Traits of sentimentalism. Features of Russian sentimentalism and its meaning

The art of the era of sentimentalism originated in Western Europe from the middle of the 18th century. It began to develop with the gradual distancing of the artistic thought of that time from the ideas of the Enlightenment. The cult of reason was replaced by sensitivity. At the same time, the ideas of the enlighteners are not forgotten, but rethought. In art, changes resulted in a departure from clear, straightforward classicism to sensitive sentimentalism, because “feelings do not lie!”

The style manifested itself most clearly in literature, where J.-J. Rousseau ideologically substantiated the new direction: he proclaimed the value of nature, the education of feelings, the departure from socialization into solitude, from civilization to life in nature, in the countryside. Other heroes came into literature - common people.

(Louise Leopold Boilly "Gabriel Arnault")

Art happily accepted new idea for service. Canvases with landscapes characterized by simplicity of composition began to appear, as well as portraits in which the artist captured vivid emotions. Poses portrait heroes they breathe naturalness, their faces reflect calmness and tranquility.
However, the works of some masters who created in the style of sentimentalism are guilty of moralizing and artificially exaggerated sensitivity.

(Dmitry Grigorievich Levitsky "Portrait of Glafira Ivanovna Alymova")

Eighteenth-century sentimentalism grew out of classicism and became the forerunner of romanticism. The style was first formed in creativity English artists in the middle of the century and lasted until the beginning of the next. It was then that he came to Russia and was embodied in paintings talented artists of its time.

Sentimentalism in painting

Sentimentalism in the art of painting is a special view of the depiction of reality, through strengthening and emphasizing the emotional component artistic image. The painting should, according to the artist, influence the viewer’s feelings and evoke an emotional response - compassion, empathy, tenderness. Sentimentalists place feeling, not reason, at the basis of their worldview. The cult of feeling appeared, both strong and weak side artistic direction. Some paintings cause rejection in the viewer by their sweetness and the desire to openly pity him, to impose feelings unusual for him, to squeeze out a tear.

(Jean-Baptiste Greuze "Portrait of a Young Woman")

Appearing on the “wreck” of Rococo, sentimentalism was, in fact, the last stage of a degenerating style. Many paintings by European artists depict unhappy young commoners with an innocent and suffering expression on their pretty faces, poor children in beautiful rags, and old women.

Famous sentimentalist artists

(Jean-Baptiste Greuze "Portrait" young man in Hat")

One of prominent representatives directions became French artist J.-B. Dreams. His paintings with an edifying plot are distinguished by moralism and sweetness. Grez created many paintings with girls’ heads yearning for dead birds. The artist created moralizing comments for his canvases in order to further enhance their moralizing ideological content. Among the works of 18th century painters, the style can be read in the paintings of Ya.F. Hackert, R. Wilson, T. Jones, J. Forrester, S. Dalon.

(Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin "Prayer before dinner")

French artist J.-S. Chardin was one of the first to introduce social motives into his work. The painting “Prayer Before Dinner” contains many features of sentimentalism, in particular, the instructiveness of the plot. However, the painting combines two styles - rococo and sentimentalism. Here the topic of the importance of women's participation in raising sublime feelings in children is raised. The Rococo style left its mark in the construction of elegant compositions, many small parts, wealth color palette. The poses of the characters, objects, and the entire furnishings of the room are elegant, which is typical for painting of that time. The artist’s desire to appeal directly to the viewer’s feelings is clearly visible, which clearly indicates the use of a sentimental style when painting the canvas.

Sentimentalism in Russian art

The style came to Russia belatedly, in the first decade of the 19th century, along with the fashion for antique cameos, which was introduced by the French Empress Josephine. Russian artists transformed two existing styles at that time, neoclassicism and sentimentalism, creating a new one - Russian classicism in its most romantic form. V. L. Borovikovsky, A. G. Venetsianov, I. P. Argunov worked in this manner.

(Semyon Fedorovich Shchedrin "Landscape in the vicinity of St. Petersburg")

Sentimentalism allowed artists to affirm in their paintings the intrinsic value of the human personality and its inner world. Moreover, this became possible through showing a person’s feelings in an intimate setting, when he is left alone with himself. Russian artists populated the landscape with their heroes. Alone with nature, left alone, a person is able to manifest his natural state of mind.

Russian sentimentalist artists

(Vladimir Borovikovsky "Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina")

Borovikovsky’s painting “Portrait of M. I. Lopukhina” is famous. A young woman in a loose dress leaned gracefully on the railing. The Russian landscape with birch trees and cornflowers is conducive to sincerity, as is the expression on the heroine’s sweet face. Her thoughtfulness reveals trust in the viewer. A smile plays on his face. The portrait is rightfully considered one of the best examples of Russian classic work. The sentimental direction is clearly visible in the artistic style of the canvas.

(Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov "The Sleeping Shepherd")

Among the artists of this time, Russian classical painting was clearly manifested in the work of A. G. Venetsianov. His “pastoral” paintings became famous: the paintings “The Reapers”, “The Sleeping Shepherd” and others. They breathe freshness and love for people. The canvases are painted in the manner of Russian classicism with sentimental expression. The paintings evoke a response of admiring the landscape and the faces of the characters in the paintings. The style found its expression in the harmony of the peasants with surrounding nature, in calm facial expressions, dim colors of Russian nature.

The art of sentimentalism at its most pure form was especially developed in Austria and Germany at the end XVIII-early XIX centuries. In Russia, artists painted in a unique manner, in which the style was used in symbiosis with other directions.

