Russian symbolism in literature. Russian Symbolists
The turn of the 19th - 20th centuries is a special time in the history of Russia, a time when life was being rebuilt, the system of moral values was changing. The key word of this time is crisis. This period had a positive effect on rapid development of literature and was named " silver age”, by analogy with the “golden age” of Russian literature. This article will examine the features of Russian symbolism that arose in Russian culture at the turn of the century.
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Definition of the term
Symbolism is direction in literature which was formed in Russia at the end of the 19th century. He, along with decadence, was the product of a deep spiritual crisis, but was a response to the natural search for artistic truth in the direction opposite to realistic literature.
This trend has become a kind of attempt to get away from contradictions and reality into the realm of eternal themes and ideas.
The birthplace of symbolism became France. Jean Moreas in his manifesto "Le symbolisme" for the first time gives a name to a new trend from the Greek word symbolon (sign). The new direction in art relied on the works of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, Vladimir Solovyov's The Soul of the World.
Symbolism became a violent reaction to the ideologicalization of art. Its representatives were guided by the experience that their predecessors had left them.
Important! This trend appeared at a difficult time and became a kind of attempt to escape from harsh reality into an ideal world. The emergence of Russian symbolism in literature is associated with the publication of a collection of Russian symbolists. It includes poems by Bryusov, Balmont and Dobrolyubov.
Main features
The new literary trend relied on the works of famous philosophers and tried to find in the human soul a place where you can hide from the frightening reality. Among the main symbolism features in Russian literature, the following are distinguished:
- Transfer all secret meanings must be done with symbols.
- It is based on mysticism and philosophical works.
- Plurality of word meanings, associative perception.
- The works of the great classics are taken as a model.
- It is proposed to comprehend the diversity of the world through art.
- Create your own mythology.
- Particular attention to the rhythmic structure.
- The idea of transforming the world with the help of art.
Features of the new literary school
Forerunners of the newfound symbolism considered to be A.A. Feta and F.I. Tyutchev. They became those who laid something new in the perception of poetic speech, the first features of the future trend. Lines from Tyutchev's poem "Silentium" became the motto of all symbolists in Russia.
The greatest contribution to understanding the new direction was made by V.Ya. Bryusov. He considered Symbolism a new literary school. He called it "poetry of hints", the purpose of which was indicated as follows: "to hypnotize the reader."
At the forefront of writers and poets comes to the fore the personality of the artist and his inner world. They destroy the concept of new criticism. Their teaching is based on domestic positions. Particular attention was paid to the predecessors of Western European realism, such as Baudelaire. At first, both Bryusov and Sologub imitated him in their work, but later they found their own perspective of literature.
Objects of the external world became symbols of any internal experiences. Russian symbolists took into account the experience of Russian and foreign literature, but it was refracted by new aesthetic requirements. This platform has absorbed all the signs of decadence.
Heterogeneity of Russian symbolism
Symbolism in the literature of the coming Silver Age was not an internally homogeneous phenomenon. At the beginning of the 1990s, two currents stood out in it: older and younger symbolist poets. A sign of older symbolism was its own special view of the social role of poetry and its content.
They argued that this literary phenomenon was a new stage in the development of the art of the word. The authors were less concerned with the very content of poetry and believed that it needed artistic renewal.
The younger representatives of the current were adherents of the philosophical and religious understanding of the world around them. They opposed the elders, but agreed only that they recognized the new design of Russian poetry and were inseparable from each other. General themes, images united critical attitude to realism. All this made possible their collaboration in the framework of the journal "Balance" in the 1900s.
Russian poets different understanding of goals and objectives Russian literature. Senior symbolists believe that the poet is the creator of an exclusively artistic value and personality. The younger ones interpreted literature as life-building, they believed that the world, which had become obsolete, would fall, and be replaced by a new one, built on high spirituality and culture. Bryusov said that all previous poetry was "the poetry of flowers", and the new one reflects shades of color.
