Women's destinies in Russian literature of the 20th century based on the novel by Mikhail Sholokhov Quiet Don. The tragic fate of the poets of the “Silver Age”

The fates of Russian writers of the 20th century are dramatic, since it was then that literature in our country for the first time became a truly influential force that could be directed one way or another, depending on the political situation. And this circumstance, to one degree or another, affected the life and creative path of each of the Russian writers, including the most venerable and, it would seem, favored by the authorities, such as Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Mikhail Sholokhov. Russian writers of the 20th century inevitably faced the problem moral choice in a situation where it was necessary to either sacrifice honor or remain “overboard.”

The era in which they worked was marked by complex and controversial events. The country experienced three revolutions, one civil and two world wars, national tragedies of an unprecedented scale - collectivization and the “Red Terror”. Some of the writers found themselves, willingly or unwillingly, drawn into the whirlpool of these events. Others stood back and avoided participating in the social struggle. But both of them are children of their time, who, together with their homeland, experienced a painful spiritual drama. In these unthinkable conditions, writers were called upon to fulfill their main mission - to raise before the reader “eternal” questions about life and death, about human destiny, about what truth and justice are, memory and duty.

Thus, the work of the best Russian writers of the 20th century is a painful pain for the fate of the Fatherland and native culture, natural development which was forcibly interrupted and distorted.

Culture, which was in mortal danger in the fury of the new nihilism, in the devilry of the Berliozs, Shvonders and Sharikovs who had broken through to power, was the great value of Mikhail Bulgakov’s bottom. He acutely felt the tragedy of spiritual unconsciousness, a smug desire to improve human nature according to your own understanding and whim.

Spirituality, puzzlement about the meaning of life, the “damned questions” of existence - these are character traits the positive characters he created, among whom the first, of course, should be called the master, the hero of Bulgakov’s immortal novel. His fate reflects the bitter fate of Bulgakov himself, worthy of the highest respect.

The homeless, homeless heroes of the novel “The Master and Margarita” become objects of persecution, denunciations, arrests, and betrayal. Their fate is typical and, unfortunately, natural in the society described. They live at odds with the world around them, contrary to it, according to their own internal logic. The master and Bulgakov know their business, see the meaning and purpose of their work, and recognize themselves as executors of a special social mission. And therefore there is no place for them in the country of “victorious socialism” - neither as writers, nor as thinkers, nor as individuals.

Mikhail Bulgakov shared the fate of many Russian writers who died unknown, but by the end of the century they became famous and read, and received a rebirth with the publication of their works. Andrei Platonov, Mikhail Bulgakov, Osip Mandelstam... They are interesting primarily not because they belong to the guild of writers - they are, first of all, spiritually free, internally independent individuals. What helped them create was the belief that “manuscripts don’t burn.” These writers created their works in accordance only with their own conscience and universal human ideas about morality.

They created without “stepping on the throat of their own song,” and therefore their destinies evoke endless respect in us.

It is known that the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. are the heyday of Russian literature, often called the “Silver Age”. This period gave Russian culture real masters of art, whose works amaze with their skill and genius to this day.

But the culture of that period was characterized by revolutionary motives and deep contradictions that characterized the reality of Russian life. Therefore, some people talk about the tragic fate of the literature of this time, since it raised eternal questions, but they were raised in such a tragic and at the same time realistic way that this cannot cause a resonant reaction among readers and writers.

Features of Russian literature of the 19th century in the 20th century

The development of literature began to be mainly influenced by the religious theme, which was now illuminated in a deeper and more vital sense. Traditions XIX centuries gradually faded away as the way of life and social conditions changed.

Numerous historical and political changes have radically changed the perception of topics familiar to Russian literature. Literature as art and cultural phenomenon, is becoming truly a crisis.

Classical realism is gradually transforming into a completely different form of realism, which corresponds to a renewed idea of life. The human spirit and morality are sanctified from other, more crisis sides, which cannot but change general directions literature.

The crisis of consciousness and tragic perception of reality leaves a significant imprint on all types of creativity of Russian masters. A reassessment of values is taking place all over the world, and above all, this concerns the tragic fate of Russia, whose people have been experiencing fundamental changes and constant upheavals for several decades.

Changes in literature: form, content, spirituality

New trends in Russian literature: realism, avant-garde and modernism significantly change not only the form of literary works, but also its content and spirituality. Representatives of the following trends appear: the mystical God-seekers Merezhkovsky, Gippius, the decadent individualists Balmont, Bryusov, Sologub, the Acmeists Akhmatova, Gumilyov, Mandelstam, the cubo-futurists Mayakovsky, Burliuk.

The romanticism inherent in the early 19th century is partially returning; it is reflected in the works of Korolenko and Gorky. The artistic life of Russia is developing, despite the fact that many poets and writers, whose work became fundamental for the 19th century, were forced to leave their native country.

Creative figures are arrested, repressions begin against them, subsequently killing more than two thousand writers, including Babel, Klyuev, Mandelstam. The tragic fate of literature of this time is a mirror image of the tragic fates of its most prominent figures.

