Good book- one in which the writer says what he should, does not say what he should not, and speaks as he should. Aristotle
Cultural tradition in its significance for literature
As part of the context that stimulates literary creativity, a responsible role belongs to the intermediate link between anthropological universals (archetypes and mythopoetics, on which literary criticism is now focused) and intra-epochal specifics (the writer’s modernity with its contradictions, which was brought to the fore with exorbitant persistence in our “pre-perestroika” eras). decades).
This middle link in the context of writing activity has not been sufficiently mastered by theoretical literary criticism, so we will dwell on it in more detail, referring to those meanings that are denoted by the terms "continuity", "tradition", "cultural memory", "heritage", "great historical time".
In the article "An Answer to a Question from the Editorial Board of Novy Mir" (1970), M. M. Bakhtin, challenging the officially proclaimed and generally accepted attitudes since the 1920s, used the phrases "small historical time" and "great historical time", meaning the first is the writer's contemporaneity, the second is the experience of previous eras. “Modernity,” he wrote, “retains all its enormous and in many respects decisive importance. Scientific analysis can only proceed from it and ... must always check with it.” But, Bakhtin continued, "it is impossible to close it (a literary work. - V. Kh.) in this era: its fullness is revealed only in great time."
The last phrase becomes pivotal in the scientist's judgments about the genesis of literary creativity: "... a work has its roots in the distant past. Great works of literature have been prepared for centuries, but in the era of their creation, only the ripe fruits of a long and complex process of maturation are removed." Ultimately, the writer's activity, according to Bakhtin, is determined by the long-standing, "powerful currents of culture (in particular, grassroots, popular)".
It is legitimate to distinguish between two meanings of the word "tradition" (from Latin traditio - transmission, tradition). First, it is a reliance on past experience in the form of its repetition and variation (the words "traditional" and "traditionalism" are usually used here). Such traditions are strictly regulated and take the form of rituals, etiquette, ceremonial, strictly observed. Traditionalism was influential in literary creativity for many centuries, up to the middle of the 18th century, which was especially pronounced in the predominance of canonical genre forms. Later, it lost its role and began to be perceived as an obstacle and a brake on activities in the field of art: Judgments about the "oppression of traditions", about tradition as an "automated technique", etc., came into use.
In the changed cultural and historical situation, when the ceremonial-regulating principle noticeably made room both in the public and private lives of people, another meaning of the term "tradition" became relevant (this is especially clearly seen in the 20th century), by which they began to understand initiative and creative (actively selective and enriching) inheritance of cultural (and, in particular, verbal and artistic) experience, which involves the completion of the values that make up the heritage of society, people, humanity.
The subject of inheritance are both outstanding monuments of culture (philosophy and science, art and literature), as well as the inconspicuous "fabric of life", saturated with "creative influences", preserved and enriched from generation to generation. This is the sphere of beliefs, moral attitudes, forms of behavior and consciousness, communication style (not least intra-family), everyday psychology, work skills and ways to fill leisure, contacts with nature, speech culture, everyday habits.
An organically assimilated tradition (namely, in this form it should exist) becomes for individuals and their groups a kind of guideline, one might say, a beacon, a kind of spiritual and practical strategy. The involvement of tradition is manifested not only in the form of a clearly conscious orientation towards a certain kind of value, but also in spontaneous, intuitive, unintentional forms.
The world of traditions is like the air that people breathe, most often without thinking about what an invaluable good they have. According to the Russian philosopher of the early 20th century VF Ern, humanity exists thanks to the free following of traditions: "Free tradition ... is nothing but the internal metaphysical unity of humanity." Later, I. Huizinga spoke in the same vein: "A healthy mind is not afraid to take with it a weighty load of values of the past."
