“All of Greece and Rome fed only on literature: in our sense, there were no schools at all! And how they grew. Literature, in fact, is the only school of the people, and it can be the only and sufficient school...” V. Rozanov.
D. S. Likhachev “Russian literature... has always been the conscience of the people. Her place in public life country has always been honorable and influential. She educated people and strove for a just reconstruction of life." D. Likhachev.
Ivan Bunin The Word The tombs, mummies and bones are silent, Only the word is given life: From ancient darkness, in the world graveyard, Only Letters sound. And we have no other property! Know how to protect, at least to the best of your ability, in days of anger and suffering, Our immortal gift - speech.
general characteristics eras The first question that arises when addressing the topic “Russian literature of the 20th century” is from when to count the 20th century. According to the calendar, from 1900 - 1901. ? But it is obvious that a purely chronological boundary, although significant in itself, gives almost nothing in the sense of delimiting eras. The first milestone of the new century is the revolution of 1905. But the revolution passed, and there was some calm - until the First World War. Akhmatova recalled this time in “Poem Without a Hero”: And along the legendary embankment the not calendar, the real twentieth century was approaching...
At the turn of the eras, the worldview of a person who understood that the previous era was gone forever became different. The socio-economic and general cultural prospects of Russia began to be assessed in a completely different way. The new era was defined by contemporaries as “borderline.” Previous forms of life, work, and socio-political organization became history. The established, previously seemingly unchangeable, system of spiritual values was radically revised. It is not surprising that the edge of the era was symbolized by the word “Crisis”. This “fashionable” word roamed the pages of journalistic and literary-critical articles along with the similar words “revival”, “turning point”, “crossroads”, etc. Innokenty Annensky
Fiction also did not stand aloof from public passions. Her social engagement was clearly manifested in the characteristic titles of her works - “Without a Road”, “At the Turning” by V. Veresaev, “The Decline of the Old Century” by A. Amphiteatrov, “At last line" M. Artsybasheva. On the other hand, most creative elite felt her era as a time of unprecedented achievements, where literature was given a significant place in the history of the country. Creativity seemed to fade into the background, giving way to ideological and public position the author, his connections and participation in Mikhail Artsebashev
End XIX century exposed the deepest crisis phenomena in the economy of the Russian Empire. The reform of 1861 by no means decided the fate of the peasantry, who dreamed of “land and freedom.” This situation led to the emergence in Russia of a new revolutionary teaching - Marxism, which relied on growth industrial production and a new progressive class - the proletariat. In politics, this meant a transition to an organized struggle of the united masses, the result of which was to be the violent overthrow of the state system and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The former methods of populist educators and populist terrorists have finally become a thing of the past. Marxism offered a radically different scientific method, thoroughly developed theoretically. It is no coincidence that “Capital” and other works of Karl Marx became reference books for many young people, who in their thoughts sought to build an ideal “Kingdom of Justice”.
On turn of the 19th century and XX centuries, the idea of a rebel man, a man-demiurge capable of transforming an era and changing the course of history, is reflected in the philosophy of Marxism. This appears most clearly in the work of Maxim Gorky and his followers, who persistently brought to the fore the Man with capital letters, the owner of the earth, a fearless revolutionary, challenging not only social injustice, but also the Creator himself. The rebel heroes of the writer's novels, stories and plays ("Foma Gordeev", "Philistines", "Mother") absolutely and irrevocably reject the Christian humanism of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy about suffering and purification by it. Gorky believed that revolutionary activity in the name of reorganizing the world transforms and enriches a person’s inner world. Illustration for the novel by M. Gorky "Foma Gordeev" Artists Kukryniksy. 1948 -1949
Another group of cultural figures cultivated the idea of spiritual revolution. The reason for this was the assassination of Alexander II on March 1, 1881 and the defeat of the 1905 revolution. Philosophers and artists called for the internal perfection of man. In the national characteristics of the Russian people, they looked for ways to overcome the crisis of positivism, whose philosophy became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century. In their quest, they sought to find new paths of development that could transform not only Europe, but the whole world. At the same time, an incredible, unusually bright rise in Russian religious philosophical thought. In 1909, a group of philosophers and religious publicists, including N. Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov and others, published a philosophical and journalistic collection "Milestones", whose role in the intellectual history of Russia in the 20th century is invaluable. “Vekhi” even today seem to us as if sent from the future,” this is exactly what another will say about them great thinker and truth-seeker Alexander Solzhenitsyn. "Vekhi" revealed the danger of thoughtless adherence to any theoretical principles, exposing the moral inadmissibility of belief in the universal significance of social ideals. In turn, they criticized the natural weakness of the revolutionary path, emphasizing its danger for the Russian people. However, the blindness of society turned out to be much worse. Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev
First World War turned into a disaster for the country, pushing it towards an inevitable revolution. February 1917 and the ensuing anarchy led to the October Revolution. As a result, Russia acquired a completely different face. For late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century as the main background literary development were tragic social contradictions, as well as the dual combination of difficult economic modernization and revolutionary movement. Changes in science occurred at a rapid pace, philosophical ideas about the world and man changed, and arts close to literature developed rapidly. Scientific and philosophical views at certain stages of cultural history radically influence the creators of words, who sought to reflect the paradoxes of time in their works.
