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Realistic direction. Realism as a literary movement

Within the framework of which painters and writers strive to depict reality truthfully, objectively, in its typical manifestations.

The main features that characterize realism are historicism, social analysis, the interaction of typical characters with typical circumstances, self-development of characters and self-propulsion of action, the desire to recreate the world as a complex unity and contradictory integrity. The same principles should art realism.

Hero of Realism

One of the main features of each artistic method is the type of hero. Realism is a special relationship between the character and the world around him.

On the one hand, the hero of realism is a sovereign, unique personality. This shows the influence of humanism and the legacy of romanticism: attention is paid not to how good a person is, but to the fact that he is unique, a deep, independent personality. Therefore, this character cannot be identical to the author or the reader. A person, as realism sees him, is not a writer’s “second self”, like the romantics, and not a complex of some traits, but someone fundamentally different. It does not fit into the author's worldview. The writer explores it. Therefore, often the hero in the plot behaves differently than the author originally planned.

Living according to his own logic of another person, he builds his own destiny.

On the other hand, this unique character cannot be separated from the manifold connections with other characters. They form a unity. One hero can no longer be directly contrasted with another, as Reality is depicted both objectively and as an image of consciousness. A person in realism exists in reality and at the same time - in the field of his understanding of reality. For example, let’s take the landscape outside the window that is given in the work. This is at the same time a picture from nature, and at the same time - a person’s attitude, a field of consciousness, and not pure reality. The same applies to things, space, and so on. The hero is included in the world, in its context - cultural, social, political. Realism significantly complicates the image of a person.

in the literature of realism

Artistic activity from the standpoint of realism is a cognitive activity, but aimed at the world of characters. Therefore, the writer becomes a historian of modern times, reconstructing its inner side, as well as the hidden causes of events. or romanticism, the drama of personality could be assessed from the standpoint of its positivity, to see the confrontation between the “good” hero and the “bad” world around him. It was common to describe a character who does not understand something but then gains some experience. In realism, the semantic whole of the work unites the world with the hero: the environment becomes a field for a new embodiment of the values that the character initially possesses. These values themselves are adjusted during the ups and downs. At the same time, the author is outside the work, above it, but his task is to overcome his own subjectivism. The reader is conveyed only a certain experience that he cannot experience without reading the book.

Each literary direction characterized by its own characteristics, thanks to which it is remembered and distinguished as a separate species. This happened in the nineteenth century, when some changes took place in the writing world. People began to comprehend reality in a new way, to look at it from an absolutely different perspective. The peculiarities of 19th century literature lie, first of all, in the fact that now writers began to put forward ideas that formed the basis of the direction of realism.

What is realism

Realism appeared in Russian literature at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when a radical revolution took place in this world. The writers realized that the previous trends, the same romanticism, did not satisfy the expectations of the population, since their judgments lacked common sense. Now they tried to depict on the pages of their novels and lyrical works the reality that reigned around, without any exaggeration. Their ideas were now of the most realistic character, which existed not only in Russian literature, but also in foreign literature for more than one decade.

Main features of realism

Realism was characterized by the following features:

depiction of the world as it is, truthful and natural;
in the center of the novels is a typical representative of society, with typical problems and interests;
the emergence of a new way of understanding the surrounding reality - through realistic characters and situations.

Russian literature of the 19th century was of great interest to scientists, because through the analysis of works they were able to understand the very process in literature that existed at that time, as well as give it a scientific basis.

The emergence of the era of Realism

Realism was first created as a special form for expressing the processes of reality. This happened back in the days when such a movement as the Renaissance reigned in both literature and painting. During the Enlightenment, it was conceptualized in a significant way, and was fully formed at the very beginning of the nineteenth century. Literary scholars name two Russian writers, who have long been recognized as the founders of realism. These are Pushkin and Gogol. Thanks to them, this direction was comprehended, received theoretical justification and significant distribution in the country. With their help, Russian literature of the 19th century received great development.

