Russian literature of the 20th century: general characteristics. The main directions of Russian literature of the 20th century. Literature of the early 20th century. Brief report on 20th century literature

At a time when Russia was solemnly celebrating the beginning of a new, 20th century, writers whose work reached its peak in the 19th century—L. Tolstoy, Chekhov, Korolenko—still continued their activities. The voice of Tolstoy the publicist sounded throughout the world, inspiring people with disgust for violence, lies, injustice and calling for love, mercy, and brotherhood. In 1903, at the age of 75, the writer created one of his best stories, “After the Ball,” and a year later he completed work on the story “Hadji Murat.” At the beginning of the 20th century, Chekhov wrote his famous plays, which are still popular today, “Three Sisters” and “The Cherry Orchard.” Korolenko is working on “The History of My Contemporary”, on articles and memoirs.

But the poets and prose writers of new generations who were destined to connect their fate with the 20th century are becoming more and more noticeable - M. Gorky, L. Andreev, I. Bunin, A. Kuprin. A. Blok, A. N. Tolstoy, later - V. Mayakovsky, S. Yesenin, M. Tsvetaeva. M. Sholokhov comes to literature. K. Paustovsky, M. Bulgakov, A. Platonov, N. Zabolotsky, A. Tvardovsky, and finally - A. Solzhenitsyn, V. Rasputin and others.

The 20th century is a time of greatest tragedies and achievements in the history of Russia and mankind. It is not for nothing that Blok, in his poem “Retribution,” prophetically predicted that “black, earthly blood” promises “unprecedented revolts” and “unheard-of changes.”

And, indeed, less than four years after these lines were written, the First World War broke out, and three years later, two revolutions broke out - the February and October 1917 revolutions, which radically changed the life of the country: the great and tragic seventieth anniversary of Soviet power began. 24 years after the revolution, an unprecedented war in the world began with Nazi Germany. How many dead literature has mourned, how many broken lives it has depicted! The people achieved victory, but at what cost! You will read (or re-read) Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man.” His hero lost everything during the war and found some semblance of happiness only in an adopted boy. Everything significant that has been created in the literature about the Great Patriotic War bears reflections of the heroic and - we repeat - the tragic era.

The fates of writers of the 20th century were not easy. The martyrology, which was once compiled by A. I. Herzen, was continued in the twentieth century. At the age of forty, essentially broken by hardships and suffering, Blok died. Unable to find a place for himself in contemporary reality, Yesenin committed suicide at the age of thirty. Due to personal troubles, 37-year-old Mayakovsky shot himself. Unable to bear the difficulties of the war years and loneliness, M. Tsvetaeva, who had previously been in exile for many years, hanged herself at the age of 49. Bunin, Kuprin and many other writers were forced to leave their native country during the Civil War. Kuprin returned to the Soviet Union in 1937, shortly before his death, and Bunin died in a foreign land. A. I. Solzhenitsyn spent several years as a prisoner in the Gulag, and upon his release, he was soon deported outside the country.

But we would make an irreparable mistake if we presented all the literature of the 20th century in such gloomy tones. Even those writers who came into conflict with the authorities and Soviet reality did not give in to despair. From the literature of the 19th century, Russian literature of the 20th century took the baton of high ideals, morality, and humanism. This is easy to see by reading the stories and story “Childhood” by M. Gorky, the works of A. Kuprin, I. Bunin and other writers. “But still... still there are lights ahead!..” exclaimed Korolenko. “The clouds won’t hide the sun, no, they won’t!” - Gorky seemed to echo him. “Erase random features, / And you will see - the world is beautiful!” - these words belong to Blok, who created more than one sad, even pessimistic poem. Literature called on readers not to give up, to overcome the incredible trials that befell them. Bunin, who was in exile, highly appreciated Tvardovsky's war poem "Vasily Terkin", the hero of which is a resilient Russian soldier. Writers such as Mayakovsky, Sholokhov, Paustovsky, Tvardovsky, each in their own way participated in the transformations unfolding in the country, trying to instill in readers faith in the future with their artistic words and increase their vital activity.

Both in the pre-war and during the war years, and in our days, Russian literature has done and is doing a lot to ensure that justice, purity of feelings and relationships triumph in the country, so that everything that is denoted by the short and succinct word “evil” goes into the irrevocable past, - political tyranny, rudeness of the balls (Bulgakov's "Heart of a Dog"), veneration of rank, reaching the loss of human appearance, to self-abasement (Mayakovsky's satire), selfishness, self-interest, acquisitiveness (Thaddeus from Solzhenitsyn's story "Matrenin's Dvor"). The deep respect of the reader was earned by such heroes of literature of the 20th century as Andrei Sokolov from Sholokhov’s story “The Fate of a Man”, a young teacher from V. Rasputin’s story “French Lessons”, Matryona from A. Solzhenitsyn’s story “Matrenin’s Dvor” and others.

Russian writers of the 20th century continue and develop the realistic traditions of their predecessors. At the same time, many of them write in a romantic manner: K. Paustovsky. M. Prishvin, K). Kazakov.

And what a variety of genres distinguishes Russian literature of the 20th century! Here are novels (Gorky, Sholokhov), and poems (Tvardovsky), short stories and tales - realistic (Bunin, Kuprin, Shukshin, Kazakov), satirical (Bulgakov), fantastic (Green); here are dramatic works (Marshak), and cycles of novels and short stories (V. Astafiev), and tales (Bazhov), and rich lyrics.

Russian writers of the 20th century enriched the visual and expressive possibilities of literature with musicality, songlike verse (Blok, Yesenin), colloquial and oratorical verse (Mayakovsky), compressed, as if compressed to the limit, speech (Tsvetaeva), melted in the crucible of talent with folk speech (Sholokhov, Astafiev, Tvardovsky. Solzhenitsyn).

“Our time is a bit difficult for the pen...” V.V. Mayakovsky “Not a single world literature of the 20th century, except Russian, knew such an extensive list of cultural masters who passed away untimely and early...” V.A. Chalmaev “The 20th century broke us all...” M.I. Tsvetaeva Literature of the 20th century

Historical situation in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century The last years of the 19th century became a turning point for Russian and Western cultures. Since the 1890s. and right up to the October Revolution of 1917, literally every aspect of Russian life changed, from economics, politics and science, to technology, culture and art. The new stage of historical and cultural development was incredibly dynamic and, at the same time, extremely dramatic. It can be said that Russia, at a turning point for it, was ahead of other countries in the pace and depth of changes, as well as in the enormity of internal conflicts.

