Modernity in 20th century literature. Modernist movements in literature at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries
Modernism is a new movement that came to Russia from Europe, mainly covering poetry, but some prose writers also work within the framework of modernism. Modernism, trying to isolate itself from all previous literary movements, proclaimed the rejection of any literary traditions and the following of models. All writers and poets of the beginning of the century considered themselves modernists, who thought and believed that they were writing in a new way. As a contrast to realism, modernism in literature first of all tried to get away from the principle of a plausible depiction of reality. Hence the desire of modernist writers for fantastic elements and plots, the desire to embellish existing reality, change it, transform it.
Futurism (from Latin futurum - future) is a literary movement that arose in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century as a protest against existing social principles. The work of the Futurists was distinguished by the search for new means of artistic expression, new forms and images.
37. Modernism in the art of the 20th century.
The term modernism (from French - new) refers to new, modern art, which originated at the end of the 19th century and is associated with the global crisis of European culture
The search for something new turned into a desire to restore the integrity and organic nature of human existence within the framework of a single cosmological system through artistic means, that is, in art we returned to the myth-making method, to the forms of primitive art, to the forms of children's creativity, that is, to those forms where a person felt harmonious in this world where there was no falsehood, where there was no violence against the human person
The crisis of art manifested itself most clearly in painting: most artists of the 20th century moved away from depicting the world as we see it. The world seemed deformed at times beyond recognition, since the artists were guided more by their own imagination, the departure from realism was not an empty whim, the artists wanted to say: the world is not at all the way we see it: it is inherently meaningless and absurd, it is like us we show it in our paintings (the concept of modernity is broader than avant-garde, which refers only to artistic culture, and modernity to everything new). In the avant-garde of the 20th century there were many directions, trends that existed side by side, in parallel, often crossed with each other, replaced or canceled each other. Three movements acquired the status of eternal: abstractionism, cubism, surrealism (superrealism). The first impression when meeting the avant-garde is that everything is wrong. Its main formula: if this has never been done before, then it must be done, a constant sign: a conscious overturning of traditional ideas. The avant-garde sought to give birth not to art, but to a method of cognition and to put it in the place of traditional philosophy; avant-garde artists create in their work something special, which includes the problem of abstract thinking, and an indirect idea of being and a concentrated world of ideas. Thus, abstract art is not a style, it is a way of thinking. Periods: from Art Nouveau (XIX) to Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Picasso's first cubic painting). This period is characterized by a restructuring of the traditional type of art; the language of the avant-garde has not been developed; artists are forced to explain the basic postulates of their position themselves.
38. Main directions of modernism
Cubism is a movement associated with the name of Pablo Picasso (Spain). Picasso did not come to this trend immediately.
Periods:
1. “Blue Period” (1901-1904). All portraits are united by a cold range of blue, which allows us to develop the theme of loneliness, grief, doom of a person, a hostile environment (“Wandering Gymnasts”, “Beggars: an old man with a boy”).
2. “Rose period” (1905-1906). All paintings are in ash pink color. The goal that Picasso wanted to achieve was to show that although the world is wild, decent people live in it; the heroes of the paintings are wandering artists and acrobats: “Girl on a Ball.” But artistic truth turned out to be higher than the desire of the artist; freedom turned into the loneliness of an exile. The pictures are also pessimistic.
3. 1906-1907 (1.5 months). The artist comes to the conclusion that the solution to human problems through painting is impossible; painting can only create plastic forms. Great interest in black culture.
4. The first phase of the beginning of Cubism (1907-1908). Organic and natural motifs are exposed to geometrized information. They are executed in an earthy-reddish color, and blue-green tones serve to highlight the relief (“Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (1907), “Three Women”).
5. The second phase is analytical cubism, when the picture turns into a fractional pattern of small geometric elements, through which a pictorial element (portrait of Vallard) is visible.
6. Third phase: synthetic cubism (1912-1913). These are pictorial compositions that are formed by flat fragments of objects (mainly musical instruments).
7. 1913-1915. Compositions on the theme of musical instruments, which represented three-dimensional objects made of various materials, suspended from a vertical plane.
Abstractionism.
Founder: Wassily Kandinsky. The essence of the flow is that with the help of a brush and pencil you can create a special vibration of the soul and introduce it to the spirit of music. Artistic media: light spots, lines, geometric shapes, abstractions. Abstractionism resembles music, and Kandinsky created his own abstract language of painting, where each color carried a certain symbolic meaning (Schnittke’s “Yellow” is a musical work). Another representative is Kazimir Malevich (“Black Square on a White Background” 1913). It was exhibited as a kind of new planetary sign (romantic utopia).
