Turgenev and Dostoevsky, Grigorovich, Herzen, Goncharov, Nekrasov, Panaev, Dal, Chernyshevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin and others were ranked as the "natural school".
The term " natural school” was first used by Faddey Bulgarin as a disparaging characteristic of the work of young followers of Nikolai Gogol in The Northern Bee” dated January 26, but was polemically rethought by Vissarion Belinsky in the article “A Look at Russian Literature of 1846”: “natural”, that is, artless, strictly truthful image reality.
The formation of the "Natural School" dates back to 1842-1845, when a group of writers (Nikolai Nekrasov, Dmitry Grigorovich, Ivan Turgenev, Alexander Herzen, Ivan Panaev, Evgeny Grebyonka, Vladimir Dal) united under the ideological influence of Belinsky in the journal "Domestic Notes". Somewhat later, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Mikhail Saltykov were published there. These writers also appeared in the collections "Physiology of Petersburg" (1845), "Petersburg Collection" (1846), which became the program for the "Natural School".
The most common features, on the basis of which the writer was considered to belong to the Natural School, were the following: socially significant topics, which captured more wide circle than even the circle of social observations (often in the "low" strata of society), a critical attitude towards social reality, realism artistic expression, who fought against the embellishment of reality, aestheticism in itself, romantic rhetoric.
"The Thieving Magpie" is Herzen's most famous story with a very complex internal theatrical structure. The story was written in the midst of disputes between Westerners and Slavophiles. Herzen brought them to the stage as the most characteristic types time. And he gave everyone the opportunity to speak in accordance with their character and convictions. Herzen, like Gogol, believed that the disputes between Westerners and Slavophiles were "passions of the mind" raging in abstract spheres, while Life is going in your own way; and while they argue about national character and about whether it is decent or indecent for a Russian woman to be on stage, somewhere in the wilderness, in a serf theater, she dies great actress, and the prince shouts to her: "You are my serf, not an actress." The story is dedicated to M. Shchepkin, he appears on the "stage" under the name of the "famous artist". This gives the "Thieving Magpie" a special poignancy. After all, Shchepkin was also a serf; his case delivered from slavery. “You know the legend about the "Thieving Magpie"; - says the "famous artist", - reality is not so faint-hearted as dramatic writers, it goes to the end: Aneta was executed. And the whole story about the serf actress was a variation on the theme of "Thieving Magpies", a variation on the theme of those who are guilty without guilt ... "The Thieving Magpie" continues the anti-serfdom theme of all the writer's previous works. Very original in structure, this story combines publicism and vivid artistry. In the story, Herzen showed spiritual beauty Russian man, Russian woman, and the enormous power of moral protest against the inhuman way of life.
The story "The Thieving Magpie" is only a small part of a huge and versatile creative heritage Alexander Ivanovich Herzen. Among the stories of the mid-40s, which revealed the inner, moral life of the people, this story took special place. Like Turgenev, Nekrasov, Herzen drew the attention of Russian society in her to the especially difficult, powerless position of a serf woman. Herzen, full of interest in the ideological development of the oppressed personality, discovered in the character of a Russian woman from the people the possibilities of independent mental growth and artistic creativity, putting a woman on such an intellectual and moral height, which is already completely incompatible with her position as a forced slave.
Herzen, being a true artist, elevated a life episode to huge generalization. His story about the fate of the serf actress develops into a criticism of the entire serf system. Drawing in the story the sad story of an outstanding serf actress, who retained her human pride even in humiliation, in slavery, the writer asserts a brilliant talent, inexhaustible creative possibilities, spiritual greatness enslaved Russian people. Against serfdom, for the freedom of the individual, for the emancipation of women - such is the main ideological orientation of the story. “Herzen,” wrote Gorky, “was the first in the 1940s to boldly speak out against serfdom in his story “The Thieving Magpie.” Herzen as a writer was unusually musical. "One false note and the orchestra perished," he said. Hence his striving for the completeness and inner integrity of each character and episode. Some of these characters contained the possibilities of new variations, changes and development. And then Herzen returned to them in new works.
In the story The Thieving Magpie, with the actual ideological battles of the time, another burning plot of national reality is paired, which also has to grow into an essential branch of the problems of the "NATURAL SCHOOL" This is the life of the peasantry in the landowners' captivity
Here plot story the death of a serf actress is framed by a philosophical dialogue from the outside. The characters of its participants are not deployed, not highlighted in the portraits. personality traits, and, it would seem, external strokes, in reality, ironic signs-metonymy public positions: "a young man, cut with a comb", "another, cut in a circle", "a third, not cut at all." The antagonistic belief systems of the second (“Slav”) and the third (“European”) develop freely and thoroughly. The first, partly in contact with the third in his opinions, occupies a special position, closest to the author's, and plays the role of a conductor of the dispute: he puts forward his theme - “why are actresses rare in our country”, outlines its relative boundaries. It is he who notices in the course of the argument that life is not captured " general formulas”, i.e. as if preparing the need to transfer the dialogue to another level - artistic proof..
