The work of Romain Rolland

"Jean-Christophe": the structure of the novel, the image of the protagonist, features of poetics, genre specificity, the essence of innovation

"Jean-Christophe" is unusual by the very idea. This is a story about the life of a brilliant musician, from birth to death. The novel is also unusual in its structure: no romantic intrigue, few external events, but a lot of reflection, sometimes - pages of lyrical prose, and sometimes - transitions of the narrative into direct journalism. The manner of presentation is uneven, in places unusually elevated and not free from length; dialogues are expressive, saturated with thought and feeling, but bear little resemblance to everyday, everyday speech. Least of all, "Jean-Christophe" resembled fiction for easy reading: the author clearly did not care about entertaining, did not really care about the complete general availability of his novel. Every now and then the names of composers and writers appear on its pages. different eras, various associations with works of art arise in the course of action; often in question and about such events of social and artistic life, which are not so well known to the reading public.

And, despite all this, the novel won unexpectedly wide recognition. "Jean-Christophe" began to come out book after book. It began to be translated into foreign languages. Immediately upon completion of his work in 1913, Romain Rolland received the Grand Prize of the French Academy, and even earlier - the Order of the Legion of Honor. "Jean-Christophe" was perceived and understood as a social event, entered the circle of literary works that defined the face of artistic culture XX century. It is worth considering the reasons for this success.

In Jean-Christophe, the generation of 1904 found a basis for hope, for struggle, in social and historical conditions that had changed from those that had driven the people of previous generations to despair. The objective meaning of this historical change, reflected in its own way on the pages of the novel, is the advancement into the arena of history of the working class, which, despite wavering and mistakes, was gaining strength, gaining independence, and attracting non-proletarian sections of the working people to its side. Jean-Christophe reflected in its own way both the growing danger of war and the latent protest against it.

Such a characterization of the ideological essence of "Jean-Christophe" may seem at first glance too straightforward. After all, we still have before us the story of a musician, because we are talking about the formation, search, creative ascent of a composer, a man rebellious in his spirit, but by the very essence of his profession, far from political life. But indignation at the power of the owners, hostile to genuine culture and art, aversion to huckstering, philistinism, to the phenomena of bourgeois decay, protest against the oppression of man by man and, at the same time, the expectation of great historical shifts in people's lives - all this lives in the novel, animates it. . It is from here that the fundamental traits of Jean-Christophe's character and attitude are intransigence, independence and, at the same time, deep sympathy for the working people. And one can understand why French readers, tired of the twilight, decadent literature of the end of the century, imbued with the spirit of despondency and moral nihilism, perceived Jean-Christophe as a breath of fresh air.

The depth and complexity of the concept of the novel was not immediately revealed - not only to the general public, but also to critics and literary critics. However, readers of thinking, spiritually alive from the very beginning were attracted by the image of the main character - a rebel, creator, humanist, a man of a brave and generous soul. I was also attracted by the unusual artistic structure of the novel, in which the writer's faith in life, in the progressive movement of mankind, was embodied in a peculiar way.

"Jean-Christophe" is rich in harsh critical content, both where the philistine world of Germany is depicted, moving from loyal provincial vegetation to militaristic fury, and where the bourgeois (and literary, artistic) elite of France is shown without embellishment, mired in corruption and cynicism. The fifth book of the novel, where the Parisian “fair on the square” opens to the astonished, indignant gaze of Jean-Christophe, is distinguished by a special sharpness of tone. Rolland was well acquainted with the mores of the "fair" and said aloud about it what was on his mind, not being afraid to make powerful enemies for himself. He had to listen to reproaches about this book even from some friends, and he defended himself with great sincerity. “Attacking the corrupt French,” says Romain Rolland through the mouth of his hero, “I defend France ... You need to tell her the truth, especially when you love her.” This principled position the French master was able to understand - both in his country and abroad - the most insightful readers of his novel. Romain Rolland tried in the subsequent development of the action of the novel to "restore the measure." Friendship with the French writer Olivier, closer personal contacts with Parisian neighbors, far from the dirty bustle of the "fair" - all this helps Jean-Christophe to see "true France ..." more clearly. And as the novel progresses, the abyss that separates the oppressed from the oppressors opens up ever deeper.

If little Jean-Christophe first knew injustice when he, the son of a visiting cook, was insulted and beaten by arrogant barchuks, then adult Jean-Christophe Kraft is horrified, looking at the living conditions of the Parisian poor. And together with Christophe, his friend Olivier painfully reflects on the grief of the destitute. With increasing acuteness, the problem of the revolutionary transformation of the world rises in Jean-Christophe, especially in his penultimate book, The Burning Bush. It rises - and turns out to be a stumbling block both for Rolland himself and for the heroes who are close to him in spirit.

Romain Rolland soberly saw the weaknesses of the French labor movement before the First World War - disunity in separate currents and groups, the sectarian narrowness of some, the opportunism of others "anarchist phrase-mongering of the third. All this to some extent obscured the real historical prospects of the proletariat in his eyes. Doubts, partly the writer's prejudices (as well as insufficient knowledge of the material) were reflected in those chapters of the novel where speech it is about the attempts of Jean-Christophe and Olivier to take part in the struggle of the working class.The barrier between the heroes of Rolland and the leaders of the proletarian organizations are those features that were characteristic of the writer himself no less than his heroes: distrust of politics, heightened moral rigorism. the pattern is that Jean-Christophe, after the tragic death of Olivier in a fight with the police, completely departs from public life.

It would be unfair to suspect Jean-Christophe (and even more so Rolland himself) of intellectual arrogance, a kind of spiritual aristocracy. No, an innovative musician throughout his life is drawn to ordinary workers, he knows how to find with them mutual language. Among the characters of the novel there are many simple and honest people with a soul open to art. Christoph finds support in friendship with them.

Jean-Christophe's sunset is given in soft colors. After a long life that has passed in deprivation, unrest, hard work, he has the right to consider himself a winner. He did not bow to the commercial mores of the "fair in the square", did not adapt to its vulgar tastes. His music, bold, full of energy, unusual in many respects, received recognition - even after his death it will bring joy to people.

But Christoph himself, a former indomitable rebel, changed in his old age, lost his fighting ardor. In his way of life and way of thinking, a certain spiritual fatigue is reflected, prompting him to listen indulgently to such speeches, such opinions with which he cannot agree. The younger generation of the French, succumbing to militant nationalist sentiments, does not arouse anger in him.

And yet there is no reason to consider "Jean-Christophe" as a novel "farewell to the past", as a renunciation of the writer or his hero from past ideals. To the extent that Christophe's rebellion had an individualistic and abstract character, this rebellion reveals, in terms of social ideas, its inherent fragility: this is shown, in essence, quite soberly. In the last book of the novel - even though the action in it is transferred to an indefinite future - some real features of the spiritual atmosphere of France on the eve of the First World War are reflected.

The image of Jean-Christophe - not a pacified old man from the last book, but a young brave rebel, as he appeared in the books "Riot", "Fair on the Square", - now and then appeared before Rolland. He created this image, and now the hero had the opposite effect on the author, strengthened his stamina, encouraged him to actively resist the forces of imperialism.

The idea of ​​peace and mutual understanding of peoples is deeply embedded in the very essence of the story of Jean-Christophe. Having conceived a novel about the great musician, focusing on the majestic image of Beethoven, Romain Rolland had to make his hero a German, dip him into the atmosphere of the old German province. But from the life of Beethoven, he borrowed only a few facts related to childhood and early youth composer. Jean-Christophe - "a hero of the Beethoven type" becomes an adult at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries; circumstances force him to emigrate to France. This turn of events came in handy for R. Rolland because it made it possible to show the literary and artistic world of Paris and France as a whole through a sharply fresh, sharply critical perception of a foreigner. This is how an originally constructed narrative developed, in which different nations and different national cultures interact and compare.

The ideological essence of a great work of art is expressed, as a rule, not in the author's declarations, and even more so not in hasty solutions to problems that have not been solved by life itself. Many important socio-political issues of the era could not be clear to the creator of Jean-Christophe. But it was clear to him that the renewal of the whole order of life of people in France and throughout the world on the basis of morality and social justice was on the order of the day. And Rolland strove to bring this future, which was unclear to him, to participate by the power of his art in the movement of mankind forward. The artistic structure of the novel is subordinated to this task.

The elevation of the narrative above reality is also reflected in Rolland's free handling of romantic time: the action of the last book, which deals with the old age and death of the hero, takes place many years after the author finished his novel. And this did not embarrass Romain Rolland, just as he was not embarrassed by the chronological inaccuracies and inconsistencies that meticulous critics pointed out to him. He wanted to recreate modernity in large lines, in the main trends, but he did not try to tie each event to a specific year. The most important thing for him was to convey the general spirit of the era, its drama and the obscure, but, be that as it may, encouraging possibilities that it opens up.

In "Jean-Christophe" - as it happens and should be in a good realistic novel - each of the main characters is depicted in their social existence, in their social connections and is a type. But Romain Rolland wanted more. He said about Jean-Christophe that this is not only a type, but also a symbol (in other words, an artistic generalization of a large philosophical scale). And in fact, Christophe is presented in interaction not only with society, but also with the various peoples of Europe, even more widely - with the whole world.

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Against the background of the current general grumbling, the fate of Ludwig van Beethoven and the novel by Romain Rolland "Jean-Christophe" were remembered, in which Beethoven became the prototype of the protagonist. Once upon a time, it was from this novel that I learned about the fate of Beethoven. The events that Romain Rolland describes took place fifty years after Beethoven and, of course, the novel is not a biography of the composer, but almost biographical in its fiction.

If you manage to visit the Louvre Museum, pay attention to the work French sculptor Antoine Bourdelle Beethoven.

The artist Pavel Korin froze before the head of this titan, struck by the expression of a beautiful creation: “What a storm in this face, a fire of passion. Brain on fire. And this flame is torn out - it is in a whirlwind of hair, in the eyes, in the turn of the head. What courageous pathos! What a will!
When misfortunes happen to you and it seems that the last ray of hope has already faded, stand on the very threshold of despair, remember Beethoven's commandment: "I can do anything - I'm a man!"

From the story of I. Dolgopolov
"Antoine Bourdelle"

"Beethoven".

Take a look!

You will be struck by the planetary image of the composer. As if molten magma, escaping from the crater of a volcano, fashioned, outlined the features of a genius.

The lava has not yet solidified, its hot waves surged and marked the powerful relief of Ludwig van Beethoven's face.

The face of the creator of the "Heroic" symphony is like the relief of the moon,
furrowed with craters, deepest clefts, fissures.

Titanic passions left their mark, and we clearly feel the traces of the blows of fate in the ruts of sorrowful folds, in the depths of the eye sockets, in the sharp wrinkles of the face.

But freedom reigns in the image of the composer: in the convexity of the forehead, in the massiveness of the heavy chin. In the hard line of the lips. A complex feeling of unrevealed mystery seizes us gradually, the more we peer into the asymmetrical, displaced features of the sculpture. All trust,

all the power of majestic symphonies, the subtlety of the "Appassionata" in the shimmering glare wandering over the face of the composer... Looking at the sculpture, we seem to be traveling on an unknown planet and hear the sounds of music.

The chisel of the creator who created this masterpiece is furious. The sculptor is akin to Beethoven's sense of the world. And this equal magnitude of spiritual tension was embodied in a perfect plastic form.

One can spend hours endlessly finding more and more new details in the most complex structure, in the entire architectonics of the composer's head. The master created Beethoveniana - more than forty portraits of the brilliant composer. He began to work on the image of Beethoven in his youth. When he once saw his portrait in a shop window in Montauban, he was shocked.

It is not known whether the sculptor knew Haydn's words to Ludwig van Beethoven: "You impress me as a man who has several heads, several hearts and several souls:"

Bourdelle intuitively repeated this sensation of Haydn in plastic. His busts, sketches, compositions, portraits show us the diversity of the face of a genius, all the incomprehensible depth of the state of mind of the creator of immortal music.

"The hearing of the soothsayer Beethoven conquered the elusive. Is it not a miracle that he, deaf, could bring to life the most sublime, most truthful sounds, the closest to the human soul. With what endless longing, he must have dreamed of hearing the singing of birds, inaccessible to him for not a single voice of the outside world broke through his forever closed ears. Boo6pation led him with amazing confidence and truth. Or perhaps illusion, inspiration, art is more perfect than reality?"

But Beethoven was different. This was a man of irresistible rise, powerful insights, who knew the measure of the burden that he bears, but who perfectly understood what he gives people - Beethoven is the creator.

In 1910, at a lecture at the Grand Chaumière, the artist said:

"All arts have points of contact with each other, they interpenetrate each other. Listening to Beethoven's delightful trio recently, I thought that this time I was listening to sculpture. Just like Beethoven's three musical voices, obeying the laws of his genius, so the sculptor strives to bring together plans, profiles and

mass ratio. The second part of the trio ended, but I, completely withdrawn into myself, still continued to hear it. And I heard it when I synthesized the laws of my art. I heard it all the time."

: Beethoven goes into the storm.

He hears the noise of the streets and squares, the million-mouthed cries of crowds of people. The hurricane has scattered the mane of his hair, the light of lightning illuminates his face. A hero's breath fills us. So the sculptor realized Rolland's dream.

