Educational realism (Prof. N. Gulyaev)

Literature and art occupied an outstanding place in the activities of the enlighteners. They assessed all their literary work in the light of the tasks that faced them in the struggle against feudalism.

Therefore, the leading poet, playwright, artist in the eighteenth century thought of himself primarily as a preacher, teacher, tribune. High ideology was the most important distinguishing feature of the literature of the Enlightenment. Its creators would have been incomprehensible and alien to the theory of "pure art", "art for art", which later became fashionable in bourgeois society.

And since the enlighteners exaggerated the role of ideas in social development, believing that opinions rule the world, they attached particular importance to literature and art as factors in the reconstruction of society.

Literature of the 18th century is connected in many ways with the previous stage - the realism of the era. Renaissance and at the same time is a significant step forward, marked by new artistic discoveries.

Enlighteners in a number of cases directly rely on the traditions of the literature of the Renaissance. Like the great humanists of the XIV-XVI centuries, they are fighting against medieval barbarism, inspired by the noble dream of the triumph of the human person.

"The struggle of the 18th century enlighteners is more concrete than the struggle of the old humanists, but it is impossible without the broad tasks that the Renaissance set for the world," notes the Soviet scientist A. A. Smirnov.

Some genres of Renaissance literature developed in the 18th century. For example, the rogue novel of the 16th century had a significant impact on the formation of the English educational novel, in particular, Defoe and Smolett. Fielding has repeatedly referred to Cervantes. And on title page one of their best novels“The Adventure Story of Joseph Andrus and His Friend Abraham Adams,” he did not hesitate to add:

“Written in imitation of the manner of Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote. The science fiction in Swift's novel and some of Voltaire's novellas is reminiscent of the fantasy literature of the Renaissance (Rabelais).

It is curious, “that young Goethe in his poetry the period of "storm and onslaught" refers to the form of verse of the XVI century (in particular, Hans Sachs), and in his mature years creates a work based on the folk book about Reineck the Fox. Finally, Goethe's greatest creation, the tragedy Faust, is based on a 16th century legend.

The Renaissance opened to people medieval Europe spiritual treasures of the ancient world, and the educators of the 18th century inherited this deep interest in antiquity: the antique theme, antique images were vividly reflected in the literature of the Enlightenment. It is important to note that although the enlighteners use the classicist forms of the 17th century (Addison and Pop in England, Voltaire in France), this is not the main thing in their mastering of antiquity. Non-conditional forms and dogmatic rules that, with references to ancient greek drama developed by the classicists of the 17th century, but primarily the humanistic content and even the civic pathos of antiquity - this is what attracts thinkers and artists of the 18th century.

Voltaire writes the tragedy "Brutus", the German writers of "storm and onslaught" Fr. Schiller and F. H. D. Schubart.

In affirming the militant civil theme, the writers of the 18th century go beyond the Renaissance, relying in part on some images of the literature of the 17th century classicism ("Horace" by Corneille), paving the way for the revolutionary classicism of the era of the Great French Revolution.

However, despite the general tasks of criticizing and condemning the feudal world order, despite the well-known continuity of cultural and historical traditions, the literature of the Enlightenment is a completely new phenomenon in comparison with the literature of the Renaissance. Realism in the 18th century acquires new qualities that were previously unknown. For example, Fielding's novel differs significantly from that of Cervantes, in satirical novel Swift's hard to distinguish Rabelais' tricks. There is also little in common between Shakespeare's drama and the philistine drama of the 18th century.

At the discussion on realism, held in Moscow in April 1957, it was emphasized that the history of realism is a complex process, and at every stage of development, literature creates its own unique artistic values. At the same time, the course of development of art and literature is by no means similar, for example, to the history of the development of scientific and technical thought, where each new stage surpasses the previous one in its achievements.

The history of realism in world art and world literature is the history of more and more conquests in the artistic development of the world. But this does not mean the absolute superiority of each new stage over the previous one. Acquiring new qualities, climbing new step, realism often loses some of the aesthetic achievements of its predecessors associated with the passed stage in development human society... So, for example, Shakespeare's genius is unique.

In the 18th century and in the following centuries, world literature has nominated many wonderful playwrights who seriously contributed to the rapprochement of the theater with life, helped to transfer reality to the stage in its everyday life and reveal life conflicts in all its diversity. But in no playwright we find such titanic characters, such a scale of a tragic conflict, a contrasting combination of high and low, heroic and funny, as in Shakespeare.

The contribution of the 18th century to world literature is also original and inimitable.

In many historical and literary works, especially on Russian literature, the concept of educational realism is completely ignored, and the term “ critical realism»Covers various phenomena of the literature of the past. Sometimes comparisons with eighteenth-century realism are made only to emphasize the superiority of nineteenth-century realism. For example, it is pointed out that historicism in the understanding of social phenomena was inaccessible to the realism of the 18th century, that the writers of the 18th century did not know how to develop human character so subtly as Stendhal and Leo Tolstoy, etc.

There is no doubt that the realists of the XIX century made a significant step forward in the artistic development of the world in comparison with the realism of the Enlightenment. But we must not forget about something else: in the realism of the 19th century, some of the achievements of the art of the Renaissance and Enlightenment were lost, in particular the pathos of affirming the ideal. It is easy to see that the positive hero (who occupied the central place in the literature of the 18th century) is relegated to the background among Balzac, Thackeray, and Flaubert.

Many remarkable achievements of writers-educators belong only to the 18th century, make up its amazing originality and are not found in the literature of subsequent generations. And in this sense, not only Cervantes and Shakespeare are unique, but also the great artists of the word of the 18th century.

As stated above, the Enlightenment is not a literary movement. As a complex and basically contradictory ideological movement, embracing all the diversity of interests of different strata of the third estate, it found expression in various literary trends.

In the literatures of the 18th century, we first of all meet with classicism. True, this term often denotes literary phenomena that are very far from each other. For example, Voltaire's classicism has little in common with the so-called "Weimar classicism" of Goethe and Schiller.

However, at the core different options classicism, there are some general aesthetic principles that go back in part to the theory of French classicism of the 17th century. Admiration for antique art samples is also common.

You might think that we are talking about a simple mechanical borrowing of old forms. But the fact is that for the enlighteners who constantly put forward the idea of ​​reason, the theory of classicism had its attractive side. After all, Boileau constantly emphasized the leading role of reason, although he put a slightly different meaning into this concept:

Make friends with reason: always let the verse be indebted only to him at the cost of its beauties. (Per. D. Dmitrievsky).

Beauty is subordinated here to a rational, rational principle. When creating an artistic image, the classicists strove for such a generalization, in which neither specific traits of a person's character, nor national characteristics, nor the originality of the era were important. This rationalism of classicist art was close to the enlighteners, who themselves were rationalists, thought in universal human categories and willingly resorted to such generalized, elevated above everyday prose images to establish the kingdom of reason and denounce the terrifying folly of the world around them.

This is the image of the republican Brutus in Voltaire's tragedy "Brutus". Such is the heroine of Goethe's tragedy "Iphigenia in Taurida", written on the subject of an ancient myth.

At the same time, the 18th century in the art and literature of the West was marked by a craving for a truthful depiction of everyday life. The sublime heroes of classicism could not satisfy the new viewer and reader, English literature also in early XVIII century, the moralizing magazines of Style and Addison gained great influence, on the pages of which for the first time a realistic reflection of the everyday life of the English bourgeois life was found. Journal sketches and everyday sketches were the first artistic experiments that prepared the further successes of the English realistic novel of the 18th century.

It is curious that in the activities of Style and Addison, interest in new topics and the search for new forms of its reflection were combined with adherence to the theories of classicism. Addison even wrote a tragedy based on an antique plot.

In other countries, the struggle against classicism took on more acute forms. In France, Diderot strongly opposed the aesthetics of classicism. In Germany, Lessing, starting in the middle of the 18th century, the struggle to create German literature that would meet the objectives of national development, sharply attacked the tradition of French classicism. In the heat of controversy, Lessing even refused to recognize that the art of Corneille, Racine and Voltaire had the right to be called great, for, in his opinion, that which is not true cannot be great.

Diderot and Lessing, more consistently than other enlighteners, fought for the truth in art. Diderot admired the artist Dreams: "Here is an artist, your artist and mine, the first among us who dared to introduce everyday life into art, to capture on canvas the course of events from which you can compose a novel ...". He “sends his talent everywhere - to noisy public gatherings, and in churches, and to the market, to festivities, to houses, to the streets; he tirelessly observes actions, passions, characters, faces. "

Thus, Diderot directly set before artists and writers the task of a realistic depiction of everyday life.

The Age of Enlightenment, as mentioned above, is associated with the cult of reason. Both Diderot and Lessing, fighting for realism in art, for bringing literature and theater closer to Lizny, remain passionate champions of reason.

But almost in the same years, in the third quarter of the 18th century, thinkers and writers appear who begin to express their first doubts about the priority of reason. Stern - in England, Rousseau - in France, writers of the era of "storm and onslaught" - in Germany oppose feeling to reason. They are convinced that it is in feeling that the true dignity of the human person is revealed. A new literary trend, sentimentalism, is taking shape.

Thus, the literature of the Enlightenment is presented in different directions.

Availability common tasks In that ideological struggle, led by enlighteners from different countries, determines the nature of the literary influences of this era. The writers of the 18th century carefully studied the experience of their predecessors and contemporaries from other countries. England embarked on the path of capitalist development earlier than other countries - the Enlightenment began here at the end of the 17th century. Naturally, the ideas of English philosophers and writers, in particular John Locke, gained pan-European distribution. Voltaire's book “ English letters"(1734), in which he promoted in France the philosophical ideas of Locke, the scientific discoveries of Newton. Without taking into account this English influence, it is impossible to understand the process of forming the views of Voltaire and other French enlighteners.

A little time passes, and the educators of France are already entering the international arena. Voltaire becomes widely known - soon it will be difficult to find a European country in which there would be no Voltaireans. In the middle of the century, the leading role passes to the encyclopedists. The glory of Rousseau is spreading rapidly.

This does not mean that English influence has ended. But it took on a different character. It is characteristic that in German literature of the period of "storm and onslaught" both French (Rousseau) and new English influences (MacPherson's "Ossian") intersect.

Foreign influences often appear in a very complex alloy. The Danish educator L. Golberg was called “Danish Moliere” and “northern Voltaire”. With the same right, his work can be associated with the names of Addison and Swift. His dramas, essays, satire are nationally distinctive and at the same time bear the traces of a careful study of Western European literature. It was, of course, not about the passive perception of other people's ideas, but about mastering the experience of comrades-in-arms in the struggle.

At the same time, the educators did not just exchange ideas, they often argued with each other, the influence of a foreign author unleashed polemics. So, "The Maid of Orleans" by Schiller not only continues Voltaire's theme, but to a certain extent is contrasted with the eponymous poem of the French writer.

Connections and interactions in the literature of the 18th century were of the most varied nature. Most often it was about the influence of ideas, about the dissemination of the very philosophical and social program of the enlighteners, regardless of the artistic forms in which it was embodied. This was the case, for example, with Voltaire or the French materialists from the Encyclopedia circle. The impact of Rousseau's democratic ideas, on the contrary, was most often inseparable from the artistic manner associated with the affirmation of feelings (sentimentalism).

Often the focus was on aesthetic principles. In the struggle to establish enlightenment realism in German literature, Lessing defended positions close to those with which Diderot spoke. And, conversely, the tradition of Voltaire's classicist tragedy was completely rejected by Lessing, for in German conditions in the middle of the 18th century, classicism was a brake on the development of advanced literature. Of course, this aesthetic principle was inseparable from the general tasks of the educational struggle.