Two levels of development of the story's problems - "a conversation about the theater" in the capital's living room and events in the estate of Prince Skalinsky - are combined in the image " famous artist". He introduces into the dialogue taking place “here and now” his memories of a long-standing “meeting with an actress”, which become a decisive argument in a dispute about the prospects for art, culture in general in Russia and Europe, about the historical paths of the nation. The artistic result of the tragic plot: the "climate" of lawlessness and lack of rights of millions "is not healthy for the artist." However, this full of "bilious malice" response of the Narrator-artist is also complicated in The Thieving Magpie by means specific to Herzen, thanks to which the tragic denouement acquires special depth - and openness.
The fate of a peasant woman perishing in slavery correlates directly with the fate of culture and people. But besides, the very chosen character of the serf intellectual, shown in Herzen's perspective of the intense activity of feelings and intellect, the "aesthetics of actions", gives rise to hope. High artistry of the heroine, incompatible with humiliation human dignity, a thirst for emancipation, an impulse for freedom bring social conflict in the plot to the extreme sharpness, to open protest in the only form possible for the heroine: she is freed at the cost of her own death.
The main plot action is enlarged, in addition, as if by additional “illumination” in two more planes. On the one hand, by including “drama within drama”, it is brought to a new stage of creative thickening: in the image of Aneta created by the heroine, the beauty and dignity of a person, “the inexorable pride that develops on the edge of humiliation” (IV: 232) - grow to “tearing the soul » symbol. On the other hand, in the confessions of the "artist" about his and his artist friend's act of solidarity with the actress (refusal to join the troupe, contrary to " favorable conditions Prince: “Let him know that not everything in the world can be bought” - IV: 234) central conflict is transferred to one more register, bringing it closer to the tangible truth of the fact20. The inspirational and angry art of the actress, - Herzen shows, - is directed to people, to their "fraternal sympathy", just like her tragic confession is addressed to the human mind and feeling ("I saw you on stage: you are an artist," - with hope she speaks in understanding). The heroine longs for spiritual unity and indeed finds it in the Narrator. All three gradations of conflict are thus united by the height and intransigence of the human spirit and are open to the living reality of being, appealing to life, not speculative decisions. Thus, the traditions of a philosophical story-dialogue and a romantic "short story about an artist" are transformed in a work that reflects cruel truth Russian reality, filled with a powerful anti-serf feeling. The artistic result of the dispute about art acquires multidimensionality and perspective. The "unhealthy climate" of despotism is fatal to talent. But at the same time, even in such conditions that offend the personality, art receives - in the very indignation of the creator, in the inflexibility of the human spirit - an impulse of true beauty and strength that unites people - and therefore, a pledge of indestructibility. The future of culture, of the nation itself, lies in the release of its spiritual energy, in the emancipation of the development of the self-consciousness of the people.
The natural school is a designation of a new stage in the development of the Russian language that arose in Russia in the 40s of the 19th century. critical realism associated with the creative traditions of N.V. Gogol and the aesthetics of V.G. Belinsky. Name "N.sh." (first used by F.V. Bulgarin in the newspaper "Northern Bee" dated 26.II.1846, No. 22 with the polemical goal of humiliating the new literary direction) took root in Belinsky's articles as a designation of that channel of Russian realism, which is associated with the name of Gogol. Formation "N.sh." refers to 1842-1845, when a group of writers (N.A. Nekrasov, D.V. Grigorovich, I.S. Turgenev, A.I. Herzen, I.I. Panaev, E.P. Grebenka, V.I. .Dal) united under the ideological influence of Belinsky in the journal Domestic Notes. Somewhat later, F.M. Dostoevsky and M.E. Saltykov published there. These writers also appeared in the collections "Physiology of St. Petersburg" (parts 1-2, 1845), "Petersburg Collection" (1846), which became the program for "N.Sh." The first of them consisted of the so-called "physiological essays", representing direct observations, sketches, as if snapshots from nature - the physiology of life big city. This genre originated in France in the 1920s and 30s and had a certain influence on the development of the Russian "physiological essay". The collection "Physiology of Petersburg" characterized the types and life of workers, petty officials, declassed people of the capital, was imbued with a critical attitude to reality. "Petersburg Collection" was distinguished by the variety of genres, the originality of young talents. It published the first story by F.M. Dostoevsky "Poor People", the works of Nekrasov, Herzen, Turgenev and others. Since 1847, the organ "N.sh." becomes the Sovremennik magazine. It published "Notes of a Hunter" by Turgenev, "An Ordinary Story" by I.A. Goncharov, "Who is to blame?" Herzen and others. Manifesto "N.sh." was the "Introduction" to the collection "Physiology of St. Petersburg", where Belinsky wrote about the need for mass realistic literature, which would "... in the form of travels, trips, essays, stories ... introduce you to various parts of boundless and diverse Russia ...". According to Belinsky, writers should not only know Russian reality, but also correctly understand it, “... not only observe, but also judge” (Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 8, 1955, pp. 377, 384). “To deprive art of the right to serve public interests,” Belinsky wrote, “means not to elevate, but to humiliate it, because it means depriving it of its very living power, that is, thought ...” (ibid., vol. 10, p. 311) . Statement of the principles of "N.sh." is contained in Belinsky's articles: "Response to the Moskvityanin", "A Look at Russian Literature of 1846", "A Look at Russian Literature of 1847", etc. (see ibid., vol. 10, 1956).