We must not forget that this sculpture was created at the height of modernism in the West. Bourdelle and his art stood like a cliff in the muddy waves of abstract expressionism. The sculptor saw the collapse of all his ideals in plastic arts, music, and culture. And in 1914 he creates another masterpiece.

"Death of the last centaur".

The last chord of the lyre broke off.

The melody faded...

Bloodless, powerless strong arms leaned back, the head of the last centaur fell on his shoulder. His face is mournful. Broken eyebrows. The cheekbones are sharply defined, the eye sockets are sunken. Death hovers inexorably over the man-beast. But the sounds are still alive, not muffled by the dying groan. The centaur is still alive, he is still trying to get up. Alas, the efforts are in vain. We seem to feel the last fatal thrill of life running along the mighty torso. The heart is still beating, the muscles are still trembling, but the deep shadow that has sunk into the slits of the mouth and into the gaps in the eye sockets means an inexorable death.

The farewell gesture of the hand resting on the lyre is infinitely touching. The centaur, as it were, bequeaths to people the struggle.

With what?

With ugliness?

Or is he trying to stop the inexorably approaching darkness? ..

Beethoven resisting the wind

According to the available portraits of Beethoven, he seems to us to be short, with a wide, weathered face with traces of smallpox. A cloud of hanging hair gives the appearance of a musician something demonic. Eyes are remembered - smart, kind, and in their very depths suffering lurked. Eyes reflecting the tragedy of a deaf musician and his decision to end his life. It is impossible to read without a shudder the "Heiligenstadt Testament" - a document in which the thirty-two-year-old composer says goodbye to the world:
The words in Beethoven's will, written on October 6, 1802, are like a cry of despair: “O people, you who consider me heartless, stubborn, selfish — oh, how unfair you are to me! You do not know the secret reason for what you only think! From the early childhood my heart was inclined towards a tender feeling of love and benevolence; but consider that for six years now I have been suffering from an incurable disease, brought to a terrible degree by inept doctors ... With my hot, lively temperament, with my love of communicating with people, I had to retire early, spend my life alone ... For me, not there is rest among people, no communication with them, no friendly conversations. I must live as an exile. If sometimes, carried away by my innate sociability, I succumbed to temptation, then what humiliation I experienced when someone next to me heard a flute from afar, but I did not hear! .. Such cases plunged me into terrible despair, and the thought of committing suicide often came to mind. Only art kept me from it; it seemed to me that I had no right to die until I had done everything to which I felt called... And I decided to wait until the inexorable parks would please to break the thread of my life... I am ready for anything; in my 28th year I was to become a philosopher. It is not so easy, and more difficult for an artist than for anyone else. O deity, you see my soul, you know it, you know how much love it has for people and the desire to do good. Oh people, if you ever read this, then remember that you were unfair to me; and let everyone who is unhappy take comfort in the fact that there is someone like him, who, in spite of all obstacles, did everything he could to be accepted among worthy artists and people.

A bright beginning of the creative path, arrival in Vienna, acquaintance with influential people, famous musicians. It seemed that Beethoven could be happy. Both in art and in life, he achieved what the modest Bonn youth never dreamed of. But fate was knocking on the door. About six years ago he began to be bothered by a hum in his left ear. Beethoven did not understand what was the matter. In the middle of the night he jumped up and listened to himself. For a long time he did not dare to go to the doctor, afraid to find out the truth. And when he found out, he was ready to strike. The doctors consoled, treated, but no means helped - the noise in the ears intensified, the hearing faded. Beethoven stopped hearing the upper sounds of the orchestra, in the theater he had to sit in the front rows, and even then he could hardly understand the actors. He could no longer catch the meaning of the speeches of the interlocutor, only separate words reached him. What an anguish! He learned to pretend to be distracted. But what happens when the truth is found out? Who needs a musician who has lost his hearing?
And doctors recommend Beethoven to go to the town of Heiligenstadt, where the wonderful climate and mountain air can heal him. He rented a room where he composes a lot, in the evening he takes long walks around the neighborhood. But more than a month has passed, and there has been no improvement.
Autumn creeps up unnoticed. Summer is gone, and with it the last hope for recovery. He is deaf, and there is no escape from this. Doctors are powerless before the disease. "Silence, peace, clean air, closeness to nature" - everything turned out to be a pitiful self-deception.

Like a hunted animal, the composer rushes about in search of a way out, but there is no escape. And then the thought of suicide comes. He says goodbye to life, writes a will addressed to the brothers: "Read after my death." What was going on in the soul of a man when he wrote this mournful confession? Now he tells about himself everything that he hid for so long.
He calls for death. And he rejects her. With all the passion the musician attacks himself, his weakness. How could he bend under the blows of fate? No, he will not let himself be trampled on, he will fight, and wrest his happiness from fate! But where is the point of support? In these dark days, music comes to him to save him. She instills in him faith and the will to live: “No, I will not submit. I'll grab fate by the throat!
At the end of 1799, Ludwig met the Brunswick family, aristocrats who had come to Vienna. Soon a relative came to them from Italy - sixteen-year-old Juliet Guicciardi. She loved music and played the piano well. Taking advantage of the presence famous composer, the girl decided to take lessons from him.
He was 30 years old, and his life remained unsettled. Enthusiastic, inclined to exaggerate the dignity of people, Beethoven was carried away by his student. Mistaking the beauty of her face for the beauty of her soul, he proposed to her, but was refused. The obstacle was his material trouble, the aristocratic origin of the girl. Only creativity restored faith in oneself. We will be grateful to Giulietta Guicciardi - thanks to her, an amazingly beautiful work appeared - Sonata No. 14. In the slow movement of the music of its first part, one can hear the confession of a suffering person: tenderness, sadness, meditation ..

When Juliet married the count, Beethoven left for his friend's estate. There he sought loneliness, wandered through the forest for three days, not returning home. Nobody heard a single complaint. Everything was said by music.
Beethoven plays with rapture. It was no coincidence that he remembered the Pathetic Sonata today. It was written four years ago, when the misfortune that had brought him here to Heiligenstadt first knocked on his door. In the sonata, he spoke about himself - about despair and a duel with fate.

After everything that happened to him, Beethoven understood, realized the most important thing - his mission: “Let everything that is life be dedicated to the great and let it be the sanctuary of art! This is your duty to the people and to Him, the Almighty. Only in this way can you once again reveal what is hidden in you. The ideas of new works rained down on him like stars - at that time the Appassionata piano sonata, excerpts from the opera Fidelio, fragments of Symphony No. 5, sketches of numerous variations, bagatelles, marches, masses, the Kreutzer Sonata were born. Having finally chosen his life path, the maestro seemed to have received new strength. So, from 1802 to 1805, works dedicated to bright joy appeared: “ Pastoral symphony», piano sonata"Aurora", "Merry Symphony" ...

Often, without realizing it himself, Beethoven became a pure spring from which people drew strength and consolation. Here is what Beethoven's student, Baroness Ertman, recalls: “When my last child died, Beethoven for a long time could not decide to come to us. Finally, one day he called me to his place, and when I came in, he sat down at the piano and said only: “We will talk to you with music,” after which he began to play. He told me everything, and I left him relieved. On another occasion, Beethoven did everything to help the daughter of the great Bach, who, after the death of her father, found herself on the verge of poverty. He often liked to repeat: "I do not know any other signs of superiority, except kindness."
The inner god was Beethoven's only constant interlocutor.
…………….
Not everyone knows Beethoven's music to this day. But almost everyone knows that Beethoven was deaf. Deafness became a continuation of loneliness. He tries to hide her, but it's getting harder. And then on one of the sheets with sketches he writes: "Let your deafness no longer be a mystery - and in art too ..."
As a young man, Beethoven wrote the so-called Heiligenstadt Testament. "Oh, you people who consider or declare me embittered, stubborn or misanthropic - how unfair you are to me. You do not know the secret reason that I seem like this to you: just think, for six years now I have been struck by an incurable disease .. "I must live as an exile. As soon as I approach society, a burning fear seizes me, I am afraid of being in danger of letting my condition be noticed ... But what a humiliation when someone, standing next to me, heard the sounds of a flute from afar "But I didn't hear anything... Such cases brought me to the verge of despair, a little thing was missing for me to end my life. Only it, art, it kept me. Ah, it seemed impossible to me to leave the world before I had done everything, what I felt called to... O Deity, You penetrate deep into my being from above, You know it, You know that love for people and a desire to do good live in it. Oh people, if you ever read this, think that you were unfair to me, and let the unfortunate one be comforted by finding the same unfortunate ... "
On March 24, 1827, Beethoven took communion for the last time. There was a thunderstorm. Eyewitness account: “After 5 o’clock, lightning with a terrible thunder brightly lit up the dying man’s room. Beethoven opened his eyes, raised his right hand and, stretching his clenched fist up, looked with a stern, menacing face. When he put his raised hand on the bed, his eyes were half closed. He didn't breathe anymore, and his heart didn't beat!" And in this raised fist - the result of Beethoven's life - Victory.

Romain Rolland and his novel "Jean-Christophe"
JEAN-CHRISTOPHE (fr. Jean-Christophe) is the hero of the ten-volume epic novel by R. Rolland "Jean-Christophe" (1904-1912). The great composer L. van Beethoven (1770-1827) served as a kind of prototype for the hero. This is clearly manifested at the beginning of the novel: J.-C. - half-German-half-Fleming, he has a broad face with coarse big features and a mane of thick unruly hair, he was born in a small German town. In the future, the factual similarity ends; J.-K. lives almost a century later, and his fate is different. But the fictional and real composers are still related by creative power and rebellious spirit, - J.K. worthy of his surname Kraft, which means "strength" in German. The first four books ("Dawn", "Morning", "Youth", "Riot") consistently describe the childhood and youth of J.-K. in one of the seedy principalities of Iberian Germany. The son of a court musician, J.-K. at an early age discovers an extraordinary musical talent. A drunkard father, wanting to capitalize on his son's talent, seeks to make him a child prodigy. He, brutally beating, trains the baby, seeking from him a virtuoso playing the violin. Grandfather J.-K., also a musician, records the boy's improvisations, promising him a great future. At the age of six, J.-K. becomes the duke's court musician. His musical opuses addressed to the duke are accompanied by servile dedications written by his father. Maternal uncle, the peddler Gottfried, reveals to Jean-Christophe the charm folk song and a simple truth: music must have meaning, must be "modest and truthful, express genuine, not fake feelings." At the age of eleven, J.-K. is the first violin of the court orchestra, and at fourteen, he alone provides for the whole family: his father, expelled for drunkenness, drowned. J.-K. earns money by teaching in rich houses, enduring ridicule and humiliation. Lessons, rehearsals, concerts in the ducal castle, composing cantatas and marches for official festivities, unsuccessful love for the petty bourgeoisie Minna - Jean - Christophe is lonely, he suffocates in an atmosphere of vulgarity, obsequiousness, servility, and only when he is alone with nature, Unprecedented melodies are born in his soul. He dreams of France, he sees it as the center of culture. The novel "Fair on the Square" is dedicated to the life of J.-K. in Paris. This is the most passionate and angry novel of the entire series, a pamphlet against the decaying art of the 19th century. Everything is sold at the Paris Fair: beliefs, conscience, talent. As in the circles of Dante's hell, Rolland leads his hero through the layers of the Parisian cultural society: literature, theater, poetry, music, press, and J.-C. more and more clearly feels "at first the insinuating, and then the stubborn suffocating smell of death." J.-K. declares an irreconcilable struggle to the fair, he writes the opera "David". But the newly-minted David did not defeat Goliath, the opera did not see the scene: the influential writer, the “salon anarchist” Levy-Coeur, with whom Jean-Christophe inadvertently entered into battle, closed all the doors to the hero. He endures hunger, poverty, falls ill, and then working Paris opens up to him, he is nursed by a girl from the people, the servant Sidoni. And soon the rebellious Jean-Christophe finds a friend - the poet Olivier Janin. Rolland emphasizes the contrast in the appearance and characters of his friends: Jean-Christophe, a huge, strong, self-confident, always eager to fight, and small, stooping, frail, timid, afraid of conflicts and harshness, Olivier. But both of them are pure in heart and generous in soul, both are disinterestedly devoted to art. Friends set themselves the goal of finding and uniting good and honest people. In the novels "In the House" and "Girlfriends" Rolland shows these searches. (The influence of Leo Tolstoy and his idea of ​​reconciling love is noticeable here.) Without adhering to any party, friends draw closer to the workers, to the social democratic movement. The heroism of the struggle intoxicates Jean-Christophe, and he composes a revolutionary song, which the working-class Paris sings the very next day. The stormy romance of J.-K. with Anna Brown ("The Burning Bush") is also akin to a struggle, J.-C. still far from pacifying love. Immersed in the boiling of passions, J.-C. drags Olivier with him to a May Day demonstration, which turns into an armed clash with the police. J.-K. at the barricade, he sings revolutionary songs, he shoots and kills a policeman. Friends hide J.-K. from arrest and sent abroad. There he learns that Olivier has died of his wounds. J.-K. lives in the mountains of Switzerland, he is again lonely, crushed, broken. Little by little, mental health and the ability to create are returning to him. And after some time, he also finds a new friendship-love, having met his former student, Italian Grace. In the final part of the novel, Rolland leads his rebel hero to faith, to the possibility of resolving social conflicts peacefully, to the idea of ​​an extra-social worldwide brotherhood of the intelligentsia - the international of the Spirit ("The Coming Day"). Death of J.-K. Rolland portrays symbolic picture: the hero, crossing a stormy stream, carries a baby on his shoulders - the coming day.
After a century of sympathy for the "little man" with his infirmities and weaknesses, Rolland in his novel embodied the dream of " big man". Jean-Christophe is the personified power, but not the superhuman Nietzschean, but the creative creative power of a genius: he selflessly gives himself to art, and through this service to all mankind. The novel "Jean-Christophe" is a novel of ideas, there are few signs of everyday life, few events, the main attention is focused on the inner world of the hero, on his spiritual evolution.

