Gogol's language, the principles of his style, his satirical manner had an undeniable influence on the development of the Russian literary and artistic language from the mid-30s. Thanks to the genius of Gogol, the style of colloquial everyday speech was freed from "conditional constraints and literary stamps", emphasizes Vinogradov.

Gogol's unusual, surprisingly natural language, his humor acted in an intoxicating way, Vinogradov notes. An absolutely new language appeared in Rus', distinguished by its simplicity and accuracy, strength and closeness to nature; turns of speech invented by Gogol quickly became commonplace, Vinogradov continues. great writer enriched the Russian language with new phraseological phrases and words that originated from the names of Gogol's heroes.

Vinogradov argues that Gogol saw his main mission in "the convergence of language fiction with lively and apt colloquial speech of the people".

One of the characteristic features of Gogol's style was Gogol's ability to skillfully mix Russian and Ukrainian speech, High style and jargon, clerical, landlord, hunting, lackey, gambling, philistine, the language of kitchen workers and artisans, interspersing archaisms and neologisms into speech, like actors, as well as in the author's speech.

Vinogradov notes that the genre of the most early prose Gogol has the character of the style of the Karamzin school and is distinguished by a high, serious, pathetic narrative style. Gogol, understanding the value Ukrainian folklore, really wanted to become a "truly folk writer" and tried to involve a variety of oral folk speech in the Russian literary and artistic narrative system.

The writer connected the reliability of the reality he conveyed with the degree of mastery of the class, estate, professional style of the language and dialect of the latter. As a result, the language of Gogol's narration acquires several stylistic and linguistic planes and becomes very heterogeneous. gogol literature speech

Russian reality is transmitted through the appropriate language environment. At the same time, all the existing semantic and expressive shades of the official business language are revealed, which, with an ironic description of the discrepancy between the conditional semantics of the public office language and the actual essence of phenomena, come out quite sharply.

Gogol's vernacular style is intertwined with clerical and business style. V. Vinogradov finds that Gogol sought to introduce vernacular into the literary language different layers society (small and middle nobility, urban intelligentsia and officials) and by mixing them with the literary and bookish language to find a new Russian literary language.

As a business state language in the works of Gogol, Vinogradov points to the interweaving of clerical and colloquial bureaucratic speech. In "Notes of a Madman" and in "The Nose" Gogol uses the clerical-business style and colloquial-bureaucratic speech much more than other styles of colloquial speech.

The official business language binds together the diverse dialects and styles of Gogol, who at the same time tries to expose and remove all unnecessary hypocritical and false forms of expression. Sometimes Gogol, in order to show the conventionality of a concept, resorted to an ironic description of the content that society puts into a particular word. For example: "In a word, they were what is called happy"; "There was nothing else in this secluded or, as we say, beautiful square."

Gogol believed that the literary and bookish language of the upper classes was painfully affected by borrowings from foreign, "foreign" languages, it is impossible to find foreign words that could describe Russian life with the same accuracy as Russian words; as a result of which some foreign words were used in a distorted sense, some were assigned a different meaning, while some native Russian words irrevocably disappeared from use.

Vinogradov points out that Gogol, closely linking the secular narrative language with the Europeanized Russian-French salon language, not only denied and parodied it, but also openly opposed his style of narration to the language norms that corresponded to the salon-ladies' language. In addition, Gogol also struggled with the mixed half-French, half-common Russian language of romanticism. Gogol contrasts the romantic style with a realistic style that reflects reality more fully and believably. According to Vinogradov, Gogol shows the confrontation between the style of romantic language and everyday life, which can only be described by naturalistic language. "A mixture of solemnly - bookish with colloquial, with vernacular is formed. The syntactic forms of the former romantic style are preserved, but the phraseology and the structure of symbols, comparisons sharply deviate from romantic semantics." The romantic style of narration does not completely and completely disappear from Gogol's language, it is mixed with a new semantic system.

