Every person heard such a word as sentimentalism. What does this concept mean in literature and psychology. Many have an idea about it, but very often they cannot explain it.
General view
Sentimentalism is translated from English as sensuality or touching. A word derived from an adjective that denotes excessive tenderness in showing sympathy. strong sensitivity is characteristic, it is easy to touch.
But besides this definition, there are others. Let's start with the direction in the literature.
The role of sentimentalism in literature
If the general meaning of this concept is known to many, then what is Before determining its role, it is worth knowing when it appeared and what is characteristic of it.
Firstly, sentimentalism as one of the most important trends in literature appeared at the end of the eighteenth century, when people of the third estate began to elevate their political activity and social role. They were not equal with the aristocratic society and the clergy, therefore they expressed their position in relation to democracy.
Sentimentalism showed a new view of human nature, where feeling is valued more than thinking. Personal instincts - pity, tenderness and goodwill. They take precedence over social obligations.
The literature notes sincerity, sympathy for the poor. Sentimentalist writers criticized cruel treatment and social injustice. Unlike classicism, which was dominated by the mind, this genre was subject to emotions, it provided creative people with the freedom to choose feelings and express their ideas.
Sentimentalism is based on democratic thought, which implies the equality of all peoples. People keep diaries, worry, show tenderness to each other. And the works describe their feelings, sensations that they experience along some path.
The hero in a sentimental novel is a commoner. An ordinary person, not distinguished by wealth or other merit.
Sentimentalism has played its part in literature. The importance of equality of estates from their spiritual world and the need for democracy were shown, which was quite important for Russia at that time.
Features of sentimentalism
There are main signs of direction, they will be indicated below. We have dealt with the concept of "sentimentalism". What this concept means has become clearer. Now let's move on to the main features:
The cult of feeling;
The importance of the common man;
Priority of privacy;
Subjectivity, ambiguous;
Leading genres: novel, diaries, letters, story;
Inner world of experience;
Protest against aristocratic society.
Sentimentalism in psychology
Sentimentality is a property of the psyche. It is characterized by dreaminess, emotionality and sensuality. Sentimental people are oriented towards expressing touching, enthusiastic feelings when other people have no reaction to exactly the same situation. The heroes of works in the style of "sentimentalism" are endowed with the same features. What such a concept means in psychology is now also known. Such people are characterized by tearfulness without any reason.
Now let's answer the questions: "Sentimentalism: what is it, do we need it now and was this genre really important in the 18th century? Should the quality of sentimentality be considered positive or negative?".
"Nothing deserves as much attention as the human heart." Fonvizin's words answer the questions asked in one sentence. And reveals the meaning and main idea of sentimentalism itself.
Details Category: A variety of styles and trends in art and their features Posted on 07/31/2015 19:33 Views: 8449Sentimentalism as an artistic movement arose in Western art in the second half of the 18th century.
In Russia, its heyday fell on the period from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century.
Term meaning
Sentimentalism - from fr. sentiment (feeling). The ideology of the mind of the Enlightenment in sentimentalism is replaced by the priority of feeling, simplicity, solitary reflection, interest in the "little man". J. J. Rousseau is considered the ideologist of sentimentalism.
Jean Jacques Rousseau
The main character of sentimentalism becomes a natural person (living in peace with nature). Only such a person, according to sentimentalists, can be happy, having found inner harmony. In addition, the education of feelings is important, i.e. natural beginnings of man. Civilization (urban environment) is a hostile environment for people and distorts its nature. Therefore, in the works of sentimentalists, a cult of private life, rural existence arises. Sentimentalists considered the concepts of "history", "state", "society", "education" to be negative. They were not interested in the historical, heroic past (as the classicists were interested in); daily impressions were for them the essence of human life. The hero of the literature of sentimentalism is an ordinary person. Even if this is a person of low origin (servant or robber), then the wealth of his inner world is in no way inferior, and sometimes even surpasses the inner world of people of the highest class.
Representatives of sentimentalism did not approach a person with an unambiguous moral assessment - a person is complex and capable of both lofty and low deeds, but by nature a good beginning is laid in people, and evil is the fruit of civilization. However, each person always has a chance to return to his nature.
