Sentimentalism (from French. sentiment– feeling, eng. sentimental– sensitive) – a direction in European literature and art of the second half of the XVIII century, caused by the crisis of enlightenment rationalism. The term “sentimental” in relation to literature was first used in 1749, but was finally consolidated under the influence of the title of the novel by the English writer L. Stern “A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy” (1768). In England, sentimentalism receives its most complete expression. Here, already in the first half of the 18th century, rationalistic optimism gradually began to give way to doubts about the capabilities and omnipotence of reason as a lever for the reconstruction of society and man.

And yet sentimentalists do not break with the traditions of the Enlightenment. Giving special meaning feeling, the life of the heart, appealing to the moral foundations of human existence, sentimentalists did not deny the importance of reason and knowledge for the improvement of man. Feeling in the sentimentalist interpretation is not irrational. Like reason, it is a natural manifestation of human nature. Like reason, among sentimentalists, unspoiled, immediate feeling is opposed to social, class, and religious prejudices.

The connection between sentimentalism and the philosophy of the Enlightenment was reflected in the acuteness of the moral and ethical problems of the works, in the idea of ​​​​the extra-class value of the individual. Speaking about the significance for Russian culture of the work of the leading representative of Russian sentimentalism N. Karamzin, V. Belinsky noted his “great influence on the moral education of Russian society.” L. Tolstoy wrote about the enormous influence on him of the personality and work of J. J. Rousseau, who argued that the basis of civil freedom is the freedom of natural moral feeling.

The hero of the sentimentalists, a sensitive person, is remarkable not for his military exploits, not for his state affairs, but for his spiritual qualities and rich inner life. The virtues of the individual were thus revealed in a new sphere - the sphere of feelings, which entailed the approval of new ethical principles in public life and literature. Sentimentalists declared sensitivity, the ability to react emotionally to the outside world, as the most important quality of a person. For educators, sensitivity always “has something moral” (I. Dmitriev). In the Dictionary of the Russian Academy (1794), sensitivity is explained as “compassion, the quality of a person being touched by the misfortune of another.”

The shift in ethical criteria in assessing a person entailed a complication of the aesthetic interpretation of the character of the hero. The unambiguous moralistic assessments of the classicists are replaced by a sense of the variability and ambiguity of a person’s emotions, and therefore the complexity, even inconsistency, of his character. The consequence of this was the restructuring of the conflict, or rather, in comparison with the classicist conflict, its re-emphasis: “If in the classicist conflict the social man triumphed over the natural man, then sentimentalism gave preference to the natural man. The conflict of classicism demanded the humility of individual aspirations in the name of the good of society; sentimentalism demanded from a society of respect for individuality. Classicism was inclined to blame the egoistic individual for the conflict; sentimentalism addressed this accusation to an inhuman society."

Sensitivity, as the most important property of human character, must be supported and developed by education and the appropriate environment. This was pointed out by J. J. Rousseau: “In order to excite and nourish this nascent sensitivity... (necessary. – Ed.) suggest young man objects on which the expansive force of his heart can act... that is... to arouse in him kindness, humanity, compassion, charity" ("Emile, or On Education", 1762). According to the French sentimentalist, an important role in the development sensitivity is played by a person’s position in society. A rich and noble person, and therefore idle and free from responsibilities to society, quickly loses his natural sensitivity, becomes hard-hearted and selfish. The same one who works, who is forced to take care not only of himself, but also of others. others, preserves and develops the “living soul”.

Sentimentalists tended to idealize marital and family relationships. It was the family, based on the natural connections of people, they believed, that forms civic virtues in a person. For Rousseau, “love for one’s neighbors” is the beginning of the love that a person “owes to the state... As if a good citizen were not formed by a good son, a good husband, a good father.” And Karamzin was sure that the basis of society is the family - “small society”. Marriage, which forms a family, is “an object of Nature itself.”

Sentimentalists contrasted natural human feelings and connections - family, love, friendship - with the stuffy, noisy “city” civilization, in whose bosom everything humane perishes. Their favorite hero is often correlated with the patriarchal, even primitive, world; nature itself had a beneficial influence on the formation of his soul and body. This position gave the aesthetic ideal of the sentimentalists a certain normativity, a detachment from reality, which brought them, despite fundamental differences, closer to the classicists. “For the classicists... the norm was the ideal class-absolutist state, for the sentimentalists - the equally speculative perfect “nature” of man.”

The origins of sentimentalism are already found in the landscape lyrics of the English poet J. Thomson ("The Seasons", 1726–1730). But the descriptive moment here still prevails over the meditative one, which later became a characteristic feature of the poetry of sentimentalism. Drawing the nature of rural England against the backdrop of the changing seasons, Thomson is not too keen on details - his pictures of the life of the villagers are still quite conventional.

The new style first fully manifested itself in T. Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Cemetery" (1751), which brought its creator pan-European fame. The world of this work is elegiac. Everything in it from beginning to end is covered by a single mood: the landscape turns into meditation, becoming, as it were, part of the poet’s emotional experiences. The central idea of ​​the elegy is the affirmation of the greatness of the soul of every person. It was not the illustrious sons of the fatherland, but the poor villagers that attracted the poet. And even though life did not allow them to demonstrate their abilities without accomplishing great deeds, they, perhaps, avoided evil:

Alien to the turmoil and unrest of the mad crowd, due to the close

Forbidding your desires to go out, along the fresh,

In the sweet and silent valley of life they quietly

They walked along their path, and here their shelter was serene.

(Translated by V. Zhukovsky)

The early English sentimentalists were characterized by heightened sensitivity, a tendency toward melancholy contemplation, and poeticization of death (a typical example is the “poetry of the night and the grave,” which, in addition to T. Gray’s “Elegy,” includes E. Jung’s poem “The Complaint, or Night Thoughts” , 1742–1745).

In the works of the late sentimentalists, social protest arose (the novel “The Vicar of Wexfield” (1766) and the poem “The Abandoned Village” (1770) by O. Goldsmith, the poem “The Problem” by W. Cowper (1785), etc.). True, this protest is for the most part weak and emotional, it is limited to moral condemnation of oppressors and villains. While remaining true to the ideal of patriarchal life in the lap of nature with its simplicity and naturalness of morals, sentimentalists most often discover it only in the past. In his poem, Goldsmith angrily describes the ruin of the peasants caused by the enclosure policy. The sad picture of a devastated village that ends the poem is already far from the former idyll shown at the beginning of the work.

The cruelty and injustice of modern real world Sentimentalists can only oppose the idyll of family relationships, a small world where sincerity, goodwill and love reign. But this peace is fragile: as soon as Pastor Primrose (the novel "The Vicar of Wexfield") falls out of favor with the scoundrel landowner, his cattle and simple utensils are auctioned off for his debts, and he and his children end up in a debtor's prison. And although by chance the Primrose family returns what was lost, happy ending The novel does not at all negate the bitter truths expressed by the pastor in a prison sermon: “Whoever wants to know the suffering of the poor must experience life himself and endure a lot. To rant about the earthly advantages of the poor is to repeat a deliberate and useless lie...”

The central figure of English sentimentalism, undoubtedly, is L. Stern. In his novels “The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” (1760–1767) and “A Sentimental Journey” (1768), the writer seeks to reveal the complexity of human nature, the versatility of the hero’s emotional experiences, and the origins of his eccentricities and oddities. Although Stern in his “Sentimental Journey” assigns each chapter the name of the city or postal station where Pastor Yorick stops, the writer is not interested in the life and customs of certain localities, but in an analysis of the spiritual “climate” of his character, which easily changes depending on the circumstances. Important events and little things in life pass through Yorick’s consciousness, either darkening his state of mind or dispelling mental turmoil. The author analyzes the subtlest shades of Yorick's experiences, their overflows, sudden changes. By creating “landscapes of the soul,” Stern demonstrates how, in a specific situation, a struggle arises in the soul of his hero between stinginess and generosity, cowardice and courage, baseness and nobility. Stern influenced French, German and Russian literature, although sentimentalism had a number of differences in these countries.

In France, sentimentalism was represented mainly by the work of J. J. Rousseau and his followers. Rousseau's sentimentalism is marked by fundamental democracy. His political sympathies are connected with the republican form of government, because tyranny, according to the writer, kills sensitivity in people, forms vicious inclinations in them, while a free society, based on humane and fair laws, develops natural virtues in them and favors public emotions , bringing people together.

Rousseau is a resolute opponent of social inequality and class prejudices. The theme of social inequality formed the basis of his famous novel “Julia, or the New Heloise” (1761), which tells the story of the love of the noblewoman Julia and her teacher Saint-Preux, a plebeian in social status and views. "The New Heloise" is an epistolary novel, a genre very popular among sentimentalist writers. Rousseau's heroes, reflecting and reasoning, write letters a lot and willingly, where they not only share their feelings, but also argue about pedagogy, art, religion, economics, and the social structure of society.

For Rousseau there is no “man in general.” There are “cold” people who always listen to the voice of reason in everything (Julia de Wolmar’s husband), and there are “sensitive” natures who live “with their hearts” (Julia, Saint-Preux), and their natural, wonderful feelings are influenced by unjust social laws can be distorted, leading heroes to violate the requirements of “virtue”.

In his novels, Rousseau shows what a person and society should become. He poses and tries to solve the problem of the revival of human nature, which, in his opinion, has not yet been completely corrupted by civilization. Nature has the best influence on humans. Emil grows up in the village, far from the temptations of society. His education in science and education of the soul takes place in acquaintance with nature. Saint-Pré, traveling through the mountainous Swiss canton of Valais, cut off by nature itself from the harmful influence of civilization, admires the cordiality, unselfishness and hospitality of the local residents, noting the “noble and healing” influence of mountain air on people (“... a fertile climate turns a person’s happiness those passions that only torment him. Truly, any strong excitement, any melancholy will disappear if you live in these places; and I am amazed why such ablutions with mountain air, so healing and beneficial, are not prescribed as an all-powerful cure for bodily and mental ailments. ..").

In Germany, the ideas of European sentimentalism were reflected in the Sturm und Drang (Sturm and Drang) movement of the 1770s.

Sturmer writers, as an alternative to pragmatic bourgeois rationality, put forward the cult of the heart, feelings, and passion. They contrasted the corrupting influence of civilization, which had distorted the natural feelings of people, with a passionate, heroic personality, unfettered by prejudices, conventions and decency (the “stormy genius”). The Stürmers were close to the ideas of Rousseau, his criticism of progress and civilization, but they also introduced something new into the aesthetics of sentimentalism. They are characterized by the discovery of the aesthetic significance of folklore. In folk art they sought and found manifestations of natural, unspoiled human nature (the anthology “Voices of Peoples in Songs” (1779), compiled by I. Herder, ballads by G. Burger). At the same time, interest in folklore, appeal to the past, to national culture, the depiction of strong passions brought Sturmerism closer to pre-romanticism, helped to overcome the negative ahistorical attitude towards the Middle Ages characteristic of most enlighteners, and marked a decisive break with the idea of ​​antiquity as a model. " The Fiesco Conspiracy in Genoa", 1783; "Cunning and Love", 1783).

In Russian literature, elements of sentimentalism can be found already in the 1760s. In prose, new trends emerged in the novels of F. Emin and, above all, in his epistolary novel “Letters of Ernest and Doravra” (1766), written under the direct influence of “New Heloise” by Rousseau. At this time, a new type of play appeared on the stage of the Russian theater - "tear dramas"(“The Venetian Nun” (1758) by M. Kheraskova, “Mot, Corrected by Love” (1765) by V. Lukin), going back to traditions "tearful comedy" And "philistine drama" and received special development in the 1770–1790s. At the center of these dramas is a virtuous (and therefore sensitive) hero or heroine, persecuted by evil people. The idea of ​​this type of play is formulated in the final monologue of one of Kheraskov’s dramas: “Oh! my friends, rest assured that virtue will sooner or later receive its reward and that the hand of God will crown persecuted people, to expose the evil and unrighteous, with unexpected prosperity.”

In the 1770s, he gained exceptional popularity among the Russian public. comic opera(a play of comic or dramatic content, including musical - arias, duets, choruses - and dance - divertissement - numbers). A number of comic operas are close in content to the “tear drama”, but, unlike the latter, the main characters of these plays are not mediocre nobles, but virtuous, “sensitive” peasants (less often commoners), spiritually superior to their offenders, the landowners-nobles (“Rozana and Love” (1776) and “The Prikaschik” (1781) by N. Nikoleva, “Milozor and Prelesta” (1787) by V. Levshin).

A new assessment of man, his personal and social life was reflected in the lyrics, which caused the intensive development of “average” (according to the classic classification) genres and the emergence of new genre structures. Among them, first of all, the genres of “letter”, idyll, philosophical and “social” elegy should be noted. In the elegy “To Euterpe” (1763), Kheraskov expressed the feeling of the fragility and frailty of wealth, nobility and glory:

I learned the vanity and deceitful charm of happiness,

And the passing shadow of high titles.

