Trifonov noted the great influence of E. Hemingway: far from everything is spoken out in plain text, the role of subtext is great. The author reproduces the signs of everyday life in Moscow and shows how a person who makes compromise after compromise (of which more and more accumulates) is eventually forced to become a conformist, to live like everyone else. Such is the evolution of Dmitriev's character. He is shown staying between two families: the Dmitrievs and the Lukyanovs (his wife's parents). The former are participants in the October Revolution, the latter are typical philistines who are only interested in the material side of life. The hero, under the influence of his wife, hesitates, and true values are exchanged for petty, selfish, acquisitive ones. With regard to the main character, this is revealed in the line connected with the exchange of the apartment. Dmitriev's mother is seriously ill, and it is necessary to move in with her in order to save living space. But Dmitriev's mother and his wife are people who organically cannot stand each other. Everything happens the way the Lukyanovs wanted. The author does not hide the fact that the inner rebirth was not just given to Dmitriev, he retained the features of an intellectual, and he experienced the death of his mother hard. A similar type of intellectual, turning into a layman, a conformist, a consumer, is also displayed in other texts by Trifonov. Changed, shows the author, the very spirit of society.
In addition to the present, Trifonov turns to history and writes the novel "Impatience". In The Old Man, the modern and historical lines even merge into one. The principle of diachrony is used, as in Yu. Bondarev. The novel combines the features of a historical-revolutionary research and a psychological family-household novel. In the chapters on the revolution, the action is very tense, stormy, dynamic. Events are layered one on top of the other, the revolution is likened to lava escaping, which symbolizes the spontaneity of what is happening. The Bolsheviks are presented, on the one hand, as an enzyme that activates the seething of lava, and on the other hand, as people trying to direct the flow in the right direction. The author emphasizes that communism was adopted by people not as a scientific doctrine, but as a new religion. And every religion is a sacred phenomenon. Such was the attitude towards communism of many supporters of the revolution. In this capacity, Russian communism displayed the rarest fanaticism and intolerance. This was expressed in the fact that all "unbelievers", even progressive ones, were ranked as heretics and mercilessly destroyed. Trifonov shows how cruel the fight against dissidents was already in the first years of Soviet power. The fate of Commander Migulin: a man who at first presented himself as one of the heroes of the Civil War, but opposed the policy of decossackization and was declared an enemy of the Soviet government and repressed, although he did a lot for the Soviet government. Ideological fanaticism and intolerance are considered by Trifonov as prerequisites for the totalitarianization of Soviet society. The inhumane methods of moving towards communism, the victims of which have become millions, have led to the opposite - disappointment: one thing is being affirmed, and another is being done. And already in the 1970s, the former participant in the revolution, Letunov, who did a lot to rehabilitate Migulin, cannot understand what is happening in society: why is social cynicism and social apathy so strong, why do most people stop actually believing in the ideals of communism? This situation is perceived as abnormal. It is shown that the life of society seems to have stopped, as if nothing is happening. Trifonov gives a figurative equivalent of such a phenomenon as stagnation. And if Migulin and Letunov fought for the cause of the revolution, then the adult children of Letunov are fighting for a house that has been vacated in a summer cottage, and even then they are fighting it sluggishly, without initiative. “Petty-bourgeois happiness” came to the fore, in complete isolation from concern for the public good.
Letunov finds the pastime of his own children empty, meaningless. Chekhov's nostalgia for the fact that life is not going the way you want, but the characters don't know what to do. Nuance: if Chekhov's characters still believed in the future and hoped to someday see the sky in diamonds, then Trifonov's characters have no such hope. Thus, in the novel The Old Man, Trifonov overcame his earlier illusions and gave an accurate social diagnosis of the society of the Brezhnev era. He showed a spiritually and morally sick society in need of healing. "First of all, the truth." (The official propaganda of these years was completely false.)
