Literary movements and their representatives. Literature test "Literary trends"


Literary and artistic movements, movements and schools

Renaissance literature

The countdown of new times begins with the Renaissance (renaissanse French revival) - this is the common name for the socio-political and cultural movement that originated in the 14th century. in Italy, and then spread to other European countries and reached its peak by the 15th-16th centuries. The art of the Renaissance opposed itself to the church's dogmatic worldview, declaring man highest value, the crown of creation. Man is free and called to realize in earthly life the talents and abilities given to him by God and nature. The most important values nature, love, beauty, art were proclaimed. During this era, interest in the ancient heritage is being revived, and true masterpieces of painting, sculpture, architecture, and literature are being created. The works of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Velazquez constitute the golden fund of European art. The literature of the Renaissance most fully expressed the humanistic ideals of the era. Her best achievements are presented in the lyrics of Petrarch (Italy), the book of short stories “The Decameron” by Boccaccio (Italy), the novel “ Cunning Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha" by Cervantes (Spain), the novel "Gargantua and Pantagruel" by Francois Rabelais (France), the dramaturgy of Shakespeare (England) and Lope de Vega (Spain).
The subsequent development of literature from the 17th to early 19th centuries is associated with the literary and artistic movements of classicism, sentimentalism, and romanticism.

Literature of classicism

Classicism(classicus nam. exemplary) - artistic movement in European art XVII-XVIII centuries The birthplace of classicism is France during the era of absolute monarchy, the artistic ideology of which was expressed by this movement.
The main features of the art of classicism:
- imitation antique samples as the ideal of true art;
- proclamation of the cult of reason and rejection of the unbridled play of passions:
in the conflict of duty and feelings, duty always wins;
- strict adherence to literary canons (rules): division of genres into high (tragedy, ode) and low (comedy, fable), adherence to the rule of three unities (time, place and action), rational clarity and harmony of style, proportionality of composition;
- didactic, edifying nature of works that preached the ideas of citizenship, patriotism, and service to the monarchy.
The leading representatives of classicism in France were the tragedians Corneille and Racine, the fabulist La Fontaine, the comedian Molière, and the philosopher and writer Voltaire. In England, a prominent representative of classicism is Jonathan Swift, author of the satirical novel Gulliver's Travels.
In Russia, classicism originated in the 18th century, in an era of important cultural transformations. The reforms of Peter I radically influenced literature. It acquires a secular character, becomes author's, i.e. truly individual creativity. Many genres are borrowed from Europe (poem, tragedy, comedy, fable, and later novel). This is the time of formation of the system of Russian versification, theater and journalism. Such serious achievements became possible thanks to the energy and talents of Russian enlighteners, representatives of Russian classicism: M. Lomonosov, G. Derzhavin, D. Fonvizin, A. Sumarokov, I. Krylov and others.

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism(French sentiment - feeling) - European literary movement late XVIII- the beginning of the 19th century, who proclaimed feeling, and not reason (like the classicists), as the most important property human nature. Hence the increased interest in the inner mental life of a simple “natural” person. The surge of sensitivity was a reaction and protest against the rationalism and severity of classicism, which outlawed emotionality. However, reliance on reason as the solution to all social and moral problems did not materialize, which predetermined the crisis of classicism. Sentimentalism poeticized love, friendship, family relationships, this is a truly democratic art, since the significance of a person was no longer determined by his social status, but the ability to empathize, appreciate the beauty of nature, and be as close as possible to the natural principles of life. In the works of sentimentalists, the world of an idyll was often recreated - harmonious and happy life loving hearts in the lap of nature. Heroes sentimental novels They often shed tears and talk a lot and in detail about their experiences. For the modern reader all this may seem naive and implausible, but the unconditional merit of the art of sentimentalism is the artistic discovery of important laws inner life person, protection of his right to private, intimate life. Sentimentalists argued that man was created not only to serve the state and society - he has an undeniable right to personal happiness.
The birthplace of sentimentalism is England, novels by writers Laurence Sterne " Sentimental Journey" and Samuel Richardson's "Clarissa Garlowe", "The History of Sir Charles Grandison" will mark the emergence of a new literary movement in Europe and will become a subject of admiration for readers, especially for female readers, and a role model for writers. No less famous works French writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau: the novel “The New Heloise”, the artistic autobiography “Confession”. In Russia, the most famous sentimentalist writers were N. Karamzin - author of “ Poor Lisa", A. Radishchev, who wrote "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow."

