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Russian literature of the 18th century (sentimentalism and classicism). Sentimentalism in Western European literature of the 18th century

Sentimentalism in Russian literature of the 18th century

Classicism in Russian literature of the 18th century

Actually literature of the 18th century

Literature of Peter's time

Know the differences between 18th century literature. from ancient literature.

Have an idea of ​​what classicism and sentimentalism are;

Originality literary process in the 18th century

Lesson No. 1

Goals:

Progress of the lesson:

1. Organizational moment, goals:

2. Update:

3. Lecture:

18 literary age equal to a chronological century. The general significance of the literary 18th century lies in its transitional nature: from ancient literature literature made the transition to the classics (19th century).

Differences between Russian literature of the 18th century and ancient literature:

1. Ancient literature was handwritten, but in the 18th century literature received printing press, which made the printed word widespread;

2. Ancient literature did not claim authorship, which cannot be said about the literature of the 18th century, although at that time there were still many untitled works, the first professional writers nevertheless appeared;

3. Ancient literature was largely ecclesiastical, and among the literature of the 18th century there are quite a lot of secular works;

Within the literature of the 18th century, two stages of its development can be distinguished:

This stage covers 1/3 of the 18th century until the 30s.

It was at this time great development receives printing. The first spelling reform is taking place, as a result of which obsolete letters (for example, yus) are leaving the alphabet. In the era of Peter the Great, a newspaper with political news began to be published for the first time. It was at this time that the following books appeared: “An Honest Mirror of Youth,” “Butts, How to Write Compliments,” etc.
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Lyrics were actively developing in the Peter the Great era. poetry. Οʜᴎ are not written in the form familiar to us, and often do not even have a rhyme, although the first poets already wrote them in a column. It was at this time that the reform of Russian versification, which Vasily Kirillovich Trediakovsky began to carry out, became extremely important. Later this question Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov also arouses interest, who proposes his own reform project. October 17, 1672 is considered to be the date of birth of the Russian theater. On this day, the first premiere took place at the court of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, lasting 10 hours without intermission.

This period is characterized by the development of two literary movements: classicism and sentimentalism. Such names as Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov and Alexander Petrovich Sumarokov are associated with the emergence and development of classicism. Denis Ivanovich Fonvizin, Gavrila Romanovich Derzhavin.

Name Lomonosov connected not only with the history of the development of literature, but also other sciences. This person entered philology not only as the author of the “Russian Grammar” and the creator of the theory of the three “calms” of the language (high, middle and low), not only as the author dramatic works, but also as a talented poet who translated the odes of the ancient Greek poet Anacreon, and also created his own. The most famous of them were “Ode on the Capture of Khotin” (written after the capture of the Turkish fortress located in Moldova by Russian troops), “Ode on the day of accession to the All-Russian throne of Her Majesty Empress Elizabeth Petrovna in 1747”. This ode contains the following lines: ʼʼ...maybe its own Platos, / And the quick-witted Newtons / The Russian land can give birth to ʼʼ.

Fonvizin entered Russian literature as the author of the most famous dramatic work of that period - the comedy “Nedorosl” (1782), which still does not leave the stage. The main topic In this work, the writer was very concerned about the issue of noble “evil morality.” Fonvizin wrote: “I saw contemptuous descendants from the most respectable ancestors... I am a nobleman, and this is what tore my heart apart.” Main character plays - Mitrofan - appears before us as a complete ignoramus, he is a moral immature, because he does not know how to respect the dignity of other people and in the civil sense, since he does not at all understand his responsibilities to the state.

The development of sentimentalism in Russian literature is associated, first of all, with the name Karamzin. This writer became one of the most consistent educators who condemned the tyranny and despotism of rulers who advocated for the transcendental value of man. The most famous works are “Letters of a Russian Traveler” and “Poor Liza”. Both of them were first published in a magazine published by Karamzin himself (Moscow Magazine). A huge feat of the writer was his work on the “History of the Russian State”. Pushkin wrote: “Ancient Russia... was found by Karamzin, like America by Columbus.” However, all this does not exhaust the merits of the writer. Belinsky believed that Karamzin’s work had a significant influence on the development of literature in the 19th century. The critic even spoke about the Karamzin period in Russian literature, which lasted until the 20s. 19th century. Belinsky wrote: “Karamzin... was the first to replace the dead language of the book with the living language of society.”

4. D/Z

Give a lecture, write down definitions of what classicism is, sentimentalism, what ode is; reports on the works of Derzhavin and Radishchev (5 min).

Sentimentalism in Russian literature of the 18th century - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Sentimentalism in Russian literature of the 18th century" 2017, 2018.

SENTIMENTALISM(French Sentiment ) direction in European literature and art of the second half of the 18th century, formed within the framework of the late Enlightenment and reflecting the growth of democratic sentiments of society. Originated in lyric poetry and novel; later, penetrating into theatrical art, it gave impetus to the emergence of the genres of “tearful comedy” and bourgeois drama.Sentimentalism in literature. Philosophical origins Sentimentalism goes back to sensationalism, which put forward the idea of ​​a “natural”, “sensitive” (knowing the world with feelings) person. By the beginning of the 18th century. ideas of sensationalism penetrate into literature and art.

The “natural” man becomes the protagonist of sentimentalism. Sentimentalist writers proceeded from the premise that man, being a creation of nature, from birth possesses the inclinations of “natural virtue” and “sensibility”; The degree of sensitivity determines the dignity of a person and the significance of all his actions. Achieving happiness as the main goal human existence possible under two conditions: the development of human natural principles (“education of feelings”) and stay in the natural environment (nature); merging with her, he finds inner harmony. Civilization (the city), on the contrary, is a hostile environment for it: it distorts its nature. The more social a person is, the more empty and lonely he is. Hence the cult of private life, rural existence, and even primitiveness and savagery characteristic of sentimentalism. Sentimentalists did not accept the idea of ​​progress, fundamental to the encyclopedists, looking with pessimism at the prospects for social development. The concepts of “history”, “state”, “society”, “education” had a negative meaning for them.

