The influence of Western European literature on Russian symbolism. Is it possible to consider that the development of Russian literature occurred due to the imitation of Western literature?

CHAPTER 3

A. S. PUSHKIN: RUSSIAN "UNIVERSE"

(to the question of the perception of European literature)

Above, several examples of Pushkin's dialogue with a "foreign" word that becomes "one's own" were considered, whether it is the development of the work of Shakespeare or Moliere, which happened to the literatures of the whole world, or Cornwall, forgotten even at home. However, these are only partial manifestations of a more general phenomenon that arose in Russian literature precisely with the advent of Pushkin, which can be designated as Russian "universality". Its origins are Russian classicism XVIII century, which, following European classicism, was focused on imitation of ancient authors, but was even more dependent on models, as it adopted the experience of the European classicists themselves. Of course, some semblance of double imitation is also found in Western literature, but there the imitation of new models, oriented towards ancient models, acted primarily as epigonism and had little to do with great writers. In Russia, however, the greatest writers bore the double burden of imitation, thus reflecting the student period of the new Russian literature. Pushkin, already in "Ruslan and Lyudmila" having surpassed his immediate teacher V. A. Zhukovsky ("To the victorious student from the defeated teacher" - the great poet greeted the young Pushkin, who through his translations introduced the Russian reader to Homer and Pindar, La Fontaine and Pope, Thomson and Gray, Goethe and Schiller, Burger and Uland, Southey and Byron, with another fifty writers from different countries and eras, and these translations made up the bulk of his work), overcame imitation, apprenticeship, entered into a dialogue with the geniuses of world literature on an equal footing. And this dialogue embraced such a wide range of phenomena in world literature that it was then that the phenomenon of Russian "universality" arose and took root in Russian literature, the responsiveness of the poetic (in the broad sense) soul to the word - written or oral, sounded for everyone or only for the elite, in a temple, a secular salon or in a field, a hut, in a square or in the recesses of the heart - in different countries, in many languages, in different eras. Such an immense field of dialogue creates a literary thesaurus, specific to Russian writers (and readers) since the time of Pushkin (an area of ​​the general cultural thesaurus associated with literature). No less significant is the way in which literary information entering the thesaurus from outside is processed to become part of it. Pushkin also defined the main direction here.

It comes through clearly in Pushkin's dialogue with Shakespeare. Having deeply studied this problem, N.V. Zakharov in his monograph "Shakespeare in the creative evolution of Pushkin" resorted to the term of the middle XIX century Shakespearianism. But today in science the term “Shakespeareanization” is much more often used to denote, it would seem, the same phenomenon. However, the researcher seems to be quite right in his choice of word. Shakespeareization means not only admiration for the genius of the English playwright, but also the gradual expansion of his influence. art system on world culture. This is one of the principles-processes. Principles-processes are categories that convey an idea of ​​the formation, formation, development of the principles of literature, the strengthening of a certain trend. Their names are built on a similar linguistic basis, emphasizing the moment of formation or growth of a certain distinctive quality of a literary text against the background of the literary paradigm (the dominant system of correlations and accents in literary discourses): “psychologization”, “historicization”, “heroization”, “documentation”, etc. e. Shakespeareization was clearly manifested in Western European culture already in XVIII century, primarily in the pre-romantic (and in XIX century - romantic) literature. It was also characteristic of Russian literature, including Pushkin. However, the scale of the affirmation of this principle-process in Russia cannot be compared with the grandiose Shakespeareization of Western culture. Shakespeareization involves the introduction into the universal cultural heritage of images, plots, art forms Shakespearean legacy. Pushkin has it in Boris Godunov, in Angelo, and in numerous reminiscences.

But this is not the main thing that Pushkin took from Shakespeare. He, as it were, rose above the visible details in order to reach the invisible but tangible realm of the “philosophy” of the great English playwright’s work, he moved from the “tactics” to the “strategy” of Shakespeare’s artistic thinking and directed the entire dialogue of Russian literature with Shakespeare in this direction. This is logically defined by the concept of "Shakespeareanism". From this point of view, the work of L. N. Tolstoy, the author of the pogrom article "On Shakespeare", turns out to be one of the highest embodiments of Shakespeareanism, and there is no contradiction here: images, plots, artistic forms of Shakespearean works (the sphere of Shakespeareization) are subjected to Tolstoy criticism, but not the scale of the worldview, not the strategy of Shakespearean artistic thinking (the sphere of Shakespeareanism).

Hundreds of works are devoted to the characterization of Pushkin's literary thesaurus (although such a term, of course, was not used). It is almost impossible to consider this problem in its entirety, and even its most general contours, presented in the recently published experience of a special dictionary edited by the prominent Pushkinist V. D. Rak, required a very solid volume.

We will limit ourselves to a selection of several names of writers, philosophers, speakers, representatives of salon culture - the creators of the word, representatives of European literature and culture of different periods, contemplators and figures, acceptable and not acceptable for Pushkin, writers of different directions, brilliant, major, insignificant, sometimes forgotten with whom he entered into dialogue in the most different forms, which will make it possible to visualize the nature of this dialogue, which gave rise to such a property characteristic of Russian literature as Russian "universality".

From the Middle Ages to the beginning XVIIIcentury

Villon ) Francois (1431 or 1432 - after 1463) - French poet, the largest representative of the Pre-Renaissance, in which talent was combined with a wild lifestyle. In one of Pushkin's first poems, "The Monk" (1813), there is an appeal to I. S. Barkov: Will you help me, Barkov? This is a free translation of Boileau's words about the libertine poet Saint-Aman, a characterization that is hardly too negative in Pushkin, who is close to libertinage.

Margeret (Margeret ) Jacques (Jacob) (1560 - after 1612) - French military man, served in the troops of Henry IV , then in Germany, Poland. In Russia, he was the captain of a German company under Boris Godunov, later transferred to the service of False Dmitry I . In 1606 he returned to France, in 1607 he published the book "The current state of Russian state and the Grand Duchy of Muscovy, with what happened most memorable and tragic from 1590 to September 1606. This book, which provided material for some episodes of "Boris Godunov", was in Pushkin's library, it was also quoted by Karamzin in "History of the Russian State". Margeret is bred as a character in Boris Godunov (it is he who is called the “overseas frog” there). The coarse French expressions put into the mouth of this character by the author aroused objections from the censors.

Molière , present surname Poquelin, Poquelin ) Jean-Baptiste (1622-1673) - the largest French playwright, actor, director. In the comedies The School of Husbands (1661) and The School of Wives (1662), he began to develop the genre of classic high comedy. The comedies "Tartuffe" (1664 - 1669), "Don Giovanni" (1665), "The Misanthrope" (1666), "The Miser" (1668), "The Tradesman in the Nobility" (1670) became the pinnacles of his dramaturgy. Many of the names of the characters created by Moliere have become common nouns (Tartuffe for a hypocrite, Don Juan for a frivolous lover, Harpagon for a miser, Jourdain for a commoner who imagines himself an aristocrat). In the image of Alceste ("The Misanthrope") he anticipated the "natural man" of the enlighteners.

In Russia, Molière was played during his lifetime in the court theater of Alexei Mikhailovich. "The doctor involuntarily" was translated by Princess Sophia, Peter's older sister I . F. G. Volkov and A. P. Sumarokov, who created the first permanent Russian theater, relied on the comedies of Moliere in shaping the tastes of the theatrical public.

Pushkin got acquainted with the work of Molière even before the Lyceum. P. V. Annenkov, referring to the testimony of Pushkin’s sister Olga Sergeevna, wrote: “Sergei Lvovich supported the disposition for reading in children and read selected works with them. They say that he especially masterfully conveyed Moliere, whom he knew almost by heart ... The first attempts at authorship, which generally manifest themselves early in children addicted to reading, were found by Pushkin, of course, in French and responded to the influence of the famous comic writer of France. In Gorodok (1814), Pushkin, listing his favorite writers, calls Molière a "giant". The most significant facts of Pushkin's appeal to the works of Moliere are his work on the "little tragedies" "The Miserly Knight" and "The Stone Guest" (1830). They contain almost direct borrowings of individual phrases, images, scenes. Wed Cleante's remark in Molière's "The Miser": "This is what our fathers bring us to with their accursed avarice" and Albert's phrase in "The Miserly Knight": "This is what the stinginess brings me // of my own father." The large fragment of The Stone Guest, where Don Juan invites the statue of the commander, is very close to the analogous scene in Molière's Don Juan. However, Pushkin's interpretation of Moliere's plots is fundamentally different: comedy turns into tragedy. Later in " Table - Talk ” Pushkin revealed the essence of this confrontation, comparing Shakespeare’s close to him and Moliere’s approaches to depicting a person in literature, which are alien to him: “The faces created by Shakespeare are not, like Molière’s, types of such and such a passion, such and such a vice; but living beings, filled with many passions, many vices; circumstances develop before the viewer their diverse and multifaceted characters. Molière has a miserly miser - and nothing more; in Shakespeare, Shylock is stingy, quick-witted, vengeful, loving, witty. In Molière, the hypocrite drags after the wife of his benefactor, the hypocrite; accepts the estate under preservation, hypocrite; asks for a glass of water, hypocrite. In Shakespeare, the hypocrite pronounces the judgment with conceited severity, but justly; he justifies his cruelty by the thoughtful judgment of a statesman; he seduces innocence with strong, captivating sophisms, an unfunny mixture of piety and red tape."

Rousseau ) Jean Baptiste (1670 or 1671 - 1741) - French poet, a native of the lower classes. In 1712 he was forever expelled from France for slandering his literary competitors. He became famous for his collections of "Odes" and "Psalms", the creation of the cantata genre ("Cantata about Circe", etc.), epigrams. It was Rousseau's epigrams that attracted the most attention of Pushkin, who repeatedly mentioned his name in his works (beginning with the poem "To a Poet Friend", 1814: naked steps into the coffin of Rousseau ... "). Pushkin freely translated one of them, titled "Epigram (imitation of French)" (1814) ("I was so captivated by your wife ..."). In general, for romantic poets, Rousseau became the epitome of epigone classicism.

Age of Enlightenment and Rococo

Locke ) John (1632–1704) - English philosopher. In "an experiment on the human mind" (1690), he argued that experience is the basis of all human knowledge. Locke developed the theory of natural law and the social contract, having a huge impact on the socio-political thought of the Enlightenment. Pushkin in drafts VII The head of "Eugene Onegin" names Locke in a number of enlighteners and ancient writers, whose works Onegin read, judging by the books Tatyana found in his house.

Hume ) David (1711-1776) - an English philosopher who formulated the basic principles of agnosticism in his Treatise on Human Nature (1748), denied the objective nature of causality. Hume is mentioned in the drafts of "Eugene Onegin" in the list of authors read by Onegin (probably his "History of England from the Conquest of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688").

Saint-Pierre ) Charles Irene Castel, Abbé de (1658–1743) - French thinker, member of the French Academy (expelled for disrespectful review of Louis XIV ), author of The Project for Eternal Peace (1713), briefly retold and commented on by J.-J. Rousseau (1760). Pushkin became acquainted with the "Project" (in the presentation of Rousseau) during the period of southern exile and led discussions on the issue of eternal peace in Orlov's house in Chisinau, the nature of which is evidenced by Pushkin's note " Il est impossi ble…” (XII , 189–190, arb. name "On Eternal Peace", 1821).

Grecourt (Grecourt ) Jean Baptiste Joseph Vilard de (1683-1743) - French poet, abbot, representative of free-thinking poetry in the spirit of rococo, replete with frivolities and light in style. For the poem "Filotanus" (1720) he was condemned by the church and deprived of the right to preach. Grecourt's poems were published only posthumously (1747). Pushkin was introduced to Grecourt's poetry early on. In Gorodok (1815), he noted: “Brought up by Cupid, // Vergier, Guys with Grecourt // took refuge in a corner. // (More than once they go out // And take away sleep from the eyes // under the winter evening" ( I, 98).

