Karamzin what the author needs analysis of the article. Karamzin's literary position

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Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin
What does the author need?

They say that the author needs talents and knowledge: a sharp, insightful mind, a vivid imagination, etc. Fair enough: but that’s not enough. He must also have a kind, gentle heart if he wants to be a friend and favorite of our soul; if he wants his talents to shine with an unflickering light; if he wants to write for eternity and collect the blessings of nations. The Creator is always depicted in creation and often against his will. In vain does the hypocrite think to deceive his readers and hide his iron heart under the golden robe of pompous words; in vain speaks to us about mercy, compassion, virtue! All his exclamations are cold, without soul, without life; and never will a nourishing, ethereal flame flow from his creations into the tender soul of the reader.

If heaven had endowed some monster with the great gifts of the glorious Aruet 1
The protector and patron of the innocent, the benefactor of the Kalas family, the benefactor of all Ferney residents, of course, did not have an evil heart.

Then, instead of the beautiful “Zaire,” he would have written a caricature of “Zaire.” The purest healing nectar in an unclean vessel becomes a nasty, poisonous drink.

When you want to paint your portrait, then look first in the right mirror: can your face be an object of art, which should deal with one thing? graceful, depict beauty, harmony and spread in sensitive areas pleasant impressions? If your creative nature produced you in an hour of negligence or in a moment of discord with beauty, then be prudent, do not disgrace the artist’s brush, abandon your intention. You take up the pen and want to be an author: ask yourself, alone, without witnesses, sincerely: what am I like? for you want to paint a portrait of your soul and heart.

Do you really think that Gesner could so charmingly portray the innocence and good nature of shepherds and shepherdesses if these kind traits were alien to his own heart?

But if the path is open to everything that is sorrowful, everything that is oppressed, everything that weeps, into your sensitive chest; if your soul can rise to passion for good can nourish within itself the sacred, not limited by any spheres desire for the common good: then boldly call on the goddesses of Parnassus - they will pass by the magnificent palaces and visit your humble hut - you will not be a useless writer - and none of the good ones will look with dry eyes at your grave.

Syllables, figures, metaphors, images, expressions - all this touches and captivates when it is animated by feeling; if it is not this that inflames the writer’s imagination, then my tears, my smile will never be his reward.

Why do we like Jean-Jacques Rousseau with all his weaknesses and errors? Why do we love to read him even when he is dreaming or getting entangled in contradictions? - Because in his very delusions sparks of passionate philanthropy sparkle; because his very weaknesses show some sweet good nature.

On the contrary, many other authors, despite their learning and knowledge, disturb my spirit even when they speak the truth: for this truth is dead in their mouths; for this truth does not flow from a virtuous heart; for the breath of love does not warm her.

In a word: I am sure that a bad person cannot be a good author.

They say that the author needs talents and knowledge: a sharp, insightful mind, a vivid imagination, etc. Fair enough: but that’s not enough. He must also have a kind, gentle heart if he wants to be a friend and favorite of our soul; if he wants his talents to shine with an unflickering light; if he wants to write for eternity and collect the blessings of nations. The Creator is always depicted in creation and often against his will. In vain does the hypocrite think to deceive his readers and hide his iron heart under the golden robe of pompous words; in vain speaks to us about mercy, compassion, virtue! All his exclamations are cold, without soul, without life; and never will a nourishing, ethereal flame flow from his creations into the tender soul of the reader.

If heaven had endowed some monster with the great talents of the glorious Aruet, then, instead of the beautiful “Zaire,” he would have written a caricature of “Zaire.” The purest healing nectar in an unclean vessel becomes a nasty, poisonous drink.

When you want to paint your portrait, then look first in the right mirror: can your face be an object of art, which should deal with one thing? graceful, depict beauty, harmony and spread in sensitive areas pleasant impressions? If your creative nature produced you in an hour of negligence or in a moment of discord with beauty, then be prudent, do not disgrace the artist’s brush, abandon your intention. You take up the pen and want to be an author: ask yourself, alone, without witnesses, sincerely: what am I like? for you want to paint a portrait of your soul and heart.

Do you really think that Gesner could so charmingly portray the innocence and good nature of shepherds and shepherdesses if these kind traits were alien to his own heart?

But if the path is open to everything that is sorrowful, everything that is oppressed, everything that weeps, into your sensitive chest; if your soul can rise to passion for good can nourish within itself the sacred, not limited by any spheres desire for the common good: then boldly call on the goddesses of Parnassus - they will pass by the magnificent palaces and visit your humble hut - you will not be a useless writer - and none of the good ones will look with dry eyes at your grave.

Syllables, figures, metaphors, images, expressions - all this touches and captivates when it is animated by feeling; if it is not this that inflames the writer’s imagination, then my tears, my smile will never be his reward.