Sentimentalists, unlike classicists, were not interested in the historical, heroic past: they were inspired by everyday impressions. The place of exaggerated passions, vices and virtues was taken by human feelings familiar to everyone. The hero of sentimentalist literature is an ordinary person. Mostly this is a person from the third estate, sometimes of a low position (maidservant) and even an outcast (robber), in the richness of his inner world and purity of feelings he is not inferior to, and often superior to, representatives of the upper class. The denial of class and other differences imposed by civilization constitutes democratic (egalitarian)

pathos of sentimentalism.

Turning to the inner world of man allowed sentimentalists to show its inexhaustibility and inconsistency. They abandoned the absolutization of any one character trait and the unambiguous moral interpretation of a character characteristic of classicism: a sentimentalist hero can commit both bad and good deeds, experience both noble and base feelings; sometimes his actions and desires do not lend themselves to a simple assessment. Since man is inherently good by nature

the beginning and evil are the fruit of civilization, no one can become a complete villain he always has a chance to return to his nature. Retaining hope for human self-improvement, they remained, with all their pessimistic attitude towards progress, in the mainstream of Enlightenment thought. Hence the didacticism and sometimes pronounced tendentiousness of their works.

The cult of feelings has determined high degree subjectivism. This direction is characterized by an appeal to genres that most fully allow to show the life of the human heart, elegy, novel in letters, travel diary, memoirs, etc., where the story is told in the first person. Sentimentalists rejected the principle of “objective” discourse, which implies the removal of the author from the subject of the image: the author’s reflection on what is being described becomes the most important element of the narrative for them. The structure of the essay is largely determined by the will of the writer: he does not so strictly follow established literary canons that fetter the imagination, he builds the composition rather arbitrarily, and is generous with lyrical digressions.

Born on British shores in the 1710s, sentimentalism became floor. 18th century a pan-European phenomenon. Most clearly manifested in English

, French, German and Russian literature. Sentimentalism in England. Sentimentalism first made itself known in lyric poetry. Poet trans. floor. 18th century James Thomson abandoned the urban motifs traditional for rationalist poetry and made English nature the object of his depiction. Nevertheless, he does not completely depart from the classicist tradition: he uses the genre of elegy, legitimized by the classicist theorist Nicolas Boileau in his Poetic art(1674), however, replaces the rhymed couplets with blank verse, characteristic of Shakespeare's era.

The development of the lyrics follows the path of strengthening the pessimistic motives already heard in D. Thomson. The theme of the illusory and futility of earthly existence triumphs in Edward Jung, the founder of “graveyard poetry.” Poetry of the followers of E. Jung Scottish pastor Robert Blair (16991746), author of a gloomy didactic poem grave(1743), and Thomas Gray, creator (1749), is permeated with the idea of ​​equality of all before death.

Sentimentalism expressed itself most fully in the genre of the novel. Its founder was Samuel Richardson, who, breaking with the picaresque and adventure tradition, turned to depicting the world of human feelings, which required the creation new form novel in letters. In the 1750s, sentimentalism became the main focus of English educational literature. The work of Lawrence Sterne, considered by many researchers to be the "father of sentimentalism", marks the final departure from classicism. ( Satirical novel Life and opinions of Tristram Shandy, gentleman(17601767) and novel Mr. Yorick's Sentimental Journey through France and Italy(1768), from which the name of the artistic movement came).

Critical English sentimentalism reaches its peak in creativity Oliver Goldsmith.

The 1770s saw the decline of English sentimentalism. The genre of sentimental novel ceases to exist. In poetry, the sentimentalist school gives way to the pre-romantic school (D. Macpherson, T. Chatterton).Sentimentalism in France. In French literature, sentimentalism expressed itself in classical form. Pierre Carlet de Chamblen de Marivaux stands at the origins of sentimental prose. ( Life of Marianne , 17281741; And Peasant going public , 17351736). Antoine-François Prevost d'Exile, or Abbe Prevost, opened a new area of ​​feelings for the novel - an irresistible passion that leads the hero to life catastrophe.

The culmination of the sentimental novel was the work of Jean-Jacques Rousseau

(17121778). The concept of nature and “natural” man determined the content of his works of art(for example, an epistolary novel Julie, or New Heloise , 1761). J.-J. Rousseau made nature an independent (intrinsically valuable) object of image. His Confession(17661770) is considered one of the most frank autobiographies in world literature, where he brings to the absolute the subjectivist attitude of sentimentalism (a work of art as a way of expressing the author’s “I”).

Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre (1737-1814), like his teacher J.-J. Rousseau, considered the main task of the artist to affirm the truth - happiness lies in living in harmony with nature and virtuously. He sets out his concept of nature in his treatise Sketches about nature(17841787). This topic gets artistic embodiment in the novel Paul and Virginie(1787). Depicting distant seas and tropical countries, B. de Saint-Pierre introduces a new category “exotic”, which will be in demand by romantics, primarily Francois-René de Chateaubriand.

Jacques-Sebastien Mercier (17401814), following the Rousseauist tradition, makes the central conflict of the novel Savage(1767) the collision of the ideal (primitive) form of existence (the “golden age”) with the civilization that is corrupting it. In a utopian novel 2440, what a dream there are few(1770), based on Social contract J.-J. Rousseau, he constructs an image of an egalitarian rural community in which people live in harmony with nature. S. Mercier also presents his critical view of the “fruits of civilization” in journalistic form in an essay Painting of Paris (1781). The work of Nicolas Retief de La Bretonne (1734-1806), a self-taught writer, author of two hundred volumes of works, is marked by the influence of Jean-Jean Rousseau. In the novel The Corrupt Peasant, or The Dangers of the City(1775) tells the story of the transformation, under the influence of the urban environment, of a morally pure young man into a criminal. Utopian novel Southern opening (1781) treats the same theme as 2440 S. Mercier. IN New Emile, or Practical Education(1776) Retief de La Bretonne develops the pedagogical ideas of J.-J. Rousseau, applying them to women's education, and polemicizes with him. Confession J.-J. Rousseau becomes the reason for the creation of his autobiographical essay Mister Nikola, or The Human Heart Unveiled(17941797), where he turns the narrative into a kind of “physiological sketch.”

