Old Russian literature is a conventional name, that is ancient period, medieval period and the period of feudal fragmentation. This is the initial and historically logical stage in the development of Russian literature. Its emergence is associated with the process of formation of the early feudal state. Literature is subordinated to the strengthening of the feudal system and religion - Christianity, therefore, mainly church-religious genres developed.

Factors of occurrence ancient Russian literature:

- the emergence of writing,

- acceptance of Christianity,

- the development of monasteries (which played a huge role in the spread of religion, literacy and writing; Cyril and Methodius - Slavic alphabet; the proximity of the Old Russian language to the Old Bulgarian and Old Church Slavonic contributed to the spread of writing),

- folklore.

Old Russian literature has specific features, which distinguish it from folklore and literature of the New Age:

1. The handwritten nature of the existence of distribution, and each work existed as part of various collections, and not in the form of separate manuscripts; these collections pursued practical goals. Basil the Great wrote: “Everything that serves not for the sake of benefit, but for the sake of beauty, is subject to accusation of vanity.” The value of the book was assessed in terms of usefulness. In the “Tale of Bygone Years” under the year 1037 it is written: “There is great benefit from the teaching of books, through books we teach repentance, books are rivers that fill the Universe, they help abstain from bad deeds, if you look for wisdom, you will find benefits for the soul.”

Depending on the genre, on the sacred meaning of the work, this or that text underwent changes in accordance with the social, national, professional or personal sympathies of a person, therefore “author, editor, scribe” for Old Russian literature are very fragile concepts. In accordance with this, the works existed in several lists or editions, so we can talk about the relationship between Old Russian literature and Russian folklore.

2. Anonymity is a very common phenomenon. Almost no information about authors and scribes has been preserved. Anonymity was determined not only by historical reality, but also by the paucity of information about the authors that has reached us, which is associated with the religious-Christian attitude of feudal society towards the individual and the work of the scribe. The Church considered the creation and rewriting of books to be a godly work; the work of scribes required humility; they should not be proud of their work, so names were rarely preserved. In addition, in medieval society the idea of ​​authorship was very poorly developed, there was no copyright at all, individual characteristics and personality were very poorly reflected in the texts.

The author's texts did not reach us, but were preserved in later copies, which were sometimes several centuries distant from the time of the original. So, for example, Nestor’s “Tale” of 1113 has not survived, but has come to us in a later edition; its edition by Sylvester 1116 is known only as part of the Laurentian Chronicle of 1377; “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” from the 12th century has reached us only in a 16th-century collection in the list.

3. Lack of dating for most literary monuments. Therefore, historians resort to in different ways to clarify the date of certain texts.

4. Until the 16th century, literature was closely connected with church and business writing, which is due to the fact that by this time literature had not yet emerged as an independent sphere of consciousness, but was connected with philosophy, science and religion. Gradually, it stands out from the general flow of writing; at the same time, literature becomes secularized and democratized; literature is gradually liberated from the power of the church and the connection with church writing disappears.

5. Historicism: Heroes are predominantly heroic personalities; literature never allowed fiction, strictly followed a fact of life, and miracles related to real phenomena, since the author referred to eyewitnesses of the events. Fiction was equated with lies.

Throughout the development of literature, the leading genres were historical, but in the 17th century they began to be replaced by fictional genres (everyday stories, satirical stories and fairy tales appeared).

Historicism was medieval in nature, that is, the course and development of historical events is often explained from a religious point of view, providentialism dominates (when the source on earth is always God).

Artistic generalization was very poorly developed, built on the basis of a single specific historical fact or event, and a single event was selected that bore traces of its prevalence. Stories about battles were widely circulated; they were based on specific historical events. But for Rus' it was important to prove the harm of strife. Princely crimes and, accordingly, stories about them were very common: “The Tale of the Blinding of Vasilko Terebovalsky” (he was blinded by his brothers, fearing his coming to the throne); as well as walks to the Holy Land (Jerusalem), for example, “The Walks of Hegumen Daniel.” The heroes of the works are mainly princes, the highest church leaders and rulers.

