1. A word about the work of A. I. Kuprin.
2. Main themes and let's go creativity:
a) "Moloch" - an image of bourgeois society;
b) the image of the army ("Night shift", "Campaign", "Duel");
c) the conflict of a romantic hero with everyday reality (“Olesya”);
d) the theme of the harmony of nature, the beauty of man ("Emerald", "White Poodle", "Dog's Happiness", "Shulamith");
e) the theme of love (" Garnet bracelet»).
3. The spiritual atmosphere of the era.
1. The work of A. I. Kuprin is peculiar and interesting, it strikes the author's observational ability and the amazing plausibility with which he describes people's lives. As a realist writer, Kuprin carefully peers into life and highlights the main, essential aspects in it.
2. a) This gave Kuprin the opportunity to create in 1896 a major work "Moloch", dedicated to the most important topic capitalist development of Russia. Truthfully and without embellishment, the writer depicted the true face of bourgeois civilization. In this work, he denounces hypocritical morality, corruption and falsehood in relations between people in a capitalist society.
Kuprin shows a large factory where the workers are brutally exploited. The main character, engineer Bobrov, honest, humane person, shocked and outraged by this terrible picture. At the same time, the author depicts the workers as an uncomplaining crowd, powerless to take any active action. In Moloch, motifs were outlined that are characteristic of all subsequent work of Kuprin. Images of humanist truth-seekers will pass in a long line in many of his works. These heroes yearn for the beauty of life, rejecting the ugly bourgeois reality of their time.
b) Pages full of great revealing power were dedicated by Kuprin to the description of the tsarist army. The army was the stronghold of the autocracy, against which all the progressive forces of Russian society rose up in those years. That is why Kuprin's works "Night Shift", "Campaign", and then "Duel" had a great public impact. The tsarist army, with its mediocre, morally degenerated command, appears on the pages of "Duel" in all its unsightly appearance. Before us is a whole gallery of stupid and geeks, devoid of any glimmer of humanity. They are opposed main character lead Lieutenant Romashov. He wholeheartedly protests against this nightmare, but is unable to find a way to overcome it. Hence the name of the story - "Duel". The theme of the story is drama little man”, his duel with an ignorant environment, which ends with the death of the hero.
c) But not in all his works Kuprin adheres to the framework of a strictly realistic direction. There are also romantic tendencies in his stories. He places romantic heroes in everyday life, in a real setting, next to ordinary people. And very often, therefore, the main conflict in his works becomes the conflict of a romantic hero with everyday life, dullness, and vulgarity.
In the wonderful story "Olesya", imbued with genuine humanism, Kuprin sings of people living in the midst of nature, untouched by money-grubbing and corrupting bourgeois civilization. Against the backdrop of wild, majestic, beautiful nature, strong, original people live - “children of nature”. Such is Olesya, who is as simple, natural and beautiful as nature itself. The author clearly romanticizes the image of the “daughter of the forests”. But her behavior, psychologically subtly motivated, allows you to see the real prospects of life. Endowed with unprecedented strength, the soul brings harmony into the obviously contradictory relations of people. Such a rare gift is expressed in love for Ivan Timofeevich. Olesya, as it were, returns the naturalness of experiences that he had briefly lost. Thus, the story describes the love of a realist person and romantic heroine. Ivan Timofeevich falls into the romantic world of the heroine, and she - into his reality.
d) The theme of nature and man worries Kuprin throughout his life. The power and beauty of nature, animals like component nature, a person who has not lost contact with it, living according to its laws - these are the facets of this topic. Kuprin admires the beauty of the horse ("Emerald"), the fidelity of the dog ("White Poodle", "Dog's Happiness"), female youth ("Shulamith"). Kuprin sings of the beautiful, harmonious, living world of nature.
e) Only where a person lives in harmony with nature, love is beautiful and natural. In the artificial life of people, love, true love, which happens once in a hundred years, turns out to be unrecognized, misunderstood and persecuted. In The Pomegranate Bracelet, the poor official Zheltkov is endowed with this gift of love. Great love becomes the meaning and content of his life. The heroine - Princess Vera Sheina - not only does not respond to his feelings, but also perceives his letters, a gift - a garnet bracelet - as something unnecessary, disturbing her peace, her usual way of life. Only after Zheltkov's death does she realize that "the love that every woman dreams of" has passed by. Mutual, perfect love did not take place, but this high and poetic feeling, even if concentrated in one soul, opens the way to a beautiful rebirth of another. Here the author shows love as a phenomenon of life, as an unexpected gift - poetic, illuminating life in the midst of everyday life, sober reality and sustainable life.
3. Thinking about the individuality of the hero, his place among others, about the fate of Russia in a time of crisis, at the turn of two centuries, Kuprin studied the spiritual atmosphere of the era, portrayed "living pictures" of the environment.
3. Poetry of Russian symbolism (on the example of the work of one poet)
SYMBOLISM -
the first literary and artistic direction of European modernism, which arose at the end of the 19th century in France in connection with the crisis of the positivist artistic ideology of naturalism. The foundations of the aesthetics of symbolism were laid by Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Stefan Mallarmé.
Symbolism was associated with contemporary idealistic philosophical currents, the basis of which was the idea of two worlds - the apparent world of everyday reality and the transcendent world. true values(compare: absolute idealism). In accordance with this, symbolism is engaged in the search for a higher reality that is beyond sensory perception. Here the poetic symbol turns out to be the most effective tool of creativity, allowing one to break through the veil of everyday life to transcendent Beauty.
The most general doctrine of symbolism was that art is an intuitive comprehension of world unity through the discovery of symbolic analogies between the earthly and the transcendental worlds (compare: the semantics of possible worlds).
Thus, the philosophical ideology of symbolism is always Platonism in the broadest sense, two worlds, and the aesthetic ideology is pan-aestheticism (compare: "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde).
Russian symbolism began at the turn of the century, absorbing the philosophy of the Russian thinker and poet Vladimir Sergeevich Solovyov about the Soul of the World, Eternal Femininity, Beauty that will save the world (this mythology is taken from Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot").
Russian symbolists are traditionally divided into "senior" and "junior".
The elders - they were also called decadents - D.S. Merezhkovsky, Z.N. Gippius, V.Ya. Bryusov, K.D. Balmont, F.K. Sologub reflected in his work the features of pan-European pan-aestheticism.
The younger symbolists - Alexander Blok, Andrei Bely, Vyacheslav Ivanov, Innokenty Annensky - in addition to aestheticism, embodied in their work the aesthetic utopia of the search for the mystical Eternal Femininity.
For Russian symbolism, the phenomenon of life-building is especially characteristic (see biography), erasing the boundaries between text and reality, living life as a text. The Symbolists were the first in Russian culture to build the concept of intertext. In their work, the notion of the Text with a capital letter generally plays a decisive role.
Symbolism did not perceive the text as a reflection of reality. For him it was the opposite. The properties of a literary text were attributed by them to reality itself. The world was presented as a hierarchy of texts. In an effort to recreate the Text-Myth located at the top of the world, the Symbolists interpret this Text as a global myth about the world. Such a hierarchy of world-texts was created with the help of the poetics of quotations and reminiscences, that is, the poetics of neomythologism, also first applied in Russian culture by the symbolists.
We will briefly show the features of Russian symbolism on the example of the poetry of its outstanding representative Alexander Alexandrovich Blok.
Blok came to literature under the direct influence of the works of Vladimir Solovyov. His early "Poems about the Beautiful Lady" directly reflect the ideology of the Soloviev-colored dual world, the search for the female ideal, which is impossible to achieve. The heroine of Blok's early poems, projected onto the image of the poet's wife Lyubov Dmitrievna Mendeleeva, appears in the form of a vague image of the Eternal Femininity, the Princess, the Bride, the Virgin. The poet's love for the Beautiful Lady is not only platonic and is colored by the features of medieval courtliness, which is most more manifested itself in the drama "Rose and Cross", but it is something more than just love in the ordinary sense - it is a kind of mystical search for the Deity under the cover of an erotic principle.
Since the world is doubled, the appearance of the Beautiful Lady can only be sought in the correspondences and analogies provided by the symbolist ideology. The very appearance of the Beautiful Lady, if one sees it, is not clear whether it is a genuine appearance or a false one, and if it is genuine, then whether it will change under the influence of the vulgar atmosphere of earthly perception - and this is the most terrible thing for the poet:
I anticipate you. The years are passing by
All in the guise of one I foresee You.
The whole horizon is on fire - and unbearably clear,
And silently I wait - longing and loving.
The whole horizon is on fire, and the appearance is near,
But I'm afraid: you will change your appearance,
And daringly arouse suspicion,
Replacing the usual features at the end.
In essence, this is exactly what happens in the further development of Blok's lyrics. But first, a few words about compositional structure his poetry in general. In his mature years, the poet divided the entire corpus of his poems into three volumes. It was something like the Hegelian triad: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. The thesis was the first volume - "Poems about the Beautiful Lady". Antithesis - the second. This is the otherness of the heroine, who descended to earth and is about to "change her appearance."
She appears among the vulgar restaurant fuss in the form of a beautiful Stranger.
And slowly, passing among the drunk,
Always without companions, alone,
Breathing in spirits and mists,
She sits by the window.
And breathe ancient beliefs
Her elastic silks
And a hat with mourning feathers
And in the rings a narrow hand.
And chained by a strange closeness,
I look behind the dark veil,
And I see the enchanted shore
And the enchanted distance.
In the future, the worst happens: the poet is disappointed in the very idea of \u200b\u200bPlatonic love - the search for an ideal. This is especially evident in the poem "Over the Lake" from the cycle "Free Thoughts". The poet stands in the cemetery over the evening lake and sees a beautiful girl who, as usual, seems to him a beautiful stranger, Tekla, as he calls her. She is all alone, but some vulgar officer "with a wobbling backside and legs, / Wrapped in trouser tubes" is walking towards her. The poet is sure that the stranger will drive away the vulgar, but it turns out that this is just her husband:
He came up ... he shakes her hand! .. look
His peepers in clear eyes! ..
I even moved out from behind the crypt...
And suddenly... he smacks her lingeringly,
Gives her a hand and leads to the dacha!
I want! I run up. I'm throwing
In them, cones, sand, squeal, dance
Among the graves - invisible and high ...
I shout "Hey, Fekla, Fekla!" ...
So, Tekla turns into Thekla, and this, in essence, ends the negative part of the poet's sobering up from Solovyov's mysticism. The last complex of his lyrics is "Carmen", and the last parting with the "former" Beautiful Lady is the poem "The Nightingale Garden". Then follows a catastrophe - a series of revolutions, to which Blok responds with the brilliant poem "The Twelve", which is both the apotheosis and the end of Russian symbolism. Blok died in 1921, when his heirs, representatives of Russian acmeism, spoke about themselves already in full voice.
4. Poetry of Russian acmeism (on the example of the work of one poet)
ACMEISM -
(ancient Greek akme - the highest degree of flourishing, maturity) is a direction of Russian modernism that was formed in the 1910s and in its poetic attitudes is based on its teacher, Russian symbolism.
The acmeists, who were members of the "Workshop of Poets" association (Anna Akhmatova, Nikolai Gumilyov, Osip Mandelstam, Mikhail Kuzmin, Sergey Gorodetsky), were "overcoming symbolism", as they were called in the article of the same name by the critic and philologist, the future academician V.M. Zhirmunsky. Acmeism contrasted the transcendental two-worldliness of the Symbolists with the world of simple everyday feelings and everyday spiritual manifestations. Therefore, the Acmeists also called themselves "Adamists", representing themselves as the first man Adam, "a naked man on bare earth." Akhmatova wrote:
I don't need odic ratis
And the charm of elegiac undertakings.
For me, in poetry everything should be out of place,
Not like people do.
When would you know from what rubbish
Poems grow, not knowing shame,
Like a yellow dandelion by the fence
Like burdock and quinoa.
But the simplicity of acmeism from the very beginning was not the healthy sanguine simplicity that is found in rural people. It was an exquisite and undeniably autistic (see autistic consciousness, characterology) simplicity of the outer veil of verse, behind which lay the depths of intense cultural searches.
