Depiction of man in ancient literature. Man in the literature of ancient Rus'

Bazarova Yana

Ancient measures in works of art. Historical reference. Ancient measures in proverbs and sayings.

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Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Belarus

Ivolginsky district

Municipal educational institution Suzhinskaya secondary school

Scientific and practical conference for primary school students

"First steps"

Ancient measures in fiction.

Suzhinskaya secondary school of Ivolginsky district

Home address: With. Nurseleniya, 14 a

Phone: 89503825382

Supervisor: Tugutova Tuyana Leonidovna

Phone:89140526432

With. Suzha

2014

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………...3 - 4

2. Main part. Ancient measures in works of art…4-9

2. 1. Ancient measures. Historical background…………………………...4

2.2. Ancient measures of length…………………………………4 -8

3. Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………9

3.1. Questionnaire “Do you know ancient measures?” for primary school students………………………………………………………8

3.2. Conclusions and results obtained…………………………………...8-9

4. List of sources and literature used………………….....10

5. Applications.

1. Introduction

The Russian people a thousand years ago had not only their own system of measures, but also state control over measures. By the end of the 18th century, this system had become the only national system of measures in the world.

When I was little and couldn’t read, the fairy tales and stories that I listened to from my mother and grandmother were always understandable. The time has come, I became a reader, and here a huge number of different questions appeared.

Problem of my research work:

Not all the words I came across in the texts were familiar. Most of- These are ancient measurements of length, weight, volume. As it turned out later, understanding these measures causes difficulties for many children. In modern language we almost never use them. Only when reading works of fiction do we come across these concepts. But, nevertheless, we must know the meanings of the measures. After all, this is our story. I was interested in this topic, and I decided to seriously study the units of measurement of length, weight, volume, as well as monetary units, based on works of different genres. It’s not for nothing that the Russian saying folk proverb: “You can’t weave a bast without measure.”

In my opinion, the relevance The chosen topic is that it is still possible to learn about ancient measures only from specialized literature or from old people. This is very inconvenient, because quite often these measuring units are found at Russian language olympiads, where it is necessary to reveal the meaning of a given word; at mathematics competitions, difficulties arise when solving problems with such measurements. In addition, there is no single textbook or manual where ancient measures would be collected. Therefore, I decided to compile and print an illustrated dictionary of these words. This dictionary contains material that covers the meaning of the most commonly used units of measurement, as well as excerpts from works of fiction that I have read.

Target:

Explore the meaning and use of ancient units of length in works of art.

Tasks:

1. Study and analyze ancient units of measurement in various sources;
2. To trace how these dimensions or the words denoting them have been preserved in modern Russian;
3. Systematize the information received;
4. Compile a dictionary of ancient length measures.

I was prompted to do research work on the chosen topic by my acquaintance with proverbs, sayings, fairy tales, and original texts, which we work with in class, as well as outside of class.

The meaning of proverbs and sayings, texts in which these measures are found, remained unclear. I believe that ignorance of them would be a manifestation of disrespect for the history of one’s country.

In our research work we turn to the following sources: explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, reference book on mathematics, encyclopedic Dictionary in mathematics, phraseological dictionary of the Russian language, works studied according to the program.

2. Main part. Ancient measures in works of art.

2. 1. Ancient measures. Historical reference.

Most of the old measures have been forgotten and fallen out of use, but many of them are in literary works, historical monuments. The Mers lived, sometimes grew old and died, sometimes were reborn to a new life. The history of measures is part of the history of mankind.

In Rus', improvised household utensils were used as a unit of volume measurement. Basic Russian measures of volume of liquids -bucket, bottle, mug, cup, scale, barrel.

The Russian people used such weight measures aspood, half a pood, spool, steelyard, kad.

There were monetary measures in use:altyn, hryvnia, penny, half, nickel, half.

2.2. Ancient length measures.

Arshin - arshin measure came into use as a result of the development of trade with eastern peoples (from Persian arsh – elbow). It is equal to 71 cm 12 mm . He came to Rus' together with merchants from distant countries. Eastern merchants, when measuring fabrics, did without any meters: they stretched the fabric over their own arm, up to the shoulder. That's what it was called measure by arshins.

Although the measure was very convenient, it had a significant drawback: unfortunately, everyone’s hands are different. The cunning merchants quickly realized that they needed to look for clerks with shorter arms: the same piece, but more arshins. But one day this came to an end. Selling “at your own yard” was strictly prohibited by the authorities. Only government-issued arshins were allowed to be consumed.

State arshin - a ruler, the length of someone’s hand, was made in Moscow, then copies were made from it and sent to all parts of Russia. To prevent the wooden arshin from being shortened, its ends were bound with iron and marked with a seal.

Tens of years are no longer measured in arshins, but this word has not been forgotten. We still find this measure of length in proverbs and sayings.

For example:

He sees three arshins into the ground! – about an attentive, perspicacious person from whom nothing can be hidden.

He measures to his own yardstick. Each merchant has his own arshin measures - about a person who judges everything one-sidedly, based on his own interests.

Arshin for a caftan, and two for patches.

Write about other people's sins arshin , and about our own - in lowercase letters.

Sits and walks as if arshin swallowed - about an unnaturally straightforward person.

On an arshin beard, but smart enough -about an adult but stupid person.

You write in arshin letters - very large.

A.S. Pushkin "The Tale of Tsar Saltan, of his glorious son and mighty hero Prince Guidon Saltanovich and Fr. beautiful princess Swans" -

Meanwhile how far away he is

It beats long and hard,

The time of birth is coming;

God gave them a son arshin.

On the back with two humps

Yes, with arshin ears.

F.I. Tyutchev -
You can't understand Russia with your mind,

Arshin cannot be measured.

To the poor animals;
There's less left underneath them arshin land wide...

