Artistic research method. Literary process and its categories

Part I (XVII-XVIII centuries)

Who is talking about what - and I am all about literary criticism. :-)We have already agreed that this concept is capacious and includes, in particular, both theory and the history of literature. It’s between these Scylla and Charybdis that I’ll try to navigate. I really want to at least try to give a systematic view of literature as an art form, as a single living process, although I understand that this task is practically impossible within the framework of several review articles. And yet some basic features can be crystallized and brought into a system. But to do this, you need to decide which main stoves to dance from, so as not to miss a single cornerstone.

Eat several ways to review the literature as a whole, related to its main aspects. These are the starting points:

1. Chronology and cultural and geographical features . This is the most traditional way studying the history of literature - from folklore to the present day, in different countries, sequentially and in parallel. It is the most complete and leisurely, and that is why we will not follow it. :-)
2. Genera, types and genres . IN general outline We have already talked about them, so I will operate with these concepts without detailed explanations, although in the future, I hope, we will return to them and consider their evolution in different national and time environments. Then we will be able to clearly combine theory with history, but for now we need to talk about one more problem, without solving which it is impossible to get a complete picture of the development of any type of art:
3. Method. This is the concept we will start from today.

Artistic (creative) method is a concept that denotes the most general principles and methods of selecting, evaluating and reflecting life, provided that these principles and methods are repeated in the works of a number of writers who are similar in worldview and technique of creative development (re-creation) of reality. Until the 17th century there were no attempts to theoretically substantiate individual methods: the artist had only to “imitate” life, as he defined the main function of literature back in IV V. BC. Aristotle.

Since the 17th century appeared theoretical works that define the socio-philosophical basis and aesthetic framework literary methods as a way of artistic re-creation of life, its creative transformation. Yes, with a manifesto classicism became a treatise N. Boileau “Poetic art”, romanticism – « Philosophy of Art" by F. Schelling, preface to the drama “Cromwell” by V. Hugo, romanticism And realism – Stendhal's treatise "Racine and Shakespeare", realism – preface by O. de Balzac to “The Human Comedy”, etc. Individual literary movements also had their own literary manifestos.

So, the first literary methods(more broadly - methods of art) were classicism and baroque, which developed in the 17th century. I will describe the methods in the most concise form, emphasizing features through comparisons, but then I undertake to answer any specific questions if any arise.

COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF CLASSICISM AND BAROQUE ( XVIIV .)

Classicism in architecture:

Baroque in architecture:

But life did not stand still: political trends changed and social structure, science and economics developed, I became more and more inquisitive human mind, I set new goals for myself. So, one of the noblest ideas XVIII century became an idea Enlightenment : if educated people share their knowledge with the uneducated, then everyone will equally possess the greatest wealth - Knowledge, and the time of equality, justice and prosperity will come... Looking ahead, it must be said that this idea did not bear the fruits for which it was intended , although it played a certain role. As for methods and trends, classicism acquired more and more educational features until, finally, it was transformed into a somewhat schematic educational realism, from which realism as such would develop in the next century. On the other hand, enlightened Europe, which did not immediately become happy from knowledge, went to the other extreme - feelings, which led to the formation of extremely “sensitive” trends - sentimentalism and pre-romanticism, which will soon manifest itself as true romanticism.

COMPARATIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF LITERARY DIRECTIONS XVIIIV . (Enlightenment era)

But all this is only preparation for the development of literature in XIX and subsequent centuries, and the main thing is yet to come.

The artistic method (literally “methodos” from the Greek - the path of research) is a set of the most general principles of the aesthetic development of reality, which is consistently repeated in the work of one or another group of writers, forming a direction, movement or school. There are objective difficulties in isolating the method. “The artistic method is an aesthetic and deeply meaningful category. It cannot be reduced either to formal methods of constructing an image, or to the ideology of the writer. It represents a set of ideological and artistic principles for depicting reality in the light of a certain aesthetic ideal. Worldview organically enters into the method when it merges with the artist’s talent, with his poetic thinking, and does not exist in the work only in the form of a socio-political tendency” (N.A. Gulyaev). The method is not just a system of some views, at least the most aesthetic ones. In a very conventional way, we can talk about a method as a view, but not an abstract, initial one, but one that has already found itself in a certain material of a given art. This is an artistic thought or artistic concept of these phenomena in connection with the general concept of life. Method is a category mainly of artistic creativity, and therefore of artistic consciousness. The method is a consistently implemented method of reflection, presupposing the unity of the artistic re-creation of the material of reality, realized on the unity of the imaginative vision of life, subordinated to the goals of revealing and understanding the leading trends of the writer’s contemporary life and the embodiment of his social ideals.

The category of method is connected with the category of type of creativity, on the one hand, and the category of style, on the other. Already in the 5th century BC. e. Sophocles aphoristically outlined two opposing types of artistic thinking: “He (Euripides) depicts people as they really are, and I as they should be.” Under style Usually it is understood as the individual uniqueness of creative handwriting, the set of preferred techniques, the unity of individual and typical features of creativity common to many individuals. The most active style-forming factors in the artistic structure of a work relate to the plane of expression. But at the same time, style is also “a directly perceived, complete unity of different aspects and elements of works, corresponding to the content expressed in it” (G.N. Pospelov). The difference between style and other categories of poetics, in particular from the artistic method, is in its immediate concrete implementation: stylistic features seem to appear on the surface of the work as a visible and tangible unity of all the main aspects of the artistic form.

Style “absorbs into itself the content and form of art without a trace, unites and guides everything in a work, from the word to the central thought” (Benedetto Croce). The linguistic approach to style assumes that the main object of study is language, language as the first and clearly distinguishable appearance and materiality of a literary work. This means that internal linguistic laws come to the fore. Style, artistic fabric are considered as a combination of different styles existing in addition to it in the language and pre-given ones - clerical-bureaucratic, epistolary, archaic, business, style of scientific presentation, etc. But this approach does not explain the change in literary styles. Moreover, the style of a work of art cannot be reduced to a mechanical combination. Style is a stable community of figurative system, means of artistic expression, characterizing the originality of a writer’s work, a separate work, a literary movement, or national literature. Style in a broad sense is a cross-cutting principle of constructing an artistic form, giving a work tangible integrity, a uniform tone and color.

What are the mechanisms of style formation? D.S. Likhachev proceeds from this (“Man in Literature Ancient Rus'"), that artistic style combines both the general perception of reality characteristic of the writer and the writer’s artistic method, determined by the tasks that he sets for himself. That is, style is not what the writer chose in his work, but how he expressed it, from what angle.

It is impossible to explain style without considering its connection with artistic method. The concept of artistic method expresses the fact that historical reality determines not only the content of art, but also its innermost aesthetic laws. The creative method aesthetically summarizes people's practical attitude to their historical tasks and their understanding of life, and creates that special relationship between ideals and reality that determines the structure of artistic images. Thus, the mythological view of nature and social relations underlay Greek fantasy and Greek art. The creative method of classical art required that the artist guess the perfect in the imperfect, so that he would show realized all the harmonious fullness of the possibilities of the human spirit. The creative method of classical art indicated to the artist a more or less constant angle of obligatory elevation of the image above reality, a more or less established direction in the artistic expression of a life phenomenon. Thus, he gave the beginning of the style. The relationship between ideal and reality inherent in classical art turned out to be the key to understanding the classical style with its clarity and transparency, normativity, beauty, strict order, with its inherent harmonious balance of parts and peace of internal completeness, the obvious connection of form and function, the paramount importance of rhythm, with his naive laconicism and amazing sense of proportion.

Style is a pattern in the construction, connection and similarity of forms, allowing these forms to express not only the private content of this work, but also reproduce the most general signs of man’s relationship to nature and society. Style is the general character of expression various forms. Style is a connection of forms that reveals the unity of artistic content (Gothic style, Baroque style, false classical style, Rococo style, etc.). There are large styles, the so-called styles of the era (Renaissance, Baroque, Classicism), styles of various directions and movements, and individual styles of artists.

The style was a pointed writing stick with a ball at the other end, which was used to erase what was written. Hence the catchphrase: “Turn your style more often!”

“Style is a person” (J. Buffon).

“Style embalms a literary work” (A. Daudet).

“Style may be defined as follows: the appropriate words in the appropriate place” (J. Swift).

“Style is the face of the mind, less deceptive than the real face. Imitating someone else's style is like wearing a mask. The pomposity of style is like grimacing” (A. Schopenhauer).

The very relationship between method and style turns out to be different depending on the different stages artistic development. As a rule, in the early periods of the development of art, the style was unified, comprehensive, strictly subordinated to religious and dogmatic norms; with the development of aesthetic sensibility, the need for each era to have a singular style (the style of the era, the aesthetic code of culture) noticeably weakens.

In pre-realistic art we observe the predominance of a general style, and in realistic art we observe the predominance of individual styles. In the first case, the method seems to merge with a certain style, and in the second, the more abundant and dissimilar the styles that grow on its basis, the more fully it is implemented. In the first case, the method brings about uniformity, in the second, a variety of styles. The dominance of the general style corresponds to the relatively simple artistic content. In ancient society, relationships between people were still clear and transparent. The same mythological motifs and subjects are repeated in all types of art. The scope of artistic content remains quite narrow. The difference of personal points of view fits within the boundaries of a single aesthetic tradition. All this leads to the unification of artistic content, which determined the formation of a common style.

The dominance of a general style is decisively connected with the predominance of idealization as a method of artistic generalization, and the dominance of individual styles with typification. Idealization more easily connects heterogeneous phenomena into a single style. In classical art the form is inevitably more coherent, rigid, and stable than in a realistic image. The general style subordinates the individuality of the artist. Only those personal talents that meet the requirements of the general style are given scope and can develop. So, talking about the general style ancient Russian literature, D.S. Likhachev writes that the features of folk collectivism are still alive in ancient Russian literature. This is literature in which the personal element is muted. Many works incorporate previous works and follow traditions of literary etiquette created by several authors, which were subsequently corrected and supplemented by correspondence. Thanks to this feature, the literature of Ancient Rus' contains a monumental epic principle. This monumentality is enhanced by the fact that works in Ancient Rus' are devoted mainly to historical themes. They contain less fictional, imaginary, designed for entertainment and entertainment. The seriousness of this literature is also due to the fact that its main works are civic in the highest sense of the word. The authors perceive their writing as service to the Motherland. The higher the ideals of ancient Russian authors, the more difficult it was for them to come to terms with the shortcomings of reality (historical monumentalism).

