Realism in literature is a direction whose main feature is true picture reality and its typical features without any distortion or exaggeration. This originated in the 19th century, and its adherents sharply opposed sophisticated forms of poetry and the use of various mystical concepts in works.
Signs directions
Realism in 19th-century literature can be distinguished by clear characteristics. The main one is artistic image reality in images familiar to the average person, which he regularly encounters in real life. Reality in the works is considered as a means for a person to understand the world around him and himself, and the image of each literary character is worked out in such a way that the reader can recognize himself, a relative, colleague or acquaintance in it.
In the novels and stories of realists, art remains life-affirming, even if the plot is characterized by tragic conflict. Another feature of this genre is the desire of writers to consider the surrounding reality in its development, and each writer tries to discover the emergence of new psychological, public and social relations.
Features of this literary movement
Realism in literature, which replaced romanticism, has the signs of art that seeks and finds truth, striving to transform reality.
In the works of realist writers, discoveries were made after much thought and dreaming, after analyzing subjective worldviews. This feature, which can be distinguished by the author’s perception of time, determined distinctive features realistic literature the beginning of the twentieth century from traditional Russian classics.
Realism inXIX century
Such representatives of realism in literature as Balzac and Stendhal, Thackeray and Dickens, George Sand and Victor Hugo, in their works most clearly reveal the themes of good and evil, avoiding abstract concepts and showing the real life of their contemporaries. These writers make it clear to readers that evil lies in the lifestyle of bourgeois society, capitalist reality, and people’s dependence on various material values. For example, in Dickens's novel Dombey and Son, the owner of the company was heartless and callous not by nature. It’s just that he developed such character traits due to the presence big money and the ambition of the owner, for whom profit becomes the main achievement in life.
Realism in literature is devoid of humor and sarcasm, and the images of the characters are no longer the ideal of the writer himself and do not embody him cherished dreams. From the works of the 19th century, the hero practically disappears, in whose image the author’s ideas are visible. This situation is especially clearly visible in the works of Gogol and Chekhov.
However, this literary trend is most clearly manifested in the works of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, who describe the world as they see it. This was expressed in the image of characters with their own strengths and weaknesses, the description of mental torment, a reminder to readers of the harsh reality that cannot be changed by one person.
As a rule, realism in literature also affected the fate of representatives of the Russian nobility, as can be judged from the works of I. A. Goncharov. Thus, the characters of the heroes in his works remain contradictory. Oblomov is a sincere and gentle person, but due to his passivity he is not capable of better things. Another character in Russian literature has similar qualities - the weak-willed but gifted Boris Raisky. Goncharov managed to create the image of an “anti-hero” typical of XIX century, which was noticed by critics. As a result, the concept of “Oblomovism” appeared, referring to all passive characters whose main features were laziness and lack of will.
Realism as a method arose in Russian literature in the first third of the 19th century. The main principle of realism is the principle of life truth, the reproduction of characters and circumstances explained socio-historically (typical characters in typical circumstances).
Realist writers deeply and truthfully depicted various aspects of contemporary reality, recreated life in the forms of life itself.
The basis of the realistic method of the early 19th century are positive ideals: humanism, sympathy for the humiliated and offended, the search for positive hero in life, optimism and patriotism.
By the end of the 19th century, realism reached its peak in the works of such writers as F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. P. Chekhov.
The twentieth century set new tasks for realist writers and forced them to look for new ways to master life material. In the conditions of rising revolutionary sentiments, literature was increasingly imbued with forebodings and expectations of impending changes, “unheard-of uprisings.”
The sense of impending social change caused such intensity artistic life, which one didn’t know yet Russian art. This is what L.N. Tolstoy wrote about the turn of the century: “ New century brings the end of one worldview, one faith, one way of communicating between people and the beginning of another worldview, another way of communication. M. Gorky called the 20th century the century of spiritual renewal.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the classics of Russian realism L.N. continued their search for the secrets of existence, the secrets of human existence and consciousness. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov, L.N. Andreev, I.A. Bunin and others.
However, the principle of “old” realism was increasingly criticized by various literary communities, which demanded a more active intervention of the writer into life and influence on it.
This revision was started by L. N. Tolstoy himself, in recent years in his life he called for strengthening the didactic, instructive, preaching principle in literature.
If A.P. Chekhov believed that the “court” (i.e. the artist) is only obliged to raise questions, to focus the thinking reader’s attention on important issues, and the “jury” (social structures) are required to answer, then for realist writers of the early twentieth century this no longer seemed sufficient.
Thus, M. Gorky directly stated that “for some reason the luxurious mirror of Russian literature did not reflect the outbursts of popular anger ...”, and accused literature of the fact that “it did not look for heroes, it loved to talk about people who were strong only in patience, meek , soft, dreaming of paradise in heaven, silently suffering on earth.”
