Formation of romanticism in Russian literature of the 19th century. Features of Russian Romanticism

Romanticism (fr. Romantisme) is an ideological and artistic trend in European and American culture of the late 18th century - the first half of the 19th century. It is characterized by the assertion of the intrinsic value of the spiritual and creative life of the individual, the image of strong (often rebellious) passions and characters, a spiritualized and healing nature. It spread to various spheres of human activity. In the 18th century everything strange, picturesque and existing in books, and not in reality, was called romantic. At the beginning of the 19th century, romanticism became the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism and the Enlightenment.

Born in Germany. The harbinger of romanticism - "Storm and Onslaught" and sentimentalism in literature.

Romanticism replaces the Age of Enlightenment and coincides with the industrial revolution, marked by the appearance of the steam engine, steam locomotive, steamboat, photography and factory outskirts. If the Enlightenment is characterized by the cult of reason and a civilization based on its principles, then romanticism asserts the cult of nature, feelings and the natural in man. It was in the era of romanticism that the phenomena of tourism, mountaineering and picnic took shape, designed to restore the unity of man and nature. The image of a "noble savage" armed with "folk wisdom" and not spoiled by civilization is in demand.

It is usually believed that in Russia romanticism appears in the poetry of V. A. Zhukovsky (although some Russian poetic works of the 1790-1800s are often attributed to the pre-romantic movement that developed out of sentimentalism). In Russian romanticism, freedom from classical conventions appears, a ballad, a romantic drama is created. A new idea of ​​the essence and meaning of poetry is being asserted, which is recognized as an independent sphere of life, an expression of the highest, ideal aspirations of a person; the old view, according to which poetry seemed to be empty amusement, something completely serviceable, is no longer possible. The romanticism of Russian literature shows the suffering and loneliness of the protagonist.

KN Batyushkov, EA Baratynsky, NM Yazykov can also be attributed to romantic poets. The early poetry of A.S. Pushkin also developed within the framework of romanticism. The pinnacle of Russian romanticism can be considered the poetry of M. Yu. Lermontov, "Russian Byron". Philosophical lyrics of F. I. Tyutchev are both the completion and the overcoming of romanticism in Russia.

Historical and philosophical and aesthetic preconditions for the emergence of romanticism

After the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794. the ideas of the Enlightenment were severely tested and rethought. First, the belief in absolute Reason as a means of miraculous healing from social ulcers was greatly shaken. Secondly, the monarch was no longer perceived by many nobles, including writers, as the bearer of the enlightened Reason. Thirdly, the definite goal of History disappeared, and social progress was no longer conceived as inevitable and directly dependent on the desires of people. Nevertheless, the ideology of the Enlightenment was still very influential, since the main social contradictions, the elimination of which would open the way to individual freedom and powerful economic and cultural development of the country, were not overcome.

The strong influence of the ideology of the Enlightenment was facilitated by political and social events within the country and abroad. Russian society closely followed the course of the French Revolution. Its perception in Russia corresponded to three stages.

First step(1789-1792) - the convocation of the General States, the proclamation of democratic freedoms - was met with enthusiasm.

Second phase(1792-1793) - the execution of the king, the establishment of the Jacobin dictatorship and the bloody massacre of its opponents - sharply negative. Karamzin and Radishchev agreed on this assessment. Some nobles, supporters of serfdom, blamed the ideas of the Enlightenment, seeing all the evil in the teachings of Voltaire, Diderot and other enlighteners. Other nobles, supporters of civil liberties and autocracy based on the observance of strict laws (enlightened monarchy, enlightened absolutism or enlightened despotism), insisted that the Enlightenment was not to blame for the bloody excesses of the French Revolution, but the lack of enlightenment of peoples and sovereigns. This position was held by Karamzin.

Third stage(1793-1794), who eventually brought Napoleon to power, reconciled part of the nobility with the French Revolution, since France received the freedoms and laws it hoped for and began to develop rapidly and successfully.

Soon, for Russia, as well as for other European countries, a new danger arose, again coming from France: the emperor of the French conceived a violent redrawing of the map of Europe.

The overthrow of monarchical regimes was a pretext for establishing domination on the continent. As a result, European states and peoples inevitably lost their national independence. Europe, including Russia, plunged into a historical period of continuous wars, which contributed to the growth of national self-awareness and patriotic impulse.

The largest historical event was the Patriotic War of 1812, which found exclusively full expression in Russian literature and art (poems by the “partisan poet” D.V. Davydov, the fables “The Crow and the Chicken”, “The Wolf in the Kennel” by I.A.Krylov, ode-elegy "A Singer in the Camp of Russian Warriors" by VA Zhukovsky, "Memories in Tsarskoe Selo" by AS Pushkin, etc.).

Since the wars with Napoleon not only caused a national-patriotic upsurge, but also led to the strengthening of the autocratic regime, because the people and the whole nation united around the Russian emperor, the supporters of the liberation of the peasants from serf bondage and the opponents of the monarchical principle in these conditions had to fall silent for a while. But with a victorious ending Patriotic War, the defeat of Napoleon's army in the battle of Waterloo, the entry of Russian troops into Paris and military campaigns, and then the return of soldiers and officers to their homeland, the formation of the Holy Alliance, which restored the monarchies in the countries liberated from the power of the defeated French emperor, educational ideas are revived in Russian society partly provoked "from above" by the autocracy.

Upon his accession to the throne in 1801, Alexander I planned to free the peasants from serfdom and give a constitution first to Poland, which was then part of Russia, and then to Russia. However, the intentions of Alexander I did not come true due to the indecision of the tsar, and most importantly, because of the resistance of the majority of the nobles, who believed that it was dangerous to grant freedom to an unenlightened and illiterate people, as this would undermine the economic situation of the nobility and the country as a whole and lead to anarchy, chaos, bloody riots and boundless willfulness.

Unable to carry out political and social reforms, Alexander I nevertheless carried out several notable acts: a reform of public administration was carried out, a censorship charter was instituted, which limited the interference of the authorities in press affairs, the import of foreign books was allowed, the Imperial Lyceum, gymnasiums, universities and Pedagogical Institute, the landowners were allowed to set the peasants free. Subsequently, Pushkin credited the tsar with two events: "He took Paris, he founded the Lyceum."

