RUSSIAN PROSE OF THE MIDDLE OF THE 50'S AND THE FIRST HALF OF THE 80'S
1. Periodization.
2. The theme of bureaucracy and the problem of dissent in V. Dudintsev's novel "Not by Bread Alone".
3. The tragic conflict between the ideal and reality in P. Nilin's story "Cruelty".
4. The stories of B. Mozhaev "Alive" and V. Belov "The usual business": the depth and integrity of the moral world of man from the earth.
5. Creativity of V. Rasputin: posing acute problems of our time in the stories "Money for Mary" and "Deadline".
6. The artistic world of V. Shukshin's stories.
7. The problem of the ecology of nature and the human soul in the narration in the stories of V. Astafiev "King-fish".
8. Ruthlessness in depicting the horrors of everyday life in V. Astafiev's story "The Sad Detective".
Literature:
1. History of Russian literature of the twentieth century (20–90s). M.: MGU, 1998.
2. History of Soviet literature: A new look. M., 1990.
3. Emelyanov L. Vasily Shukshin. Essay on creativity. L., 1983.
4. Lanshchikov A. Victor Astafiev (Life and creativity). M., 1992.
5. Musatov V.V. History of Russian literature of the twentieth century. (Soviet period). M., 2001.
6. Pankeev I. Valentin Rasputin. M., 1990.
Stalin's death and the liberalization that followed had an immediate impact on the literary life of society.
The years from 1953 to 1964 are usually referred to as the “thaw” period, after the title of I. Ehrenburg's story of the same name (1954). This period was for writers a long-awaited sip of freedom, liberation from dogmas, from the dictates of permitted half-truths. The “Thaw” had its own stages and advances and return movements, restoration of the old, episodes of a partial return to the “delayed” classics (thus, in 1956, a 9-volume collection of works by I. Bunin was published, collections of seditious Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Zabolotsky began to be printed , Yesenin, and in 1966 the novel by M. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita" was published). At the same time, incidents like the one that occurred after the publication of B. Pasternak's novel "Doctor Zhivago" and the awarding of the Nobel Prize were still possible in the life of society. The novel by V. Grossman "Life and Fate" - even in the conditions of the "thaw" - was nevertheless confiscated in 1961, arrested until 1980.
The first segment of the "thaw" (1953-1954) is associated primarily with the liberation from the prescriptions of normative aesthetics. In 1953, in No. 12 of the Novy Mir magazine, V. Pomerantsev’s article “On Sincerity in Literature” appeared, in which the author pointed out a very frequent discrepancy between what the writer personally saw and what he was instructed to portray, which was officially considered true. So, the truth in the war was considered not the retreat, not the catastrophe of 1941, but only the notorious victorious blows. And even writers who knew about the feat and tragedy of the defenders of the Brest Fortress in 1941 (for example, K. Simonov), until 1956 did not write about her, deleted her from their memory and biography. In the same way, not everything that they knew, the writers told about the Leningrad blockade, about the tragedy of prisoners, etc. V. Pomerantsev urged writers to trust their biography, their hard-won experience, to be sincere, and not to select, to adjust the material to a given scheme.
The second stage of the “thaw” (1955–1960) was no longer the realm of theory, but a series of literary works that asserted the right of writers to see the world as it is. These are the novel by V. Dudintsev “Not by Bread Alone” (1956), and the story by P. Nilin “Cruelty” (1956), and essays and stories by V. Tendryakov “Bad Weather” (1954), “Tight Knot” (1956), etc. .
The third and last segment of the “thaw” (1961–1963) is rightfully associated with the novel in defense of captured Soviet soldiers “Missing” (1962) by S. Zlobin, early stories and novels by V. Aksenov, poetry by E. Yevtushenko and, certainly, with the first reliable description of the camp with the story "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (1962) by A. Solzhenitsyn.
Period from 1964 to 1985 are usually called coarse and simplified "years of stagnation". But this is clearly unfair neither in relation to our science (our country was the first in space and in the field of many high-tech technologies), nor in relation to the literary process. The scale of freedom of artists in these years was so great that for the first time since the 1920s, new literary trends of "village" prose, "military" prose, "urban" or "intellectual" prose were born in literature, author's song flourished; 2/ there appeared specific works on the Russian religious and moral idea in art “Letters from the Russian Museum” (1966), “Black Boards” (1969) by Vl. Soloukhin; 3/ the historical novelism of V. Pikul (1928–1989) was created, deep historical and philosophical works of D. Balashov were written; 4/ A. Solzhenitsyn's historical-revolutionary novels ("Red Wheel"); 5/ science fiction took off, the social dystopia of I. Efremov and the Strugatsky brothers flourished.
