By the end of the 19th century, Russian literature is gaining worldwide fame and recognition. According to the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, they see it as a prophecy "about a new man and his birth from the womb of the Russian soul." The secret of the success of the Russian classics essentially lies in the fact that it overcomes the limited horizons of Western European humanism, in which, starting from the Renaissance, man recognized himself as the crown of nature and the purpose of creation, having appropriated divine functions. At an early stage, humanistic consciousness played its progressive role. It contributed to the emancipation of the creative forces of the human person and gave birth to the "titans of the Renaissance." But gradually revivalist humanism began to reveal a significant flaw. The deification of the free human personality led to the triumph of individualism. Not only creative, but also destructive instincts of human nature were liberated. “People committed the wildest crimes and in no way did they repent of them and they did so because the last criterion for human behavior was considered at that time the person who felt herself in isolation,” noted the famous Russian scientist A. F. Loseev in the work "Aesthetics of the Renaissance".

Russian classical literature asserted in the European consciousness the idea of ​​a new man and a new humanity. A. N. Ostrovsky, at the dawn of the 60s, noted the most essential feature of Russian artistic consciousness: and the punishing personality is in the background and often in the shadows, while here in Russia it is the other way round. art is a special character; let us call it an accusatory character. The more elegant the work, the more popular it is, the more of this accusatory element in it. "

Personal life, isolated from the life of the people, from the point of view of the Russian writer, is extremely limited and meager. “To be a soldier, just a soldier,” decides Pierre Bezukhov, feeling in his soul the “latent warmth of patriotism,” which unites the Russian people in a moment of tragic ordeal and merges drops of human individuality into a living, acting collective, into a spiritualized whole that enlarges and strengthens everyone, who is attached to it.

And vice versa. Any striving to isolate oneself from the life of the people, any attempts at individualistic self-restraint are perceived by the Russian writer as dramatic, threatening the human personality with internal decay. Dostoevsky shows what a catastrophe a fanatical concentration on an idea that is far from popular moral ideals hostile to them. We see how the soul of Raskolnikov is becoming scarce, more and more withdrawn into itself, into the narrow limits of its ideological "arithmetic", how life-giving connections with people around are lost one after another, how the main core of human community - family feelings - is destroyed in the hero's consciousness. For Raskolnikov his own soul, similar to a tomb, becomes a "prison" and a "coffin". It is not for nothing that a parallel arises in the novel with the death and resurrection of the gospel Lazarus from Bethany. Only selfless love Sonechka Marmeladova breaks a hole in the shell of Raskolnikov's loneliness, resurrects his dying self to a new life, to a new birth.

Τᴀᴋᴎᴍ ᴏϬᴩᴀᴈᴏᴍ, understanding personality in Russian classical literature second half of the XIX century went beyond the limited bourgeois ideas about the value of the individual. Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment refuted the arithmetically one-line alternative proclaimed in the mid-19th century by the German philosopher Max Stirner: “To win or to submit are two conceivable outcomes of the struggle. majesty and “the right of sovereignty,” while the latter respectfully and loyally fulfills the “duties of citizenship.” Passing through the temptation of individualistic willfulness, Dostoevsky's heroes come to the discovery that “the self-willed, completely conscious and uncompelled self-sacrifice of all himself for the benefit of all there is ... a sign of the highest development of personality, its highest power, highest self-control, highest freedom of one's own will "(Dostoevsky F.M." Winter Notes on Summer Impressions "). In search of a" new man "Russian literature showed an increased interest in the patriarchal world with its inherent forms of communal life, in which the human personality is almost completely dissolved. Poeticization of patriarchal forms of community is found in Goncharov's "Oblomov" and "Break", in Tolstoy in "Cossacks" and "War and Peace", in Dostoevsky's finale of "Crime and Punishment". But this poeticization did not exclude a critical attitude towards patriarchy on the part of all Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century. They were inspired by the ideal of the "third way", which removes the contradictions between the elementary patriarchal community and egoistic isolation, where a highly developed person remained on his own. Goncharov's artistic thought in Oblomov equally acutely senses the limitations of Oblomov's and Stoltsev's existence and strives for harmony that overcomes the extremes of two opposing lifestyles. Poetising the "world" of the Cossack community with its natural rhythms in the story "Cossacks", Tolstoy recognizes for Olenin, and then, in the epilogue of "War and Peace", and for Pierre Bezukhov, the high truth of moral searches, reflections on the meaning of life, on the human soul, characteristic of a developed intellect. The portrayal of human fate in dialectical unity with the fate of the people has never turned into a belittling of the personal principle in Russian literature, a cult of the small in man. Vice versa. It is at the highest stage of their spiritual development that the heroes of War and Peace come to the truth of life in peace. Russian literature was very distrustful of a person of "caste," "class," of this or that social shell. A persistent drive to recreate complete picture of the hero's connections with the world, of course, forced the writers to show the life of a person in a small circle of his contacts, in the warm bonds of family kinship, friendly brotherhood, and class environment. The Russian writer was very sensitive to spiritual orphanhood, and to the so-called "false community" - to the official, formal association of people, to the crowd seized by destructive instincts - he was irreconcilable. Tolstoy's "latent warmth of patriotism", which rallied a group of soldiers and commanders on the Raevsky battery, also retains that feeling of "nepotism", ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ the Rostovs sacredly kept in their peaceful life. But the countdown began with a small one. Poetising "family thought", the Russian writer went further: "kinship", "sonship", "fatherhood" in his ideas expanded, from the initial cells of human society grew collective worlds embracing people, nation, humanity.

The peasant family in Nekrasov's poem "Frost, Red Nose" is a particle of the all-Russian world: the thought of Daria turns into the thought of a stately Slav, the deceased Proclus is like the Russian hero Mikul Selyaninovich. And the event that happened in the peasant family - death breadwinner - as in a drop of water reflects not even centuries-old, but thousand-year troubles of Russian mothers, wives and brides. Through peasant life being, a centuries-old history emerges. The elements of life are mutually permeable, "everything is like an ocean, everything flows and touches," says Dostoevsky through the mouth of Elder Zosima, "in one place you touch it - at the other end of the world it is given away." The French critic Melchior de Vogue, for example, wrote about Tolstoy: “... we want the novelist to make a selection so that he would single out a person or fact from the chaos of beings and things and study his chosen subject in isolation from others. interdependence of phenomena, he does not dare to break the countless threads connecting a person, an act, a thought - with the general course of the universe; he never forgets that everything is conditioned by everything. "

The breadth of the Russian hero's connections with the world went beyond the narrowly understood time and space. The world was not perceived as a self-sufficient life cut off from the past today, but as a passing moment, burdened with the past and directed into the future. Hence - Turgenev's thought about the power of the past over the present in " Noble nest"," Fathers and Children ", as well as the often repeated motive of the silent participation of the dead in the affairs of the living. Hence the appeal to cultural and historical experience in illuminating the character of a literary hero. Oblomov's type, for example, has its roots in the depths of centuries. , whose Oblomov laziness was generated by the services of three hundred Zakhars, by some peculiarities of his character is associated with the epic hero Ilya Muromets, with the wise fabulous simpleton Emelya, and at the same time he has something of Hamlet and the sadly funny Don Quixote. world spiritual experience: the shadows of Napoleon and the Messiah hover over the image of Raskolnikov, the face of Christ is guessed behind the figure of Prince Myshkin.

Russian realism of the middle of the 19th century, without losing its social acuteness, comes to philosophical questions, raises the eternal problems of human existence. Saltykov-Shchedrin defined, for example, the pathos of Dostoevsky's work: “In terms of the depth of his intention, the breadth of the tasks of the moral world developed by him, this writer ... not only recognizes the legitimacy of those interests that concern modern society, but even goes further, enters the realm of foresight and forebodings, which constitute the goal not of immediate, but of the most distant quests of mankind. will be enough to agree that this is such a task before which all sorts of questions about women's labor, about the distribution of values, about freedom of thought, etc., pale in solutions to all other issues of interest to society seem to be only intermediate stations. "

The search by Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century for "world harmony" led to an irreconcilable collision with the imperfection of the surrounding reality, and this imperfection was realized not only in social relations between people, but also in the disharmony of human nature itself, which clothe each individually unique phenomenon, each personality with an implacable death. Dostoevsky argued that "man on earth is only a developing being, therefore, not finished, but transitional."

The heroes of Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Tolstoy were acutely worried about these questions. Pierre Bezukhov says that life can have meaning only if this meaning is not denied, is not extinguished by death: "If I see, I clearly see this staircase that leads from plant to man ... why should I suppose, that this staircase ... is interrupted by me, and does not lead further and further to higher beings. I feel that I not only cannot disappear, as nothing disappears in the world, but that I will always be and always have been. " ...

“To hate!” Exclaims Yevgeny Bazarov. “Yes, for example, you said today, passing by the hut of our head Philip, - she is so nice, white, - now, you said, Russia will then reach perfection when the last man has this the same premises, and each of us should contribute to this ... And I also hated this last man, Philip or Sidor, for whom I have to get out of my skin and who will not even say thank you to me ... and why would I thank him? Well, he will live in a white hut, and a burdock will grow out of me; well, and then? "

The question of the meaning of human existence is posed here with the utmost acuteness: it comes about the tragic essence of the human idea of ​​progress, about the price with which it pays off. Who will justify the countless sacrifices that faith demands for the good of future generations? And will future generations be able to bloom and bliss, consigning to oblivion the price at which their material well-being was achieved? Bazarov's doubts contain problems over which Dostoevsky's heroes from Raskolnikov to Ivan Karamazov will fight. And the ideal of "world harmony" to which Dostoevsky is heading includes not only the idea of ​​socialist brotherhood, but also the hope for the rebirth of human nature itself, right up to the hopes for future eternal life and general resurrection.

The Russian hero often neglects personal benefits and comforts, is ashamed of his well-being, if it suddenly comes to him, and prefers self-restraint and inner restraint. So his personality responds to an acute awareness of the imperfection of social relations between people, the imperfection of human nature, the fundamental foundations of being. He denies the possibility of happiness bought at the price of oblivion of past generations, oblivion of fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, he considers such self-righteous happiness unworthy of a sensitive, conscientious person.

Russian classical literature felt anxiety for the fate of mankind at that stage of its history, when, in violation of great religious truths, a fanatical belief in science, in its absolute impeccability, arose, when it seemed to radical thinkers of the revolutionary enlightenment persuasion that the power of reason could immediately eliminate the social imperfection. By all means, our classical literature strove to contain this unbridled, unbridled impulse. Let us recall Platon Karataev with Tolstoy, Sonechka Marmeladova, Alyosha Karamazov and Elder Zosima with Dostoevsky. Let us recall the wary attitude of Russian writers to the active person. Was it not a presentiment of the danger of a self-deified human mind that forced Goncharov to stigmatize Stolz and put the "lazy" Oblomov on a pedestal?

Turgenev in his Bazarov, Dostoevsky in his Raskolnikov, Tolstoy in Napoleon not for that reason - did not focus their attention on the tragedy of a courageous innovator, a reckless radical capable of chopping down a living tree national culture, to break the link of times? And even Saltykov-Shchedrin, in the finale of The History of a City, warned through the autocrat Gloom-Burcheev: "Someone will come who will be more terrible than me!" And in the 90s Chekhov never tired of warning the Russian intelligentsia: "Nobody knows the real truth."

But to the warnings of the Russian classical literature the active century of wars, revolutions and global social upheavals turned out to be not very sensitive. Russia was destined to go through the stage of deification of finite human truths, through a faith that is noble in its intentions, but terribly bloody in execution, in a revolutionary-transforming mind capable of creating a paradise on a sinful earth.

The lessons of the classics were completely forgotten. The intense spiritual labor of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky was contemptuously branded as "foolishness in Christ" or as reactionary "Dostoevism." But it was Dostoevsky, in the finale of Crime and Punishment, in Raskolnikov's prophetic dream, who foresaw the impending crisis of revival humanism, the crisis of European civilization, which deified itself at the end of the 19th century, decided to take "all the capital" at once and did not want to "wait for favors from nature ".

V.S.Soloviev articles, dedicated to the memory Dostoevsky, formulated the truths to the discovery of which came together with the creator of "Crime and Punishment" Russian classical literature. She showed above all that "individuals, even the best people, do not have the right to rape society in the name of their personal superiority." She also showed that "public truth is not invented by individual minds, but is rooted in popular feelings."

The deepest nationality of Russian classical literature was also in a special view of the life of the people, in its special relation to the thought of the people. Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century, speaking out against the self-deification of the masses. Οʜᴎ they distinguished the people as an integral unity of people, inspired by the upper light of simplicity, goodness and truth, from the human crowd, seized by the moods of group egoism. This confrontation between the people and the crowd was especially clearly shown by Tolstoy in the epic novel War and Peace.

The lessons of Russian classical literature have not yet been mastered and not even fully understood, we are just making our way to their comprehension, passing through the bitter experience of the historical upheavals of the 20th century. And in this sense, the Russian classics are still ahead, not behind us.