It was M. Gorky, a realist writer younger generation, was the founder of a new literary direction, which later received the name “socialist realism”.
The literary and social activities of M. Gorky played a significant role in uniting realist writers of the new generation. In the 1890s, on the initiative of M. Gorky, a literary circle"Sreda", and then the publishing house "Znanie". Young, talented writers A.I. gather around this publishing house. Kuprii, I.A. Bunin, L.N. Andreev, A. Serafimovich, D. Bedny, etc.
The debate with traditional realism was waged at different poles of literature. There were writers who followed the traditional direction, seeking to update it. But there were also those who simply rejected realism as an outdated trend.
In these difficult conditions, in the confrontation of polar methods and trends, the creativity of writers traditionally called realists continued to develop.
The originality of Russian realistic literature of the early twentieth century lies not only in the significance of the content and acute social themes, but also in artistic quests, perfection of technology, and stylistic diversity.
As you already know, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries the aesthetic system of Russian realism was significantly updated. Traditional realism, as it had developed in the previous century, was gripped by crisis phenomena. But the crisis was in in this case fruitful, and realistic aesthetics emerged from it renewed. 20th century realism changed the traditional system of character motivation. The understanding of the environment that shapes personality has expanded extremely: history and global historical processes now act as typical circumstances. The man (and literary hero) now found himself face to face with history itself. This reflected the trust of realist artists in the individual. At the same time, in the process of artistic exploration of the changing world, the dangers facing the individual were revealed. The most important thing for a person was under threat: his private existence.
In the 20th century, the right to private existence was questioned. The man found himself drawn into the cycle of reality historical events- often against one's own will. History itself seemed to form typical circumstances, the aggressive influence of which the literary hero was subjected to.
IN XIX literature century, the right of private existence was declared as natural and inalienable: after all, it was asserted by one’s destiny and social behavior “ extra person", similar to Onegin or Pechorin; it was argued by Ilya Ilyich Oblomov, preferring the sofa in the house on Gorokhovaya Street to the prospect civil service; it was confirmed by Fyodor Ivanovich Lavretsky, who retired to noble nest from the misfortunes that befell him.
M. Gorky played a major role in the development of realism at the beginning of the 20th century. Perhaps for the first time in Russian literary history, this writer deprived himself of his literary hero the right to be Robinson - to be in society and at the same time outside of society. Historical time became in Gorky's epic the most important factor affecting character. None of his heroes could avoid interaction with him - sometimes positive, sometimes destructive. Tolstoy also had characters who seemed not to notice their surroundings as they walked up the career ladder: the Bergs, the Drubetskys, Helen. But if the Bergs and Kuragins could isolate themselves within their social clan, Gorky no longer left his heroes such a right. His characters cannot escape reality, even if they really want to.
Klim Samgin, the hero of the four-volume epic “The Life of Klim Samgin,” experiences the oppressive force of social circumstances, the real violence of the historical process, war, revolution. But this historical “violence”, studied by the writer, became precisely the factor that modified realism, giving it new and very powerful impulses of self-renewal. Having survived the painful crisis of the turn of the century, realism did not at all lose its position in literature; on the contrary, it led to amazing artistic discoveries, without which not only Russian, but also European culture of the new century is unthinkable. But realism has become completely different from what it was in the last century. The renewal of realism was manifested primarily in the interpretation of the question of the interaction of characters and circumstances, which was primordial for this literary movement.
This interaction becomes truly bidirectional. Now it is not only the character that is influenced by the environment: the possibility and even the necessity of a “reverse” influence is affirmed - the hero on the environment. A new concept of personality is being formed: a person who does not reflect, but creates, realizing himself not in the sphere of private intrigue, but in the public arena.
The prospects for a good re-creation of the world opened up for the hero and the artist. But these hopes were not always destined to be realized. Perhaps future historians of Russian literature will call the period of the 20-30s a period of unfulfilled hopes, the bitter disappointment of which occurred in the second half of the century. Affirming the rights of the individual to transform the world, new literature It also asserted the rights of individuals to violence in relation to this world - even if it was carried out for good purposes.
The point is that revolution was conceived as the most accessible and natural form of this transformation. The next logical step was to justify revolutionary violence not only in relation to another person, but also in relation to the general foundations of existence. Violence was justified by a lofty goal: on the ruins of the old unjust world it was supposed to create a new, ideal world, a world based on goodness and justice.
Such a change in realistic aesthetics was associated with an attempt by realism to adapt to the worldview of a person in the 20th century, to new philosophical, aesthetic, and simply everyday realities. And updated realism, as we will conventionally call it, coped with this task and became adequate to the thinking of a person of the 20th century. In the 30s he reached his artistic peak: the epics of M. Gorky “The Life of Klim Samgin”, M. Sholokhov’s “Quiet Don”, A. Tolstoy’s “Walking in Torment”, novels by L. Leonov, K. Fedin and other realists appeared. .
