The dissertation is devoted to the phenomenon of Russian expressionism, the study of its origins, features of poetics, place and role in the history of Russian literature in the first third of the 20th century.

Expressionism (from the Latin "expresBy" - expression) is an artistic direction in which the idea of ​​​​direct emotional impact is affirmed, the emphasized subjectivity of the creative act, the rejection of plausibility in favor of deformation and the grotesque, the condensation of motives of pain, scream prevails. Compared with other creative directions of the early 20th century, the essence of expressionism and the boundaries of the concept are much more difficult to determine, despite the clear semantics of the term. On the one hand, expression, expressiveness are inherent in the very nature of artistic creativity, and only the extreme, ecstatic degree of their manifestation can testify to the expressionist mode of expression. On the other hand, the program of expressionism developed spontaneously, absorbed a wide range of typologically related, but not belonging to it, phenomena, attracted many writers and artists who did not always share its worldview foundations. This art, as seen in retrospect, is highly "complex" (P. Toper), "non-homogeneous" (N. Pestova).

The foregoing fully applies to Russian expressionism - one of the most important manifestations of the creative potential accumulated in Russian culture at the turn of eras. The essence of expressionism - a rebellion against the dehumanization of society and at the same time the assertion of the ontological value of the human spirit - was close to the traditions of Russian literature and art, their messianic role in society, the emotional and figurative expressiveness characteristic of the works of N.V. Gogol, F.M. "and L.N. Tolstoy, N.N. Ge, M.A. Vrubel, M.P. Mussorgsky, A.N. Skryabin,

V.F.Komissarzhevskaya. This is most clearly felt in such works as The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, The Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, What is Truth? Russian expressionism.

The significance of the events that have taken place in Russia since the beginning of the 20th century, the scale of the personalities who made the era, the grandeur of Russian culture in all its manifestations, have no analogues in the world and are still not fully understood and appreciated. It was at this time that the accelerated development of the socio-political and economic spheres of Russian reality, complicated by wars and revolutions, was accompanied by the emergence of domestic literature and art on the world stage and the recognition of their universal value. ^ A distinctive feature of the Russian situation was the coexistence within one culture for a relatively short period of time of different artistic systems - realism, modernism, avant-garde, which created unique opportunities for their interaction and mutual enrichment. Classical realism was modified; symbolism, without having exhausted the possibilities of its founders, was nourished by the powerful energy of the younger generation. At the same time, original programs were proposed by acmeists, ego-futurists, cubo-futurists and other participants in the process of transforming the language of art. In the 1910s the opposition "realism-symbolism" was supplemented by such peculiar phenomena as buddlyanism (cubo-futurism), the intuitive school of ego-futurism, the analytical art of P. Filonov, the musical abstractionism of V. Kandinsky, the absurdity of A. Kruchenykh, the neo-primitivism and rayonism of M. Larionov, the universality

I. Zdanevich, music of higher chromaticism by A. Lurie, Suprematism ^ by K. Malevich, color painting by O. Rozanova and others. In the late 1910s and early

1920s new literary groups arose - imaginists, nichevoks, zaumniks, non-objectives, the musical avant-garde of A. Avraamov, the cinematographers of Dziga Vertov, the artists of the Makovets group, KNIFE (New painters), etc.

It is important to emphasize that expressionism was not formalized organizationally as an independent artistic movement and manifested itself through the worldview of the creator, through a certain style and poetics that arose within different movements, making their boundaries permeable, conditional. So, within the framework of realism, the expressionism of Leonid Andreev was born, the works of Andrei Bely were isolated in the symbolist direction, poetry collections of Mikhail Zenkevich and Vladimir Narbut stood out among the books of acmeists, and among the futurists, Vladimir Mayakovsky approached expressionism. The thematic and style-forming features characteristic of expressionism were embodied in the activities of a number of groups (expressionists I. Sokolova, Moscow Parnassus, fuists, emotionalists) and in the work of individual authors at different stages of their evolution, sometimes in single works.

The depth and complexity of the processes that took place simultaneously and in different directions in Russian literature of the 1900s-1920s, expressed itself in an intensive search for ways and means of updating the artistic language for an ever closer connection with modernity. The need to be modern was more keenly experienced than ever by realist writers, and symbolists, and by those who wanted to throw them off the “steamboat of modernity”. Russian literature showed not only interest in the daily life of a person and society (political, religious, family life), but also sought to interfere in it, to participate in the construction of life, for which different, sometimes mutually exclusive ways were proposed.