So outstanding literary masters How Akhmatova, Bulgakov, Tsvetaeva, Yesenin, Mayakovsky lived their lives tragically, and many could not survive the hardships that Soviet power created for their lives and creativity.

When they mention the difficult and unfair fate of literature in these two centuries, they say that it was almost impossible for literature to breathe freely and deeply, that the authorities and the state did everything to destroy the most sincere, spiritual germs artistic culture, which would speak in a loud and free voice about what Russian people and society were experiencing in that time period.

Russian literature of the 20th century ("Silver Age". Prose. Poetry).

Russian literature XX century- heir to the tradition of the Russian Golden Age classical literature. Its artistic level is quite comparable to our classics.

Throughout the century, there has been a keen interest in society and literature in the artistic heritage and spiritual potential of Pushkin and Gogol, Goncharov and Ostrovsky, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, whose work is perceived and evaluated depending on the philosophical and ideological trends of the time, on creative searches in literature itself. . Interaction with tradition is complex: it is not only development, but also repulsion, overcoming, and rethinking of traditions. In the 20th century, new artistic systems were born in Russian literature - modernism, avant-gardeism, socialist realism. Realism and romanticism continue to live. Each of these systems has its own understanding of the tasks of art, its own attitude to tradition, the language of fiction, genre forms, and style. Your understanding of the individual, his place and role in history and national life.

The literary process in Russia in the 20th century was largely determined by the influence of various philosophical systems and politics on the artist and culture as a whole. On the one hand, there is undoubtedly an influence on literature of the ideas of Russian religious philosophy of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (the works of N. Fedorov, V. Solovyov, N. Berdyaev, V. Rozanov, etc.), on the other hand, of Marxist philosophy and Bolshevik practice. Marxist ideology, starting from the 1920s, has established a strict dictatorship in literature, expelling from it everything that does not coincide with its party guidelines and the strictly regulated ideological and aesthetic framework of socialist realism, directly approved by the main method. Russian literature XX century at the First Congress of Soviet Writers in 1934.

Starting from the 1920s, our literature ceases to exist as a single national literature. It is forced to divide into three streams: Soviet; literature of Russian abroad (emigrant); and the so-called “detained” within the country, that is, not having access to the reader for censorship reasons. These streams were isolated from each other until the 1980s, and the reader did not have the opportunity to present a holistic picture of the development of national literature. This tragic circumstance is one of the features of the literary process. It also largely determined the tragedy of fate, the originality of the work of such writers as Bunin, Nabokov, Platonov, Bulgakov, etc. Currently, there is an active publication of works by emigrant writers of all three waves, works long years lying in the writers' archives, allows you to see the richness and diversity national literature. It became possible to study it truly scientifically in its entirety, comprehending the internal laws of its development as a special, strictly artistic area of the general historical process.

In the study of Russian literature and its periodization, the principles of exclusive and direct dependence of literary development on socio-political reasons are overcome. Of course, literature responded to the most important political events of the time, but mainly in terms of themes and issues. According to its artistic principles, it preserved itself as an intrinsically valuable sphere of the spiritual life of society. Traditionally, the following are distinguished: periods:

1) the end of the 19th century - the first decades of the 20th century;

2) 1920-1930s;

3) 1940s - mid-1950s;

4) mid-1950s-1990s.

The end of the 19th century was a turning point in the development of social and artistic life in Russia. This time is characterized by a sharp aggravation of social conflicts, an increase in mass protests, the politicization of life and an extraordinary growth of personal consciousness. The human personality is perceived as a unity of many principles - social and natural, moral and biological. And in literature, characters are not determined solely and primarily by environment and social experience. Different, sometimes polar, ways of reflecting reality appear.

Subsequently, the poet N. Otsup called this period the “Silver Age” of Russian literature. The modern researcher M. Pyanykh defines this stage of Russian culture as follows: “The Silver Age” - in comparison with the “golden”, Pushkin’s - is usually called in the history of Russian poetry, literature and art the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. If we keep in mind that " silver age"was a prologue (80s of the 19th century) and an epilogue (the years of the February and October revolutions and the civil war), then its beginning can be considered Dostoevsky’s famous speech about Pushkin (1880), and the end is Blok’s speech “On the appointment of a poet "(1921), also dedicated to the “son of harmony” - Pushkin. The names of Pushkin and Dostoevsky are associated with two main, actively interacting trends in Russian literature of both the “Silver Age” and the entire 20th century - harmonic and tragic.”

