Romantic works in Russian literature. What is romanticism

The artistic method that developed in early XIX V. and became widespread as a direction (current) in the art and literature of most European countries, including Russia, as well as in the literature of the USA. To later eras the term “romanticism” is applied largely on the basis of the artistic experience of the first half of the 19th century V.

The creativity of romantics in each country has its own specifics, explained by the peculiarities of the national historical development, and at the same time has some stable common features.

In this general characteristic of romanticism we can highlight: the historical soil on which it arises, the features of the method and the character of the hero.

The common historical ground on which it arose European romanticism, there was a turning point associated with the Great French revolution. The Romantics adopted from their time the idea of individual freedom put forward by the revolution, but at the same time in Western countries they realized the defenselessness of man in a society where monetary interests prevailed. Therefore, the worldview of many romantics is characterized by confusion and confusion in front of the world around them, and the tragedy of the individual’s fate.

The main event of Russian history at the beginning of the 19th century. appeared Patriotic War 1812 and the Decembrist uprising of 1825, which had a huge influence on the entire course of artistic development in Russia and determined the range of themes and issues that worried Russian romantics (see Russian literature XIX V.).

But for all the originality and originality of Russian romanticism, its development is inseparable from the general movement of European romantic literature how inseparable milestones are national history from the course of European events: the political and social ideas of the Decembrists are continuously connected with the basic principles put forward by the French Revolution.

At general trend denial of the surrounding world, romanticism did not constitute a unity of social political views. On the contrary, the views of the romantics on society, their positions in society, the struggle of their time were sharply different - from revolutionary (more precisely, rebellious) to conservative and reactionary. This often gives grounds to divide romanticism into reactionary, contemplative, liberal, progressive, etc. It is more correct, however, to talk about the progressiveness or reactionaryness not of the method of romanticism itself, but of the social, philosophical or political views of the writer, taking into account that artistic creativity is such, for example , a romantic poet, like V. A. Zhukovsky, is much broader and richer than his political and religious convictions.

Special interest in personality, the nature of its relationship to the surrounding reality, on the one hand, and opposition real world ideal (extra-bourgeois, anti-bourgeois) - on the other. The romantic artist does not set himself the task of accurately reproducing reality. It is more important for him to express his attitude towards it, moreover, to create his own, fictitious image of the world, often on the principle of contrast with the surrounding life, so that through this fiction, through contrast, he can convey to the reader both his ideal and his rejection of the world he denies. This active personal principle in romanticism leaves its mark on the entire structure work of art, determines its subjective nature. Events occurring in romantic poems, dramas and other works are important only for revealing the characteristics of the personality that interests the author.

So, for example, the story of Tamara in the poem “The Demon” by M. Yu. Lermontov is subordinated to the main task - to recreate the “restless spirit” - the spirit of the Demon, to convey the tragedy in cosmic images modern man and, finally, the attitude of the poet himself to reality,

Where they can’t do it without fear
Neither hate nor love.

The literature of romanticism put forward its hero, most often expressing author's attitude to reality. This is a person with special strong feelings, with a uniquely acute reaction to a world that rejects the laws to which others are subject. Therefore, he is always placed above those around him (“... I was not created for people: I am too proud for them, they are too vile for me,” says Arbenin in M. Lermontov’s drama “The Strange Man”).

This hero is lonely, and the theme of loneliness varies in works of various genres, especially often in lyric poetry (“In the wild north it stands alone...” G. Heine, “An oak leaf has torn away from its native branch...” M. Yu. Lermontov). Lonely are the heroes of Lermontov, the heroes of the oriental poems of J. Byron. Even rebel heroes are lonely: Cain in Byron, Conrad Wallenrod in A. Mickiewicz. These are exceptional characters in exceptional circumstances.

The heroes of romanticism are restless, passionate, indomitable. “I was born / With a seething soul like lava,” exclaims Arbenin in Lermontov’s “Masquerade.” “The languor of peace is hateful” to Byron’s hero; “... this is a human personality, indignant against the common and, in its proud rebellion, relying on itself,” wrote V. G. Belinsky about Byron’s hero.