Why do we like Jean-Jacques Rousseau with all his weaknesses and errors? Why do we love to read him even when he is dreaming or getting entangled in contradictions? - Because in his very delusions sparks of passionate philanthropy sparkle; because his very weaknesses show some sweet good nature.

On the contrary, many other authors, despite their learning and knowledge, disturb my spirit even when they speak the truth: for this truth is dead in their mouths; for this truth does not flow from a virtuous heart; for the breath of love does not warm her.

In a word: I am sure that a bad person cannot be a good author.

Genuine literary fame came to Karamzin after the publication of the story “ Poor Lisa"(Moscow magazine. 1792). An indicator of Karamzin’s fundamental innovation and the literary shock that his story was for the Russian literary prose, became a wave of imitations that swept Russian literature at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. One after another, stories appear varying the Karamzin plot: “Poor Masha” by A. Izmailov, “Seduced Henrietta” by I. Svechinsky, “Dasha, a Country Girl” by P. Lvov, “Unhappy Margarita” by an unknown author, “Beautiful Tatyana” by V. Izmailov , “The Story of Poor Marya” by N. Brusilov, etc.

Even more convincing evidence of the revolution accomplished by Karamzin’s story in literature and the reader’s consciousness was the fact that literary plot The story was perceived by the Russian reader as a life-like and real plot, and its characters - as real people. After the publication of the story, walks in the vicinity of the Simonov Monastery, where Karamzin settled his heroine, and to the pond into which she threw herself and which was called “Liza’s Pond” became fashionable.

The story "Poor Liza" is written on a classic sentimental plot about the love of representatives different classes: her heroes - the nobleman Erast and the peasant woman Liza - cannot be happy not only for moral reasons, but also for social conditions life. Deep social root The plot is embodied in Karamzin’s story at its most external level, as a moral conflict between the “beautiful soul and body” of Lisa and Erast - “a rather rich nobleman with a fair mind and kind hearted, kind by nature, but weak and flighty.” And, of course, one of the reasons for the shock produced by Karamzin’s story in literature and the reader’s consciousness was that Karamzin was the first of the Russian writers who addressed the theme of unequal love, who decided to resolve his story in the way that such a conflict would most likely be resolved in real conditions Russian life: the death of the heroine.

However, the innovations of Karamzin’s literary style do not end there. The very figurative structure of the story, the manner of narration and the angle from which the author forces his readers to look at the plot he is narrating are marked with the stamp of vivid literary innovation. The story “Poor Liza” begins with a peculiar musical introduction - a description of the surroundings of the Simonov Monastery, associated in the associative memory of the author-narrator with “the memory of the deplorable fate of Liza, poor Liza”

Before the development of the plot begins, in the emotionally rich landscape the themes of the main characters of the story are clearly indicated - the theme of Erast, whose image is inextricably linked with the “terrible bulk of houses” of “greedy” Moscow, shining with the “golden domes”, the theme of Lisa, coupled with an inextricably associative connection with beautiful life natural nature, described using the epithets “blooming”, “bright”, “light”, and the theme of the author, whose space is not physical or geographical, but spiritual and emotional in nature: the author acts as a historian, chronicler of the lives of his heroes and keeper of the memory of them.

With the voice of the author, the theme enters into the private plot of the story great history fatherland - and the story of one soul and love turns out to be equal to it: “Karamzin motivated the human soul, love historically and thereby introduced it into history.” This comparison of two completely different and previously thought to be incomparable contexts - historical and private - makes the story "Poor Liza" fundamental literary fact, on the basis of which the Russian socio-psychological novel would subsequently arise

In the further course of the plot, the emotional leitmotifs outlined in the introduction receive their figurative embodiment, replacing direct moral assessments and declarations in the author’s narration. The image of Lisa is invariably accompanied by a motif of whiteness, purity and freshness: on the day of her first meeting with Erast, she appears in Moscow with lilies of the valley in her hands; when Erast first appears under the windows of Lisa’s hut, she gives him milk, pouring it from a “clean jar covered with a clean wooden mug” into a glass wiped with a white towel; on the morning of Erast’s arrival for the first date, Lisa, “sorrowful, looked at the white mists that were agitated in the air,” after a declaration of love, it seems to Lisa that “the sun has never shone so brightly,” and on subsequent dates, “the quiet moon<...>she silvered Liza’s blonde hair with her rays.”

