Artistic synthesis: a view of criticism

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ARTISTIC SYNTHESIS: A VIEW OF CRITICISM

Chobanyuk M.M., Candidate of Philological Sciences,

Associate Professor of Linguistic and Intercultural Communication

Drohobych State Pedagogical University named after Ivan Franko

Summary

What is essential in today's literary works devoted to the turn of the century is the fact that researchers do not separate the masters of the word according to the poles, but seek to identify what connected the era into a single whole. The era of modernity, in particular the second half of the last century, has become a period of synthesis and interdisciplinary approaches in many areas of human life, in particular, in the light of literary trends. Recently, there has been a rethinking of critical approaches in literary criticism.

The relevance of the proposed work is connected with the substantiation of the thesis about the patterns of formation in the modern science of literature of new aesthetic and narrative principles, known as «conceptual artistic synthesis». The scientific literary world of the 21st century is still studying, analyzing, rethinking and interpreting the aesthetics of artistic creativity of the 20th century.

The article is devoted to the systematization of the latest synthetic complex approaches in literary criticism of domestic and foreign authors. The genesis of the emergence of this concept is traced, reflections on the nature and purpose of fiction are analyzed, and the characteristic features of the aesthetics of artistic synthesis are revealed. The functional aspects of artistic synthesis were due to the expansion of the boundaries of art, which arose as a need to find alternative solutions not only for the realization of one's own reflection in the literary situation of the beginning of the century, but also for the idea of multiplying cultural space. Artistic synthesis, to which true creativity always gravitates, encompasses all its types and forms. The study of this infinitely complex phenomenon is one of the most difficult and fundamental problems of modern literary criticism.

Key words: synthesis, artistic synthesis, conceptual artistic synthesis, nature of art, culture, concept, literature.

Анотація

Чобанюк М.

Художній синтез: погляд критики.

Істотним у літературознавчих працях сьогодення, присвячених пограниччю століть, є той факт, що дослідники літератури прагнуть виявити те, що пов'язує епоху в єдине ціле. Епоха сучасності, зокрема друга половина минулого століття, стала періодом синтезу та міждисциплінарних підходів у багатьох сферах людського життя, зокрема, у світлі літературних напрямів. Останнім часом спостерігається переосмислення критичних підходів у літературознавстві.

Вивчення теоретичних концепцій синтезу та їх художньої реалізації в рамках культурологічної проблематики дозволяє суттєво уточнити уявлення про світомоделюючий потенціал духовної культури, що є точним барометром усієї системи соціокультурної еволюції. Аналіз створених на межі століть концепцій може бути основою нових дослідницьких підходів до виявлення специфіки суперечливих динамічних трансформацій, які існують у сучасній культурі.

Актуальність пропонованої роботи пов'язана з обґрунтуванням тези про закономірность формування в сучасній літературознавчій науці нових естетичних та наративних засад, відомих як «концептуальний художній синтез». Науковий літературний світ ХХІ століття досі вивчає, аналізує, переосмислює та по-новому інтерпретує естетику художньої творчості ХХ століття.

Стаття присвячена систематизації новітніх синтетичних комплексних підходів у літературознавстві вітчизняних та зарубіжних авторів. Простежено генезис виникнення цього поняття, проаналізовано роздуми про природу та призначення художньої літератури, розкрито характерні риси естетики художнього синтезу.

Функціональні аспекти художнього синтезу були зумовлені розширенням меж мистецтва, що виникли як необхідність пошуку альтернативних рішень як реалізації власної рефлексії в літературній ситуації початку століття, а й ідеї примноження культурного простору.

Художній синтез, до якого завжди тяжіє справжня творчість, охоплює всі її види і форми. Вивчення цього нескінченно складного явища є однією з найскладніших і фундаментальних проблем сучасного літературознавства.

Ключові слова: синтез, художній синтез, концептуальний художній синтез, природа мистецтва, культура, концепція, література.

Statement of the problem

The scientific literary world of the 21st century is still studying, analyzing, rethinking and interpreting the aesthetics of artistic creativity of the 20th century.