In Russian culture of the first third of the 20th century, expressionism developed as part of a pan-European process of destroying the foundations of positivism and naturalism. According to the observations of a number of scholars, "one of the most important features of the literature of the turn was the elimination of a powerful - on a worldwide scale - positivist influence."1

The awareness of one's time as special, unique, was combined, according to Sergei Makovsky, with the embodiment of "the results of Russian culture, saturated at the beginning of the twentieth century with the anxiety of contradictory daring and insatiable dreaminess." It was in culture that the salvation of the world, shaken by technical innovations and social explosions, was seen.

The most important source of expressionist tendencies in Russia were the traditions of Russian literature and art with their spiritual quest, anthropocentrism, and emotional-figurative expression.

For the first time, the word "expressionists" in Russian appeared in A.P. Chekhov's story "The Jumping Girl" (1892), the heroine of which used it instead of the word "impressionists": ".preoriginally, in the taste of the French expressionists." Chekhov's "darling", like the author himself, was not at all wrong in terms, but only intuitively predicted the future situation in art. Indeed, expressionism replaced impressionism, and many contemporaries of this process considered not Germany, but France to be the birthplace of expressionism, since it was from there, according to various sources, that the concept of “expressionism” came. Impressionism, as such, did not develop in Germany, and the concepts of "impressionism", "expression" had no support there either in the language of art or in live communication.

However, in Russia the concept of "expression" was encountered much earlier. For example, Alexander Amfiteatrov, discussing the properties of the poetry of Igor Severyanin (Russian Word. - 1914. - May 15), recalled the parodic note "Morning Tomb Sensation", published in 1859 in the newspaper "Northern Bee": "The physiognomy of the antecedent generation. The expression of her passive-expectative tendencies is apathy.

The circle of expressionists, which included writers and artists, was described in Ch. de Kay's short story “La Boheme. The Tragedy of Modern Life (New York, 1878). In 1901, the Belgian artist Julien-Auguste Hervé named his pictorial triptych "Expressionism". It is characteristic that Vladimir Mayakovsky, speaking in the essays “The Seven Day Review of French Painting” (1922) about European art, emphasized: “... art schools, trends arose, lived and died at the behest of artistic Paris. Paris ordered: “Expand Expressionism! Introduce pointillism! Henri Matisse and Guillaume Apollinaire wrote about expressionism.

Having emerged as a new aesthetic phenomenon in German fine arts (groups "Bridge", 1905; "Blue Rider", 1912), expressionism acquired its name only in 1911, not without the influence of the name of the French section that appeared in the catalog of the 22nd Berlin Secession - "expressionists ". At the same time, the concept of "expressionism", proposed by the publisher of the magazine "Sturm" Hervard Walden, spread to literature, cinema and related areas of creativity.

Chronologically, expressionism in Russian literature appeared earlier and ended later than the "expressionist decade" of 1910

1920 in Germany (as defined by G. Benn). The publication of L. Andreev's story "The Wall" (1901) and the last performances of members of the emotionalist groups and "Moscow Parnassus" (1925) can be considered the boundaries of the "expressionist twenty-five years" in Russia.

The very fact that even the main "isms" that are truly milestones in the development of world culture do not constitute a causal chain, but act almost simultaneously, indicates that they are all manifestations of the same cultural integrity, a single and common systems of meanings are connected by a common fundamental principle.

The swiftness of the change of symbolism, impressionism, futurism, expressionism, Dadaism and other movements testifies to an innovative impulse. The researcher of German expressionism N.V. Pestova rightly notes “the impossibility of withdrawing expressionism from the general consistent discourse”. At the same time, one cannot ignore the chronological and spatial "disintegration" of expressionism: "Its time frames look absolutely arbitrary, in terms of worldview it cannot be considered a completed stage, and in its formal parameters it appears to the modern reader in one or another avant-garde guise" (13).

One of the reasons that expressionism was inherent in the entire literary and artistic sphere of the era, became part of its metalanguage, was not only the simultaneity and fusion of many phenomena that in previous periods developed and were determined over decades. It is impossible not to notice that the tasks solved by expressionism in Germany were already partially embodied in the neo-romantic tendencies of Russian realism and symbolism, because, according to D.V. Sarabyanov, symbolism most “easily” passes into expressionism. The same thing happened with ® the closest predecessor of expressionism - impressionism, widely known thanks to French painting. Impressionism, as the art of direct impression, has almost no place left in Russian literature and music; in the visual arts, he managed to manifest himself in the painting of K. Korovin, N. Tarkhov, in part, with V. Serov and members of the Union of Russian Artists. Their works formed the basis of a small exposition that reconstructed this phenomenon at the beginning of the 21st century (see the catalog "Ways of Russian Impressionism". - M., 2003).

