Genre characteristics of a sentimental story. Sentimentalism in literature
Sentimentalism (from French. sentiment- feeling) arose during the Enlightenment in England in the mid-18th century. during the period of the decomposition of feudal absolutism, class-serf relations, the growth of bourgeois relations, and therefore the beginning of the liberation of the individual from the shackles of the feudal-serf state.
Representatives of sentimentalism
England. L. Stern (novel "A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy"), O. Goldsmith (novel "The Priest of Wakefield"), S. Richardson (novel "Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded", novel "Clarissa Garlow", "The History of Sir Charles" Grandison").
France. J.-J. Rousseau (novel in letters "Julia, or the New Heloise", "Confession"), P. O. Beaumarchais (comedies "The Barber of Seville", "The Marriage of Figaro").
Germany. J. W. Goethe (sentimental novel “The Sorrows of Young Werther”), A. Lafontaine (family novels).
Sentimentalism expressed the worldview, psychology, and tastes of broad sections of the conservative nobility and bourgeoisie (the so-called third estate), thirsting for freedom, a natural manifestation of feelings that demanded consideration of human dignity.
Traits of Sentimentalism
The cult of feeling, natural feeling, not spoiled by civilization (Rousseau asserted the decisive superiority of simple, natural, “natural” life over civilization); denial of abstraction, abstraction, conventionality, dryness of classicism. Compared to classicism, sentimentalism was a more progressive direction, because it contained tangible elements of realism associated with the depiction of human emotions, experiences, and the expansion of a person’s inner world. Sensualism (from Lat. sensus– feeling, sensation), one of the founders of which was the English philosopher J. Locke, who recognizes sensation, sensory perception as the only source of knowledge.
If classicism affirmed the idea of an ideal state governed by an enlightened monarch, and demanded that the interests of the individual be subordinated to the state, then sentimentalism put in the first place not a person in general, but a specific, private person in all the uniqueness of his individual personality. At the same time, the value of a person was determined not by his high origin, not by his property status, not by class, but by his personal merits. Sentimentalism first raised the question of individual rights.
Were heroes simple people- nobles, artisans, peasants who lived mainly by feelings, passions, and heart. Sentimentalism was discovered by the rich spiritual world commoner. In some works of sentimentalism sounded protest against social injustice, against the humiliation of the “little man”.
Sentimentalism gave literature a democratic character in many ways.
Since sentimentalism proclaimed the writer’s right to express his author’s individuality in art, genres emerged in sentimentalism that contributed to the expression of the author’s “I”, which means that the first-person form of narration was used: diary, confession, autobiographical memoirs, travel (travel notes, notes, impressions ). In sentimentalism, poetry and drama are replaced by prose, which has a greater opportunity to convey complex world emotional experiences of a person, in connection with which new genres arose: family, everyday and psychological novel in the form of correspondence, “philistine drama”, “sensitive” story, “bourgeois tragedy”, “tearful comedy”; The genres of intimate, chamber lyrics (idyll, elegy, romance, madrigal, song, message), as well as fable, flourished.
A mixture of high and low, tragic and comic, a mixture of genres was allowed; the law of “three unities” was overthrown (for example, the range of phenomena of reality expanded significantly).
Ordinary, everyday family life was depicted; the main theme was love; the plot was based on situations in the everyday life of private individuals; the composition of works of sentimentalism was arbitrary.
The cult of nature was proclaimed. The landscape was a favorite backdrop for events; the peaceful, idyllic life of a person was shown in the bosom of rural nature, while nature was depicted in close connection with the experiences of the hero or the author himself, and was in tune with personal experience. The village, as the center of natural life and moral purity, was sharply contrasted with the city as a symbol of evil, artificial life, and vanity.
The language of the works of sentimentalism was simple, lyrical, sometimes sensitively elated, emphatically emotional; such poetic means as exclamations, addresses, affectionate diminutive suffixes, comparisons, epithets, interjections were used; Blank verse was used. In the works of sentimentalism, there is a further convergence of literary language with living, colloquial speech.
Features of Russian sentimentalism
In Russia, sentimentalism was established in the last decade of the 18th century. and fades away after 1812, during the development of the revolutionary movement of the future Decembrists.
Russian sentimentalism idealized patriarchal way of life, the life of a serf village and criticized bourgeois morals.
The peculiarity of Russian sentimentalism is a didactic, educational orientation towards raising a worthy citizen. Sentimentalism in Russia is represented by two movements:
- 1. Sentimental-romantic – Η. M. Karamzin ("Letters of a Russian Traveler", story " Poor Lisa), M. N. Muravyov (sentimental poems), I. I. Dmitriev (fables, lyrical songs, poetic tales “Fashionable Wife”, “Fancy Woman”), F. A. Emin (novel “Letters of Ernest and Doravra”), V. I. Lukin (comedy "Mot, Corrected by Love").
- 2. Sentimental-realistic – A. II. Radishchev ("Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow").
Classicism.
Sentimentalism
Romanticism
Satirical poetry of Antioch Dmitrievich Kantemir. Problems of the satire “On those who blaspheme the teaching, To their own minds.” The personality and significance of Kantemir’s creativity in essays and critical articles by N.I. Novikov, N.M. Karamzin, K.N. Batyushkov, V.G. Belinsky.
Antioch Dmitrievich Kantemir was one of the first Russian writers to realize that he was a writer. Although literature was not at all the main thing in his life. The poet, who opens the first page of the history of Russian book poetry, was an extraordinary person, an educated, multi-talented person. He greatly raised the prestige of Russia in the West, where for the last twelve years of his life he served as Russia's diplomatic representative in embassies - first in England and then in France. He had an impeccable command of thought and word: the dispatches he sent were always clearly and skillfully composed. he was a famous person in Russia. His epigrams and love songs were extremely successful. He worked in the genre of scientific translation and had already written five of his nine poetic satires. During the years of service in France, he finally established himself in advanced educational views. He was convinced that only “merit”, and not class and family affiliation, distinguishes one person from another. “The same blood flows in both free and slaves, the same flesh, the same bones!” he wrote, insisting on the “natural equality” of people. Kantemir always remained a citizen of Russia: what he acquired, or, as he put it, “adopted” from the French, was supposed to serve his fatherland. With characteristic modesty he wrote:
What Horace gave, he borrowed from the Frenchman.
Oh, if my muse is poor in appearance.
Yes it is true; Though the limits of the mind are narrow,
What he took in Gallic, he paid in Russian.
And yet, Kantemir is, first of all, a national poet, who has the task of turning to the image of real Russian life. According to Belinsky, he was able to “connect poetry with life”, “write not only in the Russian language, but also with the Russian mind.” By the way, it should be noted here that Princess Praskovya Trubetskaya, who wrote songs in the folk spirit, was in close friendship with the Kantemirov family; Perhaps it was she who was the author of the most popular song in those distant times, “Ah, my bitter light of my youth.” Not only the famous “Poetics” of the French poet and theorist Boileau, not only educational studies, but the living lyrical element of folk song, making its way into the book poetry of the beginning of the century, determined the formation of Cantemir’s artistic style.
Analysis of the satire by Antiochus Cantemir “On those who blaspheme the teachings of their minds.” This is Cantemir's first satire; he wrote it in 1729. The satire was originally written not for the purpose of publication, but for oneself. But through friends she came to the Novgorod Archbishop Theophan, who gave impetus to the continuation of this cycle of satires.
Cantermere himself defines this satire as a mockery of the ignorant and despisers of science. At that time this question was very relevant. As soon as education became accessible to people, colleges and universities were established. This was a qualitative step in the field of science. And any qualitative step is, if not a revolution, then a reform. And no wonder it caused so much controversy. The author turns, as the title suggests, to his own mind, calling it “immature mind,” because The satire was written by him when he was twenty, that is, still quite immature by those standards. Everyone strives for fame, and achieving it through science is the most difficult. The author uses the 9 muses and Apollo as an image of the sciences that make the road to glory difficult. It is possible to achieve fame, even if you are not considered a creator. There are many paths leading to it, easy in our age, on which the brave will not falter; The most unpleasant thing of all is that the barefoot cursed the Nine Sisters. Next, 4 characters appear in turn in the satire: Crito, Silvanus, Luke and Medor. Each of them condemns science and explains its uselessness in their own way. Crito believes that those who are interested in science want to understand the reasons for everything that happens. And this is bad, because... they depart from faith in the Holy Scriptures. And indeed, in his opinion, science is harmful, you just have to blindly believe.
The schisms and heresies of science are children; Those who are given more understanding lie more; Whoever melts over a book comes to godlessness... Silvan is a stingy nobleman. He doesn't understand the monetary benefits of science, so he doesn't need it. For him, only what can bring him specific benefit has value. But science cannot provide him with this. He lived without her, and he will live like that again! It makes sense to divide the land into quarters without Euclid, How many kopecks are in a ruble - we can calculate without algebra Luka is a drunkard. In his opinion, science divides people, because It’s not his job to sit alone over books, which he even calls “dead friends.” He praises wine as a source Have a good mood and other benefits and says that he will exchange the glass for a book only if time runs back, stars appear on earth, etc. When the reins of plows begin to be driven across the sky, And the stars begin to peep out from the surface of the earth, When in Lent the monk begins to eat the elm, - Then, leaving the glass, I will begin to read the book. Medor is a dandy and a dandy. He is offended that the paper with which hair was curled at that time is spent on books. For him, the famous tailor and shoemaker are much more important than Virgil and Cicero. ...too much paper goes out for writing, for printing books, but it comes to him that there is nothing to wrap his curled curls in; He will not exchange a pound of good powder for Seneca. The author draws attention to the fact that all deeds have two possible motives: benefit and praise. And there is an opinion that if science brings neither one nor the other, then why bother with it? People are not used to the fact that it could be otherwise, that virtue in itself is valuable. ...When there is no benefit, praise encourages labor, but without that the heart becomes depressed. Not everyone loves true beauty, that is, science. But anyone, having barely learned anything, demands a promotion or other status.
