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What determines the historicity of the national originality of the literary type. World Significance and National Identity of Russian Literature of the 19th Century

What determines the historicity of the national originality of the literary type. World Significance and National Identity of Russian Literature of the 19th Century

06.03.2019

In order to single out the national, its functions and ways of expression in a literary and artistic work, it is necessary to determine, firstly, what should be meant by national, and, secondly, how to understand the work, what is its nature.

Enough has been said about the latter to enable us to pass on to the former. -

First of all, it should be noted that the category of the national, being not a strictly aesthetic category, requires consideration in various planes. It is important to focus on those that may be directly related to the work of art. The subject of my consideration is not so much the national as such, but the national in a literary and artistic work.

The issue of the national in literature should also be considered taking into account the specifics of the aesthetic as a form of social consciousness. The national in itself is not a form of public (and therefore individual) consciousness. The national is a certain property of the psyche and consciousness, a property that "colors" all forms of social consciousness. In itself, the presence of a person's psyche and consciousness, of course, is extra-national. The ability for figurative and scientific thinking is also non-national. However art world, created by figurative thinking, can have pronounced national features. Why?

National identity is made up of socio-cultural and moral-psychological characteristics (the commonality of labor processes and skills, customs and, further, social life in all its forms: aesthetic, moral-religious, political, legal, etc.), which are formed on the basis of natural and climatic And biological factors(community of the territory, natural conditions, ethnic characteristics, etc.). All this leads to the emergence of a national characteristic of people's lives, to the emergence of a national mentality (an integral complex of natural-genetic and spiritual properties). Historically, national characters are formed (also, I note, integral formations). How are they reproduced in literature?

Through the figurative concept of personality. Personality, being an individual manifestation of universal human spirituality, to a large extent acquires individuality as a national characteristic. National identity, not being a form of public consciousness, is a phenomenon primarily psychological, adaptive, adaptive. It is a way and a tool for adapting a person to nature, an individual to society. Since this is so, the image, the figurative concept of personality, has become the most adequate form of reproducing the national. The nature of the image and the nature of the national, as it were, resonated: both are perceived primarily sensually and are integral formations. Moreover: the existence of the national is possible precisely - and exclusively - in a figurative form. The concepts of national identity do not need.

What exactly in the structure of the literary image is the content and the material carrier of the elusive national spirit? Or: what are national meanings, and what are the ways of their transmission?

The material for molding the "spirit", that is, the arsenal of poetic figurative means, was borrowed by man from the environment. In order to "register" in the world, to humanize it, it became necessary, with the help of mythology, to populate it with gods, often anthropomorphic creatures. At the same time, the material of mythology - depending on the type of emerging civilization: agricultural, pastoral, seaside, etc. - was different. The image could be copied only from the surrounding reality (flora, fauna, as well as inanimate nature). Man was surrounded by the moon, the sun, water, bears, snakes, birch trees, etc. ethnic group and almost devoid of information for the other.

This is how the national picture of the world, the national device of vision was formed. The holistic unity of the principles of organizing national material based on any dominants characteristic of national life can be called the national artistic style of thinking. The formation of this style was accompanied by crystallization literary traditions. Subsequently, when aesthetic consciousness acquired highly developed forms, the national mentality for its reproduction in verbal and artistic form required specific means of representation and expression: a range of topics, heroes, genres, plots, chronotope, culture of detail, language tools etc.

However, the specificity of figurative fabric cannot yet be considered the basis of national content. The national, which is also inherent in individual consciousness, is nothing but a form of the "collective unconscious" (K. G. Jung).

I believe that Jung, in his concept of the "collective unconscious" and his "archetypes", came as close as possible to what can help to understand the problem of national meaning in a work of art. Quoting Hauptmann's words: "to be a poet means to allow the words to sound like a word", Jung writes: "Translated into the language of psychology, our first question should accordingly be: to what prototype of the collective unconscious can the image deployed in this work of art be erected?" 56

If we, literary critics, are interested in the national in a work, our question will obviously be formulated identically, but with one indispensable addition: what aesthetic structure this image? Moreover, our addition shifts the emphasis: we are not so much interested in the meaning of the collective unconscious as artistically expressed meaning. We are interested in the connection of the type of artistry with the meaning hidden in the collective unconscious.

The image grows from the bowels of the unconscious psychological depths (I will not touch on the most complex problems of the psychology of creativity). He therefore requires the appropriate "apparatus" of perception, appeals to the "bowels of the soul", to the unconscious layers in the human psyche. Moreover, not to the personal unconscious, but to the collective. Jung strictly distinguishes between these two realms of the unconscious in man. The basis of the collective unconscious is the prototype or "archetype". It underlies typical situations, actions, ideals, mythological figures. An archetype is a certain invariant of experiences, which is realized in specific variants. An archetype is a canvas, a matrix, a general pattern of experiences that are repeated in an endless series of ancestors. Therefore, we easily respond to the experienced archetypes, the voice of the family, the voice of all mankind, awakens in us. And this voice, which includes us in the collective paradigm, gives colossal confidence to the artist and the reader. The archetypal speaker speaks "as if with a thousand voices" (Jung). Ultimately, the archetype is an individual image of universal human experiences. It is quite natural that the collective unconscious in the masterpieces of literature in its resonance goes far beyond national boundaries. Such works become consonant with the spirit of an entire era.

This is another - psychological - side of the impact of art on society. Perhaps it would be appropriate here to quote from Jung, where you can see how the archetype can be connected with the national. “And what is Faust? Faust is (...) an expression of the primordially vital active principle in the German soul, the birth of which Goethe was destined to contribute. Is it conceivable that Faust or Thus Spoke Zarathustra was written by a non-German Both clearly allude to the same thing - to what vibrates in the German soul, to the "elementary image", as Jakob Burckhardt once put it - the figure of the healer and teacher, on the one hand, and the sinister sorcerer, on the other; the archetype of the sage, helper and savior on the one hand, and the magician, swindler, seducer and devil on the other.This image has been buried in the unconscious from time immemorial, where it sleeps until the favorable or unfavorable circumstances of the age awaken it: this happens when the great error leads the people astray from the true path.

For developed peoples with a developed literature and culture, the arsenal of figurative means is infinitely enriched, refined, internationalized, while maintaining recognizable national codes (mainly of sensory-psychological origin). It is easy to multiply examples. In Russian literature of the 19th century, one of the main archetypes is the figure of an "extra" person, a contemplative who sees no way out of the contradictions of the era. Another example: the genesis of the literary heroes of the Karamazov brothers is rooted in folk tales. Another example: the concept of L. N. Tolstoy in "War and Peace" is actually a popular concept of a defensive war, embodied in Russians military stories XIII-XUN centuries. And the figure of Napoleon is a figure of an invader typical of these stories.

I will summarize: the basis of almost any character in literature - not only an individual character, but also a national character - is a moral and social type (a miser, a hypocrite, etc.) and even a mask, which is the basis of the type. Behind the most complex, original combination of psychological properties, there is always a national variant of the universal human type. Therefore, it is not surprising that the simplest mythological or fabulous motifs can "come around" in the most complex artistic and philosophical canvases of modern times.