In the 1790s, during the era of the Great French Revolution, sentimentalism lost its position, giving way to revolutionary classicism

. Sentimentalism in Germany. In Germany, sentimentalism was born as a national-cultural reaction to French classicism; the work of English and French sentimentalists played a certain role in its formation. Significant merit in the formation of a new view of literature belongs to G.E. Lessing.The origins of German sentimentalism lie in the polemics of the early 1740s between Zurich professors I. J. Bodmer (1698-1783) and I. J. Breitinger (1701-1776) with a prominent apologist of classicism in Germany I. K. Gottsched (1700-1766); The “Swiss” defended the poet’s right to poetic imagination. The first major exponent of the new direction was Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, who found common ground between sentimentalism and the German medieval tradition.

The heyday of sentimentalism in Germany occurred in the 1770s and 1780s and is associated with the Sturm und Drang movement, named after the drama of the same name

Sturm und Drang F.M. Klinger (17521831). Its participants set themselves the task of creating an original national German literature; from J.-J. Rousseau, they adopted a critical attitude towards civilization and the cult of the natural. Sturm und Drang theorist and philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder criticized the “boastful and sterile education” of the Enlightenment, attacked the mechanical use of classicist rules, arguing that true poetry is the language of feelings, first strong impressions, fantasy and passion, such a language is universal. “Stormy geniuses” denounced tyranny and protested against the hierarchy of modern societyand his morals ( Tomb of the Kings K.F.Shubart, To freedom F.L. Shtolberg and others); their main character was a freedom-loving strong personality Prometheus or Faust driven by passions and not knowing any barriers.

In his youth he belonged to the “Storm and Drang” movement Johann Wolfgang Goethe. His novel The sufferings of young Werther(1774) became a landmark work of German sentimentalism, defining the end of the “provincial stage” of German literature and its entry into pan-European literature.

Dramas are marked by the spirit of Sturm and Drang Johann Friedrich Schiller

. Sentimentalism in Russia. Sentimentalism penetrated into Russia in the 1780s and early 1790s thanks to translations of novels Werther I.V.Goethe , Pamela , Clarissa and Grandison S. Richardson, New Heloise J.-J. Rousseau, Paula and Virginie J.-A. Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. Opened the era of Russian sentimentalism Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin Letters from a Russian traveler(17911792). His novel Poor Lisa (1792) a masterpiece of Russian sentimental prose; from Goethe's Werther it inherited the general atmosphere of sensitivity and melancholy and the theme of suicide.

The works of N.M. Karamzin gave rise to a huge number of imitations; at the beginning of the 19th century appeared Poor Masha A.E.Izmailova (1801), Journey to Midday Russia

 (1802), Henrietta, or The Triumph of Deception over the Weakness or Delusion of I. Svechinsky (1802), numerous stories by G. P. Kamenev ( The story of poor Marya ; Unhappy Margarita; Beautiful Tatiana) etc.

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

Sentimentalism marked early creativity Vasily Andreevich Zhukovsky. Publication in 1802 translation Elegy written in a rural cemetery E. Gray became a phenomenon in the artistic life of Russia, because he translated the poem

“into the language of sentimentalism in general, translated the genre of elegy, and not the individual work of an English poet, which has its own special individual style"(E.G. Etkind). In 1809 Zhukovsky wrote a sentimental story Maryina Roshcha in the spirit of N.M. Karamzin.

Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.

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

. Evgenia KrivushinaSentimentalism in the theater (French sentiment feeling) direction in European theatrical art of the second half of the 18th century.

The development of sentimentalism in the theater is associated with the crisis of the aesthetics of classicism, which proclaimed a strict rationalistic canon of drama and its stage embodiment. The speculative constructions of classicist drama are being replaced by the desire to bring theater closer to reality. This is reflected in almost all components of theatrical performance: in the themes of the plays (reflection of private life, development of family

- psychological stories); in language (classicist pathetic poetic speech is replaced by prose, close to conversational intonation); in the social affiliation of the characters (the heroes of theatrical works are representatives of the third estate) ; in determining the locations of action (palace interiors are replaced by “natural” and rural views).

“Tearful comedy” an early genre of sentimentalism appeared in England in the work of playwrights Colley Cibber ( Love's last trick

 1696; Carefree spouse, 170 4, etc.), Joseph Addison ( Atheist, 1714; Drummer, 1715), Richard Steele ( Funeral, or Fashionable sadness, 1701; The Liar Lover, 1703; Conscientious Lovers, 1722, etc.). These were moralizing works, where the comic element was successively replaced by sentimental and pathetic scenes and moral and didactic maxims. The moral charge of the “tearful comedy” is based not on the ridicule of vices, but on the chanting of virtue, which awakens both individual heroes and society as a whole to correct shortcomings.

The same moral and aesthetic principles were the basis for the French “tearful comedy”. Its most prominent representatives were Philippe Detouche ( Married Philosopher

, 1727; Proud man, 1732; Spendthrift, 1736) and Pierre Nivelle de Lachausse ( Melanida , 1741; Mothers' School, 1744; Governess, 1747, etc.). Some criticism of social vices was presented by playwrights as temporary delusions of the characters, which they successfully overcome by the end of the play. Sentimentalism was also reflected in the work of one of the most famous French playwrights of that time Pierre Carle Marivaux ( Game of love and chance, 1730; Celebration of love, 1732; Inheritance, 1736; Sincere, 1739, etc.). Marivaux, while remaining a faithful follower of salon comedy, at the same time constantly introduces into it features of sensitive sentimentality and moral didactics.