The romantic personality, carrying rebellion and negation, was vividly recreated by the Decembrist poets - representatives of the first stage of Russian romanticism (K. F. Ryleev, A. A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, V. K. Kuchelbecker).

Increased interest in the personality and spiritual world of a person contributed to the flourishing of lyrical and lyric-epic genres - in a number of countries it was the era of romanticism that brought forward great national poets (in France - Hugo, in Poland - Mickiewicz, in England - Byron, in Germany - Heine). At the same time, the deepening of the romantics into the human “I” largely prepared the psychological realism XIX V. A major discovery of romanticism was historicism. If all life appeared to the romantics in motion, in the struggle of opposites, then this was reflected in the depiction of the past. Was born

historical novel (W. Scott, V. Hugo, A. Dumas), historical drama. The Romantics sought to colorfully convey the flavor of the era, both national and geographical. They did a lot to popularize oral folk art, as well as works of medieval literature. Promoting the original art of their people, the romantics drew attention to artistic treasures other peoples, emphasizing the unique features of each culture. Turning to folklore, romantics often embodied legends in the ballad genre - a plot song with dramatic content ( German romantics, poets of the “lake school” in England, V. A. Zhukovsky in Russia). The era of romanticism was marked by the flourishing of literary translation (in Russia, V. A. Zhukovsky was a brilliant propagandist of not only Western European, but also Eastern poetry). Rejecting the strict norms prescribed by the aesthetics of classicism, the romantics proclaimed the right of every poet to diversity artistic forms created by all peoples.

Romanticism does not disappear from the scene immediately with the affirmation critical realism. For example, in France, such famous romantic novels by Hugo as Les Misérables and 1993 were created many years after their completion. creative path realists Stendhal and O. de Balzac. In Russia romantic poems M. Yu. Lermontov, the lyrics of F. I. Tyutchev were created when literature had already declared itself with significant successes of realism.

But the fate of romanticism did not end there. Many decades later, in other historical conditions, writers often again turned to romantic means artistic image. Thus, young M. Gorky, creating at the same time both realistic and romantic stories, exactly at romantic works most fully expressed the pathos of the struggle, the spontaneous impulse for the revolutionary reorganization of society (the image of Danko in “Old Woman Izergil”, “Song of the Falcon”, “Song of the Petrel”).

However, in the 20th century. Romanticism is no longer integral artistic direction. It's about only about the features of romanticism in the works of individual writers.

In Soviet literature, the features of the romantic method were clearly manifested in the works of many prose writers (A. S. Green, A. P. Gaidar, I. E. Babel) and poets (E. G. Bagritsky, M. A. Svetlov, K. M. Simonov, B. A. Ruchev).

In literature.

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The founders of philosophical romanticism: the Schlegel brothers (August Wilhelm and Friedrich), Novalis, Hölderlin, Schleiermacher.

Romanticism in painting

The development of romanticism in painting proceeded in sharp polemics with adherents of classicism. The Romantics reproached their predecessors for “cold rationality” and the lack of “movement of life.” In the 20-30s, the works of many artists were characterized by pathos and nervous excitement; they showed a tendency towards exotic motifs and play of imagination, capable of leading away from the “dull everyday life”. The struggle against frozen classicist norms lasted a long time, almost half a century. The first who managed to consolidate the new direction and “justify” romanticism was Theodore Gericault.
One of the branches of romanticism in painting is the Biedermeier style.

Romanticism in literature

Romanticism first arose in Germany, among writers and philosophers of the Jena school (W. G. Wackenroder, Ludwig Tieck, Novalis, brothers F. and A. Schlegel). The philosophy of romanticism was systematized in the works of F. Schlegel and F. Schelling
German romanticism is distinguished by an interest in fairy-tale and mythological motifs, which was especially clearly expressed in the works of the brothers Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, and Hoffmann. Heine, starting his work within the framework of romanticism, later subjected it to critical revision.

