The main stylistic trends in the literature of modern and contemporary times

This section of the manual does not pretend to be comprehensive or thorough. Many directions from a historical and literary point of view are not yet known to students, others are little known. Any detailed conversation about literary trends in this situation is generally impossible. Therefore, it seems rational to give only the most general information, primarily characterizing the stylistic dominants of a particular direction.

Baroque

The Baroque style became widespread in European (in to a lesser extent– Russian) culture in the 16th–17th centuries. It is based on two main processes: On the one side, crisis of revivalist ideals, crisis of idea titanism(when a person was thought of as a huge figure, a demigod), on the other - a sharp contrasting man as a creator with the impersonal natural world. Baroque is a very complex and contradictory movement. Even the term itself does not have an unambiguous interpretation. The Italian root contains the meaning of excess, depravity, error. It is not very clear whether this was a negative characteristic of Baroque “from outside” this style (primarily referring to assessments Baroque writers of the era of classicism) or is it a self-irony reflection of the Baroque authors themselves.

The Baroque style is characterized by a combination of the incongruous: on the one hand, an interest in exquisite forms, paradoxes, sophisticated metaphors and allegories, oxymorons, and verbal play, and on the other, deep tragedy and a sense of doom.

For example, in Gryphius’s baroque tragedy, Eternity itself could appear on stage and comment with bitter irony on the suffering of the heroes.

On the other hand, the flourishing of the still life genre is associated with the Baroque era, where luxury, beauty of forms, and richness of colors are aestheticized. However, the Baroque still life is also contradictory: bouquets, brilliant in color and technique, vases with fruit, and next to it is the classic Baroque still life “Vanity of Vanities” with the obligatory hourglass (an allegory of the passing time of life) and a skull – an allegory of inevitable death.

Baroque poetry is characterized by sophistication of forms, a fusion of visual and graphic series, when verse was not only written, but also “drawn.” Suffice it to recall the poem “Hourglass” by I. Gelwig, which we talked about in the chapter “Poetry”. And there were much more complex forms.

In the Baroque era, exquisite genres became widespread: rondos, madrigals, sonnets, odes of strict form, etc.

The works of the most prominent representatives of the Baroque (Spanish playwright P. Calderon, German poet and playwright A. Gryphius, German mystic poet A. Silesius, etc.) were included in the golden fund of world literature. The paradoxical lines of Silesius are often perceived as famous aphorisms: “I am great like God. God is as insignificant as I am.”

Many of the discoveries of Baroque poets, thoroughly forgotten in the 18th–19th centuries, were adopted in the verbal experiments of 20th century writers.

Classicism

Classicism is a movement in literature and art that historically replaced Baroque. The era of classicism lasted more than one hundred and fifty years - from the mid-17th to the beginning of the 19th century.

Classicism is based on the idea of ​​rationality, orderliness of the world . Man is understood as a being, first of all, a rational being, and human society- as a rationally designed mechanism.

In the same way, a work of art must be built on the basis of strict canons, structurally repeating the rationality and orderliness of the universe.

Classicism recognized Antiquity as the highest manifestation of spirituality and culture, therefore ancient art was considered a role model and an indisputable authority.

Characteristic of classicism pyramidal consciousness, that is, in every phenomenon, the artists of classicism sought to see a rational center, which was recognized as the top of the pyramid and personified the entire building. For example, in their understanding of the state, the classicists proceeded from the idea of ​​a reasonable monarchy - useful and necessary for all citizens.

Man in the era of classicism is interpreted primarily as a function, as a link in the rational pyramid of the universe. The inner world of a person in classicism is less actualized; external actions are more important. For example, an ideal monarch is one who strengthens the state, takes care of its welfare and enlightenment. Everything else fades into the background. That is why Russian classicists idealized the figure of Peter I, not attaching importance to the fact that he was a very complex and not at all attractive person.

In the literature of classicism, a person was thought of as the bearer of some important idea that determined his essence. That is why in the comedies of classicism “speaking surnames” were often used, immediately determining the logic of the character. Let us remember, for example, Mrs. Prostakova, Skotinin or Pravdin in Fonvizin’s comedy. These traditions are clearly visible in Griboyedov’s “Woe from Wit” (Molchalin, Skalozub, Tugoukhovsky, etc.).

From the Baroque era, classicism inherited an interest in emblematicity, when a thing became a sign of an idea, and the idea was embodied in a thing. For example, a portrait of a writer involved depicting “things” that confirm his literary merits: the books he wrote, and sometimes the characters he created. Thus, the monument to I. A. Krylov, created by P. Klodt, depicts the famous fabulist surrounded by the heroes of his fables. The entire pedestal is decorated with scenes from Krylov’s works, thereby clearly confirming that how the author's fame is founded. Although the monument was created after the era of classicism, it is the classical traditions that are clearly visible here.

The rationality, clarity and emblematic nature of the culture of classicism also gave rise to a unique solution to conflicts. In the eternal conflict of reason and feeling, feeling and duty, so beloved by the authors of classicism, feeling was ultimately defeated.

Classicism sets (primarily thanks to the authority of its main theorist N. Boileau) strict hierarchy of genres , which are divided into high (Oh yeah, tragedy, epic) and low ( comedy, satire, fable). Each genre has certain characteristics and is written only in its own style. Mixing styles and genres is strictly prohibited.

Everyone knows the famous thing from school rule of three, formulated for classical drama: unity places(all the action in one place), time(action from sunrise to nightfall), actions(the play has one central conflict into which all the characters are drawn).

In terms of genre, classicism preferred tragedy and ode. True, after the brilliant comedies of Moliere, the comedy genres also became very popular.

Classicism gave the world a whole galaxy of talented poets and playwrights. Corneille, Racine, Moliere, La Fontaine, Voltaire, Swift - these are just some of the names from this brilliant galaxy.

In Russia, classicism developed somewhat later, already in the 18th century. Russian literature also owes a lot to classicism. It is enough to recall the names of D. I. Fonvizin, A. P. Sumarokov, M. V. Lomonosov, G. R. Derzhavin.

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism arose in European culture in the middle of the 18th century, its first signs began to appear among English and a little later among French writers in the late 1720s, by the 1740s the direction had already taken shape. Although the term “sentimentalism” itself appeared much later and was associated with the popularity of Lorenz Stern’s novel “A Sentimental Journey” (1768), the hero of which travels through France and Italy, finds himself in many sometimes funny, sometimes touching situations and understands that there are “noble joys” and noble anxieties beyond one’s personality.”

Sentimentalism existed for quite a long time in parallel with classicism, although in essence it was built on completely different foundations. For sentimentalist writers, the main value is the world of feelings and experiences. At first, this world is perceived quite narrowly, writers sympathize with the love suffering of heroines (such, for example, are the novels of S. Richardson, if we remember, Pushkin’s favorite author Tatyana Larina).

An important merit of sentimentalism was its interest in the inner life of an ordinary person. Classicism was of little interest to the “average” person, but sentimentalism, on the contrary, emphasized the depth of feelings of a very ordinary, from a social point of view, heroine.

Thus, S. Richardson’s maid Pamela demonstrates not only purity of feeling, but also moral virtues: honor and pride, which ultimately leads to a happy ending; and the famous Clarissa, the heroine of the novel with a long and rather funny title from a modern point of view, although she belongs to a wealthy family, is still not a noblewoman. At the same time, her evil genius and insidious seducer Robert Loveless is a socialite, an aristocrat. In Russia in late XVIII – at the beginning of the 19th century, the surname Loveless (hinting at “love less” - devoid of love) was pronounced in French manner“Lovelace”, since then the word “Lovelace” has become a common noun, denoting red tape and a woman’s man.