The crisis of historical ideas was expressed in the loss of a universal point of reference, of one or another ideological foundation. No wonder the great German philosopher and the philologist F. Nietzsche uttered his key phrase: “God is dead.” It speaks of the disappearance of a strong ideological support, indicating the onset of an era of relativism, when the crisis of faith in the unity of the world order reaches its culmination. This crisis greatly contributed to the search for Russian philosophical thought, which was experiencing an unprecedented flowering at that time. V. Solovyov, L. Shestov, N. Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, V. Rozanov and many other philosophers had a strong influence on the development different areas Russian culture. Some of them also showed themselves in literary work. Important in Russian philosophy of that time was the appeal to epistemological and ethical issues. Many thinkers have focused their attention on spiritual world personality, interpreting life in categories close to literature such as life and fate, conscience and love, insight and delusion. Together, they led a person to understand the diversity of real, practical and internal, spiritual experience
The pictures have changed dramatically artistic directions and currents. The former smooth transition from one stage to another, when at a certain stage of literature one direction dominated, has faded into oblivion. Now different aesthetic systems existed simultaneously. Realism and modernism developed in parallel with each other - the largest literary trends. But at the same time, realism was a complex complex of several “realisms.” Modernism, on the other hand, was distinguished by extreme internal instability: various movements and groupings were continuously transformed, emerged and disintegrated, united and differentiated. Literature, as it were, “got rid of money.” That is why, in relation to the art of the early 20th century, the classification of phenomena on the basis of “directions and trends” is obviously conditional, non-absolute.
A specific feature of turn-of-the-century culture is active interaction various types art. It is flourishing at this time performing arts. The opening of the Art Theater in Moscow in 1898 was a great event cultural significance. On October 14, 1898, the first performance of A. K. Tolstoy’s play “Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich” took place on the stage of the Hermitage Theater. In 1902, at the expense of the largest Russian philanthropist S. T. Morozov, the famous Moscow Art Theater building was built (architect F. O. Shekhtel). The origins of the new theater were K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich. Danchenko. In his speech addressed to the troupe at the opening of the theater, Stanislavsky especially emphasized the need to democratize the theater, bringing it closer to life. The true birth of the Art Theater, a truly new theater, took place during the production of Chekhov's "The Seagull" in December 1898, which has since been theater emblem. The modern dramaturgy of Chekhov and Gorky formed the basis of its repertoire in the first years of its existence. Principles performing arts, developed Art Theater and were part of the general struggle for new realism, had a great influence on theatrical life Russia as a whole.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, Russian literature became aesthetically multi-layered. Realism at the turn of the century remained a large-scale and influential literary movement. Thus, Tolstoy and Chekhov lived and worked in this era. The brightest talents among the new realists belonged to the writers who united in the Moscow circle "Sreda" in the 1890s, and in the early 1900s who formed the circle of regular authors of the publishing house "Znanie", the actual leader was M. Gorky. IN different years it included L. Andreev, I. Bunin, V. Veresaev, N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, A. Kuprin, I. Shmelev and other writers. The significant influence of this group of writers was explained by the fact that it most fully inherited the traditions of Russian literary heritage XIX century. The experience of A. Chekhov turned out to be especially important for the next generation of realists. A.P. Chekhov. Yalta. 1903
Themes and characters realistic literature The thematic range of works by turn-of-the-century realists is undoubtedly wider, in contrast to their predecessors. For most writers at this time, thematic constancy is uncharacteristic. Rapid changes in Russia forced them to approach topics differently, to invade previously reserved layers of topics. The typology of characters has also been noticeably updated in realism. Outwardly, the writers followed tradition: in their works one could find easily recognizable types " little man"or an intellectual who experienced a spiritual drama. Characters got rid of sociological averageness and became more diverse in psychological characteristics and attitude. “The diversity of the soul” of the Russian person is a constant motif in I. Bunin’s prose. He was one of the first in realism to use foreign material in his works ("Brothers", "Chang's Dreams", "The Mister from San Francisco"). The same thing became characteristic of M. Gorky, E. Zamyatin and others. The work of A. I. Kuprin (1870 -1938) is unusually wide in its variety of themes and human characters. The heroes of his stories are soldiers, fishermen, spies, loaders, horse thieves, provincial musicians, actors, circus performers, telegraph operators