In literature there was now no sublime feelings that the direction of romanticism possessed. Now people were worried about everyday problems, how to resolve them, as well as the feelings of the main characters that overwhelmed them in a given situation. Features of literature of the 19th century are the interest of all representatives of the direction of realism in the individual character traits of each individual person for consideration in one or another life situation. As a rule, this is expressed in a clash between a person and society, when a person cannot accept and does not accept the rules and principles by which other people live. Sometimes in the center of the work there is a person with some internal conflict, which he is trying to cope with himself. Such conflicts are called personality conflicts, when a person understands that from now on he cannot live as he lived before, that he needs to do something to get joy and happiness.

Among the most important representatives of the trend of realism in Russian literature, it is worth noting Pushkin, Gogol, and Dostoevsky. World classics gave us such realist writers as Flaubert, Dickens and even Balzac.

» » Realism and features of 19th century literature

Realism in literature is a direction whose main feature is a truthful depiction of 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 the artistic depiction of reality in images familiar to the average person, which he regularly encounters in real life. Reality in 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, a colleague or an acquaintance in him.

In the novels and stories of realists, art remains life-affirming, even if the plot is characterized by a 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 the distinctive features of realistic literature of the early 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, and avoid abstract concepts and show 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 his 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.

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

In any work of fine literature we distinguish two necessary elements: objective - the reproduction of phenomena given in addition to the artist, and subjective - something put into the work by the artist on his own. Focusing on a comparative assessment of these two elements, the theory in different eras attaches greater importance to one or the other of them (in connection with the course of development of art and other circumstances).

Hence there are two opposing directions in theory; one thing - realism - sets before art the task of faithfully reproducing reality; the other - idealism - sees the purpose of art in “replenishing reality”, in the creation of new forms. Moreover, the starting point is not so much the available facts as ideal ideas.

This terminology, borrowed from philosophy, sometimes introduces work of art non-aesthetic moments: realism is completely wrongly accused of lacking moral idealism. In common usage, the term “realism” means the exact copying of details, mainly external ones. The inconsistency of this point of view, the natural conclusion from which is that the registration of realities - the novel and photography are preferable to the artist's painting - is quite obvious; a sufficient refutation of it is our aesthetic sense, which does not hesitate for a minute between a wax figure reproducing the finest shades of living colors and a deathly white marble statue. It would be pointless and aimless to create another world, completely identical with the existing one.

Copying features of the external world in itself has never seemed to be the goal of art. Whenever possible, a faithful reproduction of reality is complemented by the creative originality of the artist. In theory, realism is opposed to idealism, but in practice it is opposed by routine, tradition, the academic canon, mandatory imitation of the classics - in other words, the death of independent creativity. Art begins with the actual reproduction of nature; but when popular patterns are known artistic thinking, imitative creativity occurs, work according to a template.

These are the usual features of an established school, whatever it may be. Almost every school makes claims to a new word precisely in the field of truthful reproduction of life - and each in its own right, and each is denied and replaced by the next in the name of the same principle of truth. This is especially evident in the history of the development of French literature, which reflects a number of achievements of true realism. The desire for artistic truth underlay the same movements that, petrified in tradition and canon, later became symbols of unreal art.

This is not only romanticism, which was so ardently attacked in the name of truth by the doctrinaires of modern naturalism; so is classical drama. It is enough to recall that the famous three unities were not adopted out of slavish imitation of Aristotle, but only because they made it possible for stage illusion. As Lanson wrote, “The establishment of unities was the triumph of Realism. These rules, which became the cause of so many inconsistencies during the decline of the classical theater, were initially a necessary condition for stage verisimilitude. Aristotelian rules, medieval rationalism found a way to remove from the scene the last remnants of naive medieval fantasy.”

Deep inner realism classical tragedy of the French degenerated in the reasoning of theorists and in the works of imitators into dead schemes, the oppression of which was cast off by literature only in early XIX century. There is a point of view that every truly progressive movement in the field of art is a movement towards realism. In this regard, those new trends that appear to be a reaction to realism are no exception. In fact, they represent only a opposition to routine, artistic dogma - a reaction against realism by name, which has ceased to be a search and artistic recreation life truth. When lyrical symbolism tries to convey to the reader the mood of the poet by new means, when neo-idealists, resurrecting old conventional techniques artistic image, they draw stylized images, that is, as if deliberately deviating from reality, they strive for the same thing that is the goal of any - even arch-naturalistic - art: the creative reproduction of life. There is no truly artistic work - from a symphony to an arabesque, from the Iliad to a Whisper, a Timid Breath - which, upon a deeper look at it, would not turn out to be a truthful image of the creator’s soul, “a corner of life through the prism of temperament.”

