Russian literature of the XX century has gone through several periods of its development, each of which is marked by the originality of socio-political conditions and aesthetic trends.
The periodization of the literature of the 20th century takes into account aesthetic, intra-literary and socio-ideological factors. Framework new period The development of Russian literature of the 20th century is determined by the beginning of the century before 1916. 1917 is not only the year of the revolution that turned all spheres of reality upside down. By this year, the artistic processes that began at the turn of the century have reached their end.
Second period- 1917 - the beginning of the 1930s is characterized by the division of Russian literature into two streams - the literature of emigration and the mother country, developing in conditions of socio-political and geographical demarcation. At that time, there was relative freedom in Russian literature, which was expressed in a variety of trends, schools, trends, and literary groupings. The currents that arose before the revolution developed, new ones appeared, born of the practice of social reconstruction. At the same time, there were critical and socialist realism, modernist currents, romanticism invaded the poetics of works. By the end of the 1920s, the ideological pressure on writers increased, the desire to unify literature, to make it a conductor of the ideology of the proletariat.
Third period- The 1930s - the first half of the 1950s - marked the establishment of the administrative-command method of leadership in public life, and in art, the dominance of socialist realism with its regulatory requirements as the main method of Soviet literature. Literature is divided into official (in line with socialist realism) and nonconformist (not fitting into the framework of socialist realism).
The second half of the 1950s - the first half of the 1980s - new stage associated with the onset of a crisis in the political system (either a “thaw”, or a “stagnation”). At this time, literary practice breaks the canons of social realism, goes beyond its scope. There is a turn to new topics and problems, a deepening of psychologism, an increase in attention to the moral world of man.
Newest period literary development, which began in 1986 (the beginning of the political and state restructuring), brought the return of works of Russian abroad, previously unpublished domestic literature. The emancipation of literature resulted in a variety of currents, directions, and personalities. At the end of the 20th century, there is some typological similarity in the development of literature with the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries.
If you did not find the answer to your question in this article, our online tutors are always at your service. They will explain incomprehensible material and help to complete any task in the shortest possible time. What do you need in order to take advantage of the help of online tutors? Choose the most convenient for you and connect right now!
blog.site, with full or partial copying of the material, a link to the source is required.
Report grade 7.
The beginning of the 20th century is a difficult time for Russia: the 1st World War, the February and October revolutions of 1917, the establishment of Soviet power, the period of collectivization, Stalinist repressions. The cataclysms of the beginning of the century influenced the development of Russian literature. On the one hand, a number of writers continue the traditions of Russian classical literature of the 19th century: I.A. Bunin, L. Andreev, A. Kuprin and others. The most important artistic method is still realism. On the other hand, in Russian literature of the early 20th century, many modernist literary trends appear, especially in poetry: symbolism (A.A. Blok, V.Ya. Bryusov, A. Bely, etc.), acmeism (N.S. Gumilyov , A.A. Akhmatova, S. Gorodetsky and others), futurism (V.V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, I. Severyanin and others), new peasant poets (S.A. Yesenin, N. Klyuev and others. ). Some works of post-revolutionary prose were created in the spirit of 19th-century realism. Most described the bloody Civil War of 1918-1920. - an example of this are the murderous pictures of social decline during the general strife in the novel by B.A. Pilnyak "The Naked Year" (1922).
In the absence of political censorship in the early years of Soviet power, a lot was allowed to satirical writers who in every possible way ridiculed the new regime, such as Yu.K. Olesha in the political satire "Envy" (1927) or V.P. Kataev in The Wasters (1926), an excellent depiction of the ingenuous fraud of two Soviet officials, as well as the greatest satirist of the Soviet era, M.M. Zoshchenko in his many caustic and sad stories.
After the October Revolution of 1917, most of the Russian intelligentsia went abroad. Thus, Russian literature was divided into two, developing in parallel. Russian writers abroad: I. Bunin, B. Zaitsev, V. Nabokov, E. Zamyatin, I. Shmelev and others. Some writers, unable to bear the separation from their homeland, subsequently returned to Russia. In the novel by I. Bunin "The Life of Arseniev" the formation and development of the human soul is revealed.
