The main literary movement of the 19th century. Literary trends and methods

Many Russian writers of the 19th century felt that Russia was faced with an abyss and was flying into the abyss.

ON THE. Berdyaev

Since the mid-19th century, Russian literature has become not only the number one art, but also the ruler of political ideas. In the absence of political freedoms, public opinion is formed by writers, and social themes predominate in works. Sociality and journalism - distinctive features literature of the second half of the 19th century. It was in the middle of the century that two painful Russian questions were posed: "Who is guilty?" (the title of the novel by Alexander Ivanovich Herzen, 1847) and "What to do?" (the title of the novel by Nikolai Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky, 1863).

Russian literature turns to the analysis of social phenomena, therefore the action of most works is contemporary, that is, it occurs at the time when the work is created. The lives of the characters are depicted in the context of a larger social picture. Simply put, heroes “fit” into the era, their characters and behavior are motivated by the peculiarities of the socio-historical atmosphere. That is why the leading literary direction and method the second half of the 19th century becomes critical realism, and leading genres- novel and drama. At the same time, unlike the first half of the century, prose prevailed in Russian literature, and poetry faded into the background.

The severity of social problems was also due to the fact that in Russian society of the 1840-1860s. there was a polarization of opinions regarding the future of Russia, which was reflected in the emergence Slavophilism and Westernism.

Slavophiles (the most famous among them are Alexei Khomyakov, Ivan Kireevsky, Yuri Samarin, Konstantin and Ivan Aksakov) believed that Russia had its own special path of development, destined for it by Orthodoxy. They strongly opposed the Western model political development, in order to avoid despiritualization of man and society.

Slavophiles demanded the abolition of serfdom, wanted universal enlightenment and the liberation of the Russian people from state power. In particular, Konstantin Aksakov argued that Russians are a non-state people to whom the constitutional principle is alien (see the work of K.S. Aksakov “On the Internal State of Russia”, 1855).

They saw the ideal in pre-Petrine Rus', where the fundamental principles of national life were Orthodoxy and conciliarity (the term was introduced by A. Khomyakov as a designation of unity in the Orthodox faith). The literary magazine "Moskvityanin" was the tribune of the Slavophiles.

Westerners (Peter Chaadaev, Alexander Herzen, Nikolai Ogarev, Ivan Turgenev, Vissarion Belinsky, Nikolai Dobrolyubov, Vasily Botkin, Timofey Granovsky, anarchist theorist Mikhail Bakunin also joined them) were confident that Russia should follow the same path in its development, same as countries Western Europe. Westernism was not a single direction and was divided into liberal and revolutionary democratic movements. Like the Slavophiles, Westerners advocated the immediate abolition of serfdom, considering this as the main condition for the Europeanization of Russia, and demanded freedom of the press and the development of industry. In the field of literature, realism was supported, the founder of which was considered N.V. Gogol. The tribune of Westerners was the magazines “Sovremennik” and “Otechestvennye zapiski” during the period of their editing by N.A. Nekrasov.

Slavophiles and Westerners were not enemies, they only had different views on the future of Russia. According to N.A. Berdyaev, the first saw a mother in Russia, the second saw a child. For clarity, we offer a table that compares the positions of Slavophiles and Westerners.

Comparison criteria	Slavophiles	Westerners
Attitude towards autocracy	Monarchy + deliberative popular representation	Limited monarchy, parliamentary system, democratic freedoms
Attitude to serfdom	Negative, advocated the abolition of serfdom from above	Negative, advocated the abolition of serfdom from below
Relation to Peter I	Negative. Peter introduced Western orders and customs that led Russia astray	The exaltation of Peter, who saved Russia, renewed the country and brought it to the international level
Which path should Russia take?	Russia has its own special path of development, different from the West. But you can borrow factories, railways	Russia is late, but is and must follow the Western path of development
How to carry out transformations	Peaceful path, reforms from above	Liberals advocated a path of gradual reform. Democratic revolutionaries are for the revolutionary path.

