Romanticism is a literary trend that appeared in Western Europe at the end of the 18th century. Romanticism, as a literary movement, implies the creation of an exceptional hero and exceptional circumstances. Such trends in literature were formed as a result of the collapse of all the ideas of the Enlightenment period due to the crisis in Europe, which came as a result of the unfulfilled hopes of the French Revolution.
In Russia, romanticism as a literary trend first appeared after the Patriotic War of 1812. After the dizzying victory over the French, many progressive minds expected changes in the state system. The refusal of Alexander I to lobby for liberal politics gave rise not only to the Decembrist uprising, but also to changes in public consciousness and literary preferences.
Russian romanticism is a conflict of the individual with reality, society and dreams, desires. But dream and desire are subjective concepts, therefore romanticism, as one of the most freedom-loving literary movements, had two main currents:
- conservative;
- revolutionary.
The personality of the era of romanticism is endowed with a strong character, a passionate zeal for everything new and unrealizable. The new man tries to live ahead of those around him in order to speed up the knowledge of the world by leaps and bounds.
Russian romanticism
Revolutionaries of Romanticism in the first half of the 19th century. direct "their face" into the future, strive to embody the ideas of struggle, equality and universal happiness of people. A prominent representative of revolutionary romanticism was K.F. Ryleev, in whose works the image of a strong man was formed. His human hero is zealously ready to defend the fiery ideas of patriotism and the desire for the freedom of his fatherland. Ryleev was obsessed with the idea of "equality and free thinking." It was these motifs that became the fundamental tendencies of his poetry, which is clearly seen in the thought “Death of Yermak”.
The conservatives of romanticism, drew the plots of their masterpieces mainly from the past, as they took the epic direction as a literary basis, or they indulged in oblivion of the afterlife. Such images took the reader to the land of imagination, dreams and reverie. A prominent representative of conservative romanticism was V.A. Zhukovsky. The basis of his works was sentimentalism, where sensuality prevailed over reason, and the hero was able to empathize, sensitively respond to what was happening around him. His first work was the elegy "Rural Cemetery", which was filled with landscape descriptions and philosophical reasoning.
A romantic in literary works pays great attention to the stormy elements, philosophical reasoning about human existence. Where circumstances do not affect the evolution of character, and spiritual culture gave rise to a special, new type of person in life.
The great representatives of romanticism were: E.A. Baratynsky, V.A. Zhukovsky, K.F. Ryleev, F.I. Tyutchev, V.K. Kuchelbecker, V.F. Odoevsky, I.I. Kozlov.
Romanticism, wrote Belinsky, was the first word that announced the "Pushkin period" of Russian literature - the twenties of the 19th century. And although the first romantic works, the first experiments in the romantic spirit appeared in Russia earlier, at the very beginning of the 19th century, the great critic was right: it was in the 1820s that romanticism became the main event of literary life, literary struggle, the center of a lively and noisy magazine critical controversy.
Russian romanticism arose under different conditions than Western European. In the West, he was a post-revolutionary phenomenon and expressed disappointment in the results of the changes that had already taken place, in the new, capitalist society. In Russia, however, it took shape in an era when the country was yet to enter a period of bourgeois transformations. It reflected the disappointment of the advanced Russian people in the existing autocratic-feudal order, the vagueness of their ideas about the paths of the country's historical development. On the other hand, Russian romanticism expressed the beginning of the awakening of national forces, the rapid growth of public and personal self-consciousness. It is quite natural that Russian romanticism differed in many respects from Western European.
Firstly, romantic ideas, moods, and artistic forms are presented in Russian literature, as it were, in a softened version. For their full development, there was still neither a suitable socio-historical soil, nor corresponding cultural traditions, nor sufficient literary experience. Less than a hundred years have passed since Russian literature moved along the all-European path.
Secondly, the swiftness of the movement of Russian literature, as if catching up with the Western European countries that had gone ahead, led to some indistinctness, blurring of the boundaries between the artistic movements that arose in it. Romanticism was no exception: it was in close contact, at times, as if even growing together first with its predecessors - classicism and sentimentalism, and then with the critical realism that was coming to replace it, was in many cases difficult to distinguish from them.
