The name of Nekrasov was forever fixed in the minds of the Russian people as the name of a great poet who came to literature with his new word, who managed to express the high patriotic ideals of his time in unique images and sounds.
Speaking of Nekrasov's poem "Who Lives Well in Rus'", it must be said that the poem is not finished. The poet began work on the grandiose concept of the "people's book" in 1863, and finished terminally ill in 1877. As he said: “One thing that I deeply regret is that I did not finish the poem “Who in Rus' should live well”. However, Belinsky believed that incompleteness is a sign of the true. The question of the "incompleteness" of the poem is highly controversial. After all, “To Whom in Rus' to Live Well” was conceived as an epic, that is, a work of art depicting with the maximum degree of completeness an entire era in the life of the people. Since folk life is boundless and inexhaustible in its countless manifestations, epics in any variety are characterized by incompleteness. The epic can be continued indefinitely, but you can put an end to almost any segment of its path. That is, the individual parts of the poem are connected by some common phenomenon. For example, in "To whom it is good to live in Rus'" all parts are united only by wandering peasants (excluding the parts "Last child" and "Feast - for the whole world"). This allows you to freely rearrange the parts. That is, there is an unfixed order of parts. If the order had been fixed, the “Last Child” part would not have followed the first part, but the second, and the “Peasant Woman” would have been after the third part, “A Feast for the Whole World”. The composition of the work is built according to the laws of the classical epic: it consists of separate, relatively autonomous parts and chapters. Outwardly, these topics are connected by the theme of the road: seven men-truth-seekers are wandering around Rus', trying to resolve the question that haunts them: who lives well in Rus'? And so the rearrangement of parts does not eliminate the meaning and charm of the poem.
The genre originality of the poem is the mixing of fairy-tale motifs and real facts of history in it. For example, the number seven in folklore is magical. Seven wanderers - the image of a large epic composition. The fabulous coloring of the Prologue raises the narrative above everyday life, above peasant life and gives the action an epic universality. At the same time, the events are attributed to the post-reform era. The specific sign of the peasants - "temporarily liable" - indicates the real situation of the peasants at that time. But not only the magical number of wanderers creates a fabulous atmosphere. In the Prologue, the meeting of the seven men is narrated as a great epic event:
In what year - count
In what land - guess
On the pillar path
Seven men got together...
So epic and fairy-tale heroes converged on a battle or on an honorable feast. But even here, along with fairy-tale motifs, a common sign of post-reform ruin is captured, expressed in the names of villages: Zaplatovo, Razutovo, Zlobishino, Neurozhayka. Terpigoreva Uyezd, Empty Volost, Tightened Gubernia - all this also tells us about the plight of provinces, uyezds, volosts after the reforms of 1861.
And yet the men live and act like in a fairy tale: "Go there, I don't know where, bring something, I don't know what." In the poem, a comic comparison of the dispute between the peasants with the fight of bulls in a peasant herd arises. According to the laws of the epic, it unfolds, as in Gogol's "Dead Souls", but it also acquires an independent meaning. A cow with a bell, having strayed from the herd, came to the fire, fixed her eyes on the peasants,
I listened to crazy speeches
And began, my heart,
Moo, moo, moo!
Nature, animals also participate in the peasant dispute:
And the raven, the smart bird,
Ripe, sitting on a tree
By the fire itself
Sits and prays to hell
To be slammed to death
Someone!
The commotion grows, spreads, covers the entire forest:
A booming echo woke up
Went for a walk, a walk,
It went to scream-shout
As if to tease
Stubborn men.
The poet treats the very essence of the dispute with irony. Men still do not understand that the question of who is happier - a priest, a landowner, a merchant, an official or a king - reveals the limitations of their ideas about happiness, which come down to material security. But for the peasants of that time, the issue of security was the most important. And not only in Russia, this issue worried people, therefore the poem “Who in Rus' should live well” has a prominent place not only in Russian, but also in world poetry.
The genre originality of the poem by N. A.-Nekrasov lies in the amazing ability of the author to combine a fabulous atmosphere with the political problems of the 60s of the XIX century. And also in writing a wonderful epic poem, accessible to all people at any age.
“My favorite brainchild,” Nekrasov wrote in his manuscript about the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'.” Later, in one of his letters to the journalist P. Bezobrazov, the poet himself defined the genre of the poem “Who should live well in Rus'”: “This will be the epic of modern peasant life.”