If Richardson's novels were devoid of philosophical depth, didactic and slightly naive, then a little later in sentimentalism the opposition “natural man - civilization” began to take shape, where, unlike the Baroque, civilization was understood as evil. This revolution was finally formalized in the work of the famous French writer and philosopher J. J. Rousseau.

His novel “Julia, or the New Heloise,” which captivated Europe XVIII century, much more complex and less straightforward. The struggle of feelings, social conventions, sin and virtues are intertwined here into one ball. The title itself (“New Heloise”) contains a reference to the semi-legendary mad passion of the medieval thinker Pierre Abelard and his student Heloise (11th–12th centuries), although the plot of Rousseau’s novel is original and does not reproduce the legend of Abelard.

Even more important was the philosophy of “natural man” formulated by Rousseau and which still retains a living meaning. Rousseau considered civilization the enemy of man, killing all the best in him. From here interest in nature, natural feelings and natural behavior. These ideas of Rousseau received special development in the culture of romanticism and - later - in numerous works of art of the 20th century (for example, in “Oles” by A. I. Kuprin).

In Russia, sentimentalism appeared later and did not bring serious world discoveries. Mostly Western European subjects were “Russified”. At the same time, he had a great influence on further development Russian literature itself.

The most famous work Russian sentimentalism was “Poor Liza” by N. M. Karamzin (1792), which had a huge success and caused countless imitations.

“Poor Liza”, in fact, reproduces on Russian soil the plot and aesthetic findings of English sentimentalism of the time of S. Richardson, however, for Russian literature the idea that “even peasant women can feel” became a discovery that largely determined its further development.

Romanticism

Romanticism as a dominant literary movement in European and Russian literature did not exist for very long - about thirty years, but its influence on world culture was colossal.

Historically, romanticism is associated with the unfulfilled hopes of the Great French Revolution (1789–1793), but this connection is not linear; romanticism was prepared by the entire course of aesthetic development in Europe, which was gradually shaped by a new concept of man.

The first associations of romantics appeared in Germany at the end of the 18th century; a few years later, romanticism developed in England and France, then in the USA and Russia.

Being a “world style,” romanticism is a very complex and contradictory phenomenon, uniting many schools and multidirectional artistic quests. Therefore, it is very difficult to reduce the aesthetics of romanticism to any single and clear foundations.

At the same time, the aesthetics of romanticism undoubtedly represents a unity when compared with classicism or the critical realism that emerged later. This unity is due to several main factors.

Firstly, Romanticism recognized the value of the human personality as such, its self-sufficiency. The world of feelings and thoughts of an individual person was recognized as the highest value. This immediately changed the coordinate system; in the “individual – society” opposition, the emphasis shifted towards the individual. Hence the cult of freedom, characteristic of the romantics.

Secondly, Romanticism further emphasized the confrontation between civilization and nature, giving preference to the natural elements. It is no coincidence that precisely in the eraRomanticism gave rise to tourism, a cult of picnics in nature, etc. At the level of literary themes, there is an interest in exotic landscapes, scenes from rural life, and “savage” cultures. Civilization often seems like a “prison” for a free individual. This plot can be traced, for example, in “Mtsyri” by M. Yu. Lermontov.

Third, the most important feature the aesthetics of romanticism was two worlds: recognition of what is familiar to us social world is not the only and genuine one, the true human world must be sought somewhere other than here. This is where the idea comes from beautiful "there"– fundamental to the aesthetics of romanticism. This “there” can manifest itself in very different ways: in Divine grace, as in W. Blake; in the idealization of the past (hence the interest in legends, the emergence of numerous literary fairy tales, cult of folklore); in interest in unusual personalities, high passions (hence the cult of the noble robber, interest in stories about “fatal love,” etc.).

Duality should not be interpreted naively . The Romantics were not at all people “not of this world,” as, unfortunately, it is sometimes imagined by young philologists. They took an active part participation in social life, and greatest poet J. Goethe, closely associated with romanticism, was not only a major natural scientist, but also a prime minister. This is not about a style of behavior, but about a philosophical attitude, about an attempt to look beyond the limits of reality.

Fourthly, a significant role in the aesthetics of romanticism played demonism, based on doubt about the sinlessness of God, on aestheticization riot. Demonism was not a necessary basis for the romantic worldview, but it formed the characteristic background of romanticism. The philosophical and aesthetic justification for demonism was the mystical tragedy (the author called it “mystery”) of J. Byron “Cain” (1821), where biblical story Cain is being rethought and Divine truths are being challenged. Interest in the “demonic principle” in humans is characteristic of a variety of artists of the Romantic era: J. Byron, P. B. Shelley, E. Poe, M. Yu. Lermontov and others.

Romanticism brought with it a new genre palette. Classical tragedies and odes were replaced by elegies, romantic dramas, and poems. A real breakthrough occurred in prose genres: many short stories appear, the novel looks completely new. The plot scheme becomes more complicated: paradoxical plot moves, fatal secrets, and unexpected endings are popular. Victor Hugo became an outstanding master of the romantic novel. His novel "Cathedral" Notre Dame of Paris"(1831) – worldwide famous masterpiece romantic prose. Hugo's later novels (The Man Who Laughs, Les Misérables, etc.) are characterized by a synthesis of romantic and realistic tendencies, although the writer remained faithful to romantic foundations all his life.

Having opened the world of a specific individual, romanticism, however, did not seek to detail individual psychology. Interest in “superpassions” led to the typification of experiences. If it’s love, then it’s for centuries, if it’s hate, then it’s to the end. Most often, the romantic hero was the bearer of one passion, one idea. This brought the romantic hero closer to the hero of classicism, although all the accents were placed differently. Genuine psychologism, “dialectics of the soul” became the discoveries of another aesthetic system - realism.

Realism

Realism is a very complex and voluminous concept. As a dominant historical and literary direction, it was formed in the 30s of the 19th century, but as a way of mastering reality, realism was initially inherent in artistic creativity. Many features of realism appeared already in folklore; they were characteristic of ancient art, the art of the Renaissance, classicism, sentimentalism, etc. This “end-to-end” character of realism has been repeatedly noted by specialists, and the temptation has repeatedly arisen to see the history of the development of art as an oscillation between the mystical (romantic) and realistic ways of understanding reality. In its most complete form, this was reflected in the theory of the famous philologist D.I. Chizhevsky (Ukrainian by origin, he lived most of his life in Germany and the USA), who represented the development of world literature as a “pendulummovement" between the realistic and mystical poles. In aesthetic theory this is called "Chizhevsky pendulum". Each way of reflecting reality is characterized by Chizhevsky for several reasons:

Chizhevsky’s scheme, created many decades ago, is still quite popular today, at the same time it significantly straightens the literary process. Thus, classicism and realism turn out to be typologically similar, and romanticism actually reproduces Baroque culture. In fact, these are completely different models, and the realism of the 19th century bears little resemblance to the realism of the Renaissance, much less to classicism. At the same time, Chizhevsky’s scheme is useful to remember, since some accents are placed precisely.

If we talk about classical realism of the 19th century, then several main points should be highlighted.

