Contents introduction Chapter I. The Age of Enlightenment

Chapter I. The Age of Enlightenment
1.1. Main trends in the literature of the Enlightenment
The Enlightenment (Note 2) was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries and was characterized by global influences and influences. Enlightenment encompasses the values ​​of human happiness, the pursuit of knowledge gained through reason and perception, freedom, progress, tolerance, brotherhood, constitutional governance, and the separation of church and the state.
The roots of enlightenment come from the European intellectual and scientific movement known as Renaissance humanism, and before that there were the works of the Scientific Revolution and Francis Bacon and others. Some attribute the beginning of the Enlightenment to the publication in 1637 of Rene Descartes' "Speeches on Method," in which he coined the famous word "Kogito" ("I think, so I am"). includes Others call the publication of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica (1687) the culmination of the scientific revolution and the beginning of the Enlightenment. European historians traditionally date its beginning to the death of Louis XIV of France in 1715, and its end to the beginning of the French Revolution of 1789. Many historians now trace the end of the Enlightenment to the early 19th century, the last proposed year being 1804, when Immanuel Kant died.
Philosophers and scholars of this period spread their ideas widely in scientific academies, masonic lodges, literary salons, meetings in cafes, as well as in printed books, magazines and pamphlets. Enlightenment ideas undermined the monarchy and the Catholic Church, leading to political revolutions in the 18th and 19th centuries. Various currents of the 19th century, including liberalism, communism, and neoclassicism, traced their intellectual heritage to the Enlightenment.¹
In France, in contrast to the strict dogmas of the absolute monarchy and the church, the central teachings of the Enlightenment philosophers were personal freedom and religious tolerance. The Enlightenment period was marked by an emphasis on scientific style and reductionism, as well as growing suspicions of religious Orthodoxy, as reflected in Immanuel Kant’s “Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment”, where Sapere aude (Dare to Know) ) can be found.
If the 18th century was considered the Age of Reason, then the concept itself was much more complex and ambiguous. Along with rationalism, there was also sensationalism as sensory perception of the world (“the clearer a person’s mind is, the more sensitive his heart is”), where the heart and mind move and react together, although they represent two autonomous spheres.¹
The 18th century mentality and philosophical and artistic consciousness are characterized by a combination of universality and compromise (optimism and skepticism, irony and melancholy, pathos and vigilance, atheism and mysticism, old and new). Reconciliation became an expression of tolerance and cultural pluralism in the 18th century. If the culture of the Renaissance is distinguished by debate, dialogue, the culture of the eighteenth century is primarily a "conversation, a culture of conversation," in which different ideas complement each other, not contradict each other, and san' aimed at improving the horse. communication - both with “others” and with myself. The epistolary genre means “letter to oneself,” a school of emotion, and a form of philosophical debate (especially about happiness).
The universality of the Enlightenment implied the entry of new philosophical ideas into the literary work, the organic combination of its artistic and ideological and philosophical ‘aspects’. The 18th century was the “age of philosophers,” but any progressive direction of scientific thought aimed at solving the pressing problems of our time was philosophy, philosophy was relevant and militant, and the “Philosophers’ Party ”was the vanguard of enlightenment. The ideas of Locke, Leibniz, Spinoza, Berkeley, Hume, and other great philosophers have been endorsed or debated in many works of enlightened writers. Debates on freedom of conscience were conducted not against religion itself, but against the church, which reflected the “crisis” of the political and social situation in many European countries. (Voltaire points to the church and signs the letters with the slogan, "Crush the Reptile!").
Belief in the beautiful nature of man has led to the emergence of a new type of hero, a new direction in the development of the plot in educational prose and poetry. The protagonist no longer has to belong to the highest social class (as in the tragedy of French classicism, for example), he, on the contrary, often seems to be deprived of social conditions, outside the hands of nature. - this found child ("Tom Jones" by Fielding), a savage who finds himself in the world of civilization ("Innocent" Voltaire), "Shakespeare's theme" is of particular importance - the story of two brothers - good and bad (by Fielding Tom Jones) , Schiller's "Pirates" and others)
Of particular importance are the happy endings of the most incredible stories about the adventures of such a discovery. A happy ending, to a certain extent, should be seen as a reward for his kindness and indifference, which, despite all his weaknesses and mistakes, corresponds to a good start in which his bearer is a hero.
The depiction of literary trends in the Enlightenment period is very complex and does not fall into any frozen scheme, it is necessary to keep in mind the combination and interaction of different directions and trends, creating a colorful canvas in general. Enlightenment literature is characterized by a combination of elements of realism ("enlightenment realism"), classicism, rococo, sentimentalism, and in the literature of some countries - to romanticism, enlightenment literature, as if "above and in the middle" literature develops. trends that combine “enlightened” and “non-enlightened” options of the same direction.¹
The main literary trends of the 18th century were classicism, rococo and sentimentalism. Based on ancient aesthetics and 15th-century classicist aesthetics, aesthetics emerged as a scientific concept (the word was first used by A. Baumgarten, a professor at the University of Galle-Saale, and later became a dictionary). At the heart of 18th-century classicism lies the category of “taste,” and this “taste” is not yet individual, but “the general taste of civilized people” (as in the seventeenth century). But this enlightened taste implies less strict rules and more tolerance. Therefore, a more flexible and broader system of genres emerges, as well as national versions of classicism ("Weimar classicism", French "revolutionary classicism") Significant changes are also taking place in the system of genres - literary genres are merging with scientific ("philosophical story") and high genres with low ("heroic-comic poetry").