Now consider the topical issue of the national identification of works. Relatively independent in a work can be both the mentality and the imagery that embodies it (internal form), and the language that embodies images (external form). (On this thesis, by the way, the principle is based literary translation.) The autonomy of the mentality in relation to the figurative fabric is palpable, for example, in Tolstoy's Hadji Murat. The mentality, as we see, can be expressed not only through "native" material, but also through the appropriate interpretation of foreign material. This is possible because the exotic material is conveyed through details that are selected, arranged and evaluated by the subject of the story from their national point of view and in their national language.

However, such cases are quite rare. Much more often the mentality and images are inseparably merged. In their unity, they can "flake off" from the language, demonstrating relative independence. It's hard to argue with this. There are English-language, Spanish-language and other literatures - literatures of different peoples and nations in one language.

On the other hand, the national mentality can be expressed in different languages. Finally, there are works by, for example, Nabokov, which are generally difficult to nationally identify, since they are devoid of any tangible national ideology. (I will allow myself a slight digression. The independence of material and language can have very interesting aspects. Any original, or even unique, national material is fraught with artistic potential. Moreover, different potential. Due to the fact that individual expressiveness is important for an image, original material always valuable in itself, i.e., in a certain sense, self-valuable.Therefore, as the basis of the future type of artistry, various national material is unequal: taking into account different artistic tasks, the material, so to speak, is more or less advantageous.The richness of national life, history , from natural speech, from my unrestricted, rich, infinitely obedient Russian style to me for the sake of a secondary sort of English, devoid in my case of all that equipment - a tricky mirror, a black-velvet backdrop, implied associations and traditions - with which a native conjurer with fluttering tails can so magically use to overcome in your own way the legacy of the fathers. ("About the book entitled 'Lolita'.")

Aitmatov made a Russian and - more broadly - European "graft" on the Kyrgyz mentality. In a creative sense - a unique and fruitful symbiosis. Approximately the same can be said about the Polish-language, Latin-language literature of Belarus. The dispute about how to produce a national identification of literature: by language or by mentality - seems to me scholastic, speculative. And the mentality, and imagery, and the artistic word - these are different sides of the "collective unconscious". Consequently, when the mentality organically lives in a non-native word, there is an imposition of one collective unconscious on another. A new organic whole emerges, a nationally ambivalent symbiosis. How, then, in this case, to resolve the issue of the nationality of the symbiosis? Look for where there is more of the collective unconscious - in language or in images?

Such a statement of the question provokes an inadequate approach to the problem. All this is reminiscent of the well-known unsolvable chicken and egg dilemma. After all, it is obvious that the language factor, being not the main one in the transfer of national identity, is decisive in the sense of attributing a work to one or another national literature (the concept of national literature in this case can be supplemented by the concept of English, German-language literature, etc.). Literature in one national language, expressing different mentalities (including cosmopolitan ones), has a greater organic integrity than literature of "one mentality" in different languages.

Literature, according to Nabokov, is "a phenomenon of language." This, of course, is not entirely true, but it is not an empty declaration either. Perhaps, language, like nothing else, draws into the cultural space, creates it, and in this sense is a conditional border of the national in literature. Because the literary work always exists in the national language, it can be argued that the national, in a certain sense, is an immanent property of a work of art.

Industrial society, the development of urban culture have marked a trend of leveling national

differences in culture in general and in literature in particular.

One of the directions in the development of literature is characterized by the fact that increasingly supranational, extranational, cosmopolitan works (but by no means more artistic) are being created. This direction has its own achievements, which cannot be ignored - it is enough to mention the name of the same Nabokov. The "nature" of the artistry of such literature, its material and means of expression are completely different.

In principle, the non-national trend in the development of literature has its own logic. Human spirituality cannot be limited by focusing only on certain national cultural patterns. However, spirituality cannot be expressed in general, outside of a specific literary language. And in this case, it is the language that becomes the criterion for attributing writers to one or another national literature.

ature. It is highly characteristic that when Nabokov was still Sirin and wrote in Russian, he was considered a Russian writer (although he did not join the Russian spiritual tradition). When he left for the USA and began to write in English, he became an American writer (although the American spiritual and literary traditions were alien to him).

As you can see, literature can be national, international, and non-national. Of course, I am far from thinking of giving a recipe schematization for all occasions. I just outlined the patterns that in different cultural and linguistic contexts can manifest themselves in different ways. The "degree of participation of the national in literature" depends on many factors. The formation of the Belarusian self-consciousness in the Polish language has its own characteristics. Perhaps the origins of some Belarusian literary and artistic traditions (heroes, themes, plots, etc.) originated in Polish literature. In this case, factors of both linguistic and cultural proximity are important. And if, say, a highly qualified Pushkinist must know the French language and French literature of the corresponding period, then it is quite possible that in order to fully perceive the work of some Belarusian writers, it is necessary to know Polish ones. The latter become a factor in Belarusian literature. Count the works Polish writers Belarusian literature seems to me an obvious stretch.

Finally, let us touch upon the question of the national as a factor in the artistic value of a work. In itself, the national is a property of imagery, but not its essence. That is why art can be both "more" and "less" national - this does not stop it from being art. At the same time, the question of the quality of literature is closely connected with the question of the extent of the national in it.

In conclusion, I would like to note the following. The national in literature in its entirety can be revealed only in the essence; the national is a property of imagery, but not its essence. That is why art can be both "more" and "less" national - this does not stop it from being art. At the same time, the question of the quality of literature is closely connected with the question of the extent of the national in it.

The "useless" denial of the national at the lower levels of consciousness can hardly benefit art, just like the hypertrophied national. To deny the national means to deny the individual expressiveness, singularity, uniqueness of the image. To absolutize the national means to deny the generalizing (ideological and mental) function of the image. Both of these are detrimental to the figurative nature of art.

The national by its nature tends to the pole of the psyche, it consists mainly of a system of psychological codes. Scientific knowledge is much less national than religious, ethical or aesthetic consciousness. Literature, therefore, can also be located in the national spectrum: between the cosmopolitan pole (as a rule, with the predominance of the rational over the sensory-psychological, but not necessarily) and the national conservative (respectively, vice versa).

Neither one nor the other in itself can be artistic merit. national picture peace can be a form of solving universal problems. At the same time, the national-individual can only more clearly outline the problems of universal humanity. Nationally colored aesthetic consciousness, "working" at the philosophical level (or tending to this level), as it were, removes its national limitations, because it is fully aware of itself as a form of the universal. The closer the national consciousness is to the ideological and psychological level, the more inexpressible, "unfolding the soul", the more "reserved" national.

Therefore, very often "very national" writers are difficult to translate. In Russian literature, Leskov, Shmelev, Remizov, Platonov, and others can be attributed to varying degrees.

The national relates to the universal as a phenomenon to essence. The national is good to the extent that it allows the universal to manifest itself. Any tilt towards phenomenology, exaltation of a phenomenon as such without relating it to the essence that it is called upon to express, turns the national into "information noise", obscuring the essence and preventing it from being perceived.

