Detailed outline of an article about ancient Russian literature. About the literature of ancient Rus'

Ancient literature is filled with deep patriotic content, the heroic pathos of serving the Russian land, state, and homeland.
The main theme of ancient Russian literature is world history and the meaning of human life.
Ancient literature glorifies the moral beauty of the Russian person, capable of sacrificing what is most precious for the sake of the common good - life. It expresses a deep belief in the power, the ultimate triumph of good and the ability of man to elevate his spirit and defeat evil.
A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is historicism. The heroes are mainly historical figures. Literature strictly follows fact.
Feature artistic creativity The ancient Russian writer also has the so-called “literary etiquette”. This is a special literary and aesthetic regulation, the desire to subordinate the very image of the world to certain principles and rules, to establish once and for all what and how should be depicted.
Old Russian literature appears with the emergence of the state, writing and is based on book Christian culture and developed forms of oral poetic creativity. At this time, literature and folklore were closely connected. Literature often perceived plots artistic images, visual arts folk art.
The originality of ancient Russian literature in the depiction of the hero depends on the style and genre of the work. In relation to styles and genres, it is reproduced in monuments ancient literature hero, ideals are formed and created.
In ancient Russian literature, a system of genres was defined, within which the development of original Russian literature began. The main thing in their definition was the “use” of the genre, the “practical purpose” for which this or that work was intended.
The traditions of Old Russian literature are found in the works of Russian writers of the 18th-20th centuries.

TEST QUESTIONS AND TASKS

How does Academician D.S. characterize Likhachev ancient Russian literature? Why does he call it “one grandiose whole, one colossal work”?
What does Likhachev compare ancient literature with and why?
What are the main advantages of ancient literature?
Why would the artistic discoveries of literature of subsequent centuries be impossible without the works of ancient literature? (Think about what qualities of ancient literature were adopted by Russian literature of modern times. Give examples from works of Russian classics known to you.)
What did Russian poets and prose writers value and adopt from ancient literature? What did A.S. write about her? Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, A.I. Herzen, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak?
What does ancient literature write about the benefits of books? Give examples of “praise of books” known in ancient Russian literature.
Why were ideas about the power of words high in ancient literature? What were they connected with, what did they rely on?
What is said about the word in the Gospel?
What do writers compare books to and why; why are books rivers, sources of wisdom, and what do the words mean: “if you diligently look for wisdom in the books, you will find great benefit for your soul”?
Name the monuments of ancient Russian literature known to you and the names of their scribes.
Tell us about the method of writing and the nature of ancient manuscripts.
Name the historical background for the emergence of ancient Russian literature and its specific features in contrast to modern literature.
What is the role of folklore in the formation of ancient literature?
Using vocabulary and reference material, briefly retell the history of the study of ancient monuments, write down the names of the scientists involved in their research and the stages of study.
What is the image of the world and man in the minds of Russian scribes?
Tell us about the depiction of man in ancient Russian literature.
Name the themes of ancient literature, using vocabulary and reference material, characterize its genres.
List the main stages in the development of ancient literature.

Read also the articles in the section “ National identity ancient literature, its origin and development."

The literary art of Ancient Rus' originates in the Middle Ages and dates back to the end of the 10th and the first years of the 11th century. This time is so far from us that it is difficult for a person living now to understand the unique and now mysterious book and cultural world. In order to penetrate into it, you need to know the history, religion, and peculiarities of the aesthetic ideas of the people of that time.

With the adoption of Christianity and Orthodoxy as the state religion, which came to us from Byzantium through the lands of the southern Slavs, mainly through Bulgaria, books appeared in Ancient Rus' - church-service and narrative-historical. They were written in Church Slavonic. This is how Ancient Rus' became familiar with Greek and Pan-Slavic Orthodox writing and culture.

The basis of Church Slavonic texts was the system religious ideas about the world, according to which God is the Creator of all things. When starting his work, the writer of that time, whose image was embodied by Pushkin in the chronicler Pimen in the tragedy “Boris Godunov,” first of all enlisted the support of God, asking Him in his prayers to help him in the work he was undertaking. Old Russian literature described various historical events - campaigns of princes, battles against the Pechenegs and Polovtsians, battles of princes for the Kiev throne.

The medieval writer knew well the reason for the events that took place: for him they were all manifestations of God's will. Old Russian literature is distinguished by its high spirituality. Its main interest is focused on the life of the human soul, on the education and improvement of the moral principle in man, while the external, objective things recede into the background. Just as in an icon the entire foreground is occupied by the face and eyes (the face is the light of the soul, the eyes are the entrance to the inner world and the reflection of the inner light), so in literature the ancient Russian writer glorifies eternally valuable spiritual qualities - mercy, modesty, selflessness, spiritual integrity and openness.

Old Russian literature was exclusively historical character. She didn't allow fiction. This allowed Academician D. S. Likhachev to call her style “the style of monumental historicism.” Fiction is allowed into ancient Russian texts no earlier than the 17th century, when secular literature began to take shape.

The medieval writer is not interested in a private person with his purely earthly concerns, sorrows and joys. He is busy with events of national scale and significance, and therefore the focus of his attention is on princes, boyars, governors, and clergy of high rank. They are in historical light on two levels - real-historical and religious-symbolic. Ancient man in Rus', he believed that Prince Vladimir baptized Rus' and that there were black demons, with wings and tails, tempting them to do bad things.

