. This is what the German “early naturalists” did (M. Kretzer, B. Bille, W. Belsche and others).
Under the sign of decay and rapprochement with impressionism, naturalism began to develop further. Arose in Germany somewhat later than in France, German naturalism was a predominantly petty-bourgeois style. Here, the decomposition of the patriarchal petty bourgeoisie and the intensification of capitalization processes are creating more and more new cadres of the intelligentsia, which do not always find application for themselves. There is more and more disillusionment with the power of science among them. Hopes for resolving social contradictions within the framework of the capitalist system are gradually being crushed.
German naturalism, as well as naturalism in Scandinavian literature, represents entirely a transitional stage from naturalism to impressionism. Thus, the famous German historian Lamprecht, in his “History of the German People,” proposed calling this style “physiological impressionism.” This term is subsequently used by a number of historians of German literature. Indeed, all that remains of the naturalistic style known in France is a reverence for physiology. Many German nature writers do not even try to hide their bias. At its center there is usually some problem, social or physiological, around which the facts that illustrate it are grouped (alcoholism in Hauptmann’s “Before Sunrise”, heredity in Ibsen’s “Ghosts”).
The founders of German naturalism were A. Goltz and F. Schlyaf. Their basic principles are set out in Goltz's brochure "Art", where Goltz states that "art tends to become nature again, and it becomes it in accordance with the existing conditions of reproduction and practical application." The complexity of the plot is also denied. The place of the eventful novel of the French (Zola) is taken by a short story or short story, extremely poor in plot. The main place here is given to the painstaking transmission of moods, visual and auditory sensations. The novel is also being replaced by drama and poetry, which French naturalists viewed extremely negatively as a “kind of entertaining art.” Special attention is given to drama (G. Ibsen, G. Hauptmann, A. Goltz, F. Shlyaf, G. Suderman), in which intensively developed action is also denied, only the catastrophe and recording of the experiences of the heroes are given ("Nora", "Ghosts", "Before Sunrise", "Master Elze" and others). Subsequently, naturalistic drama is reborn into impressionistic, symbolic drama.
In Russia, naturalism did not receive any development. They were called naturalistic early works F. I. Panferova and M. A. Sholokhova.

7) Natural school
By the natural school, literary criticism understands the direction that arose in Russian literature in the 40s. 19th century This was an era of increasingly intensified contradictions between the serfdom and the growth of capitalist elements. Followers natural school in their works they tried to reflect the contradictions and moods of that time. The term “natural school” itself appeared in criticism thanks to F. Bulgarin.
The natural school in the expanded application of the term, as it was used in the 40s, does not denote a single direction, but is a largely conditional concept. The natural school included writers as diverse in their class basis and artistic appearance as I. S. Turgenev and F. M. Dostoevsky, D. V. Grigorovich and I. A. Goncharov, N. A. Nekrasov and I. I. Panaev.
Most common features, on the basis of which the writer was considered to belong to the natural school, were the following: socially significant themes, covering a wider circle than even the circle of social observations (often in the “low” strata of society), a critical attitude towards social reality, realism of artistic expression, fighting against embellishment of reality, aesthetics, romantic rhetoric.
V. G. Belinsky highlighted the realism of the natural school, asserting the most important feature of the “truth” and not the “false” of the image. The natural school does not appeal to ideal, fictitious heroes, but to the “crowd,” to the “mass,” to ordinary people and, most often, to people of “low rank.” Common in the 40s. all sorts of “physiological” essays satisfied this need to reflect a different, non-noble life, even if only in a reflection of the external, everyday, superficial.
N. G. Chernyshevsky especially sharply emphasizes as the most essential and main feature of the “literature of the Gogol period” its critical, “negative” attitude to reality - “literature of the Gogol period” is here another name for the same natural school: specifically to N. V. Gogol - auto RU " Dead souls", "The Inspector General", "Overcoat" - V. G. Belinsky and a number of other critics erected the natural school as the founder. Indeed, many writers classified as a natural school experienced the powerful influence of various aspects of N. V. Gogol's work. In addition Gogol, the writers of the natural school were influenced by such representatives of Western European petty-bourgeois and bourgeois literature as Charles Dickens, O. Balzac, George Sand.
One of the movements of the natural school, represented by the liberal, capitalizing nobility and the social strata adjacent to it, was distinguished by the superficial and cautious nature of its criticism of reality: this was either harmless irony in relation to certain aspects of noble reality or a noble-limited protest against serfdom. The range of social observations of this group was limited to the manor’s estate. Representatives of this trend of the natural school: I. S. Turgenev, D. V. Grigorovich, I. I. Panaev.
Another current of the natural school relied primarily on the urban philistinism of the 40s, which was disadvantaged, on the one hand, by the still tenacious serfdom, and on the other, by growing industrial capitalism. A certain role here belonged to F. M. Dostoevsky, the author of a number of psychological novels and stories ("Poor People", "The Double" and others).
The third movement in the natural school, represented by the so-called “raznochintsy”, ideologists of revolutionary peasant democracy, gives in its work the clearest expression of the tendencies that were associated by contemporaries (V.G. Belinsky) with the name of the natural school and opposed the noble aesthetics. These tendencies manifested themselves most fully and sharply in N. A. Nekrasov. A. I. Herzen (“Who is to blame?”), M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (“A Confused Case”) should also be included in this group.

