Golden Age of Russian literature

The period of time which enriched Russian literature and made it a wide-spread through all over the world was the nineteenth century. This very century is called the Golden Age of Russian literature and century when Russian literature became world-famous.

The 19th century is the time of formation of а Russian literary language and most of all A.S. Pushkin contributed this process.

But the 19th century began with a flourishing of sentimentalism and romanticism formation (Krylov, E.A. Baratynsky, V.A. Zhukovsky, A.A. Fet). F.I. Tiutchev’s writings completed the "Golden Age" of Russian poetry.

A.S. Pushkin and N.V. Gogol created the fundamental types of art which will be popular through all over the 19^th century. It is an artistic type of "a superfluous man", a model of which is in the novel “Eugene Onegin” by A.S. Pushkin, and so-called type "a little man", which is presented by N.V. Gogol in his short novel "The Overcoat".

Gogol

CARACHTERS OF ‘GOLDEN AGE’ IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE

As for literary characters of Golden Age’s poetry, individual liberty is important for them. The brightest representative is Tatyana Larina (“Eugene Onegin”). She didn’t need society ball every evening. She would prefer to spend her evening in privacy and think about some philosophical reflections. The second one was Alexandr Chatsky (“Woe from Wit”). It’s a man who openly expressed disagreement with common rules of a conservative upper class. It captured people desires to change the organization of society and forced men of education to found broederbonds. The fact is a lot of literators were there.

REPRESENTATIVES OF GOLDEN AGE IN RUSSIAN LITERATURE

The first representative of Golden Age poetry was A.S. Griboyedov. He was one of the strict critics of aristocratic circles. He is recognized as homo unius libri, a writer of one book, whose fame rests on the verse comedy Woe from Wit or The Woes of Wit. This very verse comedy gave a lot of catch phrases which you would hear in Russian culture from time to time. For example,

Who are they to judge us?

Happiness takes no account of time.

I'd like to serve, but not to be a servant

A.S. Griboyedov

They wrote works where despised the upper class for its vanity, selfishness, hypocrisy and immorality. V.A. Zhukovsky enriched Russian classics by a heart-to-heart romance and a reverential dreaming. He tried to avoid prosiness and show a lofty sensible world which we didn’t notice. He also wrote some prose, the best known example of which is the 1809 short story " Marina roshcha " ("Mary's grove"), about the ancient past of Moscow; it was inspired by Nikolay Karamzin's famous story " Bednaya Liza " ("Poor Liza," 1792). He also composed the lyrics for the national anthem of Imperial Russia, " God Save the Tsar! ".

V.A. Zhukovsky

One of the brightest representatives of Golden Age’s Russian poetry is a famous poet A.S. Pushkin.

He was the father of Russian literary language. His works greatly changed the world of Russian literature. His first poem was “ Ruslan and Lyudmila ” in 1920. His novel in verse “ Eugene Onegin ” was called an encyclopedia of Russian life. Romantic poems of Pushkin “ The Bronze Horseman ” (1833), “The Fountain of Bakhchisarai”, “The Gypsies” were the first in Age of Russian romanticism. Most writers and poets considered Pushkin was their teacher. They continued his traditions of making literary writing. Lermontov was one of them.

Lermontov used philosophical conceptions in his works. During all of his creative career he admired the Decembrist movement, asserted human rights and freedoms. Poems of Lermontov were full of oppositional appeals and criticism of imperial power. His writings were the poem “Demon”, “ Borodino ” (which is a long poem that we should learn by heart at secondary school), a short poem “Death of the poet” and my favourite novel “ A Hero of Our Time ”. The Golden Age also had a dramatic genre. For example, it’s Chekhov plays. Since that time many theatres through all over the world have been producing it. Chekhov used a subtle satire and laughed at human vices, expressed disdain for vices of the nobility. His short novels are “Ward No. 6”, “Fat and thin”, “The Complaints Book”, “The Chameleon”.

Development of the poetry had dropped by the end of century. Exactly that time it’s worth to mention Nekrasov writings. He started to develop social issues in poetry. His poem “Who is Happy in Russia?” is famous. But it’s not the only poem of him where Nekrasov pondered a difficult and unrelieved life of the country.

The beginning of nineteenth century had crucial changes in art. It marked the period when Russian literature went out on the world stage. Literature started to claim the high principles of human freedom. At that very period of time the society began to read between lines. That worried the government. But in spite of that fact that Russian literature developed in the tough conditions, it managed to сarve out a high place in the foundation of Global art.