According to materials:
Lit .: R. Rollan. Bio-bibliographic index. M, 1959; Balakhonov V.E. R. Rollan and his time
("Jean Christophe"). L., 1968; Motyleva T. R. Rollan. 153 M., 1969.
M.Yu.Kozhevnikova
literary heroes. — Academician. 2009.
Nezavisimaya Gazeta 11.03.2005

Chapter VI

ROMAIN ROLLAND: HIGH HEROICS

Becoming a Writer: From Clamcy to the Normal School. — Dramzturge; struggle for new theater. - "Heroic Biography": great at heart. - "Jean Christophe": "the epic of modern life." - "Cola Breugnon": Burgundy character. - War years: "Above the fight."

The world is perishing, strangled by its cowardly and vile egoism. Let's open the windows! Let's let in Fresh air! Let us be blown by the breath of heroes.

R. Rollan

R. Rolland left a legacy of many genres - novels, dramaturgy, memoirs, diaries, letters. He was at the center of social and political events of his time, communicated and corresponded with many people - from ordinary readers to famous writers, philosophers, statesmen who lived in different parts of the world. the globe. His authoritative voice - the voice of a humanist, a truth seeker - was listened to in the world. Rolland proceeded from the idea of ​​the high moral mission of literature and the responsibility of the writer. In 1915, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for "sublime idealism" and "sympathy and love for the truth."

Becoming a Writer: From Clamcy to the Normal School

Romain Rolland was born in! 86b in the town of Clamcy in southern France. This city inherited the spirit of freemen from the Middle Ages, and republicanism from the time of the revolution. It is in Clamcy that the action of the novel "Cola Breugnon" takes place.

The writer's father owned a notary's office in Clamcy. He was distinguished by enviable health and lived to be 95 years old. Mother, a zealous Catholic, madly loved her son, instilled in him a passion for music and admiration for Beethoven. Unlike his father, Rolland was in fragile health, often ill, but he had an inexhaustible supply of creative energy. Thanks to natural talent, Rolland became the pride of the local school, he especially shone in the humanities.

To help his son get a decent education, Rolland's father sells his office and moves to Paris, where he works as a bank employee. In IS86, Rolland becomes a student at the Higher Normal School. Rolland's interests were multifaceted: history, world literature, art history, music, philosophy. He was a writer and scientist; in his multi-genre heritage, research works, primarily musicological, occupy an important place.

Rolland and Tolstoy. Leo Tolstoy played a significant role in the spiritual formation of Rolland. In the 1880s, translations of the works of Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy appeared, and Russian literature is firmly included in cultural life Europe. In 1886, Melchior le Vogüet's book "The Russian Romance" was published in France, which became a significant page in the history of Russian-French literary connections. Introducing his compatriots to the works of Gogol, Turgenev, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, the author of the book noted the humanistic pathos of Russian writers and expressed the conviction that their influence could be “saving” for modern “exhausted art”.

Tolstoy was Rolland's spiritual companion almost throughout his life. French writer: Rolland corresponded with him, created about him biographical book, Tolstoy's name is constantly present in his letters, articles, diaries, memoirs.

Rolland, proceeding from the idea of ​​the moral mission of art, wanted it to carry "a small ray of Love", "the divine light of Mercy". “Neither Aschille nor Shakespeare could shake the souls of their compatriots more deeply than The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, Anna Karenina and the great epic, which in my eyes occupies the place of the new Iliad among these masterpieces, War and the world," Rolland wrote. Tolstoy's article "So what are we to do?", containing harsh criticism of a society built on the oppression of some people by others, stunned Rolland. The student of the Normal School decides to send a letter to the Yasnaya Polyana sage with a list of questions, the main one among which was: "How to live?" Imagine Rolland's surprise when, one evening in October 1887, a 17-page letter from Count Tolstoy himself arrived in his modest attic! The letter, which began with the words "Dear Brother", written in French by the hand of a brilliant Russian writer, made an indelible impression on Rolland. Tolstoy, in the spirit of his doctrine, defended the thesis about the "false role" of science and art, which serve the privileged classes. Under the influence of Tolstoy, Rolland began to think about the "rotten civilization of the exploiters." Not all of Tolstoy's views appealed to Rolland, but Tolstoy's treatise "What is Art?" was in many ways consonant with him, and above all the idea that art and literature are called upon to influence society morally, to elevate and ennoble the souls of people.

Young scientist. In 1889, Rolland graduated from the Normal School and received a tempting offer for a two-year scientific trip to Rome for independent scientific studies. His stay in Italy turned out to be exceptionally fruitful for him. In his younger years, he read books on the history of art with interest and now he could personally get acquainted with excellent museums, see masterpieces of sculpture and painting, and listen to the famous Italian opera.

Scientific work in the field of music forced him to penetrate into the psychology of the composer, to think about the nature of the creative process. In Italy, Rolland first came up with the idea of ​​writing about Beethoven. The first literary experiments of the writer belong to this time - sketches of plays from Italian and Roman history ("Orsino", "Caligula", "Siege of Mantua", etc.). In Italy, two of his dissertations were prepared and defended in 1895: “The Origin of Modern Musical Theatre. The History of European Opera Before Lully and Scarlatti” and “On the Decline of Italian painting in the 16th century." At the same time, the first attempt (unsuccessful) to break onto the stage with the opera Niobe took place.

Teacher. Uncertainty in prospects writing activity encourages Rolland to take up teaching (first at the Normal School, and later at the Sorbonne), which gives him financial independence; he devotes his free time to literary creativity- work the teacher had her positive sides- spiritual communication with students and listeners, who saw in him not an ordinary teacher, but a bright, outstanding personality.

Perhaps, pedagogical activity "slowed down" Rolland's writer's intentions. But at the same time, teaching helped him to accumulate those extensive knowledge of art history, which later became the foundation of many of his works. Rolland the writer in many respects dived from Rolland the psdagogue with his teaching, moral and educational attitude,

The playwright: the struggle for a new theater

Rolland's writing path begins with plays. In the late 189G - early 1900s, he worked mainly as a playwright. It was natural in its own way.

At the end of the 19th century, in Europe, the “new drama” was born, which meant the breaking of outdated canons. entertainment theater. Rolland's plays with their humanistic pathos and serious problems form two genre-thematic groups: Tragedies of Faith and Dramas of the Revolution.

"Tragedies of Faith" The action of these plays takes place in the past, but the story is only a background, a decoration. The main thing for Rolland is moral conflicts, good and evil in a person. Rolland is looking for an answer to a question that is invariably relevant to him: what is the nature of the heroic in a person? In "Saint Louis" (1897), the protagonist is the French king Louis IX, the leader of the crusaders, a man of high moral qualities, the personification of generosity and a popular favorite, and therefore the object of envy of intriguers. And although the historical background in the drama is largely stylized and conventional, and the figure of the protagonist is idealized, the play expresses the deep, humanistic aspirations of its author. The theme "hero and people" is broken up in the drama "Aert" (1898), which takes place in the 17th century, in Holland. Young Prince Aert, a generous, brave man, aspires to be at the head of a movement against Spanish rule.

"Drama of the Revolution". In the context of the heat of the social struggle in France at the end of the 1890s (the Dreyfus affair, the confrontation between the forces of democracy and reaction), Rolland comes to comprehend the most important historical lessons in the life of the country - the lessons of the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794, which a century later remained the subject of acute disputes. This is how the "Dramas of the Revolution" appear.

The cycle was opened by the play "Wolves" 0898), in which echoes of the Dreyfus case sound.

An honest officer of the revolutionary army, a nobleman d "Ouaron, is accused of treason. Verra, a brave warrior, driven by hatred for the aristocracy, insists on this. The Jacobin Tellier stands up to defend the accused. Feeling a personal dislike for d" Ouaron, he proves his innocence. But the justification of d "Warope would mean the dismissal of Verr, a favorite of the soldiers, an experienced commander. To resolve the issue, the Commissioner of the Convention Quesnel arrives. Tellier advocates that justice should prevail under any circumstances. Quesnel, understanding Tellier's legal correctness, nevertheless accepts less the side of Werra, saves him from death, for such an outcome is necessary for the revolution.

"Danton". The second drama of the cycle, "The Triumph of Reason" (1899), is dedicated to the fate of the Girondins. The most significant in the cycle is the drama "Danton" (1900). At its center is the problem of the revolutionary leader. There are two of them in the play, these are polar characters: Danton and Robespierre. Their confrontation is not only personal, but reflects the clash of two tendencies in the revolution; a similar conflict was reproduced by V. Hugo in the novel "The Ninety-Third Year", showing the bearers of two principles; "revolutions of violence" (Cimourdin) and "revolutions of mercy" (Govin).

Danton and Robespierre started out together as leaders of the masses who crushed the monarchy. But time has changed them. Danton is tired of the role of the "punishing sword". The writer characterizes him as follows: "Gargantua in Shakespeare's taste, cheerful and powerful." Tired of violence, blood and murder, he wants mercy and indulgence, which, in his opinion, are more useful for the good of France than uncompromising terror.

Robespierre is stern and incorruptible, his devotion to the Revolution and the Republic is fanatical. Pity and condescension are alien to him. About people like Robespierre, Danton says: “Suffering does not touch them, they have one morality, one policy - to impose their ideas on others.” Akin to Robespierre and his friend Saint-Just. Any criticism addressed to the all-powerful Salvation Committee, any dissent on the part of recent people's leaders is perceived as a crime and, worse, a betrayal. The only means of combating them is the guillotine knife. Judicial proceedings are carried out not according to laws, but according to concepts. The following thesis was put into the mouth of Robespierre: “Revolutionary storms do not obey ordinary laws. The force that transforms the world and creates a new morality cannot be approached from the point of view of ordinary morality, ”The arrested Danton and his associates appear before the Revolutionary Tribunal,

Rolland is one of the first to build an entire act of his drama as a kind of transcript of a court session, a violent clash of points of view.

In his courageous speech, Danton dismisses many accusations, in particular, that he lived in a big way, while the people were starving. Simple people in the audience sympathize with Danton. The situation is saved by Saint-Just: he reports that in the evening a caravan of ships with flour and fuel arrives at the port. After that, the courtroom rapidly empties, people rush to replenish their meager supplies. As a result, Danton and his friends are left alone, without moral support. The jury is on the side of the government. The verdict, predetermined, incriminates them with a conspiracy against the Republic, punishable by death.

While working on a cycle of plays about the revolution, Rolland could not ignore the theme of the people. Here the writer was helped by the experience of Shakespeare, the author of historical chronicles, whose heritage Rollal carefully studied. The cycle of "Drama of the Revolution" was concluded by the play "The Fourteenth of July", in the center of which is a great event - the storming of the Bastille. According to Rolland, "here individuals dissolve in the people's ocean. To depict a storm, there is no need to write out a separate wave - you need to write the future sea.

The drama expresses a powerful popular protest against the crime of the monarchy and the entire feudal system. Rolland depicted the participants in the storming of the Bastille vividly and brightly, showing that euphoria, heroism and faith in the triumph of justice that characterize the first steps of the revolution. The drama contains elements of a folk festive action, during which choirs sound, orchestras ring, and the people form a round dance around the romantic symbol of Freedom. This play was a kind of prototype for the “dramas of mass action” dedicated to the class struggle, which were popular in the West in the 1930s.

"People's Theatre": "the art of action". Finishing work on a cycle of plays, Rolland sums up his theoretical conclusions in the book “People's Theatre. Experience in the Aesthetics of the New Theatre” (1903). In this book, Rolland substantiates the "art of action" program that has a moral impact on the audience. The people's theater should be guided by a broad democratic audience. No matter how significant the plays of classical aturgos and dramas are, the repertoire of the modern theater should be made up of modern authors. The theater can draw spiritual strength from the people's environment. Rolland is convinced that "the folk theater is the key to the whole world of new art, to a world that art is only just beginning to anticipate." Time, however, has shown Rolland's fine soul. He later admitted that his plan to create folk theater collapsed when faced with real practice. The book was, he said, the product of the "rapturous faith of youth".

Does this mean, however, that the very idea of ​​such a theater is utopian, naive, incompatible with the very nature of the stage, for which family, socio-psychological plays are most natural? It seems that the answer to this question cannot be simplified and unambiguous. Theater reflects time; in revolutionary eras, its problems and style change. Suffice it to recall Mayakovsky's Mystery Buff, Trenev's Love Yarovaya, Bulgakov's Days of the Turbins, Armored Train 14-69 Vs. Ivanova and many others, whose artistic merit, longevity and stage success are undeniable.

