History of Literature Compared to Other Arts in Russia Essay

Introduction

Russian literature is the primary topic discussed in this research report. The history has been broken into four periods as a result of several controversies originating from the unusual shape of the literary history of Russia (Sherstinova & Skrebtsova, 2020). Russian history’s major and sudden breaks are the pre-Petrine, imperial, post-Revolutionary, and post-Soviet periods. Since the dawn of time, Russia has had significant effects on the globe that will long be recorded in history (Bullock, 2022). The literature becomes effective in the era of drastic political transition. Within the report, the following are discussed in depth to bring the shadow of literature in Russia: the intentions behind the creation of this form of art, things that the authors of these kinds of literature wanted to portray, and the images that the authors wanted to portray, the expected reactions to these items, the comparison between literature to other genres of arts, the cultural stereotypes portrayed by the authors of literature and finally the relationship between the discussed issues to course work learned in class.

The Intentions Behind the Creation of Literature in Russia

Russian literature became a point of interest since numerous stories were written about people’s lives that some parts of the world knew nothing about; for example, in Europe, the term “barbarians” was used to describe Russians as a caricature of Europe (Sherstinova & Skrebtsova, 2020). This concerns the belief that Barbarians believed in different gods and were non-Greek speakers. Realism and Romanticism are the kinds of writings that majored mostly in daily life. They are the critical defining metrics in the literature used to portray Russian politics and culture (Howanitz, 2021). Two of the most notable authors who used Russian characters in their works, such as the nose and the Double, to portray the Russian political system are Nikolai Gogol and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

The idea behind coming up with this kind of art was to communicate to the world by writing about what Russian politics, tradition, and culture entail. There was a little misunderstanding of what Russians were in some parts of the world. Literature allows people to go back in time and study about people and culture of a certain region or group of people. People can better understand the culture of a specific group from one region through this form of art and accord a better appreciation to them. Before literature in Russia became known throughout the world, the country had gone through some positive and negative changes that impacted Russian lives. The Golden Era, the New Russia, came into existence in 1830, a duration when Romanticism focused on romance themes. Realism emerged in Russia after Romanticism impacted the literature world. It portrayed the true experiences in everyday lives as they happened and focused on truthful storytelling through art.

Issues That Authors Gave Attention in Russian Literature

The literary works of Russian authors varied from romance, realism, satire, politics, culture, and religion. Several kinds of these works were on the autobiographies of specific authors expressing interest in how their lives have been, while some published pieces of literature on the political condition of the Soviet Union and the function of the union in the world war. Romanticism and realism were two significant issues that were given hefty attention (Howanitz, 2021). Romanticism concentrated on love matters, and realism concentrated on what the society was experiencing and the reaction of the Russians to the external environment. Realism faded away once Romanticism affected the literary world. The authors were interested in changing the approach in their writings and therefore dwelt on the people’s lives in society rather than writing on love matters alone. This diversified Russian literature and made it famous across the globe.

Realism shed light on the underclass in Russian society by focusing on life as it was. Writing in the era of Romanticism and realism contained both topics of culture and people. A literary troop identified as a superfluous man greatly influenced literature work in Russia. The trope effectively allowed the writers to express their ideas on the Russian shortcomings of high-class society (Bullock, 2022). When dealing with the superfluous man, a general consistency has been seen, such as the display of cynicism and existential agony while engaging in vices like affairs, gambling, and dueling.

Broader Pictures Illustrated Within the Russian Literature

Russian literature authors seek to create some clarity on the differences that exist between people of different social classes. Some individuals are privileged to be born into a noble family or background, but they fail to acknowledge their family status and start behaving in a contrary manner. It is seen that the privileged persons from high-class society found it hard to adapt and fit into the community and disrespected societal norms. This pattern is described in Ivan Turgenev’s Diary of a Superfluous Man and Alexander Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin.

Human beings perceive their surrounding through their senses, the things that they hear, things they see, what people smell, the things they taste, and those that cannot be touched. The Russian literature authors represented this process in their literary works using descriptive language to bring out the sense of their argument. They succeeded in portraying their ideas in the form of imagery. The imagery was helpful since it can make scenes abstract, like an emotion, making it tangible to the person reading the artwork. Authors can evoke the feeling they want from their readers through literature work.

Expected Reactions in The Parts of The Implied Audience

After the development of literature in Russia, the authors and experts expected some reactions from the readers within their country and globally. In the 1920s, literature saw a brief period of relative openness (compared to what came afterward). Mass terror, labor camp detention, and censorship were only a portion of the issue (Mirsky, 2021). The Communist Party required writers to generate propaganda on particular, frequently fairly restricted, topics of current interest to it. This included works that were rebellious, formally complicated, or objective (a term of censure). The need for engineers of human souls to create the new Soviet man led to the appeal for writers in Russia to consider their literary works.