Such is the dialectic of the national and the universal. It is important not to fall into a vulgar extreme and not to raise the question of a well-considered "dosage" of the national. This is just as meaningless as the absolutization of the national or its denial. We are talking about the proportions of the rational and the sensual-emotional (and the national is one of the sides of the latter). The "point of the golden section", indicating proportionality, close to harmony, is always guessed by the artist, felt, but not calculated. In no way am I advocating the "rationalization" of the creative act.

Aesthetic perception is indivisible. It is impossible to appreciate the "beauty" of an artistic creation, abstracting from national specifics. The perception of "beauty" includes the moment of national self-actualization as a component. It is impossible to remove the national material and leave "something" created according to the laws of beauty. Artistic value becomes a property of the national material (this also manifests the integrity of the work).

It is not surprising that at every step there is a substitution of artistic criteria - national ones, or, in any case, their indistinguishability. There is no doubt: great artists become symbols of the nation - and this convincingly testifies to the inseparable connection between the national and the artistically significant. However, great works become national treasures not so much because they express the national mentality, but because this mentality is expressed in a highly artistic way. In itself, the presence (or absence) of a national element in a work does not yet testify to artistic merit and is not a direct criterion of artistry. The same can be said about ideological, moral, etc. criteria. I think it is impossible to discard these judgments and not fall into the hermeneutic extreme in assessing the work, once again forgetting about its fundamental feature - integrity.

I would like to emphasize that the national problems and poetics in the art of realism became especially actual. And this is no coincidence. First of all, this is due to the fact that, say, "classicists" or "romantics", due to the peculiarities of the method and poetics, did not have the opportunity to reveal in their works the contradictory complexity of the national characters of their characters, belonging to different strata of society, professing different ideals. .

In conclusion, I would like to note the following. The national in literature in its entirety can be revealed only in aesthetic experiences. The scientific analysis of the artistic integrity does not allow one to adequately perceive the "national potential" of the work.

Non-rational, psychological comprehension of the national code of a work is the most difficult problem of the sociology of literature. By itself, the actualization of the collective unconscious plays a huge role in the life of nations. True, it can serve both as a means of productive self-identification and "work" for the national superiority complex.

Ultimately, the question of the national in literature is the question of the connection between language, psychology, and consciousness; it is a question about the collective unconscious and its archetypes; it is a question about the strength of their influence, about the impossibility of a person to do without them, etc. These questions, perhaps, are among the most obscure in science.

Registering the collective unconscious, rationalizing it, translating it into the language of concepts is still an unresolved task. Meanwhile, one of the secrets of art lies in the effectiveness of influencing society. Yet this is not what makes art a form of human spiritual activity. The spiritual core in a person is forced to reckon with the collective unconscious, but the latter does not fatally limit the freedom of a person. spirituality in her highest form- rational, it rather opposes the elements of the unconscious, although it does not deny it.

Significant changes in the content and forms of Russian fiction that marked her transition to a new stage historical development took place as early as the 1840s. An atmosphere of heavy government reaction prevailed in the country. Literature and journalism were under unbearable censorship. But the profound shifts that were taking shape in the bowels of Russian society activated social thought and aroused new ideological interests. By the mid-1840s, a certain social upsurge reappeared in the country, and literary life was revived.

Much more clearly and sharply than in the 1830s, in literature and criticism, two camps came out against each other: the progressive and the conservative. In each of them, young writers and critics aspired to express new social ideas. Both sides put forward new views on the tasks and essence of artistic creation. New literary trends were clearly taking shape in Russian literature.

The progressive literary trend, in which a whole group of new, young talented writers gradually united, continued the traditions of Russian realism of 1820-1830. - traditions realistic creativity Pushkin, Lermontov and especially Gogol. Back in the 1830s, Gogol's work was highly appreciated by Belinsky, who already then saw in Gogol the "head" of Russian literature, a writer who took the place left by Pushkin.

In the early 1840s, Belinsky entered a new period of ideological development. He sought to influence the new progressive writers with his articles, demanding from their work "fidelity to reality", to the traditions of Gogol's realism. Soon Belinsky began to call them the "Gogol school" in Russian literature, and then also the "natural school".

The most important side of the work of the writers of this school was a sharply increased interest in the moral and everyday relations of the life of the urban, democratic strata of the population to the inner world of their representatives, the desire to show and protect their moral dignity. By the mid-1840s, in the work of the nipples of the new school, the image of the destitute people in his Everyday life became one of the important tasks of fiction. Writers portrayed the urban poor, doomed to an abnormal existence, and contrasted their deprivation with the brilliant and prosperous life of the privileged strata of society. Of the writers of the older generation, Gogol came closest to such an understanding of life in The Overcoat, published just three years before the natural school took shape. And Dostoevsky had every reason to say later about himself and other representatives of this school: "We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat."

Soon, progressive literature of the 1840s began to depict the serfs from the same positions. This topic was not new in Russian literature. But until the 1840s, there was essentially no realistic depiction of everyday life and the inner world of the peasantry.

The writers of the new school showed the life of the people in the irreconcilable social contradictions. At the same time, they revealed not only the suffering of the peasants under the rule of the landlords, but also those inner wealth, those inclinations of human development that lurked in people doomed by serfdom to downtroddenness and underdevelopment.

The leading writers of the 1840s followed Gogol in the very principles of depicting life. One of the most important aesthetic achievements of Gogol was the awareness of life in its social and everyday characteristics and the use of many portrait, everyday and speech details as a means of typing the characters. Thus, the progressive literature of the 1840s took a significant step forward in expanding and deepening the problematic of a realistic depiction of life. She possessed, at the same time, a significant aesthetic adherence to principles. Belinsky supported the realistic quests of young writers. So, in the 1840s, the struggle between sharply defined literary trends intensified again. In them, new currents of social thought that were just emerging at that time found their creative and theoretical expression.

Therefore, it is very important to find out the main features of the public views of the most significant writers and critics of this time. Belinsky's social and literary views are especially important.

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National originality of Russian literature. Literary movements in the 1840s

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"Nationality" as a literary category appears relatively late in literature. Aristotle deals with the specifics of a work of art mainly at the level of formal craftsmanship. Of the five requirements ("reproaches") that he presented to a work of art, only the requirement of compliance with moral standards is "external" for this work. The remaining requirements remain at the level of aesthetic "rules". For Aristotle, a work "harmful to morality" is unacceptable. The concept of harm is based here on the general humanistic principles of good and evil.

Until the 17th century in the theory of literature, normativity is preserved and even deepened in the interpretation of the specifics of works of art. The requirement of morality also remains unshakable. In The Poetic Art, Boileau writes:

He deserves severe judgment

Who shamefully betrays morality and honor,

Drawing us depravity tempting and sweet...