In the classicism of the 17th–18th centuries, the obligatory nature of the general style is supported by the established and indisputable authority of antiquity, the recognition of the decisive significance of its artistic images as objects of imitation. Religious-mythological authoritarianism is replaced by aesthetic authoritarianism (rules). It is necessary to consider whether a given work belongs to the general style and then to discover those modifications, enrichments, and innovations that depend on the individual style. The general style subjugates the artist and determines his aesthetic taste. Realism changes the very type of aesthetic taste and includes its ability to develop naturally. The realistic method is associated with a new era in which people's relationships take on an extremely confusing appearance.

In the capitalist era, a complex mechanism of social, political and ideological relations is developed, things are personified, people are reified. The cognitive capabilities of art are expanding. Analysis is deeply embedded in the description, the scope of artistic content becomes wider, and a huge area of ​​life prose opens up. The artist no longer works with the life process, which was previously reworked by folk fantasy and included a collective assessment of the phenomena of reality. From now on, he must independently find an image of reality. Thanks to this, even a small change in the angle of view, the position of the observer, is enough for the artistic content to change dramatically and significantly. Previously, this change led to the formation of personal shades within the boundaries of a single style; now it has become the basis for the emergence of individual styles. The diversity of assessments, aspects, views, approaches, and degrees of historical activity among artists is of great importance. Individual attitude to reality and individual forms of expression.

– Selection

Art Direction – Grading

– Generalization

– Artistic embodiment

Classicism– artistic style and aesthetic direction in European literature in art of the 17th – early XVIII centuries, one of the important features of which was the appeal to the images and forms of ancient literature and art as an ideal aesthetic standard. As an integral artistic system, classicism was formed in France during the period of strengthening and flourishing of absolutism. Classicism receives a complete systematic expression in “The Poetic Art” (1674) by N. Boileau, who summarizes the artistic experience of French literature of the 17th century. The aesthetics of classicism are based on the principles of rationalism, corresponding to the philosophical ideas of Cartesianism. They affirm the view of a work of art as an artificial creation - consciously created, intelligently organized, logically constructed. Having put forward the principle of “imitation of nature,” the classicists consider its indispensable condition to be strict adherence to the unshakable rules, which are drawn from ancient poetics (Aristotle, Horace) of art and determine the laws of artistic form, transforming life material into a beautiful, logically harmonious and clear work of art.

The artistic transformation of nature, the transformation of nature into beautiful and ennobled is at the same time an act of its highest knowledge - art is called upon to reveal the ideal pattern of the universe, often hidden behind the external chaos and disorder of reality. The mind, comprehending the ideal pattern, acts as an “arrogant” principle in relation to individual characteristics and the living diversity of life. The classicist image gravitates towards the model, it is a special mirror, where the individual turns into the generic, the temporary into the eternal, the real into the ideal, history into myth, it is the triumph of reason and order over the chaos and fluid empirics of life. This also corresponded to the social and educational function of art, to which the aesthetics of classicism attached great importance.

The aesthetics of classicism establishes a strict hierarchy of genres, which are divided into “high” (tragedy, epic, ode, their sphere is public life, historical events, myths, their heroes - monarchs, generals, mythological characters, religious devotees) and “low” (comedy , satire, fable), depicting the private everyday life of people of the middle classes. Each genre has strict boundaries and clear formal characteristics; no mixing of the sublime and the base, the tragic and the comic, the heroic and the ordinary is allowed. The leading genre of classicism was tragedy, addressed to the most important social and moral problems of the century. Social conflicts appear in it reflected in the souls of the heroes, faced with the need to choose between moral duty and personal passions. In this collision, a polarization of human public and private existence emerged, which also determined the structure of the image.

Romanticism – one of the largest destinations in European and American literature the end of the 18th – first half of the 19th centuries, which gained worldwide significance and distribution. Romanticism was the highest point of the anti-Enlightenment movement. Its main socio-ideological prerequisites are disappointment in the results of the Great french revolution and in bourgeois civilization in general. Rejection of the bourgeois way of life, protest against the vulgarity and prosaicness, lack of spirituality and selfishness of bourgeois relations, which found initial expression in sentimentalism and pre-romanticism, acquired particular poignancy among the romantics. The reality of history turned out to be beyond the control of “reason,” irrational, full of secrets and unforeseen events, and the modern world order turned out to be hostile to human nature and his personal freedom.

Disbelief in social, industrial, political and scientific progress, which brought new contrasts and antagonisms, as well as “fragmentation”, leveling and spiritual devastation of the individual, disappointment in society, which was foreshadowed, justified and preached by the best minds (as the most “natural” and “reasonable” ") of Europe, gradually grew to cosmic pessimism. Taking on a universal, universal character, it was accompanied by moods of hopelessness, despair, “world sorrow” (“the disease of the century”, inherent in the heroes of Chateaubriand, Musset, Byron). The theme of the “terrible world” “lying in evil” (with its blind power of material relations, the irrationality of destinies, the melancholy of the eternal monotony of everyday life) has passed through the entire history of romantic literature, embodied most clearly in the “drama of rock”, in the works of J. Byron, E. Hoffmann, E. Poe and others. At the same time, romanticism is characterized by a sense of belonging to a rapidly developing and renewing world, inclusion in the flow of life, in the world historical process, a feeling of hidden wealth and limitless possibilities of existence. “Enthusiasm”, based on faith in the omnipotence of the free human spirit, a passionate, all-encompassing thirst for renewal is one of the characteristic features of the romantic worldview (see the work of N.Ya. Berkovsky “Romanticism in Germany” about this, pp. 25–26).

The depth and universality of disappointment in reality, in the possibilities of civilization and progress is polar opposite to the romantic craving for the “infinite”, for absolute and universal ideals. The romantics dreamed not of a partial improvement of life, but of a holistic resolution of all its contradictions. The discord between ideal and reality, characteristic of previous movements, acquires extraordinary sharpness and intensity in romanticism, which is the essence of the so-called romantic two worlds. Rejecting the everyday life of modern civilized society as colorless and prosaic, the romantics strove for everything unusual. They were attracted to fantasy, folk legends, folk art, past historical eras, exotic pictures of nature, life, way of life and customs of distant countries and peoples. They contrasted base material practice with sublime passions (the romantic concept of love) and the life of the spirit, the highest manifestations of which for the romantics were art, religion, and philosophy.

The Romantics discovered the extraordinary complexity, depth and antinomy of the human spiritual world, the inner infinity of human individuality. For them, a person is a small universe, a microcosm. An intense interest in strong and vivid feelings, in the secret movements of the soul, in its “night” side, a craving for the intuitive and unconscious are the essential features of the romantic worldview. Equally characteristic of romantics is the defense of freedom, sovereignty, self-worth of the individual, increased attention to the individual, the unique in man, the cult of the individual. An apology for the individual served, as it were, as self-defense against the merciless march of history and the growing leveling of man himself in bourgeois society.

The requirement for historicism and folk art (mainly in the sense of faithfully recreating the color of place and time) is one of the enduring achievements of the romantic theory of art. The endless variety of local, epochal, national, historical, individual characteristics had a certain philosophical meaning in the eyes of the romantics: it was a discovery of the wealth of a single world whole - the universe. In the field of aesthetics, romanticism contrasted the creative activity of the artist with his right to transformation to the classicist “imitation of nature.” real world: the artist creates his own special world, more beautiful and true, and therefore more real, than empirical reality, since art itself is the highest reality. The Romantics fiercely defended the creative freedom of artists and rejected normativity in aesthetics, which, however, did not exclude the creation of their own romantic canons.

From the point of view of the principles of artistic representation, the Romantics gravitated towards fantasy, satirical grotesque, demonstrative conventionality of form, fragmentation, fragmentation, peak composition; they boldly mixed the ordinary and the unusual, the tragic and the comic.

Realism, an artistic direction in art, following which the artist depicts life in images that correspond to the essence of the phenomena of life itself and are created through the typification of facts of reality. Affirming the importance of realism as a means for a person to understand himself and the world around him, realism strives for a deep comprehension of life, for a broad coverage of reality with its inherent contradictions, and recognizes the artist’s right to illuminate all aspects of life without restrictions. The art of realism shows the interaction of man with the environment, the impact of social conditions on human destinies, the influence of social circumstances on the morals and spiritual world of people. In a broad sense, the category of realism serves to determine the relationship of literary works to reality, regardless of the writer’s affiliation with one movement or another. The origins of realism in Russia were I.A. Krylov, A.S. Griboyedov, A.S. Pushkin (in Western literature, realism appeared somewhat later; its first representatives were Stendhal and Balzac).

Main features of realism. 1. The principle of life's truth, which guides the realist artist in his work, striving to give the most complete reflection of life in its typical properties. The fidelity of the depiction of reality, reproduced in the forms of life itself, is the main criterion of artistry. 2. Social analysis, historicism of thinking. It is realism that explains the phenomena of life, establishes their causes and consequences on a socio-historical basis. In other words, realism is unthinkable without historicism, which presupposes an understanding of a given phenomenon in its conditionality, development and connection with other phenomena. Historicism is the basis of the worldview and artistic method of a realist writer, a kind of key to understanding reality, allowing one to connect the past, present and future. In the past, the artist looks for answers to pressing questions of our time, and interprets modernity as the result of previous historical development. In realistic literature, the inner world and behavior of the characters, as a rule, bear the indelible stamp of time. The writer often shows the direct dependence of their social, moral, religious ideas on the conditions of existence in a given society, and pays great attention to the social and everyday background of the time. At the same time, in mature realistic art, circumstances are depicted only as a necessary prerequisite for revealing the spiritual world of people. 3. Critical portrayal of life. Writers deeply and truthfully show the negative phenomena of reality and focus on exposing them. But at the same time, realism is not devoid of life-affirming pathos, because it is based on positive ideals - sympathy for the masses, searches for positive hero in life, faith in the inexhaustible possibilities of man. 4. The depiction of typical characters in typical circumstances, that is, the characters are depicted in close connection with the social environment that raised them and formed them in certain socio-historical conditions. 5. The relationship between the individual and society is the leading problem posed by realistic literature. The drama of these relationships is important for realism. As a rule, the focus of realistic works is on extraordinary individuals, dissatisfied with life, breaking out from their environment, but this does not mean that realists are not interested in invisible people, merging with their environment, representatives of the masses (the type of little man in Gogol and Chekhov). 6. The versatility of the characters’ characters: their actions, deeds, speech, lifestyle and inner world, the “dialectics of the soul,” which is revealed in the psychological details of its emotional experiences. Thus, realism expands the possibilities of writers in the creative exploration of the world, in the creation of a contradictory and complex personality structure as a result of subtle penetration into the depths of the human psyche. 7. Expressiveness, brightness, imagery, accuracy of Russian literary language, enriched with elements of colloquial speech that realist writers draw from the common language. 8. A variety of genres (epic, lyre-epic, dramatic, satirical). 9. Reflection of reality does not exclude fiction and fantasy, although these artistic means do not determine the main tone of the work.

