Realism in literature main features briefly. Main features of realism

Depiction of life in images that correspond to the essence of life phenomena, through typing the facts of reality. The art of realism is characterized by the spirit of artistic objectivity. The depiction of the world in a realistic work, as a rule, is not abstract and conventional in nature. A realist writer reproduces reality in life-like forms, creates the illusion of reality, makes one believe in his characters, strives to make them alive, to give them artistic persuasiveness. Realistic art depicts depths human soul, special meaning gives motivation to the hero’s actions, the study of the circumstances of his life, the reasons that prompt the character to act one way and not another.
A true reflection of the world, a wide coverage of reality. All sorts of things true art to a certain extent reflects reality, that is, it corresponds to the truth of life. However, realism as a method most consistently embodied the principles of a life-truthful reflection of reality. I. S. Turgenev, speaking about the connection between art and reality, argued: “I always need a meeting with a living person, direct acquaintance with some life fact, before I begin to create a type or compose a plot.” pointed to real basis the plot of the novel “Crime and Punishment” and F. M. Dostoevsky.

Historicism. Realism subordinated all artistic means to the task of an increasingly multifaceted and deep study of man in his relations with society, with historical process. In literature, historicism is usually understood as the idea of reality, embodied in images, developing naturally and progressively, of the connection between times in their qualitative differences.

The attitude towards literature as a means of a person’s knowledge of himself and the world around him. Realist writers turn to the cognitive capabilities of art, trying to deeply, fully and comprehensively explore life, depicting reality with its inherent contradictions. Realism recognizes the artist's right to illuminate all aspects of life without limitation. The basis of any realistic work laid down life facts, which have a creative refraction. In realistic works, each significant manifestation of individuality is depicted as conditioned by certain circumstances; the artist strives to identify what is characteristic, repeating in the individual, and natural in what seems random.

Realist writers, following the sentimentalists and romantics, showed interest in the life of the human soul, deepened the understanding of human psychology, and reflected works of art work human consciousness and the subconscious through identifying the hero’s intentions, motives for his actions, experiences and changes in mental states.

Reflection of the connection between man and environment. Realism gravitates towards a multifaceted and potentially exhaustive study and depiction of the world in all the richness of its connections, organically recreated by the artist. Realist writers create different situations disclosure of character: I. A. Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov” shows the destructiveness for the hero of an ordinary situation, a familiar environment; Dostoevsky's heroes, on the contrary, find themselves in hysterical situations generated by the imperfection of the social system; L. N. Tolstoy includes his heroes in the cycle of significant historical events, which reveal the essence of a particular character. The art of realism shows the interaction of man with the environment, the impact of the era, social conditions on human destinies, the influence of social circumstances on morals and spiritual world of people. At the same time, a realistic work substantiates what is happening not only with socio-historical circumstances, but also with the psychology of the hero, his moral choice, i.e., the mental structure of the individual (in contrast to the works of the naturalistic school, in which a person was depicted as a derivative of heredity and environment). Thus, a realistic work explores the ability of an individual to rise above circumstances, to resist them, showing free will.

Typification of characters and circumstances. In literary criticism, the formula of F. Engels has been established, according to which “realism presupposes, in addition to the truthfulness of details, truthful reproduction typical characters under typical circumstances." For a realistic work, it is important to establish connections between these two objects in the image. Literary hero realistic the work is created as a generalized image (type) of human individuality, most characteristic of a certain social environment, it embodies characteristic features persons certain category. Myself creative process The creation of typical images is usually called typification. Literary forms: Epic: novel, story, poem, story. Lyrics: song, elegy. Drama: tragedy, historical chronicles. Of course, first of all, these are F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy. Outstanding examples of literature of this direction were also the works of the late Pushkin (rightfully considered the founder of realism in Russian literature) - the historical drama “Boris Godunov”, the story “ Captain's daughter", "Dubrovsky", "Tales of Belkin", the novel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov "Hero of Our Time", as well as the poem by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol " Dead Souls" In Russia, Dmitry Pisarev was the first to widely introduce the term “realism” into journalism and criticism; before that time, the term “realism” was used by Herzen in a philosophical sense, as a synonym for the concept of “materialism.”

Realism (from Late Latin realis - material, real) is an aesthetics term that relates primarily to literature and fine arts. It can be interpreted in two ways: in the broadest sense - as a general attitude towards the image of life in the forms of life itself, as it actually appears to a person; and in a narrower, “instrumental” sense - as a creative method, reducible to certain aesthetic principles, for example: a) typification of the facts of reality, i.e., according to Engels, “in addition to the truthfulness of details, the truthful reproduction of typical characters in typical circumstances”; b) showing life in development and contradictions, which are primarily public character; c) the desire to reveal the essence of life phenomena without limiting topics and plots; d) aspiration for moral quests and educational influence.

IN in a broad sense realism, which is the main trend, a kind of aesthetic “core” of the artistic culture of mankind, has existed and continues to exist in art and literature since ancient times. In a narrow sense, as a creative method, it began to be identified either with the Renaissance (XIV-XVI centuries), or with the 18th century, when they talk about the so-called Enlightenment realism.

