2019 №2 (63) Article 14

S.A. Fenko

IMPRESSIONISTIC CRITICISM: GENESIS AND PRINCIPLES

UDC 821.1.09«18»

The article focuses on the principles of impressionistic literary criticism promoted by J. Lemaitre (1853–1914), a French critic who is not very well known in Russia. The article reviews works by Russian and foreign scholars devoted to the investigation of the changing principles of literary criticism at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries. To investigate the principles of impressionistic criticism and their implementation, the author analyzes the foreword written by J. Lemaitre for P. Bourget’s book “Essais de Psychologie Contemporaine” (1883) and J. Lemaitre’s multi-volume work “Les Contemporains” (1886–1889). J. Lemaitre’s foreword to P. Bourget’s book is a certain manifesto of impressionistic criticism, for the critic usually avoided describing the principles of text analysis. J. Lemaitre’s “Les Contemporains” has never been translated into Russian and the present article is the first attempt to analyze the book through the prism of poetology. The article treats the genesis of impressionistic criticism which originated at the turn of the 19th – 20th centuries as an opposition to dogmatism. It also focuses on the principles, forms, and peculiarities of the new form of criticism. The article shows an interconnection between impressionistic literary criticism and romantic literary criticism. It shows the transformation of traditional principles adopted by the new school of criticism, their subjectivism and aesthetic relativism. The article maintains that J. Lemaitre’s critical works inaugurate a new era of criticism.

 

impressionistic criticism, Lemaitre, Les Contemporains

 

REFERENCES

 

  1. Andreev L. G. Impressionizm [Impressionism]. Moscow, Moscow State University Publ., 1980, 256 p. (In Russian).
  2. Lemaitre J. Paul Bourget. Burzhe P. Ocherki sovremennoj psihologii. Jetjudy o vydajusXXihsja pisateljah nashego vremeni, s prilozheniem stat’i o P. Burzhe Zhjulja Lemetra [Bourget P. Essays on Modern Psychology. Sketches of Outstanding Contemporary Writers. Jules Lemaitre’s Article about Paul Bourget]. Trans. from French. St. Petersburg, 1888, 333 p. (In Russian).
  3. Murzina I. Ja. Critical Impressionist Prose (the History of an Unformed Literary Movement). Vestnik Cheljabinskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta [Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University]. 1997, no. 1, pp. 13–19. (In Russian).
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  7. Lemaître J. Impressions de théâtre. Paris, Société française d’imprimerie et de librairie Publ., 1898, 400 p.
  8. Lemaître J. L’Imagier, études et portraits contemporains. Paris, Société française d’imprimerie et de librairie Publ., 1892, 356 p.
  9. Lemaître J. Les Contemporains: en 8 sér, Sér. 1. Paris, Société française d’imprimerie et de librairie Publ., 1886, 355 p.
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