I. Early 1890s - 1905 1892 The code of laws of the Russian Empire: "the duty of complete obedience to the tsar", whose power was declared "autocratic and unlimited" Industrial production is developing rapidly. The social consciousness of the new class, the proletariat, is growing. The first political strike of the Orekhovo-Zuevskaya manufactory. The court recognized the workers' demands as fair. Emperor Nicholas II. The first political parties were formed: 1898 - Social Democrats, 1905 - Constitutional Democrats, 1901 - Social Revolutionaries

Genre - novel and short story. Weakened storyline. Interested in the subconscious, and not the "dialetics of the soul", the dark, instinctive sides of the personality, elemental feelings that are not understood by the person himself. The image of the author comes to the fore, the task is to show his own, subjective perception of life. There is no direct author's position - everything goes into the subtext (philosophical, ideological) The role of the detail increases. Poetic devices pass into prose. Realism (neorealism)

Modernism. Symbolism of the year. In D.S. Merezhkovsky's article "On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature", modernism receives a theoretical justification. The older generation of symbolists: Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Bryusov, Balmont, Fyodor Sologub. The Young Symbolists: Blok, A. Bely The World of Art Journal, Ed. Princess M. K. Tenisheva and S. I. Mamontov, eds. S. P. Diaghilev, A. N. Benois (Petersburg) K. Balmont V. Bryusov Merezhkovsky D

Symbolism Focused mainly through the symbol of intuitively comprehended entities and ideas, vague feelings and visions; The desire to penetrate the secrets of being and consciousness, to see through the visible reality the supertemporal ideal essence of the world and its Beauty. Eternal Femininity World Soul “Mirror to mirror, compare two reflections, and put a candle between them. Two depths without a bottom, colored by the flame of a candle, will deepen themselves, mutually deepen one another, enrich the flame of the candle and merge into one. This is the image of the verse. (K. Balmont) Dear friend, don't you see that everything we see is only a reflection, only shadows From invisible eyes? Dear friend, do you not hear That the noise of life is crackling - Only a distorted response Of triumphant consonances (Soloviev) Pale young man with burning eyes, Now I give you three testaments: First accept: do not live in the present, Only the future is the domain of the poet. Remember the second: do not sympathize with anyone, Love yourself infinitely. Keep the third: worship art, Only him, undividedly, aimlessly (Bryusov)

1905 - one of the key years in the history of Russia. This year a revolution took place, which began with "Bloody Sunday" on January 9, the first tsarist manifesto was published, limiting the power of the monarchy in favor of subjects, proclaiming the Duma as the legislative authorities, approving civil liberties, creating a council of ministers in led by Witte, the armed uprising in Moscow, which was the peak of the revolution, the uprising in Sevastopol, etc.

Years. Russo-Japanese War

III - 1920s

Crisis of Symbolism. Article by A. Blok "On the current state of Russian symbolism" 1911. The most radical direction appears, denying all previous culture, the avant-garde - futurism. In Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, I. Severyanin.

Futurism is the desire to create "the art of the future", the denial of the heritage of the "past" - the traditions of culture. language experimentation "zaum" Manor at night, Genghis Khan! Make some noise, blue birches. Dawn of the night, zaratustr! And the sky is blue, mozart! And, dusk clouds, be Goya! You are at night, cloud, roops!

A slap in the face of public taste Reading our New First Unexpected. Only we are the face of our Time. The horn of time blows us in verbal art. The past is tight. The Academy and Pushkin are more incomprehensible than hieroglyphs. Throw Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and so on. from the steamer of modern times. Whoever does not forget his first love will not recognize his last. Who, gullible, will turn the last Love to the perfumery fornication of Balmont? Does it reflect the courageous soul of today? Who, cowardly, will be afraid to steal paper armor from the black tailcoat of Bryusov's warrior? Or are they the dawn of unknown beauties? Wash your hands that have touched the filthy slime of the books written by those innumerable Leonid Andreevs. To all these Maxim Gorky, Kuprin, Blok, Sollogub, Remizov, Averchenko, Cherny, Kuzmin, Bunin and so on. and so on. All you need is a cottage on the river. Such an award is given by fate to tailors. From the height of skyscrapers, we look at their insignificance! ... We order to honor the rights of poets: 1. To increase the vocabulary in its volume with arbitrary and derivative words (Word-innovation). 2. An irresistible hatred for the language that existed before them. 3. With horror, remove from your proud forehead from bath brooms the Wreath of penny glory you made. 4. To stand on a block of the word "we" in the midst of a sea of ​​whistling and indignation. And if the dirty stigmas of your “common sense” and “good taste” still remain in our lines, then for the first time the Lightning Lightnings of the New Coming Beauty of the Self-valuable (self-sufficient) Word are already trembling on them. D. Burliuk, Alexander Kruchenykh, V. Mayakovsky, Viktor Khlebnikov Moscow December