They are like autumn bad weather,

Definitely a hundred times a day.

True happiness, according to the poet, lies in peace of mind, consciousness of your virtue, and for this you need to be able to limit your passions and aspirations:

Than to rush higher in thoughts,

It's better for all of us to live quietly.

("Stanzas", 1762)

Kheraskov's call for moral self-improvement and self-restraint is combined with Rousseauian motives - with the idealization of the natural state of man, who has neither wealth nor rank and lives a simple life close to nature ("Wealth", 1769).

In the work of the sentimentalist poet M. Muravyov, dating back to 1770–1780, in comparison with the work of Kheraskov and the poets of his circle, interest in the private life of a person increases, autobiographical motives become decisive in his lyrics. For Muravyov, the perception of the world is inextricably linked with a person’s subjective mood. In the poem “Time” (1775), the poet notes that “every moment has a special color,” and puts this “color” of time in direct dependence “on the state of the heart,” when “it is gloomy for the one whose heart is heavy with malice, / For good - golden."

New artistic tasks entailed a new attitude towards language. If among the classicists the word was “almost terminological in nature,” that is, it had a precise and stable meaning, then among the sentimentalist poets the objective meaning of the word is blurred, and not the main, but its additional meaning or meanings are brought to the fore. All this gives the words a certain instability and approximateness; they seem to be shrouded in a “fog” of emotional and semantic associations. And the first decisive move in this direction was made by Muravyov. As G. Gukovsky noted, “Muravyov is making the first approaches to the creation of a special, specifically poetic language, the essence of which is not an adequate reflection of the truth objective for the poet, but an emotional allusion to the inner state of the human poet. The poetic vocabulary begins to narrow, trying to navigate for special poetic words"sweet" emotional nature, needed in the context not to clarify the meaning, but to create a mood of beautiful self-forgetfulness in art." Here is an example illustrating the poetics of Muravyov's "sweet" style in the poem "Night" (1776, 1785):

My thought leaned toward pleasant silence:

Moments of life flow more slowly.

Calls everyone living to sweet peace...

Russian prose of sentimentalism developed and took shape in the 1790s, when the prose works of N. Karamzin, who led this literary movement, appeared. Karamzin brought together all the elements of sentimentalism that already existed in Russian literature and culture. In his programmatic article “What does an author need?” (1793) Karamzin wrote: “They say that the author needs talents and knowledge: a sharp, penetrating mind, a vivid imagination, etc. Fair enough: but this is not enough. He needs to have a kind, gentle heart if he wants to be a friend and favorite of the soul ours... The Creator is always depicted in creation and often against his will.” According to the writer, “a bad person cannot be a good author.”

Karamzin is a sincere supporter of the ideas of Rousseau, even in whose “delusions”, according to the writer, “sparks of passionate philanthropy sparkle.” Rousseauism became for Karamzin the determining factor in constructing the characters of his heroes. Already in the writer’s first stories, characters of two types appear - a “natural” person and a civilized person. Karamzin finds a “natural” person in the peasant environment, where patriarchal relations are still preserved. In his famous story “Poor Liza” (1791), the writer contrasted the virtuous peasant woman Liza with the nobleman Erast who seduced her. If the image of Lisa, “the daughter of nature,” beautiful soul and body,” is ideal, then the image of Erast, a civilized and enlightened hero, is complex and ambiguous. He cannot be called a villain, he is a man “with a fair mind and a kind heart, kind by nature, but weak and flighty.” Having left Lisa to marry an elderly rich widow, he pushes the girl to commit suicide. But the death of Lisa, who did not survive Erast’s betrayal, makes him deeply unhappy: he could never console himself, considering himself her murderer.

The main method of the narration is characteristic: the author, as he admits, tells this story from the words of Erast, which gives the story a confessional character. The author himself is a “sensitive” person who loves, as he says, “those objects that touch my heart and make me shed tears of tender sorrow.” Such a “touching subject” for the narrator is the story of “poor” Lisa, and he tells it, experiencing and sympathizing with his characters, assessing their actions, shedding “tears of tender sorrow” with them.

The author's attitude permeates Karamzin's prose, bringing the style of his stories and essays closer to the style of a lyric poem. The main thing here is not the plot, which is always extremely simple and uncomplicated, but the tonality of the work, its emotional atmosphere, unknown to Russian literature before Karamzin. The writer “creates entire works of art, musically organized, which should, with the whole set of images, the whole sum of artistic means, create in the reader a vague, unsteady “unspeakable”, “unnameable” mood... Karamzin already poses the problem of art that his student Zhukovsky will programmatically express in the poem “The Inexpressible.” The tragic conflicts of life are given to them not in order to cause anger and indignation, but in order to cause quiet melancholy and tenderness. An example of such a psychological experiment.

there was a story “Poor Liza,” which was a huge success, opening up a whole world of emotions to contemporaries.”

Being the leading artistic movement in Russian literature in the 1790s, sentimentalism experienced a deep crisis already in the first decade of the 19th century and was quickly replaced by romanticism. Nevertheless, the importance of sentimentalism and its influence on the further development of literature is difficult to overestimate. Sentimentalism in many ways preceded romanticism (interest in inner world a person, identifying the ambiguity and inconsistency of his character, a subjective approach to the world around him, etc.). Rousseauism determined the plot of the romantic poem, where the world of natural feelings of a natural person and the passions of a person in civil society collided in irreconcilable contradiction (the “eastern” poems of J. Byron, the “southern” poems of A. Pushkin). The romantic views of Chateaubriand, the democratic ideas of J. Sand and the utopian socialists Fourier and Saint-Simon go back to Rousseauism. Stern's humor found its justification and development in the theory of romantic irony of the Jena romantics.

Of particular note is the influence of sentimental traditions on Russian literature of the 1840s. The revival of these traditions was due to the powerful process of democratization of public consciousness and the spread of ideas utopian socialism with its all-important concept of universal social harmony. For the literature of this period, the most important aesthetic principle sentimentalism - poeticization of the ordinary - and the associated interest in the life of a little person. The appeal to sentimentalism was of fundamental nature for writers "natural school" united by criticism under the name “sentimental naturalism” (Ap. Grigoriev), headed by F. Dostoevsky, author of the novel “Poor People”.

The relationship between sentimentalism and pre-romanticism (pre-romanticism). Pre-romanticism is sometimes viewed as a movement within sentimentalism, a certain tendency of sentimental style. Indeed, in the works of many poets and sentimentalist writers it is difficult to distinguish between elements of sentimental and pre-romantic styles. They are palpable, for example, in the work of the Sturmers, and in the “Confession” of J. J. Rousseau (1766–1770), where the writer strives to take into account the influence on a person of dark, irrational feelings and actions not clarified by reason, and in the work of the Kheraskov poets, who sometimes came to affirm the uselessness of “reason” and even its harm. Even in such a “classical” sentimental story as “Poor Liza”, one can detect features of pre-romanticism (for example, the “Gothic”, i.e. in the spirit of the “Middle Ages”, description at the beginning of the story of the ruins of the Simonov Monastery).

And yet, sentimentalism and pre-romanticism are separated by a significant line. If sentimentalism is closely associated with the Enlightenment movement at its later stage, then pre-romanticism already represents a reaction to the Enlightenment, which results in a denial of the omnipotence and goodness of reason. Pre-romanticists also put forward their own hero - a heroic, courageous, decisive personality, fundamentally different from the gentle, sensitive sentimental hero. The nature of the pre-romanticists, a counterbalance to the “pleasant” nature of the sentimentalists, matches their heroes: it is harsh and gloomy, the “thunder of battles” and the “howling of storms” fill it.

Pre-Romanticists prefer to look for their subjects in the Middle Ages, poetizing medieval life and customs. The most prominent figure of pre-romanticism is the Scot J. Macpherson, whose “Poems of Ossian” (1765) gained European fame. Macpherson introduced the foggy and gloomy world of heroic northern legends into literature, using motifs from Celtic folklore and thereby marking the beginning of a widespread and long-lasting hobby "Ossianism" with its gloomy northern flavor and the harsh savagery of the heroic characters of a distant era (in the 19th century, J. Byron, V. Zhukovsky, N. Gnedich, and the young A. Pushkin paid tribute to Ossian).

English pre-romanticism also puts forward a genre gothic novel(“a novel of fears and horrors”, “a black novel”). Life in these works is full of fatal mysteries. Mysterious and often supernatural forces intervene in a person’s fate, plunging him into a whirlpool of strange and sinister events. The movement of the plot here is determined by terrible incidents, mysterious omens, vague premonitions ("The Castle of Otranto" by G. Walpole, 1764; "The Old English Baron" by K. Reeve, 1777; "The Mysteries of Udolpho" by A. Radcliffe, 1794; "The Monk" by M. Lewis , 1795).

In Russia, pre-romanticism did not develop into an independent movement, but played an important role in the complex transition from sentimentalism to romanticism. Sentimentalism in its “pure” form even in the works of the leading representative of this movement

Meditation (lat. meditatio)- concentrated, in-depth thinking.

Gukovsky G. A. Russian literature of the 18th century. P. 307.

Gukovsky G. A. Russian literature of the 18th century. P. 506.

Sentimentalism (from French sent - feeling, sensitive, English sentimental - sensitive) is an artistic movement in art and literature that replaced classicism.

Learn more about classicism.

Already from the name it is clear that the new direction, as opposed to the cult of reason, will proclaim the cult of feeling. Feelings come first, not great ideas. The author focuses on the reader's perception and his feelings that arise during reading.

The origins of the direction lie in Western Europe in the 20s of the 18th century, sentimentalism reached Russia in the 70s, and in the first three decades of the 19th century it took a leading position.

In terms of its appearance, sentimentalism preceded romanticism. This was the end of the Enlightenment, therefore, in the works of sentimentalists, educational tendencies are preserved, which is manifested in edification and moralizing. But completely new features also appeared.

• The focus is not on reason, but on feeling. The ability to sympathize and empathize was considered by writers as the most important dignity of the human personality.
• The main characters are not nobles and kings, as in classicism, but ordinary people, humble and poor.
• The cult of innate moral purity and innocence was glorified.
• The writers' main attention is directed to the rich inner world of a person, his feelings and emotions. And also that spiritual qualities a person does not depend on his origin. Thus, new heroes appeared in literature - ordinary people, who in their moral qualities often surpassed noble heroes.
• Glorification in the works of sentimentalist writers of eternal values ​​- love, friendship, nature.
• For sentimentalists, nature is not just a background, but a living essence with all its little details and features, as if rediscovered and felt by the author.
• Sentimentalists saw their main goal as to console a person in his life, full of sorrows and suffering, to turn his heart to goodness and beauty.

Sentimentalism in Europe

This direction received its most complete expression in England, in the novels of S. Richardson and L. Stern. In Germany, prominent representatives were F. Schiller, J. V. Goethe, and in pre-revolutionary France, sentimentalist motives found their most complete expression in the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

S. RichardsonL. SternF. SchillerI. V. GoetheJ. J. Rousseau

The very name of the literary movement took root after the authors wrote numerous “Travels”, which revealed to the reader the beauty of nature, selfless friendship, and family idyll. Touched the most tender feelings of readers. The first novel, “A Sentimental Journey,” was written by L. Stern in 1768.

Sentimentalism in Russia

In Russia, representatives of sentimentalism were M. N. Muravyov, I. I. Dmitriev, N. M. Karamzin with his most famous work “Poor Liza,” and the young V. A. Zhukovsky. The Enlightenment traditions of sentimentalism were most clearly manifested in the works of A. Radishchev.

M. N. MuravyovI. I. DmitrievN. M. KaramzinV. A. ZhukovskyA. Radishchev

In Russia there were two directions of sentimentalism:

A movement that did not advocate the abolition of serfdom. Nikolai Karamzin, the author of the story “Poor Liza”, in the conflict between classes, did not put in first place social factor, but moral. He believed: “even peasant women know how to love...”.

In literature, this trend advocated the abolition of serfdom. Radishchev believed that the basis of all culture, as well as the basis of social existence, is the individual who declares his right to life, freedom, happiness, and creativity.

Sentimentalists created many new genres in literature. This is an everyday novel, a story, a diary, a novel in letters, an essay, a journey and others; in poetry it is an elegy, a message. Since, in contrast to classicism, there were no clear rules and restrictions, very often genres were mixed.

Since ordinary people became the heroes of the works of sentimentalists, the language of the works was significantly simplified, even vernacular appeared in it.

Distinctive features of Russian sentimentalism

• Preaching conservative views: if all people, regardless of their position in society, are capable of high feelings This means that the path to universal happiness lies not in changing the state structure, but in moral self-improvement, the moral education of people.
• Enlightenment traditions, teaching, instruction, and moralizing are clearly expressed.
• Improvement literary language by introducing colloquial forms.

