Neorealism and realism in Russian literature are: features and main genres. Realism in art (XIX-XX centuries) Realism in Russian literature 19-20 centuries

Ivan Alekseevich Bunin. Life and creation. (Overview.)

Poems "Epiphany Night", "Dog", "Loneliness" (you can choose from three other poems).

Subtle lyricism of Bunin's landscape poetry, sophistication of verbal drawing, color, complex range of moods. Philosophy and laconicism of poetic thought. Traditions of Russian classical poetry in the lyrics of Bunin.

Stories: "The gentleman from San Francisco", "Clean Monday" ". The originality of lyric narration in the prose of I. A. Bunin. The motive of the withering and desolation of the noble nests. A premonition of the death of the traditional peasant way of life. The writer's appeal to the broadest socio-philosophical generalizations in the story "The gentleman from San Francisco". Psychologism of Bunin's prose and features of "external depiction". The theme of love in the stories of the writer. Poeticness of female images. The motive of memory and the theme of Russia in Bunin's prose. The originality of the artistic manner of I. A. Bunin.

Literature theory. The psychologism of the landscape in fiction. Story (deepening of representations).

Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin. Life and creation. (Overview.)

The stories "Duel", "Olesya", the story "Pomegranate Bracelet" (one of the works of your choice). Poetic depiction of nature in the story "Olesya", the wealth of the heroine's spiritual world. Olesya's dreams and the real life of the village and its inhabitants. Tolstoy's traditions in Kuprin's prose. The problem of personality self-knowledge in the story "Duel". The meaning of the title of the story. The humanistic position of the author. The tragedy of the love theme in the stories "Olesya", "Duel". Love as the highest value of the world in the story "Garnet Bracelet". The tragic love story of Zheltkov and the awakening of the soul of Vera Sheina. Poetics of the story. The symbolic sound of a detail in Kuprin's prose. The role of the plot in the stories and stories of the writer. Traditions of Russian psychological prose in the works of A. I. Kuprin.

Literature theory. The plot and plot of an epic work (deepening of performances).

Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev

The story "Judas Iscariot". A psychologically complex, contradictory image of Judas. Love, hate and betrayal. The tragedy of man's loneliness among people. Dostoevsky's traditions in Andreev's prose.

Maksim Gorky. Life and creation. (Overview.)

Stories "Chelkash", "Old woman Izergil". The romantic pathos and the harsh truth of M. Gorky's stories The folk-poetical origins of the writer’s romantic prose. The problem of the hero in the stories of Gorky. The meaning of the opposition between Danko and Larra. Features of the composition of the story "The Old Woman Izergil".

"At the bottom". Socio-philosophical drama. The meaning of the title of the work. The atmosphere of spiritual separation of people. The problem of imaginary and real overcoming of a humiliating position, illusion and active thought, sleep and awakening of the soul. "Three truths" in the play and their tragic collision: the truth of the fact (Tambourines), the truth of the comforting lie (Luke), the truth of faith in man (Satin). The innovation of Gorky the playwright. Stage fate of the play.

Literary portrait sketch as a genre. Journalism. "My interviews", "Notes on philistinism" "Destruction of personality".

Literature theory. Socio-philosophical drama as a genre of drama (initial performances).

The Silver Age of Russian Poetry

Symbolism

The influence of Western European philosophy and poetry on the work of Russian Symbolists. The origins of Russian symbolism.

"Senior Symbolists": N. Minsky, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius, V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, F. Sologub.

"Young Symbols": A. Bely, A. Blok, Viach. Ivanov.

Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov... A word about the poet.

Poems: "Creativity", "To the Young Poet", "Bricklayer", "The Coming Huns". Choice of other poems is possible. Bryusov as the founder of symbolism in Russian poetry. Cross-cutting themes of Bryusov's poetry are urbanism, history, cultural change, motives of scientific poetry. Rationalism, refinement of images and style.

Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont. A word about the poet. Poems (three poems of the choice of the teacher and students). The resounding success of K. Balmont's early books: "Let's be like the sun", "Only love", "Seven-flowered" as an exponent of the "dialect of the elements." Color and sound writing of Balmont's poetry. Interest in ancient Slavic folklore ("Evil Chary", "Firebird"). The theme of Russia in the emigre lyrics of Balmont.