"Heroic Biographies": great at heart

In the early 1900s, at a time of intense spiritual and creative quest, Rolland conceived a series of biographies of great people - statesmen, military leaders, scientists, and artists. Only a part of the plan was implemented - this is a kind of triptych, which included the biographies of Beethoven, Michelangelo, Tolstoy.

In the preface to the series, Rolland wrote in his usual emotionally pathetic manner: “There is stuffy stale air around us. Decrepit Europe falls into hibernation in this oppressive, musty atmosphere... The world is suffocating. Let's open the windows! Let's let the free air in! Let us be blown by the breath of a hero.”

Who is the hero in Rolland's interpretation? These are not the ones who won by thought or force. For him, heroes are those who are great at heart. Without the greatness of the soul, one cannot be either a great person or a great artist. The model for Rolland was "the powerful and pure soul of Beethoven."

Rolland addresses his hero, a contemporary, close person: "Dear Beethoven!" He writes with admiration about how, exhausted by ailments, the collapse of love, terrible deafness for a musician, Beethoven creates his most life-affirming, exultant work for the choir to the words of Schiller - the Ninth Symphony with its final "Hymn to Joy". And in harmony with the final chords of Beethoven's masterpiece - the pathetic finale of Rolland's essay: "What battle of Bonaparte, what sun of Austerlitz can compete in glory with this superhuman work, with this victory, the most radiant of all that the spirit has ever won?" The Beethoven theme will become the dominant feature of Rolland's entire life and creative quest.

A book about Michelangelo, the creative genius of the Renaissance, was written in the same key. The material for this book was the investigations of Rolland, made in Italy. It was an extensive work, consisting of three parts, containing both a biographical description and an art history analysis. The writer titled the two main stages of the artist's life as "Struggle" and "Rejection", and called the last section "Loneliness".

In 1911, after Tolstoy's death, he wrote his "heroic biography", paying tribute to his beloved artist.

Beethoven, Michelangelo and Tolstoy are a special type of hero. The hardships of life are not able to extinguish their creative enthusiasm. Triumphing over a ruthless fate, they turn out to be moral winners. The inner meaning of their heroic life is determined by Rolland's favorite formula: Per aspera ad astra (through thorns to the stars).

"Jean Christophe": "the epic of modern life"

All of Rolland's previous work in the field of dramaturgy, journalism, and art criticism turned out to be a prologue to the creation of a large-scale prose form - the novel Jean Christophe (1904-1912). He became the main book of Rolland, brought him European fame. In "Jean Christophe" the aesthetics, life philosophy and artistic methodology of the writer are most fully expressed.

Genre originality: "novel-river". The idea for the novel originated as early as 1890, when Rolland was in Italy, where he was struck by great works of art. Rolland thought about their creators, who seemed to him to be true titans. Then he was captivated by the personality of Beethoven.

The history of world literature knows the "titanic" images of Prometheus, Faust, Manfred, built on the combination of reality with fantasy. Rolland puts the genius at the center and places him in a concrete, real environment. The writer introduced many facts of Beethoven's biography into the biography of Jean Christophe, endowed his hero with Beethoven's character, his passion, uncompromisingness.

Autobiographical motifs are noticeable in the novel: the fragility, poetry, delicacy of Rolland are reflected in the image of Olivier, a friend of Christophe. Firmness, courage of Rolland in upholding his principles, his love for music - in Jean Christophe. The writer gave his hero the name Kraft, that is, strength.

In the center of the story is the fate of a brilliant musician, traced from birth to death. “This is a kind of intellectual and moral epic of the modern soul...,” Rolland wrote about Jean Christophe.

Of course, Rolland has a sonial-historical context, but the main thing is the image of the hero's life path. Jean Christophe with his high spirituality and moral purity- personification " the best people Europe", with which the novelist pinned his hopes. The comparison of Jean Christophe with the Christian hero, Saint Christopher, is significant. The epigraph to the novel is significant: "To the free souls of all nations who suffer, fight and win." Rolland made Jean Christophe a German, thereby emphasizing that great art is above national barriers. Christophe's close friend is French.

The new vital material demanded a new form. Rolland writes a ten-volume epic novel, unlike the usual novel cycles, such as Zola's Rougon-Macquarts, T. Mann's Buddenbrooks. "Jean Christophe" in its own way anticipated M. Proust's epic "In Search of the Lost Name".

Almost ten years of labor, burning, Rolland gave to the novel, he lived "in the armor of Jean Christophe." The novel was printed separate parts in the journal Weekly Notebooks (1904-J912), whose editor was the famous writer and friend of Rolland Charles Péguy. And in 1921, in the preface to the next edition of "Jean Christophe", the writer proposed to combine books that are similar in "atmosphere" and "sound", and four parts. As a result, the work appeared as a "four-movement symphony".

Spiritual Odyssey of a Hero: Life as a Creative Process. The first part of the epic ("Dawn", "Morning", "Boyhood") covers early years Christoph. Rolland explores the awakening of his feelings and heart in the narrow confines of his small homeland and puts the hero in the face of trials. Here the features are especially clear. novel-education", the model of which was for Rolland "Wilheim Meister" Goethe, internal theme- the collision of a brilliant child with the harsh realities of life and the formation of artistic talent and musical worldview in him.

In a provincial German town on the banks of the "old man of the Rhine", a child is born who will live long life. The child learns the world around him, the warmth of mother's hands, colors, sounds, voices. “A huge stream of time rolls slowly ... 6 islands of memories appear in the river of life.”

With special attention, the future musician perceives the zauks that form into melodies. The family is in dire need. Jean Christophe's father Melchior Kraft, a musician in the duke's court orchestra, is kicking clear of the family's modest budget; mother Louise works as a cook. Jean Christophe recognizes the humiliation of poverty.

Grandfather gives his grandson an old piano. Touching the keys, Jean Christophe plunges into the world of enchanting sounds and tries to compose. For the first time in literature, Rolland lifts the curtain of mystery over composer creativity. In the perception of the child, zooks merge with the outside world, nature. Uncle Gottfried, who loves his grandson, endowed with a sensitive soul, teaches: music should be “modest” and truthful, help to expose the inner world “to the very bottom”.

At the age of six, Jean Christophe composed pieces for the piano, then began performing in the court orchestra, composing music to order.

Art of this kind is not to his liking: "the very source of his life and joy is poisoned." After the death of his grandfather and father, Jean Christophe is forced to take care of his mother and two younger brothers.

The maturation of the hero's musical talent is inseparable from his inner growth. Like many extraordinary people, Jean Christophe is lonely. He needs a close friend, a beloved woman.

Jean Christophe has many hobbies. His feelings are sublime, direct, not always subject to common sense, and therefore usually do not find a worthy response. Christophe is a maximalist who puts in love and friendship high bar, requiring complete dedication, excluding selfishness, lies, frivolity. As the story develops, the “soul life” of the hero is in the center of artistic attention, his emotions are exaggerated, acquire a special scale and energy.

The Hero and Society: The Revolt of Jean Christophe. The second part of the epic includes the books "Riot", "Fair on the Square", in which a new important stage in the life of the hero is recreated. First of all, Jean Christophe rebels against his former self, tearing off his “yesterday, already dead shell”, and sharply evaluates his early works as “warm water, caricature-ridiculous nonsense”. With the vehemence of youth, he falls upon many classical composers, seeing falsehood and sentimentality in their works. With youthful maximalism, he is ready to do everything “again or redo”. Christoph also appears in a local music magazine with shocking articles in which he subverts the authorities of the masters.

From rebellion in the musical sphere, Jean Christophe moves on to a critical understanding of society. He notices the changes that took place in Germany at the end of the century: in the country of philosophers and musicians, "a suffocating atmosphere of crude militarism" is thickening. During a peasant holiday, Jean Christophe, standing up for the girls, gets into a fight with the soldiers. To avoid prosecution, he is forced to leave Germany and flee to Paris.

The book "Fair on the Square" occupies a special place in the novel. The narrative here takes on the character of a pamphlet, satirical intonations appear.

Christophe arrives in Paris full of illusions, because France is a country of freedom, unlike Germany with its estate remnants. But in the French capital, he sees only the "great comedy." Once Thackeray wrote about the bourgeois-aristocratic society as a "vanity fair", Jean Christophe opens another fair - a fair of general venality, a giant marketplace. Jean Christophe calls modern art, which has become an object of sale and purchase, "intellectual prostitution". Lies and vulgarity in art cause him a violent reaction. Christoph is faced with representatives of different spheres of the capital's society. Communication with politicians convinces him that for them "serving the people" is in fact only the realization of selfish interests, "a profitable, but little respected branch of trade and industry." In the work of modern French composers, Jean Christophe criticizes the anemic, naivety of plots. Among the champions of "new music" he finds only "a tangle of professional tricks", an imitation of "superhuman ruptures", a lack of "naturalness". In the literature of Jean Christophe, decadent phenomena irritate; in the theater - entertainment, the dominance of lightweight genres.

Overcoming illness, mental pain, Christophe continues to work. But his symphonic painting "David", based on which - biblical story, is not understood by the public and fails. The fruit of the experienced shock is the serious illness of the hero.

In search of "another France". The third part includes the books "Antoinette", "In the House", "Girlfriends", fanned by the atmosphere of gentle "spiritual concentration". Jean Christophe is looking for "another France" to love and finds it in Olivier Janin.

Olivier is a young poet, intelligent, generous, "hating hate", he admires Christophe's music. With outward dissimilarity, they are spiritually close: both are distinguished by spiritual purity, adherence to high moral and ethical concepts. Thanks to Olivier, Christophe is convinced: there is true France, "an indestructible block of granite." Their relationship is a kind of model of creative mutual enrichment of the cultures of the two countries. Rolland is unreflective of his moral postulate: culture is an international kinship of souls, which must triumph over national barriers.

Not without the help of Olivier, the press finally pays favorable attention to Christophe. The long-awaited success comes to him. Jean Christophe helps bring Olivier closer to Jacqueline Lantier, knowing that it will be detrimental to their friendship. And so it happens. Marrying Jacqueline, Olivier, absorbed in joys family life, moves away from Christoph.

The fourth part of the novel includes two books: The Burning Bush and The Coming Day. This is the finale of the long, difficult life of the hero, his spiritual Odyssey.

Christophe's life is a persistent search for a kind of "creed". Together with Opivier, they want to bring life to the "altar of the new god - the people." In The Burning Bush, the theme of political struggle enters the novel; the hero has to choose with whom he will be - with the workers' leaders or against them. At a May Day demonstration, Jean Christophe meets Olivier; clashes with the police. Christophe kills a policeman, and Olivier, trampled by the mob, later dies in the hospital.

After the events in Paris, Jean Christophe flees to Switzerland and takes refuge in Dr. Brown's house. There he experiences a new love - to the doctor's wife, Anna Brown. Christoph and Anna show physical and spiritual harmony; Anna, a sincere, believing nature, suffers, cheating on her husband, even tries to lay hands on herself. They part, and Christophe is going through another spiritual crisis.

And again, love heals the hero from despair, brings creativity back to life. Christophe meets Grazia, who was his student in her youth. Now she is a widow with two children. They want to get married. But an obstacle arises: the son of Grazia, a sickly and unbalanced boy, is insanely jealous of his mother. After his death, Grazia herself passes away.

Christoph is alone. He experiences a happy merging with nature, composes using the motives of Spanish folk songs and dances, similar to "flashes of flame". The last wish of Jean Christophe is deeply symbolic: to unite the children of his departed friends - the daughter of Grazia and the son of Olivier. Life forces leave Christophe. One of the exciting scenes of the novel: before the blurred gaze of the dying hero, images of people dear to him pass. The river of life, overflowing its banks, flows into the ocean of eternity.

"Musical novel": a sounding word. The novel made a huge impression, put forward Rolland in a number of writers of world importance. Readers were struck by the originality and emotional strength of the protagonist and the artistic form of the work. Rolland made the musical "symphonic" principle structure-forming in the novel. Life for a musician is filled with inner integrity: its individual phases are like parts of a monumental symphonic composition. Rolland is in love with music. He hears it in the rhythms of Christophe's life. This is how a happy synthesis of sound and word is formed.

"Jean Christophe" was a new genre variety. This is a "roman-river". In the style of Rolland - lyricism, expression, metaphor. Such a manner corresponded to the state of the protagonist, immersed in the world of sublime feelings and impulses.

The final, tenth book, The Coming Day, begins like this: “Life passes. Body and soul dry up like a stream. Years are marked in the core of the trunk of an aging tree. Everything in the world dies and is reborn. Only you, Music, are not mortal, you alone are immortal. You are the inland sea. You are as deep as the soul ... "

The author is not only a prose writer with a poetic vision of the world, but also a musicologist who gravitates toward abstract, metaphorical and emotional vocabulary. The musicality of the novel is also determined by its sublime pathos. Not material calculations, not selfish pettiness, but the breadth of the soul, commitment to spiritual values, love, friendship, inspired creativity - such is life credo Main character. And it is close to its creator.

Romantic element. Musicality grows out of the romantic element of the novel, which is expressed in the thickening of colors, in the special strength of the characters' feelings. It is unlawful to approach the novel with the standards of lifelikeness, including psychological. Not only Jean Christophe, but also his friends feel stronger than ordinary people, and in this regard they act more boldly, more recklessly.