Finally, we can note cases when it was the writer's artistic experience that was primarily affected, and not his ideological position. Thus, the French writers (Prevost, Diderot) were greatly impressed by S. Richardson's epistolary novels. It is especially striking with what delight the great encyclopedist Diderot perceives the artistic manner of Richardson. The form of the letter opened up new possibilities for psychological analysis. Continuing his artistic search, Diderot deepened his analysis of the human character, exposing its dialectical contradictions. Richardson's discovery was an important impetus for this quest, although there was very little in common between the positions of the rather timid, puritanically narrow-minded English novelist, author of Pamela and Grandison, and the worldview of the brave encyclopedist, atheist and revolutionary Diderot.

The interaction of writers from different countries was facilitated by the fact that the enlighteners themselves thought of their activities as universal, far beyond national borders. Many of them called themselves "citizens of the world" (cosmopolitans), for reason, which they considered the main criterion in the struggle, was thought by them as universal, and the future kingdom of reason as a worldwide brotherhood of people not divided by more colorful barriers of princely and royal possessions. Cosmopolitan terminology did not at that time have the reactionary meaning that it acquired in the modern ideological struggle as a weapon of imperialist aggression against peoples fighting for their national independence.

Fr. Schiller did not glorify his hero as a "citizen of the world" out of disregard for national interests. Moreover, his Marquis of Poza (in the drama Don Carlos), who, according to the author, marched "along the great cosmopolitan path," at the same time provided energetic support for the national liberation struggle in the Netherlands. The fact is that the interests of all mankind for him were higher and dearer than the interests of one or another separate monarchical state. And Schiller himself, as a poet and playwright, did not think of himself as a subject of Stuttgart or Weimar, where he lived. He opposed the whole world to the medieval narrowness and squalor of any German duchy and saw his vocation in working for the whole world, and not for the ducal residence.

This worldwide scope, the desire to think in large-scale images, which is especially characteristic of various forms of enlightenment classicism (Voltaire, Winckelmann, later Goethe and Schiller), does not exclude the national originality of the writers of the 18th century. In each country, the development of the Enlightenment is primarily due to specific historical conditions.

The English educational novel by Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Smollett could flourish only in a country where the bourgeois revolution had already won and the new social order appeared before the artist visually, specifically, in living images.

The pathos of the French Enlightenment was different. Here philosophers, playwrights and poets “enlightened the heads” for the coming revolution. In Germany and Italy, the revolutionary situation was still very far away. Decades of slow clearing of the ground for bourgeois transformations lay ahead. Absolutism here has not yet fulfilled the historical task that was solved in France or Russia, namely, it did not eliminate feudal fragmentation. Therefore, leading German writers were worried about such questions that did not exist for Voltaire or Defoe. It is understandable, for example, how important the theme of national unity acquired in German literature.

Thus, the situation in each country made significant adjustments to the anti-feudal educational program common to all countries.

But the question of the national originality of 18th century literature also has another side. It is connected with the nature of the literary tradition in the country, for it is natural that writers of any new historical stage cannot nihilistically discard those artistic values ​​that were accumulated by their predecessors. They often even express new ideas, using the rich arsenal of artistic means created in the previous stages.

In different national literatures of the 18th century, different genres are gaining success. National traditions inevitably affect the development of these genres. Each of the literary trends (classicism, sentimentalism) in each country takes on its own special forms.

It is interesting, for example, to raise the question of the originality of Voltaire's worldview and creativity, one of his Soviet researchers A.A.Smirnov. He sees this originality in the organic fusion of the national tradition and the historical moment; “Of all the representatives of the French Enlightenment, Voltaire ideologically contributed the most to the preparation of the revolution. And at the same time he is the bearer of the French mind in the most developed and complete form. It is the combination of these two moments in Voltaire that makes him a particularly typical, truly national writer of France. "

The "French mind" is not something antisocial and ahistorical. It has been developed for centuries in certain historical conditions in which the French nation was formed and developed. The work of the great poets and prose writers of France - Villon, Rabelais, Ronsard, Corneille, Racine, Moliere - was deeply national. So when we talk about national characteristics French Enlightenment, we must take into account not only the nature of the country's historical development in this era, but also the presence of a centuries-old artistic tradition, without which it is impossible to understand the work of this or that writer.

So, even with the most cursory review, the literature of the 18th century amazes with its richness and diversity, a complex complex of different artistic trends.

The question arises: is it possible in these conditions to talk about the unity of the artistic method in the 18th century, is there an educational method as such?

Indeed, what is common between the method of Defoe and Voltaire, Swift and Rousseau, Lessing and Goldoni, between the methods of the young Schiller and the late Schiller?

Nevertheless, the literature of the eighteenth century was characterized by common features arising from the general antifeudal tasks of the Enlightenment. In each country, these tasks acquired their specific outlines, they found expression in different literary directions, each national literature had its own traditions, foreign influences crossed in different ways, and the wealth of individual talents was almost immeasurable - and yet in the literature of the 18th century there was one general line. Both the French classicistic tragedy, and the German drama of the "storm and onslaught" era, and the sentimental novel - in different artistic means expressed the educational goals of the era.

Literature of the 18th century as a whole appears as a new natural stage in the development of realism in world literature.

But in operating with the concept of enlightenment realism as a special stage in the development of world literature, researchers are faced with serious difficulties: what are the boundaries of this realism? Should we refer to realism only that part of the literature of the 18th century that reproduces the features of modern life (English family and everyday novel, bourgeois drama) and is theoretically connected with the names of Diderot and Lessing, or should the concept of enlightenment realism be combined with such literary trends as classicism and sentimentalism?

Researchers cannot ignore the obvious fact that both Diderot and Leseing asserted realism in their polemics against classicism, "The struggle between two artistic styles - classicism and realism fills the entire 18th century," stresses the researcher Diderot D. Gachev.

A similar point of view is presented in the works of other Soviet literary critics, in particular by S. S. Mokulsky, who also notes: "In terms of style, the French theater represented in the 18th century the arena of the struggle between two artistic trends - classicism and realism."

It can be noted that both researchers are willing to use the terms "style" and "direction" rather than "method".

At the same time, for S. S. Mokulsky, Voltaire's classic tragedy serves as an example of a break in form and content, because, in his opinion, here the new content was clothed in the old conventional form, and the realistic elements of the tragedies were in contradiction with their classicist conventions. "An attempt to overcome this gap between form and content was the creation of a new style - educational realism."

The very idea of ​​a break in form and content is controversial here. It is easy to see that Enlightenment Classicism was by no means just an old form. Otherwise it was difficult to explain the amazing vitality of classicism in the literature of the eighteenth century. Neither Diderot nor Lessing, who overthrew classicism, could not uproot it. Moreover, both in France and in Germany, classicism wins serious victories precisely at the end of the century and, which is especially important, during the Great French Revolution.

One cannot, of course, ignore the fact that Diderot openly proclaimed a program of realism, while the classicist Voltaire did not. But Voltaire's classicism was also an artistic expression of the educational ideology, and Voltaire's method itself reflects the characteristic features of the aesthetics of the 18th century.

Therefore, it seems to us possible, considering the literature of the Enlightenment as one of the stages in the development of realism in world literature, to generalize in the concept of the educational method various literary phenomena of the 18th century, united by a single goal of fighting against the feudal order in the name of the supposed kingdom of reason and justice.

It is about the unity of the method of different writers.

“When we talk about method, we mean, so to speak, the strategy of the literary process,” the Soviet literary critic L. I. Timofeev defines the concept of method.

It is in this regard that we should speak about the realism of the 18th century: we are talking about a single strategy in the art of the Enlightenment. In another work, L. I. Timofeev deciphers the concept of method in the following way: “The artistic method in art should be called the historically conditioned unity of the creative principles of a number of artists, expressed in a common interpretation of the main problems that arise before art in a given historical period, that is, the problems of the ideal, hero, life process and people ”.

A common interpretation of the main life problems of the era unites the vast majority of the writers of the eighteenth century. It is not about a simple similarity of ideas, but about the process of refraction of these ideas in creativity, about the approach to depicting life, about artistic techniques that manifest themselves in the disclosure of human character.

Interesting thoughts in this regard are expressed in the work of V. Bakhmutsky "Voltaire and the Bourgeois Drama". Speaking about Voltaire's enlightenment classicism, the author writes: “This classicism is a natural expression of the contradictions of the bourgeois-democratic ideology of the Enlightenment, and therefore its opposite to the realism of the bourgeois drama is only relative, and their unity is absolute: not only the realism of the 18th century, but also classicism follows from the view per person as an isolated individual of bourgeois society. It is this view that makes Voltaire consider the human essence not as a “totality public relations", But as" something abstract, inherent in a separate individual. " (K. Marx). The classicism of Voltaire's tragedies in this sense is only the reverse side of the realism of bourgeois drama at the heart of both artistic style lies the separation of the general from the particular, the typical from the individual ”.

It follows from this that the problem of the educational method in literature requires a comprehensive dialectical approach when solving it.

In a narrower and more precise sense of the word, the concept of realism is fair (as above in D. Gachev and S.S.

But in the history of world realism, when we talk about its main stages (Renaissance, XVIII century, XIX century), the very concept of the stage absorbs a wider artistic experience.

Not only Diderot, but also Voltaire and Rousseau, not only Lesoing, but also Goethe and Schiller were “milestone” in the development of realism. The contribution to the development of realism was broader and went far beyond the artistic experience of those writers who were realists in a narrower and more precise sense of the word.

Our task is to consider the main features of the educational artistic method in a broader sense, arising from the very nature of the ideology of the 18th century.

The defining feature of this method is the combination in it of the harshest, most merciless criticism of the irrationality and insensibility of the feudal world with illusions regarding the future kingdom of justice, which, according to the enlighteners, inevitably had to come and for which they fought so bravely and tirelessly.

In this sense, the educational method contains the unity of denial and affirmation.

The literature of the last third of the century was faced with the historical task of such an artistic study of reality, which would make it possible to understand and express the ideal of a person born in the course of the unfolding anti-feudal struggle, to reveal a person in his national and social conditioning. Classicism was not able to solve this problem.

As a rule, remarkable artistic discoveries were made in the way of deviations from normative poetics. Under the new conditions, this was no longer enough, an art was needed that would trust reality and the real person, not idealize, but explain life, the content of which, under the influence of aggravated class contradictions, was continuously becoming more complex.

This art turned out to be educational realism, which was born as a response to the imperious demand of the times. In the course of the struggle against the feudal world, all its institutions and its ideology, a new view of society was developed, a new philosophy of man as a free individual was formed, the dignity of which is determined not by his class belonging, not by the nobility of the family, but by his mind, personal talents, the doctrine of man's dependence was created from society.

Realism, having become a European and then a world trend, opened up opportunities for the art of each nation to be original, to exist in a nationally individual guise, as the historical life of each nation, each person is individual and unique.

At the early stage of Russian realism - from Fonvizin to Pushkin - some important principles of the method were defined and outlined. This is an understanding of the extra-class value of a person, belief in his great role on earth, patriotic, civil and social activities as the main way of self-affirmation of a person living in an autocratic-serf society, explaining a person by his social environment and, finally, the first steps in the artistic identification of the “mystery of nationality ”, In the ability to show the Russian view of things, the Russian mind.

The most important feature of the method of realistic display of reality is the disclosure of its social contradictions, a satirical and sharply denunciatory attitude towards it, which made it possible to reveal the amazing truth of the serf system, the death of slavery for the entire nation (Novikov, Fonvizin, Radishchev), to see the people as a force capable of destroying the regime of violence, slavery of lawlessness, to establish freedom and justice in society ("Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", ode "Liberty").

The new method achieved its first successes in drama: Fonvizin's comedies "The Brigadier" and especially "The Minor" laid the foundation for Russian realism. He will receive further development in prose (Novikov, Fonvizin, Radishchev, Krylov).

