Sentimentalism is not only a direction inculture and literature, it is primarily the frame of mind of human society at a certain stage of development, which began somewhat earlier in Europe and lasted from the 1920s to the 80s of the 18th century, in Russia it fell at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. The main features of sentimentalism are as follows: in human nature the predominance of feelings is recognized, and not of reason.
From the mind to the senses
Sentimentalism closes the era of the Enlightenment,which covered the entire XVIII century and gave rise to a number of literary trends. It is classicism and rococo, sentimentalism and pre-romanticism. Some specialists consider Romanticism to be the next trend in the described direction, and sentimentalism is identified with pre-Romanticism. Each of these areas has its own distinctive features, each has its own normative personality, the one whose features best express the tendency that is optimal for a given culture. There are some signs of sentimentalism. It is the concentration of attention on the individual, on the power and power of the senses, the prerogative of nature over civilization.
Towards nature
This direction in the literature from the preceding andthe following currents are distinguished first of all by the cult of the human heart. Preference is given to simplicity, naturalness, the hero of works becomes a more democratic personality, often a representative of the common people. Great attention is given to the inner world of man and nature, of which he is a part. These are the signs of sentimentalism. Feelings are always freer than the mind that was worshiped, or even deified classicism. Therefore, the sentimentalist writers possessed greater freedom of imagination and its imaging in a work that was no longer squeezed into the strict logical framework of classicism.
New literary forms
The main genres of sentimentalism are traveland novels, but not simply, but instructive or in letters. Letters, diaries, memoirs are the most commonly used genres, since they enable us to expand the inner world of man more widely. In poetry, preference is given to elegies and messages. That is, literary genres, in themselves, are also signs of sentimentalism. The pastoral can not belong to any other direction than the one described.
In Russia, sentimentalism was reactionary andliberal. The representative of the first was Shalikov Peter Ivanovich (1768-1852). His works were an idyllic utopia - infinitely good kings, sent by God to the land solely for the sake of peasant happiness. No social contradictions - excellence and universal goodness. Perhaps, thanks to such sour-sweet works behind this literary trend, certain tearfulness and artificiality, which are sometimes perceived as signs of sentimentalism, were fixed.
The founder of Russian sentimentalism
Vivid representatives of the liberal trendare Karamzin Nikolai Mikhailovich (1766-1826) and the early Zhukovsky Vasily Andreevich (1783-1852), this is from the well-known. One can also name several progressive liberal-thinking writers-AM Kutuzov, to whom Radishchev devoted the "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow," MN Muravyov, the sage and poet, II Dmitriev, the poet, the fabulist and the translator, V. V. Kapnist and N. A. Lvov. The earliest and brightest product of this trend was Karamzin's novel Poor Liza. It should be noted that the signs of sentimentalism in the literature of Russia are distinctive from Europe. The most important is the instructive, moral and enlightening character of the works. Karamzin said that you should write as you speak. Thus, another feature of Russian sentimentalism is the improvement of the literary language of the work. It should be noted that the positive achievement or even the discovery of this literary trend is that it first turned to the spiritual world of the people of the lower classes, revealing its wealth and generosity of the soul. Until the sentimentalists, the poor people, as a rule, showed themselves gross, stale, incapable of any spirituality.
"Poor Liza" - the peak of Russian sentimentalism
What are the signs of sentimentalism in "PoorLisa "? The plot of the story is uncomplicated. The beauty of it is not that. The very idea of the work brings to the reader the fact that the natural naturalness and the rich world of Lisa, a simple peasant woman, is incomparable to the world of a well-educated, secular, well-trained Erast, in general, and a good man, but clamped by conventions that prevented him from marrying favorite girl. But he did not intend to marry, because, having achieved reciprocity, Erast, full of prejudices, lost interest in Lisa, she ceased to be for him the personification of purity and purity. Poor peasant girl, even full of virtues, trusting a rich young man who condescended to a commoner (which should speak of breadth of soul and democratic views), is initially doomed to the final run to the pond. But the dignity of the story in a completely different approach and the perspective of the rather banal events covered. It is the signs of sentimentalism in the "Poor Liza" (the beauty of the soul of a simple man and nature, the cult of love) that made the story incredibly popular among contemporaries. And the pond in which Liza drowned, began to be called her name (the place in the story is stated quite accurately). The fact that the story became an event is also evidenced by the fact that almost all of the current graduates of Soviet schools know that Karamzin wrote "Poor Liza", as "Eugene Onegin" Pushkin, and "Mtsyri" Lermontov.
Originally from France
Sentimentalism itself is a phenomenon in the artisticliterature is more significant than classicism with its rationalism and dryness, with its heroes, who, as a rule, were crowned individuals or commanders. "Julia, or New Eloise" Jean-Jacques Rousseau burst into the literature and laid the foundations of a new direction. Already in the works of the founder of the trend, general signs of sentimentalism appeared in literature that formed a new artistic system that glorified a simple man, capable of empathizing with others without any self-interest, endlessly loving relatives, and sincerely rejoice in the happiness of others.
Similarities and differences
Signs of classicism and sentimentalism in many respectscoincide, because both these directions refer to the Age of Enlightenment, but they also have differences. Classicism glorifies and deifies the mind, and sentimentality is a feeling. The main slogans of these directions also vary: in classicism, it is "a person subordinated to the dictates of reason" in sentimentalism - "a person who feels". There are different forms of writing works - logic and rigor in the classicists, and rich in digressions, descriptions, memoirs and letters of the work of authors of a later literary trend. Based on the above, you can answer the question about what are the main features of sentimentalism. The main theme of the works is love. Genres are specific - pastoral (elegy), sentimental novels, letters and travel. In the works - a cult of feelings and nature, a departure from straightforwardness.
