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In the 30s XIX century in European art, romanticism is being replaced by a completely different artistic style - realism, paradoxically, he not only adopted many of the ideas of romanticism, but also developed and deepened them.

In an approximate way, realism can be defined as an artistic method of reflecting the specific historical uniqueness of reality, the social determinism of the individual and the nature of his relationship with society.

Realism, for its pronounced critical orientation, almost immediately began to be called critical realism. The focus of critical realism is the analysis of art through the means of class structure, social essence and socio-political contradictions of a capitalist society that has already reached its peak. The main specificity of critical realism as a special creative method is the artistic understanding of reality as a social factor, and therefore the disclosure of the social determinism of the depicted events and characters.

If romanticism brought to the fore individuality endowed with ideal aspirations, then a distinctive feature of realism was the appeal of art to a direct depiction of the everyday life of people, devoid of any mystery, mystery, religious or mythological motivation.

About so-called realism in the broad sense

Sometimes they talk about realism in a broad sense And realism in the narrow sense. According to a narrow understanding of realism, only a work that reflects the essence of the depicted socio-historical phenomenon can be considered truly realistic. The characters in the work should bear the typical, collective features of a particular social stratum or class, and the conditions in which they act should not be a random figment of the writer’s imagination, but a reflection of the laws of the socio-economic and political life of the era. By realism in a broad sense we mean the property of art to reproduce the truth of reality by recreating the sensory forms in which an idea exists in reality.

It should immediately be noted that the broad understanding of realism, characteristic of traditional, but not modern aesthetics, makes the concept of realism completely unclear. It turns out to be quite possible to talk about the realism of ancient literature, the realism of the Renaissance, the “realism of romanticism,” etc. When realism is defined as a movement in art that depicts social, psychological, economic and other phenomena as most consistent with reality (“corresponding to the truth of life,” as they sometimes say), realism becomes, in essence, the only full-fledged style of art. Baroque, classicism, romanticism, etc. turn out to be just modifications of realism. Dante, Shakespeare, and even Homer can be classified as realists, although, of course, with certain reservations regarding the Cyclops, Neptunes, etc. he invented. Widely understood realism becomes not even a style, i.e. manner of depiction, but the very essence of art, and the essence expressed abstractly and unclearly.

Characteristics of realism

The main features of critical realism as a special artistic style can be briefly summarized as follows:

– faith in the cognitive and transformative power of the human mind, especially the artist’s mind;
– highlighting the task of objective artistic reproduction of reality, an attempt to base artistic discoveries on a deep, scientific-like study of the facts and phenomena of life;
– the dominance of socio-political issues, which was proclaimed by the art of the Enlightenment and which was not interrupted in romanticism, although, as a rule, it played a peripheral role in it;
– approval of the educational, civic mission of art;
– high, one might say without exaggeration – exceptional, assessment of the possibilities of artistic creativity in eradicating social evil;
– the desire to depict reality in the forms of reality itself;
– accuracy of details in the artistic reproduction of reality;
– deepening the possibilities of character typification; the connection of psychologism as one of the means of typification with the disclosure of generalizing social content of a particular nature; realists adopted and significantly deepened the psychologism characteristic of the romantics;
– the use of the romantic theory of contrasts in describing the contradictions of social reality;
– highlighting the theme of lost illusions that arose in connection with the ideological consequences of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century;
– showing the hero in development when creating artistic images, depicting the evolution of the depicted characters, determined by the complex interaction of the individual and society;
– the desire to combine a socially critical orientation, a harsh exposure of the modern social system with the promotion of a high moral and ethical ideal, a model of a fair social structure;
– the creation of an extensive gallery of bright positive heroes associated with positive aspirations; Most of these heroes belonged to the lower social classes of society.

Although realism replaced romanticism, many of the characteristic features of realism were first felt by the romantics. In particular, they absolutized the spiritual world of the individual, but this exaltation of the individual, the fundamental attitude to lead the path of knowledge of all things through her inner “I” led to the most significant ideological and aesthetic gains. The Romantics took that important step forward in the artistic knowledge of reality, which promoted Romanticism to replace the art of the Enlightenment. Appeal to a chosen individual, towering above the “crowd,” did not at all interfere with their deep democracy. In the works of the romantics one should look for the origins of the image of the “superfluous man”, which passed through all the literature of the 19th century.

