Artistic features of N. Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza”
Karamzin. "Letters of a Russian Traveler".
Short biography. Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766-1826) born in Simbirsk. Here, and then in Moscow at the boarding school of Professor Schaden, he received his education. There he formed his worldview - the desire for moral improvement and the confidence that the common good can be achieved through love for one's neighbor and moderation of desires. He served for some time in St. Petersburg, and then became acquainted with the Freemasons, in particular with Novikov, and joined them. Although serfdom and autocracy were unshakable for Karamzin, he was against despotism, cruelty and ignorance of the landowners. Together with A. A. Petrov he worked in the magazine “ Children's reading for the heart and mind" (1785-1789), where he published translations of works by European sentimentalists. In "Children's Reading" he published his
first sentimental story"Evgeniy and Yulia." Karamzin argued that only what is pleasant and “elegant” is actually worthy of depiction, for only it is capable of delivering aesthetic pleasure to the reader.
Why did you go? The desire for more extensive knowledge and European education led Karamzin to travel abroad, which he began 18 May 1789 of the year. He visited Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and England. His journey lasted 18 months, enriching the writer with impressions of political and cultural life these countries, which was reflected in what was written upon returning to Russia “ Letters from a Russian traveler» ( 1791 ). Karamzin's book expanded the horizons of the Russian reader. The book has been translated into German, French, English, Polish and Dutch.
The “Letters” were published in parts in 1791-1792. V "Moscow magazine". They showed peculiarities creative method, aesthetic principles of Karamzin. “Letters”, conveying his impressions of the countries he visited, are distinguished by a free composition, in which pictures of political and cultural life united by the author’s personality are interspersed Western states(Karamzin’s journey takes place at the dawn of the French Bourgeois Revolution, to which several chapters of his book are devoted; he visits a lot of museums: the Dresden Museum, the Louvre, art galleries London; theaters: Grand Opera and little-known; also Westminster Abbey, Windsor Palace, etc.), the morals and customs prevailing there (behavior, language, clothing, habits, characteristics of people different nationalities); writer's meeting with famous philosophers, writers (Kant, Herder, Weisse, Wieland, etc.). The book contains many philosophical and moral reflections of the author himself. Lots of sensitive tearfulness and sentimentality. This is especially felt in the author’s experiences about friends left behind in Russia, as well as about new acquaintances that cause him emotional excitement.
As I wrote. The genre of letters, characteristic of sentimentalists, was a treatment diary entries, which Karamzin conducted abroad, also supplemented with materials from book sources (encyclopedic notes about artists, about the history of the construction of a particular building). The “Letters” themselves were written in Moscow, but Karamzin managed to create the illusion that these letters were addressed directly to his friends. For example, there are comments like this: “I didn’t receive any news from you from April to July!” This also applies to emotional appeals. All this speaks of the great skill of Karamzin the prose writer.
Karamzin conveys with great subtlety everything he saw abroad, being selective about the huge flow of impressions. Although everything seen is passed through the author’s “I,” the writer goes beyond subjective experiences and fills the letters with a lot of information about the culture and art, geography and life of the countries visited. For example, in London he really liked the fact that the lamps were lit from a very early time, and the whole city was illuminated. And in Paris they try to save on moonlight, and from this saved money they pay a pension.
How to collect impressions. Karamzin studies the life of Europe in theaters, palaces, and universities (he went to a lecture Platner V Leipzig University, and was amazed by the attendance and silence), at country festivities, in monasteries, on a noisy street, in the offices of scientists and in quiet family settings. The most important thing in his book is the attention with which he treats people. Parisian ladies (he talked with one of them at the Grand Opera and, from the freedom of the conversation, could not conclude whether she was an important lady or not), witty abbots, road acquaintances, street loudmouths, Jewish merchants, poets, artists, scientists, Prussian officers, English merchants, German students - they all attract Karamzin's attention.