For literature of the XIX-XX centuries. undeniably important are the traditions (naturally, primarily in the second meaning of the word) of both popular culture, mainly domestic (which I. Herder and the Heidelberg romantics persistently spoke about in Germany), and the culture of an educated minority (mostly international). The era of romanticism brought about the synthesis of these cultural traditions; there was, according to V. F. Odoevsky, "a merger of nationality with a general education." And this shift predetermined much in later literature, including contemporary literature.
Our scholars speak very insistently about the great importance of traditions (cultural memory) as a stimulus for any creativity. They argue that cultural creativity is marked primarily by the inheritance of past values, that "creative adherence to tradition involves the search for the living in the old, its continuation, and not the mechanical imitation ... of the dead", that the active role of cultural memory in the generation of the new is a milestone in the scientific knowledge of the historical and the artistic process - the stage that followed the dominance of Hegelianism and positivism.
The cultural past, one way or another "coming" into the works of the writer, is diverse. These are, firstly, verbal and artistic means that have been used before, as well as fragments of previous texts (in the form of reminiscences); secondly, worldviews, concepts) ideas that already exist both in non-artistic reality and in literature; and, finally, thirdly, the forms of non-artistic culture, which in many respects stimulate and predetermine the forms of literary creativity (generic and genre; subject-pictorial, compositional, speech proper). Thus, the narrative form of epic works is generated by a story that is widely used in real life of people about what happened earlier; the exchange of remarks between the characters and the choir in the ancient drama is genetically correlated with the public beginnings of the life of the ancient Greeks; the picaresque novel is the product and artistic interpretation of adventurousness as a special kind of life behavior; the flourishing of psychologism in the literature of the last one and a half to two centuries is due to the activation of reflection as a phenomenon of human consciousness, and the like.
F. Schleiermacher said the following about this kind of correspondence between artistic and non-artistic (vital) forms: "Even an inventor new form images are not completely free to carry out their intentions. Although it depends on his will whether this or that life form becomes or does not become the art form of his own works, he is in the process of creating something new in art in the face of the power of his analogues, which are already there. "Writers, therefore, regardless of their conscious attitudes "doomed" to rely on certain forms of life that have become a cultural tradition.Green traditions are especially important in literary activity.
Thus, the concept of tradition in the genetic consideration of literature (both in its formal-structural side and in deep content aspects) plays a very important role. However, in the literary criticism of the XX century. (mainly avant-garde oriented) there is another, opposite idea of tradition, continuity, cultural memory - as inevitably associated with epigonism and not related to genuine, high literature. According to Yu. N. Tynyanov, tradition is "the basic concept of the old history of literature", which "turns out to be an illegal abstraction": "one has to talk about continuity only with the phenomenon of school, epigonism, but not with the phenomena of literary evolution, the principle of which is struggle and change".
Even today, the idea is sometimes expressed that literary criticism does not need this concept. “It should be noted,” M. O. Chudakova writes, “that one of the undoubted, most obvious consequences of the work of Tynyanov and his associates was the discrediting of the indefinite concept of “tradition”, which, after their critical assessment, hung in the air and then found refuge in the texts, lying outside science. Instead, she was "citation" (reminiscence) and "literary overtones" (mainly for poetic texts)."
Tradition is a general humanitarian concept that characterizes cultural memory and continuity. By linking the values of the historical past with the present, passing on cultural heritage from generation to generation, tradition selectively and proactively acquires the heritage in order to enrich it and solve newly emerging problems (including artistic ones). Spiritual and practical experience, which constitutes the fund of continuity, passed down from ancestors to descendants, is multifaceted and heterogeneous. It includes ideas about universal values, the totality of humanity's own intellectual acquisitions, outstanding cultural monuments (philosophy, art, literature). Tradition (both general cultural and strictly literary) invariably influences the work of writers, constituting an essential and almost dominant aspect of its genesis. At the same time, individual facets of the continuity fund are refracted in the works themselves, directly or indirectly present in them. These are, firstly, verbal and artistic means that have been used before, as well as fragments of previous texts (reminiscences that do not have a parodic character); secondly, worldviews, concepts, ideas that already exist both in non-artistic reality and in literature. Thirdly, these are life analogues of verbal and artistic forms. Thus, the narrative form of the epic genres is generated and stimulated by the story that is widely used in real life of people about what happened earlier; the exchange of remarks between the characters and the choir in the ancient drama is genetically and structurally correlated with the public beginnings of the life of the ancient Greeks; the picaresque novel is the product and artistic interpretation of adventurousness as a special kind of life behavior; The flourishing of psychologism in the literature of the last one and a half to two centuries is due to the activation of reflection as a phenomenon of human consciousness.