Nicholas I, upon accession to the throne, made gestures that sowed illusions about his future reign: he returned Pushkin from exile, brought some of the exiled Decembrists closer to the court, making it clear that he values ​​true services to the fatherland and the throne. However, the overall result of the reign of Nicholas I is bleak: the shamefully postponed liberation of the peasants from serf "slavery" turned into an unacceptable backwardness of Russia.

So, the era of the 1800s-1830s was full of major historical events. They had an undeniable impact on the development of literature. In particular, this was expressed in the fact that from 1815-1816. in connection with the organization of the first Decembrist societies, a civil, or social, course of Russian romanticism arises, and after 1825 Russian romanticism enters a new phase of its evolution. After the heyday reached in the work of Baratynsky, young Gogol, Lermontov and Tyutchev, he is going through a deep crisis.

Against the backdrop of crucial historical events for Russia, the literary movement of the 1800s and 1830s is experiencing an unprecedented and steady upsurge.

After the wars with Napoleon and the Great French Revolution, the understanding of the role of man in the world has grown tremendously. The idea of ​​personality as the greatest value has taken possession of the minds of many people. This meant the personality of the most ordinary private person, a given, specific individual. Personality in its unique integrity and originality has been declared the measure of all things. The essence of a person is not in reason, as the classicists and enlighteners imagined, not in feeling, as sentimentalists and other enlighteners close to them believed, but in her entire inner world, indivisible into abilities and qualities. The main quality of any personality is freedom of spirit. An individual cannot be dependent on external conditions, any institutions and regulations that violate his freedom and the freedom of other individuals. The goal of every personality is “in the strength and desire to become like God and always have the infinite before our eyes” (F. Schlegel).

If the greatest value in the earthly world is personality, individuality, then everything that hinders the manifestation of its free spirit (and the romantics did not idealize the real world, in which the free spirit cannot fully express itself) is hostile to it. Romanticism deliberately and fundamentally separated the personality from the earthly world. This means that the environment can destroy a person, but she cannot change it. Personality is always equal to itself and does not depend on the circumstances.

The essence of romanticism is in a rush into the infinite and in longing for it. At the same time, the infinite is limitless, it is not exhausted by earthly expanses, but extends beyond the limits of earthly existence. This is how the characteristic feature of romanticism is born - "romantic duality". The romantic is simultaneously in two worlds - this-worldly, earthly, and in the other-worldly, heavenly, existential. The main aspiration of romantics is to combine the two worlds in a single image.

Here the romantics faced a certain difficulty: the spirit of man is infinite and universal, but he himself is mortal, that is, it is finite and singular. How can the infinite and the universal be embodied in the singular and finite? It is quite clear that science does not have such an opportunity, that in this case not a simple contemplation will help ( empirical knowledge), nor life experience. The infinite and the universal cannot be grasped with one mind or one feeling. They can be grasped in a way that is both sensible and sensible. These are the properties that the sensual image, which underlies art, possesses. The further this or that kind of art is from the rational ways of comprehending the world, the higher it is (verbal art is initially constrained by a word that carries a thought, in contrast to music, which is a stream of sounds indirectly associated with thought).

For romanticism, the inner world of a person is a Universe that cannot be comprehended: it is always filled with mystery. Man represents his own greatest secret, not only for other people, but also for himself. The goal of human life is to plunge into the depths of the spirit and guess the secrets of one's inner world. And if so, then in "a good story there must always be something mysterious and incomprehensible" (Novalis). From this it is clear that the work of romance is fundamentally mystery and mystical, no matter what genre it is about. It always contains something magical, strange, incomprehensible, unusual, supernatural. Whatever the romanticist writes about, he always depicts the collision of man and being as a mystery unfolding before his eyes, the content of which is full of mystical meaning.

These ideas of romantics are supplemented by one important consideration, namely, romantic irony. Romantics saw that in the real world, a person cannot fulfill their ideal dreams. To a large extent, according to the beliefs of the romantics, it depends on the limitations of the human mind, knowledge and language, which they took into account. In the minds of romantics, two opposite ideas simultaneously lived - on the one hand, they rushed to the infinite, and on the other, they realized the futility of their efforts. Romantic irony corrected the romantic perception of being and its artistic depiction. She allowed the romance to soar above reality and not break away from it, while retaining the ability to act. The romantic was constantly between creation and destruction, being and chaos. Thus, he avoided any one-sided perception of life - the world did not appear in his imagination as only friendly-ideal or only hostile-real. This meant that romantic irony led to the freedom of the romantic spirit, freeing the romantic from all bias. Fearlessly ironic over being and one's own limitations can only be a truly free person.

Romanticism represents a whole era in the historical development of mankind, similar to such eras as the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. The ideas of romanticism covered all European countries and penetrated into all areas of human spiritual activity - philosophy, economics, art and even medicine. In a narrower sense, romanticism is understood as an artistic direction in art, and in particular in literature. In this second meaning romanticism is a literary trend, which placed in the center of an artistic image, which is to some extent a mystery in nature, a lonely free person, imbued with mystical eternal yearning for the infinite and not conditioned by either historical or social circumstances, and therefore possessing features of exclusivity and mystery.

European romanticism emerged as an initially contradictory direction, in which the feeling of absolute freedom of the spirit, the feeling of charm by the limitless possibilities of the individual was combined with the opposite feeling of disappointment in the limitation and constraint of freedom of the spirit by external (social and other) and internal (imperfection of human nature) reasons. Depending on which of these feelings dominated in the work of a particular writer, romantics gravitated either towards the unconditional acceptance of being, or towards the moods of "world sorrow."

Finally, in every European country, romanticism was peculiar due to the peculiarities of national and historical conditions. On a national basis, romanticism is distinguished from German, English, French, etc.

The general properties of European romanticism are entirely related to Russian romanticism, which, however, has a number of differences.

The main trends of Russian romanticism

If in European countries the personal independence of a person became a fait accompli and many countries were liberated or freed from feudal bonds, then in Russia a whole class - the peasants - was in serfdom. In Russia, the influence of patriarchal communal relations and ties was much stronger than in other countries. In it, educational ideas have been influential for longer. Therefore, in Russian romanticism, when it arose, the ideas of individualism and the mood of "world sorrow" sounded more weakened. "Romantic irony" is not typical for him either. All these features will appear in Russian romanticism later - on the eve and especially after the suppression of the Decembrist uprising.

