Lecture 1. Russian romanticism

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1. Historical background for the emergence of romanticism

2. General characteristics of the flow

3. Romantic innovation

4. Typology of Russian romanticism

5. The difference between Russian romanticism and European

Literature

1. Berkovsky N.Ya. Romanticism in Germany

2. Gurevich A.M. Romanticism in Russian Literature. –M., 1980.

4. Gulyaev N.A. Literary trends and methods in Russian and foreign literature of the 17th-19th centuries. –M., 83.

5. Mann Yu.V. Poetics of Russian romanticism. –M.: Nauka, 1976.

6. On the history of Russian romanticism. –M.: Nauka, 1973.

7. Russian romanticism: Textbook. allowance for stud-s un-s and ped. Institutes / Ed. N.A. Gulyaeva. –M.: Higher. school, 1974.

I. Romanticism as a literary trend developed in the late 18th - first quarter of the 19th century. Romanticism established itself in life under the influence of certain socio-historical circumstances, penetrated into the minds of people, covering various areas: literature, music, painting, history, aesthetics, morality.

Romanticism arose in Europe in the transitional era of post-revolutionary changes (Fr.
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revolution of 1789), the Napoleonic wars, the formation of capitalist relations. Despite the fact that the bourgeois transformations did not bring the expected results, the beginning of the revolution in romantic circles was enthusiastically received; there was a belief that she would bring freedom with her.

In Russia, the emergence of romanticism takes place in other conditions than in Western Europe, and is associated with the events of the Patriotic War of 1812 - the upheavals of the progressive people of that time, their disappointment in the existing autocratic-feudal order. The progressive views consisted in the hope for the beneficence of socio-historical changes.

II. 1. Romantics tried to free the individual from the enslavement of her social and material circumstances. Οʜᴎ dreamed of a society where the spiritual principle would be primary. For this reason, they criticized the existing reality, or completely denied it. Asocial tendencies in the works of romantics are the result of their critical attitude to reality. Οʜᴎ dream of an extra-social existence. In addition, the development of the capitalist formation did not justify the optimistic hopes of the romantics. There is a longing for a failed ideal, which was possible either in the past, or in the other world, or in the distant future. Hence the interest of romantics in history and fantasy.

I am the world of my own soul

REALITY - P - past

F - fantasy

2. Romanticism liberated the human soul (Schelling said that the human spirit is uninhibited), there is great interest in a person as a person. Romantics believed that a person is fraught with a lot of great opportunities that are hidden and do not receive development.

3. There is a certain ambivalence in the appeal to history. On the one hand, the romantics were critical of history: its development was not accompanied by the growth of spiritual freedom. From here - cult of ʼʼnatural manʼʼ, departure into the prehistoric past of the life of peoples, when the laws of nature were in force, and not the rules established by civilization (A.S. Pushkin. The peoples of the Caucasus in the ʼʼPrisoner of the Caucasusʼʼ, the gypsies in ʼʼGypsiesʼʼ). Accordingly, the romantic hero feels free not in a secular salon, but outside of society (in a camp, with Indians, in the bosom of nature, etc.).

On the other hand, the romantics willingly used historical material, but the historical fact did not interest the romantics. 1) They were interested in historical flavor, national roots. 2) They used historical material as a form of negation of the feudal and capitalist formation, ᴛ.ᴇ. as a form of political rebellion. For this reason, the historical fact was interpreted poetically, not as historical reality, but as legends, legends.

4. Since there is no place for romantic harmony in the emerging reality, a well-known (romantic) conflict of ideal (dream) and reality, opposition between what is and what is possible. This conflict characterizes the romantic dual world, ᴛ.ᴇ. ʼʼconsciousness of the polarity of the ideal and reality, a sense of a gap, an abyss between them, and on the other hand, a thirst for their reunionʼʼ (A.M. Gurevich, p. 7). This is one of the most essential features of romanticism, which determines its deep pathos.

5. From the denial of the omnipotence of reason and reality, a romantic hero is born.

Romantic hero - ϶ᴛᴏ a hero who is in a hostile relationship with the surrounding society. He is lonely in his contemporary life, considers himself ʼʼa person outside the social environmentʼʼ (F. Lessing). Opposes the cult of things, service career, philistine existence, ᴛ.ᴇ. everything unspiritual in society. This is a non-domestic person, it is in connection with this that he is most often lonely and tragic. The romantic hero is the embodiment of rebellion against reality. This is a hero who knew ʼʼonly one fiery passionʼʼ. On it lies the trait of being chosen, distinguished.

The romantic hero rebels against 1) a reality that does not suit him (the English type of romanticism); 2) rebels against the whole world, life, the ideal in the other world (the German type of romanticism).

