Rejection of traditional Christian notions of purpose human life, about the structure of society Creation of a completely new, non-religious picture of the world The idea of history as a progressive movement towards the public good, that is, towards PROGRESS
Particular popularity of the Encyclopedia in Russia years - 29 collections (St. Petersburg, Moscow) In France, the Encyclopedia was read and discussed by provincial nobles, wealthy bourgeois, notaries, and teachers. It is these sections of society that will play the most prominent role in preparing French Revolution.
2. AND HISTORICAL EPOCH French Revolution years "Declaration of the rights of man and citizen" Jacobins - political club Convention - body of revolutionary self-government Robespierre
Russia Catherine II Great Pavel I Alexander I Russia enters into a military confrontation with Napoleonic France years Tilsit peace treaty 1812
Secret anti-government societies Their goal is to adopt a constitution and limit autocracy "Union of Salvation" () "Union of Welfare" () Northern and Southern Societies December 14, 1825, Senate Square in St. Petersburg - armed uprising
The reign of Nicholas I The uprising for the independence of Poland, years, Warsaw Peasant riots Censorship Strengthening the power of the state bureaucracy Serfdom Crimean War ()
The proletariat enters the historical stage "Capital" Karl Marx "Union of Communists" (1847) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels "Manifesto of the Communist Party" (1848). Revolutionary destruction of the old world order, creation of a new civilization, a utopian kingdom of proletarian happiness Terrorism "People's Will". Alexander II () Peasant reform of 1861 System local government(zemstvo) Reform of the court, army March 1, 1881 Alexander III ()
International (late 1860s) American Civil War ()
3. CULTURE AND ECONOMY The development of capitalism The fate of man does not depend on his origin, but above all on his own will, energy, and individual qualities. Dependence on money. Wealth becomes an instrument of power. Money is starting to rule the world. Literary studies became an independent profession. Writers have become dependent on reader demand for their books.
TECHNICAL DISCOVERIES 1783 - flight to hot-air balloon brothers Montgolfier Early 19th century - the first paddle steamer was built 1825 - the first Railway 1831 - Michael Faraday discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction - the first trip around the world under the leadership of I.F. Kruzenshtern - Russian explorers and sailors for the first time went to the shores of Antarctica
1863 - the world's first underground line was launched (London) 1876 - American Alexander Bell received a patent for a telephone set 1897 - Alexander Popov begins work on creating a wireless telegraph American Thomas Edison improved the telegraph and telephone, invented the phonograph (1879) German engineer Rudolf Diesel created an engine internal combustion German designer Count Zeppelin - airship The Eiffel Tower in Paris is a symbol of the technological achievements of mankind. 123 meters - height, weight - 9 thousand tons a year
N AUKA - N.I. Lobachevsky turned over ideas about the nature of space 1869 - the periodic law of chemical elements. D.I. Mendeleev Frenchman Louis Pasteur developed vaccines against anthrax (1881) and rabies (1885)
4. AND ART AND LITERATURE Ludwig van Beethoven () Fryderyk Chopin () Giuseppe Verdi () G. Berlioz ()
F.G OYA ()
K ARL B RYULLOV ()
ALEXANDER IVANOV ()
P AVEL FEDOTOV ()
P.I. Tchaikovsky () M.P. Mussorgsky ()
X Wanderers I. Kramskoy () I. Repin () A. Surikov () V. Vasnetsov () I. Levitan ()
Plan
Introduction
The problem of the "new man" in Griboedov's comedy "Woe from Wit"
Subject strong man in the work of N.A. Nekrasov
The problem of "a lonely and superfluous person" in a secular society in poetry and prose by M.Yu. Lermontov
The problem of the "poor man" in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"
Subject folk character in the tragedy of A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm"
The theme of the people in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
The theme of society in the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin "Lord Golovlev"
Problem " little man» in stories and plays by A.P. Chekhov
Conclusion
List of used literature
Introduction
man society Russian literature
Russian literature of the 19th century brought to the whole world the works of such brilliant writers and poets as A.S. Griboedov, A.S. Pushkin, M.Yu. Lermontov, N.V. Gogol, I.A. Goncharov, A.N. Ostrovsky, I.S. Turgenev, N.A. Nekrasov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov and others.
In many works of these and other Russian authors of the 19th century, the themes of man, personality, people developed; personality was opposed to society (“Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboedov), the problem of “an extra (lonely) person” was demonstrated (“Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin, “A Hero of Our Time” by M.Yu. Lermontov), “ poor man” (“Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky), problems of the people (“War and Peace” by L.N. Tolstoy) and others. In most of the works, as part of the development of the theme of man and society, the authors demonstrated the tragedy of the individual.
The purpose of this essay is to consider the works of Russian authors of the 19th century, to study their understanding of the problem of man and society, the peculiarities of their perception of these problems. The study used critical literature, as well as the works of writers and poets of the Silver Age.
The problem of the "new man" in Griboedov's comedy "Woe from Wit"
Consider, for example, a comedy by A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit", which played an outstanding role in the socio-political and moral education several generations of Russian people. It armed them to fight against violence and arbitrariness, meanness and ignorance in the name of freedom and reason, in the name of the triumph of advanced ideas and genuine culture. In the image of the protagonist of the comedy Chatsky, Griboyedov for the first time in Russian literature showed a “new man”, inspired by lofty ideas, revolting against a reactionary society in defense of freedom, humanity, mind and culture, educating in himself new morality, producing A New Look on the world and on human relations.
The image of Chatsky - new, smart, developed person- is opposed to the "famus society". In "Woe from Wit" all Famusov's guests simply copy the customs, habits and outfits of French milliners and rootless visiting rogues who got rich on Russian bread. All of them speak "a mixture of French and Nizhny Novgorod" and go dumb with delight at the sight of any visiting "Frenchman from Bordeaux." Through the mouth of Chatsky, Griboyedov, with the greatest passion, exposed this unworthy servility to a stranger and contempt for his own:
So that the Lord destroyed this unclean spirit
Empty, slavish, blind imitation;
So that he would plant a spark in someone with a soul.
Who could by word and example
Hold us like a strong rein,
From pathetic nausea, on the side of a stranger.
Chatsky loves his people very much, but not " famous society"landowners and officials, but the Russian people, hardworking, wise, powerful. A distinctive feature of Chatsky as a strong man in contrast to the prim Famus society lies in the fullness of feelings. In everything he shows true passion, he is always ardent in soul. He is hot, witty, eloquent, full of life, impatient. At the same time, Chatsky is the only open positive hero in Griboedov's comedy. But it is impossible to call it exceptional and lonely. He is young, romantic, passionate, he has like-minded people: for example, professors Pedagogical Institute, who, according to Princess Tugoukhovskaya, “practice in splits and unbelief”, these are “crazy people”, prone to learning, this is the nephew of the princess, Prince Fedor, “a chemist and botanist”. Chatsky defends the rights of a person to freely choose his occupation: to travel, live in the countryside, "fix his mind" in science or devote himself to "creative, high and beautiful arts."
Chatsky defends " folk society"and ridicules the" Famus society ", his life and behavior in his monologue:
Are not these rich in robbery?
They found protection from court in friends, in kinship.
Magnificent building chambers,
Where they overflow in feasts and prodigality.