But next to the updated realism in the 20s, an aesthetics different from it emerged, genetically, however, also going back to realism. In the 20s, it did not yet dominate, but was actively developing, as if in the shadow of renewed realism, the emergence of which gave undoubted artistic results. But it was precisely the new direction that brought into literature, first of all, the anti-humanistic pathos of violence against the individual, society, the desire to destroy the entire world around oneself in the name of a revolutionary ideal.
Research functions, traditional for realism, give way to purely illustrative functions, when the mission of literature is seen in the creation of some ideal model of the social and natural world. Faith in tomorrow's ideal is so strong that a person amazed utopian idea, is ready to sacrifice the past and present only because they do not correspond to the ideal of the future. The principles of artistic typification are changing: this is no longer a study of typical characters in their interaction with a realistic environment, but an affirmation of normative ones (which should be from the standpoint of a certain social ideal) characters in normative circumstances. We will call this aesthetic system, which is fundamentally different from the new realism, normativism.
The paradox of the situation was that these two trends were not distinguished either in the public consciousness or in literary-critical usage. On the contrary, both renewed realism and normativism were conceptualized indivisibly - as a single Soviet literature. In 1934, this non-distinction was consolidated by a general term - socialist realism. Since then, two different aesthetic systems, normative and realistic, which in many ways opposed each other, were thought of as an ideological and aesthetic unity.
Moreover, sometimes they coexisted in the work of the same author or even in the same work. An example of the latter is A. Fadeev’s novel “Destruction” (1927).
Like Gorky’s Pavel Vlasov, Fadeev’s favorite characters travel the path of moral rebirth. Having seen only the bad and dirty in life, Morozka joined the partisan detachment, as he himself says, not for the sake of the commander’s beautiful eyes, but in order to build a better, righteous life. By the end of the novel, he gets rid of his inherent anarchism, and for the first time experiences an unexpected feeling of love for Varya. The team has become family to him, and Morozka, without hesitation, gives his life for his comrades, warning the squad about the danger. Scout Metelitsa, who believed that he was deeply indifferent to people, stands up for the shepherd boy and, before his death, discovers that he loves the people around him.
A. Fadeev entrusts the role of an active educator of the masses to the detachment commander Levinson, behind whose frail appearance he sees spiritual strength and conviction in the need to transform the world in a revolutionary way.
Quite traditionally for Russian realistic literature, A. Fadeev debunks the individualist Mechika. Mechik’s romantic maximalism, his hovering over reality, his constant search for the exceptional - whether in private life or in social life - lead him to deny real existence, show inattention to the essential, inability to appreciate it and see beauty. So he rejects Varya’s love in the name of the beautiful stranger in the photograph, rejects the friendship of ordinary partisans and ultimately remains in the splendid isolation of a romantic. In essence, the author punishes him with betrayal precisely for this (as well as for his social alienation from ordinary partisans).
It is characteristic that the strongest parts of the novel contain a psychological analysis of the characters’ behavior. It is no coincidence that criticism unanimously noted the influence of the traditions of L. Tolstoy on the young Soviet writer.
At the same time, the idea of “social humanism,” when in the name of a higher goal one can sacrifice a person, an individual, brings A. Fadeev’s novel closer to normativism.
If the revolution is being made on behalf of and for the working people, then why does the arrival of Levinson’s detachment promise the Korean peasant and his entire family starvation? Because the highest social necessity (to feed the detachment and continue the journey to their own) is more important than “abstract humanism”: the life of the members of the detachment means more than the life of one Korean (or even his entire family). Yes, there's arithmetic! - I want to exclaim after Raskolnikov.
Doctor Stashinsky and Levinson come to the idea of the need to finish off the wounded partisan Frolov. His death is inevitable: the wound is fatal, and it is impossible to carry him with you - this will slow down the movement of the squad and can kill everyone. Leave it - it will go to the Japanese and accept even more terrible death. Making the decision easier for his hero, Fadeev forces Frolov himself to take poison, which looks almost like suicide.
In this part of the novel, Fadeev broke with the humanistic tradition of Russian realism, declaring a fundamentally new ethical system based on a strictly rational attitude towards both man and the world as a whole.
The ending of the novel sounds no less ambiguous. Levinson will remain to live “and fulfill his duties.” In order to gather another detachment from the still distant people whom he sees after the death of the detachment, people working on the land, threshing bread. To Fadeev, Levinson’s idea “to make [these peasants] the same close people as those eighteen who silently rode behind” and lead them along the roads seems indisputable Civil War- to a new defeat, because in such a war there are no winners and the final general defeat is inevitable.
However, it is possible that the artist triumphed over Fadeev the politician. After all, the novel is called “Destruction”, not “Victory”.