The development of sentimentalism in art
England was the birthplace of sentimentalism. But in the second half of the XVIII century. it has become a pan-European phenomenon. Sentimentalism manifested itself most clearly in English, French, German and Russian literature.
Sentimentalism in English Literature
James Thomson
At the end of the 20s of the XVIII century. James Thomson wrote the poems "Winter" (1726), "Summer" (1727), "Spring" and "Autumn", later published under the title "The Seasons" (1730). These works helped the English reading public to take a closer look at their native nature and see the beauty of idyllic village life, in contrast to the vain and spoiled city life. The so-called "cemetery poetry" (Edward Jung, Thomas Grey) appeared, which expressed the idea of the equality of all before death.
Thomas Gray
But sentimentalism expressed itself more fully in the genre of the novel. And here, first of all, we should remember Samuel Richardson, an English writer and printer, the first English novelist. He usually created his novels in the epistolary genre (in the form of letters).
Samuel Richardson
The main characters exchanged long frank letters, and through them Richardson introduced the reader to the secret world of their thoughts and feelings. Remember how A.S. Pushkin in the novel "Eugene Onegin" writes about Tatyana Larina?
She liked novels early on;
They replaced everything for her;
She fell in love with deceptions
And Richardson and Rousseau.
Joshua Reynolds "Portrait of Laurence Stern"
No less famous was Lawrence Stern, the author of Tristram Shandy and Sentimental Journey. "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
At the origins of French sentimental prose is Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux with the novel "The Life of Marianne" and the Abbé Prevost with "Manon Lescaut".
Abbe Prevost
But the highest achievement in this direction was the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), a French philosopher, writer, thinker, musicologist, composer and botanist.
The main philosophical works of Rousseau, which outlined his social and political ideals, were "The New Eloise", "Emil" and "Social Contract".
Rousseau first tried to explain the causes of social inequality and its types. He believed that the state arises as a result of a social contract. According to the treaty, the supreme power in the state belongs to all the people.
Under the influence of Rousseau's ideas, such new democratic institutions as the referendum and others arose.
J.J. Rousseau made nature an independent object of the image. His "Confession" (1766-1770) is considered one of the most frank autobiographies in world literature, in which he vividly expresses the subjectivist attitude of sentimentalism: a work of art is a way of expressing the author's "I". He believed that "the mind can be wrong, the feeling - never."
Sentimentalism in Russian literature
V. Tropinin “Portrait of N.M. Karamzin" (1818)
The era of Russian sentimentalism began with N. M. Karamzin's Letters from a Russian Traveler (1791-1792).
Then the story "Poor Lisa" (1792) was written, which is considered a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose. She was a great success with readers and was a source of imitation. There were works with similar names: "Poor Masha", "Unfortunate Margarita", etc.
Karamzin's poetry also developed in line with European sentimentalism. The poet is not interested in the outer, physical world, but in the inner, spiritual world of man. His poems speak "the language of the heart", not the mind.
Sentimentalism in painting
The artist V. L. Borovikovsky experienced a particularly strong influence of sentimentalism. His work is dominated by a chamber portrait. In female images, VL Borovikovsky embodies the ideal of beauty of his era and the main task of sentimentalism: the transfer of the inner world of a person.
In the double portrait "Lizonka and Dashenka" (1794), the artist depicted the maids of the Lvov family. Obviously, the portrait was painted with great love for the models: he saw both soft curls of hair, and the whiteness of faces, and a slight blush. The smart look and lively spontaneity of these simple girls are in line with sentimentalism.
In many of his chamber sentimental portraits, V. Borovikovsky managed to convey the diversity of feelings and experiences of the people depicted. For example, “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina" is one of the most popular female portraits by the artist.