I. Early 1890s – 1905 1892 Code of laws of the Russian Empire: “the obligation of complete obedience to the tsar,” whose power was declared “autocratic and unlimited.” Industrial production is developing rapidly. The social consciousness of a new class, the proletariat, is growing. The first political strike at the Orekhovo-Zuevskaya manufactory. The court recognized the workers' demands as fair. Emperor Nicholas II. The first political parties were formed: 1898 - Social Democrats, 1905 - Constitutional Democrats, 1901 - Social Revolutionaries

Revolutions Historical upheavals of the early 20th century February bourgeois-democratic revolution October socialist revolution First Russian revolution

Nikolai Berdyaev “This was the era of the awakening in Russia of independent philosophical thought, the flowering of poetry and the sharpening of aesthetic sensitivity, religious anxiety and quest, interest in mysticism and the occult.” “This was the era of the awakening of independent philosophical thought in Russia, the flowering of poetry and the sharpening of aesthetic sensitivity, religious anxiety and quest, interest in mysticism and the occult.”

Nineteenth century…. The fragments of superstition fell into the dust, Science turned the dream into truth: Into steam, into the telegraph, into the phonograph, into the telephone, Having learned the composition of stars and the life of bacteria. The ancient world led to eternal secrets; The new world gave the mind power over nature; Centuries of struggle crowned everyone with freedom. All that remains is to combine knowledge with mystery. We are nearing the end, and the new era cannot drown out the aspirations for a higher sphere. (V.Bryusov)

Russian literature at the turn of the century is called the Silver Age - 1920.

The beginning of the “Silver Age” of Russian poetry is considered to be D. Merezhkovsky’s article “Symbols”. The father of the “term” is the Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev, who called the “Silver Age” a reflection, a revival of the “Golden Age”. One of the most likely reasons is the crisis of the era, the tense historical situation.

Beginning of the era 1890 Nikolai Minsky “With the light of conscience” (1890) Dmitry Merezhkovsky “On the reasons for the decline of modern Russian literature” (1893) Valery Bryusov “Russian Symbolists” (1894) End of the era 1921 death of Alexander Blok and the death of Nikolai Gumilyov in 1921

From French decadence; from medieval lat. decadentia decline. A mood of passivity, hopelessness, rejection of social life, a desire to withdraw into the world of one’s emotional experiences. Opposition to generally accepted “philistine” morality. The cult of beauty as a self-sufficient value. Nihilistic hostility to society, lack of faith and cynicism, a special “feeling of the abyss.” Decadence (late 19th early 20th centuries)

Decadent lyric A deserted ball in an empty desert, Like the Devil's thoughts... It hung forever, it hangs to this day... Madness! B madness! One moment froze - and lasts, Like eternal repentance... You can’t cry, you can’t pray... Despair! Oh despair! He frightens someone with torment, yes, then with salvation... There is no need for lies, nor truth... Oblivion! Forgetfulness! Close the empty eyes of the aphids and barks, dead man. There are no mornings, no days, there are only nights. End. Z. Gippius

Likewise, life is terrible with nothingness, And not even a struggle, not a silent torment, But only endless boredom And a quiet horror is full, That it seems I am not alive, And my heart has stopped to beat, And this is only in reality I still dream about the same thing. And if where I am, the Lord punishes me as here, then death will be like my life, and death will tell me nothing new. D. S. M Erezhkovsky

Critical realism (XIX century - early XX century) A truthful, objective reflection of reality in its historical development. Continuation of the traditions of Russian literature of the 19th century, critical understanding of what is happening. Human character is revealed in organic connection with social circumstances. Close attention to the inner world of a person. A.P. Chekhov L.N. Tolstoy A.I. Kuprin I.A. Bunin

Genre – story and short story. The storyline has been weakened. He is interested in the subconscious, and not in the “dialetics of the soul”, the dark, instinctive sides of the personality, spontaneous feelings that are not understood by the person himself. The image of the author comes to the fore, the task is to show his own, subjective perception of life. There is no direct author's position - everything goes into subtext (philosophical, ideological). The role of detail increases. Poetic techniques transform into prose. Realism (neorealism)

All modernist movements are very different, have different ideals, pursue different goals, but they agree on one thing: to work on rhythm, on words, to bring the play of sounds to perfection. At this time, the realistic era of Russian culture was replaced by a modernist one. Modernism is the general name for various movements in art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which proclaimed a break with realism, a rejection of old forms and a search for new aesthetic principles.

Symbolism D. MerezhkovskyD. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius Z. Gippius, F. Sologub, F. Sologub, V. BryusovV. Bryusov, K. Balmont, K. Balmont A. BlokA. Blok, A. Bely, A. White e gg. From gr. symbolon - sign, symbol.

Symbolism originated in France in the years. XIX century.

The origins of Russian symbolism in France. Arthur Rimbaud Paul Verlaine Charles Baudelaire Stéphane Mallarmé Founder of symbolism - Charles Baudelaire

Literary manifestos 1893. Article by D. S. Merezhkovsky “On the causes of the decline and new trends in modern Russian literature.” Modernism receives theoretical justification. Three main elements of “new art”: – mystical content, – symbolization – “expansion of artistic impressionability” 1903. Article by Bryusov “The Keys of Secrets”. Literature should be close to music in its impact. Poetry is the expression of the poet’s soul, the secrets of the human spirit.

Symbolic landscape Sound recording. The music of the word is important. “Priest language”: complicated, metaphorical. Revival of the sonnet, rondo, terza... Peculiarity of poetics Antithesis of 2 worlds (two worlds): imperishable and real Color symbolism blue - disappointment, separation, surrounding, material world... white - ideal, femininity, love, dream... yellow - morbidity, madness, deviation... black - mystery, duality... red - blood, disaster...

The symbol is an image that has an unlimited number of meanings - “A symbol is true only when it is inexhaustible in its meaning” (Vyach. Ivanov) - “A symbol is a window to infinity” (F. Sologub) conveys not the objective essence of the phenomenon, but the poet’s individual idea of the world; an image that requires co-creation from the reader. “Symbols do not speak, but silently nod” (Vyach. Ivanov) M. Vrubel. Rose

Peculiarities of worldview The world is unknowable. It is possible to rationally comprehend only the lower forms of life, and not the “highest reality” (the area of ​​“absolute ideas”, “world soul”) V. Soloviev. Art is not an image of reality, but “comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways” (V.Ya. Bryusov) - through the spiritual experience of a person and the creative intuition of the artist. K. Somov “Blue Bird”. 1918 The poet’s hypersensitive intuition is expressed through a symbol, which seeks to designate the elusive

Senior Symbolists 1903 Bryusov “Keys of Secrets”: The purpose of art is to express the “movement of the soul” of the poet, the secrets of the human spirit. The essence of the world is unknowable by reason, but cognizable by intuition. Art is the comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways. The task of art is to capture moments of insight and inspiration. Creations of art are ajar doors to Eternity V. BryusovK. BalmontD. MerezhkovskyZ. GippiusF. Sologub

Young Symbolists 1900 - turn of the century Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyov ... We approached - and the waters were blue, like two spilled walls. And now in the distance the tabernacle turns white, And the dim distances are visible... the divine unity of the Universe The soul of the world is the Eternal Femininity The society is built on spiritual principles V. IvanovA. BelyA. Block

II.1905 - 1911 1905 is one of the key years in the history of Russia. This year the revolution took place, which began with “Bloody Sunday” on January 9, the first tsarist manifesto was published, limiting the power of the monarchy in favor of its subjects, proclaiming the Duma the legislative body of power, approving civil freedom, the creation of a council of ministers headed by Witte, an armed uprising took place in Moscow, which was the peak of the revolution, an uprising in Sevastopol, etc.

