...for me, imagination has always beenhigher than existence, and the strongest loveI experienced in a dream.
L.N. Andreev
Realism, as is known, appeared in Russian literature in the first half of the 19th century and throughout the century existed within the framework of its critical current. However, symbolism, which declared itself in the 1890s, is the first modernist direction in Russian literature - sharply opposed himself to realism. Following symbolism, other non-realist movements arose. This inevitably led to qualitative transformation of realism as a method of depicting reality.
The symbolists expressed the opinion that realism only glides over the surface of life and is not able to penetrate the essence of things. Their position was not infallible, but since then began in Russian art confrontation and mutual influence of modernism and realism.
It is noteworthy that modernists and realists, outwardly striving for delimitation, internally had a common aspiration for a deep, essential knowledge of the world. It is not surprising, therefore, that the writers of the turn of the century, who considered themselves realists, understood how narrow the framework of consistent realism was, and began to master syncretic forms of narration that made it possible to combine realistic objectivity with romantic, impressionistic and symbolist principles.
If the realists of the nineteenth century close attention paid the social nature of man then the realists of the twentieth century correlated this social nature with psychological, subconscious processes expressed in the clash of reason and instinct, intellect and feeling. Simply put, the realism of the early twentieth century pointed to the complexity of human nature, which is by no means reducible only to his social being. It is no coincidence that Kuprin, and Bunin, and Gorky have a plan of events, environment barely marked, but a refined analysis of the character's mental life is given. The author's gaze is always directed beyond the limits of the characters' spatial and temporal existence. Hence - the appearance of folklore, biblical, cultural motifs and images, which made it possible to expand the boundaries of the narrative, to attract the reader to co-creation.
At the beginning of the 20th century, within the framework of realism, four currents:
1) critical realism continues the traditions of the 19th century and involves an emphasis on the social nature of phenomena (at the beginning of the 20th century, these were the works of A.P. Chekhov and L.N. Tolstoy),
2) socialist realism - the term of Ivan Gronsky, denoting the image of reality in its historical and revolutionary development, the analysis of conflicts in the context of the class struggle, and the actions of heroes - in the context of benefit for humanity ("Mother" by M. Gorky, and later - most of the works of Soviet writers),
3) mythological realism formed in ancient literature, however, in the 20th century under M.R. began to understand the image and understanding of reality through the prism of well-known mythological stories(V foreign literature a prime example serves as the novel by J. Joyce "Ulysses", and in Russian literature of the early 20th century - the story "Judas Iscariot" by L.N. Andreeva)
4) naturalism involves depicting reality with the utmost plausibility and detail, often unsightly ("Pit" by A.I. Kuprin, "Sanin" by M.P. Artsybashev, "Notes of a Doctor" by V.V. Veresaev)
The listed features of Russian realism caused numerous disputes about the creative method of writers who remained faithful to realistic traditions.
Bitter starts with neo-romantic prose and goes on to create social plays and novels, becomes the ancestor socialist realism.
Creation Andreeva was always in a borderline state: the modernists considered him a "contemptible realist", and for the realists, in turn, he was a "suspicious symbolist". At the same time, it is generally accepted that his prose is realistic, and his dramaturgy gravitates towards modernism.
Zaitsev, showing interest in the microstates of the soul, created impressionistic prose.
Attempts by critics to define the artistic method Bunin led to the fact that the writer himself compared himself to a suitcase pasted over with a huge number of labels.
