Studying the biography of a writer makes it possible to reveal the richness of the writer’s artistic world and enter his creative laboratory.
In the lessons it is necessary to create a special emotional and moral atmosphere that evokes empathy and co-reflection with the author and literary heroes. Therefore, it is important to think through not only the logic of presentation of the material, but also the very forms of emotional impact on students.
The first lessons are devoted to the biography of Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev and a review of his work; the task is given to read stories from the collection “Notes of a Hunter”, the novels “Rudin”, “Fathers and Sons”.
Before reading and discussing the works, at the beginning of studying the section, you can conduct a composition lesson. The task is set to penetrate into the world of man and writer, to understand relationships with contemporaries and genre originality creativity of Turgenev.
In order to imagine the atmosphere of communication between Turgenev’s contemporaries, it is necessary to find not only interesting stories, memories of the writer, but also present them in a “lighter” form for oral retelling. Many details of the story and individual expressions have to be changed, so direct quotes are not always given in the script.
Memoirs of contemporaries in a stage performance allow students to delve deeper into the essence of assessments and reflections on the life and work of the writer. Here the “live” speech of contemporaries is heard and their immediate image is created.
Preparation for the lesson:
- Together with the students, a lesson script is drawn up and roles are assigned;
- the task is given to present the atmosphere of the meeting and conversation of contemporaries about Turgenev, to create interesting story about him, read lyrical poems and prose poems;
- Small groups of students work on the production together with the teacher;
- portraits of I.S. on the board Turgenev, next to a table with books and literature about him, there is a stage area where readers and reciters talk about Turgenev and fragments from the novels “Rudin” and “Fathers and Sons” are staged;
- musical works were selected to accompany the production itself.
Composition lesson script
Teacher. Today we will try to penetrate the world of Turgenev - the man and the writer, reveal his joys and sorrows, and get acquainted with the memories of Turgenev. Let's listen to what his contemporaries are saying: P.A. Kropotkin, Guy de Maupassant, P.V. Annenkov, A. Fet.
Sounds like one of my favorites musical works Turgenev - “Waltz-Fantasy” by Glinka.
Reader 1(P.A. Kropotkin). Turgenev's appearance is well known. He was very handsome: tall, strongly built, with soft gray curls. His eyes shone with intelligence and were not without a humorous sparkle, and his manners were distinguished by that simplicity and lack of affectation that are characteristic of the best Russian writers.
Reader 2(Guy de Maupassant). I saw Ivan Turgenev for the first time at Gustave Flaubert. The door opened. The giant entered. A giant with a silver head, as they would say in a fairy tale. He had long gray hair, thick gray eyebrows and a large gray beard, shimmering with silver, and in this sparkling snowy whiteness - a kind, calm face with slightly large features. Turgenev was tall, broad-shouldered, densely built, but not obese, a real colossus with the movements of a child, timid and cautious.
Reader 1(P.A. Kropotkin). Turgenev’s conversation was especially remarkable. He spoke, as he wrote, in images. Wanting to develop an idea, he explained it with some kind of sketch, conveyed in such artistic form, as if it were taken from his story.
Reader 2(Guy de Maupassant). Turgenev's voice sounded very soft and a little sluggish... He told a wonderful story, imparting artistic value and peculiar entertainment to the most insignificant fact, but he was loved not so much for his sublime mind as for some touching naivety and the ability to be surprised at everything.
Reader 3(P.V. Annenkov). After 1850, Turgenev's living room became a gathering place for people from all classes of society. Here met the heroes of social salons, attracted by his reputation as a fashionable writer, literary figures who were preparing themselves to become leaders public opinion, famous artists and actresses who were under the irresistible effect of his beautiful figure and high understanding of art...
No one noticed the melancholy shade in Turgenev’s life, and yet he was an unhappy man in his own eyes: he lacked the female love and affection that he had been looking for from an early age. Summoning and quest ideal woman helped him create that Olympus, which he populated with noble female creatures, great in their simplicity and in their aspirations. Turgenev himself suffered that he could not defeat the female soul and control it: he could only torment her.
It is remarkable that the real and best qualities of his heart were revealed with the greatest strength in the village. Every time Turgenev left Petersburg, he calmed down. There was no one to shine in front of then, no one to invent scenes for and think about staging them. The village played in his life the very role that was later played by his frequent absences abroad - it determined with precision what he should think and do.
Reader 4(A. Fet). In those days there was an abundance of swamp game, and if Turgenev and I went to his estate Topki, the main goal was to hunt, and not to sort out economic affairs. The next day of our arrival, Turgenev, sensing that the peasants would come to him, was painfully tormented by the impending need to go out to their porch.
I watched this scene from the window. Handsome and apparently wealthy peasants surrounded the porch on which Turgenev stood. Some guy asked for more land. Before Ivan Sergeevich had time to promise the land, similar needs arose for everyone, and the matter ended with the distribution of all the master's land. Turgenev’s uncle later said: “Really, gentlemen writers, are you all so stupid? You went to Topki and distributed all the land to the peasants, and now the same Ivan writes to me: “Uncle, how can I sell Topki?” What to sell when all the land remained distributed to the peasants?
Teacher. Communication with men was not in vain for Turgenev. He reflected his observations in the essay “Khor and Kalinich”, published in the Sovremennik magazine. When the magazine issue reached the reader, everyone started talking about the author’s talent. Success prompted Turgenev to continue working on his essays. The book was soon translated into French. There were a lot of enthusiastic responses to it.
Reader 5(J. Sand). What a masterful painting!.. This new world, into which you allowed us to penetrate: not a single historical monument can reveal Russia better than these images, so well studied by you, and this life, so well seen by you.
Teacher. Many people believe that the life of writers associated with literary work flows calmly and serenely. This does not apply to Turgenev, who had difficult relationships with “fellow writers.” He did not get along with I.A. Goncharov, broke off relations with N.A. Nekrasov. But one of the facts seems the most surprising in the life of I.S. Turgenev and L.N. Tolstoy. A quarrel occurred between the two great writers, which separated them for seventeen long years.
Student 1. The quarrel occurred over Turgenev's daughter, Polina. Born from a “slave,” the girl immediately found herself out of place. She was torn away from her mother early. She knew her father little. Although he spared nothing for her, he taught, educated, hired governesses - this was considered a “duty”. All worries about her are not warmed by anything. In essence, he has no use for her.
Little Polina began to be jealous of her father towards Polina Viardot. This annoyed him. Turgenev said about his daughter that she did not like music, poetry, nature, or dogs. In general, he and Polina have little in common.
Student 2. In the spring of 1861, Tolstoy visited Turgenev. They decided to go to Fet. An argument broke out between Turgenev and Tolstoy in the dining room. It all started with Fet’s wife asking Turgenev about his daughter. He began to praise her new governess, who took care of the girl and forced her to take the poor people’s linen home, mend it, and give it back to the darned ones.
Tolstoy asked ironically:
And do you think this is good?
Of course, this brings the benefactor closer to the urgent need,” Turgenev replied.
In Tolstoy a severe stubbornness arose, associated with disrespect for his interlocutor.
But I think that a dressed-up girl holding dirty rags on her knees is playing an insincere, theatrical scene.