V. Borovikovsky “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina" (1797). Canvas, oil. 72 x 53.5 cm. Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow)
V. Borovikovsky created the image of a woman, not associated with any social status - she is just a beautiful young woman, but living in harmony with nature. Lopukhin is depicted against the background of the Russian landscape: birch trunks, ears of rye, cornflowers. The landscape echoes the appearance of Lopukhina: the curve of her figure echoes the bowed ears, the white birch trees are reflected in the dress, the blue cornflowers echo the silk belt, the pale purple shawl echoes the drooping rosebuds. The portrait is full of life authenticity, depth of feelings and poetry.
The Russian poet Y. Polonsky, almost 100 years later, dedicated verses to the portrait:
She has long passed, and there are no longer those eyes
And there is no smile that was silently expressed
Suffering is the shadow of love, and thoughts are the shadow of sorrow,
But Borovikovsky saved her beauty.
So part of her soul did not fly away from us,
And there will be this look and this beauty of the body
To attract indifferent offspring to her,
Teaching him to love, suffer, forgive, be silent.
(Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina died very young, at the age of 24, from consumption).
V. Borovikovsky “Portrait of E.N. Arsenyeva" (1796). Canvas, oil. 71.5 x 56.5 cm State Russian Museum (Petersburg)
But this portrait depicts Ekaterina Nikolaevna Arsenyeva, the eldest daughter of Major General N.D. Arsenyeva, pupil of the Society of Noble Maidens at the Smolny Monastery. Later, she will become the maid of honor of Empress Maria Feodorovna, and in the portrait she is depicted as a sly, coquettish shepherdess, on a straw hat - ears of wheat, in her hand - an apple, the symbol of Aphrodite. It is felt that the character of the girl is light and cheerful.
As early as the end of the 18th century, in Russian literature, to replace the dominant trend of classicism, a new trend arose, called sentimentalism, which came from the French word sens, meaning feeling. Sentimentalism as an artistic trend, 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 work of I.V. 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 highlighted the issues 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 sentiments were reflected in the numerous "Journeys" that came into fashion after Stern's novel "Sentimental Journey", which gave its 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. Radishcheva (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 representatives of this estate also appeared in Russian literature during this period - rogue writers.
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 "farmer" 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 acquires special significance; it is not easy for him to defend his dignity in a society where class prejudices are so strong." Nekrasov N.A. Full. coll. op. and letters. M., 1950. T. 9. S. 296.
Characteristic of sentimentalism is 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."
Along with the description of the "life of the heart," sentimentalist writers paid great attention to questions of education. At the same time, the "teaching" educational function of literature was recognized as the most important.
Russian sentimentalism found its fullest expression in the work of Karamzin. His "Poor Liza", "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 "Natalia, 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.
So, the story about the sad fate of the heroine of "Poor Lisa" begins with a description of a gloomy autumn landscape, the appearance of which, as it were, echoes the subsequent dramatic love story of a peasant girl. The author, on behalf of whom the story is being told, walks through the ruins of the monastery "in the gloomy days of autumn, grieve with nature." The winds howl terribly in the walls of the deserted monastery, between the coffins overgrown with tall grass and in the dark passages of the cells. "There, leaning on the ruins of tombstones, I listen to the muffled groan of time." Nature, or "nature", as Karamzin often called it, not only participates in people's experiences, it nourishes their feelings. In the story "Sierra Morena" the romantic landscape inspires the owner of the castle, Elvira: "Strong winds agitated and twisted the air, crimson lightning twisted in the black sky, or the pale moon rose over gray clouds - Elvira loved the horrors of nature: they exalted, admired, nourished her soul ". Turgenev I.S. Poln. coll. op. and letters. In 20 t. M., 1960-1968. T. 14. S. 81.
The authors of sentimental stories sought to oppose other, disinterested feelings to relationships based on calculation. Lvov’s story emphasizes the love of the heroine, devoid of any selfish motives, who admits: “Only what he didn’t give me - silver, and gold, and beads, and ribbons; but I didn’t take anything, I only needed his love ".
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.
