Images of peasant children in works for children. Analysis of the poem “Peasant Children” by Nekrasov Works about peasants

Every image of a child, every child’s fate that Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov addressed was warmed by the author’s ardent love. “I love the expression of a child’s eye, I always recognize it,” says the poet. In these eyes he saw “so much peace, freedom and affection” that his soul was involuntarily “touched by tenderness.” However, touching intonations are not at all heard in those of his poems where he addresses children.

In the sixties of the 19th century, Nekrasov’s works appeared one after another, where he gives a whole gallery of people from the people, appearing in all their diversity and richness of feelings. Among them there are many images of children, about which the author speaks especially reverently, with warmth and tenderness.

A lively and polyphonic gallery of images of peasant children was created by Nekrasov in “Peasant Children”. In terms of the power of artistic depiction of little heroes, this work is unsurpassed in Russian classical poetry of the 19th century.

Here a string of children’s “attentive eyes” flashed from a crack in the barn, where the tired poet wandered after a hunt. And he saw in them “so much peace, freedom and affection,” “so much holy kindness.” In love with his native nature, Nekrasov compares children “with a flock of sparrows,” and the children’s eyes with the many colors of a field (“All gray, brown, blue eyes are mixed, like flowers in a field”).

Children are depicted in the work in games, fun, and in everyday everyday worries and affairs. “The result is an unusually bright, lively, striking in its truth, a truly classic picture of the life and everyday life of village children, a picture that every Soviet schoolchild knows perfectly well,” writes the famous researcher of Nekrasov’s work V. Evgeniev-Maksimov about “Peasant Children”.

In the poem “Peasant Children” one can hear the poet’s genuine feeling for his heroes.

Chu! Some kind of whisper... but here’s a line

Along the slit of attentive eyes!

All gray, brown, blue eyes -

Mixed together like flowers in a field.

There is so much peace, freedom and affection in them,

There is so much holy kindness in them!

I love the expression of a child's eye,

I always recognize him.

At times the author paints an idyllic picture of village life. This is largely an autobiographical work. Nekrasov, recalling his own childhood associated with peasant children, became an adult and embellished it a little.

I made mushroom raids with them:

I dug up leaves, rummaged through stumps,

I tried to spot a mushroom place,

And in the morning I couldn’t find it for anything.

“Look, Savosya, what a ring!”

We both bent down and grabbed it at once

Snake! I jumped: the sting hurt!

Savosya laughs: “I just got caught!”

But then Nikolai Alekseevich seemed to come to his senses, describing the early worries of peasant children:

Suppose a peasant child is free

Growing up without learning anything

But he will grow up, if God wants,

And nothing prevents him from bending.

Suppose he knows the forest paths,

Prancing on horseback, not afraid of water,

But the midges eat it mercilessly,

But he is familiar with the work early...

And the episode that has become a textbook in our literature about the “little peasant” sounds almost solemn. In the poem “Schoolboy,” the poet is pleased that the path to learning is open to peasant children, but can everyone take advantage of it, do the peasants understand the benefits of studying?! No, they are engaged in exhausting hard work, hence the attitude towards science among the bulk of peasants is quite “cool”. But the “first swallows” have already appeared, understanding the benefits of science, this is a joyful realization for the poet.

Feet bare, body dirty

And her chest is barely covered...

Don't be ashamed! What's the matter?

This is the path of many glorious ones.

How many kind, noble,

Strong loving soul

Among the stupid, cold

And pompous of themselves!

In Nekrasov’s works, children appear as sinless souls, forced to suffer and suffer from the imperfections of society, from the “world order” that adults have established. But if you observe them in a natural setting, they are mischievous, cheerful, bright souls that for the time being do not know class boundaries. And the poet openly admires them. The simple world of peasant children is close to him. Nekrasov feels guilty for the misfortunes and plight of poor children; he would like to change the order of things, but is not yet able to do so; the poet angrily rejects the dull obedience that develops over time in the souls of people. He will never come to terms with this. From his “far” Nekrasov addresses us with wise parting words:

Play, children! Grow in freedom!

That's why you were given a wonderful childhood.

To love this meager field forever,

So that it always seems sweet to you.

Keep your centuries-old inheritance,

Love your labor bread -

And let the charm of childhood poetry

Leads you into the depths of your native land!

The images of a peasant schoolboy boy and Lomonosov evoke in the poet words imbued with deep faith in the people and an ardent patriotic feeling:

That nature is not mediocre,

That land has not yet perished,

What brings people out

There are so many glorious ones, you know,

So many kind, noble,

Strong loving soul...

Along with “The Railway” and “Schoolboy,” addressed to the young reader, Nekrasov created in the 1860-1870s a special cycle of “Poems dedicated to Russian children.” This included the poems “Uncle Yakov”, “Bees”, “General Toptygin”, “Grandfather Mazai and the Hares”, “Nightingales”, “On the Eve of the Bright Holiday”. They also became works loved by children. The poet’s focus here is no longer on images of children, but on pictures of peasant life.

What do these poems have in common? Why did Nekrasov dedicated these particular works to children? After all, with his knowledge, many excerpts from his “adult” poems, the poem “The Uncompressed Strip,” etc. were published in collections for children.

Nekrasov comes to the conclusion that the advanced, civic content in poetry for children is not limited to ideological and thematic orientation. To embody this content, special forms of expression are also needed. The poet found the richest opportunities for expressing his feelings in folklore. The sources of Nekrasov’s poems for children are wise parables, folk stories, anecdotes, sayings, jokes, songs, everything that children especially love, which always has an irresistible effect on them.

In literary works we find images of people, their lifestyles, and feelings. By the 17th-18th centuries, two classes had emerged in Russia: peasants and nobles - with completely different culture, mentality and even language. That is why in the works of some Russian writers there are images of peasants, while others do not. For example, Griboedov, Zhukovsky and some other masters of words did not touch upon the topic of the peasantry in their works.