An excellent example of the differences and similarities of Russian symbolism in the literature of the turn of the century was V. Bryusov's poem "The Younger". In it, he turns to his opponents, the Young Symbolists, and laments that he cannot see that mysticism, harmony and the possibilities of purifying the soul in which they so sacredly believe.
Important! Despite the opposition of two branches of one literary direction, all the symbolists were united by the themes and images of poetry, their desire to get away from.
Representatives of Russian symbolism
Among the senior adherents, several representatives especially stood out: Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov, Dmitry Ivanovich Merezhkovsky, Konstantin Dmitrievich Balmont, Zinaida Nikolaevna Gippius, Fedor Kuzmich Sologub. Concept developers and ideological inspirers of this group of poets Bryusov and Merezhkovsky were considered.
The Young Symbolists were represented by such poets as A. Bely, A.A. Blok, V. Ivanov.
Examples of New Symbolist Themes
For representatives of the new literary school was the theme of loneliness. Only in the distance and complete solitude is the poet capable of creativity. Freedom in their understanding is freedom from society in general.
The theme of love is rethought and considered from the other side - “love is a sizzling passion”, but it is an obstacle to creativity, it weakens the love of art. Love is that feeling that leads to tragic consequences, makes you suffer. On the other hand, it is portrayed as a purely physiological attraction.
Symbolist poems open new topics:
- The theme of urbanism (singing of the city as a center of science and progress). The world is presented as two Moscow. The old one, with dark paths, the new one is the city of the future.
- The theme of anti-urbanism. The chanting of the city as a certain rejection of the former life.
- The theme of death. It was very common in symbolism. The motives for death are considered not only on a personal level, but also on a cosmic level (death of the world).
Valery Yakovlevich Bryusov
Symbol theory
In the field of the artistic form of the poem, the Symbolists showed an innovative approach. He had obvious connections not only with previous literature, but also with ancient Russian and oral folk art. Their creative theory settled on the concept of a symbol. Symbols are a common technique both in folk poetry and in romantic and realistic art.
Orally folk art a symbol is an expression of man's naive ideas about nature. In professional literature, it is a means of expressing a social position, attitude to the surrounding world or a specific phenomenon.
Adherents of the new literary trend rethought the meaning and content of the symbol. They understood it as a kind of hieroglyph in a different reality, which is created by the imagination of an artist or philosopher. This conventional sign is realized not by reason, but by intuition. Based on this theory, the symbolists believe that the visible world is not worthy of the artist's pen, it is only a nondescript copy of the mystical world, through the penetration into which the symbol becomes.
The poet acted as a cipher the hidden meaning of the poem for allegories and images.
The painting by M. V. Nesterov “Vision to the youth Bartholomew” (1890) often illustrates the beginning of the Symbolist movement.
Features of rhythm and tropes used by symbolists
Symbolist poets considered music to be the highest form of art. They strove for the musicality of their poems. For this used traditional and non-traditional methods. They improved the traditional ones, turned to the reception of euphony (the phonetic possibilities of the language). It was used by the Symbolists to give the poem a special decorative effect, picturesqueness and euphony. In their poetry, the sound side dominates over the semantic side, the poem is moving closer to the music. The lyrical work is deliberately saturated with assonances and alliterations. Melodiousness is the main goal of creating a poem. In their works, symbolists, as representatives of the Silver Age, refer not only to, but also to the exclusion of hyphenation in lines, syntactic and lexical articulation.
Active work is also being carried out in the field of the rhythm of the poem. Symbolists focus on folk system of poetry, in which the verse was more mobile and free. Appeal to vers libre, a poem that has no rhythm (A. Blok "I came ruddy from the frost"). Thanks to experiments in the field of rhythm, the conditions and prerequisites for the reform of poetic speech were created.
Important! The symbolists considered the musicality and melodiousness of a lyrical work to be the basis of life and art. The verses of all the poets of that time, with their melodiousness, are very reminiscent of a piece of music.
Silver Age. Part 1. Symbolists.
Literature of the Silver Age. Symbolism. K. Balmont.