They tried to overcome the polarity of opinions of Slavophiles and Westerners soil scientists . This movement originated in the 1860s. in the circle of intellectuals close to the magazine "Time" / "Epoch". The ideologists of pochvennichestvo were Mikhail Dostoevsky, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Apollon Grigoriev, Nikolai Strakhov. The Pochvenniks rejected both the autocratic serfdom system and Western bourgeois democracy. Accepting Western civilization, Pochvenniki accused Western countries of lack of spirituality. Dostoevsky believed that representatives of the “enlightened society” should merge with the “national soil”, which would allow the top and bottom of Russian society to mutually enrich each other. In the Russian character, the Pochvenniki emphasized the religious and moral principles. They had a negative attitude towards materialism and the idea of ​​revolution. Progress, in their opinion, is the union of the educated classes with the people. The pochvenniki saw the personification of the ideal of the Russian spirit in A.S. Pushkin. Many ideas of Westerners were considered utopian.

The subject of debate since the mid-19th century has been the question of the nature and purpose of fiction. In Russian criticism there are three views on this issue.

Alexander Vasilievich Druzhinin

Representatives "aesthetic criticism" (Alexander Druzhinin, Pavel Annenkov, Vasily Botkin) put forward the theory " pure art", the essence of which is that literature should address only eternal themes and not depend on political goals or social conditions.

Apollo Alexandrovich Grigoriev

Apollo Grigoriev formulated a theory "organic criticism" , advocating the creation of works that would embrace life in all its fullness and integrity. At the same time, the emphasis in the literature is proposed to be on moral values.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Dobrolyubov

Principles "real criticism" were proclaimed by Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolai Dobrolyubov. They viewed literature as a force capable of transforming the world and promoting knowledge. Literature, in their opinion, should promote the dissemination of progressive political ideas and, first of all, pose and solve social problems.

Poetry also developed along different, diametrically opposed paths. The pathos of citizenship united the poets of the “Nekrasov school”: Nikolai Nekrasov, Nikolai Ogarev, Ivan Nikitin, Mikhail Mikhailov, Ivan Golts-Miller, Alexei Pleshcheev. Supporters of “pure art”: Afanasy Fet, Apollon Maikov, Lev May, Yakov Polonsky, Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy - wrote poems mainly about love and nature.

Socio-political and literary-aesthetic disputes significantly influenced the development of domestic journalism. Literary magazines played a huge role in shaping public opinion.