6. Normativity of poetics (that is, the totality artistic means) manifests itself in widespread " common places“, a certain “etiquette” was adopted, which was composed of an idea of ​​​​how the course of events should have taken place, how one should behave actor in accordance with one’s position in society, what words should be used to describe the event. Thus, the etiquette of the world order, the etiquette of behavior, and verbal etiquette were important. Verbal etiquette: stable verbal formulas; but there were also repeating situational formulas, similar descriptions of characteristics (situations of defeat, victory). In addition, the author’s declarative statements about his ignorance, about his lack of learning.

7. Genres and styles.

There is a clear division into church and secular genres, and there is a hierarchy (the highest genre is the books of Holy Scripture: the Bible, testaments). Church genres include solemn preaching genres (hymnographies), lives, Chety menaia(monthly readings), patericon or otechniki (collections of short stories about the lives of saints).

Gradually, purely church genres were destroyed, secular material and folklore (laments), as well as walks, appeared in them.

Secular works: chronicles, chronographs, military stories, historical stories.

The genre of teaching is something between the church and secular genres.

“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign” is a synthesis of genres.

Styles and genres are very closely related to each other.

D.S. Likhachev presents the history of Russian literature in the relationship of literary styles, genres and characters:

11th century - 12th century - the dominance of the style of monumental historicism and epic style.

14th century - 15th century - the style of monumental historicism is replaced by an expressive-emotional style, although the traditions of the style of monumental historicism continue to be preserved.

16th century – second monumentalism or idealizing biographism (“Graduate Book of the Royal Genealogy”).

8. Old Russian literature is patriotic and carries a very deep civic principle.

9. High moral content: moral qualities princes, and later people in general, received great attention.

All these features vary depending on the period and era.

The oldest translated literature

(late 10th – first half of 11th centuries)

These are biblical books, apocrypha, lives; secular translated stories (chronicles, historical stories, “scientific literature”).

Christianity played a big role in the development of Russian culture. Kievan Rus After this, it becomes one of the leading countries in Europe. Rus' drew literary monuments from Bulgaria, which adopted Christianity a little earlier. In Rus' there were no words for the new religion, so the first literary monuments were translated. Under Yaroslav Vladimirovich the Wise, many translations were carried out.

Biblical books were the basis of teaching and worldview. This is a collection of books of different genres, which was compiled from the 12th century BC. to 2-3 centuries AD Therefore, it contains various and sometimes contradictory tales: mythological, folk beliefs, religious journalism, lyrical and epic works, historical texts based on legends, original “stories” about the origin of the world and man. There is no unity in it and religious views, since here is the cult of nature, and polytheism, and belief in magic, and belief in a single deity.

The Bible consists of two parts: Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament books tell about the history of the Jewish people, their ancient fate and religion. The New Testament books are associated with the initial period of Christianity, laying out the foundations Christian doctrine. The structure of the Bible is quite complex.

Scientists classify everything books of the Old Testament in 5 groups:

– historical,

– prophetic,

– poetic,

– didactic,

– eschatological.

This classification is conditional.

Historical books: this is the Pentateuch of Moses, in which the history of the Jewish people unfolds until they occupied Palestine in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Here the inequality and power of the king was justified.

Prophetic books: The books of the prophets are the writings attributed to the early prophets (the book of Joshua). It describes the history of the Jewish people from their settlement in Palestine until the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, that is, until the end of the 6th century BC. There are also the writings of later prophets, the 12 minor prophets. These books are rather mournful, pathetically emotional sermons, denunciations, threats, laments, sorrowful reflections on the fate of the Jewish people and a prediction that they will receive complete freedom.

Poetry books: These are the Psalter, Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes.

The Psalter is a collection of psalms (hymns, prayers and songs of a religious and secular nature that were used in worship). This is one of the first books translated into Russian. The psalms are based on folklore genres (spells, wedding songs, laments, etc.). The particular popularity of the Psalter in Rus' is explained by the lyricism of many psalms - religious lyricism.

The Song of Songs is a kind of love poem, written in rhythmic phrases, its authorship is attributed to Solomon, the love of Solomon and Shulamith is described.

