State Budgetary Educational Institution No. 337 of St. Petersburg, Nevsky District
Article: “Spiritual quests of literary heroes of the 19th century”
1. Introduction……………………………………………………………………...2
2. The problem of moral quest……………………………………………..3
3. Spiritual awakening of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov………………7
4. Spiritual awakening of Anna Karenina and Konstantin Levin………....12
5. Spiritual awakening of Lavretsky and Lisa Kalitina…………………....17
6. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………..19
7. Literature used…………………………………………………...20
Introduction
As V. O. Klyuchevsky said: “The highest task of talent is to let people understand the meaning and value of life through their work.” In this work we will look at the spiritual awakening of several heroes, very famous works literature. The purpose of the work is to note common and different features among different authors. Compare the paths to finding heroes. Determine the origin, development and peak of spiritual awakening. This work was used scientific literature, as “Roman L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace” in Russian Criticism”, “Life and Pride of the Mind in the Search of Konstantin Levin”. - Svitelsky V.A., “The Aesthetic World of Turgenev” - Kurlyandskaya G.B. etc.
In the course of the work, we will get acquainted in detail with the heroes of the works, with their morals, thoughts, utopian and not so dreams, we will find out what questions they ask throughout the entire work and determine whether they managed to achieve what they wanted.
The problem of moral quest
The problem of the moral quest of the Russian intelligentsia in the 19th century was initially associated with the problem of the Russian nobility, their awareness of their place in life and their intended role. Questions "How to live?" and "What should I do?" were never idle for the best part of the noble intelligentsia. Russian poets and writers are constantly searching for the moral basis of existence, reflecting on the purpose of the artist, on the problems of personal improvement, fatalism and the personal responsibility of everyone for their actions. They endow their heroes with a remarkable mind, which elevates them above the crowd, but often makes them unhappy, because at a time when life is full of contradictions, the process of personal development becomes complicated, if this is a thinking, doubting, searching person. The type of doubting intellectual is one of the cross-cutting images of Russian literature.
Let's expand on this topic example of three works: “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” by L.N. Tolstoy and “The Noble Nest” by I.S. Turgenev.
According to Tolstoy, the true spiritual life of a person is a thorny path to moral truths. Many heroes of the novel “War and Peace” go this way. Moral quests are characteristic, according to Tolstoy, only of the nobility - peasants intuitively feel the meaning of existence. They live a harmonious, natural life, and therefore it is easier for them to be happy. They are not disturbed by the constant companions of a nobleman’s moral quest - mental turmoil and a painful feeling of the meaninglessness of their existence.
The goal of the moral quest of Tolstoy's heroes is happiness. The happiness or unhappiness of people is an indicator of the truth or falsity of their lives. The meaning of the spiritual searches of most of the heroes of novels is that they eventually begin to see the light, getting rid of the false understanding of life that prevented them from being happy.
The “great, incomprehensible and infinite” is revealed to them in simple, everyday things that earlier, during the period of delusions, seemed too “prosaic” and therefore unworthy of attention. Pierre Bezukhov, having been captured, realized that happiness is “the absence of suffering, the satisfaction of needs and, as a result, the freedom to choose activities, that is, a way of life, and an excess of the “conveniences of life” makes a person unhappy. Tolstoy teaches us to see happiness in the most ordinary things, accessible to absolutely all people: in the family, in children, in housekeeping. What unites people is, according to the writer, the most important and significant. That is why the attempts of his heroes to find happiness in politics, in the ideas of Napoleonism or social “improvement” fail.
Tolstoy is a writer of noble culture, but the problem moral search hero - a nobleman is connected with common understanding the course of the historical process and criteria for assessing personality. The epic "War and Peace" depicts the spiritual quest of the best and most subtle intellects against the backdrop of large moral and practical decisions made by the people, who express their beliefs spontaneously, through actions. Without assimilating the moral experience of the people, a person of modern high spiritual culture turns out to be powerless in the face of chaotic reality, especially in those moments of history that can be called catastrophic. The ethical system of the noble intelligentsia is based on faith in the rational nature of man, and therefore falls apart, being unable to explain, for example, war, which is perceived as a phenomenon contrary to reasonable progress.
The heroes of the novel (especially those who are close to the author in a moral sense) are shown through the revelation of their souls, through a rich inner life. He looks through the entire path of a person’s quest, every, even elusive, movement of the soul, every phenomenon of inner life. L. N. Tolstoy shows complexity human personality, its versatility and continuous development. His characters are constantly looking for the meaning of life, some goal, an activity that could be useful.
The inner world of the heroes is very rich, and the moral level is high. They develop throughout their lives and strive for perfection. One of these heroes is Andrei Bolkonsky. The first meeting with him occurs at the moment when, wanting to escape from the idle and seemingly unnatural life that has bored him, Prince Andrei is getting ready to go to war. In the first moments of the battle at Austerlitz, it seems to him that the dream of a feat has begun to come true, but seeing the fleeing soldiers retreating out of panic, Prince Andrei feels only shame. His proud dreams dissipate, he only thinks about how to stop those running and draw them into the attack. When he falls, wounded in the head, he is no longer interested in what he previously considered valuable, what was the purpose of life. He realized that life is much more important than all ambitious dreams, the very existence of man, his connection with nature, an eternal connection.
Another hero of L.N. Tolstoy, already from the novel “Anna Karenina”, is Konstantin Levin, he appeared as a new image in Russian and world literature. This is the image of not a “small”, not “superfluous” person. In his entire make-up, the content of the universal human questions that torment him, the integrity of his nature, and his inherent desire to translate ideas into action, Konstantin Levin is a thinker-doer. He is called to passionate, energetic social activity, he strives to transform life based on active love, general and personal happiness for all people. The image is partly copied from Tolstoy himself (as evidenced by the surname Levin - from Leva, Leo): the hero thinks, feels, speaks directly on behalf of the writer. Levin is an integral, active, ebullient nature. He only accepts the present. His goal in life is to live and do, and not just be present during life. The hero passionately loves life, and this means for him to passionately create life.
The novel “Anna Karenina” was created in the period from one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three to one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven. Over time, the concept underwent great changes. The plan of the novel changed, its plot and compositions expanded and became more complex, the characters and their names changed. But with all the changes made by Tolstoy to the image of Anna Karenina, and in the final text, Anna Karenina remains, in Tolstoy’s terminology, both a “lost herself” and an “innocent” woman. She had abandoned her sacred duties as a mother and wife, but she had no other choice. Tolstoy justifies the behavior of her heroine, but at the same time, her tragic fate turns out to be inevitable.
“The rapidly changing physiognomy of Russian people of the cultural stratum” is the main subject of artistic depiction by this writer. Turgenev is attracted to the “Russian Hamlets” - a type of nobleman-intellectual captured by the cult of philosophical knowledge of the 1830s - early 1840s, who went through the stage of ideological self-determination in philosophical circles. That was the time of the formation of the writer’s personality, so the appeal to the heroes of the “philosophical” era was dictated by the desire not only to objectively evaluate the past, but also to understand oneself, to rethink the facts of one’s ideological biography.
Among his tasks, Turgenev identified two of the most important ones. The first is to create an “image of time”, which was achieved by a careful analysis of beliefs and psychology central characters, who embodied Turgenev’s understanding of the “heroes of the time.” The second is attention to new trends in the life of the “cultural layer” of Russia, that is, the intellectual environment to which the writer himself belonged. The novelist was primarily interested in single heroes, who especially fully embodied all the most important trends of the era. But these people were not as bright individualists as the true “heroes of the time.”
The novel “The Noble Nest” (1858) strengthened Turgenev’s reputation as a public writer, an expert on the spiritual life of his contemporaries, and a subtle lyricist in prose. And, if in the novel “Rudin” Turgenev denotes the disunity of the contemporary progressive noble intelligentsia with the people, their ignorance of Russia, misunderstanding concrete reality, then in “The Noble Nest” the writer is primarily interested in the origins and reasons for this disunity.