In realism, there was a rapprochement between the depicter and the depicted. The subject of the image, as a rule, was the reality “here and now.” It is no coincidence that the history of Russian realism is connected with the formation of the so-called “ natural school”, which saw its task as giving as objective a picture of modern reality as possible. True, this extreme specificity soon ceased to satisfy writers, and the most significant authors (I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky, etc.) went far beyond the aesthetics of the “natural school.”

At the same time, one should not think that realism has abandoned the formulation and solution of “eternal questions of existence.” On the contrary, major realist writers posed precisely these questions above all. However, the most important problems of human existence were projected onto concrete reality, onto the lives of ordinary people. Thus, F. M. Dostoevsky solves the eternal problem of the relationship between man and God not in the symbolic images of Cain and Lucifer, as, for example, Byron, but using the example of the fate of the beggar student Raskolnikov, who killed the old pawnbroker and thereby “crossed the line.”

Realism does not abandon symbolic and allegorical images, but their meaning changes, they do not highlight eternal problems, but socially specific. For example, the tales of Saltykov-Shchedrin are allegorical through and through, but they recognize the social reality of the 19th century.

Realism, like no previously existing direction, interested inner world individual person, strives to see its paradoxes, movement and development. In this regard, in the prose of realism, the role of internal monologues increases; the hero constantly argues with himself, doubts himself, and evaluates himself. Psychologism in the works of realist masters(F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, etc.) reaches the highest expressiveness.

Realism changes over time, reflecting new realities and historical trends. So, in Soviet era appears socialist realism declared as the "official" method Soviet literature. This is a highly ideological form of realism, which aimed to show the inevitable collapse of the bourgeois system. In reality, however, almost all Soviet art was called “socialist realism,” and the criteria turned out to be completely blurred. Today this term has only a historical meaning, in relation to modern literature it is not relevant.

If in mid-19th century, realism reigned almost unchallenged, but by the end of the 19th century the situation had changed. Over the last century, realism has experienced fierce competition from others. aesthetic systems, which, naturally, one way or another changes the character of realism itself. Let’s say, M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The Master and Margarita” is a realistic work, but at the same time there is a noticeable symbolic meaning in it, which noticeably changes the tenets of “classical realism”.

Modernist movements of the late 19th – 20th centuries

The twentieth century, like no other, was marked by the competition of many trends in art. These directions are completely different, they compete with each other, replace each other, and take into account each other’s achievements. The only thing that unites them is opposition to classical realistic art, attempts to find their own ways of reflecting reality. These directions are united by the conventional term “modernism”. The term “modernism” itself (from “modern” - modern) arose in the romantic aesthetics of A. Schlegel, but then it did not take root. But it came into use a hundred years later, at the end of the 19th century, and began to denote at first strange, unusual aesthetic systems. Today “modernism” is a term with an extremely broad meaning, which actually stands in two oppositions: on the one hand, it is “everything that is not realism”, on the other (in last years) is what “postmodernism” is not. Thus, the concept of modernism reveals itself negatively - by the method of “by contradiction”. Naturally, with this approach we are not talking about any structural clarity.

There are a huge number of modernist trends; we will focus only on the most significant:

Impressionism (from the French “impression” - impression) - a movement in the art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which originated in France and then spread throughout the world. Representatives of impressionism sought to capturereal world in its mobility and variability, to convey your fleeting impressions. The Impressionists themselves called themselves “new realists”; the term appeared later, after 1874, when the now famous work by C. Monet “Sunrise” was demonstrated at the exhibition. Impression". At first, the term “impressionism” had a negative connotation, expressing bewilderment and even disdain of critics, but the artists themselves, “to spite the critics,” accepted it, and over time the negative connotations disappeared.

In painting, impressionism had a huge influence on all subsequent development of art.

In literature, the role of impressionism was more modest; it did not develop as an independent movement. However, the aesthetics of impressionism influenced the work of many authors, including in Russia. Trust in “fleeting things” is marked by many poems by K. Balmont, I. Annensky and others. In addition, impressionism was reflected in the color scheme of many writers, for example, its features are noticeable in the palette of B. Zaitsev.

However, as an integral movement, impressionism did not appear in literature, becoming a characteristic background of symbolism and neorealism.

Symbolism – one of the most powerful directions of modernism, quite diffuse in its attitudes and quests. Symbolism began to take shape in France in the 70s of the 19th century and quickly spread throughout Europe.

By the 90s, symbolism had become a pan-European trend, with the exception of Italy, where, for reasons that are not entirely clear, it did not take root.

In Russia, symbolism began to manifest itself in the late 80s, and emerged as a conscious movement by the mid-90s.

According to the time of formation and the characteristics of the worldview, it is customary to distinguish two main stages in Russian symbolism. Poets who made their debut in the 1890s are called “senior symbolists” (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub, etc.).

In the 1900s, a number of new names appeared that significantly changed the face of symbolism: A. Blok, A. Bely, Vyach. Ivanov and others. The accepted designation of the “second wave” of symbolism is “young symbolism.” It is important to take into account that the “senior” and “younger” symbolists were separated not so much by age (for example, Vyacheslav Ivanov gravitates towards the “elders” in age), but by the difference in worldviews and the direction of creativity.

The work of the older symbolists fits more closely into the canon of neo-romanticism. Characteristic motives are loneliness, the chosenness of the poet, the imperfection of the world. In the poems of K. Balmont, the influence of impressionist technique is noticeable; the early Bryusov had a lot of technical experiments and verbal exoticism.

The Young Symbolists created a more holistic and original concept, which was based on the merging of life and art, on the idea of ​​improving the world according to aesthetic laws. The mystery of existence cannot be expressed in ordinary words; it is only guessed in the system of symbols intuitively found by the poet. The concept of mystery, the unmanifestation of meanings, became the mainstay of symbolist aesthetics. Poetry, according to Vyach. Ivanov, there is a “secret record of the ineffable.” The social and aesthetic illusion of Young Symbolism was that through the “prophetic word” one can change the world. Therefore, they saw themselves not only as poets, but also demiurges, that is, the creators of the world. The unfulfilled utopia led in the early 1910s to a total crisis of symbolism, to its collapse as whole system, although the “echoes” of symbolist aesthetics can still be heard for a long time.

Regardless of the implementation of social utopia, symbolism has extremely enriched Russian and world poetry. The names of A. Blok, I. Annensky, Vyach. Ivanov, A. Bely and other prominent symbolist poets are the pride of Russian literature.

Acmeism(from the Greek “acme” - “the highest degree, peak, flowering, blooming time”) is a literary movement that arose in the early tenths of the 20th century in Russia. Historically, Acmeism was a reaction to the crisis of symbolism. In contrast to the “secret” word of the Symbolists, the Acmeists proclaimed the value of the material, the plastic objectivity of images, the accuracy and sophistication of the word.

The formation of Acmeism is closely connected with the activities of the organization “Workshop of Poets”, central figures which were N. Gumilyov and S. Gorodetsky. O. Mandelstam, the early A. Akhmatova, V. Narbut and others also adhered to Acmeism. Later, however, Akhmatova questioned the aesthetic unity of Acmeism and even the legitimacy of the term itself. But one can hardly agree with her on this: the aesthetic unity of the Acmeist poets, at least in the early years, is beyond doubt. And the point is not only in the programmatic articles of N. Gumilyov and O. Mandelstam, where the aesthetic credo of the new movement is formulated, but above all in the practice itself. Acmeism strangely combined a romantic craving for the exotic, for wanderings with sophistication of words, which made it similar to the Baroque culture.