Ecclesiastes – IV-III centuries BC. The style allows one to judge that it was created among professional scribes. It is based on pessimistic reasoning about futility and vanity human life. The main motive is the futility of a person’s intentions to subjugate life; life is cyclical, stable, repeatable, so the preacher looks at life sadly.

Educational books: Solomon's parables are a book of aphorisms, a teaching attitude - the need to learn wisdom, the rules of prudence, justice. This part is very contradictory: on the one hand, there is trust in God, on the other, there is trust in man.

Eschatological books: These are books about the ultimate destinies of the world. They develop the idea that earthly life temporary, and the hour will come when it will be destroyed.

New Testament books can also be classified into the same categories. All books reflect a higher level of development of religious culture - Christianity. They include the Gospel, the apostolic acts and their epistles (Apostle), and the revelation or apocalypse of John the Evangelist.

Historical books:

Gospel - “good news or good news” - the biography of Jesus Christ, told by his disciples: from Matthew, from Mark, from Luke, from John - this is the four Gospels. Their narratives differ in certain facts, but in general they are a story about the life of Christ - historical events associated with the life of Christ.

The apostolic acts are stories about the disciples of Christ, a description of their deeds about the spread of Christianity.

Educational books:

These are the letters of the apostles, consisting of 21 canonical letters of the disciples of Christ; their goal is to popularize, interpret the teachings of Christ, preach the teachings, and therefore are instructive in nature.

Eschatological books:

This is the Revelation of John the Evangelist (about 68 - 70 AD)

The Revelation arose on the basis of Jewish literature and contains an account of fantastic visions that predict catastrophic events before the end of the world. These catastrophes will end with the second coming of Christ, who will finally defeat the enemy.

The Bible was translated into Russian from Bulgarian in the 10th – 11th centuries in fragments. First of all, the Psalter was translated; it was in two versions - explanatory and fortune-telling. The entire text of the Old Testament was translated at the end of the 15th century in Novgorod on the initiative of Archbishop Gennady (Gennady's Bible). New Testament was not completely translated during the Kyiv period.

Bible Meaning:

During the period of strengthening of feudalism - to strengthen the system. From a moral point of view, it contains a certain moral code. From the point of view of literary and aesthetic value, the books were rich in folklore material; they also contained very vivid plot and conflict stories, which were distinguished by their emotionality and imagery. The language of the Bible is of particular importance; we learned to read from the Psalter. In addition, the biography of Christ influenced hagiographic literature in Rus'.

But learning something new Christian teaching also went through the widespread use of apocrypha (in translation it is secret, intimate, not accessible to everyone). These are works designed primarily for a narrow circle of select people. Later, heretics began to use them to criticize the official church, so the apocrypha was not recognized by the church.

Apocrypha are legendary religious narratives that are close in themes and images to canonical books, but differ sharply in the interpretation of events and characters. They incorporated folk ideas and folklore techniques.

Thematically, the Apocrypha is divided into Old Testament, New Testament and eschatological. In the Old Testament - the heroes are Adam, Eve, forefathers, etc., the New Testament - are dedicated to stories about Christ and the apostles, eschatological ones contain fantastic stories about afterlife and the fate of the world.

A special group consists of apocryphal lives(for example, the life of St. George the Victorious). The bulk of such literature came to us from Bulgaria and was associated with the heresy of priest Bogomil. This heresy revised the orthodox monotheistic teaching and proposed dualism - the dominance in the world of two principles - good and evil.

In Rus', already in 10741, in the Tale of Bygone Years, one of the apocryphal legends was recorded, setting out the Bogomil ideas about the dual nature of man.

The apocrypha includes the gospels of Nicodemus, James, and Thomas, in which the personality of Christ is depicted in a more down-to-earth manner. Eschatological apocrypha - Agapit's walk to heaven, the Virgin Mary's walk through torment.

Hagiography (hagiographical) translated literature

This is a church genre dedicated to saints. It arose at the end of the 11th century, came to us from Byzantium and existed as literature for reading.

In all the lives, a conventional idealized image of the saint is given, his life and exploits in an atmosphere of miracle. The peculiarity is that the lives depicted the moral church ideal of a person who achieved the complete triumph of the spirit over the sinful flesh, this was a person who followed Christ in everything, therefore there is always an approach to the moral image of Christ.