Romanticism became widespread in other European countries, for example, in France (Chateaubriand, J.Stal, Lamartine, Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny, Prosper Mérimée, Georges Sand), Italy (N. U. Foscolo, A. Manzoni, Leopardi), Poland (Adam Mickiewicz, Juliusz Słowacki , Zygmunt Krasinski, Cyprian Norwid) and in the USA (Washington Irving, Fenimore Cooper, W. C. Bryant, Edgar Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Longfellow, Herman Melville).
Stendhal also considered himself a French romantic, but he meant something different by romanticism than most of his contemporaries. He took the words “The truth, the bitter truth” as the epigraph of the novel “Red and Black,” emphasizing his vocation for a realistic study of human characters and actions. The writer was partial to romantic, extraordinary natures, for whom he recognized the right to “go on the hunt for happiness.” He sincerely believed that it depends only on the structure of society whether a person will be able to realize his eternal, given by nature itself, craving for well-being.
Romantic poets began to use angels, especially fallen ones, in their works.

Romanticism in Russian literature

The most prominent representatives of romanticism in music are: Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven (later), Johannes Brahms, Frederic Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Louis Spohr, A. A. Alyabyev, M. I. Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Bal Akirev , N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Cui, P. I. Tchaikovsky.
Characteristic of the romantic worldview sharp conflict between reality and dreams. Reality is low and unspiritual, it is permeated with the spirit of philistinism, philistinism, and is worthy only of denial. A dream is something beautiful, perfect, but unattainable and incomprehensible to reason.
Romanticism contrasted the prose of life with the beautiful kingdom of the spirit, the “life of the heart.” The Romantics believed that feelings constitute a deeper layer of the soul than reason. According to Wagner, “the artist appeals to feeling, not to reason.” And Schumann said: “the mind goes astray, the feelings never.” It is no coincidence that the ideal form of art was declared to be music, which, due to its specificity, most fully expresses the movements of the soul. It was music in the era of romanticism that took leading place in the art system.
If in literature and painting the romantic movement basically completes its development towards mid-19th century, then the life of musical romanticism in Europe is much longer. Musical romanticism as a movement emerged at the beginning of the 19th century and developed in close connection with various trends in literature, painting and theater. First stage musical romanticism is represented by the works of F. Schubert, E. T. A. Hoffmann, K. M. Weber, N. Paganini, G. Rossini; the subsequent stage (1830-50s) - the work of F. Chopin, R. Schumann, F. Mendelssohn, G. Berlioz, F. Liszt, R. Wagner, G. Verdi. The late stage of romanticism extends to late XIX century.
The main problem of romantic music is the problem of personality, and in a new light - in its conflict with the outside world. Romantic hero forever alone. The theme of loneliness is perhaps the most popular in all romantic art. Very often associated with it is the thought of creative personality: a person is lonely when he is an extraordinary, gifted person. The artist, poet, musician are favorite heroes in the works of the romantics (“The Love of a Poet” by Schumann, “Symphony Fantastique” by Berlioz with its subtitle “An Episode from the Life of an Artist”, Liszt’s symphonic poem “Tasso”).
The deep interest inherent in romantic music human personality expressed in the predominance of a personal tone in it. The revelation of personal drama often acquired a touch of autobiography among the romantics, which brought special sincerity to the music. For example, many piano works Schumann's works are connected with the story of his love for Clara Wieck. Wagner emphasized the autobiographical nature of his operas in every possible way.
Attention to feelings leads to a change in genres - lyrics, in which images of love predominate, acquire a dominant position.
With the theme " lyrical confession“The theme of nature is very often intertwined. Resonating with state of mind person, it is usually colored by a feeling of disharmony. The development of genre and lyric-epic symphonism is closely connected with images of nature (one of the first works is Schubert’s “big” symphony in C major).
The theme of fantasy became a real discovery of romantic composers. Music for the first time learned to embody fabulous and fantastic images purely musical means. In the operas of the 17th-18th centuries, “unearthly” characters (such as the Queen of the Night from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”) spoke in a “generally accepted” musical language, standing out little from the background real people. Romantic composers learned to convey fantasy world as something completely specific (using unusual orchestral and harmonic colors). A striking example is the “Scene in the Wolf Gorge” in Weber’s “The Magic Shooter”.
IN highest degree characteristic of musical romanticism is an interest in folk art. Like the romantic poets who, through folklore, enriched and updated literary language, musicians widely turned to national folklore - folk songs, ballads, epics (F. Schubert, R. Schumann, F. Chopin, J. Brahms, B. Smetana, E. Grieg, etc.). Embodying images national literature, stories, native nature, they relied on the intonations and rhythms of national folklore and revived ancient diatonic modes. Under the influence of folklore, the content of European music was dramatically transformed.
New themes and images required the romantics to develop new means musical language and the principles of form-building, individualization of melody and the introduction of speech intonations, expansion of the timbre and harmonic palette of music (natural modes, colorful comparisons of major and minor, etc.).
Since the focus of the romantics is no longer on humanity as a whole, but on a specific person with his unique feeling, accordingly, in the means of expression, the general is increasingly giving way to the individual, individually unique. The share of generalized intonations in melody, commonly used chord progressions in harmony, typical patterns in texture decreases - all these means are individualized. In orchestration, the principle of ensemble groups gave way to soloing of almost all orchestral voices.
The most important point in the aesthetics of musical romanticism was the idea of a synthesis of arts, which found its most vivid expression in operatic creativity Wagner and in the program music of Berlioz, Schumann, Liszt.