Sentimentalism is not only a trend in culture and literature, it is primarily a state of mind human society at a certain stage of development, which in Europe began somewhat earlier and lasted from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia it occurred at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries. The main features of sentimentalism are as follows: human nature the primacy of feelings, not reason, is recognized.

From mind to feelings

Sentimentalism closes, which covered the entire 18th century and gave rise to a series of classicism and rococo, sentimentalism and pre-romanticism. Some experts consider romanticism to be the next direction described, and sentimentalism is identified with pre-romanticism. Each of these areas has its own characteristic distinctive features, everyone has their own normative personality, the one whose traits better than others express the trend that is optimal for a given culture. We can name some signs of sentimentalism. This is a concentration of attention on the individual, on the strength and power of feelings, the prerogative of nature over civilization.

Towards nature

What distinguishes this direction in literature from previous and subsequent movements is primarily the cult human heart. Preference is given to simplicity, naturalness, the hero of the works becomes a more democratic person, often a representative common people. Great attention is paid inner world man and the nature of which he is a part. These are the signs of sentimentalism. Feelings are always freer than reason, which classicism worshiped or even deified. Therefore, sentimentalist writers had more freedom imagination and its reflection in a work that was also no longer squeezed into the strict logical framework of classicism.

New literary forms

The main ones are travel and novels, but not just, but instructive or in letters. Letters, diaries, memoirs are the most frequently used genres, as they make it possible to more widely reveal a person’s inner world. Poetry gives preference to elegy and message. That is, in themselves, also signs of sentimentalism. Pastoral cannot belong to any other direction than the one described.

In Russia, sentimentalism was reactionary and liberal. The representative of the first was Pyotr Ivanovich Shalikov (1768-1852). His works represented an idyllic utopia - infinitely kind kings sent by God to earth solely for the sake of peasant happiness. None social contradictions- good-heartedness and general goodness. Probably, thanks to such sweet and sour works, a certain tearfulness and far-fetchedness have become attached to this literary movement, which are sometimes perceived as signs of sentimentalism.

Founder of Russian sentimentalism

Prominent representatives of the liberal trend are Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich (1766-1826) and the early Zhukovsky Vasily Andreevich (1783-1852), these are among the famous. You can also name several progressive liberal-minded writers - A. M. Kutuzov, to whom Radishchev dedicated “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow”, M. N. Muravyov, sage and poet, poet, fabulist and translator, V. V. Kapnist and N. A. Lvov. The earliest and most striking work of this direction was Karamzin’s story “ Poor Lisa" It should be noted that the characteristics of Russia have distinctive features from Europe. The main thing is the instructive, moral and educational nature of the works. Karamzin said that you need to write the way you speak. Thus, another feature of Russian sentimentalism is the improvement literary language works. I would like to note that a positive achievement or even discovery of this literary movement is that it was the first to turn to the spiritual world of people of the lower classes, revealing its wealth and generosity of soul. Before the sentimentalists, poor people, as a rule, were shown to be rude, callous, and incapable of any spirituality.

“Poor Liza” - the pinnacle of Russian sentimentalism

What are the signs of sentimentalism in “Poor Liza”? The plot of the story is simple. That's not the beauty of it. The very idea of ​​the work conveys to the reader the fact that the natural naturalness and rich world of Liza, a simple peasant woman, is incomparably higher than the world of the well-educated, secular, well-trained Erast, in general, and a good person, but squeezed by the framework of conventions that did not allow him to marry beloved girl. But he did not even think about getting married, because, having achieved reciprocity, Erast, full of prejudices, lost interest in Lisa, she ceased to be for him the personification of purity and purity. A poor peasant girl, even full of merit, having trusted a rich young man who condescended to a commoner (which should speak of the breadth of her soul and democratic views), is initially doomed to the final run to the pond. But the dignity of the story is in a completely different approach and perspective of the rather banal events covered. It is precisely the signs of sentimentalism in “Poor Liza” (the beauty of the soul common man and nature, the cult of love) made the story incredibly popular among contemporaries. And the pond in which Lisa drowned began to be called after her (the place in the story is indicated quite accurately). The fact that the story became an event is also evidenced by the fact that even among current graduates of Soviet schools, almost everyone knows that “Poor Liza” was written by Karamzin, like “Eugene Onegin” by Pushkin, and “Mtsyri” by Lermontov.

Originally from France

Sentimentalism itself is a more significant phenomenon in fiction than classicism with its rationalism and dryness, with its heroes, who, as a rule, were crowned heads or generals. "Julia, or the New Heloise" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau burst into fiction and laid the foundations for a new direction. Already in the works of the founder of the movement appeared general signs sentimentalism in literature, forming a new artistic system, which glorified a simple person who is capable of empathizing with others without any selfishness, endlessly loving loved ones, and sincerely rejoicing in the happiness of others.

Similarities and differences

And sentimentalism largely coincides, because both of these movements belong to the Age of Enlightenment, but they also have differences. Classicism glorifies and deifies reason, and sentimentalism - feeling. The main slogans of these directions also differ: in classicism it is “a person subject to the dictates of reason”; in sentimentalism it is “a feeling person”. The forms of writing also differ - the logic and rigor of the classicists, and the works of authors of a later literary movement, rich in digressions, descriptions, memories and letters. Based on the above, we can answer the question of what are the main features of sentimentalism. The main theme of the works is love. Specific genres - pastoral (elegy), sentimental story, letters and travel. In the works there is a cult of feelings and nature, a departure from straightforwardness.