The ancient Russian scribe could not write, “listening indifferently to good and evil.” He passionately and openly expressed his political and moral positions. Another feature of Old Russian literature is that it always observes etiquette - the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and verbal etiquette. According to D.S. Likhachev, the writer of that time clearly understood “how this or that course of events should have taken place,” “how the actor", "What words should a writer use to describe what is happening." Everything had its own order, its own order, which could not be violated. Therefore, in the monuments there are a lot of “ common places" The Old Russian writer valued the general, repetitive, and easily recognizable and avoided everything unusual, particular, and accidental. That is why the abundant citations from various sources that medieval books resorted to are evidence of high education, erudition and culture. But this does not mean that the writer could not take advantage of different written and oral traditions, which is what makes “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” different.

The content and aesthetics of ancient Russian literature are embodied in a unique system of genres. Each genre was directly related to practical life and served its own area of activity. Chronicle writing was caused by the state's need to have its own written history. The genres of liturgical literature (Prologue, Apostle, Book of Hours, etc.) were intended for sending church services(requirements) and rituals. Feats of arms were depicted in military stories. Traveling with different purposes- on the move. Descriptions of the lives of saints or princes are in the lives, which also had their own differences. Each genre had its own canon 1. Written literature developed epic genres(story, legend), lyrical (word, teaching), lyric-epic (life). There was a strict hierarchy among the genres: the main genre was considered to be Holy Scripture, followed by hymnography and “words” interpreting Scripture and explaining the meaning of Christian holidays, then the lives of saints. In the 17th century, Old Russian literature was enriched with poetic forms, the genres of satire and drama, and the life of the saint developed into a story of an everyday or memoir-autobiographical nature.

Old Russian literature, spanning seven centuries, has gone through a long and impressive path of development. Her first period- XI - first third of the XII century, when there were two centers in Ancient Rus' - Kyiv and Novgorod. This period is distinguished by the relative unity of literature and is generally characterized as a period of apprenticeship. main idea works - the superiority of Christianity over paganism ("The Tale of Bygone Years", "The Life of Theodosius of Pechersk", "The Sermon on Law and Grace" by Metropolitan Hilarion, "The Walk" by Abbot Daniel, "The Teaching" by Vladimir Monomakh).

Second period- second third of the 12th - first third of the 13th century. This period is characterized by the emergence of regional literary centers(Vladimir, Rostov, Smolensk, Galich, Polotsk, Turov). The main works are “The Lay of Igor’s Host”, the Kiev-Pechersk Patericon, “The Lay” by Kirill of Turov, “Prayer” by Daniil Zatochnik.

Third period- tragic, associated with the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the fight against it (second third of the 13th - end of the 14th century). One theme dominates here - heroic, coupled with faith in national revival.

The fourth period- the end of the XIV-XV century - the time of rise national identity, manifested in the idea of gathering lands, in the formation of a moral ideal. This was reflected in the lives of the saints written by Epiphanius the Wise.

Fifth period- the era of the Moscow centralized state (late XV-XVI centuries). It is characterized by the fusion regional literature to the all-Russian Journalism reaches an extraordinary flowering here. The main works are “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom” by Ermolai-Erasmus, “Walking across the Three Seas” by Afanasy Nikitin, “The Great “Cheti-Minea””, “Domostroy”, correspondence of Ivan the Terrible with Andrei Kurbsky. Sixth period - Time of Troubles, a clash of old and new writing principles. This period is divided into two segments: from the beginning to the 60s of the 17th century and from the 60s to the end of the 17th century. In the first segment, the old method of depicting reality is destroyed and updated genre system. In the second segment, literature is divided into democratic and official. Attention to the person becomes common, and the autobiographical principle intensifies. Main works - “The Tale of Shemyakin court", "The Tale of Ersha Ershovich", "The Life of Archpriest Avvakum".

The seventeenth century completes the history of ancient Russian literature with its inherent unified principles. After this, the history of secular fiction opens from the 18th century.

Questions and tasks

What was the basis of Church Slavonic texts and what distinguished Old Russian literature?
What genres of ancient Russian literature existed and which of them are familiar to you from previous classes?
What works of ancient Russian literature do you know from courses in grades 5, 6, 7, 8? Name the heroes of previously studied works of ancient Russian literature. Tell us about one of them.
What periods did ancient Russian literature go through in its development?
Re-read and write an article about ancient Russian literature, compose detailed plan text.

1 Canon - strict rules and norms.

In ancient times, Rus' did not know literature. Artistic word existed only orally: legends were told about wise princes And brave warriors, legends about the gods, everyday and fairy tales. Ritual songs were sung at holidays, weddings and funerals. Write down folklore works no one gathered: they knew them by heart, listened to them many times throughout their lives, told them and sang them themselves.

Since the 10th century, writing has been used exclusively for business purposes.

Since 988, when Grand Duke Kiev Vladimir Svyatoslavich proclaimed Christianity as the state religion in Rus', the need arose to distribute books. Ancient books written on parchment, bound in wooden bindings, covered with leather, with obligatory clasps: without them, the book with thick leather pages would constantly open.

So, after the adoption of Christianity, books appeared in Rus'. In the middle of the 11th century in Rus' a completely special genre historical narrative - chronicle. In the Old Russian language, the word “summer” meant not only the season of the year, but also the year itself. Each new entry in the chronicle began with the words “in the summer...” - hence the name of the genre.