On the contrary, the exhibitions "Berlin-Moscow" (1996) and "Russian Munich" (2004), which presented not only visual, but also abundant literary and documentary material, testified to a wide range of interaction and mutual influence. In contrast to the impressionism that remained in the "subconscious" of Russian culture, impressionism, the main expressionist intentions were realized, including the period of hidden existence, affirmation and fading, within the first third of the 20th century, when there was a renewal of religious, philosophical and artistic consciousness and, at the same time, "the flowering of sciences". and arts" was replaced by "social entropy, the dispersion of the creative energy of culture."4

The relevance of the work is determined by the importance and lack of study of the problem posed: to determine the genesis of expressionism in Russian literature of the 1900-1920s, the forms of its manifestation and the path of evolution in the context of the artistic movements of the designated period.

A comprehensive study of expressionism is necessary for a more objective understanding of the literary process of the 1st third of the 20th century. In recent years, it is this period of Russian literature that has attracted increased attention from researchers.

No less relevant in the perspective of the past century is the study of Russian expressionism in the context of European literary development. Russian expressionism is diversely and mutually connected with European expressionism, which was formed mainly on German and Austrian soil.

The roots of the new worldview lay in the pan-European tendencies to replace positivist views with the irrational, intuitionist theories of Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Henri Bergson, Nikolai Lossky. It is no coincidence that where a social and artistic situation close in tension was developing, phenomena related to expressionism and parallels arose and received independent development in a number of European cultures.

The unity of German expressionism with foreign began to be created just before the start of the war - firmly and tangibly, wrote Friedrich Hübner. - This close and friendly unity spread almost as secretly and imperceptibly as some religious sect grew in past centuries. One of the fundamental documents of the all-European movement was the book by V. Kandinsky "On the Spiritual in Art", published in Germany in December 1911 and then read in the form of an essay at home.

Undoubtedly, the study of the characteristic properties of Russian expressionism acquires relevance. One of them can be considered a kind of “spiritual wandering”, the historiosophical expectation of a future revival, the search for the country of Utopia, a new person, which often expressed itself in the impossibility of stopping and being realized in any one project. At the same time, expressionism is just as one-sided as impressionism, although Russian literature and art associated with expressionism, due to a certain cultural tradition, some spiritual background, were richer, brighter, more radical, more deeply connected with the very historical existence of national culture, and therefore represented a more perfect historical model. This should be emphasized, since in a number of works to this day the opinion about the supposedly “less perfect” character of Russian culture of the early 20th century, corresponding to the peripheral position of Russian society in relation to the more civilizationally developed West, prevails.

Russia, according to F. Huebner, instilled in expressionism "the missing power - the mysticism of free faith" by Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Moreover, Thomas Mann testified in 1922: "Indeed, what we call expressionism is only a late form of sentimental idealism heavily saturated with the Russian apocalyptic way of thinking."

The inclusiveness of expressionism as a cultural phenomenon also has support in the Russian artistic consciousness. It is no coincidence that the art critic N.N. Punin noted: “The problem of expressionism can be made the problem of all Russian literature from Gogol to the present day, now it is also becoming a problem of painting. Almost all Russian painting has been crushed by literature, eaten up by it. All corners are filled with expressionism, artists are stuffed with it like dolls; even constructivism becomes expressive.”6 It should be noted that cooperation with German colleagues that began in the 1910s was interrupted by the World War of 1914-1918. and resumed in a completely different socio-cultural environment, after the socialist revolution, when Russia already had its own expressionist groups. But as D.V. Sarabyanov emphasizes, “despite the length in time and the multi-stage nature of expressionism, it has no less common directional and stylistic manifestations than, for example, in fauvism, cubism or futurism. Despite the stylistic complexity and interpenetration of stylistic trends, one can to say that the avant-garde originates mainly in fauvism, expressionism and neo-primitivism - directions close to each other.

The commonality of the artistic language felt by contemporaries facilitated the interaction of new Russian art at the first stage, before the war of 1914, with German expressionism, primarily through the artists of the Munich association "Blue Rider" - V. Kandinsky, A. Yavlensky, with whom the Burliuk brothers, N .Kulbin, M. Larionov. It is important to note the publication of Kandinsky's texts in the programmatic collection of Moscow Cubo-Futurists Slap in the Face of Public Taste (1912). The aesthetic credo of Russian artists close to expressionism, in turn, was expressed by D. Burliuk in the article "Wild" of Russia, published in the almanac "The Blue Rider" (Munich, 1912).