For example, a soldier, having barely learned to sign, wants to command a regiment. The author laments that the time when wisdom was valued has passed. The time has not come to us in which wisdom presided over everything and the crowns alone shared, Being the only way to the highest sunrise.
Belinsky said that Cantemir would outlive many literary celebrities, classical and romantic. In an article about Kantemir, Belinsky wrote: “Kantemir not so much begins the history of Russian literature as ends the period of Russian writing. Cantemir wrote in so-called syllabic verses, a meter that is completely unusual for the Russian language; this size existed in Rus' long before Cantemir... Cantemir began the history of secular literature. That’s why everyone, rightly considering Lomonosov the father of Russian literature, at the same time, not entirely without reason, begins its history with Kantemir.”
Karamzin remarked: “His satires were the first experience of Russian wit and style.”
6. The role of Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, M.V. Lomonosov, A.P. Sumarokov in the formation of aesthetic principles, the genre-stylistic system of Russian classicism, in the transformation of versification.
Trediakovsky in 1735 published “A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poems,” proposing a way to organize syllabic 13- and 11-syllables and giving examples of poems of different genres composed in a new way. The need for such ordering was dictated by the need to more clearly contrast poetry with prose.
Trediakovsky acted as a reformer, not indifferent to the experience of his predecessors. Lomonosov went further. In his “Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry” (1739), he categorically declared that “our poetry is just beginning,” thereby ignoring the almost century-old tradition of syllabic poetry. He, unlike Trediakovsky, allowed not only two-syllable, but also three-syllable and “mixed” meters (iambo-anapaests and dactylo-trochees), not only female rhymes, but also masculine and dactylic ones, and advised sticking to the iambic as a meter appropriate for tall objects and important (the letter was accompanied by “Ode... for the capture of Khotin, 1739,” written in iambics). The predominance of "trochaic rhythms" in folk songs and book poetry of the 17th century, which Trediakovsky pointed out, thinking that “our ear” was “applied” to them, Lomonosov was not embarrassed, since he had to start from scratch. The pathos of an uncompromising break with tradition corresponded to the spirit of the time, and Lomonosov’s iambics themselves sounded completely new and were as opposed to prose as possible. The problem of stylistic demarcation from church bookishness has been relegated to the background. New literature and syllabic-tonic poetry became almost synonymous concepts.
Trediakovsky eventually accepted Lomonosov’s ideas, in 1752 he published a whole treatise on syllabic-tonic versification (“A method for adding Russian poetry, corrected and multiplied against that published in 1735”) and in practice conscientiously experimented with different meters and sizes. Lomonosov, in practice, wrote almost exclusively in iambics, which, in his opinion, are the only ones suitable for high genres (his classification of high, “mediocre” and low genres and “calms” is set out in the “Preface on the Use of Church Books in the Russian Language,” 1757).
Trediakovsky and Lomonosov, who studied at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, were connected by many threads with pre-Petrine bookishness and church scholarship. Sumarokov, a nobleman, a graduate of the Land Noble Cadet Corps, shunned her. His literary knowledge, sympathies and interests were associated with French classicism. The leading genre in France was tragedy, and in Sumarokov’s work it became the main genre. Here his priority was undeniable. The first Russian classical tragedies belong to him: "Khorev" (1747), "Hamlet" (1747), "Sinav and Truvor" (1750), etc. Sumarokov also owns the first comedies - "Tresotinus", "Monsters" (both 1750) and etc. True, these were “low” comedies, written in prose and were a lampoon on people (in the mentioned comedies Trediakovsky is ridiculed). That. Sumarokov rightfully claimed the titles of “northern Racine” and “Russian Moliere”, and in 1756 it was he who would be appointed the first director of the first permanent theater in Russia, created by F.G. Volkov. But Sumarokov could not be satisfied with the status of a playwright and theater figure. He laid claim to a leading and leading position in literature (to the considerable irritation of his older fellow writers). His “Two Epistles” (1748) – “On the Russian Language” and “On Poetry” – should have received a status similar to the status of Boileau’s “Poetic Art” in the literature of French classicism (in 1774, their abbreviated version would be published under the title “Instruction to those who want to be writers"). Sumarokov’s ambitions also explain the genre universalism of his work. He tested his strength in almost all classical genres (only the epic did not work for him). As the author of didactic epistles on poetry and poetic satires, he was the “Russian Boileau”; as the author of “parables” (i.e. fables), he was the “Russian Lafontaine”, etc.
However, Sumarokov pursued educational rather than aesthetic goals. He dreamed of being a mentor to the nobility and an adviser to an “enlightened monarch” (like Voltaire under Frederick II). He viewed his literary activity as socially useful. His tragedies were a school of civic virtue for the monarch and his subjects, in comedies, satires and parables, vices were scourged (the rhyme “Sumarokov is the scourge of vices” generally became generally accepted), elegies and eclogues taught “loyalty and tenderness”, spiritual odes (Sumarokov transcribed the entire Psalter) and philosophical poems taught in reasonable concepts about religion, in the “Two Epistles” the rules of poetry were proposed, etc. In addition, Sumarokov became the publisher of the first literary magazine in Russia, “The Hardworking Bee” (1759) (it was also the first private magazine).
In general, the literature of Russian classicism is characterized by the pathos of public service (which makes it similar to the literature of Peter the Great’s time). Instilling “private” virtues in citizens was her second task, and the first was promoting the achievements of the “regular state” “created” by Peter and denouncing his opponents. That's why this one begins new literature with satyr and ode. Kantemir ridicules the champions of antiquity, Lomonosov admires the successes new Russia. They defend one cause - “the cause of Peter.”
Read publicly on special occasions in huge halls, in the special theatrical setting of the imperial court, the ode should “thunder” and amaze the imagination. She could best glorify the “cause of Peter” and the greatness of the empire, the best way corresponded to propaganda purposes. Therefore, it was the solemn ode (and not the tragedy, as in France, or the epic poem) that became the main genre in Russian literature of the 18th century. This is one of the distinctive features"Russian classicism". Others are rooted in the Old Russian language he demonstratively rejected, i.e. church tradition (which makes “Russian classicism” an organic phenomenon of Russian culture).
Russian classicism developed under the influence of the European Enlightenment, but its ideas were rethought. For example, the most important of them is the idea of “natural”, natural equality of all people. In France, under this slogan there was a struggle for the rights of the third estate. And Sumarokov and other Russian writers of the 18th century, based on the same idea, teach nobles to be worthy of their title and not to stain the “class honor”, since fate has elevated them above people equal to them by nature.
Romantic poem in the works of Ryleev. “Voinarovsky” - composition, principles of character creation, specifics of a romantic conflict, correlation between the destinies of the hero and the author. The dispute between History and Poetry in “Voinarovsky”.
The originality of Decembrist poetry was most fully manifested in the work of Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (1795-1826). He created “effective poetry, poetry of the highest intensity, heroic pathos” (39).
Among lyrical works Ryleev’s most famous poem was, and perhaps still is, “Citizen” (1824), banned at one time, but distributed illegally and well known to readers. This work is a fundamental success for Ryleev the poet, perhaps even the pinnacle of Decembrist lyricism in general. The poem creates the image of a new lyrical hero:
Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev is one of the founders and classics of Russian revolutionary civil poetry, inspired by the advanced social movement and hostile to autocracy. He more fully expressed the Decembrist worldview in poetry than others and developed the main themes of Decembrism. Reflected in Ryleev’s work the most important points history of the Decembrist movement in its most significant period - between 1820-1825.
The name of Ryleev in our minds is surrounded by an aura of martyrdom and heroism. The charm of his personality as a fighter and revolutionary who died for his beliefs is so great that for many it seemed to obscure the aesthetic originality of his work. Tradition has preserved the image of Ryleev that was created by his friends and followers, first in the memoirs of N. Bestuzhev, then in the articles of Ogarev and Herzen.
The search for ways to actively influence society led Ryleev to the genre of the poem. Ryleev’s first poem was the poem “Voinarovsky” (1823-1824). The poem has much in common with “Dumas,” but there is also a fundamental novelty: in “Voinarovsky” Ryleev strives for authentic historical coloring and truthfulness of psychological characteristics. Ryleev created a new hero: disappointed, but not in worldly and secular pleasures, not in love or glory, Ryleev’s hero is a victim of fate, which did not allow him to realize his powerful life potential. Resentment towards fate, towards the ideal of a heroic life that did not take place, alienates Ryleev’s hero from those around him, turning him into a tragic figure. The tragedy of the incompleteness of life, its unrealization in real actions and events will become an important discovery not only in Decembrist poetry, but also in Russian literature in general.
“Voinarovsky” is the only completed poem by Ryleev, although besides it he began several more: “Nalivaiko”, “Gaydamak”, “Paley”. “It so happened,” the researchers write, “that Ryleev’s poems were not only propaganda of Decembrism in literature, but also a poetic biography of the Decembrists themselves, including the December defeat and years of hard labor. Reading the poem about Voinarovsky, the Decembrists involuntarily thought about themselves<…>Ryleev's poem was perceived both as a poem of a heroic deed and as a poem of tragic forebodings. The fate of a political exile thrown into distant Siberia, a meeting with his civilian wife - all this is almost a prediction” (43). Ryleev’s readers were especially struck by his prediction in “Nalivaika’s Confession” from the poem “Nalivaiko”:
<…>I know: destruction awaits
The one who rises first
On the oppressors of the people, -
Fate has already doomed me.
But where, tell me, when was it
Freedom redeemed without sacrifice?
I will die for my native land, -
I feel it, I know...