In the second half of the 18th century. “tearful comedy,” while remaining within the framework of sentimentalism, is gradually being replaced by the genre of bourgeois drama. Here the elements of comedy completely disappear; The plots are based on tragic situations in the everyday life of the third estate. However, the problematic remains the same as in the “tearful comedy”: the triumph of virtue, overcoming all trials and tribulations. In this single direction, bourgeois drama is developing in all European countries: England (J. Lillo,

 The Merchant of London, or the Story of George Barnwell; E.Moore, Player); France (D. Diderot, The Bastard, or The Trial of Virtue; M. Seden, Philosopher, without knowing it); Germany (G.E. Lessing, Miss Sarah Sampson, Emilia Galotti). From the theoretical developments and dramaturgy of Lessing, which received the definition of “philistine tragedy,” the aesthetic movement of “Storm and Drang” arose (F. M. Klinger, J. Lenz, L. Wagner, I. V. Goethe, etc.), which reached its peak development in creativity Friedrich Schiller ( The Robbers, 1780; Deceit and love, 1784). Theatrical sentimentalism became widespread in Russia. For the first time appearing in creativity Mikhail Kheraskov ( Friend of the unfortunate, 1774; Persecuted, 1775), the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism were continued by Mikhail Verevkin ( That's how it should be , Birthday people, Exactly), Vladimir Lukin ( A spendthrift, corrected by love), Pyotr Plavilshchikov ( Bobyl , Sidelets, etc.).

Sentimentalism gave a new impetus to the art of acting, the development of which in in a certain sense was inhibited by classicism. The aesthetics of the classicist performance of roles required strict adherence to the conventional canon of the entire set of means of acting expression; the improvement of acting skills proceeded rather along a purely formal line. Sentimentalism gave actors the opportunity to turn to the inner world of their characters, to the dynamics of image development, the search for psychological persuasiveness and versatility of characters.

By the middle of the 19th century. the popularity of sentimentalism faded away, the genre of bourgeois drama practically ceased to exist. However, the aesthetic principles of sentimentalism formed the basis for the formation of one of the youngest theatrical genres - melodrama

. Tatiana ShabalinaLITERATURE Bentley E. Life of drama. M., 1978
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Atarova K.N. Laurence Stern and his "Sentimental Journey". M., 1988
Dzhivilegov A., Boyadzhiev G. History of Western European theater. M., 1991
Lotman Yu.M. Rousseau and Russian culture of the 18th and early 19th centuries. ¶ In the book: Lotman Yu. M. Selected articles: In 3 vols, vol. 2. Tallinn, 1992
Kochetkova I.D. Literature of Russian sentimentalism. St. Petersburg, 1994
Toporov V.N. “Poor Liza” by Karamzin. Reading experience. M., 1995
Bent M. "Werther, rebellious martyr..." Biography of one book. Chelyabinsk, 1997
Kurilov A.S. Classicism, romanticism and sentimentalism (On the issue of concepts and chronology of literary and artistic development). Philological sciences. 2001, No. 6
Zykova E.P. Epistolary culture of the 18th century. and Richardson's novels. World tree. 2001, No. 7
Zababurova N.V. The poetic as the sublime: Abbé Prévost translator of Richardson's Clarissa. In the book: XVIII century: the fate of poetry in the era of prose. M., 2001
Western European theater from the Renaissance to the turn XIX-XX centuries Essays. M., 2001
Krivushina E.S. The union of the rational and the irrational in the prose of J.-J. Rousseau. In the book: Krivushina E.S. French literature of the 17th-20th centuries: Poetics of the text. Ivanovo, 2002
Krasnoshchekova E.A. “Letters of a Russian Traveler”: Problems of Zhenra ( N.M. Karamzin and Laurence Stern). Russian literature. 2003, no. 2

Since the sixties of the 18th century, a new development has been taking shape in Russian literature. literary direction, called sentimentalism.

Like the classicists, sentimentalist writers relied on the ideas of the Enlightenment that the value of a person does not depend on his belonging to upper classes, but from his personal merits. But if for the classicists the state and public interests came first, then for the sentimentalists it was a specific person with his feelings and experiences. The classicists subordinated everything to reason, the sentimentalists to feelings and mood. Sentimentalists believed that man is kind by nature, devoid of hatred, deceit, and cruelty, and that on the basis of innate virtue, public and social instincts are formed that unite people into society. Hence the belief of sentimentalists that it is the natural sensitivity and good inclinations of people that are the key to an ideal society. In the works of that time, the main place began to be given to the education of the soul and moral improvement. Sentimentalists considered sensitivity to be the primary source of virtue, so their poems were filled with compassion, melancholy and sadness. The genres that were preferred also changed. Elegies, messages, songs and romances took first place.

The main character is an ordinary person who strives to merge with nature, find peaceful silence in it and find happiness. Sentimentalism, like classicism, also suffered from certain limitations and weaknesses. In the works of this movement, sensitivity develops into melancholy, accompanied by sighs and tears.

The ideal of sensitivity greatly influenced an entire generation of educated people in both Europe and Russia, defining the lifestyle of many. Reading sentimental novels was part of the norm of behavior for an educated person. Pushkin’s Tatyana Larina, who “fell in love” with the deceptions of both Richardson and Rousseau,” thus received in the Russian wilderness the same upbringing as all the young ladies in all European capitals. Literary heroes were sympathized with, like real people, and imitated. In general, a sentimental upbringing brought a lot of good things.

In the last years of the reign of Catherine II (from approximately 1790 until her death in 1796), what usually happens at the end of long reigns happened in Russia: stagnation began in state affairs, the highest places were occupied by old dignitaries, educated youth did not see the opportunity applying one's strength to the service of the fatherland. Then sentimental moods came into fashion - not only in literature, but also in life.

The ruler of the thoughts of young people in the 90s was Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, a writer with whose name the concept of “Russian sentimentalism” is usually associated. Born 12/1/1766 in the village. Mikhailovka, Simbirsk province. He was educated in private boarding schools in Simbirsk and Moscow. Attended lectures at Moscow University. Knew several new and ancient languages.

In 1789 - 1790 the writer took a trip to Europe. He visited Germany, Switzerland, France, England, and in Paris he witnessed the events of the French Revolution, saw and heard almost all of its figures. The trip provided Karamzin with material for his famous “Letters of a Russian Traveler,” which are not travel notes, but a work of fiction that continues the tradition of the European genre of “travel” and “novels of education.”

Returning to Russia in the summer of 1790, Karamzin developed vigorous activity, gathering young writers around him. In 1791, he began publishing the Moscow Journal, where he published his “Letters of a Russian Traveler” and the stories that laid the foundation for Russian sentimentalism: “Poor Liza”, “Natalia, the Boyar’s Daughter”.