Features of the "Silver Age" 1. Elitism of literature, designed for a narrow circle of readers. Reminiscences and allusions. 2. The development of literature is connected with other types of art: 1. Theater: its own direction in the world theater - Stanislavsky, Meyerhold, Vakhtangov, M. Chekhov, Tairov 2. Painting: futurism (Malevich), symbolism (Vrubel), realism (Serov), acmeism (“World of Art”) 3. Huge influence of philosophy, many new world trends: N. Berdyaev, P. Florensky, S. Bulgakov, V. Solovyov; Nietzsche, Schopenhauer. 4. Discovery in psychology - Freud's theory of the subconscious. 5. Predominant development of poetry. Opening in the field of verse. - The musical sound of the verse. – Revival of genres – sonnet, madrigal, ballad, etc. 6. Innovation in prose: novel-symphony (A. Bely), modernist novel (F. Sollogub) 7. Isoteric teachings (spiritualism, occultism) – elements of mysticism in literature.

Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky The key concepts of his famous system: the stages of the artist's work on the role, the method of transforming into a character, playing "ensembles" under the direction of the director, who performs a "role" similar to that of a conductor in an orchestra, a troupe as a living organism passing through different stages of development; and most importantly, the theory of cause-and-effect relationships of character An actor, entering the stage, performs a certain task within the logic of his character. But at the same time, each character exists in the general logic of the work, laid down by the author. The author created the work in accordance with some purpose, having some main idea. And the actor, in addition to performing a specific task associated with the character, should strive to convey the main idea to the viewer, try to achieve the main goal. The main idea of ​​the work or its main goal is the most important task. Acting is divided into three technologies: - craft (based on the use of ready-made stamps, by which the viewer can clearly understand what emotions the actor has in mind), - performance (in the process of long rehearsals, the actor experiences genuine experiences that automatically create a form of manifestation of these experiences , but at the performance itself the actor does not experience these feelings, but only reproduces the form, the finished external drawing of the role). -experience (the actor in the process of playing experiences genuine experiences, and this gives rise to the life of the image on stage).

Alexander Yakovlevich Tairov The idea of ​​the Free Theatre, which was supposed to combine tragedy and operetta, drama and farce, opera and pantomime The actor had to be a true creator, not constrained by either other people's thoughts or other people's words. The principle of "emotional gesture" instead of a pictorial or worldly authentic gesture. The performance should not follow the play in everything, because the performance itself is “a valuable work of art”. The main task of the director is to give the performer the opportunity to be liberated, to free the actor from everyday life. An eternal holiday should reign in the theater, it doesn’t matter if it’s a tragedy or comedy holiday, if only not to let the routine into the theater - “theatricalization of the theater”

Vsevolod Emilievich Meyerhold Craving for line, pattern, for a kind of visualization of music, turning the acting into a phantasmogorical symphony of lines and colors. "Biomechanics seeks to experimentally establish the laws of the actor's movement on the stage, working out the training exercises of the actor's game based on the norms of human behavior." (the psychological concept of W. James (about the primacy of the physical reaction in relation to the emotional reaction), on the reflexology of V. M. Bekhterev and the experiments of I. P. Pavlov.

Evgeny Bagrationovich Vakhtangov search for "modern ways to resolve the performance in a form that would sound theatrical" the idea of ​​the inseparable unity of the ethical and aesthetic purpose of the theater, the unity of the artist and the people, a keen sense of modernity, corresponding to the content of a dramatic work, its artistic features, defining a unique stage form

The writing

Purpose: to acquaint students with the general characteristics and originality of Russian literature of the 19th century. in terms of history and literature; give an idea of ​​the main trends in the literature of the late XIX - early XX centuries; to show the significance of Russian literature of this period in the development of the Russian and world literary process; to cultivate a sense of belonging and empathy for the history of Russia, love for its culture. equipment: textbook, portraits of writers and poets of the turn of the century.

Projected

Results: students know the general characteristics and originality of Russian literature of the 19th century. in terms of history and literature; have an idea about the main trends in the literature of the late XIX - early XX centuries; determine the significance of Russian literature of this period in the development of the Russian and world literary process. lesson type: lesson learning new material.

