Sentimentalism on the example of one of the works. Sentimentalism in art (XVIII century)

Introduction.
History of sentimentalism.
Features and genres of sentimentalism.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.

Introduction
The literary direction "sentimentalism" got its name from the French word sentiment, that is, feeling, sensitivity). This direction was very popular in literature and art of the second half of the 18th - early 19th centuries. A distinctive feature of sentimentalism was attention to the inner world of a person, to his emotional state. From the point of view of sentimentalism, it was human feelings that were the main value.
Sentimental novels and stories, so popular in the XVIII-XIX centuries, are now perceived by readers as naive fairy tales, where there is much more fiction than truth. However, works written in the spirit of sentimentalism had a huge impact on the development of Russian literature. They made it possible to capture on paper all the shades of the human soul.

Sentimental? zm (French sentimentalisme, from English sentimental, French sentiment - feeling) - the mood in Western European and Russian culture and the corresponding literary direction. In Europe, it existed from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia - from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century.

Sentimentalism declared feeling, not reason, to be the dominant of "human nature", which distinguished it from classicism. Without breaking with the Enlightenment, sentimentalism remained true to the ideal of a normative personality, but the condition for its implementation was not a “reasonable” reorganization of the world, but the release and improvement of “natural” feelings. The hero of enlightenment literature in sentimentalism is more individualized, his inner world is enriched by the ability to empathize, sensitively respond to what is happening around. By origin (or by conviction), the sentimentalist hero is a democrat; the rich spiritual world of the common man is one of the main discoveries and conquests of sentimentalism.

Born on British shores in the 1710s, sentimentalism became Tue. floor. 18th century a pan-European phenomenon. Most clearly manifested inEnglish , French , German And Russian literature .

Representatives of sentimentalism in Russia:

M.N. Ants
N.M. Karamzin
V.V. Kapnist
ON THE. Lviv
Young V.A. Zhukovsky was a sentimentalist for a short time.

At the beginning of the XIX century. sentimentalism acquires the greatest influence (from French sentimentalisme, from English sentimental - sensitive). Its emergence is associated with the spiritual growth of the individual, with her awareness of her own dignity and the desire for spiritual emancipation. Sentimentalism was a response to the public need for the democratization of literature. While the leading heroes of classicism were kings, nobles, leaders, interpreted in their abstract, universal, generic essence, sentimentalists brought to the fore the image of a single, private, ordinary, predominantly “average” personality in its inner essence, in its everyday life. They contrasted the rationality of classicism with the cult of feeling, touchingness, "the religion of the heart" (Rousseau).
The ideology of sentimentalism was close to that of the Enlightenment. Most enlighteners believed that the world could be made perfect by teaching people some reasonable forms of behavior. The writers of sentimentalism set the same goal and adhered to the same logic. Only they argued that it was not reason, but sensitivity that should save the world. They reasoned something like this: by cultivating sensitivity in all people, it is possible to defeat evil. In the 18th century, the word sentimentalism was understood as susceptibility, the ability to respond with the soul to everything that surrounds a person. Sentimentalism is a literary movement that reflects the world from the position of feeling, not reason.
Sentimentalism arose in Western Europe at the end of the 20s of the 18th century and took shape in the form of two main trends: progressive-bourgeois and reactionary-gentry. The most famous Western European sentimentalists are E. Jung, L. Stern, T. Gray, J. Thomson, J.J. Rousseau, Jean Paul (I. Richter).
With some ideological and aesthetic features (focusing on the individual, the power of feelings, asserting the advantages of nature over civilization), sentimentalism anticipated the advent of romanticism, therefore sentimentalism is often called pre-romanticism (French preromantisme). In Western European literature, pre-romanticism includes works that are characterized by the following features:
- searching for an ideal way of life outside of a civilized society;
- the desire for naturalness in human behavior;
- interest in folklore as a form of the most direct manifestation of feelings;
- attraction to the mysterious and terrible;
- idealization of the Middle Ages.
But the attempts of researchers to find in Russian literature the phenomenon of pre-romanticism as a direction different from sentimentalism did not lead to positive results. It seems that we can talk about pre-romanticism, bearing in mind the emergence of romantic tendencies, which manifested themselves primarily in sentimentalism. In Russia, the tendencies of sentimentalism were clearly identified in the 60s of the XVIII century. in the works of F.A. Emmina, V.I. Lukin and other writers like them.
In Russian literature, sentimentalism manifested itself in two directions: reactionary (Shalikov) and liberal ( Karamzin, Zhukovsky ). Idealizing reality, reconciling, obscuring the contradictions between the nobility and the peasantry, the reactionary sentimentalists drew an idyllic utopia in their works: autocracy and social hierarchy are holy; serfdom was established by God himself for the sake of the happiness of the peasants; serfs live better than free ones; It is not serfdom itself that is vicious, but its abuse. Defending these ideas, Prince P.I. Shalikov in "Journey to Little Russia" depicted the life of the peasants full of contentment, fun, joy. In the play by the playwright N.I. Ilyin "Lisa, or the triumph of Gratitude" the main character, a peasant woman, praising her life, says: "We live as cheerfully as the sun is red." The peasant Arkhip, the hero of the play “Generosity, or Recruitment Set” by the same author, assures: “Yes, such good kings as they are in holy Rus', go out all over the world, you won’t find others.”
The idyllic nature of creativity was especially manifested in the cult of a beautifully sensitive personality with its desire for ideal friendship and love, admiration for the harmony of nature and a cutesy and mannered way to express their thoughts and feelings. So, the playwright V.M. Fedorov, "correcting" the plot of the story "Poor Liza" Karamzin , forced Erast to repent, abandon the rich bride and return to Lisa, who remains alive. To top it all off, the tradesman Matvey, Lisa's father, turns out to be the son of a wealthy nobleman ("Lisa, or the Consequence of Pride and Seduction", 1803).
However, in the development of domestic sentimentalism, the leading role was played not by reactionary, but by progressive, liberal-minded writers: A.M. Kutuzov, M.N. Muravyov, N.M. Karamzin, V.A. Zhukovsky. Belinsky rightly called "a remarkable person", "an employee and assistant Karamzin in the Transformation of the Russian Language and Russian Literature” I.I. Dmitriev - poet, fabulist, translator.
I.I. Dmitriev had an undoubted influence on poetry with his poems V.A. Zhukovsky , K.N. Batyushkov and P.A. Vyazemsky. One of his best works, which was widely disseminated, is the song “The Dove Dove is Moaning” (1792). following an idea N.M. Karamzin and I.I. Dmitrieva , Yu.A. Nelidinsky-Melitsky, the creator of the song “I will take out the river”, and the poet I.M. Dolgoruky.
Liberal-minded sentimentalists saw their vocation in comforting people in their suffering, troubles, sorrows, to turn them to virtue, harmony and beauty. Perceiving human life as perverse and fleeting, they glorified eternal values ​​- nature, friendship and love. They enriched literature with such genres as elegy, correspondence, diary, travel, essay, story, novel, drama. Overcoming the normative and dogmatic requirements of classical poetics, the sentimentalists in many ways contributed to the convergence of the literary language with the spoken language. According to K.N. Batyushkov, a model for them is the one who writes as he says, whom the ladies read! Individualizing the language of the actors, they used elements of folk vernacular for the peasants, official jargon for clerks, gallicisms for the secular nobility, etc. But this differentiation has not been carried out consistently. Positive characters, even serfs, spoke, as a rule, in a literary language.
Asserting their creative principles, sentimentalists did not limit themselves to the creation of works of art. They published literary-critical articles in which, proclaiming their own literary and aesthetic positions, they overthrew their predecessors. The constant target of their satirical arrows was the work of the classicists - S.A. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, S.S. Bobrova, D.I. Khvostova, A.S. Shishkov and A.A. Shakhovsky.