Romanticism in Russia has gone through several stages of development:

• ... 1810s - the emergence and formation of a psychological course; leading poets Zhukovsky and Batyushkov;
• ... 1820s - the emergence and formation of a civil, or social, movement in the poetry of F.N. Glinka, P.A. Katenina, K.F. Ryleeva, V.K. Kuchelbecker, A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky; the maturity of psychological romanticism, in which the main figures were A.S. Pushkin, E.A. Baratynsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, N.M. Languages;
• ... 1830s - the emergence of a philosophical trend in the poetry of Baratynsky, the wisdom poets, Tyutchev, in the prose of V.F. Odoevsky; the penetration of romanticism into prose and its wide distribution in the genre of the story; the flourishing of romanticism in Lermontov's work and signs of crisis: the dominance of epigone (imitative) poetry, Benediktov's lyrics, “Caucasian” (“eastern”) stories by A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky;
• ... 1840s - the decline of romanticism, its displacement from the foreground of literature; from an active subject of the literary process, romanticism is increasingly turning into its object, becoming the subject of artistic depiction and analysis.

The division of romanticism into various trends took place according to the following criteria:

• ... To psychological flowRussian romanticism belongs to romantics who professed the ideas of self-education and self-improvement of the individual as the most correct way of transforming reality and man;
• ... To current civil, or social,romanticism includes romantics who believed that a person is brought up primarily in a social, public life, and, therefore, it is intended for civilian activities;
• ... To philosophical trendof Russian romanticism, romantics are numbered who believed that a person's place in the world is predetermined from above, his lot is predetermined in heaven and entirely depends on the general laws of the universe, and not at all on social and psychological reasons. There are no impenetrable boundaries between these currents, and the differences are relative: poets of different currents not only polemicize, but also interact with each other.

Initially, romanticism wins in the poetry of Zhukovsky and Batyushkov, which was due to:

• . the Karamzin reform of the literary language;
• . the crossing of the poetic principles of "sentimental" literature with the principles of "light poetry";
• . discussions on the problems of the literary language, which opened and cleared the way for romanticism.

These differences do not in the least cancel the circumstances and facts that make Russian romanticism akin to European, of which it is a part. The sense of personality, its freedom, rights, pride, honor and dignity was felt in Russia no less sharply than in European countries. This was especially facilitated by the growth of national identity, which was given a powerful impetus by the war with Napoleon and the Patriotic War of 1812. Hopes for the liberation of the serfs were dwindling. The nobleman, although he was personally independent, did not feel free, being under the pressure of the autocratic government, ready at any time and for any reason to violate his rights and neglect them.

In Russia, romantic trends also arose under the influence of the events of the Great French Revolution, but grew stronger during the years of liberal politics at the beginning of the reign of Alexander I, who came to the Russian throne after a palace conspiracy and the murder of his father, Emperor Paul I, on the night of March 11, 1801. the rise of national and personal identity during the Patriotic War of 1812. The reaction that followed the victorious war, the rejection of the liberal promises of the beginning of his reign by the government of Alexander I, led society to deep disappointment, which was further aggravated after the collapse of the Decembrist movement. These are the historical premises of Russian romanticism, which had common features that brought it closer to Western European romanticism. Russian romantics are also characterized by a heightened sense of personality, striving for the "inner world of a person's soul, the innermost life of his heart" (V. G. Belinsky), increased subjectivity and emotionality of the author's style, interest in national history and national character.

At the same time, Russian romanticism had its own national characteristics. First of all, unlike Western European romanticism, he retained historical optimism and hope for the possibility of overcoming the contradictions between ideal and reality. In Byron's romanticism, for example, Russian poets were attracted by the pathos of love for freedom, a rebellion against an imperfect world order, but Byronic skepticism, "cosmic pessimism", and the mood of "world sorrow" remained alien to them. Russian romantics also did not accept the cult of a self-righteous, proud and selfish human personality, opposing it with the ideal image of a patriotic citizen or a humane person endowed with a sense of Christian love, sacrifice and compassion. The romantic individualism of the Western European hero did not find support on Russian soil, but met with severe condemnation.

These features of our romanticism were associated with the fact that the Russian reality of the beginning of the 19th century harbored hidden opportunities for radical renewal: the peasant question was next in turn, the prerequisites for great changes were ripening, which took place in the 60s of the 19th century. A significant role in the national self-determination of Russian romanticism was also played by the millennial Orthodox Christian culture, with its craving for general agreement and conciliar solution of all issues, with its rejection of individualism, with the condemnation of selfishness and vanity. Therefore, in Russian romanticism, in contrast to Western European romanticism, there was no decisive break with the spirit and culture of classicism, enlightenment and sentimentalism.

Karamzinsky Filalet, condemning the despondency and skepticism of Melodor, says: “I know that the spread of some false ideas has done a lot of evil in our time, but is enlightenment to blame? Do not sciences serve, on the contrary, as a means for discovering truth and dispelling delusions that are detrimental to our peace of mind? ... The lamp of sciences will not fade away on the globe ... No, the Almighty will not deprive us of this precious consolation of the kind, sensitive, sad. Enlightenment is always beneficial; enlightenment leads to virtue, proving to us the close union of private good with the general and opening an inexhaustible source of bliss in our own bosom; enlightenment is a medicine for a corrupted heart and mind ... "Karamzin here not only does not oppose faith to reason, but speaks of their natural and eternal union: he defends the truth of an enlightening mind, warmed by the rays of faith, permeated with the light of high moral truths. it gravitation towards the synthesis of romanticism with enlightenment contributed to the early and easier overcoming of the dual world characteristic of romanticism and the transition of Russian literature to a realistic assimilation of reality with the dialectical interaction of the ideal and reality, the human character and the circumstances surrounding it.

But a more or less distinctly romantic trend proper in Russian literature triumphed only in the 1820s. In the first decade of the 19th century, sentimentalism took the predominant position in Russian poetry and prose, waging a successful struggle against the obsolete classicism and clearing the way for the romantic movement. However, researchers have long noticed that defining the literary process of the 1800-1810s as the history of the struggle between sentimentalism and classicism is possible only with great stretch, that “the specificity of this period cannot be characterized by analogy with one or another of the common European artistic trends” (E . N. Kupreyanova). So far, only one thing is clear: Batyushkov and Zhukovsky, Vyazemsky and young Pushkin - all considered themselves "Karamzinists".