However, Krylov, Pushkin, Gogol, Goncharov, Turgenev, Nekrasov, Yesenin and others created a whole gallery

Immortal images of peasants. Their peasants are very different people, but there is also much in common in the writers’ views on the peasant. All of them were unanimous that peasants are hard workers, creative and talented people, while idleness leads to moral decay of the individual.

This is precisely the meaning of I. A. Krylov’s fable “The Dragonfly and the Ant.” In an allegorical form, the fabulist expressed his view of the moral ideal of the peasant worker (Ant), whose motto is to work tirelessly in the summer in order to provide food for himself in the cold winter, and of the slacker (Dragonfly). In winter, when the Dragonfly came to the Ant asking for help,

He refused the "jumper", although he probably had the opportunity to help her.

On the same topic, much later, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin wrote the fairy tale “About how a man fed two generals.” However, Saltykov-Shchedrin solved this problem differently than Krylov: the idle generals, having found themselves on a desert island, could not feed themselves, but the peasant, the man, voluntarily not only provided the generals with everything they needed, but also twisted a rope and tied himself up. Indeed, in both works the conflict is the same: between a worker and a parasite, but it is resolved in different ways. The hero of Krylov’s fable does not allow himself to be offended, and the man from Saltykov-Shchedrin’s fairy tale voluntarily deprives himself of his freedom and does everything possible for the generals who are unable to work.

There are not many descriptions of peasant life and character in the works of A. S. Pushkin, but he could not help but capture very significant details in his works. For example, in the description of the peasant war in “The Captain’s Daughter,” Pushkin showed that it was attended by the children of peasants who had left agriculture and were engaged in robbery and theft; this conclusion can be drawn from Chumakov’s song about the “baby peasant son” who “stole” and “ held a robbery,” and then was hanged. In the fate of the hero of the song, the rebels recognize their fate and feel their doom. Why? Because they abandoned labor on earth for the sake of bloodshed, and Pushkin does not accept violence.

Russian writers' peasants have a rich inner world: they know how to love. In the same work, Pushkin shows the image of the serf Savelich, who, although a slave by position, is endowed with a sense of self-worth. He is ready to give his life for his young master, whom he raised. This image echoes two images of Nekrasov: with Savely, the Holy Russian hero, and with Yakov the faithful, an exemplary slave. Saveliy loved his grandson Demochka very much, looked after him and, being an indirect cause of his death, went into the forests and then into a monastery. Yakov the faithful loves his nephew as much as Saveliy loves Demochka, and loves his master as Savelich loves Grinev. However, if Savelich did not have to sacrifice his life for Petrusha, then Yakov, torn by a conflict between the people he loved, committed suicide.

Pushkin has another important detail in Dubrovsky. We are talking about contradictions between the villages: “They (the peasants of Troekurov) were vain about the wealth and glory of their master and, in turn, allowed themselves a lot in relation to their neighbors, hoping for his strong patronage.” Isn’t this the theme sounded by Yesenin in “Anna Snegina”, when the rich residents of Radov and the poor peasants of the village of Kriushi were at enmity with each other: “They are axed, so are we.” As a result, the headman dies. This death is condemned by Yesenin. The topic of the murder of a manager by peasants was already discussed by Nekrasov: Savely and other peasants buried the German Vogel alive. However, unlike Yesenin, Nekrasov does not condemn this murder.

With Gogol’s work, the concept of a peasant hero appeared in fiction: carriage maker Mikheev, brickmaker Milushkin, shoemaker Maxim Telyatnikov and others. After Gogol, Nekrasov also had a clearly expressed theme of heroism (Savely). Goncharov also has peasant heroes. It is interesting to compare Gogol’s hero, the carpenter Stepan Probka, and the carpenter Luka from Goncharov’s work “Oblomov”. Gogol’s master is “that hero who would be fit for the guard,” he was distinguished by “exemplary sobriety,” and the worker from O6lomovka was famous for making a porch, which, although shaky from the moment of construction, stood for sixteen years.

In general, in Goncharov’s work, everything in the peasant village is quiet and sleepy. Only the morning is spent in a busy and useful way, and then comes lunch, a general afternoon nap, tea, doing something, playing the accordion, playing the balalaika at the gate. There are no incidents in Oblomovka. The peace was disturbed only by the peasant widow Marina Kulkova, who gave birth to “four babies.” Her fate is similar to the difficult life of Matryona Korchagina, the heroine of Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” who “every year, then has children.”

Turgenev, like other writers, speaks of the peasant’s talent and creative nature. In the story “The Singers,” Yakov the Turk and a clerk compete in singing for an eighth of beer, and then the author shows a bleak picture of drunkenness. The same theme will be heard in Nekrasov’s “Who Lives Well in Rus'”: Yakim Nagoy “works to death, drinks until half to death...”.

Completely different motives are heard in the story “The Burmist” by Turgenev. He develops the image of a despot manager. Nekrasov will also condemn this phenomenon: he will call the sin of Gleb the elder, who sold the free people of other peasants, the most serious.

Russian writers were unanimous that the majority of peasants have talent, dignity, creativity, and hard work. However, among them there are also people who cannot be called highly moral. The spiritual decline of these people mainly occurred from idleness and from material wealth acquired and the misfortunes of others.

There is not a single aspect of peasant life that Nekrasov would ignore. With all his heart and consciousness he experienced the peasant's grief, and his works are full of pictures of this grief. The poet was especially disturbed by the fate of the oppressed peasant woman. You are all fear embodied, You are all age-old languor! - Nekrasov said, addressing the peasant woman.

In the poem “In the Village” we see an old peasant woman who has lost her only son and breadwinner. In her old age she is forced to walk through the world, her life is hopelessly difficult, and “if only it were not a sin,” the old mother would commit suicide. The same theme - the grief of a peasant mother - is posed in the poem "Orina, Mother of a Soldier." The poem is based not on fiction, but on reality. “Orina, the soldier’s mother, told me her life herself,” Nekrasov recalled. “I made a detour several times to talk to her, otherwise I was afraid to fake it.” Orina talks about “her great sadness”: her only son, tortured by the soldiery, “sickly” returned home and died:

Ivanushka was ill for nine days, and died on the tenth day. Bogatyrsky build. He was a big kid!