Promoting Gogol's realism, Belinsky wrote that "N.sh." more consciously than before, she used the method of critical depiction of reality, embedded in Gogol's satire. At the same time, he noted that "N.sh." “... was the result of all the past development of our literature and a response to the contemporary needs of our society” (ibid., vol. 10, p. 243). In 1848, Belinsky already claimed that "N.sh." now stands at the forefront of Russian literature.
Under the motto Gogol direction» «N.sh.» united best writers of that time, although different in outlook. These writers expanded the area of Russian life, which received the right to be depicted in art. They turned to the reproduction of the lower strata of society, denied serfdom, the destructive power of money and ranks, vices social order that degrade the human personality. For some writers, the denial of social injustice grew into an image of the growing protest of the most disadvantaged (“Poor People” by Dostoevsky, “A Tangled Case” by Saltykov, Nekrasov’s poems and his essay “Petersburg Corners”, “Anton Goremyk” by Grigorovich).
With the development of "N.sh." prose genres begin to dominate in literature. The desire for facts, for accuracy and reliability, also put forward new principles of plot construction - not short stories, but essays. Popular genres in the 1940s, essays, memoirs, travels, short stories, social and social and psychological novels appeared. important place begins to occupy the socio-psychological novel, the flowering of which in the second half of the 19th century predetermined the glory of Russian realistic prose. At that time, the principles of "N.sh." transferred to poetry (verses by Nekrasov, N.P. Ogarev, Turgenev's poems), and to drama (Turgenev). The language of literature is also being democratized. The language of newspapers and journalism, vernacular, professionalisms and dialectisms are introduced into artistic speech. Social pathos and democratic content of "N.sh." influenced the advanced Russian art: fine (P.A. Fedotov, A.A. Agin) and musical (A.S. Dargomyzhsky, M.P. Mussorgsky).
"N.sh." provoked criticism from representatives different directions: she was accused of being addicted to "low people", of "filth-loving", of political unreliability (Bulgarin), of a one-sidedly negative approach to life, of imitating the latest French literature. "N.sh." was ridiculed in P.A. Karatygin’s vaudeville “Natural School” (1847). After the death of Belinsky, the very name "N.sh." was censored. In the 1950s, the term “Gogolian trend” was used (the title of the work of N.G. Chernyshevsky “Essays on Gogol period Russian Literature). Later, the term "Gogolian trend" began to be understood more broadly than the actual "N.sh.", using it as a designation of critical realism.
Brief literary encyclopedia in 9 volumes. State scientific publishing house " Soviet Encyclopedia”, v.5, M., 1968.