In textbooks on the theory of literature, the named categories are placed in different thematic sections, although due to their specificity they should be located in one scientific block: artistic method - direction - flow. However, for example, L.I. Timofeev is united only by “method and direction”, P.K. Volynsky suggests studying “style, literary direction and artistic method”, N.A. Gulyaev combines “artistic method, direction, style”, G.N. Pospelov builds his own triad, which consists of “styles, artistic systems and literary movements.” At the same time, the scientist recommended abandoning the convergence of the categories “direction” and “flow”, which are often used as synonymous concepts.

The artistic method, direction and literary movement have the right to exist, and the hierarchical sequence indicates the degree of aesthetic significance of each category: first the method, then the direction, the lowest level belongs to the literary movement.

Term; the difference between the artistic method and the creative method; realism and romanticism - aesthetic categories of the method

The term “method” (gr. - path; in the sense of the path of knowledge) is used not only in literary criticism; the selection of objects under study is characteristic of any science. Exact disciplines discover and explain the laws of nature, bypassing the emotional assessment of the scientist’s personality. Art without the application of the artist's personality loses its meaning.

In reference dictionaries and scientific developments, the words and phrases “artistic method” and “creative method” are often used as nominations of a single series. Meanwhile, they differ in meaning and need clarification and canonization.

"Artistic method" is characterized by a stable and repetitive system, a way of selecting material and its implementation by a large group of writers. The ideological and aesthetic dominant of the artistic method is considered to be its stable functioning in all historical and literary eras; it does not exhaust its significance in a particular historical period of time.

The science of literature must separate the category of “artistic method” from the concept of “creative method”. The concept of the “creative method” is associated exclusively with practice individual writer, his individuality, unique stylistic manner. So, “artistic method” is an aesthetic category, and “creative method” is characterized by a paradigm of narrow meaning.

Literary theory has identified two types of artistic methods: a) realistic; b) romantic. Regarding realism, all scientists accept it unconditionally (the exception is the modernists who freed themselves from the dictatorship of realism). The situation with romanticism is much more complicated. Some critics attribute it to a method, others to a literary movement. We include romanticism in the system of artistic method.

realism as an artistic method

The coincidence and discrepancy between the truth of life and the truth of art; typical characters and circumstances; reliable and conditionally allegorical forms of reflection of life; fidelity to detail; techniques borrowed from modernist art

Realism (Latin - material) in fiction has been functioning for several thousand years. L.I. Timofeev and other experts in the field of realism built the following typology of realistic literature: ancient realism, medieval realism, Renaissance realism, educational realism. As we see, realism existed for a long time, and it received its terminological status only in the first half of the 19th century. Literary scholars have drawn attention to the coincidence of the artistic handwriting of writers who lived and worked in different times, and were united by a common worldview, themes, and the pathos of their creativity. This identity was taken as the basis for defining the artistic method.

Realism is characterized by what critics have called “the truth of life.” This method reveals the real reality, only much clearer and more beautiful than it. Most often, a realistic work performed in different genres, especially in the novel, creates the illusion of existence, a living picture of everything that happens. However, the illusion should not be overestimated in two respects.

I. One should not think that realistic art duplicates the world around us, that a truthful image is a substitute for life, like documentary newsreels. The plot taken from earthly existence only in its appearance repeats reality, but artistic authenticity is significantly accessible and picturesque.

II. The artistic method may consist in forms of factual authenticity. Still, realism is not just plausibility. In some of his experiments, he is no stranger to conventionally allegorical forms. It happens that truth and credibility coincide, but it also happens that truth arises on a false basis. What are typical characters and typical circumstances? Here we must remember the Shakespeareanization of the artistic world. Realism presupposes the artist's fidelity to detail, in turn, the concrete historical characters of the characters are realized in such a way that they become socially and historically authentic. So, life in Dead souls” is fragmented to the smallest detail, and these details are given a general meaning. The author used the microcosm in which he established the laws of the macrocosm, this was manifested in the ability to see the big in the small. The realistic method examines life past and present. At one time, so-called socialist realism made an attempt, violating the laws of artistry, to include in its system utopian pictures of future happiness for everyone, ignoring the past and the tragedy of the present. We know how it all ended. No less important quality This artistic method also lies in the fact that the art of mastering reality, growing on its soil, is close to being called “scientific research.” It is on the basis of realism that the most effective relationships and mutual transitions between science and art develop; the truth of life depicted by the writer almost always rises to the heights of encyclopedicism. At the same time, the artistic study of the activities of society and man can be ahead of the scientific one: sociologists gleaned more information from Balzac’s novels than from the writings of economists of that time; the physicist who creates the theory of relativity is inspired by the discovery of a writer, and not by the works of a brilliant German mathematician. Historicism realistic art expands the author's ability to penetrate into the spirit of the era and into the microcosmic world of the human soul (Grigory Skovoroda).

The novel genre turns into a specific form of scientific research of society, since a special logic of the realistic whole is at work here, a logic that presupposes a large sphere of contradictory intersection of truth and fiction, poetic and scientific. Balzac discovered an abyss of economic secrets. His novels are a tool for studying life at the level of a scientist-economist. His strength lies in the fact that he was a brilliant artist and this is the secret of his economic knowledge. Hippolyte Taine believed that literature is a subtle and precise instrument that records and evaluates the most imperceptible processes and changes occurring in the social organism.

IN realistic work, firstly, the situation forms the typical character of the hero, and the system of events is, as it were, logical development character; secondly, the social nature of reliable circumstances is active, acting as external environment, and as social relationships; thirdly, artistic details are reproduced truthfully.

In the 20th century, realism as an artistic method assimilates the categories of modernist literature, expands its themes due to technical achievements (aviation, cinema, telephone...), uses narrative techniques unusual for past eras (“iceberg”, “stream of consciousness”), and creates new genre forms ( musical novel, novel - screenplay, bestseller, thriller, blockbuster, gonzo, comic book, kitsch...).

Classical literary criticism of the 20th century identified several universal types of realism, among them the following stand out: a) critical realism of the 19th century; b) realism of the 20th century, which reduced the intensity of frank accusatory pathos; c) typological systems of realism operating in different historical and literary eras; d) magical realism, which is not an artistic method, but only a branch of it, and is closest to literary movements. The artistic method appears as a historically conditioned, steadily recurring unity in the work of a significant part of writers who are brought together by a common interpretation of problems, an aesthetic ideal, and a life process.

In the theory of realism, some doubts are raised by the category of “typical”, which seems to run counter to individualization, depriving the artistic method of the right to the exclusive. Is the behavior of Hamlet, Don Quixote or old man Santiago really that typical? The typical in the methodology does not exclude the factor of the unique, historically and aesthetically inimitable.

In the end, we propose a conventional and memorable formula of the artistic method: truth of life + philosophy + aesthetics. This synthesis provides realism with life in art for all times.

Romanticism AS AN ARTISTIC METHOD

Terminological varieties; exceptional as a model for mastering life; artistic historicism; romantic irony; romantic personality

The opinions of literary scholars about romanticism differ radically. One group of scientists classifies romanticism as an artistic method, while another sees in this category elements of a literary movement. Both of them thoroughly justify their conclusions, so there will be no mistake if you follow one of the acceptable scientific versions.

Romanticism is born in Western Europe V late XVIII- the beginning of the 19th century simultaneously in all the literatures of this cultural region. The prerequisite for the activation of romanticism was a protest against the aesthetics of classicism and unpretentious educational realism.

The concept of “romanticism as the antithesis of realism” was put forward by A.N. Sokolov. If in realism “typical characters and typical circumstances” function, then in romanticism exceptional circumstances are autonomously formed in which the exceptional characters of literary heroes manifest themselves.

Romanticism reflects life with the help of fantasy, grotesque, symbol, hyperbole. The character's biography remains practically undeveloped and mysterious, his position is significantly schematized. According to his worldview, the hero does not accept the reality around him; he protests, rebels against personal, social and cosmic circumstances. Romantic writers show a keen interest in history. Thanks to romanticism, the genre of the historical novel appeared, and the term “artistic historicism” came into scientific use. This method established two types of historicism: a) in the center of the work there is a hero - a historical personality who finds himself in far-fetched conditions; b) main character fictional, but it operates in specific historical events.

The foundations of the theory of romanticism were created by German scientists in the 19th century. Thus, in the works of representatives of the Jena School (the Schlegel brothers, Tieck, Novalis, Fichte) the concept of romantic irony was developed. It comes down to several points: a) irony helps to rise above the wretchedness of life; b) affirms the virtue of genius; c) reveals higher spiritual activity.

The theorists of the Jena school classified the romantic personality according to a number of exceptional characteristics. For Novalis, the ideal character is a passive, static, contemplative hero; Fichte has his own view of the romantic “I” - this is a thinking nature, its exceptional qualities are by no means given initially, they are realized in the process of thinking; F. Schlegel sees in the romantic “I” a creator, an artist, and only from this perspective can the hero claim a unique personality; The tick points to the possibility of degradation of the “I” when it descends into everyday life, therefore the hero must be a genius, a madman; Wackenroder defended the right of a romantic person to create exclusively for himself or a small circle of art admirers.

Representatives of the Heidelberg school of romantics (the Brothers Grimm, Brentano) paid attention to the problem of romantic circumstances, which consist of several indicators.

I. Romantic environment. It becomes exceptional only when it is native, national, and best of all, native medieval. It is strongly suggested here that the study of folklore using scientific methods (certification of collected material; information about the storage medium; place of collection of works oral creativity; educational qualification of the keeper of folk wisdom).

II. Race as an indicator of exceptional circumstances. The race brings forth from its midst a person of genius, and at the same time it should be elevated to a cult. Attention is paid to genealogical prerequisites, which also shape the circumstances.

III. The spirit of ancestors, the call of the blood of the departed (the dead hold the living) strives to fulfill its duty to its contemporaries. The invisible substance also forms a romantic environment.

IV. The doctrine of local color. Its essence boils down to the following: the writer is obliged to see and convey the unique signs inherent only in this nation, era, small homeland. The role of exotic space in the formation of a bright personality is taken into account.