Gresse (Gresset ) Jean Baptiste Louis (Greset, 1709-1777) - French poet, member of the French Academy (1748). Representative of "light poetry" in the spirit of Rococo. The author of poetic short stories ridiculing the monks. For the short story "Ver-Ver" (1734) about the merry adventures of a parrot raised in a convent, he was expelled from the Jesuit order. Pushkin called Gresse "a charming singer" ( I , 154), repeatedly mentioned and quoted his works - "Ver-Ver"; the poetic message "The Abode" (1735); comedy "The Evil Man" (1747) - "a comedy that I considered untranslatable" ( XIII, 41).

Crebillon Sr. Crebillon ) Prosper Joliot (1674–1762) - French playwright, father of Crebillon Jr., member of the French Academy (1731). His tragedies, in which the sublime gives way to the terrible, anticipating the transition from classicism to pre-romanticism (Atreus and Fiesta, 1707; Radamist and Zenobia, 1711), were staged in St. Petersburg during Pushkin's lifetime. It is believed that in Pushkin's letters to Katenin (1822) and Kuchelbecker (1825) there are ironic allusions to the finale of the tragedy Atreus and Fiesta.

Crebillon Jr. Crebillon ) Claude-Prosper Joliot de (1707–1777) - French novelist, who wrote works in which, in the spirit of rococo, the decline in the morals of the aristocracy is depicted (“Delusions of the Heart and Mind”, 1736; “Sofa”, 1742; etc.). Mentioned by Pushkin (as "Cribillon", VIII, 150, 743).

Buffler Rouvrel ( Boufflers - Rouvrel ) Marie-Charlotte, Countess de (d. 1787) - court lady of the court of the Polish king Stanislav in Luneville, one of the brightest representatives of the Rococo salon style, shining with wit, adhering to Epicurean views and not too strict morality. Pushkin mentions it in the article “On the preface of Mr. Lemonte to the translation of the fables of I. A. Krylov” (1825), speaking of the French classicists: “What brought a cold gloss of politeness and wit to all the works of the 18th century? Society M - es du Deffand, Boufflers, d'Espinay , very nice and educated women. But Milton and Dante did not write for favorable smile the fair sex».

Voltaire ) (real name Marie Francois Arouet - Arouet ) (1694–1778) - French writer and philosopher, one of the leaders of the Enlightenment. Starting with lyrics of light, epicurean content, he became famous as a poet (the epic poem "Henriade", finished in 1728; the heroic-comic poem "The Virgin of Orleans", 1735), a playwright (he wrote 54 dramatic works, including the tragedy "Oedipus", 1718 ; "Brutus", 1730), prose writer (philosophical stories "Candide, or Optimism", 1759; "Innocent", 1767), author of philosophical, historical, journalistic works that made him the master of the thoughts of several generations of Europeans. Collected works of Voltaire, published in 1784-1789, took 70 volumes.

Pushkin fell in love with the works of Voltaire as a child, before entering the Lyceum, which he later recalled in verse ( III , 472). The study of passages from Voltaire was part of the lyceum program in French rhetoric. Voltaire is Pushkin's first poetic mentor. The appeal to the “Ferney old man” opens Pushkin’s earliest (unfinished) poem “The Monk” (1813): “Voltaire! The Sultan of the French Parnassus...// But just give me your golden lyre,// With it I will be known to the whole world.” The same motives are heard in the unfinished poem "Bova" (1814). In Voltaire's descriptions, Pushkin obviously relies on the popular XVIII century, the poetic genre “portrait of Voltaire” (a later such example is in the message “To the nobleman”, where Voltaire is depicted as “a gray-haired cynic, / / ​​Minds and fashion leader, crafty and bold”). Initially, Voltaire for Pushkin was first of all a “singer of love”, the author of The Virgin of Orleans, which the young poet imitates. In the poem "Town" (1815) and the poetic passage "Dream" (1816) there is a mention of "Candida". In "Gorodok" Voltaire is characterized in contrast: "... The Ferney evil screamer, / The first poet in poets, / You are here, gray-haired rascal!" During his Lyceum years, Pushkin translated three of Voltaire's poems, including the well-known stanzas "To Madame du Chatelet." In Ruslan and Lyudmila, Gavriliad and other works of the early 1820s, one can clearly feel the influence of the Voltaireian style, energetic, intellectually saturated, based on the game of the mind, combining irony and very conditional exoticism. Pushkin sees himself as a successor to the traditions of Voltaire. The same is true of his contemporaries. In 1818, Katenin for the first time calls Pushkin " le jeune Monsieur Arouet "("Young Mr. Arouet", i.e. Voltaire), then such a comparison becomes common (for example, in M.F. Orlov, P.L. Yakovlev, V.I. Tumansky, N.M. Yazykov).

In later years, the situation changes somewhat. Pushkin leaves most of the mentions of Voltaire only in drafts or letters. So, they disappear from "Eugene Onegin". Attempts to translate The Virgin of Orleans and What Ladies Like are abandoned. Pushkin distances himself from his idol of youth, notes his delusions regarding the enlightenment of Catherine's reign II : "It was forgivable for the Ferney philosopher to extol the virtues of Tartuffe in a skirt and in a crown, he did not know, he could not know the truth" ( XI , 17). Interest in the brilliant style of Voltaire is increasingly replaced by interest in his historical and philosophical works. So, while working on "Poltava" (1828), Pushkin widely uses materials from "The History of Karl XII ” and “History of the Russian Empire under Peter the Great” by Voltaire. The researchers noted that the very way of covering historical events by comparing the leaders - Peter as a creator and Charles as a destroyer - was formed under the influence of Voltaire.

Working on an essay on french revolution(1831), Pushkin, in order to outline the distant prehistory of the revolutionary events, carefully studied 16 of the 138 chapters of Voltaire's major work, An Essay on Morals. A number of historical works of Voltaire Pushkin used in his work on the "History of Pugachev" and the unfinished "History of Peter". With the personal permission of Emperor Nicholas I , Pushkin was the first figure in Russian culture to have access to the Voltaire library bought by Catherine II and located in the Hermitage. Here he found a lot of unpublished materials about the era of Peter.

In an unfinished article of 1834, “On the Insignificance of Russian Literature,” Pushkin praises Voltaire as a philosopher and at the same time sharply criticizes his dramaturgy and poetry: “For 60 years he filled the theater with tragedies , he forced his faces to appropriately and inopportunely express the rules of his philosophy. He flooded Paris with charming trinkets, in which philosophy spoke in a generally understandable and playful language, one rhyme and meter different from prose, and this lightness seemed the height of poetry ”( XI , 271). VG Belinsky, analyzing Pushkin's poetry, revealed the unity of her mood, which he defined as light sadness. This conclusion sheds light on Pushkin's cooling off towards Voltaire the poet: as soon as Pushkin overcame the influence of Voltaire's poetic style and found his own, different intonation, he began to look skeptically at poetic legacy Voltaire, even to his beloved "Virgin of Orleans", whom he now condemned for "cynicism".

It is significant that one of recent speeches Pushkin in the press was the publication of his article "Voltaire" (j-l "Sovremennik", vol. 3, 1836), written in connection with the publication of Voltaire's correspondence with President de Brosse. Having wonderfully outlined the content and characterized the style of correspondence, Pushkin, after quoting a short poem by Voltaire, which appeared in published papers, notes: “We confess to rococo our belated taste: in these seven verses we find more syllable, more life, more thought, than in a dozen long French poems written in the current taste, where the thought is replaced by a distorted expression, the clear language of Voltaire - by the pompous language of Ronsard, his liveliness - intolerable monotony, and his wit - areal cynicism or languid melancholy. Concerning Voltaire's life hardships, Pushkin expresses, perhaps, the most serious reproach to the philosopher: "Voltaire, throughout his long life, never knew how to preserve his own dignity." And it is this example that allows him to come to the final conclusion of the article, which contains a remarkably deep generalization: “What can be concluded from this? That genius has its weaknesses, which console mediocrity, but sadden noble hearts, reminding them of the imperfection of mankind; that the real place of a writer is his study and that, finally, independence and self-respect alone can elevate us above the trifles of life and above the storms of fate.

D'Alembert (D 'Alembert ) Jean Le Ron (1717–1783) - French philosopher, writer and mathematician, one of the editors of the Encyclopedia (together with Diderot, since 1751), which united the forces of the Enlightenment. Member of the French Academy (1754, since 1772 - its indispensable secretary). Pushkin repeatedly mentions d'Alembert, quotes, somewhat changing, his aphorism: "Inspiration is needed in poetry, as in geometry" ( xi, 41).

Rousseau ) Jean-Jacques (1712–1778) - French writer and philosopher who had a huge impact on European and Russian culture. Born in Geneva, in the family of a watchmaker, he experienced all the hardships of the fate of a commoner trying to realize his talent in a feudal society. Rousseau finds support for his ideas in Paris, among the enlighteners. By order of Diderot, he writes articles for the musical section of the Encyclopedia. In the treatise "Discourse on the Sciences and Arts" (1750), Rousseau first outlined the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe dangers of civilization for moral life humanity. He prefers the natural state of savages, merged with nature, to the position of civilized peoples, who, thanks to the sciences and arts, become only "happy slaves." Rousseau's treatises Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality between People (1754) and On the Social Contract (1762) are devoted to upholding a just social order and developing the idea of ​​the "natural man", in which the set of ideas of Rousseauism is finalized. Rousseau - the largest representative of French sentimentalism, the author of the novel "Julia, or New Eloise" (1761) - himself popular work in France XVIII century. innovative pedagogical ideas Rousseau, who constituted a whole stage in world pedagogy, is set forth by him in the treatise novel Emil, or On Education (1762). Rousseau stands at the origins of one of the most influential branches of European pre-romanticism. With his monodrama Pygmalion (1762, 1770), he laid the foundations for the genre of melodrama. Persecuted by the authorities, condemned by the church, Rousseau embodied the story of his life in "Confessions" (1765-1770, published posthumously, 1782, 1789). The leaders of the French Revolution considered Rousseau to be their herald. Romantics created a real cult of Rousseau. In Russia, Rousseau was quite famous back in XVIII century, his works influenced Radishchev, Karamzin, Chaadaev and other figures of Russian culture abroad XVIII - XIX centuries.

For Pushkin, Rousseau is "the apostle of our rights." He shared the Rousseau idea of ​​a happy life in the bosom of nature, far from civilization, the idea of ​​the deep feelings of the common man, the cult of friendship, the passionate defense of freedom and equality.

Pushkin got acquainted early with the work of Rousseau. Already in the poem “To my sister” (1814), he asks the addressee: “What do you do with your heart // Sometimes in the evening? // Do you read Jean Jacques…”, which, by the way, emphasizes the fact that Rousseau’s works were included in the reading circle of the youth of those years. Obviously, already at the Lyceum, Pushkin got acquainted with the novel "Julia, or New Eloise" and, perhaps, with some other works, so far superficially. In the early 1820s, he again turned to Rousseau (“Discourse on the Sciences and Arts”, “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality”, “Emil, or On Education”, “Confession”), in particular, reread the project in his presentation the eternal peace of Abbé Saint-Pierre (1821) and began working on a manuscript on the idea of ​​eternal peace. Citing Rousseau's words that the way to this world would be opened by "cruel and terrible means for mankind," Pushkin noted: "Obviously, these terrible means that he spoke of are revolutions. Here they come" XII , 189, 480). Pushkin rereads Rousseau at the end of his southern exile, working on the poem "Gypsies" and the first chapter of "Eugene Onegin".