The genres and stylistic features of realistic prose were significantly updated at the beginning of the 20th century genre system and the style of realistic prose. The most mobile stories and essays occupied the main place in the genre hierarchy at this time. The novel has practically disappeared from the genre repertoire of realism, giving way to the story. Starting with the work of A. Chekhov, in realistic prose The importance of the formal organization of the text has noticeably increased. Some techniques and elements of form received greater independence in the artistic structure of the work. For example, it was used more variably artistic detail. At the same time, the plot increasingly lost its main meaning. compositional means and began to play a subordinate role. In the period from 1890 to 1917, three literary movements especially clearly expressed themselves - symbolism, acmeism and futurism, which formed the basis of modernism as a literary movement
Modernism in the artistic culture of the turn of the century was a complex phenomenon. Within it, several movements can be distinguished, different in their aesthetics and programmatic settings (symbolism, acmeism, futurism, egofuturism, cubism, suprematism, etc.). But in general, according to philosophical and aesthetic principles, modernist art opposed realism, especially the realistic art of the 19th century. However, the art of modernism in its The literary process of the turn of the century in value is artistic and moral was largely determined by the general, for the majority major artists the desire for our rich cultural heritage and, above all, freedom from aesthetic normativity, overcoming is not realized. contains within itself the silver lining of Russian culture. only literary cliches of the previous era, but also new artistic canons that developed in their immediate literary environment. Literary school(flow) and creative individuality are two key categories literary process beginning of the 20th century. To understand the work of a particular author, it is essential to know the immediate aesthetic context - the context of a literary movement or group.
The literary process at the turn of the century was largely determined by the common desire, for most major artists, for freedom from aesthetic normativity, to overcome not only the literary cliches of the previous era, but also the new artistic canons that were emerging in their immediate literary environment. Literary school (current) and creative individuality are two key categories of the literary process of the early 20th century. To understand the work of a particular author, it is essential to know the immediate aesthetic context - the context of a literary movement or group.
I. Early 1890s – 1905 1892 Code of laws of the Russian Empire: “the obligation of complete obedience to the tsar,” whose power was declared “autocratic and unlimited.” Industrial production is developing rapidly. Growing social consciousness new class - the proletariat. The first political strike at the Orekhovo-Zuevskaya manufactory. The court recognized the workers' demands as fair. Emperor Nicholas II. The first political parties were formed: 1898 - Social Democrats, 1905 - Constitutional Democrats, 1901 - Social Revolutionaries
Genre: story and short story. The storyline has been weakened. He is interested in the subconscious, and not in the “dialetics of the soul”, the dark, instinctive sides of the personality, spontaneous feelings that are not understood by the person himself. The author’s image comes to the fore; the task is to show one’s own, subjective perception of life. There is no direct author's position - everything goes into subtext (philosophical, ideological). The role of detail increases. Poetic techniques transform into prose. Realism (neorealism)
Modernism. Symbolism of the year. In the article by D.S. Merezhkovsky “On the causes of the decline and new trends in modern Russian literature,” modernism receives a theoretical justification. Older generation Symbolists: Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Bryusov, Balmont, Fyodor Sologub. Young Symbolists: Blok, A. Bely Magazine “World of Art” Ed. Princess M.K. Tenisheva and S.I. Mamontov, eds. S. P. Diaghilev, A. N. Benois (St. Petersburg) K. Balmont V. Bryusov Merezhkovsky D
Symbolism Focuses primarily through symbol on intuited entities and ideas, vague feelings and visions; The desire to penetrate into the secrets of existence and consciousness, to see through visible reality the supra-temporal ideal essence of the world and its Beauty. Eternal Femininity World Soul “Mirror to mirror, compare two mirror images, and place a candle between them. Two depths without a bottom, colored by the candle flame, will deepen themselves, mutually deepen each other, enrich the candle flame and unite with it into one. This is the image of the verse." (K. Balmont) Dear friend, don’t you see that everything we see is only a reflection, only shadows From what is invisible with our eyes? Dear friend, don’t you hear that the crackling noise of life is only a distorted response of triumphant harmonies (Soloviev) A pale young man with a burning gaze, Now I give you three covenants: First accept: do not live in the present, Only the future is the domain of the poet. Remember the second thing: don’t sympathize with anyone, love yourself infinitely. Keep the third: worship art, only it, undividedly, aimlessly (Bryusov)
1905 is one of the key years in the history of Russia. This year the revolution took place, which began with “Bloody Sunday” on January 9, the first tsarist manifesto was published, limiting the power of the monarchy in favor of its subjects, proclaiming the Duma to be the legislative body of power, approving civil liberties, creating a council of ministers in led by Witte, an armed uprising in Moscow, which was the peak of the revolution, an uprising in Sevastopol, etc.