Cover of the magazine "Contemporary", 1847

Magazine name	Years of publication	Publishers	Who published	Views	Notes
"Contemporary"	1836-1866	A.S. Pushkin; P.A. Pletnev; from 1847 – N.A. Nekrasov, I.I. Panaev	Turgenev, Goncharov, L.N. Tolstoy,A.K. Tolstoy, Ostrovsky,Tyutchev, Fet, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov	Revolutionary democratic	The peak of popularity was under Nekrasov. Closed after the assassination attempt on Alexander II in 1866
"Domestic Notes"	1820-1884	From 1820 – P.P. Svinin, from 1839 – A.A. Kraevsky, from 1868 to 1877 - Nekrasov, from 1878 to 1884 – Saltykov-Shchedrin	Gogol, Lermontov, Turgenev, Herzen, Pleshcheev, Saltykov-Shchedrin, Garshin, G. Uspensky, Krestovsky, Dostoevsky, Mamin-Sibiryak, Nadson	Until 1868 – liberal, then – revolutionary democratic	The magazine was closed at Alexandra III for “spreading harmful ideas”
"Spark"	1859-1873	Poet V. Kurochkin, cartoonist N. Stepanov	Minaev, Bogdanov, Palmin, Loman (all of them are poets of the “Nekrasov school”), Dobrolyubov, G. Uspensky	Revolutionary democratic	The name of the magazine is an allusion to the bold poem of the Decembrist poet A. Odoevsky “From a spark a flame will ignite.” The magazine was closed “for its harmful direction”
"Russian word"	1859-1866	G.A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, G.E. Blagosvetlov	Pisemsky, Leskov, Turgenev, Dostoevsky,Krestovsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.K. Tolstoy, Fet	Revolutionary democratic	Despite the similarity of political views, the magazine engaged in polemics with Sovremennik on a number of issues
"Bell" (newspaper)	1857-1867	A.I. Herzen, N.P. Ogarev	Lermontov (posthumously), Nekrasov, Mikhailov	Revolutionary democratic	An emigrant newspaper whose epigraph was the Latin expression “Vivos voco!” (“Calling the living!”)
"Russian Messenger"	1808-1906	IN different time– S.N.Glinka, N.I.Grech, M.N.Katkov, F.N.Berg	Turgenev, Pisarev, Zaitsev, Shelgunov,Minaev, G. Uspensky	Liberal	The magazine opposed Belinsky and Gogol, against Sovremennik and Kolokol, and defended conservative politics. views
"Time" / "Epoch"	1861-1865	MM. and F.M. Dostoevskys	Ostrovsky, Leskov, Nekrasov, Pleshcheev,Maikov, Krestovsky, Strakhov, Polonsky	Soil	Conducted a sharp polemic with Sovremennik
"Moskvitian"	1841-1856	M.P. Pogodin	Zhukovsky, Gogol, Ostrovsky,Zagoskin, Vyazemsky, Dahl, Pavlova, Pisemsky, Fet, Tyutchev, Grigorovich	Slavophile	The magazine adhered to the theory of “official nationality”, fought against the ideas of Belinsky and the writers of the “natural school”

The 19th century as a cultural era begins in the calendar 18th century with the events of the Great French Revolution of 1789-1793. This was the first bourgeois revolution on a global scale (previous bourgeois Revolution XVII centuries in Holland and England had limited, national significance). The French Revolution marks the final fall of feudalism and the triumph of the bourgeois system in Europe, and all aspects of life with which the bourgeoisie comes into contact tend to accelerate, intensify, and begin to live according to the laws of the market.

The 19th century was an era of political upheaval that redrew the map of Europe. In socio-political development, France stood at the forefront of the historical process. The Napoleonic Wars of 1796-1815, the attempt to restore absolutism (1815-1830), and the series of subsequent revolutions (1830, 1848, 1871) should be considered as consequences of the French Revolution.

The leading world power of the 19th century was England, where early bourgeois revolution, urbanization and industrialization led to the rise of the British Empire and dominance of the world market. Profound changes took place in social structure English society: the peasant class disappeared, there was a sharp polarization of the rich and the poor, accompanied by mass protests of workers (1811-1812 - the movement of machine destroyers, Luddites; 1819 - the shooting of a demonstration of workers in St. Peter's Field near Manchester, which went down in history as " Battle of Peterloo"; Chartist movement in 1830-1840). Under the pressure of these events, the ruling classes made certain concessions (two parliamentary reforms - 1832 and 1867, reform of the education system - 1870).

Germany in the 19th century painfully and belatedly solved the problem of creating a single national state. Having met the new century in a state of feudal fragmentation, after the Napoleonic wars Germany turned from a conglomerate of 380 dwarf states into a union of initially 37 independent states, and after the half-hearted bourgeois revolution of 1848, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck set a course for creating a united Germany “with iron and blood.” The unified German state was proclaimed in 1871 and became the youngest and most aggressive of the bourgeois states of Western Europe.

Throughout the 19th century, the United States of America explored the vast expanses of North America, and as its territory increased, the industrial potential of the young American nation also grew.