Policy. While sympathetic to European freedom and democracy, Karamzin refrains from recognizing similar institutions in Russia. He approves of the English Parliament, but treats it with irony, and also says that “ good in England, it will be bad in another land" Particularly characteristic for determining social political views the author's attitude towards French Revolution. In Paris he notes " excellent liveliness popular movements, amazing speed in words and deeds...here everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere; everyone seems to outdo each other; catch, grab thoughts" Karamzin has an extremely negative attitude towards revolution and believes that all revolutions end in defeat. About the rebel people he says: “ The people are sharp iron, which is dangerous to play with, and the revolution is an open coffin for virtue and villainy itself." He asks the French to remember Cato: “I prefer any power over anarchy.” Karamzin sees that only a small part of people take a real part in revolutionary movement, and these are people who have nothing to lose, ragamuffins and vagabonds. In the People's Assembly, where Mirabeau is trying to crush his opponents, Karamzin sees the rudeness and bad manners of the speakers.
Further development revolution, the Jacobin dictatorship frightened Karamzin, who believed that “every rebel prepares his own scaffold”. Karamzin was convinced that only those changes are lasting that are achieved through the gradual development of enlightenment, the success of reason and education.
Meeting with celebrities. In the “Letters” the reader encounters the names of the greatest writers and philosophers of that time. Karamzin gives everyone personal characteristics, recreates a portrait look. He seeks a personal meeting with some of them, and talks about others. Karamzin transfers conversations to philosophical ones, aesthetic themes which he leads with Lavater(physiognomist who studied character by facial features), Wieland, Herder(writers). From conversations we learn the views of the author himself. Calling Montesquieu “the author of the immortal book on laws”, lavishing praises on Rousseau’s “system of education”, he nevertheless prefers the philosophy of Lavater.
Nature. Karamzin has a lot of enthusiasm for nature. The banks of the Rhine, the Rhine Falls, the Alpine mountains - the author pays attention to all of this great attention. In nature, Karamzin sees a manifestation of the divine principle. This reflects his idealistic perception. Already in the “Letters” the landscape is depicted in accordance with the mood of the person contemplating it.
National character. From observations of national character The most interesting are the notes about the English. Thus, talking about the complacency of the English bourgeoisie, who consider poverty a vice, he describes houses with an underground part, where the poorest people huddle in dark rooms. He notes that among the French, poverty lives on the upper floors, but among the British, they went down to the very dungeon, and the author is outraged that the British say: “He who is poor among us is unworthy.” better life" He is interested in both the jury and the London prison. The sight of criminals causes the author to tremble. It seemed especially terrible to him that people in prison for non-payment of debts were next to murderers and thieves. He also visits a madhouse, where many people are delirious from unhappy love. Some crazy people will make him laugh. However, Karamzin leaves England without regret, due to English arrogance and contempt for other nations.
Having visited the London theater, Karamzin demonstrates subtle observations of the actors' performances, indicating knowledge of the theater. He didn’t like Hamlet in their production: “ Actors speak, not act; they are dressed poorly, the scenery is poor... Footmen in livery bring the scenery to the stage, put one on, take another on their shoulders, drag it - and this is done during the performance!»
Home is best. Karamzin compares Russia with Europe. He always thinks about his homeland, which he loves dearly. Arriving in Kronstadt, not the most the best place in Russia, he rejoices wildly, stops everyone, asks only in order to speak Russian.
Conclusion. Lyrical digressions, poetic description of nature, subtle humor, emotional richness of style made “Letters” deeply a work of art, reflecting the views and aesthetic principles Karamzin.
Karamzin’s aesthetic principles, which formed the basis of his prose, were reflected both in programmatic works and in the writer’s theoretical articles. According to Karamzin, feeling, and not the rationalistic task characteristic of the poetics of classicism, should prevail in a literary work. Depicting a person’s life with all its joys and sorrows, conveying his intimate experiences, the writer must be able to “touch our heart,” “fill it with sad or sweet feelings,” and lead the reader to moral perfection.
Karamzin is characterized by attention not only to English and German poetry, but also to antiquity.
In theoretically substantiating the aesthetics of sentimentalism, Karamzin also relied on Rousseau, in whose works he was close to sensitivity, psychologism and a subtle understanding of nature. However, Rousseau's criticism of false-enlightened absolutism and his revolutionary sermons were alien to Karamzin. “Rousseauism” became for Karamzin not a stimulus for the destruction of the feudal system, but a method of justifying freedom from politics.” Moderate liberalism, the desire to solve social issues in a moral and ethical sense, the desire to achieve the “common good” through the gradual development of enlightenment were characteristic of Karamzin’s worldview.