The well-known duality of the novel, and especially of the protagonist, is also connected with romance. On the one hand, it can be said that Jean Christophe is a representative figure, according to Rolland, "the heroic representative of a new generation, passing from one war to another, from 1870 to 1914." On the other hand, the image of the protagonist is symbolic: Jean Christophe is the embodiment of Goodness and Justice in the eternal confrontation between light and dark forces.

To a certain extent, Herzen's formula is applicable to Rolland's hero: "history is in man." The writer had the right to say that Jean Christophe is no longer a stranger in any country on the globe. The novel made Rolland a figure of international significance, allowed him to hear people from different countries say: “Jean Christophe is ours. He is mine. He is my brother. He is myself."

"Cola Breugnon": Burgundy character

"Jean Christophe" is followed by the story "Cola Bruignon" (1914), which appeared on the eve of the First World War. This is a book of a completely different tone, it introduced the "new" Rolland. Collecting material for the book, the writer visited his native places, in Burgundy, in Clamcy. He immersed himself in history, in folklore, in folk traditions. Rolland placed in the center of the work a simple man, Col Bruignon, a wood carver. The narration is conducted on behalf of the hero, which gives the story a special, confidential intonation. While working on the story, Rolland focused on the style of the French medieval fablios, on folklore, on the aesthetics of Rabelais.

The story, which takes place in 1616, conveys the historical flavor of the late Middle Ages: feudal civil strife, rude behavior of soldiers, folk peasant holidays with ritual games, anti-clerical sentiments among the townspeople. The hero reads Plutarch; and this is a sign of the times: it was during the Renaissance that the treasures of the ancient world were discovered. The story is built like a diary of the protagonist. Before readers - a series of episodes, told with a kind smile, sometimes mockery or irony.

Cola Breugnon, quite unlike Jean Christophe, is close to him internally. He is devoted to creativity, although he calls it prosaically: "labor hunger." Brugnon creates furniture, utensils, skillfully inlaid his products. Work for him is "an old comrade who will not betray." “Armed with an ax, a chisel and a chisel with a fugaik in my hands, I reign at my workbench over knotted oak, over glossy maple,” writes Brugnon in his diary. For the hero, the products he created are like children who have scattered around the world.

The story sings the poetry of labor. With the same inspiration as about the art of a musician, Rolland writes about the skill of this folk craftsman.

The writer admires people who know how to "sow, grow oats and wheat, cut, graft grapes, reap, knit sheaves, thresh grain, squeeze bunches ... in a word, be masters of French soil, fire, water, air - all four elements."

The personal life of Cola Breugnon is not very happy. His poetic feeling for Lasochka was not mutual. Kolya's wife is grumpy, the children do not make their father very happy. Tender feelings are caused by his only daughter Martin, as well as his students Robin and Capie.

Cola is an optimist. Neither the strife of his sons, nor the plague, nor the fire, nor the feudal civil strife can crush his love of life. A successor to the traditions of Rabelais, Rolland endows Brunion with "pantagruelism", an invariable sense of the beauty of the world, the ability to rejoice and enjoy life.

The material of the novel is in harmony with his style: the writer uses rhythmic prose, includes jokes, proverbs, sayings in the text of the work. "Cola Brugnon, an old sparrow of Burgundian blood, vast in spirit and belly." All this was masterfully conveyed into Russian by M. L. Lozinsky (known to us from his translations of Dante's Divine Comedy, Shakespeare's Hamlet and other masterpieces of world literature).

In Rolland's "Notes of Brugnon's Grandson" we read: "And when Gorky writes that Cola Brugnon, which he likes more than all my books, is a Gallic challenge to war, he is not so wrong." In the early 1930s, the novel was published with illustrations by the artist E. A. Kibrik, which the author really liked. Composer D. B. Kabalevsky wrote the opera Cola Breugnon (1937) based on the novel.

War years: "Above the fight"

The First World War (1914-1918) is a historical watershed in the life of Europe, its cultures and literature. This war became fatal for Rolland, his spiritual quest; was a huge test, not only physical, but also moral, for many masters of culture.

Public figure and humanist. Rolland took the war both as a personal tragedy and as a crime against humanity and civilization. Instead of the all-human brotherhood that Rolland dreamed of, he observed an orgy of hatred and the collapse of the foundations of culture. Sympathizing with the victims of the war, the writer refused to join the patriotic choir. His anti-war, pacifist stance provoked fierce attacks, a stream of accusations against him, including accusations of treason. At first he was alone. It took a lot of civic courage to survive in these conditions. As in Jean Christophe, in Rolland, a man of fragile health, lived the soul of an unbending fighter. He continued the tradition that was personified by Voltaire, Hugo and

During the war years, the writer is included in the work of the International Red Cross in Geneva, provides assistance to war victims, refugees, prisoners of war. Rolland writes hundreds of letters, interceding for different people. And he receives news from all over Europe - his authority is so high, his name is so significant.

Rolland publishes a publicist book "Above the Fight" (1915). The writer set himself the task of protecting himself from "mental militarism", preserving the spiritual values ​​of "world civilization for the future." He wrote in his book: great people, drawn into the war, must not only protect his borders, he must also protect his mind ... "

During the war years, Rolland made many new friends. The writer was supported by Roger Martin du Gard, future Nobel laureate doctor Albert Schweitzer, brilliant physicist Albert Einstein, philosopher Bertrand Russell, playwright Bernard Shaw. Rolland helps to rally the anti-war forces of the progressive European intelligentsia.

In 1915, Rolland was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. The performance noted "the sublime idealism of his literary creativity and the sympathetic accuracy with which he described the various human types.

The beginning of R. Rolland's correspondence with M. Gorky dates back to 1916. Their twenty-year friendship and creative contacts are one of the most interesting pages of Russian-French literary ties. Rolland is friends with Stefan Zweig, who wrote the first book about him. The writer supports the anti-militarist speeches of John Reid, Henri Barbusse, author anti-war novel"Fire". He followed with interest the development of events in Russia after October 1917. Rolland sympathized with the processes of renewal of life, but at the same time he was anxious about revolutionary violence.

War in art and journalism. The artistic and journalistic heritage of Rolland during the war period is diverse and weighty. At this time, the writer keeps detailed diaries that were not intended for publication. They contain frank, impartial assessments of events, an analysis of the writer's searches and doubts. Rolland does not spare nationalist writers, exposes the connection between war crimes and financial interests. During his stay in Moscow in 1935, Rolland handed over the manuscripts of the “Diary of the War Years” to the Lenin Library with a request to make it public in 20 years, which was done in 1955.

A kind of continuation of the collection "Above the fight" was the publicistic book "Forerunners" (1319), dedicated to memory those who became victims of terror and militarism: Jean Jaurès, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht. Rolland calls them "martyrs for a new faith - the universal brotherhood of peoples." Among them, he includes Leo Tolstoy.

"Liliuli": the power of laughter. Among the works of art related to the theme of war is the play-farce "Lilyuli", written in a satirical Aristophanes manner. The pathos of the work is in exposing the war, its ideological covers. Numerous active limes represent modern society. It is unfair, built on a class-hierarchical principle and resembles a carnival-masquerade.

People live in a world of phantoms, fetishes, they believe in the Blindfolded Mind, in Brotherhood and Freedom, which have lost their meaning, turned into their opposite. In this state, Illusion (Lilyuli) actually rules, appearing in the guise of a blond, blue-eyed, seductive girl, before whom no one can resist. It is she who causes rivalry between two young men: Altair (Frenchman) and Antares (German), who begin a fratricidal struggle, believing that they are doing a just cause.

The only sane character in this absurd world is the hunchback Polichinel, the bearer of laughter and common sense at the same time. Genetically, he is “the brother of Cola Breugnon”, the embodiment of people's straightforwardness, the ability to “cut the truth-womb”.

"Pierre and Luce": "knife of war". Rolland's story "Pierre and Luce" (1920) is written in a different tone.

The heroes of the story, Pierre and Luce, are modern young people, their love collides with the madness of war. The protagonist, 18-year-old Pierre Aubier, is the forerunner of the "lost generation" - the generation that went through the crucible of war (the heroes of the works of E. M. Remarque, E. Hemingway). Drafted into the army and given a six-month deferment, he, like many of his peers, feels the monstrous absurdity of what is happening.

Pierre meets Luce, a simple sweet girl. Their feeling is pure, joyful and at the same time covered with sadness. The time for parting is inexorably approaching. But evil fate hits them earlier. Filled with deep tenderness for each other, immensely happy, they come to the church and die under the rubble of a column that collapsed as a result of a bomb explosion.

"Clerambault": the heavy epiphany of the hero. Another aspect of the anti-war theme - the liberation of man from illusions, delusions - is revealed by Rolland in the novel Clerambo (1920).

The protagonist, Agenor Clerambault, is a middle-aged intellectual, a gifted poet, a little naive and social affairs. When the war starts, he will succumb to the jingoistic impulse, hatred for the "Huns", spy mania. These sentiments are gradually fading away. The patriotic sentiments of Clerambault collapse after the news of the death of the son of Front-line soldier Makshen. The reasoning of the young revolutionary Juliec Moreau, an admirer of Lenin, frightens Clerambault. In desperation, seeing no other way out, the hero goes to the front, where he dies. Before dying, he forgives his enemy.

Later, radical critics emphasized the ideological vulnerability of what they called "clerambism" (the hero's pacifist position).

After the First World War, Romain Rolland continued to write. It was an extremely fruitful and significant time for the writer. Rolland's work of this period is already considered in the course of literature of the 20th century.

The first post-war years were for Rolland sometimes intense spiritual quest associated with the challenges of the time. He had to carry on polemics with such radical communists as Henri Barbusse, the leader of the Clarte. To supporters of revolutionary actions, he opposed his position as an opponent of violence, an advocate of the spiritual and moral renewal of society.

In the 1920s, Rolland wrote a book about Indian philosophers Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, dramas The Game of Love and Death (1925), Palm Sunday (1926), Soul” (1922-1934), dedicated to the theme of the difficult quest of the Western intelligentsia. Rolland's views are markedly radicalized (collection "Farewell to the Past", 1934), he expresses his sympathy for the USSR and, together with M. Gorky, seeks to unite the "masters of culture" in confronting the fascist threat. In 1935 he came to the USSR, met with Gorky.

In 1939, Rolland wrote the drama Robespierre, in which he reflects on the revolution and the fate of its leaders. Meanwhile, the “purges” that began in the USSR worry Rolland, his attempts to help his “disappeared” (repressed) friends have no response. Only in the late 1980s were his notes related to his stay in the USSR and meetings with Gorky made public. Rolland survived the German occupation; last years he is working on memoirs, completing a study on Beethoven, writing a book on Charles Peguy.

Romain Rolland always had grateful readers and numerous friends in our country, M. P. Kudasheva, the translator of his works, later became the writer's wife, the keeper of his archive. In 1966, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rolland was celebrated in the USSR. He was invariably the object of attention of Russian researchers (I. I. Anisimov, T. L. Motyleva, V. E. Balakhonov, I. B. Dyushen, etc.), however, ideological stereotypes of the pre-perestroika period were reflected in their works. Several times, starting from the 1930s, collected works of the writer were published. As an artist of the word and a humanist thinker, Romain Rolland occupies an undeniable place in the history of world literature. In his work, the writer responded to the most important literary, aesthetic and socio-political problems of the 20th century. His vast legacy needs a historical approach and objective analysis.

Literature

Artistic texts

Roman R. Collected works: in 14 volumes / R. Rolland; under the editorship of I. I. Anisimov. - M., 1954-1958.

Roman R. Memoirs / R. Roland. - M., 1966.

Roman R. Articles, letters / R. Roland. - M., 1985.

Roman R. Fav. works / R. Roland; post-last 3. Kirnose. - M., 1988. - (Ser. "Laureates Nobel Prize»).

Criticism. Teaching aids.

Balakhonov V.E. Romain Rolland and his time. early years/ V. E. Balakhonov. - L., 1972.

Duchen I. B. "Jean Christophe" Romain Rolland / I. B. Duchen. - M., 1966.

Motyleva T. L. Romain Rolland /T. L. Motyleva. - M, 1969- - (Ser. ZhZL).

Motyleva T. L. Creativity of Romain Rolland / T. L. Motyleva. - M., 1959.

The novel "Jean Christophe": materials for analysis

Describing the history of the creation of the novel, we note that it is interesting and characteristic of Rolland's creative process. He wrote about this in detail in the "Afterword to the Russian edition of 1931" 1 . The idea of ​​the work was born in 1890, the final chapters were written in June 1912. The idea was hatched for ten years. The structure of the work was carefully thought out and weighed. “I belong to the old breed of bourgeois builders,” Rolland wrote. “I would never have started a work without first laying out its foundation and defining all its main outlines.” For almost ten years, Rolland gave the book all his intellectual, spiritual and emotional strength. All this time, Rolland had to combine work on the novel with other duties - teaching, writing historical and musicological works, working for a piece of bread. Later, he recalled: “But in these ten years not a single day has passed when he (“Jean Christophe.” - B. G.) would not be with me. He didn't even have to speak. He was there: the author was talking to his shadow.” Note that the fifth book of the epic, "Fair on the Square", is preceded by Rolland's preface, which is called "The Dialogue of the Author with the Shadow."