The theme of the fate of Russia, its spiritual and moral essence and historical prospects becomes central in the works of writers of different ideological and aesthetic movements. Interest in the problem of national character, the specifics of national life, and human nature is intensifying. In the works of writers of different artistic methods, they are solved in different ways: in social, specific historical terms by realists, followers and continuers of the traditions of critical realism of the 19th century. The realistic direction was represented by A. Serafimovich, V. Veresaev, A. Kuprin, N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, I. Shmelev, I. Bunin and others. In the metaphysical plane, using elements of convention, fantasy, moving away from the principles of life-likeness - by modernist writers . Symbolists F. Sologub, A. Bely, expressionist L. Andreev and others. new hero, a “continuously growing” person, overcoming the shackles of an oppressive and oppressive environment. This is the hero of M. Gorky, the hero of socialist realism.

Literature of the early 20th century - literature on philosophical issues primarily. Any social aspects of life acquire a global spiritual and philosophical meaning in it.

The defining features of the literature of this period:

interest in eternal questions: the meaning of life for an individual and humanity; mystery national character and history of Russia; worldly and spiritual; human and nature;

intensive search for new artistic means expressiveness;

the emergence of non-realistic methods - modernism (symbolism, acmeism), avant-garde (futurism);

tendencies towards interpenetration literary families into each other, rethinking traditional genre forms and filling them with new content.

The fight between the two main artistic systems- realism and modernism - determined the development and originality of the prose of these years. Despite discussions about the crisis and the “end” of realism, new possibilities for realistic art opened up in the work of the late L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhova, V.G. Korolenko, I.A. Bunina.

Young realist writers (A. Kuprin, V. Veresaev, N. Teleshov, N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, L. Andreev) united in the Moscow circle “Sreda”. In the publishing house of the Znanie partnership, headed by M. Gorky, they published their works, in which the traditions of democratic literature of the 60-70s developed and were uniquely transformed, with its special attention to the personality of a person from the people, his spiritual quest. The Chekhov tradition continued.

The problems of the historical development of society and the active creative activity of the individual were raised by M. Gorky; socialist tendencies are obvious in his work (the novel “Mother”).

The need and regularity of the synthesis of the principles of realism and modernism were substantiated and implemented in their creative practice by young realist writers: E. Zamyatin, A. Remizov and others.

It occupies a special place in literary process Symbolist prose. A philosophical understanding of history is characteristic of D. Merezhkovsky’s trilogy “Christ and Antichrist”. We will see the history and stylization of history in the prose of V. Bryusov (novel “ Fire Angel"). In the novel “without hope” “The Little Demon” by F. Sologub, the poetics of the modernist novel is formed, with its new understanding of classical traditions. A. Bely in “Silver Dove” and “Petersburg” makes extensive use of stylization, rhythmic possibilities of language, literary and historical reminiscences to create a new type of novel.

Particularly intensive searches for new content and new forms occurred in poetry. The philosophical and ideological and aesthetic trends of the era were embodied in three main trends.

In the mid-90s, Russian symbolism was theoretically substantiated in articles by D. Merezhkovsky and V. Bryusov. Big influence The symbolists were influenced by the idealist philosophers A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche, as well as the work of the French symbolist poets P. Verlaine and A. Rimbaud. Symbolists proclaimed mystical content and symbol as the basis of their creativity as the main means of its embodiment. Beauty is the only value and the main criterion for evaluation in the poetry of the older symbolists. The work of K. Balmont, N. Minsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub is distinguished by extraordinary musicality, it is focused on conveying the fleeting insights of the poet.

In the early 1900s, symbolism was in crisis. A new movement stands out from symbolism, the so-called “young symbolism”, represented by Vyach. Ivanov, A. Bely, A. Blok, S. Solovyov, Y. Baltrushaitis. The Young Symbolists were greatly influenced by the Russian religious philosopher V. Solovyov. They developed the theory of “effective art.” They were characterized by an interpretation of the events of modernity and Russian history as a clash of metaphysical forces. At the same time, the creativity of the Young Symbolists is characterized by an appeal to social issues.

The crisis of symbolism led to the emergence of a new movement opposing it - Acmeism. Acmeism was formed in the “Workshop of Poets” circle. It included N. Gumilyov, S. Gorodetsky, A. Akhmatova, O. Mandelstam, G. Ivanov and others. They tried to reform the aesthetic system of the Symbolists, asserting the intrinsic value of reality, and focused on a “material” perception of the world, “material” clarity image. The poetry of the Acmeists is characterized by “wonderful clarity” of language, realism and accuracy of detail, and the picturesque brightness of figurative and expressive means.

In the 1910s, an avant-garde movement in poetry emerged - futurism. Futurism is heterogeneous: several groups are distinguished within it. The Cubo-Futurists (D. and N. Burliuk, V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, V. Kamensky) left the greatest mark on our culture. Futurists denied the social content of art, cultural traditions. They are characterized by anarchic rebellion. In their collective program collections (“A Slap in the Face of Public Taste”, “Dead Moon”, etc.) they challenged “the so-called public taste and common sense" Futurists destroyed the existing system of literary genres and styles, developed tonic verse close to folklore on the basis of spoken language, and conducted experiments with words.

Literary futurism was closely associated with avant-garde movements in painting. Almost all futurist poets were professional artists.