Favorite images of Acmeism - exotic beauty (so, in any period of Gumilyov’s creativity, poems appear about exotic animals: giraffe, jaguar, rhinoceros, kangaroo, etc.), images of culture(in Gumilyov, Akhmatova, Mandelstam), the love theme is dealt with very plastically. Often subject detail becomes a psychological sign(for example, a glove from Gumilyov or Akhmatova).

At first The world appears to the Acmeists as exquisite, but “toy-like,” emphatically unreal. For example, O. Mandelstam’s famous early poem goes like this:

They burn with gold leaf

There are Christmas trees in the forests;

Toy wolves in the bushes

They look with scary eyes.

Oh, my prophetic sadness,

Oh my quiet freedom

And the lifeless sky

Always laughing crystal!

Later, the paths of the Acmeists diverged; little remained of the former unity, although the majority of poets retained loyalty to the ideals of high culture and the cult of poetic mastery to the end. Many major literary artists came out of Acmeism. Russian literature has the right to be proud of the names of Gumilev, Mandelstam and Akhmatova.

Futurism(from Latin “futurus” " - future). If symbolism, as mentioned above, did not take root in Italy, then futurism, on the contrary, is of Italian origin. The “father” of futurism is considered to be the Italian poet and art theorist F. Marinetti, who proposed a shocking and tough theory of new art. In fact, Marinetti was talking about the mechanization of art, about depriving it of spirituality. Art should become akin to a “play on a mechanical piano”, all verbal delights are unnecessary, spirituality is an outdated myth.

Marinetti's ideas exposed the crisis of classical art and were taken up by "rebellious" aesthetic groups in different countries.

In Russia, the first futurists were the artists the Burliuk brothers. David Burliuk founded the futurist colony “Gilea” on his estate. He managed to rally around himself various poets and artists who were unlike anyone else: Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Kruchenykh, Elena Guro and others.

The first manifestos of Russian futurists were frankly shocking in nature (even the name of the manifesto, “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste,” speaks for itself), but even with this, the Russian futurists did not initially accept Marinetti’s mechanism, setting themselves other tasks. Marinetti's arrival in Russia caused disappointment among Russian poets and further emphasized the differences.

The futurists aimed to create a new poetics, new system aesthetic values. The masterly play with words, the aestheticization of everyday objects, the speech of the street - all this excited, shocked, and caused resonance. The catchy, visible nature of the image irritated some, delighted others:

Every word,

even a joke

which he spews out with his burning mouth,

thrown out like a naked prostitute

from a burning brothel.

(V. Mayakovsky, “Cloud in Pants”)

Today we can admit that much of the Futurists’ creativity has not stood the test of time and is only of historical interest, but in general, the influence of the Futurists’ experiments on the subsequent development of art (and not only verbal, but also pictorial and musical) turned out to be colossal.

Futurism had within itself several currents, sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting: cubo-futurism, ego-futurism (Igor Severyanin), the “Centrifuge” group (N. Aseev, B. Pasternak).

Although very different from each other, these groups converged on a new understanding of the essence of poetry and a desire for verbal experiments. Russian futurism gave the world several poets of enormous scale: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Boris Pasternak, Velimir Khlebnikov.

Existentialism (from Latin “exsistentia” - existence). Existentialism cannot be called a literary movement in the full sense of the word; it is rather a philosophical movement, a concept of man, manifested in many works of literature. The origins of this movement can be found in the 19th century in the mystical philosophy of S. Kierkegaard, but existentialism received its real development in the 20th century. Among the most significant existentialist philosophers we can name G. Marcel, K. Jaspers, M. Heidegger, J.-P. Sartre and others. Existentialism is a very diffuse system, having many variations and varieties. However, the general features that allow us to talk about some unity are the following:

1. Recognition of the personal meaning of existence . In other words, the world and man in their primary essence are personal principles. The mistake of the traditional view, according to existentialists, is that human life is viewed as if “from the outside,” objectively, and the uniqueness of human life lies precisely in the fact that it There is and that she my. That is why G. Marcel proposed to consider the relationship between man and the world not according to the “He is the World” scheme, but according to the “I – ​​You” scheme. My attitude towards another person is only special case this comprehensive scheme.

M. Heidegger said the same thing somewhat differently. In his opinion, the basic question about man must be changed. We are trying to answer, " What there is a person”, but you need to ask “ Who there is a man." This radically changes the entire coordinate system, since in the usual world we will not see the foundations of each person’s unique “self.”

2. Recognition of the so-called “borderline situation” , when this “self” becomes directly accessible. In ordinary life, this “I” is not directly accessible, but in the face of death, against the background of non-existence, it manifests itself. The concept of a border situation had a huge influence on the literature of the 20th century - both among writers directly associated with the theory of existentialism (A. Camus, J.-P. Sartre), and authors generally far from this theory, for example, on the idea of ​​a border situation almost all the plots of Vasil Bykov's war stories are constructed.

3. Recognition of a person as a project . In other words, the original “I” given to us every time forces us to do only possible choice. And if a person’s choice turns out to be unworthy, the person begins to collapse, no matter what external reasons he may justify.

Existentialism, we repeat, did not develop as a literary movement, but it had a huge influence on modern world culture. In this sense, it can be considered an aesthetic and philosophical direction of the 20th century.

Surrealism(French “surrealisme”, lit. - “super-realism”) - a powerful trend in painting and literature of the 20th century, however, it left the greatest mark in painting, primarily thanks to the authority of the famous artist Salvador Dali. Scandalous famous phrase Dali, with all his shockingness, clearly places emphasis on his disagreements with other leaders of the “surrealist is me” movement. Without the figure of Salvador Dali, surrealism probably would not have had such an impact on the culture of the 20th century.

At the same time, the founder of this movement is not Dali or even an artist, but precisely the writer Andre Breton. Surrealism took shape in the 1920s as a left-radical movement, but noticeably different from futurism. Surrealism reflected the social, philosophical, psychological and aesthetic paradoxes of European consciousness. Europe is tired of social tensions, of traditional art forms, of hypocrisy in ethics. This “protest” wave gave birth to surrealism.

The authors of the first declarations and works of surrealism (Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, etc.) set the goal of “liberating” creativity from all conventions. Great importance was attached to unconscious impulses and random images, which, however, were then subjected to careful artistic processing.

Freudianism, which actualized human erotic instincts, had a serious influence on the aesthetics of surrealism.

In the late 20s - 30s, surrealism played a very noticeable role in European culture, but the literary component of this movement gradually weakened. Major writers and poets, in particular Eluard and Aragon, moved away from surrealism. Andre Breton's attempts after the war to revive the movement were unsuccessful, while in painting surrealism provided a much more powerful tradition.

Postmodernism - a powerful literary movement of our time, very diverse, contradictory and fundamentally open to any innovations. The philosophy of postmodernism was formed mainly in the school of French aesthetic thought (J. Derrida, R. Barthes, J. Kristeva, etc.), but today it has spread far beyond the borders of France.

At the same time, many philosophical origins and first works refer to the American tradition, and the term “postmodernism” itself in relation to literature was first used by the American literary critic of Arab origin, Ihab Hasan (1971).

The most important feature of postmodernism is the fundamental rejection of any centricity and any value hierarchy. All texts are fundamentally equal and capable of coming into contact with each other. There is no high and low art, modern and outdated. From a cultural standpoint, they all exist in some “now,” and since the value chain is fundamentally destroyed, no text has any advantages over another.

