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Realism (from Late Latin reālis - material) is an artistic method in art and literature. The history of realism in world literature is unusually rich. The very idea of ​​him changed at different stages artistic development, reflecting the persistent desire of artists for a truthful depiction of reality.

Illustration by V. Milashevsky for the novel by Charles Dickens “The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.”



Illustration by O. Vereisky for L. N. Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina”.



Illustration by D. Shmarinov for F. M. Dostoevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment.”



Illustration by V. Serov for M. Gorky’s story “Foma Gordeev”.



Illustration by B. Zaborov for the novel by M. Andersen-Nexo “Ditte - Child of Man.”

However, the concept of truth, truth is one of the most difficult in aesthetics. For example, the theorist French classicism N. Boileau called for being guided by the truth and “imitating nature.” But the romantic V. Hugo, an ardent opponent of classicism, urged “to consult only nature, truth and your inspiration, which is also truth and nature.” Thus, both defended "truth" and "nature".

The selection of life phenomena, their assessment, the ability to present them as important, characteristic, typical - all this is connected with the artist’s point of view on life, and this, in turn, depends on his worldview, on the ability to grasp the advanced movements of the era. The desire for objectivity often forces the artist to depict the real balance of power in society, even contrary to his own political convictions.

The specific features of realism depend on those historical conditions, in which art develops. National historical circumstances also determine the uneven development of realism in different countries.

Realism is not something given and unchangeable once and for all. In the history of world literature, several main types of its development can be outlined.

There is no consensus in science about the initial period of realism. Many art historians attribute it to very distant eras: they talk about the realism of cave paintings of primitive people, about the realism of ancient sculpture. In the history of world literature, many features of realism are found in the works of ancient world and early Middle Ages (in folk epic, for example, in Russian epics, in chronicles). However, the formation of realism as artistic system V European literatures It is customary to associate it with the era of the Renaissance (Rebirth), the greatest progressive revolution. A new understanding of life by a person who rejects the church sermon of slavish obedience is reflected in the lyrics of F. Petrarch, the novels of F. Rabelais and M. Cervantes, in the tragedies and comedies of W. Shakespeare. After centuries of medieval churchmen preaching that man is a “vessel of sin” and calling for humility, Renaissance literature and art glorified man as the supreme creature of nature, seeking to reveal the beauty of his physical appearance and the richness of his soul and mind. The realism of the Renaissance is characterized by the scale of images (Don Quixote, Hamlet, King Lear), the poeticization of the human personality, its capacity for great feeling (as in Romeo and Juliet) and at the same time the high intensity of the tragic conflict, when the clash of personality with the inert forces opposing it is depicted .

The next stage in the development of realism is the educational stage (see Enlightenment), when literature becomes (in the West) an instrument of direct preparation for the bourgeois-democratic revolution. Among the educators there were supporters of classicism; their work was influenced by other methods and styles. But in the 18th century. The so-called Enlightenment realism was also taking shape (in Europe), the theorists of which were D. Diderot in France and G. Lessing in Germany. English has gained global importance realistic novel, the founder of which was D. Defoe, author of Robinson Crusoe (1719). In the literature of the Enlightenment, a democratic hero appeared (Figaro in the trilogy of P. Beaumarchais, Louise Miller in the tragedy “Cunning and Love” by I. F. Schiller, images of peasants in A. N. Radishchev). Enlighteners of all phenomena public life and people’s actions were assessed as reasonable or unreasonable (and they saw the unreasonable primarily in all the old feudal orders and customs). They proceeded from this in their depiction of human character; their positive heroes are, first of all, the embodiment of reason, the negative ones are a deviation from the norm, the product of unreason, the barbarism of former times.

Enlightenment realism often allowed for convention. Thus, the circumstances in the novel and drama were not necessarily typical. They could be conditional, as in the experiment: “Suppose a person finds himself on a desert island...”. At the same time, Defoe depicts Robinson’s behavior not as it could actually be (the prototype of his hero went wild, even lost his articulate speech), but as he wants to present the person, fully armed with his physical and mental strength, as a hero, conqueror of forces nature. Faust in I. V. Goethe, shown in the struggle for the establishment of high ideals, is also conventional. Features of a well-known convention also distinguish D. I. Fonvizin’s comedy “The Minor.”

A new type of realism emerged in the 19th century. This is critical realism. It differs significantly from both the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Its flourishing in the West is associated with the names of Stendhal and O. Balzac in France, C. Dickens, W. Thackeray in England, in Russia - A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov.

