Lecture 5
1. New time as a special historical and cultural phenomenon. General characteristics of the literary trends of the 17th century.
2. Baroque is a specific type of culture. National forms of baroque.
3. Classicism and its role in the culture and literature of the 17th century.
Starting to study the literary process of the 17th century, we get acquainted with a special historical and cultural phenomenon, which is usually called new time, in contrast to the previous large historical and cultural stages - antiquity and the Middle Ages. Thus, the line between the Renaissance and the 17th century is, as it were, double: it is both a new period on the scale of the “small periodization” of literary epochs and a global cultural shift on the scale of “great periodization”, the transition from medieval civilization, within which the culture of the Renaissance remained, to civilization new type. Historians of culture call New Time the era when modern man, that is, a man of the 21st century, "begins to recognize himself." It was in the 17th century that the formation of a new picture of the world took place, cardinal changes in which would arise only at the end of the 19th century. This is the period when a new worldview of a person is born, due not only to changes in the external circumstances of life, but also to the crisis of the old forms of thinking and feeling.
It should be realized that for all the obvious transitional nature, the 17th century also acts as a completely independent, original stage of literary development, possessing relative autonomy and specific contradictory integrity, capturing the unique artistic appearance of the time. Let us pay special attention to only one, but extremely important aspect: the role and meaning of popular movements in the 17th century were marked by obvious duality for the very reason that, participating in the destruction of the traditionalist medieval way of life, these movements understood the goal of their struggle as a return to the “good old times”, the restoration of lost justice, freedom, etc., and not as a renewal of the social order. Historians also note that the increased unevenness of the political and economic development of individual countries and regions is paradoxically combined with their general objective orientation towards renewal, with a gradual awareness of interdependence, with the universalization of the civilizational development of peoples and closer cultural communication between them. It was in modern times that the historical and cultural concept of "Europe" was finally formed.
The 17th century is traditionally and rightly called the age of absolutism. It was in the 17th century that such an important phenomenon as "public opinion" was born - a special ideological and psychological phenomenon that is possible only in a civil society that is aware of both its connection with the state and relative independence from it. The role of public opinion in the production, functioning and evaluation of literary phenomena in the 17th century is significant. Evidence of this is the active development of literary criticism, literary theory during this period. The status of the writer and writer's life is also changing throughout the 17th century: circles, salons, clubs, literary schools and societies that arise in different countries and are increasingly spreading not only contribute to a constant critical discussion of works of art that have received recognition from contemporaries, reflection on the general problems of creativity, but and gradually lead to the formation of a professional writing environment. At the end of the 17th century, the first professional writers appeared in Western Europe. The atmosphere of public discussion of literary and aesthetic problems, as well as other issues of public life, contributes to the flourishing of journalism, which is very noticeable during this period, and this process becomes widespread with the advent of the periodical press.
The seventeenth century is also characterized as the century of science. Indeed, this is the time of secularization of scientific knowledge, its consistent dissociation from other forms of knowledge of man and reality. A new, much more recognizable by modern man classification of branches of science and their new hierarchy is emerging, associated with worldview changes in the minds of people in the 17th century. It should be remembered, however, that the worldview of the people of the 17th century, or, as they often say now, the mentality of the era, was both uniform and contradictoryly diverse; in it, fighting and interacting, rationalism and sensationalism, rationality and mysticism collided. An integral part of the new mentality, its core was the awareness of the crisis of the ideals of the Renaissance (cheerful and optimistic idea of the harmony of the Universe, the power of the human mind and the greatness of man, etc.).
The historical and cultural chronology of the era under study does not coincide with the usual calendar division into centuries. The beginning of the "XVII century" as a new literary period falls approximately in the 90s of the XVI century, and its end is already in the mid-80s-90s of the next century. Such a chronology takes into account a whole complex of historical and cultural changes, which ultimately leads to new patterns in the development of literature.
The main literary trends of the 17th century were baroque and classicism.
The very word " baroque"As a term of art history, they began to apply to a certain range of artistic phenomena of the 17th century only in the next, 18th century, and with a negative connotation. So, in the "Encyclopedia" of the French Enlighteners, the word "baroque" is used with the meanings "strange, bizarre, tasteless." It is difficult to find a single linguistic source for this term, because the word was used, with shades of meaning, in Italian, and in Portuguese, and in Spanish. It should only be emphasized that etymology allows us to capture some features of baroque poetics: whimsicality, unusualness, ambiguity.
Signs of a new style began to appear at the end of the 16th century, but it was the 17th century that became its heyday. Baroque is a response to social, political, economic instability, an ideological crisis, the psychological tension of the frontier era, it is the desire to creatively rethink the tragic outcome of the humanistic program of the Renaissance, it is the search for a way out of a state of spiritual crisis.
The Baroque era came after a deep spiritual and religious crisis caused by the Reformation - a powerful religious movement aimed at reforming the doctrine and organization of the Christian church, which arose in Germany in the early 16th century, quickly spread to a large part of Europe and led to the separation from Rome and the formation new form of Christianity.
In this era, a peculiar look at a person and a passion for everything theatrical give rise to an all-penetrating image: the whole world is a theater. For all those who know English, this image is associated with the name of Shakespeare - after all, it is taken from his comedy As You Like It. But it can be found in all major works of European literature. The rich port of Amsterdam opened in 1638 the city theater, above the entrance to which one could read the lines of the greatest Dutch poet Vondel: “Our world is a stage, everyone here has their own role and everyone is rewarded according to their deserts.” And in Spain, rivaling Holland, Vondel's contemporary Calderón de la Varca created his famous masterpiece, The Great Theater of the World, which presents the world as a stage in a truly baroque sense.
The tragically sublime content also determined the main features of the Baroque as an artistic method. Baroque works are characterized by theatricality, illusory nature (it is no coincidence that P. Calderon's drama is called "Life is a dream"), antinomy (the clash of personal principles and social duty), the contrast of the sensual and spiritual nature of man, the opposition of the fantastic and the real, the exotic and the ordinary, the tragic and the comic . Baroque is replete with complex metaphors, allegories, symbolism, it is distinguished by the expressiveness of the word, the exaltation of feelings, semantic ambiguity, the mixing of motifs of ancient mythology with Christian symbols. Baroque poets paid great attention to the graphic form of the verse, created "curly" poems, the lines of which formed a pattern of a heart, a star, etc.
