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Lapin I.L., Golubovich N.V.: Foreign Literature. 17th century literature

Foreign literature of the 17th - 18th centuries
17th century in world literary development.

The literary process in Europe in the 17th century is very complex and contradictory. The 17th century is the era that marked the transition from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, and this determined the features of historical and cultural development in European countries, the position of the feudal Catholic reaction was strengthened, and this caused a crisis of Renaissance humanism, most forcefully expressed in baroque art.

Baroque as a style is formed not only in literature, but also in painting and music. As a literary trend, the Baroque has a number of general philosophical and artistic principles.

The Baroque is based on the polemical concept of man in relation to the Renaissance traditions. A weak and fragile creature, a person, as Baroque writers believed, is doomed to wander in the tragic chaos of life. A deeply pessimistic conception of being leads baroque literature to ascetic religious ideals.

Baroque creates an elitist theory of art, asserts a special metaphorical ornamental style. Based on the idea of disharmony of the world, Baroque writers, trying to express the idea of disharmony in the very figurative system of the work, are carried away by semantic and pictorial contrasts. Baroque principles were most vividly embodied in the work of the great Spanish playwright P. Calderon.

In European baroque, two currents are formed - high and grassroots, or democratic, baroque. To the elitist ideas, the sublime rhetoric of the high baroque, represented by the theater of P. Calderon, the poetry of L. de Gongora, D. Donne, the pastoral and gallant-heroic novel, the grassroots baroque opposes the style of comic burlesque, which in many respects consciously parodies the sublime imagery (these tendencies were most clearly expressed in a picaresque novel of the 17th century).

Another literary trend of the 17th century was classicism, which received a special flowering in France. It must be remembered that the origins of classicism go back to the aesthetics of the Renaissance, which created the cult of antiquity as the focus of the artistic ideal. Classicism reflected the rise of the national consciousness of French society. In the first third of the 17th century, an absolute monarchy was being established in France, which led to the elimination of feudal civil strife and the formation of a single centralized state. This historically progressive process creates the objective prerequisites for the development of classicism. The ideas of R. Descartes, the creator of the rationalist philosophical school, had a profound impact on the aesthetics of classicism.

In its development, classicism of the 17th century went through two main stages. In the first half of the 17th century, he affirmed the lofty ideas of citizenship and heroism, which was reflected in the political tragedies of P. Corneille.

In the second half of the 17th century, after the tragic events of the Fronde, tragic motives deepened in classicism. Classicism created a coherent aesthetic theory, which was completed in N. Boileau's treatise "Poetic Art". The classicists developed a normative theory of art, including a clear differentiation between "high" and "low", strict genre and style canons. The rationalist attitude determined the concept of man, the features of the conflict in classic works. At the same time, the classicists defended the principle of "imitation of nature", "reasonable likelihood", which allowed them to recreate in their works the typical features of social life of the 17th century.
^ XVII century in world literary development

The Renaissance is difficult to separate from the history and culture of the 17th century. At the beginning of the 17th century, the luminaries of the Renaissance continued to create. The transition between eras is very smooth and lasts for several generations. The same thing happens at the upper boundaries of the period. XVII - XVIII centuries - a fundamental era for the development of modern European culture. In this era, modern-type states are created. In France, under the influence of the culture of classicism, the norms of literature and language are created, which took root until the 20th century. The Enlightenment movement and rationalist literature had a similar regulatory function in England.

The Renaissance is an era of social optimism, the discovery of the universe and human capabilities. The social system becomes more dynamic, the possibilities of the human personality and destiny open up. There is a belief in overcoming social obstacles in various areas. The ideal of the Renaissance man is typologically similar in different cultures. The universal ideal embodied the trinity of beauty, goodness and truth. But already at the end of the Renaissance, in the 16th century, this ideal begins to shake. In the XVI century there are religious wars, the struggle of states for colonies, competition in the European arena. A single European culture is being shaken. The generalizing influence of Latin origin is lost. A national culture appears, and different types of states are created: bourgeois (revolution in Holland and England), which emerged as a result of the process of re-feudalization, a return to old social relations (Spain, Germany, Italy). In Germany, "dwarf absolutism" reigned, the state was in a state of fragmentation. The situation was aggravated by the Thirty Years' War that took place in the 16th century. In France, there was a gradual movement towards capitalism. France of that era is one of the leading European powers. She is considered a classic for the literature of the era. It most clearly manifests the tendencies of centralization: regional differences disappear, the center strengthens, a single legal and cultural system is created - and absolutism (the exclusive role of royal power).

In the 17th century, the concept of power appears. Power becomes a transpersonal force that cannot be controlled. The English philosopher Hobbes imagined the state in the form of the monster Leviathan, which controls everything, requires submission and acts with harsh methods. There is a complete unification of life, submission to the king. The category of manageability becomes the leading one in the epoch. In Europe, there are rituals that control cultural and social life, etiquette is introduced. In the era of Louis XIV, etiquette was exaggerated. Rigid state control becomes a constraining force. Revolutions take place, followed by dictatorship and the subsequent restoration of the monarchy.

During the 17th century, a new religious ideal was being formed. There is a search for a "personal" God, his approach to everyday life. The bourgeoisie presupposes personal initiative. The embodiment of this search is the Reformation in its extreme manifestations (Puritanism, Calvinism). The ritual side is discarded and naked faith remains. The basic postulate of Protestantism is individual proof that you are worthy of divine salvation. The content of the era is also the counter-reformation movement, which is especially developing in Spain and Italy. According to the counter-reformers, God is relegated to the empyrean, he acts as a blind and irrational force. The bearer of this faith is the Church, which is also relegated to the empyrean. This strategy is implemented by the Jesuit order, whose slogan is “The end justifies the means”.

The 17th century is a turning point, when human values are catastrophically shifting. The symbols of the era are endless searches, trust in irrational categories and rebellion, the riot of one's own will. The man of the era is looking for support in search. This support becomes either reason or feeling. Truth, goodness and beauty begin to exist separately from each other. As a result, two opposite tendencies arise: rationalism and irrationalism, respectively.

The most distinct symptom of rationalism is the rise of science. In research on empiricism, the problem of method arises, bringing science closer to literature (Rene Descartes, Spinoza, Hobbes). These scientific searches find their continuation up to the 20th century.

The reverse side of these searches is irrationalism. Irrationalism doubts the possibilities of human knowledge. He seeks to identify areas of the unknown, to show the diversity and play of phenomena. In irrationalism, the category of concept stands out - the convergence of different, but mystically related categories. The metaphor develops from the concept. The literature of this era is metaphorical. The choice between particular truths depends on one's own will.

One of the universals of the era is a sense of crisis, a turning point, a reassessment of the ideals of the Renaissance. The literature of the era is polemical and propagandistic. The ideal of the Renaissance is either trying to restore or deny it. There is also a rejection of the principle of harmony. In the 17th century, there is an installation on the dominant categories. Dialectics is determined by the unity and struggle of opposites: the interaction of reason and feelings, personality and society. The Baroque era is interested in personal processes. Humanism is changing - it becomes "humanism in spite of". The value of a person is not set initially, it is acquired. Another feature of the era is analyticism, a research approach. A method is developed for dismembering reality into details and its unexpected combination. The era strives for broad epic panoramas. The writers emphasize the centralization of the idea. Thanks to the discovery of the idea, there is an interaction between journalistic and artistic creativity. The very idea in a literary text is revealed through pathos and logic. Logic organizes the composition, the connection of parts. One of the main issues of the era is truth and credibility. There is a search for criteria of truth.
^ Baroque literature (general description).

Writers and poets in the Baroque era perceived the real world as an illusion and a dream. Realistic descriptions were often combined with their allegorical depiction. Symbols, metaphors, theatrical techniques, graphic images (lines of poetry form a picture), saturation with rhetorical figures, antitheses, parallelisms, gradations, oxymorons are widely used. There is a burlesque-satirical attitude to reality. Baroque literature is characterized by the desire for diversity, for the summation of knowledge about the world, inclusiveness, encyclopedism, which sometimes turns into chaos and collecting curiosities, the desire to study being in its contrasts (spirit and flesh, darkness and light, time and eternity). Baroque ethics is marked by a craving for the symbolism of the night, the theme of frailty and impermanence, life-dream (F. de Quevedo, P. Calderon). Calderon's play "Life is a dream" is well-known. Such genres as the gallant-heroic novel (J. de Scudery, M. de Scudery), the real-life and satirical novel (Furetière, C. Sorel, P. Scarron) are also developing. Within the framework of the Baroque style, its varieties and directions are born: Marinism, Gongorism (Culteranism), Conceptism (Italy, Spain), Metaphysical School and Eufuism (England) (See Precise Literature).

The actions of the novels are often transferred to the fictional world of antiquity, to Greece, court cavaliers and ladies are depicted as shepherdesses and shepherdesses, which is called the pastoral (Honoré d'Urfe, "Astrea"). Poetry flourishes pretentiousness, the use of complex metaphors. Common forms such as sonnet, rondo, concetti (a short poem expressing some witty thought), madrigals.

In the west, in the field of the novel, an outstanding representative is G. Grimmelshausen (the novel "Simplicissimus"), in the field of drama - P. Calderon (Spain). V. Voiture (France), D. Marino (Italy), Don Luis de Gongora y Argote (Spain), D. Donne (England) became famous in poetry. In Russia, Baroque literature includes S. Polotsky, F. Prokopovich. In France, "precious literature" flourished during this period. It was then cultivated mainly in the salon of Madame de Rambouillet, one of the aristocratic salons of Paris, the most fashionable and famous. In Spain, the baroque trend in literature was called "gongorism" after the name of the most prominent representative (see above).
baroque literature (general characteristics).

the universals of the era appear in baroque and classicism. In European literature, classicism is presented as a simplified version of baroque; in Russian literature, baroque and classicism are considered as different artistic movements. But in the work of one writer, both of these trends can converge. In Spain, the baroque occupied a dominant position. His aesthetics and poetics were developed by representatives of the Lope de Vega school. Classicism there developed only theoretically. In England, none of the methods was dominant, since the traditions of the Renaissance were strong there. Only by the middle of the century did classicistic features grow in English art (Ben Jonson's theory), but they did not take root in this country. Grassroots baroque is developing in Germany, the preferred genres of which are bloody drama and picaresque novel. Classicism becomes the fundamental method in France, but Baroque tendencies also appear here. Along with the classic, there is also salon literature, the poetry of libertines.

Baroque is realized not only in literature. Initially, it was highlighted in architecture (the works of Bernini, the fountains of Versailles). In music, the baroque was represented by the works of Bach and Handel, in painting by Titian and Caravaggio, in literature by Jean-Baptiste Marino and Calderon. Baroque is closely related to the Renaissance. Yu.B. Wipper speaks of Mannerism, the tragic humanism of the late Renaissance. This is an exit to allegorical spaces with philosophical conflicts that demonstrate faith in man and the tragedy of human existence.

The word "baroque" itself has no exact explanation. This term refers to a wide range of phenomena. Baroque, by definition, has no canons. The canon is individual, diversity reigns here.
Worldview settings of the Baroque:
1. Feeling the contradictory nature of the world, the lack of established forms, the endless struggle. The task of the author is to capture reality in its variability.

2. Pessimistic emotional tone. It comes from the fragmentation, the duality of the world. In the literature of this trend, the motif of the double is often found.

3. Leading motives - the struggle of the flesh and the spirit, the visible and the real. A favorite theme is the struggle of life and death. Baroque authors often depict a person in his borderline states (sleep, illness, madness, a feast during a plague).

4. Theatricality, play, experiments of heroes with life, reverent attitude to earthly joys, admiring the little things of life. Baroque works display a kaleidoscope of life.

5. The baroque hero is a complete individualist. This is either a bright, but initially vicious creature who needs to atone for his sins, or a person who is initially kind, but disfigured by life circumstances. The second type of hero seeks to escape from the world either into creativity or by creating life utopias.
Baroque aesthetics is expounded in the treatises Wit or the Art of a Quick Mind (Balthasar Grassian) and Aristotle's Spyglass (Emmanuel Tesauro). Art from the point of view of the Baroque is subjective creativity. It does not express the truth, but creates an illusion, obeying the will of the author. The task of the writer is the transformation of reality. The flight of thought must be exaggerated. Baroque authors are interested in everything unusual. Getting acquainted with the unprecedented, the reader is able to be surprised. The main artistic tool is metaphor. Metaphor intersects with amplification - exaggeration. The same object is rotated from different sides.
^ Features of English literature of the 17th century.

The first half of the 17th century was marked in England by the flowering of baroque poetry, represented primarily by the school of metaphysical poets. One of the most talented poets of this direction, who opened up new horizons of European poetry of modern times, was John Donne (1572 - 1631), whose work is recommended for students to get acquainted with. The English bourgeois revolution (1640-1650) had a decisive influence on the development of English literature in the 17th century. It was held under religious Puritan slogans, which determined the specifics of the artistic thought of the era.

The main attention in the study of English literature of the 17th century should be given to the work of D. Milton (1608 - 1674). An outstanding revolutionary publicist, Milton reflected in his poems the most pressing political conflicts of our time. His poem "Paradise Lost" is an attempt at a socio-philosophical understanding of the development of the world and humanity as a whole. In the artistic world of the poem, baroque and classicist tendencies are organically combined, which should be noted when analyzing it.

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Foreign literature of the 17th century

Major literary movements

The 17th century was interpreted for almost the entire half of the 20th century as the “era of classicism”. All artistic phenomena emerging from the category of classicism were considered either as artistically imperfect works (in foreign literary criticism, par excellence), or as realistic creations, the most important in the perspective of literary development (in Soviet literary criticism). A peculiar baroque fashion that arose in Western science in the 30-40s of the 20th century and is increasingly spreading, including ours, brought to life the opposite phenomenon, when the 17th century turned into the “Baroque era”, and classicism began to be regarded as a variant of baroque art in France, so that in recent times the study of classicism requires perhaps more effort and scientific courage than the study of the baroque.

Special attention should be paid to the problem of "realism of the 17th century". This concept was very popular at a certain stage in the development of domestic literary criticism: despite the demand proclaimed in the mid-1950s by major, authoritative literary scholars not to use "realism" as a complimentary and evaluative concept, nevertheless, experts saw the development of literature as a kind of "accumulation" elements of realism, willingly associated democratic literary movements, grassroots comic and satirical literature, etc. with realistic tendencies. Statements that in the literary process of the 17th century, realism participates in one form or another. Artistic truthfulness, authenticity and persuasiveness of images, motives, conflicts, etc. were achieved and embodied according to other aesthetic laws than it would be in realism, a phenomenon of nineteenth-century literature.