Sentimentalism in England. First of all, sentimentalism declared itself in the lyrics. Poet trans. floor. 18th century James Thomson abandoned the urban motifs traditional for rationalist poetry and made English nature the object of depiction. Nevertheless, he does not completely depart from the classicist tradition: he uses the genre of elegy, legitimized by the classicist theorist Nicolas Boileau in his Poetic Art (1674), however, he replaces rhymed couplets with blank verse, characteristic of the Shakespearean era.
The development of lyrics goes along the path of strengthening the pessimistic motives already heard by D. Thomson. The theme of the illusiveness and futility of earthly existence triumphs in Edward Jung, the founder of "graveyard poetry". The poetry of the followers of E. Jung - the Scottish pastor Robert Blair (1699-1746), the author of the gloomy didactic poem The Grave (1743), and Thomas Gray, the creator of the Elegy written in the rural cemetery (1749) - is imbued with the idea of ​​equality of all before death.
Sentimentalism expressed itself most fully in the genre of the novel. It was initiated by Samuel Richardson, who, breaking with the adventurous and picaresque and adventure tradition, turned to depicting the world of human feelings, which required the creation of a new form - a novel in letters. In the 1750s, sentimentalism became the mainstream of English Enlightenment literature. The work of Lawrence Stern, whom many researchers consider the "father of sentimentalism", marks the final departure from classicism. (The satirical novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-1767) and the novel A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick (1768), from which the name of the artistic movement came).
Critical English sentimentalism reaches its peak in the work of Oliver Goldsmith.
In the 1770s comes the decline of English sentimentalism. The genre of the sentimental novel ceases to exist. In poetry, the sentimentalist school gives way to the pre-romantic one (D. MacPherson, T. Chatterton).
Sentimentalism in France. In French literature, sentimentalism expressed itself in a classical form. Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux stands at the origins of sentimental prose. (Life of Marianne, 1728–1741; and the Peasant, who went out into the people, 1735–1736).
Antoine-Francois Prevost d'Exil, or Abbé Prevost, opened up a new realm of feelings for the novel - an irresistible passion leading the hero to a life catastrophe.
The climax of the sentimental novel was the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778).
The concept of nature and "natural" man determined the content of his works of art (for example, Julie's epistolary novel, or New Eloise, 1761).
J.-J. Rousseau made nature an independent (intrinsic) object of the image. His Confession (1766-1770) is considered one of the most outspoken autobiographies in world literature, where he brings the subjectivist attitude of sentimentalism to the absolute (a work of art as a way of expressing the author's "I").
Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814), like his teacher J.-J. Rousseau, considered the main task of the artist to affirm the truth - happiness consists in living in harmony with nature and virtuously. He expounds his concept of nature in the treatise Etudes on Nature (1784-1787). This theme is given artistic expression in the novel Paul and Virginie (1787). Depicting distant seas and tropical countries, B. de Saint-Pierre introduces a new category - "exotic", which will be in demand by romantics, primarily by Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand.
Jacques-Sebastian Mercier (1740–1814), following the Rousseauist tradition, makes the central conflict of the novel The Savage (1767) the collision of the ideal (primitive) form of existence (“golden age”) with the civilization that decomposes it. In the utopian novel 2440, What Few Dreams (1770), based on the Social Contract of J.-J. Rousseau, he constructs the image of an egalitarian rural community in which people live in harmony with nature. S. Mercier sets out his critical view of the "fruits of civilization" in a journalistic form - in the essay Picture of Paris (1781).
The work of Nicolas Retief de La Bretonne (1734–1806), a self-taught writer, author of two hundred volumes of essays, is marked by the influence of J.-J. Rousseau. The novel The Depraved Peasant, or the Perils of the City (1775) tells the story of the transformation, under the influence of the urban environment, of a morally pure youth into a criminal. The utopian novel The Southern Discovery (1781) treats the same theme as the year 2440 by S. Mercier. In the New Emile, or Practical Education (1776), Retief de La Bretonne develops the pedagogical ideas of J.-J. Rousseau, applying them to women's education, and argues with him. The confession of J.-J. Rousseau becomes the reason for the creation of his autobiographical work Mr. Nikola, or the Unveiled Human Heart (1794-1797), where he turns the narrative into a kind of "physiological sketch".
In the 1790s, during the era of the French Revolution, sentimentalism was losing its positions, giving way to revolutionary classicism.
Sentimentalism in Germany. In Germany, sentimentalism was born as a national-cultural reaction to French classicism; the work of English and French sentimentalists played a certain role in its formation. A significant merit in the formation of a new view of literature belongs to G.E. Lessing.
The origins of German sentimentalism lie in the controversy of the early 1740s between the Zurich professors I.Ya. Bodmer (1698–1783) and I.Ya. the "Swiss" defended the poet's right to poetic fantasy. The first major exponent of the new trend was Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, who found common ground between sentimentalism and the German medieval tradition.
The heyday of sentimentalism in Germany falls on the 1770s-1780s and is associated with the Sturm und Drang movement, named after the drama of the same name. Sturm and Drang F.M. Klinger (1752–1831). Its participants set themselves the task of creating an original national German literature; from J.-J. Rousseau, they adopted a critical attitude towards civilization and the cult of the natural. The theorist of Sturm und Drang, the philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, criticized the “boastful and fruitless education” of the Enlightenment, attacked the mechanical use of classic rules, arguing that true poetry is the language of feelings, first strong impressions, fantasy and passion, such a language is universal. “Stormy geniuses” denounced tyranny, protested against the hierarchy of modern society and its morality (Tomb of the Kings by K.F. Schubart, Towards Freedom by F.L. Shtolberg, etc.); their main character was a freedom-loving strong personality - Prometheus or Faust - driven by passions and not knowing any barriers.