Briefly:

The name comes from Late Latin realis - real, real.

The works of realists are characterized by a truthful and objective reflection of reality. The measure of the realism of a work is the depth of penetration into reality, the completeness of its artistic understanding. Realism in the broad sense of the word is inherent in any great work of art. Therefore, they talk about realism in ancient, ancient and medieval literature, literature of the Enlightenment.

Basic principles of realism of the 19th-20th centuries:

— an objective reflection of life in accordance with the author’s ideal;

- works show typical characters in typical circumstances, without giving up their individuality;

- life-like authenticity of the reflection of reality, i.e. in the “forms of life itself”;

— the interest of the work lies in reflecting the conflict between the individual and society.

In Russia, the foundations of realism were laid in the works of A. S. Pushkin (“Eugene Onegin”, “The Captain’s Daughter”) and A. S. Griboyedov (“Woe from Wit”). The works of I. A. Goncharov, I. S. Turgenev, N. A. Nekrasov, A. N. Ostrovsky have a strongly socially oriented critical principle, which is why M. Gorky called it “critical realism.” Realism reached its heights in the works of L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky.

The reflection of life and human characters from the point of view of the socialist ideal created socialist realism. This trend arose long before the emergence of the socialist state. The first work of socialist realism in Russian literature is considered to be M. Gorky’s novel “Mother”. Socialist realism achieved high artistry in the works of the best representatives of this movement - D. Furmanov, M. A. Sholokhov, A. T. Tvardovsky.

Source: Student's Quick Guide. Russian literature / Author-comp. I.N. Agekyan. - Mn.: Modern writer, 2002

More details:

In the ordinary sense, readers call realism a truthful and objective depiction of life that is easy to compare with reality. For the first time, the literary term “realism” was used by P.V. Annenkov in 1849 in the article “Notes on Russian Literature of 1818.”

In literary criticism, realism is a literary movement that creates the illusion of reality in the reader. It is based on the following principles:

artistic historicism, that is, a figurative idea of the connection between time and changing reality;
explanation of current events by socio-historical and natural scientific reasons;
identifying relationships between the described phenomena;
detailed and accurate depiction of details;
the creation of typical heroes who act in typical, that is, recognizable and repeated circumstances.

It is assumed that realism understood social problems and social contradictions better and more deeply than previous trends, and also showed society and man in dynamics and development. Perhaps based on these features of realism, M. Gorky called the realism of the 19th century “critical realism”, since he often “exposed” the unjust structure of bourgeois society and criticized the emerging bourgeois relations. Realists often connected even psychological analysis with social analysis, trying to find an explanation in the social structure for the psychological characteristics of the characters. Many of O. de Balzac’s novels are based on this. Their characters were people of various professions. Ordinary personalities finally found a quite prestigious place in literature: no one laughed at them anymore, they no longer served anyone; mediocrity became the main characters, like characters in Chekhov's stories.

Realism replaced fantasy and emotions, the most important for romanticism, with logical analysis and scientific knowledge of life. In realistic literature, facts are not only examined: a relationship is established between them. This was the only way to understand the prose of life, that ocean of everyday little things that now appeared in realistic literature.

The most important feature of realism is that it preserves all the achievements of the literary movements that preceded it. Although fantasies and emotions fade into the background, they do not disappear anywhere; naturally, there is “no prohibition” on them, and only the author’s intention and style determine how and when to use them.

Comparing realism and romanticism, L.N. Tolstoy once noted that realism “...is a story from the inside about the struggle of the human personality in the material environment around it. While romanticism takes a person outside the material environment, makes him fight abstraction, like Don Quixote with windmills...”

There are many detailed definitions of realism. Most of the works you study in 10th grade are realistic. As you study these works, you will learn more and more about the realistic direction, which is still developing and enriching today.