Boroque and Classicism

In modern science, it is now practically universally recognized that the main literary trends of the 17th century were the Baroque and Classicism. Their development was contradictory and uneven, between the poetics of these trends there were similarities and differences, mutual influence and controversy. Baroque and classicism spread to varying degrees in different regions and at different stages within that historical and literary era.

First of all, let us dwell on the key points in the study of baroque literature. It is necessary to understand the complex etymology of the term "baroque": scientists argued about it from the beginning of the 30s to the middle of the 50s of our century. It should also be remembered that the writers whom today's science refers to the Baroque movement did not know this term (as a literary one, at least) and did not call themselves Baroque writers. The very word "baroque" as a term in the history of art began to be applied to a certain range of artistic phenomena of the 17th century only in the next, 18th century, and with a negative connotation. So, in the "Encyclopedia" of the French Enlighteners, the word "baroque" is used with the meanings "strange, bizarre, tasteless." It is difficult to find a single language source for this term, because the word was used, with shades of meaning, in Italian, and in Portuguese, and in Spanish. It should be emphasized that, although etymology does not exhaust the modern meaning of this literary concept, it allows us to capture some features of baroque poetics (quirkiness, unusualness, ambiguity), correlates with it, proves that the birth of terminology in the history of literature, although accidental, is not quite arbitrarily, has a certain logic.

The design of baroque as a terminological concept does not mean that there are no debatable points in its interpretation today. Often this term receives opposite interpretations from historians of culture. So, a certain part of the researchers puts a very broad content into the concept of "Baroque", seeing in it a certain repetitive stage in the development of artistic style - the stage of its crisis, "disease", leading to some kind of taste failure. The well-known scientist G. Wölfflin, for example, contrasts the "healthy" art of the Renaissance with the "sick" art of the Baroque. E. Ors distinguishes the so-called Hellenistic, medieval, Romanistic baroque, etc. In contrast to this interpretation, most scholars prefer a specific historical understanding of the term "Baroque". It is this interpretation of baroque art that has become most widespread in Russian literary criticism. But even among our scientists there are differences in the analysis of baroque poetics, discussions on certain aspects of his theory.

You need to know that for a long time the interpretation of the Baroque in our country was influenced by its vulgar sociological, straightforwardly ideological concept. Until now, one can find assertions in the literature that the art of the Baroque is the art of the Counter-Reformation, that it flourished primarily where the noble circles prevailed over the bourgeoisie, that it expresses the aesthetic aspirations of the court nobility, etc. Behind this is the belief in the “reactionary” style of the Baroque: if the writers of this trend are valued for the formal sophistication of the style, they cannot forgive them for their “ideological inferiority”. This, apparently, is the meaning of the infamous definition of baroque in the textbook by S.D. Artamonova: "Baroque is a sickly child, born from a freak of a father and a beautiful mother." Thus, for a truly deep and correct understanding of the features of Baroque literature, it is not outdated textbooks that are especially needed, but new scientific research.

Let us try to briefly characterize the main parameters of baroque poetics, as they appear in these studies, before recommending the corresponding additional literature.

The importance that scientists, including Russian ones, attach at the present stage to the culture and literature of the Baroque sometimes leads to the assertion that the Baroque is "not at all a style, and not a direction." This kind of assertion seems to be a polemical extreme. Baroque, of course, is both an artistic style and a literary movement. But it is also a type of culture, which does not cancel, but includes the previous meanings of this term. It must be said that the general pathos of the article by A.V. Mikhailov is very important, since baroque is very often perceived as a style in the narrow sense of the word, i.e. as the sum of formal aesthetic devices.

Baroque man's attitude to the world, baroque as an artistic system is still studied, as it seems, somewhat less and worse. As the well-known Swiss baroque specialist J. Rousset noted, “the idea of baroque is one of those that elude us, the more closely you examine it, the less you master it.” It is very important to understand how the goal and mechanism of artistic creation are thought in the Baroque, what its poetics is, how it correlates with the new worldview, captures it. Of course, A.V. is right. Mikhailov, who emphasizes that the Baroque is the culture of the “ready word”, i.e. a rhetorical culture that has no direct outlet to reality. But this very idea of the world and man, passed through the “ready-made word”, makes it possible to feel the deep socio-historical shift that occurred in the mind of a person of the 17th century, reflected the crisis of the Renaissance worldview. It is necessary to trace how Mannerism and Baroque correlate on the basis of this crisis, which makes Mannerism still part of the literary process of late Renaissance literature, and Baroque goes beyond it, including the 17th century in a new literary stage. Observations that allow one to feel the difference between Mannerism and Baroque are in the excellent article by L.I. Tanaeva "Some Concepts of Mannerism and the Study of the Art of Eastern Europe at the End of the 16th and 17th Centuries".

The philosophical basis of the Baroque worldview is the notion of the antinomic structure of the world and man. It is possible to compare some constructive aspects of the baroque vision (the opposition of the bodily and spiritual, high and low, tragic and comic) with the medieval dualistic perception of reality. Let us emphasize, however, that the traditions of medieval literature are included in baroque literature in an altered form and correlate with a new understanding of the laws of being.

First of all, baroque antinomies are an expression of the desire to artistically master the contradictory dynamics of reality, to convey in words the chaos and disharmony of human existence. The very bookiness of the Baroque art world comes from the ideas inherited from the Middle Ages about the Universe as a book. But for a baroque person, this book is drawn as a huge encyclopedia of being, and therefore literary works in the baroque also strive to be encyclopedias, to draw the world in its entirety and decomposability into separate elements - words, concepts. In baroque creations, one can find both the traditions of Stoicism and Epicureanism, but these opposites not only fight, but also converge in a common pessimistic sense of life. Baroque literature expresses a sense of the impermanence, variability, and illusory nature of life. Actualizing the thesis “life is a dream” already known in the Middle Ages, the Baroque draws attention primarily to the fragility of the boundaries between sleep” and “life”, to the constant doubt of a person whether he is in a state of sleep or awake, to contrasts or bizarre rapprochements between face and mask. , "to be" and "to seem".

The theme of illusion, semblance, is one of the most popular in baroque literature, often recreating the world as a theater. It should be clarified that the theatricality of the Baroque is manifested not only in the dramatic perception of the ups and downs of a person’s external life and his internal conflicts, not only in the antinomic confrontation between the categories of face and mask, but in a predilection for a kind of demonstrative artistic style, decorativeness and splendor of visual means, their exaggeration. That is why the baroque is sometimes justly called the art of hyperbole, they speak of the dominance in baroque poetics of the principle of wastefulness of artistic means. Attention should be paid to the polysemantic nature of the world and language, the multivariate interpretation of images, motifs, words in baroque literature. On the other hand, one should not lose sight of the fact that baroque combines and expresses the emotional and rational in the poetics of its works, has a certain “rational extravagance” (S.S. Averintsev). Baroque literature is not only not alien, but organically inherent in deep didacticism, but this art sought, above all, to excite and surprise. That is why it is possible to find among the literary works of the Baroque those in which didactic functions are not expressed in a straightforward manner, which is greatly facilitated by the rejection of linearity in composition, the development of artistic conflict (this is how specific spatial and psychological baroque labyrinths arise), a complex branched system of images, and the metaphorical nature of the language.

On the specifics of metaphorism in the Baroque, we find important observations in Yu.M. Lotman: "... here we are faced with the fact that tropes (the boundaries separating one type of tropes from others acquire an exceptionally shaky character in baroque texts) are not an external replacement of some elements of the expression plan with others, but a way of forming a special structure of consciousness. " Metaphor in the baroque is thus not merely a means of embellishing the narrative, but a particular artistic point of view.

It is also necessary to learn the features of the baroque genre system. The most characteristic genres developing in line with this literary trend are pastoral poetry, dramatic pastorals and pastoral romance, philosophical and didactic lyrics, satirical, burlesque poetry, comic novel, tragicomedy. But special attention should be paid to such a genre as the emblem: it embodied the most important features of Baroque poetics, its allegorism and encyclopedism, a combination of visual and verbal.

Undoubtedly, one should be aware of the main ideological and artistic currents within the Baroque movement, but it is necessary to warn against a narrow sociological interpretation of these currents. Thus, the division of Baroque literature into “high” and “low”, although it correlates with the concepts of “aristocratic” and “democratic” Baroque, does not come down to them: after all, most often the appeal to the poetics of the “high” or “grassroots” wing of the Baroque is not dictated by the social position of the writer or his political sympathies, but is an aesthetic choice, often guided by the genre tradition, the established hierarchy of genres, and sometimes consciously opposed to this tradition. It can be easily seen by analyzing the work of many Baroque writers that they sometimes created works of both "high" and "low" almost simultaneously, willingly resorted to contamination of "secular-aristocratic" and "democratic" plots, introduced into the sublime Baroque version of the artistic the world of burlesque, reduced characters, and vice versa. So those researchers who feel that in the Baroque "the elitist and the plebeian constitute different sides of the same whole" are absolutely right. Within the baroque direction, as you can see, there is an even more fractional division. One must have an idea of the features of such phenomena as cultism and conceptism in Spain, Marinism in Italy, Libertine literature in France, and the poetry of English metaphysicians. Particular attention should be paid to the concept of “precision” applied to the phenomena of the Baroque in France, which is interpreted both in our textbooks and in scientific works incorrectly. Traditionally, “precision” is understood by domestic experts as a synonym for the literature of the “aristocratic” Baroque. Meanwhile, modern Western studies of this phenomenon not only clarify its socio-historical roots (precision arises not in the court-aristocratic, but primarily in the urban, salon bourgeois-noble environment), the chronological framework - the mid-40s - 50s XVII century (thus, for example, the novel by Jurfe "Astrea" (1607-1627) cannot be considered as precise), but also reveal its artistic specificity as a special classicist-baroque type of creativity, based on the contamination of the aesthetic principles of both directions.

It should also be remembered about the evolution of the Baroque throughout the 17th century, about its relative movement from the “materiality” of style inherited from the Renaissance, the picturesqueness and colorfulness of empirical details to the strengthening of philosophical generalization, symbolic and allegorical imagery, intellectuality and refined psychologism (cf., for example, baroque the picaresque novels of the early seventeenth century in Spain with the philosophical Spanish novel of the middle century, or the prose of C. Sorel and Pascal in France, or the poetic writings of the early Donne with the poetry of Milton in England, etc.). It is also important to feel the difference between the national variants of the Baroque: its special turmoil, dramatic tension in Spain, a significant degree of intellectual analyticism that brings Baroque and Classicism together in France, etc.

It is necessary to consider further prospects for the development of baroque traditions in literature. Of particular interest in this aspect is the problem of the relationship between baroque and romanticism. The articles listed in the list of references will help to get acquainted with the modern level of solving this problem. The problem of studying the traditions of the Baroque in the 20th century is also relevant: those who are interested in modern foreign literature can easily find among its works those whose poetics clearly echoes the Baroque (this applies, for example, to the Latin American novel of the so-called “magic realism”, etc.).

Starting to study another important literary trend in foreign literature of the 17th century - classicism, one can follow the same sequence of analysis, starting with clarifying the etymology of the term “classical”, which is clearer than the etymology of “baroque”, as if capturing the inclination of classicism itself to clarity and logic. As in the case of the Baroque, "classicism" as a definition of the art of the 17th century, focused on a kind of competition with the "ancient", ancient writers, contains in its original meaning some features of classic poetics, but does not explain them all. And just like the writers of the Baroque, the classicists of the 17th century did not call themselves such, they began to be defined by this word in the 19th century, in the era of romanticism.

Almost until the middle of the 20th century, the 17th century was considered by historians of literature to be the "epoch of classicism". This was due not only to the underestimation of the artistic achievements of the Baroque or, on the contrary, to the overestimation of classicism (since for some countries the classicists are also the classics of national literature, this trend is “hard to overestimate”), but above all with the objective significance of this art in the 17th century, with the fact, in particular, that theoretical reflections on artistic creativity were predominantly classic in this period. This can be seen by referring to the anthology "Literary manifestos of Western European classicists" (M., 1980). Although there were baroque theorists in the 17th century, their concepts often tended to contaminate baroque and classic principles, included a fair amount of rationalistic analyticism and sometimes even normativity (like the theory of the novel by the French writer M. de Scuderi), who tried to create the “rules” of this genre ).

Classicism is not only a style or trend, but, like the Baroque, a more powerful artistic system that began to take shape back in the Renaissance. When studying classicism, it is necessary to trace how the traditions of Renaissance classicism are refracted in the classic literature of the 17th century, to pay attention to how antiquity turns from an object of imitation and exact recreation, “revival”, into an example of the correct observance of the eternal laws of art and an object of competition. It is extremely important to remember that classicism and baroque were generated by the same time, contradictory, but a single worldview. However, the specific socio-cultural circumstances of the development of a particular country often led to very different degrees of its prevalence in France, and, for example, in Spain, England and Germany, etc. Sometimes in the literature one can come across the assertion that classicism is a kind of "state" art, since its greatest flowering is associated with countries and periods characterized by an increase in the stabilization of centralized monarchical power. However, one should not confuse orderliness, discipline of thought and style, hierarchy as aesthetic principles with hierarchy, discipline, etc. as principles of rigid statehood, and even more so, to see in classicism some kind of semi-official art. It is very important to feel the inner drama of the classicist vision of reality, which is not eliminated, but, perhaps, even enhanced by the discipline of its external manifestations. Classicism, as it were, tries to artistically overcome the contradiction that Baroque art whimsically captures, to overcome it through strict selection, ordering, classification of images, themes, motives, all the material of reality.

You can also find statements that the philosophical basis of classicism was the philosophy of Descartes. However, I would like to warn against reducing classicism to Descartes, as well as Descartes to classicism: let us recall that classicist tendencies began to take shape in literature before Descartes, back in the Renaissance, and Descartes, for his part, generalized much that hovered in the air, systematized and synthesized the rationalistic tradition of the past. At the same time, the undoubted "Cartesian" principles in the poetics of classicism deserve attention ("separation of difficulties" in the process of artistic reconstruction of complex phenomena of reality, etc.). This is one of the manifestations of the general aesthetic "intentionality" (J. Mukarzhovsky) of classic art.

Having become acquainted with the most important theories of European classicists, one can trace the logical substantiation by them of the principles of the primacy of design over implementation, “correct” rational creativity over whimsical inspiration. It is very important to pay special attention to the interpretation in classicism of the principle of imitation of nature: nature appears as a beautiful and eternal creation, built “according to the laws of mathematics” (Galileo).