Surrealism.
Associated with Salvador Dali. It arose at the turn of the 20s of the 20th century, stabilized in 25-26. The main basis is the feeling of whimsicality, the unexpectedness of the phenomenon of the world; the idea of unknowability and the absence of the world; the real world is the world that is in our subconscious. The essence of the artistic method is the combination of real objects with unreal ones, or real ones, but taken to the point of absurdity, or real ones, but in an irrational combination (Dali’s “Anthropomorphic Closet”). Surrealism manifested itself not only in painting, but also in sculpture and cinema.
Postmodernism.
Postmodernism is an aesthetic revolution that occurred in Europe in the 60-70s. As a term, it began to be used in 79. This is not a style, it is quoting well-known examples, but in a manner of deliberate nonsense and the main characteristic feature is eclecticism (a combination of various elements - East, West, Africa, European culture). This path placed the starting point and the point of highest development (European civilization) on one side. Postmodernism is the result of student movements, it was a reaction to consumer society. They tried to introduce a new super-idea into an ideologically-less society. A true artist in the world is surrounded by enemies, thus postmodernism is a form of aesthetic rebellion and was voiced by the idea of a new sexual revolution and a new sensuality. Both modernism and postmodernism cannot lay claim to wide popularity, that is, they arose as elitist; however, modernism and postmodernism became that stage in the development of culture of the 20th century, which not only identified all its pain points, but also became the art that which connected the era of the 20th century with the Eternal, forgotten in the bustle.
| " |
In the second half of the 19th century, first in Europe and then in Russia, an artistic movement arose - modern (from the French moderne - modern). The distinctive features of this style are the replacement of straight lines and angles with more natural, “natural” lines, the flourishing of applied art with a predominance of curvilinear plant patterns, forming the compositional structure of the work.
Art Nouveau painting is characterized by a combination of ornamental backgrounds and naturalistic tangibility of figures and details, silhouettes, the use of large color planes or nuanced monochrome. Art Nouveau sculpture is distinguished by the dynamics and fluidity of forms, graphics - by the play of exquisite fragile lines and silhouettes.
In Russia, at the end of the 1890s, the artistic association “World of Art” was founded, which asserted the priority of the aesthetic principle in art as opposed to the highly social orientation of the Wanderers and strove for modernity and symbolism.
Over the years, the association included artists A. N. Benois, L. S. Bakst, N. K. Roerich, M. V. Dobuzhinsky, E. E. Lanceray, A. P. Ostroumova-Lebedeva, K. A. Somov and others. Close to the “World of Art” were I. Ya. Bilibin, K. A. Korovin, B. M. Kustodiev, V. A. Serov, M. A. Vrubel, I. I. Levitan, M. V. Nesterov, K. F. Yuon and others.
Let's take a closer look at the work of individual artists, the most prominent representatives of Russian modernism of this period - M. A. Vrubel, V. A. Serov, V. M. Vasnetsov.Vrubel Mikhail Alexandrovich (lived 1856–1910) - Russian artist, a prominent representative of Art Nouveau and Symbolism. Vrubel achieved heights in almost all types and genres of fine art: painting, graphics, decorative sculpture, theatrical art. Vrubel's legacy includes numerous paintings, decorative panels, frescoes and book illustrations.
While still studying at the Academy of Arts, Vrubel, at the invitation of A. Prakhov, a famous art critic of that time, participated in restoration work in the churches of Kyiv. Vrubel completed several compositions for the Cyril Church to replace the lost ones, painted the icon “The Virgin and Child” and offered the commission sketches of the paintings of the Vladimir Cathedral. These sketches were rejected by the commission due to their inconsistency with the Byzantine tradition - Vrubel modernized them, filling them with tragic psychologism characteristic of the end of the 19th century. Nevertheless, these works had a great influence on the development of Vrubel as an artist. Vrubel’s original style is characterized by a special kind of crystalline pattern, shimmering with blue-purple gloomy edges.In many of Vrubel's paintings of the early period, the atmosphere of a fairy tale reigns. “The Swan Princess” is a painting by Vrubel, written based on the stage image of the heroine of N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan.”
The princess with a sad face in Vrubel’s canvas is mysterious and enigmatic. Against the background of the twilight descending over the sea, the wings of the Princess stand out as a bright spot, painted in a special “Vrubel” manner, like faceted precious stones.