Years. Russo-Japanese War

Peculiarities of poetics Subjectivity and clarity of images (“beautiful clarity”) Accuracy of details that create a specific picture Not “shaky words”, but words “with a more stable content” Genre-madrigal Cult of “beautiful clarity”: poetry should be understandable, images should be clear. Refusal of mystery, vagueness, ambiguity. Refusal of dual worlds and acceptance of reality in all its manifestations.

Worldview The world is material, objective; you need to look for values ​​in the world and capture them with the help of accurate and understandable images. Love is an earthly feeling, not an insight into other worlds K.M. Roerich “Overseas Guests” “Among the Acmeists, the rose again became good in itself, with its petals, smells and color, and not with its conceivable likenesses with mystical love or anything else” (S. Gorodetsky)

Representatives of the “Workshop of Poets” N. Gumilyov. AkhmatovaO. MandelstamS. Gorodets Acmeism stood out from symbolism. Criticizes the vagueness of the symbolist language. Liberation of poetry from symbolist impulses towards the “ideal”, from the polysemy of images. Return to the material world, an object, the exact meaning of a word

Crisis of symbolism year. Article by A. Blok “On the current state of Russian symbolism” 1911. The most radical direction appears, denying all previous culture, the avant-garde - futurism. In Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, I. Severyanin. III – 1920s V KhlebnikovV. Mayakovsky I. Severyanin

Futurism (from Latin futurum - future) V. Mayakovsky V. Khlebnikov I. Severyanin years

Futurism originated in Italy in the 1920s.

The origins of Russian futurism Italy year F. Marinetti “Manifesto of Futurism”: rejection of traditional aesthetic values ​​and experience of all previous literature “Until now, literature has glorified thoughtful inaction, sensitivity and sleep, we proclaim aggressive action, feverish insomnia, gymnastic gait, dangerous jump, a slap and a punch." “A racing car... more beautiful than the Nike of Samothrace...” courage, audacity, rebellion “From now on, there is no beauty outside of struggle. There is no masterpiece if it does not have an aggressive spirit..." literary experiments

Literary manifestos Reject literary tradition We order to honor the rights of poets: To increase the vocabulary in its volume with arbitrary and derivative words (Word-innovation) year. “A slap in the face to public taste” “The past is cramped. The Academy and Pushkin are more incomprehensible than hieroglyphs. Abandon Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. from the Steamship of Modernity." Reinventing art

A slap in the face to public taste Reading our New First Unexpected. Only we are the face of our Time. The horn of time blows for us in the art of words. The past is tight. The Academy and Pushkin are more incomprehensible than hieroglyphs. Abandon Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. from the Steamship of Modernity. Whoever does not forget his first love will not know his last. Who, gullible, will turn his last Love to Balmont's perfume fornication? Is it a reflection of the courageous soul of today? Who, the coward, would be afraid to steal the paper armor from the black coat of the warrior Bryusov? Or are they the dawns of unknown beauties? Wash your hands that have touched the dirty slime of the books written by these countless Leonid Andreevs. To all these Maxim Gorkys, Kuprins, Bloks, Sollogubs, Remizovs, Averchenks, Chernys, Kuzmins, Bunins and so on. and so on. All you need is a dacha on the river. This is the reward that fate gives to tailors. From the heights of skyscrapers we look at their insignificance!...

We order that the rights of poets be respected: 1. To increase the vocabulary in its volume with arbitrary and derivative words (Word-innovation). 2. An insurmountable hatred of the language that existed before them. 3. With horror, remove from your proud brow the wreath of penny glory you made from the bath brooms. 4. Stand on the rock of the word “we” amid a sea of ​​whistles and indignation. And if the dirty stigmas of your “common sense” and “good taste” still remain in our lines, then for the first time the Lightnings of the New Coming Beauty of the Self-Valuable (Self-Valuable) Word are already fluttering on them. D. Burliuk, Alexander Kruchenykh, V. Mayakovsky, Viktor Khlebnikov Moscow December

Aesthetic principles of futurism 1. Attitude to previous and other cultures, eras and traditions: a declarative “break” with the previous tradition; revolutionary innovation in poetry; destruction of old norms. 2.Attitude to reality: revolutionary transformation. 3. A look at the poet’s vocation: poet-rebel, revolutionary, co-creator of a new reality. 4. A look at the historical process: eternal progress, denial of the past in the name of the present and the present in the name of the future. 5. A related type of art: painting. 6. The problem of the relationship between “name” and “thing”: the collision of naming and showing a thing, metaphorization of reality.

Main features: Denial of the value of classical literature. The cult of technology and industrialization. Shocking behavior, shocking behavior, scandal as the main means of achieving popularity. The cult of word creation: “new” people need a “new”, “abstruse” language. Refusal of traditions. Destruction of the existing system of genres.

I. Severyanin Egofuturism Bunin I.A.: “What have we not done in recent years with our literature? And they reached the most flat hooliganism, called the absurd word “futurism”. Northerner remained the only ego-futurist to go down in the history of Russian poetry. His poems, for all their pretentiousness and often vulgarity, were distinguished by their unconditional melodiousness, sonority and lightness.

In a noisy dress of moire, in a noisy dress of moire Along the sun-lit alley you pass the sea... Your dress is exquisite, Your talma is azure. And the sandy path is patterned with leaves - Like spider legs, like jaguar fur. For a sophisticated woman, the night is always newlywed... The rapture of love is destined for you by fate... In a noisy moire dress, in a noisy moire dress -

Literary manifestos The theoretical works and poetic creativity of S.A. Yesenin, who was part of the backbone of the association, largely influenced the development of the movement. In the theoretical work “The Keys of Mary” (1920), Yesenin builds his poetics of the image: “The image from the flesh can be called a splash screen, the image from the spirit is a ship, and the third image from the mind is angelic.” Like other imagist declarations, “The Keys of Mary” is polemical: “Following Klyuev, stupid futurism broke its neck.” Folk mythology was one of the main sources of Yesenin’s imagery, and the mythological parallel “nature - man” became fundamental to his poetic worldview. The publishing house "Imaginists" published his collections "Treryaditsa", "Radunitsa", "Transfiguration" (all - 1921) and the dramatic poem "Pugachev" (1922).