DURING THE CLASSES

I. Organizational stage

II. Actualization of basic knowledge Checking homework (frontal)

III. Setting goals and objectives for the lesson.

Motivation for learning activities

Teacher. The twentieth century began at zero o'clock on January 1, 1901 - this is its calendar beginning, from which it counts its history and world art of the XX century. However, it does not follow from this that at one moment a general upheaval took place in art, which established a certain new style of the 20th century. some of the processes that are essential for the history of art originate in the last century.

The last decade of the 19th century opens a new stage in Russian, and in world culture. For about a quarter of a century - from the beginning of the 1890s to October 1917 - literally all aspects of life in Russia have changed radically: the economy, politics, science, technology, culture, art. Compared to the social and to some extent literary stagnation of the 1880s. a new stage of historical and cultural development was characterized by rapid dynamics and sharpest drama. In terms of the pace and depth of change, as well as the catastrophic nature of internal conflicts, Russia at that time was ahead of any other country. Therefore, the transition from the era of classical Russian literature to the new literary time was accompanied by far from peaceful processes in general cultural and intra-literary life, unexpectedly fast - by the standards of the 19th century. - a change in aesthetic guidelines, a radical renewal of literary techniques.

Legacy of the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. is not limited to the work of one or two dozen significant artists of the word, and the logic of the literary development of this time cannot be reduced to a single center or the simplest scheme of successive trends. This legacy is a multi-tiered artistic reality in which individual writing talents, no matter how outstanding they may be, are only part of a grandiose whole. Starting to study the literature of the turn of the century, one cannot do without a brief overview of the social background and the general cultural context of this period (“context” is the environment, the external environment in which art exists).

IV. Work on the topic of the lesson 1. teacher's lecture

(Students write abstracts.)

Literature of the late XIX - early XX century. existed and developed under the powerful influence of the crisis, which covered almost all aspects of Russian life. The great realist writers of the 19th century managed to convey their sense of the tragedy and unsettledness of the Russian life of that time with great artistic power, finishing their creative and life path: l. N. tolstoy and a. P. Chekhov. The successors of the realistic traditions of I. a. Bunin, a. I. Kuprin, l. N. andreev, a. N. Tolstoy, in turn, created magnificent examples of realistic art. However, the plots of their works became more and more disturbing and gloomy from year to year, the ideals that inspired them became more and more obscure. The life-affirming pathos characteristic of the Russian classics of the 19th century gradually disappeared from their work under the yoke of sad events.

At the end of XIX - beginning of XX century. Russian literature, which previously had a high degree of ideological unity, became aesthetically multilayered.

Realism at the turn of the century continued to be a large-scale and influential literary movement.

The most striking talents among the new realists were the writers who united in the 1890s. in the Moscow circle "Wednesday", and in the early 1900s. who made up the circle of permanent authors of the Znanie publishing house (one of its owners and the actual leader was M. Gorky). In addition to the leader of the association, in different years it included l. N. Andreev, I. a. Bunin, V.V. Veresaev, N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, a. I. Kuprin, I. S. Shmelev and other writers. With the exception of I. a. Bunin, there were no major poets among the realists; they showed themselves primarily in prose and, less noticeably, in dramaturgy.

The generation of realist writers of the early 20th century. inherited from a. P. Chekhov new principles of writing - with much greater than before, the author's freedom, with a much wider arsenal of artistic expression, with a sense of proportion, which is obligatory for the artist, which was provided by increased internal self-criticism.

In literary criticism, it is customary to call modernist, first of all, three literary movements that declared themselves in the period 1890–1917. These are symbolism, acmeism and futurism, which formed the basis of modernism as a literary movement.

In general, Russian culture of the late XIX - early XX centuries. impresses with its brightness, wealth, abundance of talents in various fields. And at the same time, it was the culture of a society doomed to death, a premonition of which was traced in many of her works.

2. familiarization with the article of the textbook on the topic of the lesson (in pairs)

3. Heuristic conversation

Š What new styles and trends emerged in Russian culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries? How were they related to a particular historical setting?

♦ What are the historical events of the late XIX - early XX centuries. influenced the fate of Russian writers, reflected in the works of literature?

♦ What philosophical concepts influenced Russian literature at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries? what explains the special interest of writers in the philosophy of a. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche?

♦ How did the craving for irrationalism, mysticism, and religious quest manifest itself in Russian literature of that time?