The unusualness of the hero is expressed in everything: in the portrait (burning eyes, pale brow, dark hair); deeds (captive, wanderer).

The romantic hero is shown against the backdrop of unusual nature: the sea, mountains, elements, forests. Unusual ups and downs associated with the hero himself.

6. Despising the crowd (those who live in everyday worries), the romantics were interested in exceptional people, titanic and powerful personalities. (Hence the opposition between the genius and the crowd).

7. Departing from reality, romantics paid a special place in their work exotic , ĸᴏᴛᴏᴩᴏᴇ, in their opinion, transcends reality. Everything distant in time and space becomes for them a synonym for the poetic, therefore, the despised ʼʼhereʼʼ is opposed to the mysterious ʼʼthereʼʼ.

8. Since the focus of romantic writers is the human personality, its spiritual world, they, as a rule, depict a person in tense life situations. From here - acute drama and psychologism of romantic literature.

9. One of the principles of romanticism is programming, which includes certain leitmotifs that are repeated throughout the entire work of a particular poet (for example, V.A. Zhukovsky sings of friendship, love (elegies, songs), expresses his aesthetic view - elegy ʼʼEveningʼʼ).

10. Romantic cult - the cult of the poet and poetry. Since the poetic feeling is a means of knowing the truth, then the affirmation of the poetic, lofty beginning of life is the life calling of the poet. The true purpose of art, from the point of view of romantics, is the service of the beautiful, the good, the truly human.

11. The duality of the romantic worldview (spirit and matter, the real world and the unreal world) led to the image of life in sharp contrasts. The presence of contrast is one of the characteristic features of romanticism.

111 . 1. Romantics turned to fantasy.

Romantic writers saw life as a mysterious, real realm of the supernatural. For this reason, the most ordinary life phenomena could receive a fantastic explanation. It seemed to some that demonic forces that were not subject to time and reason controlled life (Hoffmann, Poe).

2. Interest in folklore.

For the first time with the advent of romanticism, folklore began to appear in secular literature. They turned to folklore genres: fairy tales (Ch. Perro, V.A. Zhukovsky), thoughts (K.F. Ryleev), songs. Many legends were recounted in their works (for example, the ballads of V.A. Zhukovsky)

3. Interest in literary translation. The task was not to create an exact copy of the translated text, but to act as a rival of the translated author.

4. Introduced historicism into literary circulation. As already mentioned, the historicism of the romantics was arbitrary, they were interested in historical flavor, and not in history itself. Often depicted modern characters against the backdrop of the historical past (Scott, Hugo, Dumas).

The originality of the views of the romantics on history (history was not understood as an objective, self-developing process) gave rise to the conviction that the movement of life can be directed along the desired channel the efforts of heroic individuals.

5. The spread of romanticism led to the birth of new and transformation of old poetic genres (elegy, ballad (Zhukovsky, Katenin), poem (Byron, Pushkin), epistle, tragedy, historical novel (Scott, Hugo, Zagoskin) - traditional genres for romantics). Lyricism has become a genre that has subjugated all others in the system of romanticism, since lyrics depict the world of the soul.

1U. There are several stages in the development of Russian romanticism. Maymin E.A. speaks of two stages in the ascent of romanticism. First associated with the war of 1812, which gave rise to the poetry of Zhukovsky, Pushkin, the Decembrists.

Second wave - after the reaction to the uprising of 1825 ᴦ. The defeat of the uprising caused skepticism and disappointment, the denial of old values. Poets sought to escape from the real world into the world of philosophical ideas. This is due to the lack of social and political ideals in life.

Gurevich points to three main periods in the development of romanticism

1. 1801 - 1815 - the period of the emergence of the romantic trend in Russia (in the depths of classicism and sentimentalism)

2. 1816 - 1825 - a time of intensive development (becomes an event in literary life)

3. 1826-1840 - the post-December period - romanticism is most widespread in Russian literature: it acquires new features, conquers new genres. Romantic moods deepened significantly at this time, and Russian romantics finally broke with the traditions of classicism and sentimentalism. Experiencing the impact of the new lit. method - realism and themselves influence it. The struggle ends by the mid-40s.

Some scientists talk about the following stages (from a lecture by G.M. Samoilova):

1. Pre-romanticism (Nik. Dm. Muravyov)

2. The birth of romanticism (associated with ʼʼRural Cemeteryʼʼ Zhukovsky, 1802).

3. The development of romanticism, the 10s. It was at this time that the differentiation of romanticism took place.

4. 20s - heyday.

5. 30s. Characterized by the emergence of realism, interest in the romantic method of depicting reality is weakening.

6. 40s - the decline of romanticism. Belinsky took an active part in the fight against romanticism.

