LITERATURE OF THE XIX CENTURY
ROMANTICISM
Romanticism in its most general form is regarded as one of the largest trends in the literature of the late 18th - first half of the 19th century. with its inherent artistic method and style, and sometimes as the first phase of modernism (with an expanded understanding of modernism).
Genesis of the term "romanticism".French literary critic F. Baldansperger discovered the word "romantic" in a source from 1650 (this is the oldest source found). The meaning of the word in the 17th century. - "imaginary", "fantastic". It goes back to the medieval use of the words "romance" (a lyrical and heroic Spanish song) and "romance" (an epic poem about knights), initially denoting works in one of the Romance languages, and not in Latin, and then received a more generalized meaning - "narration with fiction. " In the XVIII century. "Romantic" means anything unusual, mysterious, or connected with medieval antiquity. Here is a typical use of this word by Rousseau in "Walks of a Lonely Dreamer" (1777-1778, published 1782): "The shores of the lake in Biel are wilder and more romantic than the shores of Lake Geneva: in Biel, forests and rocks come very close to the water." ... At the end of the 18th century. German romantics, the Schlegel brothers, put forward an opposition between the concepts "romantic" and "classical", it was picked up and made famous throughout Europe by Germain de Stael in his treatise "On Germany" (1810, published in London in 1813). This is how the concept of "romanticism" is formed as a term in the theory of art.
Romanticism as a literary movement. Romanticism seems to be one of the most significant trends in world culture, which developed especially intensively at the end of the 18th - first half of the 19th centuries. in Europe and North America.
tages of development of romanticism. Romanticism as a trend emerges at the end of the 18th century. in several countries at once. Almost simultaneously came out with aesthetic manifestos, treatises that marked the birth of romanticism, Jena romantics in Germany, Chateaubriand and de Stael in France, representatives of the School of Lakes in England.
In its most general form, we can talk about three stages in the development of romanticism in world culture, correlating early romanticism with the late 18th - early 19th centuries, developed forms of romanticism - from ~ 20s - 40s of the 19th century, late romanticism - with the period after the European revolutions of 1848, the defeat of which destroyed many of the utopian illusions that were the breeding ground for romanticism. But in relation to various national manifestations of romanticism, as well as to different genres, genres, types of arts, this schematic periodization is not very suitable.
In Germany, already at the first stage of the development of romanticism, in the work of Jena romantics (Novalis, Wackenroder, the Schlegely brothers, Tieck), the maturity of thought manifested itself, a fairly complete system of romantic genres was formed that embraced prose, poetry, and drama. The second stage, associated with the activities of gay Delberg romantics, comes very quickly, which is explained by the awakening of national identity during the Napoleonic occupation of Germany. It was at this time that the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the collection of Arnim and Brentano "The Boy's Magic Horn" were published - vivid evidence of the appeal of romantics to the folklore of their native land. In the 20s of the XIX century. with the death of Hoffmann and the transition of the young Heine to realism, German romanticism loses its conquered positions.
In England, romanticism, prepared by the achievements of pre-Romanism, also develops rapidly, especially in poetry. Following Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey, Scott, the great English poets Byron and Shelley entered literature. The creation by Walter Scott of the genre of the historical novel was of great importance. With the death of Shelley (1822), Byron (1824), Scott (1832), English romanticism fades into the background. Scott's work testifies to the special closeness of romanticism and realism in English literature. This specific feature is characteristic of the work of the English realists, especially Dickens, whose literary novels retained significant elements of romantic poetics.
In France, where Germaine de Stael, Chateaubriand, Senancourt, Constant stood at the origins of romanticism, a fairly complete system of romantic genres took shape only by the beginning of the 1830s, that is, by the time romanticism had basically exhausted itself in Germany and England ... The struggle for a new drama was of particular importance for the French romantics, since the classicists occupied the most solid positions in the theater. Hugo became the biggest drama reformer. Beginning in the 1820s, he also spearheaded the reform of poetry and prose. Georges Sand and Musset, Vigny and Sainte-Beuve, Lamartine and Dumas contributed to the development of the romantic direction.
In Poland, the first disputes about romanticism date back to the 1810s, but romanticism as a trend was established in the 1820s with the arrival of Adam Mickiewicz in literature and retains a leading position.
A wide study of the creativity of romantics in the USA (Irving, Cooper, Poe, Melville), Italy (Leopardi, Manzoni, Fosco-lo), Spain (Larra, Espronsseda, Sorrilla), Denmark (Elenschleger), Austria (Lenau), Hungary (Vörösmarty Petofi) and a number of other countries, undertaken recently, the use of material from the literary history of Russian romanticism allowed researchers to come to the conclusion about the heterogeneity of the development of this direction, the difference in its national manifestations depending on the prerequisites for its emergence, the degree of literary development of different countries, and also to expand chronological framework of romanticism.