In the 60–80s, two trends dominated the literary process: on the one hand, patriotic, nationally oriented (by V. Belov, V. Rasputin, V. Astafiev, N. Rubtsov, etc.) and, on the other hand, typically "Western", largely individualistic, focused on the latest postmodern philosophy and poetics (E. Evtushenko, A. Voznesensky, I. Brodsky, V. Voinovich, etc.). Some writers, for example, V. Belov, saw in the peasant's hut its cathedral-family soul. Others, for example, V. Voinovich, are no less active than V. Belov, not accepting Stalinism, at the same time in the novel "The Life and Extraordinary Adventures of a Soldier Ivan Chonkin" (1969), and in the story "Ivankiada" (1976) they looked both at the “Russian idea” and at rural Rus' extremely sarcastically.
The structure of the overview section "Russian Prose in the 50-90s" includes a significant range of new for students of the graduating class of concepts and problems associated with the development of Russian prose over the past fifty years: the literary process, "" 1953-1964, "returned literature", the reunification of domestic culture and emigrant Russian literature, "village" prose, "lieutenant » prose (works about the Great Patriotic War), «urban» (or «intellectual») prose, historical novelistics, etc. Each of these areas in literature has its own circle of authors and titles of their books, in which a multi-layered picture of life is recreated, comprehended the fate of man and the fate of the Fatherland.
The combination of compulsory reading of works included in the school curriculum with a wide choice of readers makes it possible to consider this or that work of art in a certain literary context. The principle of contextual perception cannot but increase the intellectual level of school literature lessons. All this cannot be ignored when thinking over the ways of studying the broad review topic "Russian prose in the 50-90s". In our opinion, it is advisable to build a system of classes for this section on a combination of a problem-thematic review with independent reading by students of the literary text of the most significant works, with a textual analysis of their brightest pages. It is fundamentally important to make the structure of school analysis akin to the artistic thinking of the author. From artistic retelling and expressive reading of the most impressive fragments of a prose text to a classroom conversation, an abstract report, a seminar lesson - such is the range of techniques and forms of work on a work.
In the review section "Russian prose in the 50-90s" we will highlight three topics:
- "Prose about the Great Patriotic War of the 50-90s."
- "Rural" prose of the 60-80s.
- "The moral quest of prose writers of these years."
When conducting review lessons, we are faced with a lack of necessary books, so preparation for lessons usually begins in advance. The teacher, having concentrated in the office all the works collected on the topic, allocates time for reading, and before the lesson, with the help of the children, organizes an exhibition of books. The design of the exhibition, acquaintance with it allow us to consider the topic against a fairly broad literary background.
Works on the topic, questions and for students are posted on the working stand.
Key questions for the review "Rural" prose of the 60-80s.
1. The concept of "village" prose. On what socio-psychological foundations did she grow up?
2. "A man of an industrious soul." How these words reveal depth and wholeness
The moral world of the peasant?
3. The life and fate of the Russian village in the history of post-revolutionary Russia:
- “The Year of the Great Break” and its reflection in the novels of M. Sholokhov “”, B. Mozhaev “Men and Women”, V. Belov “Eve”.
The role of the Russian peasantry during the Great Patriotic War.
The fate of the Russian peasantry in the years of post-war hard times. Matrena (A. Solzhenitsyn. "Matryona Dvor"), aunt Daria (A. Tvardovsky. "By the Right of Memory"), Katerina (V. Belov. "The Usual Business"), Nastena (V. Rasputin. "Live and Remember") - artistic discoveries of "village" prose.
Questions for general discussion:
1. Name the works of the 60-80s that are associated with the concept of "village" prose. Which of them have you read?
2. What is common in the biographies of writers who were commonly called "village people"? What dictated their interest in village life, in the fate of the Russian peasantry?
