Depicting life in images that correspond to the essence of life phenomena through typing the facts of reality. The art of realism is characterized by the spirit of artistic objectivity. The depiction of the world in a realistic work, as a rule, is not abstract and conventional in nature. A realist writer reproduces reality in life-like forms, creates the illusion of reality, makes one believe in his characters, strives to make them alive, to give them artistic persuasiveness. Realistic art depicts depths human soul, attaches special importance to the motivation of the hero’s actions, the study of the circumstances of his life, the reasons that prompt the character to act one way and not another.
A true reflection of the world, a wide coverage of reality. All genuine art to a certain extent reflects reality, that is, it corresponds to the truth of life. However, realism as a method most consistently embodied the principles of a life-truthful reflection of reality. I. S. Turgenev, speaking about the connection between art and reality, argued: “I always need a meeting with a living person, direct acquaintance with some life fact, before I begin to create a type or compose a plot.” F. M. Dostoevsky also pointed out the real basis of the plot of the novel “Crime and Punishment”.
Historicism. Realism subordinated everything artistic media the task of an increasingly multifaceted and in-depth study of man in his relations with society, with the historical process. In literature, historicism is usually understood as the idea of reality, embodied in images, developing naturally and progressively, of the connection between times in their qualitative differences.
The attitude towards literature as a means of a person’s knowledge of himself and the world around him. Realist writers turn to the cognitive capabilities of art, trying to deeply, fully and comprehensively explore life, depicting reality with its inherent contradictions. Realism recognizes the artist's right to illuminate all aspects of life without limitation. Any realistic work is based on life facts that have a creative refraction. In realistic works, each significant manifestation of individuality is depicted as conditioned by certain circumstances; the artist strives to identify what is characteristic, repeating in the individual, and natural in what seems random.
Realist writers, following the sentimentalists and romantics, showed interest in the life of the human soul, deepened the understanding of human psychology, and reflected works of art the work of the human consciousness and subconscious through identifying the hero’s intentions, the motives of his actions, experiences and changes in mental states.
Reflection of the connection between man and environment. Realism gravitates towards a multifaceted and potentially exhaustive study and depiction of the world in all the richness of its connections, organically recreated by the artist. Realist writers create different situations for revealing character: I. A. Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov” shows the destructiveness for the hero of an ordinary situation, a familiar environment; Dostoevsky's heroes, on the contrary, find themselves in hysterical situations generated by the imperfection of the social system; L.N. Tolstoy includes his heroes in the cycle of significant historical events that reveal the essence of a particular character. The art of realism shows the interaction of man with the environment, the impact of the era, social conditions on human destinies, the influence of social circumstances on morals and spiritual world of people. At the same time, a realistic work substantiates what is happening not only with socio-historical circumstances, but also with the psychology of the hero, his moral choice, i.e., the mental structure of the individual (in contrast to the works of the naturalistic school, in which a person was depicted as a derivative of heredity and environment). Thus, a realistic work explores the ability of an individual to rise above circumstances, to resist them, showing free will.
Typification of characters and circumstances. In literary criticism, the formula of F. Engels has been established, according to which “realism presupposes, in addition to the truthfulness of details, truthful reproduction typical characters under typical circumstances." For a realistic work, it is important to establish connections between these two objects in the image. Literary hero of the realistic the work is created as a generalized image (type) of human individuality, most characteristic of a certain social environment, it embodies the characteristic features of persons of a certain category. Myself creative process The creation of typical images is usually called typification. Literary forms: Epic: novel, story, poem, story. Lyrics: song, elegy. Drama: tragedy, historical chronicles. Of course, first of all, these are F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy. Outstanding examples of literature of this direction were also the works of the late Pushkin (rightfully considered the founder of realism in Russian literature) - the historical drama “Boris Godunov”, the stories “The Captain’s Daughter”, “Dubrovsky”, “Belkin’s Tales”, the novel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov “Our Hero” time", as well as Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's poem " Dead Souls" In Russia, Dmitry Pisarev was the first to widely introduce the term “realism” into journalism and criticism; before that time, the term “realism” was used by Herzen in a philosophical sense, as a synonym for the concept of “materialism.”