By 1823, a critical attitude to a number of provisions of Rousseauism matured in Pushkin, which was reflected in the poem "Gypsies", which expressed disappointment in the Rousseauist thought of happiness in the bosom of nature, far from civilization. Differences with the philosopher in matters of education are very noticeable. If Rousseau idealizes this process, then Pushkin is interested in its real side, primarily in relation to the peculiarities of education in the conditions of Russian reality. In the article “On Public Education” (1826), Pushkin does not name Rousseau, but opposes the Rousseauist idea of ​​home education: “There is nothing to hesitate: at all costs private education must be suppressed” ( XI , 44), for: “In Russia, home education is the most insufficient, the most immoral…” ( XI , 44). These statements shed light on the ironic coverage of education according to Rousseau in "Eugene Onegin": " Monsieur l'Abbe , a miserable Frenchman, / So that the child would not be exhausted, / He taught him everything jokingly, / He did not bother with strict morality, / Slightly scolded for pranks / And took him for a walk in the Summer Garden. Revealing the irony over Rousseau upbringing explains here such details as the nationality of the educator (in the draft version - even more clearly: "Monsieur the Swiss is very smart" - VI , 215), his name (cf. Abbé Saint-Pierre), method of teaching, forms of punishment (cf. Rousseau's "method of natural consequences"), walks in the Summer Garden (education in the bosom of nature according to Rousseau). Irony, although not evil, is also present in the presentation of an episode from Rousseau's Confession (Pushkin quoted this passage in French in his notes to the novel): clean your nails in front of him, // An eloquent madcap. // Defender of liberty and rights // In this case, he is completely wrong. "An eloquent madcap" is an expression that belongs not to Pushkin, but to Voltaire (in the epilogue of the "Civil War in Geneva"). Rousseau's struggle with fashion stemmed from his idea of ​​the original goodness of man, which is destroyed by the achievements of civilization. Pushkin, acting as a defender of fashion, thereby objects both to the Rousseauist interpretation of civilization, and, to an even greater extent, to the Rousseauist view of man. Stanza XLVI The first chapter of the novel (“Whoever lived and thought cannot // In his soul not despise people ...”) is devoted to the criticism of Rousseau's idealism in understanding the essence of man.

The dispute with Rousseau is also present in Pushkin's interpretation of the plot about Cleopatra, to which he first addressed in 1824. As Yu.M. Aurelius Victor.

However, in "Eugene Onegin" it is shown what an important role the ideas and images of Rousseau played in the minds of the Russian people of the beginning. XIX century. Onegin and Lensky argue and reflect on the subjects to which Rousseau dedicated his treatises (“Tribes of bygone treaties, // Fruits of the sciences, good and evil ...”). Tatyana, living by reading novels, in love “with deceptions and Richardson and Russo”, imagines herself Julia, and among the heroes with whom she associates Onegin is "Julia Volmar's lover." Separate expressions of Tatyana and Onegin's letters directly go back to "Julia, or New Eloise" (by the way, in Pushkin's story "The Snowstorm" there is a direct indication that the characters quite consciously use the letters of this novel as an example of a declaration of love). The plot of "Eugene Onegin" - the final explanation of the characters ("But I am given to another; // I will be faithful to him for a century") - also goes back to the turning point of Rousseau's novel. Pushkin, arguing with the ideas of Rousseau, does not lose touch with the images he created.

Helvetius (Helvetius ) Jean-Claude-Adrian (1715–1772) - French philosopher and enlightener, one of Diderot's associates in the publication of the Encyclopedia, author of the treatises On Mind (1758), On Man (1773), which were popular in Russia . In the drafts of Eugene Onegin, Helvetius is named among the philosophers read by Onegin. In the article “Alexander Radishchev” (1836), Pushkin calls the philosophy of Helvetius “vulgar and fruitless” and explains: “Now it would be incomprehensible to us how cold and dry Helvetius could become the favorite of young people, ardent and sensitive, if we, according to Unfortunately, they did not know how tempting for developing minds are new thoughts and rules, rejected by law and legends.

Grimm ) Friedrich Melchior, baron (1723-1807) - German publicist, diplomat. Having settled in Paris in 1748, he became close to the enlighteners and other famous people. In 1753–1792 published in 15–16 copies a handwritten newspaper Literary, Philosophical and Critical Correspondence about the news of the cultural life of France (some issues were written by Diderot), whose subscribers were the crowned persons of Poland, Sweden, Russia. Was twice in St. Petersburg, corresponded with Catherine II , carried out her diplomatic missions (and then Paul I ). Sainte-Beuve emphasized the value of this edition as a historical source and noted the subtle, penetrating mind of its author. On the contrary, the educators said almost nothing about him, with the exception of Rousseau, who in his Confession wrote with contempt that he "caught him cleaning his nails with a special brush." It was in this connection that Pushkin's ironic lines appeared in "Eugene Onegin": "Rousseau (I will note in passing) // I could not understand how important Grim // I dared to clean my nails in front of him (...) You can be a practical person // And think about the beauty of nails ... "

Beaumarchais (Beaumarchais) listen)) Pierre-Augustin Caron de (1732–1799) - French writer. He became famous as the creator of the comedies The Barber of Seville (1775) and The Marriage of Figaro (1784), which asserted the dignity common man. Pushkin in the poems "To Natalia" (1813) and "The Page or the Fifteenth Year" (1830) mentions the heroes of the first of them - Rosina, her guardian and young Cherubino. Beaumarchais is the author of the comedy-ballet in the oriental style "Tarar" (1787), on the text of which Salieri wrote the opera of the same name. In Pushkin's little tragedy Mozart and Salieri (1830), Mozart speaks of her: “Yes, Beaumarchais was your friend. // You composed "Tarara" for him, // A glorious thing. There is one motive, / I keep repeating it when I am happy. Beaumarchais lived a stormy life, having been a watchmaker, a prisoner of the Bastille, a teacher of the daughters of Louis XV without losing the presence of mind in the most difficult situations. Salieri in "Mozart and Salieri" says about this: "Beaumarchais // He told me: listen, brother Salieri, // How black thoughts come to you, // Uncork a bottle of champagne // Or re-read The Marriage of Figaro." Beaumarchais's assessment is given by Pushkin in the poem "To the Grandee" (1830), where the "caustic Beaumarchais" is named on a par with encyclopedists and other celebrities. XVIII century: “Their opinions, rumors, passions // Forgotten for others. Look: all around you / Everything new is boiling, the former is destroying.

Chamfort (Chamfort ) Nicolas Sebastien Roque (1741–1794) - French writer, member of the French Academy (1781). The notes and aphorisms collected after his death were included in the 4th volume of his works (1795) under the title Maxims and Thoughts. Characters and anecdotes. Pushkin knew this book well. In "Eugene Onegin" Chamfort is named among the writers read by Onegin (ch. VIII, stanza XXXV ). Probably, the line “But the days of the past are jokes ...” is connected with Chamfort's aphorism: “Only free peoples have a history worthy of attention. The history of peoples enslaved by despotism is only a collection of anecdotes. Pushkin attributed the "hard Chamfort" to the "democratic writers" who prepared the French revolution.

Orators and writers of the era of the French Revolution

Lebrun ) Pons Denis Ekushar, nicknamed Lebrun-Pindar (1729–1807) - French classicist poet, follower of Malherbe and J.-B. Rousseau, author of odes (“Ode to Buffon”, “Ode to Voltaire”, “Republican odes to the French people”, “National ode”, etc.), elegies, epigrams. Supporter of the French Revolution. He was well known in Russia (beginning with Radishchev), translated (Batyushkov, Vyazemsky, and others). Pushkin highly valued Lebrun - "exalted Gaul" ( II , 45), quoted his poems ( XII, 279; XIV, 147).

Marat ) Jean Paul (1743-1793) - French revolutionary, one of the leaders of the Jacobins, an outstanding orator. From 1789 he published the newspaper "Friend of the People". Was killed by Charlotte Corday. His brother de Boudry was one of Pushkin's teachers at the Lyceum. Pushkin, like the Decembrists, had a negative attitude towards Marat, seeing in him the embodiment of the element of revolutionary terror. In the poem “The Dagger” (1821), he calls him “the offspring of rebellions”, “the executioner”: “The apostle of death, to the weary Hades // With his finger he appointed victims, // But the supreme court sent him // You and the virgin Eumenides.” The same - in the elegy "Andrei Chenier" (1825): "You sang to the Marat priests // Dagger and the eumenis maiden!"

Mirabeau ) Honoré-Gabriel-Victor Riqueti, Count (1749-1791) - figure of the Great French Revolution. In 1789 he was elected a deputy from the third estate to the General States, became the de facto leader of the revolutionaries. He became famous as an orator who denounced absolutism. Expressing the interests of the big bourgeoisie, he occupied more and more conservative positions, from 1790 he was a secret agent of the royal court. Pushkin considered Mirabeau as the leader of the first stage of the revolution (there is his drawing depicting Mirabeau, alongside Robespierre and Napoleon). In his mind, Mirabeau is a "fiery tribune", his name and works (in particular, memoirs) are mentioned in poetry, prose, and Pushkin's correspondence. In the article “On the insignificance of Russian literature” (1834), Pushkin noted: “The old society is ripe for great destruction. Still calm, but already the voice of the young Mirabeau, like a distant storm, muffledly rumbles from the depths of the dungeons through which he wanders ... ”But since Mirabeau was also a symbol of secret treason for Pushkin’s entourage, Pushkin’s enthusiastic tone applies only to the young Mirabeau.

Rivarol (Rivarol) Antoine (1753-1801) - French writer and publicist. From a monarchical position, he opposed the French Revolution and emigrated. He became famous for his aphorisms, which were appreciated by Pushkin and Vyazemsky. So, in terms of “Scenes from Knightly Times”, Faust is displayed as the inventor of typography, and Pushkin notes in brackets: “Découvert de l "imprimerie, autre artillerie" (“The invention of typography is a kind of artillery”, and this is Rivarol's modified aphorism about ideological reasons French Revolution: "L "imprimerie est artillerie de la pensée" ("Printing is the artillery of thought").

Robespierre listen)) Maximilien (1758–1794) - French political figure, orator, leader of the Jacobins during the Great French Revolution. Becoming in 1793 the de facto head of the revolutionary government, he fought against the counter-revolution and opposition revolutionary forces with terror methods. He was guillotined by the Thermidorians. If Pushkin had an unambiguously negative attitude towards Marat, who embodied “rebellion” for him, then the attitude towards the “incorruptible” Robespierre is different. It is no coincidence that Pushkin wrote: “Peter I Robespierre and Napoleon at the same time. (Revolution incarnate)." There is an assumption (though disputed by B.V. Tomashevsky) that Pushkin gave Robespierre, drawn by him on the back of a sheet with III and IV stanzas of the fifth chapter of "Eugene Onegin", their own features.

Chenier listen)) André Marie (1762–1794) - French poet and essayist. He welcomed the Great French Revolution (ode "The Oath in the Hall for the ball game"), but condemned terror, entered the liberal-monarchist Feuillants Club, in 1791-1792. published anti-Jacobin articles, in 1793 he was imprisoned in Saint-Lazare prison and executed two days before the collapse of the Jacobin dictatorship. His poetry, close to pre-romanticism in general tendencies, combines the classical harmony of form with the romantic spirit of individual freedom. Chenier's "Works" published only in 1819, which included odes, iambs, idylls, elegies, brought the poet pan-European fame. Chenier took a special place in Russian literature: more than 70 poets turned to his work, including Lermontov, Fet, Bryusov, Tsvetaeva, Mandelstam. Pushkin played a decisive role in the development of Chenier in Russia. His brother L. S. Pushkin noted: “Andre Chenier, a Frenchman by name, and, of course, not by the direction of his talent, became his poetic idol. He is the first in Russia and, it seems, even in Europe he was worthily appreciated. Pushkin made 5 translations from Chenier (“Listen, O Helios, ringing with a silver bow”, 1823; “You wither and are silent; sadness consumes you ...”, 1824; “Oh peaceful gods of fields, oak forests and mountains ...”, 1824; “Near places where golden Venice reigns…”, 1827; “From A. Chenier (“Veil, nourished with caustic blood”)”, 1825, final edition 1835). Pushkin wrote several imitations of Chenier: “Nereid” (1820, imitation of the 6th fragment of idylls), “Muse” (1821, imitation of the 3rd fragment of idylls), “What I used to be, so am I now ...” (final edition - 1828, independent poem based on 1 fragment of elegies, elegy XL ), “Let's go, I'm ready; wherever you are, friends ... ”(1829, based on the 5th fragment of elegies). The most striking image of Chenier himself appears in Pushkin's poem "Andrei Chenier" (1825). Contrasted with another idol of Pushkin - Byron with his fame (“Meanwhile, how the astonished world // looks at Byron’s urn ...”), Chenier appears as an unknown genius (“To the singer of love, oak forests and peace // I carry funeral flowers. // The unknown sounds lira"). Pushkin associates himself with Chenier (as in the letters of these years), 44 lines of the poem are prohibited by censorship, which sees in them allusions to Russian reality, Pushkin is forced to explain about the illegal lists of these lines that have spread, the case ends with the establishment of secret supervision over the poet in 1828 . Chenier is one of the sources of the image of the "mysterious singer" ("The Conversation of a Bookseller with a Poet", 1824; "Poet", 1827; "Arion", 1827). Chenier's lyrics largely determined the prominent place of the elegy genre in Russian romantic poetry. However, Pushkin emphasized: “No one respects me more, loves this poet, but he is a true Greek, one of the classics of the classics. (...) ... there is not a drop of romanticism in it yet ”( XIII , 380 - 381), “French critics have their own concept of romanticism. (...) ... Andrey Chenier, a poet imbued with antiquity, whose even shortcomings stem from the desire to give forms of Greek versification in French, fell into their romantic poets ”( XII , 179). The greatest influence of Chenier is noted in the anthological lyrics of Pushkin (noted by I. S. Turgenev). Poets are also brought together by similar spiritual evolution in a number of moments.