Nikolai Alekseevich Klyuev Oreshin Pyotr Vasilievich Yesenin Sergey Alexandrovich We are the early morning clouds, the dawns of dewy spring N. Gumilyov Neo-peasant poets

Several periods can be distinguished in Russian literature of the 20th century. The first two decades were called the “Silver Age”: this was an era of rapid development of literary trends, the emergence of a whole galaxy of brilliant Masters of Words. The literature of this period exposed the deep contradictions that arose in the society of that time. Writers were no longer satisfied with the classical canons; the search for new forms and new ideas began. Universal, philosophical themes about the meaning of existence, morality, and spirituality come to the fore. More and more religious themes began to appear.

Three main literary trends were clearly identified: realism, modernism and the Russian avant-garde. The principles of romanticism are also being revived, this is especially clearly represented in the works of V. Korolenko and A. Green.

In the 1930s, a “great turning point” emerged: thousands of members of the intelligentsia were subjected to repression, and the existence of severe censorship slowed down the development of literary processes.

With the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, a new direction appeared in Russian literature - military. Initially, genres close to journalism were popular - features, essays, reports. Later, monumental paintings would appear that captured all the horrors of war and the fight against fascism. These are works by L. Andreev, F. Abramov, V. Astafiev, Yu. Bondarev, V. Bykov.

The second half of the 20th century is characterized by diversity and inconsistency. This is largely due to the fact that the development of literature was largely determined by the ruling structures. That is why there is such unevenness: now ideological dominance, now complete emancipation, now the commanding cry of censorship, now relaxation.

Russian writers of the 20th century

M. Gorky- one of the most significant writers and thinkers of the beginning of the century. Recognized as the founder of such a literary movement as socialist realism. His works became a “school of excellence” for writers of the new era. And Gorky’s work had a huge influence on the development of world culture. His novels and stories were translated into many languages ​​and became a bridge connecting the Russian revolution and world culture.

Selected works:

L.N.Andreev. The work of this writer is one of the first “swallows” of emigrant Russian literature. Andreev’s work harmoniously fits into the concept of critical realism, which exposed the tragedy of social injustice. But, having joined the ranks of the white emigration, Andreev was forgotten for a long time. Although the significance of his work had a great influence on the development of the concept of realistic art.

Selected work:

A.I. Kuprin. The name of this greatest writer is undeservedly ranked lower than the names of L. Tolstoy or M. Gorky. At the same time, Kuprin’s work is a vivid example of original art, truly Russian, intelligent art. The main themes in his works: love, features of Russian capitalism, problems of the Russian army. Following Pushkin and Dostoevsky, A. Kuprin pays great attention to the theme of the “little man”. The writer also wrote many stories specifically for children.

Selected works:

K.G.Paustovsky- an amazing writer who managed to remain original, to remain true to himself. There is no revolutionary pathos, loud slogans or socialist ideas in his works. Paustovsky's main merit is that all his stories and novels seem to be standards of landscape, lyrical prose.

Selected works:

M.A. Sholokhov- a great Russian writer whose contribution to the development of world literature can hardly be overestimated. Sholokhov, following L. Tolstoy, creates amazing monumental canvases of Russian life at the most critical moments in history. Sholokhov also went down in the history of Russian literature as a singer of his native land - using the example of the life of the Don region, the writer was able to show the full depth of historical processes.

Biography:

Selected works:

A.T. Tvardovsky- the brightest representative of the literature of the Soviet era, the literature of socialist realism. His work raised the most pressing problems: collectivization, repression, excesses of the idea of ​​socialism. As the editor-in-chief of the New World magazine, A. Tvardovsky revealed to the world the names of many “forbidden” writers. It was in his light hand that A. Solzhenitsyn began to be published.

A. Tvardovsky himself remained in the history of literature as the author of the most lyrical drama about the war - the poem "Vasily Terkin".

Selected work:

B.L.Pasternak is one of the few Russian writers to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature for his novel Doctor Zhivago. Also known as a poet and translator.

Selected work:

M.A. Bulgakov... In world literature, perhaps, there is no more discussed writer than M. A. Bulgakov. The brilliant prose writer and playwright left many mysteries for future generations. His work harmoniously intertwined the ideas of humanism and religion, ruthless satire and compassion for man, the tragedy of the Russian intelligentsia and unbridled patriotism.

Selected works:

V.P. Astafiev- Russian writer in whose work the main themes were two: war and the Russian village. Moreover, all his stories and novels are realism in its most vivid embodiment.

Selected work:

- one of the most massive figures in Russian Soviet literature, and, perhaps, the most famous Turkic-language writer. His works depict various periods of Soviet history. But Aitmatov’s main merit is that he, like no one else, was able to colorfully and vividly embody the beauty of his native land on the pages.

Selected work:

With the collapse of the USSR, Russian literature entered a completely new stage of its development. Strict censorship and ideological orientation have become a thing of the past. The newfound freedom of speech became the starting point for the emergence of a whole galaxy of writers of a new generation and new directions: postmodernism, magical realism, avant-garde and others.

LITERATURE OF THE END OF THE 19TH – BEGINNING OF THE XX CENTURY

More than eighty years ago, Alexander Blok expressed hope for the attention and understanding of his future readers. Fifteen years later, another poet, Vladimir Mayakovsky, summing up the results of his literary work, directly addressed his “dear comrades and descendants.” Poets entrust the people of the future with the most important thing: their books, and in them - everything that they strived for, what they thought about, what people who lived in the “beautiful and furious” 20th century felt. And today, when we stand on the threshold of a new millennium, “you, from another generation,” history itself has given the opportunity to see the passing century in a historical perspective and discover Russian literature of the 20th century.

One of the most striking and mysterious pages of Russian culture is the beginning of the century. Today this period is called the “silver age” of Russian literature, following the “golden” XIX, when Pushkin, Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy reigned. But it would be more correct to call the “Silver Age” not all literature, but primarily poetry, as the participants in the literary movement of that era did. Poetry, which was actively looking for new ways of development, for the first time after Pushkin’s era at the beginning of the 20th century. came to the forefront of the literary process. We must remember that the term “Silver Age” is conventional, but it is significant that the very choice of this characteristic paid tribute to its predecessors, primarily A.S. Pushkin (more about this in the chapters on poetry).

However, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. literature developed under different historical conditions than before. If you look for a word that characterizes the most important features of the period under consideration, it will be the word crisis. Great scientific discoveries shook the classical ideas about the structure of the world and led to the paradoxical conclusion: “matter has disappeared.” As E. Zamyatin wrote in the early 20s, “exact science blew up the very reality of matter,” “life itself today has ceased to be flat-real: it is projected not onto the previous fixed, but into dynamic coordinates,” and the most famous things in this new projection seems strangely familiar, fantastic. This means, the writer continues, that new beacons have loomed before literature: from the depiction of everyday life - to existence, to philosophy, to the fusion of reality and fiction, from the analysis of phenomena - to their synthesis. Zamyatin’s conclusion that “realism has no roots” is fair, although unusual at first glance, if by realism we mean “one bare image of everyday life.” A new vision of the world, thus, will determine the new face of realism of the 20th century, which will differ significantly from the classical realism of its predecessors in its “modernity” (definition by I. Bunin). The emerging trend towards the renewal of realism at the end of the 19th century. V.V. astutely noted Rozanov. “...After naturalism, the reflection of reality, it is natural to expect idealism, insight into its meaning... The centuries-old trends of history and philosophy - this is what will probably become in the near future the favorite subject of our study... Politics in the high sense of the word, in the sense of penetration into the course of history and influence on it, and Philosophy as the need of a perishing soul greedily grasping for salvation - this is the goal that irresistibly attracts us to itself...”, wrote V.V. Rozanov (my italics - L. T.).

The crisis of faith had devastating consequences for the human spirit (“God is dead!” exclaimed Nietzsche). This led to the fact that a person of the 20th century. He began to increasingly experience the influence of irreligious and, what is truly scary, immoral ideas, for, as Dostoevsky predicted, if there is no God, then “everything is permissible.” The cult of sensual pleasures, the apology of Evil and death, the glorification of the self-will of the individual, the recognition of the right to violence, which turned into terror - all these features, testifying to the deepest crisis of consciousness, will be characteristic not only of the poetry of modernists.

At the beginning of the 20th century. Russia was shaken by acute social conflicts: the war with Japan, the First World War, internal contradictions and, as a result, the scope of the popular movement and revolution. The clash of ideas intensified, political movements and parties were formed that sought to influence the minds of people and the development of the country. All this could not but cause a feeling of instability, the fragility of existence, a tragic discord between a person and himself. “Atlantis” - such a prophetic name will be given to the ship on which the drama of life and death will unfold, I. Bunin in the story “The Gentleman from San Francisco”, emphasizing the tragic overtones of the work with a description of the Devil watching over people's destinies.

Each literary era has its own system of values, a center (philosophers call it axiological, value-centered), to which all paths of artistic creativity one way or another converge. Such a center, which determined many of the distinctive features of Russian literature of the 20th century, was History with its unprecedented socio-historical and spiritual cataclysms, which drew everyone into its orbit - from a specific person to the people and the state. If V.G. Belinsky called his 19th century primarily historical; this definition is even more true in relation to the 20th century with its new worldview, the basis of which was the idea of ​​an ever-accelerating historical movement. Time itself once again brought to the fore the problem of Russia’s historical path, forcing us to look for an answer to Pushkin’s prophetic question: “Where are you galloping, proud horse, And where will you land your hooves?” The beginning of the 20th century was filled with predictions of “unprecedented riots” and “unheard of fires”, a premonition of “retribution,” as A. Blok prophetically said in his unfinished poem of the same name. B. Zaitsev’s idea is well known that everyone was hurt (“wounded”) by revolutionism, regardless of their political attitude to the events. “Through the revolution as a state of mind” - this is how a modern researcher defined one of the characteristic features of a person’s “well-being” of that time. The future of Russia and the Russian people, the fate of moral values ​​in a turning point in history, the connection of man with real history, the incomprehensible “variegation” of national character - not a single artist could escape answering these “damned questions” of Russian thought. Thus, in the literature of the beginning of the century, not only did the traditional interest in history for Russian art manifest itself, but a special quality of artistic consciousness was formed, which can be defined as historical consciousness. At the same time, it is absolutely not necessary to look for direct references to specific events, problems, conflicts, and heroes in all works. History for literature is, first of all, its “secret thought”; it is important for writers as an impetus for thinking about the mysteries of existence, for comprehending the psychology and life of the spirit of “historical man”.

But the Russian writer would hardly have considered himself to have fulfilled his destiny if he had not searched for himself (sometimes difficultly, even painfully) and offered his understanding of a way out to a person in a crisis era.

Without the sun we would be dark slaves,

It is beyond understanding that there is a radiant day.

K. Balmont

A person who has lost integrity, in a situation of a global crisis of spirit, consciousness, culture, social order, and the search for a way out of this crisis, the desire for an ideal, harmony - this is how one can define the most important directions of artistic thought of the border era.

Literature of the late XIX - early XX centuries. - a phenomenon that is extremely complex, acutely conflicting, but also fundamentally united, since all directions of Russian art developed in a common social and cultural atmosphere and answered in their own way the same difficult questions raised by time. For example, not only the works of V. Mayakovsky or M. Gorky, who saw a way out of the crisis in social transformations, are imbued with the idea of ​​​​rejection of the surrounding world, but also the poems of one of the founders of Russian symbolism, D. Merezhkovsky:

So life as a nothingness is terrible,

And not even struggle, not torment,

But only endless boredom and quiet horror.

The lyrical hero of A. Blok expressed the confusion of a person leaving the world of familiar, established values ​​“into the damp night”, having lost faith in life itself:

Night, street, lantern, pharmacy,

Pointless and dim light.

Live for at least another quarter of a century -

Everything will be like this. There is no outcome.

How scary everything is! How wild! - Give me your hand, Comrade, friend! Let's forget ourselves again!

If the artists were mostly unanimous in their assessment of the present, contemporary writers answered the question about the future and ways to achieve it differently. The symbolists went into the “Palace of Beauty” created by the creative imagination, into mystical “other worlds”, into the music of verse. M. Gorky placed hope in the mind, talent, and active principles of man, who sang the power of Man in his works. The dream of human harmony with the natural world, of the healing power of art, religion, love and doubts about the possibility of realizing this dream permeate the books of I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, L. Andreev. The lyrical hero of V. Mayakovsky felt himself to be the “voice of the street without language,” having taken on his shoulders the entire burden of rebellion against the foundations of the universe (“down with it!”). The ideal of Rus' is “the country of birch chintz”, the idea of ​​​​the unity of all living things is heard in the poems of S. Yesenin. Proletarian poets came out with faith in the possibility of social reconstruction of life and a call to forge the “keys of happiness” with their own hands. Naturally, literature did not give its answers in a logical form, although the journalistic statements of writers, their diaries, and memoirs are also extremely interesting, without which it is impossible to imagine Russian culture at the beginning of the century. A feature of the era was the parallel existence and struggle of literary trends, uniting writers with similar ideas about the role of creativity, the most important principles of understanding the world, approaches to depicting personality, preferences in the choice of genres, styles, and forms of storytelling. Aesthetic diversity and a sharp demarcation of literary forces became a characteristic feature of the literature of the beginning of the century.