As for the leitmotif accompanying the image of Erast, every appearance of Erast on the pages of the story is in one way or another connected with money: at the first meeting with Lisa, he wants to pay her a ruble for lilies of the valley instead of five kopecks; when buying Liza’s work, he wants to “always pay ten times the price she sets”; before leaving for war, “he forced her to take some money from him”; in the army, “instead of fighting the enemy, he played cards and lost almost all his estate,” which is why he was forced to marry “an elderly rich widow” - cf. Liza, who refused the “son of a rich peasant” for the sake of Erast. Finally, at the last meeting with Liza, before kicking her out of his house, Erast puts one hundred rubles in her pocket

It is obvious that the semantic leitmotifs set in the landscape sketches of the author's introduction are realized in the narrative by a system of images synonymous with them: the gold of the domes of greedy Moscow is the motif of money accompanying Erast; flowering meadows and a bright river of nature near Moscow - flower motifs; whiteness and purity surrounding the image of Lisa with an emotional verbal halo. Thus, the description of the life of nature extends extensively to the whole figurative system the story, introducing an additional aspect of the psychologization of the narrative and expanding its anthropological field by paralleling the life of the soul and the life of nature.

The entire love story of Lisa and Erast is immersed in a picture of the life of nature, constantly changing according to the stages of development of love feelings. Particularly obvious examples of such correspondence with emotional fullness landscape sketch the semantic content of a particular plot twist is given a melancholic autumn landscape introduction, foreshadowing the general tragic ending story, a picture of a clear, dewy May morning, in which Lisa and Erast declare their love, and a picture of a terrible night thunderstorm that accompanies the beginning of a tragic turning point in the heroine’s fate. Thus, “the landscape from an auxiliary device with “framework” functions, from a “pure” decoration and external attribute of the text turned into an organic part of an artistic structure that realizes the overall concept of the work”, became a means of producing reader emotions, acquired “a correlation with the inner world of a person as a kind of mirror souls"

All these narrative techniques, coloring the story in the tones of living human emotion and placing the moral accents of the plot in an impeccably artistic way, without the slightest sign direct declarative assessment, force us to take a closer look at the image of the narrator, the author-narrator, whose direct speech tells the story of poor Lisa, which he once heard from Erast.

The image of the author-narrator, included in the figurative structure of the story as its full-fledged hero and acting (speaking) person, is a kind of aesthetic center of the entire narrative structure, to which all its semantic and formal levels are drawn, since the author-narrator is the only intermediary between the reader and the life of the heroes, embodied in his word. The image of the narrator in “Poor Lisa” is the main generator of the emotional tone of the story, created by the author’s experience of the heroes’ destinies as his own, and the conductor through which emotion is transmitted to the reader.

It is far from accidental that “the narrator’s introduction to literary text also induced the emergence of the reader as a special significant category." In addition to the fact that the narration is conducted in the first person, the constant presence of the author reminds of itself with his periodic appeals to the reader: “Now the reader should know...”; “The reader can easily imagine...”. These formulas of address, emphasizing the intimacy of emotional contact between the author, characters and reader, are very reminiscent of similar methods of organizing narrative in epic genres Russian poetry.

Karamzin, transferring these formulas into narrative prose, ensured that the prose acquired a soulful lyrical sound and began to be perceived as emotionally as poetry.

In their aesthetic unity, the three central images of the story - the author-narrator, poor Liza and Erast - with a completeness unprecedented in Russian literature, realized the sentimentalist concept of personality, valuable for its extra-class moral virtues, sensitive and complex. Each hero has the whole complex of these characteristics, but also has his own dominant. The main bearer of the category of sensitivity is the author-narrator. The idea of ​​extra-class value is connected to the image of poor Lisa human personality, - by the way, the only case of a direct author’s declaration in the story is connected with this idea - “for even peasant women know how to love!” Finally, Erast is the embodiment of the complexity and inconsistency of human nature in the combination of his subjective qualities (“kind by nature, but weak and flighty”), objective guilt before Lisa and equally objective innocence since he, like Lisa, is a victim of circumstances , which do not provide any way out of the current situation other than tragedy. Such a consistent embodiment of sentimental ideology in an impeccable artistic form and innovative poetics made Karamzin’s story “Poor Liza” not only an aesthetic manifesto of Russian sentimentalism, but also the true birthplace of Russian artistic prose.

Sentimentalist criticism. Typological analysis of literary critical articles by N.M. Karamzin (“What does an author need?”, “Why is there little authorial talent in Russia?”, preface to the translation of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, “Pantheon of Russian Authors”, etc.)

Literature and library science

Reconsidering the idea of ​​​​the subordination of the individual sphere of life to state life, characteristic of the era of classicism, sentimentalists defended the priority of private life and emphasized the extra-class value of the individual, one cannot help but recall Karamzin’s words: And peasant women know how to love. In the works of Russian sentimentalist writers N. M. Karamzin P. The largest representative of Russian criticism of the era of sentimentalism was the founder of this literary movement in Russia Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin 1766 1826. Multifaceted activity...