8) Constructivism
Constructivism is an artistic movement that originated in Western Europe after the First World War. The origins of constructivism lie in the thesis of the German architect G. Semper, who argued that the aesthetic value of any work of art is determined by the correspondence of its three elements: the work, the material from which it is made, and the technical processing of this material.
This thesis, which was subsequently adopted by functionalists and functionalist constructivists (L. Wright in America, J. J. P. Oud in Holland, W. Gropius in Germany), brings to the fore the material-technical and material-utilitarian side of art and, in essence, the ideological side of it is emasculated.
In the West, constructivist tendencies during the First World War and in the post-war period were expressed in various directions, more or less “orthodox” interpreting the main thesis of constructivism. Thus, in France and Holland, constructivism was expressed in “purism”, in “machine aesthetics”, in “neoplasticism” (iso-art), and in the aestheticizing formalism of Corbusier (in architecture). In Germany - in the naked cult of the thing (pseudo-constructivism), the one-sided rationalism of the Gropius school (architecture), abstract formalism (in non-objective cinema).
In Russia, a group of constructivists appeared in 1922. It included A. N. Chicherin, K. L. Zelinsky, I. L. Selvinsky. Constructivism was initially a narrowly formal movement, highlighting the understanding of a literary work as a construction. Subsequently, the constructivists freed themselves from this narrow aesthetic and formal bias and put forward much broader justifications for their creative platform.
A. N. Chicherin moved away from constructivism, a number of authors grouped around I. L. Selvinsky and K. L. Zelinsky (V. Inber, B. Agapov, A. Gabrilovich, N. Panov), and in 1924 a literary center was organized Constructivists (LCC). In its declaration, the LCC primarily proceeds from the statement of the need for art to participate as closely as possible in the “organizational onslaught of the working class,” in the construction of socialist culture. This is where constructivism aims to saturate art (in particular, poetry) with modern themes.
The main theme, which has always attracted the attention of constructivists, can be described as follows: “Intelligentsia in revolution and construction.” Dwelling with special attention on the image of the intellectual in the civil war (I. L. Selvinsky, “Commander 2”) and in construction (I. L. Selvinsky “Pushtorg”), constructivists first of all put forward in a painfully exaggerated form its specific weight and significance under construction. This is especially clear in Pushtorg, where the exceptional specialist Poluyarov is contrasted with the mediocre communist Krol, who prevents him from working and drives him to suicide. Here the pathos of the work technique as such obscures the main social conflicts of modern reality.
This exaggeration of the role of the intelligentsia finds its theoretical development in the article of the main theorist of constructivism Cornelius Zelinsky “Constructivism and Socialism”, where he considers constructivism as a holistic worldview of the era transition to socialism, as a condensed expression in the literature of the period being experienced. At the same time, Zelinsky again replaces the main social contradictions of this period with the struggle between man and nature, with the pathos of naked technology, interpreted outside of social conditions, outside of the class struggle. These erroneous positions of Zelinsky, which caused a sharp rebuff from Marxist criticism, were far from accidental and with great clarity revealed the social nature of constructivism, which is easy to outline in the creative practice of the entire group.
The social source feeding constructivism is, undoubtedly, that layer of the urban petty bourgeoisie, which can be designated as a technically qualified intelligentsia. It is no coincidence that in the work of Selvinsky (who is the most prominent poet of constructivism) of the first period, the image of a strong individuality, a powerful builder and conqueror of life, individualistic in its very essence, characteristic of the Russian bourgeois pre-war style, is undoubtedly revealed.
In 1930, the LCC disintegrated, and in its place the “Literary Brigade M. 1” was formed, declaring itself a transitional organization to RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers), aiming at the gradual transition of fellow travelers to the rails of communist ideology, to the style of proletarian literature and condemning the previous mistakes of constructivism, although preserving its creative method.
However, the contradictory and zigzag nature of constructivism’s progress towards the working class makes itself felt here too. This is evidenced by Selvinsky’s poem “Declaration of the Poet’s Rights.” This is confirmed by the fact that the M. 1 brigade, having existed for less than a year, also disbanded in December 1930, admitting that it had not resolved the tasks set for itself.

