Fantastic realism is one of the trends in art that arose in the 19th century. It developed especially vividly on the basis of both literature and painting. This term applies to various artistic phenomena.
Some researchers attribute his invention to F. M. Dostoevsky, some to Friedrich Nietzsche. Later, in the 20th century, the theater director Yevgeny Vakhtangov used it in his lectures. And then Russian theater experts began to define Vakhtangov’s creative method as “fantastic realism”.
General concept
By the direction we are considering, we mean a trend in art and literature in which the author, depicting reality, tries to understand and explain it through the creation of fantastic images. Its main features are:
- Inconsistency of objective reality, lack of conditionality of a person’s character with his connections with the outside world. In a fantasy world, people come into contact with a different reality, their essence is regarded as a phenomenon.
- Double perception of reality. Writers and artists create fantastic, conditional worlds in which completely “human” heroes or characters with a demonic bias are placed.
Thus, “fantastic realism” can be described as the union of two worlds - material and spiritual. The result is a third, “unobservable reality,” a new aesthetic quality.
Fantastic realism in painting
This direction appears under a different name. It is called the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. It arose in Austrian art in 1948 at the Vienna Academy of Arts. It was founded by a group of students who were students of the Austrian artist and poet Albert Gutersloh.
This school was mystical and religious in nature. Its representatives were engaged in the study of the deeply hidden corners of the human soul. They raised eternal themes, they were guided by the traditions inherent in the German Renaissance.
In the early 60s of the 20th century, this group begins the creation of a new style and a new school of fantastic realism. Subsequently, the course continued in the style of Visionary Art, based on the image of what a person contemplates while in a state of altered consciousness, meditation. Among the recognized masters of the direction can be identified:
- Wolfgang Hutter.
- Anton Lemden.
- Ernst Fuchs.
- Rudolph Hausner.
- Aric Brauer.
Fantastic realism in literature
His outstanding representatives in the 19th century were A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, F.M. Dostoevsky. In the 20-21 century, some works by writers such as the Strugatsky brothers and Haruki Murakami can be cited as illustrations. Consider brief examples.
- The Nose by N.V. Gogol (1836). This work presents a story about the incredible events that happened in the life of Kovalev, a college assessor. One day, waking up, he found that he was left without a nose.
- "Demons" by F. M. Dostoevsky (1871-1872). A novel is a prophecy, in which the plot is based on real events related to the case of revolutionary Nechaev. Members of the revolutionary circle are killing their comrade, who decided to step aside. Here the writer studies the features of the Russian soul, into which "demons" have taken over.
- "A picnic on the sidelines" of the Strugatsky brothers (1972). The work tells about the Zone - a place that looks right through a person, being like a test that controls the human soul.
- "1Q84" Haruki Murakami (2009-2010). The action takes place in a world in which some see in the sky not one but two moons. A small folk lives in it, coming out of the mouth of a dead goat and weaving an Air cocoon.
In the work of Pushkin
In terms of following “fantastic realism” by A. Pushkin, literary critics examine the Queen of Spades, Count Nulin, Little Tragedies, and Poltava belonging to his pen. For the first time, he portrays the life of "insignificant heroes", accompanied by unexpected, fantastic plot twists. Thus, he deviates from classical romanticism.
Fantastic images of the poet are presented in the form of allegories, as well as philosophical, historical and psychological generalizations. For example, in the Queen of Spades, the mystical component is used to uncover the metamorphosis that occurs with the player. Deeply immersed in excitement, Herman falls into a frenzy.
In the works of N.V. Gogol
They reflect a special style, which is an interweaving of fantasy and reality, grotesque and detail, tragic and comic. An example is his St. Petersburg Tales, Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, Dead Souls. In them, he continues the theme of the “little man,” raised by A. S. Pushkin, and explores the life of such a person with the use of fantastic and fantastic motifs, masterly combining the real and the fictional.
In Dostoevsky’s novels
This writer has a reflection of the true human nature in situations called borderline. And also he depicts lost souls that are tormented by obsession. These are Raskolnikov in the novel Crime and Punishment, Shatov in the novel Demons, and Ivan Karamazova in The Brothers Karamazov. Researchers see the essence of Dostoevsky's "fantastic realism" in this.
To reflect the originality of the work of this writer, literary scholars used such terms as “experimental realism”, “experimental realism”, “ideal realism”. His view of reality was often criticized. He was described as cruel, exceptional and fantastic. The writer did not agree with this opinion. He believed that the fantastic and the real should be in contact with each other to such an extent that the reader can believe in the reality of what is written.