New peasant poetry, based on folk culture, occupied its special place in the literary process of the beginning of the century (N. Klyuev, S. Yesenin, S. Klychkov, P. Oreshin, etc.)

The 20th century is full of turbulent historical events, which is reflected in literature. Through numerous works of Russian writers there is a contrast between the fatal chaos of history and the eternal beautiful love. The heroes of M. Bulgakov and M. Gorky seek oblivion in love, salvation from difficult questions. For example, a hymn of love and eternal femininity The novel “Sisters” from A. Tolstoy’s trilogy “Walking through Torment” ends:

“Years will pass, wars will subside, revolutions will cease, and only one thing will remain incorruptible - meek, gentle, beloved heart yours...” These words are spoken by Roshchin Katya. The main characters of this work, Katya and Dasha Bulavin, are the most beautiful heroines with difficult destinies. To me, the images of Aksinya, Natalya and Daria from the novel by M. Sholokhov seem more lifelike. Quiet Don».

Aksinya was attractive; her beauty was not spoiled even by the wrinkles that appeared from a difficult life. Another heroine, Daria, delights readers with her femininity and energy. Natalya, purely outwardly, can be compared to a gray duck. The author himself often emphasizes in Aksinya - “greedy lips”, in Natalya - “ big hands”, in Daria - “thin rims of eyebrows”.

I think that M. Sholokhov does this deliberately. Lips - beauty, passion. Hands - patience, trying to achieve everything with your own work. And eyebrows mean frivolity, an inability to feel deeply. The heroines of M. Sholokhov are very different, but they are united by the completeness of their perception of life.

I got the impression that in those years the fate of women, as indeed in our time, was not easy. If a husband beat his wife, then this was considered in the order of things: before, the father taught wisdom, and now, therefore, the husband. Here are the consequences of this attitude of Pantelei Prokofiev towards his wife:

“...in anger he reached the point of unconsciousness and, apparently, this prematurely aged his, once beautiful, but now completely entangled in a web of wrinkles, portly wife.” But this has always been the case in almost every family. And people perceived this as inevitable and given from above. There was a house, there was a family, there was work on the land, there were children to take care of. And no matter how difficult her lot was, she firmly knew her purpose. And this helped her survive.

And something terrible happened - the war began. And not just a war, but a fratricidal war. When yesterday's neighbors became enemies, when the father did not understand his son, and the brother killed his brother... It was difficult for even the smart Gregory to understand what was happening. What should a woman do? How should she live?.. Husbands leave, but their wives remain.

The destinies of Aksinya and Natalya are intertwined and dependent on one another. It turns out that if one is happy, then the other is unhappy. M. Sholokhov depicted a kind of love triangle that existed at all times.

Natalya loved her husband with all her soul:

“... lived, cultivating an unconscious hope for the return of her husband, relying on it with a broken spirit. She didn’t write anything to Gregory, but there was no one in the family who would expect a letter from him with such melancholy and pain.”

This tender and fragile woman took upon herself the full measure of suffering given by life. She wanted to do everything to save the family. And only after feeling the futility of this, he decides to commit suicide. Perhaps it was selfishness caused by jealousy that prompted her to do this. Be that as it may, Natalya has changed. Was there such a revolution in Aksinya’s life? It seems to me that he was. Perhaps it came after Tanya's death. Having lost her daughter, she “knew nothing,” didn’t think about anything... Terrible. The mother is alive, and her children are in the ground. There are no continuers of your life, it seems to have been interrupted... And at this difficult moment of her life, Aksinya found herself completely alone. And there was no one to help her... No one? But there was one “compassionate”, closeness with whom led to Aksinya’s break with Gregory. Fate was more merciful to Natalya in this regard. This heroine, to my admiration, had truly maternal feelings, which united her with Ilyinichna, but somewhat alienated her from Daria, only child which he died.

What happened to Daria’s child was briefly mentioned:

“...and Daria’s child died...”

That's all. No unnecessary feelings, emotions... By this M. Sholokhov once again emphasizes that Daria lived only for herself. Even the death of her husband saddened her for a short time; she quickly recovered. Obviously, Daria did not have deep feelings for Peter, she just got used to him.

I feel sorry for her. Daria is alien to the Melekhov family. She paid dearly for her frivolity. Poor thing! Afraid of waiting for the inevitable, lost from loneliness, Daria decided to commit suicide. And before merging with the waters of the Don, she shouted not to anyone, but to women, since only they could understand her: “Goodbye, little women!”

Not long before this, Natalya also passed away. After their death, Aksinya became close to Gregory's mother. And this is natural. It is a pity that the feelings that united these two women arose so late, literally one step before the death that awaited each of them. If this had happened earlier, perhaps they would have influenced Gregory, they would have been able to do together what each of them could not do separately.

Aksinya and Natalya died, thereby punishing the top of the triangle, leaving Gregory at a crossroads. Perhaps M. Sholokhov spoke with bitterness about the fate of women. But try to portray it better - it won’t work! Reality is only real if it is true, otherwise it is not reality, but only a parody of it.