The appearance of noble enlighteners in the historical arena testified to the conflict between the old and new Russia... Enlightenment realism was able to discover and artistically capture this social conflict. That is why Fonvizin, and later Radishchev, were not portrayed family drama rather a drama of ideas.

They took their hero out of the sphere of private life, posed the most acute problems of Russian reality, determined the choice of such an activity that would open the way to the extra-egoistic self-realization of his personality. All this gave enlightenment realism a special quality, which is most often characterized by the word "journalism".

This journalism is special form artistry in educational realism. In it, the ideological life of a person, his connection with the universal world, his rejection of private, egoistic existence and "lonely happiness" were presented to the reader with the greatest completeness.

Publicism was also engendered by the writer's desire to take care of the welfare of all, and not of an individual. The enlightening belief in reason gave rise to the belief that the word has a powerful, effective, almost imperative power. Expressed by the word the truth, it seemed, should have immediately produced the desired effect - to dispel error.

Therefore, the most important task of literature was the formulation of a moral code, the enlightenment of a depraved consciousness, a direct expression of the ideal, the bearer of which was the positive hero. Psychologism as a disclosure of the inconsistency of human consciousness was contraindicated in educational realism. Rationalism affected the construction of images by Novikov, Fonvizin and Radishchev.

The "revolution in art" also captured poetry, which was fettered by the rules of the normative poetics of classicism. But this process was more difficult, because the traditions were most pronounced in poetry. At the same time, realism in poetry manifested itself differently than in drama and prose - here its own features of a new style, a new structure took shape.

A decisive contribution to the development of the principles of realistic lyrics was made by the genius poet of the 18th century. Derzhavin, which Gukovsky had already noted in his time: "In the very essence of his poetic method, Derzhavin gravitates towards realism." Derzhavin put forward new principle art, a new criterion for the selection of its means - the principle of individual expressiveness. " "The poetic system of classicism was radically destroyed by Derzhavin."

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

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1. Enlighteningrealism

ENLIGHTENING REALISM - an artistic method in European art and literature of the 18th century, according to which all the phenomena of social life and the actions of individuals were assessed as reasonable or unreasonable. Its creators and theorists were Diderot in France and Lessing in Germany. Distinctive features of educational realism were the further expansion and democratization of themes in such forms of artistic culture as literature, theater, painting; the emergence of a new hero - a representative of the third estate, declared in the spirit of the times as the bearer of Reason or Nature; rejection of the normativity inherent in classicism; the demand for the truth of life, documentary accurate disclosure of characters and "opinions"; the edification of the story, associated with the desire to convey public or moral ideas to the listener, viewer, reader. At the same time, the supporters of this method often admitted convention in their works. Thus, the circumstances in romance and drama were not necessarily typical. They could be conditional, as in an experiment. The main achievement of enlightenment realism was the creation of the novel of the New Age - a powerful means of artistic knowledge of reality. Its founder is considered D. Defoe, the pioneer of such genre varieties of the novel as biographical, adventure, psychological, criminal, adventurous, educational and allegorical. D. Swift became the creator of the genre of satirical philosophical and political novel. In the era of the mature Enlightenment, a family and everyday (S. Richardson) and social and everyday (G. Fielding) novel appeared. The emergence of a new hero led to the emergence of a "philistine" drama ("The London merchant" by D. Lillo, "Treachery and love" by F. Schiller, "Bastard son" by D. Diderot, etc.), educational democratic (R. Sheridan) and social political (G. Fielding) comedy. Stage realism was fully embodied in the work of P.O. Beaumarchais.

Educational ideas influenced the formation of realistic painting in the 18th century. Realist artists W. Hogarth, J. B. Chardin fought to eradicate the vices of society, turned to everyday situations or to create paintings "on modern moral themes - an area not yet tried in any country" (Satirical Cycles by W. Hogarth) ... J. B. Chardin turned still life into an independent genre of painting.

2. CreationUlyamaHogarth

The birth of the national school of painting in England dates back to the first half of the 18th century. The founder of the Russian art school and one of its brightest masters was William Hogarth. With his bold and original work, he marked the beginning of a new flourishing of English painting.

Hogarth's works were a true reflection of the life of various strata of English society and were imbued with true active critical tendencies.

The artist's paintings and prints were distinguished by their high skill of dramatic storytelling, innovative originality and originality of the artistic solution. He actively fought for the assertion of realism and ideas of citizenship in art. In his theoretical treatise "Analysis of Beauty" (1753), the artist put forward the provisions of the democratic aesthetics of realism. He sharply condemned the deceitful flattering of stereotyped secular portraits, defended everyday painting based on direct observation and revealing the essence of life phenomena.

Hogarth's art had a significant impact on European everyday painting of the 19th century, it carried many of the most significant features of further development and was a harbinger of everything that became characteristic of European art of the 19th century, in particular critical realism.

An important part creative heritage William Hogarth is composed of his works on everyday and moral themes. Each of his cycles is a detailed dramatic narration of human destinies, it is a kind of challenge to society, where Hogarth aptly and sharply shows the social environment and typical circumstances of English life.

Artist thought what the main task "Useful" arts is court above life, a method serves satire. Like to that how advanced writers Enlightenment created new a type artistic works - domestic realistic novel, Hogarth created new for his time genre - series satirical household pictures. These series read how novels and thanks to clarity their artistic language were available much more broad circles people, how any book.

Hogarth's work is also largely devoted to ridicule the vices of contemporary society; but, revealing gloomy pictures of cruelty, corruption, immorality, spiritual poverty and material poverty, the artist never changes his faith in man. The artist creates portraits. His images speak of health, mental strength, inner beauty people - features that the artist can see and which are the basis of his art.

2. The first steps of Hogarth in art and the formation in his work of an independent assessment in relation to reality

By the 1730s, a distinctive and amazing artist, William Hogarth, appeared in England.

W. Hogarth (1697-1764) was born into the family of a rural teacher who moved to London. His father first kept a school in his village, then in London, and later worked as a proofreader, studied literature and left several works of a philosophical nature that did not bring him material security.

From these statements it follows that his method was formed from a young age. For him, the object of art and the only source of artistic images was life. He believed that one should study not the rules of predecessors and the images they created, but the world... It makes no sense to copy objects and figures, it is necessary to develop memory and record observations.

The engraving is characterized by simple drawing techniques and a clear rhythm of composition.

In 1726, Hogarth made two series of illustrations for "Goodybras": in the first, at the request of the booksellers, he followed fairly closely the techniques of anonymous illustrations of the earlier edition of this book (1710), but made significant changes. The second series can be considered independent work artist. Realistic illustrations testify to the maturity of his drawing, to the richness of his creative imagination. They are characterized by the integrity of the composition, a wide peculiar rhythm and an extraordinary saturation with details of a domestic character.

In 1729, Hogarth married the artist's daughter Thornhill, marrying her in secret from her parents. Parents soon forgave Hogarth and the young couple settled with the Thornhills.

The artist has been painting since the early 1720s, when he studied at the Academy with Vanderbank, participating in the paintings of a country house with his teacher Thornhill.

Hogarth quickly exhausted the possibilities of the genre of "conversational" group portraits, which took him into the sphere of salon art. More and more he was carried away by themes of public sound, which met the ideals of the artist and the peculiarities of his talent. But as a satirist and author of topical topics, he fully developed in the 1730s.

Thus, in the first period of his activity, young Hogarth appears before us as a man with an early formed worldview, as a master of great creative purposefulness. Already in his early years, he took the first steps towards achieving the goal of a lifetime - the creation of works of art useful for society. Youth works show that in the sheets on topical topics, Hogarth, to some extent, found his teachers, his own genre and established contact with the audience he was addressing. He took life events as material and interpreted them satirically, gave them an assessment. Using the experience of his predecessors, he continued to develop his own artistic language. educational realism visual arts

4. Series "Fashionable marriage"

In the first half of the 1840s, Hogarth created his most famous series, The Fashionable Marriage (six paintings, Tate Gallery, London). The cycle is composed of separate dramatic plots. Scene titles reveal the intent of the episode. Hogarth has repeatedly called himself not a painter, but the "author" of the series, wishing to emphasize by this the significance of the literary plot underlying them, not without reason that many contemporaries evaluate him precisely as the author. T. Gauthier says: “Hogarth is Aristophanes of the brush, who paints his comedies instead of writing them.” [, - Krol A.E. William Hogarth. L.-M., 1965, p. 83-84.7] Thackeray, who devoted a whole section to the artist in his lectures on comic writers of the 18th century, emphasizes the professional literary completeness of Hogarth's plot cycles.

The author's thought becomes familiar to the viewer when he recognizes the entire episode. The artist depicts people at the moment of the action itself, his characters seem to be talking to each other. Hogarth succeeds in this thanks to the accurate transmission of facial expressions and gestures.

Hogarth's series of paintings enjoyed wide popularity among writers who used them in dramatic alterations. Charles Lamb in his article says: "... We look at other paintings - we read his engravings." However, it should be said that the plots and characters created by Hogarth were processed, as a rule, by insignificant authors and only individual episodes.

It is also difficult to establish the exact date of the cycle "Fashionable Marriage". There are two close to each other series of paintings on this topic. One, as mentioned earlier in the Tate Gallery (London), another, different from her in detail and which is considered Hogarth's sketches, completed with the other hand - in the collection of G.R. Villette. There is speculation that the famous series was written between 1742 and 1745.

"Fashionablemarriage"

was Hogarth's third satirical series. In the paintings of this series, the viewer sees a sharp social satire, exposing the social stratum to ridicule. Depicting scenes from the life of high society, Hogarth shows no less ugly and vicious, terrible and funny than in scenes from the life of vagabonds, thieves and prostitutes. The characters, as in the previous series, acquire a portrait.

William Hogarth's plot is a marriage of convenience. This is a story about the marriage of a ruined son to the daughter of a wealthy merchant, a very common phenomenon in England during the time of Hogarth, about the husband's revelry and about nothing, except for a love affair, not filled with the life of his wife. This story ends with a tragic denouement - the death of the count, stabbed to death by the countess's lover, who ends up on the gallows for this, and the suicide of the countess.

The first episode is already expressive - "Marriage Contract"

which is concluded as a commercial transaction. Interested persons gathered. They form two groups. The first depicts an old lord with a thoroughbred briefcase and a stately bearing and sitting opposite the father of the bride with marriage contract in his hands, who looks with horror at the future relative and calculates how much this relationship will cost him. Another group - the bride and groom sitting with a boring look, personifying passive indifference. In the foreground, there are animal figurines tied with a chain, symbolizing the same union that is in this room.

The picture is distinguished by its expressiveness, clear, well-thought-out composition, the wavy "serpentine" line emphasizes all the outlines, the characters are skillfully grouped.

Hogarth showed in this story a common phenomenon in the life of English society. Greedy for money and social status, fathers, cunning and selfish, for the sake of their own profit, enter into an alliance between their children, who are their goods. The bride's father buys himself a place among the nobility and is not afraid to overpay. Greed, fear, obsequiousness are embodied in his face and figure. A running sly glance emphasizes his nature. The old lord is the father of the groom, who looks around from the height of greatness, who knows how to maintain an arrogant appearance in front of the buyer, fills his own worth. Everyone wants to snatch tasty... The fragility of this deal is immediately apparent to every viewer.

In the second scene ("Morning breakfast. Soon after weddings ")

] all three characters are involved. This composition depicts the morning in the house of the young. Overturned chairs, which are lazily lifted by a sleepy servant, playing cards lying on the floor, musical instruments and a notebook of notes - all speak of yesterday's holiday, which ended in a pretty orgy. The rather pretty countess casually stretches, is about to yawn, and expresses complete indifference to her husband, who burst into the rooms without taking off his hat and collapsed heavily into an armchair. The manager walks away with a bundle of bills in his hand, raising his hands to the sky.

