At the end of the 18th century, Russian nobles experienced two major historical events - the peasant uprising led by Pugachev and the French bourgeois revolution. Political oppression from above and physical destruction from below - these were the realities facing the Russian nobles. Under these conditions, the former values ​​of the enlightened nobility underwent profound changes.

A new philosophy is born in the depths of Russian enlightenment. Rationalists, who believed reason to be the main engine of progress, tried to change the world through the introduction of enlightened concepts, but at the same time they forgot about a specific person, his living feelings. The idea arose that it was necessary to enlighten the soul, to make it heartfelt, responsive to other people’s pain, other people’s suffering and other people’s concerns.

N.M. Karamzin and his supporters argued that the path to people’s happiness and the common good is in the education of feelings. Love and tenderness, as if flowing from person to person, turn into kindness and mercy. “Tears shed by readers,” wrote Karamzin, “always flow from love for good and nourish it.”

On this basis, the literature of sentimentalism arose.

Sentimentalism- a literary movement that aimed to awaken sensitivity in a person. Sentimentalism turned to the description of a person, his feelings, compassion for his neighbor, helping him, sharing his bitterness and sadness, he can experience a feeling of satisfaction.

So, sentimentalism is a literary movement where the cult of rationalism and reason is replaced by the cult of sensuality and feeling. Sentimentalism emerged in England in the 30s of the 18th century in poetry as a search for new forms and ideas in art. Sentimentalism reaches its greatest flowering in England (Richardson’s novels, in particular, “ Clarissa Garlow", Laurence Sterne's novel "Sentimental Journey", elegies by Thomas Gray, for example "Rural Cemetery"), in France (J. J. Rousseau), in Germany (J. W. Goethe, the Sturm und Drang movement) in the 60s the years of the 18th century.

Main features of sentimentalism as a literary movement:

1) Image of nature.

2) Attention to the inner world of a person (psychologism).

3) The most important theme of sentimentalism is the theme of death.

4) Ignoring the environment, circumstances are given secondary importance; rely only on the soul common man, on his inner world, feelings that are initially always beautiful.

5) The main genres of sentimentalism: elegy, psychological drama, psychological novel, diary, travel, psychological story.

Sentimentalism(French sentimentalisme, from English sentimental, French sentiment - feeling) - a state of mind in Western European and Russian culture and the corresponding literary direction. Works written in this genre are based on the reader's feelings. In Europe it existed from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia - from the end of the 18th century to early XIX century.

If classicism is reason, duty, then sentimentalism is something lighter, these are the feelings of a person, his experiences.

The main theme of sentimentalism- love.

Main features of sentimentalism:

• Avoiding straightness
• Multifaceted characters, subjective approach to the world
• Cult of feeling
• Cult of nature
• Revival of one's own purity
• Affirmation of the rich spiritual world of the low classes

The main genres of sentimentalism:

• Sentimental story
• Trips
• Idyll or pastoral
• Letters of a personal nature

Ideological basis- protest against the corruption of aristocratic society

The main property of sentimentalism- desire to present human personality in the movement of the soul, thoughts, feelings, disclosure inner world man through the state of nature

The aesthetics of sentimentalism is based- imitation of nature

Features of Russian sentimentalism:

• Strong didactic setting
• Educational character
• Active improvement of the literary language through the introduction of literary forms into it

Representatives of sentimentalism:

• Lawrence Stan Richardson - England
• Jean Jacques Rousseau - France
• M.N. Muravyov - Russia
• N.M. Karamzin - Russia
• V.V. Kapnist - Russia
• ON THE. Lviv - Russia

Socio-historical foundations of Russian romanticism

But the main source of Russian romanticism was not literature, but life. Romanticism as a pan-European phenomenon was associated with enormous upheavals caused by the revolutionary transition from one social formation to another - from feudalism to capitalism. But in Russia indicated general pattern manifests itself in a unique way, reflecting the national characteristics of the historical and literary process. If in Western Europe romanticism arises after the bourgeois-democratic revolution as a peculiar expression of dissatisfaction with its results on the part of various social strata, then in Russia the romantic movement arose in that historical period when the country was just moving towards the revolutionary clash of new, capitalist in essence principles with feudal- serf system. This was the reason for the uniqueness in the relationship between progressive and regressive tendencies in Russian romanticism in comparison with Western European. In the West, romanticism, according to K. Marx, arose as “the first reaction to the French Revolution and the Enlightenment associated with it.” Marx considers it natural that under these conditions everything was seen “in a medieval, romantic light.” Hence the significant development in Western European literature of reactionary-romantic movements with their affirmation of an isolated personality, a “disappointed” hero, medieval antiquity, an illusory supersensible world, etc. Progressive romantics had to fight such movements.

Russian romanticism, generated by the impending socio-historical turning point in the development of Russia, became mainly an expression of new, anti-feudal, liberation tendencies in public life and worldview. This determined the progressive significance for Russian literature of the romantic movement as a whole at the early stage of its formation. However, Russian romanticism was not free from deep internal contradictions, which became more and more clear over time. Romanticism reflected the transitional, unstable state of the socio-political structure, the maturation of profound changes in all areas of life. In the ideological atmosphere of the era, new trends are felt, new ideas are born. But there is still no clarity, the old resists the new, the new is mixed with the old. All this gives early Russian romanticism its ideological and artistic originality. Trying to understand the main thing in romanticism, M. Gorky defines it as “a complex and always more or less unclear reflection of all the shades, feelings and moods that embrace society in transitional eras, but its main note is the expectation of something new, anxiety before the new, hasty , a nervous desire to learn this new thing.”

Romanticism(fr. romanticism, from medieval fr. romantic, novel) is a direction in art that was formed within the framework of a general literary movement at the turn of the 18th–19th centuries. in Germany. It has become widespread in all countries of Europe and America. The highest peak of romanticism occurs in the first quarter XIX V.

French word romanticism goes back to Spanish romance (in the Middle Ages this was the name given to Spanish romances, and then to knightly romance), English romantic, which turned into the 18th century. V romantic and then meaning “strange”, “fantastic”, “picturesque”. At the beginning of the 19th century. Romanticism becomes the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism.

A vivid and meaningful description of romanticism was given by Turgenev in a review of the translation of Goethe’s Faust, published in Otechestvennye zapiski for 1845. Turgenev proceeds from a comparison of the romantic era with the adolescence of a person, just as antiquity is correlated with childhood, and the Renaissance can be correlated with the adolescence of the human race. And this ratio, of course, is significant. “Every person,” writes Turgenev, “in his youth experienced an era of “genius,” enthusiastic self-confidence, friendly gatherings and circles... He becomes the center of the world around him; he (without realizing his good-natured egoism) does not indulge in anything; he forces himself to indulge in everything; he lives with his heart, but alone, his own, not someone else’s heart, even in love, about which he dreams so much; he is a romantic - romanticism is nothing more than the apotheosis of personality. He is ready to talk about society, about public issues, about science; but society, like science, exists for him - not he for them.”

Turgenev believes that the Romantic era began in Germany during the period of Sturm und Drang and that Faust was its most significant artistic expression. “Faust,” he writes, “from the beginning to the end of the tragedy cares about only himself. The last word of everything earthly for Goethe (as well as for Kant and Fichte) was the human self... For Faust, society does not exist, the human race does not exist; he completely immerses himself in himself; he expects salvation from himself alone. From this point of view, Goethe’s tragedy is for us the most decisive, sharpest expression of romanticism, although this name came into fashion much later.”

Entering into the antithesis of “classicism - romanticism,” the movement suggested contrasting the classicist demand for rules with romantic freedom from rules. This understanding of romanticism persists to this day, but, as literary critic Yu. Mann writes, romanticism “is not simply a denial of the “rules”, but the following of “rules” that are more complex and whimsical.”

Center artistic system romanticism- personality, and his main conflict- individuals and society. The decisive prerequisite for the development of romanticism were the events of the Great french revolution. The emergence of romanticism is associated with the anti-enlightenment movement, the reasons for which lie in disappointment in civilization, in social, industrial, political and scientific progress, the result of which was new contrasts and contradictions, leveling and spiritual devastation of the individual.