At the beginning of the 12th century, the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Nestor creates new edition chronicle, which we call “The Tale of Bygone Years” from its first words. He begins his story with information about the origin of the Slavs, then tells about the territory of the Russian land, about the tribes that inhabited it in ancient times and their customs, talks about the founding of Kiev and the first Russian princes from the Rurik dynasty: about the brave warrior Oleg the Prophet, Prince Igor, killed by the Drevlyans for excessive greed, to his wise and cruel wife Olga, about the glorious Svyatoslav Igorevich. Further, the “Tale of Bygone Years” tells about Vladimir Svyatoslavich and the adoption of Christianity by Russia, about the treachery of Vladimir’s adopted son, Svyatopolk, who began to exterminate his half-brothers, about the victory over him and the glorious reign of Yaroslav the Wise.

Nestor has topics that are especially important. He persistently pursues the idea of the need for peace between the princes: after all, they are all relatives by blood, they all come from Prince of Kyiv Igor.

According to O. Tvorogov

FROM “THE TALE OF BYE YEARS”

Here are the stories of past years, where the Russian land came from, who became the first to reign in Kyiv and how the Russian land arose.

SETTLEMENT OF THE SLAVS

So let's begin this story.

The Slavs settled along the Danube, where the Ugric and Bulgarian lands are now. And from those Slavs the Slavs spread throughout the land and began to be called by the places where they settled. So, some came and settled on a river named Morava and were called Moravians, while others were called Czechs. And here are the same Slavs: white Croats and Serbs. When the Volochs attacked the Danube Slavs and settled among them and began to oppress them, the Slavs went north and settled on the Vistula. They were called Poles, and from those Poles came the Poles.

Some Slavs came and settled along the Dnieper and were called Polyans, and others - Drevlyans, because they settled in the forests, and still others settled between Pripyat and Dvina and were called Dregovichi, others settled along the Dvina and were called Polochans, after the river that flows into the Dvina and is called Polota. The same Slavs who settled near Lake Ilmen called themselves by their own name - Slovenes - and built a city and called it Novgorod. And others settled along the Desna, and the Seim, and the Sula and were called northerners. And so I broke up Slavic people, and after his name the letter was called “Slavic”.

CUE, CHEEK and HOREB

The Polyans lived separately and were governed by their own clans. And there were three brothers: one named Kiy, the other - Shchek and the third - Khoriv, and their sister was Lybid. Kiy sat on the mountain where Borichev is now transported, and Shchek sat on the mountain that is now called Shchekovitsa, and Khoriv on the third mountain, which was nicknamed Khorivitsa after him. And they built a city in the name of their elder brother and called it Kiev. There was a forest and a large forest all around the city, and they caught animals there. And those men were wise and intelligent, and they were called Polyans, from them Polyans are still in Kyiv.

Some, ignorant, say that Kiy was a carrier; At that time, Kyiv had transportation from the other side of the Dnieper, which is why they said: “For transportation, to Kyiv.” If Kiy had been a ferryman, he would not have gone to Constantinople. And this Kiy reigned in his family, and he went to the king - we just don’t know which king, but, they say, this king gave him great honors. Kiy, returning to his city of Kyiv, ended his life here, and his brothers, Shchek and Khoriv, and their sister Lybid died immediately.

TRIBUTE TO THE KHAZARS

After death three brothers The Drevlyans and other surrounding people began to oppress the glades. And the Khazars found them on these mountains in the forests and said:

Pay us tribute.

The clearing conferred and gave a sword each from the smoke. And the Khazars took the swords to their prince and to their elders and said to them:

Well, we have found a new tribute.

They also asked:

They answered:

In the forest on the mountains, above the Dnieper River.

The Khazar elders asked again:

What did they give?

They showed swords.

And the elders said:

This is not a good tribute, to the prince. We found her with weapons that were sharp only on one side - sabers, but these weapons had double-edged weapons - swords. The day will come when they will collect tribute from us and from other lands.

And everything came true: the Russian princes still rule the Khazars to this day.

Retelling by T. Mikhelson

Nestor the chronicler. Sculptor M. M.Antokolsky. 1890

Questions and tasks

1. What events were reflected in the chronicles?

2. Retell the article about ancient Russian literature.

3. What historical events are told in excerpts from The Tale of Bygone Years?

4. How to explain the names of the texts included in it?

5. Read another passage “In praise of Prince Yaroslav and books”:

“Yaroslav loved books, reading them often both at night and during the day. And he gathered many scribes, and they translated from Greek into Slavic. And they copied many books, and faithful people learn from them and enjoy the divine teaching. It’s as if someone plowed the land, and another sowed it, while others now eat food that never fails: his father Vladimir plowed the land and softened it, that is, he enlightened it with baptism, Yaroslav sowed the hearts of faithful people with bookish words, and we reap by accepting book teaching.”

How do you understand this text? Explain the words “enjoy”, “unfailing”, “sown with bookish words”, “reaping the teaching of the book”.

6. Retell one of the passages from “The Tale of Bygone Years” using ancient words and expressions, for example:

So let's begin this story;

The smoke hit the sword;

Russian princes own it.

In Ancient Rus' story They called chronicles, and sometimes lives - written stories about the lives of saints.

Chronicles- monuments of historical writing and literature of Ancient Rus'. The narration in them was carried out year by year in chronological order. The story about the events of each year began with the words “in the summer...” - hence the name “chronicle”.