1. How do you understand the meaning of the term “Silver Age”? Are there any common features in the literature of the 19th century? and in the literature of the beginning of the 20th century? Are the concepts “literature of the Silver Age” and “literature of the turn of the century” identical?
2. Tell us about the conditions in which literature developed at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. How do you understand the term “historical consciousness” of literature?
3. In your opinion, did the humanistic theme of the “little man” develop in the literature of the “Silver Age”? Support your point with specific examples. Remember the works of A. Kuprin (for example, “Garnet Bracelet”, “White Poodle”, “Gambrinus”), M. Gorky (“Konovalov”, “At the Lower Depths”), etc.
4. Select material for the essay “The Thought of Russia” in the works of writers of the early 20th century.”
5. Describe the two main literary movements of the early 20th century. - realism and modernism. The following chapters will help you prepare this assignment.

Searched here:

• literature of the late 19th early 20th century
• general characteristics of Russian literature of the late 19th and early 20th centuries
• late 19th century literature

Introduction……………………………………………………………………………….…..3

1. Literature of the first half of the 20th century…………………………….………4

2. Modernism as a direction in literature……………………………..……7

3. Technique “Stream of Consciousness”…………………………………………………………….10

Conclusion……………………………………………………………...…………………..15

List of used literature……………………….……………………..16

Introduction

The main direction of literature of the twentieth century is modernism, covering not only the sphere of literature, but also art and culture of the past century. Within the framework of modernism, such literary schools as surrealism, dadaism, and expressionism are formed, which have a significant influence on novelism, drama, and poetry.

The innovative reform of the novel genre is expressed in the formation of “stream of consciousness” literature, which changes the very concept of the genre, the categories of time and space in the novel, the interaction of the hero and the author, and the style of narration.

D. Joyce, W. Wolfe and M. Proust are the creators and theorists of this literature, but the narrative strategy of the “stream of consciousness” influences the entire literary process as a whole.

Philosophical prose at the beginning of the twentieth century acquired the features of a “novel of culture”; such novels combine essayism, the history of personality development, confession, and journalism in their genre modifications. T. Mann will define this type of prose as an “intellectual novel.”

The aestheticization of artistic consciousness in the modernist and intellectual novel speaks of the formation of “elite literature”, where the writer’s goal becomes the problem of spiritual search, a “super task”, the impossibility of solving which leads to the abandonment of the annoying, straightforward didactics of the 19th century novel.

The literature of the “lost generation” and psychological prose retain relevant historical and social themes. This literature sets the task of exploring modern society and the modern hero.

In general, the literary process of the first half of the twentieth century is characterized by the diversity and breadth of innovative phenomena, bright names, and represents rich material for study.

1. Literature of the first half XX century.

The advent of the 21st century makes the 20th century the previous one, just as the 19th century was the past in relation to the 20th century. The change of centuries has always produced summing up and the emergence of predictive assumptions about the future. The assumption that the 20th century would be something different from the 19th began even before it began. The crisis of civilization, which the romantics intuitively foresaw, was fully realized by the passing century: it opens with the Anglo-Boer War, then plunges into two world wars, the threat of atomic entropy, and a huge number of military local conflicts.

The belief that the flowering of natural sciences and new discoveries will certainly change people's lives for the better is destroyed by historical practice. The chronology of the 20th century has revealed a bitter truth: in the process of improving technology, the humanistic content of human existence is being lost. This idea is already becoming tautological at the end of the twentieth century. But philosophers and artists had a premonition of the wrong path taken even earlier, when the 19th century was ending and the new century was beginning. F. Nietzsche wrote that civilization is a thin layer of gilding on the animal essence of man, and O. Spengler in his work “Causality and Fate. The Decline of Europe" (1923) spoke of the fatal and inevitable death of European culture.

The First World War, having destroyed fairly stable social and state relations of the 19th century, confronted people with the inexorable urgency of revising previous values, searching for their own place in a changed reality, and understanding that the outside world is hostile and aggressive. The result of rethinking the phenomenon of modern life was that most European writers, especially the younger generation who came to literature after the First World War, were skeptical about the primacy of social practice over the spiritual microcosm of man.

Having lost illusions in assessing the world that nurtured them and recoiling from the well-fed philistinism, the intelligentsia perceived the crisis state of society as the collapse of European civilization in general. This gave rise to pessimism and mistrust of young authors (O. Huxley, D. Lawrence, A. Barbusse, E. Hemingway). The same loss of stable guidelines shook the optimistic perception of writers of the older generation (H. Wells, D. Galsworthy, A. France).

The First World War, which the young generation of writers went through, became for them a difficult test and an insight into the falsity of false patriotic slogans, which further strengthened the need to search for new authorities and moral values ​​and led many of them to flee into the world of intimate experiences. This was a kind of escape from the influence of external realities. At the same time, writers who knew fear and pain, the horror of close violent death, could not remain the same aesthetes who looked down on the repulsive aspects of life.

The dead and returning authors (R. Aldington, A. Barbusse, E. Hemingway, Z. Sassoon, F. S. Fitzgerald) were classified by critics as the so-called “lost generation”. Although the term does not do justice to the significant mark that these artists left on national literatures, literary scholars nonetheless continue to emphasize their heightened understanding of man in and after war. It can be said that the writers of “lost worship” were the first authors who drew the attention of readers to that phenomenon, which in the second half of the twentieth century was called “war syndrome.”

The most powerful aesthetic system emerging in the first half of the century was modernism, which analyzed the private life of a person, the intrinsic value of his individual destiny in the process of “moments of being” (W. Wolfe, M. Proust, T. S. Eliot, D. Joyce, F. Kafka). From the point of view of modernists, external reality is hostile to the individual; it produces the tragedy of his existence. Writers believed that the study of spirituality is a kind of return to origins and the discovery of the true “I”, because a person first realizes himself as a subject and then creates subject-object relationships with the world. M. Proust's psychological novel, focused on the analysis of different personality states at different stages of life, had an undoubted influence on the development of prose of the twentieth century. D. Joyce's experiment in the field of the novel, his attempt to create a modern odyssey gave rise to a lot of discussions and imitations.

In poetry of the first half of the twentieth century, the same processes took place as in prose. Just like prose, poetry is characterized by a critical attitude towards technogenic civilization and its results. The poetic experiments of T. Tzara, A. Breton, G. Lorca, P. Eluard, T. S. Eliot contributed to the transformation of poetic language. The changes concerned both the artistic form, which became more sophisticated (a synthesis of different types of art was obviously evident) and the essential side, when poets sought to penetrate the subconscious. Poetry, more than before, gravitates toward subjectivism, symbolism, and encrypted nature; free form of verse (free verse) is actively used.