3. What place do lyrical landscapes occupy in the works of F. Abramov, V. Rasputin, V. Astafiev? Read them out loud.
4. What heroes of the "village" prose are drawn with obvious sympathy? What drew their attention to themselves?
5. What meaning did the writers put into the words “lad”, “call of the earth”?
6. What is the meaning of the words: "Russia, which we have lost"?
"Two Captains" is an adventure novel by Soviet writer Veniamin Kaverin (1902-1989), created in 1938-1944. The novel went through over a hundred reprints! For him, Kaverin was awarded the Stalin Prize of the second degree (1946). The motto of the novel - the words "Fight and seek, find and not give up" - is the final line from Lord Tennyson's textbook poem "Ulysses" (in the original: To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield). This line is also engraved on the cross in memory of R. Scott's lost expedition to the South Pole, on Observer Hill._ The book tells about the amazing fate of a mute orphan from the provincial town of Ensk, who with honor goes through the trials of war and homelessness in order to win the heart of his beloved girls. After the unjust arrest of his father and the death of his mother, Sanya Grigoriev is sent to an orphanage. Having fled to Moscow, he first finds himself in a distribution center for homeless children, and then in a commune school. He is irresistibly attracted by the apartment of the director of the school, Nikolai Antonovich, where the latter's cousin, Katya Tatarinova, lives. Many years later, having studied the relics of the polar expedition found by the Nenets, Sanya understands that it was Nikolai Antonovich who was responsible for the death of Katya's father, Captain Tatarinov, who in 1912 led the expedition that discovered Severnaya Zemlya. After the start of World War II, Sanya served in the Air Force. During one of the sorties, he discovers the captain's body along with his reports. The finds allow him to shed light on the circumstances of the death of the expedition and justify himself in the eyes of Katya, who becomes his wife. Working on a book. _ Veniamin Kaverin recalled that the creation of the novel "Two Captains" began with his meeting with the young geneticist Mikhail Lobashev, which took place in a sanatorium near Leningrad in the mid-thirties. “He was a man in whom ardor was combined with straightforwardness, and perseverance - with amazing definiteness of purpose,” the writer recalled. “He knew how to achieve success in any business.” Lobashev told Kaverin about his childhood, strange muteness in his early years, orphanhood, homelessness, a commune school in Tashkent, and how he subsequently managed to enter a university and become a scientist. Another prototype of the protagonist was the military fighter pilot Samuil Klebanov, who died heroically in 1942. He initiated the writer into the secrets of flying. The image of Captain Ivan Lvovich Tatarinov is reminiscent of several historical analogies. In 1912, three Russian polar expeditions set sail: on the ship St. Foka" under the command of Georgy Sedov, on the schooner "St. Anna" under the direction of Georgy Brusilov and on the boat "Hercules" with the participation of Vladimir Rusanov. Expedition on the schooner "St. Maria" in the novel actually repeats the timing of the journey and the route of "St. Anna". The appearance, character and views of Captain Tatarinov make him related to Georgy Sedov. The search for Captain Tatarinov's expedition is reminiscent of the search for Rusanov's expedition. The fate of the character in the navigator's novel "St. Mary" by Ivan Klimov echoes the true fate of the navigator of the "St. Anna" Valerian Albanov. Despite the fact that the book was published during the heyday of the cult of personality and is generally sustained in the heroic style of socialist realism, the name of Stalin is mentioned only once in the novel (in chapter 8 of part 10). The novel was filmed twice: Two Captains (film, 1955) Two Captains (film, 1976) In 2001, based on the novel, the musical Nord-Ost was staged.
Russian literature of the classical period gave the world many names of brilliant writers. After the revolution of 1917, everything changed dramatically in the country, including in the field of arts. . But, despite censorship and strict limits, Russian authors created a number of talented works during this period.
Immediately after the end of the revolution, the continuity of the literary life of Russia was not interrupted. For a certain time, considerable liberties were still allowed in the genres, forms and content of books. . There were many literary movements, often coming from the West.
But when the authorities in the workers' and peasants' state dealt with political and economic issues, it came to the cultural sphere. The new Soviet literature had to meet a number of requirements, the first of which was the ideological orientation.
The main, or rather the only, direction in all branches of art was declared social realism - an artistic method that was used to aesthetically express the socialist vision of the world.