Karamzin was and remains the recognized head of Russian sentimentalism. But in his work at the beginning of the 19th century, there were quite significant changes. Sentimentalism at the level of " Poor Lisa"Remained in the past and became the lot of epigones like Prince PI Shalikov. Both Karamzin and his comrades-in-arms went ahead, developing that promising side of Russian sentimentalism, which organically linked it with enlightenment at one pole and with romanticism at the other, which opened Russian literature to meet the most diverse Western European influences that were vital for it in the process of its formation. The sentimentalism of the Karamzin school at the beginning of the 19th century is brightly colored pre-romantic trends. This current is transitional, capacious, synthesizing in itself the features of classicism, enlightenment, sentimentalism and romanticism. Without the enrichment of Russian spiritual culture with Western European social and philosophical ideas, aesthetic ideas and artistic forms, the further development and self-determination of the new Russian literature, striving to become “on a par with the century”, was impossible.

On this path, Russian literature encountered great obstacles at the beginning of the 19th century: it was necessary to solve “the problem of enormous national and historical importance - to bring the lexical composition of the Russian language into line with Western European ideas and concepts that were foreign to it, already mastered by the educated part of society, to make them a national property "(E. N. Kupreyanova). The educated stratum of the noble society expressed these ideas and concepts in French, and there were no words of adequate meaning and meaning to translate them into Russian in the Russian language.

In the article "Why there are so few copyright talents in Russia" (1802), Karamzin drew attention to the need to update not only the lexical, but also the syntactic structure of Russian speech. “We still had so few true writers that they did not have time to give us examples in many genera; did not manage to enrich words with subtle ideas; have not shown how to express pleasantly some even ordinary thoughts. " Therefore, “a Russian candidate for authorship, dissatisfied with books, should close them and listen to conversations around him in order to completely learn the language. Here is a new problem: in best houses we speak more French ... What is left for the author to do? Invent, compose expressions; guess the best choice words; to give the old some new meaning, to offer them in a new connection, but so skillfully as to deceive the readers and hide from them the singularity of expression! " (Italics mine. - NS. L.).

Karamzin profoundly reformed the very structure of Russian literary speech. He decisively abandoned the heavy and inappropriate German-Latin language syntactic construction introduced by Lomonosov. Instead of long and incomprehensible periods, Karamzin began to write in clear and concise phrases, using light, elegant and logically harmonious French prose as a model. Therefore, the essence of Karamzin's reform cannot be reduced to the convergence of "book" norms with the forms of the spoken language of the noble "light". Karamzin and his associates were busy creating a national language, literary and colloquial at the same time, the language of intellectual communication, oral and written, which differs both from the "book" style and from everyday vernacular, including noble ones. In carrying out this reform, the "sentimentalist" Karamzin, strange as it may seem, was guided by the linguistic norms not of sentimentalism and not of romanticism, but of French classicism, of the language of Corneille and Racine, as well as of the French Enlightenment. And in this sense he was a much more consistent "classic" than his opponent A. Shishkov. Orientation to a mature and processed French language allowed Karamzin's supporters Zhukovsky and Batyushkov to create a "school of harmonic precision" in poetry, the mastering of the lessons of which helped Pushkin complete the formation of the language of new Russian literature.

And this suggests that neither classicism, nor sentimentalism, nor romanticism in its pure form in Russian literature simply did not exist. This is understandable: in its development, it strove to create realism on a national scale and sound, realism of the Renaissance type. Researchers of the literature of the Renaissance have long drawn attention to the fact that the art of writers and poets of that time, as in the grain, contained all subsequent directions in the development of European literature, all elements of future literary trends. Gathering the currents scattered in Western European literature into a powerful synthesis on a national-Russian spiritual and moral basis, Russian realism was formally moving "backward", but in fact it was striving far forward.

Romanticism as an artistic trend emerged in a number of European countries at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. The most important milestones that defined it chronological framework, became the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794 and the bourgeois revolutions of 1848.

Romanticism was a complex ideological and philosophical phenomenon that reflected the reactions of various social groups to bourgeois revolutions and bourgeois society.

Anti-bourgeois protest was characteristic of both conservative circles and progressive intelligentsia. Hence the feelings of disappointment and pessimism that are characteristic of Western European romanticism. For some romantic writers (the so-called passive), the protest against the "money bag" was accompanied by a call for a return to the feudal-medieval order; among progressive romantics, rejection of bourgeois reality gave rise to the dream of a different, just, democratic system.

Russian romanticism, in contrast to the European one with its pronounced anti-bourgeois character, retained a strong connection with the ideas of the Enlightenment and adopted some of them - the condemnation of serfdom, the propaganda and protection of education, the defense of the people's interests. The military events of 1812 had a huge impact on the development of Russian romanticism. The Patriotic War caused not only the growth of civil and national consciousness of the advanced strata of Russian society, but also the recognition of the special role of the people in the life of the national state. The topic of the people has become very significant for. Russian romantic writers. It seemed to them that by comprehending the spirit of the people, they were involved in the ideal beginnings of life. The striving for nationality marked the creativity of all Russian romantics, although their understanding of the "folk soul" was different.

So, for Zhukovsky, nationality is, first of all, a humane attitude towards the peasantry and, in general, towards poor people. He saw its essence in the poetry of folk rituals, lyric songs, folk signs and superstition.

In the work of the romantic Decembrists, the idea of ​​the people's soul was associated with other features. For them, a folk character is a heroic character, a nationally distinctive one. It is rooted in the national traditions of the people. They considered such figures as Prince Oleg, Ivan Susanin, Ermak, Nalivaiko, Minin and Pozharsky to be the most prominent exponents of the people's soul. So, Ryleev's poems "Voinarovsky", "Nalivaiko", his "Dumas", A. Bestuzhev's stories, Pushkin's southern poems, later - "Song about the merchant Kalashnikov" and poems of the Caucasian cycle by Lermontov are devoted to an understandable popular ideal. In the historical past of the Russian people, romantic poets of the 1920s were especially attracted by crisis moments - periods of struggle against the Tatar-Mongol yoke, free Novgorod and Pskov against autocratic Moscow, the struggle against the Polish-Swedish intervention, etc.

The interest in Russian history among romantic poets was generated by a sense of high patriotism. The Russian romanticism, which flourished during the Patriotic War of 1812, took it as one of its ideological foundations. V artistic plan romanticism, like sentimentalism, paid great attention to the depiction of the inner world of a person. But unlike the sentimentalist writers, who extolled "quiet sensitivity" as an expression of a "languid sorrowful heart," the romantics preferred the portrayal of extraordinary adventures and violent passions. At the same time, the unconditional merit of romanticism, especially its progressive direction, was the identification of an effective, volitional principle in a person, striving for high goals and ideals that lifted people above everyday life. Such was the character, for example, of the work of the English poet J. Byron, whose influence was experienced by many Russian writers of the early 19th century.