Versta - Russian travel measure. Initially, the distance from one turn of the plow to another during plowing. Verst length 1060 m.
Kolomenskaya verst – “Big” is a humorous name for a very tall person. It originates from the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who reigned from 1645 to 1676

Mezhevaya verst existed in Rus' until the 18th century. To determine the distance between settlements and for land surveying (from the word boundary - the border of land holdings in the form of a narrow strip). The length of such a mile 1000 fathoms, or 2.13 km.

This measure is often found in works of different genres.

Moscow verst far away, but close to my heart- this is how Russian people characterized their attitude towards the capital.

Love is not measured by miles. A hundred miles is not a detour for a young man - distance cannot be an obstacle to love.From word to deed - whole verst.

Verstoy closer - a nickel cheaper. A mile away if you fall behind, you'll catch up by ten- even a small lag is very difficult to overcome.

You can see him a mile away - a well-known person.

To lie - seven miles to the sky and all through the forest.
Seven miles away They were looking for a mosquito, but the mosquito was on their nose.
From thought to thought five thousand verst
Hunter seven miles away goes to sip jelly .

Stretch a mile , don't be simple.

Epics "Volga Svyatoslavovich" -

Here Volga turned into a bay aurochs with golden horns and ran towards the Indian kingdom: he made the first jump - for a mile away left, and disappeared with the second one from view.

Russian fairy tale "Fight on Kalinov Bridge» -

A six-headed snake rides out from Miracle Yudo,
how it breathes on all sides -
on three miles I burned everything with fire.

A.S. Pushkin " Winter road» -

No fire, no black house
Wilderness and snow meet me.
Only miles striped
Come across one.

N.A. Nekrasov “General Toptygin” -

And the horses are even more afraid -

We didn't take a break!

Verst fifteen at full speed

Poor guys got away!

P.P. Ershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse” -

The little hunchback flies like the wind,
And almost on the first evening
Verst waved away a hundred thousand,
And I didn’t rest anywhere.

Vershok - an ancient Russian measure of length equal to the width of two fingers (index and middle).

Vershok equaled1/16 arshin, 1/4 quarter. In modern terms - 4.44cm . The name "Vershok" comes from the word "top".

In the literature we often encounter this measure.

For example:

Two inches from the pot, and already a pointer - a young man who has no life experience, but arrogantly teaches everyone.

She has Saturday through Friday for two an inch came out - about a sloppy woman whose undershirt is longer than her skirt.

P.P. Ershov “The Little Humpbacked Horse” -

At the end of three days,
I will give you two horses -
Yes, the same as today
There was no trace of it,
Moreover, I have the face of a horse, only three tall inch
On the back with two humps and arshin ears

Fathom (from squat – to reach something, to reach) dates back to the 11th century.

In everyday life there were different fathoms - flywheel and oblique. So,

Flywheel – the distance between the arms outstretched in both directions along the ends of the outstretched middle fingers; 1 fly fathom – 1m 76 cm.

Oblique – from the heel of the right foot to the tips of the fingers of the left hand extended upward, i.e. near 248 cm.

Sometimes they say about a person:“There is a slant in the shoulders fathom ".

Here are examples of the use of this measure in works:

You are an inch away from the truth (from service), and it is within an inch away from you. fathom.

N.A. Nekrasov “Grandfather Mazai and the Hares” -

Every minute the water was rising
To the poor animals;
There is less than an arshin of land left under them in width,
less fathoms in length.

The epic "Alyosha Popovich and Tugarin" -

I saw Tugarin Zmeevich.

Is he, Tugarin, three tall? fathom.

There is a red-hot arrow between the eyes.

Span (or span) - ancient measure length equal to approximately a quarter of an arshin, that is, a fourth of 71.1 cm. Simple calculations show that in a span there were about 18 centimeters.

The Old Russian “span” goes back to the common Slavic verb “five” - to stretch. Therefore, the following expressions occur:

Don't give up an inch - not to give even the smallest amount.

Seven spans in the forehead - about a very smart person.

Elbow - the distance in a straight line from the elbow to the end of the extended middle finger.

The cubit was widely used in trade as a particularly convenient measure. IN retail trade canvas, cloth, linen - a cubit was the main measure. No wonder they said:"He's as big as a fingernail, and his beard is as big as elbow ".

3. Conclusion.

1. Questionnaire “Do you know the ancient measures?

23 students took part in the survey junior classes. The purpose of this work was to determine the level of awareness of the children on this issue, as well as to identify interest in the topic. The results of the work done are presented in the table, from which it can be seen that my peers do not know ancient measuring units well, so I would like to help them. I think that if you convince the guys that the importance of this topic is enormous and that it is interesting to work on it, then the next survey will show a different result.

1. Conclusions and results obtained.

In my work I:

• I found works where these measures are mentioned and cited excerpts from them;
• showed the basic relationships between ancient and modern measures;
• I found illustrations that reveal this topic in the most accessible and understandable way.

As a result, I came to the following conclusions:

• the materials collected in this dictionary will help children work on works of different genres for a more complete understanding of their content;
• I think that it would be right if in each grade, starting from the first, similar working dictionaries would be kept, where I would enter the measures found in the text, as well as excerpts from the work itself.

I want mine research attracted the attention of many inquisitive schoolchildren, and became a necessary kind assistant for students in preparing for competitions, for Olympiads, and in working on projects. And those who show an increased interest in mathematics and literary reading can find a lot of interesting and educational material here. This work brought me great pleasure.

List of sources and literature used:

1. A.I. Molotkov. Phraseological dictionary of the Russian language. M.: “Russian language”, 1986. 543 pp.
2. V. I. Dal. Dictionary Russian language. M.: Astrel, 2001
3. E.A. Bystrova. Educational phraseological dictionary of the Russian language. M.: "AST-LTD", 1997. 304 pp.
4. I. Depman. Measures and the metric system. - M.: Education, 1953
5. Ozhegov S.I., Shvedova N.Yu. Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. M. Azbukovnik, 1997
6. A short encyclopedic reference book on mathematics. – M., 2003
7. Proverbs. Sayings. Puzzles. – M. Sovremennik, 1986

Originality ancient Russian literature in the image of the hero, unlike the Russian classics familiar to us, also characterizes its features. It does not contain familiar images, as in the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries. The medieval writer had his own artistic vision of man and special ways of depicting him.

