Keywords: Russian literature
Start XVIII century, according to many modern researchers, does not quite coincide with the beginning new era in the development of Russian literature. The Petrine era, from which traditional courses in the history of Russian literature of the 18th century begin, has become turning point in the history of Russian statehood and culture, but still it was hardly turning point in literature. Rather, at that time, the transition from Old Russian, which had become apparent in the second half of the previous century, continued medieval literature to new literature. Profound qualitative changes in all areas of a secularizing culture left their mark on literature, in which, from the second half of XVII century increased interest in the image human personality, the dramatic understanding of life deepened, new genera and species appeared literary works(panegyric and love lyrics, school and court drama). It was in the second half of the 17th century that the active process of mastering the diverse Western European culture, which continued in the Petrine era, began. artistic experience, its original and creative processing.
The assimilation of the new did not mean a decisive break with domestic literary traditions, and in many ways made it possible to further develop a number of features of the Russian national culture. Russian XVIII century was often called the period of "accelerated" development of literature, because in less than a hundred years Russian literature has passed the path that most Western literatures required a much longer period. Following the advent of the Baroque, classicism was established in Russia, and soon sentimentalism and literary movements were born and flourished, as a result of which the boundaries between them turned out to be very relative.
At the same time, the Russian literature XVIII century was created in the context of constantly expanding, lively contacts between Russia and the West. Educated Russian people at that time, as a rule, knew well French, many of them read two or three modern European languages and at least one ancient one. French, English, German philosophy, literature, journalism were well known to them in the original, but throughout the 18th century the number and quality of translations from ancient and from basic European languages. Russian literature and culture XVIII centuries, not only recognized itself as an organic part of the European cultural movement of its time, but also strove for creative competition with the literatures of other peoples of Europe, and above all - with the most famous and authoritative in those years, the French literature XVII-XVIII centuries
An important aspect cultural reality 18th century researchers consider a gradual rethinking of the goals and objectives literary creativity. Literature, of course, has not yet become a proper profession, until the 1760s it had neither a more or less distinct social, nor even a political function, but the struggle for it social status it turns out, according to the observations of V.M. Zhivova, an inevitable companion literary activity a number of leading writers of the "eighteenth century".
During this period, a new literary direction- sentimentalism (M. Kheraskov, M. Muravyov, N. Karamzin, I. Dmitriev and others), characterized by an increased interest in inner world person. Sentimentalists believed that a person is by nature kind, devoid of hatred, deceit, cruelty, that social and social instincts are formed on the basis of innate virtue, uniting people into society. Hence the belief of sentimentalists that it is the natural sensitivity and good inclinations of people that are the key to an ideal society. In the works of that time, the main place began to be given to the education of the soul, moral improvement. Sentimentalists considered sensitivity to be the primary source of virtue, so their poems were filled with compassion, longing and sadness. The genres that were given preference also changed. Elegies, epistles, songs and romances took the first place.
Main characters - a common person, seeking to merge with nature, find peaceful silence in it and find happiness. Sentimentalism, like classicism, also suffered from a certain limitation and weaknesses. In the works of this direction, sensitivity develops into melancholy, accompanied by sighs and abundantly wetted with tears.
And again, Russian reality invaded the world of poetry and showed that only in the unity of the general and the personal, and in the subordination of the personal to the general, can a citizen and a person take place. This was proved in his work by the "father of Russian poets" G.R. Derzhavin, who managed to show with his works that all aspects of life are worthy of poetry.
But in poetry late XVII I century the concept of "Russian man" was identified only with the concept of "Russian nobleman". Derzhavin took only the first step in understanding national character, showing the nobleman both in the service of the Fatherland and in home environment. Wholeness and completeness inner life humans have not yet been revealed.