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Ministry of Education of the Republic of Belarus

Educational institution "Brest State University named after A.S. Pushkin"

Faculty of Mathematics

Essay

on the topic: “Literature of the 20th century”

Performed:

student Pstyga Natalya

Introduction
1. European fiction XX century
2 . Civil War Literature

2.1 Realism
2.2 Modernist movements
2.3 Prose writers

Conclusion
Bibliography

Introduction

The Civil War of 1918 - 1920 is one of the most tragic periods in the history of Russia; it took the lives of millions, forced them to face a cruel and terrible struggle masses different classes and political views, but one faith, one culture and history.
War in general, and civil war in particular, is an initially unnatural action, but at the origins of any event stands Man, his will and desire: also L.N. Tolstoy argued that an objective result in history is achieved through the addition of wills individuals into a single whole, into one resultant.

Many writers have used various techniques embodying and transmitting all their thoughts about the revolution in full and in the form that they themselves experienced while in the very centers of the civil war.

For example, A.A. himself Fadeev was the same man of revolutionary causes as his heroes. His whole life and its circumstances were such that A.A. Fadeev was born into a family of rural, progressive-minded intellectuals. And immediately after school he rushed into battle. About such times and the same young guys drawn into the revolution, he wrote: “So we all went away for the summer, and when we came together again in the fall of 18, a white coup had already taken place, a bloody battle was already underway, in which the whole people, the world, were drawn split...

Bulgakov M.A. “a man of amazing talent, internally honest and principled and very smart” makes a great impression. It should be said that he did not immediately accept and understand the revolution. He, like A.A. Fadeev, during the revolution, saw a lot, he had the opportunity to survive a difficult period of the civil wave, later described in the novel “The White Guard”, the plays “Days of the Turbins”, “Running” and numerous stories, including the hetman and Petliurism in Kyiv, the disintegration of Denikin’s army. There is a lot of autobiography in the novel “The White Guard,” but it is not only a description of one’s own life experience during the years of revolution and civil war, but also insight into the problem of “Man and the Age”; this is also the study of an artist who sees unbreakable connection Russian history with philosophy. This is a book about the fate of classical culture in a formidable era of the breakdown of centuries-old traditions.