The surrounding reality, the objective world were refracted through the prism of the author’s, subjective “I” of the writer. Karamzin believed that only true humane man, capable of compassion for other people's misfortunes, can take up the pen. The writer argued that only what is pleasant and “graceful is actually worthy of depiction, for only it is capable of delivering aesthetic pleasure to the reader.
Subjective experiences, subjective emotional perception and assessment of life phenomena, and not reality itself, unlike Radishchev, occupy the main place in Karamzin’s work. The author must “paint a portrait of his soul and heart,” while at the same time helping “fellow citizens to think and speak better.”
Most complete features sentimental prose Karamzin: the pathos of humanity, psychologism, subjectively sensitive, aestheticized perception of reality, lyricism of the narrative and simple “elegant” language - manifested themselves in his stories. They reflected increased attention author for analysis love feelings, emotional experiences heroes, increased attention to the analysis of the love experiences of heroes, increased attention to psychological actions. The birth of Russian psychological prose is associated with the name of Karamzin.
An important and progressive point in creative activity The writer was recognizing the right of the individual, regardless of class, to exercise internal freedom. From here ideological basis story " Poor Lisa” was the writer’s statement “and peasant women know how to love.” Karamzin has no harsh assessments, no pathos of indignation, he seeks consolation and reconciliation in the suffering of the heroes. Dramatic events are intended to evoke not indignation or anger, but a sad, melancholy feeling. Despite the vitality of the situation, the author's subjective and emotional perception of reality prevented genuine typification. The life of Lisa and her mother was not much like real life peasants Lisa, like the heroines of sentimental idylls, lives in a hut.
The lyrical manner of narration creates a certain structure. This in the story is served by the landscape against which the action develops, a landscape in tune with the moods of the heroes, and a special intonation structure of speech that makes Karamzin’s prose melodic, musical, caressing the ear and affecting the soul of the reader, who could not help but empathize with the heroes.
For the first time in Karamzin's prose, landscape became a means of conscious aesthetic impact. Readers of the story believed in the authenticity of the story, and the surroundings of the Simonov Monastery, the pond in which Lisa died, became a place of pilgrimage.
Success prose works Karamzin largely depended on the stylistic reform of the writer. Levin, speaking about Karamzin’s vocabulary, writes: “The stylistic coloring of the word here is not determined by the subject, but is superimposed on the subject, poeticizing it - and often the closer the subject is to everyday life, the less poetic it is in itself, the more necessary it is to poetize it with the help of displayed word".
What is the essence literary reform Karamzin? In an effort to create a new Russian literary language to replace the three “calms” adopted by classicism, Karamzin set himself the task of bringing the literary language closer to the spoken language. He believed that any ideas and “even ordinary thoughts” could be expressed clearly and “pleasantly.”
Karamzin put forward a requirement - to write “as they say,” but he was guided by the colloquial speech of an educated noble class, clearing the language not only of archaisms, but also of common words. He considered it legitimate to enrich the Russian language through the assimilation of individual foreign words and new forms of expression. Karamzin introduced many new words: love, humane, public, industry, etc., which remained and enriched the vocabulary of the Russian language.
He strives to create a single syllable “for books and for society, to write as they speak, and to speak as they write.” And in contrast to Trediakovsky, Karamzin accomplishes this. It frees the vocabulary from excessive bookishness, remarkably simplifies the syntax, creates a logically and at the same time light, elegant, equally convenient both in pronunciation and writing, “a new syllable”. All this had very important consequences. “His style amazed all readers, it affected them like an electric shock,” writes N. I. Grech, hot on the heels. “Scholastic grandeur, half-Slavic, half-Latin,” Pushkin notes about the Lomonosov language, “became a necessity: fortunately Karamzin freed the language from the alien yoke and returned it to freedom, turning it to the living sources of the people’s word.”