Akhmatova again:
So helplessly my chest went cold,
But my steps were light
I'm on right hand put on
Left hand glove.
An erroneous gesture, an "erroneous action," to use Freud's psychoanalytic terminology from his book The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, which was already published in Russia at that time, conveys a strong inner experience. It can be conditionally said that all of Akhmatova's early poetry is a "psychopathology of everyday life":
I've lost my mind, oh strange boy
Wednesday at three o'clock!
Pricked ring finger
A ringing wasp for me.
I accidentally pressed her
And she seemed to die
But the end of the poisoned sting
Was sharper than the spindle.
Salvation from habitually unhappy love in one thing - creativity. Perhaps the best verses of acmeism are verses about verses, which the researcher of acmeism Roman Timenchik called auto-meta-description:
When I wait for her arrival at night,
Life seems to hang by a thread.
What honors, what youth, what freedom
In front of a nice guest with a pipe in her hand.
And so she entered. Throwing back the cover
She looked at me carefully.
I say to her: "Did you dictate to Dantu
Pages of Hell?" Answers: "Me".
The initially restrained, "clarified" (that is, proclaiming clarity) poetics of acmeism was also true to the great Russian poet of the twentieth century, Mandelstam. Already the first poem of his famous "Stone" speaks of this:
The sound is wary and muffled
The fruit that fell from the tree
In the midst of the silent chant
Deep silence of the forest...
The laconicism of this poem makes researchers recall the poetics of Japanese haiku (three lines) belonging to the Zen tradition (see Zen thinking) - external colorlessness, behind which lies a tense inner experience:
On a bare branch
Raven sits alone...
Autumn evening!
So it is with Mandelstam in the cited poem. It seems that this is just a household sketch. In fact we are talking about an apple that fell from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that is, about the beginning of history, the beginning of the world (which is why the poem is the first in the collection). At the same time, it can be Newton's apple - the apple of discovery, that is, again, the beginning. The image of silence plays a very important role - it refers to Tyutchev and the poetics of Russian romanticism with its cult of the inexpressibility of feelings in words.
The second poem "Stone" also refers to Tyutchev. Strings
Oh, my sadness,
Oh my quiet freedom
resonate with Tyutchev's lines: O my prophetic soul!
O heart full of anxiety!
Gradually, the poetics of acmeism, especially its two main representatives, Akhmatova and Mandelstam, becomes extremely complicated. The biggest and famous work Akhmatova's "Poem Without a Hero" is built like a casket with a double bottom - the riddles of this text are still being solved by many commentators.
The same thing happened to Mandelstam: the overabundance of cultural information and the peculiarity of the poet's talent made his mature poetry the most complex in the 20th century, so complex that sometimes researchers in a separate work analyzed not the whole poem, but only one line of it. With the same analysis, we will finish our essay on acmeism. We will talk about a line from the poem "Swallow" (1920):
An empty boat floats in a dry river.
G.S. Pomeranz believes that this line should be understood as deliberately absurd, in the spirit of a Zen koan. It seems to us that, on the contrary, it is overloaded with meaning. Firstly, the word "shuttle" is found in Mandelstam two more times and both times in the meaning of part of the loom ("The shuttle is spinning, the spindle is buzzing"). For Mandelstam, the contextual meanings of words are extremely important, as studies of the school of Professor K.F. Taranovsky, who specialized in the study of the poetics of acmeism.
The shuttle, thus, moves across the river, crosses the river. Where is he sailing? This suggests the context of the poem itself:
I forgot what I wanted to say.
The blind swallow will return to the hall of shadows.
"The Hall of Shadows" is the realm of shadows, the realm of the dead Hades. The empty, dead boat of Charon (shuttle) floats to the "chamber of shadows" along the dry river of the dead Styx. This is an ancient interpretation.
There may be an Eastern interpretation: emptiness is one of the most important concepts of Tao philosophy. Tao is empty because it is the receptacle of everything, wrote Lao Tzu in the Tao Te Ching. Chuang Tzu said: "Where can I find a person who has forgotten all the words to talk to him?" Hence, the forgetfulness of the word can be seen not as something tragic, but as a break with the European tradition of speaking and falling into the Oriental, as well as the traditional romantic concept of silence.
A psychoanalytic interpretation is also possible. Then forgetfulness of the word will be associated with poetic impotence, and an empty canoe in a dry river with a phallus and (unsuccessful) sexual intercourse. The context of the poem confirms this interpretation. A visit by a living person to the kingdom of the dead, which is undoubtedly mentioned in this poem, can be associated with mythological death and resurrection in the spirit of the agrarian cycle as a campaign for fertility (see myth), which in a subtle sense can be interpreted as the campaign of Orpheus (the first poet) behind the lost Eurydice to the realm of shadows. I think that in this poem, in understanding this line, all three interpretations work simultaneously.
5. Russian futurism (on the example of the work of one poet)
Futurism (from Latin futurum - future) is the common name for the artistic avant-garde movements of the 1910s - early 1920s. XX century., First of all, in Italy and Russia.
Unlike acmeism, futurism as a trend in Russian poetry did not originate in Russia at all. This phenomenon is entirely introduced from the West, where it originated and was theoretically substantiated. Italy was the birthplace of the new modernist movement, and the famous writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944) became the main ideologist of Italian and world futurism, who spoke on February 20, 1909 on the pages of the Saturday issue of the Parisian newspaper Le Figaro with the first "Manifesto of Futurism", in which was its “anti-cultural, anti-aesthetic and anti-philosophical” orientation is declared.
In principle, any modernist trend in art asserted itself by rejecting the old norms, canons, and traditions. However, futurism was distinguished in this regard by an extremely extremist orientation. This trend claimed to build a new art - "the art of the future", speaking under the slogan of a nihilistic denial of all previous artistic experience. Marinetti proclaimed "the world-historical task of Futurism", which was to "spit daily on the altar of art".
The Futurists preached the destruction of the forms and conventions of art in order to merge it with the accelerated life process of the 20th century. They are characterized by admiration for action, movement, speed, strength and aggression; self-exaltation and contempt for the weak; the priority of force, the rapture of war and destruction were affirmed. In this regard, futurism in its ideology was very close to both right and left radicals: anarchists, fascists, communists, focused on the revolutionary overthrow of the past.
The Futurist Manifesto consisted of two parts: an introductory text and a program consisting of eleven points-theses of the futuristic idea. Milena Wagner notes that “in them, Marinetti asserts radical changes in the principle of constructing a literary text - “the destruction of the generally accepted syntax”; "the use of the verb in an indefinite mood" in order to convey the meaning of the continuity of life and the elasticity of intuition; the destruction of quality adjectives, adverbs, punctuation marks, the omission of conjunctions, the introduction of “perception by analogy” and “maximum disorder” into literature - in a word, everything aimed at conciseness and increasing the “speed of style” in order to create a “living style that creates itself according to himself, without meaningless pauses expressed by commas and periods. All this was suggested as a way to make literary work a means of conveying the “life of matter”, a means of “grabbing everything that is elusive and elusive in matter”, “so that literature directly enters the universe and merges with it” ...
The words of futuristic works were completely freed from the rigid framework of syntactic periods, from the fetters of logical connections. They were freely located in the space of the page, rejecting the norms of linear writing and forming decorative arabesques or playing entire dramatic scenes built by analogy between the shape of a letter and some figure of reality: mountains, people, birds, etc. Thus, the words turned into visual signs...
The final, eleventh paragraph of the "Technical Manifesto of Italian Literature" proclaimed one of the most important postulates of the new poetic concept: "destroy the I in literature."
"A man completely corrupted by the library and museum<...>is no longer of absolutely no interest ... We are interested in the hardness of the steel plate itself, that is, the incomprehensible and inhuman union of its molecules and electrons ... The warmth of a piece of iron or wood now excites us more than a woman’s smile or tear.
The text of the manifesto caused a stormy reaction and laid the foundation for a new "genre", introducing an exciting element into artistic life - a fist strike. Now the poet rising on the stage began to shock the audience in every possible way: insult, provoke, call for rebellion and violence.
Futurists wrote manifestos, spent evenings where these manifestos were read from the stage and only then were they published. These evenings usually ended in heated arguments with the public, turning into fights. Thus, the trend received its scandalous, but very wide popularity.
Given the socio-political situation in Russia, the seeds of futurism fell on fertile ground. It was this component of the new trend that was, first of all, enthusiastically received by Russian Cubo-Futurists in the pre-revolutionary years. For most of them, "software opuses" were more important than creativity itself.
Although the outrageous technique was widely used by all modernist schools, for the futurists it was the most important, because, like any avant-garde phenomenon, futurism needed increased attention. Indifference was absolutely unacceptable for him, necessary condition existence was the atmosphere of a literary scandal. Deliberate extremes in the behavior of the futurists provoked aggressive rejection and a pronounced protest of the public. Which is exactly what was required.
Russian avant-garde artists of the beginning of the century entered the history of culture as innovators who made a revolution in world art - both in poetry and in other areas of creativity. In addition, many became famous as great brawlers. Futurists, Cubo-Futurists and Ego-Futurists, Scientists and Suprematists, Rayonists and Budutlyans, all and nothing struck the imagination of the public. “But in discussions about these artistic revolutionaries,” as A. Obukhova and N. Alekseev rightly noted, “a very important thing is often missed: many of them were brilliant figures of what is now called “promotion” and “public relations.” They turned out to be the forerunners of modern "artistic strategies" - that is, the ability not only to create talented works, but also to find the most successful ways to attract the attention of the public, patrons and buyers.
The Futurists were, of course, radicals. But they knew how to make money. It has already been said about attracting attention to oneself with the help of all kinds of scandals. However, this strategy worked well for quite material purposes. The heyday of the avant-garde, 1912-1916, is hundreds of exhibitions, poetry readings, performances, reports, debates. And then all these events were paid, you had to buy an entrance ticket. Prices ranged from 25 kopecks to 5 rubles - the money at that time was very considerable. [Given that a handyman then earned 20 rubles a month, and sometimes several thousand people came to exhibitions.] In addition, paintings were also sold; on average, things worth 5-6 thousand royal rubles left the exhibition.
Futurists were often accused of greed in the press. For example: “We must do justice to the futurists, cubists and other ists, they know how to get along. Recently, a Futurist married a wealthy Moscow merchant's wife, taking as a dowry two houses, a carriage establishment and ... three taverns. In general, decadents always somehow "fatally" fall into the company of moneybags and arrange their happiness near them ... ".
However, at its core, Russian futurism was still a predominantly poetic trend: in the manifestos of the futurists, it was about the reform of the word, poetry, and culture. And in the rebellion itself, shocking the public, in the scandalous cries of the futurists, there were more aesthetic emotions than revolutionary ones. Almost all of them were prone to both theorizing and advertising and theatrical propaganda gestures. This did not contradict their understanding of futurism as a direction in art that shapes the future of man, regardless of the styles and genres in which its creator works. There was no single style problem.
“Despite the apparent closeness of Russian and European futurists, traditions and mentality gave each of the national movements their own characteristics. One of the signs of Russian futurism was the perception of all kinds of styles and trends in art. "Allness" has become one of the most important futuristic artistic principles.
Russian futurism did not result in a coherent art system; this term denoted a variety of trends in the Russian avant-garde. The avant-garde itself was the system. And it was dubbed futurism in Russia by analogy with Italian.” And this trend turned out to be much more heterogeneous than the symbolism and acmeism that preceded it.