♦ Is it possible to say that in the late XIX - early XX centuries. Is realism losing its dominant role in the literary process that belonged to it in the 19th century?

♦ How do the traditions of classical literature and innovative aesthetic concepts correlate in the literature of the turn of the century?

♦ What is the originality of the late work of a. P. Chekhov? How justified is a. Bely that a. Is P. Chekhov “most of all a symbolist”? What features of Chekhov's realism allow modern researchers to call the writer the founder of the literature of the absurd?

♦ What character does the literary struggle take in the late 19th and early 20th centuries? What publishing houses, magazines, almanacs played a particularly important role in the development of Russian literature?

♦ How is the problem of the relationship between man and the environment solved in Russian literature at the turn of the century? What traditions of the "natural school" were developed in the prose of this time?

♦ What place did journalism occupy in the literature of this period? What problems were most actively discussed on the pages of magazines and newspapers during these years?

V. Reflection. Summing up the lesson

1. "Press" (in groups)

The generalizing word of the teacher - thus, the deep aspirations of the modernist currents in conflict with each other turned out to be very similar, despite the sometimes striking stylistic dissimilarity, the difference in tastes and literary tactics. That is why the best poets of the era rarely closed themselves within a particular literary school or current. Almost the rule of their creative evolution was the overcoming of narrow directional frameworks and declarations for the creator. Therefore, the real picture of the literary process in the late XIX - early XX centuries. is determined to a much greater extent by the creative individualities of writers and poets than by the history of trends and trends.

VI. Homework

1. Prepare a message “the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. in the perception of ... (one of the representatives of Russian art of that time)”, using the memoirs of A. Bely, Yu. P. Annenkov, V. F. Khodasevich, Z. N. Gippius, M. I. Tsvetaeva, I. V. Odoevtseva, and other authors.

2. individual task (3 students). Prepare "literary business cards" about the life and work of M. Gorky:

Autobiographical trilogy ("Childhood", "In People", "My Universities");

“We sing glory to the madness of the brave!” ("Song of the Falcon");

“The whole of Greece and Rome ate only literature: there were no schools, in our sense, at all! And how they have grown. Literature is actually the only school of the people, and it can be the only and sufficient school…” V. Rozanov.

D. S. Likhachev “Russian literature ... has always been the conscience of the people. Her place in the public life of the country has always been honorable and influential. She educated people and strove for a just reorganization of life. D. Likhachev.

Ivan Bunin The word The tombs, mummies and bones are silent, - Life is given only to the word: From the ancient darkness, on the world churchyard, Only Letters sound. And we have no other property! Know how to take care of it Even to the best of your ability, in the days of malice and suffering, Our immortal gift is speech.

General characteristics of the era The first question that arises when referring to the topic "Russian literature of the XX century" is from what moment to count the XX century. According to the calendar, from 1900 - 1901. ? But it is obvious that a purely chronological boundary, although significant in itself, gives almost nothing in the sense of delimiting epochs. The first milestone of the new century is the revolution of 1905. But the revolution passed, there was some lull - until the First World War. Akhmatova recalled this time in "A Poem Without a Hero": And along the legendary embankment, the real twentieth century was approaching, not a calendar one ...

At the turn of the epochs, the attitude of a person who understood that the previous era had gone forever became different. Russia's socio-economic and general cultural prospects began to be assessed quite differently. The new era was defined by contemporaries as "frontier". The former forms of life, labor, and socio-political organization became history. The established system of spiritual values, which had previously seemed unchanged, was radically revised. It is not surprising that the edge of the era was symbolized by the word "Crisis". This "fashionable" word roamed the pages of journalistic and literary-critical articles along with the words "revival", "break", "crossroads", etc., which are close in meaning. Innokenty Annensky

Fiction also did not stand aside from public passions. Her social engagement was clearly manifested in the characteristic titles of her works - "Without a Road", "On the Turn" by V. Veresaev, "The Sunset of the Old Century" by A. Amfiteatrov, "At the Last Line" by M. Artsybashev. On the other hand, most of the creative elite felt their era as a time of unprecedented achievements, where literature was given a significant place in the history of the country. Creativity seemed to fade into the background, giving way to the worldview and social position of the author, his connection and participation in Mikhail Artsebashev

The end of the 19th century revealed the deepest crisis phenomena in the economy of the Russian Empire. The reform of 1861 by no means decided the fate of the peasantry, who dreamed of "land and freedom." This situation led to the emergence in Russia of a new revolutionary doctrine - Marxism, which staked on the growth of industrial production and a new progressive class - the proletariat. In politics, this meant a transition to an organized struggle of cohesive masses, the result of which was to be the violent overthrow of the state system and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The former methods of the Narodnik Enlighteners and Narodnik terrorists have finally become a thing of the past. Marxism offered a radically different, scientific method, thoroughly developed theoretically. It is no coincidence that "Capital" and other works of Karl Marx have become reference books for many young people who in their thoughts sought to build an ideal "Kingdom of Justice".