The aim of the work is a comprehensive study of Russian expressionism and its role in the literary process of the first third of the 20th century, the definition of its boundaries, the establishment of facts of cooperation and typological links with the national and European context.

The object of the study is the works of Leonid Andreev, Andrei Bely, Mikhail Zenkevich, Vladimir Narbut, Velimir Khlebnikov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, the Serapion Brothers circle, Boris Pilnyak, Andrei Platonov and a number of other writers.

The main attention is focused on the little-known theoretical activity and literary practice of the expressionist group Ippolit Sokolov, formed in the summer of 1919, as well as the association of fuists, the Moscow Parnassus group and Petrograd emotionalists Mikhail Kuzmin. In addition, phenomena typologically close to expressionism in the visual arts, theater, cinema and music, as well as their projection in criticism, are considered as a context.

In addition to rare and small-circulation publications, significant archival material from the collections of the State Archive of Literature and Art, the Russian State Library, the Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House), the Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the State Literary Museum, the State Museum of V.V. Mayakovsky .

The research methodology combines a comparative-historical approach to the phenomena under consideration with a complex multi-level typological study. The methodology is based on the works of domestic scientists in the field of comparative literature Yu.B. Borev, V.M. Zhirmunsky, Vyach.Vs. , V.A. Keldysh, V.V. Kozhinov, L.A. Kolobaeva, I.V. Koretskaya, N.V. Kornienko, A.N. Nikolyukin, S.G. Semenova, L.A. Spiridonova, L .I. Timofeeva; authors of special works on expressionism and avant-garde - R.V. Duganov, V.F. Markov, A.T. Nikitaev, T.L. Nikolskaya, N.S. Pavlova, N.V. P.M. Topera, N.I. Khardzhiev and others.

The degree of knowledge. The first critical articles comparing Russian and German expressionism date back to the early 1910s. and belong to V. Hoffman (Alien) and A. Eliasberg. After the end of the First World War, Roman Jakobson reported on German Expressionism. In April 1920, he wrote in the article "New Art in the West (Letter from Reval)": "The malice of the German artistic day is expressionism."

Jakobson cited some provisions of T. Deubler's book "In the struggle for modern art" (Berlin, 1919), who believed that the word "expressionism" was first used by Matisse in 1908. In addition, it was reported that Paul Cassirer threw in an oral controversy about Pechstein's painting: "What is this, still impressionism?" To which the answer was: “No, but expressionism.”8 Agreeing with the opposition of expressionism to impressionism, Jacobson saw expressionism as a more general and extensive phenomenon, in relation to which the theory of French cubism and Italian futurism was only “private implementations of expressionism.”

In the manifestos of Russian expressionists, in the works of authors close to this direction, the relevance of the romantic art of Novalis, Hoffmann, the philosophical works of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche was noted. As one of the components of the "new sense of life", along with Schopenhauer's pessimism and tragic optimism, Nietzsche considered the tradition of Russian classics F. Hübner in the article "Expressionism in Germany".9

Slavic influences" on the formation of German expressionism in the person of Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky was found by Y. Tynyanov.10 "The exceptional influence of Dostoevsky on young Germany" was noted by V. Zhirmunsky in the preface to the work of Oscar Walzel "Impressionism and expressionism in modern Germany"11 and N. Radlov, under whose editorship a collection of articles "Expressionism" (Pg., 1923) was published.

The attitude towards expressionism in criticism was contradictory. People's Commissar of Education A. Lunacharsky tried to connect him more closely with the revolutionary ideology, which was not always fruitful. An active popularizer of German expressionism, he became acquainted with this art during the First World War in Switzerland. He owns about 40 publications on expressionism (articles, notes, speeches, translations of 17 poems). His works analyze the works of G. Kaiser, K. Sternheim, F. von Unruh, K. Edschmid, W. Hasenclever, P. Kornfeld, F. Werfel, L. Rubiner, M. Gumpert, A. von Harzfeld, G. Kazak , A. Lichtenstein, K. Heinicke, G. Jost, A. Ulitz, L. Frank, R. Schickele, E. Toller, I. R. Becher, Klabund, G. Hesse (listed in the order of acquaintance - according to E. Pankova). He also relied on the work of German painters and sculptors, impressions from plays, films, and trips to Germany. For the first time the term "expressionism" was used by Lunacharsky in the article "In the name of the proletariat" (1920); the article "A Few Words on German Expressionism" (1921) characterizes it as a cultural phenomenon, highlighting three features: "roughness of effects", "tendency towards mysticism", "revolutionary anti-bourgeoisness".

