The mayors of Glupov: Organchik (Brusty), Pimple (Stuffed Head), Borodavkin, Negodyaev, Interception-Zalikhvatsky, Gloomy-Grumbling - personify autocracy and arbitrariness. This novel uses all the artistic techniques of Shchedrin's satire - satirical fantasy, grotesque, merciless irony and cheerful, triumphant humor. This fantasy is in its essence truthful, realistic, only the external features of images and events are unreal. “They talk about caricature and exaggeration, but you just need to look around for this accusation to fall by itself ...
Who is writing this cartoon? Is it not reality itself? Isn't she at every step accusing herself of exaggeration? - wrote Saltykov-Shchedrin. The busty Organchik, despite all the fantasticness of his appearance (instead of a brain he has a primitive mechanism - an organ), performs actions that are no different from the actions of real-life rulers. At the entrance to the province, he flogged the coachmen, then day and night he wrote "more and more urges." According to his orders, "they seize and catch, flog and flog, describe and sell."
Such management has been tested for centuries, and in order to manage in this way, it was enough to have an “empty vessel” instead of a head. It is not for nothing that the superintendent of a public school answered the question of the Foolovites: “Have there been examples in history of people giving orders, waging wars and concluding treaties, having an empty vessel on their shoulders?” - replies that this is quite possible that a certain ruler "Charles the Innocent ... had on his shoulders, although not empty, but still, as it were, an empty vessel, and waged wars and concluded treatises." In addition to "ruin!" and “I won’t stand it!” The organ didn’t need any other words due to the nature of its activity. “There are people,” writes Shchedrin, “whose entire existence is exhausted by these two romances.”
In the image of Organchik, the features of automatism and callousness of the rulers are sharpened to the limit. The mayor Vasilisk Borodavkin, famous for his “wars for enlightenment”, for the introduction of mustard and Persian chamomile into the life of the Foolovites, also appears as an evil, soulless doll and wages his wild wars with the assistance of tin soldiers. But the actions of Wartkin are by no means more fantastic than the actions of any tyrant ruler. Borodavkin "burned down thirty-three villages and with the help of these measures recovered the arrears of two rubles and a half."
In works preceding The History of a City, Shchedrin wrote that vile pimples jump up on the “physiognomy of society”, testifying to its rottenness, internal illness. It is precisely this personification of the disease of the exploitative system that the mayor Pryshch is. The main feature of the mayor Pimple (aka Stuffed Head) is animality.
Pimple invariably stimulates the appetite of the leader of the nobility - his head, stuffed with truffles, spreads a seductive smell. In the episode where the leader of the nobility eats the head of the mayor, Pimple completely loses his human appearance: “The mayor suddenly jumped up and began to wipe with his paws those parts of his body that the leader had poured with vinegar. Then he twirled in one place and suddenly his whole body crashed to the floor. Even the image of Grim-Burcheev - this symbol of oppression and arbitrariness - has absorbed many specific features of the anti-people rulers of Russia. The images of mayors lack psychological depth.
And this is no coincidence. Gloomy-Grumblings are alien to feelings of grief, joy, doubt. They are not people, but mechanical puppets. They are the exact opposite of living people, suffering and thinking. Shchedrin draws mayors in a sharply sarcastic and grotesque manner, but sometimes he uses both irony and even cheerful humor. Shchedrin loved the oppressed people of Russia with all his heart, but this did not prevent him from condemning their ignorance and humility.
When Shchedrin was accused of mocking the people, he replied: “It seems to me that two concepts should be distinguished in the word “people”: a historical people and a people representing the idea of democracy. I really cannot sympathize with the first, who bears the Wartkins, Burcheevs, etc. on his shoulders. I have always sympathized with the latter, and all my writings are full of this sympathy. In The History of a City, Shchedrin predicted the death of the autocracy. Humiliated, driven to despair, the Foolovites eventually begin to understand the impossibility of their existence under the conditions of the despotic regime of Ugryum-Burcheev.
The writer tangibly conveys the growing anger of the people, the atmosphere preceding the explosion. With a picture of this powerful explosion that shook the city, Shchedrin ends his chronicle. Gloomy-Grumbling disappeared, "as if melted in the air," and "history stopped its course," the story of a gloomy city, its downtrodden and obedient inhabitants, insane rulers. A new period begins in the life of the liberated people.