Opponents of Karamzin's stylistic reform cruelly reproached him for the Frenchization of the Russian language - for excessive contamination with Gallicisms. Karamzin's orientation towards the French language in the first period of his literary activity, indeed, sometimes took on the character of a mechanical transfer into the Russian language of French words, expressions and phrases that littered it no less than the previous Slavic and Latinisms. However, later Karamzin himself tried to free himself from this
Disadvantage of the reform literary language Karamzin was a departure from the rapprochement of the Russian literary language with the language common people. The limitations of Karamzin’s reform were due to the fact that his language was far from folk basis. Pushkin was able to understand and correct this. At the same time, Karamzin’s merit was the desire he realized in his literary practice, to expanding the boundaries of the literary language, liberating it from archaisms, bringing the literary language closer to the living spoken language of an educated society.
In Russian literature there are many authors who wrote their works in different style, using the features and richness of the Russian language. Despite the fact that most writers adhered to the existing canons, without going beyond accepted standards, there were those who acted as innovators, giving readers works of a completely different direction. For example, Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin can be called an innovator in literature. What is innovation in creativity? of this writer? It is not difficult to answer this question; it is enough to get acquainted with the works of his contemporaries and compare them with the works of Karamzin, which is what we did in one of our literature lessons.
What is Karamzin’s innovation?
Having studied the author's stories, we can answer the question of what his innovation is. It turns out that before Karamzin, writers in their works never touched on the feelings of their heroes, their inner world, while Karamzin endows the heroes with a sensitive nature. His characters know how to analyze their feelings. Such works were a novelty to eighteenth-century readers who were accustomed to strict classicism. Karamzin brought sentimentalism into his works. So, the work tells about a poor peasant woman and her love. The story of how she was seduced, abandoned, and the story of her suicide becomes a real sensation in the literature of the 18th century. The story shocked the audience with its innovative side, where the heroes turned out to be sensual people. At the same time, Karamzin’s innovation in Poor Liza was also the fact that the writer for the first time opens the topic female destiny. And Karamzin managed to show that peasant women also have souls, feelings, and know how to love. And in other works, Karamzin manages to reveal the inner world of his heroes, creating images of sensitive people. The narrator himself treats the characters with sympathy, expressing his emotions towards the main characters of the works.
The language of narration in Karamzin’s stories was also innovative. He was close to colloquial speeches educated people, where in some places the simplicity of the conversation was also evident, which made the writer’s work clear and easy. With the help of comparisons and other techniques, Karamzin manages to better convey sensory world people and their inner experiences. After Karamzin, all literature of the nineteenth century begins to speak using natural language. This is Karamzin’s innovation, which manifested itself in his works.
2. Genre of “Poor Lisa”:
A) essay; B) story;
B) story.
5. Erast’s portrait reflects:
A) only the appearance of the hero;
A) describing their appearance;
B) with irony;
A) thunder from heaven;
B) amazing music;
B) rustle of leaves.
C) convey Lisa’s mood.
Test. N.M. Karamzin. "Poor Lisa"
1. The peculiarity of the language of Karamzin’s works is that:
A) the writer brought him closer to the living colloquial speech;
B) the writer used only “high” vocabulary;
C) the writer introduced words borrowed from other languages into active use.
2. Genre of “Poor Lisa”:
A) essay; B) story;
B) story.
3. Artistic originality sentimentalism, the founder of which in Russia was Karamzin, consists of:
A) in the image inner world and human feelings;
B) in studying personal qualities person;
B) in education external beauty person.
4. The task of the narrator in “Poor Lisa”:
A) cover events without expressing your position;
B) give events a subjective-emotional assessment;
C) historically accurately convey the peculiarities of life of the inhabitants of Moscow at the end of the 8th century.
5. Erast’s portrait reflects:
A) only the appearance of the hero;
C) the appearance, lifestyle of the hero, features of his character.
6. Karamzin contrasts the main characters – Lisa and Erast:
A) describing their appearance;
B) talking about their attitude to work;
C) telling about their parents.
7. “Until now, waking up with the birds, you had fun with them in the morning, and a pure, joyful soul shone in your eyes, like the sun glows in drops of heavenly dew...” Karamzin writes about Lisa:
A) as a person with a pure soul;
B) with irony;
C) as a frivolous girl.
8. The words of declaration of love for Lisa came from Erast’s lips as:
A) thunder from heaven;
B) amazing music;
B) rustle of leaves.
9. A person spiritually close to Lisa:
A) mother; B) Erast; B) narrator.