1. Defining the pathos of his work, Rolland testified: “I am not writing a literary work. I'm writing a creed."

How do you understand these words? Comment on Rolland's words:

“The obligation that I took upon myself in Jean Christophe was to awaken the spiritual fire dormant under the ashes during the period of the moral and social decay of France.”

2. Introduction to the work and the very appearance of Beethoven, who captivated Rolland, was one of the main stimuli in the work on the novel. Why did the great composer become the most important hero for the writer? Why did Beethoven's personality type correspond to the life philosophy and aesthetics of the writer? Describe Beethoven's life as a "heroic biography", and the composer himself as a "titan" in the field of creativity. Remember the titanic images in world literature, such as Prometheus, Faust, Manfred. What are the characteristics of these images?

What is the originality and complexity of Rolland's idea, capturing a genius, a musician against the backdrop of contemporary society? Do you see autobiographical features of the writer in the image of the protagonist? Did Rolland himself, a man of fragile health, have the fortitude, courage in defending his convictions, characteristic of Jean Christophe? At what moments in Rolland's life did his uncompromising and steadfastness manifest itself most realistically?

What is the meaning of the dedication in the novel: "To the free souls of all nations who suffer, fight and win"? Describe the internationalist pathos of the novel. Why was courage and independence required of a writer to make a German the protagonist of a book? Remember the events of the Franco-Prussian War, the Dreyfus affair. What is the role of music in the history of German culture? What great composers besides Beethoven can you name? What is the significance of Wagner's music for the literary process at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries?

3. Describe the structure of the novel "Jean Christophe". How does Rolland himself define it in the preface to the Paris edition of 1921 2 ? The writer calls his work "a four-part symphony." What is the content and pathos of each of the parts?

Analyze genre nature novel "Jean Christophe". What is an epic novel 3? What examples of this genre in the literature of the period under review do you know (remember the work of E. Zola, A. Frans, G. Mann)? Name the cycles of novels that form epic canvases (E. Zola, G. Mann, T. Hardy, T. Dreiser, etc.).

In what works of the period under consideration is the fate of a creative person - a painter, musician, scientist - in the center? Remember the work of E. Zola, G. de Maupassant, T. Dreiser, J. London. Why is the novel "Jean Christophe" called by Western literary critics "novel-river"? How do you understand this definition?

4. Explain Rolland's judgment of your novel: "This is a kind of intellectual and moral epic of the modern soul."

Why, tracing the life of a brilliant musician, does Rolland focus on his inner, emotional state?

"Jean Christophe" is called " musical novel". How does Rolland achieve the harmonious unity of form and content, i.e., the image of the composer, the specifics of his creative work and the figurative and stylistic system of the work with its inner musicality?

5. Describe the first three books of the novel ("Dawn", "Morning", "Boyhood"). How does Rolland convey “the awakening of the feelings and heart of the hero” in the parental nest, within the narrow limits of the “small homeland”? How brings him to the first life's trials? How does Jean Christophe develop an idea of ​​his life mission. Follow the most significant plot milestones in the first three books of the novel.

What is the situation in the family of Jean Christophe? How does a child perceive the world around him and how does he manifest musical impulses? Analyze his relationship with his grandfather, father, uncle Gottfried; the first musical compositions of Jean Christophe and early performances in the court orchestra. How does the musical talent of the hero mature? What is the nature of the hero's hobbies? What is the manifestation of maximalism in love and friendship? What is the “bar” of human relations?

How does Rolland portray the "life of the soul" of his hero?

6. Identify the issues of the following two books: "Riot", "Fair in the Square." What role did his "German" and "French" experience play in the development of the worldview and character of the hero? How is the spiritual growth of the hero? Jean Christophe tears off his "yesterday's, already dead shell." What does it mean?

How does the transition of Jean Christophe from "rebellion" in the musical sphere to "rebellion" in the social sphere take place? What was the reason for his flight from Germany?

7. Why does the book Fair in the Square have a special place in the novel? What famous writer used the word "fair" in the meaning of "trade" to characterize the bourgeois-aristocratic society? In what cases do the features of the grotesque, satire, pamphlet appear in the style of the novel? Give examples. How do Jean Christophe's illusions about France as a country of freedom, opposed to Germany with its militaristic spirit and vestiges of class, disappear in Paris? Describe the character's reaction to modern Art which has become the subject of sale. What are the views of Jean Christophe on literature, theater, "new music"? What is Levi-Coeur, the antagonist of Jean Christophe? Why does his symphonic painting "David" fail?

Try to compare the image of corrupt art in Rolland's "Fair on the Square" with similar pictures in the novels: "Lost Illusions" by O. de Balzac, "Money" by E. Zola, "Dear Friend" Where is Maupassant. To whom, in your opinion, is Rolland closer: to his older contemporaries - Zola and Maupassant, or to Balzac?

8. The role of philosophy, moral, ethical and aesthetic views of L. N. Tolstoy in the development of Rolland is well known, as the author of Jean Christophe himself repeatedly wrote about. Do you agree with the point of view of the literary critic T. L. Motyleva, who in her book “On the World Significance of L. N. Tolstoy” writes: “... Close to Tolstoy’s ideas, an understanding of the artist’s duty underlies the entire concept of the novel “Jean Christophe” . This understanding is expressed by Rolland in biographical sketches about Beethoven, Michelangelo, Mill and in articles about the composer”? TL Motyleva also believes that "Rolland, like Tolstoy, is meticulously intolerant of any distortion for the sake of an external effect" 4 . Express your opinion on this topic.

In the article “The Poison of Idealism” (1900), Rolland wrote: “Whatever the scope of our activity, we will serve the truth ... there are only two kinds of art in the world: one that is inspired by life, and one that is content with conventionality. Truth first." Can this point of view be fully accepted? Does this not result in distrust, an underestimation of the conventions in art, as well as its "non-realistic" forms, such as naturalism, symbolism?

9. Describe the plot twists and turns of the following books of the novel: Antoinette, In the House. How does the tone of the story change? Let us ponder the words of Rolland, who writes that these books are fanned by an atmosphere of tenderness and spiritual concentration, serve as a contrast to the previous part with its frenzied enthusiasm and hatred, and sound like an elegiac song to the glory of Friendship and Pure Love. What is the meaning of the hero's search for "another France"? Describe the image of Olivier Jeannin, milestones of his friendship with Jean Christophe. What is the basis of this friendship? Do the characters' relationships in any way reflect life philosophy Rolland and the moral and ethical pathos of the novel? Is the German-French friendship an embodiment of the novelist's internationalist convictions?

trace storyline Olivie.

10. Describe the last books of the novel: "Girlfriends", "The Burning Bush", "The Coming Day", in which the main character's life odyssey is completed. How, together with Olivier, does the hero seek the "symbol of faith", wants to bring life to the "altar of the new god - the people"? How is the theme of political struggle realized in The Burning Bush? How is the labor movement, its methods and its leaders characterized in the novel? Give examples. What is the position of Olivier and Jean Christophe? Comment on Rolland's words: “Olivier returned to his seclusion. Christophe was not slow to join him. Positively, they felt out of place in the revolutionary social movement. Olivier could not join the common people. Christoph didn't want to. Olivier moved away from them in the name of the weak, Christophe in the name of the strong, the independent.

What is the position of Rolland himself? What was the attitude of the writer to the revolution, revolutionary violence? Remember the nature of his polemic with A. Barbusse, his philosophy, often called "Rollandism".

Describe the episode with the May Day demonstration. What is her role in the fate of the hero?

11. Describe the final, "Swiss" stage of the life of Jean Christophe (the book "The Coming Day"). What is the nature of Jean Christophe's new infatuation with Anna Braun, Dr. Brown's wife? Why did this harmonious feeling end in tragedy? Describe Jean Christophe's last love for Grazia, his former student. What role does the motif of death, the departure of the closest people of the protagonist play in the novel? What is the meaning of Jean Christophe's last wish - to unite the children of his dead friends - the daughter of Grazia and the son of Olivier?

Describe the ending of the novel. What is the meaning of identifying Jean Christophe with Saint Christopher? Pay attention to the religious-Christian ideas of the novel, which were obscured by Marxist criticism for a long time, to the following detail: "On the day when you look at the image of Christ, you will not die a bad death." This inscription, carved on the plinth of the statue of St. Christopher at the entrance to medieval temples (for example, in the Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris), cited by Rolland at the end of each volume when the novel was first published in the Weekly Notebooks.

How is the motif of the change of generations, the inexorable birth of the new, realized in the final book of the epic? Rolland writes in a brief afterword to the book:

“I wrote the tragedy of the passing generation without hiding anything.<...>People of today, youth, it's your turn! Let our bodies be steps for you - step forward on them. Be stronger and happier than us.<...>Life is a series of deaths and rebirths. Let us die, Christophe, to be born again!”

11. French critic Lamy called the novel "a poem of feelings." What is the originality of the description of the main character? What does Rolland focus on: the depiction of external events, the "real" interior, or the world of feelings, emotions, experiences of Jean Christophe?

How is the musical, structure-forming principle realized in the novel? How does Rolland achieve that the life of a musician is divided into separate phases, like a monumental symphonic composition?

To what extent is the historical background, the social context, outlined?

12. Describe the poetics and style of the novel. Emphasize the originality of Rolland's manner by comparing it with the style of such contemporaries as E. Zola, Gde Maupassant, A. France.

How in narration Rolland achieves a harmonic synthesis of words and music: give examples of lyricism, pathos, expression, emotional richness, metaphor in Rolland's manner. Show that the novelist appears not only as an artist of the word, a psychologist, but also as a connoisseur of art, a musicologist.

13. Justify the romantic beginning in the novel, associated with its musical nature. Show Rolland's tendency to thicken colors, to depict the special intensity of feelings and experiences of the main character. Is it possible to talk about the mirror "life-likeness" of images and situations in the novel, or did Rolland continue the romantic traditions of V. Hugo?

Based on the romantic nature of the novel, characterize the sensual duality of the image of Jean Christophe (on the one hand, he is alive human image, on the other - a symbol of Goodness, Justice, Creative spirit).

14. The novel was a huge success and caused a pan-European response. Find and quote the statements of critics. Summarize your observations: what is the impressive strength of the novel. What is his innovation 5 ?

How is the novel "Jean Christophe" perceived by today's reader?

Notes.

1 See: Rolland R. Collected Works: in 14 volumes. - M, 1956. - T. 6. - S. 369 -377.

2. See: Rolland R. Collected Works: in 14 volumes. - M., 1955. - T. 3. - S. 78.

3. See: Literary encyclopedia of terms and concepts. - M., 2001. - S. 1235-1238.

4. See: T. L. Motyleva, On the World Significance of L. N. Tolstoy. - M., 1957. - S. 398 - 416. On the creative relationship between L. N. Tolstoy and R. Rolland, see also: Chicherin A. V. The emergence of an epic novel. - M., 1958. - S. 246 - 260.

5. See: Chicherin A.V. Decree. op. - Ch. 6. Innovation and tradition in R. Rolland's epic "Jean Christophe".

JEAN-CHRISTOPHE (fr. Jean-Christophe) is the hero of the ten-volume epic novel by R. Rolland "Jean-Christophe" (1904-1912). The great composer L. van Beethoven (1770-1827) served as a kind of prototype for the hero. This is clearly manifested at the beginning of the novel: J.-C. - half-German-half-Flemish, he has a broad face with rough large features and a mane of thick unruly hair, he was born in a small German town. In the future, the factual similarity ends; J.-K. lives almost a century later, and his fate is different. But the fictional and real composers are still related by creative power and rebellious spirit, - J.K. worthy of his surname Kraft, which means "strength" in German. The first four books ("Dawn", "Morning", "Youth", "Riot") consistently describe the childhood and youth of J.-K. in one of the seedy principalities of Iberian Germany. The son of a court musician, J.-K. at an early age discovers an extraordinary musical talent. A drunkard father, wanting to capitalize on his son's talent, seeks to make him a child prodigy. He, brutally beating, trains the baby, seeking from him a virtuoso playing the violin. Grandfather J.-K., also a musician, records the boy's improvisations, promising him a great future. At the age of six, J.-K. becomes the duke's court musician. His musical opuses addressed to the duke are accompanied by servile dedications written by his father. Maternal uncle, peddler Goth-fried, opens J.-C. the charm of a folk song and a simple truth: music should have meaning, should be "modest and truthful, express genuine, not fake feelings." At the age of eleven, J.-K. is the first violin of the court orchestra, and at fourteen, he alone provides for the whole family: his father, expelled for drunkenness, drowned. J.-K. earns money by teaching in rich houses, enduring ridicule and humiliation. Lessons, rehearsals, concerts in the ducal castle, composing cantatas and marches for official festivities, unsuccessful love for the petty bourgeois Minna, - J.-C. lonely, he suffocates in an atmosphere of vulgarity, servility, servility, and only when he is alone with nature, unprecedented melodies are born in his soul. J.-K. dreams of France, she sees him as the center of culture. The novel "Fair on the Square" is dedicated to the life of J.-K. in Paris. This is the most passionate and angry novel of the entire series, a pamphlet against the decaying art of the 19th century. Everything is sold at the Paris Fair: beliefs, conscience, talent. As in the circles of Dante's hell, Rolland leads his hero through the layers of the Parisian cultural society: literature, theater, poetry, music, the press, and J. -TO. more and more clearly feels "at first the insinuating, and then the stubborn suffocating smell of death." J.-K. declares an irreconcilable struggle to the fair, he writes the opera "David". But the newly-minted David did not defeat Goliath, the opera did not see the stage: the influential writer, the “salon anarchist” Levy-Coeur, with whom J.-K. reluctantly entered the battle. J.-K. suffers hunger, poverty, falls ill, and then working-class Paris opens up to him, he is nursed by a girl from the people, the servant Sidoni. And soon the rebellious J.-K. finds a friend - the poet Olivier Janin. Rolland emphasizes the contrast between the looks and characters of his friends: a huge, strong, self-confident J.-K. and small, round-shouldered, frail, timid, afraid of conflicts and harshness Olivier. But both of them are pure in heart and generous in soul, both are disinterestedly devoted to art. Friends set themselves the goal of finding and uniting good and honest people. In the novels "In the House" and "Girlfriends" Rolland shows these searches. (The influence of Leo Tolstoy and his idea of ​​reconciling love is noticeable here.) Without adhering to any party, friends draw closer to the workers, to the social democratic movement. The heroism of the struggle intoxicates J.-K., and he composes a revolutionary song, which the working-class Paris sings the very next day. The stormy romance of J.-K. with Anna Brown ("The Burning Bush") is also akin to a struggle, J.-C. still far from pacifying love. Immersed in the boiling of passions, J.-C. drags Olivier with him to a May Day demonstration, which turns into an armed clash with the police. J.-K. at the barricade, he sings revolutionary songs, he shoots and kills a policeman. Friends hide J.-K. from arrest and sent abroad. There he learns that Olivier has died of his wounds. J.-K. lives in the mountains of Switzerland, he is again lonely, crushed, broken. Little by little, mental health and the ability to create are returning to him. And after some time, he also finds a new friendship-love, having met his former student, Italian Grazia. In the final part of the novel, Rolland leads his rebel hero to faith, to the possibility of resolving social conflicts peacefully, to the idea of ​​an extra-social worldwide brotherhood of the intelligentsia - the international of the Spirit.