Types of traditions
There are two types of traditions. Firstly, it is a reliance on past experience in the form of its repetition and variation, i.e. traditionalism. This kind of tradition is strictly regulated and has the form of rituals, etiquette, ceremonial, canon, strictly observed. Traditionalism was influential and, of course, prevailed in literary creativity for many centuries, until the middle of the 18th century, which was especially reflected in the dominance of canonical genre forms and in the orientation of writers to existing artistic patterns. Literary traditions were clearly formalized. Later, traditionalism lost its former significance and began to be perceived as an obstacle and a brake on activities in the field of art: judgments about the “oppression of traditions”, about tradition as an “automated technique” came into use. In the changed cultural and historical situation, when the ritual-regulating principle has noticeably made room both in the public and private lives of people, a slightly different, updated meaning of the term "tradition" has become relevant, especially in the 20th century. This word began to characterize the creative inheritance of cultural (and, in particular, verbal and artistic) experience, which involves the free and bold completion of the values that constitute the heritage of society, the people, and humanity. The literature of the time of romanticism and subsequent periods, more actively than ever before, absorbs the spiritual and intellectual experience of different countries and eras, while relying on a wide range of artistic forms of various origins. The overcoming of traditionalism thus radically expanded the scope of tradition in literary creation and thus strengthened its significance.
At the same time, in literary criticism and art criticism of the 20th century (mainly avant-garde oriented) there is also a different, very critical, and even negative attitude towards tradition, continuity, cultural memory - as inevitably associated with one-sided conservatism and imitation, which have nothing to do with genuine , high literature. According to Yu.N. Tynyanov, tradition is "the basic concept of the old history of literature", which “turns out to be an abstraction”: “one has to talk about continuity only with the phenomena of school, epigonism, but not with the phenomena of literary evolution, the principle of which is struggle and change” (Tynyanov). Even today, the idea is sometimes expressed that literary criticism does not need the concept of tradition after its discreditation by Tynyanov, that genuine science has replaced this term with another: quotation, reminiscence, "literary subtext" (Chudakova). Such distrust of the word "tradition" and, most importantly, of the meanings that stand behind it and are expressed in it, goes back to the militant "anti-traditionalism" of F. Nietzsche, who in the poem "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" (1883-84) called for "smashing tablets" and leave the "country of the fathers". In the 20th century, the post-Nietzschean program of radical alienation from the past is widespread and highly influential. The concept of "tradition" is now the arena of the most serious differences and ideological confrontations, which are most directly related to literary criticism. In the situation of modern disputes about tradition, the words of an authoritative philosopher seem to be relevant: “The vain and relentless pursuit of something absolutely new” and the rejection of the old “from the threshold just because it is old” is an attitude typical “only for immature and jaded minds. A healthy mind is not afraid to take on the road a weighty load of the values of the past” (Hizinga J. Homo ludens. In the shadow of tomorrow, 1992).
Valkyries fly, bows sing - 1 - 2 - 3 - 1 - The cumbersome opera is coming to an end. 1 - 2 - 3 - 1 - Haiduks with heavy fur coats 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 - Gentlemen are waiting on the marble stairs 1 - 2 - 2 - 1 - O. Mandelstam, "Valkyries"A dash is a stressed syllable, numbers are the number of unstressed syllables.
Literature in the system of culture. The concept of cultural and literary tradition. Literature in the system of culture.