7. 50s - a departure from romanticism.

But he never completely disappeared from literary life. It was preserved in many of its features in the works of Fet Tyutchev, Polonsky, in the works of the Symbolists.

Until now, there is a dispute in science about the typological scheme of Russian romanticism. Traditionally, romantics are divided into 2 currents: active(revolutionary) and passive(contemplative). Active - a protest against the evil reigning in the world and the mood of struggle; passive - the idea of ​​the dominance in the world of some higher forces that are inaccessible to the human mind. Hence the idea of ​​the extreme importance of obeying fate. General: are united in their denial of the existing society, calculation, vulgarity, boredom.

This scheme is of a general nature, since the work of many romantics does not fit into the framework of this scheme (for example, the philosophical romanticism of Venevitinov).

Focht proposed a detailed scheme of Russian romanticism

abstract psychological variety (Zhukovsky, Kozlov)

hedonistic variety (Batyushkov)

civil (Pushkin, Ryleev, Odoevsky, Kuchelbecker)

social (N. Polevoy)

philosophical (Venevitinov, Baratynsky)

synthetic romanticism (Lermontov)

pseudo-romanticism (Puppeteer, Zagoskin)

Maymin E.A. offers his scheme:

Romanticism of Zhukovsky (conditionally contemplative)

Civil, revolutionary romanticism of the Decembrists

Pushkin's romanticism is synthetic

· Lermontov's romanticism is a synthesis of rebellious, philosophical, civil, ʼʼByronicʼʼ.

Samoilova G.M. talks about 5 types of romanticism.

Elegiac (Zhukovsky)

Antique (Batyushkova)

Renaissance (Pushkin)

Philosophical (Venevitinov, Baratynsky, Odoevsky)

Revolutionary (Ryleev, B.-Marlinsky, Kuchelbecker).

U. 1. Russian romanticism was in its development along the path of ever greater convergence with life. Studying reality in its concrete historical, national identity, the Romantics gradually revealed the secrets of the historical process. Οʜᴎ were looking for springs of historical development in social factors.

2. Russian romanticism was different from Western European. The monograph by A.M. Gurevich (p.11-12) points out two distinctive features

First of all, less distinctness, severity of basic features, properties of romanticism. (ʼʼRom.ideas, moods and artistic forms are presented in Russian literature as if in a softened version. There has not yet been a suitable social history for their full development.
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soil, no relevant cultural traditions, no sufficient cultural experience.)

Secondly, a closer (compared to Europe) connection with other lit. directions. (The swiftness of the movement of Russian literature led to some vagueness, blurring of the boundaries between the artistic movements that arose in it. And romanticism was in close contact first with classicism and sentimentalism, then with the critical realism that was replacing it, was in some cases difficult to distinguish from them. In the work of Russians Romantics intersected heterogeneous literary traditions, mixed, transitional forms arose.)

3. E.A. Maimin believes that Russian romanticism differed from European in 2 ways:

1. Attitude towards mysticism.

2. The role of the individual, personal principle.

Russian romantics (with a few exceptions, for example, Zhukovsky) tried to avoid mysticism. Because they believed that the real is poetic not only by instinct, but also by reason. In addition, Russian romanticism never opposed itself to enlightenment, to enlightenment philosophy based on absolute trust in reason.

Among Russian romantics, attention to the individual, personal principle is noticeably weakened, a conciliar principle is characteristic. There was no cult of individualism (with some exceptions in Lermontov's poetry). Although the theme of individualism sounded, it was connected mainly with the image of Napoleon.

3. The problem of ʼʼlocal colorʼʼ was interpreted in Russian literature in different ways. In conservative magazines (for example, ʼʼVestnik Evropyʼʼ), it was considered in terms of outwardly decorative, as a reproduction of the everyday life of the costumes of the time.

N. Polevoy (publisher of the Moscow Telegraf ʼʼ) understood the ʼʼ local colorʼʼ more broadly, including here the image of the mores, passions, thoughts and feelings of the people.

4. Emancipation of a person in intimate life, erotica - also appears for the first time in romanticism. But in Russian romanticism, unlike in Europe, eroticism never turned into pornography. This is due to the Russian mentality and the Orthodox faith.

Lecture 1. Russian romanticism - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Lecture 1. Russian Romanticism" 2017, 2018.

Russian romanticism. Its features, representatives.

Zhukovsky and Batyushkov are the founders of Russian romanticism.

Poetry of the Decembrists. A. Griboedov "Woe from Wit". Romantic poetry of Pushkin.