Sentimentalist criticism. Typological analysis of literary critical articles by N.M. Karamzin (“What does an author need?”, “Why is there little authorial talent in Russia?”, preface to the translation of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, “Pantheon of Russian Authors”, etc.)

One of the most striking phenomena in Russian literary criticism in the last third of the 18th century was the emergence and flowering of sentimentalist criticism. The emergence of European and Russian sentimentalism was associated with a crisis of rationalistic worldview and an active revaluation of ethical and aesthetic values ​​that developed under the conditions of absolutist statehood. Reconsidering the idea of ​​the subordination of the individual sphere of life to state life, characteristic of the era of classicism, sentimentalists defended the priority of private life, emphasizing the extra-class value of the individual (one cannot help but recall Karamzin’s: “And peasant women know how to love”). The cult of heroes, who sacrifice their aspirations in the name of duty, is replaced by the image of an ordinary “sensitive” person and his inner life. In the works of Russian sentimentalist writers (N.M. Karamzin, P.Yu. Lvov, V.V. Izmailov, P.I. Shalikov, I.P. Milonov, etc.), chaste nature was opposed to civilization, representatives of the democratic lower classes were opposed to the inhabitants of palaces, solitary life in the circle of friends social vanity and the search for honors. The humanistic pathos of sentimentalism was embodied mainly in the genres of prose - in the story, novel, and travel genre.

Modern researchers see the origin of the principles of sentimental criticism in literary critical notes, letters and diary entries Mikhail Nikitich Muravyov (17571807). Here, for the first time, the idea was voiced that works are perceived and evaluated by “a special inner feeling called taste.” Highlighting the category of taste and emphasizing its emotional nature led to the abandonment of the rationalistic approach to art and its normative assessment.

The largest representative of Russian criticism of the era of sentimentalism was the founder of this literary movement in RussiaNikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (17661826). Karamzin's multifaceted activities - writer, historian, publicist, critic, journalist - had a powerful impact on the spiritual life of society at the end of the 18th century and the first third of the 19th century. It is not for nothing that Pushkin would later write: “The pure, lofty glory of Karamzin belongs to Russia,” and Belinsky would name an entire period in the history of Russian literature after him, from the 1790s to the 1820s.

Already in his first speeches, Karamzin, in contrast to classicist critics, lined up his row of exemplary writers, putting English and German poets of modern times in first place. Thus, in the poem “Poetry” (1787), Shakespeare (“nature’s friend”), Milton (“high spirit”), Jung (“comforter of the unfortunate”), Thomson (“You taught me to enjoy nature”), as well as Gesner (“the sweetest singer”) and Klop-stock (“He is inspired by God..”). In Karamzin’s articles, this series is supplemented by the names of the largest sentimentalist writers“skilled painter” human soul Richardson, the “incomparable” Stern, who knows how to shake “the finest fibers of our hearts,” and the “great,” “unforgettable” Rousseau, whose “paradoxes,” however, Karamzin does not accept. Evaluations of the work of these authors emphasize “sensitivity,” “passionate love of humanity,” and deep knowledge of the “secrets of the heart.”

Karamzin firmly connected criticism with aesthetics as the “science of taste”, which “teaches one to enjoy the beautiful.” Evaluation of a work, he believed, should be based not on determining its compliance with the genre canon, but on taste, an inner sense of grace. Taste in a writer and critic “is a talent” that is not acquired by teaching. At the same time, Karamzin realized the relativity of the criteria of beauty: “Taste was subject to many changes.”

In Karamzin’s critical speeches one of central places occupied by the problem of the individual characteristics of phenomena, which led to increased attention to the personality of the writer, to innovative searches in the field of literary genres, to individual characteristics characters' characters, psychologism, etc. Karamzin began to reassess the place and role of feelings both in the inner life of a person and in his social existence, and elevated “sensitivity” to the rank of fundamental ideological principles. In the article “What does an author need?” (1793) he wrote: “They say that the author needs talents and knowledge, a sharp, penetrating mind, a vivid imagination, etc. Fair, but not enough. He must also have a kind, gentle heart if he wants to be a friend and favorite of our soul; if he wants his talents to be removed with an unflickering light; if he wants to write for eternity and collect the blessings of nations”3. Karamzin came close to the problem creative individuality writer, which leaves a unique imprint on his works: “The Creator is always depicted in creation, and often against his will.” The programmatic article rethought the concept of the “benefits” of literature: everything that resonates in the soul and heart of the reader, that awakens good feelings. One who can “raise himself to a passion for good” and nourishes in himself a holy “desire for the common good” will not be a “useless writer.”