The true history of mankind is endless, it is like a mountain river, the mighty movement of which was powerless to be stopped by Grim-Burcheev. “The river did not let up. As before, she flowed, breathed, murmured and wriggled; as before, one bank of it was steep, and the other represented a meadow lowland, flooded into a distant space with water in springtime. With a premonition of great historical changes in Foolov is connected bright look Shchedrin for the future, vividly embodied in his book. The chronicle is written in a colorful, very complex language.
It widely uses the high syllable of ancient speech - for example, in the address of an archivist-chronicler to the reader - and folk sayings and proverbs, and the heavy, unreadable syllable of stationery papers in a parodic arrangement (the so-called "Certifying Documents" attached to the chronicle), and journalistic style contemporary Shchedrin journalism.
The combination of the "chronicler's" tale manner with the author's transcription of his notes allowed Shchedrin to give the story a somewhat archaic character. historical evidence, then again bring into it clear echoes of modernity. Shchedrin's satire has always been on the side of those who fought for the triumph of justice and truth. The writer believed in the collapse of the Foolovian system of life on earth, in the victory of the immortal ideas of democracy and progress.
Find time for yourself and a nice book. And it doesn't matter that it's cold and gray outside. We offer you 10 satire books that will make you smile.
1. Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov - "12 chairs"
The novel by Ilf and Petrov "The Twelve Chairs" is rightfully considered the standard of satire and humor. Unanimously loved by all readers, this novel entered the golden fund of Russian and world literature. The search for Madame Petukhova's diamonds, hidden in one of the chairs of the furniture set, is a story that still causes a sincere smile to this day. The names of the characters - charming adventurers - became a household name, and the novel itself was sold into quotations, having withstood hundreds of successful reprints and deservedly earned the fame of an unfading bestseller.
2. George Orwell - "Cattle Farm"
“All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” is probably the most famous phrase from George Orwell's classic parable about the collapse of revolutionary hopes. The tragic meaning of "Animal Farm" emerges through a vivid parody drawing. In this book, Orwell managed to accomplish two tasks set for himself back in 1936: “to expose Soviet myth and "make political prose an art". Orwell's parable, published in 1945, is published in a new translation.
3. Yaroslav Gashek - "The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik"
"The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik" is perhaps one of the most original books in the entire history of prose of the 20th century. A book that can equally be perceived as one big, full of absolutely inimitable folk slyness "soldier's tale" - or as classic literature of the past century.
Funny? Funny homeric! But very often, through the groovy and daring humor of the "garrison anecdote" true essence"Soldier Schweik" is a desperate and powerful call to "lay down your arms and think"...
4. Joseph Heller - Catch-22
Joseph Heller, with his first novel, Catch 22, literally burst into American literature post-war years. "The world has gone mad", and this is especially evident in the example of the life and customs of the military pilots of the American Squadron. Caustically, and sometimes quite harshly, the army described by J. Heller - strange world, full of bureaucratic tricks and nonsense. No one knows exactly what the so-called "Amendment 22" is. But, contrary to all logic, army discipline requires its strict implementation. The bureaucratic machine paralyzes common sense and turns individuals into a faceless, dull mass.
5. Evelyn Waugh - "Vile Flesh"
Journalists and preachers, racing drivers and aristocrats, ministers and young playboys… They rush through life and through the pages of the novel in a whirlwind of balls, masquerades and parties – Victorian, cowboy, Russian, circus. This, at the behest of the author, appears England in the short interval between the two great wars.
6. Francois Rabelais - "Gargantua and Pantagruel"
Romance of the great French writer François Rabelais "Gargantua and Pantagruel" largest monument era of the French Renaissance. The book is built on a broad folklore basis, it contains a satire on fantasy and adventurous heroics of old chivalric novels.
7. Christopher T. Buckley - "Smoking Here"
“Smoking Here” is a satirical novel with elements of a thriller. The hero of the novel, a public representative of the tobacco lobby, skillfully and cynically fights the opponents of smoking, convincingly proving the usefulness of the latter. The special piquancy is given to the novel by the episodic appearance on its pages worldwide. famous people, only in rare cases covered with transparent aliases.