The Futurists themselves understood this. One of the members of the Mezzanine of Poetry group, Sergei Tretyakov, wrote: “Everyone who wants to define futurism (in particular literary) as a school, as literary direction, connected by the commonality of methods of processing the material, the commonality of style. They usually have to stray helplessly between dissimilar factions.<...>and stop in bewilderment between the "archaic songwriter" Khlebnikov, the "tribune-urbanist" Mayakovsky, the "esthete-agitator" Burliuk, the "zaum-snarling" Kruchenykh. And if we add Pasternak's "specialist in indoor aeronautics on the syntax fokker" here, then the landscape will be full. Even more bewilderment will be introduced by those “falling off” from futurism - Severyanin, Shershenevich and others ... All these heterogeneous lines coexist under the common roof of futurism, tenaciously holding on to each other!<...>
The fact is that Futurism has never been a school, and the mutual coupling of the most heterogeneous people into a group was, of course, not kept up as a factional sign. Futurism would not be itself if it finally settled down on a few found patterns of artistic production and ceased to be a revolutionary ferment ferment, relentlessly impelling to invention, to the search for new and new forms.<...>The strong-assed bourgeois-petty-bourgeois life, into which past and modern art (symbolism) entered as solid parts, forming a stable taste of a serene and carefree, secure life, was the main stronghold from which Futurism pushed off and on which it collapsed. The blow to aesthetic taste was only a detail of the general planned blow to everyday life. Not a single outrageous stanza or manifesto of the futurists caused such a hubbub and squeal as painted faces, a yellow jacket and asymmetric suits. The brain of a bourgeois could endure any mockery of Pushkin, but to endure a mockery of the cut of trousers, a tie or a flower in a buttonhole was beyond his strength ... ".
The poetry of Russian futurism was closely connected with avant-gardism in painting. It is no coincidence that many Futurist poets were good artists - V. Khlebnikov, V. Kamensky, Elena Guro, V. Mayakovsky, A. Kruchenykh, the Burliuk brothers. At the same time, many avant-garde artists wrote poetry and prose, participated in futuristic publications not only as designers, but also as writers. Painting in many ways enriched futurism. K. Malevich, P. Filonov, N. Goncharova, M. Larionov almost created what the futurists were striving for.
However, Futurism also enriched avant-garde painting in some ways. At least in terms of scandalousness, the artists were not much inferior to their poetic counterparts. At the beginning of the new, 20th century, everyone wanted to be innovators. Especially artists who rushed to the only goal - to say the last word, and even better - to become the last cry of modernity. And our domestic innovators, as noted in the already cited article from the newspaper "Foreigner", began to use the scandal as a fully conscious artistic method. They arranged various scandals, ranging from mischievous theatrical antics to banal hooliganism. The painter Mikhail Larionov, for example, was repeatedly arrested and fined for outrages committed during the so-called “public disputes”, where he generously slapped opponents who disagreed with him, threw a music stand or a table lamp at them ...
In general, very soon the words "futurist" and "hooligan" for the modern moderate public became synonymous. The press enthusiastically followed the "exploits" of the creators of the new art. This contributed to their fame in the general population, aroused increased interest, attracted more and more attention.
The history of Russian futurism was a complex relationship between the four main groups, each of which considered itself an exponent of "true" futurism and led a fierce debate with other associations, challenging the dominant role in this literary movement. The struggle between them resulted in streams of mutual criticism, which by no means united the individual participants in the movement, but, on the contrary, increased their enmity and isolation. However, from time to time, members of different groups approached or moved from one to another.
+ We add information from the ticket about V. V. Mayakovsky to the answer
Composition
The theme of love is an eternal theme not only in literature, but also in art in general. Each artist brings something of his own to it: his own understanding of this feeling, his attitude towards it. Writers Silver Age interpreted in their own way love relationship. We can say that they have developed their own philosophy of love.
Bunin and Kuprin are one of the most prominent writers of that time, who went far beyond the Silver Age. Most of their work is devoted to the theme of love. Each of these artists created their own, original, works. They cannot be confused. But common sense the works of both Bunin and Kuprin can be conveyed by a rhetorical question: “Is love sometimes infrequent?”
Indeed, in dark alleys» Bunin probably does not have a single story dedicated to happy love. One way or another, this feeling is short-lived and ends dramatically, if not tragically. But the writer claims that, in spite of everything, love is beautiful. It, albeit for a short moment, illuminates a person's life and gives him a meaning for further existence. For example, in the story " Cold autumn» the heroine, having lived a long and very hard life, sums up: “But, remembering everything that I have experienced since then, I always ask myself: yes, but what did happen in my life? And I answer myself: only that cold autumn evening. Only that autumn cold evening, when the heroine said goodbye to her fiancé, who was leaving for the war. It was so light and, at the same time, sad and heavy in her soul.
Only at the end of the evening, the heroes started talking about the worst: what if the beloved does not return from the war? Would they kill him? The heroine does not want and cannot even think about it: “I thought: “What if they really kill? and am I really going to forget it at some point - after all, everything is forgotten in the end? And she hastily answered, frightened by her thought: “Don't talk like that! I won't survive your death!"
The heroine's fiancé was indeed killed. And the girl survived his death. She even got married and had a child. After the 1917 revolution, she had to wander around Russia and other countries. But, at the end of years, thinking about her life, the heroine comes to the conclusion that in her life there was only one love. Moreover, in her life there was only one autumn night that illuminated the whole life of a woman. This is her life meaning, her support and support.
The heroes of the stories "Caucasus" and "Clean Monday" do not talk about their lives, do not comprehend it. But in their lives, love-flash, love-rock played a huge role. You can say, it seems to me that she turned the existence of heroes, changed their way of life and thoughts.
In "Clean Monday" the hero loves his mysterious beloved with hot passion-love. He wants the same from her. But his lady of the heart, as if, cannot simply be happy. Something gnaws at her, won't let go. Some kind of sadness does not allow the heroine to be happy. “Happiness, happiness ...“ Our happiness, my friend, is like water in a delusion: you pull - it puffed up, but you pull it out - there’s nothing, ”she says.
Only on the last night before clean monday the heroine is completely given to the hero: both physically and spiritually. But after that, she announces that she is returning to her home, to Tver. And, probably, he will go to the monastery.
The heart of the hero from grief was torn to pieces. He loved this girl with all his heart. But, despite all the suffering, his love for her is a bright spot in life, albeit with an admixture of something bitter, incomprehensible, mysterious.
Love in the story "Caucasus" generally ends tragically. Because of her, a man, the husband of the narrator's beloved, dies. The feeling of love, according to Bunin, brings a lot of bitterness. It cannot be durable. Love is a flash that passes quickly and carries with it not only a creative, but also a destructive force. Love, according to the writer, is always associated with fate, mystery, mystery. But, nevertheless, this is the highest happiness that can only be in a person's life.
This idea in his work is fully supported by AI Kuprin. In the story "Garnet Bracelet" he draws a sacrificial and unrequited feeling that completely took possession of the hero. This seemingly unremarkable little man, a petty official, had a huge gift. Zheltkov knew how to love. Moreover, he subordinated his whole life, his whole being to this feeling. Therefore, when he was asked to no longer pay attention to his adored Vera Nikolaevna, the hero simply passes away. Without a princess, he has no reason to live. In his last letter, he wrote: “It’s not my fault, Vera Nikolaevna, that it was God’s will to send me, as a huge happiness, love for you. It so happened that I am not interested in anything in life: neither politics, nor science, nor philosophy, nor concern for the future happiness of people - for me, all life is only in you.
Zheltkov is aware of this and thanks God for the feeling he is experiencing. The hero does not need anything in return, only write letters to his beloved and give her the most precious thing - a piece of his huge soul.
This hero, it seems to me, could exclaim: "Is love ever unhappy?" Reading the works of Bunin and Kuprin, we begin to think about this. And also, it seems to me, we begin to appreciate this feeling more, regardless of its reciprocity.
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION OF THE MOSCOW REGION
State educational institution of higher vocational education
MOSCOW STATE REGIONAL UNIVERSITY
(MGOU)
Historical and Philological Institute
Faculty of Russian Philology
Department of Russian LiteratureXX century
The theme of love in the works of A.I. Kuprin
Completed by a student:
42 groups 4 courses
facultyRussian philology
"Domestic Philology"
full-time education
April Maria Sergeevna.
Scientific adviser:
Candidate of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor
Moscow
2015
Content
Introduction…………………………………………………………….……..………3
1. Features of the expression of love feelings in the story of A.I. Kuprin “Olesya”………………………………………………………………………………..5
2. The manifestation of the greatest human feeling in the work of A. I. Kuprin "Shulamith"…………………………………………………………………..8
3. The concept of love in A.I. Kuprin "Garnet Bracelet"……….12
Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….…18
List of used literature………………………………………..….20
Introduction
The theme of love is called the eternal theme. Over the centuries, many writers and poets dedicated their works to this great feeling of love, and each of them found something unique, individual in this topic.
The 20th century gave us A.I. Kuprin, a writer in whose work the theme of love occupied one of the most important places. Most of Kuprin's stories are a hymn to pure, sublime love, its transforming power
Kuprin is an idealist, a dreamer, a romantic, a singer of sublime feelings. He found special, exceptional conditions that allowed him to create romanticized images of women and their ideal love in his works.
The writer acutely felt the need for "heroic plots", for selfless, self-critical heroes. About love that illuminates human life, Kuprin writes in the stories "Olesya" (1898), "Shulamith" (1908), "Garnet Bracelet" (1911), etc.
In his environment, Kuprin saw a sad waste of beauty and strength, a crushing of feelings, a delusion of thought. The ideal of the writer went back to the victory of the strength of the spirit over the strength of the body and "love, faithful to death." For A. I. Kuprin, love is the most consistent form of affirmation and identification of the personal principle in a person.
A lot of works are devoted to the study of AI Kuprin's creativity. At one time they wrote about Kuprin: L.V. Krutikov “A.I. Kuprin, V.I. Kuleshova " creative way A.I. Kuprin, L.A. Smirnov "Kuprin" and others.
About love that illuminates human life, Kuprin writes in the stories "Olesya" (1898), "Shulamith" (1908), "Garnet Bracelet" (1911).
Kuprin's books leave no one indifferent, on the contrary, they always beckon. Young people can learn a lot from this writer: humanism, kindness, spiritual wisdom, the ability to love, appreciate love.
Kuprin's stories were an inspired hymn to the glory of true love, which is stronger than death, which makes people beautiful, no matter who these people are.
Relevance the topic is due to the desire to study the concept of love in the works of A.I. Kuprin.
Theoretical basis in the presented work were the works of Nikulin L. "Kuprin (literary portrait)", Krutikova L.V. “A.I. Kuprin, Kuleshova V.I. “The creative path of A.I. Kuprin.
An object term paper: creativity A. Kuprin
Subject was the study of the concept of love in the works "Garnet Bracelet", "Olesya", "Shulamith".
Target of this work is to study the concept of love in the works of A.I. Kuprin
Tasks this study:
1. Clarify the concept of love in the story of A. I. Kuprin "Garnet Bracelet"
2. To explore the manifestation of the greatest human feeling in the work of A. I. Kuprin "Shulamith"
3. Determine the peculiarity of the expression of love feelings in the story of A.I. Kuprin "Olesya"
Practical significance work lies in the possibility of its use in literature lessons dedicated to the work of Kuprin, on electives, extracurricular activities, in the preparation of reports and abstracts.
1. Features of the expression of love feelings in the story of A.I. Kuprin "Olesya"
"Olesya" is one of the first major works of the author and, in his own words, one of his most beloved. "Olesya" and more late story"River of Life" (1906) Kuprin attributed to his best works. “Here is life, freshness,” the writer said, “the struggle with the old, obsolete, impulses for a new, better”
"Olesya" is one of Kuprin's most inspired stories about love, man and life. Here the world of intimate feelings and the beauty of nature are combined with everyday pictures of the rural outback, romance true love- With cruel morals perebrodsky peasants.
The writer introduces us to an atmosphere of harsh rural life with poverty, ignorance, bribes, savagery, drunkenness. To this world of evil and ignorance, the artist opposes another world - the true harmony and beauty, written out just as realistically and full-blooded. Moreover, it is the bright atmosphere of great true love that inspires the story, infecting with impulses “towards a new, better”. “Love is the brightest and most understandable reproduction of my I. Not in strength, not in dexterity, not in mind, not in talent ... individuality is expressed not in creativity. But in love,” Kuprin wrote to his friend F. Batyushkov, clearly exaggerating.
In one thing, the writer turned out to be right: the whole person, his character, worldview, and structure of feelings are manifested in love. In the books of great Russian writers, love is inseparable from the rhythm of the era, from the breath of time. Beginning with Pushkin, artists tested the character of a contemporary not only by social and political deeds, but also by the sphere of his personal feelings. Not only a man became a true hero - a fighter, figure, thinker, but also a man of great feelings, capable of deeply experiencing, inspired to love. Kuprin in "Oles" continues the humanistic line of Russian literature. He checks modern man- an intellectual of the end of the century - from the inside, the highest measure.