Tradition (from Latin (traditio - transmission), elements of social and cultural heritage that are passed down from generation to generation and preserved in certain societies and social groups for a long time. Initially, this word meant "tradition." Tradition, like T., always orally.T. is transmitted:
1) either through practical imitation (repetition of any actions),
2) either through folklore. The adequacy of the transmission is achieved by multiple repetitions, systems of symbolic texts (mythology) and actions (ritual). In a pre-industrial society, most of the features of culture were transmitted through tradition, which is why it is called traditional. In modern society, it has been greatly supplanted by radio, television, the press, libraries, schools, and universities. They act as the main channels for the transfer of past knowledge. Certain social institutions, norms of behavior, values, ideas, customs, rituals, social institutions, tastes, attitudes, etc., act as a t. In sociology, t. justified by the very fact of their existence in the past. T. performs a series cultural functions:
a) establishes the continuity of culture,
b) serves as a channel for the storage and transmission of information and values from generation to generation,
c) act as a mechanism for the socialization and inculturation of people,
d) perform a selective function of selecting appropriate patterns of behavior and values.
In cultural studies, tradition is understood as a way of implementing continuity, in which trends are integrated creative activity of the past that are relevant to modern development.
The concept of literary tradition
In its meaning, the concept of literary tradition is identical to the concept of borrowing, influence and imitation. The following components of poetics can serve as the constituent elements of the literary tradition: style, composition, rhythm and subject matter. These components are often transmitted by the literary tradition not separately, but in combination with each other.
The area of literary tradition is also quite wide: it can be both international creativity and creativity of one people. For example, Gogol created a literary tradition in Russia, which eventually spread far beyond its chapels. The literary tradition does not differ in intensity, so we see that Pushkin's traditions at different times are either strengthened in literature or disappear almost completely.
At first glance, an extinct tradition can not only be revived, but also take a dominant place in the literary process, thanks to the influence of suitable historical conditions.
In the literary process, there is the concept of parody of the literary tradition. A striking example of this is Dostoevsky's work "The Village of Stepanchikovo", in which the author parades Gogol's style and ideology.
Eternal themes in literature
traditional problems. Literary works, in their absolute majority, have stable eternal themes, the peculiarity of which is that they are practically inexhaustible, as they will always be relevant in any society. No matter how many options for their disclosure would be, anyway, each time something remains unsaid, as well as something that lends itself to a completely different interpretation in the new historical conditions.
Getting acquainted with various literary works, we are amazed at how the same theme is seen by different writers. By and large, many literary works that have come down to us describe the same plot, but separated and corrected over the centuries.
The eternal themes of literature can be divided into the following categories:
1. ontological- themes of unidentified eternal phenomena: space, light, darkness.
2. Anthropological themes:
- the concept of being - sin, involvement, pride, human life, death.
- epochal events - wars, revolutions, peace, civil activity.
- the sphere of social instincts - love, friendship, family, zeal for power, social transformations of a person.
Reasoning about eternal problems is also very characteristic of the literary process. The main eternal problem that is discussed in literary works is the questions and problems of the morality of man and society. Along with the description of this problem, the literature also indicates ways to solve it - for society it is a revolution or reform, for a person it is moral improvement.
Another traditional eternal problem is the question of society's rejection of an individual, the so-called lone hero. A special place in the literary process is occupied by the clarification of universal human problems - the search for the meaning of life, the understanding of good and evil, internal torment, etc.