8. Charles Bukowski - Waste Paper
"Waste paper" - last novel Bukowski, his swan song is simply contraindicated for readers without a sense of humor! This is really a special kind of banter dedicated to “ bad literature". The plot of the book itself is devoid of dynamics, devoid of intrigue, devoid of everything, but that is why it is infinitely brilliant. The main advantage of "Waste Paper" is the style of narration. The descriptions and dialogues of the novel are filled with an atmosphere of dirt, violence and fear. At the same time, Bukowski literally parodies genuine pulp fiction with every sentence. And although the author's style is utterly simplified - I would like to note an amazing sense of humor, which will definitely appeal to readers who have this sense.
9. Kurt Vonnegut - "God bless you, Mr. Rosewater, or Don't throw pearls before swine"
One of the most amusing, witty and ironic novels of the great Vonnegut.
Everyday phantasmagoria in this eccentric and caustic work is closely intertwined with a satire on the life and customs of America's "golden age" of the late fifties - early sixties of the last century so closely that it is almost impossible to separate them.
So, welcome to the fund of an eccentric millionaire who indulges in philanthropy and a passion for voluntary firefighting clubs.
Is he insane? This is trying to prove brisk lawyers hired by his relatives. He is healthy? Oddly enough, psychiatrists are sure of this ... So what is happening to the venerable Mr. Rosewater after all?
10. O'Henry - "Kings and Cabbage"
O. Henry is an outstanding American novelist of the early 20th century, famous for his brilliant humorous stories, a master of unexpected comparisons and unforeseen, paradoxical outcomes. Artistic expressiveness combined with subtle observation, liveliness and conciseness of the narrative, inexhaustible wit, love for people - this is what brought O. Henry the unchanging recognition and love of readers. This edition presents the story "Kings and Cabbage", consisting of adventurous and humorous short stories, the action of which takes place in Latin America, but instead of kings he has presidents, and instead of cabbages - palm trees.
M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin "History of one city"
I. The history of the creation and publication of the novel. "Glupovsky" cycle of the early 1860s. early 1860s (essays "Literary Writers", "Slander", "Our Foolov Affairs", "Stupid and Foolovites", "Folupov Debauchery", "Our Provincial Day"). City of Foolov as a toponymic generalization.
II. A thousand-year history of Russia as an object of satirical reflection in the "History of a City".
1. Genre and compositional originality of the book:
a) Analyze the features of the construction of the "History of one city". Pay attention to the narrative (narrative) specifics of the work. Explain why the writer introduces two narrative plans - the chronicler-archivist and the publisher (give examples). Does the author's voice sound in the book?
b) Which genre definition of "The History of a City" seems to you the most accurate: novel, chronicle, satire? (suggest your options).
2. Parody in the text of the chronicle legend about the calling of the Varangians and historical concepts about the origin of Russian statehood (S.M. Solovieva, N.I. Kostomarova, M.P. Pogodina). Please provide relevant passages.
3. History of Russia as real basis Shchedrin's grotesque:
a) Why did Saltykov claim that he wrote “not historical”, but “completely ordinary” satire? (See: Letter to the Editor)
b) "Grotesque" chronotope as a way satirical image modernity:
- deformation of time in the novel: the principle of "historical combinations and projections" (S.A. Makashin) in the use of realities and names (give examples);
- deformation of space in the novel: local blurring of the boundaries of the city of Glupov (confirm with text).
III. A grotesque interpretation in the "History of a City" of the problem of "people and power" ("Life under the yoke of madness").
1. Study of the mechanisms of power in the book, artistic realization of the idea of "madness". "I won't stand it!" and "I'll ruin it!" as leitmotif formulas of power:
a) An indirect expression of the idea of "madness" in the images of mayors indulging in "bodily exercises" (Mikaladze ... - continue the list). What is remarkable about the reign of each of them?
b) Implementation of the metaphor "headless" in the images of such mayors as Organchik ... (continue the series). Wartkin as a harbinger of Moody-Burcheev (argument). "Idiot" Grim-Grumbling is the ultimate embodiment of the idea of "madness" of power (confirm with text).
2. Study in the book of mechanisms of subordination: "historical people" in Saltykov's novel:
a) A collective portrait of the Foolovites. What is the social composition of the Foolovian population. name character traits their psychology and behavior (boss love ... - continue). Prove that the behavior of the Foolovites is shown as a manifestation of the people's "madness". What is a "kneel rebellion"? (give examples).
b) How does the tone of the narrative change in the chapters "Hungry City" and "Straw City"? (quote relevant passages). Were Saltykov's reproaches of "mocking the people" fair? (see A.S. Suvorin's article and Saltykov's answer to it).