EndXVIIIcentury andXIXcentury

La Harpe ) Jean Francois de (1739-1803) - French literary theorist and playwright, member of the French Academy (1776). As a playwright, he was a follower of Voltaire (the tragedy The Earl of Warwick, 1763; Timoleon, 1764; Coriolanus, 1784; Philocletus, 1781; and others). He spoke out against the revolution and condemned the enlightenment theories that prepared it. The most famous work thoroughly studied by Pushkin is The Lyceum, or the Course of Ancient and Modern Literature (16 volumes, 1799–1805), which is based on the lectures given by La Harpe at Saint-Honor (1768-1798). In the Lyceum, La Harpe defended the dogmatically understood rules of classicism. Pushkin in his youth considered La Harpe to be an indisputable authority (cf. in Gorodok, 1815: “... the formidable Aristarchus // Appears bravely // In sixteen volumes. // Even though I’m scared to verse // La Harpe to see the taste, // But often, I confess, / / I'm wasting my time on it.") However, later Pushkin mentioned him as an example of a dogmatist in literature. In a letter to N. N. Raevsky-son (second half of July 1825), criticizing the principle of likelihood, he noted: “For example, in La Harpe, Philocletus, after listening to Pyrrhus’s tirade, says in the purest French: “Alas! I hear the sweet sounds of Hellenic speech," etc. (the same - in the outline of the preface to Boris Godunov, 1829; this line from Philocletus became - with slight changes - the first line of the epigram for Gnedich's translation of Homer's Iliad: "I hear the silent sound of the divine Hellenic speech" - III , 256). Pushkin also mentions La Harpe as proof of the unpoeticism of the French: “Everyone knows that the French are the most anti-poetic people. Top Writers them, the most glorious representatives of this witty and positive people, Montaigne, Voltaire, Mon tesquieu , Laharpe and Rousseau himself, proved how a sense of elegance was alien and incomprehensible to them ”(“ Beginning of an article about V. Hugo ”, 1832). But Pushkin pays tribute to La Harpe as one of the founders of literary criticism, which has not received due development in Russia: “If the public can be content with what we call criticism, then this only proves that we still do not need either Schlegels or even Laharpakh" ("Works and translations in verse by Pavel Katenin", 1833).

Genlis (Genlis ) Stephanie Felicite du Cre de Saint-Aubin, Countess (1746–1830) - French writer, author of books for children written for the children of the Duke of Orleans (she was a teacher, including the future King Louis Philippe) and pedagogical essays in which developed the ideas of Rousseau ("Educational Theatre", 1780; "Adele and Theodore", 1782; etc.). She taught Napoleon “good manners”, during the years of the Restoration she wrote sentimental novels (“The Duchess de La Vallière”, 1804; “Madame de Maintenon”, 1806; etc.), which were immediately translated in Russia, where the work of Genlis was very popular. No less famous in Pushkin's time were her Critical and Systematic Dictionary of Court Etiquette (1818) and Unpublished Memoirs on XVIII century and the French Revolution from 1756 to the present day” (1825). In Pushkin, for the first time, her name is found in the poem “To my sister” (1814): “Do you read Jean-Jacques, // Is Janlis in front of you?” In the future, Pushkin repeatedly mentions Janlis ( I, 343; II, 193; VIII, 565; and etc.).

Arnault ) Antoine Vincent (1766 - 1834) - French playwright, poet and fabulist, member of the French Academy (1829, since 1833 permanent secretary). In 1816, for his adherence to the revolution and Napoleon, he was expelled from France, returned to his homeland in 1819. Author of tragedies (“Mary in Mintourne”, 1791; “Lucretia”, 1792; “Blanche and Moncassin, or the Venetians”, 1798; and others), who developed the ideas of the French Revolution and Napoleonism. He became famous for the elegy "Leaf" (1815), translated into all European languages ​​(in Russia - translations by V. A. Zhukovsky, V. L. Pushkin, D. V. Davydov, etc.). Pushkin wrote in the article “French Academy”: “The fate of this little poem is wonderful. Kosciuszko repeated it before his death on the shores of Lake Geneva; Alexander Ispilanti translated it into Greek…” Arno, having learned about the translation of “Leaflet” made by D. V. Davydov, wrote a quatrain, the beginning of which Pushkin used in a message to Davydov (“To you, singer, you, hero!”, 1836). Pushkin translated Arno's poem "Solitude" (1819). In this article, dedicated to Scribe's replacement of the academic chair after Arno's death, Pushkin sums up his attitude towards the poet: “Arno composed several tragedies that were a great success in their time, but are now completely forgotten. (...) Two or three fables, witty and graceful, give the deceased more right to the poet's title than all his dramatic creations.

Beranger ) Pierre Jean (1780-1857) - French poet, an outstanding representative of the song and poetry genre, which he equated with the "high" genres of poetry. Pushkin (as opposed to Vyazemsky, Batyushkov, Belinsky) had a low regard for Beranger. In 1818, Vyazemsky asked Pushkin to translate two of Beranger's songs, but he did not respond to this request. He undoubtedly knew the freedom-loving, satirical poems of Beranger, in particular, the song "Good God" (he mentions in a letter to Vyazemsky in July 1825). Giving an ironic portrait of Count Nulin, Pushkin laughs at secular people who come to Russia from abroad “With a supply of tailcoats and vests, // S bons-mots French court, // With the last song of Beranger. Pushkin's poem "My Genealogy" (1830) was inspired not only by Byron, but also by Beranger's song "The Commoner", from where Pushkin took the epigraph to the poem. Pushkin also has sharply negative reviews of Beranger. In the article about Hugo (1832) begun by Pushkin, it is said about the French: “The unbearable Beranger is now revered as their first lyric poet, the composer of strained and mannered songs that have nothing passionate, inspired, but in gaiety and wit far behind the charming pranks of Cole” ( VII , 264). At the end of his life, Pushkin appreciated the song "King Yveto" more than other works by Beranger, but not for freedom-loving motives. In the article “French Academy” (1836) it is noted: “... I confess, it would hardly have occurred to anyone that this song was a satire on Napoleon. She is very sweet (and almost the best of all the songs of the vaunted Beranger ), but, of course, there is not even a shadow of opposition in it. Nevertheless, Pushkin encouraged the young D. Lensky to continue translating Beranger, which indicates the ambiguity of his assessment French poet-songwriter.

Fourier ) François Marie Charles (1772–1837) - French utopian socialist, in his Treatise on the Housekeeping and Agricultural Association (vols. 1–2, 1822, posthumously titled The Theory of World Unity) outlined a detailed plan for organizing the society of the future. Pushkin was familiar with Fourier's ideas.

Vidocq ) Francois Eugene (1775–1857) - French adventurer, first a criminal, then (since 1809) a policeman who rose to the post of chief of the secret Parisian police. In 1828 Vidocq's Memoirs were published (obviously a hoax). Pushkin published a review of them full of sarcasm (“Vidok is ambitious! He becomes furious when reading an unfavorable review of journalists about his style (...), accuses them of immorality and freethinking ...” - XI , 129). Pushkinists rightly believe that this is a portrait of Bulgarin, whom Pushkin called “Vidok-Figlyarin” shortly before in an epigram.

Lamenne (Lamennais ) Felicite Robert de (1782-1854) - French writer and philosopher, abbot, one of the founders of Christian socialism. Starting with a critique of the French Revolution and materialism XVIII century, the approval of the idea of ​​a Christian monarchy, in the late 1820s, he switched to the position of liberalism. In The Words of a Believer (1834) he announced a break with the established church. Pushkin repeatedly mentions Lamenne, including in connection with Chaadaev (“Chedaev and the brethren” - XIV, 205).

Scribe ) Augustin-Eugène (1791–1861) - French playwright, member of the French Academy (1834), became famous as a master of a "well-made play", wrote over 350 plays (vaudeville, melodrama, historical plays, opera librettos), among them "Charlatancy" (1825), "Reasonable marriage" (1826), "Lisbon lute" (1831), "Fellowship, or Ladder of glory" (1837), "Glass of water, or Cause and effect" (1840), "Adrienne Lecouvreur" (1849 ), the libretto of Meyerbeer's operas "Robert the Devil" (1831), "The Huguenots" (1836), etc. Pushkin in a letter to M.P. , from which his not very flattering assessment of Scribe's dramaturgy follows. The censorship of the performance in St. Petersburg of Scribe's historical comedy "Bertrand and Raton" was noted by Pushkin in his diary (entry in February 1835). In the article "The French Academy" (1836), Pushkin gives almost completely (with the exception of the finale given by him in the retelling) Scribe's speech upon entering the Academy on January 28, 1836, and Wilmain's response speech with a detailed description of Scribe's contribution to French culture. Pushkin calls the speech "brilliant", Scribe - "that Janin in a feuilleton ridiculed both Scribe and Villemin:" In this witty orator, "but slyly mentions that all three representatives of French wit were on stage."

Mérimé P rosper (1803–1870) - French writer, entered literature as a representative of the romantic movement ("Clara Gasoul Theatre", 1825; "Gyuzla", 1827; drama "Jacquerie", 1828, novel "Chronicle of the reign of Charles IX", 1829 ), became famous as a writer-psychologist, one of the creators of a realistic short story (the collection Mosaic, 1833; the short stories Double Error, 1833; Colombes, 1840; Arsene Guillot, 1844; Carmen, 1845; etc. .). Member of the French Academy (1844). Pushkin told his friends: “I would like to talk with Merimee” (according to A. O. Smirnova, possibly unreliable). Through S. AND. Sobolevsky, a friend of Merimee, Pushkin got acquainted with the Gyuzla collection. In "Songs of the Western Slavs" Pushkin included 11 translations from "Gyuzla", including the poem "Horse" - the most famous of them. These are rather loose translations. ATpreface to the publication of the cycle (1835) Pushkin mentionshoaxes of Merimee, who appeared in Gyuzla as an unknown collector and publisher of South Slavic folklore: “This unknown collector was none other than Merimee, a sharp and original writer, author of the Klara Gazul Theater, Chronicles of the Times of Karl IX , Double Error and other works extremely remarkable in the deep and miserable decline of the present French literature. Mérimée introduced French readers to Pushkin's work, they translated " Queen of Spades”, “Shot”, “Gypsies”, “Hussar”, “Budrys and his sons”, “Anchar”, “Prophet”, “Oprichnik”, fragments from “Eugene Onegin” and “Boris Godunov”. In the article “Literature and slavery in Russia. Notes of the Russian hunter Iv. Turgenev” (1854) Mérimée wrote: “Only in Pushkin do I find this true breadth and simplicity, an amazing accuracy of taste, which makes it possible to find exactly the one that can amaze the reader among thousands of details. At the beginning of the poem "Gypsies" five or six lines are enough for him to show us a gypsy camp and a group lit by a fire with a tamed bear. Every word of this brief description highlights the thought and leaves a lasting impression. Mérimée devoted a long article to the poet, "Alexander Pushkin" (1868), in which he puts Pushkin above all European writers.