In his younger years, Johann Wolfgang Goethe belonged to the Sturm und Drang movement. His novel The Sufferings of Young Werther (1774) became a landmark work of German sentimentalism, marking the end of the "provincial stage" of German literature and its entry into European literature.
The spirit of Sturm und Drang marks the dramas of Johann Friedrich Schiller.
Sentimentalism in Russia. Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s-early 1790s thanks to the translations of Werther's novels by I.V. Goethe, Pamela, Clarissa and Grandison S. Richardson, New Eloise J.-J. Rousseau, Paul and Virginie J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin with Letters from a Russian Traveler (1791–1792).
His novel Poor Lisa (1792) is a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther, he inherited the general atmosphere of sensitivity and melancholy and the theme of suicide.
The works of N.M. Karamzin brought to life a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century appeared Poor Masha A.E. Izmailova (1801), Journey to Midday Russia (1802), Henrietta, or the Triumph of Deception over the Weakness or Delusion of I. Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G.P. Kamenev (The Story of Poor Marya; Unhappy Margarita ; Beautiful Tatyana), etc.
Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev belonged to the Karamzin group, which advocated the creation of a new poetic language and fought against the archaic grandiloquent style and obsolete genres.
Sentimentalism marked the early work of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The publication in 1802 of the translation of the Elegy written in the rural cemetery by E. Gray became a phenomenon in the artistic life of Russia, for he translated the poem “He translated the genre of elegy into the language of sentimentalism in general, and not the individual work of an English poet, which has its own special individual style” (E.G. Etkind). In 1809 Zhukovsky wrote the sentimental story Maryina Grove in the spirit of N.M. Karamzin.
Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.
It was one of the stages of the all-European literary development, which completed the Enlightenment and opened the way to romanticism.
Evgenia Krivushina
Sentimentalism in the theater(French sentiment - feeling) - a direction in European theatrical art of the second half of the 18th century.
The development of sentimentalism in the theater is connected with the crisis of the aesthetics of classicism, which proclaimed a strict rationalistic canon of dramaturgy and its stage embodiment. The speculative constructions of classicist dramaturgy are being replaced by the desire to bring the theater closer to reality. This affects almost all components of the theatrical action: in the themes of plays (reflection of private life, development of family psychological plots); in language (classic pathos poetic speech is replaced by prose, close to colloquial intonation); in the social affiliation of the characters (the heroes of theatrical works become representatives of the third estate); in determining the scenes of action (palace interiors are replaced by "natural" and rural views).
"Tearful Comedy" - an early genre of sentimentalism - appeared in England in the work of playwrights Colley Cibber (Love's Last Trick, 1696; Carefree Husband, 1704, etc.), Joseph Addison (Godless, 1714; Drummer, 1715), Richard Steele (Funeral, or Fashionable Sorrow, 1701; Liar Lover, 1703; Conscientious Lovers, 1722, etc.). These were moralistic works, where the comic principle was consistently replaced by sentimental and pathetic scenes, moral and didactic maxims. The moral charge of the "tearful comedy" is based not on the ridicule of vices, but on the chanting of virtue, which awakens to correct shortcomings - both individual heroes and society as a whole.
The same moral and aesthetic principles formed the basis of the French "tearful comedy". Its most prominent representatives were Philip Detouche (Married philosopher, 1727; proud, 1732; Waster, 1736) and Pierre Nivelle de Lachosset (Melanide, 1741; School of Mothers, 1744; Governess, 1747 and others). Some criticism of social vices was presented by the playwrights as temporary delusions of the characters, which they successfully overcome by the end of the play. Sentimentalism was also reflected in the work of one of the most famous French playwrights of that time, Pierre Carle Marivaux (The Game of Love and Chance, 1730; The Triumph of Love, 1732; Inheritance, 1736; upright, 1739, etc.). Marivaux, while remaining a faithful follower of the salon comedy, at the same time constantly introduces into it features of sensitive sentimentality and moral didactics.
In the second half of the 18th century "tearful comedy", remaining within the framework of sentimentalism, is gradually being replaced by the genre of petty-bourgeois drama. Here the elements of comedy finally disappear; the basis of the plots are the tragic situations of everyday life of the third estate. However, the problem remains the same as in the "tearful comedy": the triumph of virtue, which overcomes all trials and tribulations. In this single direction, the petty-bourgeois drama is developing in all countries of Europe: England (J. Lillo, The London Merchant, or The History of George Barnwell; E. Moore, Player); France (D. Diderot, Natural Son, or Trial of Virtue; M. Seden, Philosopher, without knowing it himself); Germany (G.E. Lessing, Miss Sarah Sampson, Emilia Galotti). From the theoretical developments and dramaturgy of Lessing, which received the definition of "philistine tragedy", the aesthetic trend of "Storm and Onslaught" arose (F.M. Klinger, J. Lenz, L. Wagner, I.V. Goethe, etc.), which reached its peak development in the work of Friedrich Schiller (Robbers, 1780; Cunning and Love, 1784).
Theatrical sentimentalism was also widely spread in Russia. First manifested in the work of Mikhail Kheraskov (Friend of the unfortunate, 1774; persecuted, 1775), the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism were continued by Mikhail Verevkin (So it should, Birthdays, Exactly the same), Vladimir Lukin (Mot, corrected by love), Pyotr Plavilshchikov (Bobyl, Sidelets, etc.).
Sentimentalism gave a new impetus to acting, the development of which, in a certain sense, was hampered by classicism. The aesthetics of the classic performance of roles required strict observance of the conditional canon of the entire set of means of acting expressiveness, the improvement of acting skills went more along a purely formal line. Sentimentalism gave the actors the opportunity to turn to the inner world of their characters, to the dynamics of the development of the image, the search for psychological persuasiveness and the versatility of characters.
By the middle of the 19th century. the popularity of sentimentalism came to naught, the genre of petty-bourgeois drama practically ceased to exist. However, the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism formed the basis for the formation of one of the youngest theatrical genres - melodrama.