Sentimentalism played an important role in literature by addressing the inner world of man; in this regard, it became a harbinger of psychological, confessional prose.

Sentimentalism in Russian literature: what it is, features and characteristics of the depiction of heroes, main representatives

In the process of its development, literature, both Russian and world, went through many stages.

Features of literary creativity, which were repeated over a certain period of time and were characteristic of a large number of works, determine the so-called artistic method or literary direction.

The history of the development of Russian literary creativity directly resonates with Western European art. The trends that dominated world classics sooner or later found reflection in Russian. This article will examine the main features and characteristics of such a period as sentimentalism in Russian literature.

New literary movement

Sentimentalism in literature belongs to the most prominent trends; it originated in European art in the 18th century, under the influence of the Enlightenment. England is considered the country of origin of sentimentalism. The definition of this direction came from French word sentimentas, which translated into Russian means “feeling”.

This name was chosen due to the fact that adherents of the style paid the main attention to the inner world of a person, his feelings and emotions. Tired of the hero-citizen characteristic of classicism, reading Europe enthusiastically accepted the new vulnerable and sensual person depicted by the sentimentalists.

This movement came to Russia at the end of the 18th century through literary translations of Western European writers such as Werther, J.J. Russo, Richardson. This direction arose in Western European art in the 18th century. IN literary works this trend manifested itself especially clearly. It spread in Russia thanks to literary translations of novels by European writers.

Main features of sentimentalism

The emergence of a new school, which preached the rejection of a rational view of the world, was a response to civic examples of reason of the era of classicism. Among the main features we can highlight the following features of sentimentalism:

• Nature is used as a backdrop that shades and complements a person’s internal experiences and states.
• The foundations of psychologism are laid, the authors put first place inner feelings an individual person, his thoughts and torments.
• One of the leading topics sentimental works becomes the theme of death. The motive for suicide often arises due to the inability to resolve the hero’s internal conflict.
• The environment that surrounds the hero is secondary. It does not have much influence on the development of the conflict.
• Propaganda the original spiritual beauty of the common man, the riches of his inner world.
• A rational and practical approach to life gives way to sensory perception.

Important! Straightforward classicism gives rise to a trend completely opposite to itself in spirit, in which the internal states of the individual come to the fore, regardless of the lowness of its class origin.

The uniqueness of the Russian version

In Russia, this method has retained its basic principles, but two groups have emerged. One was a reactionary view of serfdom. The stories of the authors included in it depicted the serfs as very happy and satisfied with their fate. Representatives of this direction are P.I. Shalikov and N.I. Ilyin.

The second group had a more progressive view of the problem of serfdom of peasants. It was she who became the main driving force in the development of literature. The main representatives of sentimentalism in Russia are N. Karamzin, M. Muravyov and N. Kutuzov.

The sentimental trend in Russian works glorified the patriarchal way of life, sharply criticized the bourgeois layer and emphasized the high level of spirituality among the lower class. He tried to teach the reader something through influence on spirituality and inner feelings. The Russian version of this direction performed an educational function.

Representatives of the new literary movement

Arriving in Russia at the end of the 18th century, the new movement found many adherents. His most prominent follower can be called Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin. It is he who is considered the discoverer of the era of literature of feelings.

In his novel “Letters of a Russian Traveler,” he used the favorite genre of sentimentalists—travel notes. This genre made it possible to show everything that the author saw during his journey through his own perception.

In addition to Karamzin, quite prominent representatives of this movement in Russia are N.I. Dmitriev, M.N. Muravyov, A.N. Radishchev, V.I. Lukin. At one time, V.A. Zhukovsky belonged to this group with some of his early stories.

Important! N.M. Karamzin is considered the most prominent representative and founder of sentimental ideas in Russia. His work evoked many imitations (“Poor Masha” by A.E. Izmailov, G.P. Kamenev’s “Beautiful Tatyana”, etc.).

Examples and topics of works

The new literary movement predetermined a new attitude towards nature: it becomes not just a place of action against the background of which events develop, but acquires a very important function - highlight the feelings, emotions and inner experiences of the characters.

The main theme of the works was to depict the beautiful and harmonious existence of the individual in the natural world and the unnaturalness of the corrupt behavior of the aristocratic layer.

Examples of works by sentimentalists in Russia:

• “Letters of a Russian Traveler” N.M. Karamzin;
• “Poor Lisa” N.M. Karamzin;
• “Natalia, the boyar’s daughter” N.M. Karamzin;
• “Maryina Grove” by V. A. Zhukovsky;
• “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” A.N. Radishcheva;
• “Travel to Crimea and Bessarabia” by P. Sumarokov;
• “Henrietta” by I. Svechinsky.

“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” A.N. Radishchev

Genres

The emotional and sensory perception of the world forced the use of new literary genres and sublime figurative vocabulary corresponding to the ideological load.

The emphasis on the fact that natural principles should prevail in a person, and on the fact that the best habitat is natural, predetermined the main genres of sentimentalism in literature.

Elegy, diary, psychological drama, letters, psychological story, travel, pastoral, psychological novel, memoirs became the basis of the works of “sensual” authors.

Important! Sentimentalists considered virtue and high spirituality, which should be naturally present in a person, to be a prerequisite for absolute happiness.

Heroes

If the predecessor of this movement, classicism, was characterized by the image of a hero-citizen, a person whose actions are subordinated to reason, then the new style in this regard made a revolution.

What comes to the fore is not citizenship and reason, but the internal state of a person, his psychological background. Feelings and naturalness, elevated to a cult, contributed absolute disclosure of a person’s hidden feelings and thoughts.

Each image of the hero became unique and inimitable. The image of such a person becomes the most important goal of this movement.

In any work of a sentimentalist writer one can find a subtle, sensitive nature that faces the cruelty of the surrounding world.

The following features of the image of the main character in sentimentalism are highlighted:

• A clear distinction between positive and negative characters. The first group demonstrates immediate, sincere feelings, and the second are selfish liars who have lost their natural beginning. But despite this, the authors of this school retain the belief that a person is capable of returning to true naturalness and becoming a positive character.
• The depiction of opposing heroes (serf and landowner), whose confrontation clearly demonstrates the superiority of the lower class.
• The author does not avoid depicting certain people with a specific fate. Often the prototypes of the hero in the book are real people.

Author's image

The author plays a big role in sentimental works. He openly demonstrates his attitude towards the heroes and their actions. The main task facing the writer is to enable feel the emotions of the characters, to make him feel sympathy for them and their actions. This task is accomplished by invoking compassion.

Features of vocabulary

The language of the sentimental direction is characterized by the presence of widespread lyrical digressions, in which the author gives his assessment of what is described on the pages of the work.

Rhetorical questions, appeals and exclamations help him place the right emphasis and draw the reader’s attention to important points. Most often in such works it prevails expressive vocabulary using colloquial expressions.

Acquaintance with literature becomes possible for all segments of society. This takes it to the next level.

Sentimentalism as a literary movement

Sentimentalism

Conclusion

The new literary trend had completely outlived its usefulness by end of the 19th century century.

But, having existed for a relatively short time, sentimentalism became a kind of impetus that helped all art, and literature in particular, take a huge step forward.

Classicism, which fettered creativity with its laws, is a thing of the past. The new movement became a kind of preparation of world literature for romanticism, for the work of A.S. Pushkin and M.Yu. Lermontov.

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism is one of the main, along with classicism and rococo, artistic movements in European literature of the 18th century. Like Rococo, sentimentalism arose as a reaction to the classicist trends in literature that dominated the previous century.

Sentimentalism received its name after the publication of the unfinished novel “A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy” (1768) by the English writer L. Stern, which, as modern researchers believe, cemented the new meaning of the word “sentimental” in the English language.

If earlier (the first use of this word by the Great Oxford Dictionary dates back to 1749) it meant either “reasonable”, “sensible”, or “highly moral”, “edifying”, then by the 1760s it intensified the connotation associated not so much with belonging to to the area of ​​reason, as much as to the area of ​​feeling.

Now “sentimental” also means “capable of sympathy,” and Stern finally assigns to it the meaning of “sensitive,” “capable of experiencing sublime and subtle emotions” and introduces it into the circle of the most fashionable words of his time.

Subsequently, the fashion for “sentimental” passed, and in the 19th century the word “sentimental” in English acquired a negative connotation, meaning “prone to indulging in excessive sensitivity”, “easily succumbing to an influx of emotions.”

Modern dictionaries and reference books already differentiate between the concepts of “sentiment” and “sensitivity”, “sentimentality”, contrasting them with each other.

However, the word “sentimentalism” in English, as well as in other Western European languages, where it came under the influence of the success of Stern’s novels, never acquired the character of a strictly literary term that would cover an entire and internally unified artistic movement.

English-speaking researchers still mainly use such concepts as “sentimental novel”, “sentimental drama” or “sentimental poetry”, while French and German critics rather highlight “sentimentality” (French sentimentalite, German sentimentalitat) as a special a category that is, to one degree or another, inherent in works of art of various eras and movements. Only in Russia, starting from the end of the 19th century, were attempts made to comprehend sentimentalism as an integral historical and literary phenomenon. The main feature sentimentalism, all domestic researchers recognize the “cult of feeling” (or “heart”), which in this system of views becomes the “measure of good and evil.” Most often, the appearance of this cult in Western literature of the 18th century is explained, on the one hand, by a reaction to Enlightenment rationalism (with feeling directly opposed to reason), and on the other, by a reaction to the previously dominant aristocratic type of culture. The fact that sentimentalism as an independent phenomenon first appeared in England in the late 1720s - early 1730s is usually associated with social changes, which came to this country in the 17th century, when, as a result of the revolution of 1688-89, the third estate became an independent and influential force. All researchers call the concept of “natural,” which is generally very important for the philosophy and literature of the Enlightenment, one of the main categories that determines the attention of sentimentalists to the life of the human heart. This concept unites the external world of nature with the internal world of the human soul, which, from the point of view of sentimentalists, are consonant and essentially involved in each other. Hence, firstly, the special attention of the authors of this movement to nature - its external appearance and the processes occurring in it; secondly, intense interest in emotional sphere and the experiences of the individual. At the same time, sentimentalist authors are interested in a person not so much as a bearer of a rational volitional principle, but as a focus of the best natural qualities inherent in his heart from birth. The hero of sentimentalist literature appears as a feeling person, and therefore the psychological analysis of the authors of this movement is most often based on the subjective outpourings of the hero.

Sentimentalism “descends” from the heights of majestic upheavals, unfolding in an aristocratic environment, to the everyday life of ordinary people, unremarkable in anything except the strength of their experiences.

The sublime principle, so beloved by the theorists of classicism, is replaced in sentimentalism by the category of the touching.

Thanks to this, researchers note, sentimentalism, as a rule, cultivates compassion for one’s neighbor, philanthropism, and becomes a “school of philanthropy,” as opposed to “cold-rational” classicism and, in general, the “dominance of reason” in initial stages development of the European Enlightenment.

However, the too direct opposition of reason and feeling, “philosopher” and “sensitive person,” which is found in the works of a number of domestic and foreign researchers, unjustifiably simplifies the idea of ​​sentimentalism.

Often, “reason” is associated exclusively with educational classicism, and the entire area of ​​“feelings” falls to the lot of sentimentalism. But such an approach, which is based on another very widespread opinion - that at the core of its sentimentality is entirely derived from the sensualistic philosophy of J.

Locke (1632-1704) - obscures the much more subtle relationship between “reason” and “feeling” in the 18th century, and in addition, does not explain the essence of the discrepancy between sentimentalism and such an independent artistic movement of this century as Rococo. The most controversial problem in the study of sentimentalism remains its relation, on the one hand, to other aesthetic movements of the 18th century, and on the other, to the Enlightenment as a whole.

Prerequisites for the emergence of sentimentalism

The prerequisites for the emergence of sentimentalism were already contained in the newest way of thinking, which distinguished the philosophers and writers of the 18th century and determined the entire structure and spirit of the Enlightenment.

In this thinking, sensitivity and rationality do not appear and do not exist without each other: in contrast to the speculative rationalistic systems of the 17th century, the rationalism of the 18th century is limited to the framework of human experience, i.e. within the framework of the perception of the sentient soul. A person with his inherent desire for happiness in this earthly life becomes the main measure of the consistency of any views.

Rationalists of the 18th century not only criticized certain phenomena of reality that were unnecessary, in their opinion, but also put forward an image of an ideal reality, conducive to human happiness, and this image ultimately turns out to be suggested not by reason, but by feeling.

The capacity for critical judgment and a sensitive heart are two sides of a single intellectual tool that helped the writers of the 18th century develop a new view of man, who abandoned the sense of original sin and tried to justify his existence based on his innate desire for happiness.