If A. Fadeev’s book contains both features of true realism and normativism, then Yu. Libedinsky’s story “The Week” (1922) was written exclusively in the traditions of normativism and utopianism. One of its heroes, the Bolshevik Stelmakhov, pronounces the following confessional monologue: “I hated in the revolution before I loved... And then only after I was beaten for Bolshevik agitation, after I was in Moscow in October , stormed the Kremlin and shot cadets, when I was not yet a member of the party and did not understand anything politically, then in moments of fatigue I began to imagine a distant rest ahead, like the kingdom of heaven for a Christian, distant, but certainly promised, if not to me, then to the future people, my sons or grandchildren... This is what communism will be... I don’t know what it will be like...”
The heroes of the story devote all their strength to the service of a beautiful, but completely unclear mythical future. This idea gives them the strength to step over natural human feelings, such as, for example, pity for a defeated enemy, disgust for cruelty, fear of murder: “But when my head is clouded from fatigue or work is going badly, or someone needs to be shot, then I will think in my mind my warm word - communism, and exactly who should I will wave a red handkerchief.”
Behind this monstrous confession, which the hero and the author perceive as sublimely romantic, there is a utopian worldview in its most terrible and cruel form. It was this that became the ideological justification for socialist realism.
Reality in the new aesthetics was perceived as a hostile, inert, conservative principle in need of radical alteration. The highest value for the writer of the new direction turned out to be the future, ideal and devoid of contradictions, existing, naturally, only in the project. This project was also poorly detailed, but it justified any violence against the present.
How did the formation of a new view of the world take place in socialist realism? First of all, it should be noted that in the literature of the 20s a new concept of personality emerged. The inclusion of a person in the historical process, the establishment of his direct contacts with the “macroenvironment” paradoxically devalues the hero, he seems to be deprived of self-worth and turns out to be significant only insofar as he contributes to historical movement forward. Such devaluation is possible due to the finalist concept of history, which is increasingly spreading in society. History in this interpretation receives meaning and significance only insofar as it moves towards a “golden age”, localized somewhere far ahead.
Moreover, the hero himself is aware of the absolute value of the future and the very relative value of his own personality, and is ready to consciously and completely calmly sacrifice himself. The extreme form of such an anti-humanistic position was embodied (quite sympathetic to the hero’s ideas) by the writer A. Tarasov-Rodionov in the story “Chocolate,” which tells how the Chekist Zudin decides to sacrifice his life, but not to cast even a shadow on the Cheka uniform. Accused of bribery, Zudin was sentenced to death. And for his comrades, who were confident in his innocence, but nevertheless passed a death sentence, and for himself, this decision seems to be the only correct one: it is better to sacrifice his life than to give even the slightest reason for philistine rumors.
The romanticization of the future, its sharp contrast to the present, and the eventual creation of the myth of the “golden age” is the most important feature of the aesthetics of socialist realism. In its most naked form, this idea was stated by A.V. Lunacharsky in the article “Socialist Realism.”
Only the future, from the point of view of a Marxist theorist, is the only worthy subject of depiction. “Imagine,” says A.V. Lunacharsky, as if justifying the aesthetic principles of the “golden age,” “that a house is being built, and when it is built, it will be a magnificent palace. But it is still unfinished, and you will draw it in this form and say: “Here is your socialism,” but there is no roof. You will, of course, be a realist, you will tell the truth: but it is immediately obvious that this truth is in fact not true. The socialist truth can only be told by those who understand what kind of house is being built, how it is built, who understands that it will have a roof. A person who does not understand development will never see the truth, because truth is not like itself, it does not sit still, truth flies, truth is development, truth is conflict, truth is struggle, truth is tomorrow, and you need to see it that way, and whoever doesn’t see it that way is a bourgeois realist, and therefore a pessimist, a whiner and often a swindler and falsifier, and in any case a voluntary or unwitting counter-revolutionary and saboteur.”
The above quote is very important for understanding the basic idea of socialist realism. First of all, new functions of art are established in comparison with traditional realism: not the study of real conflicts and contradictions of the time, but the creation of a model of an ideal future, a model of a “magnificent palace”. Research, cognitive function literature fades into the background or even into the background; the main function is to promote what a wonderful house will someday be built on the site of real, currently existing dwellings.
These ideas, immediately incorporated into the program of the new direction, awakening and developing more and more actively, turned out to be a kind of “cancer cells” of the new art. It was they who led to the degeneration of new realism into normative non-realistic aesthetics during the 20-50s. It is the order to see not reality, but a project, not what is, but what should be, that leads to loss realistic principles typification: the artist no longer explores characters, but creates them in accordance with the prescribed norm and thereby turns them into primitive social masks (enemy, friend, communist, layman, middle peasant, kulak, specialist, saboteur, etc.).
Normativity transforms the very concept of artistic truth. The monopoly on truth now belongs to those who can see the “truth” tomorrow" And those who cannot do this portray reality as it is - “often a swindler and falsifier, and in any case a voluntary or involuntary counter-revolutionary and saboteur.” Normativity is no longer interpreted only as an aesthetic, but also as a political requirement.