Sentimentalism(French sentimentalisme, from English sentimental, French sentiment - feeling) - a state of mind in Western European and Russian culture and corresponding literary direction. Works written in this genre are based on the reader's emotions. In Europe it existed from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia - from late XVIII before early XIX century.

In that case, classicism is reason, duty, then sentimentalism is something lighter, these are the feelings of a person, his experiences.

The main theme of sentimentalism- love.

The main features of sentimentalism:

The main genres of sentimentalism:

Ideological basis- protest against the corruption of aristocratic society

The main property of sentimentalism- desire to present the human personality in the movement of the soul, thoughts, emotions, revealing the inner world of man through the state of nature

In the basis of the aesthetics of sentimentalism- imitation of nature

Features of Russian sentimentalism:

Representatives of sentimentalism:

Young V.A. Zhukovsky was a sentimentalist for a short time.

Additional materials:

Source of material Internet site

Additionally on the site:

Sentimentalism is one of the main, along with classicism and rococo, artistic movements in European literature 18th century. Like Rococo, sentimentalism arises as a reaction to the classicist trends in literature that dominated in the previous century. Sentimentalism received its name after the publication of the unfinished novel “ Sentimental Journey in France and Italy" (1768) English writer L. Stern, who, as modern researchers believe, consolidated the new meaning of the word “sentimental” in English language. If earlier (the first use of this word by the Great Oxford Dictionary dates back to 1749) it meant either “reasonable”, “sensible”, or “highly moral”, “edifying”, then by the 1760s it intensified the connotation associated not so much with belonging to to the area of ​​reason, as much as to the area of ​​feeling. Now “sentimental” also means “capable of sympathy,” and Stern finally assigns to it the meaning of “sensitive”, “capable of experiencing sublime and subtle emotions” and introduces it into the circle of the most buzzwords of its time. Subsequently, the fashion for “sentimental” passed, and in the 19th century the word “sentimental” in English acquired a negative connotation, meaning “prone to indulging in excessive sensitivity”, “easily succumbing to an influx of emotions.”

Modern dictionaries and reference books already distinguish between the concepts of “sentiment” and “sensitivity”, “sentimentality”, contrasting them with each other. However, the word “sentimentalism” in English, as well as in other Western European languages, where it came under the influence of the success of Stern’s novels, never acquired the character of a strictly literary term that would cover an entire and internally unified artistic movement. English-speaking researchers still mainly use such concepts as “sentimental novel”, “sentimental drama” or “sentimental poetry”, while French and German critics rather highlight “sentimentality” (French sentimentalite, German sentimentalitat) as a special category, to one degree or another inherent works of art the most different eras and directions. Only in Russia, starting from the end of the 19th century, were attempts made to comprehend sentimentalism as an integral historical and literary phenomenon. The main feature sentimentalism, all domestic researchers recognize the “cult of feeling” (or “heart”), which in this system of views becomes the “measure of good and evil.” Most often, the appearance of this cult in Western literature of the 18th century is explained, on the one hand, by a reaction to Enlightenment rationalism (with feeling directly opposed to reason), and on the other, by a reaction to the previously dominant aristocratic type of culture. The fact that sentimentalism as an independent phenomenon first appeared in England already in the late 1720s - early 1730s is usually associated with the social changes that occurred in this country in the 17th century, when, as a result of the revolution of 1688-89, the third estate became independent and influential force. All researchers call the concept of “natural,” which is generally very important for the philosophy and literature of the Enlightenment, one of the main categories that determines the attention of sentimentalists to the life of the human heart. This concept unites the external world of nature with the internal world human soul, which, from the point of view of sentimentalists, are consonant and essentially involved in each other. This results, firstly, Special attention the authors of this direction towards nature - her appearance and the processes occurring in it; secondly, intense interest in the emotional sphere and experiences individual person. At the same time, a person is of interest to sentimentalist authors not so much as a bearer of a rational volitional principle, but as a focus of the best natural qualities inherent in his heart from birth. The hero of sentimentalist literature appears as a feeling person, and therefore psychological analysis The authors of this direction are most often based on the subjective outpourings of the hero.

Sentimentalism “descends” from the heights of majestic upheavals, unfolding in an aristocratic environment, to everyday life ordinary people, unremarkable except for the strength of their experiences. The sublime principle, so beloved by the theorists of classicism, is replaced in sentimentalism by the category of the touching. Thanks to this, researchers note, sentimentalism, as a rule, cultivates compassion for one’s neighbor, philanthropism, and becomes a “school of philanthropy,” as opposed to “cold-rational” classicism and, in general, the “dominance of reason” in initial stages development European Enlightenment. However, the too direct opposition of reason and feeling, “philosopher” and “sensitive person,” which is found in the works of a number of domestic and foreign researchers, unjustifiably simplifies the idea of ​​sentimentalism. Often, “reason” is associated exclusively with educational classicism, and the entire area of ​​“feelings” falls to the lot of sentimentalism. But such an approach, which is based on another very common opinion - that the basis of sentimentality is entirely derived from the sensualist philosophy of J. Locke (1632-1704) - obscures the much more subtle relationship between "reason" and "sense" in the 18th century, and moreover, it does not explain the essence of the discrepancy between sentimentalism and such independent artistic direction this century, like Rococo. The most controversial problem in the study of sentimentalism remains its relation, on the one hand, to other aesthetic movements of the 18th century, and on the other, to the Enlightenment as a whole.

