Revolutionary romantics

Basic principles of romanticism.
Romanticism is a trend in the art of the late 18th - first quarter of the 19th century, which opposes the canons of classicism and is characterized by a desire for national and individual originality, for portraying ideal characters and feelings. 2. A direction in art imbued with optimism and the desire to show in vivid images the high purpose of a person. 3. Mindset, attitude, imbued with the idealization of reality, dreamy contemplation. Romantic moods and experiences have long attracted poets, prose writers, artists, composers, have been embodied in various forms of art and in different periods of time. They played a particularly significant, even decisive role in the fate of one of the largest artistic movements, which was called romanticism. Romanticism emerged in the countries of Western Europe at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries as a reaction to the consequences of the Great French Revolution (1789-1794). Disappointment was caused by the new bourgeois social system. The power of gold, before which spiritual human values had no power, gave rise to doubts about the possibility of transforming the world on a reasonable basis. The ideal of a just world began to seem unrealizable. Romanticism is formed on this mood - an expression of dissatisfaction with reality, which determined the new character of art in all its types and genres. On the whole, Western European romanticism existed as a literary trend until the 30s of the 19th century, when it was replaced by critical realism. A characteristic feature of romanticism is extreme dissatisfaction with reality, opposing it to a beautiful dream. The inner world of a person, his feelings, the creative fantasy of romance were proclaimed true values, as opposed to material values. A distinctive feature of romantic creativity is the author's pronounced attitude to everything that is depicted in the work. The Romantics were powerfully drawn to fantasy, folk tales, and folklore. They were attracted by distant countries and past historical eras, by the beautiful and majestic world of nature. Favorite genres of romantic literature are fantasy stories and dramas, fairy tales, where miraculous powers, good and evil wizards operate. Romantic heroes are always in conflict with society. They are exiles, wanderers. Lonely, disappointed, the heroes challenge an unjust society and turn into rebels, rebels. The Romantics modified and updated the old genres, created new ones, such as the historical novel, the lyrical epic poem, and the fantastic story-tale. They discovered priceless treasures of folk art, brought literature closer to folklore.
Basic principles of romanticism: 1. Romantic negation associated with the concept of time, the existing world. In it, the romantics saw the cult of the utilitarian, the petty-bourgeois. The bourgeois system is especially alien to romantics. Romantics have created a special world - the world of dreams. Romantic art is based on antinomy - a constant contradiction between the material and historical world. 2. The emergence of the cult of the medieval Renaissance, the concept of romantic history, the opposition between "today" and "yesterday", the birth of the historical novel. Passion for Walter Scott, Victor Hugo. Historical thinking is being introduced into literature, the boundaries of the artistic are being moved apart. 3. Duality, the anthropological embodiment of which duality becomes, contributes to the psychologization of literature. The idea of the world and of man becomes more complicated. There is an interest in the story. The fairy tale is considered as the basis of human feeling (Brothers Grimm, E.T.A. Hoffman, V. Hauf, G.Kh. Andersen). 4. Departure into science fiction in all its forms, the birth of a new idea of the universe itself. 5. The cult of the romantic hero. The very concept of a hero is etymologically connected with the concept of heroics. The romantic hero is not like everyone else, he is strange. He changes his appearance, in connection with which the cult of the portrait is born. The romantics have everything wide open, their appearance is a mess, a complete house, they have a burning look. The hearth becomes a cult. But a romantic hero is also a wanderer hero. The concept of "wanderer" here is associated with the concept of "strange". A characteristic feature of romantic consciousness is the image of the road, movement. The romantic hero is a mourner, a wandering hero, an enthusiast, doubting, suffering, not finding himself, closed in space and on himself. As a result, the hero's egoism arises as a complex romantic consciousness. The romantic hero is lonely. At this time, an anthropological revolution took place: the romantics found a new person. This is a hero of immoderate passions. Types of Romantic Heroes: 1. A titan hero derived from mythological and biblical images. It becomes an expression of titanic passions, maximalism, demonic consciousness; Demon of Lermontov 2. Hero-wanderer, pilgrim, discovering new spaces, being in constant motion. It brings together the concepts of the road - the real space - and the way - the worldview of life. This hero is strange both in appearance and in actions; 3. Hero-artist. Romanticism shows a person in the sphere of the tragedy of creativity, associated with the inability to express everything. A characteristic feature of the romantic hero-creator is improvisation. There are many musicians among such heroes. Music and lyrics are deeply intertwined. There are deep connections between the author and the hero. The hero becomes the bearer and spokesman of the author's consciousness, his alter ego. The inseparability of the author's consciousness and the hero's consciousness did not allow the development of art. To overcome the subjective position, it was necessary to create a distance between the author's consciousness and the hero's consciousness. The romantic hero blew up the very idea of the world. Romantic literature is the literature of dialogue about the world. In the romantic world, even animals become creators. Romantic aesthetics gravitates towards miracles, mysteries, everything unusual. Victor Hugo said: "Ordinary is the death of art." The new chronotope becomes the first form of fantasy expression. The spaces of day and night become important. The sense of time disappears at night. Romantic heroes act in the evening and at night. Important is the moment of a kind of wakefulness of the spirit. A new lyric is born: nocturnes, for which the riddle of the sunset becomes important.
