Expressionism in literature: definition, main features, expressionist writers

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

An extraordinary avant-garde trend, expressionism, originates in the mid-90s of the 19th century. The ancestor of the term is considered the founder of the magazine "Sturm" - H. Walden.

Researchers of expressionism believe that it is most clearly expressed in literature. Although no less colorful expressionism manifested itself in sculpture, graphics and painting.

New style and new world order

With the changes in the social and social order of the early 20th century, a new direction emerged in art, theatrical life and music. Not long in coming and expressionism in literature. The definition of this direction did not work out. But literary scholars explain expressionism as a large array of multidirectional courses and trends, developing within the framework of the modernist direction of the countries of Europe at the beginning of the last century.

Speaking of expressionism, they almost always mean the German trend. The highest point of this current is called the fruits of creativity of the "Prague school" (German-speaking). It included K. Chapek, P. Adler, L. Perutz, F. Kafka and others. With a great difference in the creative attitudes of these authors, they were connected by an interest in a situation of idiotically absurd claustrophobia, mystical, mysterious hallucinogenic dreams. In Russia, this direction was developed by Andreev L. and Zamyatin E.

Many writers were inspired by romanticism or baroque. But a particularly deep influence of German symbolism and French (especially C. Baudelaire and A. Rimbaud) was felt by expressionism in literature. Examples from the works of any author-follower show that attention to the realities of life occurs through the beginnings of philosophical being. A well-known slogan of expressionist adherents is “Not a falling stone, but the law of gravity.”

The prophetic pathos inherent in Georg Geim has become a recognizable typical feature of the beginning of expressionism as a trend. His readers in the poems "A great death is coming …" and "War" discerned a prophetic prediction of an impending catastrophe in Europe.

The Austrian exponent of expressionism Georg Trakl with a very small poetic heritage had a huge impact on all German-language poetry. In Trakl's poems there were symbolically complicated images, tragedy in connection with the collapse of the world order and deep emotional richness.

The dawn of expressionism came in 1914-1924. These were Franz Werfel, Albert Ehrenstein, Gottfried Benn and other authors who were convinced by the colossal losses on the fronts of firm pacifist convictions. This trend is especially clearly revealed in the works of Kurt Hiller. Poetic expressionism in literature, main featureswhich was quickly captured by dramaturgy and prose, resulted in the famous anthology "The Twilight of Humanity", which was released to the reader in 1919.

New Philosophy

The main philosophical and aesthetic idea of the followers of the expressionists was borrowed from the "Ideal Essences" - E. Husserl's theory of knowledge, and on the recognition of intuition as the "navel of the earth" by A. Bergson in his system of "life" breakthrough. It is believed that this system is able to overcome the rigidity of philosophical matter in an unstoppable stream of evolution.

That is why expressionism in literature manifests itself as the perception of non-fictional reality as "objective appearance".

The expression "Objective visibility" came from the classical works of German philosophy and meant the perception of reality with cartographic accuracy. Therefore, in order to find oneself in the world of "ideal entities", one must again oppose the spiritual to the material.

This idea is very similar to the ideological thought of the symbolists, while expressionism in literature focuses on Bergson's intuitionism, and therefore seeks the meaning of being in life and the irrational. A breakthrough in life and a deep intuition at the level of intuition are declared to be the most important weapons in approaching the spiritual cosmic reality. At the same time, the expressionists argued that the material world (that is, the outside world) disappears in personal ecstasy and the solution of the centuries-old “mystery” of being becomes insanely close.

Expressionism in the literature of the 20th century is clearly different from the currents of surrealism or cubism, which developed a littlewhether not in parallel. Pathetics, moreover, socio-critical, makes it advantageous to distinguish between the works of the expressionists. They are full of protests against the stratification of society into social strata and wars, against the persecution of the human personality by public and social institutions. Sometimes expressionist authors effectively portrayed the image of a revolutionary hero, thereby showing rebellious moods, expressing mystically creepy horror before the insurmountable confusion of being.

The crisis of the world order as being in the works of expressionists expressed itself as the main link of the apocalypse, which, moving at great speed, promises to engulf both humanity and nature.

Ideological inception

Expressionism in literature highlights the demand for prophecy of a universal nature. This is what requires the isolation of style: it is necessary to teach, call and declare. Only in this way, having got rid of pragmatic morality and stereotypes, adherents of expressionism tried to release a rampage of fantasy in every person, deepen sensitivity and increase attraction to everything secret.

Maybe that's why expressionism began with the union of a group of artists.

Cultural historians believe that the year of the birth of expressionism is 1905. It was this year in German Dresden that there was an association of like-minded people who called themselves the “Most” group. Architecture students came together under her leadership: Otto Müller, Erich Heckel, Ernst Kirchner, Emil Nolde, and others. And by the beginning of 1911, the legendary Blue Rider group announced itself. It included influentialartists of the early 20th century: Franz Marc, August Macke, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky and others.