It can be concluded that Chatsky in comedy represents the young thinking generation of Russian society, its best part. A. I. Herzen wrote about Chatsky: “The image of Chatsky, sad, restless in his irony, trembling with indignation, devoted to the dreamy ideal, appears at the last moment of the reign of Alexander I, on the eve of the uprising on St. Isaac's Square. This is a Decembrist, this is a man who completes the era of Peter the Great and tries to see, at least on the horizon, promised land...».
The theme of a strong man in the work of N.A. Nekrasov
The strong man theme is found in lyrical works ON THE. Nekrasov, whose work many call the whole era of Russian literature and public life. The source of Nekrasov's poetry was life itself. Nekrasov positions the problem of the moral choice of a person, a lyrical hero in his poems: the struggle between good and evil, the interweaving of the high, the heroic with the empty, indifferent, ordinary. In 1856, Nekrasov's poem "The Poet and the Citizen" was published in the Sovremennik magazine, in which the author affirmed the social significance of poetry, its role and active participation in life:
Go into the fire for the honor of the Fatherland,
For faith, for love...
Go and die flawlessly
You will not die in vain: the matter is solid,
When blood flows under him.
Nekrasov in this poem simultaneously shows strength lofty ideas, thoughts and duty of a citizen, a person, a fighter, and at the same time implicitly condemns a person’s retreat from duty, serving the motherland and people. In the poem "Elegy" Nekrasov conveys the most sincere, personal sympathy for the people in their difficult lot. Nekrasov, knowing the life of the peasantry, saw real strength in the people, believed in their ability to renew Russia:
Will endure everything - and wide, clear
He will pave the way for himself with his chest ...
An eternal example of serving the Fatherland were such people as N.A. Dobrolyubov ("In Memory of Dobrolyubov"), T.G. Shevchenko (“On the death of Shevchenko”), V.G. Belinsky ("In memory of Belinsky").
Nekrasov himself was born in a simple serf-owning village, where "something was crushing", "my heart ached". He painfully recalls his mother with her "proud, stubborn and beautiful soul", who was forever given to "a gloomy ignoramus ... and a slave carried her lot in silence." The poet praises her pride and strength:
With a head open to the storms of life
All my life under an angry thunderstorm
You stood, - with your chest
Protecting beloved children.
The central place in the lyrics of N.A. Nekrasov is occupied by a “living”, acting, strong person who is alien to passivity and contemplation.
The problem of "a lonely and superfluous person" in a secular society in poetry and prose by M.Yu. Lermontov
The theme of a lonely person who is struggling with society is well disclosed in the work of M.Yu. Lermontov (Valerik):
I thought: “Poor man.
What does he want!”, the sky is clear,
Under the sky there is a lot of space for everyone,
But incessantly and in vain
One is at enmity- For what?"
In his lyrics, Lermontov seeks to tell people about his pain, but all his knowledge and thoughts do not satisfy him. The older he gets, the more difficult the world seems to him. He connects everything that happens to him with the fate of a whole generation. The lyrical hero of the famous "Duma" is hopelessly lonely, but he is also worried about the fate of the generation. The more keenly he peers into life, the clearer it becomes for him that he himself cannot be indifferent to human troubles. Evil must be fought, not run from it. Inaction reconciles with the existing injustice, at the same time causing loneliness and the desire to live in the closed world of one's own "I". And, worst of all, it breeds indifference to the world and people. Only in struggle does a person find himself. In the "Duma" the poet clearly says that it was inaction that ruined his contemporaries.
In the poem “I look at the future with fear ...” M.Yu. Lermontov openly condemns a society alien to feelings, an indifferent generation:
Sadly, I look at our generation!
His coming- either empty or dark...
Shamefully indifferent to good and evil,
At the beginning of the race, we wither without a fight ...
The theme of a lonely person in Lermontov's work is by no means due only to personal drama and hard fate, but it largely reflects the state of Russian social thought during the reaction period. That is why in the lyrics of Lermontov, a lonely rebel, a Protestant, at enmity with "heaven and earth", fighting for the freedom of the human person, foreseeing his own untimely death, occupied a significant place.
The poet opposes himself, the "living", the society in which he lives, - the "dead" generation. The “life” of the author is conditioned by the fullness of feelings, even simply by the ability to feel, see, understand and fight, and the “death” of society is determined by indifference and narrow-minded thinking. In the poem "I go out alone on the road ..." the poet is full of sad hopelessness, in this poem he reflects how far the disease of society has gone. The idea of life as “a smooth path without a goal” gives rise to a feeling of the futility of desires - “what good is it to wish in vain and forever? ..” The line: “We hate and we love by chance” logically leads to a bitter conclusion: worth the work, but it is impossible to love forever.
Further, in the poem “And Boring and Sad...” and in the novel “A Hero of Our Time”, the poet, speaking about friendship, about higher spiritual aspirations, about the meaning of life, about passions, seeks to explore the reasons for dissatisfaction with his appointment. For example, Grushnitsky belongs to a secular society, a characteristic feature of which is lack of spirituality. Pechorin, accepting the conditions of the game, is, as it were, “above society”, knowing full well that “images of soulless people flicker there, masks pulled together by decency”. Pechorin is not only a reproach to all the best people of the generation, but also a call to civil deeds.
A strong, independent, lonely and even free personality is symbolized by M.Yu. Lermontov "Sail":
Alas!- he is not looking for happiness
And not from happiness runs!
The theme of a lonely person, permeated with sadness, unsurpassed in the beauty of performance, is clearly seen in Lermontov's lyrics, due to his feelings and the society around him.
IN famous novel M.Yu. Lermontov "A Hero of Our Time" solves the problem of why smart and agile people do not find application for their remarkable abilities and "wither without a fight" at the very beginning of their life path? Lermontov answers this question with the life story of Pechorin, a young man belonging to the generation of the 30s of the 19th century. In the image of Pechorin, the author presented an artistic type that absorbed a whole generation of young people at the beginning of the century. In the preface to Pechorin’s Journal, Lermontov writes: “The history of the human soul, even the smallest soul, is almost more curious and not more useful than history the whole people..."
In this novel, Lermontov reveals the theme of "an extra person", because Pechorin is an "extra person". His behavior is incomprehensible to others, because it does not correspond to their ordinary point of view on life, common in a noble society. With all the differences in appearance and character traits, Eugene Onegin from the novel by A.S. Pushkin, and the hero of the comedy A.S. Griboyedov "Woe from Wit" Chatsky, and Pechorin M.Yu. Lermontov belong to the type " extra people”, that is, such people for whom there was neither place nor business in the society surrounding them.
Is there a clear similarity between Pechorin and Onegin? Yes. Both of them are representatives of high secular society. Much in common can be noted in the history and youth of these heroes: first, the pursuit of secular pleasures, then disappointment in them, an attempt to do science, reading books and cooling down to them, the same boredom that owns them. Like Onegin, Pechorin is intellectually superior to the surrounding nobility. Both heroes are typical representatives of thinking people of their time, critical of life and people.
Then the similarities end and the differences begin. Pechorin differs from Onegin in his spiritual way, he lives in different socio-political conditions. Onegin lived in the 1920s, before the Decembrist uprising, at the time of social and political revival. Pechorin is a man of the 30s, when the Decembrists were defeated, and the revolutionary democrats social force have not yet declared themselves.