Critical realism portrays in a new way the relationship between man and environment. Human character is revealed in organic connection with social circumstances. The subject of deep social analysis was inner world human, critical realism therefore simultaneously becomes psychological. Romanticism, which sought to penetrate the secrets of the human “I,” played a large role in the preparation of this quality of realism.

Deepening the knowledge of life and complicating the picture of the world in the critical realism of the 19th century. do not mean, however, some kind of absolute superiority over previous stages, for the development of art is marked not only by gains, but also by losses.

The scale of the images of the Renaissance was lost. The pathos of affirmation characteristic of the Enlighteners, their optimistic faith in the victory of good over evil, remained unique.

The rise of the labor movement in Western countries, the formation in the 40s. XIX century Marxism not only influence the literature of critical realism, but also give rise to the first artistic experiments in depicting reality from the perspective of the revolutionary proletariat. In the realism of such writers as G. Weert, W. Morris, and the author of “The International” E. Pothier, new features are outlined that anticipate the artistic discoveries of socialist realism.

IN Russia XIX century is a period of exceptional strength and scope of development of realism. In the second half of the century, the artistic achievements of realism, bringing Russian literature to the international arena, won it worldwide recognition.

The richness and diversity of Russian realism XIX V. allow us to talk about its different forms.

Its formation is associated with the name of A. S. Pushkin, who led Russian literature onto the broad path of depicting “the fate of the people, the fate of man.” In the conditions of the accelerated development of Russian culture, Pushkin seems to be catching up with its previous lag, paving new paths in almost all genres and, with his universality and his optimism, turning out to be akin to the titans of the Renaissance. Pushkin’s work lays the foundations of critical realism, developed in the work of N.V. Gogol and after him in the so-called natural school.

Performance in the 60s. revolutionary democrats led by N. G. Chernyshevsky gives new features to Russian critical realism (the revolutionary nature of criticism, images of new people).

A special place in the history of Russian realism belongs to L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky. It was thanks to them that the Russian realistic novel acquired global significance. Their psychological mastery and insight into the “dialectics of the soul” opened the way for the artistic quests of 20th century writers. Realism in the 20th century all over the world bears the imprint of the aesthetic discoveries of L. N. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky.

The growth of the Russian liberation movement, which by the end of the century transferred the center of the world revolutionary struggle from the West to Russia, leads to the fact that the work of the great Russian realists becomes, as V. I. Lenin said about L. N. Tolstoy, “a mirror of the Russian revolution” according to their objective historical content, despite all the differences in their ideological positions.

The creative scope of the Russian social realism is reflected in the richness of the genre, especially in the field of the novel: philosophical and historical (L. N. Tolstoy), revolutionary journalistic (N. G. Chernyshevsky), everyday (I. A. Goncharov), satirical (M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin ), psychological (F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy). By the end of the century, A.P. Chekhov became an innovator in the genre of realistic stories and a kind of “lyrical drama”.

It is important to emphasize that Russian realism of the 19th century. did not develop in isolation from the world historical and literary process. This was the beginning of an era when, in the words of K. Marx and F. Engels, “the fruits of the spiritual activity of individual nations become the common property.”

F. M. Dostoevsky noted as one of the features of Russian literature its “capacity for universality, all-humanity, all-response.” Here we're talking about not so much about Western influences, but about organic development in line with European culture its centuries-old traditions.

At the beginning of the 20th century. The appearance of M. Gorky's plays "The Bourgeois", "At the Demise" and especially the novel "Mother" (and in the West - the novel "Pelle the Conqueror" by M. Andersen-Nexo) testifies to the formation of socialist realism. In the 20s major successes declares itself Soviet literature, and in the early 30s. In many capitalist countries, a literature of the revolutionary proletariat is emerging. The literature of socialist realism is becoming an important factor in world literary development. It should be noted that Soviet literature as a whole retains more connections with the artistic experience of the 19th century than literature in the West (including socialist literature).

The beginning of the general crisis of capitalism, two world wars, the acceleration of the revolutionary process throughout the world under the influence October revolution and the existence of the Soviet Union, and after 1945 the formation of the world system of socialism - all this affected the fate of realism.

Critical realism, which continued to develop in Russian literature until the October Revolution (I. A. Bunin, A. I. Kuprin) and in the West, in the 20th century. received further development, while undergoing significant changes. In critical realism of the 20th century. in the West, a variety of influences are more freely assimilated and intersected, including some features of the unrealistic movements of the 20th century. (symbolism, impressionism, expressionism), which, of course, does not exclude the struggle of realists against non-realistic aesthetics.