The attitude of writers to such subordination to the state apparatus was different - from unanimity with the authorities and complete acceptance of the new order to moderate opposition in a veiled form (an open protest threatened the life of the writer).
Communication with the traditions of domestic and Western classical art was lost , national specificity and color were reduced to almost zero. The class approach, maximum realism in the depiction of the achievements of the Soviet government, the glorification of industrial achievements became the main motifs in literature.
In fact, all art was not just subordinate to the state, it fulfilled the social order of the authorities. That is, only those who strictly followed the state line were published. And this was often incompatible with the honest and creative nature of the activities of writers.
But it is worth noting that a talented writer found an opportunity to circumvent ideological barriers as imperceptibly as possible and bring to light really worthwhile works , minimally deforming them in accordance with censorship.
Despite the severe pressure of the state and the presence of many mediocre hacks, whose books were published only thanks to the correct ideological alignment, there were also truly talented authors who, despite all the dangers, dared to write really high-quality works:
- Michael Bulgakov;
- Dmitry Merezhkovsky;
- Andrey Platonov;
- Mikhail Sholokhov;
- Anatoly Rybakov;
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn;
- Boris Pasternak and many others.
Mikhail Stelmakh
This autobiographical work of the famous Ukrainian Soviet writer describes the difficult but bright childhood of the author. Despite extreme poverty, the boy enjoyed life, admired the beauty of nature, learned to be kind and compassionate. to people.
Mikhail Afanasyevich remembers his parents, grandparents with great love and tenderness. In addition, he describes wonderful countrymen who were examples of decency and honesty for Mikhail. The book is filled with lyricism and romance.
Anatoly Ivanov
The book covers a significant period of time. It includes the events of the revolution of 1905 and 1917, the First, Civil and Second World Wars. The story is also about the post-war years, when the country was recovering from the most devastating conflict of the twentieth century. A red thread in the book is the thought that the main thing in life is justice and you always need to fight for it .
On our site you can not only get acquainted with the summary of the most interesting and instructive books by Soviet authors, but also read them online.
Natives of the Russian hinterland from time immemorial glorified the Russian land, mastering the heights of world science and culture. Let us recall at least Mikhailo Vasilyevich Lomonosov. So are our contemporaries Viktor Astafiev, Vasily Belov. Valentin Rasputin, Alexander Yashin, Vasily Shukshin, representatives of the so-called "village prose", are rightfully considered masters of Russian literature. At the same time, they forever remained true to their village birthright, their "small homeland."
I have always been interested in reading their works, especially stories and novels by Vasily Makarovich Shukshin. In his stories about fellow countrymen, one sees a great writer's love for the Russian village, anxiety for today's man and his future fate.
Sometimes they say that the ideals of Russian classics are too far from modernity and inaccessible to us. These ideals cannot be inaccessible to the schoolboy, but they are difficult for him. Classics - and this is what we are trying to convey to the minds of our students - is not entertainment. The artistic development of life in Russian classical literature has never turned into an aesthetic occupation, it has always pursued a living spiritual and practical goal. V.F. Odoevsky formulated, for example, the goal of his writing work as follows: “I would like to express in letters that psychological law, according to which not a single word uttered by a person, not a single deed is forgotten, does not disappear in the world, but certainly produces some kind of action; so that responsibility is connected with every word, with every seemingly insignificant act, with every movement of the human soul.
When studying the works of Russian classics, I try to penetrate into the "hidden places" of the student's soul. Here are some examples of such work. Russian verbal and artistic creativity and the national sense of the world are so deeply rooted in the religious element that even currents that have outwardly broken with religion still turn out to be internally connected with it.
F.I. Tyutchev in the poem "Silentium" ("Silence!" - Lat.) speaks of the special strings of the human soul, which are silent in everyday life, but clearly declare themselves in moments of liberation from everything external, worldly, vain. F.M. Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamazov recalls the seed sown by God into the soul of man from other worlds. This seed or source gives a person hope and faith in immortality. I.S. Turgenev sharper than many Russian writers felt the short duration and fragility of human life on earth, the inexorability and irreversibility of the rapid run of historical time. Sensitive to everything topical and momentary, able to grasp life in its beautiful moments, I.S. Turgenev possessed at the same time the generic feature of any Russian classic writer - the rarest sense of freedom from everything temporary, finite, personal and egoistic, from everything subjectively biased, clouding visual acuity, breadth of sight, fullness of artistic perception. In troubled years for Russia, I.S. Turgenev creates a poem in prose "Russian language". The bitter consciousness of the deepest national crisis experienced by Russia at that time did not deprive I.S. Turgenev of hope and faith. Our language gave him this faith and hope.