Proust TV

Proust made his creative debut at the age of 25. In 1896, Pleasures and Regrets, a collection of short stories and poems, was published. Then, for several years, Marcel translated the works of John Ruskin into French. In 1907, Proust published an article in the Le Figaro newspaper, in which he tried to analyze the concepts that later became key in his work - memory and guilt.

In 1909, Proust wrote an essay "Against Sainte-Beuve", which later grew into a multi-volume novel, which was in the process of being written until the end of Proust's life. In this book, the writer, in polemic with Sainte-Beuve's biographical method, develops the main provisions of his aesthetics and discovers formula for a future novel. Proust's most important thought is the position that "a book is a derivative of a different "I" than the one that we find in our habits, in society, in our vices." The writer is convinced that Sainte-Beuve "underestimated all the great writers of his time", carried away by his biographical method, which assumed the inseparability of man and creator in the writer.

Thus Proust gradually comes to the discovery of such a method of narration and such an image of the narrator, which would not be the likeness of the author and a reflection of his biography, but the creation of his imagination. In Against Sainte-Beuve, Proust, as before, tries to combine literary criticism and novelistic narrative: he oscillates between essay and short story ("un récit"). The conceived article about Sainte-Beuve is framed by the narration of the morning awakening of the hero-narrator, who then expounds to his mother the main ideas of the article. Thus, Proust found the image of the narrator - a person awakening from sleep as a carrier of "involuntary memory", staying on the verge of sleep and wakefulness, in the midst of several times.

In the history of French literature, Proust is known as the founder of the psychological novel. In 1896, a collection of short stories, Delights and Days, was published, in which Marcel's observations of high-society snobs were reflected. In 1895-1904, Proust worked on the novel Jean Santeuil, which was published only in 1952.

In Joys and Days, Proust not only finds his own material, which has become secular life, but also develops his own view of what is depicted. He is convinced that secular life is an inauthentic existence, just as any human existence in social space is conditional and false. A person's acquisition of his real "I" is possible only through immersion in the inner world. Subjective reality turns out to be more valuable for Proust than actual life.

In his first book, the writer showed himself as a master of subtle psychological analysis and fleeting impressionistic sketches (“Regrets and Dreams of the Color of Time”).

Thus, the collection "Joys and Days" and the sketches of "Jean Santeuil" already contained the concept of the novel "In Search of Lost Time" in a folded form, demonstrated the main features of the Proustian style, declared the main themes of his work. But Proust has not yet found a form of narration that could give integrity and completeness to scattered sketches and sketches. "Jean Santeuil" and "Joys and Days" can be considered as a creative laboratory, where materials for the novel "In Search of Lost Time" were prepared. Around 1907, he began work on his main work, In Search of Lost Time. By the end of 1911, the first version of The Search was completed. It had three parts ("Lost Time", "Under the Shadow of Girls in Bloom" and "Time Regained"), and the book had to fit into two voluminous volumes. In 1912 it was called "Interruptions of Feeling". Proust can't find a publisher. At the end of the year, Faskel and Nouvel Revue Française (Gallimard) publishing houses send refusals, at the beginning of the next year Ollendorf is rejected. The publisher was Bernard Grasset. He released the book (at the expense of the author), but demanded that the manuscript be cut.

All seven books are united by the image of the storyteller Marcel, waking up in the middle of the night and reminiscing about his life: about his childhood spent in the provincial town of Combray, about his parents and acquaintances, about his beloved and secular friends, about travels and social life. However, the Proustian novel is neither a memoir nor an autobiographical novel. Proust saw it as his task not to sum up what had been lived. It was important for him to convey to the reader a certain emotional mood, to inspire a certain spiritual attitude, to discover the truth that is important for the author himself and acquired by him, formulated in the process of writing the novel.

60. Antoine de Saint-Exupery(1900 -1944) - writer, poet and professional pilot.

Born in Lyon, raised by his mother. In 1912, he first took to the air in an airplane. In 1914 - with his brother in Switzerland. 1921 - drafted into the army, takes aerobatics lessons. 1923 - lieutenant, military and civil pilot. 1926 - essay "Pilot", the beginning of literary activity. In 1931, Night Flight was published, and the writer was awarded the Femina literary prize. 1935 attempts to set a record on the flight Paris - Saigon, but crashes in the Libyan desert. Saved by the Bedouins. 1938 - Exupery begins work on the book The Planet of the People. 1939 - military part of aerial reconnaissance. In 1941, he moved to his sister in the unoccupied part of the country, and later left for the United States. He lived in New York, where, among other things, he wrote his most famous book, The Little Prince (published in 1943). Died under unexplained circumstances. Numerous patented inventions.

Creativity: “Southern Postal”, “Night Flight”, “Planet of People”, “Letters to a Hostage”, “Military Pilot”. Human Planet is a wonderful collection of essays. A story about the first flight over the Pyrenees, about how old, experienced pilots introduce beginners to the craft. About how during the flight there is a struggle with “three primordial deities - with mountains, sea and storm”. Portraits of the author's comrades - Mermoz, who disappeared into the ocean, Guillaume, who escaped in the Andes, thanks to his courage and perseverance. An essay on “airplane and planet”, skyscapes, oases, landings in the desert, in the very camp of the Moors (a primitive tribe that lived in the desert), and a story about how, lost in the Libyan sands, the author himself almost died of debilitating thirst. But the plots in themselves mean little, the main thing is that a person who surveys the planet of people from such a height knows: “Spirit alone, touching the clay, creates a Man out of it.” Over the past twenty years, too many writers have been buzzing our ears about the shortcomings and weaknesses of man. Finally, there was at least one author who tells us about his greatness: “By God, I managed it,” exclaims Guillaume, “that not a single beast can do!”

In her works, the author touches on topics that will be brightly decorated in The Little Prince. The relationship between the Prince and Rose and the theme of the relationship between an adult pilot and a child first appears in the Southern Postal, in the episode "Planet of Humans", in stories from " notebooks". In Letters to a Hostage, the theme of adults who have forgotten their homeland arises. "Where am I from?" says Antoine Exupery, "I come from my childhood, as if from some country." The theme of death and life is understood in the book "Military Pilot". In "Citadel" bright episode with three white pebbles that make up the entire wealth of the child. The image of a gardener who, dying, thinks about his favorite business from the "Planet of Humans", and the image of the Little Prince caring for his Rose. The author himself says that he was created in order to be a gardener, and at the same time notes "but for people there are no gardeners." A writer, he not only understands questions about humanity, but also leads the way to solve the awakening of humanity. Although we might doubt that this humanity is capable of changing in any way. If we talk about a fairy tale as the culmination of the writer's work, then the time of writing and the subsequent death of Antoine de Saint-Exupery can be presented as fate or fate. The writer in the fairy tale sums up all his aspirations and his philosophy, the main thing in his life is done, although he does not immediately receive huge recognition, so his departure is quite planned. Recognition comes later, when his fairy tale becomes a world bestseller, along with the Bible. This draws attention to his fate, life, creativity, attracts producers to stage performances, films, cartoons, musicals. The name of Antoine de Saint-Exupery is associated primarily with the "Little Prince", and the most common phrase "We are responsible for those we have tamed" is becoming more of a household name. Although, quoting it, does not always know where it is taken from. Independent life quotes from the fairy tale are worthy praise for the author and confirmation that Antoine de Saint-Exupery will still “be” humanity.

Land of the people" Exupery

Tale (1939)

The book is written in the first person. Exupery dedicated it to one of his fellow pilots, Henri Guillaume.

Man reveals himself in the struggle with obstacles. The pilot is like a farmer who tills the land, and in so doing wrests some of nature's secrets from nature. The work of the pilot is just as fruitful. The first flight over Argentina was unforgettable: the lights flickered below, and each of them spoke about the miracle of human consciousness - about dreams, hopes, love.

Exupery began working on the Toulouse-Dakar line in 1926. Experienced pilots were somewhat aloof, but in their abrupt stories a fairy-tale world of mountain ranges with traps, dips and whirlwinds arose. The "oldies" skillfully maintained admiration, which only increased when one of them did not return from the flight. And then the turn of Exupery came: at night he went to the airfield in an old bus and, like many of his comrades, felt how a ruler was born in him - a man responsible for Spanish and African mail. The officials sitting nearby talked about illnesses, money, petty household chores - these people voluntarily imprisoned themselves in the prison of petty-bourgeois well-being, and a musician, poet or astronomer will never wake up in their hardened souls. Another thing is the pilot, who will have to enter into an argument with a thunderstorm, mountains and the ocean - no one regretted his choice, although for many this bus became the last earthly shelter.

Of his comrades, Exupery singles out, first of all, Mermoz - one of the founders of the French airline Casablanca - Dakar and the discoverer of the South American line. Mermoz "led reconnaissance" for others and, having mastered the Andes, handed over this site to Guillaume, and he himself took up the domestication of the night. He conquered the sands, mountains and sea, which, in turn, swallowed him more than once - but he always got out of captivity. And now, after twelve years of work, during the next voyage across the South Atlantic, he briefly announced that he was turning off the right rear engine. All radio stations from Paris to Buenos Aires were on a dreary watch, but there was no more news from Mermoz. After resting at the bottom of the ocean, he completed his life's work.

Nobody will replace the dead. And pilots experience the greatest happiness when the one who has already been mentally buried is suddenly resurrected. This happened to Guillaume, who disappeared during a voyage over the Andes. For five days, his comrades unsuccessfully searched for him, and there was no longer any doubt that he had died - either in a fall or from the cold. But Guillaume performed the miracle of his own salvation by passing through the snow and ice. He said later that he endured what no animal could endure - there is nothing nobler than these words, showing the measure of the greatness of man, determining his true place in nature.

The pilot thinks in terms of the universe and rereads history in a new way. Civilization is just fragile gilding. People forget that under their feet there is no deep layer of earth. An insignificant pond, surrounded by houses and trees, is subject to the action of the ebb and flow. Under a thin layer of grass and flowers, amazing transformations take place - only thanks to the plane they can sometimes be seen. Another magical property of an airplane is that it takes the pilot to the heart of the miraculous. With Exupery it happened in Argentina. He landed in some field, not suspecting that he would end up in a fairy house and meet two young fairies who were friends with wild herbs and snakes. These savage princesses lived in harmony with the universe. What happened to them? The transition from girlhood to the state of a married woman is fraught with fatal mistakes - perhaps some fool has already taken the princess into slavery.

In the desert, such meetings are impossible - here the pilots become prisoners of the sands. The presence of the rebels made the Sahara even more hostile. Exupery knew the burden of the desert from the very first flight; when his plane crashed near a small fort in West Africa, the old sergeant received the pilots as messengers from heaven - he cried when he heard their voices.