From about the 20s. In the literature of the West, there is a tendency towards in-depth psychologism, the transmission of the “stream of consciousness”. The so-called intellectual novel of T. Mann arises; subtext takes on special significance, for example, in E. Hemingway. This focus on the individual and his spiritual world in the critical realism of the West significantly weakens its epic breadth. Epic scale in the 20th century. is the merit of the writers of socialist realism (“The Life of Klim Samgin” by M. Gorky, “ Quiet Don"M. A. Sholokhov, "Walking through the Torment" by A. N. Tolstoy, "The Dead Remain Young" by A. Zegers).

Unlike realists XIX V. writers of the 20th century more often they resort to fantasy (A. France, K. Chapek), to convention (for example, B. Brecht), creating parable novels and parable dramas (see Parable). At the same time, in the realism of the 20th century. the document, the fact, triumphs. Documentary works appear in different countries within the framework of both critical realism and socialist realism.

Thus, while remaining documentary, the autobiographical books of E. Hemingway, S. O'Casey, I. Becher, such classic books of socialist realism as “Report with a Noose Around the Neck” by Yu. Fuchik and “The Young Guard” by A. A. Fadeeva.

Realism (literature)

Realism in literature - a truthful depiction of reality.

In every work belles lettres we distinguish two necessary elements: objective - the reproduction of phenomena given in addition to the artist, and subjective - something put into the work by the artist on his own. Focusing on a comparative assessment of these two elements, the theory in different eras attaches greater importance to one or the other of them (in connection with the course of development of art, and with other circumstances).

Hence there are two opposing directions in theory; one - realism- sets art the task of faithfully reproducing reality; other - idealism- sees the purpose of art in “replenishing reality”, in creating new forms. Moreover, the starting point is not so much the available facts as ideal ideas.

This terminology, borrowed from philosophy, sometimes introduces work of art non-aesthetic moments: Realism is completely wrongly accused of lacking moral idealism. In common usage, the term “Realism” means the exact copying of details, mainly external ones. The inconsistency of this point of view, the natural conclusion from which is the preference for the protocol over the novel and photography over the painting, is completely obvious; a sufficient refutation of it is our aesthetic sense, which does not hesitate for a minute between a wax figure reproducing the finest shades of living colors and a deathly white marble statue. It would be pointless and aimless to create another world, completely identical with the existing one.

Copying the external world in itself, even the most strident realistic theory, has never seemed to be the goal of art. The possible faithful reproduction of reality was seen only as a guarantee of the artist’s creative originality. In theory, realism is opposed to idealism, but in practice it is opposed by routine, tradition, the academic canon, mandatory imitation of the classics - in other words, the death of independent creativity. Art begins with the actual reproduction of nature; but, once popular examples of artistic thinking are given, second-hand creativity appears, work according to a template.

This is a common phenomenon of the school, no matter under what banner it appears for the first time. Almost every school makes claims to a new word precisely in the field of truthful reproduction of life - and each in its own right, and each is denied and replaced by the next in the name of the same principle of truth. This is especially evident in the history of the development of French literature, which is all an uninterrupted series of achievements of true Realism. The desire for artistic truth underlay the same movements that, petrified in tradition and canon, later became a symbol of unreal art.

This is not only romanticism, which was attacked with such fervor in the name of truth by the doctrinaires of modern naturalism; so is classical drama. It is enough to recall that the notorious three unities were not adopted out of slavish imitation of Aristotle, but only because they determined the possibility of stage illusion. “The establishment of unities was the triumph of Realism. These rules, which became the cause of so many inconsistencies during the decline of the classical theater, were at first a necessary condition stage verisimilitude. In Aristotelian rules, medieval rationalism found a means of removing from the scene the last vestiges of naive medieval fantasy.” (Lanson).

The deep inner Realism of the classical tragedy of the French degenerated in the reasoning of theorists and in the works of imitators into dead schemes, the oppression of which was cast off by literature only in early XIX century. From a broad point of view, every truly progressive movement in the field of art is a movement towards Realism. In this regard, those new trends that appear to be a reaction to Realism are no exception. In fact, they represent only a reaction to routine, obligatory artistic dogma - a reaction against realism by name, which has ceased to be a search and artistic recreation of the truth of life. When lyrical symbolism tries to convey to the reader the mood of the poet by new means, when neo-idealists, resurrecting old conventional techniques of artistic depiction, draw stylized images, that is, as if deliberately deviating from reality, they strive for the same thing that is the goal of any - even arch-naturalistic - art: to the creative reproduction of life. There is no truly artistic work - from a symphony to an arabesque, from the Iliad to a Whisper, a Timid Breath - which, upon a deeper look at it, would not turn out to be a truthful image of the creator’s soul, “a corner of life through the prism of temperament.”