Andrey Bely(B. N. Bugaev). A word about the poet. Poems (three poems of the choice of the teacher and students). Novel "Petersburg" (survey study with reading fragments). The influence of the philosophy of Vl. Soloviev on the worldview of A. Bely. A jubilant attitude (collection "Gold in azure"). An abrupt change in the artist's perception of the world (collection "Ashes"). Philosophical reflections of the poet (collection "Urn").

Acmeism

Program articles and "manifestos" of acmeism. N. Gumilyov's article "The heritage of symbolism and acmeism" as a declaration of acmeism. Western European and Russian origins of acmeism. Review of the early work of N. Gumilyov. S. Gorodetsky, A. Akhmatova, O. Mandelstam, M. Kuzmin and others.

Nikolay Stepanovich Gumilev... A word about the poet.

Poems: "Giraffe". "Lake Chad", "Old Conquistador", the cycle "Captains", "Magic Violin", "Lost Tram" (or other poems of the choice of the teacher and students). The romantic hero of Gumilyov's lyrics. Brightness, festive perception of the world. Activity, effectiveness of the position hero, rejection of the dullness, routine of existence. The tragic fate of the poet after the revolution. The influence of poetic images and rhythms of Gumilyov on Russian poetry of the 20th century.

Futurism

Western European and Russian futurism. Futurism in Europe. Manifestos of Futurism. Denial of literary traditions, absolutization of the self-valuable, "self-made" word. The urbanism of poetry will be lang. Groups of futurists: ego-futurists (Igor Severyanin and others). cubo-futurists (V. Mayakovsky. D, Burliuk, V. Khlebnikov, Vas. Kamensky), "Centrifuge" (B. Pasternak, N. Aseev and others). Western European and Russian futurism. Overcoming futurism by its largest representatives.

Igor Severyanin(I. V. Lotarev),

Poems from collections. "Boiling Cup". "Pineapples in Champagne", "Romantic Roses", "Medallions" (three poems of the choice of the teacher and students). Search for new poetic forms. The author's fantasy as the essence of poetry. Severyanin's poetic neologisms. Dreams and irony of the poet.

Literature theory. Symbolism. Acmeism. Futurism (initial views).

Figurative and expressive means of fiction: paths, syntactic figures, sound writing (deepening and consolidating ideas).

Alexander Alexandrovich Blok... Life and creation. (Overview.)

Poems: "Stranger". "Russia", "Night, street, lamp, pharmacy ...", "In a restaurant", (from the cycle "On the Kulikovo field"), "On the railway." (The specified works are required for study).

"I enter dark temples ...", "Factory", "When you stand in my way." (Choice of other poems is possible.)

Literary and philosophical predilections of the young poet. The influence of Zhukovsky, Fet, Polonsky, philosophy of Vl. Solovyov. Themes and images of early poetry: "Poems about the Beautiful Lady". The romantic world of the early Blok. Musicality of Blok's poetry, rhythms and intonation. Block and symbolism. Images of the "terrible world", ideal and reality in the artistic world of the poet. The theme of the Motherland in the poetry of Blok. The historical path of Russia in the cycle "On the Kulikovo Field" and in the poem "Scythians". Poet and Revolution.

Poem "Twelve". The history of the creation of the poem and its perception by contemporaries. The versatility, complexity of the artistic world of the poem. Symbolic and concrete-realistic in the poem. Harmony of a piece that is incompatible in the language and musical elements. Heroes of the poem, plot, composition. The author's position and ways of expressing it in the poem. The ambiguity of the ending. Incessant controversy around the poem. Blok's influence on Russian poetry of the XX century.

Literature theory. Lyric cycle. Vers libre (Free verse). The author's position and ways of expressing it in a work (development of ideas).

Realism as a method emerged in Russian literature in the first third of the 19th century. The basic principle of realism is the principle of truth in life, the reproduction of characters and circumstances explained socio-historically (typical characters in typical circumstances).

Realist writers deeply, truthfully depicted various aspects of contemporary reality, recreated life in the forms of life itself.

The basis of the realistic method of the early 19th century is made up of positive ideals: humanism, sympathy for the humiliated and insulted, the search for a positive hero in life, optimism and patriotism.