The story is built on a comparison of two heroes, two natures, two world relations. On the one hand, there is an educated intellectual, a representative of urban culture, a rather humane Ivan Timofeevich, on the other hand, Olesya is a “child of nature”, a person who has not been influenced by urban civilization. The ratio of natures speaks for itself. Compared to Ivan Timofeevich, a man of a kind, but weak, "lazy" heart, Olesya rises with nobility, integrity, and proud confidence in his strength.
If in relations with Yarmola and the village people Ivan Timofeevich looks bold, humane and noble, then in communication with Olesya, the negative aspects of his personality also come out. His feelings turn out to be timid, the movements of the soul - constrained, inconsistent. “Fearful expectation”, “mean fear”, the indecision of the hero set off the wealth of the soul, courage and freedom of Olesya.
Freely, without any special tricks, Kuprin draws the appearance of a Polissya beauty, forcing us to follow the richness of her shades. spiritual world always original, sincere and deep. There are few books in Russian and world literature where such an earthly and poetic image a girl who lives in harmony with nature and her feelings. Olesya is Kuprin's artistic discovery.
A true artistic instinct helped the writer to reveal the beauty of the human person, generously endowed by nature. Naivety and dominance, femininity and proud independence, “a flexible, mobile mind”, “primitive and vivid imagination”, touching courage, delicacy and innate tact, involvement in the innermost secrets of nature and spiritual generosity - these qualities are distinguished by the writer, drawing the charming appearance of Olesya, whole, original, free nature, which flashed like a rare gem in the surrounding darkness and ignorance.
In the story, for the first time, Kuprin's cherished thought is so fully expressed: a person can be beautiful if he develops, and does not destroy, the bodily, spiritual and intellectual abilities bestowed on him by nature.
Subsequently, Kuprin will say that only with the triumph of freedom will a person in love be happy. In Oles, the writer revealed this possible happiness of free, unfettered and unclouded love. In fact, the flourishing of love and the human personality is the poetic core of the story.
With an amazing sense of tact, Kuprin makes us survive the anxious period of the birth of love, “full of vague, painfully sad sensations”, and her happiest seconds of “pure, complete, all-consuming delight”, and long joyful meetings of lovers in a dense pine forest. The world of spring jubilant nature - mysterious and beautiful - merges in the story with an equally beautiful overflow of human feelings.
The light, fabulous atmosphere of the story does not fade even after the tragic denouement. Over everything insignificant, petty and evil, real, great earthly love wins, which is remembered without bitterness - "easily and joyfully." The final touch of the story is characteristic: a string of red beads on the corner of the window frame among the dirty mess of the hastily abandoned “hut on chicken legs”. This detail gives compositional and semantic completeness to the work. A string of red beads is the last tribute to Olesya's generous heart, the memory of "her tender, generous love."
The story is told from the point of view of the hero. He did not forget Olesya, love lit up life, made it rich, bright, sensual. With her loss comes wisdom.
2. The manifestation of the greatest human feeling in the work of A. I. Kuprin "Shulamith"
The theme of mutual and happy love is also touched upon by A. I. Kuprin in the story “Shulamith”. The love of King Solomon and the poor girl Shulamith from the vineyard is strong as death, and those who love themselves are higher than kings and queens.
It is impossible to understand the romantic concept of love in the writer's work without reading the legend of Shulamith. Turning to this work makes it possible to show the originality of the historical and literary process at the turn of the century.
In the autumn of 1906, Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin wrote one of his most beautiful stories, Shulamith, inspired by the immortal biblical Song of Songs.
The source of Kuprin's legend was the Bible. The plot of the legend - the love story of Solomon and Shulamith - is based on the Old Testament Song of Songs of Solomon.
The Biblical "Song of Songs" seems to have no plot. These are exclamations of love, these are enthusiastic descriptions of nature and praise of either the groom, or the bride, or the choir that echoes them. From these disparate hymns of the "Song" Kuprin builds a story about the great love of King Solomon and a girl named Shulamith. She burns with love for the young and beautiful King Solomon, but jealousy destroys her, intrigues destroy her, and in the end she dies; It is about this death that the lines of the biblical poem "Song of Songs" speak: "Love is strong as death." These are powerful, eternal words.
The legend alternates chapters in which the deeds of King Solomon, his reflections and preaching, the love relationship between Sulamith and Solomon are recreated and described.
The theme of love in this work connects temporal specifics and eternity. On the one hand, these are the seven days and nights of the love of Solomon and Shulamith, containing all stages of the development of feelings and the tragic ending of love. On the other hand, "tender and fiery, devoted and beautiful love, which alone is more precious than wealth, glory and wisdom, which is more precious than life itself, because it does not even value life and is not afraid of death" - that which gives life to humanity, then that is not subject to time, that which connects the individual with eternal life humanity.
The organization of artistic time in Kuprin's legend helps the reader to perceive the love that happened once between two people as an extraordinary event imprinted in the memory of generations.
With the general content of the legend, its pathos, with the model of the world created in it, with the emotional structure of the images of heroes, with the author's orientation towards the Old Testament and ancient Eastern traditions, the symbolism and emblematics of color (paints) and flowers are consistent.
Descriptions of the love of Solomon and Sulamith are also accompanied by a certain color scheme. Constant red is the color of love. The silver color in this context is important because it means purity, innocence, purity, joy. The symbol of heat, life, light, activity and energy is the image of fire that appears in the portrait sketches of Sulamith with her "fiery curls" and "red hair". Not accidental, of course. green color in landscapes and in the statements of heroes: green color symbolizes freedom, joy, jubilation, hope, health. And, of course, white, blue and pink colors evoke quite definite associations in the reader, are filled with metaphorical meanings: gentle and beautiful, pure and sublime is the love of the characters.
The flowers mentioned in the legendary narrative also have symbolism that helps the author to reveal the meaning of the legend. Lily is a symbol of purity and innocence (note that the lily metaphor was cultivated in the art of romanticism). Narcissus is a symbol of youthful death, in addition, Narcissus is an ancient plant deity of a dying and resurrecting nature: in the myth of the abduction of Persephone, a narcissus flower is mentioned. Grapes are a symbol of fertility, abundance, vitality and cheerfulness.
The key words that help to reveal this meaning of the legend are the words fun and joy in it: "cordial joy", "cheerfulness of the heart", "bright and joyful", "joy", "happiness", "joyful fright", "moan of happiness" ,
"exclaimed joyfully", "cheerfulness of the heart", "great joy illuminated his face like golden sunshine", "joyful children's laughter", "his eyes shine with happiness", "joy", "my heart grows with joy", " delight”, “There has never been and never will be a woman happier than me.”
The strength of the characters' love, the brightness and immediacy of its manifestations described in the legend, the glorification of feelings and the idealization of the characters determined the writer's choice of artistically expressive, emotionally colored figurative and stylistic images. At the same time, they are universal, since they are related to the eternal theme of love and have a mythological origin or are included in the circle of traditional literary images. It should be noted that the Kuprin legend is practically indecomposable into "plans" of the narrative: real and allegorical, for example. In it, every detail, every word, every image is symbolic, allegorical, conditional. Together they form an image - a symbol of love, indicated by the name of the legend - "Shulamith".
Before his death, Shulamith says to his beloved: "I thank you, my king, for everything: for your wisdom, to which you allowed me to cling to your lips ... like a sweet source ... There has never been and never will be a woman happier than me." The main idea of this work: love is strong as death, and it alone, eternal, protects humanity from the moral degeneration that threatens it. modern society. In the story "Shulamith" the writer showed a pure and tender feeling: "The love of a poor girl from a vineyard and a great king will never pass and will never be forgotten, because love is strong as death, because every woman who loves is a queen, because love is beautiful!"
Art world, created by the writer in the legend, which seems so ancient and conventional, is in fact very modern and deeply individual.
According to the content of Shulamith: high happiness and tragedy true love. By types of heroes: a sage-lover of life and a pure girl. According to the most important source: the most "romantic" part of the Bible - "Song of Songs". According to the composition and plot: "epic distance" and approaching the present... According to the author's pathos: admiring the world and man, perception of a true miracle - a man in his best and sublime feelings.
"Shulamith" Kuprin continues the literary and aesthetic tradition associated with the names of Turgenev ("The Song of Triumphant Love"), Mamin-Sibiryak ("Tears of the Queen", "Maya"), M. Gorky ("Girl and Death", "Khan and his son", "Wallachian Tale"), that is, the names of writers who, in the genre of literary legend, expressed - within the limits of realism - a romantic worldview.
At the same time, Kuprin's Shulamith is the writer's aesthetic and emotional response to his era, marked by a sense of transition, renewal, movement towards the new, the search for positive beginnings in life, the dream of realizing the ideal in reality. It was no coincidence that D. Merezhkovsky saw the revival of romanticism in the art and literature of that time. Shulamith by AI Kuprin is a bright romantic legend.
3. The concept of love in A.I. Kuprin "Garnet bracelet"
The story "Garnet Bracelet", written in 1907, tells us about true, strong, but unrequited love. It is worth noting that this work is based on real events from the family chronicles of the princes Tugan-Baranovsky. This story has become one of the most famous and profound works about love in Russian literature.
According to many researchers, “everything is masterfully written in this story, starting with its title. The title itself is surprisingly poetic and sonorous.
It sounds like a line of a poem written in iambic trimeter.
One of the most tormenting stories about love, the saddest one is “Garnet Bracelet”. The most surprising in this work can be considered the epigraph: “L. von Beethovn. Son (op. 2 no. 2). Largo Appassionato. Here the sadness and delight of love are combined with the music of Beethoven. And how well found the refrain: “Hallowed be thy name!”
Critics repeatedly pointed out "that the" motives "characteristic of the "Garnet Bracelet" gradually sprouted in previous work.
We find the prototype not so much of character as of Zheltkov’s fate in the story “The First Encounter” (1897), that love to the point of self-abasement and even self-destruction, the willingness to die in the name of the woman he loves, is this theme, touched by an uncertain hand in the story “Strange Case” (1895 ) blossoms in the exhilarating, masterfully crafted "Pomegranate Bracelet".
Kuprin worked on the "Garnet Bracelet" with great enthusiasm and genuine creative enthusiasm.
According to V. N. Afanasyev, “Kuprin did not accidentally end his story with a tragic ending, he needed such a ending to more strongly emphasize the power of Zheltkov’s love for a woman almost unfamiliar to him, a love that happens “once in several hundred years.”
Before us are typical representatives of the aristocracy of the early 20th century, the Shein family. Vera Nikolaevna Sheina is a beautiful secular lady, moderately happy in marriage, lives a calm, dignified life. Her husband, Prince Shein, is a worthy man, Vera respects him.
The first pages of the story are devoted to the description of nature. According to the exact remark of Shtilman S., “Kuprin’s landscape is full of sounds, colors and, in particular, smells ... Kuprin’s landscape is highly emotional and unlike anyone else.”
As if on their miraculous light background all events take place, come true beautiful fairy tale love. The coldish autumn landscape of fading nature is similar in essence to the mood of Vera Nikolaevna Sheina. Nothing attracts her in this life, perhaps that is why the brightness of her being is enslaved by routine and dullness. Even during a conversation with her sister Anna, in which the latter admires the beauty of the sea, she replies that at first this beauty also worries her, and then “begins to crush her flat emptiness ...”. Vera could not be imbued with a sense of beauty to the world around her. She was not a natural romantic. And, seeing something out of the ordinary, some peculiarity, I tried (albeit involuntarily) to ground it, to compare it with the outside world. Her life flowed slowly, measuredly, quietly, and, it would seem, satisfied the principles of life, without going beyond them. Vera married a prince, yes, but the same exemplary, quiet person as she herself was.
The poor official Zheltkov, having once met Princess Vera Nikolaevna, fell in love with her with all his heart. This love leaves no room for other interests of the lover.