In 19th century literature two main directions - romanticism and realism. The Romantic era begins in the nineties of the eighteenth century and covers the entire first half of the century. However, the main elements of romantic culture were fully defined and revealed the possibilities of potential development by 1830. Romanticism is an art born of a brief historical moment of uncertainty, crisis that accompanied the transition from feudal system to the capitalist system; When by 1830 the outlines of capitalist society were determined, the art of realism replaced romanticism. At first, the literature of realism was the literature of individuals, and the term “realism” itself arose only in the fifties of the 19th century. In the mass public consciousness, modern art continued to be romanticism, which in fact had already exhausted its possibilities, therefore, in literature after 1830, romanticism and realism interact in a complex manner, giving rise to an endless variety of phenomena in different national literatures that cannot be unambiguously classified. In essence, Romanticism did not die throughout the nineteenth century: a straight line leads from the Romantics of the beginning of the century through late Romanticism to the symbolism, decadence and neo-Romanticism of the end of the century. Let us sequentially consider both literary and artistic systems of the 19th century using examples of their most prominent authors and works.

The 19th century is the century of the formation of world literature, when contacts between individual national literatures accelerate and intensify. Thus, Russian literature of the 19th century had a keen interest in the works of Byron and Goethe, Heine and Hugo, Balzac and Dickens. Many of their images and motifs are directly echoed in Russian literary classics, so the choice of works to consider the problems of foreign literature of the 19th century century is dictated here, firstly, by the impossibility, within the framework of a short course, of giving proper coverage of various situations in different national literatures and, secondly, by the degree of popularity and significance of individual authors for Russia.

Literature

1. Foreign literature of the 19th century. Realism: A Reader. M., 1990.
2. Maurois A. Prometheus, or the Life of Balzac. M., 1978.
3. Reizov B. G. Stendhal. Artistic creativity. L., 1978.
4. Reizov B. G. Flaubert's creativity. L., 1955.
5. The Mystery of Charles Dickens. M., 1990.

Read also other topics in the chapter “Literature of the 19th Century”.

1. First quarterXIXcentury- a unique period, the diversity and greatness of names, movements and genres amaze the modern researcher.

In the first decade, classicism continued to function. Its head was G.R. Derzhavin. A new direction has emerged - neoclassicism, associated with the name of playwright Vladislav Ozerov. In the early 20s. Batyushkov's pre-romanticism appears.

Then a new philosophical and aesthetic system took shape - romanticism; Belinsky called Zhukovsky “Columbus of Romanticism”. The main category of romanticism is the opposition of dreams, ideals and reality.

Sentimentalism is actively functioning. Dmitriev develops the genre of sentimental fable. Zhukovsky's first experiments were in line with sentimentalism.

At this time, the foundations of a new type of artistic consciousness - realism - were laid.

The genre diversity of the 19th century is amazing. We know that lyrical poetry dominated, but drama (high, everyday descriptive, salon comedy, sentimental drama, high tragedy), prose (sentimental, historical and romantic story, historical novel), the genre of poems and ballads continue to develop.

2. In the 30s.XIXcentury Russian prose begins to develop. Belinsky believes that the “form of time” becomes a story: romantic stories (Zagoskin, Odoevsky, Somov, Pogorelsky, Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, Lermontov and Gogol), realistic ones (Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol).

The foundations of the novel genre are laid, there are two varieties - historical novel (Pushkin) and modern (Lazhechnikov)

3. In the 40s.XIXcentury In the literary movement, one can highlight the emergence, formation and development of the “natural school” as a literary movement. Gogol and Grigorovich are considered the founder. This is the beginning of the realistic movement, the theorist of which is Belinsky. The “Natural School” made extensive use of the possibilities of the genre of physiological essay – a short descriptive story, a photograph from nature (collection “Physiology of St. Petersburg”). Development of the novel genre, Nekrasov’s lyrics

4. In the 60s.XIXcentury The Russian novel genre is flourishing. Various genre modifications appear - ideological novel, social-philosophical, epic novel...). This time can be considered the rise, the flowering of Russian lyricism (poets of the Nekrasov school and poets of pure art). A Russian original theater appears - the Ostrovsky Theater. In drama and poetry, the principles of realism are affirmed, as well as romanticism in the poems of Tyutchev and Fet).