Spiritual awakening of Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov
The study of human consciousness, prepared by introspection, allowed Tolstoy to become a profound psychologist. In the images he created, especially in the images of the main characters of the novel, the inner life of a person is exposed - a complex contradictory process usually hidden from prying eyes. Tolstoy, according to N. G. Chernyshevsky, reveals the “dialectic human soul", i.e. "barely perceptible phenomena... of inner life, replacing one another with extreme speed...." Tolstoy said: "People are like rivers..." - emphasizing with this comparison the versatility and complexity of the human personality. Spiritual beauty Tolstoy's favorite heroes - Prince Andrei Bolkonsky and Pierre Bezukhov - is manifested in the tireless search for the meaning of life, in dreams of activities useful for the whole people. Their life path is a path of passionate quest, leading to truth and goodness. Pierre and Andrei are internally close to each other. friend and alien to the world of Kuragin and Scherer.
They meet at different stages of life: and at the time happy love Prince Andrei to Natasha, both during the break with her, and on the eve of the Battle of Borodino. And every time they turn out to be the closest people to each other, although each of them goes to goodness and truth in his own way. Wanting to get out of the sphere of secular and boring life family life, Andrei Bolkonsky is going to war. He dreams of glory similar to Napoleonic, dreams of accomplishing a feat. “What is glory?” says Prince Andrei. “The same love for others...” But during Battle of Austerlitz the desire for fame leads him to deep spiritual crisis. The sky of Austerlitz becomes for Prince Andrei a symbol of a high understanding of life: “How come I haven’t seen this high sky before? And how happy I am that I finally recognized it. Yes! Everything is empty, everything is a deception, except this endless sky.” Andrei Bolkonsky understood that the natural life of nature and man is more significant and important than the war and glory of Napoleon. Further events- the birth of a child, the death of his wife - forced Prince Andrei to come to the conclusion that life in its simple manifestations, life for himself, for his family, is the only thing left for him. But Bolkonsky’s active nature, of course, could not limit itself to this. The search for the meaning of life begins again, and the first milestone on this path is meeting Pierre and talking with him on the ferry. Bezukhov's words - "You have to live, you have to love, you have to believe" - show Prince Andrei the path to happiness. Meeting Natasha Rostova and the old oak tree help him feel the joy of being, the opportunity to benefit people. Prince Andrei is now trying to find the meaning and purpose of life in love, but this happiness turned out to be short-lived.
The description emanates poetry and charm moonlit night and Natasha's first ball. Communication with her opens up a new sphere of life for Andrey - love, beauty, poetry. But it is with Natasha that he is not destined to be happy, because there is no complete mutual understanding between them. Natasha loves Andrei, but does not understand and does not know him. And she also remains a mystery to him with her own, special inner world. If Natasha lives every moment, unable to wait and postpone until a certain time the moment of happiness, then Andrei is able to love from a distance, finding a special charm in anticipation of the upcoming wedding with his beloved girl. The separation turned out to be too difficult a test for Natasha, because, unlike Andrei, she is not able to think about something else, to keep herself busy with something. The story with Anatoly Kuragin destroys the possible happiness of these heroes. Proud and proud Andrei is unable to forgive Natasha for her mistake. And she, experiencing painful remorse, considers herself unworthy of such a noble, ideal person. Fate separates loving people, leaving bitterness and pain of disappointment in their souls. But she will unite them before Andrei’s death, because the Patriotic War of 1812 will change a lot in their characters.
When Napoleon entered Russia and began to rapidly advance, Andrei Bolkonsky, who hated the war after being seriously wounded at Austerlitz, goes to active army, refusing a safe and promising service on the headquarters of the commander-in-chief. Commanding a regiment, the proud aristocrat Bolkonsky becomes close to the mass of soldiers and peasants, learns to appreciate and respect the common people. If at first Prince Andrei tried to arouse the courage of the soldiers by walking under bullets, then when he saw them in battle, he realized that he had nothing to teach them. He begins to look at the men in soldiers' greatcoats as patriotic heroes who courageously and steadfastly defended their Fatherland. Andrei Bolkonsky comes to the idea that the success of the army does not depend on the position, weapons or number of troops, but on the feeling that exists in him and in every soldier. This means that he believes that the mood of the soldiers, the general morale of the troops are a decisive factor for the outcome of the battle. But still, the complete unity of Prince Andrei with the common people did not happen. It is not for nothing that Tolstoy introduces a seemingly insignificant episode about how the prince wanted to swim on a hot day, but due to his disgust towards the soldiers wallowing in the pond, he was never able to fulfill his intention. Andrei himself is ashamed of his feelings, but cannot overcome it.
It is symbolic that at the moment of his mortal wound, Andrei experiences a great craving for simple earthly life, but immediately thinks about why he is so sorry to part with it. This fight between earthly passions and his ideal, coldish love for people becomes especially acute before his death. Having met Natasha and forgiven her, he feels a surge of vitality, but this reverent and warm feeling is replaced by some kind of unearthly detachment, which is incompatible with life and means death.
Pierre Bezukhov followed different paths in life, but he was worried about the same problems as Prince Andrei. “Why live and what am I? What is life, what is death?” - Pierre, whose image was conceived by Tolstoy as the image of the future Decembrist, painfully sought the answer to these questions. First Pierre defends the ideas french revolution, admires Napoleon, wants either to “create a republic in Russia, or to be Napoleon himself...” Not yet finding the meaning of life, Pierre rushes about, makes mistakes, one of which is his marriage to the low and vicious beauty Helen Kuragina. His search for truth and the meaning of life leads him to the Freemasons. He passionately desires to “regenerate the vicious human race.” In the teachings of the Freemasons, Pierre is attracted by the ideas of “equality, brotherhood and love,” so first of all he decides to alleviate the lot of the serfs. It seems to him that he has finally found the purpose and meaning of life: “And only now, when I... try... to live for others, only now I understand all the happiness of life.” This conclusion helps Pierre find the real path in his further quest. But disappointment soon sets in in Freemasonry, since Pierre’s republican ideas were not shared by his “brothers,” and besides, Pierre sees that among the Freemasons there is hypocrisy, hypocrisy, and careerism. All this leads Pierre to break with the Freemasons. Just like for Prince Andrei, the goal of life, the ideal for Pierre becomes love for Natasha Rostova, overshadowed by marriage with Helen, whom he hates. But his life only from the outside seemed calm and serene. “Why? Why? What is going on in the world?” - these questions never ceased to bother Bezukhov. This ongoing inner work prepared his spiritual revival during the Patriotic War of 1812. Contact with the people on the Borodino field, and after the battle, and in Moscow occupied by the enemy, and in captivity, was of great importance for Pierre. “To be a soldier, just a soldier!.. To enter this common life with the whole being, to be imbued with what makes them so” - this is the desire that took possession of Pierre after the Battle of Borodino. With the images of Prince Andrei and Pierre Bezukhov, Tolstoy shows that, no matter how different paths the best of the representatives take high society in search of the meaning of life, they come to the same result: the meaning of life is in unity with their native people, in love for this people.
It was in captivity that Bezukhov came to the conviction: “Man was created for happiness.” But the people around Pierre are suffering, and in the epilogue Tolstoy shows Pierre thinking hard about how to defend goodness and truth. The path of quest leads Bezukhov to a secret political society fighting against serfdom and autocracy.
In the depiction of the central characters of War and Peace, Tolstoy’s concept of human moral freedom is realized. Tolstoy is an irreconcilable opponent of the suppression of individual freedom and any violence against it, but he resolutely denies self-will, individualistic arbitrariness, in which the idea of freedom is brought to the point of absurdity. He understands freedom first of all as the possibility of a person choosing the right life path. It is needed only until he finds his place in life, until his connections with the world become stronger.
A mature and independent person, who voluntarily renounces the temptations of self-will, gains true freedom: he does not fence himself off from people, but becomes part of the “world” - an integral organic being. This is the result of the moral quest of all Tolstoy’s “favorite” heroes in this novel.