Onegin could go to the Decembrists, Pechorin was deprived of such an opportunity. Pechorin's position is all the more tragic because he is by nature more gifted and deeper than Onegin. This talent is manifested in Pechorin's deep mind, strong passions and steel will. The sharp mind of the hero allows him to correctly judge people, about life, to be critical of himself. The characteristics given by him to people are quite accurate. Pechorin's heart is able to feel deeply and strongly, although outwardly he keeps calm, because "the fullness and depth of feelings and thoughts does not allow frantic impulses." Lermontov shows in his novel a strong, strong-willed personality, eager for activity.
But for all his giftedness and wealth of spiritual powers, Pechorin, by his own fair definition, is a "moral cripple." His character and all his behavior are distinguished by extreme inconsistency, which affects even his appearance, which, like all people, reflects the inner appearance of a person. Pechorin's eyes "did not laugh when he laughed." Lermontov says that: "This is a sign or evil temper, or deep, constant sadness ... ".
Pechorin, on the one hand, is skeptical, on the other, he is thirsty for activity; reason in him struggles with feelings; he is selfish, and at the same time capable of deep feelings. Left without Vera, unable to catch up with her, "he fell on the wet grass and, like a child, wept." Lermontov shows in Pechorin the tragedy of a person, a “moral cripple”, an intelligent and strong person, whose most terrible contradiction lies in the presence of “immense forces of the soul” and the commission of petty, insignificant deeds. Pechorin strives to "love the whole world", but brings people only evil and misfortune; his aspirations are noble, but his feelings are not high; he longs for life, but suffers from complete hopelessness, from the realization of his doom.
When asked why everything is so, and not otherwise, the hero himself answers in the novel: “My soul is corrupted by light,” that is, secular society in which he lived and from which he could not escape. But the point here is not only in an empty noble society. In the 1920s, the Decembrists left this society. But Pechorin, as already mentioned, is a man of the 30s, typical representative of his time. This time put him before a choice: "either decisive inaction, or empty activity." Energy seeths in him, he wants active action, he understands that he could have "a high purpose."
The tragedy of the noble society is again in its indifference, emptiness, inactivity.
The tragedy of Pechorin's fate is that he never found the main, worthy of his goal in life, since it was impossible in his time to apply his strength to a socially useful cause.
The problem of the "poor man" in the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment"
Let us now turn to the novel by F.M. Dostoevsky "Crime and Punishment". In this work, the author draws the reader's attention to the problem of the "poor man". In the article " downtrodden people" ON THE. Dobrolyubov wrote: “In the works of F.M. Dostoevsky, we find one common feature, more or less noticeable in everything that he wrote. This is pain about a person who recognizes himself as unable or, finally, not even entitled to be a person, a real, complete independent person on his own.
F. M. Dostoevsky's novel "Crime and Punishment" is a book about the life of destitute poor people, a book that reflects the writer's pain for the desecrated honor of a "little" person. Before readers unfold pictures of the suffering of "little" people. Their lives are spent in dirty closets.
Well-fed Petersburg looks coldly and indifferently at the destitute people. Tavern and street life interferes with the fate of people, leaving an imprint on their experiences and actions. Here is a woman who throws herself into a canal... But a drunk fifteen-year-old girl is walking along the boulevard... A typical shelter for the poor in the capital is the miserable room of the Marmeladovs. At the sight of this room, the poverty of the inhabitants, the bitterness with which Marmeladov told Raskolnikov the story of his life, the story of his family a few hours ago, becomes understandable. Marmeladov's story about himself in a dirty tavern is a bitter confession of "a dead man, unfairly crushed by the yoke of circumstances."
But the very vice of Marmeladov is explained by the immensity of his misfortunes, the awareness of his deprivation, the humiliation that poverty brings him. “Dear sir,” he began almost solemnly, “poverty is not a vice, it is the truth. I know that drunkenness is not a virtue, and this is all the more so. But poverty, sir, poverty is a vice. In poverty, you still retain your nobility of innate feelings, but in poverty - never anyone. Marmeladov is a poor man who has "nowhere to go." Marmeladov is sliding further and further down, but even in the fall he retains the best human impulses, the ability to feel strongly, which are expressed, for example, in his plea for forgiveness to Katerina Ivanovna and Sonya.
All her life, Katerina Ivanovna has been looking for how and with what to feed her children, she has been in need and deprivation. Proud, passionate, adamant, left a widow with three children, under the threat of hunger and poverty, she was forced, “weeping and sobbing and wringing her hands,” to marry a homely official, a widower with a fourteen-year-old daughter Sonya, who, in turn, married Katerina Ivanovna out of a sense of pity and compassion. Poverty kills the Marmeladov family, but they fight, albeit without a chance. Dostoevsky himself says of Katerina Ivanovna: “But Katerina Ivanovna was, moreover, not one of those downtrodden, she could be completely killed by circumstances, but it was impossible to beat her morally, that is, it was impossible to scare and subjugate her will.” This desire to feel complete person and forced Katerina Ivanovna to arrange a chic commemoration.
Next to the feeling of self-respect in the soul of Katerina Ivanovna lives another bright feeling - kindness. She tries to justify her husband, saying: “Look, Rodion Romanovich, she found a gingerbread cockerel in his pocket: he’s walking dead drunk, but he remembers about the children ...” She, holding Sonya tightly, as if with her own breast wants to protect her from Luzhin’s accusations says: "Sonya! Sonya! I don’t believe!”… She understands that after the death of her husband her children are doomed to starvation, that fate is not merciful to them. So Dostoevsky refutes the theory of consolation and humility, which allegedly leads everyone to happiness and well-being, just as Katerina Ivanovna rejects the consolation of a priest. Its end is tragic. In unconsciousness, she runs to the general to ask for help, but "their excellencies are having lunch" and the doors are closed in front of her, there is no longer any hope of salvation, and Katerina Ivanovna decides to take the last step: she goes to beg. The scene of the death of a poor woman is impressive. The words with which she dies, “leave the nag,” echo the image of a tortured, beaten to death horse that Raskolnikov once dreamed of. The image of a broken horse by F. Dostoevsky, a poem by N. Nekrasov about a beaten horse, a fairy tale by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin "Konyaga" - such is the generalized, tragic image tortured people. The face of Katerina Ivanovna captures the tragic image of grief, which is a vivid protest of the free soul of the author. This image stands in a number of eternal images of world literature, the tragedy of the existence of the outcasts is also embodied in the image of Sonechka Marmeladova.
This girl also has nowhere to go and run in this world, according to Marmeladov, “how much can a poor but honest girl earn with honest labor.” Life itself answers this question in the negative. And Sonya goes to sell herself to save her family from starvation, because there is no way out, she has no right to commit suicide.
Her image is inconsistent. On the one hand, it is immoral and negative. On the other hand, had Sonya not violated the norms of morality, she would have doomed the children to starvation. Thus, the image of Sonya turns into a generalizing image of eternal victims. Therefore, Raskolnikov exclaims these famous words: “Sonechka Marmeladova! Eternal Sonya "...
F.M. Dostoevsky shows Sonya's humiliated position in this world: "Sonya sat down, almost trembling with fear, and timidly looked at both ladies." And it is this timid downtrodden creature that becomes a strong moral mentor, F.M. Dostoevsky! The main thing in Sonya's character is humility, forgiving Christian love for people, religiosity. Eternal humility, faith in God give her strength, help her live. Therefore, it is she who makes Raskolnikov confess to a crime, showing that the true meaning of life is in suffering. The image of Sonechka Marmeladova was the only light of F.M. Dostoevsky in the general darkness of hopelessness, in the same empty noble society, throughout the whole novel.