But the cruel barracks drill ruined this hero and drove him to consumption. The tsarist soldiery was so terrible that even on the last night before his death, in his delirium, he imagined this service all before his death. The delirium of a dying man reveals the horror of the situation of a peasant who was handed over as a soldier, and the inhumane treatment he received:

Suddenly he rushed... looks pitifully... He fell down - crying, repenting, Shouting: “Your Honor! Yours!”

In Nekrasov’s works, an image of a peasant woman, pure in heart, bright in mind, and strong in spirit, appears, warmed by the author’s love. This is exactly what Daria is, the heroine of the poem “Frost - Red Nose”, in spirit - the sister of Nekrasov’s Decembrists. Once in her youth she “amazed with her beauty, she was both dexterous and strong,” but she, like every peasant woman, had to endure a life more difficult than which “it’s unlikely to be found.” One cannot indifferently see how a powerless Russian woman, crushed by slavery and overwork, suffers. And the poet says, addressing the peasant woman:

He didn’t carry a heart in his chest, Who didn’t shed tears over you!

Nekrasov dedicated many poems to the life of the post-reform village. Like Chernyshevsky, he understood the predatory nature of “liberation” and the fact that only the forms of oppression of the people had changed. Nekrasov noted with bitterness that the situation of the people after the “liberation” did not improve: In the life of a peasant, now free, there is Poverty, ignorance, darkness. In the poem “Grandfather,” written in 1870, he painted the following image of a “free” peasant:

Here he is, our gloomy plowman, With a dark, sad face; Bast shoes, rags, a cap... The eternal worker is hungry,

The life of the people is eloquently depicted in the songs “Hungry”, “Covee”, “Soldier’s”, “Veselaya”, “Salty” and others. Here, for example, is how a pre-reform corvee peasant is shown in one of these songs:

The skin is all ripped open, the belly is swollen from the chaff, twisted, twisted, flogged, tormented. Kalina barely wanders... White, unkempt Kalinushka, He has nothing to show off, Only the back is painted, But he doesn’t know behind his shirt. From bast shoes to gate

The reform of 1861 did not improve the situation of the people, and it is not for nothing that the peasants say about it: You are kind, the Tsar’s letter, But you were not written about us. As before, the peasants are people who “didn’t eat enough and slurped without salt.” The only thing that has changed is that now “instead of the master, the volost will tear them down.” The people's suffering is immeasurable. Hard, exhausting work does not save you from eternal poverty or the threat of starvation. But “the soil is the good soul of the Russian people,” and no matter how terrible peasant life is, it did not kill the best human traits in the people: hard work, responsiveness to the suffering of others, self-esteem, hatred of the oppressors and readiness to fight them.

Saved in slavery, the heart is free - Gold, gold, the heart of the people!

Only the peasants help the retired soldier, who is “sick of the light” because he has “no bread, no shelter.” They help out Yermil Girin, who was “fighting” with the merchant Altynnikov. Peasants are “people... great” at work; “the habit... of work” never leaves a man. The poet showed how the people's dissatisfaction with their situation begins to turn into open indignation:

...sometimes the Team will pass. You can guess: The village must have rebelled somewhere in an excess of gratitude!

Nekrasov treats peasants who do not put up with their powerless and hungry existence with undisguised sympathy. First of all, we should note the seven truth-seekers, whose inquisitive thoughts made them think about the fundamental question of life: “Who lives cheerfully, freely in Rus'?” Among the peasants who have risen to the consciousness of their powerless situation is Yakim Nagoy, who realized who gets the fruits of peasant labor. The “disobedient” Agap also belongs to the same type of peasant, who responded to the abuse of Prince Utyatin, the “last child,” with angry words: Tsyts! Nishkni! Today you are in charge, and tomorrow we will follow Pink - and the ball is over.

The theme of peasant life in the works of Nekrasov

Other essays on the topic:

1. In 1852, “Notes of a Hunter” by I. S. Turgenev was published as a separate publication and immediately attracted attention. How exactly...
2. The fate of a Russian woman in the works of Nekrasov The image of a Russian woman occupies a significant place in the works of Nekrasov. The heroines of his poems and poems...
3. Essays on literature: The poem Who Lives Well in Rus' is the pinnacle of N. A. Nekrasov’s creativity Many of Nekrasov’s predecessors and contemporaries...
4. At a turning point in the life of the country, when many of its seemingly strong foundations were shaken, including the foundations of the people itself...
5. “The road stretches endlessly, and on it, following the rushing troika, a beautiful girl looks with longing, a roadside flower that will be crushed under a heavy...
6. An essay on the role of the peasantry in the works of Nekrasov. Nekrasov depicted with exhaustive completeness and clarity in pictures that amaze with their truthfulness...
7. Olga Kobylyanskaya was born on November 27, 1863 in the town of Gura Humora in Southern Bukovina into a large family of a minor government official....
8. The theme of the “Russian revolt” is reflected in several works of Russian literature, but, undoubtedly, its origins in the literature of the 19th century...
9. People of servile rank (based on Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'”) The poem “Who Lives Well in Rus'” is the pinnacle of creativity...
10. Vasily Semenovich Stefanik is a brilliant Ukrainian writer. I. Franko believed that V. Stefanik stood out among writers with “her talent” and was...
11. Art arises in the midst of everyday life - Boris Pasternak remembered this truth from childhood: he was lucky enough to be born into the world in a family...
12. Nekrasov’s creativity coincided with the heyday of native folkloristics. It was at that time, under the influence of social changes that took place in the fifties -...
13. In the poem “Bees” (1867), the poet told about bees saved by a savvy passer-by: the bees died in the flood, did not reach the hive -...
14. Purpose of the lesson To make students aware of the role of the father in raising his sons. Reading material 1.V. K. Zheleznikov “Soldier on duty.” 2. N....
15. At the end of '56 M. A. Sholokhov published his story The Fate of a Man. This is a story about a simple man in a big war who...
16. Human morality has repeatedly indicated that any crime must ultimately lead to punishment, or, so to speak...
17. Topic: The theme of love in the lyrics of N. A. Nekrasov. Its psychologism and everyday specification. The theme of love was refracted in a unique way in Nekrasov’s work...

