What is the psychological depth of the portrayal of heroes. §2

Psychologism (English psychologism)- the term “psychologism” has many meanings. In literary criticism, this is what stylistic characteristics are called. works of art, which depicts in detail and deeply inner world characters (their sensations, thoughts, feelings, etc.) are given subtle and convincing psychological analysis mental phenomena and behavior. There are 3 main forms of psychological image: summary-designating, direct and indirect (A.B. Esin). In the 1st case, the phenomena of the inner world are only named (as in bad psychology textbooks), in the 2nd - they are described in detail, in the 3rd - the image is carried out through a description of behavioral signs. In a special, auxiliary form, only hints of the mental states and properties of the characters should be highlighted through a description of the environment around them, as I. Turgenev masterfully did through the depiction of pictures of nature.

Outside of psychology, literary analysis is perhaps the only area where psychologism has a positive reputation and connotation. In all other contexts, it is understood as something worthy of condemnation and eradication (from the standpoint of antipsychologism).

According to N.O. Lossky: “Psychologism is a direction that considers all phenomena included in the circle of k.-l. sciences as mental processes, and accordingly asserting that the laws to which they are subject are psychological laws.” However, in the real practice of the struggle for or against P., sometimes mysterious phenomena occur, which Lossky was forced to admit: “So, often two epistemologists, who have the same negative attitude towards P., when entering into an argument, accuse each other of unaccountable P. On the contrary, sometimes an epistemologist who openly admits to being a supporter of P. unconsciously develops his theories in the spirit of antipsychologism.”

Such misunderstandings are a consequence of ignoring the general quantifier included in the definition of P. In addition, representatives of different directions may disagree with each other regarding the role played by mental processes in the field of phenomena they are studying. Finally, it is necessary to distinguish from extreme P. its moderate version - psychocentrism, which is characteristic, first of all, of psychologists themselves, and is expressed in such a somewhat naive idea of \u200b\u200bthe system of scientific knowledge (especially human knowledge), in which psychology occupies a central, leading or key position (J. Piaget, B.G. Ananyev).

Let us give brief formulations of some concepts in which psychology is seen: psychology should become the basis (foundation) for all philosophy or some of its disciplines (D.S. Mill, E. Beneke, F. Brentano, T. Lipps); psychology serves as the basis for other sciences (for example, V. Dilthey and V. Wundt saw in psychology the basis for the spiritual sciences, L.I. Petrazhitsky - for the social sciences); k.-l. is “reduced” to psychic reality. other reality (G. Tarde tried to reduce social reality to it, and Baudouin de Courtenay tried to reduce linguistic reality to it).

P. is often accused of fruitful psychological approaches, directions and schools outside of psychology, which actively use psychological theories and empirical methods of psychology, put forward psychological (including psychoanalytic) explanations of historical, ethnographic, linguistic, philological, demographic, sociological, criminological, economic, etc. facts. The only legal basis for a negative evaluative judgment about P. k.-l. A “psychologized” concept should be the detection of its internal and, moreover, quite significant errors, and not the very fact of using psychological methods, concepts and explanations in the study of social phenomena. Evidence of the improvement of the moral climate in post-Soviet philosophy and social sciences was the removal of the P. label from many foreign socio-psychological concepts. At the same time, the connotation of the term “P.” itself became more positive. But an old habit sometimes makes itself felt in a change of meaning: what was previously called P. with condemnation can now be called an “ordinary” idea (thereby allowing an elementary logical error: the fact that P. is characteristic ordinary ideas, is used to identify any P. with them).

Antipathy to naive psychological explanations arose long before the generally accepted date of birth of psychological science. In historical science, they were sharply opposed, for example, by Hegel, who wrote: “Even recently, according to the prevailing widespread psychological view on history, the greatest importance was attached to the so-called. secret springs and intentions of individuals, anecdotes, subjective influences. However, at the present time ... history again strives to find its dignity in depicting the nature and course of development of the substantial whole, in understanding the character historical figures based on what they do."

A criticism of psychologism in logic and epistemology, impressive in depth and thoroughness, is contained in the 1st volume of E. Husserl’s Logical Investigations. Logical psychologism consists in understanding logic as a science related to the psychology of thinking in approximately the same way as theoretical and experimental physics are related to each other. To put it another way, psychologists believed that the laws of logic must undergo empirical testing in the psychological study of thinking or be deduced from human experience in a purely inductive way (Mill). The traditional definition of logic as the science of the laws of thinking encourages such an understanding. (At the same time, the question of the possibility of using logic as a source of explanatory hypotheses for the psychology of thinking is resolved quite positively. In particular, Piaget proposed developing psychology, the task of which would be “to construct, by means of algebra, logic, a deductive theory that explains some experimental discoveries of psychology, and not a justification of logic based on psychology.")

Despite the titanic efforts of antipsychologists to tear out “P.” the root fails. Its vitality is best evidenced by the fact that in the aforementioned “Logical Investigations,” Husserl, in place of the P. he destroyed, built a phenomenological theory of human consciousness, which, contrary to the author’s strategic intention, was soon included in the “P.” category. By the way, this theory was adopted by experimental psychologists of the Würzburg school. Husserl’s later idea of the “life world” as the basis of all objective knowledge is also regarded as a major concession to P.

In general cultural terms, the conclusion of G.P. deserves attention. Fedotov (“Ecce homo”), who examined the reasons and motives for the persecution of “P.” (as well as emotionalism, sentimentalism, and rationalism, which are close to it), that such persecution is a special case of persecution of humanism and “that without which a person ceases to be a person.” (B.M.)

Great encyclopedia of psychiatry. Zhmurov V.A.

Psychologism

designation of the point of view according to which psychology is a fundamental science and the tendency to explain events occurring in the world community in accordance with such a point of view. This point of view has good grounds, especially if we accept that man is a truly rational being, capable of rising with his mind and consciousness above random circumstances and above himself. Masses of people, immersed in momentary situations and desires, simply die because there were no people who would be able to break out of their reflexive lifestyle. In addition, people create or for some time tolerate this or that social structure in accordance with their needs, aspirations, goals, expectations and hopes, that is, in accordance with their psychology, and not the blind and primitive economic laws with which materialists are saturated, and the laws sociology, which only describes the relationships between people, groups, classes, but does not explain the reasons for such relationships;
the tendency to explain the nature of psychopathological phenomena from the perspective of ordinary psychology, which is also characteristic of some psychologists with university degrees.

Psychological Dictionary. I. Kondakov

Psychologism

Word formation - comes from Greek. psyche - soul logos - teaching.
Category is a system of worldview ideas.
Specificity - in accordance with it, the analysis of the worldview is based on psychological data. This position was held by: D.S. Mill, E. Beneke, F. Brentano, T. Lipps, W. Dilthey, W. Wundt, G. Tarde, I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay.