The spiritual awakening of Anna Karenina and Konstantin Levin
In the image of Anna Karenina, the poetic motifs of “War and Peace” are developed and deepened, in particular those expressed in the image of Natasha Rostova; on the other hand, at times the harsh notes of the future “Kreutzer Sonata” are already breaking through in it.
Comparing War and Peace with Anna Karenina, Tolstoy noted that in the first novel he “loved folk thought, and in the second - family thought.” In "War and Peace" the immediate and one of the main subjects of the narrative was precisely the activities of the people themselves, who selflessly defended their native land; in "Anna Karenina" - mainly family relationships heroes, taken, however, as derivatives of general socio-historical conditions. As a result, the theme of the people in Anna Karenina received a unique form of expression: it is presented mainly through the spiritual and moral quest of the heroes.
The world of good and beauty in Anna Karenina is much more closely intertwined with the world of evil than in War and Peace. Anna appears in the novel “seeking and giving happiness.” But on her path to happiness, active forces of evil stand in the way, under the influence of which she ultimately dies. Anna's fate is therefore full of deep drama. The entire novel is permeated with intense drama. Tolstoy shows the feelings of a mother and a loving woman experienced by Anna as equivalent. Her love and maternal feeling - two great feelings - remain unconnected for her. She associates with Vronsky an idea of herself as loving woman, with Karenin - as an impeccable mother of their son, as a once faithful wife. Anna wants to be both at the same time. In a semi-conscious state, she says, turning to Karenin: “I am still the same... But there is another one in me, I am afraid of her - she fell in love with him, and I wanted to hate you and could not forget about the one who was before. But not me. Now I’m real, all of me.” “All”, that is, both the one that was before, before meeting Vronsky, and the one that she became later. But Anna was not yet destined to die. She had not yet had time to experience all the suffering that had befallen her, nor had she had time to try all the roads to happiness, for which her life-loving nature was so eager. She could not become Karenin’s faithful wife again. Even on the verge of death, she understood that it was impossible. She was also unable to endure the situation of “lies and deceit” any longer.
Following Anna's fate, we bitterly notice how her dreams are crumbling one after another. Her dream of going abroad with Vronsky and forgetting everything there collapsed: Anna did not find her happiness abroad either. The reality from which she wanted to escape overtook her there too. Vronsky was bored and burdened by idleness, and this could not help but burden Anna. But most importantly, her son remained in her homeland, in separation from whom she could not be happy. In Russia, even more severe torments awaited her than those she had experienced before. The time when she could dream about the future and thereby, to some extent, reconcile herself with the present, has passed. Reality now appeared before her in all its terrible appearance.
Having lost her son, Anna remained only with Vronsky. Consequently, her attachment to life was reduced by half, since her son and Vronsky were equally dear to her. Here is the answer to why she now began to value Vronsky’s love so much. For her it was life itself. But Vronsky, with his selfish nature, could not understand Anna. Anna was with him and therefore interested him little. Misunderstandings now arose more and more often between Anna and Vronsky. Moreover, formally, Vronsky, like Karenin earlier, was right, and Anna was wrong. However, the essence of the matter was that the actions of Karenin, and then Vronsky, were guided by “prudence,” as the people of their circle understood it; Anna’s actions were guided by her great human feeling, which could not in any way be consistent with “prudence.” At one time, Karenin was frightened by the fact that the “society” had already noticed his wife’s relationship with Vronsky and that this threatened a scandal. Anna behaved so “unreasonably”! Now Vronsky is afraid of a public scandal and sees the cause of this scandal in the same “indiscretion” of Anna.
In essence, the final act is played out on Vronsky's estate. tragic fate Anna Karenina. Anna, a strong and cheerful person, seemed to many and even wanted to seem quite happy to herself. In reality she was deeply unhappy. The last meeting of Dolly and Anna seems to sum up the lives of both. Tolstoy depicts the fate of Dolly and the fate of Anna as two opposite options for the fate of a Russian woman. One has resigned herself and is therefore unhappy, the other, on the contrary, dared to defend her happiness and is also unhappy.
In the image of Dolly, Tolstoy poetizes maternal feelings. Her life is a feat in the name of children, and in this sense a kind of reproach to Anna. Before us new example the breadth and depth of coverage and Tolstoy’s disclosure of the fate of his heroine. A few minutes before her death, Anna thinks: “Everything is untrue, everything is a lie, everything is deception, everything is evil!..” That’s why she wants to “put out the candle,” that is, to die. “Why not put out the candle when there is nothing else to look at, when it is disgusting to look at all this?”
One of the heroes of L.N. Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina”, Konstantin Levin, appeared as a new image in Russian and world literature. This is the image of not a “small”, not “superfluous” person. In his entire make-up, the content of the universal human questions that torment him, the integrity of his nature, and his inherent desire to translate ideas into action, Konstantin Levin is a thinker-doer. He is called to passionate, energetic social activity, he strives to transform life on the basis of active love, general and personal happiness for all people,
It is known that while writing the novel, Tolstoy practically did not keep diaries, since his thoughts and feelings were reflected quite fully in his work on the image of Levin. F. M. Dostoevsky in the “Diary of a Writer” for 1877 wrote that Levin is the main character of the novel and was brought out by the author as a bearer of a positive worldview, from the position of which “abnormalities” are discovered, leading to the suffering and death of other heroes.
Levin and Anna are the only ones in the novel who are called to real life. Like Anna, Levin could say that love means too much to him, much more than others can understand. For him, like for Anna, all life should become love. The beginning of Levin's quest can probably be considered his meeting with Oblonsky. Despite the fact that they are friends and like each other, at first glance you can see their internal disunity. Stiva's character is dual, for he divides his life into two parts - “for himself” and “for society.” Levin, with his integrity and fierce passion, seems like an eccentric to him.
It is this fragmentation, the split nature of the life of modern society that forces Konstantin Levin to look for some common cause that unites everyone. The meaning of family for Levin is directly related to the main theme of the novel - the unity and separation of people. Family for Levin is the deepest, highest unity that is possible between people. It is in order to start a family that he appears in a city world alien to him, but receives a cruel blow. The one he chose, on whom his fate depends, was taken from him, stolen by an alien world. Precisely stolen - after all, for Vronsky, Kitty, who has not yet understood herself and her love, is just a girl whose head he has turned. Levin’s choice of Kitty was determined not only by his feelings for her, but also by his attitude towards the Shcherbatsky family. In which he saw an example of the old, educated and honest nobility, which was very important for the hero, since his ideas about true aristocracy were born on the recognition of the rights of honor, dignity and independence, in contrast to the modern admiration of wealth and success. Not knowing how to replace what was lost, Konstantin Levin returns home, hoping to find peace and protection from the world there. But this dream of “my own world” soon collapses. Levin tries to throw himself into his work, but to no avail; it does not give him pleasure.
Levin is painfully concerned about the fate of the Russian nobility and the obvious process of its impoverishment, about which he talks a lot and with interest with Oblonsky and his landowner neighbors. Levin does not see any real benefit from those forms of management that they are trying to bring from the West, he has a negative attitude towards the activities of zemstvo institutions, he does not see the point in the comedy of noble elections, as, indeed, in many achievements of civilization, considering them evil.
Constant life in the village, observations of the work and life of the people, a desire for rapprochement with the peasants and serious farming develop in Levin a whole series original views on the changes happening around. It is not for nothing that he gives a succinct and precise definition of the post-reform state of society and the features of its economic life, saying that “everything has turned upside down” and is “just settling down.” However, Levine is eager to have input on how "everything will play out." Management methods and reflection on the peculiarities of the national way of life lead him to an independent and original conviction of the need to take into account in managing agriculture not only agronomic innovations and technical achievements, but also the traditional national mindset of the worker as the main participant in the entire process. Levin seriously thinks that with the correct formulation of the matter, based on his conclusions, it will be possible to transform life first on the estate, then in the district, province and, finally, in all of Russia.