I.E. Babel is very complex in human and literary understanding, due to which he was persecuted during his lifetime. After his death, the question of the works created by him has still not been resolved, so the attitude towards them is not unambiguous.
B. Lavrenev’s path: in the fall I went to the front with an armored train, stormed Petliura’s Kyiv, went to the Crimea.” Gaidar’s words are also known: “When they ask me how it could happen that I was such a young commander, I answer: this is not an ordinary biography, but the time was extraordinary.”
1. European fiction of the twentieth century
The literature of the 20th century in its stylistic and ideological diversity is incomparable with the literature of the 19th century, where only three or four leading trends could be identified.
At the same time modern literature gave no more great talents than the literature of the last century. European fiction of the 20th century remains faithful to classical traditions.
At the turn of two centuries, a galaxy of writers was noticeable whose work did not yet express the aspirations and innovative searches of the 20th century: the English novelist John Galsworthy (1867 - 1933), who created social and everyday novels (the Forsyte Saga trilogy), German writers Thomas Mann (1875 - 1955), who wrote philosophical novels " Magic Mountain"(1924) and "Doctor Faustus" (1947), revealing the moral, spiritual and intellectual quests of the European intellectual, and Heinrich Belle (1917 - 1985), who combined social criticism with elements of the grotesque and deep psychological analysis in his novels and stories, the French Anatole France (1844 - 1924), who gave a satirical overview of France at the end of the 19th century, Romain Rolland (1866 - 1944), who reflected in the epic novel “Jean Christophe” the spiritual quest and throwing of a brilliant musician, etc.
In the same time European literature experienced the influence of modernism, which is primarily manifested in poetry. So, French poets P. Eluard (1895 - 1952) and L. Aragon (1897 - 1982) were leading figures of surrealism.
However, the most significant in the Art Nouveau style was not poetry, but prose - the novels of M. Proust (“In Search of Lost Time”), J. Joyce (“Ulysses”), f. Kafka (The Castle). These novels were a response to the events of the First World War, which gave birth to a generation that was called “lost” in literature.
They analyze the spiritual, mental, and pathological manifestations of a person.
What they have in common is a methodological technique - the use of open French philosopher, a representative of intuitionism and the “philosophy of life” by Henri Bergson (1859 - 1941) of the “stream of consciousness” method of analysis, which consists in describing the continuous flow of a person’s thoughts, impressions and feelings. He described human consciousness as a continuously changing creative reality, as a flow in which thinking is only surface layer, subject to the needs of practice and social life. In its deepest layers, consciousness can be comprehended only through the effort of introspection (introspection) and intuition.
The basis of knowledge is pure perception, and matter and consciousness are phenomena reconstructed by the mind from the facts of direct experience. His main work, Creative Evolution, brought Bergson fame not only as a philosopher, but also as a writer (in 1927 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature). Bergson also distinguished himself in the diplomatic and pedagogical fields. They say that recognition of Bergson's oratorical talent, who captivated his compatriots with his magnificent French, in 1928 forced the French Parliament to specifically consider moving his lectures from the assembly hall of the Collège de France, which could not accommodate everyone, to the building of the Paris Opera and stopping traffic on the adjacent streets during the lecture.
Bergson's philosophy had a significant influence on the intellectual atmosphere of Europe, including literature. For many writers of the first half of the 20th century, the “stream of consciousness” from a philosophical method of cognition turned into a spectacular artistic technique.
Bergson's philosophical ideas formed the basis famous novel French writer Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922) “In Search of Lost Time” (in 14 volumes). The work, which is a series of novels, serves as an expression of his childhood memories emerging from the subconscious. Recreating the bygone time of people, the subtlest overflows of feelings and moods, the material world, the writer saturates the narrative fabric of the work with bizarre associations and phenomena of involuntary memory. Proust's Experience -- image inner life man as a “stream of consciousness” was of great importance for many writers of the 20th century.
A prominent Irish writer, a representative of modernist and postmodernist prose, James Joyce (1882 - 1941), relying on Bergsonian techniques, discovered a new way of writing, in which art form takes the place of content, encoding ideological, psychological and other dimensions.
IN artistic creativity Joyce used not only the “stream of consciousness”, but also parodies, stylizations, comic devices, mythological and symbolic layers of meaning. The analytical decomposition of language and text is accompanied by the decomposition of the image of man, a new anthropology close to structuralist and characterized by an almost complete exclusion of social aspects. Inner speech as a form of existence of a literary work entered active circulation among writers of the 20th century.
The works of the outstanding Austrian writer Franz Kafka (1883 - 1924) during his lifetime did not cause great interest from readers. Despite this, he is considered one of the most famous prose writers XX century. In the novels “The Trial” (1915), “The Castle” (1922) and stories in a grotesque and parable form, he showed the tragic powerlessness of man in his collision with the absurdity of the modern world. Kafka with amazing power showed the inability of people to mutual contacts, the powerlessness of the individual in front of complex mechanisms of power inaccessible to the human mind, showed the vain efforts that human pawns made in order to protect themselves from the pressure on them of forces alien to them. The analysis of “borderline situations” (situations of fear, despair, melancholy, etc.) brings Kafka closer to the existentialists.
Close to him, but in a unique way towards the search for a new language and new poetic content, was the Austrian poet and prose writer Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926), who created a cycle of melodic poems in line with the symbolist and impressionist tradition of the first decades of the 20th century. In them, the poet reflects on the existential problems of man, his tragic duality, the desire for mutual understanding and love.
2. Civil War Literature
Literature of the early 20th century, in vivid images, captured the features of real heroes, created collective figures of contemporaries of writers, reflecting the thoughts, aspirations, ideological ordeals and worldview of an entire generation of Russian society, from which its mentality is formed.
These literary aspects allow descendants to substantiate many historical processes, explain spiritual potential, psychology and the current generation. That's why this topic is meaningful and relevant.
What was a person like during the revolution and civil war? Why did he go into battle? What was he thinking?
How did his attitude towards what was happening change? People of our generation are interested in learning how this person changed, what new appeared in him, how those qualities that the cruel, bloody time demanded of them became stronger and established in him, what lessons of history humanity learned from what they experienced.
To this end, we begin to present the research conducted.
Late 19th early 20th centuries. - The Silver Age of Russian Literature - great artistic diversity- on the one hand, continuation of realistic and romantic traditions, on the other hand, modernism.

2.1 Realism

Ivan Bunin is an outstanding storyteller (lyrical, socially critical stories, love stories, descriptions of nature), “the singer of the passing patriarchal Russia,” that is, of village estates. The author sharply did not accept the revolution and emigrated.

“Dark Alleys” is a cycle of stories, The Life of Arsenyev is an autobiographical novel, for which Bunin was awarded the Nobel Prize.

2.2 Modernist movements

Decadence - disappointment, “fatigue from the end of the century”, depressive moods Symbolism - The realistic tradition is rejected, artists are interested in the hidden meaning, real reality can only be depicted through a polysemantic symbol. Art is imbued with mysticism and religiosity.

The poems of the Symbolists were distinguished by their melody, a new approach to poetic language, and were closer to music. Poetry is especially developing.

Alexander Blok is a talented heir to Pushkin and Lermontov. He dedicated his poems to St. Petersburg, to love - Poems about a beautiful lady - about his wife, the image of a woman as a mysterious, sublime being. Unlike other symbolists, Blok reacted positively to the revolution - the poem Twelve - it features 12 Red Army soldiers walking through Petrograd during revolutionary days.

The poem ends with the image of Christ (many authors of that time, when describing the revolution, use symbols of Christianity). The first half of the 20th century (until the beginning of the 1930s) was the birth of the avant-garde. Acmeism: a literary association, a counterbalance to symbolistic obscurity.