The Enlightenment preached the new society as the most “natural” and “reasonable”. The best minds Europe justified and foreshadowed this society of the future, but reality turned out to be beyond the control of “reason,” the future became unpredictable, irrational, and the modern social order began to threaten human nature and his personal freedom. Rejection of this society, protest against lack of spirituality and selfishness is already reflected in sentimentalism and pre-romanticism. Romanticism expresses this rejection most acutely. Romanticism also opposed the Age of Enlightenment in verbal terms: the language of romantic works, striving to be natural, “simple”, accessible to all readers, was something opposite to the classics with its noble, “sublime” themes, characteristic, for example, of classical tragedy.

Among the late Western European romantics, pessimism in relation to society acquires cosmic scale, becomes the “disease of the century.” The heroes of many romantic works (F.R. Chateaubriand, A. de Musset, J. Byron, A. de Vigny, A. Lamartine, G. Heine, etc.) are characterized by moods of hopelessness and despair, which acquire a universal character. Perfection is lost forever, the world is ruled by evil, ancient chaos is resurrected. The theme of a “scary world”, characteristic of all romantic literature, most vividly embodied in the so-called “black genre” (in the pre-romantic “Gothic novel” - A. Radcliffe, C. Maturin, in the “drama of rock”, or “tragedy of rock” - Z. Werner, G. Kleist, F. Grillparzer), as well as in the works of J. Byron, C. Brentano, E.T.A. Hoffmann, E. Poe and N. Hawthorne.

At the same time, romanticism is based on ideas that challenge scary world", - first of all, the ideas of freedom. The disappointment of romanticism is a disappointment in reality, but progress and civilization are only one side of it. Rejection of this side, lack of faith in the possibilities of civilization provide another path, the path to the ideal, to the eternal, to the absolute. This path must resolve all contradictions and completely change life. This is the path to perfection, “towards a goal, the explanation of which must be sought on the other side of the visible” (A. De Vigny). For some romantics, the world is dominated by incomprehensible and mysterious forces that must be obeyed and not try to change fate (poets of the “lake school”, Chateaubriand, V.A. Zhukovsky). Other's " world evil"caused protest, demanded revenge and struggle. (J. Byron, P.B. Shelley, S. Petofi, A. Mickiewicz, early A.S. Pushkin). What they had in common was that they all saw in man a single essence, the task of which is not at all limited to solving everyday problems. On the contrary, without denying everyday life, the romantics sought to unravel the mystery of human existence, turning to nature, trusting their religious and poetic feelings.

Romantics turned to various historical eras, they were attracted by their originality, attracted by exotic and mysterious countries and circumstances. Interest in history became one of the enduring achievements of the artistic system of romanticism. He expressed himself in the creation of the genre historical novel(F. Cooper, A. de Vigny, V. Hugo), the founder of which is considered to be V. Scott, and in general the novel, which acquired a leading position in the era under consideration. Romantics reproduce in detail and accurately historical details, background, coloring of a particular era, but romantic characters are given outside of history, they are, as a rule, above circumstances and do not depend on them. At the same time, the romantics perceived the novel as a means of comprehending history, and from history they moved towards penetration into the secrets of psychology, and, accordingly, modernity. Interest in history was also reflected in the works of historians of the French romantic school(O. Thierry, F. Guizot, F. O. Meunier).

Exactly in the era of Romanticism, the discovery of the culture of the Middle Ages occurs, and the admiration for antiquity, characteristic of the past era, also does not weaken at the end of the 18th - beginning. XIX centuries Variety of national, historical, individual characteristics It also had a philosophical meaning: the wealth of a single world whole consists of the combination of these individual features, and the study of the history of each people separately makes it possible to trace uninterrupted life through new generations following one after another.

The era of Romanticism was marked by the flowering of literature, one of distinctive properties who had a passion for social and political problems. Trying to comprehend the role of man in ongoing historical events, romantic writers gravitated toward accuracy, specificity, and authenticity. At the same time, the action of their works often takes place in an unusual setting for a European - for example, in the East and America, or, for Russians, in the Caucasus or Crimea. Thus, romantic poets are primarily lyricists and poets of nature, and therefore in their work (as well as in many prose writers), landscape occupies a significant place - first of all, the sea, mountains, sky, stormy elements with which the hero is associated complex relationships. Nature can be akin to a passionate nature romantic hero, but can also resist him, turn out to be a hostile force with which he is forced to fight.

Introduction.
The history of sentimentalism.
Features and genres of sentimentalism.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.

Introduction
The literary movement “sentimentalism” got its name from the French word sentiment, that is, feeling, sensitivity). This trend was very popular in literature and art of the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries. A distinctive feature of sentimentalism was attention to the inner world of a person, to his emotional state. From the point of view of sentimentalism, it was human feelings that were the main value.
Sentimental novels and stories, so popular in XVIII-XIX centuries today are perceived by readers as naive fairy tales, where there is much more fiction than truth. However, works written in the spirit of sentimentalism had a huge influence on the development of Russian literature. They made it possible to capture on paper all the shades of the human soul.

Sentimentalism (French sentimentalisme, from English sentimental, French sentiment - feeling) is a state of mind in Western European and Russian culture and a corresponding literary movement. In Europe it existed from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia - from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century.

Sentimentalism declared feeling, not reason, to be the dominant of “human nature,” which distinguished it from classicism. Without breaking with the Enlightenment, sentimentalism remained faithful to the ideal of a normative personality, however, the condition for its implementation was not the “reasonable” reorganization of the world, but the release and improvement of “natural” feelings. The hero of educational literature in sentimentalism is more individualized, his inner world is enriched by the ability to empathize and sensitively respond to what is happening around him. By origin (or by conviction) the sentimentalist hero is a democrat; the rich spiritual world of the common people is one of the main discoveries and conquests of sentimentalism.

Born on British shores in the 1710s, sentimentalism became floor. 18th century a pan-European phenomenon. Most clearly manifested inEnglish , French , German And Russian literature .

Representatives of sentimentalism in Russia:

M.N. Muravyov
N.M. Karamzin
V.V. Kapnist
ON THE. Lviv
Young V.A. Zhukovsky was a sentimentalist for a short time.