Conclusion
Symbolism as a literary movement did not last long, it finally disintegrated by 1910. The reason was that symbolists deliberately cut themselves off from the surrounding life. They were supporters of free poetry, they did not recognize pressure, so their work was inaccessible and incomprehensible to the people. Symbolism took root in literature and the work of some poets who grew up on classical art and symbolist traditions. Therefore, the features of the disappeared symbolism in literature are still present.
The ideas of symbolism came to Russia both directly from France and in a German way. The birth of Russian symbolism is usually counted from 1892. This year, the famous report of the poet, prose writer, publicist and public figure D. S. Merezhkovsky was read. In his report "On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature," he first stated that symbolic art is currently emerging in Russia. At the same time, according to Merezhkovsky, symbolism is not an imitation of French fashion, but a return to the ancient art of symbols. In the same year, the book of Merezhkovsky's poems "Symbols" was published, and two years later the first of three issues of the collections "Russian Symbolists" published by Valery Bryusov was published (the second issue was published in 1894, the third - in 1895).
It should be noted that Russian symbolism had roots in Russian culture. In 1884, an attempt was made in Kyiv to create a pre-modernist society called "New Romantics". Two of its members - Nikolai Maksimovich Minsky (Vilenkin; 1855-1937) and Ieronim Ieronimovich Yasinsky (1850-1931) already in those years created, in fact, decadent works. Subsequently, both of them, especially N. M. Minsky, who was a famous poet, took part in the formation of Russian symbolism. At the end of the century, I. I. Yasinsky created one of the most decadent works of Russian prose - the novel Beautiful Freaks.
Russian symbolism - like, by the way, both French and German - from its very inception was not a completely homogeneous trend. Symbolists can be divided according to chronological, geographical and ideological features. Chronologically distinguished senior (1890s) and junior (1900-1910s) symbolists. The older symbolists were also called decadents. From the point of view of a geographical feature, authors associated with St. Petersburg and Moscow were opposed. The geographical distinction was especially important for the older symbolists: the "Petersburg mystics" were opposed to the Moscow writers who had grouped around V. Ya. Bryusov. Ideologically, the writers of individualistic orientation (“decadents”) and the students of V. S. Solovyov, for whom the idea was important, were most clearly divided. unity - dissolution of personality in God, people, nature.
One of the persistent and central themes of Russian decadence was relativism: there are many truths in life, and none of them is better than the other; the poet can choose any of them and change the truths at will. In the poem "N. Gippius" (1901), Valery Bryusov states:
I do not believe in unshakable truth for a long time, And all the seas, all the marinas I love, I love equally.
The next step is the thought that good and evil are also equal, and neither can be preferred to the other:
I want the Free boat to float everywhere, And the Lord and the Devil I want to glorify ...
Moreover, the Russian Nietzscheans preferred evil to good and were inclined to sing the praises of the devil rather than God. The preference for evil should not be taken superficially. The Symbolists did not at all call for theft or petty hooliganism. Evil was for them a universal force capable of clearing the world of petty-bourgeois dullness, everyday evil. As an example, here is a characteristic poem by Fyodor Sologub:
When I swam in a stormy sea And my ship sank, I called out like this: "My father, the Devil, Save me, have mercy - I'm drowning.
Don't let me die ahead of time To my embittered soul, I will give the rest of my dark days to the power of dark vice.
And the Devil took me and threw me into a half-decayed boat. I found a couple of oars there, And a gray sail, and a bench.
And I brought back to dry land, Into a sick, evil life, My rejected soul And my sinful body.
And I am faithful, my father the Devil, to the vow given in the evil hour, When I swam in the stormy sea And you saved me from the abyss.
You, my father, I will glorify In reproach to an unrighteous day, I will raise blasphemy over the world, And, seducing, I will seduce.
("When I swam in a stormy sea!...", 1902)
Thus, only universal evil, ultimately the devil, can defeat the petty evil, the "unrighteous day". Here we also find a very ancient idea, according to which poetry and everything in general artistic creativity are connected not with the bright, divine world, but with the dark forces, the underworld. The older symbolists only once again revived this idea, creating a stable image of the "artist-devil".