Features and genres of sentimentalism.

So, taking into account all of the above, we can distinguish several main features of Russian literature of sentimentalism: a departure from the straightforwardness of classicism, an emphasized subjectivity of the approach to the world, a cult of feelings, a cult of nature, a cult of innate moral purity, uncorruptedness, a rich spiritual world of representatives of the lower classes is affirmed.

The main features of sentimentalism:

Didacticism. Representatives of sentimentalism are characterized by a focus on improving the world and solving the problems of educating a person, however, unlike the classicists, sentimentalists turned not so much to the reader’s mind as to his feelings, causing sympathy or hatred, delight or indignation in relation to the events described.
The cult of "natural" feelings. One of the main in symbolism is the category of "natural". This concept unites the outer world of nature with the inner world of the human soul, both worlds are thought of as consonant with each other. The cult of feeling (or heart) became the measure of good and evil in the works of sentimentalism. At the same time, the coincidence of the natural and moral principles was affirmed as a norm, for virtue was thought of as an innate property of a person.
At the same time, sentimentalists did not artificially breed the concepts of "philosopher" and "sensitive person", since sensitivity and rationality do not exist without each other (it is no coincidence that Karamzin characterizes Erast, the hero of the story "Poor Liza", as a person with a "fair mind, kind heart"). The ability for critical judgment and the ability to feel help comprehend life, but feeling deceives a person less often.
Recognition of virtue as a natural property of man. Sentimentalists proceeded from the fact that the world is arranged according to moral laws, therefore, they portrayed a person not so much as a bearer of a reasonable volitional principle, but as a focus of the best natural qualities, laid down in his heart from birth. Sentimentalist writers are characterized by special ideas about how a person can achieve happiness, the path to which can only be indicated by a feeling based on morality. Not the realization of duty, but the command of the heart induces a person to act morally. It is natural for human nature to need virtuous behavior, which will bestow happiness.
etc.................

FEATURES OF RUSSIAN SENTIMENTALISM AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

As early as the end of the 18th century, a new trend arose in Russian literature to replace the dominant trend of classicism, which was called sentimentalism, which came from the French word sens, meaning feeling.

Sentimentalism as an artistic movement, generated by the process of struggle against absolutism, appeared in the second half of the 18th century in a number of Western European countries, primarily in England (the poetry of D. Thomson, the prose of L. Stern and Richardson), then in France (the work of J.-J. Rousseau) and Germany (the early works of J. W. Goethe, F. Schiller). Sentimentalism, which arose on the basis of new socio-economic relations, was alien to the glorification of statehood and class limitations inherent in classicism. In contrast to the latter, he brought to the fore questions of personal life , the cult of sincere pure feelings and nature. The empty secular life, the depraved mores of high society, sentimentalists opposed the idyll of village life, disinterested friendship, touching love at the family hearth, in the bosom of nature. These feelings were reflected in numerous "Journeys", which became fashionable after Stern's novel "Sentimental Journey", which gave the name to this literary movement. In Russia, one of the first works of this kind was the famous "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow" by A. N. Radishchev (1790). Karamzin also paid tribute to this fashion, publishing “Letters of a Russian Traveler” in 1798, followed by P. Sumarokov’s “Journey through the Crimea and Bessarabia” (1800), “Journey to Midday Russia” .V. Izmailov and "Another Journey to Little Russia" by Shalikov (1804). The popularity of this genre was due to the fact that the author could freely express thoughts here that gave rise to new cities, meetings, landscapes. These reflections were distinguished for the most part by heightened sensitivity and moralism.

But, in addition to such a "lyrical" orientation, sentimentalism also had a certain social order. Having arisen in the Enlightenment, with its inherent interest in the personality and the spiritual world of a person, and an ordinary, “small” person, sentimentalism also took on some features of the ideology of the “third estate”, especially since during this period representatives of this estate also appeared in Russian literature - - writers-raznochintsy. So, sentimentalism brings to Russian literature a new idea of ​​honor, it is no longer the antiquity of the family, but the high moral dignity of a person. In one of the stories, the “villager” remarks that only a person with a clear conscience can have a good name. “For a “little” person - both a hero and a raznochintsy writer who came to literature, the problem of honor takes on special significance; it is not easy for him to defend his dignity in a society where class prejudices are so strong.”3 Sentimentalism is also characterized by the assertion of the spiritual equality of people, regardless of their position in society. N. S. Smirnov, a former runaway serf, then a soldier, the author of the sentimental story "Zara", sent her an epigraph from the Bible: "And I have a heart, just like you." sentimentalism Karamzin story

Russian sentimentalism found its fullest expression in the work of Karamzin. His "Poor Lisa", "Notes of a Traveler", "Julia" and a number of other stories are distinguished by all the features characteristic of this trend. Like the classic of French sentimentalism, J.-J. Rousseau, in whose works Karamzin, by his own admission, was attracted by "sparks of passionate philanthropy" and "sweet sensibility", his works are saturated with humane moods. Karamzin aroused the sympathy of readers for his heroes, excitedly conveying their experiences. The heroes of Karamzin are moral people, gifted with great sensitivity, selfless, for whom affection is more important than worldly well-being. So, the heroine of Karamzin's story "Natalya, the Boyar's Daughter" accompanies her husband to the war, so as not to part with her beloved. Love for her is higher than danger or even death. Alois from the story "Sierra Morena" takes his own life, unable to bear the betrayal of the bride. In the traditions of sentimentalism, the spiritual life of the characters in Karamzin's literary works takes place against the backdrop of nature, the phenomena of which (thunderstorm, storm or gentle sun) accompany people's experiences as an accompaniment.