Actualizing the thesis “life is a dream” known in the Middle Ages, the Baroque draws attention primarily to the fragility of the boundaries between “sleep” and “life”, to the constant doubt of a person whether he is in a state of sleep or awake, to contrasts or bizarre rapprochements between the face and mask, "to be" and "to seem".
The Baroque era rejects naturalness, considering it ignorance and savagery. At that time, a woman should be unnaturally pale, in an elaborate hairstyle, in a tight corset and a huge skirt, and a man in a wig, without a mustache and beard, powdered and perfumed.
People of that time always felt the eye of God and the attention of the whole world on themselves, but this filled them with a sense of self-respect, the desire to make their life as bright and meaningful as it appeared in painting, sculpture and dramaturgy. Like pictorial portraits, Baroque palaces reflect their creators' conception of themselves. They are panegyrics in stone, extolling the virtues of those who live in them. The work of the Baroque era, glorifying the greats and their accomplishments, amaze us with their challenge and at the same time demonstrate an attempt to drown out the longing of their creators. The shadow of disappointment lies on the art of the Baroque from the very beginning. Love for the theater and stage metaphor reveals the realization that any external manifestation is illusory.
A sharp feeling of rushing time, absorbing everything and everything; a sense of the futility of everything earthly, about which poets and preachers throughout Europe spoke; a gravestone that inevitably awaits everyone and reminds that the flesh is mortal, man is dust - all this, oddly enough, led to an unusual love of life and life affirmation. This paradox has become the main theme of baroque poetry, the authors called people to pick flowers of pleasure while summer is raging around; love and enjoy life's multicolor masquerade. The knowledge that life would end like a dream revealed its true meaning and value to those who were lucky. Despite special attention to the theme of the frailty of all things, the baroque culture gave the world literary works of unprecedented vitality and strength.
The typological features of the Baroque also determined the genre system, which was characterized by mobility. Characteristic is the advancement, on the one hand, of the novel and dramaturgy (especially the genre of tragedy), on the other hand, the cultivation of poetry that is complex in concept and language. Pastoral, tragicomedy, novel (heroic, comic, philosophical) become predominant. A special genre is burlesque - a comedy parodying high genres, roughly grounding the images, conflict and plot moves of these plays. In general, a “mosaic” picture of the world was built in all genres, and imagination played a special role in this picture, and incompatible phenomena were often combined, metaphorical and allegory were used.
It should also be remembered about the evolution of the Baroque during the 17th century, about its relative movement from the "materiality" of style inherited from the Renaissance, the picturesqueness and colorfulness of empirical details to the strengthening of philosophical generalization, symbolic and allegorical imagery, intellectuality and refined psychologism.
baroque architecture(L. Bernini, F. Borromini in Italy, V. V. Rastrelli in Russia): spatial scope, fusion, fluidity of complex, usually curvilinear forms are characteristic for sculpture (Bernini) and painting (P. P. Rubens, A. van Dyck in Flanders) - spectacular decorative compositions, ceremonial portraits. Michelangelo is considered both the last master of the Renaissance and the creator of the Baroque style, for it was he who realized its main style-forming element - the plasticity of the wall. The crown of his work - St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is already considered a Baroque style.
baroque music. The Baroque era saw an explosion of new styles in music. The further weakening of the political control of the Catholic Church in Europe, which began during the Renaissance, allowed non-religious music to flourish. Vocal music, which prevailed during the Renaissance, was gradually replaced by instrumental music. The understanding that musical instruments must be combined in some standard way led to the emergence of the first orchestras. Two of the greatest composers of the time were Corelli and Vivaldi, and in Italy the first operas were written by composers Cavaleri and Monteverdi. Johann Sebastian Bach - the greatest genius in the history of music, lived and worked in the Baroque era. Great works of the Baroque era: Handel "Music on the Water", Bach "Brandenburg Concertos" and cantatas, Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", Purcell "Dido and Aeneas", Menteverdi "Orpheus".
The most famous Baroque writers were: in Spain Luis de Gongora (1561–1627), Pedro Calderon (1600–1681) and Lope de Vega (1562–1635), in Italy Torquato Tasso (1544–1595), Giambattista Marino (1569–1625 ), in Germany Hans Jakob von Grimmelshausen (c. 1621–1676).
Baroque in French literature. French literature of the 17th century, which gave France its great classics, was extremely rich in artistic achievements, had a significant influence on other national literatures of Europe, and largely determined the cultural image of the century as a whole. This was facilitated by the peculiarities of the socio-historical development of the country in the 17th century. It is necessary not only to take into account the active process of centralization of the French state, but also the dramatic vicissitudes of this process throughout the century. The first stage in the development of French literature is associated with the beginning of the process of strengthening absolutism after the period of religious wars at the end of the 16th century. This is also the time of the formation of classicism in French poetry.
In addition to baroque poetry, baroque drama is also developing in France. In the work of Alexander Ardi, the genre features of the tragicomedy genre characteristic of the baroque theater clearly appear: saturation with dynamic action, spectacular mise-en-scenes, complexity of the plot, etc. However, the French baroque dramaturgy is less artistically significant than the dramaturgy of classicism.
The situation is different in the realm of artistic prose, especially in the novel. Here, in the first period of the development of French literature, as, indeed, further, the baroque dominates both in its "high" and in its "grassroots" democratic version, forming a single and antinomic at the same time system of the baroque novel. An extremely important role in the formation of this genre in the 17th century, in the development of a special secular civilization, was played by the love-psychological pastoral novel by Honore d'Yurfe "Astrea".
The peculiarity of the Spanish Baroque. The philosophical basis of the Baroque style (probably from the Italian barocco - whimsical), which developed in the Spanish literature of the 17th century, was the idea of \u200b\u200bthe boundless diversity and eternal variability of the world.
At the beginning of the 17th century, Spain was in a state of deep economic crisis. The defeat of the "Invincible Armada" (1588) off the coast of England, the unreasonable colonial policy, the weakness of Spanish absolutism, its political shortsightedness made Spain a minor European country. In Spanish culture, on the contrary, new trends were clearly identified, which had not only national, but also pan-European significance.