The most complete disclosure of the specific features of this method is usually associated with critical realism XIX century, a parody of which became the mythical “socialist realism”.

The understanding of realism as a method in the fine arts was developed mainly on examples of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, and as a method in literature - on the works of European, American and Russian classics of the 19th century. It should be noted, however, that both in the past and in our time this method is not always presented in a “chemically pure” form. Realistic tendencies, under the influence of changing socio-historical conditions and the very psyche of modern man, often give way to periods of decadence, formalism alienated from life, or a return to the past in the form of vulgar epigonism, represented, for example, by the “art” of the fascist Third Reich or the nomenclature “art” of Stalinism. Acting as a leading method primarily in painting and literature, realism clearly manifests itself in the synthetic and “technical” arts associated with them - theater, ballet, cinema, photography and others. With less justification we can talk about the realistic method in such types of creativity as music, architecture or decorative art, which tend to be abstract and conventional. In Russian culture, realism in its various incarnations is represented by such outstanding creators as Pushkin, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Repin, Surikov, Mussorgsky, Shchepkin, Eisenstein and many, many others.

46. Global problems of culture of the 20th century.

World culture of the 20th century is a complex process, divided into several stages by events of global significance - world wars. The complexity and inconsistency of this process is aggravated by the fact that for a significant period of time the world was split into two camps along ideological lines, which introduced new problems and ideas into cultural practice. The problem of the crisis of culture is one of the leading ones in the philosophical and cultural thought of the twentieth century. The issue of the cultural crisis was generated by the changes in the life of European society that it underwent at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The atmosphere of a global crisis that has gripped all spheres of European society has exacerbated a number of contradictions. Economic instability, confusion and despair in the face of social catastrophes, the decline of traditional values, the decline of faith in science, in the rational comprehension of the world and other features of the crisis that gave rise to terrible confusion of the Spirit. However, the twentieth century made the greatest contribution to understanding the problem of the crisis of culture. Perhaps, in European philosophical thought there is not a single serious researcher who, to one degree or another, would not touch upon this topic: O. Spengler and A. Toynbee, H. Ortega y Gasset and J. Huizinga, P.A. Sorokin and N.A. Berdyaev, G. Hesse and I.A. Ilyin, P. Tillich and E. Fromm, K. Jaspers and G. Marcuse, A.S. Arsenyev and A. Nazaretyan. In the 20th century, culture and art were faced with a more complex reality, with an increasingly catastrophic social development, an exacerbation of social contradictions, with conflicts generated by the scientific and technological revolution, with global problems affecting the interests of all mankind and, as a consequence, with the flourishing of modernism. The politicization of culture can be clearly seen in the history of Russian culture in the 20th century. The October Revolution of 1917 marked the beginning of the transition to a new system of social relations, to a new type of culture. At the beginning of the 20th century, V.I. Lenin formulated the most important principles of the attitude of the Communist Party to artistic and creative activity, which formed the basis of the cultural policy of the Soviet state. In the first post-October decade, the foundations of a new Soviet culture were laid. The beginning of this period (1918-1921) is characterized by the destruction and denial of traditional values (culture, morality, religion, way of life, law) and the proclamation of new guidelines for sociocultural development: world revolution, communist society, universal equality and fraternity. Marxism became the spiritual core of the Soviet civilizational system and served as a theoretical tool for formulating a doctrine that reflected the problems of Russian reality. Ideological propaganda took on an increasingly chauvinistic and anti-Semitic character. In January 1949, a campaign against “rootless cosmopolitans” began, which entailed destructive interference in the destinies of a number of scientists, teachers, literary and artistic workers. Most of those accused of cosmopolitanism turned out to be Jews. Jewish cultural institutions - theaters, schools, newspapers - were closed. Ideological campaigns, the constant search for enemies and their exposure maintained an atmosphere of fear in society. After Stalin's death, the features of totalitarianism continued to exist for a long time in cultural policy. The beginning of the 90s passed under the sign of the accelerated collapse of the unified culture of the USSR into separate national cultures, which not only rejected the values general culture USSR, but also cultural traditions each other. Such a sharp contrast between different national cultures led to an increase in sociocultural tension, to the emergence of military conflicts and subsequently caused the collapse of a single sociocultural space.

What is realism in literature? It is one of the most common directions, reflecting realistic image reality. The main task this direction stands reliable disclosure of phenomena encountered in life, using a detailed description of the characters depicted and the situations that happen to them, through typification. What is important is the lack of embellishment.

In contact with

Among other directions, only in realistic Special attention given to the right artistic depiction life, and not an emerging reaction to certain life events, for example, as in romanticism and classicism. The heroes of realist writers appear before readers exactly as they were presented to the author's gaze, and not as the writer would like to see them.

Realism, as one of the widespread trends in literature, settled closer to the middle of the 19th century after its predecessor - romanticism. The 19th century is subsequently designated as the era of realistic works, but romanticism did not cease to exist, it only slowed down in development, gradually turning into neo-romanticism.

Important! The definition of this term was first introduced in literary criticism DI. Pisarev.

