Introduction

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

Critical realism portrays in a new way the relationship between man and environment. Human character is revealed in organic connection with social circumstances. Subject of deep social analysis became inner world human, critical realism simultaneously becomes psychological.

Development of Russian realism

A feature of the historical aspect of Russia's development mid-19th century century is the situation after the Decembrist uprising, as well as the emergence of secret societies and circles, the appearance of the works of A.I. Herzen, a circle of Petrashevites. This time is characterized by the beginning of the raznochin movement in Russia, as well as the acceleration of the process of formation of the world artistic culture, including Russian ones. realism Russian creativity social

Creativity of realist writers

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 brought Russian literature to the international arena and won it world recognition. The richness and diversity of Russian realism allow us to talk about its different forms.

Its formation is associated with the name of Pushkin, who brought Russian literature to wide path images of “the fate of the people, the fate of man.” In the conditions of the accelerated development of Russian literature, Pushkin seems to be making up for its previous lag, paving new paths in almost all genres and, with his universality and his optimism, turning out to be akin to the talents of the Renaissance.

Griboedov and Pushkin, and after them Lermontov and Gogol, comprehensively reflected the life of the Russian people in their works.

Writers of the new movement are united by the fact that for them there are no high and low objects for life. Everything that is encountered in reality becomes the subject of their depiction. Pushkin, Lermontov, Gogol populated their works with heroes of “lower, middle, and upper classes.” They truly revealed their inner world.

Writers realistic direction They saw in life and showed in their works that “a person living in society depends on it both in the way he thinks and in the way he acts.”

Unlike the romantics, writers of a realistic direction show the character of a literary hero not only as an individual phenomenon, but also as a result of certain, historically established public relations. Therefore, the character of the hero realistic work always historical.

A special place in the history of Russian realism belongs to L. Tolstoy and 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 throughout the world bears the imprint of the aesthetic discoveries of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. It is important to emphasize that Russian realism XIX century did not develop in isolation from the world historical and literary process.

The revolutionary liberation movement played a major role in the realistic understanding of social reality. Until the first powerful uprisings of the working class, the essence of bourgeois society and its class structure remained largely mysterious. The revolutionary struggle of the proletariat made it possible to remove the seal of mystery from the capitalist system and expose its contradictions. Therefore, it is quite natural that it was in the 30-40s of the 19th century that Western Europe Realism is being established in literature and art. Exposing the vices of serfdom and bourgeois society, the realist writer finds beauty in objective reality itself. His positive hero is not elevated above life (Bazarov in Turgenev, Kirsanov, Lopukhov in Chernyshevsky, etc.). As a rule, it reflects the aspirations and interests of the people, the views of the advanced circles of the bourgeois and noble intelligentsia. Realistic art bridges the gap between ideal and reality, characteristic of romanticism. Of course, in the works of some realists there are vague romantic illusions where we are talking about the embodiment of the future (“Dream funny man"Dostoevsky, "What to do?" Chernyshevsky...), and in this case we can rightfully talk about the presence of romantic tendencies in their work. Critical realism in Russia was a consequence of the rapprochement of literature and art with life.

Critical realism took a step forward along the path of democratization of literature also in comparison with the work of the enlighteners of the 18th century. He took a much broader view of his contemporary reality. Feudal modernity entered the works of critical realists not only as the arbitrariness of serf owners, but also as the tragic situation of the masses - the serf peasantry, the dispossessed urban people.

Russian realists of the mid-19th century depicted society in contradictions and conflicts, which reflected the real movement of history and revealed the struggle of ideas. As a result, reality appeared in their work as an “ordinary flow,” as a self-propelled reality. Realism reveals its true essence only if art is considered by writers as a reflection of reality. In this case, the natural criteria of realism are depth, truth, objectivity in revealing the internal connections of life, typical characters acting in typical circumstances, and the necessary determinants of realistic creativity are historicism, the nationality of the artist’s thinking. Realism is characterized by the image of a person in unity with his environment, the social and historical concreteness of the image, conflict, plot, and the widespread use of such genre structures as the novel, drama, story, story.

Critical realism was marked by an unprecedented spread of epic and drama, which noticeably replaced poetry. Among the epic genres, the novel gained the greatest popularity. The reason for its success is mainly that it allows the realist writer to most fully implement the analytical function of art, to expose the causes of social evil.