9)Postmodernism
Postmodernism translated from German literally means “that which follows modernism.” This literary movement appeared in the second half of the 20th century. It reflects the complexity of the surrounding reality, its dependence on the culture of previous centuries and the information saturation of our time.
Postmodernists were not happy that literature was divided into elite and mass literature. Postmodernism opposed all modernity in literature and denied mass culture. The first works of postmodernists appeared in the form of detective, thriller, and fantasy, behind which serious content was hidden.
Postmodernists believed that highest art ended. To move forward, you need to learn how to properly use the lower genres of pop culture: thriller, western, fantasy, science fiction, erotica. Postmodernism finds in these genres the source of a new mythology. Works become aimed at both the elite reader and the undemanding public.
Signs of postmodernism:
using previous texts as potential for own works(a large number of quotes, it is impossible to understand the work if you do not know the literature of previous eras);
rethinking elements of the culture of the past;
multi-level text organization;
special organization of text (game element).
Postmodernism questioned the existence of meaning as such. On the other hand, the meaning of postmodernist works is determined by its inherent pathos - criticism of mass culture. Postmodernism tries to erase the boundary between art and life. Everything that exists and has ever existed is text. Postmodernists said that everything had already been written before them, that nothing new could be invented and they could only play with words, take ready-made (already once thought up or written by someone) ideas, phrases, texts and assemble works from them. This makes no sense, because the author himself is not in the work.
Literary works are like a collage, composed of disparate images and united into a whole by the uniformity of technique. This technique is called pastiche. This Italian word translates as medley opera, and in literature it refers to the juxtaposition of several styles in one work. At the first stages of postmodernism, pastiche is a specific form of parody or self-parody, but then it is a way of adapting to reality, a way of showing the illusory nature of mass culture.
Associated with postmodernism is the concept of intertextuality. This term was introduced by Y. Kristeva in 1967. She believed that history and society can be considered as a text, then culture is a single intertext that serves as an avant-text (all texts that precede this one) for any newly appearing text, while individuality is lost here text that dissolves in quotes. Modernism is characterized by quotational thinking.
Intertextuality– the presence of two or more texts in the text.
Paratext– the relationship of the text to the title, epigraph, afterword, preface.
Metatextuality– these can be comments or a link to the pretext.
Hypertextuality– ridicule or parody of one text by another.
Archtextuality– genre connection of texts.
Man in postmodernism is depicted in a state of complete destruction (in this case, destruction can be understood as a violation of consciousness). There is no character development in the work; the image of the hero appears in a blurred form. This technique is called defocalization. It has two goals:
avoid excessive heroic pathos;
to take the hero into the shadow: the hero does not come to the fore, he is not needed in the work at all.
Prominent representatives of postmodernism in literature are J. Fowles, J. Barth, A. Robbe-Grillet, F. Sollers, H. Cortazar, M. Pavich, J. Joyce and others.

Literary movement - often identified with artistic method. Designates a set of fundamental spiritual and aesthetic principles of many writers, as well as a number of groups and schools, their programmatic and aesthetic attitudes, and the means used. The laws of the literary process are most clearly expressed in the struggle and change of directions. It is customary to distinguish the following literary trends:
a) Classicism,
b) Sentimentalism,
c) Naturalism,
d) Romanticism,
d) Symbolism,
f) Realism.
Literary movement - often identified with a literary group and school. Designates a set of creative personalities who are characterized by ideological and artistic affinity and programmatic and aesthetic unity. Otherwise, a literary movement is a variety (as if a subclass) of a literary movement. For example, in relation to Russian romanticism they talk about “philosophical”, “psychological” and “civil” movements. In Russian realism, some distinguish “psychological” and “sociological” trends.

Classicism

Artistic style and direction in European literature and art of the XVII-beginning. XIX centuries. The name is derived from the Latin “classicus” - exemplary.