M. A. Vrubel. Demon sitting. 1890
One of the central images in Vrubel’s work can be called the image of the Demon, as an image of the strength of the human spirit, internal struggle and doubt. In the early 1890s, Vrubel painted illustrations for M. Yu. Lermontov’s poem “The Demon”, then began work on “The Seated Demon”, and later wrote “The Flying Demon” and “The Defeated Demon”.
In the first picture of this cycle, Vrubel interprets the image of a demon as a spirit that is not so much evil as suffering and sorrowful, at the same time a powerful and majestic spirit. Tragically clasping his hands, the Demon sits surrounded by fantastic flowers against the background of mountains in a scarlet sunset. The Demon's huge eyes are sad, his gaze is directed into the distance. The figure of the Demon seems to be sandwiched between the upper and lower frames of the picture, which visually brings it closer to the viewer and enhances the drama of the image.
Continuing this theme, in “The Flying Demon” Vrubel depicts the Demon as a mighty ruler of the world, and in “The Defeated Demon” the Demon is written on the verge of death, his figure is broken, but the expression of his face is striking in its expression, the spirit of the Demon is not broken.
In all these paintings, Vrubel’s individual style is clearly manifested; everything is painted with the effect of shimmering crystalline edges, which makes these paintings look like precious stained glass or panels. Vrubel achieved this effect by using a palette knife instead of a brush; in this case, the paint strokes turned out flat and thick.
M. A. Vrubel. The demon is defeated. 1902
In 1902, Vrubel was struck by a serious mental illness, one of the reasons for which was the death of Vrubel’s young son. In the late period of his creativity, spent mainly in private clinics in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Vrubel created a number of works that transition from modernism to the avant-garde.
The painting of the late period “Six-winged Seraphim” (also known under other names - “Angel with a sword and censer”, “Azrael” and “Cherub”), created within the walls of the clinic of V.P. Serbsky, refers to the highest achievements of Vrubel’s creative path.In this work, the artist endowed Seraphim with the hypnotizing gaze of fate itself, and the sword and lamp in his hands look like symbols of life and death: the steel exudes icy cold, arguing with the living and hot light of the lamp. The amazingly beautiful color of the painting is reminiscent of Byzantine mosaics and stained glass.
The painting “The Six-Winged Seraph” can be called a multi-valued finale of Vrubel’s entire creative journey in search of images of Demons and Angels.
|
V. A. Serov. Self-portrait. |
In the early period of his creativity, Serov was close to Russian impressionism; in the works of this period, the artist saw his main task in the immediacy of perception of the model and nature and their truthful plastic solution. In the sunny development of light and color, in the conveyance of the complex harmony of reflexes and air, Serov glorifies the youth and beauty of his models.
|
V. A. Serov. Girl with peaches. 1887 |
For the painting “Girl with Peaches” Serov received an award from the Moscow Society of Art Lovers.
V. A. Serov. The Rape of Europa. 1910
Over time, Serov's impressionistic style becomes more restrained, approaching monochrome painting and acquiring the features of the new Art Nouveau style, most clearly manifested in such works as “Portrait of Ida Rubinstein” and “The Rape of Europa.”
The painting “The Rape of Europa” was created by Serov in the style of a monumental decorative panel. The artist’s subject was the ancient Greek myth about the abduction of Europa, the daughter of King Agenor, by Zeus who turned into a bull.
The composition of the canvas with a high horizon was built by Serov on the rhythmic diagonal movement of forms. The active movement of a swimming bull is stopped by the turn of its head, the balance of two waves, between which the heads of Europa and Zeus are in the center. Conventionally written waves create a feeling of measured movement, the figures of dolphins repeat the movement of the waves and the swimming Zeus, enhancing the dynamics of the entire composition.
The color scheme of the painting is based on the harmony of blue and orange: the bright red spot of the bull’s figure on the blue-violet sea looks beautiful and expressive. Thick blue “spots” scattered across the surface of the water, depicting water ripples, convey the movement of waves and organize the picture plane, as well as the clear contours of all figures.
V. A. Serov. Portrait of Ida Rubinstein. 1910
The pinnacle of the Art Nouveau style in Serov’s work was the portrait of Ida Rubinstein, the famous dancer and actress of that time. In this portrait, Serov did not try to recreate her real image; the artist’s main task here was to stylize nature and convey the complexity of the model’s character. While preserving the specific individual features of the model, its appearance, character, and plasticity, Serov combines the real and the conventional in the composition, which were the distinctive stylistic features of Art Nouveau.
Serov depicted Ida Rubinstein in a portrait of a defiant, magnificent, but at the same time, the appearance of the actress is subtle and lyrical. The artist reproduces the model’s figure in a complex turn using bent lines, sharpening its outline to the utmost. The composition itself, which meets the requirements of modernism, does not reveal the space in which the actress is depicted; the background of the portrait is flat and conventional, which creates the feeling that Ida Rubinstein is not sitting, but is spread out, pressed against the wall.