The Spanish 17th century in literature was completely baroque. To a certain extent, it summarizes, enhances and emphasizes the experience of the whole Baroque Europe. Baroque culture manifested itself in almost all areas of artistic creativity and touched all artists. Spain, in the 17th century. in decline, under the rule not so much of the king as of the church, gave a special mood to baroque literature: here the baroque acquired not only a religious, but also a fanatical character, the desire for the otherworldly, emphasized asceticism, was actively manifested. However, it is here that the influence of folk culture is felt.
Spanish poetry of the 17th century Baroque gave rise to two currents that fought among themselves - cultism and conceptualism. Proponents of the first opposed the disgusting and unacceptable real world to the perfect and beautiful world created by the human imagination, which is given to only a few to comprehend. Adherents of cultism turned to Italian, the so-called. The "dark style", which is characterized by complex metaphors and syntax, turned to the mythological system. The followers of conceptism used the same complex language, and complex thought was clothed in this form, hence the ambiguity of each word, hence the play on words and use of puns characteristic of conceptists.
Luis de Gongora contemporaries called "Spanish Homer". It is important to understand that the comparison with Homer means in this case not the similarity of the poetic language of the Spanish Baroque lyricist with ancient epic poetry, but some kind of superlative degree of skill.
Where is ivory, where is snow-white
Parian marble, where the sapphire is radiant,
Eben so black and crystal so pure
Silver and gold filigree obscure,
Where is such the finest beads, where is the coastal
Amber transparent and ruby sparkling
And where is that master, that true artist,
What in the highest hour will create with a diligent hand
From rare treasures a statue, -
Or will it still be the fruit of his efforts
Not with praise - an involuntary insult
For the sun of beauty in the rays of pride,
And the statue will fade before the apparition
Clarinda, my sweet enemy?
(Translated by M. Kvyatkovskaya)
Baroque in English literature.
The beginning of a new historical and literary era in England, most experts refer to the 20s of the XVII century. Such a concept has a certain justification, for example, in the fact that the Renaissance in England was a late phenomenon and the work of many writers, in particular such a remarkable, undeniably great one as Shakespeare, falls at the turn of the century. Shakespeare's legacy includes both Renaissance, Mannerist and Baroque style trends. That is, like Spain, in England, the artistic phenomena of the late Renaissance and the baroque and classicism of the 17th century are superimposed on each other. A special variant has developed here, which combines elements of baroque and classicism literature. Baroque motifs and elements most affected poetry and drama, although the English theater of the 17th century. did not give the world baroque playwrights who could be compared with the Spanish.
In England, Baroque literature can be divided into three stage: the first third of the century (the period of the crisis of the Renaissance ideals); 40-50s (participation in the thick of revolutionary fights); 60-80s (years of artistic reflection and comprehension of the results of the revolution). At all these stages, English Baroque literature is distinguished by two leading features - creative power and a sense of breaking the existing foundations, painted in different shades.
The most prominent baroque writer in England is John Donne.
German Reality in the Baroque Works of Writers. German literature of the 17th century is a tragic, but very bright page in German history. The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), which brought incalculable misfortunes to the country, and the triumph of reaction at its end, still could not hinder the work of outstanding German poets, playwrights and prose writers.
If by the beginning of the 17th century all the major countries of the West already had their own national classical literature (Italy, England, Spain, France, Holland), then in Germany a different picture was observed. First of all, the fragmentation of the state prevented the creation of a national German literature. Throughout the 16th century, there was a regression of the economic life of Germany, which led to the decline of the German bourgeoisie. Germany is returning to the omnipotence, almost absolutism of the great feudal lords (princes). Fragmentation prevented the unification of the people's forces to organize a large peasant war, but frequent uprisings still instilled fear in the landowners.
In the German literature of the 17th century, there was a flourishing of poetry, in addition to which the genre of the novel with "characteristic features of anti-realist aesthetics", borrowed from French literature, was widely represented. Among the German nobles, the French aristocratic novel of all kinds was popular: pastoral, gallant, pseudo-knightly, pseudo-oriental, pseudo-historical, historical-state. A distinctive feature of these novels was, firstly, an unusually large volume, and secondly, the extreme complexity of the plot, saturated with a huge number of intersecting storylines, which can be explained not at all by the mediocrity of the authors, but by the specificity of their artistic goal. The novelists sought to embrace the whole world, to cover a wide panorama with their description. Therefore, they were not at all interested in the inner life of the characters; in these novels there was not even a hint of character development and psychologism. Baroque aesthetics could not imagine love outside of wars, campaigns and victories, which entailed the inevitable complication of the plot. The third characteristic feature of baroque novels was the presence of lengthy scholarly comments, notes, digressions, discussions about history, government, etc.
The second literary trend, which became widespread in the 17th century, is classicism. His homeland was Italy (XVI century). Here, classicism arose along with the revived ancient theater and was originally conceived as a direct opposition to medieval drama. The humanists of the Renaissance decided speculatively, without taking into account the uniqueness of specific historical epochs and peoples, to revive the tragedy of Euripides and Seneca, the comedy of Plautus and Terentius. Thus, classicism initially acted as a theory and practice of imitation of ancient art. The rationalistic doctrine of Descartes became the philosophical basis of the classic method. The philosopher believed that the only source of truth is reason. Taking this statement as a starting point, the classicists created a strict system of rules that would harmonize art with the requirements of reasonable necessity in the name of observing the artistic laws of antiquity. Rationalism became the dominant quality of classic art. The classicists also established a clearly regulated hierarchy of literary genres: the exact boundaries of the genre and its features were determined.
Classicism(from Latin classicus - exemplary) - an artistic style and aesthetic trend in European literature and art of the 17th - early 19th centuries, one of the important features of which was the appeal to the images and forms of ancient literature and art as an ideal aesthetic standard.
CLASSICISM is one of the most important areas of art of the past, an artistic style based on normative aesthetics, requiring strict adherence to a number of rules, canons, unities. The rules of classicism are of paramount importance as a means to ensure the main goal of enlightening and instructing the public, referring it to sublime examples. The aesthetics of classicism reflected the desire for the idealization of reality, due to the rejection of the image of a complex and multifaceted reality.
Classicism of the 17th century became a kind of reflection of post-Renaissance humanism. The classicists are characterized by the desire to explore the personality in its connections with the world. Classicism as an artistic system combines an orientation towards antiquity with a deep penetration into the inner world of characters, a reflective, rebellious world. The main conflict of classicism is the struggle between feeling and duty. Through its prism, writers tried to resolve many of the contradictions of reality.
