Features characteristic of ancient Russian literature. Ancient literature: definition, genres, history

Borders and periodization of ancient Russian literature. Characteristics of its main stages.

According to many researchers, ancient Russian literature developed in the 10th century, but the works of this period have not reached us - which means it is impossible to study it. Therefore, they officially believe that they are studying the literature of the 11th-17th centuries. Already in the middle of the 17th century, new trends in literature began, oriented towards the West. But it was decided to include all the literature of the 17th century in the study and consider it as a transitional period. There are many periodizations of other literature, but we use one of them: 1. Literature of Kievan Rus (11th - first third of the 12th century). This period is characterized by the relative unity of literature, which is determined by the interconnection of the two main cultural centers of the state - Kyiv and Novgorod. This is a period of apprenticeship, with Byzantium and Bulgaria as mentors. Translated literature predominates. It is first dominated by religious texts, and then secular literature appears. The main theme is the theme of the Russian land and its position in the family of Christian peoples.2. Literature from the era of feudal fragmentation (second third of the 12th - first third of the 13th century). This period is associated with the emergence of regional literary centers in Vladimir, Rostov, Smolensk, etc., a process of “dissimilarity” of the styles of Russian chronicle writing, hagiography, and oratory began. The monumental-historical style dominates in literature.3. Liter from the era of the beginning of the Tatar-Mongol yoke (second third of 13-1380). During this period, the main theme of literature is heroic, and the monumental-historical style acquires a tragic connotation and lyrical emotion.

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4. Literature from the era of the Battle of Kulikovo (1380-80s of the 15th century). This is a time of creative quest and discovery in literature, which is caused by the rise of national consciousness and the rise of Moscow. A new moral ideal of the era is emerging, which is reflected in the lives of the saints Epiphanius the Wise. The reader's interest in fiction and historical-journalistic literature is growing.5. Literature of the Moscow centralized state (late 15-16 centuries). This stage was characterized by an unprecedented flourishing of journalism, because there were many problems in the state. Tradition begins to prevail over the new, literature is going through a period of new monumentalism, and interest in biographies of historical figures is emerging.6 Literature of the transitional stage (17th century). During this period, there is a clash between new and old principles of artistic creativity. The development of the individual principle is visible in everything. After Nikon's church reform, literature was divided into democratic and official. The autobiographical principle is rapidly growing, and attention to the person’s personality appears. 2.

2. The main features of Old Russian literature and its artistic method.

The literature of other Rus' set as its goal the creation of a spiritual ideal of man (the emergence of a unity of aesthetic and physical - Good is handsome). There were almost no portraits in literature (only those based on the characteristics or the method of mixing internal and external characteristics of a person). Traction was used quite rarely and only for a symbolic purpose (beyond the essence of the walking genre). There was no satire in the works, there were only elements of humor and irony,

only in the 17th century. satirical stories appeared. The purpose of writing any work was to teach. Up to the 17th century. there was no conscious fiction in literature; historicism was mandatory in works. But the literature was filled with legends. Literature also had obligatory features: journalisticism, patriotism, and traditionalism. Old Russian literature was anonymous and handwritten. The author of most works is unknown.

3. The originality of the system of genres of Old Russian literature and the characteristics of its main genres. Article by N.I. Prokofiev “on the worldview of the Russian Middle Ages and the system of genres of Russian literature of the 11th-16th centuries.

In ancient Russian literature, several systems of genres existed and interacted: folklore and business writing, translated and original literature, both liturgical and secular in nature. The basis for identifying genres was the object of the image. Lyrical genres: teachings and messages. Teaching is a genre designed to convey a system of political, religious or moral views to listeners or readers. They were didactic and solemn. An epistle is a genre intended for telling about events or expressing thoughts to an addressee remote from the author. It consists of 4 parts: escript (external address), prescript (introduction, appeal), semantheme (content of the message), clause (good wish). There were also inserted genres, for example, crying, praise, prayer. Epic genres: hagiography is a genre telling about the life of a real person, canonized after death. Composition of the life: introduction (self-deprecation of the author, many topoi, appeal to God for help), central narrative (story or mention of parents, story about childhood, the life of the hero, his death and posthumous miracles), conclusion (praise or prayer to the saint). Walking is a genre that tells about a real-life journey. There are different types: pilgrimage, merchant, embassy, ​​and exploration. In composition, it is a chain of travel sketches connected chronologically or topographically. A historical story is a genre that tells about a historical event. It is divided into a military story and a story about princely and boyar crimes. Composition - preparation of the event, narration about the event, consequences of the event. The narrator, as a rule, is a mysterious person. There is also another epic genre - the parable. Symbolic genres - vision, miracle, sign. Other genres are chronicle (could include all genres), patericon (stories about the life of monks).