Features of sentimentalism as a new direction are noticeable in European literatures of the 30-50s of the 18th century. Sentimentalist tendencies are observed in the literature of England (the poetry of J. Thomson, E. Jung, T. Gray), France (the novels of G. Marivaux and A. Prevost, the “tearful comedy” of P. Lachosset), Germany (“serious comedy” X. B Gellert, partly "Messiad" by F. Klopstock). But as a separate literary trend, sentimentalism took shape in the 1760s. The most prominent sentimentalist writers were S. Richardson ("Pamela", "Clarissa"), O. Goldsmith ("The Weckfield Priest"), L. Stern ("The Life and Opinions of Tristramy Shandy", "Sentimental Journey") in England; J. V. Goethe (“The Sufferings of Young Werther”), F. Schiller (“Robbers”), Jean Paul (“Siebenkes”) in Germany; J.-J. Rousseau ("Julia, or New Eloise", "Confession"), D. Diderot ("Jacques the Fatalist", "The Nun"), B. de Saint-Pierre ("Paul and Virginia") in France; M. Karamzin (“Poor Liza”, “Letters from a Russian Traveler”), A. Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”) in Russia. The direction of sentimentalism also affected other European literatures: Hungarian (I. Karman), Polish (K. Brodzinsky, Yu. Nemtsevich), Serbian (D. Obradovic).
Unlike many other literary movements, the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism do not find complete expression in theory. Sentimentalists did not create any literary manifestos, did not put forward their own ideologists and theorists, such as, in particular, N. Boileau for classicism, F. Schlegel for romanticism, E. Zola for naturalism. It cannot be said that sentimentalism has developed its own creative method. It would be more correct to consider sentimentalism as a certain frame of mind with characteristic features: feeling as a basic human value and dimension, melancholic daydreaming, pessimism, sensuality.
Sentimentalism is born within the enlightenment ideology. It becomes a negative reaction to Enlightenment rationalism. Sentimentalism opposed the cult of feeling to the cult of the mind, which dominated both classicism and the Enlightenment. The famous saying of the rationalist philosopher René Descartes: “Cogito, ergosum” (“I think, therefore I am”) is replaced by the words of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “I feel, therefore I am.” Sentimentalist artists resolutely reject the one-sided rationalism of Descartes, which was embodied in normativity and strict regulation in classicism. Sentimentalism is based on the agnostic philosophy of the English Thinker David Hume. Agnosticism was polemically directed against the rationalism of the Enlightenment. He questioned faith in the limitless possibilities of the mind. According to D. Hume, all a person's ideas about the world can be false, and people's moral assessments are based not on the advice of the mind, but on emotions or "active feelings". “Reason,” says the English philosopher, “never has anything before it other than perceptions.
.. “According to this, shortcomings and virtues are subjective categories. “When you recognize some act or character as false,” says D. Hume, “you mean by this only what, due to the special organization of your nature, you experience when contemplating it ...” Philosophical soil for sentimentalism was prepared by two other English philosophers - Francis Bacon and John Locke. They gave the primary role in the knowledge of the world to the feeling. “Reason can err, feeling never” - this expression of J. Rousseau can be considered a general philosophical and aesthetic creed of sentimentalism.
The sentimental cult of feeling predetermines a wider interest than in classicism in the inner world of a person, in his psychology. The external world, notes the well-known Russian researcher P. Berkov, for sentimentalists “is valuable only insofar as it enables the writer to find the richness of his inner experiences ... For a sentimentalist, self-disclosure is important, exposing the complex mental life that happens in it.” The sentimentalist writer chooses from a number of life phenomena and events exactly those that can move the reader, make him worry. The authors of sentimentalist works appeal to those who are able to empathize with the heroes, they describe the suffering of a lonely person, unhappy love, and often the death of heroes. The sentimentalist writer always seeks to evoke sympathy for the fate of the characters. So the Russian sentimentalist A. Klushchin urges the reader to sympathize with the hero, who, due to the inability to connect his fate with his beloved girl, commits suicide: “Sensitive, immaculate heart! Shed tears of regret for the unfortunate love of a suicide; pray for him - beware of love! - Beware of this tyrant of our feelings! His arrows are terrible, the wounds are incurable, the torment is incomparable.