In the works of postmodernists, almost any text from any era comes into play. The boundary between one’s own and someone else’s word is also destroyed, so interspersed texts are possible famous authors into a new work. This principle is called " centonity principle» (centon is a game genre when a poem is composed of different lines from other authors).

Postmodernism is radically different from all other aesthetic systems. In various schemes (for example, in the well-known schemes of Ihab Hasan, V. Brainin-Passek, etc.) dozens of distinctive features of postmodernism are noted. This is an attitude towards play, conformism, recognition of the equality of cultures, an attitude towards secondaryness (i.e. postmodernism does not aim to say something new about the world), orientation towards commercial success, recognition of the infinity of the aesthetic (i.e. everything can be art) etc.

Both writers and literary critics have an ambiguous attitude towards postmodernism: from complete acceptance to categorical denial.

In the last decade, people are increasingly talking about the crisis of postmodernism and reminding us of the responsibility and spirituality of culture.

For example, P. Bourdieu considers postmodernism a variant of “radical chic”, spectacular and comfortable at the same time, and calls not to destroy science (and in the context it is clear - art) “in the fireworks of nihilism.”

Many American theorists have also made sharp attacks against postmodern nihilism. In particular, the book “Against Deconstruction” by J. M. Ellis, which contains a critical analysis of postmodernist attitudes, caused a stir. Now, however, this scheme is noticeably more complicated. It is customary to talk about pre-symbolism, early symbolism, mystical symbolism, post-symbolism, etc. However, this does not cancel the naturally formed division into older and younger.

Literary movements and movements: classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, realism, modernism (symbolism, acmeism, futurism)

Classicism(from Latin classicus - exemplary) - artistic direction in European art the turn of the 17th-18th century - the beginning of the 19th century, formed in France at the end of the 17th century. Classicism asserted the primacy of state interests over personal interests, the predominance of civil, patriotic motives, cult moral duty. The aesthetics of classicism is characterized by the rigor of artistic forms: compositional unity, normative style and subjects. Representatives of Russian classicism: Kantemir, Trediakovsky, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Knyazhnin, Ozerov and others.

One of the most important features of classicism is the perception of ancient art as a model, an aesthetic standard (hence the name of the movement). The goal is to create works of art in the image and likeness of ancient ones. In addition, the formation of classicism was greatly influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and the cult of reason (the belief in the omnipotence of reason and that the world can be reorganized on a rational basis).

Classicists (representatives of classicism) perceived artistic creativity as strict adherence to reasonable rules, eternal laws, created on the basis of studying the best examples of ancient literature. Based on these reasonable laws, they divided works into “correct” and “incorrect”. For example, even Shakespeare’s best plays were classified as “incorrect.” This was due to the fact that Shakespeare’s heroes combined positive and negative traits. And the creative method of classicism was formed on the basis of rationalistic thinking. There was a strict system of characters and genres: all characters and genres were distinguished by “purity” and unambiguity. Thus, in one hero it was strictly forbidden not only to combine vices and virtues (that is, positive and negative traits), but even several vices. The hero had to embody one character trait: either a miser, or a braggart, or a hypocrite, or a hypocrite, or good, or evil, etc.

The main conflict of classic works is the hero’s struggle between reason and feeling. At the same time, a positive hero must always make a choice in favor of reason (for example, when choosing between love and the need to completely devote himself to serving the state, he must choose the latter), and a negative one - in favor of feeling.

The same can be said about genre system. All genres were divided into high (ode, epic poem, tragedy) and low (comedy, fable, epigram, satire). At the same time, touching episodes were not supposed to be included in a comedy, and funny ones were not supposed to be included in a tragedy. In the high genres, “exemplary” heroes were depicted - monarchs, generals who could serve as role models. In the low genres, characters were depicted who were seized by some kind of “passion,” that is, a strong feeling.

Special rules existed for dramatic works. They had to observe three “unities” - place, time and action. Unity of place: classical dramaturgy did not allow a change of location, that is, throughout the entire play the characters had to be in the same place. Unity of time: the artistic time of a work should not exceed several hours, or at most one day. Unity of action implies the presence of only one storyline. All these requirements are related to the fact that the classicists wanted to create a unique illusion of life on stage. Sumarokov: “Try to measure the clock for me in the game for hours, so that I, having forgotten myself, can believe you.”

So, the characteristic features of literary classicism:

Purity of the genre (in high genres funny or everyday situations and heroes could not be depicted, and in low ones - tragic and sublime ones);

- purity of language (in high genres - high vocabulary, in low genres - colloquial);

Heroes are strictly divided into positive and negative, while goodies When choosing between feeling and reason, they give preference to the latter;

- compliance with the rule of “three unities”;

- the work must affirm positive values ​​and a state ideal.

Russian classicism is characterized by state pathos (the state (and not the person) was declared the highest value) combined with faith in the theory of enlightened absolutism. According to the theory of enlightened absolutism, the state should be headed by a wise, enlightened monarch, requiring everyone to serve for the good of society. Russian classicists, inspired by Peter's reforms, believed in the possibility of further improvement of society, which they saw as a rationally structured organism. Sumarokov: “Peasants plow, merchants trade, warriors defend the fatherland, judges judge, scientists cultivate science.” The classicists treated human nature in the same rationalistic manner. They believed that human nature is selfish, subject to passions, that is, feelings that are opposed to reason, but at the same time amenable to education.

Sentimentalism (from English sentimental - sensitive, from French sentiment

Feeling) is a literary movement of the second half of the 18th century, which replaced classicism. Sentimentalists proclaimed the primacy of feeling, not reason. A person was judged by his capacity for deep experiences. Hence the interest in the hero’s inner world, the depiction of the shades of his feelings (the beginning of psychologism).

Unlike classicists, sentimentalists consider the highest value not the state, but the person. They contrasted the unjust orders of the feudal world with the eternal and reasonable laws of nature. In this regard, nature for sentimentalists is the measure of all values, including man himself. It is no coincidence that they asserted the superiority of the “natural”, “natural” person, that is, living in harmony with nature.

Sensitivity also underlies the creative method of sentimentalism. If classicists created generalized characters (prude, braggart, miser, fool), then sentimentalists are interested in specific people with individual fates. The heroes in their works are clearly divided into positive and negative. Positive people are endowed with natural sensitivity (responsive, kind, compassionate, capable of self-sacrifice). Negative - calculating, selfish, arrogant, cruel. The carriers of sensitivity, as a rule, are peasants, artisans, commoners, and rural clergy. Cruel - representatives of power, nobles, high clergy (since despotic rule kills sensitivity in people). Manifestations of sensitivity often acquire a too external, even exaggerated character in the works of sentimentalists (exclamations, tears, fainting, suicide).

One of the main discoveries of sentimentalism is the individualization of the hero and the image of the rich spiritual world of the commoner (the image of Liza in Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza”). The main character of the works was an ordinary person. In this regard, the plot of the work often represented individual situations of everyday life, while peasant life was often depicted in pastoral colors. New content required a new form. The leading genres were family novel, diary, confession, novel in letters, travel notes, elegy, epistle.

In Russia, sentimentalism originated in the 1760s (the best representatives are Radishchev and Karamzin). As a rule, in the works of Russian sentimentalism, the conflict develops between the serf peasant and the serf-owner landowner, and the moral superiority of the former is persistently emphasized.

Romanticism is an artistic movement in European and American culture of the late 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. Romanticism arose in the 1790s, first in Germany, and then spread throughout Western Europe. The prerequisites for its emergence were the crisis of Enlightenment rationalism, the artistic search for pre-romantic movements (sentimentalism), the Great French Revolution, and German classical philosophy.

