Realism, symbolism. The presentation will introduce the works of French artists Courbet, Daumier, Millet.
Realism in French painting
The style of classicism, which reigned in the art of the Enlightenment, was already supplanted at the end of the 18th century by a new style, which was a consequence of the upheavals caused by the bourgeois revolution in France and disappointment in its results. This style became romanticism. I have dedicated several posts to the art of romanticism. Today we'll talk about realism, which began to take shape in the depths of romantic art. French literary critic Jules François Chanfleury, who first used the term “realism,” contrasted it with symbolism and romanticism. But the realistic artistic movement did not become an absolute antagonist of romanticism, but rather was its continuation.
French realism, striving for a truthful reflection of reality, was naturally associated with revolutionary movement and received the name “critical realism”. An appeal to modernity in all its manifestations, the reproduction of typical characters in typical circumstances based on the life-like authenticity of the image is the main requirement of realism.
“The art of painting cannot be anything other than the depiction of objects visible and tangible by the artist... a realist artist must convey the morals, ideas, and appearance of his era”
Gustave Courbet
It is unlikely that I could talk about the work and fate of Gustave Courbet, who is often called the founder realism in French painting, better than the creators did film "Freedom of Courbet" from the series “My Pushkinsky”
In your presentation "Realism in French painting" I also tried to present the work of wonderful French artists Francois Millet And Honore Daumier. For those who are interested in this topic, I would like to recommend checking out the site Gallerix.ru
As always, small list of books, in which you can read about French realism and French realist artists:
- Encyclopedia for children. T.7. Art. Part two. – M.: Avanta+, 2000.
- Beckett V. History of painting. – M.: Astrel Publishing House LLC: AST Publishing House LLC, 2003.
- Dmitrieva N.A. A Brief History of Art. Issue III: Countries of Western Europe in the 19th century; Russia XIX century. – M.: Art, 1992
- Emokhonova L.G. World artistic culture: Textbook. A manual for students. avg. ped. textbook establishments. – M.: Publishing Center “Academy”, 1998.
- Lvova E.P., Sarabyanov D.V., Borisova E.A., Fomina N.N., Berezin V.V., Kabkova E.P., Nekrasova L.M. World artistic culture. XIX century. Fine arts, music, theater. ‒ St. Petersburg: Peter, 2007.
- Samin D.K. One Hundred Great Artists. – M.: Veche, 2004.
- Freeman J. History of Art. – M.: Astrel Publishing House, 2003.
Realism (from the Latin “realis” - real, material) is a direction in art that arose at the end of the 18th century, reached its peak in the 19th, continues to develop at the beginning of the 20th century and still exists. Its goal is a real and objective reproduction of objects and objects of the surrounding world, while preserving their typical features and characteristics. In the process of the historical development of all art in general, realism acquired specific forms and methods, as a result of which three stages are distinguished: educational (Era of Enlightenment, late 18th century), critical (19th century) and socialist realism (early 20th century).
The term “realism” was first used by the French literary critic Jules Jeanfleury, who in his book “Realism” (1857) interpreted this concept as art created to counter movements such as romanticism and academicism. It acted as a form of response to idealization, which is characteristic of romanticism and the classical principles of academicism. Having a sharp social orientation, it was called critical. This direction reflected acute social problems in the world of art and assessed various phenomena in the life of society at that time. Its leading principles consisted of an objective reflection of the essential aspects of life, which at the same time contained the height and truth of the author’s ideals, in the reproduction of characteristic situations and typical characters, while maintaining the fullness of their artistic individuality.
(Boris Kustodiev "Portrait of D.F. Bogoslovsky")
Realism of the early twentieth century was aimed at searching for new connections between man and the reality around him, new creative ways and methods, and original means of artistic expression. Often it was not expressed in its pure form; it is characterized by a close connection with such movements in the art of the twentieth century as symbolism, religious mysticism, and modernism.
Realism in painting
Appearance this direction in French painting is primarily associated with the name of the artist Gustave Courbier. After several paintings, especially significant for the author, were rejected as exhibits at the World Exhibition in Paris, in 1855 he opened his own “Pavilion of Realism”. The declaration put forward by the artist proclaimed the principles of a new direction in painting, the goal of which was to create living art that conveyed the morals, customs, ideas and appearance of his contemporaries. “Courbier’s realism” immediately caused a sharp reaction from society and critics, who claimed that he, “hiding behind realism, slanderes nature,” called him an artisan in painting, made parodies of him in the theater and denigrated him in every possible way.
(Gustave Courbier "Self-portrait with a black dog")
Realistic art is based on its own, special view of the surrounding reality, which criticizes and analyzes many aspects of social life. Hence the name realism XIX century “critical” because he criticized, first of all, the inhumane essence of the cruel exploitative system, showed the blatant poverty and suffering of the offended common people, the injustice and permissiveness of those in power. Criticizing the foundations of the existing bourgeois society, realist artists were noble humanists who believed in Goodness, Supreme Justice, Universal Equality and Happiness for everyone without exception. Later (1870), realism splits into two branches: naturalism and impressionism.
(Julien Dupre "Return from the Fields")
The main themes of the artists who painted their canvases in the style of realism were genre scenes of urban and rural life of ordinary people (peasants, workers), scenes of street events and incidents, portraits of regulars in street cafes, restaurants and nightclubs. For realist artists, it was important to convey the moments of life in its dynamics, to emphasize the individual characteristics of the acting characters as believably as possible, to realistically show their feelings, emotions and experiences. Main characteristics canvases depicting human bodies are their sensuality, emotionality and naturalism.
Realism as a direction in painting developed in many countries of the world such as France (Barbizon school), Italy (it was known as verismo), Great Britain (Figurative school), USA (Edward Hopper's Garbage Pail School, Thomas Eakins art school), Australia (Heidelberg School, Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin), in Russia it was known as the movement of Itinerant artists.
(Julien Dupre "The Shepherd")
French paintings, written in the spirit of realism, often belonged to the landscape genre, in which the authors tried to convey the nature around them, the beauty of the French province, rural landscapes, which, in their opinion, best demonstrated the “real” France in all its splendor. The paintings of French realist artists did not depict idealized types, there were real people, everyday situations without embellishment, there was no usual aesthetics and the imposition of universal truths.
(Honoré Daumier "Third Class Carriage")
The most prominent representatives of French realism in painting were the artists Gustav Courbier (“The Artist’s Workshop,” “The Stone Crusher,” “The Knitter”), Honoré Daumier (“The Third Class Car,” “On the Street,” “The Laundress”), and François Millet (“The Laundress”). The Sower”, “The Harvesters”, “Angelus”, “Death and the Woodcutter”).
(François Millet "The Ear Pickers")
In Russia, the development of realism in fine arts is closely related to the awakening of public consciousness and the development of democratic ideas. Progressive citizens of society denounced the existing political system, showed deep sympathy for tragic fate ordinary Russian people.
(Alexey Savrasov "The rooks have arrived")
To the group of Peredvizhniki artists, formed around end of the 19th century century, belonged to such great Russian masters of the brush as landscape painters Ivan Shishkin (“Morning in pine forest", "Rye", " Sosnovy Bor") and Alexey Savrasov ("The Rooks Have Arrived", "Rural View", "Rainbow"), masters of genre and historical paintings Vasily Perov ("Troika", "Hunters at a Rest", "Rural Procession at Easter") and Ivan Kramskoy (“Unknown”, “Inconsolable Grief”, “Christ in the Desert”), outstanding painter Ilya Repin (“Barge Haulers on the Volga”, “They Didn’t Expect”, “Religious Procession in Kursk Province”), master of depicting large-scale historical events Vasily Surikov ( “The Morning of the Streltsy Execution”, “Boyaryna Morozova”, “Suvorov’s Crossing of the Alps”) and many others (Vasnetsov, Polenov, Levitan),
(Valentin Serov "Girl with Peaches")
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the traditions of realism were firmly entrenched in the fine arts of that time, and were continued by such artists as Valentin Serov (“Girl with Peaches” “Peter I”), Konstantin Korovin (“In Winter”, “At the Tea Table”, “Boris Godunov” . Coronation"), Sergei Ivanov ("Family", "The Arrival of the Voivode", "Death of a Migrant").
Realism in 19th century art
Critical realism, which appeared in France and reached its peak in many European countries by the middle of the 19th century, arose in opposition to the traditions of the previous movements in art, such as romanticism and academicism. His main task was to objectively and truthfully display the “truth of life” using specific means of art.
The emergence of new technologies, the development of medicine, science, various branches of industrial production, the growth of cities, increased exploitative pressure on peasants and workers, all this could not but affect the cultural sphere of that time, which later led to the development of a new movement in art - realism , designed to reflect the life of the new society without embellishment and distortion.
(Daniel Defoe)
The founder of European realism in literature is considered English writer and publicist Daniel Defoe. In his works “Diary of the Plague Year”, “Roxana”, “The Joys and Sorrows of Mole Flanders”, “The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe”, he reflects various social contradictions of that time, they are based on the statement about the good beginning of every person, which can change under the pressure of external circumstances.
The founder of literary realism and the psychological novel in France is the writer Frederic Stendhal. His famous novels“Red and Black”, “Red and White” showed readers that the description of ordinary scenes of life and everyday human experiences and emotions can be performed with the greatest skill and elevate it to the rank of art. Also among the outstanding realist writers of the 19th century are the French Gustave Flaubert (“Madame Bovary”), Guy de Maupassant (“Belarus,” “Strong as Death”), Honoré de Balzac (the “Human Comedy” series of novels), and the Englishman Charles Dickens (“Oliver Twist”, “David Copperfield”), Americans William Faulkner and Mark Twain.