By the end of the 19th century, realism reached its pinnacle in the works of such writers as F.M.Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov.

The twentieth century set new tasks for realist writers, forced them to look for new ways of mastering life material. With the rise of revolutionary sentiments, literature was more and more imbued with forebodings and expectations of future changes, "unheard of revolts."

The feeling of impending social shifts caused such an intensity of artistic life that Russian art had never known before. Here is what L. N. Tolstoy wrote about the turn of the century: “The new century brings the end of one worldview, one faith, one way of communication between people and the beginning of another worldview, another way of communication. M. Gorky called the 20th century the century of spiritual renewal.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the classics of Russian realism L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, L.N. Andreev, I.A. Bunin and others.

However, the principle of "old" realism was increasingly criticized from various literary communities, which demanded a more active invasion of the writer into life and influence on it.

This revision was started by L. N. Tolstoy himself, in the last years of his life he called for the strengthening of the didactic, instructive, preaching principle in literature.

If A.P. Chekhov believed that the “court” (that is, the artist) was only obliged to raise questions, to draw the attention of the thinking reader to important problems, and the “jury” (public structures) were obliged to answer, then for realist writers of the early 20th century century it seemed already insufficient.

Thus, M. Gorky stated directly that “the magnificent mirror of Russian literature for some reason did not reflect the outbursts of popular anger ...” and accused literature of “not looking for heroes, she loved to talk about people who were strong only in patience, meek , soft, dreaming of heaven in heaven, silently suffering on earth. "

It was M. Gorky, a realist writer of the younger generation, who was the founder of a new literary trend, which later received the name "socialist realism."

The literary and social activities of M. Gorky played a significant role in uniting the new generation of realist writers. In the 1890s, on the initiative of M. Gorky, a literary circle "Sreda" was founded, and then the publishing house "Knowledge". Young, talented writers A.I. Kupriya, I.A. Bunin, L.N. Andreev, A. Serafimovich, D. Bedny and others.

The dispute with traditional realism was conducted at different poles of literature. There were writers who followed the traditional direction in an effort to renew it. But there were those who simply rejected realism as an outdated trend.

In these difficult conditions, in the confrontation of polar methods and directions, the work of writers, traditionally called realists, continued to develop.

The originality of Russian realistic literature at the beginning of the twentieth century lies not only in the significance of the content, acute social themes, but also in artistic pursuits, the perfection of technology, and stylistic diversity.

Here are the features of expressionism (e Red Laughter "," Judas Iscariot "by L.N. and special, "condensed realism" with its precise and expressive language (prose I. A; Bunin).

And yet, the main, decisive factor in Russian literature of the early twentieth century was how deeply and correctly it comprehended vital problems, how high was its moral ideal.

... for me imagination has always beenhigher than existence, and the strongest loveI experienced in a dream.
L.N. Andreev

Realism, as you know, appeared in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century and throughout the century existed within the framework of its critical movement. However, symbolism, the first modernist trend in Russian literature, which made itself known in the 1890s, sharply opposed itself to realism. Following symbolism, other unrealistic trends arose. This inevitably led to qualitative transformation of realism as a method of depicting reality.

The Symbolists expressed the opinion that realism only slides on the surface of life and is not able to penetrate the essence of things. Their position was not infallible, but since then it has begun in Russian art confrontation and mutual influence of modernism and realism.

It is noteworthy that modernists and realists, outwardly striving for delimitation, internally possessed a common striving for a deep, essential knowledge of the world. It is not surprising, therefore, that the writers of the turn of the century, who considered themselves to be realists, realized how narrow the framework of consistent realism is, and began to master syncretic forms of storytelling, which made it possible to combine realistic objectivity with romantic, impressionistic and symbolist principles.

If the realists of the nineteenth century paid close attention to social nature of man, then the realists of the twentieth century correlated this social nature with psychological, subconscious processes, expressed in the clash of reason and instinct, intellect and feeling. Simply put, the realism of the early twentieth century pointed to the complexity of human nature, which is by no means reducible only to his social being. It is no coincidence that Kuprin, Bunin, and Gorky have a plan of events, the surrounding situation is barely indicated, but a refined analysis of the character's mental life is given. The author's gaze is always directed beyond the boundaries of the spatial and temporal existence of the heroes. Hence - the emergence of folklore, biblical, cultural motives and images, which made it possible to expand the boundaries of the narrative, to attract the reader to co-creation.