The emergence of this literary movement, like any other, is inextricably linked with the socio-historical events of that time. Let's start with the prerequisites for the formation of romanticism in Western European literature. The Great French Revolution of 1789-1899 and the associated revaluation of Enlightenment ideology had a decisive influence on the formation of romanticism in Western Europe. As you know, the 18th century in France passed under the sign of the Enlightenment. For almost a century, French educators led by Voltaire (Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu) argued that the world could be reorganized on a reasonable basis and proclaimed the idea of ​​natural equality of all people. It was these educational ideas that inspired the French revolutionaries, whose slogan was the words: “Liberty, equality and fraternity. The result of the revolution was the establishment of a bourgeois republic. As a result, the winner was the bourgeois minority, which seized power (previously it belonged to the aristocracy, the upper nobility), while the rest were left with nothing. Thus, the long-awaited “kingdom of reason” turned out to be an illusion, as were the promised freedom, equality and brotherhood. There was general disappointment in the results and results of the revolution, deep dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality, which became a prerequisite for the emergence of romanticism. Because at the heart of romanticism is the principle of dissatisfaction with the existing order of things. This was followed by the emergence of the theory of romanticism in Germany.

As you know, Western European culture, in particular French, had a huge influence on Russian. This trend continued into the 19th century, which is why the Great French Revolution also shocked Russia. But, in addition, there are actually Russian prerequisites for the emergence of Russian romanticism. First of all, this is the Patriotic War of 1812, which clearly showed the greatness and strength of the common people. It was to the people that Russia owed the victory over Napoleon; the people were the true heroes of the war. Meanwhile, both before the war and after it, the bulk of the people, the peasants, still remained serfs, in fact, slaves. What had previously been perceived as injustice by progressive people of that time now began to seem like a blatant injustice, contrary to all logic and morality. But after the end of the war, Alexander I not only did not abolish serfdom, but also began to pursue a much tougher policy. As a result, a pronounced feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction arose in Russian society. This is how the soil for the emergence of romanticism arose.

The term “romanticism” when applied to a literary movement is arbitrary and imprecise. In this regard, from the very beginning of its occurrence, it was interpreted in different ways: some believed that it comes from the word “romance”, others - from chivalric poetry created in countries speaking Romance languages. For the first time, the word “romanticism” as a name for a literary movement began to be used in Germany, where the first sufficiently detailed theory of romanticism was created.

The concept of romantic dual worlds is very important for understanding the essence of romanticism.. As already mentioned, rejection, denial of reality is the main prerequisite for the emergence of romanticism. All romantics reject the world, hence their romantic escape from existing life and the search for an ideal outside of it. This gave rise to the emergence of a romantic dual world. For romantics, the world was divided into two parts: here and there. “There” and “here” are an antithesis (opposition), these categories are correlated as ideal and reality. The despised “here” is modern reality, where evil and injustice triumph. “There” is a kind of poetic reality, which the romantics contrasted with real reality. Many romantics believed that goodness, beauty and truth, crowded out of public life, were still preserved in the souls of people. Hence their attention to the inner world of a person, in-depth psychologism. The souls of people are their “there”. For example, Zhukovsky was looking for “there” in the other world; Pushkin and Lermontov, Fenimore Cooper - in the free life of uncivilized peoples (Pushkin's poem " Prisoner of the Caucasus", "Gypsies", Cooper's novels about Indian life).

Rejection and denial of reality determined the specifics of the romantic hero. This is a fundamentally new hero; previous literature has never seen anything like him. He is in a hostile relationship with the surrounding society and is opposed to it. This is an extraordinary person, restless, most often lonely and with a tragic fate. The romantic hero is the embodiment of romantic rebellion against reality.

Realism(from the Latin realis - material, real) - a method (creative attitude) or literary direction that embodies the principles of a life-truthful attitude to reality, aimed at artistic knowledge of man and the world. The term “realism” is often used in two meanings: 1) realism as a method; 2) realism as a direction formed in the 19th century. Both classicism, romanticism, and symbolism strive for knowledge of life and express their reaction to it in their own way, but only in realism does fidelity to reality become the defining criterion of artistry. This distinguishes realism, for example, from romanticism, which is characterized by a rejection of reality and the desire to “recreate” it, rather than display it as it is. It is no coincidence that, turning to the realist Balzac, the romantic George Sand defined the difference between him and herself: “You take a person as he appears to your eyes; I feel a calling within myself to portray him the way I would like to see him.” Thus, we can say that realists depict the real, and romantics depict the desired.

The beginning of the formation of realism is usually associated with the Renaissance. The realism of this time is characterized by the scale of images (Don Quixote, Hamlet) and the poeticization of the human personality, the perception of man as the king of nature, the crown of creation. The next stage is educational realism. In the literature of the Enlightenment, a democratic realistic hero appears, a man “from the bottom” (for example, Figaro in Beaumarchais’s plays “The Barber of Seville” and “The Marriage of Figaro”). New types of romanticism appeared in the 19th century: “fantastic” (Gogol, Dostoevsky), “grotesque” (Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin) and “critical” realism associated with the activities of the “natural school”.

The main requirements of realism: adherence to the principles of nationality, historicism, high artistry, psychologism, depiction of life in its development. Realist writers showed the direct dependence of the social, moral, and religious ideas of heroes on social conditions, and paid great attention to the social and everyday aspect. The central problem of realism is the relationship between verisimilitude and artistic truth. Plausibility, a plausible representation of life is very important for realists, but artistic truth is determined not by plausibility, but by fidelity in comprehending and conveying the essence of life and the significance of the ideas expressed by the artist. One of the most important features of realism is the typification of characters (the fusion of the typical and the individual, the uniquely personal). The persuasiveness of a realistic character directly depends on the degree of individualization achieved by the writer.

Realist writers create new types of heroes: the type of “little man” (Vyrin, Bashmachki n, Marmeladov, Devushkin), the type of “superfluous man” (Chatsky, Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov), the type of “new” hero (nihilist Bazarov in Turgenev, “new people” of Chernyshevsky).

Modernism(from the French modern - the newest, modern) - a philosophical and aesthetic movement in literature and art that arose at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.

This term has different interpretations:

1) denotes a number of non-realistic movements in art and literature at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries: symbolism, futurism, acmeism, expressionism, cubism, imagism, surrealism, abstractionism, impressionism;

2) is used as a symbol for the aesthetic searches of artists of non-realistic movements;

3) denotes a complex complex of aesthetic and ideological phenomena, including not only modernist movements themselves, but also the work of artists who do not completely fit into the framework of any movement (D. Joyce, M. Proust, F. Kafka and others).

The most striking and significant directions of Russian modernism were symbolism, acmeism and futurism.

Symbolism- a non-realistic movement in art and literature of the 1870s-1920s, focused mainly on artistic expression through the symbol of intuitively comprehended entities and ideas. Symbolism made itself known in France in the 1860-1870s in the poetic works of A. Rimbaud, P. Verlaine, S. Mallarmé. Then, through poetry, symbolism connected itself not only with prose and drama, but also with other forms of art. The ancestor, founder, “father” of symbolism is considered to be the French writer Charles Baudelaire.

The worldview of symbolist artists is based on the idea of ​​the unknowability of the world and its laws. They considered the spiritual experience of man and the creative intuition of the artist to be the only “tool” for understanding the world.