Features of classicism:

Appeal to images and forms ancient literature and art as an ideal aesthetic standard, putting forward on this basis the principle of “imitation of nature,” which implies strict adherence to immutable rules drawn from ancient aesthetics (for example, in the person of Aristotle, Horace).
Aesthetics is based on the principles of rationalism (from the Latin “ratio” - reason), which affirms the view of piece of art as an artificial creation - consciously created, intelligently organized, logically constructed.
The images in classicism are devoid of individual features, since they are designed primarily to capture stable, generic, enduring characteristics over time, acting as the embodiment of any social or spiritual forces.
The social and educational function of art. Education of a harmonious personality.
A strict hierarchy of genres has been established, which are divided into “high” (tragedy, epic, ode; their sphere is public life, historical events, mythology, their heroes are monarchs, generals, mythological characters, religious devotees) and “low” (comedy, satire , a fable that depicted private daily life people of the middle classes). Each genre has strict boundaries and clear formal characteristics; no mixing of the sublime and the base, the tragic and the comic, the heroic and the ordinary was allowed. The leading genre is tragedy.
Classical dramaturgy approved the so-called principle of “unity of place, time and action,” which meant: the action of the play should take place in one place, the duration of the action should be limited to the duration of the performance (possibly more, but the maximum time about which the play should have been narrated is one day), the unity of action implied that the play should reflect one central intrigue, not interrupted by side actions.

Classicism originated and developed in France with the establishment of absolutism (classicism with its concepts of “exemplaryness”, a strict hierarchy of genres, etc. is generally often associated with absolutism and the flourishing of statehood - P. Corneille, J. Racine, J. Lafontaine, J. B. Moliere, etc. Having entered a period of decline at the end of the 17th century, classicism was revived during the Enlightenment - Voltaire, M. Chenier, etc. After the Great French Revolution, with the collapse of rationalistic ideas, classicism came into decline, the dominant style of European art becomes romanticism.

Classicism in Russia:

Russian classicism arose in the second quarter of the 18th century in the works of the founders of new Russian literature - A. D. Kantemir, V. K. Trediakovsky and M. V. Lomonosov. In the era of classicism, Russian literature mastered the genre and style forms that had developed in the West and joined the pan-European literary development while preserving its national identity. Characteristic features of Russian classicism:

A) Satirical orientation - important place occupy such genres as satire, fable, comedy, directly addressed to specific phenomena of Russian life;
b) The predominance of national historical themes over ancient ones (the tragedies of A. P. Sumarokov, Ya. B. Knyazhnin, etc.);
V) High level development of the ode genre (by M. V. Lomonosov and G. R. Derzhavin);
G) The general patriotic pathos of Russian classicism.

At the end of the XVIII - beginning. 19th century Russian classicism is influenced by sentimentalist and pre-romantic ideas, which is reflected in the poetry of G. R. Derzhavin, the tragedies of V. A. Ozerov and civil lyrics Decembrist poets.

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism (from English sentimental - “sensitive”) is a movement in European literature and art XVIII century. It was prepared by the crisis of Enlightenment rationalism and was the final stage of the Enlightenment. Chronologically, it mainly preceded romanticism, passing on a number of its features to it.

The main signs of sentimentalism:

Sentimentalism remained true to the ideal of the normative personality.
In contrast to classicism with its educational pathos, it declared feeling, not reason, to be the dominant of “human nature.”
The condition for the formation of an ideal personality was considered not by the “reasonable reorganization of the world,” but by the release and improvement of “natural feelings.”
The hero of the literature of sentimentalism is more individualized: by origin (or convictions) he is a democrat, the rich spiritual world of the commoner is one of the conquests of sentimentalism.
However, unlike romanticism (pre-romanticism), the “irrational” is alien to sentimentalism: he perceived the inconsistency of moods and the impulsiveness of mental impulses as accessible to rationalistic interpretation.

Sentimentalism took its most complete expression in England, where the ideology of the third estate was formed first - the works of J. Thomson, O. Goldsmith, J. Crabb, S. Richardson, JI. Stern.

Sentimentalism in Russia:

In Russia, representatives of sentimentalism were: M. N. Muravyov, N. M. Karamzin (most famous work - “ Poor Lisa"), I. I. Dmitriev, V. V. Kapnist, N. A. Lvov, young V. A. Zhukovsky.

Characteristic features of Russian sentimentalism:

a) Rationalistic tendencies are quite clearly expressed;
b) The didactic (moralizing) attitude is strong;
c) Educational trends;
d) Improving the literary language, Russian sentimentalists turned to colloquial norms and introduced vernaculars.