The realistic trend in literature expanded the boundaries of the traditional experience of artistic exploration of the world, established in the 19th century. B. Brecht questioned the thesis about “life-likeness,” that is, the imitation of realistic art as its indispensable and immutable property. Balzac's and Tolstoy's experience was important from the point of view of preserving tradition and understanding intertextual connections. But the writer believed that any aesthetic phenomenon, even the pinnacle, cannot be artificially “canned,” otherwise it turns into a dogma that interferes with the organic development of literature. It should be especially emphasized that realism quite freely used the principles of non-realistic aesthetics. Realistic art of the twentieth century is so different from the classical versions of the previous century that most often it is necessary to study the work of each individual writer.

The problems of humanistic development of man and society, the search for truth, which, in the words of the British author of the second half of the century, W. Golding, is “always the same,” worried both modernists and non-modernists equally. The 20th century was so complex and contradictory, so multi-dimensional, that modernist and non-modernist writers, understanding the global nature of the processes taking place in the world and often solving the same problems, drew directly opposite conclusions. The analytical fragmentation of phenomena undertaken by modernists in search of hidden meanings is combined in the general flow of literature of the first half of the century with the quest of realists seeking to synthesize efforts to understand the general principles of artistic reflection of the world in order to stop the decay of values ​​and the destruction of tradition, so as not to interrupt the connection of times.

2. Modernism as a direction in literature.

Modernism is a general term applied in retrospect to a broad area of ​​experimental and avant-garde movements in literature and other arts in the early twentieth century. This includes such movements as symbolism, futurism, expressionism, imagism, vorticism, dadaism and surrealism, as well as other innovations of the masters of their craft.

Modernism (Italian modernismo - “modern movement”; from Latin modernus - “modern, recent”) is a direction in the art and literature of the 20th century, characterized by a break with the previous historical experience of artistic creativity, the desire to establish new non-traditional principles in art, continuous renewal artistic forms, as well as the conventionality (schematization, abstraction) of style.

If we approach the description of modernism seriously and thoughtfully, it will become clear that the authors classified as modernism actually set themselves completely different goals and objectives, wrote in different manners, saw people differently, and often what united them was that they simply lived and wrote at the same time. For example, modernism includes Joseph Conrad and David Gerberg Lawrence, Virginia Woolf and Thomas Stearns Eliot, Guillaume Apollinaire and Marcel Proust, James Joyce and Paul Eluard, futurists and dadaists, surrealists and symbolists, without thinking about whether there is anything between them. something in common, except for the era in which they lived. The literary critics who are most honest with themselves and with their readers admit the fact that the very term “modernism” is vague.

Modernist literature is characterized, first of all, by the rejection of the traditions of the nineteenth century, their consensus between the author and the reader. The conventions of realism, for example, were rejected by Franz Kafka and other novelists, including expressionist drama, and poets abandoned the traditional metric system in favor of free verse. Modernist writers saw themselves as an avant-garde that challenged bourgeois values ​​and challenged the reader to think through challenging new literary forms and styles. In fiction, the conventional flow of chronological events was turned on its head by Joseph Conrad, Marcel Proust and William Faulkner, while James Joyce and Virginia Woolf introduced new ways of tracking the flow of their characters' thoughts using the stream-of-consciousness style.

The beginning of the 20th century was accompanied by both social changes and the development of scientific thought; the old world was changing before our eyes, and the changes often outpaced the possibility of their rational explanation, which led to disappointment in rationalism. To understand them, new techniques and principles for generalizing the perception of reality, a new understanding of man’s place in the universe (or “Cosmos”) were needed. It is no coincidence that the majority of representatives of modernism looked for ideological substratum in popular philosophical and psychological concepts that paid attention to the problems of individuality: in Freudianism and Nietzscheanism. The variety of initial concepts of worldview, by the way, largely determined the diversity of movements and literary manifestos: from surrealism to Dada, from symbolism to futurism, etc. But the glorification of art as a type of secret mystical knowledge, which is opposed to the absurdity of the world, and the question of the place of the individual with his individual consciousness in the Cosmos, the tendency to create his own new myths allow us to consider modernism as a single literary movement.

The favorite character of modern prose writers is the “little man,” most often the image of an average employee (typical are the broker Bloom in Joyce’s Ulysses or Gregor in Kafka’s Reincarnation), since the one who suffers is an unprotected person, a toy of higher powers. The life path of the characters is a series of situations, personal behavior is a series of acts of choice, and the real choice is realized in “borderline”, often unrealistic situations. Modernist heroes seem to live outside of real time; society, government or the state for them are some kind of enemy phenomena of an irrational, if not downright mystical nature.

Camus equates, for example, between life and plague. In general, in the depiction of modernist prose writers, evil, as usual, surrounds the heroes on all sides. But despite the external unreality of the plots and circumstances that are depicted, through the authenticity of the details, a feeling of reality or even the everydayness of these mythical situations is created. Authors often experience the loneliness of these heroes in front of the enemy light as their own. Refusal of the position of “omniscience” allows writers to get closer to the characters they depict, and sometimes to identify themselves with them. Special attention should be paid to the discovery of such a new method of presenting an internal monologue as a “stream of consciousness”, in which both the feeling of the hero, and what he sees, and thoughts with associations caused by the images that arise, along with the very process of their emergence, are mixed, as if in "unedited" form.

3. “Stream of Consciousness” technique.

Stream of consciousness is a technique in the literature of the 20th century, predominantly of the modernist direction, directly reproducing mental life, experiences, associations, claiming to directly reproduce the mental life of consciousness through the coupling of all of the above, as well as often non-linearity and brokenness of syntax.

The term “stream of consciousness” belongs to the American idealist philosopher William James: consciousness is a stream, a river in which thoughts, sensations, memories, sudden associations constantly interrupt each other and are intricately, “illogically” intertwined (“Foundations of Psychology”, 1890). “Stream of consciousness” often represents an extreme degree, an extreme form of “internal monologue”; in it, objective connections with the real environment are often difficult to restore.

Stream of consciousness creates the impression that the reader is eavesdropping on his experience in the minds of the characters, which gives him direct intimate access to their thoughts. Also includes the representation in written text of that which is neither purely verbal nor purely textual.

This is achieved mainly through two ways of narration and quotation, and internal monologue. At the same time, sensations, experiences, associations often interrupt and intertwine each other, just as it happens in a dream, which is often what our life actually is, according to the author - after waking up from sleep, we are still sleeping.

The possibilities of this technique were truly revealed in the novels of M. Proust, W. Woolf and J. Joyce. It was with their light hand that the concept of a “central image” disappeared in the novel and was replaced by the concept of “central consciousness.”