Thirdly, heterogeneous literary traditions intersected in the work of Russian romantics, mixed, transitional forms constantly arose. Less distinctness, the severity of the main features and properties of romanticism, a closer (compared to Europe) connection with other literary movements - these are the most important distinguishing features of romantic art in Russia.
All of the above does not mean, of course, that the creative achievements of Russian romantics are less significant than those of European artists. Romanticism is associated in Russian literature with the names of its greatest representatives - Pushkin, Lermontov and Gogol, outstanding lyricists Baratynsky and Tyutchev, such bright poetic talents as Zhukovsky, Batyushkov and Yazykov. As in the West, the era of romanticism has become a brilliant page in the history of all Russian art. She brought forward the remarkable painters Kiprensky and Bryullov, the composers Alyabyev and Verstovsky, the great tragic actor Mochalov. In a word, in Russia the artistic heritage of romanticism was significant, rich and varied.
Three main periods are usually distinguished in the development of Russian romanticism:
- 1. 1801-1815 - the period of the birth of the romantic trend in Russia, the first experiences in the romantic kind. At this time, romanticism is especially closely connected with classicism and, most importantly, with sentimentalism, within which, in fact, it develops. The founders of Russian romanticism are considered to be Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, who had a huge impact on subsequent Russian literature and in many respects prepared the appearance of the greatest poet Pushkin.
- 2. 1816-1825 - the time of intensive development of romanticism, its ever greater dissociation from classicism and sentimentalism, the time of its decisive victories over them. Romanticism now appears as an independent trend and becomes the central event of literary life. The most important phenomenon of this period was the literary activity of the Decembrist writers, as well as the work of a number of remarkable lyricists: D. Davydov, Vyazemsky, Yazykov, Baratynsky. But the central figure of Russian romanticism at that time was, of course, Pushkin - the author of the so-called "southern" poems and a number of romantic poems. The tragic events of 1825 draw a sharp line between the second and third periods of the development of romanticism in Russia.
- 3. 1826-1840 - a period of widespread romanticism in Russian literature. He acquires new features, conquers new genres, captures more and more new writers into his orbit. Romantic constructions at this time deepened significantly, and Russian romantics finally broke with the traditions of classicism and sentimentalism. The pinnacle achievements of romanticism in the 1830s are the work of Lermontov, the early works of Gogol, and the lyrics of Tyutchev.
- 4. Similarities and differences between Western European and Russian romanticism
romanticism literary art
So, after getting acquainted with the general characteristics of romanticism, with its characteristic features and features of Russian romanticism, we will be able to identify the differences between Western European and Russian romanticism:
- 1) the representation in Russian literature of romantic ideas, moods and artistic forms, as it were, in a softened version;
- 2) less distinctness, the severity of the main features and properties of romanticism, a closer (compared to Europe) connection with other literary movements;
- 3) the crossing of heterogeneous literary traditions in the work of Russian romantics, the emergence of mixed, transitional forms.
And although there was no agreement among the romantics on many important issues (the role of art in society, the significance of domestic and Western European traditions for Russian literature, the comparative value of individual genres), in the course of the unfolding controversy, a creative program for a new literary direction was developed. Its main provisions were:
- 1) in the affirmation of the creative freedom of the artist, who is not subject to pre-established norms and restrictive rules;
- 2) in the poetization of the passionate desire for freedom - public, national, personal, in the proclamation of the independence of the human person and his right to protest against hostile social conditions;
- 3) in the protection of the "people" of art - its national identity, because the national identity, the romantics believed, testifies to the inner freedom of the enslaved people.
Romanticism(Romanticism) is an ideological and artistic direction that arose in European and American culture of the late 18th century - the first half of the 19th century, as a reaction to the aesthetics of classicism. Initially formed (1790s) in philosophy and poetry in Germany, and later (1820s) spread to England, France and other countries. He predetermined the latest development of art, even those of his directions that opposed him.
The new criteria in art were freedom of expression, increased attention to individual, unique features of a person, naturalness, sincerity and looseness, which replaced the imitation of classical examples of the 18th century. The Romantics rejected the rationalism and practicality of the Enlightenment as mechanistic, impersonal, and artificial. Instead, they prioritized the emotionality of expression, inspiration.