Critical realism of the 19th century. characterized by such indicators that bring it closer to ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and Enlightenment realism. A similar typology is established in romanticism - ancient romanticism, medieval romanticism... This type of creativity is objectively characteristic of all eras. But the measure of their objectivity (historicism) is different. They understand the essence of social processes differently.

The romantic type of circumstances recreates the spirit of the era with its symbolic forms, pointing out the ideal or ugly trends of the time, opens and immerses in the world that reality could become. Hence the abundance of symbolism, limited and understated actions that tend to recreate pathetic - climaxes. The fantastic-legendary plot is also subordinated to these same tasks.

It is also necessary to introduce a visible element into the romantic type of circumstances. We are talking about the role of the author, which is always to capture, captivate the reader in order to infect him with his aspirations, his ideas about a real person and real life. It is often difficult to distinguish an idealized hero from the author; he is a part of his soul, a mouthpiece for ideas. Speaking about subjectivity, it is necessary to remember that it, like subjectivity in lyrics, must be separated from subjectivism. The subjective in romanticism is also objective; it includes in its sphere everything that is called the fate of the heart, the history of the human soul. We can say that romanticism is sheer lyricism, an impulse towards the lofty and ideal. Romantic lyricism develops on an ideal poetic basis. However, not all lyricism is romantic. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to film a romantic work. The works of A. Dovzhenko and S. Parajanov can be called successful in this regard. Poetic cinema is constantly in search of its paradigm. There is an artist who is a romantic in the true sense of the word, and there are writers whose artistic vision grows on the basis of the “sublation” of a sublime principle.

In the second half of the 20th century, a new teaching emerged - neo-romanticism. Realism is also being updated, but the artistic method (realism and romanticism) is determined by stable and historically stable characteristics.

Dogmatic literary criticism divided romanticism into several types: “progressive”, “revolutionary”, “reactionary”, “religious”. These nominations have lost their scientific significance.

Romanticism as an artistic method clarified the shortcomings of the aesthetics of materialist contemplators and began to cultivate the problem of the subjective factor in the literary process. A romantic writer, like a realist, is obliged not to “imitate” nature, but to creatively transform it, not to copy the phenomena of life, but to express his feelings and ideals through the prism of the aesthetics of the exceptional.

LITERARY DIRECTION AS AESTHETIC REALITY

Baroque, classicism, sentimentalism, naturalism, symbolism, socialist realism, existentialism, modernism

Literary movements develop on an acceptable philosophical basis and aesthetic ideal, which has made it possible to ensure a relatively long life in art. They function within one century, and only after that they lose their meaning and fall out of the artistic process, becoming a historical and literary fact.

In textbooks of the 20th century, the history of the struggle of frantic “Vissarions” against literary trends with the undoubted victory of the realistic (and romantic) artistic method was intrusively studied. Indeed, heated battles involving “vigilant” politicians and critics “in civilian clothes” took place around literary movements, but literary theory has established that after 70 to 100 years of operation, literary movements themselves leave the aesthetic arena. And this is natural. The reason for this can be considered the fact that such a category as “the truth of life” has been lost in its formula. The model of the literary movement preserves the philosophical platform and aesthetics. We propose the following, quite understandable scheme: philosophy + aesthetics = literary direction.

Literary movements began to appear during the period when aesthetic thought reached its highest development, and artists began to unite according to the type of creativity and common aesthetic beliefs. Several artistic movements can function in one literary era. The most famous are Baroque, sentimentalism, classicism, naturalism, symbolism, socialist realism, existentialism, and modernism.

BAROQUE AS A LITERARY DEVELOPMENT

Term; birthplace of the Baroque; philosophical basis (ancient humanism and medieval theologism); Baroque theme and poetics

The term “baroque” (Italian - strange, bizarre; Portuguese - “perrola baroque” - an irregularly shaped pearl) is being clarified, and its meaning is filled with new meaning. In the 20th century, the origin of this nomination began to be associated with the Latin “mnemonic” designation of the fourth type of the second figure of a scholastic syllogism. Initially, this word was used to describe “bad taste” in relation to art that appeared after the Renaissance. The scientific status of the term “Baroque” began to be established by Western European philologists in the 18th century; its status was largely recorded by art historians and architectural theorists. “Baroque” became widely known in the science of literature in the second half of the 19th century (G. Carducci, E. Porembovich).

The history of the formation of literary baroque begins in the mid-16th century in Italy and develops until the end of the 17th century. In the 17th century, this trend flourished in Spanish poetry and drama; at the same time, the “Ukrainian baroque” clearly declares itself, on the traditions of which the work of N.V. is based. Gogol, V. Narezhny and other writers of the “Ukrainian school”. US theorists R. Welleck and O. Warren wrote about this: “The Baroque style spread to the art of all Eastern Europe, including Ukraine,” barely touching Moscow literature (Welleck R. And Warren O. Theory of Literature, p. 71). This is the Rozviyany Morok!

The literary genres in which the Baroque was most fully manifested are associated with the names of great writers: in Italy - the poetry of T. Tasso and D. Marino, the fairy tales of D. Basile (“Pentameron”); in Spain - Gongora's sonnets, Calderon's tragedies, Tirso de Molineux's dramas, Quevedo's satires, a picaresque novel (M. Aleman "Guzman", L. Velez de Guevara "The Lame Demon"); in England - the poetry of John Donne, the drama of D. Webster; in Germany - the tragedies of A. Gryphius, the lyrics of Fleming, the folk novel of Grimmelshausen; in France - the work of Agrippa d'Aubigne, C. Sorel; in Poland - the poetry of V. Pototsky; in Ukraine - the lyrics and scientific treatises of the poet-theologians Ioannikiy Galatovsky, Anthony Radivilovsky, M. Sakovich, the dramaturgy of Feofan Propokovich.

The philosophical basis of the “bizarre” trend is ancient humanism and medieval theologism. The synthesis of pagan mythology and Christian symbolism made it possible to create artistic masterpieces in art and literature.

Baroque poetics. Using the grotesque and mythology, shrouding unreal events in allegorical dreams, writers include in the system of antitheses such phenomena as asceticism and hedonism, abstract fantasy and realistic concreteness, historical fact and the declarative nature of its interpretation. It is significant that the stylistic narrative drawings also impress with oppositional techniques. Vulgar simplicity and exquisite complexity, fluidity and static presentation of events, picturesqueness and decorativeness, ornamentalism and integrity of the depicted paintings, naturalness and theatricality coexist here. Supporters of the Baroque literary movement deliberately overload the text with emblematisms, refined and simple-minded comparative figures. Much attention The authors paid attention to metaphorical speech; it was usually built according to the schemes of baroque wit.

In poetic genres, poets traditionally used ready-made formulas, which were polemically reinterpreted and created space for creative dialogue. Writers demonstrate encyclopedic knowledge and use unique and exotic extra-literary material.

In the art and literature of the Baroque, the leitmotifs of sadness, lack of faith, and the fragility of life are mastered, and the ideas of tragic doom are cultivated. Literary heroes go through a path of painful suffering, find themselves in a closed world of the terrible, inevitable, and fragile. The artistic topography is localized by gloomy castles, towers, and rocks.

Gloomy evil is mastered by the following genres: tragedy of fear, satirical drama, sad and fatal sonnets. Baroque to a certain extent ignores fiction (novels and stories) due to the epic narrative chronotope, which is not able to convey the dynamics of the painful passions that befell literary heroes.

LITERARY DIRECTION CLASSICISM

Term; the birthplace of classicism; rationalism as the philosophical basis of the direction; theory and poetics of classicism: three unities; conflict between duty and feelings

Classicism (from Latin - exemplary) as a literary movement appeared in Italy in the 16th century. It was at this time that he was reborn antique theater, being a counterbalance to the “barbaric” medieval drama. Therefore, classicism received its most complete embodiment, first of all, in theatrical art. Imitating ancient drama, which was rightly called classical, perfect, exemplary, classicism uses the experience of ancient stage masters.

This trend manifested itself universally and vividly in the 17th century in France, where absolutism began to dominate, establishing a balance in society between aristocrats and representatives of the middle class. The rise of classicism in France is associated with socio-ideological prerequisites. The literary direction becomes the result of the efforts of state (royal) policy. The ruling elite financially approved the work of writers, poets, playwrights with competitive prizes and lifelong pensions, cultural workers received awards, honorary titles and other incentives.

The basis of artistic classicism is the philosophy of rationalism of Descartes. He put reason at the forefront, as a result of which truth was achieved not through experience, but through speculative constructions.

Founder of French aesthetic classicism there was Malherbe, who spoke for the purity of the French literary dialect without the dominance of provincialisms and “dead” classical languages. Artistic creativity must obey the single organizing will of the mind, leading the artist to clarity, accuracy, noble simplicity (R. Samarin). Malherbe’s sonnet “To Cardinal Richelieu” is considered programmatic in this regard; the author develops an odic motif of praise title character. The cardinal’s actions are exaggerated, he is endowed with a “great soul”, the hero has accomplished “great work” and confidently leads France to a bright future, while France itself has become noticeably younger during this period. The king, thanks to Richelieu, will conquer the whole world. The sonnet contains the ideology of artistic classicism.

Boileau is rightly called the theoretician of the literary movement of classicism. In his poetic treatise “Poetic Art” (1674), he established the rules of literary genres and introduced Descartes’ philosophical method into art. Boileau argued that the mind creates a beautiful, high, promising worldview. By “reason” he understood a commitment to ancient aesthetics that was “lost” during the Middle Ages. As the “mind” works, this gap between cultures decreases. At the same time, rationality becomes the property not only of the ruling elite, but also of townspeople living surrounded by libraries, theaters, and educational institutions. Boileau called on poets to study and glorify the urban cultural layer, calling it the pride of the nation.

The concept of “three unities” becomes the pinnacle of the teachings of classicism. Theorists of this direction believed that ancient artists created their masterpieces according to rules known to them in advance; they must be discovered, studied and then successfully applied in their work. Experiments in this direction led classicists to the idea that high tragedy and low comedy are based on three aesthetic unities: time, place, action. The duration of events in the drama should not exceed a day (24 hours), therefore, there are no long excursions into the past or forecasts into the future. The place where the actions take place is localized and static: where dramatic stories begin, they end there; movement in space was not allowed; the decorations imitating the color of the space did not change. The unity of action is connected with the moving event outline of the drama; it was subordinate to one depicted picture, story, fact. Classicists did not allow plot branches in plays.