3. The logic of the development of the conflict "people and power". The ring principle of composition: from the dreams of bunglers about " strong hand” (give examples) - to the “nonsense” of Grim-Burcheev. Can we apply the thesis that every nation is worthy of its rulers to the ideological concept of the novel?
IV. Artistic embodiment in the novel of philosophical and historical views of Saltykov-Shchedrin.
1. The writer's idea of the people as "the embodiment of the idea of democracy" ("Letter to the Editor"). Periods of Foolov's prosperity and its causes (chapter "The era of dismissal from wars"). Why is Foolov called "the ill-fated municipality"? (chapter "Confirmation of repentance. Conclusion"). What, from your point of view, is the author's ideal state structure?
2. Evolutionary concept historical process. The movements of the Decembrists and Petrashevists as a real material for artistic generalizations ("martyrology of Foolov's liberalism"). The dystopian pathos of the book: the exposure of the totalitarian basis of "communist leveling" (chapters "Adoration of mammon and repentance", "Confirmation of repentance. Conclusion").
3. Biblical reminiscences in the novel and their function. Eschatological meaning of the finale, its anticipation on different stages conflict development. Find fragments in the text that express the idea of the cyclical development of history. What is the meaning of the river in the novel?
Literature
Mandatory
1. Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. History of one city // Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. Collected works: In 20 t. M., 1969. V.8. We also recommend that you refer to the comments of B.M. Eikhenbaum in the edition: Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. History of one city. M.: Children's literature, 1970.
2. Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. Letter to the editors of Vestnik Evropy // Saltykov-Shchedrin M.E. Collected works: In 20 t. M., 1969. V.8.
3. "Historical satire?" (Article by A.S. Suvorin and response to it by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin) // Russian literature. 1995. No. 4.
4. Nikolaev D."History of one city" M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin // Three masterpieces of Russian classics. M., 1971.
Additional
1. Elizarova L.V. Narration in the "History of a City" // Satire M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. 1826–1976 Kalinin, 1977.
2. Stroganov M.V. About the end of the History. To the problem "Shchedrin and the Decembrists" // "The Sixties" in the work of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin. Kalinin, 1985.
3. Golovina T.N."History of one city": to be continued // Shchedrinskiy collection. Issue. 2. Tver, 2003.
Writers, poets, playwrights have created many vivid satirical works in which by force artistic word social and moral vices that interfere with the normal development of life are ridiculed. Exposure of evil and injustice by means of art - ancient tradition humanity has accumulated vast experience on this path.To make bad and bad things funny means to depreciate, reduce it, to induce in people the desire to get rid of negative traits. Satirical literature, like no other, has a strong educational impact, although, of course, not everyone likes to recognize themselves in heroes. satirical comedy or fables. Any satirical work: a fable, a comedy, a fairy tale, a novel - has a number of specific features that are unique to them. Firstly, this is a very large degree of conventionality of the depicted, the proportions real world in a satirical work are displaced and distorted, the satirist consciously focuses only on negative sides reality, which appear in the work in an exaggerated, often fantastic, form. Remember Gogol's confession that in The Inspector General the writer "wanted to collect everything bad in Russia and laugh at everything at once." But this, according to the writer, is “a laughter visible to the world” through “invisible, unknown to him tears”, the satirist mourns the lost ideal of a person in his caricatured, often repulsive heroes. A satirical writer must have a special talent for creating comic, i.e. funny, in literary work. These are a variety of comic plot collisions, illogical, absurd situations, the use of speaking names and surnames, etc. The most important artistic techniques that allow you to create satirical images are the following (see diagram 6).
Irony(Greek eironeia, mockery, pretense) - a method of ridicule, when the direct and hidden meaning of what was said contradict each other, when a sharp, stinging mockery is hidden under the mask of imaginary seriousness.
The mayor Borodavkin "led the campaign against the arrears, and burned thirty-three villages and, with the help of these measures, recovered the arrears of two rubles and a half."
M. Saltykov-Shchedrin. "History of a City"
Character dialogues that use irony are also a common technique in satirical works, comic effect arises because one of the characters does not feel the ironic overtones.
Sarcasm(sakasmos in Greek, I literally tear meat) - a caustic, cruel mockery, expressed directly, without
half hints.