Links
- Vershinin I.V., Lukov Vl.
- A. Fedotova L. V. Khrulev V.I. Romanticism as a type of artistic thinking: Tutorial
: space and time. - Riga: Zinatne, 1988.- P. 26-164. The problem of romanticism is one of the most complex in the science of literature. The difficulties in solving this problem are predetermined to some extent by the lack of clarity of terminology. Romanticism is also called artistic method , And, and a special type of consciousness and behavior. However, despite the debatability of a number of theoretical, historical and literary positions, most scientists agree that romanticism was a necessary link in artistic development humanity, that without it the achievements of realism would be impossible.

Russian romanticism at its inception was connected, of course, with the pan-European literary movement. At the same time, it was internally determined by the objective process of development of Russian culture; in it, those trends that were laid down in Russian literature of the previous period found development. Russian romanticism was generated by the impending socio-historical turning point in the development of Russia; it reflected the transition and instability of the existing socio-political structure. The gap between ideal and reality caused negative attitudes advanced people in Russia (and above all the Decembrists) to the cruel, unjust and immoral life of the ruling classes. Until recently, the most daring hopes for the possibility of creating public relations based on the principles of reason and justice.

It soon became clear that these hopes were not justified. Deep disappointment in educational ideals, a decisive rejection of bourgeois reality, and at the same time a lack of understanding of the essence of the antagonistic contradictions that exist in life, led to feelings of hopelessness, pessimism, and disbelief in reason.

Romantics claimed that the highest value is the human personality, in whose soul there is a beautiful and mysterious world; only here can one find inexhaustible sources of true beauty and high feelings. Behind all this one can see (even if not always clearly) a new concept of personality, which cannot and should no longer subordinate itself to the power of class-feudal morality. In his artistic creativity Romantics in most cases did not strive to reflect real reality (which seemed to them low, anti-aesthetic), or to understand the objective logic of the development of life (they were not at all sure that such logic existed). At the heart of them artistic system It turned out to be not an object, but a subject: the personal, subjective principle acquires decisive importance among the romantics.

Romanticism is built on the affirmation of an inevitable conflict, the complete incompatibility of everything truly spiritual and human with the existing way of life (be it a feudal or bourgeois way). If life is based only on material calculation, then, naturally, everything lofty, moral, and humane is alien to it. Therefore, the ideal is somewhere beyond this life, beyond feudal or bourgeois relations. Reality seemed to fall apart into two worlds: the vulgar, ordinary here and the wonderful, romantic there. Hence the appeal to the unusual, exceptional, conventional, sometimes even fantastic images and paintings, a desire for everything exotic - everything that is opposed to everyday, everyday reality, everyday prose.