For further development This discovery has implications for Konstantin Levin’s meetings with certain people. First, this is a meeting with an old peasant, in a conversation with whom Levina clarifies for herself the topic of independent work and family. Now his dream is to change the lives of humanity! Following his dream, which soon fails, he wants to create a universal artel. Reality proves that a common cause is impossible in a divided society. The hero is thinking about suicide. But love comes to the rescue. Kitty and Levin are together again, and life takes on new meaning for both of them. He recognizes his idea of an artel as untenable and is happy only with love. But then Levin realizes that he cannot live only with the happiness of love, only with his family, without connection with the whole world, without a common idea, thoughts of suicide return to him again. And he is saved only by turning to God, and, as a result, reconciliation with the world.
To reject all the foundations of reality, to curse it and in the end to reconcile with it is an example of a deep contradiction in the life and character of one of the most interesting heroes of L. N. Tolstoy - Konstantin Levin.
Spiritual awakening of Lavretsky and Lisa Kalitina
The heroes of “The Noble Nest” are shown with their “roots”, with the soil on which they grew up. There are two similar heroes in this novel: Lavretsky and Liza Kalitina. What are the life beliefs of the heroes - they are looking for an answer, first of all, to the questions that their fate poses to them. These questions are as follows: about duty to loved ones, about personal happiness, about one’s place in life, about self-denial.
Often, the discrepancy between life positions leads to ideological disputes between the main characters. Typically, an ideological dispute occupies a central place in a novel. Lovers become participants in such a dispute. For example, for Lisa, the source of the only correct answers to any “damned” questions is religion, as a means of resolving the most painful contradictions of life. Lisa is trying to prove to Lavretsky that her beliefs are right. According to her, he just wants to “plow the land... and try to plow it as best as possible.” A fatalistic attitude towards life determines its nature of being. Lavretsky does not accept “Liza’s” morality. He refuses humility and self-denial. Lavretsky is trying to find the vital, popular, as he puts it, truth. The truth must lie “first of all in its recognition and humility before it... in the impossibility of leaps and arrogant alterations of Russia from the heights of bureaucratic self-awareness - alterations that are not justified either by knowledge of the native land or by real faith in the ideal...”. Like Lisa, Lavretsky is a person with “roots” going back to the past. His genealogy has been mentioned since the 15th century. Lavretsky is not only a hereditary nobleman, but also the son of a peasant woman. His “peasant” features: extraordinary physical strength, lack of refined manners always remind him of his peasant origin. Thus, he is close to the people. It is in everyday peasant work that Lavretsky tries to find answers to any questions for himself: “Here only the one who makes his own path slowly, like a plowman plowing a furrow with a plow,” is lucky.
The ending of the novel is a kind of conclusion life's quest Lavretsky. Defines all the inconsistency, makes him a “superfluous person.” Lavretsky’s welcoming words at the end of the novel to unknown young forces mean not only the hero’s refusal of personal happiness, but its very possibility. It should be noted that Turgenev’s very point of view on the “superfluous man” is quite peculiar. Turgenev gives the same arguments as Herzen in justifying Rudin and in general “ extra people" However, these arguments differ in determining the degree of their guilt. Turgenev rejects the path of salvation, “extra people” through violence, believing that no political changes cannot free man from the power of the forces of history and nature.
Conclusion
In the abstract we looked at five heroes from fairly well-known works. Throughout the entire story, these heroes ask questions of existence, in a word, look for the meaning of life, and try to awaken spiritually. But in the end, not all heroes succeed, and everyone, without exception, begins their search in the wrong place. They ask themselves the wrong questions and try to achieve the wrong goals that would actually make them happy. And when time has already run out, they understand the whole essence of their life, their purpose and what they should have strived for.
Literature used
1. Bocharov S. “War and Peace” L.I. Tolstoy. // Three masterpieces of Russian classics. M., 1971.
2. Roman L.N. Tolstoy “War and Peace” in Russian criticism: Sat. articles. - L.: Lening publishing house. University, 1989
3. Svitelsky V.A. “Life” and “pride of mind” in the quest of Konstantin Levin // Russian literature of 1870-1890. Sverdlovsk, 1980.
4. Kurlyandskaya G.B. The aesthetic world of Turgenev. - Orel, 2005.
5. V. Gornaya “The world is reading “Anna Karenina” - 1979.
LITERATURE OF THE EARLY XX CENTURY
Origins and nature of literary quests. Is it Russian?
terature late XIX- beginning of the 20th century developed into incomplete
three decades (1890-1910s), but came to a surprising
absolutely bright, independent in significance achievements.
They decided very quickly, despite the simultaneous
ity with the work of a number of great classical artists.
During this period, L. N. Tolstoy completed the novel “Is Risen”
nie", created the drama "Living Corpse" and the story "Hadji-Mu
rat." At the turn of the century, almost the most
A. P. Chekhov’s most important works: prose “House
with mezzanine", "Ionych", "Man in a case", "Lady with
tank", "Bride", "Bishop" etc. and the plays "The Seagull",
"Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters", " Cherry Orchard" V. G. Koro
Lenko wrote the story “Without Language” and worked on an autobio
graphic "The History of My Contemporary". At the moment
birth of modern poetry, many of its forerunners were alive:
A. A. Fet, Vl. S. Soloviev, Ya. P. Polonsky, K. K. Slu-
Chevsky, K. M. Fofanov. The younger generation of authors was
is closely connected with Russian classical literature, one
which, for a number of objective reasons, has made its way into art.
art.
As a result of the October events of 1917, life and culture
tour of Russia suffered a tragic cataclysm. Intelli
the majority of the gentry did not accept the revolution and freedom
but or unwittingly went abroad. Exploring creativity
emigrants were under the strictest ban for a long time.
The first attempt to fundamentally comprehend artistic
new innovations at the turn of the century were undertaken by Russian figures
th abroad.
N. A. Otsup, once a colleague of N. S. Gumilyov, introduced
in 1933 (Paris magazine "Numbers") many concepts
and terms widely recognized in modern times. Push era
Kin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy (i.e. the 19th century) he
beat the conquests of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio and called it
honest "golden age". Those who followed him
8
phenomena squeezed into three decades that took, for example,
measures, in France the entire nineteenth and early twentieth
century", called « silver age»
(now written without
quotes, with capital letters).
Otsup established the similarities and differences between two layers of poetry
chesky culture. They were brought together by a "feeling of specialness"
new, tragic responsibility for a common destiny.” But
the bold visions of the “golden age” gave way to the period
“the revolution that swallowed up everything and everyone” “consciously
lyse”, which made creativity “more human
growth”, “closer to the author”.
There is a lot of insight in such a figurative comparison.
First of all, the impact of revolutionary upheavals on whether
literature It, of course, was not at all direct, but very
peculiar.
Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. survived, as we know, three revolutions
tions (1905-1907
years, February and October 1917
G.)
and the wars preceding them - the Russo-Japanese (1904-
1905), World War I (1914
-1918). IN stormy and menacing
At the time, three political positions were in conflict: one hundred
supporters of monarchism, defenders of bourgeois reforms,
ideologists of the proletarian revolution. Heterogeneity has arisen
new programs for radical restructuring of the country. One -
“from above”, by means of “the most exceptional laws”,
leading “to such a social revolution, to such
movement of all valuables... like nothing I have ever seen before
ria" (P. A. Stolypin). The other is “from below”, by “hard
long, seething class war, which is called revolution
lution" (V.I. Lenin). Russian art has always been
the ideas of any violence, as well as bourgeois practicalities, are alien
ma. They were not accepted even now. L. Tolstoy in 1905
G.
had a presentiment that the world “stands on the threshold of a huge
education". Changing "forms" public life" He
preconditioned, however, spiritual self-improvement
ness.
The desire for creative transformation of the world. Feeling
tion of universal catastrophism and the dream of the revival of
love became extremely acute among younger contemporaries
L. Tolstoy. Salvation was not seen “from above” and thus
especially not “from below”, but “from within” - in a moral transformation
NI. But in the crisis era, faith in the WHO has weakened significantly.
possible harmony. Here why “conscious analysis”
(N. Otsup) were re-exposed eternal problems: meaning
Introductory lesson - lecture in 11th grade on the topic:
Literature of the early twentieth century.
Characteristic literary process beginning of the 20th century. Manifold literary trends, styles, schools, groups.