The world significance of Russian literature of the 19th century - the concept and types. Classification and features of the category "World significance of Russian literature of the 19th century" 2017, 2018.

Yuri SOKHRYAKOV

On the global significance of Russian classical literature of the 19th century

And if we pass in thought from Pushkin to Lermontov, Gogol,
Tyutchev, L.N. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Leskov, Chekhov,
then we will see the brilliant flowering of the Russian spirit from the roots of Orthodoxy.

Nowadays, it is hardly possible to imagine a picture of the global literary process in its entirety without understanding the role played by Russian classical literature. 19th century... Interest in her all over the world is predetermined, on the one hand, by the whole course of the spiritual and aesthetic development XX century, and on the other - a high level of Russian realism, which created artistic values ​​of world significance.

The flourishing of Russian classics in the 19th century. many foreign researchers call the "golden age", a kind of Renaissance, the last and "the greatest of all, even in comparison with the Italian, German and French Renaissance" (J. McCale). Another English critic, M. Murray, also remarked: "The powerful inspiration, which so strangely and majestically came from the old poets of the English Renaissance, reappears in modern Russian novels."

At present, the fact of the universal significance of Russian literature is not only generally recognized, but is an object of close study by both domestic and foreign researchers. And many critics in various countries, analyzing certain phenomena of modern literary reality, invariably turn to the works of Russian classics as unattainable standards in the artistic sphere.

In Europe, already in the 70s of the last century, they drew attention to the originality and depth of Russian literature, which reflected the spiritual and moral experience of its people and raised the art of the novel, short story, and drama to new heights. , - asserted the prominent French literary critic of the last century E. M. de Vogue. “Young people find in him the intellectual food they crave and which our exquisite literature cannot offer them. I am convinced that the influence of the great Russian writers will be beneficial for our depleted art. "

The words of the French researcher turned out to be prophetic, and now it has become commonplace to think that Russian realism has had a significant impact on modern Western literature. “It would be absurd to deny,” remarks the American critic D. Davy in the preface to his book Russian Literature and the Modern English Novel, “that Russian novelists have had a powerful influence on really serious English and American prose writers ... For many reasons, this impact has never was formal. The true way of analyzing the history of the Russian novel in English translations and the history of how the Anglo-Saxon world reacted to the Russian novel is to study the response to the challenge posed to Anglo-American culture by the Russian novel. "

What was the challenge? To answer this question, it is necessary to remember that in recent decades of the last century, a characteristic feature of the cultural life of the West was the flourishing of aesthetic, naturalistic and decadent tendencies, which manifested themselves not only in literature, but also in other spheres of art. In this atmosphere, the appeal to Russian classics was not just a tribute to the aesthetic "exoticism".

The interest in Russian literature that flared up in the last decades of the 19th century marked the beginning of a general enthusiasm for Russian ballet, music, and painting. This hobby took place in such intense forms that Western researchers started talking about "Russian fashion", "Russian fever", etc. The emergence of "Russian fashion", according to the English critic G. Phelps, dates back to 1912, when K. Garnett published her translation of "The Brothers Karamazov": "It is generally accepted that this date marks the true beginning of the Russian novel in England."

Another English literary critic, F. Hemmings, remarks with some humor that the real "invasion" of the Russians into France "did not take place in 1814, but 70 years later." This "invasion", according to the critic, was "bloodless and carried out through printed pages that restored certain aesthetic ideals that had faded in exile, and which for a short time established a compromise peace in the seething maelstrom of Paris. literary life».

Speaking about the role of the Russian classics in the development of critical realism in US literature, the French researcher R. Michaud emphasizes that the modern novel in the United States could not have become what it is without Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Chekhov. The American critic I. Wile also wrote about close attention to the works of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Mayakovsky, Yesenin, Bulgakov: "No other country has a literature that would enjoy a higher reputation among American intellectuals than Russian and Soviet literature."

It is difficult to find in the XX century a major artist who would not pay tribute to and gratitude to the Russian classics. “I did not know a word of Russian, and the German translations, in which I read the great Russian authors of the 19th century in my youth, were very weak,” T. Mann admitted. "However, I must count this reading as one of the greatest events in my education." Among all modern foreign literature, there is no one that would have had a greater influence on Japanese writers and readership than Russian, ”said another classic of the 20th century, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, who considered the Tolstoy Natasha and Sonya to be his sisters. “Even young people who are not familiar with Japanese classics know the works of Tolstoy Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov. From this alone it is clear how much to us. to the Japanese, Russia is close. " Another prominent Japanese writer, Kenzaburo Oe, recalled: “If we talk about my writing path, then we can say that I learned the method of mapping life, penetrating into the inner world of man from Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I read "The Brothers Karamazov" twelve times, about the same number of "War and Peace", I have repeatedly re-read "Anna Karenina."

The famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda got acquainted with the Russian classics thanks to his spiritual and literary mentor, the poet Gabriele Mistral. Later, recalling this, he wrote: “I visited her very rarely. But each time he left with several donated books. These were always Russian novels, which she considered the most outstanding phenomenon in world literature. I can say that Gabriela opened for me a serious and terrible world, shown by Russian writers, and that Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov became my greatest addiction. I am not parting with them even now. "

Acquaintance with the works of Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky. Gogol. Chekhov. Leskov, Turgenev, - admits the modern Italian novelist Luigia Malerba, - an indispensable stage “in the development of every cultured person in the West. Some of your books, especially such as Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, played a role in the formation of modern prose, in a break with comfortable psychological conditions, the foundations of which were laid by the novel of the XIX century ... All Western culture is in debt to your country. "

There are countless numbers of such statements. It is important at the same time that the influence exerted on the most diverse writers by Russian literature is a complex creative process, not reducible to mechanical, one-sided influence, for any literary interaction is a dialectically interconnected process due to internal aesthetic needs, as well as individual inclinations of one or another. artist.

At one time, Dostoevsky answered the question "Whom do you put higher: Balzac or yourself?" answered: "Each of us is dear only to the extent that he brought something of his own, something original to literature." These words touch upon the essence of creative relationships, on the basis of which the world literary process is taking shape. Each of the national literatures brings into this process what is absent in other literatures of the world or is there in an insufficiently developed form. Reflecting on the process of literary interconnections, Leo Tolstoy once remarked: “I think that every nation uses different methods to express a common ideal in art and that thanks to this we experience special pleasure, once again finding our ideal expressed in a new, unexpected way. French art made this very impression of discovery on me at one time, when I first read Alfred de Vigny, Stendhal, Victor Hugo and especially Rousseau. "

In fact, here Tolstoy came close to the question of the relationship between the national and the universal in art - an issue that has now acquired particular relevance in connection with the growth of social, political, economic and cultural contacts between nations and peoples. The nationally specific, original, being a form of expression of the common to all mankind, contributes to the all-round development and enrichment of nations, the spiritual flourishing of mankind. The full development of a nation is impossible without mutual cooperation and respect for the spiritual and cultural values ​​created by other peoples. No, then only mankind will live a full life, - argued F. M. Dostoevsky, - when every nation develops on its own principles and brings from itself to the total amount of life some particularly developed side ... After all, only then can we bother about the common to all mankind, when we develop the national in ourselves ”.

Therefore, talking about the role that Russia played in the spiritual and aesthetic life of the West does not at all mean nationalist disregard for the achievements of other peoples.

Another thing is also important. The perception and assimilation of the creative heritage of Russian classics abroad occurs in complex, often paradoxical ways. According to the English critic G. Phelps, one of the reasons for the misunderstanding and unpopularity of Dostoevsky in European countries last century there was a negative assessment of the Russian writer, given by E. M. de Vogue. Dostoevsky's romantic method, according to the critic, was "decidedly unacceptable to those accustomed to the traditional forms of the English novel of the last century." However, the question arises: why, in the 1920s, this misunderstanding is replaced by the cult of Dostoevsky, a cult transforming, according to the same Phelps, into "hysteria"? How did the First World War affect the consciousness of Europeans and Americans, who began to consider Dostoevsky one of the closest to them? contemporary artists? What is the mechanism of the relationship between the socio-historical cataclysms that occurred in Europe in the first decades of the 20th century and the problems of Dostoevsky's novels?

It is noteworthy that the cult of Dostoevsky begins in Europe and the United States after a long passion for the work of Turgenev and Tolstoy. Another thing is also curious: recently abroad interest in Gogol's work has flared up. The question arises again: why is it in this sequence that the perception of the Russian classics occurs? Why did Turgenev and Tolstoy first, and not Pushkin and Gogol?

Originality historical development it is impossible to understand one or another national literature without connection with the processes that occur in other literatures of the world. The most brilliant writer does not exist in a vacuum, he is connected by thousands of threads with other artists, both his contemporaries and those who have long passed away. In these connections, in the continuous creative comprehension and assimilation of the artistic values ​​accumulated by mankind, the artist's talent blossoms, his vision of life is formed.

It is known that Pushkin knew, read and translated Shakespeare and Dante, Goethe and Byron, Wadsworth and Southey, was well versed in contemporary French prose and poetry. Dostoevsky read with interest E. Poe and Hoffmann, Hawthorne and Dickens, loved Cervantes, Hugo and Schiller, from whom he learned a lot; and in the XX century the novels of Dostoevsky himself had an impact on the development of the world artistic philosophical thought... Leo Tolstoy was fond of Rousseau and Emerson, Stern and Dickens in his youth, and in our time, Tolstoy's work has helped a whole generation of foreign artists to comprehend new topics, to develop urgent socio-psychological and ethical problems. Examples of this kind can be given in unlimited numbers.

From the very beginning of their acquaintance with Russian literature, thoughtful foreign readers and critics paid attention to what distinguishes it from other literatures in the world. The process of comprehending the originality of Russian literature does not stop to this day. And the point is not only in the endless complexity of the problem, but also in the fact that with each decade new religious and philosophical facets of the creative heritage of Russian classics are revealed, consonant with our modernity, helping to understand not only the past, but also the present.

From the very beginning, many abroad saw the originality of Russian realism in the organic unity of the spiritual, ethical and aesthetic. At the same time, the Russian classics were far from abstract moralizing, rational moralizing. “What attracts our attention in this censored literature,” noted the English writer and critic W. Pritchet, “is first of all freedom, freedom from any didacticism and intrigue inherent in our literature”. Another Western researcher, D. Peterson, argues that the Americans in Turgenev's work were amazed by the “manner of narration ... far from both Anglo-Saxon moralizing and French frivolity. The model of realism created by Turgenev, according to the critic, had a significant impact on the formation of realistic principles in the work of a whole generation of American writers of the late 19th - early 20th centuries.

Deep spirituality, poeticization of the ordinary life facts and natural phenomena, the disclosure of the secrets of the universe and the high meaning of earthly existence - all this served as the basis for many foreign critics to call Russian realism, especially Turgenev's realism, "poetic". At the same time, sublime lyricism and emotionality were combined in Russian literature with piercing truthfulness. More than half a century ago, D. Galsworthy in his article "Russian and Englishman" admitted: "Your writers have introduced into fiction ... straightforwardness in the depiction of what they saw, sincerity, amazing for all Western countries, especially amazing and precious for us - the least sincere of all nations. This is undoubtedly one of the manifestations of your ability to plunge deeply into the sea of ​​experience and experience; selflessly and passionately surrender to the search for truth. " In the same article, Galsworthy admitted: “In your literature we are especially captivated by truthfulness, deep and all-embracing tolerance. As far as I know, in our literature you are especially attracted by sanity and affirmative power, that is, that which is unusual and new for us. "

It is noteworthy that the vital veracity of Russian literature never turned into a naturalistic copying of reality, devoid of warmth. Speaking about this, the American art critic D. Gassner emphasizes: “The source of Russian art was humanity. The realism of Flaubert and Maupassant is rationalistic, the realism of the Russian masters is cordial. " "The Russians have revealed to us, if you like, taught us again that," asserted the French critic G. Lanson, "that you can be truthful, accurate and close to life, being merciful, and, to say everything, humane."

“Holy Russian literature, holy above all in its humanity” (T. Mann), struck the world with sympathy for a humiliated and insulted person. Oscar Wilde, arguing that one of the sources of his own moral renewal was “compassion in Russian novels,” said in one of his conversations: “Russian writers are absolutely amazing people. What makes their books so great is the pity embedded in their works ... Pity is the side that reveals the work, what makes it seem endless. "

The emerging ethical pathos of Russian literature was a consequence of the ineradicable striving of its creators towards the ideal of spiritual and moral perfection, i.e. to fulfill the gospel: "Be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect."