Sentimentalism is understood as that direction of literature that developed at the end of the 18th century and dyed the beginning of the 19th century, which was distinguished by the cult of the human heart, feelings, simplicity, naturalness, special attention to the inner world, and a living love for nature. In contrast to classicism, which worshiped reason, and only reason, and which, as a result, in its aesthetics built everything on strictly logical principles, on a carefully considered system (Boileau's theory of poetry), sentimentalism gives the artist freedom of feeling, imagination and expression and does not require his irreproachable correctness in the architectonics of literary creations. Sentimentalism is a protest against the dry rationality that characterized the Enlightenment; he appreciates in a person not what culture has given him, but what he has brought with him in the depths of his nature. And if classicism (or, as we, in Russia, it is more often called - false classicism) was interested exclusively in representatives of the highest social circles, royal leaders, the sphere of the court and all kinds of aristocracy, then sentimentalism is much more democratic and, recognizing the fundamental equivalence of all people, falls into the valleys of everyday life - in that environment of the philistines, the bourgeoisie, the middle class, which at that time had just come to the fore in a purely economic sense, began - especially in England - to play an outstanding role on the historical stage.

For a sentimentalist, everyone is interesting, because in everyone intimate life glimmers, shines and warms; and you don’t need special events, stormy and striking effectiveness, in order to be able to get into literature: no, it turns out to be hospitable to the most ordinary inhabitants, to the most ineffective biography, it depicts the slow passage of ordinary days, the peaceful backwaters of nepotism, quiet trickle of everyday worries. Sentimental literature is in no hurry; her favorite form is the "long, moralizing, and orderly" novel (in the style of Richardson's famous works: "Pamela", "Clarissa Harlow", "Sir Charles Grandison"); heroes and heroines keep diaries, write endless letters to each other, indulge in heartfelt outpourings. It is in connection with this that the sentimentalists earned their merit in the field of psychological analysis: they transferred the center of gravity from the external to the internal; in fact, this is precisely the main meaning of the very term "sentimental": the whole direction received its name from the work of Daniel Stern "Sentimental Journey", that is, such a description of the journey, which focuses on the impression X traveler, not so much on what he meets, but on what he experiences.

Sentimentalism directs its quiet rays not at the objects of reality, but at the subject that perceives them. He puts the feeling person at the forefront and not only is not ashamed of sensitivity, but, on the contrary, exalts it as the highest value and dignity of the spirit. Of course, this had its downside, since the cherished sensitivity crossed the proper limits, became cloying and sugary, broke away from the courageous will and mind; but it does not necessarily enter into the very essence, the very principle of sentimentalism, that the feeling be so exaggerated and take on an illegitimate self-sufficient character. True, in practice, many of the confessors of this school suffered from a similar enlargement of the heart. Be that as it may, sentimentalism knew how to be touching, touched the tender strings of the soul, evoked tears, and brought undoubted softness, tenderness, kindness to the environment of readers and, mainly, readers. It is indisputable that sentimentalism is philanthropism, it is a school of philanthropy; it is indisputable that, for example, in Russian literature, the line of succession to Dostoevsky's "Poor People" goes from Karamzin's "Poor Lisa", who is the most remarkable representative of sentimentalism in our country (especially as the author of stories and "Letters of a Russian Traveler"). Naturally, sentimentalist writers, sensitively listening, so to speak, to the beating of the human heart, should, among other feelings that make up the content of his inner life, especially perceive the range of mournful moods - sadness, sadness, disappointment, longing. That is why the color of many sentimental works is melancholy. Sensitive souls fed on its sweet streams. Gray's elegy "Rural Cemetery" translated from English by Zhukovsky can serve as a typical example in this sense; and it must be said that in the cemetery, in a dull atmosphere of death, crosses and monuments, the sentimentalist writer generally liked to lead his reader - after the English poet Jung, author of "Nights". It is also clear that the primordial source of suffering, unhappy love, also gave sentimentalism the kind opportunity to draw abundantly from its water-tears. Goethe's famous novel The Sorrows of Young Werther is filled with this moisture of the heart.

Moralism is also a typical feature of sentimentalism. It is precisely about sentimental novels that Pushkin says: "and at the end of the last part, a vice was always punished, a wreath worthy of goodness was." In their vague dreaminess, the writers of this trend were inclined to see in the world some kind of moral order. They taught, they planted "good feelings." In general, the idylization and idealization of things, even if they are covered by a mourning haze of sadness, is an essential sign of sentimentalism. And he extends these idyllic and idealizations to nature most of all. The influence of Jean Jacques Rousseau with his denial of culture and the exaltation of nature affected here. If Boileau demanded that the city and the court serve as the main scene of action in literary works, then sentimentalists often moved their heroes, and with them their readers, to the village, to the primitive bosom of nature, within the framework of patriarchal artlessness.

In sentimental novels, nature takes a direct part in the dramas of the heart, in the vicissitudes of love; many enthusiastic colors are squandered on descriptions of nature, and with tears in their eyes they kiss the earth, admire the moonlight, and are touched by birds and flowers. In general, it is necessary in sentimentalism to carefully distinguish its distortions from its healthy core, which consists in worshiping naturalness and simplicity and in recognizing the highest rights of the human heart. For acquaintance with sentimentalism, the book by Alexander N. Veselovsky "V.A. Zhukovsky. Poetry of feeling and heartfelt imagination" is important.