Expressionism in the interpretation of Lunacharsky is opposed to French impressionism and the "scientific accuracy" of realism, it affirms the inherent value of the author's inner world: "His ideas, his feelings, impulses of his will, his dreams, musical works, paintings, pages of fiction from an expressionist should be a confession , an absolutely accurate copy of his spiritual experiences. These emotional experiences cannot find a real alphabet in the things and phenomena of the external world. They pour out either simply as almost formless colors, sounds, words, or even abstruse, or use natural phenomena, ordinary expressions in an extremely deformed , crippled, burned by an internal flame" (preface to E. Toller's book "Prison Songs", 1925).

At the turn of the 1920s, forced to cooperate with the futurists who headed the departments of the People's Commissariat for Education, Lunacharsky sought to reconcile the claims of the "leftists" with the tastes of the leaders of the state and the tasks of public education, for which he was criticized by Lenin ("Lunacharsky flog for futurism"). In this context, it was important for Lunacharsky to bring German expressionism closer to Russian futurism (“futuristic groups in our terminology, expressionist groups in German”) in order to emphasize the revolutionary nature of their experiments. Welcoming the opening of the First General German Art Exhibition in Moscow (1924), Lunacharsky noted as an advantage of the Expressionists their "deep inner unrest, discontent, aspiration, harmonizing much better with revolutionary reality than the indifferent aesthetic poise of the still Gallican Formalist artists and ours too" unsophisticated naturalists."

He agreed with the ideas of G. Gross, considering them "almost to the details" coinciding with his own "artistic preaching in the USSR." However, in the late 20's. new socio-political aspects of attitudes towards art came to the fore, and Lunacharsky moved from recognizing the revolutionary significance of expressionism to exposing its bourgeois subjectivism and anarchism. He saw innovation not so much in formal originality as in ideological pathos (he approved G. Kaiser for being anti-bourgeois, condemned F. Werfel for mysticism, G. Jost for social despondency).

Lunacharsky attributed a significant part of the expressionists to "fellow travelers" occupying an intermediate position between the proletarian and "alien" bourgeois culture, he approved of their departure from expressionism, emphasizing, for example, (in the preface to the anthology

Modern Revolutionary Poetry of the West", 1930) that Becher, "surviving in his youth a fascination with expressionism", "erasing out of himself intellectual fluctuations, became a realist poet with a genuine proletarian ideology". Despite the obvious evolution of views on expressionism in the direction of its condemnation, Lunacharsky supported relations with E. Toller, V. Gazenklever, G. Gross and others, participated in joint projects (the script for the film "Salamander", 1928) and continued to see in expressionism the phenomenon of "extremely broad", paradoxical, "useful from a propaganda point of view" .

Abram Efros included the "fieryness of expressionistic incoherence" in the concept of "left classics". However, with the weakening of the revolutionary situation in Germany, expressionism began to be predominantly regarded as "a rebellion of the bourgeoisie against

N. Bukharin saw in expressionism "the process of turning the bourgeois intelligentsia into "human dust", into loners, knocked down

11 pantalik by the course of tremendous events. In criticism, they tried to apply the term "expressionism" to the analysis of the work of L. Andreev, V. Mayakovsky, to theatrical productions, fine arts. . The final volume of the Literary Encyclopedia with A. Lunacharsky's article on expressionism was not printed.

However, in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (T. 63. - M., 1935), the article "Expressionism" was published. It spoke not only about expressionism in Germany and France, but the section "Expressionism in Soviet art" was singled out.

The modern stage of the study of expressionism began in the 1960s, after a twenty-year break due to ideological reasons. In the collection "Expressionism: Dramaturgy. Painting. Graphics. Music. Cinematography” G. Nedoshivin raised the question of “expressionist tendencies” in the work of a number of major masters who were on the periphery of expressionism. He believed that the definition of “Russian Futurism” was confusing, because “Larionov, Goncharova and Burliuk, not to mention Mayakovsky, have much more in common with the expressionists than with Severini, Kappa, Marinetti.”15 Expressionism was rehabilitated in the works of A. M. Ushakov "Mayakovsky and Gross" (1971) and L.K. Shvetsova "Creative principles and views close to expressionism" (1975). The main studies of expressionism were carried out abroad. In connection with the restoration of the rights of literary and artistic groups and the creation of a renewed history of literature of the 20th century, studies of certain aspects of expressionism in Russian literature and art appeared.