Only art history of the XVIII century. makes a number of decisive steps forward on the way to the definition of the concept of "nationality". A. G. Baumgarten in the unfinished treatise "Aesthetics" (1750s) not only includes the term "aesthetics" in scientific circulation, but also relies on the concept of "taste". II Winkelman in his "History of the Art of Antiquity" (1763) connects the success of Greek art with the democracy of public administration.

A decisive turn in the European science of art takes place in the 1950s and 1960s. 18th century in the works of J.-J. Rousseau, G. E. Lessing, I. G. Herder. Rousseau had a cycle of his "Discourses ..." "On the Sciences and Arts" (1750), "On the Origin and Foundations of Inequality between People" (1754), "On the Social Contract" (1762), "Emil, or On Education "(1762), "Confession" (1782). In contrast to the ancient and aristocratic norms of art, he puts forward the ideas of concrete historicism and national originality of works of literature and art. In Lessing's works "Laocoön, or On the Limits of Painting and Poetry" (1766), "Hamburg Dramaturgy" (1769), as well as in his articles, Winckelmann's theory of aesthetic "calmness" is criticized, and the idea of a German national theater is put forward.

The works of J.-J. Rousseau and I. G. Herder. These works in translation were known to the Russian reader. In the works of Rousseau, for the first time, he was questioned and then rejected the main principle of classicism - the theory of imitation and "decorated" imitation of models. There are signs of a new, sentimental-romantic trend in literature, opened by Rousseau's novel "The New Eloise".

One of the greatest literary critics and theorists of the new philosophical school in Europe was the German scholar J. G. Herder (1744–1803). Author of the works "On the latest German literature" (1768), "Critical forests, or Reflections on the science of beauty and art, according to latest research"(1769), "Study on the origin of language" (1772), "Another experience of the philosophy of history for the education of mankind" (1773), "On folk songs"(1779). Herder studied with Kant and at the same time argued with his aesthetics. Personally acquainted with F. Klopstock, G. E. Lessing, J. W. Goethe, F. Schiller, he was one of the founders of the theory of romanticism. He was widely known in Russia, influenced A.N. .

Together with romanticism, the concept of nationality came into Russian literature. Under the influence of the ideas of Rousseau, Herder develops his doctrine of historicism and nationality as the main features and sources of the literature of each nation. The philosophical and historical concepts of Herder, which were reflected in the development of new historiography, also date back to Rousseau, are based on the ideas of humanism and nationality: in contrast to the abstract rationalism of norms, the task of depicting a living personality from the people was put forward.

Thus, Rousseau was the first to orient social thought towards the idea of the "naturalness" of the life of ancient generations, in contrast to the forms of feudal "civilization" contemporary to him. Kant introduced the principle of critical analysis into science as an obligatory principle, Herder laid the foundation for the study folk art within the national culture. This is how the philosophical genealogy of the theory of folk literature in its origins looks like.

Interest in the teachings of Rousseau came to Herder from his mentor Kant, who was an object of worship for Herder. Probably, the origins of Herder's worldview must be sought in the complex of ideas of the time, but Rousseau had the strongest influence on him.

Thus, both in the second and subsequent generations of the German historical school, the influence of Rousseau is revealed through Lessing, Kant, Herder, Schiller, establishing a consistent chain of mutual influences and interconnections, culminating in the formation of a folk historical literary theory. This way of development of social thought, however, is not the result of a quantitative increase in similar ideas, but ultimately serves as an indicator scientific progress at all.

Herder was a scientist of an encyclopedic nature. In addition to Rousseau and Kant, he knew Voltaire, the encyclopedists, and especially Montesquieu, the English philosophers Leibniz and Spinoza. German romanticism, the poetry of Goethe and Schiller, the philosophy of Schelling and Hegel go back to the philosophical direction of Herder. Herder derives a law on the variability of human concepts in time in connection with the peculiarities of everyday life, culture, etc. With the ages of man, he correlates the "ages" of peoples. Human traits (including humanity) develop, according to Herder, within the framework of national ones. He defines the national level as the main one among the three conditions of human development: "human perfection is national, temporary, individual" (this position was put forward long before Taine's well-known formula about "race", "environment" and "moment" as determining factors in the development of society). "People create nothing but what time, climate, needs, peace, fate give rise to," says Herder. History is not an abstract process of self-improvement of mankind and not an "eternal revolution", but a progress that depends on quite definite conditions and takes place within national-temporal and individual limits. A person is not free in personal happiness, he depends on the conditions surrounding him, i.e. from Wednesday. That is why Herder was the first to come out with a denial of "the right of the ancients to dominate modern literature", i.e. against false classicism ("pseudoclassicism"). He called for the study of the national movement, which would see poetry not as a repetition of foreign forms, but as an expression of national life. Herder argued that modern history, mythology, religion, language are completely different from nature, history, mythology, religion. Ancient Greece and Rome. "There is no glory" to be "a second Horatius" or a "second Lucretius," he says. Herder's views on the history of literature are higher than the views of Lessing and Winckelmann, who exalted the ancient ideals of literature. The history of poetry, art, science, education, morals is the history of peoples, Herder believes.

But Herder does not at all want to share with Rousseau his idealization of the primitive state of mankind. Despite his deep respect for Rousseau, he calls his calls for a return to the past, to antiquity, "crazy". Herder accepts the idea of national education put forward by the philosopher Montesquieu.

Long before Benfey, Herder already outlined a method of comparative study historical events, including literary at the international level. At the same time, the history of all peoples is considered within the framework of "one human brotherhood."

Herder adhered to broad views on the development of literature, on the problems of the specifics of folk poetry. In his literary views, he relied on Rousseau's teaching on the naturalness of human aspirations, on Rousseau's deep interest in the condition of the masses. This largely explains the great attention paid by Herder to folk poetry. The works of Herder served as an impetus for the beginning of the study of folk poetry, and not only in Germany. After Herder, interest in the study of folk monuments became widespread in Europe. This interest was associated with the practical activities of scientists in collecting ancient monuments and folk art. Herder speaks with chagrin about the absence of national literature and national character in fragmented Germany, appeals to a sense of national dignity and patriotism. The merit of Herder is also an appeal to "mythology", to the study of folk traditions. Herder calls to "know peoples" not superficially, "outside", like "pragmatic historians", but "from within, through their own soul, from their feelings, speech and deeds." This was a turn in the study of folk antiquity and poetry, and at the same time in the development of poetry itself. Important here was the appeal to ancient folk poetry on the most early stages its development, to the people's life and the problem of the people's character.

Herder studies the literature of the little-studied European nations- Estonians, Lithuanians, Wends, Slavs (Poles, Russians), Frisians, Prussians. Herder gives impetus to the scientific study of the national characteristics of the poetry of the Slavic tribes. Religion, philosophy and history in Herder are categories derived from folk poetry. According to Herder, every people, every nation had its own "way of thinking", its own "mythical environment", recorded in "their monuments" in their own "poetic language". Especially close to Herder is the idea of syncretism. primitive forms folk culture in which poetry was an integral element.