Thus, art turns out to be a tool for creating an artistic myth that can organize society and distract it from the real problems of life. Its goal is precisely defined: it is violence against reality with the aim of reconstructing it, “raising a new person,” for “art has not only the ability to orient, but also to form.” This provision would later, in 1934, be included in a modified form in the Charter of the Union of Writers of the USSR: the “task of ideological reworking and education of working people in the spirit of socialism” would be declared as the most important for socialist realism.
The question of the artist’s creative freedom occupied a special place in normative aesthetics. "Socialist realism provides artistic creativity an exceptional opportunity to demonstrate creative initiative, to choose diverse forms, styles, and genres,” was stated in the Charter of the Writers’ Union. It is characteristic that the artist’s freedom is localized only in the sphere of form - but not content. The content sphere is strictly regulated by ideas about the functions of art, which are seen in the creation of an idealized image of the future. Such a super task determines the style of a particular work, its entire poetics. The conflict and the ways to resolve it are determined in advance. The social roles of the heroes are pre-described: a leader, a specialist, a communist, a sneaking enemy, a woman gaining her human dignity...
Realism (from the Latin “realis” - real, material) is a direction in art that arose at the end of the 18th century, reached its peak in the 19th, continues to develop at the beginning of the 20th century and still exists. Its goal is a real and objective reproduction of objects and objects of the surrounding world, while preserving their typical features and characteristics. In progress historical development of all art in general, realism acquired specific forms and methods, as a result of which three stages are distinguished: educational (Era of Enlightenment, late 18th century), critical (19th century) and socialist realism (early 20th century).
The term "realism" was first used by the French literary critic Jules Jeanfleury, who in his book “Realism” (1857) interpreted this concept as art created to counter such movements as romanticism and academicism. It acted as a form of response to idealization, which is characteristic of romanticism and the classical principles of academicism. Having a sharp social orientation, it was called critical. This direction reflected the acute social problems, gave an assessment of various phenomena in the life of society of that time. Its leading principles consisted of an objective reflection of the essential aspects of life, which at the same time contained the height and truth of the author’s ideals, in the reproduction of characteristic situations and typical characters, while maintaining the fullness of their artistic individuality.
(Boris Kustodiev "Portrait of D.F. Bogoslovsky")
Realism of the early twentieth century was aimed at searching for new connections between man and the reality around him, new creative ways and methods, original means artistic expression. Often it was not expressed in its pure form; it is characterized by a close connection with such movements in the art of the twentieth century as symbolism, religious mysticism, and modernism.
Realism in painting
Appearance this direction in French painting is primarily associated with the name of the artist Gustave Courbier. After several paintings, especially significant for the author, were rejected as exhibits at the World Exhibition in Paris, in 1855 he opened his own “Pavilion of Realism”. The declaration put forward by the artist proclaimed the principles of a new direction in painting, the goal of which was to create living art that conveyed the morals, customs, ideas and appearance of his contemporaries. “Courbier’s realism” immediately caused a sharp reaction from society and critics, who claimed that he, “hiding behind realism, slanderes nature,” called him an artisan in painting, made parodies of him in the theater and denigrated him in every possible way.
(Gustave Courbier "Self-portrait with a black dog")
Realistic art is based on its own, special view of the surrounding reality, which criticizes and analyzes many aspects of social life. Hence the name realism XIX century “critical” because he criticized, first of all, the inhumane essence of the cruel exploitative system, showed the blatant poverty and suffering of the offended common people, injustice and permissiveness of those in power. Criticizing the foundations of the existing bourgeois society, realist artists were noble humanists who believed in Goodness, Supreme Justice, Universal Equality and Happiness for everyone without exception. Later (1870), realism splits into two branches: naturalism and impressionism.
(Julien Dupre "Return from the Fields")
The main themes of the artists who painted their canvases in the style of realism were genre scenes of urban and rural life ordinary people(peasants, workers), scenes of street events and incidents, portraits of regulars in street cafes, restaurants and nightclubs. For realist artists it was important to convey the moments of life in its dynamics, to emphasize as believably as possible individual characteristics acting characters, realistically show their feelings, emotions and experiences. Main characteristics canvases depicting human bodies are their sensuality, emotionality and naturalism.
Realism as a direction in painting developed in many countries of the world such as France (Barbizon school), Italy (it was known as verismo), Great Britain (Figurative school), USA (Edward Hopper's Garbage Pail School, art school Thomas Eakins), Australia (Heidelberg School, Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin), in Russia it was known as the movement of Itinerant artists.
(Julien Dupre "The Shepherd")
French paintings, written in the spirit of realism, often belonged to the landscape genre, in which the authors tried to convey the nature around them, the beauty of the French province, rural landscapes, which, in their opinion, best demonstrated the “real” France in all its splendor. The paintings of French realist artists did not depict idealized types; there were real people, ordinary situations without embellishment, there was no usual aesthetics and the imposition of universal truths.