5. In the 70s – 80s (90s).XIXcentury the novel develops along the path of synthesis of various trends. However, the prose of this time is not determined solely by the genre of the novel. The novella, short story, feuilleton and other small prose genres are developing. Roman simply did not have time to record the changes taking place. In the 70s – 80s (90s) XIX century there is a powerful influence of prose on drama and poetry, and vice versa... In general, prose, drama and poetry are a single stream of mutually enriching trends.

conclusions

This time was characterized by the coexistence of four literary movements. Classicism and sentimentalism from the last century still survive. New times are forming new directions: romanticism and realism.

The romantic worldview is characterized by an insoluble conflict of dreams, ideals and reality. The difference between supporters of romanticism essentially boils down to the meaningful embodiment of a dream (ideal). The character of the romantic hero corresponds to the author's position: the hero is an alter ego.

Realism is one of the new literary trends. If researchers find its elements in previous literary eras, then realism as a direction and method took shape in the 19th century. Its very name (realis - material, something that can be touched with your hands) is opposed to romanticism (novel-book, romantic, i.e. bookish). Inheriting the problems posed by romanticism, realism abandons the normativity of romanticism and becomes an open system and principle of artistic reflection of life. Hence its diversity in forms and content.

Literary method, style, or literary movement are often treated as synonyms. It is based on a similar type of artistic thinking among different writers. Sometimes a modern author does not realize in which direction he is working, and his creative method is assessed by a literary critic or critic. And it turns out that the author is a sentimentalist or an Acmeist... We present to your attention the literary movements in the table from classicism to modernity.

There have been cases in the history of literature when representatives of the writing fraternity themselves were aware of the theoretical foundations of their activities, propagated them in manifestos, and united in creative groups. For example, Russian futurists, who published the manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” in print.

Today we are talking about the established system of literary movements of the past, which determined the features of the development of the world literary process, and are studied by literary theory. The main literary trends are:

• classicism
• sentimentalism
• romanticism
• realism
• modernism (divided into movements: symbolism, acmeism, futurism, imagism)
• socialist realism
• postmodernism

Modernity is most often associated with the concept of postmodernism, and sometimes socially active realism.

Literary trends in tables

	Classicism	Sentimentalism	Romanticism	Realism	Modernism
Periodization	literary movement of the 17th – early 19th centuries, based on imitation of ancient models.	Literary direction of the second half of the 18th – early 19th centuries. From French word“Sentiment” - feeling, sensitivity.	literary trends of the late XVIII - second half of the XIX centuries. Romanticism emerged in the 1790s. first in Germany, and then spread throughout the Western European cultural region. It was most developed in England, Germany, France (J. Byron, W. Scott, V. Hugo, P. Merimee)	direction in literature and art of the 19th century, aiming at a truthful reproduction of reality in its typical features.	literary movement, aesthetic concept, formed in the 1910s. The founders of modernism: M. Proust “In Search of Lost Time”, J. Joyce “Ulysses”, F. Kafka “The Trial”.
Signs, features	They are clearly divided into positive and negative. At the end of a classic comedy, vice is always punished and good triumphs. The principle of three unities: time (the action lasts no more than a day), place, action.	Special attention- to the spiritual world of a person. The main thing is the feeling, the experience common man, not great ideas. Characteristic genres are elegy, epistle, novel in letters, diary, in which confessional motives predominate.	Heroes are bright, exceptional individuals in unusual circumstances. Romanticism is characterized by impulse, extraordinary complexity, and the inner depth of human individuality. For romantic work The idea of ​​two worlds is characteristic: the world in which the hero lives, and another world in which he wants to be.	Reality is a means for a person to understand himself and the world around him. Typification of images. This is achieved through the truthfulness of details in specific conditions. Even in a tragic conflict, art is life-affirming. Realism is characterized by the desire to consider reality in development, the ability to detect the development of new social, psychological and public relations.	The main task of modernism is to penetrate into the depths of a person’s consciousness and subconscious, to convey the work of memory, the peculiarities of perception of the environment, in how the past, present are refracted in “moments of existence” and the future is foreseen. The main technique in the work of modernists is the “stream of consciousness,” which allows one to capture the movement of thoughts, impressions, and feelings.
Features of development in Russia	An example is Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor.” In this comedy, Fonvizin tries to implement the main idea of ​​classicism - to re-educate the world with a reasonable word.	An example is N.M. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza,” which, in contrast to rational classicism with its cult of reason, affirms the cult of feelings and sensuality.	In Russia, romanticism arose against the backdrop of national upsurge after the War of 1812. It has a pronounced social orientation. He is imbued with the idea of ​​civil service and love of freedom (K. F. Ryleev, V. A. Zhukovsky).	In Russia, the foundations of realism were laid in the 1820s - 30s. works of Pushkin (“Eugene Onegin”, “Boris Godunov “The Captain’s Daughter”, late lyrics). this stage is associated with the names of I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky and others. Realism of the 19th century is usually called “critical”, since the determining principle in it was precisely the social critical.	In Russian literary criticism, it is customary to call 3 literary movements that made themselves known in the period from 1890 to 1917 modernist. These are symbolism, acmeism and futurism, which formed the basis of modernism as a literary movement.