A specific principle of likelihood plays a significant role in classicism. Note that this concept is far from the common everyday use of this word, it is not at all a synonym for “truth” or “reality”. As a famous modern scholar writes, "classical culture lived for centuries with the idea that reality could in no way be mixed with plausibility." Plausibility in classicism implies, in addition to the ethical and psychological persuasiveness of images and situations, decency and edification, the implementation of the principle of "teach, entertain."

The characterization of classicism, therefore, cannot be reduced to enumeration of the rules of the three unities, but these rules cannot be ignored either. For the classicists, they are, as it were, a special case of applying the universal laws of art, a way to keep the freedom of creativity within the boundaries of reason. It is necessary to realize the importance of simplicity, clarity, the logical sequence of composition as important aesthetic categories. The classicists, in contrast to the baroque artists, refuse "superfluous" artistic details, images, words, adhere to the "economy" of means of expression.

It is necessary to know how the hierarchical system of genres was built in classicism, based on the consistent breeding of "high" and "low", "tragic" and "comic" phenomena of reality according to different genre formations. At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that the genre theory of classicism and practice do not completely coincide: giving preference in theoretical reasoning to "high" genres - tragedy, epic, the classicists tried their hand at "low" genres - satire, comedy, and even in the genres non-canonical, falling out of the classicist hierarchy (such as the novel: see below about the classic novel by M. de Lafayette).

Classicists judged works of art based on what they considered to be the "eternal" laws of art, and laws not according to custom, authority, tradition, but according to reasonable judgment. Therefore, it should be noted that the classicists think of their theory as an analysis of the laws of art in general, and not the creation of some separate aesthetic program of a school or direction. The classicists' reasoning about taste does not mean individual taste, not the capriciousness of aesthetic preference, but "good taste" as a collective reasonable norm of "well-bred people." However, in reality, it turned out that the specific judgments of the classicists on certain issues of artistic creativity, the assessments of specific works, diverge quite significantly, which led to both polemics within classicism and the real difference between the national versions of classic literature. It is necessary to understand the historical, social and cultural patterns of the development of the literary trends of the 17th century, to understand why in Spain, for example, baroque art prevailed, and in France - classicism, why researchers talk about "baroque classicism" by M. Opitz in Germany, about a kind of harmony or the balance of baroque and classic principles in the work of Milton in England, etc. It is important to feel that the real life of the literary trends of that era was not schematic, that they did not successively replace each other, but intertwined, fighting and interacting, entering into different relationships.

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1 Annotation The publication, intended for students of philology and written in the form of lectures, describes the conditions for the formation of European literature in the 17th and 18th centuries, analyzes the work of prominent writers, whose works reflected the characteristic features of the artistic systems of that time - Renaissance realism, baroque, classicism, enlightenment classicism, enlightenment realism, sentimentalism. After each topic, a list of references is offered, which greatly facilitates the orientation of students within this course.

2 Veraksich I.Yu. History of Foreign Literature of the 17th-18th Centuries Course of Lectures

3 Foreword The course "History of Foreign Literature of the 17th-18th Centuries" is an integral part of the university course "History of Foreign Literature". The manual, written in the form of lectures, is designed to help students master difficult but interesting material, to prepare them for the perception of literature of the 17th–18th centuries. All the material is arranged in such a way that, as a result, students have a holistic view of the peculiarities of the literary process of the 17th–18th centuries. Foreign literature of the 17th century has long been regarded as a phenomenon preceding the Enlightenment. However, studies of recent decades have shown that it has its own distinctive features, including style. It was the 17th century that for a long time determined the development of the main artistic systems of that time - classicism, baroque, renaissance realism. Enlighteners largely relied on the experience of their predecessors in the development of epic concepts (honor, reason, the ratio of honor and duty, etc.). The artistic systems of the 18th century (Enlightenment classicism, Enlightenment realism, sentimentalism) are considered in detail. Complex theoretical material is complemented by an analysis of the works of the most prominent representatives of a particular artistic system. This takes into account the well-known concepts of literary critics, presented in textbooks, textbooks on the history of literature and reference publications, which greatly facilitates the orientation of students within this course. The number of hours allocated by the curriculum for studying the course "History of Foreign Literature of the 17th-18th Centuries", unfortunately, is small, therefore, this manual provides a system of basic knowledge necessary for students. After each topic, students are offered a list of references, the study of which will allow them to summarize the knowledge gained in lectures, as well as during independent work on the subject.

4 Contents Lecture 1. General characteristics of the literary process of the 17th century. The work of Lope de Vega. Lecture 2. Spanish baroque literature of the 17th century. Lecture 3. German literature of the 17th century. Lecture 4. French classicism (Cornel, Racine, Molière). Lecture 5. The Age of Enlightenment. General characteristics of the English Enlightenment. Lecture 6. English Enlightenment. D. Swift. R. Burns. Lecture 7. German Enlightenment. Lessing's aesthetic program. Lecture 8. Goethe's work. Lecture 9. French Enlightenment. Voltaire. J.-J. Rousseau. Lecture 10. Creativity of Beaumarchais.

5 Lecture 1 General characteristics of the literary process of the XVII century. Creativity Lope de Vega Plan 1. Features of the development of the literary process of the XVII century. 2. Leading literary trends of the 17th century: a) classicism; b) baroque; c) Renaissance realism. 3. Creativity of Lope de Vega: a) a brief overview of the life and creative path of the playwright; b) the ideological and artistic originality of the drama "Fuente Ovehuna"; c) the ideological and artistic originality of the drama "The Star of Seville". 1. Peculiarities of the Development of the Literary Process of the 17th Century Literary epochs are difficult to fit into the strict framework of the calendar. Speaking of the literature of the 18th century, we have in mind, first of all, the Age of Enlightenment. Is there a similar ideological and aesthetic content in the concept of "foreign literature of the 17th century"? There is no consensus on this issue both in domestic science and abroad. Many literary scholars answer this question in the negative and put forward many arguments that sound very convincing. Anyone who turns to the study of this era is struck first of all by the variety of economic, social, political and cultural processes that took place at that time in different countries of Europe. In the economy of England and the Netherlands, bourgeois relations in the 17th century became predominant; in France, the capitalist order triumphed in industry, in trade and banking, but in agriculture the feudal system was still quite strong; in Spain, Italy, Germany, bourgeois relations were barely visible, taking the form of usury. Equally obvious are the contrasts in the correlation of social forces. At the beginning of the 17th century, the bourgeois revolution in the Netherlands ended, which merged with the national liberation struggle against Spanish rule and led to the emergence of the bourgeois state of Holland. There was a bourgeois revolution in England. However, in Italy, Spain and Germany, feudal forces are trying to consolidate their power.

6 No less variegated picture of the political life of Western Europe. In the 17th century, absolutism was the dominant form of state. It is no coincidence that the century under consideration is called the century of absolutism. However, the forms of the absolutist system were diverse in European countries. The 17th century is the era of continuous wars in Europe, ongoing colonial conquests in the New World, Asia and Africa. At the same time, the old colonial countries of Spain and Portugal are gradually pushed into the background by the young states of Holland and England. With such a diversity of economic, political and social relations in the countries of Europe, it would seem impossible to speak of any unity of Western European culture in the 17th century. And yet we will refer to the point of view of S.D. Artamonova, Z.T. Civil, who consider this era as an independent stage in the history of foreign literature, since through the variety of specific forms of historical and cultural development of individual countries, features of the typological community of social, political and cultural processes of this era are visible. So, the 17th century is an independent period in the transitional era from feudalism to capitalism, which lies between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. This is a period of history full of events, marked by an extremely intensified class struggle and characterized by a growing exploration of nature. Two groups enter the political arena: the Protestant Union (France, the Netherlands, England, Denmark, Sweden founded in 1607) and the Catholic League (Austria, Spain, the Vatican founded in 1609). The rivalry between these two political camps led to the 30 Years' War, the key event of the 17th century. The war began in 1618 and was characterized by a struggle between the early bourgeois order, established in the Netherlands as a result of the liberation movement, and a special reactionary form of the late feudal system. On the other hand, an armed conflict arose between feudal countries with different levels of development. The war ended with the conclusion of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the final recognition of the States General (Netherlands) and the English bourgeois revolution of 1649. This is how the first bourgeois nation-states arose and the rule of reactionary Spain was broken. Thus, we see that the main thing that characterizes the history of Europe in the 17th century is the transition, the crisis of the era. Age-old foundations are crumbling; the feudal order still retains its dominance, but in the depths of feudalism the most acute contradictions are revealed, which portend the collapse of the old system.

7 The beginning of this period was laid by the previous era. The Renaissance worldview is being replaced by a new one. Shifts in the field of science also contributed to its formation. In Europe, the first scientific communities and academies appear, the publication of scientific journals begins. The scholastic science of the Middle Ages gives way to the experimental method. Mathematics became the leading field of science in the 17th century. In these historical conditions, as well as under the influence of the Renaissance tradition that continued in part, concepts of comprehension of reality were developed, which were based on opposing views on the world and the purpose of man. These processes could not but be reflected in the sphere of literary creativity and in the development of the philosophical thought of the era. While the writers, on the one hand, advocated the liberation of the individual, on the other hand, they observed a gradual return to the old social order, which, instead of the previous personal submission, established a new form of human dependence on a material and ideological basis. This new gave rise to faith in fate. New in the concept of man, put forward by the literature of this period, was the understanding of responsibility for his actions and deeds, regardless of the political and religious relations with which he was shackled. The question of man's relation to God occupied a decisive place in the thinking of the seventeenth century. God represented the highest order, harmony, which was taken as a model for the chaotic earthly structure. Participation in God was supposed to help a person withstand life's trials. 2. Leading literary trends of the 17th century The aggravation of the political and ideological struggle was reflected in the formation and confrontation of the two artistic systems of baroque and classicism. Usually, characterizing these systems, focus on their differences. Their dissimilarity is indisputable, but there is no doubt that these two systems have typologically common features: 1) artistic systems arose as an awareness of the crisis of Renaissance ideals; 2) representatives of the Baroque and Classicism rejected the idea of harmony underlying the humanistic Renaissance concept: instead of harmony between man and society, the art of the 17th century reveals a complex interaction between the individual and the environment; instead of the harmony of reason and feeling, the idea of subordinating passions to reason is put forward.

8 A. Classicism Classicism of the 17th century became a kind of reflection of post-Renaissance humanism. The classicists are characterized by the desire to explore the personality in its connections with the world. Classicism as an artistic system combines an orientation towards antiquity with a deep penetration into the inner world of the characters. The struggle between feeling and duty is the main conflict of classicism. Through its prism, writers tried to resolve many of the contradictions of reality. Classicism from lat. classicus first-class, exemplary originated in Italy in the 16th century in university circles as a practice of imitation of antiquity. Humanist scholars tried to oppose the feudal world with the high optimistic art of the ancients. They sought to revive the ancient drama, tried to derive from the works of ancient masters the general rules on the basis of which the ancient Greek plays were supposedly built. In fact, ancient literature had no rules, but humanists did not understand that art from one era could not be “transplanted” into another. After all, any work arises not on the basis of certain rules, but on the basis of specific conditions of social development. In France of the 17th century, classicism not only develops rapidly, finds its methodological justification in philosophy, but also becomes, for the first time in history, an official literary movement. This was facilitated by the policy of the French court. French absolutism (a transitional form of the state, when the weakened aristocracy and the bourgeoisie, which has not yet gained strength, are equally interested in the unlimited power of the king) sought to restore order in all areas of life, to establish the principles of civil discipline. Classicism, with its strict system of rules, was convenient for absolutism. He allowed the royal power to interfere in the artistic sphere of public life, to control the creative process. It was for such control that the famous Académie de Reshelie was created in the 40s of the 17th century. The philosophy of René Descartes (), which argued that man, and not God, is the measure of all things, in many respects opposed the Catholic reaction of that time. Instead of asserting asceticism and obedience, Descartes proclaims "Cogito, ergo sum" "I think, therefore I am." The proclamation of human reason had an objectively anti-clerical character. This is what attracted the theorists of the aesthetics of classicism in the teachings of the French thinker. The philosophy of rationalism predetermined the nature of the classicists' ideas about the ideal and the positive hero. The classicists saw the goal of art in the knowledge of truth, which acted as the ideal of beauty. They put forward a method to achieve it, based on three central categories of their

9 aesthetics: reason, model, taste. All these categories were considered objective criteria of artistry. From the point of view of the classicists, great works are not the fruit of talent, not inspiration, not artistic fantasy, but stubbornly following the dictates of reason, studying the classical works of antiquity and knowing the rules of taste. The classicists believed that only that person who can subordinate his feelings and passions to reason is a worthy example. That is why a person who is able to sacrifice his feelings for the sake of reason has always been considered a positive hero of classic literature. So, in their opinion, is Sid, the character of the play of the same name by Corneille. Rationalist philosophy also predetermined the content of the artistic system of classicism, which is based on the artistic method as a system of principles through which the artistic development of reality in all its diversity takes place. The principle of hierarchy (i.e., subordination) of genres appears, asserting their inequality. This principle was in good agreement with the ideology of absolutism, which likened society to a pyramid, on top of which stands the king, as well as with the philosophy of rationalism, which required clarity, simplicity, and a systematic approach to any phenomenon. According to the principle of hierarchy, there are "high" and "low" genres. The "high" genres (tragedy, ode) were assigned a national theme, they could only tell about kings, generals, and the highest nobility. The language of these works had an upbeat, solemn character (“high calm”). In the "low" genres (comedy, fable, satire) it was possible to touch only on particular problems or abstract vices (stinginess, hypocrisy, vanity, etc.), acting as absolutized private features of the human character. Heroes in the "low" genres could be representatives of the lower classes of society. The removal of noble persons was allowed only in exceptional cases. In the language of such works, rudeness, ambiguous hints, puns (“low calm”) were allowed. The use of the words "high calm" here, as a rule, was of a parodic nature. In accordance with the principles of rationalism, the classicists put forward the demand for the purity of genres. Mixed genres, such as tragicomedy, are being squeezed out. This strikes at the ability of a particular genre to comprehensively reflect reality. From now on, only the entire system of genres is capable of expressing the diversity of life. In other words, in classicism the richness and complexity of reality is revealed not through the genre, but through the method.