At the beginning of the 20th century, within the framework of realism, four currents:

1) critical realism continues the traditions of the 19th century and presupposes an emphasis on the social nature of phenomena (at the beginning of the 20th century, these are the works of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy),

2) socialist realism - Ivan Gronsky's term, denoting the image of reality in its historical and revolutionary development, the analysis of conflicts in the context of the class struggle, and the actions of the heroes in the context of the benefits for humanity ("Mother" by M. Gorky, and later - most of the works of Soviet writers),

3) mythological realism developed in ancient literature, but in the 20th century under M.R. began to understand the image and interpretation of reality through the prism of well-known mythological plots (in foreign literature, a vivid example is the novel by J. Joyce "Ulysses", and in Russian literature of the early 20th century - the story "Judas Iscariot" by LN Andreev)

4) naturalism assumes an image of reality with the utmost plausibility and detail, often unsightly ("Pit" by A.I. Kuprin, "Sanin" by M.P. Artsybashev, "Notes of a Doctor" by V.V. Veresaev)

The listed features of Russian realism caused numerous controversies about the creative method of writers who remained faithful to realistic traditions.

bitter begins with neo-romantic prose and comes to the creation of social plays and novels, becomes the founder of socialist realism.

Creation Andreeva was always in a borderline state: the modernists considered him a "contemptible realist", and for the realists, in turn, he was a "suspicious symbolist." At the same time, it is generally accepted that his prose is realistic, and his drama gravitates towards modernism.

Zaitsev, showing interest in the micro-states of the soul, he created impressionistic prose.

Attempts by critics to define the artistic method Bunin led to the fact that the writer himself compared himself with a suitcase pasted over with a huge number of labels.

The complex outlook of the realist writers, the multidirectional poetics of their works testified to the qualitative transformation of realism as an artistic method. Thanks to the common goal - the search for the highest truth - at the beginning of the 20th century there was a convergence of literature and philosophy, which was outlined in the works of Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy.

For a long time, literary criticism was dominated by the assertion that at the end of the 19th century, Russian realism was going through a deep crisis, a period of decline, under which realistic literature developed at the beginning of the new century until the emergence of a new creative method - socialist realism.

However, the state of literature itself opposes this statement. The crisis of bourgeois culture, which sharply manifested itself at the end of the century on a global scale, cannot be mechanically identified with the development of art and literature.

Russian culture of this time had its negative sides, but they were not all-encompassing. Russian literature, always associated in its peak phenomena with progressive social thought, did not change this in the 1890-1900s, marked by the rise of social protest.

The growth of the labor movement, which showed the emergence of a revolutionary proletariat, the emergence of the Social Democratic Party, peasant unrest, the all-Russian scale of student demonstrations, the increasing expression of protest by the progressive intelligentsia, one of which was a demonstration at the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg in 1901 - all this spoke of a decisive a turning point in public sentiment in all strata of Russian society.

A new revolutionary situation arose. Passivity and pessimism of the 80s. have been overcome. Everyone was seized with the expectation of drastic changes.

Talk about the crisis of realism during the heyday of Chekhov's talent, the emergence of a talented galaxy of young democratic writers (M. Gorky, V. Veresaev, I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, A. Serafimovich, etc.), at the time of Lev Tolstoy's speech with the novel “ Resurrection ”is impossible. In the 1890-1900s. literature was going through not a crisis, but a period of intense creative searches.

Realism changed (the problematics of literature and its artistic principles changed), but did not lose its strength and its significance. His critical pathos, which reached its ultimate power in "Resurrection", did not dry up either. Tolstoy gave in his novel a comprehensive analysis of Russian life, its social institutions, its morality, its "virtue" and everywhere he discovered social injustice, hypocrisy and lies.

GA Byaly rightly wrote: “The exposing power of Russian critical realism at the end of the 19th century, in the years of direct preparation of the first revolution, reached such a degree that not only major events in people's lives, but also the smallest everyday facts began to appear as symptoms of complete trouble public order ".

Life after the reform of 1861 had not yet “settled down”, but it was already becoming clear that a strong enemy was beginning to oppose capitalism in the person of the proletariat, and that social and economic contradictions in the country's development were becoming more and more complicated. Russia was on the verge of new complex changes and upheavals.