QUOTES: They say that the author needs talents and knowledge: a sharp, insightful mind, a vivid imagination, but this is not enough. He must also have a kind, gentle heart if he wants to be a friend and favorite of our soul; if he wants his talents to shine with an unflickering light; if he wants to write for eternity and collect the blessings of nations. The purest healing nectar in an unclean vessel becomes a nasty, poisonous drink. When you want to paint your portrait, then look first in the right mirror: can your face be an object of art? You take up the pen and want to be an author: ask yourself, sincerely: what am I like? for you want to paint a portrait of your soul and heart. You want to be an author: read the history of the misfortunes of the human race - and if your heart does not bleed, leave the pen. If your soul is drawn to goodness, carries a desire for the common good: you will not be a useless writer - Syllable, figures, metaphors, images, expressions - all this touches and captivates when it is animated by feeling. In a word: I am sure that a bad person cannot be a good author.

Convinced of the need for criticism for the development of Russian literature, Karamzin regularly published reviews of new books, Russian and foreign, on the pages of the Moscow Journal. Here the genre of review, which is very important for Russian criticism, finally took shape. Breaking the established traditions in criticism, Karamzin spoke not about the moral benefits of the work, but primarily about its artistic side. Thus, in a review of Kheraskov’s novel “Cadmus and Harmony,” he noted “curious plots,” excellent descriptions, and “interesting provisions.” The author of the review rejected straightforward didactics and, for the first time in Russian criticism, suggested the unity of the ethical and aesthetic. Revealing the principles of the aesthetics of sentimentalism in articles and reviews, Karamzin focused on such concepts as “naturalness,” “naturalness,” and psychological authenticity. A striking example of sentimentalist criticism can be Karamzin’s article “On Bogdanovich and his writings,” published in 1803 in the “Bulletin of Europe” and representing a synthesis of different genres: obituary, literary portrait and a critical analysis of the poem “Darling” - a free translation of La Fontaine’s poem “Psyche”. Creating in an article perfect image a poet who creates by inspiration, Karamzin, when analyzing “Darling”, emphasized the unconventionality, “irregularity” of this poem, which requires an equally unconventional approach to it.

Karamzin's innovation as a critic was also evident in his formulation of the problem of character. Karamzin “felt that this problem was central to sentimentalism and logically follows from the principles of depicting sensitivity, individuality, and social character.” In his speeches (“Preface to the translation of Shakespeare’s tragedy “Julius Caesar”, 1786; “Pantheon of Russian Authors”, 1602, etc.) he demanded the historical and psychological credibility of the characters, their national certainty. Understanding character as a complex unity of spiritual and psychological properties of a person, Karamzin moved far away from the rationalistic ideas of the theorists of classicism, who considered character as the embodiment of one dominant passion.

QUOTES (preface): Shakespeare's works are dramatic works. Time, the powerful destroyer of everything that is under the sun, could not yet eclipse the elegance and grandeur of Shakespeare's creations. Few writers have penetrated so deeply into human nature as Shakespeare; few knew so well all the secret springs of man, his innermost motives, the distinctiveness of every passion, every temperament and every kind of life. All magnificent paintings imitate his nature directly; Every degree of people, every age, every passion, every character speaks in his own language. For every thought he finds an image, for every sensation - an expression, for every movement of the soul - the best turn. But even this great man is freed from the caustic reproaches of some of his bad critics. (practice - the sophist Walter) It is true that Shakespeare did not adhere to theatrical rules. He did not want to observe the so-called unities, which our current dramatic authors so firmly adhere to; He did not want to put tight limits on his imagination: he looked only at nature, without caring, however, about anything. His genius, like the genius of nature, embraced the sun and atoms with its gaze. With equal skill he portrayed the hero and the jester, the wise man and the madman, Brutus and the shoemaker. His dramas, like the immeasurable theater of nature, are full of diversity: yet together they form a perfect whole, which does not require correction from modern theater writers.

QUOTES (pantheon - Goech., name of a temple dedicated to all gods): 1BOYAN He listens to the singing nightingale and tries to imitate him on the lyre. Perhaps Boyan lived during the time of the hero Oleg; 2NESTOR

Nestor's Chronicle is a treasure of our history both in its antiquity and in some characteristic features, important and, so to speak, radiant for the perspicacious historian of new, happiest times. For example, the short speech of Prince Svyatoslav to his squad before the battle with the Greeks is not a sufficient, glorious expression of ancient Russian courage and national pride?

3NIKON collected the ancient chronicles of Russia, now known under his name and serving as the basis of our history. 4 MATVEEV ARTEMON SERGEEVICH composed the history of our princes and kings, which he presented to Tsarevich Theodore. 5 TSAREVNA SOFIA ALEKSEEVNA was also involved in literature: she wrote tragedies and played them herself in the circle of her entourage. still unknown - not only the songs of David, but also the church calendar itself; 7.DIMITRY TUPTALO wrote a lot and in different genres: instructive words about the Slavic people, about world history, spiritual comedies in verse 8FEOFAN PROKOPOVICH Learned theologian and natural speaker. He composed many theological, moralizing books and even a preface to the naval regulations. 9. PRINCE KHILKOV ANDREY YAKOVLEVICH composed “The Core of Russian History.” His book is useful for anyone who wants to have an easy information about Russian history, without requiring either thorough criticism or beautiful syllable.