Realism (from Late Latin realis - material, real) is an aesthetics term that relates primarily to literature and fine arts. It can be interpreted in two ways: in the broadest sense - as a general attitude towards the image of life in the forms of life itself, as it actually appears to a person; and in a narrower, “instrumental” sense - as a creative method, reducible to certain aesthetic principles, for example: a) typification of the facts of reality, i.e., according to Engels, “in addition to the truthfulness of details, the truthful reproduction of typical characters in typical circumstances”; b) showing life in development and contradictions that are primarily of a social nature; c) the desire to reveal the essence of life phenomena without limiting topics and plots; d) aspiration for moral quests and educational influence.
In a broad sense, realism, which represents the main trend, a kind of aesthetic “core” of the artistic culture of mankind, has existed and continues to exist in art and literature since ancient times. In a narrow sense, as a creative method, it began to be identified either with the Renaissance (XIV-XVI centuries), or with the 18th century, when they talk about the so-called Enlightenment realism.
The most complete disclosure of the specific features of this method is usually associated with critical realism XIX century, a parody of which became the mythical “socialist realism”.
The understanding of realism as a method in the fine arts was developed mainly on examples of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, and as a method in literature - on the works of European, American and Russian classics of the 19th century. It should be noted, however, that both in the past and in our time this method is not always presented in a “chemically pure” form. Realistic tendencies, under the influence of changing socio-historical conditions and the very psyche of modern man, often give way to periods of decadence, formalism alienated from life, or a return to the past in the form of vulgar epigonism, represented, for example, by the “art” of the fascist Third Reich or the nomenclature “art” of Stalinism. Acting as a leading method primarily in painting and literature, realism clearly manifests itself in the synthetic and “technical” arts associated with them - theater, ballet, cinema, photography and others. With less justification we can talk about the realistic method in such types of creativity as music, architecture or decorative art, which tend to be abstract and conventional. In Russian culture, realism in its various incarnations is represented by such outstanding creators as Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Repin, Surikov, Mussorgsky, Shchepkin, Eisenstein and many, many others.
46. Global problems of culture of the 20th century.
World culture of the 20th century is a complex process, divided into several stages by events of global significance - world wars. The complexity and inconsistency of this process is aggravated by the fact that for a significant period of time the world was split into two camps along ideological lines, which introduced new problems and ideas into cultural practice. The problem of the crisis of culture is one of the leading ones in the philosophical and cultural thought of the twentieth century. The issue of the cultural crisis was generated by the changes in the life of European society that it underwent at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The atmosphere of a global crisis that has gripped all spheres of European society has exacerbated a number of contradictions. Economic instability, confusion and despair in the face of social catastrophes, the decline of traditional values, the decline of faith in science, in the rational comprehension of the world and other features of the crisis that gave rise to terrible confusion of the Spirit. However, the twentieth century made the greatest contribution to understanding the problem of the crisis of culture. Perhaps, in European philosophical thought there is not a single serious researcher who, to one degree or another, would not touch upon this topic: O. Spengler and A. Toynbee, H. Ortega y Gasset and J. Huizinga, P.A. Sorokin and N.A. Berdyaev, G. Hesse and I.A. Ilyin, P. Tillich and E. Fromm, K. Jaspers and G. Marcuse, A.S. Arsenyev and A. Nazaretyan. In the 20th century, culture and art were faced with a more complex reality, with an increasingly catastrophic social development, an exacerbation of social contradictions, with conflicts generated by the scientific and technological revolution, with global problems affecting the interests of all mankind and, as a consequence, with the flourishing of modernism. The politicization of culture can be clearly seen in the history of Russian culture in the 20th century. The October Revolution of 1917 marked the beginning of the transition to a new system of social relations, to a new type of culture. At the beginning of the 20th century, V.I. Lenin formulated the most important principles of the attitude of the Communist Party to artistic and creative activity, which formed the basis of the cultural policy of the Soviet state. In the first post-October decade, the foundations of a new Soviet culture were laid. The beginning of this period (1918-1921) is characterized by the destruction and denial of traditional values (culture, morality, religion, way of life, law) and the proclamation of new guidelines for sociocultural development: world revolution, communist society, universal equality and fraternity. Marxism became the spiritual core of the Soviet civilizational system and served as a theoretical tool for formulating a doctrine that reflected the problems of Russian reality. Ideological propaganda took on an increasingly chauvinistic and anti-Semitic character. In January 1949, a campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans” began, which entailed destructive interference in the destinies of a number of scientists, teachers, literary and artistic workers. Most of those accused of cosmopolitanism turned out to be Jews. Jewish cultural institutions - theaters, schools, newspapers - were closed. Ideological campaigns, the constant search for enemies and their exposure maintained an atmosphere of fear in society. After Stalin's death, the features of totalitarianism continued to exist in cultural policy for a long time. The beginning of the 90s passed under the sign of the accelerated disintegration of the unified culture of the USSR into separate national cultures, which not only rejected the values of the common culture of the USSR, but also cultural traditions each other. Such a sharp contrast between different national cultures led to an increase in sociocultural tension, to the emergence of military conflicts and subsequently caused the collapse of a single sociocultural space.