Lives were popular because they combined an entertaining plot narrative and a certain dose of edification and panegyric.

Lives were built according to a certain scheme:

It began with an indication of the origin of the saint (from pious parents), then a description of his childhood (he does not play games, secludes himself, learns to read and write early, reads the Bible), refuses marriage, retires to a deserted place, founds a monastery there, becomes a monk, to him the brethren flock, he endures various temptations, predicts the day and hour of his death, instructs the brethren, dies, his body is incorruptible and emits a fragrance - evidence of holiness; then miracles happen. Then there is a brief praise, which lists all the virtues of the saint, sometimes there are laments.

It should be noted that the image of the hero of life was devoid of individual character traits, freed from everything accidental.

Lives of two types:

– lives-martyrium – about the torment of the saint (life of St. Irene),

- the lives of saints who voluntarily accepted the feat of seclusion.

Lives were distributed in two forms:

– in short – prologue lives, as part of collections of prologues, were used in divine services,

- in lengthy form - the menaine readings - were intended to be read at monastic meals.

A special type of hagiographic literature - patericon or otechniki- these are collections that contained only the most important from the point of view of holiness the deeds of the saints and the events of their lives. These are a kind of short stories-legends. (Sinai Patericon).

All patericons had entertaining plots that combined naive fantasy and everyday paintings.

In the 12th century, the lives of Nicholas the Wonderworker, Anthony the Great, and John Chrysostom were already known in the lists. The life of Alexei, the man of God by an unknown author, became especially popular, and big influence on hagiographic literature and formed the basis of spiritual poems.

In addition, among the translated literature there are works of natural science - “The Physiologist” (2-3 centuries AD about the world, plants and animals) and “Sex Day” (about the creation of the world).

In the 12th century, an adventure novel about the life and exploits of Alexander the Great, “Alexandria,” was translated from Greek.

All medieval states usually learned from their successor countries ancient culture. For Rus' great importance played by Bulgaria and Byzantium. Perception of foreign culture Eastern Slavs was always creative, the works always met the internal needs of developing Rus', and therefore they acquired their own characteristics.

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

TEST QUESTIONS AND TASKS

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

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

Old Russian literature has a number of features due to the unique worldview of medieval people and the nature of the creation of written texts:

1) The religious-Christian views of the world inherent in medieval people determined the special nature of the depiction of events and people.

Characteristic feature ancient Russian literature is historicism: the heroes of the works are famous historical figures; writers strive to avoid “self-thinking” (fiction) and strictly follow the facts.

The historicism of Old Russian literature is distinguished by its specific medieval character and is inextricably linked with providentialism. From the point of view of the ancient Russian writer, any events occurring in people’s lives were perceived as a manifestation of action higher powers. The source of good is God; the devil, who hates the human race, pushes people into sinful acts. God not only has mercy on people, but also punishes: “for the sake of sins,” he sends diseases, foreign conquerors, etc. to people. In some cases, God sends people signs of his anger in advance - signs that should enlighten his foolish “slaves” and warn them of the need for repentance.

2) Old Russian literature was closely connected with political life Rus'. This circumstance determines the interest of writers in a certain topic and the nature of writing works. One of the central themes is the theme of the Motherland. Writers glorify its power and strength, actively oppose feudal civil strife that weakens the state, and glorify princes who serve the interests of the people.

Old Russian writers are not inclined to impartial presentation of facts. Being sincerely convinced that they know what life in Rus' should be like, they strive to convey their beliefs to those whom they address in their works. Therefore, all works of ancient Russian literature (spiritual and secular) as a rule are of a journalistic nature.

3) Another characteristic feature of Old Russian literature is the handwritten nature of its existence and distribution.

Even if a work was simply rewritten, it rarely became an exact copy of the original. Many texts were copied several times, and each copyist could act as a kind of co-author. As a result, new lists of works(this term refers to handwritten copies) and editorial staff(varieties of texts in which certain, often quite significant, changes have been made).