In Russian literature of the first half of the 20th century, new themes appeared: the theme of collectivization and the Civil War, the loss of moral guidelines; and at the same time, the eternal themes of good and evil, love, civic service to the Motherland continue to develop. Literature of the 20th century is distinguished by genre diversity: novel (M. Gorky, M. Sholokhov), poem (A.T. Tvardovsky), realistic stories and novels (I. Bunin, A. Kuprin), satirical stories (M. Bulgakov), fantastic stories and novels (A. Grin), tales (Bazhov), rich lyrics.
Since 1930, writers began to rethink the events that took place in the country: new works by M. Gorky, A. Makarenko, M. Sholokhov, N. Ostrovsky and others appeared. During the repressions in the second half of the 1930s, many writers were arrested - some were shot others spent long years in camps. After Stalin's death, some were posthumously rehabilitated, like Pilnyak or the wonderful poet O.E. Mandelstam; and those who were excommunicated from literature, like A.A. Akhmatova, it was again allowed to be printed.
Since 1941, the theme of the Great Patriotic War, the theme of national feat (A.T. Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin", M.A. Sholokhov "They fought for the Motherland", poems by K. Simonov, etc.) has become the most popular topic in Soviet literature. In the story of M.A. Sholokhov "The Fate of a Man" shows the ability of a person to overcome his troubles, the possibility of an ordinary person performing a moral feat, finding the meaning of his life through caring for the fate of a little boy. Thus, the writer moves from thinking about the fate of an individual person to thinking about the fate of all mankind. In the poem by A.T. Tvardovsky "Vasily Terkin" depicts the image of an ordinary soldier-fighter, cheerful, cheerful, able to maintain an optimistic mood not only among himself, but also among his colleagues.
After Stalin's death in 1953, growing dissatisfaction with strict regulation was reflected in the story of I.G. Ehrenburg's "The Thaw" (1954) about the plight of artists forced to create under the control of their superiors. In many works of poetry, prose and drama, young authors denounced
not only the abuses of power of the Stalin era, but also the ugly phenomena of modern reality.
In the early 1960s, the need for greater freedom of artistic expression in literature and art reappeared with new force, especially through the efforts of "angry young people", of whom the poets E.A. Evtushenko and A.A. Voznesensky.
The 1960s were remarkable not only for new works, but also for the first time published old ones. So, readers got the opportunity to get acquainted with the work of M.I. Tsvetaeva (1891-1941), who committed suicide shortly after returning from exile. The name of Boris Pasternak appeared again in the press, although only his poems were published. The most important literary discovery of the decade was the work of M.A. Bulgakov (1891-1940).
By the early 1980s, Russian literature was divided into two communities - emigrants and Soviet writers. The panorama of legal literature within the Soviet Union dimmed when many prominent writers such as Trifonov, Kataev, and Abramov died in the early years of the decade, and there was literally no evidence of new talent emerging in print. A significant exception was T.N. Tolstaya, whose first story "On the Golden Porch" was published by one of the Leningrad magazines in 1983; a collection under the same title was published in 1987. Her second collection, Sleepwalker in the Fog, was published in English in the United States in 1991.
Questions about the report:
1) What historical events took place in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century?
2) What happened in the literature of the early 20th century? What works of art were created?
3) What happened to the creative intelligentsia after the October Revolution of 1917?
4) What was the most popular theme in the literature of the 40s?
5) How did literature develop in the 60s and 80s?
The literature of the Silver Age is a worthy successor to the Golden Age, its classical trends and traditions. It also opens up many new literary trends, artistic techniques, but most importantly, it gave talented writers and poets the opportunity to show their abilities, to show their gift. The change from one era to another implies not only the inheritance of previous achievements, but also, to some extent, the denial of the old, its rethinking. XX gives rise to completely new literary trends, which, in particular, include: avant-garde, socialist realism and modernism. Former art systems - somehow realism and romanticism - still remained popular and in demand among readers.