The relevance of the research topic is due to the importance of studying the reaction of artistic consciousness to critical, crisis processes in culture. The modern world is going through a difficult stage of transformation of cultural paradigms, reassessment of spiritual values, which entails the seeming unpredictability of the processes of artistic development. From this point of view, the analysis of the deep trends in the evolution of art in the second half of the 20th - early 21st centuries takes on special significance. It allows you to reveal the «mechanisms» that correlate the loss of worldview foundations and the birth of new synthetic creative concepts. literary studies artistic synthesis

At the same time, the modern world is also an integral unified system in which all phenomena exist in close connection with each other. This trend is reflected in the quest for synthesis. Synthesis is carried out in the name of man, his spiritual energy and is associated with his desire to overcome the limited, closed world, to penetrate into the Creator's plans, into the secrets of the universe. «..That the delight of the creative bowl ... and the connection with the world has been established ...» [1, p. 37] said the well-known Russian classic Alexander Blok.

The purpose of the article is to rethink critical approaches in literary studies to the concept of «synthesis».

Аnalysis of recent research. The study of the theoretical concepts of synthesis and their artistic implementation within the framework of culturological problems makes it possible to significantly clarify the idea of the world-modeling potential of spiritual culture, which is an accurate barometer of the entire system of sociocultural evolution. An analysis of the concepts created at the turn of the century can form the basis of new research approaches to identifying the specifics of the contradictory dynamic transformations taking place in modern culture.

End of XX beginning of XXI centuries defined as the time when the processes of searching, comprehending and accumulating new artistic ideas and forms, attempts to synthesize different genres and types of art, traditions of different cultures, eras and styles were accompanied by a crisis of the system of scientific, ethical and aesthetic values that had formed by that time. The era of modernity, in particular the second half of the last century, has become a period of synthesis and interdisciplinary approaches in many areas of human life, in particular, in the light of literary trends. Recently, there has been a rethinking of critical approaches in literary criticism.

The concept of «synthesis», which is paired with analysis, is borrowed by literature from philosophy, where it was one of the stages of development in Hegel's theory along with thesis and antithesis. In accordance with the general philosophical concept of A. Losev, the concept of «synthesis» corresponds to (1) culture as a whole, (2) the interaction of different types of art, (3) the interaction of genera, types, genres in the context of one art. In the dictionary of aesthetic terms, «synthesis of arts» is interpreted as «an organic unity of artistic means and figurative elements of various arts», which is «realized in a single artistic image or system of images, united by a unity of design» [2]. Taking this definition as a basis, we extend it to the synthesis of genres, artistic styles, cultural epochs, and so on. In dictionaries and textbooks on the theory of literature, there is no concept of «synthesis», while in the 1990-2000s. artistic synthesis is increasingly becoming the subject of scientific research (L. Andreev, A. Mikhilev, R. Gromyak, I. Mineralova, G. Boeva, A. Sekrieru, M. Chernitsov, I. Frolova, I. Kondrashova). Based on the material of Russian and European literatures of the 19th - 20th centuries the synthesis of arts (V. Pottosina, S. Gorbovskaya, M. Gorbatenko), the synthesis of genres (A. Gaponenkov, V. Vlasov), the synthesis of conventionality and lifelikeness (E. Kwon, N. Glinkina) and others.

Presentation of the main material of the research

Significant in the literary works of today, dedicated to the turn of the century, is the fact that «researchers do not separate the masters of the word at the poles, but seek to identify what connected the multi-colored and discordant era into a single whole» [3, p. 133]. Among such general, universal tendencies that make themselves felt in artistic creativity and literary criticism, belongs, first of all, artistic synthesis. The functional aspects of artistic synthesis were due to the expansion of the boundaries of art, which arose as a need to find alternative solutions not only for the realization of one's own reflection in the literary situation of the beginning of the century, but also for the idea of multiplying cultural space. Artistic synthesis, to which true creativity always gravitates, encompasses all its types and forms. The study of this infinitely complex phenomenon is one of the most difficult and fundamental problems of modern literary criticism. «Without referring to it, it is no longer possible to judge the patterns of development of artistic creativity, the aesthetic nature of certain genre and style formations that arise in the process of interaction, their productivity and artistic value» [4, p. 174].