At the origins of Russian realism of the 19th century is Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin. In his lyrics one can see a contemporary social life with its social contrasts, ideological quests, the struggle of progressive people against political and serfdom. The poet's humanism and nationality, along with his historicism, are the most important determinants of his realistic thinking.

Pushkin’s transition from romanticism to realism was manifested in “Boris Godunov” mainly in a specific interpretation of the conflict, in recognition of the decisive role of the people in history. The tragedy is imbued with deep historicism.

The further development of realism in Russian literature is associated primarily with the name of N.V. Gogol. The pinnacle of his realistic work is “Dead Souls”. Gogol watched with alarm as he disappeared into modern society Everything that is truly human, just as man is diminished and vulgarized. Seeing art as an active force social development, Gogol cannot imagine creativity that is not illuminated by the light of a high aesthetic ideal.

The continuation of Pushkin and Gogol traditions was the work of I.S. Turgenev. Turgenev gained popularity after the publication of “Notes of a Hunter.” Turgenev’s achievements in the genre of the novel are enormous (“Rudin”, “ Noble nest", "The Eve", "Fathers and Sons"). In this area, his realism acquired new features.

Turgenev's realism was expressed most clearly in the novel Fathers and Sons. His realism is complex. It shows the historical concreteness of the conflict, reflections of the real movement of life, the truthfulness of the details, “ eternal questions"the existence of love, old age, death - objectivity of the image and tendentiousness, lyricism penetrating the soul.

Democratic writers (I.A. Nekrasov, N.G. Chernyshevsky, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, etc.) brought a lot of new things into realistic art. Their realism was called sociological. What it has in common is the denial of the existing serfdom, showing its historical doom. Hence the sharpness social criticism, depth artistic research reality.

In the 30s XIX century V European art Romanticism is being replaced by an artistic style completely different from it - realism, paradoxically, he not only adopted many of the ideas of romanticism, but also developed and deepened them.

Realism can be roughly defined as artistic method reflections of the specific historical uniqueness of reality, the social determinism of the individual and the nature of his relationship with society.

Realism, for its pronounced critical orientation, almost immediately began to be called critical realism. In the spotlight critical realism– analysis of art by means of class structure, social essence and socio-political contradictions of a capitalist society that has already reached its peak. The main specificity of critical realism as a special creative method is artistic comprehension reality as a social factor, and therefore, the disclosure of the social determinism of the depicted events and characters.

If romanticism emphasized individuality endowed with ideal aspirations, then distinctive feature realism was the turning of art to direct depiction everyday life people, devoid of any mystery, mystery, religious or mythological motivation.

About so-called realism in the broad sense

Sometimes they talk about realism in a broad sense And realism in the narrow sense. According to a narrow understanding of realism, only a work that reflects the essence of the depicted socio-historical phenomenon can be considered truly realistic. The characters in the work should bear the typical, collective features of a particular social stratum or class, and the conditions in which they act should not be a random fruit of the writer’s imagination, but a reflection of the laws of the socio-economic and political life of the era. By realism in a broad sense we mean the property of art to reproduce the truth of reality by recreating the sensory forms in which an idea exists in reality.

It should immediately be noted that broad understanding realism, characteristic of traditional, but not modern aesthetics, makes the concept of realism completely unclear. It turns out that it is quite possible to talk about realism ancient literature, about the realism of the Renaissance, about the “realism of romanticism”, etc. When realism is defined as a movement in art that depicts social, psychological, economic and other phenomena as most consistent with reality (“corresponding to the truth of life,” as they sometimes say), realism becomes, in essence, the only full-fledged style of art. Baroque, classicism, romanticism, etc. turn out to be just modifications of realism. Dante, Shakespeare, and even Homer can be classified as realists, although, of course, with certain reservations regarding the Cyclops, Neptunes, etc. he invented. Widely understood realism becomes not even a style, i.e. manner of depiction, but the very essence of art, and the essence expressed abstractly and unclearly.

