The development of literature in the XVIII century. also associated with the Petrine transformations. Peter I carried out a number of reforms that influenced the formation of a new literature. One of the first was the reform of the civil type, carried out in 1708-1710, which simplified the complex Cyrillic alphabet and separated the areas of secular and church literature. According to the well-known expression of M.V. Lomonosov, “under Peter the Great, not only boyars and boyars, but also letters, threw off their wide fur coats and dressed up in summer clothes.” The reform made it possible to organize the production of newspapers, the first of which was Vedomosti (1702). And from 1708, mass annual calendars began to be produced and the number of published secular books significantly increased. For the education of the young nobility, special books were published: “Butts, how different compliments are written” (1708), “An honest mirror of youth, or an indication for everyday behavior” (1719).

Since the beginning of the century as a whole was a transitional period to a new culture, the literature of that time was also of a transitional nature. For a long time, the old forms continued to exist in literature, but the content of the works changed. In prose, stories oriented towards the traditions of Old Russian literature continued to appear. Although the hero of the stories is already different. Enlightenment ideals of personal virtues are observed in the motives of the new hero's activity: activity, determination, common sense. The hero speaks in secular refined phrases, claiming to be educated. But the literary language of the Petrine era is extremely colorful: it is the use of Church Slavonic vocabulary, Old Church Slavonicisms and the use of foreign words. Fiction plays a leading role in a work of art. New styles and genres are being created in secular literature.

A popular genre in the time of Peter the Great is histories. Histories of this era are mostly anonymous. The stories about the Russian sailor Vasily Koriotsky, the nobleman Alexander, the merchant John, whose task is to convince the reader that all successes in life are associated with personal merits, have become widespread.

In the Petrine era, the development of poetry is observed. In traditional versions, syllabic poetry developed within the walls of theological educational institutions. These are canty-vivati, and drinking songs, and love lyrics.

A feature of syllabic versification was a given number of syllables in a poetic line and the presence of rhyme, but allowing disorder in the arrangement of stressed syllables relative to unstressed ones. The result was rather rhythmically incoherent lines.

The reforms of Peter the Great led to the emergence of "literature of projects" - journalism, the task of which in the time of Peter the Great was to substantiate the ideology of absolute monarchy.

A prominent writer and publicist of the 1st quarter of the 18th century. F. Prokopovich appears, who laid the foundations of the theory of literature and the artistic and aesthetic principles of early classicism (treatises "On the Art of Poetry", "Rhetoric"). The new aesthetic required strict adherence to norms and rules. However, in the poetry of F. Prokopovich for a long time the traditional line of patriotic verses of the 17th century was observed.

In his publicistic works, F. Prokopovich outlined the theory of Russian absolutism, developing the idea of ​​enlightened absolutism, the bearer of which is the "philosopher on the throne", an enlightened monarch, the spokesman for the idea was Peter I. the depth of grief for the departed monarch.

A new stage in the development of Russian literature is associated with the name of A.D. Cantemira(1708-1744), standing at the origins of Russian classicism. The main feature of classicism was its orientation towards antiquity, towards rationalism. The rules of rationalism included: strict delimitation of genres, schematization of images and their division into positive and negative ones, the rule of three unities: time, place, action, didacticism, the desire to teach and educate.

Classicism asserted state-civil pathos. The central theme was the struggle between feeling and duty, resolved in favor of the latter.

Russian classicism had an original character. He was distinguished by a sharp accusatory orientation, satire and a close connection with folklore.

Its peculiarity was in the closest connection with enlightenment. The central idea was the belief in the possibility of getting rid of the cruelties of life through enlightenment and the dissemination of knowledge.

Antioch Cantemir was a talented person. Since 1725 he has been composing lyrical poems and love songs. A. Kantemir became the founder of a new genre in Russian literature - satire. In 1729, nine satires were published in which the author aptly and talentedly denounces typical human vices: ignorance, deceit, complacency, exalting the ideals of the Enlightenment: reason, honor, humanism. All satires are written through the prism of expectations of transformation, denouncing the mores of the post-Petrine era. He is the author of new forms of versification and the creator of the Russian literary language. It is to Prince Antioch Cantemir that Russia owes the appearance of words in the language: people, citizen, character, taste, etc.

An original Russian writer-classicist was VC. Trediakovsky (1703-1769).

VC. Trediakovsky declared himself to be an excellent translator, who for the first time introduced the Russian public to the translation of the French gallant-erotic novel “Riding to the Island of Love”, providing the translation with inserts from his own poems. The author here acted as a reformer of Russian versification, replacing silla-bika with syllabotonics, moving on to a principled, more perfect system of versification. The basis of the new versification is the correct alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables, which is more in line with the nature of the Russian language. The principles of the new versification were set forth in the treatise A New and Brief Way of Composing Russian Poems (1735).

Gradually, Vasily Trediakovsky expands the metric horizon, mastering iambic and hexameter. The Russian hexameter, based on the percussion principle, made it possible to reproduce the rhythms of ancient authors.

The main work of V.K. Trediakovsky - the monumental poem "Telemakhida" (1766). The poem is written in hexameters in the spirit of the Homeric epic.

In the era of classicism, a new fiction emerged with a variety of genres and forms (ode, elegy, fable, tragedy, comedy, story, novel).

The ideologist and theorist of Russian classicism was M.V. Lomonosov(1711-1765). "Letter on the rules of Russian poetry" (1739) and "Rhetoric" (1745) - these are the basic theoretical works in which he substantiated and developed the ideas of classicist aesthetics and citizenship, considering the ode to be the best genre. Lomonosov determined its form, language, theme, established a canon, in accordance with which he created twenty odes (1739-1764), which became a model of state literature. The content of the odes is pictures of the Russian North, praising the reforms of Peter I, glorifying the creative energy of the Russian people, expounding views on the structure of the state, describing the deeds of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna:

When she ascended the throne, When the Almighty gave her a crown, She brought you back to Russia, She put an end to the war.

A.S. Pushkin called the spiritual odes of M.V. Lomonosov ("Morning Reflections on God's Majesty", "Evening") "eternal monuments of Russian literature". Their style is metaphorical, hyperbolic, solemn and simple at the same time:

The abyss of stars has opened up full, The stars have no number, the abyss is one..

So I am immersed in this abyss, lost in thoughts, tired ...

M.V. Lomonosov left works in other classical genres: two tragedies, a poem, epistles, idylls, numerous inscriptions, laudatory words. His work strikes with deep intellectualism and universalism.

The founder of the new Russian dramaturgy entered the history of Russian literature A.P. Sumarokov(1717-1777). He updated the national culture with secular principles oriented towards European experience. A talented playwright, poet, sharp critic and publicist, director of the first domestic public theater in Russia, he set as his goal the creation of a national literature that is not inferior in terms of the literature of European countries.

Sumarokov became widely known in 1748, when his theoretical treatises "on poetry" were published. In them, he described in detail the main genres of classicism and the requirements for literary samples.

At the same time, Sumarokov wrote his first tragedy "Khorev" based on a legendary plot from the history of Ancient Rus', but kept in the rules of French classical tragedy. He is the author of several more tragedies: "Hamlet" (1748) - an imitation of Shakespeare, "Si-nav and Truvor" (1750) - on mythological plot from the history of Novgorod, "Semir" (1751) - an appeal to the events of Kievan Rus. The conflict in tragedies is canonical: it is a clash of personal interests and public duty. The tragedies were educational in nature and served as a kind of school of virtue, as they called for tolerance and humanism.

A.P. Sumarokov is the author of a number of one-act comedies: Monsters, Quarrel between Husband and Wife, Narcissus (1750s). In them, he ridicules ignorance, greed, stupidity, negligence, blind imitation and other typical vices not only of that time. In the mid-1760s, the playwright created a cycle of satirical comedies: "Guardian", "Lick-bearer", "Poisonous".

In 1770, he creates the famous and only tragedy based on true national events - "Demetrius the Pretender", the central theme of which is the issue of the autocrat's duty and responsibility to the people.

Sumarokov published the first purely literary magazine "Hardworking Bee", on the pages of which his translations of the works of Voltaire, Swift, Horace and Lucian were published.

occupies a special place in Russian literature. Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin(1744-1792). According to the legend, after the presentation of his comedy "Undergrowth", Grigory Potemkin exclaimed:

“Die now, Denis, or at least don’t write anything else; Your name will be immortal from this one play. The author of classic national comedies was known for his wit, outstanding acting skills and critical mind, which later led him to the camp of political opposition to the government.

The comedy The Brigadier (1769) was written as a satire directed against admiration for everything gallant - French, although it was created according to the classical canons, subject to the rules of the three unities. However, the comedy is an original work of art, since the problems are purely Russian and the features of the heroes are national, the characters and mores are easily recognizable.

The pinnacle of Fonvizin's work is the immortal "Undergrowth" (1782). According to the classical canons, the play is based on a love affair, but this is just a background against which a deep social conflict unfolds. The author shows what serfdom does to a person, how it disfigures a person, forming disgusting features. In comedy, cruelty, rudeness, barbarism are shown in a fotesque form. Deeply typified images with individual characteristics are satirically brought to the stage:

Mitrofanushka, the Prostakovs and the Skotinins.

Comedy, directed against ignorance and tyranny, had a powerful influence on the development of realistic traditions in Russian literature.

The comedy was staged in the capitals and other cities of Russia. “My grandmother told me,” wrote A.S. Pushkin, - that in the performance of "Undergrowth" there was a crush in the theater - the sons of the Prostakovs and Skotnins, who came to serve from the steppe villages, were present here and consequently saw their relatives and friends, their family in front of them.

A.S. Pushkin left wonderful poems about Fonvizin:

You were a famous writer, A well-known Russian merry fellow, A mocker, twined with laurels. Denis, ignorant scourge and fear.

The largest poet of the 2nd half of the XVIII century. was G.R. Derzhavin(1743-1816). His creative heritage cannot be attributed to any specific direction in the artistic culture of the 18th century. His creativity, unexpected in the combination of styles, preserves the image of a wise and sincere person who has devoted himself to depicting real life. One of Derzhavin's first odes "On the Death of Prince Meshchersky" (late 1770s). The central theme is the frailty of life and the inevitability of the death of all things. From that moment on, the theme of the end becomes a cross-cutting one in the poet's work. And in the ode “God”, the poet describes his vision of the essence of man, who is assigned the “venerable middle of nature” between bodily creatures and heavenly spirits. She glorified Derzhavin and nominated the ode Felitsa (1782) as one of the first poets, in which he glorifies educational ideals and depicts the image of the enlightened Empress Catherine II.

The heyday of the poet’s work falls on the 1790s, in which he writes several patriotic odes: “On the capture of Ishmael”, “On the capture of Warsaw”, “On the crossing of the Alpine mountains”, in which, adhering to classical traditions, he glorifies a strong state and the sons of the Fatherland.

Listen, Europe is surprised, What was this Ross feat ...

And the glory of those who die for the Fatherland does not die.

In the final period of creativity, the poet turned to the themes of the joys of family life. And three days before his death, he wrote poems of rare expressiveness and depth:

The river of time in its striving Carries away all the deeds of people And drowns in the abyss of oblivion Peoples, kingdoms and kings. And if anything remains Through the sounds of the lyre and the trumpet, Then eternity will be devoured by the mouth And the common fate will not go away.

Contradictory trends in national classicism in the second half of the 18th century. led to a gradual transition from the classical canon to sentimentalism and realism.

Sentimentalism reveals the inner world of a particular person through emotions and feelings. The heyday of national sentimentalism is associated with creativity N.M. Karamzin(1766-1826). Literary fame came to him in the early 1790s, when Letters from a Russian Traveler (1791-1792) and the sentimental story Poor Liza (1792) were published in the Moscow Journal. The theoretical basis of which was anticlassicism: not the mind, but the feelings of a person should be the basis of artistic aesthetics.

In "Letters ..." the author gives portraits of many European celebrities through their views and feelings, dressing them in everyday colloquial poetic and lyrical language, avoiding pomp and pretentiousness. Sentimental prose impressed some contemporaries as mannered and sugary, while others, in particular the writer F.N. Glinka, the book gave the impression of "a fragrant rose: how fragrant and beautiful everything is."

The sentimental story "Poor Lisa" tells a sad love story with a tragic ending that evokes not stormy feelings, but quiet sadness. It turns out that the peasants know how to love and have the right to inner freedom and choice. The reader discovers his own world through other people's experiences.