Everything that happens in the picture is the relationship between actors, every physiognomy, every gesture is outlined extremely clearly and vividly.

The third scene ("U charlatan ") [App. rice. 20] tells about the further adventures of her husband. He came with his girlfriend to a charlatan - a doctor. The doctor receives them in an impressively decorated office, where each item speaks of the owner's "learning". The young boozer exposes the charlatan by brandishing a cane at him. Betty Carless, famous in London, stands up for the doctor. The artist combined with the help of gestures, glances and common action, a charlatan doctor and a pimp into one group, which, as it were, alienates the figure of a defenseless, timid figure of a young victim.

In the next picture - "Morning reception "

the artist reveals the character of the young countess's entertainment. We see her behind the morning toilet. A hairdresser is bustling around the hostess, a famous London singer is singing to the accompaniment of a flute, the guests are chatting about something, and a solicitor is sprawled on the couch, behaving like home. He hands the countess the tickets to the masquerade. The relationship between the mistress of the house and the lawyer provides rich food for thought for those around him.

Soft accords of colors, pink and silver-gray, or olive, pinkish and brown-gold, convey the external well-being and elegance of this life, and the composition of paintings, full of hectic movement, corresponds to the inner emptiness and chaos in the life of the characters of "Fashionable Marriage".

The following pictures from the "Fashionable Marriage" series bring the viewer closer to the denouement. In the fifth scene [App. rice. 22] is shown crucial moment: the husband, struck to death, falls, the young wife kneels in front of the lying husband, and the murderer lover hides in the window. The expressiveness of a scene is determined by its dynamics. Hogarth makes a bold attempt to capture the elusive moment both in the movements and in the emotional experiences of the characters. As in other scenes, the action again takes place in a specific setting with many real details. The faces and figures of the scene are shown in shadow.

Sixthscene tinged with bitterness and drama. The Countess takes poison. At her feet lies a sheet of last words the executed lover. Through the open window of a gloomy old dwelling, a beautiful view of the wide Thames and London Bridge spreads - as a symbol of life, the calmly flowing river stretches, despite all the tragedies of life.

In The Fashionable Marriage series, William Hogarth raised an important social issue, for which he was considered a moralist - a preacher. The artist does not punish evil. The greedy father who sacrificed his daughter and the old lord who favorably married his son do not suffer. Their children suffered as passive victims of brutal social conditions. The fate of the heroes is determined in Hogarth's plots by the social situation. Positive heroes in his paintings are very rare, since the artist sees the main thing not in triumphant virtue and morality, but in the assertion of the inevitability of vices and misfortunes.

In the mid-1740s, Hogarth makes an attempt to proclaim positive life values... He begins the series " Happy marriage"(1745). But the artist's plan was not completed, only six episodes from this started series survived. The first, fourth and fifth paintings have survived in the engravings, the third and sixth in painting, and the second in the form of a painting fragment.

A special place in the work of William Hogarth is occupied by a series of engravings "Diligence and Laziness" (1747-1748), in which the artist most extensively develops his positive program.

Hogarth was the son of his age, he mercilessly denounced vices and at the same time shared the illusions that were preached by the writers of the Enlightenment, such as Defoe. Such illusions included the idea that happiness and wealth are a reward for a person for virtue and honest work. Defoe in the novel "Robinson Crusoe" portrays a bold, persistent, hardworking hero who built happiness with his own hands, despite the vicissitudes of fate. In the didactic series Diligence and Laziness, Hogarth pays tribute to this ideal of the times.

Around 1750-1751, Hogarth creates several more graphic works of an instructive nature: the suite "Four degrees of cruelty" and two paired etchings "Gina Street" and "Beer Street" [App. rice. 30, 31]. In them, he follows the same program that he carried out in his large didactic series "Diligence and Laziness" [App. rice. 32].

In the engravings "Gina Street" and "Beer Street" the artist addresses the people. Hogarth writes: "Since the themes of these engravings are designed to affect some of the common vices inherent in the lower classes, the author made them in the cheapest technique more reliably for the widest distribution of engravings." [, - Krol A.E. William Hogarth. L.-M., 1965, p. 115.15]

This time, Hogarth acted as a public figure fighting drunkenness, which was the real scourge of England in his time. This social evil intensified along with the growth of poverty and disease among the "lower" classes. Of course, drunkenness was not the only root cause of poverty and mortality of the poor people of London, but Hogarth, like the leading minds of the time, did not realize what the source of evil was. Therefore, the artist, together with other English enlighteners, directed the entire force of his criticism not on the foundations of the social system, but only on one of the accompanying phenomena.

The engravings "Street Gina" and "Street Beer" met an immediate response, and in 1751 an act was passed in parliament prohibiting the illegal sale of gin.

As William Hogarth writes, the sheet "Gina Street" shows the consequences of drinking this drink - "... idleness, poverty, poverty and despair, leading to madness and death."

The artist divides the sheet into two planes diagonally from the upper right corner to the lower left corner. On the right, he depicts several key episodes with a few characters. On the left are city buildings and streets with a crowd of small human figures. The backdrop of the central walls is impoverished London with its overcrowded ships and dilapidated houses.

The hopelessness of the dead end, in which the inhabitants of Gene Street are dying, is underlined by symbols common at Hogarth: the signboard of the loan office with three heavy balls and the sign of the inn in the form of a huge jug with the inscription "Royal Gin".

Beer Street provides a contrast to Gene Street. The scene is full of cheerfulness. The artist depicts a street with clean, rebuilt houses. Passers-by are walking along the street, the painter finishes a signboard, where he depicts dancing peasants around a stack of barley. People drink beer at the tables. The only abandoned house is the loan office, on the steps of which is an itinerant beer merchant.

If in the previous sheet the comic serves to emphasize the tragic, then "Beer Street" is all imbued with cheerful soft humor. Hogarth ironically depicts beer lovers with huge bellies, holding full mugs of beer with lush foam. The loan office sign no longer seems ominous.

Another series of moralizing character was called by Hogarth "The Four Degrees of Cruelty." She portrays life path a person who tortures cats and dogs as a child, then tortures horses and eventually becomes a killer. According to the law, the corpse of an executed criminal is given to doctors, who dismember it into parts.

Hogarth wrote: “ These sheets were engraved v hope v some least change To the best barbaric appeal With animals, one view tortures which does our capital Cities (London) so deplorable for each sensitive souls. If they will have it action and hinder cruelty I am I will more to be proud those what I am their by the author, how if would I am wrote cardboards Raphael ". ( Krol A.E. William Hogarth. L.-M., 1965, p. 117.18)

"Four degrees of cruelty", as well as the series "Diligence and laziness" like "Gina Street" and "Beer Street", writes A.E. Krol, reveal Hogarth as an artist who does not go through cute social disasters and does not try to amuse the audience with pictures of poverty and ignorance. At the same time, Hogarth does not remain a simple moralist-preacher, but looks at the world more broadly and objectively than most of his contemporaries. Choosing a count or a vagrant as a hero, noble lady or a prostitute, he condemns in their images those dark features that are characteristic not only of individuals, but also of entire social groups. Hogarth turned these topical episodes to the people and they were popular, but the audience to whom he addressed sometimes admired the amusement of the episode, the comic faces and did not notice the deep meaning of his works.

Thus, the work of Hogarth played an important role in the development of English art. His works were a realistic reflection of the modern life of various strata of English society and were imbued with active critical thoughts in the spirit of the progressive ideas of the time. Hogarth's paintings and prints were distinguished by their high skill of dramatic storytelling, innovative originality and originality of artistic solution.He actively fought to establish realism and ideas of citizenship in art, defending the leading place everyday genre in painting.

3 . CreationJeanBatistaSimeonChardin

JeanBatimstSimeomnChardetmn(1699-1779) - French painter, one of the most famous painters of the 18th century and one of the best colorists in the history of painting, famous for his works in the field of still life and genre painting.

In his work, the artist deliberately avoided the solemn and pastoral-mythological subjects inherent in the art of his time. The main subject of his still lifes and genre scenes, based entirely on natural observations and being essentially hidden portraits, was the everyday domestic life of people from the so-called third estate, conveyed in a calm, sincere and truthful manner. Chardin, whose work as an artist marked the flowering of realism in the 18th century, continued the traditions of Dutch and Flemish still life and genre masters of the 17th century, enriching this tradition and introducing a touch of grace and naturalness into his work.

A pupil of Pierre-Jacques Kaz and Noel Coypel, Chardin was born and spent his entire life in the Parisian quarter of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. There is no evidence that he has ever been outside the French capital. Helping Kuapel to perform accessories in his paintings, he acquired an extraordinary art of depicting inanimate objects of all kinds and decided to devote himself exclusively to their reproduction. At the beginning of his independent career, he painted fruits, vegetables, flowers, household items, hunting attributes with such skill that art lovers took his paintings for the works of famous Flemish and Dutch artists, and only since 1739 he expanded the range of his subjects with scenes of household life of poor people and portraits.

He early became known to the Parisian public as an excellent master of still life. This was largely due to the Parisian "exhibition of debutants", which took place on the Place Dauphin. So, in 1728 he presented several canvases there, among which was the still life "Scat". The painting so impressed Nicolas de Largillera, an honorary member of the French Academy of Painting and Sculpture, that he invited the young artist to exhibit his works within the walls of the academy. Subsequently, the painter insisted that Chardin compete for a place at the Academy. Already in September, his candidacy was accepted, and he was included in the lists as "a depiction of flowers, fruits and genre scenes."

The genre of everyday life and still life are organically linked in his art as aspects of a holistic and poetically deep perception of reality. Following the Dutch, the French genre painter was able to express the charm of the interior and those household items that surround a person. For his compositions, Chardin chose the most ordinary objects - a kitchen water tank, old pots, vegetables, an earthen jug, and only occasionally in his still lifes one can see the majestic attributes of the arts and sciences. The dignity of these paintings is not in the preciousness of things, which the Dutch loved so much, but in their spiritualized poetic life, in the balance of construction, creating an image of harmonious life.

Perfectly mastering the knowledge of color relations, Chardin subtly felt the interconnection of objects and the originality of their structure. Diderot admired the skill with which the artist makes one feel the movement of juices under the skin of the fruit. In the color of the subject, Chardin saw many shades and conveyed them in small strokes. Its white color is woven from such shades. Chardin's grays and browns are unusually numerous. The rays of light penetrating the canvas give the object clarity and definition.

In the 1730s. Chardin turned to genre painting, to everyday family and home scenes, full of love and peace, amazing figurative and coloristic integrity (Prayer Before Dinner, 1744). In genre scenes, Chardin recreated a calm, measured way of everyday life - sometimes in the most ordinary, but lyrically sublime moments, sometimes in episodes that have internal moral significance.

Pictures of genre painting, distinguished by their naive simplicity of content, strength and harmony of colors, softness and richness of the brush, even more than the previous works of Chardin, pushed him out of the number of contemporary artists and strengthened behind him one of the prominent places in the history of French painting. In 1728 he was assigned to the Parisian Academy of Arts, in 1743 he was elected to her advisor, in 1750 he took over the position of her treasurer; in addition, since 1765 he was a member of the Rouen Academy of Sciences, Literature and Fine Arts.

In works of different years and different genres, such as "Laundress" (1737), "Jar of Olives" (1760) or "Attributes of the Arts" (1766), Chardin always remains an excellent draftsman and colorist, artist of "quiet life", poet everyday life; his intent and gentle gaze inspires the most common objects. In the last years of his life, Chardin turned to pastels and created several magnificent portraits (self-portrait, 1775), in which he showed his inherent emotional subtlety, but also the ability to psychological analysis.