(Honoré Daumier "Third Class Carriage")
The most prominent representatives of French realism in painting were the artists Gustav Courbier (“The Artist’s Workshop,” “The Stone Crusher,” “The Knitter”), Honoré Daumier (“A Third Class Car,” “On the Street,” “The Laundress”), and François Millet (“The Laundress”). The Sower”, “The Harvesters”, “Angelus”, “Death and the Woodcutter”).
(François Millet "The Ear Pickers")
In Russia, the development of realism in fine arts is closely related to the awakening of public consciousness and the development of democratic ideas. Progressive citizens of society denounced the existing political system and showed deep sympathy for tragic fate ordinary Russian people.
(Alexey Savrasov "The rooks have arrived")
The group of Peredvizhniki artists, formed towards the end of the 19th century, included such great Russian masters of the brush as landscape painters Ivan Shishkin (“Morning in pine forest", "Rye", " Sosnovy Bor") and Alexey Savrasov ("The Rooks Have Arrived", "Rural View", "Rainbow"), masters of genre and historical paintings Vasily Perov ("Troika", "Hunters at a Rest", "Rural Procession at Easter") and Ivan Kramskoy (“Unknown”, “Inconsolable Grief”, “Christ in the Desert”), outstanding painter Ilya Repin (“Barge Haulers on the Volga”, “They Didn’t Expect”, “Religious Procession in the Kursk Province”), master of depicting large-scale historical events Vasily Surikov (“Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, “Boyaryna Morozova”, “Suvorov’s Crossing of the Alps”) and many others (Vasnetsov, Polenov, Levitan),
(Valentin Serov "Girl with Peaches")
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the traditions of realism were firmly entrenched in the fine arts of that time, and were continued by such artists as Valentin Serov (“Girl with Peaches” “Peter I”), Konstantin Korovin (“In Winter”, “At the Tea Table”, “Boris Godunov” . Coronation"), Sergei Ivanov ("Family", "The Arrival of the Voivode", "Death of a Migrant").
Realism in 19th century art
Critical realism, which appeared in France and reached its peak in many European countries by mid-19th century, arose in contrast to the traditions of previous trends in art, such as romanticism and academicism. His main task became an objective and truthful reflection of the “truth of life” using specific means of art.
The emergence of new technologies, the development of medicine, science, various branches of industrial production, the growth of cities, increased exploitative pressure on peasants and workers, all this could not but affect the cultural sphere of that time, which later led to the development of a new movement in art - realism , designed to reflect the life of the new society without embellishment and distortion.
(Daniel Defoe)
The founder of European realism in literature is considered English writer and publicist Daniel Defoe. In his works “Diary of the Plague Year”, “Roxana”, “The Joys and Sorrows of Mole Flanders”, “Life and amazing adventures Robinson Crusoe" it reflects various social contradictions of that time, they are based on the statement about the good beginning of every person, which can change under the pressure of external circumstances.
Founder of literary realism and psychological novel in France - writer Frederic Stendhal. His famous novels"Red and Black", "Red and White" showed readers that the description of ordinary scenes of life and everyday human experiences and emotions can be done with greatest skill and elevate it to the rank of art. Also among the outstanding realist writers of the 19th century are the French Gustave Flaubert (“Madame Bovary”), Guy de Maupassant (“Belarus,” “Strong as Death”), Honoré de Balzac (the “Human Comedy” series of novels), and the Englishman Charles Dickens (“Oliver Twist”, “David Copperfield”), Americans William Faulkner and Mark Twain.
At the origins of Russian realism stood such outstanding masters of the pen as playwright Alexander Griboyedov, poet and writer Alexander Pushkin, fabulist Ivan Krylov, and their successors Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Painting from the realist period of the 19th century is characterized by an objective depiction of real life. French artists under the leadership of Theodore Rousseau, they painted rural landscapes and scenes from street life, proving that ordinary nature without embellishment can also be a unique material for creating masterpieces of fine art.
One of the most scandalous realist artists of that time, causing a storm of criticism and condemnation, was Gustav Courbier. His still lifes landscape paintings(“Deer at the Watering Hole”), genre scenes (“Funeral in Ornans”, “Stone Crusher”).
(Pavel Fedotov "Major's Matchmaking")
The founder of Russian realism is the artist Pavel Fedotov, his famous paintings"Major's Matchmaking", " Fresh gentleman“, in his works he exposes the vicious morals of society, and expresses his sympathy for the poor and oppressed people. Continuers of its traditions can be called the movement of Peredvizhniki artists, which was founded in 1870 by fourteen best artist graduates of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Arts together with other painters. Their first exhibition, opened in 1871, was a huge success with the public; it showed a reflection of the real life of ordinary Russian people living in terrible conditions of poverty and oppression. These are famous paintings by Repin, Surikov, Perov, Levitan, Kramskoy, Vasnetsov, Polenov, Ge, Vasiliev, Kuindzhi and other outstanding Russian realist artists.