We also find well-known echoes with Trifonov in a number of works by Andrey Bitov, created in the late 1960s and 1970s: those of his works in which the problem of the destruction of the personality is brought to the fore. Bitov was born in 1937 in Leningrad, drew attention to himself with books of stories, in which he demonstrated a subtle mastery of psychologism. 1962 - 1976 - working on the novel "Flying Monks". According to Bitov himself, this is a "dotted novel". Thus, Bitov emphasizes that there is no integral chronological plot sequence, only separate episodes are presented, which are given in plot-completed stories and novellas (printed separately). The author chooses the key moments of his life and fate that are crucial for understanding the evolution of the hero. Bitov is interested in moral laws that are most and least favorable for the development of the individual and society. Behind the fate of the hero are the writer's reflections on the meaning of life. Bitov shows how a person who came into the world to decorate it gradually degrades and becomes a source of misfortune for those around him. In the first part of The Door, we are introduced to an unnamed boy, the main character, who has not yet fully formed as a person. The hero is shown in love, this is the first love, and Bitov subtly recreates this feeling. He makes it clear that love includes a whole range of shades, including hatred and the willingness to curse oneself for this hatred. The author uses a chaotic internal monologue. Unusually, the boy is in love with a woman much older than him. Before us is a romantic, an idealist who, no matter how they laugh around, is true to his love. The image of the door is like a partition between the hero and the townsfolk. None of the "backdoor" morality shakes the beliefs of the hero, who is not going to give up the best in himself. The second chapter "The Garden" tells about the growing up of the hero, he gets the name Alexei, and about the gradual split in his soul that began in his soul. This is a split between love and selfishness, which, Bitov shows, not only suppresses love, but also distorts the fate of the hero. Alexei in love does not pass the test of material and domestic disorder. He has nothing to support his family. Theoretically, one can study and work (he is a student), but Aleksey is not used to this. He is used to the fact that someone supports him, he studies calmly, does not overwork himself, meets Asya every evening. But the years go by. Asya sees his lack of will and understands that this may end in nothing for her. In the soul of the hero there is a struggle between love and selfishness. But no matter how much he suffers, he still cannot defeat his egoism. The hero does not sacrifice well-being and inner comfort. Sometimes it seems to Alexei, Bitov emphasizes, that he is an incognito prince, and no one around knows this. "And if they knew, they would run around me." From the novel it is clear that the love of each person is the same as the person himself. In true love, the soul of one includes the fool of the other and thereby expands. If this does not happen, the soul becomes smaller. Bitov's moral and philosophical reflections testify that the soul can contain not just one, but many more souls. This does not happen with Alexei. In the chapter "The Third Story" we meet an adult, albeit a young man, Alexei Monakhov, who graduated from the institute and has a good job. There is already a lot of cynicism in his soul, he condemns the idealism of his youth. When young feelings go away, Bitov shows, the hero becomes bored, and, having already married, he changes woman after woman. “It was a real novel, only in reality, and not read” - about the story with Asya. The hero breaks human lives one after another, but he himself is not too happy. His life is empty, dull. The fourth chapter is the story "Forest". In the foreground, Bitov recreates the moral deadness to which the hero comes. The author does not hide the fact that the external outline of Alexei Monakhov's life is quite prosperous, but he feels that he is indifferent to all the people, without exception, with whom life confronts him. It exists mechanically. During a business trip to Tashkent, Monakhov accidentally meets the twin of his youth, the young poet Lyonechka, and begins to envy him terribly, because Lyonechka lives a real, full-blooded life. Monakhov begins to think more thoroughly about his life: “Am I dead, or what? Why don't I love anyone?" The hero recalls one of the conversations with his father: his father's story about the forest. The forest, my father said, we see only partially, above the ground, but under the ground the trees are linked by their roots. Father hinted that the forest is a prototype of a human community, where everything is connected with everything. And if one person degrades and decays, it affects the whole society. Bitov calls for a person to cultivate in himself the idea of himself as part of a single whole, to realize that he is not alone on earth, that others must be treated with kindness and care, because too much evil has accumulated in the world. “When the consciousness of a single whole enters into him ... then he will become his true self.” By no means does the author idealize either the situation in the country, or what this situation produces with people - ultimately cripples.
Under the influence of the older generation (Trifonov, Bitov), the “generation of forty-year-olds” (a term criticized by Bondarenko) appears in urban prose. Outstanding representatives are Vladimir Makanin, Ruslan Kireev, Anatoly Kim, Vladimir Orlov. Vladimir Makanin is considered the informal leader of the "forty-year-olds". He was one of the first to portray the 1970s not as an era of developed socialism, but as an era of stagnation. The Forties undertook an artistic study of "stagnation". Makanin is interested in the type of the so-called "middle man". The middle man Makanin is a man of the situation. His behavior is a sensitive indicator of the social situation. The character, as it were, copies the environment. There was an era of thaw - and the character repeated common slogans with sincere joy. Totalitarian times have come - and the character imperceptibly, gradually absorbed new principles. A distinctive feature of the hero Makanin is his social role certainty (a person is not independent in his choice), which is often already reflected in the titles. One of them is "The Man of the Retinue". A characteristic figure of Soviet society of that period, a voluntary serf. He constantly rubs near the authorities, ready to serve up to carrying suitcases. Serfdom causes joy and pleasure in the character, because the person considers himself close to the authorities, he really likes it and flatters. When the boss alienates the hero from himself, this is a real tragedy for the moral slave.
Another type of Makanin is a “fleeing citizen”, deprived of responsibility for his actions. The hero in each new city gets a new woman and lives on her account until the child is born. Throughout the country, he is running away from his wives, children, responsibility, in the end - from the best that was laid in him by nature. The story "Anti-leader" also attracts attention. We are talking about a type of person with a negatively directed energy, characteristic of the Brezhnev era. Much in society is strangled, fettered, and the energy of protest boils up in a person in order to one day flare up at a low, quarrelsome level. An anti-leader is a synonym for a brawler.
However, in the 1970s, more and more people began to appear in the lives of people, about each of whom one could say that he was “nothing”. Makanin's creative manner is changing. He begins to use symbolism and archetypes to reveal the prevailing moods in society. Attention is drawn to the story "One and One", where the problem of loneliness, unusual for Soviet society, is raised. Lack of communication skills, which Western writers spoke about even earlier, also came to the USSR. The problem confuses Makanin himself, how to overcome it, he does not give an answer.
Another archetype is a “straggler”, a person who continues to live with thaw dreams and hopes, in which the majority has already lost faith. They see him as a fool who does not understand. A person sincerely wishes society well, but he is not adequate to reality.