New heroes, showing how the old worldview is crumbling, how the established traditions, the foundations of the family, the relationship between fathers and children are being broken - all this spoke of a radical change in the problem of “man and the environment”. The hero begins to resist her, and this phenomenon is no longer isolated. Those who did not notice these phenomena, who did not overcome the positivist determinism of their characters, lost the attention of the readers.

Russian literature reflected both acute discontent with life, and the hope for its transformation, and volitional tension ripening among the masses. Young M. Voloshin wrote to his mother on May 16 (29), 1901, that the future historian of the Russian revolution “will seek its causes, symptoms and influences both in Tolstoy and in Gorky, and in Chekhov's plays, as historians of the French Revolution see them in Rousseau and Voltaire and Beaumarchais. "

The awakening civic consciousness of people, the thirst for activity, social and moral renewal of society are highlighted in the realistic literature of the beginning of the century. V.I. Lenin wrote that in the 70s. “The masses were still asleep. Only in the early 90s did its awakening begin, and at the same time a new and more glorious period began in the history of all Russian democracy. "

The turn of the century was at times romantic expectations preceding the usually major historical events. The air itself seemed to be saturated with a call to action. Remarkable is the opinion of A.S. Suvorin, who, not being a supporter of progressive views, nevertheless followed with great interest the work of Gorky in the 90s: “Sometimes you read Gorky’s thing and you feel that you are being lifted out of your chair, that the former drowsiness is impossible that something needs to be done! And this should be done in his works - it was necessary ”.

The tonality of literature changed noticeably. Gorky's words that the time of the heroic has come are widely known. He himself acts as a revolutionary romantic, as a singer of the heroic principle in life. The feeling of a new tone of life was characteristic of other contemporaries as well. There is ample evidence that readers expected writers to call for courage and struggle, and publishers who caught these sentiments wanted to facilitate such calls.

Here is one such piece of evidence. Novice writer N. M. Kataev informs Gorky's comrade at the Znanie publishing house K. P. Pyatnitsky on February 8, 1904 that the publisher Orekhov refused to publish a volume of his plays and stories: the publisher sets out to print books of "heroic content" Kataev's works do not even have a "cheerful tone."

Russian literature reflected what began in the 90s. the process of straightening the previously oppressed personality, revealing it both in the awakening of the consciousness of the workers, and in a spontaneous protest against the old world order, and in an anarchic rejection of reality, like among Gorky tramps.

The process of straightening was complex and involved not only the “lower strata” of society. Literature has covered this phenomenon in various ways, showing what unexpected forms it sometimes takes. In this regard, Chekhov turned out to be insufficiently understood, striving to show with what difficulty - "drop by drop" - a man overcomes a slave in himself.

Usually the scene of Lopakhin's return from the auction with the news that the cherry orchard now belongs to him was interpreted in the spirit of the new owner's rapture with his material strength. But Chekhov has something else behind it.

Lopakhin buys the estate, where the gentlemen ravaged his disenfranchised relatives, where he himself spent a joyless childhood, where his relative Firs still servilely serves. Lopakhin is intoxicated, but not so much by his profitable purchase as by the consciousness that he, a descendant of serfs, a former barefoot boy, is becoming higher than those who previously claimed to completely depersonalize their "slaves." Lopakhin is intoxicated by the consciousness of his equality with bars, which separates his generation from the first buyers of forests and estates of the ruined nobility.

History of Russian Literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983

The realism of the 20th century is directly related to the realism of the previous century. And how this artistic method developed in the middle of the 19th century, having received the rightful name of "classical realism" and having gone through all sorts of modifications in the literary work of the last third of the 19th century, was influenced by such unrealistic trends as naturalism, aestheticism, impressionism.

Realism of the XX century is taking shape in its definite history and has a destiny. If we cover collectively the 20th century, then realistic creativity manifested itself in its diversity, multi-component nature in the first half of the 20th century. At this time, it is obvious that realism is changing under the influence of modernism and mass literature. He unites with these artistic phenomena, as with revolutionary socialist literature. In the second half, there is a dissolution of realism, which has lost its clear aesthetic principles and poetics of creativity in modernism and postmodernism.