Feeling free from the declining system of aristocratic rule, they sought to express their new views, the truths they had discovered. Their place in society has changed. They found their reader among the growing middle class, ready to emotionally support and even bow before the artist - a genius and a prophet. Restraint and humility were rejected. They were replaced by strong emotions, often reaching extremes.
Young people were especially influenced by Romanticism, who got the opportunity to study and read a lot (which is facilitated by the rapid development of printing). She is inspired by the ideas of individual development and self-improvement, the idealization of personal freedom in the worldview, combined with the rejection of rationalism. Personal development was placed above the standards of a vain and already fading aristocratic society. The romanticism of educated youth changed the class society of Europe, becoming the beginning of the emergence of an educated "middle class" in Europe. And the picture Wanderer above the sea of mist"with good reason can be called a symbol of the period of romanticism in Europe.
Some romantics turned to the mysterious, mysterious, even terrible, folk beliefs, fairy tales. Romanticism was partly associated with democratic, national and revolutionary movements, although the "classical" culture of the French Revolution actually slowed down the arrival of Romanticism in France. At this time, several literary movements arise, the most important of which are Sturm und Drang in Germany, primitivism in France, headed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Gothic novel, interest in the sublime, ballads and old romances (from which actually coined the term "Romanticism"). The source of inspiration for German writers, theorists of the Jena school (the brothers Schlegel, Novalis and others), who declared themselves romantics, was the transcendental philosophy of Kant and Fichte, which put the creative possibilities of the mind at the forefront. These new ideas, thanks to Coleridge, penetrated into England and France, and also determined the development of American transcendentalism.
Thus, Romanticism was born as a literary movement, but had a significant influence on music and less on painting. In the visual arts, Romanticism manifested itself most clearly in painting and graphics, and less so in architecture. In the 18th century, the favorite motifs of artists were mountain landscapes and picturesque ruins. Its main features are the dynamism of the composition, volumetric spatiality, rich color, chiaroscuro (for example, the works of Turner, Géricault and Delacroix). Among other romantic painters, one can name Fuseli, Martin. The work of the Pre-Raphaelites and the neo-Gothic style in architecture can also be seen as a manifestation of Romanticism.
Romanticism is one of the most significant literary movements of the 19th century.
Romanticism is not just a literary trend, but also a certain worldview, a system of views on the world. It was formed in opposition to the ideology of the Enlightenment, which reigned throughout the 18th century, in repulsion from it.
All researchers agree that the most important event that played a role in the emergence of Romanticism was the Great French Revolution, which began on July 14, 1789, when an angry people stormed the Bastille, the main royal prison, as a result of which France became first a constitutional monarchy, and then a republic. . The revolution became the most important stage in the formation of modern republican, democratic Europe. Subsequently, it became a symbol of the struggle for freedom, equality, justice, improving the life of the people.
However, the attitude towards the Revolution was far from unambiguous. Many thinking and creative people soon became disillusioned with it, because its results were revolutionary terror, civil war, wars of revolutionary France with almost all of Europe. And the society that arose in France after the Revolution was very far from ideal: the people still lived in poverty. And since the Revolution was a direct result of the philosophical and socio-political ideas of the Enlightenment, the Enlightenment itself was also disappointed. It was from this complex combination of charm and disappointment in the Revolution and the Enlightenment that Romanticism was born. Romantics retained faith in the main ideals of the Enlightenment and the Revolution - freedom, equality, social justice, etc.
But they were disappointed in the possibility of their real implementation. There was a sharp feeling of a gap between the ideal and life. Therefore, romantics are characterized by two opposite tendencies: 1. reckless, naive enthusiasm, optimistic faith in the victory of lofty ideals; 2. absolute, gloomy disappointment in everything, in life in general. These are two sides of the same coin: absolute disappointment in life is the result of absolute faith in ideals.
Another important point regarding the attitude of the Romantics to the Enlightenment: in itself, the ideology of the Enlightenment at the beginning of the 19th century began to be perceived as outdated, boring, and did not live up to expectations. After all, development proceeds according to the principle of repulsion from the previous one. Before Romanticism there was Enlightenment, and Romanticism pushed off from it.
So, what exactly was the repulsion of Romanticism from the Enlightenment?