Thus, Russian sentimentalism introduced into literature - and through it into life - new moral and aesthetic concepts, which were warmly received by many readers, but, unfortunately, diverged from life. Readers brought up on the ideals of sentimentalism, which proclaimed human feelings as the highest value, found with bitterness that nobility, wealth, and position in society still remained the measure of attitude towards people. However, the rudiments of this new ethics, expressed at the beginning of the century in such seemingly naive creations of sentimentalist writers, will eventually develop in the public consciousness and will contribute to its democratization. In addition, sentimentalism enriched Russian literature with linguistic transformations. Particularly significant in this respect was the role of Karamzin. However, the principles he proposed for the formation of the Russian literary language provoked fierce criticism from conservative writers and served as a pretext for the emergence of the so-called "language disputes" that captured Russian writers at the beginning of the 19th century.

SENTIMENTALISM (from English sentimental- sensitive, from French sentiment - feeling) - a literary movement of the second half of the 18th century, which replaced classicism. Sentimentalists proclaimed the primacy of feeling, not reason. A person was judged by his ability to deep feelings. Hence - the interest in the inner world of the hero, the image of the shades of his feelings (the beginning of psychologism).

Unlike the classicists, sentimentalists consider not the state, but the individual, to be the highest value. They opposed the unjust orders of the feudal world with the eternal and reasonable laws of nature. In this regard, nature for sentimentalists is the measure of all values, including man himself. It is no coincidence that they asserted the superiority of the "natural", "natural" man, that is, living in harmony with nature.

Sensitivity is also at the basis of the creative method of sentimentalism. If the classicists created generalized characters (a hypocrite, a braggart, a miser, a fool), thensentimentalists interested in specific people with an individual destiny. Heroes in their works are clearly divided into positive and negative. The positive ones are endowed with natural sensitivity (sympathetic, kind, compassionate, capable of self-sacrifice). Negative - prudent, selfish, arrogant, cruel. The carriers of sensitivity, as a rule, are peasants, artisans, raznochintsy, rural clergy. Cruel - representatives of power, nobles, higher spiritual ranks (since despotic rule kills sensitivity in people). Manifestations of sensitivity in the works of sentimentalists often acquire a too external, even exaggerated character (exclamations, tears, fainting, suicides).

One of the main discoveries of sentimentalism is the individualization of the hero and the image of the rich spiritual world of a commoner (the image of Liza in Karamzin's story "Poor Liza"). The main character of the works was an ordinary person. In this regard, the plot of the work often represented individual situations of everyday life, while peasant life was often depicted in pastoral colors. The new content required a new form. The leading genres were the family novel, diary, confession, novel in letters, travel notes, elegy, message.

In Russia, sentimentalism originated in the 1760s (the best representatives are Radishchev and Karamzin). As a rule, in the works of Russian sentimentalism, the conflict develops between a serf and a serf landowner, and the moral superiority of the former is persistently emphasized.

Sentimentalism is a trend in art and literature that has become widespread after classicism. If the cult of reason dominated in classicism, then in sentimentalism the cult of the soul comes first. The authors of works written in the spirit of sentimentalism appeal to the perception of the reader, trying to awaken certain emotions and feelings with the help of the work.

Sentimentalism originated in Western Europe in the early 18th century. This direction reached Russia only at the end of the century and occupied a dominant position at the beginning of the 19th century.

A new direction in the literature demonstrates completely new features:

• The authors of the works assign the main role to feelings. The most important quality of a person is the ability to sympathize and empathize.
• If in classicism the main characters were mostly nobles and rich people, then in sentimentalism they are ordinary people. The authors of the works of the era of sentimentalism promote the idea that the inner world of a person does not depend on his social status.
• Adherents of sentimentalism wrote about fundamental human values: love, friendship, kindness, compassion
• The authors of this direction saw their calling in comforting ordinary people crushed by hardships, hardships and lack of money, and open their souls towards virtue.

Sentimentalism in Russia

Sentimentalism in our country had two currents:

• Noble. This direction was quite loyal. Speaking of feelings and the human soul, the authors did not promote the abolition of serfdom. Within the framework of this direction, the famous work of Karamzin "Poor Lisa" was written. The story was based on class conflict. As a result, the author puts forward precisely the human factor, and only then looks at social differences. However, the story does not protest against the existing order of things in society.
• Revolutionary. In contrast to the "noble sentimentalism", the works of the revolutionary movement advocated the elimination of serfdom. They put in the first place a person with his right to a free life and a happy existence.

Sentimentalism, unlike classicism, did not have clear canons for writing works. That is why the authors working in this direction created new literary genres, and also skillfully mixed them within the framework of one work.

(Sentimentalism in Radishchev's "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow")

Russian sentimentalism is a special trend, which, due to the cultural and historical characteristics of Russia, differed from a similar trend in Europe. The main distinguishing features of Russian sentimentalism include the following: the presence of conservative views on the social structure and a tendency to enlightenment, instruction, and teaching.

The development of sentimentalism in Russia can be divided into 4 stages, 3 of which fall on the 18th century.

18th century

• I stage

In 1760-1765, the magazines Useful Amusement and Free Hours began to appear in Russia, which rallied a group of talented poets led by Kheraskov. It is believed that it was Kheraskov who laid the foundation for Russian sentimentalism.

In the works of poets of this period, nature and sensitivity begin to act as criteria for social values. The authors focus their attention on the individual person and his soul.

• Stage II (since 1776)

During this period, Muravyov's creativity flourished. Muravyov pays great attention to the human soul, his feelings.

An important event of the second stage was the release of Nikolev's comic opera Rozana and Lyubim. It was in this genre that many works of Russian sentimentalists were subsequently written. The basis of these works was the conflict between the arbitrariness of the landowners and the disenfranchised existence of serfs. Moreover, the spiritual world of the peasants is often revealed as richer and richer than the inner world of wealthy landowners.

• Stage III (late 18th century)

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This period is considered the most fruitful for Russian sentimentalism. It was at this time that Karamzin created his famous works. Magazines began to appear that promoted the values ​​and ideals of the sentimentalists.