The reproduction of a person in ancient literature, as in modern literature, depends on the style and genre of the work. But, unlike new literature, genres and styles in ancient literature are also unique. Without understanding them, it is impossible to imagine the artistic originality of the monuments of Ancient Rus'.

Academician D.S. Likhachev defined the literary styles of Ancient Rus': the style of monumental historicism (XI-XIII centuries), the epic style in literature (XI-XIII centuries), the expressive-emotional style (late XIV-XV centuries), the style of psychological pacification (XV centuries). 1 He examined the artistic vision of man in ancient literature. In accordance with his judgments, we present the material.

In relation to styles and genres, the hero is reproduced in the monuments of ancient literature, ideals are formed and created. The monumental style of the 11th-13th centuries is presented in chronicles, military stories and stories about princely crimes. The image of the ideal hero was associated with the feudal structure and with the range of social concepts, with ideas about the honor, rights and duty of the feudal lord, with his duties to the state.

The prince was the ideal hero in the chronicles. It was created by the chronicler in “monumental grandeur”, as in the mosaics and frescoes of the 11th-13th centuries. The chronicler was interested in the official image of the prince, his significant actions as a historical figure, and human qualities remained out of attention.

The ideal image of a hero was created in accordance with certain canons 2: the dignity and virtues of the prince were listed, which were supposed to evoke worship (mighty, independent, handsome in face, brave, skilled in military affairs, courageous, destroyer of enemies, guardian of the state).

The pomp and solemnity characteristic of the monumental style distinguished the narrative of the ideal hero. D.S. Likhachev writes: “Both in literature and in painting we are undoubtedly facing monumental art. This is an art capable of embodying the heroism of the individual, the concepts of honor, glory, the power of the prince, class differences in the position of people” 3.

The prince is presented in an aura of power and glory. This statesman and warrior. Fearlessness in battle and contempt for death are one of the traits of an ideal hero. He is ahead of his army, fearlessly rushes into battle and goes out to duel with the enemy. The prince in the chronicle personifies the power and dignity of the country. The ideal of the prince in the literature of the 11th-13th centuries expressed the patriotic feelings of the chronicler, embodied the love for the fatherland, for the Russian land. The prince serves Rus' and is ready to die for it. He is called upon to guard the Russian land, as the chronicles write, “to lay down his head for the peasants and for the Russian land, to work for his fatherland.” Patriotism was not only a duty, but also a conviction of the Russian princes, characters were historical figures, and not the fruit of the author’s fiction.

In such works of ancient Russian literature as lives, asceticism, the feat of serving the fatherland, the holiness and “blessedness” of the lives of Russian saints are glorified. Their images combined an example of selflessness, passionate service to an idea, and expressed the folk ideals of the spiritual beauty of the Russian person (Theodosius of Pechersk, Sergius of Radonezh, etc.). In the stories about saints, their greatness, their ideality is conveyed against an expressive-emotional background, which creates the expressive-emotional style of literature of the late XIV-XV centuries. This is especially evident in hagiographic literature, which elevates the life of a saint to a high feat, to an ideal. In ancient literature the saint is called a “soldier of Christ.” He is an ascetic, the main thing about him is his feat, which he performs as a warrior. For example, Epiphanius the Wise calls Stephen of Perm “courageous brave,” i.e. hero. The image of Sergius of Radonezh is sublime and heroic.

In the literature of the 11th-13th centuries, an epic style is also evident in the depiction of heroes. It is especially noticeable in those works that are associated with oral folk art. As in folklore, the characters in the chronicle and the story are characterized “by one major act” (“The Tale of Igor’s Campaign”, “The Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu”). Both in the “Word” and in the “Tale” - a collective hero, folk hero- defender of the homeland. He is distinguished by strength and courage. The authors also transfer the exploits of his squad onto him (Bui-Tur Vsevolod, Svyatoslav, Evpatiy Kolovrat). The image of a hero unites with his squad and grows into a hero - this is a collective image.

Ancient literature created heroic characters women. These are images of wives, mothers accompanying their loved ones on military campaigns and battles with enemies, widows mourning the dead. Vladimir Monomakh writes with love and warmth about the widow of his murdered son, like a dove on a dry tree. The image of the wife of the Ryazan prince Fyodor Eupraxia, who threw herself from the wall along with her infant (“The Tale of the Ruin of Ryazan by Batu”), is beautiful.

The ideal of a woman in Ancient Rus', expressed in service to loved ones, love for the homeland, contempt for the enemy, is embodied in chronicles, military stories, and “The Tale of Igor’s Campaign.” The image of Yaroslavna, a faithful, loving woman, was created in the song and folklore tradition.

The hymn of fidelity and love, the moral ideal of ancient literature, is presented in the image of the wise maiden Fevronia (“The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom”). Here, “psychological tranquility” and emotional contemplation of the author are manifested, drawing the image of a Russian woman. The heroine is a high moral ideal, the life-giving power of her love cannot separate Fevronia from her chosen one even in death.

In a democratic literature XVII century (everyday, satirical stories) there is a discovery human personality. At this time, the hero and his image change dramatically. The literature of previous centuries did not know a fictional hero. All the characters in the works were historical (princes, priests, saints). They existed in Russian history. Now an ordinary person appears in literature: a peasant, a peasant, a merchant’s son, who broke with his family and set out in search of his place. These are fictional characters, unknown, unremarkable, unrelated to the history of life in Russia, but close to the reader. The hero has become nameless, this especially applies to heroes from a democratic environment. In the works they are called: “poor”, “rich”, “ peasant son", "maiden", "certain merchant".