Classicism - from the Latin classicus - first-class, exemplary - originated in Italy in the 16th century in university circles as a practice of imitation of antiquity. Humanist scholars tried to oppose the feudal world with the high optimistic art of the ancients. They sought to revive the ancient drama, studied the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, tried to deduce from the works of ancient masters some general rules, on the basis of which ancient Greek plays were allegedly built. In fact, ancient literature had no rules, but humanists did not understand that art from one era could not be “transplanted” into another. After all, any work arises not on the basis of certain rules, but on the basis of specific conditions of social development. The mistake of the humanists was that they did not take into account the historical conditions for the development of the society and culture of the ancients, they ignored the peculiarities of the artistic thinking of past eras. It is no coincidence that classicism in Italy remained one of the interesting university experiments of the humanists.
Classicism is formed, experiencing the influence of other pan-European trends in art that are directly in contact with it: it repels the aesthetics of the Renaissance that preceded it and opposes the Baroque art that actively coexists with it, imbued with the consciousness of general discord generated by the crisis of the ideals of the past era. Continuing some of the traditions of the Renaissance (admiration for the ancients, faith in reason, the ideal of harmony and measure), classicism was a kind of antithesis to it; Behind the external harmony in classicism lies the internal antinomy of the worldview, which makes it related to the Baroque (for all their deep differences). Generic and individual, public and private, reason and feeling, civilization and nature, which acted (in a trend) in the art of the Renaissance as a single harmonious whole, in classicism are polarized, become mutually exclusive concepts.
Principles rationalism, corresponding to the philosophical ideas of R. Descartes, underlie the aesthetics of classicism. They define the view of a work of art as an artificial creation - consciously created, reasonably organized, logically constructed. The entire artistic system of classicism was imbued with the spirit of rationalism, which also determined the technique of creating works. In an effort to influence not the feelings of readers and viewers, but their minds, the classicists never painted scenes of battles, duels, death. The characters were just talking about it. Therefore, classicist tragedy and comedy most often were not eventful, but verbal in nature.
Recognition of the existence of eternal and objective laws of art, that is, independent of the consciousness of the artist, entailed the requirement for a strict discipline of creativity, the denial of "unorganized" inspiration and masterful fantasy. For the classicists, of course, the Baroque exaltation of the imagination as the most important source of creative impulses is completely unacceptable. Proponents of classicism return to the Renaissance principle of "imitation of nature", but interpret it more narrowly. The principle of "imitation of nature" did not imply the veracity of the reproduction of reality, but plausibility, by which they meant the depiction of things not as they are in reality, but as they should be according to reason. Hence the most important conclusion: the subject of art is not all of nature, but only a part of it, revealed after careful selection and reduced in essence to human nature, taken only in its conscious manifestations. Life, its ugly sides should appear in art ennobled, aesthetically beautiful, nature - "beautiful nature", delivering aesthetic pleasure.
The classicists were convinced that human types are eternal. According to them, a miser, a jealous person, a liar, and similar characters always and everywhere behave in the same way, regardless of national or class dependence. Ancient art had already developed a number of universal types, so the imitation of antiquity, the borrowing of ancient plots and heroes was considered a guarantee of plausibility. The classicists did not see movement in history, they perceived it as a sum of examples illustrating eternal, unchanging human qualities. Nevertheless, by developing characters built on a single trait, classic writers learned the art of full and capacious expression of this single trait. They have learned to subordinate all the elements of a work of art to the most prominent selection of one quality of character, one trait.
The most important norms of classicism (the unity of action, place and time) follow from the substantive premises discussed above. In order to more accurately convey the idea to the viewer and inspire selfless feelings, the author did not have to complicate anything. The main intrigue should be simple enough so as not to confuse the viewer and not deprive the picture of integrity. The requirement of three unities arose from the rationalistic proposition that a spectator who spends only a few hours in the theater will not believe if events take place on the stage in front of him, the duration of which is very different from the actual duration of the theatrical performance. The demand for unity of time was closely connected with the unity of action, and many diverse events did not occur in the tragedy. The unity of place has also been interpreted in different ways. It could be the space of one palace, one room, one city, and even the distance that the hero could cover within twenty-four hours. Particularly bold reformers decided to stretch the action for thirty hours. The tragedy must have five acts and be written in Alexandrian verse (iambic six-foot).
Despite the commitment to the ideals of antiquity, classicism did not follow the path already beaten by it. The masters of this era developed a number of principles on which not only classicism itself was based, but also some subsequent trends. So, the classicists proclaimed Reason as their deity. Everything and everything is subject to him, even nature itself is its wise incarnation. That is why the nature of many parks in the style of classicism, as it were, is subject to the laws of reason, that is, it has clear proportions, straight lines, and a regular geometric shape.
The main ideological tasks of classical art were the glorification of the monarch, as the center of the mind of the nation, and the glorification of heroism in the name of fulfilling duty to fellow citizens. The latter was just embodied through the prism of antiquity.
In France In the 17th century, classicism not only develops rapidly, finds its methodological justification in philosophy, but also becomes, for the first time in history, an official literary trend. This was facilitated by the policy of the French court. N. Boileau in his treatise "Poetic Art" (1674) summarized the experience of French classic writers. The obvious addiction of classicism to generalization, to aphoristic clarity and laconism of expression brings to the fore precisely moralistic aphoristic prose.
The highest achievements of French literature of the 17th century are associated with the classic theater, in which the genre of tragedy turned out to be the most successful. For the first stage of French classicism, the most significant phenomenon was the work of the creator of the classic tragedy, Pierre Corneille (1606–1684): Sid, Horace, Cinna; at the second stage, in the second half of the century, Jean Racine (1639-1699) was recognized as the greatest master of tragedy: Andromache, Phaedra, Esther, Athalia. In their creations, the conflict of duty and feeling and the rule of three unities are implemented in completely different ways. But no matter how great the merits of Corneille and Racine, the national theater in France arose only with the advent of the greatest European comedian Molière (1622 - 1673) into dramaturgy: Tartuffe, Don Juan, Misanthrope, Miser, Bourgeois in the nobility.
Under the influence of French literature, classicism also developed in other European countries: in England (A. Pope, J. Addison), Italy (V. Alfieri, partly Hugo Foscolo), and Germany (I. Gottsched).