Neurology. Full explanatory dictionary. Nikiforov A.S.

no meaning or interpretation of the word

Oxford Dictionary of Psychology

Psychologism- most general meaning refers to the point of view according to which psychology is a fundamental science, and events occurring in the world are interpreted based on this. The meaning of this term depends, of course, on who uses it. Many non-psychologists use it as a form of reproach; psychologists usually do not do this.

subject area of the term

Introduction………………………………………………………………... P. 4-9

Chapter I: Psychologism of mysterious stories by V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. Based on: theoretical and methodological foundations of the study……………… P.10-18

I.1. The main points of view of scientists regarding the development of psychologism in literature………………………………………………………………... P. 10-11

I.2. History of the development of psychologism in literature…………………….. P. 11-17

I.3. Methodology for studying psychologism in the works of V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. By …………………………………………………………………. pp. 17-18

Chapter II: Conscious and unconscious in behavior

heroev V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. By……………………………………………………… P. 19-33

II.2. Conscious and unconscious in the behavior of E.A.’s heroes. According to………………………………………………………………………………… pp. 23-28

II.3. Conscious and unconscious in the behavior of V.F.’s heroes. Odoevsky……………………………………………………... P. 28-33

Chapter III: External and internal in the personality structure of V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. By………..……………………………………………………… P.34-45

III.1. Theory of the issue …………………………………………………… P.34-37

III.2. External and internal in the personality structure of V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. According to ………………………………………………………………………………… pp. 37-45

Conclusion…………………………………………………………… P.46-48

List of used literature……………………………... P.49-53

Psychologism in literature has always aroused interest among researchers. From the moment this trend appeared in literary texts - describing the psychological reasons for the hero’s actions - and to this day, personality psychology remains not fully studied; the human psyche contains many secrets hidden from science.

Psychologism was most fully revealed for the first time in the works of F.M. Dostoevsky and L.N. Tolstoy, who paid special attention to the dynamics of the feelings and thoughts of their heroes, to the “dialectics of the soul.” In their works, the processes of formation of thoughts, feelings, and experiences of the characters, their interweaving and influence on each other are specifically and fully reproduced.

When describing the dynamics of the characters' feelings, a large number of artistic means are used. The characters' internal monologues, reflection, and descriptions of dreams and visions are typical. From now on, special attention is paid not only to consciousness, but also to the subconscious, which often moves a person, changes his behavior and train of thoughts. Z. Freud and K.G. wrote about the interaction of the conscious and unconscious in human behavior. Jung, but disputes and hypotheses on this topic are still being put forward.

Subject of this bachelor's work - the psychologism of the “mysterious” stories of V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. By. Prince Odoevsky was always interested in the inner world of man with all its secrets, and E.A. Poe is rightfully recognized as a master of “scary” stories, in which the “dialectic of the soul” is brilliantly revealed.

Relevance This study is due to the increased interest in psychologism as an aesthetic category and its manifestations in literature. Close attention to the three components of the human psyche, namely “it”, “I” and “super-ego”, helps to reveal and explain the reasons for this or that human behavior. At any moment of the work of consciousness there is something conscious and unknowable in it. Awareness of everything is not possible; the unconscious is intertwined with the conscious. The process of thinking is inseparably linked with the synthesis of the components of consciousness. The term “individuality” first acquired special significance precisely in the era of romanticism, at the time when Poe and Odoevsky were working. In the works of these authors one can see increased attention to the individual, his actions, changes and emotional impulses, which was not typical for literature until then.

Russian literature was not widespread in America, and not all American literature reached Russia, however, in the works of these authors, a large number of similarities can be traced in revealing the characters of the heroes. There are works that examine the psychologism of Odoevsky’s stories; various researchers also wrote about the dynamics of the characters of Poe’s heroes, but the psychologism in the works of these writers was not compared, and this is novelty this bachelor's thesis.

Object research are the “terrible” short stories “The Fall of the House of Usher” and “William Wilson” by E. Poe and the stories “La Sylphide” and “Cosmorama” by V.F. Odoevsky, which are traditionally classified as “mysterious”. In the works under consideration, the similarity of trends in American and Russian romantic prose is most clearly felt, and the use of the same motifs and other artistic techniques allows us to compare the work of these writers and identify general patterns of the literary process. Poe and Odoevsky are also brought together by their increased interest in a completely unknowable phenomenon - the human psyche and the secrets hidden in it.

Item course work - specific features of Poe's short stories and Odoevsky's stories, in which the consideration of the individual uniqueness of the characters and an attempt to explain the thinking process, the dual personality of the characters, and the reasons for their inappropriate behavior are brought to the fore.

Purpose Our work is to analyze a number of psychological phenomena noticed by V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. Poe in man and embodied by them in the characters of their heroes. We will also consider the features of the conscious and unconscious in the behavior of the heroes, that is, actions controlled by them and actions performed on a subconscious level. In accordance with this, we are faced with the following tasks:

Consider the concepts of “psychologism”, “individual originality”, “character”, “consciousness”, “conscious”, “unconscious”, “external”, “internal”;

Analyze how the internal in the characters’ characters is manifested through the external;

Pay attention to the individual uniqueness of the characters;

Consider the state of the heroes and the reasons for the destruction of the integrity of their consciousness;

Prove that the “conscious” and “unconscious” in synthesis move the characters throughout the narrative;

Find out the result of the work of the heroes’ thoughts;

Compare the heroes of the works of E. Poe and V.F. Odoevsky.

Degree of knowledge. The concept of psychologism has played a central role in literature since the 19th century. Psychologism can be characterized as the principle of organizing an artistic form, in which the means of representation are aimed at examining and describing the mental life of a person in all its diversity. This trend requires the writer to reflect in his works details that express the character’s inner world (thought processes, dreams, unconscious actions, emotions, reactions, etc.). Literally every action of the hero is a reaction to some external stimulus; this is the reason for a certain state of mind. Any external manifestation of emotions is associated with processes taking place in the human psyche; it serves the purpose of psychological depiction.

To date, there is no clear model of the evolution of psychologism. Many scientists were engaged in psychologism, in particular, A.B. Esin, V.V. Fashchenko, I.V. Strakhov, L.S. Vygotsky, A.A. Slyusar, Z. Freud and others. However, it is noteworthy that manifestations of psychologism in the works of V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. Although they have not actually been studied, there have been attempts to analyze this trend, but fundamental work on this topic still does not exist.

The initial philosophical idea of a person is to recognize him as a rational, or conscious being. Man is intelligent, just like the world in which he lives. A distinctive feature of a person from other creatures living with him in the same world is consciousness, or thinking. At the end of the 19th century, it was suggested that man is unreasonable, and reason does not play a special role in his life. Of the psychologists, the scientist Sigmund Freud was the first to doubt the value of reason for humans. Freud explained human actions through instincts and memories from childhood, that is, the unconscious acts as the main reason for certain human actions.

Freud's analysis was criticized by Carl Gustav Jung, suggesting that the unconscious produces certain ideas that are the only basis for a person's worldview.

Later, the theories of both Freud and Jung were challenged, supplemented, and revised, but the primary sources most fully and accurately give an idea of consciousness and its components.

In our course work we relied on the works of S. Freud, K.G. Yunga, Yu.V. Kovaleva, A.B. Esina, I.V. Strakhova, A.N. Nikolyukina, M.A. Turyan, T.Yu. Morevoy, V.B. Musiy, M.O. Matthiesen and other researchers.