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the idea of ​​a man-rebel, a man-demiurge, capable of transforming the era and changing the course of history, is reflected in the philosophy of Marxism. This appears most clearly in the work of Maxim Gorky and his followers, who persistently brought to the fore the Man with a capital letter, the master of the earth, a fearless revolutionary who challenges not only social injustice, but also the Creator himself. The rebellious heroes of the writer's novels, short stories and plays ("Foma Gordeev", "Philistines", "Mother") absolutely and irrevocably reject the Christian humanism of Dostoevsky and Tolstoy about suffering and purification by it. Gorky believed that revolutionary activity in the name of reorganizing the world transforms and enriches the inner world of a person. Illustration for M. Gorky's novel "Foma Gordeev" Artists Kukryniksy. 1948 -1949

Another group of cultural figures cultivated the idea of ​​a spiritual revolution. The reason for this was the assassination of Alexander II on March 1, 1881 and the defeat of the 1905 revolution. Philosophers and artists called for the inner perfection of man. In the national characteristics of the Russian people, they looked for ways to overcome the crisis of positivism, whose philosophy became widespread at the beginning of the 20th century. In their quest, they sought to find new ways of development that could transform not only Europe, but the whole world. At the same time, an incredible, unusually bright take-off of Russian religious and philosophical thought takes place. In 1909, a group of philosophers and religious publicists, including N. Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, and others, published a philosophical and journalistic collection "Milestones", whose role in the intellectual history of Russia in the 20th century is invaluable. "Milestones" even today seem to us as if sent from the future, "- this is exactly what another great thinker and truth seeker Alexander Solzhenitsyn will say about them. "Milestones" revealed the danger of mindless service to any kind of theoretical principles, exposing the moral inadmissibility of faith in universal significance social ideals. In turn, they criticized the natural weakness of the revolutionary path, emphasizing its danger to the Russian people. However, the blindness of society turned out to be much worse. Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev

The First World War turned into a catastrophe for the country, pushing it towards an inevitable revolution. February 1917 and the anarchy that followed led to the October Revolution. As a result, Russia has acquired a completely different face. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the main background of literary development was tragic social contradictions, as well as the dual combination of difficult economic modernization and the revolutionary movement. Changes in science took place at a rapid pace, philosophical ideas about the world and man changed, arts close to literature developed rapidly. Scientific and philosophical views at certain stages of the history of culture radically influence the creators of the word, who sought to reflect the paradoxes of the time in their works.

The crisis of historical ideas was expressed in the loss of a universal starting point, one or another worldview foundation. No wonder the great German philosopher and philologist F. Nietzsche uttered his key phrase: "God is dead." She speaks of the disappearance of a strong worldview support, indicating the onset of the era of relativism, when the crisis of faith in the unity of the world order reaches its climax. This crisis greatly contributed to the search for Russian philosophical thought, which experienced an unprecedented flowering at that time. V. Solovyov, L. Shestov, N. Berdyaev, S. Bulgakov, V. Rozanov and many other philosophers had a strong influence on the development of various spheres of Russian culture. Some of them also showed themselves in literary work. Important in Russian philosophy of that time was the appeal to epistemological and ethical issues. Many thinkers have focused their attention on the spiritual world of the individual, interpreting life in categories close to literature, such as life and destiny, conscience and love, insight and delusion. Together, they led a person to an understanding of the diversity of real, practical and internal, spiritual experience.

The pictures of artistic trends and trends have changed dramatically. The former smooth transition from one stage to another, when at a certain stage of literature any one direction dominated, has gone into oblivion. Now different aesthetic systems existed simultaneously. In parallel with each other, realism and modernism, the largest literary movements, developed. But at the same time, realism was a complex complex of several "realisms". Modernism, on the other hand, was characterized by extreme internal instability: various currents and groupings were continuously transformed, emerged and disintegrated, united and differentiated. Literature, as it were, "became ruined." That is why, in relation to the art of the beginning of the 20th century, the classification of phenomena on the basis of "directions and currents" is obviously conditional, non-absolute.