10 PRINCE KANTEMIR ANTIOKH DMITRIEVICH His satires were the first experience of Russian wit and style. 11TATISHCHEV VASILY NIKITICH A zealous lover of Russian history, who spent thirty years collecting everything that concerns it; KLIMOVSKY SEMYON

Also among them: PETER BUSLAEV, VASILY KIRILOVITCH TREDIAKOVSKY, MIKHAILO VASILIEVICH LOMONOSOV ALEXANDER PETROVICH SUMAROKOV...

New stage in Karamzin’s literary and critical activities is associated with his publication of the journal “Bulletin of Europe” (18021803), which has an educational and patriotic orientation. The magazine contained permanent departments of literature, political journalism and criticism; old people actively collaborated in it literary friends Karamzina G.R. Derzhavin, I.I. Dmitriev and young writers, including V.A. Zhukovsky. On the pages of “Bulletin of Europe” the editor published a number of his works of art (“Martha Posadnitsa”, “My Confession”, “Knight of Our Time”) and articles that were directly related not only to literature, but also to the development of Russian public consciousness and Russian culture as a whole (“On love of the fatherland and national pride” (1802 No. 4), “Why are there few artistic talents in Russia?” (1802, No. 14)" “On incidents and characters in Russian history that can be the subject of art" (1802, No. 24).

In the article “Why are there few creative talents in Russia?” Karamzin continued his earlier thoughts on the nature of talent and the conditions for its formation. Recognizing talent as “the inspiration of nature,” Karamzin, however, believed that it should mature in learning, “in constant exercise.” A writer needs to develop subtle taste, “master the spirit of his language,” and acquire “knowledge of the world.” If circumstances are “not favorable” to the development of talents, then they “for the most part fade away.” Addressing the question posed in the title of the article, Karamzin rejected the “climatic” explanation of cultural development, characteristic of some French educators, “Not in the climate, but in the circumstances.” civil life Russians,” he emphasized, “we need to look for an answer to the question: “Why are our good writers?. Among the “circumstances of civil life,” he pointed to the preference for the French language over the Russian language, which impedes the development of literary talent, as well as the “search for ranks,” which prevents young people with talent from preparing for literary activity.

QUOTES: We, of course, have less creative talent than others European peoples; but we had them, we have them, and, consequently, nature did not condemn us to be surprised by them only in foreign lands. It is not in the climate, but in the circumstances of the civil life of Russians that we must look for an answer to the question: “Why are good writers rare among us?” True writers We still had so little that they did not have time to give us samples in many genera; did not have time to enrich the words with subtle ideas; they did not show how to express pleasantly some, even ordinary, thoughts. Is it any wonder that the writers of some Russian comedies and novels have not overcome this great difficulty (the dominance of the French language) and that secular women do not have the patience to listen or read them, finding that people with taste do not speak like that? Over time, of course, there will be more good authors in Russia - then, as we will see among secular people there are more learned people or between scientists - more secular people.

Karamzin traditions in the development of general theoretical problems literary criticism and specific issues literary development P.I. Makarov also continued. V.V.Izmailov and I.I.Martynov.

In the last two decades of the 18th century, largely thanks to Karamzin and his like-minded people, there was an awareness of criticism as a special, independent type of literary activity. Based on Karamzin’s publications in the Moscow Journal, the almanac Aonida, as well as in the Bulletin of Europe, Russian readers learned to judge the state of contemporary literature. Criticism began to be understood not as a negative assessment or objection to one’s literary opponent, but as the experience of analyzing a work , an aesthetic assessment of its content and artistic merits, based on an inner sense of grace. critical statement acquired special value in the eyes of sentimentalist critics if this statement was based on a deep feeling and knowledge of beauty.

Apart from the preparatory period of Karamzin’s literary work before his trip abroad, all of his activity as a fiction writer and even a journalist is confined to a short period from 1791 to 1803; after this time, 23 years of his life were spent on the “History of the Russian State.” Twelve years were enough to strengthen Karamzin’s fame as a great writer, a reorganizer of Russian literature and language. Karamzin already in the 1790s acted as a teacher and leader of literature. His influence was enormous; Representatives of various intellectual movements in Russian society openly acknowledged this influence and spoke about the fascination with Karamzin that they went through.