And joyfully, holy father,
I bless my lot!<…> (44)
The fulfilled prophecies of Ryleev’s poetry once again prove the fruitfulness of the romantic principle “life and poetry are one.”
Classicism.
Classicism is based on the ideas of rationalism. Piece of art, from the point of view of classicism, should be built on the basis of strict canons, thereby revealing the harmony and logic of the universe itself. Of interest to classicism is only the eternal, the unchangeable - in each phenomenon it strives to recognize only essential, typological features, discarding random individual characteristics. The aesthetics of classicism attaches great importance to the social and educational function of art. Classicism takes many rules and canons from ancient art(Aristotle, Horace).
Classicism establishes a strict hierarchy of genres, which are divided into high (ode, tragedy, epic) and low (comedy, satire, fable). Each genre has strictly defined characteristics, the mixing of which is not allowed.
As a specific movement, classicism was formed in France in the 17th century.
In Russia, classicism originated in the 18th century, after the reforms of Peter I. Lomonosov carried out a reform of Russian verse, developed the theory of “three calms,” which was essentially an adaptation of French classical rules to the Russian language. The images in classicism are devoid of individual features, since they are designed primarily to capture stable generic characteristics that do not pass over time, acting as the embodiment of any social or spiritual forces.
Classicism in Russia developed under the great influence of the Enlightenment - the ideas of equality and justice have always been the focus of attention of Russian classic writers. Therefore, in Russian classicism, genres that require the author’s obligatory assessment of historical reality have received great development: comedy (D. I. Fonvizin), satire (A. D. Kantemir), fable (A. P. Sumarokov, I. I. Khemnitser), ode (Lomonosov, G. R. Derzhavin).
Sentimentalism- mentality in Western European and Russian culture and the corresponding literary direction. Works written in this genre are based on the reader's feelings. In Europe it existed from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia - from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century.
Sentimentalism declared feeling, not reason, to be the dominant of “human nature,” which distinguished it from classicism. Without breaking with the Enlightenment, sentimentalism remained faithful to the ideal of a normative personality, however, the condition for its implementation was not the “reasonable” reorganization of the world, but the release and improvement of “natural” feelings. The hero of educational literature in sentimentalism is more individualized, his inner world is enriched by the ability to empathize and sensitively respond to what is happening around him. By origin (or by conviction) the sentimentalist hero is a democrat; the rich spiritual world of the common people is one of the main discoveries and conquests of sentimentalism.
Sentimentalism in Russian literature
Nikolai Karamzin "Poor Liza"
Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s thanks to the translations of the novels of Werther by J.W. Goethe, Pamela, Clarissa and Grandison by S. Richardson, New Heloise by J.-J. Rousseau, Paul and Virginie J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin with “Letters of a Russian Traveler” (1791–1792).
His story "Poor Liza" (1792) is a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther he inherited a general atmosphere of sensitivity and melancholy and the theme of suicide.
The works of N.M. Karamzin gave rise to a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century appeared "Poor Masha" by A.E. Izmailov (1801), "Journey to Midday Russia" (1802), "Henrietta, or the Triumph of Deception over Weakness or Delusion" by I. Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G.P. Kamenev ( “The Story of Poor Marya”; “Unhappy Margarita”; “Beautiful Tatiana”), etc.
Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev belonged to Karamzin’s group, which advocated the creation of a new poetic language and fought against the archaic pompous style and outdated genres.
Marked by sentimentalism early work Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The publication in 1802 of a translation of Elegy, written in a rural cemetery by E. Gray, became a phenomenon in the artistic life of Russia, for he translated the poem “into the language of sentimentalism in general, translated the genre of elegy, and not an individual work of an English poet, which has its own special individual style” (E. G. Etkind). In 1809, Zhukovsky wrote a sentimental story “Maryina Roshcha” in the spirit of N.M. Karamzin.
Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.
It was one of the stages of the pan-European literary development, which ended the Age of Enlightenment and opened the way to romanticism.
Main features of the literature of sentimentalism
So, taking into account all of the above, we can identify several main features of Russian literature of sentimentalism: a departure from the straightforwardness of classicism, an emphasized subjectivity of the approach to the world, a cult of feelings, a cult of nature, a cult of innate moral purity, innocence, the rich spiritual world of representatives of the lower classes is affirmed. Attention is paid to the spiritual world of a person, and feelings come first, not great ideas.
Romanticism- a phenomenon of European culture in the 18th-19th centuries, representing a reaction to the Enlightenment and the scientific and technological progress stimulated by it; ideological and artistic direction in European and American culture of the late 18th century - the first half of the 19th century century. It is characterized by an affirmation of the intrinsic value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the depiction of strong (often rebellious) passions and characters, spiritualized and healing nature. It has spread to various spheres of human activity. In the 18th century, everything strange, fantastic, picturesque and existing in books and not in reality was called romantic. IN early XIX century, romanticism became the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism and the Enlightenment.
Romanticism in Russian literature
It is usually believed that in Russia romanticism appears in the poetry of V. A. Zhukovsky (although some Russian poetic works of the 1790-1800s are often attributed to the pre-romantic movement that developed from sentimentalism). In Russian romanticism, freedom from classical conventions appears, a ballad is created, romantic drama. A new idea is being established about the essence and meaning of poetry, which is recognized as an independent sphere of life, an expression of the highest, ideal aspirations of man; the old view, according to which poetry seemed to be empty fun, something completely serviceable, turns out to be no longer possible.
The early poetry of A. S. Pushkin also developed within the framework of romanticism. The poetry of M. Yu. Lermontov, the “Russian Byron,” can be considered the pinnacle of Russian romanticism. The philosophical lyrics of F. I. Tyutchev are both the completion and overcoming of romanticism in Russia.
§ 1. The emergence and development of sentimentalism in Europe
Literary movements should not always be judged by their names, especially since the meaning of the words by which they are designated changes over time. In modern language, “sentimental” means easily moved, able to quickly become emotional; sensitive. In the 18th century, the words “sentimentality” and “sensitivity” meant something else - receptivity, the ability to respond with the soul to everything that surrounds a person.Sensitivethey called the one who admired virtue, the beauties of nature, the creations of art, who sympathized with human sorrows. The first work in the title of which the word appeared was “Sentimental Journey”ByFrance and Italy” by Englishman Laurence Stern(1768). The most famous writer of sentimentalism, Jean Jacques Rousseau, is the author of the touching novel “Julia, or the New Heloise”(1761).
Sentimentalism(from French.sentiment- "feeling"; from English.sentimental- “sensitive”) - a literary movement in European art of the second half of the 18th century, prepared by the crisis of Enlightenment rationalism and proclaiming that the basis of human nature is not reason, but feeling. An important event in the spiritual life of Europe was the discovery in man of the ability to enjoy the contemplation of his own emotions. It turned out that ", compassionate with your neighbor, sharing his sorrows, helping him, you can experience sincere joy. Performing virtuous actions means following not external duty, but one’s own nature. Developed sensitivity in itself is capable of distinguishing good from evil, and therefore there is no need for morality. Accordingly, a work of art was valued by the extent to which it could move a person and touch his heart.On the basis of these views, the artistic system of sentimentalism grew.
Like its predecessor - classicism, sentimentalism is thoroughly didactic, subordinated to educational tasks. But this is didacticism of a different kind. If classic writers sought to influence the minds of readers, to convince them of
Bypassing the need to follow the immutable laws of morality, sentimental literature turns to feeling. She describes the majestic beauties of nature, solitude in the bosom of which becomes an affinity for nurturing sensitivity, appeals to religious feelings, glorifies the joys family life, often contrasted with the state virtues of classicism, depicts various touching situations that simultaneously evoke in readers both compassion for the characters and joy from the feeling of their spiritual sensitivity. Without breaking with the Enlightenment, sentimentalism remained faithful to the ideal of a normative personality, but the condition for its implementation was not the “reasonable” reorganization of the world, but the release and improvement of “natural” feelings. The hero of educational literature in sentimentalism is more individualized, he is a democrat by origin or beliefs; there is no straightforwardness characteristic of classicism in the delineation and assessment of characters. The rich spiritual world of the common people, the affirmation of the innate moral purity of representatives of the lower classes are some of the main discoveries and conquests of sentimentalism.
The literature of sentimentalism was addressed to everyday life. Choosing ordinary people as her heroes and destining for an equally simple reader, not experienced in book wisdom, she demanded the immediate embodiment of her values and ideals. She sought to show that these ideals were extracted from everyday life, putting her works into the formstravel notes, letters, diaries, written but hot on the heels of events. Accordingly, the narration in sentimental literature comes from the perspective of a participant or witness to what is being described; at the same time, everything that happens in the narrator’s mind comes to the fore. Sentimentalist writers strive above all to educateemotional culturetheir readers, therefore the description of spiritual reactions to certain phenomena of life sometimes obscures the phenomena themselves. The prose of sentimentalism is filled with digressions, outlining the nuances of the characters’ feelings, and discussions on moral themes, while the storyline gradually weakens. In poetry, the same processes lead to the foregrounding of the author’s personality and the collapse of the genre system of classicism.
Sentimentalism received its most complete expression in England, developing from melancholic contemplation and a patriarchal idyll in the lap of nature to a socially specific disclosure of the theme. The main features of English sentimentalism are sensitivity, not devoid of exaltation, irony and humor, which also provide a parodic debunking of the
of the canon, and the skeptical attitude of sentimentalism to one’s own capabilities. Sentimentalists showed the non-identity of man to himself, his ability to be different. And unlike pre-romanticism, which developed in parallel with it, sentimentalism was alien to the irrational - the inconsistency of moods, the impulsive nature of emotional impulses, he perceived as accessible to rationalistic interpretation.