It is therefore hardly possible to talk about the history of Realism: it coincides with the history of art. We can only characterize individual moments historical life art, when they especially insisted on a truthful depiction of life, seeing it mainly in emancipation from school conventions, in the ability to capture and courage to depict details that passed without a trace for the previous artist or frightened him by inconsistency with dogmas. Such was romanticism, such is the modern form of Realism - naturalism. Literature about Realism is mostly polemical about its modern form. Historical writings(David, Sauvageot, Lenoir) suffer from vagueness of the subject of research. In addition to the works indicated in the article Naturalism.

Russian writers who used realism

Of course, first of all, these are F. M. Dostoevsky and L. N. Tolstoy. Outstanding examples of literature of this direction were also the works of the late Pushkin (rightfully considered the founder of realism in Russian literature) - the historical drama “Boris Godunov”, the story “ Captain's daughter", "Dubrovsky", "Tales of Belkin", the novel by Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov "Hero of Our Time", as well as the poem by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol " Dead Souls».

The Birth of Realism

There is a version that realism originated in ancient times, during the time of the Ancient Peoples. There are several types of realism:

• "Ancient Realism"
• "Renaissance Realism"
• "Realism of the 18th-19th centuries"

see also

Notes

Links

• A. A. Gornfeld// Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional ones). - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.

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Realism has the following distinctive features:

• 1. The artist depicts life in images that correspond to the essence of the phenomena of life itself.
• 2. Literature in realism is a means for a person to understand himself and the world around him.
• 3. Cognition of reality occurs with the help of images created through typification of facts of reality (“typical characters in a typical setting”). Typification of characters in realism is carried out through the truthfulness of details in the “specifics” of the characters’ conditions of existence.
• 4. Realistic art is life-affirming art, even with a tragic resolution to the conflict. The philosophical basis for this is Gnosticism, the belief in knowability and an adequate reflection of the surrounding world, unlike, for example, romanticism.
• 5. Realistic art is characterized by the desire to consider reality in development, the ability to detect and capture the emergence and development of new forms of life and social relations, new psychological and social types.

In the course of the development of art, realism acquires concrete historical forms and creative methods(for example, educational realism, critical realism, socialist realism). These methods, interconnected by continuity, have their own characteristic features. The manifestations of realistic tendencies are different in different types and genres of art.

In aesthetics, there is no definitively established definition of both the chronological boundaries of realism and the scope and content of this concept. In the variety of points of view being developed, two main concepts can be outlined:

• · According to one of them, realism is one of the main features artistic knowledge, the main trend of progressive development artistic culture humanity, which reveals the deep essence of art as a way of spiritual and practical development of reality. The measure of penetration into life, artistic knowledge of its important aspects and qualities, and, first of all, social reality, determines the measure of realism of a particular artistic phenomenon. In each new historical period, realism takes on a new look, sometimes revealing itself in a more or less clearly expressed tendency, sometimes crystallizing into a complete method that determines the characteristics of the artistic culture of its time.
• · Representatives of another point of view on realism limit its history to a certain chronological framework, seeing in it a historically and typologically specific form of artistic consciousness. In this case, the beginning of realism dates back to either the Renaissance or the 18th century, the Age of Enlightenment. The most complete disclosure of the features of realism is seen in the critical realism of the 19th century; its next stage is represented in the 20th century. socialist realism, which interprets life phenomena from the perspective of the Marxist-Leninist worldview. A characteristic feature of realism in this case is the method of generalization, typification vital material formulated by F. Engels in relation to the realistic novel: " … typical characters in typical circumstances..."
• · Realism in this understanding explores the personality of a person in indissoluble unity with his contemporary social environment and public relations. This interpretation of the concept of realism was developed mainly on the material of the history of literature, while the first one was developed mainly on the material of the plastic arts.

Whatever point of view one adheres to, and no matter how one connects them with each other, there is no doubt that realistic art has an extraordinary variety of ways of cognition, generalization, and artistic interpretation of reality, manifested in the nature of stylistic forms and techniques. Realism of Masaccio and Piero della Francesca, A. Durer and Rembrandt, J.L. David and O. Daumier, I.E. Repina, V.I. Surikov and V.A. Serov, etc. differ significantly from each other and testify to the broadest creative possibilities for objective exploration of the historically changing world through the means of art.