For you, curious ones

A handwritten book is a manuscript in the form of separate notebooks, sewn together and bound. The notebook was sewn to belts, which, in turn, were attached to wooden binding boards (hence the phrase: “read a book from board to board”). The outside of the boards was covered with leather or some kind of fabric or covered with frames. The spine of the binding in Ancient Rus' was made flat or rounded. Leather ties or clasps were attached to the bindings.

The printed book was first published in China in the first half of the 11th century. In Europe, printing dates back to the 40s of the 15th century, when Johann Gutenberg published the Bible, and the first Slavic printed books were published in 1491. The first accurately dated book in Moscow - “The Apostle” - was printed in 1564 by Ivan Fedorov and Pyotr Mstislavets.

"Apostle". 1564 Frontispiece

Monument to Cyril and Methodius on Slavyanskaya Square in Moscow. Sculptor V. M. Klykov. 1992

Creators Slavic alphabet brothers Cyril (c. 827-869) and Methodius (c. 815-885) - educators, preachers of Christianity, the first translators of liturgical books from Greek into Church Slavonic.

In honor of Saints Cyril and Methodius on May 24 at Slavic countries Days are held Slavic writing and culture.

Meet some special terms related to book publishing. Now you can talk about the book and its features.

Cover- cover of a brochure, magazine or book.

Binding- hard cover of the book.

Flyleaf- a double sheet of paper connecting the book block with the binding cover.

Frontispiece- a page with an image placed on the left half of the first spread of the book, the right side of which is occupied by the title page. The frontispiece is an illustration of the entire work.

Title page- title page of the publication containing information about the book.

Title turnover- reverse side title page, which contains information about the book and annotation.

annotation- brief information about the content of the publication (books, brochures, articles).

Output- information about the book (usually on the last page), which indicates the year of publication, circulation, address of the publisher and printing house.

Circulation- number of copies of the publication.

From the fables of the peoples of the world.

AESOP

The name of Aesop is mentioned in ancient Greek literature in 440-430 BC. It, like the image of Aesop himself, is overgrown with legends. Nothing is known for certain about Aesop. We don't even know if he was a historical figure. According to legends, he was an old man, a participant in feasts, and a wise interlocutor. He is a slave, but smarter than free citizens, ugly (“the belly is distended, the head is like a cauldron, snub-nosed, with dark skin, crippled, humming..."), but taller than the handsome men. His appearance did not at all correspond to the ideas of the aristocrats about the ideal person.

The fable in his mouth is a weapon for protecting the oppressed people from the nobility. But since direct attacks against the rulers were dangerous, Aesop chose the allegorical genre, the form of fable. It's like he's entertaining the audience. oral history, but its purpose is to convey the rules that are followed in society and at home, to teach life lessons true stories and cases.

Hence the name - Aesopian language - allegorical language, under the guise of entertainment, jokes, it is used for ridicule and instruction. Aesop's fables - oral jokes - teachings. Aesop was and is considered the founder of the fable genre, the discoverer, and the inventor of fable plots.

All subsequent fabulists (Phaedrus, La Fontaine, Krylov, etc.) used plots first introduced into literature by Aesop. Since he sought to both entertain and instruct, the fable can be called a fictional, entertaining and instructive story.

According to M.L. Gasparov

THE RAVEN AND THE FOX

The raven took away a piece of meat and sat down on a tree. The fox saw it and wanted to get this meat. She stood in front of the Raven and began to praise him: he was great and handsome, and could become a king over the birds better than others, and he would, of course, if he also had a voice. The Raven wanted to show her that he had a voice; He released the meat and croaked in a loud voice. And the Fox ran up, grabbed the meat and said: “Eh, Raven, if you also had a mind in your head, you wouldn’t need anything else to reign.”

The fable is appropriate against an unreasonable person.

FOX AND GRAPES

The hungry Fox saw a grapevine with hanging grapes and wanted to get to them, but she couldn’t; and, walking away, she said to herself: “They are still green!”

It’s the same with people: others cannot succeed because they lack the strength, but they blame circumstances for this.

Translation by M.L. Gasparova

Questions and tasks

1. Make an outline for an article about Aesop and prepare a detailed answer to it.

2. How did you understand the statement of M.L. Gasparov that the fable in the hands of Aesop is “a weapon for protecting the oppressed people from the nobility”?

3. What does the expression “Aesopian language” mean? Define the concept of “allegory”.

4. What is the moral of Aesop's fables you read?

Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695)

Jean de La Fontaine was a French fabulist who lived during the reign of Louis XIV. He is the author of several collections of fairy tales, which were admired by the philosopher and writer Voltaire. But the most significant and remarkable of all that he created are his fables.

Lafontaine retold already familiar stories in new way, but nevertheless turned out to be the creator of original, unique fables. The main thing for him is a narrative full of life, movement, actions, feelings, speeches. The moral comes from his story.

FOX AND GRAPES

The Gascon fox, or perhaps the Norman fox

(They say different things)

Dying of hunger, I suddenly saw above the gazebo

Grapes, so visibly green,

In ruddy skin!

Our friend was glad to feast on them,

Yes, he could not reach him and said: “He is green -

Let all the rabble feed on it!”

Well, isn't this better than idly complaining?

Translation by M.L. Gasparova

Questions and tasks

2. The fables of Aesop and Jean de La Fontaine in the textbook are given in translation by M.L. Gasparova. How does the translation of the last fable differ from the previous two?

3. What word in La Fontaine’s fable “The Fox and the Grapes” seemed unexpected to you? Find synonyms for it.

4. Compare the fables of the fabulists on the theme “The Fox and the Grapes.” What are the similarities? What is the difference? Let us take as an example the reasoning of literary critic V.I. Korovina.