Writers and poets in the Baroque era perceived the real world as an illusion and a dream. Realistic descriptions were often combined with their allegorical depiction. Symbols, metaphors, theatrical techniques, graphic images (lines of poetry form a picture), saturation with rhetorical figures, antitheses, parallelisms, gradations, oxymorons are widely used. There is a burlesque-satirical attitude to reality. Baroque literature is characterized by the desire for diversity, for the summation of knowledge about the world, inclusiveness, encyclopedism, which sometimes turns into chaos and collecting curiosities, the desire to study being in its contrasts (spirit and flesh, darkness and light, time and eternity). Baroque ethics is marked by a craving for the symbolism of the night, the theme of frailty and impermanence, life-dream (F. de Quevedo, P. Calderon). Calderon's play "Life is a dream" is well-known. Such genres as the gallant-heroic novel (J. de Scudery, M. de Scudery), the real-life and satirical novel (Furetière, C. Sorel, P. Scarron) are also developing. Within the framework of the Baroque style, its varieties and trends are born: Marinism, Gongorism (Culteranism), Conceptism (Italy, Spain), the Metaphysical School and Eufuism (England) (see: Precise Literature).
The actions of the novels are often transferred to the fictional world of antiquity, to Greece, court cavaliers and ladies are depicted as shepherdesses and shepherdesses, which is called the pastoral (Honoré d'Urfe, "Astrea"). Poetry flourishes pretentiousness, the use of complex metaphors. Common forms such as sonnet, rondo, concetti (a short poem expressing some witty thought), madrigals.
In the west, in the field of the novel, an outstanding representative is G. Grimmelshausen (the novel "Simplicissimus"), in the field of drama - P. Calderon (Spain). V. Voiture (France), D. Marino (Italy), Don Luis de Gongora y Argote (Spain), D. Donne (England) became famous in poetry. In Russia, Baroque literature includes S. Polotsky, F. Prokopovich. In France, "precious literature" flourished during this period. It was then cultivated mainly in the salon of Madame de Rambouillet, one of the aristocratic salons of Paris, the most fashionable and famous. In Spain, the baroque trend in literature was called "gongorism" after the name of the most prominent representative (see above).
In German literature, the traditions of the Baroque style are still maintained by members of the literary community "Blumenorden". They gather in the summer for literary festivals in the Irrhain grove near Nuremberg. The society was organized in 1646 by Georg Philipp Harsdörffer with the aim of restoring and maintaining the German language, which had been badly damaged during the Thirty Years' War.
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Baroque in literature
Writers and poets in the Baroque era perceived the real world as an illusion and a dream. Realistic descriptions were often combined with their allegorical depiction. Symbols, metaphors, theatrical techniques, graphic images (lines of poetry form a picture), saturation with rhetorical figures, antitheses, parallelisms, gradations, oxymorons are widely used. There is a burlesque-satirical attitude to reality. Baroque literature is characterized by the desire for diversity, for the summation of knowledge about the world, inclusiveness, encyclopedism, which sometimes turns into chaos and collecting curiosities, the desire to study being in its contrasts (spirit and flesh, darkness and light, time and eternity). Baroque ethics is marked by a craving for the symbolism of the night, the theme of frailty and impermanence, life-dream (F. de Quevedo, P. Calderon). Calderon's play "Life is a dream" is well-known. Such genres as the gallant-heroic novel (J. de Scudery, M. de Scudery), the real-everyday and satirical novel (Furetière, C. Sorel, P. Scarron) are also developing. Within the framework of the Baroque style, its varieties, directions are born: marinism, gongorism (culteranism), conceptism (Italy, Spain), metaphysical school and euphuism (England) (See Precise Literature).
The actions of the novels are often transferred to the fictional world of antiquity, to Greece, the court cavaliers and ladies are depicted as shepherdesses and shepherds, which is called the pastoral (Honoré d'Urfe, "Astrea"). Poetry flourishes pretentiousness, the use of complex metaphors. Common forms such as sonnet, rondo, concetti (a short poem expressing some witty thought), madrigals.
In the west, in the field of the novel, an outstanding representative is G. Grimmelshausen (the novel "Simplicissimus"), in the field of drama - P. Calderon (Spain). In poetry, V. Vuatur (France), D. Marino (Italy), Don Luis de Gongora y Argote (Spain), D. Donne (England) became famous. In Russia, Baroque literature includes S. Polotsky, F. Prokopovich. In France, "precious literature" flourished during this period. It was then cultivated mainly in the salon of Madame de Rambouillet, one of the aristocratic salons of Paris, the most fashionable and famous. In Spain, the baroque trend in literature was called "gongorism" after the name of the most prominent representative (see above).
In German literature, the traditions of the Baroque style are still maintained by members of the literary community of Blumenorden. They gather in the summer for literary festivals in the Irrhain grove near Nuremberg. The society was organized in 1646 by the poet Philipp Harsdörfer with the aim of restoring and maintaining the German language, which had been badly damaged during the Thirty Years' War.
Writers and poets in the Baroque era perceived the real world as an illusion and a dream. Realistic descriptions were often combined with their allegorical depiction. Symbols, metaphors, theatrical techniques, graphic images (lines of poetry form a picture), saturation with rhetorical figures, antitheses, parallelisms, gradations, oxymorons are widely used. There is a burlesque-satirical attitude to reality. Baroque literature is characterized by the desire for diversity, for the summation of knowledge about the world, inclusiveness, encyclopedism, which sometimes turns into chaos and collecting curiosities, the desire to study being in its contrasts (spirit and flesh, darkness and light, time and eternity). Baroque ethics is marked by a craving for the symbolism of the night, the theme of frailty and impermanence, life.
The actions of the novels are often transferred to the fictional world of antiquity, to Greece, court cavaliers and ladies are depicted as shepherdesses and shepherdesses, which is called the pastoral (Honoré d'Yurfe, Astrea). Pretentiousness and the use of complex metaphors flourish in poetry. Such forms are common like a sonnet, rondo, concetti (a short poem expressing some witty thought), madrigals.