Karamzin saw the main task of the magazine as the re-education of “evil hearts” through the forces of art. For this, it was necessary, on the one hand, to make art understandable to people, to free the language of artistic works from pomposity, and on the other hand, to cultivate a taste for the elegant, to depict life not in all its manifestations (sometimes rough and ugly), but in those that approaching the ideal state.

In 1803 N.M. Karamzin began work on his planned “History of the Russian State” and petitioned for his official appointment as a historiographer. Having received this position, he studies numerous sources - chronicles, charters, other documents and books, and writes a number of historical works. Eight volumes of “History of the Russian State” were published in January 1818 with a circulation of 3,000 copies. and immediately sold out, so that a second edition was required. In St. Petersburg, where Karamzin moved to publish “History...”, he continued to work on the last four volumes. The 11th volume was published in 1824, and the 12th - posthumously.

The last volumes reflected a change in the author's views on historical process: from an apology for a “strong personality” he moves on to assessments of historical events from a moral point of view. The meaning of “History”. It is difficult to overestimate Karamzin: she aroused interest in the past of Russia in wide circles of the noble society, which was brought up mainly on ancient history and literature, and knew more about the ancient Greeks and Romans than about their ancestors.

N.M. Karamzin died on May 22 (June 3), 1826.

The work of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin played a huge and controversial role in Russian culture. Karamzin the writer acted as a reformer of the Russian literary language, becoming the predecessor of Pushkin; the founder of Russian sentimentalism, he created an absolutely ideal image of the people that had nothing in common with reality. Since the time of Karamzin, the language of literature has become increasingly closer to colloquial speech - first of the nobles, and then of the people; however, at the same time, the gap in the worldview of these two layers of Russian society became more and more apparent and intensified. As a journalist, Karamzin showed examples of various types of periodicals and techniques for biased presentation of material. As a historian and public figure, he was a convinced “Westernizer” and influenced a whole generation of creators who succeeded him national culture, however, he became a real educator of the nobility, forcing them (especially women) to read Russian and opening up the world to them Russian history.

literary classicism sentimentalism style

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Sentimentalism in French literature

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

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

    Sentimentalism in Russian literature

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

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

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

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

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

    Russian sentimentalism had exhausted itself by 1820.

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

    Main features of Russian sentimentalism

    • Moving away from the straightforwardness of classicism,
    • Emphasized subjectivity of approach to the world,
    • Cult of feeling
    • Cult of nature,
    • The cult of innate moral purity, innocence,
    • Affirmation of the rich spiritual world of representatives of the lower classes,
    • Attention is paid to the spiritual world of a person; feelings come first, not reason and great ideas.

    In painting

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Russian literature of the 18th century

    (sentimentalism and classicism)

    Students of class 9A

    School-gymnasium No. 3

    Aziza Akhmedova.


    Introduction. 3

    1. Literature of Peter's time. 4

    2. The era of classicism. 5

    3. The era of sentimentalism. 13

    Conclusion. 18


    Introduction

    On January 1, 1700, by decree of Peter the Great, the advent of the “new year and centennial century” was unexpectedly celebrated for everyone.

    From now on, Russians had to live according to the new calendar. The nobles were ordered to wear German dress and cut their beards. Everyday life, education and even church administration acquire a secular character. With the active support of Peter, new secular literature is being created.

    “Our literature suddenly appeared in the 18th century,” wrote A.S. Pushkin.

    Although by the beginning of this century Russian literature had gone through a centuries-long path of development, the creators new culture- supporters of Peter's innovations - saw in the past not a support, but something outdated that should be remade. They understood Peter's reforms as the creation of Russia from the darkness of historical oblivion. Peter's opponents, on the contrary, saw in the transformations the death of the ancient foundations of the Moscow state. But the suddenness, scale of the changes, and their consequences were felt by everyone.


    1. Literature of Peter's time

    The beginning of the 18th century was turbulent for Russia. The creation of our own fleet, wars for access to sea routes, the development of industry, the flourishing of trade, the construction of new cities - all this could not but affect the growth of national consciousness. People of Peter's times felt their involvement in historical events, the greatness of which they felt in their destinies. Boyar Russia is a thing of the past.

    Time required work. Everyone was obliged to work for the benefit of society and the state, imitating the tireless “worker on the throne.” Every phenomenon was assessed primarily from the point of view of its usefulness. Literature could be useful if it glorified the successes of Russia and explained the sovereign's will. Therefore, the main qualities of literature of this era are topicality, life-affirming pathos and an orientation toward universal accessibility. So in 1706, the so-called “school dramas” appeared, plays written by teachers of spiritual educational institutions.

    School drama could be filled with political content. In the play, written in 1710 on the occasion of the victory at Poltava, the biblical king David is directly likened to Peter the Great: just as David defeated the giant Goliath, so Peter defeated the Swedish king Charles XII.

    A large clergy class was hostile to the reforms. Peter tried unsuccessfully more than once to win over Church leaders to his side. He looked for faithful people who would have the gift of speech and persuasion and obediently carried out his line among the clergy.

    Feofan Prokopovich, a church leader and writer, became such a person. Feofan's sermons are always political speeches, talented presentation official point vision. They were printed in state printing houses and sent to churches. Feofan's large journalistic works - "Spiritual Regulations" (1721) and "The Truth of the Will of the Monarchs" (1722) - were written on behalf of Peter. They are devoted to justifying the unlimited power of the monarch over the lives of his subjects.

    Prokopovich's poetic creativity is diverse. He composes spiritual verses, elegies, and epigrams. His “Victory Song for the notorious Poltava Victory” (1709) marked the beginning of numerous eighteenth-century odes to the victories of Russian weapons.

    Feofan was not only a practitioner, but also a literary theorist. He compiled courses on "Poetics" and "Rhetoric" (1706-1707) in Latin. In these works, he defended literature as an art that obeys strict rules, bringing “pleasure and benefit.” In his poems, he demanded clarity and condemned the “darkness” of learned poetry of the 17th century. In “Rhetoric,” he, following European authors, proposed distinguishing three styles: “high,” “middle,” and “low,” assigning each of them to specific genres. Prokopovich's treatises were not published in a timely manner, but became known to theorists of Russian classicism - Lomonosov studied them in manuscript.