Hero democratic literature differs from the ideal hero of the 11th-13th centuries. He does not occupy any official position: neither a prince nor an official church official. The artistic means of depicting him are different: the hero is reduced, everyday. He is deprived of everything that elevated the characters in the literature of the 11th-13th centuries. This is a person suffering from cold, hunger, social injustice. In contrast to the ceremonial clothes of the monumental images of the princes, he is dressed in a “tavern gunka”. He has lost contact with family and friends, lost in poverty, deprived of parental blessing - a degraded person, and yet, according to the author, in need of sympathy. “For the first time in Russian literature, the inner life man, the fate of fallen man was depicted with such drama” 4 . And in this appeal to the theme of the “little man” the beginning of the beginnings of Russian literature, its humanistic character, is revealed. Image common man in the literature of the 17th century meant “the death of the medieval normative ideal” and the gradual emergence of literature towards a new way of depicting the hero, based on reality. 5

The halo of martyrdom, service to an idea, the image of a “martyr for the faith” again rises in the literature of the 17th century in “The Life of Archpriest Avvakum.” The literature of Ancient Rus' again rose to monumentalism, to universal human and world themes, but on a completely different basis. The power of the individual in itself, outside of official status, the power of a person deprived of everything, thrown into an earthen pit, a person whose tongue has been cut out, who is deprived of the opportunity to write and communicate with the outside world, whose body is rotting, who is eaten by lice, who is threatened by the most terrible torture and death at the stake - this power appeared in the works of Avvakum with stunning power and completely eclipsed the external omnipotence of the official position of the feudal lords. 6

This is how the image of the hero of ancient literature undergoes changes and artistic methods his images.

Material culture as a set of objects, created by man, enters the world of the work. However, there is no single term to designate objects of material culture depicted in literature. Material culture is included not only in the interior, but also in the landscape and portrait.

Representation of objects of material culture in literature evolves , reflecting changes in the relationship between man and thing in real life.

10) At the dawn of civilization, a thing was the crown of human creation, evidence of wisdom and skill. Storytellers have always been attentive to the white stone chambers, their decoration, bright objects, fabrics, etc. The very process of creating a thing is often captured (Hermes forges Achilles’ armor in the Iliad)

11) the attitude towards objects of material culture as an achievement of the human mind is demonstrated especially clearly by the Age of Enlightenment. (Robinson Crusoe. Defoe. A carpenter's box with working tools found on a sunken ship is happiness)

12) in the literature of the 19th and 20th centuries, different trends in the depiction of things emerged. The human master is still revered, and objects made by skillful hands are valued. (Leskov. Left-handed.) However, the writers sensitively grasped another facet in the relationship between a person and a thing: material value can overshadow a person; he is assessed by society by what things he possesses. A person is often likened to a thing. (Ostrovsky. Dowry. In Chekhov’s artistic world, things often symbolize vulgarity and monotony provincial life: Literature teacher, Ionych)

4. in the 20th century, more than one creative spear was broken in the fight against materialism - people's slavish dependence on the things around them. The intimate connection between a person and a thing, characteristic especially of the Middle Ages, where things often have their own names (the sword Durendal, belonging to the main character of the song about Roland), weakens and is lost. There are a lot of things, but they are standard and almost unnoticed. With the development of technology, the range of things depicted in literature expands. They began to write about giant factories, about a hellish punishing machine, about a computer system, about robots in human form. But at the same time, alarm about the downside of scientific and technological progress is becoming increasingly louder. The peasant way of life suffered greatly from the continuous industrialization of the country. Entire villages are dying out, destroyed (Rasputin. Farewell to his mother), Yesenin, Klyuev, Belov, Astafiev. Everything reflects the real processes occurring in a person’s relationship with things created by his hands, but often out of control.

IN literary work the thing acts as an element of the conditional, art world. And unlike reality, the boundaries between things and people can be fluid. Russians folk tales give many examples of humanizing things. This tradition is continued by Russian and foreign literature..

Conventionally, we can highlight the most important functions things in literature.

1. cultural

a thing can be a sign of the depicted era and environment. This is especially typical for travel novels, where different worlds are presented: national, class, geographical. This function is also very important in the historical novel, a genre that was formed in the era of romanticism and strives in its descriptions to visually represent historical time and local color. (V. Hugo's Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.) Things also perform a symbolic function in everyday life works. (Life of the Cossacks in Evenings on a farm near Dikanka, in the Quiet Don) A thing can serve as a sign of wealth/poverty.

2. characterological function

Gogol's works show the intimate connection between things and their owners; it is not for nothing that Chichikov examines in such detail the dwellings of dead souls. Things can be arranged in a sequential row. But one detail can characterize a character (a jar with the inscription “laceberry” prepared by Fenechka in Fathers and Sons); against the background of literary tradition, the absence of things can also become significant.

things often become signs, symbols of a person’s experiences (Block. About valor, about exploits...)

5) plot-compositional function

Things occupy a special place in detective literature; without details and evidence, this genre is unthinkable. The material world of the work has its own composition. On one side, the details are lined up, forming together an interior-landscape-portrait, etc. (urban landscape in Crime and Punishment)

on the other hand, one thing highlighted in the work close-up, carries an increased semantic and ideological load, developing into symbol . (Woe from Wit: Turtle, Akhmatova’s scarlet flower in her buttonhole, a wardrobe in the Cherry Orchard.) Symbolic things are included in the title of a work of art. ( Garnet bracelet) symbolization of things is especially characteristic of lyrics due to its attraction to the semantic richness of the word.

Genre differences between works affect the image of things, the actualization of certain functions. Things appear as signs of a particular way of life in historical novels and plays, works of everyday life, in particular in physiological essays. The plot function is mainly exploited detective genres. The level of detail depends on author's style . (Gogol - love for details, Pushkin - not so much)

Emphasize the uniqueness of a particular way of life, various ways of life lexical layers of language, the so-called passive stock of language and words that have a limited scope of use: archaisms, neologisms, etc., the use of such vocabulary is both an expressive technique and a difficulty for the reader. Sometimes the authors themselves provide the texts with notes (Gogol evenings on the farm..) Commentators, editors and translators usually help the reader understand the text.