LITERATURE

9th grade

Textbook - khrestomatiya

for educational institutions

In two parts

Part 1

12th edition, revised and expanded

"Enlightenment" OJSC "Moscow Textbooks" Moscow 2006

IN. Y. Korovina, V. I. Korovin,

AND. S. Zbarsky, V. P. Zhuravlev

IN textbook chapters about Bunin, Zabolotsky, Mayakovsky, Tvardovsky, Akhmatova, methodological apparatus for all chapters (questions and tasks, “Enrich your speech”, memoirs, “In creative laboratory writer”, etc.), sections “Romances and songs based on the words of Russian writers of the 19th-20th centuries”, about literary reading (advice from V.S. Lanovoy,

A. M. Brousseur), " Brief dictionary literary terms» prepared V. Ya. Korovina.

Sections “Old Russian Literature”, “Masterpieces of Russian literature of the 19th century century", "Poetry of the 19th century", stories about writers: Lomonosov, Derzhavin, Radishchev, Karamzin, Zhukovsky, Griboyedov, Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol, Ostrovsky, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Blok, Yesenin, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, Solzhenitsyn, Catullus, Horace , Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe - prepared by V.I. Korovin.

Chapters about Sholokhov (together with V.P. Zhuravlev) and about Bulgakov were prepared by I. S. Zbarsky.

A chapter on Sholokhov (together with I. S. Zbarsky), a dictionary of names, a section “Literary places in Russia” have been prepared

B. P. Zhuravlev.

Literature. 9th grade Textbook for general education. institutions. At 2 p.m. Part 1 / [author-comp.

V. Ya. Korovina and others]; edited by V. Ya. Korovina. - 12th ed., revised. and additional - M.: Education, OJSC "Moscow Textbooks", 2006. - 369 p. : ill.

A word to ninth graders

The ninth grade completes basic general education. Since not all students will continue their studies in the tenth or eleventh grades of a general education school, the authors consider it necessary to acquaint students with works of Russian literature as widely as possible, including tutorial in accordance with the program the most significant texts.

The authors tried to select the most important of them, without loading them with an abundance of theoretical and critical articles and statements, to help understand the features of the writer’s work, and to introduce readers to independent reading and to working in libraries. The best way master reading skills - individual acquaintance with literary texts and critical materials in preparation for a message, conversation, report, essay. For this it is necessary Active participation everyone in literature lessons, in extracurricular activities in organizing an evening, competition, literary quiz.

“To study a poet means not only to get acquainted, through intensive and repeated reading, with his works, but also to feel, to experience them... To experience the works of a poet means to endure, to feel in one’s soul all the richness, the whole depth of their content, to suffer from their illnesses, to suffer their sorrows, to rejoice in their joy, their triumph, their hopes. It is impossible to understand a poet without being under his exclusive influence for some time, without loving to look with his eyes, hear with his ears, speak with his language."

This is exactly the kind of reading we wish for you!

1 Belinsky V. G. Works of Alexander Pushkin. - M., 1955. - T. 7. - P. 310.

Old Russian literature

The literary art of Ancient Rus' originates in the Middle Ages and dates back to the end of the 10th and the first years of the 11th century. This time is so far from us that it is difficult for a person living now to understand the unique book and cultural world that has gone into the depths of centuries and has now become mysterious. In order to penetrate into it, you need to know the history, religion, and peculiarities of the aesthetic ideas of the people of that time.

The Church Slavonic texts were based on a system of religious ideas about the world, according to which God is the Creator of everything

of existence. When starting his work, the writer of that time, whose image was embodied by Pushkin in the chronicler Pimen in the tragedy “Boris Godunov,” first of all enlisted the support of God, asking Him in his prayers to help him in the work he was undertaking.

Old Russian literature described various historical events - campaigns of princes, battles against the Pechenegs and Polovtsians, battles of princes for the Kiev throne. The medieval writer knew well the reason for the events that took place: for him they were all manifestations of God's will.

Old Russian literature is distinguished by its high spirituality. Her main interest is

focused on the life of the human soul, on the education and improvement of the moral principle in man, while the external, objective things recede into the background. Just as in an icon the entire foreground is occupied by the face and eyes (the face is the light of the soul, the eyes are the entrance to the inner world and the reflection of the inner light), so in literature the ancient Russian writer glorifies eternally valuable spiritual qualities - mercy, modesty, selflessness, spiritual integrity and openness.

Old Russian literature was exclusively historical in nature. She did not allow artistic fiction. This allowed Academician D. S. Likhachev to call her style “the style of monumental historicism.”

The medieval writer is not interested in a private person with his purely earthly concerns, sorrows and joys. He is busy with events of national scale and significance, and therefore the focus of his attention is on princes, boyars, governors, and clergy of high rank. They are in historical light on two levels - real-historical and religious-symbolic. Ancient people in Rus' believed that Prince Vladimir baptized Rus' and that there were black demons, with wings and tails, tempting them to do bad things.

The ancient Russian scribe could not write, “listening indifferently to good and evil.” He passionately and openly expressed his political and moral positions.