In 1790-1800. Karamzin wrote the historical novels "Natalya, the Boyar's Daughter", "Marfa Posadnitsa, or the Conquest of Novgorod".

The main work of Karamzin is the History of the Russian State. A.S. Pushkin wrote about him: "Our first historian and last chronicler."

Karamzin was an original writer and reformer of the language of fiction.

Creativity occupies a special place in Russian literature. A.N. Radishcheva(1749-1802). Raised on European values ​​and faced with the realities of Russian life, Radishchev becomes an ardent opponent of tsarism. In the ode "Liberty" (1781-1783), the author foresees the death of the monarchy.

In poetry, the poet often acts as an innovator-reformer.

In the 1780s, the writer worked on his main work, Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow. In it, he narrates in the first person, stylizing the presentation under the genre of sentimental travel. The picture that opened up to the author was horrifying: "I looked around me - my soul became wounded by the sufferings of mankind." literary style"Journeys ..." is complex: the author's text is wedged in by the characters' statements with the originality of linguistic forms. In general, the language is archaic, but it allows the writer to achieve realistic characterizations of the characters, to convey all the sadness of the situation, to express an active position: "autocracy is the most opposite state of human nature."

In the person of Radishchev, Russia has risen to condemn the autocracy.

The freethinker writer was quickly dealt with, first sentenced to death, and then, mitigating the sentence and replacing the execution with exile. But even in exile, Radishchev remained true to himself:

Do you want to know who I am? what am I? where am i going? - I am the same as I was and will be all my life:

Not cattle, not a tree, not a slave, but a man!

Russian literature of the XVIII century. has gone through an amazing journey. From the baroque in the 1st half, to the heyday of the classics in the 2nd and the emergence of sentimentalism, which was the impetus for its further development.

Music. Profound changes in culture in the process of Peter's transformations led to changes in music, although to a much lesser extent than in other forms of art.

Before the Petrine reforms did not exist secular music. In the Petrine era, the emergence and development of an amazing synthetic musical genre, edging, which has become beloved and massive. Kant is a three-part song without accompaniment. In the 1st half of the XVIII century. Kants-vi-vats were widely used, glorifying the victories of Russian weapons near Poltava and Narva, the dignity of military leaders (for example, Peter I was often compared with Mars) and the official calls “Vivat, Russia, glorious in name!”

There were also lyrical cants, which had the form of a strophic song, when a long text in the form of verses was sung to the same melody. The text of the poems was extremely simple and sensual, and the melody was rooted in a folk song. The influence of Kant was felt for a very long time. This tradition also includes O.A. Kozlovsky to Derzhavin's poems "The Thunder of Victory, Resound" (1791) and the famous "Glory" in the finale of the opera by M.I. Glinka "Life for the Tsar".

The influence of Western European music also actively penetrated into the culture of the Petrine era. Since the court liked to have fun, and festivities, illuminations and fireworks became the norm, the spread of instrumental music became common. Music accompanied balls, parades, assemblies and theatrical performances. Regimental brass bands and home musical groups - orchestras, for example, Count AD. Menshikov, Admiral F.M. Apraksin and Count G.A. Stroganov.

Among the nobility, amateur music-making is spreading. Partes choral singing became widespread. Its roots go back to the medieval polyphonic temple singing. In St. Petersburg, the Court Chapel was created. She accompanied Peter I everywhere. According to a visiting Italian, “...there were beautiful voices between them, especially magnificent basses, ... and they would have received big money in Italy.”

In the 2nd half of the 18th century music life in Russia is becoming more complex and diverse. Element penetration European culture contributed to the emergence of free, amateur and serf musical theaters, in the repertoire of which a young domestic comic opera occupied a special place, which influenced the creation of a national secular musical language, formed on Russian folk songs. The content of the comic opera was made up of everyday stories. The plot here is uncomplicated, the humor is rude, the characters are one-dimensional popular prints, the melodies are often reduced to a simple couplet form. According to the laws of the genre, complex plot moves ended with the victory of virtue over vice. The first such opera was Anyuta (1772). And the opera by M.M. Sokolovsky "Melnik-sorcerer, deceiver and matchmaker" (1779).

Interest in music led to the formation of music education in Russia. Music classes existed at the Smolny Institute, at the Academy of Arts and in the army, where they taught to play wind instruments.

Musical life is enlivened by the spread of public concert activity, initiated by the famous Italian composer and performer V. Manfredini. The concerts featured works of both European instrumental and vocal music, as well as works by Russian authors - Bortnyansky, Khandoshkin, Kashin.

In the 2nd half of the XVIII century. a national composer school is being formed. Petersburg was the birthplace of the school. The roots of national music are deeply traditional. They are based on choral spiritual and folk music. However, in the early works, the influence of the luminaries of European music is also noticeable: Mozart, Haydn and Gluck.

As early as the 1730s, a passion for the musical culture of Europe began in Russia, in particular, opera and instrumental music. This hobby actively grew not only in both capitals, but also in provincial cities. Italian, French, German opera troupes performed in St. Petersburg, and world-famous musicians worked here for years: F. Araya, B. Galuppi, G. Sarti and others.

In 1780, the Petrovsky Theater of M. Medox was opened in Moscow - the forerunner of the future Bolshoi. high level execution. The theater of N.P. was famous for the wealth of productions. Sheremetev.

The pride of the Russian composer school is D.S. Bortnyansky(1751-1825). The early period of his work is associated with choral church music. But the basis of it musical language is classicism. And favorite forms - concert and ensemble. All his works are light, festive, majestic and solemn, mostly written in major. Among the most famous works are spiritual concerts “Tell them. Lord, my death”, “Alive in the help of the Most High” and seven cherubic songs.

In addition, Bortnyansky composed pieces for harpsichord, romances, songs, hymns, and the so-called "French" comic operas. He has three of them: "The Feast of the Seigneur", "The Falcon" (1786) and "The Rival Son, or the New Stratonic" (1787). Their musical basis was made up of cheerful and frivolous French "chansons".

A contemporary and friend of the composer M.M. Kheraskov dedicated the following lines to him:

Whatever the deeds, No matter how small, no matter how great, The praise of Bortnyansky's music is dearer to us...

In the 2nd half of the 18th century, musical Olympus Russia was created by talented composers: M.S. Berezovsky (1745-1777), V.A. Pashkevich (1742-1797),I.E. Khandoshkin(1747-1804). Their work was inspired by Russian folk song, colored with instrumental variations and amazing choirs. F.M. Du- Byansky(1760-1796) and O.A. Kozlovsky(1756-1831) entered the history of national music as composers of romances. Melodies of romances tell about the "life of the heart".

The peculiarity of the national musical art of the XVIII century. is that he managed, while maintaining national identity and traditionalism, to quickly master secular genres and forms of European music, create a national school of composers, and go along with the general artistic process from baroque to classicism and sentimentalism.

Theater. The first public theater appeared in Moscow in 1702. It was the theater of Kunsta-Fgorst, the so-called "comedy temple". He did not last long. He was not popular with Muscovites. Peter I attached special importance to the theater in connection with the fact that he demanded that the theater propagate the ideas of statehood and proclaim its domestic and foreign policy through the theatrical stage. Therefore, under Peter I, nationwide large-scale actions were widespread: triumphal processions, masquerades, fireworks. Peter I "pushed the theater out of the royal palace onto the square."

In the 1730s, “public games” appeared in Moscow at Shrovetide, at which Evdon and Berfa, Solomon and Gaer were represented. And since 1742, the German Comedy was represented in Moscow - a permanent city theater, whose performances were attended by many people.

The birth of a national professional theater associated with the name F.G. Volkova(1729-1763) and the city of Yaroslavl, where he first staged the dramas of his great countryman D. Rostovsky, and then the first tragedies of A.P. Sumarokov. Since 1756, the public theater has opened its curtain in St. Petersburg. The creator of the repertoire and director of the theater was the playwright Sumarokov. And the brilliant actor and director was Fedor Grigorievich Volkov. Confirmation of his genius is his last creation - "Triumphant Minerva", in which Volkov's numerous talents were manifested. “He knew theatrical art to the highest degree,” recalled contemporaries. This grandiose holiday was staged on the occasion of the accession to the throne of Catherine II. During the celebration, F. Volkov caught a cold and died untimely "to the great and common regret of all."

In the troupe Volkov began his acting career famous actorI.A. Dmitrievsky(1736-1821), who from 1779 directed a private theater in the Tsaritsyn meadow. The comedy by D.I. Fonvizin "Undergrowth", in which I.A. Dmitrievsky played the role of Starodum.

There was a university theater in Moscow with the Italian troupe D. Locatelli. And in 1780, the Petrovsky Theater opened, the repertoire of which included both dramatic and opera performances.

A peculiar phenomenon of the cultural life of the second half of the XVIII century. was a fort theater.

IN late XVIII V. The role of the theater in public life has grown significantly and has become the subject of public discussion.

So the national art culture in the Enlightenment reflected the complex social life in its development and the variety of options and forms, genres and trends. The defining feature was the formation of "Russian Europeanness" and secularism.

"Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University

Essay

on the topic of:Features of 18th century literature

Performed:

4th year student

faculty of training

UNK, c. 41

Chelyabinsk

1. Features of foreign literature of the 18th century……………………3

2. General characteristics of the literary process in Russia……….5

2.1. ……………………………………….………...9

2.2. …………………………………………………..12

2.3. …………………………………………………..14

2.4. Conclusion………………………………………………………….17

2.5. Literature……………………………………………………….18

Features of foreign literature of the 18th century

The most significant cultural phenomenon of the 18th century, which gave its name to the era, is the Enlightenment. The term denotes a broad ideological movement. “Enlightenment is a person’s exit from the state of his minority, in which he is of his own free will,” wrote the German philosopher I. Kant.

Enlightenment is distinguished by activity, a critical attitude to reality, combined with a positive program of reorganization. All institutions of society were criticized.

The biggest event of the era was the publication in France of the first volume of the Encyclopedia. It contained a complete set of knowledge and educational ideas about nature, society, science and art, which had developed by the 18th century. In the French Enlightenment, the main trends of the general European educational thought were most clearly manifested.

Enlightenment literature reflects the trends associated with the development of enlightenment philosophy and science. The combination of scientific thinking and artistic creativity is a characteristic feature of the culture of the era, inherent in Defoe and Pope, Montesquieu and Voltaire, Diderot and Rousseau, Lessing and Goethe, who created a whole system of genres that realized this feature: a treatise novel, a philosophical story, a philosophical poem, etc. d.

In the first half of the century, major achievements in art were associated with enlightenment classicism, primarily with the genre of tragedy, to which Voltaire, Addison, Gottsched paid tribute. What is new lies primarily in the fact that enlightenment classicism, without rejecting the anthropocentric attitude to the world, focuses not on the individual, but on society.

Along with this, the enlighteners reject the principle of the tragic, putting in its place the optimistic principle. In tragedy, under the influence of a resurgent interest in Shakespeare, direct demonstration of the action is used more widely, it becomes more picturesque, the action is often transferred to the East, full of colors unfamiliar to Europeans. The East attracts not only with its exoticism. Pictures of Eastern despotism and religious fanaticism emphasize the significance and social significance of the enlightenment ideals.

The tragedy is becoming more and more philosophical. This is manifested in its structure: the place and time of the action become completely arbitrary. The main thing for the authors of new tragedies is to develop a certain philosophical thesis, and not to describe the character or any particular era. Therefore, the principle of modernization of the material used was widely applied.

Genuine masterpieces were created in the comedy genre
(Goldoni, Gozzi, Beaumarchais). A new type of comedy is being developed - "tearful comedy", which contributed to the emergence of the genre of drama (Didero, Lessing).

An important cultural event of the era was the development of the genre of the novel, which broke the fetters of classical aesthetics. The most advanced positions here were occupied English writers– Defoe, Swift, Richardson, Fielding.

The establishment of harmony in the culture of Europe was possible only if there was some alternative, in parallel with the cult of Reason, which became the cult of Feeling. There are conditions for the formation of sentimentalism. Sentimentalists developed the concept of Feeling enlightened by Reason. Feelings in sentimentalism are described as "natural feelings" of a "natural person", passions are ennobled by reason. (1)

General characteristics of the literary process in Russia

In the domestic literature of the 18th century, the following periods are distinguished:

1st period - literature of the time of Peter the Great. It is still transitional. Its peculiarity is the replacement of religious literature with secular literature.