Lesson objectives: give an idea of the connection between the historical and literary processes of the early 20th century; to find out what are the features of the development of literature at the beginning of the twentieth century, to note the originality of realism in the literature of the turn of eras, to introduce a new direction in art - modernism, its content, direction. Develop skills in taking notes from lecture material. Cultivate interest in Russian classical literature.
- The origins and nature of literary quests at the beginning of the twentieth century.
- Directions of philosophical thought of the early twentieth century.
- Characteristics of the literary process of the early twentieth century.
- The originality of realism in Russian literature of the early twentieth century.
- Variety of literary trends, schools, groups.
- Decadence. Modernism.
Epigraph for the lesson.
The beginning of the century was a time of great mental and spiritual excitement for us... Entire worlds opened up for us in those years... The beginning of the twentieth century was marked for usrenaissance (rebirth)spiritual culture, philosophical and literary-aesthetic renaissance. Never before has Russian culture achieved such sophistication.
N. Berdyaev
1. Conventionally, historians divided the countries of the whole world at the beginning of the twentieth century into three echelons: the first – countries with high level development of capitalism. It is dominated by rule-of-law states with developed democracies, those countries that have undergone bourgeois revolutions. England. France. The second echelon are countries in which revolutions occurred somewhat later, the bourgeoisie was defeated and was forced to share power with the nobility, but these were states that were steadily developing along the capitalist path. Germany. Italy. Japan. The third echelon consisted of countries to which capitalism was brought “from outside.” America. Africa. Asian countries. Politically and economically, these countries were subordinated to strong capitalist powers.
Where to place Russia?
You can’t understand it with your mind, you can’t measure it with a common yardstick...
The bulk of the population are peasants. 16-18% of the population lives in cities.
By that time, the noble class would be completely degraded. There remained very small groups of landowners Sheremetyevs, Golitsyns, Dolgorukovs. Their lands were mortgaged and remortgaged. They themselves most of spent their lives abroad. A new social layer of merchants and bourgeoisie is rising. Capitalists Ryabushinsky, Prokhorov, Morozov. Mamontovs. Another new one is born social class– proletariat. By that time, 60% of literate men and 40% of literate women lived in Russia.
At the turn of the century, Russia entered a period of wars and revolutions. The expectation of change seemed to permeate the very atmosphere of socio-political life in Russia. How I wanted to throw away the past and break into a new unknown world. The rising proletariat seemed so attractive. Liberation of the individual seemed possible. Art and literature develop under the influence of anticipation and fulfillment of impending great events. Three revolutions at the beginning of the century. Two wars.
1905-1907
War 1904-1905 - Russian-Japanese
War 1914-1918 - First World War.
Such rapid changes and changes in social life. In the political, in the psychology of the people, no country knows.
During this stormy and formidable time, 3 political positions were in conflict:
Supporters of the monarchy
Defenders of bourgeois reforms,
Ideologists of the proletarian revolution.
Country restructuring programs
"above" "below"
By means of the most "fierce,
Exceptional seething class war,
laws" (Stolypin) which is called revolution
Lucius" (Lenin)
However, Russian art and literature, including, have never accepted the ideas of violence and bourgeois practicality. (Let us remember the heroes of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Goncharov, Turgenev).
Salvation is not
"from above" and not "from below"
but only
"FROM INSIDE"
through moral transformation.
The feeling of universal catastrophism, disunity and the dream of the spiritual rebirth of man, universal unity, harmony with nature - the problems that the philosophical and literary thought of Russia is trying to solve, the essence of the nature of philosophical and literary quests.
2. Acute contradictions in life, confusion, despair, loss of faith in imminent social changes largely determined not only the social atmosphere in Russia, but also the development philosophical movements. Overcoming general disunity and disharmony went back to the spiritual revival of man and humanity. The painful reaction to the call to fight, to violence gave rise to the NEORELIGIOUS quest of the era. (See attachments from " Workbook" on page 6)
Religious thinkers N.F. Fedorov, V.S. Soloviev called for the awakening of the divine principle “in oneself.” The “good news” of Christ led Fedorov to the conviction: “the sons of men can become re-creators of the destroyed connection of generations and life itself, turning the blind force of nature into the conscious creativity of a harmonious spirit. Soloviev defended the idea of reuniting dead man with the eternal divine principle. To achieve such an ideal, he believed, was possible through the power of various insights - in religious faith, high art, perfect earthly love.
N.A. Berdyaev, S.N. Bulgakov, V.V. Rozanov, D.S. Merezhkovsky. All of them were warmed by the dream of the inclusion of the weak, lost man to divine truth. They dreamed not of social activity that would lead to change, but of a “religious community” capable of awakening the sleepy soul of their contemporaries and morally transforming the country.
Entire literary and poetic associations gravitated towards their idols:
symbolists - to Solovyov, futurists - to Fedorov. Similar trends were observed in music, painting, and theater.
3. The literature of the “Golden Age” and the literature of the Silver Age have always been brought together by a sense of tragic responsibility for a common fate. There is a conscious analysis of eternal problems: spirituality, the meaning of life, culture and the elements. In the twentieth century (at the very beginning) this occurs against the background of complex socio-political (destructive) processes. The “Old Masters,” according to Annensky, were characterized by “a sense of harmony between the elementary human soul and nature." And artists of the early twentieth century were looking for the hidden power of counteracting the “inert state.”
Stand out:
The “I” that wants to become the whole world. (I. Annensky)
“I”, tormented by the consciousness of loneliness and the inevitability of the end. (A. Blok)
“I”, oppressed by the mystery and aimlessness of earthly existence.
(B. Zaitsev)
The creative transformation of reality is characteristic of the literary process of the early twentieth century; it visibly appears in poetry.
Supporters of the revolutionary movement created a new direction in literature. A group of “proletarian poets” appeared who connected poetry with specific tasks of social struggle. Among them were intellectuals Krzhizhanovsky, Radin, Bogdanov, workers and peasants Shkulev, Nechaev, Gmyrev, Demyan Bedny. It was the spontaneous creativity of the masses with traditions folklore. The life and work of factory workers were glorified. Historical optimism is characteristic of this poetry. They tried to awaken pride, self-awareness, the desire to rebel against the squalor of the surrounding life, to change this life. Poets resorted to a conventionally romantic style, using its characteristic elements: the epithets “righteous blood”, “fatal oppression”, “holy work”, “bright path”; allegorical images of sunrise, dawn, spring. They used famous Russian folk songs, reworked European ones, giving them a new sound.
The leading genres are songs, poems, pamphlets, fables, feuilletons, epigrams, open social appeals. The Proletkult organization tried to create new literature by the workers themselves and for the workers, denying all previous culture and classical heritage. (See textbook pp. 11-12, Barannikov’s anthology).
4. The originality of realism in literature of the early twentieth century.
Realism (From Latin Realis - real, material, authentic) - an artistic method that determined the nature of the work of Russian writers of the 19th century. Critical realism is an artistic study of life, comprehension and reconstruction of the underlying patterns (typical in it).
Realism of the early twentieth century is called “spiritual realism.” What are its features?
This is realism seeking truth, finding truth;
This is realism, from which the image adequate to the writer’s ideal has disappeared, the image that embodied his cherished thoughts, the image that bears the artist’s ideas (sympathy not for these people, but for a vague dream);
A “hero” came to literature mediocre"(official, officer, intellectual, poor man);
Realism is far from exposing a lost personality, from irony; it is concerned with the mystery of the very nature of human disharmony;
Update genre structures, a small story can contain problems of enormous scale, and vice versa, a big story tells about the events of two days;
In the realism of the early twentieth century there are no moralizing intonations; it calls for co-experience, for co-creation;
Analysis of real processes was combined with a bold romantic dream; twentieth-century realism is akin to romanticism, impressionism, expressionism, and symbolism;
Relentless attraction to the classical heritage.
Realistic “spiritualized” prose of the early twentieth century called for discussion.
- Variety of literary trends.