The most significant in our research are the works of Z. Freud, A.B. Esina, K.G. Yunga, Yu.V. Kovaleva. Freud, in his collection of articles “Psychology of the Unconscious,” shows, proves and explains the inseparability of consciousness from the deep levels of mental activity. A special place is occupied by Freud’s articles “Psychopathology of everyday life”, “I and it”, “Psychology of sleep”, “Analysis of a five-year-old boy’s phobia” and others, where the psychologist showed the influence of the unconscious on the motives of human behavior.

A.B. Esin, in his fundamental study “Psychologism of Russian classical literature,” considers psychologism as a property fiction, pays special attention to the features of its manifestation, relying on the works of Russian writers of the 19th century. It is he who points out that the psychologism of works of the epic genre differs from the psychologism in the lyrical or dramatic genres.

In the work “Instinct and the Unconscious” K.G. Jung describes instinctive activity, connects instincts with the concept of the unconscious, and also points out the irrationality of the motivations for instinctive actions. In the work “Relationships between the ego and the unconscious,” the psychologist reveals the dependence of the “I” on the “it,” that is, on uncontrollable behavior based on instincts. And the work “The Formation of Personality” considers the formation of the human personality as a kind of evolution of the mind.

Monograph by Yu.V. Kovalev’s “Edgar Allan Poe” is interesting because it examines in detail the biography and work of the American writer. Attention is paid to journalistic activities, poetic creativity, and short stories, which is of particular value for this work.

Book by M.A. Turyan “My Strange Fate” is a detailed description of the life and work of the Russian author V.F. Odoevsky, whose personality and writing activity are also important when writing a work and considering the works of a given writer.

In our work we used comparative and descriptive methods to study mental processes in the behavior of heroes of American and Russian romantic writers.

Work structure: Bachelor's thesis consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion and a list of references. Since the main task of psychologism is to identify the characteristics of the inner world of heroes, the analysis of their individual characteristics takes on special significance in the work.

The first chapter is titled “Psychologism of the mysterious stories of V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. Based on: theoretical and methodological foundations of research,” which will examine the history of the study of psychologism in foreign and Soviet literary criticism.

The second chapter is “Conscious and unconscious in the behavior of the heroes of E.A. Poe and V.F. Odoevsky”, which examines the influence of conscious and unknowable attitudes on the dynamics of the characters’ characters.

The third chapter is called “External and internal in the personality structure of E.A. Poe and V.F. Odoevsky”, where the correspondence of the characters’ internal experiences with their external expression will be examined.

The volume of work is 53 pages.

Chapter I. Psychologism of mysterious stories by V.F. Odoevsky and E.A. Based on: theoretical and methodological foundations of the study.

The question of the theory of psychologism has been raised quite actively in Russian and foreign literary criticism. And today, interest in psychologism and its manifestations does not fade in literary theory. Despite the fact that today there is a large number of works on this problem, there is still no single definition of the phenomenon of artistic psychologism, its elements and importance in the structure literary text. The concept of psychologism is still not precisely defined terminologically; there is no instrumental analysis and methodology of this phenomenon. In literary works, psychologism is characterized as a phenomenon, trend, style, genre, method. When considering works of different eras, they talk about lyrical, synthetic, abstract psychologism. Psychologism as an examination of the human psyche in a work of art is interesting not only to literary theorists, but also to linguists, psychologists and philosophers.

Despite the lack of a clear definition of psychologism, this issue is actively considered when studying the works of Russian and foreign writers. Thus, we can say that understanding the essence of this phenomenon is an integral part of the analysis of works of art.

The concept of “artistic psychologism” remains today one of the most complex and heterogeneous, since there is no clear definition. However, literary theorists often use this term in their writings. Sometimes views on the essence of psychologism among different researchers contradict each other. However, artistic psychologism is one of the most significant phenomena in literature, and it attracts the attention of many scientists. This interest is due, firstly, to the specifics of the concept, its multidimensionality and science intensity (since the features of psychologism are also the sphere of interest of linguists, psychologists, and philosophers), and secondly, to its direct relationship to other fundamental problems of literary criticism.

Interest in artistic psychologism first appeared more than a hundred and fifty years ago. The foundations were laid by the Russian writer and literary critic N.G. Chernyshevsky, who studied the works of the writer L.N. Tolstoy. Describing the methods used by Tolstoy’s contemporary writers when describing their heroes, Chernyshevsky in the article “Childhood and Adolescence. War stories of Count L.N. Tolstoy” indicated: “Psychological analysis can take different directions: one poet is increasingly occupied with the outlines of characters; another - the influence of social relations and everyday clashes on characters; third - the connection between feelings and actions; fourth - the analysis of passions" 1, while in Tolstoy - "the mental process itself, its forms, its laws, the dialectics of the soul..." 2. At the same time, the critic examines the features of the psychologism of Pushkin, Turgenev, and Lermontov.

Chernyshevsky characterizes psychological analysis as “perhaps the most essential of the qualities that give strength to creative talent” 3, since consideration of the human psyche presupposes self-deepening of the individual, reflection and analysis of one’s own actions. Chernyshevsky’s idea about the importance of this phenomenon remains relevant to this day.

Later, research on psychologism in literature was continued in the scientific field of the psychological direction of the cultural-historical school in literary criticism, which developed in Russian literary criticism at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The psychological direction became a significant part of this school, since at the end of the 19th century fiction began to have a significant influence on the way of thinking and socially significant events. The founder of this direction was A.A. Potebnya.

Representatives of the psychological movement relied on psychology as an exact science and looked for stimuli in everything that determine artistic creativity. Literature was understood as the result of the mental activity of the writer, and, according to the followers of this school, it was psychology that could help in the psychological analysis of literary characters, as well as the writers themselves. The individual mental act was understood as the center of all psychological theories of art. The hero was considered as a creating or perceiving subject, and the mental processes occurring in consciousness became the subject of analysis and close attention.

Since the end of the nineteenth century. the psychological content of literature becomes the subject of multidimensional study, an object of interest not only for philology, but also for other sciences (in particular, psychology). The unprecedented flowering of psychologism is also associated with a sharp increase in interest in ideological and moral issues, which is associated with the socio-historical development of Russia.

The problems of the relationship between literature and psychology, language and thinking, creativity and perception raised by Russian researchers were considered and rethought by researcher L.S. Vygotsky. His main work, “The Psychology of Art,” is of great interest, since in it the scientist outlined his own vision of how psychologism is reflected in fiction. Vygotsky’s idea of catharsis is interesting, which is, in his opinion, “the central and defining part of the aesthetic reaction” 1.

Throughout the twentieth century, the problem of psychologism was of particular interest to literary theorists. However, if at the beginning of the century psychologism was considered as artistic method, then in the 70s and beyond there was a transition to a historical understanding of this phenomenon.