The hero of the sentimentalists is democratized. This is no longer the king or the commander of the classicists, who acts in exceptional, extraordinary conditions, against the backdrop of historical events. The hero of sentimentalism is a completely ordinary person, as a rule, a representative of the lower strata of the population, a sensitive, modest person, with deep feelings. Events in the works of sentimentalists take place against the backdrop of everyday, quite prosaic life. Often it closes in the middle of family life. Such a personal, private life of an ordinary person is opposed to extraordinary, improbable events in the life of an aristocratic hero of classicism. By the way, a simple person among sentimentalists sometimes suffers from the arbitrariness of the nobles, but he is also able to “positively influence” them. So, the maid Pamela from the novel of the same name by S. Richardson is pursued and tries to seduce her master - the squire. However, Pamela is a model of integrity - she rejects all advances. This led to a change in the attitude of the nobleman to the maid. Convinced of her virtue, he begins to respect Pamela and truly falls in love with her, and at the end of the novel, he marries her.
Sensitive heroes of sentimentalism are often eccentrics, people extremely impractical, unadapted to life. This feature is especially inherent in the heroes of the English sentimentalists. They do not know how and do not want to live "like everyone else", to live "in the mind." The characters in Goldsmith's and Stern's novels have their own hobbies, which are perceived as eccentric: Pastor Primrose from O. Goldsmith's novel writes treatises on the monogamy of the clergy. Toby Shandy from Stern's novel builds toy fortresses that he himself besieges. The heroes of the works of sentimentalism have their own "horse". Stern, who invented this word, wrote: “A horse is a cheerful, changeable creature, a firefly, a butterfly, a picture, a trifle, something that a person clings to in order to get away from the normal course of life, to leave life's anxieties and worries for an hour. ".
In general, the search for originality in each person determines the brightness and diversity of characters in the literature of sentimentalism. The authors of sentimentalist works do not sharply contrast "positive" and "negative" characters. Thus, Rousseau characterizes the idea of his "Confession" as a desire to show "one person in all the truth of his nature." The hero of the "sentimental journey" Yorick performs deeds both noble and low, and sometimes finds himself in such difficult situations when it is impossible to unambiguously evaluate his actions.
Sentimentalism changes the genre system of contemporary literature. He rejects the classicist hierarchy of genres: sentimentalists no longer have "high" and "low" genres, they are all equal. The genres that dominated the literature of classicism (ode, tragedy, heroic poem) give way to new genres. Changes occur in all kinds of literature. The epic is dominated by the genres of travel notes (“Sentimental Journey” by Stern, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A. Radishchev), epistolary novel (“The Sufferings of Young Werther” by Goethe, Richardson’s novels), a family and everyday story appears (“Poor Lisa” by Karamzin ). In the epic works of sentimentalism, elements of confession ("Confession" by Rousseau) and memories ("The Nun" by Diderot) play an important role, which makes it possible for a deeper disclosure of the inner world of the characters, their feelings and experiences. Lyric genres - elegies, idylls, messages - are aimed at psychological analysis, revealing the subjective world of the lyrical hero. The outstanding lyric poets of sentimentalism were English poets (J. Thomson, E. Jung, T. Gray, O. Goldsmith). Dark motives in their works led to the emergence of the name "cemetery poetry". T. Gray's "Elegy Written in a Rural Cemetery" becomes a poetic work of sentimentalism. Sentimentalists also write in the genre of drama. Among them are the so-called "philistine drama", "serious comedy", "tearful comedy". In the dramaturgy of sentimentalism, the "three unities" of the classicists are canceled, elements of tragedy and comedy are synthesized. Voltaire was forced to recognize the validity of the genre shift. He emphasized that it was caused and justified by life itself, since “in one room they laugh from what serves as a subject of excitement in another, and the same face sometimes goes from laughter to tears for a quarter of an hour from one and the same occasion. ".
Rejects sentimentalism and classical canons of composition. The work is now built not according to the rules of strict logic and proportionality, but rather freely. In the works of sentimentalists, lyrical digressions spread. They often lack the classic five story elements. The role of the landscape, which acts as a means of expressing the feelings and moods of the characters, is also enhanced in sentimentalism. The landscapes of the sentimentalists are mostly rural, they depict rural cemeteries, ruins, picturesque corners that should evoke melancholy moods.