This striving for perfection, for life as it should have made a huge impression on such major foreign artists as R. Rolland, T. Mann, E. Hemingway, and contributed to the emergence of new cultural and ethical doctrines in the 20th century. “Beginning in 1900,” admitted the German humanist thinker Albert Schweitzer, “I began to be interested in the problem of our civilization. I asked myself whether this civilization possesses the moral content that we have the right to demand from it. I., of course, nothing more than the influence of Tolstoy prompted me to do this and helped me grow the views that I defended in my book "Culture and Ethics". I assert in it that the ethical principle determines the essence of civilization and that all the other elements of it ... have only a relative meaning. By prompting me to do this, Tolstoy had a decisive influence on my life and on my views. I will never forget how much I owe him. "

Getting acquainted with Russian literature, readers abroad were amazed at something else: every character, whatever his social position, has a soul. In other words, the Russian classics in the person of Gogol and Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Leskov once again reminded that a person is not only a physical and intellectual being, he also has a soul, which is often out of order, which can hurt, to suffer, to suffer and which needs love, pity, compassion. Noteworthy in this respect is the article by the English writer Virginia Wolfe "The Russian Point of View", in which she claims that the essence of Chekhov's stories can be defined by the words: "The soul is sick; the soul was healed; the soul has not healed ... Reading Chekhov, we find that we repeat the word "soul" over and over again ... Indeed, it is the soul that is one of the main characters in Russian literature ... it is of much greater depth and scope in Dostoevsky; prone to severe diseases and severe fevers, she remains the main subject of attention. "

W. Wolfe's interest in the work of Chekhov was far from accidental. She studied Russian in order to penetrate deeper into the spiritual essence of Russian culture, Russian national character, into the very flesh of the creations of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Chekhov. In this sense, the article "Russian point of view" was programmatic for W. Wolfe, because it reflected her most intimate thoughts about Chekhov's art, about his ability to reflect on serious problems of its time.

The originality of Russian realism, so clearly manifested in the work of Chekhov. W. Wolfe sees in "simplicity, the absence of tension in the idea that in a world full of misfortunes, the main duty of a person is to understand our neighbors, and not from an angle - because it is easy, but from the heart." As if developing T. Mann's thoughts about Russian literature, the English writer continues: “In all great Russian writers we find traits of holiness, if compassion for the suffering of others, love for others, the desire to achieve a goal worthy of the strictest requirements of the spirit, constitute holiness. It is this holiness that makes us ashamed of our own soulless mediocrity and turns so many of our famous novels into tinsel and trickery. "

And W. Wolfe comes to the conclusion that when talking about the state of modern English literature “it is hardly possible to do without mentioning Russian influence, and if Russians are mentioned, you risk feeling that to write about any literature other than their own - waste of time".

“It is no coincidence that exactly domestic classics Already in the last century, they began to sound the alarm about the clogging of the noosphere, expressed in a seemingly harmless shift in the concepts of good and evil. The concept of evil and good is being violated more and more in our sick society, - wrote F.M.Dostoevsky. - Which of us, in conscience, now knows what is evil and what is good? Everything has turned into a controversial point, and everyone interprets and teaches in their own way. "

Unshakable Christian ideas about good and evil should play a primary role in the life of a real artist, Leo Tolstoy never tired of repeating; moreover, - he continued, - it is impossible to become an artist without drawing a clear boundary for oneself between these two morally opposite categories. "

Russian classics were convinced that pollution of the spiritual climate of the planet is no less dangerous than physical pollution of the environment. The ecology of the spirit is no less important for the existence of mankind than the ecology of nature. Even the slightest distortion of the spiritual and moral climate of the planet leads straight to the moral degradation of hundreds of thousands of people. And as you know, a morally depraved person is a threat not only to the surrounding nature, but also to the existence of a person as a species. After all, in order for two world massacres and an ecological crisis to become possible, it was necessary to "prepare" the ground. I needed a long period defamation of traditional religious, spiritual and cultural values ​​that have been developed by mankind for centuries. This task was objectively solved by a whole galaxy of European thinkers: A. Schopenhauer, Z. Freud, F. Nietzsche, O. Spengler and others. the role in the distortion and clogging of the noosphere is far from underestimated. One of the first to understand this and to speak about it at the top of his voice was Thomas Mann. Following the Russian classics, on whose works he was brought up in his youth, Thomas Mann argued: the more talented this or that figure in science and art, the greater is his responsibility for the state of the spiritual atmosphere; it is the scientific and artistic intelligentsia that bears absolute responsibility for the purity of the noosphere - not only during its lifetime, but also after death.

The role of Russian classical literature in the modern world predetermined the depth of artistic and philosophical understanding of personality problems. The striving of the Russian classics to solve the fundamental questions of life gives their creations a special philosophical tension. The heroes of Russian literature, when solving personal questions of their lives, invariably face moral, philosophical and religious problems that occupy a significant place in Lermontov's poetry and prose and even in Chekhov's lyrical plays. The largest representatives of European philosophical thought - from Heidegger to Sartre - argue that Dostoevsky and Tolstoy stand at the origins of the doctrines they develop, who, in their opinion, touched upon such problems of human existence as the absurdity of being, alienation of man, etc.

Solving the problem of personality, the Russian classics showed how the natural human desire to reveal their individuality is often transformed into unlimited self-will, predatory egoism, leading not to the flourishing of the personality, but to its spiritual degradation and physical death. Investigating the futility of such forms of self-assertion, they came to the conclusion that such ways of self-realization of a personality are fiction, an illusion.

Some critics in the West see the artistic and philosophical depth of the Russian classics in its struggle with the concept of man as "an uncomplicated, unambiguous being, capable of solving the problems facing him in a rational way." The English literary critic R. Piis writes about this in a book about Dostoevsky, published in Cambridge. This idea is also found in other works of Western researchers who argue that Russian literature breaks with the traditions of the Enlightenment, which perceived a person in a rationalistic way. However, the situation is somewhat different. The Russian classics of the 19th century, being the heir and continuer of the classical tradition of past eras, including the Age of Enlightenment, significantly expanded and deepened the educational understanding of humanism. And what exactly is the expansion and deepening - sometimes a wide variety of answers are given to this question.

The fact of world significance was the appearance in Russian literature of the 19th century. The so-called "little" person. This is confirmed by the statements of many foreign writers. Speaking about his interest in Russian literature, the recognized master of the detective genre Georges Simenon admitted: “I learned from Gogol the ability to penetrate into the hidden drama of a little man’s life, a life that can be crippled because of a purely external, at first glance, insignificant reason. I studied and am still learning from Gogol to give a tragic sound to the imperceptible destinies of little people. "

“We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat,” writes the Irish critic F. O “Connor. literature was not ... As far as I know, this was the first appearance in the literature of a "little" person. "And then O" Connor, not without reason, asserts that it is enough to read the passage in which the hunted Akaki Akakievich exclaims: "Oh, leave me alone. .. Why do you offend me? "- to feel that without this many things by Turgenev, Maupassant, Chekhov, Sherwood Anderson and Joyce could never have been written."

The fate of a "little" person in a spiritless reality has long been of interest to world literature. However, it was Gogol who managed to give this theme a unique sound. Pity and sympathy for a humiliated and insulted person permeate not only many of Gogol's works, but all Russian literature as a whole. This pity, this compassion is a unique phenomenon in world literature, generated by the Russian Orthodox worldview.

Akaki Akakievich, Makar Devushkin, Marmeladov - all of them appear as victims of blatant injustice. Their humiliation and insult are determined by the inability to be themselves; at every step they are made to feel their psychological inferiority. This inner inferiority was not felt by the "little people" in West European literature of the 18th century, who, although they were powerless representatives of the third estate, nevertheless actively defended their rights in their personal lives. An example of this is Figaro, who emerges victorious in a clash with Count Almaviva. And Saint-Pré in Rousseau's novel "New Eloise" is not at all a downtrodden creature that can be placed next to Akaki Akakievich. It is to him that the aristocrat Julia gives her heart, who loves him, a commoner, and not Baron Wolmar, her husband. In essence, both Saint-Pré and Hoffmann's Anselm, not to mention Stern's heroes, are not at all humiliated and insulted. Even Richardson's Pamela and Clarice are not, for they are able to actively defend their dignity and honor. The same can be said of Emilia Galotti Lessing and the daughter of the court musician Miller in Schiller's Treachery and Love. All of them, almost on equal terms, enter the struggle against the world of aristocratic idleness, feudal despotism and tyranny.

Beginning with Pushkin and Gogol, Russian classics not only perceived the complexity of an ordinary, unremarkable person, but categorically affirmed his inexhaustible spiritual and spiritual wealth, the psychological significance of his inner world. It turned out that this world is not a funny exoticism, reduced to sentimental banality: “ and a peasant woman knows how to love. In the peasant-worker, the Russian classics saw not so much an aesthetic phenomenon as the creator and custodian of spiritual and aesthetic values. This attitude towards the people was one of the fundamental principles of Russian realism, a kind of foundation on which its aesthetics rested.

Another thing is also important. Investigating the problem of personality, the Russian classics invariably came to the conclusion that self-determination of a person, his formation as a person, is impossible outside the spiritual sphere. A person cannot become a Personality without defining his ethical attitude towards others, the world, God, without realizing his personal sinfulness and the need for spiritual and moral improvement.

Representatives of Western existentialism do not seem to notice that Dostoevsky, whom they love to refer to so much, never believed that a person becomes himself after breaking ties with others. On the contrary, according to Dostoevsky, a person (whether Raskolnikov or Smerdyakov), who has placed himself outside of God, has broken his moral ties with people, comes to spiritual collapse and to physical destruction. Some foreign critics seem not to notice another fact: Dostoevsky had firm and unambiguous criteria developed personality... In "Winter Notes on Summer Impressions", he argued that "a rebellious and demanding person, first of all, should have all of his I, all of himself sacrificed to society and not only not demand his right, but, on the contrary, give it to society without any conditions."

Throughout his life, Dostoevsky fought against the utilitarian-positivist understanding of the good, against the thesis "it is beneficial to be good", against the only answer that positivism can give to the question: "Why is it absolutely necessary to be noble?" It would be wrong, however, to understand this as a struggle against humanism. With all his creativity, Dostoevsky asserted not profitability (the very term "profitability" was deeply antipathetic to Dostoevsky due to a certain amount of mercantilism contained in it), but the invincibility of goodness in the human soul. It is this irresistibility of good that ultimately triumphs in the soul of Raskolnikov, who in the epilogue accepts the Orthodox truth of Sonya. It is precisely this irresistibility of good that prevails in the soul of Dmitry Karamazov, as well as in the soul of the young skeptic Kolya Krasotkin. This invincibility of good makes Grushenka spiritually reborn. Moreover, the invincibility of good is affirmed by Dostoevsky at an incomparably higher level than it was done before him. This is due to the fact that good in his novels does not just triumph over evil, as it happens in melodrama - good triumphs over evil in a fierce struggle, in a life-and-death struggle. "The Devil struggles with God, and the battlefield is the hearts of people!" - declares Mitya Karamazov.

Dostoevsky's fundamentally new approach to portraying the hero is that the latter appears to him as a being capable not only of good deeds, but also of cruelty towards others. This, however, does not mean that the writer was a supporter of ethical dualism and that in his heroes good and evil exist on equal terms. While recognizing man's freedom of will, Dostoevsky also recognized his responsibility, his ability to influence the environment. The writer was a fierce opponent of the notorious formula "the environment is stuck", that is, opposed "mechanical determinism", which, in his opinion, brings a person to complete impersonality, to complete liberation of him from all moral personal duty, from all moral responsibility.

“For a century,” wrote the American critic B. Brasol in the early 1930s, “Russian literature amazed civilized mankind: the names of Tolstoy, Gogol, Turgenev, Chekhov, Dostoevsky struck the mind and heart of modern man: their deep vision of the world and noble spirituality has enriched human culture. We meditate with them, we grieve, we share their doubts and sufferings, they have become a part of ourselves, we have become a part of them, and their fates are strangely connected with ours. On the literary Olympus, Russian classics have rightfully taken their rightful place, and neither fashion nor time can change this. The echoes of their deep ideas can be traced not only in oriental literatures - they are felt ... and in reflections on the naturalistic method of Zola, and in the mystical dramas of Maeterlinck, and in the sad dreams of Knut Hamsun, and in the restless short stories of Maupassant, and in the refined works of the Polish impressionists. .. ".

A certain sequence of mastering foreign literary-critical thought is revealed. creative experience Russian writers. The first to become known and appreciated were Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov and Gorky. In the middle of the 20th century, Western readers and critics also appreciated Gogol; today he is considered one of the most modern artists around the world. And only after the greatness of the Russian classics as a whole was revealed to the whole world, the realization came that the origins of this greatness lie in the genius of Pushkin. Although translations of Pushkin's works began to be published abroad in the first half of the last century, the understanding of its significance for Russian and world literature occurs only in our time. Pushkin becomes clear to the foreign reader thanks to Turgenev and Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky and Gogol, who continued the Pushkin traditions and followed the path indicated by him. Gradually, Pushkin ceases to seem just an entertaining storyteller - they see him as the creator of the artistic traditions of the entire 19th century. Emphasizing this, Columbia University professor K. Mening wrote in 1934: “Pushkin's greatness is hardly recognized, but it is becoming more and more obvious that Pushkin, with his sense of harmony and proportion, had a significant impact not only on Gogol and Dostoevsky, but also on other Russians classics of the last century, and in this sense the importance of Kushkin can hardly be overestimated. "

The prophetic words of Gogol that Pushkin is a world-historical phenomenon are confirmed. The name of Pushkin is now placed next to the names of Dante and Shakespeare, Cervantes and Goethe, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. Pushkin has firmly entered our daily spiritual life, which we sometimes simply do not notice.