Baroque literature, like the whole movement, is characterized by a tendency towards complexity of forms and a desire for stateliness and pomp. In baroque literature, the disharmony of the world and man, their tragic confrontation, as well as internal struggles in the soul of an individual, are comprehended. Because of this, the vision of the world and man is most often pessimistic. At the same time, the baroque in general and its literature in particular are permeated by faith in the reality of the spiritual principle, the greatness of God. In this culture, and especially in literature, in addition to focusing on the problem of evil and the frailty of the world, there was also a desire to overcome the crisis, to comprehend the highest rationality, combining both good and evil principles. Thus, an attempt was made to remove contradictions, the place of man in the vast expanses of the universe was determined by the creative power of his thought and the possibility of a miracle. With such an approach, God appeared as the embodiment of the idea of justice, mercy and higher reason.
Baroque literature insisted on freedom of expression in creativity, it is characterized by an unbridled flight of fantasy. Baroque strove for excess in everything. Because of this, there is an accentuated, deliberate complexity of images and language, combined with the desire for beauty and affectation of feelings. The Baroque language is extremely complicated, unusual and even deliberate techniques are used, pretentiousness and even pomposity appear. Baroque literature constantly confronts the real and the imaginary, the desired and the real, the problem of "to be or to seem" becomes one of the most important. The intensity of passions led to the fact that feelings pressed the mind in culture and art. Finally, baroque is characterized by a mixture of very different feelings and the appearance of irony, "there is no phenomenon either so serious or so sad that it cannot turn into a joke." A pessimistic worldview gave rise not only to irony, but also to caustic sarcasm, grotesque and hyperbole.
The writers proclaimed the originality of the work as its most important advantage, and the necessary features - the difficulty for perception and the possibility of various interpretations. Baroque poets highly valued wit, which consisted in paradoxical judgments, in expressing thoughts in an unusual way, in comparing opposite objects, in building works on the principle of contrast, in interest in the graphic form of verse. Paradoxical judgments are an integral component of baroque lyrics. A striking example are 2 Spanish poets: Luis de Gongora and Francesco de Quevedo. Luis de Gongora represents the aristocratic Baroque, Francesco de Quevedo the democratic.
There are 2 varieties of baroque in Spain. Cultism - L. de Gongora represented it. According to Gongora, art should serve only a select few. The deliberate complexity of his poems limited the circle of readers. Gongora's style is dark. This is a form of expression of rejection of ugly efficiency. He tries to rise above efficiency. His poems are full of complex metaphors that reflect the author's pessimistic view of the world. In support of this, consider the poem "While the fleece of your hair flows."
"While the fleece of your hair flows,
Like gold in radiant filigree,
And do not brighten the crystal in the break of the face,
Than a gentle neck swan takeoff ... "
F. de Quevedo was a staunch opponent of the dark style. Most of the manifestations are satirical. He reduces even high mythological themes. He has bold political satires, denounces social vices. One of the key themes is the omnipotence of money. The novel "The life story of a rogue named Don Pablos." This is blatant satire. Life, a classic example of a picaresque novel.
It stands apart in studies of the history of literature and art of the 16th-17th centuries. such a phenomenon as mannerism. Mannerism(from Italian maniera, manner) - Western European literary and artistic style of the 16th - first third of the 17th century. It is characterized by the loss of Renaissance harmony between the physical and spiritual, nature and man. Some researchers (especially literary critics) are not inclined to consider Mannerism as an independent style and see it as an early phase of the Baroque. There is also an extended interpretation of the concept of "mannerism" as an expression of the formative, "pretentious" beginning in art at different stages of cultural development - from antiquity to the present. This is one of the earliest evidence of the manifestation of the attitude of the new time and the adherence to baroque aesthetics. It originates in the depths of the Renaissance aesthetics, and is considered by many researchers precisely as a stylistic trend of the late Renaissance, even as evidence of its crisis.
It testifies to the search for expressiveness in the field of language at the "border" of cultural and aesthetic eras. It is distinguished by a complicated, sophisticated poetic manner (the term itself already emphasizes this aspect), which is the result of a fundamentally new attitude towards art itself. The individual creative initiative of the poet, the new principle of figurativeness, comes to the fore. Mannerism reflects the tragedy of the worldview of the "frontier" period (the ideas of relativity, the transience of everything that exists, predestination, skepticism and mysticism, etc.). It manifested itself, first of all, in the culture of the nobility (for example, in France). Thus, in general, it is a “borderline” phenomenon between the late Renaissance and the actual direction of the baroque of the 17th century. Mannerism is a systematizing general name for a number of art phenomena. In literature, one way or another, gongorism and conceptism (Spain), Marinism (Italy), euphuism (England), and precision literature (France) are associated with it.
1. High baroque - developed "high", that is, philosophical, universal problems, touched upon eternal questions. It manifested itself in drama, associated with the work of Calderon and Gryphius.
2. Low baroque - refers to modern, everyday, private material, most often relies on satire. Uses the "picaresque" tradition. Representatives - Charles Sorel, Paul Scarron.
Baroque- this is an ideological and cultural movement in a number of European countries that has affected various areas of spiritual life, and in art has developed into a special artistic style, which, along with classicism, is one of the leading styles of the 17th century.
The term "baroque" was introduced by the classicists in the 18th century to denote the art of rough, tasteless, "barbaric" and was originally associated only with architecture, fine arts and music. In literary criticism, this term was used at the beginning of the 20th century by the German scientist G. Wölfflin, who defined baroque as a "pictorial style". The origin of the term is unclear: it is associated with the Italian barosso, literally - bizarre, strange, with the Portuguese perola barocca - an irregularly shaped pearl and, finally, with the Latin baroso - the designation of one of the incorrect syllogisms in scholastic logic.
Although the Baroque is primarily associated with the 17th century, its chronological framework is different depending on the characteristics of the historical development of different countries. In Italy, signs of the Baroque are found already from the middle of the 16th century and exist until the end of the 17th; from the end of the 16th century until the beginning of the 19th century, baroque in Spain was perceived as a national style; in Hungary and Slavic countries, including Russia, the baroque style emerged by the middle of the 17th century and survived until the second half of the 18th century.
Researchers associate the origins of Baroque with Mannerism, sometimes without even drawing a sharp line between these two styles.