10. Erast married a rich widow because:
A) welfare was more important to him than love;
B) could not continue the relationship with the peasant woman;
C) lost his estate in the army and was left without funds.
11. pictures of nature in the work:
A) are the background of the story; B) show the change of seasons;
C) convey Lisa’s mood.
12. A phrase from “Poor Lisa” that became a catchphrase:
A) “However, Lisa, it’s better to feed yourself by your labors and not take anything for nothing”;
B) “And peasant women know how to love”; C) “Death for the fatherland is not scary...”.
13. The epithet “poor” in the title of the work means:
A) beggar; B) disadvantaged; B) unhappy.
14. Karamzin’s innovation manifested itself:
A) in exposing the social inequality of the heroes;
C) in a detailed depiction of the heroine’s inner world.
Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin was a significant personality in the field of education, especially history and linguistics. He was the head of the sentimentalist movement in literature and created new trends in the Russian language. His work became known as the Karamzin language reform.
The essence of language reform
What did Nikolai Mikhailovich want to achieve with his reform? In those days, the Russian language was similar to Church Slavonic, and some features of the syntax made it “heavy”. The writer's goal was to remove most of the Latin and Slavic words in order to add words from French, which was considered the language of enlightened and educated people.
Principles of Karamzin's language reform
The writer saw his main task as ensuring that in noble society they began to write the way they speak. To create a “new syllable”, Karamzin started from linguistic features Lomonosov. His odes often used difficult, outdated words, which put some writers in a difficult position. One of the principles of Nikolai Mikhailovich’s work was the desire to bring the writers’ language closer to colloquial.
To do this, it was necessary to remove all Old Church Slavonicisms from the language. But it was also impossible to completely abandon them - this would mean depriving the Russian language of its roots, wealth and special charm. Therefore, the following types of Old Church Slavonicisms were retained:
- having a poetic connotation;
- used for artistic purposes;
- used to recreate a specific historical era.
Another principle of the “new” syllable was the simplification of sentences, that is, the replacement of ponderous, long, “Lomonosov” constructions with more simplified sentences. It was decided to replace all unions of Old Church Slavic origin. Karamzin sought to use as many Russian conjunctions as possible, mainly of a coordinating nature. He also changed the order of words on a straight line, which seemed to him more natural for a person.
And the third principle of Karamzin’s language reform was neologisms. Nikolai Mikhailovich tried not just to introduce foreign word into Russian speech, but also adapt it to the peculiarities of Russian grammar. Sometimes, his neologisms remained untranslated because he believed that they sounded more complete that way. But later, the writer reconsidered his views on borrowing and began to use more words Russian origin.
Reaction to Shishkov's reform
Of course, such important changes could not but cause mixed reaction society. There were also those who did not approve of Karamzin’s language reform. So, among his opponents was Shishkov, a prominent statesman of that time. He was not a philologist, so his arguments were mainly patriotic in nature.
He considered Karamazin a freethinker, a lover of everything foreign. Shishkin believed that they were only spoiling the Russian language and distorting its essence. Only the use of Slavic words contributes patriotic education. Therefore, he proposed replacing already established foreign expressions with Slavic ones. So, for example, replace the word “actor” with “actor”.
The principles of language reform of Karamzin and Shishkov have a different basis: Nikolai Mikhailovich understood that it was necessary to change the linguistic system from a philological point of view, and Shishkov was guided by patriotism.
Pros and cons of Karamzin's language reform
The introduced innovations, as we said, caused mixed assessment in society. On the one hand, all the changes that have occurred are a natural result historical events that Russia was experiencing. The Age of Enlightenment had arrived, so it was necessary to simplify the language system, get rid of outdated words. This is natural because it cannot develop unless new words, phrases and expressions appear.
But on the other hand, the French language has become too much. Its active introduction contributed to the fact that the differences between the communication of the common people and the upper classes became simply enormous. And this reform can be called to some extent antisocial and not conducive to the formation of patriotism. But this was an absolutely natural phenomenon in the era
Therefore, despite conflicting assessments, it should be noted that Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamazin rendered big influence on the development of literary language and general culture in Russia.
One of Karamzin’s most important services to Russian culture is the reform of the Russian literary language he carried out.
The Karamzin reform was prepared through the efforts of his predecessors.