It is therefore hardly possible to talk about the history of realism: it coincides with the history of art. One can only characterize certain moments in the historical life of art when they especially insisted on a truthful depiction of life, seeing it mainly in emancipation from school conventions, in the ability to realize and courage to depict details that went unnoticed by the artists of earlier days or frightened them by inconsistency with dogmas. This was romanticism, this is the final form of realism - naturalism.

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

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

European and American realist writers

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

Russian realist writers

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

History of realism

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

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

Notes

Kuleshov V. I. “History of Russian criticism of the 18th-19th centuries”

Realism (literature) Information About

2) Sentimentalism
Sentimentalism is a literary movement that recognized feeling as the main criterion of human personality. Sentimentalism arose in Europe and Russia approximately simultaneously, in the second half of the 18th century, as a counterweight to the rigid classical theory that was dominant at that time.
Sentimentalism was closely associated with the ideas of the Enlightenment. He gave priority to manifestations spiritual qualities man, psychological analysis, sought to awaken in the hearts of readers an understanding of human nature and love for it, along with a humane attitude towards all the weak, suffering and persecuted. The feelings and experiences of a person are worthy of attention regardless of his class affiliation - the idea of universal equality of people.
The main genres of sentimentalism:
story
elegy
novel
letters
trips
memoirs
England can be considered the birthplace of sentimentalism. Poets J. Thomson, T. Gray, E. Jung tried to awaken in readers a love for the surrounding nature, depicting simple and peaceful rural landscapes in their works, sympathy for the needs of poor people. A prominent representative of English sentimentalism was S. Richardson. He put psychological analysis in the first place and attracted the attention of readers to the fate of his heroes. Writer Laurence Sterne preached humanism as highest value person.
In French literature sentimentalism is represented by the novels of Abbé Prevost, P. C. de Chamblen de Marivaux, J.-J. Rousseau, A. B. de Saint-Pierre.
In German literature - the works of F. G. Klopstock, F. M. Klinger, I. V. Goethe, I. F. Schiller, S. Laroche.
Sentimentalism came to Russian literature with translations of the works of Western European sentimentalists. The first sentimental works of Russian literature can be called “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by A.N. Radishchev, “Letters of a Russian Traveler” and “ Poor Lisa» N.I. Karamzin.