The decadents developed a kind of cult of the devil, and, for example, for V. Ya. Bryusov, the destructive power of the revolution was directly associated with the image of Lucifer - an angel who rebelled against God and became Satan. These moods, interspersed with the ideas of Nietzsche, led to contempt for people, the human "herd", and to emphasized individualism. Nikolai Minsky's poem "My Faith" is characteristic:
I was a pious child, I believed in the Lord, as it should, That the Lord is a heavenly shepherd And that we are an earthly flock.
Ah, I forgot about the heavenly shepherd in earthly pride, But the fact that people are a herd I believe piously even now.
Psychologically, individualism led to the creation of two types of lyrical hero. The first one is connected with the motives of escaping from people, creating one's own isolated, illusory world. This type of lyrical "I" dominated the early work of the decadents. Such, for example, are the images in the works of Fyodor Sologub: "Loneliness is a common destiny", "I am not ashamed of anyone or anything - I am alone, hopelessly alone ...", etc. Ultimately, this leads to the glorification of death: only death can connect what life has separated. F. Sologub writes:
Nothing is visible in the field. Someone calls: "Help!"
What I can? I myself am poor and small. I'm dead tired myself
How can I help?
Someone calls in silence: "My brother, draw near to me!
It's easier together. If we can't go, we'll die together along the way,
Let's die together!"
("Not a single thing is visible in the field", 1897)
V. Ya. Bryusov begins the poem with the call: "Die, die, die!" In a changeable, unreliable world, death is the only reliable, true one. In the illumination of death, the ghostly vulgarity of the world is visible:
O mistress of death, I murmured against you, That you, evil, reign, destroying everything earthly. And you came to me, and in the radiance of the day You led me to the paths of people.
I saw people in your illumination, Overshadowed by longing, and impotence, and evil. And I realized that the evil under your breath Together with the lives of people disappears like smoke.
The second type of lyrical character is an active, heroic personality. Such a hero became predominant in symbolist art at the beginning of the century and during the years of the first Russian revolution. Most of the older Symbolists accepted the revolution in one way or another and even participated in it. N. M. Minsky and some writers close to him tried for some time to cooperate with the Social Democrats, and it was with V. I. Lenin and other Bolsheviks. In 1905, Minsky created the poem "Anthem of the Workers", which opens with the following quatrain:
Proletarians of all countries, unite!
Our strength, our will, our power.
In the last battle, as on a holiday, equip yourself.
Whoever is not with us is our enemy, he must fall.
But other decadents also write poems addressed to the workers at this time. So, K. D. Balmont in October 1905 creates a poem "Russian Worker", the first stanza of which sounds like this:
Worker, only you are the Hope of all Russia. The heavy hammer fell, crushing the strongholds of the serfs. That hammer is yours. I sing you in the name of all Russia!
The poem ends with confident words:
All dreams will come true, You will turn white, worker!
The glorification of a strong, heroic personality, the revolution as a powerful, destructive element, occupies a prominent place in the work of V. Ya. Bryusov of that time. And even the pessimist F. Sologub has motives of protest and struggle (the drama "Victory of Death" and other works).
The term "symbolism" comes from the Greek word "sign" and denotes an aesthetic trend that was formed in France at the end of the 19th century and influenced all areas of art: literature, music, painting and theater. Particularly widespread
wound received symbolism in literature.
emergence
As noted above, symbolism in literature is associated primarily with France: a group of young poets, including Mallarme, Moreas, Gil, de Regno, Valery and Claudel, announced the creation of a new direction in art. At the same time, the “Manifesto of Symbolism” was published in the Figaro magazine, published by Moréas - he described the basic aesthetic principles based on the views of Baudelaire, Verlaine and Henri. In particular, the author of the "Manifesto" determined the nature and function of the symbol: according to Moreas, he replaced the traditional artistic image and embodied the Idea.