As for the national-scientific language - the language, which, according to Gogol, is intended to be universal, national-democratic, devoid of class limitations, the writer, as Vinogradov notes, was against the abuse of philosophical language. Gogol saw the peculiarity of the Russian scientific language in its adequacy, accuracy, brevity and objectivity, in the absence of the need to embellish it. Gogol saw the significance and strength of the Russian scientific language in the uniqueness of the very nature of the Russian language, writes Vinogradov, the writer believed that there was no language like Russian. Gogol saw the sources of the Russian scientific language in Church Slavonic, peasant and folk poetry.

Gogol strove to include in his language the professional speech of not only the nobility, but also the bourgeois class. Attaching great importance to the peasant language, Gogol replenishes his vocabulary by writing down the names, terminology and phraseology of accessories and parts of the peasant costume, inventory and household utensils peasant hut, arable, laundry, beekeeping, forestry and gardening, weaving, fishing, traditional medicine, that is, everything connected with the peasant language and its dialects. The language of crafts and technical specialties was also interesting to the writer, notes Vinogradov, as well as the language of noble life, hobbies and entertainment. Hunting, gambling, military dialects and jargon attracted Gogol's close attention.

Gogol especially closely watched the administrative language, its style and rhetoric, emphasizes Vinogradov.

In oral speech, Gogol was primarily interested in the vocabulary, phraseology and syntax of noble and peasant vernacular, colloquial urban intelligentsia and bureaucratic language, Vinogradov points out.

In the opinion of V. Vinogradov, Gogol's interest in the professional language and dialects of merchants is characteristic.

Gogol sought to find ways to reform the relationship between his contemporary literary language and the professional language of the church. He introduced church symbols and phraseology into literary speech, Vinogradov notes. Gogol believed that the introduction of elements of the church language into the literary language would bring life to the ossified and deceitful business and bureaucratic language. .

Gogol began his creative activity as a romantic. However, he turned to critical realism, opened a new chapter in it. As a realist artist, Gogol developed under the noble influence of Pushkin, but was not a simple imitator of the founder of new Russian literature.

The originality of Gogol was that he was the first to give the broadest image of the county landowner-bureaucratic Russia and the "little man", a resident of St. Petersburg corners.

Gogol was a brilliant satirist who scourged the "vulgarity of a vulgar person", exposing to the utmost the social contradictions of contemporary Russian reality.

The social orientation of Gogol is also reflected in the composition of his works. The plot and plot conflict in them are not love and family circumstances, but events public interest. At the same time, the plot serves only as an excuse for a broad depiction of everyday life and the disclosure of characters-types.

Deep insight into the essence of the main socio-economic phenomena of his contemporary life allowed Gogol, a brilliant artist of the word, to draw images of enormous generalizing power.

For the purposes of the bright satirical image Heroes are served by Gogol's careful selection of many details and their sharp exaggeration. So, for example, portraits of the heroes of "Dead Souls" were created. These details in Gogol are mostly everyday: things, clothes, housing of heroes. If in Gogol's romantic stories there are emphatically given scenic landscapes, giving the work a certain elation of tone, then in his realistic works, especially in “ Dead souls”, the landscape is one of the means of describing the types, the characteristics of the heroes. The subject, social orientation and ideological coverage of the phenomena of life and the characters of people determined the originality of Gogol's literary speech. The two worlds depicted by the writer - the folk collective and the "existents" - determined the main features of the writer's speech: his speech is enthusiastic, imbued with lyricism when he talks about the people, about the homeland (in "Evenings ...", in "Taras Bulba ", V digressions"Dead Souls"), then it becomes close to live colloquial (in everyday paintings and scenes of "Evenings ..." or in narratives about bureaucratic-landowner Russia).

The originality of Gogol's language lies in the wider use of common speech, dialectisms, and Ukrainianisms than that of his predecessors and contemporaries.

Gogol loved and subtly felt folk colloquial speech, skillfully applied all its shades to characterize his heroes and phenomena of social life.

The character of a person, his social status, profession - all this is unusually clearly and accurately revealed in the speech of Gogol's characters.

The strength of Gogol the stylist is in his humor. In his articles on Dead Souls, Belinsky showed that Gogol's humor "consists in opposition to the ideal of life with the reality of life." He wrote: "Humor is the most powerful tool of the spirit of negation, which destroys the old and prepares the new."