Afanasiev V.N. believes that “it is in the sphere of love that “a little man shows his great feelings” in Kuprin’s work par excellence. It is difficult to agree with his opinion, since the heroes of Kuprin's work can hardly be called "little people", they are capable of holy, great feelings.
And now Vera Nikolaevna receives a bracelet from Zheltkov, the brilliance of the garnets of which plunges her into horror, the thought “like blood” immediately pierces her brain, and now a clear feeling of impending misfortune weighs on her, and this time it is not at all empty. From that moment on, her peace is shattered. Vera considered Zheltkov "unfortunate", she could not understand the tragedy of this love. The expression "happy unhappy person" turned out to be somewhat contradictory. Indeed, in his feeling for Vera, Zheltkov experienced happiness.
Leaving forever, he thought that the path of Faith would become free, that life would improve and go on as before. But there is no way back. Saying goodbye to Zheltkov's body was the climax of her life. At that moment, the power of love reached its maximum value, became equal to death.
Eight years of happy, selfless love, demanding nothing in return, eight years of devotion to a sweet ideal, selflessness from one's own principles.
In one short moment of happiness, sacrificing everything accumulated over such a long period of time is not for everyone. But Zheltkov's love for Vera did not obey any models, she was above them. And even if her end turned out to be tragic, Zheltkov's forgiveness was rewarded.
Zheltkov passes away so as not to interfere with the life of the princess, and, dying, thanks her for the fact that she was for him "the only joy in life, the only consolation, one thought." This story is not so much about love as a prayer to it. In his suicide letter, the amorous official blesses his beloved princess: "Leaving, I say in delight:" your name". crystal palace, in which Vera lived, crashed, letting a lot of light, warmth, sincerity into life. Merging in the finale with Beethoven's music, it merges with Zheltkov's love and eternal memory of him.
Saluting Zheltkov's feeling, V. N. Afanasiev, however, notes, “And if Kuprin himself, betraying his impressions of Bizet's opera Carmen, wrote that “love is always a tragedy, always a struggle and an achievement, always joy and fear, resurrection and death ”, then Zheltkov’s feeling is a quiet, submissive adoration, without ups and downs, without fighting for a loved one, without hopes for reciprocity. Such adoration withers the soul, makes it timid and powerless. Isn’t that why Zheltkov, crushed by his love, so willingly agrees to die?
According to the critic, "Garnet Bracelet" is one of Kuprin's most sincere and beloved works by readers, and yet the seal of some inferiority lies both in the image of its central character - Zheltkov, and in the very feeling for Vera Sheina, who fenced off her love from life with With all her worries and anxieties, closed in her feelings, as in a shell, Zheltkov does not know the true joy of love.
What was Zheltkov's feeling - was it true love, inspiring, the only, strong, or insanity, madness that makes a person weak and flawed? What was the death of the hero - weakness, cowardice, saturated with fear or strength, the desire not to annoy and leave his beloved? This, in our opinion, is the true conflict of the story.
Analyzing Kuprin's Garnet Bracelet, Yu. V. Babicheva writes:
“This is a kind of akathist of love…”. A. Chalova comes to the conclusion that when creating the "Garnet Bracelet" Kuprin used the model of an akathist.
"Akathist" is translated from Greek as "a hymn during the performance of which one cannot sit." It consists of 12 pairs of kontakia and ikos and the last kontakion, which has no pair and is repeated three times, after which 1 ikos and 1 kontakion are read. The akathist is usually followed by a prayer. Thus, A. Chalova believes, the akathist can be divided into 13 parts. The same number of chapters in the "Garnet Bracelet". Very often, an akathist is built on a consistent description of miracles and deeds in the name of God. In the Pomegranate Bracelet, this corresponds to love stories, of which at least ten can be counted.
Undoubtedly, the 13th kontakion is very important. In The Garnet Bracelet, chapter 13 is clearly the climax. The motives of death and forgiveness are clearly indicated in it. And in the same chapter Kuprin includes a prayer.
Especially in this story, A. I. Kuprin singled out the figure of the old general
Anosov, who is sure that high love exists, but it "...should be a tragedy, the greatest secret in the world", which knows no compromises.
According to S. Volkov, "it is General Anosov who will formulate the main idea of the story: Love must be ...". Volkov deliberately breaks off the phrase, emphasizing that “true love, which existed once upon a time, could not disappear, it will definitely return, it’s just that they might not notice it, not recognize it, and unrecognized, it already lives somewhere nearby. Her return will be a real miracle.” It is difficult to agree with Volkov's opinion, General Anosov could not formulate the main idea of the story, since he himself did not experience such love.
“For Princess Vera herself,“ the former passionate love for her husband has long since passed into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship; however, this love did not bring her the desired happiness - she is childless and passionately dreams of children.
According to Volkov S., "the heroes of the story do not attach the real meaning of love, they cannot understand and accept all its seriousness and tragedy."
Passionate love either quickly burns out and sobering up comes, as in the unsuccessful marriage of General Anosov, or passes "into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship" to her husband, as with Princess Vera.
And so the old general doubted whether this was love: “Love is disinterested, selfless, not waiting for a reward? The one about which it is said - "strong as death." That is how a small poor official with a dissonant surname loves. Eight years is a long time to test feelings, and, however, for all these years he did not forget her for a second, "every moment of the day was filled with you, with the thought of you ...". And, nevertheless, Zheltkov always remained on the sidelines, not humiliating himself and not humiliating her.
Princess Vera, a woman, with all her aristocratic restraint, very impressionable, capable of understanding and appreciating the beautiful, felt that her life came into contact with this great love, sung by the best poets of the world. And being at the coffin of Zheltkov, who was in love with her, “she realized that the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by.”
“In the years of reaction,” writes V. N. Afanasiev, “when decadents and naturalists of all stripes ridiculed and trampled human love into the mud, Kuprin in the story “Garnet Bracelet” showed once again the beauty and grandeur of this feeling, but, having made his hero capable only for selfless and all-consuming love, and at the same time denying him all other interests, he unwittingly impoverished, limited the image of this hero.
Selfless love, not waiting for a reward - it is about such, selfless and all-forgiving love, Kuprin writes in the story "Garnet Bracelet". Love transforms everyone it touches.
Conclusion
Love in Russian literature is portrayed as one of the main human values. According to Kuprin, “individuality is expressed not in strength, not in dexterity, not in mind, not in creativity. But in love!
The extraordinary strength and sincerity of feeling is characteristic of the heroes of Kuprin's stories. Love, as it were, says: "Where I stand, it cannot be dirty." The natural fusion of the frankly sensual and the ideal creates an artistic impression: the spirit penetrates the flesh and ennobles it. This, in my opinion, is the philosophy of love in the truest sense.
Creativity Kuprin attracts with its love of life, humanism, love and compassion for man. The convexity of the image, simple and clear language, precise and subtle drawing, lack of edification, psychologism of characters - all this brings them closer to the best classical tradition in Russian literature.
Love in the perception of Kuprin is often tragic. But, perhaps, only this feeling can give meaning to human existence. We can say that the writer tests the love of his characters. Strong people (such as Zheltkov, Olesya), thanks to this feeling, begin to glow from the inside, they are able to carry love in their hearts, no matter what.
As V. G. Afanasiev wrote, “Love has always been the main, organizing theme of all the great works of Kuprin. Both in "Shulamith" and "Garnet Bracelet" - a great passionate feeling that inspires the characters, determines the movement of the plot, helps to identify best qualities heroes. And although love among the heroes of Kuprin is rarely happy and even more rarely finds an equivalent response in the heart of the one to whom it is addressed (Shulamith is perhaps the only exception in this respect), revealing it in all its breadth and versatility gives romantic excitement and elation to the works , elevating above the gray, bleak life, affirming in the minds of readers the idea of the strength and beauty of a genuine and great human feeling.
True love is a great happiness, even if it ends in separation, death, tragedy. To this conclusion, albeit late, but many of Kuprin's heroes come, who have lost, overlooked or destroyed their love themselves. In this late repentance, late spiritual resurrection, the enlightenment of heroes, lies that all-cleansing melody, which also speaks of the imperfection of people who have not yet learned how to live. Recognize and cherish real feelings, and about the imperfection of life itself, social conditions, environment, circumstances that often interfere with truly human relationships, and most importantly - about those high emotions that leave an unfading trace of spiritual beauty, generosity, devotion and purity. Love is a mysterious element that transforms a person's life, giving his fate a uniqueness against the background of ordinary everyday stories, filling his earthly existence with a special meaning.
In his stories A.I. Kuprin showed us sincere, devoted, selfless love. The love that everyone dreams of. Love, in the name of which you can sacrifice anything, even life. Love that will survive millennia, overcome evil, make the world beautiful, and people kind and happy.
List of used literature
1. Afanasiev V.N. Kuprin A.I. Critical biographical sketch -
M.: Fiction, 1960.
2. Berkov P. N. Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin. Critical bibliographic essay, ed. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, M., 1956
3. Berkova P. N. “A. I. Kuprin "M., 1956
4. Volkov A.A. Creativity A.I Kuprin. M., 1962. S. 29.
5. Vorovsky VV Literary-critical articles. Politizdat, M., 1956, p. 275.
6. Kachaeva L.A. Kuprinskaya style of writing // Russian speech. 1980. No. 2. S.
23.
7. Koretskaya I. Notes // Kuprin A.I. Sobr. op. In 6 vol. M., 1958. T.
4. S. 759.
8. Krutikova L.V. A.I. Kuprin. M., 1971
9. Kuleshov V.I. The creative path of A.I. Kuprin, 1883-1907. M., 1983
10. Kuprin A. I. Shulamith: Tales and stories - Yaroslavl: Top.
–Volzh.kn.izd-vo, 1993. - 416 p.
11. Kuprin A. I. Collected works in 9 volumes. Ed. N. N. Akonova and others. An article by F. I. Kuleshova will enter. T.1. Works 1889-1896. M.,
"Fiction", 1970
12. Mikhailov O. Kuprin. ZHZL vol. 14 (619). "Young Guard", 1981 -
270s.
13. Pavvovskaya K. Creativity Kuprin. Abstract. Saratov, 1955, p. 18
14. Plotkin L. Literary essays and articles, "Soviet Writer", L, 1958, p. 427
15. Chuprinin S. Rereading Kuprin. M., 1991
16. Bahnenko E. N. “... Each person can be kind, compassionate, interesting and beautiful soul» To the 125th anniversary of the birth of A. I. Kuprin
// Literature at school. – 1995 - №1, p.34-40
17. Volkov S. “Love must be a tragedy” From observations on ideological and artistic the originality of Kuprin's story "Garnet Bracelet" //
Literature. 2002, no. 8, p. 18
18. Nikolaeva E. Man is born for joy: to the 125th anniversary of the birth of A.
Kuprin // Library. - 1999, No. 5 - p. 73-75
19. Khablovsky V. In the image and likeness (characters of Kuprin) // Literature
2000, no. 36, p. 2-3
20. Chalova S. "Garnet Bracelet" Kuprin (Some remarks on the problem of form and content) / / Literature 2000 - No. 36, p.4
21. Shklovsky E. At the turn of epochs. A. Kuprin and L. Andreev // Literature 2001 -
№ 11, p. 1-3
22. Shtilman S. On the skill of the writer. The story of A. Kuprin "Garnet bracelet" // Literature - 2002 - No. 8, p. 13-17
23. "Shulamith" A.I. Kuprin: a romantic legend about love N.N. Starygin http://lib.userline.ru/samizdat/10215
Ilya Khazanov,
Kurgan
"Garnet bracelet"
May your name be hallowed...
This story is pure fiction or Kuprin managed to find in real life a plot that corresponds to the author's idea?
The writer tried to find plots and images for his works in the real world. The story is based on facts from the family chronicle of the princes Tugan-Baranovsky. In October 1910, Kuprin reported this to his friend, critic and literary historian F.D. Batyushkov: "Do you remember this? - the sad story of the little telegraph official Zheltkov, who was so hopelessly, touchingly and selflessly in love with Lyubimov's wife (D.N. is now governor in Vilna)".
Where is the action taking place? What pictures of nature does the author describe, how do they affect the mood of Princess Vera Nikolaevna?