3)Romanticism
Romanticism originated in Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. as a counterbalance to the previously dominant classicism with its pragmatism and adherence to established laws. Romanticism, in contrast to classicism, promoted deviations from the rules. The prerequisites for romanticism lie in the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794, which overthrew the power of the bourgeoisie, and with it, bourgeois laws and ideals.
Romanticism, like sentimentalism, paid great attention to a person’s personality, his feelings and experiences. Main conflict Romanticism was about the confrontation between the individual and society. Against the backdrop of scientific and technological progress and an increasingly complex social and political system, there was a spiritual devastation of the individual. Romantics sought to attract the attention of readers to this circumstance, to provoke a protest in society against lack of spirituality and selfishness.
The Romantics became disillusioned with the world around them, and this disappointment is clearly visible in their works. Some of them, such as F. R. Chateaubriand and V. A. Zhukovsky, believed that a person cannot resist mysterious forces, must submit to them and not try to change his destiny. Other romantics, such as J. Byron, P. B. Shelley, S. Petofi, A. Mickiewicz, and the early A. S. Pushkin, believed that it was necessary to fight the so-called “world evil” and contrasted it with the strength of the human spirit.
The inner world of the romantic hero was full of experiences and passions; throughout the entire work, the author forced him to struggle with the world around him, duty and conscience. Romantics depicted feelings in their extreme manifestations: high and passionate love, cruel betrayal, despicable envy, base ambition. But the romantics were interested not only in the inner world of man, but also in the mysteries of existence, the essence of all living things, perhaps that is why there is so much mystical and mysterious in their works.
In German literature, romanticism was most clearly expressed in the works of Novalis, W. Tieck, F. Hölderlin, G. Kleist, E. T. A. Hoffmann. English romanticism is represented by the works of W. Wordsworth, S. T. Coleridge, R. Southey, W. Scott, J. Keats, J. G. Byron, P. B. Shelley. In France, romanticism appeared only in the early 1820s. The main representatives were F. R. Chateaubriand, J. Stael, E. P. Senancourt, P. Mérimée, V. Hugo, J. Sand, A. Vigny, A. Dumas (father).
The development of Russian romanticism was greatly influenced by the Great French revolution And Patriotic War 1812 Romanticism in Russia is usually divided into two periods - before and after the Decembrist uprising in 1825. Representatives of the first period (V.A. Zhukovsky, K.N. Batyushkov, A.S. Pushkin during the period of southern exile) believed in victory spiritual freedom over everyday life, but after the defeat of the Decembrists, executions and exiles romantic hero turns into a person rejected and misunderstood by society, and the conflict between the individual and society becomes insoluble. Prominent representatives of the second period were M. Yu. Lermontov, E. A. Baratynsky, D. V. Venevitinov, A. S. Khomyakov, F. I. Tyutchev.
Main genres of romanticism:
Elegy
Idyll
Ballad
Novella
Novel
Fantastic story
Aesthetic and theoretical canons of romanticism
The idea of two worlds is a struggle between objective reality and subjective worldview. In realism this concept is absent. The idea of dual worlds has two modifications:
escape into the world of fantasy;
travel, road concept.
Hero Concept:
the romantic hero is always an exceptional person;
the hero is always in conflict with the surrounding reality;
the hero's dissatisfaction, which manifests itself in the lyrical tone;
aesthetic determination towards an unattainable ideal.
Psychological parallelism is the identity of the hero’s internal state with the surrounding nature.
Speech style of a romantic work:
extreme expression;
the principle of contrast at the composition level;
abundance of symbols.
Aesthetic categories of romanticism:
rejection of bourgeois reality, its ideology and pragmatism; the romantics denied a value system that was based on stability, hierarchy, a strict value system (home, comfort, Christian morality);
cultivating individuality and artistic worldview; The reality rejected by romanticism was subordinated to subjective worlds based on the creative imagination of the artist.

4) Realism
Realism is a literary movement that objectively reflects the surrounding reality using the artistic means available to it. The main technique of realism is the typification of facts of reality, images and characters. Realist writers place their heroes in certain conditions and show how these conditions influenced the personality.
While romantic writers were concerned about the discrepancy between the world around them and their inner worldview, the realist writer was interested in how the world around him influenced the individual. The actions of the heroes of realistic works are determined by life circumstances, in other words, if a person lived in a different time, in a different place, in a different socio-cultural environment, then he himself would be different.
The foundations of realism were laid by Aristotle in the 4th century. BC e. Instead of the concept of “realism”, he used the concept of “imitation”, which is close in meaning to him. Realism was then revived during the Renaissance and the Age of Enlightenment. In the 40s 19th century in Europe, Russia and America, realism replaced romanticism.
Depending on the meaningful motives recreated in the work, there are:
critical (social) realism;
realism of characters;
psychological realism;
grotesque realism.
Critical realism focused on the real circumstances that influence a person. Examples of critical realism are the works of Stendhal, O. Balzac, C. Dickens, W. Thackeray, A. S. Pushkin, N. V. Gogol, I. S. Turgenev, F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, A. . P. Chekhov.
Characteristic realism, on the contrary, showed a strong personality who can fight against circumstances. Psychological realism paid more attention to the inner world and the psychology of heroes. The main representatives of these varieties of realism are F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy.

In grotesque realism, deviations from reality are allowed; in some works, deviations border on fantasy, and the greater the grotesque, the more strongly the author criticizes reality. Grotesque realism was developed in the works of Aristophanes, F. Rabelais, J. Swift, E. Hoffmann, in the satirical stories of N.V. Gogol, the works of M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, M.A. Bulgakov.