Herder puts forward A New Look on the nature of biblical poetry. He considered the Bible as a collection of "national songs", as a monument of "living folk poetry". Herder considers Homer to be the great "people's poet". In his opinion, the poetry of the people reflects the character of the people: "A warlike people sings of feats, a gentle one - love." He attached great importance to both the "major" and minor features of folk life, presented in his own language, information about the concepts and customs of the nation, about its science, games and dance, music and mythology. Herder adds at the same time, using the method of classification and the terminology of the "exact" (natural) sciences: "How natural history describes plants and animals, so the peoples themselves describe themselves here.

Herder's main idea is about the fruitfulness of the development of literature in national forms and frameworks. The national-historical principle here appears to him as the main and only one. The idea of historical national development is extended by Herder not only to literature, but also to language, history, and religion. He laid the foundation for a new science of language, with his philosophy that the origin of language is a factor that determines the content and form of folk poetry. Herder owns the idea that language is "worked out" by the "thinking" of man. The primary goal of language and its function, according to Herder, is "sensation", and often an involuntary feeling caused by the direct influence of external forces of nature. However, the last goal of linguistics is the "interpretation" of the "human soul". Herder understood that a truly scientific study of language and literature requires data from other sciences, including philosophy, history, and philology. The main method is comparative study. Herder's works anticipate the subsequent phenomena of Western European philological science- the works of Wilhelm Humboldt, the Brothers Grimm with their fanatical love for folk antiquity and poetry.

A vivid exponent of the idea of nationality in art in the second half of the XIX century. was the French scientist Hippolyte Taine (1828-1893). Of the three sources of art considered by him in his work "Philosophy of Art" (1869) - race, environment (geographical, climatic conditions), moment (historical conditions), - the factor of "race" (national characteristics) is the leading one.

The main condition for the emergence national art Ten considered the environment, and the main sign of the environment is the "nationality" ("tribe") with its innate abilities. Already the tastes of the early epochs of the development of peoples he considered natural and universal. Thus, the reason for the flourishing of Italian Renaissance painting, according to Taine, was the "amazing" artistic abilities of all sections of the people, and the French national type reflects "the need for distinct and logically interconnected ideas", "flexibility and quickness of mind".

Fruitful in principle, Taine's formulation of the question of "national character" and, in general, of "characteristic" in art is unnecessarily sharpened by the thesis about the immutability, "inviolability" of the national character. Therefore, the question of "the plebeian of our century" or "noble classical era"is solved by Taine in the abstract plane, included in the anthropological system, oversaturated with natural scientific terminology. The flourishing of national art is placed by Taine at the center of historical periods, between violent upheavals that characterize the formation of a nation, and periods of its decline. A century, a people, a school - such is the way of emergence and the development of art, according to Taine. At the same time, the school can be national (Italian, Greek, French, Flemish) or determined by the name of a brilliant artist (Rubens, Rembrandt). The national character is created by the "national genius" and expresses the characteristics of the race (Chinese, Aryans, Semites), in which, by the structure of the language and the type of myths, one can foresee the future form of religion, philosophy, society and art. Sometimes there are types of characters that express features common to almost all nationalities, all "groups of mankind". Such are the heroes of the works of Shakespeare and Homer , Don Quixote and Robinson Crusoe.These works go beyond the usual limits, "live without end", are eternal. "Unshakable national basis", which creates "national geniuses", goes back in Taine to random signs of a subjective plan. For example, exaltation and love for thrill. Art, according to Taine, is generated by the people, the mass as a collection of individuals with a certain "state of mind", in which "images" are not "distorted by ideas." Talent, upbringing, training, labor and "chance" can lead an artist to create a type of national character. The national character (like, for example, Robinson or Don Quixote) carries the universal human features of the "eternal" type: Robinson shows "a man torn out of civilized society", Don Quixote - "an idealist of the highest order." In a great work of literature, the features of a historical period, the fundamental features of the "tribe", the features of man "in general" and "those basic psychological forces that are the ultimate causes of human effort" are reproduced. Taine argues that the peculiarities of the psychology of peoples make it possible to transfer types of arts from one nation to another (for example, italian art To France).

Literature is the art of the word, so features national language, on which it is written, are a direct expression of its national identity. The lexical richness of the national language affects the nature of the author's speech and the speech characteristics of the characters, the syntax of the national language determines the intonational moves of prose and verse, phonetically

This structure creates the uniqueness of the sound of the work.

Since there are now more than two and a half thousand languages in the world, it can be assumed that there is the same number of national literatures. However, the latter is much less.

Despite differences in language, some peoples that have not yet formed into a nation often have a common literary tradition, primarily a single folk epic. From this point of view, the example of the peoples is very indicative. North Caucasus and Abkhazia, which are represented by more than fifty languages, but have a common epic cycle - "Narts". epic heroes The Ramayanas are the same for the peoples of India who speak different languages, and even for many peoples of Southeast Asia. Such a commonality arises because, although individual peoples live in remote places, often closed, cut off from the outside world, which is why differences in language arise, their living conditions are nonetheless close to each other. They have to overcome the same difficulties in dealing with nature, they have the same level of economic and social development. Many similarities often occur in their historical destinies. Therefore, these nationalities are united by a commonality of ideas about life and the dignity of a person, and hence, in literature, the imagination is carried away by the images of the same epic heroes.

Writers can also use the same language, and their work represents different national literatures. Arabic, for example, is written by Egyptian, Syrian, and Algerian writers. French is used not only by French, but also by some Belgian and Canadian writers. Both the British and the Americans write in English, but the works they create bear a vivid imprint various features national life. Many African writers, using the language of the former colonialists, create works that are completely original in their national essence.

It is also characteristic that, with a good translation into another language, fiction may well retain the stamp of national identity. “It would be ideal if every work of every nationality included in the Union was translated into the languages of all other nationalities of the Union,” M. Gorky dreamed. - In this case

we would more quickly learn to understand each other's national-cultural properties and characteristics, and this understanding, of course, would greatly speed up the process of creating ... a single socialist culture. (49, 365-366). Consequently, although the language of literature is the most important indicator of its national identity, it does not exhaust its national identity.

A very large role in the formation of the national identity of artistic creativity is played by the commonality of the territory, because in the early stages of the development of society, certain natural conditions often give rise general tasks in the struggle of man with nature, the commonality of labor processes and skills, and hence the customs, way of life, world outlook. Therefore, for example, in the mythology that developed during the tribal system among the ancient Chinese, the hero is Gong, who managed to stop the flood of the river (a frequent occurrence in China) and saved the people from the flood, taking out a piece of "living land", and among the ancient Greeks - Prometheus, who extracted from sky fire. In addition, impressions from the surrounding nature affect the properties of the narrative, the features of metaphors, comparisons and other artistic means. The northern peoples rejoice in the warmth, the sun, so they most often compare beauty with a clear sun, and southern peoples prefer comparison With moon, because the night brings coolness, saving from the heat of the sun. In Russian songs and fairy tales, a woman's gait is compared with the smooth gait of a swan, and in India - with "the wondrous gait of royal elephants."