The insufficient development of the concept of psychologism and its features did not allow researchers of literary theory to find solutions to this problem. For a long time, literary scholars paid special attention to the work of realist writers (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov), since it was in the literature of the era of realism that the personality of a person, his inner world and the dynamism of his thoughts and feelings were especially carefully considered.

An interesting approach to the problem of artistic psychologism has emerged in studies of a historical and typological nature, primarily in the monograph by L.Ya. Ginzburg “On psychological prose.” Here, the evolution of the psychological image of a person in literary texts is considered in historically specific stylistic embodiments. Thus, the researcher examines the works of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and other Russian writers, comparing the techniques they used in their works with the techniques of foreign authors, in particular, in the texts of Stendhal and Hugo. Ginzburg defines psychologism as “the study of mental life in its contradictions and depths” 2, speaks of the importance of psychological analysis, of the methods of its depiction, emphasizing that among all means of analysis “a special place belongs to the external and internal speech of characters” 1. But not only this factor influences the development of the hero, the content of social life also plays an important role: science, social activities, art - all these moments enrich the soul.

Also, special attention was paid to internal monologues in psychological analysis by the Soviet psychologist and researcher I.V. Strakhov, who in the collection “Psychological Analysis in Literary Work” examined the methods used by various writers. Based on a study of the creativity of A.P. Chekhov in the 5th part of “Psychological Analysis...” Strakhov identified 5 types of internal speech: verbal, logically ordered internal monologue; a monologue divided into two or three parts; a monologue with two thematic lines due to the influence of external impressions; a monologue with stagnation of the thought process and weakness of dynamism in the development of thought and a monologue with impaired logic of thinking and fantasticness 2. The researcher also draws attention to the great importance of character portrayal as such. A special place, according to the researcher, occupies psychological portrait.

Ukrainian researcher and literary theorist V.V. Fashchenko, in his monumental work “Characters and Situations,” also examines the principle of artistic analysis. He examines the distinctive features of a person, an individual, individuality, personality and character and gives a definition of the last term: “character in a work of art is relatively constant properties and changeable relationships depicted in the light of the author’s ideal, forming a naturally unique socio-psychological unity that is formed and revealed in external and internal human activity" 1 . The author points out that a person and his character, revealed in all its diversity and dynamism, is the center of a literary text, and also that close attention to the inner world of a person allows the use of so-called inner speech in the description.

The famous Soviet literary critic M.M. also wrote about character. Bakhtin, who identified in his monograph “Aesthetics of Verbal Creativity” two fundamental directions in character building: classical and romantic 2. By classical character, Bakhtin understands the predominance of the universal human principle in individuality, while romantic character is the focus of the inexhaustible individual possibilities of the individual.

However, the evolution of psychologism in literature has not yet been defined as a scientific problem. As a rule, judgments about psychologism did not go beyond the study of the work of specific writers. Until now, a system of objective factors that determine the development of psychologism has not been identified (most often these include the influence of literary traditions).

In the twentieth century, a special psychologization of literature takes place. Psychologism began to be viewed as an integral component of the movement of the historical and literary process. Interest in this problem continues unabated, and new research horizons are opening up.

Russian researchers also studied psychologism in foreign literature. Thus, the observations of N.V. are interesting. Zababurova (work “French psychological novel (Enlightenment and Romanticism)”), A.V. Karelsky (article “From hero to man (Development of realistic psychologism in the European novel of the 30-60s of the 19th century)”) and others.

N.V. Zababurova proposed in her research an integrated approach to the study of psychologism, in which the work is analyzed at various levels: the type of psychological issues, the concept of personality of a given era and the level of poetics 1. It should be noted that consideration of psychologism in the text is possible only with a holistic analysis, in the totality of all its components.

Researcher of the European novel A.V. Karelsky proposed to distinguish between several types of psychologism: typifying and individualizing, as well as deductive and inductive. The researcher also talks about the concept of the “non-exceptional hero” 2.

It is noteworthy that it was the researchers of foreign literature who drew attention to the multidimensionality of psychologism in works of art and to the fact that when studying this phenomenon it is necessary to be guided by synchronic and diachronic approaches.

Particularly noteworthy are the studies of the Soviet researcher A.B. Esin, in particular, the monograph “Psychologism of Russian classical literature" The researcher examines the concept of psychologism in broad and narrow terms, where in a broad sense psychologism is “a universal property of art, which consists in reproducing human life, in depicting human characters” 1, and in a narrow sense, this property is characteristic only of a separate part of art. A psychological writer should, according to Yesin, especially vividly depict the character and inner world of the hero. A slightly different, but generally equivalent definition is given by the researcher in the article “Psychologism,” defining this method as “a stylistic unity, a system of means and techniques aimed at a complete, deep and detailed disclosure of the inner world of heroes” 2. For Esin, psychologism is a way of emotionally-figurative influence on the reader, the implementation of mastering the inner world of a person.

Professor A.A. Slyusar understood by psychologism “the unity of psychological analysis and psychological synthesis, their “dialectics” 3, where psychological analysis is understood as the isolation of individual aspects of the psyche and their further detailed analysis, and psychological synthesis is the relationship of these aspects in order to present the structure of the personality in its integrity . The scientist also speaks of three stages in the development of this phenomenon: awakening of self-awareness, reflection and understanding of character as an integral phenomenon.

Of course, interest in the inner life of a person, the dialectics of the soul, the dynamics of feelings and experiences was present not only among Soviet but also foreign researchers. Soviet literary scholars studied psychologism, relying on a realistic concept of personality and not taking into account the latest developments on this issue. Particular attention of foreign researchers was focused on the “inner” person, hence the increased interest in the theory of psychoanalysis of S. Freud, discussed in a number of works (“Introduction to Psychoanalysis”, “Interpretation of Dreams”, “I and It”, etc.), as well as to the works of the creator of analytical psychology K.G. Jung (“Psychological types”, “Archetype and symbol”, “Essays on the psychology of the unconscious”, etc.). Both researchers pay special attention to the inner world of a person; they develop the foundations of deep personality psychology.

In the article “On the Psychology of Eastern Religions and Philosophies,” Jung gives his definition of psychologism: “Psychologism is simply the mirror opposite of the metaphysical extreme, as childishly naive as it is” 1 . Thus, the scientist believes that there are moments in the human soul that cannot be explained logically, something that is beyond consciousness.

At the present stage of the literary process, the depiction of the dynamics of human feelings tends to become the only element of storytelling. At the same time, the sophistication of the technical means used increases, however, despite the grace of the form, the basic aesthetic law is violated - the artistic unity of the work.

For E.A. Poe and V.F. Odoevsky's description of the internal state of his heroes is of paramount importance. The inner world is depicted in dynamics, as a constantly changing process. Both Poe and Odoevsky strive to depict not only the characters of their heroes, but also the moments of the emergence of certain thoughts, feelings and experiences.

For Odoevsky, there are virtually no secrets in the souls of the heroes - he tries to explain all the changes in their behavior and way of thinking. For Poe, a certain secret always remains about the inner experiences of the heroes, and the narrative of the works is built around this secret, as well as the constant fear in the soul.