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION

State budgetary educational institution of higher professional education

"TYUMEN STATE OIL AND GAS UNIVERSITY"

HUMANITARIAN INSTITUTE

Department of Social Technologies

COURSE WORK

PEASANT THEME IN THE WORKS OF DOMESTIC WRITERS

Nesterova Nadezhda Andreevna

Tyumen, 2011

Introduction

Chapter 1. “Village prose” as a literary movement

1The social literary situation of the period 60-80s.

2Depiction of peasant life in Russian literature of the 60-80s.

Chapter 2. Analysis of works of village prose

1 The image of Matryona in the story by A.I. Solzhenitsyn "Matrenin's Dvor"

2 The image of Yegor Prokudin in the story by V.M. Shukshina "Kalina red"

Conclusion

Literature

Introduction

The theme of the peasantry is very common in Russian literature of the 20th century. Literature illuminates the life of the peasantry, penetrates into the inner world and character of the people. Russian village prose strives to portray a picture of folk life.

In 1964-1985, the country developed. Much attention in the USSR was paid to the constant cultural development of society. Among the writers whose work did not cause a negative reaction from the state and whose works were widely published and enjoyed the greatest interest of readers: V.G. Rasputin “Money for Maria” (1967), “Live and Remember” (1974), “Farewell to Matera”; V.P. Astafiev “Tsar Fish” (1976). In the works of the “village workers,” the theme of rural life begins to sound in a new way. Their works are psychological, filled with reflections on moral issues. In the 60s, the preservation of the traditions of the Russian village came to the fore. Artistically and from the point of view of the depth and originality of moral and philosophical issues, “village prose” is the most striking and significant phenomenon in the literature of the 60-80s.

“Village prose” is one of the most popular genres these days. The modern reader is concerned with the themes that are revealed in the works of this genre. Issues of morality, love of nature, good attitude towards people and other problems are relevant today. The provisions and conclusions of the course work can serve as the basis for further scientific work on the study of “village prose”. The materials of “village prose” can be used in the system of general courses in the theory and history of Russian literature, special courses and seminars devoted to the study of this period, as well as in the preparation of methodological recommendations and textbooks for the study of literature of the 20th century.

The purpose of this work is to conduct a comparative analysis of the story by A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s “Matrenin’s Dvor” and the story by V.M. Shukshina "Kalina red".

The goal determined the formulation of the following tasks:

.Study the life history of writers in the context of the era.

The subject of the study is the genre of “village prose”.

The object of the study is the story of A.I. Solzhenitsyn “Matrenin’s Dvor”, story by V.M. Shukshin "Kalina red"

The methodology and methods of work are determined by the specifics of the subject of research. The methodological and theoretical basis is the work of leading literary scholars, critics and philosophers: D.S. Likhacheva, M.M. Bakhtin, V.V. Kozhinova, S. Bocharova, Yu.I. Selezneva.

“Village prose” and the works of its largest representatives have become the subject of research since the mid-1960s, not only in domestic but also in foreign literary criticism.

Many monographs have been written about her by L.L. Terakopyan “The pathos of transformation. The theme of the village in prose of the 50-70s." (1978), V.A. Surganov “Man on Earth. The theme of the village in Russian modern prose of the 50-70s." (1981), A.F. Lapchenko “Man and Earth in Russian social and philosophical prose of the 70s”, F.F. Kuznetsov “Blood Connection: The Fate of a Village in Soviet Prose” (1987), A.Yu. Bolshakov “Russian village prose of the 20th century” (2002), also a huge number of articles.

Research interest in the problems of village prose is gradually being renewed, as evidenced by the abundance of dissertations: I.M. Chekannikova - Candidate of Philological Sciences (Russian “village prose” in Anglo-American Slavic studies) revealed the specifics of perception of “village prose”, which expressed Russian national identity, by English-language criticism, focused primarily on modernism, A.M. Martazanov - professor, doctor of philological sciences of Insti- tute State University (Ideological and artistic world of “village prose”) analyzed both the ideological and aesthetic specificity of “village prose”.

Chapter 1. “Village prose” as a literary movement

1 The social literary situation of the period of “stagnation”

If the decade of N.S. Khrushchev passed under the sign of reforms, noisy political, ideological and economic campaigns, then the twenty years from the mid-60s to the mid-80s, when the political leadership of the country was headed mainly by L.I. Brezhnev is called a time of stagnation - a time of missed opportunities. Having begun with fairly bold reforms in the field of economics, it ended with an increase in negative trends in all spheres of public life, stagnation in the economy, and a crisis in the socio-political system.

It should be noted that the economic policy pursued proclaimed goals that were in keeping with the spirit of the times. It was supposed to ensure a significant increase in the material well-being of the Soviet people based on the intensification of social production, the main means of which was scientific and technological progress.

The stagnation that gradually engulfed socio-political and economic life in the USSR after the end of Khrushchev’s brief “thaw” also affected culture. Soviet culture under L.I. Brezhnev developed largely according to the inertia given to it by the previous period. This is not to say that there were no achievements, but most of them have their roots in that brief period of relative creative freedom that resulted from the 20th Congress. Quantitative indicators grew, but little bright and new was created.