36. Functions of myth in culture. The concept of an archetype.
Mythology goes back to those times, about which almost no information has been preserved. Mythological works are usually legendary in nature. Often a myth is equated with a fairy tale. "Fairy tale-lie" - the essence of the myth. Fabulous consciousness - everything is perceived as obviously fantastic. Myth is a cross between science and the inexplicable. The myth arose as an explanation of what is happening in reality. At the heart of a work of literature are ideas about how the world works, its phenomena. Mythology is reflected in art: art is presented as a product of mythology, based on mythological works, but at the same time it is evidence of myth. Myths are characteristic of ancient, partly ancient Russian literature. In mythology, the worldview and the literary feeling coincide, they become very close. The heroic images of myths have been used in the art and literature of all eras. Being rethought, they nevertheless retain the meaning of the eternal symbols of human heroism. Archetypes. The myths of different peoples are considered as a source of archetypes. These are origin myths. world, man, gods, the change of seasons, the end of the world. The content of the collective and the unconscious. The archetype is a separate element of the collective unconscious. The mythology created now is widespread. Unconscious myths are also widespread - the concept of collective unconsciousness. A layer based on mythological representations is reflected in modern culture. The concept of A. as an instr. research allowed. to see continuity in people's lives. kind, the inseparable connection of times.
37. Literary births. Principles of classification of literary genera. (Aristotle, Hegel, modern science).
Literary genera. Principles of their classification.
Literature is difficult to divide into groups. Since antiquity, certain principles have already been developed, according to which literature was divided into several parts. The concept of literary gender arose in ancient aesthetics, in the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Further, with an increase in the number of literary works, a need arose to change the principles of division into literal genera. In the 18th century, Hegel gave the best principles for the division of literature: the epic is the representation of objectivity in its objectivity, the lyric is the representation of subjectivity, the inner world, the drama is a presentation that links both previous genera into a new integrity in which we have an object of disclosure and an inner life. individual. Epos and lyrics are opposed to each other, and drama is a synthesis of epic and lyrics. This performance has become traditional to this day. In real life, the drama is relegated to the background. Literature is one way of revealing the human spirit. Literature is not a spontaneous expression, but a presentation in a form that has taken its form. With this in mind, Hegel revised and refined his formulation. From the point of view of the action, Aristotle was right: - the author is an observer from the outside - the epic - the inner experiences of the author - lyrics - the combination of a direct demonstration of the action that takes place on the stage (everything is determined by words) and the passage of the plot through the personality of the actor (objectivity of actions and subjectivity of experiences) - drama. It is impossible to clearly define what is subjective or objective. The position of the author is always subjective, generated by the thin. imagination. "Objective" reality is not the reality of the world, but of a work of art. Can exist separately from the author - an illusion that makes us imagine the world separately. The second illusion is that the world is depicted through the inner perception of the hero (lyric). There are options when the author moves into the soul of the hero, depicts the hero as himself (S. Yesenin "About Moscow"). This is a fairly common thing in the lyrics of the 20th century. The problem of the relationship between the hero and the author constantly exists. All in drama
§ 3. Cultural tradition in its significance for literature
As part of the context that stimulates literary creativity, a responsible role belongs to the intermediate link between anthropological universals (archetypes and mythopoetics, on which literary criticism is now focused) and intra-epochal specifics (the writer’s modernity with its contradictions, which with exorbitant persistence was brought to the fore in our “pre-perestroika” eras). decades). This middle link in the context of writing activity has not been sufficiently mastered by theoretical literary criticism, so we will dwell on it in more detail, referring to those meanings that are denoted by the terms "continuity", "tradition", "cultural memory", "heritage", "great historical time".
In the article “Answer to the question of the editors of Novy Mir” (1970) M.M. Bakhtin, challenging the officially proclaimed and generally accepted attitudes since the 1920s, used the phrases “small historical time” and “great historical time”, meaning the former as the writer’s contemporaneity, and the latter as the experience of previous eras. “Modernity,” he wrote, “retains all its enormous and in many respects decisive importance. Scientific analysis can only proceed from it and<...>I have to check with her all the time." But, Bakhtin continued, “to close it (a literary work.– W.H.) in this epoch is impossible: its fullness is revealed only in big time". The last phrase becomes pivotal in the scientist's judgments about the genesis of literary creativity: “... the work has its roots in the distant past. Great works of literature are prepared for centuries, but in the era of their creation only the ripe fruits of a long and complex process of maturation are removed. Ultimately, the writer's activity, according to Bakhtin, is determined by the long-standing, "powerful currents of culture (in particular grassroots, folk)" 2 .