    2. The era of classicism

    The literature of Peter the Great's time was in many ways reminiscent of the literature of the past century. New ideas were spoken in old language - in church sermons, school dramas, handwritten stories. Only in the 30s and 40s was it completely revealed in Russian literature new page- classicism. However, like the literature of Peter the Great’s time, the work of classic writers (Kantemir, Sumarokov and others) is closely connected with the current political life countries.

    Classicism appeared in Russian literature later than in Western European literature. He was closely associated with the ideas of the European Enlightenment, such as: the establishment of firm and fair laws binding on everyone, the enlightenment and education of the nation, the desire to penetrate the secrets of the universe, the affirmation of the equality of people of all classes, recognition of the value human personality regardless of position in society.

    Russian classicism is also characterized by a system of genres, an appeal to the human mind, and convention artistic images. It was important to recognize the decisive role of the enlightened monarch. The ideal of such a monarch for Russian classicism was Peter the Great.

    After the death of Peter the Great in 1725, a real possibility arose of curtailing the reforms and returning to the old way of life and government. Everything that constituted the future of Russia was at risk: science, education, the duty of a citizen. That is why satire is especially characteristic of Russian classicism.

    The most prominent of the first figures of the new literary era, writing in this genre, was Prince Antioch Dmitrievich Cantemir (1708-1744). His father, an influential Moldavian aristocrat, was famous writer and a historian. Prince Antiochus himself, although out of writerly modesty he called his mind “the unripe fruit of short-lived science,” was in fact a highly educated man by the highest European standards. He knew Latin, French and Italian poetry perfectly. In Russia, his friends were Archbishop Feofan Prokopovich and historian V.N. Tatishchev. For the last twelve years of his life, Cantemir was an envoy to London and Paris.

    From early youth, Antiochus wanted to see the noble society around him educated, free from prejudices. He considered following ancient norms and customs a prejudice.

    Cantemir is better known as the author of nine satires. They expose various vices, but the poet's main enemies are the saint and the slacker - the dandy. They are displayed in the lines of the first satire “On those who blaspheme the teaching.” In the second satire, “On the Envy and Pride of Evil Nobles,” the good-for-nothing slacker Eugene is presented. He squanders the fortune of his ancestors, wearing a camisole worth an entire village, and at the same time envies the success of ordinary people who have achieved high ranks through their services to the king.

    The idea of ​​the natural equality of people is one of the boldest ideas in literature of that time. Cantemir believed that it was necessary to educate the nobility in order to prevent the nobleman from descending to the state of an unenlightened peasant:

    “It doesn’t do much good to call you the king’s son,

    If you do not differ from a vile disposition from a hound. "

    Kantemir specifically dedicated one of his satires to education:

    "The main thing of education is that

    So that the heart, having driven out passions, matures

    To establish good morals so that through this it will be useful

    Your son was a boon to the fatherland, kind to people and always welcome. "

    Cantemir also wrote in other genres. Among his works there are “high” (odes, poems), “middle” (satires, poetic letters and songs) and “low” (fables). He tried to find means in the language to write differently in different genres. But these funds were still not enough for him. The new Russian literary language was not established. How a “high” syllable differs from a “low” one was not entirely clear. Cantemir’s own style is colorful. He writes in long phrases, built according to the Latin model, with sharp syntactic shifts; there is no concern that the boundaries of the sentences coincide with the boundaries of the verse. It is very difficult to read his works.

    The next prominent representative of Russian classicism, whose name is known to everyone without exception, is M.V. Lomonosov (1711-1765). Lomonosov, unlike Kantemir, rarely ridicules enemies of enlightenment. In his solemn odes, the “affirming” principle prevailed. The poet glorifies Russia's successes on the battlefield, in peaceful trade, in science and art.

    “Our literature begins with Lomonosov... he was its father, its Peter the Great.” This is how V.G. determined the place and significance of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov’s work for Russian literature. Belinsky.

    M.V. was born. Lomonosov near the city of Kholmogory, on the banks of the Northern Dvina, in the family of a wealthy but illiterate peasant engaged in navigation. The boy felt such a craving for learning that at the age of 12 he walked from his native village to Moscow. The poet N. Nekrasov told us “how the Arkhangelsk man, by his own and God’s will, became intelligent and great.”

    In Moscow, Mikhail entered the Slavic-Greek-Latin Academy and, despite the fact that he lived in dire need, he graduated brilliantly. Among the best graduates of the Academy, Lomonosov was sent to study in St. Petersburg, and then, in 1736, to Germany. There Lomonosov took a course in all sciences, both mathematical and verbal. In 1741, Mikhail Vasilyevich returned to Russia, where he served in the Academy of Sciences until the end of his life. He was patronized by Count I.I. Shuvalov, beloved of Empress Elizabeth. Therefore, Lomonosov himself was in favor, which allowed his talents to truly unfold. He was involved in many scientific works. In 1755, according to his proposal and plan, Moscow University was opened. Lomonosov's official duties also included composing poems for court holidays, and most of his odes were written on such occasions.

    "The Arkhangelsk peasant", the first of the figures of Russian culture to gain world fame, one of outstanding educators and the most enlightened man of his time, one of the greatest scientists of the eighteenth century, wonderful poet Lomonosov became a reformer of Russian versification.

    In 1757, the scientist wrote a preface to the collected works “On the Use of Church Books in the Russian Language,” in which he sets out the famous theory of the “three calms.” In it, Lomonosov put forward the national language as the basis of the literary language. In the Russian language, according to Lomonosov, words according to their stylistic coloring can be divided into several genders. To the first he included the vocabulary of Church Slavonic and Russian, to the second - familiar from books and understandable Church Slavonic words, but rare in the spoken language, to the third - words of living speech that are not in church books. A separate group consisted of common people, who could only be used to a limited extent in writings. Almost completely excludes Lomonosov from the literary writing outdated Church Slavonic words, vulgarisms and barbarisms inappropriately borrowed from foreign languages.

    Depending on the quantitative mixture of words of three kinds, one or another style is created. This is how the “three calms” of Russian poetry developed: “high” - Church Slavonic words and Russian,

    “mediocre” (average) - Russian words with a small admixture of Church Slavonic words, “low” - Russian words of the colloquial language with the addition of common words and a small number of Church Slavonic words.