At its first showing at the International Art Exhibition in Rome in 1911, the painting made a scandalous impression: the public was shocked both by the fact that the famous dancer, who was accepted in society, posed naked, and by the fact that Serov used completely new compositional and painting techniques, distinguishing the Art Nouveau style.
In Serov’s ceremonial portraits during this period, the acuteness of deep socio-psychological characteristics also intensified. When conveying the portrait characteristics of a model, Serov often uses hyperbolization and grotesquery, creating a picture that is contemporary with the spirit of the times.An example of such a ceremonial portrait with modernist features can be called “Portrait of Princess O. K. Orlova,” in which sophisticated painting technique is combined with irony and light mockery. Serov painted this portrait commissioned by the princess herself, but many contemporaries noted the artist’s uncompromising view of the customer and suspected him of sarcasm.
Olga Orlova is depicted in a pretentious pose: a huge hat, a sable stole thrown back and exposing her shoulders, hands clutching a pearl necklace, the exposed tip of a patent leather shoe - all this gives the image of the princess an elaborate grace. In the Art Nouveau style, Serov uses the nervous, angular contours of the figure’s silhouette, combined with the realism and materiality of detailed work.
|
V. M. Vasnetsov. Self-portrait. 1873 |
The main direction of Vasnetsov’s work is becoming epic historical painting, where the artist transforms the Russian historical genre, combining medieval motifs with the poetic atmosphere of Russian fairy tales.
Many of Vasnetsov’s works in their style are close to decorative panel paintings typical of Art Nouveau, transporting the viewer to a world of dreams.
V. M. Vasnetsov. Knight at a crossroads. 1882
Impressed by Russian epics at the end of the 19th century, Vasnetsov painted monumental canvases “Bogatyrs” and “Knight at the Crossroads”.
The plot of the film “The Knight at the Crossroads” is based on the motifs of the epic “Ilya Muromets and the Robbers.” In the initial sketches for this painting, Vasnetsov turned the knight to face the viewer. But for greater expressiveness and emotionality of the image in the final version, the artist increased the size of the canvas, the figure of the knight became more monumental, the depth of the composition decreased and became flatter, closer to a panel. In the last version, the road also disappeared, so that the knight had no other choice but the one indicated on the stone.
One of Vasnetsov’s most famous paintings, “Alyonushka,” is also based on the folklore plot of the Russian folk tale “About Sister Alyonushka and Brother Ivanushka.”The impetus for painting this painting was a chance meeting of the artist with a simple-haired peasant girl. In her sweet face, Vasnetsov saw a special Russian soul, with her melancholy, loneliness and purely Russian sadness in her eyes.
To search for a landscape motif for this painting, Vasnetsov completed many sketches from the bank of the Vor River in Abramtsevo, near the pond in Akhtyrka.
“Alyonushka” was first exhibited at the exhibition of the Itinerants in 1881 and, according to the reviews of the famous critic of that time, I. E. Grabar, was named one of the best paintings of the Russian school.
|
V. M. Vasnetsov. Baptism of Rus'. 1890 |
The pinnacle of Vasnetsov’s creativity can be called the paintings of the Kyiv St. Vladimir’s Cathedral, in which the artist to some extent updated the Byzantine canons, introducing into them a lyrical-personal element and a special “Russian” psychologism.
All the themes of the cathedral's paintings were based on an understanding of the religious history of Russia, as the heir of Byzantium, and Russia's place in world culture and history.
The fresco “Baptism of Rus'” became one of the central compositions of St. Vladimir’s Cathedral above the entrance to the choir. Vasnetsov chose the moment of the baptism of Kiev residents in the waters of the Dnieper as the subject of the fresco itself. In the composition of the fresco, the artist combines solemnity and some pathos, corresponding to the depicted moment, with a clearly individualized central image of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich, introducing a romantic element into the canonical plot.