Throughout almost the 18th century. Western sentimental or, rather, pre-romantic and at the same time pre-realistic literary movements created an extensive fund cultural values. Appearance European culture By the time the French Revolution began, it had changed significantly compared to what Lomonosov found in the West. Classicism lived out its life, was destroyed - and gave a new flowering, on a new basis, in the revolutionary work of poets and playwrights of the end of the century. Next to him, literature, heralded by Richardson, Stern, Gray, Diderot, Rousseau, Klopstock, flourished magnificently. The analysis of man “in general,” in the name of state unity, which subjugates and absorbs the individual, gave way to the psychological analysis of the individual, who has won the right to interest in himself, to protection, to cult precisely as a specific individual. The emotional life of man, his “private affections,” his “passions” began to be valued more than the logical scheme of his political relationships, even than the rational structure of his morality. Behind this restructuring of the attitude towards man was the recognition of the incorrectness of the political system of feudalism, the illegality of its domination over the individual, there was the individualism of the revolutionary worldview of the bourgeoisie at that time, there was the recognition of man and his human happiness as the highest criterion of value. Let the individual perish, let the state live, said the classic of the 17th century, and his slogan was progressive and needed in his time. Let the state that destroys the individual perish, it would be free for a person to build his life as he wants and achieve his human happiness where he wants - this slogan, progressive at the end of the 18th century, helped to storm feudalism and its political system. And the fact that the bourgeois nature of this slogan carried within itself the possibility of degeneration into the ideology of new exploitation was not noticeable when the peoples were faced with the primary task of fighting the old, feudal evil. By the end of the 18th century. And Western Europe, and Russia have already accumulated considerable experience in new art.

Karamzin, bringing together all the elements of noble sentimentalism that already existed in Russian culture, and literature in particular, answered the request that had matured in it, answered with greater consistency, brightness, and greater talent than his predecessors. Thus, he made the direction of thought and art, which before him was still confined to a narrow circle of the intelligentsia, the property of much wider layers.

In a very special relationship to Karamzin is the work of another great figure of Russian literature, also a sentimentalist and, moreover, who built his literary system long before Karamzin, from the early 1770s, Alexander Nikolaevich Radishchev. A number of elements introduced by Karamzin into literature are also found in Radishchev; no wonder central work both writers are a sentimental journey. But the interpretation of the new style and even its constituent elements by Karamzin and Radishchev are completely different. There were really two ways uniform style, or rather, two Russian sentimentalisms, fundamentally hostile to each other. On the one hand, it was a style that embodied the revolutionary aspirations of democracy, on the other, the style of a conservative noble worldview, associated with advanced traditions, but abandoned political progressiveness.

In the very movement of Western literature, with which both Russian sentimentalisms are correlated, we must distinguish two trends, interconnected and at the same time opposite: the tendency of pre-romanticism and the tendency of early realism.

In general terms, we can say that Radishchev’s revolutionary sentimentalism develops the realistic tendencies of this pan-European style. Karamzin's conservative sentimentalism develops his romantic tendencies. However, the pathos of the national heroics of the past, the cult folk character And folk history, which constituted the militant and progressive content of the pre-romanticism of Macpherson and Klopstock, remained alien to Karamzin. Macpherson created examples of the ancient Scots, his national heroes, images based on Scottish folklore. Klopstock wrote about the ancient Germans, remembering not only Ossian, but also the German epic. And Karamzin wrote his poem “Ilya Muromets” based on Ariosto and other works of the European and Russian Europeanized tradition, and not at all based on epics; his Ilya is a young knight, graceful, gentle, a second Rinald, who has nothing in common with the “hillbilly” from the village of Karacharova. When Karamzin was faced with the question of romantically recreating the “color” of a personality, he preferred to build romantic images surrounded by the Spanish chivalric tradition or Ossianic legends than to turn to Russian folklore.

The basic ideas of Western advanced sentimentalism in Karamzin’s work underwent some narrowing, perhaps even impoverishment, and at the same time restructuring in the spirit of the traditions of Russian noble culture, the traditions of Kheraskov and, after him, Muravyov or Neledinsky-Meletsky. Of the Western teachers, Karamzin was closest to the idyllic Gesner, whose touching and musical lyrics in prose were alien to political interests and generally ideological acuity.

However, it should be pointed out that Karamzin played a significant role in introducing Shakespeare to Russian readers. In “Letters of a Russian Traveler” he gives an analysis of Shakespeare's tragedy; even earlier, in 1787, he published a translation of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, in the preface to which he wrote: “Until now, not a single one of the works of this famous author has been translated into our language; consequently, not one of my compatriots, who had not read Shakespeare in other languages, could have a sufficient understanding of him... Few of the writers penetrated so deeply into human nature as Shakespeare, few knew so well all the most secret springs of man, his innermost motives, the distinctiveness of every passion, every temperament and every kind of life, like this amazing painter. All magnificent paintings imitate his nature directly.”