Theorists of classicism divided literary genres into high and low. They included tragedy, ode, epic, myth, and the genres of spiritual (religious) poetry among the first. “High” genres developed themes of national or historical significance. “Low” genres - comedy, satire, fable, fairy tale, landscape sketch - should master private life, the everyday concerns of “mere mortals” and people in the middle strata of society. The disdainful attitude of classicists towards such genres as burlesque, everyday realism, carnival scenes, and songs is noted. All of them were classified as lightweight and crude forms of art. (Remember that socialist realism also prohibited and persecuted such genres as the sonnet, ghazal, and spiritual poetry). Rationalistic aesthetics denies fantasy, with the exception of ancient mythology, which belonged to “reasonable” (wise) literature. High genres are focused on ancient literary subjects, middle genres are focused on “new” ones - the novel, epic - lyrical forms, low genres - fabliaux, farces, anecdotes. High aesthetics does not accept the subjective principle in low genres, which displaces the aesthetics of rationality.

The classicists created the doctrine of literary heroes. In epic and tragedy, the bearers of good and evil were kings, generals, and historical figures; the heroes of the comedies were townspeople, merchants, lawyers, and bourgeois; actors satire and farce became common people. The characters' personalities were static: the ideal hero retains his position from beginning to end; the exponents of the dark principle also do not change and fix their negative destiny.

The problem of conflict was solved in the aspect of ideological confrontation between reason and feelings, the clash of personal and state interests. Private desires faded into the background, preference was given to the homeland and the ruler of the state.

The views of classicists on the category of beauty in art. The source of beauty, according to Boileau’s teachings, was and remains the harmony of the Universe; it is based on spiritual activity. Here the idea of ​​“imitation of nature” is developed, a kind of analogue to the ancient “mimesis”, and only justice should dominate in art and society. Boileau argued: “There is nothing more beautiful than nature.”

Classicism as a literary movement dominated in France during the 17th century; it made sporadic appearances in other literatures in the 18th century.

SENTIMENTALISM AS A LITERARY TREND

Term; philosophical teaching of P. Gassendi, Berkeley, Huma; cult of feelings; genres of literature of sentimentalism

Some scientists attribute sentimentalism (French - feeling) to a literary movement (KLE, M.L. Tronskaya), others rightly believe that, based on aesthetic characteristics, this phenomenon functioned as a literary movement. The terminological designation was consolidated by Laurence Stern, putting it in the title of the novel “Sentimental Journey”. And in this literary direction, the “truth of life” is replaced by the philosophical doctrine of sensationalism; The chronicle of the existence of sentimentalism in art also covers almost one century.

England was the birthplace of sentimentalism. Sentimentalism in the 18th century acted as a statement of personal values ​​and the significance of human feelings. The idea of ​​the primacy of mood opened up the prospect of deepening psychological self-expression and a new understanding of nature: landscape turned out to be not only a form of admiration, but also an object of empathy, which required writers to write emotionally charged words that dramatically changed the meaning of beauty even at the lexical level. Sentimentalism gives preference to confidential genre forms (epistole, idyll, journey, confession, poem, notes). Sentimentalist writers took the creative method of S. Richardson as a basis.

English sentimentalism used the philosophical doctrine of sensationalism (Latin - feeling, sensation) of Berkeley and Hume, which recognized human sensations as the starting point. It is appropriate to name here French philosopher XVII century P. Gassendi, who explored sensory experience as the main source of universal knowledge. The work “Code of Philosophy” states that there is nothing in the mind “that is not in the feelings.”

The initial contribution to literary sentimentalism was made by the English poet John Thomson, who introduced dreams of a rural idyll into the plot of his didactic poem “The Seasons” (1730). Lyrical sketches of subjective pictures of nature are given in the poetry of E. Jung (“Night Thoughts”), T. Gray (“Elegy”), O. Goldsmith (“Abandoned Village”). In the second half of the 18th century, English sentimentalists turned to prose genres. These are novels created by S. Richardson, L. Stern, T. Smollett. Prose writers use the themes and plots of medieval legends, which contributed to the creation of the “Gothic novel,” the forerunner of which was Anne Radcliffe (1764 - 1823). The eventual basis of the new genre was marked by murders, “skeleton in the closet”, mysterious ghosts, werewolves, vampires. Anna Radcliffe's novels “The Mysteries of Udolf” and “The Italian” brought particular popularity to Anna, in which a world of horror and mystery was created, where a hero-villain acts with a strong will and indomitable passions.

EXISTENTIALISM AS A LITERARY TREND

Term; philosophy of Siren Kierkegaard; postulates of artistic existentialism

The term “existentialism” (Latin - existence) reflects the desire to comprehend human life as it is given to consciousness.

The philosophical system of this direction was formed in the 19th century and its creator was the Danish scientist Siren Kirkegaard (1813 - 1855). This teaching was a kind of antithesis of the philosophy of the ideal of things. For S. Kierkegaard, things turn into evil, they torture and impose their will on a person. The main features of existentialism existed even during the period of the mythological consciousness of Homo sapiens. Interest in the philosophy of existence does not fade; on the contrary, it intensifies in the 21st century.

Existentialism as a literary movement originates in the 20th century. French writers made a significant contribution to the aesthetics and philosophy of this teaching, among whom J. - P. Sartre and A. Camus stand out.

Brief information about the life and work of Siren Kirkegaard. He was born in Copenhagen. In his youth, his father accused the Almighty of injustice, then abandoned romantic rebellion and became a major merchant and god-obedient citizen. In her childhood, Siren begins to engage in introspection, feeling the split of her soul into rebellion and submission. Strict parents gave their son a religious upbringing. He was considered a late child: his father was 56 and his mother was 44 years old. At the age of seventeen, Siren entered the theological faculty of the University of Copenhagen, and in 1841 he preached his first sermon in the Lutheran church. The biographical episodes of Kierkegaard presented here will subsequently become the subject of close study by many scientists. It was believed that mental discord and further fate philosopher are associated with his late birth; essentially, he was the son of an old man.

Next biographical point: Siren saw the death of his brothers and sisters. Of the seven children, only two survived. It is significant that in the scientist’s diaries, which amounted to fourteen volumes, there are entries only about the father; as for the mother, there is not even a mention of her. And this mysterious circumstance is interpreted in its own way by historians - existentialists. Thus, August Wetter in his book “Piety as Passion” explains the complex of attachment to the father and indifference to the mother by the fact that a violation of the category of biological happiness has occurred: the son must inherit the maternal, and the daughter - the paternal principles. And as an example, the names of the “happy” in their work of Goethe and Kant and the “unhappy” - Nietzsche, Schopenhauer are given, and Kierkegaard is also included among them. Later, this scheme of biographism will take its place in the teachings of S. Freud, who will create his theory of the Oedipus and Electra complexes.

The works of S. Kierkegaard “All or Nothing” (translated as “Either - Or”), “Fear and Trembling”, “Repetition”, “Philosophical Crumbs”, “The Concept of Fear”, “Stages” became famous. life path", "Life and the power of love", "Illness and death".

The philosophical system of S. Kierkegaard, which is successfully mastered by Western writers of the 20th and early 21st centuries, is aimed at understanding man, with his behavioral impulses and structures, feelings of despair that often engulf a mortal.

Let us outline the defining postulates of existentialism.

I. The world is unchangeable, and man in it is a meaningless creature, on earth he is an outsider (A. Camus). Space has no purpose, and human pain and suffering mean nothing to the universe. There was an alienation of man from nature; in fact, according to S. Kierkegaard, such closeness never existed. This is not a philosopher's invention. Let us turn to Omar Khayyam: “We will leave without a trace - neither name nor sign. This world will last for thousands of years. We weren’t here before, and we won’t be here after. There is no harm or benefit from this.”

II. The tragedy of human loneliness. The cause of the tragedy is in the consciousness that man is mortal, he understands his limit, his finitude. The philosophy of loneliness and tragic existence fits into the following sphere: circle - center - periphery. God is placed in the circle; it is he who fences off the individual (periphery) from society (center). His formula of loneliness (the book “Either - Or”) rests on the antithesis: “Here I can be, but I don’t want to; I want to be there, but I can’t; both here and there I am unhappy.” Almost Georgian toast.

III. Man and fear. The category of fear has been cultivated from time immemorial by all religions of the world, institutions of power and family. The Danish philosopher has reached a different level of interpretation of fear and trembling. In his work “Illness and Death” he wrote: “There is no person in the world who would not fall into despair for some reason, who would not experience at least a little despair, there is no person in whose innermost depths there would not be some kind of anxiety lurking.” , anxiety, disharmony, some kind of fear of the unknown or of something that he does not even want to realize.” The theory of fear can be stated in a condensed form. Fear and apprehension relate to creative matter. While the child does not know fear, he perceives the world locally: the room, toys, parents. All this is a blinder, a veil, since the child during this period has not yet developed as a personality. As soon as the soul has allowed fear into itself, and every person remembers this time and event, it will accompany him until his death. And now the boundaries of his world are expanding to cosmic proportions. Fear becomes the most important impulse for creativity.

IV. Individual consciousness. A person, according to the teachings of existentialism, does not take into account the desires, morality, and happiness of others. The inevitable and spontaneous development of an idea does not depend on activity or society; the universal spirit manifests itself spontaneously in people. Their actions, thoughts, destinies are uncontrollable, although they perceive themselves as the creators of their own happiness. The people and the individual do not create history; it is the “history of the idea” that organizes itself, subordinating generation after generation to its inevitable will. A single life becomes an adventure for each individual in the ocean of life.

VI. The theory of rebellion. S. Kierkegaard rejects the historical, social, religious prerequisites for any collective protest. There are no positions here about “lower” and “higher”. The scientist paradoxically directed the problem towards biologism. Uprisings, military actions, social and national cataclysms are the essence of the natural physiological needs of human nature. The activation of events goes something like this: the most timid, weak and oppressed person must rebel once in his life. This is an axiom. And a year, a month, a day, an hour comes when the desire to protest embraces many and then chaos and riots begin. In this regard, not a single idea, even the best one, will be safe as long as there is a person who dares to openly declare his “no”. That is why new philosophical teachings and ideas should be treated with extreme caution.