4) Created in Ancient Rus' the works are mostly anonymous. This is a consequence of the religious-Christian attitude towards people characteristic of the Middle Ages. The person perceived himself as a “servant of God,” a dependent person, completely dependent on higher powers. The creation and rewriting of a work was seen as something happening at the behest of above. In this case, to sign your name under the work meant to show pride, that is, to commit a sin. Therefore, in most cases, the authors of the works preferred to remain unknown.

5) As noted earlier, ancient Russian literature was inextricably linked with folklore, from which writers drew themes, images and visual means.

Thus, ancient Russian literature has a number of features that distinguish it from the literature of modern times. Old Russian texts are the product of a certain time, characterized by a rather unique worldview of people, and therefore should be considered as unique monuments of a certain era.

Genre system ancient Russian literature

Modern literature has a certain genre-clan system. There are three types of literature: epic, lyric, drama. Within each of them there are certain genres (novel, tragedy, elegy, story, comedy, etc.). Genres(from the French genre - genus, species) are called historically established types literary works.

There were no genres in the modern sense of the word in ancient Russian literature. The term “genre” in relation to works created in the 11th– XVII centuries, is used conditionally.

The genres of ancient Russian literature are divided into spiritual(church) and worldly(secular).

Together with Christianity, Rus' adopted the system spiritual (church) genres adopted in Byzantium. Spiritual genres include a number of works (books Holy Scripture(Bible), hymns and “words” related to the interpretation of scripture, lives of saints, etc.)

Dominant position among genres of secular literature occupied by stories. This word meant narrative works of a different nature (tales, lives, and even chronicle collections (“The Tale of Bygone Years”) were called stories). Along with this, “words” occupied a prominent place among worldly genres (“The Lay of Igor’s Campaign”, “The Lay of the Destruction of the Russian Land”, etc.). They differed from church “words” in their content, in that they were devoted not to the interpretation of Holy Scripture, but to topical matters. modern problems. Obviously, by calling their works “words,” their authors wanted to emphasize that the texts were intended to be spoken in front of listeners.

The genre-clan system of ancient Russian literature does not remain unchanged over the centuries. Particularly significant changes in it were noted in the 17th century, when the foundations of such previously unknown types of literature as lyricism and drama were laid.

The originality of ancient Russian literature:

Works of ancient Russian literature existed and were distributed in manuscripts. Moreover, this or that work did not exist in the form of a separate, independent manuscript, but was part of various collections. Another feature of medieval literature is the absence of copyright. We know of only a few individual authors, book writers, who modestly put their name at the end of the manuscript. At the same time, the writer supplied his name with such epithets as “thin”. But in most cases, the writer wished to remain anonymous. As a rule, the author’s texts have not reached us, but later lists of them have been preserved. Often, scribes acted as editors and co-authors. At the same time, they changed the ideological orientation of the work being copied, the nature of its style, shortened or distributed the text in accordance with the tastes and demands of the time. As a result, new editions of monuments were created. Thus, a researcher of ancient Russian literature must study all available lists of a particular work, establish the time and place of their writing by comparing various editions, variants of lists, and also determine in which edition the list most closely matches the original author's text. Sciences such as textual criticism and paleography can come to the rescue (studies external signs handwritten monuments – handwriting, lettering, nature of the writing material).

Feature ancient Russian literature - historicism. Its heroes are predominantly historical figures; it allows almost no fiction and strictly follows the fact. Even numerous stories about “miracles” - phenomena that seemed supernatural to a medieval person, are not so much the invention of an ancient Russian writer, but rather accurate records of the stories of either eyewitnesses or the people themselves with whom the “miracle” happened. Old Russian literature, inextricably linked with the history of the development of the Russian state and the Russian people, is imbued with heroic and patriotic pathos. Another feature is anonymity.

Literature glorifies the moral beauty of the Russian person, capable of sacrificing what is most precious for the sake of the common good - life. It expresses deep faith in the power and ultimate triumph of good, in man's ability to elevate his spirit and defeat evil. The Old Russian writer was least of all inclined to an impartial presentation of facts, “listening to good and evil indifferently.” Any genre of ancient literature, be it historical story or a legend, life or church sermon, as a rule, includes significant elements of journalism. Touching primarily on state-political or moral issues, the writer believes in the power of words, in the power of persuasion. He appeals not only to his contemporaries, but also to distant descendants with an appeal to ensure that the glorious deeds of their ancestors are preserved in the memory of generations and that descendants do not repeat the sad mistakes of their grandfathers and great-grandfathers.