Literature:
Vinogradov V.V., The evolution of Russian naturalism. Gogol and Dostoevsky, L., 1929;
Beletsky A., Dostoevsky and the natural school in 1846, "Science in Ukraine", 1922, No. 4;
Glagolev N.A., M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and the natural school, “Literature at school”, 1936, No. 3;
Belkin A., Nekrasov and the natural school, in the collection: Nekrasov's Creativity, M., 1939;
Prutskov N.I., Stages of development of the Gogol trend in Russian literature, “Scholarly notes of Groznensky Pedagogical Institute. Philological Series, 1946, c. 2;
Gin M.M., N.A. Nekrasov-critic in the struggle for a natural school, in the book: Nekrasovsky collection, vol. 1, M.-L., 1951;
Dolinin A.S., Herzen and Belinsky. (On the question of the philosophical foundations of critical realism in the 40s), "Scientific notes of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute", 1954, v. 9, c. 3;
Papkovsky B.V., Natural School of Belinsky and Saltykov, “Scientific Notes of the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute named after Herzen”, 1949, v. 81;
Mordovchenko N.I., Belinsky in the struggle for a natural school, in the book: Literary heritage, vol. 55, M., 1948;
Morozov V.M., "Finnish Bulletin" - an ideological ally of "Sovremennik" in the struggle for a "natural school", "Scientific notes of Petrozavodsk University", 1958, vol. 7, c. one;
Pospelov G.N., History of Russian literature of the XIX century, vol. 2, part 1, M., 1962; Fokht U.R., Ways of Russian realism, M., 1963;
Kuleshov V.I., Natural school in Russian literature XIX century, M., 1965.
Natural school, literary movement of the 40s. 19th century, which arose in Russia as the "school" of N. V. Gogol (A. I. Herzen, D. V. Grigorovich, V. I. Dal, A. V. Druzhinin, N. A. Nekrasov, I. S. Turgenev and others). Theorist V. G. Belinsky.
The main editions of the almanac: "Physiology of St. Petersburg" (parts 1-2, 1845) and "Petersburg Collection" (1846).
The emergence of the "natural school" is historically conditioned by the convergence of literature with life in the first decade of the 19th century. The work of Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol paved the way for development in the "natural school" and its successes. Noted Critic In the 19th century, Apollon Grigoriev saw the origins of the "natural school" in the appeal of Pushkin and Gogol to folk life. critical image reality becomes main goal Russian writers. On the material of "Dead Souls" Belinsky formulated the main provisions of the aesthetics of the "natural school". He outlined the path of development of Russian literature as a reflection of the social side of life, a combination of the "spirit" of analysis and the "spirit" of criticism. The activity of Belinsky, as an ideological inspirer, was directed to provide all possible support to writers following the path of Gogol. Belinsky welcomed the appearance in literature of Herzen, Turgenev, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, immediately identifying the features of their talent. Belinsky supported Koltsov, Grebenok, Dahl, Kudryavtsev, Kokarev and saw in their work the triumph and values of the "natural school". The work of these writers constituted a whole epoch in the development of Russian literature in the second half of the 19th century, but the origins date back to the 40s of the 19th century. These writers published their first works in the journal Domestic Notes. They formed the "natural school". Sympathy and compassion for a poor and humiliated person, disclosure spiritual world little man(peasants, petty officials), anti-serfdom and anti-noble motives are the main features of the “natural school”. Poetry in the 40s takes the first steps towards rapprochement with life. Nekrasov speaks in the spirit of the "natural school" with poems about poor and humiliated people. The term "natural school" was put forward by Fadel Bulgarin in order to humiliate the writers of the Gogol school. Belinsky picked up this term and assigned realism to the writers. The influence of the "natural school" has been felt in recent decades.
1840-1849 (2 stages: from 1840 to 1846 - until Belinsky left the journal "Domestic Notes" and from 1846 to 1849)
Literary and social movements in the 60s of the 19th century.
The reign of Nicholas I is characterized by bureaucracy.
Nikitenko helped Gogol print " Dead Souls”, when Moscow censorship refused Gogol.
1848-1855 - the gloomy seven years
Nicholas I dies in 1855
The first period of the reign of Alexander II is called the "Liberal Spring". Society is seized with optimism, a dispute arises about the ways of developing literature about Pushkin and Gogol.
3 currents: liberal democracy and liberal aristocracy (landlord class), revolutionary democracy.
Quit - on non-chernozem lands
Corvee - peasants work for the landowner
Development of literature
The 60s of the 19th century - a decisive democratization of artistic consciousness. The pathos itself changes qualitatively in these years. From the question "who is to blame?" literature addresses the question "what to do?".
With the complication of social life, differentiation occurs with the growth of political struggle.
Pushkin's artistic universe turned out to be unique. There is a sharper specialization of literature. Tolstoy entered literature as the creator of War and Peace. Ostrovsky is realized in dramaturgy. Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev, a poet, lyricist, epic, realist, author of short stories, dramas, prose poems, tried to save Pushkin's universe, but Turgenev was forced to limit psychological analysis.