In the 18th century, during the Age of Enlightenment, the cult of Reason reigned - rationalism - the idea that reason is the main quality of a person, with the help of reason, logic, science, a person is able to correctly understand, know the world and himself, and change both for the better.
1. The most important feature of romanticism was irrationalism(anti-rationalism) - the idea that life is much more complicated than it seems to the human mind, life is not amenable to a reasonable, logical explanation. It is unpredictable, incomprehensible, contradictory, in short, irrational. And the most irrational, mysterious part of life is the human soul. A person is very often controlled not by a bright mind, but by dark, uncontrolled, sometimes destructive passions. The most opposing aspirations, feelings, thoughts can coexist illogically in the soul. Romantics paid serious attention and began to describe strange, irrational states of human consciousness: madness, sleep, obsession with some kind of passion, a state of passion, illness, etc. Romanticism is characterized by a mockery of science, scientists, and logic.
2. Romantics, following the sentimentalists, highlighted feelings, emotions defying logic. Emotionality- the most important quality of a person from the point of view of Romanticism. A romantic is one who acts contrary to reason, petty calculation, romance is driven by emotions.
3. Most enlighteners were materialists, many romantics (but not all) were idealists and mystics. Idealists are those who believe that in addition to the material world there is some ideal, spiritual world, which consists of ideas, thoughts and which is much more important, more paramount than the material world. Mystics are not just those who believe in the existence of another world - mystical, otherworldly, supernatural, etc., they are those who believe that representatives of another world are able to penetrate into the real world, that in general a connection is possible between the worlds, communication. Romantics willingly allowed mysticism into their works, described witches, sorcerers and other representatives of evil spirits. In romantic works, there are often hints of a mystical explanation for the strange events that are taking place.
(Sometimes the concepts of "mystical" and "irrational" are identified, used as synonyms, which is not entirely correct. Often they do coincide, especially among romantics, but still, in general, these concepts mean different things. Everything mystical is usually irrational, but not everything irrational mystical).
4. Many romantics are inherent mystical fatalism- belief in Fate, Predestination. Human life is controlled by some mystical (mostly dark) forces. Therefore, in some romantic works there are many mysterious predictions, strange hints that always come true. Heroes sometimes do things as if not by themselves, but someone pushes them, as if some extraneous force is instilled in them, which leads them to the realization of Fate. The feeling of the inevitability of Fate is imbued with many works of the Romantics.
5. Dvoemirie- the most important feature of romanticism, generated by a bitter sense of the gap between the ideal and reality.
Romantics divided the world into two parts: the real world and the ideal world.
The real world is an ordinary, everyday, uninteresting, extremely imperfect world, a world in which ordinary people, philistines feel comfortable. Philistines are people who do not have deep spiritual interests, their ideal is material well-being, their own personal comfort and peace.
The most characteristic feature of a typical romantic is hostility towards the philistines, towards ordinary people, towards the majority, towards the crowd, contempt for real life, isolation from it, lack of incorporation into it.
And the second world is the world of a romantic ideal, a romantic dream, where everything is beautiful, bright, where everything is the way a romantic dreams, this world does not exist in reality, but it should be. romantic getaway- this is an escape from reality to the ideal world, to nature, art, to your inner world. Madness and suicide are also variants of a romantic getaway. Most suicides have a significant element of romanticism in their character.
7. Romantics do not like everything ordinary and strive for everything. unusual, atypical, original, exceptional, exotic. A romantic hero is always different from the majority, he is different. This is the main quality of a romantic hero. He is not inscribed in the surrounding reality, unsuitable for it, he is always a loner.
The main romantic conflict is the confrontation between a lonely romantic hero and ordinary people.
Love for the unusual also applies to the choice of plot events for the work - they are always exceptional, unusual. Romantics also love exotic surroundings: distant hot countries, the sea, mountains, sometimes fabulous imaginary countries. For the same reason, romantics are interested in the distant historical past, especially the Middle Ages, which the Enlighteners did not like very much as the most unenlightened, unreasonable time. But the romantics believed that the Middle Ages was the time of the birth of romanticism, romantic love and romantic poetry, the first romantic heroes were knights serving their beautiful ladies and writing poetry.
In romanticism (especially poetry), the motive of flight, separation from ordinary life and the desire for something unusual and beautiful is very common.