Question 1. Russian romanticism was an organic part of pan-European romanticism, which was a movement that embraced all spheres of the spiritual life of society. Romanticism brought the emancipation of the individual, the human spirit, and creative thought. Romanticism did not reject the achievements of previous eras, it arose on a humanistic basis, incorporating much of the best that was achieved by the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. The most important principle of the aesthetics of romanticism was the idea of ​​self-worth of the individual.

The Romantic movement began in the 1790s in Germany (Schelling, Tieck, Novalis, Goethe, Schiller); since the 1810s - in England (Byron, Shelley, W. Scott, Blake, Wordsworth), and soon the romantic movement covers all of Europe, including France. Romanticism is not just a direction in literature - it is, first of all, a worldview, a worldview. Romanticism tends to oppose dreams and reality, ideal and reality. Real, rejected reality, romanticism opposes a certain higher, poetic principle. The antithesis "dream - reality" becomes constructive for romantics.

From the romantic denial of reality, a special romantic hero also arises. Previous literature did not know such a hero. This is a hero who is in hostile relations with society, opposed to the prose of life, opposed to the "crowd". This is a non-domestic, unusual, restless, lonely and tragic person. The romantic hero is the embodiment of a romantic rebellion against reality, he contains a protest and a challenge, a poetic and romantic dream is realized, which does not want to come to terms with the soulless and inhuman prose of life.

Romantic poets and writers, for the most part, gravitated towards history, turned to historical material in their works. Romantics, turning to history, saw in it the foundations of national culture, its deep sources. In relation to the historical material, the Romantics felt quite free, they treated history freely and poetically. Romantics in history were looking not for reality, but for a dream, not for what was, but for what was desired, they not so much depicted a historical fact as constructed it in accordance with their social and aesthetic ideals.

All this led to the following features of romanticism:

romantic cult of the poet and poetry,

recognition of the exceptional role of poetry and the poetic principle in life,

affirmation of the high, exceptional, life calling of the poet.

Russian romanticism is a completely original phenomenon. The development of Russian romanticism was greatly influenced by national self-consciousness. However, romanticism in Russia did not develop in isolation, it was in close interaction with European romanticism, although it did not repeat it. Russian romanticism was part of pan-European romanticism, therefore, it could not but accept some of its generic properties and signs. Apollon Grigoriev wrote: “Romanticism, and, moreover, ours, Russian ... romanticism was not a simple literary, but a life phenomenon, an entire era of moral development, an era that had its own special color, carried out a special outlook in life ... Let the romantic trend come from outside, from Western life and Western literatures, it found in Russian nature the soil ready for its perception, and therefore was reflected in completely original phenomena ... ". If European romanticism was socially conditioned by the ideas and practice of the bourgeois revolution, then the sources of romantic mood and romantic art in Russia should be sought primarily in the Patriotic War of 1812, in its consequences for Russian life and Russian public consciousness. It was then that the soil appears for both the Decembrist and romantic moods.

Preromanticism. B.V. Tomashevsky wrote: “This word (pre-romanticism) is used to refer to those phenomena in the literature of classicism, in which there are some signs of a new direction that have received full expression in romanticism. Thus, pre-romanticism is a transitional phenomenon. All forms of classical poetry are still observed in it, but at the same time something that leads to romanticism is outlined. What are the signs that lead to romanticism? First of all, it is a clear expression of a personal attitude to what is being described; the depicted landscape among the pre-romantics has always been in harmony with the mood of the poet. Romanticism does not arise suddenly and not immediately. For example, Zhukovsky's lyrics grew directly in the depths of sentimentalism. Batyushkov's connection with sentimentalism was organic, although some features of classicism were preserved in his lyrics, in a transformed form. Zhukovsky was not only the first romantic in Russian literature, but to the end of his life he was invariably devoted to the dream of a “different”, “better world”, his romantic ideal.

Romanticism is a multifaceted phenomenon; it was not homogeneous within the framework of one national culture, even within the same historical period. If in the romanticism of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov the contemplative-dreamy principle prevails, then the defining feature of Lermontov's romanticism is intense psychologism - a genuine discovery of Lermontov's romanticism. Philosophical Romanticism - Odoevsky, the head of the literary and philosophical circle of "philosophers", the philosophers were fond of German romanticism. The romantic in Odoevsky was combined with a stubborn "seeker of truth", with a passionate desire to reach the innermost secrets of the "human soul". The work of Venevitinov, who is prone to "philosophical contemplation", is also connected with the activities of the circle of "lubomudry". The work of poets of the Pushkin galaxy is connected to varying degrees with the romantic trend: Vyazemsky, Delvig, Davydov, Yazykov. Russian romanticism is an organic part of the pan-European movement of romanticism, whose representatives were Schiller and Heine, Byron and Shelley, George Sand and Hugo. This is the romanticism of “suffering thoughts”, “spiritual thirst”, “rebellious dreams”, romanticism, which has tremendous social activity. » Russian romanticism, like the Western European one, created enduring aesthetic values.