At the origins of Russian realism stood such outstanding masters of the pen as playwright Alexander Griboyedov, poet and writer Alexander Pushkin, fabulist Ivan Krylov, and their successors Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Painting from the realist period of the 19th century is characterized by an objective depiction of real life. French artists, led by Theodore Rousseau, painted rural landscapes and scenes from street life, proving that ordinary unadorned nature can also be a unique material for creating masterpieces of fine art.
One of the most scandalous realist artists of that time, causing a storm of criticism and condemnation, was Gustav Courbier. His still lifes, landscape paintings (“Deer at a Watering Hole”), genre scenes (“Funeral in Ornans”, “Stone Crusher”).
(Pavel Fedotov "Major's Matchmaking")
The founder of Russian realism is the artist Pavel Fedotov, his famous paintings “Major's Matchmaking”, “Fresh Cavalier”, in his works he exposes the vicious morals of society, and expresses his sympathy for the poor and oppressed people. Continuers of its traditions can be called the movement of Peredvizhniki artists, which was founded in 1870 by fourteen best artist graduates of the Imperial St. Petersburg Academy of Arts together with other painters. Their first exhibition, opened in 1871, was a huge success with the public; it showed a reflection of the real life of ordinary Russian people living in terrible conditions of poverty and oppression. These are famous paintings by Repin, Surikov, Perov, Levitan, Kramskoy, Vasnetsov, Polenov, Ge, Vasiliev, Kuindzhi and other outstanding Russian realist artists.
(Konstantin Meunier "Industry")
In the 19th century, architecture, architecture and related applied arts were in a state of deep crisis and decline, which predetermined unfavorable conditions for the development of monumental sculpture and painting. The dominant capitalist system was hostile to those types of art that were directly related to the social life of the collective ( public buildings, ensembles of broad civil significance), realism as a direction in art was able to fully develop in the fine arts and partly in sculpture. Outstanding realist sculptors of the 19th century: Constantin Meunier (“The Loader,” “Industry,” “The Puddle Man,” “The Hammerman”) and Auguste Rodin (“The Thinker,” “The Walker,” “The Citizens of Calais”).
Realism in 20th century art
In the post-revolutionary period and during the creation and prosperity of the USSR, socialist realism became the dominant direction in Russian art (1932 - the appearance of this term, its author was the Soviet writer I. Gronsky), which was an aesthetic reflection of the socialist concept of Soviet society.
(K. Yuon "New Planet")
The basic principles of socialist realism, aimed at a truthful and realistic depiction of the surrounding world in its revolutionary development, were the principles:
- Nationalities. Use common speech patterns and proverbs to make literature understandable to the people;
- Ideology. Designate heroic deeds, new ideas and ways necessary for the happiness of ordinary people;
- Specifics. Depict the surrounding reality in the process of historical development, corresponding to its materialistic understanding.
In literature, the main representatives of social realism were the writers Maxim Gorky (“Mother”, “Foma Gordeev”, “The Life of Klim Samgin”, “At the Depth”, “Song of the Petrel”), Mikhail Sholokhov (“Virgin Soil Upturned”, the epic novel “Quiet”) Don"), Nikolai Ostrovsky (novel “How the Steel Was Tempered”), Alexander Serafimovich (story “Iron Stream”), poet Alexander Tvardovsky (poem “Vasily Terkin”), Alexander Fadeev (novels “Destruction”, “Young Guard”) and etc.
(M. L. Zvyagin "To work")
Also in the USSR, the works of such foreign authors as the pacifist writer Henri Barbusse (the novel “Fire”), the poet and prose writer Louis Aragon, the German playwright Bertolt Brecht, the German writer and communist Anna Seghers (the novel “The Seventh Cross”) were considered among the socialist realist writers. , Chilean poet and politician Pablo Neruda, Brazilian writer Jorge Amado (“Captains of the Sand”, “Donna Flor and Her Two Husbands”).
Prominent representatives of the trend of socialist realism in Soviet painting: Alexander Deineka (“Defense of Sevastopol”, “Mother”, “Future Pilots”, “Physical Girl”), V. Favorsky, Kukryniksy, A. Gerasimov (“Lenin on the Tribune”, “After the Rain” , “Portrait of the ballerina O. V. Lepeshinskaya”), A. Plastov (“Bathing the Horses”, “Dinner of the Tractor Drivers”, “Collective Farm Herd”), A. Laktionov (“Letter from the Front”), P. Konchalovsky (“Lilac” ), K. Yuon (“Komsomolskaya Pravda”, “People”, “New Planet”), P. Vasiliev (portraits and stamps depicting Lenin and Stalin), V. Svarog (“Hero-pilots in the Kremlin before the flight”, “First May - Pioneers"), N. Baskakov ("Lenin and Stalin in Smolny") F. Reshetnikov ("Deuce Again", "Arrived on Vacation"), K. Maksimov and others.
(Vera Mukhina monument "Worker and Collective Farm Woman")
Outstanding Soviet sculptors-monumentalists of the era of socialist realism were Vera Mukhina (monument “Worker and Collective Farm Woman”), Nikolai Tomsky (bas-relief of 56 figures “Defense, Labor, Leisure” on the House of Soviets on Moskovsky Prospekt in Leningrad), Evgenia Vuchetich (monument “Warrior” Liberator" in Berlin, the sculpture "The Motherland Calls!" in Volgograd), Sergei Konenkov. As a rule, especially durable materials such as granite, steel or bronze were selected for large-scale monumental sculptures, and they were installed in open spaces to perpetuate particularly important historical events or heroic-epic deeds.
In the depths of romantic art of the early 19th century, realism began to form, associated with progressive social sentiments. This term was first introduced into use in the mid-19th century. French literary critic J. Chanfleury to designate art that opposes romanticism and symbolism” But realism is a deeper category than individual artistic styles in art. Realism in the broad sense of the word aims to fully reflect real life. It is a kind of aesthetic core of artistic culture, which was felt already in the Renaissance - “Renaissance realism”, and in the Age of Enlightenment - “Enlightenment realism”. But since the 30s
XIX century realistic art that strives for accurate display surrounding, involuntarily denounced bourgeois reality. In time, this current is called critical realism, coincided with the rise of the labor movement in various European countries.
Initially, realism was identified with naturalism, and the transition to it, say, in Germany and Austria, was Biedermeier - style direction, which was characterized by poeticization of the world of things, the comfort of the home interior, close attention to family everyday scenes. Biedermeier quite quickly degenerated into a philistine, sugary naturalism, where minor everyday details came first, but depicted “exactly as in life.”
In France, realism was associated with pragmatism, the predominance of materialistic views, and the dominant role of science. Among the largest representatives of realism in literature are O. Balzac, G. Flaubert, and in painting - O. Daumier and G. Courbet.
Support deBalzac(1799-1850) already in one of his first works “Shagreen Skin”, combining romantic imagery and symbolism with sober analysis, realistically depicted the atmosphere of Paris after the revolution of 1830. According to the laws of his art, Balzac, in a series of novels and stories that made up the epic “Human Comedy,” showed a social cross-section of society in which representatives of all classes, conditions, professions, psychological types live and interact, who have become household names, such as, for example, Gobseck and Rastignac . The epic, consisting of 90 novels and stories and connected by a common concept and characters, included three sections: etudes of morals, philosophical studies and analytical studies. Sketches of manners depicted scenes of provincial, Parisian, rural life, private, political and military. Thus, Balzac brilliantly showed the laws of development of reality in a spiral from facts to philosophical generalization. According to the author himself, he sought to depict a society that “contains within itself the basis of its movement.” Balzac's epic is a realistic picture of French society, grandiose in scope, reflecting its contradictions, the other side of bourgeois relations and morals. At the same time, Balzac more than once asserted that he did not paint portraits of specific individuals, but generalized images: his literary characters were not slavishly copied models, but represented a kind of example of a family, combining the most characteristic features of a particular image. Generalization is one of the main commandments of Balzac's aesthetics.
Aesthetics Gustaea Flaubert(1821-1880) found its expression in the concept he created about the special role and elitism of literature, which he likened to science. The appearance of the novel “Madame Bovary” marked a new era in literature. Using a simple plot about adultery, Flaubert is our way of showing the deep origins of the surrounding vulgarity, the moral insignificance of the provincial bourgeois, the suffocating atmosphere of the Second Empire that emerged after the July coup of Louis Bonaparte in 1848. The novel, this masterpiece of French literature, is not without reason called the encyclopedia of the French province of the 19th century. The writer, selecting characteristic details, restores from insignificant signs of time historical picture the whole society. The tiny town of Yonville, in which the novel takes place, represents the whole of France in miniature: it has its own nobility, its own clergy, its own bourgeoisie, its own workers and peasants, its own beggars and firefighters who have taken the place of the military. These people, living side by side, are essentially separated, indifferent to each other and sometimes hostile. The social hierarchy here is unbreakable, strong
pushes around the weak: the owners take out their anger on the servants - on innocent animals. Selfishness and callousness, like an infection, spread throughout the entire district, moods of hopelessness and melancholy penetrate all pores of life. Flaubert the artist was concerned with the color and sound structure of the novel, which served as a kind of accompaniment to the sad story of Emma Bovary. “To me,” wrote Flaubert, “only one thing was important - to convey the gray color, the color of mold in which woodlice vegetate.” With his provincial drama, Flaubert struck a blow at bourgeois taste and false romanticism. No wonder “Madame Bovary” was compared to “Don Quixote” by Cervantes, which put an end to the craze for the chivalric novel. Flaubert proved the enormous possibilities of realistic art and had a decisive influence on the development of realism in world literature.
The revolution of 1830 opened a new stage in the history of artistic culture in France, in particular, it contributed to the development of caricature as a powerful means of criticism. In literature, poetry, in fine arts, graphics responded most vividly to revolutionary events. The recognized master of satirical graphics was Honore Daumier(1808-1879). Being a brilliant draftsman, a master of the line, he created expressive images with one stroke, spot, or silhouette and made political caricature a true art.