8. Basic romantic values.
The main value for romantics is Love. Love is the highest manifestation of the human personality, the highest happiness, the most complete disclosure of all the abilities of the soul. This is the main purpose and meaning of life. Love connects a person with other worlds, in love all the deepest, most important secrets of being are revealed. Romantics are characterized by the idea of lovers as two halves, of the non-randomness of the meeting, of the mystical destiny of this particular man for this particular woman. Also the idea that true love can only be once in a lifetime, that it occurs instantly at first sight. The idea of the need to remain faithful even after the death of a beloved. At the same time, Shakespeare gave the ideal embodiment of romantic love in the tragedy Romeo and Juliet.
The second romantic value is Art. It contains the highest Truth and the highest Beauty, which descend to the artist (in the broadest sense of the word) at the moment of inspiration from other worlds. The artist is an ideal romantic person, endowed with the highest gift to inspire people with the help of his art, to make them better, cleaner. The highest form of art is Music, it is the least material, the most uncertain, free and irrational, music is addressed directly to the heart, to feelings. The image of the Musician in romanticism is very common.
The third most important value of romanticism is Nature and her beauty. Romantics sought to spiritualize nature, endow it with a living soul, a special mysterious mystical life.
The secret of nature will not be revealed through the cold mind of a scientist, but only through a sense of its beauty and soul.
The fourth romantic value is Liberty, inner spiritual, creative freedom above all, the free flight of the soul. But social and political freedom too. Freedom is a romantic value, because it is possible only in the ideal, but not in reality.
Artistic features of romanticism.
1. The main artistic principle of romanticism is the principle of re-creation and transformation of reality. Romantics show life not as it can be seen, they reveal its hidden mystical, spiritual essence, as they understand it. The truth of the real life around us for any romance is boring and uninteresting.
Therefore, romantics are very willing to use a variety of ways to transform reality:
- straight fantastic, fabulousness,
- hyperbola- different types of exaggeration, exaggeration of the qualities of characters;
- plot improbability- an unprecedented abundance of adventures in the plot - unusual, unexpected events, all kinds of coincidences, accidents, disasters, rescues, etc.
2. Mystery- the widespread use of mystery as an artistic device: a special injection of mystery. Romantics achieve the effect of mystery by hiding some part of the facts, events, describing events dotted, partially - so that a hint of interference in real life by mystical forces becomes obvious.
3. Romanticism is characterized by a special romantic style. His features:
- emotionality(a lot of words expressing emotions and emotionally colored);
- stylistic embellishment- a lot of stylistic embellishments, figurative and expressive means: epithets, metaphors, comparisons, etc.
- verbosity, vagueness many words with an abstract meaning.
Chronological framework for the development of romanticism.
Romanticism arose in the second half of the 1890s in Germany and England, then in France. Romanticism became the dominant literary trend in Europe from about 1814, when the works of Hoffmann, Byron, Walter Scott began to appear one after another, and remained so until about the second half of the 1830s, when it lost ground to realism. Romanticism faded into the background, but did not disappear - especially in France, it existed for almost the entire 19th century, for example, almost most of the novels of Victor Hugo - the best prose writer among the romantics, were written in the 1860s, and his last novel was published in 1874. In poetry, romanticism prevailed throughout the nineteenth century, in all countries.
The very etymology of the concept of "romanticism" refers to the field of fiction. Initially, the word romance in Spain meant a lyrical and heroic song - a romance; then great epic poems about knights; later it was transferred to prose chivalric romances. In the 17th century the epithet "romantic" (fr. romantique) serves to characterize adventurous and heroic works written in Romance languages, as opposed to those written in classical languages. In Europe, romanticism began its spread in two countries. The two "homelands" of romanticism were England and Germany.
In the 18th century this word begins to be used in England in relation to the literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. At the same time, the concept of "romance" began to be used to refer to a literary genre that implies a narrative in the spirit of chivalric novels. And in general, in the second half of the same century in England, the adjective "romantic" describes everything unusual, fantastic, mysterious (adventure, feelings, atmosphere). Along with the concepts of “picturesque” (picturesque) and “gothic” (gothic), it denotes new aesthetic values that are different from the “universal” and “reasonable” ideal of beauty in classicism.