The romantic concept of human character is built on the same principle. The hero is opposed to the environment, rises above it. Russian romanticism was not homogeneous. It is usually noted that there are two main currents in it. The terms psychological and civil romanticism, adopted in modern science, highlight the ideological and artistic specificity of each movement. 15 one case of romance, feeling growing instability public life, which did not satisfy their ideal ideas, they went into the world of dreams, into the world of feelings, experiences, psychology. Recognition of the intrinsic value of the human personality, close interest in the inner life of a person, the desire to reveal the wealth of his spiritual experiences - these were strengths psychological romanticism, the most prominent representative of which was V.
A. Zhukovsky. He and his supporters put forward the idea inner freedom personality, its independence from social environment, from the world in general, where a person cannot be happy. Having failed to achieve freedom in the socio-political sense, the romantics insisted all the more stubbornly on establishing the spiritual freedom of man.

With this current genetically related appearance in the 30s years XIX V. a special stage in the history of Russian romanticism, which is most often called philosophical.

Instead of the high genres cultivated in classicism (ode), other genre forms. In the field of lyric poetry, the leading genre among the romantics is the elegy, conveying the mood of sadness, grief, disappointment, and melancholy. Pushkin, having made Lensky (“Eugene Onegin”) a romantic poet, in a subtle parody listed the main motives of elegiac lyrics:
- He sang separation and sadness,
- And something, and a foggy distance,
- And romantic roses;
- He sang those distant countries
Representatives of another movement in Russian romanticism called for a direct fight against modern society, glorifying the civil valor of the fighters.

Creating poems with a high social and patriotic sound, they (and these were primarily Decembrist poets) also used certain traditions of classicism, especially those genre and stylistic forms that gave their poems the character of elevated oratorical speech. They saw literature primarily as a means of propaganda and struggle. Whatever the forms in which the polemics between the two main movements of Russian romanticism took place, there still existed common features romantic art that united them: the opposition of a lofty ideal hero to the world of evil and lack of spirituality, a protest against the foundations of autocratic-serfdom that constrain man.

It is especially necessary to note the persistent desire of the romantics to create an original national culture. Directly related to this is their interest in national history, oral folk poetry, the use of many folk genres, etc.

d. Russian romantics They were also united by the idea of the need for a direct connection between the author’s life and his poetry. In life itself, the poet must behave poetically, in accordance with the high ideals that are proclaimed in his poems. K. N. Batyushkov expressed this requirement this way: “Live as you write, and write as you live” (“Something about the poet and poetry”, 1815). This confirmed a direct connection literary creativity with the life of the poet, his very personality, which gave the poems a special power of emotional and aesthetic impact.

Subsequently, Pushkin managed to achieve more high level combine the best traditions and the artistic achievements of both psychological and civil romanticism. That is why Pushkin’s work is the pinnacle of Russian romanticism of the 20s of the 19th century. Pushkin, and then Lermontov and Gogol could not ignore the achievements of romanticism, its experience and discoveries.

- an amazing writer who could easily create a lyrical landscape, depicting to us not an objective image of nature, but the romantic mood of the soul. Zhukovsky is a representative of romanticism. For his works, his unsurpassed poetry, he chose the world of the soul, the world of human feelings, thereby making a great contribution to the development of Russian literature.

Romanticism of Zhukovsky

Zhukovsky is considered the founder of Russian romanticism. Even during his lifetime he was called the father of romanticism and for good reason. This direction in the writer’s work is visible to the naked eye. Zhukovsky in his works developed a sensitivity that originated in sentimentalism. We see romanticism in the poet’s lyrics, where each work depicts feelings, and even more. The works reveal the human soul. As Belinsky said, thanks to the romantic elements that Zhukovsky used in his works, poetry in Russian literature became spiritual and more accessible to people and society. The writer gave Russian poetry the opportunity to develop in a new direction.

Features of Zhukovsky's romanticism

What is the peculiarity of Zhukovsky’s romanticism? Romanticism is presented to us by fleeting, slightly perceptible, and maybe even elusive, experiences. Zhukovsky's poetry is a short story of the author's soul, a depiction of his thoughts and dreams, which were reflected and found their life in poems, ballads, and elegies. The writer showed us inner world, with which a person is filled, personifying spiritual dreams and experiences. At the same time, in order to describe the feelings that fill a person’s heart, to describe feelings that have no size or shape, the author resorts to comparing feelings with nature.

Zhukovsky's merit as a romantic poet is that he showed not only his inner world, but also discovered the means of depicting the human soul in general, giving the opportunity to develop romanticism to other writers, such as Blok and others.