Prerequisites for the emergence of sentimentalism

The prerequisites for the emergence of sentimentalism were already contained in the newest way of thinking, which distinguished the philosophers and writers of the 18th century and determined the entire structure and spirit of the Enlightenment. In this thinking, sensitivity and rationality do not appear and do not exist without each other: in contrast to the speculative rationalistic systems of the 17th century, the rationalism of the 18th century is limited to the framework of human experience, i.e. within the framework of the perception of the sentient soul. A person with his inherent desire for happiness in this earthly life becomes the main measure of the consistency of any views. Rationalists of the 18th century not only criticized certain phenomena of reality that were unnecessary, in their opinion, but also put forward an image of an ideal reality, conducive to human happiness, and this image ultimately turns out to be suggested not by reason, but by feeling. The ability for critical judgment and a sensitive heart are two sides of a single intellectual tool that helped the writers of the 18th century develop A New Look on a person who abandoned the feeling of original sin and tried to justify his existence based on his innate desire for happiness. Various aesthetic movements of the 18th century, including sentimentalism, tried to paint the image of a new reality in their own way. As long as they remained within the framework of Enlightenment ideology, they were equally close to the critical views of Locke, who denied the existence of so-called “innate ideas” from the standpoint of sensationalism. From this point of view, sentimentalism differs from Rococo or Classicism not so much in the “cult of feeling” (because in this specific understanding feeling played no less important role and in other aesthetic movements) or the tendency to portray mainly representatives of the third estate (all the literature of the Enlightenment was in one way or another interested in human nature “in general,” leaving questions of class differences outside the scope), as well as special ideas about the possibilities and ways for a person to achieve happiness. Like Rococo art, sentimentalism professes a sense of disappointment in " great history", refers to the private sphere, intimate life individual person, gives it a “natural” dimension. But if rocaille literature interprets “naturalness” primarily as an opportunity to go beyond traditionally established moral norms and, thus, illuminates mainly the “scandalous”, behind-the-scenes side of life, condescending to forgivable weaknesses human nature, then sentimentalism strives for the reconciliation of the natural and moral principles, trying to present virtue not as an introduced, but as an innate property of the human heart. Therefore, the sentimentalists were closer not to Locke with his decisive denial of all “innate ideas”, but to his follower A.E.K. Shaftesbury (1671-1713), who argued that the moral principle lies in the very nature of man and is connected not with reason, but with a special a moral feeling which alone can point the way to happiness. What motivates a person to act morally is not the awareness of duty, but the dictates of the heart. Happiness, therefore, does not lie in the craving for sensual pleasures, but in the craving for virtue. Thus, the “naturalness” of human nature is interpreted by Shaftesbury, and after him by the sentimentalists, not as its “scandalousness,” but as a need and possibility of virtuous behavior, and the heart becomes a special supra-individual sense organ, connecting a specific person with the general harmonious and morally justified structure of the universe.

Poetics of sentimentalism

The first elements of the poetics of sentimentalism penetrate into English literature in the late 1720s, when the genre of descriptive and didactic poems dedicated to work and leisure against the backdrop of rural nature (georgics) becomes especially relevant. In J. Thomson's poem “The Seasons” (1726-30) one can already find a completely “sentimentalist” idyll, built on a feeling of moral satisfaction arising from contemplation rural landscapes. Subsequently, similar motifs were developed by E. Jung (1683-1765) and especially by T. Gray, who discovered elegy as a genre most suitable for sublime meditations against the backdrop of nature (the most famous work"Elegy written in a rural cemetery", 1751). A significant influence on the development of sentimentalism was exerted by the work of S. Richardson, whose novels (“Pamela”, 1740; “Clarissa”, 1747-48; “The History of Sir Charles Grandisson”, 1754) not only introduced for the first time heroes who were in every way consistent with the spirit of sentimentalism, but and popularized a special genre form epistolary novel, so beloved later by many sentimentalists. Among the latter, some researchers include Richardson’s main opponent, Henry Fielding, whose “comic epics” (“The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews,” 1742, and “The History of Tom Jones, Foundling,” 1749) are largely built on sentimentalist ideas about human nature. In the second half of the 18th century, the trends of sentimentalism in English literature are growing stronger, but now they are increasingly coming into conflict with the actual educational pathos of life-building, improving the world and educating people. The world no longer seems to be the center of moral harmony to the heroes of the novels by O. Goldsmith “The Priest of Wakefield” (1766) and G. Mackenzie “The Man of Feeling” (1773). Sterne's novels "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" (1760-67) and "A Sentimental Journey" are an example of caustic polemics against the sensationalism of Locke and many of the conventional views of the English Enlightenment. Among the poets who developed sentimentalist tendencies on folklore and pseudo-historical material are the Scots R. Burns (1759-96) and J. Macpherson (1736-96). By the end of the century, English sentimentalism, increasingly leaning towards “sensibility,” breaks with the Enlightenment harmony between feeling and reason and gives rise to the genre of the so-called Gothic novel (H. Walpole, A. Radcliffe, etc.), which some researchers correlate with an independent artistic movement- pre-romanticism. In France, the poetics of sentimentalism comes into conflict with Rococo already in the work of D. Diderot, who was influenced by Richardson (The Nun, 1760) and, partly, Sterne (Jacquefatalist, 1773). The principles of sentimentalism turned out to be most consonant with the views and tastes of J. J. Rousseau, who created the exemplary sentimentalist epistolary novel “Julia, or the New Heloise” (1761). However, already in his “Confession” (published 1782-89) Rousseau departs from the important principle of sentimentalist poetics - the normativity of the depicted personality, proclaiming the intrinsic value of his one and only “I”, taken in individual originality. Subsequently, sentimentalism in France is closely linked with the specific concept of “Rousseauism”. Having penetrated into Germany, sentimentalism first influenced the work of H. F. Gellert (1715-69) and F. G. Klopstock (1724-1803), and in the 1870s, after the appearance of Rousseau’s “New Heloise,” it gave birth to a radical version of the German sentimentalism, called the “Storm and Drang” movement, to which the young I.V. Goethe and F. Schiller belonged. Goethe's novel "Suffering" young Werther"(1774), although considered the pinnacle of sentimentalism in Germany, actually contains a hidden polemic against the ideals of Sturmerism and does not amount to glorifying the “sensitive nature” of the protagonist. The “last sentimentalist” of Germany, Jean Paul (1763-1825), was particularly influenced by Stern’s work.