Material culture (from the Latin materia and cultura - cultivation, processing) as a set of objects created by man, is included in the world of the work. However, there is no single term to designate objects of material culture depicted in literature. So, A.G. Tseitlin calls them “things”, “details” everyday situation, the fact that painters include in the concept of “interior.” But material culture is firmly inscribed not only in the interior, but also in the landscape (with the exception of the so-called wild landscape), and in the portrait (since costume, jewelry, etc. are part of it
). A.I. Beletsky proposes the term “still life”, by which he means “an image of things - tools and results of production - an artificial environment created by man...”. This term from the field of painting has not taken root in literary criticism. And for A.P. Chudakov’s “thing in literature” is very broad concept: he does not distinguish between a “natural or man-made” object, which removes at the terminological level an extremely important concept: material culture/nature. Here, by things we mean only man-made objects, elements of material culture (although the latter cannot be reduced to things, including also diverse processes).
The material world in a literary work correlates with objects of material culture in reality. In this sense, according to the creations “long ago days gone by“It is possible to reconstruct material life. So, R.S. Lipets in his book “Epic and Ancient Rus'” convincingly proves what was said by S.K. Shambinago’s assumption about the genetic connection between the life of epics and the everyday life of Russian princes. The reality of white stone chambers, gilded roofs, unchanging white oak tables, at which the heroes sit, drinking honey drinks from their brothers and accepting rich gifts from the prince for faithful service, has also been proven by archaeological excavations. "Despite the abundance poetic images, metaphors, generalized epic situations, despite the broken chronology and the displacement of a number of events, epics are all excellent and one-of-a-kind historical sources...”
The depiction of objects of material culture in literature is evolving. And this reflects changes in the relationship between man and thing in real life. At the dawn of civilization, a thing is the crown of human creation, evidence of wisdom and skill. Aesthetics heroic epic implied descriptions of things of “ultimate perfection, highest completeness...”.
The bipod's bipod is maple, the bipod's horns are damask, the bipod's bipod's horn is silver, and the bipod's horn is red and gold.
(Bylina “Volga and Mikula”)
Storytellers are always attentive to the “white stone chambers”, their decoration, bright objects, to fabrics on which the “pattern is cunning”, jewelry, magnificent feast bowls.
Often the very process of creating a thing is captured, as in Homer’s Iliad, where Hephaestus forges Achilles’ battle armor:
And at first he worked as a shield, both huge and strong, decorating everything gracefully; he drew a circle around it, white, shiny, triple; and attached a silver belt. The shield consisted of five sheets and on a vast circle God made many wondrous things according to his creative plans...
(Song XVIII. Translated by N. Gnedich)
The attitude towards objects of material culture as an achievement of the human mind is demonstrated especially clearly by the Age of Enlightenment. The pathos of D. Defoe's novel “Robinson Crusoe” is a hymn to labor and civilization. Robinson embarks on risky raft trips to a stranded ship in order to transport the things he needs to the shore of a desert island. More than eleven times he transports numerous “fruits of civilization” on rafts. In more detail Defoe describes these things. The hero’s most “precious find” is a carpenter’s box with working tools, for which, by his own admission, he would give a whole ship full of gold. There are also hunting rifles, pistols, sabers, nails, screwdrivers, axes, sharpeners, two iron crowbars, a bag of shot, a barrel of gunpowder, a bundle of sheet iron, ropes, provisions, and clothing. Everything with which Robinson must “conquer” the wild nature.
IN literature XIX-XX centuries There have been different trends in the depiction of things. The human Master, homo faber, is still revered, and objects made by skillful hands are valued. Examples of such an image of things are given, for example, by the work of N.S. Leskova. Numerous items described in his works are “ steel flea"Tula masters ("Lefty"), an icon of Old Believer icon painters ("Sealed Angel"), gifts from a dwarf from the novel "Soborians", Rogozhin's handicrafts from "A Seedy Family" and others - a "trace of the skill" of Leskov's heroes.
However, the writers also sensitively grasped another facet in the relationship between a person and a thing: the material value of the latter can overshadow a person; he is assessed by society by how expensive things he owns. And a person is often likened to a thing. This is the dying cry of the heroine of the play by A.N. Ostrovsky’s “Dowry”: “A thing... yes, a thing! They are right, I am a thing, not a person." And in the artistic world of A.P. Chekhov's things: the piano on which Kotik ("Ionych") plays, pots of sour cream, jugs of milk surrounding the hero of the story "Literature Teacher" - often embody the vulgarity and monotony of provincial life.
In the 20th century More than one poetic spear has been broken in the fight against materialism - the slavish dependence of people on the things around them:
The owner dies, but his things remain,
They don’t care about things, about other people’s, human misfortunes.
At the hour of your death, even the cups on the shelves do not break,
And the rows of sparkling glasses do not melt like pieces of ice.
Maybe you shouldn’t try too hard for things...
(V. Shefner. “Things”)
The intimate connection between a person and a thing, characteristic especially of the Middle Ages, where things often have their own names, is weakening and lost (remember the sword Durendal, which belongs to the main character of “The Song of Roland”). There are a lot of things, but they are standard, there are almost of them! do not notice. At the same time, their “inventory lists” can be! ominously self-sufficient - so, mainly through long lists of numerous purchases replacing each other, the life of the heroes of the story by the French writer J. Perec “Things” is shown.
With the development of technology, the range of things depicted in literature expands. They began to write about giant factories, about the hellish punitive machine (“In penal colony"F. Kafka), about the machine, times about computer systems, about robots in human form (modern fantasy novels). But at the same time, alarms about the downside of scientific and technological progress are becoming increasingly louder. In Russian Soviet prose and poetry of the 20th century. “machine fighting motifs” are heard primarily among peasant poets - S. Yesenin, N. Klyuev, S. Klychkov, P. Oreshin, S. Drozhzhin; the authors of the so-called “ village prose" - V. Astafieva, V. Belova, V. Rasputina. And this is not surprising: after all, the peasant way of life suffered most from the continuous industrialization of the country. Entire villages are dying out, destroyed (“Farewell to Matera” by V. Rasputin), folk ideas about beauty, “lada” (book of the same name by V. Belov), etc. are eradicated from people’s memory. modern literature sounds more and more often; warning about an environmental disaster (“The Last Pastoral” by A. Adamovich). All this reflects the real processes occurring in a person’s relationship with things created by his hands, but often beyond his control.
At the same time, a thing in a literary work acts as an element of the conventional, artistic world. And in contrast to reality, the boundaries between things and humans, living and nonliving, here can be unsteady. Thus, Russian folk tales give numerous examples"humanizing" things. Literary characters can be a “stove” (“Geese-Swans”), a doll; (“Baba Yaga”), etc. This tradition is continued by both Russian and foreign literature: “The Tin Soldier” by G.Kh. Andersen, " Blue bird"M. Maeterlinck, "Mystery-bouffe" by V. Mayakovsky, "Until the Third Rooster" by V.M. Shukshina and others. The world of a work of art can be saturated with things that do not exist in reality. Science fiction literature is replete with descriptions of unprecedented spaceships, orbital stations, hyperboloids, computers, robots, etc. (“Engineer Garin’s Hyperboloid” by A. Tolstoy, “Solaris”, “Stalker” by St. Lem, “Moscow-2004” by V. Voinovich).