The main aesthetic ideas of the Russian Middle Ages.

The concept of beauty in the Middle Ages was distinguished by its hierarchy: absolute beauty - eternal and truly beautiful, the embodiment of which is God; beauty “heavenly” and “earthly” (at the same time the church was likened to “heaven on earth”). The connection between the three levels was carried out through the concept of “spiritual beauty,” which was the highest value of a person and allowed him to comprehend the divine beauty of the world. It is significant that the first artist known to us - the monk Alimpius - was a saint. Medieval art is characterized by an organic fusion of the categories of ethical and aesthetic: what is beautiful is what is moral, warmed by love for God and mercy for one's neighbor. Good is always divinely beautiful, it is associated with the concepts of “light” and “warmth,” while evil is ugly, devilish, something dark and cold. Medieval art is based on the aesthetics of asceticism, conscious and voluntary renunciation of the worldly joys of life, the idealization of monastic feats, and the desire of man to suffer for his faith. A saint (monk, martyr, holy fool) is a typically medieval literary hero. Depicting his life, the author diligently avoids love scenes, crudely naturalistic or highly poetic, associated with the cult of female beauty. A woman is a “vessel of the devil”, earthly love is sinful, and the true purpose of man is love for God. The Old Russian writer recognized love only for the “Beautiful Lady” - the Mother of God, whose veneration in Rus' often overshadowed the cult of her son.

Medieval picture of the world.

Each period of historical and cultural development has its own worldview, its own ideas about nature, time and space, the order of everything that exists, about the relationship of people to each other, i.e. what can be called pictures of the world. They are formed partly spontaneously, partly purposefully, within the framework of religion, philosophy, science, art, and ideology. Pictures of the world are formed on the basis of a certain way of life of people, become part of it and begin to have a strong impact on it. Medieval man proceeded from the picture of the world developed by Christianity, more precisely, its Western form, called Catholicism. In the Christian Creed, compiled in the 4th century, the church is called one (unique), holy, Catholic (in Church Slavonic - cathedral) and apostolic.

The Church is Catholic (conciliar), since it has its followers in all countries of the world and contains in its dogmas the fullness of the truth, the same for all Christians. After the division of Christianity in 1054 into Western and Eastern, the Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic churches appeared, and the latter more often began to be called Orthodox as a sign of the constant confession of the right faith.

Christianity- religion of salvation. For him, the essence of the history of the world is the falling away of humanity (in the person of Adam and Eve) from God, which subjugated man to the power of sin, evil, death, and the subsequent return to the Creator of the prodigal son who realized his fall. This return is led by God's chosen descendants of Abraham, with whom God enters into a "covenant" (agreement) and gives them a "law" (rules of behavior). The chain of Old Testament righteous men and prophets turns into a ladder ascending to God. But even guided from above, even a holy person cannot be completely cleansed, and then the incredible happens: God incarnates, he himself becomes a man, or rather a God-man, by virtue of his miraculous birth “from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary”, free from sin. God the Word, the Savior, the Son of God appears as the Son of Man, a preacher from Galilee and voluntarily accepts a shameful death on the cross. He descends into hell, frees the souls of those who did good, resurrects on the third day, appears to the disciples, and soon then ascends to heaven. A few more days later, the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles (Pentecost) and gives them the strength to fulfill Jesus’ commandment - to preach the Gospel (“good news”) to all nations. Christian evangelism combines ethics based on love for one's neighbor with the feat of faith, which leads through the “narrow gates” to the Kingdom of Heaven. Its goal is the deification of the believer, i.e. the transition to eternal life with God is achieved through the assistance (synergy) of human efforts and God's grace.