In the novel "Crime and Punishment" F.M. Dostoevsky creates an image of pure love for people, an image of eternal human suffering, an image of a doomed victim, each of which was embodied in the image of Sonechka Marmeladova. The fate of Sonya is the fate of the victim of abominations, deformities of the possessive system, in which a woman becomes an object of sale. A similar fate was prepared for Duna Raskolnikova, who was to follow the same path, and Raskolnikov knew this. In a very detailed, psychologically correct portrayal of "poor people" in society, F.M. Dostoevsky carries out the main idea of the novel: it is impossible to live like this any longer. These "poor people" are Dostoevsky's protest to that time and to society, a bitter, heavy, bold protest.
The theme of folk character in the tragedy of A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm"
Consider further the tragedy of A.N. Ostrovsky "Thunderstorm". Before us is Katerina, who alone in The Thunderstorm is given to hold the fullness of viable principles folk culture. Katerina's worldview harmoniously combines Slavic pagan antiquity with Christian culture, spiritualizing and morally enlightening the old pagan beliefs. Katerina's religiosity is inconceivable without sunrises and sunsets, dewy herbs in flowering meadows, flights of birds, butterflies fluttering from flower to flower. In the monologues of the heroine, the familiar motifs of Russian folk songs come to life. In Katerina's worldview, a spring of primordially Russian song culture beats and acquire new life Christian beliefs. The joy of life is experienced by the heroine in the temple, the sun bows to the ground in the garden, among the trees, grasses, flowers, morning freshness, awakening nature: I don't know what I'm praying for and what I'm crying about; that's how they'll find me." In the mind of Katerina, ancient pagan myths that have entered the flesh and blood of the Russian folk character are awakened, deep layers of Slavic culture are revealed.
But here in the house of the Kabanovs, Katerina gets into " dark kingdom» spiritual unfreedom. “Everything here seems to be from under bondage,” a stern religious spirit has settled here, democracy has faded here, the cheerful generosity of the people's worldview has disappeared. The wanderers in the house of the Kabanikha are different, from among those hypocrites who “due to their weakness did not go far, but heard a lot.” And they talk about the "end times", about the coming end of the world. These wanderers are alien to the pure world of Katerina, they are in the service of Kabanikh, and therefore they cannot have anything in common with Katerina. She is pure, dreaming, believing, and in the house of the Kabanovs “she has almost nothing to breathe” ... The heroine becomes hard because Ostrovsky shows her as a woman who is alien to compromises, who longs for universal truth and does not agree to anything less.
The theme of the people in the novel by L.N. Tolstoy "War and Peace"
Let us also recall that in 1869, from the pen of L.N. Tolstoy published one of the brilliant works of world literature - the epic novel "War and Peace". In this work, the main character is not Pechorin, not Onegin, not Chatsky. The protagonist of the novel "War and Peace" is the people. “For a work to be good, one must love the main, basic idea in it. In War and Peace, I loved the thought of the people, as a result of the war of 1812, ”said L.N. Tolstoy.
So, the main character of the novel is the people. The people who rose in 1812 to defend their homeland and defeated in the war of liberation a huge enemy army led by an invincible commander until then. Major events novels are evaluated by Tolstoy with folk point vision. The writer’s assessment of the war of 1805 is expressed by the writer in the words of Prince Andrei: “Why did we lose the battle near Austerlitz? .. There was no need for us to fight there: we wanted to leave the battlefield as soon as possible.” The Patriotic War of 1812 was a just, national liberation war for Russia. The Napoleonic hordes crossed the borders of Russia and headed for its center - Moscow. Then all the people came out to fight the invaders. Ordinary Russian people - the peasants Karp and Vlas, the elder Vasilisa, the merchant Ferapontov, the deacon and many others - hostilely meet the Napoleonic army, put up due resistance to it. The feeling of love for the motherland swept the whole society.
L.N. Tolstoy says that "for the Russian people there could be no question whether it would be good or bad under the rule of the French." The Rostovs are leaving Moscow, having handed over carts to the wounded and leaving their house to the mercy of fate; Princess Marya Bolkonskaya leaves her native Bogucharovo nest. Disguised in a simple dress, Count Pierre Bezukhov is armed and stays in Moscow, intending to kill Napoleon.
With all this, not all people united in the face of war. Cause contempt individual representatives of the bureaucratic-aristocratic society, which in the days of nationwide disaster acted for selfish and selfish purposes. The enemy was already in Moscow when Petersburg court life went on as before: “There were the same exits, balls, the same french theater, the same interests of service and intrigue". The patriotism of the Moscow aristocrats consisted in the fact that instead of the French dishes were eaten by Russian cabbage soup, and a fine was imposed for French words.
Tolstoy angrily denounces the Moscow governor-general and commander-in-chief of the Moscow garrison, Count Rostopchin, who, due to his arrogance and cowardice, was unable to organize replacements for Kutuzov's heroically fighting army. The author speaks with indignation about careerists - foreign generals like Wolzogen. They gave all of Europe to Napoleon, and then "they came to teach us - glorious teachers!" Among staff officers, Tolstoy singles out a group of people who want only one thing: "... the greatest benefits and pleasures for themselves ... The drone population of the army." These people include Nesvitsky, Drubetsky, Berg, Zherkov and others.
These people L.N. Tolstoy contrasts the common people, who played the main and decisive role in the war against the French conquerors. The patriotic feelings that gripped the Russians gave rise to the general heroism of the defenders of the Motherland. Talking about the battles near Smolensk, Andrei Bolkonsky rightly noted that Russian soldiers “fought there for the first time for the Russian land”, that there was such a spirit in the troops, what he (Bolkonsky) never saw that the Russian soldiers "repulsed the French for two days in a row, and that this success multiplied our forces tenfold."
The “folk thought” is felt even more fully in those chapters of the novel where characters are depicted who are close to the people or strive to understand it: Tushin and Timokhin, Natasha and Princess Marya, Pierre and Prince Andrei - all those who can be called “Russian souls”.
Tolstoy portrays Kutuzov as a person who embodied the spirit of the people. Kutuzov is a truly popular commander. Thus, expressing the needs, thoughts and feelings of the soldiers, he appears during the review near Braunau, and during the Battle of Austerlitz, and especially during Patriotic War 1812. “Kutuzov,” writes Tolstoy, “with his whole Russian being knew and felt what every Russian soldier felt.” Kutuzov is his own for Russia, native person he is a carrier folk wisdom, an exponent of popular feelings. He is distinguished by "an extraordinary power of penetration into the meaning of occurring phenomena, and its source lies in the popular feeling, which he carried in himself in all its purity and strength." Only the recognition of this feeling in him made the people elect him, against the will of the tsar, as commander-in-chief of the Russian army. And only this feeling put him on that height from which he directed all his forces not to kill and exterminate people, but to save and pity them.