Years. Russo-Japanese War
III – 1920s
Crisis of symbolism year. Article by A. Blok “On the current state of Russian symbolism”, 1911. The most radical direction appears, denying all previous culture, the avant-garde - futurism. In Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, I. Severyanin.
Futurism is the desire to create “the art of the future”, the denial of the heritage of the “past” - cultural traditions. language experimentation “zaum” Estate at night, Genghis Khan! Make noise, blue birches. Dawn of the night, dawn of dawn! And the sky is blue, Mozart! And, dusk of the cloud, be Goya! You at night, cloud, roops!.
A slap in the face to public taste Reading our New First Unexpected. Only we are the face of our Time. The horn of time blows for us in the art of words. The past is tight. The Academy and Pushkin are more incomprehensible than hieroglyphs. Abandon Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, etc. from the Steamship of Modernity. Whoever does not forget his first love will not know his last. Who, gullible, will turn last love to Balmont's perfume fornication? Is it a reflection of the courageous soul of today? Who, the coward, would be afraid to steal the paper armor from the black coat of the warrior Bryusov? Or are they the dawns of unknown beauties? Wash your hands that have touched the dirty slime of the books written by these countless Leonid Andreevs. To all these Maxim Gorkys, Kuprins, Bloks, Sollogubs, Remizovs, Averchenks, Chernys, Kuzmins, Bunins and so on. and so on. All you need is a dacha on the river. This is the reward that fate gives to tailors. From the heights of skyscrapers we look at their insignificance!... We order to honor the rights of poets: 1. To increase the vocabulary in its volume with arbitrary and derivative words (Word-innovation). 2. An insurmountable hatred of the language that existed before them. 3. With horror, remove from your proud brow from bath brooms Wreath of penny glory made by you. 4. Stand on the rock of the word “we” amid a sea of whistles and indignation. And if the dirty marks of yours still remain in our lines common sense” and “good taste”, then nevertheless for the first time the Lightnings of the New Coming Beauty of the Self-Valuable (Self-Valuable) Word are already trembling on them. D. Burliuk, Alexander Kruchenykh, V. Mayakovsky, Viktor Khlebnikov Moscow December
Features of the “Silver Age” 1. Elitism of literature, designed for a narrow circle of readers. Reminiscences and allusions. 2. The development of literature is connected with other types of art: 1. Theatre: its own direction in the world theater - Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Vakhtangov, M. Chekhov, Tairov 2. Painting: futurism (Malevich), symbolism (Vrubel), realism (Serov), acmeism (“World of Art”) 3. The enormous influence of philosophy, many new world trends: N. Berdyaev, P. Florensky, S. Bulgakov, V. Solovyov; Nietzsche, Schopenhauer. 4. Discovery in psychology - Freud's theory of the subconscious. 5.Primary development of poetry. Discovery in the field of verse. -Musical sound of the verse. – Revival of genres – sonnet, madrigal, ballad, etc. 6. Innovation in prose: novel-symphony (A. Bely), modernist novel (F. Sollogub) 7. Isoteric teachings (spiritism, occultism) – elements of mysticism in literature.
Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky Key Concepts his famous system: the stage of an artist’s work on a role, the method of transforming into a character, playing by an “ensemble” under the direction of a director who plays a “role” similar to the conductor’s in an orchestra, the troupe as a living organism passing through different stages development; and most importantly, the theory of cause-and-effect relationships of character. An actor, going on stage, performs a certain task within the framework of the logic of his character. But at the same time, each character exists in the general logic of the work laid down by the author. The author created the work in accordance with some purpose, having some main idea. And the actor besides performing specific task associated with the character, should strive to convey the main idea to the viewer, try to achieve main goal. The main idea of the work or its main goal is the super task. Actor play is divided into three technologies: - craft (based on the use of ready-made clichés, by which the viewer can clearly understand what emotions the actor has in mind), - performance (in the process of long rehearsals, the actor experiences genuine experiences, which automatically create a form of manifestation of these experiences, but During the performance itself, the actor does not experience these feelings, but only reproduces the form, the ready-made external drawing of the role). -experience (the actor experiences genuine experiences during the play, and this gives birth to the life of the image on stage).
Alexander Yakovlevich Tairov The idea of a Free Theater, which was supposed to combine tragedy and operetta, drama and farce, opera and pantomime. The actor had to be a true creator, not constrained by other people's thoughts or other people's words. The principle of “emotional gesture” instead of figurative or everyday authentic gesture. The performance should not follow the play in everything, because the performance itself is a “valuable work of art.” The main task of the director is to give the performer the opportunity to liberate himself, to free the actor from everyday life. An eternal holiday should reign in the theater, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a holiday of tragedy or comedy, just so as not to let everyday life into the theater - “theatricalization of the theater”
Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold Craving for line, pattern, for a kind of visualization of music, turning the acting into a phantasmogorical symphony of lines and colors. “Biomechanics seeks to experimentally establish the laws of movement of an actor on the stage, working on the basis of the norms of human behavior training exercises actor's performances." (the psychological concept of W. James (about the primacy of the physical reaction in relation to the emotional reaction), on the reflexology of V. M. Bekhterev and the experiments of I. P. Pavlov.
Evgeniy Bagrationovich Vakhtangov, the search for “modern ways to resolve a performance in a form that would sound theatrical”, the idea of the inextricable unity of the ethical and aesthetic purpose of the theater, the unity of the artist and the people, acute feeling modernity, corresponding to the content dramatic work, his artistic features, defining the unique stage form
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, all aspects of Russian life were radically transformed: politics, economics, science, technology, culture, art. Various, sometimes directly opposite, assessments of the socio-economic and cultural prospects for the country's development arise. What becomes common is the feeling of the onset of a new era, bringing a change in the political situation and a revaluation of previous spiritual and aesthetic ideals. Literature could not help but respond to the fundamental changes in the life of the country. There is a revision of artistic guidelines, a radical renewal literary devices. At this time, Russian poetry was developing especially dynamically. A little later, this period will be called the “poetic renaissance” or the Silver Age of Russian literature.
Realism at the beginning of the 20th century
Realism does not disappear, it continues to develop. L.N. is still actively working. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov and V.G. Korolenko, M. Gorky, I.A. have already powerfully declared themselves. Bunin, A.I. Kuprin... Within the framework of the aesthetics of realism, the creative individuality of writers of the 19th century found a vivid manifestation, their civil position And moral ideals- realism equally reflected the views of authors who share a Christian, primarily Orthodox, worldview - from F.M. Dostoevsky to I.A. Bunin, and those for whom this worldview was alien - from V.G. Belinsky to M. Gorky.
However, at the beginning of the 20th century, many writers were no longer satisfied with the aesthetics of realism - new aesthetic schools began to emerge. Writers unite in various groups, put forward creative principles, participate in polemics - literary movements are established: symbolism, acmeism, futurism, imagism, etc.
Symbolism at the beginning of the 20th century
Russian symbolism, the largest of the modernist movements, arose not only as a literary phenomenon, but also as a special worldview that combines artistic, philosophical and religious principles. The date of emergence of the new aesthetic system is considered to be 1892, when D.S. Merezhkovsky made a report "On the causes of the decline and on new trends in modern Russian literature." It proclaimed the main principles of future symbolists: “mystical content, symbols and the expansion of artistic impressionability.” The central place in the aesthetics of symbolism was given to the symbol, an image with the potential inexhaustibility of meaning.