After the reforms of Peter the Great, who “cut a window to Europe”, outwardly quite quickly (until the end of this century) synchronization was established literary process Russia and the Western European region. In V. K. Trediakovsky’s treatise “A New and Brief Method for Composing Russian Poetry” (1735), in “Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry” (1739) by M. V. Lomonosov, in “Epistle on Poetry” (1748) by A. P. Sumarokov substantiated the syllabic-tonic system of versification, determined the stylistic norms of almost all poetic genres, and mastered the principles of classicism.
Lomonosov's odes quite bear comparison with the odes of Pope and Voltaire, and the odes of G. R. Derzhavin even more reflect the spirit of new times. The classic tragedies of Sumarokov (“Khoreev”, “Dimitri the Pretender”, etc.) are in no way inferior to the tragedies of Gottsched. Gorgeous satirical comedy D. I. Fonvizin "Undergrowth". Little story " Poor Lisa"the largest Russian sentimentalist N. M. Karamzin made readers shed no less tears than Richardson's Clarissa and Julia, or New Eloise” Rousseau, and A. N. Radishchev in “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” approached the pathos of Rousseau’s treatises.
Learning in many ways from European writers of the 17th–18th centuries, Russians writers XVIII centuries avoided the slavish dependence on antique samples, characteristic of European classicists.
So, starting from the 18th century, there was a certain synchronization of Russian and European literature, despite the fact that Russian literature in a number of respects retained its independent development.
17. Literature of the Petrine era(late XVII - first quarter XVIII century). characteristics of the era. The process of "Europeanization of Russia". Processes of "secularization" in ideology, culture, everyday life. The transition from the old culture to the new. Meaning words in political struggle; journalism; propaganda of new moral and everyday norms. Translation prose, its role in the development of Russian literature and the formation public opinion in the Petrine era (“An honest mirror of youth”, “On the ruin of Troy”, “On the laws of war and peace”, etc.). Birth of journalism: Vedomosti newspaper.
Genre of travel in the Petrine era. heyday oratory; preaching genres, "words". Their ideological content: the praise of the deeds of Peter I. Poetics of the genre. Oratorical activity of Stefan Yavorsky, Feofan Prokopovich.
Handwritten literature - old in form, but new in content, the story, translated novels, alterations of works of ancient Russian literature.
Original stories of the era (“History about the Russian sailor Vasily Kariotsky”, “The story about Alexander, the Russian nobleman”, “History about a certain gentry son ...”, etc.). Their difference from the stories of the end of the XVII century. Features of poetics: secular content, a fictional plot that develops along the line of revealing the character of the protagonist, whose fate is the result of his actions, and not the actions of fate, as in old Russian stories. Meaning love theme in stories. Reflection in the stories of educational and journalistic ideas of the time of Peter the Great. Features of poetics, baroque elements in the stories, originality of composition and style. The influence of translated and original stories of the time of Peter the Great on the work of F. Emin and M. Chulkov.
development of poetry. New genres: love song, cant. Panegyrics, their journalistic beginning.
Theater and dramaturgy of the time of Peter the Great. School theater. Poetics of plays school theater. Attempts to organize a secular theater. Interludes as a prototype of Russian comedies.
The development of folklore in the Petrine era. Dual attitude towards Peter in folklore works.
Baroque as a literary trend of the Petrine era. The emergence of baroque under the influence of Polish-Ukrainian-Belarusian influences and internal Russian needs. baroque poetics. New genres, new ideological trends, a new style. Enlightenment character Russian baroque.
In Russian literature of the 18th century, the first independent trend began to take shape - classicism. Classicism developed on the basis of patterns ancient literature and Renaissance art. The development of Russian literature in the 18th century was also greatly influenced by the school of European enlightenment.
A significant contribution to the development of literature of the 18th century was made by Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky. He was a remarkable poet and philologist of his time. He formulated the basic principles of versification in Russian.
His principle of syllabo-tonic versification was the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. The syllabo-tonic principle of versification, formulated back in the 18th century, is still the main method of versification in the Russian language.