5) Modernism
Modernism is a set of artistic movements that promoted freedom of expression. Modernism originated in Western Europe in the second half of the 19th century. as a new form of creativity, opposed to traditional art. Modernism manifested itself in all types of art - painting, architecture, literature.
Home distinctive feature modernism is its ability to change the world around it. The author does not seek to realistically or allegorically depict reality, as was the case in realism, or the inner world of the hero, as was the case in sentimentalism and romanticism, but depicts his own inner world and his own attitude to the surrounding reality, expresses personal impressions and even fantasies.
Features of modernism:
denial of the classical artistic heritage;
a declared discrepancy with the theory and practice of realism;
focus on the individual, not the social person;
increased attention to the spiritual rather than the social sphere of human life;
focus on form at the expense of content.
The largest movements of modernism were impressionism, symbolism and art nouveau. Impressionism sought to capture a moment as the author saw or felt it. In this author’s perception, the past, present and future can be intertwined; what is important is the impression that an object or phenomenon has on the author, and not this object itself.
Symbolists tried to find a secret meaning in everything that happened, endowing familiar images and words with mystical meaning. The Art Nouveau style promoted the rejection of regular geometric shapes and straight lines in favor of smooth and curved lines. Art Nouveau manifested itself especially clearly in architecture and applied arts.
In the 80s 19th century a new trend of modernism - decadence - was born. In the art of decadence, a person is placed in unbearable circumstances, he is broken, doomed, and has lost his taste for life.
The main features of decadence:
cynicism (nihilistic attitude towards universal human values);
eroticism;
tonatos (according to Z. Freud - the desire for death, decline, decomposition of personality).
In literature, modernism is represented by the following movements:
Acmeism;
symbolism;
futurism;
imagism.
The most prominent representatives of modernism in literature are the French poets C. Baudelaire, P. Verlaine, Russian poets N. Gumilyov, A. A. Blok, V. V. Mayakovsky, A. Akhmatova, I. Severyanin, English writer O. Wilde, American writer E. Poe, Scandinavian playwright G. Ibsen.

6) Naturalism
Naturalism is the name of a movement in European literature and art that emerged in the 70s. XIX century and especially widely developed in the 80-90s, when naturalism became the most influential movement. The theoretical basis for the new trend was given by Emile Zola in his book “The Experimental Novel.”
End of the 19th century (especially the 80s) marks the flourishing and strengthening of industrial capital, developing into financial capital. This corresponds, on the one hand, to a high level of technology and increased exploitation, and, on the other, to the growth of self-awareness and class struggle of the proletariat. The bourgeoisie is turning into a reactionary class, fighting a new revolutionary force - the proletariat. The petty bourgeoisie fluctuates between these main classes, and these fluctuations are reflected in the positions of the petty bourgeois writers who adhere to naturalism.
The main requirements made by naturalists for literature: scientific, objective, apolitical in the name of “universal truth.” Literature should be at the level modern science, must be imbued with scientific character. It is clear that naturalists base their works only on science that does not deny the existing social system. Naturalists make the basis of their theory mechanistic natural-scientific materialism of the type of E. Haeckel, G. Spencer and C. Lombroso, adapting the doctrine of heredity to the interests of the ruling class (heredity is declared the cause of social stratification, giving advantages to some over others), the philosophy of positivism of Auguste Comte and petty-bourgeois utopians (Saint-Simon).
By objectively and scientifically demonstrating the shortcomings of modern reality, French naturalists hope to influence the minds of people and thereby bring about a series of reforms in order to save the existing system from the impending revolution.
The theorist and leader of French naturalism, E. Zola included G. Flaubert, the Goncourt brothers, A. Daudet and a number of other lesser-known writers in the natural school. Zola considered the French realists: O. Balzac and Stendhal to be the immediate predecessors of naturalism. But in fact, none of these writers, not excluding Zola himself, was a naturalist in the sense in which Zola the theorist understood this direction. Naturalism, as the style of the leading class, was temporarily embraced by writers very heterogeneous both in artistic method and in belonging to various class groupings. It is characteristic that the unifying point was not the artistic method, but rather the reformist tendencies of naturalism.
Followers of naturalism are characterized by only partial recognition of the set of demands put forward by the theorists of naturalism. Following one of the principles of this style, they start from others, differing sharply from each other, representing both different social trends and different artistic methods. A number of followers of naturalism accepted its reformist essence, without hesitation discarding even such a typical requirement for naturalism as the requirement of objectivity and accuracy. This is what the German “early naturalists” did (M. Kretzer, B. Bille, W. Belsche and others).
Under the sign of decay and rapprochement with impressionism, naturalism began to develop further. Arose in Germany somewhat later than in France, German naturalism was a predominantly petty-bourgeois style. Here, the decomposition of the patriarchal petty bourgeoisie and the intensification of capitalization processes are creating more and more new cadres of the intelligentsia, which do not always find application for themselves. Disillusionment with the power of science is becoming more and more widespread among them. Hopes for resolving social contradictions within the framework of the capitalist system are gradually being crushed.
German naturalism, as well as naturalism in Scandinavian literature, represents entirely a transitional stage from naturalism to impressionism. Thus, the famous German historian Lamprecht, in his “History of the German People,” proposed calling this style “physiological impressionism.” This term is subsequently used by a number of historians of German literature. Indeed, all that remains of the naturalistic style known in France is a reverence for physiology. Many German nature writers do not even try to hide their bias. At its center there is usually some problem, social or physiological, around which the facts that illustrate it are grouped (alcoholism in Hauptmann’s “Before Sunrise”, heredity in Ibsen’s “Ghosts”).
The founders of German naturalism were A. Goltz and F. Schlyaf. Their basic principles are set out in Goltz’s brochure “Art,” where Goltz states that “art tends to become nature again, and it becomes it in accordance with the existing conditions of reproduction and practical application.” The complexity of the plot is also denied. The place of the eventful novel of the French (Zola) is taken by a short story or short story, extremely poor in plot. The main place here is given to the painstaking transmission of moods, visual and auditory sensations. The novel is also being replaced by drama and poetry, which French naturalists viewed extremely negatively as a “kind of entertaining art.” Special attention is given to drama (G. Ibsen, G. Hauptmann, A. Goltz, F. Shlyaf, G. Suderman), in which intensively developed action is also denied, only the catastrophe and recording of the experiences of the heroes are given ("Nora", "Ghosts", "Before Sunrise", "Master Elze" and others). Subsequently, naturalistic drama is reborn into impressionistic, symbolic drama.
In Russia, naturalism did not receive any development. The early works of F. I. Panferov and M. A. Sholokhov were called naturalistic.