In the medieval consciousness, both popular and elite, belief in magic and witchcraft occupied a large place. In the XI–XIII centuries. magic is relegated to the background, giving way to the anticipation of the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth. A new flowering of witchcraft, demonology, and the occult occurred in the 15th–16th centuries.

In general, medieval folk culture cannot be reduced only to the remnants of paganism and primitive beliefs. The world of images she created provided rich material for the art of the Middle Ages and Modern times, and became an important and integral part of European artistic culture.

Features of ancient Russian literature, its difference from modern literature.

Old Russian literature is the solid foundation on which the majestic edifice of national Russian artistic culture of the 18th-20th centuries is erected. It is based on high moral ideals, faith in man, in his possibilities for limitless moral improvement, faith in the power of the word, its ability to transform the inner world of man, the patriotic pathos of serving the Russian land - the state - the Motherland, faith in the ultimate triumph of good over the forces of evil, universal unity of people and its victory over hateful discord.

Chronological boundaries of Old Russian literature and its specific features. Russian medieval literature is the initial stage in the development of Russian literature. Its emergence is closely connected with the process of formation of the early feudal state. Subordinated to the political tasks of strengthening the foundations of the feudal system, it in its own way reflected various periods of the development of public and social relations in Rus' in the 11th-17th centuries. Old Russian literature is the literature of the emerging Great Russian nationality, gradually developing into a nation.

The question of the chronological boundaries of ancient Russian literature has not been finally resolved by our science. Ideas about the volume of ancient Russian literature still remain incomplete. Many works were lost in the fire of countless fires, during the devastating raids of steppe nomads, the invasion of Mongol-Tatar invaders, and Polish-Swedish invaders! And at a later time, in 1737, the remains of the library of the Moscow tsars were destroyed by a fire that broke out in the Grand Kremlin Palace. In 1777, the Kiev Library was destroyed by fire. During the Patriotic War of 1812, the handwritten collections of Musin-Pushkin, Buturlin, Bauze, Demidov, and the Moscow Society of Lovers of Russian Literature were burned in Moscow.

The main keepers and copyists of books in Ancient Rus', as a rule, were monks, who were least interested in storing and copying books of secular (secular) content. And this largely explains why the overwhelming majority of works of Old Russian writing that have reached us are of an ecclesiastical nature.

Works of ancient Russian literature were divided into “secular” and “spiritual”. The latter were supported and disseminated in every possible way, since they contained the enduring values ​​of religious dogma, philosophy and ethics, and the former, with the exception of official legal and historical documents, were declared “vain.” Thanks to this, we present our ancient literature as more ecclesiastical than it actually was.

When starting to study ancient Russian literature, it is necessary to take into account its specific features, which are different from the literature of modern times.

A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is the handwritten nature of its existence and distribution. Moreover, this or that work did not exist in the form of a separate, independent manuscript, but was part of various collections that pursued certain practical goals. “Everything that serves not for the sake of benefit, but for the sake of embellishment, is subject to the accusation of vanity.” These words of Basil the Great largely determined the attitude of ancient Russian society towards written works. The value of a particular handwritten book was assessed from the point of view of its practical purpose and usefulness.

“Great is the benefit of the teachings of books, for we teach through books and teach the ways of repentance, and we gain wisdom and abstinence from the words of books; for these are the rivers that feed the universe, these are the sources of wisdom, these are the sources of wisdom, these are the unsought depths, these are the comforts of us in sorrow, these are the bridles of self-control... If you diligently search for wisdom in the books, you will find great progress in your soul... "- the chronicler teaches in 1037.

Another feature of our ancient literature is the anonymity and impersonality of its works. This was a consequence of the religious-Christian attitude of feudal society towards man, and in particular towards the work of a writer, artist, and architect. At best, we know the names of individual authors, “copywriters” of books, who modestly put their name either at the end of the manuscript, or in its margins, or (which is much less common) in the title of the work. At the same time, the writer will not accept to provide his name with such evaluative epithets as “thin”, “unworthy”, “many sinners”. In most cases, the author of the work prefers to remain unknown, and sometimes hide behind the authoritative name of one or another “father of the church” - John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, etc.