Acmeists understood poetry as a craft; they preached the materiality and simplicity of language, high poetic technique. (“The rose is beautiful again because it is a rose, not a symbol of love”).

Osip Mandelstam (died in the Gulag). Anna Akhmatova is a world-famous poetess, master of intimate drama and psychological miniatures, love poems. Her fate is sad in many ways: several of her friends were shot, her son was arrested - she writes about this in the poem Requiem - she outlived her literary peers and devoted her shameful work to memories (Poem without a Hero). She also writes essays about Pushkin and other artists.

Futurism - experiments with the word (“Free the words!”) and the graphic appearance of the poem - violation of grammatical rules, neologisms Velemir Khlebnikov is a great innovator (“He digs into the roots of words like a mole”).

Vladimir Mayakovsky - began as a futurist and experimenter (he broke the traditional verse - poems in the form of a “ladder”, original rhythm and rhymes, hyperboles, metaphors), but devoted most of his work to the service of the revolution (“He and the revolution are twins.”) and the construction of socialism .

After 1917 he even wrote propaganda posters. A type of poet-speaker who speaks at literary evenings. Mayakovsky committed suicide (personal life, disappointment from socialism). His death is one of the milestones of Russian literature - after it there is no freedom.

Stalin announced that disrespect for the memory of Mayakovsky would be considered a crime. At the end of the 20s. the author turned to satire - he wrote the plays Bath and Bedbug, for which he was criticized. Poets outside literary movements.

Sergey Yesenin - " the last poet Russian village". He was born in a village, life in which and descriptions of nature became the main theme of his young simple, pure, lyrical poems. After arriving in Petrograd, he quickly gained fame and accepted invitations to literary salons. Gradually his soul fell into a painful state (love, alcohol, taverns, disappointment from the post-revolutionary situation). He writes about his melancholy, loneliness, the impossibility of returning to native home. Yesenin committed suicide.

Passing Rus' - a poem, Moscow tavern, Persian motifs - collections of poems, Anna Snegina - a poem about the author himself, who returns home and meets his first love.

Marina Tsvetaeva - tragic fate. The poetess emigrated and lived in Prague at the age of 20. She committed suicide, felt useless to anyone - complex poetry about unhappy love, loneliness: Poem of the Mountain (“The Mountain is a Witness of Grief”), Poem of the End, Poems for the Czech Republic - a reaction to the German occupation.

Boris Pasternak is one of the few Russian writers who began writing at the age of 10 and continued to write after 1945. Correspondence with the German poet Rilke and Tsvetaeva has been preserved. My sister - life - a collection of poems - complex, at first glance, obscure poems. The author introduces various quotes and images from world culture into his text.

Doctor Zhivago - completed 1958 - A novel about life in Russia before and after the revolution, about the difficult path of man on earth, his fate, which brings fatal meetings, but also separation and tragedy. Yuri Zhivago lost his mother as a boy and grew up with his uncle.

He marries Tonya, but during the First World War he works as a doctor at the front and meets Larisa. He later falls in love with her. During the civil war, he is captured and a number of other obstacles await him. Zhivago's personal life develops against the backdrop of historical events.

In 1958, the Soviet authorities forced Pasternak to refuse the Nobel Prize.

2.3 Prose writers

Maxim Gorky always took part in social work and helped many writers. The author’s main theme was the depiction of the difficult life of the people, he described living Russian types and glorified the strong in symbolic images. heroic personalities, had a presentiment of the revolution. “Mother” is a novel, “At the Lower Depths” is a play.

Mikhail Sholokhov - Carrier Nobel Prize. His realistic works reflected the First World War, revolution of 1917 and civil war. Quiet Don is an epic novel - the struggle of whites with reds, the life of various strata of society (white generals, officers, landowners, peasants, communists).

After the war, he published the story The Fate of a Man, which represents new approach To military theme- the author writes about a man who was captured and lost his entire family. He meets an orphan boy and adopts him.

Isaac Babel - came from a Jewish family, lived his childhood in Odessa, where he witnessed pogroms (Odessa Stories). Under the influence of the military events of 1920, a series of short stories arose. The author managed to comprehend the contradiction of the world - deep lyricism is combined (descriptions of nature, Jewish customs) with naturalistic details (victims of war).

Evgeny Zamyatin - in the novel - dystopia We already in 1920 gives the image totalitarian state V diary entries one citizen from the future. The state is headed by the Benefactor, everything here is organized - work, rest, love. Several people are trying to speak out against the regime. The fantasy of all people was promptly eliminated, and opponents were executed. Publication of the novel, of course, was prohibited; Russian readers could only read it in 1989.