Masterfully mastering the technique of light and shadow modeling, Daumier used graphic techniques in his paintings and always emphasized the contour. With a calm, flowing black-brown line, he outlined the contours of figures, profiles, and headdresses, which was a feature of his pictorial method.
Painting works Daumiers are designated by cycles, the first of which was revolutionary. It can be quite reasonably said that the revolution of 1830 created Daumier the graphic artist, the revolution of 1848 created Daumier the painter. Daumier was a staunch republican, and the artist’s sympathies were on the side of the proletariat and the democratic intelligentsia. The most significant work of the revolutionary cycle is “Insurrection”, where, by depicting only a few figures, placing them diagonally, Daumier achieved the impression and movement of a large crowd of people, and the inspiration of the masses, and the extent of the action beyond the boundaries of the canvas. The emphasis was placed only on the figure young man in a light shirt. He is subordinate to the general movement and at the same time directs it, turning to those walking behind and with a raised hand indicating the path to the goal. Next to him is an intellectual, whose pale face is frozen with amazement, but he, carried away by the general impulse, merges with the crowd.
The “Don Quixote” cycle can be called a cross-cutting cycle in Daumier’s work. His interpretation of the images of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza has no analogues in French art. In contrast to the banal illustrators of Cervantes, Daumier was interested only in the psychological side of the image, and the leitmotif of all his 27 variations is the gaunt, incredibly tall and erect Don Quixote, riding through a gloomy hilly landscape on his monstrously bony, like a Gothic chimera Rossinante; and behind him on a donkey is the cowardly Sancho Panza, always lagging behind. Sancho’s image seems to say: enough ideals, enough struggle, it’s time to finally stop. But Don Quixote invariably moves forward, true to his dream, he is not stopped by obstacles, he is not attracted by the blessings of life, he is all in motion, in search.
If in “Don Quixote” Daumier reflected the tragic contradiction between two sides of the human soul, then in the “Judges and Lawyers” series a terrifying contrast arose between the appearance, the external appearance of a person, and his essence. In these truly brilliant series, Daumier rose to social and
19th century - the century of humanism
The 19th century made a truly invaluable contribution to the treasury of the entire world culture. This was the century of the greatest humanistic and aesthetic achievements in Europe, America and especially in Russia. Such a bright and widespread flowering of literature and art at this time is largely determined by those deep and often violent social and political changes that the 19th century was so rich in.
Romanticism and the French Revolution of the late 18th century
The literary 19th century does not coincide with the calendar 19th century, since historical, literary and historical processes are determined not by dates as such, but by certain events that had a significant impact on the progressive course of development of society. Such events, which determined the chronological framework of historical development and, accordingly, the literary process, somewhat conventional in this case of the 19th century, were the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794. and the Paris Commune of 1871. In France, in comparison with previous bourgeois revolutions (in Holland in the 16th century and in England in the 17th century), this revolution caused the most profound social and political transformations. Along with the revolution in France, the ideological life of Europe at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries was greatly influenced by the completion of the industrial revolution in England and the War of Independence in the USA. Since the revolution, socio-political events in France have had a significant impact on the fate of European states.
As for literature, not a single significant phenomenon of European romanticism and the late Enlightenment in Germany can be correctly understood without taking into account the impact of the revolution of the late 18th century. in France. But not only the work of writers who were contemporaries of the revolution was organically connected with it. The literary movements of the 19th century, flowing mainly under the sign of late romanticism and critical realism, continued to interpret the events of the French Revolution. “The entire 19th century,” wrote V.I. Lenin, “the century that gave civilization and culture to all of humanity, passed under the sign of the French Revolution. All over the world he did nothing but carry out, implement in parts, complete what the great French revolutionaries of the bourgeoisie had created.”*
No less important than the revolution itself with its advanced socio-political slogans were its immediate consequences. After the overthrow of the Jacobin dictatorship on July 27 (9 Thermidor on the revolutionary calendar) 1794 (Thermidorian coup), the progressive development of the revolution ended, and the large counter-revolutionary (Thermidorian) bourgeoisie came to power, clearing the way for the militaristic-bourgeois dictatorship of Napoleon. Thermidorians, ignoring the aspirations of the grassroots - the main driving force revolution, consolidated only those revolutionary transformations that corresponded to the class interests of the bourgeoisie. The new bourgeois relations, which acquired clear contours after the Thermidorian coup, did little to meet the promises of the enlighteners who prepared the revolution, which turned out to be just a utopian illusion.
The French Revolution and the Enlightenment that prepared it had direct political opponents who spoke on behalf of those classes that the revolution had pushed out of the arena of historical development. But its supporters, who believed in the promises of the Enlightenment, were also disappointed in the consequences of this revolution. A characteristic and defining feature of the spiritual ideological atmosphere that developed after the revolution was an anti-enlightenment, anti-bourgeois reaction, which, however, had different socio-political aspirations. The literary movements of European countries of that time - romanticism above all - reflected precisely these moods of the era. The result of understanding the results of the French Revolution in literature was the establishment of the theme of lost illusions in the works of many major writers of that time. This theme, which arose at the end of the 18th century. in the works of a number of romantic writers, was later picked up and developed by many critical realists, who viewed it in the light of subsequent events in the socio-political struggle of the 19th century.
One of the manifestations of dissatisfaction with the results of the French Revolution of 1789-1794, the search for an extra-bourgeois social and ethical ideal, was the emergence at the beginning of the 19th century. theories utopian socialism. Utopian socialism of the early 19th century was the most important ideological factor influencing the literary process of that time. Romanticism, which is a kind of anti-bourgeois utopia, directly or indirectly expressed certain aspects of the teachings of utopian socialism. The works of Hugo and J. Sand in France, Godwin and Shelley in England, Heine in Germany, Herzen and Chernyshevsky in Russia - these are the the most important points literary process of the 19th century, which are closely related to the ideas of utopian socialism.
Periodization of the historical and literary process of the 19th century
At the origins of a new stage of the historical and literary process in Europe, opened by the revolutionary events of the late 18th century. in France, there was literature from the period of the French Revolution of 1789-1794. French literature of these years is organically connected with the national tradition of previous classicist and educational literature. At the same time, French literature 1789-1794. contained prerequisites that opened the way to the subsequent development of romanticism and critical realism in France.
The leading direction and artistic method in the literary movements of the first third of the 19th century in Europe was romanticism. However, from the beginning of the 30s, critical realism began to increasingly dominate the literary process. Thus, the main historical, literary and theoretical problems of the foreign language course literature of the 19th century V. are romanticism and critical realism.
European literature of the first three decades of the 19th century, having received a powerful stimulus for its development in the events of the French Revolution of 1789-1794, later turned out to be closely connected with the subsequent class and political struggle, with the Napoleonic and anti-Napoleonic wars.
Napoleon's personality - outstanding commander and a statesman - and in particular those progressive social changes in Europe that were caused by his campaigns received great resonance in literature (Pushkin, Lermontov, Byron, Heine, Beranger, Hugo, Manzoni, etc.). The theme of the liberation movement against the Napoleonic occupation also turned out to be very significant in European literature. This especially applies to German literature. A tangible imprint on the entire social life of England at the beginning of the century was left by the violent protests of the machine destroyers - the Luddites, to which, in particular, Byron responded.
Intensification of political and class contradictions marked the period from 1815 to 1830 in European history, which in France was called the Restoration period, which opened after the Battle of Waterloo (1815) with the final overthrow of Napoleon and ended with the July Revolution of 1830. The collapse of the Napoleonic empire led to a sharp change in the political climate on the European continent and contributed to the restoration of pre-revolutionary orders. However, Europe, which had advanced far along the path of bourgeois development, could no longer be returned to the political and social level that existed before L789. By the end of the 1910s. the continent becomes the scene of violent political conflicts and national liberation movements in France, Spain, Greece, and Italy. All these events influenced the nature of the literary process as a whole and were reflected in the works of Byron, Shelley, Stendhal, and Chamisso.
The year 1830, which was marked in France by the overthrow of Charles X from the throne and thereby the fall of the regime of the restored Bourbons, brought to power the big financial bourgeoisie, which placed their protege King Louis Philippe on the throne. In England in 1832, the most important political action for the country took place - parliamentary reform, which in its social significance was close to the July Revolution in France. The July Revolution, parliamentary reform, which secured the final victory of the bourgeoisie, and their immediate consequences became a milestone in historical development Western Europe. But with the strengthening of the power of the bourgeoisie, the working class becomes an independent political force.
These social changes were accompanied by significant shifts in the literary process. In France at the beginning of the century, Vigny, Lamartine, Hugo, and J. Sand created bright pages of romantic literature. In the 20-30s, works by Merimee, Stendhal, and Balzac appeared, in which the principles of a realistic reflection of life were formed. Critical realism in the works of Dickens, Thackeray and a number of other authors began to determine the face of the literary process in England from the beginning of the 30s. In Germany, Heine laid the foundations of critical realism in his work. Due to the conditions of national specificity, critical realism in the literary process of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Spain was formed later, but already in the 30s its origins were outlined in Polish and Hungarian literature. Realism in US literature gained dominance only towards the end of the 19th century, although its formation began in the middle of the century.
The further aggravation of the contradictions of bourgeois-capitalist development led to a new revolutionary explosion that began in France and swept almost all of Europe. After the defeat of the European revolutions of the mid-19th century. The course of historical events in the countries of Central Europe led to the consolidation and strengthening of the forces of the proletariat, to its independent struggle against the bourgeoisie. In 1871, this struggle led to the proclamation in France of the Paris Commune - the first government of the working class, whose policy was based on the principles of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Paris Commune basically ended the cycle of bourgeois-democratic revolutions and opened a new period in the history of Europe - the period of imperialist wars and proletarian revolutions.