Composition

Gogol began his creative activity as a romantic. However, he turned to critical realism, opened a new chapter in it. As a realist artist, Gogol developed under the noble influence of Pushkin, but was not a simple imitator of the founder of new Russian literature.

The originality of Gogol was that he was the first to give the broadest image of the county landowner-bureaucratic Russia and the "little man", a resident of St. Petersburg corners.

Gogol was a brilliant satirist who scourged the "vulgarity of a vulgar person", exposing to the utmost the social contradictions of contemporary Russian reality.

The social orientation of Gogol is also reflected in the composition of his works. The plot and plot conflict in them are not love and family circumstances, but events of social significance. At the same time, the plot serves only as an excuse for a broad depiction of everyday life and the disclosure of characters-types.

Deep insight into the essence of the main socio-economic phenomena of his contemporary life allowed Gogol, a brilliant artist of the word, to draw images of enormous generalizing power.

The goals of a vivid satirical depiction of heroes are served by Gogol's careful selection of many details and their sharp exaggeration. So, for example, portraits of the heroes of "Dead Souls" were created. These details in Gogol are mostly everyday: things, clothes, housing of heroes. If in Gogol's romantic stories emphatically picturesque landscapes are given, giving the work a certain elation of tone, then in his realistic works, especially in "Dead Souls", the landscape is one of the means of depicting types, characteristics of heroes. Theme, social orientation and ideological coverage of the phenomena of life and the characters of people determined the originality of Gogol's literary speech. The two worlds depicted by the writer - the folk collective and the "existents" - determined the main features of the writer's speech: his speech is enthusiastic, imbued with lyricism when he talks about the people, about the homeland (in "Evenings ...", in "Taras Bulba ”, in the lyrical digressions of “Dead Souls”), then it becomes close to live colloquial (in everyday paintings and scenes of “Evenings ...” or in narratives about bureaucratic landowner Russia).

The originality of Gogol's language lies in the wider use of common speech, dialectisms, and Ukrainianisms than that of his predecessors and contemporaries.

Gogol loved and subtly felt folk colloquial speech, skillfully applied all its shades to characterize his heroes and phenomena of public life.

The character of a person, his social status, profession - all this is unusually clearly and accurately revealed in the speech of Gogol's characters.

The strength of Gogol the stylist is in his humor. In his articles on Dead Souls, Belinsky showed that Gogol's humor "consists in opposition to the ideal of life with the reality of life." He wrote: "Humor is the most powerful tool of the spirit of negation, which destroys the old and prepares the new."

Historical and literary process - a set of generally significant changes in the literature. Literature is constantly evolving. Each era enriches art with some new artistic discoveries. The study of the laws of development of literature is the concept of "historical and literary process". Development literary process is determined by the following artistic systems: creative method, style, genre, literary trends and currents.

The continuous change of literature is an obvious fact, but significant changes do not occur every year, not even every decade. As a rule, they are associated with serious historical shifts (change historical eras and periods, wars, revolutions associated with the entry into the historical arena of new social forces, etc.). It is possible to single out the main stages in the development of European art, which determined the specifics of the historical and literary process: antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The development of the historical and literary process is due to a number of factors, among which the historical situation (socio-political system, ideology, etc.), the influence of previous literary traditions and artistic experience of other peoples. For example, Pushkin's work was seriously influenced by the work of his predecessors not only in Russian literature (Derzhavin, Batyushkov, Zhukovsky and others), but also in European literature (Voltaire, Rousseau, Byron and others).

literary process is a complex system of literary interactions. It represents the formation, functioning and change of various literary trends and trends.

Literary trends and currents:

classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism,

realism, modernism (symbolism, acmeism, futurism)

In modern literary criticism, the terms "direction" and "flow" can be interpreted in different ways. Sometimes they are used as synonyms (classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, realism and modernism are called both trends and trends), and sometimes a trend is identified with a literary school or grouping, and a trend is identified with an artistic method or style (in this case, the trend incorporates two or more streams).

Usually, literary direction called a group of writers similar in type of artistic thinking. We can talk about the existence of a literary trend if writers are aware of theoretical basis their artistic activities, promote them in manifestos, program speeches, articles. So, the first program article of the Russian futurists was the manifesto "Slap in the face of public taste", in which the main aesthetic principles new direction.