Romanticism

Romanticism(romantisme fr. in in this case- everything unusual, mysterious, fantastic) - one of the very influential in world art artistic directions, which formed at the end of the 18th - early XIX century. Romanticism arises due to the growth of the individual principle in the sentimental world of culture, when a person became increasingly aware of his uniqueness and sovereignty from the world around him. The Romantics proclaimed the absolute intrinsic value of the individual; they opened up a complex, contradictory world for art human soul. Romanticism is characterized by an interest in strong, vivid feelings, grandiose passions, to everything unusual: to the historical past, exotic, national color cultures of peoples not spoiled by civilization. Favorite genres are short stories and poems, which are characterized by fantastic, hyperbolic plot situations, the complexity of the composition, the surprise of the ending. All attention is focused on the experiences of the protagonist; the unusual setting is important as a background that allows his restless soul to reveal itself. Development of genres historical novel, fantastic stories, ballads are also the merit of the romantics.
The romantic hero strives for an absolute ideal, which he searches for in nature, the heroic past, and love. Everyday life real world seem to him boring, prosaic, imperfect, i.e. completely inconsistent with his romantic ideas. This is where the conflict between dreams and reality arises, high ideals and vulgarity surrounding life. Hero romantic works lonely, not understood by others, and therefore either goes on a journey to literally words, or lives in the world of imagination, fantasy, one’s own ideal ideas. Any invasion of his personal space causes deep despondency or a feeling of protest.
Romanticism originates in Germany, in the work of early Goethe (the novel in letters “Suffering young Werther"), Schiller (dramas "The Robbers", "Cunning and Love"), Hoffmann (the story "Little Tsakhes", the fairy tale "The Nutcracker and mouse king"), the Brothers Grimm (fairy tales "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "The Town Musicians of Bremen"). Largest representatives English romanticism - Byron (the poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage") and Shelley (the drama "Prometheus Unbound") are poets passionate about the ideas of political struggle, protecting the oppressed and disadvantaged, and defending individual freedom. Byron remained true to his poetic ideals until the end of his life; his death found him in the midst of the Greek War of Independence. Following the Byronian ideal of a disappointed personality with a tragic worldview was called “Byronism” and became younger generation of that time into a peculiar fashion, which was followed, for example, by Eugene Onegin, the hero of A. Pushkin’s novel.
The rise of romanticism in Russia fell on the first third XIX century and is associated with the names of V. Zhukovsky, A. Pushkin, M. Lermontov, K. Ryleev, V. Kuchelbecker, A. Odoevsky, E. Baratynsky, N. Gogol, F. Tyutchev. Russian romanticism reached its peak in the works of A.S. Pushkin when he was in southern exile. Freedom, including from despotic political regimes, is one of the main themes of the romantic Pushkin; his “southern” poems are dedicated to this: “ Prisoner of the Caucasus», « Bakhchisarai fountain", "Gypsies".
Another brilliant achievement of Russian romanticism - early work M. Lermontov. Lyrical hero his poetry is a rebel, a rebel who enters into battle with fate. A striking example- poem "Mtsyri".
A cycle of short stories “Evenings on a farm near Dikanka”, which was made by N. Gogol famous writer, is distinguished by an interest in folklore, mysterious, mystical stories. In the 1840s, romanticism gradually faded into the background and gave way to realism.
But the traditions of romanticism remain reminiscent of themselves in the future, including in the literature of the 20th century, in literary movement neo-romanticism (new romanticism). His business card will be A. Green's story "Scarlet Sails".