Characteristics of realism

The main features of critical realism as a special artistic style can be briefly summarized as follows:

– faith in the cognitive and transformative power of the human mind, especially the artist’s mind;
– highlighting the task of objective artistic reproduction of reality, an attempt to establish artistic discoveries on a deep, scientific-like study of the facts and phenomena of life;
– the dominance of socio-political issues, which was proclaimed by the art of the Enlightenment and which was not interrupted in romanticism, although, as a rule, it played a peripheral role in it;
– approval of the educational, civic mission of art;
– high, one might say without exaggeration – exceptional, assessment of capabilities artistic creativity in eradicating social evil;
– the desire to depict reality in the forms of reality itself;
– accuracy of details in the artistic reproduction of reality;
– deepening the possibilities of character typification; the connection of psychologism as one of the means of typification with the disclosure of generalizing social content of a particular nature; realists adopted and significantly deepened the psychologism characteristic of the romantics;
– the use of the romantic theory of contrasts in describing the contradictions of social reality;
– highlighting the theme of lost illusions that arose in connection with ideological consequences French Revolution end of the 18th century;
– showing the hero in development during creation artistic images, depiction of the evolution of the depicted characters, determined by the complex interaction of the individual and society;
– the desire to combine a socially critical orientation, a harsh exposure of the modern social system with the promotion of a high moral and ethical ideal, a model of a fair social structure;
– associated with positive aspirations, the creation of an extensive gallery of bright goodies; Most of these heroes belonged to the lower social classes of society.

Although realism replaced romanticism, many characteristic features realism was first felt by the romantics. In particular, they absolutized spiritual world individual personality, but this exaltation of the individual, the fundamental attitude to lead the path of knowledge of all things through her inner “I” led to the most significant ideological and aesthetic achievements. The Romantics took that important step forward in the artistic knowledge of reality, which promoted Romanticism to replace the art of the Enlightenment. Appeal to a chosen individual, towering above the “crowd,” did not at all interfere with their deep democracy. One should look for the origins of the image in the works of the romantics." extra person"that has gone through all literature of the 19th century centuries.

Depicting life in images that correspond to the essence of life phenomena through typing the facts of reality. The art of realism is characterized by the spirit of artistic objectivity. The depiction of the world in a realistic work, as a rule, is not abstract and conventional in nature. A realist writer reproduces reality in life-like forms, creates the illusion of reality, makes one believe in his characters, strives to make them alive, to give them artistic persuasiveness. Realistic art depicts depths human soul, special meaning gives motivation to the hero’s actions, the study of the circumstances of his life, the reasons that prompt the character to act one way and not another.
A true reflection of the world, a wide coverage of reality. All genuine art to a certain extent reflects reality, that is, it corresponds to the truth of life. However, realism as a method most consistently embodied the principles of a life-truthful reflection of reality. I. S. Turgenev, speaking about the connection between art and reality, argued: “I always need a meeting with a living person, direct acquaintance with some life fact, before I begin to create a type or compose a plot.” pointed to real basis the plot of the novel “Crime and Punishment” and F. M. Dostoevsky.

Historicism. Realism subordinated everything artistic media the task of an increasingly multifaceted and in-depth study of man in his relations with society, with the historical process. In literature, historicism is usually understood as the idea of reality, embodied in images, developing naturally and progressively, of the connection between times in their qualitative differences.

The attitude towards literature as a means of a person’s knowledge of himself and the world around him. Realist writers turn to the cognitive capabilities of art, trying to deeply, fully and comprehensively explore life, depicting reality with its inherent contradictions. Realism recognizes the artist's right to illuminate all aspects of life without limitation. Any realistic work is based on life facts, which have a creative refraction. In realistic works, each significant manifestation of individuality is depicted as conditioned by certain circumstances; the artist strives to identify what is characteristic, repeating in the individual, and natural in what seems random.

Realist writers, following the sentimentalists and romantics, showed interest in the life of the human soul, deepened the understanding of human psychology, reflected in works of art the work of the human consciousness and subconscious through identifying the hero’s intentions, motives for his actions, experiences and changes in mental states.

Reflection of the connection between man and environment. Realism gravitates towards a multifaceted and potentially exhaustive study and depiction of the world in all the richness of its connections, organically recreated by the artist. Realist writers create different situations for revealing character: I. A. Goncharov in the novel “Oblomov” shows the destructiveness for the hero of an ordinary situation, a familiar environment; Dostoevsky's heroes, on the contrary, find themselves in hysterical situations generated by the imperfection of the social order; L. N. Tolstoy includes his heroes in the cycle of significant historical events, which reveal the essence of a particular character. The art of realism shows the interaction of man with the environment, the impact of the era, social conditions on human destinies, the influence of social circumstances on the morals and spiritual world of people. At the same time, a realistic work substantiates what is happening not only with socio-historical circumstances, but also with the psychology of the hero, his moral choice, i.e., the mental structure of the individual (in contrast to the works of the naturalistic school, in which a person was depicted as a derivative of heredity and environment). Thus, a realistic work explores the ability of an individual to rise above circumstances, to resist them, showing free will.