Under certain circumstances, groups of writers who are especially close to each other in their aesthetic views can be formed within the framework of one literary movement. Such groups that form within any direction are usually called a literary trend. For example, within the framework of such a literary trend as symbolism, two currents can be distinguished: "senior" symbolists and "junior" symbolists (according to another classification - three: decadents, "senior" symbolists, "junior" symbolists).

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

One of the most important features of classicism is the perception of ancient art as a model, an aesthetic standard (hence the name of the direction). The goal is to create works of art in the image and likeness of antique ones. In addition, the ideas of the Enlightenment and the cult of reason (the belief in the omnipotence of the mind and that the world can be reorganized on a reasonable basis) had a huge influence on the formation of classicism.

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

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

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

Special rules existed for dramatic works. They had to observe three "unities" - places, times and actions. Unity of place: classicist dramaturgy did not allow a change of scene, that is, during the entire play, the characters had to be in the same place. The unity of time: the artistic time of a work should not exceed several hours, in extreme cases - one day. Unity of action implies that there is only one storyline. All these requirements are connected with the fact that the classicists wanted to create a kind of illusion of life on the stage. Sumarokov: “Try to measure my hours in the game for hours, so that, forgetting, I can believe you”. So, character traits literary classicism:

• purity of the genre(in high genres, funny or everyday situations and heroes could not be depicted, and in low genres, tragic and sublime ones);
• purity of language(in high genres - high vocabulary, in low - vernacular);
• strict division of heroes into positive and negative, while the positive characters, choosing between feeling and reason, prefer the latter;
• observance of the rule of "three unities";
• affirmation of positive values ​​and state ideal.

Russian classicism is characterized by state pathos (the state - and not the person - was declared the highest value) in conjunction with faith in the theory of enlightened absolutism. According to the theory of enlightened absolutism, the state should be headed by a wise, enlightened monarch, who requires everyone to serve for the benefit of society. Russian classicists, inspired by the reforms of Peter the Great, believed in the possibility of further improvement of society, which seemed to them a rationally arranged organism. Sumarokov: “Peasants plow, merchants trade, warriors defend the fatherland, judges judge, scientists cultivate sciences.” The classicists treated human nature in the same rationalistic way. They believed that human nature is selfish, subject to passions, that is, feelings that oppose reason, but at the same time lend themselves to education.

Sentimentalism(from English sentimental - sensitive, from French sentiment - feeling) - a literary movement of the second half of the 18th century, which replaced classicism. Sentimentalists proclaimed the primacy of feeling, not reason. A person was judged by his ability to deep feelings. Hence - the interest in the inner world of the hero, the image of the shades of his feelings (the beginning of psychologism).

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

Sensitivity is at the heart of creative method sentimentalism. If the classicists created generalized characters (a hypocrite, a braggart, a miser, a fool), then sentimentalists are interested in specific people with individual destiny. Heroes in their works are clearly divided into positive and negative. Positive endowed with natural sensitivity (responsive, kind, compassionate, capable of self-sacrifice). Negative- prudent, selfish, arrogant, cruel. The carriers of sensitivity, as a rule, are peasants, artisans, raznochintsy, rural clergy. Cruel - representatives of power, nobles, higher spiritual ranks (since despotic rule kills sensitivity in people). Manifestations of sensitivity in the works of sentimentalists often acquire a too external, even exaggerated character (exclamations, tears, fainting, suicides).

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

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

Romanticism— artistic direction in European and American culture late XVIII - first half of XIX century. Romanticism arose in the 1790s, first in Germany and then spread throughout Western Europe. The prerequisites for the emergence were the crisis of rationalism of the Enlightenment, the artistic search for pre-romantic trends (sentimentalism), the Great French Revolution, and German classical philosophy.