10 By the middle of the 17th century, the opinion was firmly established that the most important literary genre was tragedy (in architecture a palace, in painting a ceremonial portrait). In this genre, the laws were the most stringent. The plot (historical or legendary, but plausible) should reproduce ancient times, the life of distant states. It should be guessed already from the name, like the idea from the first lines. The fame of the plot opposed the cult of intrigue. It was required to affirm the logic of life, in which regularity triumphed over chance. A special place in the theory of tragedy was occupied by the principle of three unities. It was formulated in the works of the Italian and French humanists of the 16th century (J. Trissino, J. Scaliger), who relied on Aristotle in their struggle with the medieval theater. But only the classicists of the 17th century (especially Boileau) elevated it to an indisputable law. The unity of the action required the reproduction of one integral and complete action that would unite all the characters. The unity of time was reduced to the requirement to put actions in one day. The unity of the place was expressed in the fact that the action of the whole play should unfold in one place. The main theoretical work, which outlined the principles we have considered, was the book by N. Boileau "Poetic Art" (1674). The most famous representatives of classicism: Jean Lafontaine (), Pierre Corneille (), Jean Racine (), Jean-Baptiste Moliere (). B. Baroque There are different explanations for the term "baroque". And each of them gives a lot to understand the style itself. It is believed that the name of this direction comes from the Portuguese perola barrocca, which means a precious pearl of irregular shape, shimmering and shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. According to the second version of the barocco, an intricate scholastic syllogism. Finally, the third version of barocco means falsehood and deceit. The fact that this irregularly shaped pearl immediately contrasts the baroque with the harmonious art of the Renaissance, close to the classical ideal. In rapprochement with a precious pearl, the baroque desire for luxury, sophistication, and decorativeness is noted. The mention of syllogism points to the connection of the Baroque with medieval scholasticism. Finally, the fact that the Baroque is interpreted as falsehood and deceit emphasizes the illusory moment, which is very strong in this art.

11 Baroque is based on disharmony and contrast. This is the contrast between unreasonable human nature and a sober mind. Baroque is also characterized by the contrast between the prosaic and the poetic, the ugly and the beautiful, the caricature and the lofty ideal. Baroque writers emphasized the dependence of man on objective conditions, on nature and society, the material environment and environment. Their view of a person is sober and mercilessly harsh. Rejecting the idealization of man, which was the basis of Renaissance literature, Baroque artists depict people as evil and selfish or prosaic and ordinary. Man himself is in their eyes the bearer of disharmony. In his psychology they look for contradictions and oddities. Thus, they shade the complexity of the inner world of a person and emphasize in it, as it were, mutually exclusive features. But not only man is disharmonic. One of the principles of baroque literature is also the principle of dynamics, movement. The movement is seen as based on internal contradictions and antagonism. In this internal disharmony, reflected in the literature of the Baroque, the fact that disharmony reigns in society itself, arising from the struggle of selfish interests, manifested itself. An important feature of the understanding of beauty, the idea of beauty in baroque art, is connected with this. Life is prosaic, man is by nature weak and vicious. Therefore, everything beautiful is outside the material natural principle. Only a spiritual impulse can be beautiful. The beautiful is fleeting, ideal and belongs not to the real, but to the other world, the world of fantasy. For the writers of the Renaissance, beauty was contained in nature itself, for example, in the natural poetry of the people. For baroque writers, beauty is the result of conscious skill, conscious mental activity. It is bizarre, peculiar, pretentious. In the 16th and 17th centuries, writers from different countries argued about what was higher: this immediacy of nature itself or art, craftsmanship. The sympathies of Baroque writers were on the side of craftsmanship. This also applies to the literary style, which they sought to make inaccessible, intricate, filled with complex metaphors and comparisons, hyperbole and rhetorical figures. Despite the fact that the Baroque is a complete style, from an ideological point of view it was not integral. It suffices to point out the fierce policy pursued by Gongora and Quevedo. Gongora represented the baroque in its aristocratic form. He contrasted reality with an illusory world, similar to a conditional scenery. The creation of this world was also served by the style of Gongora, replete with intricate hyperbole and bizarre images and

12 turns life into a fantasy. This style was called "culteranism" (from the word culto processed, dressed). In contrast to Gongora, his opponent Quevedo looked for contrasts and contradictions in the Spanish reality itself, bringing the vices of life to the point of caricature and grotesque. His style of "conceptism" (from the word concepto thought) is opposed to what Gongora represented. To complete the characterization of the Baroque, the following must be added. The largest writers of this era, Quevedo, Tirso de Molina, Calderon, were religious people. Many of their works are imbued with a religious idea and belong to religious art. Based on this, it is very easy to declare them reactionaries. However, the greatest of them (Calderon, Quevedo, Gracian, Tirso de Molina) came into contact in their work with folk ideas and the folk point of view. They gave a sober and sharp criticism of the emerging monetary world, painted an ordinary person and thereby contributed to the democratization of art. B. Renaissance realism Renaissance realism, which developed in parallel with classicism and the baroque, shed new light on the contradictions of the time, especially in the views on moral values, the highest of which was man. Representatives of Renaissance realism were in many ways opponents of classicism with its system of rules and norms and baroque, aspiring to the world of exotic and fantasy. They did not accept mannerisms, excessive sophistication of baroque works. The followers of humanism remained supporters of clarity, truthfulness in art, but were no longer in a hurry to assert the power of the human mind and the unlimited possibilities of the individual. Experiencing the same disappointment in humanistic ideals as contemporaries, the writers of Renaissance realism were not afraid to raise burning questions. A special place among them is occupied by the concept of virtue, including human dignity, pride, honor, which conflict with the class prejudices of feudalism. In addition, representatives of Renaissance realism turned to the description of the daily life of people. They continued to develop the tradition of urban literature. For the first time, representatives of Renaissance realism raised the question of the relationship between the moral character of a person and his estate, with the environment in which he was educated. At the same time, representatives of the people turned out to be higher and morally more often in their works, and Lope de Vega, for example, for the first time showed the peasants as a community of bright individuals, people capable of discussing lofty matters and, if necessary, upholding their human dignity to the end.

13 The reproach made by critics against humanist writers is the absence of sharp social criticism in their writings. But we should not forget that both in dramaturgy and in prose, questions of ethics are closely connected with political questions. Only now they are not put in the foreground. The earthly everyday life of a person does not require high pathos and sophistication in the expression of thoughts. At the same time, behind all the seeming simplicity of describing reality, writers are hiding serious reflections on the fate of their country and people. That is why the dramaturgy of Lope de Vega or the early dramaturgy of Tirso de Molina has not yet lost its civilian sound. And it is no coincidence that in various literary sources, the writers of Renaissance realism of the first half of the 17th century are often ranked among the authors of the late Renaissance, and their work is considered in the section of the history of Renaissance literature. We find such an approach in the works of A.L. Stein, V.S. Uzina, N.I. Balashova. 3. Creativity of Lope de Vega A. Overview of the life and creative path of the playwright At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, Lope de Vega (), relying on the traditions of the Spanish folk theater and the powerful realistic tradition of the Renaissance, created Spanish dramaturgy. Among the galaxy of outstanding playwrights, he holds the first place. The Spaniards adored their national genius. His name has become a symbol of all that is beautiful. Lope Felix de Vega Carpio was born on November 25, 1562 in Madrid. His father, a native of an Asturian peasant family, was a wealthy man who had his own gold embroidery establishment in Madrid. He gave his son a good education and even the nobility, having bought, according to the custom of those times, a patent for a noble title. Having received his initial education at a Jesuit college, the young man graduated from the university. Already from a young age, he was in the service of noble persons, performed early with acting troupes for which he wrote plays, was at one time a soldier, was married several times, had an endless number of love affairs, at the age of fifty became an employee of the Inquisition, then a monk and a priest , which did not prevent him from leading a secular lifestyle, without stopping his love affairs until his advanced years. Only very shortly before his death, under the influence of difficult personal experiences (the death of his son, the abduction of his daughter), Lope de Vega began to indulge in ascetic beliefs and show a penchant for mysticism. He died surrounded by universal honor. More than a hundred poets composed poems for his death. The versatile life of Lope de Vega is reflected in his literary work. The ease with which he wrote, richness and brilliance

14 of his works were admired by his contemporaries, who called him "a miracle of nature", "phoenix", "an ocean of poetry". At the age of five, Lope de Vega was already writing poetry, and at twelve he composed a comedy, which was staged. Subsequently, as he assured, he wrote the play more than once in one day. He tried all poetic and prose genres. According to Lope de Vega himself, he wrote 1800 comedies, to which 400 religious plays and a very large number of interludes must be added. However, Lope de Vega himself cared little about the safety of his dramatic works, which were considered the lowest kind of literature, as a result of which most of them were not published during his lifetime. The text of only 400 plays by Lope de Vega (almost entirely poetic) has come down to us, and another 250 are known only by title. The playwright noticed early on that plays written according to the strict rules of classicism do not find a proper response among the people. The magnificent phrases of the heroes are perceived coldly, passions seem excessive. Lope de Vega wanted to please the audience, he wrote for the common people. The founders of the classical theater demanded unity of impression, tragic for tragedy, funny for comedy. Lope de Vega refused this, stating that everything in life is not tragic or everything is funny, and for the sake of the truth of life he established for his theater "a mixture of the tragic with the funny", "a mixture of the sublime and the funny." Lope de Vega believed that to limit the playwright to a twenty-four-hour time limit, to demand from him the unity of place is absurd, but the unity of the plot is necessary, the unity of action is obligatory. The playwright develops a theory of stage intrigue. Intrigue is the nerve of the play. It binds the play together and powerfully holds the viewer captivated by the stage. From the very beginning, the intrigue should already firmly tie the knot of events and lead the viewer through a labyrinth of stage obstacles. Lope de Vega tried his hand at various genres. He wrote sonnets, epic poems, short stories, spiritual poems. However, Lope de Vega was par excellence a playwright. The range of plots of the works is wide: human history, the national history of Spain, especially heroic times, events from the life of contemporaries of various social strata of the country, vivid episodes from the life of all peoples. There are 3 periods in the work of the playwright: I period () at this time he actively summarizes the achievements of the national theater, asserts the right of the writer to free creativity. The best plays of this period are The Dance Teacher (1594), The Valencian Widow (1599), The New World Discovered by Christopher Columbus (1609).

15 In the second period (), the writer creates his own national historical dramas, using the plots of folk novels Fuente Ovehuna (1613), Illegitimate Son of Mudarra (1612). During this period, the most famous comedies appeared: “The Dog in the Manger” (1613), “The Fool” (1613). III period () writes the dramas "The Best Alcalde King" (), "The Star of Seville" (1623), the comedy "Girl with a Jug" (1623), "To Love Without Knowing Whom" (1622). Despite the complexity of classifying the writer's legacy by genre, three groups of works are usually distinguished: folk-heroic, national-historical and social dramas; household comedies, called "cloak and sword comedies"; autos spiritual activities. B. The ideological and artistic originality of the drama "Fuente Ovejuna" The drama "Fuente Ovejuna" is one of the pinnacles of Lope de Vega's work. It can also be attributed to the number of historical plays, since its action takes place at the end of the 15th century, during the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. The most remarkable thing about this play, imbued with truly revolutionary pathos, is that its hero is not any individual character, but the masses of the people. The town of Fuente Ovehuna, translated means "Sheep Spring", is located in Spain near the city of Cordoba. Here, in 1476, an uprising broke out against the arbitrariness of the commander of the Order of Calatrava, Fernand Gomez de Guzman. The commander was killed by the rebels. This historical fact was reproduced in his play by the playwright. The concept of "spiritual order" leads us to the deep antiquity of Spain. As early as the 12th century, spiritual and knightly orders, military and monastic organizations were created in the country to fight the Moors. At the head of the order was the Grand Master, who was subject to the advice of the order and the Pope. The power of the Grand Master was carried out by the commanders of the regional military governors. These orders soon captured vast territories, became economically stronger, and since they were directly subordinate to the Pope, and not to the king, they became a kind of stronghold of feudal anarchy in the country. The commander of the Order of Calatrava, Fernand Gomez, who is stationed with his detachment in the village of Fuente Ovehuna, commits violence against the inhabitants, insults the local alcalde and tries to dishonor his daughter Laurencia. The peasant Frondoso, who loves her, manages to protect the girl. But during the wedding of Frondoso and Laurencia, the commander appears with his henchmen, disperses those gathered, beats the alcalde, wants to hang Frondoso and kidnaps Laurencia in order to then take possession of her by force. The peasants cannot endure such dishonor: they are all men,

16 women, children without exception arm themselves and beat the rapists. During the court investigation appointed by the king in this case, when the peasants are being tortured, who exactly killed Fernand Gomez, all as one answer: "Fuente Ovejuna!" The king is forced to stop the court: he "forgives" the peasants and takes Fuente Ovejuna under his direct authority. Such is the power of popular solidarity. Commander Fernand Gomez, as the historical chronicle says, took possession of the town of Fuente Ovehuna arbitrarily, against the will of the king and the authorities of the city of Cordoba. The peasants who rebelled against him personified not only fighters against the oppressors of the people, but also fighters for the political unity of the country, which Lope de Vega emphasized in his play. This coincided with the political program of the Spanish authorities. Therefore, it was possible to glorify the rebellious peasants so boldly. The political problems of the play are interpreted by Lope de Vega in a historical perspective. The marriage of the Aragonese Infante Ferdinand with Isabella of Castile meant the annexation of the kingdom of Aragon of Castile, that is, the unification of all of Spain. At Lope de Vega, the peasants of Fuente Ovehuna are devoted to Ferdinand and Isabella, while the commander, along with his entire order, acts as a traitor, supporting the claims to the Castilian throne of another applicant, which would lead to the fragmentation of Spain. Thus, in the play by Lope de Vega, national unity, nationality and true nobility are internally linked. The central character of the play Laurencia. This is a simple peasant girl. Charming, proud, sharp-tongued, smart. She has a highly developed self-esteem, and she will not allow herself to be offended. Lawrencia is courted by village boys, but for now, she and her friend Pascuala have decided that the men are all rogues. Soldiers try to seduce Laurencia with gifts, inclining her to the favor of the commander, but the girl answers them with contempt: The hen is not so stupid, Yes, and harsh for him. (Translated by K. Balmont) However, the girl already knows that love exists in the world; She already has a certain philosophy in this regard. In one of the scenes of the play, a dispute about love begins between young peasant boys and girls. What is love? Does it even exist? The peasant Mengo, one of the most interesting characters in the play, denies love. Barrildo does not agree with him: If love did not exist, then the world could not exist either. (Translated by K. Balmont)