VII. The demonic influence of one person on another. This thesis has not lost its significance in the philosophy and literature of the 21st century. It is difficult to explain people’s attachment, what secret force attracts or repels them, again on a psychological level. S. Kirkegaard focused on two points of this global problem. The first point is “Music as a medium of demonic sensitivity.” This idea is illustrated using the material of the literary Don Juan. In the book “The Concept of Fear” S. Kierkegaard comes to the conclusion that the Don Juan theme was born of a Christian worldview, it is unthinkable within a pagan or eastern cultures. The scientist wrote: “When exactly the idea of ​​Don Juan arose is unknown: the only certainty is that it belongs to Christianity and, through Christianity, to the Middle Ages.” Christianity, unlike ancient paganism, introduced erotic sensitivity and anxiety into the world. By denying and prohibiting it, theologians for the first time created a precedent unknown to paganism. The ban on sensuality awakens global interest in it. And Don Juan affirms this idea, which probably originated with the biblical Eve. This leads to the idea of ​​the demonic: I forbid, therefore I permit. The ancient world did not know heightened sensuality because it was not prohibited by polytheism. Therefore, the pagan does not know the tense relationship between lovers; for him this is a natural, natural beginning. Having come into conflict with the spiritual world, love in the Middle Ages takes shape in a demonic image and acts as a temptation. S. Kirkegaard believes that Don Juan is a seducer by nature. His love is not spiritual, but sensual and, therefore, wrong. Don Juan's passion is directed not to one person, but to everyone, that is, a person seduces everyone. And although the Greek heroes and gods in their love adventures resemble the acts of Don Juan, the very idea of ​​amorous temptations is completely alien to classical literature, since the erotic principle is devoid of the demonic principle. In ancient times, the human body was not a sinful object, it was a secret book, and it served as a subject for “reading” and research. In the essay “Silhouettes,” S. Kierkegaard completes the image of Don Juan, showing the destructive power of his erotic genius (the East, we note in passing, curbed its Don Juan with the institution of the harem). The most acceptable form of expression of Don Juan's idea is music. Mozart’s opera “Don Juan” (S. Kierkegaard’s work “Musical - Erotic”) allowed us to conclude: “Music is a demonic” manifestation of voluptuousness (see also: Malis Y.G. The Legend of Don Juan from a biological point of view. - St. Petersburg, 1908).

The second point explaining the nature of demonic attraction is outlined by S. Kierkegaard more specifically: “Tragic guilt as a source of demonic aestheticism.” The category of “tragic guilt” was developed in the aesthetics of Aristotle. S. Kierkegaard approaches the problem by turning to the historical figure of Nero.

In the 20th century, French writers expanded the concept of the demonic influence of one person on another. This problem is given a worthy place in the works of J. - P. Sartre, A. Camus, O.G. Marcel, M. Proust. Thus, J.-P. Sartre established the laws of attraction and repulsion born at the level of the biological executioner and his victim: where two people appear, relationships between the leader and the follower, the vampire and the donor, the executioner and the victim begin. In this case, the provoking side, and this is the paradox of existentialism, is the victim: the executioner becomes the victim of his victim.

In the treatise “Being and Non-Being” J. - P. Sartre outlined another type of demonic. He believes that there is a certain call, a mysterious rapprochement between the killer and fallen woman, a prostitute. Each of the bearers of their guilt, no matter how far they grow apart, will find each other and their paths will cross. This is how unknowable demonic magic decreed, for example, in the fates of Raskolnikov and Sonya Marmeladova. These plot schemes are successfully exploited by French and American cinema. Shakespeare's heroes, subject to the tragedy of incest, fell into the demonic zone.

Jean-Paul Sartre put forward one of the most mysterious categories of existentialism: “A person will regret that he was born. And the person will regret that he was not born.” However, this philosophical absurdity of existence was known to the ancient and medieval literature. Thus, in the 242 rubai of Omar Khayyam, the motive of happiness from non-birth sounded:

In this monastery, which has two doors,

From time immemorial we have been given longing and loss,

Therefore, it is good for those who were not born at all,

He did not measure our sadness with his soul.

In this rubai a demonic reality is created, which existentialists designate as “exit from time”, “exit from space” and “non-entry into human time-space”. The opportunity arises to fall out of a given historical moment or end up in another space with its unknown labyrinths. The heroes of A. Platonov (the stories “Jan” and “Taksir”) also argue in the traditions of existentialism. Here is an example of an existential dialogue:

• “It’s good for those who died inside their mother,” said Gulchatay.
• - In your stomach? - asked Nazar. - Why didn’t you leave me there? I would have died and I wouldn’t exist now, and you ate and drank and thought about me as if I were alive.

Let us briefly outline the concepts of existentialism by J. - P. Sartre and A. Camus. In the scientific treatise “Being and Non-being” (1943), the author of the novel “Nausea” considers the following categories: randomness and meaninglessness of existence; helplessness of the mind (however, this thought was expressed by Ecclesiastes - “For in much wisdom there is much sorrow; and whoever increases knowledge increases sorrow”); the fragility of existence and the inevitability of death give rise to the idea of ​​the absurd (it is absurd that we were born, it is absurd that we will die); constant anxiety from the “shadow of death.” Hence “melancholy”, “dizziness”, “nausea”. A person in an absurd world finds himself abandoned, weak and lonely (“A fragile creature, lost in the sorrowful ocean of the finite, lonely and weak, upon which nothingness falls at every moment”); randomness and meaninglessness of existence (“The man was not asked about this. It looks like he was thrown here. Who? - Nobody. For what? So simple, for nothing”); confusion of the mind, it is unable to understand what is right and what is wrong (“There is no truth among us... Duality and inconsistency surround us, and we hide from ourselves”), the only truth is “my personal existence”; being is also hostile to man (“Being is a viscous, thick, fermenting mess”; “Being in itself is excessive, blinding, viscous; it always threatens to trap”). J. - P. Sartre refers to Zarathustra’s saying that “only in the desert does the hermit find revelation.” The main sign of existence for the author of the book “Being and Non-Existence” is constant anxiety, which is generated by the “shadow of death.”

Another French Nobel Prize laureate, Albert Camus, in his philosophical treatise “The Myth of Sisyphus” proves the idea of ​​the absurdity of existence. Sisyphus A. Camus differs from mythical themes that he, condemned to eternal meaningless labor (does not see the results of his work), finds consolation in his own inflexibility and in contempt for circumstances, he does not rebel, the next ascent to the top is perceived as the conquest of many heights, which “can fill the heart of a person” and therefore, “one must imagine Sisyphus happy.”

Many works have been written about the philosophy of existentialism, among them the following books undoubtedly stand out for their deep meaning: Gaidenko P.P. The Tragedy of Aestheticism (M.: Art, 1970), Kossak Jerzy. Existentialism in philosophy and literature (M.: Politizdat, 1980), Evnina E.M. Modern French novel (Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1962).

The philosophy of existence, established and discovered by Siren Kierkegaard, provided the literary movement with stability in the artistic process. Many of its representatives have been awarded the Nobel Prize. And yet, existentialism will not be able to develop into an artistic method and ensure eternal life in art, although Western literature and culture successfully and productively use the philosophical discoveries of S. Kierkegaard.

OTHER LITERARY DIRECTIONS

Naturalism; symbolism; socialist realism; modernism

Naturalism (Latin - nature) as a literary movement was formed in France in the second half of the 19th century and spread throughout European countries and the USA. The methodology of naturalism is distinguished by the utmost reliability of the depiction of events, characters and destinies of heroes. And all this is passed through the physiology and socio-material environment.

The creator of artistic naturalism was Emile Zola, however, his teachers - the brothers Jules and Edmond Goncourt - constantly challenged the priority of the author of “The Belly of Paris”. E. Zola outlined the theoretical principles of this literary movement in his work “The Experimental Novel” (1880) and in a number of critical works. He opposed artistic fiction and steadily asserted the writer's right to depict all physiological and social aspects of human activity. E. Zola recommended replacing artistic fiction with protocol authenticity, working under the dictation of life, not inventing stories, but taking them from the streets, markets, and family troubles.

Representatives of naturalism removed the attractive halo from the ideal; they denied the educational function of literature. Sometimes naturalism was called “scientific realism” (the Goncourt brothers), putting into this concept the words of G. Flaubert: “I believe that great art should be scientific and impersonal” and the writer’s gaze should be directed to rough reality, which would throw off the veil of the false from poetry pathos. This approach to the tasks of literature made it possible to objectively assess human dignity. The events depicted must obey the “flow of life” scenario.

Proponents of naturalism believed that society should be studied the way a natural scientist studies the laws of nature. As for the doctrine of “environment theory,” here we are talking about the everyday environment (everyday life).

The philosophical basis of naturalism was the teaching of the French scientist Auguste Comte (1798 - 1857) about positivism; he created the theory of three stages of the intellectual evolution of mankind: a) theological; b) metaphysical; c) scientific. O. Comte believed that the artist should explore the “average person”, a representative of the black masses; he also opposed fiction, and represented the typical as something between statistics and a photograph. Reasons for rise and fall literary hero should be sought and studied in his heredity.

Symbolism (French, from Greek - sign, symbol) refers to “the European literary and artistic movement...” (KLE, vol. 6, column 831). The term “symbolism” was introduced into wide use by J. Mores, who substantiated its aesthetic meaning in the “Manifesto of Symbolism” (1886). He formulated the goals and objectives of this direction: “The poetry of symbolism strives to embody the Idea in a tangible form, which, however, is not an end in itself, but, serving the expression of the Idea, retains a subordinate position.” In France, program magazines “Symbolism”, “Pages on Art”, “White Journal” are published. French symbolism has its roots in the poetry of Charles Baudelaire.

The philosophical basis of symbolism is the teaching of A. Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860) (“The World as Will and Idea”) and E. Hartmann (1842 - 1906) (“Philosophy of the Subconscious”). The teaching of symbolism came down to the search for deep meaning in ordinary and everyday things, in which the secret of the Idea is hidden and can only be known through art, music and poetry. The author’s sense of mystery (Stéphane Mallarmé’s article “Mystery in Poetry,” 1896) becomes the muse of the creative process.

The symbolists established their connection with the religion of the Middle Ages; they saw in ancient art a similar methodology in the ways of conveying the abstract through the concrete (the symbol of power is Zeus, the sign of strength is Hercules).

The subject of idealization among the Symbolists was “non-existence”, “nothingness”, verbal and musical suggestion (S. Mallarmé). The Symbolists created a new form of verse called “free verse”; discovered the “alchemy of vowels” (A. Rimbaud’s sonnet “Vowels”), improved the traditions of Charles Baudelaire in the field of odorism and synaestheticism: the poetics of aroma, colors, sounds, tastes. The symbolic literary movement clearly declared itself again in the 20s of the 20th century.