Territorial community often leads to common paths of economic development, creates a common historical life of the people. This affects the themes of literature, gives rise to differences in artistic images. Thus, the Armenian epic "David of Sasun" tells about the life of gardeners and farmers, about the construction of irrigation canals; the Kyrgyz "Manas" captured the nomadic life of pastoralists, the search for new pastures, life in the saddle; in the epic of the German people, the Nibelungenlied, the search for ore, the work of blacksmiths, etc. are depicted.

As a nation is formed from the nationality and the community of the spiritual make-up of the people crystallizes, the national originality of literature is already manifested not only in labor and everyday customs and ideas, features of the perception of nature, but also in

the perils of social life. The development of class society, the transition from one socio-economic formation to another: from slave-owning to feudal and from feudal to bourgeois, proceeds among different peoples at different times, under different conditions. Differently develops external and internal political activity the national state, which has an impact on the organization and strengthening of property and legal relations, on the emergence of certain moral norms, and hence on the formation of ideological (including religious) ideas and traditions. All this leads to the emergence of a national characteristic of the life of society. From childhood, people are brought up under the influence of a complex system of relationships and ideas of the national society, and this leaves an imprint on their behavior. This is how the characters of people of different nations are historically formed - national characters.

Literature has a place of honor in revealing the peculiarities of the national character. The versatility of this phenomenon, its connection with the main subject of artistic knowledge - man in his social characteristics give the artist advantages over the scientist. “The images of fiction,” writes I. Kon, “embrace national-typical features deeper and more multifaceted than scientific formulas. Fiction shows both the diversity of national types, and their concrete class nature, and their historical development. (63, 228).

It is often believed that the national character is determined by some one, dominant psychological trait, inherent in only one nation, exclusively only to it. But common features can manifest itself in representatives of different nations. The originality of the national character lies in a certain correlation of these features and in the tendencies of their development. Literary characters perfectly show how one and the same property of character, in unity with others, takes on different national incarnations. Thus, for example, Balzac depicts the stinginess of Gobsek, but in its psychological manifestation it is in no way similar to the stinginess of Gogol's Plyushkin. Both characters, striving for the accumulation of wealth, have ceased to distinguish what is necessary from what is unnecessary in it, and in both it senselessly rots under vigilant supervision.

miser's rum. However, these common features are shaped in different ways - by bourgeois society in one and by feudal-serf society in another. Critical realism plays the most important role in reflecting national character traits in literature. Critical realists, to a much greater extent than the romantics, and even more so the classicists, had the opportunity to reveal in their works all the contradictory complexity of the national characters of their characters, who belonged to different strata of society. An artist who has mastered the art of the finest realistic detail conveys both the social determinism of a certain character trait or manifestation of feeling, and his national identity.

With the rise of critical realism in literature, important quality national identity. Since a realistic work bears the imprint of the writer's personality, his individuality, and the writer himself acts as the bearer of a national character, national originality becomes an organic property of creativity itself. The characters of people in their national characteristics not only act as an object artistic knowledge, but also portrayed from the point of view of the writer, who also carries the spirit of his people, his nation. Pushkin is the first profound exponent of the national Russian character in literature. Belinsky repeatedly wrote about this, Gogol expressed it especially aptly: “Pushkin is an extraordinary phenomenon and, perhaps, the only manifestation of the Russian spirit: this is a Russian person in his development, in which he, perhaps, will appear in two hundred years. In it, Russian nature, the Russian soul, the Russian language, the Russian character are reflected in the same purity, in such purified beauty, in which the landscape is reflected on the convex surface of optical glass. (46, 33).

The imprint of national identity is borne not only by those works in which the characters and events of national reality or history are directly depicted (Eugene Onegin and Poltava by Pushkin, War and Peace or Resurrection by L. Tolstoy), but also those , which reflect the life of other peoples (for example, "Lucerne" or "Hadji Murat"), but comprehend and evaluate its contradictions from the point of view of a person shaped by Russian reality.

At the same time, national identity is not limited

only depicting individual characters, it covers creative process so deeply that it manifests itself in the plots and themes of the works. Thus, in Russian literature, the theme of the “superfluous person” - a nobleman, a person of progressive views, who is in conflict with the surrounding reality, but unable to realize his dissatisfaction with the existing order, has become widespread. For French literature, the conflict of a man who is making his way in the bourgeois world turned out to be typical. As a result, certain genres were predominantly developed in national literature (the novel of education, for example, in German and English literature).

Thus, the literature of critical realism, which developed in Europe in the 19th century, contains the most complete, deepest expression of national identity.

The national character plays an important role in determining the national identity of literature, however, in the analysis it is necessary to take into account that this is not only a psychological, but also a socio-historical category, because the formation of character is determined by the socio-historical conditions prevailing in society. Therefore, the national character cannot be regarded as given once and for all. Development historical life can change the national character.

Some writers and critics, superficially approaching the problem of national identity, idealize patriarchal life with its stability and even inertia. They do not try to understand the national identity in the life of those sections of society that have joined the achievements of international culture. As a result, a falsely meaningful love for their nation leads them to misunderstanding the progressive phenomena of national life. Exceptional interest only in what distinguishes one nation from others, faith in the chosenness of one's nation, in the advantage of its primordial customs, rituals and everyday habits, leads not only to conservatism, but also to nationalism. Then the national feeling of the people is used by the exploiting classes in their own interests. Therefore, the concept of national identity must be considered in relation to the concept of nationality.

Literature is the art of the word, therefore, the features of the national language in which it is written are a direct expression of its national identity. The lexical richness of the national language affects the nature of the author's speech and the speech characteristics of the characters, the syntax of the national language determines the intonational moves of prose and verse, phonetically

This structure creates the uniqueness of the sound of the work.

Since there are now more than two and a half thousand languages in the world, it can be assumed that there is the same number of national literatures. However, the latter is much less.

Despite differences in language, some peoples that have not yet formed into a nation often have a common literary tradition, primarily a single folk epic. From this point of view, the example of the peoples of the North Caucasus and Abkhazia, which are represented by more than fifty languages, but have a common epic cycle - "Narts", is very indicative. The epic heroes of the Ramayana are the same for the peoples of India, who speak different languages, and even for many peoples of Southeast Asia. Such a commonality arises because, although individual peoples live in remote places, often closed, cut off from the outside world, which is why differences in language arise, their living conditions are nonetheless close to each other. They have to overcome the same difficulties in dealing with nature, they have the same level of economic and social development. Many similarities often occur in their historical destinies. Therefore, these nationalities are united by a commonality of ideas about life and the dignity of a person, and hence, in literature, the imagination is carried away by the images of the same epic heroes.

Writers can also use the same language, and their work represents different national literatures. Arabic, for example, is written by Egyptian, Syrian, and Algerian writers. French is used not only by French, but also by some Belgian and Canadian writers. Both the English and the Americans write in English, but the works they create bear a vivid imprint of various features of national life. Many African writers, using the language of the former colonialists, create works that are completely original in their national essence.