Until the last decade, Vladimir Markov's article remained the seminal work on Russian expressionism.16 rethinking, “recoding” of concepts is possible and fruitful, as individual works show, precisely on the path of analyzing the poetics of futurism, its various stylistic components: symbolist (Kling O. Futurism and the “old symbolist hop”: The influence of symbolism on the poetics of early Russian futurism // Issues literature. - 1996. - No. 5); Dadaist (Khardzhiev N. Polemical name<Алексей Крученых>// Pamir. - 1987. - No. 12; Nikitaev A. Introduction to the "Dog box": Dadaists on Russian soil // Art of the avant-garde - the language of world communication. - Ufa, 1993); surrealistic (Chagin A. Russian surrealism: Myth or reality? // Surrealism and avant-garde. -M., 1999; Chagin A.I. From the "Fantastic tavern" - to the cafe "Port

Piano” // Literary Abroad: Problems of National Identity. - Issue 1. - M., 2000); expressionist (Nikolskaya T.L. On the issue of Russian expressionism // Tynyanovsky collection: Fourth Tynyanov readings. - Riga, 1990; Koretskaya I.V. From the history of Russian expressionism // Izvestiya RAS. A series of literature and language. -1998.-T 57.-No. 3).

One of the evidence of the need for such recoding was given by A. Flaker. In his opinion, the identity of the name of the “two futurisms” led to a comparative historical optics, which does not always correspond to the interpretation of the literary texts themselves. German expressionism "The Twilight of Humanity" (M., 1990), in textbooks19 and reference literature. So, for the first time, along with foreign material (A.M. Zverev), the “Literary Encyclopedia of Terms and Concepts” (M., 2001), edited by A.N. Nikolyukin, also included a brief essay on Russian expressionism (V.N. Terekhin). The encyclopedic dictionary "Expressionism" (compiled by P.M. Toper) also includes a significant corpus of articles devoted to expressionist realities in Russian culture (in production).

V.S. Turchin in the book “Through the labyrinths of the avant-garde” (M., 1993) and A. Yakimovich in a series of works on “realisms of the 20th century” use Russian realities in the analysis of expressionism in the visual arts. A significant contribution to the comprehensive study of the problem of expressionism is the collection of reports of a scientific conference at the Institute of Art Studies "Russian Avant-Garde of the 1910-1920s and the Problem of Expressionism" (compiled by G.F. Kovalenko), which includes articles by D.V. Sarabyanov, N. L.Adaskina, I.M.Sakhno and others (See also:

Nikitaev A.T. Early work of Boris Lapin // Studia Literaria Polono-Slavica. - Warszawa, 1993. - No. 1; Unknown poems by Boris Lapin / Studia Literaria Polono-Slavica. - Warszawa, 1998. - No. 1;) Anthology "Russian Expressionism. Theory. Practice. Criticism has accumulated these materials in order to make them available for further study and use in research and teaching.

The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that expressionism is considered in a number of artistic movements of Russian literature of the 1st third of the 20th century, as a general cultural phenomenon. In the course of the study, for the first time, the originality of Russian expressionism, its genesis in Russian literature of the 1900-1920s, the forms of its manifestation and the path of evolution are established. The new material is analyzed comprehensively, at different levels of existence and in broad contexts. The literary process is considered in close connection with phenomena close to expressionism in the visual arts, as well as in theater, cinema, and music. Thus, the Gogol tradition in the construction of the expressionist image is explored in the prose of Andrei Bely and in the cinematic experiments of directors Kozintsev and Trauberg, in the essays of Eisenstein.

Observations are made on the general patterns of the emergence and existence of expressionism in Russian literature, at the same time, the features of expressionist poetics, the correlation of program statements and creative practice, the main pathos of expressionism as an art and attitude, the pathos of denying dead dogmas and, at the same time, earnest affirmation in the center of being of the only reality - the human personality in all the intrinsic value of its experiences. A wide range of programmatic, style-forming and thematic features of other artistic movements is found, some of which were perceived as opposing (naturalism, symbolism), others that did not have time to acquire integral forms existed within futurism at the level of trends (expressionism, dadaism, surrealism). Conclusions about the national features of Russian expressionism are substantiated: folklore, archaic features, many generative models of creative renewal.