Student 1. His tone was unbearable. Whether Turgenev loved or did not love his daughter is his business. Tolstoy laughed at poor Polina, and at his father. Turgenev could not bear this.
After the exclamation:
I ask you not to talk about this!
And Tolstoy's answer:
Why shouldn’t I say what I am convinced of!
Turgenev shouted in complete rage:
So I will force you to remain silent with an insult!
He grabbed his head with his hands and quickly left the room, but a second later he returned and apologized to the hostess.
Student 2. Two of the best Russian writers quarreled for seventeen years, exchanged insulting letters, it almost came to a duel... Because of what? Polina stood between them. Turgenev outwardly turned out to be wrong, but his internal position was much better - he boiled, said unnecessary things and apologized. Tolstoy did not evoke sympathy. He offered Turgenev a duel “with guns” so that it would certainly end properly. But Turgenev agreed to a duel only on European terms. Then Tolstoy wrote him a rude letter, and noted in his diary: “He is a complete scoundrel, but I think that over time I will not be able to stand it and will forgive him.”
Teacher. Like this strange story happened. Both writers were very worried and regretted what happened...
Turgenev tried his hand at different genres. He wrote the plays “The Freeloader”, “Breakfast at the Leader”, “A Month in the Country”.
The young actress Savina staged “A Month in the Country” in her benefit performance. The performance was a huge success. “Savina was triumphant. She opened the play. She brought Turgenev to the public: the reflection of his glory fell on her too.”
Reader 6(M.G. Savina). The play was performed - and it created a sensation. Soon the writer came to Russia and was greeted enthusiastically. I was invited to see Ivan Sergeev.
I was overcome with such excitement that I almost decided not to go. I remember that something warm, sweet, and familiar was wafted from the entire heroic figure of Turgenev. He was such a handsome, elegant “grandfather” that I immediately got used to it and started talking like an ordinary mortal.
I was in my twenty-fifth year, I had heard so often about my “cuteness” that I was convinced of it myself, but to hear the word “clever” from Turgenev! was happiness. I didn't say anything about his writings! This thought completely poisoned the entire impression. An hour later, Turgenev’s friend appeared and said that Turgenev especially liked that I had not mentioned his works. “It’s so corny and so boring.”
Beethoven's piano sonata sounds.
Teacher. Turgenev's poetic work is little known. Meanwhile, the writer began his literary activity precisely with lyrical works. The author himself spoke very reservedly about his poems, believing that he did not have the gift of a poet. But the poems did not leave his contemporaries indifferent. Even Fet once said that he “admired the poems... of Turgenev.” Admiration for nature, a subtle understanding of its essence, a sense of its mystery - all this can be found in the poem “Autumn”.
Reader 7. Poem "Autumn".
How sadly I love autumn.
On a foggy, quiet day I walk
I often go into the forest and sit there -
I look at the white sky
Yes, to the tops of dark pines.
I love, biting a sour leaf,
Lounging with a lazy smile,
Dream of doing whimsical
Yes, listen to the woodpeckers' thin whistle.
The grass has all withered... cold,
A calm shine is spread over her...
And sadness quiet and free
I surrender with all my soul...
What won't I remember? Which
Will my dreams not visit me?
And the pines bend as if they were alive,
And they make such thoughtful noise...
And, like a flock of huge birds,
Suddenly the wind blows
And in tangled and dark branches
He makes some noise impatiently.
Teacher. In the summer of 1855 in Spassky, Turgenev finished the novel “Rudin,” according to Boris Zaitsev, “a thing in a sense, a debut and brilliant.” Turgenev put a lot of himself into the main character - Rudin. The novel, as expected, was read by friends, advised, praised, and “pointed out the shortcomings.” Now you will see a small scene from this novel: an explanation by Natalya Lasunskaya and Rudin.
Mozart's sonata-fantasy sounds.
Teacher. The writer in his declining years expressed the accumulated observations and thoughts, the joys and sufferings he experienced in a cycle of prose poems. In Russian literature they remain unsurpassed examples of poetic miniatures.
Turgenev's poems with the help of Pauline Viardot were translated into European languages. The writer did not expect that readers would perceive them with interest and sympathy. Selected works were set to music.
The title of the prose poem is “We will fight again!” evokes a joyful, cheerful feeling. You immediately imagine the kind smile of a man to whom all living things are dear, you feel the playful affection in his words about the sparrow: “Conqueror - and that’s it!”
Reader 8. Prose poem “We will fight again!”
What an insignificant little thing can sometimes transform the whole person!
Full of thought, I was walking along the high road one day.
Heavy forebodings oppressed my chest; despondency took possession of me.
I raised my head... In front of me, between two rows of tall poplars, the road stretched into the distance like an arrow.
And across it, across this very road, ten steps from me, all gilded by the bright summer sun, a whole family of sparrows was jumping in single file, jumping briskly, funny, self-confidently!
One of them, in particular, kept pushing himself sideways, sideways, with his goiter bulging and chirping impudently, as if the devil were not his brother! Conqueror - and that's it!
Meanwhile, high in the sky a hawk was circling, which, perhaps, was destined to devour this very conqueror.
I looked, laughed, shook myself - and the sad thoughts immediately flew away: I felt courage, daring, a desire for life.
And let my hawk circle above me...
- We'll fight again, damn it!
Teacher. Prose poems are an unusual phenomenon in terms of genre. Lyricism, brevity, and emotionality of the narrative bring them closer to lyric poetry. However, unlike lyric poetry, feelings are expressed in prosaic form. The poem “Enemy and Friend” solves moral and ethical problems - hostile and friendly relations between people, responsibility for the life of another person.
Reader 9. Prose poem "Enemy and Friend".
The prisoner, condemned to eternal imprisonment, broke out of prison and began to run headlong... A chase was hot on his heels.
He ran with all his might... His pursuers began to fall behind.
But here in front of him is a river with steep banks, a narrow but deep river... And he doesn’t know how to swim!
A thin rotten board is thrown from one bank to the other. The fugitive had already raised his foot to her... But it so happened that right there near the river stood: his best friend and his most cruel enemy.
The enemy said nothing and only crossed his arms; but the friend shouted at the top of his lungs:
- Have mercy! What are you doing? Come to your senses, you madman! Don't you see that the board is completely rotten? She will break under your weight - and you will inevitably die!
- But there is no other crossing... but can you hear the chase? - the unfortunate man groaned desperately and stepped on the board.
- I won’t allow it!.. No, I won’t allow you to die! - the zealous friend cried out and snatched the board from under the fugitive’s feet. He instantly fell into the stormy waves and drowned.
The enemy laughed smugly - and walked away; and the friend sat down on the bank and began to cry bitterly for his poor... poor friend!
However, he did not think of blaming himself for his death... not for a moment.
- Didn't listen to me! Didn't listen! - he whispered sadly.
- But by the way! - he said finally. - After all, he had to languish in a terrible prison all his life! At least he's not suffering now! Now he feels better! You know, such a lot has befallen him!
- But it’s still a pity, for humanity!
AND kind soul continued to sob inconsolably for her ill-fated friend.