Socialist realism as a literary movement. In the former Soviet Union, socialist realism was cultivated as “the highest, qualitatively new stage in the history of world art” (N.A. Gulyaev). Dogmatic literary criticism elevated this trend to the category of an artistic method, predicting immortality for it. “Literature of socialist realism” G.N. Pospelov also perceived it as a stage in the development of world literature; L.I. Timofeev theoretically substantiated the idea that “socialist realism” undoubtedly represents an “artistic method”; finally, “the leading role of the party in the development of the literature of socialist realism” is affirmed (P.K. Volynsky). For seventy years in theoretical developments, socialist realism was propagated and advertised as the pinnacle artistic method. A powerful totalitarian ideological machine worked to confirm this idea: on the one hand, an incentive system in the field of theory and artistic thought (orders, prizes, trips abroad, preferential family and living conditions) helped; on the other hand, the most severe coercive apparatus and even the physical elimination of dissidents who deviated from the guidelines of a “truthful”, historically specific image of reality in its obligatory revolutionary development. However, it didn’t work out. Time has confirmed that the false (self-proclaimed) artistic method ignores the “truth of life”, since it depicts a poster, ceremonial (“Walk, Russia!”, “Dance, Russia!”) reality, which in fact it could not be; imposes the philosophy of wise leaders. By all aesthetic and ideological indicators, this “bloody wheel” represents a literary movement. In the history of the forced introduction of socialist realism, there are echoes with classicism XVII century, however, kings did not allow themselves to destroy so many literary and artistic figures. Objectively, socialist realism had exhausted itself already in the 80s of the 20th century, regardless of the “perestroika” ideology. The gambit was a violation of the truth of life and artistic truth.

Modernism as a literary movement. The term “modernism” (French - modern, new) began to be introduced into art and literature in the 20th century. At first, this direction aroused strong opposition in almost all countries, so it is difficult to talk about a serious approach to the study of modernism. Then critical passions began to gradually subside and at the end of the 20th century, the science of literature began to be tolerant of modernism and postmodernism. This is a complex phenomenon, it is large-scale in the sense that it includes both literary movements (naturalism, symbolism, socialist realism) and literary movements (Tachism, Dadaism, abstract art, imagism, futurism...). As educational material on this problem we can recommend the two-volume book by S.E. Mozhnyagun “On Modernism,” which provides answers to the question: “What is modernism?” in the following chapters: “Modernism as a creative method”, “Modernism as a worldview”, “Theory of empathy”, “Stream of consciousness”, “Words and things”, “Eternal truths of idealism...”.

LITERARY TRENDS

Futurism, imagism, tachisme, dadaism, surrealism, acmeism...

Literary movements develop only on an aesthetic basis, excluding the “truth of life” and the philosophical platform from their program, therefore they remain short-lived in the system of the artistic process, and one should not wage a “decisive struggle” with them; they function and leave the literary process according to the law of art. Literary movements form small active groups of writers, related in type of creativity, who are adherents of their own aesthetic concepts and promote their programs in articles, manifestos, and charters. However, this energy of individuals does not stand the test of time.

Literary movements emerge and take shape in the 20th century. A prerequisite for the emergence of certain movements is the rejection of ideological and philosophical instructions. When studying the polyphony of currents, it is necessary to take into account the fact that intellectual nature develops dynamically and manifests itself in diverse forms in different eras. Literary theorists should abandon their aggressive and extremely negative attitude towards trends and directions. Convictions reduce the value of the global artistic process. A literary critic is obliged to research, understand and explain why “bad” literary movements appear next to “good” realism, and for what reason there are so many bright and talented artists in a creative environment alien to realism.

Literary movements and trends also reproduce reality, but their vision of the “truth of life” is refracted through the prism of similarities and differences that are observed in the writing technique itself, in experimental types of generalization, style, and genre experiments.

Imagism (English Imajo - image) as a movement arose at the beginning of the twentieth century. Its theorists were the English critic T. E. Hume, who created the “School of Imagism” club in 1909, as well as prominent writers - R. Aldington, T. S. Eliot, D. G. Lawrence, J. Joyce. The Imagist method was distinguished by its technique of combining metaphors and images. Having created a “catalog of images,” the Imagists opened up freedom for verse as a synthesis of rhythms and colors, with the help of which the mystery of the “chaotic world” can be expressed (KLE, vol. 3, column 107).

Surrealism (French - super-realism) belongs to avant-garde movement, which arose in France in the 10s of the twentieth century. The term “surrealism” was created by the poet G. Apollinaire in the play “The Tears of Tiresias” (1918). He believed that the first surrealist was the man who invented the wheel. “Driving its lineage from the Marquis de Sade, J. Nerval and further through A. Rimbaud... to P. Reverdy, surrealism relied on the tradition of romantic-anarchic rebellion in artistic thinking...” In 1924, the writer A. Breton published the “Manifesto of Surrealism” , which argues that artistic creativity relates to a “dying revelation,” a “tragic prophecy,” and the total loneliness of man. Surrealism provides recommendations on how an “ordinary person” can “turn into a clairvoyant, and a number of writing techniques that allow one to record points of the subconscious.” For the surrealists, the category of beauty consists of a combination of “stunning” combinations of incompatible (but quite specific) things and concepts” in the following still life: “Beautiful as chance meeting an umbrella and a sewing machine on the autopsy table.” This kind of amalgam “creates an atmosphere of magical arbitrariness.” Note that similar techniques were previously discovered by oriental poets in the ghazal genre (“bloody rivers of tears” flow from the eyes of a lover. See: Mikhailichenko B.S. Techniques of abstractionism and surrealism in the ghazal-sonnet portrait / Masulakhoi philology. - Samarkand: SamSU , 2003. - pp. 134-139). Surrealists use “automatic writing,” a quick recording of the first words, impressions, and fragments of speech that come to mind. “Automatic texts” appeared in the new poetry (KLE, vol. 7. - Column. 313-317). Salvador Dali achieved world fame in painting.

Dadaism (French - “horse”, in children’s language “horse”, more precisely, incoherent baby babble) is considered a modernist literary movement. It originated in Switzerland in 1916. Its creator is considered to be the French poet, Romanian by birth, T. Tzara. The Dadaists gathered in one of the cabarets in Zurich and teased the audience with their scandalous performances. They believed that “art is dead” because man has the instinct not of a creator, but of a destroyer. The fault for this is civilization, which with its diet has created tragic preconditions. Therefore, the Dadaists called for a return to primitive society, which corresponded to the philosophy of “eternal return.” The Dadaists killed “good taste” with vulgar sonnets and onomatopoeic poems (“Gadyi beri bimba...”). This is a kind of rebellion against monumental classical literature, where all the places are already taken, and with their unattainable model they fetter the creative energy of young artists. Perhaps this circumstance explains L. Tolstoy’s denial of geniuses in art and literature (see: KLE, vol. 2, column 498; Mozhnyagun S. “On modernism.” - M.: Art, 1974. - P. 51- 53).

Futurism (Latin - future) originates in Italy in 1909. Its recognized leader is F. Marinetti, who is reproached for collaborating with the ruling elite. In their manifesto, the futurists proclaimed the birth of a new art, in tune with the “skyscraper-industrial-automotive” culture. Artists of the word idealized highly developed technology, industry and the image of the “mechanical man.” The object of art for the futurists were world and local wars; they were interpreted in the light of the “only hygiene of the world.” Futurists rejected linguistic norms and created their own “abstruse” poetic speech.

We offer a diagram that illustrates pictures of artistic method, literary trends and trends

The literary process (Latin processus - forward movement) denotes the transition of artistic creativity from a past qualitative state to a new qualitative state in a specific historical era. The literary process includes almost all aesthetic categories studied by the science of literature: genera, methods, directions, trends, genres, systems of versification, styles,... contradictory and logical questions posed by reality. This takes into account national literary traditions, social and cultural-historical features of the world spiritual heritage, the degree of consciousness, enlightenment, and culture. See: theories of I. Taine and F. Brunetier.

The forward movement occurs on the basis of achieving and deepening the work of predecessors, the evolutionary and “accelerated” development of verbal art.

What does the concept of “artistic method” mean in literature? What are its distinctive characteristics? What method did your favorite writers follow or follow? Do you want to distinguish symbolism from acmeism? This article is for you! It sets out the basis that will help you feel confident in a huge literary space.

What is artistic method?

This is one of the most important concepts in art. Means the totality overall ratings, vision of the world and perception of certain things by writers. Thus, various trends in literature arose. The nature of the vision of the surrounding reality depends on what method the creator adheres to.

Adherents of a certain artistic (creative) method are united by the idea of ​​ideals human life, good and evil, and about art in general. They target different target audiences, so the existence of multiple literary methods is extremely important as they cater to the spiritual needs of people with different mindsets.

Distinctive characteristics

The main feature of the artistic method is the variety of its forms. In the literature there is great amount directions and their “mixtures”, with the help of which we can look differently at an object and phenomenon. Classicism, romanticism, realism, sentimentalism, naturalism, modernism, symbolism, acmeism, futurism, impressionism, expressionism, existentialism, postmodernism are the main directions that have their own individual strength and character.

What artistic methods exist in literature?

Each writer certainly has his own individual style of expressing thoughts, unlike anyone else, but it is intertwined with one a certain direction which is close to him.

Let's move from the general to the specific and understand the main artistic methods in literature, starting from the 17th century and ending with the end of the 20th.

Classical movements of the 17th - 18th centuries

Classicism first emerged in the 17th century. It is characterized by educational morality, simplicity of presentation, a clear division into positive and negative characters, and “three unities”—place, time and action. Such famous writers as J. Racine, M. Lomonosov, G. Derzhavin worked in this direction. You can find the main features of classicism in “Ode to the Capture of Khotin”.

In the 18th century, J. Rousseau, I. Goethe, and N. Karamzin wrote in the next literary direction—sentimentalism. In this direction, it is important to depict the state of the character’s inner world, his mental anguish and sincere emotions. You can get to know this direction better by reading “Poor Lisa.”

Romanticism appeared at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. Love, feelings, desires, suffering, escape from oppressive reality - all this is incredibly beautifully described in their works by D. Byron, V. Hugo, M. Lermontov. "The Demon" is a vibrant work that will give you a complete understanding of this direction.

Everyday life of the 19th century

Realism, which emerged in the 19th century, describes a typical hero in a typical situation for the average person through colloquial vocabulary. This direction was subtly felt by Charles Dickens, O. de Balzac, L. Tolstoy, F. Dostoevsky, A. Chekhov, I. Turgenev. “Fathers and Sons” is a revealing novel that, without falsehood or pretense, will tell about the difference between generations and their perceptions; this is the essence of realism.