A deep interest in the inner world of a person caused the romantics to be indifferent to the external beauty of the heroes. In this, romanticism was also radically different from classicism with its obligatory harmony between the appearance and the inner content of the characters. Romantics, on the other hand, sought to discover the contrast between the external appearance and the spiritual world of the hero. As an example, we can recall Quasimodo ("Notre Dame Cathedral" by V. Hugo), a freak with a noble, sublime soul.

One of the important achievements of romanticism is the creation of a lyrical landscape. For romantics, it serves as a kind of decoration that emphasizes the emotional intensity of the action. The descriptions of nature noted its "spirituality", its relationship with the fate and fate of man. Alexander Bestuzhev was a brilliant master of the lyrical landscape, in whose early stories the landscape expresses the emotional subtext of the work. In the story "The Revel Tournament" he portrayed the picturesque view of Revel, which corresponded to the mood of the characters: “It was in the month of May; the bright sun rolled towards noon in transparent ether, and only in the distance the canopy of the sky touched the water with a silvery cloudy fringe. The light spokes of the Revel bell towers burned along the bay, and the gray loopholes of Vyshgorod, leaning on the cliff, seemed to grow into the sky and, as if overturned, stuck into the depths of the mirror-like waters. " 13

The originality of the theme of romantic works contributed to the use of a specific vocabulary expression - an abundance of metaphors, poetic epithets and symbols. So, the sea, the wind appeared as a romantic symbol of freedom; happiness - the sun, love - fire or roses; generally pink color symbolized love feelings, black - sadness. The night personified evil, crimes, enmity. The symbol of eternal change is a wave of the sea, insensibility is a stone; images of a doll or a masquerade meant falsity, hypocrisy, duplicity.

V. A. Zhukovsky. The founder of Russian romanticism is considered to be V.A.Zhukovsky (1783-1852). Already in the first years of the 19th century, he gained fame as a poet who glorified light feelings - love, friendship, dreamy spiritual impulses. Lyrical images of his native nature took an important place in his work. Zhukovsky became the creator of the national lyrical landscape in Russian poetry. In one of his early poems, the elegy "Evening", the poet reproduced a modest picture of his native land as follows:

Everything is quiet: the groves are asleep; peace in the neighborhood,

Prostrated on the grass under a bent willow,

I listen to how it murmurs, merged with the river,

Stream shaded by bushes.

You can barely hear the reeds swaying over the stream,

The sound of a loop in the distance, asleep, awakens the villages.

In the grass of the corncrake I hear a wild cry ... 14

This love for the depiction of Russian life, national traditions and rituals, legends and tales will be expressed in a number of subsequent works of Zhukovsky. In 1808 he created a poetic work, the ballad "Lyudmila". Although its plot was borrowed from the work of the German poet Buter, Zhukovsky nevertheless transfers the action of the ballad to Russia, depicting Russian life at the end of the 18th century. The fantastic plot of the ballad has all the characteristic features of romantic works of this kind: the return of the missing groom, his midnight trip with Lyudmila, accompanied by a string of mysterious visions, which “with the late sunrise of the Light light round dance Into an air chain coiled. Here they rushed after them.

Here are singing airy faces: As if in the leaves of a dodder A light breeze winds, As if a stream is splashing. " After "Lyudmila" he created the ballads "Thunderbolt" (1810), "Svetlana" (1808-1812). They were written by the poet based on plots taken from Russian medieval life, they are replete with descriptions of folk life, rituals, in particular Christmas divination:

Once in the Epiphany evening

The girls wondered;

Slipper behind the gate,

Having taken it off their feet, they threw it;

We poured snow; under the window

Listened, fed

Counted grain chicken.

Burning wax was drowned,

Into a bowl of clean water

They put a gold ring

The earrings are emerald

Spread out the white board

And they sang in tune over the bowl

The songs are subservient. " 15

The poet subtly and impressively depicts the agitated state of a girl, tormented by anxiety for the fate of her beloved and fear of night miracles:

Here is one beauty

Sits down by the mirror.

With secret timidity she

Looks in the mirror

It's dark in the mirror, all around

Dead silence.

Candle with quivering fire

A little leaf radiance ...

Shyness excites her chest,

It's scary for her to look back,

Fear clouded the eyes.

A light squeaked with a crack,

The cricket screamed pitifully,

Midnight Herald. 16

The portrayal of the miraculous and mysterious in Zhukovsky's ballads, which, in Belinsky's words, “sweet and terrible pleasure,” determined the extraordinary success of his works.

With the outbreak of the Patriotic War of 1812, Zhukovsky became a warrior of the noble militia, with whom he was near Mozhaisk on Borodin's day, and then ended up in the Tarutino camp. Here, under the impression of military events and general patriotic enthusiasm, he creates his best civil poem "A Poet in the Camp of Russian Soldiers", later published by the magazines "Vestnik Evropy" and "Son of the Fatherland". "The Singer in the Camp ..." was essentially a passionate publicistic work of the emerging civic romanticism, the further development of which would take place in the early 20s of the 19th century. Written after the abandonment of Moscow by the Russian army, at a time when there was still no tangible turning point in hostilities, the poem was addressed to the patriotic feeling of the Russian people, reminded them of the glorious military traditions of their ancestors, starting with the Kiev prince Svyatoslav, Dmitry Donskoy and ending with Suvorov ... A significant place in the poem was given to the image of the national hero MI Kutuzov and his associates - General Ermolov, Raevsky, Konovnitsin and others. They were followed by the commanders of the Cossack and partisan detachments: "Whirlwind Ataman" Platov, "fiery fighter" Denis Davydov , the fearless Seslavin, who “will fly with winged regiments wherever. There the sword and the shield are thrown into the dust. And the path is strewn with enemies. " The poet spoke with great feeling about his love for his native land:

The country where we first tasted the sweetness of being, Fields, native hills, Sweet light of the native sky, Familiar streams, Golden games of young years And the first years of lessons. What will replace your charm? Oh, Holy Motherland, What heart does not tremble, blessing You? 17

At the same time, much in the course of military events remained incomprehensible to the author, for example, the national liberation character of the great struggle of the Russian people. Zhukovsky did not understand the strategic plan of Kutuzov, although he glorified in the poem the experience and firmness of the "hero under gray hair." Despite this, the poet's appeal to the high patriotism of his compatriots found a warm response in their hearts. Contemporaries read "The Singer in the Camp of Russian Warriors" with excitement and delight. The poem was rewritten by hand and distributed in hundreds of copies.