And here the modern reader will immediately have a lot of questions, because the word epic reminds us of large-scale works, for example, Homer's epics or Tolstoy's multi-volume books. But does an unfinished work even have the right to be called an epic?
To begin with, let's figure out what we mean by the concept of "epopee". The problematics of the epic genre involves consideration of the life of not a single hero, but of an entire people. Any significant events in the history of this people are selected for the image. Most often, this moment is war. However, at the time of Nekrasov's creation of the poem, there is no war going on in Russia, and the poem itself does not mention military operations. And yet, in 1861, another event, no less significant for the people's life, took place in Russia: the abolition of serfdom. It causes a wave of controversy in the highest circles, as well as confusion and a complete reorganization of life among the peasants. It is to this turning point that Nekrasov dedicates his epic poem.
The genre of the work “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” required the author to comply with certain criteria, first of all, the scale. The task of showing the life of a whole people is not at all easy, and it was this task that influenced Nekrasov's choice of a plot with a journey as the main plot-forming element. Travel is a common motif in Russian literature. Both Gogol in "Dead Souls" and Radishchev ("Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow") addressed him, even in the Middle Ages there was a popular genre of "walking" - "Walking over three seas". This technique allows you to depict in the work a complete picture of folk life, with all its customs, joys and sorrows. At the same time, the main plot fades into the background, and the narrative breaks up into many separate kaleidoscopic parts, from which at the same time a three-dimensional picture of life gradually emerges. Peasants' stories about their fates are replaced by drawn-out lyrical songs, the reader gets acquainted with a rural fair, sees festivities, elections, learns about the attitude towards a woman, mourns with a beggar and has fun with a drunk.
It is characteristic that the parts sometimes deviate so strongly from each other in the plot that they can be interchanged without harm to the composition of the work. This at one time caused a long debate about the correct arrangement of the chapters of the poem (Nekrasov did not leave clear instructions on this).
At the same time, this "patchwork" of the work is compensated by the internal unceasing development of the plot - one of the prerequisites for the epic genre. The people's soul, sometimes very contradictory, sometimes despairing under the yoke of troubles and yet not completely broken, moreover, constantly dreaming of happiness - this is what the poet shows the reader.
Among the features of the genre “To whom it is good to live in Rus'”, one can also name a huge layer of folklore elements included in the text of the poem, from directly introduced songs, proverbs, sayings and to implicit references to this or that epic story, the use of phrases like “Savel, the Russian hero”. Here you can clearly see Nekrasov's love for the common people, his sincere interest in the topic - it is not for nothing that the collection of material for the poem lasted for so many years (more than 10)! Note that the inclusion of folklore elements in the text is also considered a sign of the epic - this allows you to more fully depict the features of the national character and way of life.
A bizarre combination of historical facts with fairy tale motifs is also considered a genre originality of the poem. In the beginning, written according to all the laws of fairy tales, seven (magic number) peasants set off on their journey. The beginning of their journey is accompanied by miracles - a warbler speaks to them, in the forest they find a self-assembled tablecloth. But their further path will not go according to a fairy tale.
A skillful combination of a fabulous, unburdening plot with serious political problems of post-reform Rus' favorably distinguished Nekrasov's work immediately after the publication of parts of the poem: it looked interesting against the background of one-sided pamphlets and at the same time made one think. This also allowed the epic poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” not to lose its interest for the reader today.
Artwork test
In general, speaking about the genre and style of “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, one must bear in mind the greater proximity of Nekrasov’s poem in many respects to prose narrative genres than to poems, in particular to the lyrical-epic poem of the 20-30s. 19th century The authors of both works used a very capacious genre form - a form of travel, which makes it possible to introduce the most diverse material in any sequence. The narration of the journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow on the bed-posts, stops at the stations, various meetings, etc., allowed the author to present a broad picture of Russian life, to depict Russia in typical features of the Catherine era, to express his critical attitude towards it.
A similar composition was chosen by Nekrasov, who set himself the task of showing Rus', predominantly peasant, in the post-reform era. Seven men, on their own initiative, decided to measure Rus' with their feet, to see for themselves how the working people live in it. The reception of the journey as a realistic motivation for the narrative helped Nekrasov to present Rus' in all its breadth, in all its contradictions. The genre created by the poet did not require a plot connection between individual chapters, which in both works represent complete artistic parts, united by a common ideological concept.
In Nekrasov, like in Radishchev, the narrative is full of lyrical inserts. The difference is that the lyricism of Journey is usually created by direct intervention in the actions of the author, whose presence is felt at every turn, while Nekrasov achieves it in a different way - by the extensive use of lyrical songs and lyrical outpourings of heroes, the author himself very rarely speaks from myself.