2nd period () years. characterized by the formation of classicism, the creation of a new genre system, and the in-depth development of the literary language.

3rd period (1760 - the first half of the 70s) - the further evolution of classicism, the flowering of satire, the emergence of prerequisites for the emergence of sentimentalism.

4th period (last quarter of a century) - the beginning of the crisis of classicism, the formation of sentimentalism, the strengthening of realistic tendencies.

The main lawlessness that Truten fought against was police arbitrariness. Without encroaching on the foundations of the monarchy and the very institution of serf relations, Novikov sharply opposed the abuse of serfdom, openly declaring his sympathy for the peasants.

The last decades of the 18th century were marked by remarkable artistic achievements in our literature, romanticism and realism were rapidly preparing in it. Fonvizin, Derzhavin and Radishchev will achieve the greatest success. Their work is the result, first of all, of the further development of the best national traditions, and at the same time, they will take into account the new achievements of European aesthetics (Voltaire, Diderot, Lessing, Mercier, etc.) (3)

LOMONOSOV, MIKHAIL VASILIEVICH

LOMONOSOV (1711-1765), Russian educator, scientist-encyclopedist, poet, translator. He was born on November 8 (19), 1711 in the village of Denisovka (now the village of Lomonosovo) near Kholmogory, Arkhangelsk Province. in a Pomor peasant family.

In January 1731, Lomonosov, posing as a noble son, entered the Moscow Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy, where he received good training in ancient languages ​​and other humanities. He knew Latin perfectly, and was later recognized as one of the best Latinists in Europe.

At the beginning of 1736, as one of the best students, Lomonosov was sent to the university at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, and in the autumn of the same year - to Germany, to the University of Marburg, where he studied natural and humanities. In 1739 he went to Freiburg, where he studied chemistry and mining at the Mining Academy. His first poetic and literary-theoretical experiments date back to this time.

In 1741 Lomonosov returned to Russia. In 1742 he was appointed adjunct of the Physics class, and in 1745 - professor of chemistry (academician) of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. He immediately led the fight against the “enemies of Russian sciences” from among foreigners. Lomonosov's work was exceptionally versatile. Almost all branches of contemporary natural science, mining and metallurgy, mathematics, history, philology, linguistics, art, and literature were covered in his works.

In 1742, Lomonosov, for the first time in Russia, began to give public lectures in Russian at the Academy of Sciences. In 1755, on the initiative of Lomonosov and according to his project, Moscow University was founded, "open to all persons capable of science," and not only to the nobility. Lomonosov acted as the organizer of many scientific, technical and cultural initiatives that played a huge role in the development of Russia. In 1758 he was entrusted with the "supervision" of the Geographical Department, the Historical Collection, the university and the gymnasium at the Academy of Sciences.

The first work of Lomonosov, concerning the problems of language, was written in Germany Letter on the rules of Russian poetry(1739, published in 1778), where he substantiates the applicability of syllabic-tonic versification to the Russian language.

Lomonosov's main work on language was Russian grammar, written in 1755 and withstood 14 editions. It was the first widely known grammar of the Russian language, created in Russia. Using a number of ideas from the Old Slavonic grammar of Melety Smotrytsky (c. 1578–1633), Lomonosov expressed a number of original ideas. While retaining some archaic ideas (for example, the scheme of parts of speech dating back to the Latin standard), he approached many issues in a new way, in particular, separating sounds from letters and considering the physiological and acoustic properties of sounds. IN Grammar the first classification of the main dialects (dialects) of the Russian language is given. The Russian and Church Slavonic languages ​​are clearly distinguished, their main differences are determined at different levels of organization of the sound system.

The stylistic standardization of the Russian language carried out by Lomonosov was of great importance. Ideas about the styles of the Russian language were first expressed by Lomonosov in A short guide to eloquence...(1748); later wrote about it in Russian grammar and more details in essay. On the benefits of church books in the Russian language(1758). Here Lomonosov creates the widely known concept of the "three calms" of the Russian language, designed to justify the possibility and necessity, and at the same time codify the use of the Russian language in all functional styles of language communication.

According to Lomonosov, each literary genre should be written in a certain “calm”: “high calm” is “required” for heroic poems, odes, “prosaic speeches about important matters”; middle - for poetic messages, elegies, satires, descriptive prose, etc .; low - for comedies, epigrams, songs, "writings of ordinary affairs." "Shtils" were ordered primarily in the field of vocabulary, depending on the ratio of neutral (common to Russian and Church Slavonic languages), Church Slavonic and Russian colloquial words. "High calm" is characterized by a combination of Slavic words with neutral words, "middle calm" is built on the basis of neutral vocabulary with the addition of a certain number of Slavic words and colloquial words, "low calm" combines neutral and colloquial words. Such a program made it possible to overcome the Russian-Church Slavonic diglossia, which was still noticeable in the first half of the 18th century, and to create a single stylistically differentiated literary language. The theory of "three calms" had a significant impact on the development of the Russian literary language in the second half of the 18th century. up to the activities of the school (since the 1790s), which set a course for the convergence of the Russian literary language with the spoken language.

The poetic heritage of Lomonosov includes solemn odes, philosophical odes-reflections Morning reflection on God's majesty(1743) and Evening reflection on God's majesty(1743), poetic transcriptions of the psalms and adjoining them Ode chosen from Job(1751), didactic Letter on the benefits of glass(1752), unfinished heroic poem Peter the Great(1756–1761), satirical poems ( Anthem to the beard, 1756–1757 and others), philosophical Conversation with Anacreon(translation of Anacreontic odes in conjunction with their own answers to them; 1757-1761), heroic idyll Polydor(1750), two tragedies, numerous poems on the occasion of various festivities, epigrams, parables, translated verses.

The pinnacle of Lomonosov's poetic work is his odes, written "on occasion" - in connection with significant events in the life of the state, for example, the accession to the throne of Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine II. Lomonosov used solemn occasions to create vivid and majestic pictures of the universe. The odes are replete with metaphors, hyperbole, allegories, rhetorical questions, and other tropes that create internal dynamics and sound richness of the verse, imbued with patriotic pathos, reflections on the future of Russia. IN Ode on the day of the accession to the All-Russian throne of Elizabeth Petrovna(1747) he wrote: “Sciences nourish young men, / They give joy to the old, / In happy life decorate, / Protect in an accident. As a poet, Lomonosov sang about what he worked on as a scientist: “the great northern lights”, “the benefits of glass”, “the superiority of the newly invented artillery over the old”, etc. At the same time, he did not turn his poems into rhyming treatises. They are full of majestic images - for example, the poet called the sun the “Eternally Burning Ocean”, about the night sky he said: “The abyss of stars has opened full; / There is no number of stars, the bottom of the abyss. The peculiarity of Lomonosov's poetic worldview was later noticed by Gogol: "The power of delight turned the naturalist into a poet."

FONVIZIN, DENIS IVANOVICH

FONVIZIN, (1745-1792) - playwright, publicist, translator.

Born April 3 (14), 1745 in Moscow. Descended from the old noble family(the Livonian knight von Vizin was taken prisoner under John IV, then began to serve the Russian Tsar). Since 1755, Denis Fonvizin was enrolled in the gymnasium at Moscow University, where he successfully studied Latin, German and French and spoke at ceremonial acts with speeches in Russian and German. In 1760, among the best students, Fonvizin was taken to St. Petersburg to be presented to the curator of the university and "produced into students." He made his debut in the literary field as a translator: he translated from German a collection of popular in Europe Danish writer Ludwig Golberg Moral Fables (1761). Several small translations of Fonvizin appeared in university publications in 1761-1762 (including in the journal Useful Entertainment, which also published poems by Fonvizin's older brother, Pavel); the translation of Voltaire's tragedy Alzire (1762) was not published at the time, but was widely circulated in lists (published in 1894). At the same time, he began to translate the lengthy, four-volume adventurous and didactic novel by Abbé Jean Terrason Heroic Virtue, or the Life of Seth, King of Egypt, taken from the mysterious evidence of ancient Egypt (1762-1768).

In 1762, Fonvizin left the university and became a translator at the Collegium of Foreign Affairs.

His comedy Brigadier (1768-1769, post. 1772, publ. 1786) became a completely original and innovative work. This is the first “comedy of manners” in Russian literature, in contrast to the satirical “comedy of characters” that prevailed earlier, when personified vices (“stinginess”, “bragging”, etc.) were brought onto the stage. In the Brigadier, vices, features of speech and behavior actors socially conditioned. This is achieved with the help of "word masks". With the deduction of the speech characteristic, there are no other, individual human traits ”(). "Speaking" in comedy prevails over "action": on the stage they drink tea, play cards, discuss which books are needed for education, etc.

In the 1760s, during the era of the Commission for the preparation of the New Code (1767), Fonvizin also spoke out on the issue of the rights and privileges of the nobility that worried everyone.

Fonvizin's activity as a translator of fiction was crowned by the translation of Paul Jeremy Bitobe's story on the biblical story Joseph (1769): this is a sentimental narrative imbued with lyricism, performed in rhythmic prose. Later, Fonvizin proudly wrote that this story “served me to extract tears from sensitive people. For I know many who, reading Joseph, translated by me, shed tears.

The comedy Undergrowth (1779–1781, posted in September 1782, published in 1783) brought fame and universal recognition to Fonvizin. An unknown author of the Dramatic Dictionary (1787) testified to the extraordinary success of the play when it was first staged on the court stage in Tsaritsyn Meadow: “The theater was incomparably filled, and the audience applauded the play with purses.” This is a "comedy of manners", depicting the domestic life of a wild and dark family of provincial landowners. In the center of the comedy is the image of Mrs. Prostakova, a tyrant and a despot in own family and even more so among their peasants. Her cruelty in dealing with others is compensated by her unreasonable and ardent tenderness for her son Mitrofanushka, who, thanks to such maternal upbringing, grows up spoiled, rude, ignorant and completely unsuitable for any business. Prostakova is sure that she can do what she wants, because a decree was given on this "freedom of the nobility." Opposed to her and her relatives, Starodum, Pravdin, Sofya and Milon believe that the freedom of a nobleman lies in the right to study and then serve society with his mind and knowledge, which justifies the nobility of the noble title. In the finale, retribution comes: Prostakova is estranged from her estate and abandoned by her own son (the theme of a cruel, indulging in his passions and ruining subjects of a tyrant brings Fonvizin's comedy closer to tragedies).

IN last years Fonvizin's health deteriorated greatly (in 1784-1785 he traveled with his wife to Italy for treatment), and at the same time his religious and repentant moods increased. They were reflected in an autobiographical essay written "in the footsteps" of the Confessions of J.-J. Rousseau, - Sincere confession in my deeds and thoughts (1791). His last comedy, The Choice of a Tutor (between 1790 and 1792), which has survived incompletely, is devoted, as in many respects to Undergrowth, to issues of education, but is much inferior to the latter in artistic terms.

Fonvizin died on December 1 (12), 1792 in St. Petersburg after an evening spent visiting, where, according to those present, he was cheerful and playful. He was buried at the Lazarevsky cemetery of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. (5)

Derzhavin, Gavrila Romanovich

His works - majestic, energetic and completely unexpected for the second half of the eighteenth century - had and continue to influence the development of Russian poetry to this day.

Derzhavin came from a poor but ancient family, which traced its origins to the Tatar Murza Bagrim. He had a brother Andrei and a sister Anna, who died in infancy.

Derzhavin was born so frail and weak that, according to popular custom, he was baked in bread, that is, he was kept in a kind of incubator. An old folk remedy helped. The child survived. And not only survived, but also lived a long, eventful life.

By the end of the 70s. Derzhavin was already quite well known in literary circles as a poet. However real glory came to him only after the publication in 1783 of his ode "Felitsa", dedicated to Catherine 2.

The first collection of poems was published in 1776. titled "Odes translated and composed at Mount Chitalagay". In all these works, a strong influence is felt, although even here the satirical boldness characteristic of the mature Derzhavin, the sharpness of expressions, the aphoristic clarity and completeness of individual verses, were already manifested. Such, for example, is the famous quatrain from the ode "To nobility"

But soon Derzhavin begins to free himself from the influence of Lomonosov, to develop his own "handwriting". He refuses in some works from the usual genre of laudatory ode in iambic tetrameter. So for his ode "On the birth of a porphyry child in the North" he chooses poetic size- four-foot trochee. (2)

The works that made Derzhavin famous, such as Ode on the Death of Prince Meshchersky, Ode to Felice, God, Waterfall were written in an unusual language for that time.