Although the adjective "romantic" has been used in European languages since at least the 17th century, the noun "romanticism" was first coined by Novalis at the end of the 18th century. At the end of the 18th century in Germany and at the beginning of the 19th century. in France and a number of other countries, romanticism becomes the name of an artistic movement that opposed itself to classicism. As a designation of a certain literary style as a whole, it was conceptualized and popularized by A. Schlegel in lectures that he read in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. in Jena, Berlin and Vienna ("Lectures on Fine Literature and Art", 1801-1804). During the first two decades of the 19th century. Schlegel's ideas are spreading in France, Italy and England, in particular, thanks to the popularization activities of J. de Stael. The work of I. Goethe "The Romantic School" (1836) contributed to the consolidation of this concept. Romanticism arose in Germany, in literary and philosophical circles "Jena school" (brothers Schlegel and others). Outstanding representatives of the direction - F. Schelling, brothers Grimm, Hoffmann, G. Heine.
IN England new ideas accepted W. Scott, J. Keats, Shelley, W. Blake. The most prominent representative of romanticism was J. Byron. His work had a great influence on the spread of the direction, including in Russia. The popularity of his "Childe Harold's Travels" led to the phenomenon Byronism"(Pechorin in M. Lermontov's "A Hero of Our Time").
French romance - Chateaubriand, V. Hugo, P. Merimee,George Sand, Polish - A. Mickiewicz, American - F. Cooper, G. Longfellow and others.
The term "romanticism" acquired at that time a broader philosophical interpretation and cognitive meaning. Romanticism in its heyday created its own trend in philosophy, theology, art and aesthetics. Especially clearly manifested in these areas, romanticism also did not bypass history, law, and even political economy.
Romanticism is an artistic movement that arises in the early 19th century in Europe and continues until the 40s of the 19th century. Romanticism is observed in literature, fine arts, architecture, behavior, clothing, people's psychology. REASONS FOR THE ORIGIN OF ROMANTICISM. The immediate cause that caused the emergence of romanticism was the Great French bourgeois revolution. How did this become possible? Before the revolution, the world was ordered, there was a clear hierarchy in it, each person took his place. The revolution overturned the "pyramid" of society, a new one has not yet been created, so the individual has a feeling of loneliness. Life is a flow, life is a game in which someone is lucky and someone is not. In this era, gambling arises and gains immense popularity, gambling houses appear all over the world and in particular in Russia, guides on playing cards are published. In literature, images of players appear - people who play with fate. We can recall such works by European writers as Hoffmann's "The Gambler", Stendhal's "Red and Black" (and red and black are the colors of roulette!), and in Russian literature these are Pushkin's "Queen of Spades", Gogol's "Gamblers", "Masquerade" Lermontov. A ROMANTIC HERO is a player, he plays with life and fate, because only in the game can a person feel the power of rock. The main features of romanticism: Singularity in the depiction of events, people, nature. Striving for perfection and perfection. Proximity to oral folk art in terms of plot, fairy-tale images. Depiction of the protagonist in exceptional circumstances. Very bright, colorful language, the use of a variety of expressive and visual means of the language.