Attention to the "little man"
Almost always, forgotten ones, by all, do not attract special attention of others. humiliated people. Their life, their small joys and big troubles seemed to everyone insignificant, unworthy of attention. The epoch produced such people and such an attitude towards them. The cruel time and royal injustice forced the “little people” to withdraw into themselves, to go completely into their soul, which suffered, with the painful problems of that period, they lived an imperceptible life and also imperceptibly dying. But just such people sometimes, by the will of circumstances, obeying the cry of the soul, began to fight against the mighty of the world this, appeal to justice, ceased to be a rag. Therefore, after all, they became interested in their life, writers, gradually, began to devote some scenes in their works to just such people, their lives. With each work, the life of people of the “lower” class was shown more clearly and more truthfully. Little officials, stationmasters, “little people”, who went crazy, against their will, began to emerge from the shadows, surrounding the world glittering halls.
Karamzin laid the foundation for a huge cycle of literature about "little people", took the first step into this hitherto unknown topic. It was he who opened the way for such classics of the future as Gogol, Dostoevsky and others.
It cost the writers a lot of effort to resurrect the "little man" for readers in their books. The traditions of the classics, the titans of Russian literature, were continued by the writers of urban prose, those who wrote about the fate of the village during the years of oppression of totalitarianism and those who told us about the world of camps. There were dozens of them. It is enough to mention the names of several of them: Solzhenitsyn, Trifonov, Tvardovsky, Vysotsky, in order to understand what a huge scope the literature about the fate of the “little man” of the twentieth century has reached.
N. V. Gogol was the head and founder of the “natural school”, which became the cradle of a whole galaxy of great Russian writers: A. I. Herzen, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, I. A. Goncharov, M. E.-Saltykov-Shchedrin and others. F. M. Dostoevsky wrote: "We all came out of Gogol's Overcoat", emphasizing by this the leading role of the writer in the "natural school". The author of "Dead Souls" was the successor of A. S. Pushkin, continued what he started and " stationmaster" and " The Bronze Horseman» the theme of the «little» person. It can be said that throughout creative way N.V. Gogol consistently revealed two topics: love for a “little” person and denunciation of the vulgarity of a vulgar person.
An example of the reflection of the first of these topics can serve as the famous "Overcoat". In this work, which was completed in 1842. Gogol showed the whole tragedy of the position of a poor raznochinets, a “little” person, for whom the goal of life, the only dream is to acquire things. In The Overcoat there is an angry protest of the author against the humiliation of the "little" person, against injustice. Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin is the quietest and most inconspicuous person, a zealous worker, he suffers constant humiliation and insults from various "significant persons", younger and more successful colleagues. New overcoat for this insignificant official, an unattainable dream and heavy care. Denying himself everything, Bashmachkin acquires an overcoat. But the joy was short-lived, he was robbed. The hero was shocked, he fell ill and died. The author emphasizes the typical nature of the character, at the beginning of the work he writes: "So, in one department, one official served." The story of N.V. Gogol is built on the contrast between the inhuman environment and its victim, to which the author treats with love and sympathy. When Bashmachkin asks young officials not to laugh at him, other words rang in his "penetrating words: I am your brother." It seems to me that with this phrase Gogol not only expresses his own life position, but also tries to show inner world character. In addition, this is a reminder to readers of the need for a human relationship with others. Akaki Akakievich is not capable of fighting injustice, only in unconsciousness, almost in delirium, he was able to show dissatisfaction with the people who so rudely humiliated him, trampled on his dignity. The author speaks in defense of the offended "little" person. The ending of the story is fantastic, although it also has real motivations: a “significant person” is driving along an unlit street after drinking champagne, and anything could be imagined to him. The finale of this work made an indelible impression on the readers. For example, S. P. Stroganov said: “What a terrible story by Gogolev“ The Overcoat ”, because this ghost on the bridge simply drags each of us overcoat from the shoulders.” A ghost tearing off his greatcoat on the bridge is a symbol of a protest that did not materialize in reality. humiliated man, the coming vengeance.
The theme of the "little" man is also revealed in the Notes of a Madman. This work tells a typical story of a modest official Poprishchin, spiritually crippled by life, in which “everything that is best in the world, everything goes either to the chamber junkers or the generals. If you find poor wealth for yourself, you think to get it with your hand - the chamber junker or the general rips off from you. The hero could not endure injustice, endless humiliation, and went mad. The titular adviser Poprishchin is aware of his own insignificance and suffers from it. Unlike the protagonist of The Overcoat, he is a conceited, even ambitious person, he wants to be noticed, to play any prominent role in society. The more acute his torments, the stronger the humiliations he experiences, the freer his dream becomes from the power of reason. The story “Notes of a Madman” thus presents a terrifying discord between reality and a dream that leads the hero to madness, the Death of the Personality .. Akaki Bashmachkin and Poprishchin are victims of the system that existed at that time in Russia. But we can say that such people always turn out to be victims of any bureaucratic machine. , The second theme of N.V. Gogol's work is reflected in such works as "Old-world landowners", "How Ivan Ivanovich quarreled with Ivan Nikiforovich", in the wonderful poem "Dead Souls" and in many others.