Various aesthetic movements of the 18th century, including sentimentalism, tried to paint the image of a new reality in their own way. As long as they remained within the framework of Enlightenment ideology, they were equally close to the critical views of Locke, who denied the existence of so-called “innate ideas” from the standpoint of sensationalism.

From this point of view, sentimentalism differs from Rococo or Classicism not so much in the “cult of feeling” (because in this specific understanding, feeling played an equally important role in other aesthetic movements) or in the tendency to depict mainly representatives of the third estate (all literature of the Enlightenment era in one way or another was interested in human nature “in general”, leaving out questions of class differences), as much as in special ideas about the possibilities and ways for a person to achieve happiness. Like Rococo art, sentimentalism professes a feeling of disappointment in “big History”, turns to the sphere of the private, intimate life of an individual, and gives it a “natural” dimension. But if rocaille literature interprets “naturalness” primarily as the possibility of going beyond traditionally established moral norms and, thus, covers mainly the “scandalous”, behind-the-scenes side of life, condescending to the forgivable weaknesses of human nature, then sentimentalism strives for the reconciliation of the natural and moral began, trying to present virtue not as an imported, but as an innate property of the human heart. Therefore, the sentimentalists were closer not to Locke with his decisive denial of all “innate ideas”, but to his follower A.E.K. Shaftesbury (1671-1713), who argued that the moral principle lies in the very nature of man and is connected not with reason, but with a special a moral feeling which alone can point the way to happiness. What motivates a person to act morally is not the awareness of duty, but the dictates of the heart. Happiness, therefore, does not lie in the craving for sensual pleasures, but in the craving for virtue. Thus, the “naturalness” of human nature is interpreted by Shaftesbury, and after him by the sentimentalists, not as its “scandalousness,” but as a need and possibility of virtuous behavior, and the heart becomes a special supra-individual sense organ, connecting a specific person with the general harmonious and morally justified structure of the universe.

Poetics of sentimentalism

The first elements of the poetics of sentimentalism penetrate into English literature in the late 1720s, when the genre of descriptive and didactic poems dedicated to work and leisure against the backdrop of rural nature (georgics) becomes especially relevant. In the poem by J.

Thomson's “The Seasons” (1726-30) one can already detect a completely “sentimentalist” idyll, built on a feeling of moral satisfaction arising from the contemplation of rural landscapes. Subsequently, similar motives were developed by E. Jung (1683-1765) and especially by T.

Gray, who discovered elegy as a genre most suitable for sublime meditations against the backdrop of nature (the most famous work is “Elegy Written in a Country Cemetery”, 1751). The development of sentimentalism was significantly influenced by the work of S.

Richardson, whose novels (“Pamela”, 1740; “Clarissa”, 1747-48; “The History of Sir Charles Grandisson”, 1754) not only introduced for the first time heroes who were in every way consistent with the spirit of sentimentalism, but also popularized a special genre form of the epistolary novel, so subsequently loved by many sentimentalists.

Among the latter, some researchers include Richardson’s main opponent, Henry Fielding, whose “comic epics” (“The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews,” 1742, and “The History of Tom Jones, Foundling,” 1749) are largely built on sentimentalist ideas about human nature.

In the second half of the 18th century, the trends of sentimentalism in English literature are growing stronger, but now they are increasingly coming into conflict with the actual educational pathos of life-building, improving the world and educating people. The world no longer seems to be the center of moral harmony to the heroes of the novels by O. Goldsmith “The Priest of Wakefield” (1766) and G. Mackenzie “The Man of Feeling” (1773).

Sterne's novels "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" (1760-67) and "A Sentimental Journey" are an example of caustic polemics against the sensationalism of Locke and many of the conventional views of the English Enlightenment. Among the poets who developed sentimentalist tendencies on folklore and pseudo-historical material are the Scots R. Burns (1759-96) and J. Macpherson (1736-96).

By the end of the century, English sentimentalism, increasingly leaning towards “sensibility,” breaks with the Enlightenment harmony between feeling and reason and gives rise to the genre of the so-called Gothic novel (H. Walpole, A. Radcliffe, etc.), which some researchers correlate with an independent artistic flow - pre-romanticism.

In France, the poetics of sentimentalism comes into conflict with Rococo already in the work of D. Diderot, who was influenced by Richardson (The Nun, 1760) and, partly, Sterne (Jacquefatalist, 1773). The principles of sentimentalism turned out to be most consonant with the views and tastes of J. J. Rousseau, who created the exemplary sentimentalist epistolary novel “Julia, or the New Heloise” (1761).

However, already in his “Confession” (published 1782-89) Rousseau departs from the important principle of sentimentalist poetics - the normativity of the depicted personality, proclaiming the intrinsic value of his one and only “I”, taken in individual originality. Subsequently, sentimentalism in France is closely linked with the specific concept of “Rousseauism”.

Having penetrated into Germany, sentimentalism first influenced the work of H. F. Gellert (1715-69) and F. G. Klopstock (1724-1803), and in the 1870s, after the appearance of Rousseau’s “New Heloise,” it gave birth to a radical version of the German sentimentalism, called the “Storm and Drang” movement, to which the young I.V. Goethe and F. Schiller belonged. Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774), although considered the pinnacle of sentimentalism in Germany, actually contains a hidden polemic against the ideals of Sturmerism and does not amount to glorifying the “sensitive nature” of the protagonist. The “last sentimentalist” of Germany, Jean Paul (1763-1825), was particularly influenced by Stern’s work.

Sentimentalism in Russia

In Russia, all the most significant examples of Western European sentimentalist literature were translated back in the 18th century, influencing F. Emin, N. Lvov, and partly A. Radishchev (“Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow,” 1790).

Russian sentimentalism reached its highest flowering in the works of N. Karamzin(“Letters of a Russian Traveler”, 1790; “Poor Liza”, 1792; “Natalia, Boyar’s Daughter”, 1792, etc.). Subsequently, A. turned to the poetics of sentimentalism.

Izmailov, V. Zhukovsky and others.

The word sentimentalism comes from English sentimental, which means sensitive; French sentiment - feeling.

• Sentimentalism
• flow
• feeling

Previous articleSentence

What is sentimentalism? | Literary guru

At the beginning of the 18th century, a completely new literary movement emerged in Europe, which, first of all, focuses on human feelings and emotions. Only at the end of the century does it reach Russia, but, unfortunately, it finds a response here among a small number of writers... All this is about the sentimentalism of the 18th century, and if you are interested in this topic, then continue reading.

History of origin

Let's start with the definition of this literary trend, which determined new principles for illuminating the image and character of a person.

What is “sentimentalism” in literature and art? The term comes from the French word “sentiment”, which means “feeling”. It means a direction in culture where artists of words, notes and brushes emphasize the emotions and feelings of the characters.

Time frame of the period: for Europe - 20s of the XVIII - 80s of the XVIII; For Russia, this is the end of the 18th century - the beginning of the 19th century.

Sentimentalism specifically in literature is characterized by the following definition: it is a literary movement that came after classicism, in which the cult of the soul predominates.

The history of sentimentalism began in England. It was there that the first poems of James Thomson (1700 - 1748) were written.

His works “Winter”, “Spring”, “Summer” and “Autumn”, which were later combined into one collection, described simple rural life.

Quiet, peaceful everyday life, incredible landscapes and fascinating moments from the life of peasants - all this is revealed to readers. The author’s main idea is to show how good life is away from all the bustle and confusion of the city.

After some time, another English poet, Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771), also tried to interest the reader in landscape poems. In order not to be like Thomson, he added poor, sad and melancholy characters with whom people should empathize.

But not all poets and writers loved nature so much. Samuel Richardson (1689 - 1761) was the first representative of symbolism who described only the life and feelings of his heroes. No landscapes!

Lawrence Sterne (1713 - 1768) combined two favorite themes for England - love and nature - in his work “A Sentimental Journey”.

Then sentimentalism “migrated” to France. The main representatives were Abbot Prevost (1697 - 1763) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778). The intense intrigue of love affairs in the works “Manon Lescaut” and “Julia, or the New Heloise” made all French women read these touching and sensual novels.

This marks the end of the period of sentimentalism in Europe. Then it begins in Russia, but we will talk about this later.

Differences from classicism and romanticism

The object of our research is sometimes confused with other literary movements, between which it has become a kind of transitional link. So what are the differences?

Differences between sentimentalism and romanticism:

• Firstly, at the head of sentimentalism are feelings, and at the head of romanticism is the human personality straightened to its full height;
• Secondly, the sentimental hero is opposed to the city and the harmful influence of civilization, and the romantic hero is opposed to society;
• And thirdly, the hero of sentimentalism is kind and simple, love plays the main role in his life, and the hero of romanticism is melancholic and gloomy, his love often does not save, on the contrary, it plunges into irrevocable despair.

Differences between sentimentalism and classicism:

• Classicism is characterized by the presence of “speaking names”, the relationship of time and place, the rejection of the unreasonable, and the division into “positive” and “negative” heroes. While sentimentalism “glorifies” the love of nature, naturalness, and trust in man. The characters are not so clear-cut; their images are interpreted in two ways. Strict canons disappear (there is no unity of place and time, there is no choice in favor of duty or punishment for the wrong choice). The sentimental hero looks for the good in everyone, and he is not chained into a template in the form of a label instead of a name;
• Classicism is also characterized by its straightforwardness and ideological orientation: in the choice between duty and feeling, it is appropriate to choose the first. In sentimentalism it’s the other way around: only simple and sincere emotions are the criterion for assessing a person’s inner world.
• If in classicism the main characters were noble or even had divine origin, but in sentimentalism representatives of the poor classes come to the fore: burghers, peasants, honest workers.

Main features

The main features of sentimentalism are generally considered to include:

• The main thing is spirituality, kindness and sincerity;
• Much attention is paid to nature, it changes in unison with the character’s state of mind;
• Interest in the inner world of a person, in his feelings;
• Lack of straightforwardness and clear direction;
• Subjective view of the world;
• The lower stratum of the population = rich inner world;
• Idealization of the village, criticism of civilization and the city;
• The tragic love story is the author's focus;
• The style of the works is clearly replete with emotional remarks, complaints and even speculation on the reader’s sensitivity.

Genres representing this literary movement:

• Elegy- a genre of poetry characterized by the sad mood of the author and a sad theme;
• Novel- a detailed narrative about an event or the life of a hero;
• Epistolary genre- works in the form of letters;
• Memoirs- a work where the author talks about events in which he personally participated, or about his life in general;
• Diary– personal notes with impressions of what is happening for a specific period of time;
• Trips- a travel diary with personal impressions of new places and acquaintances.

It is customary to distinguish two opposing directions within the framework of sentimentalism:

• Noble sentimentalism first considers the moral side of life, and then the social one. Spiritual qualities come first;
• Revolutionary sentimentalism mainly focused on the idea of ​​social equality. As a hero, we see a tradesman or peasant who suffered from a soulless and cynical representative of the upper class.

Features of sentimentalism in literature:

• Detailed description of nature;
• The beginnings of psychologism;
• The author's emotionally rich style
• The topic of social inequality is gaining popularity
• The topic of death is discussed in detail.

Signs of sentimentalism:

• The story is about the soul and feelings of the hero;
• The dominance of the inner world, “human nature” over the conventions of a hypocritical society;
• The tragedy of strong but unrequited love;
• Refusal of a rational view of the world.

Of course, the main theme of all works is love. But, for example, in the work of Alexander Radishchev “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” (1790), the key theme is the people and their life. In Schiller's drama "Cunning and Love" the author speaks out against the arbitrariness of the authorities and class prejudices. That is, the topic of the direction can be the most serious.

Unlike representatives of other literary movements, sentimentalist writers “became involved” in the lives of their heroes. They rejected the principle of “objective” discourse.

The essence of sentimentalism is to show the ordinary daily life people and their sincere feelings. All this happens against the backdrop of nature, which complements the picture of events. The main task of the author is to make readers feel all the emotions along with the characters and empathize with them.

Features of sentimentalism in painting

We have already discussed the characteristic features of this movement in literature earlier. Now it's the turn of painting.

Sentimentalism in painting is most clearly represented in our country. First of all, it is associated with one of the most famous artists Vladimir Borovikovsky (1757 - 1825). Portraits predominate in his work. When depicting a female image, the artist tried to show her natural beauty and rich inner world.

The most famous works are: “Lizonka and Dashenka”, “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina" and "Portrait of E.N. Arsenyeva." It is also worth noting Nikolai Ivanovich Argunov, who was known for his portraits of the Sheremetyev couple. In addition to paintings, Russian sentimentalists also distinguished themselves in the technique of John Flaxman, namely his painting on dishes.

The most famous is the “Service with a Green Frog”, which can be seen in the St. Petersburg Hermitage.

From foreign artists only three are known - Richard Brompton (worked in St. Petersburg for 3 years, significant work - “Portraits of Prince Alexander and Konstantin Pavlovich” and “Portrait of Prince George of Wales”), Etienne Maurice Falconet (specialized in landscapes) and Anthony Van Dyck (specialized in costume portraits ).