The name "Loss" is symbolic: it is about the loss of one's roots, which deprives a person of a true spiritual support in life. Only when the hero grew old did he suddenly realize that he had no one close, since he himself had never done anything to get close to other people. The hero condemns himself and tries to understand at what stage egocentrism took possession of him. He is afraid that no one will ever come to his grave. Makanin implicitly calls for the ideal of catholicity.
An interesting novel by Ruslan Kireev "The Winner" (1984). The type of ambivalent hero appears. An ambivalent hero is a person who "swings" between good and evil. He is not a scoundrel and not a scoundrel, but also not a stable person in moral principles. The hero can do good or bad, depending on the circumstances. The author himself makes very high moral demands on a person and displays a character (Stanislav Ryabov) who has retained the properties of a moral personality in conditions of stagnation. But, the author shows, colossal efforts are needed to preserve them. The hero receives offers of an immoral nature from the authorities. Ryabov is in a difficult position, but the internal struggle gives a positive result. Stanislav Ryabov defeated himself, cowardice, cowardice and conformism in his soul.
Both Kireev and Makanin, as writers, remain within the framework of traditional realism, although they introduce new characters and types into prose. Anatoly Kim's novel "Squirrel" was written in the tradition of grotesque realism. Kim displays werewolves, representing them either as people or animals (vampire, huge dog, boar, monkey): this "animal" reincarnation shows the true essence of the characters. Kim also has such an image as "two-dimensional" people squeezed into the plane by the totalitarian regime. In the fantasy world of the novel "Squirrel", both the reincarnation of a person into an animal and the reverse metamorphosis are possible.
In the center of the story is the image of a man-squirrel. On the one hand, the squirrel is a harmless creature. But, on the other hand, it has animal features. The hero of the work all the time, like a squirrel in a wheel, spins in useless empty deeds that do not give him pleasure and benefit to society. The squirrel man painfully experiences the fact that he is not a full-fledged person. The author resorts to a conditional method when a squirrel man "tryes on" the fate of his best friends, former classmates in art school, talented young people Mitya Akutin, Zhora Aznauryan and Innokenty Lupetin. The author describes in detail the creative manner of each of them, the fate of each, as if reincarnating in them. The fate of all three is tragic. One was directly killed, the other - in riots, the third - went crazy in the hopeless village wilderness. The squirrel man wants to be like friends, but he still does not overcome his conformism, fearing that such a fate awaits him. But, says Kim, there are still real people. “But to me,” says the hero, “nothing like this has been given.” The image of the Horus of life: according to Kim, it is made up of the voices of those who have done a lot for humanity and even after death continue to influence the fate of the world. If a person has lost his footing, Kim offers to hear this choir and try to join it. In this case, a huge force will become behind a person, which will help to stay on his feet and take place as a true person.
The fantasy of "Squirrels" is animalistic in nature. In Vladimir Orlov's novel Violist Danilov, the author also turns to fantasy to solve moral problems, but uses a peculiarly transformed biblical mythology. He recreates two worlds: the real world of the 1970s and 80s and the “other world” (or “nine spheres”), which is inhabited by the spirits of evil and reflects in a concentrated form all the vices of earthly society. In the image of the “other world”, the author shows the necessarily imposed dogmatism of thinking, based on false truths; bureaucratic structure; social inequality; denounces the system of denunciations, which did not completely die out in post-Stalin times. In the "other world" evil is the norm, and the younger generation of demons of the "other world" is forming an attitude towards evil as the norm. "The Other World" appears as an artistic model of a totalitarian society. Naturally, totalitarianism seeks to subjugate all spheres of life on all planets, including the Earth. With this mission, Danilov was sent to Earth. Arriving on Earth, he first encounters manifestations of beauty (music) and becomes a musician and composer himself, the author of innovative music. The author depicts the opposite of what other representatives of urban prose show in their novels: how manifestations of goodness gradually increase in Danilov's soul. Of course, Danilov cannot get rid of natural evil. But he learns to imitate the manifestations of evil and gradually becomes a man, a moral being. He is suspected and summoned to the next world to report. Violist Danilov is afraid. During a kind of interrogation, when they almost shine through him, the violist Danilov, in order not to recognize his true good nature, is “obscured” by music. In the end, he is not condemned, but severely warned. The hero of Orlov accepts these conditions, as he hopes that he will be able to circle the totalitarian system of the "other world" around his finger. He has no thought of abandoning the beautiful and the sublime.Violist Danilov was written under the influence of The Master and Margarita.
If we compare urban and rural prose, it is clear that it differs not only in the material and the nature of its interpretation, but also in the more active use of artistic innovations. It is not surprising that these works enjoyed great popularity and brought fame to the authors.
"Urban" prose in modern literature.
Yu. V. Trifonov. Eternal themes and moral problems in the story "Exchange".
Requirements for the level of preparation of students:
Students should know:
- the concept of "urban" prose, information about the life and work of Yu.V. Trifonov, the plot, the heroes of the work.
Students must understand:
- eternal problems raised by the author against the backdrop of urban life, the meaning of the title of the work "Exchange".
Students should be able to:
- characterize the characters of the story and their relationship to the mother.