Being not only a great artist, but also a genius thinker, Pushkin penetrated into the deepest, hidden laws of life. In two or three words, he is able to express such ideas that do not lose their relevance today and that are worth voluminous monographs. Emphasizing this, A. Brigue in his book about Pushkin, published in London in 1983, says: “Pushkin's ideas are suggested so naturally ... that at first they do not seem to be thoughts, all the more serious. The phenomenon of Pushkin consists in the fact that people learn from him without stress and almost without realizing it. " Here the critic asserts that "Eugene Onegin, this brilliant example of style, is full of complex and deep thoughts."

One of the reasons for the delayed discovery of Pushkin abroad is the difficulty of translation. However, despite these difficulties, the foreign reading world is gradually beginning to master Pushkin's legacy. Speaking about this, the American critic Irwin Wyle, in an interview with a correspondent of Literaturnaya Gazeta back in 1986, noted: “Pushkin is the greatest poet, and poetry, as you know, is difficult to translate into a foreign language. Moreover, such as Pushkin's, where every detail is significant, where there are no decorations at all, where everything is subordinated to the movement of meaning. However, over the past 15–20 years, Pushkin has stepped far ahead in his popularity throughout the world. We kind of rediscovered the miracle of his poetry - its amazing musicality, harmony, its highest wisdom For me, Pushkin is the Mozart of the 19th century. There were no taboo topics for him. Whatever subject he touched with his magic pen - love, politics, friendship, philosophy - everything was instantly colored with the subtlest poetic light, filled with significance and power. "

The world-historical significance of Pushkin is also evidenced by the statements of the professor at the University of Calcutta, Shri Shukumar, who claims that Pushkin, along with Prosper Merimee, had a serious impact on the development of the story genre in Bengal. This is also evidenced by the fact that Pushkin is the only foreign writer to whom a monument has been erected in China (on the anniversary of the death of the great poet).

Following Pushkin foreign world gradually begins to master and other difficult to translate Russian classics, for example, Lermontov, Leskov, A. Ostrovsky. A monograph on the work of Goncharov, published in the early 70s in New York, emphasizes the importance of this writer in the development of the genre of the European novel: ancient epic ". Goncharov's novels, the authors of the monograph emphasize, “naturally enter the context European literature XIX century. And a deep understanding of his novels requires considering them in this context. The theme of the collapse of illusions, developed by Goncharov, underlies Balzac's Lost Illusions, Flaubert's Madame Bovary ... But Oblomov in its structure and aesthetic principles turned out to be close to the greatest achievements of our century in the field of romance. The depth and charm of this image is confirmed by the fact that in 1963 and 1964. on the stages of Paris and London, two different performances of "Oblomov" were successfully performed. And while literary achievements will be judged for their inherent merits, Oblomov will continue its slow triumphant march, evoking agitated feelings of surprise, pity and laughter at the whims of the human soul. "

The image of Oblomov ranked among such eternal literary types as Don Juan, Faust, Hamlet, Don Quixote, and the concept of "Oblomovism" is used by many foreign literary figures to explain similar moral and psychological phenomena in various countries of the world. Thus, the Cuban novelist A. Carpentier, speaking of Latin American writers of the first decades of the 20th century, noted that some of them were “struck by an illness that we, recalling the famous character of Goncharov, would call Oblomovism ... Like Goncharovsky Oblomov, such an intellectual is overwhelmed deep in his soul good intentions, but his aversion to any systematic activity, to any form of self-determination paralyzes him in the face of the worst injustices ... And although due to its Oblomovism the generation of the nine hundred years retired from all political activity, nevertheless it was very concerned about the future of America as a continent. "

The role of Russian classical literature in the world literary process at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries is not least determined by the fact that it helped many talented artists overcome the extremes of naturalism. "The Russian novel," says the American researcher E. Machnik, "became known abroad at the moment when French naturalism made itself known by the works of Zola and his followers ... From the very beginning, the Russian novel was viewed in the West as an antipode to" Zolaism. "

The English critic F. Hemmings, linking the role of Russian literature with the process of "disintegration of French naturalism", emphasized that the book by E. M. de Vogue "Russian Novel" was the most effective part of anti-naturalist propaganda that was ever conducted in the West. "

Russian classics have resisted and continue to resist decadence and modernism, lack of spirituality and despair generated by the feeling of the absurdity of being, the aestheticization of evil, identifying it with good, and disbelief in the possibility of victory over evil.

At a time when the European consciousness began to show tolerance for the ideas of permissiveness and chosenness, for calls for freeing from moral bonds, love and compassion, these, in Nietzsche's words, dogmas, which allegedly "are guided by slaves" - Russian literature with all possible artistic means revealed the antihumanity of such theories. She proved the hopelessness and illusory nature of inhuman forms of self-assertion, the vital necessity of spiritual and moral self-improvement, in which the Russian classics saw the goal and meaning of earthly existence, a guarantee of overcoming the chaos and entropy reigning in modern reality.

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1. Worldwide importance and national identity Russian literature of the XIX century. Your opinion on the works known to you on this issue. When studying what school topics can you use the methodology for solving the above problem?

In Russia in the 19th century, an unprecedented rise of literature takes place and is included in the cultural process on an equal footing. It is customary to characterize this era as the "golden age", the time of the heyday of creativity and the birth of philosophical thought, the formation of the Russian literary language, which took shape largely thanks to A.S. Pushkin. Literary centrism is an important feature. From the works of the writers of that time, we learn humanity, patriotism, we study our history. On this "classic" more than one generation of people - Humans - has grown up. Romanticism is becoming the leading artistic method, although at the end of the 1830s, realism will take the leading place in literature.

Russian literature is distinguished by its humanity, purposefulness and humanity, striving to express its opinion. In Russia, philosophy is individual. One of the main problems is the problem of morality; each author has his own solutions to this problem. Moral problems became the main one and almost all Russian writers converged on the formation of high ideals. High in Russia is overcoming selfishness and individualism. And the high, active, heroic ones for Russian writers are the most demanding attitude. In Russia it has never been possible to live a separate destiny. The Russian community is always collective. Russ liter is characterized by the moral choice for oneself and for the whole world. Russ the author showed life in the community with the whole world. This is connected with the epic thinking of Russ heroes always communicate with the nation heroes of Gogol Tolstoy. This soil was very good. favorable for the development of novels. Russ novels have had a great influence in the west. The heroes were colossal, they were not familiar to the reader, the Russians knew how to go out to the question of being. But the essence and the opposite moment when the authors penetrated into the national. In order to consider this issue in more detail, you can refer to the work of Kasyanova "Russian national character”In the book, she says that a Russian person is characterized by a value orientation, for example, the ability to achieve a goal. Russia and the West have different goals in life. The idea of ​​raising high feelings and ideals is high and high is selfishness.

The world significance of literature is closely related to national identity: romantics turn to national events, since the 19th century is a century of epochal events on a global scale (the war of 1812), these are changes public conscience, the expressed spirit of patriotism. The reforms of 1861 lead to the polarization of social consciousness and the sense of personality finds its expression in the images of literature. For example, the era of Decembrism gives rise to the ideal of a free personality, thus the theme of a free personality becomes central. The writers' activities were not limited to their subjective spiritual world: they actively showed interest in public life, folklore works and interacted with foreign writers. Therefore, the literature of the 19th century carries a global coverage of the entire social and political life of that time and reflects the attitude of its era. National identity is reflected in the typology of portraits of people, generalization of their vices and pronounced personality traits: 1) In the center is a liter. 19 in the problem of the growth of a sense of personality: the image of a young person does not satisfy the modern way of life 2). A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol outlined the main artistic types that would be developed by writers throughout the 19th century. This is an art type " extra person”, A model of which is Eugene Onegin in the novel by A.S. Pushkin, and the so-called type of "little man", which is shown by N.V. Gogol in his story "The Overcoat", as well as A.S. Pushkin in the story "The Station Keeper".

3). National atmosphere in literature, development of Russian national character

4). Writers condemn the isolation of the intelligentsia from the people, as isolation from their roots. 5). The ideal of personality - the relationship of one personality with the being of the whole people (lack of egocentrism, self-will)

6) the writer's attention to psychological and social analysis. You can also refer to the work of Belinsky look at the Russian liter. In school, this question can be used neither in the introductory Russian lessons of the 19th century. For example, maybe such a topic as thin liters as an art form

2. Problems of periodization of Russian literature of the XIX century. What point of reference do you prefer to take as the basis for the periodization of the writers' creativity studied in the 9th grade?

The purpose of periodization is not to create a rigid scheme, but to designate a number of main landmarks at each stage of the literary movement.

The 19th century began with the formation of romanticism. The ideological prerequisites for romanticism are disappointment in the Great French Revolution in bourgeois civilization in general (in its vulgarity, prosaicity, lack of spirituality). The mood of hopelessness, despair, "world sorrow" is the disease of the century, inherent in the heroes of Chateaubriand, Byron, Musset. At the same time, they are characterized by a sense of hidden wealth and boundless possibilities of being. The poetic works of poets E.A. Baratynsky, K.N. Batyushkova, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.A. Feta, D.V. Davydova, N.M. Yazykov. The work of F.I. Tyutchev ". Nevertheless, the central figure of this time was Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin - Russian poetry of the 19th century was closely connected with social political life country. Poets tried to comprehend the idea of ​​their special destiny. The poet in Russia was considered a conductor of divine truth, a prophet. Adolescence determines the subsequent paths of development of the character of a mature person - this is the significance of this age for human life as a historical whole. 2nd period. In the 2nd half of the 10s, a new revolutionary-romantic trend is emerging in the RL, the cat reaches its rise in the 1st half of the 20s in the TV-ve of Pushkin and the Decembrist poets. Ideological-TV originality of the revolution of romanticism is associated with historical events (the revolution, which developed the ideals of freedom of brotherhood and equality)

Since the middle of the 19th century, the formation of Russian realistic literature has been taking place, which is created against the background of the tense socio-political situation that developed in Russia during the reign of Nicholas I. There is a need to create a realistic literature that sharply reacts to the socio-political situation in the country. Literary critic V.G. Belinsky denotes a new realistic trend in literature. His position is being developed by N.A. Dobrolyubov, N.G. Chernyshevsky. A dispute arises between the Westernizers and the Slavophiles about the paths of the historical development of Russia. Writers turn to the socio-political problems of Russian reality. The genre of the realistic novel is developing. I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, I.A. Goncharov. Socio-political and philosophical issues prevail. Literature is distinguished by a special psychologism.

Second half of the 19th century and was the heyday of Russian critical realism. In the mid-1950s, Russia experienced an unusually powerful social upsurge. The tsarist government was forced to begin preparations for a peasant reform, around which an ideological, political and literary struggle unfolded.

The critical activities of Chernyshevsky and his closest collaborator Dobrolyubov contributed to the penetration of advanced, liberating ideas into literature, and the further and development of realism. In an atmosphere of social upsurge and intense ideological struggle, Russian realist writers have created an unprecedented number of outstanding works of art. In these works, in the full sense of the classical word, the characteristic features of Russian literature were most vividly intertwined: high civic feelings, the breadth of the depiction of life, the deep disclosure of its contradictions. Mercilessly exposing the oppressors of the people - landlords, bourgeois businessmen, high-ranking officials, Russian writers opposed them to working people in whom something did not kill the best human qualities: hard work and dedication, sincerity and spiritual purity.

The literary process of the late 19th century discovered the names of N.S. Leskova, A.N. Ostrovsky A.P. Chekhov. The latter proved to be a master of the small literary genre - the story, as well as an excellent playwright. Competitor A.P. Chekhov was Maxim Gorky. The end of the 19th century was marked by the formation of pre-revolutionary sentiments. The realistic tradition was beginning to fade. She was replaced by the so-called decadent literature

3. Features of the literary life of the 1810s

In the 1810s - eclecticism - mixing of literature. current: sentimentalism, classicism, romanticism. Zhukovsky as the founder of psychological romanticism. An important factor influencing the work of the Romanticists of 1810 was the creation of a reform on the Russian word by Karamzin, where the writer sought to add plasticity and sophistication to the Russian language, introducing foreign borrowings into everyday life, replacing Church Slavonic vocabulary. The poetic works of poets E.A. Baratynsky, K.N. Batyushkova, V.A. Zhukovsky, Byron, A.A. Feta, D.V. Davydova, N.M. Yazykov. The work of F.I. Tyutchev's "Golden Age" of Russian poetry was completed.