Conventionally, we can distinguish the most important functions of things in literature, such as cultural, characterological, plot-compositional.
The thing may be a sign of the depicted era and environment. The cultural function of things is especially clear in travel novels, where different worlds are presented in a synchronous cross-section: national, class, geographical, etc. Let us recall how Vakula from Gogol’s “The Night Before Christmas”, with the help of evil spirits and his own resourcefulness, ends up in a matter of minutes. from a remote Little Russian village to St. Petersburg. He is amazed by the architecture and clothing of his contemporaries, distant from his native Dikanka: “...the houses grew and seemed to rise from the ground at every step; the bridges trembled; the carriages were flying<...>pedestrians huddled and crowded under houses strewn with bowls<...>. The blacksmith looked around in amazement in all directions. It seemed to him that all the houses fixed their countless fiery eyes on him and looked. He saw so many gentlemen in cloth-covered fur coats that he didn’t know whose hat to take off.”
Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, who was languishing in Tatar captivity (Leskov’s story “The Enchanted Wanderer”), did a considerable service, a chest with the necessary accessories for fireworks, which brought indescribable horror to the Tatars, who were not familiar with these attributes of European urban life.
The cultural function of things in the historical novel is very important - a genre that was formed in the era of romanticism and strives in its descriptions to visually represent historical time and local color (French couleur locale). According to the researcher, in “Notre Dame Cathedral” by V. Hugo, “things live a life deeper than living characters, and the central interest of the novel is focused on things.”
Things also perform a symbolic function in everyday works. Gogol colorfully depicts the life of the Cossacks in “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” Ostrovsky’s “Columbus of Zamoskvorechye” gained fame not only because of the accuracy of his depiction of the characters of a hitherto unknown “country” to the reader, but also due to the visible embodiment of this “bear’s corner” in all its details and accessories.
An item can serve as a sign of wealth or poverty. According to a tradition originating in the Russian epic, where heroes competed with each other in wealth, striking with an abundance of decorations, precious metals and the stones become this undeniable symbol. Let's remember:
Brocade fabrics are everywhere; The yachts play like heat; There are golden incense burners all around, Raising fragrant steam...
(A. S. Pushkin. “Ruslan and Lyudmila”)
Or the fairytale palace from “The Scarlet Flower” ST. Aksakov: “the decoration everywhere is royal, unheard of and unprecedented: gold, silver, oriental crystal, ivory and mammoth.”
The characterological function of things is no less important. Gogol's works show the “intimate connection of things” with their owners. No wonder Chichikov loved to look at the home of the next victim of his speculation. “He thought to find in it the properties of the owner himself, just as one can judge from a shell what kind of oyster or snail was sitting in it” (“Dead Souls” - vol. 2, chapter 3, early ed.).
Things can be arranged in a sequential row. IN " Dead souls", for example, every chair shouted: “And I, too, Sobakevich!” But one detail can characterize a character. For example, a jar with the inscription “laceberry”, prepared by the caring hands of Fenechka (“Fathers and Sons” by Turgenev). Interiors are often depicted according to a contrasting principle - let us recall the description of the rooms of two debtors of the moneylender Gobsek: the countess and the “fairy of purity” seamstress Fanny (“Gobsek” by O. Balzac). Against the background of this literary tradition, the absence of things (the so-called minus device) can also become significant: it emphasizes the complexity of the hero’s character. So, Raisky, trying to find out more about Vera, who is mysterious to him (“The Cliff” by I.A. Goncharov), asks Marfinka to show him his sister’s room. He “had already pictured this room in his mind: he crossed the threshold, looked around the room and was disappointed in his expectations: there was nothing there!”
Things often become signs, symbols of a person’s experiences:
I look like crazy at the black shawl, And my cold soul is tormented by sadness.
(A. S. Pushkin. “Black Shawl”)
The “copper cones” on grandfather’s chair completely calmed him down little hero from Aksakov’s story “The Childhood Years of Bagrov’s Grandson”: “How strange it is! These chairs and copper cones first of all caught my eye, attracted my attention and seemed to dispel and cheer me up a little.” And in V. Astafiev’s story “Arc,” the hero’s accidental discovery of a duta from the wedding train fills him with memories of the long-forgotten times of his youth.
One of the common functions of things in a literary work is plot-compositional. Let us recall the ominous role of the scarf in the tragedy “Othello” by W. Shakespeare, the necklace from Leskov’s story of the same name, the “queen’s slippers” from “The Night Before Christmas” by Gogol, etc. Special place occupy things in detective literature (which is emphasized by Chekhov in his parodic stylization “The Swedish Match”). This genre is unthinkable without details.
The material world of the work has its own composition. On the one hand, details are often lined up and together form an interior, landscape, portrait, etc. Let us remember detailed description heroes of Leskov (“Soborians”), urban landscape in “Crime and Punishment” by F.M. Dostoevsky, numerous luxury items in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by O. Wilde.
On the other hand, one thing, highlighted in a work in close-up, carries an increased semantic, ideological load, developing into a symbol. Is it possible to call “a dried, scentless flower” (A.S. Pushkin) or “geranium flowers in the window” (Taffy. “On the island of my memories...”) just an interior detail? What is the “satin turlyu-lu” (“Woe from Wit” by A.S. Griboyedov) or the Onegin “Bolivar” hat? What does the “respected closet” from Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” mean? Symbolic things are included in the title of a work of art (“Shagreen Leather” by O. Balzac, “Garnet Bracelet” by A.I. Kuprin, “Pearls” by N.S. Gumilyov, “Twelve Chairs” by I. Ilf and B. Petrov). The symbolization of things is especially characteristic of lyric poetry due to its attraction to the semantic richness of the word. Each of the objects mentioned in G. Shengeli’s poem evokes a number of associations:
In tables “purchased on the occasion” At sales and auctions, I like to look through their boxes... What was in them? Paper, wills, Poems, flowers, love confessions. All souvenirs are a sign of hopes and faith, Recipes, opium, rings, money, pearls, From the son’s head there is a funeral crown. IN last minute-revolver?
(“In tables, “on the occasion of those purchased.”.*)
In the context of a work of art, symbolism may change. Thus, the fence in Chekhov’s story “The Lady with the Dog” became a symbol of a painful, joyless life: “Right opposite the house there was a fence, gray, long, with nails. “You’ll run away from such a fence,” thought Gurov, looking first at the windows, then at the fence.” However, in other contexts, the fence symbolizes the desire for beauty, harmony, and faith in people. This is exactly how the episode with the heroine’s restoration of the front garden, destroyed every night by her careless fellow villagers, is “read” in the context of A. V. Vampilov’s play “Last Summer in Chulimsk”.
The brevity of the author's text in drama, the “metonymic” and “metaphorical” nature of the lyrics somewhat limit the depiction of things in these types of literature. Most ample opportunities recreations of the material world are revealed in the epic.