Symbolism was the first to put forward the idea of ​​​​creating art, free from the task of depicting reality. The symbolists argued that the purpose of art was not to depict the real world, which they considered secondary, but to convey a “higher reality.” They intended to achieve this with the help of a symbol. The symbol is an expression of the poet’s supersensible intuition, to whom in moments of insight the true essence of things is revealed. Symbolists developed a new poetic language that did not directly name the object, but hinted at its content through allegory, musicality, colors, and free verse.

Symbolism is the first and most significant of the modernist movements that arose in Russia. The first manifesto of Russian symbolism was the article by D. S. Merezhkovsky “On the causes of decline and new trends in modern Russian literature,” published in 1893. It identified three main elements of the “new art”: mystical content, symbolization and “expansion of artistic impressionability”.

Symbolists are usually divided into two groups, or movements:

1) “senior” symbolists (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius, F. Sologub

and others), which debuted in the 1890s;

2) “younger” symbolists who began their creative activity in the 1900s and significantly updated the appearance of the movement (A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Ivanov and others).

It should be noted that the “senior” and “younger” symbolists were separated not so much by age as by the difference in worldviews and the direction of creativity.

The symbolists believed that art is, first of all, “comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways” (Bryusov). After all, only phenomena that are subject to the law of linear causality can be rationally comprehended, and such causality operates only in lower forms of life (empirical reality, everyday life). The symbolists were interested in the higher spheres of life (the area of ​​“absolute ideas” in terms of Plato or the “world soul”, according to V. Solovyov), not subject to rational knowledge. It is art that has the ability to penetrate into these spheres, and symbolic images with their endless polysemy are capable of reflecting the entire complexity of the world universe. The symbolists believed that the ability to comprehend the true, highest reality is given only to a select few who, in moments of inspired insight, are able to comprehend the “highest” truth, the absolute truth.

The symbol image was considered by the symbolists as a more effective tool than the artistic image, helping to “break through” the veil of everyday life (lower life) to a higher reality. A symbol differs from a realistic image in that it conveys not the objective essence of a phenomenon, but the poet’s own, individual idea of ​​the world. In addition, a symbol, as Russian symbolists understood it, is not an allegory, but, first of all, an image that requires creative response from the reader. The symbol, as it were, connects the author and the reader - this is the revolution brought about by symbolism in art.

The image-symbol is fundamentally polysemantic and contains the prospect of limitless development of meanings. This feature of his was repeatedly emphasized by the symbolists themselves: “A symbol is only a true symbol when it is inexhaustible in its meaning” (Vyach. Ivanov); “The symbol is a window to infinity” (F. Sologub).

Acmeism(from the Greek act - the highest degree of something, blooming power, peak) - a modernist literary movement in Russian poetry of the 1910s. Representatives: S. Gorodetsky, early A. Akhmatova, L. Gumilev, O. Mandelstam. The term “Acmeism” belongs to Gumilyov. Aesthetic program was formulated in the articles by Gumilyov “The Heritage of Symbolism and Acmeism”, Gorodetsky “Some Currents in Modern Russian Poetry” and Mandelstam “The Morning of Acmeism”.

Acmeism stood out from symbolism, criticizing its mystical aspirations towards the “unknowable”: “With the Acmeists, the rose again became good in itself, with its petals, smell and color, and not with its conceivable likenesses with mystical love or anything else” (Gorodetsky) . The Acmeists proclaimed the liberation of poetry from symbolist impulses towards the ideal, from polysemy and fluidity of images, complicated metaphors; they talked about the need to return to the material world, the object, the exact meaning of the word. Symbolism is based on rejection of reality, and the Acmeists believed that one should not abandon this world, one should look for some values ​​in it and capture them in their works, and do this with the help of precise and understandable images, and not vague symbols.

The Acmeist movement itself was small in number, did not last long - about two years (1913-1914) - and was associated with the “Workshop of Poets”. The “Workshop of Poets” was created in 1911 and at first united a fairly large number of people (not all of them later became involved in Acmeism). This organization was much more united than the scattered symbolist groups. At the “Workshop” meetings, poems were analyzed, problems of poetic mastery were solved, and methods for analyzing works were substantiated. The idea of ​​a new direction in poetry was first expressed by Kuzmin, although he himself was not included in the “Workshop”. In his article “On Beautiful Clarity,” Kuzmin anticipated many declarations of Acmeism. In January 1913, the first manifestos of Acmeism appeared. From this moment the existence of a new direction begins.

Acmeism proclaimed the task of literature to be “beautiful clarity,” or clarism (from the Latin clarus - clear). The Acmeists called their movement Adamism, associating with the biblical Adam the idea of ​​a clear and direct view of the world. Acmeism preached a clear, “simple” poetic language, where words would directly name objects and declare their love for objectivity. Thus, Gumilyov called for looking not for “shaky words”, but for words “with a more stable content.” This principle was most consistently implemented in Akhmatova’s lyrics.

Futurism- one of the main avant-garde movements (avant-garde is an extreme manifestation of modernism) in European art of the early 20th century, which received its greatest development in Italy and Russia.

In 1909, in Italy, the poet F. Marinetti published the “Manifesto of Futurism.” The main provisions of this manifesto: the rejection of traditional aesthetic values ​​and the experience of all previous literature, bold experiments in the field of literature and art. Marinetti names “courage, audacity, rebellion” as the main elements of futurist poetry. In 1912, Russian futurists V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh, and V. Khlebnikov created their manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste.” They also sought to break with traditional culture, welcomed literary experiments, and sought to find new means of speech expression (proclamation of a new free rhythm, loosening of syntax, destruction of punctuation marks). At the same time, Russian futurists rejected fascism and anarchism, which Marinetti declared in his manifestos, and turned mainly to aesthetic problems. They proclaimed a revolution of form, its independence from content (“it is not what is important, but how”) and the absolute freedom of poetic speech.

Futurism was a heterogeneous movement. Within its framework, four main groups or movements can be distinguished:

1) “Gilea”, which united the Cubo-Futurists (V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, A. Krucheny

2) “Association of Ego-Futurists” (I. Severyanin, I. Ignatiev and others);

3) “Mezzanine of Poetry” (V. Shershenevich, R. Ivnev);

4) “Centrifuge” (S. Bobrov, N. Aseev, B. Pasternak).

The most significant and influential group was “Gilea”: in fact, it was it that determined the face of Russian futurism. Its members published many collections: “The Judges’ Tank” (1910), “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” (1912), “Dead Moon* (1913), “Took” (1915).

The futurists wrote in the name of the crowd man. At the heart of this movement was the feeling of “the inevitability of the collapse of old things” (Mayakovsky), the awareness of the birth of a “new humanity.” Artistic creativity, according to the futurists, should have become not an imitation, but a continuation of nature, which through the creative will of man creates “ new world, today, iron...” (Malevich). This determines the desire to destroy the “old” form, the desire for contrasts, and the attraction to colloquial speech. Relying on living spoken language, futurists were engaged in “word creation” (creating neologisms). Their works were distinguished by complex semantic and compositional shifts - the contrast of the comic and tragic, fantasy and lyricism.

Futurism began to disintegrate already in 1915-1916.

Literature, like no other type of human creative activity, is connected with the social and historical life of people, being a vivid and imaginative source of its reflection. Fiction develops along with society, in a certain historical sequence, and we can say that it is a direct example artistic development civilization. Each historical era is characterized certain moods, views, attitude and worldview, which inevitably manifests itself in literary works.