Each literary movement is characterized by its own characteristics, thanks to which it is remembered and distinguished as a separate type. This happened in the nineteenth century, when some changes took place in the writing world. People began to comprehend reality in a new way, to look at it from an absolutely different perspective. The peculiarities of 19th century literature lie, first of all, in the fact that now writers began to put forward ideas that formed the basis of the direction of realism.

What is realism

Realism appeared in Russian literature at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when a radical revolution took place in this world. The writers realized that previous trends, such as romanticism, did not satisfy the expectations of the population, since their judgments lacked common sense. Now they tried to depict on the pages of their novels and lyrical works the reality that reigned around, without any exaggeration. Their ideas were now of the most realistic character, which existed not only in Russian literature, but also in foreign literature for more than one decade.

Main features of realism

Realism was characterized by the following features:

depiction of the world as it is, truthful and natural;
at the center of the novels is a typical representative of society, with typical problems and interests;
the emergence of a new way of understanding the surrounding reality - through realistic characters and situations.

Russian literature of the 19th century was of great interest to scientists, because through the analysis of works they were able to understand the very process in literature that existed at that time, as well as give it a scientific basis.

The emergence of the era of Realism

Realism was first created as a special form for expressing the processes of reality. This happened back in the days when such a movement as the Renaissance reigned in both literature and painting. During the Enlightenment, it was conceptualized in a significant way, and was fully formed at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. Literary scholars name two Russian writers who have long been recognized as the founders of realism. These are Pushkin and Gogol. Thanks to them, this direction was comprehended, received theoretical justification and significant distribution in the country. With their help, Russian literature of the 19th century received great development.

In literature there was now no sublime feelings that the direction of romanticism possessed. Now people were worried about everyday problems, how to resolve them, as well as the feelings of the main characters that overwhelmed them in a given situation. Features of the literature of the 19th century are the interest of all representatives of the direction of realism in the individual character traits of each individual person for consideration in a given life situation. As a rule, this is expressed in a clash between a person and society, when a person cannot accept and does not accept the rules and principles by which other people live. Sometimes at the center of the work is a person with some kind of internal conflict, which he is trying to cope with himself. Such conflicts are called personality conflicts, when a person understands that from now on he cannot live as he lived before, that he needs to do something to get joy and happiness.

Among the most important representatives of the trend of realism in Russian literature, it is worth noting Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoevsky. World classics gave us such realist writers as Flaubert, Dickens and even Balzac.

» » Realism and features of 19th century literature

Realism at the turn of the century remained a large-scale and influential literary movement. Suffice it to say that in the 1900s L. Tolstoy and A. Chekhov still lived and worked.

The most brilliant talents among the new realists belonged to the writers who united in the Moscow circle “Sreda” in the 1890s, and who in the early 1900s formed the circle of regular authors of the publishing house “Znanie” (one of its owners and de facto leader was M. Gorky). In addition to the leader of the association, over the years it included L. Andreev, I. Bunin, V. Veresaev, N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, A. Kuprin, I. Shmelev and other writers. With the exception of I. Bunin, there were no major poets among the realists; they showed themselves primarily in prose and, less noticeably, in drama.

The influence of this group of writers was largely due to the fact that it was they who inherited the traditions of the great Russian literature of the 19th century. However, the immediate predecessors of the new generation of realists seriously updated the appearance of the movement already in the 1880s. The creative searches of the late L. Tolstoy, V. Korolenko, A. Chekhov introduced into artistic practice a lot of things that were unusual by the standards of classical realism. The experience of A. Chekhov turned out to be especially important for the next generation of realists.

Chekhov's world includes many diverse human characters, but with all the originality, his heroes are similar in that they all lack something most important. They try to join true life, but, as a rule, they never find the desired spiritual harmony. Neither love, nor passionate service to science or social ideals, nor faith in God - none of the previously reliable means of gaining integrity - can help the hero. The world in his perception has lost a single center; this world is far from hierarchical completeness and cannot be embraced by any of the worldview systems.