Sentimentalism in Russia

In Russia, all the most significant examples of Western European sentimentalist literature were translated back in the 18th century, influencing F. Emin, N. Lvov, and partly A. Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” 1790). Russian sentimentalism reached its highest flowering in the works of N. Karamzin(“Letters of a Russian Traveler”, 1790; “Poor Liza”, 1792; “Natalia, Boyar’s Daughter”, 1792, etc.). Subsequently, A. Izmailov, V. Zhukovsky and others turned to the poetics of sentimentalism.

The word sentimentalism comes from English sentimental, which means sensitive; French sentiment - feeling.

Introduction.
The history of sentimentalism.
Features and genres of sentimentalism.
Conclusion.
Bibliography.

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

Sentimentalism (French sentimentalisme, from English sentimental, French sentiment - feeling) is a state of mind in Western European and Russian culture and a corresponding literary movement. In Europe it existed from the 20s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia - from the end of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century.

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

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

Representatives of sentimentalism in Russia:

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

At the beginning of the 19th century. greatest influence acquires sentimentalism (from the French sentimentalisme, from the English sentimental - sensitive). Its emergence is associated with the spiritual growth of the individual, with his awareness of his own dignity and the desire for spiritual emancipation. Sentimentalism was a response to the public need for the democratization of literature. While the leading heroes of classicism were kings, nobles, leaders, interpreted in their abstract, universal, generic essence, sentimentalists brought to the fore the image of an individual, private, ordinary, predominantly “average” personality in its inner essence, in its everyday life. They contrasted the rationality of classicism with the cult of feeling, touching, “religion of the heart” (Rousseau).
The ideology of sentimentalism was close to the Enlightenment. Most educators believed that the world could be made perfect if people were taught certain reasonable forms of behavior. Writers of sentimentalism set the same goal and adhered to the same logic. Only they argued that it was not reason, but sensitivity that should save the world. They reasoned something like this: by cultivating sensitivity in all people, evil can be defeated. In the 18th century, the word sentimentalism meant receptivity, the ability to respond with the soul to everything that surrounds a person. Sentimentalism is a literary movement that reflects the world from the position of feeling, not reason.
Sentimentalism arose in Western Europe at the end of the 20s of the 18th century and took shape in the form of two main directions: progressive-bourgeois and reactionary-noble. The most famous Western European sentimentalists are E. Jung, L. Stern, T. Gray, J. Thomson, J.J. Rousseau, Jean Paul (I. Richter).
By some ideological and aesthetic features (focus on the individual, the power of feelings, the affirmation of the advantages of nature over civilization), sentimentalism anticipated the advent of romanticism, which is why sentimentalism is often called pre-romanticism (French: preromantisme). In Western European literature, pre-romanticism includes works that are characterized by the following features:
- searching for an ideal way of life outside a civilized society;
- the desire for naturalness in human behavior;
- interest in folklore as a form of the most direct manifestation of feelings;
- attraction to the mysterious and terrible;
- idealization of the Middle Ages.
But attempts by researchers to find in Russian literature the phenomenon of pre-romanticism as a direction different from sentimentalism did not lead to positive results. It seems that we can talk about pre-romanticism, bearing in mind the emergence of romantic tendencies, which manifested themselves primarily in sentimentalism. In Russia, tendencies of sentimentalism clearly emerged in the 60s of the 18th century. in the works of F.A. Emmina, V.I. Lukin and other similar writers.
In Russian literature, sentimentalism manifested itself in two directions: reactionary (Shalikov) and liberal ( Karamzin, Zhukovsky ). Idealizing reality, reconciling, obscuring the contradictions between the nobility and the peasantry, the reactionary sentimentalists painted an idyllic utopia in their works: autocracy and social hierarchy are sacred; serfdom was established by God himself for the sake of the happiness of the peasants; serfs live better than free peasants; It is not serfdom itself that is vicious, but its abuse. Defending these ideas, Prince P.I. Shalikov in “Travel to Little Russia” depicted the life of peasants full of contentment, fun, and joy. In the play by playwright N.I. Ilyin’s “Liza, or the Triumph of Gratitude” the main character, a peasant woman, praising her life, says: “We live as cheerfully as the red sun.” The peasant Arkhip, the hero of the play “Generosity, or Recruitment” by the same author, assures: “Yes, such good kings as there are in Holy Rus', go all over the world, you won’t find others.”
The idyllic nature of creativity was especially manifested in the cult of the beautifully sensitive personality with its desire for ideal friendship and love, admiration for the harmony of nature and a cutesy mannered way of expressing one’s thoughts and feelings. Thus, playwright V.M. Fedorov, “correcting” the plot of the story “Poor Liza” Ka Ramzina , forced Erast to repent, abandon his rich bride and return to Lisa, who remains alive. To top it all off, the tradesman Matvey, Lisa’s father, turns out to be the son of a wealthy nobleman (“Liza, or the Consequence of Pride and Seduction,” 1803).
However, in the development of domestic sentimentalism, the leading role belonged not to reactionary, but to progressive, liberal-minded writers: A.M. Kutuzov, M.N. Muravyov, N.M. Karamzin, V.A. Zhukovsky. Belinsky rightly called a “remarkable person”, “collaborator and assistant Karamzin in the matter of transforming the Russian language and Russian literature" I.I. Dmitriev - poet, fabulist, translator.
I.I. Dmitriev provided with his poems undoubted influence for poetry V.A. Zhukovsky , K.N. Batyushkova and P.A. Vyazemsky. One of his best works, which became widespread, is the song “The Gray Dove Moans” (1792). Following an idea N.M. Karamzin and I.I. Dmitrieva , the lyrics were also performed by Yu.A. Nelidinsky-Melitsky, creator of the song “I’ll go out onto the river”, and poet I.M. Dolgoruky.
Liberal-minded sentimentalists saw their calling in, if possible, comforting people in suffering, troubles, sorrows, and turning them to virtue, harmony and beauty. Perceiving human life as perverse and fleeting, they glorified eternal values ​​- nature, friendship and love. They enriched literature with such genres as elegy, correspondence, diary, travel, essay, story, novel, drama. Overcoming the normative and dogmatic requirements of classicist poetics, sentimentalists largely contributed to the rapprochement of the literary language with the spoken language. According to K.N. Batyushkova, the model for them is the one “who writes the way he speaks, whom the ladies read!” Personalizing Language characters, they used elements of popular vernacular for peasants, official jargon for clerks, Gallicisms for the secular nobility, etc. But this differentiation was not carried out consistently. Positive characters, even serfs, spoke, as a rule, in literary language.
Affirming your creative principles, sentimentalists did not limit themselves to creating works of art. They published literary critical articles in which, while proclaiming their own literary and aesthetic positions, they overthrew their predecessors. The constant target of their satirical arrows was the work of classicists - S.A. Shirinsky-Shikhmatov, S.S. Bobrova, D.I. Khvostova, A.S. Shishkova and A.A. Shakhovsky.