Genre differences in works also affect the depiction of things and the actualization of certain of their functions. Things appear as signs of a particular way of life, culture, mainly in historical novels and plays, in everyday life works, in particular in “physiological” essays, and in science fiction. The plot function of things is actively “exploited” by detective genres. The degree of detail in the material world depends on the author's style. An example of the dominance of things in work of art- E. Zola’s novel “Ladies’ Happiness”. The optimistic philosophy of the novel is contrasted with the critical pictures of reality drawn by the writer in previous novels"Rougon-Macquart" series. Striving, as Zola wrote in a sketch for the novel, “to show the joy of action and the pleasure of being,” the author sings a hymn to the world of things as a source of earthly joys. The kingdom of material life is equal in its rights with the kingdom of spiritual life, therefore Zola composes “poems of women’s dresses,” comparing them with a chapel, then with a temple, then with the altar of a “huge temple” (Chapter XIV). The opposite style trend is the absence and rarity of descriptions of things. Thus, it was very sparingly indicated in G. Hesse’s novel “The Glass Bead Game,” which emphasizes the detachment from everyday, material concerns of the Master of the Game and the inhabitants of Castalia in general. The absence of things can be no less significant than their abundance.
The description of things in a literary work can be one of its stylistic dominants. This is typical for a number of literary genres: artistic-historical, science-fiction, morally descriptive (physiological essay, utopian novel), artistic-ethnographic (travel), etc. It is important for the writer to show the unusualness of the situation surrounding the characters, its dissimilarity from the one to which the implicit reader is accustomed. This goal is also achieved through detailing the material world, and not only the selection of objects of material culture is important, but also the method of describing them.
Emphasizing the uniqueness of a particular way of life, everyday life, writers widely use various lexical layers of language, the so-called passive vocabulary, as well as words that have a limited scope of use: archaisms, historicisms, dialectisms, barbarisms, professionalism, neologisms, vernacular, etc. The use of such vocabulary, being expressive technique, at the same time, often creates difficulties for the reader. Sometimes the authors themselves, anticipating this, supply the text with notes and special dictionaries, as Gogol did in “Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka.” Among the words explained by pasichnik Rudy Panko in the “Preface”, the lion’s share belongs to the designation of things: “bandura is an instrument, a type of guitar”, “batog is a whip”, “kaganets is a type of lamp”, “cradle is a pipe”, “rushnik is a cleaning device” ", "smushki - lamb fur", "khustka - handkerchief", etc. It would seem that Gogol could immediately write Russian words, but then “Evenings ...” would have largely lost the local flavor cultivated by the aesthetics of romanticism.
Usually, intermediaries help the reader understand a text rich in passive vocabulary: commentators, editors, translators. The question of what is acceptable, from an aesthetic point of view, in the use of passive vocabulary has been and remains controversial in literary criticism and literary criticism. Here is the beginning of S. Yesenin’s poem “In the Hut,” which immediately immerses the reader in the life of the Ryazan village:
It smells like loose pucker; There is kvass in the container at the threshold, Above the chiseled stoves Cockroaches crawl into the groove.
In total, in this poem, consisting of five stanzas, according to N.M. Shansky, 54 independent words, at least a fifth of which need explanation. “The words that require interpretation, undoubtedly, include the words dracheny - “baked flatbread with milk and eggs from millet porridge and potatoes”, dezhka - “tub”, pechurka - “a recess similar to a Russian stove in its side wall, where they put or place something” or so that it is dry or warm” (there are usually several such recesses), a groove is “a narrow long gap between loosely fitting bricks...<...>The bulk of…verbal “outsiders” are dialectisms, “birthmarks” of the poet’s native Ryazan dialect. It is absolutely clear, and there can be no other opinions: S. Yesenin’s sense of artistic proportion here has changed.” However, there are still “other opinions” and the issue remains controversial.
In general, the choice of one or another synonym, a linguistic doublet, is an expressive stylistic device, and when describing the situation as a whole, stylistic unity is important here, “fixing” the consistency with each other of the details that make up the ensemble. Thus, in a romantic elegy in the description of a home (native land) lyrical hero the very choice of words (archaisms, soporific forms, etc.) muffles everyday concreteness and emphasizes the conventionality and generality of the image. As G.O. writes Vinokur, “this includes, for example, a canopy, an attic, a hut, a shelter, a hut, a cell (meaning “small poor room”), a shelter, a corner, a garden, a house, a hut, a shack, a light, a gate, an office, a cloister, a fireplace and similar words, symbolizing the inspiration and cozy isolation of the poet from society and people.” A completely different stylistic connotation of the word is found in the description of interiors, which abound in physiological essays. Their poetics and stylistics are emphatically naturalistic and extremely specific. This is, for example, the description of the room in “Petersburg Corners” by N.A. Nekrasova: “One of the ceiling boards, black and dotted with flies, jumped out at one end from under the middle cross beam and stuck out obliquely, which, it seemed, the inhabitants of the basement were very happy about, for they hung their towels and shirts on it; For the same purpose, a rope was drawn across the entire room, secured at one end to a hook located above the door, and with the other to the top hinge of the cabinet: this is what I call an oblong recess with shelves, without doors, in the back wall of the room; However, the landlady told me, there once were doors, but one of the residents tore them off and, putting them in his corner on two logs, thus made an artificial bed.” Boards, a hook, a cross beam, the top hinge of a cabinet, a rope, shirts, towels, etc. - also an ensemble of details, vocabulary that betrays an experienced person who knows a lot about boards and beams. But this is a completely different ensemble.
It is necessary to distinguish between the literary and linguistic aspects of word usage, since the vocabulary denoting things can be updated; This especially applies to the names of clothing items, luxury items, interior design - what constitutes fashion in material culture. Thus, stylistically motivated archaisms should not be confused with words that have become lexical archaisms for new generations of readers (for example, Raisky’s “house coat” from Goncharov’s “Cliff” (Chapter I) means a robe, and Olga Ivanovna’s “waterproof” from “Poprygunya” Chekhov - waterproof raincoat). Lexico-semantic archaisms are also distinguished, i.e. words that have changed their meaning since the time the work was written (for example, “screen” in Dostoevsky’s “The Idiot” means “screen” - Chapter 15)2.
The material world and its designation in utopias and science fiction - genres where a living environment is constructed that has no direct analogues in reality - deserves special consideration. Unusual things Neologisms correspond here: they often give the title to the work, creating in the reader a corresponding set of perception: “Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin” by A. Tolstoy, “Solaris” and “Stalker” by Art. Lema.
Compared to nature, the man-made environment, surrounding a person, changes quickly. Therefore, in works where the action takes place in the past, future, fantastic times and corresponding spaces, the depiction of things poses a special creative problem.