At the beginning of the 19th century. Sentimentalism (from the French sentimentalisme, from the English sentimental - sensitive) gains the greatest influence. Its emergence is associated with the spiritual growth of the individual, with his awareness of his own dignity and the desire for spiritual emancipation. Sentimentalism was a response to the public need for the democratization of literature. While the leading heroes of classicism were kings, nobles, leaders, interpreted in their abstract, universal, generic essence, sentimentalists brought to the fore the image of an individual, private, ordinary, predominantly “average” personality in its inner essence, in its everyday life. They contrasted the rationality of classicism with the cult of feeling, touching, “religion of the heart” (Rousseau).
The ideology of sentimentalism was close to the Enlightenment. Most educators believed that the world could be made perfect if people were taught certain reasonable forms of behavior. Writers of sentimentalism set the same goal and adhered to the same logic. Only they argued that it was not reason, but sensitivity that should save the world. They reasoned something like this: by cultivating sensitivity in all people, evil can be defeated. In the 18th century, the word sentimentalism meant receptivity, the ability to respond with the soul to everything that surrounds a person. Sentimentalism is a literary movement that reflects the world from the position of feeling, not reason.
Sentimentalism arose in Western Europe in the late 20s of the 18th century and took shape in two main directions: progressive-bourgeois and reactionary-noble. The most famous Western European sentimentalists are E. Jung, L. Stern, T. Gray, J. Thomson, J.J. Rousseau, Jean Paul (I. Richter).
By some ideological and aesthetic features (focus on the individual, the power of feelings, the affirmation of the advantages of nature over civilization), sentimentalism anticipated the advent of romanticism, which is why sentimentalism is often called pre-romanticism (French: preromantisme). In Western European literature, pre-romanticism includes works that are characterized by the following features:
- searching for an ideal way of life outside a civilized society;
- the desire for naturalness in human behavior;
- interest in folklore as a form of the most direct manifestation of feelings;
- attraction to the mysterious and terrible;
- idealization of the Middle Ages.
But attempts by researchers to find in Russian literature the phenomenon of pre-romanticism as a direction different from sentimentalism did not lead to positive results. It seems that we can talk about pre-romanticism, bearing in mind the emergence of romantic tendencies, which manifested themselves primarily in sentimentalism. In Russia, tendencies of sentimentalism clearly emerged in the 60s of the 18th century. in the works of F.A. Emmina, V.I. Lukin and other similar writers.
In Russian literature, sentimentalism manifested itself in two directions: reactionary (Shalikov) and liberal ( Karamzin, Zhukovsky ). Idealizing reality, reconciling, obscuring the contradictions between the nobility and the peasantry, the reactionary sentimentalists painted an idyllic utopia in their works: autocracy and social hierarchy are sacred; serfdom was established by God himself for the sake of the happiness of the peasants; serf peasants live better than free ones; It is not serfdom itself that is vicious, but its abuse. Defending these ideas, Prince P.I. Shalikov in “Travel to Little Russia” depicted the life of peasants full of contentment, fun, and joy. In the play by playwright N.I. Ilyin’s “Liza, or the Triumph of Gratitude” the main character, a peasant woman, praising her life, says: “We live as cheerfully as the red sun.” Peasant Arkhip, hero of the play “Generosity, or Recruitment set“The same author assures: “Yes, such good kings as there are in holy Rus', go out into the whole wide world, you will not find others.”
The idyllic nature of creativity was especially manifested in the cult of the beautifully sensitive personality with its desire for ideal friendship and love, admiration for the harmony of nature and a cutesy mannered way of expressing one’s thoughts and feelings. Thus, playwright V.M. Fedorov, “correcting” the plot of the story “ Poor Lisa» Ka Ramzina , forced Erast to repent, abandon his rich bride and return to Lisa, who remains alive. To top it all off, the tradesman Matvey, Lisa’s father, turns out to be the son of a wealthy nobleman (“Liza, or the Consequence of Pride and Seduction,” 1803).
However, in the development of domestic sentimentalism, the leading role belonged not to reactionary, but to progressive, liberal-minded writers: A.M. Kutuzov, M.N. Muravyov, N.M. Karamzin, V.A. Zhukovsky. Belinsky rightly called a “remarkable person”, “collaborator and assistant Karamzin in the matter of transforming the Russian language and Russian literature" I.I. Dmitriev - poet, fabulist, translator.
I.I. Dmitriev had an undeniable influence on poetry with his poems V.A. Zhukovsky , K.N. Batyushkova and P.A. Vyazemsky. One of his best works, which became widespread, is the song “The Gray Dove Moans” (1792). Following an idea N.M. Karamzin and I.I. Dmitrieva , the lyrics were also performed by Yu.A. Nelidinsky-Melitsky, creator of the song “I’ll go out onto the river”, and poet I.M. Dolgoruky.
Liberal-minded sentimentalists saw their calling in, as far as possible, comforting people in suffering, troubles, sorrows, and turning them to virtue, harmony and beauty. Perceiving human life as perverse and fleeting, they glorified eternal values ​​- nature, friendship and love. They enriched literature with such genres as elegy, correspondence, diary, travel, essay, story, novel, drama. Overcoming the normative and dogmatic requirements of classicist poetics, sentimentalists largely contributed to the rapprochement of the literary language with the spoken language. According to K.N. Batyushkova, the model for them is the one “who writes the way he speaks, whom the ladies read!” Personalizing language characters, they used elements of popular vernacular for peasants, official jargon for clerks, Gallicisms for the secular nobility, etc. But this differentiation was not carried out consistently. Positive characters, even serfs, spoke, as a rule, in literary language.
While affirming their creative principles, the sentimentalists did not limit themselves to creating works of art. They published literary critical articles in which, while proclaiming their own literary and aesthetic positions, they overthrew their predecessors. The constant target of their satirical arrows was the work of classicists - S.A. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, S.S. Bobrova, D.I. Khvostova, A.S. Shishkova and A.A. Shakhovsky.