The complex worldview of realist writers, the multidirectional poetics of their works testified to the qualitative transformation of realism as an artistic method. Thanks to common purpose- the search for the highest truth - at the beginning of the 20th century there was a convergence of literature and philosophy, which was outlined in the works of Dostoevsky and L. Tolstoy.
spiritual climate Western Europe after 1830 changed significantly compared to romantic era. The subjective idealism of the Romantics was replaced by a belief in the omnipotence of reason and science, a belief in progress. Two ideas determine the thinking of Europeans during this period - this is positivism (a direction in philosophy based on the collection of objective facts for the purpose of their scientific analysis) and organicism (Darwin's evolutionary theory, extended to other areas of life). XIX century - a century of rapid growth in science and technology, the rise social sciences, and this striving for scientificity penetrates into literature as well. Realist artists saw their task in describing in literature all the richness of the phenomena of the surrounding world, all the diversity human types, that is, the science of the 19th century and realistic literature are imbued with the same spirit of collecting facts, systematizing and developing a consistent concept of reality. And the explanation of reality was given on the basis of the principles of evolution: in the life of society and the individual, the action of the same forces as in nature, similar mechanisms of natural selection, was seen.
By the thirties of the 19th century, the new system public relations. It was a bourgeois system, in which each person was quite rigidly assigned to a certain social class environment, that is, the time of romantic "freedom", "restlessness" of a person has passed. In a classical bourgeois society, the belonging of a person to a certain class appeared as an immutable law of being, and, accordingly, became the principle of the artistic development of life. Therefore, realists use the discoveries of the romantics in the field of psychology, but inscribe a newly understood person in a historically reliable, contemporary life. For realists, a person is primarily conditioned by the socio-historical environment, and realism is based on the principle of social class determinism.
Realists have also changed their perception of human character. Among the Romantics, the exceptional character was a subjective property individual; the hero of a realistic work is always a unique product of interaction historical process and specific (biological, individual, random) circumstances, therefore, realists understand the life experience of each person as unique and valuable by this very uniqueness, and, on the other hand, the life experience of each person is of general, universal interest, because it contains repeatable, general features. Here lies the basis of the realistic doctrine of type, the basis of realistic typification.
The realists directly inherited from the romantics the inherent value they discovered human personality, but fixed this personality for a certain place, time, environment. Realist art is democratic - realists first brought to the stage " little man", which was not previously considered an interesting object for literature, restored it to its rights. Realistic literature is imbued with a generally optimistic spirit: criticizing contemporary society, realist writers were confident in the effectiveness of their criticism, that this society is amenable to improvement, reform, believed in the inevitability of progress.
The realism of the 19th century sought to cover life as widely as possible, to show all the details of the social structure, all types of human relations, which, of course, required works of large volumes. This is partly why the leading genre in the literature of realism is the novel - the genre of a major epic narrative, in which there is a place for all this gigantic material of life. Especially on early stage realism novels were distinguished by a larger volume than is customary today. In addition, the novel was in the 19th century the newest of the available genres, that is, a genre without the burden of canonical tradition.
The novel is a genre open to everything new; the novelist explores life freely and without prejudice, not knowing in advance where his artistic quest will lead him. This novel is akin to the spirit of scientific research, this side of the novel was emphasized by realists 19th century, and under their pen the genre turned into a tool for research and knowledge of reality, external and internal conflicts human life. The realistic novel reflects reality in the forms of life itself, and from the era of realism, the concept of "fiction" begins to be associated not with poetry and dramaturgy, but primarily with prose. The novel becomes the dominant genre of world literature.
G.K. Kosikov writes: "The main feature of the novelistic situation is the change in the internal and external position of the hero in the course of various collisions with the world around him." In a realistic novel, as a rule, the "positive" hero is opposed as the bearer of the ideal. existing forms social hostel, but, unlike romantic literature, in a realistic novel, the discord between the hero and the world does not turn into a complete break. The hero may reject his immediate environment, but he never rejects the world as a whole, he always retains the hope of realizing his subjective world in some other spheres of being. Therefore, the realistic novel is based both on the contradiction between the hero and the world and on the deep inner commonality between them. Hero search realistic novel in the early stages of its existence was limited to the sphere of social circumstances offered by history. Social mobility increased dramatically in the 19th century individual person; example of Napoleon's fantastic career became a model of change social status for new generations. This new phenomenon of reality was reflected in the creation of such a genre variety of a realistic novel as a "career novel". Consider it on the example of the works of the creators of the realistic novel Stendhal and Balzac.