Essence of a symbol
In order to talk about what symbolism is in literature, one should first of all define what a symbol is. His main distinguishing feature- ambiguity, so it cannot be deciphered. Perhaps the most successful interpretation of this concept belongs to the Russian writer Fyodor Sologub: he called the symbol a window to infinity. A symbol contains a whole range of meanings, while an image is a single phenomenon.
Symbolism in literature
If we talk about French literature, it is necessary to mention the names of Baudelaire, Verlaine and Mallarmé. Charles Baudelaire owns a kind of poetic motto of symbolism - the sonnet "Correspondence"; the search for correspondences formed the basis of the symbolist principle of synthesis, the desire to unite all the arts. Duality motifs dominate in Baudelaire's work: love and death, genius and disease, external and internal. Stéphane Mallarme argued that the purpose of a writer is not to describe things, but to convey his impressions of them. Particularly popular was his poem "Luck will never abolish chance", consisting of a single phrase typed without a single punctuation mark. Paul Verlaine also manifested symbolism in his poetry. Literature, according to the poet, should be musical, because it is music that is at the top of all arts.
Symbolism in B
elgium
When the words “Belgian symbolism” come to mind, first of all, the work of Maurice Maeterlinck, the author of such famous plays as “The Blue Bird”, “The Blind”, “There, Inside”. Its heroes exist in a semi-fantastic setting, the action of the plays is full of mysticism, magic, and hidden meanings. Maeterlinck himself, quite in the spirit of symbolism, insisted that the creator should convey not actions, but a state.
Russian symbolism in literature
In Russia, this trend split into two branches - "Old Symbolists" and "Young Symbolists". By the beginning of the 20th century, the movement had reached its true peak, but Tyutchev and Fet are also considered the forerunners of symbolism in Russia. Also, the content and philosophical basis of Russian symbolism was influenced by the views of Vladimir Solovyov, in particular, his images of the World Soul and Eternal Femininity. These ideas were subsequently transformed in an original way into the poetry of Bely, Blok, Gumilyov.
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Silver Age. Symbolism
Symbolism (from Greek simbolon - sign, symbol) - a trend in European art of the 1870s - 1910s; one of the modernist trends in Russian poetry at the turn of the 19th - 20th centuries. Focused primarily on expression through symbol intuitively comprehended essences and ideas, vague, often sophisticated feelings and visions.
The very word "symbol" in traditional poetics it means "multi-valued allegory", that is, a poetic image expressing the essence of a phenomenon; in the poetry of symbolism, he conveys the individual, often momentary ideas of the poet.
The poetics of symbolism is characterized by:
- transmission of the subtlest movements of the soul;
- maximum use of sound and rhythmic means of poetry;
- exquisite imagery, musicality and lightness of style;
- poetics of allusion and allegory;
- symbolic content of ordinary words;
- attitude to the word, as to the cipher of some spiritual secret writing;
- innuendo, concealment of meaning;
- the desire to create a picture of an ideal world;
- aestheticization of death as an existential principle;
- elitism, orientation to the reader-co-author, creator.
