Directions in Russian Literature
Classicism – a direction in the literature of the XVII – beginning of the XIX century, focusing on the aesthetic standards of ancient art. The main idea is the approval of the priority of the mind. At the heart of aesthetics is the principle of rationalism: a work of art must be intelligently constructed, logically verified, and must capture the imperishable, essential properties of things. The works of classicism are characterized by high civil themes, strict observance of certain creative norms and rules, reflection of life in ideal images that gravitate toward the universal pattern (G. Derzhavin, I. Krylov, M. Lomonosov, V. Trediakovsky, D. Fonvizin).
Sentimentalism is the literary course of the second half of the eighteenth century, which affirmed the feeling, not the mind, as the dominant of the human personality. The hero of sentimentalism is “a person who feels”, his emotional world is diverse and mobile, and the wealth of the inner world is recognized
Romanticism – a literary trend, formed in the early XIX century. The basis for romanticism was the principle of romantic dvoemiriya, suggesting a sharp opposition of the hero, his ideal – the world around him. The incompatibility of the ideal and reality was expressed in the departure of romantics from modern themes to the world of history, legends and legends, dreams, dreams, fantasies, exotic countries. Romanticism shows a special interest in personality. The romantic hero is characterized by proud loneliness, disappointment, a tragic worldview and at the same time rebelliousness and insurrection of the spirit (Pushkin, “The Prisoner of the Caucasus,” “Gypsies,” M. Yu. Lermontov, “Mtsyri”, M. Gorky. “Song of the Falcon”, “Old Woman Izergil”).
Realism is a literary trend, established in Russian literature at the beginning of the nineteenth century and passed through the entire twentieth century.
Critical Realism – the literary direction, which is the daughter of the previous one, existed from the beginning of the nineteenth century to its end. It carries the main signs of realism, but it differs by a deeper, more critical, sometimes sarcastic author’s look (N. Gogol “Dead Souls”, Saltykov-Shchedrin)
Modernism is the literary direction of the first half of the twentieth century, opposed to realism and united many currents and schools with a very diverse aesthetic orientation. Instead of a rigid connection of characters and circumstances, modernism affirms the self-worth and self-sufficiency of the human person, its irreducibility to a tedious series of causes and consequences.
Avant-gardism is a direction in the literature and art of the XX century, uniting various currents that are unified in their aesthetic radicalism (surrealism, the drama of the absurd, the “new novel,” and in Russian literature – futurism). Genetically linked with modernism, but absolutizes and brings to the extreme his desire for artistic renewal.
Decadence is a certain mentality, a crisis type of consciousness expressed in a sense of despair, impotence, mental fatigue with the obligatory elements of narcissism and aesthetic self-destruction of the individual. In the decadent moods, fading, a break with traditional morality, the will to death are aestheticized. Decadent attitude was reflected in the writings of writers of the late XIX – early XX century. F. Sologub, 3. Gippius, L. Andreeva, and others.
Symbolism is a pan-European, and in Russian literature – the first and most significant modernist trend. The roots of symbolism are connected with romanticism, with the idea of duality. The traditional idea of the knowledge of the world in art symbolists opposed the idea of constructing the world in the process of creativity. The meaning of creativity is a subconscious-intuitive contemplation of secret meanings, accessible only to the artist-creator. The main means of transferring rationally unknowable secret meanings is the symbol (signs) (“senior Symbolists”: V. Bryusov, K. Balmont, D. Merezhkovsky, 3. Hippius, F. Sologub, “Young Symbolists”: A. Blok, A. Bely, V. Ivanov, drama L. Andreev).
Acmeism is the flow of Russian modernism, which arose as a reaction to the extremes of symbolism with its persistent tendency to perceive reality as a distorted similarity of higher entities. The main significance in the creativity of Acmeists is the artistic development of a diverse and vibrant earthly world, the transfer of the inner world of man, the establishment of culture as the highest value. Acmeistic poetry is characterized by stylistic balance, pictorial clarity of images, precisely verified composition, refinement of details (N. Gumilev, S. Gorodetsky, A. Akhmatova, O. Mandelstam, M. Zenkevich, V. Narbut).
Futurism is an avant-garde trend that arose almost simultaneously in Italy and Russia. The main feature is the preaching of overthrowing past traditions, crushing the old aesthetics, the desire to create a new art, the art of the future, capable of transforming the world. The main technical principle is the principle of “shift”, manifested in the lexical updating of the poetic language due to the introduction of vulgarisms, technical terms, neologisms, violation of the laws of the lexical compatibility of words, bold experiments in the field of syntax and word formation (V. Khlebnikov, V. Mayakovsky, I. Severyanin and others).
Expressionism is a modernist trend, formed in the 1910s and 1920s in Germany. Expressionists tried not so much to depict the world as to express their thoughts about the unhappiness of the world and about the suppression of the human person. The style of expressionism is determined by the rationalism of the constructions, the attraction to abstractness, the acute emotionality of the author’s statements and characters, the abundant use of fiction and grotesque. In the Russian literature, the influence of expressionism manifested itself in the works of L. Andreev, E. Zamyatin, A. Platonov, and others.
Postmodernism is a complex set of philosophical attitudes and cultural reactions in the era of ideological and aesthetic pluralism (late XX century). Postmodern thinking is fundamentally anti-hierarchical, opposed to the idea of ideological wholeness, rejects the possibility of mastering reality through a single method or language of description. Writers – postmodernists consider literature primarily a fact of language, and therefore do not hide and emphasize the “literary” nature of their works, combine in one text the style of different genres and different literary epochs (A. Bitov, Sasha Sokolov, DA Prigov, V. Pelevin, V. Erofeev and others).
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