Trediakovsky was a great connoisseur of European poetry and translated foreign authors. Thanks to him, the first fiction novel, exclusively secular subjects. It was a translation of the work "Riding to the city of love", French author Talman fields.
A.P. Sumarokov was also a big man of the 18th century. The genres of tragedy and comedy were developed in his work. Dramaturgy Sumarokov, contributed to the awakening in people human dignity and higher moral ideals. IN satirical works Russian literature of the 18th century was marked by Antioch Kantemir. He was a wonderful satirist, ridiculed the nobles, drunkenness and self-interest. In the second half of the 18th century, the search for new forms began. Classicism ceased to meet the needs of society.
He became the largest poet in Russian literature of the 18th century. His work destroyed the framework of classicism, and brought a lively colloquial speech into literary language. Derzhavin was a wonderful poet, thinking person, poet and philosopher.
At the end of the 18th century, such a literary trend as sentimentalism was formed. Sentimentalism - aimed at exploring the inner world of a person, personality psychology, experiences and emotions. The heyday of Russian sentimentalism in Russian literature of the 18th century was the works of a and a. Karamzin, in the story, expressed interesting things that became a bold revelation for Russian society in the 18th century.
In Russian literature of the 18th century, the first independent trend began to take shape - classicism. Classicism developed on the basis of samples of ancient literature and art of the Renaissance. The development of Russian literature in the 18th century was greatly influenced by the reforms of Peter the Great, as well as by the school of European enlightenment.
A significant contribution to the development of literature of the 18th century was made by Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky. He was a remarkable poet and philologist of his time. He formulated the basic principles of versification in Russian.
His principle of syllabo-tonic versification was the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line. The syllabo-tonic principle of versification, formulated back in the 18th century, is still the main method of versification in the Russian language.
Trediakovsky was a great connoisseur of European poetry and translated foreign authors. Thanks to him, the first fictional novel appeared in Russia, exclusively on secular subjects. It was a translation of the work "Riding to the City of Love", by the French author Paul Talman.
A.P. Sumarokov was also a big man of the 18th century. The genres of tragedy and comedy were developed in his work. The dramaturgy of Sumarokov contributed to the awakening of human dignity and higher moral ideals in people. In the satirical works of Russian literature of the 18th century, Antioch Kantemir was noted. He was a wonderful satirist, ridiculed the nobles, drunkenness and self-interest. In the second half of the 18th century, the search for new forms began. Classicism ceased to meet the needs of society.
The greatest poet in Russian literature of the 18th century was Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin. His work destroyed the framework of classicism, and brought live colloquial speech into the literary style. Derzhavin was a remarkable poet, a thinking man, a poet-philosopher.
At the end of the 18th century, such a literary trend as sentimentalism was formed. Sentimentalism - aimed at exploring the inner world of a person, personality psychology, experiences and emotions. The flourishing of Russian sentimentalism in Russian literature of the 18th century was the works of Radishchev and Karamzin. Karamzin, in the story "Poor Lisa" expressed interesting things that became a bold revelation for Russian society in the 18th century.
There is a clear boundary between the creations of the first and second halves of the 18th century, and works created at the beginning of the century are very different from subsequent ones.
In the west, large literary forms and preparations were underway for the creation of the genre of the novel, while Russian authors were still copying the lives of the saints and praising the rulers in clumsy, cumbersome poems. Genre diversity in Russian literature is poorly represented, it lags behind European literature for about a century.
Among the genres of Russian literature early XVIII century worth mentioning:
- hagiographic literature(origins - church literature),
- panegyric literature(texts of praise),
- Russian poems(the origins are Russian epics, composed in tonic versification).
Reformer domestic literature consider Vasily Trediakovsky, the first professional Russian philologist who was educated at home and consolidated his language and style skills at the Sorbonne.
Firstly, Trediakovsky forced his contemporaries to read, and his followers to write prose - he created a lot of translations ancient Greek myths and European literature, created on this classical basis, throwing contemporaries-writers a topic for future works.