The action takes place in a seaside resort town. Kuprin shows the middle of August, when "disgusting weather suddenly set in, which is so characteristic of the northern coast of the Black Sea." Rain, gale-force winds, dense fog drive away the inhabitants of the resort, the "abandoned dachas with their sudden spaciousness, emptiness and bareness" look sad. But by the beginning of September, "quiet cloudless days came, so clear, sunny and warm, which were not even in July." The peace that has come in nature is also transmitted to Vera Nikolaevna: she "rejoiced very much at the lovely days that had come, silence, solitude."
How does the princess perceive her name day?
"According to sweet, distant childhood memories, she always loved this day and always expected something from him. happy-wonderful".
How does Vera Nikolaevna feel about her husband?
"The former passionate love for her husband has long since passed into a feeling of lasting, faithful, true friendship."
How does her portrait characterize the princess?
With a tall, flexible figure, a cold and proud face, she "was strictly simple, coldly and a little condescendingly kind to everyone, independent and regally calm."
Will she be capable of passionate, passionate love?
Perhaps, in her youth and early youth, the princess was capable of a strong, all-consuming feeling; it is not for nothing that Kuprin mentions her former passionate love for her husband. But "time heals", including from ardent impulses. Now this woman will no longer let anyone into her soul so easily. Kuprin does not condemn the heroine, only states the changes in her character that have occurred over time. And who among us does not lose the immediacy and depth of feelings with age! But there are people for whom love at any age is a holy and passionate revelation. They managed to save their soul for the great elements. Meeting with them happily wonderful moment in a woman's life.
What event disturbs the calm course of the name day? Read the description of the bracelet. What did the princess feel when she saw him?
In poorly polished grenades, in front of the fire, the bulbs light up "charming deep red living lights." The bracelet portends a future tragedy. ("It's like blood!" Vera thought with unexpected anxiety.)
What did Vera Nikolaevna think when she saw the letter?
"Ah, this is the one!" Vera thought with displeasure. Apparently, this is not the first letter that the princess receives from her admirer.
Read the letter. What are the properties of green pomegranate? How does H.S.J. feel?
A rare variety of pomegranate - green - "has the property of imparting the gift of foresight to women wearing it and drives away heavy thoughts from them, while protecting men from violent death." Note that G.S.Zh. now there is no talisman - and nothing will now protect the unfortunate lover from death. Feelings G.S.Zh. extraordinarily sublime - "reverence, eternal admiration and slavish devotion." They are akin to the feelings of Khvoshchinsky, the hero of the story by I.A. Bunin Grammar of Love. "Now I can only wish you happiness every minute and rejoice if you are happy. I mentally bow to the ground of the furniture on which you are sitting, the parquet on which you walk, the trees that you touch in passing, the servants with whom you speak." This is sacrificial, to some extent even crazy love. G.S.Zh. devoted to his beloved to death and "after death, a humble servant." But he is unhappy, Vera also confirms this: "... now not only this unfortunate person will be ridiculous, but I will be ridiculous with him."
What is included in Prince Shein's home humorous album?
This album contains the story "Princess Vera and the Telegrapher in Love". From the ironic story of Vasily Lvovich, we learn how Vera, not yet married, received the first letter "with kissing doves on the headline" and showed it to her parents and fiancé. Prince Shein mocks the feelings of G.S.Zh. For Shein, true love means nothing, it is the lot of crazy people. And again in the story of the prince - a mention of the death of a lover ...
What is the story of General Anosov and why is it given in such detail? What is the drama of this man?
Anosov knows what love at first sight is. But his wife left him. “People in our time have forgotten how to love,” the general says. “I don’t see true love. And in my time I didn’t see it.” Anosov talks about why people get married. For women - "the desire to be a mistress, head of the house, independent ... In addition, the need for motherhood, and to start making a nest." Men have other motives - "fatigue from a single life, from a mess in the rooms ... from debts, from unceremonious comrades ... You feel that it is more profitable, healthier and more economical to live with a family ... you think: the kids will go, - I I will die, but a part of me will still remain in the world ... there are sometimes thoughts about a dowry. As we can see, the motives for marriage of people who lived at the beginning of the 20th century differ little from the aspirations of our contemporaries ... Through the mouth of his hero, Kuprin exclaims: “But where is love? about which it is said - “strong as death”? .. Such love, for which to accomplish any feat, give life, go to torment is not work at all, but one joy. According to the writer, "love should be a tragedy. The greatest secret in the world! No life's conveniences, calculations and compromises should touch it." Kuprin tried to find such love in real life and sang in his story. The writer is sure that "almost every woman is capable of the highest heroism in love ... For her ... love contains the whole meaning of life - the whole universe. But it is not at all her fault that people's love has taken such vulgar forms and descended just to some kind of worldly convenience, to a little entertainment. Men are to blame ... incapable of strong desires, of heroic deeds, of tenderness and adoration before love. " Every woman dreams of love "united, all-forgiving, ready for anything, modest and selfless." Such is the ideal of love according to Kuprin. But to achieve the ideal is difficult, almost impossible. If there is no love, women take revenge. They take revenge on themselves and others.
How deep and true are the author's thoughts about love! How subtly he understands its nature! The story "Garnet Bracelet" is a textbook of life, a source of wisdom and moral purity. The essence of a great feeling is revealed to us in its entirety. We think again and again about the eternal, the imperishable, about what excites people at all times...
Prince Shein and the princess's brother decide to find Zheltkov and return the bracelet to him in order to preserve the good name of Vera and her husband. The appearance of the telegraph operator is unusual: "very pale, with a gentle girlish face, blue eyes and a stubborn childish chin with a dimple in the middle." He is very excited, looking at Vasily Lvovich with imploring eyes. Seven years of "hopeless and polite love" have passed, but the feeling cannot be drowned out. Zheltkov sees the only way out - death. The "huge tragedy of the soul" is resolved by suicide.
What does Vera think about when she learns about Zheltkov's death?
She foresaw a tragic outcome. What was it - love or madness?
How does Zheltkov appear in his suicide letter? Does he appear to be already dead?
Zheltkov admits that he “cut into Vera’s life like an uncomfortable wedge” and is infinitely grateful to her only for the fact that she exists. His love is not a disease, not a manic idea, but a reward sent by God. His tragedy is hopeless, he is a dead man.
What is the fate of the garnet bracelet? What does the princess feel when last date with Zheltkov?
The unfortunate lover asked to hang a bracelet - a symbol of holy love - on the icon. The lips of the dead hero "smiled blissfully and serenely, as if, before parting with life, he had learned some deep and sweet secret that resolved his entire human life." And Vera realized that "the love that every woman dreams of has passed her by." After his death, Zheltkov received the highest award: Vera "kissed him on the cold, wet forehead with a long friendly kiss." And still friendly kiss! No, even after Zheltkov's self-sacrifice, the princess did not fall in love with her admirer. Lawless Heart...
What role does Beethoven's music play in the work? What feelings does she evoke for the princess?
Beethoven's Sonata No. 2 is "an exceptional, unique work in terms of depth." (If possible, it is advisable to let the students listen to an excerpt from this composition.) The music harmonizes amazingly with the experiences of Vera, in whose soul the words “Hallowed be Thy name” sound. In these gentle sounds - life, which "dutifully and joyfully doomed itself to torment, suffering and death." The last memories of the lover are covered with sweet sadness. "Calm down, I'm with you. Think of me, and I'll be with you, because you and I loved each other only for a moment, but forever. Do you remember me?" A moment of happiness for Zheltkov becomes an eternity.
Did Zheltkov forgive the princess?
Vera feels that the lover has forgiven her. He could not help but forgive, for in the mournful hour of parting, on the verge of death, he nevertheless sang the glory of his goddess.
- Would you forgive a person whom you passionately loved and who did not reciprocate?
How does the writer see true love?
True love, according to Kuprin, is the basis of everything earthly. It should not be isolated, undivided. Love must be based on high sincere feelings to strive for the ideal. This is a holy tragedy in human life. Love is stronger than death and elevates the little man above the vain world of injustice and malice.
"Olesya"
Kuprin loved Olesya, although he saw the shortcomings of the story and agreed with A.P. Chekhov, who found it "a youthful-sentimental and romantic thing." Kuprin confessed to his wife: "... Anton Pavlovich is also right, who considers this thing weak and pointed out to me that the mysterious past of the old sorceress and the mysterious origin of Olesya are the reception of a tabloid novel." That is why the writer did not include "Olesya" in his first large collection - "Stories", published in 1903. However, a few years later, when asked which of his stories he considers the best, Kuprin answered: “There are two of them: Olesya and The River of Life. two stories more than in my other stories, my soul." M. Gorky praised this story and regretted that it was not included in the collection "Stories". “I like this piece because,” he said, “it is all imbued with the mood of youth. After all, if you wrote it now, you would write even better, but that immediacy would no longer be in it.” This work has an amazing charm, and above all, the image is mysterious, attractive. main character. The story captures the writer's soul, the reader's task is to comprehend it.
For what purpose does the young "panych" Ivan Timofeevich come to a remote village in the Volyn province?
"Polesye ... backwoods ... the bosom of nature ... simple morals ... primitive nature," the hero reflects, "a people completely unfamiliar to me, with strange customs, a peculiar language ... and, probably, what a lot of poetic legends , legends and songs! All this is so attractive for a budding writer! But in the village, except for hunting, there is nothing to do. Ivan Timofeevich cannot get along with the local "intelligentsia" in the person of the priest, constable and clerk, and he cannot establish contact with the peasants either.
What violates the usual village boredom of the city "master"?
Ivan Timofeevich learns about the existence of a witch. "The witch lives some ten versts from my house ... a real, living, Polissya witch!" This thought immediately excited and interested him. "Panych" decides to visit the house of the mysterious witch.
What fairy-tale elements are used in the description of Manuilikha?
Her house is located in a hard-to-reach place - behind a swamp: "It was not even a hut, but a fabulous hut on chicken legs." The mistress of the house is an old woman sitting on the floor near the stove. "All the features of the Baba Yaga, as depicted folk epic, were obvious: thin cheeks, drawn inward, turned below into a sharp, long, flabby chin, almost in contact with the nose hanging down; the sunken, toothless mouth moved incessantly, as if chewing something; faded, once blue eyes, cold, round, bulging, with very short red eyelids, looked like the eyes of an unprecedented sinister bird. "Manuilikha is not happy with the uninvited guest. But suddenly a fresh, sonorous female voice is heard and the most mysterious heroine appears on the threshold story - Olesya.
What is attractive about the portrait of Olesya?
Ivan Timofeevich involuntarily admired her: “My stranger, a tall brunette about twenty or twenty-five years old, kept herself light and slender. A spacious white shirt freely and beautifully wrapped around her young, healthy chest. but it was difficult to describe him, even after getting used to him. , of which the lower one, somewhat fuller, protruded forward with a determined and capricious look.
The portrait of a girl is an expression of her rich inner world. Everything in it is - and determination, and imperiousness, and naivety, and even cunning, and all this is elusive, unusual, exciting.
How do the villagers feel about Olesya and her grandmother?
Ordinary people do not oppress Olesya. But the authorities constantly humiliate and rob.
What image of Olesya stands before the eyes of the hero in the days of early spring? Is there a hint of a nascent feeling here? (ch. IV)
In the soul of Ivan Timofeevich "poured ... poetic sadness." The image of Olesya did not leave him. "I liked ... to constantly conjure up in my imagination her now stern, now sly, now shining with a gentle smile, her young body, which grew up in the free space of the old forest as harmoniously and as powerfully as young Christmas trees grow, her fresh voice, with unexpected low velvety notes". In the appearance of Olesya, in her movements and words, the hero sees something noble, "some kind of innate graceful moderation." How the city dwellers lack this moderation! It turns out that real nobility is not necessarily inherent in people from the rich, educated strata of society, but a beautiful, proud, mysterious girl can grow up in the wilderness of Polesie. A feeling is born, not yet realized, but deep, strong and pure.
How does fortune-telling help to find out the character of Ivan Timofeevich? Did Olesya's prediction come true?