It is legitimate to distinguish between two meanings of the word "tradition" (from lat. traditio - transmission, tradition). Firstly, it is a reliance on past experience in the form of its repetition and variation (the words "traditional" and "traditionalism" are usually used here). Such traditions are strictly regulated and take the form of rituals, etiquette, ceremonial, strictly observed. Traditionalism was influential in literary work for many centuries, up to the middle of the 18th century, which was especially pronounced in the predominance of canonical genre forms (see pp. 333–337). Later, it lost its role and began to be perceived as a hindrance and a brake on activities in the field of art: Judgments about the “oppression of traditions”, about tradition as an “automated device”, etc. came into use.
In the changed cultural and historical situation, when the ceremonial-regulating principle has noticeably made room both in the public and private lives of people, another meaning of the term “tradition” has become relevant (this is especially clearly seen in the 20th century), by which they began to understand initiative And creative(active selective and enriching) inheritance cultural (and, in particular, verbal and artistic) experience, which involves the completion of the construction of values that constitute the heritage of society, the people, humanity.
Both outstanding monuments of culture (philosophy and science, art and literature) and the inconspicuous "fabric of life", saturated with "creative influences", preserved and enriched from generation to generation 1 are the subject of inheritance. This is the sphere of beliefs, moral attitudes, forms of behavior and consciousness, communication style (not least intra-family), everyday psychology, work skills and ways to fill leisure, contacts with nature, speech culture, everyday habits. (353)
An organically assimilated tradition (namely, in this form it should exist) becomes for individuals and their groups a kind of guideline, one might say, a beacon, a kind of spiritual and practical strategy. The involvement of tradition is manifested not only in the form of a clearly conscious orientation towards a certain kind of value, but also in spontaneous, intuitive, unintentional forms. The world of traditions is like the air that people breathe, most often without thinking about what an invaluable good they have. According to the Russian philosopher of the early 20th century V.F. Erna, humanity exists thanks to the free following of traditions: “ free tradition <...>there is nothing but inner metaphysical unity of humanity» 2 . Later, I. Huizinga spoke in the same vein: "A healthy spirit is not afraid to take with him a weighty load of values of the past" 3 .
For literature of the 19th–20th centuries. undeniably important are the traditions (naturally, primarily in the second meaning of the word) of both popular culture, mainly domestic (which I. Herder and the Heidelberg romantics persistently spoke about in Germany), and the culture of an educated minority (mostly international). The era of romanticism brought about the synthesis of these cultural traditions; happened, according to V.F. Odoevsky, "the fusion of nationality with general education" 4 . And this shift predetermined much in later literature, including contemporary literature.
Our scholars speak very insistently about the great importance of traditions (cultural memory) as a stimulus for any creativity. They argue that cultural creativity is marked primarily by the inheritance of past values 5 , that “creative adherence to tradition involves the search for the living in the old, its continuation, and not mechanical imitation<...>dead" 6 that the active role of cultural memory in the generation of the new constitutes a milestone in the scientific knowledge of the historical and artistic process - a stage that followed the dominance of Hegelianism and positivism 7 .