Radishchev acted as an innovator in literature, as the initiator of critical realism. One of the first in Russian literature, he put forward new heroes - heroes from * the peasant environment, expressed not only a deep interest in them, but also deep sympathy for their plight, stood up for the interests of the people. Nekrasov, being the largest representative of realism, was also an innovator in the field of poetry. At a different stage, during the period of the rise of the revolutionary-democratic movement, he deepened and in many respects developed the traditions of his predecessor, Radishchev, and thereby raised the critical realism of classical literature to a higher level.
The originality of the Nekrasov poem, as a folk heroic epic, was determined by the new content, new objects of artistic representation.
The poem began, as already mentioned, immediately after the reform. The people, who until recently bore the brunt of feudal oppression, and largely deceived by the reform, nevertheless felt the opportunity to more boldly straighten their mighty shoulders and become a true hero of the future. The very historical reality of the 60s. and the role that the people played in it suggested to Nekrasov the plan and plot construction of the poem. Its main characters are peasants, the scene is the Russian village and, more broadly, Rus', the main theme is the life and way of life of the peasantry.
The heroic-patriotic spirit of the poem had its own distinctive features, predetermined by the specific situation of that time. Events were unfolding that were extremely important for the historical fate of Russia, in particular for the peasantry. The peasantry entered a new phase of life. Behind are the horrors of serfdom fading into the past, in the present - conflicting feelings and moods: some relief after the “liberation”, bitterness and disappointment caused by deceived hopes, and at the same time, although not quite clearly defined, but persistent faith in a better future , manifestations of spontaneous revolutionary protest.
The "liberation" itself, as is known, took place without the active participation of the main suffering person - the peasantry; therefore, there could not have been individualized heroes from the people's environment who performed feats during the event itself, but on the other hand, the collective hero, the multimillion-strong Russian peasantry, made himself felt and made himself felt his strength and significance in determining the historical paths of the homeland. It was he who became the main engine of the action of the Nekrasov poem.
Nekrasov conceived "Who should live well in Rus'" in its main genre essence as an epic poem. However, the depicted reality itself and the ideological and emotional attitude towards it of a passionate fighter, a revolutionary poet, led to the use in the poem of a wide variety of techniques and means, characteristic not only for epic, but also for lyrical and dramatic genres.
A distinctive feature of Nekrasov's poetic manner is conciseness, conciseness. Often he is limited to two or three typical details to recreate a holistic image (suffice it to recall the portrait sketches of Posledysh, Obolt-Obolduev, Yakim Nagogoy, and others). A poetic narrative is usually shorter than a prose one precisely because the poet, when telling, often also expresses his direct attitude to events and thereby shortens the narrative.
The works of Nekrasov - lyrics by the nature of poetic talent - are characterized by a certain emotional tone. Let us recall such major works that preceded “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, such as “Sasha”, “Frost, Red Nose”, “Railway”,. "Orina, a soldier's mother." They have a very strong lyrical jet. In the narrative, in particular, lyrical digressions are introduced, which often are not even directly connected with the main content of the poem, but reveal the intimate world of the poet or present generalizations that are indirectly related to the content.
In the poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”, the author’s participation in the action is felt at every step, but lyrical digressions are reduced to a minimum and do not at all resemble lyrical digressions in a romantic lyric-epic poem or in such examples of narrative genres as Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin and "Dead Souls" Gogolk. Digressions in the poem are not deployed and have a special character. Firstly, in their style they do not stand out from the peasant colloquial speech, and secondly, the author's lyrical beginning is found most clearly in generalizations and maxims that clarify the ideological characteristics of one or another character or the meaning of individual episodes. This method of authorial intervention in the course of events is lyrical in itself.
Nekrasov gives lyricism to his epic story with the help of another technique usual for him, namely, the wide introduction of songs. The heroes of the poem turn to the song both in joy and in grief, with the help of the song, the lyrical and dramatic tension of the action receives a kind of relaxation. So, for example, when telling the story of her life, Matryona Timofeevna Korchagina moves on to the song, which is a kind of illustration for her story; wanderers sing a song, which, but in content, echoes an episode from Matryona's life in her husband's family, etc.
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GENRE AND COMPOSITION
Lesson Objectives: to arouse in students a keen interest in the work “To whom in Rus' it is good to live”; tell about the creative history of the epic poem; describe the features of the genre and composition.