7) Natural school
Under natural school literary criticism understands the direction that arose in Russian literature in the 40s. 19th century This was an era of increasingly aggravated contradictions between the serfdom and the growth of capitalist elements. The followers of the natural school tried to reflect the contradictions and moods of that time in their works. The term “natural school” itself appeared in criticism thanks to F. Bulgarin.
The natural school in the expanded application of the term, as it was used in the 40s, does not denote a single direction, but is a largely conditional concept. The natural school included writers as diverse in their class basis and artistic appearance as I. S. Turgenev and F. M. Dostoevsky, D. V. Grigorovich and I. A. Goncharov, N. A. Nekrasov and I. I. Panaev.
The most general features on the basis of which the writer was considered to belong to the natural school were the following: socially significant themes, covering a wider range than even the circle of social observations (often in the “low” strata of society), a critical attitude towards social reality, artistic realism expressions that fought against the embellishment of reality, aesthetics, and romantic rhetoric.
V. G. Belinsky highlighted the realism of the natural school, asserting the most important feature of the “truth” and not the “false” of the image. The natural school does not appeal to ideal, fictitious heroes, but to the “crowd,” to the “mass,” to ordinary people and, most often, to people of “low rank.” Common in the 40s. all sorts of “physiological” essays satisfied this need to reflect a different, non-noble life, even if only in a reflection of the external, everyday, superficial.
N. G. Chernyshevsky especially sharply emphasizes as the most essential and main feature of the “literature of the Gogol period” its critical, “negative” attitude to reality - “literature of the Gogol period” is here another name for the same natural school: specifically to N. V. Gogol - auto RU " Dead souls", "The Inspector General", "Overcoat" - V. G. Belinsky and a number of other critics erected the natural school as the founder. Indeed, many writers classified as a natural school experienced the powerful influence of various aspects of N. V. Gogol's work. In addition Gogol, the writers of the natural school were influenced by such representatives of Western European petty-bourgeois and bourgeois literature as Charles Dickens, O. Balzac, George Sand.
One of the trends of the natural school, represented by the liberal, capitalizing nobility and the social strata adjacent to it, was distinguished by the superficial and cautious nature of its criticism of reality: this was either harmless irony in relation to certain aspects of noble reality or a noble-limited protest against serfdom. The range of social observations of this group was limited to the manor’s estate. Representatives of this trend of the natural school: I. S. Turgenev, D. V. Grigorovich, I. I. Panaev.
Another current of the natural school relied primarily on the urban philistinism of the 40s, which was disadvantaged, on the one hand, by the still tenacious serfdom, and on the other, by growing industrial capitalism. A certain role here belonged to F. M. Dostoevsky, the author of a number of psychological novels and stories ("Poor People", "The Double" and others).
The third movement in the natural school, represented by the so-called “raznochintsy”, ideologists of revolutionary peasant democracy, gives in its work the clearest expression of the tendencies that were associated by contemporaries (V.G. Belinsky) with the name of the natural school and opposed the noble aesthetics. These tendencies manifested themselves most fully and sharply in N. A. Nekrasov. A. I. Herzen (“Who is to blame?”), M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin (“A Confused Case”) should also be included in this group.