The main event of this period is the development of romanticism. The first third of the 19th century is called the “golden age” of Russian culture. Its beginning coincided with the era of classicism in Russian literature and art. In the first decades of the century, poetry was the leading genre in Russian literature. A.S. Pushkin became a symbol of his era. A meteoric rise in the cultural development of Russia. The rise of common life causes fast growth journalism. Many new magazines are springing up. Literary circles appear, which contributed to the aesthetics. self-determination. An ideological struggle is being waged. There are no masterpieces, but the letters and memoirs of the poets say that it was a turbulent era. Mass literature is developing especially

4. I.A. Krylov the fabulist. The people of Krylov's fables

Alongside romanticism, the educational stream in Russian literature, represented by Krylov's fables, continued to live and develop. The author was interested not so much in a person's personal experiences as in the socio-social organism that caused these experiences. He viewed a person as a social, not a private individual. Krylov dared to make the people's consciousness the highest value in his artistic system: he has the common sense of the people - the subject of artistic expression, the supreme judge, who makes a wise, sparklingly cheerful or destroying verdict of reality. a kind of emotionally affecting the mind of the protagonist field)

In the note "On the Preface to the Translation of Krylov's Fables" Pushkin pointed to the "cheerful cunning of the mind, mockery and the picturesque way of expressing himself" as "a distinctive feature in our morals" and it was in this sense that he considered Krylov a "representative of the spirit" of the Russian people. Indeed, the ironic intonation of the story is one of the most important features of his fables.

The problem of nationality put forward before Russian writers the task of overcoming the class limitations of their world outlook and transition to the position of "popular opinion".

Most consistently and impressively, the nationality of Krylov's work was manifested in the fables dedicated to the Patriotic War of 1812 ("The Crow and the Hen", "The Wolf in the Kennel", "Pike and the Cat", "Section", "Wagon Train", "The Cat and the Cook") ... Long before L. Tolstoy, Krylov opposed the official version of victories over Napoleon with his interpretation of them from the standpoint of popular morality. It is no coincidence that in the fable "Siskin and the Hedgehog" (1814), he with sly simplicity refused to "sing" the merits of Alexander I in the victory over the invasion, glorifying Kutuzov as a people's commander.

The uniqueness of fables is in their very idea - just slightly push a person to independently analyze and think carefully about what is the point, who is right and wrong, and why it actually happened. The typicality of the images created by Krylov, the versatility of satire, the author's observation, the ability to convey stable traits human character, true nationality made his fables immortal. From the fact that Krylov's works are completely devoid of high philosophy and rather resemble fairy tales, the meaning of fables concerns the most common situations in our life. This quality of stories makes them so useful for thinking: after all, only in "everyday" simple examples you can see something deeper.

The consciousness of the Russian person was illuminated by Krylov not from the height of the "theories" of learned sages, but by the moral experience of the people, that is, the experience of everyone, without distinction of estates and titles, for any person is a part of the past, present and future history... Reading Krylov's fables, people eagerly learned to understand themselves. The fables of Ivan Krylov are indeed written in an accessible folk language, which, however, does not deprive them of a wealth of artistic and expressive means, with the help of which the beauty of the literary Russian language is revealed. Krylov entered their homes and hearts. From a writer known to literary circles, he immediately, suddenly became "his" all of Russia. Thanks to the light comic language, Krylov's stories are accessible to everyone and positively assimilated by the public. Probably, this is due to the special benevolent proximity to the people and the absence of unnecessary intricate plot lines.

5. The polemics of "archaists" and "innovators" on the issue of the Russian literary language at the beginning of the 19th century

The prose and poetry of Karamzin had a decisive influence on the development of the Russian literary language. Karamzin purposefully abandoned the use of Church Slavonic vocabulary and grammar, bringing the language of his works to the everyday language of his era and using the grammar and syntax of the French language as a model. Karamzin introduced many new words into the Russian language - as neologisms ("charity", "falling in love", "free-thinking", "attraction", "responsibility", "suspicion", "industry", "sophistication", "first-class", " human ") and barbarism (" sidewalk "," coachman "). He was also one of the first to use the letter E., having an extraordinary stylistic flair, he also introduced the Russian language such barbarisms (direct borrowings of foreign words) that organically took root in him: civilization, era, moment, catastrophe, serious, aesthetic, moral, sidewalk and etc.;

The changes in the language proposed by Karamzin caused a stormy controversy in the 1810s. Writer A.S. Shishkov, with the assistance of Derzhavin, founded in 1811 the Conversation of Lovers of the Russian Word society, the purpose of which was to promote the "old" language, as well as criticize Karamzin. Zhukovsky and their followers. In response, in 1815, the literary society "Arzamas" was formed, which mocked the authors of "Conversation" and parodied their works. Many poets of the new generation have become members of the society, including Batyushkov, Vyazemsky, Davydov, Zhukovsky, Pushkin. Literary victory"Arzamas" over "Beseda" consolidated the victory of the language changes introduced by Karamzin.

Sometimes Shishkov's criticism of him was accurate and accurate. Shishkov was outraged by the evasiveness and aesthetic cutesiness in the speech of Karamzin and the “Karamzinists”: he believed that instead of the expression “when travel became a need of my soul”, one can simply say: “when I fell in love with traveling”; In opposition to Karamzin, Shishkov proposed his own reform of the Russian language: he believed that the concepts and feelings that were missing in our everyday life should be denoted with new words formed from the roots not of French, but of Russian and Old Church Slavonic. Starover, an admirer of Lomonosov's language, He advocated the return of literature to the oral folk art, to the popular vernacular, to the Orthodox Church Slavonic bookishness. He reproached the "Karamzinists" for succumbing to the temptation of European revolutionary false teachings. He considered the style of the language to be a sign of the author's ideological affiliation.

It seemed to Shishkov that Karamzin's language reform was unpatriotic and even anti-religious.

Where there is no faith in the hearts, there is no godliness in the language. Where there is no love for the fatherland, the language does not express native feelings. " And since Karamzin reacted negatively to the abundance of Church Slavonic words in Russian, Shishkov argued that Karamzin's innovations distorted his noble majestic simplicity. Shishkov reproached Karamzin for the immoderate use of barbarisms (era, harmony, enthusiasm, disaster), neologisms hated him, artificial words cut his ear: reality, future, erudition.

6. Ideological and artistic originality of creativity of "poets-Radishchevites", their contribution to the development of Russian classicism. Analysis of one poem (student's choice).

The classicists saw the goal of art in the knowledge of truth, serving as the ideal of beauty. They put forward a method for achieving it, based on three central categories of their aesthetics: reason, pattern, taste. All of these categories were considered objective criteria for artistry. From the point of view of the classicists, great works are not the fruit of talent, inspiration, or artistic imagination, but stubborn adherence to the dictates of reason, the study of classical works of antiquity and knowledge of the rules of taste. Thus, they bring artistic activity closer to scientific activity. That is why the rationalistic method of the French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650), which became the basis of artistic knowledge in classicism, turned out to be acceptable for them. Descartes argued that the human mind has innate ideas, the truth of which is beyond doubt. Thus, reason becomes the central concept of the philosophy of rationalism, and then of the art of classicism. The weak side of such a view was the lack of a dialectical view. The world was considered immovable, consciousness and the ideal were immutable.

Character. In the art of classicism, attention is paid not to the particular, individual, accidental, but to the general, typical. Therefore, the character of the hero in literature has no individual traits, acting as a generalization of a whole type of people. The main conflict. The category of mind turns out to be central also in the formation of a new type artistic conflict opened by classicism: the conflict between reason, duty to the state - and feelings, personal needs, passions. No matter how this conflict is resolved - by the victory of reason and duty (like in Corneille) or the victory of passions (like in Racine), only a man-citizen who puts his duty to the state above privacy, is the ideal of the classicists.

Human rights, political and social freedom, nation, nationality - all these great ideas, reflecting the changes in historical reality at the pass from feudalism to capitalism and outlined in the literature of the 18th century, have now become its main content. They also demanded new forms of artistic expression for themselves. In 1801, after the return of A.N. Radishchev from exile, a circle of young like-minded people formed around him - “ Free Society lovers of literature, sciences and arts "- I.P. Pnin, V.V. Popugaev, I.M. Born, A.H. Vostokov and others. They entered the history of literature under the name of poets-Radishchevites. They had their own magazine "Northern Herald" and the almanac "Scroll of the Muses". V different time N.I. Gnedich, K.N. Batyushkov and other writers. The outlook and activities of the Radishchev poets were of an educational nature. They were staunch followers and heirs of both the French and Russian Enlightenment of the 18th century. Members of the "Free Society ..." stood up for respect for the human person, for strict observance of laws, for a fair trial. A citizen, in their opinion, had the right to think freely and fearlessly affirm Truth and Virtue.

In their creative activity, the Radishchev poets were committed to the traditions of classicism. Their beloved poetic genres became an ode, a message, an epigram .. The rationalistic pathos of the general, the non-differentiation of the individual principle from the whole, abstractness in the understanding of man - all this also connected the poetry of the Radishchevites and the civic lyrics of Decembrism with literature XVIII v. and with the poetics of classicism.

Hence, in Pnin's philosophical lyrics, her wide, universal frame, cosmism and allegorism of her images; from classicism in the poetics of the Radishchevites and the solemn flow of verse, measured pathos of poetic syntax, high abstract vocabulary. the philosophical ode to Pnin ("Man") is, as it were, a majestic oratorio,

Classicism as a style is a system of pictorial and expressive means that typify reality through the prism of antique samples, perceived as the ideal of harmony, simplicity, uniqueness, and ordered symmetry. Thus, this style reproduces only the rationalistically ordered outer shell of ancient culture, without transferring its pagan, complex and indivisible essence. The essence of the style of classicism lies not in the antique dress, but in the expression of the view of the world of the person of the absolutist era. It is distinguished by clarity, monumentality, the desire to remove all unnecessary, to create a single and integral impression.

7. The emergence and development of Russian romanticism. Its aesthetic essence and mainstreams. Which of the works that ambiguously resolve the question of the genesis and essence of romanticism are close to you?

“In the 1820s. romanticism became the main event of literary life, struggle, the center of revival and noisy journalistic and critical polemics in Russia. Romanticism in Russia was formed before the country was to enter a period of bourgeois transformations. It reflected the disillusionment of the Russian people with the existing order. It expressed the social forces that began to awaken, the desire for the growth of social consciousness "- this is how Gurevich says about the emergence of romanticism in Russia in his book" Romanticism in Russian Literature. "

Maimin in his book "On Russian Romanticism" says that Russian romanticism was part of European romanticism, therefore in Russian romanticism there are signs of European romanticism, but Russian romanticism also has its origins. Namely, the war of 1812, its consequences for Russian life and self-awareness. "She showed," writes Maimin, "the strength and greatness of the common people." This was the basis for dissatisfaction with the slavish way of life of the common people, and, as a result, for romantic and Decembrist sentiments.

The first who tried to make out what romanticism was were Pushkin and Ryleev, later a treatise by Georgievsky and Galich appears. In the works of Veselovsky, romanticism is seen as a manifestation of liberalism. Zamotin believes that romanticism is a manifestation, an expression of the idealistic in literature. Sipovsky defines romanticism as the individualism of the era. Sokurin says that this is surrealism. In 1957, there was a discussion on the problems of realiasm. On this basis, appeared. collections and monographs about romanticism. One of the works is Sokolov's article "On the debate about romanticism", in which the author gives different points of view on romanticism and makes an important conclusion: each of the definitions contains a grain of truth, but not one of them "does not constitute a feeling of complete satisfaction." because they are trying to define romanticism "by one of its attributes." Meanwhile, “all attempts to embrace romanticism with some single formula will inevitably give a depleted, one-sided and therefore incorrect idea of ​​this literary phenomenon. It is necessary to reveal the system of signs of romanticism and to determine the phenomenon under study by this system ”. And here, in turn, Mann makes his remark: the inadequacy of any differentiated approach to romanticism, the need to "reveal the system of signs" are correctly noted by Sokolov, but at the same time he does not explain the concept of systemicity as such. At the same time, the concept of romanticism will not become truer if we judge it "not by one attribute," but by a number of attributes. There is no obligation to list them: it can be interrupted and resumed at any time. Each new feature is on the same plane as all the previous ones, while the obligatory connection between them would be achieved only if we could penetrate "through them" into the very organization of the artistic phenomenon. Immediately, one cannot fail to note Volkov's introductory article to the book "History of Russian Romanticism", in which the author sets himself the task of clarifying the concept of "romanticism" and "romance" taking into account different national literatures, referring to various works on romanticism, including article by Sokolov, named above. The ambiguity and inconsistency of the theory and history of romanticism, he attributes "more to the history of this problem than to the current state its scientific solution ”. He says that many of the terms of romanticism have already disappeared, have lost their significance and, brushing them aside, he comes to the conclusion that in modern literary criticism there are only two meanings of the term "romanticism". One of them is "the concept of romanticism as a" transforming "side of any truly artistic creation." This concept is most consistently and fully described in the textbook by L.I. Timofeeva "Foundations of the theory of literature." Volkov, in turn, says that although Timofeev's theory of realism-romanticism affirms the unity of objective and subjective content in art, the cognitive and transformative functions of artistic creativity, the choice of the term "romanticism" to denote the transformative side of artistic creativity is clearly arbitrary. He explains this by the fact that the transformative side can be called both sentimentalism and expressionism and intellectualism - after all, these terms, no less than romanticism, indicate precisely the subjective side of artistic creativity, and then the entire diversity of artistic creativity can be replaced by one of its specific historical forms. And then, within the framework of this theory, the term "romance" is more suitable (along with tragedy, satire, etc.). “There remains one, the generally accepted meaning of the term“ romanticism ”, - continues Sokolov, - that which refers to the artistic system, generated at the turn of the 18-19 centuries, and in the first third of the 19th century, a whole era in artistic development humanity. The disputes that are currently going on about romanticism relate mainly to this, in fact, romantic art and to the question of the possibility and availability of such art in later times and today. " Gurevich in his book "Romanticism in Russian Literature" writes: "Romanticism is a revolution in art. The era of romanticism itself is revolutionary, it is a time of great disappointments and expectations, a time of decisive changes in the minds of people. " Then he continues: “ Feature romanticism - dissatisfaction with reality, sometimes deep disappointment in it, deep doubt that life can be built on the principles of goodness, reason, justice. Hence the dream of the reorganization of the world and of man, a passionate desire for sublime idealization appears. " “The unprecedented acuteness of the real and the ideal gives rise to a tense, tragic experience. This duality is a defining feature of romantic art. " Maimin also believes that romanticism is based on disappointment in reality. He considers the opposition of dream and reality, what is possible and what is, to be the deepest phos of romanticism. Gulyaev believes that romanticism and realism are two facets of the process, subject (rum) and object (real). P - the phenomenon of a cat arises in a certain era, passes a certain stage and its time can be accurately determined. The time of the emergence of the 10s, the end of the 30s. Burevich believes that Russian romanticism arises by the 30s, ie Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Ryleev, Yazykov, Pushkin and others are not romantics. The problem of currents arises.