The symbolists contrasted the rational knowledge of the world with the construction of the world in creativity, the knowledge of the environment through art, which V. Bryusov defined as “comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways.” In mythology different nations Symbolists found universal philosophical models with the help of which it is possible to comprehend the deep foundations of the human soul and solve the spiritual problems of our time. Representatives of this trend paid special attention to the heritage of the Russian classical literature- new interpretations of the works of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Tyutchev were reflected in the works and articles of the symbolists. Symbolism gave culture the names of outstanding writers - D. Merezhkovsky, A. Blok, Andrei Bely, V. Bryusov; the aesthetics of symbolism had a huge influence on many representatives of other literary movements.
Acmeism at the beginning of the 20th century
Acmeism was born in the bosom of symbolism: a group of young poets first founded literary association“The Workshop of Poets”, and then proclaimed themselves representatives of a new literary movement - Acmeism (from the Greek akme - highest degree something, blossoming, peak). Its main representatives are N. Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam. Unlike the symbolists, who strive to know the unknowable, to comprehend the highest essences, the Acmeists again turned to the value human life, the diversity of the bright earthly world. The main requirement for artistic form The works became a picturesque clarity of images, a verified and precise composition, stylistic balance, and precision of detail. The most important place In the aesthetic system of values, the Acmeists assigned memory - a category associated with the preservation of the best domestic traditions and world cultural heritage.
Futurism at the beginning of the 20th century
Derogatory comments about previous and modern literature given by representatives of another modernist movement- futurism (from Latin futurum - future). A necessary condition for the existence of this literary phenomenon, its representatives considered an atmosphere of outrageousness, a challenge to public taste, and a literary scandal. The Futurists' desire for mass theatrical performances with dressing up, painting faces and hands was caused by the idea that poetry should come out of books onto the square, to sound in front of spectators and listeners. Futurists (V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, D. Burliuk, A. Kruchenykh, E. Guro, etc.) put forward a program for transforming the world with the help of new art, which abandoned the legacy of its predecessors. At the same time, unlike representatives of other literary movements, in substantiating their creativity they relied on fundamental sciences - mathematics, physics, philology. The formal and stylistic features of Futurism poetry were the renewal of the meaning of many words, word creation, the rejection of punctuation marks, special graphic design of poems, depoeticization of language (the introduction of vulgarisms, technical terms, the destruction of the usual boundaries between “high” and “low”).
Conclusion
Thus, in the history of Russian culture, the beginning of the 20th century was marked by the emergence of diverse literary movements, various aesthetic views and schools. However, original writers, true artists of words, overcame the narrow framework of declarations, created highly artistic works that outlived their era and entered the treasury of Russian literature.
The most important feature of the beginning of the 20th century was the universal craving for culture. Not being at the premiere of a play in the theater, not being present at an evening of an original and already sensational poet, in literary drawing rooms and salons, not reading a newly published book of poetry was considered a sign of bad taste, unmodern, unfashionable. When a culture becomes a fashionable phenomenon, it is good sign. “Fashion for culture” is not a new phenomenon for Russia. This was the case during the time of V.A. Zhukovsky and A.S. Pushkin: let’s remember the “Green Lamp” and “Arzamas”, “Society of Lovers of Russian Literature”, etc. At the beginning of the new century, exactly a hundred years later, the situation practically repeated itself. The Silver Age replaced the Golden Age, maintaining and preserving the connection of times.
Slide 2
The chronological boundary is from 1900 – 1901, but it gives almost nothing in the sense of delimiting eras. The first milestone of the new century is the revolution of 1905. The revolution passed, there was some calm - until the First World War. Akhmatova recalled this time in “Poem Without a Hero”: And along the legendary embankment, the real twentieth century, not the calendar one, was approaching... From what moment should we count the 20th century?
Slide 3
At the turn of the eras, the worldview of a person who understood that the previous era was gone forever became different. The socio-economic and general cultural prospects of Russia began to be assessed completely differently. The new era was defined by contemporaries as “borderline.” General characteristics of the era
Slide 4
General characteristics of the era
Previous forms of life, work, and socio-political organization became history. The established, previously seemingly unchangeable, system of spiritual values was radically revised. It is not surprising that the edge of the era was symbolized by the word “Crisis”. This “fashionable” word roamed the pages of journalistic and literary-critical articles along with the similar words “revival”, “turning point”, “crossroads”, etc.
Slide 5
A CRISIS???