Moreover, any realistic method is characterized by a consistent focus on understanding and revealing the contradictions of reality, which, within given, historically determined limits, turns out to be accessible to truthful disclosure. Realism is characterized by conviction in the knowability of beings, features of the objective real world by means of art. realism art knowledge

Forms and techniques for reflecting reality in realistic art are different in different types and genres. Deep penetration into the essence of life phenomena, which is inherent in realistic tendencies and constitutes a defining feature of any realistic method, is expressed in different ways in a novel, lyric poem, historical painting, landscape, etc. Not every outwardly reliable depiction of reality is realistic. Empirical validity artistic image takes on meaning only in unity with a truthful reflection of the existing aspects of the real world. This is the difference between realism and naturalism, which creates only visible, external, and not genuine essential truthfulness of images. At the same time, in order to identify certain facets of the deep content of life, sometimes sharp hyperbolization, sharpening, grotesque exaggeration of the “forms of life itself” are required, and sometimes a conditionally metaphorical form of artistic thinking.

The most important feature of realism is psychologism, immersion through social analysis into the inner world of a person. An example here is the “career” of Julien Sorel from Stendhal’s novel “The Red and the Black,” who experienced a tragic conflict of ambition and honor; psychological drama by Anna Karenina from the novel of the same name by L.N. Tolstoy, who was torn between the feelings and morality of class society. Human character is revealed by representatives of critical realism in an organic connection with the environment, with social circumstances and life conflicts. The main genre of realistic literature of the 19th century V. Accordingly, it becomes a socio-psychological novel. It most fully meets the task of objective artistic reproduction of reality.

Let's consider general signs realism:

• 1. Artistic depiction life in images, corresponding to the essence of the phenomena of life itself.
• 2. Reality is a means for a person to understand himself and the world around him.
• 3. Typification of images, which is achieved through the truthfulness of details in specific conditions.
• 4. Even with tragic conflict life-affirming art.
• 5. Realism is characterized by the desire to consider reality in development, the ability to detect the development of new social, psychological and public relations.

The leading principles of realism in the art of the 19th century:

• · objective reflection of the essential aspects of life in combination with the height and truth of the author’s ideal;
• · reproduction of typical characters, conflicts, situations with the completeness of their artistic individualization (i.e., concretization of both national, historical, social signs, and physical, intellectual and spiritual characteristics);
• · preference in methods of depicting “forms of life itself,” but along with the use, especially in the 20th century, of conventional forms (myth, symbol, parable, grotesque);
• · predominant interest in the problem of “personality and society” (especially in the inescapable confrontation between social patterns and moral ideal, personal and mass, mythologized consciousness) [4, p.20].

PART ONE on the literature of realism

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF LITERATURE OF THE 19TH CENTURY. REALISM AS A DIRECTION IN WORLD LITERATURE

Genre system of realism

Each literary movement develops its own system of genres, which is its internal property. Within this system, a certain hierarchy of genres is established depending on their role in the literary process. Accordingly, those genres that occupy the main places have a tangible influence on other genres, on the poetics and style of the movement as a whole.

Fundamental novelty genre system realism lies in the fact that for the first time in the history of literature, prose genres began to play a leading role in it - the novel, novella, short stories. Undoubtedly, this was due to the profound shifts and changes that occurred as a result of the stabilization of the bourgeois system and the “prosaicization” of life, which has already been mentioned. Prose genres, and above all the novel, turned out to be the most suitable for the artistic development of the new realities of our time and their adequate reflection. Therefore, the novel reveals the possibilities inherent in it and appears as a truly universal genre in terms of covering various spheres of life, in particular those that have traditionally been considered “unaesthetic” or “non-poetic”, and their “melting” into high achievements of art.

LITERARY REFERENCE

Roman is big epic genre, which became widespread in the literature of the 19th century. (although the origins of this genre date back to antiquity). The novel reproduces life in all its fullness and diversity. The basis of a novel is often an image of the fate of a hero (or several heroes) over a long period of time, sometimes even several generations. Events related to the fate of the characters usually unfold against a broad historical and social background. The character of a person in the novel is recreated in his connection with the socio-historical environment. The genre of the novel makes it possible to convey the most profound and complex processes of life, to raise problems of universal human significance, and to pay close attention to the process of formation and evolution of personality.