The most eccentric work of sentimentalism in form is Stern's The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. It is the name of the protagonist that means "unreasonable." The whole structure of Stern's work seems just as "reckless".
It contains many lyrical digressions, all kinds of witty remarks, novels begun but not completed. The author constantly deviates from the topic, talking about some event, he promises to return to it further, but does not. Broken in the novel is a chronologically sequential presentation of events. Some sections of the work are not printed in the order of their numbering. Sometimes L. Stern leaves blank pages altogether, while the preface and dedication to the novel are located not in the traditional place, but inside the first volume. At the basis of "Life and Opinions" Stern put not a logical, but an emotional principle of construction. For Stern, it is not the external rational logic and sequence of events that is important, but the images of the inner world of a person, the gradual change of moods and spiritual movements.
Sentimentalism is one of the main, along with classicism and rococo, artistic movements in European literature of the 18th century. Like Rococo, sentimentalism arises as a reaction to the classicist tendencies in literature that prevailed in the previous century. Sentimentalism got its name after the publication of the unfinished novel “A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy” (1768) by the English writer L. Stern, which, as modern researchers believe, consolidated , the new meaning of the word "sentimental" in English. If earlier (the first use of this word by the Great Oxford Dictionary dates back to 1749) it meant either “reasonable”, “sensible”, or “highly moral”, “edifying”, then by the 1760s it intensified the connotation associated not so much with belonging to areas of the mind, how much - to the area of feeling. Now “sentimental” also means “capable of sympathy”, and Stern finally assigns to it the meaning of “sensitive”, “capable of experiencing lofty and subtle emotions” and introduces it into the circle of the most fashionable words of his time. Subsequently, the fashion for “sentimental” passed, and in the 19th century the word “sentimental” in English acquires a negative connotation, meaning “inclined to indulge excessive sensitivity”, “easily amenable to the influx of emotions”.
Modern dictionaries and reference books already breed the concepts of "feeling" (sentiment) and "sensitivity", "sentimentality" (sentimentality), opposing them to each other. However, the word "sentimentalism" in English, as well as in other Western European languages, where it came under the influence of the success of Stern's novels, did not acquire the character of a strictly literary term that would cover a whole and internally unified artistic movement. English-speaking researchers still use mainly such concepts as “sentimental novel”, “sentimental drama” or “sentimental poetry”, while French and German critics single out rather “sentimentality” (French sentimentalite, German sentimentalitat) as a special category, to one degree or another inherent in works of art of various eras and trends. Only in Russia, starting from the end of the 19th century, attempts were made to comprehend sentimentalism as an integral historical and literary phenomenon. All domestic researchers recognize the “cult of feeling” (or “heart”) as the main feature of sentimentalism, which in this system of views becomes the “measurement of good and evil”. Most often, the appearance of this cult in Western literature of the 18th century is explained, on the one hand, by a reaction to enlightenment rationalism (with feeling directly opposed to reason), and on the other hand, by a reaction to the previously dominant aristocratic type of culture. The fact that sentimentalism as an independent phenomenon first appeared in England already in the late 1720s and early 1730s is usually associated with the social changes that took place in this country in the 17th century, when, as a result of the revolution of 1688-89, the third estate became independent and influential force. One of the main categories that determines the attention of sentimentalists to the life of the human heart, all researchers call the concept of "natural", in general, very important for the philosophy and literature of the Enlightenment. This concept unites the outer world of nature with the inner world of the human soul, which, from the point of view of sentimentalists, are consonant and essentially involved in each other. From this follows, firstly, the special attention of the authors of this trend to nature - its external appearance and the processes taking place in it; secondly, intense interest in the emotional sphere and experiences of an individual. At the same time, sentimentalist authors are interested in a person not so much as a bearer of a reasonable volitional principle, but as a focus of the best natural qualities that have been instilled in his heart from birth. The hero of sentimental literature acts as a feeling person, and therefore the psychological analysis of the authors of this trend is most often based on the subjective outpourings of the hero.