2. Russian symbolism. Story. Aesthetics. Representatives and their creativity.
The first signs of S. are found in the 1890s. Merezhkovsky - “On the causes of the decline and on the new trends of modern. Russian liters” - an overview of the past and present, a forecast and a program for the future. The decline of Mer. I saw in everything: the language has deteriorated, criticism is no good, and so on. There is something in poetry that shimmers through the beauty of the symbol, that has a stronger effect on the heart than what is expressed in words. Symbols can be. and Har-ry (Don Juan. Hamlet, Faust). The new art must use symbols, mystic. content. There must be new ways of influencing the reader. Behind the world of appearances, the writer must reveal the world of essences. The very poetry of Mer. had little influence on his contemporaries, but here is the title of the collection "Symbols" (1892) ... His poetry is too rational. Senior Symbolists Balmont, Gippius, Sologub, Bryusov. Almost simultaneously in Moscow and St. Petersburg, 2 groups arise (respectively: Bryusov, Balmont - individualism, aestheticism, art for art's sake; Peter - Gippius. Merezhkovsky, Minsky - the idea of \u200b\u200ba religious community, symbolism - worldview). In 1894-95 - 3rd collection "Russian Symbolists". Bryusov writes prefaces to the collections, where he sets out his own terms. on art: the main thing is the personality of the artist; idea, plot, etc. - that is the form. The artist must open his soul - the unknown world, by this he moves humanity to perfection. Art is the comprehension of the world in non-rational ways. The task of art is to capture the moment of insight, the dark, secret feelings of the artist. Poetic TV is self-sufficient and should not be anything else. Young Symbolists Vyach. Ivanov, A. Bely, A. Blok, Ellis, S. Solovyov. The poet is a symbol involuntarily, art should reflect his feelings. The task of the poet is not just to express feelings, but also to see clearly until the comprehension of the Divine Essences. That is, the poet must become a prophet. Publishing houses of S.: the magazine "Scales" (1904-1909), the publishing house "Scorpion", the magazine "Golden Fleece" (from 1906-1909). Crisis of symbolism early in 1905 And the point is not in theory, but in the fact that the representatives of S. are too different people. They quarreled over nuances. Symbol wanted to be more than poetry, but nothing happened (Ivanov, Blok). Bryusov still believed that poetry should be only poetry. Cr. Moreover, the language of the Symbolists, due to the desire to express the inexpressible, was obscure. Too abstract images. Because of this, in the early 10-ies. there was a desire for "beautiful clarity" and acmeists. At this time, S. as a school no longer exists. But the Symbolists have not ceased to be Symbolists.
Symbolism. The spokesman for the modernist. directed in the 1890s. became a magazine "Northern Bulletin", the edition of which was reorganized. and actual leads. critic Akim Lvovich Volynsky became it ( real name– Flexer). Volynsky considered the main task of the journal to be "the struggle for idealism." The critic called for fighting not for the socio-political reorganization of society, but for a "spiritual revolution". Around Sev. messenger" grouping. the following writers: Nikolai Minsky, Dmitry Merezhkovsky, Zinaida Gippius, Fyodor Sologub, Konstantin Balmont, Mirra Lokhvitskaya, Konstantin Ldov, and others.
New Direction Mean. was not one. It is characteristic that Vladimir Solovyov, whom the modernists considered their predecessors. and ideological inspirer, he did not recognize them. Widely known were his parodies of the first decadents, in which he played with his favorite. techniques of new poetry: "The immanent mandrakes // Rustled in the reeds, // And the rough-decadent // Verses in withering ears."
In 1895 for the first time attracted the attention of the public "Russian Symbolists", the leading author of which was the 22-year-old poet Valery Bryusov, who published. their verse, I'm not only under their own. name, but also under several pseudonyms in order to create the impression of an already existing strong school. Much of what was printed in the collection did not need a parody, because. sounded like a parody. A special scandal the one-line poem, "Oh, cover your pale feet!"
In the 1890s decadence was considered a marginal phenomenon. Of the writers of the new direction, not all were admitted to print (among the "outcasts" was Bryusov, who was called a poet, perhaps in quotation marks); those who nevertheless were published (Balmont, Merezhkovsky, Gippius) collaborated in magazines of various trends, including populist ones, but this was not thanks to, but in spite of their desire for novelty. But by the 1900s, the situation had changed.
To understand the prerequisites for the heyday of the cult. and lawsuits at the beginning of the 20th century. It is also important to understand finance. platform on which this heyday was based. It means. degree was the activity of enlightenment. merchants-philanthropists - Savva Ivanovich Mamontov, Savva Timofeevich Morozov, Sergey Alexandrovich Polyakov and others. the environment even had a semblance of competition: who will do more for their city.