Teacher. The novel “Fathers and Sons” occupies a special place in Turgenev’s work. This novel caused many different opinions and statements. The word “nihilist” was immediately picked up by thousands of voices. The author of the work experienced painful impressions. He noticed “coldness that reached the point of indignation” in many close people, and received congratulations from enemies. It is difficult to imagine what was going on in the author’s soul. But he explained to readers in the article “About “Fathers and Sons,” noting that “a rather interesting collection of letters and other documents has been compiled.” Watch the scene of Bazarov’s declaration of love from the novel “Fathers and Sons.”
Dvorak's "Melody" sounds.
Teacher. All his life Turgenev strove for happiness, caught love and did not catch up. As we know, love for Pauline Viardot did not bring him happiness.
Reader 10. Last summer in Bougival it was terrible both for Turgenev and for Pauline Viardot, who looked after him. And at the hour of his death, when he hardly recognized anyone anymore, he said to the same Polina:
Here is the queen of queens!
So he praised Pauline Viardot, the only woman whom I loved all my life.
Turgenev died on August 22, 1833. There were no traces of suffering left on his face, but in addition to the beauty that appeared in him in a new way, what was surprising was the expression of what was missing during life: will, strength...
Some time passed, and Pauline Viardot wrote in one of her letters to Ludwig Pietsch that a man who had made up the whole world for her had passed away. An emptiness has formed around, and no one will ever be able to fill it: “Only now I realized what this person meant to me.”
F. Chopin's nocturne sounds.
Literature
1. Zaitsev B.K. Life of Turgenev / Distant. - M., 1991.
2. Pustovoit P.G. Roman I.S. Turgenev “Fathers and Sons”: Commentary: Book. for the teacher. - M., 1991.
3. Russian literature: 10th grade. Reader on historical-lit. materials (compiled by I.E. Kaplan, M.G. Pinaev). - M., 1993.
4. Turgenev I.S. Literary and everyday memories. - M., 1987.
5. Shestakova L.L. The poetic heritage of I.S. Turgenev. Triptych “Variations” / Russian language at school. - 1993. - No. 2.
Turgenev's Notes of a Hunter, which appeared in 1852 as a separate edition, anticipated the pathos of Russian literature of the 1860s, special role in the artistic consciousness of the era of “popular thought”. And the writer’s novels turned into a kind of chronicle of the change of different mental trends in the cultural stratum of Russian society: an idealist-dreamer, an “extra person” of the 30-40s in the novel “Rudin”; the nobleman Lavretsky, striving to merge with the people, in “The Noble Nest”; “new man”, revolutionary commoner - first Dmitry Insarov in “On the Eve”, and then Yevgeny Bazarov in “Fathers and Sons”; the era of ideological impassability in “Smoke”; a new wave of social upsurge in the 70s in Novi.
Novels in Turgenev's work represent a special variety (as opposed to stories). Turgenev created a very recognizable type of novel, endowed with stable features characteristic of 5 of his novels. First of all, there is stable composition, in the center always the plot young woman, which is characterized discreet beauty, development(which does not always mean that she is smart and educated), moral strength(she always stronger than men). A hero with a horse in a woman’s pocket is a very Turgenev move. In addition, a whole gallery of suitors for her hand, she chooses one and this one is main character novel, at the same time this is the type who most important for Turgenev and for Russia. This hero himself is built on connection of two spheres and two ways of assessing his personality and his actions: one sphere - historical, the other - universal. Turgenev builds the image in such a way that none of this dominates. The hero and heroine, as expected, fall in love with each other, but there is always some obstacle on the way to their happiness that does not give them the opportunity to immediately rush into each other’s arms. As the plot develops, these obstacles are removed, but at the moment when everything seemed to be fine, another fatal obstacle arises, because of which they cannot be together.
Turgenev's first novel "Rudin" scandalous circumstances of creation: the prototype of the main character is Bakunin. In the first version of the novel, which has not reached us, Bakunin was depicted more satirically. In the image of Rudin, Turgenev portrayed a Hegelian, in the sense that Turgenev represented him.. On the one hand, this smart man, a good speaker, capable of subjugating minds, but at the same time it was those close to him who felt that there was nothing behind this - behind all the ideas there was no true faith. How to react to his sermon - here important question. And Dostoevsky, in the image of Stavrogin, will portray the hyperbolic Rudin. According to Dostoevsky, we should not trust these ideas. Turgenev has a different position: it doesn’t matter who speaks, what matters is whether you believe with your mind, and even if the person is weak and unable to embody his own words. Turgenev has a secular - European type - consciousness, relying on the independence of a person capable of independently drawing conclusions. Turgenev was worried about what a noble hero could do in modern conditions, when society faced specific practical issues.
At first the novel was called “Nature of Brilliant.” By “genius” Turgenev understood the ability to enlightenment, a versatile mind and broad education, and by “nature” - firmness of will, acute feeling urgent needs of social development, the ability to translate words into deeds. As he worked on the novel, this title ceased to satisfy Turgenev. It turned out that when applied to Rudin, the definition of “genius nature” sounds ironic: he has “genius”, but no “nature”; he has the talent to awaken the minds and hearts of people, but does not have the strength and ability to lead them. Pandalevsky is a ghost man without social, national and family roots. The features of groundlessness in Pandalevsky are absurd, but symbolic in their own way. With his presence in the novel, he highlights the ghostly existence of some of the wealthy nobility.
Years of abstract philosophical work have dried up the living springs of the heart and soul in Rudin. The preponderance of the head over the heart is especially obvious in the scene of the love confession. Natalya’s retreating steps have not yet sounded, and Rudin indulges in reflection: “I’m happy,” he said in a low voice. “Yes, I’m happy,” he repeated, as if wanting to convince himself.” In love, Rudin clearly lacks “nature”. The hero does not pass the test, revealing his human and, consequently, social inferiority, his inability to move from words to deeds.
But at the same time, the love affair between Rudin and Natalya is not limited to exposing social inferiority “ extra person": there is deep artistic sense in the hidden parallel that exists in the novel between the morning of Natalya’s life and Rudin’s joyless morning at the dry Avdyukhin pond.
After a love disaster, Rudin tries to find a worthy business for himself. And this is where it turns out that the “extra person” is guilty not only through his own fault. Of course, not content with little, the romantic enthusiast sets his sights on obviously impossible things: rebuilding the entire teaching system at the gymnasium single-handedly, making the river navigable, regardless of the interests of hundreds of owners of small mills on it. But the tragedy of Rudin the practitioner lies in something else: he is not capable of being Stolz, he does not know how and does not want to adapt and dodge.
Rudin in the novel has an antipode - Lezhnev, affected by the same disease of time, but only in a different version: if Rudin soars in the clouds, then Lezhnev huddles to the ground. Turgenev sympathizes with this hero, recognizes the legitimacy of his practical interests, but does not hide their limitations.
And yet Rudin's life is not fruitless. In the novel there is a kind of passing of the baton. Rudin’s enthusiastic speeches are eagerly captured by the young commoner Basistov, in whom one senses the young generation of “new people”, the future Dobrolyubovs and Chernyshevskys. Rudin’s preaching bears fruit: “He still sows good seed.” And with his death, despite its apparent senselessness, Rudin defends the high value of the eternal search for truth, the indestructibility of heroic impulses. Rudin cannot be a hero of modern times, but he did everything possible in his position to make these heroes appear. This is the final result of the socio-historical assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the “superfluous man”, the cultural nobleman of the era of the 30s - early 40s.