Derzhavin's language is surprisingly sonorous. So, Ode to death book. Meshchersky from the very first lines, it strikes with booming and ringing lines, as if reproducing the ringing of a pendulum, measuring the irretrievably passing time: Verb of time! metal ringing! .. Your terrible voice confuses me ...

The images created by the poet are unusually passionate and emotional for the calm and rational era of classicism, for example: Already death gnashes its teeth ... And days mine, like cereal, flogs.

No less unexpected is the ending of the ode. The traditional classicist system of values ​​has always placed public and state interests above personal ones. The very genre of the solemn ode, it would seem, did not imply any intimate revelations. Derzhavin, however, ends his sublime reflections on the frailty of earthly life with surprisingly personal lines coming from the depths of his soul:

Life is heaven's instant gift;

Set her to rest,

And with your pure soul

Bless fate blow.

In an ode God, with sublime and solemn stanzas praising divine majesty, there is a description of the author's personal experiences and thoughts:

Part of the whole universe,

Delivered, it seems to me, in a venerable

In the middle of nature I am the one

Where did you end up bodily creatures,

Where did you start the spirits of heaven,

And the chain of beings has bound everyone by me.

The new features that appeared in Derazhavin's work in the 1970s and 1980s intensified significantly in the last decades of his life. The poet refuses od, in his later works the lyrical element clearly prevails. Among the poems created by Derzhavin at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. - friendly messages, humorous poems, love lyrics - genres that were placed in the classicist hierarchy much lower than odic poetry. The aging poet, who became almost a classic during his lifetime, is not embarrassed at all, since it is in this way that he can express his individuality in poetry. He sings of a simple life with its joys, friendship, love, mourns its short duration, mourns for departed loved ones.

His poem is filled with sincere and mournful feeling. Martin, dedicated to memory early deceased first wife:

O homely swallow!

Oh sweet little bird!…

Despite the innovative nature of Derzhavin's work, at the end of his life his literary circle consisted mainly of supporters of the preservation of the old Russian language and opponents of that light and elegant style, which Karamzin, and then Pushkin, began to write at the beginning of the 19th century. Since 1811, Derzhavin was a member of the literary society Conversation of Lovers of Russian Literature, which defended the archaic literary style.

This did not prevent Derzhavin from understanding and highly appreciating the talent of the young Pushkin, whose poems he heard at the exam at the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum. symbolic meaning of this event will become clear only later - the literary genius and innovator welcomed his younger successor.

Conclusion

For a century, Russian literature has passed a long and difficult path of development. Reflecting the main stages of the steady process of the formation of the Russian nation and statehood, directly intervening in the resolution of topical political, social and moral issues of its time, Russian literature, throwing off its religious shell, has become a powerful tool for the further growth of national culture and self-consciousness, the most important factor in the ideological impact on society. .

She achieved great success by the middle of the 18th century, by the time the formation of classicism was completed. These successes were the result of an organic synthesis of creatively reworked achievements of foreign aesthetics with the best achievements domestic literature. The literature of Russian classicism, in its satirical and anti-clerical orientation, relied to a large extent on the previous tradition.

The literature of classicism has become a new stage in the development of Russian literature. Responding to the requirements of the era, she created the image of a new person - a citizen and patriot, convinced that "for the benefit of society, if it is joyful to work"

The major mood that had developed in poetry by the middle of the century was associated with the desire of writers to give their reader an example of serving the fatherland, worthy of imitation.

The great conquest of the literature of the 18th century was the assertion of the extra-estate value of man, the resolute struggle against the abuse of serfdom, and the protection of the interests of the broad masses. (3)

Literature

1. Foreign literature from the origins to the present day: Proc. allowance for students. higher textbook institutions / Vladimir Andreevich Lukov. - 2nd ed., Rev. - M.: Publishing Center "Academy", 2005. - 512 p.

2. Russian writers, 19th century: Biobibliogr. words. / , and etc.; Comp. . - M.: Enlightenment, 2002. - 224 p., 2l. Il.

3. History of Russian literature of the 19th century: A textbook for ped students. in-t on spec. No. 000 “Rus. lang. or T." - M.: Enlightenment, 1982. - 335s.\

4.http://www. *****

http://www. *****/id/english/18vek/

In the literature of the 18th century, the old forms were preserved, but the content of the works changed, being influenced by the ideas of the Enlightenment and humanistic thought.

At the beginning of the XVIII century. novels ("stories") were popular, especially "the story of the Russian sailor Vasily Koriotsky", which reflected the emergence of a new hero, figure, patriot and citizen. "stories" showed that a person can achieve success in life due to personal qualities, virtues of a person, and not to origin. The influence of the Baroque style was manifested, first of all, in poetry, dramaturgy (represented mainly by translated plays), love lyrics.

The foundations of the theory of modern Russian literature were laid by the writer and publicist F. Prokopovich in his works "Rhetoric" and "On Poetic Art". He substantiated the principles of early classicism. In Russian literature, the beginning of the classical tradition was laid by the work of A.D. Kantemir, a poet, who was the first to introduce in Russia the genre of poetic satire, which was developed by classicism.

Literature since the 1930s influenced by classicism. This direction arose under the influence of Western European, earlier in time. Russian classicism obeyed common European laws, but it still had a pronounced interest in antiquity and strict genre regulation. Translations of ancient authors (especially Horace and Anacreon) gained great popularity. In dramaturgy and poetry, the dominant place was given to antique subjects. The national feature of Russian classicism was its closer (compared to Western Europe) connection with the ideology of the Enlightenment, which manifested itself in the high civic pathos of art.

Classicism also acquired its characteristic features - the pathos of absolute monarchy, national statehood. The direction of classicism reached its peak in the philosophical, solemn odes of Lomonosov with their ideas of nationwide cultural progress and a wise monarch.

Russian classicism is represented by the names of M. M. Kheraskov, A. P. Sumarokov, its head, Ya. B. Knyazhnin, V. I. Maikov and others. nobility and autocratic statehood.

The founder of the new versification, which is the basis of modern Russian poetry, was Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky (1703 - 1768). The new, syllabic-tonic system of versification became an essential element of the new literature. It is based on the alternation of unstressed and stressed syllables in a line.

At the origins of the new Russian drama was the author of the first Russian comedies and tragedies, Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov (1717-1777). He created 12 comedies and 9 tragedies, as well as about 400 fables. He took the plots of most tragedies from Russian history, for example, "Dmitry the Pretender".

The influence of the ideas of the Enlightenment, Pugachev's peasant war, and then the French Revolution led writers to devote their works to acute social and political problems. Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin (1744-1792) denounced the arbitrariness and ignorance of the landlords in the comedy "Undergrowth". Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin (1743-1816) tried in the ode "Felitsa" to create the image of an "ideal monarch", with which contemporary rulers could not stand comparison.

Classicism was replaced by sentimentalism. He has a particular interest in the experiences, feelings, interests of the common man, especially from the middle classes. The beginning of sentimentalism is associated with the name of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826). The writer managed in his story "Poor Liza" to prove the simple truth that "peasants know how to love" and are ready to give their lives for love.

Noble poetry of this time is not limited only to love lyrics. He is also familiar with genres of greater social significance, for example, satire, significant examples of which were first presented by Kantemir, although even before him satirical elements appeared, for example, in the oratorical prose of Feofan Prokopovich, in the verses of Simeon of Polotsk or in "interludes", which were often displayed in caricature the form of enemies of the policy of feudal expansion.

Older genres took shape in the work of Lomonosov and Kantemir - solemn ode and satire. Creativity Trediakovsky gave samples of artistic prose, poetic epic and marked the beginning of the formation of the genre system of lyrics.

With Sumarokov and his followers, there was a “decrease” in high style along the line of lyrics and especially along the line of comedy. Lomonosov's theory ranked comedy among the low genres, allowing it greater freedom from "rules" and thereby "lowering" classicism in it. The wide literature of the nobility did not fail to use this relative freedom. Sumarokov, in his Epistle on Poetry, paid much attention to comedy, to which he set a didactic task: “the property of comedy to correct temper with a mockery is to laugh and use its direct charter.”

N. M. Karamzin wrote a sentimental story in the genre of a sentimental journey.

In a number of works that belong to the genre of classicism, elements of realism are clearly visible. D. I. Fonvizin in his comedies “Foreman” and “Undergrowth” realistically and aptly described the life of landlord estates, drawing the morals of their owners, sympathizing with the fate of the peasants, whose situation required, in his opinion, relief by softening the morals of the nobility, as well as its enlightenment .

Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev (1749-1802) in his artistic form, in his works, raised the problem of the need to eliminate serfdom and autocracy. In the book "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow", which combines the travel genre with a sensitive story, they are given vivid pictures of lawlessness and arbitrariness.

Early 18th century is an important period in the formation of the Russian literary language. The literature of the Petrine era was distinguished by great linguistic diversity, along with the Church Slavonic language, foreign words were actively used in it, many of which have been preserved in modern Russian.

First of all, Russian classical poetics developed questions of poetic language, which had to be adapted to new tasks.

Lexical norms of the literary language in mid-eighteenth V. were ordered by M.V. Lomonosov. In his treatise "On the Benefits of Church Books in the Russian Language" (1757), he used the scheme of dividing the literary language, known since antiquity, into three styles: high, medium, and low. Its starting point was the use of "Slavic sayings". But his reform kept the conventions of the bookish language, which differed from the spoken language.

Classicism is represented most vividly by the works of Lomonosov, who promoted in his theoretical works (“Rhetoric”, “On the Usefulness of Church Books in the Russian Language”, “Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry”, etc.) magnificent, high art of the word, moralizing, which should contribute to resolution of problems of state order. In the work of Lomonosov, artistically posed and resolved problems that were naively and timidly put forward by the literature of the beginning of the century, advocating for the strengthening and expansion of the socio-economic base feudal Russia. Without leaving the genre framework of high poetry, he used the ode, and partly tragedy and epic to promote the trend of the feudal-absolutist, military-bureaucratic monarchy in its European "cultural" forms.

The greatest poet of the end of the XVIII century. consider G.R. Derzhavin. His merit was the democratization of the poetic word, which connected the "high" style with the "low" one, which introduced elements of poetry into poetry. spoken language. In the formation of a new literary language played important role sentimentalist writers, in particular, N.M. Karamzin. But, having proclaimed the rapprochement of the literary language with the spoken language, they were guided by the "language of the salons." Therefore, their innovations did not become the main direction in the formation of the literary language.

Another direction was the orientation towards the book Slavic, defended by A.S. Shishkov, which contributed to the preservation of national roots in the language. By the beginning of the XIX century. disputes about the development of the Russian language became part of the cultural life of society, which was an indicator of the growth of national identity.

A. Beletsky and M. Gabel

History of Russian literature of the XVIII century. Soviet literary criticism has to a large extent to build anew, in the fight against a number of stable prejudices about this era, which dominated the bourgeois history of Russian literature. Among them is primarily the characteristic of the entire R. l. 18th century as imitative, completely covered by the influence of French "pseudoclassicism", - a kind of disease that was difficult to overcome by individual writers - the pioneers of "nationality" and "originality". All the complex variety of literature of the 18th century, which reflected the complexity and acuteness of the class struggle, was reduced by bourgeois historians to the activities of several writers-"luminaries" - Kantemir, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Fonvizin, Derzhavin, Karamzin - and some of them were interpreted as bright representatives of " classicism", and others - as timid initiators of "realism". Bourgeois "third estate" literature of the 18th century fell out of the field of view of researchers, as well as peasant oral art and literature, represented by numerous manuscript collections, indiscriminately related to the continuation of the traditions of "ancient" literature. In bourgeois literary criticism, of course, there were individual attempts to go beyond these established limits and begin the study of popular literature (Sipovsky's works on the novel, A. A. Veselovskaya on love lyrics, etc.); but the limitations of bourgeois research methods reduced them to the collection and preliminary classification of raw material, to the exposition of the content. The situation has not yet changed sufficiently even today: Soviet literary criticism has not yet paid due attention to this area. In the cases where these questions were approached, literary process 18th century was covered from the erroneous positions of Plekhanov's "History of Russian Social Thought": the Menshevik theory of the class struggle of the 18th century, which allegedly remained in a "hidden state", exhibited there, led to a characterization of R. l. 17th century as literature exclusively of the nobility, driven forward thanks to the struggle of the best part of the Europeanizing nobility with the government and partly with the autocracy - a "supra-class" institution. Only recently has the sharply posed problem of the critical, Marxist-Leninist development of the literary heritage caused a revival in the study of the heritage of R. l. 18th century The need to revise the tradition, to reassess individual writers, to study the "grassroots" (as bourgeois historians called it) bourgeois, raznochinny, petty-bourgeois and peasant literature came to the fore. An indicator of this revival is the issue of the Literary Heritage, dedicated to the 18th century, with a number of fresh materials and articles of fundamental importance, reprints of poets of the 18th century. (Tredyakovsky, Lomonosov, Sumarokov, Derzhavin, heroic-comic poem, Vostokov, Radishchev poets), publication of Radishchev's works, works about Lomonosov, Radishchev, Chulkov, Komarov, etc.