(Konstantin Meunier "Industry")
In the 19th century, architecture, architecture and related applied arts were in a state of deep crisis and decline, which predetermined unfavorable conditions for the development of monumental sculpture and painting. The dominant capitalist system was hostile to those types of art that were directly related to the social life of the collective (public buildings, ensembles of broad civic significance); realism as a direction in art was able to fully develop in the fine arts and partly in sculpture. Outstanding realist sculptors of the 19th century: Constantin Meunier (“The Loader,” “Industry,” “The Puddle Man,” “The Hammerman”) and Auguste Rodin (“The Thinker,” “The Walker,” “The Citizens of Calais”).
Realism in 20th century art
In the post-revolutionary period and during the creation and prosperity of the USSR, socialist realism became the dominant direction in Russian art (1932 - the appearance of this term, its author Soviet writer I. Gronsky), which was an aesthetic reflection of the socialist concept of Soviet society.
(K. Yuon " New planet" )
The basic principles of socialist realism, aimed at a truthful and realistic depiction of the surrounding world in its revolutionary development, were the principles:
- Nationalities. Use common speech patterns and proverbs to make literature understandable to the people;
- Ideology. Identify heroic deeds, new ideas and paths necessary for the happiness of ordinary people;
- Specifics. Depict the surrounding reality in the process of historical development, corresponding to its materialistic understanding.
In literature, the main representatives of social realism were the writers Maxim Gorky (“Mother”, “Foma Gordeev”, “The Life of Klim Samgin”, “At the Depths”, “Song of the Petrel”), Mikhail Sholokhov (“Virgin Soil Upturned”, the epic novel “ Quiet Don"), Nikolai Ostrovsky (novel "How the Steel Was Tempered"), Alexander Serafimovich (story "Iron Stream"), poet Alexander Tvardovsky (poem "Vasily Terkin"), Alexander Fadeev (novels "Destruction", "Young Guard"), etc. .
(M. L. Zvyagin "To work")
Also in the USSR, the works of such foreign authors as the pacifist writer Henri Barbusse (the novel “Fire”), the poet and prose writer Louis Aragon, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, the German writer and communist Anna Seghers (the novel “The Seventh Cross”) were considered among the socialist realist writers. , Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda, Brazilian writer Jorge Amado (“Captains of the Sand”, “Donna Flor and Her Two Husbands”).
Prominent representatives of the trend of socialist realism in Soviet painting: Alexander Deineka (“Defense of Sevastopol”, “Mother”, “Future Pilots”, “Physical Girl”), V. Favorsky, Kukryniksy, A. Gerasimov (“Lenin on the Tribune”, “After the Rain” , “Portrait of the ballerina O. V. Lepeshinskaya”), A. Plastov (“Bathing the Horses”, “Dinner of Tractor Drivers”, “Collective Farm Herd”), A. Laktionov (“Letter from the Front”), P. Konchalovsky (“Lilac” ), K. Yuon (“Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “People”, “New Planet”), P. Vasiliev (portraits and stamps depicting Lenin and Stalin), V. Svarog (“Hero-pilots in the Kremlin before the flight”, “First May - Pioneers"), N. Baskakov ("Lenin and Stalin in Smolny") F. Reshetnikov ("Deuce Again", "Arrived on Vacation"), K. Maksimov and others.
(Vera Mukhina monument "Worker and Collective Farm Woman")
Outstanding Soviet sculptors-monumentalists of the era of socialist realism were Vera Mukhina (monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”), Nikolai Tomsky (bas-relief of 56 figures “Defense, Labor, Leisure” on the House of Soviets on Moskovsky Prospekt in Leningrad), Evgenia Vucheticha (monument “Warrior” Liberator" in Berlin, the sculpture "The Motherland Calls!" in Volgograd), Sergei Konenkov. As a rule, for large-scale monumental sculptures, especially durable materials were selected, such as granite, steel or bronze, and installed on open spaces to perpetuate particularly important historical events or heroic-epic deeds.
At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries in the cultural life of European countries, the struggle between realistic and decadent movements reached its peak. The people did not accept works created in the spirit of decadence, since there was a need for realistic works that clearly and truthfully depict life.
Realist writers strived for a bold and truthful depiction of the surrounding reality. Therefore, this period was called realism, or critical realism. During this period, representatives of Russian literature F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Tolstoy, A.P. Chekhov opened up new possibilities for realistic creativity for his foreign contemporaries.
Guy de Maupassant is an incomparable creator who, in his works “Life”, “Beloved Ami”, “Mont Oriol” and others, masterfully exposed the social problems of French society.