Representatives of expressionism in literature have closed on the basis of the magazine "Action" ("Action"). The first issue was published in Berlin at the beginning of 1911. It was attended by poets and as yet unknown playwrights, but already bright rebels of this direction: Toller E., Frank L., Becher I. and others.

Features of expressionism most colorfully manifested in German literature, Austrian and Russian. The French Expressionists are represented by the poet Pierre Garnier.

Expressionist Poet

The poet of this direction got the function of "Orpheus". That is, he must be a magician who, struggling with the disobedience of bone matter, comes to the inner true essence of what is happening. The main thing for the poet is the essence that appeared initially, and not the real phenomenon itself.

The poet is the highest caste, the highest class. He should not participate in "the affairs of the crowd." Yes, and pragmatism, and unscrupulousness should be completely absent in it. That is why, as the founders of expressionism believed, it is easy for the poet to achieve the universal addictive vibration of “ideal essences.”

Exclusively the cult of the deified act of creativity, adherents of expressionism call the only sure way to modify the world of matter in order to subdue it.

It follows that the truthstands above beauty. The secret, intimate knowledge of the expressionists is clothed in figures with explosive expansiveness, which is created by the mind, as if in a state of intoxication or hallucinations.

Creative Ecstasy

To create for an adherent of this direction is to create masterpieces in a state of intense subjectivity, which is based on a state of ecstasy, improvisation and the poet's changeable mood.

Expressionism in literature is not observation, it is a tireless and restless imagination, it is not the contemplation of an object, but an ecstatic state of seeing images.

The German expressionist, his theorist and one of the leaders Casimir Edschmid believed that a real poet depicts, not reflects reality. Therefore, as a consequence, literary works in the style of expressionism are the result of a heartfelt impulse and an object for the aesthetic delight of the soul. Expressionists do not burden themselves with concern for the sophistication of the expressed form.

The ideological value of the expressionist language of artistic expression is distortion, and often the grotesque, which appears as a result of wild hyperbolism and constant battle with resisting matter. Such a distortion not only deforms the external features of the world. It gives outrageousness and amazes with the grotesqueness of the created images.

And here it becomes clear that the main goal of expressionism is the reconstruction of the human community and the achievement of unity with the Universe.

The "Expressionist Decade" in German Literature

In Germany, as in the rest of Europe,Expressionism manifested itself after violent upheavals in the public and social sphere that alarmed the country in the first decade of the last century. In German culture and literature, expressionism was the brightest phenomenon from the 10th to the 20th year of the twentieth century.

Expressionism in German literature was the intelligentsia's response to the problems that exposed the First World War, the November movement of revolutionaries in Germany and the overthrow of the tsarist regime in Russia in October. The old world was destroyed, and a new one appeared on its ruins. The writers, in whose eyes this transformation took place, acutely felt the failure of the existing order and at the same time the squalor of the new and the impossibility of any progress in the new society.

German expressionism was bright, rebellious, anti-bourgeois. But at the same time, revealing the imperfection of the capitalist system, the expressionists revealed the proposed replacement, completely fuzzy, abstract and ridiculous socio-political program that could revive the spirit of humanity.

Not fully understanding the ideology of the proletariat, expressionists believed in the coming end of the world order. The death of mankind and the coming catastrophe are the central themes of the expressionist works of the period of the beginning of the First World War. This is especially clearly seen in the lyrics of G. Trakl, G. Geim and F. Werfel. J. Van Goddis responded to the events taking place in the country and the world with the verse "The End of the World." And even satirical works show all the drama of the situation (K. Kraus "The Last Days of Mankind").

The aesthetic ideals of expressionism gathered under their wing authors very different in artistic style, tastes and political principles: from F. Wolf and I. Becher, who adopted the ideology of the revolutionary restructuring of society, to G. Jost, who later became a poet at court Third Reich.

Franz Kafka is synonymous with expressionism

Franz Kafka is rightly called a synonym for expressionism. His conviction that a person lives in a world that is absolutely hostile to him, that the human essence cannot overcome the institutions that oppose it, and, therefore, there is no way to achieve happiness, is the main idea of expressionism in the literary environment.

The writer believes that a person has no reason for optimism and, perhaps, therefore, there is no life prospect. However, in his works, Kafka sought to find something permanent: "light" or "indestructible".

The author of the famous "Trial" was called the poet of chaos. The world around him was frighteningly scary. Franz Kafka was afraid of the forces of nature, which mankind already possessed. His confusion and fear is easy to understand: people, having subjugated nature, could not figure out the relationship between themselves. In addition, they fought, killed each other, destroyed villages and countries, and did not allow each other to be happy.

From the era of myths of the origin of the world, the author of the myths of the twentieth century is separated by almost 35 centuries of civilization. Kafka's myths are filled with horror, despair and hopelessness. The fate of a person no longer belongs to the personality itself, but to some otherworldly force, and it easilyseparates from the person himself.