Maimin in his multi-story "On Russian Romanticism" writes that romanticism is a phenomenon that is understood and interpreted by romantics themselves in different ways. Here we can see an explanation of why there are various directions in Russian romanticism. In Gukovsky, you can see several directions of romanticism. The first is presented by Zhukovsky and Batyushkov. They, as Guuovsky said, are the ancestors of Russian romanticism. Although the romanticism of both Zhukovsky and Batyushkov is quite different, their works have one, not unimportant feature: they do not carry any revolutionary ideas that induce a change in the world. Both poets create their own truly romantic world, and prefer to live in it, not trying to bring their ideal into reality. This is a significant difference from the romanticism of the Decembrist or civil, revolutionary, which, on the contrary, creating the image of an ideal world, wanted to embody it in reality, from where the revolutionary ideas and appeals came from. Bright representatives this direction - Ryleev, Kuchelbecker, Bestuzhev-Marlinsky and others. The tragedy on December 25, 1825 on the Senate Square broke the Decembrist ideas about life and changed their work as such. The creativity of Pushkin the Romantic can be defined as a separate direction in romanticism, because, despite the fact that at the beginning of his career, "Pushkin was a supporter of the revolutionary upheaval," he was still not a Decembrist. "Pushkin," as Gukovsky writes in his book "Pushkin and the Problems of the Realistic Style," "began his journey as a collector and unifier of the contradictions and various currents of Russian romanticism." And, moving forward in his evolution, Pushkin quickly passes from romanticism to realism. This transition he makes much earlier than his "fellow pen". Moving on to the fourth and last direction of romanticism, one should return to the catastrophe of December 25, 1825, which, as mentioned above, destroyed the Decembrists' ideas about life. The search for a new concept of reality begins, painful thoughts. The creativity of this direction is characterized by complicated attitude romanticism and realism in the works of writers. The peaks of this trend are Lermontov, Gogol's prose, Tyutchev's lyrics.

Since Oermontov Gogol and Tyutchev illuminate different things in life, they have different paths, different ideas about ideals, this is one whole direction, it can be divided into several more subdirections so that confusion and misconceptions are not created. A different, but still somewhat similar to the previous one, classification of directions of romanticism is proposed by Maimin: 1) Zhukovsky's romanticism, characteristic of the early stage of Russian romanticism, is defined as contemplative; 2) the civil, revolutionary romanticism of the Decembrists, in particular Ryleev, Kokhelbecker, Merlinsky-Bestuzhev: 3) the romanticism of Pushkin, which has a synthetic character and combines the merits of the first and second directions and includes something special, uniquely high; 4) Lermontov's romanticism is the same synthetic, but differently from that of Pushkin. Lermontov develops the tragedy of the second and third trends and the rebellious romanticism of Byron; 5) philosophical romanticism. Presented by Vesevitov, Totchev, prose philosophical works of Vl. Odoevsky. Another classification of the directions of romanticism is presented by Focht: 1) the abstract psychological (Zhukovsky and Kozlov); 2) hedonic (Batyushkov); 3) civil (Pushkin, Ryleev); 4) philosophical (Venivitov, Varatynsky, Vl. Odoevsky); 5) sentimental romanticism - the pinnacle of Russian romanticism (Lermontov); 6) epigones of psychological romanticism (Benediktov, for example); 7) "pseudo-romanticism" (Kukolnik, late Polevoy, Zagoskin). Maimin considers this classification not very convenient due to excessive granularity.

Thus, having considered the main points of view on the emergence of romanticism, its essence and main currents, one can come to the conclusion that there is a very controversial opinion about romanticism. Of the works that ambiguously resolve the question of the genesis and essence of romanticism, the work of Gurevich "Romanticism in Russian Literature" is closest to me.

8. Historical and literary significance of V.А. Zhukovsky. Genre and stylistic originality of his lyrics

Criticism about Zhukovsky.

In Russian science there was a dispute about the historical assessment of Zhukovsky's work. Was he an innovator, progressively moving Russian literature forward? (Zhukovsky is a romantic). Was in his poetry a conservative, even a reactionary, who pulled Russian literature into the yesterday of sentimentalism of the 18th century? Belinsky speaks about this in his work. Our contemporaries agree with his opinion. First, Zhukovsky is a romantic, even the founder, the head of Russian romanticism. Secondly, a necessary and positive predecessor of Pushkin in his historical role. Pushkin considered Zhukovsky to be his teacher.

Although Zhukovsky's romanticism was devoid of activity, the preaching of liberalism and the fight against reaction, it was not at all in its essence a reactionary phenomenon. The world of Zhukovsky's poetry is dreamy. It is into this dreamy world that Zhukovsky seeks to fly away with his soul from the despicable world of reality. He is the poet of his visions, not the poet of reality. It was in this that Pushkin saw something acceptable for progressive poetry.

The stylistic originality of the lyrics.

The essence and idea of ​​Zhukovsky's style, his poetry is the idea of ​​a romantic personality. Zhukovsky opened the human soul to Russian poetry, continuing Karamzin's psychological searches in prose and decisively deepening them. The psychological romanticism of Zhukovsky perceives the whole world through the problem of introspection. He sees in the individual soul not even a reflection of the whole world, but the whole world, all reality in itself.

The personality in Zhukovsky's poetry is either lonely, or finds understanding among the few who share her feelings. Loneliness does not turn her away from the whole world. The poet's soul is immense, and it contains the entire universe. Zhukovsky accepts life even with its sufferings and sorrows, because they contribute to the moral elevation of a person. He believes that the beautiful and the sublime in man will prevail. Their triumph will come outside of earthly existence, in that eternal life where the Kingdom of Heaven is located. In Zhukovsky's system, lyrical truth is the highest and even the only truth. And the objective world is only an ephemeral appearance and the logic of judgments about it is a lie. Being here, the soul is striving for beauty there. Such a bifurcation into the otherworldly, beyond the grave, ideal and imperfect, vain, transient, bifurcation, characteristic not only of Zhukovsky, but also of all romanticism, is called romantic duality. This means that the soul of a romantic is simultaneously in two worlds - real and unreal.

A person in Zhukovsky's poetry thinks of himself separately from the state, because he does not fully accept and even deny the concepts that have developed in the state. Zhukovsky is convinced that the goal of humanity is to improve its nature, and the meaning of human life is to educate oneself to be spiritual, sensitive and sensitive to other people's sufferings, troubles and misfortunes.

The happiness of a person, and therefore the meaning of his life, according to Zhukovsky, is not in external interest, but in himself, in the strength of his soul, in the wealth of thoughts and feelings. The more humane the person and the more such people, the happier the state. We must not suppress or subdue passions, but improve our spiritual world. For Zhukovsky, a person is not a means to achieve some goals that are extraneous to him, even the most necessary, useful and noble ones, but he himself is the goal of the historical process. Not a person for the state, but the state for a person - that is Zhukovsky's motto.

The unity of the lyrical hero in Zhukovsky's work entailed a unity of style. Zhukovsky's works are united by referring them to the personality of the author, who at the same time is the hero of the work. This also applies to ballads where there is no lyrical "I", where the characters are different, but where a true hero it is the poet himself who tells the legend, whose dream and mood is the content of the ballad.

Contemporaries considered Zhukovsky a master of landscape poetry. His landscape is subjective. Zhukovsky's depiction of nature is a “landscape of the soul”. Zhukovsky draws a soul that perceives nature, his landscape is associated with a specific psychological state. The poet merges the landscape and his experience. A strong connection arises between them, but not an abstract logical, but a concrete psychological one.

Uses a special semantic content of a word that begins to mean much more than it means terminologically, different meanings, different sounds appear. Thus, the impression was created that the meaning of the verse is born not in words, but as if between words, that is, not in the text itself, but in the mind of the reader - the phenomenon of suggestive poetry.

Genre originality of the lyrics.

Elegy, song-romance, and a friendly message are the main genres of Zhukovsky's poetry. On the basis of the elegy, Zhukovsky developed the Russian poetic language. The elegy especially attracted him for its theme, enshrined in the common European tradition: immersion in the inner world, dreamy and - later - mystical perception of nature. Zhukovsky is the first Russian poet who managed not only to embody in verse the real colors, sounds and smells of nature - everything that we make up its “material beauty”, but to endow nature with the feeling and thought of the person who perceives it. lyrics by Zhukovsky. “The past” is one of J.'s favorite “verbal” themes. He always turns to the past, but such a conventional and almost banal theme of poetry takes on a deep emotional meaning for him. There is an amazing musical organization in the songs and romances of J. Full accord, melodic transitions of percussion sounds dominate. The poet pays great attention to the development of intonation in his songs. Interrogative intonations are characteristic of this genre. It should be noted the purely song system of exclamations and addresses. Such elegies as "Evening", "Rural cemetery", "Sea", etc. are famous.

In the second half of the 18-19th centuries, the ballad genre, which goes back to the folk-poetic tradition, became widespread. The ballad was distinguished by an addiction to miracles, terrible things that are beyond the control of logic and reason - the predominance of the emotional principle over the rational, concentration over the disclosure of feelings. With Zhukovsky, this genre becomes one of the main ones. Almost all of Zhukovsky's 39 ballads are translations. Zhukovsky was rightly called the genius of translation. Zhukovsky's translated ballads give the impression of being the original. Original ballads by Zhukovsky 5. All of Zhukovsky's ballads are a single whole, they can be called artistic cycle, they are united not only by genre, but also by semantic unity. Good and evil are sharply opposed in them. Their source is always the human heart itself and the mysterious otherworldly forces governing the hearts. The romantic dual world appears in ballads in the images of the devilish and divine principle. The idea of ​​a double world is imbued with both the eligibility and the ballads, and the songs of J. are famous for such ballads as "Lyudmila", "Svetlana", "Aeolian Harp", and others.

Historical and literary significance of creativity.

Zhukovsky is one of the founders of the new Russian poetry. A poet with his own specific theme and intonation. Lyricism, depictions of states of mind prevail in Zhukovsky's artistic manner.

He played an exceptional role in the development of the language of Russian poetry. Zhukovsky and his school gave the word many additional sounds and psychological colors. It is important that stylistic innovations entered Russian poetry and literature and remained its property.

Zhukovsky did not want and could not be a teacher in poetry. He was a lyricist who revealed his soul and did not claim the general significance of his self-disclosure. Zhukovsky does not strive for everyone to be like him. Morality consists in the very right of the soul to self-disclosure, the primacy of feelings and moods, as the highest values ​​of freedom.

lyrics poetry romanticism fable

9. The origins of the cult of nature among romantics. Analysis of the poem by V.A. Zhukovsky "Sea"

Like other romantics, Zhuk-go's landscape is always associated with the world of the lofty, unusual, sublime. The poet loves the spontaneous and mysterious in nature (night, sea, thunderstorm). In the sea, he is attracted by the enchanting silence and abyss. Landscape in poetry, in literature in general, is always especially closely associated with the internal. peace and unique appearance of the poet. Tolstoy is inseparable from the landscape of Yasn. glades, Dostoevsky-Petersburg (foggy, gloomy), Pushkin-landscape of Mikhailovsky and Trigorsky. Zhukovsky - Pavlovsk. Analysis. “I'm standing enchanted” - LG is delighted with the sea, there is even a certain shade of magic here. The sea attracts him with its inner. ambiguity, unpredictability. The description that gives the basis for what kind of sea it is, no. Epithets and verbs represent the sea: "silent", "azure"; "Caress", "beat", "howl", "lift". The poet sees the sea as an emotional, spiritual element. The impression depends on the state of mind. Vyazemsky said: "Zhuk-go has everything for the soul, everything for the soul." The world is the soul. But here is presented not the image of the world, but the image of the world experience. The beetle is charmed by its own soul. If, for example, Lermontov's "abyss" is a direct meaning, then Zhukovsky's is a symbol. Many questions are always an attempt to understand the reflections. Being is devoid of breadth and space. The soul lives by striving to escape to free existence. There is a kind of double world, hesitation, uncertainty - this is not all that the author has inside. The sea is a constant contact with the ideal. The presence of light is the life of the soul. The soul that fights for the ideal of life is a constant fear of losing this ideal. Everything is built on solid symbols. There are two melodies - the symphonic principle of organization. “A person can be influenced by a word” Beetle.

