Certain shifts in public consciousness in the mid-nineteenth century caused the emergence of a genre such as a physiological sketch. Nekrasov and Belinsky, creating the almanacs of the so-called new school, as if trying to return the literary activity of Russia to the militant principality of the Ryleyev and Bestuzhev "Polar Star". A sufficiently large group of writers was united by the advanced ideology of that time, so the understanding of creative tasks has radically changed.
The tasks of realism
Revolutionary nobles have long been replaced by revolutionary democrats, so civilian romanticism has been replaced by creative work of a realistic plan. The physiological essay has become one of the most striking signs of pre-revolutionary time. The very word “physiology” was not applied to literature by the creators or adherents of the new school. It appeared much earlier.
F. Coney back in 1841 published in Literaturnaya Gazeta miniature ironic sketches with funny names: Physiology of Female Beauty, Physiology of the Nose, for example. Translators of the same years brought from France the Physiology of Parisian Theaters and the Physiology of a Married Man.
The modern understanding of this word does not at all correspond to what was meant by contemporaries of Nekrasov. Russian literature of the 19th century saw him as a study of everyday life and customs in a certain professional or social environment.
Physiology of St. Petersburg
Writers-researchers of a new direction in literature decided to address the reader with the physiology of St. Petersburg. Moreover, they did not creatively consider the official, ceremonial side of this largest trade and administrative center, but the life of its social bottom. The physiological essay as a genre was replenished with meticulously painted paintings of common people, in addition to its most distant backstage parties, that is, back streets and slums.
So, Vladimir Dal brought an essay on the St. Petersburg janitor, Ivan Panayev described the St. Petersburg feuilleton player, Alexander Kulchitsky described the St. Petersburg omnibus, and Yevgeny Grebenka described the St. Petersburg side ... Writers had to plunge into this nature with their heads to examine all the details as carefully as possible very familiar to them the world of the lower classes.
World of Details
The physiological essay in Russian literature of that time was not good because it was too closely interested in physiology, that is, this interest became self-sufficient. The depiction of everyday, portraiture, speech, or psychological details completely hammered the writer's most important tasks, and it was not always possible to express sympathy for the poor.
Such falls in naturalism - in the narrowest sense of the term - made the writer vulnerable to criticism. Although the artistic development of public life, of course, progressed. Linguistic descriptiveness became not only the problematic of the work, but also the genre and composition.
The characters' characters were revealed through the description of everyday everyday life, less and less space was allotted to the narrative, plot construction came to naught, because the outline prevailed - separate paintings and everyday scenes, connected not by the plot, not by a single action, but by one ideological problem.
The physiology of the peasantry
The genre of the physiological essay was rapidly becoming fashionable, becoming a new word in the literature of the 1840s. Writers were not limited to St. Petersburg. The interest in the life of the peasant and his serfdom was also very great. In the disclosure of this topic, young writers were especially distinguished: Grigorovich ("Anton Goremyka" and "Village"), Dahl ("Russian Peasant"), Herzen ("Forty-Thief").
Of particular note is Nekrasov and his poem "On the Road", where the image of an ordinary peasant woman, though very gifted, but ruined by serfdom, is very talented. Ivan Turgenev, who also began to publish essays from the landlord and peasant life, also joined in the direction of realism with the physiology of the Russian village.
Sympathy for criticism
Belinsky was very sympathetic to the development of the new genre. He tried to theoretically substantiate the appearance, originality and necessity of such a phenomenon as a physiological sketch. His definition as one of the genres of journalism or essay studies exploring a particular social class, as well as its foundations, values ​​and environment, is given in the review articles of the critic, where he characterizes new tales from the life of the peasantry. Usually Belinsky praised the writers in this genre.
Compositional features have received his special attention. Belinsky believed that a physiological essay should not become either a novel or a novel. Thus, criticizing Grigorovich, he noted the writer’s talent for essays on public life, but reproached “The Village” with narrative. The disadvantages of this work, according to Belinsky, is that in the sketch all the pictures of rural life should be outwardly devoid of any connection, but they should breathe with one thought.