History of literature of the XVIII century. represents the development of features that took shape from the middle of the 16th century, from the beginning of the absolutist-feudal period in the history of the country, and determined the main features of the literary movement throughout the entire time from the middle of the 16th century. until the end of the 18th century. But in the development of the literature of the era of feudalism, one can speak of a special period from the end of the 17th century to the end of the 18th century, when the triumph of the noble monarchy receives its complete expression in literature. She found her bright representative in the person of Peter I, who, according to Comrade Stalin, “did a lot to create and strengthen the national state of landowners and merchants ... did a lot to elevate the class of landowners and develop the emerging merchant class” (from a conversation with E. Ludwig, “ Bolshevik", 1932, No. 8, p. 33). Thus, Peter's activity turned out to be fraught with new contradictions, strengthening the "nascent merchant class", objectively creating a material basis for the growth of new capitalist relations and at the same time clearing the way for new cultural influences, "not stopping before barbaric means of struggle against barbarism" (Lenin. On "left" childishness and petty-bourgeoisness, Sochin., vol. XXII, p. 517). The entire history of the 18th century, especially since its middle, has been marked by the growth of class contradictions, the maturing crisis of the feudal system. The relatively sharp rise of capitalism marks the beginning of a new period from the 19th century.

Late 17th century period until the 30s. 18th century does not create a particular style in literature. On the one hand, the traditions of the old church (Slavonic in language) literature are still very strong; on the other hand, a system of new thoughts and feelings is growing, timidly seeking verbal form and giving complex combinations of new elements with old ones, familiar from the literature of the 17th century. The literature of the "Petrine era" is in the same stage of "formation" as the language, which is sometimes a curious mixture of elements of Slavic and Russian with Polish, Latin, German, Dutch, etc. The growth of trade relations is not yet getting a vivid literary expression , except for the oratorical speeches of Feofan Prokopovich and his own play - the "tragedo-comedy" "Vladimir" (1705), which, incidentally, refers to the Ukrainian period of his activity. The development of trade is associated with aggressive tendencies in foreign policy (access to the sea, new markets was required): official literature was in a hurry to support and advertise the military undertakings of the authorities, creating for this a special repertoire that came out mainly from the "Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy" in Moscow, from -under the pen of professors, immigrants from Ukraine (such are the allegorical plays - "A terrible image of the second coming of the Lord to earth", 1702; "The liberation of Livonia and Ingermanland", 1705; "God's despisers of the proud humiliation", 1702; "The politically splendid apotheosis of the Great Russian Hercules of Peter I " and etc.). Both these plays and panegyric verses on the occasion of victories - direct continuation school, "baroque" literature of the 17th century. More clearly, the psychological and everyday turning point in the life of the nobility - as a result of strengthening it and expanding the range of its social and state activities - is reflected in the unofficial narrative and lyrical work of the early 18th century. The handwritten anonymous story of the “Petrine era” bears distinct new features. Its hero is a service nobleman or merchant, a man who already lives in “Russian Europe”, and not in the Muscovite state, separated from the West by a protective wall of national and ecclesiastical exclusivity; he travels feeling at home abroad; he is successful in business and in particular in "affairs of love." The construction of the stories (“History of the Russian sailor Vasily Koriotsky”, “The story of the nobleman Alexander”, “The story of the Russian merchant John and the beautiful maiden Eleonora”) is biographical. A young man, seeking service, comes to St. Petersburg and enters the sailors. Having mastered the "sailor sciences", he goes "for a better knowledge of the sciences" abroad, where he embarks on trading enterprises. In this initial part of the hero's biography - a noble or merchant's son - the features of reality, the everyday situation of the early 18th century, are scattered. With the transfer of action abroad, they give way to the stereotyped scheme of the old adventure novel. " Russian merchant”or a nobleman abroad turns into a romantic hero who falls from the arms of love into the hands of robbers, is separated from his beloved during a shipwreck and finds her after a long search. What is interesting is not so much the assimilation of a template that originates in the West from the novels of the late Hellenistic era, but the introduction of details into the story, prompted by observation of living life. From this side, the verbal design is also interesting, in particular the vocabulary, where the Old Slavonic elements are crowded out by barbarisms, technical expressions, words introduced by the new way of life (cavalier, flute, carriage, aria, “minovet”, etc.). One of the means of expressing the hero's love experiences is the lyrical monologues, romances and songs introduced into the story. By them, the story merges with the lyrics of this time - quantitatively significant, for the most part nameless (among the compilers of lyrical poems, we know, however, the Germans Gluck and Paus, Mons, favorite of Catherine I, his secretary Stoletov). Written in either syllabic or syllabo-tonic verse, these lyrical little pieces are a naive expression of the individualism of the noble elite, the result of the penetration of new principles into the old system of feudal relations. Freeing themselves from the "house-building fetters" in relations between the sexes, assimilating the "gallant" manners of the Western nobility, Mons and Stoletov seek expression for their intimate, almost exclusively love experiences in the forms of a conventional style, new to Russian literature and already completing its development in Europe: love - inextinguishable fire, disease, wound inflicted by the "Cupido's arrow"; beloved - "dear lady", with a face-dawn, golden hair, eyes shining like rays, scarlet sugar lips; “fortune” rules over those who love, either in the traditional image of a mythological goddess, or with features reminiscent of the “fate-share” of oral art. Noble poetry of this time is not limited only to love lyrics. It also knows genres of greater social significance, for example, satire, significant examples of which were first given by Kantemir, although satirical elements appeared before him, for example, in the verses of Simeon of Polotsk, in the oratorical prose of Feofan Prokopovich, or in “interludes”, which often caricatured the enemies of feudal politics. expansion. The satires of Cantemir served the cause of propaganda of European cultural influences which increased sharply at the end of the 17th century. The satires of Cantemir went against the prevailing in the 30s. political tendencies and did not appear in print, spreading in manuscripts; they were published in 1762. Kantemir's satirical attacks are directed against all enemies of the feudal-absolutist Europeanization of Russia and against the distortion of this Europeanization: Kantemir denounces "ignoramuses", conservatives who see science as the cause of "heresies", "evil-minded nobles", who believe merit in the nobility of origin , assimilating only the appearance of culture, schismatics, hypocrites, bribe-takers, bad education is one of the main causes of ignorance. Rebuking, he at the same time agitates for "science", proves the practical importance of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and maritime affairs. realistic in content everyday language, his satires formally follow the classical Latin (Horace, Juvenal) and French samples - Boileau's satire, which required the schematization of specific content to create generalized abstract images of "prudence", "dandy", "reveler", etc.

The literary diversity of this period is not limited to the literature of the nobility. Late 17th and early 18th centuries - the time is not yet so much printed as handwritten literature, numerous collections, where, passing from reader to reader, works of the previous era (legends, lives, walks, old translated and original stories, etc.) are preserved. According to the memoirs and the inscriptions on the books themselves, it can be argued that this handwritten literature was the favorite reading of both the conservative landowner and the old-fashioned merchant - all those groups that were not on the way to the growth of European trade relations. The creative output of these groups in the early 18th century. little studied and not even all known. But the material published so far is of great historical value. Opposition to the new forms of the ruling class of landlords and the emerging class of merchants was provided not only by a certain part of the nobility, but also by the patriarchal merchant class and, above all, by the peasantry, who languished under the unbearable yoke of recruitment duty, taxes, corvée, work in serf factories. Part of the protest of these latter groups was their withdrawal into schism and sectarianism. The schismatic literature of the “Petrine era” is the most striking expression of resistance to the Petrine reforms, which contained not only the aspirations of conservative groups, but, to a certain extent, the protest of the peasantry. A prominent place in it belongs to satire protesting against innovations: the new calendar, new science, poll tax, "disgusting potions" - tobacco, tea, coffee, etc. In lubok picture with the text “Mice bury the cat” you can see a satire on Peter, depicted as the cat Alabris, “the cat of Kazan, the mind of Astrakhan, the mind of Siberia” (a parody of the royal title), who died on “gray (winter) Thursday, on the sixth or fifth "(Peter died on Thursday of the winter month - January - between the fifth and sixth hour of the day). The same satirical allusions to Peter are seen in the illustrations for the "Explanatory Apocalypse" (manuscript Historical Museum in Moscow), in the “folk drama” about “Tsar Maximilian”, which remained in folklore almost until the end of the 19th century. Along with satire, the oral art of the same groups created a number of new "spiritual verses" imbued with a mood of gloomy despair in view of the approach of the "end times", the "antichrist kingdom" and calling for flight into the "desert", for suicide, self-immolation, etc. Many of the typical images and themes of this poetry survived in the everyday life of oral art until the 19th century.

Literary activity Kantemir, Feofan Prokopovich and, to some extent, semi-official poets was the preparation of Russian classicism, which dominated a certain part of literature for almost a century, which was transformed at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. and left a noticeable imprint in the work of Batyushkov, Griboyedov, Pushkin, Baratynsky, and others. The design of this style in R. l. proceeded under the influence of French classicism (partly German, the influence of which was experienced by Lomonosov). However, many individual elements of Russian classicism are rooted in the school “baroque” Russian and Ukrainian literature of the 17th century. Classicism flourished most brightly in France XVII V. in the conditions of the growth of the big bourgeoisie, which gravitated towards the "court". Russian classicism received a different content, different from French, despite its formal imitativeness. The Russian bourgeoisie did not take part, as in France, in the creation of court classicism. It arose among the Russian nobility, its court elite, interested in strengthening feudal relations. The most aristocratic theory of Russian classicism, created by writers of non-noble origin - the commoner Tredyakovsky and the son of a peasant Lomonosov; the phenomenon is quite understandable - the result of the subjugation by the ruling class of individual people from the class of the exploited. The noble theoretician of classicism, Sumarokov, having mastered basically the same principles, reworked and “lowered” classical poetics in essential details and particulars, adapting it to the aesthetic needs of wider circles of the nobility, not only the courtier. This decline took place in an atmosphere of acute literary struggle. The aristocratic principles of Russian classicism consist, firstly, in the requirement that the poet choose “high” subjects: persons of “low” rank were allowed only in comedy, where, in turn, it was unacceptable to display persons of high origin. According to the subject of the image, the language of the work should also be “high”: the persons acting in it speak “the language of the court, the most prudent ministers, the wisest clergymen and the noblest nobility” (Tredyakovsky). To write on "high" topics, a poet must have an elegant and good "taste"; the development of taste is conditioned by an appropriate education: the poet is recommended a thorough knowledge of rhetoric, versification, mythology - the source of themes and images - and the study of literary images - Greek, Roman, French. The poetics of classicism, noble by its nature, perceives some elements of bourgeois ideology, making "reason", "common sense" the main guide of poetic inspiration. From the point of view of rationalism, the incredible is rejected, the principle of "plausibility", "imitation of nature" is put forward. But “imitation of nature” is still far from later realism: by “nature” is meant not real, changing reality, but the essence of phenomena, in the depiction of which everything individual, temporal, local is discarded. This "high" poetry, built on "common sense", seeking mathematical precision of expression, has high goals: it must teach, and classicism especially cultivates didactic genres. First of all, Russian classical poetics took up the development of questions of poetic language, which had to be adapted to new tasks. Lomonosov gave the theory of "three calms" - high, medium and low: the starting point is the use of "Slavic sayings". The theory provoked severe criticism of Sumarokov, but it held its own and determined poetic practice. Lomonosov, on the other hand, finally legitimized the transition from the syllabic system of versification to the syllabic-tonic system, which had been proposed even earlier by Tredyakovsky and practically carried out by the anonymous poets of the “Petrine era”. Classicism is most vividly represented by the works of Lomonosov, who promoted in his theoretical works (“Letter on the Rules of Russian Poetry”, “On the Usefulness of Church Books in the Russian Language”, “Rhetoric”, etc.) order. In the work of Lomonosov, problems were posed and artistically resolved, which were timidly and naively put forward by the literature of the beginning of the century, advocating the expansion and strengthening of the socio-economic base of feudal Russia. Without leaving the genre framework of high poetry, he used the ode, and partly tragedy and epic to promote the trend of the feudal-absolutist, military-bureaucratic monarchy in its European "cultural" forms.