Direction, or method (from the Greek Methodos - research) - a method of research, the principle underlying the study of life. In thin l-re the basic principles that guide the writer when depicting life phenomena in artistic images.
Independent work with the textbook.
Students work with the material from the textbook edited by V.P. Zhuravleva (part I) pp. 20-26. Chapters: Features of modern poetry, Symbolism, Acmeism, Futurism - read and make short notes.
The parallel emergence of more and more new poetic schools is one of the most interesting trends of the era. There was an increase in personality, an increase in the status of creative individuality in art.
Poets “are different from each other, from different clay. After all, these are all Russian poets, not for yesterday, not for today, but forever. God did not offend us like that” (O. Mandelstam). Literary school (current) and creative individuality are two key categories of the literary process of the early 20th century. Aesthetic originality - general trend in the lyrics of the Silver Age.
Characteristic figures standing outside the directions (“Lonely Stars”) were M. Tsvetaeva, M. Kuzmin, V. Khodasevich.
The desire to express more complex, volatile or contradictory states of the soul required a new attitude to the word-image:
I am a sudden break
I am the playing thunder
I am a transparent stream
I am for everyone and no one. K. Balmont
There was a premonition of “coming riots”:
Where are you, future Huns,
What cloud hangs over the world?
I hear your cast iron tramp
Through the not yet discovered Pamirs. V. Bryusov
The poems include exotic images and motifs as a counteraction to the measured bourgeois life (“Giraffe”, “Lake Chad” by N. Gumilyov).
Futurist poets proclaim a decisive “no” to the heritage of the classics, destroying the “aesthetics of the old” (poems by V. Mayakovsky, V. Khlebnikov, etc.)
Summing up the lesson.
– What did you gain in the lesson to understand the characteristic features of the literary process in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century?
Homework:
1. Based on the lecture material, prepare a story on the topic “Socio-economic and cultural development of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century.”
2. Independent work with the textbook pp. 7-26
– What is the meaning of the term “Silver Age”?
– How did N. Otsup distinguish between the “golden” and “silver” centuries of Russian literature?
– What traditions of the classics have the realistic prose of modern times adopted?
– What are the features? literary hero new era
– What distinguishes modernism from realism?
– What brings together different movements of modernism?
– What are the features of the prose of the beginning of the century?
– What are the reasons for the emergence of various literary groups?
March 03 2015
…and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. (Gospel of Matthew, 28:20) In literary terms, the 20th century became the century of spiritual search. The abundance of literary movements that arose at this time is closely related to the abundance of new philosophical doctrines throughout the world. A striking example of this is French existentialism. The spiritual search no less affected Russian culture, and in particular literature.
Russian of the 20th century grew out of the nineteenth century. In the 19th century, much space was given to gospel motifs. Suffice it to recall “The Death of a Poet” by Lermontov. But due to political events in Russia in the first half of the 20th century, the attitude towards religion and the church also changed compared to previous centuries. Soviet era was marked, among other things, by persecution of the church.
Anti-religious, atheistic propaganda was so strong that the sixties and seventies gave rise to a whole generation of people cut off from religion. In the appendices to his book “Son of Man,” Archpriest Father Alexander Men gives entire lists of anti-religious literature, both Russian and foreign. However, this kind of literary extremism did not arise immediately after the revolution; atheistic propaganda could not instantly destroy the centuries-old traditions of their ancestors in the minds of people. Literature of the first decades of existence Soviet state- a vivid example of this.
Many authors turn to gospel motifs. Among them are Blok, Pasternak, Akhmatova, Bulgakov, Gorky, Bunin and many others. They may agree or diverge in their views on the Gospels.
Only one thing remains unchanged: the authors’ frequent, almost inevitable appeals to the Good News in their works. It is characteristic that in the literature of the 20th century attention is paid to certain moments of the Gospel - the tragic period from Maundy Monday to Easter. Most often we see references to the Crucifixion of Christ and the days of His passion. And yet, despite the similarity of the images taken, the authors reinterpret them in different ways. In Blok’s poem “The Twelve,” for example, gospel motifs can be found quite freely.
The twelve undoubtedly have their counterpart in the Holy Scriptures in the twelve apostles. At that time, the apostles are the antipodes of the twelve, since: And they walk without the name of the saint. All twelve go into the distance. Ready for anything, No regrets... The apostles of the revolution, unlike the apostles of Christianity, go “without a holy name.”
They are sure that they do not need a counselor from above. But: Ahead with a bloody flag, And invisible behind the blizzard, And unharmed by a bullet, With a gentle tread above the blizzard, A scattering of snow pearls, In a white corolla of roses - Ahead is Jesus Christ. The name of one of the twelve is symbolic.
Peter is the rock on which Christ founded His Church. For Blok, Peter is a murderer. But let us remember that Jesus spent all his days with criminals, publicans and harlots. And the thief was the first to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The twelve Red Guards have faith, just like that robber. They themselves do not know what they believe. Well, the Lord leads everyone so ch. ru 2001 2005 those who do not walk with Him of their own free will. Any faith is blessed.
And in this sense, Petrukha’s repentance (or rather, an attempt at repentance) for the murder of Katka is also symbolic. And the dog-symbol of the Antichrist - one of the twelve - threatens to “tickle with a bayonet.” He compares this dog to the old world...
Similar views can be seen in M. A. Bulgakov’s novel “The White Guard.” Alexei Turbin dreams that the Lord speaks about the Bolsheviks like this: “...Well, they don’t believe... what can you do.
Let go. After all, this makes me neither hot nor cold... And they... the same. Therefore, I have neither profit nor loss from your faith. One believes, the other doesn’t believe, but your actions are all the same: now you’re at each other’s throats...
All of you are the same to me - killed in the battlefield.” When talking about Bulgakov, one cannot help but pay attention to the rethinking of gospel motifs in the novel “The Master and Margarita.” Bulgakov, like other authors, refers to the events of Holy Week.
But Bulgakov is interested not so much in the gospel events themselves, but in the problem of Good and Evil and their relationships. In his reading of the gospel story, Yeshua appears not as God, but as. It is no coincidence that Bulgakov depicts Christ here under His Aramaic name.
No one recognizes Yeshua as the only prophet; his disciple, Matthew Levi, is no exception. Having retained the features of the Gospel apostle Matthew (tax collector), Levi represents all the disciples at once, except for Judas. Even the words he wrote down on parchment (“…We will see a clear river of the water of life.
Humanity will look at the sun through a transparent crystal..."), taken not from the Gospel, but from Revelation, and, therefore, should have been written not by Matthew, but by John... In addition, the disciples of Christ were waiting for Him to "come in glory." Levi Matvey does not expect this either.
And he does not fulfill the commandments of Yeshua, he threatens to kill Judas from Kiri-afa. And the dominant position in the world, at first glance, is occupied by Woland, the Prince of Darkness. However, Pilate and the harlot Frida are forgiven, and Woland fulfills Yeshua’s request. Darkness is an obligatory part of the universe, because if there were no darkness, what would we call light? Bulgakov is trying to determine the essence of good and evil, but he all comes to one thing.
and to the same thing: good is love, good is devotion; Evil is hatred, cowardice and betrayal. Even if Margarita was a witch at least three times, she loves as few people can love. Therefore, Levi asks that “...
the one who loved and suffered... you would have taken too...” His words echo the words of Christ in the Gospel of Luke: “... Her many sins are forgiven because she loved much, but he who is forgiven little loves little” (Luke , 7:50). In addition to the images of Christ and His disciples, in the literature of the first half of the 20th century one often encounters Mother of God. So, Anna Akhmatova writes about Mary in the poem “The Crucifixion”: Magdalene fought and sobbed, The beloved disciple turned to stone, And where the Mother stood silently, No one dared to look.
The image of the Mother of God appears in M. Gorky’s novel “Mother”. Having nothing to do with religion, Paul is closely connected with the Christian, evangelical spirit. His mother bears the traits of the Virgin Mary, and as the action progresses they become more and more apparent.