Both soldiers and officers - they all fight not for St. George's crosses, but for the Fatherland. Shake their moral fortitude defenders of the battery of General Raevsky. Tolstoy shows the extraordinary stamina and courage of the soldiers and the better part of the officers. At the center of the narrative of the partisan war is the image of Tikhon Shcherbaty, who embodies the best national traits Russian people. Next to him stands Platon Karataev, who in the novel "represents everything Russian, folk, good." Tolstoy writes: "... it is good for the people who, in a moment of trial ... with simplicity and ease, pick up the first club that comes across and nail it until in their souls feelings of insult and revenge are replaced by contempt and pity."
Speaking about the results of the Battle of Borodino, Tolstoy calls the victory of the Russian people over Napoleon a moral victory. Tolstoy glorifies the people, who, having lost half of the army, stood as menacingly as at the beginning of the battle. And as a result, the people achieved their goal: the native land was cleared by the Russian people from foreign invaders.
The theme of society in the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin "Lord Golovlev"
Let us also recall such a novel about public life as “Lords Golovlevs” by M.E. Satykov-Shchedrin. The novel presents noble family which reflects the decay of bourgeois society. As in bourgeois society, everything collapses in this family moral relations, family ties, moral standards behavior.
In the center of the novel, the head of the family, Arina Petrovna Golovleva, is an imperious landowner, a purposeful, strong housewife, spoiled by power over her family and others. She single-handedly manages the estate, depriving the serfs, turning her husband into a "hooker", crippling the lives of "hateful children" and corrupting her "favorite" children. She builds wealth, without knowing why, implying that she does everything for the family, for the children. But about duty, family, children, she repeats all the time rather in order to hide her indifferent attitude towards them. For Arina Petrovna, the word family is just an empty phrase, even though it never left her lips. She fussed about the family, but at the same time forgot about her. The thirst for hoarding, greed killed the instincts of motherhood in her, all that she could give to children was indifference. And they began to answer her the same. They did not show her gratitude for all the work that she did “for their sake”. But, forever immersed in troubles and calculations, Arina Petrovna forgot about this thought too.
All this, together with time, morally corrupts all the people close to her, as well as herself. The eldest son Stepan drank himself, died a loser. The daughter, from whom Arina Petrovna wanted to make a free accountant, ran away from home and soon died, abandoned by her husband. Arina Petrovna took her two little twin girls to her. The girls grew up and became provincial actresses. Also left to their own devices, as a result, they were drawn into a scandalous lawsuit, later one of them was poisoned, the second did not have the courage to drink poison, and she buried herself alive in Golovlevo.
Then the abolition of serfdom dealt a strong blow to Arina Petrovna: knocked off her usual rhythm, she becomes weak and helpless. She divides the estate between her favorite sons Porfiry and Paul, leaving only capital for herself. The cunning Porfiry managed to lure capital from his mother. Then Paul soon died, leaving his property to the hated brother Porphyry. And now we see clearly that everything for which Arina Petrovna subjected herself and her loved ones to deprivation and torment all her life turned out to be nothing but a ghost.
The problem of the "little man" in the stories and plays of A.P. Chekhov
A.P. also speaks about the degradation of a person under the influence of a passion for profit. Chekhov in his story “Ionych”, which was written in 1898: “How are we doing here? No way. We grow old, we grow fat, we fall. Day and night - a day away, life passes dimly, without impressions, without thoughts ... ".
The hero of the story "Ionych" is a habitual narrow-minded fat man, the peculiarity of which is that he is smart, unlike many others. Dmitry Ionych Startsev understands how insignificant the thoughts of the people around him are, who are happy to talk only about food. But at the same time, Ionych did not even have thoughts that it was necessary to fight with such a way of life. He did not even have a desire to fight for his love. His feeling for Ekaterina Ivanovna is difficult, in fact, to be called love, because it passed three days after her refusal. Startsev thinks with pleasure about her dowry, and Ekaterina Ivanovna's refusal only offends him, and nothing more.
The hero is possessed by mental laziness, which gives rise to absence strong feelings and experiences. Over time, this spiritual laziness weathers everything good and sublime from Startsev's soul. They began to own only the passion for profit. At the end of the story, it was the passion for money that extinguished the last flame in Ionych's soul, lit by the words of the already adult and intelligent Ekaterina Ivanovna. Chekhov writes sadly that a strong flame of the human soul can extinguish just a passion for money, simple pieces of paper.
A.P. writes about a man, a little man. Chekhov in his stories: "Everything should be beautiful in a person: the face, and clothes, and the soul, and thoughts." All the writers of Russian literature treated the little man differently. Gogol urged to love and pity the "little man" as he is. Dostoevsky - to see a personality in him. Chekhov, on the other hand, is looking for the guilty not in the society that surrounds a person, but in the person himself. He says that the reason for the humiliation of the little man is himself. Consider Chekhov's story "The Man in the Case". His hero Belikov himself went down, because he is afraid of real life and runs away from it. He is an unfortunate person who poisons the life of himself and those around him. Prohibitions for him are clear and unambiguous, and permissions cause fear and doubt: "No matter how something happens." Under his influence, everyone became afraid to do something: speak loudly, make acquaintances, help the poor, etc.
With their cases, people like Belikov kill all living things. And he was able to find his ideal only after death, it is in the coffin that his facial expression becomes cheerful, peaceful, as if he has finally found that case from which he can no longer get out.
The petty philistine life destroys everything good in a person if there is no inner protest in him. This is what happened with Startsev, with Belikov. Further, Chekhov seeks to show the mood, life of entire classes, strata of society. This is what he does in his plays. In the play "Ivanov" Chekhov again turns to the theme of the little man. The main character of the play is an intellectual who made huge life plans, but helplessly lost to the obstacles that life itself put in front of him. Ivanov is a small man who, as a result of an internal breakdown, turns from an active worker into a broken loser.
In the following plays A.P. Chekhov's "Three Sisters", "Uncle Vanya" the main conflict develops in the clash of morally pure, bright personalities with the world of the townsfolk, greed, greed, cynicism. And then there are people who go to replace all this worldly vulgarity. This is Anya and Petya Trofimov from the play " The Cherry Orchard". In this play, A.P. Chekhov shows that not all small people necessarily turn into broken, small and limited. Petya Trofimov, eternal student, belongs to the student movement. For several months he was hiding at Ranevskaya. This young man is strong, smart, proud, honest. He believes that he can correct his situation only by honest constant work. Petya believes that a bright future awaits his society, his homeland, although he does not know the exact lines of life change. Petya is only proud of his disregard for money. The young man influences the formation of the life positions of Anya, the daughter of Ranevskaya. She is honest, beautiful in her feelings and behavior. With such pure feelings, with faith in the future, a person should no longer be small, this already makes him big. Chekhov also writes about good (“big”) people.
So, in his story "The Jumper" we see how Dr. Dymov, good man, a doctor who lives for the happiness of others, dies saving someone else's child from illness.
Conclusion
In this essay, such works of Russian writers of the Silver Age as Ostrovsky's "Thunderstorm", Lermontov's "Hero of Our Time", Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", Tolstoy's "War and Peace", Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and others were considered. The theme of man and people in the lyrics of Lermontov, Nekrasov, Chekhov's plays has been studied.
Summing up, it should be noted that in Russian literature of the 19th century, the theme of a person, personality, people, society is found in almost every work of the great writers of that time. Russian authors write about the problems of superfluous, new, small, poor, strong, different people. Often in their works we meet with tragedy strong personality or a small person; with the opposition of a strong "living" personality to an indifferent "dead" society. At the same time, we often read about the strength and diligence of the Russian people, to which many writers and poets are especially touching.