19th century

• Stage IV (early 19th century)

Crisis stage for Russian sentimentalism. The direction is gradually losing its popularity and relevance in society. Many modern historians and literary critics believe that sentimentalism was a fleeting transitional stage from classicism to romanticism. Sentimentalism as a literary trend quickly exhausted itself, however, the direction opened the way for the further development of world literature.

Sentimentalism in foreign literature

England is considered the birthplace of sentimentalism as a literary movement. The starting point is Thomson's The Four Seasons. This collection of poems reveals to the reader the beauty and magnificence of the surrounding nature. With his descriptions, the author tries to evoke certain feelings in the reader, to instill in him a love for the amazing beauties of the world around him.

After Thomson, Thomas Gray began to write in a similar style. In his works, he also paid great attention to the description of natural landscapes, as well as reflections on the hard life of ordinary peasants. Lawrence Sterne and Samuel Richardson were important figures in this direction in England.

The development of sentimentalism in French literature is associated with the names of Jean Jacques Rousseau and Jacques de Saint-Pierre. The peculiarity of the French sentimentalists was that they described the feelings and experiences of their heroes against the backdrop of beautiful natural landscapes: parks, lakes, forests.

European sentimentalism as a literary trend also quickly exhausted itself, however, the direction opened the way for the further development of world literature.

Sentimentalism remained faithful to the ideal of a normative personality, but the condition for its implementation was not a "reasonable" reorganization of the world, but the release and improvement of "natural" feelings. The hero of enlightenment literature in sentimentalism is more individualized, his inner world is enriched by the ability to empathize, sensitively respond to what is happening around. By origin (or by conviction), the sentimentalist hero is a democrat; the rich spiritual world of the common man is one of the main discoveries and conquests of sentimentalism.

The most prominent representatives of sentimentalism are James Thomson, Edward Jung, Thomas Gray, Lawrence Stern (England), Jean Jacques Rousseau (France), Nikolai Karamzin (Russia).

Encyclopedic YouTube

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  England was the birthplace of sentimentalism. At the end of the 20s of the XVIII century. James Thomson, with his poems "Winter" (1726), "Summer" (1727), "Spring" and "Autumn", subsequently combined into one and published in 1730 under the title "The Seasons", contributed to the development of love in the English reading public to nature, painting simple, unpretentious rural landscapes, following step by step the various moments of the life and work of the farmer and, apparently, striving to place the peaceful, idyllic country setting above the bustling and spoiled city.

  In the 40s of the same century, Thomas Grey, the author of the elegy "Rural Cemetery" (one of the most famous works of cemetery poetry), the ode "To Spring" and others, like Thomson, tried to interest readers in rural life and nature, to awaken in them sympathy for simple, inconspicuous people with their needs, sorrows and beliefs, at the same time giving their work a thoughtful melancholy character.

  Richardson's famous novels - "Pamela" (), "Clarissa Garlo" (), "Sir Charles Grandison" () - are also a vivid and typical product of English sentimentalism. Richardson was completely insensitive to the beauties of nature and did not like to describe it, but he put forward psychological analysis in the first place and forced the English, and then the entire European public, to be keenly interested in the fate of the heroes and especially the heroines of his novels.

  Lawrence Stern, author of "Tristram Shandy" (-) and "Sentimental Journey" (; after the name of this work and the direction itself was called "sentimental") combined Richardson's sensitivity with a love of nature and peculiar humor. "Sentimental Journey" Stern himself called "a peaceful wandering of the heart in search of nature and all spiritual inclinations that can inspire us with more love for our neighbors and for the whole world than we usually feel."

  Sentimentalism in French Literature

  Having crossed over to the Continent, English sentimentalism found in France already somewhat prepared ground. Quite independently of the English representatives of this trend, Abbé Prevost ("Manon Lescaut", "Cleveland") and Marivaux ("The Life of Marianne") taught the French public to admire everything touching, sensitive, somewhat melancholy.

  Under the same influence, the "Julia" or "New Eloise" Rousseau () was created, who always spoke of Richardson with respect and sympathy. Julia reminds a lot of Clarissa Garlo, Clara - her friend, miss Howe. The moralizing nature of both works also brings them together; but in Rousseau's novel nature plays a prominent role, the shores of Lake Geneva are described with remarkable art - Vevey, Clarans, Julia's grove. Rousseau's example was not left without imitation; his follower, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, in his famous work Paul and Virginie () transfers the scene to South Africa, accurately foreshadowing the best works of Chateaubriand, makes his heroes a charming couple of lovers living far from urban culture, in close communion with nature, sincere, sensitive and pure soul.

  Sentimentalism in Russian literature

  Sentimentalism entered Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s thanks to the translations of the novels Werther by J. W. Goethe, Pamela, Clarissa and Grandison by S. Richardson, The New Eloise by J.-J. Rousseau, Paul and Virginie by J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolay Mikhailovich Karamzin “Letters from a Russian Traveler”

  His story "Poor Lisa" (1792) is a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther, he inherited the general atmosphere of sensitivity, melancholy and themes of suicide.

  The works of N. M. Karamzin brought to life a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century. appeared "Poor Masha" by A. E. Izmailov (1801) and "Journey to Midday Russia" (1802), "Henrietta, or the Triumph of Deception over Weakness or Delusion" by Ivan Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G. P. Kamenev (" The story of poor Marya”, “Unfortunate Margarita”, “Beautiful Tatyana”) and others.

  Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev belonged to the Karamzin group, which advocated the creation of a new poetic language and fought against the archaic grandiloquent style and obsolete genres.

  Sentimentalism marked the early work of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The publication in 1802 of the translation of the elegy "Rural Cemetery" by T. Gray became a phenomenon in the artistic life of Russia, for he translated the poem "into the language of sentimentalism in general, translated the genre of elegy, and not an individual work of an English poet, which has its own special individual style" (E. G. Etkind). In 1809, Zhukovsky wrote the sentimental story Maryina Grove in the spirit of N. M. Karamzin.

  Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.

  It was one of the stages of the all-European literary development, which completed the Enlightenment and opened the way to romanticism.

  The main features of Russian sentimentalism

  • Departure from the straightforwardness of classicism,
  • Emphasized subjectivity of the approach to the world,
  • The cult of feeling
  • nature cult,
  • The cult of innate moral purity, integrity,
  • The affirmation of the rich spiritual world of representatives of the lower classes,
  • Attention is paid to the spiritual world of a person, in the first place are feelings, not reason and great ideas.