The very phenomenon of artistic synthesis acquires various characteristics, depending on the degree of stability or transition of the cultural-historical era. The concept of «artistic synthesis» in modern literary criticism is interpreted ambiguously. By synthesis they mean both syncretism, montage, collage, as well as the mechanical combination of various genres. Obviously, artistic synthesis is not a simple adjoining of one part to another, but is a process of mutual penetration of parts and their complex correlation in the whole work of art, while it should be remembered that there are no firm, established definitions of each of the genres, and that they are «constantly changing, criticizing themselves» [5, p. 65].

The thesis about the synthetic nature of a literary and artistic work was put forward in the second half of the 19th century. A. Potebnya. His linguo-philosophical concept is set forth in the work «Thought and Language», which appeared in print in 1862. However, the work received a response not at the time of publication, but only from the 1890s, when Potebnya's ideas became the object of an interested discussion and controversy. They were given particular importance by the Russian Symbolists, who interpreted the concept of the scientist «as an `academic' confirmation of their similar views» [6, p. 347]. Potebnya draws an analogy between a word and a work of art on the basis of their tripartiteness and the same features: «The word <...> has all the properties of a work of art» [7, p. 182]. The scientist explains: «In a word, we distinguish: an external form, that is, an articulate sound, content objectified through sound, and an internal form, or the closest etymological meaning of the word, the way the content is expressed <...> «In the poetic, therefore, generally artistic, the work has the same elements as in the word: the content (or idea) corresponding to the sensual image or the concept developed from it; an internal form, an image that points to this content, corresponding to a representation (which also has meaning only as a symbol, an allusion to a certain set of sensory perceptions or a concept), and, finally, an external form in which the artistic image is objectified» [7, p. 146]. Thus, «a work of art is a synthesis of three moments (external form, internal form and content)» [7, p. 176].

The origin of the theory of artistic synthesis in the history of aesthetic thought (which took place much later than the practice of synthesis) is associated with the activity at the turn of the 18^th - 19th centuries. German romantics and the Jena school, in which Schelling was the main figure. The aesthetic theory of synthesis was formed in the middle of the 19th century. on the basis of late German romanticism in the concept of «Gesamtkunstwerk» by R. Wagner. In the 70s-80s. 19th century the theory of synthesis is developed in England mainly by W. Morris and J. Reskin, in France - by the symbolist poets Baudelaire and Verlaine. The last stage of development is associated with Russian symbolic thought (the end of the 19th - the first two decades of the 20th century), which «turned to the synthesis of arts as a theoretical problem much later than in Europe» [8, p. 84]. The forerunner of the romantic theory of synthesis, which will be formulated by the Schlegel brothers, Schelling, Wackenroder and others, L. Dudova calls I. Herder's «Critical Forests». The German philosopher refuses to classify the arts only on the basis of means of imitation and to divide the arts into spatial, temporal, and space-time. If G. Lessing not only recognized the functions of imitation of nature in art, but also raised the question of the perception and impact of art, then Herder emphasizes the idea of «synthesis of arts based on emotional impact and perception characteristics» [9, p. 50]. According to the theory of the latter, the arts are divided into expressive (emotional, expressive, temporal), pictorial (descriptive, pictorial, spatial) and synthesizing both principles in themselves.

A literary work reveals its synthetic nature at all levels of poetics. In our opinion, it is the attempts to reveal the mechanisms of synthesis in the literature that are associated with the development of mythopoetics, psychopoetics, the study of intertextuality and intermediality. Theoretical and practical study of the problem of synthesis in literary criticism is important for the development of problems of the integrity of the artistic world of the work and the creative individuality of the writer.