The poet's popularity drew the attention of high society and the king himself to him. He was close to the court. Thus began Zhukovsky's long court service. First, he became a reader of the Empress Dowager, then the teacher of the bride of the Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovich (the future Emperor Nicholas I), and later - the teacher of his son. During the years of difficult court service, Zhukovsky did not bother about a personal career, he strove, along with knowledge, to convey to members of the royal family the ideas of humanism and enlightenment. And although young friends sometimes reproached the poet for the fact that his talent was beginning to fade in the court atmosphere, they never doubted his human decency and spiritual qualities. The fact that the Decembrists (in particular N. Muravyov) informed him about the existence of the Union of Prosperity and called him to join them, testifies to the degree of confidence in the people who knew him. Zhukovsky refused, but knowing about the conspiracy, he did not betray his friends, despite his proximity to the court.

In his youth, Zhukovsky actively participated in literary life. At the beginning of the 19th century, he was a member of the "Friendly Literary Society", which included Andrei Turgenev, Merzlyakov, Voeikov and others, then the secretary of "Arzamas". His natural sociability, wit, penchant for jokes were vividly reflected in the protocols of this society and in his letters to the "Arzamas". Zhukovsky also arranged his own "Fridays" and "Saturdays", which gathered friends, writers and musicians. This time was illuminated for him by a cordial friendship with Pushkin, whose constant defender he remained until the end of the poet's life. He sought to mitigate the fate of the disgraced Pushkin, interceded for him before Alexander I and Nicholas I. Zhukovsky did a lot for other writers as well. He achieved liberation from Baratynsky's soldiery, Shevchenko's redemption from serf bondage, Herzen's return from exile, defended N.I. Turgenev, I.V. Kireevsky, and helped N.V. Gogol.

The views of the poet, even in his youth, were far from radicalism; later he condemned the uprising on Senate Square. But at the same time, he took advantage of every opportunity to alleviate the fate of the exiles. Being an opponent of "tyranny", oppression of man by man, he proved loyalty to his convictions by a bold civil act, having freed his serfs. His archives contain letters from unknown, poor people who asked him for intercession - among them were orphans, widows, serfs. Zhukovsky helped and saved their letters.

In the late period of his creative work Zhukovsky was engaged in translations and created a number of poems and ballads of fabulous and fantastic content ("Undine", "The Tale of Tsar Berendey", "The Sleeping Princess").

Ballads occupied one of the central places in Zhukovsky's work; he turned to this form of poetic work throughout his life. In literary circles, he even received the nickname "balladist". Under his influence, the ballad genre began to "grow in breadth." A number of followers also appeared - they were P. A. Pletnev, V. K. Küchelbecker and even young Pushkin. Critics were ambivalent about Zhukovsky's ballads. Journalist Grech, who did not approve of the spread of the ballad genre, wrote: “Ah, dear creator of Svetlana, for how many souls do you have to answer? How many young people have you seduced into murder? " 18 Perhaps one of the reasons for this attitude was the novelty and complexity of the genre. The ballad, which has become one of the favorite genres of romantic poets, turned out to be the most convenient poetic form for the embodiment of those moral and class shifts that took place at the beginning of the 19th century, the complexities of the human psyche.

Zhukovsky's ballads are full of deep philosophical meaning, they reflect both his personal experiences, and thoughts and features inherent in romanticism in general.

The poet's personal life was not cloudless, from a young age he felt the bitterness of social inequality, then - unfulfilled dreams of happiness with his beloved girl, a feeling for which he retained for many years. Melancholic moods, close to Zhukovsky himself, color most of his creations. They are strengthened by the awareness of the infidelity of worldly blessings, the presentiment of loss. The poet tries to find a solution to social and individual problems in an ethical way. The main theme of his ballads is crime and punishment. Zhukovsky denounced the base passions of man - selfishness, greed, ambition. He believed that a crime is committed when a person failed to curb these passions and forgot his moral duty.

So, Warwick - the hero of the ballad of the same name - seized the throne, destroying the legitimate heir, his nephew. The greedy Bishop Gutton (“God's Judgment of the Bishop”) does not give bread to the starving people. The punishments for crimes in Zhukovsky's ballads are either pangs of conscience, or, in cases where repentance does not occur, nature becomes the judge of human crimes. Nature in Zhukovsky's ballads is always fair, and it often carries out retribution: for example, the Avon River, in which the little heir to the throne was drowned, overflows its banks, and the criminal Warwick drowns in its violent waves; the greedy Bishop Gutton was bitten by mice that bred in his full barns. The crime must be punished.

Zhukovsky, like other Russian romantics, was highly inherent in the pursuit of a moral ideal. This ideal for him was philanthropy and personal independence. He asserted them both with his work and with his life.

The "era of Zhukovsky" in Russian literary romanticism ends with the 20s of the 19th century, but the significance of his work is enduring. In addition to the poet's poetic heritage, Zhukovsky's great merit is his achievements in the field of Russian versification. In this respect, he can be considered one of the founders of the new, national school of Russian literature. Belinsky rightly noted that "without Zhukovsky we would not have had Pushkin."

Introduction

Chapter 1. Romanticism as a trend in art

1.1 The main features of romanticism

1.2 Romanticism in Russia

Chapter 2. Russian romanticism in literature, painting and theatrical art

2.1 Romanticism in Russian literature

2.2 Romanticism in the visual arts

2.3 Romanticism in the performing arts

Conclusion

Bibliographic list

Applications

INTRODUCTION

Relevance of the research topic. The 19th century occupies a special place in the history of Russian culture. This is the time of the rise of national education, the greatest scientific achievements, the brilliant flourishing of all types of art. During this period, artistic values ​​of lasting importance were created.

The study of the cultural process, the characteristics of spiritual life and everyday traditions significantly enriches our understanding of a certain stage of historical development. At the same time, comprehension of the cultural heritage is just as necessary in modern life. Historical and cultural themes are becoming one of the defining factors of the ideological sphere, acquiring special significance during the period of the ideological vacuum that has formed in our country in recent years.