Ivan Timofeevich is a kind man, but weak, "he is not master of his word." He does not value money, he does not know how to save money. Fortune-telling promises him love from some lady of clubs, dark-haired, like Olesya. The lady herself comes out with a long sadness and great misfortune. It is easy to guess that the queen of clubs is Olesya. The prediction came true exactly.
What wonderful gift does Olesya have?
In the face, she can determine the fate of a person, speak a wound, catch up with fear, treat the most severe diseases with plain water, even knock down with a glance. But Olesya never used her gift to harm people.
How is love born: at first sight or in the process of communication? What fascinates Ivan Timofeevich in Oles? (Ch. VI)
In the process of communication, Ivan Timofeevich and Olesya became more and more attached to each other. "Not a word has yet been said about love between us, but being together has already become a necessity for us, and often in silent moments, when our eyes accidentally and simultaneously met, I saw how Olesya's eyes moistened and how her thin blue vein beat on the temple." Ivan Timofeevich is fascinated not only by the beauty of Olesya, but also by her whole, original, free nature, clear, childishly innocent mind.
What misfortune threatens Olesya and her grandmother? What does Ivan Timofeevich have to sacrifice to help? How did Olesya's behavior change after that? What is Ivan Timofeevich going through at this moment? (ch. ix)
Olesya and her grandmother are threatened with eviction, the greedy constable is no longer satisfied with their modest offerings. Ivan Timofeevich gives him an old hunting rifle without hesitation. For a while, the Manuilikha family was saved, but the proud Olesya cannot forgive patronage: “In her treatment of me, there was not a trace of the former trusting and naive affection, the former animation, in which coquetry was so sweetly mixed beautiful girl with frisky childish playfulness. Some kind of insurmountable awkward compulsion appeared in our conversation. " Ivan Timofeevich is surprised: "Where, in fact, could such an overly scrupulous pride come from a simple girl who grew up in the middle of the forest?" Kuprin traces the stages of development of feelings: first, interest in an unusual appearance, nature, then a craving for communication, finally, a period of "vague, languidly sad sensations." The hero's heart is "tied with thin, strong, invisible threads" to a charming girl: "... all my thoughts were occupied with the image of Olesya, my whole being strove for her, every memory ... squeezed my heart with quiet and sweet pain.
Why is the development of love shown in close connection with pictures of nature?
The main idea of the story: only far from civilization, from an indifferent city, you can find a person who is able to love disinterestedly, devotedly. Only in unity with nature, in the preservation of naturalness, a person is able to achieve moral purity and nobility.
What brings with it the disease of the hero?
She brings separation. But "parting for love is the same as the wind for fire: it extinguishes a small love, and inflates a big one even more strongly." Olesya is happy, on her face "in an instant, bewilderment, fear, anxiety and a tender, radiant smile of love were reflected, replacing each other." Ivan Timofeevich experiences "pure, complete, all-consuming delight." In the eyes of Olesya, he sees the excitement of the meeting and the ardent declaration of love.
Who is the first to confess his love and what premonition accompanies the explanation?
Olesya is the first to pour out her feelings. You can’t get away from fate, a feeling of anxiety, a premonition of imminent trouble does not leave both.
A whole month lasts "a naive, charming fairy tale of love." What feelings does Ivan Timofeevich experience? (Ch. XI)
A girl who grew up in the middle of the forest, who cannot even read, "in many cases of life shows sensitive delicacy and a special, innate tact." "Calm, healthy, sensual" love gives rise to the idea of marriage. But the hero is frightened by the fact that Olesya, becoming his wife, will be uprooted from her native environment. Olesya is afraid that one day she will get tired of her beloved. In addition, the superstitious fear of the church is strong in her soul.
What act did Olesya decide to do in order to prove her love to Ivan Timofeevich and, most importantly, to herself?
Olesya overcame her fear and came to church. But the hatred and fear of the peasants awaited her, from whom she miraculously managed to escape. In desperation, Olesya threatened the crowd and is now forced to leave, since the very first incident in the village will be attributed to her charms. As a memory of herself, Olesya leaves a string of cheap red beads, which (like the garnet bracelet in the work of the same name) will forever remind of tender, generous love.
What is the drama of this love?
It is a beautiful, gentle, pure, sublime feeling. But there are too many external obstacles to happiness. Lovers are waiting for separation and sadness.
Kuprin is looking for people in real life who are filled with a holy feeling of love, who are able to rise above the surrounding vulgarity and lack of spirituality, who are ready to give everything without demanding anything in return. "Garnet Bracelet" and "Olesya" - hymns female beauty and love, hymns to a woman, spiritually pure and wise, hymns to a sublime primordial feeling. The eternal theme of love has always excited and will excite the hearts of people, but few are able to unravel its secrets. Among them is the remarkable Russian writer Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin, whose works carry not only quiet sadness, but also faith in the spiritual perfection of man.
30.03.2013 31116 0Lessons 7–8
Stages of life and work of AI Kuprin.
Love as the highest value of the world
in the story "Garnet Bracelet"
Goals : to acquaint with the features of the life and work of Kuprin; develop the skills of perception of lecture material, independent work with a book.
Tasks : to note realism as an artistic method of the writer in the traditions of classical Russian literature; to observe the sound of the eternal themes of love and the “little” person in the story “Garnet Bracelet”, to determine the role of the image-symbol in this work.
Course of lessons
He is one of those writers whom it suffices to point out: read him, this is true art; it is clear to everyone without comment.
F. D. Batyushkov
Kuprin's work reflects life in all its infinite diversity, not so much life as a whole, but in fragments, in a whirlwind of accidents ... He has the greed of a collector, only he collects not rare coins, but rare cases of life.
V. Lvov-Rogachevsky
I. introduction teachers.
– Tell me what you can do well. Which of you goes in for sports, music, creativity? Is there something you definitely want to learn?
But this man in his early 20s “was consistently ... a land surveyor, a loader of watermelons, a brick carrier, a seller in Moscow, on Myasnitskaya ... He was a forest ranger, loaded and unloaded furniture during the autumn and spring summer seasons, traveled advanced in the circus, engaged in ... acting craft ... ".
Let's add: he managed an estate in a remote corner of Polissya, replaced a psalmist in a distant rural parish, served as an accountant in the forge of a steel plant, it seems that he even tried himself as a circus wrestler ...
Later he went out with the Balaklava fishermen for the winter fishing of beluga, sank to the bottom of the sea in a diving suit, rose above the clouds on an airplane and a balloon, kept a foal in his room in order to write the story “Emerald”, was friends with the famous pilot Sergei Utochkin and an even more famous wrestler Ivan Zaikin, with the clowns Jacomino and Tahiti Geretti, with the trainer Anatoly Durov and his troupe (Durov wrote on the poster about his animals: “Kuprin himself is a writer // There was a friend with them ...”)
AI Kuprin, according to the memoirs of his contemporaries, experienced a burning interest "literally in any work." He was always tormented by a thirst to explore, to understand, to study how people of various professions live and work: engineers, factory workers, organ grinders, circus performers, horse thieves, monks, bankers, spies - he longed to learn all the ins and outs about them, because in the study of Russian life he did not tolerate any semi-knowledge.
K. I. Chukovsky recalled: “In 1902, in Odessa, a newspaper reporter Leon Tretsek introduced Kuprin to the head of one of the fire brigades. He took advantage of this acquaintance, and when a house filled with residents caught fire in the middle of the night in the center of the city on Ekaterininskaya Street, Kuprin rushed there in a copper helmet with a detachment of firefighters and worked in flames and smoke until morning.
A contemporary of Kuprin, the writer Teffi, noted his serious attitude to creativity: “... When he wrote, he worked, and did not play and did not play tricks. And that side of his soul, which appeared in creativity, was clear and simple, and the compass of his feelings pointed to good with an arrow. She also recalled that as a person, A.I. Kuprin "was not at all a simpleton."
How was his fate?
II. Lecture of the teacher with assistants.
August 26, 1870 in the city of Narovchat, Penza province, the son Alexander was born in the family of the collegiate registrar Kuprin.
1874. After the death of his father, he lives with his mother in the Widow's House (a charitable institution "for the care of the elderly and those who have no way to feed their widows" of noble origin).
WITH 1877 starts writing poetry. From the age of 6, childhood began for the boy, which he would later call “scold” and “official” in many of his works. In 1880, Sasha Kuprin passed the entrance exams to the 2nd Moscow Military Gymnasium. In his story "At the Turning Point", Kuprin describes how he was sentenced to ten lashes for a minor offense.
"On a small scale, he experienced everything that a criminal on death row feels." And he ends the story with the words: “Many years passed until this bloody, long-oozing wound healed in the soul of Bulanin (Kuprin).
During the teaching in the cadet corps, he not only writes his poems, but also translates from German and French.
1889- the first story "The Last Debut" was published, for which he received a penalty at the school, since the junkers were forbidden to appear in print. In 1893, he successfully passed the exams at the Academy of the General Staff, but by order of the commander of the Kyiv Military District, Lieutenant Kuprin was forbidden to enter the Academy. It was said that on the banks of the Dnieper, the district guard came into conflict with a group of young officers, in which Kuprin was also. A man of legendary physical strength, Kuprin threw a police officer into the river, and he drew up a protocol "on the utopia of a police rank in the line of duty."
1894- Kuprin, with the rank of lieutenant, leaves the regiment and ends up in Kyiv "without money, without relatives, without acquaintances."
The prepared student reads by heart.
The writer himself recalled this time as follows: “Suddenly, the days of cruel lack of money came. I could hardly survive from bread to kvass. The newspaper where I worked stopped paying me for feuilletons, and only occasionally did I manage to get a ruble, or at best three rubles, from the accountant on account of the fee. I owed the landlady for the room, and she threatened to "throw my things out into the street."
I had to think about how to temporarily move to a rooming house and, since summer was coming, to take up not literary, but honest work as a loader on the pier. Nevertheless, I did not break with the newspaper and gave the following notes to the section “From urban incidents”:
“Yesterday, on Khreshchatyk, Mr. N.’s beautiful thoroughbred dog fell under the wheels of a horse-drawn carriage and, crushed, screamed inhuman voice"... I wrote these notes with pleasure... And, what was most surprising, no one, neither the editor nor the readers, noticed the obvious mockery...
1896- the first book of Kuprin is published - a book of essays "Kyiv types".
1898- lives with his sister's family in the forestry. He recalled about this time: "... I spent the most fertile months of my life, ... absorbed the most powerful, most fruitful impressions, ... studied the Russian language and the Russian landscape." Works on the story "Olesya".
1904–1905- work on the story "Duel".
Attentive attitude to people was manifested not only in the writer's work.
I. Bunin spoke of him this way: “Along with great pride, there is a lot of unexpected modesty, along with impudent temper, there is a lot of kindness, quickness, and shyness.”
A pre-prepared student reads by heart.
K. Chukovsky, in his memoirs about Kuprin, told the story of how he, having learned from a friend about an old woman who was mercilessly beaten by her son, a huge binduzhnik, on the same day found this man in the port.
At the risk of being mutilated by his fists, Kuprin said such words to him that he repented of torturing his mother. Chukovsky wrote: “I saw this woman when she came to thank Kuprin. Kuprin received her with filial piety and, not wanting us to praise his nobility, said when his guest had left:
“The old women in the south smell good: bitter wormwood, chamomile, dry cornflowers and incense.”
1909- Awarded the Pushkin Prize.
1911- in the almanac "Earth" the story "Garnet Bracelet" was published, a little later, in 1915 a film based on this work will be made.
1914- did not remain aloof from military events. A private infirmary for the wounded of the First World War was opened in the Kuprins' house in Gatchina. The writer himself goes to the army, but is declared unfit for military service for health reasons.
1919- during civil war emigrates abroad: first he leaves for Helsinki, then he moves to Paris.
IN 1924 the writer was given a semi-official offer to return to Soviet Russia, but he refused: “... five years in exile ... But still I won’t go ... Let’s assume that they don’t skin me alive, let me graze where and with what I want. .. It will be necessary somehow to turn around, turn around, dodge ... Yes, sir, we wanted a revolution, like a mare to vinegar. True: it would be sweeter and easier to die there.”
Abroad, Kuprin lived in poverty, but continued literary activity: worked in a newspaper, wrote the novel "Junker".