Secondly, Trediakovsky revolutionary separated poetry from prose, developed the basic rules of syllabo-tonic Russian versification, based on the experience of French literature.
Genres of Literature II half of XVIII century:
- Drama (comedy, tragedy),
- Prose ( sentimental journey, sentimental tale, sentimental letters),
- Poetic forms (heroic and epic poems, odes, a huge variety of small lyrical forms)
Russian poets and writers of the 18th century
Gavriil Romanovich Derzhavin occupies a significant place in Russian literature along with D.I. Fonvizin and M.V. Lomonosov. Together with these titans of Russian literature, he is included in the brilliant galaxy of the founders of Russian literature. classical literature the Age of Enlightenment in the second half of the 18th century. At this time, largely due to the personal participation of Catherine II, science and art were rapidly developing in Russia. This is the time of the appearance of the first Russian universities, libraries, theaters public museums and relatively independent press, however, very relative and for a short period, which ended with the appearance of A.P. Radishchev. By this time, as Famusov Griboedova called it, "the age of the golden Catherine", the most fruitful period of the poet's activity belongs.
Selected Poems:
Fonvizin's play is a classic example of a comedy with respect traditional rules creating plays:
- The trinity of time, place and action,
- Primitive typification of heroes (classicism assumed the lack of psychologism and depth of character of the hero, so they were all divided into either good and bad, or smart and stupid)
The comedy was written and staged in 1782. The progressiveness of Denis Fonvizin as a playwright lies in the fact that in a classical play he combined several problems (the problem of family and upbringing, the problem of education, the problem social inequality) and created more than one conflict (love conflict and socio-political). Fonvizin's humor is not light, serving solely for entertainment, but sharp, aimed at ridiculing vices. Thus, the author has brought classic realistic traits.
Biography:
Selected work:
Time of creation - 1790, genre - travel diary, typical for French sentimental travelers. But the journey turned out to be filled not with bright impressions of the voyage, but with gloomy, tragic colors, despair and horror.
Alexander Radishchev published Journey in his home printing house, and the censor, apparently having read the title of the book, mistook it for another sentimental diary and released it without reading it. The book had the effect of an exploding bomb: in the form of scattered memories, the author described the nightmarish reality and the life of the people he met at each station along the way from one capital to another. Poverty, filth, extreme poverty, mockery of the strong over the weak and hopelessness - these were the realities of the modern state for Radishchev. The author received a long-term exile, and the story was banned.
Radishchev's story is not typical for a purely sentimental work - instead of tears of tenderness and charming travel memories, so generously scattered by French and English sentimentalisms, an absolutely real and merciless life picture is drawn here.
Selected work:
The story "Poor Lisa" is an adapted European plot on Russian soil. Created in 1792, the story became a model sentimental literature. The author sang the cult of sensitivity and sensual human nature, put into the mouths of the characters " internal monologues revealing their thoughts. Psychologism, subtle portrayal of characters, great attention to the inner world of heroes - a typical manifestation of sentimental traits.
The innovation of Nikolai Karamzin manifested itself in the original resolution by him love conflict heroines are the Russian reading public, accustomed mainly to happy ending stories, for the first time received a blow in the form of suicide main character. And in this meeting with the bitter truth of life turned out to be one of the main advantages of the story.
Selected work:
On the Threshold of the Golden Age of Russian Literature
Europe went from classicism to realism in 200 years, Russia had to hurry up with the development of this material in 50-70 years, constantly catching up and learning from someone else's example. While Europe was already reading realistic stories, Russia had to master classicism and sentimentalism in order to move on to creating romantic works.
The golden age of Russian literature is the time of the development of romanticism and realism. Preparing for the appearance of these stages in Russian writers passed at an accelerated pace, but the most important thing that was learned by the writers of the 18th century was the ability to assign to literature not only an entertaining function, but also an educational, critical, moral-forming one.