The literature of Ancient Rus' expressed and defended the interests of the upper echelons of feudal society. However, it could not help but show an acute class struggle, which resulted either in the form of open spontaneous uprisings or in the forms of typically medieval religious heresies. The literature vividly reflected the struggle between progressive and reactionary groups within the ruling class, each of which sought support among the people. And since the progressive forces of feudal society reflected national interests, and these interests coincided with the interests of the people, we can talk about the nationality of ancient Russian literature.

In the 11th – first half of the 12th century, the main writing material was parchment, made from the skin of calves or lambs. Birch bark played the role of student notebooks.

To save writing material, the words in the line were not separated and only paragraphs of the manuscript were highlighted with red initial letters. Frequently used, well-known words were written abbreviated under a special superscript - title. The parchment was pre-lined. Handwriting with regular, almost square letters was called charter.

The written sheets were sewn into notebooks, which were bound into wooden boards.

Problem artistic method:

The artistic method of ancient Russian literature is inextricably linked with the nature of the worldview, the worldview of medieval man, which absorbed religious speculative ideas about the world and a concrete vision of reality associated with labor practice. In the minds of medieval man, the world existed in two dimensions: real, earthly and heavenly, spiritual. The Christian religion insisted that human life on earth is temporary. The purpose of earthly life is preparation for eternal, incorruptible life. These preparations should consist of moral improvement of the soul, curbing sinful passions and so on.

Two aspects of the artistic method of ancient Russian literature are associated with the dual nature of the worldview of medieval man:

1) reproduction of individual facts in all their specificity, purely empirical statements;

2) consistent transformation of life, that is, idealization of facts real life, an image not of what exists, but of what should be.

The first side of the artistic method is associated with the historicism of Old Russian literature in its medieval understanding, and with the second - its symbolism.

The Old Russian writer was convinced that symbols are hidden in nature, in man himself. He believed that historical events were also fulfilled symbolic meaning, because he believed that history moves and is directed by the will of the deity. The writer considered symbols as the main means of revealing the truth, discovering the inner meaning of a phenomenon. Just as the phenomena of the surrounding world are polysemantic, so is the word. This is where the symbolic nature of metaphors and comparisons in ancient Russian literature stems.

An Old Russian writer, trying to convey an image of truth, strictly follows a fact that he himself witnessed or about which he learned from the words of an eyewitness, a participant in the event. He does not doubt the truth of miracles, supernatural phenomena, he believes in their reality.

As a rule, the heroes of works of ancient Russian literature are historical figures. Only in some cases do representatives of the people turn out to be heroes.

Medieval literature is still alien to any individualization human character. Old Russian writers create generalized typological images of an ideal ruler, a warrior, on the one hand, and an ideal ascetic, on the other. These images are sharply contrasted with the generalized typological image of the evil ruler and collective image demon-devil, personifying evil.

In the view of the ancient Russian writer, life is a constant arena of the struggle between good and evil.

The source of goodness, good thoughts and actions is God. The devil and demons push people to evil. However, Old Russian literature does not relieve responsibility from the person himself. Everyone is free to choose their own path.

In the consciousness of the ancient Russian writer, the categories of ethical and aesthetic merged. Good is always beautiful. Evil is associated with darkness.

The writer builds his works on the contrast of good and evil. He brings the reader to the idea that high moral qualities of a person are the result of hard moral work.

The behavior and actions of the heroes are determined by their social status, their belonging to the princely, boyar, druzhina, and church classes.

Strict adherence to the rhythm established by the ancestors of the order constitutes life basis etiquette, ceremoniality of ancient Russian literature. So the chronicler, first of all, sought to put the numbers in a row, that is, to arrange the material he selected in chronological sequence.

The works of ancient Russian literature were didactic and moralizing in nature. They were called upon to help get rid of vices.

So, medieval historicism, symbolism, ritualism and didacticism are the leading principles of artistic representation in works of ancient Russian literature. In different works, depending on the genre and time of their creation, these features manifested themselves differently.