Development of Soviet culture and art<#"justify">Writers - “villagers” (V. Astafiev “Last Bow”, V. Rasputin “Live and Remember”, V. Belov “Business as Usual”, M. Potanin “On the Other Side”, works by V. Shukshin) watched with horror the disappearance of the Russian villages, devaluation of folk culture, “religion of labor” on earth. People cannot settle down in the village itself, they cannot find themselves in the city. The worst thing is that there is no hope. Novels, novellas and short stories are imbued with pessimism, usually with a tragic ending (fire, death of a hero, etc.). Loss of faith in the future, in the possibility of social transformation, and the drama of the inner world are characteristic features of the literature of the 70s. A tragic ending is almost becoming the norm. Works about young people who have lost their social and moral guidelines sound alarming.

Whatever aspect the village writers chose, each of them felt a deeply personal, blood connection with the village. This was not a temporary interest, for the period of a business trip, not a topic suggested by someone, but truly my own, hard-earned. Psychological, ideological and other problems were solved by the authors and their heroes with the same interest. At the same time, some writers showed increased attention to modern life, to invisible people, others turned to the past and looked in history for answers to the questions of today's life. Village prose has always evoked an active response in criticism; its authors have often been subject to biased accusations of distorting reality. The attacks were especially fierce; writers who depicted post-war disasters and the time of collectivization.

The 50-60s are a special period in the development of Russian literature. Overcoming the consequences of the cult of personality, getting closer to reality, eliminating the elements of non-conflict, like jewelry stones<#"justify">1.Tragic consequences of collectivization (“On the Irtysh” by S. Zalygin, “Death” by V. Tendryakov, “Men and Women” by B. Mozhaev, “Eves” by V. Belov, “Brawlers” by M. Alekseev, etc.).

2.A depiction of the near and distant past of the village, its current concerns in the light of universal human problems, the destructive influence of civilization (“The Last Bow”, “The King Fish” by V. Astafiev, “Farewell to Matera”, “The Last Term” by V. Rasputin, “Bitter Herbs” "P. Proskurina).

.In the “village prose” of this period, there is a desire to introduce readers to folk traditions, to express a natural understanding of the world (“Commission” by S. Zalygin, “Lad” by V. Belov).

Thus, the depiction of a person from the people, his philosophy, the spiritual world of the village, orientation towards the people's word - all this unites such different writers as F. Abramov, V. Belov, M. Alekseev, B. Mozhaev, V. Shukshin, V. Rasputin, V. Likhonosov, E. Nosov, V. Krupin and others.

Russian literature has always been significant in that, like no other literature in the world, it dealt with issues of morality, questions about the meaning of life and death, and posed global problems. In “village prose”, issues of morality are associated with the preservation of everything valuable in rural traditions: centuries-old national life, the way of life of the village, folk morality and folk moral principles. The theme of continuity of generations, the relationship between the past, present and future, the problem of the spiritual origins of people's life is solved differently by different writers.

2 Depiction of peasant life in Russian literature of the 60s.

Russian village... When we say the word “village” we immediately remember an old house, mowing, the smell of freshly cut hay, vast fields and meadows. And I also remember the peasants and their strong hands. Many of my peers have grandparents who live in the village. Coming to them in the summer to relax, or rather, to work, we see with our own eyes how difficult the life of the peasants is and how difficult it is for us, city dwellers, to adapt to this life. But you always want to come to the village and take a break from the bustle of the city. But sometimes, in our hectic times, we try not to notice the difficulties that arise in the modern village. But they are the ones that are connected with the most pressing problems of society - ecology and moral behavior of humans.

Many writers have not ignored the fate of the Russian village in their work. Some admired the rural nature, others saw the real situation of the peasants and called the village poor, and its huts gray and dilapidated. In Soviet times, the topic of the fate of the Russian village became almost the leading one, and the question of the great turning point is still relevant today. It must be said that it was collectivization and its consequences that forced many writers to take up their pen. The writer shows how much the life, soul and moral guidelines of the peasantry have changed after the introduction of collective farms and the implementation of general collectivization. In the story “Matrenin’s Dvor” by A.I. Solzhenitsyn shows the crisis of the Russian village, which began immediately after the seventeenth year. First the civil war, then collectivization, dispossession of the peasants. The peasants were deprived of property, they lost incentive to work. But the peasantry later, during the Great Patriotic War, fed the entire country. The life of a peasant, his way of life and morals - all this can be understood very well by reading the works of country writers.

Peasant realism (village prose) - literary direction of Russian prose (60s-80s); The central theme is a modern village, the main character is a peasant. In the 20s L.D. Trotsky singled out writers in the post-revolutionary literary process who expressed the interests and views of the peasantry. He called these writers “muzhikovskie.” However, peasant realism, which developed half a century later, does not coincide with this artistic phenomenon of the 20s, because village prose looks at all phenomena through problems associated with the fate of the peasant who went through the crucible of collectivization.

Village prose received enthusiastic attention from critics, publishers, and translators. The term “village prose” itself was introduced by Soviet criticism in the late 60s of the twentieth century. Even before grocery store shelves emptied, before the Communist Party issued the Food Program, country writers boldly denounced the then-untouchable collectivization. This social courage of peasant realism was combined with its artistic achievements (in particular, new layers of folk speech, new characters, and high traditional moral values ​​were introduced into literary use). According to the artistic concept of this literary movement, the peasant is the only true representative of the people and the bearer of ideals, the village is the basis for the revival of the country. The villagers proceeded from universal human ideals, which alone are fruitful in art. In a certain sense, peasant realism is unique - after the mid-30s. this is the only artistic movement allowed to exist legally in Soviet culture next to socialist realism. Peasant realism formed into an independent artistic movement, which began to develop in parallel with socialist realism, coinciding with it in a number of postulates. Thus, village prose, despite the denial of collectivization, was not alien to the idea of ​​violent intervention in the historical process, as well as the search for “enemies” obligatory for socialist realism. In a number of other respects, peasant realism diverged from socialist realism: village prose asserted a bright past, socialist realists - a bright future; rural prose denied many orthodox values ​​that were unshakable for socialist realism - it condemned the collective farm system, and did not consider dispossession to be a socially fruitful and fair action.