V.A. Zhukovsky is the founder of Russian romanticism .
Russian romanticism of the 19th century was born under the direct influence of Western European literature. However, despite this, he had his own characteristic features, which were tracked in previous periods. This artistic phenomenon in Russia fully reflected all the hostility of the foremost workers and revolutionaries to the ruling bourgeoisie, in particular, to its way of life - unbridled, immoral and cruel. Russian romanticism of the 19th century was a direct result of rebellious moods and anticipation of turning points in the history of the country. In the literature of that time, two directions are distinguished: psychological and civil. The first was based on the description and analysis of feelings and experiences, the second - on the propaganda of the fight against modern society. The general and main idea of all novelists was that the poet or writer had to behave according to the ideals that he described in his works.
Features of Russian romanticism:
1. Russian romanticism is a chronologically later phenomenon than European. He is experiencing the formation in 1810 - 1820. This is the era of national liberation movements, the Patriotic War of 1812, the era of hope, faith in the future revival of Russia. Russian romanticism was more associated with the ideas of the Enlightenment. At this time, European romanticism is in crisis; 2. For Russian romanticism, the power of reason remains unchanged; 3. In European romanticism, the moral problem is opposed to the aesthetic one. The development of bourgeois relations and the cult of calculation does not make it possible to link art with morality. The interaction of aesthetics and ethics is the main feature of Russian romanticism. We can talk about a peculiar phenomenon of kalokagatiya. In European Romanticism, aesthetics becomes an end in itself; 4. In Russian romanticism, the individual moment is reduced. The European individualist hero flees society. The Russian hero, by virtue of the results of the war of 1812, gravitates toward the people. The ideas of nationality, national art are fundamental for romantics. For romantics, the problem of the “hero of our time” is especially acute; 5. Ethical pathos is opposed to carnal themes. For Russian romantics, love is a special sacrament filled with chastity; 6. In Russian romanticism, the idea of freedom was associated with the ideas of the abolition of serfdom, reforms in society. In addition to the Decembrists, the pathos of love of freedom was shared by other romantics. A.M. Gorky distinguished between progressive or civic romanticism and reactionary or psychological romanticism. This concept has damaged the study of the work of the Romantics. But still, romanticism is a complex and heterogeneous phenomenon. V. A. Zhukovsky is the first Russian romantic poet, a man who played an outstanding role in the formation of the romantic trend in Russian literature. At the time of his literary apprenticeship, Zhukovsky was greatly influenced by Karamzin, was an admirer of the Western European sentimental and pre-romantic poetry of Jung and Gray. A distinctive feature of the poet's work appeared early - the cult of spiritual purity, kindness, philanthropy and humility. In 1802, Zhukovsky translated the elegy of the English sentimentalist poet Thomas Gray "An Elegy Written in a Rural Cemetery". So a new type of lyrical hero came into Russian poetry - melancholy pensive, focused on his inner world, turned to thoughts about the eternal. Beginning in 1808, not sentimental, but romantic beginning prevailed in Zhukovsky's poems. In the poet's love lyrics, the romantic idea of "two worlds", the concept of a "better world" clearly sound, motives of an unrealizable dream, tragic love, imperfection of earthly life ("My friend, my guardian angel ...", "To Nina", "Traveler ”, “To her”, “Desire”, “Singer”, “Swimmer”, “Dreams”). Love in the work of Zhukovsky is the highest of earthly feelings. Happiness is unattainable in real life: “Oh dear friend, fate ordered us to part...”, however, love is omnipotent, “it is not subject to time or place”, because in a “better world”, outside the limits of imperfect earthly existence, harmony will inevitably be found : “There is a better world; there we love, we are free” (“Song”). Zhukovsky's work predetermined a lot in subsequent Russian poetry, in Russian life in general. It was in his work as a poet and translator that Russian literature was combined with world artistic development, and the “golden age” of Russian culture begins with his name. Among Russian writers, the first romantic poet who organically accepted and developed the traditions of the new literary trend, undoubtedly, should be called V. A. Zhukovsky. One of the favorite genres of this poet was the ballad, a genre very popular in the Middle Ages. A ballad is a poetic work based on a plot of a historical, fantastic, folklore, everyday nature. In the Middle Ages, ballads were sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments. In Zhukovsky's poetry, there is a clear connection with the song tradition of the Middle Ages: the ballads of the Russian romantic are melodic and musical. The work of Zhukovsky is also closely connected with the work of European romantics: most of the plots are borrowed from the works of F. Schiller, I. V. Goethe and other famous authors. However, the free translation or reworking of a work by Zhukovsky brought into the ballads the individual perception and feelings of the Russian poet, sometimes revealing new aspects of a particular plot. The theme of the collision of a person with mysterious elemental creatures - mermaids, undines, the Forest King - is heard more than once in Zhukovsky's ballads. Similar motifs were common in the legends of the Middle Ages, from which many Romantic poets drew inspiration. Motifs characteristic of romanticism: the action takes place against a picturesque background of nature, mysterious creatures take part in the events, in addition, a special gloomy coloring is inherent in the ballads, which is also following romantic traditions.