Sentimentalism in England. Sentimentalism first made itself known in lyric poetry. Poet trans. floor. 18th century James Thomson abandoned the urban motifs traditional for rationalist poetry and made English nature the object of his depiction. Nevertheless, he does not completely depart from the classicist tradition: he uses the genre of elegy, legitimized by the classicist theorist Nicolas Boileau in his Poetic art(1674), however, replaces the rhymed couplets with blank verse, characteristic of Shakespeare's era.
The development of the lyrics follows the path of strengthening the pessimistic motives already heard in D. Thomson. The theme of the illusory and futility of earthly existence triumphs in Edward Jung, the founder of “cemetery poetry.” The poetry of E. Young's followers - the Scottish pastor Robert Blair (1699–1746), the author of the gloomy didactic poem The Grave (1743), and Thomas Gray, the creator of Elegy Written in a Country Cemetery (1749) - is permeated with the idea of ​​​​the equality of all before death.
Sentimentalism expressed itself most fully in the genre of the novel. Its founder was Samuel Richardson, who, breaking with the picaresque and adventure tradition, turned to depicting the world human feelings, which required the creation new form- a novel in letters. In the 1750s, sentimentalism became the main focus of English educational literature. The work of Lawrence Sterne, whom many researchers consider the “father of sentimentalism,” marks the final departure from classicism. (The satirical novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1760–1767) and the novel A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick (1768), from which the name of the artistic movement came).
Critical English sentimentalism reaches its peak in the work of Oliver Goldsmith.
The 1770s saw the decline of English sentimentalism. The genre ceases to exist sentimental novel. In poetry, the sentimentalist school gives way to the pre-romantic school (D. Macpherson, T. Chatterton).
Sentimentalism in France. In French literature, sentimentalism expressed itself in classical form. Pierre Carlet de Chamblen de Marivaux stands at the origins of sentimental prose. (Life of Marianne, 1728–1741; and the Peasant, who came out into the public, 1735–1736).
Antoine-François Prevost d'Exile, or Abbe Prevost, opened a new area of ​​feelings for the novel - an irresistible passion that leads the hero to a life catastrophe.
The culmination of the sentimental novel was the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778).
The concept of nature and “natural” man determined the content of his artistic works (for example, the epistolary novel Julie, or New Heloise, 1761).
J.-J. Rousseau made nature an independent (intrinsically valuable) object of image. His Confession (1766–1770) is considered one of the most frank autobiographies in world literature, where he brings to the absolute the subjectivist attitude of sentimentalism (a work of art as a way of expressing the author’s “I”).
Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737–1814), like his teacher J.-J. Rousseau, considered the main task of the artist to affirm the truth - happiness lies in living in harmony with nature and virtuously. He sets out his concept of nature in the treatise Etudes on Nature (1784–1787). This theme receives artistic embodiment in the novel Paul and Virginie (1787). Depicting distant seas and tropical countries, B. de Saint-Pierre introduces a new category - “exotic”, which will be in demand by romantics, primarily by Francois-René de Chateaubriand.
Jacques-Sébastien Mercier (1740–1814), following the Rousseauist tradition, makes central conflict the novel The Savage (1767) is a clash between the ideal (primitive) form of existence (the “golden age”) and the civilization that is corrupting it. In the utopian novel 2440, a dream of which there are few (1770), taking as a basis the Social Contract of J.-J. Rousseau, he constructs an image of an egalitarian rural community in which people live in harmony with nature. S. Mercier also presents his critical view of the “fruits of civilization” in journalistic form - in the essay Picture of Paris (1781).
The work of Nicolas Retief de La Bretonne (1734–1806), a self-taught writer, author of two hundred volumes of works, is marked by the influence of J.-J. Rousseau. The novel The Corrupt Peasant, or The Dangers of the City (1775) tells the story of the transformation, under the influence of the urban environment, of a morally pure young man into a criminal. The utopian novel Southern Discovery (1781) treats the same theme as 2440 by S. Mercier. In New Emile, or Practical Education (1776), Retief de La Bretonne develops the pedagogical ideas of J.-J. Rousseau, applying them to women's education, and polemicizes with him. The confession of J.-J. Rousseau becomes the reason for the creation of his autobiographical work Monsieur Nicola, or The Human Heart Unveiled (1794–1797), where he turns the narrative into a kind of “physiological sketch.”
In the 1790s, during the era of the Great French Revolution, sentimentalism lost its position, giving way to revolutionary classicism.
Sentimentalism in Germany. In Germany, sentimentalism was born as a national-cultural reaction to French classicism, the creativity of English and French sentimentalists played a certain role in its formation. Significant merit in the formation of a new view of literature belongs to G.E. Lessing.
The origins of German sentimentalism lie in the polemics of the early 1740s between Zurich professors I. J. Bodmer (1698–1783) and I. J. Breitinger (1701–1776) with the prominent apologist of classicism in Germany I. K. Gottsched (1700–1766); The “Swiss” defended the poet’s right to poetic imagination. The first major exponent of the new direction was Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, who found common ground between sentimentalism and the German medieval tradition.
The heyday of sentimentalism in Germany occurred in the 1770s and 1780s and is associated with the Sturm und Drang movement, named after the drama of the same name Sturm und Drang F. M. Klinger (1752–1831). Its participants set themselves the task of creating an original national German literature; from J.-J. Rousseau, they adopted a critical attitude towards civilization and the cult of the natural. The theorist of Sturm und Drang, philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, criticized the “boastful and sterile education” of the Enlightenment, attacked the mechanical use of classicist rules, arguing that true poetry is the language of feelings, first strong impressions, fantasy and passion, such a language is universal. “Stormy geniuses” denounced tyranny, protested against the hierarchy of modern society and its morality (Tomb of the Kings by K.F. Schubart, Towards Freedom by F.L. Stolberg, etc.); their main character was a freedom-loving woman strong personality– Prometheus or Faust – driven by passions and not knowing any barriers.