17 This judgment is taken up by others. Love, according to Laurencia, is “the desire for beauty” and its ultimate goal is “to taste pleasure.” Before us is the life-affirming philosophy of the Renaissance. The character of Laurencia is not immediately revealed to the viewer. We still do not know what powers of soul this peasant girl conceals in herself. Here is the scene by the river: Laurencia is rinsing clothes, the peasant boy Frondoso, languishing with love for her, tells her about his feelings. The carefree Laurencia laughs at him. It gives her joy to mock her lover, but she likes him, this honest, truthful young man. The commander appears. Seeing him, Frondoso hides, and the commander, believing that the girl is alone, rudely sticks to her. Laurencia is in great danger, and she has no choice but to call for help. She does not mention the name of Frondoso, who hid behind a bush, she calls out to the sky. Here is a test of Frondoso's courage: is his love strong, is he selfless enough? And the young man rushes to the rescue. He is threatened with death, but he saves the girl. Frondoso is forced into hiding. The commander's soldiers hunt him down to catch and execute him. But he is careless. He seeks to meet Laurencia, he loves her and once again tells her about his love. Now the girl cannot but love him, she is ready to marry him. So, the careless Laurencia, who considered all men to be deceivers and rogues, fell in love. Everything promises her happiness. The wedding is to take place soon. The parents of the young agree to unite them. Meanwhile, the commander and his soldiers are outrageous, overflowing the cup of patience of the people. Terrible things are happening in Fuente Ovehuna. But the poet cannot be gloomy, talking even about this. Moods of despondency and pessimism are alien to him, as well as to his peasant heroes. The spirit of cheerfulness and faith in the truth is invisibly present on the stage. Frondoso and Laurencia are married. Peasants sing salutary songs. The wedding procession is overtaken by the commander with his soldiers. The commander orders to seize both. And the festive crowd is scattered, young spouses are captured, unfortunate parents mourn their children. Frondoso is threatened with death. After long tortures, dirty harassment, Laurencia runs away from the commander. And how she has changed! She appeared at the national assembly, where women were not allowed: I do not need the right to vote, A woman has the right to moan (Translated by K. Balmont) But she did not come here to moan, but to express her contempt for miserable men who are unable to defend themselves. She refuses her father. She denounces cowardly peasants:

18 You are sheep, and the Sheep Key is just right for you to live in! .. You are savages, not Spaniards, Cowardly, hare offspring. Unhappy! You give your wives to strange men! Why do you carry swords? Hang from the side of the spindle! I swear to you, I will arrange so that the women themselves will wash their stained honor In the blood of treacherous tyrants, And they will leave you in the cold (Translated by K. Balmont) Laurencia's speech ignited the peasants, they rebelled. The fury of the rebels is merciless. The commander is killed. Cheerful and shy, quite an ordinary peasant woman at the beginning of the play, Laurencia in the course of action becomes the recognized leader of the rebels. And not only personal resentment and love for Frondoso guide her actions, but also the common interests of the village. The play ends with a happy ending. The peasants won. And it could not be otherwise, because life always wins. This is the main difference between Lope de Vega and baroque poets and playwrights. The essence of the question is not in the themes and plots, not in the events depicted, but in the attitude of the author to these topics, plots and events. B. Ideological and artistic originality of the drama "The Star of Seville" (1623) The play takes place in Seville, the center of Andalusia, in ancient times, when the country was ruled by the peasant king Sancho IV the Bold. The conflict develops between the king, who does not consider the human dignity of others, and the old Spain, which preserves traditions and lives according to the laws of high honor. Two concepts of honor determine the development of the conflict. Both are embodied in the central character Sancho Ortiz. The king liked Estrella, nicknamed by the people for its beauty the "Star of Seville". He wants to take possession of the beauty, but the girl's brother Busto Tabera gets in his way. Finding the king in his house, he rushes at him with a sword. The monarch decides to kill the enemy, but for this use the noble Sancho Ortiz, Estrella's fiancé. The king plays on Sancho's honesty. Before ordering the assassination of Busto Tabera, he takes Sancho out for a frank talk about

19 devotion and loyalty to the king and takes his word to fulfill all the orders of the master unquestioningly. Knowing full well the proud nature of Sancho, he hands the young man a paper justifying all subsequent actions, but Sancho tears it up. And only after the king was finally convinced of Sancho's readiness to avenge the insult to the monarch, he gives a written order with the name of the victim and immediately hurriedly leaves with a remark indicating complete indifference to the fate of his subordinates: Read after and find out Whom you have to kill. Though the name may confuse you, But don't back down (Translated by T. Shchepkina-Kupernik) Having learned that he must kill Busto Taber, his best friend and brother of Estrella, Sancho is faced with a choice: to fulfill the king's order or refuse. In both cases, he is a hostage of honor. For the first time, the playwright spoke about the lack of freedom of a person in an inhumane society and the meaninglessness of life. Sancho kills Busto Tabera and loses Estrella forever. The climax of the debate about honor will be the court scene, in which Sancho refuses to name the person who ordered the murder. Focusing on issues of honor and the traditions of old Spain, Lope de Vega at the same time emphasized that, brought up in the spirit of these traditions, Sancho Ortiz becomes their hostage, becoming an instrument in the hands of royal power. A characteristic feature of the play is that the author introduces into the stage narrative the historical flavor inherent in the era of Sancho IV the Bold, which gives the action an exciting poetry. Like many other works, the "Star of Seville" is also characterized by humor, a sly joke. Immediately after the pathetic explanation of the young lovers, he makes the servants, who turned out to be accidental witnesses of this event, parody their masters. Here, Lope de Vega follows his tradition, bringing "sublime and funny" to the stage narrative. List of recommended and used literature 1. Artamonov, S.D. History of foreign literature of the XVII-XVIII centuries / S.D. Artamonov. Moscow: Enlightenment, S. Artamonov, S.D. Foreign literature of the 17th–18th centuries: an anthology. Proc. allowance for students. ped. in-tov / S.D. Artamonov. M.: Enlightenment, S

20 3. Vipper, Yu.B., Samarin, R.M. A course of lectures on the history of foreign literatures of the 17th century / Yu.B. Vipper, R.M. Samarin; ed. S.S. Ignatov. M.: Universitetskoe, S Erofeeva, N.E. Foreign literature. XVII century: a textbook for ped students. universities / N.E. Erofeev. Moscow: Bustard, S Plavskin, Z.I. Lope de Vega / Z.I. Plavskin. M.; L., s. 6. Stein, A.L. History of Spanish Literature / A.L. Matte. 2nd ed. Moscow: Editorial URSS, S

21 Lecture 2 Spanish Baroque Literature of the 17th century Plan 1. Features of the development of Spanish Baroque literature. 2. Literary schools of the Spanish Baroque. 3. Luis de Gongora as a leading representative of the Spanish baroque lyrics. 4. Spanish baroque dramaturgy (Calderon). 5. Francisco de Quevedo and Spanish Baroque Prose. 1. Features of the development of Spanish Baroque literature XVII century in Spain, the era of the deepest economic decline, political crisis and ideological reaction. When a unified Spanish state arose at the end of the 15th century and the Reconquista was completed, nothing seemed to portend a quick catastrophe. Colonization first served as an impetus for the development of the economy, the emergence of early bourgeois relations in industry and trade. Very soon, however, the deep decline of the Spanish state, its economy and politics, was revealed. America's gold allowed the ruling classes and royal power of Spain to neglect the development of domestic industry and commerce. As a result, by the end of the 16th century, the industry withered away. Entire branches of production disappeared, trade was in the hands of foreigners. Agriculture has collapsed. The people were begging, and the nobility and the higher clergy were drowning in luxury. Social and national contradictions within the country sharply escalated. In 1640, a widespread separatist uprising began in Catalonia (the most industrialized region of what was then Spain), accompanied by numerous peasant uprisings and riots. Gradually, Spain began to lose its colonies. All this could not but leave an imprint on the Spanish literature of the 17th century. Distinctive features of Spanish literature of the 17th century: 1) during the first decades of the 17th century, Renaissance art maintained a strong position in Spain, although it already showed crisis features. Leading writers are becoming more and more clearly aware of the internal inconsistency of the ideals of the Renaissance, their inconsistency with gloomy reality;

22 2) the dominant art system in Spain throughout the century was the baroque. Its tendencies are inherent in the work of the 17th century artists Velazquez (“Venus in front of a mirror”), Murillo (“Jesus distributes bread to wanderers”), and others. The interaction of the Baroque and the Renaissance in Spain was more intense than in other countries of Western Europe. It is no coincidence that in the work of major figures in the literature of the Spanish Baroque Quevedo, Calderon and others, echoes of Renaissance ideals and problems are clearly traced; 3) Spanish baroque art was oriented towards the intellectual elite. In general, the art of the Spanish Baroque is distinguished by: severity and tragedy; highlighting the spiritual principle; the desire to escape from the clutches of life's prose. In the second half of the 17th century, it was characterized by an increase in mystical tendencies. 2. Literary schools of the Spanish Baroque In the literature of the Spanish Baroque (especially in the first half of the century) there was a struggle between its two main schools of cultism (cultarianism) and conceptism. Cultism (from Spanish cultos processed, cultivated) was designed to be perceived by select, finely educated people. Not accepting reality, opposing it to the perfect and beautiful world of art, the cultists used language primarily as a means of rejecting the ugly reality. They created a special "dark style", overloading the works with unusual and complex metaphors, neologisms (mostly of Latin origin), and complex syntactic constructions. The largest and most talented poet-cultist was Gongora (that is why cultism is also called Gongorism). Conceptism (from Spanish consepto thought), in contrast to cultism, claimed to express the complexity of human thought. The main task of conceptists is to reveal deep and unexpected connections between concepts and objects that are far apart from each other. Conceptists demanded the maximum semantic richness of the statement. The favorite tricks of conceptists are the use of polysemy of a word, a pun, the destruction of stable and familiar phrases. Their language is more democratic than the language of the cultists, but it is no less difficult to understand. It is no coincidence that the prominent Spanish philologist R. Menendez Pidal called the Conceptists' manner "difficult style". The most prominent conceptist writers were Quevedo, Guevara and Gracian (the latter is also a conceptist theorist).

23 However, both schools have more in common than differences. Both directions above all put a metaphor in which the "quick mind" matched unexpected and distant concepts, combined the incongruous. With extreme adherence to their dogmas, the schools enriched literature with new expressive means and influenced its subsequent development. Cultism was most vividly embodied in poetry, conceptism in prose. And this is no coincidence. The cultists expressed the subtlest shades of feeling: their poetry is emotionally oversaturated. Conceptists conveyed all the richness and flexibility of sharp thought: their prose is dry, rationalistic, witty. 3. Luis de Gongora as a leading representative of the Spanish Baroque lyrics Luis de Gongora y Argote () one of the most complex and talented poets of world literature, has long been considered "abstruse", "dark", inaccessible to the common reader. Interest in his work revived in the twentieth century through the efforts of such poets as R. Dario and F. Garcia Lorca. Gongora's works were not published during his lifetime. They were published posthumously in the collection Works in the Verses of the Spanish Homer (1627) and in the collection of his works, published in 1629. Romance, letrilla (popular forms of folk poetry), sonnet, lyrical poem - genres in which the poet immortalized his name. Gongora created a special "dark style" in poetry, which excluded the thoughtless reading of poetry and was for him a kind of means of rejecting the ugly reality. Of great importance for the formation of the poet's style was the medieval Arab-Andalusian lyrics (Gongora was born in Cordoba, the former capital of the Arab caliphate, which kept the traditions of a thousand-year culture). She reproduced reality in two planes, real and conditional. The constant replacement of a real plan with a metaphorical one is the most common device in Gongora's poetry. The themes of his poems are almost always simple, but their implementation is extremely difficult. His lines need to be unraveled, and this is his conscious creative setting. The author believed that the vagueness of expressions, the "dark style" induce a person to activity and co-creation, while the usual, obliterated words and expressions lull his consciousness. That is why he saturated his poetic speech with exotic neologisms and archaisms, using familiar words in an unusual context, and abandoned the traditional syntax. Gongora's poetry demonstrates the multiplicity of points of view on the subject (pluralism) and the ambiguity of the word, typical of the Baroque art system. In his poetic vocabulary there are peculiar

24 key words on which a whole system of metaphors is built: crystal, ruby, pearls, gold, snow, carnation. Each of them, depending on the context, acquires one or another additional meaning. So, the word "crystal" can mean not only water, a source, but also the body of a woman or her tears. "Gold" is hair gold, olive oil gold, honeycomb gold; “flying snow” a white bird, “spun snow” a white tablecloth, “fleeing snow” the snow-white face of a beloved. In the years still quite young, Gongora creates about 30 sonnets, which he writes based on Ariosto, Tasso and other Italian poets. Already these, often still student's poems, are characterized by originality of intention and careful polishing of the form. Most of them are devoted to the theme of the frailty of life, the fragility of beauty. The motif of the famous sonnet "While the fleece of your hair flows" goes back to Horace. It was developed by many poets, including Tasso. But even in the tragic Tasso, it does not sound as hopeless as in Gongora: beauty will not just fade or fade, but will turn into an all-powerful Nothing ... Hurry to taste the pleasure in the power Hidden in the skin, in the curl, in the mouth. Until the bouquet of your carnations and lilies Not only ingloriously did not wither, But the years did not turn you into ashes and earth, into ashes, smoke and dust. (Translated by S. Goncharenko) The disharmony of the world, in which happiness is fleeting in the face of the all-powerful Nothing, is emphasized by the harmoniously harmonious composition of the poem, thought out to the smallest detail. Gongora's poetic style was most fully expressed in his poems The Tale of Polyphemus and Galatea (1612) and Solitude (1614). The plot of Polyphemus and Galatea is borrowed from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Gongora was attracted by the plot with its fantastic character and whimsical images. Starting from the classical image, Gongora created a complete and perfect baroque poem, and more lyrical than narrative. She is internally musical. The researcher of the work of Gongora Belmas compared it with a symphony. The poem, written in octaves, is built on the antitheses of the beautiful, bright world of Galatea and her beloved Asis and the dark world of Polyphemus, as well as the ugly appearance of the Cyclops and that gentle, powerful feeling that completely filled him. In the center of the poem is the meeting of Asis and Galatea. We do not hear their speech, it is silent pantomime or ballet. The date looks like an idyll, imbued with the spirit of harmony and serenity. He is interrupted by the appearance of a monster enraged by jealousy. Lovers run but disaster