A person, the writer believes, is a social creation (it cannot be otherwise), but it is the structure of being formed by the public that completely distorts the human essence.

Expressionism in the literature of the 20th century, represented by Kafka, realizes and recognizes the insecurity and frailty of a person from the socio-social institutions formed by him and no longer controlled. The proof is obvious: a person suddenly falls under investigation (having no right to protection!), Or suddenly “strange” people start to take an interest in him, led by obscure, and therefore dark, ignorant forces. A person under the influence of social institutions quite easily feels his lack of rights, and then the rest of his existence makes fruitless attempts to be allowed to live and be in this unjust world.

Kafka surprised with his gift of insight. This is especially clearly expressed in the work (published posthumously) "Process". In it, the author foresees new madness of the twentieth century, monstrous in their destructive power. One of them is the problem of bureaucracy, which is gaining strength like a thundercloud covering the entire sky, while the individual becomes a defenseless invisible insect. Reality, configured aggressively-hostilely, completely destroys the personality in a person, and, consequently, the world is doomed.

The spirit of expressionism in Russia

The direction in the culture of Europe, which developed in the first quarter of the twentieth century, could not but affect the literature of Russia. The authors, who worked from 1850 to the end of the 1920s, sharply responded to the bourgeoisthe injustice and social crisis of this era, which arose as a result of the First World War and subsequent reactionary upheavals.

What is expressionism in literature? In short, it is rebellion. Outrage was raised against the dehumanization of society. It, along with a new statement about the existential value of the human spirit, was close in spirit, traditions and customs to native Russian literature. Her role as a messiah in society was expressed through the immortal works of N. V. Gogol and F. M. Dostoevsky, through the stunning canvases of M. A. Vrubel and N. N. Ge, through V. F. Komissarzhevskaya and A. N. Scriabin.

Very clearly seen in the near future is a great possibility of the emergence of Russian expressionism in F. Dostoevsky's "Dream of a Ridiculous Man", A. Scriabin's "The Poem of Ecstasy", V. Garshin's "Red Flower".

Russian expressionists were looking for universal integrity, in their works they sought to embody the “new man” with a new consciousness, which contributed to the unity of the entire cultural and artistic society of Russia.

Literary critics emphasize that expressionism did not take shape as an independent, separate trend. It only manifested itself through the isolation of poetics and stylization, which arose in the midst of various already established trends, which made their boundaries more transparent, and even conditional.

So, let's say, expressionism, born within realism, resulted in the creations of Leonid Andreev, the works of Andrei Bely escaped from the symbolist direction, acmeists MikhailZenkevich and Vladimir Narbut published collections of poetry with vivid expressionist themes, and Vladimir Mayakovsky, being a futurist, also wrote in the manner of expressionism.

Style expressionism on Russian soil

In Russian, the word "expressionism" was "sounded" for the first time in Chekhov's story "The Jumper". The heroine made a mistake using "expressionists" instead of "impressionists". Researchers of Russian expressionism believe that it is closely and in every possible way united with the expressionism of old Europe, which was formed on the basis of Austrian, but more German expressionism.

Chronologically, this trend in Russia arose much earlier and disappeared much later than the “decade of expressionism” in German-language literature. Expressionism in Russian literature began with the publication of the story "The Wall" by Leonid Andreev in 1901, and ended with the performance of "Moscow Parnassus" and a group of emotionalists in 1925.

Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev - a rebel of Russian expressionism

The new direction, which very quickly captured Europe, did not leave aside the Russian literary environment. Leonid Andreev is considered the founding father of the Expressionists in Russia.

In his first works, the author deeply dramatically analyzes the reality surrounding him. This can be seen very clearly in the early works: "Garaska", "Bargamot", "City". Already here you can trace the main motives of the writer's work.

"The Life of Basil of Thebes" and the story "The Wall"depict the author's skepticism in the human mind and extreme skepticism. During his passion for faith and spiritualism, Andreev wrote the famous Judas Iscariot.

At the beginning of revolutionary movements, the author seriously sympathizes with the revolutionary movement, and as a result, the stories "Ivan Ivanovich", "The Governor" and the play "To the Stars" appear.

After a fairly short period of time, the work of Andreev Leonid Nikolayevich makes a sharp turn. This is due to the beginning of the revolutionary movement of 1907. The writer reconsiders his views and understands that mass riots, except for great torment and mass casu alties, lead to nothing. These events are described in The Tale of the Seven Hanged Men.

The story "Red Laughter" continues to reveal the author's views on the events taking place in the state. The work describes the horrors of hostilities based on the events of the Russo-Japanese War of 1905. Dissatisfied with the established world order, the heroes are ready to start an anarchist rebellion, but they can just as easily pass and show passivity.

Later works of the writer are saturated with the concept of the victory of otherworldly forces and deep depression.

Post scriptum

Formally, German expressionism as a literary movement came to naught by the mid-20s of the last century. However, he, like no other, had a significant impact on the literary traditions of the next generations.