« Noble Nest"(1859 was received warmly, everyone liked it. The pathos is that a person renounces the claims of Rudinsky scale. Hence the very image of a noble estate is somewhat in the Pushkin spirit. The belief that the noble family ties a person to the land and gives a sense of duty to his country , a duty that is higher than personal passions. Lavretsky is a hero who combines the best qualities of the patriotic and democratically minded part of the liberal nobility. He does not enter the novel alone: Turgenev not only introduces it into the novel. in order to explain the character of the main character. The background enlarges the problems of the novel, creates the necessary epic background. We are talking not only about the personal fate of Lavretsky, but about the historical fate of the whole class, the last scion of which is the hero. Revealing the life story of the Lavretsky “nest”, Turgenev. sharply criticizes the groundlessness of the nobility, the isolation of this class from their native culture, from Russian roots, from the people. The best pages of the novel are devoted to how prodigal son regains his lost sense of homeland. Lavretsky’s devastated soul greedily absorbs forgotten impressions: long boundaries overgrown with Chernobyl, wormwood and field ash, fresh steppe bareness and wilderness, long hills, ravines, gray villages, a dilapidated manor house with closed shutters and a crooked porch, a garden with weeds and burdocks. , gooseberries and raspberries.
In “The Noble Nest” for the first time the ideal image of Turgenev’s Russia was embodied, which constantly lived in his soul and largely determined him value orientation in the conditions of the era of the 60-70s. This image is recreated in the novel with careful, filial love. He is covertly polemical in relation to the extremes of liberal Westernism and revolutionary maximalism. Turgenev warns: do not rush to reshape Russia into new way, stop,
shut up, listen. Learn from the Russian plowman to do the historical work of renewal slowly, without fuss and chatter, without rash, rash steps. Matching this majestic, unhurried life, flowing silently, “like water through swamp grasses,” are the best characters of people from the nobility and peasants who grew up on its soil. This is Marfa Timofeevna, an old patriarchal noblewoman, Liza Kalitina’s aunt. The living personification of the homeland, people's Russia, is the central heroine of the novel, Liza Kalitina.
Catastrophe love story Liza and Lavretsky are not perceived as a fatal accident. In it the hero sees retribution for neglect of public duty, for the life of his father, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, for the past of Lavretsky himself. Lisa also accepts what happened as retribution and decides to go to a monastery, thereby committing a moral feat.
In a letter to I. S. Aksakov in November 1859, Turgenev said this about the concept of the novel "The day before":“My story is based on the idea of the need for consciously heroic natures in order for things to move forward.” The social and everyday plot of the novel has symbolic overtones. Young Elena personifies young Russia “on the eve” of upcoming changes. Who does she need most now: people of science, people of art, honest officials or consciously heroic natures, people of civic achievement? Elena's choice of Insarova gives an unambiguous answer to this question. Artistic characteristics Insarov's strengths and weaknesses conclude with a key episode with two statuettes of the hero, which Shubin sculpted. On the first of them, Insarov was presented as a hero, and on the second, as a ram, rising on its hind legs and bowing its horns to strike.
Next to the social plot, partly growing out of it, partly rising above it, the philosophical plot unfolds in the novel. The novel opens with a dispute between Shubin and Bersenev about happiness and duty. “Each of us wants happiness for ourselves,” argues Bersenev, “but is this word: “happiness” that would unite, ignite us both, force us to shake hands with each other? Isn’t it selfish, I want to say, isn’t this a divisive word?” The words unite people: “motherland, science, freedom, justice.” And - love, if it is not “love-pleasure”, but “love-sacrifice”.
The novel “On the Eve” is Turgenev’s weakest novel, it is the most schematic. In Insarov, Turgenev wanted to bring out a type of chela in which there is no discrepancy between words and action. Apparently, by making the main character a Bulgarian, he wanted to say that he does not see such types in Russia. The most interesting is the ending, where the influence of Schopenhauer was felt. It’s not for nothing that Venice was chosen: very beautiful city(for some, the epitome of beauty) and here this terrible, senseless evil is being committed. The ideas of Schopenhauer were reflected here: he taught that the world is based on evil, a certain irrational will hostile to man, turning human life into a series of suffering, and the only thing that reconciles us with life is the beauty of this world, which is something like a veil. According to Sh., it is important that this veil, on the one hand, separates us from evil, and on the other, it is an expression of this evil.
In the novel "Fathers and Sons" the unity of the living forces of national life explodes into social conflict. Arkady, in the eyes of the radical Bazarov, is a weakling, a soft-spoken liberal baric. Bazarov does not want to accept and admit that Arkady’s kind-heartedness and Nikolai Petrovich’s dove-like meekness are also a consequence of the artistic talent of their natures, poetic, dreamy, sensitive to music and poetry. Turgenev considered these qualities to be deeply Russian; he endowed them with Kalinich, Kasyan, Kostya, famous singers from Prytynny zucchini. They are just as organically connected with the substance folk life, as well as the impulses of Bazarov’s denial. But in “Fathers and Sons,” the unity between them disappeared, and a tragic discord emerged, affecting not only political and social beliefs, but also enduring cultural values. In the ability of the Russian man to easily break himself, Turgenev now saw not only a great advantage, but also the danger of breaking the connection of times. Therefore, he gave broad national historical coverage to the social struggle of revolutionary democrats with liberals. It was about cultural continuity during the historical succession of one generation to another.
The conflict of the novel “Fathers and Sons” in family spheres, of course, is not limited to family spheres, but its tragic depth is verified by the violation of “family life”, in connections between generations, between opposing social trends. The contradictions went so deep that they touched the natural foundations of existence.
"Smoke" differs in many ways from Turgenev's novels. First of all, it lacks a typical hero around whom the plot is organized. Litvinov is far from his predecessors - Rudin, Lavretsky, Insarov and Bazarov. This is not an outstanding person, who does not pretend to be a public figure of the first magnitude. He strives for modest and quiet economic activity in one of the remote corners of Russia. We meet him abroad, where he improved his agronomic and economic knowledge, preparing to become a competent landowner. This novel touched a lot of people. An extreme Westerner was identified in the person of Potugin; Fet is considered one of the prototypes. “If Russia disappeared from the world map tomorrow, no one would notice,” is Potugin’s most famous maxim. Finally, the novel does not contain a typical Turgenev heroine, capable of deep and strong love, prone to selflessness and self-sacrifice. Irina is corrupted secular society and deeply unhappy: she despises the life of people in her circle, but at the same time she cannot free herself from it.
The novel is also unusual in its basic tone. They play in it significant role satirical motifs not very characteristic of Turgenev. In the tones of a pamphlet, “Smoke” paints a broad picture of the life of the Russian revolutionary emigration. The author devotes many pages to a satirical depiction of the ruling elite of Russian society in the scene of the generals' picnic in Baden-Baden.
The plot of the novel “Smoke” is also unusual. The satirical pictures that have grown in it, at first glance, are confused by digressions, loosely connected with Litvinov’s storyline. Yes, and Potuginskys
the episodes seem to fall out of the main plot of the novel.