Sentimentalism "descends" from the heights of majestic upheavals, unfolding in an aristocratic environment, to the everyday life of ordinary people, unremarkable, except for the strength of their experiences. The sublime beginning, so beloved by the theoreticians of classicism, is replaced in sentimentalism by the category of touching. Thanks to this, the researchers note, sentimentalism, as a rule, cultivates sympathy for one’s neighbor, philanthropy, becomes a “school of philanthropy”, as opposed to “cold-rational” classicism and, in general, “the dominance of reason” at the initial stages of the development of the European Enlightenment. However, too direct opposition of reason and feeling, "philosopher" and "sensitive person", which is found in the works of a number of domestic and foreign researchers, unnecessarily simplifies the idea of sentimentalism. Often, in this case, “reason” is associated exclusively with enlightenment classicism, and the entire area of “feelings” falls to the lot of sentimentalism. But such an approach, which is based on another very common opinion - that at the basis of its sentimentality is entirely derived from the sensationalist philosophy of George Locke (1632-1704), - obscures the much more subtle relationship between "reason" and "feeling" in the 18th century, moreover, it does not explain the essence of the divergence between sentimentalism and such an independent artistic direction of this century as rococo. The most debatable problem in the study of sentimentalism remains its relation, on the one hand, to other aesthetic trends of the 18th century, and, on the other hand, to the Enlightenment as a whole.
Prerequisites for the emergence of sentimentalism
The prerequisites for the emergence of sentimentalism were already contained in the newest way of thinking. , which distinguished the philosophers and writers of the 18th century and determined the whole structure and spirit of the Enlightenment. In this way of thinking, sensibility and rationality do not appear and do not exist without each other: in contrast to the speculative rationalist systems of the 17th century, rationalism of the 18th century is limited by the framework of human experience, i.e. the perception of the sentient soul. A person with his inherent desire for happiness in this earthly life becomes the main measure of the viability of any views. Rationalists of the 18th century do not just criticize some or other, in their opinion, phenomena of reality, but also put forward an image of ideal reality, conducive to human happiness, and this image ultimately turns out to be prompted not by reason, but by feeling. The ability for critical judgment and a sensitive heart are two sides of a single intellectual tool that helped the writers of the 18th century develop a new view of a person who abandoned the feeling of original sin and tried to justify his existence based on his innate desire for happiness. Various aesthetic trends of the 18th century, including sentimentalism, tried to paint the image of the new reality in their own way. As long as they remained within the framework of the Enlightenment ideology, they were equally close to the critical views of Locke, who denied the existence of so-called "innate ideas" from the standpoint of sensationalism. From this point of view, sentimentalism differs from Rococo or Classicism not so much in the “cult of feeling” (because in this specific understanding, feeling played an equally important role in other aesthetic movements) or in the tendency to portray mainly representatives of the third estate (all literature of the Enlightenment in one way or another was interested in human nature "in general", leaving out questions of class differences), as much as special ideas about the possibilities and ways of achieving happiness by a person. Like Rococo art, sentimentalism professes a sense of disillusionment with the "great History", turns to the sphere of the private, intimate life of an individual, gives it a "natural" dimension. But if rocaille literature interprets “naturalness” primarily as an opportunity to go beyond the traditionally established moral norms and, thus, illuminates mainly the “scandalous”, behind-the-scenes side of life, condescending to the excusable weaknesses of human nature, then sentimentalism seeks to reconcile the natural and the moral. He began by trying to present virtue not as an introduced, but as an innate property of the human heart. Therefore, the sentimentalists were closer not to Locke with his resolute denial of any “innate ideas”, but to his follower A.A.K. moral sense, which alone can point the way to happiness. It is not the awareness of duty that prompts a person to act morally, but the command of the heart. Happiness, therefore, does not consist in the craving for sensual pleasures, but in the craving for virtue. Thus, the “naturalness” of human nature is interpreted by Shaftesbury, and after him by sentimentalists, not as its “scandalousness”, but as a need and opportunity for virtuous behavior, and the heart becomes a special supra-individual sense organ that connects a particular person with a common harmonious and morally justified structure of the universe.