Russian poetry of the 1/3 of the 19th century went its own way - the way of translations. Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Pushkin, Lermontov translated the poems of Goethe, Schiller, Byron, Petrarch, Ariosto. Zhukovsky translated German poets, Batyushkov - Italian, Pushkin and Lermontov - French and English. The Russian language, as it were, was "washed" by other European languages, little-known names became famous in Russia. All these poetic translations were not translations in the strict sense of the word, on the contrary, it was a kind of transformation of European poetry, its adaptation to Russian soil.

At the beginning of the 19th century, Russian cultural life was seething, there was no rigid tradition, there was a kind of breaking of all foundations, starting with the language, life itself was deprived of any kind of stability. In Russian literature, a peculiar movement towards its own romanticism begins.

Romanticism as a literary style always depends on the political situation: in Europe, the emergence of romanticism was influenced by the French Revolution. At the same time, Russian romanticism differed significantly from European: in France, Napoleon becomes a dictator; in England, Italy, Spain - romanticism was the result of disappointments, since a person did not receive any freedom, and even more so equality. Romantic heroes rebelled against society, the whole world, the universe, sometimes even God himself. Thus, a romantic conflict is a conflict of the individual with society, with the whole world, a conflict of everyday life and the world of dreams, the world of the ideal.

Russian romanticism was different, although it undoubtedly relied on the artistic conquests that had been achieved in Western European romanticism. Russian romanticism was optimistic in its pathos, based and based on faith in the individual, believed in the spiritual possibilities of the individual. Already at the beginning of the 19th century, three trends appeared in Russia that would become leading in Russian romanticism:

elegiac romanticism (Zhukovsky and Batyushkov),

civil romanticism (poets-Decembrists: Ryleev, Kuchelbeker, Bestuzhev)

philosophical romanticism (poets-wise: Venevitinov).

Romanticism is a literary trend that appeared in Western Europe at the end of the 18th century. Romanticism, as a literary movement, implies the creation of an exceptional hero and exceptional circumstances. Such trends in literature were formed as a result of the collapse of all the ideas of the Enlightenment period due to the crisis in Europe, which came as a result of the unfulfilled hopes of the French Revolution.

In Russia, romanticism as a literary trend first appeared after the Patriotic War of 1812. After the dizzying victory over the French, many progressive minds expected changes in the state system. The refusal of Alexander I to lobby for liberal politics gave rise not only to the Decembrist uprising, but also to changes in public consciousness and literary preferences.

Russian romanticism is a conflict of the individual with reality, society and dreams, desires. But dream and desire are subjective concepts, therefore romanticism, as one of the most freedom-loving literary movements, had two main currents:

• conservative;
• revolutionary.

The personality of the era of romanticism is endowed with a strong character, a passionate zeal for everything new and unrealizable. The new man tries to live ahead of those around him in order to speed up the knowledge of the world by leaps and bounds.

Russian romanticism

Revolutionaries of Romanticism in the first half of the 19th century. direct "their face" into the future, strive to embody the ideas of struggle, equality and universal happiness of people. A prominent representative of revolutionary romanticism was K.F. Ryleev, in whose works the image of a strong man was formed. His human hero is zealously ready to defend the fiery ideas of patriotism and the desire for the freedom of his fatherland. Ryleev was obsessed with the idea of ​​"equality and free thinking." It was these motifs that became the fundamental tendencies of his poetry, which is clearly seen in the thought “Death of Yermak”.

The conservatives of romanticism drew the plots of their masterpieces mainly from the past, as they took the epic direction as a literary basis, or they indulged in oblivion of the afterlife. Such images took the reader to the land of imagination, dreams and reverie. A prominent representative of conservative romanticism was V.A. Zhukovsky. Sentimentalism became the basis of his works, where sensuality prevailed over reason, and the hero knew how to empathize, sensitively respond to what was happening around him. His first work was the elegy "Rural Cemetery", which was filled with landscape descriptions and philosophical reasoning.

A romantic in literary works pays great attention to the stormy elements, philosophical reasoning about human existence. Where circumstances do not affect the evolution of character, and spiritual culture gave rise to a special, new type of person in life.

The great representatives of romanticism were: E.A. Baratynsky, V.A. Zhukovsky, K.F. Ryleev, F.I. Tyutchev, V.K. Kuchelbecker, V.F. Odoevsky, I.I. Kozlov.