Sentimentalism in England. Sentimentalism first made itself known in lyric poetry. Poet trans. floor. 18th century James Thomson abandoned the urban motifs traditional for rationalist poetry and made English nature the object of his depiction. Nevertheless, he does not completely depart from the classicist tradition: he uses the genre of elegy, legitimized by the classicist theorist Nicolas Boileau in his Poetic Art (1674), however, he replaces rhymed couplets with blank verse, characteristic of the Shakespearean era.
The development of the lyrics follows the path of strengthening the pessimistic motives already heard in D. Thomson. The theme of the illusory and futility of earthly existence triumphs in Edward Jung, the founder of “cemetery poetry.” The poetry of E. Young's followers - the Scottish pastor Robert Blair (1699–1746), the author of the gloomy didactic poem The Grave (1743), and Thomas Gray, the creator of Elegy Written in a Country Cemetery (1749) - is permeated with the idea of ​​​​the equality of all before death.
Sentimentalism expressed itself most fully in the genre of the novel. Its founder was Samuel Richardson, who, breaking with the picaresque and adventure tradition, turned to depicting the world of human feelings, which required the creation of a new form - the novel in letters. In the 1750s, sentimentalism became the main focus of English educational literature. The work of Lawrence Sterne, whom many researchers consider the “father of sentimentalism,” marks the final departure from classicism. (The satirical novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760–1767) and the novel A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick (1768), from which the name of the artistic movement came).
Critical English sentimentalism reaches its peak in the work of Oliver Goldsmith.
The 1770s saw the decline of English sentimentalism. The genre of sentimental novel ceases to exist. In poetry, the sentimentalist school gives way to the pre-romantic school (D. Macpherson, T. Chatterton).
Sentimentalism in France. In French literature, sentimentalism expressed itself in classical form. Pierre Carlet de Chamblen de Marivaux stands at the origins of sentimental prose. (Life of Marianne, 1728–1741; and the Peasant, who came out into the public, 1735–1736).
Antoine-François Prevost d'Exile, or Abbe Prevost, opened a new area of ​​feelings for the novel - an irresistible passion that leads the hero to a life catastrophe.
The culmination of the sentimental novel was the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778).
The concept of nature and “natural” man determined the content of his artistic works (for example, the epistolary novel Julie, or New Heloise, 1761).
J.-J. Rousseau made nature an independent (intrinsically valuable) object of image. His Confession (1766–1770) is considered one of the most frank autobiographies in world literature, where he brings to the absolute the subjectivist attitude of sentimentalism (a work of art as a way of expressing the author’s “I”).
Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814), like his teacher J.-J. Rousseau, considered the main task of the artist to affirm the truth - happiness lies in living in harmony with nature and virtuously. He sets out his concept of nature in the treatise Etudes on Nature (1784–1787). This theme receives artistic embodiment in the novel Paul and Virginie (1787). Depicting distant seas and tropical countries, B. de Saint-Pierre introduces a new category - “exotic”, which will be in demand by romantics, primarily Francois-René de Chateaubriand.
Jacques-Sébastien Mercier (1740–1814), following the Rousseauian tradition, makes the central conflict of the novel The Savage (1767) the collision of the ideal (primitive) form of existence (the “golden age”) with the civilization that is corrupting it. IN utopian novel 2440, a dream of which there are few (1770), taking as a basis the Social Contract of J.-J. Rousseau, he constructs an image of an egalitarian rural community in which people live in harmony with nature. S. Mercier also presents his critical view of the “fruits of civilization” in journalistic form - in the essay Picture of Paris (1781).
The work of Nicolas Retief de La Bretonne (1734–1806), a self-taught writer, author of two hundred volumes of works, is marked by the influence of J.-J. Rousseau. The novel The Corrupt Peasant, or The Dangers of the City (1775) tells the story of the transformation, under the influence of the urban environment, of a morally pure young man into a criminal. The utopian novel Southern Discovery (1781) treats the same theme as 2440 by S. Mercier. In New Emile, or Practical Education (1776), Retief de La Bretonne develops the pedagogical ideas of J.-J. Rousseau, applying them to women's education, and polemicizes with him. The confession of J.-J. Rousseau becomes the reason for the creation of his autobiographical work Monsieur Nicola, or The Human Heart Unveiled (1794–1797), where he turns the narrative into a kind of “physiological sketch.”
In the 1790s, during the era of the Great French Revolution, sentimentalism lost its position, giving way to revolutionary classicism.
Sentimentalism in Germany. In Germany, sentimentalism was born as a national-cultural reaction to French classicism; the work of English and French sentimentalists played a certain role in its formation. Significant merit in the formation of a new view of literature belongs to G.E. Lessing.
The origins of German sentimentalism lie in the polemics of the early 1740s between Zurich professors I. J. Bodmer (1698–1783) and I. J. Breitinger (1701–1776) with the prominent apologist of classicism in Germany I. K. Gottsched (1700–1766); The “Swiss” defended the poet’s right to poetic imagination. The first major exponent of the new direction was Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, who found common ground between sentimentalism and the German medieval tradition.
The heyday of sentimentalism in Germany occurred in the 1770s and 1780s and is associated with the Sturm und Drang movement, named after the drama of the same name Sturm und Drang F. M. Klinger (1752–1831). Its participants set themselves the task of creating an original national German literature; from J.-J. Rousseau, they adopted a critical attitude towards civilization and the cult of the natural. The theorist of Sturm und Drang, philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, criticized the “boastful and sterile education” of the Enlightenment, attacked the mechanical use of classicist rules, arguing that true poetry is the language of feelings, first strong impressions, fantasy and passion, such a language is universal. “Stormy geniuses” denounced tyranny, protested against the hierarchy of modern society and its morality (Tomb of the Kings by K.F. Schubart, Towards Freedom by F.L. Stolberg, etc.); their main character was a freedom-loving strong personality - Prometheus or Faust - driven by passions and not knowing any barriers.
In his youth, Johann Wolfgang Goethe belonged to the Sturm und Drang movement. His novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) became a landmark work of German sentimentalism, defining the end of the “provincial stage” of German literature and its entry into pan-European literature.
The dramas of Johann Friedrich Schiller are marked by the spirit of Sturm und Drang.
Sentimentalism in Russia. Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s thanks to translations of the novels of Werther by J.W. Goethe, Pamela, Clarissa and Grandison by S. Richardson, Nouvelle Héloïse by J.-J. Rousseau, Paul and Virginie J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin with Letters from a Russian Traveler (1791–1792).
His novel Poor Liza (1792) is a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther he inherited a general atmosphere of sensitivity and melancholy and the theme of suicide.
The works of N.M. Karamzin gave rise to a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century appeared Poor Masha by A.E. Izmailova (1801), Journey to Midday Russia (1802), Henrietta, or the Triumph of Deception over the Weakness or Delusion of I. Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G. P. Kamenev (The Story of Poor Marya; Unhappy Margarita ; Beautiful Tatiana), etc.
Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev belonged to Karamzin’s group, which advocated the creation of a new poetic language and fought against the archaic pompous style and outdated genres.
Sentimentalism marked the early work of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The publication in 1802 of a translation of Elegy, written in a rural cemetery by E. Gray, became a phenomenon in the artistic life of Russia, because he translated the poem “into the language of sentimentalism in general, translated the genre of elegy, and not the individual work of an English poet, which has its own special individual style"(E.G. Etkind). In 1809, Zhukovsky wrote a sentimental story Maryina Roshcha in the spirit of N.M. Karamzin.
Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.
It was one of the stages of pan-European literary development, which completed the Age of Enlightenment and opened the way to romanticism.
Evgenia Krivushina
Sentimentalism in the theater(French sentiment - feeling) - a direction in European theatrical art of the second half of the 18th century.
The development of sentimentalism in the theater is associated with the crisis of the aesthetics of classicism, which proclaimed a strict rationalistic canon of drama and its stage embodiment. The speculative constructions of classicist drama are being replaced by the desire to bring theater closer to reality. This is reflected in almost all components of theatrical performance: in the themes of the plays (reflection privacy, development of family psychological stories); in language (classicist pathetic poetic speech is replaced by prose, close to conversational intonation); in the social affiliation of the characters (the heroes of theatrical works are representatives of the third estate); in determining the locations of action (palace interiors are replaced by “natural” and rural views).
“Tearful comedy” - an early genre of sentimentalism - appeared in England in the works of playwrights Colley Cibber (Love's Last Trick, 1696; The Carefree Spouse, 1704, etc.), Joseph Addison (The Godless Man, 1714; The Drummer, 1715), Richard Steele (Funeral, or Fashionable Sorrow, 1701; Liar Lover, 1703; Conscientious Lovers, 1722, etc.). These were moralizing works, where the comic element was successively replaced by sentimental and pathetic scenes and moral and didactic maxims. The moral charge of the “tearful comedy” is based not on the ridicule of vices, but on the chanting of virtue, which awakens to the correction of shortcomings - how individual heroes, and society as a whole.
The same moral and aesthetic principles formed the basis of the French “tearful comedy.” Its most prominent representatives were Philippe Detouches (Married Philosopher, 1727; Proud man, 1732; Waster, 1736) and Pierre Nivelle de Lachausse (Melanide, 1741; School of Mothers, 1744; The Governess, 1747, etc.). Some criticism of social vices was presented by playwrights as temporary delusions of the characters, which they successfully overcome by the end of the play. Sentimentalism was also reflected in the work of one of the most famous French playwrights of that time - Pierre Carle Marivaux (The Game of Love and Chance, 1730; The Triumph of Love, 1732; Inheritance, 1736; Sincere, 1739, etc.). Marivaux, while remaining a faithful follower of salon comedy, at the same time constantly introduces into it features of sensitive sentimentality and moral didactics.
In the second half of the 18th century. “tearful comedy,” while remaining within the framework of sentimentalism, is gradually being replaced by the genre of bourgeois drama. Here the elements of comedy completely disappear; The plots are based on tragic situations in the everyday life of the third estate. However, the problematic remains the same as in the “tearful comedy”: the triumph of virtue, overcoming all trials and tribulations. In this single direction, bourgeois drama is developing in all European countries: England (J. Lillo, The London Merchant, or the History of George Barnwell; E. Moore, The Gambler); France (D. Diderot, The Side Son, or The Test of Virtue; M. Seden, The Philosopher Without Knowing It); Germany (G.E. Lessing, Miss Sarah Sampson, Emilia Galotti). From the theoretical developments and dramaturgy of Lessing, which received the definition of “philistine tragedy,” the aesthetic movement of “Storm and Drang” arose (F. M. Klinger, J. Lenz, L. Wagner, I. V. Goethe, etc.), which reached its peak development in the works of Friedrich Schiller (Robbers, 1780; Cunning and Love, 1784).
Theatrical sentimentalism became widespread in Russia. First appearing in the work of Mikhail Kheraskov (Friend of the Unfortunate, 1774; Persecuted, 1775), the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism were continued by Mikhail Verevkin (So It Should Be, Birthday Boys, Exactly), Vladimir Lukin (Mot, Corrected by Love), Pyotr Plavilshchikov (Bobyl, Sidelets, etc.).
Sentimentalism gave a new impetus to the art of acting, the development of which, in a certain sense, was inhibited by classicism. The aesthetics of the classicist performance of roles required strict adherence to the conventional canon of the entire set of means of acting expression; the improvement of acting skills proceeded rather along a purely formal line. Sentimentalism gave actors the opportunity to turn to the inner world of their characters, to the dynamics of image development, the search for psychological persuasiveness and versatility of characters.
By the middle of the 19th century. the popularity of sentimentalism faded away, the genre of bourgeois drama practically ceased to exist. However, the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism formed the basis for the formation of one of the youngest theatrical genres - melodrama.

Features and genres of sentimentalism.

So, taking into account all of the above, we can identify several main features of Russian literature of sentimentalism: a departure from the straightforwardness of classicism, an emphasized subjectivity of the approach to the world, a cult of feelings, a cult of nature, a cult of innate moral purity, innocence, the rich spiritual world of representatives of the lower classes is affirmed.

Main features of sentimentalism:

Didacticism. Representatives of sentimentalism are characterized by an orientation toward improving the world and solving the problems of human upbringing; however, unlike the classicists, sentimentalists turned not so much to the reader’s mind as to his feelings, evoking sympathy or hatred, delight or indignation in relation to the events described.
The cult of “natural” feelings. One of the main ones in symbolism is the category of “natural”. This concept unites external world nature with inner peace human soul, both worlds are thought of as consonant with each other. The cult of feeling (or heart) became the measure of good and evil in the works of sentimentalism. At the same time, the coincidence of the natural and moral principles was established as a norm, for virtue was thought of as an innate property of man.
At the same time, sentimentalists did not artificially separate the concepts of “philosopher” and “sensitive person,” since sensitivity and rationality do not exist without each other (it is no coincidence that Karamzin characterizes Erast, the hero of the story “Poor Liza,” as a person with “a fair mind, kind heart"). The ability for critical judgment and the ability to feel help to comprehend life, but feeling deceives a person less often.
Recognition of virtue as a natural property of man. Sentimentalists proceeded from the fact that the world is organized according to moral laws, therefore they portrayed man not so much as a bearer of a rational volitional principle, but as the focus of the best natural qualities inherent in his heart from birth. Sentimentalist writers are characterized by special ideas about how a person can achieve happiness, the path to which can only be indicated by a feeling based on morality. It is not the awareness of duty, but the dictates of the heart that prompts a person to act morally. Human nature has a natural need for virtuous behavior, which gives happiness.
etc.................