In his youth, Johann Wolfgang Goethe belonged to the Sturm und Drang movement. His novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774) became a landmark work of German sentimentalism, defining the end of the “provincial stage” of German literature and its entry into pan-European literature.
The dramas of Johann Friedrich Schiller are marked by the spirit of Sturm und Drang.
Sentimentalism in Russia. Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s thanks to the translations of the novels of Werther by J.W. Goethe, Pamela, Clarissa and Grandison by S. Richardson, New Heloise by J.-J. Rousseau, Paul and Virginie J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin with Letters from a Russian Traveler (1791–1792).
His novel Poor Liza (1792) is a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther he inherited a general atmosphere of sensitivity and melancholy and the theme of suicide.
The works of N.M. Karamzin gave rise to a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century appeared Poor Masha by A.E. Izmailova (1801), Journey to Midday Russia (1802), Henrietta, or the Triumph of Deception over the Weakness or Delusion of I. Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G. P. Kamenev (The Story of Poor Marya; Unhappy Margarita ; Beautiful Tatiana), etc.
Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev belonged to Karamzin’s group, which advocated the creation of a new poetic language and fought against archaic pompous style and outdated genres.
Sentimentalism marked the early work of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The publication in 1802 of a translation of Elegy, written in a rural cemetery by E. Gray, became a phenomenon in the artistic life of Russia, because he translated the poem “into the language of sentimentalism in general, he translated the genre of elegy, and not the individual work of an English poet, which has its own special individual style” (E.G. Etkind). In 1809, Zhukovsky wrote a sentimental story Maryina Roshcha in the spirit of N.M. Karamzin.
Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.
It was one of the stages of pan-European literary development, which completed the Age of Enlightenment and opened the way to romanticism.
Evgenia Krivushina
Sentimentalism in the theater(French sentiment - feeling) - a direction in European theatrical art of the second half of the 18th century.
The development of sentimentalism in the theater is associated with the crisis of the aesthetics of classicism, which proclaimed a strict rationalistic canon of drama and its stage embodiment. The speculative constructions of classicist drama are being replaced by the desire to bring theater closer to reality. This is reflected in almost all components of theatrical performance: in the themes of the plays (reflection privacy, development of family psychological stories); in language (classicist pathetic poetic speech is replaced by prose, close to conversational intonation); in the social affiliation of the characters (the heroes of theatrical works are representatives of the third estate); in determining the locations of action (palace interiors are replaced by “natural” and rural views).
"Tearful Comedy" - early genre sentimentalism - appeared in England in the works of playwrights Colley Cibber (Love's Last Trick, 1696; The Carefree Spouse, 1704, etc.), Joseph Addison (The Atheist, 1714; The Drummer, 1715), Richard Steele (Funeral, or Fashionable Sorrow, 1701; The Lover -liar, 1703; Conscientious Lovers, 1722, etc.). These were moralizing works, where the comic element was consistently replaced by sentimental and pathetic scenes, moral and didactic maxims. The moral charge of the “tearful comedy” is based not on the ridicule of vices, but on the chanting of virtue, which awakens to the correction of shortcomings - both individual heroes and society as a whole.
The same moral and aesthetic principles were the basis for the French “tearful comedy”. Its most prominent representatives were Philippe Detouches (Married Philosopher, 1727; Proud man, 1732; Waster, 1736) and Pierre Nivelle de Lachausse (Melanide, 1741; School of Mothers, 1744; The Governess, 1747, etc.). Some criticism of social vices was presented by playwrights as temporary delusions of the characters, which they successfully overcome by the end of the play. Sentimentalism was also reflected in the work of one of the most famous French playwrights of that time - Pierre Carle Marivaux (The Game of Love and Chance, 1730; The Triumph of Love, 1732; Inheritance, 1736; Sincere, 1739, etc.). Marivaux, while remaining a faithful follower of salon comedy, at the same time constantly introduces into it features of sensitive sentimentality and moral didactics.
In the second half of the 18th century. " tearful comedy", remaining within the framework of sentimentalism, is gradually being replaced by the genre of bourgeois drama. Here the elements of comedy completely disappear; The plots are based on tragic situations in the everyday life of the third estate. However, the problematic remains the same as in the “tearful comedy”: the triumph of virtue, overcoming all trials and tribulations. In this single direction, bourgeois drama is developing in all European countries: England (J. Lillo, The London Merchant, or the History of George Barnwell; E. Moore, The Gambler); France (D. Diderot, The Side Son, or The Test of Virtue; M. Seden, The Philosopher Without Knowing It); Germany (G.E. Lessing, Miss Sarah Sampson, Emilia Galotti). From the theoretical developments and dramaturgy of Lessing, which received the definition of “philistine tragedy,” arose aesthetic movement“Sturm and Drang” (F.M. Klinger, J. Lenz, L. Wagner, J.V. Goethe, etc.), which reached the peak of its development in the work of Friedrich Schiller (Robbers, 1780; Intrigue and Love, 1784).
Theatrical sentimentalism became widespread in Russia. First appearing in the work of Mikhail Kheraskov (Friend of the Unfortunate, 1774; Persecuted, 1775), the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism were continued by Mikhail Verevkin (So It Should Be, Birthday Boys, Exactly), Vladimir Lukin (Mot, Corrected by Love), Pyotr Plavilshchikov (Bobyl, Sidelets, etc.).
Sentimentalism gave a new impetus to the art of acting, the development of which, in a certain sense, was inhibited by classicism. The aesthetics of the classicist performance of roles required strict adherence to the conventional canon of the entire set of means of acting expression; the improvement of acting skills proceeded rather along a purely formal line. Sentimentalism gave actors the opportunity to turn to the inner world of their characters, to the dynamics of image development, the search for psychological persuasiveness and versatility of characters.
By the middle of the 19th century. the popularity of sentimentalism faded away, the genre of bourgeois drama practically ceased to exist. However, the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism formed the basis for the formation of one of the youngest theatrical genres - melodrama.