Biographical information about the ancient Russian writers known to us, the volume of their creativity, and the nature of their social activities is very, very scarce. Therefore, if when studying literature of the 18th-20th centuries. Literary scholars widely use biographical material, reveal the nature of the political, philosophical, aesthetic views of this or that writer, using the author's manuscripts, trace the history of the creation of works, reveal the creative individuality of the writer, then they have to approach the monuments of ancient Russian writing in a different way.

In medieval society, the concept of copyright did not exist; the individual characteristics of the writer’s personality did not receive such a vivid manifestation as in the literature of modern times. Copyists often acted as editors and co-authors rather than simple copyists of the text. They changed the ideological orientation of the work being copied, the nature of its style, shortened or distributed the text in accordance with the tastes and demands of their time. As a result, new editions of monuments were created. And even when the copyist simply copied the text, his list was always somehow different from the original: he made typos, omitted words and letters, and involuntarily reflected in the language the features of his native dialect. In this regard, in science there is a special term - “izvod” (manuscript of the Pskov-Novgorod edition, Moscow, or, more broadly, Bulgarian, Serbian, etc.).

As a rule, the author's texts of works have not reached us, but their later lists have been preserved, sometimes distant from the time the original was written by a hundred, two hundred or more years. For example, “The Tale of Bygone Years,” created by Nestor in 1111-1113, has not survived at all, and the edition of Sylvester’s “story” (1116) is known only as part of the Laurentian Chronicle of 1377. “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign,” written at the end of 80 s of the 12th century, was found in a list of the 16th century.

All this requires from the researcher of ancient Russian literature unusually thorough and painstaking textual work: studying all available lists of a particular monument, establishing the time and place of their writing by comparing various editions, variants of lists, as well as determining which edition the list most matches original author's text. These issues are dealt with by a special branch of philological science - t e c t o l o g y .

When solving complex questions about the time of writing of this or that monument, its lists, the researcher turns to such an auxiliary historical and philological science as paleography. Based on the characteristics of letters, handwriting, the nature of writing material, paper watermarks, the nature of headpieces, ornaments, miniatures illustrating the text of a manuscript, paleography makes it possible to relatively accurately determine the time of creation of a particular manuscript and the number of scribes who wrote it.

In the XI-first half of the XIV century. The main writing material was parchment, made from calf skin. In Rus', parchment was often called “veal” or “haratya”. This expensive material was, naturally, available only to the propertied classes, and artisans and traders used birch bark for their ice correspondence. Birch bark also served as student notebooks. This is evidenced by the remarkable archaeological discoveries of Novgorod birch bark letters.

To save writing material, the words in the line were not separated, and only the paragraphs of the manuscript were highlighted with a red cinnabar letter - the initial, the title - a “red line” in the literal sense of the word. Frequently used, widely known words were written abbreviated under a special superscript - t and t l o m. For example, lithargy (verb - says), bg (god), btsa (Mother of God).

The parchment was pre-lined by a scribe using a ruler with a chain. Then the scribe placed it on his lap and carefully wrote out each letter. Handwriting with a regular, almost square outline of the letters was called u st a v o m. Work on the manuscript required painstaking work and great skill, therefore, when the scribe completed his hard work, he celebrated it with joy. “The merchant rejoices when he has made the purchase, and the helmsman in the calm of the bailiff and the wanderer having come to his fatherland, the book writer rejoices in the same way when he reaches the end of his books...”- we read at the end of the Laurentian Chronicle.

The written sheets were sewn into notebooks, which were intertwined into wooden boards. Hence the phraseological turn - “read a book from board to board.” The binding boards were covered with leather, and sometimes covered with special frames made of silver and gold. A remarkable example of jewelry art is, for example, the setting of the Mstislav Gospel (early 12th century).