Carr (Karr ) Alphonse Jean (1808-1890) - French writer, publicist, published in 1839-1849. magazine "Osy" (" Les Guê pes ”), which was very popular in Russia. In 1832 he published the novel "Under the Lindens" (" Sous les tilleurs "). In the same year, Pushkin, in a letter to E. M. Khitrovo, exclaimed (letter in French): “How can you not be ashamed to speak so dismissively about carré. Talent is felt in his novel ( son roman a du gé nie ), and it's worth the pretentiousness ( marivaudage ) of your Balzac."

It is quite obvious that the Russian "universality", so noticeable already in Pushkin (where we demonstrated it with just a few examples of the poet's relationship with European literature), is strikingly different from the seemingly close approach presented in the so-called "professorial literature" - a peculiar phenomenon of the literary life of the West. Let's explain this so far rarely encountered term. Since the writer's fee is unstable, many writers create their works at their leisure, working, as a rule, as teachers in universities and engaging in scientific activities (usually in the field of philology, philosophy, psychology, history). Such is the fate of Murdoch and Merle, Golding and Tolkien, Eco and Ackroyd, and many other famous writers. The teaching profession leaves an indelible imprint on their work, their works reveal broad erudition, knowledge of the schemes for constructing literary works. They constantly resort to open and covert citations of the classics, demonstrate linguistic knowledge, fill the works with reminiscences designed for equally educated readers. A huge array of literary, cultural knowledge pushed aside in the "professional literature" a direct perception of the surrounding life. Even fantasy acquired a literary sounding, which was most clearly manifested by the creator of fantasy Tolkien, and then by his followers.

Pushkin, on the contrary, is not at all a professional philologist, as later L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky, A. P. Chekhov and A. M. Gorky, V. V. Mayakovsky and M. A. Sholokhov, I. A. Bunin and M. A. Bulgakov, and many other outstanding representatives of the Russian “universality”. Their dialogue with world literature (and, above all, with European literature) is determined not by the level of intertextuality, but by the level (let’s allow ourselves a neologism) of interconceptuality and psychological and intellectual responsiveness to someone else’s feeling and thought, perceived in the process of their “Russification” (in other words: embedding in Russian cultural thesaurus) already as "one's own".

Speaking of early Russian symbolism, one cannot consider it out of touch with Western European literature. It is significant that Bryusov and Balmont gave a clear preference not to the French symbolists of the end of the century, but to the poets who are usually called their predecessors - Baudelaire, Verlaine and Mallarmé.

One of the creators of the poetry of the big city, imbued with the tragic consciousness of the contradiction between evil reigning in the world and the unattainable ideal of imperishable beauty, Charles Baudelaire influenced the Russian symbolists in many aspects of his work. Thus, there is no doubt a connection between Baudelaire's anti-aestheticism (a sign of protest against philistine benevolence) and the audacity of poetic images in the early Bryusov. Baudelaire's tragedy will be reflected in Bryusov's poetry of the city, and the Baudelaire's theme of excruciating evil in its demonic coloration was also characteristic of Sologub's poetry.

Russian Symbolists picked up from Baudelaire the theory of "correspondences" - hidden, poetically comprehended analogies between spiritual and natural phenomena, between the real world and the world of the poet's own "I". The poem "Conformity" was perceived by the "senior" symbolists as an aesthetic manifesto of a new literary trend. The theme of “correspondences” is developed in the poems of Sologub (“There are correspondences in everything ...”, 1898), Bryusov (“I am a child, not knowing fear ...”, 1900), Balmont (“Baudelaire”, 1904).

The Symbolists highly valued the poetry of Paul Verlaine. “Before Verdun, there was no symbolism,” Bryusov wrote to P. Pertsov in 1905. Verlaine introduced into poetry the impressionistic art of capturing fleeting moments of life, the ability to grasp and convey shades in the change of sensations, impressions and moods and, as it were, capture changing outlines through them outside world. Verlaine transferred dissatisfaction with life and poetic admiration for the beauty of nature into sketch sketches painted with sadness, metaphorically reproducing the “landscape of the soul” of the poet.

The decadent melancholy mood in the spirit of the “end of the century” (“fin de siècle”) was answered by the musicality of the lyrics, the melodic intonation of a naive song or romance, and a “seemingly” incoherent stream of images. In Verlaine's lyrics, he was struck by the extraordinary tangibility of the sound side of the verse, sometimes obscuring the meaning of words - assonances, alliterations and rhymes. The words “music first of all” from Verlaine’s programmatic poem “The Art of Poetry” (1874) received great significance among the Symbolists.

The "landscape of the soul" in the manner of Verlaine is present in many symbolists (Balmont, Bryusov, Annensky). They were also drawn to Verdun by the desire to reproduce the rapid change of impressions. The lesson of poetry thus consisted in the discovery of new poetic forms of knowledge of man and nature, perceived by the Symbolists. However, one should not forget that the introduction to the poetry of Verlaine was already to a certain extent prepared for the Russian symbolists by mastering the poetry of Fet, whom they regarded as the first Russian impressionist. In translations from Verlaine, Bryusov and other symbolists often have poetic images and verbal turns in the spirit of Fet.

Simultaneously with Baudelaire and Verdun, Stephan Mallarme entered the poetry of Russian symbolism. It was mainly Bryusov and Annensky who gravitated toward him. Mallarme attracted Russian poets not so much by the content of his chamber poetry, the feeling of longing, the emptiness of life and loneliness, but by the search for new means of poetic expression. His strict in form, somewhat pathetic poems contain hints of a secret meaning hidden in them, due to which objects of the outside world (for example, a mirror or a fan) lose their material meaning and become symbols of the abstract ideas or experiences of the poet. Mallarme mastered the art of allusion, connected with the "obscuration" of the final symbolic meaning of poetic images. As a theoretician, he demanded that the poetic impression be created by understatement. This position of the French poet formed the basis of Bryusov's first theoretical speeches, in which he defines symbolism as the art of allusion.

Russian symbolism has something in common with French in aesthetic rejection of the bourgeois world and philistine complacency, however, anti-bourgeois rebellion manifested itself in Russian poets with greater certainty, which was caused by different historical conditions for the development of Russian literature at the turn of the century.

French symbolism was originally imbued with the spirit of social protest, but later pessimism and disbelief in man prevailed in it; art became an end in itself. Social protest originated in Baudelaire's rebellious Flowers of Evil (1857), a book largely inspired by the revolution of 1848 (more precisely, the July proletarian uprising), but completed after its defeat and therefore bearing a certain decadent coloring. Echoes of ideological connection with the Paris Commune contains poetic creativity Verlaine and Rimbaud, but her tragic defeat, in turn, contributed to their transition to the path of decadence.

Formed as a literary trend in the 80s. French symbolism was already deprived of social protest and evolved in the spirit of strengthening decadent pessimism in it. “French symbolism after the fall of the Paris Commune develops in a downward direction,” states its researcher D. D. Oblomievsky.

History of Russian literature: in 4 volumes / Edited by N.I. Prutskov and others - L., 1980-1983

so as not to eventually degenerate into cosmopolitanism,

the all-humanity of Russian literature cannot but sink into

again and again into its deepest folk basis.

V.V. Kozhinov

Among the most pressing issues of modern culture, V. Kozhinov names the problem of “the originality of our literature”, the need to discuss which has matured in the public consciousness of the 20th century. The ideological position of V. Kozhinov in relation to Russian and Western European literature was reflected in a number of his articles of the 1960-80s of the XX century. So, in the article “And every language that exists in it will call me ...”, V. Kozhinov, relying on the views of Dostoevsky, develops the idea of ​​the Russian writer about “all-humanity as the essence of our national consciousness and - as a consequence - the fundamental, decisive quality of Russian literature.

V. Kozhinov confirms his idea about the spiritual priorities of Russian literature and its fundamental difference from Western literature, including American literature, with the words of Dostoevsky from the "Speech on Pushkin": scientific. I just say that the Russian soul, that the genius of the Russian people, is perhaps the most capable, of all peoples, to contain the idea of ​​universal unity ... ". Noting the susceptibility of Russian literature and culture in general to the literatures of other peoples, V. Kozhinov forms his worldview position as a purely Orthodox and patriotic one, connected with the folk basis, but at the same time he notes the complexity in understanding the originality and the very essence of Russian literature, which do not imply unambiguous and completed conclusions, which leaves the issue open for discussion. Developing a historical view of Russian literary self-consciousness, in the same article, V. Kozhinov cites Belinsky's words about Russian originality, which lies in the ability to "easily imitate" someone else's life, because "whoever does not have his own interests, it is easy for him to accept others ...". In contrast to Belinsky, Chaadaev saw in the Russian consciousness and culture "a conscientious judgment in many litigations" and a great educational mission "to teach Europe an infinite number of things."

However, V. Kozhinov considers the “all-humanity” of Russian literature in a double sense: as a positive, “ideal” quality, and “at the same time as an unambiguously “negative” one. This ambiguity, according to the critic, lies, on the one hand, in the not always appropriate “versatility with which a Russian person understands foreign nationalities” (Belinsky), and on the other hand, and in this V. Kozhinov agrees with Chaadaev’s judgments, in the absence of “ of our lives”, “national egoism”, citing as an example a quote from a Russian philosopher: “We belong to the number of those nations that, as it were, are not part of humanity, but exist only to give the world some important lesson”, that is, concludes V. Kozhinov, we should talk about the “universal mission” of Russia, designed to be a “conscientious court” for Europe. Thus, V. Kozhinov, following Chaadaev and Dostoevsky, speaks of the special role of Russian culture, located between the "East" and "West", and its stay in childish state, or "underdevelopment" (Pushkin) serves as the basis for the "future bliss" (Chaadaev), and therefore, the embodiment of the ideal in the future, orientation towards the process of development of this "beyond" ideal. V. Kozhinov calls “universality” and “universality” the key qualities of Russian literature, which were formed in the process of its entire historical development, that is, “this is not some kind of pre-given, ready-made quality, but it is the task that determines its development, even the super task<… >creative will that animates her whole life ... ".

Turning to the comprehension of this creative will, V. Kozhinov talks about reverse side universality and versatility of Russian literature, which Chaadaev, Belinsky and Dostoevsky pointed out in their time, namely, the seduction of Europe, admiration for Western culture and way of life, and in order to get out of this humiliating situation, Russian literature needs to become world-wide, that is, to make works domestic literature "the property of the general public European society» (Chaadaev).

In their critical articles V. Kozhinov forms the historical and religious concept of the development of Russian literature, inseparable from the Orthodox worldview. Russian literature, like the Russian people, Rus' as a state, was formed, according to V. Kozhinov, on the basis of the religious foundation of supreme power under the influence of Orthodox Christianity, the adoption of which in the 10th century from Byzantium became an expression of the free will of the state, and thanks to which there was a combination of faith and authorities. This principle of building the Russian state was chosen by Prince Vladimir, guided by the Byzantine idea of ​​the omnipotence of God, the executor of whose will on earth is the emperor, the absolute monarch, from which his title arose - authorcrator, executor of the will of God on earth. Speaking about its interaction with Byzantium, which is decisive for the fate of Russia, V. Kozhinov traces cultural ties with the Orthodox empire, calling them related, when Rus' does not forcibly, but “completely voluntarily perceives Byzantine culture”, conducting a constant dialogue with it, which contributed to the emergence and development Russian culture in general, including church architecture, icon painting, and literature.

V. Kozhinov traces the formation of Russian literature to the time of Metropolitan Hilarion and his “Words on Law and Grace”, which he writes about in the article “On the Origins of Russian Literature. The work of Hilarion and the historical reality of his time”, citing the words of the metropolitan: “The light of the moon departed, when the sun shone, and the law gave way to Grace.” Moreover, the researcher says, in the "Word ..." the fundamental properties of the Russian Orthodox world and Russian culture are indicated and the ways of its development are outlined. further development: "... in it [in the "Sermon on Law and Grace". — L.S.] already began to take shape that holistic understanding of Russia and the world, man and history, truth and goodness, which much later, in XIX-XX centuries, embodied with the greatest power and openness in Russian classical literature and thoughts - in the work of Pushkin and Dostoevsky, Gogol and Ivan Kireevsky, Alexander Blok and Pavel Florensky, Mikhail Bulgakov and Bakhtin. Proceeding from Hilarion's idea that Orthodoxy is addressed to all peoples, after eight centuries Dostoevsky accepted and developed the idea of ​​the ancient Russian writer about the universal responsiveness of Russian literature as Orthodox literature, i.e. spiritualized by God-given "spiritual fire" (Dunaev).