1. "Urban" prose in the literature of the 20th century.
Work with the textbook.
Read the article (textbook edited by V.P. Zhuravlev, part 2, pp. 418-422).
What do you think the concept of "urban prose" means?
2. "Urban" prose by Yuri Trifonov.
Life and creative way of Trifonov.
The writer's parents were professional revolutionaries. Father, Valentin Andreevich, joined the party in 1904 and was exiled to Siberia. In 1923-1925 he headed the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.
In the 1930s, my father and mother were repressed. In 1965, the documentary novel "Bonfire Reflection" was published, in which he used his father's archive. From the pages of the work rises the image of a man who "kindled a fire and himself died in this flame." In the novel, Trifonov for the first time applied a kind of artistic technique of the principle of time montage.
History will disturb Trifonov constantly ("The Old Man", "The House on the Embankment"). The writer realized his philosophical principle: “We must remember that the only possibility of competition with time is hidden here. Man is doomed, time triumphs.
During the war, Yuri Trifonov was evacuated to Central Asia, worked at an aircraft factory in Moscow. In 1944 he entered the Literary Institute. Gorky.
The first story "Students" is the diploma work of a novice prose writer.
The story was published by A. Tvardovsky's Novy Mir magazine in 1950, and in 1951 the author received the Stalin Prize for it.
Trifonov himself claimed: “Yes, I don’t write life, but life.”
Critic Yu.M. Oklyansky rightly states: “The test of everyday life, the imperious force of everyday circumstances and the hero, one way or another romantically opposing them ... is a through and title theme of the late Trifonov ...”.
Why do you think the writer was reproached for being immersed in everyday life?
What is the role of everyday life in the story "Exchange"?
The very title of the story "Exchange" first of all reveals the everyday, everyday situation of the hero - the situation of exchanging an apartment. The life of urban families, their daily problems occupy a significant place in the story. But this is only the first, superficial layer of the story. Life is the conditions for the existence of heroes. The seeming routine, the universality of this way of life is deceptive. In fact, the test of everyday life is no less difficult and dangerous than the tests that fall on a person in acute, critical situations. It is dangerous that a person changes under the influence of everyday life gradually, imperceptibly for himself, everyday life provokes a person without internal support, a core for actions that the person himself is then horrified by.
- What are the main events of the plot of the story?
The plot of the story is a chain of events, each of which is an independent short story. In the first, Lena persuades Viktor Dmitriev, her husband, to move in with his terminally ill mother for the sake of living space. In the second, Victor worries about his mother, is tormented by remorse, but still considers options for an exchange. The third short story is Victor's genealogy, his memories of his father and his family. The fourth is the story of the confrontation between two family clans: hereditary intellectuals Dmitriev and Lukyanov, people from the breed of "able to live." The fifth is the story of Dmitriev's old friend, Levka Bubrik, instead of whom Viktor was assigned to the institute. The sixth is the dialogue of the hero with
sister Laura about what to do with a sick mother.
What is the meaning of this composition?
Such a composition gradually reveals the process of the hero's moral betrayal. The sister and mother believed that "he had quietly betrayed them", "he had gone rogue". The hero gradually makes one compromise after another, as if by force, due to circumstances, retreats from his conscience: in relation to work, to his beloved woman, to a friend, to his family, and finally, to his mother. At the same time, Victor “was tormented, amazed, racked his brains, but then he got used to it. I got used to it because I saw that everyone had the same thing, and everyone got used to it. And he calmed down on the truth that there is nothing more wise and valuable in life than peace, and it must be protected with all your might. Habit, complacency are the reasons for the readiness to compromise.
- How does Trifonov move from describing private life to generalizations?
The word invented by Victor's sister, Laura, - "bewildered" - is already a generalization that very accurately conveys the essence of changes in a person. These changes are not limited to just one hero. On the way to the dacha, remembering the past of his family, Dmitriev delays meeting with his mother, delays an unpleasant conversation and a treacherous conversation about an exchange. It seems to him that he should “think about something important, the last”: “Everything has changed on the other side. Everything was "loosened". Every year something changed in detail, but when 14 years passed, it turned out that everything was lukewarm and hopeless. The second time the word has already been given without quotes, as a well-established concept. The hero thinks about these changes in much the same way as he thought about his family life: “Maybe it’s not so bad? And if this happens to everything - even to the shore, to the river and to the grass - then maybe it's natural and it should be so? No one but the hero himself can answer these questions. And it’s more convenient to answer yourself: yes, it should be so, and calm down.
What is the difference between the Dmitriev and Lukyanov family clans?
In contrast to the two life positions, two systems of values, spiritual and domestic, is the conflict of the story. The main bearer of the Dmitrievs' values is his grandfather, Fedor Nikolaevich. He is an old lawyer, in his youth he was engaged in revolutionary affairs, he sat in a fortress, fled abroad, went through the Gulag - this is said indirectly. Dmitriev recalls that "the old man was a stranger to any Lukian-likeness, he simply did not understand many things." For example, how can an elderly worker who came to them pull the couch, say "you", as Dmitriev's wife and mother-in-law do. Or give a bribe, as Dmitriev and Lena already did together when they asked the seller to put the radio set aside for them.