If there are ideas of time, then there are also forms of time V.G. Belinsky
Slide 6
The end of the 19th century revealed the deepest crisis phenomena in the economy of the Russian Empire
The reform of 1861 by no means decided the fate of the peasantry, who dreamed of “land and freedom.” This situation led to the emergence in Russia of a new revolutionary teaching - Marxism, which relied on the growth of industrial production and a new progressive class - the proletariat.
In politics, this meant a transition to an organized struggle of the united masses, the result of which was to be the violent overthrow of the state system and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The former methods of populist educators and populist terrorists have finally become a thing of the past.
Slide 7
The First World War turned out to be a disaster for the country, pushing it towards an inevitable revolution. February 1917 and the ensuing anarchy led to the October Revolution. As a result, Russia acquired a completely different face. Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the main background of literary development was tragic social contradictions, as well as the dual combination of difficult economic modernization and the revolutionary movement.
Slide 8
Changes in science occurred at a rapid pace, philosophical ideas about the world and man changed, and arts close to literature developed rapidly. Scientific and philosophical views at certain stages of cultural history radically influence the creators of words, who sought to reflect the paradoxes of time in their works.
Slide 9
Why and how does literature change?
Literary scholars answer this question from the present, analyzing the past. Writers, writing in the present, even if they describe the past, try to comprehend and show the future emerging in the present.
Slide 10
XVIII century
New Russian literature was born in the 18th century and embodied on its pages an individual, living person. The person becomes central figure social life, and literature begins a deep study of it
Slide 11
19th century
Writers of the 19th century embodied the inner world of man against the background real paintings life, and historical time was a necessary basis for creating an artistic image. The works show the “history of the soul” of a person, its development over time. The main theme of the century: HERO AND TIME or MAN AND SOCIETY
Slide 12
A writer, unless he is a Wave and the ocean is Russia, cannot help but be outraged when the elements are outraged. A writer, if only he is the nerve of a great people, cannot help but be struck when freedom is struck. Ya.P.Polonsky
Slide 13
The emergence of new heroes
Historical transformations (wars, revolutions) could not but affect art. In search of ways out of the crisis, writers began to look for special people and bring them to the pages of their books. Those that can prevent the country from sliding into the abyss.
Slide 14
“A poet in Russia is more than a poet” (E. Yevtushenko)
When artists accept revolution as a way to reorganize life, new era, and with it new artistic thinking, new problematics. Literary manifestos appear that are united by nihilism - the absolute denial of the past.
Slide 15
Time stopped. Is it possible for man in such an era?
We have to fight, fight, create new art, reorganize life. The new “picture of the world” sacrifices details. Therefore, laconic forms arise that can reveal the deep essence of the phenomenon. A person’s personality is depicted in a dramatic collision with the entire hostile world opposing it
Slide 16
Man - as the center of the literary universe gives way to the elements
Elements and evolution are incompatible. Real man no longer exists, because... there is no historical time, but there is absolute (aesthetic) time. The place of the human soul is occupied by a social function. The general becomes more significant than the private.
Slide 17
Proletarian poets
Bravely, comrades, keep up! Having strengthened our spirit in the struggle, Let us pave our way to the kingdom of freedom with our breasts! L. Radin We are blacksmiths, and our spirit is young, We forge the keys to happiness!.. Rise higher, heavy hammer, Knock harder on the steel chest! F. Shkulev
Slide 18
Man-God in the works of modernist poets
A wingless spirit, overwhelmed by the earth, a self-forgotten and a forgotten god... Just one dream, and again, inspired, you rush upward from vain worries V. Soloviev
The last decade of the 19th century. opens a new stage in Russian and world culture. Major fundamental natural scientific discoveries, including Albert Einstein's theory of relativity, sharply shook previous ideas about the structure of the world, formed in the traditions European Enlightenment and based on judgments about unambiguous patterns, on the fundamental principle of predictability natural phenomenon. Repeatability and predictability of processes were considered as generic properties of causality in general. On this basis they formed positivist principles of thinking, dominant in world science of the 19th century. These principles also applied to social sphere: human life was understood as completely determined by external circumstances, by one or another chain of active causes. Although not everything in human life could be satisfactorily explained, it was understood that science would someday achieve universal omniscience and be able to understand and subordinate the entire world to the human mind. New discoveries sharply contradicted ideas about the structural completeness of the world. What previously seemed stable turned into instability and endless mobility. It turned out that any explanation is not universal and requires additions - this is ideological consequence of the principle of complementarity, born in line with theoretical physics. Moreover, the idea of the knowability of the world, which was previously considered an axiom, was called into question.