Realism

Realism(from Latin real, real) - one of the most significant areas in literature XIX-XX centuries, which is based on the realistic method of depicting reality. The task of this method is to depict life as it is, in forms and images that correspond to reality. Realism strives for knowledge and disclosure of the entire diversity of social, cultural, historical, moral and psychological processes and phenomena with their characteristics and contradictions. The author is recognized as having the right to cover any aspect of life without limiting themes, plots, or artistic means.
Realism of the 19th century creatively borrows and develops the achievements of earlier literary movements: classicism has an interest in socio-political and civil issues; in sentimentalism - poeticization of family, friendship, nature, the natural principles of life; Romanticism has in-depth psychologism, comprehension of the inner life of a person. Realism showed the close interaction of man with the environment, the impact of social conditions on the destinies of people, he is interested in everyday life in all its manifestations. Hero realistic work - a common person, a representative of his time and his environment. One of the most important principles of realism is the image typical hero under typical circumstances.
Russian realism is characterized by deep social and philosophical problems, intense psychologism, and an enduring interest in the laws of a person’s inner life, the world of family, home, and childhood. Favorite genres: novel, story. The heyday of realism was the second half of the 19th century, which was reflected in the works of Russian and European classics.

Modernism

Modernism(moderne French newest) - a literary movement that developed in Europe and Russia at the beginning of the 20th century as a result of the revision philosophical foundations And creative principles realistic literature of the 19th century century. The emergence of modernism was a reaction to the crisis of the era turn of XIX-XX centuries, when the principle of revaluation of values ​​was proclaimed.
Modernists abandon realistic ways of explaining the surrounding reality and man in it, turning to the sphere of the ideal, mystical as the root cause of everything. Modernists are not interested in socio-political issues; the main thing for them is the soul, emotions, and intuitive insights of the individual. The calling of a human creator is to serve beauty, which, in their opinion, is pure form exists only in art.
Modernism was internally heterogeneous and included various movements, poetic schools and groups. In Europe this is symbolism, impressionism, “stream of consciousness” literature, expressionism.
In Russia at the beginning of the 20th century, modernism clearly manifested itself in different areas art, which is associated with its unprecedented flowering, which later became known as “ Silver Age"Russian culture. In literature, the poetic movements of symbolism and acmeism are associated with modernism.

Symbolism

Symbolism originates in France, in the poetry of Verlaine, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, and then penetrates into other countries, including Russia.
Russian symbolists: I. Annensky, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius, K. Balmont, F. Sologub, V. Bryusov - poets of the older generation; A. Blok, A. Bely, S. Solovyov are the so-called “young symbolists”. Of course, the most significant figure of Russian symbolism was Alexander Blok, who, according to many, was the first poet of that era.
Symbolism is based on the idea of ​​“two worlds”, formulated by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato. In accordance with it, the real, visible world is considered only a distorted, secondary reflection of the world of spiritual entities.
Symbol (symbolon Greek, secret, symbol) - special artistic image, embodying an abstract idea, it is inexhaustible in its content and allows one to intuitively comprehend the ideal world hidden from sensory perception.
Symbols have been used in culture since ancient times: star, river, sky, fire, candle, etc. - these and similar images have always evoked in people ideas about the lofty and beautiful. However, in the work of the Symbolists, the symbol acquired a special status, so their poems were distinguished by complex imagery, encrypted, and sometimes excessive. As a result, this leads to a crisis of symbolism, which by 1910 ceased to exist as a literary movement.
The Acmeists proclaim themselves the heirs of the Symbolists.

Acmeism

Acmeism(act from Greek, highest degree something, arrow) arises on the basis of the circle “Workshop of Poets”, which included N. Gumilyov, O. Mandelstam, A. Akhmatova, S. Gorodetsky, G. Ivanov, G. Adamovich and others. Without rejecting the spiritual fundamental principles of the world and the human nature, the Acmeists at the same time sought to rediscover the beauty and significance of real earthly life. The main ideas of Acmeism in the field of creativity: logic artistic design, harmony of composition, clarity and harmony of artistic style. An important place in the value system of Acmeism was occupied by culture - the memory of humanity. In their work, the best representatives of Acmeism: A. Akhmatova, O. Mandelstam, N. Gumilev - reached significant artistic heights and received wide recognition from the public. The further existence and development of Acmeism was forcibly interrupted by the events of the revolution and civil war.