25 overtakes them. Angry, Polyphemus throws a rock on Asis and buries him under it. Asis turns into a stream. Gongora leads the reader to the thought: the world is disharmonious, happiness is unattainable in it, beauty dies in it, just as the beautiful Asis dies over the fragments of a rock. But the disharmony of life is balanced by the strict harmony of art. The poem is completed. And with all the internal disharmony, it has a balance of its constituent parts. The true pinnacle of Gongora's work is the poem "Loneliness" (only the "First Loneliness" and part of the "Second" of the planned 4 parts were written). The name itself is ambiguous and symbolic: the loneliness of fields, forests, deserts, human destiny. The wanderings of the lonely wanderer, the hero of the poem, are perceived as a symbol of human existence. There is practically no plot in the poem: a nameless young man, disappointed in everything, suffering from unrequited love, as a result of a shipwreck ends up on an uninhabited shore. The plot serves only as a pretext for revealing the subtlest associations of the consciousness of the hero contemplating nature. The poem is oversaturated with images, metaphors, most often based on the merging in one image of concepts that are far behind each other (the so-called "concetto"). The figurative compaction of the verse brought to the limit creates the effect of the "darkness" of the style. Thus, we see that Gongora's work required a thoughtful reader, educated, familiar with mythology, history, knowing historicisms and aphorisms. For a perfect reader, his poetry, of course, is more understandable, but for Gongora's contemporaries it seemed mysterious and unearthly. 4. Spanish Baroque Dramaturgy (Calderón) Baroque drama was formed in the context of the intensified ideological struggle of the theatre. The most fanatical supporters of the counter-reformation repeatedly put forward demands for the prohibition of secular theatrical performances. However, not only the humanistically inclined figures of the Spanish theater, but also moderate representatives of the ruling elite of society opposed these attempts, seeing in the theater a powerful means of asserting their ideals. Nevertheless, from the very beginning of the 17th century, the ruling classes increasingly resolutely attacked the democratic forces that had established themselves in the Spanish theater. This goal was met by a reduction in the number of theater troupes, the establishment of strict secular and church censorship over the repertoire and, in particular, the gradual restriction of the activities of public city theaters (the so-called "corrals") and the strengthening of the role of court theaters. The legislator of theatrical fashion, of course, is not a violent and rebellious mass of townspeople, as in "corrals",

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After studying this chapter, the student will:

know

about the existence of various principles of periodization of the cultural-historical process;
causes of the crisis of Renaissance humanism;
the content of the new concept of man, formed in the 17th century;
the basic principles of aesthetics and poetics of classicism and baroque;

be able to

highlight the leading feature in the content of the 17th century, which determines its specificity as a special cultural and historical era;
to characterize the changes in the attitude and outlook of a person of the 17th century;
identify elements of baroque and classic poetics in a work of art;

own

an idea of the main trends in the historical and cultural process of the 17th century;
the idea of the relativity of the confrontation between baroque and classicism;
the main provisions of the poetics and aesthetics of classicism.

Among modern historians and researchers of culture there are those who are distrustful of the existing principles of periodization of the history of human society. Some of them believe that "human nature at all times strives for constancy" and therefore the search for differences between successive generations is fundamentally meaningless. Others are sure that changes do not take place in accordance with some historical logic, but under the influence of individual bright personalities, therefore it would be more reasonable to call historical periods by the names of such figures (“The Age of Beethoven”, “The Age of Napoleon”, etc.) . However, these ideas have not yet had a noticeable impact on historical science, and most of the humanities are based on traditional periodization.

At the same time, the 17th century creates some difficulties in determining its specificity as an independent cultural and historical era. The complexity is already indicated by the very terminological designation - "Seventeenth century". Adjacent eras are called "Renaissance" and "Enlightenment", and already in the names themselves there is an indication of the content of these eras and the fundamental ideological guidelines. The term "Seventeenth century" marks only the position on the chronological axis. Repeated attempts were made to find other designations for this period (the era of the Counter-Reformation, the era of Absolutism, the Baroque era, etc.), but none of them took root, since they did not fully reflect the nature of the era. And yet, despite the inconsistency and heterogeneity of this historical period, many scholars point to transitivity as the main feature of the 17th century as a cultural and historical era.

In a broad historical perspective, any era is transitional from one historical stage to another, but the 17th century occupies a special position in this series: it acts as a link between the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. Many trends in various spheres of the life of European society, which originated in the depths of the Renaissance, received their logical conclusion and formalization only in the 18th century, so the “interim” century became a time of radical change. These changes primarily affected the economy: feudal relations were actively replaced by capitalist ones, which led to the strengthening of the position of the bourgeoisie, which began to claim a more influential role in Western European society. To a large extent, the struggle of the new class for a place in the sun caused social cataclysms in various countries - the bourgeois revolution in England, which ended in the execution of King Charles I, the attempted coup d'etat in France in the middle of the century, called the Fronde, the peasant uprisings that swept through Italy and Spain.

Since the strengthening of new economic relations in the countries of Western Europe took place at different rates, the balance of power in the international arena also underwent changes in the 17th century. Spain and Portugal lost their former economic power and political influence, England, Holland and France, where capitalism developed more dynamically, entered the forefront of European history. This new redistribution of Western Europe became the pretext for the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), one of the longest and bloodiest wars of modern times. In this military conflict, in which the Habsburg League, which united mainly Catholic countries (Spain, Austria, the Catholic principalities of Germany), was opposed by the Protestant princes of Germany, France, Sweden, Denmark, supported by England and Holland. According to historians, more than 7 million people out of a population of 20 million died from the Habsburg League alone. It is not surprising that contemporaries compared this event with the Last Judgment. Description of the horrors of the Thirty Years' War is often found in the works of German literature of this period. An extended and very gloomy picture of the disasters that befell Germany during the war years was presented by Hans Jakob Christoffel Grimmelshausen in his novel The Adventures of Simplicius Simplicissimus (1669).

The basis for the conflict between European states was not only economic and political contradictions, but also religious ones. In the 17th century the Catholic Church, in order to correct its shattered positions and regain its former influence, begins a new round of struggle against the Reformation. This movement is called Counter-reformations. The Church, well aware of the propagandistic possibilities of art, encourages the penetration of religious themes and motives into it. Baroque culture turned out to be more open to such introduction; it more often and more willingly turned to religious plots and images. It is natural that one of the countries where the Baroque experienced its heyday was Spain, the main stronghold of the Coitreformation in Europe.

17th century literature

Since the 17th century, it has been customary to count the New Time in the history of human civilization. Occupying a border position between the Renaissance (XIV-XVI centuries) and the Enlightenment (XVIII century), the XVII century took a lot from the Renaissance and left a lot behind.

The main literary trends of the 17th century were the Baroque and Classicism.

Baroque plays a significant role in the literature of the 17th century. Signs of a new style began to appear at the end of the 16th century, but it was the 17th century that became its heyday. Baroque is a response to social, political, economic instability, an ideological crisis, the psychological tension of the frontier era, this is the desire to creatively rethink the tragic outcome of the humanistic program of the Renaissance, this is the search for a way out of a state of spiritual crisis.

The tragically sublime content also determined the main features of the Baroque as an artistic method. Baroque works are characterized by theatricality, illusory nature (it is no coincidence that P. Calderon's drama is called "Life is a dream"), antinomy (the clash of personal principles and social duty), the contrast of the sensual and spiritual nature of man, the opposition of the fantastic and the real, the exotic and the ordinary, the tragic and the comic . Baroque is replete with complex metaphors, allegories, symbolism, it is distinguished by the expressiveness of the word, the exaltation of feelings, semantic ambiguity, the mixing of motifs of ancient mythology with Christian symbols. Baroque poets paid great attention to the graphic form of the verse, created "curly" poems, the lines of which formed a pattern of a heart, a star, etc.

Such a work could not only be read, but also regarded as a work of art. The writers proclaimed the originality of the work as its most important advantage, and the necessary features - the difficulty for perception and the possibility of various interpretations. The Spanish philosopher Gracian wrote: "The more difficult the truth is to know, the more pleasant it is to comprehend it." Artists of the word highly valued wit, paradoxical judgments: “In the name of life, do not rush to be born. / Hurrying to be born - hurry to die ”(Gongora).

The most famous Baroque writers were: in Spain Luis de Gongora (1561-1627), Pedro Calderon (1600-1681), in Italy Torquato Tasso (1544-1595), Giambattista Marino (1569-1625), in Germany Hans Jacob von Grimmelshausen ( ca. 1621-1676), in Belarus and Russia Simeon of Polotsk (1629-1680). Researchers note the influence of the Baroque style on the work of English writers W. Shakespeare and J. Milton.

The second literary trend, which became widespread in the 17th century, is classicism. His homeland was Italy (XVI century). Here, classicism arose along with the revived ancient theater and was originally conceived as a direct opposition to medieval drama. The humanists of the Renaissance decided speculatively, without taking into account the uniqueness of specific historical epochs and peoples, to revive the tragedy of Euripides and Seneca, the comedy of Plautus and Terentius. They were the first theorists of classicism. Thus, classicism initially acted as a theory and practice of imitation of ancient art: rationalistic rigor and logic of stage action, abstractness of the artistic image, pathos of speech, majestic postures and gestures, eleven-syllable unrhymed verse. These are the features of Trissino's (1478-1550) tragedy Sofonisba, written on the model of the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides and opening the era of European classicism.

Samples of classic art were created in the 17th century in France. This is where his theory crystallized.

The rationalistic doctrine of Descartes became the philosophical basis of the classic method. The philosopher believed that the only source of truth is reason. Taking this statement as a starting point, the classicists created a strict system of rules that would harmonize art with the requirements of reasonable necessity in the name of observing the artistic laws of antiquity. Rationalism became the dominant quality of classic art.

The orientation of the classic theory to antiquity was associated primarily with the idea of eternity and the absoluteness of the ideal of beauty. This doctrine confirmed the need for imitation: if at one time ideal examples of beauty are created, then the task of writers of subsequent eras is to get as close as possible to them. Hence the strict system of rules, the obligatory observance of which was considered a guarantee of the perfection of a work of art and an indicator of the writer's skill.

The classicists also established a clearly regulated hierarchy of literary genres: the exact boundaries of the genre and its features were determined. Tragedy, epic, ode were high. They depicted the sphere of public life, fateful events, acted heroes befitting a high genre - monarchs, military leaders, noble persons. A distinctive feature was a high style, lofty feelings, in tragedy - dramatic conflicts, disastrous passions, inhuman suffering. The task of high genres is to shock the viewer.

The low genres (comedy, satire, epigram, fable) reflected the sphere of private life, its way of life and customs. The heroes were ordinary people. Such works were written in simple colloquial language.

Classicist playwrights had to follow the rules of the "three unities": time (no more than one day), place (one scenery), action (no side storylines). Rules were set to create the illusion of certainty.

An important component of the classic theory is the concept of general types of human character. Hence the well-known abstractness of artistic images. They emphasized universal, "eternal" features (Misanthrope, Miser). Heroes were divided into positive and negative.

The stage character of the classicists is predominantly one-sided, static, without contradictions and development. This is a character-idea: it is as open as the idea embedded in it requires. The author's tendentiousness, therefore, manifests itself quite straightforwardly. Without the depiction of the individual, personal-individual in the human character, it was difficult for the classicists to avoid the schematic, conventional images. Their courageous hero is courageous in everything and to the end; a loving woman loves to the grave; a hypocrite is hypocritical to the grave, but a miser is stingy. A distinctive quality of classicism was the doctrine of the educational role of art. Punishing vice and rewarding virtue, classicist writers sought to improve the moral nature of man. The best works of classicism are filled with high civic pathos.

Literature of Spain

At the beginning of the 17th century, Spain was in a state of deep economic crisis. The defeat of the "Invincible Armada" (1588) off the coast of England, the unreasonable colonial policy, the weakness of Spanish absolutism, its political shortsightedness made Spain a minor European country. In Spanish culture, on the contrary, new trends were clearly identified, which had not only national, but also pan-European significance.

A powerful echo of the Renaissance culture is the work of a talented Spanish playwright Lope de Vega (1562-1635). A representative of Renaissance realism, he contrasted the tragedy of the Baroque with optimistic energy, a bright outlook, confidence in the inexhaustibility of vitality. The playwright also rejected the "scientific" normativity of the classic theory. The writer affirmed life-loving ideals, strove for rapprochement with the people's audience, and stood up for the free inspiration of the artist.

Lope de Vega's extensive and varied dramaturgical heritage - according to contemporaries, he wrote more than 2,000 plays, of which about 500 were published - is usually divided into three groups. The first of these are socio-political dramas, most often built on historical material (Fuente Ovejuna, The Grand Duke of Moscow).

The second group includes everyday comedies of a love nature (“Dance Teacher”, “Dog in the Manger”, “Girl with a Jug”, “Peasant Woman from Getafe”, “Star of Seville”); sometimes they are called “cloak and sword” comedies, since the main role in them belongs to the noble youth, who performs in this attire characteristic of them (in a raincoat and with a sword).

The third group includes plays of a religious nature.

To understand the peculiarities of the dramatic works of Lope de Vega, the treatise "The New Art of Composing Comedies in Our Day" (1609) is of great importance. In essence, it formulated the main provisions of the Spanish national dramaturgy with a focus on the traditions of the folk theater, with the desire to satisfy the needs of the audience, with the plausibility shown on the stage and the skillful construction of intrigue, the tightly tied knot of which would not allow the play to fall apart into separate episodes.

The works of art that followed the treatise became the realization of the writer's aesthetic principles. The best of these plays is the drama "Fuente Ovejuna" ("The Sheep Spring", 1614). The drama has a historical basis. In 1476, in the town of Fuente Ovejuna, a peasant uprising broke out against the atrocities of the knightly order of Calatavra and its commander, Fernand Gomez de Guzman, who committed atrocities and all kinds of violence. The uprising ended with the assassination of the commander. In Lope de Vega's drama, the Commander is a tyrant and rapist who encroaches on the honor of peasant girls, one of whom, the proud Laurencia, calls on fellow villagers for righteous revenge. There are many vivid images in the play, and yet the main character here is the people united in their desire to restore justice.

Lope de Vega's plays are distinguished by life-affirming pathos, sympathetic attitude towards ordinary people, faith in their moral stamina.

After the rapid rise experienced by Spain during the Renaissance, starting from the end of the 30s of the 17th century, signs of decline are becoming more and more distinct, due primarily to socio-political reasons. The cessation of the influx of gold from America, the complete breakdown of the internal economic life in the country, a series of foreign policy failures - all this finally undermined the economic and political power of Spain.

Socio-political troubles, the crisis of humanistic consciousness, the most severe feudal-Catholic reaction, the destruction of the feudal system as a whole caused decadent moods in society. An attempt to comprehend what is happening, to get out of a state of spiritual crisis, to find moral foundations in the new historical conditions was the baroque, most clearly represented in the work of Luis de Gongora (1561-1627) And Pedro Calderon (1600-1681).