Another feature of Old Russian literature is that it always observes etiquette - the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and verbal etiquette. According to D.S. Likhachev, the writer of that time clearly understood “how this or that course of events should have taken place,” “how the character should have behaved,” “in what words should the writer describe what was happening.” Everything had its own order, its own order, which could not be violated. Therefore, there are a lot of “common places” in the monuments. Old Russian

the writer valued the general, repetitive, easily recognizable and avoided everything unusual, particular, and accidental. This is why there are copious citations from different sources, which medieval books resorted to, is evidence of high education, erudition and culture. But this does not mean that the writer could not take advantage of different written and oral traditions, which is what makes “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” different.

The content and aesthetics of ancient Russian literature are embodied in a unique system of genres. Each genre was directly related to practical life and served its own area of activity. Chronicle writing was caused by the state's need to have its own written history. The genres of liturgical literature (Prologue, Apostle, Book of Hours, etc.) were intended for the performance of church services (requirements) and rituals. Feats of arms were depicted in military stories. Traveling for different purposes is about walking. Descriptions of the lives of saints or princes are in the lives, which also had their own differences. Each genre had its own canon1. Written literature developed epic genres (story, legend), lyrical (word, teaching), lyric-epic (life). There was a strict hierarchy among the genres: the main genre was considered to be Holy Scripture, followed by hymnography and “words” interpreting Scripture and explaining the meaning Christian holidays, then - the lives of the saints. In the 15th century, Old Russian literature was enriched with poetic forms, the genres of satire and drama, and the life of the saint developed into a story of an everyday or memoir-autobiographical nature.

Old Russian literature, spanning seven centuries, has gone through a long and impressive path of development.

Its first period is the XI - the first third of the XI century, when there were two centers in Ancient Rus' - Kyiv and Novgorod. This period is distinguished by the relative unity of literature and is generally characterized as a period of apprenticeship. The main idea of the works is the superiority of Christianity over paganism (“The Tale of Time”

XIII century. This period is characterized by the emergence of regional literary centers (Vladimir, Rostov, Smolensk, Galich, Polotsk, Turov). Major works -

The third period is tragic, associated with the Mongol-Tatar invasion and the fight against it (second third of the 13th - end of the 14th century). One theme dominates here - heroic, coupled with faith in national revival.

The fourth period- the end of the XI V - XV century 4 - the time of the rise of national self-awareness, manifested in the idea of gathering lands, in the formation of a moral ideal. This was reflected in the lives of saints written by Epiphanius the Wise.

The fifth period is the era of the Moscow centralized state (late XV - XV I centuries). It is characterized by the merging of regional literatures into all-Russian ones. Journalism reaches an extraordinary flowering here. Basic

system", correspondence between Ivan the Terrible and Andrei Kurbsky.

The sixth period is a time of troubles, a clash of old and new principles of writing. This period is divided into two segments: from the beginning to the 60s of the 17th century and from the 60s to the end of the 17th century. In the first segment, the old method of depicting reality is destroyed and the genre system is updated. In the second segment, literature is divided into democratic and official. Attention to the person becomes common, and the autobiographical principle intensifies. Major works -

The seventeenth century completes the history of ancient Russian literature with its inherent unified principles. By-

After this, from the XV I I I century, the history of secular fiction opens.

1 . T h e l a t h e b o u s t h e c h e r r i v e - S l a v i n c t e x t o v i c t o o t - l and h a l o d r e v n e r u s s k u l i t e r a t u r ?

2. What genres of ancient Russian literature existed and which of them are familiar to you from previous classes?

3. What works of ancient Russian literature do you know from courses in grades 5, 6, 7, 8? Name the heroes of previously studied works of ancient Russian literature. Tell us about one of them.

4. What periods did ancient Russian literature go through in its development?

5. Re-read and tell the article about ancient Russian literature, draw up a detailed outline of the text.

ABOUT "The Tale of Igor's Campaign"

“The Word...” grew on the fertile soil of Russian culture in the 11th century. It is deeply rooted in folk culture, With vernacular, with a popular worldview, answered the people's aspirations, it was created

V years when the process of feudal fragmentation of Rus' reached its greatest strength. Many small feudal“semi-states”-principalities are at enmity with each other, challenging each other’s possessions, seniority, getting involved

V fratricidal wars in the name of selfish princely interests. A striking example unity of culture Ru-

si XI I century - “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, greatest monument literature of Rus'. It looks to the future, not the past. Of all the works of the XI - XI I centuries. It is in it that the elements of future literatures - Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian - are most clearly visible.

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is dedicated to the campaign against the Polovtsians in 1185 by the insignificant Novgorod-Seversk prince Igor Svyatoslavich.

The call for unity in the face of external danger permeates the entire “Word...” from beginning to end. The author proves the need for this unity using the example of Igor’s unsuccessful campaign with numerous historical comparisons, depicting the consequences of princely strife, drawing a broad image of the Russian

Chronicle story about Igor's campaign.

Igor Svyatoslavich goes on a campaign.

Miniature of the world chronicle of the 12th century.

a land full of cities, rivers and numerous inhabitants, depicting Russian nature, the endless expanses of the Motherland.

... “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” addressed its appeal not only to the Russian princes, but also to public opinion of the entire Russian people... The author of “The Lay...” does not separate his judgments from public opinion. He recognizes himself as the spokesman for this opinion, striving to convey his assessment of events, his assessment of the current situation in Rus' as a national assessment.

To unity of Rus' in the face of external danger, call

To protection of the peaceful creative labor of the Russian population

niya - farmers and artisans. His art system closely related to Russian folk art...

According to D. S. Likhachev

1. Prepare a retelling of D. S. Likhachev’s essay using a textbook or the book “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” (Literary Monuments series), emphasizing the author’s main thoughts.