J. Joyce was the first to use the total “stream of consciousness”. The central work of the “stream of consciousness” is rightly considered to be “Ulysses,” which demonstrated both the peak and exhaustion of the possibilities of this method: the study of a person’s inner life is combined with the blurring of the boundaries of character.

Stephen Dedalus is a cold intellectual whose mind is constantly occupied with unusual thoughts...

The irrevocable modality of the visible. At least this, if not more, is what my eyes say to my thoughts. I'm here to read the marks of the essence of things: all this algae, the fry, the rising tide, that rusty boot over there. Snot green, silver blue, rusty: colored markings. Limits of transparency. But he adds: in bodies. This means that he learned that bodies were earlier than that they were colored. How? And hitting your head on them, how else. Carefully. He was bald and a millionaire, maestro di color che sanno [teacher of those who know (Italian Dante. Inferno, IV, 131)]. Transparent limit c. Why in? Transparent, opaque. Where all five fingers can fit through, this is a gate, where not, it is a door. Close your eyes and look.

Leopold Bloom is everyman, an average person whose ideas about the world are quite limited...

Mr. Bloom looked with good-natured interest at the black flexible creature.

Looks good: the fur is smooth and shiny, there is a white button under the tail, the eyes are green and glowing. He leaned towards her, placing his palms on his knees.

Milk to the pussy!

Mrrau! - she meowed loudly.

They say they are stupid. They understand what we say better than we understand them. This one will understand everything she wants. And vindictive. I wonder what I seem like to her. As tall as a tower? No, she can jump on me.

“And he’s afraid of chickens,” he teased her. - Afraid of chicks. I've never seen such a stupid pussy in my life.

Cruel. It's in their nature. It's strange that the mice don't squeak. It's like they like it.

Mgrrau! - she meowed louder.

Her eyes, greedy, half-lidded with shame, blinked, and, mewing pitifully and protractedly, she exposed her milky-white teeth. He saw how the black slits of her pupils narrowed with greed, turning her eyes into green pebbles. Going to the cupboard, he took the jug freshly filled by the Hanlon delivery man, poured the warm, bubbly milk into the saucer, and carefully placed the saucer on the floor.

Meow! - she squealed, rushing towards the food.

He watched how her mustache gleamed metallic in the dim light and how, after trying it on three times, she easily began to lap. Is it true or not that if you trim your mustache, you won't be able to hunt. Why? Maybe the tips glow in the dark. Or serve as palps, perhaps.

Now let’s enjoy the female “stream of consciousness” of Molly Bloom, in which Joyce, according to many, revealed the true essence of the female soul:

...it’s for you that the sun shines, he said on the day when we were lying among the rhododendrons on Cape Howth, he was in a gray tweed suit and a straw hat on the day when I got him to propose to me, and first I gave him a bite of a cookie with cumin from my lips it was a leap year like now yes 16 years ago My God after that long kiss I almost suffocated yes he said I am a mountain flower yes it is true we are flowers the whole female body yes this is the only truth that he said in his entire life and also the sun is shining for you today and that’s why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman was and I knew that I could always do what I wanted with him and I gave him as much pleasure as I could and kept turning him on until he didn’t ask me to say yes and I didn’t answer at first, I just looked at the sea and the sky and remembered everything that he didn’t know Mulvey and Mr. Stanhope and Esther and father and old Captain Grove and the sailors on the pier playing birds flying and frozen and in the washing of dishes, as they called it, and the sentry in front of the governor's house in a white helmet with a band, the poor guy almost melted and laughing Spanish girls in shawls with high combs in their hair and the morning market of Greeks, Jews, Arabs, and the devil himself can't figure out who else from all over Europe and Duke Street and the cackling bird market not far from Larbi Sharon and poor donkeys trudged half-asleep and unknown tramps in cloaks dozing on the steps in the shadows and huge wheels of oxcarts and an ancient thousand-year-old castle and handsome Moors in white robes and turbans like kings inviting you sit down in their tiny shops and Ronda where the posadas [inns (Spanish)] with ancient windows where the fan hid the flashing glance and the gentleman kisses the window bars and the wine cellars half open at night and the castanets and the night when we missed the ship in Algeciras and the night the watchman walked calmly with his lantern and Oh that terrible stream boiling below Oh and the sea the sea is scarlet like fire and luxurious sunsets and fig trees in the gardens of Alameda and all the quaint streets and pink yellow blue houses alleys of roses and jasmine geranium cacti and Gibraltar where I was a girl and a Mountain flower, and when I pinned a rose in my hair like Andalusian girls do, or pin a scarlet one on me, and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought whether it made any difference to him or the other, and then I told him with my eyes that he should ask again, yes, and then he asked me if I wanted to say yes, my mountain flower, and at first I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him to me so that he felt my breasts, their scent, and his heart was beating madly, and yes, I said yes, I want Yes.

As you can see, we learned the essence of the characters not because the author told us about it - the author is dead - we learned this because we ourselves penetrated into their thoughts.

Of course, the “stream of consciousness” is the best known method of conveying psychologism, but it is by no means ideal, as Vladimir Nabokov notes: “The “stream of consciousness” technique undeservedly shakes the imagination of readers. I would like to present the following thoughts. First, this technique is no more “realistic” or more “scientific” than any other. The fact is that the “stream of consciousness” is a stylistic convention, since, obviously, we do not think only in words - we also think in images, but the transition from words to images can be recorded directly in words only if there is no description. Secondly, some of our thoughts come and go, others remain; they sort of settle, sloppy and sluggish, and it takes some time for the current thoughts and thoughts to go around these reefs. The disadvantage of the written reproduction of thoughts is the blurring of the temporary element and the too large role assigned to the typographic sign.”

Conclusion

The literature of the 20th century in its stylistic and ideological diversity is incomparable with the literature of the 19th century, where only three or four leading trends could be identified. At the same time, modern literature has produced no more great talents than the literature of the 19th century.

European literature of the first half of the 20th century was influenced by modernism, which is primarily manifested in poetry. Thus, the French poets P. Eluard (1895-1952) and L. Aragon (1897-1982) were leading figures of surrealism. However, the most significant in the Art Nouveau style was not poetry, but prose - the novels of M. Proust (“In Search of Lost Time”), J. Joyce (“Ulysses”), f. Kafka (The Castle). These novels were a response to the events of the First World War, which gave birth to a generation that was called “lost” in literature. They analyze the spiritual, mental, and pathological manifestations of a person. What they have in common is a methodological technique - the use of the “stream of consciousness” method of analysis, discovered by the French philosopher, representative of intuitionism and “philosophy of life” Henri Bergson (1859-1941), which consists in describing the continuous flow of a person’s thoughts, impressions and feelings. He described human consciousness as a continuously changing creative reality, as a flow in which thinking is only a superficial layer, subject to the needs of practice and social life.