A specific sign of the culture of the turn of the century is the active interaction of various types of art. The theatrical art flourished at this time. The opening in 1898 of the Art Theater in Moscow was an event of great cultural significance. On October 14, 1898, the first performance of A. K. Tolstoy's play "Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich" took place on the stage of the Hermitage Theater. In 1902, at the expense of the largest Russian philanthropist S. T. Morozov, the well-known building of the Moscow Art Theater was built (architect F. O. Shekhtel). K. S. Stanislavsky and V. I. Nemirovich stood at the origins of the new theater. Danchenko. In his speech addressed to the troupe at the opening of the theater, Stanislavsky especially emphasized the need for the democratization of the theater, bringing it closer to life. theater emblem. The modern dramaturgy of Chekhov and Gorky formed the basis of his repertoire in the early years of its existence. The principles of stage art developed by the Art Theater and being part of the general struggle for a new realism had a great influence on the theatrical life of Russia as a whole.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, Russian literature became aesthetically multilayered. Realism at the turn of the century remained a large-scale and influential literary movement. So, Tolstoy and Chekhov lived and worked in this era. The brightest talents among the new realists belonged to the writers who united in the Moscow circle Sreda in the 1890s, and in the early 1900s, who formed the circle of permanent authors of the Znanie publishing house, M. Gorky was the de facto leader. Over the years, it included L. Andreev, I. Bunin, V. Veresaev, N. Garin-Mikhailovsky, A. Kuprin, I. Shmelev and other writers. The significant influence of this group of writers was due to the fact that it inherited the traditions of the Russian literary heritage of the 19th century to the fullest extent. A. Chekhov's experience turned out to be especially important for the next generation of realists. A. P. Chekhov. Yalta. 1903

Themes and Heroes of Realist Literature The thematic spectrum of the works of realists at the turn of the century is undoubtedly wider, in contrast to their predecessors. For most writers at this time, thematic constancy is uncharacteristic. The rapid changes in Russia forced them to take a different approach to the subject, to invade previously reserved layers of topics. Significantly updated in realism and the typology of characters. Outwardly, the writers followed the tradition: in their works one could find easily recognizable types of "little man" or an intellectual who had experienced a spiritual drama. The characters got rid of sociological averageness, became more diverse in terms of psychological characteristics and attitude. The "diversity of the soul" of a Russian person is a constant motif of I. Bunin's prose. He was one of the first in realism to use foreign material in his works ("The Brothers", "Chang's Dreams", "The Gentleman from San Francisco"). The same became characteristic of M. Gorky, E. Zamyatin and others. The work of A. I. Kuprin (1870 -1938) is unusually wide in terms of the variety of subjects and human characters. The heroes of his novels and stories are soldiers, fishermen, spies, porters, horse thieves, provincial musicians, actors, circus performers, telegraph operators.

Genres and style features of realistic prose The genre system and style of realistic prose were significantly updated at the beginning of the 20th century. The main place in the genre hierarchy was occupied at that time by the most mobile stories and essays. The novel practically disappeared from the genre repertoire of realism, giving way to the story. Starting with the work of A. Chekhov, the importance of the formal organization of the text has noticeably grown in realistic prose. Some techniques and elements of form received greater independence in the artistic structure of the work. So, for example, an artistic detail was used more diversely. At the same time, the plot increasingly lost its significance as the main compositional means and began to play a subordinate role. In the period from 1890 to 1917, three literary movements, symbolism, acmeism and futurism, were especially pronounced, which formed the basis of modernism as a literary movement.

Modernism in the artistic culture of the turn of the century was a complex phenomenon. Within it, several trends can be distinguished that are different in their aesthetics and program settings (symbolism, acmeism, futurism, egofuturism, cubism, suprematism, etc.). But in general, according to philosophical and aesthetic principles, modernist art opposed realism, especially the realistic art of the 19th century. However, the art of modernism, in its literary process of the turn of the century, in terms of value is artistic and moral, was largely determined by the common, for most major artists, desire for our richest cultural heritage and, above all, freedom from aesthetic normativity, overcoming it is not a problem. contains the silver kvek of Russian culture. only the literary cliches of the previous era, but also the new artistic canons that took shape in their nearest literary environment. The literary school (trend) and creative individuality are the two key categories of the literary process of the early 20th century. To understand the work of one or another author, it is essential to know the nearest aesthetic context - the context of a literary movement or grouping.