Revolutions of 1848-1849 are the main milestone that divides the 19th century into two main parts, as well as an important milestone in the development of national literatures of European countries. But for the literary process, due to its specificity, the events of the July Revolution of 1830 in France and its consequences, as well as the socio-political situation that developed in England after the Reform Bill of 1832, should be considered a turning point. Along with the direct responses to these events in creativity For a number of revolutionary poets, the defeat of the revolution had a significant impact on the further development of critical realism (Dickens, Thackeray, Flaubert, Heine), and on a number of other phenomena, in particular on the formation of naturalism in the literature of European countries.
Given that in the first third of the 19th century in many European countries the main literary movement was romanticism, and after 1830 - critical realism, it would be a mistake to believe that before 1830 only the romantic movement existed in European literature. In some national literatures at the beginning of the 19th century. due to a number of conditions, the traditions of Enlightenment literature were still alive (Germany, Poland). In other cases, we should talk about some early phenomena of the literature of critical realism, adjacent to the characteristic and typical tendencies of romanticism (early romantics and Beranger in France). The picture of the struggle between literary trends in France in the 1920s was complex and varied from the point of view of creative methods. Later, after the July Revolution, the literary process in this country took shape mainly as a synchronous development of critical realism in its greatest achievements in the works of Mérimée, Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert and in the no less significant achievements of romantic literature in the works of J. Sand and Hugo. A contemporary of the Leucists, Byron and Shelley was the poet Crabb, a stern writer of everyday life in the English countryside, whose work bore certain features of educational realism. At the same time, the origins of the novel of critical realism were determined (M. Edgeworth and J. Austin).
The exodus of romanticism in the 1930s in Germany was simultaneously accompanied by, to varying degrees, pronounced realistic tendencies in Buchner’s work. The revolutionary-democratic literature of the 40s in Germany, marked by very definite realistic features, at the same time carried within itself a clearly expressed revolutionary-romantic beginning in the lyrics of Weerth, Herweg and Freiligrath. At the same time, the creative method of some major writers is developing in the direction from romanticism to realism (Heine, Byron, Shelley). Consequently, with the predominant development of romanticism in the first third of the century and critical realism after 1830, one should keep in mind the process of more or less constant contacts of various artistic methods and trends, their mutual enrichment, and first of all, here we are talking about romanticism and critical realism .
Thus, the periodization of the historical and literary process of the 19th century. in European countries it seems to be as follows: the first stage from 1789 to 1830, the second stage - from 1830 to 1871; the second stage, in turn, is divided into two periods: 1830-1848. and 1848-1871 This general scheme for the development of the literary process of the 19th century. in European countries is by no means universal. It exists with various, sometimes significant chronological deviations, determined by the national specifics of the socio-political development of a particular country, but at the same time it reflects the actual course of the literary process and indicates its general patterns.
Philosophical and aesthetic foundations of romanticism
The initial philosophical basis of romanticism is an idealistic worldview, which developed primarily in the direction from subjective to objective idealism. The idealistic impulse towards the infinite, as one of the characteristics of the ideological and aesthetic position of the romantics, is a reaction to the skepticism, rationalism, and cold rationality of the Enlightenment. The Romantics affirmed the belief in the dominance of the spiritual principle in life, the subordination of matter to spirit.
In the concept of world literature, developed by the Jena romantics, in particular A. Schlegel, the romantics expressed a desire for the universality of phenomena, for universalism. This romantic universalism was also reflected in the social utopianism of the romantics, in their utopian dreams of the triumph of the ideals of harmony throughout human society.
“In its closest and most essential meaning, romanticism is nothing more than the inner world of a person’s soul, the innermost life of his heart,” wrote Belinsky. And here he grasped one of the fundamental defining features of romanticism, which distinguishes it from the worldview and artistic method educators. In fact, the hero in the artistic works of the romantics receives a fundamentally different interpretation than that of the enlighteners and classicists. From an object of application of external forces, he becomes a subject that shapes surrounding circumstances. The problem of personality becomes central for the romantics; all other aspects of their ideological and aesthetic positions are grouped around it. In the starting points of romantic aesthetics, knowledge of the world is, first of all, self-knowledge. Later, in the aesthetics of the romantics, a very significant thesis was affirmed about the so-called local color, i.e., about the description of the external environment (Hugo, Nodier, and partly Byron). But even among these romantics, personality is given the main place. Nature, love - the development of these problems was for the romantics a way of understanding and revealing the essence of the phenomenon of the human personality. It was endowed with unlimited creative potential, and the course of development of objective existence in the minds of the romantics was determined by the spiritual activity of the individual. Such subjectivist anthropocentrism of the romantics entailed a serious change in emphasis in the civil social ideal that is characteristic of the worldview of the classicists and enlighteners.
In solving the problem of “personality and society,” the romantics shifted the emphasis to the first component of this correlation, believing that the disclosure and affirmation of the human personality, its comprehensive improvement will ultimately lead to the establishment of high social and civil ideals.
Absolutizing the creative potential of the individual, the romantics, turning to reality, themselves realized the illusory nature of such ideas. As a result of the awareness of this contradiction, the famous theory of romantic irony arose in the aesthetics of the Jena romantics.
Individualism as a fundamental position of the philosophical and ethical concepts of romanticism received various expressions. Those romantics who deny the environment around them. reality, sought to escape from it into the world of illusions, the world of art and fantasy, into the world of their own reflections, the individualist hero, at best, remained an eccentric, a dreamer, tragically alone in the world around him (Hoffmann’s heroes). In other cases, the individualism of the romantic hero takes on an egoistic connotation (Byron, B. Kon-stan, F. Schlegel, L. Tieck). But there are also many such heroes among the romantics, whose individualism has an active rebellious tendency (the heroes of Byron, and partly Vigny). In a number of works of romantics, the intrinsic value of the human personality is expressed not so much in its individualism, but in the fact that its subjective aspirations are directed to the service of public affairs in the name of the people's good. Such are Byron's Cain, Shelley's Laon and Citna, and Mickiewicz's Conrad Wallenrod.
The absoluteization of the spiritual world of the individual by the romantics was associated with certain negative aspects. However, to a much greater extent, this exaltation of the individual personality, the fundamental attitude to lead the path of knowledge of all things through its inner “I”, led the romantics to their most significant ideological and aesthetic conquests. In this area, the romantics made that significant step forward in the artistic knowledge of reality, which promoted romanticism to replace the art of the Enlightenment. The poems of Wordsworth and W. Muller, Heine and Byron, Vigny and Lamartine, the psychological stories of Chateaubriand and de Staël revealed to their contemporaries the riches of the spiritual world of the individual. The appeal to a chosen individual who rises above the “crowd” by no means exhausts the interpretation of the individualistic principle among the romantics. In this area, their deep democratism (Wordsworth, Heine, W. Müller, Eichendorff, Schubert) was no less affected. The song cycles of Schubert, who raised the everyday Austrian song to the level of high vocal art (“The Beautiful Miller's Wife” and “Winter Reise” to the words of W. Müller), reflect the modest Life of a modest person. The motif of wandering, traditional for German romantics, echoes the theme of the tragic loneliness of a semi-impoverished homeless traveler (“The Organ Grinder,” “The Wanderer”) and reflects the restless impulses of the romantic’s soul (“Where to?”).
The image of the “superfluous man”, which passed through all the literature of the 19th century, has its origins in the works of the romantics.
The fundamental innovation of the romantics in the artistic knowledge of reality also lay in the fact that, decisively polemicizing with the fundamental thesis of educational aesthetics - art is an imitation of nature - they put forward the most important thesis about the transformative role of art. It was first formulated by A. Schlegel in 1798 in a review of Goethe’s poem “Herman and Dorothea.”
Both of these positions of enlightenment and romantic aesthetics appear in certain dialectical relationships. Pursuing the goal of imitation of nature in art, the Enlightenment, with their characteristic rationalistic schematism, outlined and at the same time limited the circle of art to a realistic (within the limits of Enlightenment aesthetics) reflection of reality. By setting art the task of transforming reality, the romantics significantly expanded the possibilities and tasks of art, in particular the possibilities of its influence on reality. But at the same time, they quite widely opened the way for the excessive introduction of elements of the fantastic and subjective into works of art.
The Romantics expanded the arsenal of artistic means of art. They are credited with the fruitful development of many new genres, mainly of a subjective and philosophical orientation: the psychological story (especially much was done here by the early French romantics), the lyric poem (the Leucists, Byron, Shelley, Vigny), the lyric poem. Romanticism is associated with a bright flowering of lyrical genres, contrasting with the rationalistic, non-poetic 18th century. Many romantic poets, decisively breaking with the traditions of classicist versification, carried out a fundamental reform of verse, which expanded and democratized the prosodic means of verse, bringing its capabilities closer to reflecting the inner world of the spiritual life of an individual, sometimes to the sphere of his real everyday interests. The establishment of new romantic norms in lyric poetry, in its very metrical structure in England, is associated with the work of the Leucists and Byron, and partly Shelley and Keats. In French literature, the brave reformers of verse were Vigny and Lamartine, Hugo; in German poetry - Brentano, and after him Heine, Müller.
The immediate and relatively long-term consequences of the French Revolution, under which romanticism was formed and developed, introduced violent dynamism and acute conflicts into the course of European history. Thus, in the work of the romantics, in their worldview, a historical perception of the social process took shape. Their historicism reflected the desire for something new inherent in the romantic worldview. But at the same time, the French Revolution prompted the literature of the first decades of the last century to comprehend the reasons and patterns that led to such a violent socio-political explosion. This explains such an active invasion of the work of romantics of historical genres. It was in such an ideological atmosphere that the historical novel by W. Scott and J. Sand arose and developed, which had a huge impact on all European literature.
One of the main ideas of their philosophical worldview - the idea of the infinite - is connected with the establishment in the minds of the romantics of the concept of historicism, with their perception of the world in movement and development.