A common worldview, supported by common artistic principles for creating a literary work among individual groups of writers, forms different literary trends. It is worth saying that the classification and identification of such trends in the history of literature is very conditional. Writers, creating their works in different historical eras, did not even suspect that literary scholars would, over the years, classify them as belonging to any literary movement. Nevertheless, for the convenience of historical analysis in literary criticism, such a classification is necessary. It helps to understand more clearly and structuredly complex processes development of literature and art.

Main literary trends

Each of them is characterized by the presence of a number of famous writers, who are united by a clear ideological and aesthetic concept set out in theoretical works, and a general view of the principles of creating a work of art or artistic method, which, in turn, acquires historical and social traits, inherent in a certain direction.

In the history of literature, it is customary to distinguish the following main literary trends:

Classicism. It was formed as an artistic style and worldview by the 17th century. It is based on a passion for ancient art, which was taken as a role model. In an effort to achieve simplicity of perfection, similar to ancient models, the classicists developed strict canons of art, such as the unity of time, place and action in drama, which had to be strictly followed. The literary work was emphasized as artificial, intelligently and logically organized, and rationally constructed.

All genres were divided into high (tragedy, ode, epic), which glorified heroic events and mythological subjects, and low - depicting everyday life people of the lower classes (comedy, satire, fable). The classicists preferred drama and created a lot of works specifically for the theatrical stage, using not only words to express ideas, but also visual images, a structured plot in a certain way, facial expressions and gestures, scenery and costumes. The entire seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries passed under the shadow of classicism, which was replaced by another direction after the destructive power of the French.

Romanticism is a comprehensive concept that powerfully manifested itself not only in literature, but also in painting, philosophy and music, and in each European country it had its own specific characteristics. Romantic writers were united by a subjective view of reality and dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality, which forced them to construct different pictures of the world that lead away from reality. Heroes romantic works- powerful, extraordinary personalities, rebels who challenge the imperfections of the world, universal evil and die in the struggle for happiness and universal harmony. Unusual heroes and unusual life circumstances, fantastic worlds and unrealistically strong deep experiences, writers conveyed with the help of certain language their works are very emotional, sublime.

Realism. The pathos and elation of romanticism gave way to this direction, the main principle of which was the depiction of life in all its earthly manifestations, very real typical heroes in real typical circumstances. Literature, according to realist writers, was supposed to become a textbook of life, so heroes were depicted in all aspects of personality manifestation - social, psychological, historical. The main source influencing a person, shaping his character and worldview, is the environment, real life circumstances, with which the heroes, due to deep-seated contradictions, constantly come into conflict. Life and images are given in development, showing a certain trend.

Literary trends reflect the most general parameters and features of artistic creativity in a certain historical period in the development of society. In turn, within any direction, several movements can be distinguished, which are represented by writers with similar ideological and artistic attitudes, moral and ethical views, and artistic and aesthetic techniques. Thus, within the framework of romanticism there were such movements as civil romanticism. Realist writers were also adherents of various movements. In Russian realism it is customary to distinguish philosophical and sociological movements.

Literary movements and movements are a classification created within the framework of literary theories. It is based on the philosophical, political and aesthetic views of eras and generations of people at a certain historical stage in the development of society. However, literary movements can go beyond the boundaries of one historical era, so they are often identified with an artistic method common to a group of writers who lived in different times, but expressing similar spiritual and ethical principles.

If anyone thinks that they are very difficult to remember, then, of course, they are mistaken. It's quite simple.

Open the list of references. We see that everything here is laid out in time. Specific time periods are given. And now I’d like to focus your attention on this: almost every literary movement has a clear time frame.

Let's look at the screenshot. “The Minor” by Fonvizin, “Monument” by Derzhavin, “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov - this is all classicism. Then realism replaced classicism; sentimentalism existed for some time, but it is not represented in this list of works. Therefore, almost all of the works listed below are realism. If “novel” is written next to the work, then it is only realism. Nothing more.

Romanticism is also on this list, we must not forget about it. It is poorly represented, these are works such as the ballad of V.A. Zhukovsky “Svetlana”, poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri". It would seem that romanticism died at the beginning of the 19th century, but we can still meet it in the 20th. There was a story by M.A. Gorky "Old Woman Izergil". That's all, there is no more romanticism.

Everything else that is given in the list that I did not name is realism.

What then is the direction of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign?” In this case it is not highlighted.

Now let’s briefly go over the features of these areas. It's simple:

Classicism– these are 3 unities: the unity of place, time, action. Let's remember Griboyedov's comedy "Woe from Wit." The whole action lasts 24 hours, and it takes place in Famusov’s house. With Fonvizin’s “Minor” everything is similar. Another detail for classicism: heroes can be clearly divided into positive and negative. It is not necessary to know the remaining signs. This is enough for you to understand that this is a classic work.

Romanticism– an exceptional hero in exceptional circumstances. Let us remember what happened in the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri". Against the backdrop of majestic nature, its divine beauty and grandeur, events unfold. "Mtsyrya is running away." Nature and the hero merge with each other, there is a complete immersion of the inner and outer worlds. Mtsyri is an exceptional person. Strong, brave, courageous.

Let us remember in the story “Old Woman Izergil” the hero Danko, who tore out his heart and illuminated the path for people. The said hero also fits the criterion of an exceptional personality, so this romantic story. And in general, all the heroes described by Gorky are desperate rebels.

Realism begins with Pushkin, which develops very rapidly throughout the second half of the 19th century. All of life, with its advantages and disadvantages, with its inconsistency and complexity, becomes the object of writers. Specific historical events and personalities are taken, who live together with fictional characters, who very often have a real prototype or even several.

In short, realism– what I see is what I write. Our life is complex, and so are our heroes; they rush around, think, change, develop, and make mistakes.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, it became clear that it was time to look for new forms, new styles, and other approaches. Therefore, new authors are rapidly breaking into literature, and modernism is flourishing, which includes a lot of branches: symbolism, acmeism, imagism, futurism.

And in order to determine which specific literary movement a particular work can be attributed to, you also need to know the time of its writing. Because, for example, it is wrong to say that Akhmatova is only Acmeism. Only early creativity can be attributed to this direction. The work of some did not fit into a specific classification at all, such as Tsvetaeva and Pasternak.

As for symbolism, it will be somewhat simpler: Blok, Mandelstam. Futurism – Mayakovsky. Acmeism, as we have already said, Akhmatova. There was also imagism, but it was poorly represented; Yesenin was included in it. That's all.

Symbolism– the term speaks for itself. The authors encrypted the meaning of the work through a large number of various symbols. The number of meanings that were laid down by poets can be searched and searched for indefinitely. That is why these poems are quite complex.

Futurism- word creation. Art of the future. Rejection of the past. An unrestrained search for new rhythms, rhymes, words. Do we remember Mayakovsky's ladder? Such works were intended for recitation (read in public). Futurists are just crazy people. They did everything to make the public remember them. All means for this were good.

Acmeism- if not a damn thing is clear in symbolism, then the Acmeists undertook to completely oppose themselves to them. Their creativity is clear and concrete. It is not in the clouds somewhere. It's here, here. They depicted the earthly world, its earthly beauty. They also sought to transform the world through words. It's enough.

Imagism- the image is the basis. Sometimes not alone. Such poems, as a rule, are completely devoid of meaning. Seryozha Yesenin wrote such poems for a short time. No one else from the list of references is included in this movement.

This is all. If you still don’t understand something, or find errors in my words, then write in the comments. Let's figure it out together.