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism (- feeling) arose during the Enlightenment in England in the middle of the 18th century during the period of the decomposition of feudal absolutism, class-serf relations, the growth of bourgeois relations, and therefore the beginning of the liberation of the individual from the shackles of the feudal-serf state.

Sentimentalism expressed the worldview, psychology, and tastes of broad sections of the conservative nobility and bourgeoisie (the so-called third estate), thirsting for freedom, a natural manifestation of feelings that demanded consideration of human dignity.

Traits of sentimentalism. The cult of feeling, natural feeling, not spoiled by civilization (Rousseau asserted the decisive superiority of simple, natural, “natural” life over civilization); denial of abstraction, abstraction, conventionality, dryness of classicism. Compared to classicism, sentimentalism was a more progressive direction, because it contained tangible elements of realism associated with the depiction of human emotions, experiences, and the expansion of a person’s inner world. Philosophical basis sentimentalism becomes sensualism (from the Latin senzsh - feeling, sensation), one of the founders of which was the English philosopher D. Locke, who recognizes sensation, sensory perception as the only source of knowledge.

If classicism affirmed the idea of ​​an ideal state governed by an enlightened monarch, and demanded that the interests of the individual be subordinated to the state, then sentimentalism put in the first place not a person in general, but a specific, private person in all the uniqueness of his individual personality. At the same time, the value of a person was determined not by his high origin, not by his property status, not by class, but by his personal merits. Sentimentalism first raised the question of individual rights.

Were heroes simple people - nobles, artisans, peasants who lived mainly by feelings, passions, and heart. Sentimentalism opened up the rich spiritual world of the common people. In some works of sentimentalism there was a protest against social injustice, against humiliation " little man" Sentimentalism largely gave literature a democratic character.

The main place was given to the author's personality, the author's subjective perception of the surrounding reality. The author sympathized with the heroes, his task was to force empathy, to evoke compassion, and tears of tenderness in readers.

Since sentimentalism proclaimed the writer’s right to express his author’s individuality in art, genres emerged in sentimentalism that contributed to the expression of the author’s “I”, which means that the first-person form of narration was used: diary, confession, autobiographical memoirs, travel (travel notes, notes, impressions ). In sentimentalism, poetry and drama are replaced by prose, which had a great opportunity to convey complex world emotional experiences of a person, in connection with which new genres arose: family, everyday and psychological novels in the form of correspondence, “ bourgeois drama", "sensitive" story, "bourgeois tragedy", "tearful comedy"; The genres of intimate, chamber lyrics (idyll, elegy, romance, madrigal, song, message), as well as fable, flourished.

A mixture of high and low, tragic and comic, a mixture of genres was allowed; the law of “three unities” was overthrown (for example, the range of phenomena of reality expanded significantly).

Depicted as ordinary, everyday family life; the main theme was love; the plot was based on situations in the everyday life of private individuals; the composition of works of sentimentalism was arbitrary.

The cult of nature was proclaimed. The landscape was a favorite backdrop for events; the peaceful, idyllic life of a person was shown in the lap of rural nature, while nature was depicted in close connection with the experiences of the hero or the author himself, and was in tune with personal experience. The village, as the center of natural life and moral purity, was sharply contrasted with the city as a symbol of evil, artificial life, and vanity.

Language of works sentimentalism was simple, lyrical, sometimes sensitively elated, emphatically emotional; such poetic means, as exclamations, addresses, affectionate diminutive suffixes, comparisons, epithets, interjections; Blank verse was used. In the works of sentimentalism, there is a further convergence of literary language with living, colloquial speech.

Features of Russian sentimentalism. In Russia, sentimentalism is established in last decade XVIII century and fades away after 1812, during the development of the revolutionary movement of the future Decembrists.

Russian sentimentalism idealized the patriarchal way of life, the life of the serf village and criticized bourgeois morals.

The peculiarity of Russian sentimentalism is a didactic, educational orientation towards raising a worthy citizen.

Sentimentalism in Russia is represented by two movements: Sentimental-romantic - N. M. Karamzin (“Letters of a Russian Traveler”, story “Poor Liza”), M. N. Muravyov (sentimental poems), I. I. Dmitriev (fables, lyrical songs, poetic tales “Fashionable Wife”, “Whimsical Lady”),

F. A. Emin (novel “Letters of Ernest and Doravra”), V. I. Lukin (comedy “Mot, Corrected by Love”). Sentimental-realistic - A. N. Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”),

Classicism.

Sentimentalism

Romanticism

Satirical poetry of Antioch Dmitrievich Kantemir. Problems of the satire “On those who blaspheme the teaching, To their own minds.” The personality and significance of Cantemir’s creativity in essays and critical articles N.I.Novikov, N.M.Karamzin K.N.Batyushkov, V.G.Belinsky.

Antioch Dmitrievich Kantemir was one of the first Russian writers to realize that he was a writer. Although literature was not at all the main thing in his life. The poet, who opens the first page of the history of Russian book poetry, was an extraordinary person, an educated, multi-talented person. He greatly raised the prestige of Russia in the West, where for the last twelve years of his life he served as Russia's diplomatic representative in embassies - first in England and then in France. He had an impeccable command of thought and word: the dispatches he sent were always clearly and skillfully composed. he was a famous person in Russia. His epigrams and love songs were extremely successful. He worked in the genre of scientific translation and had already written five of his nine poetic satires. During the years of service in France, he finally established himself in advanced educational views. He was convinced that only “merit”, and not class and family affiliation, distinguishes one person from another. “The same blood flows in both free and slaves, the same flesh, the same bones!” he wrote, insisting on the “natural equality” of people. Kantemir always remained a citizen of Russia: what he acquired, or, as he put it, “adopted” from the French, was supposed to serve his fatherland. With characteristic modesty he wrote:

What Horace gave, he borrowed from the Frenchman.

Oh, if my muse is poor in appearance.