Started in " Petersburg stories"The exposure of the vulgarity of society was later continued in the collection" Mirgorod "and in" Dead souls". All these works are characterized by such an image technique as a sharp contrast between the external goodness and the internal ugliness of the characters. It is enough to recall the image of Pavel Ivanovich Chichikov or Ivan Ivanovich. In his works, N.V. Gogol sought to ridicule all the evil that surrounded him. He wrote that "even those who are no longer afraid of anything are afraid of laughter." At the same time, he tried to show the influence of the environment on the formation of a person, his formation as a person.
We can say that N.V. Gogol was a moralist writer, believing that literature should help people understand life, determine their place in it. He sought to show readers that the world around us is arranged unfairly, just as A. S. Pushkin encouraged “good feelings” in people.
The themes begun by N. V. Gogol” were later continued in different ways by the writers of the “natural school”.
Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
LLC Training Center
"PROFESSIONAL"
Abstract by discipline:
"Theory and History of the Russian literary language» »
On this topic:
"Natural school" in the history of the Russian literary language"
Executor:
Nikolaevna Tatyana Vladimirovna
Moscow 2016
Introduction.....……………………………........……………………....3
Style and criteria for referring to the "natural school" .................................... 4
Philosophical and aesthetic foundations of the "natural school" ... ... 7
Decay and significance ....………......………………........................... ....9
Conclusion................................................. .......................................eleven
List of references .............................................................................. 13
Introduction
The natural school is a conventional name for the initial stage in the development of critical realism in Russian literature of the 1840s, which arose under the influence of the work of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Was not literary association with a clearly defined program and membership, it was informal association young prose writers gathered under the ideological influence of Vissarion Belinsky in the journal Otechestvennye Zapiski. Turgenev and Dostoevsky, Grigorovich, Herzen, Goncharov, Nekrasov, Panaev, Dal, Chernyshevsky, Saltykov-Shchedrin and others were reckoned among the "natural school".
Determining the composition of the participants, we proceed from the fact that it is not the personal contacts of the artists, not the circle affinity that develops around Belinsky, that is decisive, but loyalty to certain creative principles that arose under the influence of the general literary situation and the ideological and artistic needs of the time.
Researcher Yu. Mann pointed out that the “Natural School” is, strictly speaking, not a school (a school, from Mann’s point of view, is a commonality of style, subject matter, that is high degree community). It is interesting that Vinogradov, defining the concept of “Natural School”, united not writers, but works, believing that “poetic individuality is in itself out of school, it does not fit into the framework of one or another school.
It is interesting to explore the origin and development of the principles of the "Natural School" in the work of its individual representatives.
In this paper, we will try to reveal the concept of the "Natural School" and prove that it was cultural phenomenon and took aesthetic positions in Russian literature.
Style and criteria for referring to the "natural school"
The natural school, in the extended use of the term as it was used in the 1840s, does not designate a single direction, but is a concept to a large extent conditional. The most common features on the basis of which the writer was considered to belong to the Natural School were the following: socially significant topics that captured a wider circle than even the circle of social observations (often in the "low" strata of society), a critical attitude to social reality, the realism of artistic expressions, who fought against the embellishment of reality, aestheticism in itself, romantic rhetoric. Since there were no membership lists for the "natural school", the attribution of one or another writer to it was at the mercy of literary critics and literary historians 5 .
Belinsky highlights the realism of the "natural school", arguing the most important feature"true", not "false" image; he pointed out that "our literature ... from rhetorical strove to become natural, natural." Belinsky emphasized the social orientation of this realism as its peculiarity and task when, protesting against the end in itself of "art for art's sake", he argued that "in our time, art and literature, more than ever, have become an expression of public issues". The realism of the natural school in Belinsky's interpretation is democratic. The natural school does not appeal to ideal, invented heroes - “pleasant exceptions to the rules”, but to the “crowd”, to the “mass”, to ordinary people and most often to people of “low rank”. All kinds of “physiological” essays, which were widespread in the 1840s, satisfied this need in reflecting a different, non-noble life, even if only in an external, everyday, superficial reflection. Chernyshevsky especially sharply emphasizes as the most essential and basic feature of the "literature of the Gogol period" its critical, "negative" attitude to reality - "literature of the Gogol period" is here another name for the same natural school: it is to Gogol 2 - the author of "Dead Souls", "Inspector", "Overcoat" - Belinsky and a number of other critics erected a natural school as the ancestor. Indeed, many writers who belong to the natural school experienced the powerful influence of various aspects of Gogol's work. Such is his satire, the sharpness of setting his problem " small person", his gift for portraying the "prosaic essential squabbles of life". In addition to Gogol, the writers of the natural school were influenced by such representatives Western European literature like Dickens, Balzac, George Sand.