The concept of “psychologism in fiction” was studied in detail by A.B. Yesin. Let us consider the main provisions of his concept of psychologism in literature. In literary criticism, “psychologism” is used in a broad and narrow sense. In a broad sense, psychologism refers to the universal property of art to reproduce human life, human characters, social and psychological types. In a narrow sense, psychologism is understood as a property that is characteristic not of all literature, but only of a certain part of it. Psychological writers depict the inner world of a person especially vividly and vividly, in detail, reaching a special depth in his artistic development. We will talk about psychologism in the narrow sense. Let us immediately make a reservation that the absence of psychologism in a work in this narrow sense is not a disadvantage or an advantage, but an objective property. It’s just that in literature there are psychological and non-psychological methods of artistic exploration of reality, and they are equivalent from an aesthetic point of view.

Psychologism is a fairly complete, detailed and deep depiction of the feelings, thoughts and experiences of a literary character using specific means of fiction. This is a principle of organizing the elements of an artistic form in which visual means are aimed mainly at revealing the mental life of a person in its diverse manifestations.

Like any cultural phenomenon, psychologism does not remain unchanged in all centuries; its forms are historically mobile. Moreover, psychologism did not exist in literature from the first days of its life - it arose at a certain historical moment. The inner world of a person in literature did not immediately become a full-fledged and independent object of depiction. In the early stages, culture and literature did not yet need psychologism, because Initially, the object of literary depiction became that which first of all caught the eye and seemed most important; visible, external processes and events, clear in themselves and not requiring comprehension and interpretation. In addition, the value of the event taking place was immeasurably higher than the value of the experience about it (V. Kozhinov. Plot, plot, composition // Theory of Literature: In 3 volumes - M., 1964) notes: “A fairy tale conveys only certain combinations of facts , reports on the most basic events and actions of the character, without delving into his special internal and external gestures... All this is ultimately explained by the underdevelopment, simplicity of the individual’s mental world, as well as the lack of genuine interest in this object.” It cannot be said that literature at this stage did not concern feelings and experiences at all. They were depicted insofar as they were manifested in external actions, speeches, changes in facial expressions and gestures. For this purpose, traditional, repeating formulas were used to indicate the emotional state of the hero. They indicate an unambiguous connection between experience and its external expression. To denote sadness in Russian fairy tales and epics, the formula “He became sad, he hung his head violently” is widely used. The very essence of human experiences was one-dimensional - one state of grief, one state of joy, etc. In terms of external expression and content, the emotions of one character are no different from the emotions of another (Priam experiences exactly the same grief as Agamemnon, Dobrynya triumphs in victory in the same way as Volga).

So, in the artistic culture of early eras, psychologism not only did not exist, but could not have existed, and this is natural. In the public consciousness, a specific ideological and artistic interest in the human personality, individuality, and its unique position in life has not yet arisen.

Psychologism in literature arises when a culture recognizes a unique human personality as a value. This is impossible in those conditions when a person’s value is completely determined by his social, social, professional position, and personal point view of the world is not taken into account and is assumed to even be non-existent. Because ideological and moral life society is completely governed by a system of unconditional and infallible norms (religion, church). In other words, there is no psychologism in cultures based on the principles of authoritarianism.

IN European literature psychologism arose in the era of late antiquity (the novels of Heliodorus “Ethiopica”, Long’s “Daphnis and Chloe”). The story about the feelings and thoughts of the characters is already a necessary part of the story; at times the characters try to analyze their inner world. The true depth of the psychological image is not yet there: simple mental states, weak individualization, a narrow range of feelings (mainly emotional experiences). The main technique of psychologism is inner speech, constructed according to the laws of external speech, without taking into account the specifics of psychological processes. Ancient psychologism did not develop: in the 4th – 6th centuries, ancient culture died. Artistic culture Europe had to develop, as it were, anew, starting from a lower level than antiquity. The culture of the European Middle Ages was a typical authoritarian culture, its ideological and moral basis were the strict norms of a monotheistic religion. Therefore, in the literature of this period we practically do not encounter psychologism.

The situation changes fundamentally during the Renaissance, when the inner world of man is actively mastered (Boccaccio, Shakespeare). The value of the individual in the cultural system has become especially high since the mid-18th century, and the question of individual self-determination is acutely raised (Rousseau, Richardson, Stern, Goethe). The reproduction of the feelings and thoughts of the heroes becomes detailed and ramified, the inner life of the heroes turns out to be saturated with moral and philosophical searches. The technical side of psychologism is also enriched: the author’s psychological narrative, psychological detail, compositional forms of dreams and visions, psychological landscape, internal monologue with attempts to construct it according to the laws of internal speech appear. With the use of these forms, complex psychological states become accessible to literature, it becomes possible to analyze the area of the subconscious, to artistically embody complex mental contradictions, i.e. take the first step towards the artistic mastery of the “dialectics of the soul.”

However, sentimental and romantic psychologism, with all its development and even sophistication, also had its limit associated with an abstract, insufficiently historical understanding of personality. Sentimentalists and romantics thought of man outside his diverse and complex connections with the surrounding reality. Psychologism reaches its true flowering in the literature of realism.

Let's look at the techniques in the literature. The main psychological techniques are:

System of narrative-compositional forms

Internal monologue;

Psychological detail;

Psychological portrait;

Psychological landscape;

Dreams and visions

Double characters;

Default.

System of narrative-compositional forms. These forms include the author's psychological narrative, psychological analysis, first-person narrative, and letters.

Author's psychological narration is a third-person narration, which is conducted by a “neutral”, “outsider” narrator. This is a form of storytelling that allows the author, without any restrictions, to introduce the reader into the inner world of the character and show it in the most detail and depth. For the author, there are no secrets in the hero’s soul - he knows everything about him, can trace in detail the internal processes, comment on the hero’s self-analysis, talk about those mental movements that the hero himself cannot notice or which he does not want to admit to himself.

“He was choking; his whole body was apparently trembling. But it was not the trembling of youthful timidity, it was not the sweet horror of the first confession that took possession of him: it was passion that beat within him, strong and heavy, a passion similar to anger and, perhaps, akin to it...” (“Fathers and Sons” by Turgenev).

At the same time, the narrator can psychologically interpret the hero’s external behavior, his facial expressions and movements. Third-person narration provides unprecedented opportunities to include a variety of forms of psychological depiction in a work: internal monologues, public confessions, excerpts from diaries, letters, dreams, visions, etc. This form of storytelling makes it possible to depict many characters psychologically, which is almost impossible to do with any other method of storytelling. A first-person story or a novel in letters, constructed as an imitation of an intimate document, provide much less opportunity to diversify the psychological image, to make it deeper and more comprehensive.

The third-person narrative form did not immediately begin to be used in literature to reproduce the inner world of a person. Initially, there was a kind of ban on invading the intimate world of someone else’s personality, even into the inner world of a character invented by the author himself. Perhaps literature did not immediately master and consolidate this artistic convention - the author’s ability to read in the souls of his heroes as easily as in his own. There was no task yet for the author to depict in in every sense someone else's consciousness.