Gloomy-Burcheev - one of the mayors in the "History of a City" by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin - is described exclusively in sarcastic tones:
"Before the eyes of the viewer rises the purest type of idiot who has made some kind of gloomy decision and swore an oath to carry it out."
“I came two weeks later and was received by some girl with eyes slanted to her nose from constant lies.”
M. Bulgakov "The Master and Margarita"
Hyperbola- exaggeration, bright and, perhaps, one of the most important satirical techniques, since exaggeration, exaggeration of negative features, is the law of a satirical depiction of reality, it is no coincidence that V. Mayakovsky called satire "a look at the world through a magnifying glass."
Hyperbole can be verbal (" bad news”), however, more common is extended hyperbole, when the injection of many similar details exaggerates some feature to the point of absurdity.
Entire episodes are often built according to the laws of hyperbolization, for example, the famous “scene of lies” from The Inspector General, when in ten minutes Khlestakov made himself from a petty official into the director of a department, who subordinates “couriers, couriers, couriers ... you can imagine thirty-five thousand one couriers!”
Hyperbole is often combined with the grotesque and fantasy.
Fiction(phantastike Greek. the ability to imagine) - the image of absolutely impossible, illogical, incredible situations and heroes.
In satirical works, fantasy is very often used together with the grotesque and hyperbole, it is often impossible to separate them, as, for example, in V. Mayakovsky's poem “The Sitting Ones”: “I see: half of the people are sitting. O devilry! Where is the other half?!”
Grotesque(grotesque fr. bizarre, intricate) - the most complex satirical device, which consists in an unexpected, at first glance, impossible combination of high and low, funny and terrible, beautiful and ugly.
The grotesque contains elements of fantasy and exaggeration, therefore it contains a very strong impulse of emotional and psychological impact on the reader, the grotesque strikes, excites the imagination, calling to look at reality from a new, often paradoxical point of view. The grotesque was especially often resorted to in his work by M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin and M.A. Bulgakov.
Sometimes the plot of the entire work can be built on a grotesque situation (M. Bulgakov's story "Heart of a Dog").
The fate of the literary community of Ilf and Petrov is unusual. She touches and excites. They worked together for a short time, only ten years, but in history Soviet literature left a deep, indelible mark. The memory of them does not fade, and the love of readers for their books does not weaken.
The novels "The Twelve Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" are widely known. In new historical conditions, on the material of our time. Ilf and Petrov not only revived the old, classic genre of the satirical novel, but also gave it a fundamentally new character.
We name these two novels first of all, because "The Twelve Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" are really the peaks of the work of Ilf and Petrov. But these novels rise above the whole literary massif, which is made up of works of various genres. surveying literary heritage Ilf and Petrov, not only the works written by them together, but also by each separately, one cannot help but marvel at the breadth of the writers' creative possibilities, the literary brilliance of feuilletons, essays, and comedies.
The talent of the satirists was in full swing. A wide road opened before the authors. They hatched a lot of ideas, plans, themes. Satire in the works of writers became deeper and deeper. Unfortunately, the end of their community was tragic. Ilf's life ended too soon. And after a few years. also in the prime of his talent, Petrov died.
All their short joint literary activity closely, inextricably linked with the first decades of existence Soviet power. They were not only contemporaries of their great era, but also active participants in socialist construction, fighters at the forefront. Laughter was their literary weapon, and they did not lay down this weapon until the end of their days.
The novels of Ilf and Petrov "The Twelve Chairs" and "The Golden Calf" followed the same path. The first novel is a wide-ranging satirical canvas with lively humorous colors. it extensive gallery small and tiny people.
Binds them together story line: twelve chairs that the main character of the novel, Ostap Bender, is looking for. Traveling through various cities gives him the opportunity to meet many people, diverse in character, but belonging to the same environment. These are all philistines in spirit, in character, former officials, merchants, NEPmen, people without specific occupations - small crucian inhabitants who exist for that, to be swallowed alive by a swindler of pike breed - Ostap Bender.
On the face of it, they seem to be even good-natured people. Many of them are not formally enemies of socialism and Soviet power. They don't have any political views, and Elle has no convictions at all. She's just a bipedal mammal whose entire mental baggage fits into three or four phrases. However, in reality, she is the very “canary” that Mayakovsky advised to turn his head.