The historicism of the romantics and the noted elements of dialectics in their consciousness, in their combination, focused attention on individual nations, on the characteristics national history, national way of life, way of life, clothing and, above all, the national past of their homeland. In this past, they, as writers, were interested in treasures folk art. In their works, legends, traditions, fairy tales, songs of deep national antiquity came to life, relying on which they poured a fresh stream not only into fiction itself, but in a number of cases, especially in Germany, gave new life to the literary language of their people. In England, the pre-Romantic movement played a particularly important role (Macpherson's Poems of Ossian, Percy's Monuments of Ancient English Poetry). It influenced Herder, the theorist of the Stürmer movement, the largest representative of the late German Enlightenment, who preceded the activities of the German romantics with many of his quests. With his passionate propaganda of folk songs, Herder, through his personal example as a collector, gave impetus to the future flourishing of domestic German folklore studies in the era of romanticism - the activities of the Brothers Grimm. collectors of German folk tales, and Heidelberg romantics A. von Arnim, C. Brentano, compilers of the collection of German folk songs “The Boy’s Magic Horn” (1806-1808), which played a big role for the further development of German romantic poetry and song-romance lyrics in the richest musical culture of German romanticism.
The evolution of romanticism was associated with the further intrusion of reality into the circle artistic vision romantics. Romantic hero does not limit himself only to immersion in the world of his own spiritual emotions. Through their prism, he perceives more and more widely the world around us. Social reality with its sharp dissonances was already clearly breaking into the subjective world of the hero Wackenroder Berglinger, defining the deep hopeless drama of his fate. And in this regard, the composer Berglinger is a character who, among many heroes of early European romanticism, is largely endowed with typical features. The more typical is the central and beloved hero late romantic Hoffmann is the musician and composer Johannes Kreisler, the author's alter ego, forced to sell his talent to ensure his existence. And the situation in which Kreisler lives and suffers, like his literary predecessor Berglinger, is the real feudal-fragmented Germany of the beginning of the last century.
The enormous role of romanticism in the development of the artistic consciousness of mankind is not limited only to its specific historical framework, although even within their framework it significantly enriched and updated the principles and means of artistic understanding of reality. Romanticism as artistic heritage alive and relevant for our time. In the subsequent development of the romantic tradition, one characteristic pattern is very noticeable - one or another broad attempt at its revival is associated, as a rule, with the breakdown of social relations and with the environment of the harbinger of revolutionary upheavals. Periods of stabilization, periods of relative social peace did not contribute to the emergence of romantic movements. The unfading of romantic traditions up to the present day is explained primarily by the nature of nonconformism inherent in the very philosophical basis of the romantic worldview, the affirmation of the idea of progress in the romantic striving for the ideal, the denial of the static state of being, and the fundamental affirmation of the search for the new.
Basic patterns of the literary process after 1830
By the beginning of the 1930s, the balance of forces in the literary development of European countries had changed noticeably. By the end of the 18th century. France is losing its role as the former legislator of aesthetic norms and tastes in art and literature. Germany takes first place, with which England successfully competes at other points. One way or another, all European literature of that time is full of responses to the aesthetic theories and literary activities of the early German romantics. By the end of the 20s, when romanticism became the turned page of German literature, when with the death of Hoffmann his literary fame temporarily faded away, when Heine found himself at a literary crossroads, moreover, forced to leave his homeland, German literature faded into the background for a long time and firmly. , and inside her the process of an acute and active anti-romantic reaction begins. In France at this time, on the contrary, the romantic movement, although quite significant in its origins, but scattered and not formalized organizationally, was consolidating forces in the 20s, becoming a “school”, developing its own aesthetic program, puts forward new names of major poets and writers - Lamartine, Vigny, Hugo. At the same time, in close connection with the powerful romantic movement and parallel to it, in the fight against a common literary enemy - Epigonian classicism, a new literary direction is emerging and growing - the direction of critical realism, represented by the early work of Stendhal, Balzac, Mérimée. This new young literary France, which J. Sand and then Flaubert are about to join, is quickly regaining its former authority for its national literature.
True, with all the greatness of its literature revived since the 30s, France no longer dictates, as before, literary norms and fashion Europe. And at the same time, in terms of the diversity of creative individuals, literary and aesthetic schools, and sometimes also in the depth of artistic insights and theoretical positions, French literature of that time plays the role of a leader in the Central European region. And, perhaps, the main factors that determined such a powerful flowering of French literature from the beginning of the 30s were the deep organic connection of its emerging realistic aesthetics with the artistic practice of romanticism, as well as the fact that the significant and bright late stage of French romanticism (J. Sand and mature Hugo mainly) falls on the heyday of critical realism. This last circumstance could not but lead to mutual fruitful, both direct and indirect contacts between writers of both directions.
In other European countries, due to the national identity of each individual literature, the process of replacing romanticism with critical realism took place in various chronological framework, and yet the turn of the early 30s defined itself to a greater or lesser extent in almost every national literature.
The literature of England of that time, among other major national literatures of Europe, in its general development goes from romanticism to critical realism. After the Lake School, Byron and Shelley, the social life of England by the beginning of the 30s put forward Dickens and almost simultaneously with him Thackeray, writers, in the scale of their work, in the degree of talent, standing next to their greatest contemporaries in European literature on the other side of the English Channel .
The work of the romantics everywhere is sometimes subjected to very harsh and, from the point of view of the specific historical significance of romanticism, unfair criticism. At the same time, again in the specific historical context of the process of the general progressive development of art, this denial of romanticism was inevitable and fruitful. That is precisely why it could happen that, for example, such an outstanding artist, a deeply erudite and educated person like Thackeray, “did not understand” either Walter Scott, or the poets of the Lake School, or Byron. The situation in this sense is even more paradoxical in Germany, where among the most significant overthrowers of romanticism were such major authorities as Hegel, Buchner, as well as Heine, whose early work wrote one of the brightest pages in the history of romanticism. This “undressed romantic,” as T. Gautier very aptly called him, in his brilliant literary-critical pamphlet “The Romantic School” (1833-1836) also “did not understand the significance of the work of his Jena predecessors. In France, this aesthetic confrontation received a somewhat muted expression, and it emerged much later than in England and Germany - romanticism retained its aesthetic significance here for at least the next two decades after 1830.
In general, this noticeable and significant change in the spiritual life of Europe, reflected not only in literature and art, was associated with the development of a new stage of the bourgeois-capitalist structure. The needs of a rapidly developing industry required exact knowledge material world and, accordingly, the development of natural sciences. The intense philosophical and aesthetic quests of the romantics and their theoretical abstractions could in no way contribute to the fulfillment of these tasks. The spirit of the new ideological atmosphere is now beginning to be determined by the philosophy of positivism, the philosophy of “positive knowledge,” as they said then. The concepts of positivism by no means exhausted the philosophical basis of critical realism. Moreover, the range of their influence on the aesthetic system of representatives of this literary movement was different, because both in philosophical terms and in terms of general worldview, most critical realists, sometimes, despite their own theoretical declarations, remained under the fruitful influence of romantic concepts. So, for example, in the chain Dickens - Thackeray - Stendhal - Balzac - Flaubert, we can easily discern the varying degrees of influence of positivism on these writers. At the same time, it should be emphasized that positivism was the common source of the philosophical basis of both critical realism and the naturalism that took over the aesthetic baton from it. Moreover, naturalists, in essence, having completely lost touch with romanticism, completely rely on the philosophical system of positivism. This junction between the positivism of critical realists and the positivism of naturalists is especially clearly defined when comparing the aesthetic system of Flaubert, on the one hand, Chanfleury and Duranty (who stood closer to naturalism than to realism) on the other, and even later Maupassant and Zola, although it is quite obvious that both of the latter in their work both overcame and refuted many normative and dogmatic aspects of the aesthetics of naturalism.
Ultimately, all these noticeable shifts in the literary process - the replacement of romanticism with critical realism, or at least the promotion of critical realism to the role of a direction representing the main line of literature - were determined by the entry of bourgeois-capitalist Europe into a new phase of its development.
The most important new moment” that now characterizes the alignment of class forces was the emergence of the working class into an independent arena of socio-political struggle, the liberation of the proletariat from the organizational and ideological tutelage of the left wing of the bourgeoisie.
The July Revolution, which overthrew Charles X, the last king of the elder branch of the Bourbons, from the throne, put an end to the regime. The Restoration broke the dominance of the Holy Alliance in Europe and had a significant impact on the political climate of Europe (revolution in Belgium, uprising in Poland).
The formation of critical realism in England chronologically almost exactly coincides with that acute turning point in the socio-political life of the country, which was determined by the parliamentary reform of 1832 and the beginning of the Chartist movement. In the early 30s, Thackeray entered literature; in 1833, he began work on “Essays by Bose,” his first work; Dickens was the largest representative of critical realism in England.
Similar processes, but with their own national characteristics, took place at that time in France. It was in the 20s that Balzac, Mérimée, and somewhat earlier Stendhal entered literature. At the turn of the 20-30s, Balzac and Stendhal created their first significant works - the novels “Chuans” and “Red and Black” and in the coming years they became leading representatives of European critical realism.
At the same time, French romanticism underwent significant changes in its fruitful progressive development. In Hugo's early lyrics and his first attempts at prose, the formation of a romantic perception of reality in confrontation with classicist traditions was noted. It was at this time that Hugo firmly established himself in the principles of romanticism, choosing for a whole decade the main path of his work to be a romantic drama with a sharp social resonance, creating at the same time one of the masterpieces of all romantic prose - the novel “Notre Dame Cathedral”. The paths of creative development of Lamartine and Vigny - remarkable poets who, already in the 20s, made perhaps the greatest contribution to romantic lyrics (as for Vigny, also to the development of romantic theory) are taking shape in a new way. Finally, it was from the beginning of the 30s that the romantic tradition of chamber-psychological prose, brilliantly developed by the early French romantics, was transformed and enriched by the social-romantic novel of J. Sand. New motives, new ideological and aesthetic trends begin to sound in the work of Beranger, whose songs, sharply satirical and at the same time imbued with life-affirming democracy, brought him world fame already during the years of the Restoration.