In realistic literature, many branches of the novel genre have appeared, which are often called genres, although it would be more accurate to define them as genre equivalents of the novel. Thus, a social novel aims to study the processes social life, everyday reality, customs and ideas characteristic of society (or its layers) in a certain era. In the spotlight psychological novel The inner world of the individual is located in its conditioning by specific historical and social factors. Within the framework of a socio-psychological novel, there is a combination and interaction of tendencies inherent in the social, everyday and psychological. In some realistic works, these aspects are widely considered. philosophical issues, which gives grounds to define them as philosophical novels.

However, despite the powerful development of realism in the middle of the 19th century, it was not comprehensive artistic direction. This applies not only to some types of art (for example, music, which remained predominantly romantic), but also to literature, certain types and genres of it. Realism turned out to be large-scale in epic prose genres, but the same cannot be said about lyric poetry (in European and American literature mid-19th century it, unlike prose, remained predominantly romantic) and partly about drama (in the drama of most European countries, realism was established approximately in the last third of the 19th century). Details. What explains the poor development lyric poetry in realistic literature? In answering this question, one should take into account, firstly, post-literary factors, in particular the “prosaic” nature of the reality of the bourgeois era, which created a spiritual and emotional atmosphere unfavorable for the flourishing of lyric poetry. Secondly, internal factors- in particular, the specifics of realism as an artistic system focused on the external, primarily social world, its research and analytical reflection. This does not mean that the personality and the subjective world were not of interest to realists - we are talking about a predominant focus on what objectively exists, the deployment of a work in objective time and space, which includes the personality and its inner world. Meanwhile, romanticism is an art whose axis is shifted to the area of ​​subjectivity, spiritual and mental life personality. Of course, this life did not stop in the era of bourgeois prose, but it was artistically embodied mainly in lyrical poetry of the romantic type or in forms close to it.

The emergence of realism

In the 30s of the XIX century. Realism is becoming widespread in literature and art. The development of realism is primarily associated with the names of Stendhal and Balzac in France, Pushkin and Gogol in Russia, Heine and Buchner in Germany. Realism develops initially in the depths of romanticism and bears the stamp of the latter; not only Pushkin and Heine, but also Balzac experienced a strong fascination in their youth romantic literature. However, unlike romantic art, realism refuses the idealization of reality and the associated predominance of the fantastic element, as well as an increased interest in the subjective side of man. In realism, the prevailing tendency is to depict a broad social background against which the lives of the heroes take place ("Human Comedy" by Balzac, "Eugene Onegin" by Pushkin, "Dead Souls" by Gogol, etc.). In their depth of understanding of social life, realist artists sometimes surpass the philosophers and sociologists of their time.

Stages of development of realism of the 19th century

The formation of critical realism occurs in European countries and in Russia almost at the same time - in the 20s - 40s of the 19th century. It is becoming a leading trend in the literature of the world.

True, this simultaneously means that the literary process of this period is irreducible only in a realistic system. Both in European literatures, and - especially - in US literature, the activity of romantic writers continues in full measure. Thus, the development of the literary process largely occurs through the interaction of coexisting aesthetic systems, and the characteristics of both national literatures and the work of individual writers presuppose that this circumstance must be taken into account.

Speaking about the fact that since the 30s and 40s, realist writers have occupied a leading place in literature, it is impossible not to note that realism itself turns out to be not a frozen system, but a phenomenon in constant development. Already within the 19th century, the need arises to talk about “different realisms”, that Merimee, Balzac and Flaubert equally answered the main historical questions that the era suggested to them, and at the same time their works are distinguished by different content and originality forms.

In the 1830s - 1840s, the most remarkable features of realism as a literary movement that gives a multifaceted picture of reality, striving for an analytical study of reality, appear in the works of European writers (primarily Balzac).

The literature of the 1830s and 1840s was largely fueled by statements about the attractiveness of the century itself. Love to 19th century shared, for example, by Stendhal and Balzac, who never ceased to be amazed by its dynamism, diversity and inexhaustible energy. Hence the heroes of the first stage of realism - active, with an inventive mind, not afraid of facing unfavorable circumstances. These heroes were largely associated with the heroic era of Napoleon, although they perceived his two-facedness and developed a strategy for their personal and public behavior. Scott and his historicism inspire Stendhal's heroes to find their place in life and history through mistakes and delusions. Shakespeare makes Balzac say about the novel “Père Goriot” in the words of the great Englishman “Everything is true” and see echoes of the harsh fate of King Lear in the fate of the modern bourgeois.