That is why life according to any ideological template, a worldview based on a fixed system of social and ethical values, is interpreted by Chekhov as vulgarity. Life turns out to be vulgar, repeating patterns set by tradition, devoid of spiritual independence. None of Chekhov's heroes are unconditionally right, so Chekhov's type of conflict looks unusual. When comparing heroes on one or another basis, Chekhov most often does not give preference to any of them. What is important to him is not “moral investigation,” but rather finding out the reasons for mutual misunderstanding between people. This is why the writer refuses to be the accuser or lawyer of his heroes.

Outwardly mild plot situations in his mature prose and drama are designed to reveal the delusions of the characters, determine the degree of development of their self-awareness and the associated degree of personal responsibility. In general, various moral, ideological and stylistic contrasts in Chekhov’s world lose their absolute character and become relative.

In a word, Chekhov's world is a world of moving relationships, where different subjective truths interact. In such works, the role of subjective reflection (self-analysis, reflections of the characters, their understanding of their actions) increases. The author has good control over the tone of his assessments: it cannot be unconditionally heroic or recklessly satirical. Subtle lyrical irony is perceived by the reader as a typically Chekhovian tone.

Thus, the generation of realist writers of the early 20th century inherited from Chekhov new principles of writing - with much greater authorial freedom than before; with a much wider arsenal of artistic expression; with a sense of proportion obligatory for the artist, which was ensured by increased internal self-criticism and self-reflection.

While generously using some of Chekhov's findings, realists of the turn of the century did not always possess the last of the mentioned qualities of an artist. Where Chekhov saw a variety and relative equivalence of life behavior options, his young followers were carried away by one of them. If Chekhov, say, shows how strong the inertia of life is, often nullifying the hero’s initial desire to change, then the realist of Gorky’s generation sometimes absolutizes the very volitional impulse of a person, without testing it for strength and therefore replacing the real complexity of a person with a dream of “strong people.” Where Chekhov predicted a long-term perspective, calling for “squeezing a slave out of oneself” drop by drop, the “Knowledge” writer gave a much more optimistic forecast of “the birth of man.”

Nevertheless, it is extremely important that the generation of realists of the early 20th century inherited from Chekhov constant attention to the personality of man, his individuality. What are the main features of realism of the late 19th - early 20th centuries?

Themes and heroes of realistic literature. The thematic range of works by turn-of-the-century realists is wider than that of their predecessors; For most writers at this time, thematic constancy is uncharacteristic. Rapid changes in Russia forced them to vary themes and invade previously reserved thematic layers. In Gorky’s writing circle at that time, the spirit of the artel was strong: through joint efforts, the “Znanyevites” created a wide panorama of the country undergoing renewal. Large-scale thematic capture was noticeable in the titles of the works that made up the “Knowledge” collections (it was this type of publication - collections and almanacs - that spread in the literature of the beginning of the century). For example, the table of contents of the 12th collection “Knowledge” resembled the sections of some sociological study: the same type of titles “In the city”, “In the family”, “In prison”, “In the village” designated the areas of life being examined.

Elements of sociological descriptiveness in realism are the not yet overcome legacy of social essay prose of the 60-80s, in which there was a strong focus on the empirical study of reality. However, the prose of the “Znanievites” was distinguished by more acute artistic problems. The crisis of all forms of life - most of their works brought readers to this conclusion. What was important was the changed attitude of realists to the possibility of transforming life. In the literature of the 60-80s, the living environment was depicted as sedentary, possessing a terrible force of inertia. Now the circumstances of a person's existence are interpreted as devoid of stability and subject to his will. In the relationship between man and the environment, realists at the turn of the century emphasized man’s ability not only to withstand the adverse effects of the environment, but also to actively rebuild life.