The emergence of this literary trend, as well as any other, is inextricably linked with the socio-historical events of that time. Let's start with the prerequisites for the formation of romanticism in Western European literatures. The decisive influence on the formation of romanticism in Western Europe was exerted by the Great French Revolution of 1789-1799 and the reassessment of the educational ideology associated with it. As you know, the 18th century in France passed under the sign of the Enlightenment. For almost a whole century, French enlighteners led by Voltaire (Rousseau, Diderot, Montesquieu) argued that the world can be reorganized on a reasonable basis and proclaimed the idea of ​​natural (natural) equality of all people. It was these educational ideas that inspired the French revolutionaries, whose slogan was the words: "Liberty, equality and fraternity." The result of the revolution was the establishment of a bourgeois republic. As a result, the winner was the bourgeois minority, which seized power (it used to belong to the aristocracy, the highest nobility), while the rest were left "with nothing". Thus, the long-awaited "kingdom of reason" turned out to be an illusion, as well as the promised freedom, equality and fraternity. There was a general disappointment in the results and results of the revolution, a deep dissatisfaction with the surrounding reality, which became a prerequisite for the emergence of romanticism. Because the basis of romanticism is the principle of dissatisfaction with the existing order of things. This was followed by the emergence of the theory of romanticism in Germany.

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

The term "romanticism" in relation to the literary movement is accidental and inaccurate. In this regard, from the very beginning of its inception, it was interpreted in different ways: some believed that it comes from the word "roman", others - from knightly poetry created in countries that speak Romance languages. For the first time, the word "romanticism" as the name of a literary movement began to be used in Germany, where the first sufficiently detailed theory of romanticism was created.

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

Rejection, denial of reality determined the specifics of the romantic hero. This is a fundamentally new hero, like him did not know the old literature. He is in hostile relations with the surrounding society, opposed to it. This is an unusual person, restless, most often lonely and with tragic fate. The romantic hero is the embodiment of romantic rebellion against reality.

Realism(from Latin realis- material, real) - a method (creative setting) or a literary trend that embodies the principles of a life-truthful attitude to reality, striving for the artistic knowledge of man and the world. Often the term "realism" is used in two senses:

1. realism as a method;
2. realism as a trend that emerged in the 19th century.

Both classicism, and romanticism, and symbolism strive for the knowledge of life and express their reaction to it in their own way, but only in realism does fidelity to reality become the defining criterion of artistry. This distinguishes realism, for example, from romanticism, which is characterized by the rejection of reality and the desire to “recreate” it, and not display it as it is. It is no coincidence that, referring to the realist Balzac, the romantic George Sand defined the difference between him and herself in this way: “You take a person as he appears to your eyes; I feel a calling to portray him the way I would like to see. Thus, we can say that the realists depict the real, and the romantics the desired.

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

Basic requirements of realism: adherence to the principles

• peoples,
• historicism,
• high artistry,
• psychologism,
• depiction of life in its development.

Realist writers showed a direct dependence of the social, moral, religious ideas of heroes on social conditions, great attention devoted to the social aspect. Central problem realism- the ratio of plausibility and artistic truth. Plausibility, a plausible depiction of life is very important for realists, but artistic truth is determined not by plausibility, but by fidelity in comprehending and conveying the essence of life and the significance of the ideas expressed by the artist. One of key features realism is the typification of characters (the fusion of the typical and the individual, the uniquely personal). The credibility of a realistic character directly depends on the degree of individualization achieved by the writer.
Realist writers create new types of heroes: the "little man" type (Vyrin, Bashmachkin, Marmeladov, Devushkin), the " extra person"(Chatsky, Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov), the type of a "new" hero (nihilist Bazarov in Turgenev, "new people" Chernyshevsky).

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

This term has various interpretations:

1. denotes a number of non-realistic trends in art and literature at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: symbolism, futurism, acmeism, expressionism, cubism, imaginism, surrealism, abstractionism, impressionism;
2. used as a symbol for the aesthetic searches of artists of non-realistic trends;
3. denotes a complex set of aesthetic and ideological phenomena, including not only modernist trends proper, but also creativity of artists that do not completely fit into the framework of any direction (D. Joyce, M. Proust, F. Kafka and others).

Symbolism, acmeism and futurism became the most striking and significant trends in Russian modernism.

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

At the heart of the worldview of symbolist artists is the idea of ​​the unknowability of the world and its laws. They considered the spiritual experience of a person and the creative intuition of the artist to be the only "tool" for understanding the world.