If Dmitriev's father-in-law openly "knows how to live", then Lena covers up this skill, resourcefulness with care for her family, for her husband. For her, Fedor Nikolaevich is a “monster” who does not understand anything in modern life.
What is the meaning of the story?
Life changes only externally, people remain the same. The "housing problem" becomes a test for the hero Trifonov, a test that he cannot stand and breaks down. Grandfather says: “Ksenia and I expected that something different would come out of you. Nothing terrible happened, of course. You're not a bad person, but you're not amazing either."
This is the judgment of the author himself. The process of “lukyanization” proceeds imperceptibly, seemingly against the will of a person, with a mass of self-justifications, but as a result it destroys a person, and not only morally: after the exchange and the death of his mother, Dmitriev lay at home in strict bed rest for three weeks. The hero becomes different: "not yet an old man, but already elderly, with limp-cheeked uncle."
The terminally ill mother tells him: “You have already exchanged, Vitya. The exchange took place… It was a very long time ago. And it always happens, every day, so don't be surprised, Vitya. And don't get angry. It's just so imperceptible..."
At the end of the story is a list of legal documents required for the exchange. Their dry, businesslike, official language emphasizes the tragedy of what happened. Nearby are phrases about a "favorable decision" regarding the exchange and about the death of Xenia Fedorovna. The exchange of value ideas took place.
So, Trifonov was able to draw a typical picture of family relations of our time: the initiative is taken over by predators, the triumph of consumerism, the loss of traditional family values. The desire for peace as the only joy makes men put up with their minority in the family. They lose their solid masculinity. The family is left without a head.
Verification test.
Yu. V. Trifonov.
1. The years of the writer's life.
a) 1905-1984
b) 1920-1980
c) 1925-1981
2. Determine the genre of the work "Exchange".
a) story
b) novel
c) story.
3. Name the magazine that first published Y. Trifonov's story "Exchange"
a) "Banner"
b) "New World"
c) "Moscow"
4. What is the main problem of the story
a) the role of love, affection in human life
b) life, delaying life
c) loss of moral foundations
5. What is the main technique used by the author in the story to resolve the problems of the work.
a) contrasting characters
c) matching
d) disclosure in the dialogue by the characters
6. The plot of the story is a chain of events, each of which is an independent short story. How many novels are in the story?
a) 1, b) 2, c) 3, d) 4, e) 5, f) 6.
7. Who is the main bearer of the values of the Dmitriev family?
a) Elena
b) Victor
c) Fedor Nikolaevich
8. What is the meaning of the title of the story "Exchange"?
a) housing problem
b) moral destruction of a person
c) ability to live
Criteria for evaluation:
1. From 4 to 8 correct answers score "5".
2. From 4 to 7 correct answers score "4".
3. 4 correct answers score "3".
4. Less than 7 correct answers fail.
Test answers.
1. in;
2. Tale;
3. "New World";
4. b, c;
5 B;
6.f;
7. Fedor Nikolaevich;
8. Housing issue.
Educational and methodological material on literature for independent work. Yu.V.Trifonov. The story "Exchange". Grade 12
In the 1960s and 1970s, a new phenomenon arose in Russian literature, called "urban prose". The term arose in connection with the publication and wide recognition of the stories of Yuri Trifonov. M. Chulaki, S. Esin, V. Tokareva, I. Shtemler, A. Bitov, the Strugatsky brothers, V. Makanin, D. Granin and others also worked in the genre of urban prose. In the works of the authors of urban prose, the heroes were citizens burdened with everyday life, moral and psychological problems, generated, among other things, by the high pace of urban life. The problem of the loneliness of the individual in the crowd, covered by the higher education of the terry philistinism, was considered. The works of urban prose are characterized by deep psychologism, appeal to the intellectual, ideological and philosophical problems of the time, the search for answers to "eternal" questions. The authors explore the intelligentsia stratum of the population, drowning in the "quagmire of everyday life".
The creative activity of Yuri Trifonov falls on the post-war years. Impressions from student life are reflected by the author in his first novel "Students", which was awarded the State Prize. At twenty-five, Trifonov became famous. The author himself, however, pointed out weaknesses in this work.
In 1959, a collection of short stories "Under the Sun" and the novel "Quenching Thirst" were published, the events of which unfolded at the construction of an irrigation canal in Turkmenistan. The writer already then spoke about the quenching of spiritual thirst.
For more than twenty years, Trifonov worked as a sports correspondent, wrote many stories on sports topics: "Games at dusk", "At the end of the season", created scripts for feature films and documentaries.
The stories "Exchange", "Preliminary Results", "Long Farewell", "Another Life" formed the so-called "Moscow" or "city" cycle. They were immediately called a phenomenal phenomenon in Russian literature, because Trifonov described a person in everyday life, and made representatives of the then intelligentsia the heroes. The writer withstood the attacks of critics who accused him of being "small". The choice of the topic was especially unusual against the background of the then existing books about glorious deeds, labor achievements, the heroes of which were ideally positive, purposeful and unshakable. It seemed to many critics a dangerous blasphemy that the writer dared to reveal the internal changes in the moral character of many intellectuals, pointed out the absence of high motives, sincerity, and decency in their souls. By and large, Trifonov raises the question of what intelligence is and whether we have an intelligentsia.