The "Natural School" was criticized by representatives of different directions: it was accused of being addicted to "low people", of "mud-filming", of political unreliability (Bulgarin), of a one-sidedly negative approach to life, of imitating the latest French literature. The Natural School was criticized by Shevyryov, who accused young writers of their lack of artistic taste and love for the Russian people. The "Natural School" was ridiculed in Pyotr Karatygin's vaudeville "Natural School" (1847). After the death of Belinsky and the tightening of censorship in 1848, the very name "natural school" was banned by censorship. In the 1850s, the term "Gogolian trend" was used (the title of the work of N. G. Chernyshevsky "Essays on the Gogol period of Russian literature" is typical). Later, the term "Gogolian trend" began to be understood more broadly than the actual "natural school", using it as a designation of critical realism.
In the view of contemporary criticism, the natural school, therefore, was a single group, united by the above-mentioned common features. However, the specific socio-artistic expression of these features, and hence the degree of consistency and relief of their manifestations, were so different that the natural school as a whole turns out to be a convention. Among the writers included in it, in the Literary Encyclopedia, three trends are distinguished according to the degree of their revolutionary nature 6 .
Philosophical and aesthetic foundations of the "natural school"
Vinogradov, Kuleshov, and Mann saw the unity of the “natural school” differently. Obviously, the work of specific writers and critics can never fully fit into the framework of any artistic and philosophical doctrine.
For Belinsky, the “natural school” was precisely a school, a direction, although in artistically- "wide type". The very word “school” implies something that does not arise arbitrarily, but is created consciously, meaning some predetermined goals.
In worldview terms, it is a certain system of views on reality, its content, leading trends, opportunities and ways of its development. Common worldview - important condition formation of a literary school. And meanwhile, literary school unite, first of all, structural and poetic moments. Thus, young writers of the 1940s adopted Gogol's methods, but not Gogol's worldview. 4 .
According to Belinsky, a genius creates what and when he wants, his activity cannot be predicted and directed. His works are inexhaustible in terms of the number of possible interpretations. One of the tasks of fiction, Belinsky believed, is the promotion of advanced scientific ideas.
At the origins of the "Natural School" are Belinsky and Herzen, who were largely brought up on the ideas of Hegel. Even later, arguing with him, this generation retained the Hegelian structure of thinking, adherence to rationalism, such categories as historicism, the primacy of objective reality over subjective perception.
However, it is worth noting that Hegelian historicism and the “Russian idea” derived from it are by no means the exclusive property of Belinsky and the circle of writers united around “ Domestic notes in the early 40s.
Thus, the Moscow Slavophiles, on the basis of the same historical and philosophical premises as Belinsky, drew the opposite conclusions: yes, the Russian nation has reached the world-historical frontiers; yes, history is the key to modernity, but the full realization of the "spirit" of the nation and the future great glory- not so much in the successes of civilization and Western enlightenment, as Belinsky and Herzen believed, but primarily in the manifestation of Orthodox - Byzantine principles.
So, although the Hegelian ideas were based on the "natural school", they did not determine its originality against the literary background of the epoch of the 1940s.
For the first time, the name "Natural School" was used by Bulgarin in the feuilleton "Northern Bee" dated 01/26/1846. Under the pen of Bulgarin - this word was abusive. In the mouth of Belinsky - the banner of Russian realistic literature. Both defenders and enemies, and later researchers of the “natural school”, attributed to it the work of young writers who entered literature after Pushkin and Lermontov, immediately after Gogol, Goncharov and Dostoevsky, Nekrasov and others.
Belinsky wrote in his annual review "A Look at Russian Literature of 1847": "Natural School" is in the foreground of Russian literature. Belinsky attributed the first steps of the "Natural School" to the beginning of the 40s. Its final chronological boundary was later determined by the beginning of the 50s. Thus, the "Natural School" embraces a decade of Russian literature.
According to Mann, one of the brightest decades, when all those who in the second half of the 19th century were destined to form the basis of Russian literature declared themselves 1 .
Now the concept of "natural school" belongs to the generally accepted and most commonly used.
The researchers Blagoy, Bursov, Pospelov, Sokolov addressed the problem of the "natural school".