The literary process of the turn of the century was largely determined by the common, for most major artists, desire for freedom from aesthetic normativity, to overcome not only the literary clichés of the previous era, but also the new artistic canons that took shape in their nearest literary environment. The literary school (trend) and creative individuality are the two key categories of the literary process of the early 20th century. To understand the work of one or another author, it is essential to know the nearest aesthetic context - the context of a literary movement or grouping.

History of foreign literature of the late XIX - early XX century Zhuk Maxim Ivanovich

The specifics of the literary process of the late XIX - early XX century

All the complexity and inconsistency of the historical and cultural development of the turn of the century was reflected in the art of this era and, in particular, in literature. There are several specific features that characterize literary process of the late XIX - early XX century.

the literary panorama of the turn of the century is distinguished by its exceptional saturation, brightness, artistic and aesthetic innovation. Literary trends and trends are developing, such as realism, naturalism, symbolism, aestheticism and neo-romanticism. The emergence of a large number of new trends and methods in art was the result of changes in the minds of people at the turn of the century. As you know, art is one of the ways to explain the world. In the turbulent era of the late 20th - early 20th centuries, artists, writers, poets develop new ways and techniques of depicting a person and the world in order to describe and interpret a rapidly changing reality.

Themes and problems of verbal art expand due to discoveries made in different fields of knowledge(Ch. Darwin, K. Bernard, W. James). Philosophical and social concepts of the world and man (O. Comte, I. Tan, G. Spencer, A. Schopenhauer, F. Nietzsche) were actively transferred by many writers to the field of literature, determined their worldview and poetics.

Literature at the turn of the century enriched in terms of genre. A great variety of forms is observed in the field of the novel, which was represented by a wide range of genre varieties: science fiction (G. Wells), socio-psychological (G. de Maupassant, T. Dreiser, D. Galsworthy), philosophical (A. France, O . Wilde), socio-utopian (H. Wells, D. London). The popularity of the genre of the short story is reviving (G. de Maupassant, R. Kipling, T. Mann, D. London, O. Henry, A.P. Chekhov), dramaturgy is on the rise (G. Ibsen, B. Shaw, G. Hauptman, A. Strindberg, M. Maeterlinck, A.P. Chekhov, M. Gorky).

With regard to new trends in the novel genre, the emergence of the epic novel is indicative. The desire of writers to comprehend the complex spiritual and social processes of their time contributed to the creation of dilogies, trilogies, tetralogies, multi-volume epics (“Rougon-Macquart”, “Three Cities” and “Four Gospels” by E. Zola, a dilogy about Abbé Jerome Coignard and “Modern History” A Frans, “The Trilogy of Desire” by Comrade Dreiser, a cycle about the Forsytes by D. Galsworthy).

An essential feature of the literary development of the era of the turn of the century was interaction of national literatures. In the last third of the 19th century, a dialogue between Russian and Western European literature emerged: the work of L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Turgenev, F.M. Dostoevsky, A.P. Chekhov, M. Gorky had a fruitful influence on such foreign artists as G. de Maupassant, D. Galsworthy, K. Hamsun, Comrade Dreiser and many others. The problems, aesthetics and universal pathos of Russian literature turned out to be relevant for Western society at the turn of the century. It is no coincidence that direct contacts between Russian and foreign writers deepened and expanded during this period: personal meetings, correspondence.

In turn, Russian prose writers, poets and playwrights followed European and American literature with great attention, and adopted the creative experience of foreign writers. As you know, A.P. Chekhov relied on the achievements of G. Ibsen and G. Hauptmann, and in his novelistic prose - on G. de Maupassant. Undoubtedly, the influence of French symbolist poetry on the work of Russian symbolist poets (K. Balmont, V. Bryusov, A. Blok).

Another important part of the literary process at the turn of the century is the involvement of writers in the events of social and political life. In this regard, the participation of E. Zola and A. France in the Dreyfus affair, M. Twain's protest against the Spanish-American War, R. Kipling's support for the Anglo-Boer War, B. Shaw's anti-war position in relation to the First World War are indicative.