Realists second half of the 19th century centuries will reproach their predecessors for “residual romanticism.” It is difficult to disagree with such a reproach. Indeed, the romantic tradition is very noticeably represented in the creative systems of Balzac, Stendhal, and Merimee. It is no coincidence that Sainte-Beuve called Stendhal “the last hussar of romanticism.” Traits of romanticism are revealed

– in the cult of exoticism (Merimee’s short stories such as “Matteo Falcone”, “Carmen”, “Tamango”, etc.);

– in the predilection of writers for depicting bright individuals and passions that are exceptional in their strength (Stendhal’s novel “Red and Black” or the short story “Vanina Vanini”);

– a passion for adventurous plots and the use of fantasy elements (Balzac’s novel “Shagreen Skin” or Merimee’s short story “Venus of Il”);

– in an effort to clearly divide heroes into negative and positive – carriers of the author’s ideals (Dickens’s novels).

Thus, between the realism of the first period and romanticism there is a complex “family” connection, manifested, in particular, in the inheritance of techniques and even individual themes and motifs characteristic of romantic art (the theme of lost illusions, the motif of disappointment, etc.).

In Russian historical and literary science, “the revolutionary events of 1848 and those that followed important changes in socio-political and cultural life bourgeois society" is considered to be what divides "realism foreign countries XIX century into two stages - realism of the first and second half of the 19th century" ("History foreign literature XIX century / Edited by Elizarova M.E. – M., 1964). In 1848, popular protests turned into a series of revolutions that swept across Europe (France, Italy, Germany, Austria, etc.). These revolutions, as well as the unrest in Belgium and England, followed the “French model”, as democratic protests against a class-privileged government that did not meet the needs of the time, as well as under the slogans of social and democratic reforms. Overall, 1848 marked one huge upheaval in Europe. True, as a result of it, moderate liberals or conservatives came to power everywhere, and in some places even a more brutal authoritarian government was established.

This caused general disappointment in the results of the revolutions, and, as a consequence, pessimistic sentiments. Many representatives of the intelligentsia became disillusioned with mass movements, active actions of the people on a class basis and transferred their main efforts to the private world of the individual and personal relationships. Thus, the general interest was directed towards the individual, important in itself, and only secondarily - towards his relationships with other individuals and the world around him.

The second half of the 19th century is traditionally considered the “triumph of realism.” By this time, realism was loudly making itself known in the literature of not only France and England, but also a number of other countries - Germany (late Heine, Raabe, Storm, Fontane), Russia (" natural school", Turgenev, Goncharov, Ostrovsky, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky), etc.

At the same time, since the 50s, a new stage in the development of realism begins, which involves a new approach to the depiction of both the hero and the society around him. The social, political and moral atmosphere of the second half of the 19th century “turned” writers towards the analysis of a person who can hardly be called a hero, but in whose fate and character the main signs of the era are refracted, expressed not in a major deed, a significant act or passion, compressed and intensely conveying global shifts of time, not in large-scale (both social and psychological) confrontation and conflict, not in typicality taken to the limit, often bordering on exclusivity, but in everyday life, everyday life. Writers who began working at this time, as well as those who entered literature earlier but worked during this period, for example, Dickens or Thackeray, certainly were guided by a different concept of personality. Thackeray’s novel “The Newcombs” emphasizes the specificity of “human studies” in the realism of this period - the need to understand and analytically reproduce multidirectional subtle mental movements and indirect, not always manifested social connections: “It’s hard to even imagine how many various reasons determines our every action or passion, how often, when analyzing my motives, I mistook one thing for another...” This phrase by Thackeray conveys, perhaps, main feature realism of the era: everything focuses on the depiction of man and character, and not circumstances. Although the latter, as they should in realistic literature, “do not disappear,” their interaction with character acquires a different quality, associated with the fact that circumstances cease to be independent, they become more and more characterologized; their sociological function is now more implicit than it was with Balzac or Stendhal.

Due to the changed concept of personality and the “human-centrism” of the entire artistic system (and “man - the center” was not necessarily a positive hero, defeating social circumstances or dying - morally or physically - in the fight against them), one may get the impression that the writers of the second half centuries abandoned the basic principle of realistic literature: dialectical understanding and depiction of the relationships between character and circumstances and adherence to the principle of socio-psychological determinism. Moreover, some of the most prominent realists of this time - Flaubert, J. Eliot, Trollott - when talking about the world surrounding the hero, the term “environment” appears, often perceived more statically than the concept of “circumstances”.