Typification of characters and circumstances. In literary criticism, the formula of F. Engels has been established, according to which “realism presupposes, in addition to the truthfulness of details, the truthful reproduction of typical characters in typical circumstances.” For a realistic work, it is important to establish connections between these two objects in the image. Literary hero realistic the work is created as a generalized image (type) of human individuality, most characteristic of a certain social environment, it embodies the characteristic features of persons of a certain category. Myself creative process The creation of typical images is usually called typification. Literary forms: Epic: novel, story, poem, story. Lyrics: song, elegy. Drama: tragedy, historical chronicles. 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" In Russia, Dmitry Pisarev was the first to widely introduce the term “realism” into journalism and criticism; before that time, the term “realism” was used by Herzen in a philosophical sense, as a synonym for the concept of “materialism.”

Realism - literary direction, in which the surrounding reality is depicted specifically historically, in the diversity of its contradictions, and “typical characters act in typical circumstances.” Literature is understood by realist writers as a textbook of life. Therefore, they strive to comprehend life in all its contradictions, and a person - in psychological, social and other aspects of his personality. Common features of realism: Historicism of thinking. The focus is on the patterns operating in life, determined by cause-and-effect relationships. Fidelity to reality becomes the leading criterion of artistry in realism. A person is depicted in interaction with the environment in reliable life circumstances. Realism shows the influence of the social environment on a person’s spiritual world and the formation of his character. Characters and circumstances interact with each other: character is not only conditioned (determined) by circumstances, but also itself influences them (changes, opposes). Works of realism present deep conflicts, life is given in dramatic clashes. Reality is given in development. Realism depicts not only already established forms of social relations and types of characters, but also reveals emerging ones that form a trend. The nature and type of realism depends on the socio-historical situation - in different eras it manifests itself in different ways. In the second third of the 19th century. The critical attitude of writers to the surrounding reality has intensified - both to the environment, society, and to man. Critical understanding life, aimed at denying its individual aspects, gave rise to the name realism of the 19th century. critical. The largest Russian realists were L.N. Tolstoy, F.M. Dostoevsky, I.S. Turgenev, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, A.P. Chekhov. The depiction of the surrounding reality and human characters from the point of view of the progressiveness of the socialist ideal created the basis of socialist realism. The first work of socialist realism in Russian literature is considered to be M. Gorky’s novel “Mother”. A. Fadeev, D. Furmanov, M. Sholokhov, A. Tvardovsky worked in the spirit of socialist realism.

15. French and English realistic novel (author of choice).

French novel Stendhal(literary pseudonym of Henri Marie Beyle) (1783-1842). In 1830, Stendhal completed the novel “The Red and the Black,” which marked the onset of the writer’s maturity. The plot of the novel is based on real events related to the court case of a certain Antoine Berthe. Stendhal learned about them while looking through the chronicle of a Grenoble newspaper. As it turned out, the person sentenced to death young man, the son of a peasant, who decided to make a career, became a tutor in the family of a local rich man, Mishu, but, caught in a love affair with the mother of his pupils, he lost his position. Failures awaited him later. He was expelled from the theological seminary, and then from service in the Parisian aristocratic mansion de Cardonet, where he was compromised by his relationship with the owner’s daughter and especially by a letter from Madame Mishou, whom the desperate Berthe shot in the church and then tried to commit suicide. This judicial chronicle is not accidental attracted the attention of Stendhal, who conceived a novel about the tragic fate of a talented plebeian in Restoration France. However, the real source only awakened the creative imagination of the artist, who was always looking for an opportunity to confirm the truth of fiction with reality. Instead of a petty ambitious person, a heroic and tragic figure Julien Sorel. Facts undergo no less metamorphosis in the plot of the novel, which recreates the typical features of an entire era in the main laws of its historical development.

English novel. Valentina IvashevaENGLISH REALISTIC NOVEL OF THE 19TH CENTURY IN ITS MODERN SOUND

The book by Doctor of Philological Sciences Valentina Ivasheva (1908-1991) traces the development of the English realistic novel from the end of the 18th century to late XIX V. - from the works of J. Austen, W. Godwin to the novels of George Eliot and E. Trollope. The author shows what is new and original that was introduced into its development by each of the classics of critical realism: Dickens and Thackeray, Gaskell and Bronte, Disraeli and Kingsley. The author traces how the legacy of the classics of the “Victorian” novel is being rethought in modern England.