List of used literature
1.M.Yu. Lermontov, Selected Works, 1970
2.A.S. Pushkin, "Collected Works", 1989
.A.S. Griboedov, "Woe from Wit", 1999.
.A.P. Chekhov, "Collected Works", 1995
.M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, "Gentlemen Golovlevs", 1992
.L.N. Tolstoy, "War and Peace", 1992.
.F.M. Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment, 1984.
.ON THE. Nekrasov, "Collection of poems", 1995.
.A.N. Ostrovsky, "Collected Works", 1997.
Tags: The problem of man and society in Russian literature of the 19th century Abstract Literature
The image of the people of the idea began to take shape under the influence of the collapse or deformation of the traditional worldview. The decay lies in the fact that the nobles ceased to consider honor and personal dignity as the highest values; peasants cease to realize agricultural labor as the only possible form of human stay on this land; faith in divine predestination is lost; confidence in the merged existence of man and nature disappears; there is a fear of death, which is associated with the disappearance of faith in the Orthodox and eschatological (Orthodox idea of life and death) idea.
When faith goes, ideas come. An idea is an image, a concept, a representation. The most fashionable idea was individualism - a type of worldview, the essence of which is the absolutization of the position of a person who opposed himself to society and nature; can manifest itself in actions - selfishness - and in concepts, primarily in ethical philosophy. It is said that individualism is a consequence of social atomization in the bourgeois era.
It is based on the ideas of Arthur Schopenhaur (1788-1860) - a German philosopher.
From Schopenhaur's point of view, the world is a blind, baseless will to live. Each objectification of this will strives for its absolute domination. Modern life is a war of all against all. The state is necessary in order to balance individual wills, but in suppressing individual impulses, Schopenhaur counted on the fact that art and literature would format the human soul instead of religion.
Nietzsche "I see the worldwide deluge of nihilism." Nihilism, according to Nietzsche, comes from the deceptive sense of omnipotence that civilization gives man.
For the first time, Turgenev responded to the emergence of the ideas of nihilism in the novel "Fathers and Sons" in 1862.
The brightest responses to "Fathers and Sons":
N.G. Cherneshevsky 1828-1889 - democrat, supporter of the theory of "reasonable egoism".
In the Peter and Paul Fortress, he writes the novel What Is to Be Done?
F.M. Dostoevsky. "Crime and Punishment", the first Russian "ideological" novel, 1866. Bazarov forerunner of the novel "PiN". Many critics believe that Raskolnik is a revived Bazarov, with whom he radicalized his ideas, brought them to the ultimate absurdity.
The meaning of the crime: criminal; moral, involving the destruction of religious and moral absolutes; existential, because by committing this crime Raskolnikov overcomes his human being.
Raskolnikov is engaged in a dialogue, a sincere conversation with himself.
Dostoevsky destroys Raskolnikov's "toy" with a system of twins. The characters of Luzhin and Svidrigailov are ideologically important in this novel.
Images and symbols in Raskolnikov's dream
Tolstoy and Leskov are the creators of anti-nihilistic prose.
When creating War and Peace, Tolstoy uses the "dialectics of the soul" (Cherneshevsky's term) to build the characters of the novel.
"Kaleidoscopic Mood Change" - ?
The dialectic of the soul- This artistic way images of psychological processes, the dynamics of mental life, changes in the mood of heroes as an instant reaction to certain events, to the growth or fading of feelings.
Another anti-nihilist was N.S. Leskov 1831 - 1895.
Leskov's main goal is to "Encourage and inspire Rus'". The main idea was the idea of democratic education. He criticized the desire to change the world, without certain ideas about the future. He considered the idea of the revolutionary development of the world - the idea of European, Western, Russia - deeply alien, because this idea involved ignoring Russian identity.
Leskov's creative individuality was determined by his commitment to national issues. Moreover, the search for the ideal of national life, from the point of view of Leskov, is carried out in the historical past of Russia.
Leskov rejects the genre of the novel, proposes to replace it with the genre of the chronicle ("Zamoryane"). The principle of indiscriminate depiction of reality is the most important for Leskov.
He chooses the form of a tale - a special manner of narration, different from the author's. The creator of a tale is guided by folklore speech, it allows the writer to capture different types of speech behavior more freely and more widely. In addition, the skaz is a means of imitation of a documentary narrative. Creating a tale manner is almost impossible without word creation, occasionalisms.
Current page: 2 (total book has 29 pages) [accessible reading excerpt: 20 pages]
But as a result, the Russian revolutionaries only hid, learned the art of conspiracy and began preparing for the coming upheavals. revolutionary movement has long been an international phenomenon: in the late 1860s, the world organization Internationale arose, which coordinated the activities of labor movements in different countries. Hopes that internal Russian measures would be able to put out the world fire forever were naive. As for patriotic ideas, then in the reign Alexander III the fine line between healthy national feeling and morbid nationalism was often broken; Jewish pogroms broke out more than once in the south.
Important events also took place outside the European continent; one of the main ones is the American Civil War (1861–1865) between North and South. The southerners were in favor of maintaining the principles of slavery, the northerners were against it; meaning civil war there was a struggle for the path that America would take in the 20th century, the path of individual rights and civil liberties, or the path of slavery and racism ...
Such was the historical background of the literary achievements, the study of which we have to study.
What major events in world and national history in the first half of the 19th century predetermined the fate of Russian writers of the Golden Age? Name the main names, events, dates.
Culture and economy
Culture and economics seem to be opposite poles. As far as the first is "impractical", sublime, so the last is "mundane" and aimed at obtaining benefits. And yet they depend on each other and influence each other to the extent that economic development affects the destinies, psychology and views of people.
As early as the 16th century, a new type of society began to take root in Europe, based on private property and free enterprise capitalism. By the end of the 18th century, capitalism led to a rapid growth in urban production and shook the foundations of feudalism. He destroyed the traditional forms of political and everyday life, accustomed a person to the idea that his fate depends not on his origin, not on the habits of previous generations, but above all on his own will, energy, individual qualities.
The only dependence that capitalism recognized was dependence on money. However, the social nature of wealth has also changed. Before wealth reinforced power, based on nobility and origin, surrounded her with an aura of luxury and omnipotence. Now wealth itself has become an instrument of power; money invaded politics, began gradually, imperceptibly to rule the world. And literature, which until now has been a haven of inspiration, the free leisure of wealthy people - nobles, aristocrats - has turned, in Pushkin's words, into "a significant branch of industry." Literary studies became an independent profession; writers felt dependent not only and not so much on the benevolence of a high patron, philanthropist, but on the reader's demand for their books.
Technical discoveries, without which it is impossible competition- main mechanism market economy, - followed one after another; the word "for the first time" became the key word in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In 1783, for the first time, the Montgolfier brothers flew in a balloon, at the beginning of the 19th century the first wheeled steamer was built, in 1825 the first railway was laid, in 1831 Michael Faraday discovered the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction ... . In 1803-1806, the first Russian "circumnavigation" was carried out under the leadership of Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern; in 1814-1821, Russian explorers and sailors first went to the shores of Antarctica...