Many heroes of Trifonov, formally, by education, belonging to the intelligentsia, did not become intelligent people in terms of spiritual improvement. They have diplomas, in society they play the role of cultured people, but in everyday life, at home, where there is no need to pretend, their spiritual callousness, thirst for profit, sometimes criminal lack of will, moral dishonesty are exposed. Using the technique of self-characterization, the writer in internal monologues shows the true essence of his characters: the inability to resist circumstances, to defend one's opinion, mental deafness or aggressive self-confidence. As we get to know the characters of the stories, a true picture of the state of mind of Soviet people and the moral criteria of the intelligentsia emerges before us.
Trifonov's prose is distinguished by a high concentration of thoughts and emotions, a kind of "density" of writing, which allows the author to say a lot between the lines behind seemingly everyday, even banal plots.
In The Long Goodbye, a young actress contemplates whether or not she should continue dating a prominent playwright, overpowering herself. In "Preliminary Results" the translator Gennady Sergeevich is tormented by the consciousness of his guilt, having left his wife and adult son, who have long become spiritual strangers to him. Engineer Dmitriev from the story "The Exchange", under pressure from his domineering wife, must persuade his own mother to "move in" with them after the doctors told them that the elderly woman had cancer. The mother herself, not suspecting anything, is extremely surprised by the sudden ardent feelings on the part of her daughter-in-law. The measure of morality here is the vacated living space. Trifonov seems to be asking the reader: “What would you do?”
Trifonov's works make readers take a closer look at themselves, teach them to separate the main thing from the superficial, momentary, show how hard the retribution for neglecting the laws of conscience can be.
Returned Literature
The terms “returned literature”, “returned writers”, “hidden”, even “hidden” literature appeared in the early 90s of the twentieth century, when, as a result of perestroika, the “iron curtain” that firmly separated our country from the Western world collapsed. The collapse of the communist ideology, the onset of glasnost, made it possible to publish in Russia a huge number of works by émigré writers who, fleeing the Bolshevik terror in the 1920s, were forced to leave their homeland forever.
Having left and settled some in France, some in Germany, some in the Czech Republic and other countries, Russian writers, many of whom were already widely known in Russia, wrote the truth about the revolution of 1917 and the civil war that followed it. For this, they were declared enemies in their homeland. Creativity of most of them and even their names were removed from all encyclopedias and forgotten for 70 years. It was officially stated that in exile the creativity of writers fell into complete decline. Meanwhile, the bibliographic list of works by, for example, Boris Zaitsev includes 700 titles.
To the amazement of readers and even experts, it turned out that abroad, far from Russia, a whole "continent" of Russian prose and poetry had been created. Books by Russian writers abroad gradually returned to their homeland. Collected works of I. Shmelev, B. Zaitsev, A. Remizov were published, historical novels by M. Aldanov, books by Sasha Cherny, N. Teffi, poetry and prose by G. Ivanov and G. Adamovich, wonderful memoirs by I. Odoevtseva and N. Berberova, lyrics by Vl. Khodasevich, a large number of critical articles about Russian literature by these authors. The works of Russian writers abroad made it possible to restore a complete picture of historical upheavals in Russia, to truthfully convey the intensity of tragedy inherent in the era at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries.
One of the discoveries for the Russian reader was the publication in 1989 of Ivan Bunin's diaries "Cursed Days" - a book that Bunin wrote in 1918-1919. It is about revolutionary and post-revolutionary events - about the "cursed days". The main motives of the book are moods of depression, humiliation by what is happening, a sense of a national catastrophe, reflections on the Russian people. In Soviet Russia, they knew about the existence of this book by the great author, Nobel Prize winner, but it was banned from publication. In rare reviews of Soviet criticism, Bunin was scolded, called an enemy, because he furiously cursed the revolution. Abroad, the publication of "Cursed Days" caused general recognition, laudatory reviews appeared in which critics called this work the best of everything written by Bunin.
In his diaries, Bunin is openly biased. He violently attacks the so-called "only" truth of the revolutionary people. Through the whole book runs the writer's cry of pain: "We are people too!" Bunin demands a single moral judgment on "ours" and "not ours", defends universal human values. With pain, he says that everything is forgiven the people and the revolution, and the whites, from whom everything is taken away, scolded, killed - the Motherland, native cradles and graves, mothers, fathers, sisters - should not have their own opinion.
In Cursed Days, Bunin tells a story that struck him about how the peasants, who destroyed the landowner's estate in the fall of 1917, tore off the feathers from living peacocks and let them rush around the yard, bloody. “The peacock did not suspect that he was a bourgeois bird,” Bunin remarks mournfully. The author insists that the revolution should be approached only with the yardstick of the laws of the criminal code. For Bunin, a witness and eyewitness to the events, any revolutionary is a criminal and a bandit. The writer notes that people from the criminal world immediately and with pleasure joined the revolution.
The writer states the completely destroyed life in cities and villages, when for five years no one sowed and produced nothing. Bunin exclaims: “And what horror it takes, how many people now walk around in clothes torn from corpses!” In his diaries, Bunin presents a harsh account not only to the revolutionaries, but also to the Russian people. The writer is indignant that the people allow themselves to be controlled by a handful of fanatics. "Cursed Days" is a historical literary monument to the victims of the civil war. At the same time, this is a formidable warning about the need to preserve peace, otherwise one more bloody round of history cannot be avoided.
