Literary criticism is an area of creativity that is on the verge of art (that is, fiction) and the science of it (literary criticism). Who are the specialists in it? Critics are people who evaluate and interpret works from a modern perspective (including the point of view of pressing issues of spiritual and social life), as well as their personal views, affirm and identify the creative principles of various literary trends, have an active influence on the literary process , and directly affect the formation of a certain social consciousness. They rely on the history and theory of literature, aesthetics and philosophy.
Literary criticism is often politically topical, journalistic in nature, intertwined with journalism. There is a close relationship with related sciences: political science, history, textology, linguistics, bibliography.
Russian criticism
The critic Belinsky wrote that each era of literature in our country had a consciousness about itself, which is expressed in criticism.
It is difficult to disagree with this statement. Russian criticism is just as unique and vivid as classical Russian literature. This should be noted. Various authors (critic Belinsky, for example) repeatedly indicated that it, being synthetic in nature, played a huge role in the public life of our country. Recall the most famous writers who devoted themselves to the study of the works of the classics. Russian critics are D.I. Pisarev, N.A. Dobrolyubov, A.V. Druzhinin, A.A. Grigoriev, V.G. Belinsky and many others, whose articles included not only a detailed analysis of the works, but also their artistic features, ideas, images. They strove to see the most important social and moral problems of that time behind the art picture, and not only to capture them, but also to offer their own solutions at times.
Meaning of criticism
Articles written by Russian critics continue to have a great impact on the moral and spiritual life of society. It is no coincidence that they have long been included in the compulsory school program of our country. However, in the lessons of literature over the course of several decades, students became acquainted mainly with critical articles of a radical orientation. Critics of this direction - D.I. Pisarev, N.A. Dobrolyubov, N.G. Chernyshevsky, V.G. Belinsky and others. At the same time, the works of these authors were most often perceived as a source of quotations with which schoolchildren generously “decorated” their compositions.
Stereotypes of perception
This approach to the study of classics formed stereotypes in artistic perception, significantly impoverished and simplified the overall picture of the development of Russian literature, which was distinguished primarily by fierce aesthetic and ideological disputes.
Only recently, thanks to the appearance of a series of in-depth studies, the vision of Russian criticism and literature has become multifaceted and more voluminous. Articles by N.N. Strakhova, A.A. Grigoryeva, N.I. Nadezhdina, I.V. Kireevsky, P.A. Vyazemsky, K.N. Batyushkova, N.M. Karamzin (see the portrait of Nikolai Mikhailovich, made by the artist Tropinin, below) and other outstanding writers of our country.
Features of literary criticism
Literature is the art of the word, which is embodied both in a literary work and in a critical literary speech. Therefore, a Russian critic, like any other, is always a little publicist and artist. A talented article contains necessarily a powerful alloy of various moral and philosophical reflections of the author with deep and subtle observations of the literary text itself. The study of a critical article gives very little useful if, as a certain dogma, we take its basic provisions. It is important for the reader to experience intellectually and emotionally everything that has been said by this author, to determine the degree of evidence of the arguments put forward by him, to reflect on the logic of thought. Criticism of works is by no means an unequivocal thing.
Critic's own vision
Critics are people who reveal their own vision of the writer's work, offer their own unique reading of the work. The article often makes you rethink the artistic image, or it may be a criticism of the book. Some assessments and judgments in a talentedly written work can serve as a genuine discovery for the reader, and something will seem to us controversial or erroneous. Of particular interest is the comparison about the work of an individual writer or one work of different points of view. Literary criticism always provides us with rich material for thought.
The wealth of Russian literary criticism
We can, for example, look at the work of Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich through the eyes of VV Rozanova, A.A. Grigoriev, V.G. Belinsky and I.V. Kireyevsky, to get acquainted with how Gogol’s contemporaries perceived his poem Dead Souls in different ways (critics V.G. Belinsky, S.P. Shevyrev, K.S. Aksakov), how the heroes of “Woe” were evaluated in the second half of the 19th century from the mind "Griboedov. It is very interesting to compare the perception of the novel "Oblomov" by Goncharov with the way he was interpreted by D.S. Merezhkovsky and D.I. Pisarev. A portrait of the latter is presented below.
Articles on the work of L.N. Tolstoy
For example, a very interesting literary criticism is devoted to the work of L.N. Tolstoy. The ability to show the "purity of moral feeling", the "dialectic of the soul" of the heroes of works as a characteristic feature of Lev Nikolaevich's talent was one of the first to be revealed and designated by N.G. Chernyshevsky in his articles. Speaking about the works of N.N. Strakhov, devoted to “War and Peace,” can be rightfully asserted: there are few works in Russian literary criticism that can be placed next to him in terms of penetration into the author’s intention, in the fineness and accuracy of observations.
Russian criticism in the 20th century
It is noteworthy that the result of the often fierce debate and difficult search for Russian criticism was its desire at the beginning of the 20th century to “return” Russian culture to Pushkin, to its simplicity and harmony. V.V. Rozanov, proclaiming the need for this, wrote that the mind of Alexander Sergeyevich protects a person from everything stupid, his nobility - from everything vulgar.
In the mid-1920s, a new cultural surge occurred. After the end of the civil war, the young state finally gets the opportunity to seriously engage in culture. In the first half of the 20th century, formal school dominates literary criticism. Its main representatives are Shklovsky, Tynyanov and Eichenbaum. Formalists, rejecting the traditional functions that criticism performed - socio-political, moral, didactic - insisted on the idea of independence of literature from the development of society. In this they went against the ideology of Marxism that was prevailing at that time. Therefore, formal criticism gradually came to an end. In subsequent years, socialist realism was dominant. Criticism becomes a punitive tool in the hands of the state. It was controlled and directed directly by the party. Departments and columns of criticism appeared in all magazines and newspapers.
Today, of course, the situation has radically changed.