The cultural past, one way or another "coming" into the works of the writer, is diverse. These are, firstly, verbal-artistic (354)vein means that were used before, as well as fragments of previous texts (in the guise of reminiscences); secondly, worldviews, concepts) ideas that already exist both in non-artistic reality and in literature; and, finally, thirdly, the forms of non-artistic culture, which in many respects stimulate and predetermine the forms of literary creativity (generic and genre; subject-pictorial, compositional, speech proper). Thus, the narrative form of epic works is generated by a story that is widely used in real life of people about what happened earlier; the exchange of remarks between the characters and the choir in the ancient drama is genetically correlated with the public beginnings of the life of the ancient Greeks; the picaresque novel is the product and artistic interpretation of adventurousness as a special kind of life behavior; the flourishing of psychologism in the literature of the last one and a half to two centuries is due to the activation of reflection as a phenomenon of human consciousness, and the like. F. Schleiermacher said the following about this kind of correspondence between artistic and extra-artistic (vital) forms: “Even the inventor of a new form of representation is not completely free in the implementation of his intentions. Although it depends on his will whether or not this or that life form becomes the artistic form of his own works, he is in the process of creating something new in art in the face of the power of his analogues, which are already there. Writers, therefore, regardless of their conscious attitudes, are "doomed" to rely on certain forms of life that have become a cultural tradition. Genre traditions are especially important in literary activity (see pp. 337–339).
Thus, the concept of tradition in the genetic consideration of literature (both in its formal-structural side and in deep content aspects) plays a very important role. However, in the literary criticism of the XX century. (mostly avant-garde oriented) there is also another, opposite idea of tradition, continuity, cultural memory - as inevitably associated with epigonism and not related to genuine, high literature. According to Yu.N. Tynyanov, tradition is “the basic concept of the old history of literature”, which “turns out to be an illegal abstraction”: “ one has to talk about continuity only with the appearance of a school, epigonism, but not with the phenomena of literary evolution, the principle of which is struggle and change» 2 . (355)
Even today, the idea is sometimes expressed that literary criticism does not need this concept. “It should be noted,” writes M.O. Chudakov, that one of the undoubted, most obvious consequences of the work of Tynyanov and his like-minded people was the discrediting of the vague concept of "tradition", which, after their critical assessment, hung in the air and then found refuge in texts that lie outside of science. Instead, she received a “quotation” (reminiscence) and “literary overtones” (mainly for poetic texts)” 3 .
This kind of distrust of the word "tradition" and those deep meanings that stand behind it and are expressed in it, goes back to the categorical "anti-traditionalism" of F. Nietzsche and his followers. Let us recall the demands that the hero of the myth-poem “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” presented to people: “Break<...>old tablets"; “I told them (people. - V.Kh.) to laugh at their<...>saints and poets" 4 . Militant anti-traditionalist voices are heard today. Here is a phrase that sounded not so long ago, interpreting 3. Freud in the Nietzschean spirit: “You can express yourself only by criticizing the strongest and closest in spirit of your predecessors - by killing your father, as the Oedipus complex (emphasis mine) commands” 5 . Decisive anti-traditionalism in the 20th century. constituted a kind of tradition, paradoxical in its own way. B. Groys, who believes that “Nietzsche now remains an unsurpassed guide for modern thought,” states: “<...>a break with tradition is following it on a different level, for a break with models has its own tradition” 1 . It's hard to disagree with the last sentence.
The concept of tradition is now an arena of serious differences and ideological confrontations, which are most directly related to literary criticism.
Literary traditions and timeless themes
Russian literature is a constantly changing, constantly evolving phenomenon. Over the centuries of its existence, literature has changed many genres, ideas and literary trends, constantly adapting to a rapidly changing world.
However, literature has another side - the constancy of traditions. Despite all the changes, one can always find the same motifs in the works of the authors of one nation, referring to the same sources of inspiration or mentioning the same events. Russian literature is no exception.
Definition 1
Literary tradition is a successive link that unites successive literary phenomena.
Most literary traditions arise during the literary process, exist for some time, determining the direction of movement of the thoughts of the authors of the works of this time, and then disappear, giving way to newer trends. But there are those that invariably pass from book to book, reflecting the deepest features of the nation. The Russian literary tradition was greatly influenced, for example, by the work of A. S. Pushkin.
In a certain sense, the concept of literary tradition is similar to the concepts of imitation and borrowing. Styles, types of composition, themes, and so on can move from stage to stage in literature, and often not singly, but in combination with each other.