The favorite genres of sentimentalists are elegy, epistle, epistolary novel (novel in letters), travel notes, diaries and other types of prose in which confessional motifs predominate.

Romanticism

One of the largest trends in European and American literature of the late 18th century half of the 19th century century, gaining worldwide significance and distribution. In the 18th century, everything fantastic, unusual, strange, found only in books and not in reality, was called romantic. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. “Romanticism” begins to be called a new literary movement.

Main features of romanticism:

Anti-Enlightenment orientation (i.e., against the ideology of the Enlightenment), which manifested itself in sentimentalism and pre-romanticism, and reached its highest point in romanticism. Social and ideological prerequisites - disappointment in the results of the Great French Revolution and the fruits of civilization in general, protest against the vulgarity, routine and prosaicness of bourgeois life. The reality of history turned out to be beyond the control of “reason”, irrational, full of secrets and contingencies, and the modern world order is hostile to human nature and his personal freedom.
The general pessimistic orientation is the ideas of “cosmic pessimism”, “world sorrow” (heroes in the works of F. Chateaubriand, A. Musset, J. Byron, A. Vigny, etc.). Theme "lying in evil" scary world“was especially clearly reflected in the “drama of rock” or “tragedy of rock” (G. Kleist, J. Byron, E. T. A. Hoffmann, E. Poe).
Belief in the omnipotence of the human spirit, in its ability to renew itself. The Romantics discovered the extraordinary complexity, the inner depth of human individuality. For them, a person is a microcosm, a small universe. Hence the absolutization of the personal principle, the philosophy of individualism. In the center romantic work There is always a strong, exceptional personality opposing society, its laws or moral standards.
“Dual world”, that is, the division of the world into real and ideal, which are opposed to each other. Spiritual insight, inspiration, which is subject to the romantic hero, is nothing more than penetration into this ideal world (for example, the works of Hoffmann, especially vividly in: “The Golden Pot”, “The Nutcracker”, “Little Tsakhes, nicknamed Zinnober”) . The romantics contrasted the classicist “imitation of nature” with the creative activity of the artist with his right to transform the real world: the artist creates his own, special world, more beautiful and true.
"Local color" A person who opposes society feels a spiritual closeness with nature, its elements. This is why romantics so often use exotic countries and their nature (the East) as the setting for action. The exotic wild nature was quite consistent in spirit with the romantic personality striving beyond the ordinary. Romantics are the first to pay close attention to creative heritage people, their national, cultural and historical characteristics. National and cultural diversity, according to the philosophy of the romantics, was part of one large unified whole - the “universum”. This was clearly realized in the development of the historical novel genre (authors such as W. Scott, F. Cooper, V. Hugo).

The Romantics, absolutizing the creative freedom of the artist, denied rationalistic regulation in art, which, however, did not prevent them from proclaiming their own, romantic canons.

Genres have developed: the fantastic story, the historical novel, the lyric-epic poem, and the lyricist reaches an extraordinary flowering.

The classical countries of romanticism are Germany, England, France.

Since the 1840s, romanticism in the main European countries gives way to leading position critical realism and fades into the background.

Romanticism in Russia:

The origin of romanticism in Russia is associated with the socio-ideological atmosphere of Russian life - the nationwide upsurge after the War of 1812. All this determined not only the formation, but also the special character of the romanticism of the Decembrist poets (for example, K. F. Ryleev, V. K. Kuchelbecker, A. I. Odoevsky), whose work was inspired by the idea of civil service, imbued with the pathos of love of freedom and struggle.

Characteristic features of romanticism in Russia:

A) The acceleration of the development of literature in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century led to the “rush” and combination of various stages, which in other countries were experienced in stages. In Russian romanticism, pre-romantic tendencies were intertwined with the tendencies of classicism and the Enlightenment: doubts about the omnipotent role of reason, the cult of sensitivity, nature, elegiac melancholy were combined with the classic orderliness of styles and genres, moderate didacticism (edification) and the fight against excessive metaphor for the sake of “harmonic accuracy” (expression A. S. Pushkin).

b) A more pronounced social orientation of Russian romanticism. For example, the poetry of the Decembrists, the works of M. Yu. Lermontov.