Since Peter I firmly and decisively outlined this program, he becomes an ideal for Lomonosov, a role model for subsequent monarchs. The differences between Lomonosov and Sumarokov and his school are, of course, explained not by their personal relations, but by the difference in their group, intra-class positions. The classicism of Sumarokov and his group is reduced and partly vulgarized. The performance of this last group is already characteristic of the second period of R. l. 18th century Sumarokov's school (Elagin, Rzhevsky, Ablesimov, Bogdanovich, and others) vigorously fights the Lomonosov system, parodying and ridiculing the poet's "high" style, leading a literal polemic with him. By the 60s. The "Sumarokovites" are defeating Lomonosov: his literary principles, temporarily broken, will be partially revived only in the 70s. in the ode of V. Petrov. In contrast to Lomonosov, who demanded "high soaring" (in works not intended for publication, Lomonosov himself did not follow these requirements, by the way), Sumarokov's literary theory seeks simplicity and naturalness. Lomonosov put forward mainly "high" genres - ode, tragedy, epic; Sumarokov implants "medium" and even "low" genres - a song, a romance, an idyll, a fable, a comedy, etc. In contrast to Lomonosov's pathetic, replete with tropes and figures, hampered by Slavic speech, Sumarokov uses a simple language that is not alien to vulgarisms. Instead of high problems of national importance, the Sumarokov school develops an intimate, mostly love theme, creates “ light poetry". However, there is no complete rejection of the "high" style: from the genres of "high" poetry, Sumarokov's tragedy has been preserved and enjoys special attention. The classical tragedy, despite the psychological schematism in the depiction of faces, despite the timelessness of the plot, was saturated with lively political content. Despite its "abstract", the Russian tragedy of the XVIII century. - a vivid display of the struggle of various currents in the nobility. Sumarokov himself and his followers saturated the tragedy with monarchical tendencies in the spirit of "enlightened absolutism", revealing in it the "heroic virtues" of the monarch and the idea of ​​"honor" of the subjects, which consisted in devoted service to the throne, in the rejection of personal feelings if they come into conflict with duty. loyal subject. In turn, the monarch must be a "father" (of course for the nobility), and not a "tyrant" and zealously guard the interests of those who are his support.

In the last third of the XVIII century. the crisis of the feudal-serf system is brewing. It is based on the crisis of the landlord economy, which is faced with growing capitalist relations, the growth of new class contradictions in the collision with the emerging bourgeois class, which comes forward with its demands and declares its rights. The search for a way out of the crisis in the growth of feudal exploitation leads to an explosion of acute class struggle: the national liberation movement and the peasant war of 1773-1775 shook the entire feudal system to its foundations.

On this basis, a kind of noble opposition grows, which is looking for a culprit in the bureaucratic apparatus of power. In the tragedy, the image of the tyrant king and the defender of freedom fighting against him appears, but in a specific noble interpretation of the plot. Comedy takes the clerk as its object. The new genre created in our country in the 18th century, the utopia, has the same orientation. Finally, a reflection of the emerging new social relations is the "decrease in style", its adaptation to new tastes.

Without touching on the tragedy, the "decrease" of high style went on with Sumarokov and his followers along the line of lyrics and especially along the line of comedy. Lomonosov's theory attributed comedy to the category of low genres, allowing it greater freedom from "rules" and thereby "reducing" classicism in it. The broad literature of the nobility did not fail to exploit this relative freedom. In his Epistle on Poetry, Sumarokov pays much attention to comedy. She was given a didactic task: “the property of a comedy to correct temper with a mockery is to make people laugh and use its direct charter.” If the courtly-aristocratic theory of Boileau rebelled against buffoonery, condemning Molière for his passion for the people and rude jokes, Sumarokov willingly admits an element of rude comic into his comedy. The classical theory demanded that the action of the comedy be centered around the vicious passion of the human character, outside of its social and everyday coloring and outside of its individual reigns. The psychological schematism that followed from the classical understanding of "nature" and "plausibility" appeared like this. arr. the main method of comedy of characters with a strictly defined circle of characters (stingy, ignoramus, hypocrite, dandy, pedant, crooked judgment, etc.). The plot of the comedy, already outlined by the Roman comedians and repeated with variations in the comedies of Molière, Regnard, Detouche and others, is also limited. elements Italian comedy masks (commedia dell'arte), which existed in the Russian theater in the first half of the 18th century. Exposing to ridicule dandies and dandies, pedants, ignoramuses, superstitious people, misers, Sumarokov's comedy does not forget about its didactic task: its heroes are representatives of the noble class, and "mocking" of them should "rule noble morals." Sumarokov's comedy knows only one enemy - the clerk, who, thanks to the Peter's table of ranks, could climb the social ladder, make his way into the ranks of the service nobility and sometimes even turn into a nobleman. The sense of caste makes Sumarokov hate clerks. Sumarokov in the circle of admirers very soon became known as the “Russian Molière”: however, despite the “decrease” of the genre, his comedy with narrowly noble educational tendencies did not satisfy the bourgeois-petty-bourgeois audience, almost simultaneously with its appearance met with sharp criticism. Lukin spoke out against the Sumarokov comedy, who was largely under the influence of bourgeois ideology and focused not on the noble, but on the "philistine" audience. He himself notes that the first production of his play Mot, Corrected by Love (1765) caused displeasure of the noble parterre; in the prefaces to his plays, he speaks of a new audience - of servants who read more than their masters; creating comedies, he, in his own words, took into account the peculiarities of the stage talent of theater actors created by the Yaroslavl bourgeoisie, actors who "played more merchants." From comedy, Lukin demands a concrete depiction of Russian customs; the borrowed plot should "incline to Russian customs"; it is necessary to abandon the foreign-sounding names of the characters and force the heroes of the comedy to speak pure Russian, allowing "foreign sayings" only for example. for the speech characteristics of a dandy and a dandy. In theory, Lukin turned out to be stronger than in practice: his own comedies did not implement completely new principles, but in some cases (for example, in "Schepetilnik", 1765), he also succeeded in sharp criticism of noble morals (put into the mouth of a merchant); he noted with satirical features the feudal manner of the noblemen's treatment of servants, lightly touching so. arr. throughout the feudal system. The bourgeois slogan "to incline comedy to Russian customs" was adopted by other playwrights - Fonvizin, Knyaznin, Nikolev, Kapnist and others. This suggests that in the 60-70s. the nobles had not only to listen to the voice of the bourgeois groups, but in the fight against them, reorganize themselves accordingly. The evolution of the noble comedy of the middle of the century goes from the abstract comedy of characters to the concrete everyday comedy, from psychological schematism to experiments in the typification of noble reality. The flourishing of household noble comedy is characteristic of the last third of the 18th century. Its task is to maintain, strengthen the nobility, re-educate it so that, having overcome its weaknesses, it could resist the peasantry and partly the bourgeoisie. Criticism of the nobility in the comedy of this time is generally devoid of accusatory pathos, friendly: the accusations do not concern the essence of the feudal-serf system, on the contrary, they seek to divert this theme, opposing the low cultural level of Ch. arr. provincial petty nobility, against the cultural "perversions" of the nobility of the capital. Everyday comedy became a means of enlightening noble politics, ridiculing French mania as a phenomenon of false education of the nobility, idle talk and idle thought of dandies and dandies, rudeness of small estate morals, ignorance of the noble "undergrowth". She warned against all kinds of freethinking - Voltairianism, materialism, Freemasonry, perceiving them as phenomena hostile to the integrity of the feudal landowner ideology, she took up arms against representatives of other classes - merchants and especially clerks, believing that it was in them that the reason for the shortcomings of the noble system - bribery , chicanery, judicial troubles - not noticing and not wanting to notice that bribe-takers and bureaucrats are a product of the state system, and putting it that way. arr. consequence instead of cause (Kapnist's Yabeda). The negative images of the nobles were contrasted by comedy with the images of the bearers of the noble "honor" - the Starodums, the Pravdins, the Milons. Especially zealously, Fonvizin proclaimed the principles of the noble educational policy, exposing the morally decaying court nobility through the mouth of Starodum, preaching nobility, which consists in “good deeds, and not in nobility”, in good manners, in the development of feelings. The preaching of the education of feeling, which is more valuable than reason, was a transformed assimilation of one of the principles of the Western advanced bourgeoisie of the 18th century. (see below for a description of Russian sentimentalism). While maintaining a formal resemblance to classical comedy (unity, love affair, the division of persons into “virtuous” and “vicious”, the names-stamps of the characters - Khanzhakhina, Skotinin, Krivosudov, etc.), everyday comedy nevertheless differs in its artistic method from the psychological schematism of the comedy of characters. This is a method of typical everyday characterization, especially pronounced in the depiction of negative faces. Everyday typification is also achieved by introducing everyday figures episodic value(in "Undergrowth" - Mitrofan's teacher, his mother, tailor Trishka), a speech characteristic emphasizing language features given environment (Russian-French language of dandies and dandies, professional and estate features of the language of clerks, seminarians, etc.). From this comedy, a direct path leads to the comedies of the early 19th century. - to Krylov, Shakhovsky, and then Griboyedov. Overcoming the classical "rules", developing in the direction of mastering the realistic method, comedy begins to absorb elements of the "third estate" literature. The same should be said about the genre of comic opera - "dramas with voices", that is, insert numbers for singing and musical accompaniment. Among the authors of comic operas we find e.g. “traveling in Italy, the serf Count Yaguzhinsky” Matinsky, a writer of noble ideology, whose play “ Gostiny Dvor"was almost as successful as Ablesimov's famous comic opera The Miller - a Sorcerer, a Deceiver and a Matchmaker" (1779), which caused a number of imitations. “Sbitenshchik” by Knyazhnin, “Melnik and sbitenshchik - rivals” by Plavilshchikov, etc. Free from “rules” (unity of place and time), diverse in subject matter (plots from the life of the nobility, merchant, peasant, from Russian and Oriental fairy tales, history, mythology etc.), widely using folklore (songs, dramatizations of rituals, especially wedding ones), comic opera stopped halfway in its development and, approaching, for example, to the peasant theme, most often gave an idyllic image of serf life, in the cloudless sky of which clouds are possible, but not for long (“Misfortune from the carriage” by Knyazhnin with the characteristic final chorus of the peasants “trinket ruined us, but the trifle saved us”). Pursuing primarily the goals of entertainment, the genre of comic opera, curious as a movement forward along the path of "nationality", had no great social significance.

Despite the aggravation of class contradictions, the nobility was still so strong that it could put out from its midst the greatest poet, whose work to a certain extent synthesized different areas of landowner literature and which became an almost continuous hymn to the joy and fullness of noble life, and to a certain extent, life in general. . This poet - Derzhavin, overcoming the traditions of Lomonosov classicism in the very genre that Lomonosov glorified - in an ode. Just as Lomonosov is the "singer of Elisabeth," so Derzhavin is the "singer of Felitsa" (Catherine II): but Derzhavin's ode is full of deformations of the classical canon. And the interpretation of the theme is the praise of the monarch in a friendly, familiar, sometimes playful rut, and the introduction of realistic, sometimes rude scenes into the ode, and the lack of a strict plan, the logical construction, and the language, from the “high calm” sharply turning into vernacular, and the general, characteristic for all of Derzhavin's poetry, a mixture of styles and genres - all this runs counter to Lomonosov's poetics. On the whole, Derzhavin's poetry is a vivid expression of the ecstasy of life, a panegyric of the splendor and luxury of life. metropolitan nobility and the abundant "simplicity" of the life of the estate nobility. Nature for Derzhavin is “a feast of colors, light”; figurative symbolism of his poetry is all based on the images of fire, sparkling precious stones, sunshine. Derzhavin's poetry is deeply material, objective. This “objectivity”, the materiality of language, is also incompatible with the magnificent abstractness of Lomonosov's speech, the traditions of which Derzhavin overcame. Only sometimes the poet seems to think for a moment about the future fate of his class, instinctively feeling that the system that feeds his being is already beginning to disintegrate. But the notes of doubt and thoughts of instability (“today God is dust tomorrow”) that sometimes break through Derzhavin are explained more by reflection on the fate of individual members of the class, on the vagaries of “chance”, than on the fate of the entire class as a whole. Destroying classical aesthetics, Derzhavin's poetry gradually approaches (in recent years) towards sentimentalism, "neoclassicism" and Ossian romanticism, which dominated Russian lyrics in the early 19th century.