Representatives

James Thomson (1700 - 1748) - Scottish playwright and poet;

Edward Young (1683 - 1765) - English poet, founder of "cemetery poetry";

Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771)

) - English poet, literary critic;

Laurence Sterne (1713 - 1768) - English writer;

Samuel Richardson (1689 - 1761)

) - English writer and poet;

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) - French poet, writer, composer;

Abbe Prevost (1697 - 1763) - French poet.

Examples of works

James Thomson's collection of The Seasons (1730);

« Rural cemetery" (1751) and the ode "To Spring" by Thomas Gray;

"Pamela" (1740), "Clarissa Garlaue" (1748) and "Sir Charles Grandinson" (1754)

) Samuel Richardson;

"Tristram Shandy" (1757 - 1768) and "A Sentimental Journey" (1768) by Laurence Sterne;

"Manon Lescaut" (1731)

), "Cleveland" and "Life of Marianne" by Abbé Prevost;

"Julia, or the New Heloise" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1761).

Russian sentimentalism

Sentimentalism appeared in Russia around 1780 - 1790. This phenomenon gained popularity thanks to the translation of various Western works, including “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the parable story “Paul and Virginie” by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, “Julia, or the New Heloise” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the novels of Samuel Richardson.

“Letters of a Russian Traveler” - it was with this work by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766 - 1826) that the period of sentimentalism in Russian literature began. But then a story was written that became the most significant in the entire history of this movement. We're talking about " Poor Lisa"(1792) Karamzin.

In this work you can feel all the emotions, the innermost movements of the souls of the characters. The reader empathizes with them throughout the book. The success of “Poor Lisa” inspired Russian writers to create similar works, but less successful (for example, “Unhappy Margarita” and “The History of Poor Marya” by Gavriil Petrovich Kamenev (1773 - 1803)).

We can also include the earlier work of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1783 - 1852) as sentimentalism, namely his ballad “ Svetlana" Later he wrote the story “Maryina Roshcha” in the style of Karamzin.

Alexander Radishchev is the most controversial sentimentalist. There is still debate about his belonging to this movement. The genre and style of the work “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” speak in favor of his involvement in the movement. The author often used exclamations and tearful lyrical digressions. For example, the exclamation was heard as a refrain from the pages: “Oh, cruel landowner!”

The year 1820 is called the end of sentimentalism in our country and the birth of a new direction - romanticism.

One of the unique features of Russian sentimentalism is that each work tried to teach the reader something. It served as a mentor.

Within the framework of the direction, real psychologism arose, which had not happened before.

This era can also be called the “age of exclusive reading,” since only spiritual literature could direct a person to true path and help him understand his inner world.

Hero types

All sentimentalists portrayed ordinary people, not “citizens.” We always see a subtle, sincere, natural nature that does not hesitate to show its real feelings. The author always considers it from the side of the inner world, testing its strength with the test of love. He never puts her in any framework, but allows her to develop and grow spiritually.

The main meaning of any sentimental work has been and will only be a person.

Language Feature

Simple, understandable and emotionally charged language is the basis of the style of sentimentalism. It is also characterized by voluminous lyrical digressions with appeals and exclamations from the author, where he indicates his position and morality of the work.

Almost every text uses exclamation marks, diminutive forms of words, vernacular, and expressive vocabulary. Thus, at this stage the literary language becomes closer to the language of the people, making reading accessible to a wider audience. For our country, this meant that the art of words was reaching a new level.

It is secular prose written with ease and artistry that receives recognition, not the ponderous and tasteless works of imitators, translators or fanatics.

Sentimentalism

Sentimentalism as an artistic movement arose in Western art in the second half of the 18th century.

In Russia, its heyday occurred from the end of the 18th century to early XIX V.

Meaning of the term

Sentimentalism - from French. sentiment (feeling). The ideology of reason of the Enlightenment in sentimentalism is replaced by the priority of feeling, simplicity, solitary reflection, and interest in the “little man.” J. J. Rousseau is considered the ideologist of sentimentalism.

Jean Jacques Rousseau
The main character of sentimentalism becomes a natural person (living in peace with nature). Only such a person, according to sentimentalists, can be happy, having found inner harmony. In addition, it is important to educate feelings, i.e. natural principles of man.

Civilization (the urban environment) is a hostile environment for people and distorts their nature. Therefore, in the works of sentimentalists, a cult of private life and rural existence arises. Sentimentalists considered the concepts of “history,” “state,” “society,” and “education” to be negative.

They were not interested in the historical, heroic past (as the classicists were interested in it); everyday impressions constituted for them the essence of human life. The hero of sentimental literature is an ordinary person.

Even if this is a person of low origin (a servant or a robber), then the richness of his inner world is in no way inferior, and sometimes even surpasses the inner world of people of the upper class.

Representatives of sentimentalism did not approach a person with an unambiguous moral assessment - a person is complex and capable of both lofty and low actions, but by nature a good principle is inherent in people, and evil is the fruit of civilization. However, every person always has a chance to return to their nature.

Development of sentimentalism in art

England was the birthplace of sentimentalism. But in the second half of the 18th century. it became a pan-European phenomenon. Sentimentalism manifested itself most clearly in English, French, German and Russian literature.

Sentimentalism in English literature

James Thomson
At the end of the 20s of the 18th century. James Thomson wrote the poems "Winter" (1726), "Summer" (1727), "Spring" and "Autumn", later published as "The Seasons" (1730).

These works encouraged the English reading public to take a closer look at native nature and see the charm of idyllic village life in contrast to the vain and spoiled city life.

The so-called “cemetery poetry” (Edward Young, Thomas Gray) appeared, which expressed the idea of ​​​​the equality of all before death.

Thomas Gray
But sentimentalism expressed itself more fully in the genre of the novel. And here, first of all, we should remember Samuel Richardson, an English writer and printer, the first English novelist. He usually created his novels in the epistolary genre (in the form of letters).

Samuel Richardson

The main characters exchanged long, frank letters, and through them Richardson introduced the reader into the intimate world of their thoughts and feelings. Remember how A.S. Does Pushkin write about Tatyana Larina in his novel “Eugene Onegin”?

She liked novels early; They replaced everything for her; She fell in love with deceptions

And Richardson and Russo.

Joshua Reynolds "Portrait of Laurence Stern"

No less famous was Laurence Sterne, the author of Tristram Shandy and A Sentimental Journey. Stern himself called the “sentimental journey” “a peaceful journey of the heart in search of nature and all spiritual attractions that can inspire us with more love for our neighbors and for the whole world than we usually feel.”

Sentimentalism in French literature

At the origins of French sentimental prose are Pierre Carlet de Chamblen de Marivaux with the novel “The Life of Marianne” and Abbe Prevost with “Manon Lescaut”.

Abbot Prevost

But the highest achievement in this direction was the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), French philosopher, writer, thinker, musicologist, composer and botanist. The main philosophical works of Rousseau, which set out his social and political ideals, there was “The New Heloise”, “Emile” and “The Social Contract”.

Rousseau was the first to try to explain the causes of social inequality and its types. He believed that the state arises as a result social contract. According to the agreement, the supreme power in the state belongs to all the people. Under the influence of Rousseau’s ideas, new democratic institutions such as referendum, etc. arose.

J.J. Rousseau made nature an independent object of depiction. His “Confession” (1766-1770) is considered one of the most frank autobiographies in world literature, in which he clearly expresses the subjectivist attitude of sentimentalism: work of art– this is a way of expressing the author’s “I”. He believed that “the mind can make mistakes, but the feeling never.”

Sentimentalism in Russian literature

V. Tropinin “Portrait of N.M. Karamzin" (1818) The era of Russian sentimentalism began with N. M. Karamzin's "Letters of a Russian Traveler" (1791-1792).

Then the story “Poor Liza” (1792) was written, which is considered a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose. It was a great success among readers and became a source of imitation.

Works with similar titles appeared: “Poor Masha”, “Unhappy Margarita”, etc.

Karamzin's poetry also developed in line with European sentimentalism. The poet is not interested in the external, physical world, but in the internal, spiritual world of man. His poems speak “the language of the heart,” not the mind.

Sentimentalism in painting

The artist V. L. Borovikovsky experienced a particularly strong influence of sentimentalism. Chamber portraits predominate in his work. In his female images, V.L. Borovikovsky embodies the ideal of beauty of his era and the main task of sentimentalism: the transmission of the inner world of man.

In the double portrait “Lizonka and Dashenka” (1794), the artist depicted the maids of the Lvov family. It is obvious that the portrait was painted with great love for the models: he saw the soft curls of hair, the whiteness of their faces, and a slight blush. The intelligent look and lively spontaneity of these simple girls are in line with sentimentalism.

In many of his intimate, sentimental portraits, V. Borovikovsky was able to convey the diversity of feelings and experiences of the people depicted. For example, “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina" is one of the most popular women's portraits artist's brushes.

V. Borovikovsky “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina" (1797). Oil on canvas. 72 x 53.5 cm. Tretyakov Gallery(Moscow)V. Borovikovsky created an image of a woman not associated with any social status - she is simply a beautiful young woman, but living in harmony with nature.

Lopukhina is depicted against the backdrop of a Russian landscape: birch trunks, ears of rye, cornflowers. The landscape echoes Lopukhina’s appearance: the curve of her figure echoes the bent ears of corn, white birch trees are reflected in the dress, blue cornflowers echo the silk belt, a soft lilac shawl echoes the drooping rosebuds.

The portrait is full of life authenticity, depth of feeling and poetry.

Almost 100 years later, the Russian poet Ya. Polonsky dedicated poetry to the portrait:

She has long passed, and those eyes are no longer there And that smile that silently expressed Suffering is the shadow of love, and thoughts are the shadow of sadness, But Borovikovsky saved her beauty. So part of her soul did not fly away from us, And this look and this beauty of the body will be for her attract indifferent offspring, teaching them to love, suffer, forgive, and remain silent.

(Maria Ivanovna Lopukhina died very young, at the age of 24, from consumption).

V. Borovikovsky “Portrait of E.N. Arsenyeva" (1796). Oil on canvas. 71.5 x 56.5 cm. State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg)
But this portrait depicts Ekaterina Nikolaevna Arsenyeva - eldest daughter Major General N.D.

Arsenyeva, a pupil of the society of noble maidens at the Smolny Monastery. Later she will become a maid of honor to Empress Maria Feodorovna, and in the portrait she is depicted as a crafty, flirtatious shepherdess, with ears of wheat on her straw hat, and an apple, the symbol of Aphrodite, in her hand.

It is felt that the girl’s character is light and cheerful.

At the beginning of the 18th century, a completely new literary movement emerged in Europe, which, first of all, focuses on human feelings and emotions. Only at the end of the century does it reach Russia, but, unfortunately, it finds a response here among a small number of writers... All this is about the sentimentalism of the 18th century, and if you are interested in this topic, then continue reading.

Let's start with the definition of this literary trend, which determined new principles for illuminating the image and character of a person. What is “sentimentalism” in literature and art? The term comes from the French word “sentiment”, which means “feeling”. It means a direction in culture where artists of words, notes and brushes emphasize the emotions and feelings of the characters. Time frame of the period: for Europe - 20s of the XVIII - 80s of the XVIII; For Russia, this is the end of the 18th century - the beginning of the 19th century.

Sentimentalism specifically in literature is characterized by the following definition: it is a literary movement that came after classicism, in which the cult of the soul predominates.

The history of sentimentalism began in England. It was there that the first poems of James Thomson (1700 - 1748) were written. His works “Winter”, “Spring”, “Summer” and “Autumn”, which were later combined into one collection, described simple rural life. Quiet, peaceful everyday life, incredible landscapes and fascinating moments from the life of peasants - all this is revealed to readers. The author’s main idea is to show how good life is away from all the bustle and confusion of the city.

After some time, another English poet, Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771), also tried to interest the reader in landscape poems. In order not to be like Thomson, he added poor, sad and melancholy characters with whom people should empathize.

But not all poets and writers loved nature so much. Samuel Richardson (1689 - 1761) was the first representative of symbolism who described only the life and feelings of his heroes. No landscapes!

Lawrence Sterne (1713 - 1768) combined two favorite themes for England - love and nature - in his work “A Sentimental Journey”.

Then sentimentalism “migrated” to France. The main representatives were Abbot Prevost (1697 - 1763) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778). The intense intrigue of love affairs in the works “Manon Lescaut” and “Julia, or the New Heloise” made all French women read these touching and sensual novels.

This marks the end of the period of sentimentalism in Europe. Then it begins in Russia, but we will talk about this later.

Differences from classicism and romanticism

The object of our research is sometimes confused with other literary movements, between which it has become a kind of transitional link. So what are the differences?