Encyclopedists did a lot to spread the glory of Chardin, who contrasted his "bourgeois" art with the court artists who were "cut off from the people" - masters of erotic and pastoral vignettes in the spirit of Rococo. Diderot compared his skill with witchcraft: “Oh, Chardin, these are not white, red and black paints that you rub on your palette, but the very essence of objects; you take air and light at the tip of your brush and apply them to the canvas! "

4 . CreationJeanLouisDavid

Jacques-LouismCrushmd(August 30, 1748, Paris - December 29, 1825, Brussels) - French painter and teacher, a major representative of French neoclassicism in painting.

Jacques-Louis David was born on August 30, 1748 in the family of an iron wholesaler Louis-Maurice David and his wife, Marie-Genevieve (née Bouron), and on the same day he was baptized in the Church of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerois. Until August 2 1757 - the day of the death of his father, who may have died in a duel, lived in the boarding house of the Picpus monastery.Thanks to his mother's brother, François Buron, nine-year-old Jacques-Louis, having worked with a tutor, entered the College of the Four Nations for a course in rhetoric. leaving the child in Paris in the care of her brother, she left for Evreux. Jacques-Francois Demeson, were architects, and the family was related to the artist Francois Boucher. Noticing the child's ability to draw, it was decided that he would become an architect, like both of his uncles ...

David takes drawing lessons at the Academy of St. Luke, in 1764 his relatives introduce him to Francois Boucher in the hope that he will take Jacques-Louis as his student. However, due to the artist's illness, this did not happen - nevertheless, he recommended the young man to start studying with one of the leading masters of historical painting of early neoclassicism, Joseph Vien. Two years later, in 1766, David entered the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, where he began to study at the Viennese workshop. The pedagogical system of the latter, who spent several years in Italy and was fascinated by antiquity, was based on the study of ancient art, the works of Raphael, the Carracci brothers, Michelangelo, the requirement to achieve "truth" and "greatness" in painting.

In 1775-1780, David studied at the French Academy in Rome, where he studied ancient art and the work of the masters of the Renaissance.

In May 1782 he married Charlotte Pecul. She bore him four children.

In 1783 he was elected a member of the Academy of Painting.

He took an active part in the revolutionary movement. In 1792 he was elected a deputy to the National Convention, where he joined the Montagnards, led by Marat and Robespierre, and voted for the death of King Louis XVI. Was a member of the Committee public safety, in the capacity of which he signed orders for the arrest of "enemies of the revolution." Due to political differences at this time, he divorced his wife.

In an effort to perpetuate the events of the revolution, David painted a number of paintings dedicated to the revolutionaries: "The Oath in the Ballroom" (1791, not finished), "The Death of Marat" (1793, Museum of Modern Art, Brussels). Also at this time he organized mass folk festivals and created National Museum at the Louvre.

In 1794, after the Thermidorian coup, he was imprisoned for revolutionary views.

In November 1796 he remarried Charlotte.

In 1797, he witnessed the solemn entry into Paris of Napoleon Bonaparte and since then has become his ardent supporter, and after he came to power - the court “first artist”. David creates paintings dedicated to the passage of Napoleon through the Alps, his coronation, as well as a number of compositions and portraits of persons close to Napoleon. After Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, he fled to Switzerland, then moved to Brussels, where he lived until the end of his life.

He was buried in the cemetery of the Leopold quarter in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (in 1882 he was reburied in the Brussels cemetery in Evere), his heart was transported to Paris and buried in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.

5. CreationJeanAntoineHoudon

Jean Antoine Houdon (1741-1828) is a famous sculptor of classicism. He created a unique portrait encyclopedia of outstanding people of the era. His main character- a social person, of a noble and strong character, courageous and fearless, a creative person. Houdon was never interested in the titles and titles of those whom he imprinted in marble and bronze. The images he created masterfully convey not only the external, but also the internal similarity to the original, the peculiarities of the hero's psychology. The portrait of the composer Gluck, orator Mirabeau, comedian Moliere, public figures D. Diderot and J.J. Rousseau, American President George Washington - these are the best works of the great sculptor. It is known that Catherine the Great also ordered her portrait to him, but Houdon refused to go to Russia. He brilliantly executed the statue of the Russian empress from numerous portraits, never seeing the original.

The fame of the unsurpassed master of sculptural portrait, which Houdon won during his lifetime, is undeniable to this day. This is partly due to the personalities of his models - the great men of the 18th century: Voltaire, J. J. Rousseau, D. Diderot, B. Franklin, J. Washington. Meanwhile, portraits of these celebrities were created by other sculptors, but in our minds they stubbornly continue to exist exactly as Houdon portrayed them. And this is not surprising. The master's works amaze with the feeling of life emanating from them. One of his contemporaries said about his sculpture: "She would have spoken if the monastic charter did not prescribe her silence." The secret is that in his work Houdon used an ancient rule: you need to ask a question, attract attention and depict a person at the very moment when the whole face comes to life and the answer is ready to escape from the lips. He also developed one simple yet dramatic trick. Modeling the eyes and eyelids in accordance with the shape of nature, he made a depression for the entire width of the iris in such a way that the shadow filling it seemed part of the volumetric and convex surface of the eye, and the pupil was completely black. The left small "pendant" of white marble created the illusion of a light glint, bringing the impression of volume to perfection. As a result, the eyes looked alive, transparent and slightly damp. No sculptor has yet been able to achieve such precision in conveying the expression of the human gaze.

Despite the fact that the recognition of his talent came to the master rather quickly, he, judging by the surviving documents, remained a simple and even poorly educated person. His whole life, not rich in spectacular or dramatic events, was reduced to stubborn daily work in the workshop and everyday everyday worries. However, everything that related to his favorite work, Houdon paid the closest attention to, whether it was the study of the structure of the human body or rivalry with other sculptors.

Jean Antoine was born in Versailles on March 20, 1741 into a family far from art. His father, Jacques Houdon, was a peasant. By the time his son was born, he worked as a simple gatekeeper of the Versailles residence of Count Delamotte, inspector general of the royal parks. The father and brothers of the mother, Anna Rabash, were gardeners in these parks, and of the three sons and four daughters of the Houdons, only Jean Antoine. fourth child, won the fame of an artist. It seems that they have taken care from above to provide an opportunity for the boy's innate talent to develop into true mastery. Following his father, who was transferred to the Parisian house of Count Delamotte, the family moved to the capital, and in 1749 this house was rented out to the French crown for the “School for Chosen Students”. That is, those pupils of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, who were among the best of the best preparing for a trip to Rome for further education at the expense of the state. Jacques Houdon was allowed to remain as a gatekeeper in new school, and Jean Antoine from an early age was among the people of art. The boy eagerly absorbed the very atmosphere of creativity that reigned in the school, came to the workshops and, having begged for clay, enthusiastically sculpted, imitating the elders. First, the students, and then the teachers drew attention to the capable child, helped him, gave advice and, finally, contributed to the fact that in 1756 young Houdon became a student of the academy. In the same year he received a silver medal for success in performing sketches, and five years later for the bas-relief "The Queen of Sheba presents gifts to Solomon" (1761) was awarded the first prize - a gold medal with the right to study at the French Academy in Rome - and returned to his native "School for the Chosen" now as a student. His main teacher was M. A. Slodts, but he also learned a lot of useful knowledge from other academicians - J. B. Lemoine and J. B. Pigal. The next three years, Jean Antoine devoted to mastering the art of marble processing, the study of history and mythology, at the same time he visited the Anatomical Theater, directly getting acquainted with the internal structure of a person, as well as the Louvre and other collections, getting acquainted with the works of art from other countries and the great masters of the past.

In 1764 Houdon left for Rome. According to the academic system of education widespread throughout Europe, he was obliged to make copies of sculptures on themes of classical mythology, and his first work in this direction was the small Vestalka (1767-1768), a fairly loosely interpreted repetition of an antique statue. Moreover, the sculptor immeasurably improved the boring Hellenistic original, giving it the tenderness and femininity characteristic of the Rococo style, while retaining a specifically classical spirit. In the future, he often returned to this image, as well as to many others, sometimes simply copying his work in different materials- plaster, marble, terracotta, bronze, - and sometimes creating options that differ in details. Houdon's Roman period includes such works as Saint Bruno, Saint John the Baptist (both in 1766-1767), Priest of Lupercalia (1768) and others, as well as the well-known sculpture Ekorche "(1766-1767) - a man with bared muscles - casts and copies of which have become a necessary attribute of art schools in Europe and America right up to our days. Moreover, even physicians used it in training.

Interestingly, this outstanding and perhaps the most beloved anatomical model in the history of sculpture was at first just a plaster sketch for John the Baptist. The figure, created on the basis of an in-depth study of anatomy on cadavers at the Hospital of Saint Louis of France, is depicted in slow motion with his right hand outstretched in blessing and is itself a masterpiece of sculptural skill. This pose was completely transferred to the first, not preserved version of "John the Baptist", executed, like "Saint Bruno", by the order of the rector of the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, more than honorable for a novice artist. Much later, Houdon created another, bronze figure "Ekorche" (1792), slightly changing the position of the hands

In November 1768 Jean Antoine returned to Paris. The period of apprenticeship ended, and now the young sculptor was faced with the task of becoming an independent master, gaining recognition at home, and at the same time acquiring what befits his abilities. financial situation... In 1769, on the basis of works performed in Italy, Houdon was easily ranked among the academy, which gave him the right to exhibit in two-year academic Salons, which means that he could show his works to the public and, more importantly, to likely high patrons. From that time on, the sculptor took part in almost all such exhibitions until 1814.

The first significant work of Houdon upon his return to France was a portrait bust of the philosopher D Diderot (1771), which opened a whole gallery of images - both contemporaries and great people of the past: Moliere (1778), J. J. Rousseau (variations in 1778-1779), O. G. Mirabeau (1791), etc. After this work, the artist received orders from the Duke of Saxe-Gotha. the small principality of which in Germany he visited the day before, and the Russian Empress Catherine II, who became the first reigning patroness of the sculptor. In 1773, the master executed a marble bust of Catherine the Great, in which he perfectly conveyed the resemblance to the original, not only external, but also characteristic. although in his work he was forced to rely only on paintings, drawings or engravings by French authors. The portrait of the empress completely refutes the well-established belief that Houdon could not work effectively without a living model in front of him. Indeed, the master often made careful measurements of the subject, made plaster casts of the head and individual parts of the figure, and sometimes, as in the cases of Mirabeau and Rousseau, even removed death masks. But all these actions only facilitated the work of the sculptor, but were by no means decisive. Proof of this can be found in the portraits of Moliere and J. de La Fontaine (c. 1781), who have long passed away, striking in their accurate reproduction of characteristic features.

It should be noted that, despite his excellent ability to work with marble, Houdon was primarily a modeler, not a carver. First he worked with clay, and then he made a plaster mold, which was kept in the workshop and gave him the opportunity to repeat his works in plaster, terracotta, bronze or marble as long as there was a demand for them. Moreover, having excellent knowledge of the casting technique, the sculptor personally participated in the casting of bronze statues, making the final revision with a scraper and leaving the surface rough, and not carefully polished, as in later, non-author's copies.

Although Houdon went down in history primarily as a sculptor-portraitist, his creative nature was more impressed by themes drawn from history, religion or mythology. It is known that he was constantly looking for orders for large-scale works, and throughout his life, talking about his artistic achievements, he usually singled out statues such as "Saint Bruno", "Ekorche" or "Diana" (1776). Special mention should be made of the latter. The theme of the huntress goddess dates back to antiquity and is quite traditional for art since the Renaissance. However, Houdon's "Diana" had two distinctive features- fast movement and complete nudity. The master achieved the illusion of running by forcing the goddess to maintain balance while standing on one toes. It was only in the marble version of 1780 that a reed bush was added to create additional support. The statue, which shocked government officials, was such a success with the public, it was praised by poets and praised by critics like no other work of Houdon. However, the sculptor still chose not to exhibit her in the Salon, and those who wished could admire the pure classical grace of "Diana" in the artist's studio.