2. How to characterize the years when the work was created?

3. Read the text of “The Lay of Igor’s Campaign” in translation

N. Zabolotsky (you can read about the work of N.A. Zabolotsky on p. 134-152 of the second part of the textbook), get acquainted with the history of the manuscript according to the story of a literary scholar

N. Gujia. Tell us about your impressions.

From the history of the manuscript

The most precious monument of ancient Russian literature - “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” was written about the unsuccessful campaign against the Polovtsians of the Seversky prince Igor Svyatoslavich in alliance with his brother Vsevolod from Trubchevsk, son Vladimir from Putivl and nephew

about Igor’s regiment,” it is described in the Lavrentievskaya, Ipatievskaya, and also in later chronicles.

... “The Word...” was written shortly after the hike. It was discovered at the end of the 16th century. collector and lover of antiquities gr. A.I. Musin-Pushkin, first published by him in 1800 in Moscow. Soon a copy was made for Catherine II. In 1812, during Napoleon's invasion, among other Musin-Pushkin manuscripts stored in his Moscow library, a manuscript containing the text of the monument was lost. Thus, the only old copy of “The Lay...” perished, and we now have only a late Catherine copy from it from the end of the 15th century. and the first printed text of the monument.

At first, even before the destruction of the manuscript, several translations of it, including poetic ones, were made into modern Russian. The few attempts to study the monument were reduced mainly to commenting on its dark places. There were also disputes

Old Russian literature is the solid foundation on which to build majestic building national Russian artistic culture XVIII-XX centuries

It is based on high moral ideals, faith in man, in his possibilities of limitless moral improvement, faith in the power of the word, its ability to transform inner world man, the patriotic pathos of serving the Russian land - the state - the Motherland, faith in the ultimate triumph of good over the forces of evil, the worldwide unity of people and its victory over hated discord.

Without knowing the history of ancient Russian literature, we will not understand the full depth of A. S. Pushkin’s work, the spiritual essence of creativity

N.V. Gogol, the moral quest of L.N. Tolstoy, the philosophical depth of F.M. Dostoevsky, the originality of Russian symbolism, the verbal quest of the futurists.

Chronological boundaries of Old Russian literature and its specific features.

Russian medieval literature is initial stage development of Russian literature. Its emergence is closely connected with the process of formation of the early feudal state.

Subordinated to the political tasks of strengthening the foundations of the feudal system, it in its own way reflected various periods of the development of public and social relations in Rus' in the 11th-17th centuries. Old Russian literature is the literature of the emerging Great Russian nationality, which is gradually developing into a nation.

The question of the chronological boundaries of ancient Russian literature has not been finally resolved by our science. Ideas about the volume of ancient Russian literature still remain incomplete.

Many works were lost in the fire of countless fires, during the devastating raids of steppe nomads, the invasion of Mongol-Tatar invaders, and Polish-Swedish invaders! Yes and more late time, in 1737, the remains of the library of the Moscow tsars were destroyed by a fire that broke out in the Grand Kremlin Palace.

In 1777, the Kiev Library was destroyed by fire. During Patriotic War In 1812, handwritten collections of Musin-Pushkin, Buturlin, Bauze, Demidov, and the Moscow Society of Lovers of Russian Literature were burned in Moscow.

The main keepers and copyists of books in Ancient Rus', as a rule, were monks, who were least interested in storing and copying books of secular (secular) content. And this largely explains why the vast majority of works that have come down to us Old Russian writing is of an ecclesiastical nature.

Works of ancient Russian literature were divided into “secular” and “spiritual”. The latter were supported and disseminated in every possible way, since they contained the enduring values of religious dogma, philosophy and ethics, and the former, with the exception of official legal and historical documents, were declared “vain.” Thanks to this, we present our ancient literature in to a greater extent ecclesiastical than it really was.

When starting to study ancient Russian literature, it is necessary to take into account its specific features, which are different from the literature of modern times.

A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is the handwritten nature of its existence and distribution. Moreover, this or that work did not exist in the form of a separate, independent manuscript, but was part of various collections that pursued certain practical goals.

“Everything that serves not for the sake of benefit, but for the sake of embellishment, is subject to the accusation of vanity.” These words of Basil the Great largely determined the attitude of ancient Russian society towards written works. The meaning of this or that handwritten book assessed from the point of view of its practical purpose and usefulness.

“Great comes the benefit of bookish teaching, since we teach through books and teach the path of repentance, we gain wisdom and abstinence from the words of books; for these are the rivers that feed the universe, these are the sources of wisdom, these are the sources of wisdom, these are the unsought depths, these are the comforts of us in sorrow, these are the bridles of self-control... If you diligently search for wisdom in the books, you will find great progress in your soul... "- the chronicler teaches in 1037.

Another feature of our ancient literature is the anonymity and impersonality of its works. This was a consequence of the religious-Christian attitude of feudal society towards man, and in particular towards the work of a writer, artist, and architect.

IN best case scenario we know the names of individual authors, “copywriters” of books, who modestly put their name either at the end of the manuscript, or in its margins, or (which is much less common) in the title of the work. At the same time, the writer will not accept his name with such evaluative epithets as “thin”, “unworthy”, “many sinners”.

Biographical information about the ancient Russian writers known to us, the volume of their creativity, character social activities very, very scarce. Therefore, if when studying literature of the 18th-20th centuries. literary scholars are widely involved biographical material, reveal the nature of the political, philosophical, aesthetic views of a particular writer, using the author’s manuscripts, trace the history of the creation of works, identify creative individuality writer, then the monuments of ancient Russian writing have to be approached differently.