Based on similar judgments of Hegel and Chaadaev, V. Kozhinov characterizes the essence of the Western world and its self-consciousness as a purely individualistic, subjective phenomenon, the purpose of which was “the realization absolute truth as an infinite self-determination of freedom ", and" all other human tribes ... exist as if from her will ", which made it possible to speak of the contradictions and contrasts of Western and Eastern Christianity that have been insurmountable to this day, which initially shaped not only culture, but the characteristics of Western Christianity. Catholic and Orthodox-Byzantine worldview.

The religious self-consciousness of Western culture and literature goes back to the Old Testament Jewish, ancient and Catholic-Protestant doctrine of election and predestination, which became the worldview basis humanistic values based on the mixing and secularization of various religious categories, the result of which was "self-affirmed individualism" (A.F. Losev), corresponding to the concept of "man-god". Anthropocentrism and humanism have become the blood and flesh of the Western spirit, the "Faustian soul", as O. Spengler defined the essence of the Western personality, which "is ... a force relying on itself" . Such was the price for the good and the likening of a tempted person to God, declared in the Old Testament: “... and you will be like gods, those who know good and evil” (Genesis 3:5). Western European literature turned out to be immersed in the process of individualistic and eudaimonic self-affirmation, the search for a universal being for one’s “I”, and the gospel words “what good is a person if he gains the whole world, but loses his soul?” (Matthew 16:26) have become relevant for western man precisely the thesis of "acquisition of the world", of earthly treasures, as opposed to the Orthodox path of salvation of the soul. The Renaissance carried out a truly titanic task of the formation of nations and “national self-consciousness”, since “it is in this era that literature assimilates the concrete diversity of the life of a nation and discovers the element of the people. On the other hand, it is precisely then that literature asserts its sovereign human personality(individual)”, turns into “a thing for itself”, — this is how V. Kozhinov characterizes the process of formation of Western literary consciousness. It was during the Renaissance, under the powerful influence of ancient paganism, that humanistic individualism was formed, the secularization of the church was activated, which would eventually lead to the events of the Reformation. Petrarch was the first, according to A.F. Losev, spoke about "bright antiquity, about dark ignorance that began after Christianity became the official religion and the Roman emperors began to worship the name of Christ, and about the expected return to the forgotten ancient ideal" . Based ancient philosophy Plato and Aristotle, a secular worldview arises, which creates a titanic person surrounded by "aesthetically understood being" (A.F. Losev). Thus, the philosophical-rational and at the same time sensual-ecstatic character of Western consciousness and literature was determined, based, on the one hand, on the Aristotelian concept of mimesis, and on the other hand, ascending to the Platonic mystical theory of artistic creativity, according to which the source of creativity is obsession as a special kind of inspiration given to the artist by higher divine powers, and not by reason. “After all, what you say about Homer,” Socrates says to Jonah, “all this is not from art and knowledge, but from divine determination and obsession.”

The path of Russian literature, according to V. Kozhinov, was completely different, aimed at "igniting and maintaining spiritual fire in human hearts" (Dunaev). On this basis, V. Kozhinov substantiates the confrontation between the two literatures: "Comparison or even direct opposition of the peculiar features of Western European and Russian life in one way or another passes through all our literature and, more broadly, public consciousness." An important factor in comparing the two literatures for V. Kozhinov is the peculiarities of the perception and influence of Western literature on Russian. Western art has always been attractive to Russian culture, which resulted in worship, sometimes blind imitation, copying, etc. V. Kozhinov traces the enthusiasm for the West as a long-term historical process in development national culture: "... Russians, like no one else, knew how to appreciate this Western incarnation, sometimes even overflowing, denying their own, Russian" under-embodiment "for the sake of European completeness" . However, it was precisely this “underincarnation”, “insufficient objectification” that ensured the “excess of spiritual energy” (Kozhinov) inherent in Russian literature, which allowed Gogol from the “beautiful distance” of Italy to hear the Russian song and see the “sparkling, wonderful, unfamiliar distance to the earth” .

Delimiting the spiritual values ​​of Russian and Western literature, V. Kozhinov actually characterizes a specific chronotope, within which spatio-temporal relations are poured into the categories of "Russian world" and "European world", which have their own key concepts: « individual and nation" for Western literature, "personality and people" for Russian culture.

"Aesthetics of being", "aesthetics of things" as "organic elements of Western European aesthetics" (Kozhinov) and consciousness allow us to talk about the substitution of religious and moral ideas about man and the world with aesthetic-humanistic, anti-Christian ones, which ultimately led Western literature and its hero to " absolute fullness of enjoyment of treasures on earth” (Dunaev) or to the existential experience of one’s death as deliverance from ugly and vulgar reality. Therefore, with all the shortcomings and disarrays of life in Russia, literature "remained a living impulse of man and people", where the subject of the image was a living soul, turned to the world in readiness to suffer and compassion, atone for their sins and answer for them to their contemporaries and descendants, because in According to the Orthodox understanding, “suffering is not evil for a person, sin is evil” (Novoselov).

In order to trace the specifics of Rus''s relations with the West and East, V. Kozhinov refers to the period of the emergence of Western Europe, emphasizing the aggressive nature of the barbarian Germanic tribes who built their states on the principles of violence and suppression, which was rightly noted by Hegel, whose statement on this subject is cited by V. Kozhinov: "The Germans began by ... subduing the decrepit and rotten within the state of civilized peoples."

Already the first barbarian epics, created on the ruins of Roman antiquity, gave examples of the heroic deeds and freedom of spirit of the new European peoples, showing the "lack of holiness and sinful hostility towards God" (Novoselov) ("The Song of Roland," The Song of the Nibelungs). The history of the West, according to V. Kozhinov, "is a truly heroic exploration of the world." However, in the heroic affirmation of absolute freedom, the hero of Western literature, "satisfied with his moral state" (I. Kireevsky), does not feel remorse and, paraphrasing Dostoevsky, accepts "sin for truth." Such are the heroes of works created in the most seemingly civilized period in the development of European literature from the Renaissance to classical realism XIX century such outstanding writers like Shakespeare, Byron, Shelley, Kleist, Hoffmann, Hugo, Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, Dickens, Thackeray, and others. As a result of their heroic deeds, "the world perishes and the truth triumphs" of human law. Horatio calls the content of the future "story" about the deeds of Hamlet "a tale of inhuman and bloody deeds, random punishments, unforeseen murders, deaths, in need arranged by craftiness ...". Even the ardent hater of human nature Martin Luther calls Michael Kohlhaas "a godless, terrible man" (Kleist), although Kohlhaas is the visible result of Protestant ethics, which removed all responsibility for his actions from a person, since his nature is damaged by sin without hope of restoration and the fate of everyone is predetermined the will of God, which gave the Protestant personality more freedom of action than the Catholic believer, but at the same time led to despair (S. Kierkegaard). The thirst for absolute freedom without relying on God turns the Western romantic heroes of Byron, Shelley, Hölderlin into lone rebels, calling for "divine equality" (Shelley, "The Rise of Islam") through the blood of a revolutionary revolt.

Another direction of absolutization of qualities opposite to rebellion, namely the good and evil of the heroes of the humanist writers Hugo and Dickens, looks like a kind of predestination, according to V. Kozhinov, they are “weighted and measured”, which, according to the critic, in Russian literature “appears as a limitation , self-satisfaction, dogmatism ", and contradicts the Orthodox ideas about love for one's neighbor, self-denial, self-sacrifice without expectation of a reward. Western literature, even in an effort to preach genuine moral values, absolutizes them, turning them into legally justified virtues that require material rewards and self-exaltation of a virtuous person. This is how the Protestant idea of ​​active, practical love for people is consolidated, which is expressed in the realization of the worldly (practical) destiny of Western man in combination with legal law.

But at the same time, V. Kozhinov, defining the specifics of Russian and Western literature, does not aim to deny one for the sake of the other. Both of them go their own way of searches, discoveries, understanding of life and man: “Both in Russia and in the West there was and is its unconditional good and equally unconditional evil, its own truth and its own lie, its own beauty and its ugliness.” The great spiritual mission of Russian literature was already marked by late XIX century, which Western writers began to recognize. Dostoevsky in his "Speech on Pushkin" gave impetus to comprehend the role of Russian culture on a global scale: "... the Russian soul, ... the genius of the Russian people, perhaps the most capable, of all peoples, to contain the idea of ​​universal unity ...". One of the reasons for the new view of Western literature on Russian literature is the posing of pressing problems and the inability to solve these problems. Because in the situation of the “death of God” (Nietzsche), Western European society stopped hearing the “call of God” (Guardini), which was also recognized by Western theologians. Having entered into an alliance with the Unconscious (starting with Jena romanticism), Western aesthetics in subsequent eras, especially in modernism and postmodernism, produced a reassessment of values, which led to the dehumanization of consciousness and creativity; in the words of the modern philosopher Ortega y Gasset, "Western man fell ill with a pronounced disorientation, no longer knowing which stars to navigate" (Ortega y Gasset).

Considering Russian literature from the position of its inconsistency with the problems of Western aesthetics, V. Kozhinov nevertheless looks for points of contact between opposite sides, referring to the Bakhtinian idea of ​​dialogue, “in which extremely distant voices can equally participate” . The "dialogue of cultures" proposed by V. Kozhinov can serve as a way of mutual understanding as opposed to Hegel's "monologic dialectics", which will manifest the truly "creative will" of Russian literature - "worldwide responsiveness". V. Kozhinov repeatedly speaks of the undoubted influence of Russian literature on the world literature, emphasizing precisely the religious basis of such rapprochement, emanating from the conciliar, liturgical nature of Russian culture, which he writes about in the article “One, Holistic”: “... a number of works have been published in the West about Orthodox liturgy, which is placed immeasurably higher than Catholic worship. In the article "Deficiency or originality?" he cites the statements of V. Wolfe, a classic of English modernism, about the spirituality of Russian literature, which is clearly lacking in Western literature: “It is the soul that is one of the main characters in Russian literature ... Perhaps that is why such a great effort is required from the Englishman ... The soul is alien to him. Even antipathetic... We are souls, tortured, unfortunate souls who are only busy talking, opening up, confessing... ". It is the “catholicity”, “collectiveness” of Russian literature, according to V. Kozhinov, citing the statement of N. Berkovsky, that is a model for Western culture, since it “is not always noticeable to him, serves as a means of self-knowledge, tells him about those sources of life, which he also has ... ".

Back in the 19th century, P. Merime, who deeply studied the Russian language and literature, spoke about the need to perceive and follow the Russian literary tradition. He considers the main criterion of Russian literature to be the truth of life, which he does not find in French literature: “Your poetry seeks first of all the truth, and beauty is then, by itself. Our poets, on the contrary, go the opposite way - they are primarily concerned with effect, wit, brilliance, and if, in addition to all this, it becomes possible not to offend verisimilitude, then they will probably take this in addition. " Living soul Flaubert saw Russian culture in Turgenev, calling him in his letters “my Turgenev”. He defines the impact of Turgenev's works as "shock" and "cleansing of the brain".