The novel does weaken the cohesive storyline. Several artistic branches run from it in different directions: Gubarev’s circle, the generals’ picnic, the story of Potugin and his “Westernizing” monologues. But this plot looseness is meaningful in its own way. Seemingly going aside, Turgenev achieves a broad coverage of life in the novel. The unity of the book rests not on the plot, but on the internal roll calls of different plot motifs. Appears everywhere key image“smoke”, a way of life that has lost its meaning.
Only 10 years later the novel comes out "Nove." Here the populists became the central types. Best main idea expresses the epigraph. Nov – uncultivated soil. “The new crop should be lifted not with a shallow plow, but with a deep-reaching plow.” It differs from other novels in that the main character commits suicide. The action of “Novi” dates back to the very beginning of “going to the people.” Turgenev shows that the populist movement did not arise by chance. The peasant reform disappointed expectations; the situation of the people after February 19, 1861 not only did not improve, but sharply worsened. The novel depicts a tragicomic picture of populist revolutionary propaganda led by Nezhdanov. Of course, Nezhdanov is not the only one to blame for the failures of “propaganda” of this kind. Turgenev also shows something else - the darkness of the people in civil and political matters. But one way or another, a blank wall of misunderstanding arises between the revolutionary intelligentsia and the people. And therefore, “going to the people” is portrayed by Turgenev as going through torment, where heavy defeats and bitter disappointments await the Russian revolutionary at every step. Finally, the center of the novel “New” is not so much the individual fates of individual representatives of the era, but the fate of the whole social movement- populism. The breadth of coverage of reality increases, the social resonance of the novel becomes sharper. The love theme no longer occupies a central position in Novi and is not key in revealing Nezhdanov’s character.
“The physiognomy of Russian people of the cultural stratum” changed very quickly in Turgenev’s era - and this introduced a special touch of drama into the writer’s novels, characterized by a rapid start and an unexpected denouement, “tragic, as a rule, endings.” Turgenev's novels are strictly confined to a narrow period of historical time; precise chronology plays a significant role in them. The life of Turgenev's hero is extremely limited compared to the heroes of the novels of Pushkin, Lermontov, and Goncharov. The characters of Onegin, Pechorin, Oblomov “reflected a century”; in Rudin, Lavretsky or Bazarov - the mental trends of several years. The life of Turgenev's heroes is like a spark that flashes brightly, but quickly fades. History, in its inexorable movement, measures out a tense, but too short-term fate for them. All Turgenev's novels are subject to the cruel rhythm of the annual natural cycle. The action in them begins, as a rule, in early spring, reaches its climax on the hot days of summer, and ends with the “whistle of the autumn wind” or “in the cloudless silence of the January frosts.” Turgenev shows his heroes in happy moments of maximum growth and flowering of their vitality. But these minutes turn out to be tragic: Rudin dies on the Parisian barricades, during a heroic takeoff, the life of Insarov, and then Bazarov, Nezhdanov, is unexpectedly cut short.
With Turgenev he entered not only literature, but also life. poetic image companions of the Russian hero, Turgenev's girl - Natalya Lasunskaya, Lisa Kalitina, Elena Stakhova, Marianna. The writer depicts in his novels and stories the most flourishing period in women's fate When a woman’s soul blossoms in anticipation of her chosen one, all her potential possibilities awaken to temporary triumph.
Together with the image of Turgenev’s girl, the image of “Turgenev’s love” enters into the writer’s work. This feeling is akin to revolution: “... the monotonously correct structure of established life is broken and destroyed in an instant, youth stands on the barricade, its bright banner flutters high, and no matter what awaits it ahead - death or a new life - it is all sends his enthusiastic greetings." All Turgenev's heroes undergo the test of love - a kind of test of viability not only in intimate, but also in public beliefs.
A loving hero is beautiful, spiritually inspired, but the higher he flies on the wings of love, the closer the tragic denouement and fall are. Love, according to Turgenev, is tragic because both the weak and the weak are defenseless before its elemental power. strong man. Wayward, fatal, uncontrollable, love whimsically disposes of human destiny. This feeling is also tragic because the ideal dream to which a soul in love surrenders cannot be fully realized within the confines of the earthly natural circle.
And, however, the dramatic notes in Turgenev’s work are not the result of fatigue or disappointment in the meaning of life and history. Quite the opposite. They are generated by a passionate love for life, reaching the thirst for immortality, to the desire for human individuality not to fade away, so that the beauty of a phenomenon turns into an eternal, imperishable beauty that remains on earth. Momentary events, living characters and conflicts are revealed in Turgenev’s novels and stories in the face of eternity. The philosophical background enlarges the characters and takes the problems of the works beyond the limits of narrow temporal interests. A tense dialogical relationship is established between the writer’s philosophical reasoning and the direct depiction of the heroes of the time at the culminating moments of their lives. Turgenev loves to close moments for eternity and give timeless interest and meaning to a transitory phenomenon.
KALININGRAD STATE UNIVERSITY Novels by I.S. Turgenev. Modern problems of study Tutorial Kaliningrad 1999 3 Novels by I.S. Turgenev. Modern problems of studying: Textbook. Kaliningrad univ. - Kaliningrad, 1999. - p. Compiled by: L.N. Issova, Ph.D. Associate Professor Published by decision of the Editorial and Publishing Council of Kaliningrad State University ©Kaliningrad State University, 1999 4 Introduction I.S. Turgenev holds an outstanding place in the development of Russian literature of the 19th century. At one time, N.A. Dobrolyubov wrote that in contemporary realistic literature there is a “school” of fiction writers, “which, perhaps, based on its main representative, we can call “Turgenev””1. And as one of the main figures of literature of this time, Turgenev “tried” himself in literally almost all the main genres, becoming the creator of completely new ones. However, novels occupy a special place in his work. It was in them that the writer most fully presented a living picture of the complex, intense social and spiritual life of Russia. Every Turgenev novel that appeared in print immediately became the focus of criticism. Interest in them continues today. In recent decades, much has been done in the study of Turgenev’s novels. This was greatly facilitated by the publication full meeting the writer’s works in 28 volumes, carried out in 1960-1968, and followed by a 30-volume collected works. New materials about the novels have been published, versions of texts have been printed, and research has been carried out on various problems that are in one way or another related to the genre of Turgenev’s novel. During this period, the 2-volume “History of the Russian Novel”2, monographs by S.M. Petrov, P.G. Pustovoit, G.A. Byaly, G.B. Kurlyandskaya, S.E. Shatalov and other literary scholars. Of the special works, perhaps we should highlight basic research A.I. Batyu-to3, a serious book by G.B. Kurlyandskaya “ Artistic method Turgenev the novelist”4, a small but very interesting work by V.M. Markovich “Man in Turgenev’s novels”5 and a number of articles. However, the search continues. At the end of the 80s, a rough autograph of the novel “Fathers and Sons” was discovered in England, about the fate of which we knew nothing for 130 years. New Turgenev documents are published in Germany, the USA, Canada, and New Zealand. In addition to the interuniversity Turgenev collections regularly published in Kursk and a number of materials published in the journal “Russian Literature” (for example, a series of articles by A.I. Batyuto), in last decade A number of works about Turgenev appeared, one way or another related to his novelistic work. At the same time, research of the last decade is characterized by the desire to take a fresh look at the writer’s work, to present it in relation to modern times. It is no coincidence that one of the last 5 collections dedicated to the writer’s work is called: “I.S. Turgenev in modern world "6 The publication of such a publication is natural. The fact is that Turgenev