In 1777, a reduced marble version of "Morpheus" - a plaster statue in the size of nature (1771) - became Houdon's competitive work for the title of a full member of the Academy of Painting and Sculpture. In the same year, at the Salon, the number of his works was equal to half of all sculptures exhibited in general, and from that time the role of the master as the head of the French sculptural school was determined.

Central to Houdon's work is the best and most significant of his works - a statue of the French writer and philosopher-educator Voltaire, on whose image the sculptor worked for many years and created a number of remarkable portraits. Among them, the image of a seated Voltaire (1781) deservedly stands out. The artist dressed the sage in an antique toga, hiding his feeble, thin body. But he did not compromise the truth and depicted the face of an old man with sunken cheeks, a sunken mouth. However, in this face, the unquenchable, mocking mind of the great philosopher lives so intensely that, on the whole, the work turns into a hymn to the human intellect, proclaims the victory of the immortal spirit over a weak and mortal body. Those who have seen this sculpture are aware of its amazing property - when the viewing angle is changed, Voltaire's expression changes strikingly. He cries, scoffs, looks at the world tragically and chokes with laughter. “In his gaze, he unraveled the soul,” said another great French sculptor, Rodin, about Houdon.

Indeed, in the portraits of scientists, philosophers, people of art, in female images created by the master, sharpness and versatility come to the fore psychological characteristics models. Children's portraits are also remarkable from this point of view. In them, the artist discovered an amazing ability to convey the freshness and purity of childhood without sentimentality. His children are thinking individuals with their own inner world.

Not the last, although not the main role in such an accurate rendering of the human character was played for the sculptor by direct observation and study of nature. Therefore, when in 1785 Houdon received an order for the execution of a marble statue of General J. Washington, he went overseas to work on a portrait bust in the immediate vicinity of the model. On his return to Paris, this bust was used as a sketch by the sculptor. A full-length statue of the general as a general, perhaps the best portrait of Washington in existence.

In the summer of 1786, the forty-five-year-old sculptor married twenty-year-old Marie-Ange-Cecily Langlois, the daughter of an employee of the royal enterprises. In 1787-1790. they had three daughters. Madame Goodon and the girls have served as models for some of the artist's most charming portraits.

In 1787, the artist buys a house, equips a workshop and installs small foundry furnaces. Now he has the ability to cast in bronze almost every one of his works. In this he is assisted by assistants and students, since he, as an academician, was supposed to have students. However, not a single significant sculptor came out of his workshop. Apparently, Goodon was too busy to pay attention to teaching. And only in the last years of his life, especially after his appointment in 1805 as a professor at the special schools of painting, sculpture and architecture at the French Institute, which replaced the Royal Academy, did he fulfill his teaching duties as necessary, and only in 1823 completely retired.

French Revolution 1789-1794 Has deprived Houdon not only of the bulk of the customers and the established position of a leading sculptor, but also of his creative powers. Since the mid-1790s. his art sharply declined. However, he continues to work, albeit on a much smaller scale, performing portraits of members imperial family, marshals and generals. In 1804 he received an order for a giant bronze statue of Napoleon to be installed on a column in Boulogne - it was completed in 1812 and destroyed after the fall of the Empire. The last piece the old master was a bust of Emperor Alexander I, exhibited at the Salon in 1814. After that, there is no information about his work. In 1823 Mrs. Goodon died, and on July 15, 1828 the sculptor himself passed away.

His own words characterize the work of the master in the best possible way: “One of the most beautiful qualities of such a difficult art of sculpting is the ability to preserve in all its authenticity the features and make the images of people who have created the glory or prosperity of their homeland almost imperishable. This thought constantly pursued and encouraged me in my long labors. "

Voltaire Houdon, despite his painful thinness and senile weakness (the sculptor first saw the writer shortly before his death), is the embodiment of fortitude, triumphing over physical weakness. This work is not only the highest achievement of the sculptor himself, but also the pinnacle of European art of the 18th century. The statue of Voltaire drew a lot of enthusiastic responses. Auguste Rodin exclaimed: “What an amazing thing! This is mockery embodied! The eyes are slightly open, as if trapping the enemy. A sharp nose resembles a fox: it wriggles all over, sniffing out abuse and mockery everywhere, it literally trembles. " Jean Antoine Houdon. Voltaire. 1779-1781 Comedie Francaise, Paris.

Jean-Antoine Houdon is a French sculptor. Jean-Antoine Houdon was born on March 20, 1741 in Versailles (France). In 1756 he was admitted to the school of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, received the third prize for sculpture, and in 1761, at the age of twenty, the first prize for the bas-relief "The Queen of Sheba Brings Gifts to Solomon." Houdon's teachers were Michel Slodtz, Jean-Baptiste Lemoine and Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. For eight years he studied at the school and the Academy, and as one of the best students in 1764 he was sent to Rome. The sculptor stayed in Italy for four years and during this time he created a number of works that made his name famous. These are the "Vestal" statue, "Ekorche" - anatomical study, sculptures for decorating the churches "St. Bruno" and "St. John the Baptist". In these early sculptures, which the master later repeated several times in other materials, he prefers the classical interpretation of the image, clear, calm, balanced, associated with the study of the ancient heritage. The need to earn money, the search for customers and patrons, probably did not allow him to extend his Italian retirement, as others did.
In 1768 the sculptor returned to Paris. Here he found his first patron, the German Duke of Saxe-Gotha, who for many years was the artist's customer. From 1769, when Houdon made his debut at the Salon, and until the end of the century, none of the opening Salons did without the sculptor's things. One of the most famous busts of Houdon, the portrait of Denis Diderot, appeared in the Salon of 1771. The philosopher himself, connoisseur and art critic, noted the extraordinary similarity of the portrait. Diderot was often portrayed. But among the portraits created by Van Loo, Anne Marie Collot, J.-B. Pigal and L.-A.-J. Lecuant, Houdon's portrait stands out for the brightness and liveliness of characterization. The bust is free of all accessories and ornaments. All attention is concentrated on the face. Houdon portrayed a philosopher without a wig, for which he had an undisguised hatred. Slightly disheveled hair, Houdon treats it easily and freely, as in all his sculptures. The bust is cut high, the head is turned three-quarters, the mouth is open, the eyes are wide open, their gaze is lively and direct, a fleeting expression is captured. This work made people talk about young talent in France. Through Diderot and his close friend Melchior Grimma Houdon soon acquired the most powerful patron - the Russian Empress Catherine II, who could order Houdon expensive bronzes and marbles. In the 1770s, the sculptor became known as a master of tombstone sculpture. Among his most famous works are the tombstones of Field Marshal Mikhail Golitsyn and Senator A. D. Golitsyn (they are located in the necropolis of the Donskoy Monastery in Moscow) and the tomb of Count d "Annery. The composition of the tombstones goes back to the type of classical gravestone steles of Ancient Greece. Goudon performs sculptures on mythological themes... For the marble statue "Morpheus" in 1777 he was elected an academician. One of the most famous sculptures of the 18th century was his "Diana the Hunter". In Houdon, Diana is shown nude, she maintains balance, standing on one toes, which creates the illusion of running. The frank sensual interpretation of the image does not contradict the purely classical grace of the statue. The same features are inherent in another popular statue of Houdon - "Winter", which is personified in the image of a beautiful, half-naked, chilled girl. Many of Houdon's works are well known all over the world also because he reproduced them, repeating them many times in cheap plaster and in more expensive marble and bronze. He was almost the only sculptor of the 18th century who mastered the technique of casting bronze. He was especially fond of her in the 1780s and 90s. He wrote: "I can act in two roles - sculptor and foundry. In the first I am a creator, in the second I can accurately reproduce others ..." However, Houdon entered the history of sculpture primarily as a master of portrait. He is characterized by an analytical approach to nature, a tireless search for the truth of life, his images are distinguished by a deep and acute psychologism. The number of his portrait sculptures is great. A special group is made up of portraits of children. Among them are excellent busts of Alexander and Louise Bronyard, portraits of the sculptor's daughters Sabina, Anne-Ange and Claudine, and others. The 18th century, as it were, re-opens the world of the child. Houdon managed to convey the feeling of freshness and purity of childhood without a touch of sentimentality and playfulness inherent in Rococo. In his works, children are thinking personalities with their own inner world.
Among the brilliant portraits of figures French theater, created by Houdon, belongs to the posthumous bust of Moliere, commissioned by the Comédie Francaise. Goodon made it resemble the existing a picturesque portrait Moliere, whom he could not see during the work, but created an image-personification of the French theater in general. Moliere's head, framed by long, freely flowing hair, is sharply turned, an unusually lively posture suggests immediate action or movement. The look is piercing, the mouth is slightly open, as if in conversation. A wide scarf is loosely tied around the neck. Exhibited in the building of the Royal Library, the bust caused delight of critics, and Grimm wrote about it: "His gaze (Mr. Goodon is probably the only sculptor who knows how to convey the eyes) penetrates the soul." Houdon completed portraits of many famous people of his time: Necker, Lafayette, Bailly, Franklin and George Washington and others. For a series of portraits of great people conceived by d'Anzhivier, he created a portrait of Marshal de Tourville. Civic virtues, as well as merits in science and art were the criteria for choosing faces for this portrait gallery. But the true continuation of the series should be considered the portraits of the already mentioned Denis Diderot, F -A. D'Alembert, Jean-Jacques Rousseau (was made from a death mask) and the most famous of them is the portrait of Voltaire. , enveloped in a mantle, very reminiscent of a philosopher's dressing gown. Wide folds of the mantle lie on the shoulders and knees, outlining the figure hidden under them and at the same time giving it an imposing. the world of antiquity. ”The face of the subject radiates immense vitality and high spirituality. eats in an instantly grasped expression that is difficult to interpret. This is a delicate, accurate and majestic portrait in which the Age of Enlightenment found its vivid embodiment. Jean-Antoine Houdon died on July 15, 1828 in Paris.

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35. Basic methods of fiction. Realism. The variety of approaches to the problem of realism in literary criticism. Enlightening realism.

(1) Realism is an artistic direction “aimed at conveying reality as closely as possible, striving for maximum likelihood. We declare as realistic those works that seem to us to closely convey reality ”[Yakobson 1976: 66]. This definition was given by R. O. Jacobson in his article "On artistic realism" as the most common, vulgar sociological understanding. (2) Realism is an artistic direction depicting a person whose actions are determined by the social environment surrounding her. This is the definition of Professor GA Gukovsky [Gukovsky 1967]. (3) Realism is a trend in art that, unlike the classicism and romanticism that preceded it, where the author's point of view was respectively inside and outside the text, realizes in its texts the systemic plurality of the author's points of view on the text. This is the definition of Yu. M. Lotman [Lotman 1966].
R. Jacobson himself sought to define artistic realism in a functionalist way, at the junction of his two pragmatic understandings:
1. [...] A realistic work is understood as a work conceived by a given author as plausible (value A).
2. A realistic work is a work that I, having a judgment about it, perceive as plausible ”[Yakobson 1976: 67].
Further, Jacobson says that both the tendency to deformation of artistic canons and the conservative tendency to preserve the canons can be regarded as realistic [Jacobson 1976: 70].
Realism as a literary movement took shape in the 19th century. Elements of realism were present in some authors even earlier, starting from ancient times. The immediate predecessor of realism in European literature was romanticism. Making the subject of the image unusual, creating an imaginary world of special circumstances and exceptional passions, he (romanticism) at the same time showed a personality richer in mental, emotional terms, more complex and contradictory than was available to classicism, sentimentalism and other directions of previous eras. Therefore, realism developed not as an antagonist of romanticism, but as its ally in the struggle against the idealization of social relations, for the national-historical uniqueness of artistic images (color of place and time). It is not always easy to draw clear boundaries between romanticism and realism of the first half of the 19th century; in the work of many writers, romantic and realistic features have merged together - the works of Balzac, Stendhal, Hugo, and partly Dickens. In Russian literature, this is especially clearly reflected in the works of Pushkin and Lermontov (the southern poems of Pushkin and "A Hero of Our Time" by Lermontov). In Russia, where the foundations of realism were still in the 1820s - 30s. laid down by the work of Pushkin ("Eugene Onegin", "Boris Godunov" The Captain's Daughter ", late lyrics), as well as some other writers (" Woe from Wit "by Griboyedov, fables by I. A. Krylov), this stage is associated with the names of I. A Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky and others. Realism of the 19th century is usually called "critical", since the defining principle in it was precisely the socio-critical. Heightened social and critical pathos is one of the main distinctive features Russian realism - "The Inspector General", " Dead Souls"Gogol, the activities of the writers of the" natural school ". Realism of the second half of the 19th century reached its heights precisely in Russian literature, especially in the works of L.N. Tolstoy and F.M.Dostoevsky, who at the end of the 19th century became the central figures of the world literary process. They have enriched world literature with new principles of constructing a socio-psychological novel, philosophical and moral problems, new ways of revealing the human psyche in its deepest layers.