Yes it is true; Though the limits of the mind are narrow,

What he took in Gallic, he paid in Russian.
And yet, Kantemir is, first of all, a national poet, who has the task of turning to the image of real Russian life. According to Belinsky, he was able to “connect poetry with life”, “write not only in the Russian language, but also with the Russian mind.” By the way, it should be noted here that Princess Praskovya Trubetskaya, who wrote songs in the folk spirit, was in close friendship with the Kantemirov family; Perhaps it was she who was the author of the most popular song in those distant times, “Ah, my bitter light of my youth.” Not only the famous “Poetics” of the French poet and theorist Boileau, not only educational studies, but the living lyrical element of folk song, making its way into the book poetry of the beginning of the century, determined the formation of artistic manner Cantemira.
Analysis of the satire by Antiochus Cantemir “On those who blaspheme the teachings of their minds.” This is Cantemir's first satire; he wrote it in 1729. The satire was originally written not for the purpose of publication, but for oneself. But through friends she came to the Novgorod Archbishop Theophan, who gave impetus to the continuation of this cycle of satires.
Cantermere himself defines this satire as a mockery of the ignorant and despisers of science. At that time this question was very relevant. As soon as education became accessible to people, colleges and universities were established. This was a qualitative step in the field of science. And any qualitative step is, if not a revolution, then a reform. And no wonder it caused so much controversy. The author turns, as the title suggests, to his own mind, calling it “immature mind,” because The satire was written by him when he was twenty, that is, still quite immature by those standards. Everyone strives for fame, and achieving it through science is the most difficult. The author uses the 9 muses and Apollo as an image of the sciences that make the road to glory difficult. It is possible to achieve fame, even if you are not considered a creator. There are many paths leading to it, easy in our age, on which the brave will not falter; The most unpleasant thing of all is that the barefoot cursed the Nine Sisters. Next, 4 characters appear in turn in the satire: Crito, Silvanus, Luke and Medor. Each of them condemns science and explains its uselessness in their own way. Crito believes that those who are interested in science want to understand the reasons for everything that happens. And this is bad, because... they leave faith in Holy Bible. And indeed, in his opinion, science is harmful, you just have to blindly believe.
The schisms and heresies of science are children; Those who are given more understanding lie more; Whoever melts over a book comes to godlessness... Silvan is a stingy nobleman. He doesn't understand the monetary benefits of science, so he doesn't need it. For him, only what can bring him specific benefit has value. But science cannot provide him with this. He lived without her, and he will live like that again! It makes sense to divide the land into quarters without Euclid, How many kopecks are in a ruble - we can calculate without algebra Luka is a drunkard. In his opinion, science divides people, because It’s not his job to sit alone over books, which he even calls “dead friends.” He praises wine as a source of good mood and other benefits and says that he will exchange a glass for a book only if time runs back, stars appear on earth, etc. When the reins of plows begin to be driven across the sky, And the stars begin to peep out from the surface of the earth, When in Lent the monk begins to eat the elm, - Then, leaving the glass, I will begin to read the book. Medor is a dandy and a dandy. He is offended that the paper with which hair was curled at that time is spent on books. For him, the famous tailor and shoemaker are much more important than Virgil and Cicero. ...too much paper goes out for writing, for printing books, but it comes to him that there is nothing to wrap his curled curls in; He will not exchange a pound of good powder for Seneca. The author draws attention to the fact that all deeds have two possible motives: benefit and praise. And there is an opinion that if science brings neither one nor the other, then why bother with it? People are not used to the fact that it could be otherwise, that virtue in itself is valuable. ...When there is no benefit, praise encourages labor, but without that the heart becomes depressed. Not everyone loves true beauty, that is, science. But anyone, having barely learned anything, demands a promotion or other status.

For example, a soldier, having barely learned to sign, wants to command a regiment. The author laments that the time when wisdom was valued has passed. The time has not come to us in which wisdom presided over everything and the crowns alone shared, Being the only way to the highest sunrise.

Belinsky said that Cantemir would outlive many literary celebrities, classical and romantic. In an article about Kantemir, Belinsky wrote: “Kantemir not so much begins the history of Russian literature as ends the period of Russian writing. Cantemir wrote in so-called syllabic verses, a meter that is completely unusual for the Russian language; this size existed in Rus' long before Cantemir... Cantemir began the history of secular literature. That’s why everyone, rightly considering Lomonosov the father of Russian literature, at the same time, not entirely without reason, begins its history with Kantemir.”
Karamzin remarked: “His satires were the first experience of Russian wit and style.”

6. The role of Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky, M.V. Lomonosov, A.P. Sumarokov in the formation of aesthetic principles, the genre-stylistic system of Russian classicism, in the transformation of versification.

Trediakovsky in 1735 published “A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poems,” proposing a way to organize syllabic 13- and 11-syllables and giving examples of poems of different genres composed in a new way. The need for such ordering was dictated by the need to more clearly contrast poetry with prose.
Trediakovsky acted as a reformer, not indifferent to the experience of his predecessors. Lomonosov went further. In his “Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry” (1739), he categorically declared that “our poetry is just beginning,” thereby ignoring the almost century-old tradition of syllabic poetry. He, unlike Trediakovsky, allowed not only two-syllable, but also three-syllable and “mixed” meters (iambo-anapaests and dactylo-trochees), not only female rhymes, but also masculine and dactylic ones, and advised sticking to the iambic as a meter appropriate for tall objects and important (the letter was accompanied by “Ode... for the capture of Khotin, 1739,” written in iambics). The predominance of "trochaic rhythms" in folk songs and book poetry of the 17th century, which Trediakovsky pointed out, thinking that “our ear” was “applied” to them, Lomonosov was not embarrassed, since he had to start from scratch. The pathos of an uncompromising break with tradition corresponded to the spirit of the time, and Lomonosov’s iambics themselves sounded completely new and were as opposed to prose as possible. The problem of stylistic demarcation from church bookishness has been relegated to the background. New literature and syllabic-tonic poetry became almost synonymous concepts.
Trediakovsky eventually accepted Lomonosov’s ideas, in 1752 he published a whole treatise on syllabic-tonic versification (“A method for adding Russian poetry, corrected and multiplied against that published in 1735”) and in practice conscientiously experimented with different meters and sizes. Lomonosov, in practice, wrote almost exclusively in iambics, which, in his opinion, were the only ones suitable for high genres(his classification of high, “mediocre” and low genres and “calms” is set out in the “Preface on the benefits of church books in Russian language", 1757).
Trediakovsky and Lomonosov, who studied at the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, were connected by many threads with pre-Petrine bookishness and church scholarship. Sumarokov, a nobleman, a graduate of the Land Noble Cadet Corps, shunned her. His literary knowledge, sympathies and interests were associated with French classicism. The leading genre in France was tragedy, and in Sumarokov’s work it became the main genre. Here his priority was undeniable. The first Russian classical tragedies belong to him: "Khorev" (1747), "Hamlet" (1747), "Sinav and Truvor" (1750), etc. Sumarokov also owns the first comedies - "Tresotinus", "Monsters" (both 1750) and etc. True, these were “low” comedies, written in prose and were a lampoon on people (in the mentioned comedies Trediakovsky is ridiculed). That. Sumarokov rightfully claimed the titles of “northern Racine” and “Russian Moliere”, and in 1756 it was he who would be appointed the first director of the first permanent theater in Russia, created by F.G. Volkov. But Sumarokov could not be satisfied with the status of a playwright and theater figure. He laid claim to a leading and leading position in literature (to the considerable irritation of his older fellow writers). His "Two Epistles" (1748) - "On the Russian Language" and "On Poetry" - should have received a status similar to that of " Poetic art"Boileau in Literature French classicism(in 1774, an abridged version of them would be published under the title “Instructions for those who want to be writers”). Sumarokov’s ambitions also explain the genre universalism of his work. He tested his strength in almost all classical genres (only the epic did not work for him). As the author of didactic epistles on poetry and poetic satires, he was the “Russian Boileau”; as the author of “parables” (i.e. fables), he was the “Russian Lafontaine”, etc.
However, Sumarokov pursued educational rather than aesthetic goals. He dreamed of being a mentor to the nobility and an adviser to an “enlightened monarch” (like Voltaire under Frederick II). He viewed his literary activity as socially useful. His tragedies were a school of civic virtue for the monarch and his subjects, in comedies, satires and parables, vices were scourged (the rhyme “Sumarokov is the scourge of vices” generally became generally accepted), elegies and eclogues taught “loyalty and tenderness”, spiritual odes (Sumarokov transcribed the entire Psalter) and philosophical poems taught in reasonable concepts about religion, in the “Two Epistles” the rules of poetry were proposed, etc. In addition, Sumarokov became the publisher of the first literary magazine in Russia, “The Hardworking Bee” (1759) (it was also the first private magazine).
In general, the literature of Russian classicism is characterized by the pathos of public service (which makes it similar to the literature of Peter the Great’s time). Instilling “private” virtues in citizens was her second task, and the first was promoting the achievements of the “regular state” “created” by Peter and denouncing his opponents. That is why this new literature begins with satires and odes. Kantemir ridicules the champions of antiquity, Lomonosov admires the successes of the new Russia. They defend one cause - “the cause of Peter.”
Read publicly on special occasions in huge halls, in the special theatrical setting of the imperial court, the ode should “thunder” and amaze the imagination. She could best glorify the “cause of Peter” and the greatness of the empire, the best way corresponded to propaganda purposes. Therefore, it is a solemn ode (and not a tragedy, as in France, or epic poem) has become the main genre in Russian XVIII literature century. This is one of the distinctive features"Russian classicism". Others are rooted in the Old Russian language he demonstratively rejected, i.e. church tradition (which makes “Russian classicism” an organic phenomenon of Russian culture).
Russian classicism developed under the influence European Enlightenment, but his ideas were rethought. For example, the most important of them is the idea of ​​“natural”, natural equality of all people. In France, under this slogan there was a struggle for the rights of the third estate. And Sumarokov and other Russian writers of the 18th century, based on the same idea, teach nobles to be worthy of their title and not to stain the “class honor”, ​​since fate has elevated them above people equal to them by nature.