The desire to excel led to the experiment. And among the modernists there were practical. people who were able to find the means. funds for the development of a new lawsuit. Valery Bryusov possessed such a talent, through whose efforts in Moscow in 1899 it was created publishing house "Scorpio". Its financial basis was as follows: a relative of his wife K.D. Balmont was Serg. Alexandrovich Polyakov, highly imaged. and consist. young. people On his medium, several poetic almanacs from cannons were published. name "Northern Flowers"(the latter was called "Northern Assyrian Flowers"). Been coming out monthly. magazine "Scales", in which Bryusov attracted young poets. Circle of collab. was small, but each wrote under several pseudonyms: Bryusov was not only Bryusov, but also Aurelius, and simply "VB", Balmont - "Don" and "Lionel"; Boris Bugaev and Andrey Bely were published in the magazine - and no one yet knew that this was one person, Max Voloshin, unknown to anyone, was published, a gift appeared for a short time. young man Ivan Konevskoy (real name - Ivan Ivanovich Oreus), whose life was soon cut short by the tragic. and absurdly: he drowned. In the 1st years, Bunin also collaborated with Scorpio. The magazines were published beautifully, albeit small. circulations. The Moscow "Literary and Artistic Circle", which arose in 1899 and existed until 1919. Since 1908, it was headed by Bryusov. in Petersburg. - their leaders. Dmitry Serg. Merezhkovsky entered the literature as a populist poet. directed, but soon turned to the spiritual quest of the universal. scope. His poetic Sat "Symbols"(1892) by its very name indicated a relationship with the poetry of fr. symbolism, and for many beginners, Russian. poets became program like his lecture « On the Causes of the Decline and New Trends in Modern Russian Literature» . This lecture, published in the same year as a separate book, was taken as a manifesto of a new lit. movement. Merezhkovsky designates here 3 components of the new art-va: mystic. content, symbols, and extended art. impress."
As a poet Merezhkovsky is widely recognized. did not receive, turned to prose, and in the 10th anniversary he created 3 major historical-philosophers. novel, meal the common name "Christ and the Antichrist": "Death of the Gods (Julian the Apostate)", "The Resurrected Gods (Leonardo da Vinci)", "Antichrist (Peter and Alexei)". In his novels, Merezhkovsky set and tried to resolve serious religious-philosophies. questions. In addition, he appeared in print both as a critic and as a translator.
No less prominent figure was Merezhkovsky's wife, Zin. Nick. Gippius is a poet, prose writer, critic and just a beautiful woman (“Zinaida the Beautiful”, as her friends called her), who possessed. non-feminine mind, inexhaustible. polemical fuse, and a tendency to all sorts of outrageous. The lines of her early poems: “But I love myself as God, / Love will save my soul ...” - they repeated with bewilderment and disapproval. Bunin: "In the artistic<…>, squinting excessively, slowly entered, as it were, a kind of heavenly vision, an amazingly thin angel in a snow-white robe and with golden flowing hair, along whose bare arms something like sleeves, or wings, fell to the very floor: Z.N. Gippius, escorted from behind by Merezhkovsky.
At the initiative of the Merezhkovskys in 1901 - 1903. were organizations. Religious-philosophical. congregation, on which representatives of the creative. intelligentsia, who considered themselves "heralds of a new religion. consciousness” discussed with the representative. c-vi. Based on the materials of the meetings, a magazine was published "New way"(later renamed to "Questions of Life"). However, the parties did not find a common language. "Forerunners of a New Religion. consciousness” expected the advent of the era of the Third Testament, the era of the Holy Spirit, argued the need for “Christian socialism”, accused Orthodoxy of the absence of social. ideals. From the point of view of theologians, all this was heresy; participants Relig.-philos. assemblies began to be called God-seekers, because their buildings were built not on the foundation of a firm faith, but on the shaky ground of a shattered religion. consciousness.