The emergence of realism
In the 30s of the XIX century. Realism is becoming widespread 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 (Balzac's "Human Comedy", Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", Gogol's "Dead Souls", 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
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. And in European literatures, and - in particular - the activity of romantic writers continues in full in US literature. Thus, 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 a class-privileged government that did not meet the needs 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.
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 surrounding 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, 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 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 (C. Darwin’s book “The Origin of Species” was published in 1859), 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, motives and causes 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 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 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. IN late XIX and in the 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.
Realism in literature is a direction whose main feature is a truthful depiction of reality and its typical features without any distortion or exaggeration. This originated in the 19th century, and its adherents sharply opposed sophisticated forms of poetry and the use of various mystical concepts in works.
Signs directions
Realism in 19th-century literature can be distinguished by clear characteristics. The main one is the artistic depiction of reality in images familiar to the average person, which he regularly encounters in real life. Reality in the works is considered as a means for a person to understand the world around him and himself, and the image of each literary character is worked out in such a way that the reader can recognize himself, a relative, colleague or acquaintance in it.
In the novels and stories of realists, art remains life-affirming, even if the plot is characterized by a tragic conflict. Another sign of this genre is the desire of writers to consider the surrounding reality in its development, and each writer tries to discover the emergence of new psychological, public and social relations.
Features of this literary movement
Realism in literature, which replaced romanticism, has the signs of art that seeks and finds truth, striving to transform reality.
In the works of realist writers, discoveries were made after much thought and dreaming, after analyzing subjective worldviews. This feature, which can be distinguished by the author’s perception of time, determined features realistic literature of the early twentieth century from traditional Russian classics.
Realism inXIX century
Such representatives of realism in literature as Balzac and Stendhal, Thackeray and Dickens, George Sand and Victor Hugo, in their works most clearly reveal the themes of good and evil, and avoid abstract concepts and show real life of their contemporaries. These writers make it clear to readers that evil lies in the lifestyle of bourgeois society, capitalist reality, and people’s dependence on various material values. For example, in Dickens's novel Dombey and Son, the owner of the company was heartless and callous not by nature. It’s just that he developed such character traits due to the presence big money and the ambition of the owner, for whom profit becomes the main achievement in life.
Realism in literature is devoid of humor and sarcasm, and the images of the characters are no longer the ideal of the writer himself and do not embody him cherished dreams. From the works of the 19th century, the hero practically disappears, in whose image the author’s ideas are visible. This situation is especially clearly visible in the works of Gogol and Chekhov.
However, this is most clearly literary direction manifests itself in the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, who describe the world as they see it. This was expressed in the image of characters with their own strengths and weaknesses, the description of mental torment, a reminder to readers of the harsh reality that cannot be changed by one person.
As a rule, realism in literature also affected the fate of representatives of the Russian nobility, as can be judged from the works of I. A. Goncharov. Thus, the characters of the heroes in his works remain contradictory. Oblomov is a sincere and gentle person, but due to his passivity he is not capable of better things. Another character in Russian literature has similar qualities - the weak-willed but gifted Boris Raisky. Goncharov managed to create the image of an “anti-hero” typical of the 19th century, which was noticed by critics. As a result, the concept of “Oblomovism” appeared, referring to all passive characters whose main features were laziness and lack of will.
Realism has the following distinctive features:
- 1. The artist depicts life in images that correspond to the essence of the phenomena of life itself.
- 2. Literature in realism is a means for a person to understand himself and the world around him.
- 3. Cognition 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.
- 4. 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, unlike, for example, romanticism.
- 5. 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.
In the course of the development of art, realism acquires concrete historical forms and creative methods(For example, educational realism, critical realism, socialist realism). These methods, interconnected by continuity, have their own characteristic features. The manifestations of realistic tendencies are different in different types and genres of art.