    Each style has its own genres: “high” - heroic poems, odes, tragedies, “middle” - dramas, satires, friendly letters, elegies, “low” - comedies, epigrams, songs, fables. Such a clear distinction, theoretically very simple, in practice led to isolation high genres.

    Lomonosov himself wrote primarily in “high” genres.

    Thus, “Ode on the day of the accession to the throne of Empress Elizabeth Petrovna, 1747” is written in “high calm” and glorifies the daughter of Peter the Great. Having paid tribute to the empress’s virtues, her “meek voice,” “kind and beautiful face,” and desire to “expand science,” the poet starts talking about her father, whom he calls “a man such as has not been heard of since ages.” Peter is the ideal of an enlightened monarch who devotes all his strength to his people and state. Lomonosov's ode gives an image of Russia with its vast expanses and enormous riches. This is how the theme of the homeland and serving it arises - the leading one in Lomonosov’s work. The theme of science and knowledge of nature is closely related to this topic. It ends with a hymn to science, a call to young men to dare for the glory of the Russian land. Thus, the poet’s educational ideals found expression in the “Ode of 1747.”

    "Sciences nourish youths,

    Joy is served to the old,

    IN happy life decorate,

    In case of an accident they take care of it;

    There's joy in troubles at home

    And long journeys are not a hindrance.

    Science is used everywhere

    Among the nations and in the desert,

    In the noise of the city and alone,

    Sweet in peace and in work."

    Faith in the human mind, the desire to know the “secrets of many worlds”, to get to the essence of phenomena through the “small sign of things” - these are the themes of the poems “Evening Reflection”, “Two astronomers happened together at a feast...”.

    In order to benefit the country, you need not only hard work, but also education, says Lomonosov. He writes about the “beauty and importance of teaching” that makes a person a creator. “Use your own reason,” he urges in the poem “Listen, I ask”….

    Under Catherine II, Russian absolutism achieved unprecedented power. The nobility received unheard of privileges, Russia became one of the first world powers. The tightening of serfdom became the main cause of the peasant war of 1773-1775, under the leadership of E.I. Pugacheva

    Unlike European classicism, Russian classicism is more closely related to folk traditions and oral folk art. He often uses material from Russian history rather than from antiquity.

    Gabriel Romanovich Derzhavin was the last in a row of the largest representatives of Russian classicism. He was born on July 3, 1743 in the family of a small Kazan nobleman. The entire fortune of the Derzhavin family consisted of a dozen serf souls. Poverty prevented the future poet from receiving an education. Only when he was sixteen years old was he able to enter the Kazan gymnasium, and even then he studied there for only a short time. In 1762, Gabriel Derzhavin was called up for military service. Poverty had its effect here too: unlike most noble minors, he was forced to begin serving as a private and only ten years later received the rank of officer. In those years he was already a poet. Isn't it a strange combination: a private in the tsarist army and a poet? But being in a soldier's, rather than an officer's, environment allowed Derzhavin to become imbued with what is called the spirit of the Russian people. He was unusually respected by the soldiers; intimate conversations with people from Russian peasantry taught him to perceive people's need and grief as a state problem. Fame came to Derzhavin only at the age of forty, in 1783, when Catherine II read his “Ode to the wise Kirghiz-Kaisat princess Felitsa.” Not long before, in a moral tale, Catherine portrayed herself under the name of Princess Felitsa. The poet addresses Princess Felitsa, and not the Empress:

    You just won’t offend the only one,

    Don't insult anyone

    You see the foolishness through your fingers,

    The only thing you cannot tolerate is evil;

    You correct misdeeds with leniency,

    Like a wolf, you don’t crush people,

    You know right away their price.

    The highest praise is expressed in the most ordinary colloquial language. The author portrays himself as a “lazy murza”. In these mocking stanzas, readers discerned very caustic allusions to the most powerful nobles:

    Then, having dreamed that I was a sultan,

    I terrify the universe with my gaze,

    Then suddenly, seduced by the outfit,

    I'm off to the tailor for a caftan.

    This is how Catherine’s almighty favorite, Prince Potemkin, is described. According to the rules of literary etiquette, all this was unthinkable. Derzhavin himself was afraid of his insolence, but the empress liked the ode. The author immediately became famous poet and fell into favor at court.

    Catherine repeatedly told Derzhavin that she expected new odes from him in the spirit of “Felitsa.” However, Derzhavin was deeply disappointed when he saw the life of Catherine the Second's court up close. In an allegorical form, the poet shows his feelings that he experiences from court life in the small poem “To the Bird.”


    And well, squeeze it with your hand.

    The poor thing squeaks instead of whistling,

    And they keep telling her: “Sing, birdie, sing!”

    He was favored by Catherine II - Felitsa - and soon received an appointment to the post of governor of the Olonets province. But Derzhavin’s bureaucratic career, despite the fact that he was not abandoned by the royal favor and received more than one position, did not work out. The reason for this was Derzhavin’s honesty and directness, his real, and not traditionally feigned, zeal for the benefit of the Fatherland. For example, Alexander I appointed Derzhavin as Minister of Justice, but then removed him from business, explaining his decision by the inadmissibility of such “zealous service.” Literary fame and public service made Derzhavin a rich man. He spent his last years in peace and prosperity, living alternately in St. Petersburg and on his own estate near Novgorod. Derzhavin’s most striking work was “Felitsa,” which made him famous. It combines two genres: ode and satire. This phenomenon was truly revolutionary for the literature of the era of classicism, because, according to the classicist theory of literary genres, ode and satire belonged to different “calms”, and mixing them was unacceptable. However, Derzhavin managed to combine not only the themes of these two genres, but also the vocabulary: “Felitsa” organically combines the words of “high calm” and vernacular. Thus, Gabriel Derzhavin, who fully developed the possibilities of classicism in his works, simultaneously became the first Russian poet to overcome the classicist canons.

    During the second half of the eighteenth century, along with classicism, other literary movements were formed. During the period when classicism was the leading literary movement, the personality manifested itself mainly in public service. By the end of the century, a view on the value of the individual had been formed. "Man is rich in his feelings."