Differences between sentimentalism and romanticism:

• Firstly, at the head of sentimentalism are feelings, and at the head of romanticism is the human personality straightened to its full height;
• Secondly, the sentimental hero is opposed to the city and the harmful influence of civilization, and the romantic hero is opposed to society;
• And thirdly, the hero of sentimentalism is kind and simple, love plays the main role in his life, and the hero of romanticism is melancholic and gloomy, his love often does not save, on the contrary, it plunges into irrevocable despair.

Differences between sentimentalism and classicism:

• Classicism is characterized by the presence of “speaking names”, the relationship of time and place, the rejection of the unreasonable, and the division into “positive” and “negative” heroes. While sentimentalism “glorifies” the love of nature, naturalness, and trust in man. The characters are not so clear-cut; their images are interpreted in two ways. Strict canons disappear (there is no unity of place and time, there is no choice in favor of duty or punishment for the wrong choice). The sentimental hero looks for the good in everyone, and he is not chained into a template in the form of a label instead of a name;
• Classicism is also characterized by its straightforwardness and ideological orientation: in the choice between duty and feeling, it is appropriate to choose the first. In sentimentalism it’s the other way around: only simple and sincere emotions are the criterion for assessing a person’s inner world.
• If in classicism the main characters were noble or even had divine origin, but in sentimentalism representatives of the poor classes come to the fore: burghers, peasants, honest workers.

Main features

The main features of sentimentalism are generally considered to include:

• The main thing is spirituality, kindness and sincerity;
• Much attention is paid to nature, it changes in unison with the character’s state of mind;
• Interest in the inner world of a person, in his feelings;
• Lack of straightforwardness and clear direction;
• Subjective view of the world;
• The lower stratum of the population = rich inner world;
• Idealization of the village, criticism of civilization and the city;
• The tragic love story is the author's focus;
• The style of the works is clearly replete with emotional remarks, complaints and even speculation on the reader’s sensitivity.

Genres representing this literary movement:

• Elegy- a genre of poetry characterized by the sad mood of the author and a sad theme;
• Novel- a detailed narrative about an event or the life of a hero;
• Epistolary genre- works in the form of letters;
• Memoirs- a work where the author talks about events in which he personally participated, or about his life in general;
• Diary– personal notes with impressions of what is happening for a specific period of time;
• Trips- a travel diary with personal impressions of new places and acquaintances.

It is customary to distinguish two opposing directions within the framework of sentimentalism:

• Noble sentimentalism first considers the moral side of life, and then the social one. Spiritual qualities come first;
• Revolutionary sentimentalism mainly focused on the idea of ​​social equality. As a hero, we see a tradesman or peasant who suffered from a soulless and cynical representative of the upper class.

Features of sentimentalism in literature:

• Detailed description of nature;
• The beginnings of psychologism;
• The author's emotionally rich style
• The topic of social inequality is gaining popularity
• The topic of death is discussed in detail.

Signs of sentimentalism:

• The story is about the soul and feelings of the hero;
• The dominance of the inner world, “human nature” over the conventions of a hypocritical society;
• The tragedy of strong but unrequited love;
• Refusal of a rational view of the world.

Of course, the main theme of all works is love. But, for example, in the work of Alexander Radishchev “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” (1790), the key theme is the people and their life. In Schiller's drama "Cunning and Love" the author speaks out against the arbitrariness of the authorities and class prejudices. That is, the topic of the direction can be the most serious.

Unlike representatives of other literary movements, sentimentalist writers became involved in the lives of their heroes. They rejected the principle of “objective” discourse.

The essence of sentimentalism is to show the ordinary everyday life of people and their sincere feelings. All this happens against the backdrop of nature, which complements the picture of events. The main task of the author is to make readers feel all the emotions along with the characters and empathize with them.

Features of sentimentalism in painting

We have already discussed the characteristic features of this movement in literature earlier. Now it's the turn of painting.

Sentimentalism in painting is most clearly represented in our country. First of all, he is associated with one of the most famous artists, Vladimir Borovikovsky (1757 - 1825). Portraits predominate in his work. When depicting a female image, the artist tried to show her natural beauty and rich inner world. The most famous works are: “Lizonka and Dashenka”, “Portrait of M.I. Lopukhina" and "Portrait of E.N. Arsenyeva." It is also worth noting Nikolai Ivanovich Argunov, who was known for his portraits of the Sheremetyev couple. In addition to paintings, Russian sentimentalists also distinguished themselves in the technique of John Flaxman, namely his painting on dishes. The most famous is the “Service with a Green Frog”, which can be seen in the St. Petersburg Hermitage.

Of the foreign artists, only three are known - Richard Brompton (3 years worked in St. Petersburg, significant work - “Portraits of Prince Alexander and Konstantin Pavlovich” and “Portrait of Prince George of Wales”), Etienne Maurice Falconet (specialized in landscapes) and Anthony Van Dyck (specialized in costume portraits).

Representatives

1. James Thomson (1700 - 1748) - Scottish playwright and poet;
2. Edward Young (1683 - 1765) - English poet, founder of "cemetery poetry";
3. Thomas Gray (1716 - 1771) - English poet, literary critic;
4. Laurence Sterne (1713 - 1768) - English writer;
5. Samuel Richardson (1689 - 1761) - English writer and poet;
6. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778) - French poet, writer, composer;
7. Abbe Prevost (1697 - 1763) - French poet.

Examples of works

1. James Thomson's collection of The Seasons (1730);
2. "The Country Cemetery" (1751) and the ode "To Spring" by Thomas Gray;
3. "Pamela" (1740), "Clarissa Harleau" (1748) and "Sir Charles Grandinson" (1754) by Samuel Richardson;
4. "Tristram Shandy" (1757 - 1768) and "A Sentimental Journey" (1768) by Laurence Sterne;
5. "Manon Lescaut" (1731), "Cleveland" and "Life of Marianne" by Abbé Prévost;
6. "Julia, or the New Heloise" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1761).

Russian sentimentalism

Sentimentalism appeared in Russia around 1780 - 1790. This phenomenon gained popularity thanks to the translation of various Western works, including “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, the parable story “Paul and Virginie” by Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, “Julia, or the New Heloise” by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the novels of Samuel Richardson.

“Letters of a Russian Traveler” - it was with this work by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin (1766 - 1826) that the period of sentimentalism in Russian literature began. But then a story was written that became the most significant in the entire history of this movement. We are talking about “” (1792) by Karamzin. In this work you can feel all the emotions, the innermost movements of the souls of the characters. The reader empathizes with them throughout the book. The success of “Poor Lisa” inspired Russian writers to create similar works, but less successful (for example, “Unhappy Margarita” and “The History of Poor Marya” by Gavriil Petrovich Kamenev (1773 - 1803)).

We can also include the earlier work of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky (1783 - 1852), namely his ballad “”, as sentimentalism. Later he wrote the story “Maryina Roshcha” in the style of Karamzin.

Alexander Radishchev is the most controversial sentimentalist. There is still debate about his belonging to this movement. The genre and style of the work “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” speak in favor of his involvement in the movement. The author often used exclamations and tearful lyrical digressions. For example, the exclamation was heard as a refrain from the pages: “Oh, cruel landowner!”

The year 1820 is called the end of sentimentalism in our country and the birth of a new direction - romanticism.

One of the unique features of Russian sentimentalism is that each work tried to teach the reader something. It served as a mentor. Within the framework of the direction, real psychologism arose, which had not happened before. This era can also be called the “age of exclusive reading,” since only spiritual literature could direct a person to the true path and help him understand his inner world.

Hero types

All sentimentalists portrayed ordinary people, not “citizens.” We always see a subtle, sincere, natural nature that does not hesitate to show its real feelings. The author always considers it from the side of the inner world, testing its strength with the test of love. He never puts her in any framework, but allows her to develop and grow spiritually.

The main meaning of any sentimental work has been and will only be a person.

Language Feature

Simple, understandable and emotionally charged language is the basis of the style of sentimentalism. It is also characterized by voluminous lyrical digressions with appeals and exclamations from the author, where he indicates his position and morality of the work. Almost every text uses exclamation marks, diminutive forms of words, vernacular, and expressive vocabulary. Thus, at this stage the literary language becomes closer to the language of the people, making reading accessible to a wider audience. For our country, this meant that the art of words was reaching a new level. It is secular prose written with ease and artistry that receives recognition, not the ponderous and tasteless works of imitators, translators or fanatics.

Interesting? Save it on your wall!

Sentimentalism remained faithful to the ideal of a normative personality, but the condition for its implementation was not the “reasonable” reorganization of the world, but the release and improvement of “natural” feelings. The hero of educational literature in sentimentalism is more individualized, his inner world is enriched by the ability to empathize and sensitively respond to what is happening around him. By origin (or by conviction) the sentimentalist hero is a democrat; the rich spiritual world of the common people is one of the main discoveries and conquests of sentimentalism.

The most prominent representatives of sentimentalism are James Thomson, Edward Jung, Thomas Gray, Laurence Stern (England), Jean Jacques Rousseau (France), Nikolai Karamzin (Russia).

Sentimentalism in English literature

Thomas Gray

England was the birthplace of sentimentalism. At the end of the 20s of the 18th century. James Thomson, with his poems “Winter” (1726), “Summer” (1727) and Spring, Autumn., subsequently combined into one whole and published () under the title “The Seasons,” contributed to the development of a love of nature in the English reading public by drawing simple, unpretentious rural landscapes, following step by step the various moments of the life and work of the farmer and, apparently, striving to place the peaceful, idyllic village environment above the bustle and spoiled city.

In the 40s of the same century, Thomas Gray, the author of the elegy “Rural Cemetery” (one of the most famous works of cemetery poetry), the ode “Towards Spring”, etc., like Thomson, tried to interest readers in rural life and nature, to awaken their sympathy to simple, inconspicuous people with their needs, sorrows and beliefs, while at the same time giving his creativity a thoughtful and melancholy character.

Richardson's famous novels - "Pamela" (), "Clarissa Garlo" (), "Sir Charles Grandison" () - are also of a bright and typical product of English sentimentalism. Richardson was completely insensitive to the beauties of nature and did not like to describe it, but he put psychological analysis in the first place and made the English, and then the entire European public, keenly interested in the fate of the heroes and especially the heroines of his novels.

Laurence Sterne, author of “Tristram Shandy” (-) and “A Sentimental Journey” (; after the name of this work the direction itself was called “sentimental”), combined Richardson’s sensitivity with a love of nature and a peculiar humor. Stern himself called the “sentimental journey” “a peaceful journey of the heart in search of nature and all spiritual attractions that can inspire us with more love for our neighbors and for the whole world than we usually feel.”

Sentimentalism in French literature

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre

Having moved to the continent, English sentimentalism found somewhat prepared soil in France. Quite independently of the English representatives of this trend, Abbé Prévost (“Manon Lescaut,” “Cleveland”) and Marivaux (“Life of Marianne”) taught the French public to admire everything touching, sensitive, and somewhat melancholic.

Under the same influence, Rousseau's "Julia" or "New Heloise" was created, who always spoke of Richardson with respect and sympathy. Julia reminds many of Clarissa Garlo, Clara reminds her of her friend, miss Howe. The moralizing nature of both works also brings them closer to each other; but in Rousseau’s novel nature plays a prominent role; the shores of Lake Geneva - Vevey, Clarens, Julia’s grove - are described with remarkable art. Rousseau's example did not remain without imitation; his follower, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, in his famous work “Paul and Virginie” () transfers the scene of action to South Africa, accurately foreshadowing best essays Chateaubrean, makes his heroes a charming couple of lovers who live far from city culture, in close communication with nature, sincere, sensitive and pure in soul.

Sentimentalism in Russian literature

Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s thanks to translations of the novels “Werther” by J.V. Goethe, “Pamela,” “Clarissa” and “Grandison” by S. Richardson, “The New Heloise” by J.-J. Rousseau, "Paul and Virginie" by J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The era of Russian sentimentalism was opened by Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin with “Letters of a Russian Traveler” (1791–1792).

His story "Poor Liza" (1792) is a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther he inherited a general atmosphere of sensitivity, melancholy and the theme of suicide.

The works of N.M. Karamzin gave rise to a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century appeared "Poor Liza" by A.E. Izmailov (1801), "Journey to Midday Russia" (1802), "Henrietta, or the Triumph of Deception over Weakness or Delusion" by I. Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G.P. Kamenev ( “The Story of Poor Marya”; “Unhappy Margarita”; “Beautiful Tatiana”), etc.

Ivan Ivanovich Dmitriev belonged to Karamzin’s group, which advocated the creation of a new poetic language and fought against the archaic pompous style and outdated genres.

Sentimentalism marked the early work of Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. The publication in 1802 of a translation of Elegy, written in a rural cemetery by E. Gray, became a phenomenon in the artistic life of Russia, for he translated the poem “into the language of sentimentalism in general, translated the genre of elegy, and not an individual work of an English poet, which has its own special individual style” (E. G. Etkind). In 1809, Zhukovsky wrote a sentimental story “Maryina Roshcha” in the spirit of N.M. Karamzin.

Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.

It was one of the stages of the pan-European literary development, which ended the Age of Enlightenment and opened the way to romanticism.

Main features of the literature of sentimentalism

So, taking into account all of the above, we can identify several main features of Russian literature of sentimentalism: a departure from the straightforwardness of classicism, an emphasized subjectivity of the approach to the world, a cult of feeling, a cult of nature, a cult of innate moral purity, innocence, the rich spiritual world of representatives of the lower classes is affirmed. Attention is paid to the spiritual world of a person, and feelings come first, not great ideas.

In painting

The direction of Western art of the second half of the 18th century, expressing disappointment in “civilization” based on the ideals of “reason” (Enlightenment ideology). S. proclaims the feeling, solitary reflection, and simplicity of the rural life of the “little man.” J.J.Russo is considered the ideologist of S.

One of the characteristic features of Russian portrait art of this period was citizenship. The heroes of the portrait no longer live in their own closed, isolated world. The consciousness of being necessary and useful to the fatherland, caused by the patriotic upsurge in the era of the Patriotic War of 1812, the flowering of humanistic thought, which was based on respect for the dignity of the individual, and the expectation of imminent social changes are restructuring the worldview of the advanced person. The portrait of N.A., presented in the hall, is adjacent to this direction. Zubova, granddaughters A.V. Suvorov, copied by an unknown master from a portrait of I.B. Lumpy the Elder, depicting a young woman in a park, away from the conventions of social life. She looks at the viewer thoughtfully with a half-smile; everything about her is simplicity and naturalness. Sentimentalism is opposed to straightforward and overly logical reasoning about the nature of human feeling, emotional perception that directly and more reliably leads to the comprehension of the truth. Sentimentalism expanded the idea of ​​human mental life, coming closer to understanding its contradictions, the very process of human experience. At the turn of two centuries, the work of N.I. developed. Argunov, a gifted serf of the Sheremetyev counts. One of the significant trends in Argunov’s work, which was not interrupted throughout the 19th centuries, is the desire for concreteness of expression, an unpretentious approach to a person. A portrait of N.P. is presented in the hall. Sheremetyev. It was donated by the Count himself to the Rostov Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery, where the cathedral was built at his expense. The portrait is characterized by realistic simplicity of expression, free from embellishment and idealization. The artist avoids painting the hands and focuses on the model’s face. The coloring of the portrait is based on the expressiveness of individual spots of pure color, colorful planes. IN portrait art At this time, a type of modest chamber portrait was emerging, completely freed from any features of the external environment, demonstrative behavior of models (portrait of P.A. Babin, P.I. Mordvinov). They do not pretend to be deeply psychologistic. We are dealing only with a fairly clear fixation of models, calm state of mind. A separate group consists of children's portraits presented in the hall. What is captivating about them is the simplicity and clarity of the interpretation of the image. If in the 18th century children were most often depicted with the attributes of mythological heroes in the form of cupids, Apollos and Dianas, then in the 19th century artists strive to convey the direct image of a child, the warehouse of a child’s character. The portraits presented in the hall, with rare exceptions, come from noble estates. They were part of estate portrait galleries, the basis of which were family portraits. The collection was of an intimate, predominantly memorial nature and reflected the personal attachments of the models and their attitude towards their ancestors and contemporaries, the memory of whom they tried to preserve for posterity. The study of portrait galleries deepens the understanding of the era, allows you to more clearly sense the specific environment in which the works of the past lived, and understand a number of features of their artistic language. Portraits provide rich material for studying the history of Russian culture.

V.L. experienced a particularly strong influence of sentimentalism. Borovikovsky, who depicted many of his models against the backdrop of an English park, with a soft, sensually vulnerable expression on his face. Borovikovsky was connected with the English tradition through the circle of N.A. Lvova - A.N. Venison. He knew the typology well English portrait, in particular, based on the works of the German artist A. Kaufmann, fashionable in the 1780s, who was educated in England.

English landscape painters also had some influence on Russian painters, for example, such masters of idealized classicist landscape as Ya.F. Hackert, R. Wilson, T. Jones, J. Forrester, S. Dalon. In the landscapes of F.M. Matveev, the influence of “Waterfalls” and “Views of Tivoli” by J. Mora can be traced.

In Russia, the graphics of J. Flaxman (illustrations to Gormer, Aeschylus, Dante), which influenced the drawings and engravings of F. Tolstoy, and the small plastic works of Wedgwood were also popular - in 1773, the Empress made a fantastic-sized order for the British manufactory for “ Service with green frog"of 952 objects with views of Great Britain, now stored in the Hermitage.

Miniatures by G.I. were performed in English taste. Skorodumov and A.Kh. Rita; The genre “Pictorial Sketches of Russian Manners, Customs and Entertainments in One Hundred Colored Drawings” (1803-1804) performed by J. Atkinson were reproduced on porcelain.

There were fewer British artists working in Russia in the second half of the 18th century than French or Italian ones. Among them, the most famous was Richard Brompton, the court artist of George III, who worked in St. Petersburg in 1780 - 1783. He owns portraits of the Grand Dukes Alexander and Konstantin Pavlovich, and Prince George of Wales, which became examples of the image of heirs at a young age. Brompton's unfinished image of Catherine against the backdrop of the fleet was embodied in the portrait of the Empress in the Temple of Minerva by D.G. Levitsky.

French by birth P.E. Falcone was a student of Reynolds and therefore represented the English school of painting. The traditional English aristocratic landscape presented in his works, dating back to Van Dyck of the English period, did not receive wide recognition in Russia.

However, Van Dyck's paintings from the Hermitage collection were often copied, which contributed to the spread of the genre of costume portraiture. The fashion for images in the English spirit became more widespread after the return from Britain of the engraver Skorodmov, who was appointed “Her Imperial Majesty's Cabinet engraver” and elected Academician. Thanks to the work of the engraver J. Walker, engraved copies of paintings by J. Romini, J. Reynolds, and W. Hoare were distributed in St. Petersburg. The notes left by J. Walker talk a lot about the advantages of the English portrait, and also describe the reaction to the acquired G.A. Potemkin and Catherine II of Reynolds's paintings: "the manner of thickly applying paint ... seemed strange ... for their (Russian) taste it was too much." However, as a theorist Reynolds was accepted in Russia; in 1790 his “Speeches” were translated into Russian, in which, in particular, the right of the portrait to belong to a number of the “highest” types of painting was substantiated and the concept of “portrait in the historical style” was introduced.

Literature

• E. Schmidt, “Richardson, Rousseau und Goethe” (Jena, 1875).
• Gasmeyer, “Richardson’s Pamela, ihre Quellen und ihr Einfluss auf die englische Litteratur” (Lpc., 1891).
• P. Stapfer, “Laurence Sterne, sa personne et ses ouvrages” (P., 18 82).
• Joseph Texte, “Jean-Jacques Rousseau et les origines du cosmopolitisme littéraire” (P., 1895).
• L. Petit de Juleville, “Histoire de la langue et de la littérature française” (Vol. VI, issue 48, 51, 54).

• “History of Russian Literature” by A. N. Pypin, (vol. IV, St. Petersburg, 1899).
• Alexey Veselovsky, “Western influence in new Russian literature” (M., 1896).
• S. T. Aksakov, “Various Works” (M., 1858; article about the merits of Prince Shakhovsky in dramatic literature).

Links

Movements in Western art
Middle Ages
New time
Modernism
Modern art

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Synonyms:

See what “Sentimentalism” is in other dictionaries:

Literary direction in the West. Europe and Russia XVIII beginning. 19th century I. SENTIMENTALISM IN THE WEST. The term "S." formed from the adjective “sentimental” (sensitive), to swarm is already found in Richardson, but gained particular popularity after ... Literary encyclopedia

Sentimentalism- SENTIMENTALISM. By sentimentalism we understand that direction of literature that developed at the end of the 18th century and colored the beginning of the 19th century, which was distinguished by the cult of the human heart, feeling, simplicity, naturalness, special... ... Dictionary of literary terms

sentimentalism- a, m. sentimentalisme m. 1. The literary movement of the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries, which replaced classicism, characterized by special attention to the spiritual world of man, to nature and partly idealizing reality. BAS 1.… … Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

SENTIMENTALISM, SENTIMENTALISM sensitivity. A complete dictionary of foreign words that have come into use in the Russian language. Popov M., 1907. sentimentalism (French sentimentalisme sentiment feeling) 1) European literary movement of the late 18th… Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (from the French sentiment feeling), a movement in European and American literature and art of the 2nd half of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Starting from enlightenment rationalism (see Enlightenment), he declared that the dominant of human nature is not reason, but... Modern encyclopedia

- (from the French sentiment feeling) a movement in European and American literature and art of the 2nd half. 18 start 19th centuries Starting from Enlightenment rationalism (see Enlightenment), he declared that the dominant of human nature is not reason, but feeling, and... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Torez UVK - Lyceum "Spectrum"

Work of the Small Academy of Sciences

Completed:

9th grade student

Kilimenko Irina

Supervisor:

Elnikova Irina Anatolevna

Torez 2010

Sentimentalism as a literary movement

Sentimentalism as a literary movement

SENTIMENTALISM. By sentimentalism we understand that direction of literature that developed at the end of the 18th century and colored the beginning of the 19th century, which was distinguished by the cult of the human heart, feelings, simplicity, naturalness, special attention to the inner world, and a living love for nature. In contrast to classicism, which worshiped reason, and only reason, and which, as a result, built everything in its aesthetics on strictly logical principles, on a carefully thought-out system (Boileau’s theory of poetry), sentimentalism provides the artist with freedom of feeling, imagination and expression and does not require his impeccable correctness in the architectonics of literary creations. Sentimentalism is a protest against the dry rationality that characterized the Age of Enlightenment; he values ​​in a person not what culture has given him, but what he has brought with him in the depths of his nature. And if classicism (or, as it is more often called here in Russia, false classicism) was interested exclusively in representatives of the highest social circles, royal leaders, the sphere of the court and all kinds of aristocracy, then sentimentalism is much more democratic and, recognizing the fundamental equivalence of all people, is omitted into the valleys of everyday life - into that environment of the bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie, the middle class, which at that time had just advanced in purely economic terms and began - especially in England - to play an outstanding role on the historical stage. For a sentimentalist, everyone is interesting, because in everyone intimate life glows, shines and warms; and you don’t need special events, stormy and bright activity, in order to be honored with getting into literature: no, it turns out to be hospitable in relation to the most ordinary people, to the most ineffective biography, it depicts the slow passing of ordinary days, the peaceful backwaters of nepotism, the quiet a trickle of everyday worries. Sentimental literature is in no hurry; her favorite form is the “long, moralizing and decorous” novel (in the style of Richardson’s famous works: “Pamela”, “Clarissa Harlowe”, “Sir Charles Grandison”); heroes and heroines keep diaries, write endless letters to each other, and indulge in heartfelt outpourings. It is in this connection that the sentimentalists gained credit for themselves in the field of psychological analysis: they transferred the center of gravity from the external to the internal; in fact, that’s exactly what it’s all about main meaning the very term “sentimental”: the whole movement took its name from Daniel Stern’s essay “Sentimental Journey”, that is, a description of a journey that focuses on impressions the traveler, not so much on what he encounters, but on what he experiences. Sentimentalism directs its quiet rays not at the objects of reality, but at the subject who perceives them. He places the sensitive person at the forefront and is not only not ashamed of sensitivity, but, on the contrary, exalts it as the highest value and dignity of the spirit. Of course, this had its downside, since the cherished sensitivity crossed the proper boundaries, became cloying and sugary, and became detached from the courageous will and reason; but the very essence, the very principle of sentimentalism does not necessarily include the fact that the feeling is so exaggerated and takes on an illegally self-sufficient character. True, in practice, many of the confessors of this school suffered from a similar expansion of the heart. Be that as it may, sentimentalism knew how to be touching, touched the tender strings of the soul, evoked tears, and brought undoubted gentleness, tenderness, and kindness among readers and, mainly, female readers. It is undeniable that sentimentalism is philanthropism, it is a school of philanthropy; it is indisputable that, for example, in Russian literature, the line of continuity to Dostoevsky’s “Poor People” comes from Karamzin’s “Poor Liza,” who is our most notable representative of sentimentalism (especially as the author of stories and “Letters of a Russian Traveler”). Naturally, sentimentalist writers, sensitively listening, so to speak, to the beating of the human heart, should have, among other feelings that make up the content of his inner life, especially perceive the range of mournful moods - sadness, melancholy, disappointment, melancholy. This is why the flavor of many sentimental works is melancholy. Sensitive souls were nourished by its sweet streams. A typical example in this sense can serve as Gray’s elegy “Rural Cemetery” translated by Zhukovsky from English; and it must be said that the sentimentalist writer generally loved to take his reader to the cemetery, into the sad atmosphere of death, crosses and monuments - following the English poet Jung, the author of "Nights". It is also clear that the original source of suffering, unhappy love, also gave sentimentalism a gracious opportunity to draw abundantly from its tear-waters. Goethe's famous novel The Sorrows of Young Werther is filled with this moisture of the heart. Moralism is also a typical feature of sentimentalism. It is about sentimental novels that Pushkin says: “and at the end of the last part the vice was always punished, the good was given a wreath.” In their vague dreaminess, writers of this trend were certainly inclined to see a certain moral order in the world. They taught, they instilled “good feelings.” In general, the idyllization and idealization of things, even if covered with a mournful haze of sadness, is an essential sign of sentimentalism. And he extends this idyllization and idealization most of all to nature. The influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau with his denial of culture and exaltation of nature was felt here. If Boileau demanded that the main setting in literary works be the city and the courtyard, then sentimentalists often moved their heroes, and with them their readers, to the countryside, to the primitive bosom of nature, within the framework of patriarchal artlessness. In sentimental novels, nature takes a direct part in the dramas of the heart, in the vicissitudes of love; Many enthusiastic colors are lavished on descriptions of nature, and with tears in their eyes they kiss the ground, admire the moonlight, and are touched by birds and flowers. In general, one must carefully distinguish in sentimentalism its distortions from its healthy core, which consists in admiration for naturalness and simplicity and in recognition of the highest rights of the human heart. To get acquainted with sentimentalism, the book by Alexander N. Veselovsky “V.A. Zhukovsky. Poetry of feeling and heartfelt imagination” is important.