The main features of this direction are as follows:

Full compliance with the reality depicted in any work of the painting.
True specific typification of all the details in the images of the heroes.
The basis is a conflict situation between a person and society.
Image in the work deep conflict situations, the drama of life.
The author paid special attention to the description of all phenomena environment.
A significant feature of this literary movement is considered to be the writer’s significant attention to the inner world of a person, his state of mind.

Main genres

In any direction of literature, including realistic, there is a specific system genres. Its development was particularly influenced by prose genres realism, due to the fact that more than others were suitable for more correct artistic description new realities, their reflection in literature. Works of this direction are divided into the following genres.

A social and everyday novel that describes lifestyle and a certain type of character inherent in a given way of life. A good example“Anna Karenina” became a social and everyday genre.
A socio-psychological novel, in the description of which one can see a complete detailed disclosure of the human personality, his personality and inner world.
A realistic novel in verse is a special type of novel. A wonderful example of this genre is "", written by Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin.
A realistic philosophical novel contains eternal reflections on such topics as: the meaning of human existence, confrontation between good and evil sides, a certain purpose human life. An example of realistic philosophical novel is “”, the author of which is Mikhail Yurievich Lermontov.
Story.
Tale.

In Russia, its development began in the 1830s and was a consequence of the conflict situation in various fields society, contradictions senior officials and ordinary people. Writers began to turn to current problems of its time.

Thus begins fast development new genre - realistic novel, which usually described a hard life common people, their burdens and problems.

The initial stage in the development of the realistic trend in Russian literature is the “natural school”. During " natural school» literary works V to a greater extent they sought to describe the hero’s position in society, his belonging to some kind of profession. Among all genres leading place occupied physiological essay.

In the 1850s–1900s, realism began to be called critical, since the main goal was to criticize what was happening, the relationship between a certain person and spheres of society. Issues such as: the measure of the influence of society on life were considered individual person; actions that can change a person and the world around him; the reason for the lack of happiness in human life.

This literary movement has become extremely popular in Russian literature, since Russian writers were able to make a world genre system richer. Works appeared from in-depth questions of philosophy and morality.

I.S. Turgenev created the ideological type of heroes, character, personality and internal state which directly depended on the author’s assessment of the worldview, finding certain meaning in the concepts of their philosophy. Such heroes are subject to ideas that they follow until the very end, developing them as much as possible.

In the works of L.N. Tolstoy, the system of ideas that develops during the life of a character determines the form of his interaction with the surrounding reality and depends on the morality and personal characteristics of the heroes of the work.

Founder of realism

The title of pioneer of this trend in Russian literature was rightfully awarded to Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. He is the generally recognized founder of realism in Russia. "Boris Godunov" and "Eugene Onegin" are considered a shining example realism in Russian literature of those times. Also distinguishing examples were such works by Alexander Sergeevich as “Belkin’s Tales” and “The Captain’s Daughter”.

IN creative works Pushkin gradually begins to develop classical realism. The writer’s portrayal of the personality of each character is comprehensive in an effort to describe the complexity of his inner world and state of mind, which unfold very harmoniously. Recreation of the experiences of a certain person, his moral character helps Pushkin overcome the self-will of the description of passions inherent in irrationalism.

Heroes A.S. Pushkin speaks to readers with open sides of your being. The writer pays special attention to describing the aspects of the human inner world, depicts the hero in the process of development and formation of his personality, which are influenced by the reality of society and the environment. This was due to his awareness of the need to depict a specific historical and national identity in the characteristics of the people.

Attention! Reality in Pushkin’s depiction collects an accurate, concrete image of the details of not only the inner world of a certain character, but also the world that surrounds him, including his detailed generalization.

Neorealism in literature

New philosophical, aesthetic and everyday realities at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries contributed to a change in direction. Implemented twice, this modification acquired the name neorealism, which gained popularity during the 20th century.

Neorealism in literature consists of a variety of movements, since its representatives had different artistic approach to the image of reality, including character traits realistic direction. It is based on appeal to the traditions of classical realism XIX century, as well as to problems in the social, moral, philosophical and aesthetic spheres of reality. A good example containing all these features is the work of G.N. Vladimov “The General and His Army”, written in 1994.

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

Realism can be roughly defined as artistic method reflections of the specific historical uniqueness of reality, the social determinism of the individual and the nature of his relationship with society.

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

If romanticism emphasized individuality endowed with ideal aspirations, then distinctive feature realism was the turning of art to direct depiction Everyday life people, devoid of any mystery, mystery, religious or mythological motivation.

About so-called realism in the broad sense

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

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

Characteristics of realism

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is assumed that realism understood the social problems And social contradictions, and also showed society and man in dynamics, in development. Perhaps, based on these features of realism, M. Gorky called realism XIX century "critical realism", as it often "exposed" the unjust structure of bourgeois society and criticized the emerging bourgeois relations. Even psychological analysis realists were often associated with social analysis, trying to find social order explanation psychological characteristics characters. Many of O. de Balzac’s novels are based on this. Their characters were people of various professions. Ordinary personalities finally found a quite prestigious place in literature: no one laughed at them anymore, they no longer served anyone; mediocrity became the main characters, like characters in Chekhov's stories.

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

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

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

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