was not only a chronicler of his time, as he himself once noted in the preface to his novels. He was an amazingly sensitive artist who knew how to write not only about current and eternal problems of human existence, but also had the ability to look into the future and become, to a certain extent, a pioneer. In connection with this idea, I would like to note the publication in the series “Life of Remarkable People” of the book by Yu.V. Lebedeva7. The genre specificity of such publications can be defined as a fictionalized biography. However, the book by the famous Turgenev scholar goes far beyond the scope of this genre. With good reason we can say that the named work is a significant monographic study, carried out at the modern scientific level, which to a certain extent carries a new reading of Turgenev’s novels. Thorough monographs about a writer are not such a common occurrence. That is why it is especially necessary to note the book of the famous Turgenev scholar, A.I. Batyuto8. The title of the monograph (“The Work of I.S. Turgenev and the Critical-Aesthetic Thought of His Time”) does not directly indicate the writer’s novelistic work, however, as in his other works, it is the focus of the researcher’s attention, but under a different angle of view. Considering the specifics of the aesthetic positions of Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Dobrolyubov, Annenkov and correlating them with the literary and aesthetic views of Turgenev, A.I. Batyuto creates a new ambiguous concept of the writer’s artistic method. At the same time, the book contains many different and very interesting observations in the artistic specifics of the novelistic work of I.S. Turgenev. The above works discuss various issues of Turgenev’s novelistic creativity (we will talk about this in more detail below). However, the debatable nature of a number of problems or their lack of development force researchers to turn to them again and again. The literature listed in the chapter notes can be considered a suggested list. Notes: 1. Dobrolyubov N.A. Collection Op.: In 9 volumes. T.2. M.-L., 1962. S. 243, 256. 2. History of the Russian novel. T.1. M.-L.: USSR Academy of Sciences, 1962. 6 3. Batotyu A.I. Turgenev the novelist. L.: Nauka, 1972. 4. Kurlyandskaya G.B. The artistic method of Turgenev the novelist. Tula, 1972. 5. Markovich V.M. Man in Turgenev's novels. L.: Leningrad University Publishing House, 1975. 6. I.S. Turgenev in the modern world. M.: Nauka, 1987. 7. Lebedev Yu. Turgenev. M.: Young Guard, 1990. 8. Batyuto A.I. Creativity of I.S. Turgenev and the critical-aesthetic thought of his time. L.: Nauka, 1990. CHAPTER I The problem of the genre of Turgenev's novel. The socio-political meaning of I.S. Turgenev’s novels § 1. I.S. Turgenev’s novels as a cycle After “Notes of a Hunter,” Turgenev strives to move away, as he himself says, from the “old manner”, strives to find new artistic forms, i.e. . turn to broader epic canvases. It should be borne in mind that by the mid-50s, Russian literature already had some experience in the field of the novel genre, the analysis of which was turned to by Belinsky, who called the novel the epic of its time. Turgenev, relying on the experience of his predecessors, is looking for his own path in the field of the novel. And he succeeds. It is no coincidence that our literary scholarship identifies Turgenev’s type of this genre in the history of the Russian novel1, and the American writer Henry James calls Turgenev “a novelist of novelists,” noting that “his artistic influence extremely valuable and established indestructible.”2 However, the general high assessments of the genre of Turgenev's novel do not eliminate a number of particular problems associated with it. Among such topical problems, first of all, it is necessary to name the following: the problem of the relationship between the novel and the story in the work of I.S. Turgenev; typological essence and genre variety of Turgenev's novel; his poetics and other issues. 7 How are these problems solved today in our Turgen studies? Most interesting work , addressed to the problem of genre, is the book by A.I. Batyuto “Turgenev the Novelist”, in which the author devotes a separate chapter to this issue3, which, in our opinion, is indisputable in its main conclusions. The researcher rightly believes that it has long been necessary to abandon the double terminology regarding Turgenev’s works, because they, without any doubt, refer not to a story, but to a novel. This is the first thing. And secondly, Turgenev’s novel should be defined as an ideological novel. In this regard, another problem arises: the cyclization of Turgenev’s novels. The question of this genre pattern of I. S. Turgenev’s prose in general in various aspects arose in literary studies. However, the novels of I.S. Turgenev were not considered in this regard, although we still find some thoughts on this matter in studies about the writer’s work. It seems to us that such a formulation of the problem is legitimate. As L.I. Matyushenko notes, “the tendency towards synthesis in the depiction of various layers and spheres of Russian life” “intensified in realistic literature” in the 50-60s as one of the important manifestations of its aesthetic content”4. Turgenev, who turned to the novel genre in the early 50s, also experienced this trend. The writer’s first experience in this genre was the work he began on “Two Generations.” At the same time, Turgenev writes an article about Evgenia Tur’s novel “Niece,” which most fully expresses the writer’s ideas about this genre. Naturally, work on the first novel had to proceed in accordance with these ideas. In the article, Turgenev says that novels of the “Sandovian” and “Dickensian” type are acceptable in Russia, although “we still hear in Russian life individual sounds to which poetry responds with the same quick echoes”5. And in letters of 1852, he reports that the elements of the novel have been “wandering for a long time” in him (P., II, 71), that it is time to abandon the previous manner of writing, and doubts: “Am I capable of something more, calm ! Will I be given simple, clear lines..." (P., II, 77). A little later, in a letter to K.S. The writer already informs Aksakov: “... wrote the first three chapters of a large (our italics - L.I.) novel” (P., II, 99). In March 1853, part of the plan for the novel “Two Generations” was realized. Turgenev, in a letter to 8 I.F. Minitsky, speaks somewhat skeptically about “Notes of a Hunter,” because he “has already gone forward” and hopes that he will do “something more impressive” (P., II, 135). And this is “more impressive” - a novel that, according to the writer, should have consisted of three parts. Thus, we see that the prevailing idea of the novel as large work with a broad epic narrative, Turgenev intended to embody in “Two Generations”. But, as you know, this plan was not fully realized. Meanwhile, the novels created by the artist are distinguished by their small volume and concentrated form of narration. The scientific literature notes the inconsistency of Turgenev’s theoretical ideas about the genre of the novel and his artistic practice. Thus, S.A. Malakhov writes: “If we trace through the epistolary heritage of I.S. Turgenev his messages about the work on his novels, it is not difficult to detect a contradiction between the writer’s traditional idea of the novel as a multi-volume epic and the concentrated form of his own novels, causing constant doubts in the author: are they really stories?”6 We encounter a similar thought in G.V. Nikitevich: “... one theory of the novel was born in the depths of theoretical reflections on the genre, the other - in the depths of its creativity"7. Are the theoretical judgments of the writer and his literary practice really so contradictory in this regard? It seems to us that two aspirations that are equivalent for the writer: on the one hand, to broad epicness, and on the other hand, to the need to reproduce the burning reality of his day, often not yet settled, enter into a certain dialectical unity, which is expressed in that Turgenev creates a small but very mobile novel (this has been noted more than once in Turgen studies), and at the same time combines them into a cycle, sequentially, from novel to novel, painting a single epic picture of Russian life 1840-1870- x years. We are also convinced that we are right by the fact that the objective processes of the development of literature during this period corresponded as closely as possible to the subjective aspirations of the writer. According to N.I. Prutskov, the second half of the 19th century was distinguished by the “extraordinary dynamism of the historical flow,” therefore, “there was a need for a new type of novel about modernity, in the feverish trepidation of which the “normal law and guidelines” were still almost not captured. a common