Sentimentalism in English literature

Thomas Gray.

England was the birthplace of sentimentalism. At the end of the 20s of the 18th century. James Thomson, with his poems “Winter” (1726), “Summer” (1727), etc., subsequently combined into one whole and published (1730) under the title “The Seasons,” contributed to the development of a love of nature in the English reading public, painting simple, unpretentious rural landscapes, following step by step the various moments of the life and work of the farmer, and apparently striving to place the peaceful, idyllic country situation above the vain and spoiled city.

In the 40s of the same century, Thomas Gray, the author of the elegy “Rural Cemetery” (one of the most famous works of cemetery poetry), the ode “Towards Spring”, etc., like Thomson, tried to interest readers in rural life and nature, to awaken their sympathy to simple, inconspicuous people with their needs, sorrows and beliefs, while at the same time giving his creativity a thoughtful and melancholy character.

Richardson's famous novels - "Pamela" (1740), "Clarissa Harlo" (1748), "Sir Charles Grandison" (1754) - are also a bright and typical product of English sentimentalism. Richardson was completely insensitive to the beauties of nature and did not like to describe it, but he put psychological analysis in the first place and made the English, and then the entire European public, keenly interested in the fate of the heroes and especially the heroines of his novels.

Laurence Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy (1759-1766) and A Sentimental Journey (1768); after the name of this work, the direction itself was called “sentimental”), combining Richardson’s sensitivity with a love of nature and a kind of humor. Stern himself called the “sentimental journey” “a peaceful journey of the heart in search of nature and all spiritual attractions that can inspire us with more love for our neighbors and for the whole world than we usually feel.”

Sentimentalism in French literature

Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre.

Having moved to the continent, English sentimentalism found somewhat prepared soil in France. Quite independently of the English representatives of this trend, Abbé Prévost (Manon Lescaut, Cleveland) and Marivaux (Life of Marianne) taught the French public to admire everything touching, sensitive, and somewhat melancholic.

Under the same influence, “Julia” or “New Heloise” was created by Rousseau (1761), who always spoke of Richardson with respect and sympathy. Julia reminds many of Clarissa Garlo, Clara reminds her of her friend, miss Howe. The moralizing nature of both works also brings them closer to each other; but in Rousseau’s novel nature plays a prominent role; the shores of Lake Geneva - Vevey, Clarens, Julia’s grove - are described with remarkable art. Rousseau's example did not remain without imitation; his follower, Bernardin de Saint-Pied, in his famous work “Paul and Virginie” (1787) transfers the scene of action to South Africa, accurately foreshadowing the best works of Chateaubriand, makes his heroes a charming couple of lovers living away from urban culture, in close communication with nature, sincere, sensitive and pure in soul.

Sentimentalism in Russian literature

Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin.

SENTIMENTALISM IN RUSSIA. - In Russian literature, the bourgeois essence of European S. has lost its social meaning. The Russian nobility accepted the new style of European literature as convenient form for the artistic expression of their new needs. The beginning of the collapse of feudal relations pushed a certain part of the nobility towards personal interests and intimate experiences. Theorists of the new direction saw the purpose of art in the fact that it “should deal with one thing graceful, depict beauty, harmony and spread pleasant impressions in the sensitive area” (1793, “What does an author need?” Karamzin). “Poetry is a flower garden of sensitive hearts,” said Karamzin. The poet is a “skillful liar”, “finds the poetic side in the most ordinary things”, “describes those objects that are close to him and by their own force attract his imagination”, but this is an expansion of the range of phenomena subject to the poet’s knowledge, compared with the poetics of classicism limited by the requirement: “it is better for the young pupil of the Muses to depict in poetry the first impressions of love, friendship, the gentle beauties of nature, rather than the destruction of the world, the general fire of Nature, etc. of this kind” (from the preface to the 2nd book of “Aonid”, 1796). In the genre of elegy, themes of love, friendship, and rural nature were developed with a deliberate taste for “sensitive” subjects. Melancholy - "the gentlest overflow from sorrow and melancholy to the joys of pleasure" - is considered a mood "sweeter than all artificial amusements and windy pleasures." Thoughts about the cemetery, reflections in the cemetery at night under the moon with memories of Jung, Ossian, Gray are typical for a melancholic person admiring his tears and glorifying the creator of the universe. Idyllic memories of the past, rosy dreams of the future, of the power of providence are included in the spiritual baggage of the sentimentalist poet, who recognized that reason, which the revolutionary bourgeoisie in France proclaimed as a powerful force for the renewal of the world, is insufficient and that it is necessary to educate the “heart” - the “culprit” great deeds, noble deeds." Lyrics by Karamzin (see), Zhukovsky (see), I. Dmitriev (see), Kapnist, Neledinsky-Meletsky (see), Kaisarov, Karabanov, P. Lvov, A. Turchaninova, employees of the Moscow Journal, " Bulletin of Europe", "Hypocrene, or the joys of love", "Readings for taste, reason and feelings", etc. saturated with this topic. The cult of nature gave rise to a special genre of travel. “Letters of a Russian traveler” Karamzin with the recollection of the “sensitive, kind, amiable Stern” became a model, followed by numerous “sensitive travelers” - Nevzorov (“Travel to Kazan, Vyatka and Orenburg in 1800”, M., 1803), Shalikov (“Travel to Little Russia”, M., 1803), V. Izmailov (“Travel to Midday Russia”, 1800-1802), M. Gladkova (“A fifteen-day journey of a fifteen-year-old, written to please his parents and dedicated to a fifteen-year-old friend”, P., 1810), etc. The purpose of travel is “confession about oneself,” “a conversation with oneself and with friends about the events of the world, about the fate of earthly peoples, about one’s own feelings.” Along with descriptions of sensitive emotions that every now and then arise among travelers, with repetition of themes, sentimental lyrics (melancholy, dreams, cemetery, etc.), the travel genre introduced into the reader's circulation information about various parts of the world, about cultural monuments, about outstanding people (Karamzin in the "Letters" about Herder, Wieland, Kant, etc.). Because of the sensitive tirades about nature and dreams “under the current of the rivers,” a bleak picture of true life rarely appeared, but the sober policy of the great-power landowner was clearly manifested in the writings of V. Izmailov, who defended colonialist activities in the Crimea, or P. Sumarokov in “Leisures of a Crimean Judge, or the second journey to Taurida" (1803), who proposed evicting the Tatars from Crimea. “The History of the Misfortunes of the Human Race” was part of the program of sentimental fiction, where two streams - “terrible” and “sensitive” - merged into one stream of touching emotions caused by the unfortunate fate of one of the heroes, heroines or “terrible” episodes. Gnedich's novel "Don Corrado de Guerrera, or the spirit of vengeance and barbarism of the Spanish" (1803) and Karamzin's story "Poor Liza" (1792) are the most typical in this genre. The stories entitled “Poor Lilla” (1803), “Poor Masha” (1803), “Unhappy Margarita” (1803), “Seduced Henrietta”, “The Story of Poor Marya”, “Unhappy Lovers”, etc. evoked “tender feelings” sympathy for the “poor,” but the Peisan flavor in the depiction of peasant or bourgeois life, melodramatic effects obscured the truth of life and thereby revealed the “world of essentiality” in an extremely limited way to reality. Weak germs of verisimilitude are also noticeable in the so-called historical novel of the sentimental school. Attempts to draw the past on the basis of documents, family chronicles, and legends took the form of the usual idyll or fantasy: “Natalia the Boyar’s Daughter” (1792), “Martha the Posadnitsa or the Conquest of Novgorod” (1803) by Karamzin, “Rurik” by A.M. -sky (1805), “Ksenia Princess Galitskaya” (1808), sometimes following quite accurately small facts of a historical nature, gave a false idealization of the long past. The same line of smoothing out contradictions social life, an idyllic attitude to reality in sentimental drama, saturated with “Kotsebyatina”: Ilyin, author of the drama “Liza, or the Triumph of Gratitude” (1801), “Generosity or Recruitment” (1803); Fedorov, author of the play "Lisa, or the Consequence of Pride and Seduction" (1804); Ivanov, author of the play “Awarded Virtue, or a Woman, Which Are Few” (1805), etc. All elements of the sentimental style were subordinated to one artistic principle: “A syllable, a figure, a metaphor, images, expressions - all this touches and captivates when it is animated by feeling” (Karamzin, What does the author need?, 1793). Working on the language was supposed to contribute to the “processing of the heart.” Elegant speech, alien to vernacular, provincialisms, Church Slavonicisms, modeled on French writers- “examples of subtlety and pleasantness in style” (Karamzin), formed the basis for the reform of the literary language in Karamzin’s school. The selection of words, grammatical forms, and syntactic structures broke the church-book element of the literary language, turning it into a weapon in the struggle of the noble intelligentsia against archaic forms. Thanks to this, as well as due to some expansion of the subject matter, S. in Russia had a certain progressive significance. Political events since the beginning of the 19th century. which, under the influence of European life, caused a complex reaction in the social reality of Russia, helped to accelerate the end of the sentimental trend. Russian literary style began to disintegrate, falling into newly emerging literary trends with individual stylistic trends or ceasing to exist altogether. “There was a time when everyone wanted the glory of the sentimental; another thing has come - and everyone is trying to say and write, at the right time and in the wrong time - smart or stupid, there is no need! an epigram against the sentimental,” stated the state of affairs on the literary front “Aglaya” in 1808. Elements some sensitivity in the further development of Russian literature entered into currents so far in essence from S. that their presence in the works of the authors " Stationmaster" or "Overcoats" or "Poor People" must be considered as phenomena of a completely different historical and aesthetic significance.

sentimentalism literary movement

Literature

2. Veselovsky A.N., V.A. Zhukovsky, St. Petersburg, 1904 (ed. 2, P., 1918), chapter I. The Age of Sensibility;

3. Rezanov V.I., From research on the works of V.A. Zhukovsky, vol. I, ch. IX, St. Petersburg, 1906; issue II, ch. XXIII, P., 1916;

4. Ignatov I.N., Theater and spectators, part 1, M., 1916, pp. 79-103;

5. Roboli T.A., Travel literature, in collection. “Russian Prose”, Edited by B. Eikhenbaum and Y. Tynyanov, Leningrad, 1926;

6. Skipina K.A., About a sensitive story, in collection. "Russian Prose", Leningrad, 1926; Sakkulin P.N., Russian literature, part 2, period two, ch. IX, M., 1929.

7. Yu. Podolsky. Literary encyclopedia: Dictionary of literary terms: In 2 volumes / Edited by N. Brodsky, A. Lavretsky, E. Lunin, V. Lvov-Rogachevsky, M. Rozanov, V. Cheshikhin-Vetrinsky. - M.; L.: Publishing house L.D. Frenkel, 1925

8. "History" German literature"V. Scherer (Russian translation edited by A.N. Pypin, vol. II).

9. A. Galakhov, “History of Russian literature, ancient and new” (vol. I, section II, and volume II, St. Petersburg, 1880).

10. M. Sukhomlinov, “A.N. Radishchev” (St. Petersburg, 1883).

11. “History of Russian literature” A.N. Pypin, (vol. IV, St. Petersburg, 1899).

12. Alexey Veselovsky, “Western influence in new Russian literature” (M., 1896).