However, until now, the pathos of “all-humanity” and “nationality” has not become the spiritual core of Western literature due to its immersion in the search for its individual self-consciousness and arrogant self-determination in relation to “the outside world – both natural and human – as a “man-god””, which has always served as a way of self-justification. On this occasion, V. Kozhinov recalls the statement of I. Kireevsky, who accurately named the fundamental difference between a Western person: he is always “satisfied with his moral state<…>, he is completely clean before God and people. While "a Russian person," notes I. Kireevsky, "always vividly feels his shortcomings." This "self-criticism", the need for moral "lynching" was reflected in literature, becoming also its important property ascending to the Christian ideal of overcoming pride and humility. In the "self-criticism" of Russian literature, V. Kozhinov saw its ideal direction, which is not characteristic of Western critical realism, as the critic says in the article "Russian Literature and the Term "Critical Realism"". In his discussions about the types of realism in the domestic and foreign literary traditions, V. Kozhinov sets himself the task of "determining the nature of the Russian historical and literary process" . V. Kozhinov connects the critical direction in Western literature with the self-determination and stable position of the bourgeois system, hence the revealing pathos of Western critical realism, built only on criticism of the negative aspects of bourgeois life in general, and the search for a positive ideal, without which no culture can exist, is limited to the image " privacy people" (Dickens). Recognizing the “powerful critical, denying element” in the Russian classics, V. Kozhinov does not consider this criticism the main and defining quality of Russian literature, the path of which should be directed to the search for a positive ideal, the need for which Dostoevsky spoke: “The ideal is also a reality, such just as legitimate as the current reality.

The era of the XX-beginning of the XXI centuries is represented, according to Vyach. Ivanov, a "critical culture", which is characterized by "increasing alienation ... the inevitable competition of one-sided truths and relative values" . Western literature of the turn of the century, continuing to develop a mythological and mystical-otherworldly attitude to reality (Proust, Hesse, Joyce, Camus, Sartre, etc.), follows the path of Nietzsche's theomachism and the assertion of the "Faustian spirit" of universal possession (Spengler), that is, desire for world domination. Religious (Christian) consciousness is replaced by artistic aestheticism as a new religion (starting with romanticism), continuing to develop the mythological concept of art. But at the same time, the romantic concept of two worlds becomes irrelevant in the literature of modernism, since the attraction to the divine absolute (the ideal world of art) will be replaced by the categories of a split, fragmented consciousness and world (the heroes of Hesse - Haller, W. Wulf - Orlando, J. Joyce - Bloom, Proust - Marseille, Sartre - Roquentin, etc.). The hero of modern modernist and postmodernist literature receives the status of a "Christian subhuman" - a superman (Nietzsche). He overcame the feeling of guilt, compassion, shame, moral responsibility, opposing them to the instinct of self-preservation and the spirituality of the Superego sublimated by instincts (according to Freud), which led to the realization of “loss of the soul”, “disintegration of the soul” in the absence of a religious feeling and spiritual values . Western literature of the 20th century has embarked on the path of “dehumanization”, which is noted by European and American critics themselves (O. Spengler, J. Ortega y Gasset, W. Wulf, M. Heidegger, J. Huizinga, H. Bloom, etc.) and in search of spiritual support, the Western man still relies on himself, his “Self” (K. Jung), which expresses itself through artistry and in various forms of art, it contains, according to Nietzsche, “the highest dignity, because only as aesthetic phenomenon, being and the world are justified in eternity. Having excluded Christian values ​​from its worldview, Western aesthetic philosophy cultivates an “artistic” assessment of life, where there is only one “carefree and non-moral God-artist” (Nietzsche), who is beyond good and evil, free from contradictions for the sake of pleasure. Christian doctrine in the era of modernism and postmodernism is declared hostile to art, since, says Nietzsche, it is a hindrance to liberated instincts and “by its truthfulness of God pushes art into the realm of lies, i.e. denies, curses, condemns him." Modern Western art sees its main task in opposing the Christian direction of “all-humanity” to the “artistic, anti-Christian” (Nietzsche) image of the “life instinct”, that unconscious and impersonal that in aesthetic philosophy (thanks to Nietzsche) received the definition of “Dionysianism”. Speaking about modern Western, in particular American, literature in the article “Attention: US Literature Today. Achievements and Miscalculations of Soviet Americanism" V. Kozhinov characterizes the main trends of postmodern culture, dating back to the Nietzsche-Freudian physiological instincts of the complete emancipation of the individual, for which "the only reality of being is acceptable<…>these are biological and purely psychological, primarily subconscious, impulses and states ... ". Continuing, according to V. Kozhinov, to follow the already “hackneyed ideas of the absurdity of being”, Western literature remains true to the immoral values ​​of bourgeois reality, primitive “affects” and myths”, because in the decanonized and desacralized postmodern consciousness, where questions of faith and morality lose their meaning, art itself becomes part of the bourgeois innovation activity that provides material profit. Irreligion, immorality, raised to the absolute, have become the main criteria creative activity modern Western writers and publicists, both postmodernists and neoconservatives (D. Updike, N. Mailer, N. Podgorets, S. Sontag, etc.), who put their "progressive" creativity at the service of the American ideology of violence and universal submission, and in reality, according to V. Kozhinov, citing the words of the American writer P. Brooks, one of the instigators of the idea of ​​a general “revolt”, they provoke a postmodern revolt, the very controlled chaos, “where anarchically minded youth will reign on the ruins of an exploded culture, morality and spiritual values ​​now accepted in the Western and Eastern worlds. In this politicized-ideological struggle between the opposites of the true, that is, culture built on traditional Christian values, and the “counterculture” of the avant-garde and neoconservatism, V. Kozhinov sees the main danger for the development and preservation of real literature, which calls not for an anarchist revolt, but for a holy state of mind, what the Russian classics spoke about, to which the critic always appeals: “Art must be sacred. The true creation of art has something soothing and conciliatory in itself, ”said Gogol.

The exercise of "creative will" in modern era in the view of V. Kozhinov is the ability of literature to “preserve and develop the unity of nationality and all-humanity”, because, according to the critic, “all-humanity” is “not purely national self-affirmation”, elevation above other peoples and cultures, but a trait “national, original folk its foundation."

Notes

1.Andreev L.G. How did the history of the second millennium end? // Foreign literature of the second millennium. 1000-2000. - M., 2001.

2. Asmus V. Plato. - M., 1975.

3.Guardini R. The collapse of the picture of the world of modern times and the future / / Self-consciousness of culture and art of the XX century. Western Europe and the USA: Sat. articles. - M., 2000.

4. Gogol N.V. Selected passages from correspondence with friends / In the book: Reflections on the Divine Liturgy. - M., 2006.

5. Dostoevsky F.M. Full coll. op. in 30 vols. T. 21. L.: 1980. S. 75-76.

6. Dunaev M.M. Faith in the crucible of doubt. "Orthodoxy and Russian Literature". Electronic resource: http://sdruzhie-volga.ru/knigi/o_zhizni/m.m-dunaev-vera_v_gornile_somnenij.htm

7. Ivasheva V.V. History Western European literature XIX century. - M., 1951.

8. Kozhinov V.V. About the Russian national consciousness - M., 2004.

9. Kozhinov V.V. Reflections on Russian Literature. - M., 1991.

10. Kozhinov V.V. Russia as a civilization and culture. - M., 2012.

11. Kozhinov V.V. Sin and holiness of Russian history. - M., 2006.

12. Kleist G. Betrothal at St. Domingo. Novels - M., 2000.

13. Losev A.F. Aesthetics of the Renaissance - M., 1978.

14. Nietzsche F. The birth of tragedy from the spirit of music / / Op. In 2 vols - M., 1990. Vol. 1. P.75.

15. Nietzsche F. So spoke Zarathustra. Works. — Minsk, 2007.

16. Ortega y Gasset. The theme of our time//Self-consciousness of culture and art of the XX century. Western Europe and the USA: Sat. articles. - M., 2000.

17. Flaubert G. About literature, art, writer's work- M., 1984.

18. Chaadaev P.Ya. Philosophical letters. Electronic resource: http://www.vehi.net/chaadaev/filpisma.html

19. Shakespeare W. Hamlet - Minsk, 1972.

20. Shelly. Selected works - M., 1998.

21. Spengler O. Decline of Europe. Volume 2// Self-consciousness of culture and art of the XX century. Western Europe and the USA: Sat. articles - M., 2000.

One of the ancient examples of a full-fledged and broad interaction of literatures is the exchange of traditions between the Greek and Roman literatures of antiquity. Borrowed sometime artistic values were later transferred to other peoples of Europe. The heritage of antiquity formed the artistic base of Renaissance literature. In turn, the ideas, themes and images of the Italian Renaissance influenced not only the literature of France and England, but a century later found an echo in European classicism.

In the 19th century, the formation of a complex whole concept " world literature"(This term was proposed by I. Goethe). With the strengthening of world ideological, cultural, and economic ties, a new basis for constant and close interaction of literatures has developed.

In the twentieth century, the interaction of literatures becomes truly global. The major literatures of the East and Latin America are actively included in the world literary process.

The interaction of literatures is determined not by the taste choice of individual models for assimilation and imitation, and not by the personal predilections of individual writers for the achievements of foreign literatures. This interaction of cultures as a whole takes place on the historical ground of great national demands. Thus, the rapid spread of the ideas of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century in the literatures of Great Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary and Russia at the beginning of the 19th century is explained not by the “French education” of many European writers, but by the situation of a serious social crisis that then seized other countries of Europe. And from how deep this crisis was in each separate country, the depth of perception of the ideas of French enlightenment and freethinking also depended.

The role played by Russian literature in this process of mutual enrichment is peculiar. After many diverse influences from Western European literatures were absorbed with extraordinary speed during the Pushkin era, from the second half of XIX century, Russian literature itself began to influence the course of literary development throughout the world. On the one hand, the literature of developed countries experienced a powerful influence of L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky and A. Chekhov. On the other hand, Russian literature contributed to the progress of literatures that were delayed in their development (for example, in Bulgaria), literatures of the national outskirts of Russia. The impact here was not always direct. Thus, for example, Tatar literature adopted the Russian experience earlier than many other Turkic literatures; and she was the conductor of artistic progress in the literature of Central Asia. Writers from a number of republics of the USSR (V. Bykov, Ch. Aitmatov, and others) through translations into Russian simultaneously exchange experience with each other and contribute to the development of Russian literature.

In the new historical conditions, a powerful influence was exerted on artistic development Soviet literature throughout the world. The heroes of the best works of socialist realism served as a vivid example and model for the artists of many countries.

At present, the interaction of literatures is ensured by a wide network of international creative unions, associations and permanent conferences of writers, literary critics and translators. A number of national literatures, as a result of interactions with other literatures, develop rapidly and in a short time go through those stages of growth that in more developed literatures required several centuries. The interaction of literatures also determines the rapid formation of literatures among those peoples who previously had no written language at all ( Soviet literature former national outskirts). The interaction of literatures accelerates progress in the most diverse spheres of the spiritual life of mankind, it is closely connected with the logic of world processes.

The scientific study of the interaction of literatures is carried out by comparative literary criticism.

The portal offers readers a series of conversations about Russian literature and culture with Professor Alexander Nikolayevich Uzhankov, theorist and historian of literature and culture Ancient Rus', teacher, vice-rector of the Literary Institute. Maxim Gorky.

- Alexander Nikolaevich, you spoke about the importance of classical works of Russian literature for the formation of the consciousness of a young person. Are there any classical works world literature that would help a person realize his place in life, strengthen himself morally and spiritually?

- Well, I'm not such a great specialist in foreign literature, I want to say right away. I focused more on Russian literature. Most likely, precisely because he realized for himself that Russian literature is more moral than European literature. Of course, in the university curriculum, at the philological faculty, we studied literature from antiquity to the present day. We were very well acquainted with the monuments of antiquity, the Middle Ages - there was an in-depth study and so on, but the soul did not accept very much. Yes, there is more rational, we have more spiritual. It's two different types cultures, and we need to pay attention to this.