Romanticism as a literary movement.In a number of countries, at a certain stage of development, romanticism has not yet been separated from other directions. With a historical-theoretical approach, it becomes necessary to designate such a literary situation with a special term. The concept of "literary movement" is being used more and more widely. Such a movement arises when it is necessary to change the dominant direction, sometimes very heterogeneous elements unite in the movement, the basis for unification is a single desire to overcome a common enemy. The specificity of the romantic movement was expressed very clearly in France, where the positions of classicism were especially strong. Here, in the 1820s, writers of different aesthetic orientations found themselves in a single romantic movement: romantic (Hugo, Vigny, Lamartine), realistic (Stendhal, Mérimée), pre-romantic (Pique-Serecourt, Janin, young Balzac), etc.
Romanticism as an art style. Romantics developed a distinctive style, based on the contrast and "characterized by heightened emotionality to wake up, grab the readers' feelings, they are widely used as a means of literature and other arts facilities to the field of literature are as follows:.. The connection of different genres in one product; n eobychnye, exceptional heroes, endowed with a rich spiritual, emotional life; dynamic plots up to detective and adventurous; fragmentary composition (lack of prehistory, highlighting only the most striking, culminating events from the sequential stream of events) or retrospective (as in a detective story: first an event, then a gradual disclosure of its causes), or playful (combining two plots, as in Hoffmann's "Everyday views of Murr the cat" , etc.); features of the artistic language (saturation with bright, emotional epithets, metaphors, comparisons, exclamation intonation, etc.); romantic symbolism (images hinting at the existence of another, ideal world, as a symbol of the blue flower in "Heinrich von Ofterdingen" by Novalis). Romantic writers borrow funds from other types of art: from music - the musicality of images, composition, rhythm, means for transmitting mood; in painting - picturesqueness (attention to color, play of light and shadow, simultaneous, i.e. simultaneous, contrast, brightness and symbolism of details); at the theater - the nakedness of the conflict, theatricality, melodrama; the opera has monumentality and enchantingness; ballet has artificiality, the significance of posture and gesture. In the romantic style, the role of folklore is great, providing examples of national mythologism not oriented towards antiquity. Romantics have developed an idea of the local and historical flavor, which gravitates towards exoticism - emphasizing everything unusual, not typical of the modern way of life. Within the framework of the general romantic style, national, regional, individual styles developed. in painting - picturesqueness (attention to color, play of light and shadow, simultaneous, i.e. simultaneous, contrast, brightness and symbolism of details); at the theater - the nakedness of the conflict, theatricality, melodrama; the opera has monumentality and enchantingness; ballet has artificiality, the significance of posture and gesture. In the romantic style, the role of folklore is great, providing examples of national mythologism not oriented towards antiquity. Romantics have developed an idea of the local and historical flavor, which gravitates towards exoticism - emphasizing everything unusual, not typical of the modern way of life. Within the framework of the general romantic style, national, regional, individual styles developed. in painting - picturesqueness (attention to color, play of light and shadow, simultaneous, i.e. simultaneous, contrast, brightness and symbolism of details); at the theater - the nakedness of the conflict, theatricality, melodrama; the opera has monumentality and enchantingness; ballet has artificiality, the significance of posture and gesture. In the romantic style, the role of folklore is great, providing examples of national mythologism not oriented towards antiquity. Romantics have developed an idea of the local and historical flavor, which gravitates towards exoticism - emphasizing everything unusual, not typical of the modern way of life. Within the framework of the general romantic style, national, regional, individual styles developed. at the theater - the nakedness of the conflict, theatricality, melodrama; the opera has monumentality and enchantingness; ballet has artificiality, the significance of posture and gesture. In the romantic style, the role of folklore is great, providing examples of national mythologism not oriented towards antiquity. Romantics have developed an idea of the local and historical flavor, which gravitates towards exoticism - emphasizing everything unusual, not typical of the modern way of life. Within the framework of the general romantic style, national, regional, individual styles developed. at the theater - the nakedness of the conflict, theatricality, melodrama; the opera has monumentality and enchantingness; ballet has artificiality, the significance of posture and gesture. In the romantic style, the role of folklore is great, providing examples of national mythologism not oriented towards antiquity. Romantics have developed an idea of the local and historical flavor, which gravitates towards exoticism - emphasizing everything unusual, not typical of the modern way of life. Within the framework of the general romantic style, national, regional, individual styles developed. Romantics have developed an idea of the local and historical flavor, which gravitates towards exoticism - emphasizing everything unusual, not typical of the modern way of life. Within the framework of the general romantic style, national, regional, individual styles developed. Romantics have developed an idea of the local and historical flavor, which gravitates towards exoticism - emphasizing everything unusual, not typical of the modern way of life. Within the framework of the general romantic style, national, regional, individual styles developed.