Chapter 2. Analysis of village prose (A.I. Solzhenitsyn “Matrenin’s Dvor”, V.G. Rasputin “Money for Maria”)

1 The image of Matryona in the work “Matryona’s Dvor”

The heroes of “village prose” are indigenous villagers, soft and whole natures, conscientious, kind and trusting, highly moral, kind people capable of self-sacrifice. The type of righteous hero is the moral and ethical standard by which the author tunes his lyre. “Righteous” - in “village prose”, as a rule, are old people or, in any case, very middle-aged people. From the authors’ point of view, rural youth, not to mention urban ones, were already losing these qualities.

One of the first types of “righteous people” was Matryona from A. Solzhenitsyn’s work “Matrenin’s Dvor”. The author's title of the story is “A village is not worthwhile without a righteous man.” Matryona is the guardian of the village type of life. She personifies a stereotype of life behavior consecrated by centuries-old traditions. In his work, the writer does not give a detailed, specific description of the heroine. Only one portrait detail is constantly emphasized by the author - Matryona’s “radiant”, “kind”, “apologetic” smile. However, by the end of the story, the reader imagines the appearance of the heroine. Already in the very mood of the phrase, the selection of “colors” one can feel the author’s attitude towards Matryona: “The frozen window of the entryway, now shortened, was filled with a little pink from the red frosty sun - and Matryona’s face was warmed by this reflection.” And then - a direct author’s description: “Those people always have good faces, who are in harmony with their conscience.” One remembers Matryona’s smooth, melodious, native Russian speech, beginning with “some low warm purring, like grandmothers in fairy tales.” The entire world around Matryona in her darkish hut with a large Russian stove is, as it were, a continuation of herself, a part of her life. The author-narrator does not immediately unfold the story of Matryona’s “prickly little life”. Bit by bit, referring to the author's digressions and comments scattered throughout the story, to the meager confessions of Matryona herself, a complete story is put together about the difficult life path of the heroine. She had to endure a lot of grief and injustice in her lifetime: broken love, the death of six children, the loss of her husband in the war, hellish work in the village that is not feasible for every man, a serious illness, a bitter resentment towards the collective farm, which squeezed all her strength out of her, and then written off as unnecessary, leaving him without a pension and support. In the fate of one Matryona, the tragedy of a rural Russian woman is concentrated - the most expressive. But amazing! - Matryona was not angry at this world, she retained a good mood, feelings of joy and pity for others, her radiant smile still brightens her face. One of the author’s main assessments is that “she had a sure way to regain her good spirits - work.” For a quarter of a century on the collective farm, she had broken her back quite a lot: digging, planting, carrying huge sacks and logs. And all this “not for money - for sticks. For sticks of workdays in the accountant’s dirty book.” However, she was not entitled to a pension, because, as Solzhenitsyn writes with bitter irony, she did not work at a factory - on a collective farm. And in her old age, Matryona did not know rest: she either grabbed a shovel, then went with sacks to the swamp to mow grass for her dirty white goat, or went with other women to secretly steal peat from the collective farm for winter kindling. She lived poorly, wretchedly, alone - a “lost old woman”, exhausted by work and illness. Relatives almost did not visit her, fearing that Matryona would ask them for help. Everyone unanimously condemned Matryona, that she was funny and stupid, that she worked for others for free, that she was always meddling in men’s affairs.

Matryona has a difficult tragic fate. And the stronger her image becomes, the more the hardships of her life are revealed. And at the same time, she does not have a pronounced individuality. But how much kindness and love of life! At the end of the work, the author speaks about his heroine with words that characterize her purpose: We all lived next to her and did not understand that she was the very righteous person without whom, according to the proverb, the village would not stand. Neither the city. Not all the land is ours .

Despite many unrelated events, Matryona is the main character. The plot of the story develops around her. There is, and indeed was in her youth, something absurd and strange in her appearance. A stranger among her own, she had her own world.

The author himself, having gone through a complex and varied life path, having seen many different people, substantiated in his heart the image of a woman - first of all, a person: one who will support and understand; the one who, having her own inner depth, will understand your inner world and perceive you as you are.

It is no coincidence that Solzhenitsyn mentions righteous in the story Matrenin Dvor . This may, in some way, apply to all positive heroes. After all, they all knew how to come to terms with anything. And at the same time, remain fighters - fighters for life, for kindness and spirituality, without forgetting about humanity and morality.

Solzhenitsyn said about the idea of ​​his story: “I did not take the liberty and did not try to describe the village, but wrote a poem about selflessness. It is in unselfishness that I see the most important feature of our time; I want to continue to write about it. The principle of material interest, frankly speaking, does not seem to me to be organically ours.”

2.2 The image of Yegor Prokudin in the work “Kalina Krasnaya”

The author who encourages the reader to be kinder and more sincere with each other was V.M. Shukshin was a man with multifaceted talent: actor, director, writer. All his creations exude warmth, sincerity, and love for people. One day a writer will say: “Every real writer, of course, is a psychologist, but he himself is sick.” It is this pain for people, for their sometimes empty and worthless lives, that Shukshin’s stories are imbued with.