Ivan Shmelev's epic novel The Sun of the Dead is devoted to the same theme of revolutionary terror. This is a stunning artistic and historical document of the era. The work is highly autobiographical. Shmelev describes the terrible famine in the Crimea, of which he himself was an eyewitness and victim. The heroes of the novel are real people, residents of Alushta. The action of the novel lasts a year: from spring to spring.
Under the new Bolshevik government, the once rich, fertile Crimea turned into a scorched desert. The Bolsheviks are engaged only in punitive measures. Having seized power, they do not organize people for creative work, but only rob what was acquired in peacetime. The title of the novel testifies to the complete victory of death over life. People walk ragged, staggering from hunger. Everything is eaten: animals, birds, plants. The new government does not care about the civilian population. They were left to die. Shmelev shows how hunger quickly destroys the moral foundations in a person. Neighbors now hate and fear each other, they can steal the last piece of bread.
According to the writer, God has departed from Russia, timelessness and madness has come. The novel is a chronicle of events. The latest records testify to the monstrous situation in the Crimea: "They will lie in wait for the child and - with a stone, and - they will be dragged."
Shmelev published his terrible book in 1923, when he was in exile in Paris. It was from her that the world community learned about the actual state of affairs in revolutionary Russia.
The writers of the Russian diaspora, with their truthful, sincere works, revealed to readers a lot of new things about the historical events of the first half of the 20th century in Russia. Their contribution to the development of Russian and world literature is enormous.
In the situation with emigrants, we can talk about the return of both authors and their works. In the case when the writers lived in Russia, and their works were banned and not published, we can talk about returned literature. Thus, A. Platonov's novels "Chevengur", "The Juvenile Sea", "The Foundation Pit" finally saw the light of day; novels and stories by M. Bulgakov "Master and Margarita", "Heart of a Dog", "Fatal Eggs"; “Life and Fate” by V. Grossman, “Requiem” by A. Akhmatova, “Kolyma Tales” by V. Shalamov, works by Yu. Dombrovsky, diaries by M. Prishvin and many other wonderful books included in the golden fund of Russian literature.
30.03.2013 25649 0Lesson
79
"Urban Prose in Contemporary Literature".
Yu. V. Trifonov. "Eternal themes and moral
problems in the story "Exchange"
Goals : give the concept of "urban" prose of the twentieth century; consider the eternal problems raised by the author against the backdrop of urban life; to determine the features of Trifonov's work (semantic ambiguity of the title, subtle psychologism).
During the classes
Take care of the intimate, intimate: all the treasures of the world are dearer than the intimacy of your soul!
V. V. Rozanov
I. "Urban" prose in the literature of the XX century.
1. Working with the textbook.
– Read the article (textbook edited by Zhuravlev, pp. 418–422).
– What do you think the concept of “urban” prose means? What are its features?
- Draw up your conclusions in the form of a plan.
Sample Plan
1) Features of "urban" prose:
a) it is a cry of pain for a person "turned into a grain of sand";
b) literature explores the world "through the prism of culture, philosophy, religion."
3) "Urban" prose by Y. Trifonov:
a) in the story "Preliminary results" he reasoned with "empty" philosophers;
b) in the story "Long Farewell" reveals the theme of the collapse of the bright beginning in a person in his concessions to the bourgeoisie.
2. Appeal to the epigraph of the lesson.
II. "Urban" prose of Yuri Trifonov.
1. Life and creative way of Trifonov.
The complexity of the fate of the writer and his generation, the talent for the embodiment of spiritual quests, the originality of manner - all this predetermines attention to Trifonov's life path.
The writer's parents were professional revolutionaries. Father, Valentin Andreevich, joined the party in 1904, was exiled to administrative exile in Siberia, and went through hard labor. Later became a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee in October 1917. In 1923–1925. Headed the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the USSR.
In the 1930s, my father and mother were repressed. In 1965, Y. Trifonov's documentary book "The Reflection of the Fire" appeared, in which he used his father's archive. From the pages of the work rises the image of a man who "kindled a fire and himself died in this flame." In the novel, Trifonov for the first time applied the principle of montage of time as a kind of artistic device.
History will disturb Trifonov constantly ("The Old Man", "The House on the Embankment"). The writer realized his philosophical principle: “We must remember - here is hidden the only possibility of competition with time. Man is doomed, time triumphs.
During the war, Yuri Trifonov was evacuated to Central Asia, worked at an aircraft factory in Moscow. In 1944 he entered the Literary Institute. Gorky.
The memoirs of his contemporaries help to visibly present the writer: “He was over forty. A clumsy, slightly baggy figure, short black hair, in some places in barely visible lamb curls, with rare threads of gray hair, an open wrinkled forehead. From a broad, slightly swollen pale face, through heavy horn-rimmed glasses, intelligent gray eyes looked at me shyly and unprotectedly.
The first story "Students" is the diploma work of a novice prose writer. The story was published by A. Tvardovsky's Novy Mir magazine in 1950, and in 1951 the author received the Stalin Prize for it.