In the work of Mayakovsky, examples of the structure-forming elements of Russian expressionism stand out. In the context of expressionist poetics, the work of such individuals as L. Andreev, A. Bely, M. Zenkevich, V. Narbut, V. Khlebnikov, B. Grigoriev, O. Rozanova, P. Filonov and others is considered.

The study is carried out not against the background of the literary process, but in its structure, in the broad context of artistic movements, in combination with the analysis of the main manifestos and books.

Traditional comparative studies for a long time proceeded from the fact that the cultures of Central and Eastern Europe lag behind the more intensively renewing creative sphere in the countries of the West and are forced to borrow the experience of new trends. The dissertation shows that the origin and characteristics of expressionism in Russian literature and art provide an example of advanced development and diverse interaction with the pan-European movement.

The main provisions of the dissertation submitted for defense.

Russian expressionism is an important component of Russian culture; it arose on its own basis, relying on the traditions of Russian literature and art that were relevant for the first third of the 20th century, on the achievements of realism, modernism, and avant-garde in the transformation of the language of art.

Russian expressionism interacted in many ways and mutually with European expressionism, which was formed mainly on German and Austrian soil.

Russian expressionism is an independent art direction, not organized organizationally, but united by the corresponding philosophical, aesthetic and creative principles, as well as the chronological framework of 1901-1925. Expressionism, to varying degrees, is inherent in the work of L. Andreev, A. Bely, M. Zenkevich, V. Mayakovsky and other Russian writers of the first third of the 20th century.

Expressionist groups I. Sokolov, "Moscow Parnassus", fuists, emotionalists M. Kuzmin make up the circle of Russian literary expressionism of the 1920s.

Theoretical conclusions consist in revising some stereotypes of the study of Russian literature of the first third of the 20th century, in particular with regard to the mutual influence and interpenetration of all creative potentials - realistic, modernist, avant-garde - that existed in Russian literature and art of the first third of the 20th century, and in affirming the need to consider Russian Expressionism as an independent artistic movement.

The practical significance of the work. The main provisions of the dissertation can be taken into account when creating the history of Russian literature of the 20th century, in the course of studying the evolution of artistic movements and their links with the pan-European literary development. The results of the research work are of scientific, methodological and applied significance, since they can be used in the preparation of anthologies of expressionist works, writing the corresponding chapters of textbooks and sections of lecture courses on the history of Russian literature of the 20th century for philological faculties.

Approbation of the research results. The basis of the dissertation is 30 years of work on the history of Russian literature and art in the first third of the 20th century, articles, publications, books, speeches at international scientific conferences, participation in foreign symposia, lecturing, research work in the archives and libraries of Latvia, the USA, Ukraine, Finland , Germany.

In the course of ten years of research work on the topic of the dissertation, an anthology “Russian Expressionism: Theory. Practice. Criticism (Compiled, introductory article by V.N. Terekhina; commentary by V.N. Terekhina and A.T. Nikitaev. - M., 2005). The provisions developed in the dissertation were partially included in the "Encyclopedic Dictionary of Expressionism", prepared at the IMLI RAS (the article "Russian Expressionism" and eight personal articles were discussed and approved at a meeting of the Department of Recent European and American Literature of the IMLI RAS in May 2001).

The main results of the study were presented in published books, articles, as well as in reports at international scientific conferences: "V. Khlebnikov and world culture" (Astrakhan, September 2000); “Russian Avant-Garde of the 1910-1920s and the Problem of Expressionism” (State Institute of Art History, November 2002); "Mayakovsky at the beginning of the XXI century" (IMLI RAS, May 2003); 13th International Congress of Slavists. (Ljubljana, July 2003); "Russian Paris" (St. Petersburg, Russian Museum, November 2004); "Science and Russian literature of the 1st third of the 20th century" (RSUH, June 2005); "Yesenin at the turn of the epochs: results and prospects" (IMLI RAS, October 2005), etc.

Work structure. The dissertation consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion and a bibliography.