Baroque, however, is not limited to the problem of style. It is considered possible to talk about a special Baroque worldview, about the "Baroque man", about the penetration of the Baroque into the sphere of science, philosophy, everyday life. In artistic and ideological terms, the Baroque also includes a variety of trends and trends. The Counter-Reformation cultivated the Baroque, building opulent, grandiose temples and developing stylistically sophisticated rhetorical preaching and allegorical school drama. But baroque was also widespread in Protestant (Germany, England, the Netherlands) and Orthodox countries. Along with the courtly aristocratic baroque and its variations (Spanish gongorism, Italian marinism, precision literature in France, "metaphysical school" in England, the work of Russian syllabic poets S. Polotsky and S. Medvedev), there was a burgher baroque that expressed the mood of the broad masses of the people (the novels of the German G. Grimmelshausen, the Frenchman C. Sorel, Spanish picaresque novels).
Baroque reflects the crisis state of the era. The religious wars in France in 1560-1590, the Thirty Years' War in Germany and other dramatic events that stirred up the whole of Europe had nothing in common with the expectations of the Renaissance humanists, with their ideal of a free and harmoniously developed person, capable of creating a harmonious society.
The world appears before baroque artists without stability, the world is in a state of constant change, and it is impossible to catch the pattern of these changes. Baroque works are characterized by the themes of the impermanence of happiness, the precariousness of life values, the omnipotence of fate and chance. Enthusiastic admiration for man and his capabilities, characteristic of the humanists of the Renaissance, is replaced by an emphasis on the duality, inconsistency and depravity of human nature. There is a glaring discrepancy between the appearance and the essence of things, hence the feeling of "disconnection" of being, the contradiction between the bodily and the spiritual, the acute awareness of the sensual beauty of the world and at the same time the transience of human life. "Memento mori" (remember death) is the leitmotif of the Baroque worldview.
The most important theoretical works of the Baroque are "Everyday Oracle, or the Art of Caution" (1647) by the Spaniard B. Gracian and "Aristotle's Spyglass" (1655) by the Italian E. Tesauro. In their treatises, they develop the doctrine of "quick mind" - creative intuition, capable of penetrating into the essence of the most distant objects and phenomena. The basis of "quick mind" is a metaphor that connects objects and ideas with the power of creative wit, as if incompatible, and thereby achieves the effect of surprise. The "quick mind" is likened by Tesauro to the creative ability of God. Like God, artists create images and worlds: “From the non-existent they create the existing, from the immaterial they exist, and now the lion becomes a man, the eagle becomes a city. and form a chimera, the hieroglyph for madness." But God himself, the "witty speaker", creates a world of metaphors, allegories and "concetto" (witty ideas), and only an initiate can comprehend the secrets of nature by deciphering these symbols and metaphors.
Baroque writers sought to liberate the reader's imagination, to amaze and stun him. Psychologically, this manifests itself in increased emotionality, bordering on exaltation, in expressiveness and pathos. At the level of the Baroque style, it gravitates towards lush figurativeness, decorativeness and metaphor, turning into allegory, allegory, emblematics. Baroque craving for dynamics and play with contrasts creates a mobile and picturesque world, a world where comic and tragic, abstract symbolism and naturalistic concreteness, calls for asceticism and unbridled hedonism are whimsically mixed.
With all the inclination towards mysticism, the baroque has a strongly rationalistic beginning. No matter how pretentious the language of the Baroque writer, the most refined and sophisticated metaphors are built according to rigid rationalistic schemes drawn from the realm of formal logic. The craving for mysticism also does not make the Baroque style irrational. Following the neo-Stoics, whose philosophy became widespread in the 17th century, baroque writers put forward the idea of the inner independence of the individual, recognize the mind as a force that can help a person resist fatal evil and, ultimately, rise above vicious passions.
Not a Christian solution
Say there is no way for us
Fix his ruthlessness.
There is a way; and wise over fate
Capable of winning...
(P. Calderon, "Life is a dream")
Trying to capture the paradoxical nature of life, Baroque artists strive to create complex, sometimes encrypted art forms. Thus, the largest representative of the Spanish Baroque, L. Gongora, believed that art should serve a select few. Gongora chose the "dark style" as a means of creating "learned poetry" - cultism(from lat. culture- cultivate, transform). According to Gongora, some vagueness of expressions encourages the reader to think, to actively cooperate with the poet. At the same time, in order to achieve success, the reader must have serious intellectual potential. And Gongora deliberately encrypts her poetic texts, resorting to artificially complicated syntax, using many neologisms, overloading her works with complex metaphors and paraphrases. In his "Tale of Polyphemus" the cave of Polyphemus is called "a terrifying yawn of the earth", the rock that closes the entrance to it is "gagged" at the cave, the giant Polyphemus says about his height: "When I sit, my strong hand does not forgive the high sweet palm fruit" (i.e., I am so tall that I can pick them while sitting).
Baroque literature is pictorial (it is no coincidence that baroque poetry is called "talking painting"). This style allows you to identify the most spectacular, albeit not the main, properties of the object, to see the unusual in the ordinary. P. Calderon calls the bird a "feathery flower", a "fluttering bouquet", a stream - a "silver snake", in the "beast with spotted fur" the poet first of all sees "a painted pattern, as a symbol of the stars, born with a brush" (Sikhismundo's monologue from the drama " Life is a dream." Gongora in the sonnet "While the fleece of your hair flows ...", extolling the beauty of a woman, compares her hair with gold, her neck with crystal, the "lip inflorescence" with a carnation and completes the sonnet with a typical baroque antithesis:
Hurry to taste the pleasure in power,
Hidden in the skin, in the curl, in the mouth,
While your bouquet of carnations and lilies
Not only did he not wither ingloriously,
But the years have not turned you
In the ashes and the earth, in the ashes, smoke and dust.
Baroque prose is represented in European literature primarily as a picaresque novel or a picaresque novel (from Spanish. picaro- rogue), which is located on the other, democratic pole of the baroque. In the center of the picaresque is a rogue hero who exists outside the estates. He moves freely in the geographical and social space, which made it possible for the writer to present life in its various social sections.
An example of a baroque novel is "The life story of a rogue named Pablos, an example of vagabonds and a mirror of swindlers" by F. Quevedo y Villegas (1625). The son of a swindler, a barber and a pimp, Pablos has no innate inclinations to vice, but from childhood he sees only trickery and deceit around him. Pablos is trying to avoid the fate of his parents, but unconsciously, imperceptibly for himself, he enters precisely on his father's path, having previously tried different paths to salvation. He meets different people and every time he is convinced that they are not who they say they are. The scars of a boastful warrior turn out not to be signs of exploits, but the result of a bad illness and a knife fight. The holy hermit turns into a card sharper, and the exquisite cloak of a well-born Castilian nobleman covers his naked body and pantaloons, which are held on by one lace.