Until the end of the 18th century. for the psychological depiction, mostly non-author subjective forms of narration were used: letters and notes of a traveler (“Dangerous Liaisons” by Laclau, “Pamela” by Richardson, “The New Heloise” by Rousseau, “Letters of a Russian Traveler” by Karamzin, “Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow” by Radishchev) and first-person narrative (“Sentimental Journey” by Sterne, “Confession” by Rousseau). These are the so-called non-authorial subjective forms of narration. These forms made it possible to most naturally communicate about the internal state of the characters, to combine verisimilitude with sufficient completeness and depth of disclosure of the inner world (the person himself talks about his thoughts and experiences - a situation that is quite possible in real life).

From the point of view of psychologism, first-person narration retains two limitations: the inability to equally fully and deeply show the inner world of many characters and the monotony of the psychological image. Even an internal monologue does not fit into a first-person narrative, because a real internal monologue is when the author “overhears” the hero’s thoughts in all their naturalness, unintentionality and rawness, and a first-person narrative presupposes a certain self-control, self-report.

Psychological analysis generalizes the picture of the inner world and highlights the main thing in it. The hero knows less about himself than the narrator, and does not know how to express the combination of sensations and thoughts so clearly and accurately. The main function of psychological analysis is the analysis of fairly complex psychological states. In another work, the experience can be indicated in summary. And this is characteristic of non-psychological writing, which should not be confused with psychological analysis.

Here, for example, is an image of the moral shifts in the consciousness of Pierre Bezukhov that occurred during captivity. “He received that peace and self-satisfaction for which he had previously strived in vain. For a long time in his life he sought from different sides this peace, agreement with himself... he looked for this in philanthropy, in Freemasonry, in the dispersion of social life, in wine, in the heroic feat of self-sacrifice, in romantic love for Natasha; he sought this through thought - and all these searches and attempts deceived him. And he, without thinking about it, received this peace and this agreement with himself only through the horror of death, through deprivation and through what he understood in Karataev.

The hero's internal monologue conveys thoughts and the emotional sphere. The work most often presents the external speech of the characters, but there is also internal speech in the form of an internal monologue. These are, as it were, thoughts and experiences overheard by the author. There are such types of internal monologue as reflected internal speech (psychological introspection) and stream of consciousness. “Stream of consciousness” creates the illusion of an absolutely chaotic, disordered movement of thoughts and experiences. The pioneer in world literature of this type of internal monologue was L. Tolstoy (the thoughts of Anna Karenina on the way to the station before committing suicide). The stream of consciousness began to be actively used only in the literature of the 20th century.

Psychological detail. With the non-psychological principle of writing, external details are completely independent; they directly embody the features of a given artistic content. In Nekrasov’s poem “Who Lives Well in Rus',” pictures of everyday life are given in the memoirs of Savely and Matryona. The process of remembering is a psychological state, and the writer-psychologist always reveals it as such - in detail and with its inherent patterns. Nekrasov’s work is completely different: in the poem these fragments are psychological only in form (memories); in fact, we have a series of external pictures that are almost in no way correlated with the processes of the inner world.

Psychologism, on the contrary, makes external details work to depict the inner world. External details accompany and frame psychological processes. Objects and events enter into the flow of thoughts of the characters, stimulate thought, are perceived and emotionally experienced. One of the striking examples is the old oak tree that Andrei Bolkonsky thinks about at different periods of calendar time and his life. The oak becomes a psychological detail only when it is the impression of Prince Andrei. Psychological details can be not only objects of the external world, but also events, actions, and external speech. A psychological detail motivates the hero’s internal state, shapes his mood, and influences his thinking.

External psychological details include a psychological portrait and landscape.

Every portrait is characteristic, but not every portrait is psychological. It is necessary to distinguish the actual psychological portrait from other types of portrait description. In portraits of officials and landowners in " Dead souls“Gogol has nothing of psychologism. These portrait descriptions indirectly indicate stable, permanent character traits, but do not give an idea of the inner world, the feelings and experiences of the hero at the moment; the portrait shows stable, personality traits that do not depend on changes in psychological states. The portrait of Pechorin in Lermontov’s novel can be called psychological: “I noticed that he did not wave his arms - a sure sign of some secrecy of character”; his eyes did not laugh when he laughed: “this is a sign of either an evil disposition, or deep, constant sadness,” etc.

The landscape in a psychological narrative indirectly recreates the movement of the character’s mental life; the landscape becomes his impression. In Russian prose of the 19th century, the recognized master of psychological landscape is I.S. Turgenev, The most subtle and poetic internal states are conveyed precisely through the description of pictures of nature. These descriptions create a certain mood, which is perceived by the reader as the mood of the character.

Turgenev achieved the highest skill in using landscape for the purposes of psychological depiction. The most subtle and poetic internal states are conveyed by Turgenev precisely through the description of pictures of nature. These descriptions create a certain mood, which is perceived by the reader as the mood of the character.

“So Arkady thought... and while he was thinking, spring took its toll. Everything around was golden green, everything was wide and softly agitated and shiny under the quiet breath of a warm breeze, everything - trees, bushes and grass; Everywhere the larks flowed in endless, ringing streams; the lapwings either screamed, hovering over the low-lying meadows, or silently ran over the hummocks... Arkady looked and looked, and, little by little, his thoughts disappeared... He threw off his greatcoat and looked at his father so cheerfully, like a young boy, that he hugged him again "

Dreams and visions. Plot forms such as dreams, visions, and hallucinations can be used in literature for a variety of purposes. Their initial function is the introduction of fantastic motifs into the narrative (the dreams of heroes of the ancient Greek epic, prophetic dreams in folklore). In general, the forms of dreams and visions are needed here only as plot episodes that influence the course of events, anticipate them; they are connected with other episodes, but not with other forms of depicting thoughts and experiences. In the system of psychological writing, these traditional forms have a different function, as a result of which they are organized differently. Unconscious and semi-conscious forms of a person’s inner life begin to be considered and depicted precisely as psychological states. These psychological fragments of the narrative begin to correlate not with episodes of external, plot action, but with other psychological states of the hero. A dream, for example, is motivated not by previous events of the plot, but by the previous emotional state of the hero. Why does Telemachus in the Odyssey see Athena in a dream, commanding him to return to Ithaca? Because previous events made it possible and necessary for him to appear there. Why does Dmitry Karamazov see a crying child in his dreams? Because he is constantly looking for his moral “truth”, painfully trying to formulate the “idea of the world”, and it appears to him in a dream, like Mendeleev’s table of elements.

Double characters. Psychologism changes the function of double characters. In a non-psychological style system, they were needed for the plot, for the development of external action. Thus, the appearance of a kind of double of Major Kovalev in Gogol’s “The Nose” - a work that is moral in its themes and non-psychological in style - constitutes the mainspring of the plot action. Otherwise, doubles are used in psychological storytelling. The devil-double of Ivan Karamazov is no longer connected in any way with the plot action. It is used exclusively as a form of psychological depiction and analysis of Ivan’s extremely contradictory consciousness, the extreme intensity of his ideological and moral quest. The devil exists only in Ivan’s mind; he appears when the hero’s mental illness worsens and disappears when Alyosha appears. The devil is endowed with his own ideological and moral position, his own way of thinking. As a result, a dialogue is possible between Ivan and him, and not at the everyday level, but at the level of philosophical and moral issues. The devil is the embodiment of some side of Ivan’s consciousness, their internal dialogue is his internal dispute with himself.