The concept of literary tradition also includes the so-called "eternal themes".
Definition 2
Eternal themes are inexhaustible directions of thought that are relevant at all times.
No matter how many options for revealing eternal topics appear, there will always be room for one more opinion. The historical situation is changing - the answers to eternal questions are also changing. Different writers may look at the same topic from completely different angles.
In fact, many literary works describe the same plot, adjusted to fit within the framework of the chosen time.
Eternal themes in literature can be divided into two categories:
- Ontological - revealing the theme of the impossibility of knowing such phenomena as space, chaos, light, darkness, etc.;
- Anthropological - inexhaustible questions related directly to man.
Anthropological eternal themes, in turn, can be divided into several categories. First, it is reasoning about the abstract concepts of being - sin, pride, good and evil, death and life, the meaning of life. Secondly, these are colossal historical events - wars, revolutions, social activities. Thirdly, this is the sphere of human relations: love, friendship, family. Fourthly, this is the sphere of social relations: the desire for power, a person in society, and so on.
Remark 1
In the literature, various moral questions, the solution of which is the moral growth of man.
Traditions of Russian literature
The characteristic traditions of Russian literature passed from century to century. Always the past century in a sense determined the coming century, prepared all the conditions for its existence.
The first stage in the development of Russian literature was the literature of Ancient Rus', which originated in the 11th century and lasted until the 17th century, becoming the foundation for all Russian literary creativity. Old Russian authors became pioneers in the field of Russian literary traditions.
From ancient Russian literature to the literature of the 18th - 19th centuries, the tradition of authors' love for acute social problems passed, first of all. If in Ancient Rus' the authors criticized the unwillingness of the princes to unite the scattered Russian lands against a common enemy, which led to the long reign of the Golden Horde, then in later works the criticism of poets and writers often turned to the tsarist regime of power.
Remark 2
The royal power was criticized by the poets of the Pushkin circle, who sympathized with the Decembrists, - M. Yu. Lermontov, N.A. Nekrasov and many others.
The 18th century, called the "Russian Enlightenment", became a platform for the rapid development of Russian literature. The authors of this era began to abandon part of the traditions that came from the literature of Ancient Rus', and began to form their own traditions, which later became a support for the writers of the 19th century.
In the 18th century, the idea of Russian national self-consciousness first appeared, expressed in the works of Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov. This idea later ran like a red thread through the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In the 18th century, classicism came to Russia, the rigid system of canons of which had a great influence on the further development of literary movements, which in one way or another repelled the statements of classicism, even if they argued with them, and did not agree.
In the same century, the idea of the appointment of a poet and poetry was born, decades later picked up by poets of the 19th century - primarily A.S. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov, inspired by the poem "Monument" by G.R. Derzhavin.
But the most significant contribution to the formation of the Russian literary tradition was made by the 19th century - the Golden Age of Russian literature, as it is called. The golden age of Russian prose literature was made up of classic writers - Pushkin, Gogol, Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Turgenev and many others.
It was in the 19th century, based on the traditions of ancient Russian literature and literature of the 18th century, that two characteristic Russian types of heroes appeared on the pages of works - a small person and an extra person. Both types first appeared in the works of A.S. Pushkin - "The Stationmaster" and "Eugene Onegin", respectively.
Remark 3
From the Russian literary traditions of the 18th century, the Golden Age adopted publicism and a love of satire. As before, writers denounced the vices and shortcomings of society and contemporary man.
IN works of XIX centuries, eternal problems have also found their reflection: questions of the structure of being, human life, moral purity. Writers of this era drew the attention of readers to sun. the complexity of the relationship between man and society, the conflicts that occur in the soul of every person. In the works there were discussions about good and evil, justice, honor, honesty, the appointment of a person and the relationship between a person and power.
This line of succession continued at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Twentieth-century authors, like their predecessors, drew on the legacy left to them by their literary ancestors.