Realism
Realism (- real, real) - artistic direction in art and literature, which was established in the first third of the 19th century. I. A. Krylov, A. S. Griboyedov, A. S. Pushkin stood at the origins of realism in Russia (realism appeared somewhat later in Western literature, its first representatives were Stendhal and O. de Balzac).
features of realism. The principle of life's truth, which is guided by the realist artist in his work, trying to give the most complete reflection of life in its typical properties. The fidelity of the image of reality, reproduced in the forms of life itself, is the main criterion of artistry.
Social analysis, historicism of thinking. It is realism that explains the phenomena of life, establishes their causes and consequences on a socio-historical basis. In other words, realism is inconceivable without historicism, which involves the understanding of a given phenomenon in its conditionality, in its development and connection with other phenomena. Historicism is the basis of the worldview and artistic method of the realist writer, a kind of key to the knowledge of reality, allowing you to connect the past, present and future. In the past, the artist is looking for answers to topical issues of the present, and modernity comprehends as a result of previous historical development.
Critical portrayal of life. Writers deeply and truthfully show the negative phenomena of reality, focus on exposing the existing order. But at the same time, realism is not without life-affirming pathos, because it is based on positive ideals - patriotism, sympathy for the masses, the search for a positive hero in life, faith in the inexhaustible possibilities of man, the dream of a bright future for Russia (for example, " Dead Souls"). That's why in modern literary criticism instead of the concept of "critical realism", which was first introduced by N. G. Chernyshevsky, they most often speak of "classical realism". Typical characters in typical circumstances, that is, the characters were portrayed in close connection with that public environment, which brought them up, formed them in certain socio-historical conditions.
The relationship between the individual and society is the leading problem posed by realistic literature. For realism, the drama of these relationships is important. Usually in the spotlight realistic works there are outstanding personalities, dissatisfied with life, “breaking out” from their environment, people who are able to rise above society and challenge it. Their behavior and actions become the subject of close attention and research for realist writers.
The versatility of the characters' characters: their actions, deeds, speech, lifestyle and inner world, the "dialectic of the soul", which is revealed in the psychological details of her emotional experiences. Thus, realism expands the possibilities of writers in the creative development of the world, in the creation of a contradictory and complex personality structure as a result of the subtlest penetration into the depths of the human psyche.
Expressiveness, brightness, figurativeness, accuracy of Russian literary language enriched with living elements, colloquial speech which realist writers draw from the common Russian language.
A variety of genres (epic, lyrical, dramatic, lyrical epic, satirical), in which all the richness of content finds expression realistic literature.
The reflection of reality does not exclude fiction and fantasy (Gogol, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Sukhovo-Kobylin), although these artistic means do not determine the main tone of the work.
Typology of Russian realism. The question of the typology of realism is connected with the disclosure of well-known patterns that determine the dominant of certain types of realism and their change.
In many literary studies there are attempts to establish typical varieties (trends) of realism: Renaissance, enlightenment (or didactic), romantic, sociological, critical, naturalistic, revolutionary-democratic, socialist, typical, empirical, syncretic, philosophical and psychological, intellectual, spiral, universal, monumental... Since all these terms are rather conditional (terminological confusion) and there are no clear boundaries between them, we propose to use the concept of "stages of development of realism". Let us trace these stages, each of which takes shape in the conditions of its time and is artistically justified in its uniqueness. The complexity of the problem of the typology of realism lies in the fact that typologically unique varieties of realism not only replace each other, but also coexist and develop simultaneously. Therefore, the concept of "stage" does not mean that in the same chronological framework there can be no other kind of current, earlier or later. That is why it is necessary to correlate the work of this or that realist writer with the work of other realist artists, while revealing the individual originality of each of them, revealing the closeness between groups of writers.
First third of XIX century. Krylov's realistic fables reflect the real relations of people in society, live scenes are drawn, the content of which is diverse - they could be everyday, social, philosophical and historical.