Symbolism was the first to put forward the idea of ​​creating art free from the task of depicting reality. Symbolists argued that the purpose of art is not in the image real world, which they considered secondary, but in the transmission of "higher reality". They intended to achieve this with the help of a symbol. A symbol is an expression of the supersensible intuition of the poet, to whom, in moments of insight, true essence of things. The Symbolists developed a new poetic language that does not directly name the subject, but hints at its content through allegory, musicality, color scheme, free verse.

Symbolism is the first and most significant of the modernist movements that arose in Russia. The first manifesto of Russian symbolism was the article by D. S. Merezhkovsky “On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature”, published in 1893. It identified three main elements of the "new art": mystical content, symbolization and "expansion of artistic impressionability."

Symbolists are usually divided into two groups, or currents:

• "elder" symbolists (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub and others), who made their debut in the 1890s;
• "juniors" symbolists who began their creative activity in the 1900s and significantly updated the appearance of the current (A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Ivanov and others).

It should be noted that the "senior" and "junior" symbolists were separated not so much by age as by the difference in attitudes and the direction of creativity.

Symbolists believed that art is primarily "comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways"(Bryusov). After all, only phenomena that are subject to the law of linear causality can be rationally comprehended, and such causality operates only in the lower forms of life (empirical reality, everyday life). Symbolists were interested higher spheres life (the area of ​​"absolute ideas" in terms of Plato or "the world soul", according to V. Solovyov), not subject to rational knowledge. It is art that has the ability to penetrate into these spheres, and the images-symbols with their infinite ambiguity are able to reflect the entire complexity of the world universe. The Symbolists believed that the ability to comprehend the true, higher reality is given only to the elect, who, in moments of inspired insights, are able to comprehend the “higher” truth, absolute truth.

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

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

Acmeism(from Greek. akme- the highest degree of something, flowering power, peak) - a modernist literary trend in Russian poetry of the 1910s. Representatives: S. Gorodetsky, early A. Akhmatova, L. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam. The term "acmeism" belongs to Gumilyov. The aesthetic program was formulated in Gumilyov's articles "The Legacy of Symbolism and Acmeism", Gorodetsky's "Some Currents in Modern Russian Poetry" and Mandelstam's "Morning of Acmeism".

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

Actually, the acmeist current was small, did not last long - about two years (1913-1914) - and was associated with the "Workshop of Poets". "Workshop of poets" was created in 1911 and at first united a fairly large number of people (not all of them later turned out to be involved in acmeism). This organization was much more cohesive than the disparate symbolist groups. At the meetings of the "Workshop" poems were analyzed, problems of poetic mastery were solved, and methods for analyzing works were substantiated. The idea of ​​a new direction in poetry was first expressed by Kuzmin, although he himself did not enter the "Workshop". In his article "About Beautiful Clarity" Kuzmin anticipated many declarations of acmeism. In January 1913, the first manifestos of acmeism appeared. From this moment, the existence of a new direction begins.

Acmeism proclaimed "beautiful clarity" as the task of literature, or clarism(from lat. claris- clear). Acmeists called their current adamism, linking with the biblical Adam the idea of ​​a clear and direct view of the world. Acmeism preached a clear, “simple” poetic language, where words would directly name objects, declare their love for objectivity. So, Gumilyov urged to look not for “unsteady words”, but for words “with a more stable content”. This principle was most consistently realized in Akhmatova's lyrics.

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

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

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

1. "Gilea", which united cubo-futurists (V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh and others);
2. "Association of Egofuturists"(I. Severyanin, I. Ignatiev and others);
3. "Mezzanine of Poetry"(V. Shershenevich, R. Ivnev);
4. "Centrifuge"(S. Bobrov, N. Aseev, B. Pasternak).

The most significant and influential group was the "Gilea": in fact, it was she who determined the face of Russian futurism. Its participants released many collections: "The Garden of Judges" (1910), "Slap in the Face of Public Taste" (1912), "Dead Moon" (1913), "Took" (1915).

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

Futurism began to disintegrate already in 1915-1916.