Karamzin felt that the new tasks he set for himself as a writer could not be embodied in the forms of the old language, which was not flexible, light and elegant enough. He opposed the church orientation of the “high calm” literature of the eighteenth century, seeing in it, on the one hand, a reactionary church-feudal tendency and provincial isolation from Western linguistic culture, on the other, the pathos of citizenship, too radical for him (the type of use of Slavicisms by Radishchev ). Having decided to create a new literary style, Karamzin did not want to turn to the source of folk, lively, realistic speech.
Karamzin’s aestheticization of the world was a way to throw a cloak of art over reality, a cloak of beauty, invented and not derived from reality itself. Karamzin’s gracefully cutesy language, replete with rounded and aesthetic periphrases, replacing the simple and “rough” for him name of things with emotional patterns of words, is extremely expressive in this sense.
Karamzin in his reform was a European, a Westerner, who sought to saturate Russian speech with achievements Western culture Moreover, the culture is advanced.
While building his style, Karamzin made abundant use of French constructions, phrases, and French semantics. At first, he consciously imitated foreigners, not considering it a sin to get close to them. In Karamzin’s language, researchers have established a considerable number of elements French origin. His works of the early 1790s contain many barbarisms. Barbarisms almost completely disappear in the “History of the Russian State,” where Karamzin returned both to the elements of Slavicization of speech and to some conscious archaization of it.
Karamzin achieved lightness, freedom of expression, and flexibility from the language. He sought to bring literary language closer to living colloquial speech noble society. He strove for the pronunciation of the language, its easy and pleasant sound. He made the style he created widely accessible to both readers and writers. He radically reworked Russian syntax and revised the lexical composition literary speech, developed examples of new phraseology. He successfully struggled with cumbersome structures, working to create a natural connection between the elements of a phrase. He "develops complex and patterned, but easily observable forms of various syntactic figures within a period." He discarded the outdated vocabulary ballast, and in its place he introduced many new words and phrases.
He built Russian words again sometimes according to the principle of the so-called tracing, translating, for example, French word semantically similar construction, sometimes creating Western-style words.
He introduced a number of new words: public, universal, improve, humane, generally useful, industry, love, etc. Karamzin gave new meanings, new shades of meaning to a whole series of old words, thereby expanding the semantic, expressive capabilities language, he expanded the meaning of words: image, need, development, subtleties, relationships, positions and many others.
And yet, Karamzin was unable to accomplish the great deed that fell to Pushkin. He did not create that realistic, living, fully - vernacular, which formed the basis for the development of Russian speech in the future, he was not the creator of the Russian literary language.
He brought written speech closer to spoken language, and this is his great merit, but his ideal of spoken language was too narrow; it was a speech noble intelligentsia, not more. He was too alien to the desire for genuine linguistic realism.
Karamzin, in principle, abolished the division into three styles introduced by Lomonosov. He developed a single, smooth, elegant and light syllable for all written speech. For Karamzin, it is not so much interesting what is being said, how interesting is the speaker, his psychological world, his moods, his inner being divorced from reality.
Karamzin's prose strives to be poetic. Melody and rhythm play a significant role in its organization, accompanying the opening psychological theme. Karamzin’s very word creation, his very innovation in all elements of language, has primarily a psychological orientation. He is looking for new words and phrases not for a more accurate depiction of the objective world, but for a more subtle depiction of experiences and their shades, to depict their shades and feelings.
Literary and journalistic activity of N.M. Karamzin in the 1790s.
Journalistic activity Karamzin started with the children's magazine "Children's Reading". It was the first children's magazine in Russia, generally the first major publication intended for children. This magazine was mainly filled with translations, but this did not diminish its importance.
More broad meaning had "Moscow Journal". It was very lively interesting magazine, giving the reader good poems and beautiful prose, which systematically introduced him to Western literature, developed his literary taste and expanded his cultural horizons. “I will try to make the content of the magazine as varied and interesting as possible.”
Karamzin managed to achieve cooperation in the Moscow Journal best poets and his time. Derzhavin was a regular contributor to his publication. Behind him were Kheraskov, Neledinsky - Meletsky, Kapnist, Dmitriev and others.
A significant share was occupied by translations from the most famous French, German and English writers of that time: from Marmontel, Florian, Harve, Moritz, Stern. Reviews, book reports, critical articles Karamzin in the Moscow Journal were one of the merits of this publication.
