The Multiplicity of the Foundations of Russian Classical Literature

Abstract

The article examines a number of ideological, social, ethical, aesthetic foundations on which the phenomena of Russian classical literature arose. Such foundations determined the content and form of literary phenomena. The work of Karamzin, Pushkin, and writers close to them developed on the basis of assimilation of European and Russian material, which took the form of cultural personalism. On the border of this basis, the works of Baratynsky and Tyutchev were created. Subsequently, there was a change of fundamentals. The tendencies of criticism, social problemativeness, and negativism have become predominant. Lermontov abolished Pushkin's measure of man and moved on to the hyperbolization of personality in the poet's self-consciousness and in the lyrical "I". The basis of Gogol's work was split into two parts. In the first part, works of Ukrainian themes were created. In the second part, Petersburg stories and "Dead Souls" grew up. Here the author's work was governed by socio-anthropological criticism. In the era of crises, ideological struggle, Leskov did not find solid foundations for his worldview and creativity, he found himself heavily dependent on current events and influences. This gave rise to internal and external conflict, style deformations. The trends of the 1860s - 1870s led Dostoevsky to a deeply ethical and philosophical problematization of man in his main novels. Chekhov's work reflects the tendencies of negativism of the late nineteenth century.

Extended abstract:

     The purpose of the article is to show on concrete historical and literary facts the discrete process of the movement of Russian literature from the end of the XVIII century to the beginning of the XX century. The working hypothesis consists in the assumption that every significant phenomenon of Russian literature of this period is largely autonomous. This autonomy refers to the origin of this phenomenon, to its special orientation to philosophical concepts, to artistic traditions. It is also assumed that the relationship between major literary phenomena is dominated not by continuity, but by conflict, confrontation. The confrontation takes place in the field of ideas, literary themes, and style. This formulation of the historical and literary problem is completely new in Russian philology. It should lead to a radical revision of the picture of literary development in this period. The research method in this case consists in analyzing the writer's work in a cultural context.

The article examines a number of ideological, social, ethical, aesthetic foundations on which the phenomena of Russian classical literature arose. Such foundations determined the content and form of literary phenomena. The work of Karamzin, Pushkin, and writers close to them developed on the basis of assimilation of European and Russian material, which took the form of cultural personalism. Subsequently, there was a change of fundamentals. The tendencies of criticism, social problemativeness, and negativism have become predominant. Lermontov abolished Pushkin's measure of man and moved on to the hyperbolization of personality in the poet's self-consciousness and in the lyrical "I". Gogol's work was governed by socio-anthropological criticism. In the era of crises, ideological struggle, Leskov did not find solid foundations for his worldview and creativity. The trends of the 1860s - 1870s led Dostoevsky to a deeply ethical and philosophical problematization of man. Chekhov's work reflects the tendencies of negativism of the late nineteenth century.

The considered material makes it possible to identify the formation of various ideological, socio-ethical, aesthetic foundations that determined the content of literary phenomena arising on them. The basis formed at the end of the XVIII - first third of the XIX century found expression in the cultural personalism of the Karamzin-Pushkin literary era, which clearly affected the poetry of poets of that time, including Boratynsky, Tyutchev. On a different basis, Lermontov's poetry developed with its hyperbolization of personality in the poet's self-consciousness and in his lyrical "I". The following foundations are dominated by the tendencies of criticism, social problemativeness, negativism, which are found in the works of Gogol, Leskov, and Chekhov. Dostoevsky's novels are based on a deep ethical and philosophical problematization of man.