Decay and significance
In the 1840s, the disagreements between authors classified as "natural school" were not yet sharpened to the limit. As yet, the writers themselves, united under the name of the natural school, were not clearly aware of the full depth of the contradictions that separated them. Therefore, for example, in the collection "Physiology of St. Petersburg", one of the characteristic documents of the natural school, the names of Nekrasov, Ivan Panaev, Grigorovich, Dahl stand side by side. Hence the rapprochement in the minds of contemporaries of urban essays and stories by Nekrasov with bureaucratic stories by Dostoevsky.
In the 1850s, the division between writers classified as naturalists would become sharper. Turgenev will take an uncompromising position in relation to the Sovremennik by Nekrasov and Chernyshevsky and will be defined as an artist-ideologist of the "Prussian" path of development of capitalism. Dostoevsky will remain in the camp that maintains the prevailing order (although democratic protest was also characteristic of Dostoevsky in the 1840s, in Poor Folk, for example, and in this respect he had links with Nekrasov). And, finally, Nekrasov, Saltykov, Herzen, whose works will pave the way for the wide literary production of the revolutionary part of the raznochintsy of the 1860s, will reflect the interests of the "peasant democracy" fighting for the "American" path of development of Russian capitalism, for the "peasant revolution".
In recent years, aspects of considering the natural school as an integral phenomenon, full of internal dynamics and contradictions, which gave rise to many great writers of the second half of the 19th century, who remembered their kinship, their cradle of realism, have been increasingly enriched with concrete analysis. 3 .
As part of the natural school - a variety of writers, united by some common goals, creative techniques, genre and style features. Here the problems of “teachers” and “students”, “traditions” and “innovation”, the correlation of “individual” and “general” in creativity, “artistic practice” and “theoretical program” within the “school” and the entire realistic direction arise. The study of the natural school is a rewarding occupation: it allows a philologist of a wide profile to form, with a good theoretical training, since the natural school occupies a key place in the literary process.
The study of the natural school is of general methodological significance; it should contribute to a better understanding of the typology of Russian realism and literary process XIX century.
Conclusion
Since the time of Belinsky, the term "natural school" has been used to define one of the most important transitional stages in the history of Russian literature, falling on the 40s. XIX years century, when under the direct influence of Gogol, as well as Pushkin, Lermontov, Belinsky's criticism, realism was formed and took a stable position in Russian literature. This stage was precisely the school for many young writers (Nekrasov, Turgenev, Goncharov, Dostoevsky, Herzen, Grigorovich), who realized their close creative unity, maintained friendly ties among themselves and grouped around the Notes of the Fatherland and Sovremennik, headed by Belinsky. The term "realism" had not yet appeared in Russian literature, but the concept of naturalness, "naturalness" of the image of life already existed, fixed artistic practice writers of the natural school; Belinsky comprehended it in his critical articles. The definition of "natural school" is firmly established in all university courses in Russian literature. In recent years, aspects of considering the natural school as an integral phenomenon, full of internal dynamics and contradictions, have been enriched with concrete analysis, which gave rise to many great writers of the second half of the 19th century, who remembered their kinship, their cradle of realism.
The "natural school" in the history of the Russian literary language has taken an aesthetic position and has become a cultural phenomenon.
Belinsky argued that the "Natural School" is at the forefront of Russian literature. Under the motto of the "Gogolian trend", the "Natural School" brought together the best writers of that time, although they differed in worldview. These writers expanded the area of Russian life, which received the right to be depicted in art. They turned to the reproduction of the lower strata of society, denied serfdom, destructive power money and officials, the vices of the social system, disfiguring the human personality.
For some writers, the denial of social injustice has grown into an image of the growing protest of the most disadvantaged ("Poor People" by Dostoevsky, "A Tangled Case" by Saltykov, Nekrasov's poems and his essay "Petersburg Corners", "Anton Goremyk" by Grigorovich).
List of used literature
Esin A.B. Principles and methods of analysis literary work: Tutorial. – 12th ed. -M.: Flinta: Science. - 2015 - 248 p.
Vinogradov V.V. Gogol and the natural school,L., 1925. - 76 p.
Kuleshov V.I., Natural school in Russian literature of the 19th century, M., 1982 - 224p.
Pospelov G.N., History of Russian literature of the 19th century, v.2, part 1, M., 1962. - 480s.
Fesenko E.Ya. Literary theory: tutorial for universities / E.Ya. Fesenko. - Ed. 3rd, add. and correct. - M.: Academic Project; Mir Foundation. - 2008 - 780 p.
CD Literary Encyclopedia in 12 vols., "Library of dictionaries" series of the ETS Dictionary Publishing House, no. No. 5.