In the second half of the 19th century, this process assumed an essentially irreversible character. Technological breakthroughs led to the rise of the economy, the rise of the economy led to technological breakthroughs. In 1863, the world's first subway line (London) was launched, five years later the subway was built in New York, then in Budapest, Vienna, Paris. In 1876, Scottish-American Alexander Bell received a patent for a practically usable telephone set; some ten or fifteen years will pass, and telephone lines will connect cities and countries. In 1897, the Russian physicist Alexander Popov, who improved the radio receiver, began work on the creation of a wireless telegraph. This means that the information space of the Earth will narrow, distances will shrink: after all, from now on, to transmit urgent information, it will take minutes, not days, weeks or months.
Almost simultaneously with Bell and Popov, the American Thomas Edison improved the telegraph (and then the telephone), invented the first phonograph (1879), that is, a device for recording and reproducing sound. And in the last XIX years century, the German engineer Rudolf Diesel created the internal combustion engine, and the German designer Count Zeppelin airship- an aeronautical instrument, a prototype of a modern aircraft. The world has come close to the automobile era and to the development of airspace.
The grandiose Eiffel Tower, 123 meters high and weighing 9 thousand tons, built according to the project of A. G. Eiffel in Paris for world exhibition 1889.
Science did not stand still. Scientists made one after another grandiose discoveries in its various areas. In 1829–1830, the Kazan mathematician Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky published the results of his many years of work, which overturned ideas about the nature of space, which were considered unshakable for more than 2000 years, since the time of Euclid. In 1869, Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev comprehended one of the basic laws of natural science - the periodic law of chemical elements. Frenchman Louis Pasteur, the founder of modern microbiology, developed vaccines against anthrax (1881), rabies (1885). Pasteur vaccinations made it possible to defeat diseases that were previously considered incurable ...
Of course, these scientific and technological processes interacted with the processes taking place in art only indirectly. But there was one kind of art, to the creation of which artistic culture, technology, science, and economics went hand in hand. In 1895, the French inventor Louis Jean Lumiere, with the participation of his brother Auguste, created an apparatus for capturing and projecting "moving photographs". It was the first movie camera suitable for practical use. In the 20th century, cinema will become a new art form and at the same time a powerful industry, combining the technological and creative discoveries of the 19th century.
These discoveries influenced both production and the very course of human life. If the man of the feudal era struggled to preserve the old ways that had been established over the centuries, then the man of the era of capitalism was forced to constantly change himself, changing everything around him. Even if he did not want it, even if he rebelled against the unstoppable renewal, like the English Luddites late XVIII – early XIX century, wrathfully smashing cars that took people's jobs. Thus, the foundations of a centuries-old cultural tradition were gradually destroyed; her even, calm movement was blasted from within; the development of literature also accelerated.
How did the development of science, economics, technology affect culture?
Art and literature
But, of course, the fate of Russian literature in the 19th century was most closely connected with processes that took place not in economics and politics, but in other forms of art. Without musical creations German composer L. van Beethoven (1770–1827) with his heroic symphonism, without refined lyrical etudes, nocturnes of the great Pole F. Chopin (1810–1849), without operatic achievements brilliant Italian G. Verdi (1813-1901) and the symphonic discoveries of the Frenchman G. Berlioz (1803-1869) European, including Russian, literature would never have made the qualitative breakthrough that it "decided" at the beginning of the 19th century.
After all, artistic ideas generated by a major historical epoch never belong exclusively to any one type of art. They literally float in the air and are perceived in one way or another by every art. The internally torn and externally harmonious sound of Beethoven's tragic music, in which echoes of the revolutionary upheavals of that time were heard, echoed in the lyrics of F. Schiller (1759-1805), whose poem "Ode to Joy" formed the basis of Beethoven's 9th symphony. Chopin's attention to small forms, to unfinished fragments, to the nocturnal, mysterious atmosphere was transferred to the best lyricists of the first half of the century ... And the strange drawings, engravings and paintings full of inner horror before life by the Spanish artist F. Goya (1746-1828) prepared the artistic ground for fantastic images of the best prose writers, including Gogol.
In the second half of the 19th century, completely different artistic ideas will triumph in European art: the world of aerial fantasy, the tragic experiences of an individual personality will be opposed by lifelike, realistic painting, epic music imbued with the spirit of the people. The time has come to descend from the sky-high heights to the sinful historical land. The most popular Russian artists of the 1830s were K. Bryullov (1799–1852), the author of the monumental and tragic canvas The Last Day of Pompeii (1830–1833), and A. Ivanov (1806–1858), who devoted his entire creative life to creating grandiose painting "The Appearance of Christ to the people" (1837-1857). And in the 1840s, the great everyday writer P. Fedotov (1815–1852) declared himself loudly, who became famous precisely for his attention to detail, to carefully written images from life. worthless people("Fresh Cavalier", 1846, "Major's Matchmaking", 1848). And the sweet epic P. Tchaikovsky (1840-1893) and one of the creators of the monumental tradition of Russian opera M. Mussorgsky (1839-1881) reigned in the musical world, who tried to breathe truly popular power into opera art. The writers of that time also felt a taste for the image everyday life, social relations.
Emphasized indifference to lofty topics, the desire for realistic, almost photographic accuracy, distinguished the movement itinerant artists. Their partnership was formed in 1870. The members of the society were the author of the famous "Unknown" I. Kramskoy (1837-1887), as well as I. Repin (1844-1930) - the creator of "Barge Haulers on the Volga" and the ceremonial portrait of Alexander III, V. Surikov (1848-1916), who wrote "Boyar Morozova" and many other monumental canvases from Russian history. He was associated with the movement of the Wanderers and bright painter V. Vasnetsov (1848–1926), who not only willingly worked with genre plots, copied reality (the painting “From Apartment to Apartment”), but also created fantastic images of Russian folklore and even painted cathedrals. A much younger artist, the sad landscape painter I. Levitan (1860–1900), also considered himself a Wanderer, under whose brush the features of mournful biblical grandeur appeared in Central Russian nature.
Remember this when we study the works created by Russian writers of the second half of the 19th century. Writers, like artists and musicians, will pay tribute to the same artistic ideas. They will begin to look more closely at the surrounding life, they will begin to describe it in detail and almost scrupulously.
But art did not stand still. It moved on, opened up new horizons. At the beginning of the 19th century, musicians and painters were animated by the realm of fantasy, inner world the artist himself was the main motive of European art. Then it was time to get to know the surrounding reality, to “ground” art. And by the end of the century, the next step was taken towards the unknown, the new, the unknown. In the 1860s during french painting originated, and in the 1870-1880s a new direction flourished impressionism(from the word impression - impression). E. Manet, O. Renoir, E. Degas, P. Cezanne returned to pictorial art the freshness of the perception of life, they depicted instant, as if random situations, the play of light and shadow. The main thing in their paintings is not reality itself, but the artist's impression of it. To do this, the Impressionists left the workshops and moved the easels to the open air, where colors change every second, where the air trembles and changes the outlines of objects. Impressionism was not limited to the sphere of painting. He influenced the work of sculptors (the brilliant Frenchman O. Rodin), composers (the Frenchmen C. Debussy, M. Ravel). Of course, his creative impulses also echoed in poetry. You will feel it when we talk about the Russian lyrics of the late XIX century.