Romanticism in Russia differed from Western European in favor of a different historical setting and a different cultural tradition. The French Revolution cannot be counted as one of the causes of its occurrence; a very narrow circle of people had any hopes for transformations in its course. And the results of the revolution were completely disappointing. The question of capitalism in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. did not stand. Therefore, there was no such reason. The real reason was the Patriotic War of 1812, in which all the power of the people's initiative was manifested. But after the war, the people did not get the will. The best of the nobility, dissatisfied with reality, went to Senate Square in December 1825. This act also left its mark on the creative intelligentsia. The turbulent post-war years became the environment in which Russian romanticism was formed.

Features of Russian romanticism:

 Romanticism did not oppose the Enlightenment. Enlightenment ideology weakened, but did not collapse, as in Europe. The ideal of an enlightened monarch has not exhausted itself.

 Romanticism developed in parallel with classicism, often intertwining with it.

 Romanticism in Russia manifested itself in different ways in different types of art. In architecture, it was not read at all. In painting, it dried up by the middle of the 19th century. He showed up only partially in music. Perhaps only in literature romanticism manifested itself consistently.

Romanticism, and, moreover, ours, Russian, developed and molded into our original forms, romanticism was not a simple literary, but a life phenomenon, an entire era of moral development, an era that had its own special color, carried out a special outlook in life ... Let the romantic trend come from the outside, from Western life and Western literatures, it found in Russian nature the soil ready for its perception, and therefore was reflected in completely original phenomena, as the poet and critic Apollon Grigoriev assessed - this is a unique cultural phenomenon, and its characterization shows the essential complexity of romanticism , from the bowels of which the young Gogol came out and with whom he was associated not only at the beginning of his writing career, but throughout his life.

Apollon Grigoriev also accurately determined the nature of the impact of the romantic school on literature and life, including prose of that time: not a simple influence or borrowing, but a characteristic and powerful life and literary trend that gave completely original phenomena in young Russian literature.

a) Literature

Russian romanticism is usually divided into several periods: initial (1801-1815), mature (1815-1825) and the period of post-Decembrist development. However, in relation to the initial period, the conventionality of this scheme is striking. For the dawn of Russian romanticism is associated with the names of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, poets whose work and worldview are difficult to put side by side and compare within the same period, their goals, aspirations, temperaments are so different. In the poems of both poets, the imperious influence of the past, the era of sentimentalism, is still felt, but if Zhukovsky is still deeply rooted in it, then Batyushkov is much closer to new trends.

Russian romanticism was developed by the poets of the first half of the nineteenth century, and each poet brought something new. Russian romanticism was widely developed, acquired characteristic features, and became an independent trend in literature. In "Ruslan and Lyudmila" A.S. Pushkin there are lines: "There is a Russian spirit, there it smells of Russia." The same can be said about Russian romanticism. The heroes of romantic works are poetic souls striving for "high" and beautiful. But there is a hostile world that does not allow you to feel freedom, which leaves these souls incomprehensible. This world is rough, so the poetic soul flees to another, where there is an ideal, it strives for the “eternal”. Romanticism is based on this conflict. But the poets reacted differently to this situation. Zhukovsky, Pushkin, Lermontov, based on one thing, build the relationship of their heroes and the world around them in different ways, therefore their heroes had different paths to the ideal.

The search for an ideal is the main characteristic feature of romanticism. It manifested itself in the work of Zhukovsky, and Pushkin, and Lermontov. They introduced new concepts, new characters, new ideals, gave a complete picture of what freedom is, what real life is. Each of them represents its own path to the ideal, this is the right of choice for each individual.

The very emergence of romanticism was very disturbing. Human individuality now stood at the center of the whole world. The human "I" began to be interpreted as the basis and meaning of all existence. Human life began to be regarded as a work of art, art. Romanticism was very widespread in the 19th century. But not all poets who called themselves romantics conveyed the essence of this trend.

Now, at the end of the 20th century, we can already classify the romantics of the last century on this basis into two groups. One and probably the most extensive group is the one that united the “formal” romantics. It is difficult to suspect them of insincerity, on the contrary, they very accurately convey their feelings. Among them are Dmitry Venevitinov (1805-1827) and Alexander Polezhaev (1804-1838). These poets used the romantic form, considering it the most suitable for achieving their artistic goal.

Representatives of another group of romantics of the 19th century, of course, were A.S. Pushkin and M. Lermontov. These poets, on the contrary, filled the romantic form with their own content.

The romantic theme in Pushkin's work received two different options: there is a heroic romantic hero ("captive", "robber", "fugitive"), distinguished by a strong will, who went through a cruel test of violent passions, and there is a suffering hero in whom subtle emotional experiences are incompatible with the cruelty of the outside world ("exile", "prisoner").