The nature of the regime of the July Monarchy, its socio-political contradictions become the main object of artistic understanding of reality in French literature of the 30s and 40s. For realists, this understanding takes on a deeply analytical character, as evidenced by Stendhal’s novel “Lucien Leuven” and many masterpieces of Balzac’s “Human Comedy”. French critical realism (primarily in the work of Balzac), in the process of artistic and aesthetic analysis of the social essence of the regime of the July Monarchy, relying on the achievements of the romantics, comes to a new understanding of historicism and new principles of typification. This was theoretically justified by Balzac. Through the prism of romantic historicism, reality was presented either as an aesthetic utopia (as in the early German romantics), or as a conscientiously executed reconstruction of the color of a place and time, the realities of life, furnishings, clothing, customs (as in the drama, poetry and early prose of Hugo, the poetry of the early Vigny, partly in his novel Saint-Mars). New qualities of historicism are already emerging in historical novel V. Scott, where the coloring of place and time - an external detail with all its enormous significance for the creative style of the writer - no longer plays a self-sufficient role. The novelist sees his main task in the artistic representation and understanding of acute turning points in national history. And perhaps no other European literature of the first half of the last century, like French, was so closely connected with the name of W. Scott. The 20s - early 30s in the literary life of France are full of echoes of his work. This was the time when, along with the new stage of romanticism, critical realism took its first victorious steps. “Our father, Walter Scott,” Balzac called the great novelist. Indeed, it is not difficult to notice that the author of “The Chouans” took lessons from the “Scottish sorcerer.” But this was not the apprenticeship of an epigone or even a follower. The new admirer of the Scottish novelist, treating his teacher with deep reverence, took in much of his experience, but, while establishing a new direction in literature, he interpreted the principles of historicism differently. In his grandiose work, “The Human Comedy,” Balzac sets the task of showing the history of the morals of modern France, that is, he actualizes the concept of historicism. To understand the essence of the bourgeois structure of the modern monarchy of bankers in France, Balzac quite naturally connects its emergence with the origins of the power of the bourgeoisie, which it received as a result of the revolution of the late 18th century. In his numerous stories and novels, which form a single whole, Balzac consistently traces the dirty, criminal, and sometimes bloody stories of the enrichment of the bourgeoisie who rule modern France.
Stendhal is also historically relevant in his novels. The most pressing modernity in “Red and Black”, “Lucien Leuven” in a different manner than in Balzac, but perhaps even more organically linked with the previous stages of the development of post-revolutionary France.
This principle of historicism is preserved in a new sound by Flaubert, a large-scale figure in the European literary process. Flaubert's work is marked by a deep dramatism of social and aesthetic consciousness, generated by the negative consequences of the defeat of the revolution of 1848-1849.
The third major European country - Germany - and by the 1930s continued to remain fragmented, significantly lagged behind in its economic development not only from England, but also from France. Nevertheless, it is also characterized by the patterns noted above. And in Germany in the early 1930s, noticeable social changes were taking place for the country. The most significant manifestation of the opposition movement of the 30s in Germany was the activity of the secret “Society for Human Rights”, one of the leaders of which was Georg Büchner, and the uprising of Hessian peasants associated with the activities of this society.
In the 40s, Germany's role in the class struggle of the progressive forces of Europe noticeably increased. Evidence of this was the powerful uprising of the Silesian weavers in 1844. The center of the revolutionary movement was moving to Germany, which only now, in conditions of aggravated class contradictions, approached its bourgeois revolution.
New successes in German literature, partly related to the further development of realistic trends, were a response to the events of the 40s (the so-called pre-March literature) and to the March Revolution of 1848 and were expressed in the works of Weerth, Herwegh and Freiligrath. A notable phenomenon in the development of German realism was the drama of the outstanding playwright F. Hebbel “Mary Magdalene” (1844), but his further work, if it can be correlated with realism, is only with its peripheral abstract-allegorical modifications. And although in German literature before the heyday of the work of the Mann brothers, individual phenomena of realism arose, however, neither the works of V. Raabe, A. Stifter or the highly gifted short story writer T. Storm (a peculiar type of lyrical-psychological realism, very close to romanticism) give reason to talk about the direction of critical realism, somewhat close in scale and artistic and aesthetic quality to the realism of England and France of the same decades.
Marx and Engels played a significant role in the development of progressive literature in the 1940s. Brilliant literary critical articles by Engels, who tried his hand at literature, his deeply analytical judgments about the modern world literary process, joint works of Marx and Engels, which examine certain problems of literature, and finally, personal contacts of the founders of scientific communism with writers, for example with Heine, taken together, represent an important page “in German and all world literature.
No matter how significant the national characteristics of the literary process in Germany may be, they still do not contradict the fact that with the beginning of the 30s, a tangible turning point occurred in literature, as well as in public life. This turning point, the main sign of which was the beginning of the formation and development of critical realism, dominating in the literature of England, France, and somewhat later in the literature of Russia, determines the face of the literary process.
Completely different patterns of socio-political life are characteristic of the United States, where, along with the industrialized northern states that have a relatively liberal social system, there are slave-holding southern states.
If in European literatures, English and French first of all, the realistic direction begins to be clearly defined from the beginning of the 30s, in other cases significantly pushing aside romanticism as a literary movement, then in US literature at this time romanticism reaches its heyday, defining the general line of development of literary process. In 1824, the outstanding romantic, poet and short story writer E. Poe entered literature, whose fame went far beyond the United States and the influence of his work became noticeable in European short stories. The middle of the century, the 60s, was called the period of the “American Renaissance,” which is associated with the greatest achievements of romantic literature (N. Hawthorne, G. Melville, G. D. Thoreau, W. Whitman, G. W. Longfellow). The ideas of subjective-romantic philosophy underlay the transcendentalist movement (30-40s).
At the same time, in the 50s, social intonations noticeably increased in US literature. They, for example, are especially noticeable in the philosophical and lyrical prose of the romantic Thoreau, in his journalism. In the 40s, the origins of critical realism were formed in the works of a number of writers, which became the leading method of abolitionist literature during the period Civil War(1861 -1865). In line with this literature, H. Beecher Stowe published his widely famous novel “Uncle Tom's Cabin” (1852). The work of another classic of US literature, W. Whitman, is associated with the ideas of abolitionism, in whose collection “Leaves of Grass” one can trace the development of romanticism towards a more objective reflection of reality with its social contradictions. Whitman's work is an organic combination of a romantic vision of reality with the principles of critical realism. However, only by the end of the century in the works of M. Twain, W. D. Howells, G. James, he will begin to determine the face of the US literary process.
The European revolutions of 1848-1849, which covered almost all countries of the continent, became the most important milestone in the socio-political process of the 19th century. The events of the late 40s marked the final demarcation of the class interests of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In addition to direct responses to the revolutions of the mid-century in the work of a number of revolutionary poets, the general ideological atmosphere after the defeat of the revolution was reflected in the further development of critical realism (Dickens, Thackeray, Flaubert, Heine), and on a number of other phenomena, in particular the formation of naturalism in European literatures .
The features of naturalistic aesthetics were especially clearly manifested in the works of the French writers Edmond and Jules Goncourt. It is noteworthy that both Chanfleury and Duranty, who considered themselves realists and true successors of Balzac, were essentially also naturalists in their aesthetics and creative practice. Aesthetic principles The talented English writer George Eliot also professed naturalism at an early stage of her career. Excellent psychological skill and keen observation give her the opportunity to create bright, expressive characters, some of which carry features of social typification, thereby expressing, contrary to the writer’s original theoretical platform, her attitude to the depicted reality. However, it is easy to notice that in the novels of D. Eliot there is neither the breadth of historical scope nor the depth of social generalizations inherent in the works of Dickens and Thackeray. Approximately the same thing can be said in general terms about another English realist of this period - E. Trollope.
The literary process of the second half of the century, despite all the complicating circumstances of the post-revolutionary period, is enriched with new achievements. The positions of critical realism in Slavic countries are being consolidated. They start their creative activity such great realists as Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. Critical realism is formed in the literature of Belgium, Holland, Hungary, and Romania.
The national liberation struggle against the Turkish enslavers that unfolded in Bulgaria brought to life new forces in literature, which in the middle of the century was experiencing an “era of renaissance”, the civil revolutionary liberation pathos of which was so clearly heard in the journalism and poetry of Hristo Botev.
The national liberation movement, against the backdrop of a new phase of social contradictions, played a decisive role in the bright period into which the literature of the northern peoples entered after 1848. This sharp change in both young Finnish literature and the literature of the Scandinavian countries was associated with unresolved conflicts in 1848 - the aggravation of relations between the Danish-German population of Schleswig-Holstein and Prussia, between the Swedish government and the Norwegian public, the influence of the revolutionary situation in Russia on public life in Finland, where national identity grew stronger. Under the influence of these factors, romantic principles are increasingly receding into the background and realistic art begins to play a leading role.
Critical realism. Essence of the method
The focus of the literature of critical realism is the analysis, through the means of artistic worldview, of the class structure, social essence, and socio-political contradictions of the contemporary social system - capitalist relations. Therefore, the main specificity of this literary movement and creative method is artistic comprehension reality as a social factor, and consequently, the disclosure of the social determinacy of the depicted events and characters. When we are talking about the realism of ancient literature, the realism of the Renaissance, the concept of realism here can only be interpreted in its own terms. broad meaning this term.. In relation to the literature of the 19th century. Only a work that reflects the essence of a given socio-historical phenomenon should be considered realistic, when the characters of the work bear the typical, collective features of a particular social stratum or class, and the conditions in which they act are not an accidental figment of the writer’s imagination, but a reflection of the patterns of socio-economic and political life of the era.