Expressionism as an artistic trend in literature (as well as in painting, sculpture, graphics) took shape in the mid-90s of the XIX century. The philosophical and aesthetic views of the expressionists are due to the influence of E. Husserl's theory of knowledge about "ideal essences", the intuitionism of A. Bergson, his concept of a "life" impulse that overcomes the inertness of matter in the eternal stream of becoming. This explains the perception by expressionists of the real world as an “objective appearance” (“Objective appearance” is a concept learned from German classical philosophy (Kant, Hegel), meaning a factual perception of reality), the desire to break through inert matter into the world of “ideal entities” - into a genuine reality. Again, as in symbolism, the opposition of the Spirit to matter sounds. But in contrast to the Symbolists, the Expressionists, who are guided by the intuitionism of A. Bergson, concentrate their searches in the irrational sphere of the Spirit. Intuition, vital impulse are proclaimed the main means in approaching the highest spiritual reality. The external world, the world of matter, dissolves in an endless stream of subjective ecstatic states that bring the poet closer to unraveling the “mystery” of being.

The poet is assigned an “Orphic” function, the function of a magician breaking through the resistance of inert matter to the spiritual essence of the phenomenon. In other words, the poet is not interested in the phenomenon itself, but in its original essence. The superiority of the poet lies in non-participation "in the affairs of the crowd", in the absence of pragmatism and conformism. Only the poet, according to expressionists, discovers the cosmic vibration of "ideal entities." Raising a cult of the creative act, expressionists consider it the only way to subjugate the world of matter and change it.

Truth for the expressionists is above beauty. Secret knowledge about the universe takes the form of images that are characterized by explosive emotionality, created as if by a “drunk”, hallucinating consciousness. Creativity in the perception of expressionists is

stepped as a tense subjectivity based on emotional ecstatic states, improvisation and vague moods of the artist. Instead of observation, there is an indefatigable power of the imagination; instead of contemplation - visions, ecstasy. Expressionist theorist Casimir Edschmid wrote: “He (the artist) does not reflect - he depicts. And now there is no more chain of facts: factories, houses, diseases, prostitutes, screaming and hunger. There is only a vision of this, a landscape of art, penetration into depth, primordial and spiritual beauty ... Everything becomes connected with eternity ”(“ Expressionism in Poetry ”).

Works in expressionism are not an object of aesthetic contemplation, but a trace of a spiritual impulse. This is due to the lack of concern for the sophistication of the form. Deformation, in particular the grotesque, which arises as a result of general hyperbolism, strong-willed onslaught, and the struggle to overcome the resistance of matter, becomes the dominant feature of the artistic language. The deformation not only distorted the external outlines of the world, but also shocked with the grotesque and hyperbolic images, the compatibility of the incompatible. This "shocking" distortion was subordinated to an extra-aesthetic task - a breakthrough to the "complete man" in the unity of his consciousness and the unconscious. Expressionism aimed at reconstructing the human community, achieving the unity of the universe through the symbolic disclosure of archetypes. “Not individual, but characteristic of all people, not dividing, but uniting, not reality, but spirit” (Pintus Kurt. Preface to the anthology "The Twilight of Humanity").

Expressionism is distinguished by its claim to a universal prophecy, which required a special style - an appeal, teaching, declarativeness. By banishing pragmatic morality, destroying the stereotype, the expressionists hoped to release fantasy in a person, sharpen his susceptibility, and increase his craving for the search for secrets. The formation of expressionism began with the union of artists.

The date of the emergence of expressionism is considered to be 1905. It was then that the Bridge group arose in Dresden, uniting such artists as Ernest Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Emil Nolde, Otto Müller, and others. In 1911, the famous Blue Rider group appeared in Munich, which included artists whose creativity had a huge impact on the painting of the 20th century: Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Franz Marc, August Macke and others. An important literary organ of this group was the almanac "The Blue Rider" (1912), in which expressionist artists announced their new creative experiment. August Macke in the article "Masks" formulated the goals and objectives of the new school: "art turns the innermost essence of life into understandable and comprehensible." Expressionist painters continued the experiments in the field of color, which were started by the French Fauvists (Matisse, Derain, Vlaminck). For them, as for the Fauvists, color becomes the basis for the organization of artistic space.

In the formation of expressionism in literature, the Aktion (Action) magazine, founded in Berlin in 1911, played a significant role. Poets and playwrights rallied around this magazine, in which the rebellious spirit of the direction was most pronounced: I. Becher, E. Toller, L. Frank and others.

The magazine "Storm", which began to appear in Berlin in 1910, was focused on the aesthetic tasks of the direction. G. Trakl, E. Stadler and G. Geim became the greatest poets of the new direction, whose poetry assimilated and creatively reworked the experience of French symbolism - synesthesia, the assertion of the superiority of the Spirit over matter, the desire to express the "inexpressible", to approach the mystery of the universe.

Expressionism: "through the borders of the impossible..." The art of expression