Griboedov created " high comedy”(“ Woe from Wit ”), that is, a comedy close to drama, reflecting in it the ideas that an educated society lived in the first quarter of a century. Chatsky, in the fight against the serf-owners and conservatives, defends national interests from the standpoint of common sense And folk morality. The play presents typical characters and circumstances.
In Pushkin's work, problems and the methodology of realism have already been outlined. In the novel “Eugene Onegin”, the poet recreated the “Russian spirit”, gave a new, objective principle for depicting the hero, was the first to show “ extra person", and in the story" Stationmaster- "little man". In the people, Pushkin saw the moral potential that determines national character. In the novel " Captain's daughter"The historicism of the writer's thinking manifested itself - both in the correct reflection of reality, and in the accuracy of social analysis, and in understanding historical pattern phenomena, and in the ability to convey the typical features of a person's character, to show him as a product of a certain social environment.
30s XIX years century. In this timeless era, public inactivity only the bold voices of A. S. Pushkin, V. G. Belinsky and M. Yu. Lermontov were heard. The critic saw in Lermontov worthy successor Pushkin. Man in his work bears the dramatic features of the time. in destiny
Pechorin, the writer reflected the fate of his generation, his “age” (“A Hero of Our Time”). But if Pushkin devotes the main attention to the description of the actions, actions of the character, gives "outlines of character", then Lermontov focuses on inner world hero, on an in-depth psychological analysis of his actions and experiences, on the “history of the human soul”.
40s of the XIX century. During this period, the realists received the name " natural school(N. V. Gogol, A. I. Herzen, D. V. Grigorovich, N. A. Nekrasov). The works of these writers are characterized by accusatory pathos, rejection social reality, increased attention to everyday life, everyday life. Gogol did not find the embodiment of his lofty ideals in the world around him, and therefore he was convinced that in the conditions of contemporary Russia, the ideal and beauty of life can be expressed only through the denial of ugly reality. The satirist explores the material, material and everyday basis of life, its "invisible" features and the spiritually wretched characters that arise from it, firmly confident in their dignity and right.
Second half of the 19th century. Creativity of writers of this time (I. A. Goncharov, A. N. Ostrovsky, I. S. Turgenev, N. S. Leskov, M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, L. N. Tolstoy, F. M. Dostoevsky, V G. Korolenko, A. P. Chekhov) distinguishes qualitatively new stage in the development of realism: they not only critically comprehend reality, but also actively look for ways to transform it, reveal close attention to the spiritual life of a person, penetrate into the “dialectics of the soul”, create a world inhabited by complex, contradictory characters, full of dramatic conflicts. The works of writers are characterized by subtle psychologism and great philosophical generalizations.
Turn of XIX-XX centuries. The features of the era were most clearly expressed in the works of A. I. Kuprin, I. A. Bunin. They sensitively captured the general spiritual and social atmosphere in the country, deeply and faithfully reflected the unique pictures of the life of the most different layers population, created an integral and truthful picture of Russia. They are characterized by such themes and problems as the continuity of generations, the legacy of centuries, the root ties of man with the past, the Russian character and features of national history, the harmonious world of nature and the world of social relations (devoid of poetry and harmony, personifying cruelty and violence), love and death , the fragility and fragility of human happiness, the mysteries of the Russian soul, loneliness and tragic predestination human existence, ways of liberation from spiritual oppression. The original and original work of writers organically continues the best traditions of Russian realistic literature, and above all a deep insight into the essence of the depicted life, disclosure of the relationship between the environment and the individual, attention to the social background, expression of the ideas of humanism.