ENGLISH ROMANCE
The aesthetic prerequisite for English romanticism was a disillusionment with classicism and enlightenment realism as artistic systems based on enlightenment philosophy. They did not fully reveal the inner world of man, the laws of human history, which were comprehended in a new way in the light of the French Revolution. The foundations of romanticism in England were laid by William Blake (1757-1827), but romanticism received recognition later.
The first stage of English romanticism. "Lake School". The first stage of English romanticism (1793-1812) is associated with the activities of the "Lake School". It included William Wordsworth (1770-1850), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), Robert Southey (1774-1843). They lived in the edge of lakes, so they began to be called leikists (from the English lake -Lake). All three poets supported the French Revolution in their youth. But already in 1794 they were deviating from these positions. In 1796 Wordsworth and Coleridge meet for the first time. They are united by disillusionment with the revolution, they are afraid of the bourgeois world. The poets compose the collection Lyric Ballads (1798). The success of this collection laid the foundation for English romanticism as a literary movement. Wordsworth's preface to the second edition of Lyric Ballads (1800) became the manifesto of English romanticism. Wordsworth formulates the tasks of the authors: “So, the main task of these Poems was to select cases and situations from everyday life and retell or describe them, constantly using, as far as possible, everyday language, and at the same time, blossom them with the colors of the imagination , thanks to which ordinary things would appear in an unusual form;
Wordsworth contributes greatly to English poetry by breaking with the conventions of eighteenth-century poetic language. The coup made by Wordsworth and Coleridge, A.S. Pushkin described as follows: “In mature literature there comes a time when minds, bored with monotonous works of art, a limited circle of the agreed, chosen language, turn to fresh folk fictions and to strange vernacular, at first contemptible. .. so now Wordsworth and Coleridge have carried away the opinion of many "(" On the Poetic Syllable ", 1828).
Wordsworth seeks to penetrate the psychology of the peasant. Peasant children retain a special naturalness of feelings, the poet believes.
His ballad "We Are Seven" tells the story of an eight-year-old girl. She is naively sure that there are seven children in their family, not realizing that two of them have died. The poet sees mystical depth in her answers. The girl intuitively guesses about the immortality of the soul.
But the city, civilization deprives children of their natural attachments. In the ballad "Poor Susanna", the singing of a thrush reminded young Susanna of "a native land - a blooming paradise on the slope of the mountains." But "the vision soon disappears." What's in store for a girl in town? - "A bag with a stick, and a copper cross, // Yes begging, yes hunger strikes, // Yes, an angry shout:" Get out, thief ... "
Coleridge takes a slightly different path in Lyric Ballads. If Wordsworth wrote about the unusualness of the ordinary, then Coleridge wrote about exceptional romantic events. Coleridge's most famous work was the ballad "The Tale of the Old Navigator." An old sailor stops a young man hurrying to the feast and tells him his extraordinary story. During one of the voyages, a sailor killed an albatross - a bird that brings good luck to ships. And trouble came to his ship: the water ran out, all the sailors died, and the sailor was left alone among the corpses. Then he realized that the cause of the misfortune was his evil deed, and lifted up a prayer of repentance to heaven. Immediately the wind blew, the ship landed on the ground. Not only the life, but also the soul of the sailor was saved.
The hero of Coleridge, at first devoid of a spiritual principle, in his suffering gains his sight. He learns about the existence of another, higher world. An awakened conscience reveals moral values to him. This romantic ideal is tinged with mysticism.
Robert Southey stands somewhat apart from Wordsworth and Coleridge. Initially, he was captured by the ideas of the Great French Revolution, which was reflected in his tragedy "Wat Tyler" (1794, publ. 1817) about the leader of the medieval uprising in England. But later he moved away from revolutionism, became an apologist for the government's nationalist doctrine (the book "The Life of Nelson", 1813), for which he was treated kindly by the authorities. In 1813 Southey received the title of Poet Laureate. Freedom-loving Byron has repeatedly ridiculed this political loyalty and Southey's literary conservatism. The arrows of Byron's satire hit their mark, and Southey's fame faded in the eyes of posterity. But during the poet's lifetime, his poems were widely known: "Talaba the Destroyer" (1801), based on Arab legends (an example of romantic orientalism in English poetry),XII century, "The Curse of Kehama" (1810), the plot of which is taken from Indian mythology, "Roderick, the last of the Goths" (1818) about the Arab conquest of Spain in the VIII century.
The ballads of Southey were especially popular, among which stands out the ballad "The Judgment of God over the Bishop" (1799), which was superbly translated into Russian by V. A. Zhukovsky. The bishop, who condemned the hungry people of his land to burn in order to get rid of unnecessary mouths, was himself eaten by mice - such is God's punishment for the scoundrel. The ballad contains sympathy for the disadvantaged people, hatred for the rich, contempt for the churchmen. The increase in the rhythm of the ballad, which conveys the approach of mice, from which there is no escape, is remarkably built.