The main ideas of Romanism: One of the main ideas is the idea of movement. Heroes of works come and go again. In literature, images of a mail coach, travel, wanderings appear. Suffice it to recall, for example, the journey of Chichikov in a stagecoach or Chatsky, who at the beginning arrives from somewhere “He was treated, they say, on acidic waters.”), and then leaves again somewhere (“Carriage for me, carriage!”). This idea reflects the existence of man in an ever-changing world. THE MAIN CONFLICT OF ROMANTISM. The main one is the conflict of man with the world. The psychology of the rebellious personality arises, which Lord Byron most deeply reflected in Childe Harold's Journey. The popularity of this work was so great that a whole phenomenon arose - “Byronism”, and whole generations of young people tried to imitate him (such, for example, Pechorin in Lermontov’s “A Hero of Our Time”). Romantic heroes are united by a sense of their own exclusivity. “I” is perceived as the highest value, hence the egocentrism of the romantic hero. But focusing on oneself, a person comes into conflict with reality. REALITY - this is a strange, fantastic, extraordinary world, as in Hoffmann's fairy tale "The Nutcracker", or ugly, as in his fairy tale "Little Tsakhes". Strange events take place in these tales, objects come to life and enter into lengthy conversations, the main theme of which is a deep gap between ideals and reality. And this gap becomes the main THEME of the lyrics of romanticism. THE DIFFERENCE OF RUSSIAN AND EUROPEAN ROMANTISM. Fairy tales, legends, and fantastic stories became the main literary form of European romanticism. In the romantic works of Russian writers, the fairy-tale world arises from the description of everyday life, everyday situations. This everyday situation is refracted and rethought as fantastic. This feature of the works of Russian romantic writers can be seen most clearly in Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol's The Night Before Christmas. But the main work of Russian romanticism is considered to be the “Queen of Spades” by A.S. Pushkin. The plot of this work differs significantly from the plot of Tchaikovsky's famous opera of the same name. SUMMARY OF THE STORY: A hussar feast - a story about the secret of three cards discovered by Mr. Saint-Germain to a Russian countess in Paris - a Russified German German engineer - dreams of finding out the secret - finds an old countess - her pupil Lisa - writes letters to her that she writes off from romance novels - enters the house when the countess is at the ball - hides behind the curtain - the countess returns - waits for the moment when she will be alone in the room - tries to get the secret of the three cards - the countess dies - Genmann is horrified by what has happened - Lisa leads him out through the black move - the countess appears to Hermann in a dream and they will reveal the secret of three cards “three, seven, ace” - Hermann collects all his savings and goes to the gambling house, where the owner of the gambling house, Mr. Chekalinsky, sits down to play with him - Hermann bets on three and wins , for a seven and wins, for an ace and at that moment he takes out the queen of spades from the deck - she goes crazy and ends up in the Obukhov hospital, and Lisa receives an inheritance, marries and takes on a pupil. The Queen of Spades is a deeply romantic and even mystical work that embodies the best features of Russian romanticism. To this day, this work is notorious among theater artists and directors and is surrounded by many mystical stories that happen to those who stage or play in this work. Features of romanticism are manifested in creativity V. Zhukovsky and are developed by Baratynsky, Ryleev, Kuchelbeker, Pushkin ("Eugene Onegin"), Tyutchev. And the works Lermontov, the "Russian Byron", is considered the pinnacle of Russian romanticism.
Features of Russian romanticism. The subjective romantic image contained an objective content, expressed in the reflection of the public mood of the Russian people in the first third of the 19th century - disappointment, anticipation of change, rejection of both the Western European bourgeoisie and Russian arbitrarily autocratic, feudal foundations.
Striving for the nation. It seemed to the Russian romantics that, by comprehending the spirit of the people, they were joining the ideal principles of life. At the same time, the understanding of the “folk soul” and the content of the very principle of nationality among representatives of various trends in Russian romanticism was different. So, for Zhukovsky, nationality meant a humane attitude towards the peasantry and, in general, towards poor people; he found it in the poetry of folk rituals, lyrical songs, folk signs, superstitions, and legends. In the works of the Romantic Decembrists, the folk character is not just positive, but heroic, nationally distinctive, which is rooted in the historical traditions of the people. They found such a character in historical, robber songs, epics, heroic tales.
The idea was put forward national types of romanticism. The "classical" type includes the romantic art of England, Germany, France. Romanticism in Italy and Spain is singled out as a special type: here the slow bourgeois development of the countries is combined with the richest literary tradition. A special type is represented by the romanticism of countries waging a national liberation struggle, where romanticism acquires a revolutionary-democratic sound (Poland, Hungary). In a number of countries with a slow bourgeois development, romanticism solved educational problems (for example, in Finland, where Lenrot's epic poem Kalevala appeared). The question of the types of romanticism remains insufficiently studied.