Romanticism took root in life under the influence of certain socio-historical circumstances and deeply penetrated the consciousness of people of that time, capturing various spheres of mental activity. Writers of a romantic mood strove to free the individual from its enslavement by social, material circumstances. They dreamed of a society where people would be bound not by material, but by spiritual ties.

Asocial tendencies in the work of romantics are the result of their critical attitude to reality. They are well aware of the "flaws" of the slaveholding and feudal system. Hence the dreams of romantics about extrasocial existence, about the golden age of mankind, when social laws will collapse and purely human, spiritual ties will come into force.

Romantics were also critical of history. Its development was not accompanied, according to their observation, by the growth of spiritual freedom. Hence the cult of the "natural state" in romanticism, the retreat into the prehistoric past in the life of peoples, when the laws of nature were in effect, and not the artificial institutions of a corrupted civilization. Romantics weren't socially passive. They criticized a society in which the spiritual was sacrificed to the material. It was a protest against the spiritual infringement of the individual in the conditions of feudal and then bourgeois reality.

In its development, Russian romanticism proceeded along the path of ever closer rapprochement with life. Studying reality, in its concrete historical, national originality, the romantics gradually revealed the secrets of the historical process. Rejecting the providentialist point of view, they began to look for the springs of historical development in social factors. History appears in their work as an arena of struggle between the forces of darkness and light, tyranny and freedom.

The idea of ​​historicism, attention to the tragic fate of the people, the element of the subjective, the humanistic richness of creativity, striving for the ideal, enrichment of the artistic palette due to the introduction of conditional methods of depicting life, approving the educational impact of art on a person and much more, which is characteristic of romanticism, had a fruitful influence on development of realism of the XIX century.

Romantics by no means reduce the task to the knowledge of reality, thereby noting the specificity of romanticism in comparison with science. In their programmatic speeches, they focus on the humanistic, educational function of art, thus explaining its great social significance. Solving their specific artistic tasks, the thinkers of the romantic trend penetrated deeply into the epistemological essence of art and revealed its most important law. Their great merit lies in determining the place and role of the subjective principle in artistic creation.

The romantic, without which art loses its true essence, is, first of all, an aesthetic ideal, humanistic in nature, including the artist's ideas about a wonderful life and a wonderful person.

Object of research: Russian romanticism as a trend in art.

Subject of research: the main components of Russian culture of the first half of the 19th century (literature, visual and theater arts)

The aim of the research is to analyze the features of romanticism in Russian art of the 19th century.

· Study the literature on the research topic;

· Consider the main features of romanticism as an art phenomenon;

· Determine the features of Russian romanticism;

· To study the phenomenon of romanticism in literature, fine and theatrical art of Russia of the XIX century.

Literature review: in writing this study, the works of many authors were used. For example, the book by N.I. Yakovkina. "History of Russian culture. XIX century" is dedicated to the brightest and most fruitful period of the cultural life of Russia - XIX century, covers the development of education, literature, fine arts, theater. The phenomenon of romanticism is considered in this work in great detail and accessible.

Study structure: course work consists of an introduction, two chapters, a bibliography and annexes.

CHAPTER 1. ROMANCE AS A DIRECTION IN ART

1.1 The main features of romanticism

Romanticism - (fr. Romantisme, from the medieval fr. Romant - novel) is a trend in art that emerged within the framework of the general literary movement at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. in Germany. Got spread in all countries of Europe and America. The highest peak of romanticism falls on the first quarter of the 19th century.

The French word romantisme goes back to the Spanish romance (in the Middle Ages, Spanish romances were called so, and then the chivalric romance), the English romantic, which turned into the 18th century. in romantique and then meaning "strange", "fantastic", "picturesque". At the beginning of the XIX century. romanticism becomes the designation of a new direction, opposite to classicism.

Entering the antithesis of "classicism" - "romanticism", the direction presupposed the opposition of the classicist requirement of rules to romantic freedom from rules. The center of the artistic system of romanticism is personality, and its main conflict is personality and society. The events of the Great French Revolution became the decisive prerequisite for the development of romanticism. The emergence of romanticism is associated with the anti-enlightenment movement, the reasons for which lie in disillusionment with civilization, in social, industrial, political and scientific progress, which resulted in new contrasts and contradictions, leveling and spiritual devastation of the individual.

The Enlightenment preached the new society as the most "natural" and "reasonable". The best minds of Europe justified and foreshadowed this society of the future, but reality turned out to be beyond the control of "reason", the future - unpredictable, irrational, and the modern social structure began to threaten human nature and his personal freedom. Rejection of this society, protest against lack of spirituality and selfishness is reflected already in sentimentalism and pre-romanticism. Romanticism expresses this rejection most sharply. Romanticism opposed the Enlightenment also verbally: the language of romantic works, striving to be natural, "simple", accessible to all readers, was something opposite to the classics with its noble, "sublime" themes, typical, for example, of classical tragedy.

Among the late Western European romantics, pessimism in relation to society acquires cosmic proportions, becomes the "disease of the century." The heroes of many romantic works are characterized by moods of hopelessness and despair, which acquire a universal human character. Perfection is lost forever, the world is ruled by evil, ancient chaos is resurrecting. The theme of the "scary world", characteristic of all romantic literature, was most vividly embodied in the so-called "black genre" (in the pre-romantic "Gothic novel" - A. Radcliffe, C. Maturin, in the "rock drama" or "rock tragedy" - Werner, G. Kleist, F. Grillparzer), as well as in the works of Byron, C. Brentano, E. T. A. Hoffmann, E. Poe and N. Hawthorne.

At the same time, romanticism is based on ideas that challenge the "terrible world" - above all, the ideas of freedom. The disappointment of romanticism is a disappointment in reality, but progress and civilization are only one side of it. Rejection of this side, lack of faith in the possibilities of civilization provide another path, a path to the ideal, to the eternal, to the absolute. This path must resolve all contradictions, completely change life. This is the path to perfection, "to the goal, the explanation of which must be sought on the other side of the visible" (A. de Vigny). For some romantics, incomprehensible and mysterious forces dominate the world, which must be obeyed and not try to change fate (Chateaubriand, V.A. Zhukovsky). For others, the "world evil" provoked a protest, demanded revenge, struggle (early A.S. Pushkin). What they all had in common was that they all saw a single essence in man, whose task is not at all reduced to solving everyday problems. On the contrary, without denying everyday life, the romantics sought to unravel the mystery of human existence, turning to nature, trusting their religious and poetic feeling.