pre-October decade. A new vision of the world in connection with the processes taking place in Russia in all areas of life determined the new face of realism, which differed significantly from classical realism in its "modernity". New figures came to the fore - representatives of a special trend within the realist trend - neorealism ("renewed" realism): I. S. Shmelev, L. N. Andreev, M. M. Prishvin, E. I. Zamyatin, S. N. Sergeev-Tsensky , A. N. Tolstoy, A. M. Remizov, B. K. Zaitsev and others. They are characterized by a departure from the sociological understanding of reality; mastering the sphere of the "earthly", deepening the concrete-sensual perception of the world, artistic study subtle movements of the soul, nature and man, coming into contact, which eliminates alienation and brings closer to the original, unchanging nature of being; a return to the hidden values of the folk-village element, capable of renewing life in the spirit of "eternal" ideals (pagan, mystical coloring of the depicted); comparison of the bourgeois urban and rural way of life; the idea of the incompatibility of the natural force of life, existential good with social evil; connection of the historical and metaphysical (next to the features of everyday or concrete historical reality there is a “superreal” background, mythological overtones); the motif of cleansing love as a kind of symbolic sign of the all-human natural unconscious principle, bringing enlightened peace.
Soviet period. Distinctive features of the socialist realism that arose at that time were party spirit, nationality, the depiction of reality in its "revolutionary development", the propaganda of the heroism and romance of socialist construction. In the works of M. Gorky, M. A. Sholokhov, A. A. Fadeev, L. M. Leonov, V. V. Mayakovsky, K. A. Fedin, N. A. Ostrovsky, A. N. Tolstoy, A. T. Tvardovsky and others affirmed a different reality, a different person, different ideals, a different aesthetics, principles underlying moral code fighter for communism. A new method was promoted in art, which was politicized: it had a pronounced social orientation, expressed state ideology. In the center of the works was usually positive hero, inextricably linked with the team, which constantly affected the individual beneficial effect. The main sphere of application of the forces of such a hero is creative work. It is no coincidence that the production novel has become one of the most common genres.
20-30s of the XX century. Many writers, forced to live under a dictatorial regime, under conditions of severe censorship, managed to preserve their inner freedom, showed the ability to remain silent, be careful in their assessments, switch to allegorical language - they were devoted to the truth, genuine art realism. The genre of anti-utopia was born, in which severe criticism of a totalitarian society based on the suppression of the individual and individual freedom was given. The fates of A. P. Platonov, M. A. Bulgakov, E. I. Zamyatin, A. A. Akhmatova, M. M. Zoshchenko, O. E. Mandelstam were tragically destined for a long time to be deprived of the opportunity to publish in the Soviet Union.
The period of the "thaw" (mid-50s - first half of the 60s). In it historical time loudly and confidently declared themselves young poets of the sixties (E. A. Yevtushenko, A. A. Voznesensky, B. A. Akhmadulina, R. I. Rozhdestvensky, B. Sh. Okudzhava, etc.), who became the “rulers of thoughts” of his generation, together with representatives of the "third wave" of emigration (V. P. Aksenov, A. V. Kuznetsov, A. T. Gladilin, G. N. Vladimov,
A.I. Solzhenitsyn, N.M. Korzhavin, S.D. Dovlatov, V.E. Maksimov, V.N. Voinovich, V.P. the human soul in the conditions of the command-administrative system and internal opposition to it, confession, moral quest heroes, their release, emancipation, romanticism and self-irony, innovation in the field artistic language and style, genre diversity.
Last decades of the XX century. The new generation of writers, who already lived in somewhat relaxed political conditions within the country, came up with lyrical, urban and rural poetry and prose that did not fit into the rigid framework of socialist realism (N. M. Rubtsov, A. V. Zhigulin,
V. N. Sokolov, Yu. V. Trifonov, Ch. T. Aitmatov, V. I. Belov, F. A. Abramov, V. G. Rasputin, V. P. Astafiev, S. P. Zalygin, V. M. Shukshin, F. A. Iskander). The leading themes of their work are the revival of traditional morality and the relationship between man and nature, which manifested the closeness of the writers to the traditions of Russian classical realism. The works of this time are imbued with a sense of attachment to the native land, and hence responsibility for what is happening on it, a sense of irreparable spiritual losses due to the rupture of age-old ties between nature and man. Artists comprehend a turning point in the sphere of moral values, shifts in society in which she is forced to survive human soul, reflect on the catastrophic consequences for those who lose historical memory, the experience of generations.