Egor Prokudin (thieves' nickname - Grief) - the main character of the story, a "forty-year-old short-haired" criminal, having served another term (five years), is released from prison and, by coincidence, is forced to go to the village to visit the girl Lyuba, whom he met through correspondence. He is traveling with the intention of taking a break after imprisonment. Yegor does not take his trip or what he said when parting with the head of the colony (“I’ll take up farming and get married”) seriously. “I can’t be anyone else on this earth - only a thief,” he says about himself almost proudly. About Lyuba, to whom he is going, he thinks like this: “Oh, you, my darling!.. I’ll at least eat around you... You’re my rich darling!.. I’ll strangle you in my arms!.. I’ll tear you apart and shave you! And I'll drink it with moonshine. All!" But, finding himself in the village life familiar from his childhood, among people who were strangers before, but who turned out to be unexpectedly family (Lyuba, her parents, Peter), discovering the unexpected power over himself of the very way of village life and relationships, Yegor suddenly felt unbearable pain because that his life did not go as it should. He makes a desperate attempt to change his fate - he becomes a tractor driver and lives in Lyuba’s house as her husband. The main theme of not only this story, but, perhaps, of Shukshin’s entire work is connected with the image of Yegor - the drama of human destinies in a country devastated by war and social experiments; homelessness of a person who has lost his natural way of life and habitat. The emotional background for the development of this topic: “resentment” for the Russian peasant, and more broadly - “resentment for a person in general,” for a person broken by circumstances. Yegor grew up in a village without a father, with his mother and five brothers and sisters. During a time of famine for his family, as a teenager he leaves for the city. He leaves with a terrible resentment towards people, their senseless cruelty. One day their only cow, nurse Manka, came home with a pitchfork in her side. Someone just like that, out of malice, deprived six orphans of their wet nurse. The first person Yegor met in the city and from whom he learned to make his way to a real, beautiful life was the thief Guboshlep. And it seems like Prokudin made his way “Sometimes I am fantastically rich,” he tells Lyuba. Yegor's soul, will and beauty want a holiday. “He couldn’t stand sadness and creeping lethargy in people. That’s why, perhaps, his life’s path led him so far astray, that from a young age he always gravitated towards people who were outlined sharply, at least sometimes with a crooked line, but sharply, definitely.”

Gradually, Yegor finds out that this is not what his soul asked for. “I stink this money... I completely despise it.” The payment for free thieves turned out to be exorbitant for him, the feeling of being an outcast among normal people, the need to lie. "I wouldn't want to lie<...>All my life I hate lying<...>I'm lying, of course, but that doesn't<...>It's just harder to live. I lie and despise myself. And I really want to finish off my life completely, to smithereens, if only it would be more fun and preferably with vodka.”

The most difficult test was the meeting with his abandoned mother, the blind old woman Kudelikha. Yegor did not utter a word, he only attended the conversation between Lyuba and his mother. From all his bright, risky, at times rich and free life, nothing remained in his soul except melancholy. In the appearance of Yegor Prokudin, his “inflammation” with life is constantly emphasized. The fun he indulges in on the thief's raspberry is hysterical and hysterical. An attempt to organize a loud drunken spree in the town with his own money ends with his nightly flight to the village, to Lyuba and her brother Peter - the sight of people gathered “for debauchery” is very wretched and disgusting for him. In Yegor, his peasant spirit and his nature, twisted by the life of a thief, are fighting. The most difficult thing for him is to find peace of mind: “My soul... is kind of tarnished.” According to Shukshin, Yegor died because he realized: neither from people nor from himself would he receive forgiveness.

The heroes of Shukshin's stories are all different: in age, in character, in education, in social status, but in each of them an interesting character is visible. personality. Shukshin, like no one else, managed to deeply show not only the lifestyle of various people, but with amazing insight reveal the moral character of both a scoundrel and an honest person. Indeed, Vasily Shukshin’s prose can serve as a kind of teaching aid that teaches how to avoid or not repeat many mistakes.

The author's attitude is unconditional acceptance, poeticization of the hero. In their righteous heroes, the authors see a fulcrum in modern life, something that needs to be saved and preserved. And thanks to this, we can save ourselves.

The name of Alexander Isaevich Solzhenitsyn was banned a few years ago, but currently we have the opportunity to admire his works, in which he demonstrates exceptional skill in depicting human characters, in observing the destinies of people and understanding them. Solzhenitsyn's books are imbued with boundless love for the Motherland and at the same time full of pain and compassion for it. In his work we encounter the tragedy of prisons and camps, the arrests of innocent citizens, and the dispossession of hardworking peasants. This is the tragic page of Russian history that is reflected in the pages of this author.

All this is revealed especially clearly in the story of Matrenin Dvor. “Matryonin’s Dvor” is a story about the mercilessness of human fate, evil fate, the stupidity of the Soviet order, about the life of ordinary people, far from the bustle and haste of the city - about life in a socialist state. This story, as the author himself noted, is “completely autobiographical and reliable,” the narrator’s patronymic, Ignatich, is consonant with A. Solzhenitsyn’s patronymic, Isaevich. He writes about life based on personal experience, he writes specifically about himself, about what he has experienced and seen. The author shows us life as it is (in his understanding). Solzhenitsyn talks about injustice, as well as weakness of character, excessive kindness and what this can lead to. He puts his thoughts and his attitude towards society into Ignatich’s mouth. The hero of the story survived everything that Solzhenitsyn himself had to endure.

Describing the village, Matryona, the harsh reality, at the same time he gives his assessment, expressing his own opinion. Solzhenitsyn's Matryona is the embodiment of the ideal of the Russian peasant woman. How much warmth, sensitivity, and sincerity is felt in the description of Matryona’s modest home and its inhabitants. The author treats Matryona with respect. He never reproaches the heroine and really appreciates her calmness. He is delighted by her mysterious smile, he sympathizes with Matryona, because she has not lived an easy life. The main features that the author distinguishes in the heroine are kindness and hard work. Solzhenitsyn openly admires the heroine’s language, which includes dialect words. A duel, she says about the strong wind. Spoilage is called a portion. This woman retained a bright soul and a sympathetic heart, but who will appreciate her? Unless Kira is a pupil and a guest, and most have no idea that a righteous woman, a beautiful soul, lived among them!