It can be said that Pushkin and Lermontov did not manage to become romantics (though Lermontov once managed to comply with romantic laws - in the drama ‘Masquerade’). By their experiments, the poets showed that in England the position of an individualist could be fruitful, but not in Russia. Although Pushkin and Lermontov failed to become romantics, they paved the way for the development of realism. In 1825, the first realistic work was published: "Boris Godunov", then "The Captain's Daughter", "Eugene Onegin", "A Hero of Our Time" and many others.

The emergence and development of Russian romanticism. Its aesthetic essence and main currents. Which of the works that ambiguously resolve the issue of the genesis and essence of romanticism is close to you?

“In the 1820s. romanticism became the main event of literary life, struggle, the center of revival and noisy journal-critical controversy in Russia. Romanticism in Russia was formed before the country was to enter the period of bourgeois transformations. It reflected the disappointment of the Russian people in the existing order. It expressed the social forces that began to awaken, the desire for the growth of public self-awareness, ”Gurevich says about the emergence of romanticism in Russia in his book“ Romanticism in Russian Literature ”.

Maimin, in his book “On Russian Romanticism,” says that Russian romanticism was part of European romanticism, therefore, in Russian romanticism there are signs of European romanticism, but Russian romanticism also has its own origins. Namely, the war of 1812, its consequences for Russian life and self-awareness. “She showed,” Maimin writes, “the strength and greatness of the common people.” This was the basis for dissatisfaction with the slave way of life of the common people, and, as a result, for romantic and Decembrist moods.

The first who tried to make out what romanticism was were Pushkin and Ryleev, later the treatise of Georgievsky and Galich appears. In the works of Veselovsky, romanticism is seen as a manifestation of liberalism. Zamotin believes that romanticism is a manifestation, an expression of the idealistic in literature. Sipovsky defines romanticism as the individualism of the era. Sokurin says that this is irrealism. In 1957 there was a discussion on the problems of realism. On this soil appeared. collections and monographs on romanticism. One of the works is Sokolov's article "On the debate about romanticism", in which the author gives different points of view on romanticism and draws a not unimportant conclusion: each of the definitions contains a grain of truth, but not one of them "does not constitute a feeling of complete satisfaction" , because they are trying to define romanticism "by one of its attributes." Meanwhile, “all attempts to cover romanticism with some single formula will inevitably give an impoverished, one-sided, and therefore incorrect idea of ​​this literary phenomenon. It is necessary to reveal the system of signs of romanticism and to determine the phenomenon under study according to this system. And here, in turn, Mann makes his remark: the insufficiency of any differentiated approach to romanticism, the need to “reveal the system of signs” are noted by Sokolov correctly, but at the same time he does not explain the concept of systemicity as such. The idea of ​​romanticism, at the same time, will not become truer if we judge it "not on one basis", but on a number of grounds. There is no obligation in their enumeration: it can be interrupted and resumed at any time. Each new feature is on the same plane as all the previous ones, while the binding nature of their connection would be achieved only if we could penetrate "through them" into the very organization of the artistic phenomenon. Here it is impossible not to note Volkov's introductory article to the book "History of Russian Romanticism", in which the author sets himself the task of clarifying the concept of "romanticism" and "romance" taking into account various national literatures, referring to various works on romanticism, including Sokolov's article cited above. The ambiguity and contradictory nature of the theory and history of romanticism, he relates "more to the history of this problem than to the current state of its scientific solution." He says that many terms of romanticism have already disappeared, lost their significance, and, brushing aside them, he comes to the conclusion that in modern literary criticism there are only two meanings of the term "romanticism". One of them is "the concept of romanticism as the 'transformative' side of any truly artistic creation." This concept is most consistently and fully set out in the textbook by L.I. Timofeev "Fundamentals of the theory of literature". Volkov, in turn, says that although Timofeev’s theory of realism-romanticism affirms the unity of objective and subjective content in art, the cognitive and transformative functions of artistic creativity, the choice of the term “romanticism” to designate the transformative side of artistic creativity is clearly arbitrary. He explains this by the fact that the transforming side can be called sentimentalism, and expressionism and intellectualism, - after all, these terms, no less than romanticism, indicate precisely the subjective side of artistic creativity, and then the entire diversity of artistic creativity can be replaced by one of its specific historical forms. And then, within the framework of this theory, the term “romance” is more suitable (along with tragedy, satire, etc.). “One thing remains, the generally accepted meaning of the term “romanticism,” Sokolov continues, “that refers to the artistic system generated at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, and which in the first third of the 19th century constituted an entire era in the artistic development of mankind. The disputes that are going on at the present time about romanticism relate mainly to this, proper romantic art, and to the question of the possibility and existence of such art in subsequent times and in our days. Gurevich in his book “Romanticism in Russian Literature” writes: “Romanticism is a revolution in art. The era of romanticism itself is revolutionary, it is a time of great disappointments and expectations, a time of decisive changes in people's minds. Then he continues: “A characteristic feature of romanticism is dissatisfaction with reality, sometimes deep disappointment in it, deep doubt that life can be built on the principles of goodness, reason, justice. From here arises the dream of the reorganization of the world and man, the passionate desire for sublime idealization. “The unprecedented sharpness of the real and the ideal gives rise to a tense, tragic experience. This dual world is a defining feature of Romantic art.” Maimin also believes that romanticism is based on disappointment in reality. He considers the opposition of dreams and reality, of what is possible and what is, to be the deep primal point of romanticism. Gulyaev believes that romanticism and realism are two facets of the process of the subject (rom) and the object (real. ). P - the phenomenon of a cat occurs in a certain era, passes a certain stage and its time can be accurately determined. The time of occurrence is the 10s, the end is 30. Burevich believes that Russian romanticism arises by the 30s ie Zhukovsky, Batyushkov, Ryleev, Yazykov, Pushkin and others are not romantics. There is a problem with currents.