10. Development of V.А. Zhukovsky of the principles of suggestive poetics. Analysis of the poem "Ineffable"

What is our earthly language in front of wondrous nature?

With what careless and easy freedom

She scattered beauty all over the place

And the variety agreed with the unity!

But where, which brush painted her?

Barely one line of it

With an effort to catch it will be possible with inspiration ...

But is it possible to transfer to the dead alive?

Who could recreate the creation in words?

The inexpressible is subject to expression? ..

Holy sacraments, only the heart knows you.

Is it not often in the great hour

Evening land of transformation,

When the confused soul is full

The prophecy of a great vision

And carried away into the boundless, -

A painful feeling coils in my chest

We want to keep the beauty in flight,

We want to give a name to the undescribed -

And art is powerlessly silent?

What is visible to the eyes - this flame of clouds,

Flying in the quiet sky

This tremor of glittering waters,

These pictures of the shores

In the fire of a lush sunset -

These are such bright features -

The winged thought easily catches them,

And there are words for their brilliant beauty.

But what is merged with this brilliant beauty -

This is so vague, exciting us,

This one, heedless by one soul

Enchanting voice

This is for a distant striving,

This past hello

(Like a sudden breeze

From the meadow of the homeland, where once was the color,

Holy youth, where hope lived),

This memory whispered to the soul

About sweet, joyful and sorrowful old times,

This shrine descending from above,

This is the presence of the creator in creation -

What language is for them? .. The soul flies with sorrow,

Everything immense is crowded into a single sigh,

And only silence speaks clearly.

11. Reflection of the theory of double world in the poems of V.А. Zhukovsky "Turgenev in response to his letter", "Spring Feeling"

Belinsky also saw 2 tendencies in romanticism: 1- “medieval. romanticism ", and, in Bely's opinion, this is a literary world:" the world splits into two worlds - the despised here and the indefinite, mysterious there. " “There” is an ideal world, but it is unattainable: it is either in the past, or appears only in a dream, in fantasy, in dreams. The despised “here” is a modern act, where evil and injustice prevail. For such romanticism, the main interest is the description of the "inner world of the heart." Such was Zhukovsky's romanticism. The world of J. is presented in the form of the concept of two worlds, presented in the form of oppositions: earth and sky, here and there. Land in the lyrics Zh-vale of suffering and people on earth are doomed to suffer. In heaven, however, life is an opportunity for the realization of happiness. And the purpose of life is preparation for eternal happiness. The world is associated with the idea of ​​the immortality of the soul. Philosophical duality is expressed in many verses of J. They are united by the fact that true bliss was revealed to the ch-ku only after the death of the body. Romanticism declares the earthly world to be a world of genuine suffering, and on earth at some moments the curtain of heavenly life, which awaits him ahead, is slightly opened on earth. This is the “wonderful moment”. So, in the message "Turgenev, in response to his letter" Zhukovsky, recalling the era of the Friendly literary society, when friends, full of bright hopes, “shared their lives in the bosom of Freedom,” states the collapse of the “world of delightful fantasy” that faced life. The poet's harshly condemning voice is heard in the words about the "vile light."

Also, the message "To Turgenev in response ..." is an appeal to a friend - Alexander Turgenev - includes memories of the past, grief from irreparable losses (death of Andrei Turgenev, loss of hopes, freedom). In the poem "Spring Feelings", the theory of a double world is revealed by the fact that the main character (in this case the author himself) is trying to find out from the wind the questions of interest to him, namely, what is there beyond the distant lands? Also, the author is trying to find out if he can get to this place? from this we can conclude that the main character is dissatisfied with his former place, because he would not seek such a desirable Enchanted there.

12. Comparative analysis of "Bacchante" by S. Batyushkov and "Song" (1811) by V.А. Zhukovsky. (On the question of creative personality poets belonging to the same direction)

Zhuk-i considered Karamzin, the head of the Russian sentime, to be his teacher in poetry. The essence of romanticism Zhuk-go is very accurately described by Belinsky, who said that he became "a singer of the hearty morning." By nature, the Beetle was not a fighter, his "complaints" never grew into an open protest. He left the present question, idealized him, thought about him with sadness. Zhukovsky's "song" is clear, musical, performed by the poet-master and deep sadness about the bygone days. Main the theme is the image of not visible phenomena, but the expression of elusive experiences. LG Beetle-go-man-to deep sorrowful feelings, gone from action to his inner. the world, into your memories and dreams. He constantly recedes into the past: "The charm of the past days, Why did you rise again?" The poet is dissolved in nature and does not oppose the world, does not realize life as a whole as something hostile to his soul. Beetle-th, looking into the world of mystery, is in a hurry to recognize the charm of real life. The exclamation about a possible imminent death, concluding the verse, does not threaten with melancholy. Dissolution, fusion turns out to be the general law of the universe. As the rays of the sun melt in the evening twilight, merging with the dying nature, so the person fades away, and still remains to live in memories. In the lyrics of Zhuk-go, we almost do not find an image of the physical features of the poet's beloved; in general, “shadows”, devoid of “flesh” and symbolizing the spiritual connection “behind the grave”, often act here. And Bat-ov, on the contrary, first of all, wants to reproduce the external attractiveness of his "goddesses of beauty", the captivating nature of their female charm, so in the poem "Volkhonka" there appears the image of a young nymph, full of irresistible charm. The lyrics of Bat-va became an expression of the concrete experience of the personality in its complexity, in its versatility, in its shades. VG Belinsky noted: "The feeling that animates Batyushkov is always organically vital." Bat-va's poetry was an expression of something new. Defending the right of the person to the joys of life, to earthly happiness, Bat-v came closer to the real reality in his poetry. This affected his artistic manner. Belinsky compares the poetry of Bat-va with the claim of sculpture: "There is a lot of plasticity in his poetry, a lot of sculpturality, so to speak." The verse "Bacchante" confirms this. In the artistic language of Bat-va, the world of real action, reflected by the poetic consciousness, and the world created by the imagination of the romantic interact. The style of Bat-va lacks that direct correlation of the word with the object and that closeness to living colloquial speech that are distinguished by a realistic style. Thus, in the verse “Bacchante”, Bat-v does not avoid the metaphorical expressions characteristic of the romantic style: “... the roses are flaming with a bright crimson”. The romantically poeticized image of the Bacchante disposes of the author to use traditional Slavisms. Main theme verse-ia-theme of love - "ardent delight" and "intoxication" of earthly passion; this shows that he is still a resilient poet.

13. The main stages and motives of the poetry of K.N. Batyushkov. Analysis of the poet's poem (at the student's choice)

Batyushkov developed as a poet in the first decade of the 19th century. During these years, the disintegration of the feudal-serf economy and the development of progressive bourgeois relations took place. The pathos of enlightenment brightly colored the philosophical and social views of the pre-war Batyushkov.

Batyushkov was brought up on the poetry of the predecessors of Karamzinism. He gave high marks to the poets who expressed the inner world of the individual in their work. But he did not accept the sugary and tearful sentimentality. Thus, directly opposite influences crossed in the subsoil of Batyushkov's poetry, which determined the inconsistency of Batyushkov's lyrics.

Konstantin Nikolaevich Batyushkov, together with Zhukovsky, was classified as a representative of the "New School" in Russian poetry (under the article "Experiments" by Uvarov).

Two periods can be distinguished in the poet's work: the 1st period 1802-1812 (pre-war), the 2nd period 1812-1821 (post-war).

1) The first period.

The most important feature of B.'s pre-war poetry was love for the "earthly world," "for worldly pleasures," for the visible and resonant beauty of life. The image of a careless poet-life-lover, a poet of joy, arises.

The central image of B.'s lyrics arose on the basis of acute conflict poet with reality and against the views prevailing in the upper echelons of Aleksandrovskaya Russia. Batyushkov does not agree with the idea that a wealthy person should be respected by everyone. Most often, he is an indifferent member of society.

B. characterized his lyrics as a diary reflecting the "external" and "internal" biography of the poet. "The Weird Poet" is the lyrical hero of Batyushkov. He renounces the pursuit of the "ghosts of glory", rejects wealth. One of its essential features is the ability to dream. Dream for B. - "a direct part of happiness", a sorceress "bringing her priceless gifts." The cult of the dream is one of the well-established motifs of B.'s poetry, anticipating the aesthetic theory of the romantics.

The theme of friendship occupies a prominent place in B.'s lyrics. Lyrical hero- a cheerful and carefree poet - sees his friends as witnesses to the facts of his biography, listeners to the story of his life, about his joys and sorrows.

Poetry of love. B. interprets love as a passion that captures and subdues the whole person. ("Bacchante").

2) Second period.

The beginning of the Patriotic War of 1812 became the borderline that opened the second period of B.

...

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The prophetic meaning of Russian literature of the 19th century.

The prophetic character of Russian literature of the 19th century was pointed out by the Russian thinker “ silver age" ON. Berdyaev (1874-1948): "Many Russian writers of the 19th century felt that Russia was placed before the abyss and was flying into the abyss." Berdyaev defined the 19th century as the century of the "emerging revolution". It was precisely the contradictions of this century that brought Russian creativity to the greatest tension.

Starting with Gogol, a special quality appears in Russian literature - it becomes a teacher of life. She seeks the truth and teaches how to find it and how to implement it in life. Russian literature of the 19th century was born from the martyrdom of the people and from the search for salvation. This gave birth to compassion and humanity in her that amazed the world. In their work, Russian writers have gone beyond the bounds of literature, beyond the bounds of art, their literature is especially socially excited. Under the conditions of authoritarianism, Russian literature of the 19th century was both a church, and a school, and a law firm, and a chronicle of the entire intellectual 19th century.

Pushkin is ours - EVERYTHING. A gift bequeathed to us by history, nature and God. Pushkin, thanks to his uniqueness, succeeded in what no genius of the 19th century succeeded in - to combine the incompatible. Berdyaev: “In Pushkin, it was as if for an instant that what had always been separated in our country - the ideology of the empire and the ideology of the intelligentsia - were united." Pushkin, like other geniuses, foresaw the possibility of a "Russian rebellion, senseless and merciless."

Berdyaev: "The most amazing impression is produced by Lermontov's poem" The Prediction ", which already sounds quite prophetically":

The year will come - Russia is a black year -

When the crown of kings falls

The rabble will forget their former love;

When children, when innocent wives

The overthrown will not defend the law;

When the plague from the stinking dead bodies

Will begin to wander among the sad villages,

To call from the huts with a handkerchief;

And the smooth will torment this poor land,

And the glow will color the waves of the rivers: -

A powerful man will appear on that day

And you will recognize him and understand him,

Why is his damask knife in his hand?

And woe for you! Your cry, your moan

It will then seem ridiculous to him;

And everything will be terrible, gloomy in it,

Like his cloak with a lofty forehead.

In the conditions of knowing the truth of what happened to Russia 100 years after these lines were written, it becomes eerie already from the question: how and by whom it was given to this young Russian miracle-genius to foresee so accurately and clearly what will happen to his Motherland already in our century: the inhuman revolution, the horrors of the GULAG, the death of millions, the de-peasantry, the savagery of villages and souls.

Despite the century that separates us, Dostoevsky remains our great contemporary. His novels read like a chronicle of the 20th century. Dostoevsky is contemporary to us, as he predicted the dramas and conflicts of our century and did this thanks to his ability to penetrate into the depths of the human soul. Dostoevsky continues the analysis of the soul of a lone man, begun by Lermontov, who suffers from dissatisfaction with himself and the world around him.

Dostoevsky showed that the loss of moral principles or oblivion of conscience is the highest misfortune for a person, which entails dehumanization of him, the destruction of the personality. In the novel The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky expresses the idea that it is impossible to build people's happiness at the cost of a tear of at least one tortured child. The history of the 20th century has confirmed the validity of Dostoevsky's anxiety. The writer prophetically guessed in the loss of the ability to distinguish between good and evil, a terrible social disease that threatens the individual and all mankind with innumerable calamities.