In the XIV century. paper replaced parchment. This cheaper writing material adhered and speeded up the writing process. The charter letter is replaced by slanted, rounded handwriting with a large number of extended superscripts - poluustav. In the monuments of business writing, cursive appears, which gradually replaces the semi-ustav and occupies a dominant position in manuscripts of the 17th century .

The emergence of printing in the mid-16th century played a huge role in the development of Russian culture. However, until the beginning of the 18th century. Mostly church books were printed, but secular and artistic works continued to exist and were distributed in manuscripts.

When studying ancient Russian literature, one very important circumstance should be taken into account: in the medieval period, fiction had not yet emerged as an independent area of ​​public consciousness; it was inextricably linked with philosophy, science, and religion.

In this regard, it is impossible to mechanically apply to ancient Russian literature the criteria of artistry with which we approach when assessing the phenomena of literary development of modern times.

The process of historical development of ancient Russian literature is a process of gradual crystallization of fiction, its isolation from the general flow of writing, its democratization and “secularization,” i.e., liberation from the tutelage of the church.

One of the characteristic features of Old Russian literature is its connection with church and business writing, on the one hand, and oral poetic folk art, on the other. The nature of these connections at each historical stage of the development of literature and in its individual monuments was different.

However, the wider and deeper literature used the artistic experience of folklore, the more clearly it reflected the phenomena of reality, the wider was the sphere of its ideological and artistic influence.

A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is history. Its heroes are predominantly historical figures; it almost does not allow fiction and strictly follows the fact. Even numerous stories about “miracles” - phenomena that seemed supernatural to a medieval person, are not so much the invention of an ancient Russian writer, but rather accurate records of the stories of either eyewitnesses or the people themselves with whom the “miracle” happened.

The historicism of ancient Russian literature has a specifically medieval character. The course and development of historical events is explained by God's will, the will of providence. The heroes of the works are princes, rulers of the state, standing at the top of the hierarchical ladder of feudal society. However, having discarded the religious shell, the modern reader easily discovers that living historical reality, the true creator of which was the Russian people.

Related information.

In ancient Russian literature, which knew no fiction, historical in large or small ways, the world itself was presented as something eternal, universal, where events and people’s actions are determined by the very system of the universe, where the forces of good and evil are forever fighting, a world whose history is well known ( after all, for each event mentioned in the chronicle, an exact date was indicated - the time elapsed from the “creation of the world”!) and even the future was destined: prophecies about the end of the world, the “second coming” of Christ and the Last Judgment awaiting all people on earth were widespread.

Obviously, this could not but affect literature: the desire to subordinate the very image of the world, to determine the canons by which this or that event should be described led to the very schematicism of ancient Russian literature that we talked about in the introduction. This sketchiness is called subordination to the so-called literary etiquette - D.S. Likhachev discusses its structure in the literature of Ancient Rus':

1) how this or that course of events should have taken place;

2) how the character should have behaved in accordance with his position;

3) How should a writer describe what is happening?

“What we have before us, therefore, is the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and the etiquette of words,” he says.

To explain these principles, consider the following example: in the life of a saint, according to the etiquette of behavior, it should have been told about the childhood of the future saint, about his pious parents, about how he was drawn to church from infancy, shunned games with peers, and so on: in any In a life, this plot component is not only certainly present, but is also expressed in each life in the same words, that is, verbal etiquette is observed. Here, for example, are the opening phrases of several lives, belonging to different authors and written at different times: Theodosius of Pechersk “is drawn by the love of God with his soul, and goes to the church of God all day, listening to divine books with all attention, and also to children who play approaching, as is the custom, they abhor their games... To this end, they began to study the divine books... And soon all grammar was forgotten"; Nifont of Novgorod “was given by his parents to study divine books. And soon I became completely unaccustomed to book teaching, and was not at all like children’s games with my peers, but was more devoted to the church of God and revered the divine scriptures to my heart’s content”; Varlaam Khutynsky “at the same time was given the ability to quickly teach divine books, and also soon indiscriminately [quickly] learn the divine scriptures... not for shying away from some games or disgraces [spectacles], but even more so from reading the divine scriptures.”