Gongora was the greatest poet of the Spanish Baroque. Gongora's style is distinguished by metaphorical richness, the use of neologisms, archaisms. The poet abandons the traditional syntax. The vocabulary is full of ambiguous words: "The rubies of your lips in the snow of the frame" - about the whiteness of the face, "flying snow" - about a white bird, "fleeing snow" - about Galatea running from Polyphemus. Despite the figurative richness, Gongora creates "poetry for the mind", requiring active intellectual work from the reader. Gongora's poetic skill was most fully manifested in the poems The Tale of Polyphemus and Galatea (1612) and Loneliness (1614). The poem "Solitude" closely intertwines the Renaissance idea of the harmonious coexistence of man and nature with the Baroque concept of the eternal loneliness of man in the world.

The art of Calderon absorbed the best traditions of the Renaissance, but, being generated by a different era, it gives a completely different vision of the world. Calderon wrote 120 plays of various content, 80 "autos sacramentales" (or "sacred actions") and 20 interludes. With his artistic consciousness, Calderon is connected both with the Spanish Renaissance and with the crisis phenomena of his time.

Continuing the tradition of Lope de Vega's great predecessor, Calderon wrote "cape and sword" comedies. The most famous of them is the witty and cheerful comedy The Invisible Lady (1629), written in an easy and elegant language. It expresses the idea of the game of chance dominating life. Randomness here, as in other comedies, plays a plot-forming role.

However, it was not the Renaissance comedies and folk-realistic dramas that brought Calderon worldwide fame. Vitality and optimism did not become the tone of his work. The true Calderon is to be found in his "autos sacramentales" and philosophical and symbolic plays, full of eschatological moods, existential problems that overwhelm with their insolubility, contradictions that drain consciousness. Already in the youthful drama of Calderon's "Adoration of the Cross" (1620), the skeptical mood towards religion, characteristic of the humanists, is replaced by a gloomy religious frenzy. God Calderon is a formidable, merciless force, in the face of which a person feels insignificant and lost.

In the philosophical and allegorical drama Life is a Dream (1634), the glorification of the harsh Catholic doctrine is combined with the preaching of the need for humility and submission to divine providence. The main dramatic concept of Calderon is the idea that human destiny is predetermined by fate, that temporary earthly life is illusory, it is only a preparation for the eternal afterlife.

Time and environment determined not only the nature of the worldview, the general direction of Calderon's work, but also his originality as an artist. Calderon's dramaturgy is notable for its philosophical depth, the refinement of psychological conflicts, and the agitated lyricism of monologues. The plot in Calderon's plays plays a secondary role, all attention is paid to revealing the inner world of the characters. The development of action is replaced by a play of ideas. The style of Calderon is characterized by rhetorical pathos, high metaphorical images, which makes him related to Gongorism, one of the currents of the Spanish literary baroque.

The poetic audacity of Calderon was highly appreciated by A. S. Pushkin.

Literature of Italy

In the XVII century, Italy is experiencing a crisis of humanistic ideals.

In this situation, the Baroque comes to the fore, expressed most clearly in Marinism - a trend that got its name from the Italian poet Giambattista Marino (1569-1625). In the works of marine painters, followers of Marino, the form obscured the content with its verbal sophistication and narcissism. There are no socially important topics here, no topical problems of our time. The peculiarity of the letter is complex metaphors, bizarre images, unexpected comparisons. Marino was the inventor of the so-called "concetti" - virtuoso phrases, verbal paradox, unusually used epithets, unusual turns of speech ("learned ignoramus", "joyful pain").

The glory of Marino in Italy was ubiquitous. Nevertheless, the poet's contemporaries saw the danger of Marinism and opposed it with politically topical poetry expressing the needs and aspirations of the Italian people, telling about its suffering (Fulvio Testi, Vincenzo Filicaia, Alessandro Tassoni).

Alessandro Tassoni (1565-1635) He rejected both the Baroque poets (Marinists) and the defenders of imitation and authoritarianism in Italian poetry (the Classicists). As a patriotic poet, he actively interfered in the political life of the country, opposed the regional fragmentation of Italy, called for the struggle for its independence (the poem "The Stolen Bucket").

Italian prose of the 17th century is represented by names Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who used the polemical art of journalism in order to spread his scientific ideas (“Dialogue on the two main systems of the world”), Traiano Boccalini (1556-1613), protesting against the dominance of the Spaniards in Italy, against aristocratic snobbery, against the apologists of classicism, who recognize only the aesthetic canons of Aristotle (the satire "News from Parnassus").

Literature of France

The policy of the absolutist state, aimed at the elimination of feudal regionalism and the transformation of France into a powerful power in Western Europe, corresponded to the historically progressive trend of the era, which determined the character of classicism as a literary phenomenon that was advanced for its time. The leading artistic method, officially recognized by the government of absolutist France, was classicism. The classic literature reflected the rise of the national self-consciousness of the progressive strata of French society during the period of transition from feudal fragmentation to national unity.

Under Cardinal Richelieu (1624-1642), the creation of a powerful monarchical state, begun by the predecessor of Louis XIII, Henry IV, was basically completed. Richelieu regulated and subordinated to the throne all aspects of state, social, cultural life. In 1634 he created the French Academy. Richelieu patronized the periodical press that was emerging in France.

During his reign, Theophrastus Renaudeau founded the first French newspaper, the Gazett de France (1631). (The Théophrastus Renaudeau Prize is one of the highest literary awards in contemporary France.)

The historical progressiveness of classicism is manifested in its close connection with the advanced trends of the era, in particular, with rationalist philosophy. René Descartes (1596-1650), the so-called Cartesianism. Descartes boldly fought against the medieval feudal ideology, his philosophy was based on the data of the exact sciences. The criterion of truth for Descartes was reason. “I think, therefore I exist,” he said.

Rationalism became the philosophical basis of classicism. Contemporaries of Descartes, theorists of classicism François Malherbe (1555-1628) And Nicolas Boileau (1636-1711) believed in the power of reason. They believed that the elementary requirements of reason - the highest criterion of the objective value of a work of art - oblige art to truthfulness, clarity, consistency, clarity and compositional harmony of parts and the whole. They also demanded this in the name of observing the laws of ancient art, which they guided in the creation of the classic program.

The admiration of the writers of the 17th century for reason was also reflected in the notorious rules about the "three unities" (time, place and action) - one of the core principles of classic dramaturgy.

The didactic poem by N. Boileau "Poetic Art" (1674) became the code of French classicism.

It was noted above that the classicists, like the artists of the Renaissance, relied on ancient art in their aesthetics and artistic creativity. However, unlike the writers of the Renaissance, the theorists of classicism turned mainly not to ancient Greek, but to Roman literature of the period of the empire. The monarchy of Louis XIV, the "Sun King", as he called himself, was likened to the Roman Empire, the heroes of classic tragedies were endowed with Roman valor and grandeur. Hence the well-known conventionality of the literature of classicism, its pompous and decorative character.

And yet the French classicists were not insane imitators of ancient writers. Their work had a deeply national character, it was closely connected with the social conditions in France during the heyday of absolutism. The classicists, having managed to combine the experience of ancient literature with the traditions of their people, created their own original artistic style. Corneille, Racine and Molière created examples of classic art in a dramatic way.

The classical conception of art, for all its monumentality, cannot be imagined as something frozen and unchanging. Within the classicist camp there was no complete unity of socio-political, philosophical, and ethical views. Even Corneille and Racine - the creators of high classic tragedy - differed in many ways.

Unlike the orthodox Carthusians Boileau and Racine, Molière and La Fontaine were students of the materialist Gassendi (1592-1655), an outstanding French scientist who considered sensory experience the main source of all knowledge. His teaching was reflected both in the aesthetics of these writers and in the democratism, optimism and humanistic orientation of their work.

The main genre of classicism was tragedy, depicting lofty heroes and idealized passions. The creator of the French tragedy theater was Pierre Corneille (1608-1684). Corneille began his literary activity with poetry and comedies, which did not have much success.

Glory comes to Corneille with the appearance on the stage of the tragedy "Sid" (1636). The play is based on the tragic conflict between passion and duty, on which the tragedy is built.

The young and valiant knight Rodrigo, avenging the insult inflicted on his father, kills the father of his beloved Jimena in a duel. Jimena justifies the act of Rodrigo, who fulfilled the duty of family honor, and fulfills his own - he demands the death of his beloved from the king. Fulfilling their family duty, Rodrigo and Jimena become deeply unhappy. After the attack on Castile by the Moors, a brilliant victory over them, Rodrigo becomes a national hero. Corneille contrasts family duty with duty to the motherland. Feudal honor must give way to civic honor. They try to convince Jimena of the inconsistency of her demands: the interests of the family must be sacrificed in the name of social necessity. Jimena accepts the new morality, especially as it responds to her personal feelings. Corneille convincingly proved that the new state morality is more human than feudal morality. He showed the emergence of a new state ideal in the age of absolutism. The king of Castile, Don Fernando, is depicted in the play as an ideal autocrat, a guarantor of the general well-being and personal happiness of his subjects, if they conform their actions to the interests of the state.

Thus, in "Sid" the idea of progressiveness of the absolutist monarchy is affirmed, which, in specific historical conditions, met the requirements of the time.

Despite its audience success, "Sid" caused serious controversy in literary circles. In the "Opinion of the French Academy on the Side" (1638), Corneille's play was condemned for inconsistency with the canons of classicism. In a depressed state, Corneille leaves for his homeland. However, four years later, Corneille brought two new tragedies from Rouen, which are already quite consistent with the classic canons (Horace, Cinna). As a tragedian, Corneille preferred historical and political tragedy. The political problems of tragedies also determined the norm of behavior that Corneille wanted to teach the viewer: this is the idea of heroic consciousness, patriotism.

In the tragedy "Horace" (1640), the playwright used the plot from the story of Titus Livius. At the heart of the dramatic conflict is the single combat of two cities - Rome and Alba Longa, which should be resolved by the duel of the brothers Horatii and Curians, bound by ties of friendship and kinship. In the play, duty is understood unequivocally - it is a patriotic duty.

Unable to forgive her brother Horace for the death of her fiancé, Camilla curses Rome, which destroyed her happiness. Horace, considering his sister a traitor, kills her. The death of Camilla causes a new conflict: according to Roman law, the killer must be executed. Horace's father proves that righteous anger, civic duty, and patriotic feeling pushed him to kill his son. Horace, who saved Rome, is necessary for his homeland: he will accomplish many more feats. King Tull grants life to Horace. Civil valor atoned for the crime. The tragedy of "Horace" became the apotheosis of civic heroism.

The tragedy "Cinna, or the Mercy of Augustus" (1642) depicts the first days of the reign of Emperor Octavian-Augustus, who learns that a conspiracy is being prepared against him. The purpose of the tragedy is to show what tactics the sovereign will choose in relation to the conspirators. Corneille convinces that the interests of the state can coincide with the private aspirations of people if an intelligent and just monarch is in power.

The conspirators in the tragedy - Cinna, Maxim, Emilia - act on two motives. The first reason is political: they want to return Rome to a republican form of government, not realizing their political myopia. Supporters of political freedoms, they do not understand that the republic has become obsolete and Rome needs a firm government. The second motive is personal: Emilia wants to avenge her father, who was killed by Augustus; Cinna and Maxim, in love with Emilia, want to achieve a reciprocal feeling.

The emperor, having suppressed his ambition, revenge, cruelty, decides to forgive the conspirators. They are going through a process of rebirth. Mercy has triumphed over their selfish passions. They saw in Augustus a wise monarch and became his supporters.

The highest state wisdom, according to Corneille, is manifested in mercy. A wise public policy must combine the reasonable with the humane. An act of mercy, therefore, is a political act, performed not by the good man Octavian, but by the wise emperor Augustus.

During the period of the “first manner” (until approximately 1645), Corneille called for the cult of reasonable statehood, believed in the justice of French absolutism (“Martyr Polyeuct”, 1643; “Death of Pompey”, 1643; “Theodora - virgin and martyr”, 1645; comedy "Liar", 1645).

Corneille of the "second manner" overestimates many of the political principles of the French monarchy that seemed so strong ("Rodogunda - the Parthian princess", 1644; "Heraclius - Emperor of the East", 1646; "Nycomedes", 1651, etc.). Corneille continues to write historical and political tragedies, but the emphasis is shifting. This is due to changes in the political life of French society after the accession to the throne of Louis XIV, which meant the establishment of an unlimited domination of the absolutist regime. Now Corneille, the singer of reasonable statehood, was suffocating in the atmosphere of victorious absolutism. The idea of sacrificial public service, interpreted as the highest duty, was no longer a stimulus for the behavior of the heroes of Corneille's plays. The spring of dramatic action is the narrow personal interests, the ambitious ambitions of the characters. Love from a morally lofty feeling turns into a game of unbridled passions. The royal throne is losing moral and political stability. Not reason, but chance decides the fate of heroes and the state. The world becomes irrational and shaky.

The late tragedies of Corneille, close to the baroque tragicomedy genre, are evidence of a departure from strict classicist norms.

French classicism received its most complete and complete expression in the works of another great national poet of France. Jean Racine (1639-1690). A new stage in the development of classical tragedy is associated with his name. If Corneille developed mainly the genre of heroic historical and political tragedy, then Racine acted as the creator of a love-psychological tragedy, saturated at the same time with great political content.

One of the most important creative principles of Racine was the desire for simplicity and plausibility, as opposed to Corneille's attraction to the extraordinary and exceptional. Moreover, this desire was extended by Racine not only to the construction of the plot of the tragedy and the characters of its characters, but also to the language and style of the stage work.

Relying on the authority of Aristotle, Racine refused the main element of Corneille's theater - the "perfect hero". “Aristotle is not only very far from demanding perfect heroes from us, but, on the contrary, wants tragic characters, that is, those whose misfortunes create a catastrophe in tragedy, to be neither completely good nor completely evil.”

It was important for Racine to assert the right of the artist to depict the “average person” (not in the social, but in the psychological sense), to portray the weaknesses of a person. Heroes, according to Racine, should have average virtues, that is, a virtue capable of weakness.

Racine's first great tragedy was Andromache (1667). Turning to the Greek mythological theme, already developed in antiquity by Homer, Virgil and Euripides, Racine, however, interpreted the classical plot in a new way. Yielding to the influence of passions, the heroes of the tragedy - Pyrrhus, Hermione, Orestes - in their egoism turned out to be cruel people capable of crime.

By creating the image of Pyrrhus, Racine solves a political problem. Pyrrhus (monarch) should be responsible for the welfare of the state, but, succumbing to passion, he sacrifices the interests of the state to her.

Hermione also becomes a victim of passion, one of the most convincing images of the tragedy, the internal state of which is excellently psychologically motivated. Rejected by Pyrrhus, the proud and rebellious Hermione becomes selfish and despotic in her aspirations and actions.