S.v. was yavl-em syncretic. Yavl-I, parallel to the literary, were observed in other types of art-in, which also correlated with the general political. tech-mi. In painting democratic The camp was represented by a city that had existed since 1870. "Comrade of the Wanderers"(I. E. Repin, V. M. Vasnetsov, I. I. Levitan, V. A. Serov, etc.). At the same time, modernity was emerging. groupings. In 1898, art was created. meal "World of Art", the inspirer is young. art and art critic Alexander Nick. Benoit. In 1898 - 1904. beginning to publish a magazine with the same name - "World of Art", editors - Benois and Serg. Pavlovich Diaghilev, who soon acquired the world. Izv-Th thanks to the organization. "Russian Seasons" ballet in Paris and the creation of the troupe "Russian Ballet Diaghilev". Participants of the "World of Art" - D. Philosophers, V. Nouvel, N. Skalon, K. Somov, L. Rosenberg (Bakst), E. Lansere, M. Vrubel, A. Golovin, F. Malyavin, N. Roerich, S Malyutin, B. Kustodiev, Z. Serebryakova. Part of the thin-kov peredvizhnich. direction (Levitan, Serov, Korovin) began to actively cooperate with the "World of Art". Artists of the new direction showed great interest in the theater and the art of the book - they, in particular, designed the editions of Scorpion.
Young Symbolists. In the early 1900s in lit. the field is a new generation of poets, who are commonly called junior symbolists or young symbolists, naib. famous - Alexander Blok and Andrey Bely (Boris Nik. Bugaev). But the "younger" poets were not always younger than the "older" ones. Vyach. Iv. Ivanov, was closer in age to the elders, but in the 1900s. he lived abroad, studying the history of other Rome, and only in 1905 returned to Russia. Together with his wife, writer Lydia Dmitr. Zinovieva-Annibal, he settled in St. Petersburg. in a house on Tavrich. street, which soon became known as the "tower" of Vyach. Ivanov ("Vyacheslav the Magnificent", as he was called) - lit. salon visited by writers of various directions, predominantly. modernist (“Ivanovo environments”).
2nd after "Scorpio" symbol. became a publisher "Vulture", - a publishing house that existed in Moscow in 1903 - 1914. Founded and Ch. ed. - Writer Sergei Krechetov (real name Serg. Alekseevich Sokolov).
In 1906 - 1909. in Moscow came out symbol. magazine "The Golden Fleece". It was published at the expense of the merchant N.P. Ryabushinsky. If "Scales" was an expression of the position of senior characters declaring a comprehensive aestheticism and individualism, then the "Golden Fleece" reflected the views of those who saw religious-mystical art in art. action - i.e. predominantly younger ones, whose leader was Andrei Bely. The idol of the younger characters was the great Russian philosopher Vladim. Serg. Solovyov; like him, and in much more than his, elements of Christ-va and Russian religion. philosophy intertwined in their constructions with theosophy, anthroposophy and occultism. But Solovyov's conviction that the meaning of life lies in the creation of good, as well as Dostoevsky's well-known thought that beauty will save the world, inspired their creativity, at least at the beginning of their journey. The "World of Art" and other art-modernists took part in the design of the "Golden Fleece".
In 1909, a publishing house was organized in Moscow "Musaget". Its founders were Andrey Bely and Emily Karlovich Medtner, a music critic, philosopher and writer. The poet Ellis (Lev Lvovich Kobylinskiy), as well as writers and translators A.S. Petrovsky and M.I. Sizov.
However, as the symbol develops, it is planned. tendencies of its convergence with realism. In 1906, the publishing house "Shipovnik" was founded (in St. Petersburg by cartoonist Zinovy Isaevich Grzhebin and Solomon Yuryevich Kopelman). In 1907 - 1916. it published a number of almanacs (26 in total), in which the works of symbolist writers were equally represented and presented. realism. Leonid Nick was the leading authors of the publishing house. Andreev and Fed. Kuzmich Sologub (Teternikov). The line between the two methods became more and more unsteady, a new style of prose was being formed, which was undoubtedly influenced by poetry. This can be said about the prose of such authors as Boris Konst. Zaitsev and Alexey Mikh. Remizov, whose beginning creative. activity is also associated with Rosehip.