Creation American writer J. London was distinguished by radical sentiments. His utopian novel "The Iron Heel" contains a warning of disaster and terrible torment that may await humanity. IN autobiographical work"Martin Eden" writer reveals clashes in the field of art.
The novels of the American writer T. Dreiser “The Financier” and “Titan” convey a generalized image of a typical American monopolist, an uncrowned king, the rich man Cowperwood, who uses fraudulent methods, lies, and bribery in the struggle to get rich.
R. Rolland in his multi-volume novel “Jean Christophe” shows the decomposition of French and German bourgeois society. His hero, the composer Christophe, suffers from seeing meanness, hypocrisy, and careerism.
The book from this series, “Fair in the Square,” stands out for its extremely sharp denunciation of corrupt ministers through satirical means,
During this period special meaning had satire. The novel by the German satirist G. Mann “The Loyal Subject” and the trilogy “Empire” have great accusatory power. On the pages of these works you can see kings and chancellors, aristocrats and officials who betrayed their people, and even Emperor Wilhelm II.
A major master who ridiculed the existing system was French writer A. France. His work “The Crime of Sylvester Bonnard” sharply and openly ridiculed the vices of the Third Republic, moral decay ruling circles, corruption of politicians, intrigues of monarchs. The novels, stories, and articles of the recognized American satirist M. Twain are filled with bitter and angry truth. The title of M. Twain’s article “The United Lynching States” or the caustic definitions: “A senator is a person who makes laws in his free time from prison”, “Servants of the people are persons elected to their positions to distribute bribes” - already speak for themselves.
Democratic literature
Creators democratic literature believed in the victory of the principles of equality and justice, creative forces man, his ability to change the world. One of the representatives of this literature is the American writer G. Beecher Stowe. Beecher Stowe's novel Tom's Cabin is a masterpiece of world literature. It truthfully illuminates the life of slaves and slave owners in 19th century America, the contradictions between them, and the rebellion of blacks against slavery. The works “Me and My Wife” and “We and Our Neighbors” also truthfully describe American life.
"Major Barbara", along with criticism of the vices of society, contrasts the forces that serve social development and justice. Rabindranath Tagore
French writer Victor Hugo in his works “ Terrible year", "Les Miserables", "Year 93" protests against tyranny, ignorance and injustice. Hatred of colonialism, sympathy for the struggling people, their tragic life and the struggle of the rejected working man are the main themes of his works.
French writer Jules Verne - greatest representative science fiction novel. The heroes of the writer’s works “Five Weeks for hot air balloon", "Journey to the Center of the Earth", "Children of Captain Grant", "The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain" - brave, courageous people, challenging fate, overcoming difficulties.
Russian writer L.N. In the last years of his life, Tolstoy criticized economic and social orders, the immoral foundations of the state and the church. A.P. Chekhov in the plays "Three Sisters" and " Cherry Orchard"showed a typical picture of social reality.
The novels of this period by the famous Japanese writers Roka Tokutomi “Kuroshiwo”, “It is better not to live”, Naoe Kinoshita “Pillar of Fire” were directed against feudal remnants and the influence of Europe on the identity of Japanese culture.
The Chinese poet Hua Zongxiang in his poems called on the people to fight against foreigners.
Other masters of words also used the method of critical realism in their works. Li Baojia became famous for his novel “Our Officials,” Wu Woyao for his novel “For Twenty Years,” Liu Ye for his novel “The Journey of Jiao San,” and Zeng Pu for his novel “Flowers in the Angry Sea.” In their works, writers defended national culture from foreign influence, revealed social contradictions public life countries.
Naturalism
Naturalism revolutionized the artistic representation of reality. A group of artists who depicted the life of that period in sharply satirical artistic colors called themselves naturalists. The representative of this movement, the great French writer Emile Zola, set himself the goal of showing the status, lifestyle and psychology of all classes and social groups in France. Émile Zola's 20-volume Rougon-Macquart series is dedicated to depicting the life and social history of one family during the Second Empire. The novels “Germinal” and “Rout” are considered the pinnacle of his work.
Representatives of naturalism in Italy include Luigi Capuana and Giovanni Vega. In their works they reflected with artistic skill the difficult life of the people of Southern Italy and the fighters against its oppression. Among the American naturalists, Stephen Crane in his work “The Scarlet Badge of Valor” and Frank Norris in his work “The Octopus” raised complex social issues.
Decadence found clear expression in French literature and had an extremely strong influence on symbolism, which was dominated by the nicknamed “Cursed Poets” P. Verlaine, A. Relebo, S. Mallarmé.
Democratic literature is literature that serves not the interests of the ruling classes, but the interests of the people, their future, educating people in the spirit of faith in a bright future, truthfully reflecting reality.
Decadence (lat. decadentia - decline) is a general name for crisis, decadent phenomena in European culture. A current that reflected pessimism, a mood of hopelessness, and aversion to life.