A very important role in the formation of the national identity of artistic creativity is played by the commonality of the territory, because in the early stages of the development of society, certain natural conditions often give rise to common tasks in the struggle of man with nature, the commonality of labor processes and skills, and hence customs, way of life, world outlook. Therefore, for example, in the mythology that developed during the tribal system among the ancient Chinese, the hero is Gong, who managed to stop the flood of the river (a frequent occurrence in China) and saved the people from the flood, taking out a piece of "living land", and among the ancient Greeks - Prometheus, who mined sky fire. In addition, impressions from the surrounding nature affect the properties of the narrative, the features of metaphors, comparisons and other artistic means. The northern peoples rejoice in the warmth, the sun, so they most often compare the beauty with the clear sun, and the southern peoples prefer the comparison With moon, because the night brings coolness, saving from the heat of the sun. In Russian songs and fairy tales, a woman's gait is compared with the smooth gait of a swan, and in India - with "the wondrous gait of royal elephants."

the perils of social life. The development of class society, the transition from one socio-economic formation to another: from slave-owning to feudal and from feudal to bourgeois, proceeds among different peoples at different times, under different conditions. The external and internal political activity of the nation state develops differently, which has an impact on the organization and strengthening of property and legal relations, on the emergence of certain moral norms, and hence on the formation of ideological (including religious) ideas and traditions. All this leads to the emergence of a national characteristic of the life of society. From childhood, people are brought up under the influence of a complex system of relationships and ideas of the national society, and this leaves an imprint on their behavior. This is how the characters of people of different nations are historically formed - national characters.

It is often believed that the national character is determined by some one, dominant psychological trait inherent in only one nation, exclusively only to it. But common features can appear among representatives of different nations. The originality of the national character lies in a certain correlation of these features and in the tendencies of their development. Literary characters perfectly show how one and the same property of character, in unity with others, takes on various national incarnations. Thus, for example, Balzac depicts the stinginess of Gobsek, but in its psychological manifestation it is in no way similar to the stinginess of Gogol's Plyushkin. Both characters, striving for the accumulation of wealth, have ceased to distinguish what is necessary from what is unnecessary in it, and in both it senselessly rots under vigilant supervision.

With the formation of critical realism in literature, an important quality of national identity is revealed. Since a realistic work bears the imprint of the writer's personality, his individuality, and the writer himself acts as the bearer of a national character, national originality becomes an organic property of creativity itself. The characters of people in their national characteristics not only act as an object of artistic knowledge, but are also depicted from the point of view of the writer, who also carries the spirit of his people, his nation. Pushkin is the first profound exponent of the national Russian character in literature. Belinsky repeatedly wrote about this, Gogol expressed it especially aptly: “Pushkin is an extraordinary phenomenon and, perhaps, the only manifestation of the Russian spirit: this is a Russian person in his development, in which he, perhaps, will appear in two hundred years. In it, Russian nature, the Russian soul, the Russian language, the Russian character are reflected in the same purity, in such purified beauty, in which the landscape is reflected on the convex surface of optical glass. (46, 33).

At the same time, national identity is not limited

only by depicting individual characters, it covers the creative process so deeply that it manifests itself in the plots and themes of the works. Thus, in Russian literature, the theme of the “superfluous person” - a nobleman, a person of progressive views, who is in conflict with the surrounding reality, but unable to realize his dissatisfaction with the existing order, has become widespread. For French literature, the conflict of a man who is making his way in the bourgeois world turned out to be typical. As a result, certain genres were predominantly developed in national literature (the novel of education, for example, in German and English literature).

Thus, the literature of critical realism, which developed in Europe in the 19th century, contains the most complete, deepest expression of national identity.

National character plays an important role in determining the national identity of literature, however, in the analysis it is necessary to take into account that this is not only a psychological, but also a socio-historical category, because the formation of character is determined by the socio-historical conditions prevailing in society. Therefore, the national character cannot be regarded as given once and for all. The development of historical life can change the national character.

Some writers and critics, superficially approaching the problem of national identity, idealize the patriarchal way of life with its stability and even inertia. They do not try to understand the national identity in the life of those sections of society that have joined the achievements of international culture. As a result, a falsely meaningful love for their nation leads them to misunderstanding the progressive phenomena of national life. Exceptional interest only in what distinguishes one nation from others, faith in the chosenness of one's nation, in the advantage of its primordial customs, rituals and everyday habits, leads not only to conservatism, but also to nationalism. Then the national feeling of the people is used by the exploiting classes in their own interests. Therefore, the concept of national identity must be considered in relation to the concept of nationality.

NATIONALITY OF LITERATURE

The concepts of nationality and nationality of artistic creativity did not differ for a long time. When national literatures began to take shape, the German scientist I. Herder came up with a theory of national identity based on the study of folk traditions and oral folk art. In 1778-1779. he published collections of folk poetry called "Voices of the peoples in songs." According to Herder, folk poetry was "the flower of the unity of the people, their language and their antiquity, their pursuits and judgments, their passions and unfulfilled desires" (62, 213). Thus, the German thinker found the expression folk spirit, the national “substance”, primarily in the psychological makeup of the working people, and he had to endure a lot of ridicule for turning to the poetry of the “plebeians”.

Interest in folk art in connection with the problem of national identity was both natural and progressive for the 18th century. In the feudal era, national identity was most clearly manifested in folklore and in works that were influenced by this creativity (The Tale of Igor's Campaign in Russia, The Song of Roland in France, etc.). The ruling class, trying to oppose itself to the working masses, to emphasize the exclusivity of his position, he was drawn to a cosmopolitan culture, often even using a language foreign to the people. At the end of the XVIII and beginning of the XIX century. progressive figures - enlighteners and romantics - turned to folk poetry.

This was especially pronounced in Russia. For the noble revolutionaries-Decembrists, who were far from the popular, working masses in their way of life, acquaintance with folk art became one of the ways of knowing their people, familiarizing them with their interests. Sometimes in their works they managed to penetrate the spirit of folk art. So, Ryleev created the thought "Death of Yermak", accepted by the masses as a folk song.

In Russia, the poetry of the Decembrists and writers close to them in spirit, led by Pushkin, expressed with great force the interests of the progressive, revolutionary movement. Their poetry was national in character and popular and democratic in its meaning. But they themselves and the critics of subsequent decades did not yet see the difference between these concepts. Yes, Belinsky

he constantly called Pushkin and Gogol "folk poets", meaning by this the high national identity of their work, and only towards the end of his career did he gradually come to understand the people themselves.

In the 30s of the XIX century. the ruling circles of autocratic Russia created the nationalist theory of the "official nationality". By “people” they understood devotion to autocracy and Orthodoxy; Literature was required to depict the primordially Russian life, permeated with religious prejudices, historical paintings glorifying the love of a Russian person for the Tsar. Pushkin, Gogol, Belinsky did a lot to show the limitations of the authors (Zagoskin, Kukolnik and some others) who spoke in line with the nationalistically understood "people".