During the classes
I. Checking homework:
1. Tell us about the main themes and motives of the lyrics of N. A. Nekrasov.
2. Read (by heart) and analyze one of the poet's poems.
3. How do you understand the words: citizenship, psychologism, lyricism, epic, drama?
II. Explanation of new material.
CREATIVE HISTORY WHO WILL LIVE WELL IN Rus'.
GENRE AND COMPOSITION OF THE EPIC POEM
“Who in Rus' should live well” is Nekrasov's pinnacle work, the fruit of his tireless work.
For 20 years, the poet collected materials about folk life "by word". A work has appeared that is grandiose in its breadth of conception and depth of penetration into the psychology of people of different social status.
The poet began working on the "people's book" in 1863, and ended up as a seriously ill person in 1877 with a bitter sense of incompleteness. “One thing I deeply regret is that I didn’t finish my poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” the poet said shortly before his death. But even in an unfinished form, “Who in Rus' should live well” is a great work about the people and for the people.
About composition. The poet did not have time to make an order about the sequence of parts of the poem. The only thing that is known is that Nekrasov wanted to place part of the “Feast for the Whole World” behind the “Last Child”. So, literary critics came to the conclusion that behind the “Prologue. Part One" should follow the parts "Peasant Woman", "Last Child", "A Feast for the Whole World". All these parts are connected with the theme of the road.
About the genre. According to M. G. Kachurin, “we have before us an epic” - a work of art that reflects “great historical events, entire eras in the life of the country and people.” Thus, “To whom it is good to live in Rus'” is a realistic epic poem.
About the plot. The plot is close to folk tales about the search for a happy person by men-truth-seekers. The beginning of the poem (“In what year - count, in what land - guess ...”) resembles a fairy-tale beginning. Seven men from six villages "came together", argued ("Who lives happily, freely in Rus'?") And went in search of a truly happy person. Everything that the wanderers saw during their journey through Rus', whom they met, whom they listened to, constitutes the content of the epic poem.
III. Commentary reading of the poem (optionally).
Pay attention to the main artistic images (a collective image of peasants, images of people's defenders, typical images of a landowner, priest, peasants).
Homework.
1. Reading a poem.
2. Answer (orally) the questions:
1) Creative destiny "Who lives well in Rus'."
2) Features of the genre and composition.
3. Prepare an expressive reading of your favorite lines of the poem.
4. Individual tasks (by groups).
Composition (or message):
1st group - "Savel the Holy Russian Bogatyr".
2nd group - "The image of Yakim Nagogo".
3rd group - "Yermil Girin and his idea of happiness."
4th group - "Matryona Timofeevna - a woman with a strong character."
5th group - "The image of the" people's protector Grisha Dobrosklonov ".
The poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'": idea, plot, composition. Overview of the content of the poem. Historical information about the peasant reform of 1861
On February 19, 1861, Alexander II issued a Manifesto and Regulations that abolished serfdom. What did the men get from the gentlemen?
The peasants were promised personal freedom and the right to dispose of their property. The land was recognized as the property of the landlords. The landowners were charged with the obligation to provide the peasants with a personal plot and a field allotment.
The peasants had to buy land from the landowner. The transition to the redemption of the land allotment depended not on the desire of the peasants, but on the will of the landowner. Peasants who switched to the redemption of land plots with his permission were called owners, and those who did not switch to redemption were called temporarily liable. For the right to use the allotment of land received from the landowner before switching to redemption, they had to perform mandatory duties (pay dues or work off corvée).
The establishment of temporary relations preserves the feudal system of exploitation indefinitely. The value of the allotment was determined not by the actual market value of the land, but by the income received by the landowner from the estate under serfdom. When buying land, the peasants paid for it twice and three times higher than the actual value. The redemption operation made it possible for the landlords to retain in full the income that they received before the reform.
The beggarly allotment could not feed the peasant, and he had to go to the same landowner with a request to take on share-cropping: to cultivate the master's land with his tools and receive half of the harvest for labor. This mass enslavement of the peasants ended with the mass destruction of the old village. In no other country in the world did the peasantry experience such ruin, such poverty, as in Russia, even after the "liberation". That is why the first reaction to the Manifesto and the Regulations was the open resistance of the bulk of the peasantry, expressed in the refusal to accept these documents.
The poem "To whom it is good to live in Rus'" is Nekrasov's pinnacle work.