Pelageya Nilovna becomes the mother of all Pavel's friends. So Mary becomes the Mother of all Christ’s disciples, and then the universal Intercessor from the moment when Her Son, nailed to the cross, entrusted Her to John. And Pelageya Nile Aries’s dream about the procession also corresponds to these motives. We see that no matter how different writers reinterpret the Gospel motifs, they all have one common feature: They are all trying to create a new Gospel, a Gospel that meets the aspirations of a new world and a new personality, for their era and for themselves. These attempts succeeded in only one thing: the Gospel for the new world can exist.
At least evangelical morality and evangelicalism are applicable to any era and any person. Which of the attempts to update it is closer to the truth?.. To answer this question, it is necessary to turn to more later literature. Our generation knows the prose of V. Bykov, the poetry of B. Okudzhava and V., literature that, it would seem, has already gone very far from Christian traditions. But let’s open V. Bykov’s “Obelisk”.
Teacher Frost goes to his death to save his students, although he knows that they are doomed. But time passes, and the name of Moroz becomes the name of a traitor, a traitor to the Motherland. So our Lord suffered for us on the cross, although he knew that not everyone would accept his sacrifice, that not everyone would be saved, that the world was mired in evil. And after His death, His earthly Church was persecuted and many tried to destroy it.
Let's open Vysotsky's poems. One cannot call them deeply imbued with the Christian spirit, but: And at thirty-three to Christ - he was, “Let him not be killed!” If you kill me, I’ll find you everywhere, they say, so put nails in his hands, so that he does something, so that he doesn’t write and so that he thinks less. There are also evangelical motifs in the poetry of Bulat Okudzhava. It is enough to listen closely to hear the immortal words of Christ's sermons: Let's compliment each other, After all, these are all happy moments of love.
...There is no need to give importance to slander, Since sadness always coexists with love... ...You are our sister, we are your hasty judges... ...and forever in collusion with people of Hope, a small orchestra Under the control of love... But A. Galich conveys the spirit of the era best of all " Ave Maria": ...
Subsequently, all sorts of crap erupted. A retired gloomy investigator in Moscow. And a certificate with a seal about rehabilitation was sent to Kalinin to the prophet’s widow... And she was walking through Judea. And the body became lighter, thinner, thinner with every step.
And Judea was making noise all around. And I didn’t want to remember the dead. But shadows lay on the loam and shadows lurked in every inch. The shadows of all the bottles and treblinkas, All the betrayals, betrayals and crucifixions.
Ave Maria... The fact is that even a renewed world does not need to update the gospel story. The Gospel itself does not need renewal: the Good News is one for all and for all times. No matter how hard you try to update it, everything will be in vain, simply because it is useless.
No matter how hard they try to humiliate her, it will all be in vain. Let us remember Yesenin’s words about the anti-religious poem of Demyan Bedny: No, you, Demyan, did not insult Christ, you did not hurt Him with your pen in the least. There was a robber, there was Judas, you were just missing.
Need a cheat sheet? Then save - "The theme of spiritual quest in Russian literature of the 20th century. Literary essays!LITERATURE OF THE EARLY 20th century
Origins and nature of literary quests
Russian literature of the late XIX - early XX centuries. took shape in less than three decades (1890-1910s), but came to amazingly bright achievements of independent significance. They were determined very quickly, despite the simultaneity with the work of a number of great classical artists. During this period, L. N. Tolstoy completed the novel “Resurrection”, created the drama “The Living Corpse” and the story “Hadji Murat”. At the turn of the century, perhaps the most remarkable works of A. P. Chekhov were published: the prose “House with a Mezzanine”, “Ionych”, “Man in a Case”, “Lady with a Dog”, “Bride”, “Bishop”, etc. . and the plays “The Seagull”, “Uncle Vanya”, “Three Sisters”, “The Cherry Orchard”. V. G. Korolenko wrote the story “Without Language” and worked on the autobiographical “The History of My Contemporary”. At the moment of the birth of modern poetry, many of its forerunners were alive: A. A. Fet, Vl. S. Solovyov, Ya. P. Polonsky, K. K. Sluchevsky, K. M. Fofanov. The younger generation of authors was closely connected with Russian classical literature, but for a number of objective reasons they made their own way in art.
As a result of the October events of 1917, the life and culture of Russia underwent a tragic cataclysm. The majority of the intelligentsia did not accept the revolution and, willingly or unwillingly, went abroad. The study of the works of emigrants was for a long time under the strictest ban. The first attempt to fundamentally comprehend artistic innovation at the turn of the century were undertaken by figures from the Russian diaspora.
N. A. Otsup, once a colleague of N. S. Gumilyov, introduced in 1933 (Parisian magazine “Numbers”) many concepts and terms that are widely recognized in our time. He likened the era of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy (i.e., the 19th century) to the conquests of Dante and Petrarch. Boccaccio called the Russian “golden age”. The phenomena that followed, “as if squeezed into three decades, which occupied, for example, the entire nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in France,” were called the “Silver Age” (now written without quotation marks, with a capital letter).
Otsup established the similarities and differences between the two layers of poetic culture. They were brought together by “a feeling of special, tragic responsibility for a common fate.” But the bold visions of the “golden age” were replaced during the period of “the revolution that absorbed everything and everyone” with “conscious analysis”, which made creativity “more human-sized”, “closer to the author”.
There is a lot of insight in such a figurative comparison. First of all, the influence of revolutionary upheavals on literature. It, of course, was not at all direct, but very peculiar.
Russia at the beginning of our century, as we know, experienced three revolutions (1905-1907, February and October 1917) and the wars that preceded them - the Russian-Japanese (1904-1905), the First World War (1914-1918). In a stormy and formidable time, three political positions competed: supporters of monarchism, defenders of bourgeois reforms, and ideologists of the proletarian revolution. Heterogeneous programs for radical restructuring of the country emerged. One - “from above”, by means of “the most exceptional laws” leading “to such a social revolution, to such a displacement of all values<...>, which history has never seen” (P. A. Stolypin). The other is “from below,” through “a fierce, seething war of classes, which is called revolution” (V.I. Lenin). Russian art has always been alien to the idea of any violence, as well as bourgeois practicality. They were not accepted even now. L. Tolstoy in 1905 had a presentiment that the world “stands on the threshold of a huge transformation.” However, he prefaced the change in the “forms of social life” with the spiritual self-improvement of the individual.
The desire for creative transformation of the world
The feeling of universal catastrophism and the dream of the rebirth of man became extremely acute among L. Tolstoy’s younger contemporaries. Salvation was seen not “from above” and certainly not “from below”, but “from within” - in moral transformation. But in the era of crisis, faith in possible harmony has weakened significantly. That is why eternal problems were again subjected to “conscious analysis” (N. Otsup): the meaning of life and spirituality of people, culture and the elements, art and creativity... Classical traditions developed in new conditions of destructive processes.
“Higher questions”, according to Iv. Bunin, “about the essence of being, about the purpose of man on Earth” acquired a rare dramatism. The writer was aware of his “role in the boundless crowd of people.” He later explained this point of view: “We know the nobles Turgenev and Tolstoy. But we cannot judge the Russian nobility en masse, since both Turgenev and Tolstoy depict the upper layer, rare oases of culture.” The loss of “oases” (with them - the large personality of the hero) meant the need to “immerse” in the monotonous existence of one or another community of “middle” (L. Andreev) people.
Therefore, the desire has matured to find some hidden force to counteract their inert state. The artists of the Silver Age possessed intense attention to the everyday flow of days and the ability to grasp the bright beginning in its depths.
I. Annensky very accurately identified the origins of such a search. The old masters, he believed, were characterized by a sense of “harmony between the elemental human soul and nature.” And in his modern times he highlighted the opposite: “Here, on the contrary, flashes the “I”, which would like to become the whole world, dissolve, spill into it, the “I” - tormented by the consciousness of its hopeless loneliness, inevitable end and aimless existence...” In such a way In the rarefied, cold atmosphere, Annensky nevertheless saw a craving for a “creative spirit” that produces “beauty through thought and suffering.”