Historical development Old Russian literature proceeded through the gradual destruction of the integrity of its method, liberation from Christian symbolism, ritualism and didacticism.

Genres of Old Russian literature.

A genre is a historically established type of literary work, an abstract pattern on the basis of which the texts of specific literary works are created. The system of genres of literature of Ancient Rus' differed significantly from the modern one. Old Russian literature developed largely under the influence of Byzantine literature and borrowed from it a system of genres, reworking them on a national basis: the specificity of the genres of Old Russian literature lies in their connection with traditional Russian folk art. The genres of ancient Russian literature are usually divided into primary and unifying.

Primary genres.

These genres are called primary because they served as building material for unifying genres. Primary genres:

Hagiography - the genre of hagiography was borrowed from Byzantium. This is the most widespread and beloved genre of ancient Russian literature. Life was an indispensable attribute when a person was canonized, i.e. were canonized. The life was created by people who directly communicated with a person or could reliably testify to his life. Life was always created after the death of a person. It performed a huge educational function, because the life of the saint was perceived as an example of a righteous life that must be imitated. In addition, life deprived a person of the fear of death, preaching the idea of ​​​​immortality human soul. Life was built according to certain canons, from which they did not depart until the 15-16 centuries.

Canons of life:

• - The pious origin of the hero of the life, whose parents must have been righteous. The saint's parents often begged God.
• - A saint was born a saint, and did not become one.
• - The saint was distinguished by an ascetic lifestyle, spending time in solitude and prayer.
• - A mandatory attribute of the life was a description of the miracles that occurred during the life of the saint and after his death.
• - The saint was not afraid of death.
• - The life ended with the glorification of the saint.

One of the first works of the hagiographic genre in ancient Russian literature was the life of the holy princes Boris and Gleb.

Old Russian eloquence - this genre was borrowed by Old Russian literature from Byzantium, where eloquence was a form of oratory. In ancient Russian literature, eloquence appeared in three varieties:

• - didactic (instructive)
• - political
• - solemn

Teaching is a genre in which ancient Russian chroniclers tried to present a model of behavior for any ancient Russian man: both for the prince and for the commoner. The most a shining example This genre is included in the “Tale of Bygone Years” “The Teachings of Vladimir Monomakh” dating back to 1096. At this time, the strife between the princes in the battle for the throne reached its climax. In his teaching, Vladimir Monomakh gives advice on how to organize your life. He says that there is no need to seek the salvation of the soul in seclusion. It is necessary to serve God by helping those in need. When going to war, you should pray - God will definitely help. Monomakh confirms these words with an example from his life: he took part in many battles - and God protected him. Monomakh says that one should look at how the natural world is structured and try to arrange public relations modeled on a harmonious world order. The teaching of Vladimir Monomakh is addressed to descendants.

The word is a type of genre of ancient Russian eloquence. An example of the political variety of ancient Russian eloquence is “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.”

Another example of political eloquence is the “Word about the Destruction of the Russian Land,” which was created immediately after the Mongol-Tatars came to Rus'. The author glorifies the bright past and mourns the present. An example of the solemn variety of ancient Russian eloquence is the “Sermon on Law and Grace” by Metropolitan Hilarion, which was created in the first third of the 11th century. The word was written by Metropolitan Hilarion on the occasion of the completion of the construction of military fortifications in Kyiv. The word conveys the idea of ​​​​the political and military independence of Rus' from Byzantium.

A story is a text of an epic nature, telling about princes, military exploits, about princely crimes. Examples of military stories are “The Tale of the Battle of the Kalka River”, “The Tale of the Devastation of Ryazan by Batu Khan”, “The Tale of the Life of Alexander Nevsky”.

Unifying genres - primary genres acted as part of unifying genres, such as the chronicle, chronograph, cheti-menaion, patericon.

Chronographs are texts containing a description of time in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Cheti-Minea - a collection of works about holy people.

Patericon - a description of the life of the holy fathers.

Apocrypha - literally translated from ancient Greek as “intimate, secret.” These are works of a religious and legendary nature. Apocrypha became particularly widespread in the 13th and 14th centuries, but the church did not recognize this genre and does not recognize it to this day.