V. M. Vasnetsov. God of Hosts.
Fresco of St. Vladimir's Cathedral. 1885-1896
Modernism in literature originates on the eve of the First World War and reaches its peak in the twenties simultaneously in all countries of Western Europe and in America. Modernism is an international phenomenon, consisting of different schools (Imagism, Dadaism, Expressionism, Constructivism, Surrealism, etc.). This is a revolution in literature, the participants of which announced a break not only with the tradition of realistic verisimilitude, but also with the Western cultural and literary tradition in general. Any previous movement in literature defined itself through its relationship to the classical tradition: one could directly proclaim antiquity as a model of artistic creativity, like the classicists, or prefer the Middle Ages to antiquity, like the romantics, but all cultural eras before modernism are today increasingly called “classical” because developed in line with the classical heritage of European thought. Modernism is the first cultural and literary era to put an end to this legacy and provide new answers to “eternal” questions. As the English poet S. Spender wrote in 1930: “It seems to me that the modernists are consciously striving to create an entirely new literature. This is a consequence of their feeling that our era is in many respects unprecedented and stands outside any conventions of past art and literature.” .
The generation of the first modernists acutely felt the exhaustion of the forms of realistic storytelling, their aesthetic fatigue. For modernists, the concept of “realism” meant the absence of effort to independently comprehend the world, the mechanical nature of creativity, superficiality, the boredom of vague descriptions - interest in the button on a character’s coat, and not in his state of mind. Modernists place above all else the value of an individual artistic vision of the world; the artistic worlds they create are uniquely different from each other, each bears the stamp of a bright creative individuality.
They happened to live in a period when the values of traditional humanistic culture collapsed - “freedom” meant very different things in Western democracies and in totalitarian states; the carnage of the First World War, in which weapons of mass destruction were used for the first time, showed the true cost of human life for the modern world; The humanistic ban on pain and physical and spiritual violence was replaced by the practice of mass executions and concentration camps. Modernism is the art of a dehumanized era (the term of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset); the attitude towards humanistic values in modernism is ambiguous, but the world of modernists appears in a harsh, cold light. Using the metaphor of J. Conrad, we can say that the hero of the modernist work seemed to be staying overnight in an uncomfortable hotel at the end of the world, with very suspicious owners, in a shabby room, illuminated by the merciless light of a light bulb without a lampshade.
Modernists conceptualize human existence as a short, fragile moment; the subject may or may not be aware of the tragedy, the frailty of our absurd world, and the artist’s job is to show the horror, greatness and beauty contained, despite everything, in the moments of earthly existence. Social issues, which played such an important role in the realism of the 19th century, are given indirectly in modernism, as an inseparable part of the holistic portrait of the individual. The main area of interest of modernists is the depiction of the relationship between the conscious and unconscious in a person, the mechanisms of his perceptions, and the whimsical work of memory. The modernist hero is, as a rule, taken in the entirety of his experiences, his subjective existence, although the very scale of his life may be small and insignificant. In modernism, the main line of development of modern literature continues, towards a constant decline in the social status of the hero; the modernist hero is an “everyman,” any and every person. Modernists learned to describe such mental states of a person that literature had not previously noticed, and they did it with such convincingness that it seemed to bourgeois critics an insult to morality and a profanation of the art of words. Not only the content - the large role of intimate and sexual issues, the relativity of moral assessments, the emphasized apoliticality - but, first of all, the unusual forms of modernist storytelling caused especially sharp rejection. Today, when most of the masterpieces of modernist literature are included in school and university curricula, it is difficult for us to sense the rebellious, anti-bourgeois character of early modernism, the harshness of the accusations and challenges posed to it.
Three major writers of modernism- Irishman James Joyce (1882-1943), Frenchman Marcel Proust (1871-1922), Franz Kafka (1883-1924). Each of them, in his own direction, reformed the art of speech of the twentieth century, each is considered a great pioneer of modernism. Let's look at James Joyce's novel Ulysses as an example.
The twentieth century, like no other, was marked by the competition of many trends in art. These directions are completely different, they compete with each other, replace each other, and take into account each other’s achievements. The only thing that unites them is opposition to classical realistic art, attempts to find their own ways of reflecting reality. These directions are united by the conventional term “modernism”. The term “modernism” itself (from “modern” - modern) arose in the romantic aesthetics of A. Schlegel, but then it did not take root. But it came into use a hundred years later, at the end of the 19th century, and began to denote at first strange, unusual aesthetic systems. Today “modernism” is a term with an extremely broad meaning, which actually stands in two oppositions: on the one hand, it is “everything that is not realism,” on the other (in recent years) it is what “postmodernism” is not. Thus, the concept of modernism reveals itself negatively - by the method of “by contradiction”. Naturally, with this approach we are not talking about any structural clarity.
There are a huge number of modernist trends; we will focus only on the most significant:
Impressionism (from the French “impression” - impression) - a movement in the art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which originated in France and then spread throughout the world. Representatives of impressionism sought to capturethe real world in its mobility and variability, to convey your fleeting impressions. The Impressionists themselves called themselves “new realists”; the term appeared later, after 1874, when the now famous work by C. Monet “Sunrise” was demonstrated at the exhibition. Impression". At first, the term “impressionism” had a negative connotation, expressing bewilderment and even disdain of critics, but the artists themselves, “to spite the critics,” accepted it, and over time the negative connotations disappeared.