Thus, the poets of the "Lake School" are characterized by bold aesthetic searches, interest in native history, stylization of forms of folk art and, at the same time, conservatism of political and philosophical views. Representatives of the "Lake School" reformed English poetry, prepared the entry into literature of the next generation of romantics - Byron, Shelley, Keats. The second stage of English romanticism. This share covers the years 1812-1832. (from the publication of I and IIsongs of Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage to the death of Walter Scott). The main achievements of the period are associated with the names of Byron, Shelley, Scott, Keats. In Byron's poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" the idea of freedom for all peoples was expressed, not only the right, but also the duty of each people to fight for independence and freedom from tyranny was affirmed. For the first time, a romantic type of character was created, called the "Byronic hero". The second remarkable achievement of the period is the emergence of the genre of the historical novel, the creator of which was Walter Scott.
By the beginning of the second period, the circle of London romantics had finally taken shape. The circle stood up for the protection of individual rights, for progressive reforms. Of the greatest importance among the works of the London romantics are the poems and verses of John Keats (1795-1821). He developed the traditions of the great Scottish poet XVIIIv. Robert Burns. Kita conveys in his poems the feeling of bright joy from contact with nature, he says: "The poetry of the earth does not know death" (sonnet "Grasshopper and Cricket", 1816). In his poems (Endymion, 1818, Hyperion, 1820), the romantics' fascination with ancient Greek mythology and history (as opposed to the classicistic fascination with ancient Rome) was expressed. Conservative critics harshly condemned Keats' pioneering poetry. The sick and unrecognized poet had to leave for Italy. Keith died very young. And the next year, Shelley, the great English poet, who, together with Byron, defined the face of English romantic poetry of this time, died.
Shelley. Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) was born into an aristocrat's family, studied at Oxford University, but was expelled from it for publishing The Need for Atheism (1811). Later, the poet was forced to leave England. While living in Italy, Shelley was greatly influenced by Byron, who was also living in Italy at the time. Shelley was killed in a storm at sea.
Shelley was predominantly a lyric poet. His lyrics are philosophical in nature. Shelley sees the truth in spiritual beauty (poem "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"). The poet denies the biblical God, he believes that God is nature, in which the principles of Necessity and Change reign (poem "Change"). Love as an expression of beauty in nature is the main idea of Shelley's love lyrics ("The Wedding Song", "To Jane", etc.). The beauty of the world, man and his creations is also affirmed in poems dedicated to the theme of art ("Sonnet to Byron", "Music", "Spirit of Milton"). Among Shelley's poems there are many works on political topics ("The Lord Chancellor", "Men of England", etc.). In the poem "Ozymandius" (1818), the poet, using the form of allegory, shows that every despot will be forgotten by mankind.
The most vividly philosophical understanding of personal and social life in the images of nature is given in the poem "Ode to the West Wind" (1819, publ. 1820). The west wind is a symbol of great variability. The poet expects renewal from the wind, he wants to throw off the “pretended peace” in order to convey the poetic word to people. The poem combines the main themes of Shelley's poetry: nature, the poet's purpose in the world, the tension of feelings, the foresight of a powerful revolutionary transformation of life. The classicistic genre of ode takes on a lyrical, romantic character. The idea of variability organizes composition, selection of artistic images, linguistic means. With the help of the methods of personification and reification, Shelley expresses the idea of the poem: the poet, like the west wind, must carry a storm and renewal.
The lyric and philosophical principle also dominates in Shelley's great poetic works - the poems Queen Mab (1813), The Rise of Islam (1818), in the dramas Prometheus Liberated (1819, published 1820), Cenchi (1819).
"Freed Prometheus". This is one of the most significant works of the poet. In terms of genre, it is a philosophical poem; in form, it is a drama, where the means of ancient theater are used. Shelley himself defined the genre of the work as "lyric drama." Lyricism manifests itself primarily in the author's, subjective interpretation of the plot. Shelley changes the events of the ancient Greek myth about Prometheus, which ends with the reconciliation of Prometheus with Zeus: “... I was against such a pitiful outcome as the reconciliation of a fighter for humanity with his oppressor,” the poet wrote in the foreword to the drama. Shelley makes Prometheus an ideal hero who is punished by the gods for helping people against their will. In Shelley's drama, Prometheus's suffering is replaced by the triumph of his release. In the third act, the fantastic creature Demogorgon appears. He overthrows Zeus, declaring: “There is no return for the tyranny of heaven, and there is no longer your successor. " Prometheus is freed - and the whole world is freed. At the end of the drama, a picture of the future emerges: a person is free from "discord among nations, classes and clans."