Poetics of sentimentalism
The first elements of the poetics of sentimentalism penetrate the English literature of the late 1720s. when the genre of descriptive and didactic poems dedicated to labor and leisure against the backdrop of rural nature (georgics) becomes especially relevant. In J. Thomson's poem "The Seasons" (1726-30) one can already find a completely "sentimentalistic" idyll, built on a sense of moral satisfaction arising from the contemplation of rural landscapes. Subsequently, such motifs were developed by E. Jung (1683-1765) and especially T. Gray, who discovered the elegy as a genre most suitable for sublime meditations against the backdrop of nature (the most famous work is “Elegy written in a rural cemetery”, 1751). A significant influence on the development of sentimentalism was exerted by the work of S. Richardson, whose novels (Pamela, 1740; Clarissa, 1747-48; The History of Sir Charles Grandisson, 1754) not only for the first time introduced heroes who in everything corresponded to the spirit of sentimentalism, but and popularized a special genre form of the epistolary novel, so loved later by many sentimentalists. Among the latter, some researchers include the main opponent of Richardson, Henry Fielding, whose “comic epics” (“The Story of the Adventure of Joseph Endrus”, 1742, and “The Story of Tom Jones, the Foundling”, 1749) are largely based on sentimentalist ideas about human nature. In the second half of the 18th century, the tendencies of sentimentalism in English literature were growing stronger, but now they are increasingly in conflict with the actual enlightenment pathos of life-building, the improvement of the world and the education of man. The world no longer seems to be the focus of moral harmony to the heroes of the novels by O. Goldsmith "The Weckfield Priest" (1766) and G. Mackenzie "The Man of Feelings" (1773). Stern's novels The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760-67) and A Sentimental Journey are examples of caustic polemics against Locke's sensationalism and many conventional views of the English Enlightenment. The Scots R. Burns (1759-96) and J. MacPherson (1736-96) are among the poets who developed sentimentalist tendencies on folklore and pseudo-historical material. By the end of the century, English sentimentalism, more and more inclined towards “sensibility”, breaks with the enlightenment harmony between feeling and reason and gives rise to the genre of the so-called Gothic novel (H. Walpole, A. Radcliffe, etc.), which some researchers correlate with an independent artistic current - pre-romanticism. In France, the poetics of sentimentalism enters into a dispute with Rococo already in the work of D. Diderot, who was influenced by Richardson (The Nun, 1760) and, in part, Stern (Jacquefatalist, 1773). The most consonant with the principles of sentimentalism were the views and tastes of J. J. Rousseau, who created an exemplary sentimental epistolary novel "Julia, or New Eloise" (1761). However, already in his "Confession" (published 1782-89), Rousseau departs from an important principle of sentimentalist poetics - the normativity of the depicted personality, proclaiming the inherent value of his one and only "I", taken in individual originality. In the future, sentimentalism in France is closely linked with the specific concept of "Rousseauism". Penetrating into Germany, sentimentalism first influenced the work of H.F. Gellert (1715-69) and F.G. sentimentalism, called the "Storm and Onslaught" movement, to which the young I.V. Goethe and F. Schiller belonged. Goethe's novel "The Sufferings of Young Werther" (1774), although considered the pinnacle of sentimentalism in Germany, in fact contains a hidden polemic with the ideals of the sturmerism and is not reduced to glorifying the "sensitive nature" of the protagonist. The “last sentimentalist” of Germany, Jean Paul (1763-1825), was especially influenced by Stern’s work.
Sentimentalism in Russia
In Russia, all the most significant samples of Western European sentimental literature were translated as early as the 18th century, influencing F. Emin, N. Lvov, and partly A. Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”, 1790). Russian sentimentalism reached its peak in the works of N. Karamzin(“Letters from a Russian Traveler”, 1790; “Poor Lisa”, 1792; “Natalya, Boyar's Daughter”, 1792, etc.). Subsequently, A. Izmailov, V. Zhukovsky and others turned to the poetics of sentimentalism.
The word sentimentalism comes from English sentimental, which means sensitive; French sentiment - feeling.
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