Under the dictatorship of the nobility literary formation other classes (large and petty bourgeoisie, and even more so the peasantry) were strangled, but nevertheless, along with the formation of capitalist relations by the end of the 18th century. the energy of the developing bourgeois literature of the 18th century is also growing. This literature has not yet been studied enough. Bourgeois literary criticism only noted the process of "descent" of noble literature into the middle class environment - from stories and novels to songs and lyrics in general, without explaining the complex deformation of the work that took place. The consumption of the literature of the ruling class by the subordinate classes is a natural phenomenon, but by no means mechanical. But not only in these revisions was in the XVIII century. creativity of the subordinate classes. It is enough to recall Sumarokov's protest against the "nasty kind of tearful comedies" (concerning the translation and staging of Beaumarchais's "Eugenie") to understand how dangerous bourgeois literature seemed to the nobility. In the 60-70s. “Third-class literature” is already perceived by writers of the nobility as an unpleasant and hostile symptom. This is the time when Lukin put forward the slogan “inclining comedy to Russian customs”, when satirical journalism flourished, partially captured by bourgeois ideologists, when parodies of the noble classical epic appeared (such as Kheraskov’s “Rossiada”) - iroico-comic poems, when in the literary ranks raznochintsy writers - Chulkov, Popov, Komarov - entered, when the genres of the novel and "tearful comedy" unforeseen by classical theory took shape, the popularity of the comic opera genre free from "rules" - "drama with voices" increased, when finally the first revolutionary from the nobles, who reflected in In his literary activity, to a large extent, the aspirations of the revolutionary peasantry, Radishchev, threw down his first challenge to the feudal-serf society, in order to decisively oppose it a few years later. Among the satirical journalism that arose on the model of English satirical and moralizing magazines, several publications appeared that definitely promoted bourgeois ideology (Parnassian Scribbler, 1770, Chulkov and Novikov’s magazines - Drone, 1769, Painter, 1772, and Wallet) , 1774). Satire was the main literary genre for expressing anti-noble tendencies, which otherwise, under the conditions of the infringement of the Russian bourgeoisie, could not be introduced into literature. The difference between noble and bourgeois satire in magazines is immediately evident. The nobility (for example, “All sorts of things”) stands for satire in a “smiling kind”, for light and soft criticism of noble manners, manifestations of hypocrisy, helicopterism, a tendency to gossip, etc. P.

Bourgeois satire unfolds in social terms, it is enough to pay attention to its slogan - the epigraph of Novikov's "Trutny" - "they work, and you eat their bread", undoubtedly socially pointed, in the second edition it had to be replaced by another, more neutral one. Bourgeois satire declares war on the nobility, especially the noble aristocracy, opposing to it the image of "a perfect husband, virtuous, albeit vile, in the language of some stupid nobles." If we add to this such clearly anti-serf articles, as the story of a certain I. T. (apparently Radishchev) published in The Painter about a trip to the village of Ruined, it becomes clear why satirical journalism of this type turned out to be a short-lived phenomenon. The activation of the "third-class literature" in this period also affected the creation of the "heroic-comic poem" (Chulkov), which also had an impact on the literature of the nobility (V. Maikov). This genre arises as a parody of the heroic poem of the "high" style (Kantemir, Tredyakovsky, Lomonosov). The "high calm" was kept in academic circles until the second decade of the 19th century, but it did not enjoy popularity even among the noble tribal environment. The comic poem interprets the "low" plot in a "high calm", parodying like this. arr. and pathos, and mythological scenery, and plot situations of the classical poem: the “hero” is shown in fights, in a drunken brawl; the introduction of sketches of "mean" reality - the life of the lower strata - provides material for characterizing the position of the people in the noble state. In the poem by V. Maikov (“Elisha, or the irritated Bacchus”, 1771), scenes depicting prison life, peasant work, fights and disputes in neighboring villages due to demarcation, peasant land shortage, latrine crafts, a penitentiary house for “dissolute wives”, compared with the monastery, etc., are just as far from noble themes as the language of the poem with its focus on lively, "common" speech. Standing apart in the series of comic poems is Bogdanovich's Darling, a product of "light poetry", which came out of the "Sumarokov school", a product of "light poetry", opening the way for works whose peak in the 19th century. there will be "Ruslan and Lyudmila" by Pushkin. Chulkov's comic poems are distinguished by a different character, they are interesting by attracting folklore material that did not penetrate into the poetry of the nobility. Noble poets generally interpreted folklore from above: Derzhavin, for example. considered Russian fairy tales and epics “monochrome and monotonous”, in them he saw only “giant and heroic boasting of absurdity, barbarism and gross disrespect for the female sex expressed”. Chulkov was also the first collector and publisher of folklore material. The “heroic-comic poem” in its development breaks off after the 70s, only to be revived a little later in the form of a burlesque poem-parody of the converted “Aeneids” by Osipov, Kotelnitsky, Naumov and others. Even Boileau regarded burlesque as a folk genre. The interpretation of the heroic plot in a crudely vulgar tone was one of the means to push off from the ceremonial literature of the upper classes; this is what Russian travesty did, the creation of "petty-travesty" writers from a petty-bourgeois milieu. But the "third estate" literature in the field of the novel proved to be especially prolific. The classical theory did not say a word about the novel; from Sumarokov's point of view, novels are "a wasteland, invented by people who waste their time in vain, and serve only to corrupt human morals and to a greater stagnancy in luxury and carnal passions." Nevertheless, the novel filled the second half of the 18th century. According to the researcher's calculations, novels make up 13.12% of all printed matter of the 18th century, 32% of all "bells and whistles", especially increasing in number towards the end of the century, with the advent of "free printing houses". Along with this, they are also distributed by hand. Chulkov, in the journal Both That and Sio, describes a clerk who feeds on correspondence of popular stories sold on the market about Bova, about Peter the Golden Keys, about Yevdokha and Berf: he had to rewrite Bov alone forty times. The novel penetrates the most diverse social groups: it fills the libraries of the landowners, it is read with enthusiasm by the merchants, the petty bourgeoisie, and literate courtyards; his popularity is evidenced by memoirists (Bolotov, Dmitriev, and others) and, finally, by literature itself, which captures the image of the reader and especially the reader. A lover of novels, a noble girl who discovers her ideal in the hero of the novel, which is then embodied in the first acquaintance she meets, later became a classic image of noble literature (Griboyedov's Sophia, Pushkin's Tatyana). Genre diversity of the novel of the 18th century. very large. Among the nobility, on the one hand, translations - chivalric, shepherd, salon-heroic novels with a moralizing tendency, such as Fenelonov's Telemachus and Kheraskov's imitations of him ("Cadmus and Harmony"); on the other hand, a psychological novel depicting images of ideal nobles - like the translated Adventures of the Marquis G*. In the bourgeois environment, they are fond of the genre of the "picaresque" novel of the type "Gille Blas" by Le Sage or the genre of the novelized fairy tale (Chulkov, Komarov, Levshin, Popov). It is precisely the genre of the picaresque novel that receives particular distribution in the "third estate" literature. Telling about a dexterous hero who changes professions, by the force of circumstances either descending or ascending the social ladder, this novel made it possible to change the domestic environment, paying considerable attention to the life of the “social lower classes”. One of the most popular novels of the 18th century, which was preserved in the reader's everyday life and later - "The Story of Vanka Cain", - was based on a historical person, a certain Ivan Osipov, a peasant who from a courtyard becomes a thief, from a thief - a Volga robber, from a robber - a policeman spy and detective. His biography served as the outline of the "detective" novel, had several adaptations, the most popular of which belongs to the writer Matvey Komarov. Komarov also owns other popular novels - “About Milord George” (“About Milord Stupid”, mentioned in Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Russia” among samples of popular literature read by peasants) and the novel “Unfortunate Nikanor, or the Adventures of a Russian Nobleman ”, where the hero of a picaresque novel is a nobleman, who, after a series of misadventures, ends his life as a jester-habiter. The novel of the picaresque genre made it possible to introduce, as in the “heroic-comic” poem, material from the life of merchants, artisans, and the peasantry, thus contributing. arr. self-affirmation in the literature of the "third estate". The fairy-adventurous novel, which arose from a mixture of elements of a chivalrous novel with Russian epic and fairy-tale folklore, served the same purpose in its well-known part. The introduction of folklore (albeit often falsified, especially when it came to Slavic mythology) was also a literary achievement of the third estate, in whose life, as well as in the life of the “social lower classes” in general, folklore was still an integral part of everyday life. This is how the bourgeoisie has said its word in the realm of the novel. The relative weakness of the class did not allow him to master other genres, for example. dramatic, to the extent that it happened in the West. Since the half of the 60s. famous examples of Western bourgeois drama appear in Russian translations - Lillo's The Merchant of London, plays by Diderot, Mercier, and Lessing; introducing "pathetic phenomena" into comedy, Lukin tries to approach the genre of drama; in some of their plays Kheraskov, Verevkin (“So It Should Be”), Melters (“Sidelets”, “Bobyl”) approach it quite closely, but the genre of drama - with significant differences from Western European bourgeois dramas - is already receiving full development. in the age of sentimentality.

However, in the literature of the 70s. the sharpening of the class struggle was no longer going only along the line of the "third estate", but mainly and with the greatest force along the line of the peasantry. The Peasant War of 1773-1775, which resulted in the previous long peasant movements, revealed the sharpness of the contradictions of feudal society. The nobility realized the strength of the class hatred of the peasants, resolutely attacked the rebels and cracked down on them. In the literature of the nobility of this time, we have a number of speeches, where the political nature of the peasant movement causes a storm of indignation. Sumarokov speaks against "Pugachevshchina" in two poems, calling Pugachev "an infamous robber", the leader of a "robber crowd", a gang made up of "beasts", "fiends of nature"; he is fully aware of the goals of the movement, seeking to "exterminate the nobles" and "throw down the support of the throne." There is no execution that would be sufficient for Pugachev, from the point of view of Sumarokov. The anonymous author of the recently published "Poems on the Villain Pugachev" also demands the most cruel execution and eternal damnation for the "villain". An attempt to portray the era, of course, from a noble point of view, was made in Verevkin's comedy Just the Same (published in 1785, written in 1779). The author is a member of one of the punitive expeditions against the peasantry. The time of the action of the comedy is the final moment of the movement, when Pugachev has already been caught. In the comedy, there is a governor who left the city when the rebels approached him (a fact that has repeatedly taken place in reality); the stereotyped intrigue (obstacles met by lovers) is colored with the color of a historical moment: the hero goes to the army, because "it is shameful to think about marriages and love games when the blood of noble compatriots is shed." Meanwhile, the heroine falls into the hands of enemies and liked one of them; after the elimination of the uprising, she wants to go to the monastery, but the hero restores her "honor", considering her innocent. The play is filled with glorification of the noble repulse to the insurgent peasantry: the leader of the rebuff, Panin, is likened to an “archangel from heaven”, with a “small” army he “smashed, dispersed, caught and pacified all this damned bastard”, etc .; another suppressor, Milizon (Mikhelson), also causes no less delight.

No less harshness - in relation to the nobility - we will find in the peasant creativity of this era (see the section "Oral poetry"). Starting from the “lament of serfs” (“Lament of the serfs of the last century”, “Complaint of the Saratov peasants against the Zemstvo court”) through songs about serf captivity, we come to the rich folklore about Pugachev. In everyday life of the peasantry of the XVIII century. the previously composed songs about Stepan Razin also live. Both songs about Razin and songs about Pugachev are saturated with a sense of acute class hatred. We have, of course, only fragments of the probably extensive "Pugachev cycle"; but they also constitute quite eloquent and historically valuable material that changes the face of Russian literature of the 18th century, created once by bourgeois researchers.