Avant-garde

Avant-garde(avantgarde French advanced detachment) - a generalized name for experimental artistic movements, schools of the 20th century, united by the goal of creating a completely new art that has no connections with the old. The most famous of them are futurism, abstract art, surrealism, dadaism, pop art, social art, etc.
The main feature of avant-gardeism is the denial of cultural and historical tradition, continuity, and the experimental search for one’s own paths in art. If modernists emphasized continuity with cultural tradition, then the avant-gardeists treated it nihilistically. The well-known slogan of Russian avant-garde artists is: “Let’s throw Pushkin off the ship of modernity!” In Russian poetry they belonged to avant-garde various groups futurists.

Futurism

Futurism(futurum lat. future) arose in Italy as a movement of new urban, technocratic art. In Russia, this movement declared itself in 1910 and consisted of several groups (ego-futurism, cubo-futurism, “Centrifuge”). V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, I. Severyanin, A. Kruchenykh, the Burliuk brothers and others considered themselves futurists. The futurists claimed to create a fundamentally new art of the future (they called themselves “Budetlyans”) and therefore boldly experimented with forms of verse and invented new ones words (“word innovations”), their “abstruse” language, were not afraid to be rude and anti-aesthetic. These were real anarchists and rebels, constantly shocking (irritating) the taste of the public, brought up on traditional artistic values. At its core, the Futurist program was destructive. Truly original and interesting poets there were V. Mayakovsky and V. Khlebnikov, who enriched Russian poetry with their artistic discoveries, but this was rather not thanks to futurism, but in spite of it.

Conclusion on the issue:

Main literary trends

Summarizing brief overview main stages in the development of European and Russian literature, its main feature and main vector was the desire for diversity, enrichment of opportunities creative self-expression person. Verbal creativity in all ages has helped man to know the world and express your ideas about it. The range of means that were used for this is amazing: from a clay tablet to handwritten book, from the invention of mass book printing to modern audio, video, and computer technologies.
Today, thanks to the Internet, literature is changing and acquiring a completely new quality. Anyone with a computer and internet access can become a writer. Appears before our eyes the new kind- online literature that has its own readers, its own celebrities.
This is used by millions of people all over the planet, posting their texts to the world and receiving instant response from readers. The most popular and in demand national servers Proza.ru and Stikhi.ru are non-profit socially oriented projects whose mission is “to provide authors with the opportunity to publish their works on the Internet and find readers.” As of June 25, 2009, 72,963 authors published 93,6776 works on the Proza.ru portal; On the portal Stikhi.ru, 218,618 authors published 7,036,319 works. The daily audience of these sites is approximately 30 thousand visits. Of course, at its core this is not literature, but rather graphomania - a painful attraction and addiction to intense and fruitless writing, to verbose and empty, useless writing, but if among hundreds of thousands of similar texts there are several truly interesting and powerful ones, it’s all the same just as prospectors would find an ingot of gold in a pile of slag.

If anyone thinks that they are very difficult to remember, then, of course, they are mistaken. It's quite simple.

Open the list of references. We see that everything here is laid out in time. Specific time periods are given. And now I’d like to focus your attention on this: almost every literary movement has a clear time frame.

Let's look at the screenshot. “The Minor” by Fonvizin, “Monument” by Derzhavin, “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov - this is all classicism. Then realism replaced classicism; sentimentalism existed for some time, but it is not represented in this list of works. Therefore, almost all of the works listed below are realism. If “novel” is written next to the work, then it is only realism. Nothing more.