Andromache was followed by Britannicus (1669) - Racine's first tragedy dedicated to the history of ancient Rome. As in Andromache, the monarch is portrayed here as a ruthless tyrant. Young Nero treacherously destroys his half-brother Britannicus, whose throne he illegally occupied and whom Junia, who liked him, loves. But Racine did not limit himself to condemning the despotism of Nero. He showed the strength of the Roman people as the supreme judge of history.

"The singer of women and kings in love" (Pushkin), Racine created a whole gallery of images of positive heroines, combining a sense of human dignity, moral stamina, the ability to self-sacrifice, the ability to heroically resist any violence and arbitrariness. Such are Andromache, Junia, Berenice ("Berenice", 1670), Monima ("Mithridates", 1673), Iphigenia ("Iphigenia in Aulis", 1674).

The pinnacle of Racine's poetic work in terms of the artistic power of depicting human passions, in terms of the perfection of the verse, is the Phaedra written in 1677, which Racine himself considered his best creation.

Queen Phaedra passionately loves her stepson Hippolytus, who is in love with the Athenian princess Arikia. Having received false news about the death of her husband Theseus, Phaedra confesses her feelings to Hippolytus, but he rejects her. Upon the return of Theseus, Phaedra, in a fit of despair, fear and jealousy, decides to slander Hippolytus. Then, tormented by the pangs of repentance and love, he takes poison; confessing everything to her husband, she dies.

The main innovation of Racine is connected with the character of Phaedra. In Racine, Phaedra is a suffering woman. Her tragic guilt is the inability to cope with the feeling, which Phaedra herself calls criminal. Racine comprehends and embodies in his tragedy not only the moral and psychological conflicts of his era, but also discovers the general patterns of human psychology.

The first Russian translator of Racine was Sumarokov, who received the nickname "Russian Racine". In the 19th century, A. S. Pushkin showed a thoughtful attitude towards Racine. He drew attention to the fact that the French playwright managed to put deep content into the gallantly refined form of his tragedies, and this allowed him to place Racine next to Shakespeare. In an unfinished article of 1830 on the development of dramatic art, which served as an introduction to the analysis of M. P. Pogodin’s drama “Martha Posadnitsa,” Pushkin wrote: “What develops in tragedy, what is its purpose? Man and people. The fate of man, the fate of the people. That is why Racine is great, despite the narrow form of his tragedy. That is why Shakespeare is great, despite the inequality, negligence, ugliness of the finish ”(Pushkin - critic. - M., 1950, p. 279).

If the best examples of classic tragedy were created by Corneille and Racine, then classic comedy was entirely the creation of Molière (1622-1673).

The writer's biography of Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin) begins with the five-act poetic comedy "Naughty, or Everything Out of Place" (1655) - a typical comedy of intrigue. In 1658, fame will come to Molière. His performances will enjoy great success, he will be patronized by the king himself, but envious people, dangerous opponents, from among those whom Moliere ridiculed in his comedies, pursued him until the end of his life.

Molière laughed, exposed, accused. The arrows of his satire did not spare either ordinary members of society or high-ranking nobles.

In the preface to the comedy "Tartuffe" Moliere wrote: "The theater has a great corrective power." "We deal vices a heavy blow by exposing them to public ridicule." "The duty of comedy is to correct people by amusing them." The playwright was well aware of the social significance of satire: "The best thing I can do is expose the vices of my age in funny images."

In the comedies "Tartuffe", "The Miser", "The Misanthrope", "Don Juan", "The Philistine in the Nobility" Moliere raises deep social and moral problems, offers laughter as the most effective medicine.

Moliere was the creator of the "comedy of character", where an important role was played not by external action (although the playwright skillfully built a comic intrigue), but by the moral and psychological state of the hero. The character in Moliere is endowed, in accordance with the law of classicism, with one dominant character trait. This allows the writer to give a generalized image of human vices - avarice, vanity, hypocrisy. No wonder some of the names of Moliere's characters, for example, Tartuffe, Harpagon, have become common nouns; a hypocrite and a hypocrite are called tartuffe, a miser is called a harpagon. Molière observed the rules of classicism in his plays, but he did not shy away from the folk tradition of the farcical theater, he wrote not only "high comedies", in which he raised serious social problems, but also cheerful "comedy-ballets". One of Moliere's famous comedies, "The Philistine in the Nobility", successfully combines the seriousness and relevance of the problem posed with the gaiety and grace of "comedy-ballet". Moliere draws in it a vivid satirical image of the wealthy bourgeois Jourdain, who bows to the nobility and dreams of joining the aristocratic environment.

The viewer laughs at the unfounded claims of an ignorant and rude person. Although Molière laughs at his hero, he does not despise him. The gullible and narrow-minded Jourdain is more attractive than the aristocrats who live on his money, but despise Jourdain.

An example of a "serious" classic comedy was the comedy "The Misanthrope", where the problem of humanism is solved in the disputes between Alceste and Philint. In the words of Alceste, full of despair, about the vices and injustice reigning in the human world, there is a sharp criticism of social relations. The revelations of Alceste reveal the social content of the comedy.

Moliere made a discovery in the field of comedy. Using the method of generalization, the playwright, through an individual image, expressed the essence of social vice, portrayed the typical social features of his time, the level and quality of his moral relations.

French classicism was most clearly manifested in dramaturgy, but it was also quite clearly expressed in prose.

Classical examples of the genre of aphorism were created in France by La Rochefoucauld, La Bruyère, Vauvenart, Chamfort. A brilliant master of aphorism was François de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1689). In the book "Reflections, or Moral Sayings and Maxims" (1665), the writer created a peculiar model of "man in general", outlined a universal psychology, a moral portrait of humanity. The painted picture was a gloomy sight. The writer does not believe in truth or goodness. Even humanity and nobility, according to the writer, are just a spectacular pose, a mask covering self-interest and vanity. By generalizing his observations, seeing a universal law in the historical phenomenon, La Rochefoucauld comes to the idea of the egoistic essence of human nature. Selfishness as a natural instinct, as a powerful mechanism on which a person's actions depend, underlies his moral motives. For a person, hatred of suffering and the desire for pleasure are natural, therefore morality is a refined egoism, a reasonably understood "interest" of one person. In order to curb natural self-love, a person resorts to the help of reason. Following Descartes, La Rochefoucauld calls for reasonable control over passions. This is the ideal organization of human behavior.

Jean La Bruyère (1645-1696) known as the author of the only book, Characters, or Morals of this Age (1688). In the last ninth edition of the book, La Bruyère described 1120 characters. Turning to the work of Theophrastus as a model, La Bruyère greatly complicated the manner of the ancient Greek: he not only discovers the causes of the vices and weaknesses of people. The writer establishes the dependence of human character on the social environment. La Bruyère derives typical, most general regularities from concrete and individual diversity. The "Characters" depicts the various strata of the Parisian and provincial society of the time of Louis XIV. Dividing the book into chapters "Court", "City", "Sovereign", "Nobles", etc., the author builds its composition in accordance with the internal classification of portraits (princes, misers, gossips, talkers, flatterers, courtiers, bankers, monks, bourgeois, etc.). La Bruyère, the last great classicist of the 17th century, combining various genres in his book (maxims, dialogue, portrait, short story, satire, moral morality), follows strict logic, subordinates his observations to a general idea, creates typical characters.

In 1678, the novel The Princess of Cleves appeared, written by Marie de Lafayette (1634-1693). The novel was distinguished by an in-depth interpretation of images and an accurate display of real circumstances. Lafayette tells the story of the love of the wife of the Prince of Cleves for the Duke of Nemours, emphasizing the struggle between passion and duty. Experiencing a love passion, the Princess of Cleves overcomes it with an effort of will. Having retired to a peaceful abode, she managed with the help of her mind to maintain peace and spiritual purity.

Literature of Germany

In the 17th century, Germany bears the tragic imprint of the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648). The Peace of Westphalia formalized its division into many small principalities. Fragmentation, the decline of trade, handicraft production led to the decline of culture.

The poet played a huge role in the revival of the German culture of modern times. Martin Opitz (1597-1639) and his theoretical treatise The Book of German Poetry.

Instilling the classicist canon in German literature, Opitz calls for studying the poetic experience of antiquity, formulates the main tasks of literature, and puts emphasis on the task of moral education. Opitz introduced the syllabic-tonic system of versification, tried to regulate literature, and established a hierarchy of genres. Before Opitz, German poets wrote primarily in Latin. Opitz sought to prove that poetic masterpieces could also be created in German.

Opitz became one of the first chroniclers of the Thirty Years' War. One of the best works is the poem "A Word of Consolation Amidst the Disasters of War" (1633). The poet calls on his compatriots to rise above the chaos of life, to find support in their own souls. The theme of the condemnation of war is heard in the poems "Zlatna" (1623) and "Praise to the God of War" (1628). Opitz's "learned classicism" did not receive wide development, and already in the work of his students Fleming and Logau, the influence of baroque poetics is clearly noticeable.

An outstanding poet of the German Baroque was Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664), capturing in piercingly mournful tones the worldview of the era of the Thirty Years' War.

The poetry of Gryphius is oversaturated with emotional, visual images, symbols, emblems. Favorite tricks of Gryphius are enumeration, deliberate heaping of images, contrasting comparison. “A cold dark forest, a cave, a skull, a bone - // Everything says that I am a guest in the world, // That I will not escape either weakness or decay.”

Gryphius is also the founder of the German drama, the creator of the German Baroque tragedy (“The Lion of the Armenian, or the Regicide” (1646), “The Murdered Majesty, or Charles Stewart, King of Great Britain” (1649), etc.).

A striking figure of the German Baroque was an original poet Johann Günther (1695-1723). Gunther develops the idea of Gryphius about the best feelings plundered by the war, about the homeland that has forgotten its sons (“To the Fatherland”). The poet opposes the dullness of life, wretchedness, German reality, its backwardness and inertness. Many of the motifs of his poetry would later be taken up and developed by representatives of the Sturm und Drang movement.

The largest representative in baroque prose is Hans Jacob Christoffel Grimmelshausen (1622-1676). His best work is the novel Simplicissimus (1669). The author describes the unusual journey of the hero, whose name - Simplicius Simplicissimus - translates as "the simplest of the simplest." A naive, disinterested young peasant, walking along the path of life, meets with representatives of various social strata of German society. The hero is faced with arbitrariness, cruelty reigning in the world, lack of honesty, justice, kindness.

In the palace of the ruler of Hanau, they want to make a jester out of Simplicius: they put on a calfskin, lead him on a rope, grimacing, mocking him. The naivety and sincerity of the hero is perceived by everyone as madness. Through allegory, Grimmelshausen wants to tell the reader about the most important thing: a terrible world in which the misfortune of a person serves as fun. The war hardened the people. Simplicissimus seeks kindness in human hearts, calls everyone to peace. However, the hero finds peace of mind on a deserted island, far from a vicious civilization.

Grimmelshausen was the first in German literature to show what a destructive effect war has on human souls. In his hero, the writer embodied the dream of a whole, natural person living according to the laws of folk morality. That is why even today the novel is perceived as a vivid anti-war work.

Literature of England

In the development of English literature of the 17th century, inextricably linked with political events, three periods are traditionally distinguished:

1. Pre-revolutionary period (1620-1630).

2. Period of revolution, civil war and republic (1640-1650).

3. Restoration period (1660-1680).

In the first period (20-30s of the 17th century) in English literature, there was a decline in dramaturgy and theater. The ideology of the triumphant absolutist reaction finds expression in the activities of the so-called "metaphysical school", which creates speculative literature abstracted from the problems of reality, as well as the "Caroline school", which included royalist poets. In the work of D. Donn, D. Webster,

T. Dekker motives of loneliness, fatal predestination, despair are heard.

This was the younger contemporary of Shakespeare Ben Jonson (1573-1637), author of the life-affirming and realistic comedies Volpone (1607), Episin, or the Silent Woman (1609), The Alchemist (1610), Bartholomew's Fair (1610).

In the 1640s and 1650s, journalism (tracts, pamphlets, sermons) was of great importance. Publicistic and artistic works of Puritan writers often had a religious coloring and at the same time were saturated with protest, the spirit of fierce class struggle. They reflected not only the aspirations of the Cromwell-led bourgeoisie, but the moods and expectations of the broad masses of the people, expressed in the ideology of the Levellers (“equalizers”), and especially the “true Levellers” or “diggers” (“diggers”), who relied on the rural poor.

The democratic opposition of the 1640s and 1650s brought forward the talented Leveller publicist John Lilburn (1618-1657). Lilburne's famous pamphlet "The New Chains of England" was directed against the order of Cromwell, who turned from a revolutionary commander into a lord protector with despotic manners. Democratic tendencies are distinct in the work of Gerald Winstanley (1609 - about 1652). His accusatory treatises and pamphlets (The Banner Raised by the True Levellers, 1649; Declaration of the Poor, Oppressed People of England, 1649) are directed against the bourgeoisie and the new nobility.

The most prominent representative of the revolutionary camp in English literature of the 40-50s of the 17th century was John Milton (1608-1674).

In the first period of his work (1630s), Milton wrote a number of lyric poems and two poems "Cheerful" and "Pensive", which outline the main contradictions of subsequent work: the coexistence of Puritanism and Renaissance humanism. In the 1640s and 1650s, Milton was actively involved in the political struggle. He almost does not turn to poetry (writes only 20 sonnets) and devotes himself entirely to journalism, eventually creating outstanding examples of journalistic prose of the 17th century. The third period of Milton's work (1660-1674) coincides with the era of the Restoration (1660-1680). Milton moves away from politics. The poet turns to artistic creativity and writes large-scale epic poems Paradise Lost (1667), Paradise Regained (1671) and the tragedy Samson the Wrestler (1671).

Written on biblical subjects, these works are imbued with a fiery revolutionary spirit. In Paradise Lost, Milton tells the story of Satan's rebellion against God. The work has many features of the contemporary Milton era. Even in the period of the most severe reaction, Milton remains faithful to his tyrannical, republican principles. The second storyline is connected with the story of the fall of Adam and Eve - this is an understanding of the difficult path of mankind to moral rebirth.

In Paradise Regained, Milton continues his reflection on the revolution. The glorification of the spiritual fortitude of Christ, who rejects all the temptations of Satan, served as an edification to the recent revolutionaries, who were afraid of the reaction and hastily went over to the side of the royalists.

The last work of Milton - the tragedy "Samson the Wrestler" - is also allegorically connected with the events of the English Revolution. In it, harassed by political enemies, Milton calls for revenge and for the continuation of the struggle of people for a worthy existence.

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