The unique feature of this literary epoch is perception of being in paradoxes, which is especially clearly reflected in the work of O. Wilde, B. Shaw, M. Twain. Paradox has become not only a favorite artistic technique of writers, but also an element of their worldview. Paradox has the ability to reflect the complexity, ambiguity of the world, so it is no coincidence that it becomes such a sought-after element of a work of art precisely at the turn of the century. An example of a paradoxical perception of reality can be many plays by B. Shaw (“Widower’s House”, “Mrs. Warren’s Profession”, etc.), short stories by M. Twain (“How I Was Chosen for Governor”, ​​“The Hours”, etc.), aphorisms O . Wilde.

Writers expand the scope of the depicted in a work of art. First of all, this concerns naturalist writers (J. and E. de Goncourt, E. Zola). They turn to the image of the life of the lower classes of society (prostitutes, beggars, vagabonds, criminals, alcoholics), to the description of the physiological aspects of human life. In addition to naturalists, the area of ​​the depicted is expanded by symbolist poets (P. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud, S. Mallarme), who sought to express the inexpressible content of being in a lyrical work.

An important feature of the literature of this period is transition from an objective image of reality to a subjective one. For the work of many writers of this era (G. James, J. Conrad, J. - C. Huysmans, R. M. Rilke, late G. de Maupassant), the paramount is not the recreation of objective reality, but the image of the subjective perception of the world by a person.

It is important to note that interest in the field of the subjective was first indicated in such a direction of painting at the end of the 19th century as impressionism, which had a great influence on the work of many writers and poets of the turn of the century (for example, such as E. Zola, G. de Maupassant, P. Verlaine, S. Mallarme, O. Wilde, etc.).

Impressionism(from the French impression- impression) - a direction in art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, based on the artist's desire to convey his subjective impressions, depict reality in its endless mobility, variability, capture the richness of nuances. The major Impressionist painters were Ed. Manet, C. Monet, E. Degas, O. Renoir, A. Sisley, P. Cezanne, C. Pissarro and others.

The Impressionist painters tried not to depict the object, but to convey your impression of the object, those. express subjective perception of reality. The masters of this trend sought to impartially and as naturally and freshly as possible to capture a fleeting impression of a fast-moving, constantly changing life. The subjects of the paintings for the artists were secondary, they took them from everyday life, which they knew well: city streets, artisans at work, rural landscapes, familiar and familiar buildings, etc. The Impressionists rejected the canons of beauty that gravitated over academic painting and created their own.

The most important literary and cultural concept of the era of the turn of the century is decadence(late lat. decadentia- decline) - the general name of the crisis, pessimistic, decadent moods and destructive tendencies in art and culture. Decadence is not a specific direction, trend or style, it is a general depressive state of culture, it is the spirit of an era expressed in art.

Decadent features include: pessimism, rejection of reality, the cult of sensual pleasures, the loss of moral values, the aestheticization of extreme individualism, unlimited freedom of the individual, fear of life, an increased interest in the processes of dying, decay, poetization of suffering and death. An important sign of decadence is the indistinguishability or confusion of such categories as beautiful and ugly, pleasure and pain, morality and immorality, art and life.

In the most distinct form, the motives of decadence in the art of the late XIX - early XX century can be seen in the novel by J. - C. Huysmans "On the contrary" (1883), O. Wilde's play "Salome" (1893), graphics by O. Beardsley. Separate features of decadence marked the work of D.G. Rossetti, P. Verlaine, A. Rimbaud, S. Mallarme, M. Maeterlinck and others.

The list of names shows that the mindset of decadence affected the work of a significant part of the artists of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, including many major masters of art, whose work as a whole cannot be reduced to decadence. Decadent tendencies are revealed in transitional epochs, when one ideology, having exhausted its historical possibilities, is replaced by another. The outdated type of thinking no longer meets the requirements of reality, and the other has not yet formed enough to satisfy social and intellectual needs. This gives rise to moods of anxiety, uncertainty, disappointment. this was the case during the decline of the Roman Empire, in Italy at the end of the 16th century, and in European countries at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

The source of the crisis mentality of the intelligentsia at the turn of the century was the confusion of many artists before the sharp contradictions of the era, before the rapidly and paradoxically developing civilization, which was in an intermediate position between the past and the future, between the outgoing 19th century and the 20th century that had not yet come.

Concluding the review of the specific features of the literature of the turn of the century, it should be noted that the diversity of literary trends, genres, forms, styles, the expansion of themes, problems and scope of the depicted, innovative changes in poetics - all this was the result of the complex paradoxical nature of the era. Experimenting in the field of new artistic techniques and methods, developing traditional ones, the art of the late 19th - early 20th centuries tried to explain the rapidly changing life, to choose the most appropriate words and forms for a dynamic reality.