Household essay
A new direction in literature did not take shape immediately, both participants and the main trends of creativity were gradually revealed. Belinsky was sure that the scripture began with Gogol, who introduced new and so vivid elements into literature that he created many imitators, it was Gogol who showed society the true contemplation of the Russian novel, and it was from this that the new period of our literature began.
Among the followers of Nikolai Vasilievich Belinsky singled out Vladimir Sollogub with his short stories “Two Students”, “The History of Two Galoshes”, “Bear” and “Pharmacist”. Sollogub, this conservative aristocrat, and he saw the emptiness of secular life, contrasting it with the sincerity and honesty of people from the lower class. Belinsky noted that Sollogub does not have deep faith and hot convictions, because in some places the image is indifferent. However, the simplicity and precise sense of reality present make Sollogub's novels extremely valuable.
Educational role
The physiological features in "Oblomov's Dream" are especially clearly visible . The character of the hero is guessed by all the described Goncharov things that surround him. As if everything is blessed, but even goodness does not mean Oblomov’s satisfaction with his own life. His present position is empty and wretched, and the hero realizes this.
He dreams of a childhood that passed in the patriarchal Oblomovka, where the inquisitive and frisky little boy was not even allowed to dress himself. Only servants work there. The dream carries Oblomov at the moment for his life, not so noticeable, but turning. As in childhood, now Oblomov has already realized everything, and when he woke up, he did not turn anywhere.
Unfulfilled hopes
There were writers whom Belinsky resolutely placed in the front row of Russian literature, despite the fact that he himself saw some of the shortcomings of their writing, but was sure that the writers could overcome everything.
The hope of the critic was, for example, I. I. Panaev, whose novels “Barynya”, “Onagr”, “Acteon” and others were called no less than the most remarkable phenomena of Russian literature of the 19th century. He noted that in these stories there is exclusively a lot of faithful, characteristic, cleverly and tenaciously captured. Belinsky also saw something hesitating, indecisive, unsteady, but explained this by the immaturity of remarkable talent. In fact, these were the properties of the author’s thinking, which he failed to overcome.
The critic also extolled the stories of V.I. Dahl, where he found details of exclusively artistic, amazingly true features of the life of a merchant. The story "Batman" he generally brought to the treasury of Russian literature. And he enthusiastically repeated that after Gogol, Dahl was the only first talent, a true poet of a physiological essay. In fact, Dahl is not great at all in fiction, and the future quickly set priorities.
Fantasy world against the harsh truth
Now we all know that there is the truth of life and the truth of literature, and it is absolutely true that the second is much more dear to art. And in the nineteenth century, writers walked an unpaved path in search of true literary realism. Belinsky wrote about the huge difference between the direction, manner, content and spirit of literature of the old and new schools. Old tales depicted a fantasy world, and new ones - real life.
The new school finally took shape when Belinsky was joined by even younger writers - Grigorovich, Nekrasov, and a little later - Dostoevsky. Then three almanacs were compiled and published under the editorship of Nekrasov: two volumes of the Physiology of Petersburg and the Petersburg Collection, which became a kind of manifesto of this literary movement. It included a list of creative principles (Belinsky's preface) and the path of creative implementation.
Naturally, this rather primitive genre - with such authors was not left without masterpieces. First of all, it is necessary to name Turgenev’s “Notes of a hunter”: when fulfilling all the principles of writing a physiological sketch, all eight genre paintings turned out to be examples of the highest poetic word. Plus - anti-serfdom thought, which accompanies the reader throughout the "Notes".
Old new magazine
In 1847, the completely updated Sovremennik began to appear, which became the organ of the most advanced Russian literary movement. Despite the change of chief editors (zits-chairmen), N. A. Nekrasov completely ruled the magazine completely. For twenty years this magazine was the most sought after in the country.
The works published in Sovremennik and Domestic Notes were clearly wider and fuller than the physiological essay, and the creative techniques used by the authors were not limited to everyday details of the characters' lives. Goncharov’s Ordinary Story was published here, the second part of Herzen’s wonderful novel, Who Is to Blame? The entire novel was published as an attachment to Sovremennik. M.E.Saltykov (not yet Shchedrin) appeared with his first stories. And Fedor Dostoevsky. Through the physiological essay, Russian literature of the 19th century found and mastered a new direction, not school, - realism.