Signs of realism:

1. The artist depicts life in images that correspond to the essence of the phenomena of life itself.

2. Literature in realism is a means of a person's knowledge of himself and the world around him.

3. Cognition of reality is carried out with the help of images created by typing the facts of reality (typical characters in a typical setting). Typification of characters in realism is carried out through the "truthfulness of details" in the "concreteness" of the conditions of the characters' existence.

4. Realistic art is life-affirming art, even with a tragic resolution of the conflict. The philosophical basis for this is gnosticism, belief in cognizability and adequate reflection of the surrounding world, in contrast, for example, to romanticism.

5. Realistic art is characterized by the desire to consider reality in development, the ability to detect and capture the emergence and development of new forms of life and social relations, new psychological and social types.

5. Educational realism.

Reading an article in the textbook "Enlightenment Realism" and answering questions.

Creative workshop "Analysis of the work in the aspect of the artistic method."

Outline of the study of a lyric work.

Russian literature of the XIX century.

The "Golden Age" of Russian Literature.

A.S. Pushkin. "I erected a monument to myself not made by hands ..." (Grade 9)

1. Word of the teacher: "Golden Age" of Russian literature. " "The first row" of Russian writers: Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov. Literature and painting, literature and music. Traditions of Russian folklore, Old Russian, spiritual and foreign literature in the literature of the XIX century.

2. Pushkin - "the beginning of all beginnings." Poetic testament of the poet - "I have erected a monument not made by hands ...".

3. "Slow reading" of the poem.

Comment on (explain) the epithets: "not made by hands" (monument), "rebellious" (chapter), "cherished" (lyre), "sublunary" (peace), "kind" (feelings), "cruel" (century) ...

Highlight the main word (phrase) that carries the idea in each quatrain ("not made by hands", "I will not die", "Great Russia", "good", "command of God").

What sense does Pushkin put into the words "fallen" and "indifferent"?

4. Comparison of Pushkin's poem with the ode to Horace, the work of Lomonosov "I erected the sign of immortality for myself ...", "Monument" Derzhavin.

Homework: reading Pushkin's novel "The Captain's Daughter" (chapters 1-5).

Methodist notes.

Literature at school, no. 3, 1995.

NN KOROL, MA KHRISTENKO The prophetic word of Andrey Platonov.

Comprehension of style. XI class

Teaching students to read the works of A. Platonov is an extremely difficult task. Every phrase of the writer, every word-"mental image" reflects from the inside that violent revolutionary process of life transformation, which was most adequately and fully expressed in his style - this amazing alloy of "wonderful tongue-tiedness", "wrong flexibility", "everyday speech, newspaper, slogan, poster, bureaucratic clerical, agitation cliche, that disorganized verbal element that burst into the language along with the breakdown of previous social relations. "

In the 11th grade, in order to find the keys to comprehending the "Pit" or "Chevengur", we propose to take for work the story "Doubted Makar", a text that is less voluminous, but containing all the features of the unique Platonic style.

The pivotal moment during the initial home reading of the story by the students was the task - to trace the movement of the plot, based on the disclosure of the meaning of the metaphorical antithesis "smart head - empty hands" (Lev Chumovoy, "milk chief", "learned scribe", "trade union chief", "scientific man ", Pockmarked Peter and Makar) and" empty head - clever hands "(Makar, and in the final -" other working masses "). An uncomplicated, but extremely effective searching moment in working with text seems to be the task - to pay attention to the number of repeated words "head - hands" and their accompanying epithets with different shades. This allowed the students to be convinced by their own experience of the richness of the text with these dominant words. They also noted their ever-growing satirical expressiveness from light humor, piercing irony to sarcasm of the culminating episode of Makar's fantastic dream and a truly terrible prophetic ending, in which Makar's “clever hands” and Lev Chumovoy's “empty head” and pockmarked Peter “thinking for all working proletarians” united in the struggle "for the Leninist and general poor cause" and sat down in an institution nearby to "think for the state", which is why the workers stopped going to the institution and "began to think for themselves in their apartments."

So, already at the level of the plot, the schoolchildren comprehended the depth of the writer's anxiety, warning his contemporaries about the danger of dividing people into those who think for everyone and working, about the threat of establishing a state system where personality will not mean anything, where in the name of “holistic scales” will be sacrificed “ millions of living lives. "

The next step is to work on the style. To our question: "What folklore genre resembles a story in the manner of narration?" - the students easily answered: a fairy tale. There are enough arguments: this is a hero looking for the truth and reminiscent of the fabulous Ivan the Fool, and constant numerous repetitions, playing the same situation, and vocabulary (tram mistress, street garbage can, city ravine, house gorges, etc.), and intonation build a phrase (“Makar sat on the bricks until the evening and followed in turn how the sun went out, how the lights came on, how the sparrows disappeared from the manure to rest”).

Then we turn to a comparative analysis of the story "Doubting Makar" and the story "The Foundation Pit". Let's start with the task: compare the main characters - Makar Ganushkin and Voshchev. As a result of working with the text, students come to the conclusion that both heroes stand out “among the other working masses” in that they are thinking people, doubting, painfully looking for answers to questions that in the 30s were not supposed to be discussed and questioned. We quote the text (these examples can be continued, the text is oversaturated with similar reasoning of the author and the heroes): Lev Chumovoy says to Makar: “You are not a human being, you are an individual peasant! I'm going to fine you now so that you know how to think! " ("Doubtful Makar"). “The administration says that you were standing and thinking in the middle of production,” the factory committee said. “They wrote to him in the dismissal document that he was being removed from production due to the growth of weakness in him and thoughtfulness amid the general growth of the rate of labor” (“The Foundation Pit”).

“Makar lay down on a state bed and calmed down from the doubt that all his life he was engaged in non-proletarian business” ... Makar turns his suffering and doubt to a scientific person. "What should I do in my life so that I myself and others need me?" ("Doubtful Makar").

“- What were you thinking, Comrade Voshchev?

About the plan of life.

The plant works according to the ready-made plan of the trust. And you could work out a plan for your personal life in a club or in a red corner "(" Pit ").

If in the story the reader stops before a fantastic picture of new plans ripening in the head of the leader who thinks for all working people, in whose dead eyes "millions of living lives were reflected," then the Pit tells about the heroes' week-long stay in the village where they carry out these plans.

We read excerpts from the "Pit", which tells about the events taking place on the collective farm named after General Line, where the proletarians (Voshchev, Chiklin, Kozlov and others) and the activist of "public works for the implementation of state decrees and any campaigns", accumulating "the enthusiasm of indestructible action", mobilize the collective farm "to a funeral procession, so that everyone can feel the solemnity of death during the developing bright moment of socialization of property", to hammer together logs into one block with the aim of "exact execution of the measure of complete collectivization and liquidation by rafting a kulak as a class."

As a result of this activity, there is a dead village, in whose empty houses the wind is blowing, and a bear is working in the smithy and roaring a song, "girls and teenagers lived like strangers in the village, as if languishing in love for something distant."

A symbol of a senseless movement towards a brighter future, into which people are sent in whole echelons, a symbol of cruelty, the collapse of the age-old foundations of life, in the finale of the story is the grotesque image of the “right proletarian old man” of the hammer-bear, who “crushed iron as an enemy of life, as if if there were no fists, then there is only one bear in the world ", about whom the collective farm members said:" What a sin: everything will burst now! All the iron in the wells will be! But you cannot touch him - they will say, poor man, proletariat, industrialization! "

Thoughts and ideas expressed by the author and his characters are in complex relationships with each other, in constant interaction, movement, attraction and repulsion, they often come into conflict with deeds, actions, crumble to dust when in contact with reality. Of course, there is no way to consider at least some of these microtexts. But it is necessary to try to analyze some of them. So, for example, one can trace how the word and deed of one of the most controversial heroes of the story interact - the excavator Chiklin, who, on various occasions, as if in passing remarks “The dead are also people” ^ “Every person is dead if he is tortured”; “There are also many dead, as well as living, they are not bored with each other”; "All dead people are special." And many of the actions of this "uneducated person" coincide with the mogul view of the world. This is his love for the girl Nastya, caring for her, attention to others, "; grief for the dead.] But at the same time, it is from Chiklin that a man with yellow eyes gets hit in the head, and then in the stomach. This Chiklin diligently knits raft, “so that the kulak sector would ride along the river into the sea and beyond.” Together with a blacksmith bear, he walks through “strong” huts to dispossess the peasants. When the girl Nastya died, Chiklin “wanted to dig the earth.” forget now your mind. "" Now we need to dig even wider and deeper, "he says to Voshchev." The collective farm followed him and did not stop digging the earth; all the poor and average peasants worked with such zeal in the abyss of the pit. ”With such a hopelessly terrible symbol, the narrative ends. In the last paragraph of the“ Pit, ”we read:“ Having rested, Chiklin took Nastya in his arms and carefully carried her to lay her in the stone and bury her. " : “The author could be mistaken, fig. In the form of the death of a girl, the death of the socialist generation, but this mistake came from excessive concern for something beloved, the loss of which is tantamount to the destruction of not only the entire past, but also the future!

Before moving on to work on the style of the story "The Pit", we offer students different points of view of researchers of the language of the writer. The approximate word of the teacher:

Much has been written about the language of Andrei Platonov: either as a kind of aesthetic language, or as a language-mask, language-foolishness, language-antics. But most often they admired him, his beauty, flexibility, expressiveness. Most of the writers noted the complexity, the inscrutability of the writer's phrases. "... The word of Platonov will never be fully deciphered." Researchers of A. Platonov's work emphasize the uniqueness, "special language", its dissimilarity to any other. "Platonov has his own words, only his inherent manner to combine them, his own unique intonation." They write about the "barbaric harmony of the phrase", about the syntax similar to the movement of boulders along the slope, about the "lack of agreement and redundancy of speech", about the "wrong flexibility", "beautiful tongue-tied", "roughness", etc.

So, a strange, mysterious, uplifting, aesthetic, foolish, tongue-tied, redundant, word-child and word-old man at the same time, some kind of extraordinary alloy, etc. ... What is it - the word of Andrei Platonov? Listening to and delving into the meaning of Plato's metaphors, images, symbols, peering into the world of Plato's utopias, satirical paintings, reading and re-reading the pages of his amazing books, we begin to understand our own time deeper and more fully through dialogue with his time. As M. Bakhtin said, “not in every epoch a direct author’s word is possible,” for such a word presupposes the presence of “authoritative and well-established ideological assessments”. And therefore, the literature of these eras expresses the author's thoughts and assessments, refracting them in the "someone else's word".