In painting, impressionism had a huge influence on all subsequent development of art.
In literature, the role of impressionism was more modest; it did not develop as an independent movement. However, the aesthetics of impressionism influenced the work of many authors, including in Russia. Trust in “fleeting things” is marked by many poems by K. Balmont, I. Annensky and others. In addition, impressionism was reflected in the color scheme of many writers, for example, its features are noticeable in the palette of B. Zaitsev.
However, as an integral movement, impressionism did not appear in literature, becoming a characteristic background of symbolism and neorealism.
Symbolism – one of the most powerful directions of modernism, quite diffuse in its attitudes and quests. Symbolism began to take shape in France in the 70s of the 19th century and quickly spread throughout Europe.
By the 90s, symbolism had become a pan-European trend, with the exception of Italy, where, for reasons that are not entirely clear, it did not take root.
In Russia, symbolism began to manifest itself in the late 80s, and emerged as a conscious movement by the mid-90s.
According to the time of formation and the characteristics of the worldview, it is customary to distinguish two main stages in Russian symbolism. Poets who made their debut in the 1890s are called “senior symbolists” (V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, Z. Gippius, F. Sologub, etc.).
In the 1900s, a number of new names appeared that significantly changed the face of symbolism: A. Blok, A. Bely, Vyach. Ivanov and others. The accepted designation of the “second wave” of symbolism is “young symbolism.” It is important to take into account that the “senior” and “younger” symbolists were separated not so much by age (for example, Vyacheslav Ivanov gravitates towards the “elders” in age), but by the difference in worldviews and the direction of creativity.
The work of the older symbolists fits more closely into the canon of neo-romanticism. Characteristic motives are loneliness, the chosenness of the poet, the imperfection of the world. In the poems of K. Balmont, the influence of impressionist technique is noticeable; the early Bryusov had a lot of technical experiments and verbal exoticism.
The Young Symbolists created a more holistic and original concept, which was based on the merging of life and art, on the idea of improving the world according to aesthetic laws. The mystery of existence cannot be expressed in ordinary words; it is only guessed in the system of symbols intuitively found by the poet. The concept of mystery, the unmanifestation of meanings, became the mainstay of symbolist aesthetics. Poetry, according to Vyach. Ivanov, there is a “secret record of the ineffable.” The social and aesthetic illusion of Young Symbolism was that through the “prophetic word” one can change the world. Therefore, they saw themselves not only as poets, but also demiurges, that is, the creators of the world. The unfulfilled utopia led in the early 1910s to a total crisis of symbolism, to the collapse of it as an integral system, although the “echoes” of symbolist aesthetics were heard for a long time.
Regardless of the implementation of social utopia, symbolism has extremely enriched Russian and world poetry. The names of A. Blok, I. Annensky, Vyach. Ivanov, A. Bely and other prominent symbolist poets are the pride of Russian literature.
Acmeism(from the Greek “acme” - “the highest degree, peak, flowering, blooming time”) is a literary movement that arose in the early tenths of the 20th century in Russia. Historically, Acmeism was a reaction to the crisis of symbolism. In contrast to the “secret” word of the Symbolists, the Acmeists proclaimed the value of the material, the plastic objectivity of images, the accuracy and sophistication of the word.
The formation of Acmeism is closely connected with the activities of the organization “Workshop of Poets”, the central figures of which were N. Gumilyov and S. Gorodetsky. O. Mandelstam, the early A. Akhmatova, V. Narbut and others also adhered to Acmeism. Later, however, Akhmatova questioned the aesthetic unity of Acmeism and even the legitimacy of the term itself. But one can hardly agree with her on this: the aesthetic unity of the Acmeist poets, at least in the early years, is beyond doubt. And the point is not only in the programmatic articles of N. Gumilyov and O. Mandelstam, where the aesthetic credo of the new movement is formulated, but above all in the practice itself. Acmeism strangely combined a romantic craving for the exotic, for wanderings with sophistication of words, which made it similar to the Baroque culture.
Favorite images of Acmeism - exotic beauty (so, in any period of Gumilyov’s creativity, poems appear about exotic animals: giraffe, jaguar, rhinoceros, kangaroo, etc.), images of culture(in Gumilyov, Akhmatova, Mandelstam), the love theme is dealt with very plastically. Often an object detail becomes a psychological sign(for example, a glove from Gumilyov or Akhmatova).