The latest Russian literature. IN literary process recent years Literary critics fix two currents: postmodernism (blurring of the boundaries of realism, consciousness of the illusory nature of what is happening, a mixture of different artistic methods, stylistic diversity, increased influence of avant-garde - A. G. Bitov, Sasha Sokolov, V. O. Pelevin, T. N. Tolstaya, T. Yu. Kibirov, D. A. Prigov) and post-realism (traditional attention to the fate of a private person, tragically lonely, in the vanity of everyday life that humiliates him, losing moral guidelines trying to self-determine - V. S. Makanin, L. S. Petrushevskaya).
So, realism as a literary and artistic system has a powerful potential for continuous renewal, which manifests itself in one or another transitional era for Russian literature. In the work of writers who continue the traditions of realism, there is a search for new themes, heroes, plots, genres, poetic means, new manner conversation with the reader.
critical realism artistic herzen
Guy de Maupassant (1850-1993): he passionately, painfully hated the bourgeois world and everything connected with it. He painfully searched for antitheses to this world - and found it in the democratic strata of society, in the French people.
Works: short stories - "Dumbnut", "Old Sauvage", "Crazy", "Prisoners", "Chair Weaver", "Papa Simone".
Romain Rolland (1866-1944): the meaning of being and creativity initially consisted in faith in the beautiful, kind, bright, which never left the world - it is simply necessary to be able to see, feel and convey to people.
Works: the novel "Jean Christoff", the story "Pierre and Luce".
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880): His work indirectly reflected the contradictions french revolution mid nineteenth century. The desire for truth and hatred for the bourgeoisie were combined in him with social pessimism and distrust in the people.
Works: novels - "Madam Bovary", "Salambo", "Education of the Senses", "Bouvard and Pécuchet" (not finished), novels - "The Legend of Julian the Hospitable", "A Simple Soul", "Herodias", also created several plays and extravaganza.
Stendhal (1783-1842): The work of this writer opens the period of classical realism. It was Stendhal who took the lead in substantiating the main principles and program for the formation of realism, theoretically declared in the first half of the 19th century, when romanticism still dominated, and soon brilliantly embodied in the artistic masterpieces of the outstanding novelist of that time.
Works: novels - "Parma Convent", "Armans", "Lucien Leven", stories - "Vittoria Accoramboni", "Duchess di Palliano", "Cenci", "Abbess of Castro".
Charles Dickens (1812-1870): Dickens's works are full of deep drama, social contradictions are sometimes tragic character, which they did not have in the interpretation writers of the XVIII V. Dickens also deals with the life and struggle of the working class in his work.
Works: "Nicholas Nickleby", "The Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewitt", " Hard times”, “Christmas stories”, “Dombey and son”, “Antiquities shop”.
William Thackeray (1811-1863): Arguing with the Romantics, he demands strict truthfulness from the artist. "Let the truth not always be pleasant, but there is nothing better than the truth." The author is not inclined to depict a person as either a notorious scoundrel or an ideal being. unlike Dickens, he avoided happy endings. Thackeray's satire is riddled with skepticism: the writer does not believe in the possibility of changing life. He enriched the English realistic novel by introducing the author's commentary.
Works: The Book of Snobs, Vanity Fair, Pendennis, The Career of Barry Lyndon, The Ring and the Rose.
Pushkin A.S. (1799-1837): founder of Russian realism. Pushkin is dominated by the idea of the Law, the patterns that determine the state of civilization, social structures, the place and importance of a person, his independence and connection with the whole, the possibility of authorial sentences.
Works: "Boris Godunov", "The Captain's Daughter", "Dubrovsky", "Eugene Onegin", "Tales of Belkin".
Gogol N.V. (1809-1852): a world far from any ideas about the law, vulgar everyday life, in which all concepts of honor and morality, conscience are mutilated - in a word, Russian reality, worthy of grotesque ridicule: "to blame everything on the mirror, if the face is crooked" .
Works: "Dead Souls", "Notes of a Madman", "Overcoat".