Realism of the 20th century continues the traditions of classical realism at different levels - from aesthetic principles to the techniques of poetics, the traditions of which were inherent in realism of the 20th century. The realism of the last century acquires new properties that distinguish it from this type of creativity of the previous time.

The realism of the 20th century is characterized by an appeal to the social phenomena of reality and the social motivation of the human character, the psychology of personality, the fate of art. As is obvious and the appeal to the social topical problems of the era, which are not separated from the problems of society and politics.

Realistic art of the 20th century, like the classical realism of Balzac, Stendhal, Flaubert, is distinguished by a high degree of generalization and typification of phenomena. Realistic art tries to show the characteristic and natural in their causality and determinism. Therefore, realism is characterized by a different creative embodiment of the principle of depicting a typical character in typical circumstances, in realism of the 20th century, which is keenly interested in a separate human personality. The character is like a living person - and in this character the universal and typical has an individual refraction, or is combined with the individual properties of the personality. Along with these features of classical realism, new features are obvious.

First of all, these are the features that manifested themselves in the realistic already at the end of the 19th century. Literary creativity in this era takes on the character of a philosophical and intellectual, when philosophical ideas underlie the modeling of artistic reality. At the same time, the manifestation of this philosophical principle is inseparable from the various properties of the intellectual. From the author's attitude towards the intellectually active perception of the work in the process of reading, then the emotional perception. An intellectual novel, an intellectual drama, takes shape in its definite properties. Thomas Mann (The Magic Mountain, Confessions of the Adventurer Felix Krul) provides a classic example of an intellectual realistic novel. This is also felt in the drama of Bertolt Brecht.

The second feature of realism in the twentieth century is the strengthening and deepening of the dramatic, to a greater extent tragic, beginning. Obviously this is in the work of F.S. Fitzgerald ("Tender is the Night", "The Great Gatsby").

As you know, the art of the 20th century lives by its special interest not just in a person, but in his inner world.

The term "intellectual romance" was first coined by Thomas Mann. In 1924, the year of the publication of the novel "The Magic Mountain", the writer noted in the article "On the teachings of Spengler" that the "historical and world turning point" of 1914-1923. with extraordinary force he sharpened in the minds of his contemporaries the need to comprehend the era, and this was reflected in a certain way in artistic creation. T. Mann attributed the works of Fr. Nietzsche. It was the “intellectual novel” that became the genre that first realized one of the characteristic new features of 20th century realism - the heightened need for the interpretation of life, its comprehension, interpretation, exceeding the need for “telling”, the embodiment of life in artistic images. In world literature, it is represented not only by the Germans - T. Mann, G. Hesse, A. Döblin, but also by the Austrians R. Musil and G. Broch, the Russian M. Bulgakov, the Czech K. Chapek, the Americans W. Faulkner and T. Wolfe , and many others. But at its origins was T. Mann.

Layering, multi-composition, the presence in a single artistic whole of layers of reality far from each other has become one of the most widespread principles in the construction of novels of the 20th century. Novelists articulate reality. They divide it into life in the valley and on the Magic Mountain (T. Mann), on the sea of ​​everyday life and the strict solitude of the Republic of Castalia (G. Hesse). They isolate biological life, instinctive life and the life of the spirit (the German "intellectual novel"). The province of Yoknapatofu (Faulkner) is created, which becomes the second universe representing modernity.

First half of the XX century. put forward a special understanding and functional use of the myth. The myth has ceased to be, as is usual for the literature of the past, the conventional dress of the present. Like many other things, under the pen of writers of the XX century. the myth acquired historical features, was perceived in its independence and detachment - as a product of distant prescription, illuminating recurring patterns in the common life of mankind. The appeal to myth widely pushed the temporal boundaries of the work. But in addition to this, the myth that filled the entire space of the work ("Joseph and his brothers" by T. Mann) or appeared in separate reminders, and sometimes only in the title ("Job" by the Austrian I. Roth), made it possible for an endless artistic game, countless analogies and parallels, unexpected "encounters", correspondences that throw light on the present and explain it.

The German "intellectual novel" could be called philosophical, meaning its obvious connection with the traditional for German literature, starting with its classics, philosophizing in artistic creation. German literature has always sought to understand the universe. Goethe's Faust was a solid support for this. Having risen to a height that was not reached by German prose throughout the entire second half of the 19th century, the "intellectual novel" became a unique phenomenon of world culture precisely because of its originality.