At first The world appears to the Acmeists as exquisite, but “toy-like,” emphatically unreal. For example, O. Mandelstam’s famous early poem goes like this:
They burn with gold leaf
There are Christmas trees in the forests;
Toy wolves in the bushes
They look with scary eyes.
Oh, my prophetic sadness,
Oh my quiet freedom
And the lifeless sky
Always laughing crystal!
Later, the paths of the Acmeists diverged; little remained of the former unity, although the majority of poets retained loyalty to the ideals of high culture and the cult of poetic mastery to the end. Many major literary artists came out of Acmeism. Russian literature has the right to be proud of the names of Gumilev, Mandelstam and Akhmatova.
Futurism(from Latin “futurus” " - future). If symbolism, as mentioned above, did not take root in Italy, then futurism, on the contrary, is of Italian origin. The “father” of futurism is considered to be the Italian poet and art theorist F. Marinetti, who proposed a shocking and tough theory of new art. In fact, Marinetti was talking about the mechanization of art, about depriving it of spirituality. Art should become akin to a “play on a mechanical piano”, all verbal delights are unnecessary, spirituality is an outdated myth.
Marinetti's ideas exposed the crisis of classical art and were taken up by "rebellious" aesthetic groups in different countries.
In Russia, the first futurists were the artists the Burliuk brothers. David Burliuk founded the futurist colony “Gilea” on his estate. He managed to rally around himself various poets and artists who were unlike anyone else: Mayakovsky, Khlebnikov, Kruchenykh, Elena Guro and others.
The first manifestos of Russian futurists were frankly shocking in nature (even the name of the manifesto, “A Slap in the Face of Public Taste,” speaks for itself), but even with this, the Russian futurists did not initially accept Marinetti’s mechanism, setting themselves other tasks. Marinetti's arrival in Russia caused disappointment among Russian poets and further emphasized the differences.
The Futurists aimed to create a new poetics, a new system of aesthetic values. The masterly play with words, the aestheticization of everyday objects, the speech of the street - all this excited, shocked, and caused resonance. The catchy, visible nature of the image irritated some, delighted others:
Every word,
even a joke
which he spews out with his burning mouth,
thrown out like a naked prostitute
from a burning brothel.
(V. Mayakovsky, “Cloud in Pants”)
Today we can admit that much of the Futurists’ creativity has not stood the test of time and is only of historical interest, but in general, the influence of the Futurists’ experiments on the subsequent development of art (and not only verbal, but also pictorial and musical) turned out to be colossal.
Futurism had within itself several currents, sometimes converging, sometimes conflicting: cubo-futurism, ego-futurism (Igor Severyanin), the “Centrifuge” group (N. Aseev, B. Pasternak).
Although very different from each other, these groups converged on a new understanding of the essence of poetry and a desire for verbal experiments. Russian futurism gave the world several poets of enormous scale: Vladimir Mayakovsky, Boris Pasternak, Velimir Khlebnikov.
Existentialism (from Latin “exsistentia” - existence). Existentialism cannot be called a literary movement in the full sense of the word; it is rather a philosophical movement, a concept of man, manifested in many works of literature. The origins of this movement can be found in the 19th century in the mystical philosophy of S. Kierkegaard, but existentialism received its real development in the 20th century. Among the most significant existentialist philosophers we can name G. Marcel, K. Jaspers, M. Heidegger, J.-P. Sartre and others. Existentialism is a very diffuse system, having many variations and varieties. However, the general features that allow us to talk about some unity are the following:
1. Recognition of the personal meaning of existence . In other words, the world and man in their primary essence are personal principles. The mistake of the traditional view, according to existentialists, is that human life is viewed as if “from the outside,” objectively, and the uniqueness of human life lies precisely in the fact that it There is and that she my. That is why G. Marcel proposed to consider the relationship between man and the world not according to the “He is the World” scheme, but according to the “I – You” scheme. My attitude towards another person is only a special case of this comprehensive scheme.
M. Heidegger said the same thing somewhat differently. In his opinion, the basic question about man must be changed. We are trying to answer, " What there is a person”, but you need to ask “ Who there is a man." This radically changes the entire coordinate system, since in the usual world we will not see the foundations of each person’s unique “self.”
2. Recognition of the so-called “borderline situation” , when this “self” becomes directly accessible. In ordinary life, this “I” is not directly accessible, but in the face of death, against the background of non-existence, it manifests itself. The concept of a border situation had a huge influence on the literature of the 20th century - both among writers directly associated with the theory of existentialism (A. Camus, J.-P. Sartre), and authors generally far from this theory, for example, on the idea of a border situation almost all the plots of Vasil Bykov's war stories are constructed.