Bolshevik rule led to the fragmentation of the literary tradition and the creation of two kinds of unofficial literature. Some literature lost favor, and although some were still accepted, they were unobtainable (Howanitz, 2021). Occasionally, the Russians wanted some of the works, including the most celebrated, to be revised and rewritten to suit the communist line. It was tough to access Russian writings, and the authors were restricted from performing their literature works on Western movements. All autonomous literary associations were disbanded in 1932, and the Union of Soviet Writers, an organization with no analog in the West, took their place. Expulsion from the union signified the end of literature and evolved into the state’s tool for controlling the literature (Lygo, 2022). The only permissible literary style was declared to be socialist realism in 1934. Guaranteeing every piece of literature provided a truthful picture of art during its revolutionary growth. It would be supervised by government regulations about specifics of style and substance going forward.

Unique Task of Russian Literature Compared to Other Arts

Compared to other arts, Russian literature is unique in that the literature is deep and encouraging, as seen from the previous works. The writers found it easy time articulating their ideas on paper since there were a lot of areas to write about. The literature was majorly written on the daily life experience of the Russians, although some were from politics and nature. Russian literature was brilliant, laid out lessons learned from a life with proper and detailed analysis of the human experience compared to photography, which only has pictures but no description of the events (Lygo, 2022). Through their writing, Russian authors engage in political, social, religious, ethical, and moral discussions to incredibly forcefully and honestly convey and deconstruct the thoughts, feelings, and acts of their characters as well as the situation of society. Russian literature aids in self-understanding who the people are, what they can do, people’s needs and desires, and social duties. The plots in Russian literature did not follow any standard set of writing. Authors were free to express their ideas in any format that they deemed fit for them. The answers to all of the readers’ inquiries are not always provided, and sometimes the characters’ actions and intentions are illogical (Bullock, 2022). It is a straightforward portrayal of reality that people experience in their day-to-day lives. As a result of understanding the literature, reading Russian literature can lessen or perhaps completely erase the reader’s naivete. Instead of creating an unrealistic vision of how fantastic the situation is presented in the artwork, reading Russian literature encourages one to accept the world as it is.

The development of Russian literature, which began in the 19th century, was greatly influenced by writers from Germany and France (Howanitz, 2021). The global development influence from Germany and France gave the literature a distinctly “European” atmosphere overall. Despite the existence of ideological differences that the Russian authors were putting on at the times of Soviet rule, there exist three key differences between Russian literature and German literature; the Russian literature titles were not streamlined well compared to the European literature. The plots center on profound issues like duty and motion and self-sacrifice for the motherland, including life and death (Mirsky, 2021). They drew heavily on Christian hagiography and classical Greek dramas for inspiration. Character motives are sometimes ambiguous, ethereal, or nonsensical, and plots that were used in Russian literature were not standard. It was thought that providing a clear explanation of a protagonist’s motive was too predictable and boring. Dostoyevsky had to twist and break their logic to make his characters “interesting” and “deep” to his readers. This is an intriguing example of how even a highly commercially savvy author had to do the action. The concept of personal enrichment is blatantly lacking, with the exception of a few examples. Gold, money, and accumulating riches were the obsessions of supporting characters, who were rarely intriguing and most frequently profoundly flawed and self-destructive.

Cultural Stereotypes Portrayed

Characters frequently find themselves in a predicament they cannot find their solution. Deus ex machina is seldom ever used in Russian literature. The good guys seldom, if ever, triumph, as indicated in the literature from Russia. They struggle a lot yet accomplish nothing. Unneeded people or people who do not fit in are other prevalent ideas. Characters like Onegin, Bazarov, Pechorin, and even Raskolnikov frequently feel superior to those around them, are estranged, and are unable to adapt to or bring about change in their surroundings. Then there is the idea of confused, aimless individuals like Oblomov (Lygo, 2022). They undermine themselves and are easily overpowered by the outside world. And while there are sporadic glimmerings of optimism, reality ruthlessly crushes them. Most famous love tales in Russian literature do not have happy endings, including those involving Anna Karenina and Alexey Vronsky, Nastasya Filipovna, Lev Myshkin, Tatyana Larina, and Evgeny Onegin. The stereotype presented in the essay is Romanticism, where the literature writers in Russia based their art on romance and love affairs in society. Russian culture is based on love for one another, which I find dissimilar to my culture, where business is the people’s concern.

Conclusion

One of the most prevalent components of human life has always been art. There is evidence of several art forms throughout human history, including paintings, music, poetry, and modeling. It is unusual for someone to find himself in a location devoid of aesthetic characteristics. Every scene has an artistic element, but the intended meaning of the art varies, how the audience perceives the artistic element, and how the presenter and the audience reconcile their differences to convey the needed information.

References

Bullock, P. R. (2022). Rachmaninoff and the “Vocalise”: Word and music in the Russian Silver Age. In Rachmaninoff and His World (pp. 82-100). University of Chicago Press.

Howanitz, G. (2021). Mapping fifty years of Russian literature: Topics, themes, and trends. Russian Literature, 125, 9-19.

Lygo, E. (2022). Translating great Russian Literature: The Penguin Russian classics by Cathy McAteer. Modern Language Review, 117(3), 524-525.

Mirsky, D. S. (2021). A History of Russian Literature: Comprising’ a history of Russian Literature’ and ‘Contemporary Russian Literature. Routledge.

Sherstinova, T. Y., & Skrebtsova, T. (2020). Russian literature around the October Revolution: A quantitative exploratory study of literary themes and narrative structure in Russian short stories of 1900-1930. In IMS (pp. 117-128). Web.