Realism- a direction in literature and art that aims to truthfully reproduce reality in its typical features. The dominance of realism followed the era of Romanticism and preceded Symbolism.

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 other circumstances).

Hence there are two opposing directions in theory; one thing - realism - sets before art the task of faithfully reproducing reality; the other - idealism - sees the purpose of art in “replenishing reality”, in the creation of 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 that the registration of realities - the novel and photography are preferable to the artist's painting - is quite 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 features of the external world in itself has never seemed to be the goal of art. Whenever possible, a faithful reproduction of reality is complemented by the creative originality of the artist. 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 when popular examples of artistic thinking are known, imitative creativity occurs, working according to a template.

These are the usual features of an established school, whatever it may be. 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 development French literature, which reflects a number of achievements of true realism. The desire for artistic truth underlay the same movements that, petrified in tradition and canon, later became symbols 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 famous three unities were not adopted out of slavish imitation of Aristotle, but only because they made it possible for stage illusion. As Lanson wrote, “The establishment of unities was the triumph of Realism. These rules, which became the cause of so many inconsistencies during the decline classical theater, were initially a necessary condition for stage verisimilitude. Aristotelian rules, medieval rationalism found a means of removing from the stage the last remnants of naive medieval fantasy.”

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. There is a point of view that 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 opposition to routine, 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 artistic image, they 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: 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 true portrayal life, seeing it mainly in emancipation from school conventions, in the ability to realize and courage to depict details that remained unnoticed by the artists of earlier days or frightened them by inconsistency with dogmas. This was romanticism, this is the final form of realism - naturalism.

In Russia, Dmitry Pisarev was the first to widely introduce the term “realism” into journalism and criticism; before that time, the term “realism” was used by Herzen in a philosophical sense, as a synonym for the concept of “materialism” (1846).

1 European and American realist writers
2 Russian realist writers
3 History of realism
4 See also
5 Notes
6 Links

European and American realist writers

O. de Balzac (“The Human Comedy”)
Stendhal (Red and Black)
Guy de Maupassant
Charles Dickens (“The Adventures of Oliver Twist”)
Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn)
J. London (“Daughter of the Snows,” “The Tale of Kish,” “ Sea wolf", "Hearts of Three", "Moon Valley")

Russian realist writers

G. R. Derzhavin (poems)
Late A. S. Pushkin - the founder of realism in Russian literature (historical drama “Boris Godunov”, stories “The Captain’s Daughter”, “Dubrovsky”, “Belkin’s Tales”, novel in verse “Eugene Onegin”)
M. Yu. Lermontov (“Hero of Our Time”)
N. V. Gogol (“Dead Souls”, “The Inspector General”)
I. A. Goncharov (“Oblomov”)
A. S. Griboedov (“Woe from Wit”)
A. I. Herzen (“Who is to blame?”)
N. G. Chernyshevsky (“What to do?”)
F. M. Dostoevsky (“Poor People”, “White Nights”, “Humiliated and Insulted”, “Crime and Punishment”, “Demons”)
L. N. Tolstoy (“War and Peace”, “Anna Karenina”, “Resurrection”).
I. S. Turgenev (“Rudin”, “The Noble Nest”, “Asya”, “ Spring waters", "Fathers and Sons", "New", "On the Eve", Mu-mu)
A. P. Chekhov (“ Cherry Orchard", "Three Sisters", "Student", "Chameleon", "Seagull", "Man in a Case")
A. I. Kuprin (“Junkers”, “Olesya”, “Staff Captain Rybnikov”, “Gambrinus”, “Shulamith”)
A. T. Tvardovsky (“Vasily Terkin”)
V. M. Shukshin (“Cut off”, “Weird”, “Uncle Ermolai”)
B. L. Pasternak (“Doctor Zhivago”)

History of realism

There is an opinion that realism originated in ancient times. There are several periods of realism:

"Ancient Realism"
"Renaissance Realism"
“Realism of the 18th-19th centuries” (here, in the mid-19th century, it reached its highest power and therefore the term Age of Realism appeared)
"Neorealism (20th century realism)"