A decisive turning point in the understanding of nationality in literature was made by Dobrolyubov's article "On the Degree of Participation of Nationality in the Development of Russian Literature" (1858). The critic showed that nationality is determined not by the range of topics of interest to the writer, but by the expression in literature of the "point of view" of the working people, the masses of the people, who form the basis of national life. Moreover, assessing the nationality of the writer's work, the critic demanded that the interests of the oppressed masses be elevated to the height of the interests of general civil, national development. Therefore, he reproached even Koltsov for being narrow-minded (55, 263). The expression of the progressive ideas of its time, which in one way or another meet the interests of the masses, is a condition for achieving genuine nationality in literature.

Revolutionary-democratic writers, following Dobrolyubov, consciously strove for nationality in their artistic work, but nationality can also be unconscious. So, Dobrolyubov, for example, wrote about Gogol: “We see that Gogol, although in your best creations came very close to popular point vision, but approached unconsciously, simply by artistic groping” (55, 271; italics ours. - S. K.). At the same time, the nationality of works can be assessed only historically, by raising the question of what works, how and to what extent this or that writer could express the interests of the masses in his era of national development.

The most important are the works

Folk in their meaning can also be such works in which the best representatives of the ruling class are depicted, dissatisfied with the meaninglessness of the existence of the environment to which they belong by birth and upbringing, looking for ways activity and other forms of human relations. These are "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin, best novels Turgenev and L. Tolstoy, “Foma Gordeev” and “Egor Bulychev” by Gorky, etc. V. I. Lenin gave great importance creativity of L. Tolstoy, primarily because he found

in his works, an expression of popular protest in the era of "preparation for a revolution in one of the countries crushed by the feudal lords ..." (14, 19).

And lyrical works that reproduce the inner world, reflecting the variety of emotional responses of the poet to surrounding reality, can also be popular in their meaning, if they differ in the depth and truthfulness of their ideological orientation. Such are the sonnets of Petrarch and Shakespeare, the lyrics of Byron and Shelley, Pushkin and Lermontov, Heine, Blok, Yesenin, Mayakovsky. They enrich the moral, emotional and aesthetic experience of the nation and of all mankind.

To create works of national importance, the most important role is played by the progressive outlook of the writer, his ideals. But folk works in their meaning can also be created by writers with a contradictory worldview. Then the measure of their nationality is determined by the depth of the critical problems of their work. This can be judged by the work of A. Ostrovsky or Dickens. The spontaneous-democratic worldview gave them the opportunity to create the brightest pictures that expose the world of profit. But writers who are progressive only in the critical side of their work are usually unstable in their positions. Along with sharp revealing images, they have implausible idyllic pictures of patriarchal life. The researcher must be able to uncover such contradictions of a writer whose national significance is recognized by the history of literature. It is in this approach to understanding artistic creativity that the methodological meaning of Lenin’s assessment of L. Tolstoy, whose ideals reflected the “immaturity of dreaminess” of the patriarchal peasantry, but at the same time led the writer to a realistic tearing of “all and sundry masks” (13, 212, 209).

According to its significance, popular literature arms the advanced forces of the nation, its progressive social movements, which serve to emancipate the working masses and establish new forms of social life. It raises the civic activity of the social rank and file, freeing the working people from authoritarian ideas, from their dependence on those in power. The words of V. I. Lenin, retold by K. Zetkin, correspond to the modern understanding of nationality: “Art belongs

people. It must have its deepest roots in the very depths of the broad working masses. It must be understood by these masses and loved by them. It must unite the feeling, thought and will of these masses, raise them. (16, 657).

To fulfill this function, art must be accessible to the people. Dobrolyubov saw one of the main reasons for the absence of nationality in the long centuries of the development of Russian literature in the fact that literature remained far from the masses due to the illiteracy of the latter. The critic was extremely keenly worried about the narrowness of Russian readership: “... the greatness of it (literature. - S.K.) meaning is weakened in this case only by the smallness of the circle in which it acts. This is the last such circumstance, which is impossible to remember without contrition and which chills us every time we are carried away by dreams of the great significance of literature and its beneficial influence on humanity” (55, 226-226).

Modern writers from Latin America and many countries of Asia and Africa write about the same tragic separation of the bulk of the people from the national culture. Such a barrier can only be overcome by social transformations of society. An example is the transformation in our country after the Great October War. socialist revolution when the achievements of culture ceased to be the property of the "top ten thousand".

The nationality of art is determined not only by the merits of its content, but also by the perfection of its form. People's Writer achieves capacity and expressiveness of each word, artistic detail, plot twist. Sometimes it is given to him with great difficulty. Reading in L. Tolstoy's "Resurrection" a simple, at first glance, phrase: "Katyusha, beaming with a smile and eyes as black as wet currants, flew towards him," the reader imagines a charming girl in young defenselessness. But he does not even guess how long the artist worked on these words until he found the only necessary comparison (the initial comparison of Katyusha's eyes with cherries destroyed the artistic effect).

Simplicity and accessibility art form in this sense, they are determined by the creative exactingness of the writer, his aesthetic sense, the measure of his talent. In order to convey to the reader the ideological richness of their

works, the artist must give them high perfection artistic form and style.

Genuine folk literature most fully expresses national interests, therefore it also has a pronounced national identity. It is the work of such artists as Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, L. Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky, Sholokhov, L. Leonov, Tvardovsky that determines our idea of the nationality of art and its national identity.

However, the process of development never occurs in isolation in one national culture. It is very important to understand the interaction not only between the folk and national meanings of literature, but also their connection with its universal meaning. It follows from the role that the nation, which has created its own literature, plays in the development of mankind. For this, it is necessary that the writer, in the national identity of the processes taking place in the life of his people, reveal the features of the progressive development of all mankind.

Thus, thanks to their national identity, Homer's poems reflected with special perfection, according to K. Marx, that early stage in the development of all peoples, which can be called the childhood of "human society" 1 . It had a similar global significance for the Renaissance Italian poetry(Dante, Petrarch, etc.), as well as English dramaturgy (Shakespeare); for the era of absolutism - the dramaturgy of French classicism; for the era of bourgeois revolutions - the romantic poetry of Byron; for the era of the development of bourgeois society - the realistic literature of France (Balzac, Flaubert), England (Dickens), Russia (Pushkin, Gogol, L. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov).

The fusion of the popular, the national, and the universal is manifested most clearly in the literature of socialist realism. The processes of formation of the human personality in the struggle to build a new, classless society are important for all mankind. Writers of socialist realism are armed scientific understanding objective laws of historical development,

1 See: Marx K., Engels F. Op. 2nd ed. T. 12. S. 737.

they consciously defend the interests of the people. The words about Soviet culture, sounded in the Political Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the XXVII Party Congress: "Incorporating the richness of national forms and colors, it becomes a unique phenomenon in world culture" (17, 53).

The best works of fiction, in which artists capture the present of the people in its connection with the past, and thereby reflect the general movement from the present to the future, retain enduring national, and often world-historical significance. They live for centuries in the consciousness of society, being monuments to the natural stages of development of both individual peoples and all mankind. They are rethought by the public of different peoples at new stages of their historical development in different aspects its content, each time acquiring a new ideological and aesthetic relevance.

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