The very type of intellectualism or philosophizing was of a special kind here. In the German "intellectual novel", among its three largest representatives - Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Alfred Döblin - there is a noticeable desire to proceed from a complete, closed concept of the universe, a well-thought-out concept of a cosmic device, to the laws of which human existence is "adapted". This does not mean that the German "intellectual novel" hovered in the sky beyond the clouds and was not associated with the burning problems of the political situation in Germany and the world. On the contrary, the authors named above gave the most profound interpretation of modernity. And yet the German "intellectual novel" strove for an all-encompassing systemicity. (Outside the novel, a similar intention is evident in Brecht, who always tried to connect the sharpest social analysis with the nature of man, and in his early poems with the laws of nature.)

However, in fact, time was interpreted in the novel of the twentieth century. much more varied. In the German "intellectual novel" it is discrete, not only in the sense of the absence of continuous development: time is also torn into qualitatively different "pieces". In no other literature there is such a tense relationship between the time of history, eternity and personal time, the time of human existence.

The image of the inner world of a person has a special character. Psychologism in T. Mann and Hesse differs significantly from psychologism, for example, in Döblin. However, the German "intellectual novel" as a whole is characterized by an enlarged, generalized image of a person. The image of a person has become a condenser and a repository of "circumstances" - some of their indicative properties and symptoms. The spiritual life of the characters received a powerful external regulator. This is not so much the environment as the events of world history and the general state of the world.

Most of the German "intellectual novels" continued the one that developed on German soil in the 18th century. parenting novel genre. But upbringing was understood according to tradition ("Faust" by Goethe, "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" by Novalis) not only as moral improvement.

Thomas Mann (1875-1955) can be considered the creator of a novel of a new type not because he was ahead of other writers: published in 1924, The Magic Mountain was not only one of the first, but also the most definite example of new intellectual prose.

Creativity of Alfred Döblin (1878-1957). What is characteristic of Döblin to the highest degree is that which is not characteristic of these writers — an interest in the "material" itself, in the material surface of life. It was this interest that made his romance related to many artistic phenomena of the 1920s in various countries. The first wave of documentaryism took place in the 1920s. The accurately recorded material (in particular, the document) seemed to guarantee the comprehension of reality. Editing has become a widespread technique in literature, pushing aside the plot ("fiction"). It was editing that was central to the writing technique of the American Dos Passos, whose novel Manhattan (1925) was translated in Germany in the same year and had a certain influence on Döblin. In Germany, Döblin's work was associated in the late 1920s with the "new business-like" style.

As in the novels of Erich Kestner (1899-1974) and Hermann Kesten (born in 1900), two of the greatest prose writers of the “new efficiency,” in Döblin's main novel Berlin-Alexanderplatz (1929), people are filled to the brim with life. If the actions of people were not of any decisive importance, then, on the contrary, the pressure on them by reality was of decisive importance.

The best examples of the social and historical novel in many cases developed a technique close to the "intellectual novel."

Among the early victories of XX century realism. include the novels of Heinrich Mann, written in the 1900-1910s. Heinrich Mann (1871-1950) continued the centuries-old tradition of German satire. At the same time, like Weert and Heine, the writer experienced a significant impact on French social thought and literature. It was French literature that helped him master the genre of the socially accusatory novel, which acquired unique features from G. Mann. Later G. Mann discovered Russian literature.

The name of G. Mann became widely known after the publication of the novel "The Land of the Kissel Shores" (1900). But this folklore name is ironic. H. Mann introduces the reader to the world of the German bourgeoisie. In this world, everyone hates each other, although they cannot do without each other, being bound not only by material interests, but also by the nature of everyday relations, views, confidence that everything in the world is bought and sold.

A special place belongs to the novels of Hans Fallada (1893-1947). His books were read in the late 1920s by those who had never heard of Döblin, Thomas Mann or Hesse. They were bought with meager earnings during the economic crisis. Not distinguished by either philosophical depth or special political perspicacity, they posed one question: how can a small person survive? "Little man, what's next?" - was the title of a novel that was published in 1932 and enjoyed immense popularity.