In Russian romanticism, such genres as elegy and idyll receive special development. The development of the ballad (for example, in the work of V. A. Zhukovsky) was very important for the self-determination of Russian romanticism. The contours of Russian romanticism were most clearly defined with the emergence of the genre of lyric-epic poem (southern poems by A. S. Pushkin, works by I. I. Kozlov, K. F. Ryleev, M. Yu. Lermontov, etc.). The historical novel is developing as a large epic form (M. N. Zagoskin, I. I. Lazhechnikov). A special way of creating a large epic form is cyclization, that is, the combination of seemingly independent (and partially published separately) works (“Double or My Evenings in Little Russia” by A. Pogorelsky, “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka” by N. V. Gogol, “Our Hero” time" by M. Yu. Lermontov, "Russian Nights" by V. F. Odoevsky).

Naturalism

Naturalism (from the Latin natura - “nature”) is a literary movement that developed in the last third of the 19th century in Europe and the USA.

Characteristics of naturalism:

The desire for an objective, accurate and dispassionate depiction of reality and human character, determined by physiological nature and environment, understood primarily as the immediate everyday and material environment, but not excluding socio-historical factors. The main task of naturalists was to study society with the same completeness with which a natural scientist studies nature; artistic knowledge was likened to scientific knowledge.
A work of art was considered as a “human document”, and the main aesthetic criterion was the completeness of the cognitive act carried out in it.
Naturalists refused to moralize, believing that reality depicted with scientific impartiality was in itself quite expressive. They believed that literature, like science, has no right in choosing material, that there are no unsuitable plots or unworthy topics for a writer. Hence, plotlessness and social indifference often arose in the works of naturalists.

Naturalism received particular development in France - for example, naturalism includes the work of such writers as G. Flaubert, the brothers E. and J. Goncourt, E. Zola (who developed the theory of naturalism).

In Russia, naturalism was not widespread; it played only a certain role at the initial stage of the development of Russian realism. Naturalistic tendencies can be traced among the writers of the so-called “natural school” (see below) - V. I. Dal, I. I. Panaev and others.

Realism

Realism (from the late Latin realis - material, real) is a literary and artistic movement of the 19th-20th centuries. It originates in the Renaissance (the so-called “Renaissance realism”) or in the Enlightenment (“ educational realism"). Features of realism are noted in ancient and medieval folklore and ancient literature.

Main features of realism:

The artist depicts life in images that correspond to the essence of the phenomena of life itself.
Literature in realism is a means of a person’s knowledge of himself and the world around him.
Knowledge of reality occurs with the help of images created through typification of facts of reality (“typical characters in a typical setting”). Typification of characters in realism is carried out through the “truthfulness of details” in the “specifics” of the characters’ conditions of existence.
Realistic art is life-affirming art, even with a tragic resolution to the conflict. The philosophical basis for this is Gnosticism, the belief in knowability and an adequate reflection of the surrounding world, in contrast, for example, to romanticism.
Realistic art is characterized by the desire to consider reality in development, the ability to detect and capture the emergence and development of new forms of life and social relations, new psychological and social types.

Realism as a literary movement was formed in the 30s years XIX century. The immediate predecessor of realism in European literature was romanticism. Having made the unusual the subject of the image, creating an imaginary world of special circumstances and exceptional passions, he (romanticism) at the same time showed a personality richer in spirituality, emotionally, more complex and contradictory than was available to classicism, sentimentalism and other movements of previous eras. Therefore, realism developed not as an antagonist of romanticism, but as its ally in the fight against idealization public relations, for national-historical originality artistic images(color of place and time). It is not always easy to draw clear boundaries between romanticism and realism of the first half of the 19th century; in the works of many writers, romantic and realistic features merged - for example, the works of O. Balzac, Stendhal, V. Hugo, and partly Charles Dickens. In Russian literature, this was especially clearly reflected in the works of A. S. Pushkin and M. Yu. Lermontov (the southern poems of Pushkin and “Hero of Our Time” by Lermontov).

In Russia, where the foundations of realism were already in the 1820-30s. laid down by the work of A. S. Pushkin (“Eugene Onegin”, “Boris Godunov”, “ Captain's daughter”, late lyrics), as well as some other writers (“Woe from Wit” by A. S. Griboyedov, fables by I. A. Krylov), this stage is associated with the names of I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky and others. Realism of the 19th century is usually called “critical”, since the defining principle in it was precisely the social-critical one. Heightened social-critical pathos is one of the main distinctive features Russian realism - for example, “The Inspector General”, “Dead Souls” by N.V. Gogol, the activities of writers of the “natural school”. Realism of the 2nd half of the 19th century reached its peak precisely in Russian literature, especially in the works of L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky, who became late XIX century as the central figures of the world literary process. They enriched world literature new principles for constructing a socio-psychological novel, philosophical and moral issues, new ways of revealing the human psyche in its deep layers.