During the break between the two magazines, Karamzin published three volumes of Aonid, the first Russian poetic almanac, and a series of translations.
During this period, his largest work, “Letters of a Russian Traveler,” was written. a large number of poems (all dates can be found in the answers that follow), many stories and essays (“Martha..” and “a knight of our time” were written in nineteenth century). In 1794 the almanac “Aglaya” was published.
Genre and style features"Letters of a Russian Traveler" N.M. Karamzin.
Karamzin’s largest work was “Letters of a Russian Traveler,” which was published in parts in 1791–1792. in the Moscow Journal. They revealed the peculiarities of his creative method and his aesthetic principles.
“Letters”, conveying Karamzin’s direct impressions of the countries he visited, are distinguished by a free composition, in which various pictures of the political and cultural life of Western states, prevailing morals and customs, united by the author’s personality, are interspersed; meetings of the author with famous philosophers, writers, statesmen. The book contains many philosophical and moral-aesthetic reflections of the author himself, caused by what he saw and heard.
“Letters” is a literary adaptation of diary entries made by Karamzin during his travels abroad. The “letters” were written in Moscow, but Karamzin managed to create the illusion of directly written letters to friends.
Karamzin conveys with great subtlety everything he saw abroad. And although everything he saw was passed through the author’s “I,” the writer goes beyond subjective experiences and fills his letters with a lot of extensive and specific information about the culture and art, geography and life of the countries he visited. V.V. Sinovsky: “He studies the life of Europe in theaters, in palaces, in universities, in a scientist’s office and in a quiet family environment... Parisian salon ladies, witty abbots, street loudmouths, poets, artists, scientists, Prussian officers, English merchants, German students, - all this motley, noisy crowd attracts Karamzin’s attention and from all this abundant field he collects a rich harvest, without getting lost from the abundance of material, finding in everything what is essential, characteristic ... "
In the “Letters” the reader encounters many names of the greatest writers and philosophers, many of whom he gives characteristics and recreates their portrait appearance (Richardson, Lessing, Stern, Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, Herder, Rousseau, Raphael, Rubens, Van Dyck, Veronese, etc.)
Contemplation of nature, the description of which the writer so often turns to, purifies a person, and Karamzin gives thanks to God for the opportunity to live in communion with nature.
Letters from England are very interesting. He talks about the prim complacency of the English bourgeoisie, who consider poverty a vice, hiding it in every possible way (“Whoever is poor among us is not worthy of a better share”). The arrogant attitude of the British towards other nations. “To live here for the pleasures of a hostel is to look for flowers in the sandy valley.”
There are many stories about cultural life in England. Watching the worthless performance in English theater. Karamzin’s visits to England, France, and Switzerland prompted him to reflect on the phenomena political life these countries.
An ironic attitude towards a meeting of the English Parliament. “All civil institutions must be adjusted to the character of the people: what is good in England will be bad in another country.” Of course, Karamzin here compared England with his country.
Particularly characteristic of determining Karamzin’s social and political views is his attitude towards the French Revolution. Karamzin is convinced that only those changes are lasting that are achieved through slow, gradual enlightenment, the success of reason and education. Condemning the Jacobin dictatorship, he considers the revolution a violation of the established order and asserts that “every civil society, established for centuries, is a shrine for good citizens; in the most imperfect things one must be amazed at the wonderful harmony, improvement, and order.”
Watching European life, Karamzin reflects, compares Russia with Western Europe. He loves his homeland dearly.
Karamzin’s “Letters” are filled with lyricism and are emotionally rich. Poetically described nature evokes in the author himself an inexplicable excitement and happiness of existence. People close to nature are kind, pure, and capable of deep feelings. In nature, Karamzin sees, and this reflects his idealistic worldview, a manifestation of the divine principle. Description of Switzerland.
Lyrical digressions, poetic descriptions of nature, subtle humor, emotional richness of style, and a special intonation structure that creates a mood made “Letters” a deeply artistic work that reflected the views and aesthetic principles of Karamzin, who affirmed in practice the triumph of a new literary style.
Given literary work has been translated into many languages. Among them are English, French, Polish German and Dutch.
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