A Russian person is more concerned not with material well-being, but with the spiritual world, that is, the salvation of the soul

The Western European type of culture is the eudaimonic type. Eudaimonia - building earthly happiness, earthly well-being. Hence, in fact, it’s like the apotheosis of this - American films with their happy endings - happy endings, that is, he and she find each other, they get a million, or some kind of inheritance, finally, they get a 5-story house somewhere on Cote d'Azur and so on - so they lived happily ever after. That is, the end of all human stories is to live safely, to strive for well-being. To some extent, Protestant culture, in fact, and religion are preparing for this. Russian culture, based on Orthodoxy, is soteriological. Soteriology is the doctrine of the end of the world and the salvation of the soul. This means that a Russian person is more concerned not with material well-being, but with the spiritual world (like a writer, an old Russian writer), that is, the salvation of the soul. This is the basis of ancient Russian literature, and, in general, in the 19th century, as we said, works also contribute to the spiritual or moral development of the individual. This is the first. Second: let's say if we take, again Western European culture, it is more, let's say, gravitates towards the Christmas type of culture. The main holiday in the West is the coming into the world of Christ. That is, it focuses again on the earthly. If we look at Orthodox culture, Russian culture, we also love Christmas very much, but we have an Easter type of culture in us. Easter is more important to us. Why? 'Cause it's just the resurrection in future life. And here it is, this direction - if the Savior is risen, then we also have hope for salvation. Again, this is the hope for spiritual transformation and preparation for this future - the next century, incorruptible life, as Hilarion said - this is what will happen after Doomsday. Therefore, the main thing is not what is here, but the main thing is what will be there. And a person must approach this (why all the Russian saints were so prepared for this), in the lives of this it is clearly completely shown, among the Russian saints. Therefore, when we talk about literary works, I have shown the difference. That is, of course, I am speaking in general, we can already talk about some different works, but we will see that, say, their approach will be the one that I outlined. Russian literature is more important, much more important than European literature. It is no coincidence that the 19th century of Russian literature in the global context is considered the "golden age", because no literature in the world has given as much as Russian literature in the 19th century. But if they still knew and understood Old Russian, then, of course, their attitude would be completely different.

Not a single literature of the world gave as much as Russian in the 19th century

– It turns out that both understanding and perception of deep and hidden thoughts in Russian classics depend on the worldview. At the same time, the richness and breadth of outlook and artistic perception depend on the works that we read. That is some vicious circle. Can you name a certain, small number of works that a young person who wants to acquire the initial depth of perception and expand his horizons could start with? For example, it seems to me that the works of Dostoevsky are too deep in this regard, they are for adults who have experienced a lot and thought about their lives, the life experiences of other people. But for a young man...

- Well, already in your question, to some extent, there is an answer, the answer lies. Look, we have a difference from the Western European model of education, when the work of a writer or even one work is studied, in isolation from the work of other writers and other works, and we get a really one-sided perception of this work. We have always built the history of Russian literature. That is, chronologically, I do not want to say, from the simpler to the more complex, no, in no way, but, say, Dostoevsky came out of Pushkin, but to a greater extent even from Lermontov. This duality is also in the heroes, in the bifurcation of the heroes, and here, undoubtedly, one must pay attention to the heroes of Lermontov and the heroes of Dostoevsky. It is very important that Dostoevsky knew both one and the other well, he also knew Gogol, you see, his work is based on the work of his predecessors. To some extent, it may be polemical in relation to them, this must be understood. Two contemporaries lived - Tolstoy and. They did not know each other personally, but they were well acquainted with each other's work, and to some extent their works are a polemic with both the worldview and the way of life of one and the other, do you understand?

Now, if we tear apart, examine, as if through a magnifying glass, or under a microscope, only one thing, then, of course, we will not see the world, so we must certainly consider it in context. This is the first, but important rule. The second - it is necessary in the work of the writer himself from simpler topics to more complex ones - this is indispensable. Start with the “basics” - where did the writer start, yes, what did he pay attention to, and what did he come to. Even in Dostoevsky, so to speak, we look - there are "Poor People", we look - there is "Crime and Punishment" or "The Brothers Karamazov". Why is this vertex achieved, how? What does he refuse, and what does he pay more attention to?

The Captain's Daughter is Pushkin's literary and spiritual testament. Because there is that mercy that we lack so much in life.

Pushkin has the same plot in two works. Now, if I say this: a young man, about 18 years old, goes by post to his destination, and when he arrives there, some young lady falls in love with him, and then there will be a duel ... What is it? Someone will say that this is "Eugene Onegin", and someone - that "The Captain's Daughter". Why does he use the same plot twice, especially since the original idea of ​​The Captain's Daughter was completely different? Because there were real events that he learned about when he traveled to the Orenburg province to collect materials about the Pugachev uprising. This means that it was very important for Pushkin to argue even with himself, because "Eugene Onegin" did not quite satisfy him. Although a complex work, a wonderful work, everyone admires him, but Pushkin does not. Well, it’s true, he exclaimed after writing, when he read it, but then he thought about it, he says no. Now, if we take Pushkin's consciousness, look into this consciousness, the consciousness of an Orthodox person, can he justify himself before God with this work? Because "every gift from above is", right? Does this mean that the gift of writing, of writing, is from God? Did he serve God with his talent in Eugene Onegin? No. Why? Because everyone is passionate. What about The Captain's Daughter? - And this is completely different. It is no coincidence that literary critics say that this is Pushkin's literary testament, this is the spiritual testament of a secular person. It means that he has already risen to this level of perception. Why? Because there is that mercy that we so lack in life. "Be merciful as your Heavenly Father." "By what judgment you judge, so shall you be judged." Do you understand? And look, in this work everyone loves each other. There's just love spilled throughout the work. Only one single person who does not love anyone is Shvabrin. Why? But he is a murderer and does not believe in God - that's all. "God is love". Here Pushkin came to this. Simple work, one hundred pages. Pushkin wrote such things once in a month. And this, meanwhile, has been writing for more than three years. Why? Because it was important to him. But then everything is already, everything is unimportant: this is the work written, Pushkin's spiritual testament. Do you understand?

When the essay was removed from school, the exam was replaced, the children stopped thinking, and not only figuratively

Now from school curriculum The "Captain's Daughter" is thrown out. "Eugene Onegin" remains, but "The Captain's Daughter" is discarded. What does it get? Is this an undereducated Pushkin? Why did he write then? He wrote, in general, for us. Why? Because he wanted to guide us along a certain path, to give us spiritual development, you understand? The school, unfortunately, emasculates all this. When the essay was removed from school, the USE was replaced by exams, the children stopped thinking, and not only figuratively. To connect their thoughts, that is, to explain what they read, to recreate these images verbally - this is now given to them with great, great difficulty. I'm not talking about those ridiculous questions that are asked in the exam. Now, thank God, the essay is returning to school, now they will write it, because the clip consciousness develops in children, they cannot compose full-fledged and coherent texts now.

This is one problem, the second problem is that we have a film adaptation. What is screening? Screen adaptation is, in fact, the same reading of the work, but only by one person, the director. Why do I always tell my students: before watching this film, be sure to read the work so that you have your own images, your attitude to this work, so that you try to reveal the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthis work, and then watch what you are shown. This is a different reading, and you compare yours with others. And then, perhaps, determine what is the meaning of this work. Maybe there you can get a hint, no doubt, but maybe vice versa. I remember the adaptation of Anna Karenina Soviet period. There are wonderful actors, but, let's say, when I saw Karenin - he is played in such a way (although by a very talented actor), so played that it causes some kind of certain, if not disgust, then, in any case, antipathy, to put it mildly. This is some kind of shuffling old man. I ask students: how old is Karenin? Forty-two years is what, old man? You see, this is already starting to be perceived in a completely different way.

Or I ask students a question: how old was Tatyana Larina when she wrote a letter to Onegin? Because when we watch an opera or a movie, we see such portly women, especially in the opera. And the answer is that Tatyana is only fourteen years old, so how does Eugene Onegin look at her (and he is twenty-eight)? Condescendingly and condescendingly, for which she is grateful to him, about which she herself speaks at the end of the novel. You see, these are the very details that we do not pay attention to, because no one, not a single audience has yet told me how old the heroes are. The question is, what are you reading? It is no coincidence that the author writes out this age, and several times draws attention to this. The thing is that a work of art, it is insidious. Why? Because it gives flow to our imagination. We build our own images, we think out many things for the writer, and, of course, we have some certain ideas. And when you draw the attention of the same directors to this, they are surprised: how did I not notice this? Because I read it that way, because my personal perception… It's good, yes, but then you have to say that this is my perception. This is not how Pushkin wrote (or Lermontov, or Dostoevsky, or Tolstoy), this is how I see them. So that's great.

– Alexander Nikolayevich, once you touched upon the topic of the complexity and danger of contact, even within theatrical productions, contact with evil spirits, when a person tries to enter the image evil spirits, pretend to be her or become related. And these words were confirmed by the words of one of the priests, who reads for us a course of lectures on the practice of pastoral ministry. He is personally acquainted with examples from the lives of actors whose lives, after participating in such scenes, participating in works where they took on the role of evil spirits, were broken. Relatives were dying, something absolutely did not fit in and was inexplicable from the point of view of a non-believer. Some - he said so directly - after such events in their lives considered it a great joy and help to be baptized. That is, people came to understand that faith and God are necessary in life, but through such difficulties. The question arises: how would you explain to yourself and to young people the danger of such advances? It would seem that this is an ordinary theatrical production, because a person himself does not define himself as having departed from God and come to Satan. At the same time, the unconditional influence of such roles and such experiments in a person's life takes place.

- You can build the history of the Russian theater, or the theater, probably, in Russia - that's how it would probably be more correctly said. In the 17th century, in the second half of the 17th century, he appears. Initially, the actors were only foreigners. Why? Because in Rus' the theater has always been perceived as anti-church. understood it perfectly. Red Square is a temple under open sky, and where the Historical Museum is now, Peter I planned to create a theatrical temple in which any actions were to take place. Well, instead of Peter, they are now also organizing events, in fact, on Red Square, in fact, in an open-air temple, as it was perceived in the 17th and even at the beginning of the 18th century.

Flirting with spiritual forces is not just a game, reincarnation, it is the perception in your soul of the one who the actor is going to play.

So what is theater? This is hypocrisy, as they said in Ancient Rus'. The author hides his own face behind a mask, that is, behind a mask, and begins to play passions. A person in his life must get away from passions, and in the theater he must even play other people's passions, being, perhaps, completely a moral person. Naturally, passions can captivate both the actor himself, who plays the actor, and those who are sitting in the hall. It is no coincidence that after the theater Alexei Mikhailovich immediately went to the bathhouse in order to wash off outwardly, so to speak, these sins, which, as it were, covered his whole body. Why? Because he saw those passions that rage on the stage and, naturally, somehow joined them. Maybe without their own will, although - one wonders - why were you sitting, what were you watching, and so on. Not only he, the whole retinue went to wash away these sins. You see, in form - right, right? Maybe they didn't understand the content. Why? Because I'm already hooked anyway. Then Russian troupes already appear, but, what is important (in imitation, of course, European ones) - who acted as actors - free people or fortresses? All our theaters were mostly serfs. Do you understand why? Because the landowner is there, or the owner forced them to play. If the nobleman was going to play in the theater, then he took a pseudonym for himself so as not to discredit his surname, the honor of his nobility and noble family. He, under a pseudonym, or she, under a pseudonym, played on stage (such, in general, were in the 19th century, we see examples of this). As for when a person does not just play reincarnation, but flirts with spiritual forces, everything is more complicated, much more complicated. Why? Because this is not just a game, a reincarnation, but this is the perception in one's soul of who he is going to play - this Gogol perfectly showed by the example of the nameless artist who painted the portrait. Why? Because the artist reflects what he absorbs into his soul - it must be digested inside, he must get used to it, and then, so to speak, it spills out onto the canvas. In the same way, an actor - he must first absorb it into himself, and then splash it out on the stage, because he, too, after all, an artist, will certainly pass everything through himself. And when all this happens, when a person absorbs into himself, what is the danger? That he might not get rid of it. What was needed for a nameless artist? Lose your wife, lose your children, go to a monastery and atone for your sin through long fasting, prayers, and hermitage. All for just one picture of a pawnbroker, right? And then he was able to transform himself internally, and then he was already able to paint a fresco of the Nativity of Christ. Similarly, the actor who plays: again, is he flirting, is he acting, or does he really take it into himself? I just know too, I personally know some of the actors who themselves told me, and since she spoke publicly, I can probably say about Natalya Varley - a Komsomol member, an athlete, a beautiful girl who played - her student role - a lady in "Wie" . She says: “Even then I had no idea what I would face in my life.” She really was baptized later, and now she is a deeply religious person, a church person, she says: “Now, if they had told me then what would happen to me, with my fate in the future, I would never have agreed to this role.” So there are really many such examples. This is a forbidden topic, a person should not transgress it.