The characteristics of critical realism were first formulated by Engels in April 1888 in a letter to the English writer Margaret Harkness in connection with her novel “ City girl" Expressing a number of friendly wishes regarding this work, Engels calls on his correspondent to be truthful, realistic image life. Engels's judgments contain the fundamental principles of the theory of realism and still retain their scientific relevance.
“In my opinion,” says Engels in a letter to the writer, “realism presupposes, in addition to the truthfulness of details, truthfulness in the reproduction of typical characters in typical circumstances.”* Meaning by typical characters, first of all, those in which the main social types of the era are expressed, from the countless number of characters in The Human Comedy, Engels selects the characters of representatives of the rising bourgeoisie, which increasingly intensified its pressure on the noble aristocracy, and the characters of the aristocrats. As the most important feature of the worldview Balzac, Engels notes that he idealized the aristocrats dear to his heart, contrasting them with the bourgeois “vulgar upstart.” But Engels sees the strength of Balzac’s realism, the truthfulness of his socio-historical analysis in the fact that Balzac’s satire becomes especially sharp, the irony especially bitter when the writer. describes precisely these aristocrats and aristocrats dear to him. The fact that Balzac showed them as representatives of a class leaving the historical arena, irretrievably losing its former power, was their typicality.
[* Marx K., Engels F. Selected letters. M., 1948. P. 405.]
And Engels considers the greatest merit of the realist Balzac to be that the writer saw the true people of the future not in the victorious bourgeoisie, but in the Republicans of Saint-Merri - where they really were at that time. Thus, revealing the main direction social conflicts Between the nobility, the bourgeoisie and people's revolutionary democracy, the author of The Human Comedy presented contemporary bourgeois-aristocratic France in the dynamics of historical development. The closest historical act of this process was the revolution of 1848, in which the French working class continued the work of the heroes of Saint-Merri, glorified by Balzac.
Typification in art was not a discovery of critical realism. Art of any era based on the aesthetic norms of its time in the appropriate artistic forms it was given to reflect the characteristic or, as they began to say differently, typical features modernity inherent in the characters of works of art, in the conditions in which these characters acted.
Typification among critical realists represents a higher degree of this principle. artistic knowledge and reflections of reality than their predecessors. It is expressed in the combination and organic relationship of typical characters and typical circumstances. In the rich arsenal of means of realistic typification, it is by no means last place occupies psychologism, i.e., the disclosure of a complex spiritual world - the world of thoughts and feelings of the character. But the spiritual world of the heroes of critical realists is socially determined. This principle of character construction determined a deeper degree of historicism among critical realists compared to the romantics. However, the characters of the critical realists were least likely to resemble sociological schemes. It is not so much the external detail in the description of the character - a portrait, a costume, but rather his psychological appearance (Stendhal was an unsurpassed master here) that recreates a deeply individualized image.
This is exactly how Balzac built his doctrine of artistic typification, arguing that along with the main features inherent in many people representing this or that class, this or that social stratum, the artist embodies the unique individual traits of a particular individual, both in his external appearance, in his individualized speech portrait, features of clothing, gait, manners, gestures, as well as in the inner, spiritual appearance.
Realists of the 19th century when creating artistic images, they showed the hero in development, depicted the evolution of character, which was determined by the complex interaction of the individual and society. In this they differed sharply from the enlighteners and romantics. Perhaps the first and very striking example of this was Stendhal’s novel “The Red and the Black,” where the deep dynamics of the character of Julien Sorel, the main character of this work, are revealed through the stages of his biography.
The art of critical realism set as its task an objective artistic reproduction of reality. The realist writer based his artistic discoveries on a deep scientific study of the facts and phenomena of life. Therefore, the works of critical realists are a rich source of information about the era they describe. For example, Stendhal’s novel “Lucien Leuven” gives an idea of the social structure of the first years of the July Monarchy in France in many ways more accurate and vivid than special scientific works about this period.
This side of critical realism was also noted by the founders of Marxism. For Engels, Balzac’s “Human Comedy” was important not only as a highly artistic work; he valued it no less as a huge work of an educational nature.
Marx also speaks of the same cognitive significance of the literature of critical realism in his characterization of the English realistic novel of the 19th century.
Aesthetic origins of critical realism
Each literary movement and creative method is brought to life by not only socio-political prerequisites, for all their importance, but also aesthetic ones. They develop both in individual literary phenomena of the past and in entire literary movements. In essence, throughout the entire world literary process, the process of progressive development and formation of realism can be quite clearly and consistently traced. In this process, a special place belongs to the titans of the Renaissance Rabelais, Cervantes, Shakespeare and others. Their experience undoubtedly affected the work of every significant realist artist, regardless of whether he directly turned to this experience or not. To the writers of critical realism, the experience of Renaissance artists came partly through its interpretation by the romantics, among whom the Germans, especially the early ones, were active adherents and propagandists of the Renaissance. An equally significant component of the aesthetic origins of critical realism was the realistic literature of the Enlightenment; in particular, the importance of the English novel of the 18th century should be especially emphasized here. Critical realists adopted the anti-feudal, and more broadly, the social-critical tendency of Enlightenment realism, its subtle psychological skill (Laurence Stern).
From the Enlightenment, critical realists adopted faith in the cognitive power of the human mind. What brings critical realists closer to the realists of the Enlightenment is the affirmation of the educational, civic mission of art. Dickens, for example, was characterized by a clear exaggeration of this role artistic creativity, by whose forces (and only by them) he believed it was possible to eradicate social evil. It was this belief that brought him to his end. creative path to severe disappointments.
Far from denying this mission of art, the French critical realists assigned it a much more real and important role. Like the Enlightenment realists, the typological artistic principle of the critical realists was the depiction of reality in the forms of reality itself. The organic impact of the artistic and aesthetic experience of educators on future destinies realistic literature can be very clearly seen in connection with Goethe’s novels about Wilhelm Meister (“The Years of Wilhelm Meister’s Study” and “The Years of Wilhelm Meister’s Wanderings”), which are one of the first experiments in the novel of education. All subsequent development of the novel in German literature up to the present day, to one degree or another, transforms this model of Goethe’s novel.
Even more direct and profound are the connections between critical realism and romanticism (not only chronologically, but also from the point of view of the essence of the creative method), which prepared the formation of critical realism. These organic contacts are characteristic both of the creative evolution of individual writers (Heine, Byron, Shelley, Balzac, Flaubert, partly Hugo, J. Sand), and in general typological terms.
The socio-political issues that become dominant in the work of critical realists, in their ideological and aesthetic genesis and development from educational realism (if we take the aesthetic category closest to realism of the 19th century), were by no means interrupted in romanticism, although, as a rule, they played has a peripheral role in it.
Based on the fruitful experience of the romantics in revealing the inner world of characters and the psychology of the characters, critical realist writers deepened the possibilities of character typification. Unlike sentimentalists and romantics, psychologism as one of the means of typification among critical realists does not have a self-sufficient meaning and is associated with the disclosure of general social content of a particular nature. The psychologism of the romantics was adopted and revived again in the work of the critical realists. This connection can be seen especially clearly in the literary process of France.
Let us remember that one of the most important theses of romantic aesthetics, especially clearly formulated by Hugo in his preface to the drama “Cromwell,” was the requirement for local and historical coloring, that is, a thorough description of the situation of the era in which the action of the work of art takes place, specific historical , and often the everyday realities of the era. The novels of W. Scott and the novel “Notre Dame de Paris” by Hugo are distinguished by the mastery of such descriptions. In developing this aspect of their artistic system, the Romantics prepared and fertilized the creative practice of the critical realists. In this regard, it is enough to recall most of Balzac’s novels and stories, noted for their brilliant skill of description.
The romantic theory of contrasts, proclaimed and consistently embodied by Hugo, largely preceded the reflection of the dialectical contradictions of reality in the work of critical realists.
One of the leading themes in the work of critical realists is the theme of lost illusions. It is typical for all European literature XIX century, and its emergence was associated with the ideological consequences of the French Revolution at the end of the 18th century.
The creative evolution of some romantics, as if reproducing the general evolution of romanticism, is marked by an increasing appeal to the depiction of concrete reality, a weakening of the subjective principle, and a departure from normative abstractions and allegories. This is, for example, the evolution of Byron, Shelley, Heine. In varying degrees of expression, we are dealing here with the maturation of realistic tendencies in the depths of romanticism.
On the other hand, many significant representatives of critical realism also experienced a significant and fruitful influence of romanticism. Deeply connected with the artistic consciousness of romanticism was Dickens, whose entire work was colored by a romantic-utopian dream of the inevitable triumph of goodness, of universal love and brotherhood. Stendhal, who also learned the lessons of the Romantics, was especially close to them in his creative manner. This was reflected not only in his deep and masterful psychologism, but also in the very ideological and aesthetic structure of his novels, in the center of which is always main character, opposed to reality and rising above it.
The nature of the perception of the romantic tradition is also characteristic of some, especially the early, works of Merimee and Balzac.
Critical realism as a literary movement contains not only a critical principle (as this might perhaps be imagined in connection with this term itself). For most realists, a high positive ideal, a positive beginning were no less important than a socially critical orientation. Severe denouncers of their contemporary social system, they contrasted it with the dream of a just social system, although the dream was utopian; exposed social evil contrasted with a high moral and ethical ideal. And perhaps one of the most convincing evidence of this is the extensive gallery of bright positive heroes in the works of critical realists. It should be emphasized that most of these positive heroes belonged to the lower social classes of society. It was in representatives of the popular masses that critical realists sought and saw the true embodiment of their moral and ethical ideals.