The same situation is observed in the chronicles: descriptions of battles, posthumous characteristics of kings or church hierarchs are written using practically the same limited vocabulary.

The attitude towards the problem of authorship among the scribes of Ancient Rus' was also somewhat different from the modern one: for the most part, the name of the author was indicated only to verify events, in order to certify the reader of the authenticity of what was being described, and authorship itself had no value in the modern concept. Based on this, the situation is as follows: on the one hand, most of the ancient Russian works are anonymous: we do not know the name of the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, or of many other works, such as “The Tale of the Massacre of Mamayev”, “The Tale of the Destruction” Russian Land" or "Kazan History". On the other hand, we encounter an abundance of so-called falsely inscribed monuments - its authorship is attributed to some famous person in order to make it more significant. In addition, the insertion into one’s works not only of individual phrases, but also of entire fragments was not considered plagiarism, but testified to the scribe’s erudition, high book culture and literary training.

So, familiarization with the historical conditions and some principles of work of the authors of the XI-XVII centuries. gives us the opportunity to appreciate the special style and methods of presentation of the ancient Russian scribes, who built their narrative according to accepted and justified canons: they introduced a fragment from exemplary works into the narration, demonstrating their erudition and describing events according to a certain stencil, following literary etiquette.

Poverty of details, everyday details, stereotypical characteristics, “insincerity” of the characters’ speeches - all these are not literary shortcomings at all, but precisely features of the style, which implied that literature is intended to tell only about the eternal, without going into passing everyday trifles and mundane details.

On the other hand, the modern reader especially appreciates the deviations from the canon that were periodically allowed by the authors: it was these deviations that made the narrative lively and interesting. These digressions were at one time given a terminological definition - “realistic elements”. Of course, this in no way correlates with the term “realism” - there are still seven centuries before it, and these are precisely anomalies, violations of the basic laws and trends of medieval literature under the influence of living observation of reality and the natural desire to reflect it.

Of course, despite the presence of a strict framework of etiquette, which significantly limited the freedom of creativity, ancient Russian literature did not stand still: it developed, changed styles, etiquette itself, its principles and means of its implementation changed. D. S. Likhachev in his book “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'” (Moscow, 1970) showed that each era had its own dominant style - either the style of monumental historicism of the 11th-13th centuries, or the expressive-emotional style of the 14th - XV centuries, then there was a return to the previous style of monumental historicism, but on a new basis - and the so-called “style of second monumentalism” arose, characteristic of the XVI century.

D. S. Likhachev also considers several main directions leading to the development of ancient Russian literature into the literature of modern times: the increase in the personal element in literature and the individualization of style, the expansion of the social circle of people who can become heroes of works. The role of etiquette is gradually decreasing, and instead of schematic images of the conventional standards of a prince or saint, attempts appear to describe a complex individual character, its inconsistency and variability.

Here it is necessary to make one reservation: V. P. Adrianova-Peretz showed that understanding the complexity of human character, the subtlest psychological nuances was inherent in medieval literature already at the very early stages of its development, but was the norm for depiction in chronicles, stories, and lives There was still an image of etiquette, conventional characters depending on the social status of their owners.

The choice of plots or plot situations became wider, fiction appeared in literature; genres that do not have a primary need are gradually entering literature. Works of folk satire begin to be written down, chivalric novels are translated; moralizing, but essentially entertaining short stories - facets; in the 17th century syllabic poetry and dramaturgy emerge. In a word, by the 17th century. In literature, features of the literature of modern times are more and more revealed.