Pan-European cultural communication and typological proximity in the development of literature led to the rapid spread of sentimentalism in Germany, France, and Russia. In Russian literature, representatives of the new movement in the 60-70s of the 18th century. became M. N. Muravyov, N. P. Karamzin, V. V. Kapnist, N. A. Lvov, V. A. Zhukovsky, A. I. Radishchev.
The first sentimental trends in Russian literature appeared in the mid-70s of the 18th century. in the poetry of the still very young M. N. Muravyov (1757-1807). At first he wrote poems on themes bequeathed by classicist teachers. A person, according to the poets of Russian classicism, must always maintain internal balance or, as they said, “peace.” Reflecting and reading European authors, M. N. Muravyov came to the conclusion that such peace cannot exist, since a person is “sensitive , he is passionate, he is subject to influences, he was born to feel.” This is how the most important words for sentimentalism sounded: sensitivity (in the sense of receptivity) and influence (now they say “impressionability”). You cannot evade influences, they determine the entire course of human life.
The role of M. N. Muravyov in the history of Russian literature is great. In particular, he was the first to describe the inner world of a person in development, examining in detail his mental movements. The poet worked a lot to improve his poetic technique, and in some of his later poems his verse is already approaching the clarity and purity of Pushkin’s poetry. But, having published two poetry collections in his early youth, M. II. Muravyov then published sporadically, and subsequently left literature altogether for the sake of teaching.
Russian sentimentalism, predominantly aristocratic in nature, is largelyrationalistic,are strong in itdidactic settingAndeducational trends.Improving the literary language, Russian sentimentalists turned to colloquial norms and introduced vernacular language. IN
the basis of the aesthetics of sentimentalism, kyak and classicism, imitation of nature, idealization of patriarchal life, the spread of elegiac moods. The favorite genres of sentimentalists were epistle, elegy, epistolary novel, travel notes, diaries and other types of prose works. in which confessional motives predominate.
The ideal of sensitivity proclaimed by the sentimentalists influenced a whole generation of educated people in Europe. Sensitivity was reflected not only in literature, but also in painting, in interior decoration, especially in park art; the newfangled landscape (English) park, with every turn of its paths, was supposed to show nature in an unexpected way and thereby provide food for the senses. Reading sentimental novels was part of the norm of behavior for an educated person. Pushkin’s Tatyana Larina, who “fell in love with the deceptions of both Richardson and Rousseau” (Samuel Richardson is a famous English sentimental novelist), in this sense received the same upbringing in the Russian wilderness as all European young ladies. To literary heroes sympathized with how real people, imitated them.
In general, sentimental education brought a lot of good things. People who received it learned to appreciate more the most insignificant details of life around them, to listen to every movement of their soul. The hero of sentimental works and the person brought up on them are close to nature, perceive themselves as its product, admire nature itself, and not that. how people remade it. Thanks to sentimentalism, some writers of past centuries, whose work did not fit into the framework of the theory of classicism, became loved again. Among them are such great names as W. Shakespeare and M. Cervantes. In addition, the sentimental direction was democratic, the disadvantaged became objects of compassion, and the simple life of the middle class of society was considered favorable to tender, poetic feelings.
In the 80-90s of the 18th century. There is a crisis of sentimentalism associated with the gap between sentimental literature and its didactic tasks. After the French Revolution 1<85) 179<1 гг. сентиментальные веяния в европейских литературах сходят на нет, уступая место романтическим тенденциям.
1.When and where did sentimentalism originate?
2.What are the causes of sentimentalism?
3.Name the basic principles of sentimentalism.
4.What features of the Enlightenment did sentimentalism inherit?
5.Who became the hero of sentimental literature?
6. In which countries did sentimentalism become widespread?
7.Name the main principles of English sentimentalism.
8.How did sentimentalist moods differ from pre-romantic ones?
9.When did sentimentalism appear in Russia? Catch his representativesin Russian literature.
10.What are the distinctive features of Russian sentimentalism?Name its genres.
Key concepts:sentimentalism, feeling, feelings- activity. didacticism, enlightenment, patriarchal life. elegy, message, travel notes, epistolary novel
In the second half of the 18th century. In European literature, a movement emerged called sentimentalism (from the French word sentimentalism, which means sensitivity). The name itself gives a clear idea of the essence and nature of the new phenomenon. The main feature, the leading quality of the human personality, was proclaimed not to be reason, as was the case in classicism and the Age of Enlightenment, but to feel, not the mind, but the heart.
What happened? Two ideas, asserting that the world could be rebuilt according to the laws of reason, or that an enlightened monarch, enlightened nobles who put the good of the fatherland above all else and set an example in this regard to all other classes, could transform life in accordance with the ideals of goodness and justice, failed defeat. Reality was and remains cruel and unfair. Where can a person go, how can he preserve his unique personality, his individuality from evil, universal enmity, from ignorance and recklessness that dominate the world? There is only one thing left to do - to withdraw into oneself, to proclaim that the only value is not the state, but the person with his feelings, dreams, subtle experiences, with his soul and heart. Only the impulses of the heart are true and immutable; only they are the true compass in the ocean of life.
The sentimentalists had much in common with the Enlightenment. And above all, democratic tendencies, their sympathy for simple, ordinary people (usually they were opposed to the corrupted nobility). But they are no longer based only on rationalism. [A striking example of this is the contrast between the city (civilization) and the village (the embodiment of simplicity and naturalness).
The development of European sentimentalism was decisively influenced by the work of the French writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778). According to him, every person is born kind and good. He becomes vicious and evil under the influence of a corrupt society. Therefore, a natural person, living according to the laws of nature, is invariably more moral than a “man created by society.” In the primitive state, all people were happy. Civilization has given rise to social inequality, luxury and poverty, arrogance, debauchery...
It is impossible to change this world using reason alone. It is necessary to turn to the best qualities of a person, inherent in nature, to his natural aspirations, spiritual impulses. This is how a new hero (heroine) appears in literature - a simple and humble person, endowed with high spiritual qualities, guided by the dictates of the heart, alien to civilization. The value of a person is now determined not by his noble origin or wealth, but by purity of thoughts and self-esteem.
Significant changes are also taking place in the genre system. Now there is no clear division into higher and lower genres. Sentimentalists give preference to diaries, letters, travel notes, memoirs - in other words, genres in which the narration is told in the first person and where the person could express himself most fully. An intense interest in the inner world of a person, the desire to understand one’s own soul, which, in their opinion, is an absolute value, predetermined genre searches, and the peculiarities of the narrative style, and the originality of the language.
Sentimentalists fundamentally abandoned the strict literary rules that were so characteristic of classicism. The defense of individual freedom led to a decisive affirmation of the freedom of literary creativity. A “I” appears that the classicists simply were not interested in. Remember the work of Lomonosov - there was no personal element in his works. Derzhavin’s poetic self is already quite noticeable. For sentimentalists, the image of the author comes to the fore.
The features of sentimentalism were very clearly manifested in the work of the English writer L. Stern: his “Sentimental Journey” (1768) gave the name to the new movement. In France, a prominent representative of sentimentalism was Jean-Jacques Rousseau (although, as you already know, there were also educational ideas in his work); in Germany, sentimentalism influenced the early period of the work of Goethe and Schiller.
In Russia, sentimentalism is associated primarily with the name of N. M. Karamzin.
In the history of literature (and not only literature, but also other arts - painting, music) sentimentalism played a very important role. Attention to the world of a person’s personal experiences, his inner world, the emergence of a new hero, the strengthening of the author’s principle, the renewal of the genre system, the overcoming of classicist normativity - all this was preparation for the decisive changes that took place in the literature of the 19th century.
What is sentimentalism?
Sentimentalism is a movement in literature and art of the 2nd half of the 18th century. in Western Europe and Russia, prepared by the crisis of educational rationalism. It received its most complete expression in England, where the ideology of the third estate was formed first and its internal contradictions were revealed. Sentimentalism declared feeling to be the dominant of “human nature,” and not reason, compromised by bourgeois practice. Without breaking with the Enlightenment, sentimentalism remained faithful to the ideal of a normative personality, however, the condition for its implementation was not the “reasonable” reorganization of the world, but the release and improvement of “natural” feelings. The hero of educational literature in sentimentalism is more individualized, his inner world is enriched by the ability to empathize and sensitively respond to what is happening around him. By origin (or by conviction) the sentimentalist hero is a democrat; the rich spiritual world of the common people is one of the main discoveries and conquests of sentimentalism. For the first time, sentimental moods (an idyll in the lap of nature, melancholic contemplation) emerged in the poetry of J. Thomson (“The Seasons,” 1730), E. Jung (“Night Thoughts,” 1742-45) and T. Gray (“Elegy Written in rural cemetery", 1751). The elegiac tone of sentimentalist poetry is inseparable from patriarchal idealization; only the poetry of the late sentimentalists (70-80s) O. Goldsmith, W. Cooper and J. Crabb contains a socially specific disclosure of the “rural” theme - the mass impoverishment of peasants, abandoned villages. Sentimental motives were heard in the psychological novels of S. Richardson, and in the late G. Fielding (“Amelia”, 1752). However, sentimentalism finally took shape in the work of L. Stern, whose unfinished “Sentimental Journey” (1768) gave the name to the whole movement. Following D. Hume, Stern showed the “non-identity” of a person with himself, his ability to be “different.” But, unlike pre-romanticism, which developed in parallel with it, the “irrational” is alien to sentimentalism: the inconsistency of moods, the impulsive nature of mental impulses are accessible to rationalistic interpretation, the dialectic of the soul is perceptible. The main features of English sentimentalism (Goldsmith, late Smollett, G. Mackenzie, etc.) are “sensitivity”, not devoid of exaltation, and most importantly, irony and humor, which provided a parodic debunking of the Enlightenment canon and
at the same time allowing for a skeptical attitude of sentimentalism towards their own capabilities (in Stern). Pan-European cultural communication and typological similarity in the development of literature (psychological novels by P. Marivaux and A. Prevost, “philistine dramas” by D. Diderot, “Mother” by Beaumarchais - in France; “serious comedy” by K. F. Gellert, rationally sensitive poetry F. G. Klopstock - in Germany) led to the rapid spread of sentimentalism. However, it is characteristic that in Germany and especially in pre-revolutionary France, the democratic tendencies of sentimentalism received the most radical expression (J. J. Rousseau, the Sturm und Drang movement). The work of Rousseau ("New Heloise", 1761) is the pinnacle of European sentimentalism. As J. W. Goethe later did in “Werther,” Rousseau determines the sentimentalist hero by the social environment (“Confession”). Diderot’s sentimentalist heroes (“Jacques the Fatalist,” “Ramo’s Nephew”) are also included in the social context. The dramaturgy of G. E. Lessing develops under the influence of sentimentalism. At the same time, French and German literature is being overwhelmed by a wave of direct imitations of Stern.