Karamzin wrote approximately the same thing about Shakespeare in his poem “Poetry,” dating back to the same time.

The deformation suffered by Karamzin’s cult of nature among Western sentimentalists is also characteristic. Karamzin is drawn to nature, the beauty of which he can both appreciate and depict, away from storms public life, into the peaceful environment of the village, where landowners are the fathers of their peasants, and the peasants are prosperous to the extent of their hard work, obedience and “virtue”. “Rousseauism” became for Karamzin not a stimulus for the destruction of the feudal system, but a method of justifying freedom from politics; It goes without saying that the relative realistic vigilance of Western sentimentalists was greatly limited by Karamzin to the idealization of the existing world; the everyday realism of Western sentimentalists, a tool for revealing the contradictions of life, was replaced by him with the depiction of everyday details observed through rose-colored glasses.

The only true theme of Karamzin’s art is inner world man, in all his “illegality,” individual randomness, diversity of experiences, ranging from sublime pathos to troubles caused by everyday problems. “What is more interesting to a man than himself?” - said Karamzin.

Subjectivism becomes the law of his creativity. His theme - human personality - for him is expressed primarily in the theme of the personality of the author himself. He considers it necessary to emphasize that he understands the very problems of the psychology of creativity, the very essence of literary work, in a new way. Rational norms, rules and patterns for him can no longer determine artistic structure; a work of art, in his understanding, reflects not the ideal scheme of the objective world, but the personal character of its individual creator. Muravyov also said that truth is only the author’s own thoughts. Truth for Karamzin is not an objective correspondence to reality, but rather the subjective truthfulness of a story about psychological introspection. At the same time, Karamzin, like Muravyov and other noble sentimentalists, limits the range of emotions and character traits that are subject to aesthetic expression to only “pleasant,” “tender,” “meek” experiences. The world of art is for him a dream world of good peaceful people, a world of escape from the real class struggle. Therefore, he recognizes as aesthetically valuable only those works that are capable of creating the psychological states of tenderness that he needs socially. All this requires a special disposition of the author’s soul, since a work in a given subjectivist system of creativity should be, as it were, a reflection of this soul. Karamzin wrote a special article: “What the author needs” (1793), and here are the theses of this article: “They say that the author needs talents and knowledge, a sharp, insightful mind, a vivid imagination, etc. Fair; but this is not enough. He also needs a kind, gentle heart if he wants to be a friend and beloved of our soul”: “the creator is always depicted in creation, and often against his will.”

Author, author's attitude to what is depicted permeate the entire presentation of Karamzin’s works. In essence, this attitude is the most important thing in them. Karamzin's stories and essays approach the style of a lyric poem. And the reader was looking in them not so much for the entertaining plot, which was rather indifferent, but rather for the mood, the creation of an emotional atmosphere - before sentimentalism, before Karamzin, unknown to Russian literature and opening up for it the prospects for a new and fruitful understanding of complexity mental life person.

Karamzin strives for his work to take on the appearance of an intimate conversation between the author and a reader-friend (and not a student listening to the words of truth and reason).

Researcher Karamzina A.Ya. Kucherov writes:

“Karamzin begins almost every story with a kind of beginning, in which the voice, even the tone of the author’s voice, appears, leaving its stamp on the author’s entire subsequent narrative,” for example: “Friends, the red summer has passed; golden autumn turned pale... Friends!, oak and birch are burning in our fireplace. Let the wind rage and fill our windows with white snow”... (“Bornholm Island”), “Eight o’clock is striking, it’s time to drink tea, my friends! The kind hostess is waiting for us on the balcony." Beautiful princess and happy Carla"). Karamzin’s text usually includes appeals from the fairy tale (“The Beautiful Princess and the Happy Karla”); “You will agree, my friends, it was very, very strange indeed. Now listen with attention. In one night." From “Natalia, the Boyar’s Daughter”: “The reader should know that the thoughts of red girls can be very fast.”

Karamzin does not want, does not consider it possible to fully analyze, decompose into component parts, explain feelings and moods that for him do not accompany the actions of the hero, but are the main content of the work, story or essay. He knows that there is no way to “name” every shade of emotion; and he creates whole works of art, musically organized, which should be the whole set of images, the whole sum artistic means create in the reader a vague, unsteady, “unspeakable”, “unnameable” mood. Everything depicted in the story is only a means for this task. Karamzin already poses the problem of art that his student Zhukovsky will programmatically express in the poem “The Inexpressible.” The tragic conflicts of life are given to them not in order to cause anger and indignation, but in order to cause quiet melancholy and tenderness. An example of such a psychological experiment was the story “Poor Liza,” which was a huge success and opened the whole world emotions to contemporaries. .