8) Constructivism
Constructivism is an artistic movement that originated in Western Europe after the First World War. The origins of constructivism lie in the thesis of the German architect G. Semper, who argued that the aesthetic value of any work of art is determined by the correspondence of its three elements: the work, the material from which it is made, and the technical processing of this material.
This thesis, which was subsequently adopted by functionalists and functionalist constructivists (L. Wright in America, J. J. P. Oud in Holland, W. Gropius in Germany), brings to the fore the material-technical and material-utilitarian side of art and, in essence, the ideological side of it is emasculated.
In the West, constructivist tendencies during the First World War and in the post-war period were expressed in various directions, more or less “orthodox” interpreting the main thesis of constructivism. Thus, in France and Holland, constructivism was expressed in “purism”, in “machine aesthetics”, in “neoplasticism” (iso-art), and in the aestheticizing formalism of Corbusier (in architecture). In Germany - in the naked cult of the thing (pseudo-constructivism), the one-sided rationalism of the Gropius school (architecture), abstract formalism (in non-objective cinema).
In Russia, a group of constructivists appeared in 1922. It included A. N. Chicherin, K. L. Zelinsky, I. L. Selvinsky. Constructivism was initially a narrowly formal movement, highlighting the understanding of a literary work as a construction. Subsequently, the constructivists freed themselves from this narrow aesthetic and formal bias and put forward much broader justifications for their creative platform.
A. N. Chicherin moved away from constructivism, a number of authors grouped around I. L. Selvinsky and K. L. Zelinsky (V. Inber, B. Agapov, A. Gabrilovich, N. Panov), and in 1924 a literary center was organized Constructivists (LCC). In its declaration, the LCC primarily proceeds from the statement of the need for art to participate as closely as possible in the “organizational onslaught of the working class,” in the construction of socialist culture. This is where constructivism aims to saturate art (in particular, poetry) with modern themes.
The main theme, which has always attracted the attention of constructivists, can be described as follows: “Intelligentsia in revolution and construction.” Dwelling with special attention on the image of the intellectual in the civil war (I. L. Selvinsky, “Commander 2”) and in construction (I. L. Selvinsky “Pushtorg”), constructivists first of all put forward in a painfully exaggerated form its specific weight and significance under construction. This is especially clear in Pushtorg, where the exceptional specialist Poluyarov is contrasted with the mediocre communist Krol, who prevents him from working and drives him to suicide. Here the pathos of the work technique as such obscures the main social conflicts modern reality.
This exaggeration of the role of the intelligentsia finds its theoretical development in the article of the main theorist of constructivism Cornelius Zelinsky “Constructivism and Socialism”, where he considers constructivism as a holistic worldview of the era transition to socialism, as a condensed expression in the literature of the period being experienced. At the same time, Zelinsky again replaces the main social contradictions of this period with the struggle between man and nature, with the pathos of naked technology, interpreted outside of social conditions, outside of the class struggle. These erroneous positions of Zelinsky, which caused a sharp rebuff from Marxist criticism, were far from accidental and with great clarity revealed the social nature of constructivism, which is easy to outline in the creative practice of the entire group.
The social source feeding constructivism is, undoubtedly, that layer of the urban petty bourgeoisie, which can be designated as a technically qualified intelligentsia. It is no coincidence that in the work of Selvinsky (who is the most prominent poet of constructivism) of the first period, the image of a strong individuality, a powerful builder and conqueror of life, individualistic in its very essence, characteristic of the Russian bourgeois pre-war style, is undoubtedly revealed.
In 1930, the LCC disintegrated, and in its place the “Literary Brigade M. 1” was formed, declaring itself a transitional organization to RAPP (Russian Association of Proletarian Writers), aiming at the gradual transition of fellow travelers to the rails of communist ideology, to the style of proletarian literature and condemning the previous mistakes of constructivism, although preserving its creative method.
However, the contradictory and zigzag nature of constructivism’s progress towards the working class makes itself felt here too. This is evidenced by Selvinsky’s poem “Declaration of the Poet’s Rights.” This is confirmed by the fact that the M. 1 brigade, having existed for less than a year, also disbanded in December 1930, admitting that it had not resolved the tasks set for itself.