Ella is a cannibal. perhaps one of the most expressive and powerful satirical images in the novel by Ilf and Petrov. It vividly represents the wretched and at the same time predatory nature of philistinism. With others, it is masked by pompous phrases, by the gift of accommodation. Ellochkavsya as in the palm of your hand. This is a very tiny predatory animal, its most dangerous feature is vitality. She lives to this day. We meet it sometimes among the youth of our time, among girls and boys. They are now called dudes. The composition of the novel predetermined its end. The plot was exhausted when Ostap Bender found the last chair - the one in which the jewels were sewn up. With the proceeds from their sale, the railroad built an excellent club. This was also the last failure of the hero of the novel. He had no reason to live any longer, and the authors did away with him in a rather mechanical way. As is known. Ostap Bender was stabbed to death by his accomplice, former Marshal of the Nobility Kisa Vorobyaninov.
The novel "The Twelve Chairs" was an extraordinary success. It was read and reread with unceasing merry laughter. Ilf and Petrov wrote several new satirical works after the novel. In 1928-1930, they actively collaborated in the magazines Ogonyok and Chudak. In addition to numerous feuilletons and stories, the satirical story “The Bright Personality”, a series of short stories about the city of Kolokolamsk and the tales of the New Scheherazade were published there. Inhabitants of the fantastic cities of Kolokolaysk and Pishcheslav. invented by Ilf and Petrov, these are, as it were, residents of the Shchedrin town of Glupov. direct descendants of the famous Poshekhonians. They show the disgusting features of the petty-bourgeois money-grubbers, that Nepman spirit. which Ilf and Petrov ridiculed in the novel "The Twelve Chairs". In their new works, the writers continued the satirical line of their first novel in a grotesque form. But the form they found did not satisfy the authors. As the writers themselves believed, they could not fully solve in these works those creative tasks, which were set in front of them.
Why did the authors need to resurrect the slaughtered hero? The simplest and easiest explanation suggests itself. The satirical image of Ostap Bender has become extremely popular. It had artistic originality. In his vitality, in his significance, he entered the series of typical characters headed by Khlestakov. Chichikov and other wonderful satirical images of classical Russian literature. Of course, the scales of Chichikov and Ostap Bender are completely different, but the fact is that they are in the same literary row. The name of Ostap Bender also became a household name.
The authors were sorry to part with their hero. This can be understood. In their reserves, many more such materials were preserved that could be successfully used in Bender's further adventures. Moreover, in the first novel, Ostap's death was not motivated either logically or psychologically. In a playful preface to The Golden Calf, Ilf and Petrov say that the death sentence for the hero of the novel was passed by accident. The authors hesitated and even argued about whether to kill Ostap or leave him alive. The dispute was decided by lot. A piece of paper was taken out of the sugar bowl, on which a skull and two chicken bones were depicted. But soon after the sentence was carried out. Ilf and Petrov realized that they had made a mistake. I had to resurrect Ostap Bender, leaving him in memory of untimely death scar on the neck.
It can be assumed that, resuming the history of adventures already famous hero. Ilf and Petrov decided to correct and some weak sides first novel. At one time, benevolent criticism pointed to them. In The Twelve Chairs, an almost exclusively small world of mixed is depicted, the townsfolk, the simpleton, whom the “great strategist” leads by the nose so easily and so amusingly. The big world, the world of revolution and socialist construction is, as it were, absent. It is assumed that the Soviet reader himself always sees this Big world. From his height, all the human pettiness that fills the novel is mercilessly ridiculed.
In addition, all the characters in The Twelve Chairs are too small. There are no large and serious enemies among them. Hence, some touch of good nature in the novel. And Ostap Bender, with his wit, resourcefulness, even inspires some sympathy for himself. He leaves the stage unexposed to the end.
Apparently, Ilf and Petrov themselves felt some dissatisfaction as creators of interesting satirical image. Perhaps they themselves said to themselves: we gave birth to you, Ostap Bender, and we will kill you. This is how the second novel ends. Ostap Bender does not physically die. He says about himself that he intends to leave his tricks and retrain as a house manager. But he suffers complete moral bankruptcy. The authors give him a harsher and “more just” sentence: Ostap Bender is ridiculed to death, killed by his own weapons.