Romantic poem in the works of Ryleev. “Voinarovsky” - composition, principles of character creation, specifics of a romantic conflict, correlation between the destinies of the hero and the author. The dispute between History and Poetry in “Voinarovsky”.

The originality of Decembrist poetry was most fully manifested in the work of Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev (1795-1826). He created “effective poetry, poetry of the highest intensity, heroic pathos” (39).

Among lyrical works Ryleev’s most famous poem was, and perhaps still is, “Citizen” (1824), banned at one time, but distributed illegally and well known to readers. This work is a fundamental success for Ryleev the poet, perhaps even the pinnacle of Decembrist lyricism in general. The poem creates the image of a new lyrical hero:

Kondraty Fedorovich Ryleev is one of the founders and classics of Russian revolutionary civil poetry, inspired by the advanced social movement and hostile to autocracy. He more fully expressed the Decembrist worldview in poetry than others and developed the main themes of Decembrism. Ryleev's works reflected the most important moments in the history of the Decembrist movement in its most significant period - between 1820-1825.

The name of Ryleev in our minds is surrounded by an aura of martyrdom and heroism. The charm of his personality as a fighter and revolutionary who died for his beliefs is so great that for many it seemed to obscure the aesthetic originality of his work. Tradition has preserved the image of Ryleev that was created by his friends and followers, first in the memoirs of N. Bestuzhev, then in the articles of Ogarev and Herzen.

The search for ways to actively influence society led Ryleev to the genre of the poem. Ryleev’s first poem was the poem “Voinarovsky” (1823-1824). The poem has much in common with “Dumas,” but there is also a fundamental novelty: in “Voinarovsky” Ryleev strives for authentic historical coloring and truthfulness of psychological characteristics. Ryleev created a new hero: disappointed, but not in worldly and secular pleasures, not in love or glory, Ryleev’s hero is a victim of fate, which did not allow him to realize his powerful life potential. Resentment towards fate, towards the ideal of a heroic life that did not take place, alienates Ryleev’s hero from those around him, turning him into a tragic figure. The tragedy of the incompleteness of life, its unrealization in real actions and events will become an important discovery not only in Decembrist poetry, but also in Russian literature in general.

“Voinarovsky” is the only completed poem by Ryleev, although besides it he began several more: “Nalivaiko”, “Gaydamak”, “Paley”. “It so happened,” the researchers write, “that Ryleev’s poems were not only propaganda of Decembrism in literature, but also a poetic biography of the Decembrists themselves, including the December defeat and years of hard labor. Reading the poem about Voinarovsky, the Decembrists involuntarily thought about themselves<…>Ryleev's poem was perceived both as a poem of a heroic deed and as a poem of tragic forebodings. The fate of a political exile thrown into distant Siberia, a meeting with his civilian wife - all this is almost a prediction” (43). Ryleev’s readers were especially struck by his prediction in “Nalivaika’s Confession” from the poem “Nalivaiko”:

<…>I know: destruction awaits

The one who rises first

On the oppressors of the people, -

Fate has already doomed me.

But where, tell me, when was it

Freedom redeemed without sacrifice?

I will die for my native land, -

I feel it, I know...

And joyfully holy father,

I bless my lot!<…> (44)

The fulfilled prophecies of Ryleev’s poetry once again prove the fruitfulness of the romantic principle “life and poetry are one.”

Classicism.

Classicism is based on the ideas of rationalism. Piece of art, from the point of view of classicism, should be built on the basis of strict canons, thereby revealing the harmony and logic of the universe itself. Of interest to classicism is only the eternal, the unchangeable - in every phenomenon it strives to recognize only essential, typological features, discarding random ones individual characteristics. The aesthetics of classicism attaches great importance to the social and educational function of art. Classicism takes many rules and canons from ancient art (Aristotle, Horace).
Classicism establishes a strict hierarchy of genres, which are divided into high (ode, tragedy, epic) and low (comedy, satire, fable). Each genre has strictly defined characteristics, the mixing of which is not allowed.
As a specific movement, classicism was formed in France in the 17th century.
In Russia, classicism originated in the 18th century, after the reforms of Peter I. Lomonosov carried out a reform of Russian verse, developed the theory of “three calms,” which was essentially an adaptation of French classical rules to the Russian language. Images in classicism are deprived individual traits, since they are intended primarily to capture stable generic characteristics that do not pass over time, acting as the embodiment of any social or spiritual forces.

Classicism in Russia developed under the great influence of the Enlightenment - the ideas of equality and justice have always been the focus of attention of Russian classic writers. Therefore, in Russian classicism we got great development genres that require compulsory author's assessment historical reality: comedy (D. I. Fonvizin), satire (A. D. Kantemir), fable (A. P. Sumarokov, I. I. Khemnitser), ode (Lomonosov, G. R. Derzhavin).

Sentimentalism- state of mind in Western European and Russian culture and the corresponding literary direction. Works written in this genre are based on the reader's feelings. In Europe it existed from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia - from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century.
Dominant " human nature“Sentimentalism declared feeling, not reason, which distinguished it from classicism. Without breaking with the Enlightenment, sentimentalism remained faithful to the ideal of a normative personality, however, the condition for its implementation was not the “reasonable” reorganization of the world, but the release and improvement of “natural” feelings. The hero of educational literature in sentimentalism is more individualized, his inner world is enriched by the ability to empathize and sensitively respond to what is happening around him. By origin (or by conviction) the sentimentalist hero is a democrat; the rich spiritual world of the common people is one of the main discoveries and conquests of sentimentalism.
Sentimentalism in Russian literature

Nikolai Karamzin "Poor Liza"

Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s thanks to translations of the novels of Werther by J.W. Goethe, Pamela, Clarissa and Grandison by S. Richardson, Nouvelle Héloïse by J.-J. Rousseau, Paul and Virginie J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin with “Letters of a Russian Traveler” (1791–1792).

His story "Poor Liza" (1792) is a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther he inherited a general atmosphere of sensitivity and melancholy and the theme of suicide.
The works of N.M. Karamzin gave rise to a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century appeared "Poor Masha" by A.E. Izmailov (1801), "Journey to Midday Russia" (1802), "Henrietta, or the Triumph of Deception over Weakness or Delusion" by I. Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G.P. Kamenev ( “The Story of Poor Marya”; “Unhappy Margarita”; “Beautiful Tatiana”), etc.

Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev belonged to Karamzin’s group, which advocated the creation of a new poetic language and fought against the archaic pompous style and outdated genres.

Sentimentalism marked the early work of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The publication in 1802 of a translation of Elegy, written in a rural cemetery by E. Gray, became a phenomenon in the artistic life of Russia, for he translated the poem “into the language of sentimentalism in general, translated the genre of elegy, and not an individual work of an English poet, which has its own special individual style” (E. G. Etkind). In 1809, Zhukovsky wrote a sentimental story “Maryina Roshcha” in the spirit of N.M. Karamzin.

Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.

It was one of the stages of the pan-European literary development, which ended the Age of Enlightenment and opened the way to romanticism.

Main features of the literature of sentimentalism

So, taking into account all of the above, we can identify several main features of Russian literature of sentimentalism: a departure from the straightforwardness of classicism, an emphasized subjectivity of the approach to the world, a cult of feelings, a cult of nature, a cult of innate moral purity, innocence, the rich spiritual world of representatives of the lower classes is affirmed. Attention is paid peace of mind a person, and feelings come first, not great ideas.
Romanticism- a phenomenon of European culture in the 18th-19th centuries, representing a reaction to the Enlightenment and the scientific and technological progress stimulated by it; ideological and artistic direction in European and American culture of the late 18th century - the first half of the 19th century century. It is characterized by an affirmation of the intrinsic value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the depiction of strong (often rebellious) passions and characters, spiritualized and healing nature. It has spread to various spheres of human activity. In the 18th century, everything strange, fantastic, picturesque and existing in books and not in reality was called romantic. At the beginning of the 19th century, romanticism became the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism and the Enlightenment.
Romanticism in Russian literature

It is usually believed that in Russia romanticism appears in the poetry of V. A. Zhukovsky (although some Russian poetic works of the 1790-1800s are often attributed to the pre-romantic movement that developed from sentimentalism). In Russian romanticism, freedom from classical conventions appears, a ballad and romantic drama are created. A new idea is being established about the essence and meaning of poetry, which is recognized as an independent sphere of life, an expression of the highest, ideal aspirations of man; the old view, according to which poetry seemed to be empty fun, something completely serviceable, turns out to be no longer possible.