In Russia, representatives of sentimentalism were M. N. Muravyov, N. M. Karamzin (“Poor Liza,” 1792), I. I. Dmitriev, V. V. Kapnist, N. A. Lvov, young V. A. Zhukovsky and etc. Predominantly noble in nature, Russian sentimentalism is largely rationalistic, it has a strong didactic attitude (“Letters of a Russian Traveler” by Karamzin, part 1, 1792). In Russian conditions, educational tendencies in sentimentalism turned out to be more important. In order to perfect the literary language, Russian sentimentalists also turned to colloquial norms and introduced vernacular language. Researchers find unconditional features of sentimentalist poetics in the works of A. N. Radishchev.
Karamzin as the brightest representative of classicism. “Peter Rossum gave the body, Catherine the soul.” Thus, a well-known verse defined the mutual relationship between the two creators of the new Russian civilization. The creators of new Russian literature: Lomonosov and Karamzin are in approximately the same attitude. Lomonosov prepared the material from which literature is formed; Karamzin breathed a living soul into it and made the printed word an exponent of spiritual life and partly the leader of Russian society. Belinsky says that Karamzin created a Russian public that did not exist before him, created readers - and since literature is unthinkable without readers, we can safely say that literature, in the modern meaning of the word, began in our country from the era of Karamzin and began precisely thanks to his knowledge, energy, subtle taste and extraordinary talent. Karamzin was not a poet: he was deprived
creative imagination, its taste is one-sided; the ideas he pursued are not distinguished by depth and originality; he owes his great significance most of all to his active love for literature and the so-called humane sciences. Karamzin's preparation was broad, but incorrect or lacking solid foundations; according to Groth, he “read more than he studied.” Its serious development begins under the influence of the Friendly Society. Deep religious feeling inherited from his mother, philanthropic aspirations, dreamy humanity, platonic love of freedom, equality and fraternity on the one hand and selfless and humble submission to the powers that be on the other, patriotism and admiration for European culture, high respect for enlightenment in all its types, but at the same time a dislike for gallomania and a reaction against a skeptical and cold attitude towards life and against mocking disbelief, a desire to study the monuments of native antiquity - all this was either borrowed by Karamzin from Novikov and his comrades, or strengthened by their influence. Novikov's example showed Karamzin that even outside public service one can benefit one's fatherland, and outlined for him a program for his own life. Under the influence of A. Petrov and, probably, the German poet Lenz, Karamzin’s literary tastes developed, which represented a major step forward compared to the views of his older contemporaries. Based on Rousseau’s view of the delights of the “natural state” and the rights of the heart, Karamzin, following Herder, first of all demands sincerity, originality and liveliness from poetry.
Homer, Ossian, Shakespeare are in his eyes the greatest poets; so-called new classical poetry seems cold to him and does not touch his soul; Voltaire in his eyes is only a “famous sophist”; simple-minded folk songs excite his sympathy. In “Children's Reading,” Karamzin follows the principles of that humane pedagogy that was introduced by “Emile” Rousseau, and which completely coincided with the views of the founders of the Friendly Society. At this time, Karamzin’s literary language was gradually developed, which most contributed to the great reform. In the preface to the translation of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar,” he also writes: “His spirit soared like an eagle, and could not measure his soaring,” “great spirits” (instead of geniuses), etc. But Petrov laughed at “long-complicated, lingering soaring " in Slavic words, and "Children's Reading" its very purpose forced Karamzin to write in an easy and colloquial language and in every possible way to avoid "Slavic" and Latin-German constructions. At the same time, or soon after leaving abroad, Karamzin begins to test his strength in poetry; Rhyme was not easy for him, and in his poems there was no so-called soaring at all, but even here his syllable is clear and simple; he knew how to find new themes for Russian literature and borrow original and beautiful meters from the Germans. His “ancient Spanish historical song”: “Count Gvarinos”, written in 1789, is the prototype of Zhukovsky’s ballads; his “Autumn” at one time amazed with its extraordinary simplicity and grace. Karamzin's travel abroad and the “Letters of a Russian Traveler” that resulted from it are a fact of enormous importance in the history of Russian education. Buslaev says about the “Letters”: “their numerous readers were insensitively brought up in the ideas of European civilization, as if they matured along with the maturation of the young Russian traveler, learning to feel him with noble feelings, to dream with his beautiful dreams.” According to Galakhov’s calculations, in letters from Germany and Switzerland, news of a scientific and literary nature takes up a quarter, and if science, art and theater are excluded from Paris letters, significantly less than half will remain. Karamzin says that the letters were written “as it happened, dear, on scraps of paper with a pencil”; and meanwhile it turned out that they contained a lot of literary borrowings - therefore, they were written, at least partly, “in the silence of the office.” In any case, Karamzin actually collected a significant part of the material on the road and wrote it down “on scraps.” Another contradiction is more significant: how can an ardent friend of freedom, a student of Rousseau, ready to fall on his knees before Fiesco, speak so contemptuously of the Parisian events of that time and not want to see in them anything other than a rebellion organized by the party of “ravenous wolves”? Of course, a student of the Friendly Society could not be sympathetic to an open uprising, but fearful caution also played a significant role here: it is known how Catherine sharply changed her attitude towards French journalism and the activities of the “Estates General” after July 14. The very careful treatment of periods in the April letter of 1790 seems to indicate that tirades in praise of the old order in France were written for show. - Karamzin worked hard abroad (by the way, he learned English); his love for literature strengthened, and immediately upon returning to his homeland he became a journalist. His "Moscow Magazine" is the first Russian literary magazine that truly brought pleasure to its readers. There were examples of both literary and theatrical criticism, excellent for that time, beautifully, clearly and extremely delicately presented. In general, Karamzin managed to adapt our literature to the needs of the best, that is, more educated Russian people, and, moreover, of both sexes: until then, ladies did not read Russian magazines. In the “Moscow Journal” (as well as later in the “Bulletin of Europe”) Karamzin did not have employees in the modern sense of the word: his friends sent him their poems, sometimes very valuable (in 1791 Derzhavin’s “Vision of Murza” appeared here, in 1792 "Fashionable Wife" by Dmitriev, the famous song "The Gray Dove Moans" by him, plays by Kheraskov, Neledinsky-Meletsky and others), but he had to fill all the sections of the magazine himself; this turned out to be possible only because he brought from abroad a whole portfolio filled with translations and imitations. Two of Karamzin’s stories appear in the Moscow Journal: “Poor Liza” and “Natalya, the Boyar’s Daughter,” which serve as the most striking expression of his sentimentalism. The first one was especially successful: poets glorified the author or composed elegies for the ashes of poor Lisa. Of course, epigrams also appeared. Karamzin's sentimentalism came from his natural inclinations and the conditions of his development, as well as from his sympathy for the literary school that arose at that time in the West. In “Poor Liza,” the author openly declares that he “loves those objects that touch the heart and make you shed tears of grievous sorrow.” There is nothing Russian in the story, except for the location; but the vague desire of the public to have poetry closer to life has so far been satisfied by these few. There are no characters in “Poor Liza,” but there is a lot of feeling, and most importantly, with the whole tone of the story, it touched the soul and brought readers into the mood in which the author imagined them. Now “Poor Liza” seems cold and false, but in theory this is the first link of the chain that, through Pushkin’s romance: “In the evening of a stormy autumn,” stretches to Dostoevsky’s “The Humiliated and Insulted.” It is from “Poor Liza” that Russian literature takes the philanthropic direction that Kireyevsky talks about. Imitators took Karamzin’s tearful tone to an extreme, which he did not at all sympathize with: already in 1797 (in the preface to the 2nd book of “Aonid”) he advises “not to constantly talk about tears... this method of touching is very unreliable.” “Natalia, the Boyar’s Daughter” is important as the first experience of sentimental idealization of our past, and in the history of Karamzin’s development - as the first and timid step of the future author of “The History of the Russian State.” “Moscow Journal” was a success, quite significant for that time (already in the first year it had 300 “subscripts”; subsequently a second edition was needed), but Karamzin achieved especially wide fame in 1794, when he collected all the articles from it his own and reprinted them in a special collection: “My trinkets” (2nd ed., 1797; 3rd - 1801). From then on, his significance as a literary reformer is quite clear: a few lovers of literature recognize him as the best prose writer, and a large public only reads him with pleasure. In Russia at that time, life was so bad for all thinking people that, as Karamzin put it, “magnanimous frenzy against abuses of power drowned out the voice of personal caution” (“Note on Ancient and New Russia”). Under Paul I, Karamzin was ready to leave literature and sought mental relaxation in studying the Italian language and reading ancient monuments. From the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, Karamzin, while still a writer, occupied an unprecedentedly high position: he became not only “Alexander’s singer” in the sense that Derzhavin was “Catherine’s singer,” but became an influential publicist, whose voice was listened to and government, and society. His “Bulletin of Europe” is as excellent a literary and artistic publication for its time as the “Moscow Journal”, but at the same time it is also an organ of moderate liberal views. As before, however, Karamzin has to work almost exclusively alone; so that his name does not dazzle in the eyes of readers, he is forced to invent a lot of pseudonyms. “Bulletin of Europe” earned its name with a number of articles about European intellectual and political life and a mass of well-chosen translations (Karamzin subscribed to 12 of the best foreign magazines for the editors). Of Karamzin’s artistic works in “Bulletin of Europe”, the most important are the autobiographical story “A Knight of Our Time,” which noticeably reflects the influence of Jean-Paul Richter, and the famous historical story “Marfa the Posadnitsa.” In the leading articles of the magazine, Karamzin expresses “pleasant views, hopes and desires of the present time,” shared by the best part of the then society. It turned out that the revolution, which threatened to engulf civilization and freedom, brought them great benefit: now “sovereigns, instead of condemning reason to silence, incline it to their side”; they “feel the importance of an alliance” with the best minds, respect public opinion and try to gain people’s love by eliminating abuses. In relation to Russia, Karamzin wants education for all classes, and above all literacy for the people (“the establishment of rural schools is incomparably more useful than all lyceums, being a true public institution, the true basis of state education”); he dreams of the penetration of science into high society. In general, for Karamzin, “enlightenment is the palladium of good morals,” by which he means the manifestation in private and public life of all the best aspects of human nature and the taming of selfish instincts. Karamzin also uses the form of the story to convey his ideas to society: in “My Confession” he denounces the absurd secular education given to the aristocracy and the unfair favors shown to it. The weak side of Karamzin’s journalistic activity is his attitude towards serfdom; he, as N.I. says Turgenev skims over this issue (in “Letter from a Villager” he