Poetry is a synthesizing art, since it gives a «representation of the subject», «acting in time», «being a «natural expression of passions» [9, p. 46]. Romantics believed that a person has lost organicity, integrity; life and art are separated from each other. We must restore the synthesis of art and life, art and man. The path to this restoration was seen in the synthesis of the arts. In the romantic community, «everything was seething with the will to synthesize all the arts with each other and to synthesize this synthesis with all the riches of abstract thought» [10, p. 22] The Romantics understood synthesis as the doctrine of «all-culture», as «the principle of universal interaction and mutual dissolution» [11, p. 12], which «is a universal form of connection and unification both in nature and in culture», as «the principle of culture» [12, p. 12].

The German literary critic W. Kaiser, by the concept of «synthesis», denotes the content of the work, while the subject layer, speech and composition are characterized as the main categories of analysis. Artistic content, emphasizes V. Khalizev, «is indeed the synthesizing beginning of the work. This is its deep foundation, which is the purpose (function) of the form as a whole» [13, p. 157].

The unity of form and content, the unity of external and internal, general and specific, individual and typical, represents the foundation of art, in which, according to N. Gay, «the fundamental prerequisite for artistic synthesis is already laid, which cannot be dispensed with when penetrating into the very essence of the image» [14, p. 73].

The essence of the artistic image and, more broadly, of art is not in the description, but «in the synthetic nature of the recreation of life» [14, p. 6], in the process of which the artistic image arises.

Considering various aspects of synthesis in the literature, scientists agree that synthesis is a multilevel phenomenon. It is understood as «the dominant, fundamental principle of organizing material at all levels of the artistic structure of a work, which determined its artistic integrity and its genre nature» [15, p. 5]. As a fundamental «principle of organizing a literary text», «manifested at various levels <...> - from structural-compositional to poetic- stylistic» [15, p. 5], for example, a synthesis of poetry and prose is considered. Synthesis «as a constant of the art of the novel» determines «the dynamics of novel structures» [16, p. 4].

V. Ivanov considered artistic synthesis as a property isomorphic to the very nature of art. Speaking against the growing tendencies of the closure of art in small groups and schools, leading, in his opinion, to «the inevitable competition of one-sided truths and relative values», he called for «the fusion of artistic energies in synthetic art, which should take into its focus all the spiritual self-determination of the people» [17, p. 36], and noted with pleasure «a number of symptoms that testified to the incipient attraction and reintegration of cultural forces towards their internal reunification and synthesis» [17, p. 39].

At the same time, A. Bely sees the completed synthesis in symbolism, and N. Berdyaev dreams of «synthetic popular art» [18, p. 248] in the book «Philosophy of Freedom» (1911), although here he admits that reality is far from the realization of this dream, because «neo-romantics the decadents, the symbolists, the mystics rebelled against all law, against all objectivism, against any appeal to the universal whole; they are interested exclusively in the subjective and individual; isolation from the universal organism, arbitrariness and illusory nature are elevated to the law of a new, better life» [18, p. 120]. Indeed, at that stage, the idea of artistic synthesis as a «fusion of artistic energies» of various artistic and aesthetic movements in the name of creating a nationwide, all-human, spiritually elevated art could not be realized, because, contrary to the predictions and calls of V. Ivanov, N. Berdyaev, A. Bely, «spreading» and «spraying» (N. Berdyaev) of art actively continued modernism. Each of its many currents (futurism, dadaism, surrealism, existentialist novel and existentialist drama, the «new novel», the drama of the absurd, etc.) categorically proclaimed its principles and artistic techniques as the only true and last word in art.

The need for new approaches is heard in the works of many well-known aesthetics, culturologists, philosophers, sociologists, and literary critics. Synthesis tendencies appeared in the works of Yu. Borev and his theory of system-holistic analysis. He believed that «a work of art is a form of existence and implementation of art, a system of artistic images that make up the integrity, the most complex phenomenon of culture» [19, p. 236]. A follower of the same theory is also V. Udalov, who worked on the problems of the holistic-system methodology of science, the typology of the image, conflict, genre in literature and literary criticism, and a new reading of classical works.