Reception of default. This technique appeared in the literature of the second half of the 19th century, when psychologism became quite familiar to the reader, who began to look in the work not for external plot entertainment, but for the depiction of complex mental states. The writer is silent about the processes of the hero’s inner life and emotional state, forcing the reader to carry out a psychological analysis himself. In writing, default is usually indicated by an ellipsis.

“They looked at each other in silence for a minute. Razumikhin remembered this moment all his life. Raskolnikov’s burning and intent gaze seemed to intensify with every moment, penetrating into his soul, into his consciousness. Suddenly Razumikhin shuddered. Something strange seemed to pass between them... Some idea slipped through, like a hint; something terrible, ugly and suddenly understandable on both sides... Razumikhin turned pale as death.” Dostoevsky does not finish speaking, he is silent about the most important thing - what “happened between them”: that suddenly Razumikhin realized that Raskolnikov was a murderer, and Raskolnikov realized that Razumikhin understood this.

In works imbued with psychologism, there may be interpenetrations, mutual transitions of different forms of speech - internal, external, narrative.

“And suddenly Raskolnikov clearly remembered the whole scene of the third day at the gate; he realized that, besides the janitors, there were several other people standing there at that time... So, therefore, how all this horror of yesterday was resolved. The most terrible thing was to think that he really almost died, almost destroyed himself because of such an insignificant circumstance.”

“I’m sad,” “he’s not in a good mood today,” “she was embarrassed and blushed” - any such phrase in a work of fiction somehow informs us about the feelings and experiences of a fictional personality -literary character or a lyrical hero. But this is not yet psychologism. A special depiction of a person’s inner world using purely artistic means, the depth and sharpness of the writer’s penetration into the spiritual world of the hero, the ability to describe in detail various psychological states and processes (feelings, thoughts, desires, etc.), to notice the nuances of experiences - these are the signs in general terms psychologism in literature.

Psychologism, thus, it represents a stylistic unity, a system of means and techniques aimed at a complete, deep and detailed disclosure of the inner world of the heroes. In this sense they talk about “ psychological novel", "psychological drama", "psychological literature" and about the "psychological writer".

Psychologism as the ability to penetrate into the inner world of a person is, to one degree or another, inherent in any art. However, it is literature that has the unique ability to master mental states and processes due to the nature of its imagery. The primary element of literary imagery is the word, and a significant part of mental processes (in particular, thinking processes, experiences, conscious feelings, and even largely volitional impulses and emotions) occur in verbal form, which is what literature records. Other arts are either unable to recreate them at all, or use indirect forms and methods of depiction to do so. Finally, the nature of literature as a temporary art also allows it to carry out psychological depiction in an adequate form, since the inner life of a person is in most cases a process, a movement. The combination of these features gives literature truly unique opportunities for depicting the inner world. Literature is the most psychological of the arts, not counting, perhaps, the synthetic art of cinema, which, however, also uses a literary script.

Every genus Literature has its own potential for revealing the inner world of a person. So, V lyrics psychologism is expressive in nature; In it, as a rule, it is impossible to “look from the outside” at a person’s mental life. Lyrical hero either directly expresses his feelings and emotions, or engages in psychological introspection, reflection (for example, the poem by N.A. Nekrasov “For this reason I deeply despise myself ...”), or, finally, indulges in lyrical reflection and meditation (for example, in the poem A. S. Pushkin “It’s time, my friend, it’s time! The heart asks for peace...”). The subjectivity of lyrical psychologism makes it, on the one hand, very expressive and deep, and on the other hand, it limits its capabilities in understanding the inner world of a person. In part, these restrictions also apply to psychologism in dramaturgy, because the main thing the way of reproducing the inner world in it is monologues actors, in many ways similar to lyrical statements.

The greatest opportunities for depicting the inner world of a person have epic type of literature, who has developed a very perfect structure of psychological forms and techniques, which we will see later.

However, these possibilities of literature in mastering and recreating the inner world are not realized automatically and are not always realized. In order for psychologism to arise in literature, a sufficiently high level of development of the culture of society as a whole is necessary, but, most importantly, it is necessary that in this culture the unique human personality is recognized as a value. This is impossible in those conditions when the value of a person is completely determined by his public, social, professional position, and the personal point of view on the world is not taken into account, it is even assumed to be non-existent, because the ideological and moral life of society is completely controlled by a system of unconditional and infallible moral and philosophical norms. In other words, psychologism does not arise in cultures based on authoritarianism. In authoritarian societies (and even then not in all, mainly in the 19th-20th centuries), psychologism is possible mainly in the counterculture system.

In literature, a system of means, forms and techniques of psychological depiction has been developed, in a certain sense individual for each writer, but at the same time common for all psychological writers. Analysis of this system is of primary importance for understanding the uniqueness of psychologism in each specific work.

There are three main forms psychological image , to which all specific methods of reproducing the inner world ultimately come down. Let's call first form of psychological image direct , A second indirect , since it conveys the hero’s inner world not directly, but through external symptoms. The first form will be discussed later, but for now we will give an example of the second, indirect form of psychological image, which was especially widely used in the literature in the early stages of development:

But the writer has a third opportunity, another way to inform the reader about the thoughts and feelings of the character: with the help of naming, an extremely brief designation of those processes that take place in the inner world. We will call this form summarily denoting . A.P. Skaftymov wrote about this method, comparing the features of the psychological image in Stendhal and L. Tolstoy: “Stendhal mainly follows the path of verbal designation of feelings. Feelings are named, but not shown" 1. Tolstoy traces the process of feeling through time and thereby recreates it with greater vividness and artistic force.

There are many techniques for psychological depiction: various organization of the narrative, the use of artistic details, ways of describing the inner world, etc. Only the basic techniques are discussed here.

One of the techniques of psychologism is artistic detail. External details (portrait, landscape, the world of things) have long been used to psychologically depict mental states in the system of an indirect form of psychologism. Thus, portrait details (such as “he turned pale,” “blushed,” “he hung his head violently,” etc.) conveyed the psychological state “directly”; in this case, naturally, it was understood that this or that portrait detail was unambiguously correlated with this or that mental movement.

Details landscape also very often have a psychological meaning. It has long been noticed that certain states of nature are somehow correlated with certain human feelings and experiences: the sun with joy, rain with sadness, etc. (cf. also metaphors like “mental storm”). Unlike portrait and landscape, details "material" world began to be used for the purposes of psychological depiction much later - in Russian literature, in particular, only towards the end of the 19th century. Chekhov achieved rare psychological expressiveness of this type of detail in his work. He "pays primary attention to those impressions, which his heroes receive from their environment, from the everyday conditions of their own and other people’s lives, and depicts these impressions as symptoms of the changes that occur in the minds of the heroes” 1. A heightened perception of ordinary things is characteristic the best heroes Chekhov’s stories, whose character is mainly revealed psychologically: “At home he saw an umbrella on a chair, forgotten by Yulia Sergeevna, grabbed it and kissed it greedily. The umbrella was silk, no longer new, secured with an old elastic band; the handle was made of simple white bone, cheap. Laptev opened it above him, and it seemed to him that there was even a smell of happiness around him” (“Three Years”).