But in the same way, the recalcitrant Arabs of the desert were shocked when they visited France unfamiliar to them. If rain suddenly falls in the Sahara, a great migration begins - whole tribes go three hundred leagues in search of grass. And in Savoy, precious moisture gushed, as if from a leaky cistern. And the old leaders said later that the French god is much more generous to the French than the god of the Arabs to the Arabs. Many barbarians have wavered in their faith and almost succumbed to outsiders, but there are still those among them who suddenly rebel to return

Existentialism

The idea of ​​absolute freedom of the chela. In the late 40s and early 50s. French prose is going through a period of "dominance" of the literature of existentialism, which has had an influence on art that is comparable only to the influence of Freud's ideas. It took shape at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century in the works of Heidegger and Jaspers, Shestov and Berdyaev. How a literary trend was formed in France during the Second World War in works of art and works of a theoretical nature Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and had a significant impact on the entire post-war culture, primarily on cinema (Antonioni, Fellini) and literature (W. Golding, A. Murdoch, Kobo Abe, M. Frisch). Existentialism was not widespread in the literature of the beginning of the century. so widely, however, he colored the worldview of such writers as Franz Kafka and William Faulkner, under his "auspices" absurdity was fixed in art as a device and as a view of human activity in the context of all history.

Existentialism is one of the darkest philosophical and aesthetic trends of our time. The man in the image of the existentialists is immensely burdened by his existence, he is the bearer of inner loneliness and fear of reality. Life is meaningless, social activity is fruitless, morality is untenable. There is no god in the world, there are no ideals, there is only existence, fate-calling, to which a person stoically and unquestioningly submits; existence is a concern that a person must accept, because the mind is not able to cope with the hostility of being: a person is doomed to absolute loneliness, no one will share his existence.

Practical Conclusions existentialism are monstrous: it makes no difference - to live or not to live, it makes no difference - who to become: an executioner or his victim, a hero or a coward, a conqueror or a slave.

Proclaiming absurdity human being, existentialism for the first time openly included "death" as a motive for proving mortality and an argument for the doom of a person and his "chosenness". Ethical problems are worked out in detail in existentialism: freedom and responsibility, conscience and sacrifice, the goals of existence and purpose, which are widely included in the lexicon of the art of the century. Existentialism attracts with the desire to understand a person, the tragedy of his destiny and existence; he was approached by many artists of different trends and methods.

Existentialism, also the philosophy of existence, is a direction in the philosophy of the 20th century, focusing its attention on the uniqueness of the irrational being of a person. Existentialism developed in parallel with related areas of personalism and philosophical anthropology, from which it differs primarily in the idea of ​​overcoming (rather than revealing) a person’s own essence and a greater emphasis on the depth of emotional nature. In its pure form, existentialism as a philosophical direction has never existed. The inconsistency of this term comes from the very content of "existence", since by definition it is individual and unique, it means the experiences of a single individual who is not like anyone else.

This inconsistency is the reason why practically none of the thinkers who are classified as existentialists was in reality an existentialist philosopher. The only one who clearly expressed his belonging to this direction was Jean-Paul Sartre. His position was outlined in the report "Existentialism is humanism", where he made an attempt to generalize the existentialist aspirations of individual thinkers of the early 20th century.

Existential philosophy is the philosophy of human being

The philosophy of existence reflected the crisis of optimistic liberalism, based on technical progress, but powerless to explain the instability, disorder of human life, the inherent human feeling of fear, despair, hopelessness.

The philosophy of existentialism is an irrational reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment and the German classical philosophy. According to the existentialist philosophers, the main flaw of rational thinking is that it proceeds from the principle of opposition between subject and object, that is, it divides the world into two spheres - objective and subjective. All reality, including man, is considered by rational thinking only as

63. Sartre. First philosophical works Sartre - “The Transcendence of the Ego”, “Imagination”, “Sketch of the Theory of Emotions”, “Imaginary. Sartre least of all seeks to generalize the data of the natural and social sciences, but tries to give a description of specific, individual states of consciousness of the individual. This explains the writer's special interest in the problem of emotions and imagination, their nature and role in the life of the individual. He puts forward the thesis about the inefficiency of emotive behavior, because, from his point of view, emotion is the flight of the individual from the world. Faced with real problems, a person gives in to emotions, which, as it were, "disconnect" him from a dangerous or difficult situation. Thus, emotion is an illusory way of solving a problem. Sartre's treatment of the problem of the imagination close to the concept of "intentional acts" by E. Husserl. Sartre speaks of the creative essence of imagination, although he limits the action of imagination to the sphere of consciousness. He contrasts the imaginative consciousness with practical consciousness. For him, imagination is unreal and presupposes the "non-antization" of reality in its most essential structures.

In the novel "Nausea" ("La Nausée", 1938) there are already separate existentialist motives and ideas. This series of “insights” forms the plot of the novel, the main theme of which is the discovery of the absurd by the personality. Roquentin's discovery of the absurdity of being occurs as a result of his collision with surrounding objects. The world of things and, more broadly, natural existence turn out to be hostile to human subjectivity. The immersion of the subject in this natural "mush", in formless and dead objectivity, causes him a feeling of nausea.

In the writer's choice of the diary form of narration, in the confessional intonation of the novel, Sartre's understanding of the nature of the philosophical idea was reflected. For him, it is not the result of speculative, abstract-logical thinking, but an intimate, personal experience.

Sartre's literary activity began with the novel "Nausea" (fr. La Nausée; 1938). This novel is considered the best work of Sartre, in it he rises to the deep ideas of the Gospel, but from an atheistic position. In 1964, Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for his work, rich in ideas, imbued with the spirit of freedom and the search for truth, which has had a huge impact on our time." He refused to accept this award, declaring his unwillingness to be indebted to any social institution and question their independence. In addition, Sartre was embarrassed by the “bourgeois” and pronounced anti-Soviet orientation of the Nobel Committee, which, according to him (“Why I refused the prize”), chose the wrong moment for awarding the prize - the prize was awarded when Sartre openly criticized the USSR. In the same Sartre announced his rejection of literary activity, describing literature as a surrogate for the effective transformation of the world. Sartre's worldview was influenced, first of all, by Bergson, Husserl, Dostoevsky and Heidegger. Interested in psychoanalysis. He wrote a preface to the book by Franz Fanon "Cursed", thereby contributing to the popularization of his ideas in Europe. In the collection of short stories and short stories "The Wall" ("Le Mur", 1939), Sartre develops the main theme of "Nausea". In the short story of the same name, the writer shows the transformation of a person into a thing, into trembling and agonizing flesh in the face of inevitable death. Awareness of the nearness of the end robs a person of freedom. The fear of death turns a person into an animal. Three Republicans fighting against the Spanish fascists are captured and in the basement where they were put, they are waiting for their fate to be decided. They are doomed to the torture of waiting. They are trembling, they are covered with cold sweat. These physiological manifestations of fear are observed by a military doctor. The heroes of the novel are overcome by apathy, they lose their will and courage.

The “gospel” of French atheistic existentialism was Sartre’s philosophical work “Being and Nothingness” (“L’Etre et le Néant”, 1943), in which the writer undertakes a systematic exposition of his philosophy. He analyzes the dialectic of the relationship between man (“being-for-itself”) and objective reality (“being-in-itself”). "Being-in-itself" is devoid of self-development, which only "being-for-itself" is endowed with. Man denies objective reality in order to achieve freedom.

In the work, Sartre substantiates the concept of the absurd, asserting the randomness and meaninglessness of being, which "has neither reason, nor reason, nor necessity." Human existence in the world is fragile, death is inevitable (“being-for-death”). his dramatic work

64. The play "The Flies" was created by Jean-Paul Sartre in 1943. According to its genre, it belongs to the philosophical drama. Underlying "Flies" ancient greek myth about the murder by Orestes of his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus for many centuries was a favorite plot of many literary tragedies. In Sartre's play, history as old as the world is filled with new philosophical meaning. The French existentialist uses the ancient heroic image of Orestes to analyze contemporary problems of existence.

"Flies" is a drama in three acts. The composition of the play is simple and logical. In the first act, the main characters (Orestes, Jupiter, Electra and Clytemnestra) appear on the stage, the background is told - it is also an explanation of what is happening in Argos (fifteen years of universal repentance entrusted to citizens for the crimes of the current king and queen), a problem is outlined (possible revenge Orestes for the murder of his father - Agamemnon). The second act is full of action: Aegisthus, in accordance with the once chosen political course, intimidates the people with the dead coming out of hell; Elektra tries to tell the people of Argos that it is possible to live in happiness and joy; Jupiter helps Aegisthus to plunge the crowd into fear; Elektra is banished from the city and sentenced to death; Orestes opens up to his sister and decides to kill. The events of the second part of the work grow like a snowball and break off at the death of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. After accomplishing a just revenge, the surviving heroes can only think - about their past and future, about the desired and actual, about the world around them and their own lives.

The first act of The Flies can be compared to a slow, realistic narrative of the past and present. The second act is more like a thriller than an ancient Greek tragedy or modern drama. The third act tells nothing and does not move anywhere. It is a chain of philosophical reasoning devoted to the problem of human freedom. Free in "Flies" is the main character - Orestes. He comes to Argos as a man without a past, with a soul like a "magnificent void". At this stage of his life, he is free from memories, people, feelings. The prince knows only what the Teacher taught him: he knows the world, cities, countries, culture, art. But in itself, as a person, he is nothing. He has no attachments, no desires. Only with the advent of a conscious thirst for revenge does a new awareness of freedom come to Orestes. It lies in the freedom to choose one's future path, in refusing to obey the will of the gods, who once created people free, but over time decided to take away this knowledge from them. Committing a crime, Orestes does not feel remorse, because, in his opinion, he is doing a just thing. Once deciding to kill his mother, he decides to always bear this burden. In a sense, he is even glad for him, because, finally, the hero has something of his own - his own story, his own crime, his own burden. Unlike Orestes, Electra, like all the inhabitants of Argos, is deprived of a true understanding of freedom. She can only dream about her, but she cannot live with her. Elektra dreams of killing her family the way little girls dream of dolls. She is happy in her fantasies, but when they come true, she hates them.

TV Camus

Thanks to J. Grenier, Camus gets acquainted with the ideas of religious existentialism, his interest in philosophy is determined. The first notes and essays of Camus, for all their immaturity, contain some important motives: an anarchist rebellion against social conventions, withdrawal into the world of dreams, belittling the rational principle in art. In general, the first works of Camus reflect the crisis state of mind, characteristic of a significant part of the European intelligentsia after the First World War.

In 1937, Camus left the Communist Party. In the same year, he published a collection of essays, “The inside and the face” (“L’Envers et l’Endroit”), the main problem of which is the question of gaining dignity in an absurd world for a person. Camus says “yes” to life, despite the absurdity of being, for one must “be oneself the eternal joy of becoming”. Creating in the collection of lyrical essays "Mediterranean myth", Camus seeks to escape from the chaos of history into the wisdom of nature.

In 1938, Camus took up journalistic activities in the newspaper Algeria Repubbliken and at the same time continued his literary work, wrote the philosophical drama Caligula (Caligula, 1944), the story The Outsider (L'étranger, 1942), the essay Dostoevsky and Suicide, which later became part of "The Myth of Sisyphus" under the title "Kirillov", finished work on the novel " happy death"("La mort heureuse", 1971). During the occupation of France by the Nazis, Camus conducted underground work in the Combat organization.

The story "The Outsider" was a huge success, for a long time becoming one of the most read works French literature of the 20th century The story received critical acclaim.

Almost unconsciously, he kills a man. In the second part of the story, the story of the protagonist appears as if in a distorted mirror during judicial trial. Meursault is being judged, in fact, not for a murder, but for an attempt to neglect the conventional forms of relations between people accepted in society, for violating the rules of the game, for being an “outsider”. The writer puts his hero in a “boundary situation” typical of existentialists, that is, in a situation of choice in the face of death and absurdity, when, according to existentialist philosophy, insight comes.

Camus replied to the teacher that he "learned from Kafka the spirit, but not the style." Meanwhile, with the obvious difference in the style of Kafka and Camus, both of them gravitated towards parable forms of genre thinking, both are characterized by brevity of the linguistic form with a philosophical depth of content. Noting the outwardly impassive tone of the narration in The Outsider, R. Barth spoke of the "zero degree of writing" in the story. Indeed, Camus is convinced that life is simple, that people complicate everything, and therefore it is necessary to talk about it simply, without metaphors, hints, complex cultural reminiscences, behind which is the desire to escape from the awareness of the tragedy of the human lot.

A landmark work for Camus was the book "The Myth of Sisyphe" ("Le mythe de Sisyphe", 1942), which completes the first period in the writer's work. The Myth of Sisyphus is subtitled An Essay on the Absurd. The problems of the absurd and the "supreme suicide" as an expression of human rebellion against it become central in this cycle. In The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus defines the absurd. However, it is significant that for Camus the recognition of the absurd is not the final conclusion, but only the starting point in the search for true values.

Philosophical views Camus himself did not consider himself a philosopher, much less an existentialist. Nevertheless, the work of representatives of this philosophical trend had a great influence on Camus's work. The highest embodiment of the absurd, according to Camus, are various attempts to forcibly improve society - fascism, Stalinism, etc. Being a humanist and anti-authoritarian socialist, he believed that the fight against violence and injustice "with their own methods" could only give rise to even greater violence and injustice

66. The story "Outsider"”was a huge success, for a long time becoming one of the most widely read works of French literature of the 20th century. The story received critical acclaim.

The hero of the story - Meursault - is a generalized image representing the existentialist version of the "natural person". Having severed ties with society, the petty employee Meursault lives with the consciousness of the absurdity of being. This acute sense of the absurd makes him "outside", alien to the values ​​and norms of society. Meursault lives, obeying instincts, keenly feeling the beauty of the natural world; Meursault has an extraordinary lyrical gift.