An analysis of the works of Flaubert and J. Eliot convinces us that artists need this “stacking” of the environment primarily so that the description of the situation surrounding the hero is more plastic. The environment often narratively exists in the inner world of the hero and through him, acquiring a different character of generalization: not poster-sociologized, but psychologized. This creates an atmosphere of greater objectivity in what is being reproduced. In any case, from the point of view of the reader, who trusts such an objectified narrative about the era more, since he perceives the hero of the work as a person close to him, just like himself.

Writers of this period do not at all forget about one more aesthetic setting of critical realism - the objectivity of what is reproduced. As is known, Balzac was so concerned about this objectivity that he looked for ways to bring literary knowledge (understanding) closer together with scientific knowledge. This idea appealed to many realists of the second half of the century. For example, Eliot and Flaubert thought a lot about the use of scientific, and therefore, as it seemed to them, objective methods of analysis in literature. Flaubert thought especially a lot about this, who understood objectivity as synonymous with impartiality and impartiality. However, this was the spirit of the entire realism of the era. Moreover, the work of realists in the second half of the 19th century occurred during the period of takeoff in the development of natural sciences and the heyday of experimentation.

This was an important period in the history of science. Biology developed rapidly (C. Darwin’s book “The Origin of Species” was published in 1859), physiology, and the formation of psychology as a science took place. The philosophy of positivism by O. Comte became widespread, and later played an important role in the development of naturalistic aesthetics and artistic practice. It was during these years that attempts were made to create a system of psychological understanding of man.

However, even at this stage of the development of literature, the character of the hero is not conceived by the writer outside of social analysis, although the latter acquires a slightly different aesthetic essence, different from that which was characteristic of Balzac and Stendhal. Of course, in Flaubert's novels. Eliot, Fontana and some others are struck by “a new level of depiction of the inner world of man, a qualitatively new skill psychological analysis, which consists in the deepest disclosure of the complexity and unforeseenness of human reactions to reality, motives and reasons human activity"(History of World Literature. T.7. - M., 1990).

It is obvious that the writers of this era sharply changed the direction of creativity and led literature (and the novel in particular) towards in-depth psychologism, and in the formula “social-psychological determinism” the social and psychological seemed to change places. It is in this direction that the main achievements of literature are concentrated: writers began not only to draw a complex inner world literary hero, but to reproduce a well-functioning, thoughtful psychological “character model”, in it and in its functioning, artistically combining the psychological-analytical and social-analytical. Writers updated and revived the principle of psychological detail, introduced dialogue with deep psychological overtones, and found narrative techniques for conveying “transitional,” contradictory spiritual movements that were previously inaccessible to literature.

This does not mean at all that realistic literature abandoned social analysis: the social basis of the reproduced reality and the reconstructed character did not disappear, although it did not dominate the character and circumstances. It was thanks to the writers of the second half of the 19th century that literature began to find indirect ways of social analysis, in this sense continuing a series of discoveries made by writers of previous periods.

Flaubert, Eliot, the Goncourt brothers and others “taught” literature to reach out to the social and what is characteristic of the era, characterizes its social, political, historical and moral principles, through the ordinary and everyday existence of an ordinary person. Social typification among writers of the second half of the century is the typification of “mass appearance, repetition” (History of World Literature. Vol. 7. - M., 1990). It is not as bright and obvious as among representatives of classical critical realism of the 1830s and 1840s and most often manifests itself through the “parabola of psychologism,” when immersion in the inner world of a character allows one to ultimately immerse oneself in the era in which historical time as the writer sees it. Emotions, feelings, and moods are not transtemporal, but of a specific historical nature, although it is primarily ordinary everyday existence that is subject to analytical reproduction, and not the world of titanic passions. At the same time, writers often even absolutized the dullness and wretchedness of life, the triviality of the material, the unheroic nature of time and character. That is why, on the one hand, it was an anti-romantic period, on the other, a period of craving for the romantic. This paradox, for example, is characteristic of Flaubert, the Goncourts, and Baudelaire.

There is one more important point, associated with the absolutization of the imperfection of human nature and slavish subordination to circumstances: often writers perceived the negative phenomena of the era as a given, as something insurmountable, and even tragically fatal. That is why in the works of realists of the second half of the 19th century the positive principle is so difficult to express: the problem of the future interests them little, they are “here and now”, in their time, comprehending it in an extremely impartial manner, as an era, if worthy of analysis, then critical.

As noted earlier, critical realism is literary direction on a global scale. Another notable feature of realism is that it has a long history. IN late XIX and in the 20th centuries, the work of such writers as R. Rolland, D. Golusorsi, B. Shaw, E. M. Remarque, T. Dreiser and others gained worldwide fame. Realism continues to exist to this day, remaining the most important form of world democratic culture.