    3. The era of sentimentalism

    Since the sixties of the 18th century, a new literary trend has been emerging in Russian literature, called sentimentalism.

    Like the classicists, sentimentalist writers relied on the ideas of the Enlightenment that a person’s value depended not on his belonging to the upper classes, but on his personal merits. But if for the classicists the state and public interests came first, then for the sentimentalists it was a specific person with his feelings and experiences. The classicists subordinated everything to reason, the sentimentalists to feelings and mood. Sentimentalists believed that man is kind by nature, devoid of hatred, deceit, and cruelty, and that on the basis of innate virtue, public and social instincts are formed that unite people into society. Hence the belief of sentimentalists that it is the natural sensitivity and good inclinations of people that are the key to an ideal society. In the works of that time, the main place began to be given to the education of the soul and moral improvement. Sentimentalists considered sensitivity to be the primary source of virtue, so their poems were filled with compassion, melancholy and sadness. The genres that were preferred also changed. Elegies, messages, songs and romances took first place.

    The main character is an ordinary person who strives to merge with nature, find peaceful silence in it and find happiness. Sentimentalism, like classicism, also suffered from certain limitations and weaknesses. In the works of this movement, sensitivity develops into melancholy, accompanied by sighs and tears.

    The ideal of sensitivity greatly influenced an entire generation of educated people in both Europe and Russia, defining the lifestyle of many. Reading sentimental novels was part of the norm of behavior for an educated person. Pushkin's Tatyana Larina, who “fell in love” with the deceptions of both Richardson and Rousseau,” thus received in the Russian wilderness the same upbringing as all the young ladies in all European capitals. Literary heroes were sympathized with, like real people, they were imitated. Overall sentimental education brought a lot of good things.

    In the last years of the reign of Catherine II (from approximately 1790 until her death in 1796), what usually happens at the end of long reigns happened in Russia: stagnation began in state affairs, the highest places were occupied by old dignitaries, educated youth did not see the opportunity applying one's strength to the service of the fatherland. Then sentimental moods came into fashion - not only in literature, but also in life.

    The ruler of the thoughts of young people in the 90s was Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin, a writer with whose name the concept of “Russian sentimentalism” is usually associated. Born 12/1/1766 in the village. Mikhailovka, Simbirsk province. He was educated in private boarding schools in Simbirsk and Moscow. Attended lectures at Moscow University. Knew several new and ancient languages.

    In 1789 - 1790 the writer took a trip to Europe. He visited Germany, Switzerland, France, England, and in Paris he witnessed the events of the French Revolution, saw and heard almost all of its figures. The trip provided Karamzin with material for his famous “Letters of a Russian Traveler,” which are not travel notes, but a work of fiction that continues the tradition of the European genre of “travel” and “novels of education.”

    Returning to Russia in the summer of 1790, Karamzin developed vigorous activity, gathering young writers around him. In 1791, he began publishing the Moscow Journal, where he published his “Letters of a Russian Traveler” and the stories that laid the foundation for Russian sentimentalism: “Poor Liza”, “Natalia, the Boyar’s Daughter”.

    Karamzin saw the main task of the magazine as the re-education of “evil hearts” through the forces of art. For this, it was necessary, on the one hand, to make art understandable to people, to free the language of artistic works from pomposity, and on the other hand, to cultivate a taste for the elegant, to depict life not in all its manifestations (sometimes rough and ugly), but in those that approaching the ideal state.

    In 1803 N.M. Karamzin began work on his planned “History of the Russian State” and petitioned for his official appointment as a historiographer. Having received this position, he studies numerous sources - chronicles, charters, other documents and books, and writes a number of historical works. Eight volumes of “History of the Russian State” were published in January 1818 with a circulation of 3,000 copies. and immediately sold out, so that a second edition was required. In St. Petersburg, where Karamzin moved to publish “History...”, he continued to work on the last four volumes. The 11th volume was published in 1824, and the 12th - posthumously.

    The latest volumes reflected a change in the author’s views on the historical process: from an apology for a “strong personality” he moves on to assessments of historical events from a moral point of view. The significance of Karamzin’s “History...” is difficult to overestimate: it aroused interest in the past of Russia in wide circles of noble society, brought up mainly on ancient history and literature, and knew more about the ancient Greeks and Romans than about their ancestors.

    N.M. Karamzin died on May 22 (June 3), 1826.

    The work of Nikolai Mikhailovich Karamzin played a huge and controversial role in Russian culture. Karamzin the writer acted as a reformer of the Russian literary language, becoming the predecessor of Pushkin; the founder of Russian sentimentalism, he created an absolutely ideal image of the people that had nothing in common with reality. Since the time of Karamzin, the language of literature has become increasingly closer to colloquial speech - first of the nobles, and then of the people; however, at the same time, the gap in the worldview of these two layers of Russian society became more and more apparent and intensified. As a journalist, Karamzin showed examples of various types of periodicals and techniques for biased presentation of material. As a historian and public figure, he was a convinced “Westernizer” and influenced a whole generation of creators of Russian culture who succeeded him, but he became a real educator of the nobility, forcing them (especially women) to read Russian and opening up to them the world of Russian history.


    Conclusion

    Thus, in the literature of the 18th century there were two movements: classicism and sentimentalism. The ideal of classic writers is a citizen and patriot who strives to work for the good of the fatherland. He must become an active creative person, fight against social vices, against all manifestations of “evil morality and tyranny.” Such a person must give up the desire for personal happiness and subordinate his feelings to duty. Sentimentalists subordinated everything to feelings, to all sorts of shades of mood. The language of their works becomes emphatically emotional. The heroes of the works are representatives of the middle and lower classes. The process of democratization of literature began in the eighteenth century.

    And again, Russian reality invaded the world of literature and showed that only in the unity of the general and personal, and with the subordination of the personal to the general, can a citizen and a person be realized. But in the poetry of the late 18th century, the concept of “Russian man” was identified only with the concept of “Russian nobleman”. Derzhavin and other poets and writers of the 18th century took only the first step in understanding national character, showing the nobleman both in the service of the Fatherland and at home. Integrity and completeness inner life people have not yet been revealed.

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