Features and genres of sentimentalism.

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

Main features of sentimentalism:

Didacticism. Representatives of sentimentalism are characterized by an orientation toward improving the world and solving the problems of human upbringing; however, unlike the classicists, sentimentalists turned not so much to the reader’s mind as to his feelings, evoking sympathy or hatred, delight or indignation in relation to the events described.
The cult of “natural” feelings. One of the main ones in symbolism is the category of “natural”. This concept unites the external world of nature with the internal world of the human soul; both worlds are thought of as consonant with each other. The cult of feeling (or heart) became the measure of good and evil in the works of sentimentalism. At the same time, the coincidence of the natural and moral principles was established as a norm, for virtue was thought of as an innate property of man.
At the same time, sentimentalists did not artificially separate the concepts of “philosopher” and “sensitive person,” since sensitivity and rationality do not exist without each other (it is no coincidence that Karamzin characterizes Erast, the hero of the story “Poor Liza,” as a person with “a fair amount of intelligence, kind hearted"). The ability for critical judgment and the ability to feel help to comprehend life, but feeling deceives a person less often.
Recognition of virtue as a natural property of man. Sentimentalists proceeded from the fact that the world is organized according to moral laws, therefore they portrayed man not so much as a bearer of a rational volitional principle, but as the focus of the best natural qualities inherent in his heart from birth. Sentimentalist writers are characterized by special ideas about how a person can achieve happiness, the path to which can only be indicated by a feeling based on morality. It is not the awareness of duty, but the dictates of the heart that prompts a person to act morally. Human nature has a natural need for virtuous behavior, which gives happiness.
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