1. Ancient literature is filled with deep patriotic content, the heroic pathos of serving the Russian land, state, and homeland.
2. The main theme of ancient Russian literature is world history and the meaning of human life.
3. Ancient literature glorifies the moral beauty of the Russian person, capable of sacrificing what is most precious for the sake of the common good - life. It expresses a deep belief in the power, the ultimate triumph of good and the ability of man to elevate his spirit and defeat evil.
4. A characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is historicism. The heroes are mainly historical figures. Literature strictly follows fact.
5. A feature of the artistic creativity of the ancient Russian writer is the so-called “literary etiquette”. This is a special literary and aesthetic regulation, the desire to subordinate the very image of the world to certain principles and rules, to establish once and for all what and how should be depicted.
6. Old Russian literature appears with the emergence of the state and writing and is based on book Christian culture and developed forms of oral poetic creativity. At this time, literature and folklore were closely connected. Literature often perceived plots, artistic images, and visual means of folk art.
7. The originality of ancient Russian literature in the depiction of the hero depends on the style and genre of the work. In relation to styles and genres, the hero is reproduced in the monuments of ancient literature, ideals are formed and created.
8. In ancient Russian literature, a system of genres was defined, within which the development of original Russian literature began. The main thing in their definition was the “use” of the genre, the “practical purpose” for which this or that work was intended.
9. The traditions of Old Russian literature are found in the works of Russian writers of the 18th-20th centuries.

TEST QUESTIONS AND TASKS

1. How does Academician D.S. characterize Likhachev ancient Russian literature? Why does he call it “one grandiose whole, one colossal work”?
2. What does Likhachev compare ancient literature with and why?
3. What are the main advantages of ancient literature?
4. Why would the artistic discoveries of literature of subsequent centuries be impossible without the works of ancient literature? (Think about what qualities of ancient literature were adopted by Russian literature of modern times. Give examples from works of Russian classics known to you.)
5. What did Russian poets and prose writers value and adopt from ancient literature? What A.S. wrote about her Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, A.I. Herzen, L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, D.N. Mamin-Sibiryak?
6. What does ancient literature write about the benefits of books? Give examples of “praise of books” known in ancient Russian literature.
7. Why were ideas about the power of words high in ancient literature? What were they connected with, what did they rely on?
8. What is said about the word in the Gospel?
9. What do writers compare books to and why; why are books rivers, sources of wisdom, and what do the words mean: “if you diligently look for wisdom in the books, you will find great benefit for your soul”?
10. Name the monuments of ancient Russian literature known to you and the names of their scribes.
11. Tell us about the method of writing and the nature of ancient manuscripts.
12. Name the historical background for the emergence of ancient Russian literature and its specific features in contrast to the literature of modern times.
13. What is the role of folklore in the formation of ancient literature?
14. Using vocabulary and reference material, briefly retell the history of the study of ancient monuments, write down the names of the scientists involved in their research and the stages of study.
15. What is the image of the world and man in the minds of Russian scribes?
16. Tell us about the depiction of man in ancient Russian literature.
17. Name the themes of ancient literature, using vocabulary and reference material, characterize its genres.
18. List the main stages in the development of ancient literature.

Read also the articles in the section “National identity of ancient literature, its origin and development.”

In ancient Russian literature, which knew no fiction, historical in large or small ways, the world itself was presented as something eternal, universal, where events and people’s actions are determined by the very system of the universe, where the forces of good and evil are forever fighting, a world whose history is well known ( after all, for each event mentioned in the chronicle, an exact date was indicated - the time elapsed from the “creation of the world”!) and even the future was destined: prophecies about the end of the world, the “second coming” of Christ and the Last Judgment awaiting all people on earth were widespread. Obviously, this could not but affect literature: the desire to subordinate the very image of the world, to determine the canons by which this or that event should be described led to the very schematicism of ancient Russian literature that we talked about in the introduction. This sketchiness is called subordination to the so-called literary etiquette - D. S. Likhachev discusses its structure in the literature of Ancient Rus': 1) how this or that course of events should have taken place; 2) how the character should have behaved in accordance with his position; 3) How should a writer describe what is happening?

“What we have before us, therefore, is the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior and the etiquette of words,” he says. To explain these principles, consider the following example: in the life of a saint, according to the etiquette of behavior, it should have been told about the childhood of the future saint, about his pious parents, about how he was drawn to church from infancy, shunned games with peers, and so on: in any In a life, this plot component is not only certainly present, but is also expressed in each life in the same words, that is, verbal etiquette is observed. Here, for example, are the opening phrases of several lives, belonging to different authors and written at different times: Theodosius of Pechersk “is drawn by the love of God with his soul, and goes to the church of God all day, listening to divine books with all attention, and also to children who play approaching, as is the custom of the wise, but (o) and abhorring their games... Therefore, and give in to the teaching of divine books...