In the article “Repentance and Self-restraint” Solzhenitsyn writes: “There are such born angels - they seem to be weightless, they seem to glide on top of this slurry / violence, lies, myths about happiness and legality /, without drowning in it at all, even if their feet touch its surface? Each of us has met such people, there are not ten or a hundred of them in Russia, these are righteous people, we saw them, were surprised (“eccentrics”), took advantage of their goodness, in good moments answered them in kind... and immediately plunged again into our doomed depths . We wandered, some ankle-deep, some knee-deep, some neck-deep... and some even sank, only with rare bubbles of the preserved soul reminding of itself on the surface.” Matryona, according to the author, is the ideal of a Russian woman. “All of us,” the narrator concludes his story about Matryona’s life, “lived next to her and did not understand that she was the very righteous person without whom, according to the proverb, the village would not stand. Neither the city. Not all the land is ours .

Everything that A.I. says Solzhenitsyn, in the story “Matrenin's Dvor” about the fate of the Russian village, shows that his work was not so much an opposition to this or that political system, but to the false moral foundations of society.

He sought to return eternal moral concepts to their deep, original meaning.

Shukshin believed that life can best be expressed in a “free narrative”, in a non-plot structure. “The plot is an inevitably programmed morality tale. He is not a scout of life, he follows the tracks of life, or, even worse, along the roads of literary ideas about life.” The integrity of Shukshin’s narrative is given not by the plot, but by the life of the human soul embodied in it. In “Kalina Red” he shows Yegor Prokudin through “the single law of his life, from the cradle to the grave, i.e. form of personality over time. And here, no matter how important the flourishing of the individual is, it only symbolically hints at the whole, without at all canceling its entire growth, as well as its decline.” Shukshin chooses moments of life, behind which the integrity of character shines through. The soul of Yegor Prokudin, thirsting for a holiday, suffers from a terrible split: this is, on the one hand, a thirst for the harmony of life, love for a woman, for nature, and on the other hand, the need for an immediate, completely earthly embodiment of the festive joy of being. The work consists of episodes contrasting in state, which towards the end of the story receive increasingly vivid expression. However, the tragic ending is foreseen literally from the first moments.

Shukshin said about Yegor Prokudin: “When the first serious difficulty occurred in his young life, he turned off the road in order, even if unconsciously, to bypass this difficulty. Thus began the path of compromise with conscience, betrayal - betrayal of the mother, society, and oneself. Life became distorted and flowed according to false, unnatural laws. Isn’t it most interesting and instructive to discover and reveal the laws by which this failed life was built (and destroyed)? Yegor's whole destiny is lost - that's the whole point, and it doesn't matter whether he dies physically. Another collapse is more terrible - moral, spiritual. It was necessary to carry out fate to the end. Until the very end... he himself unconsciously (or perhaps consciously) seeks death.”

Shukshin considers compassion and love to be the main qualities of a writer. Only they allow him to see the truth of life that cannot be obtained by simple arithmetic addition of small Truths (Shukshin was looking for Truth as the whole truth; it is no coincidence that in the definition of “morality is Truth” he writes this word with a capital letter).

Shukshin saw the dirty side of life, suffered terribly from injustice and lies, but it was precisely the feeling of love, as well as the belief that literature is of extreme importance for the life of the people, that led him to the creation of holistic images. The absence of this feeling, as a rule, led Russian writers, who did not accept the surrounding reality, to degradation.

Conclusion

Russian literature has always been significant in that, like no other literature in the world, it has dealt with issues of morality, questions about the meaning of life and death, and posed global problems. In “village prose”, issues of morality are associated with the preservation of everything valuable in rural traditions: centuries-old national life, the way of life of the village, folk morality and folk moral principles. The theme of continuity of generations, the relationship between the past, present and future, the problem of the spiritual origins of people's life is solved differently by different writers.

“Village prose” is one of the most popular genres these days. The modern reader is concerned with the themes that are revealed in the works of this genre. Issues of morality, love of nature, good attitude towards people and other problems are relevant today.

With the advent of country writers, new heroes appeared in Russian literature - people from the common people, new characters.

One of the most curious features of “village prose” is the type of hero who becomes the main spiritual and moral guideline in it.

The heroes of “village prose” are indigenous villagers, soft and whole natures, conscientious, kind and trusting, highly moral, kind people capable of self-sacrifice. Heroes of the works of A.I. Solzhenitsyn “Matryona’s yard” - Matryona and V.M. Shukshina “Kalina Krasnaya” - Yegor Prokudin seem to be completely different people. Matryona is a righteous woman, a simple Russian woman, modest, kind, helping everyone free of charge. Egor is a thief, a “forty-year-old, short-haired” criminal who has served another term. But from the first lines of the story “Kalina Krasnaya” we understand that Yegor is a man with a complex but rich inner world. Talking to an unfamiliar taxi driver, he tries to find out from him what joy is and whether he knows how to rejoice? Essentially, this is one of the philosophical questions - “what is happiness”? Prokudin is concerned about similar problems. He himself cannot find even peace in life, let alone happiness. Egor appears before the reader as a strong personality and a deeply emotional person. From the dark world of thieves, he stepped into a new and bright one. His soul remains pure, he does not want to return to the past. The author shows that true kindness and morality cannot disappear. He is still stubborn and assertive. Universal human values ​​have not died in him - respect for women, the elderly, and friendship. This gives him hope that he has a chance for social recovery.

The image of Matryona Vasilievna is the embodiment of the best features of a Russian peasant woman. She has a difficult tragic fate. Her “children did not stand: each one died before they were three months old and without any illness.” Everyone in the village decided that there was damage in it. Matryona does not know happiness in her personal life, but she is not all for herself, but for people. For ten years, working for free, the woman raised Kira as her own, instead of her children. Helping her in everything, refusing to help anyone, she is morally much higher than her selfish relatives. Life is not easy, “thick with worries,” - Solzhenitsyn does not hide this in any detail. I believe that Matryona is a victim of events and circumstances. Despite her hard life, numerous insults and injustices, Matryona remained a kind, bright person to the end.

I think these heroes are worthy of respect, if only because, despite their different, but at the same time tragic fates, they combine such qualities as true kindness, morality, independence, openness, sincerity, and goodwill towards people.

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