The development of literature of the 20th century was significantly influenced by the political situation in the country, the prevailing culture, as well as various philosophical trends - on the one hand, these were the ideas of Russian religious philosophy, on the other hand, the works of Marxist ideology in close connection with Bolshevik politics.
The new political system and the idea of Marxism embedded in it led to strict censorship in all spheres of cultural life, including literature. In this regard, it ceases to be a single entity and is divided into several streams: Soviet literature, emigre literature, forbidden literature. The reader of that time could not even imagine the full scale of national literature, the directions of which were completely isolated from each other. Fortunately, today there is an opportunity to get acquainted and thoroughly study all the richness and great variety of Russian literature of the 20th century.
In the process of formation and development of the literature of the Silver Age, it is customary to distinguish the following four periods:
- late 19th century - the beginning of the XX century.
- 20-30s of the XX century
- 1940s – mid 1950s
- mid 50s. – 1990s.
One of the central themes of the literary works of that time is the theme of the Motherland, the fate of Russia, which found itself at the crossroads of eras. Particular interest arises in the problem of human nature, the question of national life and national character. Solutions to these problems are presented by writers of different directions in different ways. Realists adhere to social aspects, and also actively use a concrete historical device to study the subject of interest to them. This approach was followed by such well-known figures as I. Bunin, A. Kuprin, I. Shmelev and others.
Modernist writers solved the problem in a different way - using philosophical laws, elements of science fiction for this, thereby moving away as far as possible from the realities of simple life. The Symbolists, represented by F. Sologub and A. Bely, also offered their own answers to the questions posed in the literature of the 20th century. The representatives of expressionism in the person of L. Andreev and other well-known authors were also busy with the same.
In a young and seething stream of artistic images and brilliant ideas of writer's thought, a completely new hero is born - a "continuously growing" person, forced to fight and win in an ongoing war with an oppressive and overwhelming environment. This is the very classic character of Maxim Gorky - the hero of socialist realism.
The 20th century marked the peak of the ascent of social literature, in which almost every aspect of social life has a deep philosophical meaning and is of a global spiritual nature.
The main characteristic features of the literature of the Silver Age are the following:
Appeal to eternal questions: reasoning about the meaning of life, about the place of each person in society and of all mankind as a whole; the essence of the national character; religion; relationship between man and nature.
Search and discovery of new artistic means and techniques;
The emergence of new literary movements, far from realism: modernism, avant-garde;
Movement towards the maximum convergence of literary genres, rethinking the classical types of the genre, giving them a new meaning and content.
- Jumping - message report on physical education
A jump can be called a whole process that proceeds in the following order: the animal, using the strength of its lower limbs, pushes off the ground, then moves in the air for a certain distance. The life and work of Daniil Granin
Daniil Alexandrovich Granin is a famous Soviet writer and screenwriter. In addition to creative activity, Granin was a public figure, was awarded both the USSR State Awards
The 20th century is the most dynamic in the history of human civilization, which could not but affect the entire character of its culture, including the liter. General characteristics of the XX century: the triumph of science, human intellect, the era of social storms, upheavals, paradoxes. Modern society, while forming lofty ideals of love for a person, equality, freedom, democracy, at the same time gave rise to a simplified understanding of these values, which is why the processes taking place in modern culture are so versatile.
In the literary process of the XX century. there have been changes due to socio-economic and political reasons. Among the main features of the literature of this time can be identified:
Politicization, strengthening the connection of literary movements with various political movements,
Strengthening mutual influence and interpenetration of national literatures, internationalization,
Rejection of literary traditions,
Intellectualization, the influence of philosophical ideas, the desire for scientific and philosophical analysis,
Merging and mixing of genres, variety of forms and styles,
The pursuit of the essay genre.
In the history of literature of the XX century. It is customary to distinguish two major periods:
1) 1917-1945
2) after 1945
Features of literature of the 20th century:
1. Literature in the XX century. developed in line with two main directions - realism and modernism.
Realism allowed bold experiments, the use of new artistic techniques with one goal: a deeper understanding of reality (B. Brecht, W. Faulkner, T. Mann).