In the second novel, that broad social background appears, which is clearly lacking in the first. The authors, in fact, do not go beyond the framework of a satirical novel. The action develops in a small world of philistine passions. But from time to time we hear the noise of the real big life, pictures of the great socialist construction arise. Symbolic and complete deep meaning those pages where it is told how the passengers of the Antelope, forced to turn off the highway, hide in a ravine and watch how the cars of a real motor race rush one after another. Ostap Bender and his companions feel that a genuine big life, and they are hopelessly behind, ridiculed, thrown out.
In the city of Chernomorsk, a picture of a large and busy port is drawn, as if in passing. A new life is in full swing there, and against this background, the adventures of millionaires Koreiko and Ostap Bender look miserable.
Thus, the Golden Calf shows the true historical scale of the little world in which Ostap Bender is considered in his own way a “strong man”. At the center of the satirical denunciation are the same small people, philistines, townsfolk. However, among them there are predators of a different caliber than in The Twelve Chairs - larger opponents, more dangerous enemies of the new order. These are crooks, plunderers of public property, who directly or indirectly come into contact with the criminal world.
The very objects of denunciation are also expanding - writers direct the fire of satire in the novel against bureaucrats and opportunists. It is no coincidence that the generalized image of "Hercules" acquired a nominal meaning, became the embodiment of bureaucracy and bureaucratic indifference.
The most important thing is that. that from a triumphant hero Ostap Bender turns into a loser, suffering one defeat after another. Grand schemer eventually acquires his "million", but loses faith in his egoistic principles. His wit fades, his attractiveness disappears. He loses his accomplices and is left alone. The authors gradually debunk it and consistently bring it to a comic-dramatic finale.
Completely superfluous, alien, no matter how cleverly he adapts, Ostap looks like on a train with Soviet and foreign journalists, which is going to build the Eastern Highway (read: Turksib). And when his dream finally comes true and Ostap receives the coveted million, he is finally thrown out of life. This is where the main idea of the novel comes into play. She is in it. that a rich private owner is impossible, absurd, meaningless in a socialist society. This is how the authors morally kill the hero of private property profit that they have engendered.
The Golden Calf is not just a sequel to The Twelve Chairs, but further development Topics. The humorous colors in the second novel are no less vivid than in the first, and the satire reveals a higher level of political sharpness. The "Golden Calf" testifies to the greater ideological and artistic maturity of the authors.
The satirical novels considered in this paragraph are, as it were, the peaks of the work of Ilf and Petrov. They wrote, in addition, a considerable number of stories, short stories, essays, feuilletons, plays, screenplays. It is like the foothills and spurs of the main literary massif. They also sparkle with humor, they have the same inexhaustible merry laughter, rich fiction, accuracy of caricature characteristics. And the same satirical direction. Ilf and Petrov are fighting against their constant enemies - against philistinism, vulgarity, bureaucracy, indifference.
The second chapter of this study is devoted to the analysis of satirical works of the twentieth century in order to determine how the Soviet era is reflected in these works. We took as a basis the works of four writers - M. Bulgakov, M. Zoshchenko, I. Ilf and E. Petrov.
As a result of the analysis, the following conclusions can be drawn:
1) The beginning of the 20th century was full of events on a global and Russian scale that changed humanity, society, and attitudes towards the individual. satire like false mirror, faithfully followed reality in the works of new authors, who exposed the new vices of society and man. Russian satirical writers (M. Zoshchenko, I. Ilf and E. Petrov, M. Bulgakov, and others) in the 1920s were distinguished by their particular boldness and frankness in their statements. All of them were the heirs of Russian realism of the XX century.
2) M. Bulgakov created in his semi-fantastic works very accurate and realistic image the reality that arose in Russia after the revolution. Environment shown in a grotesque manner, but this is what makes it possible to expose the absurdities and contradictions of the existing social Soviet system.
3) The works of M. Zoshchenko and his life itself reflected the contemporary Soviet era, when in Russia there was a break in times, a break in history. The speech of the heroes of M. Zoshchenko reflected the complex processes that took place in politics, culture, and the economy of the 20-30s of the twentieth century. At this time, old concepts disappeared, and with them whole layers of vocabulary, but many new words, new speech structures appeared. Zoshchenko in his works puts the heroes in circumstances to which it is difficult for them to adapt, which is why they look ridiculous and ridiculous.
4) Satire requires direction. I. Ilf and E. Petrov, going to the forefront of the satirical front of Soviet literature, chose a certain area for themselves. They deployed their weapons against the worst enemies of the socialist revolution: against petty-bourgeoisness, inertia, narrow-mindedness.