Romanticism in European Literature European romanticism of the 19th century is remarkable in that, for the most part, its works have a fantastic basis. These are numerous fairy-tale legends, short stories and stories. The main countries in which romanticism as a literary movement manifested itself most expressively are France, England and Germany. This artistic phenomenon has several stages: 1801-1815. The beginning of the formation of romantic aesthetics. 1815-1830 years. The formation and flourishing of the current, the definition of the main postulates of this direction. 1830-1848 years. Romanticism takes on more social forms. examples of romanticism Each of the above countries has made its own, special contribution to the development of the aforementioned cultural phenomenon. In France, romantic literary works had a more political tinge, and writers were hostile to the new bourgeoisie. This society, according to French leaders, ruined the integrity of the individual, her beauty and freedom of spirit. In English legends, romanticism has existed for a long time, but until the end of the 18th century it did not stand out as a separate literary movement. English works, unlike French ones, are filled with Gothic, religion, national folklore, the culture of peasant and working societies (including spiritual ones). In addition, English prose and lyrics are filled with travel to distant lands and exploration of foreign lands. In Germany, romanticism as a literary movement was formed under the influence of idealistic philosophy. The basis was the individuality and freedom of man, oppressed by feudalism, as well as the perception of the universe as a single living system. Almost every German work is permeated with reflections on the existence of man and the life of his spirit. The development of romanticism in different national literatures followed different paths. It depended on the cultural situation in specific countries, and not always those writers who were preferred by readers in their homeland turned out to be significant on a pan-European scale. Thus, in the history of English literature, romanticism is embodied primarily by the poets of the Lake School, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but for European romanticism, Byron was the most important figure among the English romantics.
English romanticism
The first stage of English romanticism (90s of the 18th century) is most fully represented by the so-called Lake School. The term itself originated in 1800, when in one of the English literary magazines Wordsworth was declared the head of the Lake School, and in 1802 Coleridge and Southey were named members of it. The life and work of these three poets are connected with the Lake District, the northern counties of England, where there are many lakes. The Leikist poets sang splendidly this land in their poems. Born in the Lake District, Wordsworth's work captures forever some of Cumberland's picturesque views - the Derwent River, Red Lake on Helwelyn, yellow daffodils on the shores of Ullswater Lake, a winter evening on Lake Esthwaite. The founder of English romanticism was J. G. Byron with his poems about Childe Harold. Such romanticism was subsequently called freedom-loving, since its main theme is the life of a non-standard talented person in difficult conditions, in a society that does not want to understand and accept such a person.
The hero strives for freedom, not so much actual as spiritual, however, he cannot always achieve it. As a rule, such a hero becomes an “extra person”, since he does not have a single way out and an opportunity for self-realization.
The followers of the Byronic tradition in Russia were Pushkin and Lermontov, whose main characters are typical "superfluous people". Byron's poems combine both grief, and melancholy, and skepticism, and lyrics in such a way that his work became a role model for many romantic poets in the future. In Russia, Pushkin and especially Lermontov continued his ideas.
German (Germanic) Romanticism
In Germany, however, the first recognized work of romanticism was Klinger's drama Sturm und Drang, published at the end of the eighteenth century. This work glorified freedom, hatred for tyrants, cultivated an independent personality.
However, the real symbol of German romanticism was the name of Schiller, with his romantic poems and ballads. German romanticism is called mystical, because. its main themes are the struggle between spirit and matter, the empirical and the tangible.
According to the principles of romanticism, spirit is a priori higher than matter: in Schiller's poems, life and death, reality and dreams often collide. Much in romanticism is the line between the otherworldly and the real; in Schiller's poems, elements like the living dead and prophetic dreams appear.
His ideas in Russia were continued by Zhukovsky in his ballads "Svetlana" and "Lyudmila", which are filled with folklore elements of the "other world". Schiller also strives for freedom, however, in his opinion, for an immature person it can only be evil.
Therefore, his romantic work, unlike Byron, emphasizes that the ideal world is not freedom from society, but a world on the verge of sleep and reality. Unlike Byron, Schiller believed that a person can exist in harmony with the outside world without compromising his personal freedom, since the main thing for him is the freedom of spirit and thoughts.
Conclusion: Romanticism, as a literary trend, had a rather strong influence on musical, theatrical art and painting - it is enough to recall the numerous productions and paintings of those times. This happened mainly due to such qualities of the direction as high aesthetics and emotionality, heroism and pathos, chivalry, idealization and humanism. Despite the fact that the age of romanticism was rather short-lived, this did not in the least affect the popularity of books written in the 19th century in the following decades - works of literary art of that period are loved and revered by the public to this day.