Nekrasov, following Pushkin and Gogol, decided to depict a wide canvas of the life of the Russian people and its bulk - the Russian peasant of the post-reform era, to show the predatory nature of the peasant reform and the deterioration of the people's lot. An important image of the poem is the image of the road, which brings the author's position closer to the motives of the biblical way of the cross, with the traditions of Gogol and Russian folklore. At the same time, the author's task also included a satirical depiction of the "tops", where the poet follows Gogol's traditions. But the main thing is to show the talent, will, stamina and optimism of the Russian peasant. By its style features and poetic intonations, the poem is close to the works of folklore. The composition of the poem is complicated primarily because its idea changed over time, the work remained unfinished, and a number of fragments were not published due to censorship bans.
1. The idea of the poem."The people are liberated, but are the people happy?" - this line from the "Elegy" explains Nekrasov's position in relation to the peasant reform of 1861, which only formally deprived the landlords of their former power, but in fact deceived, robbed peasant Rus'.
2. The history of the creation of the poem. The poem was begun shortly after the peasant reform. The poet worked on the poem from 1863 to 1877, that is, about 14 years. Nekrasov considered its goal to be the image of the destitute peasant lower classes, among which - as in all of Russia - there is no happy one. The search for a happy among the tops of society was for Nekrasov only a compositional device. The happiness of the “strong” and “well-fed” was beyond doubt for him. The very word "lucky", according to Nekrasov, is a synonym for a representative of the privileged classes. Depicting the ruling classes (priest, landowner), Nekrasov first of all focuses on the fact that the reform hit not so much "one end on the master" as "the other end on the peasant."
3. The composition of the poem. During the work on the poem, its idea changed, but the poem was never completed by the author, so there is no consensus in criticism about its composition, there is no exact location of its chapters.
The poet calls the wanderers "temporarily obliged", which shows that the poem began no later than 1863, since later this term was very rarely applied to the peasants.
Under the chapter "Landlord" there is a date set by the author - 1865, which indicates that before that the poet had worked on its first part.
Dates of writing other chapters: "Last Child" - 1872; "Peasant Woman" - 1873; "A Feast for the Whole World" - 1877
Nekrasov wrote "A Feast for the Whole World", already in a state of fatal illness, but he did not consider this part to be the last, intending to continue the poem with the image of wanderers in St. Petersburg.
It was V.V. Gippius who found in the poem itself objective indications of the sequence of parts: “Time is calculated in it“ according to the calendar ”: the action of“ Prologue ”begins in the spring, when the birds make their nests and the cuckoo calls. In the chapter “Pop”, the wanderers say: “But the time is not early, the month of May is coming.” In the chapter “Country Fair” there is a mention: “Only the weather stared at Nikola of spring”; apparently, on the day of Nikola (May 9, according to the old style), the fair itself takes place. “Last Child” also begins with the exact date: “Petrovka. The time is hot. Haymaking in full swing." In A Feast for the Whole World, haymaking is already over: the peasants are going to the market with hay. Finally, in "Peasant Woman" - the harvest. The events described in “A Feast for the Whole World” refer to early autumn (Grigory gathers mushrooms in Chapter IV), and the “Petersburg part” conceived but not implemented by Nekrasov was supposed to take place in winter, when wanderers come to Petersburg to seek access. to the noble boyar, the minister of the sovereign. Presumably, the poem could have ended with Petersburg episodes.
The poet did not have time to make an order about the sequence of parts of the poem. The only thing that is known is that Nekrasov wanted to place part of the “Feast for the Whole World” behind the “Last Child”. So, literary critics came to the conclusion that behind the “Prologue. Part One" should follow the parts "Peasant Woman", "Last Child", "A Feast for the Whole World". All these parts are connected with the theme of the road.
4. Poem genre. According to M. G. Kachurin, “before us epic"- a work of art, which reflects" great historical events, entire eras in the life of the country and people. The objectivity of the image of life is expressed in the fact that the author's voice is merged with the collective consciousness of the nation, the author draws life, evaluating it from the standpoint of the people. Hence the connection of the poem with folklore, with the people's perception of being. Thus, “Who in Rus' should live well” - realistic epic poem.
About the plot. The plot is close to folk tales about the search for a happy person by men-truth-seekers. The beginning of the poem (“In what year - count, in what land - guess ...”) resembles a fairy-tale beginning. Seven men from six villages "agreed", argued ("Who lives happily, freely in Rus'?") And went in search of a truly happy person. Everything that the wanderers saw during their journey through Rus', whom they met, whom they listened to, constitutes the content of the epic poem.