Modernism in literature is most clearly represented by the work of D. Joyce and F. Kafka, who are characterized by the idea of the world as an absurd beginning, hostile to man, disbelief in man, rejection of the idea of progress in all its forms, pessimism.
Of the leading literary movements of the mid-twentieth century. should be called existentialism, which as a literary trend arose in France (J-P. Sartre, A Camus).
The features of this direction are:
The assertion of a "pure" unmotivated action,
affirmation of individualism,
A reflection of the loneliness of a person in an absurd world hostile to him.
Avant-garde literature was the product of an emerging era of social change and cataclysm. It was based on a categorical rejection of reality, the denial of bourgeois values and an energetic breaking of traditions.
Joyce's most famous novel is Ulysses. The action takes place in 1 day, from morning until late at night. An important object is the city of Dublin. An elderly family man leaves home, spends the day away from home. This day is likened to the wanderings of Odysseus. The events of the myth, rearranged, form the undercurrent of the novel. This is how neo-mythologism entered literature.
Neomythologism has different manifestations. On the one hand, this is the return to literature of plots associated with ancient myths, and sometimes passed through a lot of new assimilation (“Antigone” by Jean Anouilh - the plot is the same, but cosmetics, coffee ...). On the other hand, the mythological plot may become part of the text not on purpose. For example, Garcia Márquez "100 Years of Solitude" - the motive of the flood, the motive of original sin - 2 young men competed for Ursula's heart. Jose Arcadio kills an opponent. They live almost in paradise, in Mokondo. On the other hand, Ursula and José Arcadio are close relatives and she is afraid to enter into a love affair with him, because she thinks that an ugly child will be born. Death comes with a girl who brings the bones of her ancestors in a bag. Everyone has insanity, memory loss. The eschatological motif - the end of the world - the gypsy, who brought unprecedented thoughts, leaves the book. It is said that the last of the Buendi family will read it, and at the end the storm will sweep Mokondo off the face of the earth, and read about everything that happened before.
3. Utopian and anti-utopian tendencies - are connected with real historical experience in the 20th century. Utopia in its variety of technocratic utopia (social problems are solved by accelerating scientific and technological progress) - Aldous Huxley "Island", Ivan Efremov "Andromeda Nebula". Dystopias - Zamyatin "We", Platonov "Chevengur", Nabokov "Invitation to Execution" Orwell "1984" - In Orwell's novel, the features of a totalitarian police state, as he saw the Soviet Union, are brought to unbearable tension - but the action of the novel takes place in London.
4. The novel in the 20th century - Of the genres, the novel remains, but its genre palette is changing. It becomes more diverse, uses other genre varieties. There is an interpenetration of genres. In the 20th century, the structure of the novel loses its normativity. There is a turn from the society to the individual, from the pitiful to the individual, the interest in the subject dominates. A subjective epic appears (Proust) - the individual consciousness is in the center and it is the object of research.
5. To say that the entire literary process is filled with a complex subject-rhythmic and spatio-temporal organization.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, all aspects of Russian life were radically transformed: politics, economics, science, technology, culture, and art. There are various, sometimes directly opposite, assessments of the socio-economic and cultural prospects for the development of the country. The general feeling is the onset of a new era, which brings a change in the political situation and a reassessment of the old spiritual and aesthetic ideals. Literature could not but respond to the fundamental changes in the life of the country. There is a revision of artistic guidelines, a radical renewal of literary techniques. At this time, Russian poetry is developing especially dynamically. A little later, this period will be called the "poetic renaissance" or the Silver Age of Russian literature.
Realism in the early 20th century
Realism does not disappear, it continues to develop. L.N. is also actively working. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov and V.G. Korolenko, M. Gorky, I.A. Bunin, A.I. Kuprin ... Within the framework of the aesthetics of realism, the creative individualities of the writers of the 19th century found a vivid manifestation, their civic position and moral ideals - realism equally reflected the views of authors who share a Christian, primarily Orthodox, worldview - from F.M. Dostoevsky to I.A. Bunin, and those for whom this worldview was alien - from V.G. Belinsky to M. Gorky.