Romanticism in this list there is also one, we must not forget about it. It is poorly represented, these are works such as the ballad of V.A. Zhukovsky “Svetlana”, poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri". It would seem that romanticism died at the beginning of the 19th century, but we can still meet it in the 20th. There was a story by M.A. Gorky "Old Woman Izergil". That's all, there is no more romanticism.

Everything else that is given in the list that I did not name is realism.

What then is the direction of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign?” In this case it is not highlighted.

Now let’s briefly go over the features of these areas. It's simple:

Classicism– these are 3 unities: the unity of place, time, action. Let's remember Griboyedov's comedy "Woe from Wit." The whole action lasts 24 hours, and it takes place in Famusov’s house. With Fonvizin’s “Minor” everything is similar. Another detail for classicism: heroes can be clearly divided into positive and negative. It is not necessary to know the remaining signs. This is enough for you to understand that this is a classic work.

Romanticism– an exceptional hero in exceptional circumstances. Let us remember what happened in the poem by M.Yu. Lermontov "Mtsyri". Against the backdrop of majestic nature, its divine beauty and grandeur, events unfold. "Mtsyrya is running away." Nature and the hero merge with each other, there is a complete immersion of the inner and outer worlds. Mtsyri is an exceptional person. Strong, brave, courageous.

Let us remember in the story “Old Woman Izergil” the hero Danko, who tore out his heart and illuminated the path for people. The specified hero also meets the criteria exceptional personality, so it's romantic story. And in general, all the heroes described by Gorky are desperate rebels.

Realism begins with Pushkin, which throughout the second half of the 19th century century is developing very rapidly. All of life, with its advantages and disadvantages, with its inconsistency and complexity, becomes the object of writers. Specific historical events and individuals who live with fictional characters, which very often have a real prototype or even several.

In short, realism– what I see is what I write. Our life is complex, and so are our heroes; they rush around, think, change, develop, and make mistakes.

By the beginning of the twentieth century, it became clear that it was time to look for new forms, new styles, and other approaches. Therefore, new authors are rapidly breaking into literature, and modernism is flourishing, which includes a lot of branches: symbolism, acmeism, imagism, futurism.

And in order to determine which specific literary movement a particular work can be attributed to, you also need to know the time of its writing. Because, for example, it is wrong to say that Akhmatova is only Acmeism. Attributed to this direction Only early creativity is possible. The work of some did not fit into a specific classification at all, such as Tsvetaeva and Pasternak.

As for symbolism, it will be somewhat simpler: Blok, Mandelstam. Futurism – Mayakovsky. Acmeism, as we have already said, Akhmatova. There was also imagism, but it was poorly represented; Yesenin was included in it. That's all.

Symbolism– the term speaks for itself. The authors encrypted the meaning of the work through a large number of various symbols. The number of meanings that were laid down by poets can be searched and searched for indefinitely. That is why these poems are quite complex.

Futurism- word creation. Art of the future. Rejection of the past. An unrestrained search for new rhythms, rhymes, words. Do we remember Mayakovsky's ladder? Such works were intended for recitation (read in public). Futurists are just crazy people. They did everything to make the public remember them. All means for this were good.

Acmeism- if not a damn thing is clear in symbolism, then the Acmeists undertook to completely oppose themselves to them. Their creativity is clear and concrete. It's not in the clouds somewhere. It's here, here. They depicted the earthly world, its earthly beauty. They also sought to transform the world through words. It's enough.

Imagism- the image is the basis. Sometimes not alone. Such poems, as a rule, are completely devoid of meaning. Seryozha Yesenin wrote such poems for a short time. No one else from the list of references is included in this movement.

This is all. If you still don’t understand something, or find errors in my words, then write in the comments. Let's figure it out together.

