2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
Just like a historian, a writer can recreate the appearance and events of the past, although their artistic reproduction, of course, differs from the scientific one. The author, relying on these stories, also includes creative fiction in his works - he depicts what could have been, and not just what was in reality.
The best works representing the historical genre have not only aesthetic value, but also historical and educational value. Fiction can depict a bygone era in its entirety, reveal ideology, social activity, the psyche, and life in living images. Historical and everyday genres are closely related, since everyday life is part of history. Consider the history of the formation of historical genres in literature.
Historical adventures
Not every work that describes the events of the past seeks to recreate them as they really were. Sometimes this is just material for colorful paintings, a sharp plot, a special color - exotic, sublime, etc. This characterizes historical adventures (for example, worksA. Dumas "Ascanio", "Erminia", "Black", "The Count of Monte Cristo", "Corsican Brothers" and others). Their main task is to create an entertaining story.
The emergence of the historical genre
Fiction historical literature began to take shape at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. At this time, a historical novel is being created - a special genre that sets itself the goal of directly depicting the life of past eras. It (like the historical drama that appeared later) is fundamentally different from the works dedicated to the events of previous eras. Fiction historical literature begins to take shape in connection with a significant turning point in historical knowledge, that is, the process of its formation as a science. It is because of this that these types of genres appear.
First writers in new genres
The first writer who began to create works of interest to us is W. Scott. Prior to this, I. Goethe and F. Schiller, the great German writers, made their contribution to the formation of literature. In the work of the first, the historical drama is represented by the works "Egmont" (1788) and "Getz von Berlichingen" (1773). The second created "Wallenstein" (1798-1799), "William Tell" in 1804, and "Mary Stuart" in 1801. However, it was the work of W alter Scott, who is considered the founder of the historical novel genre, that was the real frontier.
He owns a whole series of works depictingthe period of the crusades ("Richard the Lionheart", "Ivanhoe", "Robert, Count of Paris"), as well as the time of the formation of national monarchies in Europe ("Quentin Dorward"), the bourgeois revolution in England ("Woodstock", "Puritans"), the collapse of the clan system in Scotland ("Rob Roy", "Waverley") and others. figures of the past traits). The work of this writer influenced the further development that various types of genres underwent.
Many classical writers turn to historical themes. These include V. Hugo, who wrote various books. Historical novels created by this author are Cromwell, Year 93, Notre Dame Cathedral and others.
A. de Vigny ("Saint-Mar"), Manzoni, who created The Betrothed in 1827, as well as F. Cooper, M. Zagoskin, I. Lazhechnikov and others were interested in this topic.
Features of works created by romantics
The historical genre, represented by the works of romantics, does not always have historical value. Both the subjective interpretation of events and the replacement of actual social conflicts by the struggle between good and evil interfere with this. Most often, the main characters of novels are only the embodiment ofthe ideal of the writer (for example, Esmeralda in the work of Hugo), and not specific historical types. The political beliefs of the creator also affect in many ways. So, A. de Vigny, who sympathized with the aristocracy, made a representative of the so-called feudal opposition into the program hero of his work.
Realistic direction
But you should not evaluate the merits of these works by the degree of historical accuracy. For example, Hugo's novels have tremendous emotional power. However, an important stage in the further development of the historical genre in the literature of the 19th century was associated with the victory of realistic principles in it. Realistic works began to depict social characters, the role of the people in the historical process, the penetration into the difficult process of struggle of the various forces participating in it. These aesthetic moments were largely prepared by the school of W alter Scott (Mérimée's Jacquerie, Balzac's Chouans). The historical genre in a realistic interpretation in Russia won in the works of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin ("Arap of Peter the Great", "Boris Godunov", "The Captain's Daughter").
Deepening psychological analysis
In the 19th century, in the 30s and 40s, the deepening in the works of psychological analysis became new (for example, the image of Waterloo in Stendhal's "Parma Monastery"). The pinnacle of the historical genre in the 19th century is the epic "War and Peace" by L. N. Tolstoy. In this work, historicism is manifested in the creation of varioushistorical types, large-scale awareness of the course of history, as well as in the accurate transfer of everyday, social, linguistic, psychological and ideological features of the depicted time.
Historical genre in the middle of the 19th century
In the middle of the 19th century, after numerous achievements of the realistic school, the most prominent of which raised questions of the fate of the nation and people's life on historical material, there is a regression in the further development of artistic historical literature. This is mainly due to the general tendency of bourgeois ideology to increase reaction in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as to the ever stronger departure from the historicism of social thought. The authors of various historical novels modernize history. For example, A. France, in his 1912 work "The Gods Are Thirsty", dedicated to the period of the French Revolution, holds the idea that humanity in its development is marking time.
The so-called symbolic literature, which sometimes claims to have a deep understanding of the historical process, but in fact creates only subjectivist constructions of a mystical nature, is becoming widespread. Examples include the following: the work "The Veil of Beatrice" created in 1901 by A. Schnitzler, in 1908, Merezhkovsky - "Paul I" and "Alexander I".
Historical genre in the East
In some countries of Eastern Europe, on the contrary, at this time the historical genre acquires great public significance and significance. This is due to the fact that during this period the liberation struggle began in these states. Sometimes historical literature acquires a romantic character. For example, in the works of G. Sienkiewicz, a Polish novelist: "The Flood", "With Fire and Sword", "Kamo Coming", "Pan Volodyevsky", "The Crusaders".
In many countries of the East, the national liberation movement was the basis for the formation of the historical novel. In India, for example, its creator is B. Ch. Chottopadhyay.
Development of the genre after the October Revolution
In Western Europe, after the October Revolution, a new round of development of the historical realistic novel begins. It allowed the realists of the West to write a number of works that are outstanding examples of artistic historical literature. At the same time, the appeal to the past was associated with the need to protect traditions and cultural heritage, with humanist writers speaking out against the fascists. For example, this is T. Mann's story "Lotta in Weimar", written in 1939, and numerous novels by Feuchtwanger. These works, distinguished by a democratic, humanistic orientation, closely related to modernity, are characterized at the same time by the author's painstaking work on various historical sources. But even in them there is sometimes an imprint of concepts characteristic of historical bourgeois science. For example, Feuchtwanger sometimes has an idea of the progress of history as a struggle between inertia and reason, which is underestimated in him.also the role of the people, sometimes subjectivism is manifested.
Socialist realism
A new stage is connected with socialist realism, which enters the historical genre in literature. His philosophy asserted that historical existence is the collective creativity of the people, therefore literature at that time had all the conditions for development, based on the principles of historicism. Along the way, she achieved outstanding results. The most important topics were the image of significant, critical eras. Characteristic of the historical literature of that time was the desire for great generalizations, epicness. An example is the novel "Peter I" by A. N. Tolstoy, depicting the image of this ruler, but at the same time telling about the fate of the people of our country in a critical period of development.
The most important themes of Soviet literature were the struggle against the monarchy, the fate of advanced culture in Tsarist Russia, as well as the period of preparation for the revolution and the description of it itself. To a large extent, the work “The Life of Klim Samgin” created by M. Gorky, M. A. Sholokhov - “Quiet Flows the Don”, A. N. Tolstoy - "Going through the throes" and others.
Today, the historical detective story is becoming very popular - a genre represented in the works of Boris Akunin, Umberto Eco, Agatha Christie, Alexander Bushkov and other authors.
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