Quevedo the novelist creates an illusory and ghostly world where everything is false and deceitful, everything is fake. The novel is dominated by sarcastic irony and grotesque, breaking the usual ideas, bringing together incompatible objects (the world is like a terrible grotesque dream).
Quevedo style - conceptualism(lat. conceptus- thought). If the goal of cultists is to create a beautiful and perfect world of art, opposed to imperfect reality, then conceptists consciously do not go beyond this reality, their style is a consequence of the emotional perception of a chaotic-mosaic, chaotic picture of life. The characteristic techniques of conceptists are a play on words and a pun, a parodic destruction of verbal clichés, etc. Quevedo's conceptism is most clearly revealed in the third chapter of his novel, in the description of the monk of Kabra, "the personification of extreme stinginess and beggary": "His eyes were pressed almost to the back of his head, so that he looked at you as if from a barrel, they were so deeply hidden and dark that they were fit for shops in the market stalls, his nose evoked memories partly of Rome, partly of France, he was eaten up with boils - more like from a cold than from vices, for the latter require costs. His cheeks were adorned with a beard, faded from fear of a nearby mouth, which seemed to threaten to eat her from great hunger, "etc.
The influence of the poetics of the baroque novel is fundamental for the development of modern European literature: its characters, and first of all its protagonist, picaro, are depicted in the process of formation under the influence of the environment. Recognition of the role of circumstances in the formation of character is perhaps the most important discovery of the literature of the 17th century.
Baroque discoveries in the field of poetry are no less significant: baroque metaphorism, expanding semantic ties, demonstrated new possibilities of the poetic word, unknown to the artists of the Renaissance, and thus paved the way for the further development of poetry of the 17th-19th centuries.
Baroque came to Russia from Poland through Ukrainian-Belarusian mediation. There was no Renaissance in Russia, and this put Russian baroque in a different relationship to the Middle Ages than in European countries: Russian baroque did not return, like European, to medieval traditions, but picked up these traditions (ornate and decorative style, love for formal tricks, passion for contrasts and fanciful comparisons, allegorism and emblematics, the idea of "vanity of vanities" of all that exists, a penchant for encyclopedism, etc.). The Baroque in Russia also assumed many of the functions of the Renaissance, accelerating the process of the formation of a "new" literature. The Baroque instilled in Russian literature genres and types of artistic creativity previously unknown to it - poetry (syllabic poetry) and dramaturgy (school drama).
Baroque in Russia acted as a Renaissance and therefore acquired a life-affirming and enlightening character; there was no longer any place for mystical and pessimistic moods in it. Moreover, it is within the framework of the Baroque that the process of secularization of Russian literature is taking place - its liberation from the tutelage of the church.
The largest representative of Russian baroque S. Polotsky. His books: "Good-voiced harp", "Russian Eagle", "Rhymologion", "Vertograd multicolored" - are "a whole verbal-architectural structure" (I. Eremin) and resemble encyclopedic dictionaries. The poet strives for inclusiveness: he is also interested in the most general topics - "merchants", law, love for subjects, labor, abstinence, etc. - and specific ones - various animals, fish, reptiles, birds, trees, precious stones, etc. In the verses of S. Polotsky historical figures and historical phenomena are interpreted, palaces and churches are described. Modern events serve as an occasion for the poet to talk about the events of world history (for example, when S. Polotsky wanted to glorify the wooden palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich in Kolomenskoye, he did not fail to recall and tell in detail about the seven wonders of the world). According to D. Likhachev's definition, Polotsky's poetry communicates information and teaches morality: "This is 'pedagogical' poetry." Art only stylistically organizes the reported information. It turns poetry into an ornament, motley, cheerful and intricate.<...>The ornament curls over the surface, not so much expressing the essence of the object as decorating it.
Performing an educational function, as well as being associated in the person of its largest representatives (S. Polotsky, S. Medvedev, K. Istomin) with absolutism, Russian baroque was a "court" phenomenon, which is indicative of classicism. "Consequently, the Russian baroque also facilitated the transition from ancient to new literature in this respect, it had a" buffer "value" . This explains the absence of a clear boundary between Russian baroque and classicism, and even the coexistence of these two styles within the same artistic system (Lomonosov's court odes).
By the middle of the 18th century, baroque in its aristocratic-court version was transformed into a style rococo(French rococo, from rocaile- small pebbles, shells). This is the art of carefree epicureanism, where freethinking is combined with frivolity, wit and paradoxicality - with extreme refinement and brilliant artistry. Rococo is formed under the strongest influence of the aristocracy, from this art they demand, first of all, "pleasant". "To touch and please" (Abbé Dubos) becomes the main requirement for poetry and painting. And yet, one should not see in Rococo only frivolous hedonism. In his mocking skepticism, in his defiant rejection of academic traditions and all sorts of norms, the crisis of the era was reflected. The denial of pathos and heroics, which in European and, above all, in French art, had already degenerated into false formulas everywhere, contributed to the formation of a new art - chamber and intimate, addressed to the personality of a private person. Through Rococo, "art came closer to everyday life, its measure was no longer heroic exclusivity, but the usual human norm" .
In Rococo literature, which gravitates towards small genres, anacreontics, gallant lyrics, various types of "light poetry" (messages, impromptu, elegies) were developed. Among French writers, comedian P. Marivaux and lyricist E. Parny were prominent representatives of this style. In Russia, the features of Rococo are manifested in the anacreontics of M. Lomonosov and G. Derzhavin, in the poetic story "Darling" by I. Bogdanovich, they are noticeably noticeable in the poetics of K. Batyushkov, early A. Pushkin, although the principles of Rococo were not widely used in Russian poetry. .
- Such currents in the Baroque as Gongorism and Marinism are named after the founders of this style in Spain and Italy - the poets L. Gongora and J. Marino; precision literature (V. Voiture, G. de Balzac, M. de Scuderi, Menage) got its name from the French. preciousux Kantor A. M., Kozhina E. F., Livshits N. A. and others. Art of the 18th century. M., 1977. S. 84.