And on turn of XIX and XX centuries, people of art began to search for a new direction. At its source was the powerful, slightly scary music of the composer and thinker R. Wagner (1813–1883), prone to hysterical mystery. Gradually, a trend was taking shape that would determine the fate of artists and musicians of the next generation. This current is called symbolism. You will talk about him in the next class; at the same time you will find out what scientific ideas and doubts influenced the worldview of people at the end of the century and pushed art to search for new artistic ideas. In the meantime, you need to learn the fundamental thing: the new in art is born within the limits of the old, lives and develops in parallel with it. So, at the end of the school year, we will read the realistic, life-like stories of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, written in the 1880s-1890s. But it was in 1890 that the outstanding Russian artist M. Vrubel (1856–1910) painted his main painting, The Demon, whose tense and almost painful symbolism is already associated with the next era in the development of Russian art...
Listen to a fragment from Ludwig van Beethoven's 9th Symphony, then a fragment from Modest Mussorgsky's opera Boris Godunov. Compare the tonality, the general pathos of these musical works. Then compare two paintings - a portrait of A.S. Pushkin by the artist of the 1820-1830s Orest Kiprensky and "The Fresh Cavalier" by Pavel Fedotov. What is the fundamental difference in the attitude of these artists to life? In what direction did Russian art develop from the first to the second half of the 19th century?
Questions and tasks
1. What political event marked the beginning of the historical era that shaped the views of Russian writers of the 19th century?
2. What ideas inspired the people of that era?
3. What were the main events of Russian history at the end of the 18th-19th centuries?
4. How did the economy of that time influence the culture?
Arkhangelsky A.N. Alexander I. M., 2006 (ZhZL).
The book outlines the main facts of the life of the Russian Tsar; his political intentions and real deeds.
Decembrists: Selected Works: In 2 volumes / The publication was prepared by A. S. Nemzer, O. A. Proskurin. M., 1987.
From all anthologies literary heritage Decembrists, addressed to the general reader, this one is the best. Contains program documents of early and late Decembrist societies, works by P. A. Katenin, F. N. Glinka, K. F. Ryleev, A. A. Bestuzhev, A. O. Kornilovich, V. F. Raevsky, N. A. and M. A. Bestuzhevykh, I. I. Pushchin, V. K. Kuchelbeker, A. I. Odoevsky, G. S. Batenkov, I. D. Yakushkin. Brief but profound comments.
Ludwig E. Napoleon: Biography. M., 1998.
A master of psychological analysis, Emil Ludwig became famous for his biographies of great people. Marina Tsvetaeva considered his book about Napoleon to be the best of all dedicated to this historical figure.
Tarle E.V. Napoleon: Napoleon's Invasion of Russia // Tarle E. V. Collected Works. M., 1959. Vol. 7 (or any reprint).
The books of one of the most famous Soviet historians are written easily and extremely exciting. The essay on the life and work of Napoleon is not a popular biography, but a scientific and journalistic work, which, nevertheless, has become a favorite reading for several generations of Russians.
Tarle E.V. 1812. M., 1959 (or any reissue). A short popular essay on the great events of Russian history.
Troitsky N. A. 1812: The great year of Russia. M., 1988. Detailed, detailed presentation of the history of the Patriotic War of 1812.
Eidelman N. Ya.“The moment of glory is coming…”: Year 1789. L., 1989.
This book will help you navigate the main events of the French Revolution and learn about how it was perceived in Russia; it is specifically addressed to students.
Eidelman N. Ya. Edge of Ages. M., 2004.
Story palace coup, as a result of which Paul I died and his son, the future Alexander I, came to power; It tells in detail and vividly about the problems that Russia faced at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Eidelman N. Ya. Your 19th century M., 1980. Popular essays on the fate of people Pushkin era addressed to high school students.
Encyclopedia for children: Art. T. 7. Music. Theater. Movie. M., 2000.
A short review of the history of art, written especially for schoolchildren.
Sentimentalism. Origins of Russian prose
The crisis of the ideals of the Enlightenment
You already have some ideas about the Enlightenment, about classicism and sentimentalism as artistic methods, about classicist ideas and sentimental attitudes. Now we will try to trace these principles, ideas and sensations in development, in movement. The difference will be about the same as between a static photo and a dynamic film. Changes in European literature, as well as in culture as a whole, accumulated gradually, gradually, imperceptibly to the eyes, as a person's face imperceptibly changes throughout life.
Starting from the 17th century, and even then closer to its middle, there are different groups writers who hold dissimilar views on art, on its tasks and forms of expression. Gradually emerges literary process, during which the usual forms of creativity change, there is a struggle of directions, a search for new artistic ideas ... The life of culture is becoming more diverse, more and more complex.
IN Western European literature these changes begin earlier than in Russia, just as much as earlier capitalism is established in Europe. Russia at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century is a feudal country in which bourgeois relations are only in their infancy. Russian merchants, manufacturers, breeders are not yet playing an independent political and cultural role- they only accumulate strength for the next breakthrough. And Russian literature of the first half of the 19th century, which responsively accepted many trends of European culture, remained much more traditional, much more balanced, much more conservative (in a good sense of the word) than romantic literature European countries. She combined all the power of tradition with the freedom of novelty - this is what predetermined her originality and her greatness.
What in Western European literature immediately preceded the rise of Russian culture? Which example turned out to be “contagious” for domestic writers who prepared the golden age?
The main event in the intellectual life of Europe in the 18th century was, as you now know, the French Encyclopedia with its pathos of transforming life on reasonable grounds. But while there was a long-term work on it, a lot has changed. The ideas of the encyclopedists "descended" from the sky-high intellectual heights into the bourgeois masses, became commonplace formulas, commonplaces. In the meantime, in the quiet of the philosophical and writer's offices, intense mental work was going on. Just as the thinkers of the generation of Diderot and Voltaire became disillusioned with the old picture of the world, so the European intellectuals of the new generation gradually became disillusioned with the ideas of the encyclopedists themselves. Hope was lost both in the omnipotence of the human mind, which is given to every person from birth, and in the power of experience that a person accumulates throughout life. Young thinkers believed less and less in the possibility of "reworking" modern world on rational grounds. Increasingly, they recalled the terrible earthquake of 1755 in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, during which the beautiful city was three-quarters destroyed, and 60,000 of its inhabitants died. How then can one talk about a harmonious, reasonable world order? What to hope for, what to plan, if at any moment life itself can end? The ideals that inspired the people of the Enlightenment did not seem to stand the test of history.
As if anticipating this turn in the minds of contemporaries and far ahead of their time, some European writers of the Enlightenment, already from the 1730s, increasingly bitterly mocked the omnipotence of reason. Bye French philosophers only pondered the ideas that would form the basis of the Encyclopedia, the English prose writer Jonathan Swift was already writing his immortal book Gulliver's Travels. And here, among other things, he talked about Gulliver's journey to the island of intelligent horses, who retained wise justice, calm kindness, connection with nature - everything that humanity has long lost ... So, the mind is given to man only as an opportunity, this opportunity can be used, or you can miss out.
Another English prose writer Henry Fielding in the novel "The Story of Tom Jones, the Foundling" (1749) told the story of two brothers. Tom always followed the "call of the heart", the natural predisposition of a person to goodness, and therefore, in the end, he became a person. Blyfil took from educators best knowledge, but did not educate his heart - and therefore the natural, natural rationality degenerated in him into petty prudence.
The conclusion was implicitly brewing: it is necessary to educate, enlighten not only the mind, but also feelings, otherwise fragile European civilization catastrophe threatens.
When did the crisis of the Enlightenment begin? What does it express?