  In painting

  The direction of Western art of the second half of the XVIII, expressing disappointment in the "civilization" based on the ideals of "reason" (the ideology of the Enlightenment). Sentimentalism proclaims feeling, solitary reflection, the simplicity of the rural life of the "little man." J. J. Rousseau is considered the ideologist of sentimentalism.

  One of the characteristic features of Russian portrait art of this period was citizenship. The heroes of the portrait no longer live in their closed, isolated world. The consciousness of being necessary and useful to the fatherland, caused by the patriotic upsurge in the era of the Patriotic War of 1812, the flourishing of humanistic thought, which was based on respect for the dignity of the individual, the expectation of close social changes, rebuild the worldview of the progressive person. The portrait of N. A. Zubova, the granddaughter of A. V. Suvorov, presented in the hall, copied by an unknown master from the portrait of I. B. Lampi the Elder, depicting a young woman in a park, far from the conventions of secular life, adjoins this direction. She looks at the viewer thoughtfully with a half-smile, everything in her is simplicity and naturalness. Sentimentalism is opposed to a straightforward and overly logical reasoning about the nature of human feelings, emotional perception, directly and more reliably leading to the comprehension of truth. Sentimentalism expanded the idea of ​​human spiritual life, approaching the understanding of its contradictions, the very process of human experience. At the turn of the two centuries, the work of N. I. Argunov, a gifted serf of the Sheremetevs, developed. One of the essential trends in Argunov's work, which was not interrupted throughout the 19th century, is the desire for concreteness of expression, an unpretentious approach to man. The hall displays a portrait of Count N. P. Sheremetev. It was donated by the Count himself to the Rostov Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery, where the cathedral was built at his expense. The portrait is characterized by realistic simplicity of expression, free from embellishment and idealization. The artist avoids painting with the hands, focusing on the model's face. The coloring of the portrait is built on the expressiveness of individual spots of pure color, colorful planes. In the portrait art of this time, a type of modest chamber portrait was formed, completely freed from any features of the external environment, the demonstrative behavior of models (portrait of P. A. Babin, P. I. Mordvinov). They do not pretend to deep psychologism. We are dealing only with a fairly clear fixation of models, a calm state of mind. A separate group consists of children's portraits presented in the hall. They captivate the simplicity and clarity of interpretation of the image. If in the 18th century, children were most often depicted with the attributes of mythological heroes in the form of cupids, Apollos and Diana, then in the 19th century, artists strive to convey the direct image of a child, the warehouse of a child's character. The portraits presented in the hall, with rare exceptions, come from noble estates. They were part of the manor portrait galleries, which were based on family portraits. The collection had an intimate, predominantly memorial character and reflected the personal attachments of the models and their attitude towards their ancestors and contemporaries, whose memory they tried to preserve for posterity. The study of portrait galleries deepens the understanding of the era, makes it possible to more clearly perceive the specific situation in which the works of the past lived, and to understand a number of features of their artistic language. Portraits provide the richest material for studying the history of national culture.

  V. L. Borovikovsky experienced a particularly strong influence of sentimentalism, depicting many of his models against the backdrop of an English park, with a soft, sensually vulnerable expression on his face. Borovikovsky was associated with the English tradition through the circle of N. A. Lvov - A. N. Olenin. He knew well the typology of the English portrait, in particular, from the works of the German artist A. Kaufman, who was fashionable in the 1780s and was educated in England.

  English landscape painters also had some influence on Russian painters, for example, such masters of the idealized classic landscape as J. F. Hackert, R. Wilson, T. Jones, J. Forrester, S. Delon. In the landscapes of F. M. Matveev, the influence of "Waterfalls" and "Views of Tivoli" by J. Mora can be traced.

  In Russia, the graphics of J. Flaxman were also popular (illustrations for Homer, Aeschylus, Dante), which influenced the drawings and engravings of F. Tolstoy, and the fine plastic art of Wedgwood - in 1773, the Empress made a fantastic order for the British manufactory for " Service with a green frog” of 952 items with views of Great Britain, now stored in the Hermitage.

  Miniatures by G. I. Skorodumov and A. Kh. Ritt were performed in the English style; The genre paintings by J. Atkinson “Picturesque Sketches of Russian Manners, Customs and Entertainment in One Hundred Colored Drawings” (1803-1804) were reproduced on porcelain.

  There are fewer British artists in Russia in the second half of the 18th century than French or Italian ones. Among them, the most famous was Richard Brompton, the court painter of George III, who worked in St. Petersburg in 1780-1783. He owns portraits of the Grand Dukes Alexander and Konstantin Pavlovich, and Prince George of Wales, which have become models of the image of the heirs at a young age. Brompton's unfinished image of Catherine against the background of the fleet was embodied in the portrait of the Empress in the temple of Minerva by D. G. Levitsky.

  P. E. Falcone, a Frenchman by birth, was a student of Reynolds and therefore represented the English school of painting. The traditional English aristocratic landscape presented in his works, dating back to Van Dyck of the English period, did not receive wide recognition in Russia.

  Van Dyck's paintings from the Hermitage collection were often copied, which contributed to the spread of the costume portrait genre. The fashion for images in the English spirit became more widespread after the return from Britain of the engraver Gavriil Skorodumov, who was appointed "engraver of Her Imperial Majesty's cabinet" and elected an academician. Thanks to the activities of the engraver J. Walker, engraved copies of paintings by J. Romini, J. Reynolds, and W. Hoare were distributed in St. Petersburg. The notes left by J. Walker talk a lot about the advantages of the English portrait, and also describe the reaction to the Reynolds paintings acquired by G. A. Potemkin and Catherine II: “the manner of thickly applying paint ... seemed strange ... it was too much for their (Russian) taste ". However, as a theoretician, Reynolds was accepted in Russia; in 1790 his "Speeches" were translated into Russian, in which, in particular, the right of the portrait to belong to a number of "higher" types of painting was substantiated and the concept of "portrait in historical style" was introduced.