3. Recognition of a person as a project . In other words, the original “I” given to us forces us to make the only possible choice every time. And if a person’s choice turns out to be unworthy, the person begins to collapse, no matter what external reasons he may justify.
Existentialism, we repeat, did not develop as a literary movement, but it had a huge influence on modern world culture. In this sense, it can be considered an aesthetic and philosophical direction of the 20th century.
Surrealism(French “surrealisme”, lit. - “super-realism”) - a powerful trend in painting and literature of the 20th century, however, it left the greatest mark in painting, primarily thanks to the authority of the famous artist Salvador Dali. Dali’s infamous phrase regarding his disagreements with other leaders of the movement “a surrealist is me”, for all its shockingness, clearly places emphasis. Without the figure of Salvador Dali, surrealism probably would not have had such an impact on the culture of the 20th century.
At the same time, the founder of this movement is not Dali or even an artist, but precisely the writer Andre Breton. Surrealism took shape in the 1920s as a left-radical movement, but noticeably different from futurism. Surrealism reflected the social, philosophical, psychological and aesthetic paradoxes of European consciousness. Europe is tired of social tensions, of traditional art forms, of hypocrisy in ethics. This “protest” wave gave birth to surrealism.
The authors of the first declarations and works of surrealism (Paul Eluard, Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, etc.) set the goal of “liberating” creativity from all conventions. Great importance was attached to unconscious impulses and random images, which, however, were then subjected to careful artistic processing.
Freudianism, which actualized human erotic instincts, had a serious influence on the aesthetics of surrealism.
In the late 20s - 30s, surrealism played a very noticeable role in European culture, but the literary component of this movement gradually weakened. Major writers and poets, in particular Eluard and Aragon, moved away from surrealism. Andre Breton's attempts after the war to revive the movement were unsuccessful, while in painting surrealism provided a much more powerful tradition.
Postmodernism - a powerful literary movement of our time, very diverse, contradictory and fundamentally open to any innovations. The philosophy of postmodernism was formed mainly in the school of French aesthetic thought (J. Derrida, R. Barthes, J. Kristeva, etc.), but today it has spread far beyond the borders of France.
At the same time, many philosophical origins and first works refer to the American tradition, and the term “postmodernism” itself in relation to literature was first used by the American literary critic of Arab origin, Ihab Hasan (1971).
The most important feature of postmodernism is the fundamental rejection of any centricity and any value hierarchy. All texts are fundamentally equal and capable of coming into contact with each other. There is no high and low art, modern and outdated. From a cultural standpoint, they all exist in some “now,” and since the value chain is fundamentally destroyed, no text has any advantages over another.
In the works of postmodernists, almost any text from any era comes into play. The boundary between one’s own and someone else’s word is also being destroyed, so texts by famous authors can be interspersed into a new work. This principle is called " centonity principle» (centon is a game genre when a poem is composed of different lines from other authors).
Postmodernism is radically different from all other aesthetic systems. In various schemes (for example, in the well-known schemes of Ihab Hasan, V. Brainin-Passek, etc.) dozens of distinctive features of postmodernism are noted. This is an attitude towards play, conformism, recognition of the equality of cultures, an attitude towards secondaryness (i.e. postmodernism does not aim to say something new about the world), orientation towards commercial success, recognition of the infinity of the aesthetic (i.e. everything can be art) etc.
Both writers and literary critics have an ambiguous attitude towards postmodernism: from complete acceptance to categorical denial.
In the last decade, people are increasingly talking about the crisis of postmodernism and reminding us of the responsibility and spirituality of culture.
For example, P. Bourdieu considers postmodernism a variant of “radical chic”, spectacular and comfortable at the same time, and calls not to destroy science (and in the context it is clear - art) “in the fireworks of nihilism.”
Many American theorists have also made sharp attacks against postmodern nihilism. In particular, the book “Against Deconstruction” by J. M. Ellis, which contains a critical analysis of postmodernist attitudes, caused a stir.
At the same time, it must be admitted that so far there are no new interesting directions that offer other aesthetic solutions."Clarissa, or the Story of a Young Lady, containing the most important questions of private life, and showing especially the disasters which may result from the wrong conduct of both parents and children in relation to marriage." Now, however, this scheme is noticeably more complicated. It is customary to talk about pre-symbolism, early symbolism, mystical symbolism, post-symbolism, etc. However, this does not cancel the naturally formed division into older and younger.
Loading...