directly speaks out against giving peasants the opportunity to independently manage their farms under the conditions of that time). The criticism department in Vestnik Evropy is almost non-existent; Karamzin now does not have such a high opinion of it as before; he considers it a luxury for our still poor literature. In general, the “Bulletin of Europe” does not coincide in everything with the “Russian Traveler”. Karamzin, far from revering the West as before, finds that it is not good for both man and the people to remain forever in the position of a student; he attaches great importance to national identity and rejects the idea that “everything national is nothing compared to humanity.” At this time, Shishkov began a literary war against Karamzin and his supporters, which comprehended and finally consolidated Karamzin’s reform in our language and partly in the very direction of Russian literature. In his youth, Karamzin recognized Petrov, the enemy of the Slavs, as his teacher in literary style; in 1801, he expressed the conviction that only from his time in the Russian syllable was noticed “the pleasantness called by the French “elegance”. Even later (1803) he speaks about the literary style: “A Russian candidate for authorship, dissatisfied with books, must close them and listen to conversations around him in order to completely recognize the language. Here is a new problem: in our best houses they speak more French... What can the author do? Inventing, making up expressions, guessing the best choice of words.” Shishkov rebelled against all innovations (moreover, he also took examples from the inept and extreme imitators of Karamzin), sharply separating the literary language, with its strong Slavic element and three styles, from the colloquial one. Karamzin did not accept the challenge, but Makarov, Kachenovsky and Dashkov entered the fight for him, who pressed Shishkov, despite the support of the Russian Academy and the foundation of “Conversations of Lovers of Russian Literature” to help his cause. The dispute can be considered over after the founding of Arzamas and Karamzin’s entry into the academy in 1818. In his opening speech, he expressed the bright idea that “words are not invented by academies; they are born along with thoughts.” As Pushkin put it, “Karamzin freed the language from the alien yoke and returned it to freedom, turning it to the living sources of the people’s word.” This living element lies in the brevity of periods, in colloquial construction and in a large number of new words (such as, for example, moral, aesthetic, era, scene, harmony, catastrophe, future, influence someone or something, concentrate, touching, entertaining, industry ). While working on history, Karamzin realized the good aspects of the language of monuments and managed to introduce many beautiful and strong expressions into everyday use. When collecting material for “History,” Karamzin rendered a tremendous service to the study of ancient Russian literature; according to Sreznevsky, “the first word was said about many of the ancient monuments by Karamzin, and not a single word was said about any of them inappropriately and without criticism.” “The Tale of Igor’s Host”, “The Teachings of Monomakh” and many other literary works of ancient Rus' became known to the general public only thanks to the “History of the Russian State”. In 1811, Karamzin was distracted from his main work by compiling the famous note “On ancient and new Russia in its political and civil relations” (published together with a note on Poland, in Berlin, in 1861; in 1870 - in “ Russian Archive"), which Karamzin’s panegyrists consider a great civil feat, and others consider “an extreme manifestation of his fatalism,” strongly leaning towards obscurantism. Baron Korff (“The Life of Speransky,” 1861) says that this note is not a statement of Karamzin’s individual thoughts, but “a skillful compilation of what he heard around him.” It is impossible not to notice the obvious contradiction between many of the provisions of the note and those humane and liberal thoughts that Karamzin expressed, for example, in “Historical Eulogies to Catherine” (1802) and his other journalistic and literary works. The note, as well as the “Opinion of a Russian Citizen” about Poland submitted by Karamzin in 1819 to Alexander I (published in 1862 in the book “Unpublished Works”; cf. “Russian Archive” 1869), testify to some civic courage of the author, since by their sharply frank tone they should have aroused the displeasure of the sovereign; but Karamzin’s courage could not be seriously blamed on him, since his objections were based on his respect for absolute power. Opinions about the results of Karamzin’s activities differed greatly during his lifetime (his supporters back in 1798 - 1800 considered him a great writer and placed him in collections next to Lomonosov and Derzhavin, and his enemies even in 1810 assured that he spilled “ Jacobin poison" and clearly preaches godlessness and anarchy); they cannot be brought to unity at the present time. Pushkin recognized him as a great writer, a noble patriot, a wonderful soul, took him as an example of firmness towards criticism, and was indignant at the attacks on his history and the coldness of articles about his death. Gogol says about him in 1846: “Karamzin represents an extraordinary phenomenon. Here is one of our writers who can be said to have fulfilled his entire duty, buried nothing in the ground, and with the five talents given to him, truly brought another five.” Belinsky holds exactly the opposite opinion and argues that Karamzin did less than he could. However, Karamzin’s enormous and beneficial influence on the development of the Russian language and literary form is unanimously recognized by everyone.
Prose by N.M. Karamzin
“Letters of a Russian Traveler,” which the author himself called the “mirror of his soul,” the stories (“Natalia, the Boyar’s Daughter,” “Marfa the Posadnitsa,” “Bornholm Island”) marked the beginning of a new stage in literary development. (Recall that classicism essentially did not know artistic
prose.)
Karamzin devoted the last years of his life to the creation of a majestic work - “The History of the Russian State.” For many readers of that time, the writer became, as it were, a pioneer of Russian history, Columbus, as Pushkin called him. Unfortunately, death did not give Karamzin the opportunity to complete his plan, but what he managed to write is enough for his name to forever remain not only in the history of Russian literature, but also of Russian culture.
Among Karamzin’s stories, “Poor Liza” was especially popular. The story tells how a poor peasant girl was deceived by a noble master. An ordinary story, a common plot. How many times this plot has been used in literature (theatre, cinema, television series) is mind-boggling! But why exactly “Poor Liza” has not left readers indifferent for over two centuries? Obviously, it's not about the plot. Most likely, we are influenced by the writer’s narrative style itself, his deep interest in the details of feelings, emotional experiences, his love for lyrical digressions, which characterize not only the characters, but first of all the author himself - humane, kind, capable of penetrating into the inner world of his heroes , understand them and, ultimately, forgive...
Author's image. In one of his program articles (“What the author needs”) Karamzin argued that “the creator is always depicted in the creation,” that every work of art is “a portrait of the soul and heart of the writer.” And in Karamzin’s own stories (including “Poor Liza”) the personality of the author-storyteller comes to the fore. In other words, Karamzin portrays reality itself not on its own, completely objectively, but through the prism of the author’s perception, through the author’s emotions. This is how it was in “Letters of a Russian Traveler”, this is how it is carried out
narration in “Poor Liza” as well.
“Perhaps no one living in Moscow knows the outskirts of this city as well as I do, because no one is in the field more often than me, no one more than me wanders on foot, without a plan, without a goal - where the eyes look - through the meadows and groves, over hills and plains..."
Of course, you can say: we are not interested in the author with his aimless walks, we are much more interested in reading about the unhappy love of a poor girl and quickly find out how it all ended.
Do not hurry. Karamzin writes not an adventure novel, but a subtle psychological story, one of the first in Russian literature. Its interest lies, as we have already said, not so much in the plot itself, but in the gradual disclosure of the full complexity of feelings and experiences of both the characters and the author himself.
Karamzin writes: “But what most often attracts me to the walls of the Simonov Monastery are memories of the deplorable fate of Lisa, poor Lisa. Oh! I love those objects that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow! "Pay attention to the emotionality of the style: an exclamatory sentence, an unusual dash placed outside of any rules (what is its function?), the excited and often used interjection by Karamzin “Ah! ", his usual references to the heart, tears, sorrow...
The overall narrative tone of “Poor Lisa” is one of sadness. From the very beginning, the story sets us up for a tragic ending. We learn that the author’s heart “shudders and trembles,” “bleeds.” And his addresses to his heroes also contain sad prophecies: “Reckless young man! Do you know your heart? "Or: "Oh, Lisa, Lisa! where is your guardian angel? "-etc. Until relatively recently, it was customary to reproach Karamzin for the fact that in his story he did not reflect all the horrors of serfdom, did not show the glaring poverty of Liza and her mother, and idealized their life. All this should have confirmed us in the idea that Karamzin could not overcome his noble limitations, that he failed to paint a true picture of peasant life.