Andrei Platonov, his works also began to return to the reader in the second half of the 80s. The author mainly wrote about revolutionary transformations (collectivization and industrialization), but from a very specific point of view. He is interested in how changes - the construction of a “new world”, “heaven on earth” - are perceived by residents of remote and poor villages. Attempts to create a new life and happiness end tragically. Platonov, based on his personal experiences, comes to the conclusion that the revolution will not be able to develop the best in man. Chevengur - novel - A young communist agitator travels across Russia and finds the city of Chevengur, where local residents are sure that they are already living in communism, because they killed the bourgeoisie, stopped working and love each other. The city will finally be demolished by foreign soldiers.

The Return is a post-war story that reveals the problems of a person returning from the front; a soldier cannot get close to his family again.

Mikhail Bulgakov - doctor, journalist, playwright. He started out as a satirist, always introducing fantasy and grotesque and also autobiographical motives into his work. main topic- the intelligentsia (artists) and its attitude to power. dog's heart- story - A professor transplants part of a human brain into a dog and the dog changes into a human. Her habits remain dog-like.

Description of negative phenomena in post-revolutionary life, the decline of politeness, the rudeness of the proletariat. The Master and Margarita - a novel (written at the end of the 30s) Woland, the “prince of darkness,” appears in Moscow to examine the moral qualities of people. His conclusion: society is corrupt. He gives immortality to the Master (for writing a book about Pilate - one line of Bulgakov's novel) and his mistress Margarita (for love). Love and creativity are the highest human virtues. In the 20s we can also talk about relatively great freedom of creativity. Along with literary trends Many literary groups emerge.

An important moment in the cultural life of the 20s. became the division of Russian literature into domestic and emigrant. The darkest period of Russian literature. Literary associations were banned, literary magazines disappeared. Many writers were persecuted, arrested and even shot.

The only official artistic style became socialist realism. At this time, masterpieces of world literature (The Master and Margarita) still appeared underground in Russia. Sometimes it was possible to publish them in samizdat or abroad (in tamizdat). This means that a third line of Russian literature is emerging - domestic, but non-dogmatic, unofficial, prohibited.

Some good works arose during the Great Patriotic War, when literature was supposed to raise the courage and heroism of Russians.

Conclusion

Having deeply studied a wide range of literary and artistic works of the last century, analyzing literary criticism, it can be argued that the theme of revolution and civil war has long become one of the main themes of Russian literature of the 20th century. These events not only radically changed life Russian Empire, redrew the entire map of Europe, but also changed the life of every person, every family. Civil wars are usually called fratricidal. Any war is fratricidal in its essence, but in civil war this essence is revealed especially acutely.

From the works of Bulgakov, Fadeev, Sholokhov, Babel, we have identified: Hatred often brings together people who are related by blood, and the tragedy here is extremely naked. The awareness of the civil war as a national tragedy became decisive in many works of Russian writers brought up in the traditions of the humanistic values of classical literature. This realization sounded, perhaps not even fully understood by the author, already in A. Fadeev’s novel “Destruction”, and no matter how much one looks for an optimistic beginning in it, the book is, first of all, tragic - in the events and destinies of the people described in it.

B. Pasternak philosophically comprehended the essence of events in Russia at the beginning of the century years later in the novel “Doctor Zhivago.” The fate of Zhivago is the fate of the Russian intelligentsia in the 20th century. Another writer, playwright, for whom the experience of the civil war became his personal experience, - M. Bulgakov, whose works (“Days of the Turbins” and “The White Guard”) became a living legend of the twentieth century and reflected the author’s impressions of life in Kiev in the terrible years of 1918-19, when the city was changing hands, shots were heard, The fate of man was decided by the course of history.

The fate of a person during a period of severe historical upheavals and trials is subject to a painful search for his place and purpose in new circumstances. The innovation and merit of the authors we considered (Fadeev, Sholokhov, Bulgakov, Babel) lies in the fact that they gave the reading world examples of individuals who are restless, doubtful, hesitant, for whom the old, well-functioning world collapses overnight, and they are captured by a wave of rapid innovative events , which put the heroes in situations of moral and political choice of their path. But these circumstances do not harden the heroes; there is no malice in them, no unaccountable hostility towards everything indiscriminately. It is in this that the enormous spiritual strength of man is manifested, his inflexibility in the face of destructive forces, his opposition to them.

The best books about the revolution and civil war, which are “Destruction”, “Quiet Don”, “Cavalry”, “Days of the Turbins”, “ White Guard» are still widely read, in demand, are not only of interest, but also contain educational aspects for the formation in young people of humanism, patriotism, a sense of duty, love for one’s neighbor, political vigilance, the ability to find one’s place and calling in any life circumstances, the ability to accept what is right a decision that does not contradict universal moral values.

Bibliography

1. Babel I.E. Essays. In 2 volumes. T. 2: Cavalry; Stories 1925-1938; Plays; Memories, portraits; Articles and speeches.

2. Bulgakov M.A. “And the dead were judged...”: Novels. Tale. Plays. Essay/Comp., cr. Biochronicle, approx. B.S. Myagkova; Entry Art. V.Ya. Lakshina.- M.: Shkola-Press, 1994.- 704 p.