IN 1937 the Kuprin family receives permission to return to Russia and leaves France. The writer is warmly received in Moscow by a new generation of readers, but he is seriously ill.
IN 1938 at the request of Kuprin, he is taken to Gatchina. In the Leningrad hospital, he undergoes a severe oncological operation.
Mark in the form of a plan the features of Kuprin's work. (The lecture continues.)
1. Kuprin's realism.
His demands on himself as a realist writer had no limits. In a boyish way, he flaunted this experience of his before other writers, because this was his ambition: to know for sure, not from books, not from rumors, those things and facts about which he speaks in his books.
1) If you want to depict something ... first imagine it quite clearly: smell, taste. The position of the figure, the expression on the face ... Give me a juicy perception of what you have seen, and if you cannot see yourself, put down your pen.
2) When transmitting someone else's speech, grasp the characteristic in it: omissions of letters, construction of a phrase. Study, listen, as they say, paint the image with the speech of the speaker himself. It's one of the most important colors... for the ear.
3) 3nay, What actually you want to say. Write in such a way that you can see that you know your subject thoroughly. Go and see, get used to it, listen, take part yourself. Never write from your head.
In the article "The Riddle of the Artist" O. Mikhailov wrote about Kuprin's skill:
“Kuprin was ... a great life expert. Everything around him, especially human life, everyday life, served for him as the surest indicator of internal human life and her most difficult psychological conditions ...
This knowledge is especially valuable because all of it is the result of worldly observations. This gives Kuprin's prose an unfading freshness and richness... You can open volume after volume of Kuprin's work at random and find deposits of deep and versatile knowledge in each story.
One of the brightest and most varied in terms of subjects and problems of realistic works of Kuprin is the story "Duel".
(Individual communication based on the material of the textbook and the book by V. Lilin “Alexander Ivanovich Kuprin. A guide for students. - L .: Education, 1975, chapter “Duel”.)
2. Love for the motherland.
Wherever the writer lived, wherever he worked, he always remained truly Russian, was connected with Russia by blood roots. Kuprin admitted:
“There are people who, out of stupidity or out of desperation, assert that it is possible without a homeland, or that the homeland is where you are happy. But, forgive me, these are all pretense to oneself. I can't live without Russia. I have reached the point where I can’t calmly write letters there, a lump in my throat ... That’s really, really, “dissolve your bread with tears.”
A prepared student reads by heart (or artistic retelling).
In one of Kuprin's letters to I. Repin we read:
“... Not my will, but fate itself fills the sails of our ship with wind and drives it to Europe ... Longing is here ... Do you know what I miss? This is two or three minutes of conversation with a sexual officer from Lyubimovsky district, with a Zaraysk cab driver, with a Tula bathhouse attendant, with a Volodymyr carpenter, with a Mishchevsky bricklayer. I am exhausted without the Russian language! It used to be that one deft, clumsy word would put me in a light, warm mood for the whole day ... "
3. The heroes of Kuprin are unusual.
In the journal "Education" for 1907, in the article "Kuprin as an exponent of the era" one could read:
“... The heroes of Kuprin are sincerely imbued with the consciousness of the meaning and beauty of life, they sincerely sing a hymn to it, but they themselves suffer painfully from it and are hardly able to drag it safely to the end - even with the help of bromine and alcohol ...
Boundless, winged romanticism, more characteristic of our old than new literature, is hallmark the best works of Kuprin.
4. The theme of love in the work of Kuprin.
Student's personal message.
In his best works, AI Kuprin always wrote about love. It is enough to recall such stories and novels of his as "Garnet Bracelet", "Olesya", "Shulamith" to understand that the writer not only thought about love himself, but also made his readers think about its power.
Love in the works of Kuprin is always disinterested, selfless; it does not wait for a reward and is often stronger than even death itself. For many of the writer's heroes, she forever remained the greatest mystery in the world and at the same time a tragedy.
They open up more clearly, illuminated by a loving feeling. In the works of Kuprin, love is the one for which to accomplish any feat, to go to torment is not labor at all, but joy. No comforts of life, calculations and compromises should concern her.
It was this kind of love that touched the Polissya "witch" Olesya, who fell in love with the "kind, but only weak" Ivan Timofeevich. "Clean and kind" Romashov, the hero of the story "Duel", sacrifices himself for the prudent Shurochka Nikolaeva. Such is both the knightly and romantic love of Zheltkov for Princess Vera Nikolaevna (the story “The Garnet Bracelet”), which swallowed up his whole being.
Despite the tragic ending, Kuprin's characters are happy. They believe that the love that illuminated their lives is a truly wonderful feeling. Olesya regrets only that she does not have a child from a loved one, Zheltkov dies, blessing his beloved woman.
This is how Kuprin describes love. You read and think: perhaps this does not happen in life. But contrary to common sense, I want it to be.
About all-consuming love, which is more expensive than any wealth, any glory, and even more expensive than life itself, Kuprin writes in the story "Shulamith".
This is probably his most poetic work, because it was inspired by the writer of the biblical "song of song" - one of the oldest stories about love. The love of the all-powerful and wise King Solomon for the "poor girl from the vineyard" - Sulamith - allowed Kuprin to reveal the full depth and beauty of this feeling. Such a great love, as the author writes, “will never pass and will never be forgotten, because it is strong as death, because every woman who loves is a queen.”
It is not so important whether the real Shulamith ever existed or whether it is just a beautiful legend that has come down to us through the millennia. Such love, which "is repeated once in a thousand years," is worthy of being invented and composed of songs, legends, stories and novels about it. And although the happiness of the heroes does not last long (Shulamith dies tragically, covering Solomon with her body from the sent killer), but the memory of such love will survive the centuries.
In the works of A. I. Kuprin, love appears before the reader in its various manifestations. We see it both as a tender, fiery, lofty feeling, and as a tragic passion. But love always elevates a person above other people and makes him equal to God himself, for only in love does a person, like the gods, acquire true immortality.
- Make a generalization of what you have studied, tell us about the features of AI Kuprin's work.
III. Work with the text of Kuprin's story "Garnet Bracelet".
1. The word of the teacher.
Text analysis can help you figure out what features of Kuprin's artistic method were reflected in the story.
K. Paustovsky in "Notes on Kuprin's Prose" writes about this work as follows: Kuprin has one cherished theme. He touches her chastely, reverently and nervously. Otherwise, you can't touch her. This is the theme of love ... One of the most fragrant and languid stories about love– and the saddest is Kuprin's Garnet Bracelet.
It is characteristic that great love strikes the most ordinary person - Zheltkov, an official of the control chamber, bending his back at the clerical table.
It is impossible to read the end of the story with its amazingly found refrain without heavy emotional excitement: "Hallowed be thy name!"
The special power of the "Garnet Bracelet" is given by the fact that love exists in it as an unexpected gift - poetic and illuminating life - in the midst of everyday life, in the midst of sober reality and settled life.
2. Analysis of the text of the story by questions.
- How is the theme of love embodied in the story?
The theme is poetic love.
Zheltkov's last letter raises love to the point of tragedy. Read it text. Zheltkov passes away without complaints, without reproaches, saying, as a prayer: "Hallowed be thy name."
The death of a hero does not end love. His death reveals to Vera a world of unknown feelings, because Vera really did not love her husband.
To the sounds of Beethoven's sonata, Vera's soul is shocked. She understands that love passed by, which "repeats once in a thousand years."
The image of Zheltkov also helps to reveal the theme of the “little man”, traditional for Russian literature. Prove it.
There is no sharp criticism of bourgeois society in The Garnet Bracelet. The ruling classes are depicted in softer colors than the provincial philistinism. But in comparison with the enormous feeling of the little official Zheltkov, the hardening of the soul of people who consider themselves superior to Zheltkov is revealed.
The spiritual image of Zheltkov is clearly visible from his letter sent on the day of the name day of Vera Sheina. Zheltkov does not hope for anything, he is ready to give everything. In his words, humility and worship, nobility.
IN scene of coming to Zheltkovo Bulat-Tuganovsky and Prince Shein, the hero has a spiritual advantage, which gives him his sublime feeling.
Vera's husband, Prince Vasily, who is prone to humor, parodies Zheltkov's feelings, known to the prince from letters received by his wife.
This parody seems vulgar and blasphemous. Kuprin does not depict Prince Vasily as bad and evil, but notes his caste disregard for the "lower" classes of society. Nikolay Bulat-Tuganovsky symbolizes everything bad that happens in the aristocracy.
He is a narrow-minded, haughty, cruel person. It is he who demands that Zheltkov be punished because he dared to look up at his sister Vera.
What was the garnet bracelet in the story of Zheltkov's love for Princess Vera?
The reason for the imminent denouement of the story, which lasted more than eight years, was a birthday present for Vera Nikolaevna. This gift becomes a symbol of the very love that every woman dreams of.
The garnet bracelet is valuable to Zheltkov because it was worn by the “late mother”, in addition, the old bracelet has its own history: according to family tradition, it has the ability to communicate the gift of foresight to the women wearing it and protects it from violent death ...
And Vera Nikolaevna really unexpectedly predicts: "I know that this man will kill himself." Kuprin compares the five garnets of the bracelet with "five scarlet, bloody fires", and the princess, looking at the bracelet, exclaims with alarm: "Just like blood!"
The love that the bracelet symbolizes is not subject to any laws and rules. It can go against all the foundations of society. Zheltkov is a petty, poor official, and Vera Nikolaevna is a princess, but this circumstance does not bother the hero, he still loves, realizing only that nothing, not even death, will make his wonderful feeling subside: “... Your obedient servant before death and after death.
Unfortunately, Vera Nikolaevna understood the meaning of the bracelet too late. She is overcome with anxiety: “And all her thoughts were riveted to that unknown person whom she had never seen and is unlikely to see, to this funny “Pe Pe Zhe”.
The princess is tormented by the most difficult question for her: what was it: love or madness? Zheltkov's last letter puts everything in its place. He likes. He loves hopelessly, passionately and goes in his love to the end. He accepts his feeling as a gift from God, as a great happiness: “It’s not my fault, Vera Nikolaevna, that God was pleased to send me love for you as a huge happiness.”
And, without cursing fate, he passes away, and people are left with only a symbol of this beautiful love - a garnet bracelet.
3. Report on the work of the research team.
Comparative analysis of A. Chekhov's story "The Lady with the Dog" and Kuprin's story "Garnet Bracelet".
1. Kuprin as a student and follower of A.P. Chekhov. The realism of A.P. Chekhov and the romantic worldview of A.I. Kuprin.
2. The Lady with the Dog (1899) and The Garnet Bracelet (1910) are two classic love stories, but each of them belongs to its time.
3. Love that grew out of an accidental adultery that overshadowed two ordinary people in the story "The Lady with the Dog." How to explain Chekhov's remark "This love of theirs has changed them both"? What, from your point of view, confirms the depth of feelings of Chekhov's heroes and what refutes?
4. G. S. Zheltkov’s love for Princess Vera is “the kind of love that women dream about and that men are no longer capable of.” Romantic image of the heroine Kuprin. Chivalric image of the hero. What do you think, how would Chekhov dispose of a similar plot, similar details?
5. The theme of "heroic deed" in the stories of Chekhov and Kuprin.
6. The role of details in Chekhov and Kuprin. "The situation of seaside autumn" in Ch. 1–11 "Ladies with a Dog" and in "Garnet Bracelet". Why does Chekhov transfer the brightest scenes of the heroes' love from Yalta to Moscow and the provincial city of S.? Why, on the contrary, does Kuprin “transfer” history that “really” took place in St. Petersburg to a seaside town?
7. In than fundamental, the polar difference between the "concepts of love" in Chekhov's story and in Kuprin's story? Which of the stories seems to you personally brighter, more humane, closer to reality? Which of these two stories do you like more?
Homework. Write an essay-miniature "Love in the works of Kuprin" (based on the story "Garnet Bracelet" and the story "Olesya"); reread Kuprin's story "Olesya", make bookmarks with quotes based on the images of the main characters.
Individually: prepare a message on the topic “Landscape in Kuprin’s story“ Olesya ”.