Finally, another method of psychologism, somewhat paradoxical at first glance, is default method. It consists in the fact that at some point the writer says nothing at all about the hero’s inner world, forcing the reader to conduct a psychological analysis himself, hinting that the hero’s inner world, although it is not directly depicted, is still quite rich and deserves attention. General forms and the methods of psychologism discussed are used by each writer individually. Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all psychologism. Its different types master and reveal the inner world of a person from different sides, enriching the reader each time with a new psychological and aesthetic experience.

What psychologism is, the concept will not give a complete idea. Examples from works of art should be given. But, in short, psychologism in literature is the depiction of the hero’s inner world using various means. The author uses systems that allow him to reveal deeply and in detail state of mind character.

Concept

Psychologism in literature is the author’s transmission to the reader of the inner world of his characters. Other forms of art also have the ability to convey sensations and feelings. But literature, thanks to its imagery, has the ability to depict a person’s state of mind down to the smallest detail. The author, trying to describe the hero, gives details of his appearance and the interior of the room. Often in literature, a technique such as landscape is used to convey the psychological state of characters.

Poetry

Psychologism in literature is the disclosure of the inner world of heroes, which can have a different character. In poetry, it usually has an expressive quality. The lyrical hero conveys his feelings or carries out psychological introspection. Objective knowledge of the inner world of man in poetic work almost impossible. conveyed quite subjectively. The same can be said about dramatic works, where the hero’s inner experiences are conveyed through monologues.

A striking example of psychologism in poetry is Yesenin’s poem “The Black Man.” In this work, although the author conveys his own feelings and thoughts, he does so somewhat detached, as if observing himself from the outside. The lyrical hero in the poem is having a conversation with a certain person. But at the end of the work it turns out that there is no interlocutor. The black man symbolizes a sick consciousness, pangs of conscience, the oppression of mistakes made.

Prose

The psychologism of fiction received special development in the nineteenth century. Prose has a wide range of possibilities for revealing the inner world of a person. Psychologism in Russian literature has become the subject of study by domestic and Western researchers. The techniques used by Russian writers of the nineteenth century were borrowed by later authors in their work.

The systems of images that can be found in the novels of Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky have become an example to be followed by writers all over the world. But you should know that psychologism in literature is a feature that can only be present if the human personality is a great value. He is unable to develop in a culture characterized by authoritarianism. In literature, which serves to impose any ideas, there is not and cannot be an image of the psychological state of an individual.

Psychologism of Dostoevsky

How does the artist reveal the inner world of his hero? In the novel “Crime and Punishment,” the reader gets to know Raskolnikov’s emotions and feelings through the description of his appearance, the interior of the room, and even the image of the city. In order to reveal everything that happens in the soul of the main character, Dostoevsky does not limit himself to presenting his thoughts and statements.

The author shows the situation in which Raskolnikov finds himself. A small closet, reminiscent of a closet, symbolizes the failure of his idea. Sonya's room, on the contrary, is spacious and bright. But most importantly, Dostoevsky pays special attention to the eyes. In Raskolnikov they are deep and dark. Sonya's are meek and blue. And, for example, nothing is said about Svidrigailov’s eyes. Not because the author forgot to describe the appearance of this hero. Rather, the point is that, according to Dostoevsky, people like Svidrigailov have no soul at all.

Tolstoy's psychologism

Each hero in the novels “War and Peace” and “Anna Karenina” is an example of how subtly a master of artistic expression can convey not only the torment and experiences of the hero, but also the life he led before the events described. Techniques of psychologism in literature can be found in the works of German, American, and French authors. But Leo Tolstoy's novels are based on a system of complex images, each of which is revealed through dialogues, thoughts, and details. What is psychologism in literature? Examples are scenes from the novel Anna Karenina. The most famous of them is the horse racing scene. Using the example of the death of a horse, the author reveals Vronsky’s selfishness, which subsequently leads to the death of the heroine.

Anna Karenina’s thoughts after her trip to Moscow are quite complex and ambiguous. Having met her husband, she suddenly notices the irregular shape of his ears - a detail that she had not paid attention to before. Of course, it is not this feature of Karenin’s appearance that repels his wife. But with the help of a small detail, the reader learns how painful it becomes for the heroine family life, filled with hypocrisy and devoid of mutual understanding.

Chekhov's psychologism

The psychologism of Russian literature of the 19th century is so pronounced that in the works of some authors of this period the plot fades into the background. This feature can be observed in the stories of Anton Chekhov. Events in these works do not play a major role.

Forms of psychological image

Psychologism in the literature of the 19th century is expressed using various All of them can have both direct meaning and indirect meaning. If the text says that the hero blushed and lowered his head, then we are talking about a direct form of psychological image. But works of classical literature often contain more complex artistic details. In order to understand and analyze the indirect form of psychological depiction, the reader must have a sufficiently developed imagination.

In Bunin's story "Mr. from San Francisco" the hero's inner world is conveyed through the depiction of a landscape. Main character This piece says nothing at all. Moreover, he doesn't even have a name. But the reader understands from the first lines what he is and what his way of thinking is.

Psychologism in the prose of foreign authors

Bunin was inspired to write a story about a rich and unhappy man from San Francisco by a novel by Thomas Mann. in one of his short works he depicted the psychological state of a man who, for the sake of passion and lust, dies in a city affected by an epidemic.

The novella is called "Death in Venice." There is no dialogue in it. The hero's thoughts are expressed using direct speech. But the author conveys the internal torment of the main character with the help of many symbols. The hero meets a man in a frightening mask, which seems to warn him of mortal danger. Venice - a beautiful ancient city - is shrouded in stench. And in this case, the landscape symbolizes the destructive power of lustful passion.

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"

Wrote a book that became a cult favorite. In a novel about a man who ends up in a psychiatric clinic in order to avoid imprisonment, the main idea is not tragic fate heroes. A hospital for the mentally ill symbolizes a society in which fear and lack of will reign. People are unable to change anything and resign themselves to the authoritarian regime. McMurphy symbolizes strength, determination and fearlessness. This person is capable of, if not changing fate, then at least trying to do it.

The author can convey the psychological state of the characters in just one or two lines. An example of this technique is a fragment from Kesey's novel in which McMurphy makes a bet. Since it seems obvious to others that he will not be able to win the argument, they are happy to place bets. He's losing. Gives money. And then he says the key phrase: “But I still tried, I at least tried.” With this small detail, Ken Kesey conveys not only McMurphy's way of thinking and character, but also the psychological state of other characters. These people are not able to take a decisive step. It’s easier for them to be in unbearable conditions, but not take risks.