Maimin in his monograph "On Russian Romanticism" writes that romanticism is a phenomenon that is understood and interpreted by the romantics themselves in different ways. Here we can see an explanation of why there are various trends in Russian romanticism. Gukovsky can see several areas of romanticism. The first is represented by Zhukovsky and Batyushkov. They, as Guuovsky said, are the founders of Russian romanticism. Although the romanticism of both Zhukovsky and Batyushkov is quite different, their works have one, not unimportant feature: they do not carry any revolutionary ideas that encourage a change in the world. Both poets create their own, truly romantic world, and prefer to live in it without trying to bring their ideal into reality. This is a significant difference from Decembrist or civil, revolutionary romanticism, which, on the contrary, creating the image of an ideal world, wanted to translate it into reality, from where revolutionary ideas and appeals came from. Outstanding representatives of this trend are Ryleev, Küchelbeker, Bestuzhev-Marlinsky and others. The tragedy of December 25, 1825 on Senate Square shattered the Decembrist ideas about life and changed their work as such. The work of Pushkin the romanticist can be defined as a separate trend in romanticism, because, despite the fact that at the beginning of his career, “Pushkin was a supporter of revolutionary upheaval,” he, nevertheless, was not a Decembrist. “Pushkin,” as Gukovsky writes in his book “Pushkin and the Problems of Realistic Style,” “began his journey as a collector and unifier of contradictions and various currents of Russian romanticism.” And, going forward in his evolution, Pushkin quite quickly moves from romanticism to realism. He makes this transition much earlier than his "brothers in the pen." Turning to the fourth and last direction of romanticism, we should return to the catastrophe of December 25, 1825, which, as mentioned above, destroyed the Decembrists' ideas about life. The search for a new concept of reality begins, painful reflections. The work of this trend is characterized by a complex relationship of romanticism and realism in the work of writers. The peaks of this direction are Lermontov, Gogol's prose, Tyutchev's lyrics.

Since Oermontov Gogol, Tyutchev cover different things in life, they have different paths, different ideas about ideals, then this is one whole direction, it can be divided into several more sub-directions so that confusion and misconceptions are not created. Maimin proposes a different, but still somewhat similar to the previous, classification of the directions of romanticism: 1) Zhukovsky's romanticism, characteristic of the early stage of Russian romanticism, is defined as contemplative; 2) the civil, revolutionary romanticism of the Decembrists, in particular Ryleev, Kochelbecker, Merlinsky-Bestuzhev; 4) Lermontov's romanticism is also synthetic, but differently from Pushkin's. Lermontov develops the tragic nature of the second and third directions and the rebellious romanticism of Byron; 5) philosophical romanticism. Represented by Vezevitov, Totchev, prose philosophical works of Vl. Odoevsky. Another classification of the directions of romanticism is presented by Focht: 1) abstract psychological (Zhukovsky and Kozlov); 2) hedonic (Batyushkov); 3) civil (Pushkin, Ryleev); 4) philosophical (Venivitov, Varatynsky, Vl. Odoevsky); 5) synthetic romanticism - the pinnacle of Russian romanticism (Lermontov); 6) epigones of psychological romanticism (Benedictov, for example); 7) “false romantics” (Kukolnik, late Polevoy, Zagoskin). Maimin considers this classification not very convenient due to excessive fragmentation.

Thus, having considered the main points of view on the emergence of romanticism, its essence and main currents, one can come to the conclusion that there is a very controversial opinion about romanticism. Of the works that ambiguously resolve the issue of the genesis and essence of romanticism, Gurevich's work "Romanticism in Russian Literature" is closest to me.