9)Postmodernism
Postmodernism translated from German language literally means "that which follows modernism". This literary movement appeared in the second half of the 20th century. It reflects the complexity of the surrounding reality, its dependence on the culture of previous centuries and the information saturation of our time.
Postmodernists were not happy that literature was divided into elite and mass literature. Postmodernism opposed all modernity in literature and denied mass culture. The first works of postmodernists appeared in the form of detective, thriller, and fantasy, behind which serious content was hidden.
Postmodernists believed that high art had ended. To move forward, you need to learn how to properly use the lower genres of pop culture: thriller, western, fantasy, science fiction, erotica. Postmodernism finds in these genres the source of a new mythology. Works become aimed at both the elite reader and the undemanding public.
Signs of postmodernism:
using previous texts as potential for one's own works ( a large number of quotes, you cannot understand a work if you do not know the literature of previous eras);
rethinking elements of the culture of the past;
multi-level text organization;
special organization of text (game element).
Postmodernism questioned the existence of meaning as such. On the other hand, the meaning of postmodern works is determined by its inherent pathos - criticism popular culture. Postmodernism tries to erase the boundary between art and life. Everything that exists and has ever existed is text. Postmodernists said that everything had already been written before them, that nothing new could be invented and they could only play with words, take ready-made (already once thought up or written by someone) ideas, phrases, texts and assemble works from them. This makes no sense, because the author himself is not in the work.
Literary works are like a collage, composed of disparate images and united into a whole by the uniformity of technique. This technique is called pastiche. This Italian word translates as medley opera, and in literature it refers to the juxtaposition of several styles in one work. At the first stages of postmodernism, pastiche is a specific form of parody or self-parody, but then it is a way of adapting to reality, a way of showing the illusory nature of mass culture.
Associated with postmodernism is the concept of intertextuality. This term was introduced by Y. Kristeva in 1967. She believed that history and society can be considered as a text, then culture is a single intertext that serves as an avant-text (all texts that precede this one) for any newly appearing text, while individuality is lost here text that dissolves in quotes. Modernism is characterized by quotational thinking.
Intertextuality– the presence of two or more texts in the text.
Paratext– the relationship of the text to the title, epigraph, afterword, preface.
Metatextuality– these can be comments or a link to the pretext.
Hypertextuality– ridicule or parody of one text by another.
Archtextuality– genre connection of texts.
Man in postmodernism is depicted in a state of complete destruction (in this case, destruction can be understood as a violation of consciousness). There is no character development in the work; the image of the hero appears in a blurred form. This technique is called defocalization. It has two goals:
avoid excessive heroic pathos;
to take the hero into the shadow: the hero does not come to the fore, he is not needed at all in the work.
Prominent representatives of postmodernism in literature are J. Fowles, J. Barth, A. Robbe-Grillet, F. Sollers, H. Cortazar, M. Pavich, J. Joyce and others.