In this regard, special mention should be made of the meaning of the term “critical realism.” It is very imperfect, since it obviously interprets the phenomena of the literary process it defines as aimed only at revealing the negative phenomena of reality. Such an initial thesis is deeply erroneous, not only because it comes into complete contradiction with the facts of the literary process itself, but also because any true art cannot exist and develop outside of positive ideals.
The traditions of realism of the 19th century are of primary importance. for the literature of our century. Although the paths taken by modern literature are different, the leading line of its development is associated with the perception and rethinking of the principles of realism in the art of the 19th century.
French realism of the 19th century goes through two stages in its development. The first stage - the formation and establishment of realism as a leading trend in literature (late 20s - 40s) - is represented by the works of Beranger, Merimee, Stendhal, Balzac. The second (50-70s) is associated with the name of Flaubert - the heir to realism of the Balzac-Stendhal type and the predecessor of the “naturalistic realism” of the Zola school.
The history of realism in France begins with Beranger’s songwriting, which is quite natural and logical. The song is a small and therefore most mobile genre of literature, instantly reacting to all the remarkable phenomena of our time. During the period of the formation of realism, the song gives way to primacy social novel. It is this genre, due to its specificity, that opens up rich opportunities for the writer for a broad depiction and in-depth analysis of reality, allowing Balzac and Stendhal to solve their main creative task - to capture in their creations the living image of contemporary France in all its completeness and historical uniqueness. A more modest, but also very significant place in the general hierarchy of realistic genres is occupied by the short story, of which Merimee is rightfully considered an unsurpassed master in those years.
The emergence of realism as a method occurred in the second half of the 20s, i.e., during the period when the romantics played a leading role in the literary process. Next to them, in the mainstream of romanticism, Merimee, Stendhal, and Balzac began their writing journey. All of them are close to the creative associations of the romantics and actively participate in their struggle with the classicists. It was the classicists of the first decades of the 19th century, protected by the monarchical Bourbon government, who were the main opponents of the emerging realistic art in these years. Almost simultaneously published, the manifesto of the French romantics - the preface to Hugo's drama "Cromwell" and Stendhal's aesthetic treatise "Racine and Shakespeare" - have a common critical focus, being two decisive blows to the code of laws of classicist art that has long since become obsolete. In these most important historical and literary documents, both Hugo and Stendhal, rejecting the aesthetics of classicism, advocated for the expansion of the subject of depiction in art, for the abolition of forbidden subjects and themes, for the presentation of life in all its fullness and contradictions. Moreover, for both, the highest example that should be oriented towards when creating new art is the great Renaissance master Shakespeare. Finally, the first realists of France and the romantics of the 20s are also brought together by a common socio-political orientation, revealed not only in the opposition to the Bourbon monarchy, but also in the sharply critical perception of the bourgeois relations that were establishing themselves before their eyes.
After the revolution of 1830, which was a significant milestone in the history of France, the paths of realists and romantics diverged, which, in particular, would be reflected in their polemics in the early 30s. Romanticism will be forced to give up its primacy in the literary process to realism as a direction that most fully meets the requirements of the new time. However, even after 1830, contacts between yesterday’s allies in the fight against the classicists will continue. Remaining true to the fundamental principles of their aesthetics, the romantics will successfully master the experience of the artistic discoveries of the realists, supporting them in almost all the most important creative endeavors
Realists of the second half of the 19th century. will reproach their predecessors for the “residual romanticism” found in Mérimée, for example, in his cult of exoticism (the so-called exotic short stories like “Mateo Falcone”, “Colomba” or “Carmen”). Stendhal has a passion for depicting bright individuals and exceptionally strong passions (“The Parma Monastery”, “Italian Chronicles”), Balzac has a craving for adventurous plots (“The History of the Thirteen”) and the use of fantasy techniques in philosophical stories and novels "Shagreen skin." These reproaches are not without foundation. The fact is that between French realism of the first period - and this is one of its specific features - and romanticism there is a complex “family” connection, which is revealed, in particular, in the inheritance of techniques and even individual themes and motifs characteristic of romantic art (the theme of lost illusions, motive of disappointment, etc.).
Note that in those days there had not yet been a distinction between the terms “romanticism” and “realism”. Throughout the first half of the 19th century. realists were almost invariably called romantics. Only in the 50s - after the death of Stendhal and Balzac - did the French writers Chanfleury and Duranty propose the term “realism” in special declarations. However, it is important to emphasize that the method, to the theoretical substantiation of which they devoted many works, was already significantly different from the method of Stendhal, Balzac, Merimee, which bears the imprint of their historical origin and the resulting dialectical connection with the art of romanticism.
The importance of romanticism as the forerunner of realistic art in France can hardly be overestimated. It was the romantics who were the first critics of bourgeois society. They are also credited with discovering a new type of hero who enters into confrontation with this society. Consistent, uncompromising criticism of bourgeois relations from the high positions of humanism will be the strongest side of the French realists, who expanded and enriched the experience of their predecessors in this direction and, most importantly, gave anti-bourgeois criticism a new, social character.
One of the most significant achievements of the romantics is rightfully seen in their art of psychological analysis, in their discovery of the inexhaustible depth and complexity of the individual personality. With this achievement, the romantics also served the realists, paving the way for them to new heights in understanding the inner world of man. Special discoveries in this direction were to be made by Stendhal, who, relying on the experience of contemporary medicine (in particular, psychiatry), would significantly clarify the knowledge of literature about the spiritual side of human life and connect the psychology of the individual with his social existence, and present the inner world of man in dynamics, in evolution, conditioned by the active influence on the personality of the complex environment in which this personality resides.
Of particular importance in connection with the problem of literary continuity is the most important of the principles of romantic aesthetics, inherited by realists - the principle of historicism. It is known that this principle presupposes consideration of the life of mankind as a continuous process in which all its stages are dialectically interconnected, each of which has its own specifics. It was this, called historical coloring by the romantics, that word artists were called upon to reveal in their works. However, the principle of historicism among the romantics, which was formed in a fierce polemic with the classicists, had an idealistic basis. It acquires a fundamentally different content from the realists. Based on the discoveries of the school of contemporary historians (Thierry, Michelet, Guizot), who proved that the main engine of history is the struggle of classes, and the force that decides the outcome of this struggle is the people, the realists proposed a new, materialist reading of history. This is what stimulated their special interest both in the economic structures of society and in the social psychology of the broad masses. Finally, speaking about the complex transformation of the principle of historicism discovered by the romantics in realistic art, it is necessary to emphasize that this principle is put into practice by the realists when depicting recently past eras (which is typical for the romantics), and modern bourgeois reality, shown in their works as a certain stage in the historical development of France.
The heyday of French realism, represented by the works of Balzac, Stendhal and Mérimée, occurred in the 1830s and 1840s. This was the period of the so-called July Monarchy, when France, having put an end to feudalism, established, in the words of Engels, “the pure rule of the bourgeoisie with such classical clarity as no other European country. And the struggle of the rising proletariat against the ruling bourgeoisie also appears here in such an acute form that is unknown in other countries.” The “classical clarity” of bourgeois relations, the particularly “acute form” of the antagonistic contradictions that emerged in them, prepares for the exceptional accuracy and depth of social analysis in the works of the great realists. A sober view of modern France is a characteristic feature of Balzac, Stendhal, and Merimee.
Great realists see their main task in the artistic reproduction of reality as it is, in the knowledge of the internal laws of this reality that determine its dialectics and diversity of forms. “French society itself was supposed to be the historian; I could only be its secretary,” Balzac states in the Preface to The Human Comedy, proclaiming the principle of objectivity in the approach to depicting reality as the most important principle of realistic art. But an objective reflection of the world as it is is in the understanding of the realists of the first half of the 19th century. - not a passive mirror reflection of this world. For sometimes, Stendhal notes, “nature reveals unusual spectacles, sublime contrasts; they may remain unintelligible to the mirror, which unconsciously reproduces them.” And, as if picking up Stendhal’s thought, Balzac continues: “The task of art is not to copy nature, but to express it!” A categorical rejection of flat empiricism (which some realists of the second half of the 19th century would be guilty of) is one of the remarkable features of classical realism of the 1830-1840s. That is why the most important of the principles - the recreation of life in the forms of life itself - does not at all exclude for Balzac, Stendhal, Mérimée such romantic techniques as fantasy, grotesque, symbol, allegory, subordinated, however, to the realistic basis of their works.
The realism of the second half of the 19th century, represented by the work of Flaubert, differs from the realism of the first stage. There is a final break with the romantic tradition, officially declared already in the novel Madame Bovary (1856). And although the main object of depiction in art remains bourgeois reality, the scale and principles of its depiction are changing. The bright individualities of the heroes of the realistic novel of the 30s and 40s are being replaced by ordinary, unremarkable people. The multicolored world of truly Shakespearean passions, cruel fights, heartbreaking dramas, captured in Balzac’s “Human Comedy”, the works of Stendhal and Mérimée, gives way to a “mold-colored world”, the most remarkable event in which is adultery, vulgar adultery.
Fundamental changes are noted, in comparison with the realism of the first stage, in the artist’s relationship with the world in which he lives and which is the object of his image. If Balzac, Stendhal, Merimee showed an ardent interest in the destinies of this world and constantly, according to Balzac, “felt the pulse of their era, felt its illnesses, observed its physiognomy,” i.e. felt themselves to be artists deeply involved in the life of modernity, then Flaubert declares a fundamental detachment from the bourgeois reality unacceptable to him. However, obsessed with the dream of breaking all the threads connecting him with the “mildew-colored world”, and taking refuge in the “ivory tower”, devoting himself to the service of high art, Flaubert is almost fatally chained to his modernity, remaining its strict analyst and objective judge all his life. Brings him closer to the realists of the first half of the 19th century. and the anti-bourgeois orientation of creativity.
It is the deep, uncompromising criticism of the inhumane and socially unjust foundations of the bourgeois system, established on the ruins of the feudal monarchy, that constitutes the main strength of realism of the 19th century.