In medieval society there was no concept of copyright, individual characteristics The writer's personality did not receive such a vivid manifestation as in the literature of modern times. Copyists often acted as editors and co-authors rather than simple copyists of the text. They changed the ideological orientation of the work being copied, the nature of its style, shortened or distributed the text in accordance with the tastes and demands of their time.

As a result, new editions of monuments were created. And even when the copyist simply copied the text, his list was always somehow different from the original: he made typos, omitted words and letters, and involuntarily reflected in the language the features of his native dialect. In this regard, in science there is a special term - “izvod” (manuscript of the Pskov-Novgorod edition, Moscow, or, more broadly, Bulgarian, Serbian, etc.).

As a rule, the author's texts of works have not reached us, but their later lists have been preserved, sometimes distant from the time the original was written by a hundred, two hundred or more years. For example, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” created by Nestor in 1111–1113, has not survived at all, and the edition of Sylvester’s “story” (1116) is known only as part of the Laurentian Chronicle of 1377. “The Tale of Igor’s Host,” written at the end of 80 s of the 12th century, was found in a list of the 16th century.

All this requires from the researcher of ancient Russian literature unusually thorough and painstaking textual work: studying all available lists of a particular monument, establishing the time and place of their writing by comparing various editions, variants of lists, as well as determining which edition the list most matches original author's text. A special branch deals with these issues philological science— textual criticism.

Deciding difficult questions about the time of writing of this or that monument, its lists, the researcher turns to such an auxiliary historical and philological science as paleography.

Based on the characteristics of letters, handwriting, the nature of writing material, paper watermarks, the nature of headpieces, ornaments, miniatures illustrating the text of a manuscript, paleography makes it possible to relatively accurately determine the time of creation of a particular manuscript and the number of scribes who wrote it.

In the XI - first half of the XIV century. The main writing material was parchment, made from calf skin. In Rus', parchment was often called “veal” or “haratya”. This expensive material was, naturally, available only to the propertied classes, and artisans and traders used birch bark for their ice correspondence. Birch bark also served as student notebooks. This is evidenced by the remarkable archaeological discoveries Novgorod birch bark letters.

To save writing material, the words in the line were not separated, and only the paragraphs of the manuscript were highlighted with a red cinnabar letter - the initial, the title - a “red line” in the literal sense of the word. Frequently used, widely famous words written in abbreviation under a special superscript - title. For example, glet (verb - says), bg (god), btsa (Mother of God).

The parchment was pre-lined by a scribe using a ruler with a chain. Then the scribe placed it on his lap and carefully wrote out each letter. Handwriting with regular, almost square letters was called charter.

Working on the manuscript required painstaking work and great skill, so when the scribe completed his hard work, he celebrated it with joy. “The merchant rejoices when he has made the purchase and the helmsman in the calm of the bailiff and the wanderer who has come to his fatherland, and the book writer rejoices in the same way, having reached the end of the books...” - we read at the end of the Laurentian Chronicle.

The written sheets were sewn into notebooks, which were intertwined into wooden boards. From here phraseological turn- “read a book from board to board.” The binding boards were covered with leather, and sometimes covered with special frames made of silver and gold. A remarkable example of jewelry art is, for example, the setting of the Mstislav Gospel (early 12th century).

In the XIV century. paper replaced parchment. This cheaper writing material adhered and speeded up the writing process. The statutory letter is replaced by slanted, rounded handwriting with a large number of superscripts - semi-character. In the monuments of business writing, cursive writing appears, which gradually replaces semi-character and occupies a dominant position in manuscripts of the 17th century.

The emergence of printing in the mid-16th century played a huge role in the development of Russian culture. However, up to early XVIII V. Mostly church books were printed, but secular and artistic works continued to exist and were distributed in manuscripts.

When studying ancient Russian literature, one very important circumstance should be taken into account: in medieval period Fiction had not yet emerged as an independent area of public consciousness; it was inextricably linked with philosophy, science, and religion.

In this regard, it is impossible to mechanically apply to ancient Russian literature the criteria of artistry with which we approach when assessing phenomena literary development new time.

Process historical development ancient Russian literature represents a process of gradual crystallization of fiction, its isolation from the general flow of writing, its democratization and “secularization,” i.e., liberation from the tutelage of the church.

One of the characteristic features of Old Russian literature is its connection with church and business writing, on the one hand, and oral poetic folk art, on the other. The nature of these connections on each historical stage the development of literature and in its individual monuments was different.

However, the wider and deeper the literature used artistic experience folklore, the more clearly it reflected the phenomena of reality, the wider was the sphere of its ideological and artistic influence.

A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is historicism. Its heroes are predominantly historical figures; it allows almost no fiction and strictly follows the fact. Even numerous stories about “miracles” - phenomena that seemed supernatural to a medieval person, are not so much the invention of an ancient Russian writer, but rather accurate records of the stories of either eyewitnesses or the people themselves with whom the “miracle” happened.

The historicism of ancient Russian literature is specifically medieval character. Progress and development historical events explained by God's will, the will of providence.

The heroes of the works are princes, rulers of the state, standing at the top of the hierarchical ladder of feudal society. However, having discarded the religious shell, the modern reader easily discovers that living historical reality, the true creator of which was the Russian people.

Kuskov V.V. History of Old Russian Literature. - M., 1998