The typology of characters has also been noticeably updated in realism. Outwardly, the writers followed tradition: in their works one could find recognizable types of the “little man” or the intellectual who survived the spiritual drama. The peasant remained one of the central figures in their prose. But even the traditional “peasant” characterology has changed: more and more often a new type of “thoughtful” man appeared in stories and tales. Characters got rid of sociological averageness and became more diverse in psychological characteristics and attitude. “The diversity of the soul” of the Russian person is a constant motif in I. Bunin’s prose. He was one of the first in realism to widely use foreign material in his works (“Brothers”, “Chang’s Dreams”, “The Mister from San Francisco”). The use of such material became characteristic of other writers (M. Gorky, E. Zamyatin).

Genres and stylistic features of realistic prose. The genre system and stylistics of realistic prose were significantly updated at the beginning of the 20th century.

At this time, the most mobile stories and essays occupied a central place in the genre hierarchy. The novel has practically disappeared from the genre repertoire of realism: the story has become the largest epic genre. Not a single novel in the exact meaning of this term was written by the most significant realists of the early 20th century - I. Bunin and M. Gorky.

Starting with the work of A. Chekhov, the importance of the formal organization of the text has noticeably increased in realistic prose. Individual techniques and elements of form received greater independence in the artistic structure of the work than before. So, for example, artistic detail was used more variedly, at the same time, the plot increasingly lost the significance of the main compositional device and began to play a subordinate role. The expressiveness in conveying the details of the visible and audible world has deepened. In this regard, I. Bunin, B. Zaitsev, I. Shmelev especially stood out. A specific feature of Bunin's style, for example, was the amazing unity of visual and auditory, olfactory and tactile characteristics in conveying the surrounding world. Realist writers attached greater importance to the use of rhythmic and phonetic effects of artistic speech, the transfer of individual characteristics of characters' oral speech (masterful mastery of this element of form was characteristic of I. Shmelev).

Having lost, in comparison with the classics of the 19th century, the epic scale and integrity of the vision of the world, the realists of the beginning of the century compensated for these losses with a keener perception of life and greater expression in expressing the author’s position. The general logic of the development of realism at the beginning of the century was to strengthen the role of highly expressive forms. What was important to the writer now was not so much the proportionality of the proportions of the reproduced fragment of life, but rather the “power of the cry”, the intensity of the expression of the author’s emotions. This was achieved by sharpening the plot situations, when extremely dramatic, “borderline” states in the lives of the characters were described in close-up. The figurative series of works was built on contrasts, sometimes extremely sharp, “screaming”; Leitmotif principles of narration were actively used: the frequency of figurative and lexical repetitions increased.

Stylistic expression was especially characteristic of L. Andreev and A. Serafimovich. It is also noticeable in some of M. Gorky’s works. The works of these writers contain many journalistic elements - “montage” joining of statements, aphorism, rhetorical repetitions; the author often comments on what is happening, intrudes into the plot with lengthy journalistic digressions (you will find examples of such digressions in M. Gorky’s stories “Childhood” and “In People”). In the stories and dramas of L. Andreev, the plot and arrangement of characters were often deliberately schematic: the writer was attracted by universal, “eternal” types and life situations.

However, within the work of one writer, a single stylistic manner was rarely maintained: more often, wordsmiths combined several stylistic options. For example, in the works of A. Kuprin, M. Gorky, L. Andreev, precise depiction coexisted with generalized romantic imagery, elements of life-likeness - with artistic conventions.

Stylistic duality, an element of artistic eclecticism - a characteristic feature of the realism of the beginning

XX century. Of the major writers of that time, only I. Bunin avoided diversity in his work: both his poetic and prosaic works maintained the harmony of precise descriptiveness and authorial lyricism. The stylistic instability of realism was a consequence of the transitivity and well-known artistic compromise of the direction. On the one hand, realism remained faithful to the traditions bequeathed by the previous century, on the other, it began to interact with new trends in art.

Realist writers gradually adapted to new forms of artistic search, although this process was not always peaceful. Those who went further along the path of rapprochement with modernist aesthetics were L. Andreev, B. Zaitsev, S. Sergeev-Tsensky, and somewhat later - E. Zamyatin. Most of them were often reproached by critics who were adherents of former traditions for artistic apostasy, or even ideological desertion. However, the process of updating realism as a whole was artistically fruitful, and its total achievements at the turn of the century were significant.