And soon all grammar was forgotten"; Niphon of Novgorod "was given by his parents to study divine books. And soon I became completely unaccustomed to book teaching, and was not at all similar to my peers in children’s games, but more closely attached to the church of God and read the divine scriptures to my heart’s content.” divine scripture...

not too shy away from some kind of game or disgrace of a “spectacle,” but even more so from reading the divine scriptures.” The same situation is observed in the chronicles: descriptions of battles, posthumous characteristics of kings or church hierarchs are written using practically the same limited vocabulary. On the problem of authorship Among the scribes of Ancient Rus', the attitude was also somewhat different from the modern one: for the most part, the name of the author was indicated only to verify events, in order to certify the reader of the authenticity of what was being described, and authorship itself had no value in the modern concept. Based on this, the situation developed the following: on the one hand, most of the ancient Russian works are anonymous: we do not know the name of the author of “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, or of many other works, such as “The Tale of the Battle of Mamaev”, “The Tale of the Destruction of the Russian Land” or “Kazan history." On the other hand, we encounter an abundance of so-called falsely inscribed monuments - its authorship is attributed to some famous person in order to make it more significant.

In addition, the insertion into one’s works not only of individual phrases, but also of entire fragments was not considered plagiarism, but testified to the scribe’s erudition, high book culture and literary training. So, familiarization with the historical conditions and some principles of work of the authors of the XI-XVII centuries.

gives us the opportunity to appreciate the special style and methods of presentation of the ancient Russian scribes, who built their narrative according to accepted and justified canons: they introduced a fragment from exemplary works into the narration, demonstrating their erudition and describing events according to a certain stencil, following literary etiquette. Poverty of details, everyday details, stereotypical characteristics, “insincerity” of the characters’ speeches - all these are not literary shortcomings at all, but precisely features of the style, which implied that literature is intended to tell only about the eternal, without going into passing everyday trifles and mundane details. On the other hand, the modern reader especially appreciates the deviations from the canon that were periodically allowed by the authors: it was these deviations that made the narrative lively and interesting. These digressions were at one time given a terminological definition - “realistic elements”.

Of course, this in no way correlates with the term “realism” - there are still seven centuries before it, and these are precisely anomalies, violations of the basic laws and trends of medieval literature under the influence of living observation of reality and the natural desire to reflect it. Of course, despite the presence of a strict framework of etiquette, which significantly limited the freedom of creativity, ancient Russian literature did not stand still: it developed, changed styles, etiquette itself, its principles and means of its implementation changed. D.

S. Likhachev in his book “Man in the Literature of Ancient Rus'” (M., 1970) showed that each era had its own dominant style - it was the style of monumental historicism of the 11th-13th centuries. , then the expressive-emotional style of the 14th-15th centuries, then there was a return to the previous style of monumental historicism, but on a new basis - and the so-called “style of second monumentalism” arose, characteristic of the 16th century. Also D.

S. Likhachev considers several main directions leading to the development of ancient Russian literature into the literature of modern times: the increase in the personal element in literature and the individualization of style, the expansion of the social circle of people who can become heroes of works. The role of etiquette is gradually decreasing, and instead of schematic images of the conventional standards of a prince or saint, attempts appear to describe a complex individual character, its inconsistency and variability. Here it is necessary to make one reservation: V. P. Adrianova-Peretz showed that understanding the complexity of human character, the subtlest psychological nuances was inherent in medieval literature already at the very early stages of its development, but was the norm for depiction in chronicles, stories, and lives There was still an image of etiquette, conventional characters depending on the social status of their owners.

The choice of plots or plot situations became wider, fiction appeared in literature; genres that do not have a primary need are gradually entering literature. Works of folk satire begin to be written down, chivalric novels are translated; moralizing, but essentially entertaining short stories - facets; in the 17th century syllabic poetry and dramaturgy emerge. In a word, by the 17th century. In literature, features of the literature of modern times are more and more revealed.