Complicating ideas about physical picture peace accompanied reassessment of the principles of understanding history. The previously unshakable model of historical progress, based on ideas about linear dependence causes and consequences, was replaced by an understanding of the conventions and approximateness of any historiosophical logic. The crisis of historical ideas was expressed primarily in the loss of a universal point of reference, of one or another ideological foundation. A variety of theories of social development have emerged. In particular, it has become widespread Marxism, who relied on the development of industry and the emergence of a new revolutionary class - the proletariat, free from property, united by the conditions of common labor in a team and ready to actively fight for social justice. In the political sphere, this meant a rejection of the enlightenment of the early populists and the terrorism of the later populists and a transition to the organized struggle of the masses - up to the violent overthrow of the system and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat over all other classes.
On turn of XIX-XX centuries The idea of a person not only rebellious, but also capable of remaking an era, creating history, in addition to the philosophy of Marxism, is developed in the works of M. Gorky and his followers, who persistently highlighted Man with a capital M, the owner of the earth. Gorky's favorite heroes were the semi-legendary Novgorod merchant Vaska Buslaev and the biblical character Job, who challenged God himself. Gorky believed that revolutionary activity to rebuild the world transforms and enriches a person’s inner world. Thus, the heroine of his novel “Mother” (1907), Pelageya Nilovpa, having become a participant in the revolutionary movement, experiences a maternal feeling of love not only for her son, but also for all oppressed and powerless people.
The rebellious beginning sounded more anarchic in the early poetry of V.V. Mayakovsky, in the poems and poems of V. Khlebnikov, A.N. Kruchenykh, D.D. Burliuk, who opposed (at least in manifestos and declarations) the ideals of a consumer society inspired by materialistic industrial utopias.
Other large group writers, making sure after tragic events On March 1, 1881 (the murder of the Tsar-Liberator) and especially after the defeat of the 1905 revolution in the futility of violent methods of influencing society, I came to the idea of spiritual transformation, albeit slow but consistent improvement inner world person. The guiding ideological star for them was Pushkin’s idea of the inner harmony of man. They considered close in spirit the writers of the post-Pushkin era - N.V. Gogol, M.Yu. Lermontov, F.I. Tyutchev, F.M. Dostoevsky, who felt the tragedy of the destruction of world harmony, but yearned for it and foresaw its restoration in the future .
It was these writers who saw Pushkin era golden age national culture and taking into account the fundamental changes in the sociocultural context, they sought to develop its traditions, nevertheless realizing the dramatic complexity of such a task. And although the culture of the turn of the century is much more contradictory and internally conflicting than the culture of the first half of the 19th century, the new literary era will receive later (in memoirs, literary criticism and journalism of the Russian emigration of the 1920-1930s) a bright evaluative name - “Silver Age”. This historical and literary metaphor connects the literature of the beginning of the century with literature of the 19th century century, in the second half of the 20th century. will acquire terminological status and will be extended, in fact, to all literature of the turn of the century: this is how in our time it is customary to call the era of M. Gorky and A. A. Blok, I. I. Bunin and A. A. Akhmatova. Although these writers looked very differently at the world and the place of man in it, there was something that united them: awareness of the crisis, the transition of the era, which was supposed to lead Russian society to new horizons of life.
The pluralism of political and philosophical views shared by different writers led to radical change big picture artistic directions and trends. The former smooth gradualism, when, for example, classicism in literature gave way to sentimentalism, which, in turn, was replaced by romanticism; when at each stage of the history of literature a dominant position was occupied by one direction, such stadiality became a thing of the past. Now At the same time, different aesthetic systems existed.
In parallel and, as a rule, in struggle with each other, realism and modernism, the largest literary movements, developed, while realism was not a stylistically homogeneous formation, but was a complex complex of several “realisms” (each variety requires additional research from the literary historian definitions). Modernism, in turn, was distinguished by extreme internal instability: various movements and groupings were continuously transformed, emerged and disintegrated, united and differentiated. The new situation created the ground for the most unexpected combinations and interactions: stylistically intermediate works appeared, short-lived associations arose that tried to combine artistic practice principles of realism and modernism. That is why, in relation to the art of the early 20th century. the classification of phenomena on the basis of “directions” and “currents” is obviously conditional and non-absolute.