Modernism is represented by the following literary movements:

• Symbolism

  (Symbol - from the Greek Symbolon - conventional sign)
  1. The central place is given to the symbol*
  2. The desire for a higher ideal prevails
  3. A poetic image is intended to express the essence of a phenomenon
  4. Characteristic reflection of the world in two planes: real and mystical
  5. Sophistication and musicality of verse
  The founder was D. S. Merezhkovsky, who in 1892 gave a lecture “On the causes of the decline and new trends in modern Russian literature” (article published in 1893). Symbolists are divided into older ones ((V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius, F. Sologub made their debut in the 1890s) and younger ones (A. Blok, A. Bely, Vyach. Ivanov and others made their debut in the 1900s)

• Acmeism

  (From the Greek “acme” - point, highest point). The literary movement of Acmeism arose in the early 1910s and was genetically connected with symbolism. (N. Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam, M. Zenkevich and V. Narbut.) The formation was influenced by M. Kuzmin’s article “On Beautiful Clarity,” published in 1910. In his programmatic article of 1913, “The Legacy of Acmeism and Symbolism,” N. Gumilyov called symbolism a “worthy father,” but emphasized that the new generation had developed a “courageously firm and clear outlook on life.”
  1. Focus on classical poetry of the 19th century
  2. Acceptance of the earthly world in its diversity and visible concreteness
  3. Objectivity and clarity of images, precision of details
  4. In rhythm, the Acmeists used dolnik (Dolnik is a violation of the traditional
  regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. The lines coincide in the number of stresses, but stressed and unstressed syllables are freely located in the line.), which brings the poem closer to living colloquial speech

• Futurism

  Futurism - from lat. futurum, future. Genetically, literary futurism is closely connected with the avant-garde groups of artists of the 1910s - primarily with the groups “Jack of Diamonds”, “Donkey’s Tail”, “Youth Union”. In 1909 in Italy, the poet F. Marinetti published the article “Manifesto of Futurism.” In 1912, the manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” was created by Russian futurists: V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov: “Pushkin is more incomprehensible than hieroglyphs.” Futurism began to disintegrate already in 1915-1916.
  1. Rebellion, anarchic worldview
  2. Denial of cultural traditions
  3. Experiments in the field of rhythm and rhyme, figurative arrangement of stanzas and lines
  4. Active word creation