1) In which works of Leskov is the writer’s historicism manifested?

Leskov in his works shows historical eras In Russia, kings change, but the morals of society and the attitude towards ordinary people do not change. The writer was worried about the Russian people and the unfair treatment towards them.

The idea of ​​the tale "Lefty" show the talent of the Russian people, the originality of the masters who can solve any problem. The authorities praised everything foreign, without seeing the “pearls” under their noses. The author raises the topic of patriotism, faith, when ordinary people were the embodiment of hard work, skill and unrequited service to their Fatherland.

"Man on the Clock" - battalion commander Svinin is not tormented by remorse that a person who committed a feat is punished, and what is important to him is not only public opinion, which saves his face, but also the approval of others, he is pleased with himself, he has settled the matter. Postnikov’s feat becomes a duty, only because of the origin of a private .Hypocritically, the ruler turns the holy feeling of compassion, the salvation of life into the fact that holiness is characteristic only of God, and for common people it is only a duty. Behavior powerful of the world this, emphasizes the vices of that time, when tyrants were in power, headless military men carried out commands, the rank and file were weak-willed slaves, and the whole society as a whole had no right to think, but only to observe life indifferently.

Theme of the story by N.S. Leskov "The Enchanted Wanderer"-this is self-knowledge person, life path is a search for an answer to the main question about the meaning of life, why a person lives on Earth. The story shows the life search of Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, having gone through the “seven circles of hell”, he becomes a righteous man, finding the meaning of being in serving the people. Having received freedom, the former serf for a long time doesn’t know what to do with her, wandering around the world, he is looking for his place in life.

2) What historical time do the characters in the story “The Old Genius” live in?

The historical time of the story is the second half of the 19th century. The actions take place in post-reform Russia, in St. Petersburg. Russia is in a severe crisis, the abolition of serfdom, the economy was undermined by the Crimean War. The legacy of Nicholas 1, the economy is in decline, the country is a backward power, the lack of reforms and prohibitions on progress.

3) What problems of society are addressed in the work.

Leskov touches on the problems of the callousness of officials who cause the old lady suffering. The author denounces the bureaucratic system, which relies on ranks and titles. Nobody wants to get involved with the rich and powerful, except for the “old genius”. Ivan Ivanovich solves the old lady’s problem, he returns her debt, but he does it at the call of the Russian soul, huge and omnipotent. The people themselves, the craftsmen of the Russian land, stand up for the elderly man, who make the impossible possible. Leskov condemns bribes, the old woman tried to “grease up” the officials, but the amount is insignificant for them, the problem of bribes has always been acute in Russia. The author also touches on the gullibility of the Russian people, out of the kindness of her heart, taking her word for it, the old woman lends an unbearable amount and this almost leads to tragedy. The author shows the problem of taking her word for it as a national trait.