(Symbol - from the Greek Symbolon - conventional sign)
  1. The central place is given to the symbol*
  2. The desire for a higher ideal prevails
  3. A poetic image is intended to express the essence of a phenomenon
  4. Characteristic reflection of the world in two planes: real and mystical
  5. Sophistication and musicality of verse
The founder was D. S. Merezhkovsky, who in 1892 gave a lecture “On the causes of the decline and new trends in modern Russian literature” (article published in 1893). Symbolists are divided into older ones ((V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Gippius, F. Sologub made their debut in the 1890s) and younger ones (A. Blok, A. Bely, Vyach. Ivanov and others made their debut in the 1900s)
  • Acmeism

    (From the Greek “acme” - point, highest point). The literary movement of Acmeism arose in the early 1910s and was genetically connected with symbolism. (N. Gumilyov, A. Akhmatova, S. Gorodetsky, O. Mandelstam, M. Zenkevich and V. Narbut.) The formation was influenced by M. Kuzmin’s article “On Beautiful Clarity,” published in 1910. In the programmatic article of 1913 “The Legacy of Acmeism and Symbolism” N. Gumilyov called symbolism “ worthy father“, but emphasized that the new generation has developed a “courageously firm and clear outlook on life”
    1. Focus on classical poetry of the 19th century
    2. Adoption earthly world in its diversity, visible concreteness
    3. Objectivity and clarity of images, precision of details
    4. In rhythm, the Acmeists used dolnik (Dolnik is a violation of the traditional
    5. regular alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables. The lines coincide in the number of stresses, but stressed and unstressed syllables are freely located in the line.), which brings the poem closer to the living colloquial speech
  • Futurism

    Futurism - from lat. futurum, future. Genetically, literary futurism is closely connected with the avant-garde groups of artists of the 1910s - primarily with the groups “ Jack of Diamonds", "Donkey's Tail", "Youth Union". In 1909 in Italy, the poet F. Marinetti published the article “Manifesto of Futurism.” In 1912, the manifesto “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste” was created by Russian futurists: V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh, V. Khlebnikov: “Pushkin is more incomprehensible than hieroglyphs.” Futurism began to disintegrate already in 1915-1916.
    1. Rebellion, anarchic worldview
    2. Denial of cultural traditions
    3. Experiments in the field of rhythm and rhyme, figurative arrangement of stanzas and lines
    4. Active word creation
  • Imagism

    From lat. imago - image A literary movement in Russian poetry of the 20th century, whose representatives stated that the purpose of creativity is to create an image. Basics means of expression Imagists - metaphor, often metaphorical chains that compare various elements of two images - direct and figurative. Imagism arose in 1918, when the “Order of Imagists” was founded in Moscow. The creators of the “Order” were Anatoly Mariengof, Vadim Shershenevich and Sergei Yesenin, who was previously part of the group of new peasant poets
  • The concepts of “direction”, “current”, “school” refer to terms that describe the literary process - the development and functioning of literature on a historical scale. Their definitions are debatable in literary studies.

    In the 19th century, direction was understood as general character content, ideas of all national literature or any period of its development. At first XIX century the literary trend was generally associated with the “dominant trend of minds.”

    Thus, I. V. Kireevsky in his article “The Nineteenth Century” (1832) wrote that the dominant direction of minds at the end of the 18th century is destructive, and the new consists in “the desire for a soothing equation of the new spirit with the ruins of old times...

    In literature, the result of this trend was the desire to harmonize imagination with reality, correctness of forms with freedom of content... in a word, what is in vain called classicism, with what is even more incorrectly called romanticism.”

    Even earlier, in 1824, V.K. Kuchelbecker declared the direction of poetry as its main content in the article “On the direction of our poetry, especially lyrical, in last decade" Ks. A. Polevoy was the first in Russian criticism to apply the word “direction” to certain stages in the development of literature.

    In the article “On trends and parties in literature,” he called a direction “that internal striving of literature, often invisible to contemporaries, which gives character to all or at least very many of its works in the known given time...The basis of it, in in a general sense, there is an idea of ​​the modern era.”

    For " real criticism" - N. G. Chernyshevsky, N. A. Dobrolyubov - the direction correlated with the ideological position of the writer or group of writers. In general, the direction was understood as a variety of literary communities.