• Imagism

  From Lat. imago - image A literary movement in Russian poetry of the 20th century, whose representatives stated that the purpose of creativity is to create an image. Basics means of expression Imagists - metaphor, often metaphorical chains that compare various elements of two images - direct and figurative. Imagism arose in 1918, when the “Order of Imagists” was founded in Moscow. The creators of the “Order” were Anatoly Mariengof, Vadim Shershenevich and Sergei Yesenin, who was previously part of the group of new peasant poets

In the literature of the 19th century, the dominant role was played by realism - an artistic method characterized by the desire for immediate authenticity of the image, the creation of the most truthful image of reality. Realism presupposes a detailed and clear description of persons and objects, an image of a certain real scene of action, and a reproduction of the features of everyday life and customs. All this, according to realist writers, is a necessary prerequisite for revealing the spiritual world of people and the true essence of historical and social conflicts. It should be noted that the authors approached the realities of life not as dispassionate recorders - on the contrary, through the means of realistic art they sought to arouse in readers universal moral aspirations, to teach goodness and justice.

At the turn of the 19th-20th, realism was still popular; such famous and recognized authors as Leo Tolstoy, Anton Chekhov, Vladimir Korolenko, as well as young writers Ivan Bunin and Alexander Kuprin, were working in line with the realistic method. However, new trends appeared in the realism of that time, called neo-romantic. Neo-romantic writers rejected the “prosaic existence” of ordinary people and glorified courage, feat and heroism of adventure in extraordinary, often exotic settings. It was the neo-romantic works created in the 90s that brought fame to the young Maxim Gorky, although his later works were written more within the framework of traditional realism.

At the same time, moods began to spread in society, called decadence (from the French decadence - decay): hopelessness, a feeling of decline, melancholy, a premonition of the end, admiring the beauty of withering and death. These sentiments had a great influence on many poets and prose writers.

The influence of decadence is noticeable in the work of the writer Leonid Andreev, in whose realistic works pessimistic motives, disbelief in the human mind, in the possibility of rebuilding life for the better, and a refutation of everything that people hope for and believe in, began to sound more and more strongly.

Features of decadence can also be seen in the works of those authors who created the direction of symbolism in Russian literature.

The basis of the aesthetic doctrine of symbolism was the conviction that the essence of the world, supertemporal and ideal, is located beyond sensory perception person. According to the symbolists, images of the true world, comprehended intuitively, could not be conveyed otherwise than through symbols, through the symbolic discovery of analogies between the world of higher realities - and the earthly world. Symbolists tend to turn to religious and mystical ideas, to images of ancient and medieval art. They also sought to highlight the image of the individual hidden life human soul with its vague impulses, vague melancholy, fears and worries. Symbolist poets enriched the poetic language with many new bright and bold images, expressive and beautiful combinations of words and expanded the field of art by depicting the subtlest shades of feelings, fleeting impressions, moods and experiences.

It is customary to distinguish between “senior” and “junior” symbolists. The “elders” (Valery Bryusov, Konstantin Balmont, Fyodor Sologub, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius), who came to literature in the 90s, being largely under the influence of decadence, preached intimacy, the cult of the beauty of the passing time, and the free self-expression of the poet. The “younger” symbolists (Alexander Blok, Andrei Bely, Vyacheslav Ivanov) brought philosophical and religious quests to the fore; they painfully experienced the problem of personality and history in their mysterious connection with the essence of the universal world process. Inner world personality was thought of by them as an indicator of the general tragic state of the world, doomed to destruction, and at the same time a container of prophetic sensations of imminent renewal.

As we comprehended the experience of the Revolution of 1905-07, in which the Symbolists saw the beginning of the realization of their catastrophic premonitions, differences in concepts emerged historical development Russia and the ideological sympathies of various symbolist poets. This predetermined the crisis and, subsequently, the collapse of the symbolist movement.