It is generally accepted that the main theme of the writer is everyday life, being dragged into everyday life. One of the well-known researchers of Trifonov’s work, N. B. Ivanova, writes: “At the first reading of Trifonov, there is a deceptive ease of perception of his prose, immersion in familiar situations close to us, collisions with people and phenomena known in life ...” This is true, but only when reading superficially.
Trifonov himself claimed: “Yes, I don’t write life, but life.”
Critic Yu. M. Oklyansky rightly asserts: “The test of everyday life, the imperious force of everyday circumstances and the hero, one way or another romantically opposing them ... is a through and title theme of the late Trifonov ...”.
2. P problematics of the story Y. Trifonova "Exchange".
1) - Remember the plot of the work.
The family of Viktor Georgievich Dmitriev, an employee of one of the research institutes, lives in a communal apartment. Daughter Natasha - a teenager - behind the curtain. Dmitriev's dream of moving in with his mother did not find support from Lena, his wife. Everything changed when the mother was operated on for cancer. Lena herself started talking about the exchange. The actions and feelings of the heroes, manifested in the solution of this everyday issue, which ended in a successful exchange, and soon the death of Ksenia Feodorovna, constitute the content of a short story.
- So, the exchange is the plot core of the story, but can we say that it is also a metaphor that the author uses?
2) The protagonist of the story is a representative of the third generation of the Dmitrievs.
Grandfather Fyodor Nikolaevich is intelligent, principled, humane.
What can you say about the hero's mother?
Find the characteristic in the text:
“Ksenia Fedorovna is loved by friends, respected by colleagues, appreciated by neighbors in the apartment and in the pavlinovskaya dacha, because she is friendly, compliant, ready to help and take part ...”
But Viktor Georgievich Dmitriev falls under the influence of his wife, "gets sloppy." The essence of the title of the story, its pathos, the author's position, as it follows from the artistic logic of the story, are revealed in the dialogue between Xenia Fyodorovna and her son about the exchange: “I really wanted to live with you and Natasha ... - Ksenia Fyodorovna paused. “But now, no.” “Why?” – “You have already exchanged, Vitya. The exchange has taken place."
– What is the meaning of these words?
3) What makes up the image of the main character?
Description of the image based on the text.
- How does the emerging conflict with your wife over the exchange end? (“...He lay down in his place against the wall and turned to face the wallpaper.”)
- What does this pose of Dmitriev express? (This is a desire to get away from the conflict, humility, non-resistance, although in words he did not agree with Lena.)
- And here is another subtle psychological sketch: Dmitriev, falling asleep, feels his wife’s hand on his shoulder, which at first “lightly strokes his shoulder”, and then presses “with considerable weight”.
The hero realizes that his wife's hand is inviting him to turn around. He resists (this is how the author depicts the internal struggle in detail). But ... "Dmitriev, without saying a word, turned on his left side."
- What other details indicate the subordination of the hero to his wife, when we understand that he is a follower? (In the morning, the wife reminded her to talk to her mother.
“Dmitriev wanted to say something,” but he “took two steps after Lena, stood in the corridor and returned to the room.”)
This detail - "two steps forward" - "two steps back" - is a clear evidence of the impossibility for Dmitriev to go beyond the limits imposed on him by external circumstances.
- Whose rating does the hero get? (We learn his assessment from his mother, from his grandfather: “You are not a bad person. But not amazing either.”)
4) The right to be called a person Dmitriev was denied by his relatives. Lena was denied by the author: “... she bit into her desires like a bulldog. Such a pretty bulldog woman ... She did not let go until the desires - right in her teeth - did not turn into flesh ... "
Oxymoron* cute female bulldog further emphasizes the negative attitude of the author to the heroine.
Yes, Trifonov clearly defined his position. This is contradicted by the statement of N. Ivanova: "Trifonov did not set himself the task of either condemning or rewarding his heroes: the task was different - to understand." This is partly true...
It seems that another remark of the same literary critic is more justified: “...behind the external simplicity of presentation, calm intonation, designed for an equal and understanding reader, is Trifonov's poetics. And - an attempt at social aesthetic education.
- What is your attitude to the Dmitriev family?
– Would you like life to be like this in your families? (Trifonov managed to draw a typical picture of family relations of our time: the feminization of the family, the transition of the initiative into the hands of predators, the triumph of consumerism, the lack of unity in raising children, the loss of traditional family values. The desire for peace as the only joy makes men put up with their secondary importance in the family. They lose their firm masculinity, the family is left without a head.)
III. Summary of the lesson.
– What questions did the author of the story “The Exchange” make you think about?
– Do you agree that B. Pankin, speaking about this story, calls a genre that combines a physiological sketch of modern urban life and a parable?
Homework.
“The exchange saw the light in 1969. At that time, the author was criticized for reproducing a “terrible mire of trifles”, for the fact that in his work “there is no enlightening truth”, for the fact that spiritual dead roam in Trifonov’s stories, pretending to be alive. There are no ideals, man has been crushed and humiliated, crushed by life and his own insignificance.
- Express your attitude to these assessments by answering the questions:
џ What comes to the fore in the story when we perceive it now?
џ Does Trifonov really have no ideals?
џ In your opinion, will this story remain in literature and how will it be perceived in another 40 years?