The romantic hero is a complex, passionate personality, whose inner world is unusually deep, endless; it is a whole universe full of contradictions. Romantics were interested in all passions, both high and low, which were opposed to each other. High passion is love in all its manifestations, low passion is greed, ambition, envy. The base material practice of romantics opposed the life of the spirit, especially religion, art, philosophy. Interest in strong and vivid feelings, all-consuming passions, in the secret movements of the soul - specific traits romanticism.

Romanticism- a concept that is difficult to give a precise definition. In different European literatures it is interpreted in its own way, and in the works of various “romantic” writers it is expressed differently. Both in time and in essence, this literary movement is very close to; for many writers of the era, both these directions even merge completely. Like sentimentalism, the romantic trend was, from all European literatures, a protest against pseudo-classicism.

Romanticism as a literary movement

Instead of the ideal of classical poetry - humanism, the personification of everything human, at the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, Christian idealism appeared - the desire for everything heavenly and divine, for everything supernatural and miraculous. At the same time, the main goal of human life was no longer the enjoyment of the happiness and joys of earthly life, but the purity of the soul and peace of conscience, the patient endure of all the calamities and sufferings of earthly life, the hope for a future life and preparation for this life.

Pseudo-classicism demanded from literature rationality, submission of feelings to reason; he fettered creativity in those literary forms, which were borrowed from the ancients; he obliged writers not to go out of bounds ancient history and ancient poetics... Pseudo-classics introduced a strict aristocracy content and form, contributed exclusively to the "court" mood.

Sentimentalism put forward against all these features of pseudo-classicism the poetry of free feeling, admiration for its free sensitive heart, before its "beautiful soul", and nature, artless and simple. But if the sentimentalists undermined the meaning of false classicism, it was not they who began a conscious struggle with this trend. This honor belonged to the "romantics"; they put up against the false classics a great deal of energy, a broader literary program and, most importantly, an attempt to create a new theory of poetic creativity. One of the first points of this theory was the denial of the 18th century, its rational "enlightenment" philosophy, the forms of its life. (See Aesthetics of Romanticism, Stages of Development of Romanticism.)

Such a protest against the rules of outdated morality and social forms of life was reflected in the enthusiasm for works in which the protagonists were protesting heroes - Prometheus, Faust, then "robbers" as enemies of outdated forms of social life ... With the light hand of Schiller, even a whole " robbery "literature. The writers were interested in the images of "ideological" criminals, people of the fallen, but retaining high human feelings (such was, for example, the romanticism of Victor Hugo). Of course, this literature no longer recognized didacticism and aristocracy - it was democratic, was far from edifying and, in the manner of writing, approached naturalism, accurate reproduction of reality, without choice and idealization.

This is one stream of romanticism created by the group protesting romantics. But there was another group - peaceful individualists, whose freedom of feeling did not lead to a social struggle. They are peaceful enthusiasts of sensitivity, limited by the walls of their hearts, who lull themselves to quiet delight and tears by analyzing their feelings. They, pietists and mystics, can join any church-religious reaction, get along with the political one, for they have moved away from the public into the world of their tiny “I”, into solitude, into nature, broadcasting about the goodness of the Creator. They recognize only "inner freedom", "educate virtue." They have a "beautiful soul" - schöne Seele of German poets, belle âme Russo, "soul" of Karamzin ...

Romantics of this second type are almost indistinguishable from the "sentimentalists." They love their "sensitive" heart, they know only tender, sad "love", pure, sublime "friendship" - they willingly shed tears; "Sweet melancholy" is their favorite mood. They love sad nature, foggy, or evening landscapes, the gentle glow of the moon. They dream willingly in cemeteries and near graves; they like sad music. They are interested in everything “fantastic” down to “visions”. Following closely the whimsical shades of various moods of their hearts, they take up the depiction of complex and vague, "vague" feelings - they are trying to express the "inexpressible" in the language of poetry, to find a new style for new moods unknown to pseudo-classics.

It is precisely this content of their poetry that was expressed in that vague and one-sided definition of "romanticism" that Belinsky made: happiness that God knows what it was. This is a world alien to all reality, inhabited by shadows and ghosts. It is a dull, slowly flowing ... present, which mourns the past and does not see the future in front of itself; finally, it is love that feeds on sadness and which, without sadness, would not have anything to support its existence. "

The message about romanticism will tell you about the ideological and artistic direction of the late 18th - early 19th centuries.

"Romanticism" message briefly

What is Romanticism?

Romanticism is an ideological and artistic movement that arose in American and European culture of the late 18th century - early 19th century, as a reaction to the aesthetics of classicism. At first, romanticism developed in the 1790s in German poetry and philosophy, and later spread to France, England and other countries.

Features of romanticism

In the art of romanticism, increased attention to the unique, individual traits of a person, freedom of expression, sincerity, relaxedness and naturalness became new criteria. Representatives of the new trend rejected practicality and rationalism, glorifying the inspiration and emotionality of expression.

Young people especially succumbed to the influence of romanticism, because they got the opportunity to read and study a lot. Young people were inspired by the ideas of self-improvement and individual development, idealization of personal freedom, which were combined with the rejection of rationalism. A symbol of the incarnation of new romantic ideas in Europe was the painting "Wanderer over the sea of ​​fog".

In the painting of romanticism, volumetric spatiality, dynamic composition, chiaroscuro and rich color prevailed. Among the romantic artists, Gericault, Turner, Delacroix, Martin and Fuseli are distinguished. Favorite motives are ancient ruins and landscapes.

In literature, romantics turned to the enigmatic, the mysterious, the terrible: fairy tales and popular beliefs. Among the new literary movements that emerged were Tempest and Onslaught (Germany), primitivism (France). The Gothic romance, ballads and old romances were especially popular.

The main features of romanticism in literature:

• Complete creative freedom
• Variety of genres
• Personal, lyrical beginning of works
• Extraordinary and fantastic events
• Moving heroes into dire situations
• The character of the main characters was bright
• Very often the actions of the book took place in distant countries with outlandish conditions.

In philosophy, the brothers Novalis and Schlegel, Coleridge, declared themselves romantics. They "preached" the transcendental philosophy of Fichte and Kant, based on the creative possibilities of the mind. Philosophical new ideas spread widely to France and England and influenced the further development of American transcendentalism.