In 1911, a new literary movement emerged, called Acmeism. The name was derived from the Greek word “acme” (the highest degree of something, color, blooming power), since the Acmeist poets considered their work to be the highest point in achieving artistic truth. The early group of Acmeists, united in the “Workshop of Poets” circle, consisted of Sergei Gorodetsky, Nikolai Gumilyov, Osip Mandelstam, Vladimir Narbut, Anna Akhmatova and others. During the heyday of the group, its literary organ was the Apollo magazine; they also published the almanacs “The Workshop of Poets” and (in 1912-13) the magazine “Hyperborea”.

Respecting all the achievements of symbolism, the Acmeists nevertheless objected to the saturation of literature with mysticism, theosophy and the occult; they sought to free poetry from these obscurities and restore it to clarity and accessibility. They declared a concrete sensory perception of the “material world” and in their poems described the sounds, shapes, colors of objects and natural phenomena, the vicissitudes human relations. At the same time, the Acmeists did not at all try to recreate real reality - they simply admired things as such, without criticizing them and without reflecting on their essence. Hence the inclination of the Acmeists towards aestheticism and their denial of any social ideology.

Almost simultaneously with Acmeism, another literary movement appeared - futurism (from the Latin futurum - future), which almost immediately split into several groups. Common basis The futurist movement had a spontaneous feeling of the inevitability of the collapse of the old world and the desire to anticipate and realize through art the birth of a new world. The Futurists destroyed the existing system of genres and literary styles, developed their own system of versification, and insisted on unlimited word creation, even to the point of inventing new dialects. Futurist literature was also associated with fine arts: joint performances of poets and painters of the new formation were often organized.

The leading group of Russian futurists was called "Gilea"; however, its participants - Velimir Khlebnikov, David Burliuk, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Alexey Kruchenykh - also called themselves “Budetlyans” and “Cubo-Futurists”. Their principles were announced in the manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” (1912). The manifesto was deliberately shocking; in particular, the demand expressed there to “throw Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy from the Steamship of Modernity” became scandalous. The Cubo-Futurists proposed a remake of the world, which should begin with a remake of language. This led to word formation bordering on abstraction, to onomatopoeia, and to a disregard for grammatical laws. In addition, the Cubo-Futurists dramatically changed the subject of poetry and began to glorify what was previously considered anti-aesthetic, anti-poetic - and this introduced into poetry vulgar vocabulary, prosaisms of urban life, professional jargon, the language of documents, posters and posters, circus and cinema techniques.

Another group, called the “Association of Ego-Futurists,” was founded by the poets Igor Severyanin and Georgy Ivanov. In addition to general futuristic writing, egofuturism is characterized by the cultivation of refined sensations, the use of new foreign words, and ostentatious selfishness.

The movement of futurism also included such groups as “Mezzanine of Poetry” (which included Boris Lavrenev), “Centrifuge” (Nikolai Aseev, Boris Pasternak) and a number of futurist groups in Odessa, Kharkov, Kiev, Tbilisi.

Peasant poets (Nikolai Klyuev, Pyotr Oreshin) occupied a special place in the literature of the turn of the century. Peasants by origin, they devoted their creativity to sketches of pictures of village life, poeticization of peasant life and traditions.

In the poetry of that time there were also bright individuals who could not be attributed to a specific movement, for example, Maximilian Voloshin, Marina Tsvetaeva.

At the turn of the century, satirical literature also experienced its rise. In the 1900s, more than 250 satirical magazines alone were published in Russia - of course, these publications were far from equal, differing from each other both in political orientation and literary and artistic merits. Against this background, the magazine “Satyricon” stood out (the first issue was published in 1908), which truly became a phenomenon in the literary life of Russia. Bold political satire, denunciation of lies and vulgarity in the public life of the country coexisted in the magazine with harmless humor. At different times, such authors as Arkady Averchenko, Sasha Cherny, Teffi collaborated in the magazine. realism symbolist futurist acmeist

In 1913, as a result of an internal editorial split and a conflict with the publisher, most of the leading employees, led by Arkady Averchenko, left the magazine, who became the founder and editor of the New Satyricon.