This is how it was in the literature of the turn of the century. Its creators painfully experienced the elements of crushing and waste of life. B. Zaitsev was oppressed by the mystery of earthly existence: it “in its immeasurable course knows no boundaries, no time, no love, or even, as it sometimes seemed, any meaning at all” (story by “Agrafen”). The proximity of universal destruction (“Mr. from San Francisco”), the horror both from the meager “world of existence” and from the universe that we do not comprehend,” reported I. Bunin. L. Andreev portrayed a terrifying, fatal figure: the inexorable “Someone in Gray” briefly lights the candle “The Life of a Man” (the title of the play) and extinguishes it, indifferent to suffering and insights.
The darkest pictures were, however, brightened by the “creative spirit.” The same Andreev wrote: “...for me, imagination has always been higher than reality, and the very strong love I experienced in a dream...”, since real beauty is “moments far scattered in space and time.” The path to true existence lay through the artist’s self-deepening. Bunin's works are permeated, as he admitted, with “secret madness” - “an unresolved feeling of the indescribable mystery of the charm” of the earthly kingdom. And the painfully felt " The lost force"(title of the story) A. Kuprin discovered spiritual energy that raised the human personality “to infinite heights.” In the innermost spheres of individual worldview, faith in the imperishable values of life grew.
The creative transformation of reality appeared even more visibly in the poetry of the beginning of the century. I. Annensky came to the correct observation: “The boundaries between the real and the fantastic for the poet not only became thinner, but in some places became completely transparent. Truth and desires often merge their colors for him.” In the thoughts of many talented artists of the era we find similar thoughts.
A. Blok heard in the “timelessness” of the beginning of the century “the wild cry of a lonely soul, hanging for a moment over the barrenness of the Russian swamps.” However, he also noticed a thirst for “fire for his slightly smoldering soul.” The poet sang “I, in which, being refracted, reality is transformed.”
Blok felt such a gift in the poems of F. Sologub, K. Balmont and others. A. F. Sologub wrote: “The art of our days” “strives to transform the world through the effort of creative will...” Newest poetry was truly born of this impulse.
Literary quests of supporters of the revolutionary movement
At the beginning of the 20th century. A completely different direction of literature arose. It was associated with specific tasks of social struggle. This position was defended by a group of “proletarian poets”. Among them were intellectuals (G. Krzhizhanovsky, L. Radin, A. Bogdanov), workers and former peasants (E. Nechaev, F. Shkulev, Evg. Tarasov, A. Gmyrev). The attention of the authors of revolutionary songs and propaganda poems was drawn to the plight of the working masses, their spontaneous protest and organized movement. The following were sung: the victory of the “young army” (L. Radin), the “flame of struggle” (A. Bogdanov), the destruction of the “slave building” and a free future (A. Gmyrev), the feat of “fearless warriors” (Evg. Tarasov). The exposing of the “masters of life” and the defense of Bolshevik ideology were actively promoted by the highly satanic fables and “manifestos” of D. Bedny.
Works of such an ideological orientation contained many real facts, correct observations, and expressively conveyed some public sentiments. However, there were no significant artistic achievements here. The attraction to political conflicts was dominant, social essence person, and personal development was replaced by ideological preparation for participation in class battles. It is difficult to disagree with the self-critical confession of Evg. Tarasova: “We are not poets - we are forerunners...”
The path to art lay through the comprehension of multifaceted relationships between people and the spiritual atmosphere of the time. And where specific phenomena were somehow linked to these problems, living word, bright image. This beginning was characteristic of a number of works created by revolutionary-minded writers: the stories “Sands” (received the highest rating by L. Tolstoy), “Chibis”, and the novel “City in the Steppe” by A. Serafimovich. stories by A. Chapygin. K. Treneva, V. Shishkova and others. Indicative. however, that interesting pages of the works were devoted to acute moral situations, far from the proletarian struggle. And the struggle itself was reflected very schematically.
The spirit of the times manifested itself immeasurably more deeply in the embodiment of the author's subjective worldviews. M. Voloshin said this very well: “The history of mankind... will appear to us in a completely different and incomparably more accurate form when we approach it from the inside, analyze the writings of this or that book, which we call our soul, and are aware of the lives of billions of people , vaguely rumbled within us...”
For artists of the beginning of the century, overcoming general disunity and disharmony went back to the spiritual rebirth of man and humanity.
The direction of philosophical thought at the beginning of the century
Russian border philosophy gravitated towards similar ideals. L. Tolstoy, shortly before his death, made the following note: “... you need to connect this life with all of endless life, follow the law that embraces not just this life, but all of it. It gives you faith in future life" In his passionate desire for “eternally distant perfection,” the writer relied on the wisdom of Christianity and many Eastern faiths. This was how the desire for purifying love and the ability to see the highest truth, the “light of God” in the soul, was established, bringing all peoples together.
The painful reaction to social struggle and calls for violence gave rise to the non-religious quest of the era. The Christian precepts of Goodness, Love, and Beauty were opposed to the preaching of class hatred. This is how a number of thinkers sought to find in the teachings of Christ a way to the salvation of contemporary humanity, tragically divided and alienated from eternal spiritual values. Along this line, the previous experience of Russian philosophers was perceived - N. F. Fedorov (1829-1903), especially Vl. S. Solovyova (1853-1900).
The “good news” of Christ led Fedorov to the conviction: the “sons of men” will be able to become “recreators” of the destroyed connection of generations and life itself, turning the “blind force” of nature into the conscious creativity of a harmonious spirit. Soloviev defended the idea of reuniting “dead humanity” with the “eternal divine principle.” To achieve such an ideal, he believed, was possible through the power of various insights - in religious faith, high art, perfect earthly love. The concepts of Fedorov and Solovyov developed in the 19th century, but their main works appeared at the turn of two centuries.
The “Religious Renaissance” determined the activities of a number of philosophers of modern times: N. A. Berdyaev (1879-1948), S. N. Bulgakov (1871 - 1944), D. S. Merezhkovsky (1866-1941), V. V. Rozanov (1856-1919), E. N. Trubetskoy (1863-1920), P. A. Florensky (1882-1937) and many others. All of them were warmed by the dream of introducing a weak, lost person to the divine truth. But everyone expressed their own idea of such a rise.
Merezhkovsky believed in the salvation of “the revelation of Christianity in Russian, and perhaps in world culture.” He dreamed of creating a kingdom of heaven and earth on earth, based on the principles divine harmony. Therefore, he called the intelligentsia to religious asceticism in the name of the future.
Berdyaev understood the “new consciousness” as the internal “merging with Christ” of an individual and the people as a whole. The secret of love for God was revealed in the achievement of “eternal perfect individuality,” in other words, the complete transformation of the human soul.
Rozanov advocated for the renewal of the church. In the teachings of God the Son, he saw a close connection with the real needs of earthly life. Therefore, he considered it necessary to get rid of Christian asceticism, preserving the spirituality of the covenants of Christ. Soon, however, Rozanov abandoned his idea, calling his own efforts to “destroy” the historically established church “madness.”
Disappointment in social activities (S. Bulgakov and N. Berdyaev began with Marxist, D. Merezhkovsky with populist hopes) led to the dream of a “religious public” (D. Merezhkovsky). She, the thinkers thought, was capable of awakening the sleepy soul of her contemporaries and morally transforming the country.
Entire poetic associations gravitated towards their idols: the symbolists - towards Solovyov, many futurists - towards Fedorov, A. Remizov, B. Zaitsev, I. Shmelev and others completely independently penetrated into the depths of the commandments of Christ. Most writers, outside of special research in the field of religion, came to be in tune with neo-Christian ideals. In the recesses of a lonely, contradictory soul, a latent desire for perfect love, beauty, and harmonious fusion with the divinely beautiful world was revealed. In the subjective experience of the artist, faith in the incorruptibility of these spiritual values was gained.
Alignment with creativity, unraveling the hidden higher meaning of existence behind external reality, became common to the literature of the turn of the century. Such a search brought together her different directions 1, which in their own way comprehended the connection between the existence of an individual personality and “ endless life"(L. Tolstoy).
On this path, the art of words was no exception. Similar trends have matured in music, painting, and theater.