Lermontov M.Yu. (1814-1841): sharp enmity with the divine world order, with the laws of society, lies and hypocrisy, all kinds of upholding the rights of the individual. The poet strives for a specific image of the social environment, life individual person: combining the features of early realism and mature romanticism into an organic unity.
Works: "Hero of Our Time", "Demon", "Fatalist".
Turgenev I.S. (1818-1883): Turgenev is interested in moral world people from the people. The main feature of the cycle of stories was truthfulness, which contained the idea of the liberation of the peasantry, presented the peasants as spiritually active people capable of independent activity. Despite his reverent attitude towards the Russian people, Turgenev the realist did not idealize the peasantry, seeing, like Leskov and Gogol, their shortcomings.
Works: "Fathers and Sons", "Rudin", " Noble Nest"," The day before.
Dostoevsky F.M. (1821-1881): Regarding Dostoevsky's realism, they said that he had " fantastic realism". D. believes that in exceptional, unusual situations, the most typical appears. The writer noticed that all his stories were not invented, but taken from somewhere. main feature: creating a philosophical framework with the detective - there is a murder everywhere.
Works: "Crime and Punishment", "Idiot", "Demons", "Teenager", "The Brothers Karamazov".
Realism in literature is a direction, the main feature of which is truthful image reality and its typical features without any distortion or exaggeration. This originated in the 19th century, and its adherents sharply opposed the sophisticated forms of poetry and the use of various mystical concepts in the works.
signs directions
Realism in the literature of the 19th century can be distinguished by clear signs. The main one is artistic image reality in images familiar to the layman, which he regularly encounters in real life. Reality in the works is considered as a means of human cognition of the surrounding world and oneself, and the image of each literary character is worked out in such a way that the reader can recognize himself, a relative, a colleague or an acquaintance in it.
In the novels and stories of realists, art remains life-affirming, even if the plot is characterized by tragic conflict. Another sign this genre is the desire of writers to consider surrounding reality in its development, and each writer tries to discover the emergence of new psychological, social and social relations.
Features of this literary movement
Realism in literature, which replaced romanticism, has the characteristics of art that seeks and finds truth, seeking to transform reality.
In the works of realist writers, discoveries were made after much thought and dreams, after an analysis of subjective attitudes. This feature, which can be identified by the author's perception of time, determined the distinguishing features of the realistic literature of the early twentieth century from the traditional Russian classics.
Realism inXIX century
Such representatives of realism in literature as Balzac and Stendhal, Thackeray and Dickens, Jord Sand and Victor Hugo, in their works most clearly reveal the themes of good and evil, and avoid abstract concepts and show real life his contemporaries. These writers make it clear to readers that evil lies in the way of life of bourgeois society, capitalist reality, people's dependence on various material assets. For example, in Dickens' novel Dombey and Son, the owner of the company was callous and callous, not by nature. It’s just that such character traits appeared in him due to the presence big money and the ambition of the owner, for whom profit becomes the main life achievement.
Realism in literature is devoid of humor and sarcasm, and the images of the characters are no longer the ideal of the writer himself and do not embody it. cherished dreams. From the works of the 19th century, the hero practically disappears, in the image of which the author's ideas are visible. This situation is especially clearly seen in the works of Gogol and Chekhov.
However, the most obvious literary direction manifests itself in the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, describing the world as they see it. This was also expressed in the image of characters with their own strengths and weaknesses, a description of mental anguish, a reminder to readers of the harsh reality that cannot be changed by one person.
As a rule, realism in literature also affected the fate of representatives of the Russian nobility, as can be seen from the works of I. A. Goncharov. So, the characters of the characters in his works remain contradictory. Oblomov is a sincere and gentle person, but because of his passivity, he is not capable of better. Another character in Russian literature possesses similar qualities - the weak-willed but gifted Boris Raysky. Goncharov managed to create the image of an "antihero" typical of the 19th century, which was noticed by critics. As a result, the concept of "Oblomovism" appeared, referring to all passive characters, the main features of which were laziness and lack of will.