By the end of the 19th century, Russian literature is gaining worldwide fame and recognition. According to the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, they see it as a prophecy "about a new man and his birth from the womb of the Russian soul." The secret of the success of the Russian classics lies in the fact that it overcomes the limited horizons of Western European humanism, in which, starting from the Renaissance, man realized himself as the crown of nature and the purpose of creation, having appropriated divine functions. At an early stage, humanistic consciousness played its progressive role. It contributed to the emancipation of the creative forces of the human person and gave birth to the "titans of the Renaissance." But gradually revivalist humanism began to reveal a significant flaw. The deification of the free human personality led to the triumph of individualism. Not only creative, but also destructive instincts of human nature were liberated. "People committed the most savage crimes and in no way did they repent of them and they did so because the last criterion for human behavior was considered at that time the very isolated feeling of self," - noted the famous Russian scientist A. F. Losev in his work "Aesthetics of the Renaissance".

Russian classical literature asserted in the European consciousness the idea of ​​a new man and a new humanity. A. N. Ostrovsky, at the dawn of the 60s, noted the most essential feature of Russian artistic consciousness: personality is in the background and often in the shadows, while in Russia it is the other way around. A distinctive feature of the Russian people, aversion from everything that is sharply defined, from everything special, personal, egoistically detached from the common mankind, puts a special character on art too; let's call it The more elegant the work, the more popular it is, the more of this incriminating element in it. "

Personal life, isolated from the life of the people, from the point of view of the Russian writer, is extremely limited and meager. “To be a soldier, just a soldier,” decides Pierre Bezukhov, feeling in his soul the “latent warmth of patriotism,” which unites the Russian people in a moment of tragic ordeal and merges drops of human individuality into a living, acting collective, into a spiritualized whole that enlarges and strengthens everyone, who is attached to it.

And vice versa. Any striving to isolate oneself from the life of the people, any attempts at individualistic self-restraint are perceived by the Russian writer as dramatic, threatening the human personality with internal decay. Dostoevsky shows what a catastrophe a fanatical concentration on an idea that is far from popular moral ideals and hostile to them turns out to be a catastrophe for a person. We see how Raskolnikov's soul is becoming scarce, more and more withdrawn into itself, into the narrow limits of its ideological "arithmetic", how life-giving connections with people around are lost one after another, how the main core of human community - family feelings - is destroyed in the hero's consciousness. For Raskolnikov his own soul, similar to a tomb, becomes a "prison" and a "coffin". It is not for nothing that a parallel arises in the novel with the death and resurrection of the gospel Lazarus from Bethany. Only Sonechka Marmeladova's selfless love breaks a hole in the shell of Raskolnikov's loneliness, resurrects his dying self to a new life, to a new birth.

Thus, the understanding of personality in Russian classical literature of the second half of the 19th century went beyond the limited bourgeois ideas about the value of the individual. Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment refuted the arithmetically one-line alternative proclaimed in the middle of the 19th century by the German philosopher Max Stirner: "To win or to submit - these are the two conceivable outcomes of the struggle. The winner becomes the master, and the loser turns into the subject; the former realizes the idea of ​​majesty and" law sovereignty ", and the second respectfully and loyally fulfills the" duties of citizenship. "Passing through the temptation of individualistic willfulness, Dostoevsky's heroes come to the discovery that" the unauthorized, completely conscious and unforced self-sacrifice of all of oneself in favor of all is ... a sign of the highest development of personality. , its highest power, highest self-control, highest freedom of its own will "(Dostoevsky F.M." Winter Notes on Summer Impressions "). which people the venerable personality is almost completely dissolved. Poeticization of patriarchal forms of community is found in Goncharov's "Oblomov" and "Break", in Tolstoy in "Cossacks" and "War and Peace", in Dostoevsky's finale of "Crime and Punishment". But this poeticization did not exclude a critical attitude towards patriarchy on the part of all Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century. They were inspired by the ideal of the "third way", which removes the contradictions between the elementary patriarchal community and egoistic isolation, where a highly developed person remained on his own. Goncharov's artistic thought in Oblomov equally acutely senses the limitations of Oblomov's and Stoltsev's existence and strives for harmony that overcomes the extremes of two opposing lifestyles. Poetising the "world" of the Cossack community with its natural rhythms in the story "Cossacks", Tolstoy recognizes for Olenin, and then, in the epilogue of "War and Peace", and for Pierre Bezukhov, the high truth of moral searches, reflections on the meaning of life, on the human soul, characteristic of a developed intellect. The portrayal of human fate in dialectical unity with the fate of the people has never turned into a belittling of the personal principle in Russian literature, a cult of the small in man. Vice versa. It is at the highest stage of their spiritual development that the heroes of War and Peace come to the truth of life in peace. Russian literature was very distrustful of a person of "caste," "class," of this or that social shell. The persistent desire to recreate the complete picture of the hero's connections with the world, of course, forced the writers to show the life of a person in a small circle of his contacts, in the warm ties of family kinship, friendly brotherhood, and class environment. The Russian writer was very sensitive to spiritual orphanhood, and to the so-called "false community" - to the official, formal association of people, to the crowd seized by destructive instincts - he was irreconcilable. Tolstoy's "latent warmth of patriotism", which rallied a group of soldiers and commanders on the Raevsky battery, also retains that sense of "nepotism" that the Rostovs sacredly kept in their peaceful life. But the countdown began with a small one. Poetising "family thought", the Russian writer went further: "kinship", "sonship", "fatherhood" in his ideas expanded, from the initial cells of human community grew collective worlds, embracing the people, nation, humanity.

A peasant family in Nekrasov's poem "Frost, Red Nose" - a particle all-Russian world: the thought of Daria turns into the thought of a stately Slav, the deceased Proclus is like the Russian hero Mikula Selyaninovich. And the event that happened in a peasant family - the death of a breadwinner - as in a drop of water reflects not even centuries-old, but millennial troubles of Russian mothers, wives and brides. Life, centuries-old history, appears through the peasant way of life. The elements of life are mutually permeable, "everything is like an ocean, everything flows and touches," says Dostoevsky through the mouth of Elder Zosima, "in one place you touch it - at the other end of the world it is given away." The French critic Melchior de Vogue, for example, wrote about Tolstoy: “... we want the novelist to make a selection so that he would single out a person or fact from the chaos of beings and things and study his chosen subject in isolation from others. phenomena, he does not dare to break the innumerable threads connecting a person, an act, a thought - with the general course of the universe; he never forgets that everything is conditioned by everything. "

The breadth of the Russian hero's connections with the world went beyond the narrowly understood time and space. The world was perceived not as a self-sufficient life of today, cut off from the past, but as a passing moment, burdened with the past and striving into the future. Hence - Turgenev's idea of ​​the power of the past over the present in the "Noble Nest", "Fathers and Children", as well as the often repeated motive of the silent participation of the dead in the affairs of the living. Hence the appeal to cultural and historical experience in illuminating the character of a literary hero. Oblomov's type, for example, is rooted in the mists of time. This nobleman, whose Oblomov laziness was generated by the services of three hundred Zakhars, by some of his character traits is associated with the epic hero Ilya Muromets, with the wise fabulous simpleton Emelya, and at the same time he has something of Hamlet and the sadly funny Don Quixote. Dostoevsky's heroes also retain tense ties with world spiritual experience: the shadows of Napoleon and the Messiah hover over the image of Raskolnikov, the face of Christ is guessed behind the figure of Prince Myshkin.

Russian realism of the middle of the 19th century, without losing its social acuteness, comes to philosophical questions, raises the eternal problems of human existence. Saltykov-Shchedrin, for example, defined the pathos of Dostoevsky's work: “By the depth of his conception, by the breadth of the tasks of the moral world that he developed, this writer ... not only recognizes the legitimacy of those interests that excite modern society, but even goes further, enters into the area of ​​predictions and presentiments, which constitute the goal not of immediate, but of the most distant searches of mankind.Let us point out at least the attempt to depict the type of person who has achieved complete moral and spiritual balance, which is the basis of the novel "The Idiot" - and, of course, this will be enough to agree that this is such a task before which all sorts of questions about women's labor, about the distribution of values, about freedom of thought, etc., pale in only by intermediate stations. "

The search by Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century for "world harmony" led to an irreconcilable collision with the imperfection of the surrounding reality, and this imperfection was realized not only in social relations between people, but also in the disharmony of human nature itself, which clothe each individually unique phenomenon, each personality with an implacable death. Dostoevsky argued that "man on earth is only a developing being, therefore, not finished, but transitional."

The heroes of Dostoevsky, Turgenev and Tolstoy were acutely worried about these questions. Pierre Bezukhov says that life can have meaning only if this meaning is not denied, is not extinguished by death: the staircase ... is interrupted by me, and does not lead further and further to higher beings. I feel that I not only cannot disappear, as nothing disappears in the world, but that I will always be and always have been. "

“Hate!” Exclaims Yevgeny Bazarov. “Yes, for example, you said today, passing by the hut of our head Philip, - she is so nice, white, - now, you said, Russia will then reach perfection when the last man has the same premises, and each of us should contribute to this ... And I also hated this last man, Philip or Sidor, for whom I have to get out of my skin and who will not even say thank you to me ... and why would I thank him? , he will live in a white hut, and a burdock will grow out of me; well, and then? "

The question of the meaning of human existence is posed here with the utmost acuteness: we are talking about the tragic essence of the human idea of ​​progress, about the price at which it pays off. Who will justify the countless sacrifices that faith demands for the good of future generations? And will future generations be able to bloom and bliss, consigning to oblivion the price at which their material well-being was achieved? Bazarov's doubts contain problems over which Dostoevsky's heroes from Raskolnikov to Ivan Karamazov will fight. And the ideal of "world harmony" to which Dostoevsky is heading includes not only the idea of ​​socialist brotherhood, but also the hope for the rebirth of human nature itself, right up to the hopes for future eternal life and universal resurrection.

The Russian hero often neglects personal benefits and comforts, is ashamed of his well-being, if it suddenly comes to him, and prefers self-restraint and inner restraint. So his personality responds to an acute awareness of the imperfection of social relations between people, the imperfection of human nature, the fundamental foundations of being. He denies the possibility of happiness bought at the price of oblivion of past generations, oblivion of fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, he considers such self-righteous happiness unworthy of a sensitive, conscientious person.

Russian classical literature felt anxiety for the fate of mankind at that stage of its history, when, in violation of great religious truths, a fanatical belief in science, in its absolute impeccability, arose, when it seemed to radical thinkers of the revolutionary enlightenment persuasion that the power of reason could immediately eliminate the social imperfection. By all means our classical literature strove to contain this unbridled, unbridled impulse. Let us recall Platon Karataev with Tolstoy, Sonechka Marmeladova, Alyosha Karamazov and Elder Zosima with Dostoevsky. Let us recall the wary attitude of Russian writers to an active person. Was it not a presentiment of the danger of a self-deified human mind that forced Goncharov to stigmatize Stolz and put the "lazy" Oblomov on a pedestal?

Turgenev in his Bazarov, Dostoevsky in his Raskolnikov, Tolstoy in Napoleon, is it not for this reason that they focused their attention on the tragedy of a bold innovator, a reckless radical capable of chopping down the living tree of national culture, breaking the link of times? And even Saltykov-Shchedrin, in the finale of The History of a City, warned through the autocrat Gloom-Burcheev: "Someone will come who will be more terrible than me!" And in the 90s Chekhov never tired of warning the Russian intelligentsia: "Nobody knows the real truth."

But the active century of wars, revolutions and global social upheavals turned out to be not very sensitive to the warnings of Russian classical literature. Russia was destined to go through the stage of deification of finite human truths, through a faith that is noble in its intentions, but terribly bloody in execution, in a revolutionary-transforming mind capable of creating a paradise on a sinful earth.

The lessons of the classics were completely forgotten. The intense spiritual labor of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky was contemptuously branded as "foolishness in Christ" or as reactionary "Dostoevism." But it was Dostoevsky, in the finale of Crime and Punishment, in Raskolnikov's prophetic dream, who foresaw the impending crisis of revival humanism, the crisis of European civilization, which deified itself at the end of the 19th century, decided to take "all the capital" at once and did not want to "wait for favors from nature ".

V.S.Soloviev articles dedicated to the memory of Dostoevsky, formulated the truths to the discovery of which came together with the creator of "Crime and Punishment" Russian classical literature. She showed first of all that "individuals, even the best people, do not have the right to rape society in the name of their personal superiority." She also showed that "public truth is not invented by individual minds, but is rooted in popular feelings."

The deepest nationality of Russian classical literature was also in a special view of the life of the people, in its special relation to the thought of the people. Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century, speaking out against the self-deification of the masses. They distinguished the people as an integral unity of people, inspired by the highest light of simplicity, goodness and truth, from the human crowd, seized by the moods of group egoism. This confrontation between the people and the crowd was especially clearly shown by Tolstoy in the epic novel War and Peace.

The lessons of Russian classical literature have not yet been mastered and not even fully understood, we are just making our way to their comprehension, passing through the bitter experience of the historical upheavals of the 20th century. And in this sense, Russian classics are still ahead, not behind us.