Literature is a kind of art in which there are many possibilities of synthetic formations that are not amenable to «an unambiguous genre description». In the theoretical and literary aspect, genre synthesis is understood as «an artistic synthesis of genre forms, a special combination, a combination of specific features of various genres, forming in unity a new type of form, a deeper genre essence. Such a synthesis creates a qualitatively different whole than the sum of its constituent elements: it is characterized by artistic fusion, the organic nature of the whole, the developed state of the latter. Raising the question of the new quality of «synthetic forms» in comparison with traditional genres «directs research thought to the study of the most radical genre changes in the history of literature, to the identification of various types of genres» [20, p. 215].

The reflection of the ideas of synthesis was a collection of French authors who believe that «the crisis of the identity of the French novel coincides with the crisis of comprehension. One and the other accelerate the modern search for a paradigm that expands the cultural field in its entirety and that demonstrates its response in the face of current history and social mutations. The period is as stimulating as possible: critical discourse must rethink its own objects in an original polymorphic tension. From this, the task is set - to adapt critical discourse to the study of the works of his time» [21, p. 123].

Also, the principles of artistic synthesis are described in the works of L. Andreev, a follower of the Moscow philological school. Based on a large-scale analysis of the most significant phenomena in the world literature of the last century, reflected in the work of the largest writers of this period, L. Andreev [22] noted a number of characteristic phenomena that appear as certain regularities.

These patterns, according to the scientist, include, firstly, «the emergence of complex ideological and aesthetic systems, the very classification of which in many cases is difficult, whether it is realism, or modernism, or neo-baroque, or neoclassicism»; secondly, the growing interest of realism and non-modernist art in modernism (and postmodernism as its variety) as the latter «apparently languishes»; thirdly, the emergence of such peculiar phenomena as «postmodern romanticism», «postmodern realism», existential- realistic synthesis (an example of late Sartre's work, marked by the desire to create a «universal method of cognition») [22].

Taken together, these patterns lead to an understanding that in the artistic practice of the last half century, along with realism, modernism, postmodernism and mass literature, a new direction is being formed, a characteristic feature of which is the desire for integration, a kind of symbiosis of various narrative techniques and worldview orientations with the goal of the most complete and comprehensive reflection of the increasingly complex reality and human destiny.

This phenomenon, called by L. G. Andreev, an artistic or conceptual synthesis, was quite clearly manifested in the work of such world-famous writers as B. Shaw, B. Brecht, T. Mann, G. Hesse, W. Faulkner, L. Aragon, J.-P. Sartre, G. Bel, G. Grass, G. Marquez, J. Borges, A. Carpentier, J. Cortazar, M. Kundera.

J. Fowles. W. Eco and some others. Another feature that unites these names is the humanism that illuminates their works, invariably showing through the sometimes extremely complicated poetics, which gives rise to those difficulties in interpreting the works of recent decades, about which L. G. Andreev speaks. He believed that postmodernism, as the main literary trend of the late twentieth century, does not carry anything new, replacing the living text with comments on it (an example of this is Peter Cornel and his book «The Way to Paradise»), various reasoning, play and reflection. Shifting artistic synthesis is often replaced by the term postmodernism, which makes it difficult to see a real creative breakthrough not only in literature, but also in other forms of art-music, painting, sculpture and architecture.

Leonid Andreev believed that synthesis could be a conscious program and direction for literary movements. In literature, it is, first of all, the interaction of literary genres and trends. The critic traces the work of many authors over the past centuries, trying to determine «the unity of opposites, the merging of multidirectional creative energies into one channel, in one direction». For example, the novel by Hermann Broch «The Death of Virgil», the critic refers to the masterpieces of conceptual synthesis, while Thomas Mann previously ranked it as an «intellectual novel».

Conclusions

Reflecting on the definition of «artistic synthesis», we can state that this term covers a multifaceted education that manifests itself in all areas of modern culture: from philosophy and art to the ways of human activity and society as a whole. Artistic synthesis is a special spiritual state that characterizes the era, it is not only a crisis perception of the world, but also awareness of oneself in this troubled world.

Despite the careful attitude of scientists to the phenomenon of «artistic synthesis», given the dynamic development of culture and understanding of the meaning of social relations adequate to modern cultural trends, the content of the concept remains such that it requires its constant clarification.

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