Naturalism is an artistic method that emerged at the end of the 19th century. is distinguished by an accurate and objective depiction of fate, everyday life, and human character. Representatives of this trend, such as M. Saltykov-Shchedrin, N. Nekrasov, believed that there are no unworthy topics for presentation, even typical human experiences are real art. “Who Lives Well in Rus'” - a poem about the realities of peasant life and difficult fate - is an undeniable representative of naturalism.

Catchy and unusual methods of presenting thoughts of the 19th - early 20th centuries

Modernism is a general name for such movements as symbolism, impressionism, acmeism, futurism, expressionism. To have an idea of ​​modernism, let us characterize all of the above trends.

• Symbolism arose in the 1870s; it differs from other movements in its figurative vision, secret meaning objects and phenomena, using words with multiple meanings. For example, Z. Gippus, V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, A. Blok wrote in this interesting and unusual direction. “Pharmacy, Street, Lantern” is a poem that is worth reading or refreshing your memory to understand the essence of the symbolism.
• Acmeism is an artistic method that was followed only by our compatriots, for example O. Mandelstam, A. Akhmatova, N. Gumilyov. In this direction there is no ambiguity, the words have a precise meaning, and the images are clearly seen; Using the power of the literary word, writers rethought life processes that have flaws. “The Gray-Eyed King” - you need to immerse yourself in this poem to understand the logic of the poets of this movement.

• Futurism is the direction in which Russian and Italian creators worked. This catchy trend appeared at the beginning of the 20th century. Shocking, bold decisions and non-standard construction of the poem, for example with a ladder, like the prominent representative of this direction V. Mayakovsky. Besides him, I. Severyanin, V. Khlebnikov, D. Burliuk created and broke the idea of ​​classical art in this direction. "Could you?" - an extravagant, unusual, inspiring, absolutely futuristic poem.

• Impressionism in literature appeared at the end of the 19th century; writers in this direction described in detail feelings, experiences and emotions, and turned moments of life into art. The brightest representatives of this trend can be considered G. de Maupassant and M. Proust. "Dear Friend" - emotional and easy piece, after reading which you will certainly become a fan of impressionism.
• At the beginning of the 20th century, dark expressionism became widespread in Germany. The main themes of this direction are death, destruction, loss, and the ugliness of the surrounding reality. F. Kafka and E. Zamyatin were most clearly able to convey the essence of this direction. “We” is the strongest dystopia of our compatriot, which does not give rise to a feeling of depression, but fully reveals all the above themes of expressionism.

Modern views on literature since the mid-20th century

At the heart of existentialism, which appeared in the mid-20th century in France, are ideas about the loneliness and tragedy of existence, the insignificance of human ideals. J. P. Sartre and A. Camus were able to most confidently and clearly put this on paper. "The Fall" is a book in which you will not find sharp turns in the plot, but the subtle and intelligent dialogues will make you fall in love with existentialism.

Most modern direction- postmodernism - appeared in the second half of the 20th century, it is distinguished by maximalism of execution, irony and satirical attitude to what is happening. H. Murakami, V. Nabokov, K. Vonnegut saw the world through a satirical prism. The work "Slaughterhouse-Five" is written in the best traditions of postmodernism, it will immerse you in deep thoughts about the value of life and views on it.

The importance of literary movements for modern man

The power of words can make a person look at certain things differently. Reading works by writers of different artistic methods will make you multifaceted personality who knows how to look at any situation critically and from different angles.

Artistic method- this is a way of mastering and displaying the world, a set of basic creative principles for the figurative reflection of life. The method can be spoken of as the structure of the writer’s artistic thinking, which determines his approach to reality and its reconstruction in the light of a certain aesthetic ideal. Through the method we comprehend those creative principles thanks to which the writer reproduces reality: selection, evaluation, typification (generalization), artistic embodiment characters, life phenomena in historical refraction. The method is manifested in the structure of thoughts and feelings of the heroes of a literary work, in the motivations for their behavior and actions, in the relationship of characters and events, in the correspondence of the life path and destinies of the characters to the socio-historical circumstances of the era.

Artistic method is a system of principles for selecting life material, its evaluation, principles and prevailing forms of artistic generalization and rethinking. It characterizes a complex of factors: holistic ideological, evaluative, individually unique, social attitude the artist to reality, to consciously or spontaneously reflected needs, ideological and artistic traditions. The artistic method largely determines the specificity of the artistic image.

Art style- A system of linguistic means and ideas characteristic of a particular literary work, genre, author or literary movement (Gogol’s style. Romantic style). In this style, it affects the imagination and feelings of the reader, conveys the thoughts and feelings of the author, uses all the wealth of vocabulary, possibilities different styles, characterized by imagery and emotionality of speech. work of art the word not only carries certain information, but also serves to have an aesthetic impact on the reader with the help of artistic images. The brighter and more truthful the image, the stronger its impact on the reader. In their works, writers use, when necessary, not only words and forms of the literary language, but also outdated dialect and vernacular words. The means of artistic expression are varied and numerous. These are tropes: comparisons, personification, allegory, metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, etc. And stylistic figures: epithet, hyperbole, litotes, anaphora, epiphora, gradation, parallelism, a rhetorical question, default, etc. Trope(from ancient Greek τρόπος - turnover) - in a work of art, words and expressions used in a figurative meaning in order to enhance the imagery of the language, the artistic expressiveness of speech.

Literary direction is a set of fundamental spiritual and aesthetic principles of many writers, as well as a number of groups and schools. There are the following literary trends:

1. Baroque(port. perola barrocco - an irregularly shaped pearl).

Appears with gray 16th - 17th centuries in the art of many European countries(especially in Italy and Spain). Most of all it manifests itself in the manner of writing or a pictorial image. The following important features of the Baroque are highlighted:

ornateness,

Pomposity,

Decoration,

Tendency to allegory, allegorism,

Complex metaphors

A combination of comic and tragic

An abundance of stylistic decorations in artistic speech.

A prominent representative of the Baroque was P. Calderon. In Russia, the features of this style appeared in the poetry of S. Polotsky, S. Medvedev, K. Istomin. The main works of the Baroque: E. Tesauro “Aristotle’s Spyglass”, B. Gracian “Wit, or the Art of a Sophisticated Mind”.

2.Classicism-(Latin classicus - exemplary) literary movement that has developed in European literature XVII century, which is based (according to S.P. Belokurova (3)):

1. Recognition of ancient art as the highest example, ideal, and works of antiquity as the artistic norm.

2. The principle of rationalism and “imitation of nature.”

3. Cult of reason.

4. Active appeal to social and civil issues.

5. Emphasized objectivity of the narrative.

6. Strict hierarchy of genres

3.Sentimentalism- (from French sentiment - feeling, sensitivity) - literary direction of the second half of the XVIII V. - beginning XIX century (3). Main genres - sentimental novel, story, diary, travel, letter, elegy, message.

In the works of this direction, the human personality was interpreted as responsive, capable of compassion, humane, kind, possessing high moral principles. The largest representatives in European literature are L. Stern ("Sentimental Journey through France and Italy"), J.-J. Rousseau ("Julia, or the New Heloise"), S. Richardson ("Ppamela, or Virtue Rewarded", "Clarissa, or the Story of a Young Lady"), I.-V. Goethe (“The Sorrows of Young Werther”) and others; in Russian literature of the second half of the 18th century. - M.N. Muravyov, N.M. Karamzin, V.V. Kapnist, N.A. Lvov, A.N. Radishchev, early V.A. Zhukovsky.

With his own syllable in an important mood, it used to be that a fiery creator showed us his hero as a model of perfection.

("Eugene Onegin" Chapter 3 Stanza 11)

4. Romanticism(from the French roman - a work in Romance languages). Romanticism dates back to the first third of the 19th century. Germany became the birthplace of romanticism (brothers F. and A. Schlegel, L. Tieck, Novalis). Romanticism is characterized by “attention to the individual as a spiritual being, possessing a sovereign inner world, independent of the conditions of existence and historical circumstances” (1).

5. Realism- "(from Latin realis - material) - an artistic method in literature and art, following which the writer depicts life in accordance with objective reality" (3). The focus of realism is on facts, events, people and things, patterns that operate in life, the relationship between man and the environment, the hero and the time in which he lives. The writer does not break away from reality, selects the inherent features of life with the greatest accuracy and thereby enriches the reader with knowledge of life.

6. Symbolism"- (fr. symbolisme< от греч. symbolon - знак, опознавательная примета) - явление художественной культуры последней трети XIX - нач. ХХ вв., противопоставившее себя реализму и сделавшее основой своей художественной системы философскую концепцию о принципиальной непознаваемости мира и человека средствами научного опыта, логического анализа и реалистического изображения" (3). Как отмечал Д.С.Мережковский, три главных элемента символизма - мистическое содержание, символы, расширение художественной впечатлительности.

7. Modernism- (from the French moderne - modern, newest). Modernism is characterized by “anti-historicism of thinking (history is replaced by a certain model of the world in which nothing changes, the mythologization of the past, present and future), interest in man in general, and not in man as a product of his era (the specific historical situation in the works of modernism does not have meaning, for “a person, like a horse, always walks with his eyes closed in the same circles” (D. Joyce)), lack of social typification.”

8. Postmodernism(from the French post - after and moderne - modern, newest) - a direction in the literature of the 20th century. This direction is characterized by the perception of the world as chaos, the display of the unconscious, random in the behavior of the characters, an abundance of irony (Irony) and parody. A feature of postmodernism works is that they often consist of words and situations that the author presents to the reader in a parody. For example, these include the works of V. Pelevin and D. Prigov.

A literary movement is a collection creative personalities, which are characterized by ideological and artistic closeness and programmatic and aesthetic unity. Simply put, a literary movement is a type of literary movement. For example, in Russian romanticism there are such movements as “philosophical”, “psychological” and “civil”, and in Russian realism some distinguish “psychological” and “sociological” movements, etc. and so on...

From the point of view of literary understanding“Style is an individually outlined and closed, purposeful system of means of verbal and aesthetic expression and embodiment artistic reality. A broad literary definition of an artist’s style as “the main ideological and artistic features inherent in his work (ideological positions, range of characters and plots, originality of language). According to the views of G.N. Pospelov, style includes three main elements: language, composition, details of the subject figurativeness. Language is the most obvious, tangible element of style. This includes rhythm, intonation, vocabulary and tropes . From the point of view of linguistic understanding: Style is a variety of language, assigned in a given society by tradition to one of the most general spheres of social life and partially differs from other varieties of the same language in all basic parameters - vocabulary, grammar, phonetics;

Related information.