thread”8. At the same time, the researcher notes another trend in the literary process of the era we are considering. He points to the method of cyclization, which captures not only small epic genres, but also large ones, i.e. the novel. At the same time, N.I. Prutskov rightly asserts that “this tendency is not a formal technique, but a structural principle that allows one to survey the panorama of life”9 In the literature about Turgenev, the opinion has already been established that “the first four The two parts of the writer’s novel are typologically homogeneous, and the last two occupy a special place”10. Our point of view boils down to the following. All Turgenev’s novels form a cyclic unity among themselves, in which, however, three groups should be distinguished: I. “Rudin” and “The Noble Nest”; II. “On the Eve” and “Fathers and Sons”; III. "Smoke" and "Nove". In theoretical literature, when it comes to a cycle, they usually talk about the genre, thematic or ideological unity of a number of works consciously united by the author. Let us turn to the actual writer's characteristics of novelistic creativity. It was most fully expressed in the preface to the publication of his novels in 1880. This year all of Turgenev's novels were published together for the first time. “At the moment of working on the “preface,” Turgenev realized that as a novelist he had already completed his work” (S., XII, 579). The article begins by pointing out that the novels in this edition are placed “in sequential order.” In the draft autograph of the article, it was originally “in chronological order.” And although here they were indeed placed in chronological order, nevertheless Turgenev removes these words, replacing them with others: “in sequential order,” obviously meaning not only a chronological sequence, but also another. What did Turgenev mean? The writer himself points to the unity and connection of his novels, to the “constancy” and “straightforward direction” of his novelistic creativity. “The author of “Rudin”, written in 1855, and the author of “Novi”, written in 1876, are one and the same person. During all this time, I tried, as far as I had the strength and skill, to conscientiously and impartially portray and embody in the proper types what Shakespeare calls: the body and pressure of time, and that rapidly changing physiognomy of 10 Russian people of culture layer, which primarily served as the subject of my observations” (S., XII, 303). These words of Turgenev confirm the idea that the artist, acutely aware of the movement of the historical process and recording its individual stages in his novels, at the same time consciously strives for a holistic embrace of reality. The image of time, its pressure and the Russian people in relation to this time - this is the problem, the solution of which was important for Turgenev in his work from novel to novel. In the first two novels, the writer addresses the problem of the “extra” person. In “Rudin” he explores a variety of this type, which represented the thinking noble intelligentsia of the 40s, when the word was “deed.” At the same time, the artist recreates the spiritual atmosphere characteristic of that time. In the second novel, Turgenev continues to be concerned about the fate of the noble intelligentsia, who, in the person of Lavretsky, are aware of the aimlessness and worthlessness of their existence. Having realized the aimlessness and worthlessness of the noble intellectual, the artist understands that this is already, although not far away, but still the past of Russia, and therefore he is trying to identify a new hero of the time. And such a new hero in the writer’s novels becomes first the Bulgarian Insarov, who draws the Russian girl Elena Stakhova onto the path of struggle for freedom and justice, and then the commoner Bazarov. And if Turgenev’s first two novels recreated the situation of the 30-40s, with their heated debates about man, about the influence of serfdom on him, then in the next two he already talks about new people, about the people of the 60s, i.e. .e. about those who live now in the present, nearby. And it is no coincidence that his fourth novel is called “Fathers and Sons.” The fact is that the fierce ideological struggle between liberals and democrats that unfolded in the 60s was the most important point in the social life of this time. But in the novels of the second group, in addition to one of the pressing issues about two generations, of course, other important problems of the socio-political situation in Russia found their expression. “The theme of Russia runs through all Turgenev’s novels in different variations”11, writes L.I. Matyushenko. However, it starts to sound really loud in two latest novels writers, who we classify as the third group. “What path will post-reform Russia take in its development?” - this is what worries the great Russian writer now. 11 In letters to Herzen at the end of 1867 (dated 30.XI/13.XII/, 13/25.XII) Turgenev shares his thoughts on this matter. I would also like to note that in the last novel “Nov”, by the way, the largest in volume, according to critics, the “choral principle”12 predominates. In this regard, the main idea of N.F. Budanova’s article may be interesting. The researcher believes that Turgenev, familiar with the magazine “Forward!” - an organ of revolutionary populism, was in agreement with some of the ideas of this publication, namely: “with the rejection of the policies of the Russian autocracy and the need to protest against it”13. In connection with this I was born symbolic image“Nameless Rus'”, which appears at the end of the novel. Reflecting “on the fate of his Motherland” in these last two novels, in “Smoke” Turgenev falls into “despair at the sight of what is happening at home,” but already in “Novi” he sees the shoots of the future and therefore believes that his people are the people "great". Thus, we can say that in the cycle of Turgenev’s novels three groups are clearly distinguished: in the first (“Rudin” and “The Noble Nest” (the problem of the “superfluous” person is solved, which for the literature of the second half of the 50s although it was still very close, it was still already the past); the second (“On the Eve” and “Fathers and Sons”) was addressed to the present of Russia - “new people”, and finally, in the third (“Smoke” and “Nov”) is already thoughts about the ways of development of Russia, and therefore, although not yet clear, there are already some aspirations for the future. But in all six novels there is one tendency - to present, in the words of Turgenev himself, “the body and. pressure of time.” All this gives us reason to say that the writer in the “Preface to the Novels” combines them deliberately. In support of this position, we present another argument that “... with the beginning of Turge’s novelistic work. - Neva, a system of precise correlation of action with a certain historical time is emerging.”14 The question of dating events in Turgenev’s novels has more than once attracted the attention of researchers. But the actual beginning of the events of all novels, except for “Rudin,” is dated by Turgenev himself. However, something else is important for us: in what way are the historical periods depicted in the novels related to each other from a chronological point of view? For this purpose, we indicate in the text the beginnings and ends of events. Based on the text of the novel “Rudin” and comments to it by M.O. Gabel and N.V. Izmailov, we limit the time of action as follows: beginning - 1843-1845 12
We must never forget that every success of our knowledge poses more problems, what it decides, and that in this area every new open land suggests the existence of vast continents still unknown to us.
Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich was born in 1818. The boy's life began in the old noble family of the Turgenevs, mother Varvara Petrovna and father Sergei Nikolaevich, a retired cavalry officer. The mother came from a wealthy but not noble Lutovinov family. Turgenev spent his entire childhood on his parents' estate Spaskoye - Lutovinovo, near the city of Mtsensk, Oryol province. Turgenev's first lessons were taught by the serf Fyodor Lobanov, his mother's secretary. After some time, Turgenev and his family moved to Moscow, where he continued his education in a private boarding school, and then young Ivan Sergeevich began to study science under the guidance of Moscow teachers Pogorelsk, Klyushnikov and Dubensky. The world of novels and from Turgenev By the age of fourteen, Turgenev already speaks several languages very well. foreign languages, and also manages to get acquainted with the best works of Russian and European literature. In 1833, Turgenev entered Moscow University, but already in 1834 he was transferred to St. Petersburg, where he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in 1837.