So, the depiction of the Russian national character distinguishes Russian literature as a whole. The search for a hero who is morally harmonious, clearly imagining the boundaries of good and evil, existing according to the laws of conscience and honor, unites many Russian writers. The twentieth century (a special second half) even more acutely than the nineteenth felt the loss of a moral ideal: the connection of times broke up, a string broke, which A.P. so sensitively caught. Chekhov (the play "The Cherry Orchard"), and the task of literature is to realize that we are not "Ivans who do not remember kinship." I would especially like to dwell on the image of the people's world in the works of V.M. Shukshin. Among the writers of the late twentieth century, it was V.M. Shukshin turned to the people's soil, believing that people who retained their "roots", albeit subconsciously, but were drawn to the spiritual principle inherent in the people's consciousness, contain hope, testify that the world has not yet died.
Speaking about the image of the people's world V.M. Shukshin, we come to the conclusion that the writer deeply comprehended the nature of the Russian national character and showed in his works what kind of person the Russian village yearns for. About the soul of a Russian person V.G. Rasputin writes in the story "The Hut". The writer draws readers to the Christian norms of a simple and ascetic life and, at the same time, to the norms of brave, courageous doing, creation, asceticism. It can be said that the story returns readers to the spiritual space of an ancient, maternal culture. The tradition of hagiographic literature is noticeable in the narrative. Severe, ascetic Agafya's life, her ascetic labor, love for her native land, for every tussock and every blade of grass, which erected "mansions" in a new place - these are the moments of content that make the story of the life of a Siberian peasant woman related to life. There is a miracle in the story: despite the ", Agafya, having built a hut, lives in it "without one year for twenty years", that is, she will be awarded longevity. Yes, and the hut set up by her hands, after the death of Agafya, will stand on the shore, will keep the foundations of centuries-old peasant life for many years, not let them perish even in our day.
The plot of the story, the character of the main character, the circumstances of her life, the history of the forced relocation - everything refutes the common ideas about the laziness and commitment to drunkenness of a Russian person. The main feature of Agafya's fate should also be noted: "Here (in Krivolutskaya) the Agafya family of the Vologzhins settled from the very beginning and lived for two and a half centuries, taking root in half a village." This is how the story explains the strength of character, perseverance, asceticism of Agafya, who erects her “mansion”, a hut, in a new place, after which the story is named. In the story of how Agafya put her hut in a new place, the story of V.G. Rasputin comes close to the life of Sergius of Radonezh. Especially close - in the glorification of carpentry, which was owned by Agafya's voluntary assistant, Savely Vedernikov, who earned a well-defined definition from his fellow villagers: he has "golden hands." Everything that Savely's "golden hands" do shines with beauty, pleases the eye, glows. Damp wood, and how the board lay down to the board on two shiny slopes, playing with whiteness and novelty, how it shone already at dusk, when, having tapped the roof for the last time with an ax, Savely went down, as if the light streamed over the hut and she stood up in full growth, immediately moving into the residential order.
Not only life, but also a fairy tale, a legend, a parable respond in the style of a story. As in a fairy tale, after the death of Agafya, the hut continues their common life. The blood connection between the hut and Agafya, who "endured" it, does not break, reminding people to this day of the strength and perseverance of the peasant breed.
At the beginning of the century, S. Yesenin called himself "the poet of the golden log hut." In the story of V.G. Rasputin, written at the end of the 20th century, the hut is made of logs that have darkened with time. Only there is a glow under the night sky from a brand new plank roof. Izba - a word-symbol - is fixed at the end of the 20th century in the meaning of Russia, homeland. The parable layer of the story by V.G. Rasputin.
So, moral problems traditionally remain in the center of attention of Russian literature, our task is to convey to students the life-affirming foundations of the works under study. The image of the Russian national character distinguishes Russian literature in search of a hero who is morally harmonious, who clearly imagines the boundaries of good and evil, existing according to the laws of conscience and honor, unites many Russian writers.