However, at the beginning of the 20th century, many writers were no longer satisfied with the aesthetics of realism - new aesthetic schools began to emerge. Writers unite in various groups, put forward creative principles, participate in polemics - literary movements are affirmed: symbolism, acmeism, futurism, imaginism, etc.
Symbolism in the early 20th century
Russian symbolism, the largest of the modernist movements, was born not only as a literary phenomenon, but also as a special worldview that combines artistic, philosophical and religious principles. The date of the emergence of a new aesthetic system is considered to be 1892, when D.S. Merezhkovsky made a report "On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature". It proclaimed the main principles of the future symbolists: "mystical content, symbols and the expansion of artistic impressionability." The central place in the aesthetics of symbolism was given to a symbol, an image that has a potential inexhaustibility of meaning.
To the rational cognition of the world, the Symbolists opposed the construction of the world in creativity, the cognition of the environment through art, which V. Bryusov defined as "comprehension of the world in other, non-rational ways." In the mythology of different peoples, the Symbolists found universal philosophical models with the help of which it is possible to comprehend the deep foundations of the human soul and solve the spiritual problems of our time. Representatives of this trend also paid special attention to the heritage of Russian classical literature - new interpretations of the work of Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Tyutchev were reflected in the works and articles of the Symbolists. Symbolism gave culture the names of outstanding writers - D. Merezhkovsky, A. Blok, Andrei Bely, V. Bryusov; the aesthetics of symbolism had a huge impact on many representatives of other literary movements.
Acmeism in the early 20th century
Acmeism was born in the bosom of symbolism: a group of young poets first founded the literary association "Poets' Workshop", and then proclaimed themselves representatives of a new literary trend - acmeism (from the Greek akme - the highest degree of something, flourishing, peak). Its main representatives are N. Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam. Unlike the symbolists, who seek to know the unknowable, to comprehend the higher essences, the acmeists again turned to the value of human life, the diversity of the bright earthly world. The main requirement for the artistic form of the works was the picturesque clarity of images, verified and precise composition, stylistic balance, and sharpness of details. The acmeists assigned the most important place in the aesthetic system of values to memory - a category associated with the preservation of the best domestic traditions and world cultural heritage.
Futurism in the early 20th century
Derogatory reviews of previous and contemporary literature were given by representatives of another modernist trend - futurism (from Latin futurum - future). A necessary condition for the existence of this literary phenomenon, its representatives considered an atmosphere of outrageousness, a challenge to public taste, a literary scandal. The futurists' craving for mass theatrical performances with dressing up, painting faces and hands was caused by the idea that poetry should come out of books into the square, sound in front of spectators-listeners. Futurists (V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, D. Burliuk, A. Kruchenykh, E. Guro, and others) put forward a program for transforming the world with the help of a new art that abandoned the heritage of its predecessors. At the same time, unlike representatives of other literary movements, in substantiating creativity, they relied on fundamental sciences - mathematics, physics, philology. The formal and stylistic features of the poetry of futurism were the renewal of the meaning of many words, word creation, the rejection of punctuation marks, the special graphic design of poetry, the depoetization of the language (the introduction of vulgarisms, technical terms, the destruction of the usual boundaries between "high" and "low").
Conclusion
Thus, in the history of Russian culture, the beginning of the 20th century is marked by the emergence of diverse literary movements, various aesthetic views and schools. However, original writers, true artists of the word overcame the narrow framework of declarations, created highly artistic works that survived their era and entered the treasury of Russian literature.
The most important feature of the beginning of the 20th century was the general craving for culture. Not to be at the premiere of a performance in the theater, not to attend the evening of an original and already sensational poet, in literary drawing rooms and salons, not to read a book of poetry just published was considered a sign of bad taste, outdated, not fashionable. When culture becomes a fashionable phenomenon, this is a good sign. “Fashion for culture” is not a new phenomenon for Russia. So it was in the days of V.A. Zhukovsky and A.S. Pushkin: let's remember the "Green Lamp" and "Arzamas", "The Society of Lovers of Russian Literature", etc. At the beginning of the new century, exactly one hundred years later, the situation practically repeated itself. The Silver Age came to replace the Golden Age, maintaining and maintaining the connection of times.