This is how it really is. Alas, Karamzin is not a democrat - in socio-political views, nor a realist - in aesthetic concepts. But he did not strive to be either a realist or a democrat. He lived at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries - what do we actually want from him? He has his own view of reality, of people, of art. Real life and literature have nothing in common - this is Karamzin’s position. We already talked about this when talking about his poetry. That is why the social predetermination of the heroes’ feelings and actions is of little interest to him. Lisa's dramatic story is the result, first of all, not of social inequality, but of the tragic discrepancy between the psychological natures of Lisa and Erast.
Poor Lisa
Karamzin’s best story is rightly recognized as “Poor Liza” (1792), which is based on the educational thought about the non-verbal value of the human person. The problems of the story are of a social and moral nature: the peasant woman Liza is opposed to the nobleman Erast. The characters are revealed in the heroes' attitude to love. Lisa’s feelings are marked by depth, constancy and selflessness: she understands perfectly well that she is not destined to be Erast’s wife. Twice throughout the story she says this, for the first time to her mother: “Mother! Mother! How can this happen? He’s a gentleman, but Lisa didn’t finish her speech between the peasants.” Second time to Erast: “However, you can’t be my husband!” "-" Why? "-"I am a peasant...". Lisa loves Erast selflessly, without thinking about the consequences of her passion, “What belongs to Lisa, writes Karamzin, she, completely surrendering to him, only lived and breathed for him and placed her happiness in his pleasure.” This feeling cannot be hampered by any selfish calculations. During one of the dates, Lisa tells Erast that
The son of a rich peasant from a neighboring village is wooing her and that her mother really wants this marriage.”And you agree? “- Erast is alarmed. "Cruel! Can you ask about this? “Lisa calms him down.
Erast is portrayed in the story not as a treacherous deceiver - a seducer. Such a solution to a social problem would be too crude and straightforward. He was, according to Karamzin, a “quite rich nobleman” with a “naturally kind” heart, “but weak and flighty... He led an absent-minded life, thought only about his own pleasure...” Thus, the integral, selfless character of the peasant woman is contrasted with the character of a kind, but a master spoiled by an idle life, unable to think about the consequences of his actions. The intention to seduce a gullible girl was not part of his plans. At first he thought about “pure joys” and intended to “live with Lisa like brother and sister.” But Erast did not know his own characters well, and overestimated his moral strength. Soon, according to Karamzin, he “could no longer be satisfied with just pure embraces. He wanted more, more, and finally he couldn’t want anything.” Satiety sets in and the desire to free oneself from the boring connection sets in.
It should be noted that the image of Erast is accompanied by a very prosaic leitmotif - money, which has always evoked a condemnatory attitude in sentimental literature.
At the very first meeting with Liza, Erast strives to amaze her with his generosity, offering a whole ruble for a lily of the valley instead of five kopecks. Lisa resolutely refuses this money, which evokes the full approval of her mother. Erast, wanting to win over the girl’s mother, asks only him to sell her products and always strives to pay ten times more, but “the old lady never took too much.” Lisa, loving Erast, refuses the wealthy peasant who wooed her. Erast, for the sake of money, marries a rich elderly widow. At the last meeting with Lisa, Erast tries to buy her off with “ten imperials.” “I love you,” he justifies himself, and now I love you, that is, I wish you all the best. Here’s a hundred rubles, take them.”
This scene is perceived as blasphemy, as an outrage - all life, thoughts, hopes, for others - “ten imperials. A hundred years later, it was repeated by Leo Tolstoy in his novel “Sunday.”
For Lisa, the loss of Erast is tantamount to the loss of life. Further existence becomes meaningless, and she commits suicide. The tragic ending of the story testified to the creative death of Karamzin, who did not want to reduce the significance of the social and ethical problem he put forward with a successful outcome. Where a great, strong feeling came into conflict with the foundations of the feudal world, Yiddish
it couldn't be.
In order to maximize verisimilitude, Karamzin connected the plot of his story with specific places in the then Moscow region. Lisa's house is located on the banks of the Moscow River, not far from the Simonov Monastery. The meeting between Liza and Erast took place near Simonov’s Pond, which after the publication of the story received the name “Liza’s Pond.” In the story “Poor Liza” Karamzin showed himself to be a great psychologist. He managed to masterfully reveal the inner world of his characters, primarily their love experiences. Karamzin’s most important service to literature, writes F.Z.
Erast, visiting Lisa’s house for the first time, enters into a conversation with her mother. He promises to go into their hut before. We guess what is happening in Lisa’s soul from a pure external detail: “Here a joy flashed in Lisa’s eyes, which she wanted to carefully hide; her cheeks were glowing, the dawn on a clear summer evening; she looked at her left sleeve and pinched it with her right hand.” The next day, Lisa goes to the banks of the Moscow River in the hope of meeting Erast. Exhaustive hours of waiting. “Suddenly Lisa heard the sound of oars and saw a boat, and Erast in the boat. All the veins in her were clogged, and of course not from fear. She got up and wanted to go, but she couldn’t. Erast jumped out onto the shore, looked at her with an affectionate look, and took her hand. And Lisa stood with downcast eyes, with fiery cheeks, with a trembling heart.” Lisa becomes Erast’s mistress, and her mother, unaware of their closeness, dreams aloud: “When Lisa has children, know, master, that you must baptize them... Lisa stood next to her mother and did not dare to look at her. The reader can easily imagine what she felt at that moment,” adds Karamzin. The lyrical content of the story is reflected in its style. In a number of cases, Karamzin’s prose becomes rhythmic and approaches poetic speech. This is exactly what Lisa’s love confessions to Erast sound like: “Without your eyes the bright month is dark, without your voice the singing nightingale is boring; Without your breath, the breeze is not pleasant to me.”
The popularity of “Poor Liza” was due in no small part to the simplicity of the plot, the clarity of the composition, and the rapid development of the action. Sometimes a series of rapidly changing scenes resembles a 20th century film script. with the distribution of events over individual frames. Any film director could perceive as a gift such, for example, an excerpt from Karamzin (describing the farewell of Lisa and Erast):
“Liza sobbed - Erast cried - left her - she fell - knelt down, raised her hands to the sky and looked at Erast, who was moving away - further - further - and finally disappeared - the sun rose, and Lisa, abandoned, poor, lost feelings and memory."
The story “Poor Liza” marked a new period in the development of Russian literature. Even if much of it today seems naive, maybe even a little funny, we must evaluate the work taking into account the time when it was created.
The legacy of Karamzin - a poet, writer, journalist, historian - was great and diverse. Not all his contemporaries agreed with him: not everyone, in particular, accepted his language reform or certain historical views. But rarely did anyone doubt the role that Karamzin was destined to play in the history of Russian culture. Its significance can be judged by the dedication preceded by the tragedy “Boris Godunov”:
“Alexander Pushkin dedicates this work, inspired by his genius, to the precious memory of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin for Russians.”
At the end of the 18th century, Russian nobles experienced two major historical events - the peasant uprising led by Pugachev and the French bourgeois revolution. Political oppression from above and physical destruction from below - these were the realities facing the Russian nobles. Under these conditions, the former values of the enlightened nobility underwent profound changes.
A new philosophy is born in the depths of Russian enlightenment. Rationalists, who believed reason to be the main engine of progress, tried to change the world through the introduction of enlightened concepts, but at the same time they forgot about a specific person, his living feelings. The idea arose that it was necessary to enlighten the soul, to make it heartfelt, responsive to other people’s pain, other people’s suffering and other people’s concerns.
N.M. Karamzin and his supporters argued that the path to people’s happiness and the common good is in the education of feelings. Love and tenderness, as if flowing from person to person, turn into kindness and mercy. “Tears shed by readers,” wrote Karamzin, “always flow from love for good and nourish it.”
On this basis, the literature of sentimentalism arose.
Sentimentalism- a literary movement that aimed to awaken sensitivity in a person. Sentimentalism turned to the description of a person, his feelings, compassion for his neighbor, helping him, sharing his bitterness and sadness, he can experience a feeling of satisfaction.
So, sentimentalism is a literary movement where the cult of rationalism and reason is replaced by the cult of sensuality and feeling. Sentimentalism emerged in England in the 30s of the 18th century in poetry as a search for new forms and ideas in art. Sentimentalism reaches its greatest flowering in England (Richardson’s novels, in particular “Clarissa Harlow”, Laurence Sterne’s novel “A Sentimental Journey”, Thomas Gray’s elegies, for example “The Country Cemetery”), in France (J.J. Rousseau), in Germany ( J. W. Goethe, the Sturm and Drang movement) in the 60s of the 18th century.
Main features of sentimentalism as a literary movement:
1) Image of nature.
2) Attention to the inner world of a person (psychologism).
3) The most important theme of sentimentalism is the theme of death.
4) Ignoring the environment, circumstances are given secondary importance; reliance only on the soul of a simple person, on his inner world, feelings that are always initially beautiful.
5) The main genres of sentimentalism: elegy, psychological drama, psychological novel, diary, travel, psychological story.
Sentimentalism(French sentimentalisme, from English sentimental, French sentiment - feeling) - a state of mind in Western European and Russian culture and the corresponding literary direction. Works written in this genre are based on the reader's feelings. In Europe it existed from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia - from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century.
If classicism is reason, duty, then sentimentalism is something lighter, these are the feelings of a person, his experiences.
The main theme of sentimentalism- love.