In aesthetics, there is no definitively established definition of both the chronological boundaries of realism and the scope and content of this concept. In the variety of points of view being developed, two main concepts can be outlined:
- · According to one of them, realism is one of the main features artistic knowledge, the main trend of progressive development artistic culture humanity, which reveals the deep essence of art as a way of spiritual and practical development of reality. The measure of penetration into life, artistic knowledge of its important aspects and qualities, and, first of all, social reality, determines the measure of realism of a particular artistic phenomenon. In every new historical period realism takes on a new look, now revealing itself in a more or less clearly expressed tendency, now crystallizing into a complete method that defines the characteristics of the artistic culture of its time.
- · Representatives of a different point of view on realism limit its history to certain chronologically, seeing in it a historically and typologically specific form of artistic consciousness. In this case, the beginning of realism dates back to either the Renaissance or the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment. The most complete disclosure of the features of realism is seen in critical realism XIX century, its next stage is in the 20th century. socialist realism, which interprets life phenomena from the perspective of the Marxist-Leninist worldview. A characteristic feature of realism in this case is considered to be the method of generalization, typification of life material, formulated by F. Engels in relation to the realistic novel: " … typical characters in typical circumstances..."
- · Realism in this understanding explores the personality of a person in indissoluble unity with his contemporary social environment and public relations. This interpretation of the concept of realism was developed mainly on the material of the history of literature, while the first one was developed mainly on the material of the plastic arts.
Whatever point of view one adheres to, and no matter how one connects them with each other, there is no doubt that realistic art has an extraordinary variety of ways of cognition, generalization, and artistic interpretation of reality, manifested in the nature of stylistic forms and techniques. Realism of Masaccio and Piero della Francesca, A. Durer and Rembrandt, J.L. David and O. Daumier, I.E. Repina, V.I. Surikov and V.A. Serov, etc. differ significantly from each other and testify to the broadest creative possibilities for objective exploration of the historically changing world through the means of art.
Moreover, any realistic method is characterized by a consistent focus on understanding and revealing the contradictions of reality, which, within given, historically determined limits, turns out to be accessible to truthful disclosure. Realism is characterized by the conviction that beings and features of the objective real world are knowable through the means of art. realism art knowledge
Forms and techniques for reflecting reality in realistic art are different in different types and genres. Deep penetration into the essence of life phenomena, which is inherent in realistic tendencies and constitutes a defining feature of any realistic method, is expressed in different ways in a novel, lyric poem, historical picture, landscape, etc. Not every outwardly reliable image of reality is realistic. Empirical validity artistic image takes on meaning only in unity with a truthful reflection of the existing aspects of the real world. This is the difference between realism and naturalism, which creates only visible, external, and not genuine essential truthfulness of images. At the same time, in order to identify certain facets of the deep content of life, sometimes sharp hyperbolization, sharpening, grotesque exaggeration of the “forms of life itself” are required, and sometimes a conditionally metaphorical form of artistic thinking.
The most important feature of realism is psychologism, immersion through social analysis into the inner world of man. An example here is the “career” of Julien Sorel from Stendhal’s novel “The Red and the Black,” who experienced a tragic conflict of ambition and honor; psychological drama by Anna Karenina from the novel of the same name by L.N. Tolstoy, who was torn between the feelings and morality of class society. Human character is revealed by representatives of critical realism in organic connection with the environment, with social circumstances and life conflicts. The main genre of realistic literature of the 19th century V. Accordingly, it becomes a socio-psychological novel. It most fully meets the task of objective artistic reproduction of reality.
Let's consider general signs realism:
- 1. Artistic depiction life in images, corresponding to the essence of the phenomena of life itself.
- 2. Reality is a means for a person to understand himself and the world around him.
- 3. Typification of images, which is achieved through the truthfulness of details in specific conditions.
- 4. Even with tragic conflict life-affirming art.
- 5. Realism is characterized by the desire to consider reality in development, the ability to detect the development of new social, psychological and public relations.
The leading principles of realism in art of the 19th century V.:
- · objective reflection of the essential aspects of life in combination with the height and truth of the author’s ideal;
- · reproduction of typical characters, conflicts, situations with the completeness of their artistic individualization (i.e., concretization of both national, historical, social signs, and physical, intellectual and spiritual characteristics);
- · preference in methods of depicting “forms of life itself,” but along with the use, especially in the 20th century, of conventional forms (myth, symbol, parable, grotesque);
- · predominant interest in the problem of “personality and society” (especially in the inescapable confrontation between social patterns and the moral ideal, personal and mass, mythologized consciousness) [4, p.20].