Of course, the era of Andrei Platonov is an era that did not at all contribute to the expression of thoughts in the direct author's word, since this word did not coincide with the official ideology. In Platonov, as L. Shubin rightly noted, the thoughts of the hero and the thoughts of the author coincide ...

Let us turn to the beginning of the "Pit" (together with the students we are convinced of the originality of Plato's speech - we read and comment on the beginning of the story, one paragraph, two sentences).

“On the day of the thirtieth anniversary of his personal life, Voshchev was given a calculation from a small mechanical plant, where he raised funds for his existence. In the dismissal document they wrote to him that he was being removed from production due to the growth of weakness in him and thoughtfulness among the general pace of work. "

Let's turn to the first phrase: how did it strike you? (The students noted that the phrase immediately caught on with some of its clumsy, awkwardness, which are amplified in the next sentence.)

Are there any extra words in this phrase in terms of semantic accuracy? (Yes, there is the phrase "personal life" and subordinate clause"Where he got the means for his livelihood.")

Let's try to remove these parts of the phrase, how will it look? (“On the day of his thirtieth birthday, Voshchev was given a calculation from a small mechanical plant.”)

Try to do some minor edits to make the phrase sound familiar to our ears. (“On the day of his thirtieth birthday, Voshchev was fired from a small mechanical plant.”)

As a result of our experiment, the powerful force, the originality of Plato's speech, disappeared. The phrase faded. After all, its magical power lies precisely in the fact that after the words "on the day of the thirtieth anniversary of his personal life" Voshchev was not given a prize for conscientious work, but the calculation that Voshchev did not work, but "earned funds" not for life, but "for his existence." This phrase already contains something that in the next one literally makes you feel numb and horrified, since the accumulating energy of ironic meaning breaks through in the words: "... he is eliminated from production due to the growth of weakness in him and thoughtfulness" - its bitterly ironic effect immerses us, readers, at a time that gave birth to a monstrous bureaucratic system, suppressing personality, turning people into a faceless mass.

This process finds its expression in the emasculation of the language of the people. Platonov reflected that transitional stage when the living language of the people broke down with the bureaucratic clerical, ideological cliché, bureaucratic sterilization.

Hence the roughness, clumsy, the combination into one whole of incompatible words and expressions of different styles.

The word of A. Platonov is a warning word, a prophecy word.

Through the prism of the phrase under consideration, that impersonal, corroded language that we speak today, without noticing the ugliness of such expressions as children instead of children, resident instead of people, living space instead of apartments, peeps through that impersonal, corroded language, and so on. And from the so-called "business style" with his countless orders for enrollment, dismissal, and severe reprimands with entry into a personal file seeps into oral speech or a stamp is replicated in millions of identical holiday congratulatory texts in which workers wish each other success in work and happiness in their personal lives.

Let's return to the text of the "Pit" one more time.! From these childishly naive and innocent words, "it is removed from production due to the growth of weakness in it and thoughtfulness in the midst of the general pace of labor" prophetically gives off to the near future - it is not "eliminated", but "taken under investigation", "arrested" , not "due to the growth of weakness ... and thoughtfulness", but for "sabotage, sabotage", "enemy propaganda", etc.)

So, from the very first phrase of A. Platonov's story, we see the image of a person who has not lost his personality, has not been dissolved in the mass, a strange, "single" person, painfully thinking and agreeing in the finale again not to know anything, not to know the truth, if only the girl was alive.! This is the culmination of a protest against violence, expressed with a genius similar to Dostoevsky: if people are "sent in whole echelons to socialism", and the result of their hard labor is a huge pit and a bunch of coffins stored in one of the niches of the pit, if people are sent on rafts into the ocean, and the wind is blowing in their houses, they are empty, and the girl Nastya is a symbol of faith, a symbol of the future - she dies from fatigue, homelessness, loneliness, then "no!" such a path and such a future.

Literature at school number 6, 1995.

I. I. MOSKOVKINA Lesson in comprehending the genre of essays

The modern approach to the study of literature presupposes not only the acquisition of some amount of knowledge on the subject, but also the development of one's own position, one's own attitude to what has been read: contemplation, empathy, conjugation of one's own and the author's “I”. Topics are also oriented towards this. graduation essays recent years: "My Bulgakov", "Favorite Pages of Prose", "My Favorite Journal", etc.

This clearly emerging trend requires mastering new genres of essays, among which essays are increasingly mentioned. This lesson is an attempt to give students an understanding of the peculiarities of a genre they are not familiar with.

2. Classroom design and equipment: book exhibition "Thoughts on the eternal and beautiful" (examples of philosophical, philosophical-religious, art history and journalistic essayism); video recorder; on the board (on moving parts) - material for vocabulary work:

Single root words:

essay, essay, essayist, essaying

3. Handout: What is an Essay? (Definition of genre in various reference books); text (excerpt from V. V. Rozanov's article "Return to Pushkin"); text (excerpt from the chapter "Pushkin" from the book "Silhouettes of Russian Writers" by Y. Eichenwald); a memo for laboratory work with elements of stylistic analysis of the text.

Epigraph to the lesson:

"Essays are a way to tell about the world through yourself and about yourself with the help of the world"

(A. Elyashevich).

During the classes

I. After listening to the suggested passages, try to define the genre of each.

Reading an excerpt (Osorgin M. Land // From the other bank. - M., 1992. - T. 2);

Sermon (any edition);

Reading an excerpt (Ilyin I. Shmelev // Lonely artist. - M., 1992).

During the discussion, we come to the conclusion that the first passage is more of a story, the second is a sermon, and the third is a literary criticism article. What brings them together? An attempt to comprehend the most important problems of life and creativity, a pronounced personal principle makes these seemingly multi-genre phenomena related.

II. Designation of the topic of the lesson. Teacher's word:

Among the genres of prose there is a genre that incorporates memories, diaries, letters, confessions, sermons, even a kind of essay, story (as we just saw in the work of M. Osorgin "Earth"). This genre has no clear definition. Some are inclined to see it as memoirs of a special kind, others apply the name "notes" to it, and still others carefully use the foreign word "essay". And Natalya Ivanova in her book "Point of View" dubbed it "author's prose", prose "direct direct action", in which the author acts as both a storyteller and a hero. "The desire to bare oneself, to understand oneself and one's time, an intense dialogue with oneself ..." - this is the basis of "author's" prose, says one critic. Cognition of reality through self-knowledge - the formula for such works - is asserted by another.

Let us turn to the definitions of this genre given in various literary reference books.

III. Working with handouts.

Assignment: Read the definitions, highlight the keywords in them.

What features of the genre are indicated in these definitions?

Features of the essay genre (entry in a notebook after discussion):

Addressing significant philosophical, historical, art history, literary problems (attention to the book exhibition, in it - a wide range of issues raised in essays).

Absence of a given composition, free form of presentation.

Relatively small volume.

IV.Lecture of the teacher. (Assignment: write this material in the form of abstracts.) History of the genre.

The founder of the essay genre was the French humanist writer M. Leontel, who wrote Eziaaga in 1580, where he outlined his thoughts about the fate of society and man. In Russian, the name "of the work of M. Leontel is translated as" Experiments. " the genre was transformed - it began to be understood as the author's experience in the development of a specific problem.

In our century such great artists as B. Shaw, J. Galsworthy, A. France, R. Rolland and others turned to essays.

The term "essay" is widespread in the West, especially in England, France, Poland. In Germany, the term "skitze" is used - a sketch, a sketch of impressions, a fragmentary story that arose as a result of the transfer of impressionism to the soil of literature. (Students got acquainted with this term when studying the works of A, Fet, I. Bunin and other writers.) Russian essay.

As the critic A. Elyashevich noted, "since the days of" Travel from St. Petersburg to Moscow "by Radishchev and" Travel to Arzrum "by Pushkin, their own version of essay thinking has been developing." Radishchev was closer to a publicistic statement, Pushkin - to a travel sketch. A unique phenomenon in this genre was the novel by A. I. Herzen "Past and Thoughts", which was called by the critic A. Elyashevich "an essay novel, an epic, an encyclopedia of essayism," in which memories coexist with journalism, a historical chronicle with an essay, a confession with a sociologist's thoughts. This genre includes "Selected Passages from Correspondence with Friends" by N. V. Gogol, and "Confession" by L. N. Tolstoy.

In the history of essay writing of recent decades, it is necessary to indicate the names of M. Koltsov, M. Prishvin, V. Nekrasov, Y. Nagibin, V. Soloukhin, A. Adamovich and such works as "Hamburg account" by V. Shklovsky, "Not a day without a line" Yu. Olesha, "Golden Rose" by K. Paustovsky, "Rereading Chekhov", "Stendhal's Lessons" by I. Ehrenburg, "The Grass of Oblivion" and "Holy Well" by V. Kataev, travel essays by D. Granin, V. Nekrasov, "People or inhumans "V. Tendryakov.

There was no single model, a single sample of essays and there will not be a genre that is updated and develops according to the dictates of the times. Essay genre in recent years. There are times when an open, "honest" conversation between the artist and the reader becomes essential. Perhaps that is why recent years have been marked by a bright flash of spiritual energy inherent in the essay. Interest in this genre has grown significantly. In an era of abrupt universal human changes, "author's" prose, like no other, accumulates the most acute social content.

In our day, readers' interest in the personality of the writer has increased. Extraordinarily popular, memoirs, memories of writers, correspondence, | diaries. Huge audience is being gathered | meetings with writers in the television studio 1 "Ostankino". This is evidence of increased | demand for a personality that is personified in the eyes of the public by a writer who has always been in Russia more than just a poet.

Hence a new phenomenon in the literary process of recent times - the essayization of the genres of the story and the novel. "Sad Detective" by V. Astafiev, "Everything flows", "Life and Fate" by V. Grossman, "Pushkin House" by A. Bitov, "Everything Ahead" by V. Belov, "Faculty of Unnecessary Things" by Y. Dombrovsky, "White Clothes "V. Dudintsev," Men and Women "by B. Mozhaev," Berry Places "by E. Yevtushenko ... In them the fabric of artistic narration is permeated with currents of journalism, and in the chorus of characters' voices, the author's voice is distinctly heard - sometimes even soloed.

The law of the genre is the extreme openness of the author, his position, his thoughts. It is very similar to the theater of one actor, where there is no way to go into the shadows, into the background, where the beam of the searchlight is directed only at you, mercilessly highlighting the very essence.

V. Work with the texts of V. Rozanov and Y. Eichenwald (handout).

Questions to the class: Is there something in common in the grades? What is dear to authors in Pushkin? Confirm your answers with text. Prove that the works of V. Rozanov and Y. Eichenwald belong to the essay genre, highlighting the features noted in the lesson today.

Vi. Laboratory work with elements linguistic analysis text.

Assignment: Using the checklist, find in these passages specific features of the essay genre.

Vii. Preparing for creative work- essay.

How do you understand Pushkin's words about "secret freedom"? What are the consequences of not being free "secret" and overt?

Homework: essay-essay "Talent and Freedom".

LESSON MATERIALS.

What is an essay?

Essays are a genre of criticism, literary criticism, characterized by a free interpretation of any problem. The author of the essay analyzes the selected problem (literary, aesthetic, philosophical), not caring about the systematic presentation, the argumentation of the conclusions, the generally accepted question (Dictionary of literary terms. - M., 1984).

An essay is a kind of essay, in which the main role is played not by the reproduction of a fact, but by the image of impressions, thoughts, associations (Concise Dictionary of Literary Terms, Moscow, 1987).