Since my student years Turgenev loved to write. His first poetic experiments were translations of short poems, dramas and lyric poems. Among the university professors, only Pletnev stood out, who was a close friend of Pushkin. Despite the fact that Pletnev did not have special education, he was distinguished by natural wisdom and intuition. Having become acquainted with the works of Ivan Turgenev, Pletnev called them “immature,” although he chose two more successful poems and published them in order to awaken in the student a desire to continue his endeavors.
Ivan Sergeevich’s interests were not focused only on literary creativity, and in the spring of 1838, Turgenev went abroad to the University of Berlin, believing that he had not received enough knowledge in university education. He returned to Russia only in 1841.
Turgenev dreamed all his life about teaching philosophy, tried to pass the master's exams, which gave the right to defend a dissertation and obtain a place in the department. At the end of 1842, Turgenev thought about serving in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Already in 1843, Turgenev was enrolled in the office of the ministry, where he was soon disappointed in his expectations and lost interest, and a couple of years later he resigned.
Turgenev Ivan Sergeevich wrote stories about people. Many of his works are devoted to this topic, such as “The Calm”, “The Diary of a Deprived Man”, “Two Friends”, “Correspondence” and “Yakov Pasynkov”. The world of novels and from Turgenev In 1867, Turgenev completed work on the novel “Smoke”.
In the spring of 1882, Ivan Sergeevich became mortally ill, but despite his suffering, the writer continued his work and, a few months before his death, managed to publish the first part of the book “Poems in Prose.” In his last book he collected all the main themes and motives of his work. The world of novels and from Turgenev
Nothing softens the heart more than the consciousness of one’s guilt, and nothing hardens it more than the consciousness of one’s rightness.
The main episodes of the plot, dedicated to depicting the emotional experiences of the main characters, their love affairs and meetings, can be neither particularly numerous nor large in volume due to the concentrated and contemplative emotionality of the content and the lyrical tone of the narrative. Secondary episodes, containing everyday characteristics of the environment and motivating the main course of events, do not occupy Turgenev’s attention, as already noted. significant place and do not receive development. Therefore, for all their content, Turgenev’s novels and stories are relatively small in volume.
In addition, they are simple and restrained in the compositional principles of the narrative. The writer never resorts to external difficulties and intricacies of the plot, does not complicate his story with any rearrangements of episodes, deliberate silences about what happened and its unexpected discovery. Affirming in the very life he depicts the importance of sincerity, simplicity and the futility of all speculation, he conducts the story with concentration, restraint and simplicity. To motivate the “psychologism” of the image, Turgenev often resorts to narration on behalf of the protagonist and uses the form of correspondence, memoirs or diary. From all this, the features of poetic speech flow in Turgenev’s stories and novels. In his depiction of the everyday environment and its representatives, often ironic, Turgenev did not show himself great master. Here he, like Herzen, often laid more claim to wit than to the character of the image (for example: “Daria Mikhailovna lived openly, that is, she accepted men, especially single ones”; or: “Panshin... walks slightly bent over; must be the Vladimir Cross, awarded on his neck, pulls him forward”, etc.).
For romantic “psychologism,” which reveals the main thrust of his stories and novels of the 1850s, Turgenev created very significant and sophisticated principles of verbal figurativeness and expressiveness.
Portraying inner world of his main characters, their impressions of the surrounding life, especially nature, the writer usually does not talk about their mental considerations or practical intentions. He speaks of their “soul” and “heart,” using the latter word as a synonym for the former. For example: “wonderful tenderness filled his soul”; “he began to think about her, and his heart calmed down” (“Noble Nest”); “I suddenly felt a secret uneasiness in my heart” (“Asya”); “and a secret cold will seize a person’s heart when this happens to him for the first time,” (“Correspondence”), etc.
Verbal depiction techniques emphasize the emotional involuntariness of the characters’ mental experiences, almost devoid of the influence of the mind and will. Turgenev's heroes do not control their experiences, but surrender and even submit to them. And the writer uses very simple, but in his own way, sophisticated verbal metaphors to depict them. For example: “Lavretsky gave himself entirely to the wave that carried him away and rejoiced”; “some kind of cold, important enthusiasm came over her”; “sorrow for the past melted in his soul” (“Noble Nest”); “memories of childhood first came flooding back to me” (“Faust”); “impatiently changing, they (impressions) flowed through the soul” (“Asya”), etc. For Lavretsky, even “thoughts” “wandered slowly” (“The Noble Nest”).
The self-sufficient emotionality of such experiences leads to the fact that the characters and the author himself are able to evaluate them mainly from the point of view of how pleasant they are or, conversely, how painful they are for the human soul. And, depicting them, the writer emphasizes this joyful or sad nature of the characters’ feelings and moods. For example: “he felt good”; “My soul becomes sad”; “his heart became sad”; “Lavretsky enjoyed and rejoiced at his pleasure” (“The Noble Nest”); “I... came... all softened by sweet languor...” (“Asya”); “a feeling of bliss from time to time ran like a wave through the heart” (“Faust”); “the melancholy of vague premonitions began to torment Rudin” (“Rudin”), etc.
But it is very difficult to clearly distinguish between joy and suffering in such fluid and changeable emotions. The author sometimes even emphasizes their complexity and uses a combination of epithets that contradict each other in meaning, the so-called “oxymoron”. For example: “all this... Russian picture brought sweet and at the same time almost mournful feelings to his soul...” (“Noble Nest”); “through the insane joy that filled my whole being; a melancholy feeling crept in...” (“Faust”), etc.
At the same time, the increased and uncontrolled emotionality of experiences makes them to some extent indistinct and uncertain. The writer emphasizes this with appropriate epithets and introductory words, which give the depicted a peculiar emotional significance. For example: “Lavretsky... plunged into a kind of peaceful stupor”; “some secret voice spoke to him”; “all his happiness seemed to speak and sing in them”; “and a strange thing is that the feeling of homeland has never been so deep and strong in him” (“The Noble Nest”); “I began to feel some kind of secret, gnawing melancholy, some kind of deep, inner restlessness” (“Faust”); “I walked home... with a strange heaviness in my heart” (“Asya”); “from everywhere, it seemed, the fiery and fresh breath of youth was wafting” (“Correspondence”), etc.
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Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev became a worthy successor to the best humanistic traditions of Russian literature, laid down by A. S. Pushkin, M. Yu. Lermontov and N. V. Gogol. Outlining the place occupied by this artist on the Russian literary Olympus, the famous...
Turgenev basically comes to the sad conclusion about her incompatibility with the “modern” person who vainly appeals to her maternal participation. However, this general formula, as is often the case with great artists, does not cover all relationships...
Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev was born on October 28 (November 9), 1818 in Orel into a noble family. He spent his childhood years in his mother's rich estate Spasskoye-Lutovinovo Mtsensk district Oryol province. According to his mother, Varvara Petrovna, Turgenev belonged to...
\"These trees... sheltered us from the rest of the world...\" When Vanya Turgenev was three years old, his father Sergei Nikolaevich left military service with the rank of colonel and settled with his family in Spassky-Lutovinovo. This is huge...