The revolutionary ferment among the peasantry, which did not directly find its reflection in written literature, nevertheless had a peculiar effect in it. As early as the beginning of the century, the protest of the peasantry against the exploitation of the landlords found expression in a certain part of splitting. Later, a number of bourgeois writers reflected in their work - inconsistently and contradictoryly - the seething stream of peasant consciousness hostile to the existing order. In terms of such criticism, Novikov, in the main a typical representative of liberalism of the 18th century, was already acting in part, later turning to the reactionary path of Freemasonry and mysticism. In 1790, Radishchev acted as a spokesman for revolutionary sentiments. The influence of the Enlightenment and the French bourgeois revolution played a decisive role in the creation of Radishchev's ideology. There can be no talk of Radishchev's "ideological loneliness", allegedly falling out of the literature of the 18th century, as bourgeois literary criticism claimed. In the conditions of the aggravated (especially after the French Revolution) government supervision of literature, it was difficult for works that criticized the feudal system to penetrate the press; this does not mean that there were few of them, and still less does it mean that the corresponding ideological currents were represented by individuals. Radishchev sets literature not only educational tasks, but also demands that the writer be a political and social fighter, striving for the social re-education of his readers. This was hindered by censorship - the demand for freedom of the press is put forward. "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" (1790) by Radishchev is directed against the two foundations of the feudal landowner state - autocracy and serfdom. The theme of "autocracy", developed in the "Journey" in journalistic discourses and in the ode "Liberty", is interpreted quite differently from the interpretation of noble and bourgeois writers close to them: in tragedies imbued with the spirit of intra-noble opposition, the monarch was a "tyrant" only when he did not share his power with the nobles, he strove for unlimited domination; Radishchev has an unlimited monarch - "the first killer in society, the first robber, the first violator of general silence, the most fierce enemy, directing his anger at the inside of the weak." Autocracy is a violator of the “agreement”, which determines the relationship between power and the people: the people conclude a “silent” agreement with the sovereign - the “first citizen”, trusting him with power, but reserving the right to control, judge and remove the monarch in case of abuse of power by him. Therefore, the English revolution is worthy of praise, punishing with death the king who abused the trust of the people. The main thing in the state is the “law”, before which all citizens must be equal: from the point of view of this democratic principle, Radishchev approaches his second topic. Serfdom is the worst evil for him, "a monster oblo, mischievous, huge, stozevno and barking" (a verse from Tredyakovsky's Telemachis, taken as an epigraph to Journey). From Radishchev's point of view, serfdom is not only incompatible with the humane principles of equality and freedom: it also undermines the economic power of the state and leads to the extinction of the population. Having based his views on the theories of the ideologists of Western European bourgeois democracy (Mably, Reynal, and others), Radishchev was able to apply them to Russian reality, outlining even the specific conditions for the abolition of serfdom with the allotment of land to the peasants and their transformation into small landowners. The theme of serfdom is developed by Radishchev both in pathetic journalism and in the fictional form of short stories that describe peasant life and poverty, revealing the horrors of lordly arbitrariness. Setting himself the educational tasks of social reorganization based on the principles of bourgeois democracy, Radishchev used a special method in his main work, which made it possible to combine elements of journalism with a display of living reality. In Journey, reasoning, lyrical outpourings, novellas and stories, descriptions (perhaps partly on the model of Stern) are combined into a whole. A form of "travel" from the end of the 18th century. becomes popular in the literature of the nobility (in 1794-1798 they published a separate edition of Karamzin's Letters of a Russian Traveler). But there are a number of sharp differences between Radishchev's book and the noble "journeys". The Radishevsky "traveler" is first of all the bearer of a certain class ideology and then a "sensitive" person in general: his sensitivity is a manifestation of social humanity; reality for him is not a reason for an outpouring of personal feelings or an expression of curiosity, but material for reflection and generalizations of a sociological nature. Radishchev's style is the result of a complex interaction between the rationalistic tendencies of classicism, a realistic striving for living reality, and some elements of sentimentalism. In 18th century literature the literary and public environment of Radishchev could not express itself widely, went into the "underground", but during the years of temporary weakening of censorship oppression, at the beginning of the 19th century. , Radishchev found followers - poets and publicists who united in the "Free Society of Lovers of Literature, Sciences and Arts" (Pnin, Born, Popugaev, Nik. Radishchev and others).

At the end of the XVIII century. the rise of capitalism. Under these conditions, a certain part of the nobility, who felt the instability of feudal relations and at the same time did not accept new social trends, put forward a different sphere of life, previously ignored. It was an area of ​​intimate, personal life, the defining motives of which were love and friendship. This is how sentimentalism arose as a literary trend, the last stage in the development of R. l. XVIII century, covering the original decade and thrown into the XIX century. In contrast to the literature of classicism, sentimentalism put the middle man from the nobility, his everyday way of life, in the center of attention. In its class nature, Russian sentimentalism is profoundly different from Western European sentimentalism, which arose among the progressive and revolutionary bourgeoisie, which was an expression of its class self-determination. Russian sentimentalism is basically a product of noble ideology: bourgeois sentimentalism could not take root on Russian soil, because the Russian bourgeoisie was just beginning - and extremely uncertainly - its self-determination; the sentimental sensibility of Russian writers, which affirmed new spheres of ideological life, previously, at the time of the heyday of feudalism, of little importance and even forbidden, is a longing for the outgoing freedom of feudal life. But at the same time, Russian sentimentalism reflected some of the features of the new relationship. These are, first of all, certain individualistic tendencies, and then that - abstract, however, - attention to the non-noble elements of society, which was reflected in the assertion of the all-estate feeling (“And peasant women know how to feel”). There are no anti-noble tendencies left in this slogan, just as there is no criticism of the nobility in Karamzin's sentimentalism. Using eg. the common plot scheme of a Western sentimental novel - an aristocrat seduces a bourgeois girl ("Clarissa Harlow" by Richardson), - the same Karamzin in his "Poor Lisa" (1792) emasculated the class meaning from it. In Richardson, the aristocratic seducer is opposed to the virtue of the heroine, steadfast in all temptations and morally triumphant over vice. The heroine of Karamzin, the peasant woman Liza, does not oppose Erast, and the author himself does not condemn him, but only mourns over the unfortunate, but from his point of view, inevitable denouement. Sentimentalism in Russian literature was not, of course, the result of the creative initiative of Karamzin alone, as the bourgeois school textbooks once claimed: its elements, long before Karamzin, burst into the classical idyll, found a place for themselves in the comic opera, in the experiments of the Russian “tearful comedy”, in the psychological novel, in love lyrics. Karamzin is rather the result than the beginning of development. He himself, as often happens, was not aware of his connection with previous literature, pointing to foreign models (Shakespeare, Milton, Thompson, Jung, Gessner, Rousseau, etc.: the poem "Poetry"). In the field of prose, sentimentalism especially put forward two genres: the genre of sentimental travel and the genre of sensitive story. Karamzin’s “Letters from a Russian Traveler” caused a whole series of imitations (“Journey to Midday Russia” by Izmailov, 1800-1802; “Journey to Little Russia” by Shalikov, 1803; “Another Journey to Little Russia” by him, travels of Nevzorov, Gledkov, etc.). Karamzin's genre of travel is a relaxed combination of lyrical outpourings, portraits, landscapes, descriptions of urban life, social life, short stories and short stories. In the center, the traveler himself is a sensitive hero, an enthusiast of nature and humanity, pure and meek in heart, establishing friendly ties everywhere. It goes without saying that his attitude towards the French Revolution (he witnessed its initial stage) is completely negative. His “love for humanity” boils down to the desire to see around him contented and happy, so that scenes of misfortune do not disturb his peace; in the desire to be “touched”, to be touched by manifestations of human gratitude, paternal or filial love, friendship. Such an abstract "love" could be a convenient veil to cover up the reality of serfdom. The peasant, imbued with sensitivity, should love his masters and bless his yoke. Most of all, however, the sensitive hero is occupied with the analysis of his heart. A scrupulous analysis of feelings and experiences is combined in Journey with a careful drawing of the details of the background, with loving attention to the little things of everyday life. Another favorite genre of sentimentalism is the sensitive story. Its features stand out especially clearly when compared with the adventurous (picaresque) novel of third-class literature, from which Karamzin's story is clearly repelled. The novel is built on the complexity and rapid change of adventures: the story avoids complex plots, simplifying and curtailing the action, transferring it to the psychological plane. Here, too, the focus is on the analysis of feelings revealed in characterizations, monologues, and author's comments. The latter create a tense atmosphere of emotionality around the hero, further enhanced by lyrical descriptions of nature. The literary activity of Karamzin and his school was perceived as reformist, not only because they "discovered" new world human emotions, but also because, in connection with this, the system of artistic speech was reorganized. The main principle of the language reform was the desire for "pleasantness", opposed to the "incoherence" of the prose of the 17th century, with its syntactic disorder. Karamzin reformed the vocabulary, banishing Slavicisms and “common people” from it, symmetrical periods with uniform rises and falls are introduced in place of confused periods; neologisms are created. This is how the principle of syntactic and lexical ease and pleasantness is realized. A long struggle flared up around Karamzin’s language reform, which occupied the first decades of the 19th century, the struggle between the “Shishkovists” and the “Karamzinists”, a conservative feudal noble group and a group that moved away from perceived new, social phenomena (capitalism) into the sphere of private life, attractive for its sophistication. and closure. But at the same time, there is no doubt the progressive significance of Karamzin's linguistic "reform", which contributed to the expansion of the reading environment at the expense of the most extensive groups of the nobility ... With Karamzin and the "Karamzinists" we are already moving into the 19th century, the beginning of which is the era of sentimentism, and along the way, the development of a bourgeois offensive against noble literature, the growth of those bourgeois-realist tendencies that are rooted precisely in the 18th century.

Bibliography

Peretz VN, Essays on the history of poetic style in Russia. The era of Peter V. and the beginning of the 18th century, I-VIII, ZhMNP, 1905-1907

and dep. ott.: I-IV, St. Petersburg, 1905

V-VIII, St. Petersburg, 1907

Bush V.V., Old Russian literary tradition in the 18th century. (On the issue of social stratification of the reader), “Scientific notes of the Saratov State. University. N. G. Chernyshevsky, vol. IV, no. 3. Pedagogical. faculty, Saratov, 1925

Gukovsky G., Russian poetry of the 18th century, L., 1927 (formalist work)

Sakulin P. N., Russian literature, part 2, M., 1929 (bourgeois-sociological approach)

Desnitsky V., On the tasks of studying Russian literature of the 18th century. (in the book Heroic Comic Poem, see above)

"Literary Heritage", vol. 9-10. XVIII century., M., 1933 (articles of the editorial board, G. Gukovsky and others, a number of new publications of texts)

The same, vol. 19-21, M., 1935 (articles by V. Desnitsky, D. Mirsky and from the editor - Results of the discussion)

"XVIII century", Sat., Articles and materials, ed. ak. A. S. Orlova, ed. Academy of Sciences, M. - L., 1935 (among others - L. Pumpyansky, Essays on Literature of the First Half of the 18th Century)

Gukovsky G., Essays on the history of Russian literature of the XVIII century, ed. Academy of Sciences, M. - L., 1936

Berkov P., Lomonosov and literary controversy his time, ed. Academy of Sciences, M. - L., 1936

General courses: Porfiryeva, Galakhova, Pypin, Loboda, etc. On the history of individual genres: A. Afanasiev, Russian satirical magazines of 1769-1774, M., 1859 (reprinted in Kazan in 1919), Krugly A., On theory poetry in Russian literature of the 18th century, St. Petersburg, 1893

Sipovsky V. V., Essays from the histories of the Russian novel, vol. I, no. 1-2 (XVIII century), St. Petersburg, 1909-1910

Veselovskaya A., Collection of love lyrics of the 18th century, St. Petersburg, 1910

Rozanov I. N., Russian lyrics. From impersonal poetry to "confession of the heart", M., 1914

His own, Songs about the living son, Sat. "XVIII century", see above

His own, Russian book poetry from the beginning of writing to Lomonosov, Sat. "Verses. Syllabic poetry of the 17th-18th centuries”, M. - L., 1935 (“Poet’s Bib”)

Varneke V., History of the Russian Theatre, ed. 2

Kallash V. V. and Efros N. E. (eds.), History of the Russian theater. vol. I, M., 1914

Bagriy A., On the issue of Russian lyrics of the 18th century, "Russian Philological Bulletin", (M.), 1915, No. 3. See also the bibliography under the articles characterizing the genres.

For the preparation of this work, materials from the site http://feb-web.ru were used.

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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 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 syllabic-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 in people of human dignity and higher moral ideals. 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.

He became the largest poet in Russian literature of the 18th century. 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 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.