    But the main feature that unites them is that the unity of the most general principles embodiment of artistic content, commonality of the deep foundations of artistic worldview.

    This unity is often due to the similarity of cultural and historical traditions, and is often associated with the type of consciousness literary era, some scientists believe that the unity of direction is due to the unity creative method writers.

    There is no set list of literary trends, since the development of literature is associated with the specifics of historical, cultural, social life society, national and regional characteristics of a particular literature. However, traditionally there are such trends as classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, realism, symbolism, each of which is characterized by its own set of formal and content features.

    For example, within the framework of the romantic worldview, general features of romanticism can be identified, such as motives for the destruction of customary boundaries and hierarchies, ideas of “spiritualizing” synthesis that replaced the rationalistic concept of “connection” and “order”, awareness of man as the center and mystery of existence , open and creative personality, etc.

    But the specific expression of these general philosophical and aesthetic foundations of worldview in the works of writers and their worldview itself are different.

    Thus, within romanticism, the problem of the embodiment of universal, new, non-rational ideals was embodied, on the one hand, in the idea of ​​rebellion, a radical reorganization of the existing world order (D. G. Byron, A. Mitskevich, P. B. Shelley, K. F. Ryleev) , and on the other hand, in the search for one’s inner “I” (V. A. Zhukovsky), harmony of nature and spirit (W. Wordsworth), religious self-improvement (F. R. Chateaubriand).

    As we see, such a community of principles is international, largely of different quality, and exists in rather vague chronological framework, which is largely due to national and regional specifics literary process.

    The same sequence of changing directions in different countries ah usually serves as proof of their supranational character. This or that direction in each country acts as a national variety of the corresponding international (European) literary community.

    According to this point of view, French, German, Russian classicism are considered varieties of the international literary movement - European classicism, which is a set of the most common typological features inherent in all varieties of direction.

    But you should definitely take into account that often national characteristics of one direction or another can manifest themselves much more clearly than the typological similarity of varieties. In generalization there is some schematism that can distort real historical facts literary process.

    For example, classicism manifested itself most clearly in France, where it is presented as a complete system of both substantive and formal features of works, codified by theoretical normative poetics (“ Poetic art" N. Boileau). In addition, there are significant artistic achievements, which influenced other European literatures.

    In Spain and Italy, where the historical situation was different, classicism turned out to be a largely imitative direction. Baroque literature turned out to be leading in these countries.

    Russian classicism is becoming a central trend in literature, also not without the influence French classicism, but acquires its own national sound, crystallizes in the struggle between the “Lomonosov” and “Sumarokov” movements. There are many differences in the national varieties of classicism, more problems is associated with the definition of romanticism as a single pan-European movement, within which very different phenomena often occur.

    Thus, the construction of pan-European and “world” models of trends as the largest units of the functioning and development of literature seems to be a very difficult task.

    Gradually, along with “direction”, the term “flow” comes into circulation, often used synonymously with “direction”. Thus, D. S. Merezhkovsky, in an extensive article “On the causes of the decline and new trends in modern Russian literature” (1893), writes that “between writers with different, sometimes opposite temperaments, special mental currents, a special air are established, like between opposite poles, full of creative trends." It is this, according to the critic, that accounts for the similarity of “poetic phenomena” and the works of different writers.

    Often “direction” is recognized as a generic concept in relation to “flow”. Both concepts denote the unity of leading spiritual, meaningful and aesthetic principles, covering the work of many writers.

    The term “direction” in literature is understood as the creative unity of writers of a certain historical era, using general ideological and aesthetic principles of depicting reality.

    A direction in literature is considered as a generalizing category of the literary process, as one of the forms of artistic worldview, aesthetic views, ways of displaying life, associated with a unique artistic style. In history national literatures European peoples There are such trends as classicism, sentimentalism, romanticism, realism, naturalism, symbolism.

    Introduction to literary criticism (N.L. Vershinina, E.V. Volkova, A.A. Ilyushin, etc.) / Ed. L.M. Krupchanov. - M, 2005