Main features of sentimentalism:
- Avoiding straightness
- Multifaceted characters, subjective approach to the world
- Cult of feeling
- Cult of nature
- Revival of one's own purity
- Affirmation of the rich spiritual world of the low classes
The main genres of sentimentalism:
- Sentimental story
- Trips
- Idyll or pastoral
- Letters of a personal nature
Ideological basis- protest against the corruption of aristocratic society
The main property of sentimentalism- the desire to imagine the human personality in the movement of the soul, thoughts, feelings, the disclosure of the inner world of man through the state of nature
The aesthetics of sentimentalism is based- imitation of nature
Features of Russian sentimentalism:
- Strong didactic setting
- Educational character
- Active improvement of the literary language through the introduction of literary forms into it
Representatives of sentimentalism:
- Lawrence Stan Richardson - England
- Jean Jacques Rousseau - France
- M.N. Muravyov - Russia
- N.M. Karamzin - Russia
- V.V. Kapnist - Russia
- ON THE. Lviv - Russia
Socio-historical foundations of Russian romanticism
But the main source of Russian romanticism was not literature, but life. Romanticism as a pan-European phenomenon was associated with enormous upheavals caused by the revolutionary transition from one social formation to another - from feudalism to capitalism. But in Russia, this general pattern manifests itself in a unique way, reflecting the national characteristics of the historical and literary process. If in Western Europe romanticism arose after the bourgeois-democratic revolution as a unique expression of dissatisfaction with its results on the part of various social strata, then in Russia the romantic movement arose in that historical period when the country was just moving towards the revolutionary clash of new, capitalist in its essence started with the feudal-serf system. This was the reason for the uniqueness in the relationship between progressive and regressive tendencies in Russian romanticism in comparison with Western European. In the West, romanticism, according to K. Marx, arose as “the first reaction to the French Revolution and the Enlightenment associated with it.” Marx considers it natural that under these conditions everything was seen “in a medieval, romantic light.” Hence the significant development in Western European literature of reactionary-romantic movements with their affirmation of an isolated personality, a “disappointed” hero, medieval antiquity, an illusory supersensible world, etc. Progressive romantics had to fight such movements.
Russian romanticism, generated by the impending socio-historical turning point in the development of Russia, became mainly an expression of new, anti-feudal, liberation tendencies in social life and worldview. This determined the progressive significance for Russian literature of the romantic movement as a whole at the early stage of its formation. However, Russian romanticism was not free from deep internal contradictions, which became more and more clear over time. Romanticism reflected the transitional, unstable state of the socio-political structure, the maturation of profound changes in all areas of life. In the ideological atmosphere of the era, new trends are felt, new ideas are born. But there is still no clarity, the old resists the new, the new is mixed with the old. All this gives early Russian romanticism its ideological and artistic originality. Trying to understand the main thing in romanticism, M. Gorky defines it as “a complex and always more or less unclear reflection of all the shades, feelings and moods that embrace society in transitional eras, but its main note is the expectation of something new, anxiety before the new, hasty , a nervous desire to learn this new thing.”
Romanticism(fr. romanticism, from medieval fr. romantic, novel) is a direction in art that was formed within the framework of a general literary movement at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries. in Germany. It has become widespread in all countries of Europe and America. The highest peak of romanticism occurred in the first quarter of the 19th century.
French word romanticism goes back to Spanish romance (in the Middle Ages this was the name given to Spanish romances, and then to knightly romance), English romantic, which turned into the 18th century. V romantic and then meaning “strange”, “fantastic”, “picturesque”. At the beginning of the 19th century. Romanticism becomes the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism.
A vivid and meaningful description of romanticism was given by Turgenev in a review of the translation of Goethe’s Faust, published in Otechestvennye zapiski for 1845. Turgenev proceeds from a comparison of the romantic era with the adolescence of a person, just as antiquity is correlated with childhood, and the Renaissance can be correlated with the adolescence of the human race. And this ratio, of course, is significant. “Every person,” writes Turgenev, “in his youth experienced an era of “genius,” enthusiastic self-confidence, friendly gatherings and circles... He becomes the center of the world around him; he (without realizing his good-natured egoism) does not indulge in anything; he forces himself to indulge in everything; he lives with his heart, but alone, his own, not someone else’s heart, even in love, about which he dreams so much; he is a romantic - romanticism is nothing more than the apotheosis of personality. He is ready to talk about society, about social issues, about science; but society, like science, exists for him - not he for them.”
Turgenev believes that the Romantic era began in Germany during the period of Sturm und Drang and that Faust was its most significant artistic expression. “Faust,” he writes, “from the beginning to the end of the tragedy cares about only himself. The last word of everything earthly for Goethe (as well as for Kant and Fichte) was the human self... For Faust, society does not exist, the human race does not exist; he completely immerses himself in himself; he expects salvation from himself alone. From this point of view, Goethe’s tragedy is for us the most decisive, sharpest expression of romanticism, although this name came into fashion much later.”
Entering into the antithesis of “classicism - romanticism,” the movement suggested contrasting the classicist demand for rules with romantic freedom from rules. This understanding of romanticism persists to this day, but, as literary critic Yu. Mann writes, romanticism “is not simply a denial of the “rules”, but the following of “rules” that are more complex and whimsical.”
Center for the artistic system of romanticism- personality, and its main conflict is between the individual and society. The decisive prerequisite for the development of romanticism were the events of the Great French Revolution. The emergence of romanticism is associated with the anti-enlightenment movement, the reasons for which lie in disappointment in civilization, in social, industrial, political and scientific progress, the result of which was new contrasts and contradictions, leveling and spiritual devastation of the individual.
The Enlightenment preached the new society as the most “natural” and “reasonable”. The best minds of Europe substantiated and foreshadowed this society of the future, but reality turned out to be beyond the control of “reason”, the future became unpredictable, irrational, and the modern social order began to threaten human nature and his personal freedom. Rejection of this society, protest against lack of spirituality and selfishness is already reflected in sentimentalism and pre-romanticism. Romanticism expresses this rejection most acutely. Romanticism also opposed the Age of Enlightenment in verbal terms: the language of romantic works, striving to be natural, “simple”, accessible to all readers, was something opposite to the classics with its noble, “sublime” themes, characteristic, for example, of classical tragedy.
Among the late Western European romantics, pessimism towards society acquires cosmic proportions and becomes the “disease of the century.” The heroes of many romantic works (F.R. Chateaubriand, A. de Musset, J. Byron, A. de Vigny, A. Lamartine, G. Heine, etc.) are characterized by moods of hopelessness and despair, which acquire a universal character. Perfection is lost forever, the world is ruled by evil, ancient chaos is resurrected. The theme of the “terrible world”, characteristic of all romantic literature, was most clearly embodied in the so-called “black genre” (in the pre-romantic “Gothic novel” - A. Radcliffe, C. Maturin, in the “drama of rock”, or “tragedy of fate” - Z. Werner, G. Kleist, F. Grillparzer), as well as in the works of J. Byron, C. Brentano, E.T.A. Hoffmann, E. Poe and N. Hawthorne.
At the same time, romanticism is based on ideas that challenge the “terrible world” - above all, the ideas of freedom. The disappointment of romanticism is a disappointment in reality, but progress and civilization are only one side of it. Rejection of this side, lack of faith in the possibilities of civilization provide another path, the path to the ideal, to the eternal, to the absolute. This path must resolve all contradictions and completely change life. This is the path to perfection, “towards a goal, the explanation of which must be sought on the other side of the visible” (A. De Vigny). For some romantics, the world is dominated by incomprehensible and mysterious forces that must be obeyed and not try to change fate (poets of the “lake school”, Chateaubriand, V.A. Zhukovsky). For others, “world evil” caused protest, demanded revenge and struggle. (J. Byron, P.B. Shelley, S. Petofi, A. Mickiewicz, early A.S. Pushkin). What they had in common was that they all saw in man a single essence, the task of which is not at all limited to solving everyday problems. On the contrary, without denying everyday life, the romantics sought to unravel the mystery of human existence, turning to nature, trusting their religious and poetic feelings.
Romantics turned to various historical eras, they were attracted by their originality, attracted by exotic and mysterious countries and circumstances. Interest in history became one of the enduring achievements of the artistic system of romanticism. He expressed himself in the creation of the genre of the historical novel (F. Cooper, A. de Vigny, V. Hugo), the founder of which is considered to be W. Scott, and the novel in general, which acquired a leading position in the era under consideration. Romantics reproduce in detail and accurately the historical details, background, and flavor of a particular era, but romantic characters are given outside of history; they, as a rule, are above circumstances and do not depend on them. At the same time, the romantics perceived the novel as a means of comprehending history, and from history they moved towards penetration into the secrets of psychology, and, accordingly, modernity. Interest in history was also reflected in the works of historians of the French romantic school (A. Thierry, F. Guizot, F. O. Meunier).
Exactly in the era of Romanticism, the discovery of the culture of the Middle Ages occurs, and the admiration for antiquity, characteristic of the past era, also does not weaken at the end of the 18th - beginning. XIX centuries The diversity of national, historical, and individual characteristics also had a philosophical meaning: the wealth of a single world whole consists of the combination of these individual features, and the study of the history of each people separately makes it possible to trace uninterrupted life through new generations succeeding one after another.
The era of Romanticism was marked by the flourishing of literature, one of the distinctive properties of which was a passion for social and political problems. Trying to comprehend the role of man in ongoing historical events, romantic writers gravitated toward accuracy, specificity, and authenticity. At the same time, the action of their works often takes place in an unusual setting for a European - for example, in the East and America, or, for Russians, in the Caucasus or Crimea. Thus, romantic poets are primarily lyricists and poets of nature, and therefore in their work (as well as in many prose writers), landscape occupies a significant place - first of all, the sea, mountains, sky, stormy elements with which the hero is associated complex relationships. Nature can be akin to the passionate nature of a romantic hero, but it can also resist him, turn out to be a hostile force with which he is forced to fight.