The early poetry of A. S. Pushkin also developed within the framework of romanticism. The poetry of M. Yu. Lermontov, the “Russian Byron,” can be considered the pinnacle of Russian romanticism. The philosophical lyrics of F. I. Tyutchev are both the completion and overcoming of romanticism in Russia.

1.Sentimentalism(French sentimentalisme, from English sentimental, French sentiment - feeling) - a state of mind in Western European and Russian culture and the corresponding literary direction. Works written in this genre are based on the reader's feelings. In Europe it existed from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia - from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century.

If classicism is reason, duty, then sentimentalism is something lighter, these are the feelings of a person, his experiences.

The main theme of sentimentalism- love.

Main features of sentimentalism:

Avoiding straightness

Multifaceted characters, subjective approach to the world

Cult of feeling

Cult of nature

Revival of one's own purity

Affirmation of the rich spiritual world of the low classes

The main genres of sentimentalism:

Sentimental story

Trips

Idyll or pastoral

Letters of a personal nature

Ideological basis- protest against the corruption of aristocratic society

The main property of sentimentalism- the desire to imagine the human personality in the movement of the soul, thoughts, feelings, the disclosure of the inner world of man through the state of nature

The aesthetics of sentimentalism is based- imitation of nature

Features of Russian sentimentalism:

Strong didactic setting

Educational character

Active improvement of the literary language through the introduction of literary forms into it

Representatives of sentimentalism:

Lawrence Stan Richardson - England

Jean Jacques Rousseau - France

M.N. Muravyov - Russia

N.M. Karamzin - Russia

V.V. Kapnist - Russia

ON THE. Lviv - Russia

Young V.A. Zhukovsky was a sentimentalist for a short time.

2.Biography of Rousseau

The most pressing problems of the 18th century were socio-political. Man interested thinkers as a social and moral being, conscious of his freedom, capable of fighting for it and a decent life. If previously it was mainly representatives of privileged social groups who could afford to philosophize, now the voices of low-income and disadvantaged people who reject the established social order have become increasingly louder. One of them was Jean Jacques Rousseau. The predominant theme of his works: the origin of social inequality and overcoming it. Jean Jacques was born in Geneva, into the family of a watchmaker. Musical abilities, thirst for knowledge and desire for fame led him to Paris in 1741. Lacking a systematic education and influential acquaintances, he did not immediately achieve recognition. He brought a new system of notation to the Paris Academy, but his proposal was rejected (he later wrote a comic opera, The Village Sorcerer). While collaborating on the famous “Encyclopedia”, he enriched himself with knowledge and at the same time - unlike other educators - he doubted that scientific and technological progress brings only good to people. Civilization, in his opinion, exacerbates inequality between people. Both science and technology are good only if they are based on high morality, noble feelings and admiration for nature. "Progressives" sharply criticized Rousseau for this position. (Only at the end of the 20th century did it become clear how true it was.) During his life, he was both praised and condemned, and persecuted. He hid for some time in Switzerland, and died in solitude and poverty. His major philosophical works: “Discourses on the Sciences and Arts”, “Discourses on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality between People”, “On the Social Contract, or Principles of Political Law”. From philosophical and artistic works: “Julia, or New Heloise”, “Confession”. For Rousseau, the path of civilization is the consistent enslavement of man. With the advent of private property and the desire to have as much material wealth as possible, “labor became inevitable, and vast forests turned into cheerful fields that needed to be watered by human sweat and on which slavery and poverty soon rose and blossomed along with the crops. This great revolution was made by invention "two arts: metalworking and agriculture. In the eyes of the poet, gold and silver, in the eyes of the philosopher, iron and bread civilized people and destroyed the human race." With extraordinary insight, like an outside observer, he drew attention to two fundamental vices of civilization: the creation of ever new needs that are unnecessary for normal life and the formation of an artificial personality that tries to “appear” and not “be.” In contrast to Hobbes (and in accordance with historical truth), Rousseau believed that the state of discord and war in society increased as inequality of wealth, competition and the desire to enrich themselves at the expense of others increased. State power, according to the social contract, was supposed to become the guarantor of security and justice. But it created a new form of dependence between the powerful and the subordinate. If a given state system deceives the people's expectations and does not fulfill its obligations, then the people have the right to overthrow it. Rousseau's thoughts inspired revolutionaries in different countries, especially France. His "Social Contract" became Robespierre's reference book. In those years, few people paid attention to the philosopher’s serious warning: “Peoples! Know once and for all that nature wanted to protect you from science, just as a mother snatches a dangerous weapon from the hands of her child. All the secrets she hides from you are evil.” .

3. Relationship with Voltaire

Added to this was a quarrel with Voltaire and with the government party in Geneva. Rousseau once called Voltaire “touching,” but in fact there could not be a greater contrast than between these two writers. The antagonism between them appeared in 1755, when Voltaire, on the occasion of the terrible Lisbon earthquake, renounced optimism, and Rousseau stood up for Providence. Sated with glory and living in luxury, Voltaire, according to Rousseau, sees only grief on earth; he, unknown and poor, finds that everything is fine.

Relations became strained when Rousseau, in his “Letter on Spectacles,” strongly rebelled against the introduction of theater in Geneva. Voltaire, who lived near Geneva and, through his home theater in Fernes, developed a taste for dramatic performances among the Genevans, realized that the letter was directed against him and against his influence on Geneva. Unlimited in his anger, Voltaire hated Rousseau and either mocked his ideas and writings or made him look like a madman.

The controversy between them especially flared up when Rousseau was banned from entering Geneva, which he attributed to the influence of Voltaire. Finally, Voltaire published an anonymous pamphlet, accusing Rousseau of intending to overthrow the Genevan constitution and Christianity and claiming that he had killed Teresa's mother.

The peaceful villagers of Motiers became agitated; Rousseau began to be subjected to insults and threats; the local pastor preached a sermon against him. One autumn night, a whole rain of stones fell on his house.

Sentimentalism originated in the late 20s. 18th century in England, remaining in the 20s-50s. closely associated with Enlightenment classicism and with the Enlightenment novel of Richardson's sentimentalism. French sentimentalism reaches its full development in the epistolary novel by J. J. Rousseau “The New Heloise.” The subjective-emotional nature of the letters was an innovation in French literature.

The novel "Julia, or the New Heloise":

1) Tendency of the work.

First published in Holland in 1761, the novel "Julia, or the New Heloise" has the subtitle: "Letters of two lovers living in a small town at the foot of the Alps." And something else is said on the title page: “Collected and published by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.” The purpose of this simple hoax is to create the illusion of complete authenticity of the story. Posing himself as a publisher, and not as a writer, Rousseau provides some pages with footnotes (164 in total), with which he argues with his heroes, recording their errors as a result of stormy experiences of love, and corrects their views on issues of morality, art, and poetry. In the shell of soft irony, the height of objectivity: the author supposedly has nothing in common with the characters in the novel, he is only an observer, an impartial judge standing above them. And at first, Rousseau achieved his goal: he was asked whether these letters were really found, whether it was true or fiction, although he himself gave himself away as the epigraph to the novel and verse by Petrarch. "The New Heloise" consists of 163 letters, divided into six parts. There are relatively few episodes in the novel compared to the huge superstructure, which consists of lengthy discussions on a variety of topics: about a duel, about suicide, about whether a wealthy woman can help the man she loves with money, about the household and the structure of society, about religion and helping the poor , about raising children, about opera and dancing. Rousseau's novel is filled with maxims, instructive aphorisms, and, in addition, there are too many tears and sighs, kisses and hugs, unnecessary complaints and inappropriate sympathy. In the 18th century they loved it, at least in specific environment; It seems old-fashioned and often funny to us today. To read from beginning to end "The New Heloise" with all the deviations from the plot, you need to have a fair dose of patience, but Rousseau's book is distinguished by its deep content. “The New Eloise” was studied with unflagging attention by such demanding thinkers and literary artists as N. G. Chernyshevsky and L. N. Tolstoy. Tolstoy said about Rousseau's novel: "This wonderful book makes you think"